Capture The Avatar: Azulon's Plot

By Jet Set Yoyo

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender nor any of the characters. If I did, Zuko would've ended up with Katara not Mai.

Summary: When all of Fire Lord Azulon's efforts to locate the missing Avatar fail, he decides that the young Airbender must have died and been reborn. But with countless deaths of people from various nations, children included, he could no longer be certain that the Avatar would be a Waterbender. He ordered his troops across the nations, locating any child with exceptional bending skills for their age. Gathering them all up, he would locate the Avatar that way. With Ozai's suggestion of passing Iroh over as Fire Lord, Azulon orders his son Zuko not to be killed, but to join the thousands of children locked away in prison cells where he eventually meets the gang and few new faces along the way.

The prison guards called it recess, but nothing about this was recess. Even if a majority of the population of the prison consisted of children, no one was playing around. Most cried, some sat somberly around the yard while others looked longingly at the sky. Zuko unconsciously kept close to Zaiden, wary of his surroundings, the guards, and even the other children. Looking around, many of them were no older than themselves; ages ranging anywhere from five to twelve. It depressed the young prince seeing them all caged up.

"Hey...Zaiden," Zuko piped up looking over at the chestnut haired boy who sat silently on a bench near the edge of the yard.

"What's up," Zaiden tilted his head towards his cellmate. He stared at the other boy, waiting for a reply. This kid wasn't so bad for a supposed spoiled prince-type. In fact he didn't seem so spoiled at all. Inwardly Zaiden was thankful for that, he was pretty patience and cool-headed but if this guy ended up being whiny and annoying the whole time then he would inevitably end up losing that cool.

"The kids that just came in, there's a blind girl...why would they take a little blind girl? Why are we even here anyway?"

"The Fire Lord is looking for the Avatar, or so I heard the guards saying. They think he's a little kid. Kind of stupid I think but whatever. I'm no Avatar so hopefully I can go home soon."

"The Avatar? But I'm not the Avatar...why would they bring me here...," Zuko cast his amber eyes to the metal grating that served as the floor. Now he was thoroughly confused. The Fire Lord must have known he wasn't the Avatar, heck he could barely firebend much less bend any other elements. It was a constant disgrace to his Father. Zaiden noticed the sudden look of confusion and frowned.

"But hey, that's just what I thought I heard so maybe I'm wrong. Who knows."

Across the yard, not far from where Zuko and Zaiden sat were several of the children that had just been shipped in via warship. At first none of them wanted to move, afraid of the place they had been left in, but after several minutes of being left to their own devices they all went their separate ways.

Jet walked idly around attempting to discover some sort of way out but much to his own dismay there didn't seem to be. The whole place was just a giant metal fortress. He huffed indignantly and ended up by the bench Zuko and Zaiden sat on. Propping himself against the wall nearby, he just observed the other kids around him as well as the guards keeping watch. This place was horrendous; he couldn't stand it. Nothing but anger bubbled inside him, festering like the bacteria in an unattended wound. Looking to his left, he realized that the blind girl from before had been following him, why didn't he notice that? Staring at her, he almost jumped when she spoke.

"Why are you staring at me," she demanded though her child voice made it far less menacing than she wanted it to be.

"How'd you...never mind. Why are you following me?" A look of incredulity crossed his face instantly; how did she even know that?

"You were there, when they took me," she countered, furrowing her eyebrows. She wouldn't admit she was scared, nor that she wanted to stay close to someone vaguely familiar either.

"Ok then. Well, I'm Jet."

"Toph Bei Fong, don't forget it." Jet raised an eyebrow then grinned. He liked her, she was pretty funny for a little kid.

Zuko couldn't help but overhear the both of them talking; they weren't all that far away. These two weren't firebenders, in fact, a lot of the kids here seemed to be from all over the world. Some had green clothes, some red, and some blue.

"Hey. Hey Zaiden, there's that blind girl!"

Zaiden turned, catching sight of the green-clad girl. She was dressed in some sort of rich elegant clothing though it seemed a bit dirty now. He wasn't sure what Zuko's sudden fascination with the handicapped girl was and so he shrugged and went back to daydreaming. He barely noticed the raven haired prince get up and trudge over to the pair near the wall.

Stopping in front of them, Zuko suddenly felt shy. He'd never seen nor talked to anyone from a different country much less anyone who didn't have access to the palace before. Sometimes he'd say hi to other kids when his family went to Ember Island but that was only briefly.

"What do you want," the young girl demanded, knowing Zuko had approached them. He looked her up and down, wondering if she really was blind. She did just figure out he had come over without that other boy saying anything to her. This intrigued him; he was rather curious by nature. When he didn't answer right away, the blank eyed girl huffed angrily and stomped on the ground. There wasn't any earth to bend so she just came off as an angry little girl. "I said, what do you want?"

