A/N: No, this is not stolen, CowLick035 has given me permission to do this and finish it for him. I decided to start it over and add a bit more detail cause I thought it would be weird if the beginning of the story was less detailed than the rest of it.

Yes, I am aware that Zuko is a bit too young to be a Gunnery Sergeant even though I made him 24 in this story. I just decided he would have risen through the ranks exceedingly fast. A normal Gunny would be about 35 years old. Oops. I thought the idea of him betraying the Nazis at such a high enlisted rank would be better for the story than if he was just a new recruit. I think it makes more sense. Also, I am aware that Zhao was a Commander and then an Admiral in the show, but those were Navy ranks. In this story, he is in the army so the rank structure differs. A Lieutenant Colonel in the army is the same as a Commander in the Navy.

Another thing, people often assume that the Jews were the only people taken to Concentration Camps by the Nazis, this is not true. Gypsies were also taken, anyone who was not of the "superior" race, or not Arian (blue eyes, blonde hair), and suspected of treachery. This is what I know of World War Two.

Disclaimer: If I owned Avatar, I would be the happiest person on the planet. Hell, I wouldn't even be in College right now if I did! But I am in college, I'm not happy, and I'm very, VERY poor. So if any of you even THINK for one second that I own this amazing cartoon, may I just say that you are the DUMBEST person on the planet! I just thought I would reiterrate that. Now, without further ado, I will let you enjoy the story!

Chapter 1—A Critical Decision

The boy was nervous. Though a high-ranking enlisted serviceman in Nazi Germany, young Gunnery Sergeant Zuko could hardly enjoy his new job the Furer himself had given his platoon. The officer of the platoon who had received the orders personally was all too excited to carry them out, as were the rest of their men. Lieutenant Colonel Zhao, along with the third platoon of the thirteenth regiment was to raid a Gypsy encampment in Poland two weeks from the German boarder and take the prisoners to the nearest Concentration Camp. After all his years in service to Sacred Germany, never had he been asked to attack innocents and take them to a place worse than a war prison. Even now, as he was storming through the small encampment of poorly made houses, the young Gunny was having doubts about the mission he was already engaged in.

"Two men to a house!" he heard his officer call out to the ranks. The platoon split up, each holding their Car98's close to their chests in both hands. Lt. Colonel Zhao motioned for Zuko to follow him, and the young Gunny obediently followed. "You and I will take the last house on the right, understood?"

Zuko reluctantly nodded. "Yes, sir!" he replied and took off running down the street after the Lt. Colonel to the house mentioned. When they reached it, both men slammed their backs against the wall on either side of the front door. The Lt. Colonel looked his Gunny in the eye and nodded. "Ready?" he asked. Zuko nodded in return and Zhao took the opportunity to kick open the rotted wooded door and charge inside. Zuko was close behind him, his rifle held tightly in his hands, pointing the barrel in every nook and cranny of the house for anyone trying to hide.

"I'll check upstairs, sir!" Zuko yelled to Zhao as the officer in question barged into an adjacent room. Assuming the man had heard him, the young Gunny ran up the stairs to the shack-like house in search of the residents.

Zuko came across a hallway with three doors. Bursting into the first room, he saw two filthy looking cots and a dilapidated wardrobe but no Gypsies. Leaving the first room, he entered the second and found it similar to the first so he quickly left. When he arrived at the last door at the end of the hallway, he kicked it open, expecting to see nothing just like the first two. His expectation had been wrong however. As soon as the door opened, he looked around the room to find it the same as the first two but with two dark-skinned Gypsies on the last cot in the room.

One was a beautiful, young girl who looked to be only a few years younger than himself. She was sitting on the bed, her tan hands gripping the steel footboard of the cot so tightly, her knuckles were turning white. The other was a young boy about the same age as himself who was standing in front of the cot holding a small kitchen knife out in front of him as if to protect him and the girl behind him. Tears ran down both of their cheeks but the girl seemed to be crying the most. Her eyes were already swollen and puffy where as the boy's were not.

The boy was shaking, obviously a bit frightened, and he raised the knife higher when Zuko took a step closer. "Put the knife down," he told the tan boy as he tightened his grip on his rifle and held it closer to his side.

