A/N: Welcome. This is a LONG HAUL Modern with Bending AU, in which Zuko is older, has unique firebending, ditches Ozai early, gets himself unintentionally adopted by a SWT crew, joins a dysfunctional family of rebels, hunts for Ursa, discovers himself and eventually joins up with the GAang. This first chapter is more of a concept chapter than anything, I hope you like the feel of it. There's a whole lot more plot to this- and a lot more Zuko angst to come! It's going to be quite a long ride :) have fun!
IMPORTANT: there will be no pairings and the story will progress quite slowly/realistically. Warning you in advance for themes such as violence, blood and injury, drug use, PTSD, referenced torture, heavy angst, etc. This is rated M for a reason, so please proceed at your own risk
FULL SUMMARY- The world is divided. Normals and Benders hate each other, and Benders are forced to occupy only their own territories lest they unbalance the new world order. Ozai, King of the Fire Nation, has plans to use this division to overthrow the Normal government and to restore freedom for the Four Nations. But his ambitions come with a hefty price- the loyalty of his son and heir, Zuko.
Burned and alone, Zuko hopes that running away will stop his father from using him for his horrific plans. But with threats closing in on all sides and his bending weakened to nothing, he finds survival harder than he thought possible.
• Cutting Ties •
Zuko stared out at the glittering city lights and felt his chest tighten. It had been a while since he had been alone with his thoughts, and being able to think right now was dangerous for someone like him. If he did, he didn't know how long he could withstand the pressure of trying to hold himself together.
His father had more or less thrown him out of their home five days ago - ha, home- , and he'd known for the first time what it felt like to be truly alone in this world. Unable to fall back on his father's name and legacy, without it cushioning him everywhere he went, Zuko felt as though he were drowning in an ocean full of boats that were just out of hearing. Everything remained the same, the streets, the buildings, the people, but none of them knew him as he was now. He had changed and the world had left him behind.
He'd run, after he'd woken up. After what had happened had finally hit him, he had known only one thing: that he couldn't stay there anymore...
He opened his eyes in an unfamiliar dim room, on a rusty bed, with half his head numb and senseless, and his whole body feeling drained as though he'd been running for days.
Everything was fuzzy at first but then it all began to come rushing back like a nightmarish pantomime. He remembered the fight draining out of him when he saw his father closing the door behind him; the sight of his own hands raised in useless placation; the flash of fire and the screams of a creature too wretched for this world.
The memory of the smell of cooking flesh filled his nostrils and he lurched to the side, unable to stop himself from bringing out the last of his breakfast.
Had it really been just that morning? It felt like years since he'd last sat down at their oak dining table, too nervous about the upcoming meeting to force down more than a few bites of toast. A meeting his father had been carefully planning for the past six months, that Zuko was privileged to be a part of, that he would ultimately ruin because he had an unfortunate moral compass and an inability to realize what was good for him.
Keeping his mouth shut then would really have done him well, he thought, as he wiped his mouth with a shaking hand. What had he been thinking?
He sank back onto his pillows and gingerly reached up to touch his face. He couldn't feel his fingers through the cloth, but he could sense the tenderness underneath. It wrapped around the upper left side of his face, and even though it blocked out the world on that side, he could now make out exactly where they must have put him.
He'd never been in the servant's quarters except for that one time years before when he'd run inside briefly, out of his mind with fear. Now when he thought about it, it was highly unlikely that his mother would have been in there, but it hadn't mattered at the time- when all that had been in his head was the mantra she's gone she's gone she's gone, as he'd torn through every room in the manor. But even that brief glimpse of the rustic dwellings of the lesser members of the household had been imprinted in his mind.
After all, he was hard-pressed to forget anything at all about that night.
He now recognized the brown window sills and the brown rugs, his metal framed bed one of many lining the brown walls. But most of all, he noticed the quiet. He was completely alone, with only a glass of water beside a softly glowing lamp on the bedside table keeping him company.
He lay there contemplating for a long moment, staring at the dark ceiling without really seeing it. His thoughts were sluggish, meaning that whoever who'd tended to him had pumped him with enough pain medication to knock out a small hippo-cow, and yet, despite all that, Zuko's heart sped up.
He was in the servant's quarters.
Everything about that screamed wrong. If they (his own servants, he assumed) had moved him here, and not left him in his own room, that meant things were bad. Worse than any other time. The bandage on his face alone was testament to that, but still… a small part of Zuko had hoped, just before blacking out. Even through the horror of what was being done to him, the pain...
But now, if it had come to this, he didn't think he even had the option of sticking around in the manor anymore. If he stayed, he'd only be at the mercy of his father.
Again.
He shuddered involuntarily at the reminder of what that had felt like.
Even as something already fragile and tenuous inside him snapped with a finality that should have brought him to his knees, Zuko knew he needed to get out of bed.
He pushed himself up on his elbows and found no pain flaring up anywhere, as he'd expected. Yep, he was definitely jacked up on medication. The sluggishness in his limbs was uncomfortable and inconvenient but he reminded himself to be thankful it had yet to wear off...
He shivered.
