Wan had to give the door a good shunt before it opened. Rust had soldered the hinges shut, and ashamed as Sokka was to admit it, the engineer was actually the strongest out of the three of them. Light invaded the dark, damp space beyond. Where the corridors were getting cramped and claustrophobic, the Shaft Room was vaulted by comparison. Through the gloom, Sokka could see two long, thick shafts stretch across over his head and disappear into the far wall, rumbling constantly from the ceaseless spinning going on inside the both of them. Twelve ladders led up to the shafts, bolted onto the side-walls of the vast room. On the floor itself the group was boxed in by two long bulbous objects, mirroring the shafts above and leaving little room for walking between them. Wan led them between the structures in single file.

Sokka realised the shafts above drove the propellers, but he had no idea what these massive things either side of them were. Toph could have hazarded a guess, since they were made of the same impure metal the engine was made of, as were the huge propeller shafts. But she was content to run her fingers along the smooth surfaces and feel the clicks and clunks going on within, a smile plastered on her face. Beyond the structures, between the narrow path and the back of the ship, vast piles of debris filled an otherwise empty space of floor. There were metal sheets, metal pipes, metal joints and other appendages. Toph was getting giddy with this sensory overload.

"Geheheh…eheehee…hee!" Toph giggled in megalomania, picking up a single small length of piping and holding both ends in her palms. She squeezed the pipe between the hands, and after some straining ended up crumpling up the pipe into a thick, squat ring. Her smile became wider and her laughs creepier, "heeheeheehee…gahahaha!"

"Ming Zhiiiii…" Sokka warned testily, subtly warning her that they were supposed to be maintaining disguises, "don't make creepy laughs in dark rooms. You'll scare Momo."

Toph's smile degraded into a sly grin, and she tossed the crumpled ring to one side. Petting the winged lemur, she murmured, "c'mon, Gameshin. Momo loves the mystery of big, haunty rooms, don'tcha?"

Momo purred in complete indifference. He was an animal. He honestly didn't have an opinion one way or the other. Wan hadn't been paying attention to their antics and was concentrating on pulling things aside to reach the thicker metal plating hidden underneath the scattered remnants of engine. The old man turned to explain, resting a hand on a protruding pipe, "now, in a perfect world we'd be doing the Gang Shen over whenever we got in dock, but with 'Don' Xuan running things upstairs we don't get a choice but ta make repairs on th' fly in this ol' bucket, so that means we gotta have scrap sailing with us. 'course, no one thought've a 'scrap room' when they built this hunka junk, so we ended up dumping it in th' Shaft Room. Some of this is leftovers from old repair jobs, and some is jus' junk picked up from port to port, but it all gets sacrificed to Our Lady whenever she gets uppity fer whatever reason."

"Cool!" Sokka admired the practical ingenuity the engineering crew seemed to have developed out at sea. In many ways it reminded him of dad…if dad had doubled in age, found religion and lost all sense of humour. Shuddering the disturbing thought out of his head, he tried to approach the question that had been nagging him, "you know…the 'God of Steel'…how come you worship her if you hate her so much?"

"Ye're getting no exposition from me, sonny boy," Wan was not in the mood to share his feelings, if he was even capable of such a thing, and challenged Sokka, "now can ya tell me what ya forced me ta drag ya down here for? I gotta ship ta run, y'know…"

"Oh! It's…" Sokka darted his eyes back to Toph to come up with a convincing cover story, smiling once he found one, "my friend here! She's real interested in metals and she wanted to have some to experiment with. She…uh…comes from a family of salvage merchants, and sheeee…wanted to know about the stuff they were scrapping. You know. Wanted to actually build things. You know? You…do know, right?"

"Yeah…thanks…I get it," Wan turned to Toph, picking up an oval slab of metal plating, "ya think ye can work with metals, kid?"

"Heh…you could say that…" Toph gleamed in the dark, exuding more confidence than could be contained in the vast room.

"Try this on fer size, then…" Wan chucked the metal slab towards the blind Earthbender. Momo screeched and ducked, providing the only clue Toph had that something big and heavy was flying towards her face. Her smile was wiped off as the plate rebounded off her forehead, leaving her paralyzed in shock and wincing in a delayed reaction to the violence inflicted upon her forehead. Sokka flinched, and remained flinching as he reflected on how much that must've hurt.

Toph's facial features screwed tight, it was only after many seconds of awkward silence that the Earthbending girl threw a hand up to her forehead and squealed pitifully, "…ow…"

Wan leaned towards Sokka, unimpressed, "not too sure meself, but I'm thinking metallurgy ain't exactly her calling."

Sokka pursed his lips in uncertainty while Toph's unseeing eyes snapped open in anger. She leaned down to snatch up the metal plating with one pronounced swing, swallowing an urge to pummel the smug old man into the wall. She held the plating in both hands and felt its reassuring weight. She could work with this. She felt its corners and smacked it against her palm, feeling every little texture of the object. A step down in her ambitions to make the ship her plaything, to be sure, but once she investigated it thoroughly enough, no metal would be safe. She smiled.

