Break-In

Zuko walked to a section of wall next to the case that contained his Fire Lord costume and pressed on a bit of panelling, causing a larger piece to sink in and slide to either side, revealing the contents of the secret closet.

What resembled a black, tighter, and less armored version of his Fire Lord suit, and a blue helmet.

With great care he removed the suit and folded it, placing it in his duffle bag, before turning and staring at the helmet. It was dark, navy blue, the only break in the color being the white that circled the eyes. It was made out of a hardened, ceramic-like material, and save for the eye-holes, would cover the wearer's entire head.

He plucked the helmet from the display case, memories flooding his mind.

"Pick up the pace, dude, we ain't all soft like you!"

"So then I says to 'er, 'that ain't fire wood'!"

"It's no problem, Zu, after all, what're best friends for?"

"For once in my life I want to be the front man, not playing second fiddle to some fucking asshole who doesn't understand that power is something to be used."

…Zuko narrowed his eyes at the guy, his idiot grin and wild, shaggy brown hair contrasting with the fact he was quite an experienced soldier, "My name's Zuko." He grasped the guy's outstretched hand.

"Cool, cool. Name's Jet, nice to meet you."

Zuko blinked the memories away and cursed, before sticking the helmet into the bag. The closet door was closed, and the display case was quickly opened so he could retrieve his swords, before he left the bunker.

Three grown men surrounded a twelve-year-old girl.

She carefully shifted around, looking at each one, when one behind her took a swing at her.

Dodging easily, she swung up the man's arms, locking her legs around his neck and using the momentum of his attack to flip him forwards. As he fell, she twisted and locked her knees differently, a sickening crack emanating from his neck.

A second man threw a knife at her while she was still locked onto the dead man, but she easily caught it and threw it back, nailing him in the heart.

A bullet grazed her cheek and she whipped around, facing the third man as he pulled the trigger again. She dodged and shot forwards, closing the distance between her and the man, his eyes widening in panic as each shot missed wildly.

She chopped at his wrist and wrested the gun from his hand, flipped it around, and sunk a bullet into his head.

As she stood there, shaking, a slow clap began, drawing her attention to a glass panel, standing behind which was a tall, lean man. "Good job, Four. I think you earned an extra bit of food today."

She was silent for a second, before she spoke, quiet, shaky, "T-thank you… Long Feng."

"Suki!" The redhead lurched into consciousness with the end of her dream and the shout from the hall, "Suki, get up! It's time."

She blinked quickly and regained awareness of her surroundings.

Eight days.

Its been eight days since she showed up on Zuko Ogata's doorstep and asked him to help her destroy the place she was created and raised.

Most of the days had been largely monotonous, spent holed up in the apartment, carefully planning their attack and telling Zuko about her experiences in the Kyoshi Program. There were a few exceptions though. The day after they had visited Teo, Zuko had taken her out to a department store so she wouldn't have to live in his old clothes or her clothes that were beat to shit. And yesterday, they had returned to the workshop, where Teo did a final fitting on her and handed the armor off.

Now, today, they were leaving.

Suki rolled out of bed and pulled open the door, only mildly surprised to see that Zuko was fully dressed, his hair gathered in a bun this time, a duffle bag was slung over either shoulder, she knew they contained their armor and gear, "Sparks, I just got up, give me, like, ten minutes, okay?"

"You were supposed to be up a half hour ago."

"Well, I'm up now. Take what you can, Sparks."

"Will you stop calling me that?"

"I could always call you Hothead, or Flame Pants, or Princey, or-"

"Okay, okay, fine. Just go and get ready, okay?"

"I still don't know why you won't tell me what kind of aircraft we're taking."

Zuko smirked, "I told you, it's a surprise."

"What the hell." Suki said in amazement, taking in the sight of the aircraft.

The pair were at a private airport about an hour outside the city. It had apparently been the Ogata's private airfield ever since commercial flight was invented, but hadn't been used since Ozai's death. The aircraft sitting just outside the hangar was something she had never seen before.

It resembled a private jet, but sleeker, wider, and solid black. The wings sat further back n the fuselage than usual, and a large arch went from mid-wing to mid-wing, the midpoint supported by the aircraft's tail. While it did have standard engines, it also had a circular propeller embedded into either wing. "What is this?"

