Hey, everyone! 👋 😄

I'm so glad to be publishing this chapter, it gives me the chance to let you know a few things. First of all, don't worry, I'm not going to leave this AU. I like it, I'm proud of it, I enjoy writing and reading it. That gives me great satisfaction as a writer, to genuinely enjoy my own work.

This takes me to my second point, I think I'll be coming up with lots of Avatar AUs in case you'd want to stick around to see those. Lately, I don't feel like engaging with the fandom of the original series, it isn't a place where I feel safe or welcome anymore and it makes no sense that I stay close to it if it is something that is hurting me, but the worldbuilding and the characters and the possibilities for their arcs and relationships truly inspire me, so I want to make something that I'll remember fondly when I look back to my stay in this fandom.

And my third point is just that, thanks to this fic, I've been discovering lots of new things about my writing style and my tastes for writing and reading, so you'll probably see some changes from now on, but don't worry about this either, it's nothing major.

Thank you so much for following until now, it means a lot to me that so many people ended up liking this silly idea of mine 😅

I love you, you're my angels! 💋😇

Zuko

Sometimes I think the worst has passed. And then I wake up.

"Zuko! Zuko!"

"What?" I blink for distinguishing Katara's face through the sleepiness and the midnight's shade.

She's terrified, "Aang is gone!"

Aang

Sometimes I think I don't make sense of myself. I want to travel soooooooo badly, and yet I was soooooooo bummed when Gyatso told us we are moving out tomorrow morning.

I like these mountains, I like being close to the Southern Air Temple. I guess what I like is not being forgotten. In a world where the Air Nomads still existed – or where everybody knew we do exist – I wouldn't have to hide. I could go wherever I wanted and still have a home to return to.

Home. Do nomads have homes?

Does that go against the 'no clinging'?

Why are there so many rules for everything? I want to be free!

Free like air!

Shots from my feet push me to the upper corners of the mountain. Momo squawks under my shirt.

"Shh! You know we're not supposed to be here." I shove myself to the top. "And Zhao might be lurking around."

Zuko said Zhao destroyed the temple this morning. This morning. Just one day and it became gray broken stone and ashes. (That's how little it takes to destroy something.) It's like a mini-mountain made out of rubble grew at the top, something like a dumpster.

I never considered the temple dead… until now.

Momo gives another loud squawk for warning me of a coming fire shot. Oh-oh!

A couple of Fire Nation soldiers yell at each other something about spotting an Air Nomad and informing superiors.

Monkeyfeathers!

I hop down and away from the peak. The soldiers follow me with their komodo-rhinos. (They rode komodo-rhinos all the way till here? That's animal cruelty!) I would just run, but that would make a much bigger cloud of dust behind me and they could follow me to the village again – (as long as we have one.) I might as well jump for my life!

Momo keeps squirming under my clothes, clutching my ribs with his nails; the soldiers keep ordering each other to not lose track of me – it matches the rowdy, nail-biting, murderous, scary weeks we have had lately. (When did the village become such a brassy place?)

(Oh, right, since Zuko arrived.)

Zuko…

I'm not worrying. If I get in trouble, Zuko will come save me. He will because he is the coolest hero around!

Zuko

I've never seen Gyatso altered. At all. He was always so composed and imperturbable. And yet, he looks like he is about to pull of his very scalp. "This doesn't make any sense! Where would he go?"

I'm senselessly racing across the village, lifting full tents and rocks, searching a hiding spot that could fit someone Aang's size, "Aang! Aang! Aang!"

Where would he go?

"He must have gone to the Southern Air Temple," Sokka deduces. I am barely aware of the rest of the Nomads gathering around us, stopping their own search for Aang. The entire village woke up for this. "He loves that place."

"The night after we were attacked by a Fire Nation army, after they destroyed the temple?" Congrats to Gyatso for looking more confused than angry.

"You know Aang; change terrifies him."

"He must have been sad that we were moving," Katara reasons just as sadly. "We have to go get him."

Gyatso stops her. "No," his tone becomes… stern. Concretely stern. The one of a tough father making decisions for his children.

My stomach churns at the comparison. But I know Gyatso is, his motives of sincere concern.

"You three are going to stay right here," he points straight to the ground for emphasis. "I'm serious. You have overexposed yourselves to the danger. Zuko, you are no longer far from receiving an attack you won't be able to shake off. Katara, Sokka; you two are still inexperienced in your own skills, and after today, these mountains are no longer a safe area for anyone. You'll only get hurt."

