Disclaimer: We do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or any of the characters, places, nor plots that come along with it. We also do not own Indiana Jones, or other such things that are blatantly not ours, as we would have enough spare time to write something like this versus creating moneymaking things that benefit society.

Authors' Note: Please watch out for mischaracterizations, they are everywhere in this chapter.

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Chapter Three

- - -

A large set of doors creaked open, sending a single strip of light into the poorly lit throne room of Lord Ozai, only to be reclaimed by the shadow of a tall, ominous-looking man. He approached the throne and bowed to his ruler, a grave look on his face.

"Sir, I come bearing ill news," the man declared solemnly. Since Ozai was not visible, one could only assume he looked up in response. "It seems," the man started again, "That your daughter has been consumed by a strange portal representing an instability in the plot."

"What?!" he returned with a sharp undertone of anger, "That's impossible."

"Believe what you will, my Lord," the man continued carefully, "But Azula is gone. Two other girls are reported to have vanished along with her. I also hear your son was at the scene."

Ozai tensed slightly and stood up. "That's ridiculous. That incompetent whelp could never defeat Azula."

"The Avatar was with them as well."

Ozai sat back down. "Which fools were on the patrol when this happened?"

"Well, all of the guards were taking the shift off, sir," the messenger reported sheepishly, "Apparently you told them that they were forbidden to work that night."

The messenger winced, knowing how ridiculous that sounded. Surprisingly, there was no verbal outburst. Ozai's reaction was not visible, but the peon was sure that he must have been tightening his fists, narrowing his eyes, clenching his teeth, or something else to those effects.

"I've spared enough of my patience on that boy," Ozai growled in villainous rage, "He will be punished accordingly."

The messenger frowned, knowing all too well what kind of punishment Ozai had in mind, "Is he not your last heir, sir?"

Ozai remained tense, "I have no heirs." If there were background music, it would have made a crescendo as the scene changed.

- - -

"It was a Wednesday, in a very different place from this. It was a world without bending. My parents were archaeologists studying a place called ancient India and we were exploring some ancient ruins. We went much deeper into an old temple – one that they say is cursed – than any other parties. My parents told me that it was the opportunity of a lifetime. Little did they know, it would be the finale of their lifetimes.

"My father removed a gold statue from its resting place. He tried to replace it with a bag of sand, but the pedestal wasn't fooled! There was a strange rumbling, and next thing we knew, arrows were shot at us from all directions, which we narrowly avoided. We thought that was the end, however, another rumbling occurred. This time, a giant boulder was chasing us! I screamed as it crushed my parents under its enormous weight, but then I realized that I was next.

"Everything after that was a blur. I remember a flash of pink light and my terrified screams as a strange portal opened up above me. Next thing I knew, I was on the steps of the Fire Nation palace."

Marisu sobbed as she finished her tale, and Zuko looked down in sympathy.

"It's okay, Marisu. You don't need to be afraid anymore," Zuko assured. Sokka's eyes went wide and, even though there was already a fair distance between him and Zuko, climbed up Appa's back until he was between Katara and Toph.

"Hey!" Katara yelled, defending her place, "There's not enough space for you up here, Sokka! Go back to where you were before!"

"No way!" Sokka protested, "Do you want to catch what he's got? If you're so concerned with space, why don't you go back there? There's plenty of room."

Katara rolled her eyes. "So you say you're from another world, Marisu?" she asked Marisu quickly, ignoring her brother's complaints.

Marisu nodded. "I was called 'Krystyl' there."

"I know!" Aang said with very uncalled for enthusiasm, "There are two Avatars because you're the Avatar from your world!" Aang looked very proud of his deduction.

Marisu smiled. "Yes, that must be it!"

"So you're sure you're feeling better, Marisu?" Zuko asked hurriedly, as if he thrived off of Marisu's undivided attention. Iroh looked pensively at Zuko, continuing to observe his strange behavior with suspicion.

"Hai," Marisu replied. Zuko was about to be offended at what sounded to him like a greeting (an indication that she had not realized he was there), but thankfully xXxZukoHartzMe4evaXxX took this moment to make it clear that 'hai' is in fact the Japanese word for 'yes'.

