Chapter Ten: The Power of Dragons

"Winter, spring, summer, and fall. Winter, spring, summer, and fall. Four seasons four loves. Four seasons four loves," Kaiya sang weakly, crumpled in a pile with her chains on the floor of her cell.

"She's been singing like that, Sir, for at least half an hour. It's something none of us have ever heard of," one of the guards observed.

"When I start to believe that means something, I'll let you know," Wei told him coldly as he entered Kaiya's cell. "Feeling a little less witty now, are we, Kaiya Saito?"

Kaiya stopped singing and looked up at Wei. "This is the story of a girl, who cried a river and drowned the whole world." At least she'd switched songs.

Wei tilted his head. "Of course it is." He turned back to the guard. "Tell them to bring me the paddles." The guard nodded. "It's time we found out who you are, Kaiya Saito. I am sorry about your head, however. I would have preferred your brain a little less soupy."

Kaiya blinked. The guard turned away for a moment. Concentrating as much as she still could, she spit at Wei. The droplet of precious liquid turned to an icicle as it flew threw the air and struck the side of Wei's face. "I don't think you want to meet the real me, Wei."

Wei put a hand to his cheek. Blood was running down his face and his neck. "You should not have done that, Kaiya."

Kaiya rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, people keep telling me that, and I just don't learn from my mistakes."

Wei hit her in the side of the head, and she went down again. She blinked away the blurred vision only to find Wei standing above her with electrical paddles in his hands. He hit her with them, and pain like she'd never felt surged through Kaiya's body.

"Do it!" Wei yelled. He hit her again. "You are the Avatar! I will prove it!" He hit her again and again. "Why aren't you reacting? You stupid girl!" He hit her a final time, then gave up, dropping the paddles. He drew his gun. "If you aren't the Avatar, you are of no use to me."

The ground shook beneath Wei's feet, and he took his eyes off Kaiya for a second. "Guards, check the earthbenders! Now!" he yelled. They ran off to do as he commanded, leaving him alone with the waterbender. When he turned back, Kaiya was standing upright, her chains on the ground. She looked as if one touch would send her crashing back down.

"You were sweating," she muttered weakly. In her hands she twirled a small stream of water, absent-mindedly.

Wei narrowed his eyes at her, and put the gun to her head. "You never were one to know when to give up."

"No, she wasn't," a cold voice agreed behind him. Wei turned slowly, and he had just enough time to register that it was Zakk behind him before a fireball was plunged into his face.

Zakk looked from Wei's body, to Kaiya, and wanted to kill the bastard all over again. Her clothes were all torn, there were dark circles under her eyes, and she was wobbling in her place. Not even five seconds after Wei went down, Kaiya passed out. Zakk gathered her up in his arms and made for the exit, hoping the other two were doing exactly what they had been told.

*****

"There was a reason he wanted us fighting this chick, right?" Washi yelled as he ran.

"Just make it upstairs already! This basement floor is dangerous!" A rock flew past Hotaru's head and into Washi's back. She slid to a halt to help him up, throwing what she hoped was a great masterpiece of firebending back at the little girl Zakk had told them to find.

"She'll make a racket. That's what I'll need. Wei will think she's trying to escape, and he'll send guards after her."

"Well, she is making noise," Washi muttered, getting to his feet.

"Is that all you got, firebender?" the girl yelled from the other end of the hall. Guards were lining up behind the earthbender, ready to shoot Hotaru and Washi. There was a moment of stillness, and Washi knew this was it.

Hotaru thought of her friend, somewhere in the compound, possibly dead by now. She thought of what these people were doing to her kind. They took children and turned them into weapons. This little earthbender, for instance, she could have had a normal life. They took that away from her.

"No," Hotaru said. "It isn't all I've got." Everything she'd been afraid to feel for nearly a decade, the anger, the ache, the depression, she let loose on the little earthbender and the Elite agents behind her.

Washi watched in amazement as Hotaru went supernova on the enemy. She was shooting flames from her mouth, her hands, her feet. And all of it was heading straight for the Elites. He was exceedingly grateful he was on her side. A wall of fire swept in front of them, and Washi had to shield his eyes from it. As suddenly as the attack had come on, it stopped, and Hotaru collapsed in a heap in front of him. The Elites were gone.

