Chapter 13: imprisoned


Clear steps are usually heard in a quiet underground corridor. The darkness that falls on stone floors and walls on a regular day is no longer so frightening. The legs of the two dark figures quickly move towards the goal on a cool stone floor surface.

Two people wearing black cloaks maneuver through misleading corridors without stopping. This is their territory, which they know as their five fingers. Like the owners themselves, this place is dark, gloomy, sucking out all the positive emotions and turning them into fear and disgust.

The men pause briefly in a torch-lighted place, both of them with a heavy loads on their shoulders. Fatigue and numb muscles from the weight of the loads is probably the reason for this break. Soon one of them casually waves his hand, and his partner starts monotonous walk again until the dilapidated corridor is replaced by a spacious empty room.

Unlike everything else in this building, the walls of the room are smooth. Apart from the door in front of the men, there is nothing else in the room. One of the men pulls out a big copper ring from his pocket, keys of various sizes, shapes and colors are placed on it. That this man is familiar with the keyman is obvious, because he doesn't hesitate for a moment to select the required long steel key and walk to the dark double-door. The lock soon clicks to confirm that the door has been successfully unlocked. It's time to go further. Both men tilt their shoulders so that heavy loads lie more comfortably on their tired muscles, and enter through the door.

There is a narrow room with a staircase leading down behind the door. The man walking next to the keyman eagerly coughs, but says nothing. This place isn't liked even by the owners of the building themselves. By going deeper, the air eventually becomes humid and nauseous. The smell of clotted blood emanates from somewhere.

When the stairs end and the ground beneath their feet becomes smooth again, the men look around, but move on without a word. All the time none of them are talking.

They are so close...

The corridors on the lower floor of the underground are different. Many cells line up one after the other, leaving no doubt that this is a prison. As the black figures walk on the sturdy stone floor, cries of help and moans are heard from some of the units. Ignoring those unpleasant noises, they turn to the right and stop at one of the cells. The man with the keys moves to the door to unlock them. One by one, they throw their loads on the floor. Feeling the ground beneath, the loads move. They are people. One of the captors laugh at this miserable view. His angry laughter echoes all over the cold prison walls.

"You can die here now, nobody cares about you." The angry laughter is replaced by a cold, callous voice. The doors are forcefully slammed and locked. When the footsteps are no longer heard and silence brakes out, the new prisoners look at each other hopelessly. A long day waiting ahead...

Like everything else in the prison, the cell is just solid stone. The rectangular room is more than enough for two prisoners. The entire prison is underground, only a dim light emanates from somewhere that illuminates the corridors. But there is no light source in the cells. Not even a glimpse behind those hard metal doors.

The figure, that was sitting quietly on the ground for a while, rises up and approaches the door to test its solidness. It's about sixty years old man. With his thick fingers, he sweeps the surface of the door, as if looking for cracks in the metal. Several times his wrist stops as if his fingers are touching something. But find something that gives hope is impossible.

Finding nothing on the surface of the door, the man sets his right shoulder on the stone and tries to break it. Of course, it's not enough. Without losing hope, he clings his fingers heavily to the wall crack, but all his efforts to do something are worthless, the cracks between the walls are too narrow to grab and move them.

The cell is empty. Prisoners are treated like animals, so there are no beds here. The only advantage is a separate bathroom. You can enter it by squeezing through a small gap between the wall that separates the cell from the corridor.

The man's face reflects negative emotions, but he seems to be thinking intently. He is tormented by the strange feeling that something will happen. The heavy feeling is even strengthened by silence. And it makes him enrage.

Suddenly things turn out to be so absurd... Just a few weeks ago, Iroh and Zuko slept peacefully away from the Fire Nation walls, and suddenly everything changed when the earthbenders attacked. They were separated from each other, so the capture was particularly easy. Iroh tries to remember the details...

Zuko's scream... It woke Iroh from a dream and he came out for help. But it went bad and he had to look for Zuko in the woods. It seemed that the pain for his beloved child will never end. As soon as they thought they will finally be able to live in peace, it got even worse. Only the moss crunched by his own feet disturbed the silence. But the search lasted short, the man was injured, tired, his senses weakened. He was close to the limit when the body begins to disobey. And then he felt something behind him...

Now he is considering how his life will end in this place. It's practically impossible to escape alive from the clutches of the earthbenders. Now is the time to accept destiny as it is. Only torture and death could be seen in the future. There is no room for hope. He lost the sense of time. After spending so many days in the dark without any light, he lost his firebending as well. He was just like a plant that can't rise without the sun.

After about an hour, the sounds of footsteps and the moans accompanying them are heard in the corridor. There is only one person. His boots are bind with metal, so every step causes a sharp bang that echoes in the endless prison. All the sounds disappear when the person approaches the door of Iroh's cell. After a few moments the rattling of the keys breaks the silence. The lock clicks hard and when the door is finally opened, the prisoner faces a dark human silhouette.

"You have a visitor. Follow me." His voice shows strong dissatisfaction. "No tricks, escape is impossible."

Iroh doesn't utter a word and follows the guard. What he said is true. It's painfully confirmed by the metal constraints he places on the prisoner's wrists. After moving him up the stairs, the guard pushes him into the other room and quickly leaves, trying not to make unnecessary sounds. An unusually warm room is occupied by three people. Two guards and a girl in armor standing between them.

Despite the hopeless situation, Iroh inspects the room. It's his instinct to pay attention to the smallest details. His attention is first drawn to the window carved in the stone wall. A blinding darkness of the night spreads through it, the swoosh of the wind can be heard between the trees. The table is covered with scrolls and scattered pieces of paper, a massive candlestick holding three candles sits in the left corner of the table. The small flames vibrate from time to time when caught by a slight draft. The room has a large fireplace, which is the main source of lighting. A small, beautifully carved wooden cabinet, placed by the wall with a window doesn't slip out of Iroh's exploring gaze as well.

