Thanks for the help, shittyshitaki! And thanks for reviewing, Znpk.
~ The Boiling Rock (Part 2)~
Ryuu POV
We piled our clothes into a heap, tucked behind a locker in the supply room. The boys found some Male uniforms in the back of the room and pulled off thier clothes to go change. I waited for a bit until they had gone to slip into my uniform.
Unlike the Earth Kingdom, where girls are expected to be meek and humble, the Fire Nation allowed women to join the army, which pleasantly surprised me. The female uniform - unlike the male tunics - was in two parts that exposed the midriff. As I tucked my braids into a bun, I was caught off gaurd by Zuko and Sokka returning in uniform.
"Uh- you alright there Zuko?" Sokka elbowed the firebender. He was staring at me, his face crimson beneath his visored helmet. I hugged my arms around my abdomen and rolled me eyes:
"You've seen me in only my bindings. How is this any worse?"
Sokka raised his brow and rotated his head up towards Zuko, who was now violently red, "Ho ho hooo! You sly Mink Snake."
Zuko set his jaw, " It's not what you think."
"Just come on," I rammed my helmet on to hide the spreading heat on my cheeks, "Aren't we here to do serious work?"
The boys followed me as we excited the storage rrom into a corridor. Zuko brushed down his tunic and glanced down the iron clad hallway at a passing mob of soldiers. One peeked back and flicked his fingers in an 'over here' gesture.
"Guards! There's a scuffle in the yard. Come on."
He then ran back to join his team. The three of us took a sharp intake of breath before rushing to follow them. When we finally emerged into the yard, it was almost blinding and certainly overwhelming. So many people in one space. So. Many. People. When I started shaking, Zuko put a hand on my shoulder as way of comfort. I grimmaced up at him as we watched an unfortunate prisoner being abused by a guard.
"I didn't do anything!" He roared. A guard whipped fire over at him, "Stop right there, Chit Sang."
Zuko snarled and went to defend the man, but both Sokka and I grabbed his arms, restraining him. He sighed and stepped back in line. His valiant nature would have to wait. The bully grinned evilly as he stopped before us.
Chit raised his arms, "What did I do?"
The gaurd spat out laughter as he turned to us and expected an answer, "He wants to know what he did. Isn't that cute?"
Zuko stood to attention, "Very cute, sir!"
Sokka agreed stiffly. The bully turned to me, the other side of Zuko, with a snarl. I blurted out, "Cute like a kitty, sir!"
I instantly regretted it, as Zuko was having a hard time restraining his laughter, and clapped my hands over my mouth. The guy grunted and went back to poor Chit, who was standing defiantely. The circle of prisoners shuffled about as the gaurd stood parallel to Chit and snarled.
"You didn't bow down when I walked by, Chit Sang!"
Chit scoffed, "What? That's not a prison rule."
The gaurd yelled in the poor guy's face, "Do it!"
Chit seethed back. It was a wrong decision as the gaurd went to fire whip him. I flinched as the orange flame roared towards Chit, who blocked and redirected it. The gaurd looked satisfied at this - rotating his arm to point at Sokka.
"Tsk, tsk. Firebending is prohibited. You're going in the cooler. You! Help me take him in."
Sokka nodded but whispered something to Zuko first, who grunted. He then ran off to help get the prisoner to the 'Cooler', which sounded dreadfully ominous. We were dispersed into duties. Zuko and I hovered at the door to the yard, trying to look like we were guarding. I rocked on my feet - bored out of my mind. Zuko scowled at me to stop and act like a proper guard. I shrugged and grudgingly did so.
To my immense relief, a gong went off pretty soon, indicating change of shift. We followed the others towards a dingy looking cafeteria. Seen as I was pretty unrecognizable, I took off my helmet to blend in, but Zuko kept his on. He would be instantly recognized.
The food was... basic. I wretched as Zuko poked an off peice of meat. I poured myself some tea as the Prince plopped a couple of lumps of unidentifiable substance onto his plate. A guy called at Zuko.
"Hey, new guy! I know it's the rule to have your helmet on at all times, but this is the lounge. Relax."
We turned to face the guy and his friends as they chuckled at Zuko, "But what if there's an incident? If I'm not prepared, someone could strike me on the head."
A female guard - through her laughter - gestured with some stale bread, "Give it a week, he'll loosen up."
Zuko and I approached them. I sipped my tea but spat it back into the cup - the taste was absolutely horrible. The guards snikered at me as I tried to rid my mouth of the taste.
"You get used to it," the third guard finished off his tea. I most certainly wouldn't - it tasted like dirty water and mud. That's probably what it was... Zuko pointed at the guards with his tray. He asked for permission to ask a question. Faulty logic really. The female guard answered bluntly:
"No, you can't date the female guards."
For some reason, I blushed at this. Another guard stage whispered behind his hand, "Trust me, you don't want to."
For his trouble, he got a cup thrown at him by the Female guard. His mate and I snikered at him. Zuko remained serious as he leaned foward a bit. He took a deep breath and scanned the three guards quickly.
"No, that's not it. The Boiling Rock, it holds the Fire Nation's most dangerous criminals, right? So what about war prisoners?"
...
"Hey there, fellow guard, how goes it?"
We emerged out onto a balcony that hung from the tower. Zuko's social skills needed drastically improving as he uttered a greeting (as did mine but let's not concentrate on that). Sokka raised his visor - shocked at Zuko's sudden change in attitude.
"Shhh! Listen, I asked around the lounge. There are no Water Tribe prisoners," Zuko admitted, "I'm afraid your father's not here."
Sokka groaned and smacked his head against the metal wall. He punched it in frustration. I lifted my visor up and pinched my nose. All this way and for what? To play dress up in a prison? Zuko put his hand to his chin in thought and started to try and give Iroh-like advice.
