CHAPTER ONE: The Girl With The Whip
A YEAR LATER
Zuko and Iroh sat inside the teashop. Iroh was working on closing and locking up. Zuko sat at a table, slouching and twirling a slightly bent spoon in between his fingers. As Iroh put away the last of the teacups, he noticed how down Zuko was looking.
"Zuko, your looking quite bored. Why don't you go explore the city?" he asked sympathetically. Zuko rolled his eyes and dropped the spoon on the table with a small clink!
"There isn't much else to do outside the shop either." He huffed. But it was too late; Iroh was shoving him out the door, wishing him to have a good time.
Once outside, Zuko rolled his amber eyes again and stuffed his hands in his pockets. Might as well take a stroll while I'm out here, he thought, knowing Iroh probably wouldn't let him back in until much later. He began to walk the vacant streets of Ba Sing Se. The outer wall wasn't the safest place to walk around at night, but the young prince didn't feel troubled. He kicked at the pebbles on the yellow dirt road and starred at the heaps of trash piled up against the walls of shops and houses. Damp clothing hung on twine wire across the rooftops, drying in the cool night air.
Nobody was awake; nobody was outside except for the black pygmy pumas and the other alley vermin. Zuko could've sworn he heard somebody sneak past him in the shadows.
"Who's there?" he barked, his voice echoing in the darkness. Nobody answered. Zuko shook his head and kept walking, figuring he was just being paranoid.
Once again, he thought he'd heard somebody or something behind him. He whipped around, instantly on guard and ready for a fight.
"Show yourself!" he shouted into the seemingly empty alleyway. The sound bounced and echoed off the walls until it disappeared. There was no more sound except for that of the wind whistling in the streets. He stood still, watching the night with an eye as watch full as a falcon. He stood like this for a few minutes, making sure that he was in fact alone. When the coast seemed clear, he let his guard down.
Big mistake.
"OOF!" the prince grunted as somebody slammed into him. The person had charged at him from the left side, colliding with him and knocking him all the way from where he was standing and into the very back of the alley on his right. Without stopping for more than a second, the mystery person flicked a long whip around a pipe and scaled the wall, dragging Zuko by the shirt.
He looked up to see it was a girl who had attacked him. He was so shocked by what had happened, he didn't think to fight back. She dragged him onto the roof and threw him to the ground before making some sort of howling noise into the night. Another howl, varying slightly from her own, was returned by somebody on another rooftop.
"Who are you? What are you doing?" Zuko spat, trying to catch his breath. He stood up and finally got a good look at his capture. She was wearing a sleek black shirt that ended at her midriff with a matching skirt. The garments revealed porcelain skin and numerous black tattoos, swirling and winding like vines over her body. Her hair was so black it looked almost blue and the right side of her face was marked with a long, slender scar that slid from her eyebrow to her chin. Her right eye, caught in the middle of the scar, was a vacant and clouded orb of nothing.
"I'm Zasha. I'm mugging you." She explained in a voice as sharp as wormwood tea. "Give me your money." She ordered, cracking the long whip her hand. Zuko was surprised and shocked and didn't move. She cracked the whip again.
"I don't have any money!" he said honestly. She glared at him with her mismatched eyes and pursed lips.
"Come with me." she snapped, grabbing his wrist. She pulled him down the ladder on the side of the building they were on. She dragged him for a short distance to what looked like a run down house. The windows were broken and the door was hanging off on its hinges. She yanked him inside.
The place was anything was run down inside. Three people had a fire going in the middle of the room. There were two other voices chatting in another room. And Zuko heard numerous footsteps coming from the upstairs.
"Cho! Come 'ere and see what I found slinking around our turf!" Zasha shouted. Another girl with thick brown pigtails and a short, tattered red dress came in from the other room. She was wearing a scowl on her face and the others stopped talking to look up.
"Well, well, well. What do ya know? Another refugee, eh?" Cho speculated, eyeing him from head to toe. "Hey! I know you!" A wave of terror fell over Zuko. "Your that kid who stole Song's ostrich-horse!" Relief was a very sweet thing.
"You know Song?" was all he could think to say at this point.
"We work at the clinic together." Cho said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why'd ya bring this punk in here Za?" she asked, turning to Zasha.
