Gasp! Finally! I got Word again! My laptop crashed a little more than a week ago… a nightmare for every writer/(coughinternetaddictcough)… Thankfully I now have another one available to me!
Anyway, thank you all so much for the heart-warming reviews! It is so satisfying to know that people enjoy reading this story that way.
Now to continue our journey with our favourite banished prince! After realising that Zhao could be right about his father, Zuko will have to find a new reason to continue on his journey and how far will he now go to capture the Avatar?
No Beta, Don't own Avatar:tla, and please give me some feedback if you feel up to it after reading this!
Enjoy!
Chapter 8: Confrontation in Kyoshi
They say
That I must learn to kill before I can feel safe
But I
I rather kill myself then turn into their slave
~ Into the Shadows, by the Rasmus
~Two week later~
Thank Agni, they were safe again, numerous crew members thought.
Prince Zuko had gone back to his usual brooding. The shift had come out of nowhere. After his meeting with Zhao, the Prince had locked himself in his room for about a week.
Ever since the Prince finally decided to come out of hiding, the Prince had not behaved like he usually would – which meant no sneering, no growling, no frustrated firebending, no yelling, no temper tantrums, and the like. Then, just before a few of the crew members decided that they couldn't take it anymore, his mood changed.
One moment the young prince had been blankly staring at the sea, leaning on the railing of the ship. His expression totally relaxed and his eyes distant. The next, his eyes narrowed, then furrowed and the corner of his lips had twitched before being pulled into a light sneer and the teenager had let out a growl of frustration.
This was the sign that Prince Zuko was back to being… well the 'normal' Prince Zuko.
Most of the crew had let out a sigh of relief at this. The prince had once again been quiet too long. The longer that one of the lower members didn't get a frustrated glare directed to them when they were in the way, the more anxious the crew became. He was being creepily silent again', the crew members had whispered among each other.
Only General Iroh didn't look worried. Well, he was worried but not for the same reasons.
Still, the crew members had been waiting for an explosion. Bets had been made. Games had been played to assign the ones – the losers - that would have to answer the Prince the first. Preparations were made and then they had been waiting for the explosion to happen. Most likely with a lost of firebending and yelling.
Luckily for them – or unluckily for those who had placed a lot of money in the bet - Zuko decided not to be so dramatic that day.
The simple growl was kind of anti-climax.
Not that the Prince had been aware of the state of the crew. He had been busy with something else.
Zuko had been thinking.
While being so-called 'creepily silent', the Prince had been far too busy to figure out what the hell he was going to do. A driving point behind hunting for the Avatar was to win his father's approval. However, if this was indeed nearly impossible… then Zuko was unsure what to do.
His uncle had become worried a couple of times, but Zuko had not let himself be pushed away from this inner conflict this time. He wanted to have a motivation to continue travelling.
What else could he do?
He wanted to go home, yes. But what if he got the Avatar and his father would find another reason to send him away? Then the cycle would be continued.
'If that happens, I will be used again.'
It had been that moment that something within him had actually sneered at that thought. He was Prince Zuko, son of the Fire Lord. He was expected to respect and serve his father like he had done and would probably do in the future - with or without his love.
At least, he would have tried.
However, Zuko was also the Blue Spirit. He would not let someone else hurt him like that ever again. Especially if it were his father.
No. He would follow his mother's dream as he carried the blue mask. It represented the stubbornness in him. The refusal to follow anyone blindly. The refusal to be forced into anything he didn't like. He would not be used. His freedom would not be taken away from him like that…
It were these thoughts that had made him actually break the blank mask he had adopted the last couple of days. A few meters away, the crew cheered when they saw the blank mask break and immediately run to their friends to share the good news.
Their grumpy Prince was back.
~A day later~
The door creaked and Zuko automatically let his shadow dissolve into the light at the first sound. He was fairly sure that it was his uncle, as no one else would have dared to disrupt him this way. Still he couldn't be too careful.
He wondered what his Uncle wanted.
'I hope it is something that will give me entertainment.' Zuko mentally sighed. Though he was still following the Avatar, the sudden lack of the extra motivation stopped him from being too focussed on it.
He still pretended to be though, so his crew didn't know. After all, dear little Prince Zuko had been tasked with capturing the Avatar, so of course he wouldn't dare to go against his powerful father's order.
The biggest reason that he was following the Avatar was because he didn't have a clue what else to do. The second large reason was the fact that he would not let Zhoa capture the kid. That man wouldn't care less to hurt the boy – or anyone in his way.
