A/N: So, I edited this chapter a little because honestly, it needed updating. I'll also be uploading chapter two today, which will explain why it took so long for me to actually update this story.

EDITED: 23/12/2016

Changes: proof-read, slight casting changes
Note: My cousin pointed out that making Haru the Captain of Guard was a bit weird, since Amon's against benders and everything. However, Haru is an earth-bender in this fic. You'll all see what my plan is with him, so don't worry!

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Chapter One: The Bells of the Fire Temple

The sun shone down on the Nation of Fire, causing me to break out into a grin. The nice weather meant that more children would come to my stall; they were all amazed at the puttering skills I had, being able to control 'puppets' without having strings attached to them. That's because I'm a bloodbender, the popular Hama, and my 'puppets' were humans that had tried to kill my people, so I'd experimented with them, hiding their lower bodies beneath my stall and controlling them. Children crowded around my stall as the bells chimed.

While I washed my puppets, I began to sing lowly, "Morning in Fire, the Nation awakes to the bells of The Fire Temple." From the small curtain, I can see Gyatso and Korra using their bending abilities to help with their everyday jobs, Gyatso using his airbending to pull the ingredients closer to him, Korra using her waterbending to trap the fish for tonight's dinner. "The fisherman fishes, the baker man bakes to the bells of The Fire Temple." A loud bell rings, and then a series of softer ones follow. "To the big bells as loud as the thunder, to the little bells soft as a psalm!" I stepped forward so that the children could see me. I look down at one child who looks amazed as the bells ring. "And some say the soul of the Nation's the toll of the bells, the bells of The Fire Temple!"

I bring a puppet closer to me, rewarding myself with exclamations of "Wow!" erupting through the crowd.

"Listen," I say to the children, "they're beautiful, no? So many colours and sounds, so many changing moods." I smile at the audience. "But you know, they don't ring all by themselves!"

"They don't?!" My puppet exclaims, causing giggles to erupt through the crowd.

"No, you silly boy! Up high in the bell tower, there lies a mysterious male creature. Who is this creature?"

"Who?"

"What is he?"

"What?

"And how did he come to be there?"

"How?"

"Hush!" I scold, turning my attention back to the children. "Hama will tell you! It is a tale of a man and a monster!"

A boat slid gently through the water as the driver, a young waterbender, pushed and pulled the water below the boat.

Dark was the night when our tale was begun, on the docks near The Fire Temple.

As the boat slid through the water, a shrieking wail filled the boat. The oldest of the group, a man with a long white beard and long gray hair, glared at the teenager holding the child. "Shut it up, will you?!"

A younger man sat next to his father. His hair was coal-black and he glared at his father, Iroh. He hugged the teenage girl, his cousin, as gently as he could while not harming the baby in her arms. "We'll be spotted, Azula!"

Azula nodded at her cousin, looking down at the baby in her arms. In a soothing voice, she whispered to the baby, "Hush little brother."

Four silent benders slid silently under the docks of The Fire Temple.

"You will have safe passage into the Nation of Fire!" the waterbender promised the benders, who seemed to relax a little. However, an arrow shot through the air, causing the benders to panic. The waterbender manipulated his water to catch the arrow but gulped as he realised he had just fallen into the trap.

But a trap had been laid for the benders, and they gazed up in fear and alarm, at a figure whose clutches were iron as much as the bells...

The old man and boy placed themselves in front of the girl and her little brother as their eyes traveled up at the figure above them. He wore a black hooded cloak, floor length, and a mask. The old man gasped. "Judge Noatak Amon!"

...The bells of The Fire Temple! Judge Noatak Amon longed to purge the world of vice and sin, and he saw corruption everywhere except within.

Amon sneered at the benders, "Bring these bending vermin to Ba Sing Se[1]."

The guards lunged at the benders. One reached Azula and quickly spotted the bundle in her arms, "You there! What are you hiding?"

Amon looked over at the girl, who gasped in shock. "Stolen goods, no doubt. Take them from her!"

She ran!

Azula gasped and clutched her little brother closer to her as she began to run. She glanced behind her, gasping as she saw Amon still chasing her. She held her brother tightly with one arm and used her other arm to send a blast of lightening towards Amon and his horse.

Even though the blast did not hit Amon, it startled his horse long enough to give Azula time to run up to the large doors of The Fire Temple and begin to bang on the door, "Sanctuary, please give us sanctuary!"

No one opened the door and Amon ran up to the girl. He took a hold of the bundle and pulled with such vigor, that the bundle was pulled into Amon's arms, causing Azula to stumble backward and hit her head off the concrete steps, killing her. Amon gasped when he heard a wail from the bundle. "A baby?" He pulled the cover off the bundle and he gasped. The baby's eyes were open, letting Amon see the golden colour of them; a sign that he was a Firebender, directly descended from Ozai, the most powerful Firebender ever, and the left half of his face was scarred. "A monster!"

Amon looked around, before spotting a well. He was about to drop the child, when...

Stop! cried Avatar Roku.

Amon shook his head and glared at the Avatar, "This is an unholy demon. I'm sending it back to hell, where it belongs."

Roku walked over to the girl and caressed down her cheek, before seeing the blood beneath her head. He glared and pointed an accusing finger at Amon. "See there the innocent blood you have spilled, on the steps of The Fire Temple!"

Amon shrugged, "I am guiltless. She ran, I pursued."

Roku growled as he motioned to the child, who had fallen asleep in Amon's arms. "Now you would add this child's blood to your guilt, on the steps of The Fire Temple."

"My conscience is clear!"

Roku grew angry at the man in front of him. He was meant to be a man who wanted justice, yet he had been the cause for a murder and tried to murder a child. "You can lie to yourself and your minions. You can claim that you haven't a qualm, but you never can run from nor hide what you've done from the eyes...the very eyes of The Fire Temple!"

And for one time in his life of power and control, Amon felt a twinge of fear for his immortal soul

Amon sighed. "What must I do?" He asked the Avatar, who had taken Azula's body in his arms and began to walk off into The Fire Temple.

"Care for the child, and raise it as your own," Roku told him as he gave one more look to Azula before waiting for Amon's answer.

Amon gasped, "What? I'd be settled with this misshapen ...? Very well. Let him live with you, in your church."

Roku's eyes widened at Amon's suggestion, "Live here? Where?"

Amon shrugged lazily. "Anywhere. Just so he's kept locked away where no one else can see." Through his mask, his eyes locked on to the bell tower. "The bell tower, perhaps...and who knows, our Lord works in mysterious ways. Even this foul creature may yet prove one day to be of use to me."

I continued to tell my story, my own eyes traveling up to the Bell Tower of The Fire Temple. "And Amon gave the child a cruel name, a name that means half-scarred, Zuko[2]."

Seeing the children's amazed faces, I grin and look down at them. "Now here is a riddle to guess if you can sing the bells of The Fire Temple. Who is the monster and who is the man?"

The bells rang as the children left to tell my story to their friends, not knowing the story was true. I grinned, looking up at The Fire Temple. "Sing the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells..."

"The bells of the Fire Temple!"

[1]: Ba Sing Se and the Western Air Temple will both be places in the Fire Nation for this fanfiction.

[2]: I do not know what Zuko means. I'm sure it does not mean 'half-scarred'. DO NOT take my word for that.