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Chapter Text

A loud thud woke Zuko. He felt off, and quickly realized he was in a bad situation. He was bound with rope, and laying facedown on his stomach. His hands were tied very tightly behind his back and at the elbows as well. His knees and ankles were tied up, and the rope gagged his mouth as well. Apparently they remembered his fire breath he thought to himself. Able to awkwardly shift his shoulders he moved his torso to try to get a view of what was happening.

Zuko realized that he was in the Avatar's Bison's saddle. Alone. Where had the others gone, he wondered to himself? It was not like them to leave him unsupervised, that would be a perfect opportunity to escape! Which was precisely what Zuko was attempting to do. Shifting himself slowly closer to the edge of the saddle he finally got his right shoulder on the top of the edge of the saddle and then he was able to raise his head above the saddle to see the scene in front of him.

The bison had landed back in the spirit oasis. There was a group of people at the pond. No one was paying any attention to him. Probably because they think I am still knocked out, Zuko realized. He took in a deep breath of air through his nose and then lunged forward to slide out of the saddle.

Somehow, in his mind just before he lunged Zuko thought he would slide over the edge easily to the ground. However, in reality his momentum only took him as far as to get his stomach on the edge of the saddle. Grunting softly he leaned forward and kicked his legs frantically to move himself forward. He achieved success and then fell face first out of the saddle onto the ground.

He suppressed a soft groan and twisted around so that he was again laying on his stomach. The ropes strained against his limbs and particularly his shoulders were crying out in the discomfort of having his arms bound so tightly behind his back. Yet despite his frantic movements, the rope held firm. Stupid high quality Fire Nation rope Zuko cursed mentally. Shouts from the spirit pond grabbed his attention and he looked over at the people, noting that they still did not notice his presence.

To Zuko's horror he recognized Zhao from across the small pond. Zhao had a bag in his right hand and then the night turned an ominous red. as if all other colours but red had been taken away. It made Zuko's stomach churn. He began rolling closer to the water. For what reason he did not know, but he knew with Zhao involved no good could come of this. As he rolled closer to the water he heard the conversation more clearly. Uncle was there! Iroh was shouting at Zhao that whatever Zhao did to the spirit, Iroh would repay tenfold! Zuko heard the anger and conviction in his Uncle's voice and knew that it was not an idle threat. Wait, Uncle said spirit? Did Zhao have a spirit in that small bag?

Zuko's answer would have to wait. He was now parallel to the water's edge, about 4 feet from the water. Zhao, still staring intently at Iroh, relented, and dumped the contents of the bag into the pond. Zuko watched as a pure white koi fish splashed into the water and began swimming away from Zhao. Immediately the red colour faded away and everything returned to normal nighttime colours. But Zuko knew Zhao too well, and kept his eyes fixed on him as everyone else relaxed slightly and sighed softly.

Zuko saw Zhao's arm moving before Zhao spoke. Zuko knew that he was firebending at the fish, err spirit. No matter, Zuko leaped into action as best he could using all the momentum he could get from kicking his legs to try and block the blast of fire that Zhao sent towards the water.

Zuko succeeded, to an extent. He was only able to reach so far over the water and blocked only some of the fireblast. But a lot of fire still seared the water when several people yelled. That was all Zuko knew happened because at that point his legs fell into the pond and it was much deeper than he had expected and suddenly his whole body slipped into the water and his head went under.

Struggling to keep his breath, Zuko wiggled in the mud at the bottom of the pond. He was only a few feet below the surface but in his predicament it might as well have been the bottom of the ocean. His lungs burning, eyes unable to see anything, Zuko took a moment and realized that without immediate help, he was finished. This would be the end of story of his life. The banished Prince, dishonoured and banished, drowned at the North Pole in a pond with an important albino fish in it. Had he had any strength left, Zuko probably would have tried to laugh at the absurdity of his situation. But instead the darkness overtook him.

----

Only when Zhao had blasted fire at the Moon Spirit did Yue notice that there was something to her right. Sokka had been on her left and both of them had been completely focused on Zhao. Now she saw, something, reach to try and block the fire. And it somewhat worked, dissipating the center of the fireblast. However fire still struck the pond's surface above the Moon Spirit with a powerful force and Yue felt as if her own heart had been singed by the blast.

Then everything happened all at once. The old man Zhao had called Iroh, started sending powerful blasts of fire towards Zhao and his soldiers causing them to retreat hastily. Sokka threw his boomerang at the retreating soldiers. Katara and Aang were frozen in shock, staring at the water's surface where the fire had impacted. Yue noticed the thing??? That had blocked some of the blast slip into the water and that was when she had the terrible realization that it was a person who was bound by rope. The person went straight under the surface and the last thing she saw was a completely shaved head except for an unusual hair braid slip into the darkness of the water.

Immediately Yue rose to her feet and stumbled into the water after the person. She would pull them out she decided. Whomever they were, they had attempted to stop Zhao and that made them worth saving in her mind. The pond was cool, but not cold on her legs as she entered deeper. She leaned forward and plunged her arms into the water feeling for the person. Even though it had only been a few seconds, she felt bile rising in her throat as she was unable to find the person in the water. Yue felt as if she was failing not only the person, but the Moon Spirit, if she was unable to help their unexpected ally.

Aang suddenly shouted that the Moon Spirit was alive. Yue's head snapped up quickly looking in his direction. There before the Avatar at the pond's edge, the two koi fish swam in a slow circle. Slower than usual and it quickly became obvious that the Moon Spirit was alive, but injured. Katara sprung into action with her waterbending and the water around the white koi fish began softly glowing.

Yue's attention rapidly moved to her own situation when she stepped on something that did not feel like the rest of the bottom of the pond. She was now waist deep in water and about 6 feet from the edge of the pond. Taking a quick breath, she steels herself for the cold and then bends to pull out whatever she had stepped on. Her hands find something made of cloth and she pulls up and towards the shore. Gripping tightly onto what she now realizes are legs Yue drags the person backwards towards the shore. It is slow going despite her frantic determination, she is barely strong enough to move the person. Sokka suddenly notices what she is doing and, rushes over to her and without a word grabs the person and helps drag them the rest of the way onto the shore.

"What in Tui's name was Zuko doing in the pond?!?" grunts Sokka as he finishes dragging Zuko onto dry ground. "I saw him try to deflect the fireblast," responded Yue, "He then fell into the water. I couldn't let him drown after trying to save the Moon Spirit!" She then looked at Zuko's face. His eyes were closed, his mouth gagged by a rope tied around his head, he did not appear to be breathing.

"Cut the gag off him!" Yue exclaimed, "He's not breathing!" Sokka did not instantly react as Yue thought he would. Instead he turned to her and flatly stated, "Bad idea, he can breath fire from his mouth. He will inevitably try to escape. You know he followed us all over the world and tried to capture Aang multiple times!"
Yue was shocked that Sokka was prepared to let Zuko die because he might at one point later try to escape. True, she had seen Zuko fight Katara when Aang was in the Spirit World earlier that same day. But when Zuko had been faced with the prospect of Zhao killing the Moon Spirit, Zuko had acted instantly to try and prevent it. Even when tied up and then likely knowing that he could drown while doing so. Yue resolved that at the very least, she would not let Zuko die.

She kneeled beside his head and started trying to pull the gag out of his mouth. The rope was tied very tight and did not budge at all. She repositioned herself on her knees behind his head so that his body lay out away from her. Then she grabbed onto the rope on each of his cheeks and pulled as hard as she could. A small frustrated scream left her lips. That seemed to finally have an impact on Sokka. He sighed deeply, walked over to her and then crouched while pulling out a small knife from his waist. "I still think this is a bad idea." he muttered as he cut the rope in a rapid succession of short sawing slices.

The rope fell away from Zuko's head and the boy, really Yue noticed, he was maybe a little older than her, did not respond. Still comatose, and his chest was not moving. Sokka then placed two hands on Zuko's chest, slightly readjusted his right hand to a particular spot, then he lurched forward and applied a large amount of force to Zuko's chest. "What are you doing?!" yelped Yue, "Don't hurt him!" Sokka did not even turn to look at her. He just kept forcing his hands down on Zuko's chest at what Yue noticed were two second intervals. "I am trying." Sokka grunted in between compressions, "To force him to start breathing."

Yue, was silent in response, her eyes now on Zuko's still face hoping that he would breath. A shocked cry grabbed both Sokka and her attention towards the others. It was Katara who had cried out in shock. Aang was glowing. His airbender tattoos and eyes were glowing a most beautiful hue of blue. However his face was one twisted with anger. He walked into the pond and sank into the water. Suddenly a large spirit creature rose from the pond in his place. The Ocean Spirit.
Everyone at the Spirit Oasis, except Zuko, looked on in silence as the Ocean Spirit grew larger and started moving away towards the direction of the harbour wall, where the Fire Nation Navy was. And Yue knew that with the Ocean Spirit on their side the attack was over and that the Fire Nation would be defeated or driven away. There was no noise as Katara, Sokka and Yue watched in stunned silence as the Ocean Spirit moved further away unleashing devastating attacks against the remaining Fire Nation soldiers.

The sound of a hacking cough brought her back to the situation in front of her. Zuko's eyes were open and he was coughing up water. He turned his head and spat out quite a bit of water and then started drawing long ragged breaths. He was alive. Yue was relieved. She was uncertain what exactly would have happened if Zuko had died after trying to protect the Moon Spirit, but she was certain it would not have been good for the Northern Water Tribe. She put her hand on Sokka's wrist, which caused the boy to look at her slowly. When his eyes met hers she spoke softly thanking him, but that was all she said.

In front of Sokka and Yue, Zuko continued to take deep breaths of air, but made no other attempt to move or speak. His eyes were closed as his breathing settled into a regular rhythm and then he fell asleep.

-----

Zuko regained consciousness to the feeling of being cold. Really cold. The pain in his shoulders from having his arms tied behind his back was mostly gone, replaced by a dull ache in each shoulder. He needed to stretch. Groaning, he opened his eyes and they slowly adjusted to the darkness of the room he was in. The room was a cell, he immediately realized. The floor, walls, and ceiling all appeared to be made out of ice.

He was lying down, so Zuko attempted to sit up. That was when he discovered that his hands were in a set of large metal cuffs that had a chain connecting them together. A set of cuffs on each of his ankles was also connected by a chain between them. But concerningly for Zuko there was a chain in the middle of his ankle cuffs that ran to the wall on his left where it appeared to have been frozen into place. Zuko weakly pulled on it, not expecting much, and the chain refused to budge. He sighed in despair. He had been captured. And it appeared that they were not taking any chances of him escaping as he suddenly realized with a jolt that there was no door.

"Hrmmph, waterbenders." he muttered quietly. Not that there appeared to be anyone around to hear him. He had heard stories, mostly tall tales from the sailors on the Wani about how the Northern Water Tribe had imprisoned firebenders before. One of the things that Zuko had heard was that the waterbenders would go deep underground carving out a space deep within the ice to hold firebenders far away from the sun, their source of bending power, to weaken them as prisoners. And even more terrifyingly, they would waterbend the route out back into ice as they left so that there was no way for a prisoner to escape. Even if a prisoner could firebend, they would not know which direction to head to escape.

Dejectedly accepting his situation for the time being, Zuko adjusted himself against the wall so that he was sitting. At least his hands were cuffed in front of him, he thought bitterly. Zuko then took a good look around his cell to try and see if they were watching him at all. He could not find any evidence that the waterbenders were observing him. He appeared to be completely alone. The ice cell was dark, the only light was a dim blue hue that somehow reached through all of the ice above his head.

Zuko brought his feet closer to his body and attempted to sit in a meditative pose. Meditation was important, Uncle had taught him that. Uncle. A sudden sad pang hit Zuko. Where was Uncle? Had he been captured too? Or worse, was Uncle still alive? Zuko tried to remember the events at the spirit pond. He thought he recalled Uncle arguing and then firebending at Zhao. But he could not remember what had happened to Uncle after that. Zuko thought about his attempt to save the spirit fish. Hah, he laughed at himself. Here he had tried to save a spirit, from another member of the Fire Nation no less. As he was in an ice cell, Zuko assumed the worst. The spirit had died, Zhao had gotten away, lucky as usual like Azula, and he was captured and probably be going to made to pay for the death of the spirit. Agni help me, he silently prayed.

With no answers to any of his questions, Zuko tried to get his mind onto something else. Focusing on his breathing, he tried to meditate. Uncle had always stressed that firebending comes from the breath. In fact, Zuko could almost hear Uncle's voice as if he was right beside him then, repeating that advice. Recalling the image gave him a small amount of happiness and Zuko faintly smiled. Then he held open his right hand and tried to produce a flame in it.

At first nothing happened. Zuko, never one to give up easily, refocused his mind, took a deep breath and then let out a controlled exhale. His hand began to warm up and then a tiny flame appeared in his cupped hand. Good, he thought to himself, I can still firebend. It was weak, and would not be enough to break him out of his current situation. But, if he bided his time, not letting his captors know that he could still bend, they might slip up and give him a chance to escape later. Until then, he was their captive, so he decided to try and rest to be ready whenever his opportunity to escape appeared.

----

Zuko was not sure how long he waited before his captors decided to visit him. He had been asleep and then woke up to the sound of the wall across from him being waterbended open. Zuko rose to a sitting position. Light from torches streamed into the cell from outside. Two men entered the cell, Zuko could see that two large muscular men remained outside. Guards, he thought to himself, they still think I am a threat. Which caused Zuko to chuckle internally, he was still exhausted despite having gotten some sleep, he had not eaten for how long he was not sure but before the invasion started, and he was chained to a wall while surrounded by waterbenders.

The stockier man broke Zuko out of thought by addressing him. "Prince Zuko, you are a prisoner of the Northern Water Tribe. I am Chief Arnook." He then pointed to the taller man beside him who had a thin mustache and beard and was slightly smirking at Zuko. Chief Arnook continued, "This is Master Pakku, a waterbender. He will intervene if you try to escape." Zuko did not say anything to acknowledge the two men. He forced his face to be neutral, displaying no emotion.

Zuko decided to break the silence first, "What do you want from me?" he asked. The room was silent for a few moments before Chief Arnook responded. "We have not yet decided what to do with you Prince Zuko. We are going to hold a meeting tomorrow to determine what to do with you. Whether to ransom you back to your father, to ship you to the Earth Kingdom, or something else." Zuko visibly paled at the mention of the options facing him. He hoped that the two men would think he was frightened at the something else option and not the mention of his father, the real reason he had paled. He could not go back to father like this. Without the Avatar, captured, disgraced beyond redemption. Internally Zuko shuddered at the thought.

The Chief spoke again breaking Zuko out of his thoughts, "You will be present at the meeting for the Council to see you before deciding your fate. Behave, and you will not be muzzled." Zuko glared at the Chief. The thought of being muzzled angered Zuko greatly, but he forlornly realized that he was practically helpless to resist them. Zuko's gaze shifted down to the ice in-between the two men and himself which Chief Arnook seemed to take as Zuko's acceptance of his situation.
After some time of silence had passed, the Chief suddenly turned and walked out of the cell. Pakku remained not moving. After the Chief's footsteps had faded away Pakku suddenly tossed a ball of ice into Zuko's lap alarming Zuko. "Don't starve." Pakku flatly stated and then he left Zuko's cell and the wall immediately waterbent back into a solid wall. The torchlight from the hallway was gone and Zuko was left in the cold darkness once again. The only light was a dim blue light coming from the ceiling of ice.

Confused Zuko picked up the ball that had been tossed into his lap. It turned out to be a ball of rice, nearly frozen solid together. Zuko cupped his hands and summoned a weak flame to warm the food. A voice in his brain screamed that it might be poisoned at him. However Zuko was exhausted and needed to keep up his strength if he was going to escape, therefore he heated up the rice ball and then put chunks into his mouth. Even heated by his weakened firebending the rice was very cold and tasteless.

Zuko continued to pick apart the ball of rice into bite sized chunks and consumed it. He fell asleep again sometime later.

-----

Zuko woke only to be reminded of how cold he was. His hands and feet were now numb, the metal cuffs were agonizingly cold on his wrists and ankles. Zuko shifted to a meditative pose and started breathing exercises, just as Uncle had taught him years ago when he first was banished. After some time, his breath of flame had warmed up his core and arms somewhat but his feet remained numb. That was not good Zuko thought to himself. Particularly it would make any escape attempt much more difficult.

Zuko sat in silence again, his thoughts running wild wondering what might become of him. Would he be placed on an ice floe, while still chained up, and be left to the elements? Would he be executed out of spite for so many dead watertribe people following the attack? Would the Northern Watertribe foolishly try to ransom him from the FireLord? This possibility still concerned him the most.

The wall of his ice cell opened, once again pulling him out of his thoughts. In walked the Avatar and his two Southern Watertribe companions. Zuko just glared at all of them. The Avatar looked at Zuko with shock on his face as his eyes traced the chains connecting his ankles to the wall. What, Zuko wanted to say, never seen someone in chains before? Which was a funny thought Zuko realized, the Avatar himself had been chained up worse than Zuko was now when Zuko had freed him from Zhao as the Blue Spirit.

The older boy with the Avatar just looked at Zuko with distain. But the waterbender glared at Zuko with open hostility on her face. The Avatar spoke up, "I wanted to see that you were not being mistreated." Zuko snorted in response. That made no sense. Zuko had chased the Avatar across the world since the South Pole. Why would he be concerned at all with Zuko's wellbeing as a prisoner? Zuko shifted his legs out from underneath him until they laid out straight in front of him. The chains clinked softly together as a reply to the Avatar, while Zuko looked away from all of them to his left. He might be a prisoner, but he did not have to endure their glares or answer their questions he decided.

"See? He's fine." spat the waterbender angrily. The Avatar seemed taken back by her anger, but he spoke up again, "We brought you breakfast." he stated cheerfully. Zuko tried to glare at the ice harder, hoping that they would just leave him alone. "Forget it Aang." said the oldest of the three, "just leave it on the ground near Prince Jerkbender and let's get out of here."

Zuko held his gaze at the ice, refusing to look at them. Apparently this had no effect on the Avatar as the preteen stepped closer to where Zuko was sitting. "Don't get any closer Aang!" shouted the boy. "He might grab you!"

Zuko scoffed. Then he actually let out a quiet chuckle. He turned his head towards the group. The Avatar had placed a small plate and a waterskin on the ground almost within arms reach of Zuko. "And go where exactly?" Zuko asked sarcastically while lifting his chained arms in the air in front of him. None of the three responded to his question.

The silence hung in the cold air between them. The Avatar seemed shocked at Zuko's statement. "He's got a point Sokka." said the waterbender with a glance at the watertribe teen. Zuko noted the teen's name but did not react and the silence enveloped them again.

As the seconds started to build up Zuko broke the uncomfortable silence. "What do you want from me?" Zuko asked without emotion and without looking at the group's faces.

"Aang wanted to ensure you were not hurt." the waterbender replied. "Since he is not, can we go now?" she asked her companions. The Avatar had not moved his gaze from Zuko. Sokka however stepped closer, arms crossed over his chest, huffing it out in an strange attempt to be intimidating guessed Zuko.

"How many ships are there in the Fire Nation Navy?" demands Sokka. The question surprised Zuko. He actually did not know. But he was not going to straight up admit that. "More than the Southern Water Tribe." retorted Zuko.

"Maybe before the Ocean Spirit decimated the fleet here, but that might not be true any more." shot back Sokka. Zuko's eyes went wide with the return of a terrible thought. Uncle. Had Uncle perished in the siege? Zuko began to fear the worst. Had he lost Uncle? His only support during his banishment. The thought terrified Zuko. But Uncle was crafty and surprisingly quick on his feet when he needed to be. If there was some way, Uncle would have survived, or rather Zuko fervently hoped.

A loud deep sigh pulled Zuko back to the present. It was the Waterbender. "Look this is pointless, he's Prince of the Ashmakers." she said while turning to face her companions. "He's not going to help us at all, even if he is a prisoner facing who knows what fate." At this point he Avatar interjected, "But, but he's not going to be hurt, right?"

"I don't know Aang." she calmly replied. "His fate is in the hands of the Northern Water Tribe now." She walked towards the door of Zuko's cell. She turned around and faced the Avatar directly. "You did what you came to do. He has food. He's not hurt. You can see that. Today the Tribe will hold a meeting and decide what to do. Chief Arnook invited us to the meeting. We will be there and you can make any points you want to someone who might actually listen." Sokka chuckled at this and then walked towards the door as well. Only when both watertribe siblings were outside of his cell, did the Avatar turn away from Zuko and finally leave.
The opening in the wall quickly iced over and Zuko was left alone in the cold again.

-----

The food had been more than Zuko was expecting to have received. Despite the fear that the food was poisoned, Zuko knew that he needed to eat to keep his strength up. So he had eaten everything and drank most of the water before the wall opened again.

This time Pakku and a guard stepped through the opening. "Soon you will be appearing before the Council to hear your fate." announced Pakku with a smirk on his face. "Behave or you will find yourself in much worse conditions." The guard approached Zuko and lifted him to his feet. Zuko's legs cried out in soreness from laying on the ice for so long, but he clamped down on the feeling waiting for his moment to escape. Pakku waterbent the end of the chain running to his ankles from the wall free from the ice. The Guard picked up the end of the chain. Pakku walked ahead and motioned for Zuko to follow with a wave of his hand.

Zuko bristled with anger at the treatment. But he followed Pakku obediently. They walked through the opening and then two guards walked up behind Pakku but in front of Zuko, and two more guards followed the one holding the end of his chain. Like a caged animal being lead to slaughter thought Zuko bleakly.
After some time the tunnel lead out into natural light. The sun was up. Zuko had never felt happier to feel Agni's gentle warm embrace on his face. Until a guard roughly shoved him by the shoulder almost knocking Zuko over. Incensed, Zuko picked up his pace to keep up with Pakku. They stopped outside of a small hut. Pakku motioned with a swing of his arm that Zuko was to go inside. The hut was small, very small. Certainly not large enough for all of them, much less this Council meeting to be held in.

Pakku must have sensed Zuko's confusion, because he sighed like he was frustrated with a small child being unreasonable before stating, "Soiling oneself in front of the Council is a poor look for anyone. Especially a prince." Zuko now understood and began thinking this might be his opportunity to escape. He walked into the small hut, using his arms to push aside the fur that hung in the door. Inside the hut was dim, cramped, and just as cold as outside, but there was a toilet. Made of ice it seemed as Zuko nearly froze to it while he quickly did his business. But now was his chance. He was surrounded outside, but currently unobserved.

After quickly completing his business, he pulled up his pants and then Zuko crouched so that the chain between his ankles was much closer to his head. He then took several deep breaths focusing his inner chi. Then he took a deep inhale and then breathed flame concentrated at the point where his ankle chain met the end the guard held. He took several more breaths this way until the chain glowed red hot and when he pulled his feet away spreading them wide the chain pulled apart sizzling on the ice and growing pool of water. Success!

Zuko rose up standing tall. He took some slower breaths to calm his racing heart. Next he would need to get away from his guards. A quick glace of the hut informed him that the door was the only exit. Therefore he was going to need to hit them hard and run. Zuko quickly planned his steps and then pulled the fur "door" back and immediately spun around out the door firebending in a huge arc to drive the guards back.

Landing back on his feet solidly, Zuko took in the situation before him. There were no guards, which made no sense. Suddenly water soaked him from above and then he was frozen rigidly in place. Only his neck and head out of the ice block.

