Last Time…

I turned my attention to the vast blue ocean ahead of us. Aang would be ok until we got there. Right?

"Go… Fly… Soar…" Sokka drawled. He sat with his arms crossed in the saddle. I could feel the low growls coming from Appa below me. I reached down and patted Appa. Sokka was getting on both of our nerves, but we needed to help Aang.

"Up… Ascend… Elevate…" Sokka continued and I spun round with a death glare digging into Sokka. I had the intense urge to go back there and slap him clear off of Appa. Sokka paled a bit as if he could hear my thoughts. Sokka continued, "What was it that kid said? Yee-ha? Hup-hup? Wahoo? Uh, yip yip?"

As soon as he said those words, Appa growled loudly, slapped his tail in the water and flew into the sky. Katara and Sokka got up and looked out across the world they knew from a very different perspective. I casually took a glance around before focusing on my balance and our course. We'd get enough of the view later. Soon we'd basically be living up in the air.

"You did it, Sokka!" Katara gasped.

"He's flying! He's flying! Katara, he's-" Sokka marveled, he stopped short. I assumed Katara was smirking at him.

"I mean, big deal. He's flying," Sokka muttered.

"It's ok to be excited Sokka. This is probably the most exciting thing that's happened in any of our lives so far," I said.

"I'm not excited," Sokka protested.

"Sure Sokka," I sighed. Sokka's toxic masculinity was such a pain sometimes. Katara came up behind me.

"Hey Rei?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Aang will be ok?"

I hesitated. Flashes of Aang in the avatar state flew through my head.

"He'll be fine. We're going to rescue him. I bet he's already escaped. We just need to get there as soon as possible so he can get away."

I hardened my jaw and gulped. I shook the reins. Appa flew a little faster.

"Ok."

Uh oh. That's not the voice of someone who's hopeful. I turned to her and insisted, "Hey, don't worry. He's the avatar. I'm sure he can figure something out and he's got us coming. Everything'll be fine. And then I can take a nice long nap."

Katara laughed. Good. Comfort accomplished.

"I'm sure you'll be taking lots of naps on the way to the North Pole."

I smiled wide.

"Oh yeah. I'm gonna be sleeping half of the way there. Y'all better not wake me up early."

"Well, we might have to to get the most travel out of the day." She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Then I hope Appa doesn't mind if I sleep on him all the time then, cause then you won't have to wake me up," I laughed. I patted Appa and asked, "You won't mind, will you Appa?" He rumbled at me. Katara and I both laughed. "I think he's fine with it," I chuckled.

Katara suddenly stopped short and pointed off into the distance.

"Is that them?"

I followed her point and, sure enough, there was the warship.

"Yep. Alright Appa. Let's go get Aang. Yip yip!"

Appa took a dive and, as we got closer, we could see Zuko and Aang fighting on the deck.

"Aang!" Katara yelled. She nearly fell out of the saddle with how much she was leaning. Aang looked up and smiled, but that gave Zuko an opening. He threw a fireball punch at Aang and trapped the boy up against the edge of the boat. He tried to keep his footing, but after an onslaught of fireballs, he fell into the icy water below. "Aang! No!" Katara screamed.

She continued to call his name and I held Appa back from the warship. If Aang didn't get back up, we'd have to fly out of there fast. I didn't have to worry though. He entered the Avatar State and used waterbending to get himself back up on the ship and blasted Zuko and his men. Katara shook Sokka's arm and gawked, "Did you see what he just did?"

Sokka and Katara were both bent over the side of the saddle, marveling at Aang's bending. Sokka was probably feeling a little stupid that he called waterbending, weird magic. In fact, he said, "Now, that was some waterbending." Though I guess he'd never seen a real waterbending master before.

Aang collapsed onto the deck.

"Guys, hang on. We're going down," I warned. They followed my orders moving to the back of the saddle. I patted Appa lightly and instructed, "Come on, Appa. Go down." He dipped down and landed softly on the deck. Katara and Sokka both slid down the side of our huge lovable beast and rushed to Aang. I stayed in my spot as the designated getaway driver. My eyes darted around the deck watching the soldiers and the place I had just seen Zuko fall off. The gaang talked a little before Sokka ran to get Aang's staff. Katara led the exhausted avatar back to Appa. Aang slowly made his way up to where I was on Appa. He didn't even realize that I was already sitting there and sat right next to me. He cuddled up on my side with his eyes closed. My wide eyes gazed down at the child who deemed my side a comfortable pillow. I barely managed to notice the Fire Nation soldiers come back to their senses and start approaching our little group.

"Katara!" I warned and she turned to see the soldiers advancing on her. A stream of water lifted off the ground and the soldiers paused nervously. Katara threw her arms in a half circle, trying to freeze them. She threw it the wrong way though and got Sokka instead.

"Katara!" He cried. The soldiers smirked and kept advancing. Katara turned and blindly threw some more water. The soldiers were frozen in their tracks. She stared at them in shock.

"Katara, come on!" At my command, she clambered back onto the saddle.

"Sokka, you too!"

"I- am- trying! If you didn't notice!" He yelled back at me in between hacks of his boomerang on the ice that held his captive.

