It was almost noon when Sokka and Katara woke up, feeling much better thanks to the frozen frogs that Aang had given them. Still savoring the taste of the frogs, the girl got up to find some drinking water, but as soon as she stepped out of her sleeping bag, she shrieked in horror. The scream alerted Aang and Sokka, who immediately jumped to their feet.
"What happened, Katara?" Aang asked frantically, already grabbing his staff.
"Zuko happened! What is HE doing here?!"
"Ahh, that… it's kind of a long story." Aang answered with a sheepish smile. He then proceeded to tell them about an old lady healer, who advised him to find frozen frogs for their sickness, then being captured by Zhao's archers, and finally Zuko breaking him out and getting injured in the process.
"I know you won't believe me, guys," he said in a serious tone. "But something just felt different about him."
"Well, you're right, Aang. I don't. You know, it's possible he broke you out just to capture you himself" Sokka pointed out "He tried to do it many times already, didn't he?"
Well... He kinda admitted that's why he did it... Aang admitted, scratching his head.
"SEE? We cannot trust him!"
"But he got hurt while trying to protect me! I couldn't just leave him like that."
"Sure you could!"
Katara remained silent during their argument, turning her attention to the firebender. She approached him more closely and noticed that his skin was somehow much paler than she ever saw on him. It made a bruise on his forehead stand out horribly, along with the scar.
"Wow, he really doesn't look good," she said in thought as she leaned over him. Up close, she could see the burned, bloody mess on his chest. She put a hand on his forehead and noticed how cold it was.
She turned back to the arguing boys and asked louder to get their attention "He lost a lot of blood, didn't he?"
The Avatar moved closer to get a better look at the firebender. "Yeah... He was shot with an arrow and I helped him remove it. He burned the wound to stop the bleeding, but he said later that it was still bleeding internally or something like that."
"He burned himself...?" Sokka asked, his voice filled with bewilderment as he moved closer to take a look.
Katara was reluctantly biting her lip, clearly struggling with the thought of helping the enemy, but the uncomfortable feeling of leaving a defenseless person to die sounded even worse. "I... think we should try warming him up if we want him to get better."
"Yeah, if we want the Angry Jerk to get better," Sokka said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Honestly, I don't understand you sometimes, Aang. You know we would-"
"Yes, we want him to get better. End of discussion." the kid interrupted him, frowning "I thought that Appa could warm him up, but I guess it wasn't enough. I'll go find some firewood"
He was about to jump into the woods already when Sokka stopped him.
"Wait, Aang! Ok, fine! We'll try to help him. But you just said that Zhao's soldiers are searching the forest. I think we should leave before they find us. We'll make a fire somewhere else when we land, or maybe even find a doctor in some village, okay?"
The airbender hesitated for a moment, before giving in eventually "Maybe you're right... Alright, let's pack up."
Meanwhile, aboard a ship docked in a small military harbor, an elderly man was brewing his tea. His nephew was supposed to be back from his night scouting trip already, but it wasn't long enough to make him worry. The news about Zhao's promotion seemed to have taken a heavy toll on the boy (after all, spirits, a sixteen-year-old is still a child). When he finally decided to move after many hours of slumping, Iroh was actually glad—he knew perfectly well that Zuko could take care of himself. That's why he would wait another hour before going out to search for the prince.
"General Iroh, come quickly! A Fire Nation troop is heading towards our ship, and Admiral Zhao is leading them." Lieutenant Jee's breathless voice rang out even before he burst into Iroh's cabin.
Iroh frowned at hearing this. "It can't be good. That man is trouble. Let's see what he wants from us."
He got up and went out onto the main deck just in time to see the soldiers boarding the ship.
"Ah! Admiral Zhao, what an honor to see you! Congratulations on your promotion, I'm sure it was well-deserved. How can we help you this time?" Iroh greeted the man with his usual smile, somehow managing not to let out even the tiniest hint of sarcasm in his words.
"General Iroh. I don't have time for courtesies, so tell me, is Prince Zuko aboard?" the Admiral asked with a vicious smile which immediately set Iroh on guard.
