A week after her meeting with the Firelord, Suki stood on the prow of the Kyoshi, letting the wind flow through her hair. She felt amazing, and was sure she looked every inch the dashing sea captain.
The Kyoshi was back at sea, her hull had been repaired, her crew was back up to strength and she was entirely ready to go. The ship was currently ploughing through calm seas with a strong following wind. Beside her, Toph gripped on for dear life to the rigging, having elected to stay with the ship.
Basically, life was good, and Suki was also taking the opportunity to pause her hunt for the Tui. According to the deal she had struck with Sokka, he was to have free rein to hunt Pirate Queen Azula, and in return he would cease his own acts of piracy against Earth Kingdom shipping for as long as this hunt lasted.
She hadn't told anyone except Mingzhu, of course, because she doubted that they would understand. Suki, Mingzhu and Toph were the only three on the whole ship who knew. As far as everyone else was concerned, the Kyoshi was about to experience a run of terrible luck in her hunt of the Tui.
She did hope that Sokka succeeded in bringing down Azula. From all she had heard of the Firelord's disgraced sister, she had seemed a thoroughly unpleasant piece of work; she had led a coup against her brother, scarred him for life in the process, then stolen a ship and become a Pirate Queen, meaning she was wreaking even more havoc on merchant shipping than the Tui was.
At least Sokka and his crew only targeted Earth Kingdom ships, who they were at war with, and behaved with some semblance of honour and mercy, but if Azula had been the one to commit the massacre on the Longma, which now seemed the most likely explanation, then it appeared neither word was in her vocabulary.
She sighed and put thoughts of the privateer and the pirate out of her head, concentrating on just enjoying some of the pleasures the sea had to offer.
"So, what do you think?" She shouted to Toph. "You have the wind rushing past you, it's a lovely day, it feels good, doesn't it?"
"No!"
"No?" Suki asked, surprised.
"No! I can't see anything! Remember my seismic sense only works on land! I hate boats!"
"Oh. I'm sorry you feel that way. But if you hate it so much then why did you come with me instead of staying in the Fire Nation?"
"I don't know anyone in the Fire Nation. I do know you, and you don't force me to do too much stuff that I don't want to do."
This was true, but it was largely because Toph wasn't really capable of doing many jobs at sea; Suki had learnt she didn't like being reminded of this fact and so had decided to avoid doing so. Suki supposed that in a pinch she could still throw a boulder or two, but there was no guarantee of her actually hitting the target. From what Suki had seen, the girl was an incredible Earthbender on land, but they weren't on land.
"Do you want to come down then?"
"Yes please, I think I'm going to fall in."
Toph was, in fact, in little danger of falling in, being far enough away from the side that even if she fell over she probably wouldn't go overboard. Still, Suki made her way over, grabbed her, and helped her down to a safer position.
"Thank you."
Together, they returned to Suki's cabin.
Once the door had shut, Toph sat down heavily in the guest's chair and swung her feet up onto the desk. Suki removed her sword, and then joined her.
"So what's the plan, Captain?" Toph asked.
"Go off on a wild goose chase around the southern sea for a couple of weeks, help anyone who needs helping, that sort of thing. If all goes well then nobody will ever know."
"I like it, but I have one question. Why are you so keen on helping him?"
"I want to see the world rid of pirates as much as he does," Suki replied.
"Nice try, but we both know that's not the entire truth, is it?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Nice lie."
"You said your seismic sense didn't work on ships!" Suki almost shouted, outraged.
"It doesn't. You're just being really obvious right now."
"Well if you know so much, then what do you think it was?"
"The Firelord was right. You don't consider the Water Tribe your enemies at all. You're helping Sokka because, well, I noticed the way your heartbeat was going when you talked to him. The reason you're not helping him more is because you still want to do your duty and you can't do that and also help Sokka."
Suki stood up abruptly. "We are not on first name terms with the enemy captain! I'm pretty sure he doesn't know my name at all."
"You could have fooled me," Toph drawled.
"That ship is the enemy and I will catch it."
"You don't really believe that. You may have believed it once, but not any more."
Suki was, by now, very angry and on the defensive. Toph was largely right, but that wasn't the point. Suki was not about to let her feelings get in the way of her duty, and she resented any implications to the contrary.
"Oh, I do believe it. I believe it very much, Toph. It sounds like you're calling my loyalty to the Earth Navy into question, and I will not have that."
Toph had just opened her mouth to respond, presumably something about putting words in her mouth, when the door flew open.
Li, one of the officers, burst in. "Ship on the horizon, Captain! Looks like another ship in distress!"
Their argument forgotten, Suki and Toph made their way back to the bow.
The other ship was a very large trading vessel, with no sails. The green colours of the Earth Kingdom flew at the stern of the vessel, which was the side presented to the Kyoshi. Through her telescope, Suki could see tiny figures waving at them.
"Bring us alongside, we shall attempt a rescue mission."