A familiar voice spoke up from the inside the hangar, "The Flare, A prototype VTOL craft. VTOL as in vertical-take-off-and-landing." Teo stepped into view, "She's also designed to go super sonic, the arch muffles the sonic boom, and the specialized material she's covered in absorbs electromagnetic waves, preventing radar detection. To top it off she runs off of a nuclear battery, so she never needs refueling, save for coolant. Ogata Industries is working on rolling these puppies out for military use within the next few years."

Suki smiled at Teo, "Hey, Teo."

He nodded, "Suki."

She turned to Zuko, "Why do you have this? Can't you fly?"

"Well, yeah, but it takes a lot of energy to fly long distances, and sometimes I need to bring back something large, and that just makes it difficult to fly, whether or not I can carry it." He explained, marching towards the aircraft and boarding it.

She looked at Teo, "Are you the pilot?"

"No, no, Zuko is. He has his pilot's license and everything. I was just here to make sure the Flare was in tip top shape. I have a fear of heights, you know."

"You said it runs on a nuclear battery?"

"Yep, cold nuclear fusion, first vehicle to do so. Portable generators based on the same technology are also in the works."

"It won't explode, right?"

"Well, I hope not."

She looked at him, an uncharacteristic bit of nervousness twisting her gut.

"I kid, I kid. It's just as safe as a normal power system. If not, safer."

"Sweet." She boarded the aircraft, intent on checking it out.

She found Zuko in the pilot's seat, doing checks on the equipment. He gave her a nod of acknowledgement, and she went to look at the rest of the plane.

It was dreadfully simple, either wall was lined with a row of seats that faced each other. Toilets in the back, storage as well."You know, for a private super-plane, this is really boring."

"It's made for military, what do you want, a limo?" Zuko asked from the front.

Teo popped his head through the door, "Everything good in here?"

"She's good-to-go, Teo." Zuko said, "I'll call you when we're going to start the mission."

"Sure thing, man." He looked at Suki, "See ya, Suki."

"Good bye." He waved at her and ducked out of the cabin, the door quickly closing behind him.

Zuko spoke up from his seat, "Just get comfortable, its a long ride to the bunker."

She laid down across several seats, kicking up her legs and folding her hands behind her head, "Sure thing, Sparks."

It was two in the morning, and Li was about to keel over from exhaustion. He stifled a yawn and looked over at Mao, who stood at the other side of the door embedded in the small hillside, "This stinks."

An affirmative grunt.

"I mean, we're just guarding a fucking hole in the ground, from apparently nothing."

An indifferent grunt.

"They would be bettie off taping a pistol to a dog for guard detail."

A thoughtful, softer grunt.

"Yeah, you're right. I'd kill for something to happen right now."

Of course, it was right then that Li heard a wet *splat* and Mao collapsed to the floor. "M-Mao?!" was all he was able to say before a bullet tore through his head as well.

The area was still for a few minutes before the door opened and six new guards emerged from the bunker, all wearing black body armor, all wielding flashlight-equipped assault rifles. Two immediately checked the downed guards, but even a casual glance could discern that they were dead. There was a few moments of confused silence, before one of the men pointed towards the trees, "Scope." He muttered.

Sure enough, the lights from their rifles was being reflected back by something far in the distance, which had seemingly realized it was spotted, and the reflection disappeared from sight.

The squad captain motioned to two of his men and pointed towards where the glint was, "You two, check that out. Everyone else, form up on the door. It would just be a distraction."

"Yessir."

The two chosen squad members went into the forest, and several tense moments went by before a report came back over the personal radio system their helmets were rigged up with, "There's no one here sir, but someone was, we've found what seems to be a sniper's nest. There's netting and- hold on… Shi, get a light on-" he was suddenly cut off, and Shi's panicked voice picked up, "Hu's down! The sniper-" He was cut off too.

"Ready, men!" The captain said, all squad members quickly readying themselves, bringing up their guns and aiming towards the forest, looking for the telltale glint of a sniper's scope.

However, that was when an entirely different danger- quite literally- dropped in behind them.

A form dressed in a pitch black outfit and a blue mask unsheathed twin blades from the sheathes on its back, and with a few slices, the men were laid out.