"Uhm...are you an earthbender," he answered her finally, continuing to stare at her without shame. She seemed surprised by his question but soon nodded, crossing her arms across her chest. Zuko felt a moment of excitement, having now met an earthbender. He liked this thing called recess, even if they still were in prison. "Hi, I'm Zuko from the Fire Nation. What's your-"

"Listen Sparky, I don't know why you're talking to me but you're bugging me," she interrupted, a little alarmed now that she knew he was from the Fire Nation. There was no way she'd just hand over her name and be buddy-buddy with a kid from the nation that just raided her town and took her away. She didn't even know if her parents were alright. That and her parents had always told her to be wary of strangers because she couldn't see. Zuko looked down and bit his bottom lip, he hadn't expected her to just reject him like that. He was only trying to be friends.

"I just wanted to say hi. I've never met anyone from outside the Fire Nation before," he admitted dejectedly. His gaze then fell on the older boy beside her. His hair was wild and he looked angry but not towards him specifically, just angry. After a moment, he decided that talking to the girl was a lost cause and that maybe this boy would be a better try. "Uhm, what's your name?"

"Jet. Why're you talking to me? You're from the Fire Nation so shouldn't you be hanging out with Fire Nation kids?"

Zuko couldn't understand it. Why were these kids so upset about him being Fire Nation. He had always been taught that the Fire Nation was the best and that other nations strived to be like them; that they were the example to the rest of the world. But from what he could see, everyone was just afraid of them.

"Why? Can't I be friends with people from the other nations too? I didn't know that was wrong."

This seemed to diffuse some of the anger Jet had built up towards him. He stopped glaring angrily at least. Now he just seemed to be thinking real hard about something but Zuko couldn't imagine what. Maybe an escape plan. Suddenly a long and heavy sigh escaped from Jet's lips.

"The Fire Nation burned my whole village, those fires killed my Mom and I don't even know what happened to my Dad," he began, eying the young prince warily though not as hostilely as before. "But...you don't seem so bad I guess. You're not my friend just yet but I won't beat you up for now. Who's that kid, he's been staring since you came over."

Following Jet's now pointing finger, Zuko's eyes settled on Zaiden who was indeed staring this way. He smiled, waving at his cellmate and friend. In return the chestnut haired boy got up and sauntered over. Toph stood silently, observing the interactions between them. She was still cautious, undecided as to whether or not she wanted to let her guard down in front of this Fire Nation boy.

"Don't worry, he's not a bad guy."

"I'm Zaiden," he greeted, offering a quick casual wave towards Jet as he peered over at Toph briefly. "Just this guy's cellmate. He's been curious since he saw you two come in. Nice to meet you two.

A bell clanged somewhere nearby yet out of sight. It signaled the end of the supposed recess and the children who had been there long enough knew to file back into the prison quietly. Those who were new, Toph and Jet included just followed behind Zaiden and Zuko.

"I don't like this place," Toph spoke up loud enough for Jet, Zuko and Zaiden to hear. She hadn't yet mastered her bending so she couldn't quite feel the small vibrations of them nodding their heads in unison but she figured they agreed with her.

The rest of the way was traveled in silence, all of the children seemed afraid to speak up in case a guard heard them. They were supposed to stay quiet, behave, and cooperate to the full extent. Anyone resisting would be punished severely and all of them were terrified to find out what that meant. The earthbenders were all imprisoned on the second floor, the firebenders on the third, and the waterbenders on the fourth. So once they passed the second floor on the staircase, Toph and Jet were lead off and into their new cells. Zuko and Zaiden proceeded onwards, returning to their own cell before being locked in by a guard.

"I like them," Zuko smiled softly, momentarily forgetting he was imprisoned by the small satisfaction that he had made three friends already. Two of which were from the Earth Kingdom. Never in his whole eight years of life had he thought he would meet anyone outside of the Fire Nation, it almost made him giddy with excitement. Their lunch came and the pair ate quietly, only bits of small talk in between bites.

Writing Toph is difficult. She's not OoC...but as a four year old...she is, sort of. Thanks for the reviews guys, I'm glad this isn't horrible. I'm not doing the story as much justice as I'd like but things never go from my head to paper (or computer screen) exactly the way I want them to. Reviews are loved, constructive criticism is even more loved.

Note: I made some changed to the previous chapters. Those of you who read them before December 18th might want to at least glance over the first chapter again. I re-worked a better explanation, as well as some more back-story, into it. Hopefully that might pose to diffuse some of the confusion until I go on to reveal more in the story. Chapter one has the most changes. Chapter's two and this one only has a brief once over and some grammar and spelling mistakes corrected. Nothing major was changed.