Fire & Rain: Book 1

Kyoshi Island

Y/N's POV
I was shocked when Zuko just pushed past me and didn't regard me at all.

I sat beside Uncle Iroh at the table who smiled,

"It's been a long time, Y/N!"

We exchanged greetings before I became very serious:
"Uncle Iroh, what's wrong with Zuko?"

He sighed before telling me about the avatar being spotted on Kyoshi Island, about how they had failed to contain the avatar at the South Pole, that Zuko had been tirelessly searching for him the entire time he'd been banished, that Zuko blames himself for losing his honour, for losing his fathers love, for losing his right to the throne.

I took a deep breath, I understood, and I knew how much Zuko needed this, he needed to capture the avatar, he needed to come home, but selfishly, I needed him to come home. Life wasn't the same in the palace without him, Mai had left with her father to occupy an earth kingdom city, and Ty Lee had left to join the circus, I'd been stuck with nobody to call my friend except Azula.

I didn't mind Azula, she was a bit of a control freak but she didn't scare me the way she scared Ty Lee and Mai, but unlike Ty Lee and Mai, I was a water bender, an exceptional one at that, she was a fire bending prodigy and I was a water bending prodigy, except I didn't need a teacher to show me how. Of course, she was still royalty, so whatever she wanted, I'd usually comply, and she was fun to train with as we were both incredible fighters, so in training we were evenly matched, and I guess we were pretty good friends too.

However, Azula was cruel and power hungry, she was excited to see the earth kingdom and water tribes finally fall, she was serious, emotionless and cold. I missed Zuko, he was fun, excitable and kind, he shone a light in the dark world that we lived in.

Now, Zuko was angry, he wasn't the innocent, happy boy that I once knew, and I hated knowing that he was in so much pain, so I made my way towards my room and suited up, ready for a fight. I made my way to Zuko's room and knocked on his door before entering,
"Hey Zuko"

He looked up at me, confused,
"Y/N, what are you doing? Why are you dressed like that? This is no time to be training, return to your room and wait for our return, I have to go out on an important mission, but we'll be back soon and we can catch up then"

He was so serious, he barely even looked me in the eye.

"Zuko, if you think I'm here to just sit around, you clearly don't remember who I am",

I pulled a spear from this wall and placed it through the belt on my back, I then walked over to him and offered him my hand to help him up from the floor,

"Come on, you're going home today"

He took my hand and smiled at me,

"Thank you, Y/N"

When we arrived on the shores of Kyoshi Island, we left the ship on the backs of rhinos, Zuko yelled to the crew:

"I want the Avatar alive."

We made our way to the village and stood before it, it was silent, the villagers had hidden in their homes and deserted the streets.

Zuko shouted out for the avatar to reveal himself, he gave him the peaceful option to surrender. Then he sent the rest of the crew, including myself, into the streets to search for him, we didn't attack anyone or burn down anything, we simply came to retrieve the avatar and leave; but a group of female warriors dressed like Avatar Kyoshi jumped out from behind some buildings and attacked us, one of them, a very skilled one at that, headed straight for Zuko.

I easily fought off the warrior who attacked me, but before I could respond to the danger Zuko was in, his rhino had smashed the warrior against the ground. Zuko attempted to fire blast her, but another warrior stood in his way... a man?

Another warrior jumped from a building and knocked Zuko from the rhino and the three of them surrounded him, I ran towards them, but Zuko helicopter kicked fire creating a circle of flames, sending them backwards. He stood up and yelled:

"Nice try Avatar, but these little girls can't save you!"

I grabbed the first warrior that attacked Zuko and pinned her to the wall:
"Where are you hiding him? Where are you hiding the avatar!?"

She didn't respond,

I pulled her towards me and then bashed her harder into the wall,

"Answer me!"

Before she even had a chance to say anything, I heard the voice of a young boy shout to Zuko:

"Hey! Over here!"

Astonished, I dropped the warrior and stared in disbelief as Zuko fought with a little boy, an air bender, the avatar, he sent Zuko flying backwards into a building.

Quick on my feet, I chased after the avatar who was trying to escape, he grabbed his glider and elevated into the air, but I grabbed onto his feet and pulled him down, he landed with a loud thud before turning to me in confusion:

"Who are you?"

I assumed a fighting stance before cockily replying:
"You're about to find out"

I grabbed the spear from my back and whirled it around, the avatar mirrored me with his glider and we walked around each other, both ready to strike at any given moment. When I finally decided to strike, the avatar simply avoided my attacks, he didn't strike back at all, he simply ducked under the spear, tried to stay behind me and completely avoided any direct combat.

When I realised his technique I jumped, tucking my knees to my chest and used my spear to sweep underneath me, tripping the avatar up, I then attempted to capture him by jumping on top of him and grabbing his wrists, but before I could restrain him, I felt someone grab hold of me, a girl who was wearing water tribe clothes attempted to fight me and water bent ice to my feet. Pathetic. But before I bent the water from my feet, Zuko came from behind me and whispered huskily in my ear:

"Don't. Just let me handle this."

He blasted fire towards the water tribe girl but the avatar shouted:
"Katara!"

He jumped in front of her and propelled wind towards Zuko, spinning him and knocking him back into me who was still frozen to the ground, so I fell onto my back and Zuko landed on top of me.

Before we could react, the avatar had grabbed the girl, Katara, and used his glider to fly away.

Zuko yelled in frustration before realising that he was still on top of me, the rest of his crew came to his side asking what they should do. He told them to retreat to the ship and get ready to try to follow him, as they left, he knelt down in front of me and heated the ice around my feet with fire from his hands, when my feet were free, he pulled me up from the floor and asked me if I was okay.

"I'm fine, Zuko. Why did you do that? I could've dealt with it."

"I know, I know. But you said it yourself, the crew isn't trustworthy, what if the minute they get the chance they rat you out to my father? Then what?"

I sighed in defeat. Then followed Zuko to the ship, we had a lot to catch up on.