The boy did not comply but jumped when the Lt. Colonel called from below. "Is there anyone up there, Gunny?" he asked.

"Uh…" Zuko had a hard time coming up with a reply. After all his years in the army, for some strange reason, his mind went blank when he heard is superior inquire upon human life. He could not figure it out, but he did know that he did not want to turn in the two in front of him, he would not sacrifice innocents.

The creaks of the stairs could be heard from the little room and Zuko knew that the Lt. Colonel had become suspicious of the silence and was ascending the stairs to see what was transpiring without his knowledge. Soon the creaking of the floor boards and the heavy footsteps ceased and Zuko knew that Zhao had entered the room right behind him. Turning to face his superior officer, the young Gunnery Sergeant saw that the older man had a sadistic smile spread across his face. The smile disgusted him. The officer before him disgusted him. The whole operation disgusted him. How could anyone be so cruel to others? It just did not seem possible and yet it was. It was staring him right in the face!

"Hey Gunny," Zhao began. "Why don't we have some fun?"

Zuko raised a questioning eyebrow. "Excuse me, sir?"

Zhao's smile did not fade but he sighed, relaxed his posture and lowered the barrel of his rifle. "Oh, I think we can get more pleasure out of this girl than just her impending death." He turned to look at his second in command. "Don't you?"

Zuko did not answer, only shrugged and turned back to look at the two trembling Gypsies in the corner of the room. The girl was obviously frightened, she was shaking more than the boy who suddenly seemed to gather up more courage and attack the two Nazis standing in the room. He yelled and ran at the Lt. Colonel, brandishing his kitchen knife in front of him like a sword.

As a war-hardened soldier, Zhao simply smiled and sidestepped the boy, making him run right passed him. The Lt. Colonel then thrust the butt of his rifle in the back of the boy's neck and he slumped to the floor unconscious.

The girl gasped and Zuko concluded the girl and the boy were brother and sister just by seeing the way they acted for the other. Zhao continued to smile and as he turned toward the girl, she withdrew to the back wall in fear.

"Oh, come now," Zhao cooed. "Don't be shy." He reached out to her and roughly grabbed her cheek. "This will be the last pleasure you have before leaving this world. You should be thanking us."

Defensively, the tanned girl bit down hard on Lt. Colonel Zhao's hand making him yell out in pain and withdraw temporarily from her. Looking at his hand, the Lt. Colonel saw red liquid dripping from the skin and saw a similar liquid on the girl's lips. Angry, he smacked the girl hard across the face and grabbed her thighs. "You little bitch!" he yelled. She screamed as he brought her closer to him.

Zuko was having trouble watching. He had to do something; he could not bare the sight of what was happening in front of him. But what could he do? Zhao was his superior officer, was he not obligated to do as he was ordered? But he was not ordered. He was offered. But he would still be defying an officer if he broke them apart and that was a strict no-no in the army. The girl continued to scream making Zuko flinch. He could not stand it any longer, he had to do something.

"STOP!" he yelled, but Zhao simply looked back at him and laughed.

"What? You don't want any of the action?" he asked. When Zuko did not answer, he just shrugged and turned back to the girl, attempting to remove her undergarments. "That's fine; I'll have her all to myself then."

Zuko gritted his teeth together and stepped forward. He would stop this, no matter the cost. He grabbed the Lt. Colonel by the shoulder and threw him off the girl as hard as he could. Zhao fell back on the wooden floor with a thud and Zuko stepped between him and the Gypsy girl while pointing the barrel of his own rifle at his superior.

Zhao stared at his second in command and laughed. "What, are you going to shoot me? If you're that serious, why don't you shoot the boy first?"

The young Gunny looked from the Lt. Colonel to the boy laying unconscious on the floor. He sighed and lowered his rifle ever so slightly. "I…I can't," was all he said.

Zhao closed his eyes and sighed. "What a shame," he said, looking back up at his Gunny and smiling. "I thought you lived to serve Germany."

