Chapter 24 - The Southern Raiders

"They're still sailing towards the South Pole instead of away from it. We're not too late," observed Zuko through his spyglass.

"We are cutting it close though," cursed Sokka as he pointed a little bit forward of the cruising vessels. "Wolf's Cove isn't too far from that glacier up ahead. If they keep traveling in the direction that they are currently heading in, then they'll come across the village for sure."

"Then, we don't have any time to waste," noted Katara, her voice hardened. "Get us closer Zuko. We'll stop that fleet in the open water."

Zuko checked on the thunderbird as he leaned forward. "Edel's looking really tired. I don't think she's in a great condition to fight right now after pushing herself to get us here all day."

Katara shook her head. "Edel doesn't have to do much. If she can hold the attention of a few of those smaller ships, then we can handle the rest." The waterbender was exuding confidence with every word.

"That's an awful lot of firebenders," pointed out Jin as the Fire Nation ships came more into view.

"Good, then it's a target rich environment," joked Sokka.

"We have to be smart about this," argued Zuko. "If we get overwhelmed or defeated, then your village gets destroyed. Maybe we should just stick to the original plan; circle around the ships, get to your village, and evacuate everyone."

"No. That will take too long. Sokka's right. They'll be on the village before we can get everyone out. We need to stop them in open water like I said. And the way I'm feeling right now, no firebender is going to be a match for me," asserted Katara. The brilliant pale glow of the full moon illuminated the dark nightscape overhead, high in the starry sky.

Repeating her own words back to her, Zuko shook his head, "But you don't have to go it alone. We're all going to fight."

"That's a nice sentiment and all," replied Sokka. "But does anyone have an actual plan? Or are you two just going to go flying in, throwing water and fire around?"

"That's exactly what we're going to do," approved Katara. "Zuko fly closer to the sea. When we reach the battleship, you all are going to storm the deck while Edel distracts the smaller ships. Jin, prevent their reinforcements from swarming up from below. Zuko, destroy their catapults. Sokka, you do what you do best and bash some heads."

"I do like bashing Fire Nation heads," affirmed Sokka. "But wait, what are you going to do?"

"This," answered Katara as she unfastened the strap keeping her in her seat and jumped from the thunderbird into the water.

"Katara!" shouted Sokka in fright. He turned to Zuko and Jin. "She can't swim!"

"Actually, she can," returned Zuko as he watched the seas below. Then, he grinned. "But I don't think that's all she has in mind."

"I didn't know she could do that," gasped Jin in awe of her friend as Katara made a large splash before resurfacing, standing upon a growing wave that surged forward, picking up strength as it raced across the sea.


Lieutenant Jee lowered his spyglass as he continued to observe the frozen tundra from across the deck edge of the Fire Nation battleship. He hated the cold. He hated the ice. He hated the snow. "Nothing good ever happens at the Poles," Jee muttered with resignation.

The last time Jee was in the South Pole, he had witnessed the return of the Avatar to the world. At the time, he feared that the return of the airbender would herald the downfall of the Fire Nation. And it did in a way.

The return of the Avatar rejuvenated the aimless pursuit of young Fire Prince Zuko and whipped the boy up into a dogged frenzy as the Fire Prince hunted the Avatar relentlessly. And that disastrous quest ended poorly for everyone.

The Fire Prince died at the hands of pirates at the edge of the Earth Kingdom when those honor-less pirates blew up the Prince's ship with the Fire Prince still on board. General Iroh was blamed for the failure of the Northern Siege despite Admiral Zhao leading everyone into a death trap. Most of Jee's old crewmates died when the Avatar summoned a monstrous fish-like water spirit that decimated the bulk of the Northern Fire Nation fleet. Those that had survived were reassigned alongside Lieutenant Jee to the Southern Raiders.

Just before Prince Zuko's untimely end, Jee had only barely learned from General Iroh why the boy was so determined in his mission to pursue the Avatar. And what he had heard, had led Jee to sympathize with the boy.

How could the Fire Lord do something that terrible to his own Son? Jee had always thought Zuko's facial scar was the result of a terrible training accident. That had been the official story told to the masses. But to think that Fire Lord Ozai was capable of such abuse. Jee shuddered at the thought.

He did have the fortune of serving under General Iroh for a time. The Dragon of the West was a legend and Jee was beyond proud to have been one of his men. It was truly a shame that General Iroh had been lost during the siege of the North alongside with Admiral Zhao. The passing of the legend was an impact felt by all of the Fire Nation. Jee hardly could believe it when he heard the news from the official military announcement. General Iroh had always seemed larger than life, like the old, jovial man would have found a way to have a conversation and a cup of tea with the Spirit of Death rather than succumb to the Final Harbinger.

Lieutenant Jee had been there, up in the North, during the doomed campaign. After Prince Zuko's death, Jee's entire crew had been reassigned under Admiral Zhao. The North Pole was the other reason why Jee hated the ice and snow.

Jee had been serving on a ship positioned near the rear of the armada but he could see everything that had happened from his post above deck. He saw the enormous size of the ocean spirit when the Avatar combined with it to lay waste to the Fire Nation Navy attacking the North Pole.

With a flick of the creature's mighty arm, waves tall enough to sink entire battleships rippled through the amassed fleet. That had been the devastating power that his Fire Prince had fought up to his last breath to capture and contain. To protect the Fire Nation from. Jee never imagined such destruction could be achieved by such a tiny airbender who didn't even appear to be in his teen years yet.

"Nothing good ever happens at the Poles," Jee repeated as he tucked his spyglass into his armor. Now he and the surviving members of his command had been reassigned yet again. This time to the Southern Raiders of all places.

Or perhaps not so unsurprisingly. Once, the Southern Raiders had been the highly sought after assignment of the Fire Navy. The unit once had the favor and direct support of Fire Lord Azulon himself. Only the best of the best were recruited. All resources and supplies requested were immediately approved for use. Honor and glory were assured for all those privileged enough to be selected.

But, those days were long past for the Southern Raiders now. The fighting in the South Pole concluded long ago when the Fire Nation had finally broken and scattered all of the great Southern Water Tribes. All waterbenders had either been killed or captured during the sequential hunts that followed. Great victory after great victory had been achieved. Or so the Southern Raiders had thought.

Despite all the hard fought achievements, Fire Lord Azulon grew increasingly displeased with the Southern Raiders and support was cut off. Not long after the South Pole campaign concluded, the Southern Raiders found themselves receiving no assignments of merit. News spread across the Fire Nation that the Southern Raiders had ultimately failed in their primary objective to find and capture the new Avatar and public favor plummeted to rock bottom for the Raiders.

With their ranks severely depleted from years of fighting a war of attrition with the Southern Water Tribes, the Southern Raiders never truly regained their former strength or their former glory. Their recruits became only the dregs of the Fire Navy. Those that had been dishonored, were being punished, or were simply more trouble than they were worth were reassigned to the Southern Raiders.

The lack of respectable leadership, coupled with a contingent of new sailors that knew the Southern Raiders were a punishment and a dead end to any career, made it so that the Southern Raiders weren't even a shadow of what they once were.

Most of the current men and women serving in the Southern Raiders were brutes, shadows of the previously respectable soldiers they had once been. Jee recognized more than a few of the sailors from the early days of his enlistment. Some of these sailors had once been promising recruits, but since their sentencing to Southern Raider due to mistakes or failures elsewhere, these sailors didn't see the point in trying anymore. Mainly because, once someone had been sent to the Southern Raiders, that person rarely had the chance to return to respectable Fire Navy service.

Lieutenant Jee knew his and his crew's reassignment here to the Raiders was a punishment. The result of being part of two failed campaigns back-to-back. After all, no proper sailor volunteered to be part of the Southern Raiders anymore.

To be honest, Jee was having trouble seeing the purpose of the Southern Raiders anymore other than being a place to banish the undesirables of the Fire Army and Fire Navy. The only assignments the Southern Raiders received nowadays were to torment small Earth Kingdom fishing villages along the coastline.

And none of the higher level leadership in the Fire Navy really seemed to care how the Southern Raiders performed those tasks or even if the jobs were done in the first place. When Lieutenant Jee had traveled to command with his Captain last week to present their latest reports, those very same reports were lazily scanned by the Admiral before being ignored without so much as a second look. Not much honor or achievements in raiding and pillaging helpless fishing villages after all. Hard to take pride in that kind of work.

