All right. You guys have convinced me to nix the one week thing-at least as far as my already written chapters are concerned. To be honest, I'm eager to post the rest myself. Your reviews have been amazingly encouraging, so please don't stop leaving them!

TRIAL BY FIRE

CHAPTER THREE: A LUCKY ASSIGNMENT

As if she had somehow caught wind of his nascent plan, Princess Azula didn't come to visit him again until after they had returned to the Fire Nation. Jet didn't know what kept her, but she obviously could not have figured out what he was planning. Not even a princess who could bend lightning could read minds. Maybe she was otherwise occupied with the crew, or maybe she merely intended to give him ample time to mull over the thought of being struck by lightning. He would probably never know the reason for the hiatus in her visits.

She had spoken the truth back in Ba Sing Se when she had told him that Fire Nation prisons weren't as accommodating as the ones in the Earth Kingdom. While his new cell was much better lit than the small cubicle under Lake Laogi, he had neither privacy nor a comfortable bed –both of which he had both in Ba Sing Se and on the princess' ship. He had a rickety cot with as extremely thin mattress and a threadbare blanket. (Though, the prison was far too hot for him to need it anyway.) Iron bars exposed his room to a stone corridor, where helmeted guards paced back and forth at all hours of the day and night. He could no longer do his exercises unnoticed.

Azula, however, came to see him again shortly after their arrival in the Fire Nation. She sent the guards away –either because they annoyed Her Highness or because she just didn't want anyone to hear her threatening the prisoners with a lightning bolt to the head. She came right up to the bars, standing there with her hands on her hips –the picture of confidence. Jet went to meet her, glad only for the promise of conversation with another human being.

"Did you miss me, Jet?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at his apparent eagerness to speak to her.

"Well," he replied, deciding that it was time to turn on the charm. "You are much prettier than the other guards I've seen around here. I don't really care for… men."

"Oh please," Azula snapped, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring up at him. "Save the flattery for someone who cares. I don't have time to beat around the bush tonight, so I'm just going to cut right to the chase. Has my ultimatum changed your answer, or are you still ready to die rather than help me?"

Jet, taken aback by her brusque dismissal of his flirting, took a deep breath. If he wanted her to believe that her lightning threats had changed his mind, he needed to sound suitably troubled by his change of heart. After all, helping the Fire Nation was against everything he'd ever believed –though he still couldn't remember everything that happened under Lake Laogi. "Yes," he said, breathing out heavily. "I'll do whatever you want. As much as I hate everything you stand for, I'm a survivor before anything else."

Azula raised her eyebrows, unable to mask her original surprise. Apparently, she hadn't expected him to agree so easily. For just a moment, Jet wondered if he wasn't convincing enough, but quickly dismissed the thought. If he had any doubt, she would pick it up and exploit it. Jet watched as she smiled, that evil, manipulative smile that was somehow extremely attractive. "I thought so," she purred. "I think I can change your opinion of my country. A little work in its name ought to work like a charm."

He came closer to the iron barrier that separated the two of them and looked down at her. The princess raised her head to meet his gaze. "Only if I get to stay near you," he said softly, reaching for her chin with his fingers. As soon as he touched her, however, she stepped back abruptly.

"If only you could be so lucky," she retorted, giving him a curious look. If she hadn't always been so in control of herself, Jet might have thought that she didn't know what to make of him or what to do with him. He smiled that crooked smile that girls seemed to love, but it vanished when she started to walk away, headed down the corridor and already calling for the guards to come back.

"Wait!" Jet yelled, pressing himself against the bars so that he could watch her go. "Aren't you going to let me out?" That had been the deal, hadn't it? She would let him out and not kill him if he agreed to help the Fire Nation?

Azula laughed, turning around and pausing mid-step. "Maybe in a few days –after my father decides what best to do with you. I hope you enjoy prison food, Jet!" Then, she was gone, and his usual guards returned.

Grinding his teeth angrily, Jet shouted in frustration and shook the metal bars of his cell as hard as he could. Unfortunately, the iron was pretty much unmovable, so the action barely had the desired effect. If he hadn't been afraid of breaking his hand, he would have punched one of the stone walls that enclosed him. Instead, he settled for kicking his cot, and the frail thing broke from the force of his foot colliding with it. The imprisoned warrior swore in aggravation. Not only would he be stuck in the damned cell for another few days, but he would also be sleeping on the ground. Wonderful.