As soon as Marisu and Zuko got involved in some kind of conversation, Toph turned to Katara, whispering, "So, why is that Fire Nation guy and his girlfriend traveling with us?"

"I was wondering the same thing," Sokka uttered grudgingly.

Katara shrugged. "Well, if they're with us, they're not our enemies, right? Besides, firebenders could come in handy," she motioned to Aang.

Sokka groaned, but accepted this feeble explanation. Toph, however, was not satisfied with this answer and seemed to think Katara, of all people, would know better than that. "But what if they're planning some sort of attack and are just waiting for us to fall asleep or something?"

Toph was casually ignored, even after some attempts to regain Katara's attentiveness. She clenched her teeth and growled in frustration, but dropped the topic.

After a few more minutes of flying, Aang noticed that Appa was beginning bob over and under the clouds. Since Appa always comes first (after Katara), Aang searched the land below for a clearing large enough for Appa to land in, and soon discovered one not too far in the distance. It took only a few moments for the flying bison to reach the clearing, and soon all had set up camp and went to sleep, which was ostensibly very uneventful.

- - -

The next morning, Zuko had awakened to the smell of dirt, because it seemed that he had fallen asleep with his face to the ground… in the dirt, like he sometimes had before he was 'welcomed' back at the palace. He groaned and rolled over, only to crush a small animal that had been sniffing his clothes curiously. He recoiled in surprise and reflexively grabbed the creature.

Zuko had pulled out a shocked Momo who, as soon as he realized whose hands he was now constrained in, started to struggle frantically in Zuko's grasp. Zuko sneered irritably and hurled the flying lemur off to the side. Momo parachuted safely to the ground, and when the two of them were quite finished glaring at each other, Zuko stood up and examined his surroundings. He found that Sokka was still asleep, and that Aang was sitting no more than twenty feet from him.

"Oh, good morning, Zuko," Aang greeted him cheerfully.

Zuko's eyes narrowed. "Well, this is convenient, Avatar," he taunted. Aang blinked in confusion, but Zuko continued, "You just saved me the trouble of finding you." He looked as though he was poising himself to attack. Aang quickly stood up and stepped back, alarmed at the suddenness of this, but quickly got on his guard.

"Zuko!" called a sweet and tuneful voice from behind them. Zuko turned his head to see Marisu, Katara, Toph and Iroh returning to the camp with leaves and other such hopefully edible vegetation.

"Marisu!" Zuko called back with alien excitement in his voice as he walked up to her joyously. Aang was so staggered by the most recent change in Zuko's mood that he simply plopped himself back down on the ground, gaping in bemusement.

As they all put down their findings, Momo flew out of a tree and sniffed them inquisitively. Marisu gasped at him, suddenly excited.

"Omigosh, it's so kawaii!" Momo's ears fell at both the utterance of the word 'kawaii' and at the fact that Marisu was now approaching him. "Is he friendly? Can I pet him?" Momo's fur stood on end and he began hissing viciously at Marisu as if his animal instincts told him something the others did not know. Marisu gasped again, this time in distress.

"Momo, what's gotten into you!" Katara scolded. Momo scampered off, but continued to glare at Marisu distrustfully. Katara sighed. "I'm so sorry. He's not normally like that."

"That's strange…" Marisu mused, "Most animals love me."

Later, during the very colorful and romantic sunset, Zuko and Marisu went off on a walk. Aang decided that this was the ideal time to gather up the remaining party and hold an urgent meeting. He explained to them how Zuko behaved that morning after he woke up, and his sudden change of heart once Marisu had returned.

"Well, he hasn't been himself," Iroh said thoughtfully, "Not since he's been with Marisu."

"If he's so unpredictable, why should we keep letting him follow us?" Toph pointed out callously.

"Well…" Katara hesitated before continuing, "It's either they follow us, or fight us, right?"

"Let's take a vote," Sokka suggested, lifting his hand above his head, "Raise your hand if you would rather fight Zuko!"

Toph raised her hand along with him. Everyone else glared at Sokka and Toph and decided to disregard Sokka's attempt at creating some kind of democracy.

Iroh stroked his beard contemplatively. "Well, I can think of one possible explanation…"

Aang turned to look at him, "What is it?"

Iroh smirked at him. "I'll tell you, but it's a little farfetched."

