A Man Without a Country: The Nomad's Story

Legend of Korra and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon. Captain America and related characters belong to Marvel Comics

Two young boys sat atop a hill, looking down at Fire Nation soldiers marching. One of the boy's was bald and had a blue arrow tattoo running up from his neck and down to his forehead and wore traditional Air Nomad clothes. The other had jet-black hair in a small pony tail and wore a red vest and black pants.

"Aang?" The boy in red asked the asked his friend. Aang looked over at the other boy and replied,

"Yeah Kuzon?" The Fire Nation boy took a deep breath and said,

"I think I want to join the army when I get old enough." Aang looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow.

"Why? You barely work as it is, what do you think it's gonna be like in the army?" At this Kuzon laughed and replied,

"Please, everyone knows work in the army is a lot neater than the stuff ordinary people do! They get to hunt down pirate ships, fight bad guys, all that stuff!" Aang was still skeptical, but didn't have time to dwell on it as he noticed the sun was going down.

"Oh no! I promised Gyatso I'd be back by sundown! Sorry Kuzon, I gotta go!" Aang said as he rushed to his sleeping flying bison. He leaped atop the beast's head and grabbed a hold of the reigns.

"By Kuzon, I'll see ya soon! Appa, yip-yip!"

FIVE YEARS LATER

A 15 year old Kuzon Ryuzaki stood in line at an army recruitment booth.

"Next!" The soldier running the booth called. Kuzon stepped forward and the man instantly laughed as he said,

"Sorry, kid. The Army doesn't need a lightweight like you." It was true, Kuzon wasn't exactly the picture of a perfect soldier. He was around 5'4 and he was very skinny and lean, not exactly suited to lugging around armor and weapons.

"Come on, you gotta let me join!" Kuzon practically begged.

"Look kid, I can tell you right now that you're liable to get killed faster than anyone. For spirits sake you look like a toothpick could kill you!" The soldier said sternly. Suddenly a man came up behind the soldier, a Colonel to be precise. He cleared his throat causing the soldier to leap to his feet.

"Colonel Shin, Sir!" The soldier said as he stood in attention.

"What is the problem here Corporal?" The Colonel asked in a serious tone.

"This boy wants to join up Sir, but he doesn't fit our usual criteria for cadets." The soldier said in a slightly scared tone. The Colonel looked long and hard at the boy before smiling.

"Oh, I don't know. I believe we could use a boy like him in Division Zero." The Colonel said, causing the soldier to look at Kuzon with an expression that practically screamed "Don't do it". Kuzon didn't take note of this however and said,

"Where do I sign Sir?"

SIX MONTHS LATER

Kuzon laid hurt and bleeding. It turned out Division Zero was a suicide division, with Colonel Jelong Shin leading it from a safe position away from the battlefield. He had managed to slowly make his way to the deserted base and entered Shin's tent. To say the monstrous Colonel was surprised was an understatement.

"Private Ryuzaki! This IS a surprise. I expected you to be the first one to die." Shin said as he smiled, though there was underlying malice in his words.

"Everyone's dead. We weren't attacking a supply station, it was an Earth Kingdom barracks!" Kuzon managed to yell despite his injuries.

"But of course. How else would we weaken this area enough for our invasion force to dominate it?" Shin said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You sent us to our deaths! We thought we were doing the right thing! We thought we were making a difference!" Kuzon shouted again, ignoring his injuries as his anger took hold.

"Oh you did make a difference. Now our invasion force may pass through without having to be hindered by an unnecessary battle." The Colonel said casually. Kuzon couldn't believe what he was hearing. He saw good men, some of them people he grew up with, die for absolutely nothing. They weren't heroes, they weren't even soldiers, they were just koala-sheep to the slaughter and it made his blood boil. Suddenly Kuzon let loose a blast of fire from his hands, severely burning the unsuspecting Colonel's head. The bloodied soldier walked of the tent, leaving his former Colonel screaming in pain.

He kept walking and walking through the forest around the battleground, not caring if he lived or died anymore as his faith in everything he had believed in was now shattered. Soon Kuzon collapsed from his injuries.

It was nearly sunset as an old Water Tribesman came walking along through the forest. He spotted Kuzon's body and rushed over to him. The boy was alive despite the severity of his injuries and blood loss. The old man quickly took him to a river and bent some water around the boy's body, trying to heal him. The old waterbender worked for hours, pushing his healing abilities to their limit. Suddenly without warning a white flash sparked over Kuzon's body and his hair turned from jet-black to white as snow.

Over the course of the next week Kuzon drifted in and out of consciousness. One day he woke up in a jolt, finding he was inside a tent and wearing a Water Tribe shirt and pants. He slowly got up, feeling sore and walked outside. He looked around and saw he wasn't in the forest near the battleground, but the beach near there.

"Good to see you up my boy! You gave me quite a scare." Kuzon heard from behind him. He turned to see a kindly looking old Water Tribesman. Kuzon then noticed something odd. It seemed like he was on stilts or standing on something because everything looked further down than he remembered. He looked down and saw that not only was he taller, but he wasn't skinny anymore as he now had a body covered in muscle. He then noticed that hair was a little longer and out of it's ponytail, but instead of black it was a bright white.

