Zuko's Redemption

Part One

Lei quickly ducked into the alley. With a hand on the hilt of her sword, she cautiously peeked back into the main square. It wasn't a Dai Lee patrol unit approaching: it was a boy about her age. He walked down the center street as though unafraid or uncaring whether he was caught.
Footsteps from the opposite direction pulled Lei's attention from her fellow curfew-breaker. A Dai Lee patrol was approaching.
Lei turned to mask herself further in the shadows of the alley. A quick glance showed that the boy didn't seem to be attempting to hide at all. In fact, he was walking in the direction of her hiding place, toward the patrol unit.
Lei didn't think she recognized him. Perhaps he was part of the new batch of refugees who arrived that morning. Or maybe the hat he wore obscured his face enough that Lei wouldn't have recognized him even if she did know him. Either way, if he was caught, it wouldn't be pretty.
The Dai Lee didn't seem to have noticed him yet, but it was only a matter of moments. The boy passed by the entrance to Lei's hiding place. Quick as a hedgehog-snake, Lei grabbed his sleeve and jerked him into the alley.
A surprised cry from the boy rent through the still night. Lei cringed, praying the Dai Lee hadn't heard as she pressed him against the plaster wall, shrouding them both in shadow.
"What do you think you're doing?" she hissed as she glared up at him. A quick spark of surprise lit behind her sternum as Lei got her first good look at his face. One half was attractive, with sleek features and intense copper eyes. The other half was marred by an enormous burn, nearly sealing shut his left eye.
Lei quickly stamped down her reaction. He must be a refugee who had a bad encounter with the fire nation. He wasn't the only person to find their way to Ba Sing Se with burn scars. However, the mark looked old. Lei had seen plenty enough wounds in her lifetime to tell. This burn must have happened at least three years ago.
The boy glared back at her.
"Who do you think you are?" he asked much too loudly. He tried to extricate himself from her grip, but she held firm. He let out a surprised oof as she pushed him back into hiding. She understood the confused look he fixed her with: she was much stronger than she looked.
"I'm trying to help you," she whispered. "If the Dai Lee catch you out after curfew, you could be arrested, or worse!"
"I'm not afraid of them," he growled, finally using enough force to push Lei's grip away.
"You should be!" she retaliated, putting herself between him and the exit to the alley, where the Dai Lee would be passing at any moment. "They get bored with patrols and sometimes won't even bother arresting people. They could kill you!"
"They can't kill me," he said in that same self-assured tone.
"They are some of the best earthbenders in the world. So unless you can earthbend too, you have no chance."
"Get out of my way!" The boy snapped, pushing forward.
"Who's there!?" one of the Dai Lee called from just outside the alley.
In only a few moments, Dai Lee agents had surrounded their only exit. Each of them held their stone hands out in front of them.
The sound of ringing steel called Lei's attention back to the boy behind her. He had drawn a pair of swords from his belt and fallen into a stance.
"Wait!" Lei called, putting her hands in the air placatingly. The weight of her sword still hung from her hip, but if there was even a slight chance of talking her way out, she would prefer it over their chances against earthbenders with only blades as weapons.
"Lei?" one of the Dai Lee asked suddenly. "What are you doing out past curfew?"
Lei blinked at the man who had spoken. With a twinge of distaste, she realized she recognized him. He was the soldier that always came into her apothecary complaining of a headache, although she knew it was just his excuse to sit and watch her as she attended to other patients. He never left without first asking her to join him for tea on the highest tier of the city, among other more forward questions.
"Pao," Lei forced a smile, "I'm so sorry that we're out so late." Her mind quickly scrambled for an explanation.
"You see my—uh, patient here has a fever and is very confused," Lei gestured to the boy still brandishing his swords. "I was just closing up for the night when I noticed he disappeared, so I went out searching for him."
Lei silently congratulated herself on the story.
"I'm not your patient," the boy spat, taking a step towards the Dai Lee.
Lei flung out an arm that caught him in the chest.
"As you can see, he's very sick and confused and I need to bring him back immediately so he can get some rest."
"He doesn't look sick," one of the Dai Lee growled.
"I'm not sick," the boy barked, "and I'm not afraid of any of you!"
"Please, Pao," Lei said as calmly as she could manage. "He's been a difficult patient and I keep telling him that he can get better if he just works with me." She sent the boy a harsh glare, but he either didn't catch the unsubtle hint or didn't care.
"I'm not her patient. I'm looking for my uncle," the boy declared, "and none of you are going to stop me."
Lei wanted to hit him.
"You lying to me, Lei?" Pao asked with a twisted smirk.
"I—uh..." Lei didn't know what to say. The boy seemed to be bristling for a fight, and none of the Dai Lee were backing down. She was going to be caught in the middle.
"The Dai Lee finds you both guilty of breaking curfew," one of the men proclaimed. "You are to receive immediate justice."
Lei cried out as the ground beneath her shifted. The boy leapt into the air and swung his swords, decisively cutting through a piece of rock flung his way.
Lei watched in awe as he perfectly executed move after move, getting inside the Dai Lee's guard and knocking them off balance. He was incredible. Even with years of practice and her father's teaching, Lei was not that skilled.
While the other members of the patrol were occupied with the boy, Pao rounded on Lei.
"Pao, please," she tried for diplomacy one last time.
"I don't want to hurt you, Lei," he said, his voice as slimy as his intentions. "In fact you don't even have to go to the dungeons for this infraction. I'd be more than happy to house you in my apartment while you serve your sentence."
