If Percy were to say that he was ready for this fight, he would be a filthy liar. He was scrambling like a madman trying to make sure that all the last minute details were seen to. Among other things, Percy had to make sure that the ship was set for sailing and that his crew were well-versed in the plan that he and Annabeth (well, mostly Annabeth) had thought up. He was also able to convince her to hand over five Kyoshi Warriors to help the crew out with the first stage of the battle plan. Percy assumed that this could only mean that she was starting to warm up to him - he hoped.

Then, of course, there was Leo. Percy trusted the kid, but it was starting to seem like he was the only one who did. Suggestions that Leo could help out with the fight were immediately shot down by warrior and crewmate alike.

"He probably sees this as an opportunity to escape back to the Fire Nation," said Grover, "If he does fight, who knows if he might turn on us?"

Annabeth had a similar reaction. "I am not letting you put my warriors in any more danger, Seaweed Brain," she said, "I let you take our prisoner for your own benefit, but when the Fire Nation comes he better stay on your ship.

But when Percy broke the news to Leo, he shrugged it off. "I'm not much of a fighter, anyway," he said, "While you guys are off kicking the Fire Nation's ass, I'll make sure that the ship is ready to sail the second you want to leave."

Percy had a bad feeling that they were going to need it. He didn't say it out loud to Leo lest he jinx himself, but he was worried that a quick escape would be necessary.

The latest update had the Fire Nation perhaps an hour away from the island, at most. Percy and his crew set up on the beach and gathered their weapons. Along with waterbending, Percy made use of a double edged sword, triangular and made of a metal alloy that looked like bronze, but was significantly stronger. Grover, not much of a hand-to-hand combat kind of guy, had a big wooden club that he planned on using to knock out any Fire Nation soldier within his range.

Siku and Kassuq were waterbenders, and good ones at that. Kassuq liked to rely solely on his bending. Siku, however, was older and couldn't move as well as he used to, so he always kept a small dagger strapped to his arm.

Miki, Siku's nephew, wasn't a bender. Instead, he made good use of a long thin blade he had taken from a group of Earth Kingdom bandits. So while Percy did lose a good majority of his crew, he believed that he had kept some of the best fighters. Against a group of Fire Nation soldiers, however, he still wasn't quite sure if it would be enough.

The sun was beginning to set as he and his crew stood anxiously on the beach. The Fire Nation vessel was on the horizon and approaching quickly.

Percy fiddled with the sword hilt near his waist. He wore no armor, just regular Northern Water Tribe dress. His heavy fur coat was waiting for him on the boat. He felt that he would be too restricted in his movements if he were to wear that during this fight. Instead he wore a dark blue sleeveless wrap-around shirt that cinched at his waist. His pants were baggy and designed for the frigid Water Tribe winters, but were still practical. He wore his black hair tied back in a loose ponytail, and some hair fell in his face. He was certain it looked like a mess, though. On his best days it always looked a bit unruly, so it was easy to estimate that it looked terrible, since he had not been particularly interested in the way he looked these past couple days.

The ship approached ever closer, and Percy looked around at the crew and the five Kyoshi Warriors he was to be in charge of. If he had to be honest, his crew looked way more frightened than the warriors.

Grover walked up to him and ruffled his hair and stared towards the horizon with him. "If we die here, Captain," he said, "It's been a hell of a ride."

Percy scoffed, "You're so pessimistic," he said.

"Maybe you're just naive," Grover replied.

He shrugged, "We have to help, Grover."

Grover pushed him playfully, "You 'have to help' everyone."

He smiled, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Their playful mood was soon disrupted, however, by the sight of the Fire Nation ship on the horizon, easy to spot from their position on the shore. Percy gulped, the doubt that had been running through his head all day coming to its height. Grover looked over to him with a worried look that seemed to convey the response to what they Percy had just said, that maybe it just was a bad thing.


"Waterbenders!" Called Percy. As the ship approached even close to the shore, Percy and the two other benders stepped forward and into the waves. Even though they only had the three benders with them, they were strong and the moon was just starting to peek out - bathing them in strength. They manipulated the waves, moving in sync and using the strength of the ocean against the Fire Nation vessel. It slowed them down considerably as men scrambled on deck to grab a hold of something lest they fall into the water. The ship was made mainly of metal, and was of considerable size, but not nearly as big as the ship that had recently chased them down. Percy estimated the crew only held fifteen or twenty men.

That's good, thought Percy, That should be manageable.

They didn't want to capsize the ship, they knew that they were not anywhere near powerful enough to do that. They just needed to put off the actual battle for as long as possible - the height of their power came with the rising of the moon, after all. And if any of the soldiers were nauseous or still had their sea legs, that was an added bonus.

"Let's pull back," said Percy, feeling that the ship was coming dangerously close to the shore. They fell back into formation with the handful of Kyoshi Warriors they were allowed to acquire, along with Grover and Miki.

