AN: I took a bit of liberty with canon material by saying that the Freedom Fighters have a spy of sorts inside Yu Dao, but I don't think it's that far off to assume that maybe someone in that city is sympathetic to the Harmony Restoration Movement.
From the top of the wall surrounding her city, Kori peered down at the light in the distance. The campfire for the so-called "Freedom Fighters". Many of the protesters went home after the Avatar intervened yesterday, but this group had stayed.
Ridiculous name. They had their freedom. Plus, three quarters of the largest continent in the world. Why couldn't that be enough for them?
"Why can't they just leave us alone?" she muttered, not for the first time.
The sound of footsteps made her look over her shoulder. Coming up the street behind her was a guard on patrol. Despite her gray garb, he'd likely see her against the starry night sky. Then she'd be dragged off to her father in chains. Again.
As she bent up rock and rode it down to the ground outside Yu Dao, she thought back to earlier that afternoon...
0.0.0
"He's gone," sighed her father. 'He' being the Fire Lord, or 'that traitorous jerk' as Kori called him in her head. He and his entourage had departed for the Fire Nation that morning. She wasn't allowed out of her room without her parents' permission since trying to assassinate the Fire Lord, but after they returned from seeing him off she couldn't help tiptoeing down the hallway and listening outside their room.
"Do you think it will work?" her mother asked.
"Who knows," he answered. "Spirits help me. I'm trusting the future of my city to a group of overpowered children, and all the while a bunch of mud-brained hooligans are camped outside my gates..."
The silence that followed could break stone. "I'm sorry," her father finally said. "You know I didn't mean..."
Kori didn't stay to hear any more.
0.0.0
About five men sat around the fire—boys, really, probably around her age. Their talking was too low to hear, so she crept closer. If she could learn their plans, surely her father would forgive her for attempting to assassinate their country's ruler.
The snap of a twig under her foot made her freeze, then silently groan. How could she make such a juvenile mistake? She looked up in the vain hope that they didn't hear it, but no, they were standing. The young man with the hat was notching an arrow to his bow, and the skinny one with the headband was drawing a sword.
Kori backed away, turned to make for the nearest outcropping of rock so she could earthbend a tunnel back to the city without being noticed, but a sudden arrow pinned her sleeve. She ripped it out and broke into a run, only to be pinned by another. Throwing up a wall of stone to protect her from more, she ripped her shirt free and kept going.
"Earthbender!" shouted one of them.
"Hey!" cried another. "We just want to talk!"
Sure they did. Any talk would end with her locked up with her limbs bound to prevent her bending. Normally she'd use her meteor hammer to slow them down, but everyone knew that was the weapon of choice for Mayor Morishita's daughter. Instead of helping her father, she would bring war to his doorstep that much sooner. With that in mind she had left it at home, counting on her stealth and bending instead. Look how that turned out.
She ripped open a hole in the earth and jumped inside, but large arms wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her sides as they lifted her out. "Got ya," shouted the young man who had caught her, seemingly impervious to her kicking his shins as he dragged her over to the others. She flicked her wrists and rock rose up to make him stumble, but he still held on to her. By then the others had caught up and surrounded them.
Headband boy stepped forward. Slim like a girl, he was. "Why were you sneaking around our camp?" he demanded. He kinda sounded like a girl, too.
Kori stared over his head and didn't answer.
His eyes narrowed. "Yeah, we'll see how long you keep up the silent act when you're tied up without food for a day or two."
"They'll be looking for me," she blurted, ashamed of herself. "Back in the city."
The group exchanged another round of glances. "So you do live in Yu Dao," said one of the others.
"Maybe she wants to join us," added another.
"Is that it?" Headband sounded doubtful. "Did you escape so you could join the Harmony Restoration Movement?"
"Your movement is a joke!" Kori snarled, wriggling in the stout kid's grip. "A cruel joke that splits families up and ruins lives. We're proud members of the Fire Nation, we've had this land for over a hundred and twenty years, and we want to be left alone."
Headband went very still.
"You're an earthbender," he finally said.
Kori just glared.
"But you're loyal to the Fire Nation."
She nodded, firm and sure. At that moment, she noticed the slight swell of hip underneath Headband's chestplate and realized that this ragtag band's leader was a girl; a girl who had been stripped of all softness until she was as hard and fine as the blade she carried.
Headband stepped closer, peering up at her captive. "Know what that makes you?" she asked. "The worst traitor of them all."
She spat, and the gob of saliva hit Kori's chin and trickled down her neck to mix with the sweat staining the collar of her shirt. "Take her away," said Headband disdainfully. "Tie her up good so she can't bend. In the morning we'll find out who inside the wall wants her back."
0.0.0
Sunlight and aching arms dragged Kori from a restless sleep. She blinked bleary eyes, initially confused as to why she was sitting upright, her arms stuck behind her back and her legs held in place by something.
Oh, right, she remembered with a twinge of sorrow. I'm a prisoner in the Freedom Fighters camp.
She peered down at what she was sitting on. The night before it was too dark to tell what it was the men had tied her to, but now she could get a good look at it. It appeared to be an ordinary wood stool nailed to a small wood platform that elevated it above the ground; by the look of it, it had been put together in a hurry. The rope binding Kori had been wrapped several times around her ankles, run underneath the platform, around the legs of the stool, and then to her wrists where it was wrapped several more times and then tied off with a heavy knot. Bit of overkill, even for a bender. They must not have a cage.