Suki loped out from the forest, dressed in her new, dark green body armor, golden gauntlet on her left hand, hair tied back in a pony tail, black make-up surrounding her eyes. Her trusty pistols were holstered at either hip, assault rifle was slung over her shoulder, and a string of modified bombs were attached to her belt.

"You're handy with that gun. Most people wouldn't be able to get that kind of consistent accuracy with a semi-automatic." A voice box embedded inside the blue mask altered Zuko's dry tones into a deep, unsettling monotone.

"That is going to freak me out for as long as you're wearing that."

"That's the point. Imagine a mythological spirit of vengeance that speaks like this capturing you and threatening to slice open your throat. It makes quite the impact, apparently."

"Interesting." She looked at the now-open door, "Shall we continue this later?"

"Of course." Zuko said, and the pair entered the bunker.

The plan was relatively simple.

The bunker was- head count wise- relatively low-staffed. The guards were the most well-trained in the Earth Empire, and would normally be enough to drive off any normal intruder, but a super-powered ninja and the clone of the greatest assassin-spy ever, were not "normal". So they would just bull their way through what few guards they would encounter. The machine guns guarding Sample Storage and the Laboratory- and the contents within those rooms- would be dealt with by Zuko, while Suki would use the bombs on her belt to destroy the server room, along with all the data those servers contained.

With luck and skill, they would be able to cripple the program entirely, with minimal trouble.

So, with this plan, and their relative confidence, it only figured that as soon as they had taken the entrance elevator down a level, the doors opened and they were greeted by a squad of ten guards, clearly intent on taking the elevator to investigate why the primary guards had not checked in.

Suki's reflexes saved her, her left hand flexing, causing the bright blue energy disc to expand, protecting her from the hail of bullets.

Zuko pulled up, close to her body, and grabbed one of her guns, raising it over the shield and shooting the four guards on the left down, "Keep the shield up and charge at the last." Zuko said. Suki complied, and the pair rapidly closed in on the last six. He shoved the gun back in its holster and drew his swords from his back, before jumping over the shield and landing on two of the guards, running them through.

The remaining four spun towards him, and Suki used this moment of distraction to drop her shield and draw her pistols, shooting three of them off the bat, while Zuko delivered a devastating kick to the last's chest, crushing it, and launching him into a wall.

The pair barely had a moments respite before alarms began blaring, and an automated voice chanting "Intruder Alert"

Zuko looked at Suki, and though his helmet masked his face, she could feel his irritated stare. "How would I know they had an intruder alarm? I broke out not in."

"Whatever, this'll make things harder, but just stick to the plan."

"Got it. Your targets are at the end and on the left. I need to take the stairs down and to the right."

"I remember." They began running down the hallway, "Good luck." he muttered before they split up.

At a sprint, Zuko could hit nearly fifty miles an hour, but that was on long, straight stretches. However, he could still muster a good clip in a hallway. A few guards jumped out from side-rooms, but a punch or elbow with his momentum easily took them out.

He reached the end of the hall quickly, and was about to tear open the door to the laboratory's antechamber, when a loud *clack* filled the air and something impacted Zuko, slamming him against the door. He leapt quickly to his feet and spun around, to see a heavily armored guard standing behind him, wielding- of all things- a heavy, metal mallet in either hand. He was a broad man, as was usual for an Earthen, and sported a thick beard, the rest of his head shaved to cue-ball smoothness.

He stopped a few feet away from Zuko, sliding into a ready pose, raising the hammers, "You ain't getting in there."

Zuko unsheathed his swords and readied himself, "May I ask, who do I have the honor of fighting?" It was some of his baked-in Fire Nation honor which prompted this question. Whenever someone so clearly challenged him to a one-on-one duel, usually indicating they were stronger than most, he preferred to know their name, so if ('when', is more accurate, but propriety called for him to think of it as 'if') he won, he could pay proper respects for a worthy opponent.

"My name is Gow."

Testing the waters, Zuko lunged forwards, and gave a purposely open attack. A normal human would not have been able to successfully counter this, even if they were fast enough to recognize the opening, but Gow easily smacked away a sword and swung his hammer into Zuko's chest, smacking him down the hallway.

