Let it be known that Zuko, formerly a Fire Nation Prince, currently a dangerous vigilante, was completely exhausted. The road to the impenetrable city was long, and tiring, but fortunately, Zuko was patient. He'd get there eventually.

Unfortunately? The city only took in a limited amount of refugees, and Zuko wasn't rich, or skilled. (Skilled at anything that mattered, anyway. Zuko could kill a man, but that didn't look good on a helpless, refugee hopeful's resume.) There were far more attractive candidates to choose from.

Zuko wasn't going to give up, however. Getting into the city, away from the Fire Nation, and the war, was the end goal.

Every time he slept, he saw his father, looming over him, hand alight with fire. Those nights, he woke up in a cool sweat, unable to fall back asleep. As long as his father could find him, he wasn't safe.

Logically, he knew Prince Zuko was dead, and he—this weird mixture of Li, Zuko's remnants and the Blue Spirit—was all that remained. Confused on the better days. A walking corpse, on the bad days.

He avoided mirrors, now, because he still couldn't stomach his own reflection. He looked too much like his father, save the mutilation. By something just short of a miracle, his burn never got seriously infected. His left eye wouldn't open the entire way, but it didn't matter much anyway. He could barely see out of it.

Whispers of the Fire Princess' strength had reached even him, when he'd been somewhere deep in the Earth Kingdom. Azula was powerful, and a far better heir than he'd ever been.

In some twisted way, he understood why his father tried to off him. After all, he was a liability. Grandfather would never take him seriously, and in turn, he wouldn't take Father seriously. His father wanted the throne, and he wouldn't let Zuko stand in the way. It didn't make it hurt any less, though.

If only his family could see him now, he mused. Grandfather would finally drop dead.

Here he was, a Prince with no honour left. Whatever honour he had burned long ago, in the flames of his own failings. Whatever shreds of decency he'd had once, he'd destroyed when he robbed countless people. It was almost ironic, how he went from Prince to traitor all so fast.

He hadn't washed his hair in a while, and it showed. He tended to use any water he had for other, more essential purposes, so it wasn't entirely his fault.

A few stray strands stuck against his forehead, held there by sweat. The rest of it stuck to his neck. His clothes were drenched. The odor he emitted was terrible, but Zuko couldn't do anything about it. He shouldn't be sweating so much; he'd been in hotter climates with more clothes, but it'd been so long. He hadn't set foot inside the Fire Nation for about five years. The closest he got to the warm, tropical climate of his former home was the southwestern corner of the Earth Kingdom, and that didn't compare.

He could almost feel it now, the freedom. He'd escape the war. Find a job. Get a full night's sleep.

And his father would never get the chance to burn him again.

Maybe it was cowardly, running away from all his problems. Maybe, he shouldn't hide from his demons. Maybe, if he were an honourable person, he'd agree.

Maybe.

It took Zuko weeks upon weeks to reach anywhere remotely close to Ba Sing Se. Even now, he still had quite a ways to go. Even with five years spent living in the Earth Kingdom, Zuko's sense of direction was still a little off. South was North, and North was South.

He spent the three grueling weeks trekking through towns, with little to no money. Not that it mattered really; if he got hungry, he simply took some food from someone else. People usually complied with your demands if you held a sword to their throat. Not that violence was his only solution, but it was the most effective. He wouldn't beg, and he refused to stay in one place too long.

Eventually, someone would recognize him. Not as royalty—he'd long accepted that was never going to happen—but as Fire Nation. He lived long enough in the Earth Kingdom to know their collective views on the Fire Nation people. He disagreed with them, of course. How couldn't he? The Fire Nation wasn't a bad place, and the people weren't bad either.

Misguided, possibly. Zuko wasn't dumb, he knew the war was...wrong. The intention might've been good, but the outcome was..not.

Most of the time, the Earth Kingdom's general disgust only annoyed him, but sometimes, it infuriated him. They didn't know anything. There were good people back home, but because of the royal family, ("Your family," a small tiny voice in the back of his head supplied, unhelpfully.) the general consensus was Fire Nation bad, everyone else good. Even the Water Tribe savages.

Yeah, sure, the Fire Nation wasn't blameless, far from it, but they were technologically advanced, and wanted to share that with the world. The regular citizens only wanted to improve the world, and believed the war did that. It is what they were taught in school.

The general disdain for regular Fire Nation citizens was nothing compared to the absolute hatred of Firebenders. Devils, he'd hear them say. They were filthy ashmakers, or bloodthirsty fire-demons. Small children were told stories of their evil, to keep them obedient. Zuko couldn't condemn the Earth Kingdom for their hatred, but he didn't agree with it. It wasn't like they were completely faultless, either. The Earth Kingdom army was full of buffoons. At least, and Zuko could say this with absolute confidence, the Fire Nation army was honourable.

