New chapter!Whee!I'm on a roll!

Still don't own Avatar. Nick obviously wants more than 3 cents and a button for it.T.T And it was a pretty button to!

(I've got a beta reader now...huggles So now I won't have anymore typos...If she ever replies... )

Prince Zuko's Ship Log, Day 254

It has been about a week since we had picked the little water rat up. Since then Iroh has been sure to interfere.He obviously doesn't understand the kidnapper principal. He was trying to show off his ridiculous monkey statue. It had been a waste of money, but he was proud of it none the less. I,of course. had spent most of the day training,the more foolish soliders have been whispering rumors behind my back.Nothing I don't expect, but I will not be called 'weak' on my own ship. Surprisingly, we haven't seen much of the Avatar. Maybe the girl wasn't as important to him as we first thought. She makes my blood boil, her sometimes quiet, submissive nature, other times defiant and disrespectful. She has challenged me, and that is another thing I won't tolerate. Not for long, anyway. I'll just have to see how long it takes me to drill the answer out of her, or drive her mad. Either one will do.

I've gotten a a little something that should put her in her place.A recent skirmish with an earth-nation villiage had a few causualties...

It was night. I know this, because the ship was silent. Drunken guards had long since passed out in their quaters, or hall. Then my door opened again. It was my door, because I was the only one behind it. It was mine because, although I couldn't open it, no one did unless they had something that related to me. Thus it was mine. Zuko came in again, smug as usual. He came in and threw something at the ground. I followed it with my eyes, my fractured memory taking a minute to grasp hold of what it was. A hat. Nothing too special about it...a peasent farmer's straw hat. It was frayed on the ends, and had a plain dark green trim. It also had scorch marks, and a small spray of blood on the front. My eyes welled with tears, my heart churning, as I felt my stomach fall to my knee's.

"He put up a fight, that one. Odd thing we found on him afterwards..." The bastard said, holding up a crumpled sheet of paper. It was waterstained, blotchy, singed at the corners and crimson in places, but you could roughly make out two figures.

"Had it in his hand the whole time. Took out 30 of my men...I had to finish him myself."

"You son of a bitch."

"He called himself...Mars?" The seeds of hatred in my heart grew at an alarming rate.Their thorny stems tearing at my soul, their poisonous blossums clouding my mind.Mars...he was gone...by this heartless bastard...it couldn't be true...My eyes were cloudly with tears, my mind with pure, undiluted loathing. I, almost mockingly, got down from my bench, unbalanced from having sat for so long.My wrists tied behind me, I couldn't balance myself. I didn't need to. I screamed at him, all my hope, despair, anger, and hate bleeding from me, and I lunged for him. I don't know what I was trying to do. I couldn't punch, I could barely kick, I couldn't bend. I didn't care. My head connected with metal, yet I felt not pain. I couldn't move...his arms had caught me. I thrashed and faught agaist his hold, reapeting "My Mars...My Mars..." hystericaly, my mind else where. I could feel his chest heave. He was laughong at me. I thrashed hard, then I rember the heat. His arms left me, and I was flying backwards, landing hard and bouncing off the wall oposite th door, my clothes burnt.

"You're going to tell me where the Avatar is.His life might have been sparewd had we known where he was."

I didn't listen to him. I was crying. My back hurt, my chest hurt, my head heart, my heart bled.

Where was Aang!

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Short...I know.Thought it best to end the chapter here...