"Tai Lung, you reached my prison barely a month ago and you are already causing problems."

I didn't look up, not wanting to give the big-nosed bastard the satisfaction. I clenched my hand, my wrists firmly strapped to the wooden chair by the metal that was reinforcing it. I knew that two guards were behind me in the small room but they hadn't talked at all.

"I hope you find yourself comfortable in here?" The Warden continued even as I didn't talk, he slowly walked forward, stepping around and behind me. I grit my teeth as I felt his hands digging into my shoulders.

I was barely surprised when he pushed me forward, my hand and legs being held against the chair meant that I fell face-first to the metal floor of the room, it made my nose sting, pretty sure I also cut the inside of my cheek with my teeth.

"How about now are you feeling comfortable?" The warden mockingly asked as he walked around me, with my face against the ground and limited movement I could only see the man's metal boots in front of me.

"There may be some misconception that I am a cruel man, let me assure you that is not the case. Oh, I take great pride in my work here, so much so that there's close to nothing I wouldn't do to keep this prison running as it's supposed to, but I care little about how much or how little the inmates suffer."

It sounded like complete bullshit to my ears, but it wasn't like I had a choice to not hear him out.

"Indeed despite what you may think I don't even hold a grudge against you for harming my Godson, he is a grown man at this point, his pathetic failure is his own…"The Warden standing in front of my fallen form "HOWEVER, his actions reflected weakness in my prison and that I can't accept."

I was firmly set to not answer his taunts but my eyes widened as I heard a very familiar sound, the sound of coal falling against a metal surface, in front of me laid multiple pieces of black rock.

"Ah! So you do recognize these dirty things, Tai Lung you do know that the Warden of the prison can call for an inspection of any inmate's cell at any moment? I like to make use of that privilege whenever one of my charges decides to misbehave." The Warden's voice took a sinister turn and I felt my heartbeat speed, fuck.

With a deep breath, I tried to focus and remember the cover story I had thought of, there was no point in denying that I had stolen the coal since they had already found it.

"Care to tell what your intentions were with so many pieces of coal?" The Warden said with a hum sounding very impatient.

"T-They remind me of home," I said hoping they mistook my stutter with fear of punishment "My village had a coal mine and we worked on it regularly, I just wanted something to give me comfort," I admitted with a nostalgic tone that felt too raw and real.

"Well isn't that just cute," The Warden said with a mocking laugh that the two guards shared "Then again what else would I expect from someone from the colonies"

I perked up, it seemed the man knew what I was in this shithole for, the uncertainty had been getting to me more each day, I really needed to know but was now the moment? And wouldn't asking something like that be suspicious? Well, I was already metaphorically fucked so there was no reason not to take a shot.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked trying to sound offended.

"Oh please, you country peasants are the same, I swear the citizens of the Fire Nation get more uncivilized the farther they are from the Capital" The Warden said sounding snotty as he gave me a very valuable piece of information. This body, whoever he was before I became a thing, was from the Fire Nation.

"What do you even know about me!?" I tried to sound righteously angry but I didn't think I was particularly convincing, luckily the Warden didn't seem to find anything odd, or at least he didn't comment anything.

"More than you would even know about yourself, I get folders about the criminals being sent here, you are nothing remarkable."

The dismissive words were actually relieving, I was hoping that not being important meant that whatever crime this body committed wasn't something morally horrendous. It would be a living nightmare to be in the body of a serial killer or rapist, the thought had made sleeping hard some nights.

"Don't get too comfortable, we still have to discuss your punishment, solitary confinement for a week should be enough for a first offense, let it not be said that I'm not merciful to my fellow Fire Nation men, even the criminal ones." The man said with self-congratulatory tone. I was tempted to tell him to go fuck himself, but I knew that would only lead to more punishment.

"Oh, and by the way Tai Lung," The Warden said having already turned to walk off the room, looking me straight in the eyes. "You may find your stay in this fine prison a lot more bearable if you kept better company, traitors are the worst scum in this prison after all"

I glared impotently, was he telling me to not talk to Zhang and his group? Well, that's just not happening.

I felt uneasy, it seemed like the Warden didn't think that I was an earthbender, but what if he was just playing dumb and not outright stating it in hopes I did something in the future? Not knowing was annoying.

My anger and confusion did nothing but ruin my mood further as I was pushed into what would be my new cell for an entire week. I felt sick to my stomach as I was pushed inside, the door closing with not even a word from the guard.

