Luke

I still had yet to get my breath back. My mind was taking it's sweet time to process that I no longer caught in the center of the hell that is, or rather, used to be Xiahu.

"Holy shit," came the girl's voice to my side. Zare, I realized then, finally having the time to process my surroundings after just watching the Earth Kingdom ship finally sink below the waves on the horizon. I could feel my heart leap, knowing that if she was alive, it had to, just had to mean that the others were alright too. Right? My head turned, searching for them by my side. I immediately was able to spot out Gordez and Zek alike.

Thank Raava. The beat in my heart was finally beginning to steady to normal levels, seeing that my friends were no, in fact, scorching bodies left behind in Xiahu.

"Ka'lira?" I asked, having not spotted her amongst the crowd. "Is she-?"

"Alive," Zek confirmed, something grim hiding away in his voice. Is she injured? I wondered. Did she get hurt? He must have noticed the concern in my eyes as he promptly followed with, "She's fine. We're all fine. Thanks to her," and his head turned then to Zare so as to confirm it was this individual he was referring to.

Her effort to evade attention by turning her head, hiding what was either a blush or look of shame, I couldn't tell, turned out to be an utter failure as my eyes still followed her, Zek elaborating on what I had apparently missed.

"Would've been dead without her, deadeye that she is. Any soldier tried coming after us, took them down immediately." Zare wasn't the only one hiding some semblance of shame in her voice, but she was, however, the one less keen on expressing it. Zek wasn't done by the look of things. He looked down now at the hull of the ship where we had settled below decks in a cargo bay left starkly sparce by the crew of 298, a mere fraction of what had been our force only a little over an hour ago. I had a feeling however that in this moment, Zek was glad for the empty space, at the very least for the privacy it afforded us.

"I froze," he confessed. "I don't know-I don't know what happened to me."

It was hard, indeed, to forget how he had appeared to me standing helplessly in front of Ka'lira's door, her refusing to come out until Zare and I had taken matters into our own hands.

What the hell was happening with them?

I should have been pissed. Had no reason not to be. Whatever was going on between them had nearly cost us our lives, yet I found myself more concerned than angry, focusing on the grim potential that they could have been killed there, lounging helplessly around, not knowing what the hell was happening, just lost in a haze.

"What happened?" I ask, only to be met with a shake of his head that indicated a lack of desire to elaborate.

A silence hung in the while, waiting to be broken, but none of us three seed particularly keen to eb the ones to fire the first shot until Zek decided to end the standstill and abdicate from the fight, standing up to say, "I'll leave you two to it, alright? Get some rest. I'm going to-I'm going to talk with Gordez."

Both Zare and I nodded in response to that.

Zek withdrew, leaving me where I was seated with my back to some obscure crate, just glad for the support it offered while Zare was kneeling not far from me. I finally feeling the adrenaline beginning to wear off, bearing the unintended side effects now of feeling the pain roaring through my body: the soreness in the limbs, the burns I'd narrowly avoided, and a number of other cuts and bruises I was only becoming aware of now.

It seemed Zare wasn't far behind, having also noticed I wasn't in particularly tip-top shape.

"Well, you sure took a beating," she chuckled.

I shrugged with a small grin, more of a grimace as I struggled now to even move my body in a way that wouldn't send pain surging through me. "Oh, it could've been worse."

"Hmm, well, yeah. You could be dead."

"And here I am," I said with half-outstretched arms, now managing to stretch them the whole way, but still wanting to think I achieved the same theatric effect.

"Hmm," she smirked. "Should drink some water. Gonna get dehydrated pretty quick otherwise."

She was already reaching for my bag which was laid sprawled out by my side, digging through the minimal contents to retrieve my canteen, which, upon investigation by her, was indeed empty. "Shit," she mumbled. "I'm also out. I'll go find some."

"Nah nah, don't bother. I'm fine just as I am."

"Okay, dumbass," she said, grabbing my flash along with her own, both empty. "I'm gonna get some water anyway. I'll be right back."

She was already gone before I could object, leaving me only to shrug to myself, still coming to terms with the fact that I was safe now, that I was no longer running, flames hot on my trails, being tailed by some of the Fire Nation's most infamous killers.

Zare was right, how the hell am I still alive?

Everything about what had happened had been sheer luck. I should have died there. 20 times over there. We all should have.

How are any of us still breathing to tell the tale?

It didn't make sense to me. Despite the carnage that was wreaked, it almost felt like it could have been worse.

Why didn't they just bombard the entire fortress? Was maintaining the structural integrity that important? If so, why didn't they just continue to gas us? Our masks wouldn't have saved us forever? Were they short on time? Then why didn't they deploy their full contingent? Why did only one ship deploy its soldiers? None of it made sense.

And how the hell did we get away? They had 3 ships. We only had 2. One of which was a decoy. Did their entire task force buy the ruse, focus solely on that, completely miss us passing by? They should have noticed. They should have divided. We should be getting tailed right now. So why weren't we?

I pushed the thoughts aside. I was tired, I realized, imagining things, jumping at shadows.

Speaking of shadows…

Zare. I'd promised to abandon the notion before, but after what had happened, seeing her shoot for real, hearing what Zek had to say…was I right? Should I really be pursuing this?

Zare was back, both her flask and mine in tow, seemingly full of water, handing mine to me which I promptly took a deep swig of, allowing the lukewarm yet still refreshing liquid to gush down into me. It was more than a welcome sensation.