Zuko stumbled to his feet, winded. 'Okay, so this might be harder than I thought.' He thought to himself, before Gow closed the distance and the two became locked in combat.

Suki had more to go through than Zuko, and since she lacked the superhuman abilities, was unable to take out guards as she ran with the ease that he did, especially since shooting while running was generally very dangerous.

But, despite these limitations, Suki still cut through through the opposition with relative ease, largely relying on the shield gauntlet to let her close the distance on guards who saw her, then her martial arts training to quickly take them out and keep her momentum, continuing her run through the hallways and stair wells until she reached the server room.

Consecutive head-shots took out the on-duty guards, and after a few minutes of waiting for any more guards to come- which totaled zero- she shrugged and walked over to the doors, when the sound of a shotgun being fired halted her in her tracks.

Cautiously, she turned around, dread filling her as she knew there was only one person in the bunker who preferred a shotgun to the standard assault rifles.

A tall man stood there, he had obviously been wearing a suit, and had hurriedly strapped on combat armor over the button-down in place of the suit jacket that he normally wore. His legs went un protected, clad in just the trousers of a pinstripe suit. A cruel smirk decorated his face, complemented by the small mustache and beard, his hair was cropped close, leaving his horseshoe-like bald spot clearly visible. "Hello, Four."

"Long Feng." She snarled.

"Really now, is that any way to address your elders? I raised you, after all, Four, you should show more respect."

"Like hell I do. And my name isn't Four anymore, bastard."

"Don't be ridiculous, Four, and please watch you language. Of course you name is Four. That is your given name after all. Well," he grinned, "Kyoshi-4 technically."

"My name is Suki."

Long Fend laughed, "How adorable. Took the name of the nanny who raised you. How… childish."

"Shut up, asshole."

His grin slipped away and he adjusted his grip on the shotgun, "What did I say about language?" There was a moment of silence, which Long Feng seemed to take as some sort of response, "Well, either way, I'm glad you came back, you save us a lot of time and money in hunting you down. And to think, you actually had slipped of our radar. You could've lived a long, carefree life before we found you again, if at all. But no, you decide to settle some petty vendetta, and you brought the last of the Spirits with you. We always wanted that loose end to be tied up."

"You underestimate him."

"And you, us. By now, your little friend should be facing off against one of the Empire's newest projects. He was here just to be briefed on you, but you walked right in. Its funny how fate works sometimes."

Gow was far more difficult to fight than Zuko had originally estimated. His shell-like armor caused most of Zuko's sword-swings to glance off, and the man's reflexes were solid enough that swipes aimed at his head were blocked by hammers.

Offensively, while Gow could, of course, smack Zuko around with the hammers directly, he could also crash them together, generating a shockwave of energy that could knock him off of his feet if he wasn't prepared.

Zuko was reaching the end of his rope, he would rather not use his more obvious abilities, that was the point of coming as the Blue Spirit rather than Fire Lord, less chance of an international incident.

Another volley of attacks from the hammers was unleashed, some blows were blocked by his swords, or missed because he dodged, but several impacts landed heavily on Zuko's shoulders and chest.

He staggered away, turning to glare at Gow who was smirking confidently.

Zuko's face twisted into a savage snarl.

This guy was pissing him off.

Suki felt a momentary pang of worry for Zuko, before squashing it. He could take care of himself, he was the fucking Fire Lord after all, it was herself she needed to worry about at the moment.

"So what? You're just going to fucking kill me?"

"Don't be so negative, Four, you were our finest project. And it will still be a while until your next sister is born, we would love to have you back on board. After, of course, some appropriate punishment."

His inflection and the way his eyes briefly traveled up and down her body clued Suki in on what he mean instantly. It was unfortunately predictable, however, she had experienced Long Feng's favorite 'punishment' before. She furrowed her eyebrows and clenched her teeth, attempting to keep the memories at bay.

Suki leveled a glare at the man, "Fuck you."

Damned bastard almost seemed surprised at her response.

"You freaking create me as a weapon, take away the only person who ever genuinely cared about me when I was seven, make me fight grown men for food, and you rape me whenever I lost, and you stand there like I'd gladly just join you again and let you make another slave for you to train? I hate you. I hate you so fucking much. If I could make you experience all the pain and horror I have, I would make you do so a thousand times over."

