The shrieking lance of white hot fire came out of nowhere.
Faces stung, eyes, blurred, hair fluttered, and breath was held. Arcing even higher, the deadly spear tore through cloudless air, and for that one terrible blink the whole world went dim around those on Appa's back, like the sunlight itself flinched away to make room.
Aang recoiled his arm from the heat, reflexively pulling Appa aside, but the poor sky bison's startled bellow shook everyone again.
Appa's shoulder fur hissed like a brand meeting wet hide, and he clumsily tucked in his weighty paws, not in pain so much as duly aggressive panic, his whole body lurching sideways. The saddle snapped tight throwing everyone against it, not off it, thankfully, but all hands shot for sturdy hold regardless. Except Raven, who the rest saw was dropped to one knee with her palm up in a bending stance whence the spear came, the posture sharp and practiced despite the fact that her eyes were wide like dinner plates, and she was letting out a long strained breath. No one necessarily thought she'd be able to block it, but there was a brief quiet appreciation that she'd try.
As if to punctuate, "You MISSED, you creaky old GHOUL!" she screamed at the horizon, voice sent back like a twirling knife.
Katara's eyes were huge. "Um!" She peeped, reason unclear.
"What?" Raven barked, still half-crouched, bristling. "I'm not letting her think she's scary."
"Ho-o-o bo-o-oy..." Sokka just breathed out, easing his stiff posture slowly.
Only Raven thought that's what Katara or Sokka were on about. Appa wobbled. The sea whirled. The burning spear vanished into the distance.
Pulling the grumbling and moaning sky bison level again, Aang tensely turned halfway back to Raven to say, "welp, I'm pretty scared. Worked on me."
Sokka pointed with a stiff finger, his arm shaking. "Oka-a-ay, but, about that. Look."
They all looked. Crescent Island was visible.
The sky around was ablaze with a dozen or more white-gold streaks, arcing in brutal, messy curves in every direction. Not one clean shot or focused artillery barrage. Dozens of huge smoky pillars were rising among the thinner smokestack trails, unclear from what yet at their distance.
The corner of his mouth clamping, Sokka gestured at the mad display and offered, "looks like a bit of a 'whoops' to me."
Raven quickly stuffed a pinch of fire flakes in her mouth, a nervous habit, and quietly added with noticeable concern, "yeah, uh... that looks like a, hmm... catastrophic misfire."
Katara glanced to Raven, seeing the pain she didn't know she was exposing. "Who... might have used it?" she cautiously asked.
Raven just gave her a wincing look, and then shook it off, her expression sinking back to the typical cold judgment she wore.
"Seriously, how did someone already screw up this bad? We JUST LEFT!" Sokka complained like his entree had been prepared wrong. "Stupid Fire Nation."
"Hey." Raven flatly retorted, it was mandatory.
"You don't count," he dismissively waved.
That didn't seemed to help much, she just gave a dry, "ohh, thanks."
Leaning over either side to peer around Appa's bulky head and horns, the saw that the bay was wound. Several Fire Nation warships sat half-submerged in the shallow water, black smoke crawling up from grievously massive charred gaping holes. Others limped in circles, some damaged, crowded with sailors hauling ropes and bodies and debris, trying to salvage what they could without sinking themselves. No one was in formation. No one was hunting for them. They were too busy trying not to drown.
Aang's stomach turned at the sight, and he briefly wanted to help, but even he knew they'd just attack him for trying. They'd probably even blame it all on him. He saw Raven's gaze flicking wildly, scanning the water not just for fire, but for familiarity, he figured. For her own ship. For her crew's flags. For the little shape that meant the Yaoru had done what it always did: survive despite it all.
Relief came, however, when she saw a grey cruiser still afloat, winding between the scattered or sinking warships. Zuko's cruiser. She loosened with a flash so sharp and weird it caught in her chest, and she instantly hated herself for it. Face briefly red hot, she forced her jaw shut. "Of course he made it," she muttered, like the sentence was a jab she could send his way on the wind.
