author's note:

1) Please excuse my bad english. I am german, I live in germany and I'm not related to english or american people. I just like writing in english :)

2) This story is about an OC named Jaycee, if you don't understand everything then don't be afraid to ask, some things will also be explained later

3) The story takes place after chapter 16: The Southern Raiders.

4) Mai and Zuko really broke up now. I try to keep most things canon so they were together; I won't change that.

5) I have an obsession with Avatar: The last airbender, especially Zuko :) Deal with it.

6) If you don't like the story, just stop reading.

7) Reviews are welcome just stay fair please

8) I own nothing ;) Avatar belongs to nickelodeon, Jaycee belongs to my imagination :D

Book 3: Fire

Chapter 17: The Masterbender

Sokka was sitting at the edge of a river with a spear in his hand, staring at the water. Suki, Aang and Katara were getting up the tents, Zuko was heating water for tea and Toph was hanging her feet into the cool water. Suddenly, Aang's stomach growled loudly. He turned around into Sokka's direction.

"Hey, Sokka," he yelled. "Have you already caught something? I'm starving!"

Sokka turned to him with an annoyed look on his face.

"How am I supposed to catch something when you guys are yelling around the whole time? Keep quiet, then you won't scare it away!" Sokka responded angrily.

"Scare what away?" Katara asked with an ironic laugh in her voice. "You're sitting there since half an hour and you haven't even seen a fish or anything else to eat."

Sokka turned away glaring into the water. Just as he wanted to say something to Katara, Aang's stomach growled again.

"Come on," Katara told him. "We'll finish the tents now and then we're going to search some food in the forest or something."

Aang nodded and kept building up the half-finished tent in front of him, but Toph wasn't so thrilled about the idea.

"Not nuts again," she whined. Zuko looked over his shoulder.

"Better nuts than nothing," he shrugged before turning back to his steaming bowl. Toph growled.

"I'll take the nothing option, thank you," she said disgustedly.

A few minutes later, however, Aang and Katara walked around the area, searching for something to eat, because they had decided that it didn't seem like Sokka would catch anything. Suddenly they heard angry shouts and fighting sounds, not far away from where they were.

"What's that?" Katara asked appalled.

"I don't know," Aang answered. "We should better look it up."

They ran over a hill and saw a few soldiers from the Fire Nation attacking a girl which didn't seem to be much older than them having light brown hair. However, she avoided each attack, she moved absolutely fleet-footed, it seemed like she were floating. She pranced around and weren't hit by any attacks.

"We have to help her!" Katara screamed frightened. But just as they wanted to start running towards the girl, she made a move that seemed very familiar to Aang. Before he could realize what he just had seen a stream of air flooded out of the girl's hands towards the firebenders.

Katara and Aang stopped like they were paralyzed and stared at her.

"She's an airbender," Aang whispered.

Then he pulled himself out of his rigor.

"Holy spirits!" He yelled and ran towards the girl. "You're an airbender! You're an airbender!" In full run he threw himself into her arms before she could react somehow. Then he let her go and looked at her exuberantly happy.

"I thought I am the last one!"

"Wait a moment," the girl said and shook her head confusedly. "You're an airbender, too?"

"My name is Aang. And I'm the Avatar," Aang said proudly. "Look."

He created an air scooter, sat on it and earthbended the earth under him to lift him up until he could look into the girl's confused eyes.

After a little break, the girl finally spoke.

"You… are the Avatar."

Aang nodded, still smiling.

"Where were you?" The girl asked confusedly. Aang shrugged.

"I was frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years," he answered. "But now I'm back."

"Ohhh…" the girl said even more confused. The Avatar didn't let her time to think about the situation.

"Where are you from? Are there other airbenders around? How did you survive?" He questioned her. Then, Katara suddenly interrupted him as she walked over to the two airbenders.

"Aang, stop it," she shushed him.

"My name is Katara," she said to the girl, with a friendly smile on her face. "Who are you?"

The girl looked at the persons in front of her confused, excited, and, most of all, frightened. Her body was about to turn around and run away, an old reflex she had.

"I'm Jaycee," she replied nervously. Then she turned back to Aang while taking a small step backwards to bring more distance between herself and the boy who was standing on the earth again now.

"I don't really have a home, just a small hideout in a forest a few daytrips from here. I don't think that there are any others left, at least not in this part of the world. On the other side, until now I thought that I am the last, so I guess it might be possible. But don't set your hopes too high. You should have just come back six years earlier. I lived in a hidden camp then, with about 29 other Air Nomads. The Fire Nation discovered us and killed everyone but me."

Aang looked at her sadly.

"I'm sorry," he said. Jaycee looked into his large, sad eyes.

"It's not your fault," she tried to calm him.

Katara looked thoughtfully, then she glanced at Jaycee.

"Six years ago, you said? How old are you?" she wanted to know.

"I'm about 15, I guess," the girl replied. "I don't know the exact date, but I should've turned 15 last spring if I count rightly."

"So you lost everyone when you were nine?" Katara asked shocked. Jaycee lowered her glance, just deep enough to be still on guard of the two strangers, even though she couldn't really mistrust a young boy and a girl still younger than her, especially when that boy was the Avatar and the only airbender she'd ever met in six years.

