"Oh good, you guys have met!" Sokka, who was still in his guard uniform, greeted Zuko and Suki, who were both holding mops and cleaning up the hall.
Suki frowned as she gripped the mop hard. "Actually, we met a long time ago."
"We did?"
"Yeah... you kind of burned down my village."
Zuko stopped for a while and grimaced as he remembered burning down a village in Kyoshi Island while hunting the Avatar. "Sorry about that. Uh... nice to see you again."
Sokka huddled them behind the staircase and relayed to them a plan he had been fiddling with for a while. "So, listen, I think I have an escape plan." He crouched down and lowered his voice. "I checked out the coolers again. Their point is to keep firebenders contained, right?"
"Yeah."
"So they're completely insulated and sealed to keep the cold in. Well, to keep the cold in, it also has to keep the heat out, right?"
"Just get to the point, Sokka!"
"It's a perfect boat for getting through the boiling water!"
They looked at one another. They knew Sokka's plans were a bit out of this world, but they were always somehow ingenious, one way or another. "The cooler as a boat? Are you sure?"
"I'm telling you, it'll work! I walked around the perimeter. There's a blind spot between two guard towers. It's the perfect launching point! I already tested it out. We'll roll the cooler into the water and float with the current. It'll take us straight across. If we don't make a sound, no one will notice. And bing bang boom, we're home free!"
Sokka really did thought this through. But it wasn't fool-proof yet. "But how will you get the cooler out?"
"Yeah, how are you gonna get the cooler out?" A gruff voice spoke from above them. Chit Sang, the prisoner who got in trouble with a prison guard earlier, dropped down from the staircase and landed in front of them.
He asked, rather demanded, to be involved in their escape plan, or else he would rat out on them. Left with no other choice, they gained another comrade. Roles were made and positions were secured, they set out to execute the plan.
Zuko and Chit Sang made a scene by fighting in the halls and drawing the attentions of everyone. Once the prince saw a couple of prison guard coming, he firebended a fist full of flames towards Chit Sang's feet. The latter easily avoided it, as was planned.
"No firebending!" The guards restrained Zuko's arms. "Into the cooler!"
He was thrown into the metal capsule for an hour, giving him plenty of time to unbolt the cooler from the inside, making it possible to be taken out from the outside. He struggled with the dangerously low temperature, but made sure to keep his breath of fire. Once every bolt and nut was secured, he hid them in his clothes and waited patiently till his time was up.
"I can take you back to your cell if you've learned your lesson." It was Sokka, checking on him to confirm the progress of their plan.
Zuko breathed out, fire escaping his lips before smirking. "Yes. I have. Completely." He showed Sokka all the bolts he had taken.
Sokka nodded. "I got Suki and Chit Sang out of their cells a few minutes ago. They'll be waiting for us at the shore."
He heard footsteps coming in from the hallway and he pulled Sokka into the cooler with him. "Someone's coming!" He shut the metal door partially, peeking to see who was passing through.
"Yeah, new arrivals coming in at dawn."
"Anybody interesting?"
"Nah, just the usual. Some robbers, couple of traitors, some war prisoners, but I did hear there might be a pirate!"
"No fooling!"
Sokka sat there stunned. One of those incoming war prisoners might be his dad, but they will be coming in at dawn. Their current escape plan needs to happen tonight.
Even Zuko knew what he was thinking. He knew that he was weighing everything in his mind. "Well, what should we do? Go ahead or wait another night?"
"I don't know." Sokka answered truthfully. "Is it right for me to risk Suki's freedom, all of our freedom, for the slim chance that my dad is gonna show up?"
"It's your call, Sokka."
Once they were sure that the guards were out of earshot, they got out of the cooler and ran out of the building for the final step of their escape plan. They scaled the outer wall to the unbolted cooler and gently tugged it out of its niche. Once it was completely detached, they rolled it down the rocky slope of the island to the shores of the boiling lake.
Chit Sang and Suki ran up to help them roll the cooler down. "Took you guys long enough." He gestured to the shore where two others were waiting. "These here's my girl and my best buddy. They're coming too."
Four of them on the capsule were a crowd enough. With two additional passengers, Sokka shuddered to think if they'll actually make it out of the boiling lake. "Fine. Everybody in the cooler. Let's go."
They pushed the cooler near the shore and Sokka ran back to a loose rock where he hid his clothes underneath.
"Are you sure you wanna go?" Zuko asked him. After all, they had made this journey for his father. Now that there might actually be a chance that he is one of the prisoners arriving, they were both hesitant to escape. "You said you wanted to redeem yourself, redeem your honor. Rescuing your dad is your chance."
