• A Preview of Destiny






    Everyone has heard of the Southern Raiders. They are the ones who killed Kya, Katara’s mother. Fewer have heard of the Northern Raiders. They are the ones that almost killed Prince Zuko.



    Our story begins early in the Avatar’s journey, after his narrow escape at Kyoshi Island. While Aang and his friends were flying high, lifting their spirits with them, the Fire Nation prince and his entourage were drying their soaked clothes. His hair still dripping, Iroh went to see about his nephew.



    “Prince Zuko,” he called, knocking on the locked door. “I know that you are upset. I know how important capturing the Avatar is to you. But at least you fought a good battle, and left with your life and your dignity!”



    “Dignity? Is this what you call DIGNIFIED?!” Zuko yanked the door open, and Iroh cringed. His hair was poofy and all over his head, and he had several bruises from slipping on the wet floor. As he closed the door, Uncle heard him whisper, “I have been bested for the last time. From now on, I will show no mercy.”



    The next day, late in the afternoon, Uncle found Zuko pacing the deck. “Where could he be?” his nephew said angrily. “We need to cast off now!” Iroh tried to lay a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure he will be back any minute now.”



    Just then, the captain came running from the marketplace. “Price Zuko!” he gasped. “I just received news that…”



    “Where have you been?” he interrupted. “You should’ve been back an hour ago!”



    “My most humble apologies, sir, but I had been gathering information about the Avatar’s whereabouts!” He paused to take a breath and continued, “This morning an astrologer reported seeing the Avatar’s bison going down into a forest. Several others watched the area, but it never reappeared, leading them to believe that the Avatar is injured. If we travel at full speed, we should reach his location in an hour.”



    “Then let’s go!” shouted Zuko.



    “Um, sir? There’s one problem….”



    “WHAT?”



    “The last I heard, our target has been captured by the Northern Raiders.”



    It turns out that Aang and his friends had indeed been detained, but what no one yet knew was that they had escaped. So that night, Zuko’s company came thundering into the Northern Raiders’ camp, mounted atop their Komodo-rhinos. Dao Zheng, their leader, came running out of his tent. “What’s the meaning of this?” he shouted. “Who do you think you are?”



    “You can just consider me your worst nightmare if you don’t hand over the Avatar,” Zuko replied coldly.



    Dao laughed mockingly. “We had him, all right, but the boy was smarter than we thought! We just found that he’d escaped.”



    The prince’s eyes narrowed. “Do you take me for some fool? If you won’t hand him over, we’ll find him ourselves.”



    He nodded to the others, and they spurred their rhinos. They thundered through the camp, their massive hooves extinguishing the campfires. Zuko then dismounted and searched the damage. Then, just as quickly as they came, the troupe rode off into the night, whispers of smoke trailing behind them.



    Zuko could feel Iroh’s disapproving look behind him. He knew that this was one of the most fool-hearted things his nephew had done since he was banished. But little did he know that the consequences would be much greater than a burden on the conscience, for there in the midst of the chaos lay Dao Zheng’s infant son, ominously still.



    As it turns out, a solider at the back of the stampede had caused the fatality. But of course, all eyes were on the banished prince. That night, Dao and his most elite warriors gathered by the biggest tree in the forest. “As you know,” he began, “I intended to raise my son to take my place one day. Now that our future has been compromised, I believe it’s time to do some compromising of our own.”



    Meanwhile, Aang and his friends were recovering from the recent attack. Katara let out a heavy breath as she rubbed a soothing remedy onto Appa’s stomach. “First my mother, now you, Aang.” She was visibly shaken.



    “But I’m okay now, Katara. We’re all okay.” Aang tried to comfort her as Momo landed on his shoulder, twittering in agreement.



    “Yeah, and besides these guys are much dumber and way less organized than the Southern Raiders,” added Sokka as he studied his reflection, fixing his hair. “We shouldn’t have to worry about…”



    “Just stop, ok?” she lashed back. “As usual, you missed the point! Do I still think about Mom every day of my life? Of course I do! My guess would be that every girl in the world except for Mom is on your mind!”



    “That was completely unwarranted and you know it!”



    “Come on guys,” Aang cut in. “I know the past few days have been rough for us, but the last thing we need to do is turn against each other!”



