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A/N: Hey! here is chapter 2! sorry it took so long, I have a good excuse, I've been very busy with school. Anyway Id really like to thank all my reviewers I hope you all enjoy chapter 2! Please R&R and give your opinion. Id love to hear um. The grey lines symbolise a change of scence

Disclaimer: I do not own the Avatar the last air bender nor do I own any of the characters in the amazing show.

hope you enjoy!

breathlesslove

chapter 2

rescue and revenge

Jet ran through the thick forest after Mae. He was boiling with fury. How dare she run away from me again. That was the only thought that consumed his mind. His speed began to falter as his legs protested, they were screaming with pain. Branches were smacking his face as he did his best to dodge roots and rocks in the complete and utter darkness. Soon he had lost the outline of Mae. damn. he thought anger rising. Jet continued to run anger fueling his body. The freedom fighter continued onward in the same direction. she cant run forever. An evil grin settled it self on his chizzled face as the thought flowed through his mind. Soon Jets thoughts were consumed by the protests of his aching limbs. He decided to return to camp for the remainder of the night. It was no use trying to find her in this darkness. He reached camp, and strolled tiresomely to his tent. Unbeknownst to him Katara was watching all the while.

Where is Mae? Panic and concern rose in her shaking frame as the worst came to mind. Katara's mind raced as she tried to settle down and let sleep take her under its wing. Soon sleep did just that and she drifted off. Her sleep haunted by dreams of Mae and what had become of her.

"Men move out!" Zuko gave the command and his men fallowed, only allowing them selves a small glance at the young lady in his arms.

The prince walked with her draped in his arms. His mind raced with curiosity. They had been deep in the forest when the stumbled upon the girl, so they did not have a short walk back to say the least. Zuko's ship was docked on the sandy shores of the island.

By the time they reached the ship the sun was peeking over the horizon, saying its good morning to the world. The men and Zuko were exhausted. The extra weight was taking its tole on the exiled prince. She wasn't heavy by any means but it seemed she was become a lot harder to carry as Zuko's muscles began to scream.

Prince Zuko stowed onto his ship with Mae in his arms, the soldiers aboard just looked at the prince with bewilderment in their eyes, they knew better then to say anything so they kept their mouths shut and their minds begin to cook up stories as to why he had a young injured lady in his arms.

Mae woke from her unconscious sleep, and could vaguely make out the sight of a young man carrying her, she let the rise and fall of his muscular chest and the smooth rocking of his steps lull her back into unconsciousness.

Jet rose at the first break of light, He was determined to find Mae. He dressed and left the camp and set off at a jog toward the intense forest. The morning air was crisp and slightly damp with dew.

The rest of the camp slept, oblivious to Jets determination.

He ran to wear he had decided to turn back the night before, and continued on, he could see Mae's footsteps in the muddy forest floor. He followed them into a clearing wear the stopped and meet new sets of footsteps, much larger then hers, and in the print of fire nation boots. Jet's blood began to boil, as hers disappeared and the fire nation boots took over, he came to the conclusion that the fire benders that owned these footprints had her, the freedom fighter fallowed the path the footsteps laid out until her came to the beach, He saw the semi large ship half resting in the sand. His anger had reached its limit. That damn wench Jet sneered to himself oh, but I will have revenge and it will taste so sweet. A malicious smirk painted it self on Jets face. He was going to find her and make her pay for making him look like a fool.

He made his way back to the camp, his anger lifted at the thoughts of the many ways he could make Mae pay.

"Out of my way!" The prince commanded as he shoved past a group of gaping soldiers, He pushed through the door and luck seemed to be on his side, for the first time in a long, as his uncle, the dragon of the west stood in the hallway. "Uncle, find the doctor and tell him we need his assistance." Iroh heard the urgency in his raspy voice and didn't ask questions, there would be time for questions later, when the young lady was resting and in better heath.

Zuko walked into the infirmary, and went to one of the small beds that populated the room. As gently as he could manage he rest the girl on the closest bed. Not a moment later did the retired general and doctor bustle in.

The doctor looked over the girl, " Im going to need to examine her more closely, it looks like she may have severe wounds he began to pull at her clothes.

Zuko turned as his cheeks flushed. " Well nephew I think this is were we take our leave the general said as made his way to the door of the infirmary with Zuko close behind.

The doctor looked over the young lady. She suffered from two fractured ribs a swollen ankle, and a large deep gash that spread across her abdomen, and countless number of bruises including the that was quickly surfacing on her face from the hard slap she endured from Jet, the bruise covering her check and the corner of her eye, it was a gnarly sight, a mix of shades of purple, red and grey.

Zuko and his uncle had went to the galley, the banished prince was famished he ate his fish while his uncle drank tea. Iroh was bursting with questions and now seemed to be the time to ask. As Zuko and Iroh sat, the banished prince began to tell his uncle what happened.

"As you know the men and I were searching the woods for the Avatar " Zuko continued to explain what happened " ...and now she's here."

"Hmm" Iroh mussed, he took another sip of his tea and then spoke again " Well prince Zuko, perhaps we should go check on the young lady".

Zuko said nothing just fallowed his Uncle.

When they reached the infirmary the Dr. Nukio had finished bandaging the girl. She lay sleeping, her breaths seemed to take a lot of effort, and her chest rose and fell raggedly.

"Oh, im glad you here," the doctor turned a little startled to see the two in that had just entered the room. He addressed them and gave a slight bow of respect " General Iroh, Prince Zuko"

"What kind of shape is she in?" Uncle Iroh asked, he looked concerned, Zuko on the other hand merely looked bored, he had things to do, like capture the avatar.

