Chapter 4. As usual, if you like it, let me know. If not, please help me improve my writing; I'm always looking for ways to get better. On with the show.

Things were getting out of hand. He wasn't sure he was going to make it out of this one...

Until now, the Blue Spirit was a convenient and easy way for Zuko to escape the boring tirades of being royalty while simultaneously helping his people, and it was working. For the first couple weeks, he'd been more than happy to encourage the rumors, directing them in the way he sought best for himself.

It was remarkable how quickly rumors could spread. A single day of just speaking to ten or twenty people was enough to let the entire city know in less than a week. Nightly missions were exciting, though not all involved fights or danger. And the best part being he got to really see and experience how his people lived.

The majority of them, even in the capital city, were ordinary people simply trying to get by. Certainly, in the inner circle they were all nobility and occupations involved with the palace. But Zuko suspected that the capital was an exception. If his hunch was right, most people didn't really care one way or another in this war.

They were farmers who wanted these ridiculous taxes to end, mothers who worried for their husbands, and sons who missed their fathers and brothers.

And the military was a ridiculous, oppressive tool. Through rumors, he'd manage to convince people to set up three drop zones for missions, scattered throughout the city. Each night, he'd visit them, sort out the requests and pick one from each. But there was also a matter of faith and keeping people believing in the Blue Spirit. After all, if your missions wasn't picked, how would you even know the Blue Spirit had been there?

So he'd mark the single mission that had been chosen with the same blue insignia that had been on the dragon egg. He'd come to like that particular design. The others would be marked in red.

And things had been going fine. The city was ablaze with talk about the Blue Spirit, and usually after dark the lower level military officers had learned to keep quiet and simply go home without bothering people. After a particularly nasty mission where the Blue Spirit had broken into a young patrol officer's home and stolen all his clothes, the military recruits learned that they were not safe simply because the crime was committed during the day. The Blue Spirit would hunt them down.

But it was only a matter of time before the military would find out and stage an ambush. Like tonight. He'd gone to the fountain as usual. The choice had been easy – this one seemed to have all the elements. An army officer had stolen the last of a family's savings. He'd seen this particular officer before, and it didn't seem like the man had learned his lesson.

So Zuko set off with mask and swords in hand to rectify the situation.

Until he realized that the military had set up archers around the target's house with street patrols. How careless of him. He hadn't seen the growing number of wanted posters. Since the three months that Zuko had set up his little operation, the bounty grew to nearly 500 gold pieces.

Which brought him to now, currently hidden in an ally, army patrol officers rapidly closing in on his location. He tried to be calm, think of a situation around this, but none seemed to appear.

It was well passed curfew; no way to take off his mask and pretend to be an innocent boy just walking around.

"Zuko."

His blood froze. Slowly, he turned around and saw the last person he expected.

Masashi!

"Quickly, follow me." Opening a street hole, the man went into the city sewers and Zuko quickly followed. Closing the lid behind them, he smiled. "You'll get used to the smell, eventually."

Agni, Zuko sure hoped so. It took everything just to not vomit.

"It's a remarkable thing you've been doing, Zuko. You've given the city hope." He was beaming. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I've known for a while. Come on."

They began walking along the edge of the water where it was shallow. Boy, would his clothes reek after this. He wasn't sure how his mother wouldn't notice.

"Didn't think these places existed, huh. Few take notice of refugees or the homeless. But if you're going to continue this, you're going to need our help."

Zuko stared.

"We saw this coming from a mile away – the ambush. Listen, most of your targets are going to be people who've been profiting from the war. People who will want this war to go on as long as necessary. Those are almost exclusively noblemen. I bet you didn't even know that there were homeless people in the capital, did you?"

Zuko shook his head, embarrassed. The capital was the wealthiest city in all of the Fire Nation. Why would there be homeless people here?

"Most people don't notice. Most noblemen, that is. We almost all live in the outer ring, where the wealthy merchants avoid us like the plague. Even if we're there, they do our best to ignore us and live in their perfect world where the streets are clean and wealth is everywhere."