    “Then I guess what we really need is some time to ourselves. You boys can just stick together like you always do. I’m going to find some peace to myself.” With that, Katara left Appa’s side and stomped into the woods.



    “Can you believe the nerve of that girl?” Sokka squeaked. “I have never been so humiliated in my life.” Then he had a flashback, and started to think that wasn’t entirely true. Mumbling to himself, he started to fiddle around with his boomerang. Aang, feeling quite awkward, went to continue healing the wound Appa had received from the fire arrows. Momo looked like he wanted nothing to do with the whole situation.



    Back on Zuko’s ship, the young Firebender was releasing his fury with a rigorous training session. Uncle, hard as he tried, wasn’t helping matters.



    “Prince Zuko,” he pleaded, “listen to reason! You may not be aware of the reputation of the Northern Raiders, but I know these things. Take their sister clan, the Southern Raiders. They once laid siege to a small village in the South Pole, of all places!”



    “I did nothing more than I had to, Uncle,” shouted Zuko, creating a great fiery arch and hurling it to the floor.



    Iroh shook his head. “You may not like it, but every man must somebody pay the price for his mistakes.”



    A whip of fire landed inches from his feet. “You think you’re such a wise man? What do you think this is?” he yelled, jabbing a finger at his scar. “For once in your life, just keep your mouth shut!”



    His head down, Iroh retired to his room. For once, he left his tea sitting on the table. Seconds later, a messenger hawk swooped down, released a scroll, and flew away. Zuko picked it up and almost dropped it in surprise. It read:




    “Prince Zuko,




    Yes, I knew who you were all along. It’s hard to mistake such a defining mark as yours. If you want the Avatar, be at the tallest tree in the forest by sunset.




    Dao Zheng”




    Zuko took the paper to the edge of the boat and burned it, letting the ashes fly over the ocean. Even as he shouted for the captain to change course, he sensed that something wasn’t right.



    Meanwhile, Aang had started to pace. “Where could she be? The sun will be setting soon. What if something’s happened?”



    “Will you just calm down already?” said Sokka. “Yeesh, are all you Airbenders such worrywarts?” Aang stopped in his tracks and stared at Sokka, his eyes glistening.



    “Aang, I’m so sorry. I guess my mouth is bigger than my brain sometimes.”



    “It’s okay. I guess that happens to us all sometimes.” The boy arched an eyebrow inquisitively.



    “Yeah. I guess you’re right….” Sokka looked down at his shoes. “I guess I should’ve been a bit more tolerant of Katara….”



    As he was thinking, the same messenger hawk flew overhead and dropped a second scroll. Aang read it aloud: “If you ever want to see your friend alive again, be at the tallest tree in the forest by sundown. Dao Zheng.”



    “The sun’s going to set in about 10 minutes!” Sokka cried.



    “We can be there in two.” Since Appa was injured, Aang opened his glider and motioned for Sokka to grab hold of it. With a quick running start, they were flying above the trees.



    In the meantime, Zuko was nearing the location. Inwardly, he had regrets about what he had done, so he was going alone. The only problem was finding the spot, because from his vantage point the trees all had pretty much the same height: tall. Finally, he turned a corner and came face to face with the Northern Raiders. What he didn’t expect to see, however, was Katara gagged and tied to a tree, a look of pure terror masking her face. She looked so horrified that he just stared for a moment before saying, “You promised the Avatar. Where is he?”



    “Patience, dear Prince, patience,” sneered Dao. “You’ve waited this long, surely you can stand another minute of suspense.”



    Zuko was about to protest when, all of a sudden, he saw Sokka and Aang sneak up behind Katara, who was now sobbing. His mind flashed back to what Uncle had said: the Southern Raiders…an attack on the South Pole…a girl who was usually brave in the face of danger looking helpless…a girl from the South Pole…



    His thoughts were abruptly interrupted as Sokka and Aang became trapped in a net that had been hidden beneath the leaves.



    Dao clapped sarcastically. “I had no doubt that the Avatar would risk life and limb to save his friend. That’s what anyone would do for someone they love, is it not? Now, imagine how upset he would be were an.. accident to occur, and she was no more. He would want revenge on whoever was responsible for her untimely demise, would he not?”



    Zuko had another flashback: “…every man must someday pay the price for his mistakes….”



