The black iron prow of the Fire Nation ship tore a path through the ice like scurvy to an old scar.
The Southern Water Tribe's little harbor village shuddered around it: ice floes heaved, huts rattled on their lashings, the watch-post of piled snow and whale-bone shivered as if it wanted to bolt. Steam hissed as metal met ice. Children scrambled behind their older siblings. Mothers pulled little ones close.
Sokka planted himself at the front of the line anyway, boomerang white-knuckled in his grip, fur parka flapping in the bitter wind. His war paint was immaculate, for all the good it would do him.
The massive boarding ramp slammed down, cutting into the ice and holding the warship in place like a bite to the neck of its prey.
Fire Nation soldiers marched out in neat formation, armor gleaming red and black even in the gray light, boots crunching in perfect rhythm. Spears, halberds, all very pointy and very not-wood. At their head walked a boy only a few years older than Sokka, but somehow more alarming than all of them—scar winding over one eye, his helmet ill-fitting like it was half a size too small.
Prince Zuko swept his gaze over the tribe like he was seeing a puzzle with one piece missing.
"You!" he shouted, voice cutting through the wind as he pointed in accusation at the huddled villagers. "I know you're harboring the Avatar. Turn him over, or suffer the consequences."
Sokka gathered his reckless courage and lunged for the prince as his soldiers seemed unconcerned. "Yaaaah!" he cried out.
"Sokka," Katara hissed, mad but terrified he was about to be incinerated.
The boy with the scar barely spared Sokka a glance. "Out of the way, peasant," he sighed, simply grabbing Sokka's forearm amidst his clumsy charge attack and giving him a boot on the backside to send him tumbling into the piles of disturbed, tossed up snow and ice.
Katara breathed out a sigh of relief he was still alive, at least.
"Please!" her grandmother raised her voice as much as she could, taking a submissive posture on her knees. "We are defenseless, we have nothing and no one to hide!"
Katara felt it too—that cold, hollow drop in her stomach. "Aang," she whispered, realizing who the Fire Nation must be after and why.
But Aang was still a distance away, closing fast on his glider as Appa recuperated, and someone else arrived first.
Zuko saw fire on his periphery, but never would have guessed it wasn't one of his own men, and turned his gaze slow to meet a flying kick with his assailant's whole body behind it—she was small, but he went flying nonetheless, catching a blast of flames he could bend away, but he failed utterly to catch himself on the icy ground and slid ten paces on his backside, stopping only when he hit the same pile of crushed ice and snow that Sokka was pulling himself out of.
"Hiyah!" Sokka cried out as he opportunistically smashed his whalebone club over Zuko's helmet, really only annoying him, and the prince had to focus on the coming flames.
"Zuko!" The girl raged, a hand wreathed in flames fluidly forming into a long whip of liquid fire that lashed his way. Sokka just stared cluelessly as the prince he struck dispersed the flames, and tried to stand, but staggered and slipped again on the thin layer of melted water now atop the ice from the heat.
Having no idea what was going on, the beleaguered prince shouted at his soldiers, "what are you idiots doing?!" not even sure it was one of them who attacked him as he couldn't quite see through the smoke and steam, and he couldn't quite believe how lazily they were jogging his way.
"You minions stay out of it, or burn with him!" the girl bared her teeth, her pale skin along with her expensive red garb enough to make it clear she was a noble, and the men weren't eager to aid the banished prince against a Fire Nation noble still in good standing for all they knew.
"Sokka, get away from them!" Katara cried out, but he had no mind for her.
Sokka again tried to charge Zuko, far better suited to running on slippery ice, and his form was absolutely on point. It made no difference. Zuko's boot heel outreached and connected with Sokka's chest squarely. The boy didn't stir so quickly after being tossed back into the snow again. But flames came for Zuko, a quick lash of the whip he had to dodge with no time to bend it away, and he barely caught the molten flood of furious fire to turn it aside, on the opposite side from Sokka much to his fortune as it instantly turned the icy surface into a boiling pool where it fell.
"Raven...?" Zuko breathed out with disbelief as she launched for him like an angry missile, streaks of fire following her foot steps and then her feet as she arced through the air, but still he saw the person in yellow and orange—the Avatar, he was certain—skidding down to stop behind the hapless water tribe villagers.
His training came automatically, however, and despite his shock his hands moved on their own, sweeping away the flames, catching her forearm as he shouldered her near miss of a kick aside, and he pivoted to throw her right over him. Even as she shrieked in panic from being sent higher and further than she meant, she still threw one last spiteful blast of fire his way that stopped him from saying another word to her before she joined Sokka in the snow.
"Are you... on our side?" Sokka awkwardly asked the teenage firebender as she shook snow from her hair, and he reeled back at the sight of her lip twitching with rage as she glared at him.
"I'm not on his!" she barked as she hopped to her feet again. "But stay out of my way," she bitterly growled, and Sokka instantly took the hint, scooting back as she took a stance that blasted her dry with nearly scorching hot air.
"Um... Lady Arza, is this an Agni Kai...?" she suddenly heard from beside her, and she lost much of her steam as she blinked and looked over at a helmed and masked firebender from Prince Zuko's crew.
"Wha—? I don't— Yes! Go away, you buffoon!" she scoffed at the man in disbelief, and he scampered backwards, ducking a bit like she might explode, but it seemed the soldiers had accepted it was a duel, even if a random water tribe boy was getting in the way.
The line of Fire Nation troops shifted uneasily. "They're… dueling," one muttered under his breath.
"In the middle of a raid?" another hissed.
"Nobles," the first insisted, with the blind confidence of someone who very much did not want to get involved in aristocratic business. "You want to stand between them? Be my guest."
Nobody was that brave. They tightened their ring around the villagers instead and pretended this was all according to plan.
On the other side of the trampled snow-street, the Water Tribe stared.
"What's an Agni Kai?" Sokka croaked, still half-covered in the drift Zuko's boot had sent him into as Katara dragged him only mildly unwillingly away from the fight and back to the villagers.
"A duel," Katara said faintly. "Sacred firebender duel. You're… not supposed to jump in the middle of one."
"Oh, well," Sokka wheezed as he dramatically bowed and stepped back symbolically. "I sincerely apologize." Not that either firebender was listening.
