Ha ha! I shall be 15 tomorrow! Yay! :D I couldn't wait till then to post another chapter so here you go everyone! Happy Early Birthday to me!

I do not own A:TLA

Things

Chapter 2

Zuko was walking around town a few days after the sighting of the Avatar, when he saw him. The man was tall and muscular, and had a tattoo of an eye on his forehead. He was showing a wanted poster to someone, who was nodding. Zuko's eyes widened. It was a bounty hunter! He backed up and was about to run but noticed that it wasn't his face on the paper. He sighed of relief, Good, then he not looking for me, I just can't get in his way.

When they went inside a building, Zuko noticed a bunch of posters on the wall. He walked closer. He put his hood down so he could read the characters. The first one he saw was, of course, "The Traitor Prince", but the one that caught his eye was one called "The Runaway". He read the description and realized that they were describing the earth bender. This is bad… he thought. He was so focused on the poster that he didn't notice when a shadow loomed over him.

"Traitor Prince Zuko," the bounty hunter said.

PooOooV

"You betrayed me!" Toph cried dramatically to make the act seem realistic.

"I had no choice. You brought this on yourself," Katara said, turning away from Toph. She could hear the man talking to Katara about the reward and smirked. Toph felt herself being dragged into a building. The group had decided that the guy from the other day wasn't a threat and they continued to scam scammers, much to Katara's dismay. After their argument over it, and making up the next day, Katara had wanted to perform the "Ultimate Scam" with Toph.

"You got company," the guard said, throwing Toph into a cage. Toph immediately knew something was wrong.

"What kind of a cage is this?" she demanded.

"A wooden one." The guard replied, smugness in her voice as she left. I can't see! Toph thought, frantically feeling around the cage. Then she realized that the guard had addressed someone else when they entered.

"Is anyone else in here?" she asked. There was silence, but she could hear someone breathing.

"I can hear you." she said. There was a pause and then the person spoke,

"You're blind?" he asked. The voice was in front of her, and Toph assumed there was a cell there. The voice was also strangely familiar, but she couldn't remember where she heard it before.

"Yes," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Then how do you eart- …see?" the person asked, trying to cover his mistake.

"How do you know that I'm an earth bender?" she demanded. There was silence.

"I- um… you… your wanted poster?" He stammered, after a moment of silence. Toph crossed her arms.

"Really?"

"Yes…really…" This guy sucks at lying. Toph thought, I don't even need my earth bending to tell.

"You're lying." She said in a singsong voice. Wait… is there a possibility that this is the guy that Aang was talking about? "Have you seen me before, in this town?" she asked.

"Um, no?" Toph rolled her eyes. Now she was positive.

"My friend didn't appreciate you staring at him."

"Oh…um…sorry…"

"So you did see me before?"

"What? I- no! I mean…yes…" he stammered, ending in defeat. Toph grinned.

"I can't believe he was afraid of you," she said. She heard the person shift uncomfortably. She could hear to jingling of handcuffs.

"He…doesn't need to fear me," he said softly, pain obvious in his voice. That's when it hit her. "Get away from us!"

"Wait! Your Iroh's nephew! You're that Zuko person!" she exclaimed, jumping up. There was silence. Wait, what is he doing here? Didn't he like, help kill Aang or something?

"I…turned against Azula…if that's what you're wondering," he said. Whoa, if he's on our side he could teach Aang fire bending! We'll need to get outta here first.

"We need to get outta here," Toph stated.

"We?"

"Well yeah. You don't think I'm just gonna leave you here?" she said, getting up to feel the wooden bars.

"Can you fire bend?"

"Maybe. The only reason they handcuffed me was to prevent me from freeing myself," he explained. Toph could hear him getting up.

"I would step back," he warned. Toph backed up against the wall of the cage. She wasn't taking her chances with an element she couldn't see, especially when she was completely sightless at the moment. She heard the fwoosh of the fire as it hit the cage. She heard another one and then his voice,

"There's a hole big enough to go through, just be careful when stepping out," he said. His breath was wasted because she just went through while he was talking, confident that he had the sense to disparate the fire.

"Or just ignore me…" he muttered.

"You talk too much Sparky," Toph said. "Now it's your turn to step back." With her sight back, she saw him step back and she cracked her knuckles. She grunted as she pulled the cell bars apart. When she was finished she stepped back to let Zuko out.