"I tried to mug him, but he didn't have any money. But look at him. Something isn't quite right." She explained, the lines of her face creasing into a scowl.
"Think he could be useful?" Cho asked. Zuko was getting agitated. He didn't like the way they were talking, like he wasn't even there.
"I dunno. I think he looks kind of soft." Zasha said, rubbing her chin.
"Hey, I am not soft!" he butted in. the two girls turned their attention back to the fuming prince.
"Okay, okay. No need to get snippy." Cho said, waving away his temper with her hand. "What happened to you leg?" she said, bending down and squinting. Zuko looked down. There was a rather large scrape and rip in his pants on his left leg. He must've got it when Zasha jumped him. It wasn't paining him, but it looked quite bad.
"Za, take care of him. I have to go meet Chitter Bug." Cho said, patting Zasha on the back. Zasha rolled her eyes, but nodded and led Zuko to the other room.
It was a kitchen. Most of the cabinets didn't have doors on them and the ones that did had scorch marks and holes in them. There was no sink, just a gaping hole on the counter. She shoved Zuko into a chair and went to a cabinet with a door on it and brought out a bottle and some gauze wrap. She kneeled on the ground in front of him and poured some of the liquid in the bottle on his scrape. It stung and bubble, causing Zuko to cringe.
"Sorry about the stinging. It kills germs." She apologized, wrapping the wound tightly in the white gauze. "There, good as new." She said when she'd finished.
"Uh, thanks." Zuko said, scratching his head.
"So who are you and what brings you to Ba Sing Se?" she asked, sitting cross-legged on a chair next to him.
"I'm Lee. My uncle and I have a tea shop not far from here." He lied. She nodded. "What about you?" he asked, curious to know more about this girl. She sighed heavily before answering.
"It's a very long and very complicated story; one I don't care to speak of at this time." She said firmly. Zuko didn't pry any further.
"Who's Chitter Bug?" he asked, changing the subject. Zasha smirked and chuckled softly.
"She's part of our club here. We're all Fire Nation refugees. Some of us are fire benders, but most of us aren't. We're all either orphans or runaways." She explained.
"Are you a fire bender?" he asked, curiosity growing. She shook her head. "So you're a gang?"
"Something like that. People call us nare-do-wells, disposable, but my favorite nickname would have to be the Sleek Slayers." She shrugged.
"Its getting pretty late, I should get you home before your uncle starts worrying about you." She said after a few minutes. The stood up and walked from the kitchen to the living room. a few boys a girl ill clad in mock army uniforms sat around the fire in the middle of the floor, singing and chanting to one another.
"Zaza! Where are ya goin'? Don't you wanna join in?" asked a small girl with a voice like that of a frog.
"I can't right now. I gotta walk this dude home. Wouldn't want him to get hurt all by himself now would I?" she teased, making Zuko's temper flair. He was about to object when she grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled him out the door.
"What was that about?" he scowled as they walked the streets.
"What?" she asked, looking genuinely confused. Zuko rolled his eyes and led the way.
"I know who you are, Zuko…" Zasha mumbled darkly after they turned a corner.
"What? How?" he snapped, worry consuming him.
"Psh, how could I forget that face? Your hair looks quite different now, but I could never forget such a face." she said, looking at him coyly. He was speechless. This was it, he would have to be on the run again.
"I won't tell anybody though. They'd probably kill you if they found out. I wouldn't want that." She promised. Zuko still felt very, very concerned.
"How do I know your not lying?" he asked when they reached the outside of the teashop. She stood on tiptoe, as if she meant to kiss Zuko. He stood stalk still, but instead she simply moved her lips nearer to his ear and whispered-
"I can help you find what you're looking for. Come find me." she breathed deftly, causing a shiver to run down Zuko's spine. He blinked at her and watched her as she printed off into the night, her silhouette scaling buildings before it disappeared into the darkness.
"Who was that girl you were with?" Iroh asked suggestively as Zuko reentered the shop. He walked by in a slight daze.
"She's going to help us find the Avatar." He said, a satisfied smirk spreading over his face. Iroh frowned in disappointment, but said nothing. And just when he thought his nephew was over coming such difficulties.