The ship began moving ahead again just as the sun rose. With the summer winds being so light and still, apart from the change in the pitch in the engines, Captain Mayu found that she could tell how fast the ship was travelling from the force of the wind that blew in her face through the gaping hole where a window used to be. If it wasn't for the fierce winds of autumn, she was actually thinking of keeping the window this way.

She sat at the navigation table while Yin held the wheel. The makeshift arrangement where Hong Yu Guo Service personnel stood in as extra crew members meant that the aftermath was handled surprisingly well, but there was still only so many experienced officers on board, and they had gotten thin on the ground thanks to the incident. That was another thing that crossed Mayu's mind...how long it would be before this became an Incident with a capital 'I'. She was becoming aware that her mind was getting preoccupied by flash-in-the-pan thoughts like these. Probably a consequence of being awake all night and powered by what was either her twelfth or her fourteenth cup of high-energy tea.

She rubbed her eyes and marked the course ahead. They'd be at Naha in only a few hours. With the engines almost exploding from being maxed out yesterday, that wasn't too surprising. She leant back to face Lieutenant Yin, "modify course 20 degrees port, Lieutenant."

"Aye," Yin acknowledged, tugging the wheel left a few notches, sighing loudly, "I can tell you this much, ma'am, I'm looking forward to collapsing onto a large, comfortable bed on solid earth for once."

"It would be a fairly safe assumption that they'll grant us leave for the next week or two," Mayu twiddled the compass around the map some more, "but if you get the slightest chance for rest, grab it. The authorities are going to be swarming all over this mess."

"Do you think this means the Mo Ce attacks are over, ma'am?" Yin rested on the wheel.

"I think they probably are, considering we're still afloat," Mayu chalked their position and drew a line between two points with a ruler, "don't ask me how. But at least that's good news for the Fire Nation."

"It wasn't good news for Tan," Yin tugged the wheel back into its original place, "or those children for that matter. How do you think they'll handle the memorial service?"

"Same as the other ones, I suspect," Mayu speculated with her eyes on the map, "set on pyres and floated out to sea. It's what they do for everyone who dies on the ocean."

"Hmm...shame he can't go out like he wanted to," Yin reminisced.

"He told you how he wanted his funeral to be?" Mayu perked up in curiosity, "I realise he was hardly a bundle of joy, but isn't that a little excessive?"

"No, no, he had a really good idea..." Yin smiled, "he wanted a pyre...same as everyone else...but, get this, he wanted his old drill sergeant to be used for firewood."

Mayu smiled back as Yin chortled at the idea. She added, "he really didn't like that person, did he?"

"Not from the impression I got, ma'am," Yin looked ahead with a smile on his face. A heavy silence followed. No one in the Fire Nation military ever really 'got used' to the death of comrades, but every soldier and sailor had a way of coping. Yin's smile faded, and the fresh-faced officer leant over the wheel, asking earnestly, "what do we tell his family?"

"We don't tell anyone anything, Lieutenant," Mayu leant back and tapped the table, "the Fire Navy has a procedure when it comes to events of an abnormal or 'spiritual' nature. 'Report to base', 'keep quiet' and 'have a cover story ready'. That way, people believe we actually do have a handle on what threatens the Fire Nation. To this day, every official account of the Siege of the North has blamed the defeat on adverse weather conditions."

"Looking up to see a dead moon is a bit of a giveaway, isn't it?" Yin questioned.

"I don't make the policy, Lieutenant, but I swore to uphold it and so have you," Mayu stood up from her seat, "we'll be heading into port soon, and as soon as we unload the passengers we'll be questioned to the sun and back about what happened yesterday. Usefully enough we not only have a useful cover story but a ready-made scapegoat. Isn't that right, Citizen Xuan!?"

A loud thumping could be heard against the bulkhead at the back of the bridge, emanating from the tiny storage cupboard adjacent to the room. Citizen Xuan was not taking kindly to his conditions, "let me out of here! I have friends in high places! I'll have you thrown out of the Navy faster than you can blink!"

