I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's taken the time to read and review! I love hearing your opinions and responses. I originally wanted to submit chapters three and four together, but I'm having a bit of a block with chapter four... so here's chapter three to read in the meantime. I debated whether to even submit it, but if I was looking to tell a comfortable or happy story, I wouldn't be telling this one. Chapter four on its way!

This chapter came out quite dark, hence the rating, but that's what you can expect from a Fire Nation prison.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar, DiMartino and Konietzko have that privilege, and I'm not making any profit from this. I'm just telling stories.

Chapter Three

Once upon a time, the warden had promised Shu a special assignment and all the excitement, thrills and prestige that entailed. In reality, it involved long hours spent guarding a corridor of eight cells, whose dwindling population required little over-seeing. There had been nothing to do but talk to his partner, and Shu's first partner had been a sharp-witted and sarcastic brute of a man who had taught him how to command fear and respect from the prisoners. They had whiled away years of their life on this detail, until that fateful day when they decided to have a little fun taunting the last prisoner on their watch. When the alarm bells had stopped ringing and the smoke cleared, his partner was lying unresponsive in a pool of blood and Shu had several new scars. Shu had called for the prisoner's immediate execution, but the warden had rubbed salt in his wounds by partnering him with a kid barely out of the firebending academy.

That same kid had babbled some excuse that morning at Shu before bolting off. Trust the rookie to dash off to some girl in one of the villages and leave Shu with no one to talk to. When Shu had raised this complaint to him, Howin had suggested that he could talk to the prisoner instead.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Shu slouched against the door and pushed open the grille with a finger. "Someone to talk to after all this time."

The prisoner sat in the corner of the cell, her head hanging almost into her lap, her body held up only by the short chains that tethered her arms to the wall. The chains and manacles had become a permanent feature since she had broken Howin's ribs several months ago. Once his ribs had healed, however, Howin had taken to bribing the handlers into replacing her restraints with the long running chains that gave her the freedom to stand and walk around the cell for a few hours each time.

"Of course, that's assuming you can hear me." He dropped his voice to a whisper. "Doesn't matter if I whisper, or," he raised his voice, "if I shout in your bloody ear! You can't hear me, can you?"

The prisoner didn't move, but he could hear her breathing and knew that she still hadn't had the courtesy to give up and die. He punched a handful of fire into the cell to vent some of his irritation.

"The guards downstairs have a betting pool going. The popular theory is that you're deaf, but they're also offering odds that you're blind or mute. Me, I think you're all three and stupid to boot. But Howin, he reckons you can see and hear as well as the rest of us. Kid's delusional, if you ask me." He scratched at one of the many scars on his face and scowled at the woman who had given them to him.

"I don't deny you're a canny one. As soon as you arrive at the Boiling Rock, a dozen riots kick off among the earthbenders? The place nearly burned down before the army intervened." It didn't take a man of Shu's genius to see the connection. "But you didn't think they'd transfer you here, did you?" He sneered at her through the safety of the cell door. "Big mistake."

The prisoner yawned and slumped back against the wall, her head banging against the metal wall and making it ring. There was no wince or curse. In the years since her transfer from the Boiling Rock, the prison guards had observed that she had never spoken a word. She did, however, make sounds: it had made Shu's day when he first heard her scream. He had had a whole succession of good days, Shu realised.

Until the warden had come over soft and ordered the guards to stop interrogating the prisoner, saying that she would not break. To Shu's indignation, he didn't even have the decency to execute the woman. No, instead the warden commanded his personal guards to take her to his quarters that night. The thought still made Shu bitter; he had known in his gut that another week of interrogation would make the prisoner sing every secret she held.

This time he didn't direct the flame at her body but at the chains holding her wrists and ankles, waiting until the metal began to glow with a dull heat. She let out a hiss of surprise and shifted uneasily, and he knew that he had her attention at last.

"You had a lucky escape," he spat. "Just when we were getting to know each other. The warden's just as soft as Howin sometimes. Maybe he can come down here and give you a pet name too."

What ridiculous name had Howin come up with for the prisoner? Shu scratched at his scars again as he cast his mind back. The young guard had declared firmly that, since the prisoner's name had been forgotten long ago, he would give her a name. In the end, he had named her after his sparrowkeet. As much as Shu disapproved of giving the prisoner a name, he couldn't argue with the insult of naming someone after a pet bird.

"My dear little Fei." He whispered the words as tenderly as a man addressing his lover by moonlight. The prisoner's head snapped up and although greasy tangles of hair covered her face, he could practically feel those eyes narrow into hateful slits.

"So you can hear," he jeered. "Then prick up them lil' ears and listen. Seems my partner's gone and got a sweet spot for you. Just think... he'd give you a Fire Nation baby, given half a chance. And they say romance is dead. You'd have something to keep you company in those long dark nights." He smirked at the thought. "You could teach it to scream in those beautiful, soprano tones you reached when you got here."

