Hunter P.O.V.

As Katara and I approached the village, a few of the kids ran up to greet me. I smiled and hugged them as they ran to me. After a few seconds, Sokka approached, looking angrier than my father when he found out I could airbend.
"I knew it, you signalled the Fire Navy with that flare!" he growled.
"You're leading them to us, aren't you?" he yelled.
"Hunter didn't do anything, it was accident." Katara defended.
"Yeah, we fell into a booby trap in that ship." I added.
"Katara, you shouldn't have gone on that ship. We could all be in danger now." Katara's grandmother scolded.
"Don't blame Katara, I went on the ship, and she followed me out of concern for my safety. It's my fault." I said.
"The traitor confesses. Warriors, away from the enemy, he is banished from our village." Sokka growled.
"Sokka, stop. You're making a mistake." Katara shot at him.
"No, I'm keeping my promise to Dad; I'm protecting you from threats like him." Sokka said, pointing at me.

"Hunter is not a threat!" Katara shot again.
"He's brought us fun we haven't in years!"
"You can't fight firebenders with fun!" Sokka responded.
"You don't know the half of it." I said with a chuckle, earnong a snarl from Sokka.
"Get out of our village, NOW!" he yelled. I nodded and whistled. A few seconds later, Midnight crawled up behind me.
"Gran-Gran, don't let Sokka do this." Katara begged.
"Katara, that ship was forbidden territory, yet you went anyway. Sokka is right. It may be best for the airbender to leave." She replied.
"Fine, then I'm banished too!" she yelled, grabbing my hand and dragging me to Midnight.
"Where are you going?" Sokka asked his sister.
"To the north pole. Hunter is gonna help me become a waterbender." She replied angrily.
"Uh, sure." I responded.
"Katara, would you really chose him over your tribe? Your family?" Sokka asked her. She stopped in her tracks.
"Katara, if you want to go, I'll take you. But, I don't want to come between you and your family." I told her. She nodded and let go of my hand. I headed over to midnight, who bowed her head so that I could get on her neck.

"So, you're leaving the South Pole?" Katara asked.
"This is goodbye?"
"Thanks for getting me out of the ice. And for penguin sledding." I told her with a smile.
"Where will you go?" she asked me. I shrugged.
"I don't know." I lied. I knew exactly where I was going.
"Before I go, I have something for you." I told her. I jumped into the saddle on Midnight's back, and got a small chest from my satchel. I jumped down and gave it to her.
"This chest has a few waterbending scrolls. They're not as effective as an actual teacher, and they won't get you to a master's level, but they'll help you improve." I told her. She nodded and hugged me with teary eyes. I hugged back.
"See you soon." I said and jumped onto Midnight's neck.
"Let's see tall dark and scaly fly now, air boy." Sokka mocked me. I glared at him and flipped him off. Kiyara started crying and ran towards Midnight and I.
"Don't go Hunter, I'll miss you." She said with tears. I smiled sadly at her.
"I'll miss you too." I told her as Midnight turned and walked away.
"That's right, I thought so." Sokka said as I left.

After a few hours of walking, Midnight stopped for a rest. While she was sleeping, I was meditating. I was suddenly interrupted by Midnight's grumbling in sadness. I could tell she really liked Katara.
"I know girl, I liked her too." I said and went back to meditating. Out of nowhere, a vision came to me. I saw a guy, about my age, with long black hair tied into a ponytail, deep yellow eyes, and a burnscar over his left eye. He was firebending at the villagers, intimidating them, but not hurting them. I snapped out of my meditation and got up.
"Midnight, stay here." I said and ran towards the village. I may have been banished, but they needed me. And that tells me that the banishment is irrelevant for now.

I approached the village, and saw that there was indeed a Fire Navy ship docked right outside it. I peeked inside, and saw the scarred guy intimidating the villagers. I wanted to just go and help them immediately, but I was smarter than that.
"Where is the one you're hiding?" he asked the villagers. When none of them answered, he grabbed Katara's grandmother.
"He would be about this age, master of all elements." He explained angrily. My eyes widened in realisation.
"They're looking for me." I thought in horror. Sokka attacked him when he let go of the old lady, but was quickly over powered. As the scarred guy was about to deliver the final blow with some fire daggers, I swooped in, sliding down the ice wall on my feet. I slid past him, and tripped him with my weapon. As I slid to a stop, some the kids where cheering for me.

