okay. Let me start this whole chapter off with an apology to the readers. I had this chapter finished earlier, but when my beta reader read it, I was told to re-do about half of it, mostly for ill action, ill planning, ill character, and ill dialogue. And thus, in between rewriting and reviewing episodes offline, posting took far longer than normal. So, for any of those who waited for this to come and assumed I'd abandoned this project, my greatest apologies.

No for the good news: this is twice as long a chapter than usual!

Please enjoy

The riders of the iguana-oxen were Fire Nation, but only foot soldiers really. I doubted if any of the three of them could firebend. Even if they could, it wouldn't have been enough to help themselves…

The three prisoners were chained by their wrists, the riders holding each prisoner by a lead chain. The prisoners were also shackled by the ankles, just enough for them to walk, but not run. The prisoners were three women, their clothing Earth Kingdom peasantry, same as the ones I'd stolen. The three women all seemed of similar age, being hardly older or younger than I. They had been injured, and I could see defensive wounds on their arms and legs.

This sight was nothing new to me, as a soldier-former soldier of the Fire Nation in the thick of its 'Age of Expansion' as they were calling it; an ambitious cause started one hundred years ago by my great grandfather Sozin, continued by my grandfather Azulon, and carried out in victorious glory by my father, Fire Lord Ozai. Prisoners and slaves were a part of daily life.

Yet, there was something different about this encounter. Something about this sight made the heat in my body rise; a physical symptom of wanting to firebend, wanting to fight.

"The Fire Nation's hurt me too."

This simple, but pretty and kind girl, scarred for life.

"I hate you!"

This peasant boy who looked at me as a hero, a boy whom I've saved, glares at me with hate and fear. I would never harm him. I would never harm any of them…

I didn't know these three women. But I pitied them and wanted to help them. I didn't know the three soldiers either, but I knew every thought in their heads at this very moment. None of which were very redeeming for them.

How much will they take? How much more can they take?

When will they stop?

I realized these to be the thoughts of every person outside of my nation, the nation I had been raised to serve and worship and glorify, the nation I had been told to be the most superior of all other nations, favored by the spirits, better than all other benders. These were the thoughts of those whose families had been taken, their villages burned. Everything burned. Life burned. Children, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. They all burned. And it was the Fire Nation that set them all alight.

'But that is the way it has always been,' I thought, 'I was told… I was always told…'

I was told to enjoy it.

I felt my whole body go numb, except for the black cold. I thought I was going to be sick. I felt the way I had when I'd fallen ill. But here there was no sleep or dreams to escape to; this was real.

"Keep moving, wench!"

I heard the bark of the Fire nation solider and held onto it, using it to pull myself out of the turmoil of my spirit.

Here and now… Here and now…

Here and now I was crouching by the roadside, watching three women be half-dragged to who knew where by these soldiers. I could do nothing about the past, nothing about the history and deception of my nation. But there was something I could do about this.

--------------------------------

I crept ahead of the procession, keeping to the very edge of the forest. Using all of my stealth, I climbed onto a low-hanging branch, barely making a sound. And there I waited as the procession continued. I remained totally still in the dark, and because of that the first two riders and their prisoners passed beneath me without even being aware of my presence. When the third rider passed under, however, I made my move.

He didn't see me and he hardly heard me. Didn't even know I existed until I tackled him. I leapt from the darkness and went for his shoulders, knowing I stood the best chance of knocking him off the iguana ox. The look on his face was more than satisfying, but I hadn't counted on him being completely off guard. Thus, instead of me pushing him off his saddle as he tried to keep his ground, we fell from the iguana-ox and onto the dirt.

I knew I had to dispatch this one first, because the other soldiers had definitely noticed my attack. We tussled on the ground, I reacting on planned maneuver and he only on reaction. It would've ended sooner if the iguana ox hadn't been so startled. The long, heavy tail swung in a haphazard pattern where we fought, the massive animal nervously stomping about. If things didn't calm down soon, it would fix on a target and charge. The tail swung over us again as I landed a hit across the soldier's face. However, he took the hit in stride and used my shift in weight to push me to the side and down, giving him the best leverage. I caught sight of weapons sheathed at his side (he had been too preoccupied with me to grab them) Suddenly, I had an idea; I pushed him up and…

With a dull whack, the tail slammed into the soldier, and he was gone. Fortunately, before he'd been hit aside I'd slipped from the sheath on his belt a pair of dao swords. As I got to my feet once I'd avoided the iguana ox, I smirked at the weapons. They felt wonderfully familiar in my hands.

"Thanks for the help," I said to the departed solider.

"Hey! Stop him!"

