Avatar the Last Airbender: The Admiral's Daughter Zuko and OC

An Unexpected Encounter

It had been about a week since their encounter with the avatar and Zuko's ship was headed toward a repair station for fire nation ships, it had taken more than a day to clear away the snow even with my help and even longer to travel to the repair station because of the damage the ship had taken.

I lay on my bed in my room waiting for a guard to come in and let me know that we had arrived at the station. I was tired of being on the ship and wanted to get off it and walk around for once.

A knock resounded on her door, "Come in," I said.

The door creaked open but instead of a guard Zuko was there. His face was slightly in shadow but it had worry lines all over it, his brows were furrowed and I felt his tension from all the way across the room.

I sat up in surprise, "Zuko! Is something wrong?!" I asked in a worried tone.

Zuko walked over to her shaking his head, "No nothing is wrong I just..." Zuko hesitated. "You can't get off the ship when we arrive," Zuko said abruptly.

I frowned at Zuko, "And why not?" I asked, more out of curiosity than anger.

Zuko sat down on the bed next to me and put a hand on mine, "I just-" Zuko halted and turned away, I could see that he was worried about something, what I didn't know.

"Zuko seriously, what is it? If you don't want me getting hurt that's ridiculous, I can take care of myself," I said, this was unlike Zuko, he'd never been worried about me like this before.

Zuko sat down next to me and put an arm around me. I stiffened at the touch as I always did at any physical touch, but I tried to relax and leaned into Zuko.

"What is it?" I asked, softly.

Zuko sighed, "I don't want anything to happen to you," he tightened his grip on me slightly and I tilted my head up to look him in the eye.

"Zuko, nothing will happen to me, if you want me to stay on the ship fine, but you need to to stop worrying yourself about me, seriously," I said gently.

Zuko turned his head away, "I can't."

I sat there with Zuko for a while, the two of us together, in each other's company, both hurt and broken, but together.

Finally Zuko got up, "I have to go, stay here, we'll be back in a few hours."

And with that he got up and left me.

I sighed, Zuko was confusing sometimes. Why was he being so overprotective, I didn't know.

I lay down on my bed and tried to get some sleep, it wasn't night but I hadn't gotten much sleep over the past week and I figured I'd need my strength later.

To my surprise I had fallen asleep, because I was woken by another knock on my door. I was still wearing my clothes but they were crumpled, I got up and tried to smooth my clothes.

I walked to the door and opened it, a guard was standing there, I wondered what was going on for a guard to be there, was Zuko back already?

Suddenly from behind the guard came a voice, another soldier. "Well if it isn't Azari."

My blood went cold. I hadn't heard that voice in years, I hadn't seen that face in years, I hadn't wanted to destroy something this bad in years.

The figure pushed past the guard and into my room. "It's been so long since I've seen you, Azari," said Zhao.

And with that I lunged at him, using the water from the bowl I always kept near the side of my bed to practice waterbending. I flung it at Zhao and tried to freeze him in place, adrenaline made my waterbending better but not good enough, it was one thing to freeze a small tile and another to freeze a whole man.

The water stayed frozen for a couple quick seconds but then unfroze just as fast as Zhao heated himself with firebending, the layer of ice had been thin and I knew the only thing I could do was run.

I sprinted past Zhao and the guard and raced through the ship till I reached the stairs, but they were blocked by more guards. I rushed to Iroh's room where I could hide in the secret room he had. But I ran into more guards.

Everywhere I ran I was blocked. Finally there was nowhere to run, I was surrounded.

"Looks like you're all out of places to run," said Zhao. "Now why don't you tell me what exactly happened to this ship. Don't lie, things might get a little messy, I don't want the prince to lose his dear friend, Azari."

I felt shivers run across my spine and into my body, making me shake with fear.

"I'm waiting," Zhao said patiently.

I bowed my head and gave in, I didn't want to be Zhao's prisoner or worse and I knew Zuko couldn't live with himself if either of those things happened.

"It was the Avatar," I said. "He attacked our ship and got away."

Zhao smiled. "Thank you, daughter," he whispered into my ear.

"I'm not your daughter," I hissed back through clenched teeth.

Zhao stared at me with disdain, "Oh but you are, but for now you're just my prisoner."

I knew I had to get out of there but there was no escaping Zhao now, I had lost my chance of escape ages ago and there was no going back now.

"Guards, chain her up and take her to the prison, I'll deal with her later, for now I have a certain prince to attend to," Zhao said, turning his back and walking away.

I screamed at Zhao and tried to run at him but two guards grabbed me from behind, I screamed and thrashed but it was no use.

I felt something hard hit my head from behind me and everything went black.

Again, sorry this one is shorter but I had to use this as an ending for a chapter, as always sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes! I hope you like the new cover I designed, I did some tracing and it isn't perfect at all but I felt really bad using someone else's art.