Unfortunately, no. But I will fill him in on whatever matters you brought up when he returns." he replied kindly "Would you like a cup of tea?
"I'm afraid I don't have time for this. I am going after a traitor, and if I find him here, you'll be accused of treason as well." Zhao spoke so casually that it caught Iroh off guard.
"What are you talking about?"
"The Avatar was captured yesterday and brought to the Pohuai Stronghold, where he was supposed to wait until the morning for the transport to the capital. And there, our dear Prince Zuko, disguised, broke into the stronghold and broke the Avatar out. The soldiers recognized him after he was shot and lost his mask."
With every word Zhao spoke, his smile grew even wider, and Iroh was growing paler. By the time the word "shot" was spoken, he felt as if he were being pierced through himself.
"Unfortunately, they both got away. I've already sent the message to the Fire Lord; the official order should arrive any day now, but you know as well as I do that a trial might not even be necessary in cases of treason. That's why my men will search the ship right now, and if you know what's good for you, you will stand down."
Iroh didn't answer as the soldiers began to search through their ship. His thoughts were now racing - his precious boy was out there, shot, and being chased as a traitor! And for what, freeing the Avatar from the Fire Nation prison! What had he been thinking?! The only bit of hope was... maybe he was still with the Avatar. But knowing Zuko's pride, he would never take help from him. What if he was lying somewhere, bleeding out? Iroh knew what it felt like to lose a son, and he didn't want to lose another.
Suddenly, there was a commotion below the deck; a couple of screams followed by something heavy falling on the floor. Iroh was already preparing himself mentally to face an entire army if it turned out that his nephew had returned unnoticed and was hiding there. But the soldiers who came back were now dragging a middle-aged man, dressed in Earth Kingdom clothing.
"We discovered a stowaway hidden beneath the deck, yet we could not find any trace of Prince Zuko." one of the soldier reported.
They brought him to his knees in front of the admiral, ignoring his whimpers and cries for mercy. Zhao sighed, clearly disappointed, then turned to Iroh to complete the formalities. "Were you hiding this man?"
"No, we weren't aware of his presence on the ship," the old man answered absently, only frowning slightly with pity, for he knew what was going to happen to the man next.
"Alright, then we shall take our leave. I'll take care of this Dirt Kingdom spy as a courtesy" Zhao turned as if to leave, but he stopped by Iroh to add "General, I expect you to inform me, if you'll have any information about the traitor from now on."
The Admiral kept his back turned to him to hide the pleasure he took in this, but Iroh no longer looked at him. Realizing that the man was expecting an answer, he said quietly "Of course."
"Right, I remembered something." Zhao said, turning to face the defeated Iroh. He dropped a package onto the deck with a loud clang. The old general looked down at it, recognizing his nephew's favorite dao swords immediately.
"They wouldn't make a good evidence, not that it's needed, but I'm sure you recognise them." Zhao continued his tormenting more quietly "I've always respected you, General. I know you held high hopes for this boy, but it was only a matter of time before he lost it. He never had what it takes to be a worthy heir."
He motioned to his soldiers and turned to leave, adding "Now excuse me, I have two important personas to capture."
And with that, the troops left the ship. The crew that had been watching the entire situation stood stunned. Finally, Lieutenant Jee approached Iroh "General. What are the orders...?"
It was the first and probably last time they would see the great Dragon of the West looking so lost. For a moment, he was reliving the events of five years ago when he learned that his son had died. However, it didn't take long for his gaze to turn as hard as steel. He wasn't going to lose another son.
"Gather a search party. We'll scour the area between the harbor and the stronghold. And I hope I don't have to tell you what will happen if any evidence we find gets reported to anyone but me."
The voice was quiet and calm, but the amount of threat it carried was more than enough to guarantee that none of them would even think about snitching. Not that it was necessary; the prince may not have had the most likable personality, being always angry and yelling orders around, but they also knew that he was fair, and he would risk his life for his crew.
So it wasn't surprising that every member of the crew volunteered to take part in the search, leaving only Lieutenant Jee with two more soldiers to guard the ship, and of course, in case the prince returned on his own.
