Ch

A/N- Some mention of Ember Island Players in here, but really no spoilers.

Ch. 2

Zuko watched from a fallen pillar as the two female benders pelted the young Avatar with their elements. He looked to Haru who was nursing his leg now bruised and scraped from the fight. 'He's probably nursing his bruised ego too' he thought with a small smile. Aang and the Earthbender had agreed to a fight with the girls who were currently dominating the situation. Although he was invited to join in the 'Bending Battle' he decided to observe for once. He thought back to his Uncle who had shown him techniques derived from Waterbending. 'Perhaps I can learn a thing or two from these masters as well.' He watched as Katara took on her signature octopus form to meet upcoming flames thrown by Aang. Zuko smiled at his pupil's doing, proud of his success with the element. For a while longer he observed the flowing movements of Katara, the sharp, blunt bending of the blind girl and finally the light-footed and quick movements of Aang's Airbending. He was just trying to come up with a way to put the styles to his own bending when he was pulled out of his reverie by a sudden explosion of rock, ice and fire. Each of the fighters had been thrown a ways from the fighting area all stumbling to get up. 'Must have backfired' Zuko deduced as he came over to help the young Airbender from the large amount of rock he was currently buried in. From behind he heard the scream of a certain blue-eyed female:

"Ugh. My clothes! How the heck am I supposed to wear these anymore?" Zuko turned to see her garments singed and covered in mud and ripped at almost every angle. Zuko looked to the other benders around him whose clothes, except for Haru's, were in the same state.

"What's the problem? You have more don't you?" Zuko asked.

"Not Fire nation clothes; these were are last" Toph answered pulling at the torn edges.

"Well maybe you shouldn't have been practicing in them," Zuko argued, "and what's the problem, just change into your regular clothing…"

"Yea but what if we want to go out; we'll need to get supplies sometime." She paused to shake dirt out of her hair. "Or what if we wanted to see a play again?" She said laughing to the others dismay who didn't want to ever have to relive the play they saw at Ember Island just weeks ago.

"Yea like that's going to happen," Zuko replied sarcastically. "Well, alright we'll need to head to a nearby town and get some clothes then. "We can get some for the others anyway."

Aang pushed himself up with a gust of air. "Good idea. We'll take Appa and head to a town, there's one a couple hours away." He looked over at the fading sunlight. "We should head out when it gets dark so we won't be spotted."

As soon as it was dark the kids loaded up and headed off into the dark sky.

--

Kya hated this job. Her feat ached, her tan skin, although it did protect her more than the others from the sun had a slight pink tinge to it and she predicted the burns would really start to, well burn, in the morning. After she and her men left the Boiling Rock they had taken a boat to the nearest land. The boat, her ship, was being used for some "greater purpose" than transporting prisoners and so they were on foot the rest of the way to the new jail. They had just set up their camp an hour ago and now she was sitting in front of a flickering flame, silently eating her noodles while her men played music and dance, enjoying life, and watching her captives from across the fire who had taken it upon themselves to stare at her. Awkwardly. One who had never met these girls would have seen it as compassion for a friend. Kya knew different, these girls had never been her friends 'No matter how hard I tried to reach out to them' she thought suddenly. As she tried to shake away the thoughts of her past, the girl in pink looked at her with a calm she had never seen out of the bubbly girl and spoke: "You've changed," she said simply.

Kya looked up from the spot of dirt she was determined to stare at and looked to Ty-lee. The once outgoing, rambunctious girl seemed to be subdued by her time in that horrid prison. Her hair was disheveled and she looked dirty; her clothes were torn and her body beaten and bruised, a fear shining in her eyes revealing what the guards did to her, how they beat the spirit out of her. Looking at the darkness in the girl's grey eyes brought thoughts of what those men could have done to her and it made her taste her lunch again just thinking about it. 'She's a pretty girl. Bad things happen to innocent, pretty girls.' She then remembered that the girl had talked to her. She answered back.