"You can tell from the way he acts, he was always a loose cannon," Mayu spoke aside to Yin, "come along, sir! I once promised to throw you overboard without a lifebelt! I'd say being locked in a cupboard on the way to your trial is a step up in your prospects!"

"I didn't do anything!" Xuan's yells were muffled through the layer of metal, "those kids were dead when I got there! They were trying to kill me! And everyone else!"

"If they were already dead, then why did they try to kill you?" Mayu questioned in as neutral a tone as she could manage given the cruel hilarity of the treatment she was inflicting.

"There was something wrong with them! They were...giggling and...being really, really creepy!" Xuan shouted in exasperation, "you can't blame everything on me! I'm innocent! The magistrate will see that! All your evidence is circumstantial!"

"I would hardly call throwing a man out of a window 'circumstantial', sir," Mayu dutifully informed, "and ridiculous fantasy stories about possessed children are not going to endear you."

"Look at me! Do I look like the kind of man who could throw a grown naval officer out of a window!?" Xuan appealed.

"Going by that anecdote, exactly how do you expect a child to be able to throw a grown naval officer out of a window?" Mayu asked.

"But...I just said...!" Xuan stammered, "you've been planning this all along, haven't you!? You've always been contemptuous of my entrepreneurial genius, and now you've concocted the perfect conspiracy to undermine me!"

"Of course, I called on the spirits of the depths to drag this entire ship under in the hope of harming some non-entity's career prospects. Please, you're not worth the effort," Mayu dismissed, "just keep digging that hole for yourself, I'm sure you'll reach the Endless Sea eventually."

Mayu walked away from the bulkhead towards the compass set into the centre of the bridge, checking the direction against the time displayed on a clock on the other side of the room. Yin piped up, "so...we blame all the Mo Ce attacks on him?"

"Of course," Mayu confirmed, "he had the motive of desiring the lion's share of transportation control over the Mo Ce sea, but his lust for destruction grew so great that he turned towards his own ships as well. He traveled on other ships under an alias and spread a reign of terror. A show trial will rubber stamp the story and he'll spend the rest of his breaking rocks..." Mayu glanced at the clock again before glancing back at Yin, "...15 degrees starboard, Lieutenant."

"Aye..." Yin twisted the wheel to the right, looking at the Captain sceptically, "...but...that couldn't possibly have happened..."

"What do you want them to say? The truth?" Mayu questioned.

"...well...I guess not, ma'am..." Yin held uneasily to the wheel, "but someone will slip the truth sooner or later. Everyone knows about 'Zhao's Folly', after all."

"Conveniently enough, the only people who witnessed the attackers directly were fellow crew members," Mayu informed Yin, "I think we can trust them to keep quiet."

"What about Gameshin?" Yin tugged the wheel back once the ship had turned 15 degrees, "he's a civilian. And more to the point he shouldn't have been there."

"Indeed, to raise your ire so much, he must have been acting suspiciously," Mayu held her hands behind her back and walked up behind Yin, "but if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be talking right now. That's reason enough for me to offer him the benefit of the doubt, so rather than 'silencing' him or whatever else you had planned just now, how about trying something different and giving him an incentive to stay silent?"

Yin didn't like where this conversation was leading, "you don't expect me to apologise, do you ma'am?"

"I won't make it an order, but I will leave it as some very strong advice," Mayu sidled over and placed a hand on the wheel, "I have the con, Lieutenant. You are relieved until 0900. You may use your time however you like."

Yin hesitated, but conceded defeat as he stepped away from the wheel and stood to attention, "yes, ma'am."

Lieutenant Yin walked out of the bridge and left Captain Mayu alone at the wheel. She looked out through the gap where the window had been, shaded from the early summer sun rising from behind the ship. It would be another clear summer day out as they docked into Naha. She smiled as she contemplated her options. She had avoided combat duty because of the pressures of the front line, but after all this, some good old ship combat and coastal bombardment might actually be a nice change of pace. Every day on the wide sea offered something new. That's why she loved it so much.


