"Commander Zhao, here is the intelligence report about the Avatar." A firenation soldier announces as he enters the quarters of the commander. The porkchop beard sporting firenation commander takes the scroll from his subordinate in a rather rude fashion; he opens the scroll and reads the inscription.
"Multiple sightings of a scarred man and bald monk around the south seas, that scarred man must be Prince Zuko, and the bald monk; the Avatar. What is he doing aligning himself with the Avatar?" Zhao says thinking out loud, the soldier that has yet to be dismissed questions him.
"Could it be that Prince Zuko is deceiving the avatar, trying to get him to trust him before attempting to capture him?" the soldier questions.
"I doubt that would be the case. That prince has no honor, and would fit him to be a traitor. Are there any reports of their movements, projected courses or locations?" Zhao asks, the soldier snaps to attention before responding.
"No sir. The only thing we have is the last location of the sighting, a small fishing village off the coast of the earth kingdom continent." The soldier says pointing to a location on the map spread across the table.
"That is Bei Fong City, it was named after avatar Jun Bei Fong that was killed by Firelord Azulon 17 years ago. Are there any islands that would be within distance of boats or that have any ports?"
"No sir, but the reports say that they are not traveling by boat, the distances traveled will take weeks and or months to travel." The soldier pauses a moment before asking a question that wasn't spoken between both men. "Sir... Prince Zuko's birthday lines up with the date that Avatar Bei Fong was killed. Do you believe its possible that he could be the avatar?"
"That is a possibility I would not like to entertain the thought of, from what Firelord Ozai has said the avatar should have been Princess Azula not the banished prince. You are dismissed. It seems this airbender Prince Zuko is traveling with is a master at deception and evasion."
Somewhere over the southern arctic seas.
"You really have no idea where we're going do you?" Sokka asks, Zuko is leaning back against the side of the saddle sleeping and Katara is patching a hole in Sokka's pants.
"Well I know it's near water." Aang says, despite them being over the open ocean with water for miles and miles around.
"Well we must be close." Sokka says sarcastically. "What are we even doing out here anyways?"
"Well, I wanted to go ride the elephant koi fish, then we will head to the north pole to get Katara and Zuko, a waterbending teacher." Aang replies, "Hey Momo, marbles." Aang says, causing the lemur to lunge into his tunic and search for a pair of glass marbles before handing them to Aang.
"Hey Katara, Katara look." Aang says before spinning the marbles in his hand using air bending.
"That's great Aang." She replies not even looking up from what she is doing.
"You're not even looking."
"You're doing great Aang." She says again after looking at him.
"But I'm not even doing it." He replies slightly saddened.
"Aang, don't distract the girl from her sewing." Sokka scolds, causing Katara to turn and face him.
"What does sewing have to do with me being a girl?" She asks in an offended tone.
"Look, men are better at hunting, fishing, and fighting while girls are better at sewing cooking and the house care stuff." Katara sneers at her brother before taking the needle out from his pants.
"Here's your pants Sokka, I just fixed that hole for you." She says throwing it at him.
"Wait Katara! I can't wear these! I was only kidding." He protests.
"You probably should know how to sew, it could save your life and your dignity one day." Zuko says not bothering to open his eyes.
"What would prince fussy britches know about sewing." Sokka questions with his hand through the hole of the pants Katara threw at him.
"When I was a member of the firenation military, they taught us to sew and repair our uniforms. It also helps when you have clothes too big and need to fix them." Zuko replies, showing Sokka the stitch work on his clothes. "I wasn't very good at it but it suffices."
"What are we going to call you when we're around other people? At our last stop you stayed with Appa." Aang asks, turning to face the prince.
"I… actually haven't thought about that to be honest." Zuko replies before pinching his chin in thought.
"You're gonna have to let your hair down or at least change the wrapping that is around it." Sokka points at the pony tail at the top of Zuko's head.
"What's wrong with my hair?" Zuko protests.
"Well, aside from the fact you're shivering due to the cold up here, the wrapping is a dead giveaway that you're firenation. We either need to bind it with something else or cut if off." Katara says, pulling a bone knife from her belt.
