Aang's Guide

The New Blue Spirit: Zuko

"Wait!! Toph!!" She vanishes under the ground far from me now. I feel this rage start to build up inside of me, I start bending fire in all directions. "Why am I so bad at being good!!" I finally stop and look up at the sky. I sigh as I look down at the ground. "Probably, because you haven't been good for a long time Zuko. You have forgotten how to." a soft voice says behind me. I spin around and see my mask on a new face. I get into my stance, "Who are you! What are you doing here!?" The person laughs, "Do you not recognize me, Prince Zuko?" I start to look at the stranger's body figure, it looked to be a young boy. "No, but the mask..." The person stepped forward. "The mask is yours, you are correct. While I was traveling it was given to me from an old man." I laid down my defensive stance. "Uncle..." The masked person came even closer to me. "Prince Zuko, You have changed a lot. The last time I saw you, you were laughing at the simplest things." I stepped back, "Do I know you?" The masked figure went to a rock that was near the fire and sat down. "Yes, but you know me by a different name." I went around the other side to look at the person. "What is the name you by then?" The masked stranger looked up at me. "Well, first I need to tell you a story." I groaned, "What? Why is it every person I come in contact with they have to tell me some sort of proverb!" The masked stranger laughed, "Zuko, you loved it when I told you stories." I sighed and sat on the rock that was behind me.

 I listened to the masked stranger, the stranger told me the story of a young girl who had the ability to bend all the elements just like the Avatar. The stranger continued with their story stating something that shocked me. "Wait, did you say that Sho was her name?" The masked stranger looked at the fire, "It was one of the many names she went by, she did this to protect her identity. Your Uncle Iroh was her mentor for fire-bending. In time when she finally mastered all the elements she was encased into an ice statue to preserve her age." I stared at the masked stranger. "Why was she able to bend all the elements like the avatar?" The masked stranger looked up at me, "Because Prince Zuko, she was Aang's twin sister..." I stood in shock, "WHAT! That is impossible!" The stranger stood, "Not impossible, just extremely rare." I grabbed the front of my hair and started to pace back in forth. "I just.. wow. Ok, so why was she encased in ice for?" The masked stranger stood, "She was encased in ice because she made an oath to protect and guide the Avatar." I scoffed, "Sho was the Avatar's guide? Go figure." The masked stranger nodded, "She has been awakened  and has heard of your struggle to train the Avatar." I looked down, "Shouldn't she be telling guru goody goody to let me help." She lit a fire in her hand it was a bright blue, just like Azula's. She let it flow between her hands and played with it. The flow of the fire that passed between her two hands was too familiar. The fluid motion and the warmth that emerged from her fire was nostalgic. I watched the figure more closely, a piece of brown long hair stuck out of her cloak. "She would, but first Prince Zuko are you sure about this? Are you sure you can set aside your emotions to help the Avatar?" A distant memory came to my mind I let it flow as her voice echoed in the distance.

10 years before...

I let myself go into a daydream. I see Sho sitting in front of me, she is smiling and laughing with the wind blowing her hair as she smiles towards me. She wasn't wearing her lieutenant uniform, she sits crossed legged. She wore her casual Fire Nation attire, a strapless pink loose top, and pink long pants. Her hair is half up and she has bangs in front of her forehead. I looked around and saw that we were in the garden. The turtle ducks were playing in the pond beside us. Sho was waiting for me to show her my new best move. "Alright Zuko, you have been watching me all-day train and bugging me to come and watch you. Now, what is it you wanted to show me?" I smile at her, she was beautiful. Always smiling and full of happiness, something this castle never saw before. I walk a few steps from her as she sits patiently waiting for me to do something. I do a front flip with fire flowing from my foot. I turn to see her approval. Sho is smiling at me, "Good! Now let me show you a trick." She looked around to see if anyone is watching. Then I watch her form blue fire from her hands and let it go into the middle creating a ball. She let it go back in forth in her hands, it was fluid as it flowed gracefully between her hands. It was mesmerizing to watch her bend it was unbelievable to see how fast she learned from Uncle. She looks at me winking as she brings the fire to her mouth and blows the fire into the sky, turning into a dragon. "Wow! Sho that was amazing!!" I went and hugged her falling into her lap as we laughed in unison. "Yes, Miss Sho that was excellent bending." We both tense up and turn to see my mother standing there looking at us. "Uh Queen Ursa.. I was ju-" she says starting to stand. "Sho, you don't need to make something up I know that you were just playing with Zuko." She smiled and bowed to my mother. "I was just on my way to get you both for dinner." Sho put her hand on my shoulder, "Give us just a few minutes Queen Ursa.." My mother nodded and went back inside. "Now, Zuko I want to give you a little advice before we go inside." I smiled with glee, "Of course Sho." She smiled at me, "I want you to remember when times get rough always know you are not a bad person. Zuko you have a destiny to do good, so when that time comes remember to follow it." She gave me a hug and when we pulled away I saw a small tear fall from her face. "I will not forget Sho." She nodded and we walked inside the palace hand in hand.

