Double Bender

part 4

Two hours passed and Zuko still wasn't back. Even worse it had started storming. Uncle was looking very worried. I was kind of worried too, I mean, he was literally looking for big, electric, zappy stuff that was going to kill him-That "zappy stuff" you're referring to is called lightning- ZUKO! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU THE FIRST TIME! Jeez, some people can't take a hint. Anyway, Uncle got up and said "I'm going to go look for him." "No way," I said. "You're still hurt. I'll look for him. And don't try to argue with me." Uncle shook his head. I went for my bag and dug out my coat. I walked for a few miles and when I found Zuko, he was on top of a mountain, screaming at the sky.

"You've always thrown everything you could at me!" he shouted. "Well now, I can take it! AND NOW I CAN GIVE IT BACK!" Lightning struck in the distance. "Come on! STRIKE ME! YOU'VE NEVER HELD BACK BEFORE!" He stood there for a moment. Then, tears started flowing from his eyes and he sunk to his knees. It was actually kind of pitiful. I mean, he's a grown man (well, by grown man I do mean about sixteen... oh never mind), what would cause him to just do something like that? "Zuko!" I shouted over the wind. He looked over his shoulder and saw me. "What do you want?!" he yelled back. "Uncle sent me! He wanted to make sure you weren't dead!" I ran over to him and helped him up. "We need to get out of the rain before we're struck by lightning!" I had to practically drag him and the ostrich-horse off the mountain, and even then, we had miles to go. "We can't go any further!" I shouted back to him. "It's raining too hard and this wind is going to drive us off the side of a cliff!" I set up a few earth tents (one for the ostrich horse and one for me and Zuko) and collected some firewood while Zuko made sure the ostrich-horse didn't get away. Once the ostrich horse was in it's earth-stable, we were in our tent, and I had built a fire pit out of stones, I tried to start a fire by rubbing some of the sticks together. By then, Zuko had come out of his daze. "Let me help with that," he said, bending some fire into the pit. We sat there in silence for a minute, then I punched his arm. "Ow!" he yelled. "THAT was for running off and being and idiot! You could have gotten yourself killed!" "Look, I understand you're mad-" "Mad?! MAD?! DO YOU KNOW HOW INFURIATING IT IS TO RUN AFTER YOU AND MAKE SURE YOU DIDN'T KILL YOURSELF?!" "Well, why did you come after me?" he asked. That caught me off guard. I calmed down a little. "Well, you kind of saved my life. I guess I was just returning the favor. And if I didn't do it, than I would've had to wake up Geo, and if she's anything like me... she doesn't like to be woken up. And then there was Uncle and I was not going to let him go out in that storm." Zuko nodded.

"So," I asked, "why were you yelling at the sky?" He added a couple more twigs to the fire. "I guess I was blaming the universe for my messed up life." "You're a prince, how is it that you have a messed up-" "Well, for starters, my mother left me when I was ten and I still don't know where she is..." Hooray, rant time. "...or why she left. I'm always in my sister's shadow, my father never loved me, I was banished for a very stupid reason, I have to wander around and look for the Avatar to regain my honor, and on top of that, my father, my own father, burned my face when I was only thirteen! I lost everything in two minutes! Why am I even telling you this? You don't understand." My anger built up with every word he said. "I don't understand? I don't understand?! BOTH of my parents died when I was six, and even worse, I watched them die. I had to find a new home, and when I did, my new family only accepted me for about ten minutes, I was abused for the rest of my life there, and I was called a freak about every two seconds. That was my identity in that damn town! They didn't even know my real first name. I was always 'The Freak' to them, and I never had a single friend in my entire life! I mean sure, there were some okay parts, but MY LIFE SUCKED! And here you are acting like some kind of martyr. You say you lost everything? You've had everything handed to you your entire life, you know NOTHING about losing everything!" I shouted. I turned away from him and hugged my knees to my chest, trying desperately to hold back tears. Then he said something I'd hadn't heard anyone say in a long time. "I'm sorry," I looked at him and said, "What?" "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that," I looked at the ground. "It's not your fault," I said. "When my family found me, I was only six. I was dirty, sick, and hungry. I was surprised that anyone took me in, judging on how I was looking. But, they did and I thought that this was going to be a new start and that they'd accept me. I thought that Toku and Lia were going to be my new parents, that I could could go to them whenever I had trouble, and that Tollo and Mira were going to be my little siblings who'd look up to me like a sister. I thought I'd be happy." I stared blankly at the fire. "But of course, it wasn't meant to last. They took me in and accepted me for, about ten minutes. Then they found out I was a double bender and then they were afraid of me. They were afraid because they knew I was stronger than them. They knew if I found out about my full potential, I could practically control them. So they tried to hide my bending and keep me down. They thought that if they worked or beat me hard enough, they'd be able to pound the spark out of me. Every time I tried to run away, I heard their voices in my head saying, 'No one will want you. You're a freak and that's all you'll ever be.' I was always afraid of them. I couldn't do anything without worrying about what they'd think and they always called me a freak. The worst part is I actually believed them." "You shouldn't have believed them," He said. "You're worth more as a person than ten of them combined. Nothing can break you. Some people would kill to have strength like that and they try to get you down because of it. If you let them, you let them win. And that's probably the worst thing you can do," We locked eyes and then looked at the ground. We sat there awkwardly, then he said, "Well, thanks," "For what?" I asked softly."For finally making you realize that there are people who have it worse than you? If you haven't figure that out by now, than you're stupider than I thought." He rolled his eyes. "For actually coming after me. Up until now, only Uncle and Geo would be the only one's who'd come after me like that." Your point being..." "My point is, we just met and already, you came out to find someone you just met a day ago," "Now we're even," I said. "How are we even?" he asked sternly. "You didn't have to take me with you and I didn't have to come out here in the rain just to make sure that you didn't get hypothermia, or blown off a cliff, or struck by lightening. So we're even." He rolled his eyes.

