The sun burned intensely as it moved to the center of the sky. The clouds had cleared the path for it in advance, allowing the strong rays fall directly onto the earth.
Zuko, with his upper garments long gone, stood with his legs wide and bent in horse stance, while sweating bullets under the heat.
He looked different. His high ponytail, the symbol of fire nation nobility was long gone, leaving him with a reflective, shiny bald head. The burn mark on his right had healed to a considerable degree with most covered in new pink skin that grew darker under the sun.
However, he didn't carry the same air as Zuko had, when he had donned the armour or fire nation robes. The fierce expression on his face had softened. His clothes were in rags, with multiple hastily made patches while his body no longer had the well healthy and well fed glow. Instead he looked like any other common foot soldier.
Inhale, exhale. Zuko imagined as he breathed regularly, doing his best at maintaining the small burned hole in the green leaf in his hands. The dying embers glowed with every rush of air, burning a bit of the leaf. This went on for a few minutes before the red embers died down completely.
"Tsk" Zuko clicked his tongue as he threw the umpteenth leaf into the small fire with contempt. "Failed! Again!" The contempt shortly turned to rage before dying down. It was not the first time he had raged, and Zuko had a sinking feeling that it won't be the last.
"Damn that baldie. " he could only mutter under his breath. What he had attempted was one of the most basic, yet important training related to firebending. Breathing.
Shortly after he had woken up, after his long sleep, he tried to get back up onto his feet. He quickly abandoned the hunt for the avatar, not intending to waste his time chasing someone with more plot armour than Dio, or to pursue a false honour from a psychotic dictator. He knew how much potential Zuko held. He was born to the strongest fire bender, the fire lord, and the grand daughter of Avatar Roku. Both the parents parties had great accomplishments to their names. And he had Iroh. The dragon of the west. One of the wisest and strongest fire benders as his mentor.
Zuko wanted to use that potential. He wanted to grow to the peak, as anyone who had never weilded any type of supernatural powers in his past life would want to. However, reality was harsh.
The loss to Zhao had proven too much to the previous Zuko. He had broken from shock and rage. And before he had fallen to that state, he had lost the spark needed to wield fire. The punishment from his father, the constant ridiculing from his sister, the loss of his mother, shame in himself, everything had piled into one leaving a scar on his mind. And now, the 'new' Zuko found himself rejected by his heritage.
Of course, when he had noticed this, he went straight to Iroh. Believing that all he needed was to start from the beginning. However, as days turned to weeks, rumours about his inability to weild fire only grew . Zuko had to accept it. The gift of fire had abandoned him.
That very night, he took most of his useful belongings and escaped to the sea, before hitching a ride from a returning fisherman he had noticed. Zuko did not inform anyone of his escape. He didn't want Iroh to follow with him and notice the difference in behaviour. Iroh was a smart man, well versed in the matters of spirits. While Zuko had done his best to act like his former self while he was on board, it was quite taxing for him.
After arriving on land of a relatively remote area of the Earth nation, he decided to try his own methods. With his belongings, basically his two dao swords and few spare clothes, he settled in a piece of land away from people. And since then, he had done the basic training following avatar's future steps , hoping to regain his fire.
Exhausted, Zuko fell onto the ground, waiting for the porridge he had placed on the fire to cook.
'This is not working'
Zuko thought as he placed his palms on his face. Partially to cover the sun while partially wanting to cover the tears of frustration that threatened to pour down his face. No matter how much he tried to deny it, the truth was visible. He would never wield fire again in the future.
Zuko could only smile emptily. The son of the dragon, unable to wield fire.
'What a joke.'
He had no doubt, that when Fire Lord Ozai finds out about this, he would take necessary steps to eliminate him. He might even send Azula.
Zuko shivered at that thought. While he had desired her as any male would when he was simply watching the story, he did not have the liberty of thinking with his lower half when it had come to real life. Seriously. He knew that she would definitely kill him in the most painful way possible if she got her hands on him. Not to mention, she was related by blood, which was disgusting.
And the worst part was, that he couldn't even fight back. How could a non bender face off against the most perfect fire bender?
His expression suddenly changed as he remembered something. Ty Lee. She was the key. Zuko suddenly straightened himself.
'Yes.. Ty Lee managed to defeat Azula...'
He remembered the graceful acrobat with the unorthodox method to block chi. He quickly dismissed the idea of using chi blocking while focusing on something else as the idea was useless to him.
Chi blocking needed extensive knowledge about human anatomy, chi paths and flexibility to reach those points. And reaching Ty Lee's level would take decades he doesn't have at hand. No his focus was on something else. The power that allows all these miracles. Chi.
He remembered a lion turtle mentioning people that managed to bend energy itself. They came before elemental benders , who were simply people who stole their power from the lion turtles.
'To bend the spirit of someone else, Your own spirit must be unbendable'
He remembered the teachings of the lion turtle. To become an energy bender, one must have enough will power. And Zuko happened to know a world that managed to weaponize the power of will.
A smile made it's way into Zuko's face for the first time after a long while. Looking at his belongings, he spotted his Dao swords glinting from under the clothes. He walked up to them, each foot step gaining more and more momentum as he did. Pulling out the two scimitar like swords, he fell into his basic sword stance before swinging them. Each strike carrying focus and his determination. There was hope!