By this point, the final twists Shui was making to the valve were nothing more than limp wrist movements. As soon as she finished, she let the spanner drop from her fingers and clatter on the balcony. She was swaying and completely spent, but undeniably satisfied with a job well done. She smiled incoherently, "'s doooone..."

She swivelled around and flopped backwards against the wall next to Sokka, who was shaken awake by her collapsing over onto his shoulder. He was wrapped in a brown blanket, as many had been distributed amongst the crew thanks to the rampant hypothermia inflicted by being dunked in water so often. By now, they were being used by the engineering team to set up their own beds wherever they collapsed from working themselves too hard. The Engine Room was as close to being back to normal as they could be. Things burst and broke regularly, but most just ignored it. It was typical background noise to most of the engineers.

Sokka handed over a blanket, and Shui gratefully snuggled inside it, using Sokka as a living cushion. She breathed deeply, and found she couldn't really sleep. Sokka noticed her nascent restlessness and decided to strike up a conversation, "so you think it'll hold together until we get to port?"

"Sure," Shui spoke from li away, "'s all workin'. Nuthin' more ta do 'cept collapse an' die 'til we're called on ta do sumthin' else."

"That sounds like a nice idea," Sokka rolled his head back and forth across the wall of the Engine Room, lacking the energy to really raise it.

It lolled over to his left, where Wan had been moved to crouch in a corner, wrapped in a blanket while cradling the remains of his spanner and chanting "...I'm sorry..." endlessly. Sokka actually managed to rise his head forward to look at him.

"What d'you think they're gonna do for him?" Sokka wondered out loud. Shui peeked over Sokka to look at what he was talking about, and sighed.

"I heard they're gonna send 'im t'th' Yantai Institute," Shui told Sokka. Sokka looked back at the engineering monkey with interest.

"The Yantai Institute?" he asked aloud.

"Yeah," Shui answered, "they got th' finest minds in all medicine. If they can't find a cure, nuthin' can."

Sokka studied Wan's face. He wasn't looking at anything in particular, and just rocked back and forth continuously. The old man had pretty much lost it, very comprehensively at that. Sokka voiced his thoughts, "I never even thought he could be this...vulnerable. I didn't know him long, sure, but he was such a strong guy...a little crazy, but the good kind of crazy. Y'know? The kind you could grow to like when he wasn't shouting at you all the time."

"Yeah, well, I thought that too..." Shui reasoned, "but he never had nuthin' 'cept machines. His whole family jus' did machines. He couldn't help it. An' then sumthin' comes up an' machines don't seem so great no more. I think we could learn sumthin' from this. No clue what..."

"He went on about what humanity was, what it meant," Sokka theorised, "but y'know what? What's human? You, me...him. That's what's human. Us people. Not that thing," Sokka pointed contemptuously towards the God of Steel, humming rhythmically all by herself, "that's just a lump of metal."

"A lump'a metal that needs tender lovin' care," Shui relaxed on Sokka's shoulder. She pouted, "now Wan's gone mental, I finally got what I wanted. I c'n do anythin' now."

"What d'ya wanna do?" Sokka asked.

"See th' world inna tin box," Shui smiled, looking up with golden eyes at Sokka, "become a big famous engineer an' build things no one else c'n ever build. Now I got Wan t'do it fer, not jus' Mama 'n Papa."

"...yeah," Sokka mumbled, thinking about his own parents...his own mentors. Shui seemed to pick up on the momentary melancholy.

"Whaddabou' ya, Gam?" Shui asked with a wide smile, "whatcha wanna do?"

"Well..." Sokka evaded, "I'm just a passenger, really. I had somewhere to go before. I've still got that now."

A long pause allowed the sounds of the engine room to drift in, the steam hissing, the engineers cussing, the god's fuming, Wan's apologies to non-existent old gods, and the strange feeling that this was going to be the last time they would see each other. Shui's smile faded, wanting to stretch the moment on, "ye...ye c'n...come along with me...be part'a th' team?"

