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

This Time Tomorrow

I looked at Yue. "Oh, my name is Ashley, by the way. It's nice to meet you."

She nodded. "Yes, it's nice to meet you. Sokka told me you are a good person."

I looked at Sokka and then back at her. "Really? I hope he said all good things."

She let out a short laugh. "He just said you are 'a good guy with the bad guy.'"

I suppressed a tiny laugh. "Yeah, I suppose that's accurate." I thought of something to say. "Oh, I like your hair."

Yue looked at the moon. "It's white because of the Moon Spirit.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"When I was born I was very sick and very weak. Most babies cry when they're born, but I was born as if I were asleep. My eyes closed. Our healers did everything they could. They told my mother and father I was going to die. My father pleaded with the spirits to save me... that night, beneath the full moon, he brought me to the oasis and placed me in the pond. My dark hair turned white, I opened my eyes and began to cry – and they knew I would live. That's why my mother named me Yue, for the moon."

"That's really interesting." I responded. Everyone seemed to nod in agreement.

"I owe the Moon Spirit my life." Yue added.

All this Moon Spirit talk reminded me of something. "You know, Admiral Zhao is leading this attack." I said quietly.

"Ugh, that dude sucks." Sokka said, turning to look at me. "What about him?"

"When I was on his ship coming here, he came in my room and tried to rape me; but that's besides the point." I explained, trying to be as discreet as possible.

Sokka looked at me with worry. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Zuko helped me before he did anything." I said, looking down at Zuko once again with a small smile. Even when he was unconscious, he still had a scowl on his face.

"Zhao told me he had found the physical form of the Moon Spirit and he was going to kill it." I finished. "He seemed pretty certain of where it was too." As I finished, the moon turned blood red. I watched with interest. "It's a lunar eclipse."

"Ugh..." Yue groaned, placing her hand on her head in pain.

"Are you okay?" Sokka asked.

"I feel faint." She responded.

"I feel it too. The Moon Spirit is in trouble." Aang commented.

I kept my gaze on the moon. "This must be Zhao's doing."

Appa dove to the outside of the oasis, and everyone climbed in running inside. I straightened up, getting ready to follow them in, but I felt a slight tug on my sleeve. I looked down and saw Zuko's eyes flutter open. "Where are we?" He mumbled.

"On Appa." I replied.

He immeadiately sat up from my lap and stood up. "Where's the avatar?"

"In there with Zhao." I replied.

He groaned and looked around. Several fire nation troops were coming near us. "Come on, we have to get out of here." He grabbed my hand and we both slid off Appa.

"Where do we go?" I asked.

"We can meet uncle near the shore, let's just hurry up; we'll get captured if we stay any longer." He started running away, pulling me along with him. I glanced back at Appa with unease. If I stayed with Aang, I would have been protected. Zuko was leading us into what seemed like a dark tunnel. Would we even make it out?

Everything suddenly became dark, the moon disappearing. We stopped running, barely able to see anything. Several little flames made themselves apparent, the troops using them in order to see. Zuko made his own flame and kept dragging me to wherever we were going.

We made it on to a tiny foot bridge, and stopped for a few seconds, hoping to catch our breath. My deep breaths hitched as a body became visible. Zuko stepped in front of me, signaling for me to back up. I took a few steps, and nearly doubled over when I saw the familiar face of Zhao appear.

"You're alive?" Zhao said in disbelief.

"You tried to have me killed!" Zuko yelled in response.

Zuko launched a few fire blasts at Zhao with a cry of anguish, but his target dodged, rolling along the wall of the ice bridge.

"Yes, I did. You're the Blue Spirit – and enemy of the Fire Nation!" Zhao responded.

"You freed the Avatar!" Zhao responded. He looked past Zuko to me. "You were with him, I should've known."

"I had no choice!" Zuko said.

I turned around and let out a tiny yelp as I saw a Fire Nation troops storming towards me. "Admiral Zhao! I will save you!" The young soldier said, clearly just trying to impress Zhao.

I frowned and got in the way. "Sorry, buddy, not gonna happen."

The troop got ready to blast fire at me, but I saw this and quickly grabbed his arm and used both of my hands to twist his skin in opposite directions, burning it while I was at it.

He grabbed his raw flesh in pain and ran away, regretting his choices. I stood for a few moments to gloat, then remembered about Zhao as I heard his ugly voice.

"You should have chosen to accept your failure – your disgrace! Then, at least you could have lived!"

I watched as they traded volleys as the fight raged back and forth in the darkness. At one point Zuko was able to exploit a moment when Zhao left his chest unguarded. Zuko blasted him and Zhao fell off the bridge onto the tier below.

Zuko jumped down after him, and I hesitantly looked down and watched.

Zuko and Zhao continued to battle on a foot bridge over a canal. They traded blows, but a series of direct hits from Zuko layed the Admiral flat. As Zhao tried to get up, he saw the moon over Zuko's shoulder.

"It can't be!" He said in horror. Rage began to fill him, and he stood back up, trying to face Zuko.

I smiled with determination and decided to jump down, first gently tossing my drawstring bag next to Zuko; then myself landing directly on Zhao. He grunted and stayed still, too weak to push me off. "Wow Zhao, I bet you imagined it would the other way around." I said, still on top of him. "Kinda ironic." I gave him the best punch to the jaw I could muster and then stood up, about to greet Zuko with a smile.

Zuko instead looked behind me in shock. I felt Zhao grab my leg and I looked back, seeing a huge wave of water start to pluck us off the bridge. I tried to kick away from Zhao's grasp, but he held on tight. The water started to pull around me. "Zuko!"

Zuko sprang forward, grabbing onto my fingers. I tried as best as I could, but the water kept pulling me down with Zhao. My fingers started to slip, and I saw all hope leaving Zuko's eyes. "Ash, don't leave me." He said with pain.

"I'll be fine, I can swim." I managed to choke out, not believing in what I said. The water was far too cold to swim in, let alone get rid of Zhao in.

I felt my fingers leave my best friend's grasp, and I fell into the icy water below. Darkness clouded my vision, as I breathed out what felt like my last breath.