"Boy, you must think we've never had a firebender prisoner before." taunted Pakku from behind him. Pakku walked around in front of Zuko proudly smirking. His smirk grew larger as Zuko could hear someone approaching him from behind. Suddenly a hand roughly grabbed his throat causing Zuko to instinctively open his mouth to try and breath easier. Which appeared to have been the point Zuko realized a second later as a metal device was forced into his mouth and covered his nose. The metal tasted awful on his tongue and kept his mouth forced open partially, however he was unable to open it any further. Breathing immediately became a struggle and Zuko could feel the device being strapped tightly to his head from behind.

Pakku chuckled at Zuko's discomfort and disdainfully stated "You are wearing the consequences of your own actions, Prince Zuko." He spat the word Prince at Zuko while starting to waterbend and then Zuko's feet were free of the ice though the rest of his body remained immobile. The cuffs on his ankles were removed, and another set was locked on. Pakku then bended the ice away. Zuko fell into a heap on the ground, still struggling for breath.

"Get up!" commanded Pakku. "We are going to be late." Zuko forced himself to his hands and knees, grasping for breath. Pakku let out a sigh then waived his hand which was apparently an order for the guards to escort Zuko. A guard grabbed each of his arms and hauled Zuko onto his feet. They then carried Zuko by his arms, Zuko's feet did not even drag on the ground, the large guards held him too high above the path. His shoulders screamed in agony at supporting his body weight combined with the extra weight of the restraints and the muzzle. Zuko fumed with anger.

----

Yue arrived at the meeting just as the majority of the tribe was taking their seats. She sat at the head table, to her father's left. The Avatar, Sokka and Katara were seated on her father's right looking out over the assembling people. It was a large turnout. Apparently determining the fate of the Prince of the Fire Nation was quite the social event. Then with a terrible shock, Yue remembered that this was the first tribe meeting since the attack. Since so many had lost their lives defending their homes.

Her father called the meeting to order and started with a prayer for the deceased. It was a touching somber moment. Yue only halfheartedly listened as her father continued speaking again after a moment of silence for the lost. Her thoughts turned to the pressing question of what would befall Prince Zuko. Yue knew he was an enemy, in fact son of the world's worst enemy. But, she had seen him trying, and then succeeding in protecting the Moon Spirit's life. What kind of an enemy does that she questioned herself. She was rocked out of her thoughts when her father commanded Prince Zuko to be brought in.

Yue could not see him when Pakku and some guards entered from the side of the hall. But murmurs quickly erupted throughout hall amongst her tribe. The murmurs quickly became louder and transformed into shouts of anger at the prisoner. People rose to their feet yelling loudly. Against the sudden rise of noise Yue could not hear what they were shouting at Prince Zuko. But the anger was evident on their faces and through their voices.

Pakku and the guards rounded a table and then walked towards the Chief's table. Yue could now see Zuko. His head was facing down towards the ground, a guard on either side of him held Zuko's arm and together they carried him forwards. The group passed the final row of tables and now they were directly in front of the high table. The guards unceremoniously dropped Zuko to the ground and stepped back.

Her father stood with his arms raised, palms faced outwards. He slowly lowered his hands and her people understood, ceasing their shouting and returning to their seats. Yue's eyes were fixed on Zuko. He had pushed himself up off the ground and kneeled, head down before them. It was only now that Yue noticed that his hands were cuffed together by a short chain. Zuko rested his hands on his knees, still not looking up. There appeared to be something tied around his head, but Yue could not make out what it was from the angle from where she was sitting.

Beside Yue, her father's voice rang out, "Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. You are before the Council of the Northern Water Tribe. Here we shall decide what to do with you." That caused a response from Zuko, who raised his head slowly, but determinedly until he was staring her father in his eyes. Yue gasped as she was shocked to see Zuko muzzled. Why was he muzzled, she questioned silently.

As she briefly pondered that question, she noticed his eyes. Golden irises glared at her father. They were more pronounced Yue realized due to the dark metal of the muzzle covering most of his face. The golden eyes held a fierce anger in them. Yue realized with a start, that if she was muzzled, she would be very angry too. She suddenly felt ashamed of her people. Yes, he was their enemy, but they were treating him like a dangerous animal. Brought out in front of them all to be judged and gawked at like an exotic amusement.

Aang's voice broke the silence, "Why is he like that?!" the Avatar shouted his question. "I mean, why is that metal thing on his face?" Yue looked over at the young boy and saw genuine concern on his face for the Fire Prince. How could the Avatar, an airbender for crying out loud, feel empathy for the literal Prince of the nation that had destroyed his people Yue wondered. Pakku answered Aang's question, "He tried to escape using his breath of fire, Young Avatar." He said this in a matter of fact way that did nothing to ease the concern on Aang's face.

Yue thought she could hear Zuko huffing, only to grasp that she could hear Zuko drawing breaths through the metal contraption. "Who cares!" shouted up someone from the back. Yue did not know who had spoken, but the person continued, "Let's have his head and be done with him!" Several people cheered in agreement.

Aang looked like he was about to be sick at the suggestion. Luckily someone else stood up in the crowd and yelled another suggestion, "No way! He's the Firelord's son! We should ransom him back to the ashmakers!" Many voices shouted in agreement with some others yelling taunts at the prisoner. Yue heard one in particular call out, "How much would your daddy pay for you boy!!" Chief Arnook raised his hands again for silence. Zuko meanwhile had lowered his gaze and seemed to be trying to melt the ice below the center of the table with his angry gaze observed Yue.

"Sending him back, even if we got a huge price for him, is too good for that ashmaker!!" exclaims someone else. "Silence!" ordered Yue' s father. The crowd quieted after a moment of further murmurs amongst themselves. "He will not be killed." the Chief stated, his deep voice carried his words across the hall. "That would bring about the wrath of the Fire Nation which would result in our total destruction."

If the news that Zuko would not be killed had any effect on the Prince, he did not show it. The Avatar however, sighed deeply and looked greatly relieved. Idly Yue wondered if Aang would have even allowed such an act, being the Avatar and all, he could easily stop the Tribe from carrying it out. Her father continued after some time had passed for the tribe members to accept his statement. "If we ransom him to the Fire Nation, that also carries great risk." The Chief's eyes scanned across the hall, not looking for anyone in particular, but looking at almost everyone in the process. "Therefore, we either keep him a prisoner here, or transport him to the Earth Kingdom, to be imprisoned there."

"Why?" comes a female voice from the crowd. A woman steps forward and walks towards the head table. She speaks as she walks, "Why does he get to live, when so many of our own have died?" The woman stops near the guards behind Zuko, but she goes on "Life, even in a prison, is too good for him! He's a firebender! He deserves to be punished for bringing war to our lives!" Yue feels some sympathy for the woman, as she does make a good point. If not for the Fire Nation's war, the North would never have been attacked.

Or would it? Yue now ponders a possibility. The Northern Water Tribe had stayed behind its walls for the last 80 years and had been successful at ignoring the war. Then the Avatar had arrived, searching for a waterbending master, and the Fire Nation Navy had been right behind him. Not that she was blaming the Avatar, Yue quickly chided herself. Aang needed to learn waterbending, that was just a fact. And from what Sokka and Katara had told her, there was no one outside of the North who could do that.

Master Pakku responded to the woman in almost a patronizing tone, "If he is kept here, he will be imprisoned deep in ice. Far from the sun, his element, far from any hope of escape. If he is kept in the Earth Kingdom, he would most likely be locked in a deep dark cell where he could not escape. Either way he will be guarded heavily."

Aang is suddenly on his feet and then airbends himself through the air until he is standing close to Zuko. "No!" the avatar cries out. "Being locked away from the Sun is bad for firebenders! It can have serious repercussions on his chi!" The Avatar looks so young and innocent at that moment, and Yue has to remind herself that despite his great power, he is still a 12 year old child.

"Aang!" exclaims Sokka. "How can you, OF ALL PEOPLE! Be defending Zuko?!" Sokka takes a breath and continues, "He's done nothing but chase you all around the world, LITERALLY, from the South Pole to the North Pole! Always trying to capture you!" Aang closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before calmly responding, "I'm not saying any of that was right. But it should not condemn Zuko to a lifetime of a dark cell locked away from the Sun."

This response only seems to frustrate Sokka even more who just lets an exasperated humpf out of his mouth in response. Katara then weighs in, "Aang, the Earth Kingdom has been fighting the Fire Nation, successfully holding them back, for 100 years. They will be able to imprison Zuko securely and safely. Even if it means being out of the sun for." she pauses a moment and appears to consider her next words carefully, "some periods of time."

All the eyes in the room seem to be on the young Avatar, Yue notices. He bows his head thinking a while before responding softly, "But it doesn't seem right. To cut him off from the sun, is to cut him off from firebending, the monks knew that."

"But Aang." Katara interjects. "He has used his firebending only to harm." Katara is speaking softly now as well. This seems to have an effect on the Avatar because he looks at her with concerned eyes. Taking this as a positive, Karata goes on, "He firebent at you the first time you met. He set fire to Kyoshi Island. He firebent at me when I was protecting you in the Spirit Oasis." Katara is speaking to Aang in a slow soft manner, and Yue can see acceptance starting to take hold on the young boy's face as his expression shifts from one of concern to understanding.

However Aang speaks again. "I never told you or Sokka, but when you were both sick after that storm in the Earth Kingdom, I got captured by Zhao. He had these archers that caught me in a net when I was trying to get the frogs to heal you two." Sokka loudly interrupts Aang, "You mean when you put those frogs in our mouths!!" he yells incredulously. Aang nods. "Ack! I had a . . . " Sokka trails off when he notices everyone is staring at him, and he just looks at Aang and says, "Uh hum, continue."

"Well, I was taken to a Fire Nation fortress and chained up. Then a person wearing a Blue Spirit mask snuck in and cut me loose. Working together we were able to escape the fortress when we were discovered by the guards. But as we were getting away one of the archers struck the mask in the forehead and knocked out the Blue Spirit." Aang takes a few quick breaths before going on, "The mask fell off and I could see it was Zuko." Sokka makes a squawk at this information. "I couldn't let Zhao get him after he helped me escape so I grabbed him, his swords and the mask and airbent us away to safety. I thought that maybe, just maybe we could have been friends in another time." Aang finishes his story and looks longingly at his friends.

"Aang" Katara says kindly, "One good deed does not erase all of his bad ones."

"Even if it was a big one?" asks Aang expectantly. "I mean, if Zuko had not saved me, you two would not have gotten better! I would have been sent to the Firelord! The Fire Nation would have won!!" Aang nearly yells the last bit as his emotions pour forth.

Sokka answers Aang this time, "Katara is right Aang. That one good deed doesn't undo the attack on the North Pole." He pauses, "Besides, Zuko probably only freed you so that he could then capture you himself. Face it Aang, Zuko only does things to either capture you, or further the Fire Nation's goals."

"That's not true!" Yue shocks even herself when she realizes that it was her who had spoken. All eyes suddenly are on her. Sokka is staring at her with his mouth hanging open, a quizzical look in his eyes. Katara has confusion in her eyes, Her father looks surprised, Aang looks almost hopeful? And Zuko, he has finally reacted to the conversation, by raising his head and then he narrowed his eyes looking at her. The golden eyes stare at her, but not in anger, they are trying to figure out what she is saying. Yue stands and takes a deep breath. She knows what she needs to say, but it is not the Avatar or his friends she needs to convince, it is her people.

"After we rescued Aang from Zuko out in the blizzard, all of us came back to the Spirit Oasis." Aang nods in agreement, and Yue continues, "That was when Zhao showed up. Intent on killing the Moon Spirit." There are some shocked gasps from the crowd. Apparently this information had not been shared with many. "When Zhao put the Moon Spirit back into the water, he then blasted fire at it and I saw Zuko, tied up with rope, deflect some of the fire before it struck the Moon Spirit." The Northern Water Tribe members in the hall all stared at Yue in surprise at the revelation. "But because he was tied up, he then fell into the pond and Sokka and I had to pull him out." Yue turns to Sokka, who nods in agreement. Yue turns back towards her people. "Because of his actions, the Moon Spirit was only wounded, not killed. Katara immediately started to heal the Moon Spirit and it fully recovered." Katara nods at Yue, confirming that this was true as well.

Yue then turns to her people, she walks around the table and towards Master Pakku and Zuko. Once she is near Master Pakku she address her people. "Zuko risked his life, while bound and gagged with rope, to try to save the Moon Spirit." Yue then punctuates her next words with great emphasis, "From. His. Own. Nation." She steps closer to Zuko, now closer than any of the guards or Master Pakku to the prisoner Prince. "If we punish someone who risks their own life to save a spirit, OUR, beloved spirit. What does that say about us?" Yue pleadingly asks the crowd. She moves her eyes across the crowd looking purposefully into their eyes.

"Why!" comes a confused question from the back. "Why did he do that?"

"I do not know." answers Yue, "I never got the chance to ask him afterwards. But I do not think the reason has any relevance. His actions spoke for themselves. He did what he could, while tied up, to save the Moon Spirit." She turns around and faces the high table, specifically looking at her father. "I will not stand by and let him be punished."

Behind her the assembled tribespeople start to discuss amongst themselves and a rumble of voices all talking at once replaces the silence. Katara and Sokka talk very close to each other. Her father looks at her, and Yue cannot tell what he is thinking. From the look on his face, she realizes that he has not made up his mind on what she has said.

The noise reaches louder and louder levels and it seems like the meeting is losing its focus. Yue feels a hand on her shoulder and looks over to see Aang looking at her with a warm smile on his face. "Thank you Princess Yue."

The noise level drops and Yue looks up to see her father standing, arms raised again. Once the room is quiet, he looks directly at her. "If what you have said is correct, then I agree. We cannot punish someone who has acted to prevent the death of the Moon Spirit." He goes quiet for a moment, "What then, do you propose?" he asks.

Yue lowers her gaze from his. She is actually not sure. She just felt a great need to inform the Tribe that Zuko had helped save the Moon Spirit. Spirits! That was it! "We should take him to the Spirit Oasis so that the Avatar can commune with the Spirits and they can determine what to do with him." Yue looked up at her father to try and gauge his reaction to her suggestion. She meets his eyes, and then she sees him start to smile. With approval, and something else. Is that, pride, she sees in her father's eyes?

Her father stands now. He smiles with pride at her again, then he looks over the crowd. "The suggestion is that we take Prince Zuko to the Spirit Oasis so that the Avatar can get their help on this matter." He looks across the room, no one speaks. "Alright, all those in favour, please rise." A loud noise of shuffling seats fills the room and Yue turns to see most of the tribe standing. She does not even need the assistance of her seat at the high table to tell that more than half of the Tribe is in agreement. She smiles happily. This is the right decision, she knows it in her heart. Zuko helped a spirit, the spirits therefore should be involved in this decision.

Yue looks at Sokka, who smiles back at her. Katara does too. Aang on the other hand looks to be near tears, she steps towards him and he suddenly embraces her in a tight hug. "Great idea Yue." he says softly to her. This makes Yue even more confident that she has done the right thing. The Avatar the bridge between the human world and the Spirit world, fully supports the idea.

----

Zuko, is, unsure. Of many things. Of what just happened in the big hall. Of what being taken to the spirits means. Of when he will finally know his fate. If he will ever be able to breath normally again. Currently it is this last thought that he hopes for an answer to first. The muzzle is suffocating him. Each breath is a struggle and so little fresh air gets through that his face is now sticky from the condensation of his warm breath against the cold metal of the device. Also it tastes terrible on his tongue.

Cold air washes over Zuko and he tries to focus on what is in front of him. The guards have carried him out of the hall and are walking behind the Princess, Avatar, watertribe siblings, and Master Pakku. More like Master Fuckyou angrily thought Zuko. Whoa! Was the lack of fresh air starting to drive him crazy? Pushing that thought, maybe truth, aside, Zuko took note of his surroundings. The circular door in front of him was familiar.

Zuko remembered this door! This lead to the area where the spirit fish pond was. Wait, did Zuko remember there being grass there? How could there be greenery this far north? When everything around him was ice and snow? Focus! He internally yelled at himself to concentrate. This could be his moment to escape.

The door was opened and the procession started through. One guard stepped through and then the other handed Zuko through the door to him, like Zuko was an object being brought along. It made Zuko angry, not that he could do anything at all about it while chained, cuffed, muzzled and suffocating. Therefore Zuko concentrated on trying to breath and hear what the Avatar and Princess were saying. What he could make out, did not fill Zuko with confidence that things would work out in his favour.

The Avatar seemed to be telling Princess Yue that he had only really connected with the spirits by accident. Great. Oh, now the Avatar was saying that one time a spirit had approached him, and kidnapped him, when his group had found a burned forest. Even better thought Zuko. I am going to be confronted by spirits angry at firebenders, or I will be kidnapped by spirits. Somehow the fact that the Avatar could not even ensure how the spirits would react to what the group wanted to do made Zuko even more infuriated at his situation. He angrily huffed trying to force hot air past the muzzle to get some sweet fresh cold air.

This made a noise however, which was noticed by the guards. "Quiet you." the one on his left growled. Which in turn caused Yue, Aang, Sokka and Katara to turn around and face Zuko. He glared at them as best he could at projecting not being afraid. Internally Zuko steeled himself for what was to come. He was a Prince of the Fire Nation. An elite of the most powerful people, with the most powerful element. He would face his fate with dignity and as much honour as he could manage. Even if it meant he would not beg for his life, or weep in front of these people, that Zuko would manage.

Aang looked at Zuko with concern in his eyes again. "Maybe we should take the muzzle off for this?" he suggested quietly. "No way!" Sokka interrupted, "He will just try to escape again." As if to emphasize his point, Sokka had brought both of his hands up to his chest and then in a coordinated motion swung his arms away from his chest extending his arms. "Sokka" chided Katara, "He is surrounded, Aang is here with me, plus the guards and Master Pakku. There is no way he is escaping." She looked at her brother with a firm look in her eyes.

Suddenly Zuko's view was obscured by a white fur. Zuko realized he was looking at someone's chest, covered in a white fur coat. Master Pakku's cold voice rang out. "You won't try to escape any more will you Prince Zuko?" The guards pulled back on Zuko's arms so that his body was almost vertical. Zuko raised his head to stare at Pakku's cold blue eyes. Zuko met Pakku's condescending gaze with an intense one of his own. If promising not to escape would get this awful contraption off of his face, he would agree. Without breaking eye contact Zuko nodded his head once. There were hands at the back of his head, grabbing and pulling his head different directions. Then the awful metal device was pulled away from his face.

Zuko retched and felt bile rising in his throat as he nearly vomiting. He closed his mouth and sucked all the saliva he could into the center of his tongue and then spat out the disgusting metal taste at the ground. Pakku had moved and thus Zuko was not able to spit on his feet. Which was probably a good thing Zuko realized, because as much as he would have enjoyed spitting on Pakku's boots, it likely would have resulted in a much worse consequence. So Zuko closed his eyes and drew in deep breaths of refreshing cold air. After several moments of breathing he felt much better. Even the fear gripping his heart at his unknown fate rapidly approaching was gone. The guards then deposited him on the ground.

Zuko struggled for a moment, but was then able to pull himself up on his knees so that he was now kneeling before the spirit fish pond. The Avatar had assumed a meditative pose and had closed his eyes. The rest, that Zuko could see, stood watching anxiously, waiting. The unease of the others, caused the terror to come rushing back to Zuko.

He closed his own eyes, and began attempting to meditate, desperately praying to Agni for help. Please Agni, please hear my prayer, so far away from your warmth and light. Gasps around him caused Zuko to open his eyes. He spied the source of their shock, the Avatar, had opened his eyes, but they were filled with an incredibly bright light. His airbender tattoos were glowing the same bright light. Zuko's breathing began to quicken with fear.

A bright flash of light caused Zuko, and probably everyone he supposed, to close his eyes. Zuko attempted to cover his eyes with his arm, but the chains were too short in his kneeling position and he was unable to block the light. But then, just a suddenly as it had appeared it was gone.

Zuko opened his eyes and could see that the Avatar was back from, whatever he had done or gone to. And a stranger was standing behind the Avatar. He looked like he could be an ordinary elderly man, if one ignored the fact that he arrived with an intense flash of light Zuko mused. He was dressed in a simple white garment, that looked way too thin for the North Pole. But when he spoke, Zuko knew he was a Spirit. His voice was deep. Deeper than any person Zuko had ever heard. His words came out like boulders crashing down onto each other, powerfully punctuating a deep reverence within Zuko for the Spirit. Uncle had always told him that one must respect the spirits. Damn and blast, why couldn't Uncle be here for this?! "I have come as you have requested Young Avatar." stated the Spirit solemnly.

Princess Yue took a step towards the Spirit and spoke in a low tone, "Oh great Spirit. I am Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe." The Spirit nodded its head toward Yue, who then continued. "We have come to ask the Spirits for guidance. We have an enemy as our prisoner." Without turning away from the Spirit, she pointed her arm at Zuko. "He is the Prince of the Fire Nation, and attacked our home with a great force, almost destroying our culture in the process. During the attack Fire Nation troops lead by Admiral Zhao attempted to kill the mortal form of the Moon Spirit." If this news had any impact on the Spirit, he did not show it. Nor did his gaze move from Yue. As the spirit did not respond, Yue seemed to take this as a sign to continue. "While Zhao attempted to kill the Moon Spirit with his firebending, Prince Zuko, while tied up as our prisoner, was able to deflect some of the fire, blocking the attack. As a result of his actions, the Moon Spirit was only injured, not killed. Master Katara was able to use waterbending to heal the Moon Spirit." Yue took a few breaths, and composed her next words. "My Tribe does not know what to do with Prince Zuko. He went against his own people to save the Moon Spirit. But he has been trying to capture the Avatar ever since his return. We ask for your guidance in this matter." Yue bowed respectfully to the Spirit and took a step back.

The Spirit remained silent, but turned his gaze to Zuko, who took a deep breath, released it and then looked up into the face of the Spirit. The Spirit regarded him with the same unreadable expression that he had shown Yue. Zuko was instantly uncomfortable with the silence, so despite the screaming warning in his head, decided to speak. "Great Spirit. I was not a part of the attacking force." Sokka cut in screaming, "You would dare lie to a Spirit?!?" Zuko got angry, but remembered his audience, and then calmly stated, "I did not lie. My crew was ordered into Zhao's fleet as part of the invasion. I snuck onboard and stole a uniform to fit in until I could sneak into the Northern Water Tribe to . . ." Zuko hesitated, but heard his Uncle's voice in his head, never lie to a Spirit Prince Zuko. Swallowing hard, Zuko resumed speaking, "to try and capture the Avatar." Zuko expected someone to interject, call him a liar, or something, but no one spoke. Having said his part to set the record straight, Zuko did not feel the need to say any more. What was going to happen, was now out of his control, actually he realized, it had been out of his control for some time.