He tapped two bricks, the second sounding hollow.

Kicking the second with his foot, he grunted as a creaky door opened. There was a step so the water wouldn't seep in. "Come on, we won't get wet from here on out."

Good thing I'm not wet already, Zuko grumbled to himself and got into the narrow tunnel.

"Sorry, I'd light a candle but they're all soaked. Anyway, if you want to keep doing this, you need sources of information that the army doesn't have access to. Sources that no nobleman would look to."

Zuko nodded. He now understood where Masashi was going with this.

"The Blue Spirit has helped us more than you can imagine. Hope is vital for survival. We'd be more than happy to return the favor."

Zuko wasn't sure, due to the darkness, but he swore he could almost hear Masashi smiling at him with pride.

Opening the door, they stumbled into a well-lit room. Masashi's home, he realized.

"Daddy it's the Blue Spirit!" A younger girl ran up to him and bowed respectfully.

Zuko, never more glad that he wore a mask, returned the bow awkwardly.

…

An eraser hit Zuko in the head, jolting him awake.

"Is my lesson so boring that you'd rather sleep, Zuko?" The teacher asked, glaring.

Zuko internally groaned. Yes. "No, Sensei." The night time escapades were taking a toll on him, and since graduating Piandao's schooling, he'd been forced back into the Royal Academy.

The teacher, who'd seen Zuko do plenty worse, decided not to ruin her own day anymore and simply let him off.

Behind him, Mai chuckled. Zuko had the decency to smile back apologetically.

After what seemed to be an eternity, the bell finally rang. "Hey," Mai said and caught up with him. "Let's go back to my house."

"What about Azula?"

She rolled her eyes. Boys. "She – " she stopped, seeing the girl right behind Zuko. "is coming along with us."

"Hello, Zuzu. How's school going?"

"We go to the same school, Azula." He calmly replied, knowing full well where she was going with this.

"Well, it's just so hard to tell, you being in the non-bending section and all," she said smiling innocently.

Again. That same feeling. The feeling that he only got around Azula. That feeling of wanting to strangle the life out of her. So much anger. He didn't know where it came from, but he hated it. Hated feeling like that. Everyone hated their sibling, his friends had told him. But deep down, we all discover that we love them. That's what they said, but he wasn't so sure. As long as he could remember, he was afraid of Azula. And angry at her.

He forced a smile back. "Yes, the chi blocking lessons are going really well, actually. There were some experiments people were trying to remove someone's bending permanently," he lied.

She chuckled. "Zuzu, so cute. You were always an awful liar."

His knuckles turned white.

Mai didn't miss a beat. "Zuko and I are going to do our homework. I'll see you tomorrow, Azula." And she whisked him away.

"Thanks," he mumbled out.

She lifted his head so that their eyes met. "I'm your friend, too. You know that, right?"

He nodded. He hated feeling so helpless. Arriving at Mai's house, he considered how different the meal he would be having was to the meal he had last night. Masashi's one room, cozy hut compared to the mansions nobles like he and Mai lived in.

It was like they were living in two completely separate worlds. He'd heard... terrible, terrible lies at Masashi's house. He loved Masashi, and his family. They treated him well. But... the lies they said bordered on treason. He shook his head. But a tiny voice inside his head begged him to check Roku's library.

That Azulon would sacrifice an entire battalion simply to make minor tactical gains. That the war wasn't good for their nation... That Azulon was going crazy, and there were plots to overthrow him. He shook his head. It was time to focus on the tasks at hand. Simple things, like homework, he decided.

"Why are you even friends with her?"

"Same reason you are," she replied. "Do we really have a choice?"

Zuko wanted a choice. He craved that choice.

And deep inside of him, a voice he hated spoke evil whispers to him. Then make that choice and unleash me.

…

"Think he's gone forever?"

"If he knows what's good for him. You saw what the Army did. Not even the Blue Spirit can come back."