"That what you're looking for?" Sokka asked. Toph nodded in satisfaction. Sokka's interest in the ship's workings had been rapidly waning ever since the first insult was hurled his way. With that in mind, he turned around and faced Wan, shaking a hand and saying as politely as he could, "well, thanks so much for the tour but...we'd better be going. Our friends must be looking for us by now, and I'm sure you have a lot of engineer-type things to do." Sokka grasped a hungry-fingered Toph's shoulders with his arm and retreated with his thumb pointing backwards, "I gotta say, though. You gotta reeaal good ship...god...ship thing going on, it's definitely been worth the trip! Real inspiring stuff! Good luck with the repairs annnnnd we'll just get outta your hair..."

"What d'ya think ye're doing?" Wan asked in a deadpan voice, eyes fixed narrowly on Sokka's cranium.

Toph felt Sokka's muscles tighten on her shoulders and, knocked out of her gluttonous satisfaction, sensed that something was wrong. Sokka wilted under the engineer's gaze and ground to a halt, wiggling his backward-pointing thumb, "uhh...getting outta your hair?"

"Ya drag me down here, grab some plating an' skidaddle. I dunno what ye think it looks like, but it looks mighty suspicious ta me," Wan drawled, "ye're up ta something."

"Huh?" Sokka panicked, frozen to the spot and reaching slowly for his boomerang. Toph walked forward out of Sokka's grasp and slid her feet apart, planting them into the ground. She felt edgy, but also strangely confident, in having something she didn't possess before...a weapon. Sokka steadied himself as well, but he lacked the confidence to go with his edginess, as he attempted to roll over in his mind what could possibly have given them away. He covered up, "...no we're not..."

"Yes y'are, an' I knows what it is..." Wan approached, eyes focused. Sokka gripped the edge of his boomerang, sweating buckets, while Toph held the metal plate out with her palms facing upward and tensed in anticipation, smiling softly at the chance to show herself off. Wan pointed an accusing finger, "...an' I'm tellin' you right now...stay away from Shui!"

Sokka's grip relaxed, less from relief than from perplexion, while Toph let the plate drop to her side in disappointment, so close to finally using her abilities. Sokka winced, making strangled noises of "...uhhhhh...wha?"

"She got no family besides me, so it's up ta me to take care of her, an' that means makin' sure she don't run off with th' first yahoo that comes along!" Wan jabbed his finger at the warrior, "I seen ye're type a thousand times, seducin' poor, witless girls with yer suave an' yer good looks, promisin' to show 'em th' world an' splittin' soon as th' coast's clear."

Toph erupted into giggling, covering her mouth as she muttered, "I dunno about good looks, but...suave!? He couldn't be suave if the world depended on it!"

"I can be suave! Don'tcha dare disrespect mah groove, kiddo," Sokka fumed angrily at the blind, grinning girl, forcing himself to mellow out and relax when facing Wan, "but...look...you got it all wrong! I don't want to take Shui away! I'm already with someone else!"

"Who?" Wan said sceptically, glancing down at Toph, "her?"

"What?" Toph blushed fiercely, covering it up with a gutteral "Ugh!" and taking a step back from Wan, sticking a tongue out in abhorrence, "don't say that! That's disgusting!"

Sokka raised an eyebrow at Toph's behaviour, "overreacting much? Ain't no shame in liking the Gameshin-meister. There's more than enough to go round, I think you'll find."

"Sure...it's like a plague except...boy-shaped," Toph got her grin back, but Sokka was overcome with a foul mood, taking one of the Earthbender's bangs and tugging harshly. The lopsided angle Toph's shoulders were pulled into sent Momo falling into the blind girl's wincing head.

"...that...hurt...you insensitive jerk..." Sokka whispered through gritted teeth, letting go of Toph's hair to make her head rebound, sending Momo reeling backwards and into the air, where the lemur took advantage of the confusion to get away from the Earthbender's petty needs and planted himself comfortably atop one of the floor-bolted cylinders, curling up to nap. Sokka coughed to address Wan again, "but...seriously...you got nothing to worry about. Shui's nice 'n all...nicer than you, anyway...but I don't even know her. We're really just passing through, and taking some real, honest interest in the thing we're sailing in. Is that so hard to believe?"

"Yes," Wan answered shortly, "no passenger ain't never been half as interested as you folks. And ta end it jus' like that...y'all know so much yet it sounds like ye never been on a steamer before. How many times in Gang Shen's name don't that come 'bout?"

"Not...often...?" Sokka hazarded a guess.

"None," Wan answered. A short silence and one of Momo's eyes opened on sensing something far away. Wan continued "none in all my 60 years of engine work. So if y'aint doin' this ta chase girls, why are ya doing this?"

"...uhhhh..." Sokka came up blank of cover stories, scratching his head impotently. Toph wasn't even trying, so impatient was she to start metal-bending that she honestly didn't mind her partner slipping up just to give her an excuse to send things flying. All their thoughts were interrupted by the high-pitched screech that erupted from the cylinder to the left of them. Momo stretched up on all fours and his fur stood on end as he screamed at the wall of the Shaft Room. Sokka was the first to comment, "what's up with him?"

"Whatever it is, can'tcha get it ta shut up?" Wan gestured at the lemur, turning back towards the scrap pile to repile the scattered remnants he'd flung aside earlier, "y'know what? I don't even care anymore. Jus' get outta here an' take that thing with ya!"

