A few careful inquiries later, feigning ignorance on behalf of territorial yokel-dom, and they managed to fill in the blanks. The 'Hong Yu Guo Service' had been the mainstay ferry service in the area for generations, and when war broke out ownership had been taken over by the government, along with the other ferry services, so that having ships sunk by the enemy didn't result in them going bankrupt. They'd expanded to the territories, and ran pretty efficiently, according to some of the older people they asked. Then…he came in.

The long, flowy robed man went by the name of Xuan, and he was, contrary to all good sense, the chief administrator of the Hong Yu Guo Service. How he managed this impressive feat was a mystery to everyone except those who knew him. It became obvious once you did: he was so annoying that people tended to give him what he wanted just so he'd go away. However, he wanted to be chief administrator of all the ferry services in the Fire Nation, which put him in direct competition with the other ferries operating at the time. Xuan responded to this self-inflicted challenge by being the most bizarre and outlandish ferry operator in the Fire Nation's revue. He tried all kinds of scams, promotions, stunts and plain idiotic ideas to get more passengers. Regular passengers found them irritating, while new passengers just found them weird. The annoying thing about these scams was that even though in a perfect world they'd drive more customers away, bizarrely enough they actually worked.

And now his final victory was in sight. Thanks to the spike in attacks, all the other ferry services had stopped operating. Hong Yu Guo Service ferries were the only passenger ships operating in the Mo Ce Sea.

"Thank you kindly for choosing Hong Yu Guo Service for your journey to the Fire Nation, your reliable, comfortable and affordable bridge to the mother country…" Xuan smiled and greeted every third passenger who came to the foot of the central gangplank, "remember! We stand proud in the face of all opposition! We won't let some scare send us scrabbling out of the water! And be sure to pick up one of our complementary spicy crunchy sticks at the snack bar. Thank you."

The self-assured middle-aged man chuckled gluttonously to himself, and the woman next to him, the stern and professional beauty currently scribbling things in a scroll, was less than enthused, "I couldn't help but notice we seem to be taking on more passengers than usual. As hard as it is to fathom, Xuan, people do actually count as 'weight' on this thing."

"Irrelevant, my dear Captain," Xuan responded with a glint in his eye, "demand is substantially greater than supply, and what kind of ferry operator would I be if I let the poor, seat-less masses gaze longingly from the dockside as their ride home drifts into the distance?"

"The kind of ferry operator who can actually operate ferries?" the Captain asked rhetorically, eyes still concentrated on the scroll, which looked like some kind of shipping manifest.

"You're still stuck in the tired, old attitude of service provision, I'm afraid, Captain Mayu" the man's smile never wavered, "I'm not providing a service! I'm providing an experience! A trip to rival the holiday itself, at an affordable price! And now with these attacks having taken care of the opposition, word will spread! Years from now people will talk of 'good old ----, who kept the lifeline to our homeland open when no one else would dare…and he's got a great choice in entertainment as well!'." ----'s chuckle turned into a gloat, and he clenched his fist hungrily, "I am an entrepreneurial mastermind!"

"Genius, sir. Genius," Mayu spoke neutrally, "except what happens if we get attacked?"

"Bah!" Xuan dismissed, "ships getting ripped from the inside out? Tales of masked faces and bodily possession? You seriously believe this is anything more than some small incident blown out of all proportion? The Fire Navy has ships every square li looking for the people behind these attacks, if they haven't caught them already. Let the other ferries sink into witless paranoia but I have passengers to serve!"

"Fine, then, you can serve them and I can get back to doing my job," Captain Mayu rolled up her scroll and walked up the gangplank and into the ship, stopping briefly to turn and calmly stare down the robed man, "remember that even if you run this outfit, you're on my ship. If anything you do threatens our safety, you're going to be the first passenger to abandon ship…without a life-belt. Understand?"

"With you at the helm, our safety is assured," the man smiled and bowed at the Captain, all charm and little sincerity. Mayu turned away and disappeared inside the hull, hoping that if she badgered the man enough he'd have the good sense to fire her. Xuan turned, smile once again fixed, and greeted the next lot of boarding passengers, "welcome aboard! Welcome, welcome! Have you travelled far?"

"Uh…yeah…from Shihezi Province," the one named Gameshin responded, wary of this strange man looking far too welcoming for comfort.

"Then put your feet up and make yourselves comfortable!" Xuan implored the group of four (plus one winged lemur) approaching the gangplank, "you deserve nothing less after your long journey. We even have the finest foot rubbing facilities!"

"Step aside, Gameshin," the youngest girl of the group, perfectly assured of herself, headed to the front of the pack and strode confidently towards the gangplank, "I'm gonna teach this ship to stay well clear of my fee-"

The blind Earthbender abruptly halted when her foot touched the end of the gangplank. She kept her foot there for some moments, just to make sure there wasn't a mistake, but it was as clear as blindness could be. Other than the small foot-sized square of solidity she stood on, it felt suspended in thin air. She tried to tell if there was this colossal vessel a few feet in front of her, and felt nothing.

She took her foot off, hesitantly. Her breath quickened and she broke out into a sweat, concentrating hard to try to make the ground in front of her appear in her sensory perception. It was futile. Her skills had been rendered utterly useless. She was…blind. Momo, perched on her shoulder, peeked into her face to see what was causing all the perspiration to appear. The disguised warrior behind her piped up a note of concern, "uh…Ming Zhi? Is anything wrong?"

Toph gulped, and steadied her nerves, saying "no. Nothing's wrong." Taking a deep breath, she stepped onto the gangplank, haltingly making her slow way onto the ship. Xuan took a brief interest.

