Disclaimer: I own no characters related to ATLA and do not claim ownership over them.
A/N: Another request by the lovely t-rex989, who gave me the base idea for this story. Thanks! Meant to have this thing up and started like a week ago, but ended up being a very hectic week with my step sisters down, and the wedding, and tons of Sociology project work, and much more, and it didn't get up when I wanted.
The Prologue was really hard to write as well. I mean, got the entire skeleton for the story, plot, characters, chapter numbers, shipping, etcetera, but this first chapter just wasn't coming. My train of thought was so faltered and wrecked. But I guess it worked out in the end.
IMPORTANT NOTE! After reading this first chapter, please read the Authors Note below to clear up any and hopefully all confusion. This chapter is the key to setting the entire story, but with the way it is written and directed might leave some of you confused. It's not a complicated read; it's just how the POV for this first chapter are set up. They're not main characters, you know everything going on, everyone mentioned and everything shown kind of POV's. It's more of those POV's were not everything is crystal clear and you know half of what is going on. Such as, Lu Ten is not properly named until the very end, even though he is the main focus of this fic. There is reasoning behind the way this is written.
"The Dragon in in its cage." Dai Lee agent Meyers ears picked up the voice; rough and low, coming from the silhouette hidden in the shadows. The man lifted his eyes as the small group of five stepped from the dark alley, their faces hidden in the shade of their downwardly casted heads.
"Excellent." He grinned. "Has there been any news from Long Fang?"
"None sir," the young agent quickly answered. "He says the young king is still oblivious to what is going on, and that we are to keep it that way. And in his absence, you have complete control over these sections Dai Lee Agents."
"Good." With a quick nod the advancing group split into two and vanished back into nothing more than a thin outline in the dark, leaving the lead agent standing behind Meyers.
"The plan is still a go than, Sir?"
"Everything is in place," the elder agent kept his grin in check as the younger melted back into the shadows he appeared from. "By the end of tonight, we will have thrown the Fire Nation advancement down to their knees. It will be a strike on the Royal Family that will have them crumbled."
Meyers crossed his arms behind his back as he silently glided down the streets of the lower ring of Ba Sing Se. Frightening shadows danced at his feet from the light of the full moon, his shadow casting menacing shapes against the closed up houses as he moved with the sound of a ghost.
On the other side of the Outer Wall, the Fire Nation army was pushing farther, closing the city off from any outside contact. This was where the Dai Lee's mission lay. To put an end to the campaign that threatened life for those inside the walls. It was a simple mission, but one that left no room for error.
-oOo-
The night moon soon set from the sky as early dawn took the land. Agent Meyers watched with trained eyes, as the encampment outside his walls slowly rose with the morning sun, from his location at the topmost tower of the Outer Wall. Below him Fire Nation soldiers bustled about, oblivious to the deep glares of hatred and humor that followed their movements with the focus of a stalking predator.
As the morning rose, Dai Lee Agents quickly filtered around the pathways carved into the top of the wall, and took their positions, unseen and unknown by the enemy soldiers below them. Silent as a bird of prey, they waited for their signal to strike without mercy and remorse.
Meyer's eyes followed the aging General's movements through his set of binoculars. Dark brown eyes stayed train on the man as the Fire Nation Prince moved about his routine day. It would be another few hours before the general would order his men back towards the base off the wall. Agent Meyers only had to wait for that command.
Impatience rose in him as the Dragon of the West stayed in the large tent at the center of the camp, as he and his fellow officers made preparations for their next attack. The wait turned to hours as no changes were made in the enemy's lines.
His interest was sparked whenever a lone soldier with a stunning resemblance to the Dragon himself, stormed into the meeting tent. Two officers from inside the tent stomped out moments later, the lone soldier still inside. Meyers waited, his curiosity sparking like the flame at the end of a firebenders fist. Almost a half an hour later, the two men stepped into the open field a half a mile from the Outer Wall. He wasn't sure who that second man was, but he wanted him. It seemed their no prisoner rule was going to be adjusted for this mission.