"Don't call Momo a thing! You'll hurt his feelings! Ain't that right my fuzzly little scruffy pups?" Sokka stroked the lemur's back to calm the animal down, feeling his racing heartbeat and regretting the day he wasn't agile enough to claim the creature for lunch. He felt succulent even today. Sokka took Momo in his arms and imagined him cooked over a roaring campfire and eaten off of a stick, stroking him as he reminisced longingly for those carefree days when meat-eating was a respectable and morally-unchallenging pastime. Despite his misty-eyed nostalgia, the warrior did notice after a while that Momo was continuing to tremble continuously while facing the wall. Looking up, and side-to-side, he could see that the wall didn't stretch all the way across the room, and that there was another compartment on the other side...a compartment someone seemed to be tinkering around in suspiciously. Sokka asked, "Wan...sir...should there be anyone in that room right now?"

Wan paused in the middle of his scrap-redistributing and looked to one side in annoyance, "no...an' if there is I'm gonna give 'em some Dragon-fire fer going in without permission!" The engineer threw a metal sheet to the ground and stalked his way towards the other compartment, jabbing one finger at the ground before Sokka and Toph, "don'tcha budge from this spot, y'hear me!?"

Wan was already near the corner of the bulkhead when Sokka disregarded the engineer's instructions and wandered closer to investigate. His progress was stalled when Toph took hold of Sokka's hand, bidding him to stop. Toph had been troubled by something when it became obvious Momo had reacted against someone's presence in the nearest room. With all the rust spread around and the residual vibrations set off by the propellers, it should have been easy to tell at least a few vague, fuzzy footsteps next door. But she couldn't feel a single thing apart from the monotonous grinding of the machines. Unless they could fly, there couldn't be anyone next door. "Sokka..." she whispered, holding the Water Tribe boy in place, "...I don't like this."

Sokka felt unnerved, since Toph feeling unnerved was a rare and troubling thing. The warrior sighed sympathetically, since he was usually the first to break ranks when faced with weird and spooky stuff, but it wasn't like he could hand the duty to anyone else close by. Sokka admitted, "I don't like it either," and he tugged Toph's hand to pull themselves along, "but that's why we have to check it out."


Katara had been asking every passing passenger if they'd seen the short girl with pigtails and pale irises and the tall, knuckle-headed boy with more muscle than sense...and he hadn't that much muscle, it had to be said...but drew mostly blank looks. The winged lemur had struck a chord though, so it was pretty easy to home in on the engineering section.It might have taken longer, but Katara was getting short-breathed from running in blind panic and was still charged with adrenaline. She opened the door to the Engine Room without taking the slightest notice of the sign. "Have you seen a boy and a girl with a lemur in here!?" Katara yelled over the roar of the God of Steel.

Shui was leaning upside-down from a balcony while fixing a length of pipe inside the wall above one of the furnaces, and didn't budge while looking down at the disguised Waterbender. The assistant paused and said "yeah! Wan's showin' 'em ta th' Shaft Room!"

"Thanks!" Katara shouted, disappearing from the door to let Shui go back to her work. She hadn't made a full twist of a bracket before Katara ran back to the door and screamed panickly "where's the Shaft Room!?"

"Bottom deck, back of th' ship, can't miss it!" Shui pointed her spanner down towards the floor in front of the engine, where the ship's aft sections apparently were.

"Thanks again!" Katara shouted hurriedly, disappearing again as she hurtled from the Engine Room, driven by the need to save the lives of those she loved.


Wan peered around the edge of the bulkhead and went "whut th..." quietly before striding through into the adjoining room. Sokka, keeping Momo relaxed in his arms, peered around after Wan and found a room largely identical to the one behind them, except with a slanted wall and without piles of scrap. He also saw a small boy with messy hair peering into a square hole set in one of those cylinders planted on the floor...still having no idea what they were. Nandi twisted around in shock when the engineer yelled at the top of his lungs, "what're ya doing in here ye little brat!?"

"Heyyy..." Sokka whispered to Toph, "it's your pal from yesterday! That's sweet, he followed you all the way here!"

"You gotta be kidding..." Toph winced in pain at the mere thought of Nandi getting the better of her, cancelling out any relief she may have had at not having to face something weird and monstrous...though it still didn't seem very normal. No matter, she thought, her vengeance was coming soon and, she said aloud, "that kid is just asking for it, now."

"I'm sorry!" Nandi held up his hands and stepped back from the enraged engineer, speaking defensively, "I didn't know I wasn't allowed here! I was just looking around!"

"Ye didn't know?" Wan peered closer at the boy, "don't kids know how ta read these days? It says on th' door! 'No Unauthorised Persons Allowed'! Whadya people need? Flashing lights!?"

"I...I was just curious..." Nandi shrank under Wan's gaze, clutching his own arms and avoiding the old man's stare. Wan relaxed a little and sighed loudly. Upon hearing a footstep his head spun round and noticed Toph and Sokka peering around the bulkhead...and sighed even more heavily.

"Don't tell me he's with you guys..." Wan heaved, getting exhausted with this whole morning. Sokka grudgingly stepped out into the room, prompting Toph to follow him. When Nandi saw Toph, his dour face lightened up.

"Hey! It's you again!" Nandi smiled broadly, "ain't that the freakiest thing? We just keep running into each other, don't we? You know...maybe that means something? What do you think?"

"No..." Toph said finally, snapping Sokka's hand away to step forward, "just...no, Nandi. I don't know how this stupid idea got into your head, but we're not friends. We're not even acquaintances. We're just a coupla kids on a voyage. Don'tcha even try to make it more than that or I'm gonna pick you up by your neck and throw you overboard. Got it?"