"Is your friend alright?" the entrepreneur asked, "she looks a bit…unsteady."

"Noooo…she's fine! Just a rough trip, is all," Sokka covered for his companion, and upon looking on the smooth, dark grey surface of the ship, attempted to make his next question sound as natural as possible, "uh…I was just…uh…admiring the materials this ship's made of. It seems a bit…different to what we're used to where we come from."

"You come from the north, right?" Xuan responded, placing a hand on one of the railings for the gangplank, "what you're setting your eyes on now is the best in Fire Nation manufacturing! Purest metal in the whole world! Our victory in war was thanks to the perfection of our steel, and now our victory in peace will be thanks to the very same stuff!"

Toph paused halfway up the gangplank, gripping tightly to the railing and feeling very put upon, "oh joy…"

"Who can be worried about attacks when we have ships like these? Honestly…" Xuan bragged, "but what am I doing, boring you silly like this? Enjoy your trip aboard the Gang Shen!"

"Will do!" Sokka smiled back, as briefly as he could before shuddering once his attention was suitably distracted elsewhere. Katara and Aang followed him inside, up the gangplank and into the ship itself. Toph had to use her free hand to keep Momo on her shoulder as what shred there was of daylight in the shadow of the Gang Shen disappeared. They entered one by one, and Aang looked up at the side of the vessel, towering above him as the edge of the hull split the sky in two. The railing he held shuddered with the rumbling of engines, and drifting above him was a solitary smoke plume, remnants of the shreds of earth torn up to power this leviathan. As he stepped inside the dark interior, the last of the group to do so, he got the unpleasant impression that he was being swallowed by an enormous beast. A beast not of this earth.


"Anyone left to board?" Captain Mayu asked the crewman reporting on the state of the boarding gates. He was standing to attention on the bridge of the Gang Shen, an almost complete facsimile of a military vessel. While their responsibilities extended to the Minister of Transportation, they still remained inside a military hierarchy. There really wasn't any difference between the two as far as the Fire Nation was concerned. The Captain herself was a Firebender, as were her First and Second Officers, and a small group of soldiers remained on-board at all times, just in case they ran into enemies and felt like conducting a boarding operation. If they felt like it. No pressure.

"Just a few stragglers," the crewmember reported, "it's after 3 'o clock anyway, ma'am."

"Right enough," the Captain glanced over at the nearest time piece and turned to the other crew members at their stations, hands held behind her back, ordering calmly "raise the gangplanks, ready to release moorings, and prepare to depart."


A loud ring seared through the stuffy air of the engineering room, and a young girl, her body slick with grease and oil, instantly interrupted the repair job she was on to jump over and investigate what it meant.

"We're heading off!" she yelled at the top of her lungs over the sound of the engines, leaning off a ledge with one hand held onto a pipe. Monkey-like reflexes were required in the job description for a humid hell-hole like this.

The engine room crew ran to their posts straight away as an old man with a brawly physique barked out orders and pointed his spanner at the relevant people, "okay, people, turn those wheels! Faster! Get to the chains! Get to the chains before we take the dock with us! You! Get shovelling! Harder! You call that pressure!? You want pressure!? Go check on the cooling valve before it…oh for the love of…"

A pipe had burst on the other end, and quick as flash he was over there, turning a screw with his spanner and making the plume of cold vapour gradually slow into a trickle. The young girl leapt over to the centre of the room and the enormous contraption within, shouting "the engine's only at half-power!"

"Shui! Deal with this will ya!?" the head engineer dropped down from fixing the pipe and strode back the centre, "if anyone's dealing with that vixen, it's me!"


The gangplanks rose off the walkways, and the water behind the Gang Shen churned and bubbled as the propellers began their tireless work to move the ferry. The chains holding the ship to its moorings were detached by dockworkers and retracted back into the ship. Facing downriver, the mass of silver metal drifted away from the dockside, and the shadow over Ryojun's seafront lifted.


"Increase speed to 12 knots," Mayu commanded, facing out of the front window towards the end of the river, towards the Mo Ce Sea, and towards home, "15 degrees to port, then 15 degrees starboard once we reach the centre of the river."


"She's finally doing what she's told!" the chief engineer rejoiced, thrusting his arms out in the centre of the engine room as the beating, throbbing heart of the vessel came fully into life, spreading the blood of energy through its veins, fumes of coal surging from its lungs, "witness her awesome power and tremble before the God of Steel!"


Clawing its way forwards, the FLS Gang Shen spat, choked, fumed and growled. The ship parted the waves before itself, and paid no heed to what was in front of it. It didn't need tides, or wind, or any semblance of artistry. All it required to get to the Fire Nation was power.


The group was nestled deep, deep, deep inside the catacombs of the vessel, trying to keep themselves from getting lost, as the great increase in rumbling signposted loud and clear that they were finally on their way. There was no difference between day and night in this place, both times being equally lit in dull red lights and metallic hues. Double-checking the tickets with the corridors, they gradually made their way towards where their rooms were supposed to be. Not without difficulty.

"I guess that means we're on our way, then," Sokka decided, only for his chain of thought to be rudely interrupted by the repeated screechings of Momo. The lemur was on Toph's shoulder, tugging her pigtails as she walked forwards.

"Momo! Will you stop tha-" Toph protested before walking face-first into a bulkhead, falling over backwards and rubbing her nose. Momo calmed down, and Toph guessed "oh…okay…I get it…"

Sokka, smiling a little, wandered over to the prostrate Toph and leaned down over the blind Earthbender, holding out a hand, "I take it you need more than Momo for your…uh…'collision detection'?"

