Author's Note: Raiden's song for this chapter is "Try" by Pink.

Chapter 62

Raiden stared down into the bubbling lake as he took the gondola across the steaming hot waters surrounding the prison. If he were afraid of heights, swinging from this precarious wire would have wracked his nerves.

As soon as he disembarked, guards showed him to Colonel Karai's office. He braced himself, entered, and saluted smartly.

"Reporting for duty, sir."

"Captain Raiden." The colonel got up from his desk and walked around it, the better to survey his underling more closely. "I'm delighted to see you here, though not surprised. I suppose you've learned your lesson."

He bristled. "What lesson is that, sir?"

"Play with fire, you get burned," Karai answered, smiling smugly.

Raiden stayed silent, unsure how much the higher-ranking man knew about his activities with the White Lotus. But it seemed he was only gloating over the end of his relationship with Azula.

"I knew the Fire Lord would lose interest in you," the colonel went on. "She's too volatile, with a temper just like her father's. And a peasant like you could only keep a royal lady's attention for so long. I can't blame you for taking your shot, though. I wonder, does she like to be on top? Or is she into some role reversal? Either way, I'm sure you had fun while it lasted. Agni knows that figure of hers is divine—"

Raiden stepped threateningly close to his commanding officer, taking advantage of his superior height, and spoke in a low, dangerous whisper. "You can command me to jail an innocent protester. You can use your position to try to turn this country backward. You can make my life hell while I'm here. But you will not speak that way about Fire Lord Azula."

"Or what?" Karai challenged. "You'll put one of your arrows through me, and become a prisoner here instead of a guard? I should write you up for insubordination. Again."

"Go right ahead," the captain dared him. It was foolish of Karai to threaten a man who'd already lost everything. In fact, Raiden wanted to be written up. Maybe the story would travel to the top of the chain, and Azula would call him back. "If the Fire Lord hears what you've said about her, I'm sure she'll take my part."

Karai seemed to think better of his threat, and stepped back, working to maintain his dignity. "You're dismissed, Captain. Your duties will start bright and early in the morning."

It was dinnertime, so Raiden went down to the cafeteria where the guards were eating. After he got his tray of unappetizing food, he looked around for a place to sit, and heard a familiar voice call out his name.

It was Akane, his ex-girlfriend. She waved him over and he joined her table. She introduced him to the other guards at her table as an old friend. Still reeling from his encounter with the hostile colonel, he was pleasant but distant, mostly just listening to their talk and trying to learn about the new place where he found himself. After dinner, Akane pulled him aside to speak privately.

"I'm surprised to see you here. I thought you were dating the Fire Lord."

"How did you—"

"I read about your big opera date in the paper."

"Ah." He smiled, then winced at the memory. "Best and worst night of my life."

Her eyes searched him. "You did fall in love, then."

"Yeah." He looked away.

"Can I ask what happened?" Her voice was gentle.

He sighed, hesitated, then decided that he trusted her enough to tell. Besides, he couldn't fall much farther.

"When I was first promoted to captain, it was because I had agreed to spy on the Fire Lord. I informed on her when she plotted to kidnap a member of the Resistance–remember when I went with her to the Eastern Oasis? Then, over a year later, after Azula and I began a relationship, I came clean with her about what I'd done, and she couldn't forgive it."

"Can I ask who you were spying for?"

He shook his head. "I shouldn't say. But you know my politics, and what kinds of goals I would have been supporting with these activities. I stopped when I felt the demands of the organization went too far, but by that time my work was no longer necessary. Azula had become the kind of Fire Lord we always wanted to serve."

"Was that what made you fall for her?" Akane guessed.

"That was definitely part of it."

"I'm sorry it didn't work out. Do you think she'll call you back?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. But I'm not holding out hope. My betrayal triggered some stuff for her. And you know Colonel Karai hates me, so this assignment is not likely to be temporary, unless Azula changes her mind." The corner of his rueful mouth lifted with satisfaction. "He's here because of me."

