Hey another chapter! I didn't mention earlier that Zuko does NOT in fact have his scar...yet. Or he may never have it. I know I know, Zuko's scar is what makes his character so great and awesome. However this is an alternate world of ATLA. Think of it like DC comics many multiverses. I found no reason to grant Zuko his scar at the moment if the events in Avatar don't happen here(to a point). Honestly though, this all depends on you the viewers. Do you want a scarred Zuko or do you want a scar less Zuko. Let me know what you think or how I should do it:)

Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA.

Chapter 8

Invasion

Inside the Fortress

They had expected it to be difficult to get close to the capital. But not this difficult.

Zuko and his Uncle had hid the stolen ship away and destroyed its tracker so they could make an quick escape if they were found out. They had quickly thrown away the guards clothing they worn and purchased Eden clothing from one of their merchants. Zuko wore a grey hooded poncho and a green short sleeved tunic underneath. He bought dark brown cargo pants and wore his combat boots.

Uncle Iroh had bought a long light green tunic that reached a little below his waist,a head wrap to cover his horns, and black slacks,he also wore his old warajis.

"I wonder what's going on for why there are so many guards about." Zuko whispered to his uncle.

" My guess is that they know of Azula's attack." Iroh said as he rubbed his chin.

"I wonder how they found that out?" Zuko mused.

"However it happened the Ara won't just give in to your Sister. But now it's harder to sneak into the capital." Uncle Iroh stated.

Zuko would have responded but he saw something shadowed in the alley.

"Nephew what's wrong?" Uncle Iroh asked.

"I'll be back Uncle" Zuko said before going in the alley.

The Alley was dark but Zuko could see clearly what was going on and he narrowed his eyes in anger.

There was three men. Cros from the looks of it that were surrounding a Ara woman and a Ara man. Zuko could see that the Ara man was bleeding from his nose and sporting a black eye. He could see, smell, the fear in them. He also could smell the greed and lust on the three men. He wrinkled his nose in disgust. The woman was gripping the bleeding man's arm like it was her life line. And maybe it was.

Zuko made his presence known when one of the buffoons attempted to grab at the woman.

"Hey Kong-gi I'm tired of beating up this guy why don't we have fun with his woman " buffoon number one said.

The woman's eyes widened in fear and she held even harder onto his arm.

"L-Leave her alone! Beat me up but don't touch her!" the Ara man yelled.

"Oh it'll you hurt more when we have fun with her." the man named Kong-gi said as he leered at her.

One of the other buffoons reached for the woman but was flung to the wall by a strong force.

"Who the hell?!" Kong-gi yelled as he turned to the newcomer.

"You asking for a death wish buddy!" said the other buffoon.

The man Zuko thrown started to rise and then the three surrounded him.

Zuko inwardly smiled.

The couple that Zuko had saved were looking between the hooded man and their assailants. They were worried for their hero and hoped he knew what he was doing.

" Three on one? That's not fair." Zuko said cooly.

" You should have thought about that before you messed with us kid." Kong-gi said.

Since they were Cros they hardened their skin to make it as hard as stone. Then they started throwing rocks from the ground at him.

Zuko merely sidestepped each one.

They looked at him with shock and surprise on their faces before they lunged at him.

Zuko jumped over their heads and roundhouse kicked them on the back of their heads and then landed in a crouch.

The men got up from the ground and clutched their heads before charging again.

"You better try better than that! We're Cros no weapon can break through our skin!" Kong-gi yelled as he pulled his hardened fist back to smash it in the man's face.

Zuko ducked his swing and thrust his hand hard into the man windpipe and causing him to fall and gasp for breath before he went unconscious.

The other two saw their leader go down and hesitated.

Zuko didn't.

He rushed at the the two before they could even blink and did the same thing he done to the first. They went down just the same.

" I mean't unfair for you."Zuko said

The couple looked on in amazement at the man who had taken down three men without taking a hit or even looking tired. The man turned to them and they were shocked to see he was young. He was probably 16 or 17. They couldn't see his eyes but they knew he was staring at them and they held each other a little more closer.

Zuko saw that the couple didn't relax yet looked even more tense. He guessed he must have looked pretty intimidating to them . Especially after the way he treated those low lives. He relaxed his stance and in a soft voice, at least he hoped, " Your safe now. Now go call the guards and tell them what happened here...but don't tell anyone I was here." Zuko said before turning around and walked away.

As he exited the alley he saw his uncle leaning against the wall.

" I am proud of you Nephew. You saved that couple and didn't further harm the men that meant to kill you. You even reassured the couple you weren't there enemy."

