Spirit of Fire

Chapter 1: No longer holding back

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender

BETA read by: Waterbender-Katara


Zuko, banished crown prince of the Fire Nation, disgrace of the royal family, hunter of the Avatar, and many more titles that meant nothing to the young prince at the moment; for nothing made sense anymore. Every day of his young life, for as long as he could remember, he did everything he thought was best for the Fire Nation. Things that, he thought, would please his father.

Sadly, it wasn't meant to be. His mother had vanished when he was young, his father fought him in an Agni Kai which resulted in the scarring of the left side of his face, he lost his honor and was banished, and now he was a wanted man in his own nation.

So here he was, on his knees, on top of a mountain peak, letting out his anguish; for not even nature itself would acknowledge him and strike its lightning at him. If only someone could hear him.

"Oh you poor little human," spoke a voice from behind Zuko.

Zuko's eyes widened in surprise at hearing a voice from behind him, as there shouldn't have been anyone on the mountain. Heck, even he shouldn't be on the mountain. But he was, and now some fool was mocking him. Intending to teach his mocker a lesson, through pain, Zuko whirled around to face the speaker.

The moment he turned around, Zuko froze. In front of him wasn't a person, but a spirit. The most obvious fact was that it was hovering, a couple of feet above the ground, had a glowing aura, and its skin was blue with white marking cascading and crisscrossing down its body. There were also other noticeable similarities between the figure in front of him and a person; it had a humanoid form, slender hips and dainty feet, a surprising large chest, which indicated that the spirit was female, and long wavy red hair. Add the fact, that her face resembled a certain mask of his, and Zuko was well on his way to freaking out.

"Who are you?" Zuko finally asked after a moment of staring and trying to not go in shock.

"I am Aoihi, the Spirit of Fire. Otherwise known as the blue spirit," replied Aoihi.

Upon hearing the spirit introduce herself, Zuko's eyes widened in slight fear. 'I really hope she isn't here about me using her name with that mask of mine,' the young prince thought to himself.

"I've seen you wandering around the Earth Kingdom doing robberies while using my name as an alias. You even went a step further and used a mask to hide your face that looks like mine," commented Aoihi.

At that statement, Zuko began to fear for his life. After all, it wasn't good to cross one of the rumored Elder Spirits.

"However, that is not why I'm appearing before you," continued Aoihi, not even acknowledging Zuko's fear.

"Why are you here, then?" asked Zuko. From the stories his uncle had told him, spirits never appeared to a human without a reason.

"Since this war you humans started, there has been an imbalance. For the most part, the Avatar has been charged with fixing this imbalance. However, there are certain parts of the imbalance that even the Avatar cannot fix. After years of debating with the spirits of Air, Water, and Earth, I've finally been allowed to correct these parts of the imbalance," Aoihi stated to the young prince.

"What does that have to do with me?" Zuko asked curiously, as there was no imbalance that he knew of.

"Since, I'm not able to correct the imbalance directly, I must choose a champion for me," Aoihi explained. "I've chosen you as my champion."

"What is this imbalance that you speak of?"

"The imbalance is the Fire Nation itself," Aoihi answered coldly. "The people of the Fire Nation have twisted and perverted the true ways of fire bending, they are now nothing more than warmongering and bloodlust fools, and the nation has the rest of the world gripped in fear due to this war."

"This war is our way of sharing the greatness of the Fire Nation with the rest of the world," Zuko responded; trying to defend his country.

Aoihi's eyes widened slightly in shock at what Zuko had said. She blinked her eyes briefly; right before she exploded, both literarily and figuratively. "WHAT? YOU THINK THIS WAR IS A GOOD WAY FOR YOUR NATION TO SHARE ITS GREATNESS??" Gone was her blue skin, as bright hot red flames erupted from her body. The heat she was emitting was at such a force that the rain that had been falling was evaporated; now leaving the air and ground both hot and dry.

Zuko was truly afraid for his life upon seeing the spirit's response to his statement. He hadn't been expecting this kind of reply to his cries at the storm.

