Chapter Text
Zuko sighed. Team Avatar had a meeting with the Earth King and his soldiers concerning their final battle during Sozin’s Comet. So the firebender and Katara really had no time to rest after getting back from their life changing field trip… That’s what Toph called his trips with the team right? Whatever. That’s not important right now-
“What do you mean I have to stay at camp!?” Zuko growled, a small huff of fire coming out of his mouth.
“I mean, the Earth King doesn’t know you’re on our team now, and last time he saw you, you kinda helped your sister take over his entire city, ya know?” Aang replied, hesitantly.
“Just give us a few days to explain everything,” Sokka said, calmly. “Me and Suki will come get you when things calm down and we explain to the King and his guards about all that’s happened.”
“Wouldn’t it be just as effective for me to show up WITH the avatar?” Zuko didn’t understand why he had to stay behind alone. He knows he messed up, but being by the avatar’s side would be better than showing up with the jokester of their little group and his girlfriend.
“Zuko, please,” Aang had that look again. The look he gets when he’s trying to convince people of something they don’t wanna do. He had that look when Zuko and Katara had gone off to find the man who killed Sokka's and Katara’s mother. He had that look when Zuko tried joining them after burning Toph’s feet.
“Fine, go to your meeting or whatever,” Zuko huffed, as he walked over to a clearing near their campsite to train his firebending, since he didn’t have anything else to do.
“Thank you for understanding, Zuko!” Aang hopped on Appa, as did the rest of the team. Zuko huffed. He was fine, he’d been alone before and it wouldn’t even be that long this time around. Zuko shot a wave of fire into the air in front of him.
In a day or two, Sokka and Suki would pick him up. He would get to apologize for what he did in Ba Sing Se. Everything would be fine. But if that were true… Why did he have a feeling that something bad was about to happen?
A few hours pass and Momo is Zuko's only company. The lemur chased bugs around the campsite, as Zuko rested on his bedding. His bedding was the only one out. Due to constantly having to be ready to fight, everyone had everything that wasn’t needed at the moment, packed up on Appa’s saddle.
So, what they called ‘camp’, for now it was just dirt on the ground, Zuko’s bedding, his swords- which were put away in their holder, and a small fire cooking lunch.
Zuko sighed. Maybe a nap wasn’t a bad idea. It could be another day or two before the team could convince the Earth King about Zuko’s transformation and turn to the good side.
Zuko tried to take a nap, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. It was almost sundown and he still had that feeling. The feeling of being watched had started a few hours after the rest of the team left.
Zuko had brushed it off as his nerves for being left alone after traveling with the team for so long, but the fact it hadn’t gone away was important.
Uncle always taught the young prince to listen to his gut and to trust his instincts. And right now his instincts said to LEAVE. He was being watched and he knew it. He wasn’t gonna end up dead before Aang could master firebending and stop the firelord a.k.a. Zuko’s father.
Zuko stood up quickly, grabbing his swords and took off running towards an open area with little places to hide. The team had landed in a closed off cave not far off from the current hold out points for some of the remaining earth kingdom rebels and soldiers. The closed off area was to prevent the fire nation from seeing them, since they were so close to Ba Sing Se.
Zuko cursed under his breath, as he tripped and fell. He lost his grip on his swords, which slid on the loose dirt out of Zuko’s reach. He looked down to see a piece of earth sticking up out of the ground.
He’d been around Toph long enough to recognize a rock that had been bended vs. naturally placed. Zuko tried to stand, only to fall over from putting too much weight on his injured ankle. He growled-
“Great, a sprained ankle!” Zuko winced, moving around his ankle a little more to test if it was broken or just sprained. This can’t be good. Zuko nearly screamed out in pain as he felt a rock hit him in the back of the head, the next thing he saw was black.
The leader of the King’s Men, a rebel group of former Earth Kingdom soldiers, was shocked when they came across a cave that had light coming out of it. The man was called General Sin Lee. Said man cautiously looked in the cave. He was shocked to see a boy in fire nation attire resting on bedding, near a fire.
He watched as the boy tossed and turned, the Earth Kingdom General nearly had a heart attack when the boy rolled over.
He thought he was seen, but he quickly realized the boy’s eyes were closed, but he wasn’t asleep. He recognized the scar on the young lad’s face-
‘ Prince Zuko, ’ The general’s mind supplied before Sin Lee got angry. ‘What’s HE doing here? ’
The General quickly ducked behind the cave opening, when the young prince stirred. He and his men hid, as the boy left the cave quickly. They knew he’d realized they were there. They quickly ran after him.
If he left the walls surrounding the area, they wouldn’t be able to sneak up on him as well. They knew the area. There was an open clearing where the prince was heading.
One of the soldiers bended a piece of rock up under the prince and he fell, which knocked his swords off out of range.
When the prince stood up, he fell over again, wincing in pain. The General bended a rock out of the ground to knock him out. After waiting a minute to make sure the boy was really out, he sighed in relief-
“Tie up the prisoner, make sure he can’t get free.”