I turned expectantly to the other two soldiers who were riding up, spears raised. I lazily kept the daos at my side. These two would be finished as quickly as the first.

"Stand down!" one called, brandishing his weapon.

I defiantly slashed and crossed my blades through the air, to give a demonstration of what was to come. "No, I don't think so."

As I charged, I caught sight of two of the prisoners looking on from the background. Their guards had dropped their chains. I remember wondering, as I gave warrior's cry and leapt onto the nearest iguana ox, why they weren't running.

I leapt up into the air and, as the iguana ox angrily waved its horns, I only used them for greater footing as I went for the rider.

Flashing the daos, I thought this one to be as easily beat as his comrade. However, he met me with his own pair and we became braced for a moment. I took on the offensive, taking his pair with one of my own and using the other to slash at him. He managed to break and block that.

The other rider used a spear to try and break into our duel, and I had to dodge and block that while using the other dao to battle the other rider.

The daos sliced through the night air. They danced in battle, one sword, and I was one with them.

The iguana ox, meanwhile, was not pleased with its station as a battefield. It bucked wildly, roaring. My opponent lost his footing; I held onto the saddle and managed to stay on. Loosing some of the weight and with myself remaining as limp as possible, the beast calmed and steadied. I found myself face to face with the soldier wielding the spear. I stood on the animal's back, daos raised. I smirked down at him as he held up his weapon.

Finally unnerved, the soldier swung. In one smooth motion I raised one of the swords and sliced the weapon in half. The offending half of the weapon fell harmlessly to the ground. The soldier gaped at the useless stick he now held in his hand, then turned his cowardly gaze up to me. I leered down at him.

"This is what the Fire Nation has to say for itself?" I hissed with disgust overlaying my cool sliding voice.

The solider, in reply, dropped his stick and held his hands up defensively. "Please…"

A sneer crossing my face, I raised my daos to strike his regardless. I was the dishonored one of the Nation? Father preferred the Nation's glorious army rife with men such as this? At least I could fight!

"You're pathetic," I sneered to the cowering disgrace.

However, it was at this point that the other soldier, who was not so disposed as I thought him to be, grabbed my ankles and pulled, whisking me right off my feet! I hit the saddle of the iguana ox, my jaw rattling from the impact. I did at least manage to keep steady on my feet once they'd hit the ground. I turned my head, teeth gritted, to see the other soldier. I already felt the top of his sword at the back of my neck.

"Drop the weapons!" he barked. My grip only tightened on their handles. "Drop them!"

I spotted a spear sheathed in the saddle I was forced up against. It was just out of my reach, and I with the daos, I probably wouldn't have been able to use both.

Before I could think of, let alone perform a move to do anything but drop the daos, I heard a different voice as the steadiness of the blade on my back weakened. A woman's voice.

"Let him go," she said in a quiet voice that almost gave me a chill. When the soldier didn't comply, the woman repeated the order. I heard the light rattle of chains. "Let him go now!"

As my neck relaxed against the blade's departure, I turned my head and saw one of the prisoners had the soldier, the chains that had once held her she now used to wrap around his neck. I was more than a little surprised; this peasant woman showed startling strength and bravery. Her eyes met mine and I saw a kind of fierce determination I'd only seen before in the eyes of the waterbender girl of the Avatar's group.

A shout from the other soldier reminded me he was there. He'd grabbed the second spear from the other saddle, proving him to at least not be a complete fool. He raised the spear threateningly. I couldn't believe the not-complete fool thought to fight my daos against his pathetic spear again. Instead, I kept my hands on the iguana ox, my left hand being particularly close to the animal's rump. I formed a small spark on the tip of my finger and let it lazily fall onto the animal.

I perceptively leapt back just as the beast gave a ferocious roar and reared back. Its fright in turn startled the one next to it and it ran off in front, its protesting rider carried with it.

I smirked to see him be carried off, the stampeding pair of iguana oxen roaring into the night. I turned and saw the peasant woman had knocked her captive unconscious and had bound him with the chains. I observed the sight quietly, astounded and suspicious. I sheathed the daos.

Behind the girl, I noted the first iguana ox I'd encountered hadn't calmed down.

The girl noticed me, and she regarded me with curious thanks.

The iguana ox had finally reached a rage and had fixed on a target.

"That was amaz-" she started to say.

The ground rumbled…

I acted without thought, only reacted, something a trained and competent being never does. Then again, I'd like to think that in my actions I am not as cold as Azula. That I do act with purpose and sense.

Thus, I can say that I am not ashamed that I grabbed that girl and half-shoved, half carried her out of the way of the charging iguana ox.