"That's okay, I think we're open to anything," Sokka remarked, still considering his 'rare disease' theory. Everybody leaned in to better hear the tale.

"There is a prophecy that has been passed down in the Fire Nation for many generations," Iroh began solemnly, "It speaks of the anti-Avatar, a girl from another world who will possess the sacred element of 'Plot'. She would use these powers of 'plotbending' to purge the world of all existing evil, but in turn, bestow upon the world an evil of her own."

"It definitely sounds like Marisu," commented Toph.

Aang bit his lip in reflection. "So you think she's using plotbending to make Zuko act like this?"

"She may not be doing it on purpose," broached Iroh, "It could just be a symptom of being near her."

"Shouldn't we do something about her, then?" Katara queried.

Iroh thought for a moment. "…No."

Sokka gave a sigh of relief, "So it'll just blow over soon?"

"No," Iroh admitted, "But if Zuko's not in any danger, then it would probably be better to have him distracted until you've stopped this war."

"Before we decide on anything, we should make sure that it wasn't a one-time thing," reasoned Aang. Katara and Iroh nodded.

"We should try to recreate the incident," Iroh proposed, "I'll take the same group out to find breakfast again tomorrow morning. We'll try to get back before trouble starts, but just in case, Aang and Sokka should stay behind to make sure my nephew doesn't do anything… rash."

Sokka felt rather gypped in this agreement because if they decided to ditch Zuko they would all have to fight him together verses just him and Aang, but he was the only one with a major qualm, and much to his dismay was again ignored.

- - -

"You haven't told me too much about your father, Zuko," Marisu said, which totally ruined the mood of the evening for her companion. Up until that point they had been having a very nice conversation about Marisu's world, when she had to mention his father. He was especially annoyed because she brought it up at a very random time and obviously only for the purpose of plot development.

"Not much to say, really," said Zuko, "He doesn't like me."

Marisu frowned. "Why would you think that?" He glared at her.

"…Oh," she replied, "I see." She looked up at Zuko with eyes that could only be described with a poetic metaphor, causing his expression to soften a little.

After a short moment of silence, Zuko opened his mouth in an attempt to change the subject, but Marisu spoke first. "Is your father scary?" She sounded rather simple-minded as she said this, but Zuko took it as an endearing trait, like she was innocent or something.

"I guess." he shrugged. "I've never actually seen him."

Marisu tilted her head. "But-"

"No, no, I've seen him, but he's always shrouded in some kind of shadow," Zuko explained, scratching his head, "Either that or something conveniently covers his face. Azula used to joke that he did that because he was probably cross-eyed and no one could take him seriously while looking him in the face." Zuko forced a chuckle at this – how he would sound if he chuckled would have to be left to the imaginations of the readers – however Marisu neither found this amusing or informative. Zuko gave up on trying to explain it to her and decided it was a good idea to go back to camp.

The next few days went by similarly. Why they were all staying at one campsite for so long was unimportant. It was not like there were any special eclipses or a comets coming soon, after all.

In the meantime, Iroh put his plan into effect, and indeed, the results were the same. Zuko would relapse into familiar behavior when he was separated from Marisu, but changed again into the 'new' him when she was replaced. They even tried switching around some of the people in the 'breakfast-finding' group; however, Marisu seemed to be the only manipulating variable. Iroh thought it was about time he had a talk with his nephew after waiting a long while to speak to him alone.

"Zuko," he started, wondering how he would go about saying what need be said, "So… how's Marisu?"

"She's well," Zuko responded pleasantly, "Why do you ask?"

"You seem to be, uh… quite taken with her."

Zuko stared at Iroh. "What do you want, uncle?" he returned, less pleasantly now.

"Nothing!" Iroh assured nervously, "You just seem different around her, that's all." Zuko mumbled something under his breath, but Iroh could not quite hear it.

"It seems to me like you've given up on capturing the Avatar and restoring your honor?" Iroh tried.

"I don't care about what father wants anymore!" Zuko snapped, "The only honor I want is the honor of being with Marisu!" This caught Iroh off-guard, however Zuko did not seem to be aware of this as he walked away from Iroh to meet Marisu. She was waiting for him by the campfire with the others.

Iroh frowned disbelievingly. Not only was there something wrong with his nephew… There was something seriously wrong with his nephew.