Even though Aang was usually confused (Kuzon and Bumi always used to joke that her head was in the clouds too much even for an airbender), she wasn't stupid. She knew that Sokka didn't like her and that the Fire Nation girl attacking the Southern Water Tribe was her fault. So she offered herself up in place of the tribe and began planning her escape before the plank on the ship was even completely pulled up. The girl-and she may have called her a kid, but she couldn't be more than fifteen so she's technically still just a kid too-took Aang's staff out of her hands and began inspecting it.

"This will make a wonderful gift for my father. Take her below deck and plot a course for the Fire Nation. I'm going home, " declared the princess. "And take this to my quarters." She handed her glider off to an older man behind her who immediately passed the responsibility off to someone else. It would've made Aang laugh if it wasn't for the fact that her staff was her most prized possession.

(It had been a gift from Monk Gyatso for her sixth birthday. She wasn't supposed to get it until much later but Gyatso had seen how much she loved the sky.)

The two soldiers on either side of Aang led her towards the stairs and her mind began to fill with half-thought-out plans of escape.

"You know, I bet I could take both of you with my hands behind my back." Aang bragged in an attempt to goad them into fighting her. The men weren't distracted. Time for Plan B then. Aang sucked in a huge breath and blew it out, knocking the man in front of her into the door he was trying to unlock and forcing the man behind her back and up the stairs.

Aang ran off in the direction she'd seen her staff being taken, dodging guards and opening doors. She accidentally opened the door to the older man from before's room. She closed the door quietly and whispered an apology to him. The last thing she wanted was an older, more experienced firebender chasing her too.

Eventually she opened the right door and saw her glider leaning against the wall. She grabbed it and held on tight, feeling strangely emotional about being reunited with it. She was so caught up in her reunion that she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings.

The door behind her shut closed. The airbender turned and started at the sight of Princess Zuleika who had been hiding behind the door the entire time since hearing of her escape, knowing she'd come to find her staff.

"It seems I've underestimated you," she scowled.

A brief pause passed as they stared at each other, then Zuleika blasted fire at Aang, who just barely dodged it in time. She ran into a corner, terrified and gasping for breath. After dodging several more shots, Aang rolled beneath her to stand behind her, moving with her as the Fire Nation girl turned so she remained unable to fire at her.

Eventually once the Avatar faced her, Zuleika blasted flames her way. She dissipated each fireball with a small air ball formed in her hands. Then Aang created an air scooter and rode it around the walls and ceiling, the whole time avoiding bouts of flames Zuleika continued to unleash upon her.

Terminating the airball, Aang grabbed one of the Fire Nation tapestries on the wall and wrapped Zuleika up in it as she passed. While she struggled against the tapestry, Aang managed to collect her staff. Once Zuleika freed herself, they squared off again against each other.

After a few moments of maneuvering, Aang airbended the mattress up and slammed it into the Fire Princess. The mattress propelled her into the opposite wall, smashing her into it and she fell to the ground with the mattress. As she recovered, she looked up in a rage to find the Avatar was gone already. She's clever for a child, Zuleika thought.

Immediately, she was up and running to find her. By the time she did, Aang was opening her glider and threw it into the air before jumping after it. She caught it, and Zuleika jumped after her in pursuit. With a fierce cry of desperation, she grabbed the airbender's foot.

Both of their weight was too much for the glider and they both fell to the deck. They got up and face off yet again. Aang's look of trepidation was tempered as she looked over her shoulder at hearing a familiar sound, and Zuleika followed her gaze.

"What is that?" she questioned, staring in disbelief.

"Appa!" cried Aang, a grin spreading across her face at the sight of her bison. She whirled around to deflect Zuleika's fire before using her staff as a helicopter to escape. The airbender landed on the edge of the deck, almost slipping overboard.

Just as she regained her balance, Zuleika kept throwing fireballs her way. Aang managed to block a few, but inevitably, she lost her balance and was soon flung off into the sea as the Water Tribe siblings watched in horror atop the flying bison.

"Aang!" shouted Katasi as the airbender sank below the water. His calls for her name could be heard despite the depth and the fact her consciousness was slipping away.

However, by the third call, Aang's spiritual instincts kicked in and her body entered the Avatar state, the well-known defence mechanism of unrecognized Avatars. Her glowing blue eyes opened wide as her tattoos glowed bright as well. Once the airbender had connected wuth her past lives, she waterbent a cyclone to bring her back to the surface above. It was a fearful and amazing sight for all who witnessed, including Zuleika, who was torn on what to feel herself.

The Avatar landed on the deck, eyes still aglow, and bended the water from the column surrounding her in a circle. She released it and it expanded outwards into a shockwave that hurled Zuleika and her men overboard.

"Did you see what she just did?" Katasi exclaimed.

"Now that's some waterbending," Sokka muttered in awe.

Aang, exiting the Avatar state as she was no longer in immediate danger, fell to the floor with a moan. Her eyes had closed and her tattoos had returned to their normal color as Appa landed on the ship and the siblings jumped off before rushing forward to see if Aang was alright.

"Aang! Are you okay?" Katasi asked, worried. The airbender groggily opened her eyes and stared up at them.

"Hey, Katasi, hey Sokka, thanks for coming." Her voice was tired. It was nice to know they cared enough to come after her, but it was hard to concentrate on anything with how exhausted she was.

"Well, we couldn't have let you have all the glory," Sokka stated nonchalantly. She had a reputation to keep up after all.

"I dropped my staff," muttered Aang.

