Chapter Text
“Either you leave or we attack.”
The harsh rejection stung, but Zuko had to admit it was neither unexpected nor undeserved. He had planned for this outcome, and was ready to do what it took to fix his mistakes and do the right thing going forward. He dropped to his knees.
“If you won’t accept me as a friend, maybe you’ll take me as a prisoner.” He held out his hands, ready to feel stone or metal closing around his wrists any second. He couldn’t bring himself to look any of them in the face, staring instead at the ground in front of him.
He didn’t see the water whip until it hit his face. “No, we won’t!”
Zuko fell backwards onto the stone floor. Before he had time to think about the hostile reaction and what to do next, he heard another voice, one he recognized in the back of his mind as the Water Tribe boy’s, say “Wait.”
“Sokka, you can’t seriously be considering this,” The waterbender said, and Zuko mentally cataloged the name before returning his mind to what the waterbender was saying. “It’s some kind of trap.”
“What exactly would he gain from becoming our prisoner?” The small earthbender girl piped up.
“I don’t know, but we can’t let it happen,” the waterbender said firmly.
“C’mon Katara, if he is planning something, we’ll be watching him. You know what they say- keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
“Nobody says that! And this is a bad idea! Aang, back me up on this!”
The Avatar- Aang, Zuko reminded himself- startled a little. He stopped looking at Zuko with his inquiring look and glanced at Katara, then turned back to Zuko. Zuko held his gaze, trying to show the sincerity and contrition he felt. In the younger boy’s gaze, he saw conflict, fear, confusion, and uncertainty. He hated himself for being the cause of that child’s fear.
Frustration was added to the look. “I don’t know!”
Sokka continued arguing his point. “Seriously though, if we do think Zuko’s intentions are bad, which is a definite possibility, why would we let him go now? He knows where we are and could report our position to the Fire Nation!”
“I wouldn’t do that!” Zuko protested, then mentally kicked himself for contradicting the person who was arguing most strongly on his side. He repressed a sigh at the thought that he had screwed up his life so badly that someone arguing in favor of taking him prisoner was now considered “on his side”.
Katara shot him a scathing look. “Of course you wouldn’t. And you wouldn’t spin sob stories about your dead mother then betray us as soon as we turned our backs.”
The accusation stung, mostly because it was completely valid. Zuko lowered his eyes and remained silent.
“Let’s talk about this,” she said, turning sharply away, “Where he can’t hear us.”
The other three followed her to the other side of the courtyard they were in, whispering furiously among themselves and periodically throwing mistrustful glances his way.
With slow and deliberate movements, Zuko pulled himself back into a kneeling position, bowed his head, and awaited their decision as to his fate.
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“I think he’s up to something,” Katara hissed as soon as they were out of Zuko’s hearing range.
“I don’t know,” Aang said, glancing back at Zuko, “I’m not sure what he would get out of this. If he were going to try something, why wouldn’t he just attack us with a bunch of troops or something? That’s what he always did before.”
“He’s just trying to get us to let our guard down so he can do that!” Katara protested.
“Well, whatever his plan is, we have to assume that at some point it would involve escaping if we took him as prisoner, right?” Sokka asked.
The others nodded.
“Well, that would mean he’s expecting to be able to get out of whatever restraints we use on him- he could burn through rope, maybe pick some locks on chains.”
“I could case his hands in stone,” Toph suggested. “Unless we suddenly have two Avatars, he’s not an earthbender.”
“No, but the Dai Li are. And as we saw during the eclipse, they’re on the Fire Nation’s side. He could be planning on them showing up to save him. But…” He paused for dramatic effect. “They’re not metalbenders.”
Toph grinned. “I like your thinking, Snoozles. Yeah, I can take care of that.”
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Zuko watched them deliberating until it seemed that they had come to an agreement. The earthbender girl- whose name he still had to learn- fiddled with something. Then she slung a set of chains over her shoulder and carried another one in her hands. So, that was their decision. The thought that he was about to be chained up made his instincts itch to run or fight, but he forced himself to remain calm and still. This was his suggestion, and he would see it through.
