Hey, chapter 3 is up!

I'm thinking about bringing in the painted lady later in the story.

What do you guys think?

The ruler of the entire Fire Nation sat at his throne, looking over his council members with disapproval. They lacked creativity. He didn't want to just burn everything to the ground. That got boring after a while. He wanted to make sure the pathetic excuse for human beings knew who ruled over them, who made the decisions and that they no longer had a say in what they did with their lives. He wanted to strike fear into their hearts. After all that is the only way you can control people.

That is why he called in his daughter, Azula, his firebending prodigy and his pride and joy. His daughter had a wonderful mind, always scheming new ways to inflict pain into the world. She was the only one capable of this particular task.

Capturing the Avatar and killing the Blue Spirit.

They had both caused a lot of annoying anguish for Fire Lord Ozai and he was losing his patience. He had received news that the Avatar had been captured by Admiral Zhao. The Fire Lord was… pleased. His pleasure was ruined, however, when he received news that one man had single-handidly freed the Avatar from Admiral's Zhao's clutches. Fire Lord Ozai was furious. One man. One man had freed the Avatar from a high security fortress. Zhao was pathetic, but he would deal with him later. He was even more furious when he found out who this one man was, the Blue Spirit.

Ozai set several curtains on fire.

This 'Blue Spirit' had caused a lot of trouble. He had destroyed so many of his holds on weak villages and wrecked a lot of his fire nation army outposts. The Fire Lord wanted this man to go down. He didn't care who he was, he just wanted to get rid of this nuisance.

He knew Azula could do this. She wasn't a failure, unlike her sad excuse of a brother. He didn't even know where the banished Prince was.

'Probably dead, he was always pathetically weak' Ozai decided.

"Are you ready Azula?" Ozai asked his daughter after he dismissed his council members, he only looked to them for new, exiting ideas. But so far they had proven useless. Unlike his daughter.

"I will not fail you father" Azula replied, bowing.

"I know you won't. You leave tomorrow morning." Ozai said, his voice betraying no emotion.

…OooO…

Zuko stirred slowly from his sleep. The cool breeze floated gently in through the open window which he came in through late last night, too exhausted to close it. He sat up in his 'bed' which really was just some hay in a stranger's barn. It was a small barn. It had one door which was locked and one small window.

The house lay empty, slowly falling apart. He had gone into the house at first, to try and find an actual bed for once, but quickly decided against it after seeing the decayed remains of its owners. A man, a woman and a child. Murdered by Firebenders. It made him feel like he was going to be sick. The smell wasn't any better.

The soft whistling of wind that swept through the house made the whole thing a little too creepy. Not to mention the strange silence that surrounded the small town of probably only 10 houses. He figured they all had the same fate. He couldn't leave and try to find another town. He was too tired. Then he saw the barn and decided to stay there just for one night. No one would notice him since it was abandoned. Normally he would have considered to stay longer but the decaying, burnt bodies were imbedded in his mind and frankly he didn't want to stay any longer that he needed to. The Vigilante stretched his tired muscles - well as much as he could considering what happened last night.

Zuko decided he was going to go back and visit them. The bunch of kids made him feel wanted. They wanted him to come back. Unlike his father. Banishing him just for standing up to something that was wrong. He remembers telling his father this war was pointless. Not that any of that mattered. He was living proof of what happened when you stood up to the Fire Lord. You got half your face burnt off while the rest of the Nation laughed in your face. His hand reached up to the scar that would forever remind him of his father. No, he didn't even deserve that title anymore. He was a monster.

Doubt plagued his mind. What if they lost trust in him if they found out he was fire nation and a firebender? Maybe he could prove himself to them, he was prepared to do that. He wanted to help the avatar, he wanted to take down his father, and he wanted someone to care.

The ex-prince of the Fire Nation stood up and placed the Blue Spirit mask around his face.

He was not going back on his word.

…OooO…

"What if he doesn't show up?!" Aang said pacing back and forth.

"He will Aang, would you please stop stressing" Sokka said sounding like was trying to convince himself more than Aang but even he was having his doubts.

"Oh come on you two, he will come." Katara said while making their breakfast of a variety of nuts and fruit. "But we should eat now, while we wait and who knows, he might be hungry"

Just as Katara finished the sentence the masked man dropped down from the roof of the cave and landed in a crouch.

Aang jumped out of his skin with a horrified look on his face but realised who it was.

"YOU CAME!" The Avatar yelled and tackled the man in a hug.

The Blue Spirit seemed taken aback by the gesture and slowly returned the hug.

"Would you like something to eat?" Katara asked politely. She was thinking about how she could approach the man about joining their group.

"Yes please" The Blue spirit replied. He sat down as Katara passed him a bowl with fruit and nuts.

"So I was thinking." Sokka began.

"Aang will have to face the Fire Lord eventually and you know there's only three of us so our odds aren't so great and an extra hand would help us so much". Sokka paused.

"So, what do you say? Would you like to join our group?"

The Blue Spirit looked at Sokka.

"It would be an honour but I can't join your group without revealing my identity" The Blue Spirit said, picking his words carefully.

"I don't want to put you in any more danger than you need."

"You don't have to tell us anything you don't want to. I get the whole 'the less you know the safer you are' thing so it's cool to use a fake name or something" Sokka said casually.

"And we have the Avatar in our group, so don't feel like you're putting us in danger, but I won't force you to do something you don't want to do." Aang added, feeling hopeful.

"You could help us take down the fire lord for good and then he won't be able to hurt anymore innocent people." Katara said sounding sincere but there was a hint of desperation to her voice.

The Blue Spirit considered his options. If he didn't join their group and they went their separate ways, it is possible that the Avatar might be captured again, they might never even make it to the Fire Nation before they are killed. If he joins their group and doesn't reveal his identity, they would definitely find out sooner or later… when they did would they not trust him? Being ex-Fire Nation is one thing but being ex-Crown Prince of the Fire Nation is another thing completely. If he joined their group and came out with his true identity, it would lift a weight off the spirit's shoulders. Finally being able to tell someone about his alter ego would be a relief. It would be great to have some backup once in a while as well and maybe come out of some fights with a few less scratches.

"It's not pretty" The Blue spirit says quietly, looking down.

"What isn't?" Aang and Sokka asked simultaneously.

"Underneath… I have a… rather large scar."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, we are not known to judge." Katara said softly, she was now sitting next the Blue Spirit and she could feel the waves of pain coming off him.

"A friend of my dad's, his name is Bato." Sokka began, hoping his story would lighten the man's mood. "His entire arm and chest was badly burnt, it was still wrapped in bandages last time we saw him."

After a seconds hesitation the Blue Spirit removed his mask.

Underneath was nothing more than a teenager, around Sokka's age. His skin was pale and he had the most intense golden eyes and shaggy jet black hair. A large scar covered the left side of his face. It covered his eye leaving it in a permanent squint, it reached above his eye brow to his ear and down to just above his cheek bone. In other words it looked excruciatingly painful.

"My name is Zuko, I am the ex-prince of the Fire Nation." Zuko said, he looked ashamed to be Fire Nation.

Katara stared wide eyed and mouth open before gathering herself up. "You are the last person I expected to be under that mask!" The waterbender tackled Zuko in a hug.

"The Fire Lord's son is on our side! This puts us at more of an advantage than originally thought!" Sokka added and joined in Katara and Sokka's hug.

"I LOVE GROUP HUGS!" the 12 year old Avatar yelled.

One things for certain Zuko did not think they would react like this, with such happiness. He wondered to himself where he would end up from here.

Inside Zuko knew this was the best decision of his life.

Hope you enjoyed it so far!