Vibrations from the boiler near the stern traveled down the metal plates continuing to Toph's left, right, underfoot, and overhead, offering an extensive view of the ship she stood inside. Several places up and down the starboard side needed to be sealed from water soon. That side had suffered the most from the Fire Navy's attack, and it seemed that at least one or two firebenders were smart enough to have tried to copy Toph's of damaging the outer metal panels enough to sink them.

Of course, Toph differed in that she had attacked the other ship with metalbending. She could sense the other metal ship through the chains connecting them, but she had never tried to metalbend what she hadn't been physically touching. It was like when she first learned earthbending: it felt as if she were trying to wade through water to pick up a stone from the bottom; the deeper or, in this case, the more disconnected it was from her, the more difficult it was to bend. She had felt the edge of one of the outer metal panels and pulled with all her strength, and though it didn't move, she sensed it fighting against the joints keeping it in place.

Then Sokka had shown up, pulling her too far away for her to attempt trying again. Initially, she had been ready to shout at him to stop interrupting her, but then he'd spoken to her and she had to pause. His movement, his profile, even his hands felt like his, but his voice—that voice she didn't know. It was intense and almost sounded like he was angry, but then he told her to get back and there was something else to his voice: concern. That time he sounded more like himself.

Turning down a hallway, Toph walked along the starboard side to the nearest leak. It was larger than most of them, and water sprayed her as she took the edges of the metal into her hands.

That's the second time that nonbender has dragged me away from a fight. First with the Dai Li, then the firebenders. Did he not know he was putting himself in more danger trying to "save" her than she was when she fought by herself? She was perfectly capable—

Oh, who am I kidding? She brought the two metal panels together and squeezed the hole shut. A few drops of water flowed through the remaining opening. She was capable of defeating any threat that came her way; her problem was she sometimes couldn't detect the threats—or, if she could, detect them in time.

She opened her mouth to curse her useless eyes, but then closed it again. It's stupid, complaining. If she could see, I'd be just like the rest of those earthbending dunderheads. That made her grin. Then another thought came, surprising her a little: And I wouldn't have been here with all of them. Aang, Katara, Sokka—even Zuko.

Moving further down the hallway nearer to the tower and the entrance to stairs up to the deck, she came to another leak. This one was smaller than the one before but needed to be fixed nonetheless.

Familiar steps sounded overhead. "Hello?" Zuko called down the stairs. "Can someone help?" There was someone leaning on him. A man with a fast heartrate.

Toph pinched the leak shut and went to help, but there were already two tribesmen offering to help them. She walked over and stood at the base of the stairs, waiting for the small group to lead the man elsewhere.

Once they had left, Zuko began to turn away. "Hey there, Smokey," Toph called, causing him to look back. "Too busy rescuing people to help down here, or are you afraid of real work?" She grinned. She knew full well why he didn't go below deck, but that didn't mean she was going to go easy on him.

He gave a short, humorless chuckle and shook his head. "I'm rolling my eyes, by the way," he said as he walked away.

Smiling, she also turned back to continue her work.

-o-0-

Sokka went to find his father as soon as Katara and Zuko left to tend to the wounded. He found him in the tower looking at his map again and talking to Bato in a low voice. When Sokka stepped into the room, both he and Bato looked up.

Bato took a step to leave and returned his attention to Dad. "You know I will always follow your orders," he said with a note of finality.

"Always?" Dad replied. Sokka could usually tell if his dad was joking or not, but this time it wasn't clear.

"Hakoda…"

Dad raised his hand. "I know." He lowered it and let out a breath. "I'm sorry. We'll talk after I have a word with Sokka."

"And I need to make some repairs."

Sokka interjected, "Oh! Toph's doing that. She's supposed to be, anyway."

Bato nodded at him then looked to Dad again. "I'll give you a report whenever you're done."

"I won't be long. We need to make a decision quickly if we're going to do it." Bato nodded once more and passed Sokka on the way out, leaving him and Dad alone.

Sokka furrowed his brow. "What decision?"

