Chapter 6: Warrior's Wolf Tail

"Look, Toph, over there, there's Zuko's ship!" Sokka yelled ecstatically bouncing up and down on Appa's saddle pointing in the distance.

The gaang, or what was left of it for the present moment, had continued their journey across the ocean to locate the whereabouts of the ex-fire prince's ship. They were eager to find Katara and Zuko safe.

"Yes, Ponytail, I see it," she said sarcastically, putting emphasis on the word see. "I knew you were stupid, but honestly, I'm blind!" She yelled angrily pointing to her unseeing eyes.

"Oh right, I forgot," he said apologetically, rubbing his arm nervously. "Hey wait, why do you call me Ponytail?" He whined.

"Um, maybe because you have a ponytail," she replied knowingly, snickering to herself.

"Hey, this is a Warrior's Wolf Tail!" He explained annoyingly. "Not a ponytail," he ended with a definite finish to their conversation.

"Whatever…" she replied, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.

He crossed his arms and turned away from Toph, ignoring her. She leant over the side of Appa's saddle and blew her bangs out of her face. "…Ponytail."

He yelled out in frustration, throwing his arms in the air. He shot her an annoyed look when Toph laughed at his aggravation. While Aang called from his place on Appa's head, his voice travelling away in the wind, "Not too long now and we will catch up with them." He then said to Appa, "Good work boy, just keep going a little longer, we need to save Katara and Zuko."

Appa groaned in acknowledgment and began to fly slightly more faster.

"Ok done," she said, relief washing over her, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow that was tempting to roll down her face.

"Thanks again Katara," he said earnestly.

"It's fine. It was just really hard to do without the full moon, but I seemed to gather enough power from a near full moon."

He smiled gratefully and got off the bed, loosening his muscles and shooting random fire blasts around the room. "Feels good too have it back."

"So, are we still going with our plan?"

"Yeah, I think it's our best shot at getting out of here and getting my Uncle off this ship safely."

She nodded determinedly.

"So now, we wait."

"Now we wait," Katara mimicked, nodding her head.

There was a pause, until Katara broke the silence, facing toward Zuko. "Zuko, I am really glad that you're here with me. I wouldn't have had the slightest idea on how to get off this ship without your help."

"I want to thank you for everything too. This would have been much harder to deal with, without you. I wouldn't have my bending for one. So what I'm trying to say is that if I had a choice of who I'd want to be imprisoned on my own ship with, it would be you."

She snorted, "Imprisoned in your own ship, who would have imagined it."

They stared into each others eyes momentarily. Oh my gosh. Am I thinking of…kissing him…The one who has been my enemy for so many years?

I hate awkward situations. Why won't she just avert her eyes to something different?

The silence lingered on, and their faces were now only inches apart, looking into each others eyes deeply, as if they could see millions of memories that were hidden behind them. Their heads were cocked to the side, but only slightly, and their lips were parted...

The silence was once again interrupted, but this time it was by the door being swung open vigorously. Katara and Zuko jumped away from each other, but the man at the door didn't pay any attention to how uncomfortably close they had been to each other. He held a tray in his hands, and as soon as he stepped over the threshold Zuko had him pinned against the wall. Zuko held his wrists tightly behind his back and pushed his head against the wall.

"P-please, let me go. I want to help you," he pleaded, lowering his voice to a whisper.

Zuko hesitated and loosened his grip slightly as he recognised the voice of Takeshi, but kept a firm grip.

"Please, Zhao has spotted the Avatar."

Katara gasped and Zuko suddenly let go of his grip on Takeshi and closed the door so he couldn't escape, unless he wanted to be water whipped by Katara. Takeshi turned around and explained, "The Avatar will be here soon, but Zhao has a plan to capture the Avatar, we're getting closer and closer to the Fire Nation as we speak."

"But how does he expect to capture Aang? He said so himself before, he is the Avatar, even if he was incorporating that into his lie."

"He's going to take you..." Takeshi said indicating to Katara, "...as hostage and force the Avatar to take the Chi Block, then he will be powerless against Zhao."

Katara gasped again horrified.

"I'm sorry I have to go, but I wish you luck." He left the room quickly and just before shutting the door behind him he said, "Iroh is near the wheel, take this." He threw a key to Zuko that he merely caught between his fingers and they were Takeshi's last words as Katara and Zuko stared at each other in shock.

Zuko soon snapped out of it and said decisively, "You know what this means Katara, we need to get out of here now, get Uncle, and hopefully arrive on deck when Aang arrives."

"But we don't even know exactly how far away he is!"

"Oh, well we...um let me think." Why didn't I think of that? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Zuko paced the room, racking his brain for an idea. Never Give Up Without A Fight. He repeated the mantra in his head, trying to make sense of how he could use it.

"As soon as we land, we get Katara and Zuko and leave ok?"

Sokka and Toph agreed with Aang as they hovered above the ship. "Ok, let's do this."

They landed on the ship with an almighty thud and groan, courtesy of Appa, and were suddenly surrounded by fire nation men ready to attack. Toph felt the vibrations through the metal and without hesitation, pulled a piece from where she was standing and aimed it at a Yu Yan archer with precise precision in one swift action. Being too quick for him she struck him in the temple and he fell backward. Then the battle commenced.

But it didn't go for very long when Zhao called, "Avatar! I have your water tribe peasant. Surrender now and I will not hurt her."

Without hesitation Aang lowered his arms and Toph and Sokka followed suit.

Zhao smiled smugly and ordered Takeshi to bring out cups of water with the Chi Block mixed inside. He did so and came back seconds later with three cups. He handed them to the trio and they reluctantly drank it. Katara called to them, "You just drank Chi Block!"

Zhao punched her spine and she lurched forward. "Shut up peasant!"

Aang stared at her terrified, but Toph had immediately noticed her change in heart rate and distinctively knew that she was in fact lying. She whispered to Aang from the corner of her mouth, "She's lying."

Aang understood and held out his arms to be taken as prisoner. "Take him to where the prince is tied up," Zhao ordered.

Katsu handcuffed Aang and took him to Zuko's old room. There, Katsu was met by a blow to the stomach and Aang's handcuffs were sliced in the middle from the blade of the pearl dagger. Zuko looked at Aang and they smiled at each running back to the staircase. But before they got to the top Zuko held out an arm in front of Aang and he stopped, looking at Zuko bewildered.

Zuko whispered, "I need to get my Uncle first then we can grab the others and go."

As quick as Aang nodded Zuko was gone, keeping out of sight from everyone on board to reach his Uncle.

Amazingly I got this chapter up quicker than I expected, even though I'll probably fail my Maths and First Aid tests but oh well haha. And I am also working on my other fic 'Adventurous journeys', feel free to check it out! Not sure how longer this fic is going to go on for.