Sokka smiled and glanced back, "thanks, but...the thing I came for? The thing I have to do...I wish I could tell you about it but...it's probably one of the most important things I will ever do in my life and I can't walk away from it now. So...I'm sorry, but...I can't go with you." Shui's face fell, and she squeezed Sokka's shoulder in a last-ditch hope to make him reconsider. Sokka just looked her in the eyes and said, "and besides...I have someone else."

Shui's eyes fell. Crushed with disappointment. She slunk back and looked away from Sokka, sighing deeply, "...I see."


Yin walked up the rusty, dingy sections of the ship leading up to the Engine Room, preparing over again in his head what he should say. Apologising to people didn't come naturally to him, but he wasn't one to shirk responsibility. He paused at the door, steeled himself, and reached for the handle.

The door apparently didn't want him coming through since it burst open with little time to dodge before a red-clothed, blanketed bundle of limbs was thrown bodily onto the floor outside. A young female voice screamed at the top of her lungs, "ya cheating, two-timing, self-centred 'lil pervert!" The door thundered shut, and Yin was greatly amused to see Gameshin emerge from under the blanket wondering what had suddenly run over him. He winced as the door opened one more time and a blindly furious Shui rushed through and tore the blanket off of him, sending him spinning onto the cold metal floor. Shui shouted, "an' gimme that blanket back! Ya creep!"

The door slammed shut again, and a flustered Gameshin rose to his feet. Grumbling, he glared hatefully at the door, and then at Yin, who was looking for some kind of explanation. Gameshin clenched his fists and spat all the explanation Yin needed, "...women!"

Yin shrugged thoughtfully, "preaching to the choir, boy."

Gameshin held an infuriated finger to Yin's face, "if I have to hear one more religious allegory from anyone for the rest of this trip, I'm gonna throw 'em overboard!"

Gameshin stomped off without another word, disappearing down the corridor in a huff. Lieutenant Yin, still pleasantly surprised from this whole encounter, stood still and watched him go, calling after him as he vanished from view, "thank you for accepting my apology, Citizen Gameshin."

Funniest thing, the fresh-faced officer thought. It looks like this was worth the trip after all.


The Nagaoka port was stuffed with so much activity that the Rough Rhinos feared the roof would drift off from the collective breath of so many people stuffed into so small a space. This was an all-weather port, where a large, vaulted roof crossed the berth where two massive passenger ferries clustered next to each other. In the space in front of them were thousands of people rushing to and fro carrying luggage, passing from line to line, waiting to go in, waiting to go back out, and even around the edges were vast numbers of sellers and vendors passing over pamphlets, food, and other paraphernalia for their respective journeys, as many a young kid bounced up and down on their feet waiting impatiently for their parents to bestow them with snacky treats.

The Rough Commuters were far more used to Earth Kingdom levels of activity, with people spread out over large distances and ports used almost exclusively for tiny fishing fare. Even their cities were hardly concentrated. The soldiers were simply not accustomed to being somewhere where the broad mass of humanity was packed in so tightly together that you couldn't walk two steps without tripping over someone. Of course, this should have been something they anticipated. This was the Fire Nation home islands, after all. Some of the most densely populated land on the planet. They'd been in such places before, they just couldn't remember them being so...crowded.

Zuko didn't pay attention to such things. He had been in Ba Sing Se, and this was pretty much the same experience...just a whole country of it rather than a walled-off section. Both his golden eyes, clear and scarred, glanced fiercely around, hunting for clues in the crowd. This was the seventh port facility they'd investigated since yesterday, and everyone else was finding it tedious. Kachi dared to lean forward and suggest something to the Fire Prince, "y'know...Your Highness...maybe we can do something other than just...stare around a lot..."

"Checking the passenger logs is a waste of time. He'll be travelling under an alias," Zuko declared, "and even if he used the one I'm thinking of, there'll be a dozen 'Mushi's on every manifest. If he leaves a clue, he'll leave it elsewhere."

"That port operator in the last dock was kinda fishy-lookin' if you ask me," Ogedei grunted, cracking his knuckles, "maybe if we twisted the screws on him we might have found something."