But that only made this current mission all the stranger as Jee thought about it. As Lieutenant Jee and his Captain were departing command, the Admiral had actually called them back into the office and informed them that an urgent order from the Fire Princess needed to be carried out posthaste. The Southern Raiders were being giving the privilege of doing what they did best and raiding the South Pole once again.

Captain Ro Kai of the Southern Raiders had been ecstatic by the new order, not even bothering to ask any questions and immediately accepting the assignment on the spot. Lieutenant Jee didn't even need to ask his commander why the man was so eager, Jee knew. This was an unheard of chance for the Southern Raiders. Or probably more accurately, it was an unheard of chance for the leadership of the Southern Raiders to distinguish themselves and get themselves transferred back to the regular Fire Navy forces.

Which is why Jee was unsurprised when none of the other officers of the Southern Raiders questioned the new assignment either. Jee could see the selfish ambition and self-serving scheming in their eyes. Everyone was out for themselves. Everyone wanted to escape the dead end that was the Southern Raiders.

Captain Ro Kai's instructions were simple: prepare the crews to do battle with scores of Water Tribe warriors and waterbenders. According to the orders they received from command, the Southern Water Tribes had been rebuilding in secret and an attack on the Fire Nation was imminent if the Southern Raiders didn't stop the Southern Water Tribes first.

Jee knew that was a boldface lie. He had seen the orders briefly before Captain Ro Kai snatched them back up. Officially, they were just supposed to raze one specific small village to the ground. Not that the official orders from the Fire Princess were much better, but Jee knew that Captain Ro Kai was stirring up the sailors to whip them into a frenzy to strike out at every Water Tribe village they could find under the guise of hunting a fighting force that didn't exist. All so that their Captain could inflate their follow-on report and make himself look more competent.

"Why the surly face Jee?" asked a young female Lieutenant who appeared to be in her early twenties as she approached the older man. "After this campaign, you might finally learn what success feels like again," taunted the young female Lieutenant.

Jee remained silent as he turned to leave without responding to the provocation. Lieutenant Zuri had been tormenting him ever since his reassignment to the Southern Raiders. Probably because she saw him as an easy mark. Or perhaps because he rarely bothered to raise his voice in anger like so many other officers.

Lieutenant Zuri had been at the top of her class back at the Fire Officer Academy in the Capital not that long ago. Fierce, ambitious, and proud. During the practical training exercises, Zuri was always the one left standing over her defeated classmates. Smart too. Although not the egghead of her grade, Zuri's academic marks were easily in the top third of the graduating class.

She was the youngest Daughter of a long-standing great house in the Fire Nation. Her elder Brother was the Captain of a ship in the Eastern Fleet while her elder Sister led a strike force in the Earth Kingdom. As the youngest, Zuri always had something to prove.

The young firebender thought she was on course for a great assignment upon graduation herself. However, shortly before assignments were given, the officer in-charge made an inappropriate advance towards Zuri, claiming that if she became his wife, then she could have her choice of assignments. Zuri had not taken too kindly to the offer and the man was later found beaten into a pathetic state. And Zuri received her first and last assignment to the Southern Raiders the very next day.

Her family disowned her the day after that, not even bothering to listen to her side of the story. Only the fact that she had been given the unfavorable assignment of the Southern Raiders mattered to her overly proud family.

Ever since then, Zuri had been striving to prove herself even more, following every order to the letter, raiding each small village with patriotic zeal, in a desperate attempt to demonstrate that she was capable of so much more. Unlike so many of the other members of the Southern Raiders, Jee knew that Zuri didn't belong here. She had been discarded by the Fire Nation military forces before she even had been given a chance. She just didn't see it. Or perhaps, she refused to see it, grasping at the fleeting belief that if she just worked harder, then she could still turn things around. The problem was, working harder in the Southern Raiders meant dirtying your hands even more.

Jee still refused to respond back to Zuri's goading as he started to walk to a different part of the ship. He still had watch duty to perform this evening after all.

"Too scared to even give me an answer? I guess that's why they call you the Eternal Lieutenant," prodded Lieutenant Zuri with a smirk on her face.

An apt nickname in all honesty. Jee had nearly lost track of how long he had been a Lieutenant now. In fact, he might honestly be the oldest Lieutenant in the entire Fire Navy. Despite his long years of loyal, stalwart service, Jee had watched as he was passed over for promotion after promotion in favor of someone else. Actually, nearly everyone that had served alongside Jee managed to get promoted instead of the Eternal Lieutenant.

'Maybe that's why Zuri always hangs around me,' idly thought Jee to himself. 'She probably heard from one of the other officers that if she sticks around me long enough, then she'll likely be promoted over me like all the others.'

Not that Jee cared about that really. In fact, given what he knew of Zuri's unfortunate circumstances, her being promoted over him might be the first time Jee actually hoped that someone was promoted over him. Zuri had more of a future than he did in the Fire Navy after all. The female Lieutenant vaguely reminded Jee of the deceased Fire Prince and the ill-fated situations they had both found themselves in.

Halting his step briefly, Jee looked over his shoulder as he finally answered the other Lieutenant. "Zuri, you know as well as I do that this campaign into the South Pole isn't what it seems to be. Captain Ro Kai's fabricating the fact that there are Southern Water Tribe warriors and waterbenders there for us to fight. There hasn't been an army in the South Pole in years." With that, Jee sighed as he continued walking away. Zuri quickened her pace to catch us with him.

"We don't know that for sure. It's been a while since we've done any scouting in the South Pole. For all we know, there could be a large enemy force there. And if there is, then I can finally prove myself this time!" clamored Zuri.

"If there is a large force of Water Tribesmen down there, then we might be in over our own heads," countered Jee. "Captain Ro Kai hasn't organized proper training for our sailors in months. We're too disorganized to fight a well disciplined force."

Zuri snorted at Jee's reluctance at the potential upcoming fight. "So what if the rest of the Raiders aren't up to standards? That's good news for me. It will make me look even better as I demolish scores of unruly water savages all by myself."

"Careful," warned the Eternal Lieutenant. "That kind of headstrong thinking is liable to get yourself and those under your command cut off from support, surrounded, and killed."

"Like I need advice from some washed up officer who's been kicked from assignment to assignment," scoffed Zuri.

"Yeah, but I lived each time," asserted Jee.

Zuri rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'm going to use this fight to finally show that the Fire Navy made a huge mistake exiling me to the Southern Raiders. Especially since Princess Azula herself ordered us to the South Pole for this task. With Fire Royalty having investment in our mission, we can really distinguish ourselves and get out of this worthless post."

"Well, good luck with that," replied Jee disinterestedly as he yawned. "I just want a warm meal and a soft cot. Which is exactly what I am going to do once my shift is over." The Eternal Lieutenant stretched before he continued, "You might as well turn in for the evening right now. It's gotten too late tonight to do anything. We'll probably start searching for villages first thing tomorrow morning."

Zuri smiled like she knew something Jee didn't know. Which apparently she did. "Oh? Did Captain Ro Kai not tell you? You must really not be in his good graces. We're going to start the hunt tonight."

Jee spun around. "What? That's a ludicrous order! Especially if there are warriors and waterbenders here like Captain Ro Kai wants the crew to believe. Any veteran Fire Nation sailor worth their salt knows that the Water Tribe is at their full strength during the night. Is the Captain trying to get us all killed?"

"Not all of us are cowards like you Jee," growled Zuri. "A surprise attack at night will catch our enemies off guard if they are expecting us to attack during the day. If you're so scared, then go hide below decks under your cot."

Jee shook his head. Lieutenant Zuri was a devout Fire Nation nationalist. Young and determined to achieve merits to bring glory to the Fire Lord and honor to her house, even if both of those forces had already discarded her. Something that Jee had seen far too often as of late in the younger generations. Something that had cost his Fire Prince his life.

Turning, the Eternal Lieutenant was about to try to explain again to his fellow officer why that way of thinking was going to endanger herself and those under her command, when Zuri pointed into the sky.

"There, in the light of the full moon. Is that a moving shadow?" asked Zuri.

Jee looked up at the moon as he noticed a shadow getting closer in the night sky. He pulled back out his spyglass and focused his sight through the lens. "It looks like..." Jee adjusted the magnification as the shadow came into focus. "It looks like some kind of giant bird. And..." He paused in disbelief as he lowered the spyglass and turned to Zuri. "I think there are people on its back."

Grabbing the spyglass out of her fellow officer's hands, Zuri checked as well. "They're descending towards our fleet!" Throwing the spyglass back at Jee, she shouted to the crews on deck. "Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Load the catapults and ballista! Targets inbound from the sky! Port side!"

