A Twist of Fate

By Skye-Chan12

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. If I did, believe me, the scripts would have been confusing, hard to keep up with and viewable only by "mature audiences". Unfortunately (or fortunately) for us all, I'm just a wanna-be writer who has to many ideas to write and draw but never enough time.

You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it.

-- Neil Gaiman

Zuko watched as the men readied themselves for battle. Arm was cinched and helmets double-checked for dents before they entered formation. His uncle, however, had chosen to remain in his loose robes.

The aged general caught Zuko's eye and raised his eyebrows in questioning. The boy prince lowered his head in defeat and disappeared below deck.

Topside, Iroh watched as their vessel easily cut through the ice and snow. They were approaching the village fast and Iroh gave the command for the ship to slow.

The ship shook for a few moments before finally coming to stop. Nodding to the awaiting Captain, Lee lowered the ships bow and Iroh took a deep calming breath before descending onto the icy shore.

The villagers all stood in a line, and Iroh knew that this was only one of many meetings between these people and the fire nation. The look in their eyes was one of anger, hate and fear. Only the women and small children remained of what was probably once a prosperous village, the men having been killed, sent to camps or possibly fighting in the north.

"Excuse me-" Iroh started walking forward toward the elder of the tribe, only to be cut off by an adolescent war cry. Iroh watched has a young boy, probably only a few years older then his nephew, raced towards him with a bone club in hand. Iroh watches with faint amusement as Captain Lee efficiently disarms the boy and immobilizes him in a snowdrift.

Iroh turns back to the villagers, who are now watching his men with fear as they slowly back up, save for two. One of them was the elder and the other was a young girl whose gaze was not on his men, but the young boy who was still battling himself out of the drift.

"Please, my men will not harm you. We are here seeking answers to the blue light that came from this area yesterday afternoon." Iroh locked eyes with the fearless elder.

"A blue light?" The woman spoke slowly, here voice old and cracked. "Sokka, over here please!" She called to the boy who had wriggled loose and looked to be preparing for another attack.

"Gran-Gran-" the boy started to protest, his voice cracking with surprise.

"Sokka!" the boy lowered his head slightly, but he still retrieved his weapon and walked carefully to her side, careful to not expose his back to the soldiers.

"Blue lights like the one yesterday are quite common around these parts. They are merely the celestial lights." The woman explained her eyes never leaving Iroh's, but her hands wandered to grasp ahold of both of the children beside her.

"I had considered that." Iroh nodded as if in agreement to her statement. "However I have never seen the lights appear from the ground and shine upwards." The woman flinched slightly and Iroh knew that he had caught her in a lie. "I have, though, heard of such lights appearing in the presence of a powerful bender."

"There are no benders here." The woman sneered at his accusation. "And there haven't been since I was a child." Iroh did note that her hand tightened around the young girl's hand.

"I see..." Iroh knew he had a choice to make. If the girl was, as he suspected, a bender, then by law he had to capture her. Iroh could tell that these people had been beaten down to the point that they would likely never rise again, would the girl really ever amount to any sort of a threat? "However, you have not answered my question. Where did the blue light come from?"

Iroh's gaze shifted to the girl, "Was your granddaughter the source, or was it someone else? The Avatar perhaps?"

Iroh could see fear grip the woman for the first time since their arrival. The girl's response though was interesting.

"The Avatar?!" She seemed more shocked that he had even mentioned the legendary bender then having named her as a bender herself.

"There are no benders here, be they legendary or otherwise. If you truly meant us no harm you would have realized that and gone!" This reaction seemed to be a sign to the boy beside her whose face had gone grim as he raised his weapon once more and charged towards him.

Iroh easily doges the youth's attacks and is able to send the boys weapon flying with an efficient block using his wrist guards. Iroh then watches with ammusment as one of the children manages to dash forward, through his men's blockade and with a cry of 'show no fear' he tosses a spear to the older boy.

"You would make a great warrior one day, but you are too inexperienced to win this battle, boy." Iroh warns as he dispatches the spear into kindling.

The boys face is grim, but suddenly the boy's eyes seem to catch something over his shoulder. Iroh turns his head slightly and sees a black, yellow and red form shooting towards him. Iroh leapt quickly to the side, his feet fumbling in the loose snow. Cheers rose up from the village children as a boy dressed in yellow and red clothes was brought to a halt.