"Hold out your hands," she instructed. She felt the cuffs and metal bent them to be larger so that he could slip his hands out. She felt more metal on his feet, so she bent down and felt shackles.

"Man, they aren't taking their chances are they?" she said as she got those off as well.

"Thank…you. I owe you a great debt," Zuko said.

"Don't mention it buddy, it's what friends are for." Toph said, walking towards the door. "Oh, and are those your swords?" she asked, pointing to the metal Dao swords that were tossed in the corner.

"I-um…yes they are," Zuko stammered, obviously flustered over something.

"Well then hurry up! We're not getting younger." She said as he grabbed them.

PooOooV

Friend? How can she trust me so quickly? He thought as they ran to the guardhouse. He saw who he know knew was an assassin come out, carrying the water bender who was struggling to get free.

"Katara's in trouble!" Toph cried. She had told him her name when they started running.

"There's too many people, you can't earth bend," Zuko told her. She rolled her eyes.

"You think I don't know that?"

"Sorry…"

"You can at least fire bend right?"

"I might burn her."

"What about your swords?"

"I kind of failed at that earlier…."

"Fire bend. She'll be able to heal herself afterwards if you accidentally burn her," They stopped. Zuko hesitated, but threw a fireball at the man's foot. In surprise the man dropped Katara. He turned to his attacker and shot a blast of fire out of his eye. What the hell is that? Zuko thought, nearly dodging the blast. People scattered away, not wanting to be part of the trouble. Toph had run to Katara's aid.

"I'll distract him!" Zuko shouted. She nodded and ran away with a very confused Katara in tow. Zuko turned back to the assassin and threw another fireball at him. The man dodged it and charged at Zuko. Zuko drew his swords and enveloped them with ribbons of fire. The man's iron fist clashed with his broad swords. Zuko manipulated the fire, aiming it at the eye. The man grabbed his right arm, causing the fire to go past his head. Zuko's eyes widened in horror as the man effortlessly picked him up. He tried to shoot a fireball with his left hand, but the man was quicker. Zuko couldn't respond fast enough to avoid the man's knee that was shoved up Zuko's stomach. Zuko fell to the ground, dropping his swords. He gasped from the pain, clutching his stomach. The man showed no mercy as he kicked the fire bender… Wanted: DEAD or Alive. Zuko rolled on his stomach to avoid another kick. Grunting, he struggled to get to his swords, crying out when the man slammed his foot on his left arm. He winced as he tried to stop the man from grabbing his hair with the very arm that was crushed. A hand grabbed his throat as he was lifted into the air. He desperately grabbed the man's arm with his uninjured hand, even tried to kick him, but it was no use. The world around him started going all over the place, and he saw black dots. The last thing he remembered was someone shouting before being thrown to the ground into blackness.

PooOooV

"Leave him alone!" Toph screamed, earth bending a rock at the man. He threw Zuko to the ground and split the rock. She could barely feel Zuko's heart beat, and he wasn't moving. Sokka and Aang caught up with her, and they dodged another blast. Katara had stayed behind to pack Appa.

"Is that the friend you were talking about?" Aang asked. She nodded, concentrating on the man who was destroying the town trying to capture them. Good thing everyone left, she thought. She felt Aang running towards Zuko, dodging the man's attacks with his high speed air bending. She couldn't tell if he recognized the fire bender or not, his heart rate was already increased from the battle.

"I got him!" Aang shouted, running back towards them.

"Okay! Let's get outta here!" Sokka shouted, running towards the direction of their camp. Toph threw one last rock before running with them. It must have done something, because the ground kept rumbling, and a bunch of blasts were going off at once.

"I figured out that guys name! Combustion Man!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Good job Sokka. Now let's go before Combustion Man captures us." Toph replied, a hint of annoyance in her voice. Aang was quiet the whole way.

"See? It fits perfectly!"

I just noticed that center didn't work on the text in the last chapter. Also this story is being changed to T to be safe...So the story is going to be like this for now on ok people? Review please! Then the children will be happy!

PZ: Are you implying that you are a child?

What? You! Go away! *shoos*But I am very child-like, yes...

PZ: XP

XP to you too! *sticking out tongue war commences*