"I don't need anyone, Gameshin, mind your own business," Toph got herself up and dusted herself off, striding off as confidently as she could away from Sokka only for Momo to let out a brief screech and Toph's face to impact painfully against another bulkhead only a couple of feet away. Collapsing backwards once again, Sokka came back to her side, this time without a hand. Toph spoke testily "I said I was fine!"

"No, you're not. And it's obvious that you're not," Sokka appealed, "come on, we should have seen this coming. Just because you bent metal a couple of times doesn't mean you can do it every time. We've got the whole trip to start practicing!"

"I just don't understand…" Toph attempted to re-assert her dominance, which was hard when crumpled up on the floor with arms around legs, feeling like she was suspended in the middle of a void, "I managed it before. I'm sure I did. I'm not helpless. I'm not."

"Sure you're not," Sokka extended his arm, "doesn't mean we can't lend a hand every so often."

Toph had a look of consideration on her face, which was better than looking utterly lost. She admitted defeat with her head bowed and extended an arm upwards in something approximating the direction of Sokka's voice. Taking her hand, Sokka pulled her upwards and led her out of the blind corner she'd walked into. Momo curled up in Toph's shoulder from obsolescence. The hand made all the difference, in letting her senses know that she wouldn't potentially drop out of the sky with each individual step.

Having briefly paused due to this little escapade, Katara picked up the pace to rejoin the rest of them. Aang fell behind, and looked at the uncertain steps Toph was forced to take, padding her bare feet against the cold metal floor. It brought home his own situation of helplessness. Having lost his ability to bend, he had gradually come to terms with being ordinary, at least for now. Except he wasn't, really. He was stuck in a strange half-existence with himself at one end and the universe at the other. Ever since he died, both his physical existence and his spiritual existence had been walking something of a tightrope, clinging to corporeality haphazardly and reluctantly. He wasn't entirely sure what was left.

In front of him was a helpless Toph, being held by Sokka and accompanied by Katara. There was no one else in the corridor at the time. He could tell that this experience was distressing for Toph, as she'd defined herself by how many asses she could kick. But despite her protestations, she had help. Aang considered it all distantly, as something that couldn't be changed, and on reflection decided that Toph's situation wasn't so bad, with others to help her. Sokka was a capable planner, and Katara was right when she indicated how useful her Waterbending would be useful in the middle of the sea. Toph was helpless, but she wasn't alone…so what about him?

He couldn't do anything of note. While theoretically he was capable of Firebending, he had no idea how. And no urge to try with nothing to motivate him. Katara was turned away, her mind elsewhere, where he could not know. He even considered her from a distance. Of course she has her own priorities. She always did. She's been so protective of him over the time he knew her, and she'd been so close, that Aang hadn't really noticed how when everything was alright with him…she was contented. There wasn't a drive or ambition there…just a status quo that needed to be achieved or maintained. A way things should be. That was admirable, it really was.

So now there was a status quo. Things were far from perfect, but they were stable. It was the Avatar's role to bring stability to the world, and as lopsided as this stability was, it was still a correction. He could feel that familiar darkness encroach around the edges. They were doing fine, and they weren't thinking about him particularly. He just felt a strange desire to be elsewhere, a place beyond where he could look at everything from a distance, a high point from which things could make more sense. Where he could leave things like himself to this messy and disorganised world. It felt warm and comforting, this abyss. He didn't think he'd be missed, only for a little while. It seemed like as good an opportunity as any. His vision blurred at Toph's slowly patting feet, and his balance went. His senses blinked out, and the distant laughter was heard. It seemed like so far away, but he could reach it if he tried, if only for a little while, so he could just stop being himself for a while, and all the trouble it brought.

He was nothing here, so he'd go where he was everything.

Toph heard the thud against the metal floor first, and turned her face to the side to try to hear those light footsteps that made sure the dumb kid was still walking. He wasn't. "Dead-weight?" Toph asked aloud. When Momo felt distressed and leapt off her shoulder, she knew something was wrong. If only everything around her didn't feel so dark. "Hey!" she called "dead-weight!"

"What's dead…?" Katara turned back and paused in shock, "…no…"

"Kazuki!" Sokka left Toph's arm behind and ran over to kneel beside the limp body, breathing quietly on the metal floor, "Kazuki, wake up! This isn't funny!"

"Aang!" Katara threw caution to the wind and ran over to the 12 year old boy's side, trying to shake him awake, voice breaking as she called out his name "Aang! Aang! Aang!"

Aang couldn't hear them. He had gone elsewhere.


Compared to Nagaoka, Ryojun was an embryo. The very moment it appeared over the horizon, there was nothing else to see. It was evening, but that was almost impossible to tell. You couldn't see the sky through the smoke that poured ceaselessly from a thousand smokestacks, arranged across the hillside that led up from the docks in cascading layers. From the ship that was approaching it looked like it was ceaselessly moving.

Fire Prince Zuko didn't pay much attention to those kinds of things. His eyes were fixed on the approaching ship, emerging out of the haze of the evening sun through the layers of smog, and didn't waver for one moment out of boredom or impatience. His was a one-track mind. If there was something to achieve, nothing else accorded his interest. Standing at the end of a mooring, moving not an inch, the wind making his mop of hair flip around all over the place, impervious to the chills his exposure inflicted through his light, functional clothes, he waited for the troop carrier to make its final approach to the Fire Nation dock.

