Raven hit the top deck like it was a rude heckler, ready to start ejecting problem sailors into the ocean for waking her up early. Very early, as cold night air slapped her back in the face, salty and sharp, and the darkness was broken by lanterns swinging on hooks, their light wobbling across wet boards and rope coils and of course the totally expected hulking black wall of metal directly in front of her ship, which itself was more than a little crumpled.
"What... am I looking at." She blinked, craning her neck, trying to step back to get the full picture but finding only below deck to return to.
She finally made sense of it, seeing a railing above, and nodding slowly. They had rammed an Empire-class battleship.
It loomed over her little cruiser like a very disappointed parent, plated in dark iron with red trim and Fire Nation insignias that caught the deep red lantern glow. The angle of impact had been off center and stupid—obviously an accident. Her ship's prow was pressed up against the battleship's side with a sound like teeth grinding.
On both decks, Fire Nation soldiers swarmed. On her deck, half of Lo Pei's crew were in the process of being tied up, hauled upright, or shouted at by rudely woken marines. The rest were... stray as a herd of cats, being chased without running as hard as they ought to, not that there was anywhere to go, until being tackled and pinned.
Bong Li waddled his husky and unsightly self between two marines trying to restrain other crewmembers in the chaos, knocking one over as he gave Raven a dopey smile and held up one of those fancy earthenware wine bottles. "Quicksh, drink da resht of da boozsh, miss Lady Arsha," the sailors slurred, trying to point at her and missing. "Dey found out we wuz ssshneakin' a few nips here an—" and he burped so forcefully Raven took a defensive stance. He stood staring blankly like he forgot what he was saying as the two deeply impatient Fire Nation marines came up behind him, one swiping the bottle out of his hand and hurling overboard to shatter against the black iron battleship, and the other whacking him upside the head with a club to absolutely no effect. "Whoopsh, there she goesh..."
"I thought you already tied him up!" a Fire Nation marine snapped, yanking Bong Li's his wrists behind him.
"I did, I don't know what—oh..." the second replied, finding Bong Li's wrist to end in not much of anything, and his wooden hand had popped off and gotten lost somewhere.
Then both finally noticed Raven with her chin all the way down on the floor.
"Looks like they had a captive!" the first marine yelled out, and he gave her a second look like he was horrified by 'what they had done to her'. "Stay in sight, miss, we'll get you out of here," he went on but didn't stick around as he and his fellow dragged Bong Li back to the encircled mass of captured crew.
"Uh-um..." Raven muttered to no one's attention.
Raven noticed movement above her, and saw bare feet dangling there. Taking a step out onto the deck, she turned to see Lo Pei himself was sitting there and staring ahead at the battleship like he was trying to make something out. He was swaying like tall grass, cheeks flushed, eyes half closed, and his hair was wet and matted with something dark—his grin so wide he could swallow one of those bottles whole.
He suddenly noticed her. "LADY ARZA!" he bellowed, voice loud enough to wake plankton. He leaned down with unexpected flexibility to get just above her as he whispered still very loudly. "I tfffhink shomeone hit ush! Don't tell the kkkh-aptain I waszh drinking aghkain."
Raven stared at him.
Then she stared at the battleship.
Then she stared at him again, as if repeating the sequence might cause reality to flinch and correct itself.
"Arzaya, take me back please," she flatly stated, to no one's understanding.
Lo Pei saw her dismay, and tried to cheer her up by saying, "ish okay, the Fire Naszhion iszh here to arressht the piratesh. We're shafe now." It did not work.
"Lo Pei," she said, very softly, in the tone people used when they were about to snap a pencil in half on principle. "Stay there and wait for me to come kill you."
He blinked at her like he had to process the concept of "oh," then nodded gravely. "Yesh, I shopposhe thash fair." He did actually stay sitting up there.
A marine on her deck pointed his spear up at him. "Back, pirate! Away from the hostage!" he spat, eyes flicking over Raven's damaged noble clothes and jewelry and immediately narrowing. "You sick freaks, she's just a girl!" And like he was shocked she hadn't already, he barked, "move it! Away from him!"
