"What are you doing Kaia?" an unusual smile crossed the young Earthbender's face when he had discovered Kaia hiding in the woods again.

The woods were lush and green; the marks of the Fire Nation had only just started to appear in the peaceful town of Nishimura.

Kaia turned around, "Baba!" dropping the earth she had been moving, and throwing her arms around her father.

"What are you doing, Kaia?" he asked again, brushing her hair out of her face, "After everything I've told you, why are you out here? It's dangerous." The sun was bright on his face, his green eyes shone in what was his youth.

"Oh Baba, you're always worrying." She tilted her head, smiling up at him, "We're safe here."

The smile on her father's face faded, "Not for long, Kaia. Come, let's go home." But when he reached to take her hand, Kaia pulled away.

"I can't Baba." She whispered, rolling over in her sleep, "Not yet…"

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Kaia awoke sharply. Her hand was stretched in front of her as though she had been trying to grasp something no longer there. It wasn't the first time her father had come to visit her in her dreams. He always asked the same question, "What are you doing, Kaia?"

She laid back on the cold metal floor of her cell on wheels, it was noon, even though she could not see the sun in the sky through the clouds she could not mistake the way the heat permeated the walls of her cell.

The rain had lasted for a long time, it had finally let up today. But, just because it was raining had not been an excuse to stop training. In fact, Kaia was quite certain that she could have been dead, and Keahi would still insist on training her. Thus far she had sustained only minor injuries, nothing too serious. Mostly just bruises, though there were a few cuts and small burns in the few places the armor did not protect. Kaia was beginning to learn the flaws of the armor, and the best ways to take advantage of each of them.

Zakai and Hakan had begun coming into her cell during the day pointing different things out. Zakai was schooling her in the subtle ways the Firebender worked, and highlighted the simple ways in which she, as an Earthbender, held an advantage as well as a disadvantage. Things she had an elemental knack for, according to Zakai, were things like patience and pacing, and the things she needed to work out of her system was her constant habit of drawing the fight out longer than it should actually take. Her mission was to be quick, she would not only need the resilience of her background but also the strength.

Hakan would point out flaws in the armor, slight hand movements that could disarm opponents, and occasional idle drabble. She did not quite understand him, but it was her opinion that he liked to hear himself talk.

She sat up and leaned her head against the familiar metal of the walls. Admittedly, if she had been kept in that cell she would have driven herself mad by now. It was enough of a bother being told that she was a soldier while she was still a prisoner, but to be a prison with no external influence at all would be a fate worse than death to Kaia.

She never did find out what it was Captain Sheng would have done to her had she refused to be a part of this seemingly futile errand, but it was becoming clearer that keeping her in this cell just might have been enough.

The long uninterrupted calm, like most normal things without interest, was about to be broken in a most unusual way.

Kaia sighed and stood, only to be jolted back to the ground. The sudden stop of the cell on wheels coincided almost immediately with the loud high pitched cries coming from just in front of the cell.

Kaia jumped to her feet, pressing herself against the door of her cell, desperate to be able to glimpse the action that was taking what felt like it was just beyond the field of her vision. Soldiers ran past her cell without a second glance, drawing their weapons as they went. In the background she could hear shouts and yells, even through that she could hear the protruding sounds of multiple arrows being fired.

A Rebel attack!

Kaia grasped the bars of her window, her heart collapsed into the pit of her stomach and anxiety took over. They were far enough in the back country for the rebel groups to be out. She had had minimal contact with other groups over the years, through her father and other leaders of her village.

At the same time that she was worried for their safety, she also found part of her wondering about the safety of those few members of the Fire Nation Army. Whether she liked it or not, Kaia had just found herself caught in the middle of the strangest and most feared predicament. What if…?

The clang of metal on metal sounded harshly on her ears. Her mouth dried at the smell of smoke. Her fingernails buried themselves in her palms as she heard chunks of soil being ripped from the earth, only to rejoin but a few moments later. The sound of Earthbending ate at her core, she grasped at the air with her fists, straining to feel the earth beneath her cell.

But, as suddenly as the noise and commotion began, it dissolved almost as fast. In all, the confrontation had lasted a bare five minutes. Kaia could hear the sounds of trees and brush being pushed aside as the rebels fled. She gripped the bars tighter, it had been in this very manner that she had been taken.

She bit her lip, feeling the same fear now that she had felt then. Smoke filled her lungs as the soldiers ran into the forest after the rebels, burning everything as they went. The rebels would go to a prearranged spot and hide. Those who were being followed would do their best to stay out of enemy hands. It was almost a protocol. It would go right, or it would go wrong.

The day she had been caught, it had obviously gone wrong.

She looked back at the sky through the bars of her cell. Clouds weren't the only thing blocking the sun.

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Hakan sprinted back away from the fight, breathing hard as he headed back towards Niyati's cell. He knew no more of what was going on than any of the other soldiers. His orders were simple. 'Clear out the cell. NOW!'

He reached the cell only to find Niyati firmly attatched to the cell door. "Niyati!" he called up to her.

