Here is one of my new stories that i have been itching to write. Cause this idea just came to me. So sit back and enjoy. I DO NOT own anything, but the story line for THIS story, not the original.


"The Burning Desire"

Chapter 1- My true heritage

Nothing was going the way he wanted it to. He didn't want his father finding out, he didn't want his bitch of a sister to find out, and he NEVER planned to fall in love! ARGH! why couldn't he just stay away. Why did he have to be cursed? If the last thing I do before I die of rejection is kill my bitch of a SISTER! ARGH! why mom ever gave birth to that devil I will never understand.

"Zuko, you know you are glaring at a wall right..." A voice behind me spoke. A voice I knew so well. Uncle Iroh.

"Yes Uncle I know.." I replied, since I can't really glare at the real thing, might as well glare at the wall.

"Nephew, you know that Katara was just afraid, she didn't mean to reject you sh-" I turned around and started at my uncle, "I am not thinking about Katara and glaring uncle, I would never do that, I know she didn't do anything wrong..." my next words came out in a small whisper, "..I love her" I was no longer looking straight at my uncle, the floor seemed much more interesting, cause I knew my face was red with embarresment.

I heard Uncle get up from the ground and walk up to me and sit down beside me. "Zuko, listen to me, nothing from within this cell," yes we are locked up,"is going to help you get Katara back, or get back at your sister." I looked up at uncle with suprise in my eyes, how did he know I wanted to seek revenge on what Azula did? "How di-" "I know you too well nephew." Uncle smiled, and I smiled back at him. I got off the ground of the cell, walked up towards the cell door "Uncle I think you better take that blanket and cover yourself", Uncle scamperd to the other end of the cell sat down and wrapped the blanket up to cover him whole, "...its going to get really hot in here." And I ignited.


In the Beginning...

"I don't understand, nephew, why are we going after the Avatar? I mean I know why but.."

"Uncle, this time its different, I don't plan to kill him...I want to join them."

"But, how are we going to find Aang? Its not like we know where he is right at the moment." Uncle Iroh, brought forth a good point. Zuko just snorted and stopped walking. He turned around to look at his, aging, uncle and said.

"I don't know. But its worth a try, rather than live in fear, hiding from the fire lord and doing nothing to stop his inhumane ways. We have to do something. Be it trying to find the Avatar and helping him, or never finding him at all. But atleast I'll know that I didn't just sit on my ass the whole time.."

Uncle Iroh smiled. "Oh Zuko, when did you grow up to so smart...and here I was thinking about old days where you used to sit on my lap and always want to hear stories.."

"UNCLE!" Zuko's face was red with embaressment, glad that they were they only ones in the forest. But alas he was wrong...they were not.

"Well well well, look who we have here..." Zuko froze. He knew that voice very well, something no matter what he tried he would never forget. Azula.

"Azula" Zuko muttered under his breath, there she stood in her Fire nation Army suit and her trademark smirk on her face. '...what does she want now?..'

She leaned off the tree trunk and started walking towards us. "Well brother, you must be wondering why I'm here huh..." Zuko glared at her, Azula's smirk widened "...if you must know the Avatar is near by." Zuko gave Azula a wierd look asking 'why would I care' All Azula did was snicker. Zuko gave Uncle Iroh a look, he seemed as confused as he was. Azula walked closer to him, leaned over and whispered into his ear "...and the water bender as well."

Zuko's eyes went wide for a second, as soon as it came it was gone. The glare was back in place, Zuko's face mared with a frown.

"Azula" Zuko growled, "...if you do anything to them...I will kill you"

Azula faked a scare, gasping while at it. "Oh my god! I should watch what I say to the powerful prince of the Fire Nation...oh wait..." the smirk was back in place, "you were banished." Zuko mentally flinched, being reminded about the fact that he was no longer the Prince of the Fire Nation.

"Little sister, does it look like I care. I have given up being that horrid man's son. He is nothing to me. He never was, or will he ever be." A frown replaced that smirk of Azula, not liking the fact that her sinister comments were having no effect on him. Zuko mentally patted himself on the back for achieving that level, and changing the topic of conversation. 'Not much of a conversation, when all we are doing is arguing...huh.'