"Brace yourselves, Gentlemen," said Percy as the ship slowed to a stop on the shore. "Um, and ladies," he added rather lamely, "You... brace yourselves too." He wasn't sure with the dying light, but he thought that the girls were scowling at him.

A tense silence fell over the beach as the crew watched the still ship with wary eyes. Then suddenly, there was a roar of rushing fire as a giant wall of flame rushed at them. The waterbenders quickly moved to put out the oncoming flames with the water they had on hand.

Fire Nation soldiers charged at them through the steam. The crew stayed in the formation that Annabeth had chosen for them. The three waterbenders in front, Grover and Miki with two Kyoshi Warriors behind them, and the remaining three warriors in the back. When the soldiers shot fire at them, the waterbenders were able to deflect it, and any man that got past them were engaged in battle with one of the seven that stood behind the benders.

The soldiers fought heartily against the sailors, with fire bursting everywhere like a carnival of light. The heat was growing intense, but as the moon started to peek out from behind a cloud, the benders felt a surge of power coursing through their bodies. Percy was able to bend gallons upon gallons of sea, and he used its force like a rocket to push each soldier away from his crew. The Fire Nation was having trouble getting through the first line of waterbenders, but some stragglers found their way.

Those who broke through the line felt that the fighting was just as hard, if not worse, than the conflict with the waterbenders. Percy, Kassuq, and Siku tried the best they could to simply hold the soldiers back and extinguish any flame. The non-benders, however, had a completely different agenda. Grover and Miki fought for their lives, dodging stray fireballs and fighting the firebenders back. Grover was able to incapacitate a couple men with his large club, and Miki used his blade like a madman. He was quick, able to dodge the bender's fire even up close. Miki was able to get right up against a man from the Fire Nation and bring him down with a single swipe of his sword.

This paled in comparison to the ferocity of the five Kyoshi warriors, however. They fought to defend their island, and their wrath was surely a sight to behold. They brought down man after man. Even though not many from the Fire Nation made it back towards them, the five warriors made sure that nothing could get past.

Percy looked back to watch them every couple of seconds. He knew that he should have been focused on what was right in front of him, but he couldn't help but feel guilty about the fact that he was the one to bring this upon Kyoshi Island. He couldn't imagine the shame he would feel if one or more of the Kyoshi Warriors died - it would be nothing but his fault. He couldn't be the one to bring about the downfall of the island, he wouldn't allow it.

This is why, when he saw four Fire Nation soldiers overtake the Kyoshi Warriors behind him, he broke formation. He could hear Annabeth's words in his head - "Do not, under any circumstances, break your formation." - but he couldn't help himself. He ran to the end of the line and used a water whip to turn a soldier around. He battled hand to hand with him, and the three remaining Kyoshi Warriors were able to go man on man and take the soldiers down. However, Percy could see that more and more men were getting through the front line. What had seemed like fifteen to twenty men seemed like a whole lot more when they were all charging at you. Percy had weakened his first line of defense, and they were slowly being overtaken.

That was when he caught fire. While he was battling with the man he had drawn away from the warriors, a firebender was able to get through the lines of defense that Percy had weakened. Seeing his comrade being overtaken by the young waterbender, he rushed to his side and set Percy on fire while he was busy with the other man. Percy swore and quickly tried to bend ocean water to extinguish the flames, but the man he had been fighting hit his arm so that the water wasn't able to reach him.

He could really start to feel the heat now. His clothes were thin, and the fire was starting to spread quickly. He tried not to panic, and remember what Arrluk had told him what to do if he were ever to be caught on fire - stop, drop, and roll.

So he dropped, but the men he had been fighting seemed to take this as a cue to overtake him while he was on the ground. They started to kick him straight in the gut and stomp on him. The stomping coupled with the sand on the beach extinguished the flames, but that was the least of Percy's worries then. At that moment, he was sure that he had lost.

But then a shout rang out, and immediately after that Percy saw something whizzing in the air and connect with one of the Fire Nation soldier's face. It was a knife, stuck right in between his eyes. He crumpled to the ground right on top of Percy, and the man's face was so close to his that he could have sworn he saw the man's life leave his eyes.

Well, that's incredibly disturbing, he thought, then pushed the man off of him. He sat up and found Annabeth fighting with the firebender who had set Percy on fire, her fans effectively dispersing the flames coming after her. She was able to get close enough to him, and she drew her sword and stabbed him in the stomach with one smooth motion.