I shake my head out of the memory, the masked stranger is still playing with the ball of fire. "Yes, it's my destiny." The masked stranger diminished the fire and nodded. The stranger turned around putting down the hood. Brown wavy hair flowed down the stranger's back, they took off the mask. It laid it on the rock turning to me, "Sho?" She smiled, "Zuko my name is not Sho...It's Kyra.." She hadn't changed a bit, besides the air bending tattoos that flowed on her fair skin. But still as beautiful as I remembered. I smiled, "Hello Kyra.." We both laughed softly. She came close to me we were inches apart. She smelled of fresh air and peaches, I wanted to hug her tightly. But I restrained myself as I watch as her hand came to my face. I closed my eyes, as I feel her touch my scar. I hear her get on her tiptoes and kiss it. "Sorry, I wasn't there that day Zuko. I should have been there to help you, protect you." I opened my eyes, she was so close to me. "Well, you're here now.." She scooted back and grabbed her left shoulder, "I think we should rest, we have a long day of convincing Aang to let you train him." She went into the makeshift tent and pulled out a sleeping bag from her pack then she set her pack to the side, she crawled in and fell asleep. I sighed as I sat by the fire trying to wrap my head at what just happened. 

When morning arrived I looked over to see Kyra's bed empty. I abruptly stood and saw her picking berries from a bush. "Good morning, Kyra." She jolted as she turned and looked at me. "Oh, Good morning Zuko.." I go and sit down by the fire, I see she had already cooked fish, with berries and walnuts. She comes and sits across from me. "I let you sleep in late, I figured you needed it." I laughed, "Oh, thanks." She nods and starts to eat. I watch her eat a big piece of fish. "I thought monks don't eat meat." She looks up at me, "Yeah they don't." I give her a confused face, "Weren't you born an Air bender?" She laughs hard, "Oh yes I was. But my childhood was hardly at the Air temples it was in the Northern Water Tribe. That is where I call home." She started to eat again. I proceeded to eat mine, after a few minutes she was done.  "Kyra, do you mind showing me some Air bending?" She was stretching at that moment, "Doubting my abilities?" I felt my face go hot, "No, I didn't mean..." She laughed as she finished her stretching, "I wouldn't blame you if you did, what I told you last night is so hard to comprehend. 10 years ago you saw me as just a fire bender." She gave me a wink as I watched her gracefully move the air creating a sort of tunnel of dry dirt. "What about water-bending..." She made the water from the river into a round ball, she moved it over my head and let it go, soaking me. "Really..." I scoffed standing letting the water drip off me. She giggled, "Well, that's what you get for not believing I couldn't bend the other elements." I laughed, "I suppose your right..." She seemed shocked that was my response. Her smile came upon her face and suddenly a thought came to her mind causing her smiles to vanish. "Zuko... why are you out here alone?" I stood stiff, Uncle did not tell her. "I've made so many wrong choices Kyra, because of something I thought would change my destiny. Only I came to realize it had pushed me from my true path. I needed to be on my own, so I could find myself and realize what I needed to do." She looked away, "I remember a young boy. A boy who would feed the turtle ducks, a boy who would smile at the simplest things."

 I felt anger build-up, "Well that boy is no longer here. He is long gone!" I turned my back to her and stormed off. But she was right behind me, "Getting angry is not going to solve all your problems Zuko! We need to try and figure out how we can get you.." She had stopped talking. I turned to look at her, "Get me what!?" She was just so beautiful, even when she was angry. "Do you want to achieve your destiny or live in a broken air balloon?" She was right, I hated that. She was standing in front of me with crossed arms, "Getting angry every time something doesn't go a certain way will get you nowhere." I sighed, "Fine." I know she was right I needed to get my head straight. She turned to head back to camp when the earth below us shook. We heard a big boom coming from the Western Air Temples, she turned looking at me in panic. It was so loud it shook the earth below us again which caused her to stumble. I went to catch her but she fell on top of me. Our faces were so close. I just wanted to- "What was that?" She got back her balance as she stood, she ran over to the tent grabbing the mask and cloak. I watched her put on my mask then her cloak as she came back to me running towards the temple. I stood going to catch up with her when I realized what it was. "Oh no..." She looked at me as we ran, "What? What is it?" I looked at her, "It's the bounty hunter I sent to kill Aang a long time ago.." She sighed and grabbed my wrist as we ran faster.