"Zuri, we don't know that they are enemies," protested Jee.

"They aren't Fire Nation. We don't ride giant birds. So that's good enough for me," countered Zuri tensely as she wheeled up on her fellow officer. "I suggest that you get to your battle station and command the men to fire; otherwise, I'll make sure that Captain Ro Kai hears about how reluctant you were to engage the enemy."

With a glare, Jee turned away from the young female Lieutenant and started to move to his post on the battleship. He checked back on the inbound bird and its riders just in time to observe one of the shadows jump from the bird as the feathered animal drew near the Southern Raider fleet at a rapid speed while descending closer down towards the water's surface. "What?" the Eternal Lieutenant muttered in surprise, stunned at the sight of someone willingly submerging themselves into the arctic waters. Waters that Jee was absolutely positive had to be freezing at this time of night.

Several whirlpools started to form across the sea's surface surrounding the fleet. Slowly at first, but they picked up speed quickly. "Helm to port!" commanded Jee loudly as the call was relayed up towards the helmsman. Just in time too, as their flagship was able to prevent itself from being caught in the nearest whirlpool that appeared to be sustaining itself now as the sea grew choppy and hazardous.

The frigate Ryujo wasn't nearly as fortunate. Jee cursed as he observed the frigate slip into the outer flow of the whirlpools, revolving uncontrollably before it clipped a glacier. Metal screeched across the ice as alarms blared loudly on the other ship. The Ruyjo had started to take on water as the crew struggled to save the ship.

"The Ryujo's lost!" shouted Jee as he waved down the signaler onboard the flagship Hiryu. "Launch the orange flare! Order the men there to abandon ship!"

The signaler saluted and followed the Lieutenant's order as the ship whistle on the Ryujo echoed back a series of short blasts followed by a single long noise blast, the alarm for abandoning ship. Jee felt a little bit of relief as he observed the sailors on the Ryujo rush to the life boats instead of wasting time attempt to save a lost ship.

A strong arm spun Jee around. "What did you just do?!" demanded Captain Ro Kai as the surly man spat in the Eternal Lieutenant's face.

"The Ryujo's lost, sir!" returned Jee. "The men won't be able to escape the frigate if we don't get them moving."

"I give the orders for when I decide that a ship is lost, not you," growled Ro Kai. "Do that again and I'll..."

Jee's eyes widened as he looked past his commanding officer as the man continued to berate him. A tremendously large tidal wave was rapidly approaching as it rose out of the frigid waters, nearly capsizing the frigate Unryu as the wave rippled outwards.

"Brace!" shouted Jee as he grabbed ahold of the metal side wall of the battleship seconds before the surge of seawater impacted the flagship Hiryu with enough force to rattle the entire battleship. While a couple of the Fire Nation sailors near Jee had been fast enough to react, most did either did not hear the Eternal Lieutenant or simple were not near anything to grab onto as they went sprawling across the deck when the huge battleship skewed several degrees before settling back down level.

"Still think they aren't enemies?! Loose!" shouted Zuri angrily as she ordered the ballista to fire with a wave of her arm. Most of the catapults had lost their shots when the ship had tilted, but the ballistae were still primed to launch. The crews scrambled to reload the catapults as huge wooden bolts tore through the air from the ballistae, but the large incoming bird nimbly evaded the projectiles without much effort. Almost as if the riders on board had expected the retaliatory volley.

Jee heard the forming of ice. His head whipping around, the Eternal Lieutenant had no words to describe the sight of the frigate Unryu rise up noticeably out of the sea, propped up by a spire of ice that had breeched its hull plating. That ship and crew were also out of this fight as they couldn't move their ship anymore and from the angle the Unryu was positioned, none of the on-deck siege weapon could be aimed at the aerial enemy.

Then the Eternal Lieutenant saw the cause of all this chaos and destruction, ascending upon another wave, large tendrils of water lashing in every direction while icicles hovered above her head, poised to be flung at her enemies. A master waterbender, furious at their intrusion into the South Pole.

Jee was instantly teleported back to the memory of the rampaging Ocean Spirit in the North Pole. "We shouldn't have come here," he acknowledged moments before the shadow of the large bird rushed past the Fire Nation battleship and three hooded figures dropped onto the deck. Then, the waterbender launched herself onto the deck as well, landing next to her allies. "Nothing good ever happens at the Poles," muttered Jee as he echoed his mantra once more.

Storm clouds began to form overhead and the Eternal Lieutenant heard the familiar sounds of lightning crackling in the sky. The large bird continued past the flagship Hiryu as it engaged the frigates Taiho and Soryu, holding both at bay with bursts of lightning that prevented either vessel from coming to the aid of their flagship.

A battle cry echoed across the deck as Zuri threw herself at the unwelcomed boarders without waiting for the rest of the Southern Raiders to form ranks and engage the enemy together. Jee cursed again. He should have expected Zuri to do that. Especially since the young Lieutenant went straight for the waterbender. Had she not seen what Jee had just witnessed? That waterbender had just knocked two of their frigates out of commission before even boarding the battleship Hiryu. Jee had warned Zuri that attacking a master waterbender at night under the full moon was suicidal without proper back-up.

Following their Lieutenant's initiative, several other overeager Fire Nation sailors surged forward as well before Jee could give any commands. "Hold up!" protested the Eternal Lieutenant, but it was no use. Many of those that charged ahead were similar to Zuri, keen on winning honors and merits by being the ones to defeat the ambushers.

Jee eventually managed to gather a couple of the more level-headed Southern Raiders together, which weren't many. Most of the ones he did manage to get to listen to him had served under his command previously. But even as he started to give orders, Jee found himself surprised yet again.

After Zuri had drawn the waterbender away, one of the hooded figures charged towards the on-deck siege weapons. Several of the other rambunctious Raiders intercepted that figure and were swiftly defeated. But that wasn't what surprised Jee. No, it was the fact that the hooded figure did so with firebending.

Powerful, vigorous plumes of fire followed, each exploding a ballista or catapult into useless warped metal pieces of melted scrap as the treated wood burned heavy black smoke even through the protective coats of resin that had been applied to the siege weapons. Firebenders and sailors manning those siege weapons were forced to jump out of the way to avoid being engulfed by the extreme conflagrations.

Lieutenant Jee had never witnessed such commanding flames before from any of his superior officers. Especially at night. There was no one the Eternal Lieutenant knew in the Fire Nation military forces who could manage something like that. Whoever this firebender attacking their ship was, he was clearly powerful and his flames signaled his authority.

Observing a waterbender and firebender working together was conflicting enough. But the next hooded figure on deck to move confused Jee even more. The Eternal Lieutenant had been expecting more waterbending or maybe even another firebender, but he was in no way prepared for the metal flooring to be ripped from the deck plating, bolts and all, and used to seal the entrances to the lower decks. Reinforcements of sailors and firebenders below started to bang on the barricading plates to no avail as they were cut off from aiding those already on the deck.

Jee heard a pained cry from his right side as he saw Zuri desperately trying to match the waterbender's waterbending with her meager nighttime flames. One of the young Lieutenant's arms was already encased in a block of ice as Zuri attempted to melt the constraint while fending off the waterbender.

Zuri was strong. Jee knew that. Zuri was one of the most powerful and unpredictable fighters amongst the upper ranks of the Southern Raiders. But that hardly mattered when the female Lieutenant was fighting alone against a waterbender at night amongst that waterbender's natural element. Zuri might as well have been trying to hold back sea. Which might not have been entirely a metaphor with how this fight was going. Maybe in the daytime Zuri would have stood a chance, but right now, under the light of the full moon, the fight was laughably one-sided against her.

Unfortunately, Jee was in no position to come to the aid of his fellow Lieutenant as the last hooded figure to land on the deck blocked the Eternal Lieutenant's path. A boomerang flew out and knocked two of the sailors in front of Jee out cold. As the Water Tribe boy caught his returning weapon, he drew a club in the other hand as he charged at Jee.

Compared to the incredible and mind boggling feats of bending that Jee had just witnessed over the last couple of minutes, this nonbending Water Tribe warrior was the jolt of normalcy that the Eternal Lieutenant needed to return to his senses. Blocking the hooded boy's wild swing by stepping within the boy's guard, Jee grabbed the teenager's arm and threw him aside. The Water Tribe boy stood up immediately, but several other Southern Raiders got in-between the warrior and Jee before the boy could attack again.