A sneer curled Long Feng's lips, "You ungrateful pup. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't exist. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have the very skills you used to break in here. You are my creation."

"You might have made me, but I am not yours." She said, straightening up and squaring her shoulders.

Long Feng growled and everything seemed to move in slow motion for Suki. She could practically see his finger slowly squeeze the trigger, but as he did, she flexed her hand and brought up her arm, the shield blocking the pellets just in time. She marched forwards as Long Feng shot twice more, before she knocked away his firing arm and took the gun from him. She spun it around and took four quick shots. One in either shoulder, knocking him back, then one in either knee, bringing him down. He gasped in pain as he stared down the barrel of his own gun.

Suki smiled at him, "Since I can't make you experience all that I have though, I guess this'll have to do."

One last shot, and Long Feng's head was reduced to mush.

A sword slice left a long cut on Gow's cheek.

A hammer impacting just the right place cracked one of Zuko's ribs.

The two stared at each other for a few seconds, both tired from several minutes of intense combat. Each sized each other up one last time before they both lunged forwards, their weapons locking as the pair struggled for an advantage.

Then, it happened.

Zuko shifted just right, and his swords slid down the hammers.

Gow screamed as the hammers fell to the floor, his hands still clutching them.

Zuko shifted back, and swung both his blades, and the screaming stopped, Gow's head falling in a different direction from his body.

Zuko whipped his swords a few times, before whipping them off on his pant legs, cleaning as much blood off as he could before sheathing the swords.

He put his hands together into the Fire Nation flame and bowed deeply, "Go peacefully, Gow. You were a strong warrior, and a worthy opponent."

He collected the man's hammers, though, they needed to be examined, no normal hammers should've been able to survive the impacts they imparted, let alone generate god damn shockwaves when clapped together.

Zuko walked back to the laboratory's vestibule doors, and smashed them open with Gow's own hammers. Immediately, the guardian machine guns opened fire, but two claps with the hammers solved that, and the second door experienced the same fate as the first. He looked around the laboratory, and at the door that was labeled 'Sample Storage'. He grinned and hefted the hammers, "Time to go to work."

Suki started long and hard at the body in front of her.

She thought it was probably the first time she legitimately enjoyed killing someone, and that feeling scared her.

After a minute of blinking, she dropped the shotgun and turned back to the server doors, unhooking one of the bombs strapped to her belt.

Several minutes- and a few more guard and a very confident scientist- later, Zuko met Suki in front of the elevator. He saw an odd, haunted look on her face. He had never pushed for her entire experience in the bunker, even though he saw her being purposely vague about a lot of her life. He could only assume she had encountered someone who had featured largely- and negatively- in her life here.

"You all right?"

"Y-yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just ran into a little trouble. The bombs are planted, though. How'd you fare?"

"Everything's smashed, sliced, and burning."

And exhausted smile crept onto Suki's face, "We did it."

Zuko nodded and led her onto the elevator.

Once at the surface, they started walking towards where they landed the Flare, when a slight tremor through the ground startled them.

They looked at each other, before turning back to the bunker door. Smoke began slowly drifting from it.

Suki shuddered, "The bombs went off… finally."

Zuko pulled off his helmet, and looked at her, "So that's it?"

"Yeah, seems like it is."

The flight back home was long and quiet, both occupants of the Flare performing their coping mechanisms for killing. For Zuko, it was quiet meditation, while Suki meticulously disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled her guns, only to do the whole process over again. She found it oddly therapeutic.

An hour after turning on the autopilot and beginning his mediation, Zuko got up and walked to the back of the airplane, nabbing a water bottle from a cabinet, he looked at Suki, who was crouched on the floor, attending to her guns, "You want one?"

She looked up, "Uhhhh, sure."

He grabbed one and tossed it to her, she caught it easily and cracked it open, taking a long drink. She looked him over, and decided to breach a topic that had been weighing on her mind since she saw his helmet, but had been shoved aside in favor of the mission. "So… you're the last Spirit, huh?"

Zuko stiffened, then nodded, "Yeah. yeah, I am."

"How… how was that a better choice than going as the Fire Lord?"