Azula huffed, her nostrils flaring, a sign of anger rising. "Whatever brother, we'll see who wins this war.." her eyes narrowed,"..then we'll see if you are his son or not." And with a swish of the wind she was gone.

'God riddance...'

Zuko turned around towards his uncle, and noticed a very wierd smile on his face. "Umm Uncle, why are you...uhh..smiling like that.." Zuko asked, confusion lurking within his golden eyes.

"Well it seems that your sister.."

"Argh don't call her my sister, she is nothing to me." Zuko interupted. Uncle Iroh snickered and continued.

"...it seems your sister knows something about you that I did not Zuko" Zuko blushed. Muttering something under his breath, too soft for uncle to hear. "What was that?"

"Nothing."

"Oh no it was something"

"UNCLE. I told you it was nothing!"

Uncle rolled his eyes at, the now red faced, Zuko. "Nephew, you did say something. And I AM SURE about it. So you better tell me or I'll just convieniently tell Katara of your little crush on her..." By the end of it Zuko's eyes were wide and shocked and Uncle had a smirk, worthy only for the royalty of the Fire Nation.

"You...no..would you..no no you wouldn't...no you would..but...no..NO!" Zuko was flushed in the face but was making it even more obvious that what Uncle had said was true. Zuko, the fire prince, was in love with Katara, a waterbender and to top it all off, friend of the Avatar.

"Oh yes nephew I would"

During their little conversation, they did not seem to notice the rustle in the bushes...BIG mistake.

"Here kitty kitty...where did you go?" an unkown voice said from the distance, within the bushes. Zuko and Uncle Iroh stopped their conversation and looked towards the direction of the voice within the green bushes. Zuko's hand ignited with fire, ready for a fight if needed.

"Who's there?" Zuko demanded, his hand getting brighter and hotter.

The rustling got louder, as if someone was running through them and out popped a...cat?

"Wha-" and then they heard it "CATCH THAT CAT!" Zuko looked over to Uncle Iroh, but all he saw was him shrug and say "I'm an old man, I can't run after a cat..." Zuko rolled his eyes and took after the cat, running.

The minute Zuko vanished into the bushes after the cat, an old lady came out. In her right hand she had a walking stick, her left hand was stretched out searching for something, anything to hold onto. Iroh realized that this old woman was blind, indicated by the dark glasses on her eyes.

"Here maam, let me help y-"

"DONT TOUCH ME BOY!" the old lady screamed. Iroh stepped back as quickly as he had stepped forward.

"Umm... ok. I won't..."

The old woman, as if she could see, turned towards Iroh and pointed her left hand index finger straight at him. "You are a fire nation personal are you not." Iroh's eyes went wide with shock 'how did she know that...' It was more of a statement than a question.

Iroh knew that if he lied he would be caught, so he went with the truth approach to see where it would lead.

"Yes I am."

"Ahh...are you the one that has a Nephew named..uhh what was his name!...being old is not something I wanted.." once again Iroh was stunned. She knew Zuko? But HOW? "..AH YES! Zuko." 'wow this lady knows everything!'

"Yes that is my nephew. Why are you asking these sort of personal questions for?"

The old lady smirked "I've known about this day from years now, waiting for him to give him this" She brought something out from one of her skirt pockets and held it in her left hand, high for Iroh to see. It was a necklace. It looked familiar. It had a small red stone in the middle with a dragon encircled around it with its long body and had its head placed on the top of the stone. Iroh had seen it somewhere...but..'Princess Ursa..'

"Who gave that to you?" Iroh demanded, his brown eyes narrowing in a glare. Suspicious.

"O my boy, this here was given to me by the most beautiful dragon I had ever laid eyes on.." the lady snickered, "..actually the last thing I ever laid eyes on." She hugged the necklace to her chest, as if it was the only little connection she had with her sight and the last bit of the world that she had seen.