The ship, smaller than the massive cargo ships docked in the other moorings, approached straight down the middle of the huge piers towards Zuko's position. The crew was trained to approach fast and off-load quick, an assault tactic, and while that was redundant in a major Fire Nation port, it was so second nature to these people that they never once considered heading in remotely slowly. They came to a halt a few feet before the edge of the dock, and the forward gangplank plunged into the stone ground right in front of Zuko, kicking up dust and masonry. Zuko didn't even flinch.

Out of the hatchway came five enormous beasts, war-rhinos. They charged down the gangplank and flung themselves before Zuko's steady stance. The riders steadied their steeds, eyes focused in fierceness and determination. Kachi, the elder, long-bearded guan do-wielder, gritted his teeth as he steadied his rhino. Vachir, the silent and haughty Yu-Yan archer, kept his face rock solid as he stabilised. Yeh-Lu, the armoured grenadier, was unknowable, and was professional about taming the beast. Ogedei, the smarmy pony-tailed ball-and-chain fighter, grinned as he steadied the rhino with one hand. Only inches from the rapid contortions of these mighty creatures, Zuko didn't budge from his position, and simply waited for the riders of these beasts, more powerful and dangerous than the beasts themselves, to cease their display. The leader of the squad, nose-ringed and overly-muscled, stared down in grim determination and spoke to the boy before them.

"We're here to take part in the mission to track down the traitor, General Iroh," Colonel Mongke growled to the point, "you will take us to the commander immediately."

Zuko's sullen face blinked for the first time that evening, "that would be me."

Now it was Mongke's turn to blink, and look utterly incredulous at the possibility of serving under a 16 year old boy. The muscled soldier groaned, "oh no…". He looked to the other Rough Rhinos and groaned some more, "oh no, oh no, you gotta be kidding me!"

"He doesn't seem like the joking type," Ogedei commented wryly.

Mongke ignored the comment and continued to be livid, "there is no way I am serving under a deluded self-serving brat with no idea of duty or loyalty!"

Zuko's angered snarl was interrupted by a stern rebuke from the shadows of the cargo ship next to them, an authoritative female voice, "you had better hold your tongue before insulting a Prince of the Fire Nation." Azula emerged from the shadows, looking stern, only for a devious smile to lighten up her features as she made an act of realising something, "not that I'd necessarily disagree. It's the principle of the thing, you realise."

"My apologies, your highness," Mongke drawled, immediately indicating that he didn't particularly like Azula either, but he was capable of a grudging respect for the conqueror of the Earth Kingdom. He made a concerted attempt to be smart about the situation, "but with all due respect, this isn't really our area of expertise."

"And with all due my respect it wasn't my decision…" Zuko glanced over at Azula, who was still smiling.

"You are one of the most effective and versatile units in the Fire Army," Azula pointed out, "you've proven your worth in pretty much every variety of operation they've come up with a name for. And as an added bonus you're familiar with the target as both an ally and an opponent."

"That's funny, I seem to be familiar with our 'ally' here being an opponent as well," Mongke raised an eyebrow at Zuko.

"Yeah…and my foot is familiar with your head," Zuko stared back, "so I wouldn't go bringing up the subject if I were you."

"See? You found common ground already!" Azula pointed out. She seemed to be relishing the opportunity to sow her brother's eventual doom into the structure of his outfit.

"This is a baby-sitting operation, isn't it?" gruff and weary Kachi spoke up condescendingly. Colonel Mongke, at first enraged, finally rolled his eyes as he realised what was going on.

"Okay…I get it…I get what's going on…" Mongke nodded his head as he looked upon the siblings, "I've been dragged halfway across the world to play an insignificant part in someone else's feud. There could be a million and one things I could be doing right now involving ending the war once and for all, but instead I have to spend four days getting everything packed into a sardine tin going so fast my eardrums bust, just to enter a partnership with your Agni-blessed majesty here that could never possibly work."

"Well to be fair you should have been here this morning," Zuko crossed his arms, "and don't use 'the attacks' as an excuse. You never had to go anywhere near the Mo Ce Sea."

"He does have a point," Yeh-Lu spoke reasonably from beneath his suit, "Ogedei was taking an unreasonable amount of time acquiring scenting lotions."

"I'm not used to spending days in a sweaty tin can," Ogedei defended himself, "unlike someone I could mention…"

"Your Highness," Mongke called to Azula, "if there's another team tracking down Iroh, I respectfully request a transfer."

"Nope, this is it!" Azula gleamed, "if you want revenge against one, you're going to have to waive it for another."

"…perfect," Mongke decided, sighing heavily, "very well, Prince Zuko, what are your orders?"

"We're going to have to be swift and flexible if we want to catch Iroh, so first of all…" Zuko stepped forward to stroke the horn of the nearest rhino affectionately, admiring its build and its physique. The Prince patted it gently and turned away, "…lose the rhinos."

"Lose the…what do you mean, 'lose the rhinos'!?" Mongke demanded the disinterested Prince to answer, "we can't lose the rhinos! We're the Rough Rhinos! It's our trademark! Just being big and looking mean isn't enough!"

"They'll be a liability," Zuko turned to the Colonel, "this operation is going to be unique in our history. We'll have to search the Fire Nation islands themselves. What is the norm in the Earth Kingdom is not going to do the trick here. The first sign of hulking war beasts and Iroh is going to sneak out the back door, along with anyone else he's made friends with. We need to be inconspicuous. And that brings us to the second point: Iroh is not the only target."

"Oh? Pray tell what this sudden addendum to our mission statement is, Your Majesty?" Mongke half-challenged the upstart.

"We're going after the Avatar," Zuko declared.