" Those scum deserved worse than what I gave them. But I won't be their judge,jury, and executioner. I won't sully my hands with their blood. I won't be my father." said Zuko.

Uncle Iroh only nodded with a small smile.

" then let's continue to the capital." Uncle Iroh said .

Zuko and his Uncle stuck to the shadows as they neared the capital gates. It was much harder to get passed this point since the guards were pretty much everywhere.

"Prince Zuko, let's rest for the night. Your sister's invasion on the Fortress is tomorrow." Uncle Iroh said.

"The exact point to why we must hurry inside and find the Ring Uncle. If Azula gets to it first it's all over." Zuko argued.

"Nephew, while we are near the capital walls. Princess Azula would have to fight her way here. There are to many guards out here prepared for war. If you get caught then our chances of getting to the Ring will vanish, but if you wait for Azula to attack there would be less guards defending the capital." Uncle Iroh explained.

Zuko shook his head in understanding and he and his Uncle went to look for a Inn to stay in for the night.

Approaching the atmosphere of Anahita

A man walked down the hall of the huge galactic vessel he was on and turned a corner till he was right in front of two cybernetic doors. He knocked on them and waited till he heard a feminine 'Enter'.

He walked in and quickly bowed and only rose when he was given permission to speak.

"Princess Azula, I have the damage assessment you requested." the man said.

Princess Azula turned around from watching the battle outside her observatory before glancing towards the man.

" Well Captain ?" she said in a cool tone.

On the outside the captain kept perfect posture and continued to look straight ahead. On the inside however, he wanted to be anywhere else but here. He'd rather be with the vassals squabbling the toilets.

He hadn't always been afraid of the Princess. No that was learned and forced into him. At first he thought she was a mere weak woman. She proved her whole crew wrong within the first 15 minutes after the captain before him, rest his soul, started to doubt in her ability to take care of a crew and bash her with crude words about her pleasing them all to get their acceptance.

She merely smiled and shot a blast of lightning that no one saw coming. No one even saw raise her hands to strike.

The Princess was terrifying to say the least. She was the ONLY Drogon known to have Blue dragon scales along her body and instead of gold reptilian eyes, hers was pure could use high level fire magic that was blue and she could even conjure lightning.

The captain cleared his throat before speaking, " We have four damaged thrusters from our sixteen total. Our shielding will be back up in a couple hours so we can start repairing them. Our casualties rate right now is 40,000. We have 160,000 men left Princess." the captain said.

"I must admit that those Ara put up a better fight than I thought at first. But they will all fall the same. Captain we are leaving immediately. Head into their Atmosphere now." said Princess Azula.

"What about the shields? Shouldn't we wait till then to strike?" the captain questioned.

That's when he made his mistake.

The Princess turned a towards him with a small smile.

"Do you normally question your superiors captain?" said Princess Azula.

" N-No Princess Azula. I meant no disrespect." the captain said as his cool demeanor left him.

"Even so, you questioned an order from your higher up. That is deemed a punishment on my ship." she said still with the wry smile on her face.

The captain did a full kowtow to Princess Azula. She had to admit that he had a brain,no matter how small it was.

But she still had punishment to deliver. However, she had something more better suited for the captain.

" You are forgiven captain. In fact , I'll reward you . You will be leading the charge against the capital planet as soon as we are ready to depart." she said to him.

The captain was shocked. He expected torture for what he had done. But his princess had show leniency towards him. He thanked Agni repeatedly and his merciful Princess .

" You are dismissed." Azula said before turning back to the battle raging outside.

" Thank you ,Highness. I won't let you down." said the captain giving a deep bow. He left the room immediately while he still could.

Two people stepped out of the shadows once the captain had left.

" Azula you frightened him so bad he looked like he was gonna pass out." the first person said with a giggle.

" He might've pissed himself as well." the second said in a bored voice.

Azula merely smiled at the show she gave her friends.

"Ty lee,Mai. I want you both to plant explosives on the captain's ship. He will kamikaze himself in the name of Agnimitra. Only then will he redeem himself." said Azula with an evil gleam in her eyes.

"Aye Aye Azula!" Ty lee said while give a salute then cartwheeling away.

"Sounds boring. But what's not on this ship." Mai said as she followed Ty lee.

They will attack soon and when they do. They will not fail.

Zuko and his Uncle were woken up in the middle of the night by loud explosion outside. They walked outside to see a fleet of ships closing in on the Fortress. They were a bit far off but was gaining speed. Apparently Azula decided to attack within the night to gain an advantage.