We hit the hard dirt, getting out of the way just in time. The captured solider wasn't so fortunate.

I got to my feet again quickly and didn't look at the girl. Though, I did sense she was as unsettled and awkward by what had happened as I was. I gazed around. Where were the other girls?

Then I saw one of them had subdued the other soldier, the first one I'd taken care of. I found myself becoming even more suspicious of these foreign girls. They weren't knew to combat per se. In fact, they seemed rather in control and organized.

"Thank you."

I turned to the girl I'd saved from the iguana ox, but quickly turned away again. I don't know why I felt so uncomfortable but righteous at the same time. Yet aside from being grateful, I saw the same glint of suspicion in her eyes as I knew to have in my own.

Suddenly, ground rumbled beneath my feet and I saw the third soldier, having regained control of his animal, racing for me. Weapon lost, I could see he meant to run me over or impale me with his iguana ox. I braced myself, daos raised, but to my surprise, the soldier would never even make it to me.

Chains whipped up from outside of my line of vision and slammed into the soldier. The heavy chain slammed harshly into him, and I could just barely hear the crack of ribs. He groaned in pain, slumping in his saddle.

I looked to see the last of the women prisoners-former prisoners-hefting the chain, swinging for another attack. My eyes widened in surprise. The assumed peasant woman seemed to have the ability of a warrior!

The woman swung her chain again, but this time it hit the iguana-ox. Hurt and confused, the animal bucked wildly, roaring. The rider, unable to hold on, fell to the ground. He lay still in the dirt, but the woman covered him anyway, using the chains that had once bound her to secure him. The iguana ox, however, wasn't finished. The beast charged, its horns aimed straight at me. I readied myself, sliding the daos into my own belt; they would do no good against the charging horns.

But then I heard another roar… My heart racing, I turned and saw another of the iguana oxen headed my way. I looked from one of the rampaging beasts to the other. I couldn't outrun them, and they were beyond me in strength, their rage only adding to it. I could firebend but…

"I hate you!"

"We are the most superior benders, that is why we conquer the others…"

"The Fire Nation's hurt me too."

…somehow I felt sick at the thought of it, and that made me feel even worse. I shouldn't be ashamed of firebending, I shouldn't ever have to be ashamed of who I was.

…But who was I?

As I readied to dodge the closest iguana ox, I was saved the trouble by the girl I'd saved, who in a startling show of agility and grit leapt onto the beast and, gripping the reins, managed to cease its charge. It bucked and reared, but the woman held on, eventually using persistence to rein the animal into submission.

However, there was still the other…

It came for me, steam rising from its nostrils. I braced myself as it came, my mind racing. It was just me and the beast. As stated, I had found myself in a strange position regarding my firebending. But I could still produce heat without flame…

As I decided what I would do, I could almost picture Uncle standing next to me, telling me how stupid and dangerous my plan was.

"You could be killed!"

And suddenly I was in the wilderness again, telling Uncle to conjure lightning for me to redirect. Standing in the storm, screaming to the heavens to strike me down as they always did.

The iguana ox, like the Serpent's Pass dragon of only a few hours prior, was close enough to touch when I made my move. In fact, it had to be for what I did to work. I grabbed the horns with one hand and with the other I hit it. But I didn't just hit the animal; my hand was scorching hot when it slammed into the beast's snout.

I ignored the pain and only relished in the iguana ox's roar of its own pain as it reared and retreated, shaking its head to try and cool the fresh burn.

I turned and found myself surrounded by the three women I had helped. Immediately conscious of my scar, I stayed to the shadows, keeping the marred half of my face in darkness.

I stood before the women, but I tensed, just in case they were less than grateful for my help. The three of them had shown themselves to be fighters, and having grown up with Azula, Mai, and even Ty Lee, I wasn't a fool to underestimate them based on gender.

One of the three, the girl I'd saved from the iguana ox, stepped forward. I noticed a mean burn ran along her shoulder and I wondered, since the guards obviously didn't firebend, who had inflicted it.

"My name's Suki," she said, "This is Seiko and Zhen." The other two nodded in turn. I didn't really bother to take note of which one was which. It didn't seem to matter.

Another stepped forward. "And on behalf of the Kyoshi warriors, we offer greatest thanks!"

Suddenly, it was as though a rope had tightened within me. Kyoshi warriors! The last time I'd encountered any of them was when I'd led an invasion of their village! I gazed rather dumbstruck at the three of them. I hadn't just freed prisoners; I had helped the enemy! But how could I have been able to tell, with their painted faces and uniforms absent?

I was concerned that they could recognize me. Not so much in fear they would attack; I'd fought them before and found them… well, not quite as ferocious as legend would tell. What mattered was that if they recognized me and attacked, then the treason I'd just committed was for no reason.