She quickly let go of the bars, "What?" the heat of the battle had made her dark eyes intense.

"Nothing." He winced at the blatant lie, "Actually, Captain Sheng thinks that it's time for you to take your place among the rest of us." He smiled faintly, only to receive a skeptical look from Niyati.

She sighed, folding her hands outside of the bars for a moment, "Of course." She breathed, keeping her thoughts always to herself. "Of course." Her tone asked the question for her. Did he really think she was stupid? Niyati disappeared back behind the cell door.

If Hakan had not been flushed from the fight, being caught in a blatant lie would have made him about the same color.

"Going to unlock the door?"

Hakan fumbled the key, muttering some half formed apology under his breath, and opened up the door.

Niyati climbed out of the cell, everything that had been in there with her had been folded into the red blanket, which now found itself in a rather comfortable position in the middle of her back. "What happened?" she asked somewhat unenthusiastically, making sure to keep the soldier at an arm's distance.

"I really don't know. We were attacked by a group of green dev… rebels. Keahi found me and told me that it was passed, and that you could take your leave of the cell."

Niyati gave him a searching look, and seemed to accept the explanation. She could sense something else was going on besides what he had been telling her.

"I don't know anything else. Honest." He met her eyes for a moment.

"How long are they going to chase them?" she asked calmly, her mask maintaining the same expressionless appearance that it almost always held.

Hakan shook his head, "We probably won't move any more today. Five miles maximum every time something like this happens." He paused, assuming a more businesslike tone, "Rebels don't usually attack more than once in a specific area." He shrugged, it made more sense to him to attack twice while the enemy was weakened and confused.

Niyati looked at him for a moment, indifferent façade burying the mischievous smile beneath her skin, "You don't leave much cover for them." She paused, "That would be the point of burning everything." She shook her head, and drifted off for a moment.

Hakan puzzled over her for a moment, but then he gave up on it and reverted to simply following his orders. The cell had been cleared out.

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Kaia's thoughts were off in the distance as she was lead on a long backtrack through the chaos of the camp. She glanced off to the side, bright red tents had already begun to rise out of the ground in the middle of the burned clearing.

It was a clever move on the part of Captain Sheng, Kaia mused, despite the fact that she now had almost unlimited access to multiple points in the camp, she would have almost no time to herself, leaving no time at all for any other attempts at getting a message to anyone else. She would also be forced to fight for the Fire Nation Army the next time a group of rebels attacked.

Kaia felt like she was experiencing a very strange version of déjà vu, she felt her mind wander back of its own accord for a few moments before she forcibly dragged it back into her present state. Something was definitely going on that they had not been expecting to happen. There were ways that she could find out besides simply asking the others.

"Have you seen Zhi yet?" Hakan's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"No, I haven't."

"You really should. You've really taken a beating the past couple of days." He smiled weakly, "Even with the armor."

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Kaia recognized the tent before they had even gotten there. The medic tent had been set up first, as it seemed was a common tradition in the camp. Kaia did not know if it would be busy or not, seeing as they had just come out of a rebel attack, but she was surprised to see that the tent was practically deserted.

"Zhi!" Hakan called cautiously, receiving no answer, he tried again, "ZHI!" Unfortunately, he was a bit over zealous in his attempt to get the medic's attention.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" the old man's voice came quietly from inside, "This isn't the galley Hakan, you needn't be so loud." He muttered irritably as he emerged from the inside of the tent. "You're like to blow the ears off of a deaf man."

"Sorry Zhi, no deaf men today." Hakan smiled a bit, "It's Niyati."

"What have you done to her now?" Zhi demanded, rounding the corner, "Ah! Kaia! You're standing!" he said excitedly, "You sent Ryuji to me recently. I did have a little chuckle over that. So, what's wrong with you now? You certainly look better than the last time I saw you! A few bumps and bruises, but no worse for the wear I can see."

"Well Zhi, Niyati here's been through some rough training over the last few days, and I thought since were stopping that it would be a good idea to let you check her over."

Zhi nodded, "Yes, yes, yes. Alright. Go on inside Kaia. I don't think this will take long at all."

Kaia nodded and went inside the tent, though instead of waiting patiently on the table, she stayed just near enough the tent flap to hear what was going on outside.

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"Alright, Hakan. What's going on out there?" the old man asked, his usually calm black eyes casting a pointed gaze, "We are stopping far earlier than usual." He chuckled, "You have to wake up pretty early to fool this old mind."

Hakan sighed, casting a glance over his shoulder, "Earth Kingdom Rebels." His breathing had slowed to a normal rate, "No injuries on our part, but we're trying to clear the road ahead." His voice was a bare whisper.

"And you don't want Kaia to see?" the old man questioned him knowingly.

"Captain Sheng does not want to lose her trust."
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Kaia moved away from the tent flap and lay back on the table.

You can't lose what you never had

She closed her eyes again, trying to recall her father's face in her mind, "What am I doing here?"

A/N

To IndieHippie: I got the idea when I was listening to the Broadway Soundtrack for "The Lion King"
Thanks to my reviewers! I got rid of my writer's block!