Mongke was stunned. Stunned enough to voluntarily give up his steed, wander slowly up the Fire Prince, towering over the boy, and say straight to his face "you are completely insane."

"What are you going to do?" Zuko stared back into the eyes of the man a full head taller than him, "challenge me to an Agni Kai?"

Mongke briefly wondered if the kid was bluffing, but his own memories of bruises and cuts were provoked by that steely, determined gaze piercing into him. Zuko meant it, and he easily had the bite to back up his bark. Mongke made a carefully calculated retreat, "no, I'm good."

"Thank you," Zuko turned away from the disembarking Rough Rhinos, barking his last order, "we'll begin the search as soon as possible!"

"Can we get our rhinos stabled and our stuff unpacked first, at least?" Kachi asked from the viewpoint of practicalities. Zuko stopped and turned. Something strange had happened to his face. It looked…genuinely concerned.

"Of course," Zuko said calmly, "it would be a good idea to get yourselves a place to sleep tonight, to rest up after your trip. Oh!" Zuko remembered, pointing up into Nagaoka's streets, "I passed by a herbalists on the way down. They might have something to help with your eardrums, Colonel. We'll meet up outside the Prefectural Office at daybreak tomorrow." Zuko turned back to the squad, still looking honestly concerned, "I hope we'll work well together."

Zuko turned and walked away to the other side of the pier. Mongke stared at Zuko's diminishing figure, along with the other Rough Rhinos. Kachi stepped up beside the Colonel and spoke first, "uh…did Prince Zuko just voice concern for our well-being…?"

"Don't linger over it," Mongke ordered, "if we do, our rhinos might sprout wings and the world will come to an end."

Zuko left the Rough Soon-To-Be-Rhino-less behind and walked towards Azula, who still looked supremely smug after witnessing Zuko's less-than-brilliant reception. Two long pillars of shadow closed together on the dock, framed by the orange-red hue of the evening sun. Zuko stared down his sister and spoke abrasively, "there is absolutely no reason why you should be here."

"The thought that I'd be genuinely interested in how you're coping never crossed your mind did it?" Azula's head rolled to one side in feigned interest. Zuko remained silent, feeling that such a fake statement didn't deserve the dignity of a response. Azula filled the silence with a note of triumph, "good. You're learning."

"The only lesson I'm learning is never to trust you, Azula," Zuko spat. Azula stifled a giggle.

"Looks like I put too much faith in your education," Azula decided, "it wasn't my idea to send for the Rough Rhinos and delay you for four days. I don't have that much control over our Nation's deployments. Believe it or not, Zuzu, there are other people in the Fire Nation hierarchy besides me who think of you as a worthless waste of space."

"Is that what you think of me?" Zuko challenged.

"I'm flexible…" Azula smirked, "you have to understand, Prince, that you're pretty much the only man in the Fire Nation who believes the Avatar is alive. Anyone else might think you're lost, confused, and clinging for some kind of certainty now your reason for existing has been cut out from under you."

"I'm not interested in your psychological insight, Azula," Zuko turned to leave, "if you don't believe me, get lost. I'm going to continue my task even if I have to do it on my own. I always have, after all."

"Unlike you, I don't deal in dichotomies," Azula called after Zuko, "if you're so certain about this, then there's something you know that no one else does. Keeping information from the Fire Nation can be considered treason, a state of affairs you seem to be uniquely familiar with."

Zuko stopped and paused at Azula's comment, clenching his fists, "I'm not a traitor."

"I struck the Avatar with lightning, at point-blank range," Azula commented, "if you know some way anyone could survive that, I'd be very interested."

"It's none of your business what I know," Zuko turned his face aside, half-facing Azula, "this is my mission, being run my way. You shouldn't even be here. You're here on your own with no entourage and no escort, just to sneak into my business and taunt me! Shouldn't you be searching for the Blue Spirit!?"

"I am," Azula stated coldly.

Zuko turned back towards Azula, eyes widened, "what does that mean!?"

"Whatever you want it mean…" Azula grinned. Waving Zuko off, the Fire Princess walked away from the waterfront, calling haughtily, "remember Dad's command! Either Uncle comes back dead or you do!"

Zuko watched Azula walk away, seething with anger. He expressed it by torching the air around him as he strode away in a stromp. Azula, safely out of sight behind the shadow of a cargo ship, whispered into the darkness, "see how I swerved between nasty and nice? You could learn from that. Keeps him nice and mouldable, like a little pet. Feel like having a pet for a boyfriend?"

"Shut up, Azula," Mai groaned from the shadows from where she and Ty Lee had been watching.

"Lighten up, Mai, I'm making sure your lover-boy stays alive," Azula commented, "he's found a certainty, and we need to get rid of that certainty."

"So we're going after the Avatar again?" Ty Lee spoke up hopefully, "or…maybe his buddies? Even just one?"

"Maybe," Azula decided, "keep that thought in mind. Zuko is being coy about something for sure. We need to know what he knows, to follow him every step of the way. It looks like I'll be needing more resources than I anticipated. Pity. Still, so long as the end result is the same, it'll all be worth it."

The inhabitants of the evening-soaked docks seemed to be dispersing in all directions, leaving the three girls with little reason to stick around. The air silent of everything except the low rumble of machinery from Nagaoka, Ty Lee piped up a question, "uh…Azula? I don't suppose I could see my family first, could I?"

"No," Azula answered unhesitantly, and that was the end of the matter.