He understood the burning, seething anger the Earth Kingdom felt, but it didn't make it less irritating. Everytime he went into a new town, he only had the scar deterring people from harming him. Most assumed he was a war child, or something along those lines. At first, that greatly pissed him off, because his blood was as pure as it could be. However, it's best just to let people think what they're going to think. If it resulted in less injuries on his part, he didn't bother correcting them. What was the point? He couldn't go up to them and say, "By the way, I'm not what you think I am. I'm actually the dead Prince of the Fire Nation, the country you're at war with! I'm even a firebender!" Not unless he wanted to die. Painfully.

Nevermind his brutal death at the hands of Earthbenders, they'd think he was insane.

Which was not true.

Mostly.

Mental instability was always Azula's thing, anyway.

He continued along the forest pathway. He tried making as little sound as possible. You never knew what kind of people were out there.

It was to no avail, however, once his stomach started grumbling. It had been quite a few days since he'd last eaten, and from the sounds of it, he needed to eat, soon. Unfortunately, the last of his rations had run out last week.

Zuko sighed. He knew he should've robbed that couple he saw along the way, even if they were expecting.

He continued for another five minutes, pointedly ignoring the signs of hunger. He'd be fine. Eventually.

He considered stopping, for a rest, when he saw smoke, not too far from his current position. Smoke could mean a number of things: firebenders, campsites, or arson. The last two options were more likely, with how fire into the interior of the Earth Kingdom he was.

He could ignore the smoke, and continue, but if it was a campsite, he could rob them. If it was an act of arson, maybe there'd be grateful, generous people he could save. People with food.

He hadn't used his firebending in a long time, at least, not for anything substantial. He concentrated as hard as he could, trying to find the source of the heat. It shouldn't be too hard. Right? Right. He took a deep breath, and tried to center himself. Uncle always said that was important. He continued his steady breathing until he got the general direction of the fire. Not that the smoke didn't give it away, but he wanted to be sure.

And so, Zuko ran towards the fire.

He could hear distant voices. He kept running, until he saw the clearing. Quickly, he hid in some nearby bushes. Zuko grabbed his mask from his bag, and slipped it on his face. He was planning on robbing these people, after all. He'd wait until they went to sleep, then he'd slip in and take any food or money they had. The perfect plan.

He grabbed a sword from his sheath, and hunched over. There were four people in the group. A small Earth Kingdom girl, a slightly older Water Tribe girl, a Water Tribe boy, and….the Avatar? Zuko's heartbeat sped up. As far disconnected from society as he was, everyone heard about the Avatar. Everyone.

He couldn't rob the Avatar. That was beyond stupid. No matter what Azula used to say, he wasn't that dumb.

He turned around, meaning to leave.

Unfortunately, someone must've seen him, because a few seconds later, he was flying through the air, landing right in the middle of the Avatar's campsite.

He was so dead.

"Hey! What are you doing here!" The Water Tribe girl yelled, pointing a frying pan at him. He gulped, but said nothing.

"I caught him spying on us behind the bushes," The smaller girl called out. "I don't think he was planning on kidnapping Aang, though. He panicked when Aang entered his view. I think he was going to rob us or something."

He didn't know how she'd seen him. He'd been so sure he was well-hidden.

The two boys ran over from whatever previously held their attention. All four kids stared him down. Zuko stayed planted on the ground. Luckily, his mask had stayed on. Unluckily, his weapons fell to his side, and the Avatar was standing over him.

He never was that lucky.

"He was going to rob the Avatar? Good luck, buddy." The Water Tribe boy snorted.

Zuko glared at him from under the mask.

"Wait!" The Earthbender called out. She was small, and short in stature. Her voice rang some bells in Zuko's head, but he couldn't quite place it. "We can trust this guy."

"He tried to rob us in the middle of the night, Toph! You literally caught him red handed!" The Waterbender clenched and unclenched her fist. Zuko didn't want to piss her off, at all. She would and could probably kill him.

"Yeah, I know."

Zuko gulped.

He recognized that voice.

This was the Beifong girl. The one who...may or may not have thwarted his robbery.

"Then why would we trust him? He's a thief, probably a liar too." The Water-Tribe boy argued, his hands waved around his face.

"If he is, I doubt he's a good one. His heart is going so crazy it's like he has two heartbeats." The terrifying, little demon child declared.

"I say, now hear me out, we leave him tied up, and drop him off at the nearest town."

"I don't think we should, Sokka. Maybe he can help us."

"He literally tried to rob us, Aang."

"It's wrong, Sokka. We can't do that to someone."

