Hi guys! Here's the chapter, at last!
I only own Zahira, Captain Hong, Niang, Xin Li, and Sovan.
Keep on writing reviews!
Enjoy! :D
Note: Niang mentions wearing voice-changing mouthpieces. I assume that they're something like the yellow pipes on an Equalist's mask.
Zahira was not a happy camper.
She stretched, her back throbbing. Bumi turned over slightly.
"Z, can't this wait?" he mumbled before getting kissed lightly on the cheek. "You don't see me getting up right now, do you? For spirits' sake, it's six in the morning!"
"No, but then again it wasn't your fleet that was attacked, was it?" she said tersely, changing out the bindings she was wearing. "If the kids ask, tell them-"
"I'll tell them that Mom's busy kicking criminal butt."
"I was going to say training recruits but hey, that works too," she said, stepping into her uniform. "I'll try to be back by lunch, but who knows how long this is going to take?"
Fifteen minutes later she arrived on base.
"Like clockwork," her superior, Captain Hong, said upon seeing Master Sergeant Zahira.
"What do we have today, Captain?"
"Remember those cocky sons-of-Sozin who tried to take down our fleet and failed?"
"Yes, Captain. My back and ribs remember, too."
"We were doing a cursory check when we found one of them stowed away. I figured I would let you have to honor of interrogating them."
Zahira turned to face the captain. "Me, Captain? Are you sure?"
"I've already made them very, very compliant. They shouldn't cause you problems, and if they do they'll answer to me. That's what happens when they mess with the Forces' best firebender."
"Thanks, Captain. I am truly honored."
"You are a prodigy, just like your mother. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it. Now go get them!"
The suspect was a young woman whose black bangs fell into her striking grey eyes. She could turn heads, but her scrawny stature, worn clothes and gaunt face detracted from her potential beauty.
"You've run up quite a track record, Niang," Zahira commented, looking at the file in front of her. "You've been arrested five times for stealing, three times for lockpicking, three times for running away, twice for vagrancy, and you aren't even twenty yet."
The girl's face remained blank.
"Are you really going to cold-shoulder it? That would be bad, because we're currently looking at having you serve at least twenty years in military prison."
Niang rolled her eyes, looking bored.
The master sergeant got up suddenly, causing the girl to nearly fall out of her chair. Purple flames radiated from her palms.
"There's two ways to go about this. You can cooperate," she said, then pushed the flames closer to the girl's face. "Or you can cooperate," she hissed.
Niang waited, the blue tips of the flame kissing her face. Slowly, she nodded.
"Good, now we can get on with this. But first things first; how on earth did you rack up such a record?"
"My father killed my mother in a fit of drunken rage when I was 11 in Ba Sing Se. I escaped with my then-three year old brother to my godmother's house in Makapu by caravan. When we got there and told her what had happened, her already fragile mind snapped. We then fled to Republic City, where I would lock-pick abandoned houses for us to live in and steal food for us to survive on."
"Were you not placed in an orphanage?"
"Oh we were, but they completely abused us there. We found out we could bend not long after we got there, which led to the revelation that we were the only benders in the entire place. I was able to conceal my waterbending to the point of almost losing it completely, but my brother was too strong an earthbender to hide it. This led to us being treated like outcasts and our running away. We did slightly better, though."
Zahira raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"I won a Sato grant to study at Wushu. They let me take my brother too when they saw his bending skills."
The master sergeant gave a slight nod of approval. "Impressive." This girl was special, to be sure; only seven Sato grants, which would pay for all of a person's education and almost guarantee them a job, were given out each year. Also, she was accepted to train at Wushu School of the Self Defense Arts, perhaps the most prestigious bending school in all of the Republic. It was known by many as a school of prodigies, since they were the only ones who could get in.
"This still doesn't answer one question, though."
"What is it?"
"How did you end up on the ship?"
"I heard my father had wrangled himself a job in the United Forces; more specifically, a job on your fleet. I was eager to see if this was true when I was summoned to the North Pole. Apparently, my father had also been seen there. I and a group of other people who were also summoned combed the entire area but didn't find him."
"Wait, the North Pole? Have you been in the Earth Kingdom at all, or the South Pole?"
"No, we haven't-in fact, the invasion of your fleet was really our first attack. I have no idea who blew up the ships, though; we were only supposed to go in, see if he was there, take him, and then get out."
"Your father wouldn't happen to be a waterbender, would he? Or your godmother, perhaps?"
"No, he's an earthbender, like my brother. My godmother doesn't bend, but I'm not even sure if she's alive still. I haven't been in contact with her since her mind snapped."
"What is her name?"
"Xin Li."
"Who summoned you?"
"I don't know-all I got for my summoning was an unsigned, typed up letter telling me that I was to go to the North Pole. For my travel expanses, a tidy sum was provided, with more to come if I actually went. I probably should have questioned it more, but after growing up not knowing when your next meal is, you take what you can."
"What happened to the others?"
"I don't know. When they found out my father wasn't on the ship, the blame automatically fell on me, his daughter. I managed to take out a few of them with my knives and bending but they soon overpowered me, knocked me out, and placed in that closet where you all found me. No, I wasn't the leader of the invasion-again, I was summoned to attack with a tidy sum that I should have questioned. To answer your next question, I don't know who the leader is. I just follow orders so I can get paid and provide for my little brother."
"Do you have a slight idea where they would go?"
"I don't know. Maybe they would go back to the Earth Kingdom, but I wouldn't go searching for them. The only reason everyone's together is because of the cash that comes with each summoning, and after our job's done we go back to whatever we did before. Also, we wear masks to conceal our faces and mouthpieces to change our voice, so I couldn't point them out to you even if I tried."
Zahira leaned back, troubled.
"Am I in trouble still?"
"No, you're not. You may leave, but stay at Wushu. We are going to need you later on, so it's best you stick around."
"Of course."
With that the lithe young woman gracefully strode out of the interrogation room. Zahira buried her head in her hands.
"You know what this means, right?"
The master sergeant looked up to find her superior sitting across from her.
"That now we have two anti-bending lunatics on the loose? I mean, the other one only hates one earthbender, but that hate could quickly escalate. The girl could also be lying, but I don't know…"
"No, she was telling the truth. I find that body language tells us more than words ever can. Besides, I thought I recognized her. I've been frequenting Wushu for talent we could commission, and she consistently stood out as one of the top waterbenders, not to mention as a top knife thrower-her accuracy is incredible. I was going to make her an offer when she disappeared without a trace. I guess we know where she went now."
"We should look into the godmother. Trust me, being mentally unhinged and bearing a prejudice against benders is not a good combination, Captain."
"Already have. About six years ago, Xin Li took in her godchildren Niang and Sovan. From what I could tell, she assumed that the parents would be coming in the next couple days after their arrival. A week or so went by, and no parents, so she confronted Niang on the true nature of their stay. When the girl told her, she lost her already fragile mind. The kids left the next day for Republic City. She didn't stay long either-she left for a sanatorium soon after."
"Do you know where, Captain Hong?"
The captain flipped through the file. "Somewhere in the Fire Nation I think, why?"
A smile played upon the master sergeant's lips. "I know exactly where to go."