The chains began to clink softly. The prisoner's every muscle was taut, her entire frame shaking with the force of her anger. Shu chalked up a point to himself and let the little victory spur him on. Howin was right, he decided, he should talk to the prisoner more often.

"But that was a long time ago. Aren't you glad that the warden took such a... personal interest in you? A whole week of entertaining him in his room before he got bored and threw you back in here. Surprised me. I figured you'd only last two days before you hanged yourself with a bedsheet. It's always the quiet ones, you know. But no, you just had to hang on." Shu knew what had gone on in that room, however. The warden had looked at the prisoner and, recognising the girl shivering beneath the weight of her chains, had espoused a gentle, almost paternal approach to try and win her over. The prisoner had not magically changed allegiances because of a soft bed and a few hot meals, and Shu had gloried in each of the warden's successive failures. Until the prisoner had been sent back to her cell, and Shu's dull assignment continued.

Tired of peering into the gloom, he summoned a ball of flame and threw it into the cell, bouncing it off the wall with lazy flicks of his wrist, missing her face by inches. He saw her bite her lip, hard, and added a second point to his tally as the dark line of blood ran down her chin.

"I hope that leaves a scar," he told her venomously. "I promised you, didn't I? For every scar you gave me, I'll give you ten."

The prisoner lifted her head slowly and beneath the ragged black hair, he saw her lips pull back into a cocky sneer.

"It's such a shame you can't count."

Shu barely even realised that that hoarse, cracked whisper had come from the prisoner. He only heard the words, and saw red. The keys left his belt and suddenly the door stood wide open before him. He so rarely got to use his firebending for anything beside drilling, and he exulted in the flames that rushed from his feet and fists as he stormed into the cell. He was safe behind his own flame-shield as the walls and ceilings began to glow faintly, the heat of his fire-bending bleeding into the metal cell. The prisoner was less fortunate. Through the curling smoke he could see her writhing in her chains, leaping and hopping gracelessly as she tried to keep her bare skin out of contact with the red-hot metal.

He grabbed her and threw her to her knees, putting an end to her obscene dance. It was like watching another man move as his fist slammed into her face and she fell. A black-gloved hand caught her and pulled her upright, then his other fist smashed into her cheek and drove her to the floor. Blood spattered onto the iron panels and crimson smoke rose with a hiss. He didn't hear the prisoner cry out at last or register the blows that he rained down on her. He knew only the overwhelming hatred surging within him and the fury of the animal that bayed for blood.

Howin turned onto the corridor and his cheerful whistling stopped on his lips. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Something was very, very wrong. The cell door stood open, thin wisps of smoke curling out from the darkness, and he could see no sign of Shu. Running back onto the main wing, he spotted two guards approaching and yelled at them to help before sprinting back to the cell. A series of bangs echoed from the cell, and a low voice spitting curses, and a woman's cry of pain.

Howin ran into the darkness and immediately smoke filled his eyes. An angry wave of his arm dispelled the thick smoke and the shadows that moved within it. It took him a moment to register what he was seeing, but the sickening lurch of his stomach told him that this was real.

"Shu! What are you doing?" He ran forward to grab the guard's arm. Shu ripped his arm free and charged into Howin, sending the younger guard stumbling. He crashed into the wall, throwing out his palms to break his fall, and swore at the heat that singed his palms.

Howin stepped forward into his first stance but Shu appeared not to have noticed his arrival. The prisoner had slumped onto her knees and Shu reared up over her, his leg sweeping down in a graceful kick. His heel slammed into the prisoner's shoulder blades with a crack of bone breaking. Fei slammed into the floor hard enough to bounce twice. Metal screeched as the chains' mooring rings tore free of the wall and the iron links crashed down on her body.

"Stand down, guard!" Howin barked, wondering where the hell his backup was. As Fei attempted to push herself up to her knees and Shu kicked her back down in a rush of flame, he knew that his choice had been made for him. Shu fully intended to kill the prisoner.

"Shu!" He roared a final warning. "Stop it!"

He launched the largest ball of flame he could create towards them and, hearing twin howls of pain, leapt after it. Shu stumbled backwards and turned towards his new opponent. Howin mentally thanked his instructor for every hour spent training his body to move from one stance to the next, forcing out hotter and brighter flames with every step that drove Shu backwards. The older guard caught his heel and stumbled, and Howin threw out the long arcs of fire that the handlers used. A single gesture tightened the flame cuffs around Shu's wrists, another dragged him off-balance. The man fell at last and lay struggling, unable to undo his partner's more powerful bending. Howin stepped over him and turned to Fei.

His ears rang with the force of her punch. Howin rolled and landed on his feet, narrowly avoiding the kick that Fei levelled at his head. He seized her ankle and crushed the burned flesh beneath his fingers. A quick throw to the floor as he struck out at her halfheartedly, glancing off a rib. She landed on her hands, spun, swiped his legs out with a low kick. Howin crashed into the ground, grabbing at her as he fell. Fei wrenched free and pirouetted on her heel, her foot slamming into his neck. The young guard toppled head over tail with a shout.