"Do you know who you are, Uncle?" The girl in the armor speaks with irony in her voice. "The Dragon of the West, well known General of the Fire Nation Army, the one who HAD to conquer Ba Sing Se."

"I'm afraid I don't understand what do you want from me." Iroh says in a calm voice, but she knows he is well aware of what she means.

"You could have been our hero, you could have helped us expand our lands, become the rulers of the world, but you escaped with your dearest Zuzu, because you love him more than yourself. But he is weak, he can't even fight for himself, he can't catch a simple child and bring him to Father to regain his honor. It makes you no stronger than him. I thought you could do better than that, but he can't do his job even with your help." Azula slowly gets closer and leans to his face as she looks him in the eye. "Because you're not even trying to capture the Avatar, are you?"

"Power that causes pain and struggle is not an answer, Princess Azula." Iroh doesn't take his gaze away from her, making it clear that he is not afraid of her at all. "But I know you will never understand, and I will not try to change your mind."

"You think I care? Do you think I ever cared about you? You showed your weakness when you left Ba Sing Se just because your son died. I lost respect on you that very day."

"So why are you here then, my dear Niece?"

The girl smirks and slowly walks to the table, falls into a chair, crosses her legs, and puts her hands on armrests, showing how fun it is for her to talk about what he doesn't like. "I am here because you are on a high price, Uncle. Those earthbenders managed to catch you, but not Zuko, strange, isn't it? How couldn't YOU escape, but HE did?"

Iroh remains silent. The guards who stood next to the girl now are standing closer to him, waiting for orders or protecting the Princess from possible danger, even though his arms are still constrained and he has no firebending. But they all know how dangerous he can be. The Dragon of the West.

"I'm not pleased to say that, but I have no idea where he might be." He says politely. "Our ways parted during the fight and I haven't seen him after."

"Don't lie to me, Uncle!" Azula shouts all of a sudden, an angry spark shining in her golden eyes. Her palms press on the table surface as she stands up and leans forward. "I know how protective you are about Zuko, he had no chance of escaping, you're hiding him!"

The old man again remains silent and stock-still. He thinks deeply about Azula's plans. He could have tried to run away or fight, but it would put him in an even worse situation than it is now. And the fact that several guards are standing behind the door doesn't give him any hope.

Only ten seconds pass, and Iroh feels like he has stood for ten hours on this cold floor in front of his Niece.

"Do you think I have come this far from the Fire Nation to just visit my beloved Uncle?" Azula mocks. "Tell me, are you hiding Zuko? Where is he?"

Iroh sighs deeply. "We have suffered a lot together and we are not doing you any harm, we are just trying to live in peace."

"No harm?! You have become traitors to the Fire Nation, the whole world hates you, you are both disgracing our family. Do you think it's not a crime?"

"I don't think you understand."

"No, I understand everything. You never cared about anyone but your precious Zuzu, but his days of hiding are numbered. No matter how you try to hide him, I'll still find him. Do you have any idea what will happen next?"

Azula places her hand on her hip and with the other hand brushes a strand of hair from her face. A big smile appears on her face. "Of course you do. Zuzu always falls for my lies, but you always seem to think clearly. When I said Father regrets the banishment and wants you home, you didn't believe it. You know what is waiting for your dear Zuzu when I catch him. Father will lock him in the dungeon and prevent him from seeing the daylight until he die. But little Zuzu will believe my lie again and kneel down before me. You wonder why?"

Azula aproaches him again and leans so that her face is at the same level as his. It seems like she is going to smack him in the face and he will easily fly across the room and hit the wall painfully. "Once I find him, I'll let him know you are in the Fire Nation dungeon, and I can release you alive only if he surrenders. He will obviously try to save you, but he was always too weak to defeat me so I'll capture him. Unfortunately, you will not be able to see it, because you will remain in the Earth Kingdom prison. Zuzu is too stupid to look for you here."

"Or..." The girl watches his reaction for a minute. "You can tell me where little Zuzu is, then maybe I'll talk to Father go easier on him. Or I can capture the Avatar myself and give all the honor to Zuzu so he could finally go home. And if you are very good, you will be able to return home with him. Your choice."

"You know well what I think of your plans." Iroh frowns. He clearly understands that she considers him as a lower creature and expects him to believe in her empty promises.

These words cause cold-blooded smile on Azula's face. She cares about nothing but her gruesome goal, so she will do anything to make Iroh speak. One or two lives will fall, what's the difference? It will not change her plans.

"You realize if you keep quiet Zuko's chances of survival are very low?" The Princess says after a long pause. "But I guess you need to think. Guards, take him out."

Soon Iroh feels strong fingers squeezing his collar and roughly dragging him out like a non-feeling doll. When they enter the familiar prison corridors, he activates all his senses, but without the hard footsteps he can't hear anything else. He understands perfectly well that Azula is playing with him, but maybe he will manage to win some time to evaluate everything and weigh the chances of escape.

When the keyman opens the door and removes constraints from his wrists, Iroh is relentlessly pushed on the stone floor for the second time. The door slams shut as soon as the man hits the ground. Without waiting for a moment, he jumps on his feet, ignoring the pain caused by the heavy thud into the stone, and presses against the metal door to listen.

"Make sure he doesn't get food for two days." Azula's voice gradually fades away. Although the keyman is answering something, Iroh can't understand any words. Silence erupts again.

No one knows what terrible torture he will have to face when Azula tries to get from him what he doesn't know...

This is just beginning. The end's beginning.


To be continued...


AN: I don't know why but I'm so proud of this chapter! I hope I portrayed Azula well!