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Captured or Rescued? by NightDrawsThings
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005)
23 Dec 2025
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Summary
Aang claims they rescued Zuko from the collapsing Fire Temple.
Zuko, presently tied up, considers himself captured by the avatar.
The irony is not lost on Sokka.
Katara hates this entire situation.[I will try and update on mondays but don't bet on it]
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Zuko (not) Alone: book three by Mozart_the_Meerkitten
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005)
22 Dec 2025
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What if Zuko had gone into his banishment alone, without Iroh, a ship and a crew? What if, after failing to capture the Avatar, he finally gave up and joined the Gaang (and turned into their protective older brother)? And how would that change his story and the stories of those around him?
(this fic is part of a series and you'll probably want to read Zuko Alone books one and two before reading this one)
Series
- Part 6 of Zuko Alone
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Soulmates share dreams. Katara’s soulmate is Fire Nation – which becomes much more problematic after their meeting in the reality.
Or: Katara befriends an enemy, Zuko has several life crises, Aang becomes a Zutara shipper, and Sokka develops a habit of adopting siblings. Azula just wants her family back.
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Hope is something you give yourself by KotWojownik
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005)
21 Dec 2025
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What would happen if in the events of Pohuai Stronghold Zuko instead of being knocked out, was hit with the arrow and his identity compromised? His journey is about to take a whole different turn on early stage. How will this affect the course of history?
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Zuko does what he’s always done; he keeps going. There isn’t much of a choice for someone who was lucky to be born — you really can’t do anything unless you’re prepared to do it against the odds. He’d gotten used fairly quickly. Even so, it was getting harder by the day to keep going. He’d always thought that sometime, in the end, it would pay off. There would come a time after the fight, grueling work rewarded by rest and recognition. An end, or at least a respite, or an upturn of some sort. He still clung desperately to that idea. Losing sight of it felt like death.
Or: An alternative timeline of events in which some things are just slightly different, the timing is slightly off, and in turn the characters make vastly different choices. The story diverges from canon halfway through season 2 and Zuko joins the Gaang early under different and far less heroic circumstances. Heed the tags and warnings.
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After The Fire Nation's failed Siege of the Northern Water Tribe, travelling with the Northern Water Benders south they separate to continue their journey to find an Earth Bending Master. However, with new enemies at their heels on the Firelord’s order to kill the Avatar.
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Please note this is a sequel, it is highly reccomended to read the first one before this one.
Series
- Part 3 of Avatar Zuko AU I made from spite
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Ninety-six years after the last appearance of Sozin’s Comet, a freshly burned and banished thirteen-year-old Prince Zuko discovers a strange boy frozen in an iceberg.
When Zhao interferes with Zuko's plans to deliver the Avatar to his father, Aang helps Zuko and Iroh escape. They take refuge from the Fire Navy in the abandoned Air Temples, where the young Avatar searches for any remnants of his people that he can find. Along the way, Aang teaches an indoctrinated Zuko about the true nature of the Air Nomads, and the Fire Prince must come to terms with the fact that everything he has been taught was a lie, while the Dragon of the West must face the sins of his past.
Eventually, Aang and Zuko become close friends, and Zuko begins to feel things he has never felt for anyone before. However, Zhao will not give up easily, and will do whatever it takes to capture the Avatar and his traitor accomplices.
(A retelling of AtLA exploring the friendship and eventual romance that could have developed between Aang and Zuko if the circumstances of their meeting had been different.)
(CURRENT UPDATE SCHEDULE IS ROUGHLY EVERY 3-4 WEEKS)
(Ongoing Russian translation now available!)
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After his Agni Kai, Zuko flees the Fire Nation without Iroh or his crew. He finds himself stranded, alone, and injured in the Earth Kingdom when taken in and raised as a healer and farmer by an Earth Kingdom couple. He finds new ways to use his bending and to influence in the changing of the war with new understanding of himself, his bending, and the war. As someone with new perspectives and influence he is able to provide a greater understanding of being a teacher, warrior, and friend when meeting the gaang.
orWhere Zuko gets to recover before using anger to protect himself when he is adopted by a nice Earth Kingdom family
Series
- Part 1 of Home Is Where The Hearth Is
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Ozai had never been a loving father, not only to Zuko. He just didn’t have it in him to love. He desired power, so he respected Azula - needed her. He did not love her.
But that was exactly the difference between the two siblings, while Azula had been in the presence of indifference - a possible liking - Zuko wasn’t just subject to a lack of love. No, he faced hatred. Pure disdain.
But it was three years ago that Ozai first left a visible mark on the boy, leaving a scar for the world to see. Shaming him, hurting him and challenging him to death, at once. Publicly humiliating him in a duel meant as a display of respect between two matched opponents, rivals.
And since then, Ozai had grown in aggression, in his abuse.
That's why Zuko had to leave.
OR: In this universe, Zuko was never banished. Instead, he was subject to three more years of abuse, and it's this abuse that causes him to come to his senses, all on his own, and join the Avatar.
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After the fateful Agni Kai with his father, Zuko lingers on death's door. At the prayers of his Uncle, Agni decides to bless the boy with his favor.
