II: The Choice

As luck would have it the trail not only led to Azula, but the Avatar too.

"Do you really want to fight me?" Azula asked the Avatar.

Zuko rode in, hopped off of the horse-ostrich, and told her: "Yes, I really do."

"Zuko!" The Avatar exclaimed in a hushed voice, the young boy was not only under threat, but on top of it he was exhausted after having dealt with Azula the whole night before and his Waterbending and Earthbending masters having a row with each other.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up Zuzu." Azula stated, the Avatar sniggered at the nickname.

"Back off, Azula, he's mine!" Zuko snapped, assuming a stance between her and the Avatar.

"I'm not going anywhere." She replied, assuming a stance herself.

Things stood quietly for a moment, until Azula made the first strike, with Zuko taking her attack. As they fought, it turned out that both boys were more against Azula than they were on each other. After that first strike, Avatar Aang tried to take off on his glider, but he had to get down to evade anther attack from Azula, by using his staff to dissipate her blue flames.

Aang ran into a building, Azula in pursuit, she almost fell off of a ledge while he was floating in the air on his air scooter, she caught herself and then Zuko entered, only to fall off of the ledge like a doofus. A moment after Aang escaped the building, Azula had blown Zuko out of the door, and he was out of it for the moment.

Aang tried to evade Azula by leaping up between buildings; only Azula collapsed one on him. Buried under rubble, Aang was far from being in the position to fight back. To his luck, Katara had found them, lashed at Azula, and freed Aang. So Azula turned to attack Katara, but Sokka blocked her.

Zuko woke up to find Iroh looking down at him.

"Uncle!"

"Get up!" He ordered.

While Azula faced the Avatar and the Water Tribe siblings, Toph made her entrance by knocking Azula off of her feet, saying: "I thought you guys could use a little help."

Everyone had now teamed up against Azula, and had managed to corner her.

"Well look at this, enemies and traitors, all working together. I'm done, I know when I'm beaten, you got me. A princess surrenders with honor!" Azula stated, she put her arms up in surrender, but nobody let their guard down, and so she struck Iroh in the chest with a blast and knocked him down. Zuko cried out while the others fought back, only for Azula to escape with an explosion.

The others turned to find Zuko on his knees at Iroh's side. Looking over his shoulder, he saw them looking at him.

"Get away!" He snapped.

"Zuko, I can help him." Katara spoke. Zuko looked between her and his uncle, he looked to be in a fair amount of pain and he hated to see him suffer. He locked eyes with Katara again, held in his rage, and then he stepped away from Iroh to give Katara some space. She used her bending water to treat Iroh's wound and told Zuko: "He'll still need some time to recover. You may want to find shelter for him."

Zuko looked to the flames on the buildings and dissipated them, and he found the most intact one to stay in. He managed to hoist Iroh up, an arm across his shoulders, and Sokka decided to do the same for the other arm. They sat Iroh down inside while Zuko set up a bedroll so he could lie down.

"Well, if everything's settled, then we better be on our way!" Sokka announced.

"Wait!" Zuko called out.

The others looked at him for a moment in silence, until Sokka spoke: "Listen, Zuko, no offense, but we have places to go, and frankly we'd like to put as much space between us and you as we possibly can."

"Listen, I've been thinking things over lately, and I've decided that I'm going to stop hunting you… In fact, if anything, I'd wish to join your group."

"You what now?" Sokka questioned.

"Would you mind sitting down for a while? I'll explain myself to you."

They all sat inside the building and Zuko spoke: "I've been through a lot for the past few years, but where would you like me to start?"

"I'd like to know why you were after me in the first place. I understand why the Fire Nation is after me, but why are you?" Aang replied.