Two more marines pivoted toward Raven with spears lowered and hands out. Their posture said rescue. Their faces said they'd follow up by skewering a few of the crew for subjecting them to the thought of what they might have done to her. It was all happening so fast, Raven had to just go along with them for a moment to take a breath and figure out how to untangle this maddening new net.
"It's alright, miss, come this way," one of them said as she resisted being pulled more than a couple steps.
The other let out an awkward single laugh. "Think she's scared stiff. Poor little thing."
Raven's exhaustion evaporated. Not replaced by energy, exactly. More like replaced by a spiteful inner engine that ran on burst of outrage.
"I am not scared, nor a hostage," she said sharply. "Both of you stop talking immediately," she said in a dire tone that delivered on its own the message: 'I am nobility and you live, for now, because I allow it.'
The two just glanced at each other with drawn faces, no idea what they'd gotten themselves into. But a boot struck the deck on the battleship above, crisp and deliberate, at the other end of the boarding plank she wouldn't let the men escort her across.
Commander Zhao strode arms crossed and disgusted like his battleship had stepped in something foul. His cloak fell cleanly, his armor immaculate even in lantern-light, a stark contrast to the mess that was Raven. He looked about ready to cut his losses, turn back and abandon his marines who were now tainted with the blight.
Then his eyes landed on Raven. Recognition flickered across his face, quick and sinister to behold. "The state of you," Zhao called down, voice carrying like a blade, and his grin carried a too-pleased chuckle. "Do I spy Lady Raven Arza under there?" he asked like an insult.
Raven's jaw tightened as she reflexively wiped soot off her brow with her scorched sleeve. She didn't know Zhao well, but she knew he was one of the Fire Lord's officers. He had the energy of a man who was eagerly looking for more puppies to kick.
"Commander Zhao," she bit out. "My ship seems to have… crashed directly into yours."
Zhao's gaze dropped to her bandaged feet, her limp, the singed edges of her clothes, the bruises that made her look like she'd been shoved down a lengthy series of staircases. Zhao's expression hardened.
One of the soldiers from earlier who had dragged Bong Li off stood ready as Zhao stepped begrudgingly onto Raven's deck, and the man reported, "they had her prisoner down below, filthy dirt munchers."
Zhao's expression hardened further.
Raven slapped her palm to her forehead. "No, Commander Zhao, that's not-... spirits not again."
He was already turning away. He looked at Lo Pei's crew, flailing and giggling and getting tied up, and something sharp flashed behind his eyes as he clenched his fingers.
"You brazen scum," he said coldly, as if piecing together a story that offended him personally. He loomed over the crew, some of who noticed him there. "Earth Kingdom's garbage flushed out to sea, aren't you all. Savaging a Fire Nation noblewoman? You dare lay hands on your betters? Oh, you'll pay dearly for this."
Raven's brain just about fried at the fiction Zhao was spinning while ignoring her. "No, Commander, they didn't-" she sighed as she remembered she was actually pretty much beaten to a pulp regardless, and she wheezed and coughed as some sharp pain shot up her side from taking a step.
"Hi, Lady Arshza," Bong Li looked her way with a fully red-faced smile. Zhao's boot immediately struck the side of Bong Li's head, tipping him over but his expression scarcely changed.
"Do not address her, you rat!" Zhao bit the air, and he slowly turned his gaze to Raven, oddly more genuinely incensed than she expected over how he believed she'd been treated. Zhao seemed amused at first when he saw her sorry self, but now Raven paused at how oddly protective he was being.
There was a yelp and a thud behind them all. Lo Pei had finally been dislodged from the door overhang, and was in a loose pile on the deck, catching everyone's attention for a moment.
Raven sucked in a breath, felt pain, ignored pain.
"Stop," she commanded. "Stop all of this. Right now. Nobody savaged me. I'm not a prisoner."
Zhao's eyes narrowed. "Lady Arza, you can speak freely. They're no longer a threat. No need to say what they told you to."
Raven stared at him. The marines stared at her like she was about to break down crying. It was all very annoying.