Right. He definitely knew what he needed to get first.
Avoiding the puddle of bile, he tested his weight and found that with some concentrated effort, he could stand and hobble around. Something was very off about his balance- more than just the effects of sedation. He looked around as best as he could, trying not to panic about his limited point of view - because what if his world had been halved permanently? But the benefits of the room being so sparse meant that there were very few places to hide things. Zuko spied the small cabinet in the shadows beside the window and just knew that that was it.
Wobbling dangerously as he walked the few steps up to it, he opened the first drawer with a shaky hand that made it rattle. Nailed it. Inside lay six small vials of clear liquid, just as many sterile syringes, a dozen rolls of bandages, a bottle of what looked like antibiotics and, blessedly, a tube of- hypothetical- burn medicine. It had to be. Zuko couldn't afford not to take that gamble.
He nearly toppled over when he bent down to retrieve a set of personal belongings he knew the servants kept under their beds. Straightening up, hand clutching the sheets tight, he prayed that whoever this servant was, they'd forgive their prince for stealing from them. They had little enough things to call their own as it was and Zuko felt terrible, clumsily upending the cloth rucksack on the bed and then shoving the contents of the cabinet drawer into it.
This was necessary. Survival was necessary.
Even if Zuko himself still hadn't figured out why he was trying so hard...
Later.
These were musings for later, for when he was safe.
On a less sluggish second thought, he glanced at the clothes he'd haphazardly spilled on the bed and decided he'd need them too. And an extra pair of shoes from the rack beside the door. A glance outside told him what he already knew; that the servants' quarters were right on the edge of the property and that one of the rear entrances would be staring him in the face, ten feet away.
That was when it occurred to him, as he crouched in the doorway, lacing on a second pair of shoes with thick fingers. That this was much too easy.
Because in the little tower up on the rear wall, there was no guard in position where there should have been one. All he had to do was just make a quick run/hobble for the gate and he'd be out in the rear lane. Free.
Too easy, his instincts screamed mutedly.
He stilled and tried to focus on the sounds again, despite the slow panic he felt at only one ear being up for the task.
But he heard no one. Only the last of the birds that sang themselves to sleep as the sky darkened from orange to pink to purple; the rustling of the leaves on the trees in the grounds beyond the small building; the faint gurgling of a water feature in the distance. It was almost as if…
No.
Zuko looked down at his clothes for the first time. Thick black shirt. Black pants. Easy to blend in with. The stolen sneakers on his feet with their rubber soles. He looked back at the dim room, the packed rucksack slung over his shoulder and then at the empty guard tower again, good eye widening as the realization struck him.
They'd done this on purpose.
The manor's servants were doing this on purpose; they were letting their prince escape.
As numb as he was, he knew he wasn't imagining his vision blurring nor the sharp pang in his chest. For what, he wasn't sure. Their loyalty? Their obvious compassion? The finality it stood for? He didn't know.
Trying not to fall over again, he slowly pushed himself to his feet. He didn't dare go the short distance around the wall of the building to sneak a final look at the manor. After all there was no need, he told himself dully. The place had never truly felt like home ever since that night. He was never coming back, so it didn't matter. He would never forgive himself if he let a moment of unrequited sentimentality make this gift of theirs go to waste.
Because that's what it was after all. A perfect, well-timed gift. The newly ragged edges inside him throbbed at the pathetic realization.
With stumbling, halting steps he walked the last remaining distance out of the only place he'd ever lived in. He didn't even feel surprised that the small side-gate had been left open. He just appreciated the fact that he didn't have to struggle with it and spend longer than he had to inside the cursed property.
He was out before he realized it.
His brain was still a few seconds behind and even though his thoughts were clearing up a lot more, the numbness only grew. He embraced it, as he guided himself down the deserted flower-petal-strewn lane, one hand dragging along the wall, knowing that when he turned the corner onto the next alley, he would also be letting go of the last physical tie he had left to the only person in the world who'd truly loved him once, a long time ago.
A/N : Some unasked for yet important #Facts about this AU:
• It's the modern world and the eastern countries belong to the Four Nations and the west is entirely occupied by Normals aka non-benders.
• Normals developed technology as a means to protect themselves from Benders and have devised formidable weapons against each element- enough to pose a significant threat.
• Zuko is 16 when he gets his burn here
• Aang has not been released from the iceberg yet, and was 14 when he went down.
• Katara and Sokka are 14 and 15 respectively, and Toph is around 13
• The Four Nations of the East: The fire nation is where South East Asia is today, the water tribe occupies half of Russia and the North, the air nomads are in Australasia and the Earth Kingdom are every where else.
• Europe, Africa and the Americas belong to the Normals.
• Also, Jun (the character) is 21 at this moment in time :)
thanks for reading! i call this fic my zuko baby, because it's been lying around in my notes for a while now and i have GREAT PLANS for zuko's character transformationsss. anyway, reviews would make my day! I'd always love to hear what you think of this concept, or my writing, or just even about zuko in general!- we're all here because we love that boi, so it makes sense to spam each other about him :) see you on the other side
-Sam
xxx