Author's Note: Because the response to chapter 1 was so nice, I'll do something I've never done before and respond to some reviews, because there were some interesting questions asked.
Guest44: Thank you, I'm glad you do. The Swamp Benders don't appear to get especially involved in the wider world, the Invasion of Black Sun notwithstanding, and they don't seem to hold any loyalty towards the polar water tribes, so they are neutral. This, however, will not be important for the story.
Wen Ben Li: No, this will not be as long as Victorious. Victorious was a full rewrite of about half of ATLA, this is a fairly self-contained story that has nowhere near the same scale. We're looking at around 10 chapters. Also, the Kyoshi is a war-Junk, with 120 crewmembers. It serves a similar purpose as frigates did during the age of sail in our world; used mostly for patrol and escort duties rather than front line combat.
DisneyFreak010: Thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot coming from someone who wrote one of my favourite fanfictions.
RonaldM40196867: Maybe she will…
And without further ado…
How are we supposed to catch them if they have a waterbender?" One of Suki's officers, Mingzhu, asked. Suki was holding a council of war in her cabin with the ship's higher ranking officers and Toph, who Suki had given relatively safe employment as her cabin girl. Toph had protested vigorously at this, saying that she could fight, but Suki had pointed out that she was blind and not really suited to combat duty on a warship like the Kyoshi.
"Surely it's simple." Replied Toph. "Lure them in somehow then take out the waterbender."
"Are we going to let this girl we've known for two days suggest battle strategies?" Mingzhu demanded. Mingzhu was one of Suki's closest friends on the Kyoshi, having come from the same island in the southern Earth Kingdom as her.
"Why not?" Suki asked. "Everyone can come up with valuable ideas. And that is a good one, if drastic."
It had been two days since the Kyoshi had come upon the ghost ship and rescued Toph Beifong from it. After the sighting of the Tui, which had for some reason elected not to attack them, Suki had decided to give the sailors on board the Longma a proper burial by holing it below the waterline and deliberately sinking it. As the Longma slipped beneath the waves, Suki had read a plea to the Spirits for the dead.
Afterwards, they had taken off in a direction they suspected the water tribe ship might have gone in, and had been travelling that way ever since. Suki was still confused by the question of whether the Tui had been responsible for what happened to the crew of the Longma; by the reaction of her captain, it seemed not, but he might just be acting. But why would he act? And, more importantly, why had he not attacked them? His waterbender had sent one wave at them, which had done nothing, and then they had immediately left. To Suki, this made no sense.
She was snapped back to reality by Toph threatening to throw Mingzhu overboard.
"Please, Toph, don't threaten my officers," she sighed.
"Maybe your officers should stop treating me like I don't have any value in this discussion, then."
"Maybe you should show a bit more gratitude. It's only thanks to the Captain's good grace that we rescued you at all, and I wouldn't have let you sit in this meeting."
At that, Toph stood up angrily, a movement that coincided exactly with the moment Suki ran out of patience.
"You two! Will you be quiet! We have a job to do, and we will not do it by infighting." Suki rubbed her forehead. "Right, this isn't going anywhere. Meeting adjourned, I need some air."
She exited the cabin and made her way onto the deck as the crew respectfully made way for her. The mission was not going how she had wanted it to, but in war, she supposed, that was only to be expected.
"Has there been anything?" she asked the officer of the watch, Li, who had been standing at the bow of the ship with a telescope, peering off into the distance.
"No, nothing." Li said quickly. "There is a fog bank on the starboard, beam, but it is quite a way off. No sign of any shipping at all."
"Very good. Maintain current course then."
"Suki leaned against the railings wearily. She had been at sea non-stop for three weeks now, and it would probably soon be time to return to a Fire Nation port for provisions. And she was still no closer to finding her quarry. She had encountered them once, but they had not been sighted again afterwards; it was beginning to seem like a wild elephant-goose chase.
She heard shouting and cursing behind her, and turned to see Toph stumbling around the deck blindly calling for her while the crew did their best to dodge around her. Some of the footwork displayed to avoid a collision was most impressive. Suki hastily made her way towards the blind girl, and grabbed her arm. "Toph! What are you doing out here?"
"I needed some air too."
"How are you finding your first few days in the navy?"
"Toph seemed to consider for a second.
"Hard," she admitted. "I'm pulling my own weight, but people here don't see that. They think I'm useless."
"Toph, I don't want this to sound harsh. Consider it friendly advice. But this is a warship. There are 120 of us all in this very confined space together and we have a job to do- find and capture that water tribe vessel. It makes all our lives so much easier when we work together and don't fight each other, and it increases the chance of survival too."
"I do. Like I said, I pull my own weight."
"Pulling your own weight is not enough if it doesn't mean helping others and compromising with them. Don't worry, I will tell Mingzhu to go easier on you but I need something from you too."
She was interrupted by a very dense fog suddenly coming over the deck. They must have sailed into that fog bank.
"This is thick fog," Suki remarked, waving her hand in front of her face and only barely making it out.
I can't see anything."
"Oh no, what a shame," Toph's voice came out of the whiteness.