Appa suddenly lurched down again.
"GAH!" Sokka blurted as he snagged a bouncing sack of their supplies from tumbling off, then fell flat, huddling it.
Katara meekly tried, "Appa, big guy? You... okay?"
As if she'd dared him, they dropped suddenly again. Not controlled. It was sudden sags, like his paws kept finding holes in the sky. Everyone breathed tensely, snatching a few loose things, then scrambling for straps or sturdy handholds. Appa made a confused, breathy grumble that Aang had only ever heard when Appa was really, truly rattled.
"He's not," Aang grimly reported. "He's really spooked," and he leaned over the side a bit. "So close it singed his fur even..." he trailed off, but gripped the reins and confidently said, "come on, Appa, just ease on down, we'll land."
Sokka stared at him. "Land WHERE."
Aang's voice wobbled, furious and protective all at once. "The water if we have to! He needs a moment!"
Appa bellowed again, bucking a bit with his tail harshly swinging up and back down, and his whole body quivered, rattling everyone atop.
"I kno-o-ow," Aang soothed, rubbing Appa's neck with frantic tenderness. "Right here with you." It seemed to help, maybe.
Sokka squinted across the ocean again, elbows out as he bravely risked a slightly better field of view, leaning over the edge, and searching as Katara scowled and just grabbed his ankle while she held on, just in case. "Thanks Katara—still don't see your ship, Raven," he rattled off.
Raven's breath caught. Her eyes kept sweeping the water. Nothing. No Yaoru. No telltale mast for an unused sail. No crew waving like idiots.
Seeing her atypically pouty face, Sokka's voice tried to stay casual and failed. "Maybe they got lost? Maybe they're… in the water?"
Katara cut him off instantly, squeezing his ankle. "Sokka. Hush."
He flinched. "I wasn't—like in lifeboats!"
Raven didn't react to either of them at first. She was staring at the wrecked harbor, the streaks of white-gold fire still tearing the sky in the distance, and Zuko's cruiser turning away as if the island meant to swallow anything or anyone stupid enough to stick around.
"I…" Raven started, then swallowed. "Think maybe Zuko did it."
Aang blinked at her. "Zuko did… what?"
"Arzayanagi. No idea how he got it, but," Raven took a breath as she gestured vaguely at the burning disaster below. "This mess. Zhao's smoldering fleet. Like, he's the only one speeding off, like a coward. Again."
Katara's brow furrowed. "You're sure he even could? Like... all THAT?" She briefly swept a hand across the fire streaked sky, then frantically grabbed the saddle again.
"Well," Sokka started. Just in time for another minor lurch. Sokka grumbled, "Appa, please..."
"He's doing his best!" Aang ranted back.
Raven's expression hardened into something grimly practical at Katara. "I... it doesn't add up, but makes more sense than General Iroh doing it. Pretty sure the uh, um, pretty sure Arzaya would just kill Admiral Zhao for trying, but maybe... that's what happens when she does?" Her voice went high, uncertain. "However it happened, this feels... just like what my father has been waiting for. A huge public humiliation. Lot of other noble houses don't like the Fire Lord... they just need a push, he always said." She glanced back at the island, eyes narrowing. "He'll make a move for sure."
Sokka's tone implied he wasn't torn up over a Fire Nation civil war as he said, "oh no, not that, that would be the wor—" Appa lurched. "Dang it, Appa! You're doing this on—" Appa trembled, grumbling. A sudden sink of just a foot. "Purpose..." Sokka grumbled. "Why is it just me?!"
"Stop yapping, then!" Aang scowled back at him. "Hold on! He's heading for something... apparently!" he yelled, then immediately leaned low, murmuring to Appa like it was a secret between them. "Don't land on a Fire Navy ship, buddy, aaanywhere but that."
Sokka's eyes went wide. "Heading WHERE?"
"It was nice meeting you all," Raven said with a hopeless grimace, Appa now rumbling and bouncing them around as a rule.
Aang swallowed and glanced at the water. "The ocean, I guess?!"