Agent Meyers recognized the signal General Iroh gave his men, and the Dai Lee agent sent a similar gesture down his line of forces.
As the Fire Nation army marched closer to the walls of Ba Sing Se, Agent Meyers moved his men into position.
"There has been a change in plans men," he shouted over the rushing wind. The half a mile distance between them and the advancing firebenders was quickly decreasing. "I am aware that most, if not all of you, were looking forward to killing as many hot heads as possible today. But there has been a slight change in that plan." A mumbled groan filtered down the lines at the words spoken.
"I assure you," Meyers grinned at the response, "that you may still knock as many Fire Nation heads together as you wish. But with this mission we have another goal besides just rolling heads. The Dragon of the West. He is our main target. Kill as many of those damn firebenders as you wish, but the General must be one of those to fall here tonight. His death is our main goal.
"Second!" Meyers held a quickly done portrait of a young man in both of his hands for the agents before him to see. "I want this man brought to me personally. Alive preferably, if that is not too much to ask. Any soldier out there, who resembled this man, is to be brought directly in to me. Is this understood?"
An echoing 'yes sir,' answered the question. Meyers grinned darkly at the men before him.
-oOo-
In the smoke of a quickly downward turning battle, Dai Lee agent Muse found himself struggling for breath in the dust that filled the air. Fire and stone raced passed his head as the nineteen year old struggled to continue his own battle before him. The firebender was quickly advancing upon the young agent, his dark green uniform now turned to burnt scraps as his loosing fight ensued.
Jerking his foot suddenly, and sliding it across the ground, he brought a solid stone mass from beside him. The attack collided with the firebenders chest, but the impacted seemed to do nothing but send him stumbling back a few feet. Rage darted in his opponent's ember eyes; his fist quickly engulfing in flames as he made advancement back towards his earthbending prey before him. With a swift kick from the firebender that just barely missed his chest, Muse found himself tumbling backwards and landing painfully on the ground.
Muse's green eyes searched franticly around him as the soldier stood above him. His boot clad foot pressed itself down over Muse's right arm, trapping him on the ground and preventing him from attacking. The earthbender stared up into the face resembling the portrait Meyers had shown them. The young agent was positive that the firebender standing above him was the one Meyers had his eyes on, but he couldn't be sure. All the firebenders started to look the same to him over the years.
The heat from the soldiers flames radiated around the two men as Dai Lee Agent Muse waited for his final moments to come at the hand of the enemy. Hatred boiled inside him as the firebender continued to stand there, with an almost remorseful look plastered over his face.
"Do it already!" Muse screamed, amazed his voice managed to escape his lips. The firebenders mournful eyes widened at the words. The golden orbs quickly letting pity and remorse fill the anger that was there moments go. The pressure on Muse's arm let up considerably, but not enough for him to get his ground.
"Just do it!" he yelled again at the older man. He was not going to allow some firebender the chance to pity him on the battlefield. He didn't need it. Young and rage filled eyes narrowed furiously at the tired, but not much older pair, of the enemy before him. Green met golden, as dust fell around them.
"What are you waiting for?" Muse asked. The pressure on his arm disappeared as the firebender stepped off of his limb. Muse remained lying flat on the ground in a daze for a few extra seconds before lifting himself into a sitting position. What trick was this soldier playing on him?
"Stand up." The firebenders voice was almost chocking sounding, as if he was struggling to speak, as he stood in a defensive stance. "I will not kill a man while he is down on his back."
"A firebender with a sense of honor," Muse chuckled without realizing. Lifting himself from the ground, he bent his knees in a fighting stance. "Like a monster with a soul. Shall we resume were we left off?" Muse felt his fears melt away as a cocky grin spread over his face.