Jee allowed his men to handle the Water Tribe boy. He had other matters that urgently required someone to take charge. The deck right now was in chaos. There was no leadership to be found. Zuri was overwhelmed and on the verge of meeting her end at the hands of the waterbender. And Captain Ro Kai, incompetent commander he was, had engaged the enemy firebender near the burning siege weapons without giving any commands to the men. Did the other officers just figure that the rest of the sailors would just figure things out for themselves? The remaining crew, that wasn't trapped below decks, was in pandemonium.

Taking charge, Lieutenant Jee grabbed the nearest sailors to him. "You two! Get some men together and put out those fires on the siege weapons. If the fires spread to the engines, then we're going to be dead in the water right in the middle of hostile territory."

As the two men he tasked returned a salute and dashed off to accomplish their orders, Jee grabbed another sailor. "Get a message to the Taiho and the Soryu! That blasted bird won't let them approach us to support, but for some miraculous reason, it isn't sinking them either. The Taiho and the Soryu are to disengage immediately and begin recovering the crews of the Ryujo and the Unryu. That ice has punched a hole in the undersides of each of their hulls. If we wait any longer, then those crews will be lost."

Those two urgent jobs out of the way, Jee grabbed two firebenders that were running by. "You two, support Lieutenant Zuri! She's about to be defeated by that waterbender." As the firebenders changed direction, Jee dashed off to support his Captain. Jee didn't respect the man and his cruelty, but Ro Kai was still the Eternal Lieutenant's superior officer. And Jee had always been loyal to the chain of command.

Captain Ro Kai had just been on the receiving end of an intense wave of flames and was rolling across the deck as Jee approached the fight. As Jee helped his commander up, Captain Ro Kai shoved his Lieutenant. "About time you got here Jee. Now help me deal with this traitor to the Fire Nation."

Jee settled into his firebending stance as he got a closer look at the firebender that had invaded their ship. The hooded figure was a teenager, similar in age to that Water Tribe boy from earlier. This firebender had a scruffy mess of black hair and a dark cloth wrapped around his face covering his mouth and nose, but the boy also had an interesting burn scar over the left side of his face, mostly around the eye. The enemy firebender felt familiar, especially when the boy's eyes widen as if he had recognized Jee when the Lieutenant arrived.

However, Captain Ro Kai was right back on the offensive as he punched out with several fireballs that the enemy firebender dissipated with well-timed blocks before spinning around and unleashing a single wave of fire back at Ro Kai from a spinning kick. Ro Kai attempted to weather the counter, but the flame broke past his guard as the man was thrown backwards again.

Covering for his Captain, Jee bent a steady stream of fire at his adversary to keep the boy occupied. However, the enemy firebender jumped forward with a step as he brought his hands together, fire merging together from each hand that surged forward to meet Jee's attack and cut right through it as the Eternal Lieutenant was forced to jump out of the way to avoid the overpowering attack.

No wonder Ro Kai was having such a difficult time against this opponent. The flames of this enemy firebender were scorching and felt almost alive. Jee wasn't sure if the two of them would be able to defeat this opponent even if they could manage to fight in unison.

Ro Kai came jumping back into the fray with a dropping axe kick of fire that raced at his adversary. The scarred boy answered with a fire kick of his own, but larger and burning hotter as this attack pierced right though and struck Ro Kai again, the Captain's armor barely managing to block the worst of it.

Then, the hooded teenager was upon the Captain with an unrelenting series of punches and kicks. Ro Kai attempted to answer with a point blank haymaker of flame, but the enemy firebender, to Jee's utter disbelief, grabbed Ro Kai's fire out of the man's hand. As the enemy firebender snuffed the flame out in his own fist, the hooded boy completed his spin and punched out with his other hand that contained a ball of fire that impacted and obliterated Ro Kai's chest plate as the man flew backwards, slumping against the side wall of the ship, not moving.

Looking around the deck, Jee noticed that most of the fighting was over. The waterbender had frozen Lieutenant Zuri and the two firebenders he had sent to help within blocks of ice. The hands of the three firebenders were unable to move or bend any flame, so any chance of them freeing themselves was likely very slim.

The metalbender had finished sealing all the entrances to the lower decks and had ensnared multiple sailors on deck in place by binding metal around their feet to lock them down. The Water Tribe boy had been going around, knocking those entrapped sailors out with his club.

Lieutenant Jee raised his hands in surrender as the enemy firebender approached him. This fight was lost. They had been taken by surprise and defeated soundly by four masked fighters and a large bird. It sounded ridiculous in the Lieutenant's mind. But he needed to start thinking practically and remain focused on the situation at hand.

This small enemy force would never be able to restrain and hold all of the sailors and soldiers on the battleship, which is probably why they locked most of the men below decks before the fight had a chance to get started. And for some reason, there hadn't too many casualties on the Southern Raider's end just yet. Almost as if the enemy force was reluctant to actually kill them. Maybe if Jee could buy enough time talking, then those men trapped below decks could find a way to get pass the metal plates barring their way.

As Jee opened his mouth to talk, the enemy firebender pulled down the dark cloth obscuring most of his face and Jee's words died in his throat. Instantly, Jee ignored the unbelievable feats of bending he had just witnessed. He ignored the giant bird that controlled the skies overhead amongst the storm clouds. He ignored the fact that a group of teenagers had overwhelmed the Southern Raiders. He forgot about attempting to stall for time.

No, none of those things were important right now. This person in front of him was the most shocking thing that the Eternal Lieutenant had seen this entire evening. A ghost. Someone he had been told was dead and gone.

Jee immediately dropped to one knee obediently, his head bowed low as he acknowledged almost reverently, "My Prince."


Zuko didn't know what to make of the sight of the Fire Nation Lieutenant bending the knee in front of him. Of all the outcomes he expected from the Southern Raiders in response to his group's ambush, surrender was not high on that list.

The Fire Prince remembered Jee from his previous ship. A good man, if Zuko recalled correctly. An honorable man. One of his Uncle's soldiers. And if his Uncle trusted this Lieutenant, then Zuko saw no reason why he shouldn't as well. "Who's in charge here?" the Fire Prince ordered.

Jee indicated to the unconscious man that Zuko had just defeated. "Captain Ro Kai has command of the Southern Raiders."

Hearing this, Katara marched over to Ro Kai and lifted up his face to get a better look. "Tsk," sounded the Water Tribe girl as she clicked her tongue. "It's not him." Katara dropped the man's head back down unceremoniously as Zuri demanded that the waterbender get away from the Southern Raiders Captain.

Zuko turned back to Jee. "Why are you here?"

"We have orders from Princess Azula to raid the South Pole," answered Jee earnestly, assuming the Fire Prince was asking about the Southern Raiders as a whole and not Jee himself specifically.

"Jee! What are you doing?! Quit giving this traitor information!" hissed Zuri from her ice prison. She struggled to draw fire to her hands, but it was a futile effort. Zuri wasn't going anywhere. "They launch an ambush on us in the middle of the night, humiliate us with this indignity, and now they want to talk?" She glared at the waterbender. "If you're going to kill us, then just get it over with already."

Katara summoned a magnitude of ice needles around Zuri, a couple of them at the female firebender's neck just scraping the skin. "Don't tempt me. My friends just recently talked me out of killing everyone here. I'd hate to betray their trust."

Zuri gulped at the pressure of the ice needle against her throat, but steeled her resolve. She had always bragged about how she wasn't scared of death after all. Time to put her money where her mouth was. "You're just a simple-minded water savage. I'm surprised that you have friends at all. Especially that traitorous firebender over there. How'd you tempt him to join you savages anyhow?"

Before Katara could retort, Jee shouted across the deck for everyone to hear him, Southern Raiders and Zuko's group alike. "Zuri! Hold your tongue! We stand before Fire Prince Zuko himself!" The Eternal Lieutenant's voice held more confidence and authority than any of the Southern Raiders had ever heard Lieutenant Jee display since his time aboard their flagship.

The female Fire Nation Lieutenant stared at Jee in disbelief. "The Prince is dead!" shouted Zuri. "We've all heard the reports. You were there when it happened, you jinx. Prince Zuko died aboard his ship in an explosion."

"Prince Zuko is standing right here Zuri!" argued Jee loudly enough to silence the mutterings going on amongst the other detained Southern Raiders still conscious on the deck. "Those reports were wrong! I know his face. I am looking at the Prince right now!"

Jee was a practical man. He knew it was no ghost or apparition that he was kneeling for. It was the young Fire Prince, returned in the flesh. The same Fire Prince that Jee had just started to get to know and understand thanks to General Iroh's explanation of Zuko's past during that one music night all those many months ago. A Fire Prince who Jee he had just been starting to respect as much as the Dragon of the West before that explosion on the ship.

