You guys are awesome! Thank you for all the great feedback! it really motivates me knowing how much you guys appreciate this story and my writing! Working on Ch. 9 now which will be heavily based on the Agni Kai fight in Book 1 ( with some minor changes of course XD ) So I'll be referencing a lot of the moves and lines spoken in that episode during the Agni Kai to make it flow with the original plot line a bit better... If that makes sense...

Chapter 9 and 10 get hot in several ways, so stay tuned kiddos ;)

-Sha

Ch. 8 - Seeking Truth

None of Sokka's limited training in battle or the stories he'd heard of the Fire Nation from the warriors of his tribe could have prepared him for a man like Commander Zhao. The older man seemed determined to know Sokka's life story and the history of the Southern Water Tribe to the last detail and he would gladly go about pulling that information out of the teen by any means he deemed necessary.

For his part, Sokka remained stubbornly silent besides the occasional wise-crack or foul mouthed opinion of Zhao and his 'mighty' Fire Lord... but the blows he was sustaining were beginning to wear down on his resolve... It was clear that if he didn't start talking soon... Zhao's 'games' would become permanently disfiguring... if not lethal.

Zhao stepped away from the bruised and bloodied Inuit left slumped and naked on the floor of the brig, grabbing a towel to rub Sokka's blood from his knuckles.

"I'll admit... When I first spotted you, I assumed you were on Zuko's ship to keep him 'company'. I know I certainly have never seen Zuko in the company of a woman other than his traitorous mother... and I doubt he has a taste for older men..."

Zhao chuckled lightly, looking over his shoulder at Sokka as the darker-skinned man pushed himself weakly back onto his knees and spat a mixture of blood and thick mucus-like spit onto the floor.

"You can tell me, you know... I wouldn't judge you for using your body to keep the moody little bastard happy so he didn't keep you locked away..."

Sokka trembled, pain throbbing through him in tempo with his heart, his head and torso feeling like an overripe melon that had been hammered by stones. He swallowed back a bit of his own blood, slowly lifting his eyes to Zhao and grinning slowly, determined not to let this snake have his way.

"... T-That's what you think...? T-that Zuko NEEDS company? H-Heh... you don't know him at all..."

Zhao watched the younger man with a small, patient smile.

"Every man desires companionship, a way to blow off his steam... Even if it is only the temporary release offered by a mud-skinned out-lander..."

Sokka grit his jaw, feeling himself quiver with rage. He was sick and tired of being treated like some piece of filth! He may not have come from a big city... he may not have been born a bender like his sister, but damn it he was a warrior! And though his tribe was small, he was still a Prince in his own right! No one had the right to put him down for where he was born or what he looked like!

Zhao chuckled low, knowing full well he'd struck a particularly large nerve. He wanted to see how long Sokka could resist his pain... fight back before exhaustion or despair claimed him... That was the best part of these 'games'.

"Still... I suppose he could have done much worse in his choice of slaves... Most of you tribesman are so... unfortunate looking..." Zhao murmured low, stepping back over to Sokka and gripping his loose hair to angle his face upward. "... You, however, are not without your charms..."

His eyes hooded mildly as his free hand shifted to Sokka's face, brushing the back of his thick knuckles across Sokka's swollen cheek and down his jaw line to smooth the pad of this thumb over the Inuit's split lower lip.

"In fact... The bruises are an improvement!"

Sokka tensed at the touch that was far too intimate... This interrogation was going from bad to worse... Painful to just plain creepy! He shifted his head to the side and quickly took the Commander's thumb into his mouth, biting down hard enough to feel the joint buckle slightly; fresh blood, not his own, filling his mouth.

Zhao howled and let out a savage curse as he ripped his torn digit from Sokka's teeth, the hand in the water tribesman's hair yanking him up and trowing Sokka across the small room into the metal wall with a thick sounding thud. Sokka flopped back onto the floor, dazed from the impact and momentarily breathless.

"You little ANIMAL!" Zhao snarled as he held his bleeding hand, glaring over at Sokka.

Sokka stirred as the dizziness rattling his brain subsided and he began to push himself up onto one elbow, panting low. He had little chance to recover before Zhao was grabbing him by the throat and hauling him up once more. Sokka gagged on a shout of protest and struggled, wincing as his bare back was slammed onto a hard table, making the various items of 'negotiation' atop it's surface bounce roughly.

