Here's chapter two. I don't own Avatar, just the characters that aren't in the series :D Enjoy

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She hadn't been out of the palace in two weeks. Two weeks! She'd began to go slightly insane, she swore she started seeing things that weren't there and hearing things that were never said. She needed to get out, she felt as if the walls were coming down on her, like everything was crumbling slowly on top of her. She was suffocating. But she couldn't get away. She'd tried to sneak out the next day but her uncle had stopped her. He was enraged that'd she'd dare to try and get out again and further embarrass their family. After that, she hadn't tried to get out again; instead she wandered around the garden and watched the turtle-ducks. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. She was getting tired of watching the turtle ducks swim around and around and around and around.

The garden was very limited on adventurous things. She saw the turtle-ducks a million times; once you saw one flower you'd seen them all. Literally. All the flowers in the garden were the same. There were only three different kinds of flowers and there were loads of them that were the same. The sky was no different, blue and cloudless on some days then cloudy on others. She felt time melt together. Everything lost its meaning and she felt more isolated than she had ever before.

She was kept herself busy by lying in the grass, watching it grow which was a slow task for the grass, but it kept her entertained. Whether it was actually growing or not, she had no idea. It appeared to though, although it could have been just another one of her illusions. She was just about to roll over to watch the clouds float by, equally as slow, when she heard it. "…waterbender girl in the cell …" She sat up straight. Waterbender girl? Here? She crawled along through the bushes to get closer to the source. Three maids stood, gossiping and "cleaning". She narrowed her eyes at the trio who were supposed to be cleaning, not gossiping like a bunch of school children.

"She's only young I hear. Prince Zuko's age," said one of the maids as she was lightly dusting a painting that probably never had dust on it to begin with.

"Captured, tried to attack a man with water after he'd gotten rid of her savage mother," the oldest out of the three snarled while nodding her head, as if she was agreeing with herself.

"Poor thing," the last one muttered. The other two didn't hear, or pretended not to hear. The other two began to talk about the girl that was in prison, snarling insults and harshly suggested what would happen to the girl.

Anala decided she'd heard enough and decided to investigate further. She wanted to see the girl for herself. Was she really savage like people from other nations were described? Was she red eyed with fangs and claws? There was only one way to find out. She nodded in determination and ran off down the halls, careful to make it look like she was up to something she shouldn't be when others were around.

She ran down the steps into the dark underground, beneath the palace where there were a few cells. The smell of death hit her nose, making her cringe and gag. She wondered whether the people down there were just left to rot completely after they'd taken their final breath. Most of the prisoners down there were ex-soldiers of all the nations that had been captured and kept down there to keep them close. Like the saying goes "keep your friends close but your enemies closer". Down in the dark, smelly underground was very close, too close for Anala's liking.

She stuck to the shadows, hoping that the prisoners wouldn't spot her. She needn't worry too much though, some just sat there, staring at the walls or just off into space with drool hanging from the sides of their mouths. They were skinny, probably starving and parched. She'd never seen these people before and began to pity them, wondering what nation some of them where from and what they were like before they turned into vegetables. There was a cell where the horrid smell was coming from. She saw the man lying on his side, looking at her with large, lifeless green eyes. She shuddered but couldn't take her eyes from the dead man, he looked so sad, almost as if he was reaching out for something because he arm was outstretched towards the cell door. A whimper pulled her from her trance.

She moved to the next cell and saw a small figure huddle in a corner, blue clothes ripped to shreds and burnt here and there. The world around her came to a complete stop as she realised this girl wasn't that different from her. Sure, she looked different from her and was slightly younger but they were still similar. The girl was trapped, just as Anala felt. She pictured herself in the girl's position and realised they weren't actually different at all, they were the same. There were no glowing red eyes, no fangs, no claws, nothing. There was no barbarian, savage or monster huddled in the corner of the cell, just a girl who was probably innocent and didn't deserve to be in there.

She took one last look before she ran away, back to the world above. She sprinted to the kitchens as if her life depended on it and stopped at the door, listening carefully. There were indeed people inside, they chattered away without worry. Anala hid under a nearby table and watched as the doors swung open and the chef exited, whistling while carrying a steaming plate of food. She rushed inside before the doors could close and quietly walked around, hiding in cupboards and under tables. She lifted herself up and looked on the table, grabbing the nearest thing which was a simple bread role, but it was better than nothing. She took off again.

Instead of hiding in the shadows, she approached the cell which held the girl. The girl gasped and whimpered, pulling her arms tighter around herself. "I … brought you something," whispered Anala, quickly glancing left and right to make sure no one was around to catch her. Her uncle would surely kill her for doing this.

