The morning didn't come with kindness. The whole of the forest around Senlin was moist as damp wool left out in the rain, and the light refused to make a showing past the dim of early morning, but there was blue and light in the distance.
Appa climbed into the sky, bidding adieu to a long paranoid night, but Aang had to keep the bison low beneath the grey clouds just to see where they were going.
He even didn't trust the air anymore. He didn't trust spirits that distract you with spectacle and sneak up behind. He definitely didn't trust that damned spear wasn't going to... do something, and even though he feared it he couldn't help but reach and pat the bundle of dark cloth it was wrapped in, just to make sure. The simple instruction stuck in his mildly sleep-deprived mind: touch spear to gem, touch spear to gem, touch spear to gem...
Katara sat warily right behind him, to occupy the space any stray spirit might try and occupy, and close enough that the tickle of her breath hit his neck when the wind died for a moment, which... made him jump out of his skin, but it was nice and a laugh right after. Despite having impossibly slept through the night within arm's reach of the accursed spear, Sokka was peacefully drifting in and out of napping again on the far side of Appa's back, although he did accept several more helpings than he should at Senlin.
Aang glanced back again. Arzayanagi was still wrapped in cloth stacked with other supplies on the saddle, like a sacred thing they were pretending was just… camping equipment. The golden point still managed to look smug through the fabric, just by shape alone.
Sokka woke to see Aang eyeing it.
"So," he said, voice rough, "Step one, Crescent Island."
Aang nodded too fast. "Yep."
"Step tw-hahh-ooo, touch spear to big door gem," Sokka yawned out.
"Mmm-hmm." Aang instantly shot back.
Katara's gaze flicked to the wrapped spear. "And we're sure this is a good idea."
"Ahem-!" Sokka insisted.
"Sorry," Katara peeped.
"Step three: something, something Avatar Roku plus spear of doom goes away?" Sokka rolled his shoulders one and then the other.
Aang opened his mouth, shut it, then said what he could. "Kyoshi said it's the way."
Katara did not look comforted. "'Kyoshi said' didn't go so well last time."
"Step FOUR!" Sokka gently reminded his sister.
"You keep 'pausing dramatically' for a really long time before you say another step, just spit it out, Sokka!" Katara rapidly breathed out and collapsed briefly against Aang, who didn't mind. "We're really anxious right now, the spear makes us weird, I'm sorry!" she instantly followed up, still sounding mad at him even though it was genuinely supposed to be an apology.
"Uh-huh," Sokka flatly replied, but sped it up as he went on, "so step four seemed to just be 'Avatar Roku tells you the secret and boom we win, no more Fire Lord'. But like... why wouldn't Avatar Kyoshi know what it is? They not on speaking terms, despite... both also being you?"
Aang shrugged. "I mean, I don't know everything Roku knows either."
"Well sure, but you haven't been dead together with them for over a century. You'd think he'd mention the super important secret to beat the Fire Lord at some point," Sokka twirled his hand around as he spoke. "All I'm saying is it's weird."
"I don't like it either, we don't know what that freaky ghost lady was doing—" Katara admitted, but was cut off as Aang near steered Appa back around the wrong way he whipped around so fast.
"Not a ghost, a spirit!" he ranted.
"Are you sure?" Katara demanded.
"NO!" Aang shouted back. "And I HATE that I'm not," he grumbled ferociously. "But what, I just miss my one chance to talk to Roku and we just go lose to the Fire Lord? Because there was a spooky lady? Like what else am I supposed to do?"
"I mean, I'm just glad you also think this is all a bison load," Sokka gave as he adjusted to sit just a bit further away from Arzayanagi. "No offense, spear of doom."
They'd been flying tightly wound since Senlin, and that relieved some pressure, but Appa dipped a little and rumbled. Aang leaned forward, squinting down through drifting banks of fog
"Uh… guys?" he said.
Below them, the sea had a nasty chop, the kind that looked like the waves were all trying to bite each other. Two Fire Nation ships cut through it in parallel lines, so close together their wakes tangled. They were not politely passing.
Fire flashed between their bows, bright luring darts in the ill morning. Aang guided Appa lower without thinking, just enough that they could see clearly through the mist. The bison resisted with only a fed up bellow, misliking the flashes quite reasonably.
