Discaimer: I still don't own Avatar.

White Bounty

Filth

"Now for stage three," Jun thought to herself.

All she had to do was knock out a couple of guards, not get caught, free the prisoner, and escape, but it's always easier said than done.

Jun knew that it would be harder than that. For one, she would need perfect timing to pull off the next part of her plan. It was critical to her success and she needed to do everything right the first time in order to make her escape plan work.

In her mind she kept repeating what she would have to do. Although inside she felt queasy, she walked with confidence to the guards posted in front of the cells. Once again, she sported the bulky armor but she did not feel safe by its protective concealment.

"Haroun was sick, so I'm going to take his shift," she managed to say, surprised that her voice sounded so calm.

One of the guards shrugged as he moved away so Jun could replace him. It was nothing out of the ordinary for him to be late to his shift, leaving another man to fill in for him. The other guard mumbled, "Again! I'm surprised Haroun hasn't been sent to the front lines yet."

It was a euphemism, a nicer way of saying he thought the man should be put out of commission. The front lines were the most dangerous parts of the war, and constantly positions there needed to be filled.

Jun felt like spitting on the Fire Nation filth. After spending months with them, she was beginning to dislike them even more than she thought she could. There were a few exceptions, of course, but overall the cruel behavior exerted by many of the soldiers only reinforced her hatred for them.

Jun only stiffened and stood erect in response to the man's callous statement. The man appeared not to notice because he tried to start up a conversation. Jun tuned him out pretending to be busy guarding against any possible intruders. Finally he got the hint and quieted.

Jun relaxed. His chattering had prevented her from hearing the footsteps of the men patrolling the nearby hallways. In her mind, she was listening to their footsteps to determine their positions.

She waited until she believed the two guards had moved far off into the distance as their footsteps had become slight echoes before making her first move. With her left hand, which was unusual for many soldiers, she took the opportunity to hit the man over the head with the blunt of her dagger knocking him unconscious.

"Oomph", Jun cried out as she caught him before his body hit the ground.

She didn't want to chance it that someone would hear the clanking and come to investigate. Then she slowly proceeded to drape his heavy body over her own. After completing that arduous task, she slowly progressed toward the cell block where several of the prisoners were kept.

Reaching her destination, she carefully set the unconscious man down as she then approached one of the doors; she pulled out her keys and used them to open a cell. These were the holding cells where men were crammed together in a small room, woken, fed a meager meal that was often rotten, forced to work doing hard labor, punished severely when they failed to do the massive amount of work required of them, and then allowed to sleep for a mere few hours before the whole vicious cycle started over again.

Unlike many prisoners, hers was isolated in his own special cell. It was because he was an Earth Bender, and the Fire Nation made sure there was no earth in his cell to bend. Jun wasn't sure which was worse for the prisoners: being overcrowded and forced into hard labor, or being isolated with nothing to do. Both saddened her deeply.

Almost instantly upon opening the cell door, Jun found herself being attacked. Despite the fact that she was at a disadvantage by the surprise, she fended off the first blow by ducking. However the prisoner continued his assault surprisingly fit for his condition. He faked a blow causing Jun to move just as he sent another one at her which managed to hit her face knocking off her helmet in the process and causing a swish of long hair to fall down.

The assault stopped. The man gaped at her. "The Fire Nation has women soldiers?"

Jun closely examined him to insure he was indeed the man posted on the bounty. Confirming that he was, she then put a hand to her lip, feeling a trickle of blood. "Did you have to hit me so hard? Here help with this body."

The man grumbled as he begrudgingly moved out of the cell to haul the unconscious man inside. "You could have told me earlier…"

"Yeah, so everyone could overhear and haul me in here as well?" Jun asked sarcastically.

"So you're not one of them," the man said sounding surprised.

"Nope," Jun replied. "Here take off his clothes."

The man gave her a strange look which nearly made Jun laugh as she explained to him, "You're going to put on his armor in order to get out of here."

Then she stepped outside so the men could have some privacy. Finally the man came out garbed in the armor. Jun quickly readjusted one of the straps which he had clumsily fastened before nodding in approval.

"Should we tie him up?" asked her bounty.

Jun pulled out some metal cuffs. "I'll do his hands, you get the feet."

The two fastened the Fire Bender securely in the bonds. Then Jun stuffed his mouth with some cloth. Since the man couldn't bend, she wasn't worried about him burning it away so he could manage to make noise when he finally woke up.

Knowing that it took about ten minutes for the guards to patrol around the building, Jun had the Earth Bender follow her to the post. Together the two stood until the guards once again passed into the distance.

