Disclaimer: The following chapter is entirely fictitious. Any similarity to the history of any person living or dead is entirely coincidental and unintentional, except when specifically noted otherwise in the cast and crew credits. All celebrity voices are impersonated and no celebrities have endorsed any aspect of this fic.

Chapter Fifteen: Interruptions and Distractions

(apologies, this chapter is deceptively long)

'-'

Zuko stretched his arms in exhaustion over his head and took in a deep breath to balance his skull. The air was slightly chilly and there was a small amount of snow that blanketed the ground. He was not surprised that once they had docked they were greeted with hostile eyes and devilish stares from the locals. He had only been there once before but he remembered why they hated him so much, or why a Fire Nation ship may send flashes of dreadful memories to the locals.

"Are you sure you're at the right place?" Mai asked him calmly at his side. "What if who you're looking for isn't here?"

"I know they're here," Zuko answered her quietly. "I've been keeping an eye on them for a while. I know, I shouldn't have," he quickly added when she frowned. "But I needed to keep an eye on them just in case. They're here, but I don't know quite where yet."

"And how do you expect to find them? Just knock on every door and see who comes out?"

"No. But I might have to. These people aren't exactly happy to see me here." He took another deep breath and bit his lip as the ramp to his ship was lowered on the dock. It was going to be a long day, he was sure of it, but he was unsure as to how long it would really be. The moment his foot hit the bottom of the ramp whispers and murmurs began to escalade, an earlier boisterous city now dwindled down to almost dead silence, minus the undertone of voices he could clearly hear. "Listen!" he bellowed over the voices. Everyone stopped their mild gossiping and turned to face him with looks of disgust and confusion. "I am Fire Lord Zuko. I am looking for the Avatar and his friends. I have an important message to deliver to them." There were no voices, not even whispers, following his request. Everyone in the small village either stared at him in disbelief or exchanged looks with one another. "Did you not hear me?" he exclaimed again. "I said—"

"We heard what you said!" a heavy looking man yelled back. "But don't act like you're not Fire Nation and don't act like nothing happened. Last time you were here you destroyed half our village looking for the Avatar! Why do you think we'd tell you where he is?"

"I have something I need to tell him!" he snarled at the man, marching up to him and getting into his face. "He and his friends might be in danger."

"Yeah, probably from you," the man scoffed. "All you Fire Nation people are alike." The crowd of people behind him mumbled in agreement, nodding and shaking their head in distain for the Fire Nation. "You're probably just here to capture him, aren't you? You want him in your clutches and you're probably planning on restarting the war!"

"Restarting the war?" Zuko laughed angrily. "I help end it! Why would I want to start it up again?"

"How the hell should I know?" the man answered. "I don't know what's going on in your head. All I know is that you're all untrustworthy!" Mai stood in the background and had not said anything just yet, but when the man said what he did, she let out a soft chuckle. "Excuse me, but what do you think is so funny?" the man snapped at her. "I don't think the murder of our Avatar is something to laugh about!"

"No, that's not why I'm laughing," she said dully. "If we started a war that almost wiped out the entire world before, then couldn't we just do it again? We only have, like, ten people here with us and we're asking for the Avatar. And if he's as good as everyone says he is then we'd need more people. So why would you automatically assume we're here to attack? Or are you just really stupid?" Zuko's face fell in astonishment at her words and so did the man's. "Look, it's only going to be the two of us and I'm sure the Avatar can take care of himself so don't even worry about it."

"Yes, well that may be true," the man stuttered, attempting to find a rebuttal to her comment, "but, still, you know—"

"Can you just lead us to him?" she interrupted his stammering. "We need to tell him something important." Zuko looked around at the people around them and everyone who had been watching decided to forcefully ignore the situation, going about in their daily business as if nothing had happened, but everyone knew there was.

"I don't know where they live," he said sheepishly. "The Avatar usually doesn't live here, normally he comes and goes every year."

"Ugh! You are no help at all!" Zuko exclaimed, exasperated at the man. "The one who argues with us has no idea where he is."

"Well, I don't know where he lives—"

"Go away!" Zuko barked at the man. The man glared at him but finally spun on his heel and stormed off into no particular direction.

"That was helpful," Mai said dryly once the man had stormed off. "Now what do we do?"

"I don't know," he answered. "I guess we could—"

"Zuko?" a voice shouted from across the way, towards the direction of the market place. Both his and Mai's head shot their heads to the sound only to see a dark woman holding a basket. Zuko squinted his eyes to better adjust his vision but suddenly recognized the woman as the Water Tribe girl, whose name he could not remember. "Zuko, is that you?" she repeated, walking closer to the two of them.