Another tiny factor might be Zuko's pride, he had admitted to himself. That brat had escaped before he had even had a chance to talk to him. He had been trying to be nice, but damn it! He was not going to let him get away next time without at least showing him that he was not to be underestimated. They were going to have to talk… somehow.
He would not be humiliated again like that.
Iroh's voice made him snap out of his grumpy thoughts. "Ah Prince Zuko, you told me to interrupt you when we had news about the Avatar."
As soon as Zuko had confirmed that it had been indeed his uncle that was visiting him, he had returned to his daily exercises with the shadows. The one he was currently working on was a new experiment. He closed his eyes and tried to sense, just where the light was situated in the room.
"I did." He confirmed, taking another calming breath as he peeked through eyes. He mentally frowned when his Uncle didn't make a move to sit down. He was also carrying a map, which he was strategically keeping in front of him. He also noted the fan that stuck out just ever so slightly of his uncle's pocket.
'No good news then?' The Prince thought grumbling and decided to have some fun instead. His uncle wouldn't mind if he used him as a practice target right?
"Well is there news?" He snapped and saw Iroh make a face at his apparent 'bad mood'. He supressed a smirk.
"Well, there is news, Prince Zuko, but you might not like it. Don't get too upset."
Even more amused, he let himself puff his chest forward ever so slightly to complete the attitude he was going to act. " Uncle, you taught me that keeping a level head is a sign of a great leader. Now whatever you have to say, I'm sure that I can take it." Zuko had to repress an amused smile as he stated this.
There was a slight pause, in which Iroh couldn't find a reason not to tell him. " Okay, then... we have no idea where he is."
With a mental grin, Zuko let the candles around him flare playfully. Then abrubtly he absorbed the light in the air around him as far as he could, resulting the whole room to become completely dark. Zuko opened his eyes and blinked slightly. He had finally managed to make it pitch black this time.
A sense of accomplishment made him smile in the darkness. He absently studied the state of his inner fire, which was burning happily with the extra energy it was borrowing. After all, he would eventually had to give back what wasn't his.
Musing over this and far too used to sitting in the dark, Zuko momentarily forgot about his Uncle.
"Err, Prince Zuko?" The elder Prince called out the his nephew. Said Nephew wasn't reacting, so he shuffled forward ever so slightly in attempt to search for him.
"Nephew?" Iroh called out again and let a flame appear in his hand. His eyes widened when he still couldn't see much of the room. Normally the flame would be enough to light the whole cabin, but it was as if something was stopping the light from reaching everywhere.
Iroh was well-aware that it was Zuko's doing, but he couldn't help but wonder how the teenager was managing it. With a sigh, he reabsorbed the flame in his hand.
Zuko was about to return the light when he suddenly picked something up. Another light source… It felt different, yet familiar at the same time.
There was still energy coming from somewhere…
Zuko curiously pulled, but it remained where it was. Suddenly it dimmed, but now Zuko had studied it for a moment, he picked up the slight whisper in the place it had been before. Following the feeling of the energy, he realised it matched the shuffling of his uncle. Was he actually-?
Crash!
Zuko sweat dropped.
The light returned and his uncle stared sheepishly as one of his souvenirs from the Earth Nation now laid broken on the ground.
There was a pause between them as Zuko gave his Uncle a look. 'I'm not going to do that anytime soon with him around.'Zuko decided.
His eyebrow twitched and he felt irritation rise, but he kept it in.
"Just- just give me the map."
As he hovered over it, his eyebrow raised at the… diversity of the sightings. Sure the kid had a flying bison, but even then they were going zigzagging too much for the Avatar to simply go somewhere.
Where they trying to evade him?
He glanced at the dots and crosses again.
"He is clearly a master of evasive manoeuvring…" Zuko muttered to his uncle, before his eye caught one manoeuvre that seemed as if they…
"Uncle, could they be actually lost?" He asked.
His uncle looked surprised at his suggestion, glancing down at the map once more himself. They looked at each other and both simultaneously began to shake their heads.
"I don't think the Avatar of all people could be that lost." Zuko muttered and Iroh nodded in agreement.
"In the sky everything should be far more easy to find." His uncle added to his theory and both continued to muse over the strange pattern of crosses and dots that was scattered over the map.
~A day later~
"The Avatar's on Kyoshi Island?" Zuko repeated, somewhat surprised and excited to hear that the location of the Avatar had been found. He managed to keep it out of his voice though and waved the man away, not wanting to share any of his emotions with the man.
He glanced at his Uncle, who appeared not to be studying him at all, but Zuko knew that he most definitely was.