Looking down at Hotaru, Washi whispered, "Oh, dear." Now he had to carry her. There was a reason he'd chosen the theater as his extracurricular. Muscles were not his thing. "Okay, Washi, be the hero, not just the guy who drives the van," he told himself, lifting Hotaru unsteadily into his arms. Then he ran, as much as he could run holding Hotaru, toward the exit. Or, what he hoped was the exit.

By the time Washi made it out of the building, Zakk was already waiting at the van. "Thank God," Washi said as he put Hotaru in the back seat with Kaiya. "She's alive. Right?"

"Kaiya's alive. What happened to Hotaru?" Zakk asked, helping Washi, who looked like he was about to fall over himself.

"I'll explain on the way, let's go!" Washi yelled, closing the back and running around to the driver's side.

"I've got one more thing to do," Zakk told him, "Get the van started."

"What do you mean you've got one more thing to do?" Washi yelled.

"It's important!" Zakk yelled back, already on his way back inside the compound.

"What the hell is he going to do?" Washi asked the two unconscious girls in the back of his van.

*****

Zakk ran through the corridors looking for the right spot. When he found it, Mike was waiting for him. "You need to get out of here, Mike."

"I know it," Mike agreed. "You should have this," he said, holding a file out to Zakk.

"What is it?"

"Your file."

Zakk sighed. "I don't want it." He already knew what was in it.

"Someday you will," Mike said. "Someday might help you understand why this all happened to you."

"Then you keep it for me," Zakk told him. "Now, you really should get out of here."

Mike nodded and started running. Zakk threw a fireball into the control panel. It was a self-destruct unit that would blow the compound apart. Every Elite compound had one. It was for cases of extreme emergency, when the Elites were faced with exposure. Zakk thought it would keep them busy long enough for an escape that would last more than a couple of days.

Zakk cleared the building just after the first explosion. He launched himself into Washi's van and told him to drive.

"What the hell did you just…"

"Just drive!" Zakk yelled.

Washi knew better than to fight with a dragon and stepped on the gas. After a few miles back the way they came, Washi asked, "So, uh, human torch, where are we going? Any ideas?"

Zakk rolled his eyes. "I am not the human torch. Head west."

"How far west are we talking?" Washi snuck a glance at the girls in the back. "I think Kaiya needs a doctor."

"Kaiya needs her Uncle Iroh," Zakk countered. "He was her Aunt Keira's boyfriend for years. Last summer he moved out here. He lives in a little town called Jasmine. It's not too awful far. He'll help."

Washi nodded. "Okay, to Jasmine it is, then." An awkward silence descended. Washi didn't like silences much. Not when something this big was going down. Although, come to think of it, nothing this big had ever happened to Washi. "I, uh, just wanted to say, um," Washi stammered. "Thank you."

Zakk looked over at the guy. For the first time, Washi looked like an adult. Zakk had known Washi was two years older than him, but he hadn't really believed it until now. "I didn't do it for you," Zakk said honestly.

Washi shrugged. "Yeah, I knew that, but, well, Kaiya's passed out, and from what I gather, when she finds out how you came to be helping us, she's not going to be too thrilled with you. So, um, I just thought I'd, you know, say thanks on her behalf. Because you know she'll want to say it. She won't say it. But she'll want to."

Zakk narrowed his eyes. "How long have you known Kaiya?"

"Oh, about a month. But, you know, you get to know people pretty quick when you're working with them everyday," Washi chanced a glance at him. "So, uh, you two were, uh…"

"It was complicated," Zakk said. "I hope we can leave it at that." He looked in the back seat. "What color were the flames?"

"What flames?"

"When Hotaru went nuclear."

"I don't know. I had to cover my eyes. Why?" Washi asked.

"I'm good. You should realize that I'm not being arrogant. Wei chose me for his team because I was the best he'd ever seen. As good as I am, I think Hotaru might be even better."

"Yeah, she's amazing," Washi told him, "But she could really use a teacher. Someone with some tips? You know, another firebender to help her control her power."

"Are you seriously asking me to stick around when this is done to give Hotaru firebending lessons?"

Washi looked over at him. "Well, kind of."

Zakk shook his head. "She doesn't want me as a teacher. She needs to find her own way. A better way than I had."

"What do you mean?" Washi asked. "Isn't firebending, firebending?"

"I was trained to be a weapon, Washi. You really want Hotaru to learn from a weapon?" Zakk asked. Washi shook his head. "Get off the highway in half an hour. Exit one-thirty."