Cramped wouldn't even come close to describing it, pushing my hands to touch both walls to my sides I grimace as I found that I couldn't even stretch my arms fully, sitting down opposite the door I groaned as I was just barely able to stretch them, pressing my feet against the metal door. The only light in the tiny space came from a hole in the door which gave way to the artificial lighting from the halls.

(2 days into Solitary Confinement)

"Free as a bird~ It's the next best thing to be~"

I could describe so much about the metal door in front of me, the number of nails drilled into it to reinforce it, the difference in the shades of grey in the metal layers, the small insignificant bump I had made with my kicking, and the approximate size of the hole that gives me a constant source of light during the day. The last one was particularly important because it was where the food came from, I had thought the tasteless slop I was given before was bad but that was before I was fed what they had in solitary confinement.

Stale crackers that I needed to break against the metal wall and a single cup of lukewarm water, not hot or cold or room temperature, lukewarm. I was certain the guards were fucking with me and heating my water up just slightly.

"It's the next best thing to be~"

My stomach rumbled and I grasped over it, the quantity was nowhere near enough for a man of my size. I hesitated to exercise, the amount of water I was given was also a lot less and the fear of dehydration was a real thing, as well as being even hungrier.

This hesitation left me with little at all to do though.

"Free as a bird~"

I tried to pass time by singing, it was almost as soothing as practicing earthbending, a reminder of home. It was admittedly dramatic but I felt justified in my moping. Can I even claim to be the person I used to be when no one will recognize me for that name, no one knows me here, they only know Tai Lung the prisoner.

I can't sing for long though, getting a sore throat on top of it all would suck.

This left me with the worst-case scenario just me and my thoughts, and my thoughts were not kind at all.

"Man, I am such an asshole." I whispered to myself, I hoped to not pick a habit. I would not like people to think I'm crazy…though all I needed to manage that is to try to convince them that I'm from another world in which their lives are just a TV show.

I dislike being left alone with nothing to do, my mind tended to go to some bad places, but there was only so much I could sleep to avoid myself. It played a part in why I trained so much physically, I was more toned than I ever remember being, which wasn't necessarily a good thing, I would trade abs for being stronger in a heartbeat.

Whatever the case, I couldn't sleep all day… literally, part of my stay here involved being deprived of sleep, I couldn't sleep for more than three hours in a row before a guard started banging on the door and waking me up. It had just been 24 hours so it hadn't affected me much at all, but I knew it would get much worse during the week.

I also couldn't exercise or practice my bending, so the only thing I could do was think and think for hours on end, which inevitably led to reviewing all I have done since I had been dropped here.

The result of said review left me feeling ashamed of myself. I have been taking a lot of kindness for granted, mom would be so angry. I ignored Zhang's recommendations about the pace of training, I took Ikem's helpful tips and freely given advice, and I treated the cooks that had fed me like shit not even bothering to learn the names of most of them while I stole coal for a dumb escape plan.

The undeniable truth was that I have been using all these people, I have said thanks but words are only worth so much when actions contradict them.

I knew I had my reasons. If this whole experience had taught me anything it was how much I took for granted before. Fuck! I was a university student a month ago and now I'm a novice geomancer kung fu wizard.

Food. Freedom. Human Decency. Comfort. Hobbies. Basic Hygiene.

All down the drain here, now I'm trapped with war prisoners, thieves, killers, fucking pirates, and worse. All for a crime I didn't commit, this was beyond any comprehension of injustice that my previous life could have prepared me for. I knew life wasn't roses and rainbows an abusive father and a brother with kidney problems did that to a kid.

The difference was that I could rationalize that as just personal misfortune, life was just like that, a lot of people had it better and a lot of people had it worse. I struggle to deal with just losing everything in the blink of an eye, going from having a potentially bright future to being barely treated as a human being.

I had cursed God more than once since this happened to me, in the safety of my own mind I had thought about what I would say to the big guy if I ever met him. I assume some kind of force did this to me, somehow that felt better than the possibility of this just happening to me. Like those backroom memes that have a guy step wrong and be in a different dimension.

Is there anything more pointless than a human being angry at God? God either doesn't exist in which case you're blaming thin air or They do in which case you can do nothing since they are wildly beyond you.

'Man, what am I now, an Emo?' I thought with a snort, then again I doubt any goth or emo kid ever experienced something quite like this.

