The volcanic prison was hot.

Magma bubbled beneath them in the gaping crater of the volcano's belly, with flares that shot up into the sulfurous air at random. Zaheer was undeterred by the natural prison and the guards that populated it, careening through the air with the grace of some kind of diabolical wolf bat. Ghazan felt a grin stretching his mouth into a grotesque leer; the hot, dry air was invigorating. He stretched out a hand experimentally, feeling for the molten earth feet beneath them.

A flare of magma shot up under his command. His eyes settled on the suspended steel cage, and he launched himself off the jutting precipice of pumice stone, dodging an attack from one of the guards and firing back with a wave of magma..

It wasn't long before their efforts had detained the White Lotus guards and had split a barrel of water over Ming Hua's prison. Zaheer shot overhead, and for a moment the wooden barrel hung suspended in time, waiting for the water to be released. Ghazan fired off two discs of lava, and as they met their mark he almost could smell the burning wood. The contents emptied over her, she was bathed in a cascade of shimmering heat waves and a column of water that ceased its flow once it engulfed her. The water swelled, the borders of the liquid seemed to blur, and suddenly Ming Hua was grinning, her posture a little straighter and her eyes considerably more alive. Her signature twin vortexes of water sprouted from her shoulders, and he knew that he and Zaheer could step back and let her claim her own vengeance. With water, Ming Hua was the farthest thing from a damsel in need of saving.

"Never thought I'd be so happy to see your ugly mugs again," she said, flipping her inky hair out of her face with a toss of her head, newly freed of her prison. It hadn't taken long to break the bars, and Ghazan was reminded of old times.

"It's good to see you too, Ming Hua," Ghazan said, grinning. Zaheer was silent, but his stance and his smile made it clear the sentiments were felt on his end as well.

"I'm flattered," she said with a smirk, turning to Zaheer. "You saved me before your girlfriend."

"We're going for her next," he replied. "Our next stop is the North Pole."

"Pretty cold up there," Ghazan added, sidling closer. "You might have to get used to huddling to share heat."

Ming Hua slapped him across the face with one of the water tentacles, her grin broadening when he spluttered in indignation. "I'll do just fine."

"She's still got it," he said to Zaheer, shrugging the wet hair off his shoulders. "We should clear out and save the catching up for the road, though. They'll send reinforcements sooner than we want. Climb on," he said, nodding to Ming Hua as Zaheer bounded up the steep walls of the volcanic prison, using the jutting rocks as points of liftoff.

"No thanks." Without another word she was soaring through the air, the pillars of water extending past her body and consuming her as she shot up the pumice and mangled steel. Thirteen years of dehydration had culminated in a new age for her, and her new arms looked like a new beginning.

Ghazan could only smile before he threw the incapacitated guards over the ledge and followed her up, the heat from the stones suddenly inconsequential to the thin soles of his shoes.

"Just like old times," Zaheer said, hands troublingly loose on the wheel of the appropriated jeep. "Ghazan talking about Ming Hua the whole way to prison, Ming Hua threatening the driver with an ice dagger… thank you for the shave, by the way. It feels good to get back to our true purpose. I have ample reason to believe our path is a righteous one."

"I'll say," Ming Hua observed. "How'd you pick up airbending?"

"Harmonic Convergence changed many things," Zaheer said, a smile at the corners of his mouth. "It's our chance to ensure these changes are permanent, and for the better."

"Yeah, he hasn't changed a bit," Ghazan said conspiratorially. "Still spouts off the philosophical crap, like we're listening."

"Neither have you," she observed. "I remember the first time you busted me out."

"Fondly?"

"Something like that."

o0o

"I can't believe I'm going along with this. Why did I agree to go along with this? You don't even know this girl."

"Because we're bros, man. Calm down. We've got this." Ghazan glanced over his shoulder at his friend. Zaheer was still glowering. Despite standing head and shoulders above him, it has hard to not feel intimidated by the young man's intensity. "If it works… I'll… I can wingman for you?"

"You've got this," Zaheer said crossly, ignoring the last bit. "In case you've forgotten, only one of us is a bender."

"Yeah, well... you planned this thing. You've lost all confidence in the one thing you do better than literally everyone?" Ghazan pointed out. "Relax. We'll bust her out, and then it's off to the Red Lotus."