"We are greatly indebted to you, sir," the one, Zhen (?), said earnestly.

"Why did you help us?" another, the one called Suki asked. While her face was one of thanks and curiosity, I caught the underlying suspicion.

"Suki, don't question the one who helped us," another chided quietly.

"No, it's fair," Suki, the apparent leader insisted with a quick stubbornness. She turned to me and gave a kind, but apologetic smile. "I only know one or two other guys who'd do something like what you did for people he didn't even know. Why'd help you us?"

I stared through one eye at her for a moment, than at the other two. I had never really been in this sort of position before. I could hardly absorb the situation, let alone come up with a half-decent reply. But no, I did have an answer.

"We've gotta get back to Ba Sing Se!"

The mute looks at me with anger, but not so much as the girl. He mostly has a gaze that says he doesn't understand me; doesn't understand why I would leave.

"Seemed the right thing," I said quietly.

The Kyoshi leader of the three, Suki, looked at me for a moment and I felt her gaze on my scar. Did she know me?

"Have we met before?" she asked, answering my internal question.

"No." I turned my face away a little more.

"That's weird," she said slowly, "You seem familiar…" She shook her head. "Oh well." She looked at me again, but this time not trying to identify me. She seemed thoughtful and a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry, but we can't pay you back for what you've done. Not tonight." Her expression darkened. "We've got scores to settle."

I observed the burn on her shoulder, knowing she spoke more than the truth. But I had no interest in having any debts or alliances with the Kyoshi. The 'rescue', I told myself, was only to release some anger that had built up from recent days. I'd only done it to exert frustration and confusion from what had happened between Uncle and myself, from telling Jin to go. That was all. I was no friend to Kyoshi or any other enemies of the Fire Nation.

"Forget it."

Suki frowned. "What?"

"Forget any debt you think you owe me," I dismissed. While I knew that refusing any and all of their returns for my assumed generosity was dishonorable for the Kyoshi, I didn't care. I turned to take my leave, to go… To go nowhere, really. Nowhere and anywhere. It didn't really matter.

"You've got a friend in the Kyoshi warriors, sir, that I can promise!" I heard one call after me.

The quietest one, Zhen, spoke softly, but anxiously enough that I heard her and stopped. "Please. Could we just have your name?"

I thought for a moment. Li was gone because Mushi was gone. I was tired of aliases. I was tired of hiding. So I answered her. Not with shame, not with pride. Only fact.

I turned to all of them, and I saw their faces drop at the sight of my scar before I even spoke. "It's Zuko."

I sensed the Kyoshi behind me tense. Surely they knew me now. I turned at one of the gasps from one of the Kyoshi: "The Fire Nation Prince?"

I nodded at the one who had spoken and saw the women I had just saved now leer and glare at me. One, Suki, had her foot back and arm raised in a half-ready battle stance. I found myself back in that dusty town, and that boy and his mother…

"Stay away from him!"

"I hate you!"

"Spirits…" Seiko whispered, she, like her fellow warriors, unsure what to do.

Another, the one called Suki, however seemed to be a bit more certain of what to do. "You attacked our village! You hunt the Avatar!"

A bitter smirk might have crossed my lips. I used to, I though to myself.

Still, not Suki or the others actually made an attack.

None of them knew what to do, their morals and knowledge clashing so ferociously that I could see it playing out on their faces. I had been in such a position before, of course. There hadn't been much of a battle then. It was all rather easily decided.

I awake, fading from a world of smoke and arrows and daos and into one of…sunlight and trees. But that can't make sense; I'd failed. I'd fallen. I should be dead or prisoner of Zhao by now. I know, because I wake up with my heart and mind racing as though I've only just left that moment when I caught sight of the Yu Yan archer's arrow headed for me…

My mask. Where is it?

Someone's talking…

"You know what the worst part about being born a hundred years ago is?"…

The Avatar. My target. My prize. And I know then. I know everything then. That he had to have saved me. And he knows the truth. And I hate him for all of it. The stupid little boy should have left me!

"Do you think we could have ever been friends?"

With a roar of anger, I attack, and I aim not to harm but to kill. I hate him. I hate him and how he's helped me. I hate him for all of it because for once I've felt… I've felt sympathy for him. And, for the most fleeting moment, I was grateful to him. And to make me feel that way is unforgivable.

Damn the system, damn that I won't be able to go home. I want him to burn like I burn, I want the stupid smiling bald head to finally show the kind of pain that blazes through me every day.

But that's something I'll never have.

He dodges my fire, and then he's gone.

