A/N: Hello and welcome!

This is the first chapter of the reimagined version of this story. The original version had issues with characterization and unnecessary babbling, so I'm rewriting it in a form that I find more pleasing. I plan to replace the original version gradually. I'll replace the first few chapters, up until actual story content starts changing. After that, I dunno. I'll figure it out. I'm posting this version chapter by chapter as a new story over on AO3, so you can read it there without delays.

The original version was not complete. I am still working on it, so this story will be lengthening at the same time as it is being replaced and possibly shortened. That'll be fun to manage! As a service to anyone wanting to read the new version, I'll keep a running total here. As of right now, literally the moment you read this, the first 9 chapters have been reimagined.

Enjoy!

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The night was afire, the air ringing with the shouts of angry men and the sounds of armored bodies. The thick gate was closed and locked. Armed soldiers swarmed up long wall-climbing ladders. Chaos and danger threatened on all sides. It was thrilling.

The Blue Spirit fought off armored soldiers with swords, muscles and cunning. Meanwhile, the Avatar shot powerful air blasts down the long ladders. Soldiers fell to the ground. The Avatar then hauled the ladders up. He ran to the outside-facing edge of the wall they stood on and handed the Blue Spirit two of his three ladders. "Here! Jump onto my back!"

The Blue Spirit did not like having to rely on another, but he had no choice. His preferred strategy of silent, invisible movement had been foiled by a soldier's sharp eyes. The Avatar sat on the end of his ladder, planted the other end in the ground and pushed off. The Blue Spirit jumped on. As they crossed through the brightly-lit air, in plain view, with dozens of soldiers watching, the last of his inner detachment vanished with a pop. Suddenly, he was no longer the Blue Spirit. He was merely Zuko in disguise.

Zuko in disguise handed the Avatar a second ladder, then a third. It seemed like they would make it. But some of the soldiers below had broken out of their shock; they rushed to the base of the third ladder and set it aflame. The Avatar panicked and prepared to jump. But they had only just reached the top of the ladder's swing. They wouldn't make it. Zuko smacked the boy with a sword hilt, aborting the jump. He then used his bending to repress the fire. The ladder swung forward.

"A traitor!" Admiral Zhao yelled. "The thief is a traitor!"

The Blue Spirit would not have minded such a label, but to Zuko it was intolerable. His inner heat surged. The ladder exploded. The Avatar screamed. Desperately flailing with his airbending, he managed to harness the power of the explosion to propel them over the final wall. He used his airbending to soften their landing on the other side, too. Zuko gasped. Beneath his mask, his face flushed from heat. His rage had come to life, thrashing and straining to break free. Traitor. Another explosion. On the other side of the wall, soldiers screamed.

The Avatar should have taken the opportunity to run away. But he was a monk and a young boy, so instead he faced the wall with an expression of agony on his face. "What's causing those explosions?" he asked aloud.

Zuko knew exactly what was causing the explosions. Fire itself, taking cues from his rage, apparently thought it was alright to rampage. He gritted his teeth and thought, Stop it! I don't care if they call me a traitor - those are still my people! He swallowed down his rage. The explosions stopped. A certain angry voice bellowed. Just my luck! So many innocent people burned, but not Zhao! More screams sounded. Zhao cried out. Hmph. Better.

"We can't help them," the Avatar said to himself. He trembled all over. "All we can do is get out of here." It hurt him to say that, but it was the truth. He turned. "Come o-"

Zuko swung a sword hilt down onto his head. The Avatar crumpled to the ground, a trickle of blood running across his bald scalp. Zuko shoved a sleeping drug into his mouth before picking the boy up and running.

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He stuffed the mask down his shirt and took off the hair covering that concealed his ponytail before emerging from the forest. Two bored soldiers guarded his landing craft. They straightened up when they saw what he carried. Zuko ordered, "Take him to the ship and have him chained in an isolated room. Restrain his limbs, gag him, and take all water out of nearby rooms just in case. He should stay unconscious for two more hours, but take no chances - do it as fast as possible. He won't get away from me this time!" The soldiers nodded. "Leave without me and come back here when you're done. There's more for me to do." Zuko stayed just long enough to see the boy chained up and stuffed in a hold barely large enough to crouch in. Then he disappeared back into the forest.

I need to capture his friends, too, so that they don't mount a rescue attempt. Zuko stopped to think. It was odd that the Avatar had been alone in the first place. Why hadn't his friends tried to rescue him from Zhao? Zuko knew better than to relax. The fact that they hadn't fought Zhao didn't mean that they couldn't fight him.

Zuko retraced the Avatar's steps, heading to a swampy valley where the waterlogged ground was frosted with ice. The frogs that the Avatar carried must have come from here. He climbed a tree and looked up. On a nearby mountaintop, he saw a moving light.

He covered his hair and put on the mask as he neared the top. It was still night down below, but here in the open air the first light of dawn provided plenty of illumination. He could clearly see a large stone building. It was very open and spacious, probably a greenhouse. He knocked on the door. A cat meowed inside. The cat's meows and some shuffling noises were all he heard for several minutes. Just as Zuko was getting bored and looking for distractions, the door opened. "Why hello there," said an old woman with a big smile. "Come on in!"

She made Zuko instantly suspicious. Her choice of location and her kooky, not-entirely-there behavior reminded him of his uncle. As harmless as Iroh generally insisted on acting, Zuko had seen him do very impressive things in battle before. He would not let his guard down around this woman. "I don't need your help. I'm just looking for some friends of mine. I was traveling with the Avatar and got separated from the others by a huge storm. Have you seen them?"

