Nearly 8 years after the 'collection'

"Faster!" The elderly Dai Li drill Sargent commanded the young trainee. "Harder!" The young boy struck the board again. "Finish it!" The Sargent yelled. The boy struck the board with his foot, breaking it clean through. "Again!" She commanded setting another wooden plank on the two earthen supports.

"But, my lady-" The boy said pain evident through out his face.

"What is it boy?"

"My feet, my hands they hurt." The boy said sitting down to plug out the giant splinters that riddled his foot.

"Enough! Weakness is not tolerated in my arena!" She grabbed the boy by the ear and yanked him up, the boy yelping in pain. "Now, again!" The boy looked at his bruised and scraped hands then shook his head.

"Do it! NOW!" The boy shook his head again. CRACK! The woman struck the young boy across the face, he let out another yelp as he felt all too much pain at one time. The sting of the woman's gloved hand, the blunt pain he felt at the base of his neck receiving whip lash and the burn of already raw feet grind against the cold cave floor as the rest of his body the rest of the blow.

"Suna." A cool voice came from behind the woman.

"WHA- Oh, Long Feng deep apologies for yelling sir." Suna said bowing. "Suna can I ask you a question?" Long Feng said looking at the sobbing boy behind Suna inquisitively, voice as calm and maniacal as ever.

"Of course, anything sir."

"Why is that boy crying?"

"The little disaster decided-"

"Suna," Long Feng's voice had a deadly air to it now. "I didn't ask you what you thought of him. I asked you why is he crying."

"Oh, well um I was teaching the brat a lesson." Suna said stammering and taking a step back as Long Feng's inquisitive gaze on the boy went to a deadly stare at her. "Jet come here." Long Feng said in a light hearted tone.

"Y-y-yes sir?" Jet said looking up at Long Feng, his little voice trembling.

"Did Lady Suna hit you?" He continued, squatting and putting an arm around Jet. Jet nodded, rubbing the place where Suna had hit him. "Would you mind showing me where?" Jet ever so lightly pat his cheek.

"And thing else?"

"Y-yes sir, she pulled my ear." Long Feng flashed another glare at Suna.

"Next time she hurts you," Long Feng's voice began to harden. "Report back to me. " Jet nodded. "What do I do now sir?"

"Go to the healer and then report to Yono for your nightly meditation." Jet bowed and walked away.

"Uh, sir if you-" Suna began.

"What made you think was ok to hit the boy?" Long Feng snapped, grabbing Suna's neck.

"Y-you gave me permission to discipline him."

"Verbally Suna."

"Why are you so protective of this one Long Feng?" She uttered gasping for air as Long Feng tightened his grip.

"He is key to this experiment, he is key to my success. And if you decide to disrupt this I will disrupt you. Permanently."

"Just wait until Lu Wei finds out about-"

"No one will find out about this because I will dispose of you myself!" His grim got increasingly tighter as Suna tried to struggle.

Meanwhile...

Young Jet, sauntered through the halls of the Dai Li's secret hideout under Lake Lao Gai. This wasn't the first time his disobedience nearly cost him his life. A couple days prior Master Yu had nearly turned him into a pancake because he simply could not bend a boulder big enough to smash the dummy. Where ever he was, whoever saw him, he seemed to get the cold shoulder. Being shut out from something he wanted to be apart of, even the other trainee's picked on him calling him scum. The only one that was kind to him was Long Feng and although something about that told Jet it may be for bad reasons, he ignored it.

Jet stopped in the middle of the empty hall just before the healers office to play with a beetlefrog when he heard a scream. It seemed to come from the direction he came and it seemed like a woman's scream. Something deep in his gut told him that he would not be seeing Suna ever again.

"Yes?" The healer said slightly irritated "I was told to report to you for medical practices." Jet said, proud he remembered the right words this time.

"Name?"

"Jet."

"No foolish boy your code!"

"Jet. J.E.T." The healer walked from the medical table to his desk and carefully selected a scroll. "You're supposed to be training with Lady Suna, get back to your post boy. I doubt she sent you." Jet stood there shaking his head. "What are doing boy? Get! You'll be lucky if you survive Lady Suna's punishment."

"But sir, Long Feng sent me." The healer's eyes widened and quickly rummaged through his supplies, grabbing any bandage and ointment he could find. The healer plopped the supplies on a stool and then gestured for Jet to sit down on the medical table. Once Jet did the healer go right to work putting a special tree oil on his swollen cheek, applying an odd smelling cream to both hands and feet before bandaging them, and dabbing a very small amount of a potent white liquid on the fresh cut on his ear.

"Finished. Now report to..." The healer checked the scroll. "Yono for meditation." Jet hopped up and walked down yet another long set of boring, damp and cold corridors to Yono's 'sanctuary'. The door opened as Jet approached.

"Ahh Jet I've been expecting you." Yono said the mysterious air about him as great as ever. "Please do come in." Yono struck a match lighting the inscents that surrounded the small room's perimeter. "You know what to do." Yono said pulling out a small pendant from his pocket. Jet sat himself in the chair, breathing deeply and inhaling the soothing scent of the burning inscents. Yono stood directly in front of Jet and began swinging the pendant back and forth very slowly. Jet began entering a trance.

"You will repeat after me." Yono said in a mono-tone "I will repeat after you." Jet said in his own mono tone.

"In a few short days you will leave the Dai Li."

"In a few short days I will the Dai Li"

"You will recruit a group of others like you."

"I will recruit a group of others like me."

"You will believe your parents were killed in a Fire Nation raid."

"I will believe my parents were killed in a Fire Nation raid."

"The name of the group shall be the Freedom Fighters."

"The name of the group shall be the Freedom Fighters."

"And your duty will be to kill the Avatar when he returns."

"And my duty will be to kill the Avatar when he returns

A/U I played with the formatting a little to make the dialogue easier to read. Hope you enjoyed and stay tuned!