All the while they had retrieved the cooler, Sokka had done some thinking. "If I had just cut some losses at the invasion, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe sometimes it's better to call it quits before you fail."
"No, it's not." The prince stated firmly. "You're going to fail a lot before things work out."
"That's supposed to make me feel better?"
"Even though you'll probably fail over and over again—"
"Seriously, not helping!"
"— you have to try every time." Zuko laid a comforting hand on Sokka's shoulder, a gesture that his uncle would have done for him, and has done for him a lot of times before. "You can't quit just because you're afraid you might fail."
Her stomach grumbled louder in protest and her throat ached with thirst. Not only had the guards halved her food ration, they had also reduced it further by giving her a meal once a day.
Chiyo crouched in the corner of her cell, clutching her knees to her chest as she struggled not to think of her hunger. Days ago, she would've welcomed this hunger and happily died. But now she had found a new reason to stay alive.
To avenge Lady Suiren.
Just thinking of killing the Fire Lord gave her strength. If the Warden and the prison guards thought that starving her would break her, they were wrong.
"Where's Maya when you need her?"
It was as if Agni was listening to her thoughts. Her cell doors opened and in came Maya. She hurried over to the apprentice and gave her a fist-sized bread and a small flask of water. "I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner. They had me stationed outside in the courtyard."
"It's okay. Thank you." Chiyo managed to speak in between bites of the bread. Though the bread was stale, to her, it tasted heavenly. "Thank you."
Maya gave her the flask and urged her to drink. "I heard you angered the Warden. Again."
The girl giggled as she thought of the badgerfrog-faced git. "It was worth it."
"You do know he's not gonna stop torturing you until he breaks you."
"I will never break, Maya." The guard could see her bloodshot eyes, glistening with anger and determination. "Never."
She feared for the safety of the apprentice even more. The Chiyo that Lady Reiko and Lady Quinta had told her about: sweet and innocent, was no more. In her place was a woman filled with rage and purpose. It was alarming, but knowing that she hadn't completely given up was a relief to them all. "I will send a messenger hawk to the troupe as soon as I can. Hopefully, they have come up with a plan to get you out of here."
Chiyo nodded and reached out to give Maya a tight hug. "Thank you, for all your help. I will not forget your kindness for the rest of my life."
"It's only bread and water, Chiyo." Maya joked and returned the hug. "I have to go. They'll be looking for me out in the courtyard."
"Take care." The apprentice waved her away.
"Will do, will do."
As soon as Maya closed the doors, Chiyo went back to lay on her cot, staring up into the ceiling.
"Agni, give me strength. Fuji, give me wisdom. Ra, give me will. Arshi Tengri, give me the opportunity. If you all have not forsaken me, hear my prayers."
Sokka chose to stay. Both Zuko and Suki agreed to stay with him. He knew it was selfish, but he was grateful that they stood by him in his decision. Chit Sang and his friends set off without them and sailed in the cooler through the boiling lake.
They heard the groaning of metal against metal and they looked up. Dawn had come and a gondola was making its way on metal cables to the awaiting platform of the prison.
An alarm was raised and the guards ran to their positions. The escapees had been found out and they were now being reeled back into the prison.
Careful of the passing guards, they hid themselves and awaited the gondola. "This is it." Sokka released a shaky breath and clenched his trembling hands. "If my dad's not there, we risked everything for nothing."
"We had to." Suki wrapped a hand on his shaking ones, and gave him a small smile.
The prison guards opened the gondola and one by one, the prisoners got out.
"Is that him?"
"My dad doesn't have a nose ring!"
He grew anxious as more people left the gondola and still no sign of his father. One man came off and no one came right after him. "T-that's it? That can't be it!"
"I'm sorry, Sokka," Suki gripped his hand.
"Hey, you! Get off the gondola!" The guard shouted.
Their heads snapped up as the last prisoner stepped out of the gondola. Sokka eyes widened as he recognized the familiar stance and features of the Southern Water Tribe chief, Hakoda. "Dad..."
Zuko and Suki headed back to their respective cells to avoid suspicion while Sokka made his way up to the platform where his father was.
Lady Suiren clutched the Fire Lord's leg, begging him desperately for mercy. "STOP IT, PLEASE!" Fire Lord Ozai harnessed the power of lightning in his fingertips, feeling the electricity crackling in the air.
She saw it all happening again in front of her eyes, but she was powerless to stop it.
The Chiyo laying on the ground, helpless, turned her head to look at them one last time and closed her tired eyes.
"NO! NO! Don't close your eyes! Get up! GET UP!" She tried to tell herself, but it was all too late.
She wailed as Lady Suiren forced her body upwards, blocking the lightning from reaching Chiyo. She watched as the lady fell to the ground, limp and lifeless, eyes wide open.