"Dragon? Are you sure?" Iroh asked for conformation

"Oh yes! I remember that day as if it were yesterday. I was walking by the lake, minding my own buisness, when all of a sudden, I see this HUGE serpent looking monster came flying straight at me..." the old lady took a pause and said,"..now boy, I know you want to hear the story but can you help this old lady find a decent rock to sit on or a tree trunk to lean against." Iroh hurridley walked over to the older woman and held onto her left hand, that still held the necklace, and guided her towards a rock flat enough for her to sit comfortably.

"Ah, so much better, I though my legs were going to fall off, because of all the running that stupid cat made me do. Speaking of which where is my troublesome cat? Is you nephew back yet?" Ever heard of the phrase speak of the devil the devil appears. Well that is exactly what happened. Zuko apperared with an orange cat tucked under his right arm.

"Uncle I fo- oh hello, I think this is your cat." The old lady looked up towards where Zuko's voice was coming from and gave him a smile. "Thank you my boy. Now I can't really tell you whether its my cat or not, since I can't see, but could you see his collar whats the name written on it." Zuko looked towards his uncle for a second and then back at the cat at hand, he checked the collar, "The name here is...uhh...Poku. Is that your cats name?" The old lady nodded her head, as a sign of yes and asked Zuko to sit with them. Zuko gave his uncle a look, asking whether he should comply, all Iroh did was nod and patted the seat next to him with his hand. "Ok"

Zuko still holding the cat in his arm sat down beside his uncle on the ground, while the old lady sat on the flat rock.

"So where was I...Ah yes, this necklace was given to me by the most beautiful dragon I had ever laid eyes on. I was walking by the lake when I saw this huge serpant like looking thing flying straight towards me in such speed I knew for sure that it would crash. I hurridly moved away, going behind the nearest trees and watched as the serpant like creature desended from the skies straight into the lake. I was shocked at first, thinking, maybe it was injured, maybe it needs help, maybe it saw me and is playing a trick...

But as I was thinking of different reasons, I saw a shadow from the corner of my eye. There was a lady, dressed in nothing, coming out from within the water depths, wet" Zuko looked towards his uncle, asking why they were listening to this story, but was stopped mid way, his glare indicating to him loud and clear 'SHUT UP'. So Zuko went back to listening to the story, while stroking the cat with his left hand, the cat had seemed to have dozed off. Zuko smiled and tuned back into the story.

"The woman, no older than 20 - 25 years of age, was standing there in all her glory, when all of a sudden she looked straight at me. The hairs on my neck stood up, afraid of what she might do to me. She walked towards where I was hiding. I tried to regular my breathing but it didn't help, my heart was beating...fast! I couldn't control it. I hoped she wouldn't find me, but with no such luck, she found me..." The old lady paused

"Then what happened?" Iroh looked towards Zoku, with suprised eyes. He didn't realize that Zuko was finding this interesting at all. 'Hmm..maybe I thought wrong..'

The old lady looked to her right, following the sound of Zuko's voice, and continued. "Nothing really, all she did was say hello. I was so shocked and filled with fear that I couldn't move my body and my voice was, as if somebody was holding onto my vocal cords and wouldn't let me speak. So all I could muster was a faint smile, barely. I think she saw how uncomfortable I was so she reassured me that she wouldn't hurt me, instead she just wanted to talk to me. That helped me realax a bit. I felt my voice come back to me and I said sure. So we walked over towards the lake again and sat down. Mind it she was still naked, and I couldn't look her straight in the face, and I think she realized that and all of a sudden she was wearing clothes. I was flabbergasted. I asked her right away, where did she get those clothes from, all she replied was magic.

I looked at her face more clearly for the first time, she was a very beautiful woman. She had long straight black flowing hair, her amber eyes twinkled with triumph and adventure and a figure, the envy of all the women in the world. She looked like an angel. I think she noticed that I was gawking at her," the old lady let out a giggle, as if she were a little girl again, and continued "..she had a smile on her face and then she told me that I reminded her of her mother, that I looked exactly like her mother. I smiled at her and told her I appreciated the compliment. Then it all went quite. We just sat there looking at nothing in particular and then she spoke." The lady paused, looking off into the distance, well in her case more like thinking off into the distance. She looked down, towards were Zuko and Iroh were sitting on the ground

"My my, I haven't even introduced myself yet have I! How unmanerly of me. Let me introduce myself my name is Meade. I am the eldest in the nearby village."