"Officially, the Blue Spirit is a rogue asset, something I asked to be fabricated after the Spirits' last mission, to protect myself from any interested parties. The Empire knows this, so they can't blame the Fire Nation, even if they decide to draw attention to their cloning facility's destruction."

Another bit of silence, as more water was sipped, "What happened? To the Spirits that is? I was tutored about you guys, you were legendary, but then two years ago…" she trailed off, seeing the dark expression on Zuko's face. Normally, she would bulled on, but the combination of the day's events lead her to be more subdued than usual.

Zuko took a breath, then began speaking.

"As I'm sure you know, the Spirits were formed nine years ago in an experiment to see how effective classical ninja training could be in the modern day. They picked the best of the best, people who were not only in tip-top physical shape, but also intelligent and capable of acting competently in stealth missions. We ended up being the Fire Nations' most lethal covert ops. force, performing several assassinations and take-downs of various terrorists and international criminals.

"In the last two years of operation, one of our most common enemies was Black Flame, which was only in its infancy when we started off, but quickly proved to be a legitimate threat, employing incredibly dangerous individuals and training them to be even more lethal."

Zuko fidgeted and played with his water bottle a bit before continuing, "One of my teammates, Jao "Jet" Jiang, the Grey Spirit, he was my second. Well, I mean, I was pretty much the field commander, taking orders directly from the real commander, Jee, and Jet was my second. My friend. He was a lot like you, intense, and much more sociable and outgoing than me. He was the 'wise guy' to my 'straight man'. We were a team. Yeah, he was always more aggressive than I was, but thats why I was there, we complemented each other. I, uh, I digress, though. Jet, it turned out Jet was poached by Black Flame, they appealed to his aggression, his love of power and using it. He began passing intelligence to them, letting them keep a step ahead of us."

Zuko's normally stoic look turned remorseful, "Then our last mission occurred. Jet set us up, and every single Spirit was killed when we were infiltrating a Black Flame base on Whale Tail island. I only survived by luck, one of the other Spirits, Red, broke radio silence to warn me, just before he was killed by Jet himself. I made a break for it, going to the extraction point and signaling the helicopter, but Jet got there first."

The memories engulfed Zuko as he spoke.

Zuko stood at the edge of a cliff, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the helicopter, when a presence caused him to swing around.

There stood Jet, unmasked, a smug grin on his face, pointing a gun right at him.

"You," Zuko whispered, staring in horror at the man he had considered his best friend. "Why?"

"'Why?' You have the fuckin' balls to ask me 'WHY?'" He shouted, "You get everything you fucking want, but I have to bite, claw, and fight for everything I have! And not only that, but you're weak! You don't have what it takes. You believe there's such a thing as mercy on a battlefield, that everyone in the base of our enemy's isn't an enemy! For once in my life I want to be the front man, not playing second fiddle to some fucking asshole who doesn't understand that power is something to be used."

Zuko shouted back at him, "Get your head out of your ass! You know everything about my life, but you have to balls to say I get everything I want?" He sneered, "If you honestly believe that, Jet, then its no wonder you joined Black Flame. Only they regularly employ selfish cowards."

Jet raised the gun, but Zuko shot forwards, punching his once-best-friend in the chest. He felt the cracks of several ribs breaking, before Jet's body flew limply into the trees of the island.

It was then that the helicopter finally appeared, pulling to a hover next to the cliff.

With a regretful look towards where Jet's body lay, Zuko boarded the helicopter.

Zuko shifted uncomfortably after describing the confrontation. "After that, I was debriefed by Jee, and handed in my resignation, asking for them to say I went rogue, before returning home. When I got back home, I decided to become the Fire Lord, and use my powers to help people. Jet, in a way, was right. I was afraid to use my power, not in the way he meant anyway, he was clueless about my true abilities, but I decided to put them to use and help people, especially by destroying Black Flame."

The air was still after he finished his story, then, to the shock of both Zuko and Suki, she got up and hugged him. After a tentative moment, his arms wrapped around her in return.

Suki whispered into his ear, "You, are an amazing man, Zuko. And I am so sorry, that you were betrayed like that. Anyone would be lucky to call you a friend. I mean, look at all the shit you did for me? You bought me armor, clothing, gave me a place to sleep, food, and you helped me stop a freaking cloning project. And I'm some shitty girl who you pulled in from the streets."

