Hey, people! I'm starting in a new universe today, Avatar: the Last Airbender. Yay! Okay, this story is kinda different from the show after the Day of Black Sun. Everything is pretty much the same in that battle, except for Zuko's confrontation with Ozai. Other than that, all canon pairings hold, and this story is rated T for violent scenes.

Pairings: Kataang, Sukka, Maiko, etc.

"Speech"

Thoughts

[Author's comments] {Not (usually) a part of the story and can be ignored}

The Day of Black Sun: The Eclipse

"-But I've come to an even more important decision. I'm going to join the Avatar, and I'm going to help him defeat you." Zuko stated with conviction, contempt burning in his golden eyes at the man he once called his father.

"Really? Since you're a full-blown traitor now and you want me gone, why wait? I am powerless. You've got your swords, why don't you just do it now?" Ozai sneered, doubting that his cowardly disgrace of a son could even do it.

"Because I know my own destiny. Taking you down is the Avatar's destiny." Zuko retorted, looking at the Fire Lord in pity, for the first time seeing him for what he truly was; a weak, scared man who ruled his nation with fear and intimidation. Briefly, he wondered how he could have ever respected this pathetic excuse for a human being. He sheathed his Dao swords, then with a final "-Goodbye." turned to leave the room, knowing that this defiant action would anger his father the most.

"Coward! You think you're brave enough to face me, but you'll only do it during the Eclipse. If you have any real courage, you'll stick around until the sun comes out." Ozai snarled at his traitorous son's retreating back. When he saw that his words had fallen on deaf ears, the Fire Lord tried a different tactic, a last-ditch effort to make his son turn around. "Don't you want to know what happened to your mother?" He watched in satisfaction as Zuko froze in his tracks- his back ramrod-straight- and slowly turned to face him once more, an expression of utter shock on his face.

-Meanwhile-

"Where- is- Suki?" Sokka demanded, glaring at the trapped Fire Nation princess in anger while she remained smug and silent.

"Sokka, she won't talk." Aang answered, trying to explain to his oldest teammate that his efforts were futile. Undeterred, Sokka rephrased his question. "Where are you keeping her?" However, Azula answered him not a word, biding her time until the eight minutes of the Eclipse had passed.

"-Your mother did vicious, treasonous things that night. For her actions, she was banished." Ozai finished, glowering at the oldest son of his traitorous wife, Ursa.

"So she's alive?" Zuko gasped, hardly daring to believe it. At these words from his father, a single tear ran down his face from his good eye and dropped to the metal-tiled floor of the war bunker.

"Perhaps." Ozai stated mysteriously and without care. "Now I realize that banishment is far too merciful a penalty for treason. Your penalty will be far steeper." He growled as the moon continued in its orbit and exposed the sun once again, empowering him once again as only the celestial star could.

Ruthlessly and without warning, Ozai created two streaks of lightning around his index and middle fingers of both hands, looped them around once, then thrust them forward- aiming the bolt of supercharged energy at his only son. Concentrating his energy as his uncle had taught him, Zuko prepared to redirect the lightning back at the monster that had shot it. Zuko smiled grimly to himself when he thought of how shocked his father would be, having never seen such a technique before. As the lightning surged down Zuko's left arm and through his stomach- the correct and safest path for it to take- Zuko gasped at the sheer power of the attack. Never before had he felt so powerful, felt so much energy within his body. Despite this exhilarating feeling, he remained the lightning's humble guide and directed the lightning out of his Sea of Chi and up into his right arm, straightening his elbow and releasing the lightning back at his opponent- just as his uncle had taught him.

Ozai stared at his son in shock as Zuko flawlessly performed a firebending form that even he had never heard of; he, the Fire Lord! Ozai briefly wondered where and when Zuko could have possibly learned how to redirect lightning, and for the briefest moment felt a sense of pride in the young warrior before him. A boy who- growing up- had never been an excellent Firebender, but was always weak, slower than his younger sister, the prodigy. Then that moment of weakness fled, and Ozai blocked the redirected bolt with the edge of his left hand, reabsorbing it into his energy and using it to magnify another attack. Forming complex signs with his hands that were too fast to read, Ozai summoned an enormous wall of fire and directed it at Zuko, then conjured another string of lightning and shot it through the flaming wall. He'll never be able to block both. Ozai thought triumphantly, a smirk lifting the corners of his mouth.

