The blue spirit pushed the young avatar behind him drawing his swords. Aang ran as soon as the gates were open, releived for his newly regained freedom. The twelve year old didn't enjoy being held captive by admiral Zhao, especially when his watertribe companions were ill. Arrows flew through the air with sharp whispers as they passed. One arrow hit its mark. The young avatar turned around. His savior lying still on the dirt paved road. Without any hesitation the twelve year old ran to the body of his rescuer. The mask had slid to the side exposing some red flesh. It can't be, Aang thought. He pulled the getting blue mask off of the person. There lying before the avatar was Prince Zuko, who spent all of his time tracking Aang down and generally being pretty rude to him and his friends. Aang couldn't leave the prince there. That was practically the same as just killing him, and all life was sacred, no matter how many fire balls the anger-prone teenager threw at him. Aang dragged the limp form of the Firenation prince into the trees, unaware of the pair of muddy brown eyes that had watched the entire scene fold out. Once they were what the young avatar believed they were a safe distance he gently laid the teen down, and examined his wound. The arrow was lodged in his left shoulder and it looked like Zuko passed out from a hit to the head when he fell back. There was a rather nasty bruise forming on the back of his mostly-bald skull. Aang yanked out the arrow out. He again peered down at the unconscious scarred teen. His veins were beginning to darken. Aang took a closer look at the arrow, it hand special markings and seemed more dart-like. Which meant it might have been poisonous. The teens eyes shot open, beautiful, golden eyes. Zuko hissed through his teeth. Pain. Everywhere. No escape. His vision was blurring around the edges. His lungs were being crushed, everything hurt. No, it burned, like a raging fire consuming him. The golden eyes tried to focus on the boy next to him, the avatar. The avatar saved him from being captured by Zhao. But Zuko knew it wouldn't have made much of a difference. He was dying, the banished Prince was never going home.
"I thought we could be friends" the boy said, hopefully and in a quiet voice./span/p
"I-" the Prince started.
"I know it's stupid, cuz you're always tracking me down and trying to kill me" Aang interrupted.
"Avatar-" Zuko started, he was trying to get said person to look at him.
"do you think that maybe we could be friends?" The scarred teen's mind was too fogged up to make sense of the air-nomad's words.
"Avatar, I-" a fit of hollow coughs stopped Zuko this time. Aang, being the soft-hearted guy he was, instantly snapped around to look at the teen. His veins were black and his normally pale skin was turning a sickly greenish hue. "Knife" the Prince requested. The avatar fumbled about, then handed it to the dying teen. Zuko sat up, and with shaking hands cut his ponytail clean off. The knife dropped and the scarred teen fell back onto the ground. Zuko handed his ponytail over, trying to look the avatar in the eyes. Grey met the dulling golden orbs. "Give this to my uncle, tell him I'm sorry" Aang shook his head, this teenaged boy couldn't be dying, he was strong and he never gave up. The prince's body went limp. The young avatar blinked back tears as he desperately searched for a pulse. There was none. His chest was unmoving and his eyes were still open, but there was no mistaking it. Prince Zuko of the Firenation was dead. Aang wrapped the dead boy's ponytail in paper. He would follow the prince's last requests. It was the least he could do for the person that single handedly saved him from Zhao. He stood and gathered his own belongings after laying a thin blanket over the corpse. The twelve year old then set off, only looking over his shoulder once. Getting back to the camp was easy and so was healing Katara and Sokka, now that he had the frozen toads.
"mmm, ew ew ew!" Sokka exclaimed.
"hey Aang what's wrong?" The waterbender girl asked.
"while you guys were here, I got caught by Admiral Zhao-"
"How'd you get out, did you kick his Firenation booty!?" The older brother interrupted.
"no, I was rescued by-by Zuko"
"what!? Zuko!?" The watertribe siblings shouted, synchronized.
"what did he do to you? Did he hurt you?" Katara demanded, worryingly.
"No. Zuko didn't hurt me, he saved me and-and I couldn't even return the gesture" the young avatar sniffled, tears falling freely.