"Just give me a parka, I'll have my hood up." Zuko says in defeat as Katara rummages through her pack for one before handing it to him.
Appa descends onto the beach of an island with a large crescent shaped inlet of ocean. Circling in the air as he gracefully floats down to the land. Landing with a large thud and displacing the fallen snow. Aang hops off the top of Appa before stretching as the others slide off the sides of the large flying bison. Zuko ties the pony tail in his hair in a style similar to Sokka's with blue fabric taking the red silk and tying it around his left wrist. "Well you may pass as a southerner but now we need to call you something else aside from Zuko, since you're kind of infamous around the world." Katara says as she fixes the parka that Zuko is wearing.
"How about Lee?" Zuko asks, getting Appa to just huff through his nose. "I didn't ask you." Zuko says, turning to the bison.
"Lee will work, but as for your story of being the Avatar you might want to think up something." Sokka replies by trying to thread a needle to fix his pants.
"I'm just gonna say I was born in Yu Dao and fled with my mother."
"That will have to do, now, Aang? Why did we stop here? We stopped for supplies two days ago." Sokka asks, turning to Aang as he strips out of his tunic and down to his undergarments.
"I told you, I want to go ride the elephant koi!" Aang says excitedly before running up to the water and jumping into it. "COOOLLLLDDDDD!" He screams as he launches back out of the water then starts swimming out to the koi that are surfacing and feeding in the deeper parts of the cove.
"Aang! You're supposed to be teaching me how to air bend not play games with some stupid fish." Lee scolds, but seeing that Aang is too far away for him to hear, he merely scoffs before walking off to a different part of the beach. He sits cross legged before placing his fists against each other and beginning to meditate.
Aang calls for Katara to watch him riding on the koi fish, unaware of a danger that is present in the water. As the koi speed through the icy waters, a mysterious figure looms under the water. Two of the koi banks away from the one in the rear before something grabs it and drags the fish underwater. "Aang! Aang! Get back here! There's something in the water!" Sokka shouts from the shore. "Appa! Don't eat that!" Katara shouts at the bison before running off from the shore to stop the flying bison. Aang looks back at the shore from his grip on the fin of the elephant koi, he sees Katara running from the shore to and away from out of his field of view. "She's not watching." He says to himself as she runs off. Suddenly the fish he is riding is dragged out from underneath him. He surfaces from the water and stares in awe of the giant fin breaking the surface of the water. Screaming in fright, he quickly uses air bending to run along the surface of the water away from the giant creature. In a matter of seconds Aang manages to get to the beach and crashes into Sokka knocking them both into a snowbank. The giant aquatic monster slithers back into the ocean and disappears from view.
As Aang recovers from his brush with a leviathan, the others rush over to see if he's ok. From the trees, painted faced warriors drop on the four of them tackling them to the ground. Binding their hands and legs before blindfolding them. Even going as far as to put Momo in a bag, one after another the 4 of them fall bound and blindfolded to the painted warriors. The feeling of dragging is the only sensation they have for a great distance. After a long time of dragging, they find themselves being hoisted up and solved against a wooden pole. "Who are you, where are the men who ambushed us?" Sokka shouts as the blindfolds are removed from them, the light at first blinding them before their eyes adjust to the warrior women in front of them.
"There were no men who ambushed you, we did." The woman at the front of the group says pointing a golden object at Sokka. "Where did you come from, give us one reason why we shouldn't feed you to the unagi?"
"We're traveling with the avatar, our friend wanted to ride the elephant koi." Katara answers as Zuko looks up at the statue on the top of the wooden pole.
"You're lying. The last avatar was killed by the fire lord. If you are traveling with him that means you're a fire nation spy." A man in blue jackets and clothing shouts.
"Wait! I know her.!"
"Ha! Even more of your lies."
"No I really do. That is Avatar Kyoshi. She was one of my past lives." Zuko declares as the warriors open their fans as if to attack them.