Lo Pei waved at Zhao cheerfully as men dragged him to the group. "Ish true, big guy!" he shouted. "We're piratesh! I mean-hic-not piratesh! We're... uhhh..." Lo Pei trailed off like he'd forgotten the entire universe, and then smiled like he saw a lovely butterfly.
"Seriously, they work for me," Lady Arza sounded ashamed to admit, face in the palm of her hand again for good measure. "They're not pirates, they're idiots."
Zhao didn't look impressed. "Really."
Raven clenched both fists at her sides, then immediately regretted the movement because her arms also hurt, of course they did. "Give me... one moment," she said through her teeth, and turned too quickly on her heel, giving her a nice spike of agony to go with the embarrassment.
She limped across the deck, cleared past a knot of marines who seemed afraid to touch her, and nearly tripped over a coil of rope because someone had left it out like an act of sabotage. She made it to a small lockbox bolted near the cabin entrance, found someone blessedly forgot to lock it, so yanked it open, and began pawing through papers with shaking fingers. Her ship's purchase documents. Her bill of sale. The registry stamps. The seals. Aaaand crew manifest.
She hated paperwork.
Her father loved paperwork.
Which was the only reason the papers were perfect.
Raven turned back, held them up, and was just used to the pain by that point, so limped a little faster.
"Right here," she said, voice sharp enough to cut the night air, "this is my vessel, these are my employees, that pile is my captain," she jabbed a finger at Lo Pei, whose limbs came from the bulk of him all tangled up at angles that didn't seem possible. "All legal... except the collision."
Zhao's marines glanced at Zhao uncertainly, like they weren't sure if they should skewer the crew or not. He snatched the papers from her, quickly glanced them over, up at her, then back to confirm.
His mouth twitched. Not amusement. "I see," he stated.
"Then why do you look," Zhao said, "as though you've been..." and he carefully chose the word: "tortured."
Raven's lips peeled back from her teeth. "That would be Prince Zuko's handiwork," she grumbled.
Zhao's expression sharpened instantly. His eyes flashed with a hot little satisfaction that didn't belong in a man who was supposedly calm and disciplined. "Zuko?" he repeated, like the name tasted delicious for all the wrong reasons. "What, is he trying to complete the set?"
Raven's head jerked. "No-what?" She was a bit aghast.
Zhao's smile was thin. "What did your family even do to him to bring this on, anyway?" he said, and his tone made it sound like he already had some ideas in mind. "I heard he wasn't happy about the betrothal," he uttered like he was back to being amused again at how through the ringer she was. He shrugged and weakly gestured her way, "but this is overkill."
Raven's rage surged so fast she actually saw white for a moment.
"Do not presume to speak of my personal affairs, Commander!" she said, too sharp probably. "And he didn't 'attack' me like I'm some helpless little—" Her voice shook, but she forced it steady. "Whatever. I'm hunting him. Fighting him. For vengeance. He keeps escaping." And she sneered as her lip twitched. "Coward," she bit.
Zhao looked her up and down again, from bandages to limp to soot. Then he stated his level of faith in her:
"I see he let you live."
Raven's fingers curled like she wanted to grab the air and strangle it. "I almost had him," she hissed.
"Mhm," Zhao replied, an audible shrug in human form.
Behind Raven, one of her sailors tried to sing a patriotic Fire Nation marching song and got the words wrong in a way that apparently offended someone: a marine who backhanded him so hard he actually stopped singing, despite the crew's stubborn drunkenness.
Raven sighed, and raised her voice. "Please stop striking my crew, that's my job."
Raven pointed at the battleship's scraped plating where her ship had bumped it. The damage was… minimal. More embarrassing than catastrophic. Still. She had to just suck it up. "Commander, I will pay for your repairs," she said quickly, voice shifting into the crisp, noble tone her tutors had beaten into her. "I don't care what it costs. Send the bill to House Arza, you know it will be honored."
Zhao's eyes gleamed faintly.
"True," he said. Then, with a small, satisfied tilt of his head: "I'm sure Lord Arza will be pleased next time you meet."