"Oh, sorry."
By now, though, Suki was beginning to get suspicious. The fog bank hadn't been in front of them, it had been pretty much directly off the starboard beam- off to the side of them. The Kyoshi had not changed course at all. Then she remembered what had happened the last time a sudden fog bank had engulfed them. At that moment, Suki realised that they were all in terrible danger.
"Toph, get below!" she ordered the earthbender, who agreed and moved away. Then she turned back to where Li had been, the officer of the watch, and shouted to him.
"Li! Get the crew to battle stations!"
A steady drumbeat began, the signal for the crew to get into position. The deck suddenly became a hive of activity, as once again archers climbed the masts, piles of rocks were moved into position, and crewmen poured onto the decks armed with shortswords. Just then, a shadow appeared in the gloom, and before Suki had time to react the Kyoshi rocked under the impact of a ram from another ship that Suki immediately recognised as the Tui.
"Stand by to repel boarders!" she bellowed as she pulled her sword from its scabbard and her shield extended into position. A shout came up from the other ship as the fog suddenly cleared, and suddenly the Kyoshi was being swarmed by water tribesmen. The clash of metal on metal and the shouts of battle came up all over the ship, as Suki charged into the fray, slashing with her sword.
One of the water tribesmen came at her, a wolf's head helmet on his head and war-paint of his own on his face, swinging his own sword, and Suki recognised the weapon as the same black sword the captain of the Tui wielded.
"So I guess you're the captain then," she said, parrying his first thrust, knocking the weapon aside and responding with an attack of her own.
"I am," he replied tersely, managing to recover in time to block her. "Are you the captain of this ship?"
"I am." The two of them circled each other.
"Pleased to meet you. My name is Sokka by the way." The captain, Sokka, bowed exaggeratedly, and Suki saw the opening and attacked. Sokka's sword flashed up and blocked, and Suki reeled backwards as the blade swung past her own face.
"Nice try, but you'll have to do better than that."
Suki didn't respond, instead throwing herself forward into the attack once again. Her silver blade clashed against his black one, making a sound unlike any sword clash Suki had heard before.
"Why did you kill those people?" she grunted.
"What people?" Sokka just looked confused.
"The Longma. Don't act ignorant with me."
"That? I was going to ask you the same question."
"I didn't do that," Suki's sword moved forward again, and Sokka danced out of the way.
"So why did we find you standing among the bodies?" Sokka counterattacked, Suki dodging under his swing and thrusting her blade up towards his chin. Sokka blocked it again and moved backwards out of range.
"Why would I do it?" Suki couldn't help feeling a little outraged. "That was an Earth Kingdom ship, you're the one going after Earth Kingdom ships."
"Yes, but we just throw their cargo over the side so they can't sell it then escort them into a Fire Nation port. Do you take us for monsters, captain?"
Suki made a show of considering for a second.
"No, but I'm still going to stop you."
"Yeah, good luck with that."
The two danced around each other still, swords swinging. By now fatigue was beginning to set in, and both combatants movements were slower.
Out of the corner of her eye, Suki saw the waterbender making her way across the deck towards them. She waved her arms and a mass of water burst over the side, freezing one of Suki's crewmen to the mast, and with a second movement of her hands more water knocked earthbenders into the sea.
Suki got so distracted watching the waterbender that Sokka nearly got her, but she recognised the threat just in time and managed to block, reeling backwards from the force of the attack.
"Yield, captain. You're a worthy enemy, and you're also quite pretty if you don't mind me saying. I would hate to have to kill you. Let's end this honourably."
He was interrupted by the whizz of an arrow, and a pained cry from behind him. Sokka turned around to find an arrow sprouting from the waterbender's back, and she crumpled to the ground. He instantly forgot Suki and rushed towards her. "Katara!" He pulled something out of a holster on his back, looked up at the archer who had wounded the waterbender, Katara he had said her name was, and threw it. It flew away, spinning, and Suki thought that he had missed, but it came back and whacked the archer in the back of his head. The unfortunate man fell into the sea. Sokka reached Katara and picked her up, begging her to look at him.
Suki did feel bad for him, but she also saw her chance.
"Kyoshi! To me!" she cried, rallying the crew for a renewed attack. As she threw herself into the thick of it, the defenders managed to push the water tribesmen back, as Sokka did his best to remove Katara onto his own ship. Suki knocked one water tribesman down with her shield, and smashed another one over the head with her sword.
Finally, demoralised, the crew of the water tribe ship fled back onto the Tui, but Suki's own crew was in no position to pursue them. The deck was littered with the wounded, she was pretty sure there was a gaping hole in the flank of the Kyoshi, where the Tui had rammed her, and those who were still in any shape to fight were exhausted. She saw Sokka look up at her one more time, his expression unreadable, before the Tui moved away. This time, Suki decided to let them go.
"What now, captain?" Mingzhu was beside her again.
"Set a course to the north. We urgently need repairs. We're going to the Fire Nation."
Apologies for the botched upload, but the process I used to upload the document completely destroyed the formatting so I had to take it down and spend ages fixing it.