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Reconnaissance was both a duty to her captain, and a way for Mulan to satisfy her burning curiosity about the new world that fate had brought her to. And so the young Chinese soldier skittered through Stacy's halls, quietly, purposefully, and above all, curiously.

She was glad she'd found her armor, along with her sword, her bow, and her quiver, in the Possessions locker. Her armor would be hot and heavy to wear in this humid environment, but at least it concealed the embarrassingly form-fitting suit the ship had given her. It was much preferable to be slightly uncomfortable at all hours of the day then to be walking around in what would have qualified in her time as nothing but the barest of underclothing. With her armor on and her hair tied back, she looked more like the boy she had become used to pretending to be, the boy she had just been growing accustomed to not having to be back home.

As she explored, she kept her bow, arrow notched and at the ready. She'd heard enough about the dangers that had already beset the crew, though she had the sense not to pull back on the string at the first signs of movement. The people here were abductees, like her, dragged from their strange foreign worlds into an equally strange and foreign one. It would not do to shoot any of them for no reason.

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She's awed by the waterbending. "That - that is amazing!" she turns the chunk of ice around in her hands, marveling - it's already beginning to melt on her fingers, real water! "And beautiful, too. I've never seen anything like this. Not even the greatest masters -"

She's gushing. And now that she's listening, she doesn't like what Katara has to say.

". . . I suppose there is more to fear than I thought." She considers the horrors Katara has suggested, turning over new ones in her mind. It's not a task she's well suited for - "Then . . . I should make certain I know what is real now, so that when the Nightmare King strikes, I can recognize that it isn't."

Well what does she know? She has brought honor to the Fa family. Shang loves her, masquerade and all. Her mother and father are NOT the shambling dead, but . . . destroyed with her country. Her face falls.

Katara smiles. Sometimes she forgets her powers still surprise people, mostly because she's so young and doesn't look like she could bring about tidal waves or surf on the water all her own. "Like I said, it takes a lot of practice and a very good teacher. I think I'm able to do him proud now though."

Of course, he's part of the Lotus, so it seemed that he would be happy with her anyway.

"There is," Katara said, "And I'm not just saying it so I can worry you. I'm sure there are a some people on this ship who have powerful mental abilities, and can probably see though the Nightmares. But I don't know too many people like that, so I try to tell at least all of my friends what might be coming. That way, we can all be prepared."

She paused. "Hey, if you don't mind me asking, why do you look like a boy anyway?"

"Luck, I suppose." Pause. "But I'm pretty enough with my hair down and a dress on."

"Luck?" Katara definitely didn't get that answer. "What's lucky about it? I'm not saying wear a dress, you're obviously a fighter and it wouldn't suit you in a fight. But why a boy?"

Mulan blinks at her for a moment.

"Because women aren't allowed to be in the army?" Uh, dur? "Usually."

Pause.

"I'm . . . getting the idea things are different here?"

"WHAT?! Why? What makes men so much better that they get to fight and women don't? What is with that stupid tradition being carried out in other cultures too?!"

This is a sore spot for our fourteen year old feminist who still had motherly duties to attend to with the Avatar group as well as being an accomplished fighter herself. It was bad enough that her Master had believed in that nonsense too.

"Yes, it is," Katara said. "You can dress how you want to, and fight if you want."

Mulan blinks.

"If it's all the same to you," she says, with careful thought, "I'll just . . . stick with my armor. It's . . . familiar."

And now Katara realized it was time to back off a little. After all, she was from a different world,and some traditions simply stayed the way they were for a reason. She didn't have to like it, though.

"Sorry, I may have gotten a little over the edge there," Katara said. "It's just frustrating to have achievements pushed aside because of being a girl or a boy. In my village I had to take care of my brother all the time because my father went off to join a war. I could do that,. and I'm a waterbender, but even my master wouldn't teach me at first because I was a girl. That kind of thing just frustrates me."

Mulan frowns, trying to understand.

"I . . . guess if you have a special gift, then tradition should be bent so that you can use it."

Though she doesn't see yet how water can be used in combat. Oh is she in for a surprise.

"But I didn't go to war because I wanted to. I went because my father was old and ill and would have died if I hadn't gone in his stead."

She pauses.

"Well . . . all right, a little bit of why I went was because I wanted to. Not to go to war and fight, but to see if I could be better at being a soldier than I was at being an honorable daughter and impressing the matchmaker." She smiles. "So I guess I understand why you're angry. If you were a girl who already knew you'd be better as a soldier than as someone who takes care of them, then it must have made you angry to be told you weren't allowed."

"Every gift should be nurtured, because its a gift," Katara said. "My bending is as a part of me as breathing and sleeping. Its a part of my culture, and because of what the war did to my people, I became the last waterbender in the Southern water tribe. I would ever turn my back on this gift, and because of the lengths I went to get better, I'm a master now."

She didn't say this with an air of arrogance: in fact, she was respectful of everything that happened to make her this strong.

"Then you did the honorable thing too, but I thought a part of you would still want to fight too. When you feel the call of your people and what can happen of you don't fight, your options are very clear. I can heal with this gift too, but I am a Southern Water Bender, and fighting for what I believe is in my blood."