The space between her feet and the ground was less than the length of a man's arm, but it might as well have been a league or more. Kori was a good earthbender but she was no master, able to send rocks flying with just a jerk of her chin. She was well and truly helpless. And her butt hurt. So did her arms.
The young man with the big hair knot was sitting a short distance away, his eyes closed. They snapped open when she began shifting around.
"What?" she spat.
He made a scoffing noise and closed his eyes again. A moment later, one of the others brought him a bowl of whatever they had been cooking over the fire. He dug in, not even bothering with chopsticks, and Kori's stomach growled. She couldn't help watching as he licked the last rice grains from his fingers.
A little later, Headband girl approached, a smile stretching her face in a way that made Kori's throat go dry. "Had a talk with our guy inside the city" she said, "and guess what I found out? The mayor's daughter is missing. Her bed wasn't even slept in, making her dad think that she disappeared last evening. What a coincidence, that was the same time you showed up."
Headband drew closer, her gaze fixed on Kori's face. "My guy also told me that you tried to assassinate the Fire Lord. Odd behavior for someone who claims to be loyal to the Fire Nation."
"I don't have to explain myself to you."
"Sure, whatever." Headband turned away, waving a dismissive hand. "It's just a shame you didn't succeed. His death would have caused chaos, and while they sorted out who the next Fire Lord was gonna be, we would have had the perfect opening to take over the colonies and kick out the Fire Nation." She chuckled as Kori's eyes went big. "Oh, you didn't think about that, did you? Maybe it's a good thing you're not on our side. You got skills, but you're clearly dumb as a rock."
Folding her arms, she addressed the stout kid on the ground. "Sneers, me an' Longshot are gonna talk about what we're doing next. They're offering a big reward for her, but maybe I can get something even better. Maybe I can get them all to leave without a fight."
He frowned. "Smellerbee, didn't you promise the Avatar three days to work out something with the Fire Lord and the Earth King?
Sneers? Smellerbee? Longshot? Who named these people? Kori wondered.
"You know whatever they work out is going to benefit the Fire Nation and leave us hanging," Smellerbee said. At least this way we get one city for sure." She glanced back at Kori. "Make sure she eats. She's our most valuable asset now." Breaking into laughter again, she strode off.
0.0.0
Having found a coarse wooden spoon somewhere, Sneers came over with a second bowl of rice and began shoving spoonfuls of it into Kori's mouth whether she liked it or not. It had chunks of some kind of meat in it, and was filling if bland. After the humiliating meal, she was left to sit, ignored, for the next few hours. At some point she dozed and woke up even more stiff and sore than before. Sometime after midday, the boy with the hat and the bow came over.
"Taking over, Longshot?" Sneers asked.
He nodded. Sneers got up, brushed his pants off and headed over to Headband and the other two guys. They began talking in voices too low for Kori to make out what they were saying.
She gazed down at Longshot, who had sat down in Sneers's spot and begun sharpening some arrowheads. "You're Longshot? Have you and that girl decided what you're going to do with me?"
He continued working as if he hadn't heard a word she said.
"Are you deaf?" she asked, barely quelling the frustration in her voice. When he still didn't respond, she added, nearly shouting at this point, "My parents are going to find out what happened to me. Then we'll see how well you do against trained Fire Nation soldiers."
That made him slowly turn his face up to her. The look in his eyes chilled her, and she shut her mouth.
0.0.0
No one spoke to her for the rest of the day. At one point she saw Smellerbee having a very loud argument with Longshot a little ways off from the camp. It appeared to be all one sided, since he merely stood there with his arms crossed while she shouted. The words "ransom", "daughter of the mayor," and "chance to take the city" floated over to Kori.
Just wish she would do whatever it is she's going to do and get it over with already.
At sunset Sneers fed her once more, an indignity which she was too tired and hot to be angry about any more. One of the two men whose names she didn't know took up guarding her for the evening. The rest of the group crawled into their tents except for Longshot, who sat staring at the fire. After a few minutes he got up, came over and touched the other young man gently on the shoulder.
"Can't sleep, huh?" the young man asked. "Want to take over?"
Longshot gave a brief nod and he sighed in relief. "Thanks."
He crawled into one of the empty tents. Longshot stood with his back to Kori, surveying the campsite. Nothing and no one moved; the only sounds were that of the crackling fire and faint snores coming from a couple of the tents. When he finally turned around, Kori's eyes went wide at the sight of a dagger in his hand. He seemed to have pulled it out of nowhere.
She opened her mouth to beg him not to hurt her, but shut it again when he knelt down and began sawing through the rope around her ankles. He helped her to disentangle it from her wrists, then she jumped down. Rubbing the raw places and shaking out her tingling limbs, she eyed him. "Why are you freeing me? Isn't your girlfriend going to be mad?"
If Kori referring to Smellerbee as his girlfriend bothered him, he didn't show it. "We made a promise to Avatar Aang, and that means something. We're not going to start anything until he gets a chance to do things his way."
"The 'three days' Sneers mentioned."
Longshot nodded.
"Okay, well, thank you for freeing me."
"Don't thank me." His voice was like flint. "Next time I see you, it better be on the back of the Avatar's sky bison, flying away from here."
Kori glared. "Or what?"
"Or I won't miss."
She stared at him for several more seconds, then turned and sprinted for the wall.