"Yeah," she replied simply.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Katara said, her eyes filled with tears. She took a step forward and reached out to hug the light haired girl, but Jaycee immediately reacted and jumped quickly up and backwards with an airbending move, letting the waterbender stumble backwards. Katara looked into the shock filled eyes of the airbender and watched her slowly calm down a bit.

"Sorry," Jaycee apologized. "I've been alone for six years. I'm not used to interact with other people except battling some soldiers, and I don't think that counts as interaction. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry," Katara replied.

"Hey, do you want to come with us to meet the rest of our team?" Aang offered, trying to cheer the girls up. Jaycee took another half step backwards.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea…" she tried to refuse, but Aang didn't give up.

"Come on, I'm sure they'll be happy to see another airbender!" he tried to convince her.

"Couldn't you just tell them that you met me?" Jaycee asked.

"Hey, don't be scared of us!" Aang told her. "I'm the Avatar, you can trust me. And my friends, too. They won't hurt you. We two are the last surviving airbenders, we have to stick together! You could help us to defeat the Fire Lord."

Jaycee thought for a moment. Then she sighed.

"Alright," she agreed. "I'll come with you. But don't expect me to be a perfect team member. I can help you with food and stuff, but beside that I'm still on my own, okay? As I said, I'm not used to be with other people. I just want to kick the Fire Lord in his butt."

Aang and Katara smiled slightly.

"Sure, we understand that," Katara accepted. "Don't worry, we're all nice. And besides, we protect each other, so you don't need to be afraid of any attacks or anything."

Jaycee didn't seem very convinced, but however, she carefully followed the Avatar and his friend back to their camp.

As they arrived, Sokka had given up fishing and was polishing his boomerang, Suki was watching him, Toph was leaning against a tree picking her nose, and Zuko was still making tea. Toph got up first because she had sensed them coming.

"Hey, guys!" she yelled, making Jaycee flinch. "Who's with you?"

At those words the two boys and Suki looked around to see who she meant. Jaycee, who had been looking around in the small camp stopped staring at Zuko.

Zuko, on the other side, stopped staring at Jaycee. He had never seen such a beautiful girl before. The young firebender immediately liked her hair, her curves, her clothes, her face, her grey eyes. His vision got destroyed when the beautiful girl fell into a fighting stance, her body strained and her grey eyes filled with hatred.

Before she could attack the very confused Zuko, Katara put a hand on Jaycee's shoulder to pull her back, causing her to slightly flinch again, even though she kept her eyes on the boy in front of her.

"Jaycee, wait," Katara tried to calm her new ally. "This is Zuko. He's part of our team. He teaches Aang firebending."

"What do you mean", Jaycee asked her confusedly, still ready to fight. "I know who this is. I thought you said the people here were all nice".

Zuko looked at her very perplexed. "Excuse me, should I know you?" he asked. Jaycee looked at him hate filled.

"So you don't remember me?" she asked him. "You can't remember what you did to me? Well, this doesn't surprise me. I'm probably just one of hundreds. But maybe you do remember that little girl who lost her mother? You know, the girl who blew up her prison cell?" Jaycee glared deadly at Zuko, her body ready to fight, her hands in fists, but still, tears in her eyes because of her memory. All she felt for the boy in front of her was pure hate.

Zuko's eyes widened as he suddenly identified her. "Oh no…" he whispered in shock, his eyes full of disbelief. "I'm so… so sorry…" He bent his head down; he couldn't stand looking into the girl's eyes anymore. "I never wanted to…" Zuko tried to explain himself, but he didn't know what to say.

"But you did," Jaycee said, her voice filled with hate.

The other members of the team were standing around quietly, listening to the conversation between their newest allies. Then, Aang raised his voice.

"Listen," he spoke to the airbender, trying to calm her down. "I don't know what he's done to you, but Zuko changed. He is helping us to defeat the Fire Nation. He's my firebending teacher! So, whatever it was, you should forgive him. He's good now. None of us could believe it at first, but now Zuko's our best friend!"

Jaycee looked at the Avatar, then shook her head. "No," she replied. "It's unforgivable."

Then she turned around and went away. "I'm going to build up my tent now," she told the others.

"I help you," Katara yelled after her, but Jaycee didn't turn back.

"No, thank you. I can do it alone," she refused. "I… just need some time for myself." As she started to search a good spot for her tent a few steps apart from the other ones, everyone was looking at Zuko. They wanted an explanation for what had just happened.

"What was she talking about?" Suki asked.

"Yeah, you never told us that you know another airbender," Toph added.

"I didn't know she's still alive," Zuko spoke quietly.

"Let's start a campfire, then we can talk about it. Maybe Jaycee can tell us something," Katara tried to save the situation.

But Jaycee didn't come back. Her new friends assumed that it had been a hard day for her and that she had probably fallen asleep.

After they all had sat down around the fire, Zuko took a deep breath. He looked at his feet, knowing that he had to recall the most painful memory he had. Then he slowly began to speak.