Jet waited anxiously for Azula's next visit to his prison cell, but it never came. The Fire Princess apparently had better things to do than taunt prisoners in her spare time. He was always thinking about her; he thought about her so much that she replaced that night under Lake Laogi in his dreams. Now, when he dreamed, it was always about Princess Azula –and only a few of them involved strangling her.

He spent those days after Azula drifting in and out of sleep on the cold floor of the cell. He didn't antagonize the guards even though it was in his nature to do so, and he took his meals silently, eating everything that was offered to him even if the morsel wasn't particularly palatable. He wondered when Azula when let him out and prayed that, when she did, his assigned task would be neither too hard nor too humiliating. He didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of Azula. Oddly enough, whenever he imagined himself working for the Fire Nation, he was near the arrogant, manipulative Fire Princess.

Finally, he was released from his prison –but not by Azula. Apparently, that was work too lowly for a princess and more suited to a common guard. His hands were bound tightly behind his back to prevent him from attacking anyone, and he was led silently out of the prison to the palace itself. They brought him in through a series of back passageways and staircases designed to keep the more undesirable servants out of view of the royal family and their guests. As they made their way through the labyrinth, Jet tried to keep track of the turns and stairways that they took on their way to his destination in case he ever had the opportunity to escape, but he lost track of the pattern after the fourth left. Silently, he cursed himself for it; it seemed that he was losing his edge, getting lazy.

The guards left him about fifteen minutes after they took him from his cell. Jet looked around at his surroundings curiously, finding himself in a room that seemed to be the bedchamber of someone very important. As was Fire Nation style, the décor of the room was made entirely from shades of red, accented with Fire Nation insignias. An impressive painting of Fire Lord Ozai occupied one wall. As far as furnishings went, there was a large, lavish bed, a fire place, an elegant couch and a desk on which were laid a series of papers that looked like military reports.

All alone in the bedroom of some high-ranking Fire Nation noble, Jet allowed himself to jump to conclusions about his 'assignment'. Apparently, he was to become the servant of one of Fire Lord Ozai's generals, or maybe to Prince Zuko himself. At the mere thought of him, Jet's skin began to crawl. He had known that Li was Fire Nation from the start, but nobody had believed him.

Someone cleared their throat behind him, and Jet spun around immediately to see who it was that he would be serving for as long as it took to figure out how to escape. Standing in the doorway to the adjoining bathroom was Princess Azula, and she was not wearing her usual, military-style clothing but a very feminine silk robe. Her black hair was down rather than pulled into a bun, and Jet had to admit that she looked more beautiful than any other girl he'd ever seen. His expression was of nothing but utter and complete shock.

Azula smiled and laughed at him. "What's wrong, Jet?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and turning up her nose at him. "Not who you expected?"

Hardly, considering Jet had been expecting to see her brother or anyone else but her. "No," he managed to say before regaining his composure. "I thought you said I'd be lucky if I got to see you," he reminded her.

Azula shrugged her shoulders and dismissed her previous words with a casual wave of her hand. "I thought you'd be happy to see me again, Jet," she reminded him. "After all, aren't I 'much prettier than the other guards'?" She was playing with him, Jet realized, and he was somewhat amused by it. "Isn't that what you said the other day? I do have a good memory, don't I?"

Jet nodded, though he didn't dare approach her just yet. She was the Fire Nation Princess, after all, and he was in her bedchamber. It was true that he was an incurable flirt, but there were some boundaries that he was reluctant to cross so soon. "I did say that, and I meant it," he answered calmly. If he had anything to say about it, she wouldn't be catching him by surprise again anytime soon.

"I'm glad you feel that way," Azula replied, responding to the compliment with nothing more than a bat of her eyelashes, "because we're going to be spending a lot of time together from now on. My father has decided that I get to decide what to do with you because I got along so well with you when I visited you in prison. The Fire Lord is sure that I can use you to our advantage, so I talked to my brother about you, and he seems to be under the impression that you're quite the fighter even though you have no bending ability whatsoever."

"So what are you going to do with me?" Jet demanded, having no taste for her manner of dodging her point and beating around the bush. "I'm more than a common soldier."

She laughed again, but this time it was a laugh that was clearly meant to tease him. "Don't be silly; I know that," she told him. "You are going to be my personal servant, and you are going to do everything that I say without a complaint. If I say 'jump'… ?"