"what do you mean?" The sister asked, softly. The twelve year old boy looked up.
"Zuko is dead" he said, emotionless. The two sets of blue eyes widened.
A lithe form hopped down to the prince's body as soon as the twelve year old avatar was gone. If he hurried up he could still save him. But why would he want to save a Firenation Prince? The tan-skinned teen ignored his battling thoughts and pulled back the blanket. The Prince's eyes were still open. When he had first seen the boy's face the first thing he saw wasn't the rough scar, it was his eyes. Those golden eyes. Now they weren't just dull, they were empty, blank, ...lifeless. Jet had killed lots of Firenation soldiers and seen many dead bodies, but he had never seen lifeless eyes. He gently closed the scarred teen's eyes. He decided that he didn't want to ever see them like that again. He would do whatever he had to, just to see those gorgeous eyes bright with emotion, regardless of who they belonged to. The freedom fighter threw the limp figure over his shoulder and gathered the teens belongings in the blanket. Jet started climbing, slower than his usual pace but as fast as he could with a body slung over his shoulder and a makeshift bag tied to his armor. The freedom fighter carefully slunk to his own tree house, making sure he was unseen. He lay the Prince on the floor, out of view from any of the windows, (which were just square shaped holes covered by large leaves). He took the arrow that had hit the Prince and tasted the tip. A crooked smile cracked across Jet's face. He knew that poison, and more importantly he knew the antidote. The teen ran out to fetch his most trusted fighters; Longshot and Smellerbee.
"c'mon guys, I need your help" he led them back to the dead Zuko. "He's the Prince of the Firenation" Jet whispered, pointing at the body.
"then why would we want to save him?" Smellerbee asked, Longshot inclined his head to show he agreed.
"he'd be a valuable prisoner, he's probably got lots of information. I just saw him save the avatar's life, and we need more swordsmen." The leader explained.
"okay, but if he betrays us-" the fifteen year old started.
"we slit his throat" the leader finished. Without another word, Jet stabbed a dart with the antidote into the scarred teen's arm. Longshot was busy rubbing two furs together trying to make enough static energy to shock the prince's heart back to beating. Smellerbee ripped off Zuko's shirt and placed several metal discs on his bare torso. The archer rammed the static furs to the dead boy's chest. A tremor went through the body, the leader checked for a pulse, none yet. He nodded to the archer and the younger teen repeated his actions. This time there was a pulse. The only girl pulled the discs off of the prince's body. Jet pushed on his diaphragm. A breath came out and miraculously, the Prince inhaled. Though his breathing was weak and shallow, he was alive.
General Iroh was the dragon of the west, he was strong, brave and he always knew what to do. Currently though, he had no idea how to respond or deal with the young avatar's claim.
"I'm so sorry, I did everything I could. He-he wanted me to give you this" the boy hand him something wrapped in parchment. Shakily Iroh took it and unfolded the paper. Tears fell freely from the old yellow eyes. It was his nephew's top-knot ponytail. "He said to tell you that he's sorry" the twelve year old avatar finished, his own grey eyes slightly swollen and red.
"Thank you, young Avatar" the retired general spoke softly. Lieutenant Jee and the other wandering crewmen currently on the deck stood in surprise. They knew that the prince wasn't immortal but the news of the prince's early death caught them off guard. The prince was stubborn, he was strong because he never stopped fighting. Every time he fell, or was pushed down he got back up. It was almost impossible to believe that he was done, never to fight again. They had often gotten angry at the Prince for being careless or too obsessive, but they had never thought that one day he wouldn't be there yelling at them for being even slightly off task. It had seemed like it was immanent like the waves crashing against the shores. That evening the crew toasted to tribute the dead Prince.
"Prince Zuko, the stubbornest and most honorable of us all. Though he was barely more than a boy, I will remember him as the brave and determined man he was inside" Lieutenant Jee said solemnly.
"to Prince Zuko!" Everyone toasted.
A/N: thanks for reading please review and I'll see you next time!