Notes: This is the long promised sequel to Lose Yourself. Please read that first, otherwise else this will make little sense. Each chapter will be short, but updated often. :)


The stone cuffs were tightly molded against Zuko's wrists. He tried to flex his hands, pouring as much subtle heat as he could manage, but it's no use.

"Where are you taking me?" he demanded.

The two Dai Li agents flanking either side of him didn't answer. They only marched forward – steadily forward, through long green-lit corridors.

Zuko tried again. "I don't understand. What is my crime?"

There was still no answer, and Zuko grit his teeth. Through an effort of will, he held back his flame. He was still pretty sure at this point the Dai Li didn't know he was a firebender, or they would have taken Uncle, too.

And then there was that moment, late as the tea shop was closing, when he saw Pao the shop owner slipping a small coin pouch to a few agents – the whole city was corrupt.

When he got out of here, Zuko swore, he'd burn down that stupid tea shop himself. He didn't care what Uncle said about it.

The two Dai Li agents stopped him before a shadowed entrance-way. The door slid open; rock cuffs disengaging, but Zuko had no time to even think about fighting before he was spun and shoved backwards into a chair. More rock straps shot from the arms and legs, firmly binding him there.

"What is this?" he yelled and panic broke his voice. But before he could say anything more another strap covered his mouth.

A man in a low brimmed hat stood before him, hands clasped in parade stance behind his back. To the side, a lit lamp began to move.

And then…


.

.

.


... Zuko came to himself at last, staring into a pair of soft, blue eyes. Katara.

He jerked back with a shout of surprise – The fire came to him more out of instinct than malice, but even then it was nothing more than a hot flash. His hands were tied behind his back with a length of rope. Sokka—No, The Water Tribe boy insisted on it, and Li had agreed.

Li had trusted them, but he hadn't trusted Zuko.

The movement threw him off balance, and Zuko fell ungracefully from his perch on the fountain's edge and hit the stone floor, hard.

Someone barked out a laugh. Another voice cried out, "Li!" and there were hands on his shoulders, trying to turn him over.

"Not… Li…" he gritted out, and at once those hands were snatched back.

The memories rolled over Zuko – of another boy, sharing his body, his head, his face.

...Uncle, looking at him with those sad eyes. Plying him with different herbs, different remedies, different anything to bring him back.

...Azula, triumphant – first over him, then over all of Ba Sing Se. She took him home to his father and his father had… he had…

...The ministers and courtiers laughing at him...

...His father accepting tea from Li's tray. And the times when he sent it back, forcing Li to remake it – to re-serve him over and over again…

Fire, pure and white, leaped from Zuko's hands, still tied behind his back. The rope withered away to ashes. Zuko ran: stumbling, crawling when he fell, until he reached the edge of the temple floor and could go no further. Not without flinging himself off into the canyon below.

Clutching his head, Zuko screamed.