There had been no real hesitation. I'd known exactly what I was going to do and no second thoughts about whether it was the right thing, about how the Avatar had saved me. But it wasn't cold, like Azula. It was just anger, and hate all a blazing inferno within me.

I turned my back on the Kyoshi. I knew they were alike with the Avatar's group. The Avatar's little band who, fools that they were, saved me, sworn enemy, from dying in the North Pole. I hadn't even done anything for them; therefore I knew I was safe to make my departure from this scene.

But one of the Kyoshi, Seiko I think, called after me, her voice angry. I knew her anger. She was furious at me because she was supposed to hate me, fight me, even kill me, and I'd made it impossible. Here I was, Fire Nation Prince, right here for her to do just that, and she couldn't do a thing.

"Why did you help us?" I kept walking, not even looking back. "Answer me!"

I stopped. I looked at the three of them and gave a bitter smirk.

"What does it matter?" I said quietly, my voice cold and smoothly gliding from my mouth, "I did what I did and now you're free."

I looked from one to the other. I felt a certain steadiness come back to me. Regardless of my position with the Fire Nation, I was still a firebender and no friend to Earth Kingdom vigilantes. While this didn't make me act in any physical offense to the Kyoshi, it did stifle my questions of firebending and identity, if only for this temporary moment. Thus, I let my hands form flames-not very threatening, but only enough to promise I was who I claimed.

"I could take all three of you again if I chose," I said, as if it were nothing. And it wouldn't be. They knew, I knew it. I retracted my flames like a predatory cat does claws. "I'm not going to. I don't really want to." I stayed my gaze on the leader, Suki. "Settle whatever scores you have, Kyoshi. I'll not stand in your way."

I turned my back on them, but I heard one of them approach. I kept walking; that was until she spoke. It was more her tone than her words that stopped me. She didn't sound angry or afraid. That irritated me, but not as much as to realize she even sounded amused.

"I remember you now," the one called Suki said. Her voice was quiet, but there was something bold that filled it. I couldn't say I remembered her from any other Kyoshi; after all, they all looked the same.

"You look a lot different without the armor and everything. Life in the country hasn't really done much for you, Zuko." I turned my head back to glare at her, but it was left side that I turned. I saw a spiteful gleam in her eye and a smirk flash and as quickly vanish from her face. "But it can't hide that scar."

"It's no business of yours, Kyoshi," I snapped. My palm heated and I willed it to ignite, and not in warning alone.

"I remember what you did to our village," she went on, ignoring me, her eyes transfixed on the dancing flames in my hand. "Burnt our homes to the ground." She added for a reason I don' think she even knew, "No one was hurt. Thanks to the Avatar."

"I don't care," I stated truthfully. Well, maybe only half-truthfully. It had been done to find the Avatar, to restore my honor. No one had been injured. But…now it was all for a cause I'd abandoned. So then, was it just? It was an enemy peasant village; but was it really an enemy anymore if I was no longer of the Fire Nation?

"I'm sure you don't," the Kyoshi girl quipped, showing she didn't care about how I felt anymore than I claimed to about whatever damage I'd caused her people. "Understand this, Zuko. I don't know what got into your head that made you help us, and maybe it doesn't even matter if you were looking to help or not. But…" She hesitated, and I saw that conflict cross over her face again. "I don't want to say it, and I have a feeling it's a bad idea, but this stands: we're indebted to you."

I sneered inwardly. I'd already told them. There was no debt. There was nothing. The least either of us could do was walk away and resume our businesses. Either that, or resume the status of the war, as enemies, and fight. But this idea that we should depart with them claiming a debt to me? Preposterous. This one was so weak, like the Avatar and his stupid friend.

I saw the Kyoshi girl's face darken, however. "But only once," she said warningly, "After that, I'll remember my village and all the homes that were destroyed the day you came looking for the Avatar."

Well, perhaps she wasn't so weak. Yet, as a warrior in what I envisioned as the personified figure, she was far from it. "You're a fool to trust me," I told her.

She cocked her head challengingly. "You're a greater one to say so."

I turned and resumed walking. It was up to them now. I heard one start, just shifting her feet to start a run, but I heard Suki stop her.

There was a pause of choosing and finally decision. "Ba Sing Se then?"

"Sure."

"How'll we get in, Suki?"

I heard a lilt of mischief and the kind of pleasured tone that only comes with thoughts of cleverness and revenge.

"I've got an idea..."

Whatever the Kyoshi's idea was, I didn't find out what it was. I left them on the road that night walking into the wilderness alone, trying not to think of villagers, Avatars, and memories veiled as dreams.

to be continued...

once more, my greatest apologies! r/r!