Nandi's smile faded. He actually looked hurt at Toph's outburst, not that Toph would notice. What she did notice was the convulsive giggle that erupted from the messy-haired boy before he clamped both hands over his mouth. He looked from one set of eyes to another in something like fright. Sokka noticed that the veins on Nandi's arms seemed unusually...'veiny'. Wan groaned and dragged his dirt-covered palm down his face. With a heavy slap on the cylinder he shouted "that...is...it!"

"...that's it?" Sokka twiddled his fingers nervously.

"That's it! I've had enough of th' lot of ya! I dunno what possessed me ta let y'all get away with this, but I bet she's behind it somehow!" Wan railed against the passengers, "ye come an' poke around my business, take my stuff, waste my time, an' you..." Wan pointed at Nandi, whose hands had dropped away from his mouth, "I ain't got th' foggiest idea whatcha doin', but judgin' from that mighty suspicious hole in the starboard aft stabiliser it looks like I'm gonna be wastin' more time cleanin' up yer mess!"

Wan stepped forward to make himself clearer and found a foot splashing in an expanding puddle of clear water lying at Nandi's feet. The engineer boiled over, "an' I'm gonna haveta clean that up too! Get out!"

Sokka flinched as Wan spun his finger around to jab at the three others in the room, yelling, "an' that goes fer ya too, ya self-serving punks! You gotcha stuff, now get lost!"

"Sure thing, boss!" Sokka made a nervous salute and reached for Toph, only to have to bring his hand back around to clamp down Momo, who had been throwing a hissy fit and attempting to leap forward to attack something. Sokka lowered himself to stroke Momo better, but it didn't seem to be doing anything much, "heyyy there, what's the matter with you? Smell something tasty? Smell something dangerous? What!? Stop squirming!" Toph closed her eyelids in frustration and leant an arm on the cylinder, planting her forehead in her hand. Sokka looked up and covered up his tangled nerves with a strangled chortle, "eheh...we'll be gone in a second! Promise!"

Wan chose to believe that and turned, a little surprised to see that Nandi was still there. He was sure the kid had gone. Wan's nerves were on edge by this point, "didn't I tell you get out!?" Nandi looked at Wan with unblinking eyes, not flinching the slightest at the engineer's tirades. Instead he lazily turned to one side and reached back up to the hole he had been tinkering in before.

"C'mon you stupid mangy furball! Stop it! You want to trap us with this crazy old man forever?" Sokka whispered urgently to the winged lemur he was trying to control, kneeling on the ground to stop himself tipping over from the effort. He paused when he felt his knee becoming wet, noticing that the puddle around Nandi's feet had been growing and now reached halfway across the room. It wasn't dripping from above, and a leak from below would've burst through, while this puddle just...pooled. Sokka summarised with "that ain't normal..."

The old man's veins were starting to pop, "don'tcha dare ignore me! If ye don't stop poking I'm gonna haul ya to th' Captain myself!"Nandi didn't seem to notice Wan talking, but another convulsive giggle seemed to be his response to the engineer's threat. This time the boy couldn't contain it...it just kept going, his body shuddering with endless giggling. He kept tinkering inside the cylinder, and the veins along his arm and neck bulged as he pulled something. The room shook, and the regular, rhythmic, predictable sounds of the Shaft Room became intermixed with a tangled jumble of mechanical screechings and yawnings. Toph's arm reeled off the cylinder in shock, and she planted her hands flat against the metal to try to find out what was wrong. Wan spun around to every small thing that broke in the shuddering room, and lunged forward to grab Nandi, "what did you do!?"

Nandi warded Wan off by slamming his palms into the cylinder, making an impossibly large thud. His head bowed between his arms, his quiet giggling became hysterical, taking over his entire body while his veins bulged unnaturally. Toph felt the impact Nandi's hands made, and could feel how the metal sank under the force of the boy's blows. This startled her, but what Toph discovered next froze her spine completely. The hands that pressed into the metal surface were not the hands of a living, warm-blooded creature. He...it...whatever Nandi was...had no pulse or movement inside beyond the convulsive giggling that made her tremble with anxiety. Wan stepped back fearfully, "...what's wrong with you?"

Nandi's blood-shot right eye glared madly just over his arm, concealing the rest of his grinning, giggling face, as he spoke between bouts of convulsing, "...not me...you...hmhmhehmmhmhehmhmhehm...everything's wrong with you!"

Sokka snarled, dropping Momo to the floor and standing in one swift movement, staring in anger as he drew his boomerang. It was bizarre, it was abnormal, and Sokka was not going to let this crime against humankind exist. "Get away from him!" he cried, rushing forward to push Wan to one side and strike with all the strength he could muster. His boomerang became embedded in the metal, and with his eyes screwed shut a few moments passed before he blinked and found that he hadn't struck anything except thin air. Looking around as his breath quickened, he had to place both his feet on the cylinder to get his weapon back out. The warrior rasped "where did he go!? Where did he go!?"

"I...I don't know..." Wan was suffering shock, barely reacting when Sokka finally got his boomerang out and plummeted to the floor with a yelp of surprise. Wan looked around furtively, "there was this blur an' then...nuthin'..."

"I can't feel him!" Toph stood her ground, ready to face whatever it was, "he's not on the floor!"

