Chapter 14 – A New Life

To say things were different now was a vast understatement. As Zuko stood outside in the moonlight, he couldn't help but reflect on the way things had so drastically changed. He had aura, he had lightning, and he had told the truth. That had been… quite the experience. The rest of Team RWBYZ had listened to him as he spoke, as he explained how he had come from somewhere far away that had been entirely different from this world.

That he had never known aura, or such technology, and that he had been a prince banished from his home. That he would never see his family or land again.

Explaining that he had come from a different world in the more literal sense however had been met by… doubt. They didn't say so openly of course, they had clearly known that what he was telling them was hard to say. But it was also clear that they, like Professor Ozpin, did not believe such a thing to be possible.

They didn't think he was completely lying. Weiss had sympathised on certain aspects of his upbringing, the ones that were very specific to those of high class. There had also been the fact that Zuko was simply a terrible liar. He knew that, and they knew that. So in spite of the impossibility of what he told them, they weren't willing to entirely dismiss it.

It had been some time since the events of the docks and the night of his confession, and things had been going well all things considered. He was starting to work well with his teammates, and he felt a lot more of his irritability fading away. Zuko was no fool, he knew he wasn't a social person by any stretch of the word. Yet Zuko did find himself growing testy in a new way.

The moon was still overhead as the sun began to rise. He felt the familiar and comforting heat flooding his body. His connection to fire, to Agni.

He dropped into a basic stance and began working through his kata. Discipline and shame had been heavy driving forces in his training since his banishment, and they kept him going in his new world similarly. However, there was something more now. He was at a combat school, a school for people who could and regularly did thrash Zuko in combat. He felt that same burning desire to improve, to best them as he did against someone like Azula.

Maybe he was doing better overall, but some instinctual responses were too ingrained to be let go.

Weiss arrived near the end of his kata routine, but she had seen him do it several times before and waited patiently for him to be finished. With the last punch, he released a deep breath and steadied himself, heart beating quickly as he finished his warmup.

"Hope you didn't push yourself too hard this morning."

She had become comfortable enough to tease him and the others now. Like him, she had relaxed greatly since that night, even letting go of much of her gripes about Ruby's leadership.

"Why, are you worried you might win a match this time?"

Zuko rolled his neck as he checked that he was fully limber before he drew his swords. Weiss stepped forwards with hers, dust cylinder spinning with a taunting threat. She wouldn't use them, the same as he would not use his fire bending, that wasn't the purpose of their training. Weiss had grown curious about his swordsmanship, and the two had found each other as well-suited sparring partners.

Zuko had a style of fighting that Weiss found hard to adapt to, too often finding herself inflexible or stiff in her motions. As such, and true to his word, Zuko won most of their matches. When she used her dust or semblance however, the situation could be very different.

"Every time we've sparred, I get closer. I think today might be the day I finally break that arrogance of yours."

Zuko smirked as he split his swords and dropped into his stance. She was right of course, she had adapted quickly, and every time they fought the match was more and more even. Weiss raised Myrtenaster and gave him a little nod, a gleam in her eye as she charged in.

He gave ground at first. Weiss was fast, and excelled at putting pressure on him, his first priority was to try and disrupt her sense of rhythm. With two swords, his options were to either evade or rely on constant attacks. As was the fire bender way, he went with the latter. His flurry of sword swipes that followed sent her onto the defensive.

Weiss was good, very good, and although at a natural disadvantage with her one sword against his two she managed to hold him off well enough. Until he began to mix in his martial arts. Leg sweeps, high kicks, the mix of high and low movements with his weaving of side to side. He knocked her sword aside and left her wide open for attack. Then, with her other hand, she abruptly threw sand in his face.

He flinched back and shut his eyes, though a good amount of it managed to get inside of his mouth. By the time he opened his eyes, the tip of Weiss's sword was pressed against his chest.

"I win."

"You cheated!"

Weiss' smile did not fade one bit under the accusation, too proud in her 'victory' to care.

"I merely used the environment to my advantage. A good Huntress must always be aware of and take any advantages she can."

Zuko's eye narrowed at her. "Who suggested it to you? Was it Yang?"

"Your uncle actually. I asked him for advice on how to fight you, he said you don't deal well with people who don't fight traditionally."

He instantly thought of one young air bender who was a very big fan of never fighting directly. Yeah, that sounded like something that his uncle would suggest. Swallowing the sour taste in his mouth along with a small amount of sand, Zuko grabbed the bottle of water that Weiss held out to him in apology.

He swirled it in his mouth before spitting. As he poured some water over his face as well, he looked back at her curiously.

"So you talked to my uncle."

"Yeah, about your sword skills."

"Uh huh. Anything else?"

"…about what you told us as well." He wasn't surprised, of course she had wanted to confirm it for herself. She took his silence as disappointment and spoke up defensively. "It was a lot to hear alright? Not to mention impossible. I figured if anyone would tell us differently it would be your uncle."