"Now is the time to show them if you're gonna do anything." Katara says, Zuko takes a deep breath using the teachings from Aang and blasts himself into the air using air bending.
The others look on in awe as Zuko floats down from 20ft in the air having propelled himself from the ropes. As he lands the others look on in shock and see the scared man air bend. As he lands he ignites a small fire in his right hand then spins his left creating a tornado of air. "You really are the Avatar…" The governor says seeing him bend. "What is your name Avatar?" He asks to see the demonstration of two different bending styles. "I am Lee, I was born in the earth kingdom colonies ." Lee says trying to answer any other questions they may have.
"Release them." The leader of the warriors says as two others cut Aang, Katara and Sokka free from their binds. "I am Suki, the leader of the Kyoshi warriors. It is a pleasure to have you on our island Avatar Lee." Suki greets bowing to him.
"T-thank you." Zuko stutters before bowing in return. He turns around to make sure the others are alright with Sokka rubbing his wrists looking rather angry.
"Since you're not gonna hurt us, Hey Lee, show them that new trick I taught you." Aang says to Zuko before freeing himself from the ropes.
"Well.. Here goes nothing uh… Check this out?" He says in an awkward tone before flicking 3 metal ball bearings and spinning them in his hand using air bending. He gives them an awkward smile being a bit unsure of what to do but, that seems to do it as the children on the island start cheering seeing this. One of the islanders gets so excited he starts screaming then foaming at the mouth before passing out. With the news that the avatar has returned, the entire island breaks out into celebration over his arrival. The statue of Avatar Kyoshi in the center of town is being cleaned and repainted, the people of the town are celebrating the avatar and all around being merry. Hope has finally returned in the form of a new avatar and an unlikely one at that. Zuko and his team avatar are brought into the main long house in the center of the island while. Appa is being attended to by some of the farmers, being groomed and fed hay. In the long house, the quartet is provided a feast fit for the avatar himself with steamed meat buns, tofu, tea, fried duck, soups, and a dozen other delicacies that the islanders have graciously provided for them.
"Katara you gotta try this! They really know how to treat an avatar, Huh Lee?" Aang asks with a mouthful of food as Zuko calmly takes a bite out of one of the pastries that was provided for them.
"It is very good." He replies after finishing his food.
"Well, maybe I'll just have one." Katara says taking the bun that Aang is offering him.
"You should eat too Sokka." Aang says but the watertribe warrior just grunts at him in response, ignoring the food provided for them. "What's your problem?"
"I'm not hungry." Sokka grumbles.
"But you're always hungry." Aang protests as Sokka sulks in the corner.
"He's just upset because a bunch of girls kicked his butt yesterday." Katara teases, Zuko holds back a chuckle as Sokka scrambles to get to his feet and shout at his sister.
"They did not! It was a sneak attack and sneak attacks don't count." Sokka protests. "A warrior faces his opponent head on with no fear, nothing to hide behind and his skill to lead him to victory."
"Guerrilla warfare is very very useful when you are defending from an invading force, that is why the firenation has had such a difficulty taking the earth kingdom." Zuko chimes in as he grabs a second steamed bun for himself. "While it is not an honorable way to fight, its extremely effective and difficult to battle against." Sokka however isn't listening, instead he stands from his spot at the table before pacing around the room grumbling about his loss from earlier.
"Tie me up and drag me around. I'll show them a thing or two. I'm not scared of some girls, who do they think they are anyway?!" Sokka complains audibly to himself as he walks up to the table of sweets and snatches several buns and rolls for himself and storms off.
"How much you want to bet that he's going to get his butt kicked. Again." Zuko questions with a slight smirk on his face, part of him wanting to watch Sokka get his ass handed to him again.
"It isn't a matter of if in his case, but when." Katara says with a laugh.
"Why is he so angry anyways, we're being treated like royalty. Besides, do you see how happy Lee is making this town?" Aang questions.
"It's dangerous for us to stay in one place for too long Aang, we have to get to the north pole to find a waterbending master for Lee and myself. How are we ever going to learn if the most I can do is give whoever is standing behind me an impromptu bath." Katara protests their long stay.