"He has to be somewhere! Keep looking!" Sokka picked himself up and looked at every empty corner of the room, weapon-ready and on-edge, "what in the world was that!?" Wan was coming back to his senses and scanned the room his own way, seeing nothing, and Momo had taken to hissing at every shadow that passed near him. They primed themselves for the smallest hint of Nandi, tracing every sound and every sight in the clanking and clunking Shaft Room.

A metallic groan rang out from behind them and Sokka spun off his boomerang instinctively. Twisting round to put the right force into the swing, it was only when the boomerang left his fingers that he noticed who it was he had aimed towards. He called in panic, "duck!"

"Wha? AGH!" Katara yelped when she stepped into the room and looked aside towards the spinning metal blade flying at her. She ducked into a squat and allowed the boomerang to pass over her head, only daring to peek out when she was sure her head was safe, murmuring "uhhhhh..."

"Kat...egh...nnn...!" Sokka strangled his vowels in panic, and when he managed to grab hold of his boomerang again he pointed it straight at Katara, "woman! Get back! He'll see you!"

"What're you..." Katara stood upright and spun around to find out what Sokka could be talking about, "I don't see any..." She was interrupted by the feel of cold water dribbling onto her head. Confused, she felt the top of her scalp with her hand and looked up at what could be leaking overhead. What she saw was the intense, blood-shot gaze of a giggling messy-haired boy, smiling manically upside-down a few inches above her face. She barely had time to gasp before her vision became blurred.

Sokka leapt across the room and swung wildly at the thing that had just hung in the air and spun its knee into the back of his sister's head. Before the swing had the chance to connect, Nandi's body had flung backwards at incredible speed, disappearing into the shadows. The warrior caught the Waterbender before she collapsed on the floor, unconscious. Sokka was distressed, but too angry to register it, and cajoled the girl who lay in his arms, "Katara! Katara! Wake up! You gotta wake up! Now!"

Toph took a stance in spite of its uselessness on the pure metal floor. Wan took his spanner in both hands, planning on using it as a weapon, and darted his eyes to and fro. Momo crawled along the floor, hissing at everything, but as he turned to confront something, just beyond Sokka and Katara, the animal let out a frightful shriek. Wan saw him being dragged into the blackness that hung around the room, and realised he hadn't much time. He leapt forward as Nandi flew out of the shadows, shouting "look out!" The spanner was swung, but Nandi had already spun his entire body around the engineer and his leg swung out sharply at Wan's neck, making him slowly fall to the floor as his muscles gave out.

Sokka drew up his boomerang and plunged it at Nandi, trying to get the thing while his back was turned, but the boy's hand struck out and clamped itself over the warrior's face. The grinning face, veins bulging on his forehead, jerked towards Sokka and set its mad gaze on him. Sokka didn't have the chance to collect himself before being shoved back head-first towards the cylinder. The Water Tribe boy's thick skull was propelled into the metal, making him cry out more in shock than pain as Nandi used his rebounding head to flip over to the top of the cylinder.

Toph felt the force of the impact, and punched her fingers through the impure metal of the stabiliser. She gripped her hand-hold and pulled herself quickly to the top to face down Nandi, lying like a rag doll on the metal surface. She shifted quickly into a stance and yelled, "gotcha!" A foot stamped down and sent a wad of metal up into the air before Toph. The blind girl flew a fist forward to send the metal flying at the creature before her...only for the metal wad to fly a few feet before slowing to a halt and plummeting with an iron thud. Toph's determination wavered, realising that metal-bending was still new to her, muttering impotently "...huh."

Nandi staggered upright and swung round to face Toph. She noticed that one foot was lying on the cylinder surface with little weight being pressed on it, like he was being held up by strings. She didn't have much time to observe anything, as Nandi rapidly closed the distance between them, limbs dragging behind him. Toph dropped to the roof and spread her fingers out, dragging up a metal wall to halt Nandi's progress. The boy's toes disappeared from Toph's vibration-sight, but she was starting to wisen up to the creature's tactics, and grabbed onto some metal to her side, dragging it out into a sphere to protect her flank.

Toph was new to this, and hadn't thought of how her manipulating the metal had weakened the thin layer's stability. When Nandi dropped down and kicked the sphere Toph had created, breaking it through the casing, the Earthbender didn't have any choice but to propel herself out before she was crushed by the stabiliser's machinery. Toph splashed into the wet floor, sprawled painfully from the sudden leap. The room shuddered again, the machines heaving and screaming in mechanical agony. Toph's breath quickened when she heard another splash, of something whose limbs swung limply, who dragged himself up effortlessly and who couldn't stop giggling.

Toph could hear the giggling approaching, but couldn't do anything about it. She dragged herself back. His feet dragged across the puddle, hanging uselessly from his legs. Sokka groaned, unable to muster the strength to rub his head. Wan was up earlier, but the strike on his neck left him with blurred vision and no sense of gravity or distance. He could see the grinning, giggling boy approaching Toph but couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't keep his balance when the room shuddered again. Toph had crawled all the way to the bulkhead, and could go no further. Nandi stopped his advance and leaned down over Toph, that smile etched onto his face, "...hmhmhmhehmhmhehmhehmhm...you're gonna be my friend, now..."