On the heavier ship, Prince Zuko stood braced against the rail, steaming hot wet cloak snapping behind him like an insult the wind kept repeating. He hurled fire across the gap in sharp, angry bursts, but each time he twisted, his left side seemed to catch him and the pain stole a fraction of his aim.
Such that Raven Arza, on the smaller vessel, could cling to the railing with a hand like it was the only thing keeping her upright, yet still duck his off-center blasts. She was too pale in the cold, too stiff in her movements, hiding more than striking in a struggle between impatience and pain. Even from above, Aang could tell she was still moving like someone who'd been thrown down a staircase and asked to look dignified about it.
"Why are they… still doing that?" Aang blurted.
Sokka leaned forward, disappointed. "Those two are terrible for each other."
Katara's brows pulled tight. "She looks like she's going to die on her feet..." she whispered with real concern. "What in the world did Zuko do to her?"
"Up, Appa, sorry, yip-yip! Whoops!" Aang said, immediately heaving Appa up higher as a misfired blast got too near his paws for comfort. But Appa's shadow slid over both decks. Raven snapped her head up first, eyes beaming like she'd just been handed a gift. Zuko looked up a beat later and froze, like the universe had decided to be funny at his expense.
"I was right! IT'S THE AVATAR!" Zuko's voice carried even over the wind. "Turn! Follow them!"
Almost instantly, Zuko's ship pulled starboard to line up with the bison in the clouds. Raven's followed right after, voice carrying barely at the new distance, ragged with fury and triumph. "ZUKO! STOP ESCAPING!"
"I'M NOT ESCAPING!" Zuko roared back. "I JUST DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR CRAZY WHATEVER!"
"THEN TELL ME WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" She challenged him.
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Zuko shouted, which was a lie in the purest sense of the word.
Her response was not coherent at any distance.
Aang winced and hauled Appa back up a little. "We should keep going. Get ahead of them both."
Katara grabbed the edge of the saddle and peered over more than was safe. "I suppose..."
Sokka raised a finger. "Maybe they'll just kill each other and we won't have to worry about it."
"Sokka!" they both chided him. But only Aang subtly nodded to the wrapped spear. "Not in front of Arzayanagi, you tryin' to get us killed?"
They surged higher, but the scene below stayed bright enough to see for a while.
Zuko shifted his stance and swore as the throb of pain couldn't be ignored. It wasn't sharp like a spike anymore, but he really wanted to just go lay down. The motion made his next blast go wide, hissing into the sea. He slammed his palm on the rail like it was personally responsible, but he grinned as he saw hers fall short, the distance growing as his cruiser pulled ahead with its superior top speed.
At the opposite bow, Raven leaned out and shouted again, voice like a thrown knife, but he actually couldn't make it out that time. He watched briefly as she limped a step, the somehow forced herself to jog down into her vessel.
Zuko ordered to the crew, "we don't slow down for anything!"
There was abundant motivation among the crew to make that dream of Zuko's a reality. Iroh, however, stood back from the rail, hands tucked into his sleeves and just kind of letting the sideways drizzle soak his face. It was like watching two angry cats fight over the same patch of sunlight. "Nephew," he said gently, "perhaps you could slow down and ask Lady Raven what she wants?"
Zuko snapped his head around. "She doesn't know what she wants."
Iroh's brows rose. "Do you know?"
"Sure. She wants to scream," Zuko said. "She wants to hit things. She wants to be right. There is no point talking to her until she doesn't have a spark of fight left. If I wasn't on the Avatar's tail, I'd take the time to beat it out of her." He explained, with a matter-of-fact tone like that was regular maintenance on a lady of House Arza.
Iroh's expression shifted, the gentleness not gone, but sharpened by concern. "That is a very intense thing to say about a girl."
"Oh, she's just 'a girl' now, not Lady Raven?" Zuko's mouth twisted. "Hey, remember when she flying kicked me in the chest without warning? Then tried to kill me repeatedly?"
Iroh smiled nervously and shrugged. He really had nothing.
Behind him, one of the deck firebenders glanced over the side, then across the gap, and his face changed. "Sir," he called, "they're out-speeding us."