"You," he grimaced, attempting to remember her name, "you're—"

"Katara?' she answered for him slowly. "Yes. Why are you here? Should I be concerned?"

"To be honest, yes," he responded earnestly. Katara's face fell and she took a step backwards, but Zuko held up his hand. "It has nothing to do with the Fire Nation, I can promise you that, but this is something that you and all your friends need to hear about."

Katara pursed her lips, but then said, "Well, if you're just here to talk… you caught us on a good day, I guess. Aang is back from his training in the Fire Nation and Tsuchi's returning for a visit, too, but I don't know if—"

"As long as all of you are here," he quickly said. "I don't know how long I have, but I have something very important that could concern you all."

"Okay," she said with worry. "You can follow me to my brother's house. It's nearby. I think he and Tsuchi should be here at any minute, but everyone else is already there." Zuko nodded and gestured to Mai to follow Katara back to her home. Mai raised an eyebrow at him in a silent concern of anything that may have happened between them, but he glared at her in an almost disgusted puzzlement. Mai rolled her eyes as did he and the two followed Katara in silence to the back edge of the small village where many of the few houses were, adjacent to a small forest. The trio made their way up the small path and up to a hut just as small. "I have to tell you now, Zuko," Katara said to him when she placed her hand on the doorknob of the house, "I don't know how everyone else will react to your arrival, but I'm only letting you here because you did help us with ending the war. I can't say how everyone else will feel, though." Zuko nodded reluctantly and Katara turned the knob. "Suki, Aang, I'm back," Katara called to the people currently in the house.

"Hey, Katara," a familiar bald man in an unfamiliar voice chimed cheerfully from one of the chairs in the small den. "Did you get—?" He suddenly cut himself off and released a loud yelp as he stumbled backwards on the chair. "Zuko! What are you doing here? Katara, why would you bring him here?"

"And you thought he wouldn't trust you," Mai mumbled sarcastically under her breath. Zuko shot her a dirty look and turned to watch Katara march into the house, beckoning the both to follow.

"Aang, remember that he helped us end the war," Katara reassured him roughly. "Besides, he says that he has something he needs to tell us."

"Yeah, no one ever explained that to me," Aang glowered.

"And even if he was going to attack us, I saw the ship he came on and it isn't very big," Katara frowned. "He can't have fit that many people on it and he wants to see all of us."

"The war might be over, but I still don't trust him," Aang growled. "Not after all he did to us."

"Aang, you were just at the Fire Nation a few weeks ago for almost a year, going back and forth for the past two years, and not once did he try and get you. Why would he want to try and get you now that you have backup?"

"Then he wants a challenge!" Aang said in a tone that did not convince anyone. Katara rolled her eyes at him and set her basket on the small counter in the small kitchen.

"Where's Suki?" she asked him in an unconcerned voice, ignoring his assumption of attack.

"She's in the back," he replied curtly while not allowing himself to drop a death stare with the Fire Lord. "Sokka should be back with Tsuchi soon."

"I'm not here to take you prisoner!" Zuko snapped at Aang. "Why would I even need you?"

"I don't know, why did you need me before?"

"Because I needed you to get home, but I'm the Fire Lord now so you'd serve no use—"

"Knock, knock!" a woman's voice chimed from the door. "I brought good—." The woman stopped short at the door when her eyes fell on Zuko and Mai. Zuko remembered all the faces of the ones he had tracked but this face was unrecognizable. She did not wear garb from their world nor did her shoes or hair or even makeup match the surrounding city's fashion. However, she knew him. "Zuko?" she said in a questioning tone, squinting her eyes to get a better look at him. "Zuko, that is you, isn't it? But it's Fire Lord now, huh?"

"Normally my subjects bow to me," Zuko said in a low growl at the girl's casual demeanor.

"Yeah, well, see, here's the thing, I don't live here anymore, so you know, you can go ahead and suck it," she smirked in the most earnest of tones. She strutted past the enraged firebender and his friend and parked herself on the long bench with a myriad of bags slung in her arm.

"Who do you think you are, talking to me like that?" Zuko snarled at her, who paid no attention to his ranting.

"Wow, your memory's so bad your cooks probably line your plate with a map to your mouth, huh?" the mystery girl said dryly, provoking a small chuckle from Mai. Zuko shot a glare at her but Mai paid no concern. "See, that's what you get for falling out with my sister." She began pulling the items from her bags out with the aid of the other Water Tribe man, who had just finished talking to Katara in an urgent hush in the kitchen. "Sorry, if I had known you were coming and bringing a friend I'd have brought more stuff for you. You can have my share if you'd like."

