A/N: So there seems to have been a pretty positive reaction to the first chapter, so I was able to crack out a second one pretty fast. This one's a little more intense than the last, since chapter one was more setting up the situation.

Patience was a finite thing, and that was even truer in Zuko's case. He was naturally impatient, he couldn't recall a time when he hadn't been, and even when he'd matured over his three-year voyage, he hadn't grown out of his impatience. Despite this, he had offered the Avatar and his group exceeding amounts of patience that would astound anyone who knew him on a personal level.

If only Uncle could see this, he wouldn't believe it.

He saddens himself with the thought, an annoyed scowl melting into a deep frown. His change of heart had come too late and he'd never gotten the chance to truly reconcile with the one man who had always believed in him, even when he hadn't deserved the faith. It was one of his biggest regrets, turning on Iroh, and that was impressive simply because of the other regrettable things that tainted Zuko's past that it had to compete with.

Snapping himself out of that train of thought, he watches as the wall of rock blocking the doorway to his room falls. The movement is less shaky, indicating Toph's speedy recovery. It couldn't have been more than two weeks since he'd burned her feet, and he idly wonders how she healed so quickly. Zuko considers the possibility that Katara had healed her, but he knew very little of how healing in such a way worked, or how fast it was.

"Soup's on. Get it while it's hot." Sokka announces as he steps into Zuko's 'cell,' and the captive notes that Katara has yet again not been the one to check on him, "Or. Y'know, lukewarm." He sets the bowl down on the edge of the bed, and Zuko leans forward to see that it's yet another bowl of rice. He was grateful for the food, preferring it to the starvation he'd been delivered over the course of most of his first week, but the bland, unflavored rice was starting to put his taste buds to sleep. Picking up the bowl with his bound hands, he finds it's cold, making sense of Sokka's words.

"It was really windy today, so we couldn't really keep much of a fire going to keep it warm." Sokka shrugs as he notices Zuko's displeased expression.

"The Avatar—" Zuko stops himself, the words having come out as sharply as he was used to saying them, "Aang couldn't bend the wind away from the fire?"

"Yeah, I guess he could've. But he had to eat too." An awkward silence follows as Zuko cradles the bowl carefully between his hands, surging heat between his fingers until steam rises from the rice. Sokka is clearly perturbed by it, hand twitching near the hilt of his sword.

"I could've kept the fire going." Zuko murmurs, the rice somewhat more palatable now that it's not congealed into chilled lumps, "I'm here to help."

"No, you're here because you're too dangerous to be running around loose." He sounds like a broken record, his mistrust tiring the Prince beyond measure.

"I didn't mean to burn her, I—" Sokka cuts him off with a dismissive snort.

"That's not what I mean. I mean—it kind of is, but not completely. We still don't know if you've got some kind of evil scheme to lead your Dad or your crazy sister to Aang. But if you're locked up in here, there's no way you can give us away." He overheats the rice in his anger, a few of the grains burning and the wood touching his hands scorching.

"Do you even hear yourself?" Zuko snaps, glaring up at him, "How would I contact either of them? Do you think I've got a messenger hawk stuffed in my shirt?" Zuko sets down the bowl and gestures to his own clothing, "I betrayed my family and my nation to be here because I'm tired of being on the wrong side but none of you will even give me a chance to prove myself!"

"You had a lot of chances to prove yourself, Zuko." Sokka says, and his words are uncharacteristically somber, "How many chances do you think you deserve? Aang's pretty forgiving, but even he knows there are some people that just…they can't be redeemed." A coldness settles over Zuko, his gritted teeth going slack as he starts to understand just how unfavorably he's seen. For a moment, he clearly sees himself through their eyes and understands what a monster he was—is.

"I'm not…" Zuko practically whispers, "I'm a good person." Sokka's eyes meet his, the azure gaze doubtful and perhaps even sad.

"Are you?"

It isn't until Sokka leaves, the rock rising again to block the doorway, that Zuko's head drops and he murmurs quietly to himself;

"No."

Toph was tired of being Zuko's impromptu prison guard. She hadn't volunteered for the position, but it seemed she was forcefully given the job by default as the only unoccupied earthbender. Haru was busy helping Aang explore the temple, assisting him in bending massive quantities of rubble out of the way of passageways, leaving her the only option to rise and lower the stone barricade whenever someone needed passage into Zuko's room.

