The Fire Within - an atla fanfic (Zuko x OC)

But Now I've Gone

I looked at Zuko, desperately trying to think of a way to cheer him up. He had basically just been told the almost 3 past years had been for nothing and that he now had no future involving his father. For now, he was mostly in shock, but sooner or later the realization would hit him and he'd fall apart. "It's going to be okay, Zuko. There is a bright side to every storm cloud." I said, trying to sound like Iroh. I shook my head slowly, not believing in what I was saying at all. For the most part, I was not a very optimistic person; but if I wasn't being optimistic, then who would? It's times like these in which you need an annoying person to bug you about looking on the bright side. Otherwise you don't do anything and just become depressed.

"This is just a message from the uh, spirits, that you need to accomplish your goal in a different way. And I know you will." I added, trying to be reassuring.

Zuko just sighed and flipped over on his other side. Clearly my cheerful reassurance wasn't working too well. "I don't care what the spirits are telling me, it's over. I will never get the avatar now. We can't even go anywhere. I might as well give up." Zuko mumbled.

"Okay, well you can sit around like a bum but you aren't going to get anywhere. You need to keep trying." I urged.

Zuko sat up and looked at me with a spark of anger in his eyes, something I hadn't seen since my first days on the ship. "You have no idea what you are talking about. Would you just be quiet already? Just leave me alone. I could care less if you are here or not. Finding the avatar means so much more to me than you would ever understand."

I stood up and matched his angry gaze. "More than I would ever understand? Finding the avatar is your way home. I understand completely. I would do anything to get home, which is why you need to get out of bed and quit complaining. You need to bring back your hope."

Zuko stood up and drew a finger at me accusingly. "You don't understand. You've been gone for a couple months. I've been gone almost three years."

"Ok, well maybe you don't need to go home. You seem fine here. What do you even have at home? An abusive father and a crazy sister?"

"At least I have a father." Zuko shot back.

"Well at least I have a mom." I responded coldly.

Zuko widened his eyes, and in the depths of his eyes I could see something I had never really seen in Zuko before. Sadness. A moment later, his face hardened, his lip quivering in anger. "You have no right to talk to me like that! I'm a prince!" He boomed.

"I have all the right!" I responded in anger. My fists shook. It was unlike me, I admit. I never had gotten this angry before, but it just happened, as if something commanded me to. Usually when Zuko would get angry, I would just say a simple 'Sorry, Prince Zuko.' and leave. But something was different.

"You have no idea how fucking annoying you can be! You are always angry about this shit with your family, and you don't even recognize that you don't need them! You don't need the Fire Nation. You have Iroh, and he is way more of a family than you could ever have back at the Fire Nation Capital." I basically yelled at him.

Zuko just continued staring at me in anger, smoke billowing from his fists.

"You are just about the most selfish, stuck-up person I've ever met!" I added, throwing my fists down in anger.

Zuko gasped and I narrowed my eyes. "What, Zuko, did I scare you?" I asked, mockingly.

He shook his head and pointed at my hands.

I raised my hands and nearly fell over as I saw the strands of smoke divulging from my fingertips. I stared in shock. "Did I just-"

"You lied to me!" Zuko yelled, the room steaming up. "You are a firebender! I can't believe I ever trusted you!"

I kept looking down. Was this real? I blocked out Zuko's tantrum as I rethought everything. What was I? How did this happen? A million thoughts ran through my head. A few months ago, I didn't even know what a firebender was... is it possible that I actually am one? I looked up in disbelief.

Zuko had paused his yelling and instead looked at me with curiosity. I pushed past him and ran to my room. I slammed the door open and started grabbing all my things and throwing them into the bag I originally came with. As I was throwing my clothes in angrily, Zuko burst in the room. "What are you doing?" He questioned.

"What?" I asked, not hearing him clearly.

"What are you doing?" He repeated.

"I'm leaving." I responded quickly.

"And going where?" Zuko asked, still sounding angry.

"I don't know." I replied, my voice cracking.

Zuko grabbed my hand. "You can't go." He told me, his voice growing softer.

"And why is that?"

"Because. You won't even know where you are."

"Well at least I'll be going somewhere." I responded, my gaze boring into him. I swept his hand off of mine and stood up, ready to leave.

"Come on, I didn't mean to yell at you." Zuko tried to explain.

"I don't care, Zuko. It's my fault; I was being annoying. But I can't- I need to leave. I'm not supposed to be here. It doesn't make any sense." I said, sounding confused, angry, and sad all at once.

"I can help you." Zuko responded.

"You can help me by leaving me alone." I replied. "I need to figure everything out alone."

"You said we were friends. Don't friends stick together?"

I grabbed my bag and pushed past him once again. "I'm sorry, Zuko. I have to go. Maybe I'll see you again."

Zuko grunted in protest as I foolishly left. I was not in the right mindset to make decisions at the time. I found myself on the deck of the ship and saw Iroh looking out into the harbor, seemingly in thought. I walked over to him. "Iroh, I'm leaving." I told him.

Iroh turned around in surprise. "What did my nephew do?" He asked.

"He did nothing. It's just that I, well... it doesn't matter. I think I'll be able to go home easier on my own." I tried to explain, leaving out that I might be... that I am a firebender. Ew, it sounded so strange. It didn't make sense. Not one bit.

Iroh put his hand on my shoulder reassuringly. "I know you will find your way. May the spirits guide you on this journey."

I tried to smile and did a semi-correct bow that they do in the Fire Nation. "I wish you and Zuko luck in whatever you do next." I added. I turned around taking one last look at the ship. I was going to miss it. What was I even going to do? I really did not think this through, did I? I shook my head lightly and then glanced one last time. My eyes focused on the figure of Zuko, looking down at me from the helmsman tower, a sad frown very apparent on his face. I scoffed and turned away.

What a holy mess this was. Zuko's crew should have just left me to die in the South Pole waters. I'm sure everyone thinks I'm dead at home anyway. There is probably a whole mystery surrounding my death right now. My feet trudged as they left the dock. "I'm a firebender", I kept thinking in my head. This made no sense. I made my way over to a tree a few hundred feet away from the ship and sat below it, trying to gather my thoughts.

How could I even be a firebender? Did Zuko give me firebending powers? What the hell? I highly doubted that someone could give you powers. Unless you screwed or something. So that means I couldn't have gotten it from Zuko. Well, who else would have given it to me? Mom clearly wasn't a firebender. She wasn't even from here. It makes no sense. None at all. I grasped some of my still-sorta-dyed hair in my hands in frustration.

I gazed up at the dark sky. It was night. I better go get some place to stay. But with what money? I was so stupid. What was I ever thinking? This was such a bad idea. I thought about these things over and over again.

"Come on, Ashley, you should've known better then to freak out about this. You should've just listened to Zuko and stayed-" I heard a large boom and watched in horror as Zuko's ship ignited in flames as it exploded. "Nevermind."