The boy turns and Iroh catches sight of the blue tattoos that cover the boy. "Hey Katara, hey Sokka!" The boy waved cheerfully to the warrior and water tribe girl.

"Thanks for coming Aang." The young warrior grins.

The fire nation soldiers quickly rose to action and attempted to secure the boy, only to be blown back by a blast of air with a simple swipe of his staff.

Iroh took a step back to keep his balance against the gale. "You are the airbender? You are the Avatar?!" Iroh cries in surprise, though he was a bit relieved to catch sight the watertribe children's looks of surprise as well. "For a man of over a hundred you don't look a day over twelve."

"Thanks," The boy grinned blindingly at the old general, "The secret is moisturizing."

"I'll have to remember that." Iroh grinned back. Iroh slid his feet in to a strong stance and raised his arms into ready position. The boy's face took on a darker grin as he too slid into a defensive position, his staff held loosely in both hands, ready to unleash another flurry of wind. However both were concentrating soley on the other that they both missed the shadow that passed from the ships deck to the Avatar's position a few feet away.

The avatar looked up at the last minit just in time to catch sight of a deep red blob and gleeful golden eyes before the future prince of the fire nation crushed him into the snow.

Iroh's eyes bulged at the sight of his dear sweet nephew who was now in a very compromising position on top of the Avatar.

Zuko's breath was coming out in short breaths has his lungs look in the frozen air. His hair had come out of its topknot and had fallen loose to his shoulders. His eyes looked with excitement into the gray eyes of the Avatar, who looked to be both in pain and in shock at the weight on top of his chest.

Zuko couldn't help the smile that split his face in half. With adrinalen still coursing through him, the young prince turned to his uncle and cried, "I won! I caught the Avatar!" and with that he promptly glomped the airbender before him, securing the boys arms to his sides and holding him down with his weight.

Aang had no idea what to do, He could see Katara and Sokka looking at him with eyes of disappointment, which heart him more then his aching ribs. Turning his head slightly, he caught sight of the old dude that he was about to challenge. The man's face was quickly turning from an expreshon of pure shock to one of fear.

Why fear? He was caught, wasn't he? Why would the aged man be afraid? Unless... If he thought that Aang was wasn't really caught, then he would be afraid for the kid on top of him. Eyes squinting with determination, Aang spoke quickly, "Hey old dude." The man met his gaze, "If I go with you without a fight do you promise to leave everyone alone?"

The mans gaze softened and he nodded, "I give you my word."

Aang nodded and attempted to look at the kid on top of him only to have long black hair mush into his face. "You can let go now, you caught me." Aang found himself nose-to-nose and eye-to-eye with his captor.

"Cross your heart?" The voice was sweet and had an accent that deffanitly marked the child as upper class.

"Hope to fly!" Aang teased softly. Straightening up, Aang caught a good look at his vanquisher, "Hey, you're pretty cute." He found the worlds out of his mouth before he even realized what he was doing.

"And you're pretty bald!" Zuko felt his anger rising and was about to lash out at the boy only to find being lifted from his position by two strong arms.

"Prince Zuko, you promised me that you would not leave the safety of the ship!" Uncle Iroh's voice boomed at the child before him as he lifted the boy to his eye level. Zuko looked down in shame as he felt his eyes start to burn with unshed tears. He was about to apologize when his uncle suddenly pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. "Remember what I said, I would never be able to live with myself if you were hurt."

Zuko buried his face into his Uncles cloak and allowed the few tears that had built up to be dried. "I'm sorry, Uncle." He apologized. His Uncle gave him one final squeeze before setting him back down on the ground.

Zuko watched as the Avatar handed over his staff and allowed himself to be placed into handcuffs. The watertribe girl lurched forward, crying out to the Avatar, "Aang! Don't do this!"

The Avatar smiled assuring back at her, "Don't worry, Katara, It'll be ok. Take care of Appa for me until I get back."

Zuko snorted softly behind him causing the Avatars smile to falter slightly before he disappeared beyond the watertribe's line of sight

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Last updated: Aug. 27 2008