"It's fine. I understand. It took me a while to believe it for a while a well."

"For what it's worth, he corroborated everything you said." Weiss sat down on the grass as she fiddled nervously with her sword. "So… a prince from a Fire Nation huh? That must have been interesting."

Zuko shrugged as he sat down beside her. "It's the life I knew I guess. Ruby keeps asking me about it. I think she's more excited about the idea of me being a prince than she does actually believe it."

"Yeah, that makes sense. But it…" Weiss hesitated, running one of her fingers over the Schnee emblem on her dress. "It wasn't as easy as people think it was, was it?"

"No." He remembered the judgements. The pressure. The burning.

"It's the expectations, right? You can have all the best tutors in the world, all it means is that you'll still never be enough. Doesn't matter what you do, it'll never be enough. Then they hold you hostage with everything they've given you."

Zuko remembered all the time such 'gifts' had been held over his head. More than just his tutors and his privileges, it had been his failings. Everywhere that Azula succeeded was a failure on Zuko's behalf.

"Life isn't so easy for an heiress, is it?"

Weiss nodded in thoughts of her own. "I know others have it harder, and I shouldn't complain but…"

Zuko nodded in understanding, no further words needed. It was strange to feel a kindred spirit in that sense. By the standards of their fathers, both were failures. By the standards of themselves, the same.

They stayed in silence for a while as they watched the sun continue to rise. Eventually Weiss rose first, dusting grass and dirt off herself.

"The others will be up by now. I should get cleaned before breakfast. First day of our second semester after all, it's a big day."

Zuko stood with a small stretch. Weiss was correct as usual, and in more ways than one. His first semester had been spent in doubt, anger, and feeling as if he had no place. This time, this time would be different.

~RWBYZ~

"I can't believe you can't download the lesson plan. It's one PDF!" Ruby was groaning as she navigated around his scroll to save all of the important data that Zuko needed. "I know you said you're new to this whole technology thing, but you're worse than dad whenever the computer gets a virus."

By her side, Yang groaned in memory alongside her sister. Frankly Zuko didn't understand what an illness had to do with his scroll, but there was a lot about this worlds technology he still didn't understand. Such as the need to charge his device every night, as evident by the low battery warning that was beeping.

As they were early to their first class, Zuko allowed himself to look around the room absentmindedly. His eyes flickered over posters, and diagrams, some of which he actually had begun to understand now. The time between the first and second semester had been spent hard at work studying the history of this world and trying to learn some of the context around the lessons of the school.

He was still terrible at technology though.

As his eyes were roaming, they drifted across the sight of a familiar young woman, one he'd seen in town when the Vytal festival had begun.

"Ooh, someone catch your eye Zuko?" Yang's tease was met by a roll of his eyes and a mild admonishment from Weiss, though Blake had apparently relaxed enough to chuckle at her antics.

"I've seen her before, in the city."

There was no doubting it, it was the same woman who had seen him pocket the money from a trio of thieves. What she was doing here though was a mystery.

Yang took a closer look at the girl and hummed in approval. "I think she's a transfer, I haven't seen her before either. She's pretty Zuko, you've got a real eye for girls."

"Still insensitive."

"Sorry." Yang still held a smile as she spoke, standing up and pulling Zuko up with her. "Welp, I want to go say hello, and you're coming with."

"Hey, wait-!" Zuko was dragged along with her in spite of his protests. Yet another strange aspect of this world was that Yang was crazy strong.

The woman noticed them approaching and gave a smirk of familiarity at him. "Well hello again. Fancy meeting you here."

Yang let go of Zuko's arm and was content to stand aside as she watched the two of them with a grin. "So you are the same woman from the city. I wasn't sure, I didn't catch your name that day."

"My apologies." She held out a hand in introduction. "Cinder Fall, pleasure to meet you again…?"

"Zuko." He shook her hand. "And this is Yang."

"Ah. Your girlfriend?"

"Ha!" Yang giggled before gripping Zuko by the shoulders as if showing off a toy. "Nope, just a teammate. Zuko here is nice and single."

"Thank you Yang." Zuko drawled sarcastically, the blonde grinning wider in satisfaction. "Ignore her. I didn't realise you were a huntress."

"From Haven Academy. I came here early to do some sight seeing before my team came." She motioned to the empty seats by her side. "As you can see, they're running late unfortunately. Is that your team over there?"

She looked over to see where Ruby was still messing around with his scroll, now with the assistance of Blake and Weiss peering nosily over her shoulder. Both were suggesting some books to be downloaded onto his device, Weiss suggesting some educational material, whilst Blake's was a list of her favourite fiction.

"Yep, that's us. Team RWBYZ. Led by my little sister." Yang interjected proudly.

"Five members?"

"Professor Ozpin made a special case for Zuko here, he's from uh… somewhere far away, and they gave him a combat scholarship."