Sokka looked very disappointed. "Preeetty sure the Fire Navy will notice us having a little tea break over here. Damaged or not."
"You have tea?" Raven interjected, smirking to play it cool. "EEP!" she yelped. She'd bounced a bit higher than the saddle ridge. Her embarrassing pitch was punishment enough, though.
Katara's eyes darted to the island again. The thickest dark plume of many ahead came from the volcano. It seemed... vigorous. Hard to look at, like even so far away a glint so bright from the ridge hurt her eyes. "Guys, I think the volcano is more active than before, am I crazy?" They all turned their gazes. "Please tell me I'm crazy?"
"Okay, you're crazy," Sokka flatly stated.
"But, also, that's a lot of smoke," Raven sighed.
"Oh, sure," Sokka nodded. "Hey, can we get anything else to go wrong real quick? We're on a roll with—AGH!" Sokka's fingers quivered he clenched the saddle so hard, pulling himself fully back on. "What did I ever do to you, Appa!?" he demanded, instantly hurt.
"It's not a choice!" Aang snapped, voice cracking with fear for Appa more than anything else. "Ah, REALLY hold on!"
Appa bobbed up for half a second as Aang airbent reflexively, trying to buoy him with sheer stubbornness. But Appa let out a long, exhausted bellow and tipped, the world tilting with him. Katara, Sokka and Raven all thrown and sliding to the back of the saddle, a pile of frantic teen limbs as they all grabbed each other and anything in reach.
"No broken bones, just no broken bones, please!" Sokka called out as the wind rushed, the sky spun. He was ready to bargain with even Arzaya.
"Appa! Appa! Appa! Appa!" Katara plead, eyes squeezed shut.
Raven moaned over it all, "No! I haven't killed Zuko yet!"
Aang shouted over the wind, "AIMING! FOR! DECK!"
Sokka's head snapped up. "A deck?! What?! We'll get attacked!"
"Tell Appa that!" Aang yelled back, offended on principle while falling out of the sky.
They dropped fast enough that the sea and sky became light and glitter, and just before the impact, Aang swept his hands low on either side of Appa's neck, spiraling them to stuff an air cushion just under his belly. Appa pressed on it, slow, and then it burst, and he dropped the last bit with a wildly jostling WHUMP! A loud crack of deck planks came with as garnish.
"Ohhh..." Aang drawled out, hunched over and staring right at Lo Pei with his hands up in surrender. "You were right UNDER us."
"Little help?" Katara tittered. She was hanging by her caught ankle, upside down off the saddle, braid gracing the splintered deck with a soft brush.
Sokka was instantly over the side, slapping his palm to Katara's held up hand to yank her out of the awkward position. "Hey! No dying! We TALKED about this."
"I didn't! You all saw," she argued back, but smiled at him. And Katara took a deep breath before having such despair in her eyes. "But I could re-e-eally use a break."
Appa huffed, legs splayed, breathing hard, and he somehow sank even flatter, taking up an almost but not quite unworkable amount of space right in the middle of the deck. It was well there was a gap left to squeeze past him, as nothing would compel him to budge any time soon.
Aang pulled himself up, finally loosing the reins, but he was instantly scrambling for things on the saddle, while Raven elegantly did something of a cartwheel down an agreeable incline of Appa's deflated bulk, the flip of her hair as it ended enough to distract from her foot slipping a bit at the end, on a slick of something oily from a barrel Appa's belly showed no mercy to.
Lo Pei, tall, thin and dressed as inchoate as ever—Fire Nation bandana inside out, threadbare scholarly Earth Kingdom robe under a mix of Water Tribe furs, all not held together with gentle slippers that were powerfully inadequate for sailor's work. His wiry wind-tossed hair magnified the intensity of his startled, forced smile.
"Lady Arza," Lo Pei called, voice strained into cheer. "Welcome back."
Behind him, crew members all uncurled or unfroze, and went right back to the busy sailor's swaggers and saunters they were paid good money for.
Sokka stared around, stunned. "We were seriously right above you and didn't notice?"