Half mad trying to divide attention between the Avatar freely wandering around still in plain sight and his apparently insane and apparently ex-betrothed, Zuko planted his boots, chest heaving, ribs throbbing where her first full-bodied kick had landed. Snow-melt steamed around him. He glared at the similarly self-drying girl across from him like he could bully reality into making more sense.
"Raven," he said again, slower this time, like saying her name wrong would make her crazier. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be–"
"At home?" she spat. "Safe? Locked up in a nice warm palace while you just get away with it?" She flicked fiery sparks from her fingers like she was shaking off insects. "You don't get to vanish and pretend I don't exist too, you monster!"
"Wha—? Are you insane?!" Zuko snapped before he could stop himself, heat rising behind his words. "There's a war! I am hunting the Avatar, I don't have time for—"
"For me?" she cut in, voice cracking on the word. Fire flared around her hands again, bright and wild. "Let me fucking schedule it for you!"
She launched before he could answer.
Her arms swept out; a whip of fire snapped toward his face. Zuko blocked on instinct, flame meeting flame and blasting apart in a burst of hot wind that sent nearby snow from domed roofs sloughing down in soft collapses.
"Wow..." Aang quietly said standing just beside Katara and Sokka while Fire Nation soldiers cautiously failed to make it look like they knew what was going on or what they were supposed to be doing. "That girl is really angry."
"She's too small and cute for language like that," Sokka flatly stated like it was obvious.
Katara raised a mildly annoyed eyebrow at him, but Sokka just shrugged, and both had their attention drawn back to several flashes of flames and shouts from the dueling nobles.
"Stop! Just— this isn't the time! Agh!" Zuko breathlessly cried out as he deflected blast after blast of flames. "That's ENOUGH!" he bellowed, firing back with a much stronger single blast that Raven was forced to stop and defend herself from. Cracks from the force of the blast in the ice were loud, and a tremor had the water tribe instantly worried as they backed further away from the water's edge despite their already generous distance.
"He's gonna kick her butt, he's way better," Sokka narrated like it was a sport he knew anything at all about.
Katara scowled. "What, because she's a girl? I bet she beats him." She thumbed her nose. "Whoever they are," she uneasily added.
"Eh..." Aang said with a shrug. "He really is better."
Katara glared at Aang like he'd betrayed her badly enough that a second Agni Kai was warranted, but she quickly dropped it as she snapped back to her senses and whispered, "shouldn't you—we—be running away...?"
"A tactical retreat would definitely be—" Sokka started, and after another blast of flames there was a much louder crack in the shelf of ice that caused several Fire Nation soldiers to stumble. "A re-e-eally good idea."
The ice shelf's protests had gone unheeded for too long.
Hairline cracks raced away from every heavy step, every mis-aimed blast, every gout of heat that turned solid sheet into slick melt and back again in ugly patches. The shelf groaned like a tired animal beneath two furious, over-trained teenagers who absolutely did not care about its well being at all.
One more clash did it.
Zuko's counterblast met Raven's latest fire-whip midair. The exceptionally direct hit made a bright blinding flash, causing all still foolish enough to be watching to shade their eyes and wince. The explosion of heat and steam was as controlled as the raging teenagers, and the pressure buckled deep into the ice. A jagged crack ripped out from between them in a sharp, splintering line that went all the way to the lip of the harbor.
For a moment, everything almost held. Zuko slid to a stop, Raven failed to find anything to grab and started slowly sliding on hands and knees towards the ocean.
"Oh, no, no!" Raven tensed up as she saw the water rushing towars her.
Then the world underneath them gave up.
With a sound like thunder, the harbor ice sheared away from the thicker pack. The chunk holding Zuko, Raven, most of his front line, and a respectable amount of the village's shoreline lurched, tilted, and began to slide out toward the icy blue water.
The Water Tribe didn't need anyone to tell them what to do. Years of living on a fickle ocean took over. Mothers grabbed children. Older kids grabbed younger kids. Katara snatched Sokka's parka hood and hauled him bodily away from the edge as the ice beneath the Fire Nation lines began to crumble.
"Back!" Gran-Gran barked, more emphasis than plea now, and the villagers scrambled further inland, boots slipping but moving.
Soldiers shouted and flailed as the ice under them split into jagged rafts. A couple toppled into the freezing sea with armor-heavy splashes, clinging to whatever edges they could grab. Others windmilled their arms, trying to keep formation on suddenly mobile platforms.
Raven's attention stayed fixed on Zuko.
As the ice tilted back in her favor, she sprinted and half slid across a listing sheet, jumped the newly opened crack, streaks of flame kicking from her heels to give her just a little more height. "You will not escape me!" she screamed like it was an order from on high, not that he was even trying to.
"Who's escaping, you idiot—?!" he threw back, but the retort turned into a grunt as the ice under him dropped a full arm's length and his injured ribs slammed against unseen ridges. Pain tore across his chest like a fresh boot heel. "Ga-aahh!" he wheezed.
Momentum did the rest. Raven sailed a generous distance over his head and flailed for the absolutely nothing to hold onto in the air before unceremoniously dunking herself in the roiling, freezing cold ocean with a cut-short panicked shriek—all lost to the chaos.
Zuko glanced, had one moment of intense curiousity what the hell that was about, but the water's roar had swallowed her, and he started clambering back up the broken ice to look around for where the Avatar had gone.
Cold slammed the fire out of reckless Raven like a fist. For a heartbeat she didn't know which way was up, only that everything burned and froze at once. Every last ounce of her bending roiled up from her core and permeated her skin as she scrambled to get out of the water. When she did find the surface the deep cold in her limbs was already dragging her bending down to a dull, useless flicker, and even though she saw the spears and banners of Zuko's crew just down the shattered beach, her legs wouldn't let her seek her vengeance.
"Prince Zuko!" one of his men yelped as their section of ice bumped hard against the side of the warship and began grinding along its hull, each of the men upon it sighing with relief as a confused Iroh tossed them down a rope ladder. "What about the— the noblewoman, she's—"
"WHO CARES!" Zuko snapped, clutching his bruised chest as he snorted out licks of fire. "Get everyone back on the ship, NOW! The Avatar is escaping!"
That was something his men understood.
