A/N: Well, here's the next one. Not much to say about this one until the end, otherwise I would give too much away. Sorry

HJ, what the hell was with that rant you gave me in your last review? It confused the fuck out of me! I am very well aware that a Nazi is a political party and am wondering where I said or hinted that it wasn't in this story. Please be so kind as to point it out for me. I'm a little lost. :/

Chapter 12-Oil Burns

Jet stole a glance at his silent sniper. Longshot sat high in a tree at the edge of the forest facing the dim lights of Auschwitz. The sniper was the only member of his team he had chosen to take with him on his rescue mission. Longshot's aim was accurate and deadly. Even if Jet was captured and used as a human shield, Longshot would be able to take out the enemy that stood behind him without causing any bodily harm to his leader.

Glancing back to the death camp ahead of him, Jet now realized that getting into the camp was going to be the hardest part of the plan they had carefully prepared earlier that day.

---

"We believe Zuko is being kept here," Sokka said as he pointed out a small room on the map of the camp they had found in Zuko's old pack.

Jet studied the map before asking a question. "What makes you think he is held there?"

"Because it the place we saw him being taken to," Katara answered. "According to the labels on this map, it's a holding cell for prisoners and doubles as a torture chamber." She shuddered as she said her last sentence, trying hard not to imagine the man she loved being tortured.

The Russian leader nodded before asking another question. "If he is not there, then where would the male prisoners be held so that I may search there?"

Sokka moved his hand across the map and pointed to a larger building at the other end of the camp. "Here," he said. "I remember seeing it the last time we were there. It should not take too long to get there from the holding cell."

"Being sneaky and sly is the key to this camp," Katara added. "There are guards stationed everywhere." She pointed to several spaced areas on the map. "They like to wander around the sides of the buildings and any one can come around any corner at any time so be careful."

"Jet," Smellerbee cut in. Her leader tore his gaze away from the map to acknowledge his second in command. "The cell might be locked with either a padlock or something smaller but just as sturdy. You will want something to bust it open or pick it with."

Jet merely nodded and thanked the woman who returned to the rest of the group who were in the back of the cave packing up camp. Katara looked back at Aang, Toph, Smellerbee, Pipsqueak, and The Duke curious as to where they would go after they parted ways. Her curiosity was quickly overrun by her desire to see Zuko as soon as she could. Turning back to the Russian leader, she made a demand she knew no one in the planning circle would like.

"Let me go with you," she demanded.

Jet stared at her indifferently while Sokka's jaw dropped to the stone floor of the cave.

"No! Absolutely not!" her brother argued. "It is best that you stay far away from that place as possible!"

"I don't care what's best for me," she countered. "I want to help in any possible way I can to save Zuko. If that means going back to that God-awful place, then so be it."

Sokka could not find words that would convince his sister otherwise and turned to Jet for help. The Russian sighed and took Katara's hands in his. "Katara," he began, speaking her name with all the sympathy and compassion he could. "As much as I understand your reasoning and desire to come along, I cannot allow you to come with us. I am sorry."

"But why not?" she asked, sounding disappointed and defiant at the same time. "Where would I go if I don't go along?"

"Where would you go once you have saved him?" Jet countered. "The Duke, Pipsqueak, and Smellerbee will take you and your friends to Denmark where you will charter a boat to take you across the sea to Sweden. Even though Denmark still remains a free country," he continued after seeing the gypsy girl's confused expression. "I cannot say for how much longer it will remain so. Even now, Germany threatens its King with invasion. It is the same with my homeland, Russia. Our leader, Stalin has too much on his plate already with Germans invading from the south. He cannot busy himself with escaped gypsies and Jews anymore than Denmark can. Your only hope right now is Sweden. The Nazis want Sweden free for reasons unknown but it is free nonetheless. So Sweden is where you must go."

"And you're only taking Longshot with you?" she asked, sounding unconvinced. "Doesn't seem very safe."

"On the contrary, Katara," he replied. "Two people are harder to catch or even see than three or more. Besides, Longshot will cover me from the cover of the forest." Jet, Katara and Sokka turned to stare at Longshot who merely nodded and patted his rifle he held in his lap. "He is the best sniper in all of Russia. I put my full faith in him."