The Avatar stepped forward and addressed the Spirit now. "Oh powerful and wise Spirit. I guess what I asked you here for is to determine the nature of his heart." Zuko, and nearly everyone else looked at Aang in confusion. "If his heart is good, and he acted with pure intentions to save the Moon Spirit, then I will see him released. If his heart is evil, and filled with bad intentions, then I promise that we will find a suitable prison for him until the war is over and I can convince him to be good!" Aang looked proud at his statement. Katara looked like someone had dumped cold water over her head. She hissed at Aang, "What are you doing? Trying to turn him good after the war?? Are you crazy? He has literally done nothing but try to capture you the entire time we have known each other!" Aang looked a little hurt by her comments, but then Sokka added his two cents loudly, "Yeah Aang! We met you and the same day Zuko attacked our village!" Zuko deflated a little bit at this memory. He did feel bad for terrorizing their village, but they were harbouring the Avatar! It was justified! And Zuko thought, after the Avatar gave himself up, I kept my word and left the village. "And remember Kyoshi Island? The Pirates? He captured Katara that time! The Abbey with the perfume nuns and the bounty hunter with the shirshu!" The others looked a little quizzical at this statement, but no one said anything. "And finally, just days ago! He attacked you while you were in the spirit world and took you out into the blizzard and nearly killed you both! Have you lost your marbles!" Sokka shouted at Aang.

Aang rounded on Sokka quickly, which Zuko had not been expecting. He had fully expected the Avatar to back down. He had certainly not expected the Avatar to pledge to try and turn him "good" after the war ended. Aang's eyes narrowed and Zuko saw anger in them. Zuko was certain that even though he had fought Aang many times, he had never seen the monk angry at him. This was new, and that made Zuko nervous. "Yeah! I remember, all of that!" Aang yelled at Sokka. "I also remember a time when there was no war! And if we are not willing to try and make peace with our enemies, why do we want to end the war? Why don't we use my Avatar powers to crush and conquer the Fire Nation!?!" Aang looked around at everyone, a heavy silence hung in the air. "I want to end the war. End the suffering." Aang said much more calmly. "If we cannot ever see Zuko as anything other than an enemy, how can we ever have peace with the Fire Nation?" Aang asked the group.

"Oh so you want to test his soul?" Everyone was startled and remembered the Spirit standing there, his voice had cut through the air like a thunderclap. "Yes." answered Princess Yue, smiling at Aang in support. Aang beamed back at her, then turned his attention to the Spirit. "Very well, we can easily test his soul in the Spirit World." The Spirit's voice had a commanding presence. Zuko's eyes widened in fear. He hoped that none of the others noticed.

The Spirit walked towards Zuko. His steps made no sound on the ground. Zuko struggled to keep his fear in line, he would not disgrace himself before a spirit and dishonour himself any further. Hence he focused on breathing, in and out, in and out, in and out. Now the Spirit stood before him. Zuko straightened his back, leaving his hands on his knees, he was a Prince dammit! He was going to at least act the part. All of Zuko's confidence nearly left him when the Spirit knelt in front of him, so they were the same head height. Still Zuko said nothing, knowing that nothing he could do or say would change anything. After all one does not disrespect the spirits Prince Zuko, his Uncle's voice rang in his head again.

With a small motion of his hands the Spirit caused the cuffs to fall off of Zuko. With both his ankles and wrists suddenly freed, Zuko could not help but rub his sore wrists, not moving his gaze from the Spirit's face. "If you do this Prince Zuko," the Spirit finally addressed him, "there is a chance that you may not come back." Zuko swallowed hard at this warning, but his voice did not shake when he replied, "I understand."

"Um wait!" called out Aang. "I thought you could just see into his heart and tell us if he is bad or good." The Spirit did not turn away from Zuko when he responded to Aang, "Oh no, hearts are complicated things. Souls, even more so. In order to properly judge his character, a test must undertaken." Aang came up to where Zuko and the Spirit knelt, Aang's eyes were wide with worry. "What do you mean, Zuko might not come back?" The Spirit looked at Zuko without emotion, "There is always a risk." the Spirit said, "And a price to pay." The Spirit looked at Zuko and if it was possible, Zuko felt like the Spirit was looking at him even more intensely.
Yue's voice reached Zuko, though he kept his face neutral and his emotions controlled before the powerful Spirit. "What is the price to pay?" Yue asked. The Spirit looked down at Zuko's hands, Zuko looked down at them as well. "In order for Prince Zuko to return after the test, he must surrender his firebending." boomed the Spirit's voice. Aang looked aghast at the answer. "No." despaired Yue, "No, that is too much. Taking someone's bending." She struggled for the right words, "It's wrong." Sokka and Katara probably had opinions to offer as well, but they were cut off before starting to speak.

"I accept." Zuko said emotionlessly. Aang looked horrified. "No!" came out in a frustrated gasp from Yue, "No, this was not what I had in mind." Aang's mouth moved but no words came out. Zuko moved first before Aang could find what he was trying to say, holding up his hands, palms up to the Spirit. Aang then found some words, "No Zuko! I don't want you to lose your bending!" he cried out. Zuko turned his left hand towards Aang in an attempt to stop him from speaking further. "It is okay Avatar." Zuko said calmly. "You and Princess Yue took it upon yourselves to find a solution to my situation, that did not involve execution, imprisonment, or sending me back to the Fire Nation in chains." Zuko paused and looked at Aang's face. "It probably does not mean much, but thank you for your efforts." Zuko turned towards the Spirit and held out his hands again, palms facing the sky. "One does not refuse the spirits." he claimed. "Let's do this."

The Spirit placed his hands on top of Zuko's outstretched palms. Suddenly Zuko could feel his inner chi weakening. It flickered weaker and weaker, Zuko struggled to not let his fear show on his face. Then it was gone. He felt hollow, empty inside, and cold. So so very cold. Zuko was unable to stop himself from clutching his arms around his chest and shivering in the cold. Even his breath, once his saving grace from the cold, was now like ice in his lungs. He shivered. He could now see his breath in the cold air in front of him. Zuko hoped that this freezing feeling was temporary. Or at least would be greatly lessened when he got away from the North Pole. The ache he felt in his soul, where his inner fire used to be, probably would never go away he realized glumly. But compared to death, imprisonment in ice or earth, or facing his father again as a failure, Zuko would try the Spirits' way first.

Still shivering, Zuko rose to his feet and forced his arms down at his sides. The Spirit rose to his feet as well. "It is time Prince Zuko," he said in his deep voice. "When you have completed the test, you will be brought back to your world." Zuko looked at the Spirit, many questions swirled in his mind, but he only asked one, "How will I know what the test is?" Zuko was already afraid of the answer, and immediately regretted the question. The Spirit looked at him, "I cannot tell you that." he replied. Zuko almost felt as if there was a twinge of sadness in the Spirit's voice. But he had no time to consider that as the Spirit took his hand, and Zuko felt like he was spinning and then he lost consciousness.

----

And that is the end of the prologue.

Chapter Text

Zuko felt strange. Like he was standing, but not really. Like he was touching solid ground, but at the same time not. He opened his eyes and a white fog illuminated everything in front of him. But it was bright, unlike any other fog he had ever experienced. Suddenly a voice cut through the fog and his thoughts. "Welcome to the Spirit Realm Zuko." Zuko looked around to try and see whomever had spoken to him. There was nothing but the bright, white fog.

"Do not be afraid of us. We are speaking to you in the only way we can. We are Tui and La. The Ocean and Moon Spirit." Zuko's heart started racing, suddenly Zuko feared they were angry with him over Zhao and the Fire Nation's attack on the North Pole. As if they knew what he was worrying about, they spoke again, "We know of your actions to save La's mortal form at the North Pole." Zuko forced his breathing under control so that he could try to slow his racing heart. The fact that the Moon Spirit was not angry with him was heartening. What the spirits said next was less heartening. "Unfortunately, you have been set a particularly difficult task. Please do not give up, please persevere."

Zuko felt a confused look take hold of his face. He was unsure of what to make of the Spirit's words. He was incredibly determined! He had hunted the Avatar for nearly three years before Aang had emerged at the South Pole. The two spirits spoke again, "This will be the most difficult thing that you have ever tried. Due to your actions to save La, we have decided to give you some assistance." Well that's positive, thought Zuko. Then his mind was filled with strange symbols, and weird noises. The symbols flashed quickly through his mind, and the noises quickly repeated themselves. Suddenly Zuko realized he was able to read the symbols, and understand the noises. He had just learned how to read and speak a new, very different language. Zuko was just trying to comprehend this new knowledge only to have the spirits speak again. "Yes, we have gifted you reading and speaking their language. This will help you in your task." Zuko's mind was still reeling at the influx of the new information, but he knew enough to speak, "Thank you." he managed to croak out.

"You are welcome," the voice beamed, "Thank you for your actions against Zhao." Zuko lowered his head before responding, trying not to meet their eyes, if they had been in front of him, "I did not know his plan, if I had I would have stopped it earlier." he apologized. "What's done is done." the spirits stated. "What is next is up to you." Zuko just nodded in acknowledgement. And then in a voice that almost sounded like his mother's, the spirits told him, "Never forget who you are." Zuko wanted to ask so many questions now, but suddenly the fog grew darker, and he felt the sensation of falling.

----

Zuko hit the ground with a crash. His mind was still reeling from everything that had just happened, but he pushed those thoughts aside for now to take in his surroundings. He was somewhere where there was sunlight, and it was not the North Pole! Zuko could feel warmth from the Sun's rays on his skin. It was unusual not to feel empowered by the sun, but then Zuko's heart fell as he remembered that he no longer had his firebending.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!?" a distorted voice called at him. Zuko looked for the source, only to be pushed aside by the ground? Zuko sprang to his feet when he noticed that the ground was actually a person. A person wearing white, over a black body suit. The white appeared to be armor of some kind to Zuko, as it covered all of the vulnerable parts of the body, much like Zuko's own armor. The black, was almost not visible as the white parts covered most of the soldier? Zuko guessed. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" the distant voice commanded. To Zuko it sounded like the voice was coming from a distance away through a tube.

Zuko tried to look at the face of the soldier, but it was completely covered by the helmet. At first Zuko was shocked, and a little frightened by the appearance. Then he remembered the skull helmets of the Fire Nation army, and how he had been frightened by them as a small child. His mother had taken him to see a soldier wearing one after he had been afraid and showed Zuko that it was just a mask, to protect the soldier and intimidate his enemies. This must be a similar design Zuko surmised, mostly white but with black parts where the eyes nose, mouth and chin were.

The white soldier got to their feet and aggressively approached Zuko, who took a step back apprehensively. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" the distant voice got angrier, if that was possible. Zuko suddenly found his voice, "I'm sorry I bumped into you." he stammered. Was this his test? How he would react to the soldier? The soldier got close to Zuko. Standing taller than Zuko, the white helmet angled down at Zuko's face. "What do you think you're doing?" the distant voice demanded. "Ugh, nothing. I just bumped into you and now I'm apologizing?" Zuko asked awkwardly, trying to find a way out of the confrontation.

"Assaulting a trooper?" another distant voice asked. Zuko spun around and saw two more white soldiers approaching him. These soldiers had some kind of short, black weapon in their hands. They certainly were not swords, not long or thin, or sharp enough to be swords. Zuko figured them to be some kind of club, particularly due to their blocky shape, short length, and they way the soldiers held them in their hands. "Yeah, knocked me down to the ground, then held me there." said the first soldier.

"Wait, no!" protested Zuko, "I just bumped into him, and then I got up as soon as I realized what I did and apologized." Zuko was now breathing fast because he was surrounded by the three white soldiers and he feared a violent confrontation. One of the two intervening soldiers spoke with their distant voice, "Admitting to assaulting a trooper. Cuff him and take him away." Zuko was not sure which one of the soldiers moved first grabbing at his arm, but Zuko pulled his arm away and tried to twist past the soldiers. He really did not want to actually fight them, because this could be the test! But he was not fast enough for all three of them and soon his arms were siezed by a soldier each, and the third then put some metal cuffs on him. But they had a strange red and white light coming from the metal. Like nothing that Zuko had ever seen before.

The cuffs clicked together securely, and tightly around his wrists. His arms were now once again, cuffed infront of him, and a soldier roughly dragged Zuko forward. Zuko sighed softly, mostly to himself, a prisoner of the Northern WaterTribe, or a prisoner of these soldiers, right now, he'd take the white soldiers, for the warmer climate, the presence of the sun, and not being from an enemy nation to them. The soldier led him away towards a large stone building.

----

Inside the building Zuko was walked up to a rectangular metal shape. It looked like it could have been a door frame, but there was no door that Zuko could see. A man in a black uniform with a small black hat stood beside the rectangle with a bulky metal board in his hand. He had some small blue and red squares on his left breast. Zuko guessed that was meant to indicate rank, or something like that. This man now looked at the metal thing in his hand as the soldier approached him. "Brought this one in after he assaulted a trooper. Tried to lie his way out, and resisted arrest." the soldier's distant voice was a little unnerving to Zuko. Like the soldier was not a real person.

Deciding that now was the best time to attempt to explain his side of the story Zuko spoke up, "I accidentally bumped into the solider. I tried." Suddenly intense pain in his back overtook Zuko and he could not speak other than to cry out in pain. He keeled over almost falling to the ground, but the source of the pain stopped and Zuko was able to prevent himself from dropping to the floor. Gasping for breath, Zuko was alarmed at the sudden pain. What happened his mind cried out, but Zuko did not dare to ask the question, for fear the pain would return. Drawing deep breaths, Zuko pulled himself upright. He turned his head to look behind him and saw the soldier holding a short, thick spear with a bright metal tip. The soldier motioned towards Zuko with the spear, and then it made a sparking sound. Much like lightening bending. Fear gripped Zuko's heart, and it must have shown in his eyes as the soldier spoke in his distant voice, "Zap rod. Speak when spoken too, and do what you're told." Zuko stared in horror at the two black parts of the helmet that corresponded with where the soldiers eyes should have been. "Eyes forward." commanded the soldier.

Zuko turned his head forward, swallowing nervously, if these soldiers had the power of lightening bending in a weapon, they were much more powerful than any foe Zuko had faced. Unsure of where to look, Zuko decided to look at the man in black. He appeared to be in charge here. Zuko tried not to stare at the man's face, as that might be cause for another shock from the zap rod. So Zuko looked at the man's hat. It was made of the same material as his uniform apparently, but it had a very small brim on it. Which confused Zuko, what good is such short a brim on a hat? It would do nothing to protect the man's eyes from the sun.

"Assault, resisting arrest, and obstructing Imperial officials." stated the man in black never looking up from the thing in his hands. He held it with his left hand, and moved his right hand around on the side that Zuko could not see. Zuko remained silent. The man raised his eyes from the thing, and looked Zuko in the face. "What's your name? he asked in a flat tone. "Zuko." replied Zuko quickly. The next question was quick, "Age?" The man looked back down at the metal as Zuko responded, "Sixteen." This time the man lowered the metal thing enough that Zuko could see the side away from him. It was some kind of information recorder?? Zuko could make out some words brightly illuminated in a way that Zuko had never seen before. The words were upside down to Zuko, and the man used his right hand to input Zuko's answers to the questions. Zuko was fascinated by the device, but before he could examine it further the man looked up at him and asked another question. "Home planet?"

"What?" Zuko blurted out. What did that mean? The man looked at Zuko with a bored expression on his face, like Zuko was wasting his time. "Where are you from boy?" he demanded. Zuko desperately did not want to hit with pain again, so he answered "The Fire Nation." The man looked down at the device, moved his right hand on it for a few moments, then he spoke without looking up. "Nothing coming up for that. I will ask one more time. Home. Planet." he emphasized the last two words as if he was talking to Zuko like a child. Zuko was offended by this tone, but since he really did not want to be touched by the painful stick, "Uh, this one." he stammered out hoping they did not know that he was grasping for an acceptable answer.

His response seemed to be satisfactory as the man just sighed, muttering "That wasn't so hard was it?" in a way that stated it was not meant to be a question that Zuko was supposed to answer. Zuko remained silent. "Alright." the man in black stated, "He's in the system now. Process him." Without any words the soldier grabbed Zuko's right arm and pushed him towards the rectangle thing. "Walk through, slowly" came the order from the soldier. Zuko anxiously stepped forward and then taking careful slow steps walked through the metal rectangle. The soldier stepped around the rectangle and grabbed onto Zuko's arm again. The man in black was looking at the information device again. He quickly nodded and then the soldier pulled Zuko along further in the building.

Zuko was led into a line of other people standing in wait. "Move forward as the line does. Make trouble and you'll regret it." the soldier punctuated the order with a point of the zap rod towards Zuko's chest. Zuko's eyes widened as the stick got close to his chest, but then it was pulled back. Sighing with relief, Zuko thought that was exactly what Azula would have done if she were his guard to intimidate him. The soldier walked away but another one stood guard nearby Zuko noticed. However this soldier was watching the whole line of prisoners, and was not specifically observing Zuko. Which gave him a moment to examine his cuffs. He lifted his bound wrists up to his chest height. That way his examination would not be overly obvious the guard.

The cuffs had a large hinge, way too large to be smashed with a rock Zuko thought. The hinge on each faced away from where they connected his wrists together. That must mean the opening for the cuffs was on each side that was connected to each other. Perfectly placed so that a prisoner could not access it, Zuko realized. A sudden shuffle in front of Zuko caused him to look up. The line had moved forward. Zuko stepped forward as well. He heard footsteps behind him, and then the soldier's warning again, but this time it was not addressed at Zuko. Zuko could hear someone breathing rapidly behind him. Another prisoner Zuko assumed, however he was not going to look behind himself to confirm, his fear of the pain stick was so great.

The line moved forward slowly, and as far a Zuko could tell, there was no standard amount of time before the line would move. He thought about trying to count how long between movements in the line, but his heart was racing in anxious anticipation of what awaited him at the end of the line and threw off his concentration.

----

The line brought Zuko into some kind of an audience hall. Everyone in the line was cuffed like him as far as he could see. The line of prisoners ran along the back wall of the room and then turned a tight 180 and doubled back along the length of the wall again. Because he was shorter than almost all of the others in the line, Zuko could not see what was happening at the front of the room. However his ears were not obstructed so he was able to hear. A loud and annoying voice called out, "Name?" Another voice answered, replying with their name. A third monotone voice, read out a list of charges. The annoying voice seemed to carry further than any of the others as it listed out a series of time measurements. Zuko tried to comprehend what was happening, what did 6 months, 3 months, 4 months mean? The annoying voice sounded like a strict female tutor Zuko had once had as a child. The annoying female then loudly stated, "13 months! Next." And the cycle started over again, and the line shuffled forward.

Zuko listened to the process repeat time after time as the line moved forward. It was almost the same each time, except the name, charges, and length of time were different for each person. When Zuko was past the 180 degree turn he was able to see the people speaking. The annoying female was behind a podium that was raised above everyone else. That explained why her voice carried so far Zuko thought. He was able to then make sense of the process. Each prisoner in line would approach the base of the podium, where she would demand their name, a man standing on her right side, but on the floor so he was much lower than her, read out the charges. She would then list out the number of months, or sometimes years, and then silently calculate the total announcing it in a definitive manner, before dismissing the prisoner with a cold "Next!".

Zuko's heart began to speed up as he moved closer to the front of the line. Because he had been focusing on trying to understand what was going on, he failed to notice the the line crossed the length of the room again after the 180 degree turn only to turn 180 degrees again at the far side of the room. Once he had made this turn in line, Zuko saw he was only a few people from his turn in front of the podium. From the podium, the woman's indifferent manner and sharp tone really reinforced Zuko's memory of a strict tutor. Zuko breathed deeply and slowly, to keep his mind focused and trying to keep his composure. He stared into the fabric on the back of the man in front of him.

The man's back suddenly shifted from Zuko's gaze. He was in front of the podium. Zuko was next. Now Zuko noticed that there were several of the white soldiers in the room. Two stood facing the rest of the line from beside the person in front of the podium. Zuko closed his eyes. His heart was now pounding, he could hear his heartbeat in his ears. The anxiety of not knowing what exactly was happening, caused him to break out in a cold sweat. But he forced his eyes open when he heard the shrill "Next!"

Zuko stepped forward and looked up at the woman. She glanced at him with a bored expression for a moment, then she looked down at the podium calling out for his name. "Zuko." he replied, his voice not betraying the nervousness coursing through him. The man looked at the device in his hands and read out loud, "Assaulting an Imperial Trooper, resisting arrest, and obstructing Imperial officials." The woman did something with her hands up on the podium before speaking, "Assaulting an Imperial Trooper?" There was a pause. "Well that's significant" she mused. "Combined with resisting arrest and obstructing Imperial officials is a total 3 year sentence. 2 years for the assault. 6 months each on the resisting and obstructing." Questions swirled in Zuko's mind. The anxiety in his chest overpowered the warning in his mind and he spoke without thinking. "3 years of what? For what?" he blurted out. "All I did was bump into the soldier, and then when I tried to apologize he got angry at me!" Zuko claimed in his defence.

The woman peered over the podium at him, and Zuko instinctively straightened his back. "Are you seriously resisting judgement?" she asked him with that annoying tone. Zuko bristled with indignation, "I am explaining what happened. And trying to understand what is going on here." Zuko stated with determination. She looked at him with distaste in her eyes. "Delaying a judgement with unnecessary statements is part of resisting a judgement." she explained to him condescendingly. Zuko clamped his mouth shut after that response. Once again his mouth had moved faster than his mind. She looked up from Zuko and at the line of prisoners behind him with a sigh. "Let this be a lesson to all the rest of you." she proclaimed. "Three year sentence, resisting a judgement means the sentence is doubled." She moved her left hand and there was a faint metallic clump sound. "Six years!" she called out with indifference. A soldier instantly grabbed Zuko's right arm and pulled him to a door on the right of the room.

Once again Zuko was placed in a line with prisoners. He recognized the fabric in front of him as the same man in front of him from before. There were more soldiers here Zuko noticed. They were also more interactive with the prisoners, however they seemed to be working on intimidating them. A soldier walking past the line saw Zuko looking at him and grabbed Zuko's shirt with his hand pulling Zuko off balance towards the helmeted face. "Eyes front!" shouted the distant voice before shoving Zuko back into line. Zuko returned to staring at the fabric again keeping his head down as he heard another soldier shook a zap rod at him and it made a zapping noise. Zuko feared another painful encounter so he did not flinch and just stared hard at the fabric infront of him.

Luckily, the other prisoners shuffled forward, so Zuko did too, which diverted the soldier's attention. When he was certain the the soldier had moved on, by watching his white clad feet walk away and listening to his steps move farther away, Zuko briefly glanced up ahead. The line was walking through a door. It lead outside, the amount of light coming in could mean nothing else.

Zuko was aware of the soldiers yelling commands at other prisoners. Don't look at me, was a rather common command. Keep moving was the most common. The line shuffled forward every couple of seconds. Zuko kept close to the man infront of him to avoid the attention of the soldiers. He felt a surge of relief when he stepped out the door and was greeted by faint sunlight on his face. It was early afternoon he thought, based on how the sun felt on his face. The man infront of him stepped forward and up. This caused Zuko to look further around. He was standing in line at the base of a half circular bowl. There were three shorter lines of prisoners starting at the top edge of the bowl. Zuko realized it was like a small ampitheater and where he was standing was where a stage might have been if the circumstances had been different. The prisoners were being sent one by one to each of the lines. One line was to Zuko's left, another directly ahead of him, and on on his right, directly opposite the line on his left.

This line moved much faster than the last one and soon Zuko was faced with the soldier at the end of this line. He had a info device in his hand. "Name!" he demanded. "Zuko." replied Zuko. "Home planet?" came the next demand. "Here." stated Zuko confidently, repeating the lie. "Narkina Five." came the next words from the soldier as he extended his left arm and pointed at the line directly in front of Zuko. Unsure of what that meant, Zuko hesitated and stared at the helmet, hoping for some explanation. He did not get one. What he did get was a soldier approaching him from his right with a zap rod sparking. "Get to your transport!" angrily growled the soldier. Eyes widening at the zap rod, Zuko quickly stepped forward to comply.

