Wandering Firebender

Fourty One: Prisoner

Elio groaned sluggishly, his head feeling heavy. He slowly sat up and tried to rub his head, but his hands were cuffed together. As his vision returned to him, he looked around and found himself sitting in an unfamiliar room.

Judging by the decorations, he was still in the Earth King's palace.

"Ugh, finally. It's about time you wake up. It's bad enough that I have to give you your food, but now you're making me wait for you to wake up?" A girl with a lower, raspy voice griped as he came to his senses. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and looked at her.

The girl had on a Kyoshi Warrior outfit but without the makeup. She stared back at him coldly as she held out some bread to him. He took it slowly and cleared his throat.

"Uh, sorry...thanks. You could've just left the food here." He said as he took a bite of the bread.

"Azula wants me to guard you in case you have any bright ideas about escaping." She said in a tone where she seemed to be talking down to him. Elio glanced sideways at her.

"Right, and who are you?" He asked.

"The name's Mai." She answered with a roll of her eyes.

"Mai...I'm Elio." He introduced himself.

"I don't care." She quickly replied.

"Clearly...we're still in the palace, right?" He asked.

"Yeah, for now. We're heading back to the Fire Nation in a few days, finally." She answered, sounding happy to be going home. Elio's eyes widened and he swallowed.

"We're going back home?"

"Yeah. We're done here in Ba Sing Se." She answered, starting to get up.

"What do you mean 'done here'?" Elio asked worriedly. Mai raised an eyebrow at him.

"The war's over, Elio. Ba Sing Se is now under Fire Nation control. The Earth Kingdom's ours and the Avatar is dead. The job's done."

"Aang is dead?!" Elio exclaimed in shock, his eyes widening even more.

Mai said nothing in response, leaving him to process this world-changing news. Had the Avatar really been killed? If that were true, that would mean that all hope is lost.

Being captured and taken home was already bad enough; it meant that his entire journey had been for nothing. But if Aang was dead, that meant he would be in prison forever as the outside world would become much worse.

That was a very weighty thing to come to terms with...

Sure enough, just as Mai had said, a few days later he was being taken in a prison carriage to the coast. From there, he would be taken on a ship back to the Fire Nation – back home. Elio sat alone in contemplation until then, but on the ride to the dock, he had someone there to sit with him.

"Hi, Elio..." Ty Lee greeted him in a low, sad voice as she sat down with him. "I...it's nice to see you, even like this." She said, unsure of what to even say.

"I can't say the same." Elio muttered bitterly, barely putting in the effort to speak to her. His cold demeanor quickly upset Ty Lee.

"Yeah... Is it...is it true that you killed your best friend?" Ty Lee asked slowly, looking at him. Elio glared up at her.

"Did the princess tell you that?"

"Yes."

"...yeah, it's true." He answered, looking down again. Ty Lee's eyes widened and she swallowed.

"Oh..." She was at a loss for words. Her perception of Elio was so far away from such an action that she struggled to even picture him doing it.

"I had no choice...hundreds would've gotten hurt."