Zuko put his shirt and armor back on and stood up. The now dark woods of the evening were occasionally lit up by lighting, but with the storm clouds blocking the moon, there was no other source of light. He created a small flame in his hands for light, and sheltered it from the rain as he walked through the woods in search of his ship.

There was the clinking of boots walking; Zuko thought it was his own soldiers, but then he saw Zhao riding a komodo rhino. Zuko ducked behind a tree and extinguished his fire; he hid from them as they passed by.

When they were far enough, he created the flame again and ran through the woods, hopefully to find his ship and men.

Karyuudo hid in a bush from the soldiers who grouped onto the beach. They stood in a line, listening to a higher ranking soldier. The soldiers took their superior's orders and went off to search the island, leaving the high-ranking soldier alone on the beach. Karyuudo pulled out his crossbow, loaded an arrow, and aimed for the soldier's back. Before he could fire, there was a sudden whip of air and sound. An arrow had appeared on his crossbow, pinning his finger to his own weapon.

As he tried to pull the arrow out, he saw an archer with a strange blue mask standing on the ship's deck. The archer loaded another arrow and aimed for Karyuudo. He held up his bag of smoke bombs in front of his face right before the arrow hit. The arrow pierced a bomb, causing it too explode into a puff of smoke. The rest of the bombs exploded in a chain reaction, and Karyuudo used this smokescreen to escape from the archer.

Karyuudo pulled the arrow out of the crossbow and his bloody finger and threw it down as he ran. He jumped into another bush and checked his equipment; besides his constantly depleting supply of arrows, he had his knife and katana; he was all out of shurikins and smoke bombs. As the rain fell, its melody relaxed Karyuudo. He did not realize he was so exhausted until his eyes began to close.

He quietly fell asleep to the melody of the rain.

A young boy of age thirteen with black hair tied in a pony tail and pale skin walked down the road back to his home. His name was Yoshi. He was happy, as he had just discovered of his powers, with the help of his friends; he now knew he was a firebender. No longer would the kids make fun of him and the other kids who could not bend.

Yoshi was with his friends Amarante and Kaemon just an hour ago. Kaemon was a firebender with the same features as Yoshi, except he was taller. Amarante was shorter than the other two, and she was not a firebender. Kaemon was intent on finding out if Yoshi was a firebender.

"Come on," he said, "You can't do this?" A small flame shot out of his hand and burned a falling leaf before it hit the ground.

"I'm telling you," replied Yoshi, "I'm not a firebender!"

Kaemon sighed; he had been trying to find out if Yoshi was a firebender for a week. "Well," he said, "I'm not going to give up!"

"You spent a month trying to find out if I was a firebender," said Amarante, "And you were wrong…like you usually are." She let out a slight giggle.

"I'll spend a month on Yoshi if I have to!"

Yoshi sighed and said, "Please…don't."

"I will!" yelled Kaemon, "I promise! I will stay by your side the whole next month, trying to unlock your firebending!"

"Just leave him alone!" yelled Amarante, "He's asked you to five times today!"

"Shut up!" yelled Kaemon as he shoved her back.

"Leave her alone!" shouted Yoshi.

Kaemon and Amarante were staring at him.

"What?" he asked.

"You…you…"

"You just shot fire!" said Kaemon, "I was right!"

"Finally…" said Amarante under her breath.

Yoshi looked at his hands, which were smoking from the blast, and smiled.

Now he was walking home, to tell his mother and sister of the great news. He felt powerful now that he knew he was a firebender. If his dad was still alive, he would be proud. Yoshi walked into his house and was immediately greeted by his little sister, Aiko.

"What took you so long?" asked Aiko, her golden eyes shining in the sun. She was much shorter than him and was four years younger.

"I'm a firebender!"

Aiko's jaw dropped. "Really?"

"Yes! This is the greatest day of my life! Where's mother?"

"She's behind the house hanging up the laundry."

He smiled and rushed out to where his mother was.

"Hey mother, guess what?" he said.

"What is it, dear?" she replied.

"I found out I'm a firebender!"

His mother dropped the shirt she was about to hang. She turned around to him and said, "That's great! I always thought your father was going to be the last one in our family, but now I know that you have it!"

"I know! This is great!" replied Yoshi.

"Can you show me some?"

"Um…I guess." Yoshi tried to shoot fire from his hands but failed. It was difficult because he was not properly trained. He did not know anything about firebending. He stood there for two minutes trying to summon flames.

His mother sighed, "You're just pulling my leg."

"No!" he replied, "It's true!"

"Yoshi, just let me finish the laundry."

"No! It's true!" his voice began to raise with anger, "It's true! I know it's true!" As he waved his arms around in frustration, fire began to fly out of them. Eventually, he was in the middle of a cloud of fire and smoke. He heard his mother scream and tried to find her. Her horrible screams rang in his ears. Yoshi began to cry as he tried to find his mother. He eventually made his way out of the flames, and on the ground next to him was his mother, burned alive.