Apparently that didn't happen.

Zuko had to admit that the Aras knew how to fight. They had large gun turrets shooting down ships and their own sets of ships having dog fights in the sky. Azula might've had more time to prepare but she was not going to win this hands down.

"Prince Zuko, we must hurry into the capital while the guards are away if we are to get the ring before Azula." Uncle Iroh said to get his attention back to the mission.

"Alright. Let's hurry Uncle." Zuko said and they left to the capital.

It was much easier getting pass the security this time since majority of their soldiers were off fighting. Not to say it wasn't tight though. The Aras still had a good amount of soldiers guarding the capital. However, Zuko was a master of stealth and his Uncle skills were as sharp as ever. They arrived at a fork in the road and had to make a decision.

"We should split up Uncle. We can cover more ground and find the Ring faster." Zuko said.

"I don't know Nephew. We don't know our way around the capital. What if you get caught? I won't be able to back you up or find you fast enough." Iroh said.

"I don't see any other way of doing it Uncle. If we don't split up and go one way the Ring may be on the other path. I can take care of myself. Plus if things get too serious I'll send you a message to flee." Zuko said.

"I will not leave you Nephew!" Uncle Iroh scolding him before continuing in a calmer voice " but you do make valid points. I will go left. You go right. And we'll meet back here if we find nothing." Uncle Iroh said.

"Agreed" Zuko said before taking off down his path.

Iroh sent a prayer to Agni to keep him and his nephew safe before taking off down his own path.

Zuko kept to the shadows as he went swiftly made his way through the corridor. He checked each room he passed to see if the Ring could be kept there. But all he found were either sleeping dignitaries or empty rooms. He even walked in on a man...ahem...with his mistress.

His cheeks still had a rosy hue and he repeatedly hoped his uncle was having a better time finding the Ring than he did.

He turned another corner that led up some stairs and continued onward.

After about an hour of searching Zuko stopped at a balcony overseeing a huge fountain that spurted water from the heard noises coming from below near the fountain. It sounded like someone was being attacked. Zuko knew he shouldn't have cared and kept looking for Ring, but he got curious. Besides he wasn't making any progress and it might've been his uncle in danger.

Zuko got near enough to see what was going on but not near enough to be seen and was shocked at what he found. There were six men, Drogons from the looks of it, surrounding a young Ara girl about his age. The men were shooting flames from their hands and trying to get closer to the girl fighting back with water. The girl was inexperienced in combat but made up for it by swiftly dodging the streams of fire.

Then one of the Drogons retracted their wings and snuck behind the unsuspecting girl and shot a ball of fire at her. She turned around and almost blocked the full blast but got hit and flew back towards the wall.

Stupid,stupid, stupid Katara! Katara thought angrily in her head. How could she let herself be ambushed. If she wasn't so damn stubborn and listened to Sokka then none of this would have happened.

An hour earlier…

After Sokka had told both Aang and Katara what happened at the meeting. They both started to prepare for the battle that was coming. Katara never been in actual combat before. She's never even been in sparring matches with anyone else. In Anahita it was forbidden for women to know how to duel with magic. They were only allowed to learn healing magic. But Katara never let that stopped her. Katara always snuck into the training rooms to observe the men in the virtual simulators. So she took what she saw and practiced it every night in her chambers until she mastered it.

Of course practicing with by yourself is a far cry from actual sparring.

She had begged her father to let her fight and he, not for the first time, denied her. She even resorted to asking Aang to help her practice but he did not want to hurt her or disobey her father's wishes.

She felt completely useless. And she hated it.

When they were attacked in the night. Sokka came to her room and told her to get to safety in one of the royal bunkers. She of course refused and followed behind him silently. It was going good until he turned a corner and she lost him. She wandered around for 20 minutes trying to spot him again, but that's when she ran into them.

There were six Drogon men that had their backs turned to her. It wasn't her first time seeing Drogons before. No her first was when she had.. lost her.

She would never forget that day nor would she forget those golden reptilian eyes they all possessed.

Fear gripped her for the moment and she hid behind the pillar adjacent to her. She heard them talking about finding a Ring and placing bets to who ever could kill the Chief of the Ara. That's when something snapped in her. Anger replaced and smashed her fear into dust. She would not lose another loved one to those monsters ever again.

She saw the great fountain nearby and rushed towards them with her water whips drawn.

Now…

She wished she had learned more. She wished that her people weren't so sexist. She wished she was stronger. However, no matter how much she wished she knew she messed up big time and let her anger get the better of her.