"Sometimes, clouds have two sides, a dark and light, and a silver lining in between. It's like a silver sandwich! So ... when life seems hard ... take a bite out of the silver sandwich!"
I raised an eyebrow and complemented his sarcastically, "You truly are a fountain of knowledge..."
Initially, Zuko didn't catch the sarcasm - but when he did, he pouted and leant on the rail. Sokka exclaimed, "Maybe we haven't failed after all!"
Zuko thudded him on the back before crossing his arms proudly, "That's the spirit! I can't believe that worked. I didn't even know what I was saying."
I scoffed, following his gaze, "It showed."
"It really did. But look ... It's Suki!"
He pointed down at a girl with a short bob, squatting on a rock. Sokka was now gazing at her in a cloud of love as Zuko and I stared conspicuously at him. Zuko then looked back at me and rolled his eyes. I elbowed his arm and winked. Zuko bit his lip and averted his gaze back to the yard - where the prisoners were being ordered back to thier cells. Suddenly, Sokka raced off.
"Should we-"
Zuko nodded, "Yeah."
...
I patrol up and down the balcony with exadurated steps as Zuko waited outside Suki's cell. A female guard emerged, carrying a tray of food for Suki and approached Zuko, trying to get past him. I sped up the march as Zuko grappled with her to stop her seeing Sokka emerge from the cell. Eventually, I broke into a run as the gaurd cried for assistance.
Sokka pretended to struggle with Zuko and frog marched him down the hall. I helped the female guard - checking she was fine. She swore about regretting not to take self-defense lessons before picking up her tray and shrugging the incident off as 'One of those things'. I have to say, I admired her complacency with it.
Later, I was assigned to monitor the cleaning duties of the prisoners. I desperately searched the crowd for Zuko, who was now a prisoner, until Sokka lured me over with a wave of his hand. Sneaking over, I grinned broadly at Zuko, who was crouching behind the stairs along with Suki.
"Good to see you're still alive, Princess. "
Zuko nodded as Sokka started explaining the escape plan. It was convoluted, hare-brained and may actually work. Wel, until Chit Sang got involved. He leaped down from the stairs:
"I heard you hatching an escape plan, and I want in."
Zuko turned his head, trying to make an excuse as to what we were doing. Sokka joined in - somewhat unsuccessfully...
"Yeah, the only thing we're hatching is ... an egg?"
"Kyoshi, give me strength..." I swore. Chit started blackmailing us into telling him about the escape plan. Sokka gasped in defeat, holding up a wrench. He gestured to us.
"Now first we need someone to unbolt the cooler, from the inside."
Chit cracked every single one of his knuckles simultaneously - which was either crazy amazing or sickening, I couldn't decide. He grinned evilly, "Oh, I can get you inside."
Zuko took the wrench and stuffed it into his trousers. Lifting up my visor, I pecked his cheek for good luck - to which he smirked while trying to hide a blush. Chit led him further into the courtyard and they started acting out a very fake scene, which actually seemed to work.
It resulted in Zuko being hauled away towards the cooler. I desperately hoped he would be alright...
...
"Are they even coming? They could've set us up!" Chit snarled impatiently. He tapped his foot on the shore, while sighing. He had bought along his girlfriend and a random guy, neither of whom we had agreed to help. I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"Be patient."
A few more minutes of waiting and Sokka and Zuko came skidding down the embankment with the silver cooler rolling behind them. I beamed up at Zuko, who didn't look phased in the slightest bit. With the help of Chit, they set the cooler into the lake. Chit's friend and gift hopped in before anyone could disagree.
"Are you sure you wanna go? You're the one who said you wanted to redeem yourself. Redeem your honor. Rescuing your dad is your chance."
Zuko put a comforting hand on Sokka's shoulder. Suki pitched in - asking about his dad. I grit my jaw and turned back to Zuko, who was looking on sympathetically. Sokka was caught between escaping or staying, on the limb that his dad would be there - from something some guards had said.
Chit moaned, "Hey, if you two are done cuddling, can we get a move on?"
Sokka crossed his arms, "No. I'm staying. You guys go."
He turned to Suki and whispered that she go too. She touched his hand and smiled softly, "I'm not leaving without you, Sokka."
Zuko shrugged, "I'm staying too."
He turned to me and raised a brow, to which I stepped closer and tapped his shoulder with my fist, "You really think I'd leave poor, defenseless you?"
Chit Sang cast the newly dubbed H.M.S Cooler off, "Not me, I'm out. Let's roll, baby"
Sokka watched them float off, his face falling by the second in realisation, "We gave up our only chance of escaping. I hope we haven't just made a huge mistake."
Our small band of friends scrambled up the embankment and back into the prison - inconspicuous, of course. As we crept back along the prison wall, someone spotted, or rather heard, the potential escapees. Chit had just scolded himself and yelled his head off - his own fault really.
A gondola pulled onto the platform, to drop off some more prisoners. We watched with baited breath to see if Hakoda was among them... Sokka bit his knuckle in anticipation as we flattened ourselves against the wall. Zuko was behind me, so grabbed my waist and pulled me down with him.
"If my dad's not there, we've risked everything for nothing."
Suki touched his shoulder comfortingly. A bulky man with a tattoo and great gold nose ring stepped off and sniffed. Zuko asked if that was him. I suppressed a laugh at the image of him being Sokka's dad. When seemingly all the prisoners had filed off of the gondola, we collectively sighed. All that... for nothing. Well, until an irate guard yelled into the gondola.
"Hey, you! Get off the gondola!"
Hakoda emerged, blinking out the sunlight. Sokka could hardly speak - his lips moved but refused to form words. But you can probably guess what he was saying:
"Dad..."