Fei sprang after him with a wild snarl, leaping into the air and driving her elbow into his stomach. Howin's breath left him in a rush and he doubled over with agony. His hands moved of their own accord. As she dived in for another strike, he flung a wide spray of fire into her face. He heard a high-pitched yelp and Fei rolled away. She contorted and writhed as she fought to escape the flames spreading to her clothes and the searing heat of the floor. Howin scrambled to his feet and immediately dispelled the flames, but the damage was done.

Fei scuttled backwards until she hit the wall and scrambled along its length until she wedged herself in the corner. She curled up instinctively and pressed reddened hands to her eyes. Howin heard her gasp in pain.

Howin rushed towards her but the sight of Fei recoiling in fright stopped him cold. He whirled around and saw the two guards standing in the doorway. One of them held an unconscious Shu by the scruff of his neck, the flame cuffs now burning around his entire body.

"Don't just stand there," Howin barked at the other guard. "Help me with her!"

The second guard hurried into the cell but he didn't seem very anxious to get close to Fei. At his approach, however, she curled into a tighter ball. Her once-pale skin was livid with red burns and wounds that seeped dark blood. Howin felt another wave of nausea rise in his stomach and ruthlessly pushed it down. There would be time for his own turmoil after he had helped Fei.

"Fei. I know you can hear me." He dropped to his knees and, glaring a warning up at the other guard to keep his mouth shut, pulled off his helmet. He brushed his sweat-streaked hair back from his face as he lowered his voice to a soothing murmur. "Look at me. I want to help you. I can get you out of this cell, and treat your injuries. The sooner, the better."

He laid a cautious hand on her shoulder and she swatted it aside with enough force to knock him off-balance. Howin looked up at the other guard as he stood up again. Bright blue eyes met Howin's through the narrow slits of the guard's visor, and the man nodded.

One grabbed her wrists, the other her ankles, and she cried out at the new agony in her limbs. Howin could feel the heat of the chains even through his gloves as they rushed across the cell, and he pushed aside another rush of sympathy for Fei. They set her down as gently as they could on the cool iron floor of the corridor. She lay gasping for air, the occasional twitch of a hand or foot the most movement that she could manage.

At Howin's nod, the other guard opened another cell-door on the corridor and Howin lifted Fei to her feet. She immediately stumbled and he half-carried, half-dragged her into the cell. She slid onto the floor and lay unmoving. As the other guard watched in silence, Howin returned to the guard's station and rummaged in the emergency kit for the burn-lotion and some clean rags. He left those beside the prisoner and slammed the door shut behind him with the force of his frustration, locking it before he could allow his sympathy to get the better of him.

"Sir, what shall we do with him?" The guard nodded towards Shu, whose neck his partner still clutched in his hand. Howin imagined those fingers tightening around the older guard's throat until the knuckles strained against the skin... He banished the dark thoughts with a shake of his head.

"Turn him in to the warden for all I care. Just get him out of my sight." Howin wanted a moment alone to take a few deep breaths, settle his nerves and figure out what the hell had just happened.

"Yes sir." One of the guards saluted as he turned to go, then looked back. "Should I bring the doctor?"

"Don't be ridiculous. You know that the doctor only treats the guards." Howin rubbed wearily at his face, leaving smudges of soot on his bruised cheek. The guards saluted again and dragged Shu away. Howin hoped that their paths would not cross again for a long time, if they ever happened to meet.

Howin limped over to the cell door and leaned on it as his entire body began to throb. The metal cooled the heat in his armour and he breathed a sigh of relief. After a moment, he found the strength to slide open the grille and look into the cell. To his concern, Fei lay where they had dropped her. He could hear her stuttered gasps for air and the almost inaudible groans whenever she drew too deep a breath.

His stomach lurched again violently and he resisted the impulse to throw up. Instead he let himself slide down the door to the floor and tucked his head between his knees. He indulged himself in a groan of his own. He wanted nothing more than to go into the cell and do something, anything, to help the prisoner, but he also knew better than to expect Fei's trust.

In his mind, he saw her looming over him once again, saw his own hand fling fire into her face, heard that awful shriek as she fell back blinded. He was just as monstrous as Shu or the handlers in the prisoner's eyes, and he was no better than them in his own eyes.

He allowed himself another groan and slumped back against the door, utterly exhausted. Shu was gone. Howin was alone with his injuries and a wounded prisoner. He should get up and call for backup. He should file a report with the warden. But Howin knew that he would do neither of those things and he now understood the reason why.

"I won't leave you alone again," he vowed loudly enough for the prisoner to hear. He had failed her once, by leaving her with a man who lived and breathed hatred, but he would never such a mistake again. He would protect her, simply because no one else would.

"I won't let them hurt you any more, Fei."

To be continued...