"Hey Sokka. Sorry I came back after being banished." I said as I helped him up. He looked a bit guilty.
"Hey. Don't apologise, thanks for coming back." He said. I smiled at him.
"Let me take care of this." I told him. He nodded, and went to stand by his sister. I took a battle stance as the soldiers surrounded me. They all fired massive balls of fire at me, which I didn't expect. I acted on instinct, I dropped my weapon and did something I hoped I wouldn't have to do in front of the village; I firebended. I hit the ground with my fist, and a circular wall of crimson red fire appeared around me, dissipating the fireballs that were headed for me.

I dropped the fire, and looked right at the scarred one.
"Looking for me?" I asked as I took a battle stance and made fire daggers of my own.
"You're the Red Firebender? You're the first of the new line of Avatars?" he asked in shocked.
"Hunter?" Katara asked, also in shock.
"No way…" Sokka muttered, just as shocked.
"I've spent years preparing for this encounter. Training, meditating, and you're hardly older than I am." He said as we circled each other.
"I'm a lot older than I look, Mr…?" I trailed off, not knowing his name.
"Zuko, son of Ersa and Firelord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation." He said.
"Hunter, Prince of the Fire Nation." I responded with a smirk.
"Don't mock me!" he yelled and shot fire at me.
"I'm not mocking you, can't you see the family resemblance?" I asked as I destroyed his fireball.
"My name is Hunter, son of Sierra, and Firelord Sozen. Prince of the Fire Nation." I told him. His eyes widened, as did all the villagers.
"You're a traitor to your family." He growled and attacked. I blocked, but some of the fire he shot almost hit the villagers.

I stopped him from attacking again and spoke.
"If I surrender myself, will you swear to leave this village?" I asked him. He dropped his stance and nodded.
"I give you my word as a Prince." He said. I nodded and held my hands up.
"Hunter, no!" Katara called.
"It'll be OK." I told her as 2 of the soldiers tied my hands behind my back.
"Look after Midnight while I'm gone will you?" I asked. She nodded in tears. I looked at her as the ramp that led into the ship closed.

As Zuko led me to the brig, he stopped in front of a room. He opened it and pushed me in. It was a room that looked like a prince's. His room I guessed. There was an old man in the room with Zuko and I. He was a bit short, and rather large, but he didn't seem dangerous.
"Uncle Iroh, meet Hunter, the first of the new Avatar line." He introduced me.
"Iroh? Son of Azulan perhaps?" I asked. They both nodded. I smirked.
"Big brother did always say he wanted a son named Iroh." I said.
"I guess you're my nephew then." I chuckled at the thought of having a nephew who looks to be in about his late 60's. His eyes widened.
"Uncle, he is the son of Sozen and Sierra who disappeared." Zuko explained. Iroh passed out at that.
"Not what I imagined Azu's son to be like." I mused out loud.

I could tell Zuko wanted to laugh, but he had an image to keep up, so he controlled himself. He took my weapon from one of his soldiers.
"A fine blade." He commented.
"Thanks. Made it myself." I responded.
"It will make an excellent gift for my father." He said as he put it down. He instructed his soldiers to take me to the brig. I followed willingly, but as we neared the brig, I blew a massive gust of air at the guard in front of me, and used my firebending to burn the ropes off. I ran back to Zuko's room to get my weapon. It was still where he left it. I smirked and went to grab it, but I heard the slam shut. I turned around to see Zuko.
"I underestimated you." He said simply and ignited his flaming daggers. I did the same.

Katara P.O.V.

I was standing on the edge of the ice, looking into the distance in the direction the ship that took Hunter was headed. I couldn't believe it. Not only was Hunter the Avatar, but he was the prince of the Fire Nation! A firebender! He must have already mastered air when he was frozen. Though I have no idea why his fire was red, it looked so strange. As I was caught up in my musings, I could hear Sokka approaching me.

"We have to go after that ship Sokka. Hunter saved our tribe now we have to save him." I said.
"Katara, I-" I thought he was going to protest, so I cut him off.
"Why can't you realise that he's on our side? If we don't save him no one will!" I yelled.
"I know you don't like Hunter, but we owe him and-"
"Katara!" he cut me off this time.
"Are you gonna talk, or are you coming with me?" he asked as I turned around. I saw him pointing to a canoe. I smiled brightly at him and hugged him.
"Get in, we're going to save your boyfriend." I glared at him, but said nothing.