Before either could advance upon the other, an Earth shattering explosion, just feet away from them, shock the ground below their feet. Muse didn't see the spray of fire that quickly engulfed around them until it was mere inches from his body. A second flame circled around them, the reds mixing into each other.
Both him and his own opponent were covered in ashy soot and had been shoved to the ground with the force of the blast. The firebender in question moving slowly from his face down position directly in front of him. As the fires smoldered around him, the charred bodies of both Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom soldiers littered around him came into views. Muse stared with horror at the battlefield before him. Soldiers from both sides of the war looked identical when nothing but a charred mess. The clothes off their bodies were nothing but an incinerated remainder. For one brief moment, Muse thanked Oma and Shu above that he had been just on the outskirts of the devastating blast.
His good fortune soon wore off, as the sickening smell of his own burning flesh filled his nose as he tried to peel himself from the ground without success. The left side of his body felt like a blistering mess; the stone glove around his hand doing little to protect the scorched skin underneath. An agonizing sensation danced its way through out the nerves of his legs up into the rest of his body. His green eyes searched behind him in vain in an attempt to spot where his left leg had been moments ago. Blood matted the tattered remains of his pants leg as realization took hold.
Strong hand wrapped under his underarms as he was lifted from the ground. A loud scream vibrated from the earthbenders lips as the entire left side of his body felt ablaze by the no longer burning fire. Lifting his tear threatened eyes; Muse's green vision met the determined stare of gold. He tried to cringe from the man who moments ago had nearly laid him in his death dead, but was unable to move with his injuries. No words were spoken as Muse allowed the man to carry him towards the base of the Outer Wall, where the Dai Lee agents were retreating to after the clearly unattended explosion.
From between the sinking dust, Muse's straining eyes could make out a set of Dai Lee agents at the base. Their eyes lifted towards the slow scratching sound of his and the firebenders steps. Before he could open his mouth to speak, the agents' gloves were flying towards them. The stone wrapped around the enemy's shoulders, prying his hands from supporting Muse.
As the firebender collided with the ground, the stone gloves pinning him into the Earth, Muse quickly lost his balance and fell forward. His head struck against the cold ground in a sickening snap as the agents moved in to assess the situation.
-oOo-
Agent Meyers grinned at the lineup of seven kneeling Fire Nation soldiers before him; all with their hands tied painfully behind their back, a large cloth bag placed over their heads. His eyes narrowed at the one directly before him in sure assurance that this was the man he was looking forward to seeing face to face.
"Take the bags from their heads!" He ordered. seven bags were pulled from the captured soldier's heads simultaneously as all seven men blinked in quick repetition as their eyes adjusted to the dim light of the Lake Lougi headquarters. Meyer's eyes quickly locked on the soldier before him, his golden eyes staring back at him with the defiance of royalty. This was his man.
"I'm sure you all have heard the rumors of the Dai Lee headquarters and what we do to soldiers like you. I'm sure you are wondering if such rumors are true." Meyers grinned wickedly as six of the seven soldiers trembled in the cold; the defiant one in front of him unmoving and unflinching. "But I assure you, they are all very true for those of you who hold that defiant breath in you." Meyers glanced at the particular soldier at the end of the line up before gracefully marching to the opposite end.
"State your name soldier!" His words held no room for discussion as he glance at the young Fire Nation soldier. The golden brown eyes of the boy no more than sixteen trembled almost as much as his thin body did. His pale face jerked to look at the man, this short black ponytail jerking behind him, with a pleading expression.
"Hu-Hu-Hu- Huogh." The boy answered through clinched teeth. Meyers nodded approvingly before moving to the next soldier.
"Jayen." The soldier, at least thirty, responded with a much more solid voice than the boy before him. Meyers nodded as well before moving down the line up, receiving one Fire Nation name after the other, each voice either hold a terrified or frightful tone.
