Titel: Twilight's Edge
Author: Yumeko Dragonfly
Summary: An innocent training session goes horribly wrong for Zuko
Warnings: Post-TBR, blood
Disclaimer: The TV show "Avatar - The Last Airbender" does not belong to me, nor do its characters or anything related to the show. I make no profit out of this story, it is written merely for fun and entertainment of other fans.
Part: 1/9

Twilight's Edge
Chapter 1: Blood

Sleep still hung heavy over the land as the sun began crawling towards the horizon. She peeked over hills and forests and slowly made her way further up, stretching and yawning all the way. Her glow was warm and soft, but she knew it would eventually become stronger as she kept going. This close to the nation that worshipped her as the source of their bending her strength and warmth always reached a peak. Letting her gaze travel the world, fondness seeped into her when she spotted a certain Air Temple, the western one to be precise.

There, she knew, resided a boy holding the power to protect the very land she enjoyed warming each and every day. He was called the Avatar and she had found him a delightful incarnation, filled with joy and laughter despite all the sorrow he had encountered. She liked watching him and his adventures, and more than anything she wished she could talk to the Moon, her sister in spirit, to share the tales of his travels.

However, the Avatar was not the only boy her gaze sought in those ancient ruins. She knew his former title among the mortals, but to her he was the Phoenix, rising from his own ashes more beautiful and awe-inspiring than ever before, and she would call him nothing else. Him she often watched with concern and worry, although now that he was in the Avatar's presence, she felt sure that his path was finally taking the turn it had been supposed to. She approved of the fragile bond they had started to form and would enjoy watching both of them grow and bloom.

Sighing, the sun turned her watchful eyes away, into herself, and let Agni fill her with strength so that she might give her warmth and light to the world.

On the edge of a stone platform within the Western Air Temple stood a boy named Zuko. Previously he had been known as Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, now he was a traitor dressed in prison rags with unruly black hair. At this point in time he had already become the Avatar's firebending teacher and a barely tolerated member of said child's group of friends. He liked to imagine that he was slowly but surely earning himself a place in their midst, but who was he to suppose he even deserved as much?

Golden sunlight caressed his skin, which was less pale and more ashen ever since he had gotten out of the prison cooler on the Boiling Rock. That torture was something he had yet to recover from. Right now his breathing was slow and relaxed as though he was merely sleeping, and an expression of utter peace had stolen itself onto his scarred features. Standing like this he could just imagine life was perfectly fine. He could pretend to be among friends, to be valued for who he was and what he could do, to enjoy life.

However, reality had a way of sneaking up on him, tackling him to the ground and beating him to a bloody pulp.

Zuko felt rather than heard someone approaching. Who could it be? Who would be trying to make his life more miserable today?

Aang? Not likely. He was not usually up that early and he was smart enough not to bug Zuko with his weird games and pranks most of the time, although he made sure to invite the older boy in as much as he could without receiving harsher firebending lessons.

Toph? She kept punching him, hitting him with stones, insulting him, calling him names, pushing him until he snapped. Then she would just laugh at him, as though it was all an enjoyable pastime she could only share with him.

Sokka? The Water Tribe boy had warmed up to him quite a bit after they had been to the Boiling Rock. Zuko was glad to receive a little gratitude for joining the boy on that dangerous quest, gaining nothing from it but helping to free people dear to the other boy and ending up in a damn cooler, fighting his sister and risking his health, life and sanity for strangers. Still, Sokka just enjoyed teasing Zuko a bit too much for the firebender's taste.

Teo, Haru, the Duke? Not very likely. The wheelchair would make more than enough noise to be easily recognizable. Besides, the former two usually did everything they could to stay out of Zuko's way, each fighting not to jump at him for what the Fire Nation had done. And the Duke? Whenever Zuko was around, he would freeze up, stare at the former prince with huge eyes and not move or make any kind of sound.