I was aware enough that I wasn't in a good place right now mentally or ohysically. That doesn't justify being an asshole to people trying to help me. Being a good person can be so damn hard when you're stressed.

My rumination about my actions was cut short when a shadow fell over my face, knowing that there was only one way for that to happen I looked at the hole in the metal door to see the back of a guard's helmet, now this was new.

"Why hello there!" I said with false cheer, this promised some human interaction.

"U-Uuuh… Hi?" A male voice said, it sounded like he was straining his throat, trying to change it while he was talking to me maybe?

"I don't suppose you came to visit me here for a reason? Not that I mind some company." I said, staring intently at the back of the helmet for anything I could recognize. It covered too much though the angle made it so I couldn't see his neck to check for hair and skin color.

"I really like your singing." He blurted out, coughing awkwardly.

…Okay?

"I'm not particularly good though?" I felt slightly uncomfortable that someone had been paying so much attention to me passing time.

"Mhm? Oh your singing itself is mediocre," Ouch. "But the songs themselves are amazing, I have never heard them and that's amazing because my family and I are street performers. My mom loves to play the liuqin, my dad…"

He continued rambling on, talking about the different members of his family, I tried to pay attention but his words started blending together as he spoke too fast and didn't pause between phrases.

"So you came to visit me, an inmate in solitary confinement, because you were curious about the songs?" I asked with some incredulity. He probably didn't even realize that he had stopped trying to hide his true voice.

"Well it sounds bad when you put it like that, but I couldn't just leave a chance like this go! Besides, I'm only working as a guard temporarily to get some money for my family. My dream is to perform in the Royal Palace!" He said cheerfully, he didn't seem like prison guard material, especially for a prison like this. Honestly, I'm questioning how he got the job if this is how he truly is.

"That seems like a nice dream Mystery Man." I said with a growing smile, I could respect working to push your family forward.

"Oh! I forgot to introduce myself, you can call me Koko." The guard said. Not the weirdest name I have heard, though it was most likely a fake one.

"Hey Tai Lung, do YOU have a dream of your own?" He suddenly asked making me raise an eyebrow.

"Well for reasons that I'm sure are obvious I would love to enjoy freedom once again, and a soft bed with a nice warm meal would be delightful."

What was this guy's deal anyway? Asking an inmate this kind of question, I started to feel a bit uneasy.

"Well, that's boring." He bluntly said making me huff.

"I apologize if my desire for freedom is too uncreative for you." I sarcastically said but I was a bit too tired to put too much energy into it.

"Apology accepted! I'm sure we can think up a better dream for you than just moving out of an island, think about what you desire the most in the world!"

I almost said that freedom was what I wanted the most but the answer clearly wouldn't satisfy him. I knew the answer I just didn't want to think about it.

"To see my family again… no just knowing that they are okay would be enough for me." I said, shuddering, feeling cold, and tired.

"Oh? Did your family teach you all these wonderful songs?" Koko said, he still hadn't turned around to face me which just made me feel more suspicious.

"Some of them, others I found myself." The fact that there is a very real chance I will never hear Daft Punk again is a tragedy. How would I even explain those types of songs to someone in a world like this?

"Do you want to talk about it?" He offered with a leading tone I thought for a minute and shook my head.

"Sorry, but not happening." I barely can deal with the pain when I try my best to ignore it. I'm scared of just breaking down if I think too much about them, I'm not crying in front of this suspicious odd guard that I met minutes ago.

…

"Are song lyrics really the only reason you're here?" I finally asked with a judging stare.

"Well I'm here because this is my job" He said with a joking tone making me smile slightly "You shouldn't underestimate how much a new song can affect people's lives, and you have sung like 10 songs I have never heard of. Just the shock value alone would get a lot of fame for my family."

"So it's about fame?" I asked feeling slightly disappointed for some reason, not exactly surprised though.

"Nah!" He said with a chuckle "You just looked like you needed someone to talk to, helping someone when they need it is common sense " Even if I tried to hide my surprise I wouldn't have been able to. That… I wasn't sure what to say to that.

"I could be dangerous, I could be a killer, or a thief or worse." I found myself saying with some disbelief.

"Well my dad always says that someone that can sing their heart out sincerely can't be a bad person."

My brain stopped working for a second. I had the sudden urge to slap someone for teaching their children something so dangerous. With how many music artists from my world had been complete assholes or wife beaters, I couldn't take something like that seriously.