"We never get a break, do we?" Sokka spoke in utter exhaustion, breaking a long silence that had descended ever since they'd managed to drag Aang into their quarters. It was surprisingly spacious, presumably because of Xuan's insatiable need for appeal, but it was also obvious that demands for space had seen them shoe-horned into accommodation that was blatantly unsuitable for them, having two large beds laid side-by-side between the door and the side of the hull, where a small porthole was situated. There were a couple of stools and a long shelf on the other side of the room from the beds, where a large mirror was set into the metalwork. Everything was made of metal in this place except the bedsheets.

Nestled inside the sheets of one of the beds, incidentally, was a comatose 12-year-old short-haired boy, resting soundly. Beside him, Katara sat on a stool, levitating a small puddle of glowing water over him, deeply concentrated in the act of healing. So concentrated, in fact, that she didn't even notice Sokka's comment. She was on a single track of thought, to keep the last hope for peace in their lifetimes alive. Momo retained a deep interest in Katara's attempts, perched on the end of the bed and purring softly. Elsewhere in the room, Toph was leaning heavily against the hull, too wrapped up in her own troubles to really pass comment on someone else's. She was concerned alright, but she was even more distressed as her mind translated the short distance between herself and Aang's stricken body as a mighty bottomless chasm. No sarcastic quip was going to change that.

Which left Sokka, perched on the other stool in the room, the only one in the room with the mind-set to pass comment. Seeing that his question was going gloriously unanswered, decided to answer it himself, "I'll take that as a yes."

Katara let her arms flow across and down, taking the water with them back into her pouch. Replacing the cork, she sighed heavily before turning to the others, her face downcast but steady, "he's stable…if that's any improvement. There's nothing I can do here. His body's fine, I made sure of that, but his head's really, really fuzzy. It's kind of like how he was a week ago."

"Frustrating much?" Sokka complained, "we drag his sorry carcass halfway across the world only for him to head back into the dead zone as soon as we actually get somewhere we can be safe in."

"But…he was doing fine…" Katara sounded absolutely lost, "he was okay just a few hours ago."

"No he wasn't," Toph spoke up, swallowing up her fear for a moment, "you just weren't paying attention. He's been phasing in and out for ages now. I kept noticing his heartbeat slowing down sometimes, getting unsteady, usually when we weren't paying attention. I just didn't notice it this time because…because…" Toph trembled, thumping her fist violently against the hull in anger "rrgh! Man, it was all going so good as well…"

Toph slumped against the wall, curling her knees up. Sokka, noticing the mood in the room was dropping precipitously, made some attempt to be pro-active about their chances, "so what happens now? Do we have to wait around for another couple of weeks or what?"

"I don't know," Katara answered honestly, "there's just something weird about his spirit. It's not like it's weak, it's just…distant."

Sokka was finding it hard keeping up with all this, "but…he's right there."

"He is…and he's not. I can't explain it," Katara was almost as much in the dark as Sokka. She'd never seen anything like this, "it's up to Aang. If he tries hard enough, he'll wake up. I know he will. He won't give up on us."

The attempt to purge herself of doubt was unsuccessful. Even Momo recognised this, purring mournfully as his ears drooped. Sokka was unfamiliar with this stuff…whatever this stuff was. It was tantamount to 'spiritual essence' stuff. He could never really grasp that, wanting things to have certainty, solidity, a common denominator that if it was beaten over with a club really harshly that it would at least do something. In this mindset, Sokka's silent gaze wandered over the porthole. It was heading into night, and the sky was darkening.

A chill came over him when he saw the crescent moon.

Breathing deeply, he leaned up off of his stool, declaring "well, we're not going to get anywhere just sitting around. I'm going to take a look around the ship. If we're attacked by anything…whatever this 'anything' is…I'd be more comfortable if I knew where the nearest lifeboat was."

"Okay, Sokka," Katara was in no mood to disagree, "I'll stay here in case Aang wakes up."

"Good," Sokka made a faltering attempt to look upbeat, "and…Toph? Maybe you should spend less time in a funk and more time trying to find a way around your problem."

"'A way around'?" Toph, who had been sulkingly self-absorbed, suddenly came over with a renewed determination. She crossed her legs and swerved herself around to face the hull, staring it down in a battle of wits, "I'm gonna do better than that. I'm gonna make the Gang Shen succumb to my will whether it wants to or not." Toph rapped the metal wall and pointed at it accusatively, "you hear that!? You are not getting the better of the greatest Earthbender in the world!"

Toph took a deep breath and concentrated. It was less a meditation and more a declaration of war against her limitations. Sokka, taking an involuntary step back from the dangerous little tyke, smiled nervously and pointed at the door, "okay then! Good luck Team Avatar! Positive thinking to achieve your goals and…so forth. I'm going now…"

Sokka inched towards the door and, quick as a flash, opened it, skirted through, and closed it behind himself with a metallic slam. The room's only source of conversation having fled, the inhabitants were left with their thoughts. Toph waited and listened, knelt facing the wall, trying to find some flaw in the pure, seamless Fire Nation metal. Momo was starting to develop an appetite and wandered over to Hong Yu Guo Service's complementary fruit bowl in search for sustenance. Katara watched over the unmoving boy, as still as when he first emerged from the iceberg.

Aang breathed slowly, but steadily. His connection to the world was a small, fragile thread, but it was still there. He had stood at a spiritual precipice. Now he was falling.


Nandi slapped another card down on the deck. He was on a roll. "I call upon Panlong, the Coiling Dragon, to drag you into the waters!"

"Aw man!" Niu complained, turning one of her cards over and stacking it into the 'deceased' pile…which was getting uncomfortably large, "you got all the best cards!"