"Yeah, yeah whatever. I still say we reap any rewards from this guy's capture. I think I've seen his face, err mask, on a poster somewhere, and we are running low on funds…"

"Sokka, we've also been on wanted posters before. We've been hunted! People have captured us before. We can't just do that to someone else." The Avatar (Oolong? Or was that a type of tea...) argued.

"Yeah, but we're the good guys, Aang! We don't know this guy's endgame." The other Water Tribe-Sokka said. "He could be super evil. In fact, how do we know this isn't Fire Lord Azulon? How do we know this isn't Azula?"

Zuko was only mildly offended.

"Shut up, Sokka." Beifong stomped her foot, a shockwave knocking Water Tribe boy over. "I wasn't done talking."

"Ow! What was that for?"

"We can't snitch on the thief."

"Uh, why not? It's better than holding him hostage...unless he is actually Fire Lord Azulon." Sokka whipped his head towards Zuko. "Hey! Are you secretly Fire Lord Azulon?"

Zuko shook his head. What kind of question was that? Obviously he wasn't the Fire Lord.

"He said no. Ergo, we don't need to hold him hostage. Ergo, we reap the rewards for capturing him. It just makes sense."

"Sokka! We can't go around kidnapping people."

"Why not? Katara, come on, just think about it-"

The waterbender-Katara sighed. "Sokka."

"What?"

"He could help us." The Avatar added. "We could be friends."

"Aang, we talked about this. We can't adopt every sad, lonely person you meet. One of them is bound to be a serial killer, and that is not something we need to deal with."

"But Mr. Blue Spirit isn't a serial killer!"

"How do we know that?"

"Uh...Mr. Blue Spirit, are you a serial killer?"

Zuko wanted to face palm. He shook his head again.

"See! He says he isn't a serial killer, Sokka."

"He could be lying. Serial killers don't usually tell their victims they're serial killers. That's just bad serial killing."

"Sokka, stop calling him a serial killer. Would you like it if someone kept calling you a serial killer?"

"No.."

"Then don't call him one. Honestly, Gran-Gran taught you better."

"Hey! I'm just putting it out there. This is a stranger, one yes, we've kidnapped, and tied up, but we don't know him at all."

"That's not true."

"Uh, what do you mean, Toph? I'm pretty sure I'm not lying."

"You're right, you're not lying, but it's not true. I've met this idiot before."

"When did you meet a thief, Toph? Weren't your parents ridiculously overprotective? I doubt they'd want you to meet up-and-coming criminals."

"He tried robbing me once."

Sokka splutted. "Then why are you defending him?"

"It's because I beat him up, so Incognito knows not to mess with me. Right?" The Beifong girl ("Toph," he reminded himself,) tapped her foot impatiently. Zuko nodded fervently, hoping to appease the Earthbender. He had no desire to be beaten up again. Once was enough.

"Is he nodding?" She asked. "You do know I'm blind, right?"

Zuko's eyes widened behind the mask. She's blind? How did she see him then? How did she catch him? It shouldn't be possible. It isn't possible.

"I'm going to take the silence as a yes. Anyways, Aang's right. He might be a useful ally. The Fire Nation hates him...we hate the Fire Nation...see what I'm saying? The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that jazz?"

"We can't just let a criminal join us."

Katara cleared her throat, "I agree with Sokka. He might not be a serial killer, but he could be just as bad."

"Please Katara! He just seems so lonely…" The Avatar (the Avatar!) pleaded, his lips downturned into a..pout?

The Waterbender frowned. "I suppose….but we should learn who he is before we kidnap him."

"Okay!" The Avatar rounded on Zuko, and reached his hand out for his mask. Zuko tried ducking, but the airbender was too fast. A gust of wind knocked his mask off. He balked at the rest of the group.

The only one of them with no reaction to the scar was the Earthbender. The Avatar looked on the verge of tears. The Waterbender brought a hand up to her mouth, likely to cover a gasp. The Water Tribe boy looked confused at first, but his features slowly morphed into anger.

All eyes (minus the Earthbender's) were on his face.

"Do I have something on my face?" He said, voice cracking slightly. The three of them startled at the sound of his voice.

"How old are you?" Katara asked, every word enunciated slowly.

"I'm sixteen. Are you going to let me go?" He asked, more than slightly annoyed. "I need to get to Ba Sing Se sometime before the next century."

Silence.

The Avatar perked up a bit, though he still looked devastated. What a weird kid. "You're going to Ba Sing Se? What a coincidence. We're going there too! You should come with us."

Zuko wanted to say no.

Zuko should say no.

Zuko didn't want to be stuck with a bunch of twelve year olds.

But...Zuko didn't have any documentation, and if there was a surefire way to get into Ba Sing Se, the Avatar was the way to do it.

"...Fine."

Zuko didn't know how much he would regret saying that.