"If we don't get killed," Zaheer muttered, his eyes narrowing as he watched the lone guard leave the building entrance. "So, they're holding her in there? You're positive?"

"Oh yeah. Dead certain."

The building in question was a fortified tower, three stories above the ground with steel structuring. The walls were cut-stone, and a cursory once-over made it clear that they wouldn't be turned to lava very easily. The stone blocks were heavy and of a dusty lime, a chemical composition that Ghazan had little experience with, and a quick scope of the prison foundation made it clear that they had been erected over a metal framework.

"So," Zaheer said, evidently having noticed the worry that had flickered over his face, "not as easy as you thought."

"I never said it would be easy."

"You said 'we've got this!' minutes ago."

"I was trying to keep morale up, okay?" Ghazan crossed his arms and shifted his stance, feeling through the earth for something that would prove effective. "What do you think I should do?"

"Beside turn around and get ready to join the Red Lotus? I think you should try melting the earth beneath the prison." Zaheer wore the pensive expression that Ghazan knew all too well. It was the face that heralded the birth of a new scheme, the face that preceded a night of stolen rations, and the face that he had come to associate with brotherly affection. "Only way to get your girlfriend out."

"Won't that put her in danger?" Ghazan said hesitantly. "I can't feel anything in there. I mean, I know she's tiny, but-"

"They'll have her suspended," Zaheer said, nodding slowly. "There's a spring near her prison, isn't there? They want to make sure she only has access to the water they give her to drink."

He looked at his friend in puzzlement. "How do you know there's a spring?"

"I don't need bending to know a water recharge area when I see one," Zaheer said. "I'll handle the guards, you melt the foundations."

"Won't that make the building cave in?"

Zaheer sighed. "Don't you trust me?"

"Yeah." The following events seemed to take much longer than they actually did. A well-placed projectile floored the two guards who had come to relieve the first of their shift, and Zaheer made short work of tying them up. Ghazan assessed the layout of the building, sending out a pulse from the foot he planted in the clay. "Zaheer… we have a situation."

"What?"

"There aren't any prisoners in here."

"She's not going to be on the ground," his friend said irritably. "I told you, I know a water recharge area when I see one."

"So… you want me to make this cave in when you know she's suspended on a top story?" Ghazan said incredulously. "We're supposed to be helping her-"

The sound of more guards approaching cut short their squabble, and forced Zaheer's recommended maneuver, albeit differently than the original plan. As the men closed in around them and a barrage of arrows from crude crossbows descended, Ghazan erected a barricade and a cloud of dust, nodding tightly to Zaheer before melting the periphery into a moat of lava. The cries of alarm were unmistakeable, and he extended the lava to the foundations of the building. "You're sure about this?"

"Completely," Zaheer called back. "I'd estimate five minutes for us to salvage this. Extend from the west corner, and the walls will fall outward."

Ghazan obliged, his shoulders and core aching in protest as he channeled the bulk of his heat into the earth. He could feel the particles of ground shifting under his command, could feel the crystal matrix of the solids shivering and breaking free of their rigid bonds. Earthbending was supposed to be steady, assured, and unflexible, but every time he manipulated the earth like liquid, he felt a new appreciation for the fluidity and focus the waterbenders had mastered.

The west wall of the prison fell first, then the second. The foundation was a lake of bubbling lava, and the fumes from the combusting limestone were choking. Zaheer was dealing with the warlord's guards who had managed to breach the moat- benders were evidently among their ranks- and Ghazan remembered with a start that he was atop a water reservoir.

"I hope you're as smart as you sound," he muttered under his breath, and following the plan Zaheer had carefully outlined for the thousandth time moments prior, he pivoted his hands in a drilling motion. The lava seemed to swell before it caved into the ground, the topsoil and clay melting before it as it disappeared deep below like a little beacon.

The water came rushing up moments later. Ghazan's jubilant shout died in his throat, replaced by a little sputter of awe as he beheld the groundwater first recede, then flow like a river over the molten ground and into the dark remains of the prison.

