A.N.: Here, I may be pushing the limits of Fire Nation Technology, but it may come in handy later. The largest point being Electricity. I looked carefully at some screenshots of the inside of Fire Nation ships and the lighting looks like it's either electrical or some sort of gas flame, I'm assuming it's electrical. My rule of thumb is sort of if we had it before 1890, then the Fire nation Might have it.

Another point, since we don't really know anything about Suki's Mother or Father I'm going to kind of create that part of her past, just filling in the blanks. If they ever do tell about her parents in the show I can always come back and rewrite

Chapter Seven: Family Memories and a Crude Plan

Over the course of two days, Suki and Zhi spoke often. Their conversations greatly helped pass the time and allowed the two to better get to know each other.

At one point, the young soldier asked his neighbor about her friends. It was a touchy subject and Suki felt strange discussing her late friends with Zhi. He was polite and let her know that she could change the subject at anytime if it became too difficult to think about. Despite the sadness related with thinking about her friends, Suki described them to him. She told of their friendship and their bravery when facing the Princess.

Zhi listened, saddened himself. Suki's lost friends were not so different from the friends he'd had in Zhuk's Platoon. He gave her his condolences and admitted that he would have liked to meet her friends, as they sounded like admirable people.

Suki eventually asked about Zhi's friends. She was curious as to what had become of them. The young soldier retold, in greater detail, the tale of the chaos that had unfolded the night he was first brought to the prison. He spoke of Ning and Corporal Huế and how they'd come to count on each other. Zhi also spoke of Sergeant Zhuk, and how he'd looked up to the gruff Firebender as well as others from the unit.

Zhi was solemnly confident that his friends were all dead. Suki tried to reassure him but he pointed out that there were no other Fire Nation prisoners in their cell block; no other prisoners at all, for that matter. She suggested the possibility that they might have been taken elsewhere, and Zhi had told her he hoped she was correct, though he didn't truly believe that any had survived.

He'd barely survived the Dai Li's ambush himself; he'd stood there, amongst the rubble, and listened to the dead silence that had fallen over the conference room. Zhi tried hard to hide his doubt; hope wasn't something he wanted to argue about, even if Miss Suki was trying to make him feel better.

Eventually the serving guard made his regular appearance and delivered breakfast to the prisoners. Zhi no longer yelled at the man; he'd heard his voice enough for the purpose he'd had in mind and now just sat and waited for his food, occasionally grinning malevolently at the guard.

The two captives settled down and ate their meager meals, chatting every now and then. When they were both near finishing their food, Suki spoke up. "Zhi?" The young soldier looked up from his food, giving her his attention.

"I'm curious to know about you family. I know you've mentioned them, but you haven't really told me that much," she said, finishing the last bite of her stale bread.

"Oh, I could tell you about them if you like, mom, dad, my sister, certainly," replied Zhi as he set aside his empty tray.

In response, Suki raised an eyebrow, "You said your mother worked at a shipyard, didn't you?"

"Yup!" replied Zhi, proudly, "My mother, Li, works at the Jingong Naval Shipyards back home in Zhujing."

"She works on the warships? What dose she do?" asked Suki. She'd always heard that the Fire Nation relegated most of its women to the role of homemakers.

Zhi grinned. "She does electrical and ducting work. She's a tradeswoman."

"What exactly dose that mean?" asked Suki, having never heard either of the terms before.

"Well, ducting's like… the pipes and vents that bring air throughout the ship so people deep down in the hull can have fresh air. Other pipes carry steam to different parts of the ship to work mechanisms and such," said Zhi, trying to remember how his mother had explained her work to him.

"Oh, I see," said Suki, nodding. "But what's electrical?"

Zhi paused, thinking of the best way to explain something he himself knew little about. "Well, you've seen thunderstorms, right? Thunderbolts?"

"Of course. We get thunderstorms on Kyoshi in late summer all the time," replied the young warrioress.

