Tahni had no sane answer to the question he had just been asked.

The Avatar just stared down him, trying to comprehend the event that had just played out. Tahni could tell that she didn't expect an answer, so he said nothing. The Avatar's facial expression was one of... what? Anger? Disgust? Fear? After a moment of observation, Tahni decided it was one of surprise and confusion.

The Avatar took a deep breath, closing her tired, brown eyes. She stopped leaning over his tied-up frame, and straightened her back. She crossed her arms across her chest and looked back down at Tahni.

"I'm guessing you were responsible for the savage massacre that occurred in the Southern Water Tribe village," she stated, without hesitation in her voice.

Tahni looked up at her and gave an awkward shrug.

"Eh?" he responded, unsure of whether or not he was responsible. "Depends on your definition of 'responsible'."

The Avatar raised her eyebrows, then lowered them in annoyance and frustration.

"Did you kill those people?" she demanded.

"Not all of them," Tahni answered honestly.

Not all of them? Tahni thought to himself. Now it sounds like you participated in the butchery. Great going, idiot.

Tahni could see rage flare in the Avatar's eyes. She was barely able to keep herself from severely hurting him.

"Why? Why did you kill some of them?" she asked, anger evident in her voice.

Tahni sighed, "because they were killing the villagers."

The Avatar was even more angry and confused.

"Who precisely did you kill?" the Avatar inquired.

Without thinking, Tahni answered, "the Red Lotus Sentries who followed me."

Oh crap, you just dug your own grave, he thought, baring his teeth for an awkward breath.

The Avatar's focus was in complete disarray, and Tahni couldn't blame her. First her boat gets attacked by the Dark Avatar, and now the Red Lotus is involved? The Avatar slowly regained her focus. She took an unsteady breath of cold air.

"Why were the Red Lotus following you?" The Avatar asked, a false smile on her face.

Tahni figured he might as well come clean, although the truth was nothing but filthy.

"They're kind of... obsessive over me. They kidnapped me at a young age and have been trying to train me to be some sort of secret weapon," Tahni admitted.

The Avatar blinked rapidly.

"Okay...?" she trailed off.

She was stunned by his brutal honesty, Tahni figured. That at least gave him a chance to keep her from killing him a little longer.

"Are you going to kill me?" Tahni asked, fear absent from his voice. He asked the question as if it were of minor importance.

"Am I going to..." the Avatar repeated to herself.

Obviously, she hadn't thought out a plan, as to what she was going to do with Tahni. She couldn't kill him, actually, he'd just be reborn. She couldn't just let him rot in this chair, tied up, until he died of natural causes.

"Go ahead and take your time deciding, it's not like I'm going anywhere," Tahni said, as if this was a somewhat funny situation.

Tahni's wrists were starting to get sore from the ropes. He had been trying for hours to loosen their hold of him. The Avatar's voice could be heard among others outside the room, and Tahni was going to at least try to escape. He stopped struggling when the door began to open in front of him.

The wooden door slowly swung in to reveal it was a man holding a food tray. The man's hair was jet black and semi-spiky. He wore a grey and red tunic.

"I'm guessing you're hungry," the man stated.

Tahni shrugged, he hadn't been thinking about food as much as escape, but now that the thought entered his mind, he noticed that his stomach was turning.

The man pulled an identical chair from the corner of the room. He placed it in front of Tahni and sat upon it.

Tahni gave a deep and uninterested sigh.

"I suppose you're going to spoon-feed me now?" Tahni smirked, raising an eyebrow.

The man's eyes widened. He obviously hadn't thought this through.

"Look, just untie me so I don't have to eat like an infant," Tahni begged.

The man narrowed his eyes.

"You're just going to escape," he stated.

Tahni scoffed, "and how would I do that? Am I going to hold you hostage with a fork and spoon?"

The man wasn't convinced.

"Let's count, shall we?" Tahni continued. "On board, you have the Avatar, an earthbender... could've sworn that was a rock that hit me last night... Anyways, and then there's you, a firebender."

"How did you know I'm a firebender?" the man asked, wondering if Tahni had prior knowledge about them.

"I figured that you were a firebender because you have orange eyes, you're tunic is partially red stuff, and you weren't afraid to feed me without any weapons on you," Tahni answered.

The man looked around.

"I'm not supposed to undo the ropes," he stated.

