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Chapter Four: Challenge

Zuko quickly discovered that Cade struck with almost no warning. He'd been good enough with the Dao broadswords to get the Avatar away from Zhao, but now he wondered just how good he was. Like he'd seen earlier, Cade was exceedingly fast blow by blow. He only managed to block the rapid hits as they came and had yet to find an opportunity to strike himself.

He thought quickly about his uncle's training, straining to remember something that would help him.

Patience

Moving this quickly, she had to tire out eventually. If he focused on defending himself until she started to wear down, then he'd have the advantage! He fought a smile.

She was impressive. He couldn't deny it. But he wasn't going to let some half-breed 'chimera' beat him. He was the Prince of the Fire Nation. He had his honor to protect.

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Suoh knocked on the door of the sitting room, interrupting their game. Mimiko looked at the blacksmith and frowned. "Something wrong, Suoh?"

He shrugged. "That depends on your perception of the situation. I think you two should come outside." Having said this, he turned and disappeared again.

Iroh shared a worried look with Mimiko and they rushed out the door.

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Iroh stared in horror at the practice ring. "Oh my."

"Oh, damn those two!" Mimiko shouted at the sight.

Cade and Zuko were sparing, but by the look of things, it was getting heated. Mimiko saw the warning signs...Cade's temper was rising rapidly.

Suoh was watching the spar in the comfortable shade beneath the trees. He looked almost amused.

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"Fight back!" Cade exclaimed, landing another hard blow on Zuko's shoulder before he could block it. They'd been at it for what seemed like ages and it seemed like he'd given up on attacking her. It was infuriating her to no end. "Damn you!"

Zuko just smirked at her and blocked the next blow. It was working! She was beginning to slow down and her anger was making her reckless. He waited a few minutes more and then struck back.

Cade was thrown off balance for a moment, her arm stinging. She felt a surge of anger, but at least he was fighting back! She caught her balance back and struck at him. Before it landed, however, he'd struck shoulder hard enough for her grip on one sword to loosen. He struck again and the blade went flying. She dropped and rolled away from him and then struck at him before he knew where she was. She knocked one of his swords away, making them equal again. He swung around and caught her blade before she could take his other sword away. She twisted her sword around his like a snake and it went flying too. He fell back and darted in the direction of one of the fallen blades. She chased after him, but before she caught him, his hand wrapped around the hilt of the sword and it was suddenly at her throat.

"Drop your sword."

Cade felt her anger wash over her skin like water as she let her sword fall to the ground. Zuko held his sword at her throat a moment more before he lowered it and offered his hand. Cade glared at it, but took it briefly. She glowered to see a smile twitching at the edge of the prince's mouth. She turned away quickly and saw that they had been watched. She felt a ripple of shame as she looked at Suoh and Mimiko. They'd see her beaten. She fought the urge to pick up her sword and run Zuko through.

She met Suoh's eyes and remained motionless as her teacher approached her.

"You fought very well."

She looked at him in surprise. "I lost."

"But you fought well," Suoh repeated. "Against a prince of blood. A Fire Nation prince at that. You held your own against him despite having only an old blacksmith for a teacher. That's worth a great deal, Cade."

Zuko stepped out of the practice ring, looking at Iroh and wondering if his uncle was mad at him for fighting the half-breed. Iroh was frowning slightly, but said nothing until Zuko was close enough that Cade would not hear them. "What was this about, Zuko?"

Zuko felt a prickling of uncertainty. "We were just sparing, Uncle. Seeing who was better."

"You fought someone with no former training, knowing you'd probably have an advantage over her..."

"You didn't see her earlier," Zuko interrupted. "I saw her training with the blacksmith Suoh this morning. I've never seen anyone move so fast with a sword, let alone two of them. I didn't challenge her because I though it'd be easy. I honestly wanted to see which of us was the best."

"And?"

Zuko shrugged. "Hard to say," he said very quietly, looking over at Cade and Suoh. "I won because I was patient. She got tired and I took advantage of that. If I hadn't thought ahead, she would have had me beat before I could blink." He watched as Cade stormed away from the practice ring and disappeared into the house.

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Cade slammed the door of her room closed and collapsed onto her bed. For a while, she simply stared at the ceiling, contemplating where she'd gone wrong in the fight. Was the prince really better than she was?

She sat up at the sound of her door opening. Mimiko stood in the doorway. Cade wouldn't meet her eyes so she entered the room, closing the door behind her.

Mimiko sat down on the edge of the bed and smiled slightly. "You had the young prince worried, you know."

"What?"

"He told Iroh that he can't be sure who's really better," the older woman told her. "You both fought amazing well from what we saw. So you both should be proud of yourselves." She reached out and ran a hand over Cade's odd hair. Cade shifted herself so that Mimiko couldn't do that and it sent a pang of sadness and pity through Mimiko. "You are so angry, child. Be careful, Cade, or that anger will destroy you more thoroughly than any war."

Cade nodded, but said nothing.

Mimiko sighed, signally that she'd given up for the time being. She stood and touched Cade's scarred cheek. "Meditate, child. Put that anger where it can be used to destroy your enemies."

"Yes, Master."