Suki was glad that they would at least have several survivors to rescue, which was better than what had happened last time. As they approached, Suki ordered the signal flags brought out and ran a message up the mast explaining that they were here to help. A short time later, flags were run up the other ship's mast, which according to the young officer who had the codebook meant that they understood and looked forward to the Kyoshi's arrival.
"Thank you," Suki replied.
The Kyoshi came closer, and soon the ship's name could be made out; this was the Omashu. Doubtless it was named after the city, and so it was likely that the crew were largely from the city of Omashu.
Soon, the two ships were close enough that shouts could be exchanged; greetings were given and Suki asked what help was needed.
"Er... we're in distress, yes. We need help!" Came the response. Suki frowned. For someone in distress, he didn't sound very distressed.
By now, the Kyoshi was alongside, and Suki got a good look at the crew. They were all, to a man, dressed in dirty grey robes. She saw several piles on the deck covered in cloth.
Eventually, the Kyoshi reached the front of the ship. Suki looked around, and found herself looking at a very familiar golden figurehead on the prow.
At the exact second that Suki realised the trouble she was in, a cry went up from the enemy ship.
"Attack, men! For your Firelord!"
Grappling hooks slammed into the Kyoshi as the crew of the Omashu threw off their grey robes, revealing armour of brilliant red underneath. The flag of the Earth Kingdom was hoisted down, and in its place a plain red flag flew from the mast. The cloths on the deck were removed, revealing piles of weapons underneath.
Suki turned around desperately. "Get to battle stations! Stand by to repel boarders!" Cursing herself for falling into the trap, she reached for her sword only to realise it was still in the cabin. She ran for it.
By now, boarding bridges had been hoisted into place, and as Suki ran along the deck the first pirates attacked. They were met by a desperate defence, as the Kyoshi's crew was entirely unprepared for this surprise attack. A few of them charged into the fray with swords, and a few arrows flew into the enemy ranks. As the first archers attempted to climb the rigging to get into a good firing position, they were grabbed by their ankles and pulled back down, into the mass of red below them. Suki didn't see what happened to them, as she reached her cabin and grabbed her sword. Not bothering to attach the scabbard to her belt, she unsheathed the weapon, extended her shield and charged back out of the door.
A scene of total chaos greeted her. Suki dodged under one sword blow, blocked another. She then smashed that attacker's face with her shield, and he went down. She saw Mingzhu with Toph, with her own sword, attempting to fend off three attackers by herself. Toph managed to locate one of the boulders nearby, and used her earthbending to fling it at where she thought a pirate might be. It was a good guess, and the pirate went down heavily. Suki ran to assist them when another figure stepped in front of her, unsheathing her own sword as she did so.
With a start of horror, Suki realised that the sword the newcomer held had a black blade.
"I suppose you know who I am?" Suki's opponent asked.
Suki, truthfully, shook her head, but she could guess.
"You must be the only person who sails this sea who doesn't know then. My name is Azula, rightful Firelord of the Fire Nation."
"No, you're not," Suki snarled, and attacked. Azula's blade, no, Sokka's blade that Azula was using, danced up to meet her own.
"Where did you get that sword?" Suki demanded.
"Oh, this?" Azula had the audacity to sound bored in the middle of a swordfight. "I liberated it from a man I killed a couple of days ago."
Suki's mind reeled. Sokka was dead? Azula took advantage of her distraction to charge forward, but Suki managed to dodge it. The two circled each other, as Azula's numerically superior crew steadily pushed back the crew of the Kyoshi.
"I am a merciful Firelord," began Azula. "Surrender now, and you have my word I will let you and your crew live. Fail to do so, and, well, I wouldn't be able to guarantee their safety."
Suki looked around, and saw that it was obvious that the ship was lost. There was not going to be any miraculous arrow to save the day this time. They were hopelessly outmatched. Suki hated what she was going to have to do, but she would have to do it to save the lives of her crew.
Suki dropped her sword. "Fine."
"You know it's common practice for vanquished captains to surrender their swords?" Azula asked.
"Not to dishonourable enemies," Suki replied, with as much venom as she could muster. "And you are the most dishonourable person I've ever met."
Azula's eyes flared with anger, and she stepped towards Suki. She just had time to comprehend the hilt of the black weapon flying towards her forehead, and then everything went black.
Suki awoke in a dark room, and groaned. It took her a second to realise that she was on land again, and it took a further second for her to remember the events that had led up to this moment.
She groaned again, louder, and turned over, unable to face anything at the moment.
"So nice of you to finally join us," a male voice came from the other end of the room.
Suki's eyes flew open and she sat up, and looked directly across to where Sokka sat, very much alive, just a few feet away.
Author's note: Yeah, Suki got captured. Normally, I'm not a big fan of this. Still, as much as I didn't like writing it, it had to be done because I couldn't find any other way of advancing the plot in the direction I wanted it to go.