With a full stomach, Zuko collapsed into that sweet sweet food coma. The damned eel was soooo tasty.
'That hit the spot!'
With a satisfied sigh, Zuko collapsed next to a tree without a care. His upper clothes were a mess, with his belly protuding out of the seams, while the belt had long since dissapeared into the folds of his belly. Even the bandages that held together his broken arms were covered in brown fat and sauces that dripped as they all ravaged the sea monster.
"Buuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrppp!"
A loud and undignified belch, completely unbefitting a Prince escaped from his mouth. But he did not care. Nor did anyone else, as they had already collapsed before him from over eating. They had been more invested in devouring the sea beast than him, after all, to them, it was liberation. After long long time being plagued by the menace of a sea creature, they were finally free.
Dragging his pot belly that rivalled his uncle, Zuko propped himself against the tree trunk. There were a lot more meat remaining, but that was a problem for the future.
'I'm gonna feel this tommorow '
Zuko could only think as he let himself fall asleep. But instead of the familiar darkness, what welcomed him was a vivid dream.
"The duck !?"
For some reason, he was floating. His body was all glowy and see through and he looked like he was made of some weird green mustard gas or something.
'Did I just kill myself from overeating? '
Cause, if he did, it was not actually a bad way to go. You don't get to eat sea serpent meat every day. And that meat was to die for. Zuko licked his phantom lips as he reminisced the taste.
That's settled, if he was not dead, Zuko made it his duty to defeat all supernatural creatures. And if they were anything like the Unagi, Zuko might just become a gourmet hunter.
"Who are you?"
'Hmmm..'
A young and timid voice interrupted his day dreams of eating a whole grilled sea serpent.
'Eh.. Aang!?'
When he turned around, he saw that the voice was indeed from the one and only peace keeping air bending avatar Aang. But that raised another question.
"The duck do you mean who am I? Can't you remember this face?"
"Huh, how am I supposed to remember the face of a total stranger?" The boy looked totally clueless.
"Why you little.." How in Raava's glowing arse could this little midget forget about the first fricking fire nation royal badass Prince that threatened an entire water tribe, and captured him. He was Zuko, God damn it. His face was pretty memorable.
"Hey, kid.. you better answer me. Can you or can you really not remember me, because the last time I checked, having a face with a massive burn scar is pretty memorable. "
"What scar?"
'Huh?!'
Zuko quickly touched his face. No callous, or rough skin. And no burned side burn.
'Huh..would you look at that?'
But still, one more test was needed. One that would determine if he would, or would not step into what ever shitshow that was going on.
"Kid, I'm gonna mimic a guy. If you recognize him, i might step into help you. You do want my help...right?" Zuko gestured to the chains that held the airbender down.
"Cause.... if you are doing some weird freaky exercise or something, just tell me,?"
"I'm not doing anything freaky, if anything you are the freaky one here." Aang countered. "Wait are you a ghost or something?"
"Calm down, I'm not dead yet... I think" Zuko replied when he saw the Avatar's eyes widen comically in fear. "If anything I think this is like some sort of an out of body experience." Zuko looked him in the eyes. "But enough about me, you want my help?"
The avatar frantically nodded his head.
"Then guess who am I"
Zuko covered one of his eyes with his hand and used his other hand to hold his glowing hair in a top knot.
Then with a deeper voice, he channeled his inner emo.
"Argh! My honor, my pride! When I hand over the avatar to my father he will finally look at me. This stick will make a great present for my father."
"Ooooh! You are that Zuko guy!"
Of course this punk would recognize me now. "That WAS prince Zuko, but now... yeah, I'm the Zuko guy."
"That was not at all clear" Aang replied. "Wait! You said you can help me, right? My friends are really sick and I need to get them their medicine before it get any worse!"
"The boomerang kid and his pretty sister from the water tribe?" Zuko definitely remembered them alright.
Aang's face flushed" yeah, those two.. so please help me."
Zuko liked those two, so he decided to help. Now how can someone who's a spirit act in the physical world? Simple! They just possess someone.
Without a seconds pause,Zuko dived into Aang's body.
"AAAAHHHH"
The first difference Zuko felt was his body. It felt more lighter, more flexible and nimble. He looked at his limbs only to see the scrawny skinny twigs of limbs that were binded with strong and heavy chains.
'Clink, clank'
Zuko gave the chains a few test pulls to check their strength, and they were not at all impressive. He had ripped off metal bars stronger than them.
"Hey! What are you doing with my body!?"
He ignored the floating bald ghost and got to work. Chi flowed to the scrawny limbs, inflating them ever so slightly.
"All the way to two gorilla! HUP!"
The chains snapped. And Zuko licked his thumbs before applying some saliva to the cuts at his wrists.
"How did you do that?"
Aang questioned, as he floated next to Zuko, who had decided to grab the colorful frogs.
"Energy bending"
While Zuko did not clarify, he gave a close answer. And with the frogs in his bag, he turned to leave, only to be greeted by three very beautiful, very deadly opponents. And one commander Zhao, but that guy was irrelevant.
'Aah...crap!'