"Karai?"

He nodded. "I asked Azula to get him to retire early. He refused, so she sent him here."

Akane whistled, impressed. "Wow. You're pretty influential."

"I was."

"If you want to talk about it, I'm here," she offered.

"I appreciate that. Does that mean…."

"That I found someone else?" Akane grinned. "Yeah, I have, although I like to think that after almost 2 years I would have been ok talking to you anyway. Yamoto and I have been together over a year. We took care of each other when we were in the Earth Kingdom prison. When he got placed here by the lottery, I requested to follow. It's not the best assignment, but it's temporary. We're hoping to get stationed together on Ma'inka Island or Jonduri after this rotation."

"That's great. I'm glad you're happy." Raiden mustered a smile. Finding Akane here almost made up for being separated from his other friends in the palace. But seeing the way she glowed when talking about her life with Yamoto made him feel lonelier, remembering how Azula had planned to spend her future with him.

Tired from his journey and adjustment to his new role, Raiden lay down in the tiny bedroom allotted to him. Like the rest of the prison, it was oppressively warm and smelled of rotten eggs. He thought longingly of his comfortable apartment in the capital, then of the bed he'd shared with Azula in the hunting cabin.

The next morning, his work began. Someone of his rank couldn't be given menial duties like cleaning toilets, but Karai managed to find some pretty terrible jobs for him anyway. Raiden was put in charge of prison discipline, which required him to interrogate and penalize prisoners who disobeyed orders or caused disruptions. He also had to reprimand the guards for their minor rule infractions. He generally chose to be as lenient as regulations allowed, hoping that a stern lecture or an appeal to pragmatism would prevent the situation from recurring.

He could not really blame the convicts for resenting their internment, or the guards for cutting corners in their duties. The prisoners' living conditions were abysmal, and the guards' not much better. The constant smell of sulfur, the humidity from the steam rising off the lake, and the hot, metallic taste of the air itself was enough to drive a person mad. About half of the internees were the most violent offenders in the Fire Nation—murderers, rapists, arsonists—while the other half were political prisoners from Ozai and Azulon's days. The guards were all there because their commanding officers wanted to punish them, or because they had lost the placement lottery.

The reason for this situation was that, unfortunately, Azula's reforms had not yet extended to the prison system. In her short reign, she had not had time to fix everything, and had chosen to prioritize other issues, like world peace, the economy, and education. The only change she had made to the country's penal institutions was ordering an end to the death penalty and corporal punishment. Now, Raiden was grateful for that change, as he was sure Karai would have ordered him to personally whip as many people as possible, if he could have. But the captain wished he had advocated for improvements to this prison while he'd had the chance—although the more he wandered the facility, the more he thought the place was beyond repair. Better to pardon the nonviolent offenders, send the others elsewhere, and shut the whole place down.

He had been serving at the Boiling Rock about a week, when he received a package. The letter inside read:

My boy,

I'm sorry it's come to this. I won't scold you for blabbing; I understand why you did. A conscience is a pesky thing that often causes us to sabotage ourselves, but we all certainly want everyone else to have one, don't we? I'll do what I can for you from here, but don't hold your breath for relief. I hope these tokens make your confinement a little more bearable.

Piandao

The package contained a box of fine tea, a bottle of whiskey, a deck of cards, and a newly published history book about the doomed resistance to Sozin's absolutism.

At night in his bunk, in the few moments before sleep took him, Raiden realized that though he wasn't really happy, at least he was free of self-recrimination and guilt. It would have been worse if I hadn't told Azula, he realized. I may ache for missing her, and I may be stuck here in this terrible place, doing this shit work, but if I were still in the halls of power and in her arms, then I would be lying awake worrying about the secret coming out, or anxious about deciding when I should tell her. This way, at least my conscience is clear. Despite his physical discomfort, his heart was at peace. The captain slept well.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Please leave me a review!