Chapter Two - What's in a Name?

Tala stood up. And looked upon the face of Ozai. He looked highly pissed off. Then she looked at the face of her little Prince Iroh. "What's your name?" Ozai demanded.

"Uhh...ummm..." Tala said.

"I believe 'The Prince' has just asked you a question." Iroh said.

"I have a name..." she said in her girl voice.

"What is it...?" Ozai was getting impatient.

"It's Uhh...zuuuuuuuko...ya...ZUKO!" she said in a guy voice.

"Zuko?" He asked.

"Yup...Zuko..."

"How old are you? It sounds like your voice still cracks."

"Uhh...fourteen..." Zuko said.

"A little young to be a soldier aren't you?"

"A little young to be a captain aren't you!" Zuko retorted.

"Let this serve as a warning. I am YOUR commanding officer. Therefore YOU do as I say. Got it?" Ozai said. "Let's start training. On Saturday we head into the earth nation." Ozai proceeded to take off his armor, to reveal a very fit chest for someone his age. Zuko blinked at him for a minute and noticed that the men around her were doing the same thing...but Ozai by far looked the best. Iroh didn't do anything. "Aren't you going to remove your armor?" Ozai raised an eyebrow.

"No..." Zuko mumbled.

"Why not?"

"...Uhh...I'm squeamish?"

"Squeamish huh..."

"No..."

"Then why not?"

"Because...I'm not going to...Uhh have time to take off my clothes...in...Uhh combat...so why not just go ahead and practice...with my armor on." Zuko said off the top of her head.

"The squeamish one has a point." Iroh said.

"Fine...train with your armor on...you'll be a target." Ozai said grabbing Zuko's arm and tying her to a tree.

"Target?"

"Captive earth bender of course..." Ozai said simply.

"WHAT!" Zuko said in her girl voice. "You can't do that...Uhh" She switched to guy voice. "I mean uhh...sure...so I have to evade you all...in order to escape."

"Something like that..." Ozai said lining up the others. As he lined them up Zuko started to burn the ropes tying her hands together. But it was ineffective. Zuko could see the archers in the trees. O shit...I forgot that he has archers...they can pin a fly to a tree with out killing it...shit...Zuko started to think random thoughts in her head as the troops prepared to...kill her. All hope is lost...I'm going to die...I'm coming family...wait for me...Zuko suddenly felt a flame inside of her she hadn't felt before. "This isn't how I die?" She said. As flames raced towards her, along with arrows, she flipped upside down. So she looked like a spider in the middle of the tree. The ropes were around the tree making her hands stay steady. The flames just missed her and an arrow cut the ropes. Is armor really this flexible and agile? She thought climbing up the tree. The archers followed her. She saw the trees around her catching on fire.

She tried to think quickly but it was kind of hard, because she was being followed by arrows and flames. She saw an archer charging towards her. She jumped over him and landed behind him. She grabbed his neck and used him as a shield against incoming arrows. She took his arrows and bow as she hopped from branch to branch, higher and higher up the tree. She let him go when she got to the top of the tree. How do I work this thing? She asked herself. She randomly guessed at it and shot an arrow at an archer. It went way off course and hit an archer she didn't even know was there. Damn this is hard. She jumped down the tree and hit a few branches as she fell into the flames. She felt someone catch her. Wait! I'm not supposed to get caught! She pulled out of the hands that grabbed her. She was completely surrounded by flames. She didn't know where to go. She saw the hands disappear. She took a step back and ran into Ozai.

"Oh Shit..." She backed away as Ozai tried to grab her. She spun her foot around kicked him in the head sending him to the ground. The flames vanished, and the arrows stopped shooting as she aimed an arrow at his head and placed her foot at his throat. The other troops could be seen through the trees. They all gasped.

"With the snap of my fingers..." Ozai said. "I could burn you to shreds." Zuko put the edge of her boot at his neck as she held the arrow steadily.

"And with the flick of my wrist..." She said in threatening male voice. "I could shatter your sorry ass..."

"Wow! She managed to evade all those flames and arrows AND she pinned you down!" Zuko stared in amazement at his father.

"Don't remind me..." Ozai muttered. "Anyways..."

"Clearly...I underestimated you..." Ozai said heavily.

"That's what you get if you make me your captive...and if you noticed...I didn't fire bend..." Zuko removed her boot and put the arrow away. She turned from him. "Once..." She walked back towards the camp.

"No one beats me and gets away with it." Ozai muttered. "I'll get you eventually. And when I do...sweet revenge is mine."