Armor clanked as soldiers scrambled and hauled each other up the warship's side, abandoning stranded ice chunks as they broke and drifted further out. Half the once-imposing formation degenerated into a wet, shivering mess on deck, with the ones who hadn't fallen in rushing to get the rest of the firebenders. By the time the last of them clambered up and the ramp winches chattered into life, the ice shelf they'd come in on was a jagged, drifting graveyard of slush and broken floes. The village itself still stood, perched on its more solid footing, but the harbor was a shattered mouth.
From somewhere far beyond the steam and falling snow, the deep, mournful bellow of a sky bison rolled across the water. It was just enough stress. Sokka's watch tower held out as long as it could, but finally toppled over while no one was watching.
Zuko, soaked to the bone, steaming faintly in the cold, stormed across his own deck like a prow with legs. Every breath made his ribs throb. Meltwater dripped from his hair into his good eye. His crew tried very hard to look busy and not like they'd just watched their prince get kicked around by a girl half his size over what seemed like a petty teenage dispute.
"MOVE," he barked at a pair of dawdling soldiers, shouldering past them toward the bridge. "Get us turned around—no, don't wait for the ice to clear, RAM it if you have to—"
"Prince Zuko," a calmer voice cut through his tirade like a warm knife through cold butter. "Did something go wrong with your mission?"
"Girls are crazy, Uncle! That's what went wrong!" he barked as he heated his palm to rapidly dry his soaked everything, and Iroh was kind enough to join in with one hand to hurry it along, but still had cup of tea in his hands, robe neat, beard un-scorched—having missed the entire theater outside. His brows rose slightly at his nephew's state, but his eyes were more amused than surprised.
"The men said something about an Agni Kai?" he pondered, and turned briefly to look out over the water, wondering who he even would have been dueling.
"I don't want to talk about it," Zuko growled, which of course meant they were going to talk about it slightly later.
"Ah," Iroh said mildly, as if that explained everything. He tipped his chin toward the sky. "Then perhaps you'll prefer talking about that."
Zuko followed his gaze in pure exasperation and froze.
Appa's huge shape cut between the low-hanging clouds, white fur stark against gray sky. The sky bison was already a considerable distance away, but there was no mistaking the direction—away from the village, toward open sea. A smear of orange and blue on his back marked familiar silhouettes.
The Avatar. Getting further away every second.
Rage, humiliation, pain, and the bone-deep, singular drive that had kept Zuko moving for the last three years all smashed back into one coherent line.
"THE AVATAR!" he roared, because he didn't have a better word for the mix of longing and hatred and necessity that name had become.
He slammed a fist down on the railing and spun on his heel. "Helm! Full speed! Bring us about and follow that bison! I want every crumb of coal in those furnaces burning!"
The ship answered with a deep, growing rumble as it started to wrench itself free of the ice's faltering grip. Metal groaned. Steam billowed. Slowly, then faster, the warship pivoted and shoved its way back out of the broken harbor, nose angling after the vanishing speck in the sky.
Iroh sipped his tea, watching the Avatar's flight with an unreadable expression. "Mm," he murmured. "So... was this girl—"
"I said I don't want to talk about it!"
Zuko's jaw clenched from the pain of shouting, and Iroh backed off, if even just to keep him from aggravating the injury. His ribs ached. Somewhere behind them, that stubborn, furious girl he'd once thought he'd marry was probably dragging herself onto some half-frozen rock and screaming his name at the horizon, and he couldn't think of any sensible reason why.
Raven Arza had absolutely no intention of being left behind.
Her teeth were still chattering by the time rough, unfamiliar hands hauled her bodily over a low railing and dumped her onto a deck that smelled like salt, cheap pitch, and stale cargo. The boards were slick with blown ice and slush; a thin skin of frost clung to the iron fittings. She lay there for a second, coughing up seawater and hatred in equal parts, shoulder-length dark brown hair plastered to her face, fingers numb to the bone and somehow even paler.
"Uh," a nervous male voice ventured nearby. "Is she supposed to be steaming?"
A thin veil of steam did indeed hiss off her soaked red and black garb, haloing her in the gray air. Then it erupted into a mildly scalding cloud, with a nose or two singed like overly curious cooks. The tiny, stubborn flame still clinging to her fingertips flared as she slammed her palm down to push herself upright, scorching a perfect handprint, overcoming the crew's pre-soaking of the planks. Snow crystals and salt hissed to nothing under her.
Raven spat a mouthful of brine over the side, breath fogging in the bitter wind, eyes fixed on the sea ahead.
Zuko's warship was already pulling away from the shattered harbor, a black knife against the flat, pewter horizon, moving with the hungry determination of a predator catching scent again. Churned ice bobbed in its wake. Above, a white shape bobbed in and out of the low, ragged clouds, growing smaller.
He was still chasing the Avatar.
"Coward," she rasped, voice rough but full of venom. "You won't get away."
"Ahaha," the same nervous voice tried, belonging, when she finally turned, to a lanky man in patched Earth Kingdom leathers and a Fire Nation-issue scarf that absolutely did not belong to him. His hair stuck out in wind-chewed tufts from under a battered cap, and up close she had to tilt her chin sharply to glare; she barely reached his shoulder. "Lady Arza, welcome back aboard. Uh. We… saw a lot of fire."
"Lo Pei," she said, equal parts greeting and warning.
Captain Lo Pei—otherwise out of work due to the war and desperate for any charter—did his best to cautiously say, "we followed your instructions exactly. We stayed out of range, we didn't raise any flags, we—"
"You weren't seen," she quickly said and snapped, "Why are we not moving?!"
He blinked, sea-gray eyes flicking to the sluggishly turning paddlewheels. "You... haven't given orders. Are we following—" he started, pointing vaguely towards Zuko's warship, now just a dark wedge in the distance.
"Obviously!" she clarified, stabbing a finger in the direction of Zuko's wake. "Now!" Faint flames buffeted out from her feet, drying out the deck in an uneven circle but thankfully not igniting it. Melted snow ran in little rivulets to the scuppers. She shook her limbs, getting out the last of the frost as her firebending rapidly rejuvenated her, but never took her unblinking hazel eyes off the man.
Lo Pei winced, glancing twice in mild panic at the slowly rolling flames. "Y-you heard the lady!" he yelped over his shoulder. Their own vessel—a stout, patched-up Fire Nation transport hull that surely looked great in Sozin's time—plowed gracelessly through the ice rubble, which it was never really designed for, deck timbers grumbling against the metal siding with every bump. At least Zuko's larger vessel had left few serious obstacles in its wake, but there was no mistaking which ship was meant for war and which for sacks of grain.