"What is it with you and 'twisting screws', anyway?" Yeh-Lu reasoned from underneath his armour, "where didya get that from? 'cuz 'twisting screws'...well...you're not really a 'twisting screws' kinda guy. You're more of a 'beat them over the head until their brains can't remember what they're supposed to be hiding' kinda guy."

Ogedei furrowed his brow. This line of questioning never really occurred to him before, "hey! I guess you're right! So...what is a 'twisting screws' kinda guy?"

"Hmm..." Yeh-Lu considered, rubbing the chin of his visor with his glove. He looked aside, "of course! Vachir! He's all quiet and fierce, careful and methodical. He's gotta be a 'twisting screws' kinda guy!"

"Silence, fiend," Vachir dismissed haughtily.

"Don't call me a..." Yeh-Lu began, before stopping in surprise. He tugged on Kachi's arm, "hey! Hey! Vachir just called me a 'fiend'!"

"That's great!" Kachi congratulated the demolition expert, "you just moved up the pecking order, m'boy!"

"Hey, I'm gonna see what comes next after 'infidel' first, y'know," Ogedei pointed to himself, "but I still say Vachir shoulda twisted the screws on that last guy."

"He seemed a pretty okay guy," Kachi shrugged, "he laughed at my jokes. That makes him pretty good in my book."

"See...that's the problem," Ogedei commented, "he shouldn't have laughed at your jokes. Y'know why? 'cuz you have no sense of humour. That's why you always screw up being tenor on 'The Bullfrog Eater's Tale'. Because you cannot be the tenor on 'The Bullfrog Eater's Tale' and not have a sense of humour."

"Oh? And you're such a class wit, are you? The one who thinks throwing people's foodsacks into the roach-tiger's gorge is the height of comedy?" Kachi accused.

"Are you accusing me of something, Kachi?" the brawler challenged the guan-do wielder.

"Seven months and you still haven't apologised?" Kachi challenged back, "yes, I'm accusing you of something!"

"It was me," Yeh-Lu butted in abruptly. Kachi's and Ogedei's heads swivelled.

"What?" Ogedei wondered, "why?"

"They were infested with burrow-mites. If I hadn't gotten rid of them, they would've hidden in our food and latched their eggs inside our skulls," Yeh-Lu blurted hurriedly, "but you were all so angry, I didn't want to admit it, so I kept my mouth shut."

"Oh..." Kachi leaned his head back to consider, snapping it back to smile at the explosives man "...good job!"

"Thanks!" Yeh-Lu felt pleased with himself. The conversation seemed to end suddenly with nothing more to say.

At that moment, Ogedei realised something, "heyyy...y'know what? The Colonel would've shut us up long, long before the conversation got this inane."

"You're right!" Kachi realised the same thing, which greatly disconcerted him. He looked over to Zuko, who would've been the natural stand-in for the authority figure who would turn around and shout 'be quiet!' to the Rough Roamers. But instead the Fire Prince did no such thing. He just stood there looking sullen and moody, peering the crowds for some clue to find Iroh. It really didn't help with the group dynamic at all. Something else crossed his mind, "and where is the Colonel anyway? Said something about following a lead and we haven't seen him since."

"You don't think he's in trouble, do you?" Yeh-Lu fretted.

"For Agni's sake, gentleman," the familiar, gruff, authoritative voice spoke up from behind them. They turned and, indeed, Colonel Mongke stood there in all his glory, his presence forming a crowd of his own to dispel the crowd around him. He admonished, "I leave you for one evening and you start acting like a bunch of babies crying after their mamas. Hate to think what would happen if I did something dumb like retire."

The Rough Pedestrians were lacking in witty comebacks to the Colonel, so it was left to Zuko to swing around and gaze determinedly at him, asking bluntly, "your lead, Colonel?"

The Colonel shrugged, "nothing, Your Highness. Turned out to be a completely different wise old guy with a mysterious past. You?"

"We're still investigating," Zuko looked aside, frustrated, "I might need your help in questioning witnesses."