"Wait, you're Hiashi's sister?" Zuko exclaimed louder than he had hoped. He remembered the girl who had been Hiashi's sister: she was a myrtle green, wired hair loud mouth whose clothes looked as if they had been created by a blind hog monkey using its feet. But this girl was properly groomed, with normal raven hair actually styled and clothes that looked professionally made, even though he did not know where she could have bought such an outfit, with a voice that contained just the slightest of accents. The girl looked up at her with cockeyed eyebrows and he suddenly realized she was right. Her eyes did not match each other but they matched Hiashi's. "You look... different," he said, managing to correct his surprise. "You're… uh…"

"Clean? Groomed? Well kempt? Well, I think that's the same thing," Tsuchi frowned, scratching her styled hair carefully. "Yeah, the boomslang macaw vomit finally ran its course so I don't stand out like a sore thumb, although I do miss the green. And I haven't spoken our native tongue consistently in a while. I had to learn this other language called English? Apparently 'white is right' in the other world, although I'm not quite sure what that means. All I know is that I'm the wrong ethnicity so I have to blend in if I want to stay alive."

"If you don't mind me asking, Fire Lord Zuko, what exactly are you doing here?" the Water Tribe man with the goatee asked as he walked over to place the other bag on the floor next to the bench. "I mean, the war's over so what exactly would you come back to us for? You have your throne, you have your country, and capturing the Avatar isn't exactly going to do anything for you, so you might as well just leave."

"Sokka, calm down," Katara said softly. "I told you, he said he needs to tell us something important."

"No, Katara, this is exactly like you," the brother snapped at his sister. "You bring an enemy into my house without a second thought! What if he's here to arrest us, huh?"

"Hey, sock-face, calm the fuck down," the strangely dressed woman said roughly. "If he wanted to ambush you guys, wouldn't he have done it sooner?"

"No, Tsuchi, maybe he couldn't find us!" he growled back to her.

"Retard, the Avatar was gone for a hundred years and he found him in three. Plus he has a whole army under his command. Hell, if he really wanted to he could have gathered a whole army and ambush everyone. Oh, that reminds me of something I want to tell you, but first I have goodies!" She organized the items on the small table into five groups, each group containing each item she had. "I brought Coke, cheeseburgers, oh, I took the meat patty out of yours, Aang, and stuck it in Sokka's, and Katara, I know you like the Snickers, so I got you some of those, but I don't know if you'll have enough for the whole year."

"I'm sorry, but are you guys going to ignore us all day?" Mai sighed histrionically. "If I wanted to stand around and be ignored I would have stayed at home."

"Your conversation, can, you know, wait for two seconds," Tsuchi replied harshly to Mai. "I haven't been here in a year and I would like to hang out with my friends before I leave. You're here for forever."

"We might not have forever!" Zuko snapped at the lot of them. His yelling threw him off balance, which Mai sensed and quickly but surreptitiously grabbed the back of his cloak to keep him stable. "Here you all sit and talk all jovially as if me being here isn't that big a deal—"

"I never said that!" Aang barked. "I don't even trust you here!"

"Neither do I!" Sokka added.

"Actually it's not a big deal for me, more of a curiosity," Tsuchi shrugged.

"Well it should be a big deal!" Zuko scolded them. "I'm not here to eat and have fun, I'm here to tell you something important!"

"Oh, I brought my camera, too!" Tsuchi exclaimed, withdrawing a black prism shaped object with a glass eye slightly off the side. "And I made all the families an album, well, except for you, Zuko, 'cuz you know, you fucked up and all."

"What are you—no, you people aren't listening to me!" Zuko groaned. "There's something you all need to know—"

"What's going on?" a woman with short auburn hair suddenly asked quietly as she slipped her way out of a door from the back room. "Can you guys keep your yelling down?" She paused and scanned the room, letting her eyes fall on Zuko and Mai. "What is he doing here?" she said with a slight toxicity.

"We'll explain later, Suki," Tsuchi interrupted Zuko once again. "But first I want to tell you guys something."

"No, I need to speak—"

"I swear to you, you can talk in a bit, but I have something interesting: I was talking to David a few months back and we started talking about wars and I told him about ours and he was telling me that they had this massive war, too, before we arrived, and he started saying stuff about this country called Germ-something, and they had these prison camps where they did awful stuff to people—"

"Those weren't prison camps, they were death camps," Zuko sharply interrupted. Each head in the room turned to look at him. He clearly had his opportunity to convince them to listen. "The country you're talking about is called Germany and they had death camps, designed to kill hundreds of people per day. A man by the name of Joseph Mengele used to run grizzly experiments on the inmates, and those experiments killed people in the worst of fashions." There was a silence that they had not felt before.

