Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: To be honest, I have no strong feelings either way about it.

Zigzagdoublezee: So is he in the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean, or is he a Japanese or Chinese pirate in the far east? Or somewhere else for that matter, piracy has been fairly ubiquitous in world history.

As Always, Please Review!

The Avatar felt a stab of pain in her shoulder as she was thrown against the ballista by the force of the impact, before collapsing to the floor, dazed. Her entire body hurt.

"Ow," she said to nobody in particular. And then again, for emphasis, "Ow."

It took her what felt like an eternity before she felt strong enough to sit back up again, aching all the while. It took her a moment to register what she was looking at.

The enemy flagship hadn't just been damaged by the force of the impact of several thousand tonnes of ice hitting it at high speed, it had been completely split in two. The bow and stern, richly decorated, were both sinking, forming a V shape in front of her as they took on water. She could hear the calls of Fire Nation crewmen who had been thrown into the water, calling for help around her.

"Yue!" A face suddenly appeared in her eyeline. Rinzen. He looked completely unaffected by the collision.

"Are you alright?" He asked, concerned.

"Don't mind me, how are the others?"

"Bruised and battered," Rinzen shrugged. "But mostly OK, luckily. I don't think they're going anywhere fast though."

"Good," Yue wanted to sink back to the floor again, but instead forced herself to stand up.

It was then she noticed the other ship. The speedboat they had talked to Zhao on was no longer connected to the sinking wreck, but was floating just off to the side if them. Yue could see several figures on the deck, one of whom was wearing very distinctive armour.

"Zhao," she scowled. "He got away."

"Where?" Rinzen looked around. Yue pointed at the other ship.

At that point, Zhao seemed to see her. Yue watched him raise his hand towards her, and then grab one of the other men on deck and pull him close.

Yue recognised the prison clothes, and her heart sank.

"And he's got Chief Hakoda," she said. On one hand, she was glad he wasn't in the freezing water with the enemy crewmen who had been holding him prisoner, but on the other, he was still a prisoner of Zhao.

The cloud of ash being pumped out of the funnels of the speed-boat picked up, and it began to move away.

"We have to go after him," Yue turned to Rinzen immediately. "We can't just let him get away with the Chief!"

"No, but..." Rinzen hesitated.

"What?"

"Isn't that ship still stuffed full of explosives?"

Yue looked again at the speedboat.

"Maybe they took them out."

"Maybe they didn't. They have only had one night."

"It's a risk we have to take. For the sake of Sokka and Katara. He is their father!"

Rinzen raised an eyebrow.

"So your plan is for me, a pacifist, and you, injured, to storm that ship, fight the Fire Nation guards, free their prisoner, escape, and hope that none of them are suicidal enough to blow themselves up to stop us."

When put like that, Yue had to admit that he had a point.

"Something like that. But we don't have a choice. If they get away..."

The Air Nomad walked away from her a few steps, and leaned against the railing. He didn't say anything for a few moments. Then he sighed, and turned back to her.

"This is a terrible plan and I think we'll both die," he said. "Count me in. It wouldn't be the first time the Avatar and an Air Nomad have gone together to do something stupid."

He pulled out his bison whistle and blew on it, producing a high pitched noise that Yue could barely hear.

Yue grinned, weakly.

"Then let us do something stupid today," she said.

The battle continued to rage around them. A few enemy ships seemed to have noticed that the flagship was sinking, and looked like they were beginning to turn around. The chaos of battle was still so intense though that most of the ships involved didn't seem to realise that their flagship was currently sinking in two pieces.

Yue could not tell how the battle was going, but she could see several gaps beginning to form in the Fire Nation battle line. A few water tribe ships had managed to slip through, taking advantage of their speed to dodge enemy fireblasts and get behind their enemies.

A moment later there was a crashing sound behind her, and the deck reverberated with the impact as Gembul the sky-bison slammed into it at great speed.

Yue and Rinzen rushed over to him. He grunted with happiness at the sight of the Air Nomad, and licked him.

"Happy to see you too," Rinzen laughed. "Did you have fun up there?"

Gembul grunted again.

Yue began climbing onto his back.

"Yue?" She looked around and saw Katara leaning heavily against a railing, looking at her curiously. From the way she was standing, and the pained expression on her face, it was obvious that her leg was injured. Yue saw that, and her eyes widened in shock and concern.

"Tui and La! Are you alright?"

"Not really," Katara grimaced. "Fell awkwardly. I can heal myself though. Sokka hit his head. He's unconscious."

Yue suddenly felt guilty about using the ship as a weapon. Her friends had trusted her, and the impact had hurt them. But there was no time for that now. She would have to apologise later.

"Listen!" Yue called down. "Zhao has your father!"

Katara's head snapped up at that.

"He does?"

"He managed to get him onto a fast boat before we rammed him," Yue explained. "We're going after him on Gembul!"

"Alone?" Katara asked.

"Alone," Yue confirmed.

Katara didn't say anything for a second.

"Good luck," she said. "Get my dad back. Please."

Yue nodded at the heartfelt tone of her friend's voice.

"You can rely on me," she said.

"And me!" Rinzen added, popping up next to her.

"Tell them to start fishing people out of the water!" Yue called. Katara nodded.

"I'll see what I can do."

And then Rinzen had grabbed the reins and snapped them, giving the familiar command. Gembul tensed for a moment and then pushed off, soaring into the sky as the ice-ship shrank away beneath them.