Percy was understandably terrified when Annabeth turned to him with two dead men at her feet and a fire in her eyes that not even the firebenders could hope to compete with. "You stupid boy!" she shouted over the chaos of the fight. Percy had been called much worse things before, but nothing had ever stung like this. It was true - Annabeth had obviously come out to save him, and it looked like she brought the rest of the Warrior's reinforcements with her. It was too early, way too early. This wasn't the plan. The warriors were supposed to wait until all light from the sun was gone and the Fire Nation was just being overpowered. With a sinking feeling, Percy realized that, again, he had not only let his crew down, but the Kyoshi Warriors as well.

He was about to respond, but lost his voice when Annabeth gave him a terrible glare. She turned around, not wanting to hear anything he had to say, and she stalked off to the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors. Percy sighed and stood up, feeling thoroughly beaten as he ran to join the rest of the fighting.

The battle was intense, much too close than Annabeth and Percy had planned. However, things were not going to plan at all, so it wasn't much of a surprise to both of them. The Kyoshi Warriors spread out around the beach, defending it with all their might, easily overwhelming the Fire Nation soldiers. Compared to the ferocity in which the Kyoshi Warriors fought against the Fire Nation, Percy felt that his crew hardly made a dent.

It was the Kyoshi Warriors that were the ones to overwhelm the opposition and forced them to retreat. While the crew had dealt a fair number of hits to the Fire Nation, the amount of casualties inflicted by the Warriors made the Fire Nation run screaming. They held off for as long as they could, but eventually they turned and fled back to their boat.

Cheers of joy could be heard all around the beach as warrior and crewmate alike celebrated the victory. Percy and Grover hugged ecstatically, and Percy thought he heard Grover utter something along the lines of "stupid, suicidal genius," but he couldn't be sure from all the noise around him. Percy pushed him away playfully and looked around to apologize to Annabeth for his stupidity.

But he couldn't find her anywhere. Even all the other Kyoshi Warriors had congregated together to celebrate their win over the Fire Nation, but she wasn't with them. He looked all around the beach, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Annabeth!" he yelled, but there was no response. This alerted everyone else on the beach that something was wrong, and all the warriors started to panic.

"Annabeth!" they all screamed, scrambling to find any sign of her. That's when Percy realized where she must be. He looked out to the sea where the Fire Nation was eagerly sailing away. He knew then that that was where she was. In the chaos of the battle, she had been taken prisoner.

"Everybody on deck now!" yelled Percy, idly thinking that it was the loudest he had ever been, "Crew, on board!"

They all sprinted to the newly repaired ship, Percy shouting orders on who was to man what while they ran. "Leo!" he cried once he was in earshot, "Raise the anchor and lower the sails!"

Leo heard the urgency in his voice and he quickly obliged. As the men came aboard the ship they all rushed to the stations they were assigned to. They set sail faster than they ever had before, even with significantly less people. Percy told Leo to man the wheel, and he ran furiously to starboard and bent the water to propel the ship even faster, ordering Kassuq to do the same portside.

The ship was significantly lighter than the Fire Nation vessel, and a lot faster. They were able to catch up with them, the waterbending being especially advantageous. Just as the pulled up right next to the ship, the whole crew looked to Percy for guidance.

"I'm going to board them," he said, "I'm going to get her back, and no one is going to follow me," he told them.

The only one to dissent was Grover, but the rest of the crew looked on at him with stern understanding. He was their Captain, now. They were going to listen to him.

"You can't, Percy!" said Grover, but Percy quieted him before he could say anymore.

"This is my decision," he said, "Leo? Got anything to help me board the ship?"

Leo looked uneasy, "The ship isn't fully repaired, you're gonna just have to use a grappling hook and rope and a prayer to the spirits."

Percy nodded darkly, "I hope you can tie a good knot."

They had to do this quickly, as the Fire Nation crew were starting to look more and more antsy the longer Percy's ship stayed beside them. Luckily, it only took a few tries to get the grappling hook to hold onto the rail of the metal ship. Both of the ships were still moving, so getting across was going to be especially dangerous. Percy took a deep breath and held up three fingers towards the horizon, a gesture that Arrluk had taught him to use for good luck. Then he held onto the rope tied to his ship and jumped.

He shimmied hand over hand across the rope, his heart thumping wildly in his chest. It wasn't a very far distance between the two ships, but he felt like he had been hanging for eternity. Finally, he got to the end and pulled himself up onto the deck.

He quickly unsheathed Anaklusmos and took a defensive stance. "Where is she?" he yelled, trying to be loud enough so that everyone on board would hear. The men on board circled around him, looking menacing, but Percy could tell that they had been exhausted by the battle on the beach. Even so, he really hoped that they weren't going to try and put up much of a fight.

"I swear to the Spirits, if you don't let her go right now I will destroy this ship! My crew is waiting for me, and if they give the signal, we shoot! Now, I don't know about you, but I don't want to see how this ship is going to look with cannon balls embedded in its hull and on the bottom of the ocean. Or, if you'd prefer, I'll just take you down one by one right here. So, you can choose. Die by the blade of my sword or sink with the ship. Or you can hand her over right now, and no one gets hurt."