Zuko grumbled under his breath.
It was one thing to chase the Avatar around, but another thing to confront him in a village. Zuko knew that his attempt to even the score between him and the avatar – meaning some sparring and some talking - would immediately be seen as an attack from the 'oh so very evil heartless firebenders'.
He didn't think this village would be much different than some of the others he had been in, where the attitude towards Fire Nation had been all but welcome.
Much to his disappointment.
'What kind of defense does Kyoshi have again?' He pondered, knowing that his teachers had discussed it at some point.
Beside the information he vaguely remembered, Zuko realised that he actually didn't know much of Kyoshi Island.
'Think before you act.' Zuko had learned this the hard way on many of his outings. It was this little experience that made him reluctant to follow his first urge of action. Which had been to rush over to the village. Somehow he wasn't sure whether that would be the right action to take.
He glanced down at his fish, then at his uncle who was staring at it will a slight gleam in his eye.
The man loved this dish. With a sigh he split it up and shoved half of it towards his Uncle, which was the bigger part of the fish.
"Ah thank you Nephew, how generous of you!" Uncle said before he started shoving the food into his mouth.
Zuko just grunted and dug into the meal himself, though at a calmer pace. He was about to take his second bite, when his hand stilled. He glanced at his Uncle as he suddenly realised that the older man had travelled a lot himself. Surely he knew more about this?
"Hey Uncle, what do you know about Kyoshi Island?" He questioned the older man, who stopped eating to answer.
"Well." Iroh started, moving his hand through his beard in thought. "They have stayed out of the war and are determined to stay neutral. Though their attitude towards the Fire Nation, may indicate otherwise…"
Zuko let his chin rest on his hands, attention fully focused on the information that his Uncle was sharing with him.
'Always be prepared' A soft whisper called out in his head, but it was ignored in favour of his Uncles voice.
So they had their own warriors huh?
~Next day~
"Alright, so I will go on ahead. Just head down to Kyoshi Island and make sure you are visible. The Avatar will then most likely try to flee. I will try to confront him in the meantime. If he doesn't, get team seven and nine ready to head over to the village and to meet me there." Zuko's loud voice carried his order out to everyone that needed to hear.
He glared as he looked at a couple of his soldiers from team seven and nine.
"I want absolutely NO fighting until I say so, except if you should defend yourself. If I, for whatever reason, do not get back in four days. Head back to harbour you had bought that Jasmin tea last month. I will find my way back there or try to contact you with a message. Understood?" Zuko ordered his Uncle and the few guards that were in earshot.
If Iroh was surprised that Zuko knew about his Jasmin tea, his didn't show it. However on the inside, the man actually was surprised, as he clearly remembered that he had discussed it during one of the crew's music evenings.
Iroh smiled mentally Maybe the Prince wasn't as absent as everyone thought he was.
. 'Well, he does have some tactics to go unnoticed.' The man thought, remembering their little secret. The evening darkness would surely provide him with enough cover.
He glanced at the teenager that stood tall as he stood in their only little speedboat while it was being lowered to the ground. It run mostly with the help of the fire from a firebender. Though it was small, it was much faster than their ship was.
He would arrive about a day earlier than they would.
Zuko's hand twitched. Something that didn't go unnoticed by the older man's eye.
Zuko's temper was getting more visible the more time passed. Iroh was worried that he would do something reckless. He knew that his Nephew was a bright young man, with a good heart, but he couldn't ignore that the teenager could rush into things when angered.
He had tried to change the teenagers mind a few hours ago.
"Take at least some men with you Prince Zuko." He had pleaded.
"I don't need any men to protect me Uncle." His nephew had retorted as he had moved about to pack a small bag in his room.
"Nephe-"
"They will only get in my way, Uncle." Zuko finally admitted as he let a shadow envelop him ever so slightly to let his Uncle know what he was planning.
Understanding crossed Iroh's face and he smiled ever so slightly, though there was still a bit of worry lingering.
"Just don't get caught."
"Uncle, I have been training for too long for that to happen so easily." Zuko told him confidently. '… not to forget that I have quite some experience in real life situations.'
He continued out loud. " I'm not going to confront him directly. I'm going to observe him information about his character."
'Find out if he is dangerous to the Fire Nation. He's just a child. He's the Avatar.' Thoughts whirled around the Prince's head.
"I understood Nephew. Just be careful. Don't go out and confront the whole village on your own." His uncle tried to calm him down.
"I won't."
Which was how they had ended up here. He stared at his nephew. He had grown up so fast. It saddened the man how fast he had been forced to grow up in these circumstances.