"Those thunderbolts are electricity. See, a steam engine coupled with this thing called a generator can make electricity like that… not as powerful, but enough to power these neat glass bulb lights, among other things," said Zhi, referring back to what he'd been taught in a secondary school general sciences class.

Suki sat quietly for a few moments; she'd never heard of such a thing. "Does everyone in the Fire Nation use those bulb things and the electricity?"

Zhi gave a bit of a chuckle. "Well… no, it's kind of expensive and you need to have big steam engines to use the generators. It works great on the ships since they all have steam turbines, but back home, only a few cities have electrical systems and they're just for street lamps. Normal folks just use candle and firelight."

"Huh," muttered Suki, "Does your mother enjoy doing that sort of work?"

"Oh yes," said Zhi, switching the subject, "my mother's always wanted to work and my father's always supported her. See, since the war began, men go off to fight and women are able to get all kinds've good jobs that they would have been forbidden from before Sozin became Firelord." The young soldier grinned. But then he scratched his head, adding,"Of course… there are women who go off to fight too."

Suki was becoming more and more interested; the homeland of the enemy and its citizens were an enigma to most of the world. "What about your sister?"

"Oh! Zhen," said Zhi, "my little sister.. well, not that little. She just turned fifteen a few months ago. She's just as tall as I am too. See, I take after my mother, short and slim, gray eyes. My sister takes after my father, stocky and… well, also pretty short," There was a 'longing for home' look in his eyes.

Suki gave her neighbor a smirk. "So what's she like?"

Smiling, Zhi tried to think of the best way to describe his sister. "Well, she's a Firebender. Only one in my immediate family and quite talented too. She's actually attending a special bending academy right now, and after that, I think she plans to transfer directly to active duty with the army."

"She isn't… crazy or violent or something, is she? You just said she's a Firebender..." said Suki, a bit hesitant.

Zhi shook his head. "No, not at all! She's very sweet. A bit overbearing at times, maybe a little overly physical, too… she can hug the breath out of you," said the young soldier, chuckling. "She wrote me letters all the time, wonder how she's doing now…"

"You two must have been close," said Suki, peering over at her neighbor, from whom she received a nod of acknowledgement. "I guess the other Kyoshi warriors were like sisters to me…" Her eyes sank to stare at the floor of her cell.

"Do… you want to tell me about your family?" Zhi asked, in a soft tone. "I'm always interested in listening to anything you want to tell me."

Suki remained silent for a short while, thinking, I've never talked about my parents to anyone from outside of Kyoshi… not even Sokka.

"You haven't told me about your father yet, Zhi," she said, looking back up at the young soldier.

"Right, my father," said Zhi, nodding slowly. "His name's Cheng. He's older than my mother… he was going to enlist in the army like my uncle did, but his eyes were bad so they couldn't accept him."

"How does he treat you?" asked the young warrioress, having never known her own father.

"Oh, just fine. He sets very high standards, though. He was very proud when I told him I was joining the Future Soldiers program in secondary school, and then when I was officially inducted into the Army, that was when he gave me my knife," said Zhi, remembering the small weapon. Where it was now, he had no idea.

"Knife?" asked Suki, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep, he gave me this little knife. I think the Dai Li took it from me when I was unconscious," he said with a sigh. "My father, though... sometimes I think he's trying to live out the life he'd hoped for himself through Zhen and I." Suki nodded, as she felt she understood.

"Not that that's a bad thing," he added, with confidence, "I mean, I wanted to join up. He didn't pressure me or anything,"

"Does he work at the Shipyards? Or someplace else?" asked Suki.

Zhi shook his head. "Not at the Shipyards. My father is a plant manager for a factory that makes armored boots. He told me that back before the war the company supposedly made women's shoes!"

"Really?" she was dubious.