Yoshi ran away, crying the whole way, while his sister had been watching the whole thing. He eventually fell down in the middle of the road and continued crying. A familiar and calming voice said, "What's wrong, Yoshi?"

He looked up and saw his friend, Amarante standing above him. Yoshi got up and backed away from her.

"What's wrong?" she asked again.

"Stay away from me!" he replied.

"Why?"

"I'm a monster!"

"No your not!" she began to cry at the sight of his tears, "What makes you say that?"

"I killed her…"

"What?"

"I killed her!" Flames sprouted around Yoshi and he ran away. Amarante coughed and waved away the smoke. Yoshi was already too far away for her to catch up. "Yoshi!" She looked at the ground and let her tears fall as she walked back to her home.

When he was far enough away from his village, he sat down against a tree and tried to calm down. On the ground next to him was a wounded raven. He picked it up and cradled it. As his tears fell to the ground, it started raining. The sound of the rain created a melody that helped him fall asleep, cradling the wounded raven in his hands.

Karyuudo woke up; he noticed that it was still dark, so it must have not been long since he fell asleep. He looked down at his hands at Karasu, whose feathers gleamed in the moonlight. The storm had already gone past the island, letting the moonlight illuminate it. He stood up and walked out of the bush he hid in. Karasu woke up and jumped up onto Karyuudo's shoulder, where he perched for awhile.

Karyuudo walked off into the woods to find Katara. He had to make sure she was safe.

When Zuko arrived at his ship, it was nearly destroyed. Many of his soldiers were spread out along the beach, while the others were recovering on the deck of the ship. He ran up the ramp to his uncle and asked, "What happened?"

"Admiral Zhao came, demanding the Avatar," said Iroh, "He almost destroyed the entire ship, but fortunately he left before he could."

Steam poured out of Zuko's nose, mouth, and hands. He tried to hold back the flames but they came out anyway, nearly burning his uncle.

"Prince Zuko, try to control your anger."

"I can't!" yelled Zuko, "I'm going to get revenge on him!"

"Now is not the time. Most of the men are injured."

"Most of the men are dead, uncle!"

Iroh sighed and closed his eyes. Zuko stormed back down the ramp and across the beach. "Zhao is going to pay for this…"

Karyuudo quickened his pace when he heard Katara's voice. He found her in a burnt section of the woods fighting off a group of soldiers with a whip of water. He jumped out into the clearing with his katana and helped her out. When the last soldier fell to the ground, he turned to her and asked, "Where's the Avatar and your brother?"

"It's you…" she said.

"Well, I don't have a way off of this island. Now where are they?"

"I don't know. Everything was covered in a smoke and I could barely breathe. We must have gotten separated."

"Come with me, I'll help you find them." He took her arm and pulled her along through the woods until they heard shouting.

"Katara!"

"Katara!"

Katara smiled and said, "That's them!" She got loose of his arm and ran up ahead. "Aang! Sokka!"

"Katara, where are you?"

"I'm right here!"

Karyuudo caught up with Katara as she ran through the woods, following the voices. "Guys, I'm over here!"

The Avatar jumped out of a bush, shortly followed by Katara's brother. "Katara, you're safe!" said Aang as he ran up to her and hugged her.

"Can we get out of here?" said her brother. He looked at Karyuudo and added, "What's he doing here?"

"Sokka, he helped me again! He's not a murderer!"

"You're wrong, Katara," said Karyuudo, "I am; but that doesn't mean that I can't help people too. Do you guys have a way off of this island?"

"Appa," said the Avatar, "My flying bison!"

"Where is it?" asked Karyuudo.

"Hold on!" The boy pulled out a whistle and blew it, but no sound came out. "Don't worry, it works. We just can't hear it." He smiled and put it away.

"Right…"

"There they are!" said a deep voice.

They all turned around and saw Zhao and his soldiers. Zhao looked at Karyuudo and asked, "Who are you?"

Karyuudo did not reply; instead, he pulled out the bounty for the Avatar and held it up for all to see.

"Well," said Zhao with a smirk, "You're doing a great job so far."

Karyuudo raised his crossbow at Zhao's head. Before he could fire, an arrow whizzed past his head. He looked back to where the arrow went and saw that it had hit Karasu. His raven was now twitching, pinned against a tree trunk. Karyuudo's hands clenched into fists and his face twisted from anger behind his mask. The archer stepped out of the shadows, wearing a ninja suit and the blue mask; the Blue Spirit.

"At first I thought this was the thief from my fortress," said Zhao, "But then she told me the whole story, of how Prince Zuko wore that suit and rescued the Avatar."

At that moment Zuko jumped out of the bushes. Now they were all there. Everyone's prize was right in front of them: the Avatar. Then Karasu stopped twitching, and everything was silent for a few moments.

Author's Notes:

Longest chapter yet! And two new reviewers:

midianek – Yep, I like making OCs.

Hotspur – Originality is what I do! To all people reading this, thank you for reading a non-Zutara story!