Then men drew closer surrounding her on all sides with smirks and leers on their faces.

"Don't worry girly, we'll be nice and gentle" one of them said.

The others laughed.

The fear she had earlier rushed into her with an iron grip.

Then suddenly something or rather someone dropped in front of her.

Zuko had seen enough. He was too late to stop her from getting hurt. But he refused to watch her be hurt like that by these low lives . He never expected his own people to resort to something this low. Where was the honor in that? He put on a blue mask under his hooded poncho and leapt down from the balcony in front of the girl and narrowed his eyes into slits. He raised a hand and beckoned for them to bring it.

The men looked at the cloaked man and laughed at his gesture. Did he expect to actually take them on? They were going to have to show this clown to not mess with Drogons. They all lunged fast at him from all angles with breaths of fire or flaming fist.

He crouched down and pick up the girl bridal style before leaping into the air avoiding the attacks.

The girl let out a shriek in mid-air before sending a glare at him.

"hey!" she hissed at him.

Zuko looked at her through his mask with an confused expression. He didn't expect a thank you but not that either.

" Can you cause a smoke screen?" Zuko asked her before putting her down when they were hidden enough from the men.

Apparently shocked that he had spoke she nodded her head after a minute.

" Good, then I need you to put a big one over them." Zuko said.

Katara was shocked when he spoke to her. She thought he was much older than her with the cloak he wore,but when he spoke to her he sounded around her brother's age.

He then asked her to make a smoke screen and when she did she expected them to make a run for it while the men were confused in the fog. However, he rushed into the smoke and incapacitated every single one of them in a matter of seconds.

He came back out and walked towards her.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Um.. yes I am. Uh thank you for helping me." she said with a blush.

Why am I blushing?! she angrily wondered.

She hissed when he touched a spot on her arm.

"Sorry" he said immediately pulling back before continuing. " wait here, I'll be back with some balm and bandages."

" it's okay really. Look see" she started healing her arm from the water she drawn from the fountain as he turned back to her.

"Wow. Neat ability." he said in a surprised tone.

She smiled at him and then said " My name is Katara. What's yours?"

"Li" said Li.

Katara would have asked him another question but heard running footsteps coming fast down the corner.

Li opened a door behind her and pulled them both inside. He then leaned against the frame to hear the footsteps as they passed them.

He then turned around to face her.

Zuko was a bit taken back by the girl in front of him. She was beautiful. That's for sure. He's seen some real beautiful girls before but they are a far cry from her. He thanked Agni for the wisdom of the mask. He'd be embarrassed if she saw the red across his face. And he wasn't talking about his scales.

She had nice light blue scales throughout her body and deep blue eyes. Why hadn't he noticed her earlier he didn't know.

Katara looked at Li and couldn't really discern much of his physical features because he wore a big hooded cloak with bandage wraps on his arms and any other exposed area. He wore a blue demonic mask that actually put her at ease than scare her. She figured he was a Cros since he dressed in their colors.

As if they both realized they were staring at each other. They looked away with a blushes spread across their cheeks.

"Well now that you are safe. I must get going" said Li.

Wait what?

" Wait Li!" Katara said causing him to stop from turning the door knob. He then turned towards her causing her blush to deepen.

"Um.. the way you fought those men. How did you do it?" she asked.

He tilted his head as if asking her to elaborate.

" You beat them without magic. I've asked my father and my brother to allow me to fight, but they refuse. I'm so desperate I'm asking a complete stranger for help." she said with a sad sigh.

Zuko actually thought over her request. She was really inexperienced but had potential. She really seemed desperate if she was willing to ask him a guy she just met. He however had a mission to complete and hurry to find his Uncle. Hopefully he had some luck with the Ring. He was about to decline her request until he saw the emptiness in her eyes. She was truly desperate.

He sighed. He was such a sucker.

Katara heard him sigh through his mask and prepared herself for another no. Why were all men sexist?Why didn't they think she could do the same things they did! Anger was rising within her until Li squashed it with his next response.

" midnight tonight. Be outside the capital gates. Look into the first alley on the right for the mask of the blue spirit." he said before turning to leave " stay safe till then."

He was gone.

Katara let a small smile grow on her face once Li left her.

Then as if remembering what was happening outside at this moment her smile fell and she rushed out the room. She hoped her family was safe and they were winning the battle.

A/N: Ooo what'll happen next. I don't even know where my mind will take me ;).

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter

Sayonara!

ooJollyZuZuoo