Cinders eyebrow rose in curiosity. "Is that right? You must be very good."

Now that he had his aura unlocked and could actually fight, he was probably among the top fighters in his year. Granted, he was also stuck against several monster fighters. If he performed poorly, then suddenly his cover story might be put at risk.

"I… have very good control of my semblance."

"Oh yeah, he's real on fire with his semblance." Zuko let out an audible groan, Cinder herself looking at the girl in mild disbelief.

"Well," Cinder politely continued, "I would love to see you in action sometime. Perhaps for a spar one day?"

"It's-"

"It's a date!" Yang cut in with a wide grin, completely ignoring Zuko's growing impatience with her antics. She quickly used her Scroll to send her Zuko's details, ignoring any of his complaints with excited humming, finishing just as Professor Port entered the classroom.

The last of the students entered, including Cinders team who took their seat by her side with curiosity as Yang pulled Zuko back to their seats. Weiss passed Zuko's scroll back to him as she cocked her eyebrow at their previous conversation.

"Your Scroll set up is complete. What were you two doing?"

Yang sat down beaming next to Zuko's ever grumpy expression. "Wing woman Yang was just working her magic. I got Zuko here a date."

"And doesn't he look overjoyed about it. Did you even think to ask Zuko if he wanted a date?"

"I took the initiative. You think Mr Mopey here would step up and ask someone out?"

Zuko's eye twitched. "I'm not hopeless with women you know. I've had… interests before."

That was clearly the wrong thing to say as Yang only ballooned in excitement, demanding details about his romantic history. Zuko was not eager to share his small history with Mai before he had left the Fire Nation, deflecting under every question and accusation she levelled at him.

Cinder kept an ear out, listening to the gossip with a passive face. She had less than zero interest in the gossip of teenagers in general, but knowledge of Zuko's past would prove useful. Despite this, she only kept part of her mind listening to him and his team. The rest of her mind was listening to Emerald's report.

"Not a lot of information available on Zuko Lee. One uncle working at Beacon in the cafeteria, no other known family. Roman couldn't find anything about him from before he started at Beacon in the first semester. No records, no school attendances, not a word. But that combat scholarship he got was approved last minute by Ozpin himself."

"Interesting, very interesting." Originally, her interest in Zuko had been a passing one. The curiosity of shared fire abilities and whether he could offer some useful insight for technique or abilities. The possibility for more was there, she had seen it in his theft from those criminals. He was clearly different from the typical Beacon students.

However, it seemed she had stumbled across an enigma far more mysterious than she had expected. Something called to her, hinting at a great deal of potential that lay down this path. A path leading to a potential new asset. And thanks to his bimbo teammate, she had the perfect opportunity to learn more. "Well done Emerald, you've outdone yourself."

The girl preened under her praise, sitting up straighter and cheeks tinting red. She was about to say something else before the teacher began to speak, and she stifled herself. It was for the best really, Cinder had moved on from Emerald and was already thinking about the various options she had at her disposal.

People were considered to be complicated, but they really weren't. When you wanted to motivate someone, all you needed was to find what they wanted most. Then, apply a little leverage.

~RWBYZ~

Iroh finished his cleaning in the cafeteria quietly, working peacefully as he always did. Others were already working in preparation for lunch, but Iroh's section of the kitchen was fairly quiet by now. With a little hum to himself, he put the last of the utensils away, enjoying the little tune he was remembering.

One of the things he'd certainly come to enjoy in this new world was the amount of available music. Sure, he had tried to regularly schedule some music nights during his travels with his nephew, and even before during his campaigning days, but it had never been as easily available as it was now. There seemed to be music wherever he went now, and in such varieties too.

Oh it was wonderful.

"Thanks for that Iroh." One of the chefs said, a petite young woman who had started at Beacon not long before him in her first true career position. "There's some potatoes in the back, do you think you could move them from the storeroom to the counters?"

"Of course young lady."

The staff treated him well and were always unfailingly polite, many of them seeing him as a friendly old man and calling him grandpa. He smiled good naturedly, genuinely enjoying the pleasant company of his work. When he reached the storeroom however, Iroh's smile dipped.

He stacked the boxes of potatoes on top of one another until he had a large column of food, far too heavy for a normal man from his world to reasonably lift. He bent down and lifted the whole collection in one smooth motion. He felt the familiar stirring of his muscles, through his arms and his back, but none of it slowed him in the slightest.

He carried the produce to the counter, doing lunges with each step and all the whilst never straining or struggling with his burden. Placing the food down, he patted at his once fat stomach in consideration. He still had a ways to go, but he was slimming down very well.

He had thought this world would prove a peaceful chance for Zuko, for his nephew to grow and rest. But the events of the docks had proven that hope wrong. There was still great danger here, a new danger. But it was one that Iroh would be ready for.

He would not lose another son.