The Fire Within Us (ATLA Fanfic)

Prologue- Zuko

-Some time before the story begins-

Zuko passed Katara's limp body, then stooped down and took ahold of the Avatar's collar. He turned and noted that the waterbender was still breathing, alive but knocked out for the moment.

He allowed himself to smirk with pride before picking the perfect words for a dramatic exit, perhaps wasted on his unconscious audience but with a nice flare all the same. "You rise with the moon. I rise with the sun."

"Let him go."

Zuko whirled around to find a Water Tribe girl standing on one of the wooden bridges behind him. He had seen her before, traveling in the Avatar's little gang of bodyguards. Past observation had taught him that she, like the boomerang boy, couldn't bend.

This would be over quickly.

"Aarahh!" Zuko thrust a fist forward, launching a ball of fire towards the girl. She didn't so much as flinch, reaching forward with her hands and parting the fire into two streams. The flames flowed around her and sizzled into nothing as they made contact with snow and water.

Zuko froze and gaped at the girl with wide eyes. She could... firebend? Impossible. The tan-skinned, brown-haired girl had been decked out in Water Tribe clothing since he had first seen her cowering with the others when he (quite literally) sailed into her southern tribe in search of the Avatar.

The girl took advantage of his moment of frozen shock and swiftly ran around the pond towards him. She leapt at the last second and rammed her shoulder into his chest. Zuko's fingers were torn from Aang's collar as he was sent flying through the air and onto his back, the girl sprawled on top of him.

She rolled off and shot to her feet, sculpting a small ball of fire with her hand and hurling it at his face.

Zuko was up before it even hit the damp grass. He gripped her wrist and wrenched it downwards. "How are you doing this?" he hissed. Zuko focused the firebending energy that always flowed through him into his palm, heating it threateningly. To his surprise, the girl let out an agonized cry as her face twisted into a grimace. What he had meant as a small show of aggression was clearly causing her a lot of pain.

One of the first lessons any respectable firebending instructor taught their students was how to take reasonable amounts of outside heat and channel it away to avoid major injury. This girl had obviously never had any sort of formal training. Zuko immediately stopped feeding heat into his palm and instead jutted his knee out, slamming it into her stomach.

The girl fell to her knees and gasped for breath as she clutched her middle. Zuko left her where she knelt and went to Aang. He picked the Avatar up and slung him over his shoulder.

"No!" The girl struggled to her feet and sent a small stream of flames in his direction. Zuko outstretched the hand that wasn't holding onto his prize and easily sent the fire sputtering into the pond.

"Give up. You've. Lost," Zuko growled as he turned to leave.

"Never." Zuko didn't have to turn around to know that she had charged towards him. He groaned inwardly. You could say a lot of things about the Water Tribe minions the Avatar had wrapped around his little 112-year-old finger, but that they gave up easily wasn't one of them. He hadn't wanted to do this.

Zuko twisted at just the right moment, thrusting out his leg in a perfectly-executed sidekick. The force of the kick sent the girl flying back into a wooden post. She crumpled to the ground beside Katara, out cold.

Zuko re-positioned the Avatar so that the airbender was on his back before glancing back at the scene. Zuko usually never felt anything but grim pride when he viewed his defeated opponents after a fight, but this time a cold weight settled in his stomach. They were two girls no older than him, and their only crime was trying to protect their friend.

Zuko shook his head to clear his thoughts as he slipped away, angry at himself for being so weak. They would be fine, and now that he had the Avatar, so would he. Zuko filled his mind with images of his father welcoming him home with open arms as he trudged on into the cold dawn.

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Copyright © 2016

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*note: while this piece does reference events that occurred in the post-TV show comics, some situations have been skipped over or changed to allow for a more smooth, interesting storyline