Book: Air

Ch.11 Show No Pain

"Here's an idea, how about we take a hostage, threatened to kill them while we escape over the prison walls." The gang of girls were coming up with their usual plans to escape. The one who suggested the hostage takeover was receiving weird looks from everyone.

"Oh come on, that's been done before, it has to be something they'd never expect."

"Plus how would we make over the prison walls, fly?"

"We could build a catapult."

"Oh sure we could use you as the first test dummy."

"How about an underground tunnel?"

"If you can break the metal flooring of this place."

"Well what do you think we should, huh?"

The girls continued to ramble about their plans while stationed in their usual corner of the courtyard. The guards were mostly stationed above them along the metal coated walls, they could hear their quarreling plans. However the gang had tried so many hopeless plans before that it was no use trying to stop them.

Yuo-Gin, the smartest of group, huddled over plans that she drew in charcoal on the metal floor. She endlessly went over ideas like she always did while the others girls would fight over which idea was better. Yuo-Gin looked up to see how the arguments were progressing, but she noticed something odd instead.

Their leader, Raichen wasn't in the argument, she had positioned herself away from it for once instead of hovering over. Raichen was leaning against the wall staring at something, Yuo-Gin followed her gaze, it was that water bending girl that she was staring at.

"Raichen, what do you think we should do?" Yuo-Gin wanted to draw her attention away from her.

Raichen shook her head and snapped back to the plans. She looked down at the charcoal drawings of catapults, tunnels, hostage takeovers and various other crazily impossible ideas. All of them were too drastic not to mention stupid. "This is all you could think of?"

"Everything has been done Raichen, I'm running out of ideas. We've tried everything already." Yuo-Gin threw up her arms in defeat, "I'm sorry but its no use. My brain has run its course."

Raichen looked at her girls, and then back at the waterbending girl. She smudged in a thoughtful way.

Judging her, one of the girls tossed her head, "No, you're not thinking of using that water sucking tribal peasant." The other girls scowled angrily.

"We can't trust her, if she showed you disrespect then why should we to her?"

"She'd be a nuisance."

"How about we use her as one of our test dummies?"

"Yeah." They all agreed in unison except Raichen.

"What do you think Raichen?"

Raichen looked at her group and then back at Katara, "Let me give her our business card then we go full frontal." She finished with a smile. Raichen took off towards Katara. She made her steps powerful and mighty.

Katara sat quietly on the other side of the courtyard, hoping that Raichen would get her message. She had to assume that Raichen knew her name from history or accept the message as a agreement.

Chanting made Katara look up, that same group of girls led by Raichen were driving up at her. Raichen was in front with a determined look of vengeance on her face. 'Great, guess I have to spell it out for them. Or I might have to do it on my own.' Katara thought. She stood up and tightened her fists.

She didn't want to fight this girl anymore, it was draining her energy and time. She would need to find some way of avoiding this fight or avoiding Raichen entirely.

"Look at that, our victim has stood up already to go." Raichen taunted her gang and the gathering crowd. "That's good you're getting used to the game around here." Raichen cracked her neck from side to side.

Katara's mind raced for an excuse to not fight, but how could she do that without saying a word.

"I warned you, and now you've been drawn in further." Raichen pounced up and came down on Katara. Katara didn't force herself to move, she let Raichen jump on her and pin her down by the shoulders.

Raichen hesitated as if waiting for Katara to strike back, she raised up one fist, but Katara did not flinch to defend herself. Raichen punched Katara aside the face, but Katara did nothing.

Raichen punched her again, "Fight back bitch, make me bleed!" Raichen demanded.

Raichen continued to pound on Katara's face until blood began to trickle from her nose and mouth. "Fight me!!"

But Katara did not.

Raichen lifted herself off of Katara and stared down at her body, the sun glared casting a bright light in her eyes, blinding her vision of Raichen.

But Katara could see something in Raichen's eyes, something that she hadn't notice the first two times Raichen attacked her. It looked like mercy.

"Aren't you gonna play my little game, or do I have to teach you the rules?" Raichen's words didn't sound demanding or violate, but as if she were sending her a message.

At first Katara believed that she took one too many blows to the head. However she couldn't shake the peaceful vibe she was getting from Raichen. Maybe she was accepting her, or maybe not.

Raichen grabbed Katara's arm and thrashed her body above her head and slammed her on the ground behind her. Katara got the wind knocked out of her. She flipped over and rested on her forearms to get the air flowing back in her lungs. Blood dripped from her mouth.

"Play my game!" Raichen demanded.

Katara felt obligated to do so, she could sense that this was more than just a fight for revenge.

Katara stood up and took a fighting stance. The crowd booed and hissed at her, but Katara blocked all those noises always. She wiped away the blood dripping from her lip.

Raichen smiled and charged forward, she came in with a series of jabs and punches all moving at fast speeds but not to their fullest force.

Katara did her best to block them. But from her lack of food and sleep, she couldn't dodge all of them. She received a blow to the shoulder and side kicked to the ground. There had to be an inner source of energy Katara could use to survive this fight. But Katara didn't know if she was suppose to win or lose.

Diving deep, Katara breathed in new air and jumped to the side before Raichen came down on her with a spinning kick. Katara charged in offensively hoping that maybe Raichen would give her a sign as to what she was suppose to do. Katara threw her fists and feet at Raichen in a powerful flowing way. She didn't want to hurt her, she was only looking for a sign.

But Raichen didn't give away any, she kept a straight face as she fought back. She cart wheeled backwards to avoid defense. Then she did a round off coming at Katara with sky plunging kick on the spring off. Katara threw her arms up as a shield, but Raichen's force was too strong. She broke between the slip of her arms and her foot went right in her stomach. Unfortunately Raichen's foot was caught as well.