Zuko frowned. "Of course..."
And then he saw it.
A line of smoke bursting from Raven's smokestack, not the usual dark coal breath, but bright and violent, shot through with flame like the ship itself was exhaling fire.
Zuko stared, baffled for half a heartbeat, then realization hit like an insult.
"She's firebending her engines," he hissed.
Iroh's eyes narrowed. "That is… creative."
The unnamed firebender grimaced. "Sir, we won't outrun that. Their ship's old, but lighter and must have in brand new engine parts to take that heat. Our boilers are too big for firebending to get much more speed."
Zuko barked a laugh straight out of his lungs. "You think she can keep that up and fight me?"
He barely finished the sentence before Raven reappeared, hauling herself back up with sheer spite, hair whipping, face tight, her whole posture screaming 'I am held together by vengeance and bandages.'
Zuko lifted a hand ready to defend and let her tire herself out, but her first shot smashed against the hull of his ship, feet below him. She was shouting something vicious and unclear again, but he couldn't yell mockery back as the next blast had to be bent away.
Further down both ships, at the edges where the crews could see each other, men stood like they didn't quite know what to do with themselves. Lo Pei's sailors hovered near their rail in wary clusters, watching Zuko's soldiers and firebenders with the stiff politeness of people who were very aware that might be ordered to attack at any moment.
One of Lo Pei's crew, Bao, called across in a voice that tried hard to be friendly. "So… you guys always dealing with stuff like this?"
A soldier on Zuko's deck paused, looked over, and gave a flat shrug. "With Prince Zuko? Yeah."
Bao nodded with sympathy. "Lady Raven really puts us through it sometimes too."
Bong Li reminded, "she forgave us too, though!"
"Hmm... fair," Bao nodded along while others of Zuko's crew started leaning over the railing while their speeds matched for a moment.
"I wish, his highness isn't the forgiving type," one of Zuko's firebenders gossiped.
Iroh wandered nearer the conversation, looking almost delighted by the accidental diplomacy. "Young people," he called across, warm as tea. "Can be so full of fire."
Bao threw up his hands, "look at all of us! Buncha ol' sea dogs gettin' bossed around by teenagers!"
Iroh's laugh boomed. "It's kind of funny, if you ask me!"
From the bow, Raven's voice snapped like a whip. "STOP TALKING TO THEM!"
At the same moment, Zuko snarled, "STOP BEING SO FRIENDLY!"
Both crews jumped like they'd been caught stealing, men scattering back to their posts in a scramble of guilty productivity. But Zuko's cruiser began to pull ahead. Its heavier hull cut the water with stubborn momentum, and the gap widened by inches, then feet, then lengths of rope.
Raven watched the distance grow and her expression went feral.
"LO PEI!" she screamed. "RAM HIM!"
Lo Pei, eyes on the helmsman above, turned his head slowly with the expression of a man being asked to block bending with his smile. "My lady," he said carefully, "if we ram a military cruiser with a transport, we will sink."
From ahead, Zuko leaned over his rail and shouted, "HE'S RIGHT! DON'T DO THAT, YOU'LL ALL DROWN!"
Raven's eyes bulged. "SHUT UP AND DIE!" And she flung an arc of flames that honestly was a tough shot to make. He smacked it out of the air like an annoying bug, though. And she turned as if to go boost her engines again, but went limp to a knee from the over-exertion.
As Zuko's ship edged farther away, he threw up a hand in a rude salute and shouted, "DUMBASS!"
Raven made a sound that was not human language, but she did emit a pillar of flames from her upturned breath that genuinely caught Iroh's eye. "Ho! That's some breath of fire, she'd be a natural at my techniques," he said as he stroked his beard. Gesturing like they were casually watching wildlife, he added, "I can see why it's hard for you to wear her out."
"What, you wanna join her crew now or something?" Zuko scoffed. "Better jump overboard now before we lose sight of her."
"Hmm, a little, I suppose, but not enough to abandon you, my beloved nephew!" Iroh heartily told the conflicted prince, adding a loving swat on his shoulder that gave the boy zero smiles.