Sighing in defeat, Katara nodded and went to the back of the cave to help pack up the rest of their belongings.

---

Back to the present, Jet was contemplating how he was going to get across the small, open field to the camp when security around the perimeter was so tight. A search light was put out every ten minutes to quickly sweep the area between the fence and the forest. The light was not turned on for very long to conserve its battery and the life of the generator put out to power the camp. If he was going to make it across without being spotted, he was going to have to time his run carefully.

He watched the light carefully, watching it as it neared the edge of the forest where he was located. Shrinking back behind a tree, he waited for the light to pass him before bursting out of his cover into the open. He followed the spot light, keeping just beyond its visual light so that he was not seen by those actively looking for him. Once he reached the fence, he quickly but carefully climbed over the fence and landed on his feet on the other side. Taking out a pair of wire cutters, he turned around and snipped open a whole in the fence to ensure a speedy getaway if caught.

Jet put the wire cutters back in his coat pocket before bolting off in the direction of the cell that had been pointed out to him by Sokka. Even though jumping across rooftops was his specialty, Jet had to resist jumping up on the roofs. They were not well made and his being up there would make a lot of noise.

He dodged behind the buildings and pressed his back against the metal walls when he heard voices. Checking his surroundings, he realized that just around the corner was the holding cell that Zuko was believed to be held in. Steeling a quick glance around the corner, Jet saw that it was guarded by two soldiers armed with Kar98 rifles. Drawing back, he ran around the back of the building he was hiding behind and ran behind the building the cell was located in. Looking up, he realized that the roof of the building was solid and surprisingly well made. Smiling, Jet realized that he had a chance to climb on top and give the soldiers the surprise of their life.

Backing up as far as he dared, the Russian rand straight at the building, running up the side a few feet before jumping and grabbing the edge of the roof. He pulled himself up and silently walked across the top until he was able to look down from where he was standing and see the top of the soldier's heads. Reaching for his belt, he pulled out two long knives and jumped.

---

"Hey! What the-?" A yell that came from outside his cell door broke Zuko's light and restless sleep. His head flew up from resting on his knees and looked in the direction of where the cry came from. He could hear muffled screams and small thumps as if someone were fighting on the other side of the metal door. Standing up from his small back corner where he slept, Zuko walked to the other side of his cell and peered out the small, rectangular eye hole.

What he saw surprised him. A strange man dressed in only civilian clothes had one of the guards held in front of him, a knife plunged into the man's back. Zuko gasped and took a step back from the door when the civilian man pulled the knife out of the soldier's back and tossed the body to ground before turning to face the cell door.

Startled and wondering who that man was, the former soldier turned and slammed his back against the wall next to the door. He could hear the latch to the door opening and as the door slid open, he stole a glance at the man who now entered. He wore an unbuttoned long black coat that came down to his knees, brown leather boots and black leather gloves. He had dark brown hair that looked a mess and improperly kept.

Zuko was surprisingly stunned to find that it surprised him when the man turned to look at him. He was then able to get a good look at the stranger's face. His eyes were beetle black and his eyebrows grew in a way that made him look somewhat angry all the time. Zuko could tell that this man was not German as soon as he spoke judging by his clothes and the thick accent in his fluent German.

"Zuko Brandt?" the man asked. Too stunned for words, Zuko could only nod. "Good, saves me the trouble of going all the way to the prisoner's hold on the other side of the camp." He jerked his head in the direction of the open door. "Follow me, and keep quiet."

Curious, Zuko did as he was told, carefully stepping outside so he did not tear up his already injured bare feet. Glancing around at his surroundings, he felt weird seeing the outside of his cell when he was not being dragged off to work. He looked down by his feet to see the blood of the soldier's the stranger killed to get inside. But he just saw the blood; where were the bodies? Zuko looked up and turned back to the cell he had just left to see the stranger dragging the bodies inside.

"What are you doing?" he asked, staring at the body of a soldier that was stabbed in the neck.

"Locking the bodies in your cell," came the man's reply. "As we make our escape, the guards who find your cell unguarded will spend time checking inside verses if we leave them out here, the truth about what happened is in plain sight and they will hunt for us immediately."

"So you are here to rescue me?" Zuko asked, going off the stranger's first statement.

