Hey, guys, it's me again. Sorry, I lied this new fic is come waaaaay sooner than expected, but the plot bunnies couldn't resist. Ah well. Anyways, this takes place in the episode The Western Air Temple where Zuko decides to join the group! It's not going to be exactly like the show and there are gonna be some chapters that I made up and some that I skip for obvious reasons. Enjoy, my darlings.
The Western Air Temple
"Hello… Zuko here."
The Gaang prepared for an attack from their former enemy, Zuko, ex-prince if the Fire Nation.
"Hey, I heard you guys flying around down there, so, I thought I'd wait for you here." Appa, the sky bison, tromped over to the fire bender and licked him. "I know you must be surprised to see me here."
"Not really, since you followed us all over the world," answered Sokka.
"Right. Well, uhhh… anyway…what I wanted to tell you about is that I've changed, and I, uhhh, I'm good now, and well I think I should join your group, oh, and I can teach firebending to you. See, I, uh…"
"You want to what now?" asked the blind earthbender
Katara spoke up. "You can't possibly think that I- we would trust you, can you? I mean, how stupid do you think we are?!"
Sokka continued, oblivious to his sister's slip-up, unlike Toph. "Yeah, all you've done is hunt us down and try to capture Aang!"
"I've done some good things! I mean, I could have stolen your bison in Ba Sing Se, but I set him free. That's something!" Appa started to lick him again.
"Appa does seem to like him." Commented Toph.
"He probably just covered himself in honey or something so that Appa would lick him. I'm not buying it."
"Look, I admit I've some awful things. I was wrong to try to capture you, and I'm sorry that I attacked the Water Tribe. And I never should have sent that Fire Nation assassin after you. I'm going to try and stop-"
Looks like it's time for a boomerang brawl. Sokka pulled out his boomerang, ready to attack. "Wait, you sent Combustion Man after us?"
Zuko tried to explain, but, continued to fail.
"If you won't accept me as a friend, then maybe you'll take me as prisoner." He knelt down waiting to be taken away.
"No we won't," screamed Katara. She blasted a column of water at the now sitting Zuko. "Get out of here, and don't come back! And if I-we ever see you again, well, we'd better not see you again!"
The watery Zuko got up and walked back to his lonely campsite.
He was incredibly stupid! How could he think they would trust him or even want to become friends with him?
"Uggh! I can't believe how stupid I am! I mean, what was I thinking? Telling them I sent an assassin after them? Why didn't I just say Azula did that? They would have believed that! Stupid!" a badgerfrog croaked at him. "Uggh!"
They're probably plotting a way to attack me, Zuko thought.
Meanwhile, back at the air temple….
"Why would he try to fool us like that," asked Katara.
"Obviously he wants to lead us into some kind of trap," Sokka answered.
"This is just like when we were in prison together at Ba Sing Se. He starts talking about his mother and making it seem like he's an actual human being with feelings."
The events of that day replayed in her mind
FLASHBACK MODE….
"Why did they throw you in here?"
Zuko says nothing.
"Oh, wait, let me guess. It's a trap. So that when Aang shows up to help me, you can finally have him in your little Fire Nation clutches!"
Zuko glances at her then averts his gaze back at the sparkly, emerald ground below him.
Katara continues to laminate. "You're a terrible person! You know that? Always following us! Hunting the Avatar! Trying to capture the world's last hope for peace! But what do you care? You're the Fire Lord's son. Spreading war and violence and hatred is in your blood!"
"You don't know what you're talking about!"
"I don't? How dare you! You have no idea what this war has put me through! Me personally!" she sits down, clutching her mother's necklace for comfort. "The Fire Nation took my mother away from me."
Zuko turned around to look at the weeping waterbender. "I'm sorry…That's something we have in common."
"I'm sorry I yelled at you before."
"It doesn't matter."
"It's just that for so long now, whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was your face."
"My face? I see." He touched his scar self-consciously
"No, no, that's-that's not what I mean."
"It's okay. I used to think this scar marked me. The mark of the banished prince, cursed to chase the Avatar forever. But lately, I've realized I'm free to determine my own destiny, even if I'll never be free of my mark."
"Maybe you could be free of it."
"What?"
"I have healing abilities."
"It's a scar, it can't be healed."
Katara pulled out a small pouch containing some type of liquid.
"This is water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. It has special properties, so I've been saving it for something important. I don't know if it would work, but…" As the waterbender placed her hand on his marred cheek, Zuko shut his eyes and leaned into her touch.
END FLASHBACK MODE…..
Katara could still feel the rough skin on her soft, delicate hand.
" He wants you to trust and feel sorry for him so you let your guard down, then he strikes."
"The thing is, it worked. I did feel sorry for him. I felt like he was really confused and hurt," Like I am now, she added silently, "but obviously, when the time came he made his choice, and we paid the price. We can't trust him."
"You're probably right."Aang stated
"And what was all that crazy stuff about setting Appa free? What a liar!"
Toph spoke up. "Actually, he wasn't lying."
"Oh, hooray! In a lifetime of evil, at least he didn't add animal cruelty to the list."
"I'm just saying that, considering his messed-up family and how he was raised, he could have turned out a lot worse."
"You're right, Toph! Let's go find him and give him a medal. The 'not as much of a jerk as you could have been' award!"
"All I know is that while he was talking to us, he was sincere. Maybe you're all just letting your hurt feelings keep you from thinking clearly."
"Easy for you to say! You weren't there when he had us attacked by pirates!"
"Or when he burned down Kyoshi Island!"
"Or when he tried to capture me at the Fire Temple!"
"Why would you even try to defend him?"