The group flew, with the unconscious Fire Nation prince lying in Appa's saddle, wrapped in a blanket and a sleeping bag. After the boys had hoisted him onto the saddle, Katara decided that they should put a bandage on the wound, and Sokka helped her with the task, though he still remained conflicted about it. Aang took his usual place on Appa's head and steered him northward. They kept mostly quiet, save for the occasional comment about their next campsite.
They didn't see any villages on their way, so after flying for a few hours, Aang urged them to land. Eventually, they chose a spot by wide river and quickly set up a camp, and Aang immediately ran off to find some firewood. Sokka tried fishing, while Katara was putting up a tent, both siblings casting careful glances at the unconscious firebender occasionally. When the airbender came back, they made a bonfire and laid Zuko closer to it to warm him up faster.
The fish did not bite however, and Sokka, having abandoned his fishing rod in frustration, was now attempting to catch fish with his bare hands. To distract himself, Aang began weaving a necklace for Katara out of the fishing line Sokka had discarded. Katara really liked the gift, and Sokka could not resist teasing the boy about his feelings for her, which she quickly deflected by insisting that Aang was "just a good friend."
"Yeah... good friend" he confirmed with a little disappointed voice, that no one seemed to notice.
Suddenly, some odd sounds drew their attention, and when they went to investigate, they found a man being attacked by a platypus-bear. They began shouting various advice at him about avoiding the animal, but he seemed to ignore all of it. Eventually the Avatar jumped between the man and the enraged the beast and attempted to throw a gust of air at it to stop its attack.
However, the creature was too large for an attack like that. Luckily, Appa approached it from behind and let out a mighty roar. Startled, the platypus-bear quickly fled back into the river.
"You could have been killed! What were you doing, dancing around this platipusbear instead of running away?!" Sokka was staring at the man with disbelief.
"Thank you, children," he answered with a wide smile. "But I was never in danger. Aunt Wu predicted that I would have a safe journey, so you see, I couldn't get hurt!"
"What...? Aunt-who...?"
"Not who, Wu!" he exclaimed. "She is a fortune-teller from my village, and whatever she says happens! You should come see her too."
He was about to take his leave, but was stopped by Sokka. "But fortune-telling is wrong! See, you were almost killed, that's not a safe journey!"
"But I wasn't. Awfully nice knowing your future, isn't it?" and with these words he continued to his village.
The Gaang watched him leave, too stunned to say anything else. Finally Aang broke the silence "Wow, we should totally see her! Maybe she will tell us our future too!"
"Aang, no! There is no such thing as knowing the future; it's just not possible."
"But what if it is? It wouldn't hurt to try." The kid wasn't giving up. "What do you think, Katara? It could be fun!"
"Well, actually it could... But what should we do about Zuko...?" asked Katara, and suddenly they all shared a panicked look. They had left him in the camp alone!
Meanwhile, the Fire Nation prince lay unconscious where they had left him. Outwardly, nothing seemed to have happened; however, internally, a battle raged on. Within him, he experienced a strange coldness, as if he were completely devoid of warmth. It felt like his world had become an empty void, where he was merely a small flame on the verge of being extinguished. He felt so weak and tired that he was just about to give up. Yet, there was also this persistent whispering in his mind, urging him to persevere.
He focused the last of his strength and desperately felt around himself with his inner fire. That's when he sensed a steady burning fire nearby. He reached for it with his inner fire, instinctively trying to gather some of the heat he so needed. Soon the fire began to pulse in sync with his breaths. As the flames grew smaller, the energy slowly returned to him. The fire gave him enough strength to push himself up from his unconscious state.
Eventually, he opened his eyes and saw a cloudy sky above him, immediately losing his connection with the flames. His wound was aching, as if it were on fire, and he was incredibly thirsty. He tried to sit up, but he felt that he was restrained by some kind of material. After a brief moment of panic, he realized that he was wrapped in a sleeping bag.