Zhi gave her a grin. "Really, and you know what's even better? These boots," said the young soldier, pointing down at his feet, "were made in the factory that my father works at. When I was issued these, I ran the serial number against the company records and there they were; Standard Infantry Set Size Two… they were easy to find on the list since they don't get orders for Size Twos very often."

Suki smirked. "I can tell you're not making it up; you do have tiny feet."

Zhi shrugged. "Everyone in the Fire Nation has small feet compared to... I dunno, Earth Kingdom folks. I mean, they've got big feet. Ours are normal."

Suki giggled softly. When he makes that peaceful visit to Kyoshi Island he'll have to see Avatar Kyoshi's boots.

Zhi eventually spoke up, cocking his head to the side like a curious dog. "Hey now, aren't you going to tell me about your family?"

Suki turned her gaze away from her neighbor. "I guess… I could. If you really want to hear about them," she said, silently hoping that he wouldn't press the issue.

"If you'd like to tell me, I'd like to hear. I'd be willing to bet that they were great people," Zhi said, smiling in encouragement.

"Alright, alright," Suki said, at last. "I never knew my father. Oyajii and my mother told me things about him, though." Zhi could remember from the day before when Miss Suki had mentioned the leader of her island's village.

"What did they tell you?" Zhi asked. He could tell she wasn't exactly excited about discussing her family with him and he began to feel a bit guilty.

"Well, he was from the Southern Water Tribe, but he told my mother that things weren't going well for him there, so he decided to travel the world… He stopped on Kyoshi Island on his way north and that's where they met," said Suki.

"They fell in love and got married?" asked Zhi, strongly hoping it wasn't due to the Fire Nation that Miss Suki had never met her father.

"My mother fell in love with him…" said the young warrioress, her tone changing to one of contempt, "but I don't think he really loved her. He told her he did; he told her many things… then, after staying on the island for a few months he quietly slipped away into the night and never returned."

"Ahh… I see. I'm sorry," said Zhi, cringing a bit.

"It's not your fault," said Suki, giving him an odd look. "My father… they never told me what he looked like, though. I suppose the only thing he gave me was my blue eyes. And that's… really all I know about him. Really all I care to know, to be honest with you," she said, a scowl on her face.

"So he took advantage of your mother and the village?" asked Zhi, cautiously.

"That's exactly what he did!" Suki said. "Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think everyone from the Water Tribes are like that… he was just a rotten one… there are some really great people from the Water Tribes." Her thoughts drifted.

"Well, what about your mother. Was she okay? She would be… blessed with a wonderful daughter, no?" asked Zhi, a nervous grin spreading across his face.

Suki gave him another odd look that slowly turned into a shy smile. "I suppose… well, she was devastated when he left… but I was born some months later and I think she stopped thinking about him as much."

Zhi smiled, hoping she would continue.

"She loved me, very much. Eventually I started asking about my father, but we had no trouble without him. Mother grew a garden and we had enough to eat and some to sell as well," said Suki, remembering the six short years she'd spent with her mother.

"Loved you? Don't you mean… loves you?" asked Zhi, his feelings of guilt returning.

"Well… I was too young to really understand what was going on at the time, but I'm told she became very ill and when I was just six years old. I… came home from playing with some of the other girls. Oyajii stopped me in front of my home and told me the spirits had asked for my Mother and she'd… gone with them."

Zhi grimaced. "I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to tell me. You know, it wasn't any of my business and…" he was cut off mid-sentence.

"No," Suki said, her voice returning to normal, "it's alright. They say it's good to talk about these kinds of things. I'm not exactly sure how, but that's what Oyajii says."

Zhi could only nod. He tried to think of something else to say, something to make his neighbor feel better, but nothing seemed right.

"After that, I went to live with Oyajii and his family, and when I reached the age of eight I began my training to become a Kyoshi Warrior. I suppose… the loss of my parents… though I can't really say I lost my father, sort of made me who I am today."

"Well… I'd say you turned out just fine," said Zhi, finding his voice.

