Title: Little Red String

Rating: R

Genre: Romance/Adventure

Warnings: Psychological abuse, almost-rape, physical abuse, Azula (she's scary enough that she needs a warning), sexual situations and activities (homo- and heterosexual), almost-rape, explicit language (mostly from Jet and Zuko), POV switches (when in Jet's POV, Iroh and Zuko will be Lee and Mushi during the bits leading up to what would canonically be season 3, then Iroh and Zuko from then on; when in Zuko's POV, Iroh and Zuko's will be Iroh/Uncle and Zuko)

Pairing(s): JetZuko, implied ZukoMai, hints of Kataang

Summary: When you meet someone, an invisible red string is tied around your pinky fingers that links you together. The thicker the string is between people, the stronger their bond is.

Sometimes, you find allies in the strangest of places. Like Zuko - he found Jet and the Freedom Fighters on a boat to Ba Sing Se. But Zuko didn't expect Jet to be as charismatic as he was. So he left behind everything to start over with Jet and begin anew in Ba Sing Se. But some parts of his past are harder to let go of, or won't let go. Like his crazy sister. And the fact that he's Fire Nation, which Jet doesn't actually know. Will Zuko's life catch up with him? Can Jet and Zuko stand against the evils of the Fire Nation and still be together?

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own any part of Avatar: The Last Airbender.


Chapter VII

The next day, Jet went off to go help the Avatar's group recover the bison. Zuko assumed that he had been grudgingly accepted into their group, considering he knew the Lower Ring better than they probably did (the flyer said they were based out of an apartment in the Upper Ring). At any rate, Jet had not come home.

That night, Zuko decided that he wanted to investigate the whereabouts of the Avatar's bison. He had worked out a plan of sorts; if he could get the bison, he could do a trade with the Avatar to get him back, and in exchange the Avatar would allow himself to be captured and taken to the Fire Nation where the Fire Lord would deal with his fate accordingly. So when Uncle went out to play Pai Sho with the man who was giving them their new tea shop in the Upper Ring, Zuko donned his old Blue Spirit costume, which was one of the few things he had kept with him since he and Uncle had started travelling the Earth Kingdom, and went on a quest to get some information about the beast.

He figured that the Sky Bison was in the city, but he doubted that any civilians knew where it was, and it would be bad form to just tramp up to the Earth King and ask where he would be able to find a giant flying bison in Ba Sing Se. That left the Dai Li, so Zuko decided to stake out a few of those mysterious soldiers or policemen or whatever the technical term was for the Dai Li's status in the city.

The Dai Li were much more active at night, making their rounds of the Lower Ring. Zuko guessed that they wouldn't want to let any refugees get too rowdy or try to get past their station in life, unless they were people like Uncle who actually worked and attracted the attentions of people outside of the Lower Ring. They tended to float around the alleys and now-closed shops, so it was only a matter of time before one of them went past the old tea shop, which was were Zuko had decided to wait for their approach.

At last, one member of the Dai Li came near the tea shop. Zuko hid himself until the man went down an alley, at which time he took off at a run. He pushed past the Dai Li and said, "Out of my way, skinny." He continued running until the soldier gave chase, at which point he pulled out the Blue Spirit dummy he had sewn up earlier - he was surprisingly good with a needle and thread, when it came down to it - and planted that where he assumed the man would think he was, and waited until the soldier struck.

Once the dummy was disabled, Zuko came down from his perch and, with swords crossed about the Dai Li's neck, hissed, "If you don't want to end up like him, you'll do as I say."

The man tensed. "Wh-wh-who are you? What do you want?"

"I'm the Blue Spirit," Zuko replied. "And I want to know where you're keeping the Avatar's bison."

"How dare you attack me!" the Dai Li cried. "Do you know who I am, what I could do to you? You've just assaulted a civil servant of Ba Sing Se!"

"Yeah," Zuko said nonchalantly. "and you want to know something else? I don't really give a shit. But I'll tell you what – if you don't tell me where the Avatar's bison is," he stroked one blade across the man's cheek, drawing blood, "that's not the only part of you that's going to get cut."

The man gulped. "I'll tell you what you want. The bison's in an underground facility, the Dai Li headquarters."

"What's it called?" Zuko asked.

"Lake Laogai. It's just outside the city limits, you can't miss it. You'll have to get an Earthbender to find the opening to the base, but other than that it's pretty easy to find." The man was trembling visibly. "I've done what you asked."