"Your father seems like a weird guy." I said with a chuckle, it was kind of rude but I couldn't stop myself.

"He sure is!" He cheerfully said with a tone full of pride, "Being called weird just means you're living your life to its fullest!"

I hummed at that. I could see a bit of truth to that, but sometimes people are just weird.

"I once had a teacher who always kept a boiled egg in his pocket when he got the munchies." I commented, the unburied memory making me chuckle a genuine grin on my face.

"A convenient source of energy on the go!" Koko exclaimed, like that had been a genius idea.

We shared a couple of minutes of silence. I appreciated the company. I hadn't realized how heavy the boredom and loneliness had been.

"Mhm, I should probably be leaving now, the next guard rotation will be coming in an hour or so, I would recommend getting a quick nap while you can" Koko said with a sigh.

I was about to thank him for the chat but he moved away a bit too quickly leaving me slightly befuddled at how fast he had walked off.

"What a weird guy…" I said to myself, a smile on my face refusing to leave. It was an interesting chat and it left me feeling lighter than before.

…Though there's something that's now in my mind.

As far as I know, I am the only person from my world here. There are implications that I had been too stressed or preoccupied to think about.

All the cultures, events, and historical figures from my world are only known by me here. Countless different civilizations, religions, forms of art, architecture, and traditions of literally billions of human beings… that only I am aware of.

I gave a shuddering breath, thinking too deeply about that felt weird so I tried to keep it out of my mind and focus on sleeping

"Hey if you're a lawyer and I'm studying to be a notary, we could work together right?" Ignacio said with a grin, making me grunt as I drove. Reaching our aunt's house was always a pain in the ass, seeing as the neighborhood was sketchy as fuck, though the food was incredible.

"Probably, don't get too ahead of yourself though, you're just a freshman." I said, turning up the radio's volume, Alors on danse has some great vibes.

"Sure, sure, but just think about it, the money we could make would be ridiculous. I would finally be able to buy a PS4! I have been meaning to play all the God of War games I have missed." He said with a chuckle. I nodded in agreement. While I didn't regret changing to PC, I did miss hacking Gods up. DMC was a good game but not the same.

"What about you Baby? Do you still want to be a Chef or something? Guess you can sell food to our clients so there's that." Ignacio called out. I wasn't surprised when Leonardo kept his face down on his phone. Not only did he hate the nickname but he was obviously listening to music.

He was just sixteen, plenty of time to choose whatever career he wanted to do.

"We're close… remember to not say something stupid no matter how annoying that little shit of our cousin is." I warned getting a groan out of the two of them. So Leonardo had been listening after all, cheeky brat.

"Yeah, yeah let's go. I haven't eaten aunt's ravioli in a while and I'm starving!" Ignacio said and I laughed at his reaction. I was hungry as well and soon I would feast on homemade pasta.

Life was good.

Bouncing on my toes, my fingers touch the ceiling of my cell. I did a little shuffle, grinned, and smacked the metal to my left with an open palm. I was feeling good, cheery even.

It had been a long while since I had woken up with this kind of energy. I just felt nice since I woke up, probably had a nice dream, not that I can remember what it was about.

I pressed my hand against the metal wall, feeling the texture as I moved it up and down. I know that Toph managed to bend metal making use of the impurities in it, though that was much easier in theory than it was in practice.

I wondered if it was even possible to do it without Toph's unique ability to see with her feet, and that wasn't even taking into account that Toph was an absolute master at Earthbending before she even tried bending metal, while I'm very far from that.

Being particularly uncharitable, what I was trying to do was no different than all those people that buy a punching bag and try to imitate Mike Tyson only to hurt their wrists. Still, it wasn't like I had much else to do and I had the energy for it.

Now how do I bend something I can't see and what is probably smaller than my fingertips?

...This was going to take a long while. I hadn't tried it too much while I was practicing my earthbending, preferring to actually learn the bending style metalbending was based on before putting any actual time into it.

It wasn't that I didn't believe metalbending would make things much easier for me, but it didn't seem like a wise decision to sink time into the concept when I didn't even know to levitate a pebble without it shaking.

"Tedious work now, easy work later." I said to myself, something that I really hoped didn't become a habit.

(5 days into Solitary Confinement)

"What are you doing? Trying to push the walls of the cell down?" A familiar voice startled me, one that I had been kind of hoping to see again. Better than the occasional mocking words the other guards gave me to pass time.