An unwilling Zuko is met with a strange face and voice appearing to him in flames. Spurred on by Agni's mutterings in his ear, Zuko finds himself on a path to find the Avatar. Only rather than capturing him and returning home, the great spirit has a very different plan in mind.
Saddled with helping the Avatar somehow master all four elements and defeat the Fire Lord, Zuko is completely out of his depth. Luckily, or not, he has the advice of an angry, millennia old spirit to...'help him' through the ordeal.
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How to Dance in Ba Sing Se by backstage_autorin
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005), Avatar: Legend of Korra
18 Dec 2025
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After a semester of online classes while recovering from an injury that left him with a facial scar and eye damage, Zuko starts his first semester at Ba Sing Se University. In his first class, he meets Sokka, who recruits him for an on-campus theatre club. This story follows Zuko as he prepares for the show at the end of the semester, while adjusting to his new life away from Ozai, dealing with ghosts of his past, and navigating new situations (like an ableist professor, an infinite number of group chats, his first real extracurricular activity, a possible love triangle, and the first election cycle in which he will be old enough to vote against his father) with the support of his uncle and his new friends.
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This is the Avatar. The Avatar is a little boy, a child. Zuko knows intimately what Fire Lord Ozai does to those.
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It is Zuko's purpose to capture the Avatar and bring him to the Fire Lord, it is what he has to do to regain his honour. It doesn't necessarily go to plan...
In which Zuko realises a lot sooner what side of history he should be on. Figuring nobody on that side of history wants to be associated with the prince of the Fire Nation, banished or not, he leaves himself behind and becomes the amnesiac, Lee, instead.
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Spirit touched is overrated by Autistic_Turtle_Duck8888
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005)
17 Dec 2025
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“Sooooo, now that you’re here does this mean you’ll teach me firebending?”
“YOU KIDNAPPED ME!!!!!”
Or: Instead of capturing the avatar spirit touched Zuko says fuck you and runs off to become the blue spirt, perfect content with spending his days sabotaging the fire nation
Until the Gaang kidnaps him to become Aang’s firebending teacher, of course
Rated teen for swearing
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The spirits have a terrible sense of humor and Zuko is the butt of the joke. Now only about 8 inches tall, Zuko is determined to prove he's not a failure. If he can just figure out how to regain his size, take the Avatar captive, and get back to Uncle in one piece, he'll finally regain his honor.
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more than my own life by cl0udy_wolf
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005), Avatar: The Last Airbender (Live Action TV 2024)
15 Dec 2025
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"“It’s okay,” Zuko breathed, “don’t worry. You’ll be fine.”
I opened my mouth to speak and instead came a scream. It ripped out from my throat, tearing my vocal chords apart, and made me want to kick and punch and thrash.
Aito pulled away from my neck, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth, and then- and only then- was I able to understand their agreement."
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After the Agni Kai with his father, instead of being banished his father decided to keep Zuko in the fire nation to further train him to be the fire lord. Iroh fakes Zuko’s death and sends him away to save him from his father
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While Sokka and his sister are traveling with the avatar they keep meeting this “blue spirit”
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While recovering from his injury on his ship, Zuko overhears Iroh telling Jee about Zuko's banishment and telling him that Ozai had no intention taking him back. Not long after, Zuko abandons his ship in the night, disappearing into the Earth Kingdom. After making his way through the Earth Kingdom for a few weeks, meeting people and acclimating to his new life while trying to make his way to a Fire Nation outpost, he meets the Freedom Fighters before he can sign his life over to the Fire Nation military again under false pretenses.
Freedom Fighter Zuko AU
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Zuko has worn a mask since he had been burned, but now he must replace it with the one of the Blue Spirit. Unfortunately, he loses that one, and the avatar assumes that some random person saved him from the Pohuai Stronghold. Now, Zuko is faced with an opportunity he hasn't had before: capturing the avatar by earning his trust as his new friend.
Series
- Part 1 of Hidden Masks
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Win the World and Lose Yourself by NiceToRead
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005)
12 Dec 2025
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Earth Chakra: Blocked by fear.
Water Chakra: Blocked by guilt.
Fire Chakra: Blocked by shame.
Air Chakra: Blocked by grief.
Sound Chakra: Blocked by lies.
Light Chakra: Blocked by illusions.
Thought Chakra: Blocked by earthly attachements.The teaching of the chakras has been forgotten since the genocide of the air nomads. Until spirit guides urge Fire Prince Zuko to open his own and prevent a tragedy to come. His awakening conscience guides Zuko on a new path along the Avatar. But is it worth it? Or did it only give him so much more to lose?
As it turns out, his guides are not the only ones with their own agenda in the spirit world. And the other travellers would like nothing more than see him fail.______
Since the question has come up so often in the comments, yes, Aang is exactly as he is supposed to be and the reason is not Aang-bashing. Also, there is no definite chapter count because I like the freedom to let the characters explore their challenges and they always take longer than I thought. The plot in itself is set. -
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Everyone has their soul family. The Gaang’s should have been whole — if only one hadn’t been dead for as long as the others could remember, and another hadn’t died prematurely in flames.
But some things are never truly lost.
Alternatively: the Gaang is a platonic soul family. It doesn’t change that much, until it does.