"What the-"
"Zuko, you're awake!" the Avatar called upon seeing him with a grin, startling him. The firebender just stared at him incredulously, unable to say a word. His eyes opened even wider when he noticed Water Tribe siblings running into the camp. He tried to squeeze himself out of the sleeping bag and eventually managed to push himself up on his elbow, hissing slightly as his wound sent more stabbing pain through his body.
"How do you feel?" the kid asked with a slight worry when the firebender didn't respond.
"You-" Zuko rasped, but his dried throat made him fall in a coughing fit.
Katara almost automatically waterbended a little bit of water from the river and held it in front of his mouth. When the prince froze looking at it, she promted impatiently "It's just water, for drinking. Open your mouth"
She looked slightly annoyed with herself for making such a gesture toward an enemy, but it was too late to take it back. Feeling she had no choice but to obey, and being thirsty as hell, the prince just obeyed, feeling a little humiliated by being fed in such a manner. Seeing they made no move after that, he asked sternly "Why did you bring me here?"
"See? Even he doesn't get it," Sokka moaned, looking at the Avatar.
"We've already talked about this, Sokka," the airbender answered, frowning at him slightly. Then he turned back to Zuko with a careful smile. "You were hurt, and I couldn't just leave you there, so I brought you to our camp. You seemed very cold, so we tried to warm you up as best we could."
"You... what is wrong with you?" the firebender asked with pure disbelief. "I'm your enemy, you're not supposed to care about my well-being!"
"But you DID save my life back there..." Aang fidgeted, feeling a little guilty.
"I... Not actually, those were Yuyan archers after all. Zhao wanted you alive, so they surely didn't aim to kill you" Zuko corrected him, not wanting to be given credit for something he didn't do.
"Actually, why did I even do it...?" he thought resignedly, looking down at the ground. "I should have known better and just dodged myself. A wounded Avatar would have been so much easier to capture after all. I guess I really am a failure, for not having even thought about it back then."
Well, then these soldiers would probably catch me again, like earlier, so it still counts!" Aang smiled at him again.
There was an awkward silence when Zuko didn't answer that. Sokka hesitated for a while, but finally decided to ask quietly, "Can we talk, Aang? And Katara, you too, but I think someone should be watching him since he's awake."
"Come on, he won't be able to do anything in this state anyway" Katara protested with an annoyed huff, not wanting to be left out of important conversations. Her brother cast a glance at the firebender and sighed.
"You're probably right..." he said, not entirely convinced. Turning to the wounded teen, he added "Hey, Angry Jerk! Don't go anywhere."
Zuko raised his head and frowned at the insult, but didn't react otherwise. He knew that he had no other choice but to listen to them, as he was too weak to try anything.
Sokka led the Gaang a little further away so they could talk freely, and started "Okay Aang, I know you wanted him to get better, but we really need to think what are we going to do about him. For all we know, he could soon start pretending to be weaker than he really is, and then kidnap you in your sleep!"
"I don't think he would do that... Something felt different about him when we were talking in the forest, you know, when I was taking that arrow out of his back..." Aang wondered recalling the previous day's events.
"Well, he didn't seem so aggressive today, but who knows what he's up to," the waterbender noticed.
"Exactly!" said Sokka. "I think we should just leave him somewhere where he won't be able to track us." Seeing that Aang was about to object, he added quickly "When he's feeling better, of course."
However conflicted, the airbender couldn't find any other arguments.
"I... Ugh, I guess..."
When the Avatar and his friends left to talk, Zuko slowly untangled himself from the covers he had been in, as it felt awkward to use their things now that he was aware of them. His head was throbbing, and the wound felt like it was on fire. He reached to it with his hand and tried to send some warmth to it to soothe it, but it failed due to his lack of chi. Surprisingly, he felt an odd texture through the fabric of his shirt. Once he pulled it up, he noticed that his chest was wrapped with a bandage.
He shook his head and looked around the camp from where he sat by the fire. Seeing the river reminded him of the thirst that the Water Tribe girl had only partially quenched, and he got up carefully.
