Sorry it took a while, but I didn't want to start without finding a way to properly write Azula, but I gave up so here it is – I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender.

Furious green eyes stare up at him, lips twisted into a nasty snarl that would look more appropriate on a feral animal, the Earth Kingdom man's face worn with both age and the horrors of a lifetime filled with war. The man is a prisoner from the failed invasion, from what he had heard, the adults had given up without so much as a fight just to let the younger members of the invasion forces time to escape. The nameless soldier appears to act like Jet had personally done something to him, and well, with the body count he's racked up, it's not entirely possible that he'd slaughtered someone the man knew.

"I would ask for any last words." Jet starts, he's eyeing his blood stained knife. "But it seems like all the prisoners have taken to calling me a coward or even their favorite: traitor." he meets the captured soldier's gaze. "So I'll just assume that you and the rest of the people on my list will say the same and not waste our time on pointless chatter. I hope that's okay with you ~ ."

Walking around the man, still toying with the dagger in his hands, he stands behind the man, looking down at him and taking in his posture. The man, like the rest, sit with their backs straight, chest puffed, and chin tilted upwards in both defiance and pride. Jet respects that, even if it is foolish. Placing a palm atop the man's head, he humors himself in giving the man an almost calming scratch to the head, he leans forward, the knife in the other hand and presses the cold edge to the prisoner's throat, his heart speeds up and feels a thrill shoot throughout his body. Tightening his hold on the knife's handle and the man's hair, he presses the edge harder into the man's skin, and with a sharp tug, he breaks skin and cuts deep, blood beginning to spill out in small torrents. Letting go of the man, he watches the body go limp then fall with a deadened thud, blood beginning to blossom across the metal floor – taking a moment to stare, he absently wipes his bloodied weapon against the leg of his pant and leaves the room.

Not all prisoners from the failed invasion had been sent here, the majority of the invasion forces were sent to other holding across the Fire Nation after they'd been processed and sorted, and Jet was just fine with this as he wasn't looking to be soaked in blood for days, sticky and gross, oh and the copper smell. Approaching the next holding cell, he notices the two armed guards flinch upon seeing him, looking down at himself, he sees that his clothes aren't exactly in pristine condition and his hands aren't all that clean either. With a crooked smile, he gestures towards the iron cell door with one bloodied hand, he says in an amiable tone:

"Mind getting the door?"

One of the men flinches once more upon seeing his bloodied hand, but the door is opened by the man's companion and he's allowed inside, he pats the guard's cheek, the one who'd flinched, in thanks and walks into the room. The second he's within the room, the door shuts with a hurried bang. Jet can only laugh, they couldn't be more obvious. In the middle of the metal room is another man, another prisoner from the invasion force, his head is hanging limply, his greasy, dirty hair hanging in front of his face, arms cuffed behind his back and kneeling on the hard metal floor.

The man doesn't look up, doesn't bother to acknowledge his presence.

Jet frowns and starts tapping the tip of the blade against the metal doorframe, he calls out, "Hey." the man looks up, moves like it takes all his strength, beaten and bloody. Jet just grins. "You're awake. Perfect." he moves deeper into the rank smelling cell, "Normally, I hate finishing other people's - ,"

"The Prince."

Jet pauses, "What?"

"What about the Prince? Your Prince?"

It's almost an accusation, one Jet doesn't quite understand, so instead, he laughs it off, "The Fire Nation has no Prince, not since Fire Lord Ozai was made, well, Fire Lord." he kneels before the man, grinning as he looks him in the face, "They must have beat you senseless, Water Tribe. Did they get what they wanted from you I wonder?"

"The Prince was distraught, leaving you behind." the man says, the smile Jet had sported is wiped from his face and replaced with a slight frown. "If only there was a way I could tell him – that his worries are for nothing." the Water Tribesman meets his eyes, "His beloved ally has betrayed him."

Gritting his teeth, Jet rises, ready to yell at the man when he pauses, he stares at the man, deep in thought for he had realized that he had been about to deny the man's accusation of him betraying some make believe Fire Nation Prince. There is no Prince to betray.

Instead, he spits out a hissed reply, "The Fire Nation has no Prince, get your facts straight Water Tribe."

Mature blue eyes look up at him almost curiously, Jet doesn't like it, doesn't like the searching look or the way blue eyes dart all across his face, it feels intrusive and he was never one for another's criticism of his person, but the man rasps out a weak:

"What have they done to you, Lion-Heart?"

It startles Jet enough that his head jerks back and nearly shouts, "Nothing." but he feels the walls starting to close in on him, boxing him in, unseen cuffs restraining him, taking his freedom away. It's crushing. "No one's done anything!"

The man continues staring at him, his eyes turning sympathetic, Jet starts to back away, bloody fingers pressing against his temple. There are phantom flashes, ghostly touches, haunting feelings, things that make him feel like he's lost at sea with no land in sight. It hurts and it's uncomfortable, so he pushes it down and covers it up with other thoughts and feelings, such as what he'll do later after this is over: oh how nice it will be to wash off the blood caked onto his hands and clothes, and let's not forget the soothing ritual of cleaning his blades properly. Glaring at the bound man, Jet approaches and drops to one knee, he grabs the man's disgusting feeling hair and yanks, forcing the warrior to bear his precious throat.