"THE REST OF THE WORLD DOES NOT RESPECT YOU OR ADMIRE YOU. THEY FEAR AND HATE YOU. THOUSANDS OF THOUSANDS OF PRAYERS ARE OFFERED UP THAT THE FIRE NATION WILL BE DESTROYED; AND YOU HAVE THE GALL TO SAY THAT WHAT THE FIRE NATION IS DOING IS GOOD?" Aoihi breathed loud and deep. 'Very well then, let's see how he likes this,' the spirit thought to herself.

Aoihi calmed herself down, forcing the flames and the heat to disappear into the air, and stared intently at the young prince. She raised her right hand, facing her palm towards the sky, and made a small pure white flame appear in her hand.

"Since you believe so strongly in your nation's views on the war, lets us see how you take the rest of the world's opinion on the war," spoke Aoihi in a cool soft voice. But, the look in her eyes promised pain. The flame in her hand shot forward, straight towards Zuko's chest.

Zuko braced himself for the impact of the flame, by squeezing his eyes shut and covering his face with his arms, but felt nothing. Slowly, he opened his eyes; realizing that he hadn't been hit. He looked at his arms and shirt and saw no scorch marks. It took effort to burn a fire bender's skin, but clothes burned just as easily.

Seeing that he hadn't been hit, Zuko turned his gaze back to Aoihi. At that moment it struck him. The pain; the unimaginable inferno of pain that was exploding inside of him. Zuko fell to his knees in agony and through bleary, pain filled eyes, he saw that he wasn't on fire; even though, he felt like he was being burned alive.

'Let's see how you handle the world's pain, Crown Prince Zuko,' Aoihi thought to herself as Zuko began to scream, in agony, from the pain.

Trapped within the recesses of his mind, Zuko was unable to escape what he was seeing and feeling. He heard the dying screams of the Air Nomads during the Airbender Genocide. He felt as though he was being worn away like the Southern Water Tribe had been worn away to nothing more than a small hovel of a village. His flesh felt like it was being burned, like the Earth Kingdom villages spread throughout the countryside.

Through it all, Zuko could feel the dark, twisted glee that the Fire Nation took in all of the death and destruction. It wasn't right, everything, everything was wrong. All of it had to end.

Suddenly, the pain was gone and Zuko's vision began to clear, but the effects still lingered on his soul and mind. As quickly as he could, in his weakened state, perched himself up on his elbows and proceeded to throw up. After emptying his stomach, he turned back to Aoihi and asked in a weakened voice, "What was that?"

"That was a piece of spirit fire. What you experienced was what the rest of the world's view of the Fire Nation and the Fire Nation's reveling in the war," Aoihi explained to him.

For a few minutes, Aoihi looked down at the prince as the young man's views of his country's beliefs crushed around him. For not even he could defend his nation's part in the war. She then asked, "Well, now what do you think of your nation's sharing?"

"It is madness," Zuko replied in a hollowed voice. Turning his gaze up at Aoihi he asked, "How do you plan to fix this?"

"That, young prince, is where you come in," Aoihi began with a slight smirk adorning her mouth, showing more of her pearly what fangs. She then continued saying, "Since, I cannot correct this imbalance myself; I must choose someone to correct it for me. You are the one I've picked, Crown Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation."

"Why me?"

"Who better that the nation's own prince? It will be a long, hard, and difficult road for you. However, I'll be giving you help and should you be successful, you will be greatly rewarded," Aoihi answered Zuko.

"How can you help me?" Zuko asked curiously, standing back on his feet.

In response to his question, Aoihi formed another small flame of white fire in her hand and shot it forth at Zuko once more. The young prince braced for the hit and once again felt nothing. After a moment of waiting, to see if he would be in pain, he looked back up at Aoihi for an explanation. "Yes, that was spirit fire," Aoihi began her explanation. She continued saying, "That flame is filled with knowledge on proper firebending, the many uses for different flames, and lost firebending techniques. You must mediate to learn this knowledge. I'll also help you by having others join you, though they'll be joining you later."

"Who? Who will be joining me?" Zuko asked.

"The champions of the other elements will be joining you, as the champion of fire," Aoihi told him. "You will know the other champions in due time."