"What do you 2 think you're doing?" the voice of my grandmother asked. We turned and faced her, smiling innocently. Her hard expression softened into a kind smile.
"You'll need these. The journey ahead is long." She said, handing us a few sleeping bags.
"It has been so long since I've had this much hope. But you brought it back to life, my little waterbender." She said hugging me.
"And you my brave warrior, be nice to your sister." She said as she hugged Sokka.
"Yeah, Ok Gran." He sighed.
"Hunter is the Avatar, the world's only hope. You 2 found him for a reason, and now your destinies are intertwined with his." She said. We both nodded.

At that point, Midnight crawled over to us. I looked at Sokka with a smirk.
"Even if she doesn't fly, she's faster than a canoe." I said.
"You just love taking me out of my comfort zone, don't you?" he asked sarcastically. We put all of our supplies in the saddle and went on our way. An hour after we left, Sokka was mumbling flying phrases.
"Go, soar, fly, up, ascend." He mumbled word after word, but they had no affect on the dragon.
"Sokka thinks you're afraid to fly, but I think otherwise. Don't you wanna save Hunter?" I asked Midnight .
"What was it the guy said? Up we go? Up, up and away? Let's head out? Uuuh, to the sky?" he asked. Midnight started moving a little faster. Out of nowhere, she spread her enormous wings and jumped out of the water. She was flying!
"Katara she's flying!" Sokka exclaimed. I grinned at his reaction.
"I mean, big deal, she's flying." He said in a nonchalant tone, but still had an excited look on his face.

After half an hour, we caught up to the ship. On the deck, I could see 2 figures, fighting it out in a fire duel. One was shooting regular orange fire and the other was shooting crimson red fire.
"It's Hunter, he must be trying to escape." Sokka said. I nodded and gestured to Midnight for her to go faster, but we got there too late. Zuko had pushed Hunter into the water, passed out.
"Hunter No! Hunter! Hunter! HUNTER!" I yelled.

All of a sudden, a bright red glow showed underneath the water. My eyes widened in recognition. The same light that emerged from the iceberg he was trapped in. Out of nowhere, Hunter emerged from the water, eyes glowing crimson red, sharp fangs showing, and a water tornado surrounding his legs. He was water bending! He bended the cyclone to place him on the ship, then he spun the water around himself, and pushed it outward in all directions, pushing all of the crewman off the ship. He looked down at his weapon, airbended it into his hands, and tapped the bottom of it on the ground. 2 large, red, bat-like wings emerged, as well as 2 smaller ones. He mounted his weapon like a glider, and jumped towards us. Using the glider, he flew up to us, landed in the saddle, and looked at me. The dark red glow lingered for a few seconds, but then faded, and he passed out.
"Did you see what he just did?" I asked Sokka in shock.
"Now that, was some waterbending." He replied.

Midnight suddenly roared, and shot a ball of blue fire at a glacier, covering the ship with snow, and then she flew off with all 3 of us on her back. A few hours later, Hunter woke up. He had a bit of a headache, but he was OK.
"How did you do that with the water?" I asked him.
"I don't know, I just did it." he answered quietly.
"Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?" I asked him, a little hurt that he lied to me.
"Because I didn't want to be the Avatar." He answered forlornly.
"But Hunter," I started, but he cut me off.
"But nothing Katara. I'm living peacefully in the Fire Palace one day, and then I discover I can airbend. My father looked like he wanted to kill me and then The Fire Sages sneak me out of the palace, and send me to the Southern Air Temple to train my airbending. I had to leave everyone! My mother, my siblings, my betrothed, my friends, EVERYONE! And now they're all dead!" he yelled angrily.
"I understand Hunter. But the world needs you. They need you to end the war." I responded. He took a deep breath.
"How do you suggest I do that?" he asked. "Well, legend says you must first master air, then water, then earth, right?" I asked. He nodded.
"Well, you've already mastered air, and if we go to the North Pole, we can find you a teacher." I explained. He smiled brightly.
"We can learn together." He said. I nodded.
"And Sokka, I'm sure you can knock a few firebender heads on the way." I said. He smiled.
"I'd like that very much." He said.
"Hey! Don't forget, I'm originally a firebender." Hunter said with an annoyed look. We all laughed. This is going to be a very interesting journey.

A/N: So, Hunter is a prince! Anybody see that coming?