"I tell you that you can do your jumping on your own," Jet retorted, crossing his arms over his chest and facing her squarely. Yes, he was grateful for the opportunity to spend his sentence in the presence of such a pretty and amusing girl, but he intended to make it clear that he was not a push over, not even for her.

Azula frowned at his response –clearly, it was not what she had wanted him to say. Hands on her hips, she approached him, but Jet held his ground even though he remembered all too clearly the day that she'd demonstrated her advanced level of firebending. "Usually I like my servants silent and obedient to the last word," she informed him pointedly, "but, for some reason, I find that I like you better when you think for yourself."

Jet couldn't help it; he broke out into a big grin and reached out to gently stroke Azula's pale cheek. Immediately, she grabbed his hand, twisting his fingers and making it quite clear that she didn't want him touching her. "Try that again and I'll burn them right off," she hissed.

"Sorry!" Jet said automatically, throwing his free hand up in mock surrender and trying to extricate his other one from her vice grip. Somehow or another, he got his fingers back and started checking them for burn marks. Azula glared at him, but Jet found himself smiling back at her. "It seems like someone's prone to overreacting," he observed, perhaps a little foolishly.

Ignoring him, Azula turned her back on him and took a few steps away from him. Jet followed him, intent on playing this game. "You will accompany me wherever I go –within reason, of course. I've arranged for you to have the room next to this one. Every morning-," she began, then turned around and cut herself off when she found him so close to her again.

Jet grinned and took the opportunity to interject. "It sounds like you want me as your bodyguard," he observed, looking down at her smugly.

"Do I look like I need a bodyguard?" she demanded, perhaps with more volume than was necessary.

Jet really didn't want to answer that because, right at that moment, looking like she did that morning, the princess did look like she needed a bodyguard. At least, she didn't look like the fearsome firebender who could bend lightning to her will and threaten prisoners with it so easily. Sure, she just exuded a sense of power, but he doubted her physical ability to protect herself from the likes of the Avatar. However, he knew what she was capable of and had fully intended that comment to be a joke. "You know what, princess," he said instead, "I think you take yourself too seriously. You need to relax."

Not at all pleased with his answer, Azula chose to ignore it and turned her back on him again. "Every morning," she went on, "you will get dressed in your own room and then wait for me just outside my door. You will accompany me to breakfast and wherever else I decide to go that day. You will do whatever I ask, including fight for me if the situation calls for it."

"If I'm going to fight," Jet pointed out, right behind her, "I'll need my swords back."

Azula shook her head and turned around again, looking up at him. "Do you think I'm stupid, Jet? You're not getting any weapons at all until I know that you're sincere about helping me out. I can't trust you yet."

Jet gritted his teeth, trying not to show her how much that irked him. Yes, he had been dumb to assume that she would give him his swords back so easily after she'd manipulated him into agreeing to help the Fire Nation in prison. He knew that she wasn't stupid; he was going to have to convince her that he wasn't going to double-cross her, even though that was exactly what he planned to do. "Of course," he managed as a terse reply.

Azula smiled again, seeing that she had succeeded in getting to him. Amused, she cocked her head to the side and said, "Now be a good boy and go put on some presentable clothes. You're the next door over; wait for me outside."

Jet obeyed. The room next door was not nearly as large and luxurious as the one that belonged to Princess Azula, but that really was what he had expected. After all, he couldn't possibly merit the same extravagance as the Fire Lord's daughter; he was just a humble servant. He spat at the thought. He hated the Fire Nation all his life. Now that he was in the belly of the beast, he only hated it more. He found the clothes that Azula wanted him to wear without a problem –they were laid out on his bed. He put on the military-style uniform quickly, grimacing at the thought of wearing anything made by the Fire Nation, then went outside to wait for his master.

Standing outside her door as she got dressed, Jet was tempted to peek, but he restrained himself. She was a very attractive girl, yes, but she had the power to zap him to a crisp with one movement of her hand. He wasn't interested in getting her too angry.

When Azula emerged from her room, she had become once again not only the Fire Lord's daughter but also the most prodigious firebender that Jet had ever encountered. Dressed once more in that military-style outfit, this Azula certainly did not need a bodyguard. She gave him a quick once over but made no comment about his new clothes. Instead, all that she said was, "Come on. I'm hungry."