"That's what I want to talk to you about." Dad gestured for him to come closer. "We know our frigate is faster than the cruiser. If we wanted to, we could catch up to them, and, because their ranged weapons were just destroyed by the Avatar, there's a very good possibility we could take them."

"Why do we want to? Weren't we just trying to get away from them?"

Dad inclined his head. "Yes. But think, Sokka."

"If we let them go," he spoke aloud, "they'll report back that there's a traitor ship." Dad nodded for him to continue. "And the Fire Nation will probably send more ships to find us."

"And they'll know the Avatar is with us—in Fire Nation waters. That doesn't happen for no reason. I'm glad he took out those weapons, but it would have been easier had he stayed hidden. If we're trying to catch them by surprise with this invasion…Well, they're a lot of things, but they aren't stupid—at least, enough of them aren't."

"Then why aren't we after them right now?" Sokka asked.

Dad didn't say anything at first, deciding instead to tap lightly on the map he studied in front of him. "The problem is," he said, still keeping his eyes on the paper, "in order to stop them from reporting our presence, we'd have to attack them. Silence them."

"Oh." Dad looked up, and Sokka knew he was trying to judge his reaction. He thought for a second. "Couldn't we take them prisoner?"

"We could…if they allowed themselves to surrender, but this isn't a prison ship, and we've never had the opportunity to take this many prisoners before. And the longer they stay aboard, the greater chance they'll make trouble or try to escape. Taking them on would put everyone in danger and would cause us to waste more men guarding them."

Dad straightened himself and rested his hands on the butt of his machete. "But that's not the issue. The issue is we'd probably suffer more casualties, injuries, and damage to this ship if we decided to attack. Are those sacrifices worth it? We're spread thin as it is and can't afford to lose anyone else unnecessarily." He let the statement sit for a beat, then asked, "What do you think, Sokka?"

"I'm guessing you and Bato had different ideas?"

"Yes—but," he said before Sokka could do anything more than open his mouth, "I want to hear what you'd do before I give my thoughts."

"How long do I have?"

"I'm only asking for your opinion. You aren't making the decision; I am—and as soon as possible. They're probably going full speed to get away from us so if we're going to follow, we need to do it soon."

Thoughts as conflicting as the sea swirled around Sokka and, despite himself, worried him. It was a risk either way. Could they take the ship? Probably, but at what cost? And while they could, should they? I've hurt some people before, badly, because they've tried to hurt us, but kill?—Actively seek to kill them? His heart felt like it had dropped to his stomach.

But it's war, he consoled himself. People die. I'm sure Dad has killed…people. His breath caught a little. When he was younger, that thought had filled him with pride—after all, his father was the chief and a courageous warrior—but now…it was scary. He'd seen his people in the chaos, the fear mixed with hate and anger and pain. The injured. The dead.

But if we don't stop them, the success of the invasion will be at stake. It would all be for nothing and they would get captured and likely killed. Thousands would die by Ozai's hand. The deaths of a few crew in turn for saving whole nations would certainly be, if not okay, at least justified. Wouldn't it?

He smoothed back his hair. Several strands had been pulled loose from their ties during the prior battle. "I don't know. There's so much to consider: the invasion, our people—"

"What would you do, though?"

"I—I don't know."

Dad gave him a knowing and tired smile. "So you see the decision I have to make."

He nodded. Unfortunately, yes.

"I'm not going to follow them." To Sokka's surprise, Dad's tone was firm and final, betraying none of his uncertainty.

A mass of arguing thoughts tried pushing their way out of Sokka's mouth all at once so that he didn't know exactly what to say other than stuttering, "Why? I—I mean, how do you know we should do that?"

"Like you and Bato and everyone else on this ship, I don't." His attention was on the map again. "I could be sentencing us all to failure for all I know." He let out a breath. Then he looked up and smiled like he used to before he left the Southern Water Tribe, one full of warmth and love and pride. He beckoned Sokka closer and put his hand on his shoulder. "All I know is that you don't put those you love in danger, not when you can avoid it."

