Zuko

I spent my days preparing to become the Fire Lord. Preparing to undo all of the damage my father inflicted upon our nation with the absence of the Avatar to stop him.

So imagine my surprise when I found the Avatar.

Five years ago, when I was 16, I set out on an expedition with my uncle and his son, my cousin, Lu Ten. There was no goal in sight. Simply just travel the world while I still have the chance. Our boat hit some ice near the south. Then blue light shot up into the sky.

My uncle, Lu Ten, and I told the crew we were going to investigate, and we got off the ship and into a small life boat. Then we saw him. It was the Avatar, Aang. We saved him and his flying bison, Appa. We came up with a cover and a plan to find him somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. He and Appa followed us from a distance until we reached Kyoshi Island.

There, we found trustworthy people, the Kyoshi warriors. We asked them to watch Appa for some time until it was safe for Aang to shed light on his true identity. Appa is still there to this day, but we make time to visit often. We came up with a cover story next. We met Aang, and he and I became best friends right away. My father would allow him to stay at the palace with us since he allows Azula's friends, Mai and Ty Lee to stay there as well.

It was foolproof.

And it worked.

Aang goes by Kuzon in the palace, so as to not reveal he is not of Fire Nation descent. Aang is too much of an Air Nomad name for it to not be easily figured out. He wears a headband to cover his tattoos, and before he had hair, he would wear a tight hooded wrap around his head as well.

Now, five years later, the Avatar has become a bit of a pain in my ass.

"Zuko, I need to master the other elements if I'm going to become the true Avatar one day. I can't keep working on fire when you have spent the last however many years teaching me." Aang and I are sitting in my bedroom discussing his progress as the Avatar.

"I don't know what you expect from me. I bend fire. I don't bend water or earth. And I can't very easily find trustworthy people to teach you. The Kyoshi warriors are all non-benders, in fact, nobody on Kyoshi is a bender!" I shot right back at him, as my anger and frustration overcame me. Aang is too young and naive to fully understand that I cannot simply just grab someone from the Earth Kingdom or the Northern Water Tribe to teach him.

"We'll find someone trustworthy, I know it. The Earth Kingdom will be more than willing to teach me how to bend, as long as I don't use fire at all while there. The Northern Water Tribe is terrified of Ozai and would never, so what about the Southern Water Tribe?" Aang asks me this as though it is possible.

I take a deep breath before I try responding. Then I hear a knock on the door. Our eyes go wide and we calm ourselves. I stand up and go to the door, and as I'm walking, I turn to look at him. "We'll finish this conversation later, Kuzon."

I open the door and I see Mai frowning. Mai and I have quite the difficult relationship. My sister has always tried to push her toward me in hopes that I may fall for her someday. I'll admit that she is a beautiful girl, but I could never love her. I see too much of Azula in her, and her incredibly dry demeanor is quite bothersome.

"Mai? Did you need something?" I glance back at Aang who is sitting at my desk with his head in his hands.

"I… I see you're busy. We can talk some other time." She turns to leave, and normally I would let her. Unfortunately for me, that would mean continuing the conversation with Aang that I do not want to be having.

"No, that's okay. Kuzon was just leaving, weren't you?" I turn to him as I say this and he quickly gets up and nods his head. He says a quick and annoyed goodbye before he exits my room. I sparked up the conversation with Mai again, "What did you need?"

"I was just wondering if you would be free tonight. There's a play in the city that I think you might enjoy. I wanted to go see it with you." Dry. Dry as hell. No emotion. No feeling. No meaning.

"I… I'm not sure I should. I have a lot of studying that I need to be doing tonight in preparation for my future as the Fire Lord. Maybe Kuzon, Ty Lee, or Azula would enjoy it as well. Thank you for stopping by, Mai, and I appreciate the invite, but I must unfortunately turn it down." I thought quickly on my feet. I would do anything to avoid spending alone time with this girl.

"Ah, I understand. Don't overload yourself, Prince Zuko. Thank you for your time." She turned and walked away down the hallway. I closed the door as she left and locked it. I notice that it is almost nightfall, so I walk over to my bed and fall face first into my blankets.

I fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was late in the night. I look out off the balcony in my room and decide that it's time to make a run. I quickly shut the doors to my balcony and closed the curtains to block any prying eyes from seeing in. Under my bed, there is a tunnel that leads to the kitchen. I roll under my bed and move the boards away from the tunnel and slide in. I replace the boards before I make my way to the kitchen. Spirits forbid someone comes into my room, notices me missing and looks under the bed seeing boards sitting freely on the floor with an open tunnel.