"Hey, if you needed a bad cop, we're all more than sufficient to fill in!" Kachi waved at his fellow Rough Ramblers, who apart from Vachir nodded in unison. Zuko's condescendingly fierce glance put paid to that suggestion, and Kachi retreated.

Yeh-Lu pointed a thumb up earnestly, "I can be the good cop!" Zuko ignored him and concentrated on Mongke. Zuko had the wharf behind him, with various people walking off and on the boat at a rigorous pace.

"I need someone who can keep their eyes open for anything suspicious," Zuko commanded, "changes in background, changes in tone, anything."

Mongke nodded, understanding. Just at that moment, however, his brow furrowed as he saw something...someone, rather...wander onto the ship with a large pile of luggage being pulled by helpers behind him. He was dressed in a long, dark cloak, and his eyes were hidden under a large conical hat. All that he could see was a long, thin beard and moustache clinging to the part of his face that was visible. Mongke pointed aloud, "what about that guy for starters?"

Zuko turned quickly around. The man was stepping up the plank to a door inset halfway up the hull, handing his papers to a clerk at the door. The clerk, in Fire Navy uniform, checked the papers over and offered a friendly smile as he did so. The helper behind him was an elder, slim man, with bare arms and calves, pushing forward a large cart-load with some difficulty. Zuko queried while studying the man, "what is it about that man?"

The Colonel, when asked, found himself incapable of answering that question. It was just...something. Something buried deep that felt like razor wire every time he tried to prize it out. He just..."he just...seems familiar. That's all."

Zuko studied that half-hidden face. It actually seemed familiar to him too, but ultimately it was unimportant. Whether they'd seen the man around before in passing or not, he had nothing to do with Iroh. He dismissed Mongke's claim, "no, it doesn't help us." He turned away from the ship and began to walk away, "we'll double back. Maybe Uncle was trying to mislead us."

Mongke was reluctant to walk away, but ultimately he had to shake his feeling off and wander away. It was a silly detail to linger over. While the other Rough Wanderers picked themselves up to follow, the clerk completed stamping the mysterious man's papers and handed it back with a wide grin, "here you go, sir! And I hope you have a...hey!" The mysterious man had snatched the papers out of the clerk's hand and hurried inside without a second glance. The clerk looked inside the ship, feeling offended, "why the rotten cheek!"

"Tell me 'bout it!" the handler grunted as he pulled the luggage fitfully into the ship, "no one has any manners these days! You'd think with a war on people'd be more courteous to one another..."

"It's not like it's hard to do or anything..." the clerk whined, "I mean, just a few days ago, one of the passengers gave me advice on my marriage! He didn't need to do that. But life would be so much easier for everyone if people actually thought about each other for a change. ...I mean, he even smelt nicer than people usually do. I wonder how he did that..."

The clerk hadn't finished his sentence before a small jar of herbs was thrust into his face by a very intense, heavily scarred young man, demanding, "that man! Did he smell like this!?"

Taken aback by the question, the clerk hesitated before leaning forward and sniffing the jar. He was delightfully surprised by the scent, "sweet, fruity, but still retaining a familiar, woodsy texture to the taste...yeah! That's it exactly! ...say, if you know where I can get some..."

"Where did he go!?" Zuko asked the clerk sternly. The clerk was left a little disorientated from the severity of the questioning, but he drew back his eyeballs to think.

"I...believe...the ship was heading toooo...Naha Island?" the clerk answered uncertainly. Zuko stuffed the herbs quickly back into his pocket.

"Where's the next ship to Naha?" Zuko asked. The clerk was starting to wonder if he should be answering such questions, but Zuko's certainty brooked no second-guessing.

The clerk jabbed behind himself, looking at Zuko curiously, "next one's...two wharfs down I believe..."

"Colonel! We're going to Naha!" Zuko marched away without bye or leave, expecting the Rough Peoples to follow him. Mongke and his men were momentarily left stunned by the suddenness of their new lead, and for a while just watched the Fire Prince march ahead without a second thought or hesitation.