"My name is Z-"

"I know who are my boy. I even know who you really are." Zuko was stunned. 'how did she...' He wanted to ask his Uncle how she knew, but before he could voice it out, the old lady, Kiku, continued on with her story.

"She told me the most awkwardest thing. She told me..."

"Your name is Meade correct"

"Yes it is, how did you know?"

"I know many things, things I rather not..."

"Why is that..."

"Its because I can see everything, from the past, to the present to the future.."

"That's how you knew my name, right?"

"Yes I did. And I also know that your daughter is going to marry into a very prestige family"

"Really! Can you tell me something else?"

"Mmmh...well I can tell you lots more but I need for you to do something in return."

"Ok anything!"

"I want you to give my son this necklace when you see him in the future...

"...she took of the necklace from around her neck and gave it to me. She said her son would pass by these forests today at this exact time. And here I am waiting to give away this necklace that I have been holding onto for 20 years..."

"Well who was the lady? Did she ever tell you her name? Where she came from? Why she turned into a dragon and back into a human? Why she wanted you to give the necklace to the son? Wh-"

"Hold on HOLD ON BOY!" Zuko shut up. His ears turning red, realizing how childish he sounded. Uncle Iroh just laughed.

"The woman's name was...Ursa." Zuko's eyes widen, he looked towards his uncle looking for any sort of reaction, but he was shocked to find only a smile. 'did he know?..' "Why didn't you tell me uncle?" Iroh looked towards Zuko, noticing him staring straight at him,"...tell you what Zuko? That your mom was a dragon or that she could perform magic or that she could see into the past and future? Cause if you're expecting that from me, I didn't know any of this. All I knew about," he took the necklace from Meade and showed it to Zuko,"was this necklace. I had seen it on Ursa's neck, long before you were born. Actually now that I think about it, when she found out she was pregnant with you I never saw this necklace again." Uncle Iroh was in deep concentration. He was trying to put the pieces together. But it seemed as if he was still missing some sort of piece of this puzzle. He looked up again towards the older woman, Meade, and asked.

"Did Ursa tell you why she asked you give this necklace to her son?"

"O yes she did. She told me that when she gives birth to her son, if she is wearing this necklace her baby will automatically be born a dragon, but if she is not, well, the baby will be born a human..."

"So what you are trying to say is that if Ursa were wearing this necklace when she gave birth to Zuko, he would ALSO be a dragon..."

"Yes."

"So does that mean I am not a dragon?" Zuko asked for conformation. Dreading the worst. Its not like he didn't want to be a dragon, but come on! This all too much for a young adult to handle.

"Well...if I remember correctly she did say something about unlocking some sort of power...argh! I hate this. Hold on give me a minute to remember, until then why don't you take the necklace and put it on. It is rightfully yours." Zuko looked toward his uncle once more, and asked for the necklace. Iroh gave it to him with no hesitation. Zuko looked at it carefully, examining the great detail put into the serpant like dragon, and slowly he put in on. He didn't realize that the minute the necklace went over his head the stone in the middle turned a bright orange colour and then faded back to its orginal red colour.

"O yes! Now I remember, she said something about how this necklace would help unlock her sons power."

"What power?" Zuko asked, interested

"Every single power your mother was capable of and more" The minute Meade finished what she had to say, Zuko felt his body rumble. It was as if he had something inside his body that wanted to get out, something that had been entraped for too long and now it wanted out for good. His body felt like it was on fire. Zuko heard a scream, a very terrifying scream...it was him. It was him that was screaming, this pain was unbearable. He could hear his uncle screaming, asking him whats wrong, calling out to him. But he couldn't answer. He couldn't find his voice. He didn't know what was happening. His body felt like it was shifting, his bones cracking, his back arching, his legs felt like they were being broken, pulled on. Everything in his body felt like it was getting...bigger, larger! His face felt like it was elongating. His head hurt so much! It felt like thousands of needles were being pushed into his face.

'WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!?'


OOOO I wonder what is happening to him. Hmm..

Well please do tell me what you think. I put a lot of thought into this, so please do review. Review is my inspiration.

mixedfic