"Got it!" Sokka ran to it and picked it up. However, another hand grabbed on as well. Zuleika tried to use it to climb up, but Sokka whacked her in the head, similar to what she'd done to her earlier. The Fire Nation Princess then fell towards the ocean, grabbing the anchor chain to keep from hitting the freezing water below. "HA! That's from the Water Tribe!"

Meanwhile, Katasi was helping Aang climb Appa, who lied down to help his mistress as the soldiers began to get back up. Quickly, Katasi tried to defend them with waterbending, although the guards were already frozen in place, unsure of how to face against a waterbender. In situations like these, perhaps it was lucky they had taken all the Southern benders. He tried to freeze the soldiers but his plan backfired. Literally. The water moved behind him instead and froze Sokka's feet to the deck.

"Katasi!" she yelped in annoyance. "Oh, why it's it always me?!" She grabbed her boomerang and began using it to chip off the ice. The soldiers, no longer afraid once they'd seen the boy had too little experience for his bending to be any threat, charged forward.

Katasi turned around and prayed to the spirits it'd work the same way again. This time, thankfully, the water froze his intended targets, allowing him to climb into Appa where Aang was slowly regaining her bearings.

"Hurry, Sokka!" he called over his shoulder.

His sister looked up at him, then down to her frozen feet where she was still chipping away, then back again. "Hurry?! What do you think I'm doing, dancing?!" she snapped back. She grumbled to herself as she finished off the last bit of ice before hurrying up Appa's tail. "Yip-yip! Yip-yip!"

Appa moaned and flapped his tail, flying into the air. Iroh saw this just as he came out from his nap, though he rubbed his eyes, thinking he'd imagined it. After all, Flying Bison hadn't been seen in a century, whether extinct or hiding since the death of their human companions. Iroh, over his shock, quickly helped up his niece once he'd noticed her hanging over the side. Zuleika glared at the beast as it flew away, carrying her ex-prisoner.

"Shoot them down!" she barked. Both of them joined to aim flames their way.

Aang quickly stood and deflected the fireball to the glacier by the side. All the snow and ice collapsed onto Zuleika's ship. The last image she had of them was the trio laughing together as they flew away.

"Good news for the Fire Lord, the Fire Nation's greatest threat is just a little girl," remarked Iroh blandly.

"That little girl, Uncle," growled Zuleika, pointing to the heavy damage the Avatar and her friends had done to their ship, "just did this. I won't underestimate her again."

Despite her furious exterior, Iroh could tell something was bothering her niece. Finally, he asked, "There's something more, isn't there?"

Her fists clenched at the railings. "The Avatar is a child," she bit out. A child had bested her. Zuleika had gone into the village, expecting to be challenged by an elderly man who'd spent ages hiding and mastering the elements to take down the Fire Nation. And what had she received instead?

A little girl. A little girl who was unlikely older than and probably even younger than she when her father, Fire Lord Ozai, had burned and banished her for speaking out in that meeting, and then....and then.... Even now after two and a half years, just thinking about it made it difficult to breath, and Zuleika shook her head, swallowing the lump in her throat.

And then there was that small voice in the back of her head that sounded just a bit like her mother, possibly her conscience, that dreaded taking that little girl to be imprisoned in the Fire Nation. To take her to her father and leave her for him to do spirits knows what. He wouldn't kill her, no, because then she'd be reborn into the Earth Kingdom. But the memory of what he'd almost had done to Zuleika all those years ago, and knowing her father better than most, gave her a good idea of what fate would await the young Avatar.

For Agni's sake! Of all times for her long-forgotten conscience to kick in, it chose now?! It wouldn't matter either way, she reminded herself. Because the Avatar was her ticket home, to respect, to regaining her honor.

Iroh looked in the direction the Avatar and her friends had disappeared, as if sensing his niece's inner turmoil, then back at her. "Okay."

"Okay?!" She'd expected something more. Some sort of her uncle's wisdom that she found so irritating until she needed it most. Then it seemed he suddenly had nothing.

"Well, granted, she's a little younger than I was expecting-"

"A little younger!"

"- but the world is full of many strange things, especially where the Spirits are involved. The question, Princess Zuleika, is what you're going to do about her?"

"...What?"

"She's a little girl, my niece. Were you really planning to take her back to your father in chains?"

Instead of answering, she turned away, ready to shout out an order, but stopped the second she realized the remainder of her crew were busy thawing out the frozen ones from the attack. "As soon as you're done with that, dig the ship out and follow them," she said instead, albeit less harshly considering it wasn't their fault for this disaster.

She then quickly turned on her heels and made a straight line for her cabin, slamming the door behind her, furious at not only today's events but herself. Two and a half years and she'd finally come so close to having the Avatar in her grasp, and she'd blown it! Not only that but that small part of her she was trying desperately to shut up was glad she'd failed. Glad!

It would've been easier if the Avatar had been the elderly man Zuleika had originally thought her to be. But since when had the spirits made it easy for her?

Zuleika sat down heavily on her bed, letting down and running a hand through her long, black hair. It wasn't as soft as it used to be, but certain luxuries simply couldn't be afforded anymore. She caught a glance of herself in the mirror before quickly looking away. She closed her eyes and unconsciously brought her left hand up to her face. Her fingers brushed lightly against her burned cheek. The skin was rougher there. Scarred. "Don't cry," she told herself, dropping her hand and clenching it into a fist, willing the tears not to fall.

Two and a half years ago, she had been banished from the Fire Nation with nothing more than an old steam ship, a crew consisting of a dozen firebenders, her uncle, and a hopeless quest-to capture the Avatar, who hadn't been seen in over a hundred years. But now it wasn't so hopeless.

She had to quiet that little voice telling her this wasn't right, and do what she needed to do.