Raven clenched her fingerless gloves on the cold beaten metal of the gunwale, which rapidly warmed under her grip, sending droplets into the ocean below. Her heart was still pounding so hard she had to think deliberately to breathe properly, and her mind raced over what had just happened. She had spent so long gathering a few coins here or there, making it work for her in trades behind closed doors, all painfully slow under her irritatingly perceptive father's notice, all so she could throw herself at Zuko without any regard for what she had planned—a direct challenge he'd be forced to face to the bitter end, a proper Agni Kai—but now she could only grit her teeth at her own stupid emotions getting the better of her.
She slapped at the back of her surcoat, knocking loose stubborn lumps of slush. For a moment the golden spearhead emblem there—the ornate symbol of House Arza—caught what thin gray light there was and glinted fiercely before the clouds swallowed it again.
"Ahh, Lady Arza?" Lo Pei peeped from behind her, boots skidding a little on the still-damp deck as he edged just outside the radius of residual heat, and the nearest crewman's eyes widened as he backed out of potential flame range.
"What."
"Ah, well, you see," he said awkwardly, but the baleful glare of wasted time spurred him on, "we burnt through most of the coal getting here, if we don't stop at the closest harbor," he poked at a partially folded map flapping in the breeze, calloused fingers pinning a corner. The ink was smudged at the edges from years of use, but the coastline was clear enough, not that she was looking closely anyway. "We'll, well, end up adrift before we catch a speedy cruiser like that."
Raven glared at him like physics was a personal insult. The wind tugged at the ends of her hair; even dried, it still smelled faintly of smoke and salt. "We can't lose him when we're this close!"
"With respect, Lady Arza," he said, and to his credit there was a little steel under the wobble, "we really appreciate the work, really! We all do!"
"Thank you, Lady Arza!" a few nearby men called out meekly and waved.
"But we'd rather starve to death on shore. Not freezing in the middle of nowhere," Lo Pei said with some finality but a disarming shrug to temper it. "If possible."
Her hands curled into fists at her sides. But she shook her hair and the last of the moisture burned away, unsticking the strands to land somehow perfectly back into her noble hairstyle that she clasped anew with gold in practiced precision. She wanted to scream. She wanted to throw fire until something gave. But it was just reality that Zuko's vessel outpaced hers by a significant margin, and chasing him without knowing where he was going was a fool's errand regardless. She knew that, she just... wanted to charge screaming across the water after him anyway.
Instead she dragged a hand down her face, forcing her voice flat. "Nearest harbor?"
Lo Pei brightened slightly, relieved to be back on a practical topic. "There's a coal depot at Naqorin Point, half a day north if the currents are kind. We make for it, we can refuel and still… possibly… maybe… be in the same ocean as Prince Zuko by tomorrow."
The closest crewman, Bao, stroked his half-grey beard and cheerily added, "they've the top quality fuel coal there, too. Only for the warships usually, but you're a noble, so...?"
"Oh, yeah, that's right, Bao! Hey, we'll get more speed out of this Yaoru-class frigate with that, the new boilers you paid for can take the heat," Lo Pei rapidly nodded with a wide smile under his uneven mustache as he wrung his hands, scarf tails flapping in the wind.
"You guys talking about the warship grade coal at Naqorin Point? I've heard that coal makes vessels twice as fast!" a third deeply unsightly and unevenly tanned man—Bong Li, whose nose looked like it had met too many tavern tables—artificially leaned in from just inside the rusty door to add, breath steaming in the chill.
"Twice as fast, you say?" Bao stood tall and put his hands on his hips to say. "We'd make up the time lost in just a few hours! That's incredible, Bong Li!"
Raven deflated as she gave them a disappointed grimace. "I'm not going to burn you over this frigate being old and slow." But her expression cooled to one of simple indifference. "You can stop doing... whatever you're doing right now."
Only the smoke from Zuko's cruiser was visible anymore, a faint gray smear under the low clouds. The men just stood there, glancing from time to time at the smoke that heralded their doom, waiting to see for sure if their employer was going to kill them or not.
"Fine," she bit out. "Naqorin Point. I will be stoking the flames myself, so waste time at your own peril."
Lo Pei swallowed. "Full speed it is," he said briskly, and bolted to shout orders at the crew.
The merchant sailors—men who'd lost their trade routes and livelihoods to the war and were now very aware of how incendiary their new employer was—jumped to obey. The crew hustled even if they had nothing to do, the wooden deck creaked in its metal prison, coal shovels bit faster, and their soot-covered engineer ducked for cover as Raven stormed her way into the engine room.
The engineer—old enough to make Lo Pei look like a recruit, shoulders permanently hunched from years spent under low beams—was barely taller than Raven, but somehow still managed to look smaller as he huddled under the piping, mask askew. He squeaked something panicked and wordless as she took a solid-footed stance, both palms forward, to vent her frustration into the boilers and transform it directly into knots.
"You won't get away next time," she grumbled to herself as she let out a near half-minute long jet of flames, the metal skin of the boilers glowing faintly warmer in response, before having to take a deep breath. She saw the white-hair-scorched-black-on-the-tips engineer looking up at her in horror from where he had huddled, pointing at himself and looking ready to cry. She briefly locked eyes with him, and rolled them. "Not you."
The small man breathed with relief and scampered off between the humming machinery. "'Scuse me, Lady Arza!"
Only when she couldn't summon up another single spark did Raven trudge her way back up to the deck, boots thudding delicately on iron steps that clanged in the cold air, where she instantly heard voices calling something out in the distance, and looked herself, suddenly leaping from the pits of uncertainty to a new energy despite it all.
The Avatar. In the distance, but unmistakable as no other flying bison were around, that was for certain. Against the low cloudbank, Appa's shaggy white bulk was visible only for the saddle and riders. He'd doubled back and was heading in just the right direction that she'd struggle not to cross paths with Zuko again soon.
"Hah!" she jeered, spooking a few men at the rail as her voice cut through the wind. "I've got you now."
* * *
The harbor looked like a stalemate carved into stone.