Maybe she wouldn't mind so much if she didn't see how pointless this all was. Nearly every day the group tried to come up with ways Aang could learn firebending, while all of them simultaneously danced around the subject of their captive. They were all letting their own sore spots blind them from seeing the perfect opportunity in front of them.

"Maybe I can just…beat the Fire Lord without it." Aang says into his bowl of untouched food, "I mean you don't beat fire with fire, right?" Toph groans, rubbing her face and not even listening to Katara's response before she interrupts.

"Your whole deal is master of all four elements. Ol' Lord Hot Pants isn't going to be taken down by three-fourths of an Avatar." She bites out, crossing her arms. She was officially out of patience for their stubborn pettiness, "I've been listening to you people rag on Zuko for two weeks straight and I'm tired of it. You need him but you're all so intent on calling him the Boogeyman that you won't even look at what he's offering us!" Silence resonates around the group, the only sound being the crackling of the dying fire.

"We don't need his help." Katara is the first to speak.

"Oh really? So Aang's just going to learn firebending magically." She stands, glaring at the space in front of her, "Zuko didn't start the war, but he's offering to help us end it. Just think about that." She storms off into the winding halls that led to Zuko's room, huffing and sitting against the stone slab blocking his door.

She'd witnessed every short conversation that had transpired between Zuko and a member of the group, and they all followed the same script. He would be accused of being a monster, or something of that sort, to which he would make a rebuttal before whoever it was that had bothered him decided to storm out. But his talk with Sokka had changed something.

She could feel his movements in the joining room. Ever since their conversation had transpired, Zuko's movements were different. Before, he had paced the room somewhat briskly and restlessly, and, to her amusement, often talked to himself. But for the past couple of days he mostly just stayed on his bed, facing the wall and ignoring the food that was brought into him. She'd suffered from depression enough times to recognize it when she saw it, and as she feels him continue to lie like a stone on his cot, she decides to take some initiative. She didn't have to listen to them. She didn't have to listen to anyone if they were as blindly petty as they were.

Standing, she makes one swift movement that forces the rock back into the ground and leaves Zuko's doorway empty. He doesn't move, keeping his back to the door as he waits for whoever it was that was coming to see him. No one enters, though, and Toph turns sharply on her heel before storming away.

He would make his choice.

Zuko stares at the doorway for a long time. It gapes at him with its openness, the pebbles littering the ground the only indicator that something had once blocked it. He wonders what trick this is as he climbs out of his bed, his legs weak underneath him from disuse as he approaches the doorway. Silence resonates around him, only the howling wind flowing through the halls assuring him he hadn't suddenly gone deaf.

"Hello?" He questions, feet stopping on the last step before the hall. He leans forward, peeking around the edge to see the equally empty hall. He was truly alone. He takes a deep breath as he steps out into the hall completely, the current of fresh air sweeping his hair out of his face.

Now what?

His eyes drift down the left half of the hall where a large chunk of displaced rock and stone showed the outside world. This clearly wasn't going the way he had planned, the trust of those he had spurned obviously too far out of his reach to ever be obtainable, and if he cut his loses and tried to escape now, he could. But where would he go? He was once again an enemy of the Fire Nation, and he wasn't welcome in either Water Tribe on the merit of him being a firebender alone, not to mention his status as Prince of the Fire Nation. The Earth Kingdom was equally as hostile, Ba Sing Se being little more than a Fire Nation colony now and every remaining Earth Kingdom colony quickly learning his very recognizable face. Escaping would only cause him more pain as he hopped from continent to continent trying only to survive and elude capture by those who despised him or those being paid to ensnare him.

He turns his head, looking to the right half of the hall. Now that he strained his ears to listen, he could hear the distinct voices of the Avatar's group coming from this direction. Staying would mean remaining their prisoner, but it would also mean security and possibly redemption. He could hopefully fulfill his own destiny of helping the Avatar defeat his father, and finally regain the honor he'd so desperately fought for in all the wrong ways. But the shame of what he'd done was constantly rubbed in his face here, forcing him to relive every excruciating memory of the things he'd done to them and everyone else who had ever dared to interfere with him. Those memories and thoughts were tearing him apart from the inside, rotting any illusions he had that there was good in him still. It was almost more painful than the thought of being a vagabond, wandering the globe without a home or even a vague goal.

I'm a good person.

Are you?