She reached out. He stiffened, but she was only reaching for his hand. She took his glove off, then folded both of her bony hands over his and closed her eyes. "I detect a powerful heat. You try to repress it, but it burns within all the same." She opened her eyes and took her hands back. A cunning light flashed in her eyes, but only for the briefest of moments. Then she laughed, looking like nothing more than a harmless old kooky lady. "You'll have better luck if you treat that fever first! Go down into the valley and pluck frozen wood frogs from the ground. Suck on 'em. You'll feel better in no time!"

Gross! But if that's what the frogs were for, then his friends must be ill. I need to look for someplace hidden from the Fire Nation, comfortable enough for sick people to stay in and large enough for a bison. There can't be too many places like that around here. "I think I'll just give it time," he said, edging away. "I don't like frogs that much."

"Okay," she replied. "But buried fires always flare up sooner or later. Take care not to let it catch you at a bad moment." She turned away, but her attention still made his skin itch. Zuko couldn't relax until he was halfway down the mountain.

Before he got that far down, he scanned the surrounding landscape. The growing light wasn't yet strong enough to reveal the shadowy valleys. He would have to wait for the sun to come up. Zuko continued down the mountain until he was sure she couldn't see him, then darted into a stand of trees. He climbed one and perched in the branches. As expected, a wave of stillness washed over him. He closed his eyes and slumped to one side. The wave completed its course, washing over the entirety of his mind, bringing all of his thoughts and feelings to a halt. Then they resumed activity, but of a different sort.

The Blue Spirit opened his eyes. He felt no impatience. A sense of inner detachment prevented him from attaching great importance to any one thing. While he waited for the sun to rise, he considered possible activities. Stay in his tree and silently watch the forest come alive? Spy on the area around Zhao's fortress? Spy on the kooky herbalist? All seemed equally exciting, sources of fun for fun's sake. He decided not to return to the herbalist. She might see him. Ditto for Zhao. So he climbed to a higher branch of his tree and watched the forest.

When the light was strong, he left his tree. Silently moving from tree to tree, he searched for a better view down the mountain. Eventually he found one. His eyes swept over it three times before he saw it: a semi-hidden, overgrown building with a large open space framed by columns. He immediately jumped down from the tree and darted down the mountain.

As he approached the building, he slowed. In his normal frame of mind, he would've sped up, rushing in with an angry yell and a burst of flame. But he could not even think of such a thing now. The Blue Spirit crept up cautiously, not wanting to be seen until the very last moment.

The Avatar's two Water Tribe friends slept fitfully in sleeping bags against the bison's side. They looked extremely weak. The bison snored. The flying monkey was awake and searching the corners of the room for bugs. A large assortment of random trash littered the floor. The Blue Spirit took note of all of these things, then made a plan. The plan would involve speaking. His Blue Spirit persona did not speak, so he would have to discard that persona first. He took off his mask, left the trees and stood on the ground, remembering hurtful things from his past. Azula's tricks. His father's disappointment.

Zuko peered around the tree and saw that nothing had changed. All except the monkey were still asleep. He drew his swords and ran inside. He grabbed the waterbender by her fur-lined collar and hauled her upright. She cried out and tried to struggle, only to break out coughing. The bison woke up with a roar. But by then, Zuko had his swords around her neck. The bison glared at him, but did not attack. The flying monkey screeched. The Water Tribe boy flailed around for a weapon, but only succeeded in falling over. His face landed in a large goblet. When he lifted his head, the goblet stayed on. He looked around, then shook his head to make it fall off.

"I have already captured the Avatar," Zuko announced. "If you want to see him ever again, you need to come with me. Without causing trouble."

"Aang would never be captured by the likes of you!" the girl protested.

"Technically, Zhao captured him first. If you want, I can leave you here for Zhao to find."

The girl stayed silent. "What about the cure he was going to get for us?" the boy asked. He sounded whiny, like a little child. "We're sick."

"I know what the cure is. I'll get it for you," Zuko snapped. "Just come with me. Quickly. Before Zhao finds this place."

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He guessed that the real cure was some substance that the frogs secreted to survive being frozen, so he took scrapings of frog skin. It was very easy to keep one of the Avatar's friends with him at all times; they could barely walk. He ended up tossing the boy into the bison's saddle and carrying the girl. She put up a fight until he whacked her with a sword hilt and threatened to leave her for Zhao.

A few more soldiers had joined the crew of the landing vessel, bringing the total up to six. Zuko spoke to the two from before. "Same procedure as before for the girl. The boy just needs to have his hands tied. Cage the monkey, and wrap a chain around the bison's foot. He'll come along if he wants to see his master again."

For the first time ever, things actually went as planned. The Avatar's friends put up no resistance. The crew assured him that they had personally seen the Avatar chained and gagged. The bison flew beside the craft, resentful but docile. They were not going to ruin his plans this time.

Zuko stood at the helm and watched the waves part. Which means that something else will. He knew it, could feel it in his bones. But I'll fight it! No matter what happens, I will succeed! I'll bring the Avatar home and make my father proud. He ignored the feeling in his bones and clenched his fists.

The waves stopped parting so readily.

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A/N: I have a theme song in mind for this fic and Zuko more generally. The song is King, by Lauren Aquilina. Please give it a listen.