Zuko's outdated cruiser slid in between two walls of steel and banners, one blackened metal with the red banners of the Fire Lord's crown, the other gilded and flying the golden spearhead of House Arza. On the eastern quay, where royal pennants snapped from an Empire-class battleship, Commander Zhao's phoenix-headed prow towered directly to the right of Zuko's dwarfed vessel. On the opposite side, Lord Arza's own battleship was only a few paces away in gold-wrapped steel, and only by their grace did they allow Zuko the central position as the prince, banished as he was.
On the ground at Zuko and Iroh's immediate disembark, they were between the two forces that separated like oil and water, leaving a clear strip of dock like no-man's-land where skittish dockworkers tried not to stay for long. Men in both colors stood back from it a little too carefully, hands never far from weapons, eyes never quite relaxed.
"Mmm," Iroh murmured at Zuko's shoulder. "Tension between Lord Arza and the Fire Lord again," and he breathed out a tired sigh, having clearly seen such issues before. "I recommend not taking sides, or getting involved."
Zuko grunted. "Don't need to tell me that." His boots were on the loud metal of the prow's ramp the instant it came to rest.
Waiting at the bottom were the two men Zuko least wished to meet with, except perhaps his own father.
Commander Zhao, sideburns oiled and armor gleaming, stood with two elite firebenders at his back. Opposite him, with a pair of his own spear-wielding firebenders, was Lord Arza himself, throwing his weight around in a black and gold surcoat with a house emblem so gilded and encrusted with jewels it likely cost as much as one of his ostentatious warships.
And in Lord Arza's right hand, point resting on the stone, was the spear. Of all the fabulous gems and ornaments in his treasury, as he was the lord of the most valuable gemstone and rare metal mines in the Fire Nation, that spear stood out as the most legendary and priceless.
But Arzayanagi looked instantly odd in the daylight. Too much light reflected off its curves, which even at a distance made one's eyes flicker and focus unnaturally, with a sense of ancient dread accompanying any more than cursory inspection of its impossible, infinitely fractal design.
The shaft was a depthless matte black that swallowed the sun, banded here and there in gold like bindings on a dangerous scroll of obsidian void that was barely contained. The spearhead was all hard-edged geometry, ostensibly ornamental but with an edge that made Zuko's skin crawl to look at as he came to stop before the unfortunately waiting men. Arza held it point very straight down, like anything else would be reckless.
Even with the blade angled carefully away from any flame, Zuko could feel firebending breathing out of it—a coiled pressure in the air, every brazier on the dock seemed to lean toward it.
"Prince Zuko," Zhao called, stepping forward with a shallow bow. "And General Iroh. Fire Lord Ozai sends his regards, I'm sure." And he gave a wicked grin as he glanced to Arzayanagi and back again. "It's hungry today," he said of the weapon. "I see you can sense it. It's... invigorating, isn't it?" He had all too much satisfaction.
Zuko did feel like his own bending was a bit stronger just by being in the spear's presence, but to Zhao he barely dipped his chin. "Commander Zhao," he flatly paid the least respect he could get away with. His eyes were already on the actual noble lord behind Zhao.
Lord Arza wore dark armor worked with gold in the shape of flames and spearheads, seeming afraid of reds with his muted greys in their place, although his soldiers still wore properly red Fire Nation garb. Faint streaks of grey threaded his slicked black hair too, angular like a weapon, there was nothing soft about him. His gaze was as bright and cutting as the spear point, but an old and faded familiar purple burn scar was visible on his neck and up his right cheek, making him favor a goatee style more common in the Earth Kingdom, sides burned and all.
When that gaze fell fully on Zuko, the air seemed to tighten.
"Lord Arza," Iroh said, tone smoothing; he bowed deeper than he had for Zhao. "It has been many years."
Arza's eyes flicked to him. Something shifted—recognition, an old, complicated anger that wasn't for Iroh alone. "General Iroh," he said. "You have my respect." The words came out gravel-rough, but not hostile. "Your legend is still thicker than your waistline, by a margin."
Iroh didn't take the bait at all, smiling as he patted his belly cheerfully. "Alas. It is harder to lose than my hair."
Arza's men smothered grins, and they almost looked like they were hoping somebody would make a move they'd regret. Arza's mouth twitched; even Zuko, distracted by a thousand other thoughts, could tell the man was barely keeping his composure.
When his gaze slid back to Zuko, and the absence of softness somehow became a deficit.
"You," he said.
No title. No honorific. Just the word, dropped like something rotten.
Zuko lifted his chin. "Lord Arza." Genuinely unsure what he had done to offend the man, but ready for the worst after his daughter jumped him so recently.
For a moment they just stared at each other. Zuko could see—felt more than saw—that Lord Arza was measuring him, not just as a prince or a firebender, but as something else entirely. Whatever he found, it seemed to baffle and frustrate the man, like he couldn't quite believe the sight of him.
Zhao, very aware of the charged silence, stepped into it with forced smoothness. "We are honored to have two such… distinguished members of the royal family sharing the harbor," he said. "A good omen, surely, before Lord Arza's army marches inland for Omashu, and my fleet sails north." His eyes gleamed. "Hopefully for your hunt of the Avatar, too, Prince Zuko." He added like a taunt.
Zuko bristled. "The Avatar can't hide forever." Trying very hard not to show any sign he was just stopping for coal so he could actually chase after the finally revealed fugitive.
"We shall see," Zhao said pleasantly. Then, with careful deference, "Lord Arza, I understand you mean to take Omashu personally. A bold move for a naval commander. Perhaps General Iroh could offer you some wisdom for such a campaign?"
Arza didn't look at him at first. His hand shifted on the spear, thumb brushing the black metal like an old habit. "Only a fool would underestimate King Bumi, of course. But Arzayanagi hasn't been this... eager... since I inherited it. He will be its first victim in decades if he faces me."
Iroh couldn't help but raise a finger and wisely insist, "a show of force with such a weapon, Lord Arza, should be enough to make them surrender. More survivors means more new subjects and more taxes, after all."
Zhao looked offended at the mere suggestion of mercy, but Lord Arza simply shrugged and tersely said, "a fair point."
Zhao's eyes went, unwillingly fascinated, to Arzayanagi. "It would be a shame not to let it sink its teeth into fresh meat after it slept for so long, though."
"Personally, I would rather it wasn't quite so... temperamental," Arza said quietly. He angled the blade up to face a lone brazier, almost as if tossing it a treat, and the flames jumped several feet higher with a noisy rush. "But... I will not face Omashu without it." He breathed out like it was a chore just to wield it.