Zuko knitted his eyebrows together in anger and raised his rifle again, pointing it at Zhao's head this time. "No!" he cried. "I serve Sacred Germany, not this bullshit!"

Before Zuko was able to do anything, the girl ran out from behind him to her brother on the floor. He tried to grab her and keep her back but Zhao got to her first, tackling her and pinning her to the floor.

"Leave her alone!" Zuko cried but the Lt. Colonel just ignored him, lifting the girl's skirt and grabbing her undergarments once again. "STOP!" he tried again but Zhao still ignored him. The girl kicked and screamed, trying to get the older man off of her. Zuko could not take the torment any longer. Carefully taking aim with his rifle, the young Gunny squeezed the trigger and a loud bang erupted inside the room.

Everything went silent and Zuko blinked several times before looking down at the two on the floor. Zhao had ceased his assault on the girl and was looking down at the floor where a small puddle of blood was collecting. Zuko followed the trail of blood with his eyes to see a large dark spot growing on the back of the Lt. Colonel's knee. Zhao toppled over off the girl to reveal a large and ugly exit wound just above his right kneecap.

"What have you done!?" he roared and attempted to charge at his second in command but hobbled pathetically and fell to the ground. The girl quickly scrambled over to her brother who still lay unconscious on the floorboards. He tried to grab the girl's ankle and bring her back but Zuko would not let him. Squeezing the trigger once again, his second bullet ripped through Zhao's left side, leaving another ugly entry and exit wound. The man slumped to floor, writhing in pain as the young Gunny ran over to help the girl.

The girl shied away from him in fear as he approached. "It's okay," he said soothingly. "I'm not like him. I won't let you get hurt." She looked as if she did not believe him but he slung his rifle onto his back and held up his hands in front of him and she relaxed.

Suddenly, sounds of other soldiers echoed from the floor below, making Zuko and the girl freeze. "What's going on up there?" one of the soldiers asked. Zuko knew exactly who had asked the question and was not looking forward to confronting the man.

"Nothing!" he replied without thinking.

"Very well," the soldier replied. "I'll just come up and check." He heard the soldier mount the stairs and quickly stood up and exited the room to confront the man.

He entered the hallway and raised his hands innocently. "See, everything's fine, Sergeant. I don't even have my rifle drawn."

The man who had just arrived at the top floor rolled his eyes, not believing for one second that Zuko was telling the truth. Sergeant Emde never trusted the young Gunny in the first place and always looked into everything he did. Zuko and Emde never did get along.

"He's lying!" came Zhao's pained voice from inside the room. "Get in here!"

Zuko gulped as Emde shoved him back. "Move aside."

The young Gunnery Sergeant followed Emde into room. Nervously, he fingered his broom handle pistol at his side and waited. When the Sergeant saw the Lt. Colonel curled up on the floor and the girl leaning over the unconscious body of her brother, he raised his own rifle and pointed it at the girl. The Sergeant never got the chance to pull the trigger; Zuko had drawn his own pistol and shot the man in the back of the head before he was able to do anything. As the Sergeant slumped to the floor, Zhao began to yell things at his Gunny that Zuko shut out and ignored.

The boy on the floor stirred and woke up, groaning as he looked at his sister. "What happened, Katara?" he asked.

I'll explain later, now get up, Sokka," the girl replied.

Zuko ran to the window and looked outside. The rest of his platoon were running towards the house and by the looks of it, this was not just for a normal rendezvous at the end of a mission, they obviously knew that something was wrong. Turning back to the two gypsies, he pointed out the window and spoke frantically. "Out the window, quickly!"

Zuko jumped out the window first, followed by the boy, Sokka, and the girl, Katara. Grabbing the girl by the hand, he led them around to the back of the house into the shadows and waited for the last of the platoon to enter the house before quietly bolting into the forest behind the encampment and out of sight.

A/N: Don Emde is one of my dad's old motorcycle racing buddies. I'm not even sure if his name is German but when I needed a name, the only one that I could think of was the big black letters that spelled out "Emde" on my poster, so I used it. I would have used my own last name, which IS German, but I thought it would be weird, so I didn't.

Who can't wait for the next chapter!? I can't! I can't!!