Title: Yesteryear 2/?

Author: SCWLC

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plotline.

Summary: Things aren't always what they seem, but some things transcend appearances.

Rating: Call it PG for now.

Notes: And . . . this isn't answering any questions, really, but then it's not meant to. You may have guessed by now, but this is an AU. Oh yes, about Mai. I'm assuming that she and Zuko had a thing right before he was banished which they picked right up where they left off in the original series. So that thing is still a factor here, even though this is an AU.


Tara had woken to her husband as she had nearly every morning since they'd been married a year before. It was one of the things she loved most about him - his romantic streak.

After she was dressed, she left their house, feeding the turkey-ducks on her way through the yard. They'd come to the town of Huang-Ji to start afresh, with Lee absolutely determined to try being a farmer. She'd giggled at the very notion, since the only animals he knew how to handle were things they used in the Fire Nation army and turtle ducks. But they had to start somewhere and he was very determined.

That had lasted for about one month, after which she'd brought him to the dojo she'd scouted nearby and had him prove his skills to the elderly sifu who ran the school. Old Ori had informed Lee in no uncertain terms that he was to show up the next morning and to sell the pig-cows to someone by the time the week was up. Lee had grumbled to her the whole way home about her high-handed handling of the situation.

Then the pig-cow bit him for the fifth time that day and he thanked her and made her sell them at a loss to the Goushou family down the way. To this day it made her laugh out loud.

Her family had been of a small number of water tribesmen who had fled their polar home and formed a small community in the Earth Kingdom after one too many raids by Fire Nation soldiers determined to wipe out the waterbenders in the Southern Tribe. She was the eldest in her family, a waterbender who had been trained by her father in a hodgepodge of waterbending styles. The healing he'd taught her was the reason she now was the village healer and midwife.

She was also the only surviving member of her family. After all their efforts to escape the war, they had ironically died in a plague that had swept through their small corner of the world leaving Tara alone.

With Lee a deserter and disowned by his family, and her an orphan, they had been very determined to start their own family, especially now that the looming threat of war was gone. So they had been trying, very hard, to start a family. Not that that was any sort of hardship. Lee was wonderful and caring and absolutely the most gorgeous thing Tara had ever seen. He constantly reassured her that he thought she was beautiful, and he always made her feel that way. He had a hard time of it with that, because she often worried about her dark skin colour among a people who thought the paler the woman the more beautiful.

Once out of sight of the house that morning, she'd quickly hidden behind a small stand of trees and used her waterskin to check something she'd suspected for a while. Her monthly bleeding had been late and now it was a month past the time when she should have had it. Careful searching of her inner workings showed Tara that she was right. After all their trying, she and Lee were going to have a baby.

Happily, she went to her morning appointment with Pai, who took one look at her smiling face and congratulated her on the pregnancy. Then Pai had gone on to tell her every single pain and ache that she was suffering so that Tara could start dreading the swollen ankles, backaches, tender breasts, midnight cravings . . .

Pai's child was doing very well, was ready to come any day now, in fact. Tara warned her of that and made sure all was ready in her house for the baby before heading back to her own home. She had a romantic dinner to start preparing for when she told Lee the news.

It was a little after noon that she heard shouting from the village square, then Guo, one of Lee's students came running to the house. "Lee's been taken by Fire soldiers!" he shouted.

"What?" Tara gasped. "What happened?"

The boy told her all about the men who had come. How they'd walked into the village and taken one look at Lee and pretty much just attacked him and dragged him off. "They went down the western road," Guo said. "I think he was knocked out."

Tara wasn't even thinking as she shooed the boy out the door. She just collected all the travel things she'd hoped never to use again, stuffing them into the pack she'd hoped never to use for that purpose again. On her way towards the western road, she stopped at Pai's house.

Her friend was waiting for her. "You're crazy," Pai said bluntly. "But I know that won't stop you. Here's some bread and fruit. And have this silver as well."

"I can't take your money," Tara exclaimed. "I mean, I'm going, and I'm going to get Lee back, but . . . I'm leaving you right when you need me. How can you be so nice about it?"

Pai smiled. "We didn't even have a midwife until you and Lee arrived. Thanks to you, I know I'm well and my baby is well too. I'll be fine, and we can always send down the eastern road to Tanlen village for their healer." She pulled Tara into a hug. "You just go and get your husband back before you're as close to popping as me. You understand?"

"Thank you," Tara said. She piled her friend's gifts into her bag and marched down the road. As she travelled, she was soon able to pick up on the tracks of war rhinos in the dusty road. She knew she was far behind them, but they were taking Lee somewhere. And when they got to that somewhere, she'd be able to catch up.

It took her two days to reach the next village on that road. When she got there she discovered that the soldiers had loaded Lee into an airship and taken him to the Fire Nation. With no other choice, she continued her trip, making her way down to the nearest harbour town and paying her way onto a ship bound for the Fire Nation's capital. She'd find Lee and she'd fight her way back out of the Fire Nation if she had to.


Lee stood stock still in the Fire Lord's embrace. He wasn't sure what to think about any of it. After a few moments, the man pulled away, then looked Lee up and down. "Why is the prince chained?" he asked the soldiers in a dangerously calm voice.

While the rest of the soldiers rushed forward, undoing the chains and generally setting Lee to rights, the group's leader cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his head. "Well . . . um . . . he didn't want to leave the village we found him in, so we . . . uh . . ."