"And here I thought you had disappeared Koko." I say while still doing what I had been trying for almost two days in a row. My hands firmly pressed against one of the sidewalls of my cell, and turning my head to my right side I was disappointed but not really surprised to see the odd but friendly guard was giving me his back once more with his helmet being all I could see.

"It was surprisingly hard to get another opportunity to visit, shifts on solitary confinement are apparently really popular, something about being able to just nap the time off." Koko explained, making me think about it and chuckle. It certainly seemed easier than handling the prisoners in the yard.

"So how was your day?" I asked, my eyes closed as I tried to feel something on the metal wall any speck of dirt I could use. I don't think the small size of the impurities is the problem here, just the fact that I couldn't see what I was trying to bend that was making this almost impossible.

"Pretty good! ...Okay you got me curious, any reason why you're inspecting the metal wall? If you're looking for a secret door then I don't think you will be satisfied." Koko said with a curious look. I turned to look at him and almost caught him looking, but he had turned his head too quickly.

"Would you believe me if I said I was inspecting the craftsmanship?" I joked, not saying anything more than that. Some guards had seen me doing the same but this was hardly something that was against the rules, no one knew that metalbending was possible so they just thought I was delusional or going crazy.

Not that I told anyone that what I'm trying to do is metalbending. Refuge in Audacity, if I acted like what I was doing wasn't suspicious and they had no way of knowing otherwise then the guards wouldn't pay attention to me.

"Well, whatever keeps you entertained I suppose. Speaking of, I brought something that I thought you may like." I stopped my movement as a delicious smell reached me, was that pork? How did I just now notice it?

"I picked up a plate of something small enough to pass for the gap." My stomach rumbled, the lack of food had been getting to me.

Seeing something poking up between the bars, I actually got to see Koko's fingers which were a pale white. Gently grabbing the roll, I saw it had finely cut pork, carrots, and thin noodles wrapped in some kind of transparent roll, it was nice and warm.

"I love spring rolls so I thought I would share some" Koko explained, I took the time to smell the crispy delicacy "I'm sorry but I couldn't find any soy sauce in the kitchen"

I shook my head and took a nice bit, slowly chewing and being mindful to enjoy it as much as I could, the pork tasted slightly different than what I had been expecting but it was still delicious, and I found myself holding onto the tiny snack with both hands.

To think I wasted so much food before…

"T-Thank you…" I said after swallowing my first bite, hoping that my sincereness came through.

"Don't worry about it! The food they give inmates here is horrendous, especially for those in solitary confinement. Thought you would appreciate what the cooks here can make when not ordered to make tasteless slop."

"You could get in trouble for this you know?" I warned even as I took another bite.

"I won't be working here for a lot longer, I'm actually going to leave around the same time your time in solitary ends, funny coincidence" Koko said with a thoughtful tone… and now i'm suddenly remembering of the ship I had been planning to sneak into before I got thrown into this.

"What the fuck was I thinking?" I asked myself as I chewed. It probably had something to do with my complete lack of progress at bending metal so far.

"Mhm, you said something?" Koko asked another spring roll poking through the hole in the metal door, I quickly took it stuffing what was left of the previous into my mouth and finishing it.

"Don't worry about it." I said after almost choking.

"...Hey Koko? Are you a bender?" I asked after a few seconds.

"Nope, not sure why everyone is so obsessed with the whole four elements thing, or I guess it's three now." He said casually, speaking about the basis of the culture of the world like a parent would a trend their kids are into.

"Well being able to shoot fire out of your hands tends to have an impact, mainly on flammable things." I joked with a shake of my head.

"Sure, that's cool and all, but isn't it kind of boring? I swear it feels like people base their entire personalities around the whole fire thing, good luck finding someone that doesn't wear red or orange clothes in the Fire Capital." Koko said with a scoff at the end making me chuckle.

"I suppose so, but I think it's nice though. It feels very soothing" I said without thinking.

I almost bit my tongue as I realized that I had admitted to being a bender out of reflex, Koko didn't make any comments though just continuing the conversation.

"Guess so, I suppose that I just find bending boring. There's no art, just repeating motions taught at a boot camp by some old dude. I have seen some performers in festivals do some amazing things with firebending, wonderful tricks that left me wide-eyed!" He said passionately, the cheery attitude was contagious and left me feeling happy. A feeling that was depressingly rare since ending in this world, satisfied and proud of my progress at bending, but not happy.