"Word travels faster than anything on the earth. I'm starting to get worried that other places might know we're here. This town does have a trading port, goods and news travel fast through towns like this." Zuko reasons as he stands up from his spot on the tatami mat floor and stares out an open window at Avatar Kyoshi. "It is nice to see them clean up the statue of her."
"Well, it's nice to see you getting used to being the Avatar Lee, but don't let it go to your head." Katara says as Zuko leans slightly out of the window causing some of the local girls to scream seeing him.
"Ugh… I hate the attention." He complains hearing their screams.
"You do know those are screams of affection not disgust right?" Katara questions.
"Feels like disgust with this scar on my face." Both of them noticed a change in his town, to that of a more depressive and self conscious state.
"Well you better get going, one of the village elders wants to paint you." Aang says as Zuko flicks up the hood of his parka and walks out of the building.
The rest of the morning, Zuko spent it running away from the village girls. He didn't understand their infatuation with him, so he tried to avoid them. Running over a bridge then having to run back as a second group of the girls were on the other side. Seeing no other alternative and being cornered, he launches himself in the air with the little airbending he knows, trying to avoid them. But that doesn't work for very long as gravity ends up winning in the end and he is dropped into their clutches. Just when he thought he lost them, he headed up the side of the mountain to a secluded spot where one of the elders had asked him to go. He stood still and semi awkwardly in front of a waterfall as the older man attempted to paint him. But, it seems that luck isn't with Zuko today as every time the painter looks at the canvas he is working on, more of the village girls seemingly congregate around him like moths to a lamp. Despite the positive attention from the islanders, Zuko remains uncomfortable around them like none of the attention he's getting is deserved. Why would he deserve it anyways? His allegiance is still to the firenation, the people here have no reason to believe that he's actively fighting against them. The act of lying to them leaves a vile taste in his mouth, its about one of the most dishonorable things he could ever do but how else would they ever trust him if they knew the full truth. What place would accept the prince of the firenation as the avatar? Surely nowhere in the earth kingdom, they're libel to capture and ransom him to the firelord, or worse torture him to get back at the firenation. As the sun begins to set over Kyoshi Island, Zuko finally gets some time to himself to relax after having to deal with the rambunctious islanders all day. Going through some of Aang's teachings is allowing him to push his mind past having to lie about his identity and his intentions. He slowly breathes in through his nose trying to relax in the afternoon light but a particular smell permeates his senses causing his eyes to snap open. The odor of smoke from coal fires causes him to snap out of his meditation and jump to his feet. From his position on a small plateau looking over the village Zuko spots the cause of the smell on the shores. Three massive empire class firenation warships are anchored in the small cove of Kyoshi Island. "That's not good." Zuko says as he looks down at the invasion force.
"Avatar Lee! Avatar Lee! You must come with us, the firenation is here looking for you." Oyaji, the chieftain of Kyoshi Island calls up to Zuko as he sprints up the side of the plateau. "There's a man calling himself Commander Zhao demanding you come down and face him.
"Commander? Last I heard of him he was still a captain." Zuko says to himself before glancing at the chief. "They can't know I'm here." Zuko responds.
"I understand if you're afraid to face them, but if you don't they will burn our village to the ground. You won't let that happen to us… will you?" Zuko takes a deep breath realizing that he doesn't have a choice in the matter.
"Fine." Zuko says sternly before following the chief down towards the village.
In the center of town, Commander Zhao rides on the back of one of his Komodo rhinos, taking the lead of several other firebenders dressed in full military uniform. "Last chance Avatar. Show yourself or this village will burn to the ground." Zhao demands as he scans the empty city looking for any sort of movement. As he scans the buildings, the sudden snapping of a stick draws his attention towards one of the huts. Suddenly as if ghosts made of snow and Ice appeared from thin air, the Kyoshi Warriors attack, leaping down from the rooftops with their bladed fan extended and attacking the rough Rhinos. Zhao himself is forced to launch several fireballs towards Suki as she sprints up towards him but she's knocked away as he orders the beast to swipe her with its tail.