Zhao leaned over the pinned Inuit, his stale breath against Sokka's cheek as he growled low. "You know what we do to animals who keep stepping out of line? Who don't know how to OBEY their Masters?" He whispered low, his voice full of fierceness and threat. Sokka squirmed all the same, his brows furrowed as the grip still clamped down around his neck made it almost impossible to breath. Zhao's dark expression turned to one of sinister mirth as his free hand reached out across the table and picked up a branding iron topped with the flame insignia of the Fire Nation, his hand heating the metal to an angry red before he leaned up and jabbed the scalding metal into the tender skin of Sokka's groin, just up and left of his shaft root on his hip . "We BURN them into submission!" He barked out, laughing darkly.

Sokka's anguished scream filled the room, echoing off the metal walls and back at him so that it sounded like not one, but many tortured voices ringing out at once. Almost as quickly as the last of his breath left his lungs, Sokka's eyes rolled back and he went limp, passed out across the table as charred smelling smoke still curled into the air from the scarring burn on his hip.

Three days it had taken Zuko to catch up to Zhao's ship... Three days of constant training and growing agitation... uncertainty about the fate of the young man he'd let slip away without a fight... Three days of a churning ache in his gut the more he beat himself up for being so foolish!

It wasn't just the principle that Zhao had openly disrespected him... Though, that was one of the things that made Zuko boil over the most... No matter his title, or his favor with Ozai, Zhao was still ONLY a Commander, and he had gall to treat Zuko as anything less than the Prince he was. It didn't matter that he'd been banished... He was the heir to the Fire Nation by birthright alone! He'd PROVE himself worthy for the throne... one way or another.

No, even with that infuriating disrespect fueling his hatred for the older bender, it was not what drove him to pursue Zhao for days...

...It was Sokka...

When his crew asked him why they were going after a prisoner that had obviously been nothing but a thorn in Zuko's side since he was hauled aboard the ship those few weeks ago; why he would bother chasing down a man he hated, simply to pick a fight, Zuko found he couldn't answer them.

He didn't KNOW why he had to get Sokka back. Didn't understand why, after all the grief and fights the Inuit put him through, Zuko felt driven to rip him from Zhao's claws and make sure Sokka never left his sight again. He'd spent the three long nights in his room, trying to rationalize it... Making himself believe it was because Sokka was his only lead on the Avatar... That he was just holding onto the water tribesman until his usefulness had run out... but... That wasn't true.

Whatever his reason... He just knew he needed Sokka back.

Zuko blinked out of his thoughts as he saw someone move into his peripheral vision, his head turning to lock gazes with his Uncle.

Aside from training, Iroh had said very little to Zuko in the past three days... At first, the young bender thought it was because his uncle was disappointed in him, furious that he'd let Sokka go without a word. He knew how much Iroh favored the dark-skinned teen. But he realized that Iroh wasn't avoiding conversation out of spite, but rather, to allow Zuko to stew on his own actions... and his reasoning behind them.

There was no need for Iroh to chide him... Zuko knew he'd been a fool for allowing Zhao's words to wound him... to stop him from keeping what was important to him. His honor... and his friend.

He blinked and furrowed his brows at sudden realization that, in truth, he missed having Sokka around. The ship was too quiet... too tense without him around to lighten the mood. The crew were still stingy towards Sokka, but even so, they too seemed to miss the levity Sokka wore around him like an all-encompassing aura.

Zuko's lips parted a bit on a weak breath and he turned to his Uncle, wanting to show him that he finally understood, but Iroh lifted his hand mildly and only offered Zuko a small, private smile.

"... Hold to your training, Zuko... Where he has power, you have heart...Strength in your honor as a good man. Zhao is the weaker for lack of that honor."

He turned to look out at the ship they would soon be boarding, his voice soft.

"We'll get him back."

Zuko felt himself genuinely smile as he nodded and turned his golden eyes on the larger black gunmetal war ship, his hand gripping the rail he leaned on tightly with anticipation.

"Yes... We will. Nothing will stop me from taking back what is mine."

TBC