As the wall of fire reached Zuko, he summoned a tornado/fire-shield and negated his father's attack with his own. But as soon as the flames dissipated, the lightning struck- surging around the prince and entering the one area lightning was never meant to go: his heart. Zuko cried out once in pain and shock, and then fell to the ground with a weak groan, both of his eyes shut tight and his teeth clenched.

"I knew it." Ozai growled, standing up from his position at the back of the room and walking toward the young prince, who lay curled on his side, supercharged energy still circling his body. "You're weak. You always have been weak, and you always will be weak. You're too much like your fool of a mother. I will not tolerate weakness within my nation, and especially not within my family. As of this moment, you are no longer my son." He spat, stalking from the room. As he left, he gestured to his guard to arrest the traitorous boy and imprison him in the deepest dungeon of the Fire Nation prison. The faceless guard bowed in unison, then marched into the adjoining room to carry out their order.

Outside the royal palace, the battle was going poorly for the invasion force. The Fire Nation army had regained its bending abilities, and was now attacking ruthlessly and without mercy. Just as one of the Water Tribe warriors called for a retreat, an army of war balloons with the Fire Nation insignia on their sides rose from the mountain range before them. "My own invention!" The Mechanist cried as his son put a hand on his back, "Oh, this is terrible!" Behind them rose craft that no one had ever seen before, monstrous airships that dwarfed the war balloons that Téo's father had designed and Sokka had perfected.

"They're not attacking-" Sokka realized, confused as to what the airships were going to do if not drop bombs on the exposed invasion force. With a gasp, Aang figured out their plan. "They're headed for the subs! They're gonna cut off our escape!"

Before anyone could react to the Avatar's realization, the monstrous airships had reached the bay and proceeded to destroy the invasion force's only mode of escape. Now they were trapped, and at the mercy of the Fire Nation. In an effort to evacuate at least a few of their members, the invasion force decided that the children involved in the battle should escape capture by fleeing the scene on Appa, the Avatar's two-ton flying bison. With heavy hearts, the youngsters tearfully bade their goodbyes to their families and friends that would be left behind, prisoners of the merciless Fire Nation. "Bye, Dad. I'm- I'm really proud of you." Téo muttered as he embraced his father for the last time.

Seeing the myriad of sad faces both in Appa's saddle and on the path, Aang stood up on his bison's head and cleared his throat. "Thank you all for being so brave and so strong. I'm going to make this up to you." He vowed, taking his seat on Appa's large head and flexing the reins. With a growl, the bison flexed his large tail and soared into the sky, carrying his young passengers away from the battlefield and to the safety of the unknown. After a few minutes of flight, Aang called back to his companions, "I know just the place to go where we'll be safe for a while, the Western Air Temple!"

Meanwhile, a dark airship surfaced through the cloud cover behind the bison as the adolescents retreated, unnoticed by the group. On board the ship, a Fire Nation soldier turned to his commanding officer and asked, "Should we follow them, Princess?"

The daughter of the Fire Lord flipped her bangs back with a toss of her head and answered, "No, they're too fast. But it doesn't matter. They'll be back." Azula smiled smugly and dangerously, keeping her eyes focused toward the prow of the ship. "We must keep on course. My father ordered that traitors to our nation must be punished severely, and that is exactly what I intend to do." With that elegant parting comment, she swept from the room and through the door to the prison hold.

"Oh Zuzu, why must you always cause trouble for the royal family?" Azula teased rhetorically, using her pet nickname for her older brother as a joke to further torment the barely conscious prince. "Father's left me in charge of your punishment, and I will not disappoint him- even if you were once my brother. Congratulations, Zuko. You've managed to become even more of a disappointment to Father than Uncle Fatso, and that's saying something." Azula offered, disgusted with the failure she saw chained before her.