Once he had walked up the steps to be behind the man in front of him Zuko looked up at what the soldier had referred to as a transport. There was a small metal structure in front of him. It appeared to be a tunnel similar to the one he had just walked out of into the area. A loud whooshing noise to his left drew Zuko's eyes and he saw the metal structure on the right of him LIFT OFF THE GROUND in a loud noise. The metal structure suddenly had four bright white blueish lights on the back of the structure. It rose in the air and then moved away. Flying, Zuko realized, it was flying. Like a metal version of the Avatar's Sky Bison. He was transfixed on the sight. So much so, that he did not hear the soldier approach him from behind. Pain erupted in his back and he doubled over to the ground. The pain subsided into a dull ache in the center of his back and Zuko caught his breath.

Looking up he saw the helmet of a soldier holding a zap rod. "Get up and into the transport!" shouted the soldier. Zuko pushed himself off the ground with his hands and rose unsteadily to his feet. The pain caused by the zap rod was terribly intense, but luckily did not last after the zap rod was pulled back. Not looking at the soldier, Zuko walked up the metal ramp into the, what had the soldier called it, the transport? The line of prisoners had halted most of the way inside. Zuko hurried forward to behind the prisoner infront of him. He kept his head down and tried to assess if he had any injuries. His back stung where the zap rod had touched him, but other than that Zuko did not seem to be injured.

The sound of footsteps behind Zuko alerted him to the fact that other prisoners had joined the line behind him. "Alright!" an angry voice cut through the air. "Pick a seat, any one will do!" ordered the very loud angry voice. Zuko looked to his right, and saw a row of seats all along the wall beside him. Each seat was separated by arm rests. There was padding on the seat and back, but Zuko surmised it was likely not very comfortable. He was proven correct when he sat down in it and was immediately not comfortable. He attempted to re-adjust himself to get more comfortable when there was a metalic clang and both of his wrists were instantly pulled to the sides of each arm rest. His wrists were now separated, but the cuffs had magically now attached themselves to his left and right armrest respectively. Zuko tugged at his wrists, but it was useless. His arms were just as tightly bound as before, just now he was trapped in his seat.

Realizing that he was now locked in his seat, Zuko looked around and saw confusion and fear in the faces of the other prisoners who were all restrained the same way. A man in an all black uniform, with the unusual small black hat, walked along the center of the small tunnel room as the ramp began to close. The man stopped at each person, and gave a half hearted tug on each cuff, ensuring it was securly fastened. By the time he had reached the last of the prisoners, the ramp had completely shut and the outside noise was cut off. Zuko's heart was beating fast again. Not that it had really slowed down after being shocked by the zap rod, but now anxiety was fueling his adrenaline. His heartrate increased even further when the man in black tunred around after checking the last prisoner and shouted at them all. "Boots! Shoes! Sandals! Off!" He moved a zap rod off of his belt that Zuko had not noticed before and motioned with it menacingly while continuing to shout, "Everything on your feet! Off! On the floor NOW!!" Zuko raised his left foot and used the tip of his right boot to pull off the left one. It fell to the metal floor. He then used his right toes to slide down and off his left boot which dropped to the floor as well. The metal floor was cold to the touch, but there was no alternative, and Zuko did not want to risk another zap rod pain.

The guard? Man in black, Zuko guessed was a guard. He walked past Zuko heading off to the right, stopping to reach for something that Zuko could not see due to the metal beams in his line of sight. The guard returned with a sack, and then he bent at the waist and put everyone's footwear into the sack. Having completed that, he walked to the right again with the sack. Zuko quickly scanned the faces of the other prisoners seeing a mixture of confusion and fear on each of their faces, that he was certain was also on his own face.

A terrible shudder shook Zuko and he wished he could grip something to hold onto. But his wrists were held tight and his hands could grab nothing but his own fingers. Feeling terror rising in his chest, Zuko looked around wildly hoping to see something that would explain what was happening. It was then he noticed, that behind the heads of the prisoners opposite him, there were vertical slats that let in outside light. Zuko twisted his head around and saw that the design was the same on his side of the building, err transport. The shuddering began to lessen in intensity, but then the world tilted backwards and Zuko barely supressed a scream. He was locked in a chair in an earthquake! Desperately he tried to look outside the transport through the very thin vertical window behind him. Zuko could suddenly see the half bowl where he had been from some distance above. The scene began to change as Zuko's viewpoint seemed to rush away from that spot. Then it hit Zuko! He was flying in the transport! Err, they were flying. All of them in the transport. Was this was it was like traveling on the Avatar's flying Bison? Because this was terrifying thought Zuko.

At the very least, knowing that they were flying, and not locked in place during an earthquake did help soothe the fear a little bit. Knowing that he was helpless to do anything about the flying, or really anything at this point Zuko thought sourly, he closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. It was as close to meditating as he could get at this point. He emptied his mind of the random thoughts racing through it. Concentrating on his breaths, he took deep inhales, held it for a second, then exhaled. Repeating the process for several minutes until the flying became much smoother and the transport was almost still. Zuko's heart slowed and he was able to suppress his anxiety and fear. With the initial shock of the transport FLYING now behind him, Zuko was able to regain his composure. He opened his eyes, but continued to focus on his breathing. He kept his gaze down at the floor, and just breathed with a singular purpose, to draw breath in and out. All the while just willing the terrifying trip to end.

Chapter Text

Just as Zuko's fear had seemed to dissipate, it came roaring back as the shuddering and shaking of the transport returned. The other prisoners looked around with concerned expressions glancing wildly in different directions. Zuko turned his head to the extreme right, trying to get a glimpse of the world outside the transport through his good eye. He could see water, an ocean perhaps, through the vertical slat window of the transport. Where were they, he wondered. The transport lurched and Zuko was flung towards his right, away from the place where he had entered the transport. However his arms stayed exactly where they were clamped in place by the cuffs. 

The shuddering feeling intensified Zuko grew concerned that the transport might rattle itself to pieces and he would fall and then drown cuffed to the metal seat. Zuko's fear of drowning to death ended only as the shuddering ceased altogether. Suddenly the guard's harsh voice cut through the air, "Right! Up and form a single file line!" With a clunk, the cuffs securing Zuko's hands opened. Some of the prisoners started to stand up in the center of the transport. Zuko followed suit and faced the direction that he had entered from, due to all of the other prisoners facing the same direction. 

A loud hissing sound followed shortly and then light from the outside burst into the transport. Zuko had to look away while shielding his eyes from the brightness with his arms. As his eyes adjusted to the level of brightness the guard yelled, "Move forward! Three abreast, two deep!" The line of prisoners started to move and Zuko moved with them forward out of the transport and down the ramp. Being fourth in line from the front Zuko took his place on the far left side of the group of six prisoners. 

The floor was cold on his feet and he ached to rub the soles of his feet on his pant legs to try to warm them up, but a quick memory of the zap rod's instant pain kept Zuko from moving any muscle. Zuko quickly noted two black clad guards on each side of the assembled prisoners. The guard yelled from behind him, "On program! That means, hands on head, feet flat on the ground!" Zuko complied, raising his hands to behind his head keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground. As he did so, Zuko observed his surroundings. He was in a cave? Unlike any other he had ever seen. This must be a constructed cave, built from the combined labour of many hours of master craftsmen Zuko realized. The bright white colour of the walls almost hurt his eyes, and the uniform metal squares of the floor were too perfectly matching to have been formed naturally. Just as Zuko was making this observation, the wall at the end of the tunnel changed? And suddenly three men in black uniforms marched towards them. 

The sound of the men's steps echoed off the walls of the white tunnel. Zuko immediately saw that the three men wore grey boots with orange soles. The orange sole of their boots must have been an inch thick. Why did they need such strange boots while he was barefoot Zuko questioned himself? A loud noise erupted from behind him and Zuko could not help but turn his head, keeping his hands behind his head, while he looked behind him. The noise turned out be the transport leaving, its ramp having folded back up ensuring that no prisoner could get onboard before it left. Zuko barely had time to notice the ocean behind him and some landmass far off in the distance before the sound of the approaching orange soled boots became loud enough for Zuko to realize that the three men were approaching fast. 

Turning his head forward Zuko straightened his posture, he was a Prince for crying out loud, he would present himself as dignified as possible, even if a prisoner. One man was walking ahead of the other two, he marched in the center of the tunnel while the other men held positions to each of his sides. He must be in charge, Zuko guessed. This was confirmed moments later when the men stopped and the leader addressed the group of prisoners. "Welcome to Narkina Five." he said with an unsettling grin holding his hands together behind him with his back straight. "This is an Imperial Factory Facility. You've all been assessed as labour worthy." Zuko's mind swirled at this influx of information. What was a factory facility? Labour worthy? "Now, following this introduction, you'll be transferred to your level assignment and workroom, where your floor manager will explain the details of our schedule and expectations." Zuko tried to understand what the man was saying, but he did not understand and did not have enough time to think it through before the man spoke again. "Your length of stay has been predetermined. The quality of that time will be up to you." What did that mean Zuko wondered while the man took a breath. "For those of you who have been imprisoned before will be suprised by the calm, sanitary conditions, and our minimally invasive enforcement techniques." Zuko saw a evil smile cross the man's lips as he said enforcement techniques. "I'm sure some of you, if not all of you, are wondering how we risk standing before you without weapons?" The man's cold eyes quickly scanned the group, almost daring someone to speak up. "It's a potent question." An evil gleam sparked in his eyes as he spoke to the group. One that Zuko had seen before, in his father's eyes, just before he pressed his burning hand into Zuko's face. Zuko's heartrate increased to a dangerously fast pace as he tried not to show fear. "And hopefully, one that you won't need to have answered very often, but . . ." As his voice trailed off Zuko saw the man's right arm raise with something small and white in it before Zuko's world broke. 

PAIN! Incredible pain attacked every nerve in his body without warning. His muscles were spasming almost too fast for Zuko to know it was happening and he dropped to his knees involuntarily and screaming in pain. 

As quickly as it had happened, it was over. All of Zuko's muscles instantly completely slackened and he fell to the cold metal floor groaning. As the fog in his head began to clear Zuko was aware of the other prisoners groaning softly around him. He forced himself to take some deep breaths and the spots in his vision cleared away. With some difficulty Zuko raised his head and looked up at the man who had been speaking. He looked down at the prisoners, all on the floor, with distaste. "You may stand." he said derisively. "That was level one. Of three. Our floors are Tungstoid steel." The incredible ache Zuko felt in all of his body was fading slowly. "Do your time productively, keep to your lane, and this needn't be more than a memory." If he had been able, Zuko would have been incredibly angry at this man for hurting them all for no reason than to prove that the guards held incredible power over the prisoners. But his body still ached and all of the energy had been drained from Zuko. With a final cruel "Good luck to you" the man turned around and started walking away while other guards started shouting for everyone to get up. 

Zuko forced his arms under his chest and pushed himself up and shakily got to his feet. The two guards that had accompanied the Speaker started roughly pulling the other slower moving prisoners to their feet with emotionless faces. The speaker must be the Warden Zuko thought, or atleast that was what Zuko was going to refer to him as he decided. One of the guards looked at Zuko with an angry expression and shouted "On program!" loudly. Zuko instantly complied tensing up his legs so his feet were flat on the floor and placing his hands on the back of his head. 

When the rest of the prisoners followed suit shortly after, two guards walked infront of the group of prisoners who marched in single file, followed by two more black uniformed guards into the white interior. As they walked Zuko was able to see that the guards ahead of him also wore the grey and orange boots. The brightness of the orange seemed out of place compared to the black uniforms with their silver coloured markings. Slowly the group wound through the complex, unable to see anything aside from the bright white walls and the grey metal floor. The group made their way taking left and right turns until Zuko lost his sense of direction and ultimately the group arrived at a dead end. Then the wall slid left and right into the side walls and an opening was created, just as if an earth bender had done it. But none of the guards looked like they were bending. More guards dressed in black waited for the group beyond the door. 

The new guards positioned themselves in-between each prisoner, two by two. Now each prisoner had two guards right behind them, himself included. Zuko guessed that this must be to ensure control of the prisoners. There was another sliding door at the end of this hallway. The two guards behind the first prisoner marched him through the door. The rest of the prisoners were held up. Two guards took up positions on either side of the door. They had been the men to accompany the Warden Zuko realized. The door opened and the next prisoner walked through accompanied by two guards behind him. Soon it was Zuko's turn and the door opened with a hiss. 

He stepped forward just as the guard ordered him to. There was a small room on his left, no door separated it from the hallway. A guard sat facing a control board of some kind. He looked up at Zuko's arrival. "On Program." he said. Gritting his teeth in annoyance Zuko complied. "Name." he commanded. Zuko responded and he pushed some buttons on the panel infront of him. A new guard came down from the end of the hallway. The guard marched up close to Zuko and held up a small device in his hands. "Off program." he said with a bored tone. Zuko lowered his hands to his sides. The guard stepped very close to Zuko's face and stared at him. "The two behind you have zap rods. Try anything, and you'll regret it." He then held up the device, which somehow extended and he held each end at one of Zuko's shoulders. He then extended the device even longer and one end touched the floor while the other he held at Zuko's collarbone. 

With a soft sigh, the guard stepped back and pointed at the side room with his right arm. "In there, disrobe everything and place it in the bin." he commanded "Everything." he repeated with malice in his voice. Zuko almost protested, but the sound of a zap rod making a sparking sound behind him caused him to angrily clench his jaw and look at the room. He was trapped, with no choice but to comply or pain and then complying . Given the amount of pain that he had endured already today, Zuko swallowed his anger and pride and walked into the small room. Quickly he stepped out of sight of the guards and then removed his shirt. The bin must have been the only opening in the otherwise smooth walls. He placed his shirt in there and then quickly removed the rest of his clothes and tossed them into the bin. The wall quickly slid down now covering the opening of the bin. But a new bin was accessable to Zuko. "Put on the shirt and pants provided." came the guard's voice from outside. Staying out of sight of the guards Zuko grabbed at the clothes provided. They were made of some smooth/slippery material that he had never encountered before. Like very thin poorly made leather. There was no undergarment for his privates, Zuko realized. Therefore he pulled the pants on first. They were almost all white, with a long wide orange line down the side of his leg. The pants had an odd feature at the waist. It stretched wide which allowed Zuko to pull them up easily but then when he had the garment at his hips and let go it stretched smaller and nestled against his body. Not tightly, but securely enough to keep them from falling down, even if he was moving. He grabbed the shirt pulled it over his head. 

Now fully dressed in the prison uniform, Zuko walked back out into the hallway. The two guards that had followed him stood there. The guard at the desk was still seated there, but the one with the extending device was not there. The seated guard looked up at Zuko and then spoke to the other guards, "His hair. Against regulations." Zuko turned in shock at the man. How one wore their hair was incredibly important in the Fire Nation. He had, until his capture, meticulously shaved his head every morning except for the small patch where his Phoenix Tail grew. His hair was specifically maintained this way so that when he captured the Avatar and returned victorious to the Fire Nation he would be able to wear the hairpiece of the Crown Prince again. By cutting his hair, he would never be allowed to retake his place at his father's side. 

"No." he stated defiantly. "You will not cut my hair." The seated guard looked up at him with an amused grin at Zuko's defiance. "You think so, eh?" Zuko had been so focused on the seated guard that he did not notice the movement behind him until the two other guards struck him with their zap rods. He fell to the ground writhing in pain. His back hurt in two places. Then the men were on top of him before he could react and they pressed down hard on his shoulders, taking control of his hands and kneeling on his hips. From behind him Zuko heard a terrifying buzzing sound. It got closer and he struggled with all of his might, but it was useless as the guards had him pinned. His head was yanked back as someone pulled on his hair, the buzzing noise grew in intensity, and then his head fell forward as the force holding his head back was gone. Zuko's anger was quickly replaced by shame. He was now truly defeated, unable to return home with honour. He laid his head down on the cold metal floor and closed his eyes tightly to try and hold back tears. He would NOT cry in front of these men. They would not see his weakness. 

The guards got off of him and yelled at him to stand again. Zuko stood slowly keeping his gaze down. Tenderly he raised his hands to his head and felt his hair, or what now remained of it. His Phoenix tail was gone. His heart sank. He also felt that the rest of his hair had grown during his captivity and was short stubble all over his head. Feeling dejected, he lowered his hands and waited for whatever was coming next. 

The seated guard, snorted at Zuko, then turned back to the control panel pressing buttons. "Five two Dee." he said dismissively. Zuko did not know what to make of the strange saying. But the two other guards did. One shoved Zuko forward while commanding "Forward." Zuko continued down the hallway, escorted by the two guards.  

They came to a very tall metal staircase. "Move. Now." came from behind him and Zuko stepped forward and onto the top of the stair platform. The floor was not the smooth grey squares anymore but almost a mesh like metal. Zuko could see through the floor as there were multiple small identical holes repeating in a pattern across the whole floor. He had seen metal floors like this before, on Fire Navy ships! It was a way of building a strong yet lightweight floor on a ship. This must be a similar construction. Feeling somewhat pleased at figuring out the floor beneath his feet, Zuko's better mood was ruined by the discomfort of the metal biting into his bare feet. The floor was not sharp enough to cut his feet, but he certainly would not want to run or walk any faster on it for fear of cutting his feet. Gritting his teeth in discomfort Zuko descended the stairs, step after step. 

----

After descending many levels, Zuko passed by a landing with another sliding door that was shut with the number 6 on it. The guards told him to keep going down, so Zuko did. After another long period of marching down more stairs the next landing was visible. This landing had a large number 5 on the door. "Stop at the door." came the command from behind him. Zuko walked up to the door and stopped. The two guards stood behind him again. 

After a moment the door opened with a hiss and the white walls and smooth grey metal pain floor extended before Zuko. "Forward. Move." ordered one of the guards. Zuko walked forward and down another small set of stairs. But these stairs were made of the same smooth metal as the pain floor. The hallway led to an intersection. There was a large number 7 on the left hand side and a correspondingly large number 1 to the right. "Turn right, keep going." Zuko turned and walked as directed. 

After proceeding through more hallways and a few turns Zuko came up to a door on the right with a large number 2 on it. Again he was ordered to stop, until the door hissed open and the group went forward. After a bit more walking there was another set of stairs in the pain floor style. However Zuko saw a flash of orange on the wall to his right. He looked closer as he walked nearer and realized that he was looking at the bottoms of the orange soled boots. This was a storage rack for the boots. Suddenly he was forcefully shoved forward by a pair of hands on his right shoulder. "Keep moving!" the guard yelled at him. 

Zuko had not stopped walking, or even slowed his pace, but he decided not to say anything and just turned his attention ahead of him. He was arriving at a small area, about three times as wide as the hallways he had traversed. There was a guard sitting at a control panel and an older one standing near him with a bored expression on his face. The expression instantly changed when he saw Zuko looking at him and became one of anger. The man's eyes narrowed and his lips pressed together in a tight line. "Stop there. On program!" he demanded. Zuko planted his feet while putting his hands behind his head and kept his eyes directly forward. There was another sliding door in front of him. This one had the numbers 5 -2 on it. 

The sound of a zap rod sparking caused Zuko to suck in a quick breath. The older guard stepped close to Zuko and held the metal end of the zap rod near Zuko's face. "Zap rod. If I have to use it, you'll remember it." he explained to Zuko in a serious tone. Zuko just noded his head in agreement, still looking forward in an attempt to comply so that the man would not use the damn thing. Some more people walked over to the area, or Zuko assumed based off of the sound of footsteps approaching. 

"How's the room look?" said the first voice again. Movement to Zuko's left alerted him to the fact that one of the three guards surrounding him walked to the left and glanced out a window. "Looks good." he commented on whatever he saw. "Alright. Let's do this." said the voice who had asked. "Five Two D requesting unit override." the same man requested. A scratchy distant voice answered, "Override granted." Upon hearing this, the older guard tensed up beside Zuko. Which in turn caused Zuko to become anxious, and his heart started racing again at the unknown on the other side of the door. If the guards were tense, whatever was there would not be good for him Zuko worried. The door hissed open and an alarm sounded. 

"Forward onto the lift." growled the older guard. Zuko took a few steps forward and was standing on the metal mesh like floor again. "Stop. On program." he commanded. Zuko complied and tried to take in the sight before him. There was a railing in front of him and Zuko realized he was about 20 feet above the floor of the much larger room. This was by far the largest room that Zuko had seen in the place yet. There were, things, placed at regular intervals throughout the room, each with several men in identical clothes to Zuko's standing all around them. Someone on the ground commanded them all to go on program, and the men all complied while turning to face the guards and Zuko. There was a metalic humming noise and Zuko began to descend. He realized that the floor he was standing on was moving towards the metal floor. 

The descending movement stopped suddenly. Zuko glanced down with his eyes only, keeping his head up and his hands behind his head. The floor he was standing on had stopped just above the smooth metal pain floor. Two men in the white clothes like him walked forward with their hands behind their heads. "You. Step off the platform." the guard beside Zuko ordered. He emphazised his order with a flick of the zap rod in Zuko's direction indicating that Zuko step off to his right. Zuko did and kept his hands on his head because everyone else in the white clothes had their hands still on their heads. 

The metal floor was cold on Zuko's feet. He didn't move from where he was after stepping off the platform because he waited for an order from the guards. None came. Instead the two men approached the other open side of the lift. Zuko shifted his feet slightly so that he could see what they were doing. The taller, more muscled man spoke up, "This is Criason." He pronounced the name Cree A son. The older guard nodded as if in confirmation then commanded Criason to step on the lift. Criason did and Zuko saw a small hopeful smile on his lips. Then the metalic humming noise returned and the lift started going up. The tall muscled man walked towards Zuko. "Name." he asked abruptly. Zuko stopped looking at the guards and turned to face the man and said "Zuko." 

With a quick glance of his eyes at where Zuko had been looking he then turned his attention to Zuko fully. "The guards won't be back. They only come to switch out prisoners." he informed Zuko, before quietly adding "And pick up the dead." as he turned towards the rest of the room. "Off program!" he bellowed at the other men. Everyone in the room immediately lowered their arms and began doing things or moving around the tables in front of him. 

He turned back to Zuko, who still had his arms up near his head and was slowly lowering them. "My name is Onhika. I'm the dayshift manager for unit five two D. The D stands for dayshift." Zuko noded once to confirm he understood. "The 49 men in this room answer to me. You do too as of now. Understand?" Zuko acknowledged him with a clear "Yes." Onhika turned and started walking away but motioned with his hand that Zuko was to follow him. Zuko hurried to catch up to the man who started talking, "There are seven levels of factory. Seven rooms per level." He cast his left arm out indicating that this was one of the "rooms". Zuko was not sure quite what to make of this information so he stayed silent. Onhika continued, "Seven tables per room. With seven men per table." He had a tablet in his hands and then turned to look at Zuko. "Twelve hour shift. Productivity is encouraged. Evaluation is constant." Zuko nodded to acknowledge this information. "Can you read?" Onhika asked him. "Yes sir." Zuko replied, remembering how the Spirits had helped him and silently praying a thank you. 

