When I opened the door to leave my chamber, I didn't expect to see Sokka.

"Hey, Zuko!" he greeted me. "You busy?"

"Not particularly," I said warily. "What do you want?"

"Well…I was thinking…"

"Never a good sign," I said seriously.

"Katara always says that too!" he informed me.

"I'm not surprised."

"Anyway, I was thinking about how, when you first came to the Water Tribe, you were able to beat me pretty easily, and without using your bending. So I was wondering: would you mind showing me a few moves?" He smiled hopefully.

I had not anticipated this request. "There are a couple issues with this thought, Sokka," I told him. "First, you may not have noticed, but I'm on crutches. I can't exactly spar with you like this. Second, you may have forgotten, but we're on opposite sides of a war. Why would I want to train the enemy for battle?"

Sokka looked at me, the hopeful smile vanished.

"But I'll still give you a few pointers," I finished, earning the smile back. While he followed me up to the main deck, he didn't ask why I was doing this for him, and I didn't tell him. The way I saw it, I owed him; he and his sister easily could have left me in the air temple. They could have said that I died in that fall, and no one would have been the wiser. I was their enemy, as I had just reminded him, and if they were not quite so kind, they would have somehow taken advantage of my circumstances. They didn't even seem to recognize how much I owed them, but I did, and combat lessons were the least I could do to begin evening the score.

"Alright, Sokka," I said once we were under the morning sky. "What do you know about fighting?"

"Well, my dad taught me a bit before he left for the war, and then I sort of just taught myself for a few years. I can use a spear, a club, and a boomerang."

"I've never actually studied any of those weapons," I admitted. "Other than my bending, I can fight with dual swords, and I can fight weaponless. This is what I'll teach you, but I have to warn you: I've been training for years and years with the best masters the Fire Nation has to offer. You won't get as good as me in the course of a day—you just won't."

"Okay," Sokka said, although the look on his face accepted the challenge with a determined 'We'll see about that!'

Due to my condition, I mostly just taught him theory and corrected his form while I ran him through some drills. From what I had experienced of his fighting tactics, he seemed inclined towards blind aggression in battle—and I knew that I was often guilty of that too—so my main objective was to teach him how to think in combat. It was more talking than he probably anticipated, but he responded to it very well. I quickly found out that Sokka was much smarter than I had originally assumed.

We had been at it for a couple hours when land came into view in the distance.

"Do you know where we are?" he asked me when he saw it.

We were still fairly close to the South Pole; I was surprised that he wasn't more familiar with the area. Perhaps, as a member of the world elite, I held unrealistic expectations of the educational prowess of the common people. My education had made me able to name pretty much every significant place in the world—and all the important things about those places, all the important people who have lived there, and all the important things that have happened there.

"I think that's Kyoshi Island, but the captain could tell you for sure," I told him.

I didn't think that airbenders or Avatars had any especially acute hearing ability, but I had to consider the possibility when Aang came racing towards us at airbender speed and exclaimed, "Kyoshi Island!"

"What's so special about Kyoshi Island?" Katara, who had followed him at a slower speed, asked.

"It was created by and named after Avatar Kyoshi," I offered. "Her cult still inhabits it, and as of right now they're neutral in the war."

"Well, yeah," said Aang dismissively. "But look—elephant koi! I'm gonna ride one!" And with that, he started taking his clothes off.

"Um, Aang?" I said as more and more skin was bared (those tattoos looked like they went everywhere). I was a little shocked by this behavior—as a prince, I simply didn't have many people stripping in front of me. "How about you keep your pants on?"

Ignoring my suggestion, he said, "With what I'm about to do, I won't need any pants." Then he jumped overboard, and we all heard a splash, followed by a loud cry: "COOOOLLLLLDDDD!" I saw Sokka and Katara exchange a look, and Sokka made the universal gesture for 'he's crazy'.

Down this far south, of course the ocean was cold. It was terrible for swimming in, at least for people. Judging by the large school of giant koi fish that the Avatar swam towards, the cold was not a turn off to all creatures. Aang soon got hold of one, and he rode on its back, hanging on to its fin with one hand and waving at us with the other.

Looking past the Avatar, I saw the shore of the island in the distance. I might have been mistaken, but I thought I saw a person moving on the shore.

"Do you see that?" Katara asked worriedly, and I was surprised for a moment that she had seen what I saw. Then I realized that she was speaking of something entirely different. A large, dark shadow was moving under the surface of the water, stalking the school of koi.

"What is that thing?" I asked as a koi fish near the back of the school was overtaken by the shadow and vanished.

"I don't know, but he needs to get out of there," Sokka replied, and then shouted, "AANG!"

Our failure to attract the Avatar's attention was not for want of effort. He was oblivious to the danger and to our antics, and I was beginning to consider my odds of actually convincing the Father Lord that I had the Avatar, but I lost him when he was eaten by a giant oceanic shadow-monster. The odds didn't seem to be in my favor.

