beboots

MOAR fic ideas! (I've been writing these over the past few months, and they're getting nowhere, so why not share what I have written down? Feel free to adopt, if you wish!)

If I were to write an

avatarbigbang fic, this would have been it. Sadly, I have a 6,000 word paper to write, along with two other 3,000 word papers, a lot of readings and research, and final exams in early April to study for. :( Also, no inspiration for actual hard text. Point form, though... that I can write.

Summary: What if the Blue Spirit had not been knocked unconscious by an arrow to the head as he helped Aang escape from the Pohuai stronghold – and Aang takes him back to the cave, identity intact? Zuko learns to see the Avatar and his posse as human beings – who are actually NICE to him – and can no longer bring himself to hunt the Avatar. Cue the Blue Spirit emerging out of the woodwork to help the Gaang whenever they’re in need.

What if… during the Blue Spirit episode, the archer fired the shot to knock the Blue Spirit unconscious, but Zuko moved at the last instant, getting an arrow in the shoulder instead? Zuko’s identity remains hidden, but Aang helps him back to their base camp. Zuko spends several days in the Gaang’s company as Katara and Sokka heal up. Once coherent, Sokka especially is suspicious of the silent Blue Spirit, but seeing as he took an arrow in the shoulder for Aang, they kind of accept him.

Zuko has never had someone just accept him like that before – let him sit by their fire, listen to their banter, help him with his bandages… trusted that he not stab them in the back. The Gaang are… comfortable.

And originally, breaking the Avatar out of the Pohuai Stronghold was more about making sure that that braggart Zhao didn’t get all of the glory and so Zuko himself would still have a shot at going home… but now he has doubts.

The Avatar has a name. Aang. And he likes bad jokes and good jokes and light fluffy pastries and playing with his pet lemur and tries not to be offended when his friend, the Water Tribe peasant Sokka, comes back with fresh meat…

Zuko has trouble seeing them as just the Avatar and his entourage anymore. They’re human beings… likeable ones. Most of the time, at least. Who trust a masked man. And helped that masked man recover from his shoulder wound.

Zuko leaves in the middle of the night, three days later, without really saying goodbye (not that he spoke much, anyway). But now he has doubts that he must work through.

He worries about the next time that he meets the Gaang, about what he’ll do, and if they’ll notice the stiffness of his right arm and figure out the reason why.

Essentially, the Blue Spirit rises again – the Fire Nation’s most wanted criminal, after the Avatar himself. He becomes an ipso facto ally of the Avatar. Zuko has experience tracking Aang, and knows when he’s in trouble… and the helpful Blue Spirit always seems to arrive just in time to rescue him.

All without ever saying a word.

But then again, actions speak louder than words. And when a man is willing to take on platoons of firebenders and Fire Nation soldiers, and take an arrow for you, are words really necessary?

The North Pole is the last time that Zuko really tries to actually capture the Avatar. It didn’t go well. Zuko sees what happens when you anger the spirits – and he also realizes, soon after, that his sister, at least, and probably his father, want him dead. He realizes that Fire Lord Ozai does not represent his entire country, and is, in actuality, doing a piss-poor job of running it. Zuko realizes that he really has to keep the Avatar out of his father’s hands. Iroh may have had a hand in convincing Zuko of these last few points. Still, Azula’s betrayal was particularly revealing of Ozai’s opinion of his son, and Zuko essentially falls back on what he knows he is good at –being the Blue Spirit.

Zuko runs across the Gaang several times. In The Chase, the Blue Spirit totally helps them escape from Azula – and Iroh doesn’t catch up to them quickly enough to help in that old ghost town. Toph has never met Zuko, only the Blue Spirit, and so can’t make the connection that they’re the same person. (Masks don’t matter to blind people: this will come back later.)

Zuko does end up in Ba Sing Se… and is perhaps an ally of Jet’s? (Jet, who never saw Iroh firebend his tea… perhaps his nephew’s sneakiness is wearing off on Iroh?)

The Blue Spirit meets up with the Gaang and tries to help Aang find his bison, and actually writes down his thoughts in neat calligraphy to better communicate, beyond mere hand signals. The Gaang asks him what he’s doing in Ba Sing Se. Hiding is the response. They know that he’s living/working in the Lower Ring, but that’s about it. They do feed him, when he comes over, because they can tell he’s lost a lot of weight since they first saw him. They worry for his well-being.

The Blue Spirit totally rescues Appa, and ends up flying over Ba Sing Se, clinging to a sky bison’s back (no saddle, remember?) and hoping that the Avatar – Aang – shows up to take control of this thing before the Dai Li start hurling boulders at him…

(Perhaps they find out in stages – figuring out he’s a firebender first? Or would that give away too much too fast?)

LATER ON

The Gaang is captured (minus Toph) by Azula, and thrown in some cell by her Dai Li minions. The Blue Spirit is separated from them. A day or so later, Zuko is thrown in – chilled and hypothermic from being in a cooler (thus, can’t firebend, having been knocked unconscious before he was put in the cooler, so couldn’t use his breath of fire until it was too late to use it – also, he gets to be even more Failko than usual). They’re all like “why the hell would they throw you in here?!” and suspect a trap (especially because they were captured by his sister, of all people), but Zuko is kind of pitiful, so they put up with him. He never really “betrayed” them, as in canon in Ba Sing Se, but he’s still the evil fire nation prince who has tried to KILL them (well maybe just capture Aang) on several occasions. Zuko doesn't want to give away his Blue Spirit identity because he kind of liked being trusted - and their confidence in the Blue Spirit will be shot if they know that he and evil-prince-ponytail are the same person.

Anyway, they ask Zuko if he’s seen the Blue Spirit in the facility (pumping him for info), and Zuko says something like “He can’t help you escape” or something, implying that he’s dead or incapacitated.

Later, Azula comes in to taunt them, and burns the Blue Spirit mask in front of them all. (Because it’s a creepy image.) She doesn’t really say a word, except some generic taunting for her brother Zu-zu, the traitor. She just lets the Gaang’s imaginations run wild about what she has done to their ally.

LATER the Gaang (and Zuko) have the opportunity to escape, but Aang refuses to do so (and the others back him up) because they can’t just LEAVE the Blue Spirit in Azula’s clutches… and so they have to search the confines of the jail or whatever to find him before they can escape themselves… and Zuko is touched, really,but realizes that they have to get out now because they’re in no shape to take out however many Dai Li agents are left, before Azula comes back from wherever she has conveniently gone to… But they don’t believe Zuko when he tells them of the Blue Spirit’s true identity. And they try to leave him behind or whatever, because he’s the enemy and he’s clearly trying to trick them into leaving their valued ally behind (for some reason, Zuko doesn’t have the presence of mind to show them the scar he has from the arrow wound – or perhaps his fingers are still thick and trembling from the cold and so he can’t remove his shirt in time to show them before they leave him?), and so the Gaang runs off to try to find the Blue Spirit. He still tries to help them out – incidentally demonstrating some of his non-bending skillz (because he can’t bend at the moment), but he’s kind of useless and lagging behind.

Then maybe Toph bursts in on the show and is totally like “Right, got everyone? Let’s go!” and vindicates everything that Zuko has been saying for the past hour or so. And then the Gaang kind of feel guilty for leaving him behind for the Dai Li and accusing him of trying to trick them. But they only feel a little guilty, because he’s a lying fire nation bastard, after all. They then have to deal with the fallout of their greatest (former) enemy also being their current most loyal ally.