The man looked up from dragging the last body into the cell. "Of course, you buffoon!" he said, sounding surprised that Zuko had not already figured that out. "Why else would I kill these soldiers and take you from your prison?"

Zuko had no answer for the man and stood silently as the man locked and shut the door to his old cell. He felt empowered now that he knew he no longer had to go back in there. The stranger then walked passed him, keeping to the shadows and motioning for Zuko to follow him.

They passed through the camp without any incident. Once a guard came around the corner and almost spotted them, but otherwise they went unseen. It was not until they were one building away from the fence when Zuko remembered the Broom Handle pistol Azula had stolen from him the night he was captured. He stopped, debating whether he should go back and get it or not. He glanced back at the buildings he had just escaped from and then back to the stranger and the fence that held freedom, and possibly a new life with Katara, for him on the other side.

He saw his rescuer stop and turn back, wondering why Zuko had stopped. "What are you doing?" he asked, impatient. "Come on! Let's get out of here!"

Zuko turned back to the death camp he was escaping from. He had to get that pistol back. It was too precious to him to allow Azula to keep. If he left it there, he knew he would never get it back.

"Hold on," he told the stranger. "I have to get something." He began to walk back into the camp when he heard the stranger call him back.

"No! You'll get us both caught. Whatever it is you need to get, forget it. It's not worth your life."

Zuko ignored the man and kept going. "I'll meet you back at the fence," he said. "Just give me ten minutes."

He could hear the man groan but give in. "Fine," he growled. "I've cut a hole in the fence just on the other side of this building. You have ten minutes, if you're not there within that time, I'm coming in to get you whether you have what you want or not."

Zuko looked back at the man and nodded before running off in the direction of his sister's sleeping quarters. He knew where it was, having seen her walking out of it once before in the morning. It was stationed at the far end of the camp by where he had worked all those days. Dodging behind buildings to avoid being seen by the guards patrolling the camp, he quickly made his way across the camp to the building where he was sure Azula lay sound asleep.

Running up to the front door, he was about to pick the lock and sneak in when he reconsidered. He thought that sneaking in the front door was not the best approach for him. He had to be stealthy, not obvious. Going around the back, he found a window that was left carelessly open. Peeking in, he saw his sister asleep on the other side of the room with her sheets and blankets pulled all the way up over her shoulders. Her back was turned to him and the nightstand next to her bed. Zuko's eyes followed Azula's trail of hair to the nightstand where he saw his pistol laying carelessly out in the open on the nightstand. He smiled. How naïve his sister was to think that no one dared enter her sleeping chambers just to take a single pistol. She thought her brother was held under the tightest security and he was not going anywhere. Oh, how wrong she was.

Zuko hoisted himself up and crawled through the small window without a sound. As he was climbing through, his foot caught on the window pane and tripped. Nearly falling to the floor, he grabbed a hold of a drawer handle of his sister's wardrobe and shuffled his feet to regain his balance. Suddenly aware of how much noise he made, he glanced over at his sister who just rolled over, still asleep. He sighed, relieved that he had not woken Azula in his sad attempt to sneak into her room without a sound.

Making sure he remained silent for the rest of his time in the room, he walked over to the nightstand and picked up his pistol. He stuffed it in a leather strip around his waist that served as a makeshift belt and turned to leave. He crawled up on the window ledge and was about crawl back out when he heard a knock at the door to his sister's room and froze.

"Captain!" came a soldier's voice. "Captain, wake up! There has been a break in. Your brother is missing from his cell and the guards assigned to watch him were found dead inside!"

Zuko turned to look at his sister, hoping she was still asleep. His heart sank when he saw her upright in bed staring at him with a surprised expression on her face. It was obvious she was absolutely positive there was no way for her brother to escape.

"Zuko!" she yelled, her face changing from surprise to rage in an instant. She jumped out of bed and ran across the room to grab at her brother's ankles and pull him back but she was too late. As soon as he saw her surprised face, he bolted. He was out the window in no time flat and running back to the fence with all haste. He could hear Azula open her door and yell at the soldiers to chase after him but he did not look back. All he was concentrating on was getting out of there as soon as possible.

He ran behind a building when he saw a group of soldiers come around a corner from another area. They had him surrounded, one choice he had was to charge headlong into them but he knew that would just get him shot. Deciding on another course of action, he slipped out the other side of the building and ran to the fence as fast as he could. He did not get far until another group of soldiers rounded the corner right in front of him bringing his run to a halt.

