CW for implied past trauma.

"Well, you caught the culprits. Junior confirmed the two of them were responsible for his injuries and the destruction of the fruit store. They're a couple punk kids whose parents are either dead or in jail," Beifong spoke to Mike through the bars of his cell, where he'd been returned after he'd collapsed following the arrest of the two girls and himself. "Seems to be the case more and more these days." She cleared her throat. "Unfortunately for you, I can't just let you go anymore."

"I thought you were so eager to get rid of me," Mike replied. His shoulders were slumped, his hair an absolute mess; he looked so very tired.

"I was. But one of your little friends upstairs implicated you as a former member of the same triad as those girls. You already did time, sure, but according to your records there was no real evidence you'd ever been connected to them. Until now."

I was in a gang? was the only thought going through Mike's head. "E-even if that was true, which I doubt, I don't remember anything like that, why would it make a difference now?" he asked.

"Safety. I couldn't let someone who's known to be part of a triad go free just like that. What if you went back?" Beifong argued.

"You were just about to ship me out without a second thought knowing what they can do! You let us stay for a whole month on an island full of people and the only problems were with the Avatar and her attitude, which wasn't my fault. Was safety not a concern then?" he countered. "Make up your mind already!" The air felt much dryer; Beifong could have sworn she spotted little water droplets in the air. "I hate Hatchet and what he gets people to do. I'd never work for him."

Beifong sighed. "You're not the only one we need to worry about in this situation, kid."

"If there were any plans to join or rejoin or whatever with Hatchet, I wouldn't let it happen. Vito was around for the arrest, wasn't he? Did he not have something to say about it?" he pressed further.

"Couldn't tell. Whoever was there was knocked out cold."

"I wonder whose fault that is," Mike said with a frown, turning away from her with a clink from the cuffs. There was a small silence before he started to shrink into himself. "Don't say that…I can handle this by myself—yes I can!" he said to no one visible in the cell. "Stop it, stop saying that, it's not true—" He couldn't plug his ears like he had the instinctive urge to, which led to a yanking of the chain and Beifong to feel a concentrated flick of water hit her in the back of the neck. "Stop it!" He squeezed his eyes shut.

Only one of them opened. 'Mike' shifted his stance; some of his hair fell over his left eye. "You are a fascinating human," he said with little genuine emotion, staring Beifong down. "One tiny piece of irrelevant, outdated information was enough to dispel an entire month's worth of evidence for you. Incredible." He took in a breath before grinning.

The room was getting colder.

Why was the room getting colder?

"You don't make my job easy, kid," Beifong replied stiffly, uncertain and alert. "I'm not going to brush something like that off so quickly if it means my city will be safer for it."

He took another deep breath in. The air grew colder still and felt drier than before. "You go on and on about safety, but no one can ever be safe. Someone will always come and destroy you… unless you are prepared to destroy them first." He exhaled, blowing freezing breath over the cuffs on his hands, effectively breaking through the gaps in the metal and dismantling them, the pieces clattering to the floor. He very rapidly unfroze the water and used it to do the same to the foot cuffs.

"I've been lenient til now with you, what's-your-name, but you're not going anywhere," Beifong assured him with a frown. "There's more than enough guards in this hallway alone. You wouldn't make it two steps out of that cell."

"I don't need to leave the cell," he replied, the lock on the door freezing over and sliding the whole thing open. "You can't keep me here. I barely moved and undid all your pathetic security. You're going to let us go, you have no other option."

Beifong cursed under her breath; he was right. She couldn't keep them there any longer. They couldn't be secured, at least not in the traditional way. "I can still send you back to your family," she recalled. "I still have that option." She felt the little drops of sweat on her forehead freeze solid. The places where her skin wasn't covered by her armored uniform were frigid. "The original deal could still go forward."

His hands had curled tightly. The air stood still. "I don't have one of those," he said under his breath, his arms wrapping around his torso. "These damned clothes are so thin." His fingers clawed around the fabric, "I can't move." He was looking at nothing in particular; his one visible eye was wide open. His breath was slow to the point of being unnoticeable.

It was over a minute before there was a gasp and Mike almost fell over from how tense the body was. He was breathing hard; the cold in the room receded, as did the ice on the lock and cuffs. He looked at his hands and was shocked to see they were freed. "Are you letting me go?" he asked Beifong, slowly noticing the broken door as well.

She blinked. "…come with me. I've got a phone call to make."

Meanwhile, a few cells over, Courtney was pacing back and forth, muttering to herself while her handcuffs clinked and clanked. Zoey was sat against the wall, looking at the ceiling. Her glove was long gone, confiscated, and she was holding her now naked hand in her other as if feeling pressure there was comforting. "So this is what cells are like. I guess those letters from my dad weren't lying," she commented with a sigh.

"We're not staying here much longer, Zoey, don't get too comfortable," Courtney told her through clenched teeth. "I'm gonna get us out of here, you just have to follow my lead."

"Are we going to steal my glove back?" Zoey asked seriously.

"There's a bunch of them at base. You can just get a new one."

"No, it has to be that one."

Courtney paused. That would complicate things. But Zoey would be much more useful if she could actually harm people in their escape. "Sure, we'll find a way to get that too. If there's an opportunity. Don't get your hopes up."

Zoey grinned and cracked her knuckles.