"So you have," Zuko replied, and he lowered his swords from the man's neck. "And for that, I'll let you live. Get going, before I change my mind." The Dai Li took off, getting out of the alley in mere seconds.

As Zuko caught his reflection in a puddle while returning to the apartment, he realized that as the Blue Spirit, he could go on the rescue mission with the Avatar's gang and Jet. When the Freedom Fighter leader returned to the apartment, he would suggest this idea to him. That way, he would be recognized as his vigilante alter ego, not his princely form. And that was a good thing, because it decreased his chances of getting captured and/or seriously injured by the Avatar's cohorts, particularly the Water Tribe girl, who probably still wanted that rematch from the incident at the North Pole. Hopefully, the Avatar wouldn't recall who he was under the mask, because that would ruin everything. Zuko went back to the tiny apartment, feeling rather pleased with himself.

The next morning, Zuko told Jet of his findings. When asked how he found out, he said that the Blue Spirit told him, and Jet figured out that Zuko was the Blue Spirit when he came over and saw the mask and swords lying by Zuko's bed. Jet passed them along to the Avatar's group, also under the implication that the words came from the Blue Spirit. Jet informed him that the Blue Spirit was invited to join them on their mission to rescue Appa, which was to set to take place this afternoon. Zuko told Uncle that he and Jet were going to hang out around the city for the day, and would probably not be back until later.

Zuko donned the mask and costume for his alter ego, and met Jet in the alley by the old tea shop. The Freedom Fighter leader had brought Smellerbee and Longshot along as well – Jet explained that the Water Tribe boy, Sokka, thought there was a pretty good chance they would have to confront the Dai Li while on their mission, so Jet had recruited his friends to come along – so their party was now up to eight people.

The group from the Lower Ring approached stealthily, mostly running along the rooftops of Ba Sing Se until they reached the edge of the city, where they met the Avatar and his friends. They looked just as they did when Zuko had last seen them in that run down town in the Earth Kingdom.

The Avatar looked at Zuko with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty. The prince hoped that the boy wouldn't reveal his secret, which, as previously stated, would be a bad thing for all parties involved. Luckily, the boy appeared to be keeping his silence, and he said, "Can you take us to Appa?"

Zuko nodded – even his speech would give him away – and indicated for the group to follow him. He went to the outskirts of the city, following the vague directions that the Dai Li policeman had given him. But it turned out that they weren't that vague – the lake was, as he had said, right outside of the city. The Earthbender girl revealed the door to the underground facility. They climbed down the ladder to the building, which looked somewhat like a prison.

One of the open doors revealed a flashing light that continually spun in a circle and was rather hypnotic in its movement. Another held a lot of women, who were repeating the things that another Dai Li was saying to them, all with blank looks on their faces. They moved quickly past these rooms, as the things inside them were sort of creepy and Sokka kept getting sucked into the hypnotic rhythms of the things going on in the rooms. Also, Zuko could have sworn he heard footsteps behind them, but that could have just been one of the Dai Li moving around.

Eventually, they reached a division in the building. Zuko was unsure what to do, so he pointed his swords at the two halls that opened up. Jet translated this as, "You guys go this way, I'll go that way."

After some wandering, Zuko finally found a room that he assumed would be large enough to hold a sky bison. And as luck would have it, he was correct in his assumption when a low growl reached his ears. He smirked behind the Blue Spirit mask and said, "Expecting someone else?" He walked into the room and stood just out of the bison's reach. The beast continued to growl and stamped its feet at the intruder.

Suddenly, the door opened behind him. Zuko drew his swords and readied himself to attack. But the person who appeared before him was, to his surprise, "Uncle?"

Iroh, feigning innocence, said, "The Blue Spirit. I wonder who could be behind that mask."

Zuko sighed and removed his mask. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," Uncle replied. "What do you plan to do with the bison? Keep it locked up in our apartment? Should I go put on a pot of tea for him?"

"First I have to get it out of here," Zuko said. He hadn't created a clear plan of what he was going to do with the beast once he had gotten it out of the prison. Damn.

Obviously, Uncle had sensed this lack of a plan as well when he shouted, "AND THEN WHAT? You never think these things through! This is exactly the thing that happened to you at the North Pole! You had the Avatar, and you had nowhere to go!"

"I would have figured something out!" Zuko said. "I just needed time!"