And it was true. No one had spotted the Blue Spirit for weeks.

After the failed attempt on capturing the Blue Spirit, the military cracked down and destroyed the mission drop off zones. It was probably for the best. Zuko needed time to rebuild. His near capture was extremely humbling, and after some time for self-reflection, Zuko finally admitted to himself that he may need backup. Which meant he needed backup measures.

There was no way a single man, a single Zuko, could get all the information necessary to carry out justice. The atrocities the military committed were far too numerous. And that was when Masashi came in.

"When was the last time your father visited the outer ring?" They calmly walked through the sewers one day.

"Never."

"Exactly. Nobility doesn't go outside the Royal prefectures. Most wish to believe the homeless don't exist. Even when our people are right next to the wealthy, they prefer to ignore the paupers. You wouldn't believe the kinds of information the homeless hear, simply sitting on a street corner."

But Zuko had to gain their trust and build their repertoire. So, every Friday, he'd take his allowance and set up a soup kitchen in Masashi's home. He met more people (as the Blue Spirit) than he could remember, and Masashi spoke for him the entire time. Honestly, Zuko wouldn't even know what to say. He didn't know anything about them. Their lifestyles. Their social location.

Certainly, Zuko was learning – faster than he'd ever learned at Roku's library, but had he spoken more than two sentences, they would have seen through his guise. His posture, the way he carried himself, his grammar, even his accent. He reeked of nobility. So, hiding behind his mask, Zuko would continue to build his credibility as the Blue Spirit until he had an entire network of homeless paupers feeding him intel.

"Why are you helping me, anyway?" Zuko finally asked one day. "I mean, I'm so grateful. There's no way I can do this without your help, but... why help me? Why aren't you in a mask yourself? Surely you can do more?"

Masashi had a twinkle in his eye, as if he'd been expecting this question for some time. "Zuko, both of us want to help the people of the fire nation. You see the short term problems, here. I see a long term solution. You have access to resources I could never even dream of."

"So..." Zuko began slowly, trying to understand the man's words. "You want something in return?"

Masashi smiled. "Yes. Only for you to promise me you will never give up or lose sight of who you are. You are the last hope we have, and that is worth fighting for."

"Why?"

But before he could say anything, the most unexpected person showed up. "Lady Ursa," Masashi bowed.

"Zuko." His mother's voice was unlike anything he'd ever heard before. He wordlessly walked to his mother's side. "Wait outside." It was barely above a whisper, and yet it had the concerted force of a raging storm. And then he remembered what his mother had told him about turtle-ducks. And how mothers always protect their young.

Did she think Masashi was hurting him? "But he wasn't – "

"Zuko." This time it was barely audible. "Now." And Zuko didn't dare disobey.

Going outside, he heard his mother lock it. Pressing his ear to the door, he tried to make out anything that was happening, but the bits and pieces made no sense.

"Were you going to tell him?" That was his mother's voice, losing control and screaming now.

A muffled response.

"THIS is not your place. Or your job. He's MY son!"

More inaudible mumbling.

His mother's voice now dropped down low now. "... ever again... burned." The door suddenly opened, and Zuko tried to pretend he hadn't been eavesdropping.

…

Dragged home, his mother tucked him into bed and didn't bother to kiss him goodnight. He'd never seen her that mad, so when she tucked him in, he made damn sure not to get up. Not even more. After the door closed, he thought about all that had happened. The fact that his mother clearly knew Masashi – knew him well. And what did Masashi mean?

When the door opened again, he pretended to be asleep. But it wasn't his mother's voice that he heard.

"Zuko," Azula waltzed in happily. "Where do you go off to, late at night?"

Crap. How could he have been so careless?

So this chapter was difficult to write because I kept wanting to go back and start spoiling the surprises (dragon egg, his bending, who the hell is Masashi, and more!) but I really, really needed to focus on Zuko's evolution as the Blue Spirit and to make him understand what it means to be true to the Fire Nation.