"Yeah," the girl said cautiously. "That's exactly what I was going to… when did you learn this? Did you go to Earth, too?"

"No, I haven't," he answered roughly. He had their attention finally. "There's a reason why I'm here and it's not because I'm here to arrest you. You're all in serious danger. You're lives are at stake and you won't be able to see it coming."

'-'

So yes, this was mostly talk about randomness, as it always is, but I wanted to get in another chapter before I went on a brief hiatus. See, I'll be heading out to Comic Con in about two week and after submitting my application in April, I received confirmation in June that I'm going to be performing in the Masquerade thingy on Saturday. I'm going in as Ty Lee and I'll be doing a dance routine. I'll probably suck, but that's okay, I love to dance anyways. Anyways, I've been procrastinating so I need to take the next two weeks to work on a routine, plus I need to edit my music. Then after that weekend I'm going in for nose surgery and I have no idea how long that will take. The doctor said it's NBD and that it's an outpatient thing with very minimal blood loss, nothing major, but I still have no idea how long I'll be out. I'm probably overreacting about the whole thing. I think at the most I'll be out for a day, but that still means I won't be active until the next day, meaning a chapter might not be up until August. But you should all be fine.

Oh, and I went to go see The Last Airbender… and my opinion? Meh, it was alright. Why do I say that? Well, first off, I went in with blinders. I figured at first it was going to be one of those things where you had to have seen the series in order to understand what was going on. Then I had to consider: They had to cram about ten hours of a season into an hour and a half. If it had been longer, say, a two or two and a half hour movie, I could probably guess it would have come out much better. But unfortunately they were trying to get a broader audience by aiming at children and let's face it, all kids have ADD practically and can't sit still in a theater for very long, so that time limit really hindered their ability to tell the story well. The name pronunciation, I did have a problem with, but according to the rest of the world… well, Americans are the only ones who are pronouncing it wrong, apparently. That just makes me feel stupid. Another one of the big problems I've been hearing about is the whole ethnicity thing, this and that it's sacrilege about there even being white people in Avatar since it's Japanese or Asian based and they're being racist… And to that I do not agree. Think about it, look at our world. To anyone who believes in the theory of evolution would agree that there is no way that the only thing changing about the people in the different cultures are skin and eye color, it's just impossible. People evolved based on their location on the planet so of course there's going to be variations. Granted, Katara, Sokka, and Aang should not have been white and should have been casted properly according to region, but Caucasians shouldn't have been nixed from the movie altogether. Shoot, if I was going to cast the Avatar movie, you know what I would have done? I would have taken a map of the Avatar world and a map of our world and try and base culture geographically. So white people would probably have stayed in the upper left, so if you're looking at their map, there's two major Earth Kingdom continents, the largest is the one with the Si Wong Desert and Ba Sing Sei and the Earth Kingdom base, I'm talking about the continent to the left of it. That would have been white people since it's similar to Europe. And I probably would have made the Fire Nation Pacific Islanders, since after all, the Fire Nation is an Archipelago. It only makes sense… NEHO, I did hate the parts where they were almost literally just talking into the camera, especially when they did it the first time where the camera was so far into their faces you could swear you see Noah Ringer's lungs through his nose (I swear, that boy has WIDE nostrils!) That was just painful. Still, despite all the negative feedback I'm hearing I am really hoping this movie pulls through, because otherwise we're not going to see a Book Two or a Book Three. They waited on production on the second movie to see how the first one turns up and if it doesn't go well we can all say goodbye to the next Airbender movies. Now I'm sure many of you don't mind there not being a sequel, but think about it: Avatar is a great show and we want everyone to see what a great show it is. Without a successful movie, Avatar will essentially leave the spotlight as a giant fart (Family Guy reference). It's already getting a bad reputation. Do we want to add insult to injury and let it only make half its money back? The other people who aren't fans of the show will never let us live it down if the movie doesn't succeed. Frankly, I say they should make the next two movies anyway but get rid of the biggest flaw to the movie, and that's Shamalama-ding-dong. Forget the actors; if the movie's good enough no one will care about bad acting, just look at Twilight.. actually, I think Twilight's doing so well because about 70% of their cult following doesn't have a mind of their own... NEHO, I think it was Mai who coined the following phrase: I love Avatar more than I hate the movie. Overall I give it a very low B-, but I do that for the sake of our love (and by 'our' I mean mine and Avatar).

No one really cared about that. NEHO, as always, leave a review, look at my deviant art page, and if you have art suggestions I'll be glad to hear them. I may post a picture of Tsuchi in her new outfit, but that all depends on the amount of time I'll have. Until next time, Signing Off.