Thanks everyone who read this.

"….he followed…from the North Pole…."

"…..do with him?"

Voices penetrated through his hazy consciousness in the form of disjointed words and his mind-which was hovering on the edge of waking, yet not fully aware-could make neither head nor tail of them.

"…..leave him…"

"No….rouse him….question…."

Who was speaking? What was the person saying? He was still so disoriented and out-of-it, he couldn't even yield any coherent thought, let alone understand the argument of some strangers. Strangers? No. Somehow, the voices were familiar. He definitely knew them from somewhere. What were their names? He had them on the tip of his tongue. If he was just given a few moments…a few moments…

SPLASH

"Gah!" Zuko spluttered. Someone just dumped water over him! The cold liquid drenched him from head to toes and hauled him forcefully to complete awareness. Shaking his head, Zuko brought his hands up to wipe the water out of his face. Or rather, he tried. For some reason, his arms were stuck to his side and no matter how hard he willed them to move, they wouldn't budge. Plus, he noted, he was also terribly cold, a fact that he had just begun to notice. Opening his eyes and looking down, he quickly found the reason to all his current discomforts.

He was standing with his back against a large tree, confined to the position by a block of ice which encased from his neck and all the way down to his hip, underneath which a thick rope was visible. His gaze slowly traveled away from his body to the front of him. Someone was standing there. He didn't need to find the person's face to know who it was. There was just no mistaking that Watertribe clothes and that figure.

"Katara," Zuko groaned "I know you are mad about your hair, but isn't this a bit extreme?"

"Excuse me?"

There was something in the tone with which she spoke, something that spelled confusion amidst extreme wariness so clearly that made Zuko looked up. His eyes found her, and he was startled at the genuine fear he saw there. She was afraid of him. He searched his mind over, but he was unable to recall anything he did recently that could cause Katara to act this way, and it really unnerved him. He turned to his left and found Sokka and Aang. The thought that this was some sort of elaborate joke began to ebb away by the moment as he watched his two friends shifted into fighting stances and Sokka had his boomerang out, their faces deadly serious, looking like they were expecting him to try and take their heads off. He hadn't seen that kind of look being directed at him, especially from them, for a long time. Not since….

"What were you attempting to to?" Katara spat at him and it shocked Zuko to hear the venom in her words.

Before Zuko could open his mouth to ask what exactly was she talking about, her brother cut in.

"Freaky ponytail guy's clearly here to capture Aang again. But you know….." Sokka stroke his chin thoughtfully "…he looked different somehow."

"Eh…Maybe because he cut his hair?" Aang suggested helpfully.

"That's it!" Sokka yelled excitedly. He clapped his hands together and pointed at Zuko "I've got it. From now on you'll be freaky scar guy."

Zuko closed his mouth with a snap after realizing that his jaw had dropped open at the mention of the two ridiculous nicknames. Quickly recovering from the shock, his brain went back to process the whole of Sokka's sentence. There was something important information that he'd failed to digest the first time. Then it hit him with the force of a fire blast to the chest.

Capture Aang.

Shaking uncontrollably at what those two words could potentially imply, he turned back sharply to Katara, who tensed noticeably, and for the first time since he woke up here, truly looked at her. There was no sign of injury on her, no bandage, nothing. Moreover, her hair loopies, about which Zuko had listened to her grumbling on and on all morning, were there, totally undamaged. Something else registered in his mind. Sokka had his boomerang. Didn't he lose it when stopping the warship fleet? And Aang was holding his old air glider. Zuko's breathing was coming in short gasps now. No, it couldn't be.

"What date is it today?" he grounded out, his voice trembling for fear that he would be right.

Katara frowned at his question. She pulled out the water from her waterskin and held it protective in front of her.

"If you are trying to trick us, I warn you, one move and you're death."

"Just ANSWER the QUESTION!" Zuko snapped, his tone heavily laced with desperation and dread. Still eyeing him warily, Katara seemed to struggle to find some kind of harm he could do to them should she comply to his wish and, finding none, she told him. And with just a few words, she confirmed his worst fear.

No. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be right. He shook his head. There was just no way his theory could possibly be right. If it was, how on earth would he be able to fix this situation? However, there was one thing he realized he must absolutely do immediately in the slim chance that he was correct.

He had to get away from here.

Summoning his firebending, he had his binding and the ice destroyed in a split second. Katara was startled by his sudden movement, she jumped back and flung the water she was holding towards him. Zuko dodged the attack easily. Her movement was much slower than her usual standard, he noted dully. Aang and Sokka had also jumped into action. But even with all three of them ganging up on him, Zuko still had the upper hand, and that was without him using fire or even fighting back. Aang was assaulting him with only airbending. No earth, fire or water. Even with his main element, the avatar was so much weaker than Zuko could remember. There was no way this was the person that defeated Ozai. His attacks weren't even close to touching Zuko. Backing away slowly towards the wood, Zuko waited for the right moment.

There!

He sent out a blast of fire that collided with the ground, careful not to hit any of his attackers, only sending them stumbling backward, the flame hiding Zuko from view. Then, with all the agility his body possessed, Zuko ran off, putting as much space as possible between himself and his three friends who were after him like he was their enemy.

Okay, I need some help with this story. It's the same with my other stories, but my chapters are painfully short. Anybody minds giving me some idea?