Alas, Avatar: The Last Airbender does not, in fact, belong to me. #Sighs#
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Zuko waited impatiently for the Avatar to finish eating and join him in the improvised training grounds. It was surprisingly difficult keeping his temper around the group – particularly with Katara glaring at him every five seconds and Sokka's suspicious glances. Not that he could really blame them – he had chased them around the world trying to capture Aang – but it did make things difficult now that he really wanted to help, especially as he only had a limited amount of time to work with.
"Okay, I'm ready to start learning Firebending now," Aang announced from behind him, making Zuko jump slightly and spin around in alarm. All things considered, he felt he had a right to be wary of possible attacks from behind.
Aang looked startled at Zuko's sudden reaction, but chose not to comment, much to Zuko's relief. "What are you going to teach me first?" he asked instead.
"I thought we'd start with the basic moves – punches, kicks and blocks. They're the basis of the advanced forms so you'll need to learn them first," Zuko replied, gesturing for the Avatar to follow him out into the middle of the clearing.
To his surprise Aang looked relieved. "You mean I won't have to stand around and breathe for hours?"
Zuko shook his head firmly. "That's the way that Firebending is traditionally taught, but you don't have much time to master it so we'll have to speed things up by skipping a few steps. You'll pick up the techniques as we go along."
Aang frowned nervously. "Wouldn't it be better for me to learn the proper way?" he asked warily. "I don't want to lose control of the fire and hurt someone."
"No," Zuko replied determinedly. "I don't have enough time to teach you the usual way. And that's the reason why we're practising all the way out here, so that no one will get injured."
Aang still looked unsure, but nodded anyway. Zuko frowned slightly as he noticed the boy's lack of confidence in his ability to Firebend and wondered what had happened to cause it.
"Alright, the first move I'm going to teach you is a simple punch. Watch and I'll demonstrate," Zuko said firmly, carefully taking a Firebending stance and executing a light punch to the air. The resulting fire blast completely destroyed an unfortunate bush that had been growing at the other end of the clearing.
"Wow," Aang said enthusiastically as Zuko stared at the destruction is disbelief. "I didn't realise you were quite so powerful, Zuko. I mean, I knew that you were a good firebender and all, but I've never seen you do anything quite like that before."
"Um, well, I guess you could say that I've improved lately," Zuko replied, still studying the damage his fire ball had done. He'd never managed to produce a fireball that strong while he'd still been alive. Creating a small flame on his hand he studied the colour of the fire – it was deeper than he remembered, more crimson than red. Sort of like the colour of dried blood, he thought morbidly to himself before hastily shoving the thought away.
"Now you try," he instructed the young Avatar, who looked anything but enthusiastic at the idea.
After the fifth half-hearted attempt had produced a rather pitiful fireball that fizzled out long before it could do any damage, Zuko sighed and set Aang a series of exercises to work his way through before lunch. Moving a little way away from the training ground he sat down to think things through. He had hoped that the Avatar's natural ability would make him easy to train, but it seemed as though he was struggling with even the simplest moves. He'd never tried to teach anyone to Firebend before, and he wasn't really sure how to go about it.
He wished that he'd gone to free his uncle before confronting his father – perhaps then he would still be alive and his uncle would've been able to train the Avatar properly. Zuko remembered that he had struggled to master even the basic moves when he had started learning – it was only his need to succeed for his father and the desire to beat his sister that had keep him practising continually until he could almost do the moves in his sleep.
Unfortunately, the Avatar didn't have enough time to learn in that manner. Besides, Zuko didn't think that it was a lack of natural ability that was holding him back. Rather, he seemed almost afraid of the fire – his bending possessed a timidity that was completely lacking in his other bending styles.
A sudden shout on the other side of the temple caught his attention, and he hurriedly climbed to his feet and ran to investigate. Rounding the corner he found Katara and Toph fighting with someone he hadn't expected to see again – the assassin he had hired a while ago to kill the avatar.
He quickly leapt into the fray, blocking a blast of fire that was aimed at the Earthbender and sending several fireballs back in quick succession in an attempt to distract the powerful bender. Unfortunately, the assassin deflected them with almost a contemptuous ease and renewed his barrage. Even with the arrival of Aang and Sokka who'd heard the noise from afar the small group was hard pressed to defend against the highly trained firebender's attacks.
Ducking behind one of the walls, the group tried to avoid the continuous attacks. Katara tried to waterbend at him, but as soon as she moved into sight the assassin sent a powerful blast at her, forcing her to retreat behind their shelter.
"I'll distract him," Zuko said finally, stepping out into the open without even waiting to see if any of the group would try to stop him. Dodging the first blast, and deflecting the second, he managed to send a strong blast of his new crimson fire hurtling at the assassin. Unfortunately, this left him open to the man's next attack which sent him hurtling into one of the stone pillars with a nasty crack of breaking bones.
Dimly he noticed that Sokka had taken advantage of the assassin being distracted and had thrown his boomerang in a swift silver arc. A loud explosion followed not long after, then silence, so Zuko supposed that the Water Tribe boy had gotten a lucky shot.
He groaned slightly as pain coursed briefly through his body and then vanished as he quickly healed. Scrambling to his feet, he was met by a concerned looking Avatar, a puzzled looking Toph and two rather suspicious looking Water Tribe siblings.
"Are you alright?" Aang asked anxiously. "That was a nasty blow you took."
"I'm fine," Zuko reassured him. "It looked worst than it was."
"That's strange," Toph remarked calmly, "because I could've sworn that I felt several bones breaking when you hit that column."
Zuko did his best to look innocent. "Perhaps you heard the assassin?" he suggested casually. "There was a nasty explosion, I'm sure that it might have broken some of his bones."
"How do you know that he's an assassin?" Sokka asked suspiciously. "I bet this was all part of your plan to capture Aang. You told him where we are."
"I didn't tell anyone that you're here," Zuko protested fervently. "He must've followed you from the Fire Nation."
"Toph?" Aang asked, turning to the blind earthbender. "Is he telling the truth?"
Toph stared at Zuko thoughtfully for several moments before shrugging. "I don't know," she replied with a slight frown. "He doesn't have a heartbeat."