Zuko snorted before he could stop himself. "You talk like it has moods."
Arza's eyes snapped back to him, sharp as a thrown knife.
Zhao shot Zuko a warning glance. "Prince Zuko," he said, half-scolding, half-curious. "Arzayanagi is a sacred relic of the Fire Nation. House Arza's duty to—"
"It's a weapon," Zuko cut in, irritation and pain from his bruised ribs leaking into his voice. "It's powerful, I can feel it. But so is a volcano. Doesn't make it a person."
"You have never held it," Arza said. His tone stayed soft, but the braziers on the dock guttered and rose with the words, and a slight smile betrayed his intention to make sure Zuko never had the privilege. "You have no idea," he breathed out with reverence.
"I have," Iroh said quietly.
Zuko and Zhao both glanced at him.
"At the royal palace, I recall, your brother requested to inspect it," Lord Arza said with unhidden malice that made Zhao grit his teeth from the tension. "I would have refused. My father was still its guardian then."
Iroh's usually warm eyes were distant. "You won't get an argument from me," he went on. "I wish I'd never held it." He looked at the spear, and for a heartbeat there was something like respect and unease in his expression before turning to his nephew. "Lord Arza does not exaggerate. There is real rage in that metal."
"It is nothing to fear," Arza said. "For House Arza," and he outright wallowed in the smugness.
Zhao, of all people, was the one to break the tension. He cleared his throat. "Speaking of rage," he said smoothly, "I commend you on your restraint, Lord Arza." His eyes glittered as he looked between Zuko and Arza, like he hoped he'd just ignited a powder keg. "Over your daughter."
The sentence hung open like a raw wound, Zuko's face drooping at the vexing thought of Raven having ambushed him. Lord Arza was a paper white mask of evil, Zhao had a predatory gaze, Iroh sensed something was very off but not why, and Zuko couldn't see past his own slightly scorched nose.
"So you know about that, huh?" the prince said as he rolled the shoulder that still ached from where Raven had thrown both feet into her brutal first strike. "For someone so weak she sure was a nuisance. I don't suppose you know why she decided to get in my way, do you, Lord Arza? No, ah, offense." He awkwardly finished when it occurred to him he was talking about the man's daugther, but he'd known her so long it was hard not to just speak of her casually.
Zhao stared at Zuko in abject disbelief, not hiding it at all as he took a long step back to not be between Lord Arza and the prince, although sensing hostility, Iroh actually stepped closer.
"You... you... I will..." Lord Arza twitched and growled, hands shaking as he shifted to hold the spear in both, low and not quite yet in a combat stance as flickers of flame came out with his long, shuddering exhalation.
Zhao's brows arched. "By the spirits, Prince Zuko—" he incredulously laughed as he held up both hands.
"Like the little twerp didn't have it coming, did she mention she started it? Worst possible time I was just about to—ah—well, timing was bad," Zuko cluelessly shrugged, but tensed up just before foolishly giving away his sighting of the Avatar.
Lord Arza was very still, then suddenly raised the spear, but even as he moved Iroh and Zhao rushed to the lord's sides.
"I'll kill him, let me go! I'LL BURN YOU RIGHT INTO THE STONE, DEATH IS TOO GOOD FOR YOU, YOU—GRAHHH!" Lord Arza raged as the spearhead glinted in the evening sunlight and heat came off it in waves, but Iroh and Zhao were dragging him backwards.
"Of course you'd just side with her anyway," Zuko angrily shouted back. "It's not my fault she's crazy!"
"No, lemme go, ngh, GRAHH!!!" Lord Arza struggled as his own elite firebenders helped grapple and rip Arzayanagi away from him, uneasily chanting at him like a mantra that he had told them to stop him, he had told them to stop him! He made them promise!
"No, Lord Arza, you can't Agni Kai the royals right now!" a sub-commander of his shouted loudly over the man's progressively less coherent ranting. "Remember the agreements!"
Zuko was about to laugh at the absurdity when he caught a good look of Lord Arza's silent and murderous face as he breathed and calmed himself with four men holding him in place where he stood, and a fifth scampered off with the spear to keep him from blowing up the harbor with it.
"Prince Zuko," Iroh said severely. "Don't make things worse!"
Zuko blinked, finally noticing the way every eye in the harbor had pinned him. He straightened, half out of pride, half out of reflex. Despite Lord Arza's outburst, he was the center of attention, and for some reason that just pissed him off even more. "I don't answer to you!" he shouted really in equal parts at his uncle and Lord Arza. "And quit gawking, don't you have work to do?!" he bellowed at the nearby soldiers and laborers who had gathered, and they scattered.
"I could challenge him to an Agni Kai in your place if it would please you, Lord Arza," Zhao said with a too polite tone as he gestured to Zuko.
Zuko instantly thumbed his nose at that. "When I win, you all can't mention that idiot around me again, how's that?" He regretted it the instant it left his mouth, but pride refused to call it back. Despite his desire to catch the Avatar, he did actually have the slightest glimmer of curiosity over why Raven was so angry.
"No," Arza said as Iroh and Zhao finally trusted enough to let him go. The word came out like a spark landing on dry tinder. "If there is an Agni Kai, it will be with me. The Fire Lord was far too gentle with you, boy."
He spun on his boot and strode away, his elite spearmen hurrying after with one carrying the now black cloth-wrapped Arzayanagi alongside them. Every torch nearby dimmed a bit in the weapon's absence, and Zuko felt a bit colder.
Zhao exhaled so hard his sideburns fluttered as he hurried back over to the prince, Iroh just behind, and to Zuko unexpectedly eagerly adopted an almost proud smile and said, "your father was wrong about you, Prince Zuko. I wouldn't dare say half of that to Lord Arza, not while he's wielding Arzayanagi. Where'd that heart of steel come from, huh?" he laughed aloud, but only after glancing to be sure Lord Arza was fully out of earshot.
Zuko barely glanced Zhao's way as he breathed out, "look, we're just here to refuel. I don't have time to tip toe around the feelings of the pompous dad of a girl who's too stupid to live. I don't know what happened to her after she fell, and... I don't care." He crossed his arms to go on, but hated himself for faltering slightly.
Zhao fought a shiver. Unbelievable, he thought, both appalled and impressed. Iroh seemed to be studying both him and Zuko in equal measure like he was searching for clues.