"We've got him!" yelled one of the soldiers. "Quick, warn the Cap-" His sentence was cut short when a loud bang issued from the direction of the fence Zuko was running to and he fell forward, flat on his face, a bullet wound in the back of his head. Just then, the stranger who had taken him from his cell ran in to the group, knives drawn and ready to fight them as a distraction.

"Run, Zuko!" he barked at the ex-prisoner. "We'll distract them, just run! Get to the hole in the fence!" Zuko only nodded and ran, ignoring the confusion he had when the stranger said "we" would distract them. Several more loud gunshots could be heard from the forest, but Zuko ignored it and kept running. He noticed other soldiers running off towards the area where the stranger was fighting off all the Nazis to allow Zuko a chance to escape, but he ignored it and made a B-line for the fence, cutting down on the distance he had to push his malnourished body to run.

He rounded the corner of the building that the hole in the fence was behind when something caught his leg, making him fall face down to the ground in surprise. Turning onto his back, he looked up to see Azula, coat and boots on with whip in hand. She was angrier than he remembered, furious at the escape attempt of her only brother.

"Thought you could outwit me a second time, brother?" she asked, irony in her voice. "Well, maybe you should think again!" She drew her arm back and lashed out with her whip.

Zuko had experienced her using her whip too many times before and easily rolled out of harm's way. Standing up, he reached behind him and took the Broom Handle out of his leather belt and pointed it at his sister.

"I'm sorry, Azula," he said. "But you give me no choice." He squeezed the trigger but the pistol only clicked, indicating that there was no round locked in the chamber. He stared at it briefly before glaring at his sister.

"Sorry, Zuzu," she said mockingly, a smile on her face. "But it's not loaded. You might want to try a different trick on me." She stood, pretending to wait for him to pull something else out of his belt. "Oh? Nothing? That's right, because you don't have anything but your bare hands, don't you?" She drew her arm back again, intent on slicing up every inch of her brother's skin before finally killing him. He watched carefully, judging where the end of the whip would go and where it would be appropriate to block with his arm. He saw it whipped forward and immediately brought up his right arm to block. He felt the whip wrap itself around his arm harmlessly and hold.

Zuko smiled. It did exactly what he had wanted it to. Grabbing the whip with both hands, he pulled as hard as he could, yanking the whip right out of his sister's hand. Pulling the whole thing towards him and unraveling it from his arm, he tossed the whip behind him and smiled.

"Looks like you've got no more weapons, sis. What are you going to do now?"

Azula's face went right back into rage once again. Without even saying anything in return, she lunged at her brother, tackling him to the ground. Zuko could feel his wounds on his back from Azula's whip begin to burn with irritation from the dirt, but he pushed the pain from his mind, knowing that lingering on it know could only cause him death. Azula raised her fist and punched her brother hard across the face making his nose bleed. She tried for a second time but Zuko was ready for her this time and parried the attack with his forearm. She kept trying, swinging her fists at her brother on the ground several times before he was able to grab an opening and trap her arm. Locking her foot in place with his own, he lifted his body and rolled on top of Azula. Now he had all the power and was able to attack her back.

His feeling of power and ability to attack did not last long unfortunately, when Azula, being much healthier and stronger now, was able to throw her brother off over her head with practiced ease. He fell on the ground with a thud just above his sister's head and opened his eyes just in time to see her stand back up and begin kicking him in the ribs. He managed to block a few of her kicks but unfortunately got hit by the brunt of them all.

Zuko could tell her attacks were not just out of anger of his escape, but there was pure rage and hatred in her strikes. She hated him and that hatred turned into violent anger.

Finally, Zuko was given the opportunity to stop Azula's constant, uncontrolled kicking. Just as she was about pull her leg away, he trapped her ankle with his arms and held it close to his body. Groaning, he looked up at his sister and smiled. She was not going to hurt him anymore.

Azula had other plans unfortunately. As soon as she saw the smirk on her brother's face, she turned to the building they stood next to and pulled an oil lamp off the outer wall. Zuko's eyes widened in shock as his sister smiled and raised the lamp above her head, preparing to throw it.