"You already know my answer to that."
Pao sneered and pressed forward. Lei dived and rolled past him out of the alley, drawing her sword as she went. The more room she had to move the better her chances of escape.
Pao laughed and advanced on her slowly, obviously not thinking her a serious threat.
Lei quickly glanced to see that the boy was still miraculously holding his own.
In her moment of distraction, Pao sent a rock her way which crashed against her hand. Lei cried out as her sword was wrenched from her grip. Perhaps Pao was taking her more seriously than she thought.
More cries of pain sounded as the boy was knocked to the ground beside Lei, one of his swords skidding away. In an instant he was back on his feet.
"Surrender!" one of the Dai Lee called as the ground shook with his bending.
The boy hefted his single remaining sword. A few cuts and bruises marked his face and arms, but otherwise he seemed fine. Lei had never seen anyone face the Dia Lee and come away unscathed. Perhaps his cocky attitude had been warranted.
"I'm going to find my uncle!" The boy said, taking a step forward. "You're not going to stop me."
The boy jumped back into battle. Lei tried to run and take advantage of the distraction the crazy boy had given her, but found her feet completely encased in the dirt from the road. Lei yanked at her legs but they wouldn't budge.
"I'm sorry to do things this way, Lei," Pao said, appearing beside her, "but your beauty is wasted down here in the slums. My offer still stands."
"I'm not going to marry you, Pao." Lei said through gritted teeth as she continued trying to dislodge her feet. The earth seemed to only grip her tighter for her struggles.
A particularly loud cry of pain pulled her attention back to the fight. Two of the Dai Lee lay on the ground: unmoving. However, there were plenty more left to incapacitate the strange boy, and he had somehow lost his sword.
Lei watched in horror as one of the benders drew a sharp chunk of stone from the road and hurled it towards the boy.
"Look out!" she cried, but to no avail. The boy's legs had been trapped in a similar way to her own and the stone caught him in the stomach, just below his ribs.
He screamed and doubled over in agony.
"Him!" Pao snapped. His rough fingers gripped Lei's face, turning her chin so she had no choice but to look away from the injured boy.
"Who is he? Some dirty refugee? I'm high ranking, successful, powerful. I can give you everything!" Pao hissed.
"No," Lei said defiantly. The boy's moans of pain still rang across the square. "I don't want to be with you, and I never will."
Something dangerous flashed in Pao's eyes.
"Fine," he said with deadly calm.
Lei cried out as the earth holding her in place shifted and she was bodily flung across the square. She landed painfully next to where the boy was restrained. With a groan, she peered up at him.
The stone was still embedded in his heaving stomach. Blood trickled from the wound, black in the darkness. The stone itself was probably the only thing keeping him from bleeding to death. He needed help, and Lei knew she could save him, if only these bastards would let them go and she could get the boy back to her apothecary.
Her hopes vanished as earth once again encased her legs and she was forced to her feet. The Dai Lee still left standing formed a line in front of their prisoners.
"Let's make an example of these two traitors," Pao said to his patrol.
Each bender brought up stones, all similarly shaped to the one already stabbed into the boy's body. A wall of bristling knives of rock; aimed to kill.
The boy glared forward, his face creased in pain.
Lei struggled against her restraints in vain.
"Fire!" Pao ordered.
Lei closed her eyes, but the impact never came. Instead, a heat more intense than she had ever experienced burst in front of her.
With a gasp, she opened her eyes to see a magnificent wall of flames destroying every rock hurled their way.
Her mouth agape, she turned her gaze to the boy. His arms and legs were alight, and his restraints melted away from him like magma.
Lei watched in terrified awe as the boy lurched forward, the wall of fire sizzling down as he took control of the flames and began using them as his weapon against the Dai Lee.
A firebender. An amazing firebender. With half his face burned away.
Leo's chest tightened as the boy continued to work his way through the elite soldiers with ease. She had met enough refugees from fire nation attacks to have heard the stories. A banished prince with a burned face.
Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation.
Torn between paralyzing fear and a desperate instinct to flee, Lei fell to the ground. She was surprised to see that her restraints had disappeared. Perhaps Pao or whoever had created them had already fallen to the fire prince.
With a battle cry, the prince unleashed one final hailstorm of flames. The last of the Dai Lee fell.
Lei could not move. She simply stared as the blaze licking along the prince's arms extinguished. His chest heaved as he panted in exertion. Sweat slicked back his short hair and blood still ran down the front of his tunic.
The prince turned his attention to the shard of earth still lodged in his stomach. With a grimace, he grabbed hold of the protruding end.
"Don't!" Lei yelled. She scrambled forward, her fear momentarily forgotten in the face of such a horrifically wrong medical practice. "Don't pull it out, you'll bleed to death!"
The prince blinked at her in shock as she knocked his hands aside.
"You're still here?" he asked breathlessly.
"I—" Lei didn't get a chance to even come up with some meager excuse before the prince's eyelashes fluttered, and he collapsed against her.
Lei stumbled under his weight. She took a deep breath to steady herself.
What was she doing? This was Prince Zuko. He was fire nation. He was an enemy.
Lei's gaze focused on the prince. His eyes were scrunched tightly and she could already feel blood soaking into her shirt where he was pressed against her. His breathing was coming rapidly, and he looked so much like some of her patients that she knew she couldn't abandon him, even if it was the right thing to do.
He had saved her life. She knew she could save his. What kind of a doctor would she be if she refused to help someone who needed her?