Toph jolted when Nandi disappeared and a slash of water cut the floor in front of her. Katara huffed, her hair half-dishevelled, while she swept around and swung her arms behind her. Somehow she managed to know where Nandi would next, and right behind her the boy flew forwards only to be caught by a water-whip, thwacking him into the wall. Nandi was stopped from flopping to the floor by an unseen force, keeping him staggered upright and giggling like a ventriloquist puppet. Katara's nostrils flared and she stared intently and angrily at Nandi, arms held outward with fingers stretched out, one hand higher than the other.

The room shuddered. Nandi's veins bulged thicker than ever, and from a dead halt he thundered forward towards the Waterbender. Katara thrusted her hands out, palms facing outward, and Nandi abruptly stopped in mid-air. His body shuddered with giggling, which increased in intensity the more pressure was put on him. His grinning head rolled from side to side on his shoulders with the convulsions, staring but unseeing. Katara screwed her eyes shut at the sight and swung her arms apart, breaking the flow. Nandi ceased convulsing, his giggling ending with a strangled "...grk...", and he fell face-first into the puddle, motionless. Katara opened her eyes, shaking them to keep them from tearing up, and rushed forwards to pull the boy over onto his back. The grin was gone.

Sokka blinked harshly as he finally got the strength to rub his head. He'd seen it all, and felt immensely confused. "Was that..." Sokka's thoughts were interrupted as he dragged himself to his feet, wiping off the water soaking through his fabric while dealing with a literally splitting headache. Wan had recovered and stepped forward, even more confused than any of them. Momo let out a pathetic mew from the shadows, too exhausted to be confused. Toph picked herself up and walked slowly to Katara, having a better inkling what the deal was than any of the others. Heartbeats didn't lie.

Katara swept a hand over the puddle to collect up some healing water, holding the glowing liquid over the boy's body. She concentrated hard on what was happening to Nandi, and when she found out she lot the water drop from her hands in shock. She didn't know what to say. Sokka leaned over and asked "well...is he okay?"

Katara looked down at Nandi, up at the others, and back down again, breathing slowly to calm herself. "He's dead..." she looked up to deliver the shock, "...he's been dead for at least twelve hours."


Captain Mayu wasn't really accustomed to the concept of 'down-time'. As far as she was concerned, this whole assignment was 'down-time' to her. It was the reason she requested a transfer from front-line duty. She felt she needed a break. And now she was here cataloguing the ship's journey and filling in the log-book. Understaffing...everyone fit and able was sent into front-line service, leaving the crew having to take on several jobs at once. She didn't mind much, since coordinating ferries was a pleasant break from coordinating the destruction of Earth Kingdom fishing towns.

Still, she thought as she pinched the bridge of her nose, a break away from the break would be nice too.

Mayu pushed the chair back and walked out onto the rear balcony. The Captain's Office was fairly sizeable, taking up the rear of the bridge deck and looking out on the aft of the ship. It was a place built for the Captain to look out over the open sea and sigh in that way people with immense power and responsibility did during their off-hours. Mayu didn't have much in the way of power or responsibility, so she just leaned on the rail and watched the trail of foam head off into the horizon.

Although her hair was pinned down, it still rippled in the wind. Her limbs relaxed, and she allowed herself to smile at the absurdity of it all. She half-looked at the ship's trail, since it was the most convenient thing to land her eyes on, as it sliced its way through the sea and claimed it for the Gang Shen. Except...

Mayu gripped the rail a little tighter to inspect the trail a little closer, face squinted in concentration. Eventually she stepped back, eyebrow arched, and walked back inside to open the speaking tube that led directly to the bridge. The Captain spoke, "Captain to Bridge...is it just me or are we drifting starboard?"

"Bridge to Captain. Course is straight ahead. Engine Room isn't reporting any problems," the young voice answered back tinnily, "do you want us to investigate, ma'am?"

"If you would, Lieutenant. Captain out," Mayu shut the lid to the speaking tube and settled back down again, tapping thumbs together in thought. Making an effort to relax, she took a deep breath, then flung her fingers at a tripod holding a waiting tea pot to shift her crankiness through her arm and out at the small pile of kindling underneath, setting it alight. Still working with only one hand, she picked up a small wooden box lying on the desk and emptied some of its contents into the pot, replacing the lid and leaning back into her seat.

Mayu had the pot ready beside her at all times in case she had sudden whims to relax like this. The water boiling, she took a cup and poured it out, pausing to close her eyes and breath in the sweet scent of Ti Kwan Yin through her nose. She soon regretted this when the office shook with a loud slam. Her tea ended up all over her face.

"Show me who's in charge!" a woman's voice rebounded loudly off the metal walls from the corridor outside, "show me who's in charge right now!"

"Please! Please settle down! Everything's under control!" Xuan called out loudly but soothingly in a desperate attempt to calm the woman down. Mayu sighed and calmly wiped the tea off her face, planting the cup down on the desk and standing up while Xuan negotiated some more outside, "we're doing all we can to find your son..."

"You're doing nothing!" the woman shouted angrily. Mayu opened the office door to step out and saw that the woman in question was slender and young and seething in rage. There was a bald-headed working man poking through the door behind her, but she seemed to be doing the dragon's share of the yelling. Xuan was facing away from Mayu, holding his hands out at the mother to placate her. It wasn't working, "he's been gone for hours! Someone must have found him by now! If you're not going to help me, then get me the Captain!"

"The Captain is a very busy woman, and she's already well-aware of the situation!" Xuan claimed. Mayu leant on the side of the corridor and listened with great interest at exactly what she was up to these days. He dug deeper, "we have everyone available scouting high and low for your boy! There's no reason to worry! You can relax knowing that professionals are on top of everything, and you'll be reunited with your son before you know it!"

