Discalmier: I do not own Avater: The Last Airbender, Nickelodeon does and they wont give it to me.

Disclaimer 2.0: This story is based upon a fan vid called Zutara Taang story look it up on Youtube.

Prologue

Ba Sing Se, an extremely large city with many rings. The rings helped to separate the different classes from each other, the outer ring housed the lowest class of people, new arrivals and the poor wondered these streets. It was a big area this outer ring, so big that a fire nation ship could easily hide within the mass of houses and buildings.

The rings then went inward from there, until in the inner ring where the upper class, the rich mostly, lived. It seemed brilliant, flawless to a point, but even a solid stone can have cracks.

The walls, although they benefited the rich, restricted the poor, who had but only the ring they lived in to sell goods, which hurt businesses. The large area of the outer ring helped but the rich didn't often trek there, and the streets were filled with thugs and dark ghettoes inhabited by refugees.

This was where Zuko lived and worked now, in this city of rings and separate classes. It was so entirely different then his home of the fire nation, where he at one time at been apart of that higher class. Now however, years later, he was nothing. Banned from his county and sent on an impossible mission to capture the Avatar. Only to fail numerous times and become a wanted trader. Zuko had then went into hiding, cutting off all ties to the fire nation, he and his uncle became refugees and fled to the very place Zuko's uncle had failed to take over many moons ago. Ba sing se, the impregnable city, seemed the perfect place to hide from their own country.

And so they began a new life and changed their names, becoming the only employees of a small tea shop in the outer ring. Soon after living in an apartment above the store. His uncle was living out a long suppressed dream, and Iroh seemed happy. Zuko on the other hand felt trapped and alone somehow. And yet these people that came into the shop for tea treated him like he was one of them, and not a fire nation prince. They looked at his scar and saw it as a wound from when his village was attacked, and not as a scar of shame, burned into him by his own father.

His father, the fire nation lord, was a powerful man, evil to the very core. Every ounce of kindness died slowly away between the time Zuko's sister was born to the point where Zuko stood up to his father's own war plans. By the time father and son faced to dull, all kindness was gone; nothing was left but the cold heart of Zuko's father. It was then that the fire lord burned a scar into his own son's pleading face and in all rights disowned him. A week later Zuko and his uncle Iroh were "assigned" a ship and a small crew of soldiers to embark on an impossible mission. Find and bring back to one thing that could hold back the Fire nation's world domination, The Avatar.

The mission had begun hopefully simple, find some 100 year old man and bring him back to the fire lord alive. The reward was simple as well, bring back the Avatar and gain back his honor and rightful place on the thrown. But after a year of searching hope began to quickly fade as Zuko's ship and crew neared the South Pole. Then however faith would soon shine down on him.

One day while practicing his fire bending on ship's deck with his uncle Iroh, Zuko saw it. A bright pillar of light shot into the distant sky of the South Pole, and a moment later the large war ship was rocked by a short series of strong waves. And then Zuko knew, even before he grabbed the telescope to investigate the event farther, that he had found the Avatar.

Soon the warship changed course and headed towards the area that the beam was admitted. By the time the ship reached the South Pole walls, Zuko and his small crew where armed and ready. The door lowered and the small wall of the little village was crushed. Zuko stepped out, looking tall and important, six soldiers followed in triangle formation behind. Half way down the ramp a single young man ran at him, but the fire prince quickly took care of him with three swift kicks. He then preceded down the ramp and walked into front of the people that lived there. It was a small amount of people surprisingly, the current population consisted of many women and children. The only men being small boys and old men. And the only man old enough to be a threat was the one boy Zuko had just defeated. It would have been an easy take over, but the prince's orders were clear, only capture the Avatar and bring him home. So Zuko questioned the people forcefully, his only response was the same boy he had beaten on the ramp challenging him again. The fight lasted only a few minutes, the other boy had obviously never battled anyone other then a snow bank. Once again the prince walked though the people, looking for some weakness, some indication that they would reveal the location of the Avatar.

One girl in particular, caught his eye for some reason. It wasn't that she was weak, on the contrary, she look quite strong willed. Her eyes, though beautiful, were filled with fear and for a moment Zuko forgot that it was because of him. Even if all he saw was her face, he could fell a warming in his heart that had long since been subsided. And then it was gone and he looked away, it had only lasted a few seconds but he wanted more.

Zuko had no sooner ordered his soldiers to burn the village to the ground did a young boy, dressed in strange clothing, land in font of him. The boy didn't look as if he belonged at the South Pole, dressed in air monk clothing with a large blue arrow on his head. He looked like an Air Bender, but wasn't possible, the air benders were all dead, the race was wiped out, erased from all corners of the world almost 100 years ago. Unless… Zuko smiled evilly even before the boy announced himself as the Avatar.

After a quick battle, with parts of the small village burning behind them, the Avatar surrendered, asking only if he was taken that the village be left alone and it's people spared. Quickly Zuko agreed, wishing only afterwards that he had said yes but taken the girl with them anyway.

They had just gotten out to sea when the Avatar escaped, the chase led to a battle on the ship's deck, which unfortunately was joined by the village boy who had fought the prince on the ramp and the girl Zuko had admired earlier. But he didn't know that then, or the fact that they where riding a large flying bison.

Locked within combat with the avatar, Zuko accidentally knocked the boy into the sea. And that's when the fire prince witnessed the awesome power of the Avatar. For the small boy he had just been fighting burst out of the ocean, burst out of the ocean mincingly in a large raging water tornado. The water tornado came down on the ship's deck, washing Zuko and a few crew members over bored. Then as quick as it had begun, it was gone. And the boy's arrow tattoos turned from white back to blue and he fell limply to the ship's deck. The bison landed and the two riding most have gotten off and helped the boy, but Zuko didn't know.

When he had climbed back up to the ship deck by ways of the anchor chain, the village boy rushed over and whacked the prince over the head, causing him to fall back into the ocean as the bison took off and flew away.

After that the whole fire nation knew the Avatar had returned, and also that powerful bender was but only a small boy. Surly he wouldn't pose the threat, the fire lord had first thought. However as the long year wore on, the Avatar showed more promise and once again became a danger to the Fire nation's well being.

So other, higher ranking soldiers were sent on the same task as Zuko. And it soon became apparent that his mission was becoming more and more hopeless. The others, mostly the newly crowed Admiral Zhao, had larger and better resources. While Zuko had only the small crew on his little ship.

Over the course of a year Zuko and the Avatar had many run-ins, and slowly he learned the village boy's name was Sokka and the girl he had admired was Katara. Sadly Zuko slowly lost internist with the girl after he captured her and tried to use her to get to the avatar, the passion he had for her wasn't reflected within her cold blue eyes. And regrettably he let her go free.

The fire prince had run-ins with the Admiral as well, even kidnapping the Avatar from Zhao's grasp and letting the boy free afterwards.

It wasn't until Zuko's crew was taken from him and he stowed away on Joah's ship to reach to North Pole, did he finally defeat Zhao. And soon after that Zuko was dubbed a trader and banned from the Fire Nation. His own sister had a mission to bring Zuko back to the fire lord, dead or badly burse and beaten, or so it seemed. His uncle was also banned and they went into hiding.

After that they found themselves living in Ba Sing Se.