Sorry about dropping you into the middle of things earlier with the prologue and everything, but I personally think that it worked better with the story that way.

Chapter One: A Little Light Shopping, Followed by a Brisk Run

"So you keep having dreams like this? And you get these feelings that things are not as they should be?" asked Iroh.

"Yes," Zuko replied. "Do you have any idea what's going wrong with me?"

"Either something is wrong with the universe, or you're going crazy."

Zuko rolled his eyes. "So you have no idea what's going on?

Iroh nodded. "Correct."

Zuko sighed. "Yeah, well… thanks anyway." He walked toward the door, and was nearly thrown off his feet when the ship pitched to the side.

"What was that?" he sputtered.

Iroh stood. "Perhaps we should speak to Lu Ten."

"We're changing course," Lu Ten explained.

"Well, I noticed that, but… why?" questioned Zuko. He shuddered. Seeing Lu Ten around was, for some reason, like seeing a ghost.

"Be-cause, we need to get to a port."

"And why is that?" Iroh asked.

"Well, for the first thing, we need to restock on water, and get some vegetables. Second, last time Azula got sick, she blew through the medical supplies, and she's starting to—"

"Medical?" asked Iroh quizzically.

"You know, for when people get sick and stuff."

"Oh," Iroh nodded. "I thought you said something else."

"Anything else?" asked Zuko irritably.

Lu Ten began to count off on his fingers. "We need to repair the engine, we have to get some more spare parts, and—" he pointed to a vase that rested beside the helm, "—my flowers are wilting."

Whenever Lu Ten would talk, he would say something that made sense, go along that path until you were confident of his sanity, and then say something completely random that would shatter that confidence. Zuko sometimes had trouble remembering how crazy he was exactly.

"We really need to restock on supplies?" he asked.

"And flowers," Lu Ten replied.

Ursa staggered into the cabin clutching her head.

"Why did we change course?" she complained. "Azula came this close to being seasick again!"

Lu Ten groaned.

Zuko pulled his hood over his head more tightly. Beside him, Azula looked around nervously. Zuko hadn't seen very many Fire Nation soldiers around, but each one he saw sent a blaring "wrong" sensation through him. Azula's occasional sniffles each made him jump, as if he wasn't expecting Azula—Azula, who was always catching some kind of cold or sickness, on top of the recurring nightmares—to get sick. Add that to the creepy feeling he got whenever Lu Ten was around—the feeling that Lu Ten wasn't supposed to be around, when they had been best friends since, for lack of better term, ever, and something was seriously wrong, either with the universe or him. Which one, he wasn't sure.

"What are we looking for again?" Azula asked. Zuko ran over a mental check list. Whenever they went into port, they would go out one or two at a time, and make the required purchases. Iroh had gotten the food (and a whole lot of other stuff on the side). Lu Ten had bought the supplies needed to repair the ship, and Mother had purchased the medicine. That left Zuko with the flowers, and his mother had asked him to take Azula with him.

"Our cousin's flowers," he replied. She cracked a smile, and then frowned.

"Why are we calling him that?" she questioned.

"Shh!" Zuko hissed. Azula drew back in disappointment.

Zuko scanned the crowds. No one he could see seemed to have heard. That was a relief.

"Come on," he commanded, "Let's see if we can find some flowers."

Azula poked his arm.

"What?"

"We walked past one just a minute ago," she replied.

Zuko nearly groaned out loud. He had been so caught up in himself that he had missed what he was looking for entirely.

"Okay, let's go," he grumbled, and turned around. Azula followed after him.

"Was it on our left or our right?" he asked.

"Left."

"Okay." Zuko scanned the signs on his right. "Aand, there we are."

As he walked into the flower store, the first thing Zuko noticed was the huge Fire Nation soldier talking to the attractive woman who appeared to be in charge.

"Hello," the shopkeeper smiled, obviously glad to have an excuse to get away from the soldier. "Can I help you?"

Zuko nodded. "I'd like to buy some lilies, please."