The three of us yell at him – more for the sake of being common teenagers:

"We can–"

"We aren't–"

"We won't–"

Gyatso puts his hand in front of us. "I'm sorry, kids, but I made a decision. And you have taken some reckless ones by yourselves; whatever happens from now on is no longer your call."

Our three mouths snap shut.

"I have to talk to the rest of the Council for arranging the evacuation of the village while I go look for Aang. I, alone. You three get dressed for leaving."

His steps are stiff when he walks away; they have nothing to do with the unearthly grace of an airbending High Master. His hands are balled into fists. That only talks about the tension of the situation and how we can't stand here and do nothing.

Katara and Sokka are already looking at me when I glance at them. We run to our tents and get dressed. And then we reunite at the bison's stables.

I prepare Hawky and Druk to depart, "Hawky, I need you to go ahead and tell me if you see signs of Aang or the Fire Nation."

"Are we sure it is a good idea to disobey Gyatso right now?" Katara asks.

"We can't leave our hyper little brother-type person to his own luck," Sokka says.

"Hyper little brother-type person?" I repeat. "Couldn't you think something shorter name?"

"Let's make it an acronym! HLBTP!"

He makes some gestures with his hands to accentuate the 'grandiosity' of his idea and even if I agree it fits Aang's description… "Don't make an acronym for me."

Aang

Somebody else yells about me when I get to the feet of the mountain, another fireball comes. I throw it away with an airbending swing, same for the rest of their attacks. They start growing in size and strength as more soldiers appear, the ones that were guarding on the ground called for backup. I split the fire currents in halves, making the flames pass around me. Momo flies out of my shirt to scratch the soldiers.

I stare at the fire, study it, the brightness blinds me a little, but I manage to cut and deflect it. After a while, it looks like the fire is growing slower. I am the one that is moving too fast. Still staring, and reacting on instinct to keep the flames from touching me. Soon, it is like the fire was turning brighter, too.

No, it is that my air currents threw it to the trees. The branches ignite and fall around us.

Zuko…

Come save me.

Zuko

"Do you see anything?"

Katara and Sokka pass their eyes over the minuscule, dark green trees the farther we fly, closer to the temple. Sokka shakes his head.

"Nope. Nothing. Not him or Appa. How does that kid manage to hide a four-ton bison so well?"

Katara looks ahead over my shoulder. "Guys… is that smoke?"

It is. A dense, blackish cloud the same shade as the sky, climbing from the grounds beneath the mountains and covering the stars.

Appa's roar echoes in the forest. Druk roars back and speeds without me telling him, the rest of us hang on to each other for not falling. "Whoa!"

Hawky returns carrying two intermixed strands of whitish hair on his feet. One of them is short and thin, the other long and thick.

"These are Appa and Momo's?" I ask, taking the hairs in my hand. "Did you see them?"

He hands me a small piece of branch he was carrying on his other feet. It is burnt at one tip.

I barely get to hear Katara and Sokka over my own gasp: "Oh, no!"

Aang

It's difficult to focus on putting down the fire from the branches when the soldiers keep throwing more fire. The flames are growing, circling us, and spreading across the forest.

"Stop it! We are all going to burn!" I warn them.

They don't listen. I skip another blast.

Appa roars, I raise my head to see him trying to put out the fire with his very breath. The soldiers try to shoot him, too, I deflect the attacks to him, but the fire goes on swelling across the woods. Appa's scared roars deafen me while the flames blind me some more.

Until I hear Hawky screeching. Hawky!

That means…

I move again to block another attack at Appa. "Appa, you have to stand back!"

He doesn't, and I have to repeat it. And repeat it. Every time I have to jump and block simultaneous attacks from many directions.

He finally steps back, but I'm getting tired. And slower. And it's difficult to tell which flames are being shot directly in my direction when we are already surrounded by them. The forest is painted in unnatural, literally blazing yellow.

A cough contracts my throat for the smoke. Then another.

I turn around to another fireball.

Zuko uses airbending for gliding in front of it and redirects it with his firebending.

I knew you would come!

He tackles me deeper into the forest, away from more shots. We roll over the ground, he hisses when we stop: "Have you gone crazy!"

His eyes are shining with fury; they have the same glow of the fire caging us. Though, in him, it is definitely more alluring. (Is this what a moth feels when it gets fixated with the light?) Despite the danger, and the anger, and the heat, and the cold, and the uncomfortable floor with twigs and pebbles and more, my brain is set in 'I am so in love with you.'