His head snaps sharply to the left, eying the crevice that he could easily climb through and the cliff he had more than enough agility to scale. He turns his head right as he hears voices drawing closer.

Are you?

Conflict burns in him, twisting his insides into a gnarled mess as he presses back against the opposite wall from the doorway, squeezing his eyes shut as he tries to think. He finds himself sliding to the floor, bound hands resting dejectedly on his lap. He stares into the tiny space that had become his whole world.

Are you?

"I don't know." Zuko hisses through clenched teeth, hands tangling in his hair. His opposing sides, his good-natured heart and bad-tempered mind, had battled for so long that the bloodshed between them had left him a husk of the man he wanted to be. He wanted to be like the Avatar and his friends, who being good came so naturally to. For him, every good decision was a struggle and every bad call was a regret. He'd thought his morals had won out when he'd made his decision to join the Avatar, but he was just as conflicted as ever.

Could he ever truly be good? Or was he just his father's son, destined to be the same man? Was his attempt at finally being good just a mask he was pulling over something ugly and dark within himself?

Ice gathers around his waist, pinning him where he sits and he doesn't fight it. He hears rapid footsteps approaching but doesn't look away from the doorway, his hands still wound tightly into his hair.

"What did you do?" He hears, his eyes finally flicking up to the source of the voice and his hands settling back in his lap, finding Katara's furious gaze on him. The others in the group surround her, all of them as equally surprised and outraged.

"How did you get out?" Sokka asks as Aang approaches the doorway and studies it. Zuko isn't sure what he's looking for, and he doesn't particularly care. He's just glad to have been caught, the choice being taken out of his hands as to whether he should escape or stay. The roar of conflict suddenly starts to die down, leaving him exhausted.

"He didn't do it. The rock wasn't broken, it was moved with earthbending." Aang speaks, the toe of his shoe nudging at the crease in the stone where the rock had been returned.

"Toph." Katara growls, "How could she do something so reckless?" Zuko rests his head back against the wall, a headache beginning to pound behind his eyes.

"Because he's still here, isn't he?" Toph's voice resonates in the hall, and every pair of eyes turns to her leaning in a small alcove. From his angle, he hadn't even noticed the small space, and he suddenly realizes he hadn't been alone. His eyes widen, shock freezing him far more effectively than the ice around his hips. She'd been testing him, giving him just enough of the illusion of freedom to see if he really meant what he'd claimed. He wonders if he passed the test by not choosing.

"He didn't leave. If he wanted to give us away to the Fire Nation, he would've bolted the second he thought he was able to. He knows the area well enough to tell them where we are." She walks over to them and meets Zuko's eyes. The haze over her eyes show her blindness, but he swears she's looking at him. He's forced to look away, unable to hold her unfocused gaze, "But he didn't. How much more proof do you need that he wants to help?"

Zuko looks between all of them, shifting uncomfortably as the ice around his midsection starts to numb him.

"I need to think about it." Aang says, his brow furrowing as he looks at anyone but Zuko, "I think we all do." There's a hum of general agreement among the group.

"But in the mean time, he still needs to be contained." Katara adds hastily, as if amending Aang's sentences, "You can't just let him have free reign whenever you want, Toph. It's not safe." Toph makes a dismissive gesture, shaking her head.

"I was just trying to prove a point. Which I did." Despite the waterbender's venomous disposition, Toph seems almost smug. Zuko watches the interaction with some measure of amusement before he's suddenly yanked off the ground by surprisingly strong hands. He can feel how tightly Katara is gripping the front of his tunic, the ridge of her knuckles pressing firmly into his chest. When she speaks, her harsh breaths brush his neck.

"Point made or not, I still don't trust him." She shoves him back towards his room and without the use of his hands to balance himself, he nearly runs face first into the wall bordering the doorway, "I'm not going to make it that easy for him, even if this is somehow genuine." Despite her harsh tone, Zuko can't help but feel something warm settle in him.

They weren't going to make it easy, but their answer had gone from a solid no to a tentative maybe. Perhaps this wasn't as hopeless as he first thought, and as he's ushered back into his room, he doesn't even glance towards freedom before the stone wall is erected behind him.

A/N: This is my first time ever writing any member of the "Gaang." All my other stories pretty exclusively focus on the Fire Nation Royal Family, so I'm really well versed with them and no one else. Bare with me while I figure out how to write their personalities. ~Jiggle