Katara? Zuko growled, thinking about her. The nerve of that girl! Even now that he had rescued her father she kept mistreating him. So what if he did deserve punishment for his past actions – it was no reason to forget he existed whenever she prepared the food, or to glare at him all the time or to watch his every damn move, or to insist on never leaving him alone with Aang. But he swallowed it, he took every push and pull without complaint, even doing all the horrible chores she could think of as suitable for his hands – well, there might have been a little complaining THERE – and he did not even demand proper meals or his belongings and clothes be treated the same way everyone else's were treated. No, he opted to hang his head in shame and seethe quietly in the few hours at night and before dawn he had to himself.

Suki? Not much contact there, yet, but he did after all burn her village, as she had pointed out so recently. He did not have much hopes of ever developing a lasting friendship with her.

Sighing, Zuko turned around, waiting to see whom of the children it could be. He was surprised to meet Hakoda's eyes, a slight frown on the man's brow and his lips set in a tight line. Great. What had he done to piss off the one person with whom he had no personal history as of yet?

They were both silent as they watched each other. The sun climbed higher, and soon the rest of the group would start waking up. Finally, Hakoda stepped closer and nodded.

"You rise early."

"I do."

Silence again.

"You're tense."

And suddenly there was a fist flying towards Zuko's face. Even through his initial shock, he instinctively deflected the blow and knocked the second punch aimed at his stomach aside with his knee.

"Thought so."

It was then that he saw the smirk on Hakoda's face.

"Has anyone seen Dad?"

Katara carefully flipped the bread over. She was heating it in a small pan because she had found her companions to like their breakfast warm. Her blue eyes were not fixed on the task at hand, though. Absentmindedly she broke an egg into the second pan and ignored Aang's delight at being able to tend to the flame beneath.

Sokka glanced up and looked around, as Katara had done a hundred times already. Then he shrugged his shoulders. "Probably exploring the temple."

Hakoda was not Haru, Teo and the Duke, though, from whom they were used that sort of behaviour, and Katara was worried. She had only gotten her father back two days ago and the fear of it all being too good to be true was gripping her heart. Too often the happiness coming with her family finally reuniting again had been shattered all too soon.

It was all the Fire Nation's fault.

Zuko was missing as well.

As bitter suspicion hit her, Katara gasped and jumped up, drawing all eyes towards her. Aang even forgot the flame and let it die. "Toph, could you look for my Dad?"

The blind girl had a bored expression on her face, grumbled a bit, but stood up anyway. She brushed some bangs out of her eyes only to have them fall back at once, then stomped her foot. The vibrations rolled through the earth enabling her to detect Hakoda. She had become familiar enough with him to know his vibes.

"He's over at the training platform."

Katara nodded slowly, the frown never leaving her face. Her voice was just a little too innocent. "And where would Zuko be?"

Toph turned her head towards Katara. She felt were this was heading, yet she could do nothing to prevent the outburst already boiling inside the waterbender's heart. When would the Sugar Queen learn? "With him"

"I KNEW IT!"

And with that, Katara took off towards the training grounds, leaving everyone but Toph stunned and confused. The earthbender waited for a few seconds and when no one moved she felt she had to explain that "Katara's going to kill him, you know? Again."

The others froze, then there were some mumbles of "yeah, right" and "she sure will". The constant bickering between Zuko and Katara left them largely bored instead of worried. Aang, Sokka and Suki were the only ones to share a quick glance before following Katara.

Silence settled again. The Duke glanced around.

"So, who's making breakfast now?"

She ran as though her life depended on it. But it was not her own life hanging in the balance, it was her father's. Somehow that seemed even more important. She had told him she would end his destiny if he stepped out of line. Visions of her father stumbling back from hissing flames tormented Katara and she pushed herself to run faster. There was nothing holding her back now. If there was anything going on, anything at all that put her father in danger...

Fury gripped her heart and with a few more stumbling steps she made it to the training grounds and froze.

They were fighting.

Chests bare and heaving from exertion they continued to let their fists and feet fly at each other, not noticing her. It was brutal. The sound of skin hitting skin, panting, frustrated grunts and the occasional hiss when a sore spot was hit a second time filled the platform.