Another fish had disappeared, and the shadow was now pursuing Aang's koi. I gasped and Katara screamed as the fish was pulled under the water and Aang went flying off its back. He landed several meters away. While relieved when I saw Aang's head come back up, I was horrified as I watched a black serrated fin rising out of the water behind him. It was immense, nearly the size of my ship, and it made Aang look about the size of an insect.

Finally wary of the monster, Aang leapt out of the water and began running across its surface back towards us, followed closely by the fin. While a part of me took a moment to be impressed that the airbender could run on water, the more pragmatic part of my mind was deeply concerned for the safety of my ship, which currently had a giant see monster approaching at high speed on the port side.

Uncle had taught me that keeping a level head was a sign of a great leader, so I forced the edge of panic out of my voice as I called out orders to my crew. All hands reported to deck and the catapults were readied and loaded in record time. Aang was seconds from reaching the ship when the creature fully immerged from the ocean beneath him, causing the water to rise suddenly and slam Aang into the metal hull of the ship, the wave that carried him washing over the deck.

Katara, Sokka, and I rushed to look down into the water around the ship where Aang had disappeared. He was not resurfacing. Fortunately, I could be certain that he had not been eaten, as the monstrous sea serpent in question was currently sizing up my ship, probably seeking an easier snack than the elusive airbender.

I had to make a snap decision. I could yell "Fire!" or I could yell "Man overboard!" Was my crew the priority, or was the Avatar?

"Fire!" I yelled. Then I turned to Sokka and ordered, "There's a coil of rope near the stern; go get it, and we'll—wait! Katara!"

The girl had jumped overboard.

"Is she out of her mind? What's she doing?"

She had disappeared beneath the surface of the water, and I stared for a moment at the spot where she had gone under. I was about to repeat my order to Sokka when she reappeared, shooting up out of the water with the Avatar in her arms. They overshot the ship's rail and landed hard on top of Sokka, who emitted an indignant noise.

Katara knelt by an unconscious Aang and, with a fluid motion of her hand, drew water out of his mouth. He coughed and opened his eyes.

With everyone alive and out of the water, I had a more immediate concern to deal with. There was still a giant black monster in close proximity to my ship. Surveying the situation, I was pleased to find that the serpent appeared to be losing. It dodged most of the fireballs my crew sent its way, but it had suffered a few damaging hits. I watched as a well-placed attack caught the side of its head, and it apparently decided that no snack was worth this much trouble. It retreated back into the ocean.

There was a moment of post-struggle silence, and then the men erupted into cheers. I went to find the captain to hear damage reports and supply expenditures, and I tracked down Uncle to have him oversee the ship's return to order. After these requirements of station were fulfilled, I went to find my trio of guests/unwitting captives.

They had made their way back to the room shared by Aang and Sokka. Katara and Aang were still dripping seawater, and Aang had a nasty gash on his forehead, probably from colliding with my ship.

"Are you alright?" I asked him, more out of convention than inquiry, as I was going to have him sent to the infirmary regardless of his answer.

Aang nodded mutely.

"You got knocked out, almost drowned, and you're still bleeding—why don't you let the physician take a look at you?"

Aang nodded again, and Sokka accompanied him out of the room. He swayed dizzily as he moved.

Katara was wringing water out of her hair and watching me with nervousness that I couldn't justify. When she didn't say anything, I offered, "So…you're a waterbender."

"No, I'm not," she protested immediately. I could have discerned the lie even if I hadn't already seen evidence to refute it.

"Yes, you are," I said with certainty. "I saw you."

"That was Aang; he's a waterbender. I'm not, I assure you." Her voice rose slightly as she repeated her claim.

"Aang was unconscious. You were bending."

"I—" she started to deny, but stopped when she realized it wasn't working. She looked at the floor between her feet and asked quietly, "What are you going to do to me?"

I knew that the Fire Nation suppressed enemy benders as best as they could. I had learned that the forces of the Southern Water Tribe were insignificant because they had no remaining waterbenders. Katara had no doubt experienced this acutely as she tried to learn how to bend without anyone to teach her, and she certainly had an appropriate amount of fear that her bending would make her a target of the Fire Nation.

"I don't know yet," the Azula in me taunted her. "What should I do?"

I expected her to cringe in fear, but instead her eyes hardened and she glared at me. She didn't answer me. I had less power over her than I thought.

"I have no quarrel with you," I said at last. "It goes against policy, and I could get in trouble if someone finds out about this, but I'll help you out. I won't tell anyone, and I'll find out what the crew knows. If anyone did notice—which I doubt—well, silence isn't cheap, but it can be bought."

She watched my face, trying to see if I was earnest. Her eyes only lingered a moment too long on my scar. "Thank you," came her subdued response.

I thought the exchange went well. I had gained knowledge, gained leverage, and even done a favor that worked towards paying off my debt. Two Azula objectives and one of my own—not bad for one day.

The black ship was drawing nearer and nearer. No one on it took any notice of the little boat bobbing in the water.

When its occupant had no more need of it, it was filled with water and disappeared into the ocean.

The Fire Nation did not know they had a security breach.