Chapter 1

The Prisoner

Within the confines of a darkened prison, a lone figure lay curled in the corner. Her eyes were half lidded, making no attempt to see what surrounded her. The gentle rocking of the ship caused the chains that were wrapped around her wrists and ankles to slide back and forth in the darkness. The sounds of the chains grating across the floor were a sweet lullaby and a small source of comfort to the girl as she sat in the darkness by herself for hours at a time.

The somewhat melodic pattern the chains created her soon interrupted by several loud clicks that echoed through her cell. She counted the loud clicking noises in her head.

" One. . . " CLICK

" Two. . . " CLICK

" Three. . . "CLICK

" Four. . . " CLICK

" Five. . . " CLICK

One by one she counted the clicks that signaled the unlocking of the door and to her was a solemn announcement that some unwanted visitor had arrived. Light flooded the room from the outside as the weathered, rusted, and old metallic door creaked open with a loud moan. Quickly, the young girl closed her crimson eyes to hide from the blinding light as the door fully opened revealing her disheveled and mangled condition.

Her clothes were old and evidence of the fabric's once pure black color were only evident in the faded dull grey that replaced it as time passed. Tears and rips were scattered throughout her clothing revealing unappealing scars and what seemed to be recent lacerations on her body. Although, the color of the young girl's outfit was grey, it was joined in by another color, red. If one were to see her walking around in this condition and happen to look at her outfit, they would suspect that the bright and dark red colors from her outfit were a result of someone intricately staining a fabric. But, no, this was not the case. It was not a rare dye that stained her otherwise grey clothes. It was her blood.

A mocking and deep chuckle echoed through the room that made the girl's insides wrench and stirred the unbridled passion of hate from within her soul. Her eyes snapped open revealing her natural crimson eyes. Even though the sudden introduction of light practically blinded her, stubbornly she kept them open and let them adjust. Lifting her head off the cold metal ground, she flipped her long, black, blood clotted hair as best as she could so she could get a good look of her unwelcome guest. Her hate filled eyes narrowed even more when her vision finally focused in on the figure in the door way.

"Zhao. . ." she whispered to herself in a hoarse yet anger tone as she continued to glare up at him.

"What's the matter?" asked the pompous commander asked he looked down at the girl, "why don't you stand?" he asked mockingly. Even though her chains gave her enough room to stand she had no strength to do such thing. Every move that she made was arduous and painful and the simplest involuntary twitch of a muscle could trigger an unwanted and seemingly never-ending cycle of pain that would rack her entire body. The girl glared viciously and bared her teeth to Commander Zhao, like an Armadillo Lion ready to strike. Zhao new full well that she wouldn't be able to move.

As the girl glared at Commander Zhao, memories of the previous day's occurrences ran through her mind. She could hear her own screams in her head during Commander Zhao's interrogation session. Every time she refused to answer a question they would make a long deep cut along her body, mostly on her arms and legs. Like a routine, a cycle of question, refusal to answer, and cut, continued over the course of several hours until it seemed that there was no area of open skin left to cut or it could've been because Commander Zhao and the soldiers that accompanied him simply grew bored. After they had thrown their blades aside they began to beat and pummel her, but still she refused to answer their questions or submit to their will.

Commander Zhao stepped forward and knelt beside the girl. Gruffly, he took her chin in his hands and forced her gaze upwards so she would look at him. As she gazed at him she saw that his face no longer showed signs of mockery or amusement.

"Will you swear your allegiance to the Fire Lord?" he asked sternly. The girl stayed silent. "Give me the location of the remaining seven members of the Fire Nation Rebellion!" he ordered this time with more force behind his voice.

"You already know my answer from yesterday. . ." she struggled to say as Commander Zhao's hand tightened around her jaw, "I said, 'I don't know. And even if I did know I'd never tell you'!" she barked at him. "And as for that allegiance question. . . you can take that allegiance and shove it up your ass!" Commander Zhao's eyes narrowed and he threw her head against the metal wall.

"Listen, you! I've been incredibly generous by giving you one month to live so you could tell me the locations and to swear your allegiance to the Fire Lord. You are a wanted criminal and should've been killed the moment I captured you in the Earth Kingdom, but no." He stopped himself and took a deep breath in an attempt to regain his composure. "Now, I'm going to ask you again. . . will you swear your allegiance to the Fire Lord and give us the location of the remaining members of the rebellion?"

She could feel herself loosing consciousness as every thing around her began to blur and a spinning sensation filled her mind. But, just as her eyes were about to close she uttered out a week, but defiant "No. . ."

Seeing that the girl was unconscious, Commander Zhao growled angrily and blotted out of the cell. Fervently, he slammed the door behind him and turned to the guard who stood to the right of the door. "You," he said through clenched teeth, "Go find a messenger bird and send a note to the Yamagata family. Tell them we have captured their daughter and we are returning to the Fire Nation for her execution."