Raven bristled, but before she spoke she felt a prickle on her skin, and calmed herself. This was important. "My father doesn't need to know about this. Let's say I owe you a favor if this never happened."
"A favor?" Zhao wondered, genuinely curious.
Raven rolled her eyes, looking away briefly as she said, "I'm bribing you," out of the corner of her mouth. But she glanced nervously around, confirming no one was paying attention after it was already too late. "It's just a personal matter. Not an illegal bribe."
Zhao's smile widened by a fraction, like he'd just watched a fish bite a hook. "I have always wanted a vacation home on the glittering isles," he said mildly, in reference to the islands in the Fire Nation under House Arza's domain, where outsiders were rarely welcome. He smirked the instant she looked like she thought he was pushing his luck, and he said, "my humor is in poor taste, I see. I don't care nearly enough to 'tell on you' to your father, my lady."
Raven deflated with relief, and was too tired and in too much pain to feel embarrassed over trying to bribe him when it wasn't even necessary... but she did appreciate he wasn't trying to squeeze anything out of her. He probably could get that vacation house if he was a real bitch about it.
"Just... please untie my crew, I swear they're not usually like this." Her voice strained as she gazed down at them still drunk out of their minds and watching her and Zhao like the two in charge of deciding their fate were just a play for their amusement.
"Your 'crew'," Zhao said, sounding faintly disgusted, "does not seem fit to serve you."
"That," Raven said tightly, "is debatable."
Zhao leaned on the rail, considering. "I could arrest them," he offered, tone almost casual. "Out of sight, out of mind." He paused, then added, like he was being generous: "I'd give you a few replacement sailors. Competent ones."
Raven's heart kicked hard. Competent Fire Nation sailors would be useful. But competent Fire Nation sailors would also talk. She forced herself to keep her face neutral. She'd been shoulder to shoulder with the Avatar, and with no mind to chase him down, which would fly in the face of Fire Nation sensibilities, to say the least.
"No," she said, and made it sound like pride, not panic. "They… put up with me at my worst. I'll give them another chance."
Zhao's eyes narrowed, like he didn't buy it, but couldn't quite see the full shape of what she was hiding.
"Then take an officer," he pressed, voice smooth. "One. Someone to keep them in line. Someone who can ensure you don't collide with anything else.."
Raven imagined a Fire Nation officer writing cheerful reports about where she sailed, who she met, and why she kept turning up near the Avatar. She smiled with her teeth.
"No," she said again. "I appreciate the… kindness. Truly. But I can handle my own ship. And it's my responsbility, House Arza's that yours is damaged. I'd like to come out of this with at least a pinch of dignity," she went on and verged on a bit of a pout. It certainly sold it.
Zhao watched her for a long moment anyway. Then he gave a short, dismissive gesture to his marines. "Untie them," he ordered, as if bored of the situation now that it wasn't going to end in anything horrible happening to anyone.
The marines hesitated, more over what chaos the crew would get up to if unbound.
"But sir—"
"Lady Arza has presented proof," Zhao cut in, voice like iron. "They're her problem, and not pirates."
Begrudgingly the marines started loosening ropes. Lo Pei clasped his hands together the instant he could, beaming. "My lady," he whispered loudly, "you are… so striking in the firelight." He was looking at Bong Li.
Raven glared at him. "Lo Pei. Stop smiling. Forever," she said back like she was fed up with a bratty little brother.
Lo Pei nodded enthusiastically. "Yesh. That sheemsh reashonable, mmm-hmm."
Zhao was handed one of the empty earthenware bottles by a lieutenant who whispered something to him. He turned it in his hand, and read the seal. His eyebrows climbed, and he glanced at Raven. "Do you have any idea what your crew just drank?"
Raven shrugged. "Wine," she said, flatly. "Fancy wine. My father looted it in the war. Who cares? It's not like he paid for it."
Zhao stared at her for a moment, then laughed. Not loudly. Just once, sharp, disbelieving. He turned to leave like that was as much absurdity as he could handle, but his attention returned to Raven just as he was moved away, and his tone shifted into something that almost sounded like helpfulness. "So you want Prince Zuko, right?" he said.
