Appa flew low over the forest, following the coastline.
The people sitting on him had just worked out their plan of action for the time being; try to keep a low profile and help whoever needed helping, while maintaining the ruse that the Avatar was dead.
Katara thought that this last part was not only unnecessary, but actively harmful to them. The Avatar was a powerful symbol of hope, and having that ripped away could cause resistance to the Fire Nation to collapse. When confronted with this idea, Sokka and Suki had pointed out that this was only until the Day of Black Sun, and would grant them the element of surprise, an advantage that could prove crucial on the day of the eclipse. Aang himself had gone along with it, leaving Katara clearly outvoted.
While she had to go along with it though, she was under no obligation to like it.
Katara was broken out of her reverie by Aang, calling to let them know that they had spotted a Fire Nation warship coming towards them. He immediately landed, knowing that they didn't want to draw attention to themselves. They hid Appa in the forest and then crept to the tree line to keep watch until the ship had gone.
The five of them, or at least the four of them who could see, watched the ship steam past.
"Is anything happening?" Toph's seismic sense was useless when dealing with boats.
"No. Just a big grey lump of nasty, like all the other big grey lumps of nasty we've dealt with." Sokka sounded almost bored.
Katara was inclined to agree with him. There seemed nothing noteworthy about this vessel, in fact it was smaller than some others she had seen. She could even see figures on the deck, some of them dressed in the red and black of sailors of the Fire Navy. She watched them scurry about for a bit, attending to the trebuchet that served as the ship's artillery and scurrying below decks.
Just as she was about to look away though, she could have sworn she saw a flash of blue clothing.
Water tribe clothing? Why are there water tribespeople on a Fire Nation warship?
It didn't take long for her to think of a reason why, and she didn't like it.
"There are water tribesmen on that ship!"
Sokka looked closer. "No, that's a woman if I'm not mistaken."
Katara stood up. "Right! That does it. I'm going in, and you are welcome to join me."
Sokka whooped. "Time to commit piracy!"
"Count me in too, it's been too long since I was able to beat anyone up."
"I'm coming too."
"As am I."
"No, Aang, you're not."
"Why not?" The Avatar looked very disappointed.
"They think you're dead, remember? Nobody thinks we're dead, so we can do this and pretend we're still fighting the good fight in your name, but if you turn up the mouse-cat is out of the bag and who knows what that could do? Do you want Zuko to start chasing us again?" Sokka said it as gently but firmly as possible.
"...I'll just wait here."
"Excellent. Let's go!"
And with that, the four of them jumped on to Appa's back and took off. As they approached the ship, Katara saw shouts come from the deck, and a bell began to ring; the water tribespeople were hurried below deck and replaced by more soldiers as the alarm was raised.
Katara closed her eyes and raised her hands. She could, if she wanted to, change the water pressure around the boat, causing it to lose all its buoyancy and sink like a stone, but doing that would kill the prisoners and so a more subtle approach was required. She reached out to the water below and pulled.
The sea around the ship boiled, and two enormous tendrils of water erupted around the ship. Katara swung her arm, and one of the tendrils came crashing down on the deck like an enormous water whip, sweeping fire nation soldiers into the sea. Cries of panic rose into the air as Appa landed on the deck. The four of them dismounted, and were met by a detachment of Fire Nation marines led by a man who could only be the captain.
"Surrender your ship!" Katara shouted in a strident voice, her water tendrils towering over the deck. Beside her, Toph got into a fighting stance, Suki drew her fans and Sokka got his boomerang out.
The captain surveyed the scene. "You. I know you. You used to travel with the Avatar. Such a shame what happened to him, isn't it?"
"Shut up!" Katara shouted again, doing her best to act like she was grieving. They didn't need to know that the Avatar was only a few hundred meters away and likely watching everything.
The captain must have thought that he had power over the situation, for he took a step forward. "So what's this then? Do you have romantic notions of keeping the Avatar's memory alive by fighting us?"
"Something like that."
"Well, it won't work. Surrender now and you may live. Or you could not, and meet him now."
Katara had had enough of this man's arrogance, and so brought her arm down. The second water tendril came crashing down on the Fire Nation troops, sending them flying in all directions. Katara made sure that none of the water hit her friends though.
Once they were satisfied that nobody else was coming, Katara froze the captain in ice. He stirred feebly.
"What was that about surrender?"
"It's still true. Without the Avatar you can't hope to defeat the Fire Nation."
"That is unimportant. What is important is you telling us why you have water tribespeople on board."
"And why would I tell you that?"
"Because if you don't, I'm going to stick this boomerang somewhere incredibly unpleasant."
For someone who joked about most of the time, Katara had to admit that Sokka could be very intimidating when he wanted to be.
The captain agreed.
"Oh, orders from High Command. With the death of the Avatar we've been ordered to find the new one."
"But the new one is only a baby."
"I am aware of that. We were just returning from our first raid into the South Pole when you attacked us. We captured a village full of women and children."
This made Katara angry. Now the Fire Nation were deliberately targeting innocent people, who had no way of fighting back? She created a large icicle and hung it menacingly in front of his forehead. "Why?"
"Any one of them could be the new Avatar. We are just making sure they cannot harm us again. You think what we're doing is bad, but it's more... pragmatic."
"It's pragmatic to kidnap defenceless civilians? It's pragmatic to decide to kill children? It's monstrous, and so are you."
And with that, Katara nodded to Sokka, who brought his club down hard on the captain's head. Katara then unfroze the ice, allowing him to crumple to the ground.
"I feel much better for that. Shall we go and free these prisoners?"
After rooting about in the hold for a few minutes, they eventually found the prisoners, locked in cells guarded by two marines. These were swiftly dispatched when heavy metal objects fell on their heads.
"What's your name?" Katara addressed the nearest woman.
She only moved away from the door and refused to speak.
"I'm not from the Fire Nation. Me and my brother are from the Southern Water Tribe, like you, and the other two are from the Earth Kingdom. We're here to get you out of here."
This seemed to reassure the woman. Other tribespeople crowded around the doors. "It took you long enough!" One of them shouted in a good natured way.
Suki rifled through the pockets of the guard and found the keys to their cells, tossing them to Katara who went along the corridor unlocking all the doors.
"Don't worry, all the guards have been incapacitated, but the engine is still running. It should be easy enough to sail this thing back to the South Pole."
"Thank you Katara."
"You know who I am?"
"Unless there are any other southern waterbenders travelling the world fighting the Fire Nation, you are Katara."
"No, you make a good point."
At that moment, Katara made up her mind. They had agreed they would travel the world helping those who needed to be helped, and it seemed that right now those who needed helping the most were back at home.
"I'm going back to the Southern Water Tribe. We need to protect them. They have no benders and all their fighting men are at war. They are helpless against the Fire Nation."
The other three all nodded in agreement. Katara turned to the tribespeople.
"But first, there's someone I would like you all to meet, so just give me a minute while I go and get him."