Mikomi held on to her charred shoulder, trying to bear the pain. The cool feel of her leather gloves without finger coverings made it feel a little better. It still stung badly though.
It had been a while since Prince Zuko had thrown his temper tantrum. Mikomi didn't know exactly how long, because there was no way to tell time in her cell. She began to desperately miss Aang, Katara, and Sokka. Although Aang could be too energetic, Katara could be too much of a good girl, and Sokka could be too much of an idiot, she missed their company. At least they never threw violent temper tantrums and tried to drug her.
Two soldiers walked into the prison and were greeted by a pair of shocking blue eyes glaring at them. Mikomi was not happy to see them and wondered why they were here.
The two armor-clad men walked over to her cell and one unlocked it. They opened the cell and walked toward Mikomi, who was sitting in the corner. She blended in well with the dark wall of steel, as she was dressed entirely in black and her hair was jet black as well. The things that were most noticeable were her eyes. They stood out above the black; they were large and filled with emotion.
The men grabbed her forearms and pulled her to her feet. She was at about shoulder height to them. Mikomi was about to start fighting them, but she figured it was pointless and just let them lead her out of the prison.
The three of them walked down many corridors and finally stopped at a room. They walked through the door way and Mikomi took in her surroundings. The room was of average size and had a metal table that was bolted to the floor in the middle of it. A chair sat behind it. The only other things in the room was a strange monkey statue that had a ring of red jewels around its neck and masks on the wall. Mikomi recognized the mask on the wall. It was the blue mask Prince Zuko wore when he had rescued her and Aang. There were 3 other masks; a red one, a green one, and a black one. All of the masks were identical, except for the colors.
The soldiers walked Mikomi over to the chair and forced her down into it. They pushed on her shoulders to sit her down and she winced when one of them touched her right shoulder. One of them grabbed her wrists and brought her hands behind the chair. Putting handcuffs on Mikomi, the soldier had Mikomi attached to the chair. She realized this to be an interrogation.
Zuko probably will be the one to question me. Too bad he won't get any information out of me.
After the soldier had inspected hishandcuff work,the two of them walked over to the door and stood at the entrance, staring her down. She stared back and at one point began glaring at them.
Her glaring was cut short when Prince Zuko strode into the room. Looking at Mikomi, he gave the soldiers the command to leave the room. The two saluted and left without a word. Prince Zuko quickly locked the door behind him, apparently not wanting to be disturbed. He turned with his hands clasped behind his back and looked at Mikomi.
He noticed that the bluish bruise on her left cheek was still as vibrant as ever, stretching from her lower cheek, up next to her eye. The girl stared at Prince Zuko with an emotionless look on her face.
"This is an interrogation. Answer all the questions I ask you and I won't have to do anything…regrettable," the Prince said now standing at the table looking down upon Mikomi.
Prince Zuko waited for some kind of response, but never got one, so he began with the questioning.
"What is your name?" He decided to start with the simple questions that she would answer.
There was a long silence and then Mikomi muttered, "Mikomi."
Zuko began to walk in a circle around the table and her. "How old are you, Mikomi?"
"16," she replied.
Prince Zuko was genuinely shocked by this. She looked a lot younger than she actually was, being so small. Mikomi noticed the shocked look on his face and then asked,
"What?"
"It's just that…well…you don't look 16," he responded as he stopped circling her.
"And why is that?" Mikomi asked, with her temper rising. She knew why he thought that.
"Well…you're just so-."
"Short," she cut him off. "You don't need to tell me. I've been told enough already."
Zuko noticed that she was becoming angry, and decided to avoid that topic and continue with the questioning.
"What nation where you born in?" he asked continuing his circling of the table.
Oh no. If I tell him what nation I was born in he might find out that I'm a firebender.
Mikomi turned her eyes to the wall and stared at a mask. She sat in silence in for a while, when Prince Zuko walked up to her and glared down on her and lifted his hand into her face. Flames jumped to life around his fist and he said, "I said, what nation were you born in?"
Mikomi would have not worried about the flame in her face if her hands weren't bound behind the chair. So she muttered, "Fire Nation."
Prince Zuko didn't hear her so he pulled his flaming fist away from her face and said, "What did you say?"
"Fire Nation," she said looking into her lap.
"You were born in the Fire Nation?" he asked shocked.
"Yes, but I was raised in the Earth Kingdom."
"Are you a bender?" he asked.
He didn't know it, but he had just asked the question she had hoped to avoid. Again, she went quiet.
"Answer my question!"