Nandi chuckled. The card deck he acquired, 'Dragon Battle', was the latest craze to sweep the young of the Fire Nation, having gotten the ages 6-14 swapping, trading and battling like crazy. Almost every kid had a deck, and so it was with this group of six children, whittled down to three by Nandi's aggressive playing, collected around each other in a structure on the upper deck of the Gang Shen, lit up by small gas torches around the edge of the room. With the parents getting themselves some travel-induced shut-eye, the children were free to pursue their own entertainment. Although the kids were starting to realise it was only Nandi that was getting entertained.

"I dunno, but I think ye're about ta get slaughtered," tiny Bao smiled devilishly, slapping one of his own cards onto the deck, "Jiaolong, the horned dragon! See? His 'surprise' rating cancels out yours, and his horns add +2 to attack."

"Oh dear…" Nandi flipped over his card, seemingly unconcerned over the loss of his star piece, "it seems ya got me. Oh well, can't argue with the facts. Ya beat my Panlong, fair and square. Still, his sacrifice ain't in vain, when he's got a Dragon King to call on!"

Nandi slammed down another card, the Dragon King of the West, easily trumping any water dragon by his fiery authority. Bao slumped where he was seated, and shoved his cards in Nandi's direction. Bitterly, he said, "you're such a dork."

"Nuh uh! You're just a sore loser!" Nandi collected up the cards and turned towards the only player left in the game, challenging, "you wanna take your chances, too?"

Niu considered the challenge carefully, and decided that it wasn't worth her time to feed the scruffy-haired boy's ego. She collected her cards back up, indicating that she was pulling out of the game, "you're no fun to play with."

"Come on, guys, let's leave this geek," a tall, thin girl named Ju pointed behind herself towards the deck outside, "let's go outside! I wanna go see the terrapin-sharks!"

"Terrapin-sharks!?" a pudgy boy named Tai got excited at the prospect, "I never saw a terrapin-shark before!"

"Yeah! They swim in front of ships and jump up and down and stuff!" a sly girl named Ya bragged, "IIIII seen 'em before…"

"I wanna see 'em!" Bao, a wiry lad, leapt up.

"Me too!" Niu clamoured, running after everyone else.

Left to his own devices, Nandi chuckled heartily as he collected all the cards to himself. With his new card pack, he was undefeatable. He would be known far and wide as the undisputed master of Dragon Battle. He clutched the card deck to himself and laughed loudly at the prospect. Calming down a little, still on the edge of megalomaniacal laughter, he said through barely controlled giggles, "I'm so alone…"

Leaping up, Nandi ran after the terrapin-shark watchers, "hey guys! Wait for me! I wanna see! I wanna see!"


Sokka had long ceased his search for escape routes, getting a good grasp of where to find lifebelts and other accoutrements. He wasn't trying especially hard anyway. That wasn't the reason why he left. Alone on the upper deck, he rested his arms on the side railing, the cold wind a welcome relief from the stuffiness indoors and the endless summer heat that had pulverised his sweat glands during the day.

He was enshrined in blue darkness, the low rumble of the engines behind him, the churning of the sea beneath him, and in the distance the receding coastline of the Earth Kingdom, the turning of a final page in an acrimonious and ultimately futile chapter of their adventure. In the starry gloom he could make out two mountainous bumps, and guessed them to be the Yalu Pillars Aang described once. Except now it had an arc connecting the two, obviously man-made. A fitting tribute to their last sight of the place, he felt. The mighty earth pillars tamed and dominated by the Fire Nation. Sokka sighed and rested his head on his arms. He was alone with his thoughts.

He looked up at the crescent moon, claiming ownership over the heavens. No, he realised, he wasn't alone. Not technically at any rate. The moon looked down and seemed ready to engage in conversation. Sokka obliged.

"Okay…" Sokka held his arms out at the moon, "so you might be asking, 'Sokka, why are you heading straight into the Fire Nation, with no hesitation, no second thoughts and no idea what you're even going to do when you get there?' Well, I'm glad you asked that."

Sokka leaned onto the rail and smiled as he recounted his carefully worded explanation, "you see, despite my complete and utter incomprehension of everything to do with the Avatar Spirit or anything spooky and mysterious, I have taken a solemn oath, a sworn duty to follow Aang wherever he leads. Sure, he's not exactly leading right now, since he seems to have had the spiritual equivalent of something heavy falling on his head…I'm guessing…but still I am determined! This whole expedition is for selfless and higher-minded reasons."

The moon stared down accusingly, and under the unchanging gaze Sokka's grin wavered. He looked away in embarrassment, "okay, I'll fess up. I'm going because of Suki." Sokka, momentarily downcast, looked back up at the moon and laughed nervously, "oh that's right! You probably don't know her. Well…you might have seen her once. Gosh…that must have been awkward. Eheh…"

Sokka turned away again, more serious, "she was the first girl I fell in love with. I mean, yeah, I loved you too, it's just…I can't just keep away from everyone forever, just because I don't want to get too close." Sokka looked at the moon straight in the face, "you understand that, right!? I mean…you understood that better than I did. You tried not to get too close, because of what it might mean…but I already made my mind up about that. Just because I might lose someone doesn't mean I can't love them. I made my mind up a long time ago."

Sokka contemplated some more, making an effort to pigeon-hole something resembling logic into this conversation, "yeah…you wouldn't have known that, would you? Being that I kissed her during the day and all. See? I'm perfectly comfortable talking about these things in front of you because I know you'll understand. Isn't that great!? Such an open and honest relationship we have!"