Lo Pei nodded quickly, but clenched his teeth at the hellish sight of Crescent Island getting rapidly dark, smoky and rancorous. "We've been following you. We're ah, leaving, yes?"
Raven's head turned slowly toward him, and she just nodded. With a more insistent expression from Lo Pei, she sighed with frustration. "I dunno, straight away from the island, then north, right?"
Katara, Sokka and Aang all mildly or noncommittally nodded, still shaken by the landing. Momo hopped to Sokka's shoulder, then to Aang's, seeming hurried like he had a strong point to make, but his purring chitter was downright blasé.
"Yeah. That way till the island's out of sight, then north," Raven vaguely pointed.
Lo Pei's soul, briefly off-set and ready to escape his body, smoothly edge back into place, and he looked to be at peace. "Helmsman!" He called out, hurrying off.
"Guys, we have to cover him up," Aang insisted as he finally fully pulled out and flailed a tarp about, and Katara and Sokka instantly hopped to help.
Raven briefly considered it, but something caught her eye. Bao, broad-shouldered and maybe TOO calm. He sat back letting his greying hair blow in the breeze, comfortable leaning against the outer wall of the cabins, upon a bench, with a little table just beside that had an... awfully familiar earthenware bottle upon it.
Raven's eyes narrowed to slits. "Bao."
Bao looked up, looking oddly pleased. "Lady Arza."
Raven opened her mouth, ready to unleash a storm. "BAO?" she insisted, palm open in firm gesture to the wine bottle. He looked stunned and horrified, like she thought he ought to if he was caught, but she did a double take as she reached over and poked little pale tendrils growing out of the mouth of the bottle. She just scowled at him, not understanding, hating it.
Lo Pei hurried back, words tumbling over each other. "It is not... ah... wine!"
Raven's gaze slid to him, deadly quiet.
Lo Pei lifted his hands, pleading with his face. "Milkroot seeds. Gathered at Kyoshi. We are… cultivating. The bottle is convenient."
Raven stared at the vines, then at Bao, then at Lo Pei, and her expression shifted from murderous to something colder and more dignified.
"Oh," she said, tone dangerously calm. "Odd choice."
Bao and Lo Pei both smiled at her in a way she didn't quite trust, but she started turning away.
Aang huffed, and called out, "milkroot?" with some excitement, even amidst tugging the tarp and Sokka swatting at him for doing it wrong. And as innocently as a kid talking about his favorite candy, he bubbled, "yeah! You get, like, re-e-eally loopy if you chew it. And it's gritty, but it's great for your teeth!" And he gave a beaming smile like a regular root muncher.
Raven just smiled at him, so serene.
Aang beamed innocently. "What?"
She swiveled around. There was no longer serenity. Her face, in fact, had been taken by the paper white mask of evil her father once wore. Bao was curiously still catching up, but Lo Pei was frozen as they watched her hand lift, wondering if this was finally it for him. But she just pointedly stuck out one finger, at the bottle, and smoothy swerved it to indicate the deep vastness of the blue seas. Consequences were promised with every blink she never made.
Bao finally reached clarity. A little shocked. A slow quiet nod. With one smooth motion, he tossed the milkroot bottle up and back over his head, off the rail, into the sea. It made a weak plop that was little consolation.
"Uhh... eh-hehe..." Lo Pei winced, urgently swatted at Bao and pulled himself forthwith to a polite, obedient stance.
Bao stiffly stood up. Elbows out wide like he didn't know where his hands belonged. With one overly long stride he was around the side of the cabins. They all heard the clatter of earthenware, some scuffing, a bit of muttering, and saw one, two, then a total of five more bottles sailing from out of view, right off the frigate.
Plop.
Plop.
Plop-plop-plop.
Bao awkwardly strode back into place beside Lo Pei, like he was waiting for the firing squad still. The only words spoken were the uncertain, maybe amused mutterings of the teenagers getting Appa nice and tucked in. But Raven stayed quiet, accusatory finger shifting between the two guilty men. They felt very much like she was adding them to a list.
