Author's Note: this is my first story so please tell me what you think or if you have any tips for me. I already had this story written a few months ago but never got the chance to put it up but if you have any ideas I will be happy to try to put them in.
Summary: Set after the Firebending Masters. Zuko finds out what happened to the troops including to Katara's dad during the invasion. What will he do? Paring: Zuko/Katara
Chapter 1: Prologue
It's been about a week since Zuko first joined the Avatar and met the masters. It was noon and The Duke, Haru, and Teo were messing around the temple and checking out the remainder of the rooms they have yet to see. Sokka was sharpening his boomerang, Katara was making lunch, and Toph was bored out of her mind doing nothing.
Katara kept checking up on Zuko and Aang making sure that Zuko wasn't trying anything evil or hurting Aang because if he did she would make sure that he would pay for it.
A couple hours later everyone was sitting together eating, talking, and laughing except Zuko. He was up in his room holding the picture of his uncle wondering where he was, if he was ok, and if he would ever forgive him for all of the terrible choices he made.
"What's up Sparky?" Zuko looked up and saw Toph leaning against the door.
"Nothing." He set the picture down when a sudden thought came to him.
"Hey, on the day of the eclipse, what happened with you guys? Because Azula knew about your plan and the entire city hid in an underground bunker."
"Well, our troops were fighting the firebenders, while me, Sokka, and Aang were looking for the firelord but we found Azula instead. And she just basically killed all of our time that we had from our eclipse. We decided not to face the firelord yet so we left on Appa and came here."
"Wait, did the troops manage to escape too?"
"No, the fire nation bombed all of our submarines which is how we got there. The adults decided that they will stay as prisoners while we kids escape on Appa."
"What kinda troops did you have?"
"Um, we had some earthbenders, waterbenders that Katara, Sokka, and Aang met and some troops from the southern water tribe. They were all lead by Hakoda, Katara and Sokka's dad. Uh . . . Sparky?"
Zuko was deep in thought. 'The fire nation would take the troops as prisoners but I'm not sure for how long. The firelord would probably keep less than half to use as bait so the Avatar would come back to same them. As for the rest, the firelord would probably have orders to put them to DEATH'.
Zuko forgot that Toph was in his room but when he looked back up she was already gone. He got up and closed the door and sat back down on his bed.
'Katara's dad could be one of the soldiers that the fire nation kills. She said that the fire nation killed her mother and if they kill her father too . . . AH, I gotta do something.'
Zuko got up from his bed and started pacing. 'But If I go to the fire nation the Avat-Aang and his friends are going to think I left to betray them and side with my sister and father again. And if I don't Katara will lose her father. But if I go to the fire nation and get caught then they'll probably lock me up and leave me there to rot or kill me.'
"AH!! What am I going to do?"
Zuko spent the rest of the day in room not even bothering to get dinner. He just laid on his bed thinking about what he was going to do. 'She'll be broken if she loses her dad too. (sigh) It's hard losing the people you care about.'
He thought about his mom and how he recently found out she was banished after years of thinking she was dead. He remembered how horrible he felt once she was gone. He stood up and looked out the window which had a view of the sunset that was taking place.
"I'm going back to the fire nation and I'm going to break them all out . . . tonight."
(dramatic music)