"Zaheer!" he called excitedly, jumping into the fray just as his friend was overwhelmed. He dodged a spear, blocked a boulder, and pulled one of the three soldiers off the other boy. "I think- you were right, she-"

"Is she going to help, or not?"

"This isn't helping," the familiar, cold little voice said, and both the boys and the guards paused in their scuffle. "This is about revenge."

Her torso ended in narrow shoulders with no limbs to speak of, her inky hair was lank and in need of a wash, and her build was slight. She couldn't have been much over five feet in height, or sixteen years in age, but her eyes glinted with a sociopathic malevolence that left Zaheer uncomfortable and left Ghazan with a dazed grin.

"You… have arms again," Ghazan supplied helpfully.

Ming Hua commanded a frightening amount of water, a smooth column of liquid extending from each shoulder as naturally as any proper limb. She didn't reply, instead opting to sweep both arms out, the ends of the tentacles hardening into jagged ice before they collided with their adversaries. Another swell of water bore her over the moat, and the two boys stood in impressed silence as the ground shuddered beneath them and the small well Ghazan had made exploded into a gushing reservoir of Ming Hua's preferred weapon.

The guards were first engulfed, and then frozen in place. Ming Hua wasted little time in freezing the end of her tentacle into a blade, and the gleam from the evening sun gave it a grim sense of finality. "Let's see how much use I can get out of this," she said, a cruel grin in her voice and on her face. "That's what you said, warden, when you threw me on top of a water reservoir. Regretting that now?"

"She can't be serious," Zaheer said in disgust. "You can't be serious. How am I supposed to trust that she won't come after us next?"

"Ming Hua," Ghazan said, already behind her and trying to grab her shoulder. His hand passed through the water, and he shrugged. "Listen, we busted you out. Just.. do me a favor and leave these men alone. You can come with me and Zaheer-"

"She's not invited yet!"

"-and join an organization that'll definitely have use for your talents," he pressed. "You won't have to deal with prison again."

Ming Hua arched a brow. "I'm not invited. And I'll be fine on my own. But thanks for coming to get me, I'm flattered. Never thought I'd be so happy to see your ugly mug again."

Ghazan grinned, raising his eyebrows as he met Zaheer's eyes. "You could get used to it. Why won't you join? We work pretty well together."

"If I can be convinced that my throat won't be slit in my sleep," Zaheer interjected, holding up his hands before gesturing for them to follow him out of the area, "you can join. I have to admit I thought Ghazan was exaggerating about your abilities when he told me about you." He gave his friend a dirty look. "She's not a hard eight. With this personality? More like a four."

"I'm still here," she pointed out, but her tone had lightened. "Talking about me, hmm?"

"More than I needed to hear," Zaheer said. "But I think you'd have a place in the Red Lotus, even if you didn't work with us. I'm tired of seeing this country polarizing into the urban centers of oligarchy and the rural feudal systems. And I'm tired of the avatar's entourage bringing grief to me. The amount of concessions made for someone who claimed to be a simple monk…"

"What my friend is saying," Ghazan said, sensing another anarchist spiel in the works, "is that you're talented, and an incredible bender, and he thinks you should join the Red Lotus with us." He paused. "You value your freedom. I -we- wouldn't tie you down, Ming Hua. We're on the same page, I know we are."

She tossed her hair. "I need a bath. Why would I stay with a couple of teenage boys? I can't trust you to not look."

"Is that all?" he said delightedly. "Zaheer, she's down to join!"

Zaheer groaned. "I hope you're happy. I hope for your sake you don't act like a pervert and try to sneak a view, either."

"I'd put his eyes out," Ming Hua said sweetly, smacking Ghazan across the face with a tentacle. "Go ahead and try, Ghazan."

Ghazan only grinned as he trailed behind them. "I knew she'd be the perfect addition to the team, man. Maybe we can find another bender, round out the trifecta."

"If we recruit a firebender," Zaheer said with finality, "then I'm choosing. No more potential sociopaths. How many times have you done that ice blade trick?"

"Take a guess," she said slyly.

"Fine," Ghazan conceded, ignoring the bickering. "Just make sure you have good taste, too."

"Don't insult me. You know I only go for the best."

A/N: ARE YOU HAPPY, TWINS? I FORCED IT OUT. FINALLY. Next up, P'li!