"Good luck Prince Zuko."
"Thank you Uncle."
With a final wave to his uncle, he started the motor of the little boat and gave it an extra boost with his firebending. The older man watched him as he sped off and couldn't help but feel a little bit of dread building up in his stomach.
He needed some more tea.
~A few hours later~
Zuko started. He simply stared.
The Avatar… he was acting like a little child. No scratch that. They were all bickering like little children. The whole group of them. He had watched from a distance as the pathetic warrior from the Water Tribe 'Sokka' finally swallowed his pride and asked for some help.
Being a fighter himself he couldn't help but feel slightly grateful that the boy at least was going to have some basic skill in their next fight.
The Watar Girl, Katara he remembered, was brooding as the Avatar, Aang, was bouncing around and enjoying his little fan club.
This was just…
He was broken out of his thoughts as he heard some shuffling come closer to his hiding place and lowered himself a bit more on the dark spot on the roof, having some shadow up to blend in more.
His hand reached out to cover the shiny part of his mask that would be first noticed – one again learned from experience.
Once the danger had passed he went back to observe the antics between the children. He couldn't really see them as anything different. They were so freaking naïve! They seemed so innocent! They didn't have any experience with the world yet.
How the hell were they going to survive this?
'Maybe this had not been a good idea.' Zuko couldn't help but think. 'He really is just a child.' He watched as the boy was once again chases by his fan club. ' that is starting to let this all go to his head.'
With a sigh, the Blue Spirit slipped from the roof and back into the woods, making sure not to meet anyone.
He had no longer any illusions on how ruthless the Fire Nation could be if they had to achieve their goals. Zuko had to admit that it was one of their little flaws, but there was not much he could do about that.
The thing was that if he were to capture the avatar. He wasn't sure how the kid would handle the isolation he would surely end up in if he were to refuse his father's offerings. He knew enough about his father to know how that would go.
'Shit.' He couldn't help but think, doubt once again taking reign of him.
'Let the kid just go for now.'
'No I still have to confront him.'
'Let him be a kid for a while. Let him learn.'
Zuko frowned at the sudden conflict that was erupting in his head. He had noted that it sometimes happened, but only now he realised that it might not be really healthy.
'Please don't tell me I'm starting to become crazy too? ' He silently pleaded. He had enough on his plate already.
Zuko didn't know if he should be worried about the fact that it suddenly became very silent in his head.
With a grumble he turned around to head back to the small boat that he had hidden out of sigh from the village. His crew would arrive soon and he would just have to scare the kid away from this island, because this attitude wouldn't do him any good.
Of course, the only reason why Zuko decided to do this was Zuko's annoyance. The ever so tiny little need to prevent the kid from developing an Azula-attitude had absolutely nothing to do with it.
At least that was what he kept telling himself.
~A few hours later~
"What did I tell you about setting houses to fire!" Zuko yelled at his men as one of them had deliberately done just that.
The man stared at him, actually surprised, before he was forced to dodge the attack of one of the Kyoshi warriors.
Zuko let out a frustrated sigh through his nose, causing flames to accompany the air. This was once again not a good day.
For some reason, he had, once again, stupidly tried to take the polite approach. Letting the village know that they were coming in without the intent to harm, because he only wanted to speak to the Avatar.
For some reason, nobody believed him.
For some reason they thought that attacking them would be the best action to take.
For some reason, Zuko had already been prepared for this.
Which was why the Prince had been easily able to parry the attack on his person. A good thing, because those fans were pretty sharp. He had pushed the Kyoshi warrior away as self defense, but this was probably seen as the sign to start fighting from both sides.
Zuko grumbled angrily under his breath about 'his life being so unfair' as he ducked under another swipe. As soon as the fan was out of reach, he grasped the girl's arm and twisted her around, so he could keep her immobile for, he estimated, three second.
"Why did you attack me to fight? Why don't you people ever try to talk to me?" He hissed to her and pushed her away to the ground. She stared at him in surprise, as if she had been expecting him to hurt her or worse.
Those eyes made Zuko feel sick. In this state of mind, being very emotional, it wasn't strange that his hands were enveloped with fire. He glared at the girl, trying to find a way to stop the fighting.
"Call your people back." He ordered her, though he knew it was fairly useless.
Before he could threaten her any more another presence stood between them. 'Sokka…' Zuko eventually noted, though he had nearly mistaken him for another Kyoshi Warrior, had it not been for the height and the fact that Zuko had seen him a couple of times before.
"Go away Zuko."
