Freedom

Almost two years, almost two damn years he had been stuck in here. He tried to escape several times from the tower prison and failed. The first time was when Sozin's comet rose and his Fire Bending was enhanced. It was easy to break open the bars of the prison cell and run out, but a whole bunch of fire bending soldiers already awaited him. So that was wondered why his uncle didn't try to escape since he would have been able to do so easily. Although he hadn't seen him once since he had been locked up here he knew that his uncle was here as well, in some other cell.

He was laying on the thin mattress in the corner of hi cell, staring at the ceiling when he heard someone approaching. The door to the anteroom opened slowly and a girl came in. She was a little less pale than him and had shining, big brown eyes. Her black hair fell onto her back in a long low ponytail. Some locks always fell out and covered part of her right eye and the long cut that went from her forehead all along the right side of her face until it disappeared in her neck. She was about his age, maybe a year younger and it wasn't the first time he asked himself how someone so young could work at such a place as this. She wore her guards outfit and a dark red ribbon around her left wrist as she always did. He sat up as she approached with a plate of rice and a cup of water in her hands.

"Good evening, Zuko" she said and gave him a comforting smile. Unlike the other guards she had always been nice to him, although not without a careful look on her face. "I've got your dinner"

"Thanks, Meilin" he said with a small nod as he took the cup of rice through the bars. "Anything new to tell?" he asked curious. This was the only time of the day when he had actually something to do. Meilin had been the one to bring his food for half a year now and she would sit with him and tell him what was going on in the world almost every evening.
She sat down in front of him and looked at his face.

"Well, not really. There are several small rebellions in the Southern Earth Kingdom which your father tries to bring down, but I suppose that's nothing new" she said with a sigh. He could hear by the tone of her voice that she wasn't as enthusiastic about the Fire Nation's victory as the rest of the nation's citizens. "You wanna know anything specific?" she asked. He looked down for a second.

"How's my uncle?" he suddenly asked. She looked away.

"He's still a little ill, but it's getting better" she assured him. A few weeks ago she had told him that his uncle had a visit from a medic and that he wasn't doing too well. Zuko nodded absentminded. "He misses you, talks a lot about you" She started looking at him intensely until he looked back at her. Then her eyes wandered to his cup of rice and back to his eyes. He understood fast and started to dig his chopsticks deeper into the cup. There was a crumpled piece of paper at the bottom. He looked back at Meilin. She held a finger onto her lips. He nodded slightly and took the paper out fast and hid it under his mattress. Lòng nodded at him and smiled again.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then" she said friendly.

"Bye, Meilin" he just replied. When the door was shut he took out the piece of paper and unfolded it. There were just a few words scrabbled on it.

Out. Tonight. Be ready!

Zuko's eyes widened slightly when he glared at the door and back to the paper. As the sun shone through the small high window of his cell he noticed some blurred lines behind the words. He held the paper straight against the sun and it revealed an insignia within the paper. It was a white flower, a lotus. Uncle! So he had an escape plan. Zuko was going to be free! He looked at the paper for another second before he burned it to not leave any evidence. He laid down again and tried to sleep for a while.

Around midnight he woke up by the sound of armor falling to the ground. Shortly after that the door opened and an all black hooded figure appeared before him. It unlocked the cell door and tossed him a black bunch of cloth.

"Be fast" it hissed. Zuko stood up and put on the clothes over his prison cloth. When he was finished the hooded figure handed him a long object. As the moonlight shone on it he saw the dark brown and gold insignias on the sheath of his dual dao swords. He looked questioning at the figure for a second before he swung them onto his shoulders and followed outside. Next to the door was a guard lying unconscious. They walked through the halls passing a few other guards lying on the ground. They all had cups lying by their hands so Zuko assumed they must have been poisoned. They got out quite quickly. Outside the guards were awake and they had to try to sneak across them. Just before they reached the gates of the prison, Zuko froze. The hooded figure looked around and waved at him to keep walking but he shook his head in confusion.

"What about my uncle?" he whispered. The figure shook its head. Zuko's eyes widened. "I can't leave him here" he said a little louder. When he was about to turn around the figure grabbed his arm. A pair of desperate dark eyes looked at him. He couldn't see their color because it was too dark, but he saw the angst in them. It shook its head again, forceful this time. He sighed. "He planned this, didn't he?" The hooded nodded.

Another sigh and a desperate look back later and they were running through the gates, hearing the prison alarm ring. Behind them appeared a whole bunch of soldiers who followed them in an alarming speed. Fire balls were shot at them. Zuko managed to block some off while he followed the hooded into the darkness. They reached the edge of the forest where the figure stopped and turned around at him. The guards were catching up too fast and they wouldn't stop following them. As if reading each other's minds they stood back to back as the guards came surrounding them. Zuko had taken out his swords while the hooded figure took a fighting stance. The guards pointed at them with spears.

"Jump!" he shouted and while his companion jumped up into the air he got on his hands and twirled his feet around him creating a circle of fire that let the guards head backwards. As it got back to the ground the hooded rolled over to two of the guards, blocked off their spears and kicked them off their feet.

On the other side Zuko took down another few guards. They were fast and almost free when more guards approached. The hooded managed to free their way into the forest and they fled again. This time the guards didn't follow them which made Zuko slightly suspicious. The hooded pointed up into the trees and his gaze followed. There were movements in the trees and before he could make out what they were an arrow came flying towards him.

The hooded pulled him forward and the arrow missed him narrowly. He let out a relieved sigh. The next one came shortly after and the hooded pulled him forward to run faster. They dodged the arrows while running deeper and deeper into the forest. The archers seemed to follow them through the trees. While it signed Zuko to walk on the hooded jumped onto the branch of the next tree and disappeared in its crown. He looked confused for a second until an unconscious Yuyan Archer fell from the tree behind him. He turned his head around and saw another one fall out with an arrow in his chest. Zuko turned around again and ran on.

The hooded appeared next to him a few moments later with a bow and a quiver of arrows around its shoulders. They reached the mountainside where a man with a mustache was waiting. The hooded figure gave him a nod and he bended the earth on the mountainside up to reveal a tunnel. Just as they wanted to enter the tunnel another arrow came flying towards them. Zuko didn't see it coming and the hooded reacted just a second too late when it pushed him aside. The arrow hit the right side of his throat. He felt warm blood flooding down onto his shoulder and he chocked. Before he could fall the earth bender grabbed under his shoulder to support him. He turned his head around slowly and saw the hooded figure shooting an arrow towards the Yuyan Archer in front of them. It hit him right into the heart. That was the last thing he saw before the massive blood loss made him pass out.

XXX

So that's the first chapter. tell ik you like it or if I could do something better, I'd be happy about some review :)