All I can to is twist, hoping to avoid it.

Something behind me splinters, and I just about manage to clear the space I stand on of ice so that any sparks don't travel through it to me.

...

Meanwhile, she has freed her feet, and is kicking fire at me.

Wonderful. Dodging again, I use the ice she hasn't melted to form stabbing pikes at her that she burns into steam.

But I don't mind. I guide it to cling to her skin and clothes even as I bend more water to snake towards her from behind.

One tendril manages to snake around her throat before she whips around and sends fire at it in a circular motion. I use the time to move closer to the railing.

All I have to do is send her over it. once she's in the water, she's under my control.

I yank a blast of water from the harbour and direct it at her in bursts, so that her counter dissolves one, two, but neither the third or fourth.

She stumbles back, hit by the third, but dodges the fourth.

She is now almost next to the officer, who has readied himself into a fighting stance.

Only, Mai has her hand on his arm. Keeping him from… murdering the cabin boy in the crow's nest. Circus Girl is attempting to break the ice around her feet.

However, as the guard turns his attention towards me, Mai releases him.

Well. Lovely.

Mai's feet are still iced in place, but he has freed himself. With bending. Perfect.

He slides into place beside a recovering Azula and hurls fire at me.

I slide to the side once more, almost stumbling over a grounded Gorou, and send another wave at the firebenders while shaking the ship once more, this time slicing the ropes binding it to the docks.

Now all I have to do is dodge the attacks, and tilt the ship so that everyone not quick enough to grab holds will land in the harbour waters. Where I will, depending on who remains on deck, drown them.

It's easier said than done.

Two close shaves later, a distraction is provided by a flying disc.

Instantly, I capitalise on Gorou's assistance, and to my delight, Azula goes flying.

The officer doesn't. He lunges for the railing on the opposite side, where Mai stands, feet still iced to the ground, attempting to hack it away. She too grabs hold, which will probably save her from breaking bones.

"Uncle!" she cries out, seeing as he only just keeps his grip on the wet handhold.

Well. I'm not kind.

His hand is nailed in place by the water beneath it spearing through.

Thinking fast, I release Gorou once the ship has evened out enough, "Get him off," I order, and shove Azula underwater again from where she has surfaced.

Gorou hurls his disk at the warden I so rudely left in the tunnels beneath Omashu a month ago.

With a scream of pain, the warden tears his hand free, but takes the hit to his shoulder, falling heavily against the handhold.

However, he retaliates swiftly, and only my switch of attention to shifting him to the side through the ice he's standing on saves him from another burn.

I lose Azula in the water, and am forced to deal with the warden. Violently, I send spears of ice hurtling at him, and his choice is clear as he escapes over the rail.

That leaves me with two pirates on the planks, two women, and an earthbender who has sunk to his knees in exhaustion.

"Off or on?" I ask Mai, but before she can answer, Azula's voice screams from the waves, deranged.

"I will kill you! I will imprison you all and kill you!"

Mai grimaces. "On."

I turn my eyes to Circus Girl, who is looking decidedly ill. "On," she whispers.

Looking at Gorou, I gesture to the two pirates.

He nods, "They'll listen to me."

That settles it.

With for once broad motions I gather the ship into the cradle of my bending, and send us out of the harbour.

The women gasp, and the pirates shout worriedly as they feel she ship moving. All Gorou does is stare as I guide us to relative safety of the waves.

Once Zhenan is far enough behind us that no skilled archer will be able to land an arrow in my body, I allow the current to take hold of us once more.

No more large ports.

...

In the streets of Kibosami there once lived three young children.

Their days were filled with loitering in places they had no business being – that is, if one did not understand that to make a living could also mean to survive by any means necessary. There was nothing deplorable in taking from those who had too much.

There was no reason for them not and every reason to.

Not to, would be to die. And no one makes the conscious choice to have nothing, to live without anything to truly call your own but what you can carry, or to starve. For someone to do that, they would have to take self-punishment to new heights. But these three children were not aware that there even was such a thing as self-flagellation, or the disciplining of children with physical violence.

"Piss off!"

There was that.

"Just you wait till I get my hands on you!"

And that.

"Why don't you come with me? We could have a good time. I'd make you rich!"

And that.

It was never very hard to slip away. They always had a plan, and always worked together. They understood that to survive as they were, it was to be either together or not at all.

One day, they did not manage to get away.

The girl went with the adults. Large, unwashed men with sadistic intentions. Truly, she despised them. But she was the price for her brother's life. There was no question of paying it.

The two boys plotted her rescue.

They knew nothing of where she would be taken. They knew nothing of what would be done to her. They knew nothing.

Yet, they plotted. Searched in similar places at similar times of her taking.

And one day, found.

The very same men who had taken her, took another young girl. And this time, the two boys went unnoticed as they followed.

It was a large house – a mansion. One of them had heard another adult use the word in connection with a powerful man, a wealthy family or something like that. There were many guards.

It did not deter them. Weeks had passed. They would find her, and it had to be then. It had to.

They watched. They waited. They snuck past the bored men who did not think of their occupation as an art, and to whom diligence was a foreign word that they would never understand.

The rooms were large and pristine, the carpets ornate and flush. They did not care. Where was she?

Instead of hidden away in the cellar where it had been damp, dark and musty they found her in one of the rooms upstairs. They passed doors that had occupants. Screaming occupants. Laughing ones. They moved on. There was nothing behind those doors for them. Only the one.

She was asleep. She was chained to the bed. She was naked. Blood had dried between her legs. Bruises had formed on her hips, legs, breasts.

They secured the door. She woke.

"Gorou," she rasped, relief in her voice, and horror, "O-Ting."

They went to her. O-Ting picked the locks to her shackles. Gorou gathered the bedcovers around her to cover her. She cried.

Ashamed

She mourned that they would see her in this state. She feared for them. She could not bear what had been done to her. Privately, she thought she would not allow herself to pay this price once more. She hated herself most for this thought.

They grew even more furious.

Yet, they had to escape unnoticed. She could not walk.

"Leave me," she begged.

They would not.

"Then," she whispered, "Release me."

They could not.

Neither of them had ever taken a life. And they would not start with her.

It was decided that they would carry her. They both were smaller than her. Younger. Used to be weaker, too.

She was not that heavy. Their anger became an almost palpable thing.

They were caught. They fought. They killed.

In desperation, they discovered bending.

But she had already died for them.

And so, they took vengeance.

...

Don't forget to throw some power stones :)

...

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