"No! If his friends hadn't found you, you would have frozen to death!" Uncle replied. "You never think this things through!"

"I know my own destiny, Uncle!" Zuko yelled. "I know what I have to do!"

"Is it your own destiny," Iroh inquired, "or is it a destiny someone else has tried to force on you?"

Zuko was starting to get a headache from this talk. "Stop it, Uncle. I have to do this!" He turned toward the bison, as if the beast would provide the answers he was seeking.

"I'm begging you, Zuko!" Uncle pleaded. "It's time for you to look inward, and ask yourself the big questions: Who are you? And what do you want?"

Angrily, Zuko tossed the Blue Spirit mask and his swords to the ground and held his head in his hands. "I don't know!" he cried. Panting, he added, "I just don't know anymore."

"Well, you need to figure that out soon," Uncle said. "There are a lot of people waiting for you to make that decision. I want you to do what feels right, and I'm sure Jet wants to know what you want too."

"Why are you bringing Jet up right now?" Zuko asked tensely.

"I'm not blind, nephew," Uncle replied. "I've seen the way you look at each other. He wants you to be happy, just like I do, and he wants you to love him too."

"I don't know if I can do that," Zuko said. He clung to himself. "I don't want him to get hurt because of who and what I am. And he hates the Fire Nation, Uncle! If he finds out where I'm from, I'm sure he'll leave. And I don't know if I can take being alone again. I just can't." He clutched at his head, threading his fingers in his hair. "I don't know anymore. What should I do? Where should I go? Whom should I listen to?"

"I'll let you figure that out," Uncle said, putting a hand on Zuko's shoulder supportively. "But for now, I think you need to decide what to do with the Avatar's bison. Are you going to take it for yourself, or are you going to let it go?"

Zuko gulped. On the one hand, if he kept it, he could use it as a bartering point to gain the Avatar and, by extension, gain the love and respect of his father. But on the other hand, he had come down here to rescue the bison for the Avatar's sake. And he tried to keep his word as often as he could. But still, this was essentially his last chance to get what he had been seeking for so long. How could he pass up a chance like this?

They heard a loud rumbling coming from another one of the rooms. Zuko assumed that Jet and the rest of the group had run into trouble, but this was his task to figure out. His, and his alone.

Zuko came up to the bison and drew one of his swords. The beast roared softly, but Zuko ignored it as he struck at the chains with his sword. This proved somewhat fruitless, but he continued to beat at the chains with his sword. Iroh joined in and kicked at the chains until one of them burst apart. They continued this pattern until the bison was free. Iroh managed to find a key on the wall, which released the manacles from the beast's legs. Iroh then opened the door to the cell, and Zuko led the bison out. Eventually, they reached a tunnel, which appeared to lead straight to the surface.

Now Zuko would have to make his decision. To keep the bison, or to let it go? Would he sacrifice everything he had worked for these last few years to keep a promise that he had made to his sometime enemies? Would he really do that?

He moved away from the bison, and indicated for it to take the tunnel up to the surface. The beast roared happily, and flew up and out the tunnel.

Zuko sighed. "I can't believe I just did that."

Uncle smiled sadly. "I know it must have been tough, but it was the right thing to do, nephew."

There was more rumbling, sounding like it came from the surface. More fighting? Perhaps the sky bison had found its master?

"Let's get out of here," Zuko said. He indicated for Uncle to follow him back to the entrance. They walked in silence; even Zuko's mind, which he had expected to be raging at the decision he had made, was unnaturally quiet.

When they got to the surface, Uncle reaffirmed, "You did the right thing, nephew." He then held the Blue Spirit mask out to Zuko. After a minute of contemplation, Zuko decided to toss the mask into the lake. It was time to let that part of him, that mask he hid behind, fall away and die.

The walk back to their apartment was quiet, although the closer Zuko got to their apartment, the hotter and more exhausted he began to feel. It was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, leaving another, much heavier one settling in its place.

When they finally reached the door, Zuko was dragging his feet and his swords hung loosely in his hands. It was all he could do to keep his eyes open, and his mind was so foggy. All he wanted to do was sleep now, and do so for a very long time.

Again, Uncle said, "You did the right thing, letting the Avatar's bison go free."

That comment barely registered in Zuko's exhausted brain. He felt his face and found it was even hotter than usual. "I don't feel right," he muttered before his legs gave out under him and his vision faded. He heard Iroh call his name before his world went black.