"Yes…" she answered quietly.
"What do you bend?"
"…fire."
Prince Zuko was being shocked a lot during this interrogation. First this girl was born in the Fire Nation and now she's a firebender?
"But I never saw you firebending when you fought against my men," Zuko said.
"Like I said earlier, I was raised in the Earth Kingdom, and there are no firebenders there. I never bend, because…I don't know how to control it," she said as her face revealed the shame within her. A firebender who couldn't control her fire.
"You said you were born in the Fire Nation though. Why were you raised in the Earth Nation?" he asked, standing next to her.
"I'm not exactly sure. The man who raised me told me that my father was a soldier in a young regiment that was supposed to act as bait to an Earth Kingdom regiment, somehow I stowed away and got on the boat over to the Earth Kingdom. I was only two at the time. My father found me when we docked at the Earth Kingdom and took me with him, because he couldn't just leave me on the ship. My guardian told me he died as bait, a tactic Ozai used often. My guardian found me and raised me, teaching me everything he knew about the martial arts. I left him about a year ago."
"So you had no one to teach you," Prince Zuko said.
Mikomi nodded gravely. She was so ashamed of her lack of control. "My guardian knew I was a firebender, but anyone else I met didn't."
Prince Zuko was surprised by himself, because he actually felt sorry for the girl. He was surrounded by firebenders growing up, so he always had a teacher, who was most of the time Uncle Iroh. He also knew that many people were prejudice against the Fire Nation and anyone who could bend fire. He couldn't imagine having to keep his talents secret. Deciding to avoid that topic, he asked another question.
"Why did Zhao capture you along with the Avatar?"
Mikomi then told him about how she had caused troubles for Fire Nation soldiers, because she was against the war.
"I'm guessing Zhao gave you the bruise, am I correct?"
Mikomi responded with a nod.
"Why did he though?"
"I told him that the war was pointless and Ozai was only keeping it going because he was power hungry. I called Ozai a fool of a leader and he hit me," she said cautiously. She was afraid that what she had just said would set Zuko off. She was right.
"My father is not a fool!" he shouted at her.
"He is. This war is hurting your country. The war takes away all of the men who manufacture goods that the Fire Nation trades with other nations. It's killing your economy and it's hurting your people."
"What do you mean hurting my people?"
"All of the mothers, sisters, fathers, brothers worrying about their loved ones," Mikomi said staring at Prince Zuko now.
Prince Zuko thought on her words for a second. She was right. The economy must be suffering badly and all of the people who lost their loved ones were suffering even more. Not wanting to continue with the subject, he continued asking questions.
"Did Zhao hurt you in any other way?"
"Well, you've probably seen me clutching my stomach sometimes. He punched me."
Zuko was curious to see the results of Zhao's attack. So he lowered his hands to her stomach and grabbed the bottom of her tight, black shirt.
"Excuse you! What do you think you're doing?" she shouted now squirming, trying to avoid his hands to no prevail. For he had already lifted her shirt, to see her abdomen, which was very well defined. There was a great bluish-brown bruise covering her entire abdomen.
No wonder she was clutching her stomach all the time. That looks painful.
Lowering her shirt, he received a dirty glare from Mikomi, but he just ignored it.
Prince Zuko was disgusted by Zhao's violence, especially towards a woman.
"I'm guessing you said something else that he didn't like."
"I called him Ozai's lap dog, which is only the truth," she said.
Mikomi was surprised to see that he was now smiling, while he was looking at her. Prince Zuko noticed the look of confusion she was giving him and said, "I'm glad someone finally told him."
Mikomi was shocked by how happy he was that she mouthed off to a person of his own nation. He must really hate him.
"Were you surprised to find me under the mask?" he asked now smirking.
"Yes, both of us were," Mikomi said.
"What happened after I was knocked out?" he asked.
Mikomi sighed and said, "Well, at first we were going to just leave you there. Then, we realized that you saved us so we had to repay the debt. If Zhao had found out it was you under the mask, who knows what he would've done to you. So Aang carried you away from the fortress."
Prince Zuko was now thinking about what she had just said. He found another question to ask her.
"Why do you care if I get hurt or killed?"
"Aang and I cared, well, because you had just saved our lives. The honorable thing to do would be to repay the debt. Secondly because we're both tired of seeing people die. We were given a choice. Let you live or let you die. Neither of us would have chosen to let you die. Even if you are trying to capture him."
Zuko stared at her, thinking.
No one, other than Uncle and mother, has ever cared about my life that much.