Zuko groaned in pain, fighting to stay conscious despite his numerous injuries. In the mere hour that had passed since his confrontation with the Fire Lord, Zuko's once-unmarred back and chest had become a surface that resembled dried, cracked mud. Bruises and open wounds dotted the young man's back, so much so that no unmarked skin could be found. The same could be said of his chest, yet on this side the wounds appeared to be slightly less severe. Additionally, his arms and legs were similarly scarred and cut, although again not as severe as his back.

"Despite my hatred for you, Zuko, I'm actually quite impressed." Azula admitted with a smirk and a raised eyebrow at the boy before her. With another groan, Zuko managed to lift his head to look at the Fire Nation princess, his golden eyes confused at her latest statement. "A normal person wouldn't have survived nearly this long. I guess your banishment did teach you something after all." She mused, turning away from her victim and running two fingers through her hair. "Didn't teach you the right things, though, I'm afraid." She continued with a sigh.

"Y-you're wrong-" Zuko rasped, speaking for the first time since the battle. The metal chains around his wrists clinked as he tried to adjust his position, shifting his weight from one leg to the other and silently enduring the pain that followed this simple action.

"Oh, I'm wrong?" Azula shrieked, whipping back around to once again face her captive. "Excuse me, but I'm not the one who betrayed his nation repeatedly, failed multiple times at the simple task of capturing the Avatar, or aiding and abetting the enemy in battle." After this comment, she created a super-heated whip of fire and struck the elemental weapon across the boy's face- cutting a thin scar across the unmarked half, over the bridge of his nose and down to his lower jaw. She repeated this process nine more times until not even she could recognize her brother's face under the new wounds.

Satisfied, she snapped her fingers and two muscular workmen marched into the room- bearing sledgehammers with heads as large as a man's. Stopping next to each pillar, the men raised the chain links higher, forcing the captive to his feet. Then without a word, they brought the sledgehammers down, snapping the bones of Zuko's upper arms as if they were dry twigs. The prince cried out in agony as the waves of pain grew nearly unbearable, and a single tear of blood fell from the boy's right eye to the metal floor. After the horrific deed had been done, the two workmen bowed to their princess, then returned to their duties as if nothing had happened.

With a final smirk, Azula leaned toward the now-unconscious prince- her face just centimeters from his- and whispered, "No, Zuzu, I am afraid that it is you who's wrong. Dead wrong." Then she backed away a few steps and pulled a lever to her right. With a high-pitched screeching noise, the hatch doors of the bomb bay opened and the pillars to which Zuko was chained collapsed, causing the unconscious boy to fall from the aircraft to the wooded area below. By some stroke of luck- or maybe a sympathetic soul aboard the vessel- the airship had been merely feet away from grazing the tops of the trees, lessening what would've been a fatal fall had the airship been higher in the sky.

"You fools! I had intended for that fall to be the final, mortal punishment for his betrayal! Now because of you, he could have survived!" Azula screeched at the pilots of the mighty aircraft. Then she suddenly regained her composure, running two fingers through her bangs one more time. "Well, no matter. I doubt he will survive out there anyway, with those injuries. He won't get far."

"This is humiliating." Katara complained as the group traversed the barren wasteland, searching for the hidden western temple of the Air Nomads.

"D'you mean getting thoroughly spanked by the Fire Nation, or having to walk all the way to the Western Air temple?" Sokka asked rhetorically, once again exercising his well-honed talent of sarcasm.

Although she knew an answer wasn't needed, Katara answered anyway. "Both." She sighed dejectedly.

"Sorry guys, but Appa gets tired carrying all these people." Aang apologized, scratching the bison's eyelid fondly. On the monk's head lay Momo, who had grown too tired for flight and was now snoozing on the Airbender's shaved scalp.

