Save the Princess
We all make choices, but in the end, our choices make us.
Bioshock
Prologue
The young girl did not struggle, because she did not know what was about to happen.
She let her father guide her through the obsidian fortress, towards the highest tower. There, in the center of Caldera, she glanced out of the window before her father forced her into a chair. The little girl blinked twice at him, her big gold eyes pleading for answers.
"It won't hurt much," he said, and she trusted him wholeheartedly. He was not like mother; he loved her and he was the only person who loved her.
The young girl did not struggle, because she did not know what all of the strands of metal would do.
She let the woman inserting them do as she pleased. Her struggle began only because the wires hurt terribly and, while she wanted to look strong for her father, she felt impossibly weak when experiencing pain like this.
All she saw for what felt like eternity was overwhelming cerulean light.
1
They told Ty Lee the truth when she was young.
Her caretakers informed her that she was Fire Nation, and it explained so much that she did not understand before then. Despite her heritage, no one on Kyoshi Island ever treated her differently from the other girls who were being raised as warriors and so she could not complain. They were her friends, and Ty Lee would never fly a crimson flag or kneel to the gilded soldiers.
The only time her blood came up in conversation was when she was given her first assignment; it was the mission that would determine if she was a Kyoshi Warrior or not and she thought she might have gotten the deadliest of the lot.
"Caldera? I can't go to Caldera. Nobody goes to Caldera," Ty Lee said, her already wide eyes wider.
"We got you passage on a ship we captured a few weeks ago," Suki, the eldest of Ty Lee's unit said. "No one will notice it isn't a returning party of raiders until it's too late."
"Caldera?" Ty Lee repeated, unable to shake off her shock.
"You're Fire Nation. Less people will question you."
"It's a rescue mission, though, right? I don't have to assassinate anybody important or steal a National secret?"
"Yes. You're saving a hostage and bringing her to us, to the good guys."
"In Caldera?"
"What's so ridiculous about that? It's just a city."
"I heard that they have carriages that drive themselves and lights that turn themselves on and fences that burn people alive without being on fire."
"I don't know if those are rumors or not, but they sound silly. We cannot promise your safety; we never can, but we can promise that we would not have chosen this task for you if we did not think you could complete it," Suki explained, and her voice was so comforting and assured that Ty Lee could not find another reason to protest the mission.
She wanted to be a Kyoshi Warrior more than anything, so she would save that hostage and prove herself.
.
.
"Who's the hostage?" Ty Lee asked as she made her preparations. She did not carry much, seeing as the only weapon she needed was her fists. All she had to do was wear the disguise that she could sneak around and fight in. It was such a pretty light rose shade.
"She's in the Royal Fortress. They're keeping her there, and we need her," Suki said. She handed Ty Lee her small bag. "There's more information in there."
Ty Lee was agape. "How am I supposed to get into the Royal Fortress?"
"It's your mission. I know you can succeed at proving yourself."
Suki squeezed Ty Lee's hand.
It did not help with her nerves.
.
.
Ty Lee lay in bed on the rocking ship and felt the intensity within her rising with every wave. She was fearful, very fearful. Ty Lee tried to comfort herself with the fact that anyone would be scared in this situation, but it was of no use.
She could only sigh and embrace her fate.
For the rest of the trip, Ty Lee mainly slept. She ate when she could and practiced when she felt too jittery to rest. Preparation was important, and Ty Lee had to remain focused.
Okay, right now she was flirting with one of the soldiers and pretending to be super interested in his muscles, despite being capable of tearing him limb from limb. He chuckled and blushed, which Ty Lee could not help but adore.
"You're cute… buuuuut you should get back to work," Ty Lee said. He was frozen for a few seconds before he snapped back to life, sloppily bowed at her, and walked back down the metal corridor.
Ty Lee smiled faintly at the fresh memory of his flustered attempts to hit on her. Her calm happiness did not last long; the warrior in charge of the mission suddenly entered the crew's quarters.
"Ty Lee, we are approaching Caldera. In a few minutes we will be past their defenses. I must ask you to do exactly as I say in order to get off of the ship and into the city. We're going to try to get you oriented so the Royal Fortress is in plain sight," says Remi. "Hurry up."
Ty Lee quickly followed her through the ship and to a small gap. Below her, the docks looked fuzzy. She had to take a deep breath, because she realized they would be expecting her to jump. Ty Lee decides to aim for behind the crates so that she can go unnoticed for as long as possible.
"Go for it," Remi hissed when the ship begins to draw attention. Ty Lee guessed they would not be able to remain hidden for very long, and so she jumped down to the floating hunk of wood, doing two flips on her way.
Pain reverberated through her legs as she touched down, but she tried to ignore that. She peered out from the sides of the crates and saw that no one was paying attention. Ty Lee vaulted over them and started to walk nonchalantly towards the city.
Ty Lee noticed that Caldera glowed in bright colors at intensities that Ty Lee had never even imagined.
Maybe some of the rumors about this city were true.
.
.
Ty Lee walked through the streets wide-eyed and agape.
This place was amazing. She did not know how it worked, but bright lights shimmered like fireworks overhead and there were in fact carriages that drew themselves with fake metal ostrich horses. The people of the city dressed so strangely. She knew they would wear red, but she never had seen fashion like that in her life. Ty Lee loved it. She was itching to spend some of her mission money to buy herself the weird glasses that everyone here wore.
It would be for an important disguise, of course, and therefore a good use of funds.
She stopped at the first fashion store she saw, and she walked inside. It was incredible inside, like nothing Ty Lee had ever seen before.
Oh, she loved it.
"I'm looking for some…" Ty Lee gestured circles around her eyes and giggled, feigning a silly girl forgetting a word in the heat of the moment.
"Sunglasses? Of course," the stylish shopkeeper said. She guided Ty Lee to the edge of the store and showed her an entire rack of them.
It was so hard to choose; Ty Lee felt overwhelmed by it.
She finally settled on pink ones that matched her new clothes. Now with a few hair adjustments she should fit into Caldera perfectly fine.
Ty Lee purchased them with the strange currency and then walked back onto the crowded street.
The thing she saw were beyond words.
What kind of magic made this place so marvelous?
.
.
"Okay, fortress, girl, find the fortress, find the girl," Ty Lee muttered to herself as the sun began to set in the sky. She knew she should finish this sooner rather than later; no matter how tempting Caldera was.
She could see the Royal Fortress ahead of her, but it looked impenetrable. How could so much pitch black stone be breached by her? Maybe she could find some ventilation shafts.
Ty Lee knew she needed a place to settle for the night and look over the other information about her mission. She located an inn and settled in her room.
Once she was on her bed, she opened her leather bag and started to examine the intel.
It was not very helpful. A small painting of the hostage, a map of Caldera, a few torn pages from a book about the Royal Fortress. None of it came close to explaining how this city worked.
Ty Lee got up to find a candle when darkness fell and she could no longer see her mission brief. She could not locate a single one in the rented room. How? Ty Lee started checking around frantically.
At last, her shoulder hit the wall and she felt something click under it.
A light on the ceiling suddenly illuminated the room.
Ty Lee looked to the switch and tried it over and over to make sure she was right.
She was.
That light turned on when she pushed a button, and Ty Lee could not understand how.