I thought about the original series, the dragons had taught Aang and Zuko about how firebending could be used for more than destruction, it was one of the best scenes in the series by far.

"Sadly, I don't think people can focus too much on pursuing art when worrying about just surviving."

I wasn't talking about just the war, from what I remembered most settlements Aang and company visited were tiny villages, with hybrid beasts, and the potential of regular problems like droughts and natural disasters and being a farmer in this world becomes very unappealing.

Imagine plowing the fields only to have to deal with mosquito-wasp hybrids. I shudder just imagining the existence of such a foul insect.

"There's always time for art" Koko said with a steely tone. I had the feeling that he not only truly believed that, but that it was a very important part of his worldview.

"Maybe there is." I conceded, pretty sure that art has been something humans have been doing since as long as they were a thing, painting caves or something like that.

Finishing my second spring roll I sighed with satisfaction, I felt much better though I still had the urge to yawn.

"Hey Koko… thanks for all this." I said after a couple of minutes of enjoyable silence. Funny how silence was disturbing when I was alone but comforting with someone else.

"Eh, don't worry about it. Picking up some spring rolls was easy, just had to ask for a few snacks for my shift" He said with a chuckle.

"No, not that. Well, actually yes but it's more than that." I tried to say, getting a confused noise out of him.

"Thank you for keeping me company. Having someone to talk to is nice, I really appreciate it." I said with some embarrassment "You have nothing to gain from doing this."

There were the songs but I only had the lyrics to them, I wasn't enough of a musician to really explain how all the instruments were supposed to be played. He still had to put significant effort into whatever song I gave him to make it actually worth something.

"I once heard from an old man that helping people can be its own reward." Koko said with an exaggerated sagely tone that ended with a chuckle "Look, being honest with you Tai Lung I didn't really think about approaching you too much. I just heard some interesting songs, walked here, and decided to help someone out."

"It can't be that simple."

"Why? Should I act like some of the guards here and beat and humiliate the prisoners? There's no point in something like that, besides I was taught better than to just go around being a horrible person."

Koko's words stunned me for a second. Wasn't I taught better as well? To do unto others as you would have them do unto you? Those words were taught and repeated to me as a child countless times. It felt like I could finally think clearly again.

All the rudeness, lying, manipulation, and even my fervent desire to escape… was it moral or justified in my situation? It all boiled to one question.

If Koko had tried to stop me from escaping what would I have done? Would I have used the skills taught to me by Zhang to hurt him? Kill him?

As much as it shamed me I knew the answer. If a random guard charged at me while freedom was in sight there was a high chance I would do some permanent damage if needed.

What other choice would I have? Can I really keep the morals of my original world here? Aang could only spare Ozai's life because he was the Avatar, the human with the biggest stick of them all. He got a way to deal with someone as powerful as Ozai non-lethally handed to him, and even then it only worked because he was the fucking Avatar.

Not that I wanted to be like Aang, I wasn't a monk. But there has to be something in between pacifist monk and being an asshole.

Like an epiphany, I realized what was needed if I wanted to remain the man I was in my original world and not this terrified idiot I have been quickly becoming.

Power. If I want to be able to keep my morals I needed to be powerful enough, the same way the Avatar can be a beacon of morality and be heard by everyone due to their power. I can be the man I used to be… no a better man.

I can stand for my ideals if I'm strong in both earthbending and character. It's a tall order, I would need to reach the level of someone like Bumi who was a literal Earth King, or a prodigy like Toph.

I will need to be the most powerful earthbender on the planet, it seemed like a silly dream, an arrogant one from a man that is barely a novice at bending.

But…there's the small, minuscule chance that there's a way to get back home, and if said chance exists I will find it in the path of strength. Mom, Ignacio, and Leonardo… the three people I loved more than life itself. If it's to see them again, then even something as crazy as becoming the strongest earthbender to ever live is possible.

I hadn't dared to dream too much, but assuming an intelligent being put me here then I should be able to get them to throw me back where I belonged.

A man's dreams have no end.

"Koko thank you so much, you have gifted me with something amazing."

I grinned the exhaustion of constant sleep deprivation for five days in a row feeling almost gone, the moment of clarity of purpose and hope fueling me.