Standing in front of the last remaining soldier, Meyers waited for the name he wanted to hear to be spoken from the man's mouth. The soldier in his mid-twenties let his golden eyes trail casually around in curiosity. Dark ashes clung to his tattered uniform; dark red scars were beginning to form over his body and face, an angry burn running the length of his neck. The man's ebony hair was half still in its topknot, while the majority hung down around his scared pale face. A sort of royal and majestic glow seemed to almost radiate off him as he remained kneeling and bleeding on the cold stone floor.
"Lee." The final soldier shrugged his shoulder as he answered with a casual tone. "Just Lee." Meyers hand collided with the young mans bruised and slightly burnt face in annoyance and anger at his remark.
"Don't fool with me Prince Lu Ten," the Dai Lee agent grinned at the defiant gleam in the Prince's eyes turn to surprise. "I know exactly who you are."
"In that case," Lu Ten lifted his eyes to meet the man's cruel dark glare, "does diplomatic immunity count in this situation? And if so, I'd like to extend it to this set here. Because Agni knows, I'll need all six of them to help me find my way back to camp."
"Silence!" Meyer's voice held a clear level of rage that left every present person in the room cringing; minus the man speaking and the one being spoken to. "You are my special prisoner now Prince Lu Ten. You do not know the trouble I went through to get my hands on you."
"You do realize once my dad realizes that I'm gone, he'll tear Ba Sing Se to the ground to find me." Lu Ten struggled against the stone bonds holding him. "It's only a matter of time before he discovers your little underwater club house and breaks in. While you're at it, you might want to fix that leak behind it, cause it smells pretty musty down here."
"Your father is not a problem for us at this moment." Meyers answered with narrowed eyes.
"What are you talking about?" Lu Ten's voice held a dangerous tone to it. "What did you do to my father?"
"Nothing yet little boy," Meyers was beginning to get the upper hand in the standoff. The young Prince had left a weak spot in his defiant manner. "But as we speak, your father is cleaning up camp and moving soldiers out. I highly doubt he, or anyone for that matter, will be looking for you any time soon."
"You're lying," Lu Ten narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "my father would never leave me behind. Much less leave six others behind as well."
"Not unless he thought you to be dead." Meyers allowed the enjoyment he felt playing this catowl and mouse game with the young prince. "With so many charred bodies out on that field, any number of them could be yours. And when there's no possible way of telling the difference between who's whom out there. So I assure you, your father is not looking for you."
Lu Ten's shoulders sank as the man's words struck home to him. Mournfully he lifted his golden eyes to face the six men beside him, an apologetic expression over his face. "Let them go."
"Excuse me?" Meyers narrowed his eyes even farther at the young man as he turned his pale face towards him. "Would you care to repeat that?"
"I said let them go," Lu Ten shifted to stand, but found a sturdy hand holding him down. "You have me, what do you need of them? My life for theirs?"
"You seem to be under the impression," Meyers could have laughed at the young man's attempts, "that you have a choice in this matter. But let me remind you Prince Lu Ten, you have no control, no rule in my land. I am the one who decides rather you and your fellow soldiers live or die. and I alone hold that power. so before you begin demanding anything-"
"-I was merely asking." Lu Ten interrupted. His confident and cocky demeanor quickly evaporating as he pleaded for his fellow soldiers lives. "I was merely asking for you to spar their lives. I am responsible for these men, and whatever you wish to put upon them, I will take on my own back for their safety. They have done nothing to you. having the prince of an enemy nation should be a big enough prize for you, don't let six innocent men suffer any more than they must."
"No my prince." Every eye in the room landed on the kneeling Huogh who seemed to have regained his voice as he looked at Lu Ten with a loyal smile. "We will not allow you to sacrifice yourself for us. We will not abandon you down here while we walk free. I gave our nation my oath that I would protect you. I made my mother a promise that I would bring honor to my family. to abandon you now would be a disgrace to everything I stand for. I will not leave you Sir."