As Lieutenant Zuri fell quiet in confusion, Zuko acknowledged Jee again. "I appreciate you defending me, but you haven't answered my question yet. I asked, what are you doing here, Lieutenant Jee, not what the Southern Raiders are doing. I know the mission that you were all issued already."

Jee's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't thought that he had made that much of an impression on Prince Zuko, much less anything worth being remembered for. And one of the first things that Prince Zuko asked about after all these months was what Jee was doing. The Eternal Lieutenant bowed his head once more. "I was reassigned, sir. All of us under you and General Iroh's former command were. Those that survived the Northern campaign that is. We ended up in the Southern Raiders."

"I see," contemplated Zuko as he absorbed the information. Then, a moment later, he asked, "And what will you do now?"

"Sir?" replied Jee startled at the follow-on question. "We've surrendered. Our fate is in your hands." Prisoners didn't usually get a say in their next actions.

"I will not permit the Southern Raiders to raid the South Pole anymore. If any of you wish to continue this misguided endeavor, then we will end all of you here and now." Edel screeched loudly from up above as if to emphasize the Fire Prince's words as another burst of lightning flashed across the skies. "You've seen what we're capable of. But I also saw you during the fighting. You prioritized saving lives over trying to fight us. So I'll give you another option. Return to the Fire Nation now and report your mission failure. Tell my Sister that if she wants to get revenge on me, then she can wait patiently in the Capital. I'll be coming for her this time," clarified the Fire Prince.

"We're just going to let them leave?" asked Katara in surprise. "What about the man who killed my Mother?"

Zuko turned back to Jee. "Who led the Southern Raiders six years ago?"

"That was well before my time, sir. Or Lieutenant Zuri's. Captain Ro Kai would know though. He replaced the previous commander about three years ago," replied Jee.

Sokka walked over to Ro Kai. "He's still out cold." He examined the wound on the man's chest and whistled. "That's going to leave a mark."

"Sir, if I may be so bold. Why are you traveling with these people? What happened to you after the pirates? We were told that you were dead," asked Jee, still kneeling.

"Azula happened Lieutenant. It was a calculated move and I was already in a precarious position with my banishment. I found allies where I could," explained Zuko with a half-truth. There were still several Southern Raiders on deck that were listening to the exchange between the Fire Prince and the Lieutenant after all.

Jee nodded in understanding. Power struggles amongst siblings were not uncommon in the Fire Nation. It was no secret that the Fire Princess desired the throne, but she had been born second. Prince Zuko was in her way. Further, Fire Lord Ozai had not officially denounced Prince Zuko as heir despite the Prince's banishment. 'Likely as a means to keep Princess Azula focused on improving herself and her sights on the Fire Prince instead of challenging the Fire Lord's position directly,' thought Jee to himself. No one could say that Lieutenant Jee wasn't an astute man.

Lieutenant Zuri spoke up again as she gathered her wits once more. "That doesn't explain why you're stopping us from raiding the South Pole! We have a job to do to keep the Fire Nation safe. There are Water Tribe warriors and waterbenders amassing in the South!"

"That's ridiculous!" shouted back Sokka. "You stupid Raiders scattered our people all across the South Pole years ago. You captured all our waterbenders! Why won't you people just leave us alone already?!"

"Of course you'd say that! You wouldn't want us to find and destroy your forces!" argued Zuri.

Jin approached the female firebender in the icy prison. "If there were a large host of warriors and waterbenders in the South Pole, then do you all think that you would have stood a chance against them? The four of us have your tiny fleet at our mercy."

Zuri's cheeks flared with humiliation at her defeat. "That's because you all used strange bending that caught us off guard! And who's ever heard of a bird that can shoot off lightning? That's not natural."

This wasn't getting anywhere. As his friends argued with Zuri, Zuko looked back at Jee. "Do the men and women aboard this ship still respect honor?"

The Eternal Lieutenant nodded. "The Southern Raiders may have been written off as the worst of the worst, sir. But, they are still sailors of the Fire Navy. They still have a soldier's honor."

"That will do," determined Zuko as he walked to the edge of the balcony overlooking the remaining Southern Raiders on the deck. "My name is Zuko, son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation, and heir to the throne," he announced proudly and with the authority of a leader.

"What's he doing?" whispered Sokka to his Sister as they stopped squabbling with Zuri.

"Shh," quieted Katara. Whatever Zuko was doing, they couldn't interrupt him now that he was standing in front of the remaining Fire Nation crew on the deck of the ship.

"You have been told that there is a large enemy force in the South Pole planning to attack our Fire Nation. I am here to tell you that there is no such force. There are no Water Tribe warriors or waterbenders amassing in the South. Only the elderly and children remain in the tiny villages here. There is no honor in this fight," the Fire Prince explained to the silent crowd.

Then, his voice turned more serious. "You have been lied too! Positioned to perform the dirty work of my Sister in the name of false honor. For too long have the Southern Raiders been covered with blood and death, the butchers of the Southern Hemisphere. Saddled with the dishonorable jobs of harassing women and children." Grumblings started to spread through the assembled crowd of Southern Raiders.

But Zuko wasn't done. "I have defeated Captain Ro Kai in single combat! He is unfit to command this fleet! I declare my right to assume command as Fire Prince! I lay claim for command of the Southern Raiders! I challenge all who wish to continue the barbaric heritage of the past Southern Raiders! Any who wish to challenge my claim, I permit it! Face me, here! In single combat!"

A hush washed over the assembled Southern Raiders. By the sounds of it, the position of command had just opened up. And all they had do was defeat one cocky Fire Prince. The more ambitious and foolhardy Southern Raiders crewmen were chomping at the bit for the opportunity.

"I said it once, I'm going to say it again. What are you doing?!" exclaimed Sokka, throwing his arms up in exaggeration as Zuko walked back over to his friends after his declaration.

"I'm reclaiming my people," declared Zuko. "This lot will only understand overwhelming strength and conviction. Fire Nation soldiers follow the strong." Zuko paused as he thought about what he just said. "That might actually make this whole situation pretty simple in fact."

"And when were you going to clue us in on your little plan?" argued Katara.

Zuko smirked. "When I thought of it, which was about three seconds ago." Then, the Fire Prince shrugged. "To be fair Katara, you gave me just about as much warning with your plan to attack the fleet in the first place."

Katara glared at the Fire Prince before her eyes eased up and she sighed. Pointing at him and then at herself, she stated, "You and me, we're going to have to work on our communication skills."

Jin gave a sly laugh. "Communication skills? Is that what you two are calling it?"

Sokka didn't seem to understand exactly what Jin was getting at. "Wait, what are you talking about?"

"Nothing Sokka! Jin's just rambling again," hushed Katara. Her Brother may have known that she was dating the Fire Prince, but he didn't need to about her recent kissing sessions with Zuko.

Jee raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Zuri, on the other hand, looked dumbfounded. "Wait, are those two..."

"Jin!" interrupted Zuko. "Bind Ro Kai to the ship's wall with your metalbending." Then, Zuko considered the female Lieutenant in the ice for a moment. "If Lieutenant Zuri wishes to watch the challenges too, then bind her with metal shackles and allow her to follow. Otherwise, leave her up here in the ice."

"I'm not missing this," protested Zuri firmly. "I want to see if you are as strong as you think you are. A gauntlet is an endurance match and you just challenged the entire ship. You're going to regret doing that."

"I doubt I'm going to-" started Zuko.

"No! Don't say it," shut down Sokka. "Are you trying to jinx yourself?"

Zuko shook his head at the Water Tribe boy. "Whatever. Lieutenant Jee is free to do as he wishes."

"I don't need to cuff him?" asked Jin.

"My Uncle trusted him. So I do too," answered Zuko as he started to walk down the stairs towards the main deck. Jee appeared honored at the level of trust his Fire Prince had given him as he hurried to catch up to the young man. Katara still looked unsure as she unfroze Zuri and Jin cuffed the female firebender with some metal shackles on her wrists and ankles before bending some metal plates around Ro Kai to keep him in place.

"If Zuko somehow manages to keep himself from getting killed, then I might just beat him up myself," grumbled Katara. "This is borderline exactly what I told him not to do about trying to do everything himself." The rest of the group joined the Fire Prince on the main deck below.

Zuko was already standing on one side of the open area, facing down the more eager members of the Southern Raiders who wished to accept the Fire Prince's challenge.