The moon stared back, and Sokka melted a little inside, "…sorry. But…I made a promise to you. I swore an oath to protect you and I failed. I don't know if it could have turned out differently, but…this time? This time I'm gonna make it turn out differently! My oath to protect you was an oath to protect the one I loved. So that means I'm gonna do whatever it takes to save Suki. Short of nothing, you hear me?"

The moon couldn't really offer an opinion, so Sokka was left to rant some more, "I mean it's not fair! One dead girlfriend, that's horrible enough. But two dead girlfriends? Who the heck deserves that kind of luck!? Is this gonna be a regular thing!? I fall for someone, take our blessings at a shrine, and then, just after our first kiss, she gets squished beneath a cavalcade of roaming clowns. Is that how it's gonna be!? Huh!?"

The moon was silent. Sokka fumed, "yeah. I know. It isn't fair to offload all my problems onto you. In fact, it's utterly useless. You know why? Because I'm talking to an inanimate object floating in the sky!" Sokka breathed harshly, muscles tensed, and he snapped at the chubby kid who had paused to look at him, "and what are you staring at!?"

"N…nuthin, sir! Really!" Tai stepped back a few paces in terror before running headlong towards the fore of the ship.

"Come on, pig-boy! Hurry up!" a kid at the far end called out as Sokka realised he wasn't alone on the deck anymore. Looking out at the crescent moon, he just saw a moon. The spell was broken, for now at least. It had been…somewhat cathartic, Sokka decided. He sighed and turned indoors, leaving the upper deck to the young 'uns and deciding that the healthiest thing for him was to get some rest.

Unbeknownst to the disguised Water Warrior, the moon wasn't the only thing watching him from the open sea. Slowly and steadily, the sea rippled with the wake of something lurking beneath the waves. They had been watching, and waiting, for just the tiniest mistake.


"D'ya see anything?" Ju asked, leaning over the railings at the fore of the ship. She could see the waves being parted by the prow, the dark foam of the sea and the side of the Gang Shen itself, but terrapin-sharks were a somewhat elusive sight.

"Nuthin' here," Bao declared, looking over at the waves studiously, "I bet Ya was fibbing."

"Nuh uh! I saw them! They was big and had these huuuuge big teeth," Ya asserted, peering closely at the sea and willing it to reveal what she wanted it to reveal.

"Fibber, fibber, dirtball-lipper!" Bao taunted, even though he really wanted to see the terrapin-sharks as well.

"Hey! Isn't that one?" Tai pointed, "it's been following us all this time! It looks like a giant serpent!"

"That's foam, you fat dummy!" Niu argued, being right next to him and seeing the same things he saw. The woosh of the wind, the chuff of the funnel and the roar of the engines were making it hard to hear each other, but they persevered. They wanted to see something that would make it easier to avoid playing one-sided games with Nandi. They had no such luck, however, as the boy they had been trying to get away from approached.

"Step aside, morons, I'll show ya how it's done!" Nandi came up behind all of them and took up a place between Bao and Ya, looking over carefully at the churning water.

"Oh yeah, cuz ye're just perfect at everything, aren'tcha?" Bao spoke sarcastically.

"Not everything…just most things," Nandi smiled deviously as he looked into the dark recesses of the sea. Near where he was looking a long ripple, almost unnoticeable except for the odd breaking of the wave. He concentrated, tongue sticking out, closely.

The ripple became more noticeable the more he looked at it, become deeper and more refined. Pretty soon he was able to distinguish a calm area of water where the rough waves avoided it. This space beneath the surface of the water sucked in his attention like a whirlpool, taking in more and more of his senses. The rest of the world seemed to dim in importance, as the waves became subsumed, and the deafening sounds of the engines, waves, wind and furnace became little more than distant echoes.

In the centre of this annulled space, the messy-haired boy began to tell the features of something inhabiting this space. Only outlines at first, but gradually coming into focus, was a round, white object. It was fuzzy underneath the blue of the sea, but with the increasing stillness came resolution. He could see two black holes in the centre of the object, coming into sharper and sharper relief. It looked like a mask. It was a mask, staring straight at him. The boy was transfixed. He had found something for sure.

"Hey! Did ya see…" Nandi turned around to address the other children, but no one else was on deck. It felt unnatural. The wind had gone, the deck was as steady as solid ground, and the sound of his voice was the only sound to be heard. It felt like he was in a small room, an enclosure, even though he was obviously on an upper deck. His skin trembled in nervousness as he felt those eyes still on him. Nandi's eyes snapped this way and that, but everyone had disappeared, "hey, where did you go!?"

Nandi called out into the eerie stillness, clutching his own arms. He was afraid to move from his spot, stuck fast and alone. Then it happened. As he was facing towards the deck, the veins in his chest suddenly felt like they were about to burst. A vice gripped his lungs and his torso was jerked violently backwards. His body was dragged over the railings, off the side of the Gang Shen.

The sound of the wind and waves and the rumble of the engines, and the sound of a body plunging into the blackness of the Mo Ce Sea, returned all at once. There was no one left to hear it.

To Be Continued…

Avatar: The Last Airbender Concept and Characters © Nickelodeon 2005-06


Author's Note: You can tell Ringu was one of my favourite movies. :p

Where the Avatar staff were influenced by Hayao Miyazaki, GAiNAX and Hong Kong Action Movies, I was influenced by Satoshi Kon and J-Horror...with healthy doses of Stanley Kubrick and Jean-Pierre Jeunet just to round things out. Not that Miyazaki and GAiNAX don't receive a nod or two. Heh...