A month passes with Suki and I slowly distributing the dumpling weeds to fellow prisoners. We don't tell them where we grow them, or what they look like, so we don't get turned into the warden again and they aren't overpicked. It isn't a full meal, but it is enough to give us the strength to push through.

Suki and I practice different fighting moves together, in the blindspot created by the watchtower. She shows me the Kyoshi Warrior moves sans fan, and I show her the airbending moves I once knew. Kyoshi developed the style of fighting that the Kyoshi Warriors use, which is similar to airbending. The technique's aim is to use an opponent's own strength against them.

It is easy to talk to Suki, but we do not discuss Aang's death. It is too heavy a topic amongst the weight of the humidity. Aang was a symbol of hope that the war was finally coming to an end. His death signifies that the hope is gone, likely forever. If the war never ends, Suki and I will be stuck here forever.

One day, when Suki and I are resting in the shade of the watchtower, Suki poses the question that I didn't want to think about. "You said Princess Azula thought you were a bad influence on Zuko. Why is that?"

Oh, spirits, I never wanted to think about Zuko like this again. I take a deep breath, holding it to keep the anxiety at bay, just like Iroh said. I don't want to share this, but I know it will help me to move forward. Away from a smiling Zuko. "His uncle and I once thought there was good in him. We were on the run from the Fire Nation, and we ended up in Ba Sing Se. We were happy. I - I was - I thought Zuko was happy.

"But then Azula showed up. And he chose to fight her over us. After everything. Then we saved him from her, and she wormed her way into his mind. She offered Zuko everything he ever wanted. He chose going back to a place that was never home for him, with people that didn't love him, over Iroh and I. People that did love him and care for him."

My throat is tightening, and I look up at the sun. There is something moving in front of it, a circle blocking part of the sun. I nudge Suki, pointing up at the sun. "Suki, look!"

She looks up and gasps, saying, "It's the Day of Black Sun!" She stands, ecstatic.

My choked up feelings about Zuko are washed away like the sun. "The what?"

"The Day of Black Sun! The moon fully covers the sun, making firebending useless! Sokka told me about it! He went to Ba Sing Se to inform the King that it would be the perfect time to attack the Fire Lord and end the war!"

Firebending useless? "Maybe we can coordinate an attack to get out of here? If there isn't any firebending, the guards will be useless!" I say, standing up and grabbing her hand.

She's looking up at the sky with such intensity, it's hard to read her. After a moment, Suki shakes her head and says, "No, not all of the guards are firebenders. Most of the inmates are and hardly any of them know how to fight without their bending. They would be hard to convince. Plus, they don't keep any of the shipping balloons stationed here. There is nothing at the top of the gondola. And the balloons are powered by fire."

I sit back down, despair rolling over me. Some of the other prisoners have noticed the weird thing going on with the sun, as the temperature is dropping somewhat and it is getting darker.

Then, the bell for everyone to return to their cells starts to go off, more aggressive than normal. The guards are worried, unsure about the sun. Can't wait for them to find out they can't bend shortly.

Despite Suki's reasoning, the rage I feel at Zuko and Azula is still nestled quite nicely into my heart. Even with the exercise I get with fake fighting Suki, I am restless. Angry. I don't want to just sit around and do nothing. Not when I am faced with what seems like the only opportunity to leave.

No, I don't want to leave. I want to fight back. Fight back like I couldn't when Zuko betrayed us and Azula killed Aang. I want to let some of this pent up rage out, and the closest outlet for that is the guards. An extension of Azula and Zuko's royalty. The closest thing to that is a guard's unprotected face, because they hate wearing the plates.

The closest guard is on the little walkway that I can easily jump up to. They are alone, but they keep looking up at the sun and back down at the prisoners that are slowly walking back to their cells. They are looking up at the sun when I jump and hoist myself up onto the ledge. It takes a lot of my energy just to get up, but I am now fueled by rage.

The light goes away, and everything is dark, and the guard tries to bend a fire whip at me, but can't. I, seeing their hesitation, throw a fist straight at their face. There is so much behind my fist - my rage, my grief, my betrayal - that I hear the bones in their nose crack and give underneath my hand. Blood flows easily.

Somewhere, far away, I hear laughter.

I only recognize the laughter as mine when I am shoved into a small cell in solitary. It echoes against the walls until it, eventually, turns into sobs.

Over a week passes before I am taken from solitary. I expect an encounter with the warden, to question me or to push me down further into the hole I've made. It's likely that he has worse things to do, like dealing with the aftermath of the Day of Black Sun. Instead, I am just released into the yard with all the other prisoners.