"Say goodbye to those good looks, brother!" she cackled and smashed the oil lamp down on his face. Zuko howled in pain, his hands flying to his face. He could feel the oil in the lamp catch fire and burn the flesh from around his left eye. He tried his best not to let the fire get to his eye, but as it burned away his eyelid, he frantically tried to put out the fire and save his sight. His screams only grew louder as he felt the glass from the lamp dig into his already burned and melted flesh. He rolled around in the dirt, desperately trying to end the searing pain as he felt it spread across his face and reach his ear. He grabbed handfuls of dirt and tossed it in his face to rid himself of the flames. Finally, after several minutes of pure agony, the fire was gone.

He looked up; trying to open his left eye, but the lid had melted together, limiting how far he could open it, and his sight. He could only see out of one eye and saw his sister, his pistol in one hand and a few rounds in the other, looking down at him with the most sadistic smile on her face. Zuko huffed, unsure why he was out of breath and attempted a glare, but the burn on his face sent a surge of pain through his body, causing his mind to lose focus and leaving him the brink of unconsciousness. He was slipping as he watched helplessly as Azula raised the pistol, pointing it directly at her brother's face.

"Time to say goodbye Zuzu," she said, a slight laugh in her voice. She stomped down on his already weak ankle, breaking it and the pain it caused was enough to let the blackness envelope him. The last thing Zuko remembered before he blacked out was a loud gunshot and his sister falling backwards, a red hole in her forehead.

---

Jet ran through the camp, having just escaped the mob of soldiers, and made his way to the area where he had cut the hole in the fence. He could hear Longshot covering him from the forest. If any Nazi tried to stop them, they would meet a quick and painless end.

He kept his knives out, ready to fight in case any more soldiers caught him by surprise. He rounded a corner of one of the buildings and the building in which the hole in the fence was behind was in sight. Jet smiled. Finally, he would be done with this mission and be able to go back to his home; Russia. When he reached the other side of the small building, what he saw almost made his heart die.

Zuko lay on the ground, the left side of his face burned almost beyond recognition and a long, black whip a few feet from his body. Near him lay a woman, dead with a bullet in her forehead and a Broom Handle pistol held tightly in her still warm hand. He compared the faces of both the woman and Zuko and saw that they held resemblances to each other. Strange, by the looks of things, it seemed like they had a fight, resulting in her death and possibly his as well.

Jet bent over the man's limp form and checked for a pulse. He was surprisingly happy to find that the man still had one. He was still alive, but for how long he could not say. All he knew was that he had to get Zuko out of there. Grabbing the whip and the pistol and shoving them in his coat pocket, he carefully picked the German up over his shoulders and crawled through the hole in the fence and bolted across the grassy meadow back to the forest.

He knew that the Nazi's would be too distracted to follow right after him. Judging by the coat the woman had on, she was of high rank, probably the Commanding Officer of the place. When the soldiers found her dead, they would be too preoccupied with her body to chase after Jet and Zuko. Still, as soon as he made it back to the cover of the forest, he knew he would have to run and get as far away from Auschwitz as he could.

Jet looked up into the trees and called out for his comrade. "Longshot! Let's go!" The sniper said nothing but merely jumped down from his perch in the trees and ran off in the wake of his leader.

They ran through the forest, zig-zagging in random directions and not stopping for nearly two hours until they came across a small clearing that was almost completely enclosed by trees and shrubs. No one would have been able to find it unless they were actively looking for just that or accidentally happened upon it. It was the perfect hiding place for the night.

Jet set the unconscious Zuko down on the dirt floor as both he and Longshot stopped to catch their breath. Finally, when he had enough breath to speak, Jet turned to his comrade.

"Longshot, I need you to bandage him up." He motioned to Zuko's unconscious body as she spoke and then stood up. I'll make camp and get supper started. It will have to be cold, we will have to fire tonight. We can't risk being seen here."

Longshot nodded and pulled out a medical kit from his pack as Jet went about setting up their camp for the night.

A/N: Wooo! Who's happy to see Zuko finally out of that hell hole? I am! I am! Thank God Jet ran into Katara and the rest of the group, otherwise he would have never found where Zuko was and would not have been able to complete his mission. Ah, the Russians, they're so fascinating... :)

Please review! I look forward to them!