First up was an arrogant sergeant from the catapult unit. A hulk of a man, the Fire Sergeant began boasting about his ability to load, light, and fire catapult shots on his own as he flexed his muscles. As Zuko approached the edge of the training ring, the Fire Sergeant immediately launched a surprise plume of fire directly at the young firebender.

The Fire Sergeant clearly had been hoping to catch the Fire Prince off-guard with a sudden attack. What the man had not been expecting was for the Fire Prince to willingly hop in front of the fire blast, Zuko's hands clasped together before throwing them apart as the Fire Prince tore through the oncoming flame with ease. "I see some of you are eager," calmly stated Zuko as the Fire Prince stood back up in a ready stance. "Good. Shall we begin?"

Starting to feel more than a little uneasy that he was the first one up now, the Fire Sergeant took a hesitant step back, but was immediately pushed back forward by another Southern Raider. The sailors wanted to see a fight and this one had already started.

Finding his resolve once more, the Fire Sergeant bent another similar blast of flame. This time, Zuko met the attack with an equal and opposite blast of fire. No, equal would have meant that the blasts would have canceled each other out. The Fire Prince's fire blast thoroughly engulfed the Sergeant's attack completely as it roared towards at the man, seemingly like a charging dragon, singeing the Sergeant's side as the wall of fire brushed within inches of his person. "Do you yield?" asked Zuko firmly, his arm still outstretched.

Nodding vigorously, the Fire Sergeant retreated back into the crowd as the other Southern Raiders started to laugh and jeer at him. The rank and file clearly had not taken notice of the actual strength of the Fire Prince in that exchange.

But as a competent firebender herself, Lieutenant Zuri was the first to look taken back at the one-sided clash. "Has he always been that strong?"

Shaking his head, Jee answered. "No." That exchange had confirmed what Jee had suspected from his own trading of blows with the Fire Prince. "Prince Zuko has grown greatly since I last saw him. And I'm not just talking about his firebending. It's more than that. Prince Zuko used to always be overconfident and rash. But now, well, now he appears tempered, like he's anticipating his opponent's moves and countering them. Just like the Dragon of the West always attempted to instruct his Nephew to do."

Next up was a crafty firebender from one of the strike teams. His attacks were both well planned out and sharply executed; this firebender had clearly trained his form well for some time. However, this firebender seemed to lack experience fighting an opponent who could break that form. Zuko recalled one of the many lessons from his Uncle about doing just that to throw his opponent off-balance. With a couple of basic fire balls hurled at where his opponent was positioned to step in the recognizable firebending form, Zuko charged in as his opponent was disoriented.

The strike team firebender launched a wild stream of fire in a frantic attempt to hold back the Fire Prince's charge. In response, Zuko copied a trick he had seen his Uncle do several times during their old training sessions. The Fire Prince opened his mouth and breathed fire out to directly counter the last-minute blast from the strike team firebender. Rushing through the flames as they canceled out, Zuko shoved his open palm onto the man's face. Then, with a sweep of the legs, Zuko toppled the adversary firebender to the ground, pinning him there while his other hand held a ball of fire posed to strike. "Yield," Zuko ordered as his opponent surrendered.

"What was that?!" demanded Zuri. As far as she knew, the only firebender known for the ability to literally breath fire was the Dragon of the West. If the legends were to be believed, one had to defeat a dragon in combat in order to learn that ability. "But there's no dragons left in the world. Where did Prince Zuko learn how to do that?!"

"The Young Dragon," deemed Jee with a smile on his face after witnessing the latest takedown. "The Dragon of the West would be so proud of his Nephew."

Several of the older veterans of the Southern Raiders were starting to look impressed as well. They too knew of the legend of fire breathing.

"Do you think he learned that trick from the old masters?" whispered Jin to Katara. The waterbender nodded as she heard Sokka lamenting off to the side that he now had to worry about being set on fire whenever he just talked to the Fire Prince.

At first the gathering of Southern Raiders were making light of this unofficial series of Agni Kais. Bets were placed and the odds only continued to rise against the Fire Prince and his odds of winning, especially as the number of fights continued to increase. Any time now, the Fire Prince would meet his limit or he would slip up, and that would be that.

So what if Yozo from engineering just got smacked around? He wasn't that strong in the first place. And Asao from the ballista unit? Everyone knew that artillerymen couldn't fight in close combat. That's why they were artillerymen. And Ira from the cavalry forces? She should have been riding on her Komodo rhino if she actually wanted to win.

The Fire Prince was up to over half a dozen victories now. And the more competent fighters had seen enough of his moves to figure out the Fire Prince's rhythm. That's why smart people don't fight long grueling series of battles. The opponents learn.

Any time now, the Fire Prince would falter and fall. Okay, maybe he managed to topple Chizuh from the strike team. Chizuh had been a more veteran firebender than most other sailors, which made the Fire Prince's victory a little more impressive, but not by much. Chizuh was getting old after all. Jiko would win the next fight. An explosion of fire erupted across the deck as Jiko was flung into the side wall and slumped down into unconsciousness. Alright, so Jiko was more bark than bite.

Still, the Fire Prince had been showing off too many of his moves. This was apparent once Shoya managed to sidestep Zuko's counter and deliver her own blast of fire. The Fire Prince appeared off-balance with his missed attack. There was no way that he could recover in time to avoid Shoya's fireball. Except he did. The Fire Prince seemed to almost flow, like a dancer, graceful in his movement as he spun his body over the fireball. But even more impressive was the fact that Zuko caught Shoya's fireball and redirected it back.

That wasn't a standard firebender technique. Firebenders don't usually move like that. Firebenders don't usually twist and turn and take another's fire. Firebender move with precision and purpose. That last move by the Fire Prince was almost like a waterbender's technique. That was the thought running through Shoya's head as she watched her own fireball come screaming right back at her. She dodged it, barely, but the shock of the unexpected change-up in the Fire Prince's movements left her open to follow-up series of firebending and her swift defeat.

The next couple of Southern Raiders lost just as quickly. They had thought that they had learned enough about the Fire Prince's forms and techniques by studying his earlier fights. But the Fire Prince seemed to adjust his battle styles with each encounter. And the additions of defensive fire walls to block vision and intercept attacks as well as the redirection of his opponent's fire were reminding the Southern Raiders of their encounters against earthbenders and waterbenders.

At some point, the majority of the Southern Raiders started to realize that the strength of the Fire Prince's flames was not fading. His fire roared just as strong now as it had in the first couple of fights. And while the Fire Prince looked a little exerted, he did not appear tired or waning. Most of the ambitious and strong fighters had already long since had their chance by now. Mutterings and murmurs started to spread throughout the crowd of sailors.

"He's fought about two dozen challengers now."

"He hasn't seriously harmed or killed any of the challengers either. Do you see how he stops his attacks short every time? That's some serious discipline."

"What's up with the strength of those flames? It's like he's not weakened at all even though it's nighttime. It's like the moon favors him just as much as the sun."

"Have you ever seen fire burning that hot? Especially all the way down here in the South Pole?"

"Where is he drawing those flames from?"

The attitudes and perceptions of the Southern Raiders towards their Fire Prince were slowly beginning to change.

Even Zuri had been silently contemplating what she had been witnessing. "Are all the fire royals as strong as this?" she finally asked.

"Princess Azula has been heralded as a prodigy even since she was six," answered Jee, similarly reflective as his fellow officer. "Prince Zuko was deemed a failure of a firebender."

"That's a failure?" questioned Zuri as she watched the Fire Prince deflect a continuous stream of fire from the latest challenger who was attempting to capitalize on what the opponent thought was a fatigued champion. Jee was just as perplexed as he too continued to watch.

"He's getting tired," frowned Katara as she turned to Sokka and Jin. "He's trying not to show it, but he can't keep this up much longer. Aren't these sailors satisfied yet? Zuko's long since proven that none of them are a match for him."

As the most recent clash against the latest firebender ended, it appeared that the challenger list had been exhausted. That was, until an officer walked onto the training field.

"Lieutenant Asher?" noted Jee. "You waited this long to declare your challenge? Where is your honor?"

"There isn't a problem here. The Fire Prince himself declared that he would take on all challengers. There was no rule on the order. Like a good officer, I allowed the men to go first. If they had won, then I would be taking orders from them," taunted Asher. "But now, it's my turn."

"It's fine," stated Zuko as he breathed in to settle himself and eased into his normal firebending stance. "When you're ready."

"You are quite conceited," mocked Asher. "The Agni Kai is a sacred ritual that is supposed to be a time-honored tradition. You're using it as a brawl to show-off."