"That's funny, I don't recall being aware of whatever situation you're talking about..." Mayu spoke in deadpan, getting some satisfaction from Xuan jumping at the sound of her voice, "and if you've got this team of professionals working for you, I'd really like to meet them, because we seriously need an influx of good talent around this place."

"Eheheheh...I didn't see you there!" Xuan turned and smiled jitteringly, "I was just sorting out this here passenger problem, 'cause that's what I do! Solve passengers' problems and ensure a comfortable experience! Just trifling things, really, for the customers. I know you need to concentrate on running the ship so I was just going to handle this myself..."

"Skip it, I'm really not interested in whatever scam you want to pull," Mayu came forward to address the mother more closely, "what's the problem?"

"I'm Kyo, and this is my husband Shuran," the woman pointed behind herself, and drew closer to the Captain, revealing that her hair was fraying and eyes shadowing in worry, "it's our son...Nandi. We were just walking down a corridor...on C Deck, I think...and he disappeared. I thought he was just playing games but...oh, Agni..." Kyo steadied her nerves by wiping her brow, breathing shallowly, "I looked for him, and...and I couldn't find him, so I went back to tell my husband and we asked one of the staff people and this guy..."

Xuan stepped back from the accusing finger Kyo pointed at him, and tried to cover his tracks, "the Hong Yu Guo personnel dutifully informed me about these poor parent's plight, and my men and I set about tirelessly helping them to find their wayward child!"

"What men?" Mayu interrogated the administrator.

Xuan shrugged "oh...you know...just...men..."

"We were stuck in this creep's office for two hours while he tried to get us to take free baths and swanky lunches just to keep us quiet," Kyo glared, "I knew he was doing crud all, so I thought I'd take it up a level."

"That's dedication to admire, really is..." Xuan clasped his hands together as if begging for mercy, "but still, the Hong Yu Guo Service is perfectly capable of handling any problems our customers may have..."

"That's irrelevant, sir, and you know perfectly well that's irrelevant," Mayu scolded the entrepreneur, "it is the responsibility of the ship's Commanding Officer to ensure that all passengers and crew on-board any vessel of the Fire Lord's Navy are known and accounted for at all times. If anyone is missing, this should be reported directly to the Commanding Officer so that a search party and head-count can be organised with due efficiency. The Commanding Officer, sir...not you."

"But...but..." Xuan stammered.

"Not you!" Mayu chastised, her face lightening when she faced Kyo again, "I deeply apologise for any delay. How long has your son been missing for?"

"...A...About four hours now..." Kyo blinked.

"And you're certain this isn't a prank? No chance he just got lost?" Mayu targeted her questions.

"No...I...I don't think so," Kyo's eyes shifted down in remembrance, towards her right hand, "Nandi just said something weird and...let go of my hand."

"Weird? How?" Mayu put her hand up to her chin.

"I don't remember..." Kyo bit her lip, "...I just know it was weird..."

Mayu nodded at all the details, making the quick decision in her head, "alright. There's something odd going on on-board and I'm going to get to the bottom of it. I promise we'll turn this ship upside down to find your son."

"Mayu!" Xuan whispered harshly, turning to smile at Kyo nervously, "eheheheh...I'm just going to talk over the uh...arrangements..." the administrator walked quickly over to Mayu and took her by the arm, twisting her away from Kyo's line of sight, leaning over to whisper pleadingly, "Captain, you might want to reconsider this a bit. If word got out that cute kids were going missing on my ships the damage would be irreparable."

"For the last time, sir," Mayu whispered testily, "this is not your ship."

"Yes...it...is...!" Xuan threatened out the corner of his mouth, "if not in name, then in deed, and don't you forget that, Captain."

Mayu looked Xuan in the eye and saw that he was not going to back down over this. Success was in his grasp and he was going to clutch it for all it was worth even if they all drowned in the attempt. There wasn't any negotiating with that level of mad desire. All one could do was channel it. She knew enough about Firebending to realise that. She nodded calmly, "I'll be sensitive about it..."

"That's all I ask..." Xuan relinquished Mayu's arm and allowed her to turn back to the couple. For a fleeting moment the two actually seemed to be co-operating. It was a useful illusion.

"We, the arbiters of the Fire Lord, will do everything in our power to set things right, Shuran and Kyo," Mayu declared, opening another speaking tube on the wall, "Captain to Bridge. Lieutenant, organise a search party. We're looking for a small boy." Mayu turned back to the couple, still holding open the speaking tube, "what does he look like?"

"He was always a thin child..." Kyo spoke uneasily, "he's 11 years old, and he's got brown eyes and tufty brown hair. I just want him to be okay. Please let him be okay!"


Nandi was laid down carefully, sacredly, upon the cold floor. The breaths of the others drifted through the freezing air, while the boy's lips stayed motionless, half-open, undisturbed by warmth or air. Katara had taken care to keep his messy hair out of his eyes. He looked ready to wake up any moment, but not a single movement rippled from his body. There was nothing left to do but to step back and close off the single ray of light that entered his resting place.

Wan jerked the steel door shut and twisted the key in the lock. They rubbed themselves slowly to keep warm in the chamber, a room with open space and lined with several doors like the one that they'd just shut. They had to step back and gather themselves for the next bout of necessary questions. It didn't come easy. There wasn't much anyone could say after someone had just died.