-o-0-

"Another one," Katara said softly, setting her hand on the old warrior's unmoving chest. "That's two, now."

Aang couldn't quite believe it. The man looked unharmed. The only evidence of violence was the small amount of dark blood oozing from the back of his head that Katara had pointed out. He didn't want to say it, but, "Are you sure?"

"Of course I am," she replied sharply under her breath.

"Sorry. He just looks so…normal, like he's just going to get up any second. What do we do?"

"Bury him, of course."

Aang looked around at the black ocean surrounding them. Was Toph going to bring up dirt from the bottom of the ocean and somehow bury the dead? He shivered in the cool, evening air. "Where? And how?"

She gave him an odd look. "Here, at sea. That's how it's always done—for us, anyway."

Footsteps sounded behind them. It was Zuko. "How is it going?" he asked.

Katara kept her eyes on the man beside her. "We should move him someplace better before…"

"I know." Zuko stepped around to her other side. He reached down and touched her shoulder. "Did you know him?"

"Yes." Katara rubbed her nose. "But I didn't know his name. We called him 'Grandfather.' He used to tell stories to kids around the dinner fires. He told them so well and with so much detail I never knew which ones were true for the longest time." She smiled at the man before her.

"He sounds like a nice guy," Aang said.

"He was, though he did get grumpy on occasion." She chuckled at a memory. "That's when he tried to scare us with tales of monsters and sea creatures sent by the Ocean Spirit to punish us. I usually hid, but Sokka always stayed."

No one said anything for a while until Zuko said softly, "Why don't you go below and help the healers. Aang and I will move him." He nodded to Aang who nodded back. Then Zuko stepped back and held out his hand to her.

She looked at it tearfully and smiled. "I'm not that upset," she said but still took it and stood.

Zuko's expression—one that Aang didn't know quite how to describe—did not falter, and he was silent as he watched Katara disappear below deck.

"Katara said they'll bury him in the ocean," informed Aang.

"I thought they might," Zuko replied, nodding. "Do you know where we need to put the body for now?"

"Uh, no. She didn't say anything about that."

"Oh." Zuko looked around. "Let's put him at the stern. That's where we normally cast off the buried at sea. Can we use Appa's tail to move him?"

They could and they did, carefully. With Appa's grunting permission, they placed the old man's body on Appa's tail, then slowly dragging it across the deck until they reached the stern, at which point they transferred it back onto the deck.

Aang found the body oddly warm, like it still had the man's spirit in it. He wasn't sure how to feel. Everyone was curious about what happened after they died but, for Aang, there was no mystery. Unless he died when he was in the Avatar State, there was rebirth in another body. He looked down at himself. Another body. Weird. Roku and the other Avatars were a part of him spiritually, but physically? He was still Aang. How did that work after he died?

"So, Zuko," he said, trying to distract himself while they walked back toward the tower, "you said you knew they'd want to bury him at sea. How?"

He shrugged. "I guessed since they're seafaring like us—"

"Us?"

"Fire Nation—they might have similar protocols when someone dies at sea."

"Oh… Any other similarities?"

"Not many, but most of my schooling had to do with defeating the Southern Water Tribe rather than learning their culture."

"Oh."

"Yeah," Zuko said, stopping by the tower entrance, "my education wasn't the broadest—"

"Smokey! Twinkle Toes!" Toph's voice rang out from the stairway leading below. The sound of her bare feet slapping against the stairs sounded until she stood in front of the two boys.

"Hey, Toph," Aang said. "How's the ship?"

"Not bad considering the beating we took."

"Do you think we'll still be okay for the invasion?" Zuko asked.

She shrugged. "I'm no mechanic, but I stopped most of the big leaks, and I don't see people running scared. That's got to count for something."

"Do you know where Katara is? She's supposed to be down there."

"She's helping out in sick bay right now."

Aang felt his jaw drop a little. "You can tell that just using your seismic sense? Can you sense everyone on the boat right now?"

She made a face. "No, you dunderhead. I passed by it a minute ago."

