Don't Leave Me (Zuko x OC)

Chapter 25

It had been nearly a month since I had joined Team Avatar. I had since grown familiar with the three awake members of the team and for the first time in my life, I had friends. Proper, platonic friends. I was stood out on deck talking to Katara and Toph, admiring the night sky with Nalo relaxing on my shoulder. 

A large clanging caught my attention and I turned to see what it was. 

Aang had come stumbling up from below deck, falling down due to his injuries. Happy to see him, Momo quickly jumped onto his shoulder and began licking his face. 

"Twinkle toes, that's gotta be you!" Toph yelled in happiness. 

We raced over to where Aang was staring at us all, very confused. 

"Aang, you're awake!" Katara exclaimed

"Are you sure?" Aang rubbed his eyes, "I feel like I'm dreaming."

Katara wrapped him in a tight hug, "You're not dreaming! You're finally awake!

"Aang! Good to see you back with the living, buddy!" Sokka hugged him which must've been uncomfortable for Aang due to the tought armour Sokka was wearing. 

"Sokka?" Aand didn't sound all there and soon enough he was falling backwards. 

"U-oh, somebody catch him! He's gonna-"

Toph was cut off by Aang fainting and crashing to the ground. 

Once he was awake (again) we wrapped Aang in a blanket and sat down to explain to him what was going on. 

"Why're we on a Fire Nation ship? Why is everyone dressed this way? And why am I the only one who's completely out of it?"

We decided to leave Aang and Katara alone as she could best handle the situation. I went off with Sokka to help with some plans for the Invasion. I was honoured the let me in on their plans and trusted me enough to actually help, considering only months prior I was helping the one trying to capture them. I told them all I knew about the Fire Nation capital and the royal family itself. Hoping that even a scrap of my advice will help, I provided all I could. I wanted to atone for my wrongdoings. 

The next morning, we all gathered on the deck with Aang to tell him everything that'd happened since Ba Sing Se. I stood next to Hakoda, playing with Nalo. 

"After what happened in Ba Sing Se. We had to get you to safety." Sokka explained, "We flew back to Chameleon Bay where we found my father and the other Water Tribe men. The Earth King decided he wanted to travel the world in disguise so he set off alone. Well, not completely alone. Soon the bay was overrun with Fire Nation ships. Rather than fight them all, we captured a single ship and made it out disguise. Since then we've been traveling west. We crossed through the Serpent's Pass a few days ago. We've seen a few Fire Nation ships but none have bothered us."

Aang looked at me, "What's she doing here? I thought she was with Zuko."

Thankfully Sokka explained that too for me, "A few days after capturing the ship we saw a bright light in the water. Katara used water bending to bring it to the ship and it turned out to be Muri. But she was dead."

I took off the robes I'd been wearing to cover my neck in order to show Aang the horrific scars, "After Zuko betrayed me in Ba Sing Se, I was captured and taken aboard their ship. There, Azula and Mai killed me and threw me in the ocean to dispose of my body."

"But if you died, how did you come back? Was it Katara and the spirit water?" Aang asked.

I shook my head, "No. I'm Sire, the spirit of the stars. They killed my mortal body but not my immortal soul so I was going to go back home. But Yue sent me back and healed my body. I believed she's tasked me with helping you to end this war and bring peace to the world before I can return to my place as a spirit."