"Good." grunted Onhika. He held up the tablet and Zuko could see one clearly for the first time. It was a chart of information. "These are the running totals for the all of the tables in this room. You compete against the other tables. I compete against all of the other rooms on the level." Confusion must have shown on Zuko's face because Onhika sighed, slumped his shoulders and pulled back the tablet. "Look." he said as he stepped very close to Zuko. "What you need to understand is that I run this room. You do what I say." Zuko nodded. "You will work at table five doing the best that you can to keep productivity up." Zuko finally asked, "Productivity of what?" That produced a sharp laugh from the man. "Honestly, I don't fucking know." Onhika shrugged. "What I do know, is that I have five hundred and seveteen days left on my sentence. So I have the freedom to run this room as I like." He then stepped forward and towered over Zuko, who stood his ground refusing to appear intimidated. "Including discipline as I see fit." Swallowing quickly Zuko spoke quickly, "I did not mean that I would not work. I just asked for more information. Sir." 

"Good." Onhika growled as stepped back. He raised his left arm pointing at a group of men, "Table Five awaits." Zuko looked at the group, then back at Onhika and nodded. Zuko walked over to the men that Onhika had pointed at. "Is this table five?" he asked the group. "Yeah." answered one of the men. He was taller than Zuko, with short black hair. He must have been about twice Zuko's age and he looked like he could have been an average Earth Kingdom citizen. "My name's Parek. What's yours?" he asked. "Zuko." Zuko replied. Parek gave Zuko a quick look over. A slight crease appeared in his brow, then he asked another question of Zuko. "How old are you?" Zuko felt a slight flush on his cheeks at being asked his age. "Sixteen." Zuko shot back. Parek did not say anything in response, but he grunted and kept moving his hands. Zuko tried to see what he was doing, but everyone at the table seemed to be intently focused on their task at hand. "What does it matter how old he is?" came from a man on the other side of the table. "He's here now." The man looked at Zuko, he was slightly overweight. "I'm Rabie." he stated. Zuko nodded back. 

The man at the farthest right of Zuko spoke next, "Rabie's right." he then looked up at Zuko. "I'm called Collin. You are here." Collin pointed at an open spot just beside Parek and closest to Collin. "Parek and I will explain what you need to do." Zuko stepped forward into the open spot. and got a closer look at the table. The men were working on a metal device that laid out like a grey metal flower. Collin spoke again, pointing at the man immediately to his right. "This is Harren." Harren looked up momentarily at Zuko and nodded, Zuko nodded back. Then Collin pointed at the man between Harren and Rabie. "That's Amos." Amos gave a quick wave of his hand to Zuko who nodded back. Collin pointed at the man between Amos and Parek, "And that is Terry." Terry looked up at the meniton of his name. He was a big man, composed of incredibly huge muscles upon further muscles. He had no hair that Zuko could see but he looked at Zuko with a compassionate expression and addressed Zuko with a deep voice, "Welcome to Table 5." That got a response out of Zuko, "Thanks." Zuko replied honestly. 
"Here watch what I do." Collin called to Zuko. Zuko looked over but before Collin could speak again a sound cut through the room and everyone stopped what they were doing. "Dammit." muttered Parek softly beside Zuko. Zuko looked around the room and everyone had stopped what they were doing. "End of shift." explained Collin to Zuko. Zuko did not understand, but he was not about to ask as everytime he seemed to do anything here, he was punished or scoffed at. Therefore Zuko turned around like everyone else at the table had already done, and looked at Onhika standing in the center of the room. 

Glancing at his tablet, Onhika called out to everyone in the room, "Table three takes the shift by five racks and seven!" No one seemed to react to this news, Zuko noticed, whatever it meant. "Table five!" shouted Onhika, "In the box." That meant them, Zuko realized with a start. "What now?" he piped up. With a heavy sigh Parek answered him, "Lowest performing table gets fried. Today that's us. Table four beat us by two." Some of the other men at table 5 started walking forward into the center of the room, where Zuko noticed that a three by three section of the metal floor was slightly darker grey than the rest of the floor. 

"Come on." Parek muttered to Zuko. Zuko followed Parek and the group to stand on the darker floor. Everyone else in the room, and the other men from table 5 all put their hands behind their heads. Zuko followed suit, not sure what was about to happen. Unfortunately he soon found out. The floor was activated and the intense pain overwhelmed Zuko again. He did not know if he cried out in pain. But when he opened his eyes after the pain subsided, he was face down on the metal floor. The men around him groaned in pain as well and Zuko saw that all of them were slowly picking themselves up off of the floor. Gritting his teeth in annoyance, Zuko forced himself up. 

Chapter Text

The prisoners had all formed into a long line, the seven men from each table, lining up together before joining in a long line. The line of men walked into a different kind of hallway that Zuko had not seen before. There were windows letting in the outside light. Zuko's mood immediately lifted upon being able to see outside. However his mood did not last when he realized that he could only see the vast grey metal walls of the structure. Darkness had now fallen and bright unwavering lights peeked at Zuko's eyes from different parts of the structure. Zuko was so engrossed at the sight that he nearly walked into the stopped form of Parek in front of him. 

The sound of men conversing on his right drew his attention. There was another line of men, dressed in the same white and orange uniforms all standing in a similarly long line facing the opposite direction. "Be quiet." growled Onhika from somewhere ahead of Zuko. Zuko noticed the hallway had windows on the lower half of the wall as well, identically placed and sized as the ones on the top half of the wall. Looking through one of the lower windows Zuko suddenly realized that he could see other hallways like the one he was standing in. And he could see more white uniforms of prisoners lined up in the other hallways. His heart sank as he realized that he was in a truly massive prison which must contain a staggering amount of prisoners. And accordingly would have a corresponding amount of guards, making escape a near impossibility. The line started moving again and Zuko followed after Parek. 

The line of men marched into a small room and broke into three smaller equally sized lines to fit into the smaller space. Being near the end of the line of men, Zuko and the rest of Table 5 were in the middle line. The door shut behind the last man and then there was a metalic humming and Zuko felt like he was descending again. But as far as he could see, nothing in the room moved or changed to indicate that they had moved. The humming abruptly ended and Zuko felt like his knees bent slightly though he had done nothing. Maybe the pain from the floor was affecting him worse than he thought. The door at the end of the room the men all faced opened with a hiss and the middle line in the room walked forward with Zuko following suit. 

They walked forward into another windowless hallway Zuko observed. There were small, not really rooms, but openings on each side of the hallway. He did not get a good look as he kept up with Parek and the openings were so small that he passed by one about every two steps he took. They were completely identical on his left and right. One short wider one, one taller one, one short one, one taller one. And then the line of men stopped. "Pull out!" called Onhika. The men around Zuko instantly began dispersing with some going into the openings, while some leaned up against the walls and talked with each other. Unsure of what to do next, Zuko remained standing where he was. 

Onihka walked up to near where Zuko was standing and turned to Collin, "Walk the new man." he commanded gruffly. "Sure thing, Onhika." Collin replied while walking over to Zuko. "You see the white lights on the floor?" he asked. Zuko looked down and saw that the floor was illuminated with small white lights perfectly centered about every three feet. Zuko nodded his head in agreement. "That's the floor." Collin said as if that made sense. He went on, "White is cold, red is hot. If you see the red lights flashing, you've got seven seconds to get back to your cell." Zuko stared at the white lights, with fear in the form of rising bile in his throat that the lights would turn red. He was snapped out of his concern by Collin tapping him on the shoulder and the man walked a short distance over to one of the openings. It was a short wide one. 'This is your cell." Collin stated. "There are sensors in the floor. Two men in one cell, and the floor instantly activates." He clapped his hands together and widened his eyes when he said activates, and Zuko understood. The pain floor. 

Collin held his arm out in front of Zuko as if to stop his from walking forward into the small space, not that Zuko was about to anyways. "You stand there until I get out of the cell." He gave Zuko a serious glare to accompany his words. Zuko nodded. Collin stepped into the cell and pointed at something on his right, "Toilet flips open." He turned to face Zuko and then pointed at various points on the back wall. "Light. Plate and utensil. Food tube. Water." He swung an arm around the left of the small space, "This will get cleaned everyday." He then walked forward, stepped out of the cell and turned to face Zuko. "And this, is your tab." he explained while gesturing to a small black square with white numbers near the entrance to the small cell. The number was 2190. "The hell did you do to get." his voice trailed off as he worked out the number in his head. Zuko scoffed and then answered the man's unfinished question, "Six years." Collin's response was restricted to a low whistle. 

"Can I check it out myself now?" Zuko asked Collin. The other man nodded, and leaned against the side of the cell while crossing his arms. Zuko stepped inside the small cell. It was tall enough that Zuko could stand upright, and infact he could probably have stretched his arms out and touched the roof. It was clearly designed large enough for nearly any prisoner. He lifted the top of a lid, where Collin had pointed at the toilet. Indeed a uncomfortable looking toilet was revealed, partially concealled from the rest of the hallway by being set into the sloping wall. Letting the lid fall Zuko examined the back wall closer. There was a small mirror, something stuck out from the wall beside it. Zuko reached up and touched it, only for it to make a click noise and fall out of the wall. Fumbling, Zuko caught it and then held it up while looking back at Collin. "Razor." came the one word response from the man. It was connected to the wall by a thick black metalic wire. When Zuko brought it back near it's place in the wall, the black wire retracted back into the wall gently tugging the razor along with it. Zuko lined up the shape of the razor with the wall and then gently pushed it back into the hole where it slid in and clicked into place. 

Now Zuko could see a small plate with a black spoon on the wall. "Push on the plate to have it released, just like the razor." explained Collin from behind him. Zuko nodded his understanding. Two odd small, curved downwards, shiny, reflective metal pipes were left of the plate. One exactly above the other. Zuko reached out and touched the top one. "Water." came Collin's one worded response again. The pipe jostled slightly at Zuko's touch. Intrigued Zuko hooked two fingers on the metal pipe and was surprised when it came away from the wall with a clear tube extending behind the metal. There was a flat ring of metal just after the curve in the pipe which made it easy for Zuko to hold in his hand. He noticed there was a clear something extending from the end of the pipe. "Put the mouthpiece in your mouth. Gently clamp down with your teeth and it will give you water." Collin told him. Zuko hesitantly brought the clear mouthpiece up closer to his face, and then saw the clear mouthpiece was curved with small indentations that looked like they matched his teeth. Zuko opened his mouth and put the thing in and closed his mouth as instructed. The tube suddenly stiffened in his grip and water rushed into his mouth. Zuko quickly swallowed mouthfuls of water. He did not realize that he had been so thirsty. The water was slightly warm, but so refreshing that Zuko did not care about the temperature. After a few glorious seconds of drinking his fill, Zuko relaxed his jaw and the water flow ended. With a somewhat satisfied sigh, Zuko turned to Collin and softly said "Thank you." 

Collin just shrugs in reply. "Hold the food tube over the plate and use the switch on the tube to get food." Collin says to Zuko. He looks at Zuko with an amused grin on his face that Zuko cannot understand. "You can have as much as you want." he stated, "but you have to force yourself to eat it." Zuko tilts his head in confusion at the other man. He is about to inquire as to what the man means when an alarm sounds once and all of the other men go quiet. The distant voice rings out and informs the prisoners that the floor will be going hot in thirty seconds. Collin pushes himself off of the wall and looks at Zuko, "Floor is going hot. This is level three. It will kill you." He looks directly into Zuko's eyes as he says this warning. Then he turns and heads off to the left and Zuko steps to the edge of his cell seeing all of the other men getting into their own cells. The lights go out making the enitre room darker and Zuko can now see the lights along the floor are flashing red. His heart starts racing in fear. He steps backward trying to put as much distance between himself and the floor as posible. He backs into something with his calves and stubles backwards. Surprisingly though, he lands on his rear on something somewhat comfortable. Glancing left and right at his new seat, Zuko realizes that he is sitting on what is his bed. There is a slightly raised portion near the end on his left, which must be meant to be a pillow. 

His cell is dark, but Collin mentioned something about a light so Zuko looks at the back wall. On the right side of the small mirror there is a small raised white square. Zuko taps it with his fingers and light streams down on him from above. Well, now he can atleast see what he is doing. Crossing his legs up on his bed and facing the back wall, Zuko pushes on the plate and it falls into his hands, but the black utensil slips through his fingers. He picks it up with his right hand and examines it closer. It is mostly a spoon, but also something else? The tip of the spoon has two short identical gaps where the black material has purposely been not filled in. Not understanding this utensil, Zuko sets the unusual spoon aside and holds the plate with his left hand and grabs the food tube with his right hand. Holding the end of the tube over the plate he presses a small metal button on the tube and a brown substance oozes out of the tube onto the plate. Zuko keeps the button pressed until he has a small mound on the plate before releasing the button and sliding the tube back into the wall. Grasping the plate with both hands he holds the food up to his face and looks at it. 

It definitely does not look appetizing is the first thing Zuko notices. It is a brown substance, that does not resemble anything Zuko has ever eaten before. Also, strangely Zuko notes, there is no smell. Even the rough meals that Zuko had survived on at certain points of his banishment and pursuit of the Avatar, had smelled like something. This however, does not. Sighing with resignation, Zuko grasps the strange spoon and scoops some into his mouth starting to eat. He pauses immediately. There is no taste. Like none at all. It is just a mush inside his mouth, that tastes, like nothing. Zuko tries to swallow, but his body resists. It does not feel like food in his mouth. He grits his teeth, closes his eyes and forces himself to swallow. Angrily, he forces himself to quickly eat the rest of the food, while trying not to think about how awful it is. 

Finishing his "meal", Zuko clips the plate and spoon into their holder and then drinks more water. Atleast that is somewhat refreshing. Zuko turns himself around and looks at Rabie, who is in the cell directly across from him. Rabie is eating and gives Zuko a halfhearted shrug. Zuko stands and walks to the edge of his cell. As far as he can see into the cells on his left and right, the other men are either eating or have turned out their lights and have laid down to sleep. Realizing that he does not have many options, Zuko retreats to the bed, turns out the light and lays down facing the wall. He tries to get some sleep. 

---- 

Zuko woke the next morning to the sound of the other men getting up. The main hallway lights came on a half an hour before their work shift started Zuko learned. He had more than enough time to force down a terrible breakfast and use the toilet without much dignity before Ohnika called for them to line up at the edge of their cells. Then with a loud clunk, the floor lights turned white, and everyone stepped down onto the hallway floor, Zuko joining them turning to face left with the group. 

They marched in silence into the small room breaking into three shorter lines again. This time they marched into another small room, with a grey metal floor similar to all the rest, except there was a wall of open storage squares on the far side. To Zuko's instant dismay, every man started to disrobe until they were nude. Zuko hurried to catch up so everyone would not be staring if he were the last one to disrobe. Holding his clothes infront of himself, Zuko followed the others who all placed their discarded clothes in a square. Confused as to where he should put his clothes, Parek said "Here." and tapped the inside of an empty square. Zuko walked over and placed his clothes inside while not making eye contact with anyone. There was a number on the inside of the square, 5 - 2 - D - 35. 

The rest of the men resumed their positions in the three short lines in the small room and Zuko got back into his place. The door shut and then an orange light on the ceiling Zuko had not seen before began flashing. Water rained down upon the men. it was cold at first but soon warmed to not be cold, but not enough to be warm. Then some foul smelling purple substance splattered on Zuko from above. Zuko was alarmed and confused, but the other men lined up around him began to rub their hands over themselves and the substance produced a soapy lather. Now Zuko understood, a communal shower. He quickly scrubbed himself while staring at the floor. He scrubbed his head with his hands and felt for the first time how strange his head felt without his Phoenix tail. He felt a pang of grief. The red cloth that he had weaved through his hair was gone forever. His mother had made that for him. It was practically the last thing he had left of her, other than memories, and now it was gone forever. As more water rained down from above, Zuko silently cried, secretly glad that none of the other men could see his weakness. 

The water stopped, Zuko took some deep breaths and waited for whatever awful thing would be next. Warm air blasted down from above as if the Avatar had airbent a spring afternoon into the room. Some of the men were styling their hair while the wind continued to blow. It was a very strange occurrence to experience wind inside a building. But Zuko began to dry in the warm air. Just before he was completely dry the wind ended as suddenly as it had began. The door opened again and the men walked back into the room where they had deposited their clothes. Each man went back to their square and retrieved their clothing. Zuko went to 5 - 2 - D - 35 only to discover that his old clothes were gone and new folded clothes waited for him. He quickly grabbed them, stepped aside of the other men, and dressed. Feeling  somewhat better having bathed, Zuko went and stood in his place in the line of men. 

The door opened again and the men moved in their three lines back into the small room. Soon they were in the long windowed hallway with other prisoners on the oposite side of the waist high barrier on Zuko's left. The men all stood with hands on head until an alarm sounded and then each group exited the hallway in opposite directions. Zuko heard another man mutter, "Just another day, just another shift." as the group walked into the worktable area. A 12 hour shift Zuko remembered, as he walked up to table 5 with the rest of his group. Another alarm gonged, and the table sprang to life with the men grabbing their various tools and starting their tasks. 

---- 

The routine became normal to Zuko within a few days. He would wake each morning just before the lights came on, meditating by focusing on his breathing. Remember Prince Zuko, his Uncle's voice said to him, firebending comes from the breath. Even though he had lost his bending, the meditation helped calm and center Zuko every morning. Then the terrible meal followed, atleast he had access to unlimited water Zuko thought. The communal shower was an uncomfortable part of every morning, but Zuko did somewhat like the warm blast of air that followed. He would close his eyes when it rushed past him and imagined to himself that he was flying, like a dragon from one of the plays his mother used to read him. The short reprieve from the misery of his situation never lasted long. 
The work was not terribly complicated, and Zuko learned everything about the assembling in a few shifts. As he learned he got faster at his own tasks and that meant that the men were able to complete more of the metal shapes each shift. However despite Zuko's improvement, their table could not seem to pull out of last place. Each shift Table 5 had to endure the ritual pain of being in last place. They could complete two more than the day before, but Table 3, their closest competition, would be two ahead of them. It was a terrible rivalry. 

Every evening and night was the same. Return to the cell, force down a larger meal than breakfast, meditate for a while and then try to sleep. Falling asleep was difficult for Zuko. No matter how he laid on the sleeping area, sleep never came easily to him. He would get lost in memories. Certain ones, of his mother and Uncle, he replayed in his mind as often as he could, to hang onto those happy moments of his life. But his thoughts were cruel and he would dream of Azula taunting him as a child, of his father being disappointed in him on so many occasions, of the Avatar besting him and getting away. Zuko would wake up dejected and depressed having dreamed of his failures all night. Then with a deep sigh, Zuko would meditate in the morning to clear his mind of the dark thoughts. Because while his own mind might be tormenting him, the rest of the men at Table 5 needed him clear headed and focused. 

They were "fried", as lots of the other men referred to it, for 25 shifts in a row, including Zuko's first day. Zuko knew because he counted every day. Each shift he repeated the number of days that he had been in this hellhole until it burned in his memory. He did not know exactly why he did it, but he knew it was important. Somehow keeping count of the days brought him some small peace of mind. 

---- 

Day 26 was a change to both the routine and the rivalry. In the middle of the shift, the alarm sounded, everyone stopped, and Onhika bellowed for everyone to get On Program. Zuko stood hands on head, not moving except to breathe. He watched the guard door, waiting to see what would happen. It turned out to be a prisoner exchange. Someone from Table 2's sentence was up. They got to leave, no more shifts, no more floor, no more tasteless "food". The poor soul replacing him had no idea what a terrible experience waited for him Zuko thought with some pity for the man. But then Rabie whispered to the group. "Heck yes. Today is our day guys." Zuko did not understand, but he rarely talked to the other men at the table, so he kept quiet. Rabie went on, "Where do we stand compared to Table 2? They have a new man, I think we can take them." Zuko's eyes went wide with the realization. He remembered his first few days, trying to learn how to help, and not be in the way or slowing down the table. Now they were working as a team, and Table 2 had to integrate a new man. Zuko felt something like a hunger in his chest, a want to outperform someone else, to avoid being last place, and getting fried. 

Collin slightly turned, while holding his hands in place on his head, and glanced down at the table's information tablet in front of him. "Table 2 is up 3 racks and 4." he informed the group. "We are at 3 racks and one." he said with a wolfish grin. "If we push, we can do it boys!" Collin excitedly whispered as the new man was approached by Onhika. The alarm sounded and before Onhika had even yelled off program, everyone at Table 5 sprang into action with renewed vigor. 

When Onhika finally called the end of the shift, Zuko was more tired than usual but somehow proud of himself, and the rest of the men at Table 5. They had done it, by 6 more than Table 2. For the first time, Zuko stood on program and watched as another Table had to take the punishment. His feeling of pride vanished immediately when the floor was activated and everyone from Table 2 cried out in pain and Zuko watched in horror as the men convulsed and dropped to the cold metal floor in pain. Even though Zuko had endured that same pain for the past 25 shifts, watching it happen to another Table sickened him. It was just cruel, Zuko realized. He had learned that there was a reward for being the most productive table. As Harren had once told him, "Top table gets flavour with their food. Last place get fried." Zuko knew Table 5 was a long ways from winning flavour. And he really wondered if it was worth the extra work. The food was so bad anyways, how could it be improved? How could they add flavour? In Zuko's mind, he just wanted to not be last place. To avoid the terrible pain was all he thought he needed. 

The rest of the day passed like all of the others so far. Zuko forced himself to eat. Meditated for close to an hour, then laid down and tried to sleep. He did not get a fully restful sleep, but that was pretty much normal for him. However the following morning while meditating, he had a terrible realization. While Table 5 had avoided being fried yesterday, Table 2 was now going to work just as hard as they could to try and beat them today. And every following shift. They were now locked in a terrible competition to not be last place. Zuko's stomach felt like it dropped through the floor. They were being played with by the guards. Forced to compete against each other like an ostrich horse race, except the losing ostrich horse would be severely punished infront of the others to motivate/scare the rest to work as hard as they could. Zuko suddenly hated it here more than he had before, which he had not thought was possible. 

---- 

Though Aang would never admit it to anyone, particularly Katara and Sokka, the Spirit Oasis was his favorite place in the whole North Pole. The relief from the oppressive cold was just the start, but the grass was a nice break from the constant snow and ice. It also  reminded him of being at home in the Air Temple. But he would never say that because it felt like he would be insulting Sokka and Katara's home. He took a deep breath and tried to breath out the negativity that thought occupied his mind with. He was in the Spirit Oasis meditating for a reason. He was trying to talk to the Spirits again. Zuko had been gone for over two days now. 

Aang felt like he had let Zuko down by asking the Spirits to make the decision for them. Aang knew in his heart that Zuko was not evil. So why couldn't Aang stand up for Zuko infront of the Northern Water Tribe? He was the Avatar for crying out loud! He had saved the North from the Fire Nation Navy. How could he have failed to save Zuko from the judgement of the Spirits, why had he agreed to help make it happen? The frustration built up inside him as he tried to meditate and came out as a long sigh. 

"What's wrong Aang?" asked Katara gently. Aang looked over at her, deciding that honesty was the best policy, he started to tell her how he felt. "I feel like I failed Zuko, Katara." He cast his eyes downward at the grass by his feet. "I know that Zuko is not evil. He, while tied up with rope! Deflected Zhao's fireblast and saved the Moon Spirit's life!" Aang exclaimed with frustration. "And then we just let him go to the Spirit World on some crazy journey! He might not even come back!" Aang was nearly shouting now. "And!" Aang cried out, "He gave up his firebending!" Aang looked devastated at this fact. "If I lost my airbending, I. . . " the young airbender trailed off while looking despondent. 