Once in the kitchen, I grab my supplies. Bags upon bags of food. I quickly cross the hall into the medical suite where I find almost empty bottles of medicines and I take those too. I make my way back to my room and put on my outfit. Completely black with a hood and black face mask that covers everything but my eyes. Then I put on the mask to tie it all together. The mask of The Blue Spirit.

I grab my swords and the bags of food and medicine and slip out the doors to my balcony and hoist myself onto the roof. I head into the city. It's time to make some lives better tonight.

While in the city, I go to the lowest ring. The poorest people. The sick and hungry. I set the food and the medicine on doorsteps, knock, and disappear to the next house full of people in need. When I run out of supplies, I retire to a rooftop and look at the stars.

Then I heard it.

I heard a scream.

I immediately jumped into action and ran across the rooftops to where it sounded like it was coming from. I took my swords out as I spotted the group in need. A gang surrounded them. I was about to jump onto the ground and start defending them, but before I could, the members of the gang all dropped to their knees. The Group they had been surrounding looked at them in confusion, but ran off. They likely figured whatever was happening was not as important to them as their lives were, and I can't say I blame them.

I crouched down on the rooftop and watched the scene below me unfold.

XXXXX

Third Person

A gang on their knees.

The Blue Spirit hiding on the roof.

A mysterious figure appearing from the shadows.

She was dressed in red with a wide brimmed hat surrounding her head. A veil falling from the hat. The makeup on her face in red streaks.

The Painted Lady.

She slowly approached the men kneeling below her, and she spoke. Her voice was as soft as rain, yet as deadly as knives.

"Your lives or your pride. It's your choice." The men cowered, knowing the only way out was to give up their ways.

Three of the four men immediately begged for their lives. The Painted Lady let them go. The fourth stared at her. He looked her in the eye with a fury and confidence she had never seen before.

"How interesting. You truly believe that you can force me to choose? You don't even have a weapon to kill me. Tell me, girl," He spat as though it was an insult and not praise, "why should I believe you will kill me if I decide I want my pride?" The man's gaze never waivered. He was fully confident that this mysterious girl would do nothing. She was here to scare them. Nothing more.

"I do not need a weapon to control who lives and who dies. You do nothing but hurt others for your own personal gain. I gain nothing by killing you, nor would I lose anything. It is not a matter of whether I will choose to or not, it is a matter of whether you choose for me to or not." The Painted Lady fired her words at him with impeccable confidence.

The watcher on the roof sucked in a breath and held it. This, however, was not a quiet breath, but one that drew the attention of The Painted Lady. She looked up at the roof, and her concentration broke. The man kneeling at her feet was no longer under her control. He took his dagger out of his pocket and swiped at her legs. She fell to the ground and he spat on her before walking away.

The Blue Spirit saw this. He jumped down from the roof and held his sword to the man's throat.

"She asked you a question. Your life, or your pride?" The Blue Spirit did not know the woman lying on the ground only feet away, but he understood her purpose. It was the same as his. To help those in need and make the groups of dangerous men smaller and smaller until they disappeared completely.

The man recognized The Blue Spirit and knew that he would take his life without question. "I choose my life… please, spirit, please let me go…" The man immediately felt fear in the obvious face of death. The Blue Spirit dropped his sword and the man ran away.

The Painted Lady stayed lying on the ground, blood pouring out of the new wound on her leg. Although she knew how to heal herself, the fear of facing death caused her to forget. The Blue Spirit ran over to her. He picked her up in his arms and somehow managed to get them both on a nearby roof where he set her down gently.

Before either of them could exchange a word, The Painted Lady understood that she was out of harm's way and finally healed her wound. The Blue Spirit watched in amazement. Just as he was about to ask her who she was and how she did that, they heard a guard below.

The guard hadn't spotted them, but they knew it was dangerous. The Painted Lady pulled The Blue Spirit down next to her and layed down. They were out of sight of the guard below. Once he had passed, The Painted Lady stood and prepared herself to go. She bowed her head to The Blue Spirit as a way to say thank you for helping, and she turned to leave.

Just as she started to leave, The Blue Spirit reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back toward him, and she fell into his chest.

The Blue Spirit caught her and took a deep breath before speaking, "I am The Blue Spirit. I give to those in need and I save those who need saving. Tell me, please, who are you?"