"Nor will I," the soldier beside Lu Ten chimed. the Prince's eyes gleamed with pride at the loyalty of the soldiers beside him.
"If you go down Sir," Huogh nodded at the prince, "than we will go down right beside you."
Slow clapping forced the Fire Nation soldiers to withdraw the understanding eye contact they held, as they laid their gaze once more on Dai Lee agent Meyers, his stone covered hands echoing his claps in a sickening thunder.
"Now that we are all on the same page," he stopped his claps and nodded towards the agents behind the seven men. "I want their hands crushed immediately and throw them into the lower cells. Let's see how long your loyalties last, when we take your precious sun away."
-oOo-
Lu Ten held his bleeding and broken hands to his chest as the energy faded away from him. fresh bandages had been placed on his newly damaged hands by a young woman who called herself Jo Dee hours before, but the girl in her mid-twenties was no doctor and could do little to stop the bleeding and bruises forming. An intense pain throbbed though his body as both his new injuries and his old caught up to his tired and beaten frame.
The prince's inner fire burned dimmer as the months grew by and he watched the Dai Lee agents drag the corpus' of his fellow servicemen being dragged without care from the damp cells. There came a point when no voices would answer his calls, and Lu Ten realized that he was the lone survivor. the other six's life had been drained away by the constant depriving on the suns light on their souls. Lu Ten had considered it a small miracle whenever he had managed to find the crack in his prison wall. However small the slit was, it still allowed a small ray of sunlight to penetrate from the close surface near the roof of his cell and onto his face.
Days turned to months, and months turned to years as Lu Ten felt himself growing desperate in his prison cell.
As the years passed Lu Ten began to rework the strength back into his body. His physique however thin and frail from the nutrition deprivation, still managed to hold as much strength as he needed. The extra food that a certain familiar one handed agent brought whenever he delivered the prince's lunch, kept his body just above the point of eating away at itself.
The functioning of his hands slowly began to come back with each exercises and movement he put it through. His fingers no longer bent the way they were meant to, and he highly doubted he would ever hold a sword the proper way again, but just being about to maneuver his damaged hand to allow him to eat with utensils again seemed like an accomplishment to the man.
As time passed, and the days were counted by the small ray of stolen light, Lu Ten began to realize that his days were numbered in this cell. There was clearly something they wanted from him. something they thought they could gain.
And when the day came that they achieved what they wanted, or learned that Lu Ten was not their key to getting it, they would finish him off just like the other six who had entered the cell block with him.
Roughly four years would pass from the day Lu Ten was first brought into the cells, before the day he would feel the sun shining over his tattered and bruised form would come.
-oOo-
So. 4,000 word roughly for chapter one. Not including disclaimer and Author Notes. wow. Only took three hours to write and tidy up. for something like this, four hours was a good time frame for me.
some explanations, in the order that they occur in this fic:
Most important topic I should hit is the chosen POV and way this chapter was written. you get a lot of side characters and unclear sequences from the eyes of both Agent Meyers and Muse. that decision to write from their perspective came from the idea that I didn't want just Lu Ten's views and such to be what set this up. If he had just been captured by the Dai Lee and the reader had no clue as to what the agents were thinking when they took him, than it would defeat the purpose! the whole bases for writing from Meyers and later Muse's POV, keep in mind these are my OC's, was so… in all truth writing from those POV's was just something that happened.
If this whole chapter had been told from Lu Ten's POV, than… the story would have turned out and been set with a much different mood and tone than it is. Meyer's part had been an obvious; there was no other way around it. But Muse, that was an entirely different story. For anyone who's read A Little Soldier Boy, and who knows how I do Lu Ten, you know that he's not this big angry soldier in my head. he's like season two Zuko for me at this point. he'll still fight for what he's been brought up to believe, slight Ba Sing Se, but he's also questioning everything he thought he knew. having the fight scene between him and Muse told from the POV of the younger bender… I'll just leave that to the reader to decide what they want to think of it. that decision definitely did something for me with that part.