The girl didn't budge, but the girl's scared expression turned to one of doubt and then she glared, her icy blue eyes making Anala shiver with fear. She set the bread roll on the ground. "Take it when you want then." With that, she disappeared back into the shadows and headed towards the exit. Before returning to the world above where there was fresh air and freedom from the horrid smell of death, she glanced back to see the girl's tanned hand reaching out of the cell and snatch the bread roll she'd left there. She smiled with victory.

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The sound of footsteps came closer and closer to her room. She rolled her eyes and buried her face as she heard Azula and her friends. "Hey Nala," Azula drawled, leaning on the open door to Anala's room, which was decorated with red and fire nation symbols and … red. Mai and Ty Lee lingered around the entrance, Mai with her usual expressionless face and Ty Lee with her bubbly smile. "Do you want to play with us?"

"Play? Play? I didn't think you played Azula. Especially not with me," Anala snapped before chucking the pillow at her small cousin. Since when does Azula want to play? Anala thought cautiously, eying her cousin closely for any signs of a lie. Then again, Azula had always been a good liar, too good in Anala's opinion. "Well?" her cousin asked sharply.

"No," answered Anala flatly. "Go play with Zuko." Azula snarled at her before turning and walking away with her minions following closely behind but not before Mai could give her a dirty look and for Ty Lee to give her a large smile. Ty Lee was the nicest, she was always so bubbly and that was one of the reasons Anala liked her so much. When Azula and Mai weren't around, the two would sneak off to share stories and teach each other tricks. Anala knew more about cart wheels that she did about firebending.

She stared at the red ceiling. Spirits, why is everything so red? She sat up, realising at that moment that she didn't like red at all. She laughed to herself. The laughter echoed off the walls making it sound like a mad woman was in her room laughing about spirits knows what. She lay back down and tried to find some other small, insignificant thing to entertain her small mind with. Why was the sky blue? That was a question she often wondered about.

The sound of squelching wet shoes sounded off the halls. She rolled her eyes thinking it was Azula coming back for one last try to get her to play. "Yeah right," she muttered before she grabbed two more pillows and ran to the door, as if she was preparing herself for battle. "For the last time, I don't want to play with you!" she screeched before she pegged the pillows as hard as she could at the person. The cries weren't Azula's, they weren't Mai or Ty Lee's either. She was shocked to see Zuko lying on the ground, staring at her with bewilderment that she returned. "You're all wet," she stated dumbly, taking in her cousin's saturated clothes. Zuko looked close to tears; she ran to his side and helped him stand before taking him into her room.

She gave him a blanket to wrap around himself since he was shivering like a newborn animal. She rubbed his arms to get some warmth into him. "Was it Azula?" she asked, still rubbing his arms to warm him up.

"She put an apple on Mai's head and then set it on fire. I saved her by pushing the both of us into the fountain. She laughed at me," Zuko said, his eyes downcast as if he was ashamed for being upset. For being weak, uncle would have said, Anala thought bitterly. She always thought it unfair on Zuko to always be compared to his little sister. 'Why can't you be more like Azula?' she'd heard her uncle question him once. She hadn't felt more hatred for her uncle then she did that day. She watched sadly as a single tear escaped his eye and trickled down his cheek. "Father is right, I am weak," Zuko said as he rubbed the tear away.

"You're not weak Zuko," Anala said as she hugged him. "You're just a nice person, you're Father's just not … the type of person that likes nice people. It's okay to cry sometimes. Azula's just nasty like that. She's just doing it because she's Azula, you can't change that." Anala thought for a minute as if trying to make sense of the words that had just left her lips.

"But Azula's better at everything! She doesn't cry."

"Yeah right," said Anala sarcastically as she snorted with laughter. "I remember when she was little she had lost her toy and cried like a baby for two whole days. One day Zuko, she's going to explode because she's kept all this bottled inside. It's not good to bottle up your emotions." He didn't look convinced. "Zuko, will you promise me something?"

"Anything."

"Promise me that whatever happens in the future that you'll never forget who you are?" she asked him, looking straight ahead as if in a trance. He looked at her confused; he hadn't understood the meaning or why she wanted him to promise her that. It wasn't as if he was going to change anyway, nothing would change. Everything would stay the same. They both knew that, but still, Anala didn't want her cousin to change into a person who was a complete strange to her.

"Alright." Anala smiled and hugged him tighter when the words left his lips.