"Well, that's the very beginning… I went into my father's war room one day… I was aspiring to become the next Fire Lord and I wanted to go in to learn how to lead my people. However, what I found out was a terrible plot that used a unit of new recruits as a mere distraction in an invading attack. While the Earth Kingdom was supposed to just slaughter the new recruits, another unit was to take the Earth Kingdom from the back. I objected to this plan, saying that we can't just sacrifice patriotic citizens like that, and not only did I voice my objections, I spoke out of term. With that, I had challenged the General in my father's presence, and when something like that happens we settle matters with an Agni Kai, a duel between Firebenders. I felt that I could take the General, so I accepted the challenge, only to find out that I was supposed to fight my father. Being a loyal son, I refused to fight him, asked for forgiveness, and he said that I had shown cowardice, weakness, and disrespect and he left me this scar… As a result of it all, he stripped me of my honor, my birthright, and sent me into exile, my only hope of things going back to normal was if I had captured the Avatar."

They were taken aback by his story.

"I can tell that he's being truthful." Toph stated.

"That explains why you're so persistent, but now, why would you want to join us?" Sokka asked Zuko.

"I've seen how others see the Fire Nation… and I want to put an end to their hatred of us. We may be the bad guys in this war, but we have great strengths in innovation."

"Any other reasons?" Katara asked.

"Can you imagine a world where my sister, Azula, is Fire Lord? I would hope that after the war, either my Uncle Iroh or I would take my father's place. You, Avatar, you know I have good in me, do you think that you could accept me?" Zuko replied.

"Aang, what's he talking about?" Katara asked.

"Remember when you guys got sick after that storm, and I got captured by Zhao?"

"Yeah, you made us suck on frozen frogs! I swear I had a wart on my throatal-flap for a month!" Sokka exclaimed.

"So that's what those were for." Zuko spoke, the others gave him a look.

"Well it was Zuko who helped to break me out, and I even asked him if it was possible that we could be friends if it weren't for the war." Aang told them.

"I say we let him join then, at some point Aang will need to learn Firebending, and where else are we going to find skilled Firebenders that aren't out to get us?" Toph said.

"Sokka, Katara, do you think that we should give him the chance?" Aang asked.

The siblings looked at each other and Sokka replied: "I think that it's going to take some time for us to trust him, but from the sound of things, he and his uncle could prove useful."

"Thank you." Zuko stated. He then got up and found his uncle's teapot and some herbs, and did what he could to prepare a pot of tea for when Iroh woke up. While he prepped it, he caught up on everybody's names, and learned that the newcomer to the group was to be Aang's Earthbending teacher.

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Iroh woke up to find Zuko looking down at him.

"Uncle, you were unconscious… Azula did this to you, it was a surprise attack."

"Somehow that's not so surprising." Iroh replied; he sat up and saw that the Avatar and his friends were sitting in the room, calmly, quietly, and unbound, as if they were fine being there: "Now this is a surprise! Zuko, what's going on?"

"In my time away from you I've done a lot of thinking, and after Azula struck you, Katara offered to heal your wound, and I let her. I then told them that I've decided to stop hunting them and instead join them." Zuko replied as he gave his uncle a cup of tea… or at least tried to. After hearing that, Iroh threw his arms around Zuko into an embrace with a proud smile.

Zuko grunted at the impact of the hug and Iroh told him: "I'm so proud of you! You've chosen a path to restore your own honor yourself!"

"Thanks, Uncle, now listen, if we're going to be facing Azula, I'm going to need to learn some more advanced Firebending… I know what you're going to say, she's my sister and I should get along with her."

"No, she's crazy and she needs to be put down; and now that you're joining the Avatar, we should resume your training as soon as we can. Captuing the Avatar has been your drive for so long that it is connected to your strength in Firebending, Now that your drive has changed, it is possible that you'll lose sight of your inner fire… If that happens, there's no need to fret, Prince Zuko, you'll just have to find a new drive." Iroh replied.

They drank Zuko's tea, which tasted foul but did seem to have a relaxing element to it, and they took off on Appa. After everything they've been through, the first thing they did was take a rejuvenating nap.

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Now the story has officially begun! I hope you're excited!

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