"So, what was with that wisecrack that Geo made about your...honor?" "That's probably one of the only inside jokes we have that's actually true. Geo literally NEVER lets it go. She makes me look like an idiot." "You shouldn't blame Geo. You do that all by yourself," I joked. He glared at me. "Sorry," I squeaked. "Why do you do that?" "Do what?" "Do or say something funny or obnoxious and then the moment someone glares at you, you a become a totally different person. Guarded and shy. And you apologize just for a stupid joke." "Normally," I said. "whenever I was glared at, it meant that I had done something extremely stupid or insulting and I was about to get a beating." "I glare at people because I'm normally annoyed with them. Not because I want to beat them up. Well, with Geo, it's sometimes a different story." I giggled. "Even if I did want to beat you, I couldn't. I don't have the authority anymore. I'm an outcast, not a Prince, remember?" "Mmm hmm. Just out of curiosity, how did you lose your...honor?" He stared blankly into the fire. "You mean when I became an outcast?" "Yeah," He sighed. "Well, it happened when I was thirteen.

"My father was having a war meeting and I was allowed to sit in and watch. One of the generals had a plan for an especially difficult battle. He said that they should use the new recruits as bait for the Earth Kingdom army while they did a sneak attack." "That's horrible and.... and barbaric!" "Yeah, I thought so too. And I just had to pipe up and say that we couldn't just sacrifice new recruits. I shown disrespect, and there were dyer consequences. I was challenged to an Agni Kai-" "A what?" "A battle between two fire-benders that isn't over until one of them surrenders or..." he paused. "...or dies." My heart nearly skipped a beat. "I told the old crone that I wasn't afraid. The duel was that afternoon and almost every nobleman in the Fire-Nation was there. I was facing away from my opponent, which is normally how an Agni Kai starts. But when I turned around, I didn't see the general I had disrespected. My outburst was disrespectful to the General's plan but it was in the Fire Lord's presence, so it was actually disrespectful to him." "You don't mean that..." "Yep. My opponent was my own father. I refused to fight him and I begged him for forgiveness. He told me to stand up and fight. I refused again. Then he said something I'll never forget; 'You must be taught a lesson in respect, and suffering will be your teacher.' Then the fire came at me. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor, and the whole left side of my face was completely numb and still pained at the same time. Even more, my father said that my refusal to fight was so shameful that I had to roam the earth to find the Avatar. I lost my honor and my dignity in a matter of seconds and all my father had to do was lift his hand to do it!" he yelled angrily, making the fire larger. I flinched. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I looked literally everywhere except Ba Sing well, you can understand why." "Actually, I don't. I was six when I ran away and my step-family never taught me anything so I'm pretty much as dumb as a chicken-ox." "Oh, well, you'll understand if we ever go there." "Thanks for the information. So very helpful of you." I said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes yet again. "Anyway, I found Geo about a year ago. I almost didn't bring her with us. She was frightened, lost, and confused, but I didn't care. I was a different person, then. I pretty much hated everyone, I was bitter, and I only cared about finding the Avatar. Uncle actually convinced me to take her with us." "Well, you actually agreed to take me with you, and Uncle wasn't there to convince you. That makes a difference." "Like I said, I was a different person." "You know, it's actually kind of a blessing in disguise." "How is THIS," he pointed to his scar, "some kind of blessing?!" "Geez," I said, "you don't have to get angry. Alright, if you hadn't been banished, you wouldn't have found Geo, she would have died. You wouldn't have learned how to redirect lightening, and you wouldn't know how to defend yourself from Azula. You wouldn't have learned to understand the average family or person who was affected by the war and..." I paused for a moment, "You wouldn't have found me." He stared into the fire again. "It's late." I said "We should get some sleep." I rolled up my coat and made it into a pillow. "Thanks again for coming after me," he said as I put out the fire. "Hey," I said, "for the record, I like Zuko the fugitive much more than Zuko the Prince." he looked at the ground and said, "You're one out of few," "A little too poetic for my taste, but okay."