(A/N I almost never put these in here, so I thought I'd start, and I'm too lazy to put this in the first chapter.
So, anyway, I started this story before I saw "Avatar Day", that's why Zuko is trying to save Iroh, not run away from him. Although I was inspired by the title and description of "Zuko Alone", I had not actually seen any previews for it or anything.
To answer my first review: I don't like Haru either, that's why I made him dumb, and I wanted to add a little humor. I personally haven't liked any of the earth benders they've Nickelodeon introduced except Bumi, and that includes Toph.
Oh, don't get me started on how much I LOATHE Toph.)
Azula was so pleased with her new find that she allowed her men twenty minutes to stop for breakfast. She fanned herself in her carriage with a widening grin.
One target down. Two to go.
She glanced outside at the old man leaning up against the carriage. He was in bad shape, and hadn't acknowledged that any of them were in existence since they'd picked him up.
Iroh was extremely sick.
Azula was delirious.
Xxx
Aang found a quiet place in the forest, far away from Zuko. Far away from everyone.
It was times like this that he wished he had died with his people. He never would have had to live to see the day when friendships depended entirely on your birthplace. A hundred years ago, it hadn't mattered what nation you were from. All were a family, and all were friends. It wasn't like that now.
Aang bit back unbidden tears.
Xxx
"I have to go." Zuko said, finally breaking the tense silence that engulfed the clearing.
"Good idea." Sokka snarled.
"No." Katara tripped Zuko by grabbing his leg with a stream of water. "You aren't leaving until you tell us what happened between you and Aang."
"The avatar is delusional." Zuko snapped, and tried to shake his leg from her grasp. "He doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm leaving before any of these-."
He caught Mai's face.
"Oh no…" He muttered, recognizing the girl.
Sokka moved from his position near her flaccid from. "What?" he gasped.
Zuko looked around and found Ty Lee. "This is bad."
"Talk Zuko." Katara demanded, pulling an ice spear to his throat.
"I know these people."
"Are they from the fire nation, too?" Haru asked.
They all glared at him.
"Haru, be quiet for just a few seconds, okay. This is kind of important." Sokka said.
"These two are my sister's… friends."
"You have a sister?" Sokka gasped.
"These are the same people who were at Omashu!" Katara exclaimed. "But that other girl is missing. The fire bending one."
"Your sister?" Sokka questioned.
Zuko shrugged. "It's not my problem. I'm leaving."
He walked to the cave entrance.
"No way down without an earth bender…" Katara said smugly.
Zuko turned to her with rising agitation. "Your childish comments are really beginning to test my nerves, you little peasant!"
Katara scowled and held her arms up challengingly, "Tell me why Aang is so upset, and I'll consider not beating you too bad, Zuko."
Zuko took his stance, smoke fizzling from the ends of his fingertips. "I don't have to tell you anything, and you have no chance of beating me!"
Sokka scoffed, "From what it sounded like to me, she beat you before."
"Quiet, filth!" Zuko yelled, taking his eye momentarily from Katara and glaring at Sokka, "You're next!"
"Don't touch Katara!" Haru bawled at Zuko, as if his threat would sway Zuko's actions in any way.
Zuko steadied his left leg, rooting himself to the ground, and pulled his right leg to his hip. He swung his heel forward, propelling a fireball in Katara's direction.
She blocked it with a wall of water.
Momo screeched from Sokka's shoulder. Sokka yawned. He hated these bender fights. The most he could do was give moral support. He rolled his neck, and caught movement from the corner of his eye; Ty Lee was rising, rubbing her head with one spidery hand.
Sokka grabbed his club and whopped her on the crown with the butt of his weapon. She groaned and slumped back onto the ground.
"Can you two hurry? They're starting to wake up." He said, checking around to make sure he didn't have to whack anyone else's head.
"Don't worry, Sokka. This should be quick." Katara smirked.
Zuko heard the falls thundering behind him, and realized his position was at full disadvantage. If a fire bender did not have an offensive standing, he was as good as dead. The fire nation's only weakness was its lack of defense.
Katara's arms swooped around her.
Zuko bolted for her, flames in hand. He had one shot; otherwise he'd wake up soaked, and probably staring into his own sister's face.
Katara bended the water directly from the fall's lip, focusing it into a point: Zuko's advancing torso. She pulled her hand in front of her to block him.
Just as he was an arm length's away, the fire from his left hand vanished, and in a flash of silver, she barely saw the sword being pulled from its sheath behind him. Katara dropped the water that had been only inches from pulling him down, and instead she threw her hands over her face in a panic.
The blow never came.
Sokka was yelling something obscene, and Haru was hurling threats at Zuko like Momo threw rocks. But neither Zuko nor Katara heard anything he said. She was too terror-stricken to notice, and he was too overwhelmed by his sudden actions to care.
He lowered his sword arm and stepped closer to Katara, glowering.
"I don't need to kill you to prove that I'm better." He snarled.
She felt a chill run over her, and she was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the temperature.
He brushed past her, ignoring the other boys' warnings.
Katara was left with a numb feeling, as if she'd laughed very hard for an extensive amount of time. She squeezed her eyes shut and wished that the burning light of Zuko's eyes would leave her conscience. But the image didn't fade.
xxx
Zuko stumbled through the underbrush of the forest. Again and again he wished for a rhino, for whom the thorns would prove to be no obstacle.
He knelt, studying the small, light footprints of the boy he was trailing. Zuko huffed impatiently. The avatar's footing was almost too light to see.
He must practically glide, Zuko thought bitterly. No wonder it was impossible for his men and himself to catch him.