The rest of the day they used basic firebending stances. Then the next day they tried more advanced stances. On Friday night Zuko stood at the edge of the forest. Everyone else was stuffing their faces and telling horror stories. They didn't notice she had slipped away. As she stood there she looked at the moon.

"You know..." she said to herself in a whisper."The moon looks the same...no matter how far you are away from home." She smiled and shed a tear. "Daddy..." she whispered. "I'm sorry...you're probably just lying there. In our house, covered with bugs because I didn't prepare a funeral service. I just left you...I'm sorry father." She bowed down on her knees and folded her hands in a prayer stance. She began to pray to something above. Something that would protect her fathers spirit. So it wouldn't seek revenge on her. Ozai walked up as she prayed. She was still in her armor.

"What are you doing?" He asked rather rudely.

"Praying..." She said in her male voice.

"Why?"

"Because..." She thought of the first thing came to mind. "It's best to pray to protect your loved ones while one's away at war."

"Who'd you leave behind?"

"Uhhhh...my girlfriend..." She said quickly.

"Really? You're praying for her?" Ozai had a puzzled look. "Usually you're supposed to pray for victory in war...or to be blessed with many women."

"Do you not have a heart?" Zuko sounded mad.

"What are you talking about? Of course I have a heart!"

"I mean a feeling heart...I've heard stories about you...you just care about who you do next...or how soon you'll become the fire lord." Zuko stood up out of her prayer. She maintain her stern male voice. "You almost kidnapped a girl my village for your own pleasure...I haven't got a good view of you yet..." Zuko walked away into a tent.

Ozai stood there for a minute to take in what he'd just heard. "That jerk talked back to me! No man has ever done that before...EVER!" He walked back into the camp frustrated. "ALRIGHT LIGHTS OUT MEN! NOW! EARLY START TOMORROW! WE HAVE TO BATTLE EARTHBENDERS!" He shouted as he stormed into his tent. Iroh was in there waiting for him.

"What's wrong?" Iroh asked setting up a game of pi-sho. "Maybe a nice game of pi-sho will ease your pain."

"I don't want to play pi-sho!"

"You shouldn't keep things bottled up you know." Iroh said. "Because you'll end up releasing it all in one burst on the wrong person."

"Shut-up!" Ozai threw the game outside the tent.

At the crack of dawn, Ozai woke up the troops. After a quick breakfast and after they all got their armor on, they marched onto a ship that took them to the earth nation. When they reached the shore, the earth benders were waiting. Zuko could feel her stomach fall into her knees. She was nervous. More nervous than when she was tied to the tree a few days before. The earth benders viciously attacked them as they exited the ship. Zuko found herself face to face with an earth bender, within moments. She started to fight fire with earth. She saw the men around her falling. There was no doubt that these were experienced earth benders.

She soon found herself fighting six or seven as opposed to one. A rock hit her helmet, knocking it off. Her ceremonial ponytail whipped around as she threw fire at two of them at once. "I've got the Prince!" Came a voice. "Pull back! Take as many captives as possible!" The earth benders started to move in closer. Oh shit! I don't want my secret found out by earth benders... As they grabbed her she set herself ablaze burning their hands. She then grabbed two by the collar and shoved them into each other. They hit each other in the head. She took out two arrows (she had kept the bow and arrows) and shot them into the necks of each of the men then turned to the other five.

They sent rocks at her. She ducked and then shot at one but missed and instead hit the one to the right of him. "Woops..." she said as a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her from behind. She lifted her foot back, and full of flames it hit the earth benders crotch causing him to let go of her. She then grabbed his arm and swung him around so he knocked three others to their knees. When she let go he flew and hit the edge of the fire nation ship. He slid down as one of the earth benders got up and hit her over the head with a shield. She lost her balance. She felt her eyes roll into her head as she hit the ground.

When she came to she was shackled and in the back of a wagon with four other fire benders (including Ozai and Iroh). "Where am I?" She said in her male voice since she was used to using it now. Camil was in the crate along with a skinny fire bender she didn't recognize.

"Well we're in a crate full of the last remaining troops from the camp." Ozai said. "But there's nothing to worry about since we're all about to DIE!"

"It took forever to get us all in here because they wanted to capture you because they saw how well you fought. They wouldn't leave until you were captured. I didn't know you could fight like that..." Iroh said.

"What's thing made of...wood?" Zuko changed the subject.

"Ya...but there's earth benders at every inch of it." Camil said.

"Every inch huh..." Zuko smirked. "I have an idea."