Disclaimer: I, the author, do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender….obviously.

This can't be right.

For year he had dreamed of only one thing, the Avatar. The Avatar was a hardened warrior, over hundred years old and with countless battles under his belt. His arsenal was the entirety of the world, all of the elements. His predecessor had leveled the imperial place on whim, and he had not lived and hidden throughout a hundred years of war. The tale of the battle would be sung by the sages for generations.

Prince Zuko and the Avatar! The exiled prince battles against the world most powerful bender to regain his honor and throne. The seas would heave. The earth would rumble. The very stars would fall from the sky. Fire, glorious fire, would consume the fabled Avatar! The world would have proof that fire is the superior element. And proof that Zuko was the true heir to the throne.

This was not that dream, this was very wrong.

This was a child, a child! Wide gray eyes stared up at him in confusion and something else... He looked so small. Chains were wrapped around his wrists, they had no shackles small enough. It took Zuko a moment to realize that he was cowering, he was afraid. The prince's mind wandered, "Was this how I looked when…"

You will learn respect….

"How old are you?" Zuko's voice croaked, dry and gravelly.

"Twelve," came the hesitant answer.

Twelve? Even younger then I was, the prince thought. Suddenly the boy grew taller and older, more muscular. He was wreathed in a cloak of shadow and flame. The gray eyes now burned gold.

Suffering will be your teacher…

The prince took an instinct step back as his memory haunted him. The startled boy looked halfway between running for it and trying to help the distraught teenager. Unknown to the Avatar, Zuko's thoughts were running a similar thread. After all if his father would do…that to his own son, what would be fall this child?

The exile reared his head back and let lose a roar of flame. The almost liquid fire spread out across the ceiling of the room, bathing the path in an odd amber hue. This color remained momentarily as Zuko looked back to the boy, the object of his multi-year hunt, the price of his honor.

Zuko roughly grabbed the chains around the boy's wrists, eliciting a yelp from him. Using a quick, hot, burst of fire, Zuko weakened the bindings enough to snap them. The gray-eyed boy looked up at him, waiting to see what happened next…perhaps to afraid to hope…

"Go," barked the prince, a little harsher then what he intended.

"Really!" The boys eyes lit up, his face breaking into an ear to ear smile. Zuko didn't even know people could smile like that. The prince's train of thought on overly-cheerful smiles was short-lived. The boisterous child decided to show his gratitude by glomping the gloomy teenager.

Normally, anyone in this situation would have found themselves rather…crispy. Fortunately for the Avatar, Zuko was still shocked by his own decision to free the child. Being on the floor embraced by that very same child, quite simply forced the prince's mind to shut down temporarily. The poor teenager's mind could only take in so much in one day after all. Taking the silence as an acceptance, the boy quickly began to ramble.

"Hey! Have you ever meet my friend Kuzon? He is from the Fire Nation too. Course he would really old by now. Do they still make fire fla…"

"Get off or the chains go back on."

"Yes sir!" The happy child quickly jumped back and gave the prince a mock salute. He then proceeded to ignore the smoke coming from the prince's mouth. The boy they wondered if all teenagers in this century were this grumpy. Any further musing or retaliation by Zuko was quickly as the pair heard fighting break out on the deck.

After rushing up to the deck, side by side with the Avatar, Prince Zuko was unsure whether to be impressed with the boy's friends or angry with his own men. The waterbending girl already had three of his soldiers frozen to deck and fourth was just washed overboard. Her moves were amateurish and lacked some of the pure grace the prince knew waterbenders were fabled for, but she was effective none the less. He found himself admiring the determination in her eyes, as well as some other parts of her.

The water tribe boy, thankfully without the face paint, wasn't faring as well. Obviously untrained, the boy swung his weapon wildly screaming all the while. Though even he managed to get in a couple lucky shots. The prince quickly decided that his men would be running drills for the rest of the month.

Now the third one, was entirely different story. The giant six legged bison landed short before the ship started tip towards it. Six of the soldiers stood in front of the fluffy beast, trying to figure out how to fight something like that. The bison promptly swung around and knocked them into the arctic waters with a beaver-like tail. The creature gave a deep rumbling below as it noticed that its friend was on deck.

The prince decided enough was enough.

"Stop!" he yelled, sheer command reverberating in his voice. The soldiers quickly turned to face their prince and stood at rapt attention. The water tribe siblings stood dazed as they their enemies ignored them. The water tribe boy started to "subtly" whack the head of the soldier next him when the avatar called out.

"Sokka! It's alright!" barely hiding amusement.

"The Avatar and his friends are free to leave," decried the banished prince of the Fire Nation. The soldiers quickly moved away from the water tribesmen and the bison. If any harbored doubts about the prince's actions, they kept it to themselves, for now.

Just to be sure, Zuko escorted the boy to his bison. The prince suspected that there were men abroad whose first loyalties were not to him. He would just have to burn that bridge when he came to it.

The bison, like his master, took an instant liking to the prince, when he wasn't attacking them. This new show of affection left prince once again on his ass covered in bison slobber. Wiping the large amounts of slobber from his face, the prince decided that anymore displays of affection would probably kill him…or force him to hurt someone else. Standing, Zuko found the avatar sitting on the bison's massive head with his friends in the saddle behind him. The prince locked eyes with him, "You shouldn't return to village, there will be other ships coming soon." The young avatar nodded, his face looking more grave then a twelve-year-old should.

"Come with us," said the water tribe girl. She was quickly admonished by her brother, which she ignored with practiced ease. Gold-amber eyes locked with those ocean-blues. "We could use your help."

The prince stiffened at her request. The trio clearly didn't understand the ramifications of her request. Then again, he had probably already thrown away his only chance to every return home. Maybe…

He turned his back on her, "I have committed enough treason for one day."

Not watching his nation's greatest enemy leave, the prince walked back to his private chambers. His footsteps seemed to resound louder than usual against the metal plating. The dark and silence surrounded him, as if understanding his crime. The fires lighting his path whispered, "traitor." And the shadows they cast taunted him with images of home and a lost mother. Zuko was prepared to succumb to the finality of the moment when a comforting hand placed on his shoulder.

"You did a good thing my nephew," spoke the caring voice of his uncle, "There is no honor in harming an innocent child, avatar or not."

"Thank you, Uncle."