The Painted Lady looked down to avoid him seeing her face, but he put his hand on her chin and lifted her face to see her. Her eyes widened and she shakily answered, "I am The Painted Lady. I wish to do as you do." She backed away from him, his hand still on her wrist and she spoke with a new found confidence, "Until we meet again, Blue Spirit." His grip loosened on her wrist and she pulled her hand away slowly, their fingertips brushing each other as she did. She turned and she left.

After she left, there was but a single whisper in the night. One that could only have been heard if you were listening for it with nothing else in mind.

"Until we meet again, Painted Lady."

XXXXX

Katara

Hama had a friend in the lowest ring of the Fire Nation capital named Ana. Ana graciously took me in and accepted the responsibility to care for me and keep my identity as a water bender a secret. It was perfect for her anyway since she owns a tea shop. Quite a well known one at that, and apparently she often served two of the Fire Nation Royal Family members. She said sometimes there's a third, but he doesn't come often, and she does not think he is family.

I arrived at the capitol and was put to work almost as soon as I finished unpacking my belongings in the small room I was given. Ana does not have much family left as they have almost all died at the hands of violence in the city. One night of not coming home did not often mean anything, but when they didn't come back a second night, she knew they were killed.

When I learned of the mistreatment of the citizens, I knew my job was much bigger than I had originally thought. Bigger than I was told. Kill Ozai, but also help the people.

Throughout my first day of work, I met a lot of lovely people and I learned their stories. I took the time to sit with them and talk if they so wished me to. Ana told me it would only help my mission, and she could handle the extra work that I slacked on while I was learning more about the customers and their lives in the Fire Nation.

During my time with Hama, I learned a lot about the Fire Nation and its history. Not only the history of the people, but of the spirits as well. There was one story that stood out to me through all of them. A story from the small town of Jang Hui. The story of The Painted Lady.

One girl who came in stood out to me more than anyone. She told me that she was not originally from the capitol, but from a small town on a lake that had been soiled by the Fire Nation military. The town of Jang Hui. I listened to her story probably more intently than I listened to anyone else's. She told me of the violence that she dealt with here daily. Her and her family had to borrow money from a group of people to leave the town where they could barely live. Her parents owed them a great sum of money and they had not been able to pay them back by the deadline. She told me of her prayers to The Painted Lady, and that although she only protected her hometown, she hoped that she would protect the people from there as well even if they were not currently there.

She told me that the deadline was last night and that they decided today would be similar to that of a last hurrah. They took the money that they did have and they each went out to spend it and have a good time on the last days they would be allowed to live, as the gang would kill them tonight.

I knew I had to do something. This girl was only 15 years old and needed to be taken care of. She needed to live. She had so much life ahead of her and I could not stand by and accept that she would die. I will see her in this shop again.

Towards the end of the day, as Ana was closing the shop, I told her I needed to go buy something and that I would return soon. I went out and I found what I needed. Red makeup, a wide brimmed hat, and a veil that I could easily wrap the hat in to create the whole look. I knew that the real Painted Lady wore a white gown, but I felt as though a red gown would suit me better, and I had the perfect one.

That night, I did my hair and makeup to look like her, and I pulled on my outfit. I snuck out of the house without anyone hearing, and I made my way through the streets, hidden by the shadows. I found the girl I had spoken to in the tea shop earlier that day and I quickly followed her, making sure to stay hidden in the darkness. Soon a group of men surrounded them, and I heard a scream.

I quickly jumped into action, still hidden in the shadows. I took all of my knowledge and training from Hama and I used it. I bended their blood and forced them to kneel at the feet of the family they surrounded, and they soon ran off, making sure to stay out of harm's way. I approached the group of men that were now kneeling at my feet.

"Your lives or your pride. It's your choice." I said the words as softly as I could, but with all the strength I had. Three of the men chose their lives and ran, and the fourth questioned me. Soon, I heard something. Someone was watching. Out of fear that it was a guard, I looked and I lost concentration. The man at my feet cut me and I fell. As he was walking away from me, I saw someone through blurry eyes grab him and repeat my words. He begged this person for his life and was let go. I saw a figure approaching me, but before I could react to keep them away, they picked me up and got me onto a nearby roof. Once I recognized that I was safe, I healed my leg.

My vision came back into focus and I saw the man. There was a guard below so I pulled him to lay on the roof with me, my idea of returning the favor for saving my life. When we were safe and the guard was gone, we stood up, and I went to leave.