"We all saw it." the man wheezes, Jet pauses a moment. "The way you looked at the Prince – like he were the sun itself, dazzling and powerful, how you worshipped him with each and every action you took, the tenderness in which you treated him – as only lovers would."

Jet's heart thuds against his chest, his eyes widening in outrage, hearing the blasphemy the man spews, he pulls on the man's hair harder, the Water Tribe warrior hisses, his back now bending to accommodate the force:

"I would never love a man."

But the man's traitorous mouth grunts, "The kiss you two shared the day of the invasion, for all to see."

Yelling wordlessly, he thrusts the knife into the man's gut and twists, watching with cold, indignant fury as the man starts coughing up blood, leaning closer until the tips of their noses nearly touch, "Be grateful, Water Tribe." he growls, "I would like to do so much worse than this, but I've got a schedule and I can't stand the sight of you." shoving the man away from him in disgust, he gets up and leaves, storming out of the cell when he pauses and turns to the two guards who immediately straighten up, he snarls, "Leave him to bleed out. I want him to suffer."

The two guards salute and he turns to continue on his way – as soon as Lion-Heart is well out of sight and hearing range, they turn to look inside the opened cell where they see the bloodied wound located on the man's stomach. Cringing, one of the guards shuts the door. They aren't the first to feel Lion-Heart was a tad too cruel, even towards the enemies of the Fire Nation.

oOo

"Look."

Both Azula and Mai turn to see what it is that has their pink-dressed friend as pale as a spirit when they see him, down the halls a way is Lion-Heart: shoulders squared, fists clenched, and stomping their way. Upon closer inspection though, it's revealed that the male is covered in splotches of blood. Azula hears Mai make a disgusted noise as she mutters "gross" under her breath, so Azula takes the initiative to greet Lion-Heart.

"Hello, Lion-Heart."

The Earth Kingdom male looks up, for a short moment he appears to be displeased before he bows, showing the respect that was due from him for so long. "Princess Azula."

"What has you looking so miserable?"

"A prisoner." he says, his answers so easily forthcoming, "But he is dealt with and I would like to clean up."

"A prisoner?" Azula hums, her tone drawling. "From the Avatar's failed invasion?"

"Yes, Princess."

"Pay them no mind; they are simply a bunch of mindless twits."

"Of course, Your Highness."

"You may go."

Lion-Heart bows once more, "Thank you, Princess."

The three girls watch Lion-Heart, or as Azula now knows, Jet, get up and leave. Once he's well out of earshot, Mai speaks: "You're not worried they'll say something to bring his memories back?"

"Why Mai," Azula starts, humor evident, "It almost sounds like you're worried about him."

"I'm not." assures Mai, "But I would rather not deal with him once he remembers everything."

"It won't happen." Azula waves her concerns off, "I've taken extra precaution against that, he won't even remember Zuzu himself if he were to come face to face with him. And even if he does," she shrugs, "I could always have the Dai-Li take him in for another session."

One extremely long and boring session.

It had taken the span of six days for them to crack open Lion-Heart's memories, even then, she was sure that he was holding back on some things as there was a surprising lack of anything of the intimate kind of settings between he and her brother – his devotion to her brother had to be placed somewhere though, when they'd tried for a blank slate, he'd broken through the brainwashing and had injured several Fire Nation guards, so they had set his attention on protecting the royal family, i.e. her father and herself while wiping all traces of Iroh and Zuko from his memories.

"I'm off." Azula says, she waves a dismissive hand at her friends, "You can see yourselves out."

Once the Princess is out of sight, Ty-Lee clutches her hands together and follows after Mai, whilst Lion-Heart had been scary before – this was different. Even he didn't deserve something like this.

"Do you - ?" Ty-Lee looks around before she cups her hand to her mouth and whispers, "Do you think we should do something?"

Mai sighs, "About what?"

Ty-Lee looks around once more then says, "About Lion-Heart."

Mai meets her worried gaze with a bored expression, "What there to even do?"

"Well - ,"

"And why should we bother?"

Ty-Lee looks down at her twiddling fingers, "Because he's Zuko's friend, he must mean a lot to him if he - ," she notices Mai tense and bites down on her tongue, she'd been about to say if he left you to find him, "We just have to remind Lion-Heart about Zuko and once he gets his memories back, he can escape."

"And what?" Mai snorts, "Help the Avatar defeat the Fire Lord?" she sees Ty-Lee flinch and sighs, "You know that's what he'll do, and that's if he doesn't do something stupid the second he gets his memories back."

"Still." Ty-Lee pushes on, "You know this is wrong."

In the bathing area, Jet strips and immediately steps into the warm waters, the things the prisoners had said came rushing back to him, each one calling him a traitor, a coward, and looking at him like he'd betrayed them, he had assumed that it was because he was Earth Kingdom like the rest of them and was working for the Fire Nation, but after that last man, a Water Tribe man no less, he wonders if he's missing something – but there was no Fire Nation Prince, not since Ozai had become Fire Lord, he wasn't a deviant as the only time he'd ever kissed someone was Katara and that was because he was helping some Fire Nation admiral hoping to catch the Avatar. Plus he'd been in a comatose condition for months now, only waking days after the invasion was over.

But thinking about it was giving Jet a headache and he wasn't looking to deal with it.

So he pushes it aside and buries it in the dark.

I got this one song stuck in my head :P