"So have you…" she said calmly. "But I suppose that was only induced by the prison, not time."

Ty-lee shook her head, "True, my aura's a little dingier but I'm still the same person. You on the other hand, you've changed so much. I can see it in your eyes. You're not that positive, beautiful girl anymore. You're cold, your aura's practically black, I can see it your eyes." She gave Kya a sympathetic look. "It's the same look that Azula has­–

"Shut up." She said closing her eyes and looking down.

Mai finally spoke up, "I thought that was what you wanted. I mean you lived in the palace and were treated like them, but never one of them. But now look at you, you're just as cold, calculating and uncaring as Azula," she smirked, "and now you're an elite military general. You're finally at the top…you're finally one of them. Like the royal family. A destroyer of the world."

"No!" Kya said her voice rising slightly, along with the flames beside her, "I'm saving this world. And look who you're calling uncaring, Mai. I see your parents finally beat the emotion out of you." She tried to breathe and control her anger, hide her weakness from the pair but was unsuccessful at Mai's next words.

"At least my parents care about me. At least my family didn't abandon me like your father, you Water tribe wench. At least I'm not a mistake." She punctuated that last sentence, letting it sink into the young general. She smirked when the flames rose higher deceiving the controlled, cool look Kya wore. 'She may be like Azula, but she's still Kya. She's always had a temper that could even match Zuko's.'

With speed and strength that Mai never realized the girl had, Kya had come around the fire in a blink and grabbed Mai by a handful of hair. "Now you listen to me and you listen good. I am not from the disgusting Water Tribe; I am a Fire Nation citizen and a lot more worthy of that title that you two are you filthy traitors. And you're right I am a top military general and I am your superior and you will follow my rules and you will show me respect." She pushed Mai roughly back to the ground and glared at both of them but then sensed the unbelievable silence around her. The music had stopped and all of her subordinates were looking at her as if she were going crazy. None had ever seen her like this.

She saw Shang stepping through the crowd to say something, a look of concern in his golden eyes, she stopped him. "I'm going for a walk," she declared looking around. She tried a weak smile, "Don't worry about me, and go back to having fun. Just keep an eye on the prisoners, shouldn't be too hard as most of you have been drooling over them since we had them in our hands." There was a murmur of weak laughter at her statement and some movement as they all tried to get back to what they were doing. Kya with a sigh of relief turned on her heals and went off into the dense forest.

--

Zuko sat against the bison's saddle, rolling his eyes at the bickering siblings.

"So much for your superior map-reading Sokka. Aang said the town was only a couple of hours away and we've been flying for…well way over that!"

"This is not my fault it's kind of hard to see where you're going when it's dark out and besides what does Aang know he can't read a map."

"Hey!" the Airbender tried to interject but was quickly silenced along with the others by an angry Toph.

"Will you guys be quiet for a second?! You'll wake the whole Fire nation at this rate…And besides I think I heard voices down below."

Zuko peered over the edge of the bison. Sure enough there was a large campsite set up in a clearing of the forest they were flying over. There was a large bonfire blazing in the center while men danced around music that filled the air with its lovely sound. Suddenly, the fire flared into the night sky and one yell, a "No!" rang out silencing all those at the site.

"Go lower Aang" the Firebender murmured. Seeing the look on Zuko's face the young Avatar complied and went lower. The yelling girl's words became clearer as they descended and they made Zuko pull in a sharp breath, "Mai…?" he whispered in disbelief.

"I'm saving this world. And look who you're calling uncaring, Mai. I see your parents finally beat the emotion out of you."

"Aang land here!" Zuko said in a loud whisper. Again the Airbender complied and landed in a clearing not far from the campsite. Zuko leaped off the giant bison and was about to take off in a sprint when a tattooedreached for his shoulder.

