Zuko and Zokai were sitting, cross legged on the deck, and doing some breathing exercises.They were augmenting the heat of a flame in front of them. The fire started red, and went all the way up to violet, and back down again. Zuko's fire never got to green but it was still strong. They had changed direction again because that stupid merchant told them they could find a Pai Sho piece from another merchant at a nearby dock. So that's where they were headed, not looking for the Avatar.
Zuko breathed out and heated the flames. "Iroh, can we stop. I'm tired of breathing." Iroh only drank his tea. "Self-Control is the very essence of character. To be able to look a man straight in the eye, calmly and deliberately, without the slightest ruffle of temper under extreme provocation, gives a sense of power which nothing else can give. To feel that you are always, not sometimes, master of yourself, gives dignity and strength to character, buttresses it, supports it on every side, as nothing else can. This is the culmination of thought mastery." Zokai nodded and lowered his flames. He wanted Zuko to not always be so angry and the prince understood too.
"We are nearing the dock!" The foremaster called down. Zuko stood up and went to prepare himself. Iroh was rubbing his hands together preparing to shop. Zokai knew Zuko and Iroh had talks like this all the time, but it felt as if Zuko was starting to take it to heart.
On arrival, Zokai finally put out the fire he's been controlling for the past 5 hours and looked overboard. It was a small port city with colors from every nation. (Maybe not fire though.) They had taken a smaller boat there and Zuko and Zokai were standing idly while Iroh went to look for his piece. "So where do you think the avatar is." Zuko looked at Zokai and huffed, already back to angry boi. "Maybe if we didn't take so many detours, we'd have found him by now." Zokai just shrugged and looked at some slightly beat up merchants. They were wearing Earth Kingdom green and blue, and based on the scimitars and gold earrings, Zokai suspected they were pirates. He decided to walk over.
"What happened to you guys." The one with the long hair and mustache looked at him. "Some stupid girl and her friends just robbed us. We're on our trail to catch them." Zokai raised an eyebrow. "Who was it?" "Some watertribe boy and girl and another boy with an arrow on his head." Zuko basically teleported next to them.
"Where is he? Show us." The guy with the mustache almost smiled. "Why do you need him?" Zokai nodded. "He's the son of our friend and we were looking for him. If you bring us to him we'll help you find the scroll and give an extra pay." Now the pirate smiled. "Yes of course. Follow our ship." Zokai turned to Iroh, who was still browsing. "We need to go, now." He dragged the old man back to the boat. "Wait, I think I may have found who has it!." Zuko looked over. "Another time, the Avatar is close." We hurried to the metal boat and followed the pirates wood ship. Zokai looked over at the grumbling prince. "Are you sure these guys have the Avatar. It could just be some weird kid with random arrows on him. Maybe a big fan." Both Iroh and Zuko looked at Zokai. "You were the one that wanted to help them so if they do anything it's your fault." Zokai just shrugged. He already knew the pirates had the Avatar. Couldn't start telling the future to everyone and change something or raise questions.
After a few minutes they stopped near some woods. They all hopped off, but Iroh decided to wait on the shore. Zokai, Zuko, and their crew followed the pirates. If they tried anything, they were ready. They reached a clearing and hid. There they were, practicing waterbending with what looked like a waterbending scroll. Zokai nodded and prepared to set up a flank but the pirates rushed anyway. Zuko groaned and jumped forward, blasting fireballs at Aang. After a short fight they had them captured and brought them to the shore. The pirates had the Avatar and his friends tied up, and Zuko had their scroll.
"Hand over the boy!" Zuko waved the scroll in front of him. Sokka smiled and looked at the pirate captain. "Doesn't seem like a good idea if you ask me." Sokka nudged him with his elbow. "This is the Avatar, you'd get much more for his capture." The captain looked at Aang. "This is the Avatar?" Zokai smiled at the scene playing out. "No!" Zuko yelled. "Don't listen to him!" Sokka looked at the rest of the crew. "Imagine what the Fire Lord would pay for the Avatar, you'd be set for life!"
"Shut up!" Zuko yelled again. The pirate captain looked back at the prince. "You can keep the scroll. We'll be taking the Avatar." Zuko was clearly angry and Zokai got ready to fight again. "You're going to regret betraying us." They all shot a fireball at the pirates. One of the pirates ran forward and threw a bunch of smoke bombs at them and blocked their vision. Some of their own men escaped and ran at the rest of the pirates who set down another cloud of smoke. Zokai jumped forward and shot a green stream of fire into the smoke and began circling it, shooting fireballs inside. After a minute he saw Aang and his friends begin to run but a pirate grabbed him and punched him in the face. He flipped the guy over and punched another pirate who was running at him. Aang and Katara undocked the pirate's boat and prepared to leave. Zokai blasted up in the air and shot a combustion beam at them. Aang blasted himself and his friends onto the pirates boat which was starting to sail away. He also saw their boat sailing away. Damn pirates. Zokai decided to leave Iroh and Zuko and follow their boat.
The pirates were in hot pursuit of their own ship and began to board it. Zokai landed and shot one of the pirates overboard. He looked at Aang and winked. Then he blasted a blue fire comet straight at the boy. Aang hopped over it and shot a blast of air at him. Zokai put up a wall of flames and blocked it. He propelled himself up and prepared to blast another fire comet but he was smacked with a water whip and crashed to the deck. The fire comet ended up exploding near some pirates that were cornering Sokka and blasting them overboard. Aang walked over to Zokai and looked down at him. "Why are you attacking us?" Zokai only smiled and blasted himself off the boat and flew back to the shore. Zuko had freed himself and ran over to see his boat and the pirate ship sail off the water fall. On the way down. Appa picked up Team Avatar and flew them to safety.
"My boat!" Zuko ran over to the waterfall and looked as the river took the destroyed sea craft away. Iroh ran over. "Zuko you won't believe this, the piece was in my sleeve the whole time!" Iroh and Zokai both began to laugh and Zuko breathed fire out of his mouth and into the sky. He began to stomp away. Zokai and Iroh followed him and they made their way back to the ship to begin their chase again and maybe find out what Iroh puts in that tea.