Chapter 1

"Zuko, wake up," Zuko groaned, trying to push away whatever was shaking his shoulder."Zuko," the voice repeated insistently. "Wake–"

"What?" Zuko sat up, squinting through the dark to see Sokka. "Is something wrong?" he asked, voice still thick with sleep.

"I don't know," Sokka whispered. "But I think I heard some voices."

"Fine," Zuko sighed. "Let's go check it out." The temple was dark, and Zuko was tempted to light a torch, but if someone really was out there then that would just lead them right to their location.

"Let's split up," Sokka suggested. "I'll go left, you go right. We can cover more ground that way. I couldn't pinpoint where the voices were coming from exactly, but it was definitely somewhere up."

"Somewhere above us, you mean?"

"Yeah, above us. Should we go now?"

"All right," Zuko agreed. "If you need help–"

"Then I'll scream like a maniac until you show up and torch the bad guys?"

"Yeah," Zuko grinned. "Do that."

"Sounds like a plan. If you need help just yell and I can beat the enemy senseless with boomerang." And with that they parted ways.

Zuko crept up the stairs to one of the higher platforms, listening intently for any sign of the intruders. He went slowly, careful to be as quiet as possible. Maybe Sokka had just been hearing things. After all, the acoustics out there were tricky at times. But then he heard it, after he'd almost made it two levels above the one they'd chosen to camp out on.

Her voice.

"You still haven't found them?" Her sharp voice shattered the formerly silent night and Zuko couldn't help but wince.

"My apologies, Your Highness, there are a lot of rooms and–"

"I don't care how many rooms there are, just find them before the night is over!" Zuko froze, unsure of what to do. Should he go on or go back and warn Sokka? But there was no way to fly out without being seen. But maybe he could go on and cause a distraction…no, that wouldn't work either. Sokka would hear and come to help.

Unfortunately, before he could make up his mind, one of Azula's soldiers made Zuko's decision for him. Zuko mentally cursed himself, how had he not heard him coming around the bend?

Before the guard could cry out Zuko leaped forward, shooting flames at the guard and forcing him to stagger backward. The guard shouted in surprise, effectively alerting the others, and Zuko groaned inwardly. This would not be fun.

"Stay back," he warned as the soldier drew his sword. Blast, he thought angrily. Why hadn't he thought to bring his dao blades?

Zuko jumped back, dodging a swipe from the soldier's sword. He could already hear the others coming down the steps towards them.

Gritting his teeth, he sent another volley of flames at the soldier who reciprocated the action, but he obviously wasn't a skilled firebender and Zuko managed to fend off his feeble volley with a stronger blast of his own, causing the soldier to stagger over the edge.

Zuko tried to ignore the man's fading screams.

"Your Highness, we found him– your brother!" someone called. Several soldiers flooded down the stairs, weapons at the ready. He dodged a blast of fire from one of them, coming dangerously close to the edge as he did so.

Zuko turned on his heel and sprinted down the stairs, hoping the soldiers had bad aim. The air around them had risen several degrees from all the fire. He could feel his inner fire growing in anticipation of the coming fight.

He turned, unleashing a wave of flames at the soldiers, who were still a good distance away.

But these stairs were a bad location for a fight, he needed to get somewhere else. However, he didn't want to lead them to the others.

He wished Sokka were there with one of his ideas.

And almost as though he'd summoned him, there he was, running up the stairs. Zuko's eyes widened in shock, but he kept running.

"It's Azula," he gasped. "She's here, with backup." Sokka slowed to a stop, looking up the stairs then back at Zuko.

"Keep running you moron!" Zuko panted, grabbing his friend's arm and dragging him along after him. "I need you to go ahead and get the others to safety, can you do that?"

"And leave you?" Sokka looked incredulously at his friend. "No way!"

"Get the Avatar to safety," he figured using Aang's title would remind Sokka just how important the kid was. "And Katara, you need to protect her." he knew Sokka was a protective older brother if there ever was one.

"Wait," Sokka gasped. "Running and discussing…bad combo." Thankfully, just then they reached one of the rooms.

"Sokka, we don't have much time, just listen to me," Zuko said urgently, ignoring the stitch in his side. "The others have no idea what's going on, they're easy pickings right now, go and get them on Appa and get the hell out of here, you have to protect them!"

"But you–"

"I'll be fine, I know the temples better than they do, just go!" Sokka looked like he wanted to argue, so Zuko kept going.

"Aang is the only one they'd keep alive, so they can publicly execute him or something like that. They'd just slaughter the rest. Katara–"

"All right," Sokka blurted. "I'll go. Just–"

"I'll be careful. I'll get away and meet you guys by the bay on the eastern side of the island– now go, they're getting closer!"

"If you're not there by the end of the day tomorrow we're coming after you," Sokka said. Then he turned and dashed away into the darkness. Zuko turned and dropped into a fighting stance, ready for whatever came next.

His heart sank when he saw his sister come around the bend, golden eyes alight with malice.

"Finally," she breathed. "Brother, it's been too long. Why'd you leave without any warning? We worried about you."

"I'm sure you did," Zuko growled, tensing. He'd almost forgotten how patronizing she could be.

Then there were blue flames rushing at Zuko and he barely had any time to react. He raised his hands, managing to intercept Azula's attack with his own. Azula took a step back and Zuko saw his chance, sending a wave of fire barreling at his sister, channeling his panic and anger into his bending.

Despite the fact that he was giving the battle his all, Azula seemed to be going easy on him.

He couldn't let Azula win, they'd kill him and he'd never be able to help Aang master firebending. Aang wouldn't be able to defeat Ozai. He'd fail his friends, all of them. He wouldn't fail, he couldn't.

The air was charged with energy from all the fire, the air around them rising several degrees as they battled desperately. The soldiers had joined the fray now, and Zuko was growing tired. If he stayed in one place for more than a few seconds there was a good chance he'd get hit with a blast.

He leaped into the air and rebounded off one of the pillars, soaring over one of the soldiers who'd been about to impale him on a sword. Unfortunately, there was another waiting for him. There was no way he could fight off all of them and his psychopathic sister.

He gasped in pain as a jet of flames finally found its mark, grazing his shoulder.

That one minute of distraction proved to be his undoing. One of the soldiers snuck up on him, sword raised.

"I want him alive!" Azula shrieked. Zuko looked over just in time for the soldier to slam the pommel of his sword into his temple.

Pain exploded in Zuko's head along with an explosion of stars and he staggered, falling to the ground. He groaned, somehow still conscious.

He needed to get up...he had to beat Azula. He couldn't let them take him back to the Fire Nation. This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

"Well? Knock him out and tie him up already," Azula snapped.

"No," Zuko whispered, but no one heard his feeble plea.

He tried to sit up, but too late. Something hard slammed into his head again and he passed out.