Redemption
By n0nameneeded
This is set somewhere at the beginning of Season 3, I suppose, when Aang is looking for a Firebending teacher. Guess who happens to be the perfect candidate. This is just how I picture it happening.
There are many things that I do not own. Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of them.
It was a rarity that Prince Zuko and the Avatar could be within striking distance of each other and do without the striking. Once before, a near-lethal wound from an arrow had made that situation possible; in another instance the ropes around the Prince's wrists had done the trick. But never before had Aang and Zuko fought together against a common enemy. Not like this.
The Avatar and his friends had the other two occupied, but Azula was still at large. Zuko crouched behind the Avatar's flying bison, chest heaving from exertion. His craving for air would have to submit to silence, though. It was a deadly game of cat and mouse, and one mistake would mean the game would be over.
He chanced a look around the creature's enormous tail. Azula was nowhere in sight, so chances were she could see him. She was too good to venture so far from her prey unintentionally. He would not let despair overtake him though. He wasn't done.
His calculating eyes spotted her most likely hiding place: a dense group of trees about twenty feet to his right. He could set fire to the brush and force her out to gain the upper hand. Darting out from behind his temporary refuge, Zuko let loose a blast of flames in the direction of the trees with a yell.
"Nice try," came a voice from behind him.
Zuko didn't turn around. He didn't have to. He knew the game was over. He watched the fire consume the brush beneath the trees; watched the flames flicker as they destroyed a part of the forest's life. Somewhere inside himself, he watched a young boy pleading for his father's forgiveness. But the father was merciless. And so was his daughter.
"Mai and Ty Lee are taking care of the Avatar, who you failed to capture, and his two friends. And I'll be delivering you to father. How delighted he will be to see you, Zuzu." He gritted his teeth to stop himself from responding. "Four enemies of the Fire Lord in one day." She was just like Zhao. She was deceiving herself. He couldn't keep his tongue in check any longer.
"You won't be able to capture the Avatar. You're no match for him, and neither are your friends, as you like them to be called." He turned to face her, knowing that she wouldn't be able to resist a fight. He turned his back on the flames, still crackling behind him. He turned his back on everything except his sister. His enemy.
Azula assumed her stance. Zuko mimicked her, trying to remember everything his uncle had ever taught him. She bore down on him swiftly, shooting two streams of flame at him from her extended palms. Breath in through the nose. Zuko moved to the left and put his arms in front of him to cut a wall through her attack. Breath out through the mouth. He started with the right and alternated fists, sending three identical blasts at her. Azula's hands sparked electric blue and the flames dissipated, turning to glowing embers and scattering on the ground.
She sent two more jets of flames at him, and Zuko let them wash over him again, hands in front of him, using his basics; his greatest strengths. He responded with two strikes of his own, but she simply brought her hands up and struck the flames down in midair.
Suddenly she charged, hands glowing neon blue, brow furrowed in concentration as she moved closer to her target. Zuko watched her feet carefully even as she came within ten feet of him. Now just five. He switched stances and extended his right foot, shooting a stream of fire along the ground towards her. But Azula jumped and narrowly missed the escalating flames, and brought her hands downward to launch a devastating attack. Zuko's eyes widened. He didn't have time to do anything else.
It happened nearly too fast for the human eye to comprehend. A powerful gust of wind blew by the two firebenders, knocking Azula out of the air and sending her flying thirty feet away but leaving Zuko untouched. The Avatar! was his immediate response. He turned to look and saw Aang and his friends rushing toward the bison. He didn't take a step in their direction, though. Instead he turned to flee from Azula, who was already getting up.
"Get on!" came a voice from behind him. The Avatar's voice.
It was an absurd idea. He had dedicated the last two years of his life to searching for the Avatar. Zuko had driven himself to the point of death to try and capture him, and to turn him over to Ozai. Nothing about his proposition made sense.
But somehow, he found himself turning, even as Azula was running toward them at full speed; even as the stinging of his scar reminded him of everything he had known before the Avatar had caused him so much pain. He was charging up the bison's tail just as Azula let loose a blast of blue flames that missed him by inches, and suddenly the beast gave a great roar and not a moment before Zuko had made it into the saddle, it had taken off into the sky.
He was flying; ascending high above the ground he had been limited to for sixteen years. But being amongst the clouds, Zuko realized, made those sixteen years seem like a moment from a distant past. His past was behind him now. He was a new man. He was free.
Sorry about the terribly unoriginal title. I thought it really fit, so I went with it. Perhaps you could spare a review?