Back on Raven's slowing vessel, they were just reaching bluer skies, and her crew were picking themselves back up after scattering from her sudden but thankfully harmless firebreathing. What was left of Raven's gloves creaked under her tight grasp of railing. "I hate him," she muttered, voice shaking. "I hate him so much."
Lo Pei, trying desperately to be helpful, said, "should be easier to follow with clear skies, at least!"
Raven stared ahead, breathing hard, then narrowed her eyes. "Why is he turning?"
The crew watched as Zuko's ship, which was daring to become indistinguishable in the distance, suddenly turned around in as tight of a turn as it could.
Lo Pei's voice climbed, "up above, the Avatar's bison!"
Raven's gaze snapped upward. A blob in the sky. Moving fast. Right towards her. She couldn't be happier to see Appa's big doofy face. The grey lid of sky cracked open enough to set his creamy fur into a brilliant glow as he gently swooped in. Aang guided Appa down alongside Raven's ship, close enough that they could reach out and high-five if they really leaned.
Katara cupped hands around her mouth. "Raven! Come with us! We're heading to Crescent Island, you can help us and get ahead of Zuko!"
For an empty moment, Raven's face went blank. It was too fortunate. There had to be a catch, right? But she had to just take it. She threw her head back and laughed. It wasn't the sweet laugh she sometimes tried to pretend with, it was sharp and delighted and slightly unhinged and very real, like life finally let her be in on one of the jokes, not the butt of it.
She cut it off instantly, composure snapping back into place like a mask. "Lo Pei," she said, voice crisp and noble again, "meet me at Crescent Island."
Lo Pei blinked up at her. "My lady, that's in Fire Nation waters."
Raven pointed vaguely at the sky like directions were a social class. "Nngh, do I have to explain everything?" she groaned, sharply looked to Katara and quickly said. "I'm coming, just let me grab a bag."
Lo Pei raised his finger for attention as Raven started limp-running to her quarters, and she shouted without looking back, "just fly my house flag, the spear one! Show the documents I showed Zhao! Don't drink!" but she halted, and did glance back to rattle off, "er—unless you see other Arza warships, then fly the Fire Nation standard. They won't even care enough to stop you."
"That seems backwards," eavesdropping Sokka said aloud.
Katara swatted him. "Don't complicate things."
Raven was riding on adrenaline to carry her to her room, where she only spent a few precious seconds stuffing extra snacks in a well-rounded bag she prepared after the debacle of Kyoshi island found her staggering back to her ship with half her attire obliterated and no shoes. She had vanished inside only briefly from what she could tell, but when she returned she found her entire crew crowding around the bison. The animal was letting out a begrudgingly tolerant bellow at many unfamiliar hands on his fur.
"Ahhh, so good!" Bong Li said through a mouthful of fruity confection acquired at Senlin, and he got a 'you're sure?' look about him as Sokka foisted another at him.
Sokka leaned over the saddle to wiggle it at him. "Lots of extras, no way we're getting through it. Copper a piece, er, for two even. Whatever," he confidently stated at Bao, who was on the verge of drooling over day old buns that definitely wouldn't keep another day.
Raven's eyes narrowed. "What is happening."
"He's not trying to bribe your crew," Katara assured her with a smile, but faltered. "You're not bribing them, are you?"
"Spear of doom is making you so paranoid," Sokka said back out of the corner of his mouth, and she instantly glared at him for bringing it up, glancing at Raven.
Raven made it to the rail amongst the dividing throng of vice-deprived sailors, and Aang guided Appa lower just in case. Raven gathered herself, winced, and then put a foot up to hop off the rail with the grim determination of someone who refused to give in to her body's demands. She was glad to find Katara's firm grasp on her forearm there, and it only hurt a little to force herself onto the saddle with an involuntary "nngh!" but she pretended it was nothing.
Katara immediately scooted to make space, trying to be friendly in the way that always looked slightly like negotiating with a shark. "Still recovering, huh?" she tried, not wanting to imply Raven was helpless, as that seemed to be more of a sore spot for her than her overtaxed limbs.
"I'm fine," Raven lied, and sat with her spine straighter out of pure spite.