"Well she could be in better shape, but im glad to report she will recover, she has two fractured rips, her ankle is swollen most likely its sprained, she has an immense amount of bruises, but the thing that troubles me is she has a very large gash across her stomach." The doctor waved Zuko and Iroh over to the bed the young lady rest in. Her pulled back the sheet that rested lightly over her.

The doctor pulled at the hem of the girls torn shirt, he stopped when he was interrupted by the prince.

"s-she's n-not going to wake up, is she?" Zuko cursed himself for stammering but his nerves had gotten the best of him, he didn't want her to wake whilst they were examining her abdomen!

Iroh laughed to himself at his nephews nerves, prince Zuko nervous over a girl never did I think I would see the day. Iroh laughed some more to himself

"No prince Zuko, I assure you she wont" dr. Nukio said trying to stifle a laugh, but doing a very poor job. He continued pulling the shirt up her stomach to reveal the wound. He slowly and carefully pulled back the gauze that was set there to absorb the blood that was now slowing.

Both Zuko and Iroh winced at the sight of the wound. It was rather deep and bleeding badly although from the discarded gauze they guessed it had bleeding had been much worse. Zuko hadn't noticed the wound that adorned her stomach when he had been caring her.

Iroh noticed the young lady's torn clothes and blood stained skin Iroh ordered " Dr. Nukio have one of you assistants clean the girl, ill go rummage up something clean for her to wear, Prince Zuko you will come with me".

Zuko's train of thought was broken and he did as his Uncle said and fallowed him to the exiled princes room.

"Uncle, what are we doing in here? I thought you said you were going to look for something the girl could wear." Zuko's face was contorted with puzzlement, as he didn't put the two together.

"Precisely nephew" He waited for it to click in his nephews mind.

" Uncle your not saying that she wear some of my clothes" He didn't wait for his Uncle to respond "but Uncle why can't she wear one of the crews clothing?" Zuko wined like he was five.

"Don't be ridiculous, they would never fit the young lady" the general responded to his nephews winning in a calm voice, but his tone clearly said 'is it not obvious prince Zuko?'

The Prince gave in, knowing very well that his Uncle would get his way.

He stayed in his room as his Uncle went to deliver the clothes for one of the assistant to change the girl. He tried to block the girl out of his thoughts. I must think of a plan to capture that damn avatar. For the rest of the day Zuko thought up strategies and traps for catching the avatar. Only resting his mind of the Avatar to consume his dinner.

Zuko changed into his lavish pajamas and slid between the sheets. He tossed and turned but couldn't sleep. He sighed heavily and rolled out of his bed. His bear feet touching the cold steal floor. He walked down the silent hallway. He reached the infirmary and quietly opened the door. He moved a chair next to the unconscious girls bed and plunged into the seat. It had been a week since she came aboard his ship. She hadn't woken. Her wounds had healed some what, but were taking longer then expected.

She stirred a little and then her eyes flickered open. Her surroundings were dark, she immediately thought the worst, had Jet found me panic rose in her, put as the memories flooded her mind of the night before she relaxed the slightest bit. She remembered the exiled prince of the fire nation caring her. I must be on his ship. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing she didn't know. She had heard the stories the avatar and his friends had told stories of him when they were around the fire that night, what she gathered from the stories he was determined, from what the water bender had said it seemed he was void of all emotion, except for arrogance and anger. but if he's such a 'heartless' person then why would he help me. she thought

Mae's eyes meet a pair of fiery gold eyes staring back at her from somewhere in the envelope of darkness they were in. She stared into those eyes, they were the image of a warm fire. The image of her element. They were comforting and she soon became lost in the trance of the topaz gems. The person the golden eyes belonged too formed a ball of fire in their palm, a faint light lite part of the room. She blinked letting her eyes adjust to the sudden change of dark to light in the room.

The deep raspy voice that belonged to the piercing golden eyes broke the silence. "So your finally awake. how do you feel?" His voice didn't sound concerned, it didn't really portray any emotion

Mae's throat felt raw, probably from all that damn running last night, was it last night? how long have I been asleep? She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out, she had completely lost her voice from lack of use.

When she didn't answer Zuko became irritated "Well..."

She tried to clear her throat, It hurt badly and she could taste stale blood which seemed to coat the back of her throat. The exiled prince of the fire nation saw her discomfort and stood to leave, he looked at her once more, there eyes locking and then they were submerged in darkness as the fire in Zuko's hand emitted. She could her the door opened and then close.

She stayed in the darkness lighting the place would only show her how badly she was banged up, that night in the woods had done some damage she had fallen several times and the branches of the trees showed no mercy. She closed her eyes and managed to let out a dry sigh

Zuko walked down the maze of hallways to the kitchen and told one of the servants to bring a glass of water to the girl in the infirmary at once.

The servant did just that. Mae heard the door open again, it wasn't the prince but a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, late teens. He was caring a lantern which illuminated the room in a soft glow. the young man handed her a glass of ice cold water. She nodded her thanks and greedily chugged the cold element down, coating her throat and soothing the pain. The young man left and she was once again surrounded by darkness.

The prince walked back to his room after his visit to the kitchen. He lay down between the sheets, Thinking now maybe he could finally get some sleep.

OK I hope you like it, please R&R and tell me what you think! please please review!

Im very sorry if any of the character are OOC, I tried really hard to keep them IC

chapter will probably be up quicker then this one was, ill have to see how busy I'm with school

breathlesslove