"I wonder how the rest of the troops are." Téo commented, breaking the dejected silence that hung over the group like a dark cloud.

"They're probably on their way to a prison. It seems like my dad just got out, and now he's goin' back in." Haru commented, his eyes downcast.

The youngest member of their larger group- The Duke- sighed to himself, wiping away tears from his eyes. "I miss Pipsqueak." He muttered, referring to the largest member of Jet's Freedom Fighters gang, who had been left behind when the children had escaped.

"I miss not having blisters on my feet!" Sokka retorted, glaring at his sealskin boots as if they were responsible for the sores that were developing on his ankles and soles. Which, in fact, they were- in part.

After a few minutes, Toph exclaimed, "Hey, we're here! I can feel it!"

Katara, however, was not so optimistic. "Um, I think your feet need their eyes checked." She said skeptically, studying the barren and decidedly temple-less landscape.

"No, she's right. We are here!" Aang confirmed, recognizing the area to which they had come and smiling at the rest of the group. Sokka looked left and right, then back at Aang- shooting him a confused look and putting his hands up in a shrug.

"Wow. It's amazing!" Toph continued, feeling with vibrations through her feet what her friends couldn't see with their eyes. The ancient Air temple had been carved into the cliff-side, and gigantic pagodas hung upside-down from the canyon wall. To the left of the group- about 200 feet from their position- stood a sizable wooded area from which a small stream flowed directly into a large fountain full of crystal-clear water.

-A few minutes later-

When Appa had carried all of them safely down to the main area of the temple, Katara exclaimed, "Whoa. You weren't kidding, Toph. This place is amazing! I wonder how the Airbenders did it?" She questioned aloud, glancing at the last Airbender.

Noticing her look, Aang shrugged. "Hey, don't look at me! That was long before my time! I'm only a hundred and thirteen!"

At this, the whole group chuckled, needing a good reason to laugh after everything that had happened that day. Still smiling, each member of the group went to unpack their belongings from Appa's saddle. Katara left as well, sorting through their meager pile of supplies for a pot that was suitable for boiling water for soup. As she searched, she saw her brother aimlessly wandering in circles, throwing his boomerang and catching it when it returned. "Hey Sokka, if you're finished unpacking, why don't you go get us some firewood?" Sokka looked over at his little sister in confusion for a moment, but then nodded and headed for the stairs that led out of the canyon.

-After a few minutes-

The teenage Water Tribe warrior sighed as he stumped toward the copse of trees, grumbling to himself about his abused and unappreciated walking appendages. He huffed in annoyance when he reached the area and saw that there were no suitable branches to be found on the outer rim of the small wood. Scowling, he slowly entered the thicket, smacking branches out of his way and wincing when they smacked him back. "Stupid branches- grumble grumble- stupid Fire Nation- grumble- stupid war." He groused as he ventured deeper into the grove, gathering dead branches and twigs as he walked.

Suddenly he heard a faint, unidentifiable sound from somewhere near him. Sokka froze in his tracks, barely breathing, trying to listen for the sound that had stopped him. A few seconds passed, and then- there it was again! A faint, weak groan about twenty paces to the south of his current position, Sokka guessed. Hmm. Could be an injured animal. He reasoned, unsheathing his sword from his back. Creeping closer in absolute silence, he thought, Then again, it could just be my imagination. Weirder things have happened.

Groan. "Okay, that's definitely not an animal or my imagination! That's a human groan!" Sokka whispered loudly to himself, and then ran toward the source of the sound. Breaking out of the thick bramble a few moments later, Sokka found himself faced with a horrific sight. A young man whipped and beaten beyond recognition lay spread-eagled before him, his mouth slightly open and blood at the corners- as if he had fallen from a great height and accidentally bitten his tongue when he'd landed. "Whoa." Sokka gasped, all other words failing him at the moment.