"So..." Sokka ventured, drawing everyone's attention in a rather uncomfortable way. He coughed to relieve the tension, "this is a good place to hide...him...then?"

"Th' coolant tanks keep this place freezin' as a Water Tribe closet," Wan glibbed, clearly less affected by tragedy than most people, "he'll be good fer now. I'm the only one with th' keys."

"I couldn't do anything for him..." Katara looked away from the door, cradling herself, "it wasn't like last time...I couldn't do anything..."

"You saved my life...wouldn't call that nothing," Toph shrugged as a comfort for Katara. Stroking Momo served as a good distraction for now.

"Yeah, ye can't go kickin' yerself. If not for ya, we'd be dead," Wan smiled at Katara, "and I gotta say, that was some fine Waterbending ye did back there..."

"Heh...thanks Wan, but..." Katara had looked up to smile until she realised what the Fire Nation engineer had just recognised. The air in the room somehow got colder as everyone else cottoned onto the mistake they'd made. Faces breaking out in delayed shock and unsure what to do, they all took battle stances around the engineer.

"Relax, I'm not gonna turn y'all in," Wan raised his hands to ward off any hostile moves, and the infiltrators relaxed their arms. They were just retreating back into their depressed silences when Wan began peering suspiciously at all of them, saying "least not till we gets ta th' Fire Nation."

A burst of surprise sent the team back into their battle stances. Sokka took the most offence, "not sure you noticed, bub, but we just saved your scrawny ass!"

"That's why I'm not gonna hand y'all in right now," Wan excused himself, "we need ta work together ta find out what it was that made this boy rise from th' grave an' start dancin' like a shadow puppet. An' something tells me you guys know lots more 'bout this stuff than I do."

"We do?" Toph wondered out loud.

"If we're working together, why do you want to expose us?" Katara questioned sharply.

"I'm a realist, not a traitor," Wan stared around, "I'll wait till yer off th' ship before yelling my head off. Sure, ye helped me, an' I'm grateful 'n all, but Water Tribe are still enemies of th' Fire Nation, an' that makes ya enemies of me."

"If you're gonna be that way, we're just gonna jump into a lifeboat and let you sink," Sokka threatened.

"Well, gee, funny thing 'bout boats...we all tend ta be in th' same one," Wan spoke condescendingly, "don't be stupid. Y'know 'bout the attacks! This could be part of them! An' what's th' safer choice fer...whatever 'tis ya Water Tribe people wanna do? Cross the sea in a great big ferry or some podunk dinghy out in the open? I'd wager ye'd be sunk before us."

"He's gotta point..." Toph registered how little the idea of a few days on a small dinghy appealed to her. Taking that as tacit acceptance, Wan stepped out from in-between the various battle-ready opponents and stepped out of the door, giving the group little choice except following him out of the cold room. As they stepped out into the dimly-light corridor, Wan slammed the door shut and locked it.

"I'm gonna go an' clean up th' mess you people left behind, an' try ta explain how huge chunks got ripped outta th' starboard stabiliser," Wan pocketed the keys and stalked off, "y'all knock ye heads together and try ta figure out what's causing this." Wan spun round and pointed sternly, "I'm warning you, Water Tribe! I'd smell if this thing were a Waterbender trap, so it'd better not be or y'all c'n kiss our deal goodbye!"

The group waited until Wan had skulked around the corner before daring to release their breath, wipe their brows and lick themselves in the case of Momo. Sokka drifted into a downcast, looking aside at the makeshift tomb they had inaugurated. He decided, "y'know, I keep thinking each day is the worst day ever...and then it just gets worse..."

"I think I'm pretty much sarcasmed out with all this," Toph shared the downcastness, her head nodding slightly upwards to talk, "but why did you come down here, Katara? Did something happen to Aang?"

"...huh?" Katara, lost in thought as she was, took a while before hearing Toph's question, shaking her head out to answer with a little start, "oh yes! He's awake! Aang's woken up!"

"Wait! Back up!" Sokka swivelled around suddenly, excitement reaching back into his face, "Aang's awake!? So...it's not the worst day ever?"

"There's something else," Katara said in deep seriousness, "he said that we were all in terrible danger."

Sokka's excitement faded, and his stare became dulled and jaded, "no duh? Most useful premonition in history...He couldn't have told us that before we got on the Gang Shen?"

Despite the door to the coolant room being sealed, a sudden chill came over them, and they found themselves clutching their bodies a little closer. The stabiliser shuddered again, reaching up to the corridor and dimming the lights as it passed. The shadow that had hung over the ship had turned sinister and deadly. It had already claimed its first victim, now entombed in ice, and hung ready to strike over every man, woman and child on-board the vessel of iron and gods.

To Be Continued…

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


Author's Note: Now you see the reason for the T rating. The creepiness of the whole thing means it really needed those lighter, Avatar-esque touches just to get me in the mindset to write it. But I like the creepy. Perhaps to excess. You people be the judge.

It's been nine days since my last update. It IS usually quicker, except for two things: firstly, I'm home for Easter, so less time on the comp for me, and secondly...just the thought of writing this was making me feel ill. I was stuck on the first page until that whole argument on Sokka's sex appeal popped into my head. Then it came naturally. I'm over the writer's block now, so hopefully the next bits will be faster coming.