Katara tumbled to the ground in excruciating pain. Raichen slammed against the ground and twisted to the side. Raichen grabbed her left ankle in pain.

"You bitch, you broke my ankle." Raichen yelled between clenched teeth.

The crowd yelled and cursed at Katara. But the world seemed to be a blur of noise and light as the pain grew worse in Katara's stomach. The pain travelled down to her womb, a frightful thought came to mind of the condition of the baby inside.

Guards came upon her, they were blurs of red and black to her. They grabbed her by the arms and lifted her out of the courtyard. Katara could make out Raichen's voice, "That bitch broke my ankle." And guards were taking her away as well.

The guards kept a strong grip on Katara as they raced through several hallways to the infirmary. With each change in direction or twist of her body, Katara moaned in cramping pain which made the guards move faster to dispose of her.

The guards slammed open the infirmary door, the doctor was taken by surprise but not to see Katara.

"This one got herself into another fight again." One of the guards barked.

Katara moaned again, the pain was increasing, she needed to lie down. The doctor looked down at her, "Is your stomach hurting again from the prison food?"

Katara knew that was a lie, but she nodded.

He gestured the guards to set her down on one of the medical beds, then they left.

The doctor went to a table with several stirring pots, spoons and a small stove fire. Cabinets filled with various jars hung over his head and grabbed several of them and mixed them together with his back facing her.

Katara tried to take in the comfort of the medical bed, but the pain seemed to grow worse, her moaning could not be contained.

"Complications, Miss Katara." The doctor said without turning around.

Katara nodded and spoke yes in a muffled whisper.

The doctor turned around with a cup filled with a peculiar greenish liquid in it. Katara could smell it from here, it smelled of wilted lilies, rosemary, soup broth, and dirt. It was a powerful odor that refilled her senses. "It's probably just growing pains. Here drink this." He offered it to her.

Katara sat up and gave the greenish mixture a small sip and nearly choked on it. It smelled better than it tasted. It was warm foul liquid that burned her throat as it slid down.

"Drink, it will help soothe the pain." The doctor said as he disappeared behind a medical curtain leading to another medical bed. Perhaps he had another patient to attend to.

Pain numbed her mind, as much as Katara distasted the burning sensation of it she drank it whole. The burning warmth of the mixture slid down through her organs until finally it spread to her lower stomach.

"Feeling better?" Katara jumped at the different sounding voice in the room. It wasn't the doctor's as she first expected. Raichen poked her head out from behind the medical curtain.

Katara gripped the edge of her bed firm as Raichen came upon her. The doctor followed close behind.

"I didn't expect you to actually get hurt. That's why I faked my broken ankle so we could get some privacy to talk." Raichen spoke in soft tone just like she did in the cafeteria. "Don't worry about talking to me, Dr. Weng won't report you. He promised. I can trust him, he can keep several secrets."

Katara sighed heavily as the pain began to subside under a warm blanket heat from the green mixture, now she can think straight.

"I know who you are. The famous Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, defeated Princess Azula, and aided the Avatar in ending the war. That's quite a title, almost as good as mine. But the one thing I understand is that you don't belong here, I mean why would a war hero be put in a Loyalist colonial prison."

Katara looked at her questionable.

"This prison is reserved for all the criminals in the old fire nation colonies that are now united under the rule of the Loyalists. I was put in here for creating a radical movement against the Loyalist rule, vandalizing a political building and assassinating one of the Loyalists leaders. This is just one of the prisons that they have, its hidden so no one can find it. We're located in the northern mountains of the Earth Kingdom. It would be very difficult for someone to find us or for us to escape from quickly. That's why I need your help so we can. All of our plans have failed us but I believe that you can be a great asset to us. If you want to get out of here, you better agree."

Katara was speechless, all this time she was in the Earth Kingdom. But now she knew more about the Loyalists control. No wonder it was hard to track down the Loyalists for they are scattered all across the world in the old colonies. She wondered if Sokka knew this. Could he be looking for her right in now in these very mountains?

"I do agree, but there's just one problem." Katara spoke in the kindest of ways.

"Wow you do talk."

"How would we be able to communicate our plans, I'm heavily guarded all the time."

Dr. Weng cut in, "I could be an option, I can rely message to and from the both of you because Miss Katara will be here quite often."

"Why because you're afraid I'm going to still beat her up?" Raichen laughed.

Katara hung her head, "No, because I'm pregnant." She mumbled.

Raichen's smile dropped, "What?"

"Ozai nor the Loyalists can know of the baby, they would use it against their enemies if they found out. That's why I must get out of here quick before its starts to show."

"Wow, I never thought a girl like you would go down and get dirty with some guy, who's your husband?" Raichen smirked.

Katara hunched her shoulders, "I don't have a husband." She whispered.

Raichen frowned.

"But listen, my story is not important okay?" Katara grew defensive, "We all need to get out of here."

"Alright, I'll tell the girls you're in, Yuo-Gin will come up with a plan, and soon we'll be out of here before that child starts kicking." Raichen slapped her on the arm.

Katara took that hit as a sign on affection. Raichen reminded her of Toph, her stubbornness, rantings, and solid personality all were similar to Toph's. Katara missed her so.

Raichen got up and headed for the door, "So we're good now alright, I'll stop picking on you. But we're going to need to keep the fighting up so the guards won't get suspicious."

Katara nodded, that was smart thinking, but the fights had to be drawn to something short, painless.

Raichen nodded back and closed the door, two guards were waiting on the other end of the hallway. They looked at her odd, they expected her to be in a cast or limping.

"What, if I got pain I don't show it." Raichen smirked at their expressions. They assorted her back to her cell.