Aang awoke to see a dark sky and feel no warmth in his bed. His bed was laced with the softest silk sheets, thick mink blankets, and push pillows, but the bed still felt cold somehow. He kicked off his covers like he did every morning and went into his bathroom to look in the mirror. He saw a handsome reflection staring back at him, but there was something else there took. He couldn't pin point it, but something about his appearance had changed.
Shrugging it off, her continued to get ready for the day. He donned his black undergarments, pants, and shirt. Next he put on his red and gold top shirt and red pants. He then finished it off with a large red and gold robe that dragged behind him. He stopped and looked in the mirror again. Something was different about him, but he still couldn't pin point it.
Aang looked at his calendar to discover today was his birthday, his least favorite day. It marked his 20th year of being alive, but his 5th year without his family around. He sighed as he knew the palace would make a big deal of it. Something else he hated about being in the Fire Nation. He'd been living here since he was found by some beautiful water tribe peasant years ago and willingly choose to go with him back to Fire Nation to avoid the destruction of the shanty town that was the Southern Water Tribe.
He couldn't remember her name, but she was so pretty it was her brilliant cerulean blue eyes that haunted his sleep. She was sight and her name was…was… Aang sighed, he went through this nearly every morning. This guessing game kept what little bit of himself he had left grounded. Deciding he was ready for the day he headed for his door.
He opened his door to be greeted by his usual Fire Nation servant Lee. Lee was man of 40 years and had a typical Fire Nation servant attitude, subservient. Aang, born a monk wasn't used to this lifestyle initially, but he had developed a comfortability with it as time went on. He even began to pick up the dame habits as the royal family. That'd be, Lord Ozai's family. One of the more deplorable qualities would be his enjoyment for interrogation and his use of profane language.
After being told happy birthday by Lee, he requested his duty list from Princess Azula. Azula was Aang's handler. She was given Aang as an experiment, but uses him like a member of she staff. After teaching him firebending for the purposes of interrogation, she put him to work as lead interrogator at this prison grounds. Aang has served in this position ever since.
On today's list were three room numbers, 112, 114, and 115. At the bottom was "Objective: Location of Chief Hakoda". It is standard Fire Nation practice to refer to POWs as room numbers. It was a way to keep the guards distanced from their subjects and dehumanize the prisoners at the same time.
Aang made his was over to the prison as the sun began to climb the sky. "112, I'll start there" He thought to himself.
After entering the building and making it to the third floor, he immediately grabbed his keys from his office and traveled down the narrow corridor for roughly 100 feet before he reached cell 112. He inserted his key and kicked the door twice instead of knocking this is prison after all.
He opened the door to reveal a man with a single ponytail on his head. He was chained at the ankles and wrists to the ground. Aang could see the loathing in his eyes. However, Aang had a look of disinterest and hatred in his eyes that made the man look away. After Aang was in, the door was shut and Aang leaned against it. After a few minutes of silence Aang spoke.
"Tell me your name" Aang said flatly.
"Go to hell." 112 replied.
Rolling his eyes Aang made two steps toward 112. 112 flinched.
"I'm not going to ask again, I'm just going to burn you if you don't answer my questions" Aang added.
"You don't scare me. You're a sorry excuse for an avatar." 112 said. Having heard this daily, it doesn't bother Aang like it used to all those years ago.
Keeping up with his last sentence and used firebending to heat his left hand and proceeded gently place his hand around 112's neck as the man screamed from the burns his was receiving Aang then applied pressure to his neck choking him with one hand.
Gasping for air, 112 was nearing unconsciousness from the burn and lack of oxygen Aang let go to reveal a large red hand print over 112's throat. It was now dripping blood and the man was painfully gasping for air. It hurt to breathe. The movement of his trachea caused him immense pain that caused him to shiver.
Aang kneeled beside 112 and whispered in his ear "Tell me your fucking name."
After a few seconds 112 responds with "Bato of the…" the pain of speaking became too much for Bato and he stopped his sentence there.
"Southern Water Tribe. Born to Hidan and Katyla." Aang finished. "Oh I knew your name from the moment I saw you. We've met in battle. You must be asking yourself why?"
Bato nodded his head as to agree with Aang
"Because Bato, I want you to know that I own you. You are mine and since you're in my prison you do I say; when I say it; how I say it. Is that fucking clear?"
Bato only nodded again before losing consciousness from the pain.
This is what Aang had become. This is the Avatar Aang, the world's last hope.
With Bato passed out on the ground in his cell, Aang stood up and exited the cell. He looked at his aide Lee who had arrived after Aang had with a pen and pad.
"His name is Bato of the Southern Water Tribe. If I remember correctly, he's Hakoda's right hand man." Aang spoke authoritatively. Lee began scribbling this all down.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but this party was captured in Ba Sing Se right?" Aang asked Lee who began to flip back through his notes.
"Yes sir, they were." Lee replied avoiding eye contact.
Like it or not Aang was more than good at his job, he was the best in the nation. No one has produced such fear and exceptional results as the avatar.
Aang turned right and began to walk down the hall he kept talking to Lee who followed along close to Aang. "How many people were caught in this party?"
"Five lord avatar." Lee replied
"Where are the others? I only have cells 112, 114, and 115." Aang questioned
"They died upon arrival lord avatar." Lee said
"Where are there bodies stored?" Aang asked
"The two bodies are still in their respective cells. There is a girl in 113 she died last night and another girl died in cell 116 one hour ago according to the night watch." Lee reported.
"I'll see them now. I can use them as leverage to my benefit. It'll get the remaining prisoners angry and help to break them." Aang stated.
Part of Aang couldn't believe this was him speaking. Sometimes he feels like he's watching himself from some sort of out of body experience. This sentence prompted him to feel the same way, but he couldn't show any sign of remorse it'd destabilize the chain of command and that wouldn't be tolerated by princess Azula.
They arrived at cell 113. Aang opened the door and lit the torch on the wall. At his feet was a short girl with a long hair that stopped at her waist. She wore a long dress that was blue and white. Her clothing was traditional of the water tribe, but her features were typical of an Earth Kingdom girl. Aang determined she of not immense importance.
"Have her body disposed of. She's no one special." Aang said to Lee who scribbled it down.
"I'll see the next dead girl" Aang internally flinched at his lack of respect of these rebels. They are/were people after all. The monk tendencies inside him wanted to offer a prayer, but this was not the time nor place for that.
As they left the cell, he looked back at the girl, she might not have been importance to finding Hakoda, but this was someone's daughter, or sister, or aunt, or best friend. He stopped himself from marveling any further and left the cell.
"Let's move on to 116, Lee," Aang ordered
"Yes lord avatar." Lee replied.
They walked down a few feet and entered a cell on the left labeled 116. Aang entered and gasped at the sight. He knew this girl, indeed, he did know this girl.
AFTERSHOCKK- Hey yall! It's been a while, but I am back. This story just came to me a few days ago. So the general idea is that Aang was never taken back Katara and Sokka so he lives in the Fire Nation and works as the head of the interrogation team at the prison. Notice Azula is his handler so he is extra ruthless. I wanted to pain Aang as an easily dislikeable character so I made him rather dark. He is dispassionate about mostly everything because of the way Azula trained him, however, as you can tell; he's still got a good heart somewhere in there and that's what's going to be important to the storyline.