The instant Bao's lips smacked, he started to grin, and maybe say something, Raven's somehow even sharper glare alone stopped him like a wall, and he fully sank back to just standing there as Lo Pei frantically elbowed him.
Raven backed away, still pointing, still silent, and slipped toward the door that led below deck to her cabin. She disappeared into shadow.
Bao and Lo Pei almost breathed.
Raven popped her head back out like a suspicious hawk, they stiffened, relieved they hadn't moved yet. Slowly, she receded again. They stayed there as Sokka, Katara and Aang a bit awkwardly wandered over, Appa snug and secure. Katara gave a little wave and smile.
Aang scratched the back of his dome. "Uhhh... so you're Raven's crew, huh?" he tried.
But Sokka actually broke the tension. "Aang… you just totally narc'd on Raven's dudes. Not cool."
"Sokka-haha!" Katara tried to retort, but it was so absurd she just started laughing.
Aang blinked. "I what?"
Bao just gave an "eh..." and Lo Pei shrugged, apparently not holding it against the boy even though they were experiencing such a fresh and painful loss, bobbing around behind them and slowly sinking under the cruel waves of abolition.
"Nice to meet you, Avatar, I am Captain Lo Pei, but ah, excuse me..." Lo Pei quickly said, and scampered off to other sailors on deck, possibly to choose between hiding something or throwing it overboard before Raven came back.
Sokka nodded. "Yeah. Like… you know. You just…" He waved vaguely, unable to explain further without Katara smacking him. "Ow!"
"Stop explaining!" she near shrieked at him, still trying not to laugh.
Aang frowned with deep, offended certainty. "Look guys, I'm twelve. I don't even know what 'narc' means." Then, as if this solved everything, he brightly turned to shine upon the two crestfallen sailors hiding their pain, and he happily said, "but I DO know a secret place near the Western Air Temple where milkroot grows in hu-u-uge patches. Like, the walls are furrier than Appa. Not that it's soft—like ow, don't fall in—but I bet it's still there!"
Katara slowly turned her head toward him first. Sokka followed up for dramatic effect.
Bao lit up like a lantern, like it instantly snapped him out of the daze he'd been under all along. Without delay, he stepped up, hand out to shake at Aang. "Well! Hey there! The Avatar, huh? I'm Bao. Quartermaster. Maybe still, up to her." He boisterously declared, and quietly grumbled, but then conspiratorially whispered. "So, this secret place. You could... point it out on a map, yes?"
Aang gave a wave like it's easy. "Oh, sure, no problem!"
Lo Pei hurried back. He made an odd cough, stepping in to also loom over Aang. Polite but firm, gently holding a finger up to Bao's nose he insisted. "Bao. Stop being a crook."
Bao clutched his chest. "A crook? Me?"
Lo Pei continued, still addressing Bao, but glancing to Aang. "If it's good root, you must offer the Avatar a fair finder's fee!"
"Oh!" Bao nodded vigorously. "Right, of course, that can be discussed."
Sokka muttered to Katara, "wow, this... sounds bad, right?"
Katara didn't answer. She stared at Aang like she was trying to decide how this conversation was even real.
Aang kept going, animated now, hands waving as if he was describing a fun picnic. "Oh sure, it's definitely good root. You can get all wobbly and happy just breathing the air in there. A uh... friend of mine, we used to go there, and compare the weird stuff we saw in the mists from the tides, haha! So much fun!"
Katara stepped in with the calm voice she used when Aang was about to walk into danger smiling. "Aang."
Aang blinked. "Yeah?"
Katara's smile was sweet. It was also a trap. "We need to talk."
Sokka snorted a laugh.
Bao laughed too, full-bodied and delighted, almost making up for Aang getting him in hot water over the bust on the milkroot operation.
And just then, somewhere miles away on Earth Kingdom soil, a searing hot flaming arc finally concluded with a deafening BOOM, followed by a torn, heart-wrenching wail: "MY CABBA-A-AGE-E-ES!"