As much as it was something to admire, the Colonel swerved around, clamped his hands together and bowed to the clerk, "thank you very kindly for your co-operation, good Citizen!"

"You're welcome! Now see? That wasn't so hard, was it?" the clerk remarked to the soldiers, who had now turned tail and ran after their commanding royal. The clerk sighed at being ignored again.

"Well," the handler opined, "at least they made an effort..."


Aang leant over the side of the Gang Shen, staring out at the passing horizon. He could feel the breeze rushing through his hair and making a prickling sensation on his scalp. He liked it. He could keep feeling it all day. It felt so good to...feel. The deck was largely deserted. Most were either too scared or two tired to venture up on deck now. The morning water was smooth and silvery, and the ship sliced through it effortlessly. Apart from the chug of the God of Steel, buried deep beneath the decks, it was remarkably quiet. He could hear Katara's footsteps approaching from the other side of the deck.

"One shiny Fire Nation Shu for your thoughts?" Katara leant on the railings next to Aang. Aang smiled at the disguised waterbender.

"I was just thinking..." Aang considered, "this is my first real trip across a the sea on a steamer and I was unconscious for most of it. I think I should get my money back. Whaddya you think?"

"I dunno," Katara shrugged with an indulgent smile of her own, "what would you have done if you weren't unconscious?"

"Oh, loads of things! This ship's just packed with possibilities!" Aang leant back to grip the railing with both hands excitedly, "just take this, for instance. A railing going alllll the way around the ship. All you need to do? Climb on it and start running. You could make a complete lap on this thing."

"Even without bending?" Katara asked sceptically.

"Especially without bending," Aang stressed, "you can't use bending on this thing! That'd be cheating! I mean...sheesh! Oh hey, speaking of that! That would've been fun to do, with Nandi and the gang. Each one jumps up, one at a time. Whoever runs around the whole ship fastest wins. I'll keep count, obviously. You can trust an Avatar to be impartial."

"Yeah...except what happens when they fall off?" Katara pointed out.

"Easy! You can just bend them back up onto the deck!" Aang grinned at Katara pleasingly.

"That'd make us pretty conspicuous, wouldn't it?" Katara slyly smiled back.

"Details, details!" Aang dismissed with a hand wave. He laughed as he gripped the railing, but soon the smile became faint, and he looked wistfully at the length of wire between his hands. He spoke softly, "yeah...that would've been the greatest..."

Katara grew concerned, and slid over to Aang, placing a hand on his shoulder. He took this as a cue to throw his arms around Katara and bury his head in her waist, sniffling with tears. Katara cradled his head and comforted him, close to tears herself but keeping herself in check. She just softly stroked the Avatar's short hair, which was developing a messy fuzziness.

"I just wanted it to stop..." Aang cried into Katara's waist, "all the pain...all the joy...all the love...all the hate...all the grief...I just wanted it to stop...and I nearly did. I nearly...stopped."

"It's okay, Aang...it's okay..." the waterbender comforted the boy. Aang sniffed up and stepped back from Katara, looking up with calmer eyes, still full of tears.

"I know it now...I know why I need to keep going..." Aang's voice croaked, but as he promised, he kept going, "this is what life is. Life is love, and hate, and joy and grief. It's what I am, and it's what I have to protect...I know that now..."

"...but it still hurts, right?" Katara asked. Aang nodded, and stepped in to be cradled by Katara. Her presence soothed him, and he smiled gently. "That means you're alive," Katara told the boy. He couldn't think of himself as dead anymore. Scar or no scar, death or no death, he was alive now, and that's all that mattered.

His eyes drifted down towards the silvery water. He could see his reflection...this strange reflection of a boy in red clothes and fuzzy hair. That silvery waterfall from before, which he could see his reflection in, that was not for him. It reflected into him. He existed to serve it. He knew that now. He smiled at himself.

Out the water came a massive splash and crash as something leapt out of the water at the edge of the vessel and back in again. Aang's eyes lit up. Joyfully, he broke free of Katara's grasp and leant excitedly over the edge. Katara found that she was hugging thin air and looked over at Aang abruptly, asking "what is it!? What did you see!?"