Suki smirked. "I guess I did, though I can't exactly say being imprisoned is a great accomplishment."

Zhi shrugged and shifted to a different seated position. There was a pause in the conversation and both captives sat quietly, waiting for the other to speak.

"Hey, how's your arm doing, Zhi?" asked Suki, pointing to the sling.

"Hmm… well, I haven't really tested it out any, just been letting it rest. You think it's better by now?" he asked, looking down at his arm.

"Maybe," she said. "It's been about five days since I treated it so you should be able to remove the sling. Just be careful with it, okay?"

Zhi grinned and slipped his arm out of the sling. Hearing Miss Suki express genuine concern for him was reassuring. He carefully ran his arm through its full range of motion. The joint seemed a bit stiff and slightly sore but in no way reminiscent of the agonizing pain he'd suffered days before.

"Ahh, much better," said Zhi while stretching out his arm. "Thanks again for helping me, Miss Suki."

She smiled and bowed her head. "I'm glad you're feeling better."

"So, getting tired of this place?" asked Zhi, grinning.

Suki turned and gave him a curious look. "You've come up with the rest of your escape plan?"

"Yup!" said Zhi with enthusiasm, "here's the plan; first, we knock out the serving guard, quietly, so he doesn't alert any other guards. Next, we'll get his keys and let ourselves out. After that, I'll change into his robes and we'll sneak out of the cell block. Hopefully we can find another guard to knock out and you can use his robes."

Suki was a bit unconvinced. "Sounds a little crude. What if we can't find one guard alone to get a disguise for me?"

"That's where my imitation of the guard's voice comes in handy," said Zhi. "See, if I pull the hat down some and try to mimic the serving guard, who could tell the difference? Especially in the low light of this prison."

"I guess that could work, but what do we do after we get my disguise? Just walk out of here?" asked Suki, raising an eyebrow. "If they realize we're not Dai Li, how will we defend ourselves?"

"Ahh, but we've actually got an advantage," Zhi said as he knocked on the iron floor of his cell. "The Dai Li agents are Earthbenders. As long as we're in this prison, their only weapons are those stone gloves. On top of that, we'll have surprise on our side if we're careful."

Suki thought for a moment, considering all of the points of Zhi's plan. "It seems like it could work, but if it's possible, I'd like to, at least, try to get my war fans back. I know the Princess used my uniform and armor to get into the palace, so it's possible that my things are still here."

Zhi gave her a nod. "I think we should look for our things, if we can. I'd like to get my Guan Dao and knife back at the very least. There's another thing I'd like to try to do," said the young soldier, looking over to his neighbor.

"What's that, Zhi?" Suki asked, placing a hand upon one of the bars separating their cells.

"Well," he said, thoughtfully, "I wanna try to get back into the palace… back to where my unit was quartered. It's my duty to bring some personal effects of my countrymen back to their families, you know?"

"I think we could try that... but Zhi, if things don't go well, we may have to abandon that part of the plan and get as far away from the palace as quickly as possible," said Suki, solemnly.

"I know… the living before the dead," said Zhi, with understanding. "Maybe we could find some of… your friends' things to bring to their families as well."

Suki nodded slowly. "I'd like that, I know their families would appreciate it, but only if we have time."

Another moment of silence fell over the two captives as they came to grips with the plan that they would have to execute if they held any hope of escaping. Talking about something and doing it were two very different things.

"So," said Zhi, breaking the silence, "shall we go out around dinner time tomorrow night?"

Suki looked over to him. He wore that silly grin upon his face from before. "That sounds just fine," she said, stifling soft laughter.

The day was set, the time was set and the moment was set. They would attempt their escape when the serving guard delivered their evening meal the next day.


A.N.: This is the second chapter carefully beta'd by PetertheChameleon, I think it really shows how much he's helped improve this story. As always, I hope all those who read this new chapter enjoy it! I'm busy working on chapter Eight right now, The Escape!