Little Soldier Boy

Blizzard

Katara gasped as she sat up when she gained consciousness again, her friend was taken. Aang was gone.

"Aang?!" She yelled looking around panicking. Momo ran over to her chirping.

"What happened? Where's Aang?" Sokka flew down on appa as Yue sat on the back with him.

"He's gone! Some fire bender soldier came and took him," Katara spun to him wide eyes.

"How did he get past the guards?" Yue covered her mouth as Sokka ran to his sister.

"He took him right from under me," Katara looked at momo, the lemur sniffed where Aang once was.

"Where did they go?" Sokka frowned as they looked around.

Katara gulped a little remembering the boy she fought against, he seemed around her age or maybe a lot older, his scar, that scar stood out to her immediately thinking he was fire nation. How did he get past her?

"I can't believe I lost him," Katara sighed in frustration.

"You did everything you could, and now we need to do everything we can to get him back," Sokka motioned to the bison to go find them.

"The soldier couldn't have gotten far, we'll find him, Aang is going to be fine," he told his sister as Katara had tears in her eyes.

"Okay," she took a deep breath and followed him to appa.

Momo didn't move as he looked around knowing Aang would've been here, confused where his friend went.

"It's okay momo, you wait for Aang here, in case he comes back," Katara smiled back at the lemur as she sat with Yue in the saddle.

—

"Is the sun up yet?" Cho shivered as they sat in the snow as a blizzard whipped around them above the tribe, the clouds covered the sky as it was dark all around them.

"Listen to the teenager, great idea admiral," cho growled as he hugged his body best he could. Marco sent him a look.

"Could've w-waited in the canoe," marco puffed some fire in his hands.

"And let water benders find me? Fat fucking chance," cho glared back. They both heard someone coming as a dark figure walked towards them, they glared but let out a breath of relief seeing it was Zuko walking towards them.

"You made it," marco smiled as Zuko shook in the cold but they saw a twelve year old monk on his back, he was glowing from his tattoos.

"Is that..." he breathed amazed.

"I got the avatar, let's go," Zuko told them sternly.

"We can't do much in this blizzard," cho gulped a little and they looked around. They lost all sense of direction, it was impossible to see more than a couple meters.

"Let's find shelter and let it pass, zhao will still be attacking, the suns up," Zuko nodded.

"Hey what happened to your head?" Marco noticed the blood on his face, it was dried now but the liquid froze to his skin a little.

"Water bender, she was protecting the avatar," Zuko explained as they started to walk to find some sort of shelter or a way out.

"So they know you were there?" Cho followed as Zuko kept the kid on his back.

"By now they probably know the avatar was taken, we have to move," Zuko snapped a little. He felt a hand on him and turned to see marco was putting his hood up and over his head.

"Keep your ears warm," he reminded the teen and Zuko softened up a little.

They stomped through the snow as it was up to the men's knees as the kids feet barely touched them. Thank the spirits he was small and light. This was the last air bender, the avatar, this seemed to good to be true that he succeeded. He couldn't let his guard down now, not when they were this close, he'll let his guard down once the avatar is delivered to the fire lord.

Crack

"Huh?" Chos eyes widen looking under them. They all gasped and started to run as the ice under the snow started to crack and break under their feet.

"Shit! go!" Zuko grabbed marco behind him and shoved him forward as they sprinted in the snow.

He took a leap to the side and grunted rolling across the snow with the avatar flying with him, he huffed pulling the face mask over his nose looking behind him, catching his breath. Zuko looked to the side and saw a small cave in the distance. Shelter, thank Agni.

"Zuko!" Marco called as the youngest panted getting to his feet.

"There's shelter," Zuko told them motioning to the side as he grabbed the avatar. "We'll wait out the storm there,"

They nodded walking to the cave trying to block the snow from their eyes. The two men made it inside first and fell to their knees panting but Zuko dropped the avatar and quickly tied his hands behind his back and another rope around his ankles so he couldn't run.

Zuko let out a deep breath sitting down finally and rubbed his hands together keeping his eyes down. He touched where the wound was on his head and flinched a little.

"You okay?" Marco asked sitting with him.

"I'll survive," Zuko pulled his knees up to rest his arms against.

"You should get that fixed up, you might get frost bite," cho told him as he looked outside.

"When we get back I will," Zuko nodded.

"We'll be lucky if we get back to the admiral before night fall, of course there's a fucking blizzard," cho sighed annoyed as he joined the others deeper in the cave.

"We don't need luck, we've struggled and fought without luck on our side, it's made us strong, it made me who I am," Zuko kept his eyes on the monk in the corner.

"Luck has nothing to do with victory, our strength and devotion will be the reason, our pride," he looked at them calmly and the two older men smiled a little.

"Our honor will," marco chuckled.

"You know you might make a fine leader one day Zuko, maybe be a commander of your own troops, you got potential," cho kicked at him a little and Zuko was surprised.

"Really?" He asked. He was only sixteen, there was no way he could be a leader.

"I can see it, commander Zuko," marco laughed softly and Zuko blushed embarrassed.

"You guys are fucking stupid," he scoffed knowing they were trying to get him riled up.

"Whatever you say General Zuko," cho teased but yelled when a snow ball hit his face and marco burst out laughing.