Author's Note

This chapter comes before The Phoenix King, before Aang leaves. I just haven't written it before then. Thank you for reading and I hope you continue to enjoy! Comments are always welcome!

The night came. I was about to head to my room before Sokka stopped me. "Hey, Zuko. We're having a campfire this time. It'll be the last one for a while so we decided to have one last campfire."

"Another one?" I asked.

"Yep, but this time, we're going to tell scary stories!" Sokka cheered, waving his arms in front of me in a weird way.

I rolled my eyes. "Okay fine, but only if you stop doing that." Sokka gave me a thumbs up. "Gotcha." He walked away. One last campfire huh? With scary stories? Who's telling them?

I walk over to the courtyard where, Aang was setting up the fire. Katara was bringing fire wood and Toph was sitting on the stairs. Suki was drinking from a watermelon. "Oh! Look who came to join us!" Katara said, handing Aang another log.

"Oh, great!" Aang cheered. "Now this is a campfire!"

"More like a waste," I muttered. "So how's this gonna work?" I sat down on a nearby log that were put there for the campfire.

"You, know," Sokka said, "campfires stories? S'mores? That kind of stuff?"

"Hey, uh, what kind of stories?" Aang asked, tossing a log into the fire.

"Scary stories!" Toph cheered.

"Sure!" Suki agreed. "I like scary stories!"

"You have any scary stories in the Fire Nation, Zuko?" Katara asked.

"Of course we do," I replied.

"Great!" Suki cheered. "Everyone can share one then!"

Everyone one else sat on a log. I walked away to get some more firewood and came back to Toph sitting on the whole log. So I sat on the floor in front of it. I crossed my arms. This will be fun.

"Okay, who'll start?" Katara asked.

"Ooh! Me! Do me!" Sokka exclaimed, waving his arm in the air.

"Oh, all right, go on," Katara said. Sokka moved closer to the fire. "Okay, okay. So a long time ago, on a night just like this, wonderful, seemingly magical, there were two ancient civilizations. One of them, they called themselves the Pearls, lived near the edge of a cliff. The others, the Boulders, lived…well, near boulders.

"They lived in peace until one day, each tribe's food kept disappearing. The Boulders thought that it was the Pearls and the Pearls thought it was the Boulders. So they raged into a war, seeming to last forever. However, two forbidden lovers met between the two territories and hoped that one day, this war would end. So they prayed to the spirits, hoping that they could stop the food thief.

"One day, they each brought food from their own tribe, to test where the food was going. They knew there had to be a solution of the disappearances. They waited all night, until they woke up to…

"To a what?" Suki asked, clearly wrapped up in the story. "What did they wake up to?"

"They woke up to a badgerfrog, as big as a boulder itself! The badgerfrog swallowed all the food whole, without even chewing, and hoped off! So the two lovers ran back to the tribes, giving them the news of a badgerfrog. Just when they thought they had eternal peace, she woke up to realize that she was the one eating the food! She had been sleepwalking!"

Sokka waited for a reply. Nothing. "Yeah, great, story, Sokka," I finally said. "Real scary."

"Aw! Come on! I thought of that one myself!" Sokka cried, throwing his arms in the air.

"Yeah, maybe you should stick to our tribe's scary stories," Katara said, patting Sokka. "It's a nice try though."

"I have one, but, it's not really a scary story, more like…history of Kyoshi," Suki said.

"I want to hear it!" Aang cheered.

"Okay, so…I don't know how long ago. Anyway, Kyoshi was the tallest and the bravest of the land. She discovered she was the Avatar by the elders of the town. So she went out and learned all the elements. She learned all of them in jiffy, except air. Air is so much different than Earthbending with the stances and the way they attack…" She paused. Everyone was staring at her.

"Sorry, I'll go on. So one day, when she had finally arrived back on Kyoshi Island, she heard the news of an invading country. So she put her newly found Avatar abilities to use. She went to every city, every town, every village, until she found the invading city. It was a small rebel town from Ba Sing Se.

"So she tried talking them out of it, but they didn't listen. They didn't believe that she was the Avatar and that she could stop them. So she used Airbending first, to show them. They still wouldn't listen. So she used her Avatar powers to stop them. When she defeated them, she found out that the people who were attacking were actually not people but, in fact, Kyoshi Island's Spirit.