    “Of course he would,” Dao continued calmly. “Tell me, how much more hurtful and infuriating would it be if it were, say, someone’s son that was killed? A boy no older than a year old, sleeping soundly inside a tent, awakening to the sound of rhino hooves. Then he hears nothing more, ever again. Such a thing would cause a father to ensure that the culprit met their demise, and have no care for the fact that the assassin was the prince of the Fire Nation.” Before Zuko could react, Dao’s warriors released a flurry of arrows. He dodged or destroyed almost all of them, but one struck him in the arm. Grunting, he yanked it out.



    At the same time, Sokka had managed to cut through the net. They were surrounded by twenty warriors that were at least two times as big as them. Aang created a huge ball of air and forced it outward, momentarily disabling their attackers. This gave them just enough time to set Katara free and swoop away on his glider.



    Attacks were coming at Zuko from every angle. Someone tried to tackle him from the front, as arrows and swords flew at his back. And all the while, he was growing weaker due to his loss of blood from the arrow. Suddenly, Dao ordered his men to fall back. With lightning precision, his arrow met its target. “This,” he said with that same deathly calm, “is for daring to show your exiled face in my territory.” As the prince was still recoiling, he shot again. The impact made his victim collapse. “This is for destroying our camp.” He set a third on fire and aimed it at the fragile boy’s heart. “And this is for my son.”



    He pulled back the bow…and it was knocked from his hand. He looked around for the threat. No one was in sight. “Up here!” called a familiar voice. To everyone’s astonishment, there was Aang, Katara, Sokka, Appa, and Momo! The lemur-bat swooped down and snatched all of the arrows, plus Sokka’s boomerang. Appa landed and slammed his tail on the ground. Several of the warriors lost their balance, and Aang swirled them in a funnel of air and spewed them out over the trees. Sokka managed to knock one guy out with his boomerang, while Katara finished the rest off by freezing them.



    “Forgetting someone?” Dao Zheng, not looking so calm anymore, wielded two menacing swords. Sokka smirked and pointed down. Dao was standing on Appa’s tail. He whimpered, and the bison-manatee flung him high into the air.



    Then, all eyes were on Zuko. Aang walked towards him, but Katara pulled him back. “It’s okay, he assured her, and he went to kneel by the injured prince. Zuko winced in pain and suppressed a yell as Aang applied some of the medicine he had used on Appa to his arm.



    “You were free,” he mumbled. “You didn’t have to come back.”



    “Just because you’re not my favorite person,” replied the boy as he inspected the other wounds, “doesn’t mean you deserved to die.”



    Cautiously, Katara and Sokka moved closer. He squeezed her arm and whispered, “You and Mom are on my mind every single day.”

    His sister forced a weak smile. “I’m sorry, too.”



    “Besides,” Aang continued, “if it’s not you chasing me, it’s someone else. I’ll probably be on the run for the rest of my life..” He looked into Zuko’s eyes. “ One day, you’ll be back with the ones you love. At least you have a chance. At least you have a family. And even though you had to leave, at least you got a chance to say goodbye.”



    Zuko frowned. “Don’t be so sure of that.”



    Aang’s eyes welled up with tears, and he quickly turned away. “There’s nothing else I can do,” he said to the others. “We have to get him back to his ship. Sokka, help me please.”



    Zuko hesitated. “You realize that, once I’m better…”



    “I know. It’ll be like this never happened.”



    Aang was staring to support Zuko’s head when, suddenly, Iroh came running out of the trees. For a moment, the children stepped back fearfully. One look from the old man showed that he understood his nephew’s unspoken wishes.



    “There seem to be an abundance of Firebenders around here lately,” he mused thoughtfully. “Perhaps you should go, if you want to avoid them.”



    As the group climbed aboard Appa, Katara put her hand on Aang’s shoulder. “That was such a brave thing you did.”



    He watched out of the corner of his eye as Iroh gently lifted Zuko’s frail body. “Thanks, Katara. It was the only thing to do.”



    “Yeah,” said Sokka patronizingly. “Now can we please go before we have fire breathing down our necks again?”



    Aang took one last look at Zuko. At the same time, the prince looked at him. Right before they lifted into the sky, Aang said impulsively, “Goodbye.”




    The End…?