"Terrapin-sharks!" Aang shook the railings in ecstatic happiness. The water burst up again, and two more of the finned, shelled, sharp-toothed sea creatures leapt out of the water and back in again, hugging the hull as they beat their way forward towards the prow. Katara smiled as much at Aang's reaction as the wondrous creatures she'd never seen before. Aang laughed with the happy, "okay, okay, Katara! Before I forget, I gotta tell you. I have to ride one of those things someday!"

"Why d'you always have to ride things?" Katara gleamed at the last of the Air Nomads, who was already running forward faster than Katara could keep up, "hey! Wait up!"

"What am I gonna do!? Play cards with hogmonkeys!?" Aang called back, running full tilt to catch the terrapin-sharks as they swam forward. Laughing the whole way, Katara joined in even as she ran out of breath trying to catch up with the boy running the length of the vast ship. No one would've guessed that he was dead only three weeks ago. He looked more alive than ever.

He reached the prow and thwacked himself against it, leaning over to catch the terrapin-sharks as they clustered around the bow of the Gang Shen. There were dozens of them, leaping over each other to swim faster. Aang laughed, but made the mistake of looking up at where they were headed, and his laughter died out.

Ahead was an island, the edges craggy and fierce, stretching almost to the edges of the horizon. They were very close to the entrance of a large bay, inside which was all manner of docks and towns, streaking smoke into the sky at regular intervals. Across the entrance to the bay was a metal arc, adorned with an ornate symbol: three dragons snaking around the frighteningly familiar symbol of the Fire Nation...the bead-shaped flame. They had arrived at their destination.

"I have no idea what it is you're looking at, but I'm gonna guess it ain't good?" Toph asked. Aang jerked suddenly at hearing Toph's voice right next to him, and discovered that she was standing at the prow as well, with Momo on her shoulder and holding Sokka's hand. For some reason, she looked imperious despite having these two handicaps.

"What are you doing up here?" Aang asked impertinently. Toph smiled deliciously.

"Where else should I be? I own this ship, remember?" Toph claimed. Sokka, right next to her, made a whirring motion with his finger next to his head, which drew some mirth from Aang. Realising she was being the butt of a cruel joke, Toph grew irritated and shooed Aang back, "hey...get back. This is my ship, not yours."

Aang obliged, just as Katara finally caught up with him. Her smile disappeared too, and an uncertain and scared hand rested on the Avatar's shoulders. It was an untimely reminder of what else rested on his shoulders, and he looked ahead, as did all of them (in their own ways) at their approaching destination.

The Gang Shen passed under the metal arc, and from that moment they were, completely and undeniably, within the unbreakable clasp of the Fire Nation. The dragons and flame above, the symbol of everything that had brought unbalance to this world, this was what needed fixing. Right here, at the source, did the future lay. They all sailed into their futures, as blind as each other. All they had to cling on to was the knowledge that they were doing what they had to do.

End of Chapter 3

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Insert Chapter 4 to continue...


Author's Note: I love the people on fan fiction dot net, but I really hate fan fiction dot net itself. You know why? I had this really lengthy, heartfelt thanks to everyone who read this, and it got lost because the damn thing asked me to log in again. The technology running this joke of a website is ancient. Why hasn't it been superseded yet? And it's doing weird things to keep me from saying 'fan fiction dot net'.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that when I said I'd be taking a break...I meant a really, really long break. As in...lengthy enough to question whether it would be worthwhile to continue this thing with the real Book 3 just around the corner. If this 100,000-word story alone were turned into a published paperback on a Waterstones bookshelf, it would be more than 420 pages long. But then...near the end at any rate...I really enjoyed writing this. The story just came alive beneath my fingertips and I couldn't stop typing. So I'll be sad to be away from it...but I need to. It's sucking me away from my dissertation work and I need to concentrate on that.

That said, I just wanted to thank you all for reading, and for sticking with this thing all this time. Just being read made it all worthwhile.