"NO! Lady Suiren! NO!"Chiyo knelt on the ground, beating her fists on the ground in frustration as she watched the Fire Lord take the body of her mentor away from her other self.
"Death is too easy for you... Take her to Boiling Rock and lock her up for the rest of her days! Keep her alive, but barely! I will make you wish for death, but I shall deny you that satisfaction!"
The Fire Lord whipped his head around to look at her, the Chiyo that stood at the sidelines, watching her nightmare play over and over again. "You will never see the light of the sun ever again!"
"Lady Suiren!" She gasped as she woke up from yet another nightmare. She curled up into a ball and let all the tears out that she had left to cry.
The pain will never leave her. It will always be there. And just when she thought she had pushed it to the back of her mind, it comes back anew and plunges through her like a white-hot knife twisting her guts.
Chiyo had told herself over and over that she will never break, faking it till she made it.
She wondered, "How much longer can I last?"
The two Southern Water Tribe geniuses met in Hakoda's cell, and after the father-son reunion, they hatched a plan to get them out once and for all. Sokka assured his dad and left to tell Zuko and Suki of the plan.
He reached Zuko's cell, but before he could tell him of the plan, the guards came to take him away on the Warden's orders. Fortunately, he managed to instruct the prince to meet in the courtyard in the span of an hour.
Zuko was dragged by the prison guards up several flights of stairs until they reached the highest floor of the prison where the isolation cells were set. "What are you doing? Where are you taking me?"
He received no reply as they threw him into an open cell. "I didn't do anything wrong!"
"Come on, Zuko. We all know that's a lie."
He looked up at the sound of that familiar drawl. "Mai..." She stood there against the wall, her sleeved arms crossed on her chest. She glared down at him with her hate-filled eyes. "How did you know I was here?"
"Because I know you so well."
"But how?"
She rolled her eyes. "The Warden's my uncle, you idiot."
Zuko slapped a hand to his forehead. Of course. How could he have forgotten that?
Mai pulled out a scroll from her robes and unfurled it. "The truth is, I guess I don't know you. All I get is a letter?! You could've at least looked me in the eye when you broke my heart!
"I-I didn't mean to—"
"You didn't mean to?! 'Dear Mai'," She paced around as she read the contents of Zuko's letter that he had left for her on the day of the eclipse. "'I'm sorry that you have to find out this way, but I'm leaving. And I'm sorry but I cannot accept the affection you have for me—"
"This isn't about you. It's not you—"
"What? 'It's not you , it's me?' Thanks, Zuko. That makes me feel all better!" She said sarcastically and threw the scroll at his head. "Bullshit! This is about that girl, isn't it?! She's dead, Zuko! She won't ever, ever return your love, because she's dead!"
Zuko understood where she was coming from. He had hurt her a lot when he left without a proper goodbye, much less writing her break-up letter. "Mai, I never wanted to hurt you... But I left to save my country..."
"Save it?! You're betraying your country!"
"That's not how I see it."
There was a brief interlude where Sokka was taken by the guards and Chit Sang was about to point out the "mastermind" of their escape plan. Thankfully, their unusual comrade was not a squealer, pointing out instead the prison guard that had abused his power and had thrown him into the cooler countless times.
Livid, the Warden ordered the framed prison guard to be taken away, and everyone was dismissed. Sokka knew that the suspicion of an impostor prison guard had subsided and he set out to execute the first phase of their new escape plan. The distraction.
Due to this morning's failed attempt, the prison was in tight lock down. Sokka went up to the control room of the prison. Thankfully, only one guard was stationed there at the moment as the rest was patrolling the hallways for stray prisoners.
"Hey, I just got orders. Let the prisoners out into the yard." Sokka was surprised at the confidence in his own voice, making a mental note to add acting skills to his growing repertoire.
"But... we're in the middle of a lock down..."
"Oh! Okay! I'll just go tell the Warden you said that! I'm sure he'll be glad you're undermining his authority! What's your name again?" Sokka made a move to leave.
The guard called him back with a panicked voice. He had only heard rumors of the Warden's anger, and he wasn't keen on finding out if the rumors were true anytime soon. "W-wait! Don't tell the Warden! I'm just a little confused!"
"Hey, I'm confused too." Sokka raised his hands, provoking him further. "But the Warden's in a bad mood and irrational. So if you ask me, it's best not to question it and just do what he says."
He gulped, still unable to remove the forming lump in his throat, and turned to the control panel. "Yeah... you're right. We're letting them out!"
The panicked guard hastily pulled down all the levers on the control panel, opening all the doors, to all the cells of the prison.
Even the isolation cells.
Author's Notes
*grins wickedly*
-TheGreatestConWoman-