Zuko

Damn this kid! Damn him for real!

Or better not, because I could get a fucking heart attack!

Agni, he fits perfectly into the little brother-type; he is a literal hell-raiser!

I would have died if something happened to him…

It's hard to tell if the soldiers continue their shelling, the fire extended across the entrance of the forest, blazing masses impede us from seeing anything beyond them. I counted around ten troopers fighting Aang. I can't see them anymore. That is more concerning than relieving.

Katara and Sokka make their way to us. Their bodies color in yellow, orange, and red the deeper into the forest they get.

"Aang!" Katara grabs him in a hug.

"You all came looking for me?" he asks.

I have to snap! "Of course we did, you little… little…"

"Guys!" Sokka shrieks. "Fire! Escape! Now!"

Appa and Momo float closer to us – too close to the flames! Their fur could light up! (Spirits, if we get out of here unharmed enough, I swear I'll…be more positive?) (Whatever!) We hardly pass another tree when a fire blast hits the log next to our heads. The tree explodes ignited.

More soldiers emerge from the woods. From everywhere, all directions. They surround us with fists ready to strike. Lu Ten is guiding them; he materializes from the flames leading another front of soldiers.

I see their shadows as demons coming from the Underworld. The self-doubt that was keeping me back when we first met returns; I remember I come from they come, Lu Ten and I are the very same blood. Maybe that means I will forever have some of that demon blood, maybe it will take some time to get fully used to my new self, too, but the point is I have changed. I'm not nostalgic or wistful anymore, I want to fight. Protect the forest, protect our village. Not just run, I have a purpose.

Adrenaline rushes inside my veins at the realization.

"Where's Iroh?" I ask.

He shrugs unimportantly. "I came alone. Not so much, but you get the idea."

I count the soldiers – or what I can see of them due to fire's overshadowing. "You didn't bring Zhao? I thought you two wanted to share the glory of capturing the Avatar."

"Sharing is a strong word… and a misused one in this case."

Aang, Sokka, Katara, and I exchange a four-way look. "So you are manipulating him…"

"… while he believes he is manipulating you…" Katara continues.

"… and you are backstabbing him…" Aang keeps the chain.

"… before he backstabs you," Sokka finishes.

Lu Ten glares at us with that annoyance only teenagers provoke.

"Man, talking about toxic work environments," Sokka adds. Katara, Aang, and I laugh.

"Enough!" Lu Ten screams. "I don't have time for this! Capture the Avatar!"

"And what about us?" Sokka wonders, enclosing himself, Aang, and Katara in a gesture. "Aren't we worth a capture?"

Aang steps up. "And wasn't the Fire Nation planning on exterminating all Air Nomads just today?"

"That was Zhao on a whim, not me."

Katara stands next to Aang in a supportive stance, but with autonomous, strong wrath. "What about raping women in the villages the Fire Nation invaded? Was that Zhao's whim, too, or something the Fire Army simply does? Are you going to wash that off from your hands?"

The four of us narrow our eyes at Lu Ten, judgmental, with equal indignation at the fact that we know more about the damages and implications of war than he does. We weren't supposed to be these people. And he knows that; I can see it in the way his eyes widen while he tries to contain it. He is looking at my face, probably trying to find some more family resemblance – on my profile that isn't burnt.

This is what your leader did, I think at him. My hand goes to my scar for accentuating. And a little for me to get in contact with that side of myself, that memory. He did this to a teenager, his own son.

His soldier.

His subject.

These thoughts surpass the ones I was having earlier; I may come from all of that – the fire, the brutality – but why would I be loyal to it? The Fire government doesn't even care about its own people, about anyone. Just like the Earth Kingdom during Kyoshi's time, it is corrupted by power and forming a tyranny.

The corner of my mouth curls with pride upon comparing myself to Kyoshi… but disillusion and sadness weigh on me when I look at Lu Ten.

I do wish things were different, that they weren't…

My eyes go to Aang, Katara, and Sokka at my sides, and the forest fire trapping us. They are my real family now. I bend the flames to attacks Lu Ten and his men before he can hurt them.

Lu Ten

From a second to the other, I go from ruminating their words over and over again – their accusations – to watching Zuko attempt to strike me. I should have known all of it was a trap.

Were they in arranged surveillance? It would have been a smart tactic, wait until any of us was with their guard down – more importantly, there were more chances for them to catch us at our weakest whenever we moved away from the village.

Side note: Isn't Aang the cutest ray of bi flag-colored sunshine?! 😍