"Kidnapped me?" Lee suggested, dryly.

Fire Lord Iroh raised an eyebrow and said, "Tell me, Nephew, what happened?"

Lee was just trying to figure out what was going on, but he obliged, because while so far the Fire Lord seemed a little dotty, he also seemed fairly good-natured. Perhaps he could still find a way to talk his way out of the mess. "I was taking a lunch break when they came through the village. I was on my way back to the dojo where I teach when they told me that I should come with them. I refused, they insisted and I told them I had obligations. I don't know who grabbed me, but we got into a fight and someone knocked me out. When I woke up, I was tied up on a rhino and on my way here."

The Fire Lord shot them men an angry look. "You attacked the Prince, effectively kidnapped him-"

Lee interrupted, "Not that I knew why they were taking me, or where."

Taking the interruption in stride, the Fire Lord continued, "Without informing him of your intentions and you are surprised he would try to escape?"

"He nearly did," admitted the now highly embarrassed leader.

"Stupid cat owl," groused Lee.

Lips thin with annoyance, the Fire Lord said, "While I am grateful at the return of my nephew, I am most outraged at the treatment he has suffered at your hands. Be thankful I am more merciful than my brother." He dismissed all the others in the hall, then pulled Lee into another hug.

With things now down to just him and the old man, Lee couldn't stand it any more. "Let go. Listen. I know you must miss the prince very much, but I'm not him."

"What?" the old man looked at him, confused. "Zuko, what do you mean?"

He sighed, exasperated and tired. "I mean, I'm not Prince Zuko. My name is Lee. I'll admit I'm glad I'm not here for what I thought I was here for, but please. Let me go home."

"If you are not the prince, then why do you look the same as he does, right down to the scar he bears from my brother's cruelty?" asked the Fire Lord.

Throwing his hands up in the air, Lee exclaimed, "I don't know! I didn't even know I had a scar like the prince's. There was a training accident when I first joined the army – my instructor was a self-centred jerk who managed to set my face on fire because he thought he had more fine control of his bending than he did."

"You even act like him," Fire Lord Iroh declared.

Rolling his eyes, Lee growled, "Well good for him. I'm not the prince." He turned and started walking firmly toward the doors. As he reached them, he turned sharply, bowed deeply and said, "My privilege, Lord Iroh, for the time you have given me and the generosity you have shown."

"Guards!" snapped the Fire Lord. Instantly they were there, surrounding Lee.

"What are you doing?" demanded Lee.

The Fire Lord smiled, sadly. "That bow and those words were delivered perfectly," he said. "No common soldier could have delivered them so. I do not know why you have forgotten, Prince Zuko, but somewhere within you is my nephew. I intend to find out what has happened to you." He turned to the guards. "Take the prince to his rooms and leave a guard on him at all times. Do not allow him to escape."

For the second time, Lee found himself being dragged off by soldiers. The fact that he wound up in a palatial suite with silk sheets on the bed, its own tiled bathroom and gold leaf decorating every inch of the overly-red walls, furniture and other decorations didn't mean much. He was still a prisoner.

Quickly searching around the room, he soon discovered that there was a whole passel of guards outside the door to the hall, and within minutes of his arrival in the room, there were guards stationed under every window. Escaping was not going to be easy.

A short time later, the door opened to reveal the Fire Lord, accompanied by a man dressed in a red and white set of robes. "This is healer Luzen," he was informed by the man who thought he was Lee's uncle. "I have brought him here to see if there is a reason you cannot remember yourself."

Lee glared. "I don't remember being Zuko because I'm not Zuko. What's so hard about that?"

"If your highness will remove your clothes and allow me to examine you-" the man started.

"I will not!" snapped Lee, backing hastily away.

Iroh looked at him sadly. "I do not wish to treat you as I have had to treat your sister, Azula, Zuko. But if I must order the men to restrain you so that we may discover what has happened to you, then I will."

"What?"

Indeed, the Fire Lord did as he had threatened. Lee was a little proud that it took seven guards to subdue him, but that didn't overpower the humiliation of having a stranger look him over without his consent. Healer or no, he really didn't like strange men poking and prodding at him. The only healer he wanted was his wife.

Briefly he considered mentioning Tara to the old man. Perhaps if he played on his sympathies he'd be allowed to leave. But there was no telling how the man would react. What if he didn't want royal blood sullied by a peasant or some nonsense like that? He might send men to the village to execute Tara. After all, despite the fact that Lee was in no way the prince, the Fire Lord was still insisting he was.

Finally the ordeal was over and they all filed out of the room. He was barely alone for a few minutes when he had another visitor.

"Hello, Zuko," said the dark-haired young woman who had just breezed in past the guards.

He just glared. "Who are you supposed to be?" he asked sourly.

"Mai," she replied. "I was a friend of your sister's."

"That's nice," Lee told her, then firmly turned his back to her. He didn't want to hear any of this.

"Iroh told me you don't remember anything," she said. "So I guess you don't remember me, either."

"And I really don't want to either," he said. "Because then that would mean I wasn't who I am, and since I'm not Zuko, that's a good thing."

Suddenly she was right next to him, spinning him around and kissing him. He violently shoved her away. "What is wrong with you?" he demanded. Only the fear for Tara kept him from declaring himself a married man.

She looked as blank as when she had first come in, but he had the impression somehow that she was downcast. "I suppose you really don't remember me," she said. Then she turned and glided out the door.

Was everyone in this palace insane?