Raised in Earth (OC x Zuko) book 2

Chapter 11

No One POV:

It had been a week since Madelyn had left Zuko, and since then she had turned to a life of petty crime; robbing people from the mid to upper rings, stealing fruit from stands and anything else she thought she needed. She was in the middle ring relaxing in an alley, eating food from her latest 'grocery run'. She had seen Zuko looking for her, but as soon as she laid eyes on him she was off in the other direction, leaving him non the wiser.

Without her knowledge, she had slightly reverted back to her old self; the one she had been before the North Pole. Her emotions and feelings for and about Zuko were buried deep within her mind so she could keep going and never go back. all thoughts of returning were pushed down into a bottle inside, where they wouldn't resurface. If she was such a burden to him why should she ever go back?

She had taken a dark black cloth and matching clothing from a shop in the lower ring and now wore them full time; hiding her identity from both the Dai Lee and her scarred prince.

So here she sat in the space between two buildings, waiting for something to happen, and something did.

"Hey Princess." A cocky voice called from her right. Madelyn forcefully dropped her head against the wall in annoyance for the owner of the voice.

"Jet." She spat. How he was able to recognise her with the mask on, she would never know. "I thought for sure they would have killed you by now, at least broken that pretty face of yours."

"Who would have done that to me?" The face of the ex- Freedom Fighter portrayed pure confusion, but Madelyn didn't feel like engaging in too much conversation.

"Never mind. What do you want?" She stood and faced him, her hand resting on her hip just above the swords she had stolen a couple days ago.

"Just to talk to my favorite-"

"Jet!" voice came from behind him. A girl in water tribe clothing turned the corner behind him, giving him a vicious stare. The girl dropped the stack of posters she held and immediately bent the water from the water skin on her hip at him, freezing it and encasing him in an icy prison.

A boy with a ponytail, a short girl, and a bald kid ran up behind the water bender, all of whom Maddy recognised as the Avatar and his friends. The water tribe girl, Katara, then turned to Maddy with a cautions look in her eye before taking the remainder of her water and bending it at the girl in suspicion she was in league with Jet, but Maddy was too quick and she was suddenly on the other side of the wall that cut through the alley and out of sight.

"Katara whats wrong?" Sokka appeared behind his sister.

"Jet's back." Katara faced her old heartthrob with a newfound hatred that she couldn't keep from her voice.

"What does he want?" Aang asked innocently.

Jet began explaining "I'm just here to-"

"We can't trust anything Jet says." Katara interrupted.

"But we don't even know why he's here." Sokka argued. He didn't like the guy either; Jet had tried to hurt him and nearly drowned an entire town, not to mention he tried to hurt Maddy, whom the Gaang still thought was lost.

"I don't care why he's here. Whatever the reason is, it can't be good." Katara's glare remained on the trapped fighter, making sure he couldn't escape anywhere.

they all looked to Jet, unsure of what to do with him. "I'm here to help you find Appa." He explained, unrolling one of the fliers Aang had released over the city. Aang stepped forward and took the flier, looking at it with sadness as he had not yet found his lost bison.