Hands were moving at blinding speed as the crew sensed imminent departure, and at first Sokka palmed the payment, but had to hold out a basket, unable to track any cheating whatsoever, as the perishables from Senlin disappeared in a clinking flurry of copper.
"Oh, just take it, you animals!" Sokka shouted as he heaved the last basket onto the deck to keep any sailors grabbing onto Appa's fur from getting pulled into the ocean, but he was still hit from head to waist with a grapeshot of coins, so gave a strained. "Thank you, we're closing shop! Let go-o-o of the bi-i-ison!"
He saw an earthenware bottle clattering among the Senlin gifts, and shrugged, figuring they wouldn't need it. As he dangled it by its rope handle, he couldn't even say a word before a precise lance of fire struck it, and it fell in pieces and thankfully harmless flaming fumes down Appa's side and right into the ocean.
Raven's eyes went incandescent. "No."
"Uh..." Sokka pointed at Raven. "You still have to pay for that."
She instantly replied, "bill House Arza." Daring him to question it. He didn't.
Aang, watching the horizon, felt his stomach twist. Zuko's ship was coming back around. Fast.
"Okay!" Aang said, voice going high with urgency. "Everyone hold on! Yip-yip, Appa!"
Raven caught Lo Pei's smile and wave as they left, too eager for her to go, but she forgave him because his mouth was so full his usually gaunt cheeks were bulging, and it was funny.
He pulled Appa up and over, climbing into the air again, but they had to buzz closer to Zuko's cruiser than Aang liked to gain height. Zuko saw them. His eyes at first locked on Aang, then his brow twisted with annoyance as Raven leaned into view.
His face sharpened, and he lifted both hands. The blast he threw wasn't a warning; he meant to shoot them all down. The fire roared up toward Appa's side, and Aang twisted to counter, as Katara and Sokka could only duck for cover.
One smoking hand snapped out, Raven's counterblast hit Zuko's fire mid-flight, knocking it off course to fall low into the waves. Raven leaned over the saddle and screamed back, voice carrying perfectly despite the wind.
"DUMBASS!"
Zuko literally stomped the deck in frustration. He would have also thrown his helmet down in disgust if she hadn't already ruined it.
Aang forced Appa higher, heart hammering. "Thanks!" he smiled at Raven.
Raven gave him a polite nod, and started scooting back, measured movements not to invite any more pain to join the party in her muscles.
Katara saw, shifted closer to Raven, still staring at her like she couldn't decide whether she'd want a hug, and her concern was deep. "You're really beat up..." she couldn't help but offer, and winced at Raven possibly not liking it.
But the aggressive firebender didn't have the energy for it. "Yeah, guess so," she grumbled. She leaned back, seeking the one open strip of saddle space that looked almost comfortable. Sokka's eyes went wide.
"NO WAIT NOT THA-"
Raven sat. There was a split second of silence. Raven jolted like she'd sat on live crabs. "NnGGAH!" she emitted, and pulled back up an inch or two, but largely just placed her hands for balance on the ridge of the saddle, and stared wide-eyed at nothing.
Katara made a small strangled gasp that sounded like her soul trying to leave her body, expecting sparks or smoke. Raven moved hr gaze to the cloth wrapped spearhead she'd sat on, her spine when ramrod straight, and she appeared almost as if to be listening for something.
Slowly, she turned her head and looked at them all with a very specific expression.
"What," she said, disappointed, "was that."
"Don't. Sit. Back. Down." Katara very deliberately stated.
Raven's eyes narrowed to accusatory slits. "Because," she continued, voice rising, "I just felt the distinct sensation of someone shouting, directly into my soul, to watch where I sit. I've never..." and she seemed to be piecing it together, mouthing 'Arzayanagi', but she shot out, "Avatar, you didn't kill my dad, did you?" with far less emotion than one would expect.
Aang blinked twice and shrugged. "No. Just robbed him."
That was enough to appease the noble girl, apparently.
But Katara hadn't wanted to even let Raven touch the thing, much less sit on top of it. At a loss of anything better to say as her body language screamed 'someone help', she firmly insisted. "It's way too dangerous. You cannot use that on Zuko!"
Raven wasn't even mad. Eyebrow raised, she scoffed, "the fuck I can't," as she reached for it like it belonged to her.