"Because Katara, you're all ignoring one crucial fact. Aang needs a firebending teacher! We can't think of a single person in the world to do the job! Now one shows up on a silver platter, and you won't even think about it?"
"I'm not having Zuko as my teacher!"
"You're damn right you're not, buddy."
"Well, I guess that settles that."
"Ergh! I'm beginning to wonder who's really the blind one around here!"
Toph stomped off to a small area of forest surrounding the air temple to where she could feel the nervous steps of a certain firebender.
Found you
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"Toph! What happened," a worried Katara asked.
"My feet got burned!"
"Oh no, what happened?"
"I just told you, my feet got burned!"
"I meant, how."
"Well, I kind of went to see Zuko last night."
"You what?"
"Zuko?"
"Uhhh…!"
"I thought he could be helpful to us." Katara began to heal her burnt feet with the fountain water. "And if I talked to him, maybe we could work something out."
"So he attacked you?" inquired Sokka.
"Well, he did, and he didn't. It was sort of an accident."
"But he did firebend at you?" questioned Aang.
"Yes." She sighed.
"Zuko's clearly too dangerous to be left alone. We're gonna have to go after him."
"Maybe just invite him back here." Toph started as Aang and Sokka picked her up. "He already offered himself as a prisoner once."
"Yeah, get him to come back and say he'll be our prisoner, then we'll jump him and really make him our prisoner. He'll never suspect it!"
"You are a master of surprise, Sokka…" commented Katara.
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From atop the cliff, Combustion Man eyed the Gaang, building up his inner fire. He sets his sights on the young monk. As he prepares to fire, Zuko jumps in and knocks his aim off course. Down below the Gaang runs to safety before getting a chance to hear Zuko.
"Stop! I don't want you hunting the Avatar anymore!" If I have a chance to redeem myself to the Avatar, it's now. "The mission is off. I'm ordering you to stop."
Shoving the younger firebender away, Combustion Man attacks again.
"If you keep attacking, I won't pay you!" In his attempt to firebend the pyrokinetic man, he grabs hold of Zuko and continues to blast vast amounts of mind fire at the teens. "Alright, I'll pay you double to stop!"
Here goes nothing.
Out of ideas, Zuko kicks Combustion Man as he fires in hopes of stopping him, causing his aim to be disarray. Agitated, he then takes aim on Zuko. Zuko creates a firewall to block the attack, but, is pushed off the ledge. He grasps for something to hold onto, a plant root. Anything is acceptable at this moment.
"Alright buddy, don't fail me now!" Sokka exclaimed whilst throwing his boomerang.
The boomerang hits the assassin in the head where his third eye tattoo is, causing him to hit the ground, before it returns back.
"Yeah, boomerang!"he jumps up and grabs it, but Combustion Man gets up, albeit clearly shaken. "Aw, boomerang…"
As the team runs back to their hiding spot, Combustion Man gears up again, but is dizzy and cannot aim properly. His next shot fails to escape, causing an explosion around him resulting in the building he stands on getting destroyed.Zuko climbs a plant root, having survived the ordeal. He then approaches the Gaang.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but... thanks, Zuko"
"Hey, what about me? I did the boomerang thing."
"Listen, I know I didn't explain myself very well yesterday, I've been through a lot in the last few years and it's been hard. But I'm realizing that I had to go through all those things to learn the truth. I thought I had lost my honor, and that somehow, my father could return it to me. But I know now that no one can give you your honor. It's something you earn for yourself, by choosing to do what's right. All I want to do now is play my part in ending this war, and I know my destiny is to help you restore balance to the world. I'm sorry for what I did to you. It was an accident. Fire can be dangerous and wild, so as a firebender, I need to be more careful and control my bending, so I don't hurt people unintentionally."
"I think you are supposed to be my firebending teacher. When I first tried to learn firebending, I burned Katara, and after that, I never wanted to firebend again. But now I know you understand how easy it is to hurt the people you love. I'd like you to teach me."
"Thank you. I'm so happy you've accepted me into your group. I won't let you down! I promise!"
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"So, here you go, home sweet home, I guess, you know, for now," said Sokka while showing Zuko his room, "Unpack? Lunch, soon? Uhhh... welcome aboard? Yeah." He leaves him to speak with Aang.
Zuko suddenly notices a clearly disgruntled Katara at the door.
"You might have everyone else here buying your... transformation, but you and I both know you've struggled with doing the right thing in the past." She approaches him; threateningly. Venom lining her every word. "So let me tell you something, right now. You make one step backward, one slip-up, give me one reason to think you might hurt Aang, and you won't have to worry about your destiny anymore. Because I'll make sure your destiny ends... right then and there. Permanently."
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"Don't," Toph started standing in the hallway near Zuko's room, "you think you were a little too hard on him?"
"No, I don't. I think he deserved every bit of that."
Toph sighed. "Look, I don't know what happened to make you hate him, but whatever it is, get over it. Aang needs a firbending teacher and you may not have noticed this, but, he's the only firebender in the world that doesn't hate us. We've all forgiven him except you and guess what? It your turn! So march right back in there and apologize and once you've done that forgive him, and we can all live happily ever after the end!"
She glared at the blind earthbender. "When badgerfrogs stop croaking."
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Le sigh. I am very disappointed in this chapter. Hopefully you like this. I promise the next chapy will be way better. Anyways, I haven't abandoned my other fics I just haven't felt like updating. This fic will be a variety of genres including romance, angst, humor, hurt/comfort, and probably one more and judging by what I've planned out so far it's going to be somewhere between 20-27 chapters. And again I promise that the next chapter will be better. Until then.