"Now what?" asked the man.

"How about some introductions? I'm Jun, or you can call me your liberator, however, I'm not picky," Jun said.

The man grinned slightly. "Jun, the bounty hunter? Why, I guess I should be honored that I'm worthy of such notice. You can call me Kintaro, or if you wish, your prey. I don't have a preference either."

This caused Jun to smile back. "Yeah, well it's my job to get you back to Omashu, where you'll be safe."

His smile vanished. "Nowhere is safe as long as the Fire Nation continues this war."

"Well, I'm doing what I can to change that."

"So what's your plan for getting out of here?" Kintaro asked.

"A prison break," she replied vaguely.

However, he didn't question her further. He only nodded as he followed her to another one of the cells. This time before opening it, she took off her helmet. Kintaro did the same.

She carefully opened it. This one was full of prisoners. The site of their broken bodies and the smell of decay nearly caused Jun to throw up.

She had known it was bad, but seeing it up close it was worse than she had ever imagined. She wondered if any of them would have enough strength to even move.

Kintaro took over for her. "We're going to help you get out of here."

The men stirred. Finally one of the bolder asked, "How?"

Jun managed to smile faintly. Maybe it would work after all. "There's a passageway that I found," she began. Actually though, she would never had found the passage if not for the Blue Spirit. She hadn't even known such things existed, but when she heard there was one in the other tower, she decided there would probably be some in this one. Her instincts were right.

"Inside there are supplies, you have access to weapons, shields, tools to escape, and there's also map of the fortress. I've marked the best escape routes out. Now, I'm going to take a few of you there at a time. I know the best way to get there without being discovered. From there, though, you're going to be on your own. However, I would recommend you wait until everyone is out of here, before actually trying to leave."

The men nodded understanding.

"How many per group?" Kintaro wanted clarified.

"Four or five would be the best," Jun replied knowing that would mean several trips before all the men were safely in the passage. "Kintaro you stand at the post, so when the guards go past, they don't become suspicious and if someone asks where I am, tell them Haroun was drunk and didn't come, but you can handle it. I'll take the first group now."

Kintaro nodded, "Good luck, and you'll need it."

Jun mocked a glare back at him before trudging off with her first group, "Why? Do you think I'm incompetent?"

--

Jun took a deep breath of fresh air before she jumped into the murky water of the passageway, which reeked with decay. She tried not to think about the filth she was entering but couldn't help shuddering as she felt something slimy skim across her exposed side due to the fact she had to remove the armor since it would only drag her down while wadding the passageway.

She couldn't wait to get back to the place where she had stashed her gear, which was farther down the passageway.

The first thing Jun would do when she managed to get out of the prison would be to take a warm bath to clean herself of the Fire Nation stench. She wondered if her nostrils would ever recover. She also wondered how her pet, Xirxiu, would react with his sensitive nose.

Jun was glad though, she was returning from leading the last group across the passage. This was the last time she'd ever see the passage, but frankly it was one time too many.

She rounded the next bend, where there was some footholds to climb out of the passage. Jun carefully placed her foot in the first groove. Despite the fact that it was slippery, she managed to gain her holding. Placing all her weight on the foothold, Jun began to lift her other foot to the next place where there was some traction.

However, before she managed to place it, something grabbed it from out of the water, pulling her down into the water.

Jun was pulled underwater for what seemed like forever. She struggled frantically to escape from the iron grasp that was keeping her down. However, she had no weapons to help her from her plight. Her lungs felt like exploding. Jun opened her mouth trying to get some air to breathe, but instead got a lung full of choking water.

One last breath.

Jun knew if she didn't get away soon she would pass out. Slowly she felt herself begin to lose consciousness despite her efforts to remain awake.

She felt like laughing, but couldn't since there was no air to laugh with, at how her life would end. She would die drowning. She would never get the money for her bounty, no one would even care that she had died. Her bounty was worth more than she was.

Images blurred together as darkness began to settle in. Then she felt the iron weight that was wrapped around her suddenly loosen and she was gently being lifted up. Jun's eyes flickered open for a moment before she passed out to see chocolate brown eyes starring back at her with concern.

AN: Sorry it's been so long since an update, but I've been really busy with school lately, and I've also had a bit of writer's block. Well here it is. Please read and review.

And on that note, thanks so much for everyone who reviewed. Reviews help encourage me to write. Since I've heard I'm not supposed to respond to reviewers, feel free to email me if you have questions or comments that you want to have answered. -iziz