Suki comes up to me, as she is the only friend I've really made in this place. She sits me down on the rock that we've deemed as ours. She passes me a few dumpling weeds, but I haven't really had an appetite since my breakdown in solitary.

I don't share this with Suki, especially because I feel useless, forgotten, abandoned by all of the people I've ever cared about. Instead, she lets me sit in quiet company, her hand a comfort on my back.

Eventually, we are ordered back to our cells. I lay down immediately in my cot, considering I spent the last ten days wedged upright into a corner of the tiny solitary cell. It isn't much, and it is far from comfortable, but I fall asleep on the hard mattress rather quickly.

I'm not asleep for long, because my door squeaks open and closes loudly. I sit up, saying, "Oh, did I forget something in solitary? I could've sworn I took all my toenails with me when I left!"

"You were put in solitary? What for?!"

There are two things wrong here. One, guards don't really ask those types of questions. They talk a lot to one another, because there isn't a lot else to do for them.

Two, that voice is Zuko's. I would know it anywhere.

Despite my exhaustion and my weakness and my now warped world view, I surge up and off my cot. He has started to remove his face plate, and I use the same fist and the same rage to fuel my punch into his face, slamming the plate against his scarred eye and cheekbone. He cries out, but not loud enough for anyone to hear. He falls down onto the floor of my cell, and I throw my fists at anything they can touch. His face, his chest, his sides.

"Zia! It's me! Zuko! Stop!" Eventually, he wrestles my hands up and away from him, twisting me so that I'm underneath him. I'm crying. The tears are hot against my cheeks. I'm angry. I'm so angry.

This is just another part of the really bad dream I'm living. This isn't real.

I start to bang my head against the floor, not knowing what I'm doing. What did he expect? That I would return to him with open arms?

"Zia, please, stop." He's whispering now. His voice is soothing, but it is grating against my soul.

I lay my head back, my eyes closed so I don't have to look at Zuko and his scar and his eyes and his lips. "Please, Zuko. Please leave."

"I'm sorry."

I shake my head, and the door opens and closes behind him. I lay there, on the floor, until dinner.

At dinner, we are served the same crappy food as we normally are. This time, mine is served with a nice helping of Zuko, with a little bit of prisoner clothing on him.

When my meal rotations don't include Suki, I normally sit alone. It's hard explaining to other prisoners that you're here because you were in love with the Fire Nation Prince. So I sit in silence.

Zuko takes this as an opportunity to sit next to me, his tray slamming down right next to me. I look over, not yet knowing that he's actually a prisoner. He's got a nice black eye forming from my punching him, and his clothes are just as worn out as mine.

"Nice joke," I say, taking a spoonful of the slop. "You can put your guard uniform back on, to continue whatever cruel assignment Azula has probably sent you on to break me more." That's the only reason I can think of that he's here. He got into too much trouble up at the Fire Nation Palace and his dad and sister said that the Boiling Rock would be great. Torture your former girlfriend or whatever.

Fun for everyone involved.

"Oh, Zia." I can feel his intense gaze on me, but I don't look up. "I didn't know you were here. Azula wouldn't tell me."

"Then why are you here, sharing your royalty presence with all us criminals?"

"I came to rescue Sokka's dad. Then I saw you."

"Why are you with Sokka?"

"I - I'm training the Avatar - I mean, Aang - how to firebend. To take down my father. And bring peace to the world."

Now, I finally look up at him. "Now you're joking."

It isn't very funny.

Aang is dead.

"I'm serious! I think what my father is doing is wrong, and that it's time for this war to end, and start an era of love and kindness."

I want to laugh again, but I hold it in, instead snorting into my food.

"I'm serious, Zia!"

"After everything Iroh and I did to give you a change of heart, you decided we were right only after you betrayed us and killed Aang?"

"Aang isn't dead. I really am training him to firebend."

"I saw him die, in front of me."

"Katara had spirit water from the North Pole pond. She healed him. And he's hiding out in the Western Air Temple, and he's training to defeat the Fire Lord. I'm telling you the truth. I can get Sokka, if you'd believe him over me."

I set my spoon down, finally looking at Zuko. There is no trace of lying on him. He is being truthful. The fight goes out of me, leaving me slightly deflated. I don't trust Zuko anymore, and I am far from loving him again. I give him a chance, asking, "Where's Iroh?"

"I don't know." Seeing the skepticism on my face, Zuko adds, "I went to free him on the Day of Black Sun, but he had already left the capital prison."

"And you plan to get out of here?"

"Well, I did. But I'm a prisoner now, so everything got a little bit more complicated."

"Tell me about it."