The figure before him was clothed in only a ragged pair of faded crimson shorts, jagged edges at the legs and tied with a simple string of slightly darker woven thread. The rest of the boy's body was covered in bruises, deep gashes and blood, both long-dried and fresh. His eyes were closed in pain, so Sokka couldn't see what color they were. As he approached the badly wounded young man, he was surprised to find that the young man's hair had not been touched in the slightest, but framed the boy's face nicely as the wind gently played with it.

Apprehensive, Sokka edged closer to the enigmatic and injured boy, but- as he did- a twig snapped under his boot. Both warrior and victim froze and tensed, expecting the other to attack. When neither noticed that an attack was not forthcoming, they visibly relaxed- Sokka sighing with relief and the boy relaxing his jaw and fists. Sokka carefully knelt beside the young man, then said, "I'm not gonna hurt you, I just wanna help. Can you speak?" Receiving no answer, Sokka took that to mean 'No'. Taking the boy's left hand in his, Sokka explained, "I'm just gonna ask you a few simple questions. Squeeze once for 'No', twice for 'Yes', and three if you don't know the answer. Okay?" Two faint squeezes. Good. The boy could understand him.

"All right. First question: Do you know who you are?" Two squeezes followed that, and Sokka thought, Good. He doesn't have amnesia. Lucky break. "Good! Next one: Can you walk?" One squeeze. Nope. "Okay, that's fine." Sokka encouraged, giving the poor boy a small smile that he couldn't see anyway. "Next one: Can you open your eyes?" One again. No. "That's all right. We can fix that. Okay, last question: Are you a bender? If so, what element? Water, Earth or Fire?" He left out Air on purpose, as he knew for a fact that Aang was the last Airbender.

The boy groaned, and Sokka realized his mistake. "Oh, sorry! That was two questions in one, wasn't it? All right, first question then!" Two squeezes. Yes. Oh, please don't be a Firebender- please don't be a Firebender- "Okay, second question!" Sokka continued, giving no hint through his voice of his thought processes. "Water, Earth, or Fire?" He repeated, hoping with all his heart that it wasn't the last.

One squeeze, two, three- four? "Wait." Sokka gasped. "You mean you are an Airbender?!" He nearly cried, completely flummoxed. Another squeeze came, and Sokka looked at the young man in confusion. No? What was that supposed to mean?

Just then the young man started coughing, and Sokka could see the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. The boy was laughing. Or trying to, anyway.

"Oh, ha ha." The Water Tribe warrior groused when he finally got it. "Very funny. Well, at least you have a sense of humor." He amended and the boy shrugged, then winced.

"All right, for real this time: Water, Earth or Fire?" He repeated, and the boy squeezed his hand again. One squeeze, two- three. Oh no. He is a Firebender. Great. Now what? Sokka dropped the young Firebender's hand for a moment, debating on what he should do next.

"Isn't it obvious?" A miniature Fire Nation Sokka growled, appearing on Sokka's left shoulder, complete with mustache and beard. "Leave the guy and tell the Gaang! The Fire Nation's evil! Evil, I tell ya!"

"No!" A female voice cried. "You promised to help him!" Sokka gasped as a tiny version of Yue appeared on his right shoulder.

"We did no such thing!" Wang Fire retorted indignantly, stroking his beard. "We only said, quote, 'I just wanna help.' Not 'I will help'. Two different arguments."

"Okay, but you implied that you would help, and that equals a promise in my book. Right, Sokka?" Yue retorted, glancing at Sokka's head with an expectant expression.

"She's got a point there, little me." Sokka defended, glancing at Wang. "But you're right too. After everything the Fire Nation's done, I can't trust him."

"Ah, but you are generalizing, Sokka. I agree, the Fire Nation army has done some terrible things, but that does not mean that everyone in the Fire Nation is evil. And look! This boy is clearly too young to be a soldier. Therefore you cannot assume that just because someone is a Firebender, it automatically makes them evil." Yue commented, demonstrating her great wisdom as the Moon Spirit.

"What about Zuko? He's a bad guy!" Wang and Sokka suggested at the same time. "He's not in the army, and he's evil!"