"Zuko, you can't just go barging into a Fire Nation army campsite, you'd be caught…or worse" said Aang, concern shining in his grey eyes. Let's plan for a moment and find out what we're up against. He looked angrily at Aang but soon resigned his. The Airbender gave his friend's shoulder a light squeeze. "I want to help you save you're friends. But let's make sure we're going to do this with as little consequence as possible for the rest of us."

Zuko looked from the monk to the others who obviously agreed with the Avatar, he nodded. "Alright," he said slowly, "let's do some spying then."

--

Zuko and the others crept to the campsite, hiding in the surrounding bushes. Of course, Sokka, the least stealthy of the group tripped over a log and fell to the ground with a loud "Oomph!" Zuko groaned inwardly but realized it didn't even matter as all the men in the campsite stood transfixed on the shouting woman, who judging by her uniform was their general, and didn't even hear the accident. Her voice, laced with malice, rang out significantly in the silence.

"Now you listen to me and you listen good. I am not from the disgusting Water Tribe; I am a Fire Nation citizen and a lot more worthy of that title that you two are you filthy traitors. And you're right I am a top military general and I am your superior and you will follow my rules and you will show me respect."

Zuko was puzzled at her meaning but soon forgot all that was coming out of her mouth as she roughly shoved his ex-girlfriend to the ground. Steam was coming out of his nose and his breathing was heavy, and although he couldn't see her face he really wanted to punch it. One look from Katara that obviously said, 'Calm down or I'll make you,' forced him to repress his anger for the moment. He watched as the general finally realized that people were watching her and she left in a hurry into the forest. Zuko made no hesitation to follow her.

He ran fast, following the agile female as she wove through trees and easily cleared logs that needed jumping. Finally, the girl stopped, allowing Zuko to catch his breath; he realized they were at a small clearing with a stream running through its center, the moonlight shining brightly down onto it. 'It could be a beautiful landscape painting, if not for the horrid, evil 'smudge' that was slowly approaching the stream. He watched for a moment as she simply sat at a rock at the waters' edge, allowing herself to breath normally again. A few seconds later she folded her legs and began to meditate, or at least he assumed from the deep breathing, he couldn't see her face. But with meditating he assumed her eyes would be closed. His face set into a satisfied smirk. Suddenly, he heard heavy breathing behind him. His companions had caught up to him, each stared back at him with incredulous looks. Sokka was the first to speak:

"What are you doing?"

Zuko answered at a whisper, "Saving my girlfriend…" The same confused look was on their faces so he continued, "This is their general and so maybe the rest of the troops would be willingly to make a trade: Her returning to them, for Mai and Ty-lee. The others murmured, deciding whether this plan would work.

"Won't they just try and capture us if we go to them?" Toph asked.

"Not if we threaten her life. If I know anything about the Fire Nation is that we are a loyal people and we follow our superiors. They'd be willing to make the trade. We'd just have to get out of there quickly after we got Mai and Ty-lee back."

The others nodded, "This is risky, but it's a good a plan as any," Sokka replied for them, "We've fought Fire Nation soldiers before, shouldn't be a problem. A good warm-up for the invasion."

Zuko smiled at his joke and nodded at their acceptance of his plan. He then began his approach on the unaware general. He crept silently over to her, barely making a sound.

"He's worse than you Twinkle Toes" Toph whispered as she "looked" onto the scene.

He had almost reached her when he saw her visibly tense, obviously thinking she heard something. He froze in his spot, begging Agni not to let him get caught. It seemed that somewhere some god liked him as she relaxed again and went back to her meditation. Zuko let out a sigh and raised an arm to knock her out when he was suddenly hit back with the force of a water blast. He gasped and tumbled to the group feet away from where he last stood. As he struggeled to get up his first thought was 'She's a water bender?' He shook his head, regaining his bearing and leapt up to face his opponent ready to strike. His golden eyes met threatening blue ones and his face went from one of rage to one of surprise and realization.

"Kya?"