"Oh."

"But I think Sokka's on his way down now." She nodded toward the tower, and Sokka emerged from the doorway. She whispered to Aang, "I did use my seismic sense on that one."

As Sokka stepped into the torchlight—and maybe it was the flickering light, but—he looked off. "Are you okay?" Aang asked him.

"Yeah? Yeah. No, yeah. I mean, yeah, I'm fine." Toph crossed her arms while Aang and Zuko stared at him. "Just with my dad. In the tower. Making decisions. As we do." He looked from Aang to Zuko to Toph, then let out a breath. "Look, it's okay now. Dad just wanted my opinion on something."

"What?" all three asked.

-o-0-

Zuko and the others had to wait for Katara to be present before Sokka would explain further, so Toph retrieved Katara and they retreated to their sleeping quarters in the tower. Only then did he finally reveal Hakoda's dilemma to everyone. "What do you guys think?" he asked when he finished.

Since the beginning of Sokka's explanation, Zuko felt his frown deepen and deepen as the tale went on. Sokka talked about the near-certainty of the Fire Navy soldiers' deaths if attacked and the "uncertain" consequences of not killing them. "It's not uncertain, though," Zuko found himself saying. Everyone's attention was on him. "You know they're going to report us, report Aang. You know the Fire Lord will hear about this. The plan hinges on the element of surprise." Why was he the one having to explain this?

"But," Aang piped up, "you said it yourself: the Fire Lord will be ready for an attack anyway because he's his weakest during Day of Black Sun."

"There's a difference between preparing for a possible attack and one that you know is coming." He got up from the bed he had been sitting on so he could pace, but there was so little room between the beds and others that he simply stood in place. Only one solution came to mind: "Can we still catch up to the ship?"

"Dad's not going to do it, even if we could," Sokka replied.

"Zuko," Katara said, "we lost two men already, and more than a dozen are injured. Do you want them to fight the Fire Navy again? How many will we lose then?"

"I don't know."

"We don't want to hurt people if we can avoid it," Aang said.

"Sometimes stopping a few, or even one, now," Zuko gave him a pointed look, "will avoid more bloodshed in the future." Aang shrank back and looked away.

"And sometimes you've got to make the best of what you're given." The corner of Toph's mouth lifted into an amused smile before her expression relaxed again. "Hakoda's not turning back, Zuko."

He shut his eyes for a moment and ran his hand through his hair. Spirits curse it all.

"Do you really want to attack them?" Katara asked.

"It's not that I want to hurt them; it's just that we're risking a lot, the lives of thousands of people, because you don't want to hurt our enemies—"

"—who've just tried to kill us," Sokka finished. "I know. Dad knows. And he made the decision anyway."

"It's a stupid decision."

"It may cause us to lose but it's not stupid, and it isn't wrong."

"That's nice to say," Zuko replied with a bitter, mocking tone, "but will you be saying that when the Fire Lord destroys everything and everyone you love?"

Sokka's hurt expression was enough to stop Zuko from continuing. An angry look from Katara didn't help either. He let out a breath as he fell back on his bed. "Spirits." He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry, Sokka. I don't—I don't want that to happen." Letting his hand fall, he continued, "But we have to be realistic here: the more people know that Aang's here, the more likely the Fire Lord will figure out we're planning on attacking him, and the more likely we'll fail to stop him."

"I know," Sokka said, his voice low. "We all do."

Katara reached over and set her hand on Zuko's knee. "Whatever happens, we'll face it together." She smiled at him with those endless blue eyes. Always so hopeful.

Then she removed her hand and nudged Aang beside her. "Right?"

Zuko knew Aang's future encounter with the Fire Lord still weighed heavily on his mind, and the boy gave a half-hearted, "Yeah." Evidently, Katara didn't fail to notice his tone either, and she frowned a little in response.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'd much rather enjoy winning than losing," said Toph.

Katara chuckled. "Me too."