"What about Jeong-Jeong? What about Roku? What about Iroh? They are Firebenders, yet would you call them evil? I have been watching Zuko- just as I have been watching over you- and I think that he is very different from his father, grandfather and great-grandfather Sozin. He is merely- confused, and hurt. I can see the good in his heart, and I think that he only needs a helping hand in the right direction. If you could see his past and his actions over the past few months- as I have- you would not see him the way you do now."

Sokka nodded, knowing that Yue's words made sense. Grasping the boy's hand again, Sokka muttered, "I have to go now, but I'll be back. I promise." Two faint squeezes. "Try to get some rest. I should be back in about two hours." Two squeezes again. With a sigh, Sokka stood to his feet, and then gathered up the pile of branches that he had dropped. Just as he left the clearing, he called back, "Oh, by the way, the name's Sokka."

"What took you so long?" Katara questioned exasperatedly as Sokka stumbled into camp half an hour later. He dropped the pile of wood by his sister's feet, and then answered distractedly, "Sorry. I had a hard time finding sticks." And I found a Firebender. He then sat down on a large rock and started sharpening his boomerang with a whetstone, studying the weapon with excessive interest.

Beside Katara, Toph frowned. Hmm. He's lying about something. I just can't figure out what. What he said was true, but he's not telling us something. I can feel it. Then she shrugged. Eh, whatever. It's his business, not mine. Then she took off her meteor bracelet and started playing with it, forming it into different shapes with her Earthbending.

-After dinner-

"Aang," Katara stated after the group had eaten the soup she had made, "We need to talk about finding you a Firebending teacher."

The Avatar sighed melodramatically and rolled his dark gray eyes. "Yeah, I know. But who's gonna teach me? I mean, it's not like I can just walk up to a Firebender and say, 'Hey, will you teach me?' Almost everybody in the Fire Nation wants me dead!"

"We could look for Jeong-Jeong!" Katara suggested excitedly, her blue eyes sparkling.

"Yeah right. Like we'll ever run into Jeong-Jeong again!" Aang answered dejectedly, flicking a pebble off of the rock on which he was sitting.

"Who's-?" Toph began, but then she stopped. "Oh, never mind. If it's important I'll find out." She stated confidently, crossing her arms and turning her head in a random direction.

Just then Haru, Téo and The Duke returned to the campsite, all three of them laughing heartily. "Dude! That was AWESOME!" The Duke shouted, raising both fists into the air. "Let's do it again tomorrow!"

Téo shook his head quickly- as if to clear jumbled thoughts- then replied, "No way, man. I'm not goin' down there again until I fix my brakes. That was way too fast! Do you have any idea how close I came to breaking about a hundred of Aang's past lives' statues? Uh-uh. Not again."

Wanting to shift the subject off himself, Aang looked around and asked suddenly, "Hey, has anybody seen Sokka?"

"Oh, Snoozles said something about wanting to check out the forest again. He said he'd be back in a few hours. Don't worry about him." Toph stated calmly, shrugging her shoulders. Satisfied, the whole group then split up to continue their various activities.

"Hey, man. It's me again." Sokka announced as he broke through the underbrush surrounding the small clearing. The young Firebender grunted in greeting, unable to voice anything else. Sokka had gathered a few twigs and dry branches on the way to the clearing, and now he was arranging them in a small pile that would be suitable for a campfire. Then he took two sturdier sticks that had grown in a 'Y' shape and stuck them in the ground. He pulled a small bowl with a handle out of his pack, quickly filled it with water from the nearby stream, then put a third stick through the handle so that it rested over the soon-to-be campfire. His labors complete, he turned to his silent companion and took his hand again.

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but can you bend in this condition?" Sokka asked the young man apprehensively. He shut his eyes tightly in anticipation of the answer, and was slightly relieved when he felt a single weak squeeze, the signal that he could not.

