Avatar Zuko

Chapter 14

Sokka was completely blown away. Lee, or Zuko or whatever, was the avatar, meaning everything he knew about the firebender just got turned on its head. What made it worse was Sokka’s idea of the avatar until that point: he'd thought they'd be a 30-40 year old badass who had mastered all 4 elements and was just sat somewhere waiting for their little group to find him, after which they'd all go to the Fire Nation and he'd blast the palace to smithereens, ending the war. Sokka has not expected the avatar to be a 16 year old firebender who hadn't even completely mastered fire and they hadn't seen do any other bending. On that note though, Sokka previously has been unable to fathom that the avatar might be from the Fire Nation, and yet here Lee was.

“Do you think he… Knows?” Asked Aang, who was looking at the sleeping firebender- he'd been passed out ever since his Roku stunt a few hours ago.

Katara was also asleep, having gotten the least rest on Kyoshi and then refusing, like Sokka had, to go to sleep in Senlin until Aang and Lee got back. But Sokka has had a nap before they went to the Fire Nation, so he was well rested enough to be on watch with Aang.

“I don't know. I mean, if he knew he was the avatar then why would he come with us to ‘find’ himself?” Sokka pointed out, before quickly looking over Appa’s saddle to make sure they weren't getting followed. Their group had flown out of the Fire Nation a little while ago, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Especially now that ‘Zhao’ guy would be after them.

“That doesn't make any sense, I guess.”Aang sulked, beginning to fiddle with a piece of string. Apparently Katara had taught him cat’s cradle.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, systematically checking if they were being followed and making sure Lee didn't, well, do anything destructive that avatars could do. The firebender was fidgeting in his sleep a lot, probably a nightmare, and Sokka contemplated waking him up- but he didn't get a chance. Out of nowhere, Lee suddenly sat up, gasping for air, and looking like he'd just crawled out of the darkest corner of the spirit world, when he noticed Sokka and Aang he stopped panting and regained some composure as well as fixing his scared expression into a glare.

“What?” He snapped rudely, leaning against the side of Appa’s saddle but keeping the blankets they'd put over him on his legs.

“... Ummm, do you remember what happened?” Asked Aang, as placatingly as was possible.

Lee thought for a second, before his eyes widened and he sighed dejectedly.

“I'm guessing Roku did something.” He said sadly, averting his gaze and looking over the side of Appa.

“Yeah… Hey, Avatar.” Lee winced at Sokka’s greeting, clearly put off by the word: ‘avatar’, which was a shame since it was a pretty good descriptor for the moody firebender.

“Can we not use… That word?” He asked, pushing his dark hair out of his eyes and shaking a little.

“Okay… How about your real name, Zuko?” Zuko looked like he wanted to argue with Aang’s comment, but he also seemed too tired to try.

“Roku said that too?” He questioned, now rubbing his temples.

“Yeah… Well, actually, you said that but you voice was replaced by all these other voices, it was pretty terrifying to be honest… But anyway… Why lie about your name?” Sokka was actually curious, if they couldn't recognise Zuko by the scar, it would be doubtful they would recognise the name.

“I… Just did… Sorry…” Zuko apologised, still not properly looking at them and definitely hiding something, but Sokka laid off a little, deciding to figure it out later.

“Did you know you were the ava-, you know, before we got to the temple?” Asked Aang softly, the kid was pretty good at dealing with feelings, Sokka had to admit.

“I… I airbended before I went to the South Pole… And I did it a few times on purpose after that like when we'd been kidnapped by Jet… And before those pirates… Captured me, I did a bit of waterbending. Then on Kyoshi… Kyoshi appeared…” Zuko explained, still shivering to a degree that Sokka was considering lending him his parka, even though the Water Tribe boy was almost certain his chills had nothing to do with the cold.

Sokka noticed how Zuko never explicitly said ‘yes, I am the avatar’ or even ‘I knew, yeah’, instead the firebender just described things only the avatar could do. It was a little… Worrying…

“So… What's our plan now? We don't really need to find Neto since, you know.” Sokka pointed out, and Aang actually seemed to perk up whilst Zuko’s look of dread only seemed to increase.

“Our plan should be what we were going to do with Neto; I'm going to teach Zuko airbending!” Aang beamed at Zuko and Sokka, the former of which visibly deflated but nodded slightly.

After that Aang and Sokka decided to let Zuko rest, figuring he'd need his energy for later.