"Aarg!"

A fireball came barrelling out of nowhere at us. Standing swiftly, I unsheathed my sword and blocked the strike. Aang's body fell down onto where I had been sitting with my support now gone. My eyes scanned the deck and found Zuko panting on the edge of the boat, holding the gunwale for support. If it was physically possible, I'd probably burst into flames from the heat of his glare. I jumped down onto the deck, sword in hand. Zuko hissed, "Why don't you just walk away, peasant?

"I don't run from fights," I retorted.

I halted in my tracks and thought for a second. I corrected, "Ok, well, I'm not gonna run from this fight."

Zuko sneered at me. To both of our surprise, he was suddenly hit in the head with a boomerang. My honor was completely left in the dust as someone grabbed my hood and dragged me onto Appa. Sokka had broken himself out of the ice and was dragging me into the saddle.

"Sokka! What are you doing?!"

Instead of answering me, he yelled up to Appa, "Yip yip! Yip yip!"

"Hey! Sokka! Let go!" I protested, but it was too late. Appa took off into the air quickly and i had to either grab on or fall. I grabbed on with my right hand. Before we had time to flatten out, a fireball was thrown at us. Aang jumped up and knocked it off course. It created an avalanche that toppled all over Zuko's ship. The gang all laughed at the sight. Aang went back up to the driver's seat.

As soon as we evened out, I stood and yelled, "Sokka! I had that!"

"We needed to get out of there. You were gonna get yourself killed."

"No I wasn't!"

"Rei, yes you could've taken him, but we needed to get out of there. Our top priority is getting to the North Pole. We don't have time to waste," Katara reasoned. I folded my arms and huffed.

"Fine."

I laid down in the saddle. Stupid Sokka. I could've taken Zuko. Well… Actually maybe not. Maybe it was a good thing Sokka pulled me out. Zuko has years of training on me. Though, he probably doesn't know my preferred style of swordfighting. I sighed. Yeah. Sokka was right. Damn it. Well, not that I was ever going to tell him that.

I shifted onto my side. The soft brush of wind was quite peaceful. Appa didn't move around a lot while flying either. I couldn't even feel that we were moving. Ugh. My head was swimming and my breathing slowed.

"Is she asleep?" Aang whispered. Wow, his whispers were loud.

"Probably. She loves naps. Can't live without 'em," Sokka whispered back at the same volume.

"Don't wake her up or we'll all get blasted," Katara warned.

"Shut up," I groaned.

"Oh. Oops. Sorry Rei," Aang mumbled.

I moaned and turned my body away from them. Everything fell silent. I sighed in content.

It had been quite a long day. A very long day. A long day where I met the Fire Nation prince. His face was the last thing I saw before I fell into unconsciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~Time Skip~~~~~~~~~~

A scratchy blanket rubbed against my nose and I reached up to brush it away. I opened my eyes lazily. The dark night sky stretched out above me. Bright stars sparkled and a content smile crept onto my face. I would never get used to the lack of light pollution in this world. I could see so many stars. It was like the whole sky was shining. The gang had evidently made camp and left me alone in the saddle. Aang must've airbended it down to the ground. I pushed the blanket away and shivered. I wrapped my coat tighter around myself and stepped carefully out of the saddle. The gang was sleeping peacefully around a charred pile of sticks. I tiptoed out of the camp and into the forest to do my business. The sun started to peek out over the horizon and I walked to a small bit of beach within earshot of the camp. I sat on the dry sand and stretched out my legs. A chilly breeze came in from the ocean and flew straight through my clothes and froze my bones. My eyelids fluttered closed and I let my mind wander to the future. What purpose did I have here? What was I supposed to do? The gaang always managed to get through things by themselves. They don't need me. No. That's bad thinking. Stupid toxic brain. Stop it. Katara is your friend and you can be a voice of reason for the group of children. I snorted. Ha! To think that I'd be the adult in the situation. I'd probably be worse than Aang at times.

"Rei! Where are you?" My eyes shot open. Oh well. I should probably go back. Katara's probably worried. I pulled my body up and dragged it back to camp. Katara was packing up her sleeping bag and Aang airbended the saddle back up onto Appa.

"Hey Katara, Aang," I greeted.

Katara ran to me and hugged me tightly.

"Where the heck did you go? We were worried," She chided.

"I just woke up early and decided to take a walk," I explained. She looked confused.

"You… woke up early."

"Hey! That's not that weird," I protested.

"No you're right. It's not that weird. It's really weird," Katara teased.

"I- You- That's- Shut up," I spluttered and stomped over to Sokka. The teen was still fast asleep. I grabbed his sleeping bag and started pulling it towards Appa. Sokka groaned loudly and woke up real fast.

"Hey! What's going on? Stop it! Let go of me!"

I dropped him.

"Owwww!" He glared up at me. "Rei!"

I smirked and snidely said, "What? I let you go. I did exactly what you told me to."

He tried to find words, but just sighed and got out of his sleeping bag and started to pack. I raised an eyebrow. That was new. Well. Teasing him's not as fun when he doesn't try to retaliate. I jumped up onto Appa and, a minute later, we were in the air once more heading toward the Southern Air Temple.