Zuko tightened his eyes for a moment. Aside from his uncle, Suki was the first person since his mother to offer such words of kindness. He made up his mind. "Hey, Suki. I, uh, just wanted to let you know, you can stay with me and uncle for a while. The guest room is never used anyway, and we always have plenty of food, and well, you're the first real friend I've had in a while, and it'd be really shitty of me to just let you wander off, but- uh, you don't have to stay if you don't want to, I mean, I can see why someone would like roaming the-"

"Shush," Suki said, pulling back and putting a finger on his lips, "Jeez, I don't think I've ever heard you speak so informally before. Yeah, I'll stay Sparks. I'm not going to ditch my best friend."

Zuko brightened, and smiled, "Best friend… thank you, Suki."

After another minute of the embrace, Suki pulled back, "Ugh, enough with the mushy stuff for now. Let's go home, I need to sleep."

"Yeah… let's go home."

That night, the two of them would get the best night of sleep either of them ever had.

A/N: Whoaaaaaaa that was long.

But I think its good.

Jeez, after Five thousand, six hundred-something words, I HOPE its good.

So, I WAS going to write more about the intervening time, to flesh out their relationship more, but I feel that between this chapter and the last two, you should get a good feel about it. Its just over the eight days, they closer and more comfortable with each other. Plus, I didn't want to write four chapters about these two in a row, this is a collection about all these characters, the others need light too (though, I will fully admit that Zuko is my favorite character, so he'll be appearing more often than not, so he will likely have the most chapters dedicated to him, or featuring him as a side-character).

Okay, so did I potentially waste perfectly good characters with Gow and Long Feng? Sure, but I really couldn't write a way where both lived through their encounters with Zuko and Suki. I will admit though, that someone else will pick up those hammers, and Long Feng's specter will haunt Suki, considering the abuse he put her through (did I use rape as a way to villains him more? Sure. is it cliched? Sure. Do I think its in character? Yes. Long Feng gave off creepy vibes, and I forget which fic is is that insinuates it, but theres the idea that the Joo Dees were sexually abused by the Dai Lee, and I subscribe to that idea, so it transferred here with Long Feng).

Zuko's an honorable guy, so if someone challenges him to a duel and gives him a good, honorable fight, he will not hold any true grudge against them and will pay respects.

I'm sorry if the end of the mission felt kind of anti-climactic, but thats what happens when you put the worlds best assassin and a super-powered ninja up against people, it becomes a curb-stoma battle except for one or two cases if they run into someone with equal skill.

So, Zuko's past. After he turned eighteen, he joined the Fire Nation marines, as he felt restless and unfulfilled working at his uncle's teashop. The Fire Nation saw his skill and that of a few other guys, and decided to form the Spirits (who were all color-coded, if you couldn't tell) as an experiment.

About Jet… I have to admit I really don't like Jet. In canon, he was such a racist and fanatic that he was willing to kill off an entire town just to kill a minor contingent of Fire Nation soldiers. That's like, really fucked up. And yeah, Zuko and Iroh might have been Fire Benders (which Jet didn't know for sure), but for all intents and purposes, they were harmless refugees, but Jet decided to stalk and attack them anyway. Yes, Azula and Ozai are worse, but I think what annoys me is that we're supposed to forgive Jet despite all the shitty stuff he did. Sure, Zuko did some bad shit, but he was never shitty about it, even when he was a villain, he had enough vulnerability that you could see there was a person hidden under there, while Jet was just a ball of rage and racism. Plus, I really, really dislike how manipulative he is. So yeah, he's a villain in this universe… and still alive. I have plans for Jet.

Finally, I just want to state that Zuko and Suki are going to be just friends, and theres no confusion on either side about this state. A hug is a big thing for both of them, as Zuko hasn't felt love (not romantic love necessarily, just love) from anyone besides his Uncle since his mother died, and Suki has never had a family besides the nanny she named herself for. And now, Suki's living with Zuko.

That seems to be it…

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Comment below!

Next Time: While our heroes work to maintain the light, there are many who wish to spread darkness. It is time to focus on the wicked Kaminari and her friends.

[Just minor edits to grammar and stuff]