Whew! That's good. Sokka breathed to himself. Louder he said, "I'll just start the fire the old-fashioned way, then." He announced calmly, retrieving a small knife and a stone from his bag. After five tries, he managed to spark a small flame to life on the dry leaves under the pile of wood, and within minutes had a decent fire burning under the pot of water. "I'm just boiling some water so that we can wash your wounds. Yue knows you've got a lot of 'em." He laughed nervously, assessing the damage again and wincing.

-Half an hour later-

When the water was heated sufficiently, Sokka took a clean cloth from his pack and soaked it in the water. Then he started cleaning the more serious wounds on the boy's chest, trying to be as gentle as possible. The young Firebender winced as the hot water made contact with his injuries, but otherwise did not react to the treatment. The Water Tribe boy continued the process in silence for over two hours, wrapping each cleaned wound in clean strips of cloth and a mixture of herbs to help with the healing.

Eventually it got too dark to see anything, so Sokka packed up the makeshift campsite, pouring the water on the fire to put it out and scattering the ashes with his boot. He then took the last two items from his pack and placed them next to the sleeping Firebender, putting the extra shirt behind his head as a kind of makeshift pillow and draping the blanket over him to cover the rest of the injuries.

Pouring some cool water into a small cup, Sokka walked up to the boy's head and knelt down beside him. Taking his left hand in his own, the warrior asked, "Do you think that you could manage to drink a little water? You must be thirsty." Two squeezes answered that question, and Sokka put his right hand behind the boy's head and helped him drink out of the small cup. The boy nodded his thanks when he was done and Sokka nodded back, forgetting for a moment that the other boy couldn't see it.

After this, Sokka left the camp with a promise. "I'll be back tomorrow morning, so try to get some sleep." The boy nodded, and- as Sokka left- he heard a faint whisper from the boy that he thought he'd never hear: "Th- thank you- Sokka."

Sokka froze in his tracks, recognizing the boy's voice. No way- He thought. It can't be. He slowly turned around, and the Fire Nation boy had turned his head to look at him, his golden eyes open and the less-injured side of his mouth turned slightly upward in a half-smile. "Zuko?" Sokka breathed incredulously, refusing to believe that the boy he had been helping was really the prince of the Fire Nation. The young Firebender slowly nodded, confirming his identity as the son of the Fire Lord.

Sokka walked back up to the teenager and knelt down beside him, retrieving his boomerang from his back. "I knew it. This is all an elaborate scheme to capture Aang again, isn't it? You haven't changed one bit!" He shouted at the boy, causing him to wince. Zuko slowly shook his head in denial, but Sokka wouldn't listen. "You never change! I was right to not trust you! I can't believe you're still up to your old tricks!"

"I- I'm not-" Zuko rasped, his throat still sore from the fire he'd been forced to swallow. "I have changed. I'm not the same person I used to be. Back in Ba Sing Se, I- I made a mistake. I was- confused, an' I made the wrong choice."

"I'll say you did!" Sokka scoffed, turning away from the teenager and crossing his arms. "Not even counting what your sister did to Aang, how could you do that to my sister? She trusted you! And what d'you do? Turn around an' attack her! What d'you have to say to that, huh?"

"I have- nothing to say. I can- only hope that- someday- you guys- can forgive me." Zuko breathed, closing his eyes and turning his head away from the other warrior in shame.

"Yeah, well, don't hold your breath." Sokka retorted, turning away and crossing his arms, then stalking off to return to the temple. Zuko watched him go, regret burning in his golden eyes. Nice one, dumb-dumb. You've managed to alienate yet another person that just wanted to help you. You shoulda just kept your big mouth shut. He silently berated himself. Then he looked around. He noticed that Sokka had left the blanket and shirt behind, and a small smile lifted the less-injured corner of his mouth. Maybe this was his way of saying sorry. I don't blame him though. I wouldn't trust me either, after everything I've done. Then the former prince turned over on his side, resigning himself to a long, sleepless night.

End of chapter 1

Next chapter teaser: Miracles and Threats

Ooh, I hope they forgive Zuko! Poor kid. He's had a rough life. (Ya think?)

See you next chapter!

God Bless!

Tsunami Storm