The Blue Spirit ღ (Zuko x OC)

ⅩⅩⅠⅤ: Caution

Nala waited for the train to be ready to depart again to leap off, shedding the dress shield she'd had on in the hopes to confuse as she bolted away in only the familiar black, skin-tight wrappings she'd always worn. She pulled her wild hair out of it's up-do and ran toward the vision of a familiar man. Her eyes searched wildly for Zuko, and failing to see him.

"I-Iroh!" She called, and the older gentlemen turned with a look of deep concern.

"Nala. You should not be here." His voice was hardened. "It is very dangerous . . ."

"I had to . . . The troupe. They're gone, and it looked as if someone had taken them."

"I wouldn't be surprised."

"What happened with the Earth King? Where's Zuko?" She pressed. Iroh shook his head.

"I'm not sure. My niece has taken over the city's Palace. She captured Zuko, and I fear for the Earth King."

Nala had gone pale. "How is this possible?" She all but said, her voice failing her.

"I did not believe it was. But I may know some people who could help."

Nala was willing to try anything. For the troupe, for Zuko, and for the Earth Kingdom. While she hadn't felt much connection to the life in it's cities or their customs, it was still her home and she'd do anything she could to defend it. She had been following Iroh when suddenly a man in similar robes to the one at the train station popped out of hiding.

A blur of earth shot toward Nala and was swiped away in lightning speed by her blade. She moved toward the attack, just as Iroh shot fire toward him, catching him off guard. She used some of her wrapping to gag and tie him in only a few swift moves.

"My nephew has good taste." Iroh said with a cocked brow. He'd had an inkling she was something more than she seemed, but still he was surprised. "Let's take him with us, he could prove quite useful."

*✧*

Nala and Iroh came to a respectable looking house, and she watched him knock on the door. Voices were heard from the other side, until the door opened to a young girl who greeted Iroh with familiarity, much to the shock of the two inside. She watched Iroh talking to them, distracted from the exchange.

"She has captured my nephew as well." Iroh's voice made Nala sink her teeth into her lip and she looked up, meeting the eyes of the bald kid. There was a pang of recognition in her and her eyes widened.

"Woah! That's the Avatar!" She barked out loud.

"And they say I'm blind." The blind girl said.

"Alright." Said the Avatar, coarse-correcting the conversation. "Then we'll work together to save Katara and Zuko."

"Hold up. You lost me at Zuko." Came the Water Tribe boy.

"I know how you must feel about my nephew, but believe me when I say there is good inside him." Iroh pleaded.

"Good inside him, isn't enough!" The Water Tribe boy proclaimed. "Why don't you come back when it's outside him, too?"

Nala took a step forward, her head hanging as she tried to find the words. "I don't blame you for not trusting him. He's good at giving off bad impressions . . . but he saved my life, and there's more to him than he knows . . ."

"Yeah? Well, for the one good deed he ever did, he's tried to kill us a hundred times more!" He bit back in defiance. "Trying to capture the Avatar — the world's only hope for peace! How's that for a bad impression?!"