Chapter 3

The Face in the Water

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender, hell I don't even own a car.

This chapter is dedicated to Nightfall2525. Thanks for the review; it made me happy and smiley and such.

Zuko stood up, Katara looked up at him but he didn't look back at her, he was lost in his memories. Iroh knew that his nephew needed to be alone for a while, so he simply looked at Zuko and said, "Don't be gone for to long. I don't want to loose you, too."

Saying nothing to him, Zuko grunted and walked away his shoulder bumping into Sokka's, still he said nothing, just kept walking down the dark path towards a near by lake.

"Sokka," Katara said to him, not in her normal sweet tone but in her you're-a-freaking-moron tone. "Follow him. Apologize to him or I'll have Aang do all of the cooking for the next three weeks."

As soon as he heard the threat of Aang doing the cooking he jumped up. Aang may be the master of all of elements, but he's probably the worst cook in this world and the next. Sokka began walking quietly after Zuko. He hated having to clean up his own messes. But no, no one would help him out when there was an angry Prince involved.

Stalking after Zuko, Sokka thought of what to say.

"Sokka." Toph walked up behind him. He almost jumped out of his skin he was so surprised. "Count slowly backwards from one hundred after I'm fully out of your view and than start walking again."

"Alright." He knew better than to disagree with the earthbender, he had done it before and did not want to live though that again.

Leaning over the water, Zuko thought of his mother. Of how he and his Uncle used to talk of her all the time just to keep her memory alive, but now. Now it was different, it was a subject that was touchy; the conversations of her were few and far between.

Flashback

A crying boy held by his mother were seen in the palace garden, flowers framing the entire space, a bench on one side and a fountain near the entrance, trying to calm and soothe the crying child she spoke to him softly and lovingly.

"But Mama, what if I don't want to be a fire lord?" Hugging her son closely she smiled and nuzzled his hair with her nose.

"You can be anything Zuko. Whatever you decided to be you will be known through out the world. You'll be a great firebender one day, the greatest of them all. And I'll be able to tell everyone I see-'That's my son.' I'll be so proud of you Zuko, I am so proud of you, you're doing so well and ;learning so fast."

Zuko wiggled out of his mother's arms and went to show her one of his new moves. "Look at what Uncle showed me!" Standing with his feet apart he concentrated hard, jumped and kick, shooting a tiny fire blast out of his foot.

His mother clapped and cheered for him, reaching out to him, Zuko ran into his arms.

A tear rolled down a scared cheek, but this time there were no loving hands to wipe it away, no one to hold him and no one to share his fears. Zuko looked down at the water, "If it wasn't for you, Mama. I would have never known how to help Katara."

Looking deep into his reflection, the lone tear that had leaked out of his golden eyes fell on the water and he saw the reflection changing. Instead of seeing a dirty, disfigured, unloved, uncared for and banished prince, he saw the loving face of his mother smiling at him and whispering words he could not hear to him.

"Mama…I miss you. I love you so much." As the water calmed and his mother's beautiful face faded away, Zuko said to her, "Mama…Please…Don't leave me…"

Zuko at up when the water was fully still again, hugging his legs he cried softly into his knees.

"You miss her a lot don't you?" Zuko looked around to hear where the voice was coming from, and then he saw Toph walking towards him.

"Yeah." He was glad the girl was blind, so that she couldn't see his tears. "What do you want?"

"Look," Toph sat down right next to him, putting her feet in the water. "I'm blind. But being blind doesn't mean I can't see. I see through the earth, through my feet and hands. I can see the way you're sitting through the ground. I can sense you pain. I can smell your misery."

"What do you mean you can-"

"I mean that even though I can't see thing with my eyes, I know what your expression must be. You miss her a lot, and from what I heard from Iroh she was a wonderful woman." Toph took a deep breath and continued, "Sokka may be an idiot and smell a little funky and a moron and think with only his stomach and be extremly thick headed and not think before he speaks and-"

"Will there be a point to this any time soon?" Zuko snapped, he wasn't in the mood to talk, he wanted to wallow in his self-pity and depression and Toph was ruining that for him.

"The point is, he may be all those things but he understands how you feel. His mother was killed. Murdered, really-by your people. That's why he doesn't trust anyone from the Fire Nation; she was killed protecting him and Katara, she was killed the same way your mother was-by the same man."

Zuko's eyes widened, "How did you know that?"

"Did you know that you talking your sleep?" Zuko looked at her confused. "The nightmare you had last night, I heard the entire thing. Your father killed her."

"I never told anyone that-not even Uncle. Toph you're not…"

Smiling she as she smacked a bug away from her leg, the earthbender said, "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me." She got up and began walking away, "I think you should tell the others though, and by others I mean Katara and Iroh."

"I will…I'm just not ready yet."