"I understand Aang," Katara replied, "I really do." She walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "If I lost my waterbending, I would be crushed. I honestly do not know what I would do." She got down on her knees infront of him with a hand on each of his shoulders. "But Aang, you have to remember. Zuko went willingly with the Spirit." she told him gently while looking him in the face. "But Katara." Aang protested, "What choice did he have? Some of the Tribe were calling for his head. The rest wanted to throw him in a cell for the rest of his life." He looked at her earnestly, and Katara was reminded that he really was still a 12 year old boy from a time when there was no war. 

Katara was still working on an explanation for Aang, when the monk spoke first. "No one spoke up for him. No one even removed the muzzle from him to let him speak for himself!" he said his voice tinged with anger. "Ahh!" Katara held up one finger in between them. "That is not true Aang. Yourself and Yue both spoke up for him." She paused and lowered her head. "And you are correct, it was wrong to keep him muzzled. I won't let that happen ever again." Having recently admittted to herself that her anger at the Fire Nation had blinded her to Zuko's obvious suffering, she was now able to admit that to Aang. She had felt terrible when she realized that Pakku had treated Zuko like less than a person, and she had an similar experience with Pakku, yet she had done nothing to stop Pakku's treatment of Zuko. 

"And besides." cut in Sokka, who was walking over to where the two of them were. "Zuko is the most determined person in the world." Sokka smiled at Aang. "He chased you all the way across the world from the South Pole to the North Pole and didn't even give up when facing Katara, a now master waterbender, in the middle of a blizzard!" Sokka stated as he knelt beside them and put one of his hands on each of their shoulders. Looking Aang in the face, Sokka continued, "So if there is anyone who will pass a test due to sheer determination, and will never give up, it's Zuko." Aang looked back at Sokka, and then Katara, his young face brightening with the support of his friends. Sokka went on, "I know that you feel some kind of a connection to him due to having some positive interactions with him buddy. But there is now nothing that we can do to help him here. And the rest of the world needs your help right now too. Yue has promised to write us as soon as there is news about Zuko. And since he will no longer be chasing us, and Zhao will not be a problem for us, we can regularly send letters to the North Pole so that Yue knows where to send the news when it comes." Aang smiled at the plan and started to look much more at ease. 

"One more thing Aang," Sokka added, "With all of the time that you have been spending here meditating, not saying that it was wrong, but you have not spent much time with Appa since the attack and I think he misses his best buddy." Aang looked sad at the thought that he had hurt Appa's feelings, but Sokka quickly got his attention again saying, "Both Chief Arnook and Yue promised to have someone here at all times so that when Zuko comes back they can let us know as soon as possible." Aang looked down at the grass again, and took a deep breath. "You are right, both of you." He said while he looked up at Katara and then Sokka. "Someone will be here to help Zuko when he gets back, and we do need to get to the Earth Kingdom so I can start earthbending." Aang got to his feet, and Katara and Sokka stood as well. "I am going to go spend some time with Appa." Aang announced. He unfolded his glider with a quick flick of his wrist before asking, "When do we plan to leave?" Sokka looked at Katara briefly with a smile, then stated, "I will talk to the Arnook and ensure that we can leave first thing tomorrow." Aang nodded, then with a grin grabbed the handlebars of his glider took off with a gust of airbending. 

Katara and Sokka watched Aang fly over the walls and out of sight from the Spirit Oasis. "Thank you for the help convincing Aang." Katara said to her brother. "Any time." Sokka relied with booming confidence, "I'm the strategist. You should alwasy ask for my advice." he boasted. As the two siblings walked towards the door to the Spirit Oasis, with a mischievous grin on Katara's face she turned to Sokka and asked, "So you will be writing letters to Yue now?" A blush rose on Sokka's cheeks and he stammered out a response, "We can all send information to the North Pole." He took a few more steps and added, "Addressed to whoever you want." with a huff. 

---- 

The night of shift 48 Zuko was meditating after eating as usual. He was having difficulty clearing his mind tonight, and he kept recalling the interaction with the Spirit at the North Pole. In particular, the test of his soul weighed on Zuko's mind. What was the test, he silently screamed in frustration! In his desperation for the answer, his thoughts ran wild. Maybe they had to "win" the shift, and taste whatever passed for flavour. Maybe he had to serve the full 2190 shifts of his sentence?  Maybe he needed to fight another prisoner? This thought quieted the others in his mind as he considered it. No, he qucikly corrected himself. Fighting would only end with Onhika beating up the aggressor. Zuko had seen it happen before. Onhika tolerated no interruptions to the work of the men. Anyone caught fighting or otherwise interferring with the work, was punished by Ohnika physically with a beating. Then Onhika would make them stand on the pain floor when it activated at the end of the shift with the lowest performing table. 

Fighting would only end poorly for himself Zuko concluded. As it was, no one bothered him, in fact no one outside of table five actually spoke to him at all. And the men at table 5 five mostly ignored him and Zuko ignored them right back. Unless it was about the work, no one talked to Zuko, and he was fine with that. He was used to being alone and ignored. After his mother had disappeared and Iroh had left on his spirit journey, Zuko had been alone since he was 8 years old. Sure Azula and his father had been there, but they were so distant and cold that Zuko often had wished that he had gone with either his mother or Uncle. Therefore the situation at Table 5 suited Zuko perfectly. Other than he was still having trouble sleeping. 

Being unable to sleep irritated Zuko to no end. No matter how he laid, how tired he was from a shift, whether he ate more or less for dinner, Zuko had great difficulty falling asleep. He had overheard some of the other men discussing the possibility that the guards were mixing drugs into their food. But the guards would want the prisoners asleep during their off shift, and want them awake during their work shift thought Zuko. Drugging them constantly to stay awake or to cause them to sleep would be counter productive to the work. Because as far as Zuko could tell, all the men ate both in the morning and at night. With the food coming out of the tube in a constant ooze, how could the guards know how much each man would consume each time they ate? It would be impossible to drug the food accordingly Zuko concluded. 

As these questions bounced around inside his head, Zuko did succumb to sleep at some point. He was jolted awake by a piercing scream and the sound of the pain floor activating. Worried, Zuko rushed to the edge of his cell, noting that the floor lights remained the red colour. Had he just misheard someone having a nightmare? Nightmares among the prisoners was not uncommon, Zuko himself included. 

However shouts of dismay came from his left. Placing his left hand on the side of his cell, Zuko cautiously leaned out to get a better look with his right eye. There was something on the floor. His heart leapt into his throat as Zuko realized that it was a prisoner. From somewhere further down someone called out, "Shit! He jumped!" Zuko tore his eyes away from the body of the man and stared at the red lights of the floor below him. The man's cry of "he jumped", repeated in his head. Zuko realized that the man had committed suicide by willingly going, either stepping or jumping, onto the floor and accepting death. Zuko was revolted at the idea. But a small terrifying part of him understood. Zuko was very unhappy as a prisoner here. Forced to work, competing against each other, while stuck in the awful conditions. But to take your own life? The very thought, chilled Zuko's core. 

The alarm sounded, and the distant voice commanded all of them to get in their sleeping areas. For fuck's sake, cursed Zuko silently, just call it a bed! However Zuko said nothing out loud and without any further delay immediately laid down on his bed. He was not rested the next morning at all. 

Chapter Text

The shifts passed slowly but surely. Zuko had grown stronger from the constant physical work. His arms and chest were more defined than ever. His hair grew, it started to fall into his eyes. He had to awkwardly cut it using the razor and the dim piece of reflective metal at the back of his cell that passed for a mirror.  
The only real way to tell that the days were different came in the form of Amos completing his sentence. Near the end of shift 276, work stopped, a new man was deposited on the floor and Amos rose on the lift leaving 5 - 2 - D behind. 

The new man was old. Like as old as Uncle. Which caused a pang of grief to hit Zuko. What had happened to him? Was he safe? Did he worry about Zuko as much as Zuko worried about him? The new old man's name was Ulaf. He had lots of questions, about the work, about the prison, about lots of things that Zuko ignored. Zuko concentrated on his part of the work. Unfortunately for him, Ulaf was slowing things up. Zuko tried not to be angry at the man, recalling his own first days. But Zuko knew that with a new man at their table, they would likely be the last place table for the next while. 

Zuko proved himself right, and Table 5 was fried for a number of shifts. Ulaf got up to par with the rest of the men after some time but Zuko felt like the morale of the table had taken a hit. Almost nobody talked to anyone else anymore. If they were not at the table working, the seven men ignored each other. 
Zuko still could not sleep easily. Every night he suffered from nightmares, which caused him to wake struggling to hold back a noise. Most commonly he dreamt of his father. Towering over him in the Agni Kai court. You will learn respect, his father's voice boomed, and pain and suffering will be your teacher. When the burning hand got close to his face Zuko always woke up nearly screaming. 

Other times it was Azula punching her blue flames at him while taunting his meager firebending skills. Even the Avatar appeared, only to escape from him every time. The other prisoners had nightmares too, Zuko could hear them sometimes. But they always seemed to be able to fall asleep far easier than he could, and it frustrated him to great lengths. 

---- 

Just as it seemed like everything had settled back into the familiar pattern with Olaf as a part of Table 5, something big changed. Collin announced to the group that he was two shifts away from the end of his sentence. This news meant that the table would need a new work leader. Zuko glanced around at the other men, trying to judge who would be best at the position. 

The men had been doing decently well, keeping Table 5 averaging about third place each shift. They had not been fried in some time and now all of the men realized that they were about to drop back to last place. Rabie put his name forward saying he had an interest in being table leader. No one else spoke up putting their name forward. And two shifts later, on Zuko's 298th shift, Collin left, Rabie became Table Leader, and Jemboc joined them. 

Jemboc was put to work beside Zuko. Zuko spent time instructing him on how to complete his tasks most efficiently, while completing his own work. The man was easy to work with and quickly learned what was expected of him. In fact, Zuko much preferred working with him compared to Rabie. Rabie acted a bit like Azula, like he was better than Zuko, for no apparent reason. Jemboc just wanted to work to avoid getting fried. 

Zuko did not think that there was any real difference between Table Leader and everyone else at Table 5, but Rabie soon made it clear that he sure felt there was a difference. Collin had done what was needed as Table Leader, at the command module of the table, but then Collin jumped into action and assisted with the assembly work. Rabie apparently felt that assembly work was beneath him now as he never moved from his spot at the head of the work table.  

After two shifts of being very far behind every other table, Onhika approached them just after they got to their cells. "Alright." he growled. "What is the problem here?" Zuko sat near the edge of his cell and looked out at the rest of Table 5. No one answered Onhika at first. Then Rabie opened his mouth, "Just new man integration Onhika. Nothing serious. We will be back up soon." This was not the answer that Onhika was looking for, and he spun to face Rabie glaring daggers at him. "No. This is by far the worst that one of my tables has ever done!" he shouted at Rabie. "This problem is getting fixed NOW!" His angry roar silenced everyone else on the cell block. Rabie didn't speak. Neither did anyone else. As Onhika glared angrily at the rest of Table 5 going from man to man, Zuko sighed and stood up. 

The noise caused Onhika to focus his attention on Zuko. "You got something to say?" he almost dared Zuko to speak. "Yeah." Zuko replied calmly, despite the huge angry man staring at him. "Collin would do his stuff at the control panel, then come and help assemble." Zuko explained. "Since Rabie took over, he just stays at the control panel. While we assemble." Rabie glared with an intense fury in his eyes at Zuko. Zuko ignored him and continued, "With the extra bit of help from the Table Leader we can go just a bit faster." Zuko paused, 'Without the help we fall farther and farther behind." Finished speaking, Zuko crossed his arms over his chest and looked back at Onhika. The anger on the man's face lightened a bit. Onhika turned and looked at everyone but Rabie. "This true?" he asked much more calmly. Harren, Parek, Terry and Ulaf all agreed with Zuko. 

Ohnika turned to Rabie's cell and looked him over. After several more  moments of silence passed, Onhika addressed Rabie. 'From now on you help assemble every single one. If I hear from anyone at Table 5 that you are not pulling your weight, you will regret it. Understand?" Onhika's posture leads Zuko to know that Rabie, infact everyone on 5 - 2 - D, understands. Having made his point, Onhika leaves without saying another word. Zuko sits down on his bed and starts oozing dinner onto his plate. He knows that there will be consequences for pointing out Rabie's laziness, but on the other hand Zuko does not want to be fried every damn day going forward. 

---- 

The next shift Rabie made his move. As the men were all entering the work room for the shift, Zuko is shoved and stumbles several steps forward before catching his balance. He spins around, instinct taking over hands raised and feet stable in a fighting stance. "You like being a fucking rat?" shouted Rabie angrily. Zuko glared at him. "I'm not getting fried over your lazy ass!" he shot back. The rest of Table 5 stopped walking and watched the confrontation unfolding. Rabie stepped towards Zuko fists raised. Rabie swung at Zuko with his right arm. Zuko sidestepped the attack deftly. This just made Rabie madder and he started swinging wildly in Zuko's direction. Zuko stayed light on his feet and kept dodging Rabie's frenzied attacks. "Come here and fight me you little bitch!" screamed Rabie. 

Anger flashed in Zuko's eyes, he momentarily was back in the Agni Kai arena. His father looming over him kneeling on the cold stone floor. You will fight for your honour Prince Zuko ringing in his head. Being knocked to the cold metal floor snapped Zuko back to the present. In an instant Zuko scrambled back to his feet and years of combat training kicked in and Zuko spun his right foot around in a low arc, using the momentum of the spin to hop and shift his full weight to his right foot. Now picking up more momentum he brought his left heel around in a fast sweeping arc and struck Rabie in the head. Rabie fell backwards to the floor with a thud. 

Zuko's blood was pounding in his ears. He was not sure of the last time he had felt such a good release of his anger. Onhika's terrible bark at Table 5 killed Zuko's anger and replaced it with fear. Shit, he had been in a fight. He would now end up with punishment. Fuck! Zuko cursed internally, why couldn't he think these things out! Onhika was quickly approaching the group of men. He was incensed Zuko could tell by the vein angrily throbbing in his temple. And the fact that his face was twisted into an incredibly angry expression. "THE! FUCK! IS! THIS!" Onhika exploded at the group. Silence followed the ear splitting question, and all Zuko could hear was his own quick breathing. Zuko was working on calming his breathing to be able to explain but Jemboc cut in, "Rabie called Zuko a rat. Shoved Zuko. Tried to start a fight. Zuko kept away but then Rabie landed a blow. Zuko hit the floor, was back on his feet like that." Jemboc snapped his fingers while looking at Zuko impressed. "Zuko did a really fast spinning kick and knocked Rabie down." Jemboc finished with a shrug. Onhika glanced at a few of the other men who just nodded in agreement with Jemboc's statement. "FIne." growled Onhika, he turned and stood over Rabie who was still laying on his back, his hands on his head. "You." spat Onhika at Rabie, "Are going to Table 1." Rabie got up slowly holding his hand on his head, covering the place where Zuko had kicked him. "And no more Table Lead for you." Onhika grunted at Rabie as he escorted him to Table 1. 

The rest of Table 5 shared a quick look at each other and then walked over to their workstation. With a quiet sigh, Terry walked over to the Table Lead spot and hit the controls to start the daily work. No one said anything and all the men just started their tasks. They were about halfway through their first one when Onhika walked back with a new man. Terry was made the new Table Lead and Melshi joined Table 5. Melshi proved to be a good worker and the progress was easily better than the past two days. 

Jemboc mentioned the fight again when the shift was about three quarters through. "Guys, I think it would be a point of pride to beat Table 1 today." He looked up at the rest of the men with a small smile on his face. Parek answered first, "Hah! Sounds good to me!" the man grinned as he pulled on a wrench. "First we get to watch Zuko put Rabie in his place, now we get to beat his table? I'm in!" agreed Terry. The other men all quickly voiced their agreement, and then started to work harder to hit that goal. Terry kept them advised of their standing. Table 5 was neck and neck with Table 1. They were ahead of last place by some, but now it was a point of pride to be able to beat Table 1 with the sudden swap of men. 

Zuko was tired, and sore, at the end of the 12 hour shift, but they had done it. Table 1 had slowed down in the last hour of the shift and Table 5 had beat them by 7. Everyone at the table was happy at that, and Zuko felt a small smile on his face for the first time in a long time. Standing the in the window hallway, Zuko looked out trying to see, well anything, in the darkness outside. Parek partially turned to Zuko and asked, "So damn Zuko, where did you learn to fight like that?" The question took Zuko by surprise, no one had asked him anything about his past before now. "Uhh, I was trained in combat since I was young. Well younger." he stammered. Parek appraised Zuko with his eyes. "Well, I have seen about a thousand fights in my life and I have never seen anyone move quite like that. You were so fast and mobile." Parek turned and half faced Zuko to talk to him easier. "The way you just popped up off the ground and were already attacking was fucking amazing." Parek told Zuko. Zuko snorted, almost chuckling, before responding, "I was actually pretty sloppy. I uhh, had a moment, that was when Rabie stuck me and I went down. Then my training just kind of kicked in." Ulaf laughed from behind them, "Just kicked in huh?" The rest of the men laughed and Zuko felt slightly embarrassed at his choice of words. Harren reached out and tapped Zuko on the back.  Turning his head to face Harren, Zuko realized by the grin on Harren's face that Harren was actually patting him on the back. "Well done teaching that stuck up fuck a lesson." 

As Zuko ate supper that evening he felt slightly better than he had in a long time. There was even some more energy among the other men of Table 5. Melshi had switched cells with Rabie, and there was some conversation about Melshi's past that Zuko listened in on. The other men even briefly chatted about their own pasts. Zuko listened to their stories and was glad to know them all a little better. That night he fell asleep quickly and had a decent night's sleep for the first time in all of his 560 shifts. 

---- 

As more shifts passed, Zuko noticed the morale of Table 5 had risen. The men talked and joked regularly during their work. Zuko was included in conversation, which still was new to him. His father had ensured that he did not have friends, always being tutored and trained alone. His father had justified the tactic by telling Zuko that the Firelord had to be a singular pillar of strength for the nation. Friends, were weaknesses that could be used against the Firelord, either by being kidnapped and held for ransom, or distracting him from his great mission. Zuko had followed his father's orders fastidiously during his youth. Which meant that now he had next to no social skills and worse, no idea how to talk to other people. 

But after having chased the ghost of the Avatar for three years before Aang appeared at the South Pole meant that Zuko was no stranger to difficult challenges. The fact that he had nothing in common with the other men, other than being imprisoned with them, also made conversation difficult. Therefore Zuko joined the conversation when he could. He learned what he could from the other men. 

Parek was from a warm sunny tropical place. Terry loved to exercise believing keeping in perfect physical form was good for mental health. Zuko then noticed that Terry would exercise in his cell every night and every morning before a shift. Which made sense as to how the man was just a bulging mass of muscles. Zuko had grown stronger arm and torso muscles, due to the constant work, but he was always tired at the end of the shift and preferred to try sleeping as much as he could. 

Harren was the next man to be switched out, and he tried to keep the excitement out of his voice when he talked about returning to his farm and seeing his family again. Zuko wondered what it would be like to have his family happy to see him again. If he had returned with the Avatar in chains, would his father have really welcomed him home? Thinking back on how his father had banished him in the first place, Zuko was no longer certain that his father would have welcomed him back. Zuko knew that Azula certainly would not have, he would have suddenly outshined her, and she had been father's favorite for so long.  Her jealously would probably have been deadly Zuko realized. 

He reminded himself that he had finally captured the Avatar at the North Pole, and still had lost. His heart sank as the truth finally took hold in his mind, he would never be able to capture Aang. The realization hit him like a physical slap. He was not powerful or smart enough to capture Aang. And when had Zuko started calling the Avatar by his name? When had the Avatar gone from being his enemy to, well, they certainly were not friends, but what did that make them now? This understanding, that he would never end his banishment by capturing the Avatar, came to Zuko at the end of shift 873. Zuko tried to meditate that evening, but it was exceedingly difficult to focus his mind. 

He felt almost relieved, which was not how he knew he should be feeling at that thought. Failing his father again, should fill him with dread, Zuko should double down on his commitment. Like he had done countless times during his search for the Avatar, when there seemed to be no hope. But try as he might, Zuko could not find any mental strength to be afraid of the Firelord. Maybe the rumors were right, and there were drugs in the food to control the prisoner's moods. Maybe that was why Zuko had these traitorous thoughts. 

Not that it really matters, Zuko thought bitterly to himself. While imprisoned, he had no idea how things were going back home. 

His thoughts turned to Uncle, the only person who would be happy to see Zuko no matter what. And Zuko would be happy to see him. Though he had never told Uncle, he loved him dearly. Even with all of his spirit monologues, moralizing, and endless tea times. Tea! Oh how Zuko would love a nice cup of tea. Anything with some flavour! Idly Zuko wondered if eating some particularly spicy fire flakes, one of his favourite snacks, right now would kill him due to the intense flavour after so long eating tasteless food. With a heavy sigh, Zuko gave up on trying to meditate. He laid down to sleep, and fell into a very deep sleep with no nightmares. 

---- 

The morning of Zuko's 1000th shift started out like all the rest. Meditation, terrible meal, communal shower, and the march to the Table 5. But something was off. Zuko had silently been counting shifts since day one. Now it was one thousand. Something in Zuko was aching for a change. Something to be different. He did not even realize that he had spoken until Parek had turned and looked at him. "One thousandth shift eh?" Parek had confirmed. "Yeah." Zuko stammered out in response, his mind was racing. 1000 shifts of the exact fucking same. And Zuko still had more than 1000 left to go before his full sentence was served.  
As the men gathered around their worktable, Zuko suddenly knew what his mind was trying to say. "If." He started to say, before taking a deep breath, "if we can, if you wouldn't mind. I would like to try for first place. I want to see what passes for taste around here." Zuko felt embarrassed for asking. He had done nothing to earn the right to make such a demand of the others. 

Terry, Parek and Harren reacted almost instantly. The three men shared a quick glance with each other and then smiled back at Zuko. Melshi and Jemboc looked at the others and then quickly voiced their agreement with trying for first. The only man who had not responded was Ulaf. Zuko looked at the old man as the table began to spit out the first part of their workday. Ulaf went straight into his work, so Zuko and the rest followed suit. A moment later Ulaf finally spoke, "I'll do it boys." Ulaf grunted as he worked, "But if I am going to go all out today, I want some entertainment while I eat." No one said anything and a moment of silence, except for the sounds of the work, followed. 

"What do you mean?" asked Jemboc breaking the silence. Ulaf looked up, but did not stop working, "I mean its sooo boring in the evenings." explained the old man. "Someone tell a story, recite a play, give a damn speech, just something other than my own thoughts for the evening." A few of the other men murmured in acknowledgement. "A story? You want to hear a story?" Zuko asked still trying to understand what UIaf had meant. Ulaf nodded in response but kept up his work. Zuko glanced at the rest of the men as they all lifted the heavy metal contraption that they had just constructed onto the rack. After rushing back to the table, Zuko took a few quick breaths while out of the table the first part of the next piece rose into position. "Fine." Zuko blurted out, before his brain processed what he had said. "I'll tell you my story. From the begining to all the way to how I ended up in here." Ulaf smiled back at Zuko in response. Parek looked at Zuko momentarily locking eyes with him while inquiring, "Will it include where you learned to fight so light on your feet?" Zuko scoffed at the question before responding. "It wouldn't really be the whole story if I left that part out now would it?" Parek laughed once and smiled as he focused on the work in front of him. 