"How am I to correct the imbalance?" Zuko asked.

Zuko's eyes widened in surprise as images of what Aoihi wanted filled his mind. "You can't be serious!" he shouted after the images left his mind.

"Oh, I'm afraid that I'm completely serious on that," replied Aoihi. "For if you don't I'll remove the existence of every firebender."

Zuko knew this spirit could do it, as she represented the element of fire. Sighing to himself and said, "Alright. Now how do I access this knowledge?"

"For that, you will just simply need to mediate," Aoihi replied.

"Is that all?"

"The only thing left is for you to accept it," Aoihi said as her feet touched the ground, standing directly in front of Zuko with her hand extended to him.

"I accept," Zuko said after a moment and shook the spirit's hand. As he was shaking her hand, Zuko felt his left eye's vision go black as he lost his sight in the eye.

Before he could speak, Aoihi spoke saying, "Since you've accepted to be my champion, you will bear my mark." She then summoned a small mirror for Zuko to see the change.

When his vision returned, Zuko looked at the mirror and saw that his once golden eye was now red like Aoihi's eyes. (A/N: Only the left eye is red. The right eye is still golden.)

"Now, be on your way, Prince Zuko. You have much to do," Aoihi spoke as she began to fade back to the spirit world.

After watching Aoihi fade back into the spirit world, Zuko looked up and the sky and said, sighing, "Me and my big, fat, mouth." With a shake of his head, Zuko began the long trek down the mountain side and back to his uncle.


Aoihi opened her eyes as she returned to her room in the spirit world. She, along with the other higher elemental spirits, made their residence in a somewhat palace shaped building in the spirit world. It was there that the four of them would determine the next Avatar and judge humans who had passed on.

Aoihi stepped out of her room and proceeded to make her way to what was effectively the library for the elementals. The library wasn't grand like Wan Shi Tong's Library of Knowledge, but it did hold far more complete volumes of books that went in to greater detail about whatever subject a person wished to know. Aoihi pushed on the large wooden door and stepped inside.

"I see that you're back," spoke a watery sounding voice from the side. Aoihi turned her head to see her opposite element spirit sitting at a nearby table close to the door. The spirit was named, Akaimizu, and she was the spirit of water. Akaimizu looked a lot like Aoihi; the major difference was the color spectrum. Where Aoihi was blue, Akaimizu was red and Aoihi's white tribal markings were black on Akaimizu. Like Aoihi, Akaimizu's eyes were the same color as her element; red for Aoihi and dark blue for Akaimizu. Their hair was also a major difference between the two women. Aoihi had long, wavy, red hair; while Akaimizu had short, straight, blue hair.

"Yes, I'm back. I just returned a few minutes ago," Aoihi replied.

"Do you think it is wise to choose the great-grandson of Avatar Roku as your champion?" Akaimizu, asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Yes," replied Aoihi firmly. "Change needs to come and having him as one of the champions is going to help do that. Besides, what of your chosen champion?"

"I've already informed them that they'll be going back," Akaimizu answered her counterpart.

"Picking that one as your champion is really going to shake things up in the physical world, you know that right?"

"Yes, well, I've always loved dramatic plot twists."

Shaking her head, Aoihi walked away and began her search for a good book on dragons.


Iroh, former general of the Fire Nation Army, Prince of the Fire Nation, and Dragon of the West, was patiently waiting for his young nephew to arrive back from wherever he had gone to blow off some steam. He was soon rewarded with the sound of crunching dried grass as Zuko approached.

As his nephew carefully opened the door, Iroh called out, saying, "You have been gone for some time nephew. I was starting to get worried."

After hearing no sarcastic remarks coming from his nephew, Iroh was really starting to get worried. After all, Zuko without a snappy comeback was a reason to be concerned. Okay, so maybe snappy wasn't the right word, but still a comeback of some sort.

All Zuko did was just walk forward into the light of the fire; giving Iroh a good view of his face. The former general gasped at what he saw. Many things he had seen in his life, but never before had he seen anything like this. Gone was the boy's golden iris of his left eye and replaced with one of crimson blood.