Zuko's eyes narrowed. "Do not lecture me on Agni Kai. I know the ritual better than most."

"I bet you do," sneered Asher as he launched into a series of attacks.

Zuko didn't move as he allowed Asher's flames to lick his face and his side, but for the most part, the attacks missed due to the inaccuracy of his opponent. "Too tired to even dodge or block now?" jeered Asher.

"I just wanted to see the strength of your inner flame," answered Zuko. "It was lacking." A vortex of fire erupted skyward to entrap the Lieutenant within the maelstrom alongside the Fire Prince. To everyone outside the vortex, it was as if a beacon of light had pierced up into the night sky. Asher stared at the swirling flames all around him in fright. "This is how you throw a fire punch," proclaimed Zuko as he threw out his fist at the distracted opponent.

Asher felt the impact on his chest armor as a ball of fire crashed into him and threw him out from the vortex towards the side wall of the ship. The fire vortex died down as Zuko started to drop to a knee, but caught himself and stood back up, breathing heavily.

The Southern Raiders broke into cheers for their Fire Prince after that final display. Lieutenant Jee snapped to attention as he called for the Fire Nation soldiers and sailors to do the same. In unison, they stood at attention and saluted their Fire Prince. "The Southern Raiders are yours to command, my Prince," acknowledged Jee with his salute raised high.

Zuko scanned the faces of the Fire Nation sailors that he had seemed to win over. Standing up taller and inflecting his voice so that even those in the back ranks could hear, the Fire Prince commanded, "Heed me, Sailors of the Fire Nation! This is my first and final order for the Southern Raiders."

Before any confusion could spread, Zuko continued, "As of this point forward, all members of the Southern Raiders are to immediately stand down, withdraw to one of the uninhabited islands in the Fire Archipelago, and await the conclusion of this war. The Southern Raiders will be judged for their actions at a later time."

Murmurs rang out from the crowd of Fire Nation sailors. This had not been what they were expecting from the powerful firebender they had been witnessed. "Sir, is that really your command?" asked Jee as he approached the Fire Prince. "No one's going to let themselves willingly await trial for war crimes."

"We've done a lot of harm in the world, Jee," answered Zuko remorsefully. "There has to be some accountability for our actions. I don't actually expect any of the sailors here to comply with my order to wait around. I just need them out of the South Pole for now. The rest can come later. But our people need a wake-up call that the actions they take have consequences."

"You mean to fight against the Fire Lord and the Fire Princess, don't you? You mean to take the throne. Otherwise, this order of yours means nothing," astutely discerned Lieutenant Jee as he pieced together what Zuko had implied.

The Eternal Lieutenant steeled his resolve. "You're going to need all the help you can get, sir. Command us. Lead us. There are still good people amongst the Southern Raiders. Honorable people. Forgotten and discarded by the Fire Nation. Many would be willing to fight for you, especially after that remarkable display of firebending discipline."

"How many of them would fight for me against their fellow Fire Nation brethren? I'm not here to become the Prince of the Ashes. I don't wish to incite a civil war amongst our Nation. I just seek to end the conflict."

Zuko turned away from the assembled Fire Nation soldiers as he walked back up the steps to the upper balcony of the battleship. Lieutenant Zuri rushed to the base of the steps as she growled in anger at the Fire Prince's back. "You show up, defeat us in battle, humiliate our best fighters, and then just dismiss all of us out of hand? What gives you the right?! You're an exiled Prince! You have no authority here!"

"I could do worse," bristled Zuko tensely as the Fire Prince reached the top of the steps and turned to look down on Zuri. "The Southern Raiders have raided villages along the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe coastlines for years. In that time, how many families has this unit destroyed?"

"We were following orders! Fire Nation leadership ordered us to raid those villages!" shouted Zuri in protest. "Good soldiers follow orders."

"And what if those orders were wrong?" returned Zuko as he shouted back. "Think for a moment. What have the Southern Raiders been ordered to do in recent years? What actual battles have you all fought in? What have you protected? What have you destroyed? Do you even know?"

"We were protecting the Fire Nation! Protecting our homes and our families!" argued back Zuri.

"From who? Who have you been fighting against to protect the Fire Nation?!" pressed Zuko.

"The Earth Kingdom!" answered Zuri.

"The Earth Kingdom hasn't launched a siege on the Fire Nation this entire war! Who have you been fighting?!" countered Zuko heatedly.

"The..." began Zuri as she slowly, finally, started to truly think about who the Southern Raiders had been fighting when they raided the coastal villages alongside the Earth Kingdom. Captain Ro Kai had always claimed that those villages were hiding troops and were supplying fighters with food and water. Zuri had always been amongst the frontline raiders who burned those villages to the ground. Always had been there to witness the terror in the Earth Kingdom villagers' eyes, their unwillingness to fight back.

The lies that Zuri had convinced herself of. The false narrative that she had been focusing on in order to avoid the truth of what she had been a part of. All of it began to shine through the cracks in her memories.

Had she really been so narrow-minded on following orders and finding her way back up the military ladder that she had been ignoring everything else around her? Had she really been fooling herself this entire time?

When the words caught in Zuri's throat and the female Lieutenant just stood there unable to form a sentence, Zuko hoped that he had gotten through to her. "Just blindly obeying orders is the mark of a person who has stopped thinking for themselves," finished Zuko firmly. "I was just following my Father's orders until I opened my eyes and realized the consequences of my actions. I am not the right person to judge any of you for your actions. But I will stop the future violence."

Zuri knelt down clutching her head. She echoed her previous claim, though much more shakily this time. "We were just following orders..." Scenes from previous Southern Raiders raids were still replaying in her head.

Jee moved to stand next to his fellow officer as he addressed the Fire Prince. "Very well, my Prince. I'll handle the Raiders. We will depart the South Pole immediately," saluted Lieutenant Jee.

"I leave it to you," Zuko placed a hand on the Lieutenant's shoulders, "Captain Jee," promoted the Fire Prince.

To say that the Eternal Lieutenant was shocked would have been an understatement. "Sir, I don't think the other Lieutenants onboard will just willingly accept my command. I'm not ready to be the Captain."

"You're more than ready, Captain Jee," repeated Zuko. "Think of it as a field promotion. I'm the Fire Prince. I can do that much. I should have done that much a long time ago."

"Thank you sir," managed Captain Jee after a moment. Then he asked, "But what about Captain Ro Kai? He will not accept any of this once he wakes up."

Katara splashed water in the face of the former Captain of the Southern Raiders as the group gathered near the officer still bound to the ship wall. Ro Kai struggled against the metal that held him fast as he regained consciousness. "Release me this instant!" he demanded.

"Who was the previous commander of the Southern Raiders?" asserted Zuko instead. "Who led the last attack on the Southern Water Tribes?"

"Why would I tell you that?" snarled Ro Kai.

An ice needle formed under the former Captain's throat and began to dig into his flesh. "Tell us, while we're asking nicely," pressed Katara, her former anger returning as she was close to finding the information that mattered the most to her.

"Fine, no use in defending a has-been like the previous commander anyway. It was Captain Yon Rha," answered Ro Kai. No honor among thieves after all. "He lives up in the Northern Fire Nation territories."

"Yon Rha," spat out Katara with hate in her voice.

Zuko put a hand on the Water Tribe girl's shoulder to calm her. "We'll find him and deal with him in good time. He's not going anywhere. But for now, we have more immediate concerns to handle."

"Jee, I'll leave Ro Kai to you to deal with," ordered Zuko.

"Jee, you traitorous cur," growled Ro Kai. "I accepted you into my unit, but you were a snake. Throwing your lot in with this traitorous prince."

As Jin metalbent the bindings away, Jee grabbed and forced his former commander to his feet. "I have always been loyal to the true heir of the Fire Nation."

Ro Kai glared at Jee with anger, before he smirked and headbutted the new Captain to stun Jee momentarily. Drawing a hidden knife from his belt, Ro Kai rushed at Katara, intent on eliminating the waterbender who had caused so much destruction to his fleet and to achieve what Yon Rha apparently failed to do, which was to get rid of the last waterbender in the South Pole. Sokka's cry of warning came too late for his Sister to react in time as Katara watched the steel from Ro Kai blade draw closer, almost as if in slow motion.

Then, abruptly, the waterbender was shoved out of the way. Zuko was suddenly in her place, a knife in his side as both Ro Kai and Zuko tumbled over the edge of the battleship. "I may have missed the water savage, but I got you, fake prince! I got you!" Ro Kai gloated as the former Captain and Fire Prince both plunged into the arctic waters together with a loud splash.