"Well… that's nice? Glad to be of help I guess." Koko said with an embarrassed tone that made me start laughing.

"And I'm glad you're here, so how about I share with you some new songs?"

"I was hoping you would say that the second I'm finished with this job! I'm going to visit my family and share all of them." Koko said with an eager tone.

What song to start with? Maybe some Jim Croce?

The war prisoners of the Earth Kingdom chatted amongst themselves, enjoying their limited time talking amongst each other, most didn't know anyone else in the group before getting thrown in the Boiler but had since grown into quite a tight-knit group.

Knowing this it was not surprising that they all tensed and stood ready to beat someone up as a man practically barged into their little corner of the Yard and walked directly to their unofficial leader., only recognizing the week-long missing face of their group's most recent addition stopping them.

The group parted, a man practically stumbling forward eyes dark and face exhausted from lack of sleep. Every single man and woman looked as the boy they had known for a few weeks now practically fell to his knees.

"Tai Lung, you're back!" Lao Ge cheerfully said, the giant of a man walking forward to pat the man's back.

"Zhang." Tai Lung said firmly with a tone that called everyone's attention, not like he hadn't gotten it before.

"I see you survived your first stay in solitary confinement, you don't look as bad as I had been expecting." Zhang said from his spot sitting on a rock. The man had the highest rank and the most experience, no one could argue or complain about his leadership.

"Well, I had it better than I expected." Tai Lung said before shaking his head and taking a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, I trained by myself without telling you because I wanted quicker results, not only that but I asked you for help doing something as dangerous as escaping the prison without considering how that would put not only your life but everyone else's in danger. I have been using you for your knowledge without appreciating it as I should." Tai Lung suddenly said, creating an awkward air around the group.

"Get up, you look ridiculous." Zhang said with a snort, not missing a beat or looking particularly affected, "Apology accepted, not that what you did was so bad, we never discussed the terms of your apprenticeship so I can't complain too much."

"You often talked about the value of patience and I didn't listen." Tai Lung said with a sigh, getting up with a grunt.

"Do you think all earthbenders are perfectly stoic? The greatest earthbender I have ever known once set his pet to fetch him some food in the market because he was bored… his pet is a goat gorilla." Zhang joked, more than one soldier knew of Mad King Bumi's reputation and I couldn't help but grimace.

"Patience is important yes, but only as long as you know when to act, something you learn with experience. You're a novice, expecting such wisdom from you without being taught would be foolish"

"I'm still sorry. You have been nothing but helpful and kind to me, I have let fear control me… but I refuse to let that keep happening. I refuse to be scared, I refuse to let this prison strip me of my morals and soul." Tai Lung said his tone growing increasingly intense.

"I want… no, I will become a better man, I want to start that asking if you will keep teaching me, I will understand if you say no."

"I see that a lot more happened during that week than I thought." Zhang said with a thoughtful tone, "I can't teach you to be a good person, morals don't exactly work like that, but if you want to learn earthbending, and I do mean truly learn it, then I can oblige." Zhang said with a tone full of wisdom "Though I will warn you this training will test you, and it may end up taking months before I feel you're adequate enough."

"Thank you so very much, I promise to listen to your teachings to the best of my abilities… no matter how long it takes." There was a moment of silence, multiple soldiers feeling like they were witnessing something extremely important, something that could have long lasting consequences far from the Boiling Rock.

"Wha'? That's all you wanted!? Don't worry little guy I will teach you all you need to know!" Lao Ge shouted making more than a few soldiers chuckle.

"Y-You are an earthbender?"

"Of course, here's the secret! Earthbending is all about grabbing a big rock… and pushing it somewhere else" Lao Ge said, imitating Zhang's teaching tone.

…

"Well, he isn't too off the mark." Zhang said with a shrug, causing a round of laughter to be shared around the crowd.

"Amazing advice." Tai Lung said with a bland tone, "Now, if anyone finds any pillow-shaped rock that would be great, I have gone a full week with guards poking me awake at random times and I'm feeling like shit!"

AN: Sorry this took so long, was busy with this and that, and starting a new college semester certainly made things a bit harder. Here we have some actual character development for our dashing MC, Tai Lung is actually quite a tragic character, he lost everything and didn't even get any hacks besides earthbending, he also got sent to prison.

For those worried about the MC staying in the Boiling Rock for too long, that will not happen, we will have timeskip soon, with some training montages and Tai Lung's inevitable escape.