"What happened?" The young soldier asked in shock.

"I found you a week ago, bloody, barely clinging to life. It took everything I had to heal you, but when I was about done something amazing happened. You were touched by the spirits!" The old man said. Kuzon looked at him curiously and asked,

"What does that mean?" The old man chuckled and said,

"I've only heard of it in legend, but when someone is touched by the spirits it means they're destined to do many great things. Things that will change the world." Kuzon sat down on a large rock and rubbed his hand over his face.

"I know you're a Fire Nation soldier, I could tell by what was left of your uniform." The old man said seriously.

"I'm not one anymore." Kuzon said as he proceeded to tell the man his story.

"That's awful my boy." The old waterbender said, having sat down next to the young man.

"I don't know what I'm going to do now. It's like I don't have a country anymore, a home. I guess I can always try to make my way to one of the Air Temples, I got a good friend that's an Air Nomad I haven't seen in a long time." Kuzon said, but it caused the old man to sigh.

"You don't know do you?" The old man asked in a sad tone. The younger man looked at him and said,

"Know what?" The waterbender stayed silent for a moment.

"The Air Nomads are under attack. I heard that the Fire Nation has nearly wiped out all of the Air Temples." Kuzon looked in shock as he felt tears come to his eyes.

"No Aang! That's why he didn't come back!" The young soldier cried in grief for his friend.

"I'm sorry son." The waterbender said.

"Kuzon. My name's Kuzon." The younger man said as he wiped his eyes. The old man gave a small smile and said,

"My name's Erkhan." Suddenly a large explosion was heard about a mile away. Both men looked to see smoke coming rising above the trees.

"The invasion force. It's here already!" Kuzon said as he shot up to his feet.

"I need to stop them!" The former soldier said as a passion burned in his eyes. He wasn't about to let the Fire Nation hurt anymore innocent people.

"I don't have any weapons for you, but I do have an old shield you can use." The old man said as he walked over to the tent and took out a triangular shield. Kuzon then thought for a moment and tore off a piece of clothe from his shirt and fashioned it into a bandanna mask. He then took out a small knife and cut out the shape of an arrow in the cloth, showing the skin of his forehead and mimicking an airbender tattoo.

"I'll avenge you Aang. One Fire Nation soldier at a time." Kuzon said as he headed off toward the attack.

The Fire Nation troops were tearing the village apart. Their komodo rhino's smashed buildings as the firebenders burned homes to the ground. A group of ten soldiers chased after a family, a father, mother, and two young girls, who were fleeing. They were lead by a Captain wearing a royal purple hood that acted as mask who rode atop a komodo-rhino. Soon the soldiers had them corned next to the village's wall.

"Take them, we could always use more slaves." The Captain of the soldiers said. As the soldiers moved toward the four, the sound of someone whistling was heard. They looked up to see a masked man in Water Tribe clothes standing atop the wall with a simple triangular kite-shield on his left arm. It was Kuzon Ryuzaki himself. Kuzon leaped down in front of the family, holding his shield up towards the soldiers.

"Well now, looks like somebody wants to play hero. Take him down!" The Captain ordered as his men rushed to attack with their spears. The masked man blocked one spear with his shield before quickly punching the soldier, sending him flying into a nearby building.

"Wow." The masked man said in surprise at his own strength. However the soldiers did not stop and quickly attempted a group attack. The masked man leaped toward them and tackled three to the ground, bashing them in their heads with his shield thus knocking them out. He leapt to his feet and blocked one attack spear with his shield before punching another soldier in the face, taking him down. He then charged into another soldier, shield first, and slammed him into the village wall which craked from the force. Soon all that was left was the Captain of the band.

"I must say that was impressive. Sloppily done, but impressive." The Captain said as he slowly clapped.

"You don't seem to worried considered I just beat ten of your men single-handedly." The masked man said confidently as he readied his shield.

"Oh, those were just raw recruits, I didn't expect much from them. Now you face Baron Hachan Zeko!" The purple clad man proclaimed as he leaped from his mount and drew a long sword.

Kuzon decided to make the first move and charged at the man, shield ready. The Baron simply stepped aside and slashed at Kuzon's back with his sword. It wasn't deep enough to cause too much pain. No, the Baron was toying with his prey. Kuzon retailiated with a swift kick to the other man's stomach, which sent him hurtling into the wall. The last thing the Baron saw before he lost consciousness was a shield heading straight for his face.

After leading the family to safety, Kuzon ran back to the village to stop the other soldiers.

"Daddy, who was that masked man?" One of the little girls asked. Her father did not have the answer so he said the only thing that came to mind.

"A hero."

PLEASE REVIEW!

As I said, this is a side-story to Marvelous Legends of Republic City. In this story I will show how Kuzon's actions as The Nomad during the war and expand upon what he does in Korra's time.