Then the question that the Avatar had asked him came back to haunt him again.
Do you think we could have been friends?
He hadn't had friends in years. He almost forgot what it was like. Prince Zuko wanted to have friends, people that cared for him, just because they like him. He wanted to feel liked again. A mask of hate and rage covered his pain. He wanted to be able to take off that mask.
Remembering his task, he continued on with the questioning.
"Where is the Avatar?"
Mikomi looked at him for a moment with a cold, stern expression, but then responded.
"I don't know. He's probably left the place we were at by now," she said staring into his golden eyes.
"And where is the place you were at?"
"Well, considering that I didn't have a good view from your back and that I have no idea which direction the place where we were is, I don't know. Besides, I wouldn't tell you if I did know," she said, glaring at him.
Her ignorance was annoying Prince Zuko. He walked behind her and looked down at the back of her head.
"Where is the Avatar headed?"
Mikomi glared down into her lap. She really just wanted to pull out her pole and hit Zuko on the back of the head right now. Sitting in silence for some time, she wondered what Zuko was doing behind her.
Zuko wasn't behind her now. He had jumped up from behind and now looked infuriated.
"Answer me!" he shouted at her.
"I will not give you an answer to that question. You have nothing to threaten me with and nothing to bribe me with. You'll never get that information from me," she said coldly.
Mikomi could already feel the room heating up. He was becoming more infuriated by the second. Jumping in front of the seated Mikomi, he held up flaming fist into her face once more.
"What if I threaten your life!" he shouted at her.
Mikomi's eyes brimmed with tears as she said, "My life is of no importance to anyone. It would not matter if I died. I have no family, nothing that would make my life worth living. My life is put to greater use if it is used to help the Avatar to save this world. His life is more important than mine and I would gladly surrender my life to protect his."
Prince Zuko was taken aback by her words, as a solitary tear ran down Mikomi's face. She had just called herself worthless. He drew his fist away from her face. He had never seen anyone so…broken.
Mikomi tried to hold it back, but it was no use. 14 years of pain came pouring out. She sobbed and slumped in the chair.
"Nobody cares…"
That was the last thing she said before she started sobbing uncontrollably. She just let the tears come out. She felt so much: pain, depression, shame, and humiliation. Humiliation for breaking down in front of the Prince of the Fire Nation.
Prince Zuko was not entirely sure what to do. He had never dealt with sobbing girls before. He had felt something that had not felt in a long time: pity. This girl had gone through so much.
No parents, no family, no friends, no love. No one to teach her how to fire bend; he couldn't imagine himself without his firebending. It was a part of him, as he was sure it was a part of her. Prince Zuko watched her and waited until she calmed herself.
Deciding to finish the interrogation with that, he walked beside her and grabbed her shoulder, pulling the girl to her feet, rougly.
Mikomi didn't feel like resisting, so she just let him guide her out of the room with his hand on her shoulder. He led her down a couple of corridors and stopped at a room. It was relatively small, but had a bed with a metal frame in the corner, a wooden drawer chest, and a feeble looking chair. All of the furniture was nailed to the floor; Mikomi guessed that was to keep the furniture from sliding. There was a small window that let in the only light, other than a fire-lit lamp on the wall.
"This is where you will be staying, now," he said, letting go of her shoulder.
"Why?" she asked.
"Since I found out you are a firebender, you could melt through the bars. It would take much longer to melt through a thick, steel door," he said.
Prince Zuko grabbed the chain of the metal handcuffs on Mikomi's wrists, and pulled her toward him. She grunted, as she was pulled backward so suddenly.
Prince Zuko pulled out a small, silver key and put them into the lock and turned the key until he heard it click. Once he did the same with the other cuff, he pulled them off.
Mikomi suddenly fell to her knees, in a bowing position, holding her stomach, quivering, and moaning.
Prince Zuko knelt next to her and lifted her head up, cupping her chin in his hand. He noticed that she was starting to sweat, obviously pained badly.
"What is wrong?"
"My…abdomen…can't…take…it," she said labored by speaking.
Zuko forgot about the injury and didn't even think about getting it looked at. He lifted her up, so she was sitting on her feet. Putting his arm behind her back, he said gently, "Lay back."
With her teeth gritted and moaning, she slowly laid back until she felt Zuko's arm. Once she had her back on his arm, he put his free arm under her legs and lifted her gently, and bridal style. He carried her over to the bed and laid her down as gently as he could.
"I'm going to go get the ship doctor," he said to her, then turning to jog out the door.
I hope you liked this chapter.