---- 

Zuko was tired. His muscles were stiff and sore. He stretched them in the windowed hallway as they waited to return to their cells. But despite his tiredness and stiffness, he was proud. Table 5 had done it. They had taken top place by 4 more than Table 3. Secretly Zuko was excited for flavored food. He was less excited for telling his story. Not because he wanted to back out, or was afraid of telling these men his history, but he knew he was not a good storyteller. Azula had always been better at retelling stories, reciting plays, and making people listen to her. Not that it really mattered, Zuko told himself with a huff. If his story was terrible, they just would tell him to stop talking. 

Zuko was almost at his cell when another prisoner approached him. He was from Table 4. He had been here as long as Zuko had been here. Which was really saying something, most of the other men recieved much shorter sentences than Zuko. Probably for keeping their damn mouths shut he reckoned. However the fact stood that most of the men who had been here when Zuko had started his sentence, had now been replaced. Zuko searched his mind, he knew this man's name! He was taller than Zuko, with greying hair slicked back close to his head. He had a square face and a determined look in his eyes. "You took top table for the first time today." The man stated this fact to Zuko, which concerned him. Was, Kino! That was his name! Was Kino angry at them for beating the usual top place tables? Zuko only nodded back at Kino. Kino stopped close to Zuko. Zuko felt like momentarily stepping inside his cell to avoid a potential confrontation. 

Kino looked at a few of the other men from Table 5. He turned back to Zuko, "Far as I can determine, the flavor is in the food tube." he explained. "Something in the metal nozzle neutralizes the flavor." He took a step away from Zuko so that he could address all of the men from Table 5, "So, dump out the first bit of your food to the side of the plate. That way you will get full flavor food separated from the usual crap." He gave Zuko a brief grin before walking away without another word. Slightly confused at the interaction, Zuko looked at Melshi for a moment who just shrugged his shoulders and then got his plate off the back of his cell. 

Zuko followed suit and soon oozed out the first bit of food to the side of his plate before depositing his usual amount for dinner in the center. The first mouthful and Zuko almost wept at the salty meaty taste. It was like a cheap salted meat mush. But after 1000 days of forcing himself to consume his meals, the salty meat flavour was heavenly to Zuko. He quickly ate it all, savouring each bite. After taking a moment to smile to himself, Zuko oozed out a second helping and ate more slowly, trying to savour the flavour as much as possible. It was like a festival for his mouth. Eating was an enjoyable experience again. 

The good meal brightened Zuko's mood for his upcoming task. After he drank some water, he walked to the edge of his cell. The red lights of the floor glowed ominously below him. To his left, Zuko could see Ulaf eating slowly and watching him. None of the men from Table 5 said anything, therefore Zuko decided to just start talking. "I, uh, grew up in a very different world." Zuko started. "I was born in a palace." A few men whistled at this information. "I was born to Lady Ursa, and Crown Prince Ozai." He continued describing the rest of his family, and the fact that at the time of his birth he was fourth in line for the throne. That caused a bit of a stir among the rest of the men. And Zuko realized that most of the men on 5 -2 - D were listening, because the men from the far ends called for him to speak louder. 

When Zuko explained that the throne was for the Fire Nation, he realized that he had to explain bending. No one seemed to know what bending was, and Zuko tried his best to describe how he had used to be able to shoot flames from his hands. Whether the others believed him or not was hard to judge. But quickly realizing that it did not matter if they believed him or not, Zuko continued. Ulaf had asked for a story, and Zuko was telling them his story. He talked about his childhood, growing up under the watchful judgement of his father. Quickly being outshined by Azula who excelled at everything she tried, where he struggled to master the basics of firebending, academics, leadership, anything that mattered to his father. He talked about training with his dual dao swords, and how he was finally good at something. Only to have to explain at how angry his father had been at him when he had found out. Firebenders were supposed to only need their firebending to fight. To have to rely upon a weapon to defend yourself when you were a firebender was a disgrace. Particularly so for Zuko as a member of the Royal Family who were supposedly blessed by Agni himself with exceptionally strong bending. 

Zuko told them about the war. And how the Fire Nation had been conquering the world for the past century and was close to complete victory. He described the start of the war as he had been taught by his tutors, but he also told them how he had actually started to question the narrative. There were parts of the official Fire Nation history that were far too convenient for Zuko to now just blindly accept. For instance, that the Air Nation was planning on attacking the Fire Nation right around the arrival of Sozin's comet made no sense to Zuko. This was something he was going to have to ask Uncle about when they finally reconnected. 
Zuko told them about Uncle Iroh and Lu Ten. He paused when talking about Lu Ten and Zuko realized he still missed his cousin deeply. Which almost caused him to tear up when talking about Uncle's endless moralizing and tea drinking. He missed Iroh so much. He told them about when his grandfather, Firelord Azulon passed away at age 8. And how his mother had visited him that night, and then was never seen again. Zuko suspected that his father knew exactly what happened that night, and he told the men that. Zuko described how much worse his life became after his mother left. His father's ascension to the throne had only increased the pressure on Zuko to succeed and no matter how hard he tried, Zuko could never live up to the man's expectations. And how Azula just seemed to breeze through every challenge, test, and firebending form in front of her, making Zuko seem horribly inadequate in the process. 

Someone from further down interrupted Zuko with a question. He wanted to know about women. There were some rueful laughs from a few other men. Ulaf shot back, "He's just a teenager!" The man was undeterred, "He was a prince! He must have had women throwing themselves at him." Zuko lowered his gaze to one of the red lights below him, and after a moment continued. "My father did not want me to have friends. He saw friends as a weakness. The Firelord did not need friends." Zuko kept his gaze lowered. "So I did not really interact much with people my own age, girls included." That caused some muttering among a few men. "But my sister had two friends, who I occasionally interacted with. Ty Lee was an incredible acrobat, able to walk upside down on her hands. And then there was Mai, who liked to throw knives that she hid up her arms." Zuko looked up and saw Melshi looking at him quizzically. "She got really good at it and could hit a very small target from quite far away. Sometimes I tried to practice with her. She would laugh at me when I failed, which was often." Zuko took a deep breath and decided to keep going down this path. "One time when I was eight, I woke up at night to the sound of someone crying in the hallway. My sister was having a sleepover with Mai and Ty Lee." Zuko paused, and really thought about his next words, in a way he was confessing part of his own mind, revealing things that he had only really recently come to accept about his old life. "My sister, was, IS, a bully. She had done something during the day that had upset Mai to the point of where she couldn't sleep. I found her crying by herself in the hallway. I just sat beside her. And then tried to comfort her by putting my arm around her while she cried. I forget how long we sat there, but she stopped crying and then thanked me and went back to Azula's room. The next day she started trying to teach me how to throw knives like her." Zuko smiled at the memory. When he had failed terribly Mai had laughed at him, but she had smiled at the same time. And her smile was worth his failure he had thought. 

Zuko was about to start the next part when Kino interjected from a few cells down, stating that it was getting late and that he wanted to go to bed soon. The news took Zuko back a bit, he had not been talking for that long had he? Turned out he had been talking for close to three hours about his old life. And he had not even gotten to his banishment. "Well, one more story for tonight." Zuko replied. "And then if Table 5 takes top place again tomorrow I will continue." Ulaf nodded enthusiastically at Zuko. "Besides," Zuko drawled, "this is the story I know you all want to hear." A quick glance left and right proved Zuko correct, all the men he could see were looking at him. "Don't tell me that you have not all wondered at some point how I got this scar." A collective 'Mmmmhmm' answered Zuko, he sighed before speaking. "I was thirteen years old. In an effort to try to impress my father, I wanted to attend a War Council meeting. Only the FireLord and his top advisors, including the top generals and admirals were allowed to attend. The guards actually stopped me from entering the meeting, because I was too young. But I was able to convince my Uncle to let me in with him. He agreed on one condition. That I would not speak. Seemed simple enough, so I agreed. Well one of the generals was proposing a plan, that was just terrible. It called for using a division of fresh recruits as a diversion against an experienced enemy while our more experienced troops hit the enemy from behind after the battle started. The new recruits would be slaughtered. Sacrificed. For not even an important victory. Just to gain a general some more glory." 

Zuko took a deep breath, "I couldn't sit still and listen to this awful idea. I jumped to my feet and shouted at the old general. I asked him how he could betray the troops that love and defend our nation. Well that was my mistake, and the Firelord was very angry at me questioning the general's plan. He, my father, said I had to fight an Agni Kai. A fire duel between firebenders. It only ends when one opponent has been burned or dies. It is a way to settle issues of honour in the Fire Nation. I looked at the old general, and claimed that I was not afraid." 

Zuko cleared his throat, as his eyes began to water a little bit at the memory. He had never actually told anyone this story before. He still felt somewhat ashamed at what had happened. Zuko blinked hard and continued, "When I turned to face my opponent, to my shock, it was not the old general. It was my father." There was a small amount of muttering at this revelation. "You see, because I had challenged the general in my father's War Council, I had actually disrespected my father. So now I had to fight my father." Zuko's eyes continued to water. "My father is one of the most powerful benders in the world. On my best day, I was mediocre. On top of that, the Firelord is like the father of the nation. Loyalty is one of the key elements of the Fire Nation, under no circumstances could I fight the Firelord, whether he was my own father or not. So, I didn't fight. I fell to my knees and begged for his forgiveness. That I was his loyal son. I meant no disrespect, I only had the Fire Nation's best interests at heart." Zuko brushed some of the water out of his eyes. "He didn't care. He walked towards me ordering me to fight. I refused. As he got close to me, he told me that by refusing to fight I was dishonouring myself. And that I would learn respect, and pain and suffering would be my teacher. He stopped right in front of me. He placed his right hand on my shoulder and I looked up at my father's face. He looked down at me with a smile, a sadistic smile. He then used his left hand to grab my hair. And with his right hand in flames, he pressed it against my face while I screamed in pain." Loud murmuring interrupted Zuko, after it died down some, he continued. "I passed out from the pain. I woke up the next day to find out that I was banished from the Fire Nation. But that is a story for tomorrow." Zuko did not look up from where he was staring at the red lights across the floor from him. 

"Hold on!" Parek called out. "Your OWN FATHER!?!? Burned your face!?" Still not looking up, Zuko nodded once. "That is fucked up." Parek swore. Other men called their agreement. Sighing deeply Zuko replied, "Yeah, I realize that now. But at the time, and for years afterwards, I believed that I had deserved it for disrespecting him." Suddenly wishing to no longer be the center of attention, Zuko walked to his bed, turned out the light, drank some water and laid down facing the wall. That way no one could see the tears falling as he heard his father's booming voice in his head 'You will learn respect. And pain and suffering will be your teacher!'. Zuko silently wept for some time. The rest of the men quietly talked among themselves for a while before they all went to sleep. After some time Zuko fell into a deep dreamless sleep. 

---- 

The next morning was the same as every other morning, with one slight exception. Meditation, a tasteful meal, communal shower, and the march to the Table 5. Zuko kept his gaze downcast. He felt vulnerable and slightly embarassed by tearing up when he had explained how he got his scar to all the other men. As he reached Table 5 Zuko noticed some of the other men looking at him. Not wanting to be subject to their stares, Zuko kept his eyes on the table, waiting for the work to start. Parek's voice rached him. "Hey Zuko. Thanks for telling us that stuff last night." Zuko looked up at him. Parek was looking at Zuko with genuine concern and care on his face. "That cannot have been an easy story to tell." Zuko scoffed, and then smiled at the table not Parek. "It wasn't." Zuko replied, "And it was actually the first time I have talked about it since it happened." The table erupted into a hive of activity as the shift started and the men all went to work. 

"So." Ulaf let the word hang in the air while the men worked. "I am up for another good meal today." the old man continued. "And to hear the rest of Zuko's story." he finished with a smile at Zuko. Quickly the rest of the men at the table heartily agreed and all seemed to instantly work harder at their tasks. Zuko smiled as the realization overcame him. The men wanted to hear more of his story, they were interested in his life. Zuko was not being pitied by them, they were treating him, like, well a friend, as far as Zuko knew. Now actually grinning, Zuko confirmed his promise, if they took top place again he would continue his life story. 

Thus shift 1001 ended and Table 5 had taken the top place again. It was like a race to climb a mountain, Zuko thought idly on the way back to their cells. The highest reaching team was rewarded with extra rations, while the last place was punished. A terrible system, but one his father would love to employ. For the rest of the march back to the cells Zuko smiled as he was excited to eat the salty meaty meal. He was looking forward to something for once. He felt a strangely at peace in his heart. Which was not something that Zuko had felt for a long time. Not since he had spent time with his mother. When the demands of the world (ie his father) were pushed aside and he could just enjoy himself. Which was a strange feeling here, where he was a prisoner, forced to compete with other prisoners. But the strange calmness remained nonetheless. 

The meal was enjoyable, and Zuko thought to himself that he really could get used to eating flavored food regularly. Downing his meal with some water, Zuko returned to the edge of his cell to continue his story. He started by explaining that his banishment meant that he could not return to the Fire Nation, at all. He was allowed to go to Fire Nation military ports, for resupply, but he could not leave the port. He then told the men that his father had cruelly thrown an impossible task in front of him. He could restore his honour by capturing the Avatar. The Avatar being the legendarily powerful bender who could bend all four elements. And most importantly, had not been seen in over 100 years. Essentially he was sent on a wild ghost chase. But being thirteen, and desperate for his father's approval, he set to the task immediately. 

Zuko talked more about his Uncle, and how he had left the privileged life of the palace to come with Zuko on his journey. Zuko admitted to the men, that it was very likely without his Uncle being present, his own crew probably would have thrown him overboard within a month. He admitted to being unsuited to command, incredibly short tempered, and generally an unpleasant person to be around. He even told them that although he had never told his Uncle, he had greatly appreciated his presence. How his Uncle was the only family member that he had left that actually cared for him, and how Zuko had been afraid to tell him that he loved him. 

He tried his best to describe all of the places that he had gone and searched in vain during the three years. The memories came rushing back to him, each of the air temples, where he had spent days wandering aimlessly, and all of the other obscure places that he had gone and searched to no avail. Then when he had nearly given up, down near the southern pole, the bright beam of light that had shot into the sky. His attack on the Southern Watertribe, facing the Avatar, only to find a 12 year old child, who still managed to escape him. The frantic pursuit, to Kyoshi Island, which he had incidentally set on fire. He now regretted that act, but at the time, they were harboring the Avatar and he had felt justified in his actions. 

He talked about how he had defied his banishment and chased the Avatar to Roku's Island inside the Fire Nation. How Zhao had been there and nearly ruined his chance at capturing the Avatar. The fact that Zuko had spent three years studying the Avatar and knew that the Avatar would be searching for a waterbending teacher and so how Zuko knew that the Avatar would eventually arrive at the North Pole. He talked about how Zhao had commandered his crew for the attack on the North Pole and tried to assassinate him. And how Zuko had then snuck aboard Zhao's own ship disguised as a soldier. Then how Zuko had snuck into the North Pole by swimming under the ice walls. Many of the men commented about this feat, and Zuko felt slightly proud of his actions, despite how his efforts had ended. He told them about sneaking to the Spirit Oasis, and finding his target neutralized while in the Spirit World. How he had fought against the waterbender, and was almost completely encased in ice. But he had broke free, overwhelmed her, and captured the Avatar. In his haste to escape, how he had run into the open ice sheets during a frigid blizzard carrying the Avatar. Hiding in the ice cave, waiting for a break in the storm, only to have the Avatar regain consciousness and start to get away. And then when the Avatar's friends showed up and the waterbender soundly defeated him. 

Zuko told them about waking up restrained in the sky bison's saddle, how he had wormed his way out. How the moon had turned red and then he had tried to stop Zhao from killing the moon spirit. How he had failed and thought he had drowned. Waking up in the ice cell, the escape attempt that lead to the awful metal muzzle. The tribe meeting to decide his fate. Nearly suffocating due to the muzzle and finally the meeting with the spirit. "Then I fell out of the sky and landed on a white armoured soldier." Zuko stated. "I tried to explain that it was an accident, and I was arrested. Taken away and given a three year sentence, which became 6 when I asked some questions. And then I was sent here." Zuko took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. That was it, he had told his story. Everyone knew now. It was mostly quiet, a few men chatted with each other, but no one spoke to Zuko. He turned away and laid down to sleep. Like the night before, he fell into a deep dreamless sleep. 

---- 

Something had changed. Zuko could not put his finger on exactly what, but as the shifts passed, he felt more at peace with himself and he was sleeping restfully every night. Again the only real way to tell that time was passing was when someone was replaced with a new man. Harren was switched out and was replaced by a much younger, thinner man named Taga. Taga had some difficulty adjusting to his new life as a forced labourer. Though it was all confined to complaining about the conditions, which was utterly useless thought Zuko, no one could do anything about it, and everyone agreed with him, though no one would say it because then Taga would direct his endless complaining at that person. Ultimately Onhika told him to be quiet or face the consequences, and Taga stopped complaining. 

The biggest change happened when Onhika completed his sentence and was replaced by Kino as the Dayshift manager. Despite being shorter, Kino was no less fierce and kept everything running just as smoothly as before. Terry was replaced by a black haried man named Xaul. He had dark eyes and a large nose, but quickly picked up the prison life and was a hard worker. They were not in last place for long after he arrived. 

Jemboc had replaced Terry as the Table Lead. There had been the suggestion that Zuko could take the position and Zuko had laughed at the idea. Even though he had been there for longer than the rest of the men except for Parek, who did not have much time left, Zuko knew he was ill suited to the position. Sure he could do the job, push the buttons as required and such, but the other men would probably take an issue from taking orders from someone so much younger than them. Particularly when a new man joined Table 5. Therefore Jemboc had taken the position. 

On the evening of shift 1377 Parek announced that he had two shifts left. His excitement was envious to Zuko. Not that he held a grudge against Parek, he just wished that he was that close to his own release. Parek was happily discussing his plans upon release with Melshi and Ulaf, detailing exactly where he was going to go find some loose women immediately upon release. Zuko laughed to himself at their conversation. Even when he did get released, even if he somehow got back to his own world, there was no one waiting for him. Except maybe Pakku with his damn smirk, and a pair of manacles. Parek's question surprised him and pulled him out of his thoughts. "So, Zuko, say you do get back to your own world after this, what do you plan to do?" Zuko paused, he had so many shifts left that had not really thought about it before now, and he told Parek that. Parek was undeterred and pressed Zuko for an answer saying, "What about your Uncle? You sounded pretty close to him?" 

Zuko was not able to look up, due to the fear in his heart that Uncle may not have survived the North Pole. "If he survived, well, we had a backup plan." Zuko said slowly. "We had made it in the first few months of my banishment, that if something happened and the ship was lost, which has now happened. If we could not find each other within a week, we would make our ways to the Earth Kingdom and then to the city of Ba Sing Se, disguised as refugees, and find each other there." Zuko's heart lifted as he recalled the plan. "Yeah, so that is what I will do. I will head to Ba Sing Se and search for my Uncle." Parek called it a good plan and then went on with his vivid description of certain females that he was going to seek out and Zuko once again ignored the conversation. 

He thought of Uncle, if there was some way, Uncle would have made it out of the North. And then he would have tried to look for Zuko, and ultimately gone on with their plan. Zuko almost laughed as he remembered when Uncle had insisted that they make the plan, just in case. Zuko had been so certain that he was going to find and capture the Avatar, and quickly too, that he had greatly resisted the idea. However Uncle had persisted and Zuko had reluctantly agreed, if only to stop Uncle from pestering him about it, and the plan had been set. Now, Zuko smiled at the memory, it was almost as if Uncle had known that something would eventually happen and had planned appropriately. Having a plan for after his release lifted Zuko's spirits immensely. It was heartening to think about what his life might look like after this terrible prison sentence was up. 

Parek smiled at Table 5 as he was lifted away, and the new man Bookasa replaced him. Bookasa was incredibly argumentative and made it well known that he did not want to be here. Unfortunately for Table 5 that resulted in him working slow and they were far in last place during his first shift. Kino wasted no time after the shift was over and in a very short, one sided fight, beat up Bookasa and then Kino explained the way things worked in 5 - 2 - D. Bookasa was unhappy with that, but he stopped whining about it and started to work harder. 

But everything changed after shift 1398. They were standing in line in the windowed hallway, Taga was doing some sort of hand signal communication with another prisoner in another hallway across the prison. The guard's voice came over the speakers and told the men to get on program, everyone complied. Then the guard announced that some new legislation had been passed. The Public Order Resentencing Decree. All sentences were now doubled, effective immediately. The mood turned dark instantly. 

Zuko only had 792 shifts left. Now the number was 1584. Any hope or dreams of life after being released, were now pushed far out of his mind. Calculating the time, Zuko realized with a terrible shock that he now had over four years left to serve. After he had served nearly four years already. Zuko was upset, angry, but also exhausted and defeated. There was nothing that he could do about it. The guards held all the power, and the prisoners just had to take the abuse. 
Everyone was depressed at the news, and it showed in their work. All tables performed worse over the next few shifts, and even the guards noticed. They started announcing that productivity levels were unacceptable at the end of every shift. This had no real effect on anything Zuko thought, because the guards could complain all they wanted, but the morale had hit rock bottom. 

The night of shift 1406 Bookasa stepped onto the floor and passed screaming in pain. Startled awake by the terrible noise, Zuko saw the lifeless body on the floor and understood. He had not been the first suicide, a few other men had just given up rather than accept their new lengthy sentences. Bookasa had gotten a three year sentence, and then it had jumped to 6. The man might have been difficult to deal with, but he did not deserve this punishment. No one did, Zuko told himself. Here were good men, most of them having done nothing wrong, being forced to work in terrible conditions, under the threat of pain and death. All while under the guards' constant surviellance. Zuko sighed deeply and laid down on his bed, knowing that he was not going to get a restful sleep for the rest of the night. 

Chapter Text

Shift 1407 was a bad one because Table 5 was a man short the whole day until the last hour of the shift when finally their new man was delivered. He was named Kiff. Like everyone else it took Kiff a bit to get used to his new surroundings, but he was a hard worker and Table 5 was out of last place in a few shifts. Kiff was inquisitive, Zuko noticed. He was always asking questions, about the work, the prison, the guards, the floor, everything. But not in a demanding or off-putting manner. Kiff was trying to gain information, but for what purpose, Zuko couldn't guess. Zuko just observed him asking questions, and then Kino warned Kiff about flapping his mouth. 

Another man jumped on the floor in the night, and Zuko began to get anxious about falling asleep for the fear that he would be woke up by a terrifying scream of pain and find out another man had given up. Even though there was nothing that he could do, Zuko felt awful that this was happening. Why were things allowed to be so terrible here? Why would anyone allow such abuse? Zuko sighed, he did know the answer. Men like his father, who just enjoyed being cruel, because they could. The thought made Zuko feel sick. Which in turn did not help him sleep. 

Shift 1437 was like any other, until it ended and the men were in the windowed hallway waiting to go back to their cells. The men on the nightshift stood to their left facing the opposite direction waiting to go to the work tables. The wait was taking longer than usual. Taga was doing his hand motions, somehow communicating something from another part of the prison. Given the already bad morale, the extra waiting was jarring on most of the men. Suddenly Taga became far more intensely focused on his hand signals. "Something's wrong on Two. Far side." he exclaimed. Then the lights dimmed, and a bone chilling electric thunk noise reverberrated throughout the hallway. "Something's really wrong on two!" Taga shouted. This caused Kino to rush over and berate Taga for getting worked up over something happening on the other side of the building. Before anyone could really counter Kino's point, the guard's voice ordered everyone on program and to be silent, otherwise floors would be activated without warning. Everyone complied, and the doors finally opened letting the shifts through. 