The irony of his actions hit him similar to the branch that just struck the back of his head. He was trying to find the avatar, but his time it wasn't to capture him. It was to reconcile with him.
"I'm turning into Uncle," Zuko muttered gloomily.
He crashed through a thicket, tripping over the last bit of it and landing in the mud. He groaned and pried himself from the sticky earth.
A burst of red and yellow faced him as he glanced upwards.
Aang had his back to him, bent in meditation.
Xxx
Katara slumped against Sokka, half dead with relief and half uprooted with confusion.
"Are you okay, Katara?" Sokka asked softly.
"He doesn't make any sense," she muttered, bewilderedly, into Sokka's shoulder.
"I think he ran off somewhere," Haru said, still gathering what had just happened.
Sokka scowled at him, "Nothing gets past you, does it? Listen, I think we should go after him. He may be after Aang."
Katara pulled away from Sokka's embrace and looked around her.
"No," she answered quietly, "Aang can hold his own. We need to get away from here. Haru, we're going to need to get Appa out of that cave."
Xxx
"If you've come here to take me, please do it now." Aang whispered upon hearing the prince fall behind him.
Zuko straightened and brushed his pants off with the heels of his hands. He took a folded position next to the avatar.
"I don't want to capture you," Zuko answered, his voice hushed and distant.
Aang opened his grey eyes to peer at the boy seated next to him. He opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came to his mind.
Zuko lifted his face to a slight breeze that had somehow found its way through the dense leaves. He sighed.
"I was always taught that the fire nation had a… a birth right over the other nations. My father said we were meant to rule the world. Fire is meant to dominate…" Zuko paused and fumbled with the cuff of his sleeve. "It… it doesn't lead. It consumes. It takes everything without so much as a glance behind."
Aang narrowed his eyes, finding it hard to believe that these words were coming from Zuko.
"I've thought a lot about what you said to me," Zuko whispered, "And I think… We could have been friends…. I wish…."
"What?" Aang asked.
"Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I was someone else. What if I wasn't the prince of the Fire Nation? What if I could lead my own life, without prejudices or war…?"
"We all think that at some point."
"Well. I guess I can't change who I am."
"No, but you can change what you do. You don't have to be like your father." Aang paused, wondering if he'd said too much.
"I don't want to be like my father, necessarily, but I don't want to live my life as an outcast, with as much worth as any other convict of the Fire Nation… I just wish he'd accept me."
"Why… Never mind. What if you did something that was good enough for someone else? Does the Fire Nation have to accept you, or can someone else?"
"I… I don't know."
"I know it wouldn't be the same. I guess I'm kind of in the same situation." Aang's brow puckered in contemplation, "Other nations accept that I am the avatar, and they agree with what I'm doing, but I'll never know how my own people feel. Sometimes I get the feeling like they wouldn't approve… And I'll never be able to understand if they would…"
Aang drifted off unhappily.
"At times I wonder what would happen if my father did succeed. The world would be… Well, you would know. How would it be?" Zuko asked.
"I can't let it happen. There is a balance in this world, and if Ozai did take over, he'd tip the scale. No one can survive without a balance. Even the Fire Nation would crumble without any harmony."
Zuko stared uncomfortably in the distance, "I don't think Uncle wants my father to win this war."
"Do you?"
"I don't really have much of a say, anyway. I'm not on either side." Zuko answered gloomily.
Aang nodded, wishing that Zuko would've agreed with Aang's destiny.
"I don't think I've talked to anyone this much since my mother was alive." Zuko added quietly.
"Were you close to her?"
"Yes. I was."
"I'm sorry."
Zuko shrugged, "I've had a lot of losses in my life. They're all starting to blend together."
"I know how you feel. Sometimes it seems so surreal… It's still hard for me to grasp what happened to my people. I just… I can't believe they're gone."
"Is there any good in the world, Aang?" Zuko asked, hoping he had an answer to satisfy both of their grief.
"Yes," Aang said thickly, "It's right here."
Zuko looked to Aang, and the two smiled at one another. For the first time in years, Zuko's doubts of himself were somewhat assuaged. And Aang finally felt as if he could end this war, little bit by little bit.
Zuko's face fell, "I have to go. Uncle is very sick, and I should've been back with medicine for him by now."
Aang rose to his feet and helped Zuko up as well, "I want to help you find him, and Katara is a healer, so maybe she can help."
Zuko turned away, his face darkening once more. "I don't think she will."
Xxx
Katara finished strapping a bag onto Appa's saddle. She looked up to the wood's edge again.
"Aang," she whispered, "Please hurry."
Sokka and Haru finished tying the soldiers and their two girl leaders to trees with their own rope. Sokka had discovered a coil of the rope while rummaging through the soldiers' gear. He had held it up triumphantly, an the two had begun to secure the enemies to the trees.
"Let's see them try and get us now," Sokka grinned at his handiwork.
"I think this will work, Sokka," Haru agreed, brushing his hands on his leggings.
Katara hopped down from Appa and hugged her frame. She walked over to the boys.
"Maybe we should go after Aang… It's been too long. He should be back by now." She said, her eyes still glued to the forest edge.
"Aang's probably just making sure Zuko's butt gets a proper kicking. Besides, it's not like that stuffy snob could go as far as ten feet without Aang escaping from him," Sokka answered, stretching nonchalantly.
"I wonder what Aang was so upset about," Katara pondered.
"He was probably mad," Haru replied.
She ignored his insufficient retort, because at that moment Aang had reentered the camp.
With Zuko right behind him.
A/N – Okay, be as brutal as you can! I was really excited about this part, but I think I made Zuko a little too un-snappish, and way too friendly.