"Come now, is this really the best that the avatar could do? A bunch of children playing dress up." Zhao comments before turning his attention to the thatched roofs of the village. "Have it your way Avatar." He proclaims before throwing a hand forwards and launching a fireball towards the roof of a nearby home.
As the flames make contact with the roof, they're suddenly extinguished by a massive gust of air and heat. Zhao himself is surprised to see his firebending so easily dissipated but he tries again, this time aiming at the logs supporting the building. As the flames lick at the support logs of the wooden homes they're suddenly pulled away and down the street a fair distance before orbiting a man dressed in a blue parka and light orange pants peeking out from underneath it. In his off hand he holds a sharpened brass fan and in the other a large fireball he stole from Zhao's bending. "So your hunt for the avatar has truly driven you to madness. Prince Zuko." Zhao says as he dismounts the Rhino and steps out into the street. "It's a shame how far you've fallen. You were once destined to sit on the throne after your father but now you're nothing more than a traitor." Zhao belittles Zuko but the firenation prince doesn't respond.
"Leave these people out of this Zhao. This is between you and me." Zuko states firmly before casting the flames down into the snow and drawing a second brass fan from his waistline.
"Very well, then allow me to cure your madness Zuko, and your traitorous ways. With a fool's death." Zhao barks before shifting his weight forwards and throwing a heavy punch with his right hand.
The commander half expects Zuko to counter the fireball with his own bending, preparing to attack Zuko's counter by throwing a blade of fire towards him. What he doesn't expect is for Zuko to spin forwards and thrust his arms upwards. From Zhao's perspective a line of dust, smoke and snow glides across the ground splitting through the fire that he bent towards him before slamming into his chest launching him off his feet. The wall of air that had hit him wasn't hot either, it was as cold as the surrounding snow. "No… No no! You! You're the avatar?! What cruel joke is this, the embarrassment to Firelord Ozai, the banished brat who couldn't keep his mouth shut, is the avatar?!" Zhao's voice echoes through the small village, his anger straining his vocal cords as he roars out in disbelief. Zuko merely stares down his opponent, watching as Zhao's anger quickly returns to being focused towards him.
Zuko doesn't give him the opportunity to get a counter attack in, insteads he shifts the fans upwards drawing in the fire around him before condensing it into a large ball and launching it towards Zhao. The commander easily parries through this attack but he doesn't realize that this was just a feint as Zuko dashes forwards with the fans behind his back before sliding on one leg underneath Zhao's guard. Zhao hardly has time to look down at the fledgeling airbender as Zuko thrusts his hands forwards and slams Zhao in the chest with storm force winds sending the commander flying and careening through a nearby house. Assuming that the impact had rendered Zhao unconscious, Zuko takes stock of the battle around him realizing that in the time it took him to best Zhao the rest of the rough rhinos had been dealt with.
"Zuko! Let's go! We need to get out of here!" The voice of Aang calls down from Appa prompting Zuko to look up at the sky bison. "Catch!" Aang shouts before throwing down his glider staff for Zuko. The prince drops both fans and sprints towards the glider staff before catching it and clicking the spring mechanism inside it to release the fan blades. "You have to airbend with it!" Aang shouts as Zuko grabs onto the handles at the top of the staff. Though his take off is a bit shaky, he manages to bend just enough air beneath himself to generate lift and fly up to Appa.
"That was way too close of a call, if we get out of here the firenation will follow us." Sokka commands Aang, causing the young airbender to flick the reins and order Appa to take them as far away as possible.
"What would Avatar Kyoshi think… watching me flee from the ruins of her village." Zuko mutters to himself as he looks down at the destruction below.
"She would've done the same thing in your shoes Zuko, you stopped the fires and defeated Zhao but we need to get moving. The best thing for them and the people around the world is for you to master the elements and end the war. That way this won't happen to anyone else." Katara says as Zuko gazes down at the shrinking village below, getting further and further into the distance.