Katara already had one foot on the railing of the ship, about to leap overboard, when Sokka grabbed his Sister by the waist and pulled her back onto the battleship. Pinning Katara's arms to her side to prevent her from struggling against his hold, Sokka saw another shadow to his right leap overboard. It had been Jee, diving into the frigid waters.

"Jin! Help me out here! Keep Katara from doing something rash like jumping overboard!" shouted Sokka as the Earth Kingdom girl nodded and managed to bind one of Katara's flailing legs to the deck with a piece of metal.

"Let me go Jin! I'm the best one to rescue people from the sea. I'm the waterbender here!" claimed Katara as she struggled against her binding.

Convinced that his Sister wasn't about to take an icy plunge for the next minute at least, Sokka scrambled back to his feet as he noted urgently, "Rope! We need rope!" Grabbing a nearby coil, Sokka began knotting a rescue line.

Finished with that in record time, the Water Tribe boy was at the railing, casting the line down into the sea as Jee resurfaced with a dazed looking Zuko. Ro Kai was nowhere in sight amongst the rough waters barely illuminated by the lights all the way up on the ship deck. As both firebenders slipped the rescue loop under their arms and tugged to signal that they were ready, Sokka and company pulled on their end, bringing them back up the side of the capital ship.

Zuko collapsed on the deck as he was pulled over the railing. The Fire Prince was weakly gripping at the bloody wound at his side. The Ro Kai's knife had been yanked from the wound at some point between the fall, the time underwater, and the lift back up the ship.

Jin undid the metal binding holding Katara at bay as the waterbender rushed to the wounded Fire Prince's side. With a flick of her wrist, Katara pulled the frigid water from Zuko's clothes and chucked it overboard. A moment later, and the icy water that had been on Jee's clothes was also removed.

"He's still shivering," stressed Katara as she grabbed a warm, wool blanket that a Southern Raider had brought up to the group. Another Raider wrapped Jee up in a different wool blanket.

Katara could feel the strength of the full moon increasing her healing ability as she struggled to heal the firebender. Zuko looked so pale in the moonlight. He had lost a lot of blood. It was mixing with the water on the soaked deck floor.

Everyone was shouting different things all around the Water Tribe girl in a panic as they desperately tried to help. Sokka was accusing the Southern Raiders of trickery, while Jee was demanding for his crewmates to get the ship doctor over here. Jin was trying to calm Sokka down. Zuri was standing there in shock at everything that had just happened in the last minute.

Katara didn't have time to focus on any of that right now. Zuko had gone quiet as he lost the strength to talk. He was fading fast and there wasn't anything more she could do. She was already pouring all her strength into her waterbending healing as it was.

Oh, why hadn't she been paying more attention? Katara had let her focus slip once she had her target's name. She had been too concerned with figuring out how to find this Yon Rha and make him pay that she left herself completely open to an attack. An attack that Zuko took for her.

Her healing wasn't going to be enough. The waterbender could tell that it wasn't going to be enough this time. Zuko's body was freezing from the cold despite the warm wool blanket. She had already bent the cold water from his clothes, but he was still shivering. And now the Fire Prince was getting paler and paler. He needed his blood inside of him, needed it to warm back up, but the blood wouldn't stop flowing onto the deck.

Katara shut out the voices and the noise all around her. It was all very distracting and she needed to concentrate. She could feel the power of the full moon strengthening her waterbending, increasing her senses as she desperately searched for a way to save Zuko. She could feel Zuko's blood, pooling within the gathering water on the ship's deck. She could sense it. She could feel the difference between the water and the blood; the consistency, the viscosity. She reached for the blood with her waterbending. Held it within her grasp. Pulled it. Weaved it. It was hers to command.

The waterbender forced the blood to answer her call. Forced it to return to its owner. Forced the blood to flow back through Zuko's veins and arteries. The arguing voices that had been so distracting before were silent now as the atmosphere around the Water Tribe girl had grown eerily quiet.

But Katara paid the others no heed. They were unimportant right now. Zuko's face was twisted up in pain. Whatever this unknown style of bending of hers that she was performing was hurting the firebender, but it had also given her the chance to save him as well. So the Water Tribe girl continued. With one hand still slowly circulating as much blood as she could, Katara used her other hand to begin mending the puncture wound on the Fire Prince's side with her waterbending healing.

The process of attempting to employ two styles of bending at the same time was beyond taxing. Katara slipped up more than once, the blood flowing out of the firebender again as she was forced to repeat the process from the start. Zuko grit his teeth throughout it all, but that let her know that he was still alive, still with her.

At some point, her Brother had put his hand on her shoulder and told her to stop, but Katara shrugged him off and snapped at him to stop distracting her. Her hair tie had come undone during all this, resulting in the waterbender's hair twisting around her face wildly and sticking there from a mixture of sea water and sweat. But Katara's hands were occupied and she couldn't be bothered to move her hair at a critical time like this. Fortunately, Jin noticed this and managed to tie the waterbender's hair back a little to get it out of her face.

It took multiple attempts to get it right, but eventually, Katara managed to close Zuko's wound with as much blood back in the Fire Prince's system as she could manage. She put her cheek to the edge of his mouth and allowed the relief to wash over her as she felt his faint warm breath slowly continue to flow.

"He's... going... to... be..." the Water Tribe girl started to say as she attempted to slowly rise back up on her feet. Katara didn't even make it halfway before her eyes rolled back and she passed out like a puppet with its strings cut, the adrenaline no longer fueling her and her exhaustion finally catching up with her. Sokka caught her Sister just moments before her head was set to hit the metal deck floor.

Captain Jee offered for all of them to have rooms onboard the ship, but Sokka adamantly refused. He was not about to allow his unconscious Sister to remain on a Fire Nation ship. Edel landed on the deck next to them as Sokka and Jee lifted an unconscious Zuko up to Jin, who worked to strap the Fire Prince into one of the middle seats. They repeated the process with Katara. Jin stayed in the rear seat while Sokka climbed into the driver seat.

"This Fire Prince had better be worth all this trouble," grumbled Sokka to himself. Then, to the thunderbird, "Okay, nice thunderbird. Your master is just taking a little nappy. We could use your help getting him to a nice warm bed so that he can recover. Can you help us out?" Edel gave a sideways glance at the injured firebender on her back and then at the Water Tribe boy in the wrong seat. "Please don't peck me!" cringed Sokka as he attempted to defend against an attack that never came. Instead, Edel spread her wings and lifted off from the ship deck.

Captain Jee watched the Fire Prince and his friends depart and fade away into the night sky. Jee turned back towards the remaining Southern Raiders. The Ryujo and the Unryu had both sunk already at this point. Fortunately, the Taiho and the Soryu had managed to complete rescue operations and most of the frigate crews were accounted for. There had been a few casualties amongst the two frigates that had been lost. Not everyone had managed to abandon the ships in time. Plus, the Southern Raiders had lost their previous Captain. Jee glanced over at a shaking Lieutenant Zuri; maybe they had lost more than Jee initially realized.

Making up his mind, Jee gave his first order as the new Captain of the Southern Raiders. "Helm, North by Northwest. All ahead full. And gather the sailors onto the main deck. I have an announcement."

As the Fire Nation sailors scrambled to comply with their new Captain's orders, Jee thought to himself, 'Maybe we can salvage something good from the Poles this time.'


Far up above the Fire Nation vessels that were just beginning to make their way northward and away from the South Pole, two ethereal, phantasmic spirits watched as a third rose up out of the sea to greet them.

"Thank you, La" expressed Yue graciously as she bowed her head. "I had feared that we had lost the Fire Prince this time."

The dark robed majestic man with a white diamond symbol on his forehead merely scoffed. "I did next to nothing. I simply guided the waves to bring that sailor to find the Fire Prince," stated the Ocean Spirit.

"And that was more than I could have asked for. He would have never found Prince Zuko underwater in the middle of the sea in the darkness of night without your assistance," continued to thank Yue.

La simply crossed his arms. "I only did it as a favor to Tui, because she asked me to."

The elegant Moon Spirit smiled. "And you did your part marvelously, my love. I see that the other sailor didn't make it?"

La smirked. "The seas have claimed the third one. Payment for my assistance. There are all matter of creatures under the waves who will enjoy the meal."

With that, both Tui and La began to fade away into the starry skies.

The ghostly form of Yue lingered a moment longer. "You still have much to do, Prince Zuko," the Northern Water Tribe Princess whispered softly. "I wish you good fortune in the wars to come."