I'm not sure how the Dai Lee agents actually work, with their head of command and all that, but I figured that Long Feng probably had a hard enough job keeping the war quiet and running Ba Sing Se for Kuei, that he would need a second in command to deal with the dirty stuff that he's too posh to get his hands on. this is where Agent Meyers comes in. I see him as being the EK's version of the Warden at the Boiling Rock. that's just the image that comes into my head whenever he's being all Dai Lee like. maybe he's the Warden and Mai's dad's other brother. Le Gasp! Interracial marriage! I don't think so… no Dai Lee Uncle for Mai. Sucks I know. this would make family gatherings very entertaining.
But Meyers has the determination and the drive to make him both a useful alley, as well as a dangerous enemy. it becomes clear from the beginning that Meyers is smacks first ask questions later kind of guy. not a big Fire Nation fan.
The six other Fire Nation soldiers who were brought before the Dai Lee, I hold a deep respect for. for such minor one-time only characters, the six of them together in their loyalty to Lu Ten was something that I don't want to be forgotten. especially Huogh. he comes in terrified at such a young age, but that scared teenager is replaced with a newfound confidence whenever he declares his loyalty to the prince. the death of the six of them wasn't really highlighted and discussed, but the cause was an important concept.
Without sunlight, firebenders die. I don't know if this is a fanon idea or an actual canon concept, but it applies here. And it makes sense. S firebender thrives off of their inner fire, which is fueled by the sun, which is in turn a giant flaming ball of flames in space. Blow your mind! But without that source of fire, a firebender is going to lose their inner strength and pretty much writher away. The only thing that kept Lu Ten alive, and that will keep him alive for the next few years, will be that small crack in the wall that gives him just enough sun, and the nice little lanterns that burn along the walls. But the Dai Lee's lanterns aren't enough to keep them going for long. Lu Ten thanks Agni for that small crack.
The hand crushing! That is not something I can take credit for. That's actually something EK soldiers do! Have you ever noticed that there are no FN war prisoners anywhere! The FN keeps war prisoners, and apparently takes okay care of them as the whole invasion force looks bright and healthy after being released from prison, but you never hear of FN war prisoners! Look at the episode when we first met Haru! What do the earthbenders do to those soldiers whose job it is to watch them on those boats? They drop them in the water. and float away. Leaving those men to either get eaten by some sea monster, or drowned after being exhausted on trying to swim back. Those men died. I'd like to point out, whenever Zuko was sniffing Katara's necklace like a creeper, that ship was most likely left at the docks after being stolen. Because what use would a bunch of earthbenders have with a metal Fire Nation boat full of coal? sometimes I want to smash myself.
But back on track, war prisoners in the EK doesn't seem like a big concept for them. They'd rather crush that old man's hands after kidnapping him during his naked Iroh time. This is why I never liked the EK. No wonder I was routed for the FN for most of the show.
And they call the Fire Nation evil. Between Chin the conquer, Long Feng, Kyoshi who liked to kill everyone, love you Kyoshi, and violent EK soldiers and civilians who bully innocent farm towns, throw people who can't swim into the ocean, kidnap young woman and turn them into sex slaves, yell at people who just saved their son's life, and such… and they thought Sozin was a monster. Please keep in mind, this does not mean I am an Ozai supporter. I hope that man rots in Hells. If I was EK, I'd just move down to the Swamp Tribes where no one kills each other, and you sleep with wild animals and don't have to worry about pants.
Having his hands smashed is going to lead to complications later for Lu Ten as he escapes from his prison cell. But that is for another day and next chapter.
Muse will come into importance much later into the story. so keep an eye out for him.
For anyone who clicked on this story and was expecting one of my more light hearted and cheerful ones, I am sorry to have lied to you. This is going to be a darker fic for the most part. So be warned.
Update should be within the next week. Depends on how school works out and how active and loving you readers are.
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