"My fleet heads north in the morning, if you need assistance, you're cleared to approach," Commander Zhao stated as he backed up and bowed respectfully. "But I have matters to attend to."
Zuko and Iroh watched him go, and they both took a deep breath. "I thought he'd never leave," Zuko grumbled as he nearly ripped the parchment while signing off on a fuel requisition.
"They're insane," he snapped, pacing tight lines along the rail. "Both of them. Him, his house, that spear. Acting like I spit on the sun just by mentioning Raven, who ambushed me, by the way. Moron doesn't even know how an Agni Kai works, like how is that supposed to prove anything?!" He made a sharp, angry gesture. "Agh!" he winced from the pain in his still bruised chest. "What, do they think I dumped her or something?!" He threw up his hands in resignation. "I was banished, what do they want from me?! Should go yell at father, not me..." he puffed and raged but eventually just looked tired.
"So that was the girl, then?" Iroh curiously asked. "The one who attacked you? It was Lady Raven Arza?"
"Yes!" Zuko instantly shot back. "But I don't care about that! Like I need more people stabbing me in the back! Nnnrgh! I was so close, uncle! He was right there!"
Iroh held up his hands, clenching his teeth. "Not so loud, Prince Zuko!"
Zuko bit back the retort. He realized he'd be a fool to announce his sighting of the Avatar so soon. He needed to get back out on the sea as soon as possible, and just the sight of the obnoxiously slow moving coal carts was making him sweat.
* * *
The sky over Kyoshi Island was a washed-out blue, streaked thin with clouds. Wind came in off the sea with a salt bite instead of the knife-cold of the south; waves shouldered themselves against the cliffs in slow, heavy breaths. Raven also shouldered herself against the cliffs with heavy breaths as she mildly regretted the precarious but well hidden point Lo Pei had found to tuck the frigate out of sight from approaching vessels.
"Careful of the thorns!" Lo Pei called up to Raven, squinting at the sight of her scaling the jagged rocks faster than he expected but directly towards a patch of nasty looking milkroot; the black thorns were gleaming on ghostly pale thin vines that crawled down the ocean cliff for a taste of the salty air.
Raven glanced up, took a breath, and jutted her palm upwards, giving a wide bursting cone of flashing flames that reduced the painful plant to delicate twigs that scatter on touch. "My thanks, captain," she called back, possibly loud enough to be heard over the water hitting the rocks.
There was something undignified and embarrassing about scaling a cliff while a bunch of slackjawed sailors watched, but she was focused and past the really slippery part where she was likely to make a fool of herself anyway.
Lo Pei called again as she reached the top. "You're really going inland? I don't think the locals like the color red!"
"They can shut their eyes then!" Raven shouted back, but with no heat at Lo Pei himself. Her attention was already turned inward, cataloguing further cliffs, sight-lines, possible approaches from her high vantage point, although she could only tell where the village was by the pillars of smoke over the misty hills. "Stay out of sight!" she gave as her final command before moving out of sight herself.
The forest atop the cliffs smelled of damp soil and salt and something sweet underneath—flowers hidden in the undergrowth. With a burgundy cloak wrapped tightly around her noble garb not quite fit for such a journey, Raven still moved through it like a knife point slipping between ribs, steps light, barely disturbing the ferns. Sun broke through the drifting clouds and fog in scattered shafts, painting stripes across her path.
It should have been peaceful.
Instead her mind played and replayed that first encounter: Zuko's shocked face, the way he'd said her name, like he was astonished she didn't just stay at home and get over it. Life had been so easy, so pleasant; she regretted not appreciating it more before he ruined everything. Banishment was too good for him though, she was more than certain of that. The thought of him laughing with his soldiers like none of it mattered made her teeth grind.
"Coward," she muttered under her breath, ducking under a low branch.
A faint whisper carried on the wind. Raven froze, dropping instinctively into a crouch, hand already twitching toward blazing.
Voices. Two of them. Shrill, feminine and definitely trying not to be heard, but something about the shape of the land was carrying their not quite recognizable words to her. She wasn't more than a single hill away from the village now, so running across someone was little surprise, but it sounded like they were already looking for her.
Raven slid sideways, using the slope of the hill as cover, and crept toward the sound. The whispers resolved into words as she eased around a stunted pine.
"…I'm telling you, I saw red, probably Fire Nation—" a mildly whiny girl's voice came through the curling mist.
After a quiet snort came another deeper but still feminine tone. "Yeah, well, you 'saw' a fox antelope walking on its hind legs last week, too."
"It was real! It winked at me! You're just still mad I ate your—" the first girl rapidly hissed.
"Shh! I heard something!" came the second again, and Raven heard the rustle of clothing and armor just barely around the rocks she was plastered to.
Simple as tossing a loose bit of shattered stone over their heads, Raven got them both to dart their gazes away, and she hurried a quick glance. In arm's reach were two young women in heavy garb—the green of a hunter's cloak—with layered skirts and armor for ease of movement under heavy protection, and she marked the glint of sharp, metal fans clenched in their gloved hands. The girl in front held her fan low and ready, half-open in a normal guard. But Raven narrowed her gaze at the girl behind who had hers tilted almost straight up, the polished surface angled wrong for fighting—but perfect for catching a reflection.
Raven's own cloak flashed back at her in that mirror-bright curve: a smear of burgundy and gold against the trees. Her heart skipped a beat. They'd already seen her. Everyone moved at once.
Raven shoved off the rock, abandoning subtlety; the nearer Kyoshi warrior spun, fan whipping up toward Raven's wrist in a move meant to lock and twist. The other dropped her "mirror" into a proper grip and lunged in low, aiming to sweep Raven's legs.
The young warriors were quick, in peak fitness, but Kyoshi Island was remote and had nothing for them to cut their teeth on. Raven hopped over the sweep, directly at the smaller of the two warriors to close too quickly for the fan to strike and sprain her wrist, but it still cut a neat line through Raven's mute burgundy tone cloak, exposing bright red clothes underneath, but couldn't quite draw blood. Other than that, it all went exactly as Raven intended. She stepped off the stronger warrior, who stumbled. Raven's elbow cracked hard against the lesser one's jaw, who cried out. Both failed to counter as Raven slipped past and shoved the one still standing into the one trying to stand, and they both collapsed again.