Raven's head snapped up. "You know something?"
Zhao's smile went faintly predatory, just for an instant. "He was heading to refuel at the Mo Ce Sea Prison," he said. "His engines needed repairs. You might catch him if you head straight there."
Raven's breath caught. A trail. A real one. Assuming he wasn't lying. But why would he? She hated how grateful she suddenly felt.
"I- thank you, Commander Zhao," she said respectfully, and meant it. "I'll remember this."
Zhao inclined his head slightly, as if receiving proper tribute, but still had to say, "let's avoid meeting like this again, though," as he strode confidently back up the ramp to his battleship.
Raven blinked, then frowned. "That's not—" she started, but lowered to a whisper, "oh, whatever, I don't care." And she slowly turned her now quite baleful gaze on her naughty crew.
The marines retreated to the battleship, the deck lights shifting as orders were barked and ropes were hauled and the two vessels were finally pried apart with grating, groaning reluctance. Raven stood on her deck as the Empire-class ship pulled away into the dark invisible but for the lights—scarcely the length of her own ship away. Only when the immediate urgency was gone did she let her knees wobble, and she slowly, unevenly lowered herself to a plop on the now tipped sideways case the wine came in.
Lo Pei's crew began to sway in place like reeds in a storm, eyes clearing by slow degrees as cold air and fear dragged them closer to sobriety. Their sea shanties were getting more coherent and nervous in equal measure with every phrase. One of them, Bao, a broad-shouldered older sailor with a currently split and bleeding lip, looked at Raven with dawning horror.
"My lady," he croaked. "Um… we... really liked your gift."
Bong Li remembered pain exists at that exact moment, grabbed his own head where Zhao kicked him like it might fall off. "We accidentally the whole case already?" he whined in a weirdly airy tone.
Lo Pei's grin finally cracked, turning sheepish. He blinked himself into a moment of slight clarity. "We thought," he whispered, "um... well, L-lady Arza. We... uh... hmm. My head's spinning," and he keeled over sideways before even getting up to his feet.
Raven stared at them. Her anger tried to rise again. It should have, she thought. It wasn't like it wasn't deserved... but she had only one place she wanted to focus that emotion anymore, so it misfired and just left her feeling apathy, then perhaps irritation as she glanced at the crumpled prow. She pinched the bridge of her nose and regretted existing.
"You all cannot be trusted," she said, voice flat.
They all flinched like chastised dogs.
"Aww... are we getting fired again?" Bong Li continued to whine, looking ready to cry.
Raven let out a long, ragged breath.
Every part of her wanted to scream.
Every part of her was too tired to scream.
"No," she said, deadly quiet. "You all cannot be trusted with drink." She glanced at Lo Pei's wide eyes, there was recognition there now. "Keep alcohol off my ship from now on, and this did not happen."
There was a chorus of frantic nods from the half of the crew sober enough to follow what was happening.
"Yes, my lady."
"Of course, my lady."
"Sorry we didn't save you some, my lady."
"She gave it to us, sponge-for-brains!"
"Oh, right..."
Lo Pei pressed a hand to his chest. "I think... I really should have said no to that gift." He was still smiling, but it was pained now.
"Yyyeah," Raven drawled back.
Raven pointed toward the bow. "North," she ordered. "To Mo Ce Sea Prison, and fly my house flag when we're close or they'll sink us."
Lo Pei stretched his back with his hands clutching his waist, a glimmer of fear and competence returning. "North," he echoed. "Yes, my lady. On it. Right now. Here I go." He rambled like he needed to boost the confidence of his feet to carry him. "Everybody, stations!"
The crew scattered off in various speeds from guilty scampering to still drunken stumbling, but the worst of it had worn off. Raven watched them go, chest tight, mind buzzing.
Zhao was unexpectedly accomodating. He'd given her a trail: Zuko. Mo Ce Sea Prison. She finally felt that drive come back, since she'd dragged herself off of Kyoshi Island. It wouldn't be long now before she faced him again.