Percy never thought himself a convincing liar, but apparently being put under an enormous amount of pressure and stress works wonders for one's poker face. If he were watching himself right then, he would have laughed. They had no working cannons, and Percy had never actively tried to kill someone before. But he sincerely hoped that none of the crew would call his bluff.

Thankfully, Percy's unrelenting glare did the trick. Had it not been for the recent battle that had severely injured their numbers and their pride, he might not have been so lucky. But with his last syllable, he saw the crew break and their eyes filled with panic. One of the men nudged and grunted at another, who promptly ran away hopefully to retrieve Annabeth. The men around him lowered their weapons and their hands and stepped away from Percy in fear. Percy kept Anaklusmos in a death grip, and tried to individually make eye contact with each and every man. He wondered which one was the Captain, and then wondered if the Captain had even made it out of the battle alive. That would certainly account for the crew's skittishness against a scrawny Water Tribe teenager.

The man returned with Annabeth, her hands had been tied and she had been gagged. Percy quickly grabbed her and pulled her away from the Fire Nation crew. He undid the knot on her wrists without taking his eyes off of any of them.

"We're going to go back to my ship now," he practically snarled at them, which surprised Percy, but he tried not to show it, "If there is any funny business while our backs are turned, my crew will shoot. Once we are safely on my ship, I promise that my crew will let you go in peace."

He slowly sheathed his sword and took Annabeth's hand. Annabeth was livid at his touch and looked like she was about to rip his throat out with her bare teeth, but she took it anyway to keep up the charade. The walked over to the side, and before Percy could offer to help her, she was already hanging from the rope and swinging quickly over towards the ship. Percy gave one final glare to the crew, and then followed her.

Once they were both on the ship, he ordered his crew to go as fast as they could away from the Fire Nation vessel. They all did as they were told, but not without staring at him in awe first. They had obviously heard everything he had said on the ship - which made sense, as he was practically screaming.

Leo was the only one who didn't go to some specific post. Instead he stared at Percy for a couple more moments before shaking his head in disbelief, "You, my man, have nuts of steel," he said.

Percy laughed, and immediately felt all the built up tension and stress leave him. He ran his hand through his hair and looked down at himself. He really must have been a sight to see over there. Half of his clothes were burnt and singed, he was bloodied and beaten and probably smelled disgusting.

"Not so much nuts of steel, more like general insanity," he said, his voice hoarse from overuse. He chuckled again, the relief making him feel giddy. He walked over to the wheel.

"We're setting sail to Nidhi," he said to his crew, "We'll sleep in shifts. Kassuq and Siku, you guys first."

"Wait, Nidhi? No, I have to get back to Kyoshi Island!" said Annabeth. To be honest, Percy had just about forgotten that she was still there, even if he did just save her.

"We can't, we're too far gone and the tide is against us that way. The ship is still a wreck, too. The best we can do is go to Nidhi, spend a night and do repairs, and then come back after. I'm sorry Annabeth, I truly am-"

"Oh, you're so sorry, are you?" she snarled, "If it weren't for you I wouldn't be in this mess! If it weren't for you my whole island wouldn't be in this mess. You just had to go and bring the Fire Nation here, and then you had to go and break formation! And now you're telling me I can't go home! But you're so sorry so it's totally okay."

Percy was speechless, "I didn't mean-" he started.

"Oh no, of course not," she snapped, "You didn't mean to put me or my island in mortal danger, and you're sorry it happened. Don't worry, I forgive you. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed," she spat, then turned on her heel and walked belowdeck.

Percy let out the breath that he had been holding and turned to Leo, both of their eyes wide. "Now I know how the Fire Nation crew felt."


A/N: Sorry for the wait (I feel like I say this a lot) but end of the year tests and work really sapped my motivation. I swear this chapter has been half-written for a good two months. But now it's up, and it's a little long, but I hope the action makes up for it.

The title of the chapter comes from the song "The Switch and The Spur" by the Raconteurs. The song really did remind me of the Kyoshi Warriors and Kyoshi Island, and was a bit of inspiration in writing this. You guys can check it out if you want, it's a really good song. In fact, so far all of the chapter titles are the titles of songs or are lyrics. I've made a playlist for this story *shrug*. Cookies for anyone who find out what the other songs are!

Next chapter, the crew makes it to Nidhi, the Avatar equivalent of Tortuga, meets some prostitutes and fixes the ship. Also, Annabeth and Percy have a heart-to-heart. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and reviews would make me so incredibly happy. Constructive criticism is lovely as well!

Also, a question: I've been debating in my head on whether to go back to the original title of this story - Heroes of Omashu. I feel like it sounds much more heroic and cool, but I'm still undecided. So what's your opinion? Keep the name, or change it to Heroes of Omashu?