The Kyoshi warriors were delighted to have time to roll onto their feet again after being so dangerously prone, but less so when a bright orange flash blinded them. With two shrieks of pain, their white painted faces were scored black, just under their red shadowed eyes. Raven pulled her fiery whip back out of existence as quickly as she bent it, leaving the two covering their eyes and backing away in a panic.
"I can't see, Naeko! I can't see!" the younger of the two freaked out, shakily tapping her fingers to her face. "Ow! Ow! Ow!"
"Curse you, invader!" apparently Naeko spat as she did her best to take a combat stance again.
It was obvious she wasn't even lined up with Raven properly, who enjoyed a good imperious laugh at their plight. "Oh, please, I scarcely touched you. I'd say walk it off on the way home to your little village, but I can't just let you go, can I?"
Naeko was squeezing her eyes shut and opening them again, still just getting blurry tears for her trouble. "Run! Warn Suki! Go!"
Raven genuinely chuckled at the hopeless sight of the still panicking younger warrior getting tangled up in branches and not even going the right way, but was genuinely stumped. She didn't really bring any method of subduing and restraining anyone, and it seemed more than a little unseemly and excessive to seriously injure or spirits-forbid kill those two, who Raven fully realized were just doing their jobs.
Thankfully she didn't have to awkwardly stand there any longer, because a determined voice came from the most camouflaging patch of leafless, winter-stricken bushes. "Don't worry, I'm already here," Suki, apparently, offered her comrades. Making the best of bad cover, she was in plain sight despite her efforts, and not happy about it. Raven sighed at the sight of another warrior in green, but with an adorable little crown that Raven felt a sudden invasive urge to just... take. But it was dispelled when more leafless rustling gave away four more such women roughly approximating a circle surrounding Raven. She grimaced at her sour luck of having run afoul of so many so soon.
"Saw smoke over the hill. You're a bit obvious for a spy, aren't you?" Suki taunted as she adopted that same stance and cautiously approached, the others not-yet-blinded following suit as seething breaths of pain came from the damp forest floor.
Raven was genuinely taken aback. "A spy?!" she scoffed. "I am Lady Raven Arza! Spying is beneath me." And she made no effort to conceal a wide low spinning kick that bent fire in an arena-like circle around her, encompassing her and Suki, but keeping the others at least briefly at bay. Most importantly it cleared the space for her more advanced techniques.
She brought them to bear immediately. A quick jumping double kick that sent arcs of flame up under Suki's feet. As Suki toppled back, forcing to press hard with her fans to keep the flames at bay, Raven made to slam her heel down in one white hot crack of sparks to knock her out of the fight immediately, but she was robbed at the last second. Her heel cooked moss while Suki rolled, swept flames back in Raven's direction she was forced to disperse, and she was genuinely impressed—and a little startled—when an elbow struck hard on her side right out of that roll. The sharp pain forced her attention on Suki, and Raven clenched her teeth knowing the other four were bearing down, so she spun in a graceful pirouette, her flaming whip springing from her upward stretched hand and spiraling around her thrice over before the end of frayed flames swept hotly near white faces.
All the warriors in green were forced to back off several paces, not knowing the whip was less-than-lethal, and Raven sharply frowned. This was a distraction. That elbow really, really hurt! These annoying peasant girls from a dump of a village were getting in her way, and they had no business even speaking to her as equals, much less pretending they could fight her. Fans in guarded stances, Raven clenched her hands with puffs of flame, and prepared to fight like she didn't give a damn if some of them didn't get back up again.
"WA-A-A-A-A-I-T!" the collection of teetering on edge girls heard bellowing over them in dramatic tone. A taller, awkward, clumsy Kyoshi warrior hopped on one foot and yanked at branches while trying to approach. "I can help!" Sokka eagerly and oh-so-genuinely offered, to many raised eyebrows. "Katara, you were right! It really is that girl again!" he shouted behind him, where blue clothes and triumph approached fast.
"Lucky guess," Katara modestly said as she hurried up to Sokka, but her smile blanketed the honestly already put upon forest in 'I told you so'.
Raven stopped her stance for a moment to uncertainly point to and fro. "Who ARE all you weirdos? I'm here to put that filthy barge rat Prince Zuko on a spit, would you kindly all fuck off?"
"Yikes, there's that mouth again," Sokka reeled back to say.
"Do you know her!?" Suki demanded, almost jealous, glancing between him and Raven. "She's blinded two of my warriors!"
"Huh? Nope. Total stranger," Sokka said with a shrug.
"And, they're fi-i-ine," Raven sighed like Suki was a moron and rolled her eyes—crossed arms, not bothering to keep a ready posture. "Looks like their clown paint took the worst of it."
"See? They can sleep it off. Right?" Sokka encouraged.
Raven gave him the most curious glance as he got nearer than she liked. "Perhaps you can sleep off that cold," she muttered as she stepped away from him. "And... whatever else is wrong with you," she went on, looking Sokka up and down and failing to make sense of him.
Sokka pointed to himself and just pouted, "aw man, you're the cold one..." giving a dejected kick to a loose pebble, that Aang caught under his foot as he touched down with his glider.
"What'd I miss? Are we fighting?" Aang quickly asked, sounding genuinely curious and not quite excited.
Suki looked ready to start fighting again, but Katara quickly said, "hold on, Aang!" She looked to Raven. "My brother's an idiot." And Raven gave a nod of recognition that Sokka was not, in fact, a sick girl, but a weird boy. "She really did attack the Fire Nation raiders that came after us. She... helped us? I think?" And she clasped her hand together with a darling smile, clearly hoping Raven would just go along without a fuss, especially after Raven's decisive bullying of Katara's most annoying sibling.
"That was Prince Zuko," Raven said as she shifted her weight. "Bastard, sub-human, backstabbing torch-bait," she growled, progressively more animalistic. "I will have his head roasting on a spear atop a pyre, and YOU all... are welcome to watch," she excitedly and then coldly declared. "But do not interfere." She singled out Suki entirely, who noticed.
"I, uh, don't really wanna watch that," Aang raised his hands to nervously admit. "Have you tried just talking to him about it?"
"Aang," Katara said, disappointed.
Aang just shrugged.
"I think I can see again!" Naeko's subordinate happily declared as she sat up after several minutes of eye rubs.
Katara rapidly nodded, "so... cease fire? No need to fight?"
"Fine," some combination of Suki and Raven sighed.