And I spoke before my brain could stop me.

"So…'deadeye that she is'," I say, mimicking Zek's words.

Her face immediately turned into a scowl, though a softer one than last time. "Are you actually going to talk about that now?"

"Now or never."

"Then I choose never."

"Sorry, meant to say, 'now, or I can just keep on pestering you about it.'"

"Or I can shoot you right now."

"Oh, so you are a crack shot."

She scoffed. "Okay, wiseass. Want to hear the truth?"

"I've got nothing but time and I'm not exactly going anywhere?" I said, leaning back against the box I was using for support, realizing she could very easily walk away now, and I'd lack the energy to pursue, but instead, she stuck around, by some miracle."

"My dad was a hunter. Trained me to be one too."

What?

I shook my head, eyes wide, looking straight into hers, allowing a moment to pass, one she seemed to think held some heavy burden, but for me, was just one of stupidity. "What?" I asked, incredulous. "That's it?"

"Not animals."

Oh.

Still, in spite of that added detail, I found myself still feeling as though I was being left hanging, disappointed almost. "Are you sure that's it?"

"Don't believe me?" she asked, accusingly.

"No! It's not that…it's just, I was expecting more. No offense."

"Hmph. Yeah, well, none taken, I guess."

She didn't seem pissed at the very least. Not more than yesterday, or rather, just a few hours ago. That was something at the very least. I still felt as though there was something unanswered. Something more.

"So, what was it? Bounties? Contract killings?"

"Local bounties. Regional government gave out contracts. My dad took them."

"I thought the Fire Nation didn't give out bounty contracts in contested territory. Don't want to legitimize vigilantes, right?" I figured it was possible that frontier law was different than it was in more settled areas such as Citadel or the colonies, but it still felt odd.

She answered my suspicions quickly enough in stating, "Back when it was Earth Kingdom. Before I was born. Stopped when Fire Nation took over. Just taught me."

"Ah," I answered, for some reason having been under the suspicion it had been both her and her father who had done the hunting, this new explanation making far more sense.

A silence hung in the air, as it had when Zek was still around, but this time, I didn't possess the same hesitation to break it.

"So…I was right."

She glared at me. "Don't start."

"No, no!" I defended myself. "I knew there was something off, and I was right!"

"Okay, but you were still out of line for confronting me the way you did."

"Hmm, perhaps, but I am immediately absolved of any guilt as my suspicion was founded and warranted."

Despite the words that would follow, she couldn't fully suppress the smirk as she asked herself aloud, "Why the hell did I choose to come along with you dipshits, again?"

It was a question I figured didn't need answering as I sat there chuckling to myself, each exhale bringing a fresh burst of pain to my chest, and I now found myself wondering just how far away Jingping was, and just what we would fine when we got there. It was thought that Xiahu would be the staging point of future operations, but the fortress was gone now. Whatever we ended up finding in Jingping, it would determine just what the hell was going to happen here.

"So," she asked, as tough she'd been reading my mind. "What now?"

"I-I guess we get to Jingping. See what can be done."

"Not much of a plan."

"Yeah, well. Welcome to our merry band of castaways. It'll be a cold day in hell when you find us actually having a solid idea of whatever the hell we're doing."

Her smile, while amused, didn't hide a sense of worry. It seemed, between the two of us, I was, in fact, the better one at hiding.

"Well," she shrugged. "No point worrying about that now, huh? We should probably get some sleep."

She maneuvered herself into a position on the other side of the box I was resting upon, leaning her back against it as well, the two of us seemingly deigning to use the same support as a headrest.

She wasn't wrong. There was no point worrying on that now. Truth be told, I wouldn't be among those grieving should the Earth Kingdom lose on this front. If it meant the shells stopped falling around here, that the Nip Sea Separatist terrorists would finally face the consequences of their actions, and this war would finally get back on track towards ending, it was fine by me.

And what of the rest? I believed I still knew where Gordez stood. I knew Zek stood firmly by my side in this regard. Ka'lira, so far as I knew, it made little difference to her.

And what of Zare? I now found myself wondering, pondering her opinion as though she was one of us now. Is she? It was hard to tell anymore. But just where does she stand? I'd seen the way she had avoided mortally wounding the Fire Nation soldiers in a similar fashion as me. What was that? Pacificism, sympathy for soldiers simply doing their jobs, or following my example.

I wanted to think I had had questions answered today, at least regarding that deadeye of hers. But everything else? Nothing else had received an answer, simply had become more confusing.

What if she's still hidi-no. Learn to have trust in people for once, Luke.

And where has that gotten you before?

My mind drifted to Citadel, to the Hornets, the Rats, the Fire Nation, to the army, the generals I'd blindly followed, the commanders that led me and my friends to death, but I also remembered my family—the people I'd considered such along the way: Reek, Danev, and now, Boss, Gordez, Zek, Ka'lira, Jadoh, Zadok and Kosah if we were being generous, and now, possibly, Zare.

There was, however, hesitation, stemming from knowing what had happened to those I've considered family before, but I forced myself not to think on it, to not let myself always think on the worst-case scenario, but to, at this moment of time, as a survivor aboard a ship of defeated Earth Kingdom soldiers, just let myself secure some rest.

A war was brewing, and if there was one thing I knew I was going to need—it was rest.