"When she questioned its motives, he told her that it was for her training. That she wasn't supposed to use all of her bending, or the Avatar State, unless she really needed it."

"And she did, later!" Aang said. "She moved Kyoshi Island, which is why it's an island now!"

"Zuko, what's yours?" Katara asked, eager.

"Mine?" She nodded.

I paused. "Once there was this kid who found out he was the Avatar. But he didn't want to be the Avatar. So he ran away from home, trapped himself in an iceberg and floated away. One hundred years later, two Water Tribe kids found him and freed him and the Avatar ran away again. Eventually, he owned up to his responsibility and decided to end the war. However, instead of using his time to prepare to end the war, he decides it would be fun to have a campfire and tell 'scary' stories to pass the time. When it came time to defeat the Fire Lord, he was too busy playing and not taking things seriously that he wasn't prepared and he was defeated. The Fire Lord had gained everything he wanted and banished his only son, except this time, through death, and the world was now subject to the one and only 'king of the world!'"

Everyone was quiet. They were staring at me. Don't they realize that this is important? If Aang can't defeat my father, then the world will go down in flames! "Uh, Zuko? Are you okay?' Aang asked.

"No!" I replied. "Can't you see that if the Avatar can't stop the Fire Lord then the world will be gone! The world will be his! There will be nothing left and we would've failed."

I stood up and walked away. I can't believe Aang is…relaxing! Sozin's Comet is not too far and if he can't defeat my father then…

A hand touched my shoulder, shocking me. "Sorry," Katara said. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It…it's fine."

"Zuko? Are you okay?" I didn't reply. What if I yelled again? "Well, Aang wants to talk to you when you come back, so whenever you're ready…" I turned around. "Thank you."

I followed Katara back to the campfire and sat back down in front of the log. "Zuko? Are you okay?" Aang checked again.

"No," I replied, calmer this time. "It's just…if you can't defeat my father, then…the world will go down in flames. He will kill anyone he doesn't like, which would be all of you, Uncle and…me. He would control the world and once it hits there, it's over."

"Zuko, I'm sorry," Aang said. "I…I didn't realize this bothered you so much."

"It's not that… I understand you need it. It's just, my father. If he takes over the world then…"

"Zuko," Katara said. "Don't worry, we'll be here with you. All of us." Her smile made me smile. "Thank you."

"Zuko? I have a question," Aang said. "What made you want to join us? What was your drive?"

"The reason I joined?" I checked. Aang nodded. "Well, I…"

"It's okay if you don't want to tell us," Suki remarked.

"Well…during the war meeting to invade the Earth Kingdom, I saw my father's true intentions. He didn't care about whether some of his soldiers died, he didn't care whether the world feared us, he just wanted the Nations under his control. He just wanted power. That's why he challenged me to an Agni Kai, I spoke out of turn and he wanted to be heard, he wanted to have the power. When I finally saw what was happening, I…didn't want to be a part of it anymore. I didn't want to be a part of a Nation that is feared by many, that is drawn to war. I wanted to prevent that.

"Then, I remembered Mother. Mother left so she could protect me and the Nation. So I did the same. I left to protect everyone. I left to do what's right. And…because of it…I don't have the heavy weight pushing on my back. Now, I feel better and…I made new friends."

"You didn't just make new friends…" Sokka said.

"…You made a new family," Aang said, finishing Sokka's sentence.

"You did a good job," Suki said.

"Yeah, you did great!" Toph said, standing on her log and smacking my back. I flinched.

A little while later, Aang decided that it was time for bed. So he walked inside, and came out with a large blanket. "What's the blanket for?" I asked. Aang held up the blanket. "It's for tonight! When the fire goes out, we're going to be cold!"

Aang sat down next to me while Suki moved the logs. Katara sat next to Aang and Sokka on my right. Suki and Toph came next. "Why are you sitting so close?" I asked, my cheeks turning red. Aang didn't answer. He just threw the blanket around the small group instead. "We have to share the blanket. It's the biggest one we have."

Within minutes, the fire went out. Sokka started hugging me. "What are you doing?!" I asked.

He just pats me on the head. "Sh." My face turns red. "Remember when you guys used to hate me?" I asked.

"Shh, shh, human furnace. You're keeping us warm," Sokka said, patting me again. This is embarrassing. Using me as a human heater!