But he caught me.

He pulled me into him and told me he was The Blue Spirit and told me what he does, so I responded in kind. I took a deep breath and I realized how lovely this man standing in front of me smelled. I recognized his cause as honorable and I secretly hoped that I would see him again.

We parted ways and he watched as I left.

Once back in the safety of the tea shop, I made my way to my room, where I found Ana sitting and looking out the window. I froze.

"The Blue Spirit is kind. It would be wise of you to trust him, dear Painted Lady." She smiled at me and nodded her head, "Or shall I continue to just call you Katara?"

I froze and before I could think of a good cover story, I let it all go. "I had to help, Ana. The girl from the shop today told me her family was going to be killed. I couldn't just go to sleep knowing that I could have done something to prevent it."

"Well she is safe now, Brave One. As is her family." She paused for a few moments before she took a deep breath and continued speaking, "Would you like to hear about The Blue Spirit?"

I hesitated but eventually nodded my head. Ana walked over to my bed and sat down as she motioned for me to do the same. She began to tell me the story of the man I met in the night. The man who helped to save my life. The candle in the window barely lit up the room, but what was once an eerie feeling from it quickly became one of peace and serenity as she spoke.

"The Blue Spirit is quite the story, young one. The mask of The Blue Spirit was once worn by a man of the Pygmy Tribesmen. The tribe was defeated by Bosco, the Earth King Kuei's pet bear. The man who wore the mask was forced to choose between giving up his mask or giving up his face, and the man chose to give up the mask. The Earth King had no use of it and sold it. Who bought it was never public knowledge, but there are some who believe it was sold to the Royal Family. Some believe that the man who originally wore the mask was killed and took on the life of another, seeking to clear his name from the negativity associated with The Blue Spirit. Some believe that he simply became an actual spirit, roaming the streets and helping those in need. Others, like myself, like to believe that our Royal Family still cares for us. All who believe this last one know it not to be true, but we can still wish regardless. We, the few who know that we are wrong, believe that Fire Lady Ursa bought it and gave it to her son, Prince Zuko. We like to believe that it is he who comes down to the city at times and helps those in need. It's a stretch, but it gives us hope.

"The mask of The Blue Spirit is said to have a spiritual factor to it regardless of what anyone may believe. It is said that whoever wears the mask cannot die, but he can still be injured. The Blue Spirit is very much a real spirit, though, same as The Painted Lady is. They both want to help their people, and some say that the mask was taken from the Pygmy Tribesman because he gained too much power from it. He did use it to help his people, but the way it was used was not in the correct spirit of The Blue Spirit. He used it to gain power and wealth, while it should only be used to help others. I like to believe one of the less known stories about it, though. The mask chooses its wearer. It chooses who gets to have the power of The Blue Spirit by determining whether they are honorable enough to wear it or not. Once that honor is gone, or the wearer cannot fulfill the duties of The Blue Spirit any longer for whatever reason, it is passed along to the next holder. The man you met tonight is one of the most honorable men in the Fire Nation, which is why most do not believe it is Prince Zuko."

After I listen to her words, I take a moment to truly absorb them. "What does honor have to do with the possibility of Prince Zuki being The Blue Spirit or not?"

"Zuko, darling. Prince Zuko. And it has everything to do with it. Nine years ago, his father challenged him to an Agni Kai, the fight of honor, and he lost. He has quite the scar as a reminder of his honor being lost. Those with no honor cannot don the mask of The Blue Spirit. Of course, there is no way of us knowing, as no part of his face is ever visible, and most hardly even see him in the shadows." Ana explained. "Alas, we may never know the true identity of our savior, but what matters most is that he helps, so the identity is not of the utmost importance."

Ana stood from my bed and walked to the door. She turned around as she was leaving and spoke one last thing to me. Quiet as a mouse, I barely heard her, "Do good, Brave One, and good things will happen to you. Be strong and strength will find you. Be kind, and kindness will find you. But most importantly, love others, and love will find you. Goodnight, Katara. Rest well as we have four special guests coming tomorrow."

Ana left the room and I let out a breath that I did not realize I was holding. I stood and removed my hat. I slid it under my bed, and soon my dress and makeup followed as well. I changed into a nightgown and removed the makeup from my face. I lay down in my bed to rest for the night, and I found myself dreaming.

Dreaming of The Blue Spirit.