"When I was, like, ten years old, the armies of my… father discovered a camp with Air Nomad survivors somewhere hidden between mountains and forests. He sent some soldiers there to ambush them. When they came back, they said that they had killed each of them except 5 or 6 people whom were imprisoned in the palace. I was too young, so they didn't tell me most of it, but I've heard that they wanted to know where the Avatar is. So the prisoners got afflicted until they told them."

"But they couldn't know!" Aang interrupted, his eyes widened.

"I know," Zuko continued, still not looking up. "And my father knew, too. But he didn't care. I've never seen the other Air Nomads; I was only allowed to go into a room with a mother and her little girl. Jaycee.

Ozai thought that maybe I and Azula could get informations from her, because she was about our age. Well, of course we couldn't. I… can't remember everything. I've tried to forget.

A week or two after their imprisonment it was finally the woman's – Jaycee's mother's – turn to get afflicted. She got tied to the wall on the opposite of the prison cell her daughter was in, so that the child could watch the cruelty. About three soldiers stood around the woman. They asked her a question, and when she refused to answer, they shot a blast of fire at her. Always only one, and carefully, so that her clothes and her hair wouldn't catch fire. But painfully. I could hear the screams of her and her daughter all over the corridor when I went there."

"You WENT there?" Katara disrupted shocked. Zuko sighed. He took a small break before continuing, slightly shivering at the horrible memory.

"Yeah… I did. My… the Fire Lord forced me to. He said that I had to… he made me… I had to blast one shot at her." Zuko's voice cracked as he ended, shuddering.

"You HURT her?" Katara screamed again in disbelief.

"No wonder she hates you," Toph said sarcastically. Aang and Sokka just stared at their friend. Zuko bit his lip, then he kept talking.

"It wasn't just… one blast. It was… the last."

The other members of the group just stared at him. Then, Sokka started talking.

"You didn't…"

"I did," Zuko said, then he kept talking, the painful memories all back. "I'll never forget her scream. The last thing I remember is that something hit my head. Then I lost consciousness. When I woke up again, the girl was gone and the iron bars of her cell were all broken and laid around, just like the door of the room. Other people who didn't got hit like me later told that she had blown up everything with a very powerful airbending move they had never seen before. No one ever saw the girl again, we assumed her to be dead, considering her age. Seems like we were wrong."

"Only the Avatar in the Avatar State or a Masterbender is powerful enough to do something like that. I'm pretty sure she's not the Avatar. So she must be a Masterbender," Aang thought loudly.

"What's that?" Toph asked him.

"Have you never heard of them before?" Aang wondered. The others shook their heads, so he started telling.

"When I was young, Monk Gyatso told me stories about them. They are very rare, like, one in every hundred years or so, mostly even less. They are the strongest benders on the world; they can bend anything that has only few parts of their element inside. Gyatso told me that fully developed Masterbenders are the only ones able to take down a fully developed Avatar in the Avatar State."

"But if she's so strong, then why didn't she just escape earlier?" Katara questioned.

"Because I can't always use them," a voice came from behind them. They all turned around. Jaycee was there, sitting on the branch of a tree, hidden between leaves. No one, not even Toph, had sensed her coming, which made the blind girl wonder the most.

"How did you get there?" she asked confusedly. Jaycee shrugged.

"I've been here the whole time. Guess that explains why no one found me the last years. I just wanted to hear his version of what happened."

She looked at Zuko who lowered his glance. Jaycee ignored it and continued.

"The day I lost my mother was the only time I was able to use my true powers. I could and can always feel them inside me, but they never come out. I don't know exactly what happened to me back there, and I don't really like thinking about it, so I just leave it as it is. My mother taught me things like edible and healing plants and such stuff, so I survived in the forest for six years."

"Oh…" Suki said. "We thought you were sleeping."

"I can't sleep when there's sound. Especially not talking. Guess I've been alone for too long," Jaycee explained. "Besides, his presence doesn't really make it better."

She looked at Zuko again, the only one who hadn't said anything yet.

"I know it doesn't help, but I'm really sorry…" he spoke silently, still not managing it to look into the girl's eyes.

"You're right," she replied coldly. "'Sorry' won't bring her back."

Zuko sighed.

"I know," he repeated sadly. "I wish I could do something to help you."

"You should've thought about that earlier. I'll try to sleep now."

With those words she jumped down the tree using her airbending and walked away, leaving Zuko and the others by the campfire.

Katara, who sat beside Zuko, put her hand over his shoulders and pulled him into a hug to comfort him.

"We all know that you would never do something like that," she told her friend.

"But I did," Zuko replied despondently. "You can't deny it. I know I did. And she knows, too."

Katara patted his shoulder slightly. "Give her time," she said. "Jaycee is new around other people. She was scared of me and Aang, too. And you've heard what she said, that she can't sleep with noise. She became paranoid being alone all those years. She'll get used to live with us. She'll get used to you, too."

Zuko sighed, then he got up.

"No," he refused to Katara's calming words. "Like she said. It's unforgivable."

Then he started walking towards his own tent, the tea and the dinner forgotten, to just lie down and escape to sleep.

Thx for reading :D Please review!

(I don't know when I will be able to update again, it depends on my father; the laptop belongs to him -.-)