Zuko's eyes narrowed at him, wondering where they had learned his name. "Stand down boy." He tried to rile the boy up.
He certainly succeeded. 'Too easy' Zuko thought as Sokka ran to him. A sudden curiosity caught up to Zuko and he decided to test his hand to hand combat, just to see how much he had improved.
He barely managed to dodge a grasp for his arm and his eyebrow raised in surprise. Interesting. Having played enough, he kicked the boy away. He was knocked again the Kyoshi leader and both went down again.
"Avatar!" He shouted.
Where was that damn kid.
"Over here!" He followed the voice and indeed, the kid stood there in the middle of the street.
He rushed forward, planning to get some of his frustration out. They changed some blows and run around the place.
"Why do you always believe that I come to kill or something! " He growled out as he dodged another air strike.
Aang's eyes widened in surprise. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"You know fully well-" They were interrupted by a scream from a young girl.
The instincts of his other identity kicked in and he immediately turned around to find the person in danger. Seeing as he didn't really see the Avatar as a threat, he only remembered a second too late that he was still fighting the kid.
Before he knew it, he was blasted through a wall. Cursing, he struggled to stand up again. There was another shout and Zuko glanced back at the location he knew the Avatar was and then to the place the scream had came from.
Aw damn it.
He rushed forward and eventually ended up at a burning house. There was a small group of people standing outside. A man was trying to walk towards the fire, but he was help back by his friends.
"Let me go you f-" Zuko didn't really catch half of the curses. "I need to get Hime!"
"You stupid moron, we can't lose you too!" A friend growled out.
Zuko didn't need any more information and ran past the group, causing gasps of shock to follow. "You fucking bastard!" He heard the father shout after him, most likely thinking that he was going to kill her personally or something.
Feeling his heart to become heavy he dodged around the hottest flames, and feverishly focussed to keep the heat away from him.
"Where are you?" He shouted.
"Here!" A soft sob came, followed by coughing.
Zuko barged into a back room, and saw the the windows and doors had been blocked as a part of the house had fallen down. The other side of the room, where he jumped through, was surrounded by fire, leaving the girl no place to go.
"Shhh…" He tried to calm her down as she cried out in fright as soon as she his clothes.
"Get away from me!" She sobbed.
"Calm down, I'm getting you out of here." Zuko said and picked her up.
She tried to get out of his grip, but she was already too disorientated to get away from him – something Zuko was grateful for.
"Hold on!" He said as he jumped out of the way, just as the roof above them started to collapse. With a scream from the girl, he started dodging around the room once again, focusing once again on the heat of the flames.
In the end, he had to jump out of the front room to keep the girls clothes from catching fire, resulting a somewhat spectacular scene to occur for those who were standing outside.
With a slight cough he calmly let the girl down, who was coughing violently because of the sudden air that was available to her. With some difficulty he tried to get her to lose her grip from his armour.
"You can let go now." He told her when he was unsuccessful without hurting her. Two doo-like brown eyes stared up at him in wonder.
"Thank you." She whispered as her mind caught up to him.
He grunted as she finally let go and he lowered her to the ground.
"Hime!" A voice made Zuko startle out of his thoughts. Knowing that there was a chance to be attacked he quickly took his distance and checked up on the status of his group. They were on the other side of the small village by now, chasing the Avatar still.
His eyes glared at the burning houses.
He was going to have to talk to the teams about throwing around fire without caution… again.
With a sigh he started running towards his group, but was stopped by a shout. "Wait!" It was the father again.
He turned cautiously. He hadn't noticed any sound or moves of attack.
"Thank you." The man told him, hugging his coughing daughter to him. Zuko nodded at him, not really knowing what to say to the man and started running again.
Catching up, he stared at the sigh before him with surprise.
Splash.
'Just when I thought the day couldn't get any worse.' Zuko thought, as he watched the Avatar escape once again, while being completely drowned with water.
Great.
"Get to the ship and follow him!" He shouted to the other and glanced back to the village. Luckily, thanks to his previous orders of not setting any houses to fire, many of them had been spared. Still Zuko couldn't help but feel guilty as he left the village behind.
At these kind of moments, he hated his life.
~End Chapter~
Another chapter finished. I hope that it isn't too boring. I'm planning on a couple more confrontations between the two before the big change to happen.
Please let me know when you think a chapter is starting to get boring! That way I can keep it in mind while writing the next. If you liked the chapter, please let me know as well – and what you liked the most – so I can improve the next chapters.
So in other words: feedback time!
Then I will go back to writing. Till next time!