When the others got close again, he held his hands back out without waiting to be told to. The girl stepped forward and cold metal encircled his wrists, tight enough to prevent the cuffs sliding up his arm or down over his hands, but not so tight as to be painful.The girl pulled her hands back, and he gaped at the smooth surface- no latch or lock, just one perfectly round metal piece around each wrist, connected with a short chain.
“How…” He was still trying to put together the question when Katara interrupted him.
“Metalbending. Toph is the only person in the world capable of it, so you’re not getting out without our say-so.”
Several thoughts flicked through his mind in rapid succession. The first being Of course, if anyone can do stuff like this, it’s these kids. The second being that he could probably get out without their say-so if he took one of them hostage and demanded the earthbender- Toph- remove the cuffs. The third being that that voicing that second thought would probably not do anything to improve his situation right now.
He settled on dropping his hands back to his lap and responding with a quiet “Alright.”
“Now your feet, Sparky,” Toph ordered cheerfully.
“Sparky?” He asked uncertainly as he moved from his kneeling position tobring his feet in front of him where Toph could reach them.
Toph shrugged. “I give everyone nicknames and it looks like you’re going to be around for a while, so it’s your turn.”
Katara sighed loudly, but seemed to deem it useless to argue with Toph.
As the cuffs of the second set of chains closed around his ankles, Zuko felt a bit of warmth in his chest. The earthbender had the least reason for animosity against him, and seemed to be ready to meet him with some level of acceptance. It was a small step, but it was something, and gave him hope that maybe he could still make things right, or at least better.
“Right… Um, so… some ground rules for this... uh... prisonershipthing,” Sokka broke in awkwardly before finding his stride, “First, except for bathroom breaks, you need to stay in sight of one of us at all times. Second, no firebending without permission.”
Zuko nodded. The rules seemed fair, and were honestly a lot more lenient than he had expected. Certainly more lenient than any of them would have been subjected to if he had succeeded in delivering them to the Fire Lord. Than he would face if his father caught him. “Okay.”
Sokka looked a little startled at his quiet acceptance, but recovered and continued. “Umm… do you have any supplies or anything? We don’t have a spare bedroll for you.”
“Yeah, they’re at the top of the cliff in my war balloon.”
“And how do we know that this isn’t a trap?” Katara asked, glaring at him with her arms crossed.
Zuko shrugged, wanting to avoid getting into a fight seconds into his new situation as a prisoner. “You don’t, I guess. I answered the question, it’s up to you to decide what you want to do with the information. I’m not in any position to argue with you one way or the other.”
Toph huffed. “Is it a trap, Sparky?”
“No.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Toph declared with complete confidence, and Zuko wondered how she knew.
“Unless he’s just as good a liar as Azula.”
“I’m really not.” Zuko considered adding that if he were trying to lure them into a trap, he would take a little longer to gain their trust, but decided the risk that it would be seen as proof of his evil plans was too high. Everything he said and did now had to be filtered through the lens of how his captors would interpret it. It was exhausting, but maybe Uncle would be proud that he had finally learned to think things through before he acted. If Uncle ever spoke to him again.
“We have to go to the fruit trees up there for food anyway,” Aang said quietly, breaking Zuko from his sober thoughts, “And we can’t keep going on completely mistrusting Zuko. He gave himself up willingly.”
“How much should we trust him then?” Katara snapped. “Aang, last time I trusted him, you died!”
Zuko’s head dropped in shame. He had no idea how he would ever be able to make things better after what he had done. But he knew that when he made his decision, knew that there was a possibility of never receiving forgiveness. All he could do now was endure whatever punishment would be in store for him and hope that maybe someday it would be enough.
It was Sokka who settled the debate. “Well, then I’d say we go carefully and be ready for trouble. And someone needs to stay here and keep an eye on Zuko.”
“I’ll stay,” Toph offered. “I don’t think I’d be much good picking fruit. I can’t see stuff in trees very well.”
Katara nodded, then glared at Zuko. “Keep him under control. And if we’re not back an hour, use whatever methods you need to get answers out of him.”
With that pleasant thought, the matter was settled. Zuko had started his day as the heir to the throne of most powerful country in the world. Now he was going to end it in chains and under guard, with blatant threats leveled at him. But for the first time in three years, he was truly satisfied with the decisions he had made.