Freedom
Zaheer sat with his legs folded, hands resting on his knees with his index fingers and thumbs pressed together in a loop. His eyes were shut and his head drooped just slightly, as if he were asleep. He had been sitting there for near a half hour, trying to let his mind drift away and flow into the Spirit World. Unfortunately, he thought as he shifted his posture for the third time that minute, it had gotten rather difficult to free his spirit from his body when that body had been trapped in a metal box. When he had been a free man, he'd been able to meditate into the Spirit World in a few minutes in even the most unpleasant circumstances.
Zaheer squirmed again, trying to find a way to sit comfortably on the cold stone floor. Abruptly he stood, abandoning the attempt. He'd try again in a little while; one of the first lessons he had learned was that trying to force your way into the Spirit World never worked. You either entered or you didn't. He flopped onto the slab he had for a bed and wondered, not for the first time, if the White Lotus knew exactly what they were doing to him.
Probably not, he conceded. Their misguided idealism made them soft and ineffectual, true, but it also kept them from knowingly torturing people. And for a member of the Red Lotus, that's what this imprisonment was. To someone who had dedicated his life to seeking true freedom, being shoved into this metal cage was a worse fate than death. Only two things kept him from just begging them to kill him already. First, so long as he was alive he still had a chance to change this world and break down the walls and chains that bound its people. Dying meant giving up on their mission and that Zaheer would never do. The other reason was that doing so would require explaining why he would rather die than be imprisoned, which would involve explaining to them the way of the Red Lotus. Zaheer couldn't envision any of his team having betrayed the cause and he wouldn't be the first.
No, that spot has already been taken. Zaheer couldn't think of another explanation. Unalaq had betrayed them, that much was clear by now. Whether he had ratted out their attempt to take the avatar or merely stood by while it failed made no real difference in the long run. Early on, Zaheer had maintained the naïve hope that Unalaq would help break them out of their prisons. It had taken a depressingly long year to disabuse himself of that notion. Looking back, he had realized Unalaq's treachery was entirely predictable. The man had always been more interested in what he could gain rather than how he could serve. Zaheer had been meaning to put an end to that after they had secured the avatar but it seemed Unalaq had struck first. Without the other Red Lotus members to keep an eye on him, he was free to work in the shadows without interference. Zaheer doubted he would be putting too much effort in making the world a better place.
At first, being imprisoned wasn't that terrible. Zaheer passed the time by meditating, sometimes in the Spirit World sometimes not. He had managed to keep that talent of his a secret from his captors and had no intention of letting them learn of it. He'd taken care to be mentally present every morning when the guards brought the day's bowl of rice. He'd also made a point of exercising, such as he could in his cell. When his chance came, Zaheer wanted to be ready to act on it.
Only his chance never came. His trips into the Spirit World only inflamed his desire to escape his imprisonment, not reduce it like he had hoped. Every second he spent roaming the Spirit World uninhibited, only to return to his cramped cell rankled. As the weeks went on with no rescue, obtaining information about the physical world became his obsession. He began to grill any spirit he saw about whatever they knew. Unfortunately, that wasn't much, spirits by nature being mostly unconcerned with anything happening outside their immediate surroundings. As the weeks turned into months, he began to despair.
It was only by random chance that he ran into a fellow Red Lotus, Aiwei, at Xai Bau's Grove. Their talk was brief, as Aiwei had to return or blow his cover, but informative. He told Zaheer about Unalaq's treachery, and how he had help build P'Li's prison. He told him how the rest of the Red Lotus had gone even deeper underground to avoid the White Lotus' sweeps for any of Zaheer and his friends' allies. They parted ways then, but not before Zaheer got Aiwei to promise to meet him back in the grove one week from then.
That week had been a trial. Zaheer's fury at Unalaq's betrayal impeded his meditation attempts. Instead of letting go of his earthly tethers, he fantasized of choking the life out of that smug, smarmy waterbender. It took nearly the entire week for him to work through that mental block and be able to return to the Spirit World. Zaheer managed it by focusing on the options his contact with Aiwei created, be it escape or merely information. He slid away from his body, entered the grove, and waited for Aiwei to make his appearance.
They spoke for what must have been hours, but Zaheer heard only one word. No. No, I will not help you or the other members of your cell escape prison. No, I won't be keeping you up to date on information about the outside world. No, I won't pass along messages to the other Red Lotus members for you. No.
Zaheer had barely been able to keep from raging at him. We were supposed to change the world together, not cower in silence for fear of losing our comforts! Zaheer wanted to shout at him, but all it would do would be to lose him the only ally he had, no matter how ineffectual. So instead he swallowed his rage and accepted Aiwei's betrayal. He told Aiwei that he would be back in the grove once every three days if he needed to speak to him and left him to his empty words and failed ideals.
That had been five years ago, more or less. Zaheer had spoken to Aiwei twice since then, neither time learning anything of importance. And now he might never speak to him again.
Zaheer angrily shook his head and paced around his cell. Self-pity was beneath him; his friends were undoubtedly suffering worse than he was. Ghazan loved freedom as much as, if not more than, Zaheer did and unlike Zaheer he didn't have the Spirit World as a retreat when the walls grew too oppressive. Ming Hua and P'Li were even worse off. Ming Hua was so dependent on her bending to do almost anything, being without water would reduce her to complete helplessness. And from what little Aiwei had told him about P'Li's prison, she was being kept at the brink of freezing to death. Being confined was nothing compared to that.
Or so he told himself, as the walls closed in all around him. Zaheer sat again, determined to clear his mind through meditation. His chance would come, and he would be free again. He didn't know how, but he had faith. And until that day came, he would not allow this imprisonment to chain his spirit as it did his body. He would overcome this mental block, return to the Spirit World, and do what was in his power to help facilitate first his escape, then the changing of the world.
It would be eight years before Zaheer managed to return to the Spirit World.
A.N: Just a little dabble That popped into my head. Might do a chapter for each of the Red Lotus, let me know what you think.