They didn't stay up much longer after that, save Katara fussing over everyone's injuries. Fortunately, they weren't that bad. Sokka hadn't been lying about the extent of the cut on his neck; however, there was a much larger cut across his collarbone where he said Toph ripped off his armor. It had already started to scab over, but Katara healed it completely. Both Aang and Toph had minor scratches and bruises, but nothing major enough that warranted interference; in fact, Appa's cuts took priority, and Katara had been happy to announce she could heal him too.

The most Zuko had suffered was a burn along his forearm from sometime during the battle; he didn't remember exactly. Against his protestations—it wasn't his first burn, after all—Katara healed him.

But it didn't resolve the uncertainty and concern that came with Hakoda's decision, nor how it would change the future. When he fell asleep, with the wall of portholes on one side and Aang on the another, Zuko heard his friends toss and turning in their beds.

-o-0-

The sound of creaking metal, and air and liquid moving through the overhead pipes of the ship was unnatural to Katara's ear, and she thought it was that which had woken her up. Ready to turn over and return to sleep, she paused when there was a new, unknown sound: whining. Not the whine of air being released from a valve, but a human sound.

Sitting up, she saw the thin outline of Zuko's body, his chest rising and falling. Then a jerky movement brought her attention to Aang. One of his legs gave a twitching kick and he made the same noise he'd made before.

Careful to not make a sound, Katara pushed back her covers and went to Aang's side. His face was tight in a frown, but the moonlight revealed shiny tracks where tears were flowing. She sat next to him on the edge of his bed and pet the top of his head, gently shushing him. Bending down, she whispered by his ear, "It's okay… It's okay. I'm here." Aang moved closer to her, and she thought his expression relaxed somewhat.

She remained by his side for a while longer, waiting for him to quiet down. He only whimpered and whined two more times before he turned over and his breathing became deep and slow.

When she returned to her bed, Toph whispered, "He was crying again." It wasn't a question.

"Yes," she replied. Though Katara didn't know for sure, she had an idea of what Aang was dreaming about. They all knew what was at risk if they failed, and as Invasion Day drew nearer, imagining the nightmare that would happen if they did fail became much more real.

-o-0-

"t's 'kay," a voice said to Zuko's left. His eyes opened to a slit just large enough to see. Moonlight shone on Katara, illuminating her downcast eyes and soft expression without shadow. She held Aang closer to herself, shushing and stroking his head in a slow rhythm.

Aang's eyes remained closed but he let out a soft whimper. His expression was one Zuko recognized from other nights, but never had Aang made a sound like that.

But, soon, Zuko's attention returned to Katara and he was lulled by her quiet words and the constant, soothing rhythm. Without his notice, his eyes closed and he drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

A/N: I realized while writing this chapter that the show's scene when the sea serpent takes down the Fire Navy ship is kind of a cop-out for Hakoda and the Gaang to not be viewed as the bad guys. Having the serpent (ie Nature) destroy the ship is more morally "clean" and acceptable than to have the Water Tribe decimate the Fire Navy ship.

When thinking about how the Avatar in this AU isn't believed to be dead but the existence of a rogue ship in Fire Nation waters should still be avoided, I had this dilemma, similar to Hakoda and Sokka. Yes, I could have taken the cop-out as well but I liked thinking about the different sides of the argument. If it were me, I'd have taken out the ship as fast as you could say, "yip yip", and I think Hakoda at a different time in his life (or if his children had not been onboard) would have made the same call. But, ultimately, the tone and general behavior of the characters in the show is pretty clear: good guys don't kill. I'm okay taking some liberties with this rule so there's an exception with regards to combat and/or war (see Toph in Catalyst crushing bones, potentially causing fatal internal injuries), but in this case it would be straight-up murdering these guys when they weren't in direct danger of being killed themselves.

I'll just add that the ceremony was inspired by Inuit sea burials but I added a lot of my own ideas to it. I was going to mention Air Nomad funeral traditions but ya'll aren't ready for that. It's—from an outsider's perspective—weird and slightly disturbing and didn't fit the Atla vibe at all. (Look up Tibetan Sky Burials if you're interested.)