"Okay, let's see," she replied, walking past him. She made a show of rummaging through the flowers, when Zuko was pretty sure she knew exactly where they were. More likely, this was simply providing her a reason to avoid the soldier, and she was stretching it as far as she could. The soldier himself appeared to literally be smoldering.

"Here we are," she replied at length, handing Zuko some long, white flowers. "That'll be three gold pieces."

Zuko raised an eyebrow.

"They're very rare flowers," she explained. Zuko rolled his eyes, handed the lilies to Azula, and fished the required coins out of his pocket. He handed them to the shopkeeper, and she smiled and nodded. Azula sneezed.

"Say, wait a minute," the soldier exclaimed. Zuko froze.

"What's your name, kid?" the soldier asked. Zuko paused. "I said—"

"Lee," Zuko replied abruptly.

"Huh?"

"My name's Lee."

"Huh," the soldier frowned. "And the girl?"

Zuko tried to think fast, but couldn't shake the feeling of somehow… wrongness, if that was even a word. Then Azula tugged on his sleeve.

"What's going on? Why did you tell him your name—?" she asked.

Zuko grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the shop.

"IT'S BEEN DELIGHTFUL, BUT I MUST LEAVE NOW!" he shouted back over his shoulder. He didn't need to look to know that the soldier was already chasing them.

"Come on," he urged Azula.

"Why?" she pleaded. "I'm gonna drop Lu Ten's flowers!"

If Zuko hadn't known better than to slap himself while running, he probably would have. Azula had just blasted out the news that the Fire Lord's treacherous family was in town, a town that they had to get out of as fast as possible.

"STOP THEM!" shouted the soldier behind them.

"That's why," Zuko pointed out. "Now come on!"

As they ran, Zuko began to kick over vendors' carts. He heard howls of pain and fury coming from behind them as he desperately tried to remember his way back to the ship.

"We turned… left here," Azula managed in something that sounded like a cross between a whimper and a pant. Zuko immediately rounded the corner.

""Zuko…" Azula gasped.

"What?"

"Can't… can't ru… ru…"

Zuko lifted Azula and, ignoring the pain in his muscles, continued running as hard as he can. Doing chores around the ship had helped him become stronger, especially when those chores involved doing inane tasks like Zuko couldn't begin to describe—Lu Ten was great at being a captain and all, but his inane ideas about how certain tasks should be done understandably irritated Zuko.

He was so intent on reaching the ship that he nearly ran right past it. Ursa was standing on the ramp waiting for them.

"What—" she began, but Zuko shoved Azula in her arms. Just as a massive group of soldiers burst from who-knows-where and surrounded them.

"LU TEN! START THE ENGINES!" Zuko shouted.

"Oh, by all means. Run your little garbage scow right past the warship we set afloat as soon as you were noticed," a voice shot back nastily.

"WHO SAID THAT?" roared Lu Ten as he ran to the deck, followed by Iroh. "Oh, hi Zhao. Now WHO SAID THAT?"

"Me." Zhao pointed out. There was an edge to his voice. Zuko shifted into a firebending stance.

"Ah, the exiled prince wants to fight, does he?" Zhao grinned. Behind him, Zuko suddenly became aware of Azula breathing more heavily.

"By all means, then—" Zhao began, but Azula sneezed just at that point. Zuko leapt to the side as a massive tongue of flame scorched the ground where Zhao had been standing. The admiral howled in rage—

"Zuko."

—Zuko spun around in an attempt to see who was speaking to him. Then, out of nowhere, he began to feel queer, and hoped that he hadn't come down with whatever cold Azula had picked up.

Then he collapsed. He heard Azula shriek, Iroh shout…

"Zuko," the voice repeated.

Zuko looked up to see a tall, bearded man standing over him. A man whose face Zuko had only seen in paintings, because that man had died over a century ago.

"Avatar Roku?" he gasped.

Tell me what you think, please. It may help me work out some other points.