Tahni looked to the ceiling and sighed in frustration.

"If you're that paranoid, just bring the Avatar in here while I eat, and don't give me anything with water in it, I can only bend water," Tahni explained.

After a moment, the man asked, "don't you need water to survive?"

Tahni groaned and replied, "just tie me down again, and pour a cup of water into my mouth. Seriously, do I have to tell you word for word how to hold me prisoner?!"

That shut the man up. The man placed the food tray on the floor next to Tahni and walked out the door to go get the Avatar.

Tahni looked down at the food tray, there was nothing sharp for him to cut himself free. Even if there was anything sharp on the food tray, he wouldn't be able to reach it.

"Curses," Tahni said to himself.

The door reopened, and in came the Avatar with her ally.

"Do I really have to be here, just to watch him while he eats a fish?" the Avatar asked.

"This is the Dark Avatar we're talking about," the man replied.

Tahni held his head back and closed his eyes as the two discussed how to proceed. After a few moments, Tahni interrupted with, "can you two please move this along? I haven't eaten in two days."

Tahni looked back at them as he heard the man moving forward. He slowly sat back down in the wooden chair, and started to fiddle with the rope securing Tahni's right hand.

"Promise to behave?" the Avatar asked Tahni.

Tahni smiled and replied, "as if I have a choice?"

The man finally finished untying Tahni's right hand. Tahni immediately stretched out his right arm. The man panicked, and quickly held it back down onto the wooden arm-rest.

Tahni just stared at the man as if he was a fool.

"What's the matter? Am I not allowed to stretch?" Tahni asked, with a smirk on his cut up face.

"Mako, please, stop being paranoid and just untie..." the Avatar didn't know how to address Tahni.

Was she couldn't to say the Dark Avatar? Boy? It?

"My name is Tahni," he sighed.

"No last name?" Mako asked as he untied Tahni's left hand.

Tahni raised his eyebrows, still smirking, "what? I was kidnapped when I was a toddler. Am I suppossed to remember my blood type as well?"

Mako shrugged.

"You were kidnapped when you a toddler?" the Avatar asked, surprised. "You said were kidnapped at a young age, but I never figured it was as young as that."

Tahni grimaced, "what can I say? The Red Lotus wanted me young, wanted to brainwash me. Hard to get brainwashed when you keep having nightmares of your father's face being blown up."

The Avatar sighed, "well then..."

Mako finished untying Tahni's left hand. Tahni, slowly this time, moved his right hand to feel his left hand's wrist.

"Compliments to the person who tied me up. My wrists are sorer than my face," Tahni declared as he looked over the red marks on his wrists.

Tahni reached over his right side and picked up the food tray and set it in his lap.

"Fish?" Tahni asked, looking over the small meal. "You spoil me."

Mako took offence to this.

"Well sorry that we don't feed prisoners better," he replied bruntly.

Tahni's smirk returned.

"Actually, this is the second-best meal I can remember receiving," Tahni admitted.

Tahni flipped the fork around in his hand and began to cut a piece of the fish off.

"Second-best?" the Avatar asked, curious.

"A family took me in at the village and gave me a nice meal, also fish. That was say... three days ago?" Tahni recalled. "It's hard to keep track of time when you're floating in a canoe."

Tahni stabbed the cut-off piece of fish and put it in his mouth.

"Aw, pity," he sighed. "Mako took too long and now it's cold."

Mako narrowed his eyes at Tahni. Tahni look up at Mako and smiled.

"Would you like some?" Tahni asked in a mocking voice.

The Avatar didn't care about the temperature of the fish, and asked, "what happened to the family who took you in?"

Tahni grimaced once again.

"The father and mother were... well... killed," Tahni explained, slowly and unsteadily.

Tahni rolled his eyes when he saw the looks on the Avatar and Mako's faces.

"Not by me," Tahni reassured.

The Avatar asked, "they were parents? What happened to the children?"

Tahni gave a deep sigh, and answered, "there was only one child, a daughter, and I don't know whether or not she got out."

Mako asked, "and why is it that you don't know what happened to her?"

"Because I told her to run, while I held the Red Lotus Sentries off," Tahni replied.

The Avatar and Mako just stared at Tahni, taken by surprise by this statement.

Tahni took another bite of the fish and stated, "this may be hard for you to believe, but I'm not, what would you call it? Ah yes, a stone-cold bitch."