"STOP!" she yelled and before she could think twice about it her anger unleashed itself. Traitorous prince, foolish friends - they had all endangered her father by trusting him. Why her father? Why could he not have turned on her, for her waterbending was more of a match to his fire than her father could ever hope to be, great warrior or not.

Both of them froze in midstrike and looked at her, dumbfounded.

"Katara?" was all Hakoda could whisper, seeing his daughter, his beloved child, the spitting image of his late wafe, though her face was twisted with fury, a water whip curling around her. What was going on?

Not having been around for much of Katara's history with Zuko, Hakoda did not think to step between the children, and Zuko himself, his concentration having been on the man from the Water Tribe alone for a while now in a place where he was supposed to be safe, was not fast enough.

Katara's water whip had gained a few additions since they had last fought, Zuko noticed in that bizarre moment when time seems to stand still and you can process everything with startling quality before reality blurs and leaves you bleeding. Tiny frozen shards ripped into his face, searing pain exploded, he heard someone scream – himself? – then there was darkness, warm and wet, as he hid is face in his hands and sunk to his knees.

Hakoda stepped forward now and grabbed Katara's shoulders gently, though his face was disapproving. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked sternly and she could only blink. This was not what she had expected.

"He… he ATTACKED you!" Her shaking finger was pointing at the prince. Why wasn't he getting up, wasn't yelling, wasn't proving that she had not really hit him that hard? There was probably a light stinging where the whip had made contact, but there was no need to act all wounded. She hadn't been that out of control, had only meant to scare him away from her father.

Or had she?

Hakoda just shook his head. "Do you know where we are?"

Katara blinked. "The… training grounds."

"And why else would we be here if not to train? Both of us needed to work out some and I figured I could show the youngster over there some good old tricks." Hakoda smiled. "He's good. For a prince, that is."

"I… I thought…" Katara swallowed. Oh, he would never let her forget that. Still, her attacking him had been justified, right? After all, he knew she was expecting him to step out of line, he knew she kept watching for signs of that. So, basically, it was his fault to begin with. Wasn't it? Katara opted to glare at her father – lovingly, if one could glare lovingly. "I was just afraid he might be attacking you. He still is Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, after all."

A small sigh escaped Hakoda. He could see where his daughter was coming from, but right now he had trouble finding the right words to soothe her irrational anger. Yes, it had been innocent sparring, but he could also understand how it must have looked like a full blown fight from her point of view. Oh, his daughter, his sweet child, who was scarred so much that she saw evil much too easily.

Finally Aang, Sokka und Suki arrived, nearly crashing into Katara from behind in their attempt to prevent – what?

Heavily breathing – with the exception of Sokka's girl, of course, which made Hakoda oddly proud – they rushed into a string of words.

"Katara, you need to…"

"I'm sure it's not…"

"Try not to kill him, when you smack him."

"… what it looks like."

"… step back."

He held up a hand, mesmerized at how fast the words died down and four pairs of large eyes were turned to him in expectation of guidance and wise words and whatever else children expected from adults.

"Everything is fine. Nothing happened. We were sparring. Nobody got hurt."

Suki raised an eyebrow and pointed behind Hakoda and Katara at Zuko, who was still clutching his face with shaking hands. "If nobody got hurt, then why is Zuko bleeding?"

Hakoda whirled around.

Blood was running through Zuko's pale fingers, drenching the earth beneath him dark red. Before he could even spare a thought as to what might have happened, Hakoda was kneeling in front of the boy, whispering soothingly, prying his shaking hands away from his face to get a look at the damage that had been done.

For a surreal moment Hakoda found himself wondering in morbid fascination whether Katara's water whip had managed to slice the skin from Zuko's features, because all he could see was the wet redness of blood covering the outlines of what might have been a face.

Yeah, that was that. Done. Over.

No, of course not, there's more to come. Is Zuko damaged beyond repair? How will this event affect the group?

Stay tuned for more and please remember to drop a review in the meantime.

Yours,

Ink