Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: Katara has a weapon, her waterskin. I don't really see what else she would need.

Zigzagdoublezee: Zhao is persistent, and he also bears a grudge for Yue destroying his fleet.

As Always, Please Review!

Yue shook her head.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," she declared.

Zhao scowled and took a step forward.

"Who said you had a choice!" He said aggressively. But the other man held out a hand to stop him.

"Wait," he commanded. Then he turned to the group.

"You must know how hopeless your position is?" He said. "There are four of you, and millions of us. I would hate to see such valiant teenagers as yourself die pursuing a hopeless cause."

"Who are you?" Yue pointed at him.

"Of course, how rude of me," the older man said. He bowed formally.

"I have the honour to be Jeong Jeong, Admiral of the Fire Nation fleet."

"What's an Admiral doing by himself in the middle of nowhere?" Katara asked.

"I'm not by myself!" Jeong Jeong said serenely. "Have you seen my fleet?"

He gestured to the passing ships.

"You were seen by our scouts," he said. "And recognised. We came alone because I wished to keep my ships and men out of the reach of your Avatar State. Now, please come quietly."

Zhao glared angrily at them at the mention of the Avatar State. Underestimating it had already cost him one flotilla of riverboats after all.

Yue glanced down at the water, and subtly shifted her stance so her feet were further apart. Sokka noticed, and glanced at her, worried.

She wasn't a natural fighter, but she thought she had come on a long way since they had left the North Pole. Also, having just spent days in Fire Nation captivity, she did not want to just go back. Yue made her choice. She shook her head.

"I've already come quietly once," she said. "Never again."

Jeong Jeong simply frowned.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said. "I was hoping to avoid bloodshed."

"You can just leave," Yue pointed out. "This pool, this whole country. The war ends tomorrow and nobody else gets hurt."

"I'm afraid that's not possible," Jeong Jeong replied smoothly, holding up a hand to silence Zhao, who looked furious."

"So you don't want to avoid bloodshed at all," Yue nodded. "Your words are empty. Got it."

She swept an arm around quickly, and a stream of water leapt out of the pool and took Zhao in the chest, knocking the Commodore over. A moment later Jeong Jeong was raising his arms and a wall of flame rose out of the ground between them, racing towards them and bending to encircle them. Yue saw the flames and remembered something Katara had done a few minutes previously.

She took a step forward and pointed with both arms towards the wall, holding them outstretched in front of her in a wedge shape. Then as the flames washed over her, she parted them slightly, scrunching her eyes tightly shut.

She felt a wave of heat pass over her, and then opened her eyes. She was not on fire, which was gratifying, and everyone was staring at her with wide eyes.

"I firebent!" She said jubilantly, Katara's move having translated well from water to fire, but her happiness was short-lived as she saw Jeong Jeong winding up for another go.

Sokka grabbed her hand.

"Run!" He shouted, and they took off towards the forest, dodging a fireball as Zhao struggled to his feet. The fireball sailed past them and hit a tree, causing it to burst into flames.

Then they were in amongst the trees, jumping over logs and swerving through branches with the two Fire Nation naval officers in hot pursuit.

"Where's Rinzen?" Katara yelled.

"Don't know!" Yue replied. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, she felt a rapidly intensifying heat, and she went left in time to avoid a fire dart which ignited yet another tree.

The sensation caused her to stumble, but she kept her footing and continued running, beginning to weave from left to right to make herself a harder target. But that did her no good when the entire horizon was suddenly enveloped in flames; Team Avatar skidded to a halt as another wall of fire rose in front of them. Yue spun around to find Jeong Jeong in a horse-stance, spinning his arms around to bring the fire wall in a wide arc, turning it into a fire ring which fully encircled the five of them. Around it, surrounding trees began bursting into flames, and the ring began filling up with noxious smoke.

Yue would have cursed if it weren't for her upbringing. She had run away from their water source! All they had to defend themselves with now was their water-skins, two each strapped to Katara and Yue's belts.

Zhao smirked.

"Would you like to reconsider?" He asked.

The flaming circle shrank noticeably, enveloping more trees and engulfing them in fire.

"Get lost," she said.

"Alright," Zhao shrugged. "The orders were 'Dead or Alive' anyway, and if not alive..."

Yue prepared to fight, but a yellow and orange blur sped in from above and landed behind Zhao. Rinzen poked the Firebender in the back of the head.

"What's up, losers?" He asked.

Zhao growled and spun around, but Rinzen vaulted clean over his head and flicked his ear.

"What's the matter?" He taunted. "Too slow?"

He circled around Zhao, who was by now red in the face with fury. With a wild yell he swung his arm around , generating an arc of flame which Rinzen ducked under, and which carried on straight towards Jeong Jeong.

While Rinzen was busy flicking Zhao's nose and propelling himself away before the Commodore could do anything about it, Jeong Jeong had to break his concentration and bend Zhao's fire away from himself so he wouldn't get hit. This caused his wall to dissolve, opening the way for Yue and the others to carry on running.

"Go!" Rinzen shouted. But just after he said it he was hit by a fireball and went spiralling into a tree, slamming into it and falling to the ground, limp.

"Rinzen!" Katara yelled, turning and racing towards him. Yue was forced to follow, dodging burning branches which fell from the canopy above her. She launched a water-whip towards Zhao, and he ducked under it, retaliating with a fireball that she had to jump behind a tree to avoid. The smoke was by now intense, and she was fighting not to choke with every breath.

Zhao advanced towards her. Yue readied herself, jumped out from behind the tree and prepared to fire an ice dart at him but before she could she felt something slam into her from the side. Jeong Jeong picked her up, knocked her arm aside and slammed her into a tree, making her dizzy.

"Sorry about that," he said. "But this fight is over. You are coming with us."

Yue's vision swam.

"No!" She gasped.

"Yes!" Jeong Jeong replied. But before he could say anything else the forest reverberated with an inhuman scream, and something huge, brown and with glowing eyes crashed through the undergrowth and came charging towards them.