He walked embarrassingly wobbly but fortunately, nobody was watching him at the moment. Well, except for the giant bison, who gave a low warning growl as the firebender approached the water. Zuko eyed him cautiously, but when the animal made no move, he continued on and knelt by the riverbank to drink. Once he had enough, he slowly returned to sit by the fire to keep himself warm. The feeling of coldness still lingered within him, so it would have to do for now.
He was surprised when suddenly a flying lemur came down and sat on his knee, chirping loudly. Unsure what to do about it, he petted its head awkwardly, and the animal seemed to enjoy it. Zuko also found it oddly soothing; it reminded him of how he used to feed turtleducks with his mother in the palace gardens.
"I see you've made friends with Momo already," Aang noted cheerfully, startling the firebender. Zuko cursed himself inwardly for letting his guard down like this again, because he hadn't even noticed when they had come back.
"Okay, we'll have some rules, jerk, so you better listen carefully," Sokka stated, standing over the fire with his arms folded. "You have to behave and do everything we say. But, if we see that you're a threat to us, or you try to kidnap Aang again, you will regret we didn't leave you there. Understood?"
"Quite reasonable," the prince answered, meeting his eyes. "But what is the point of this? What do you want from me, information?"
Aang quickly jumped in their defence "We don't want anything from you"
"Wait, Aang, this actually could be a good idea!" Sokka noticed, surprised.
Katara sat down, squinting her eyes. "Assuming he'll tell us the truth."
"I won't tell you anything that you could use against my country." Zuko stated, adding more quietly "I'm not a traitor."
"Except that I am. And that's the fact" he added in thought sadly.
"It's okay. I didn't save you because I want something from you" Aang assured him quickly.
"Then why?"
"I already told you. That's just the right thing to do."
Zuko looked at the Avatar, trying to decipher whatever could be lying behind his words, but it seemed that he was being honest. He actually seemed so... innocent and naïve that it almost hurt.
"He's really just a kid... Younger than me when I was banished. I've already known that, but I don't think I actually realised it... A child that I was supposed to capture. Agni, what honor is in that?"
He suddenly felt a little obligated to the kid, so he stated briefly, "I won't hunt you anymore."
Aang's face brightened at these words, but Sokka stopped him quickly "Pfft, right. Like we would ever believe that."
"I don't care if you do." Zuko averted his gaze at the flames "I'm just stating the facts."
"But why would you suddenly stop? You've been following us for months," Katara eyed him distrustfully.
"I had my reasons for hunting the Avatar. They aren't valid anymore," the prince answered coldly. He had no reason to explain it to them.
"See? I told you guys that he's changed!" Aang beamed "So what happened, you got to like me after all? We were a really good team over there! Right? Or was it that-"
"What happened was that those soldiers discovered my identity!" Zuko burst out as he finally lost his patience. The flames from the fireplace rose along with his rage and everyone except him took a step back. "I've been caught trying to free the Avatar from the Fire Nation fortress, which officially makes me a traitor! I will never be able to go back home, even if I bring the Avatar myself!"
The team stared at him with wide eyes, none of them knowing how to respond to that news. The realization that he had actually betrayed his country by breaking the Avatar out of the Fire Nation prison was really strange. It made him look like a decent guy, and in their eyes, he was anything but.
"I'm sorry..." Aang started, with genuine worry in his eyes "Is there anything I-"
"I don't need your pity." Zuko said coldly, narrowing his eyes. He tried to stand up, but he moved too quickly and had to sit back down to avoid falling over.
"Whoa, easy! I didn't mean it like that, I just..." The Avatar hesitated for a moment, but then seemed to make a decision. "I thought that since you can't go home, maybe you could stay with us...?"
"WHAT?!" both Water Tribe siblings shouted in unison.
Zuko ignored them and sent Aang a long, level look, finally saying, "Don't think that just because I'm no longer against you, I'll be with you. I won't fight against my country."
"I know, I know! You don't have to do anything. I'm just saying that-" the kid started innocently.
"Aang, don't you think we should make these decisions together?" Katara said, outraged. "He chased us all over the world! He burned down Kyoshi Island! He tied me to a tree!"
"No need to worry. I'll leave as soon as possible." Zuko stated, effectively ending the discussion.