Zuko thought nothing more of the incident until the next morning. As they were waiting the hallway some men from the nightshift anxiously asked if they had heard what happened. Of course they hadn't, Zuko thought, they had been in their cells asleep, no way to get news from any source. After a bit more back and forth one of the nightshift men blurt out that an entire floor had been fried on level 2. All one hundred men were dead. Zuko was frozen in horror. He knew that the floor could be deadly, but after so much time had passed he had let that fact sink to the back of his mind. Now the guards had killed one hundred men. Zuko was horrified. The Nightshift Manager walked by where Kino was standing, which happened to be near the men from Table 5 and Zuko heard him tell Kino that apparently the men had been "making trouble". Which was apparently justification to kill them all Zuko thought bitterly. 

Unfortunately Olaf's hearing was not as good as Ulaf asked what had happened. Jemboc replied that they did not know what happened. Melshi stated that they 'set them all free' which was not entirely untrue Zuko thought, but fuck, a terrible way to think about it. Kino must have thought the same because he struck Melshi in the stomach. Only Kiff's intervention prevented a fight. Kino addressed the men, stating that there was a rumor going around, maybe it was true, maybe it wasn't, all that mattered was that it was another day, just another shift. The door opened and Zuko marched forward with all the rest of the men to start shift 1438. 

---- 

One thing that did brighten his mind, was the fact that Ulaf, despite the doubling of sentences, was nearing the end of his. Zuko liked the old man. He was a good man, he kind of reminded Zuko of Uncle, and Zuko wanted to see him get out of here. Seeing someone released would help everyone's morale Zuko reckoned. Unfortunately on shift 1438 things took a turn for the worse. 

The shift was going like every other shift, except Ulaf kept asking questions. The same questions that he had just asked minutes before. Asking where they stood in relation to the top table. Ulaf tried to distract the other men by briskly shouting that they needed to work to win, but Zuko grew concerned that something was wrong. Then at the end of the shift, when the last place table went to the "box" to be fried, all the men went on program as usual. Ulaf stumbled and collapsed on the table. The other men quickly arranged themselves so that Ulaf was hidden from the guards observation, but something was seriously wrong with Ulaf. Melshi and Kiff helped Ulaf walk back to the cells but in the windowed hallway Ulaf fell. Kino ordered everyone to keep going while he told the nightshift manager request a medic. Zuko looked back as he walked away and saw Kino and Kiff gently arranging Ulaf against the wall so he could rest. Then the door shut. 

Not long after, Kino and Kiff entered the cell block, just the two of them. Standing at the edge of his cell watching, Zuko's heart sank. He knew it, before Kiff said anything, that Ulaf had died. Zuko's heart sank. The old man had deserved better. Kiff, kept talking and Zuko half heartedly listened to what he was saying, until Kiff mentioned that a doctor came down and told him and Kino what had happened on Level Two. Kiff was explaining loudly, "A man that was released on Four, ended up back on Two the next day. Word got out and they killed them all!" Zuko was numb at that information. Release, was well release! Going home! Getting the fuck away from here! Other men challenged what Kiff was saying, stating that the guards would never tell a doctor anything. Kiff then urged Kino to back him up and to tell the men what the doctor had said was true. Kino had gone into his cell, and was not saying anything. Kiff continued nonetheless. Then Kino finally spoke. "Nobody! Is getting! Out of here!" He said it with a finality that hit Zuko like a physical strike. Kino walked to the edge of his cell and addressed all of them. "The rumors are true. They're not letting us go. We're gonna die here. Or the next place." Zuko took a deep breath and stared at Kino. The thought of never leaving, slowly began to sink in. "So, lets get our heads back in our cells, and start figuring this out." Kino stated while staring at Kiff. As the other men left the edge of their cells, Zuko did too. He sat on his bed and got in a meditative pose. He prayed to Agni, for whatever help he could get. 

Zuko woke the next morning surprisingly rested. Before they had gone to sleep, Kiff had laid out a detailed escape plan, Kino had agreed and all of the men had their roles explained. Zuko even had an important role in it. He had thought hard about the risk involved, and came to one conclusion. He was prepared to die in an escape attempt. Even if he might deserve to be here, considering the spirits had sent him here, the other men did not. And Zuko was prepared to fight, and if necessary, die, in order for some of the men to escape. He went over all of this in his head again as he meditated. Kino addressed all of the men just before the floor deactivated from the night. "Let's make this look good." was all that Zuko really heard, lost still in his own thoughts. Maybe this was it, maybe this was the test that the spirit had sent him here for. Zuko suddenly realized that he no longer cared if this was the test or not, he just wanted to be free of this infernal place. As the red lights of the floor switched to white, Zuko stepped down for his final shift, shift one thousand four hundred and thirty nine. 

---- 

Everyone was tense as the shift progressed. Taga was nervous enough that Kiff had to reassure and calm him down during the shift. Then the moment finally arrived, and everyone got into their positions and stood on program. Three guards and a new man entered on the raised platform. Zuko's kept his hands on his head and his gaze fixed on the guards. As per the plan, Zuko was aware his face was very noticable, therefore if his eyes were diverted watching for the signal, the guards might notice. Therefore Zuko kept eyes forward and waited as the lift began moving. Xaul bumped Zuko's elbow with his own and the two started a very loud argument getting right into each other's faces and yelling. 

Zuko grabbed the front of Xaul's shirt as if the two men were about to start fighting and then everything happened all at once. The guards who had been yelling at Zuko and Xaul to stop fighting, were suddenly under attack by the men of 5 - 2- D when Kino shouted the order. Every prisoner pulled out either a tool or a part of the work and threw it at the guards. Kiff and another man had done something to the lift and were attempting to climb up to the guards. Zuko picked up the same wrench that he had been using for nearly four years and threw it at the nearest guard. The tool was unevenly weighted and sailed to the left of Zuko's target merely glancing off the guard's arm. The guards quickly reacted to the riot developing in front of them and started shooting. Zuko saw several men get hit who immediately dropped to the floor with open eyes and blank expressions on their faces. 

"BUZZ THE FLOOR!" one of the guards stopped shooting long enough to scream back at the other guards. Kino instantly yelled for everyone to get on the table tops. Zuko hopped up on Table 5 trying to take up as little space as possible to give everyone else enough room. Xaul positioned himself beside Zuko but had a much harder time maintaining his balance. He started to fall backwards with a terrified look in his eyes. Zuko's hand shot out and grabbed his shoulder pulling him forward. Zuko did not let go, and Xaul's eyes flashed an unspoken thank you. Melshi started to struggle with his balance as well, given the small cramped space the men were all trying to occupy at the same time. Zuko reached out with his right arm and helped Melshi balance. 

The lights flickered, and then went out and the room was plunged into semi darkness. Zuko could see men standing on the floor, they were not writhing in pain. Infact, they were attacking the guards again. "ATTACK!!" roared Kino and Zuko snapped into action running towards the guards to try and climb the lift which was halfway between the floor and the raised level the guards stood on. As he ran closer Zuko saw Kiff climb up and then take out both guards that were shooting at the men. Everyone charged forward. 

Nimbly Zuko climbed up right after Kino. The guard sitting at the control panel was slumped over on the ground. Kiff was barking orders, sending some men off in each direction to liberate the other rooms on Level 5. Zuko knew the plan's success depended on more prisoners joining them and he was about to join one of the groups when Kino grabbed his shirt and told him to join Kiff and himself headed for the command center. Zuko nodded and followed the two men, still without any weapon, his only means of defence his rusty hand to hand combat skills. 

They raced together up the stairs. Kiff lead the way followed by Kino and Zuko. Panting Zuko and the others reached another level. They rushed along the hallways until two guards shot at them from ahead. The three men ducked behind the last corner. Kiff and Kino used their weapons to engage the guards so Zuko crept back to ensure they were not attacked from behind. Zuko's string of bad luck continued as two guards turned around the corner and right into Zuko. Reacting immediately Zuko punched the nearest man in the throat causing him to drop his zap rod to clutch at his throat. Zuko deftly snatched the zap rod and used it as a makeshift club to fight the other guard. This opponnent tried to hit Zuko with the zap rod but Zuko twisted and turned away so that none of the jabs touched him until he was able to smash the blunt end of the zap rod into the guard's forehead dropping him to the floor. Zuko turned his attention back to the first guard who had regained some of his breath, but the man was still slow and Zuko quickly struck him in the side of his head causing him to drop as well. 

Zuko quickly peeked down the hallway the guards had come from but to his immense relief the hallway was empty. He turned back to Kiff and Kino only to see them staring at him with shocked faces. "Good work." Kiff acknowledged to Zuko before turning back to lead them on. The men ran into a large room where three guards stood looking anxiously at them. Kiff started talking to one of them and Kino motioned for Zuko to cover the entrance to the room, which Zuko did when he heard a shot ring out behind him. Quickly looking back, Zuko realized that Kiff had shot one of the guards and the remaining two now looked terrified. 
Zuko stood near the entrance while his heart raced furiously and he panted to get his breath back. Whatever was being said between Kiff, Kino and the guards was not fully heard by Zuko. But after a bit the two guards were standing on program to the side, which was ironic Zuko thought, while Kino started to address the whole prison. Exhausted as Zuko was from the sheer number of stairs they had climbed and the fighting, by the end of Kino's speech Zuko was reinvigorated even chanting along with the phrase the rest of the inmates were shouting, "One way out! One way out! One way out!" Smiling slightly Zuko followed Kiff and Kino out of the room and joined a mass of other inmates running down the hallways. 

And then suddenly Zuko ran up the the edge of the building. The area where the transport had deposited him all those days ago. The sun warmed his face and Zuko was temporarily stunned. The warm rays of sunlight warmed his very soul. Many other prisoners were joining them where they stood and the jostling of so many bodies caused Zuko to snap back to the present. Some men started to jump off and Zuko looked down at the vastness of the ocean that lay before them. In the very distant horizon Zuko could see land. From somewhere nearby he heard Kiff yelling above the din of the rest of the men stating that no matter what happens next, they made it. Zuko agreed with that fact wholeheartedly. Then the bumping and jostling of other men into Zuko pushed him up to the edge and then he was falling. 

---- 

Zuko was beyond exhausted. He had been swimming for hours. The land on the horizon did not seem to be getting any closer and he just forced himself to keep swimming forward, head above water. Slowly as the men swam away from the prison they had separated. Zuko was now all alone in the vast ocean. He silently prayed to Tui that there were no large hungry predators in this ocean. Then he sucked in another breath and swam forward. 

---- 

Zuko had thought that he was exhausted before. Now he was truly spent. Darkness had started to fall and Zuko was still swimming. He was not even paying attention to where he was headed anymore. All he was able to do was breath in and out, and move his arms and legs in an attempt to keep swimming. He was so tired. Part of him was very worried that he was going to drown. Trying to ignore his tiredness, he remembered that the Spirit had told him there was a chance he might not make it back. Now Zuko wondered if his fate was to escape the prison only to drown in the process. Oddly enough he was okay with this fate he realized. As long as he did not give the guards the satisfaction of recapturing him or killing him themselves, Zuko felt the escape was a victory. 

Something struck his foot and Zuko bolted as adrenaline coursed through his exhausted body. His fear of some large fish monster suddenly returned and he desperately worked to get his bearings. Looking ahead Zuko saw rocks. Black in the fading light, but rocks and land nonetheless. His foot touched the thing in the water again, and this time Zuko warily felt it out. It was a rock, nothing more. Zuko propelled himself forward off the rock and soon was climbing over some large rocks on the shore. He dragged himself out of the water and onto some coarse sand practically crawling on his hands and feet because the effort required to stand up felt beyond his diminished energy reserves. 

He crawled a few more feet to where a black cliff rose above him. Zuko sat with his back against the rock and looked out at the ocean. There was no sign of any other living creature that he could see. The prison was not visible either and for that Zuko was grateful. He tucked his knees up to his chest and held his head in his hands as all of the emotions from the hectic day started to well up in his chest. Everything hit him all at once. The revelation that the men had been set to work forever with no hope of release, the sadness of Ulaf's death, Zuko's hatred of the guards, the exhilaration of the escape plan working, and the sinking realization that Zuko was never going to see any of the other prisoners again, much less know if anyone else other than him had made it out of the water. 

Zuko just held his head and cried. It was over he decided. No matter what, he was never going to work another shift again. That was a success for Zuko, and he held onto that given his very short list of successes. Infact he told himself silently, he was never going to allow anything like that to happen to himself, or anyone else, ever again he promised himself. He was going to fight against such tyranny. Whenever and wherever it existed, it would be wrong to allow such injustice to continue. Even with his head in his hands, it dropped to rest on his knees as Zuko finally admitted openly that what the Fire Nation was doing to the world was wrong. The war was not a way to spread the greatness of the Fire Nation. It was just a thinly veiled power grab by the Fire Nation, spreading his father's, and his family's, cruelty across the world. He had seen with his own eyes, but unable to make the connection until now. 

Exhaustion had closed his eyes for him, and Zuko knew that he was about to fall into a very deep sleep. 

Chapter Text

Zuko woke up to something soft on his face. He was still utterly exhausted and was unsure how much rest he had managed to achieve. The softness confused him. Was he dreaming? Zuko wondered idly. Then he became aware that he was laying face down. Working to raise his head with a groan Zuko opened his eyes and was shocked to see that the softness was actually grass. That did not make any sense. The beach that Zuko had dragged himself onto was devoid of any grass, it had just been coarse, rough sand and large black rocks. 

Forcing his tired arms beneath him Zuko pushed his chest off of the ground to get a better view of his surroundings. To his amazement, he was laying on the ground in the Spirit Oasis. He was back! The excitement of being back was forcibly expelled from his body when a heavy weight crashed into his back driving his body back into the ground hard. "Don't move." an angry voice commanded from behind him. Zuko did not even have the energy to think about disobeying the order. 

His arms were forced behind him and the telltale cold feeling of cuffs were clicked into place. The weight shifted off of his chest and then cuffs were locked on his ankles. Zuko sighed dejectedly, he had gone full circle. From prisoner, to convict, to escapee, and back to prisoner again. He was pulled up painfully by his arms. His muscles screamed in pain at him, but he was able to stand. 

Whoever had cuffed him remained behind Zuko and pushed him forward in an unspoken order to move. Zuko started walking forward but was instantly hampered by the small amount he was able to move his feet. Looking down at his feet Zuko spotted the issue. The chain connecting the two ankle cuffs was extremely short meaning Zuko was going to be making lots of very short steps. He grit his teeth in frustration and kept moving. 

After very awkwardly stepping through the circular door exiting the Spirit Oasis, Zuko stepped onto packed snow and cursed softly at the cold. He was still barefoot. And he had about a million more steps to go. If his guard noticed Zuko's predicament, he gave no indication and just shoved Zuko forward. Gritting his teeth harder Zuko pressed forward. 

---- 

By the time Zuko had awkwardly marched to the Council chamber his feet were numb from the cold. The short fumbling steps had used up most of his energy as he was still exhausted from the escape the day before. Therefore Zuko was not in a great mood when his guard shoved him down on his knees before a group of people.  
Gritting his teeth Zuko settled into a respectable pose kneeling but holding his back straight and proud. Scanning the assembled group Zuko noted Chief Arnook, Pakku and several other men, who must be councilors Zuko thought. They were turning to look at him, most had surprised expressions on their faces at seeing him.  
Either they never expected him to return, or Zuko suddenly realized that he had been imprisoned for nearly 4 years. They must be shocked to see him return after four years. Internally Zuko cursed. From one prison to the next. Hopefully they would give him some footwear he grumbled to himself. 

"You were to inform me IMMEDIATELY if Prince Zuko returned!" a commanding voice cut through the air. Turning his head to the direction of the outraged speaker Zuko saw Princess Yue walking determinedly towards him. She approached the group of men, but did not stand with them. She stepped forward towards Zuko, but stopped after two steps as if she was rethinking getting close to him. 

"Why is he shackled?" Yue nearly shouted at the men. "He's a prisoner." the guard behind Zuko stated flatly. "He's been in the Spirit World for two weeks! His heart was tested and he has been sent back." Yue stated. Wait. That didn't make sense to Zuko. Two weeks? He had been there for 1439 days. Zuko was certain of it. He had counted every single one. 

Vaguely Zuko was aware of Yue arguing with the men, but he was not focusing in it. He kept repeating Yue's words in his head, two weeks, two weeks, two, weeks. She was wrong. Zuko knew it. The noise in the room abruptly silenced itself causing Zuko to turn his attention to the group again. They were all, Princess Yue included, intensly watching something off to the left. Turning his head to get a better view with his good eye, Zuko saw the Spirit walking towards them. The same Spirit that had taken away his bending, the same Spirit that had transported him from the North Pole, the same Spirit who had given him a test. That Zuko had never figured out. 

Apprehension instantly filled Zuko. What would happen now that the Spirit was here and knew that Zuko had not completed the test? Zuko worked to control his breathing as the Spirit got closer and fear began to cause Zuko's breathing to become ragged. Would the Spirit send him back? Zuko tried to just focus on his breathing. In and out. In and out. And then the Watertribe men backed up slightly from the approaching Spirit. The only person to stand their ground near Zuko was Princess Yue. 

The room was completely silent except for Zuko's ragged breaths as the Spirit stepped right in front of Zuko. The Spirit knelt until his head was level with Zuko's. "Prince Zuko" the Spirit began in his powerful voice, "I am sorry." Zuko simply blinked in response. "Wha . . . What?" Zuko spat out. 

The Spirit kept his intense gaze on Zuko for a moment of silence before answering, "The test that I had envisioned was nothing like the experience that you went through." Zuko did not respond. He just kept blinking at the Spirit in confusion. Why was a Spirit apologizing to him? "I am asking for your forgiveness Prince Zuko." the Spirit stated. Zuko's confusion must have shown on his face because the Spirit continued to explain. "Your test was supposed to be a simple choice. Which would have demonstrated if your intentions were good or evil. However something interfered with your journey and I was helpless to intervene until you were clear from that terrible place." Zuko still did not reply, he was unsure of what to say. The test had been manipulated by someone or something else? 

Finally Zuko opened his mouth to speak, he knew what he wanted to ask, as much as he feared the answer. "Does that mean," Zuko stumbled over his words, "Do I have to do the test now?" The Spirit's intense gaze softened at Zuko's question. "No." replied the Spirit. "I watched you the entire time. Through the whole ordeal I observed you. And in the process I saw you grow as a person, despite the terrible situation you were in." The Spirit leaned back somewhat from Zuko and then announced loudly, "You have proven yourself Prince Zuko."  

The Spirit stood fully and faced the group of men. "Release him. Immediately." he ordered. No one moved. "NOW!" roared the Spirit. Chief Arnook and another man rushed forward to Zuko and helped him stand. The guard was suddenly at Zuko's side fumbling with the keys to the cuffs. The shackles fell from his wrists and then the guard moved to free Zuko's ankles. 

Once Zuko was freed from the metal restraints the men stepped back from him. The Spirit looked harshly at the Chief and then spoke again. "Feed him. Clothe him. Treat any injuries that he has. Provide him with a ship that he can sail, enough provisions for a month, and let him go on his way." commanded the Spirit angrily. "It will be done." Chief Arnook said quickly, then he turned and nodded at another man who started writing notes. 

The Spirit turned towards Zuko once more. "I am certain that you have many questions. I am afraid I have few answers for you." he said in his powerful voice. "While you were there for that great length of time, only just over fourteen days passed here." Zuko was unsure what the Spirit meant. How could time be different? A day was a day! The Spirit looked around at everyone else, "Leave the room. I wish to speak privately with Prince Zuko." he demanded. The others complied at once. As they were leaving the Spirit added a command, "Bring him some boots. Knock before you enter." 

---- 

Now that they were alone the Spirit faced Zuko again. With a deep sigh, and Zuko learned that Spirits could sigh, the Spirit spoke far more softly. "For every one hundred days you were there, one day passed here. Hence just over 14 days have passed since you left." Zuko was shocked. One thousand four hundred shifts was 14 days, plus most of a morning for the remaining thirty nine. 

The Spirit spoke again, interrupting Zuko's thoughts, "That is why your hair grew but the rest of you did not. That is why you never needed larger clothes during all of your incarceration." Zuko just stared back at the Spirit as he processed this information. Until a question began to form in his mind. The Spirit answered it without Zuko needing to ask. "You are still sixteen." Zuko nodded once to indicate that he understood. 

"I am sorry that you had to go through the whole experience at all." The Spirit continued. "The Northern Watertribe will provide you with the resources to sail away to anywhere you want. I will ensure it." Zuko nodded again. "Thank you Great Spirit." Zuko stammered out as his mind tried to process all of the information. "I have a few, uh, two questions." Zuko stated. The Spirit simply nodded for Zuko to continue. 

"My Uncle. Do you know what happened to him, or where he is?" Zuko asked, desperately hoping that Iroh was alive. "He did not perish at the North Pole." The Spirit replied. "Where he went from here, I do not know." Relief flooded through Zuko. Uncle was alive. As long as Uncle was alive, Zuko could find him. Zuko WOULD find him. That was his goal now. 

"Oh, and uh, my bending." Zuko added quickly. "Is there a way for me to get it back?" he asked hesitantly. The Spirit did not respond immediately, "I do not know how to restore your bending to its prior state. And for that I am truly sorry." Zuko's heart sank at this news. "The spiritual power of your bending was what allowed me to bring you back from that place." Zuko noticed that the Spirit never used the name of the prison. 

A soft knock from the door interrupted. "Come in." the Spirit called out. Princess Yue entered the room silently carrying something in her hands. She approached the two of them and then placed three sets of boots on the ground. "I was not sure of your foot size so here are three for you to try on." She bowed deeply to Zuko and then the Spirit. "I have also had the bath house prepared for you and clean clothes will be there for you as well." The Spirit just nodded in acknowledgement. Zuko bowed in return and then said, "Thank you Princess Yue. I, uh, truly meant what I said before. Thank you for standing up for me at the Council." 

She smiled back at him, "You proved yourself to me when you saved the Moon Spirit while tied up. It was the right thing to do, I just did not know how to placate my people until I thought of the Spirits." She paused and looked at Zuko with concern. She then handed him a pair of boots and Zuko remembered his cold feet. While Zuko slipped on the pair of boots she hesitantly asked a question, "I wanted to ask, and you do not have to tell me if you do not want to. But, was it a bad experience?" 

Zuko finished pulling on the boots and stood before responding, "It was pretty bad." Yue winced at hearing that answer. "I am sorry." Zuko cut her off. "You did not know. And it was better than either being executed or ransomed back to my fath, the Fire Nation." He looked at her earnestly. "And please, you can just call me Zuko. I have not been a prince for a while. And I am not really Fire Nation anymore, so just Zuko is fine." Yue gave Zuko a small smile. 

Zuko turned to the Spirit and bowed, "Thank you for answering my questions. Is there anything else?" The Spirit shook his head from side to side and he responded in his powerful voice, "No. I have nothing else to add. You survived a far more difficult situation than I had intended. You are strong and wise Zuko. Go find your Uncle." With that the Spirit was suddenly gone, and just Yue and Zuko remained in the room. 

"Here, I will walk with you to the bath house." Yue said raising her arm towards the door she had entered from. Zuko nodded, and started walking with her towards the door. His feet began to tingle as they started to warm up. A nice warm bath and a comfortable bed sounded very good to Zuko.