"Uncle," Zuko spoke, "what can you tell me about elder spirits?"

"Zuko, what did you do?" Iroh asked.

Zuko then proceeded to tell his uncle everything. After several minutes of talking, Zuko finally finished his tale.

Iroh stared at his nephew with a look of disbelief on his face. Quickly, he gathered his wits about him and said, "Zuko, do you have any idea what this means?"

"No. Why? Do you know something?"

"Actually, I don't. The last known recording of an elder spirit contacting a human on the physical world was over fifteen hundred years ago," Iroh answered, thinking back to his university days.

Zuko's eyes widened in shock; fifteen hundred years separated him from the last know human to have contact with an elder spirit, he had not seen that coming. Well, so much for history being of any help. It was time to do what he did best in a situation like this, ask uncle Iroh for advice. "What do you think on all of this, Uncle?"

"Honestly, Nephew? I think it was very foolish of you to do this," Iroh replied.

Zuko shot his uncle a deadpanned glare.

"However," Iroh said, continuing, "What's done is done. It will be a few days until I'll be up to traveling. Until then, you need to practice meditating to start learning these things on firebending that Aoihi has given you. But for now, it's late, so we should get some sleep."

As Zuko made his way over to where he had placed his simple futon, he spoke, asking, "Uncle, do you think the spirit could carry out her threat?"

"The one of killing all firebenders, should you fail? Of course I do. A normal spirit is strong enough against benders and non-benders alike. Remember, what the ocean spirit did at the Northern Water Tribe? The ocean spirit is not an elder spirit, so I imagine they could do much worse," Iroh explained as he recalled the memories of nearly a month ago at the Northern Water Tribe.

With that thought in mind, Zuko laid his head down and closed his eyes. Soon he was embraced by a heavy sleep.


Far away from Zuko and Iroh slept four young friends with a large beast and a smaller beast. One of the friends was a young boy who wore long ago colors of orange and yellow that marked him as the last of the Air Nomads. The boy was named, Aang and more importantly he was the Avatar.

Aang, Aang!" came a soft elderly voice.

Aang slowly opened his sleepy eyes to see his former life, Avatar Roku, floating in all his blue aura glory.

"Roku, Its good to see you," said Aang as he sat up more.

"Thank you, young Aang. However, I'm here on important business," replied the past avatar.

"What's up, Roku?"

"Something I thought would never happen. The elder elemental spirits are choosing champions."

"Elder elemental spirits? Who are they?" Aang asked curiously, having never heard of them before.

"They are part of the spirits that govern over the spirit world. They're also the ones who decide who the next Avatar will be," Roku replied.

"Okay, so what are these champions you mentioned?"

"The elder spirits can choose a champion to do their bidding for them. All of them are immensely strong and gifted in the bending arts."

"Okay, so are they here to help in the war?"

"That's just it, I don't know. I came to inform you because the last time a champion was chosen by one of the elder spirits, it was to kill the current avatar and the champion was successful." Roku spoke in a grim voice.

"KILL THE AVATAR?" Aang shouted. "Why would they do that?"

"I don't know. I've never been allowed entrance into the higher plains of spirit world. In fact, hardly any Avatar has."

"So, how did these champions kill the Avatar?"

"It wasn't champions who killed the avatar, young Aang. It was champion; one person that killed the Avatar." Roku answerd.

"Hold on, you just said that the elders are choosing champions," Aang shot back

"Yes. This time, they're picking more than one. The elder spirits have picked three champions."

"THREE?"

"That is correct," Roku replied. Seeing the current Avatar's stress, he continued saying, "This is not all bad news though."

"What's not bad about it?"

"We don't know that they are being chosen to kill you. I'll inform you as soon as I learn more. I just thought it best to inform you," spoke Roku as he faded into nothing.

With a wary feeling, Aang laid his head back down and eventually fell asleep.


Next Chapter: Firebending 101 for Angsty Teens

That's it for the first chapter. I hope you've enjoyed the start of this epic journey with me. Please review and tell me what you think. Also, yes this story is AU and it'll have a few OCs in it too.