"You better get ready to soon though, cause I ain't keeping this secret forever, Sparky." Toph walked towards the woods as she passed another figure she placed a hand on the man's shoulder, "Warmed him up for ya." With that, Sokka walked towards the form sitting by the water's edge.

Zuko heard twigs snapping and crunching coming closer, "Leave me alone. I don't want to talk."

"Look." Sokka stood behind him, turning around and looking up Zuko saw how uncomfortable he looked. "I'm not so good at this how thing but… I'm sorry for what you said about you're mother. I just…I don't really know how to trust people from the Fire Nation. It's just hard for me because of-look, I don't need to explain myself to you. But I am sorry for what I said. I had no idea."

Zuko just nodded at him. "We better get back to camp."

"You realize that if you don't forgive me we're going to be eating bread and eggs burnt so badly that they look and taste like charcoal."

"I accept your apology only because of what Toph said." Sokka looked at Zuko confused by what he had said. "My father did the same thing to you're mother…he just had his army kill you're mother, he didn't do it himself." Sokka couldn't believe what he had said. "Let's go back to camp."

And without another word, Zuko stood up brushed himself off and began walking back towards camp. Sokka followed him silently.

Iroh looked around the fire at the two faces he saw, Katara was sitting next to Aang, his head in her lap he was sleeping, snoring softly. Toph walked back over to the fire, picked up the sleeping boy and put him on one of the mats. Iroh sat down on his, waiting quietly for Zuko's return when Katara said, "Look they're coming back!"

Two dark figures began walking towards them, neither of them saying anything, they both laid down on mats on different sides of the fire without saying a word to anyone.

Katara scooted closer to Zuko, and after a while everyone drifted off to sleep. Everyone except for Katara that is.

Throwing more sticks into the fire to keep it going and in the process startling the sleeping man next to her.

"Sorry," she whispered, "I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's alright. I could barely sleep anyway."

Leaning forward their lips touched, the man put one arm around the woman's waist pulling her body towards his. They kissed quietly but passionately.

"I'm sorry about what Sokka said…but honestly, no one knew except for Iroh and you."

"Katara, I think I need to be entirely honest with you." Zuko pulled the beauty closer to him; she placed her head in the crook of his neck, holding to his shirt she urged him to tell her. "My mother…she didn't just leave me."

"What do you mean? Iroh said she ran from your father, that it was they only way to protect you."

"Uncle doesn't know the truth…" Zuko took a deep breath and pulled the memory from the back of his mind forward. "It was almost ten years ago, my mother had been trying to convince my father not to attack the South Pole again, that they were already defenseless and held no army, we had scarred them away. He wouldn't listen to her. I walked into the room because I heard the bickering, but one of the maids pushed me out. So I went back to my room hoping that my mother would come in to tuck me in.

"I waited in bed for about half an hour, the moon was getting high into the sky and I was getting worried. That's when I heard my door open. My mother walked to my bed held my hand and told me never to forget who I am…that she loved me but she had to leave. I cried and protested."

He paused and held Katara closer; unaware that he had awoken Sokka. Sokka simply stayed quiet and listened. Katara snaked her arms around Zuko's neck, kissed him on the cheek and watched how the flames flickered in his eyes. Taking a deep breath and holding Katara closer he continued.

"I heard my father…he was yelling. Said something to my mother, I can't remember what, but my mother kissed my forehead and held me close, told me she loved me and that we would meet again one day, if I didn't see her in the morning.

"She walked out of my room and went to face my father, she said he was going to awaken the entire palace if he didn't quiet down, he slapped her and said not to tell him what to do. She said she was going to leave tomorrow and take Azula and I with her. This enraged my father, he began screaming, and I watched their shadows through the crack in my door, walked towards it to see what was going on. All I could hear was a scream, my mother's cry and I saw my father choking her and then slapping her with a flaming hand. He pushed her onto the ground.

"She wasn't afraid. She threw a bucket of water at father. This made him even more livid, he burnt her to death, throwing a long flame at her, burning her until she could no longer move, then he walked away… I went over her. I told her I loved her and that I would make sure that her memory stayed alive. Then I saw it, her necklace, it was still intact. The golden chain had scorch marks; the flames that had killed her marked the blaze pendent. I've kept it with me ever since. Keeping her alive in my heart." And sure enough Zuko took the chain he was wearing off and showed her the blaze pendant. There were markings on it. Zuko wore it around his neck but kept it safe inside his shirt.

Tears began running down Zuko's cheeks; he held the pendant to his heart and then put it back in his shirt. Katara wiped the tears away, and kissed his lips softly, he kissed her back through his tears; she cupped his cheeks rubbing his stubbly side burns with her thumbs. She pulled away from him, and laid down with Zuko on his mat, holding onto her tightly they both tried to fall back to sleep.

Okay so that's chapter three…if you've got some suggestions write it in your review, Give me some critiques if you wish. Reviews make me happy!

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Ciao for now!