Braya : The Lost Guardian

Survival

"Food!"

Braya opened her eyes. She had fallen asleep on the floor of her cell. She struggled to get on her hands and knees and crawled over to the food put inside her cell. Her captors had given her an apple. She was so hungry she ate the apple in seconds. They had been giving her scraps to live off for days now. Between hardly enough food to live and her nightly beatings, she could feel as she got weaker and weaker. She had been marking on the wall how long she had been in the cell, a whole month had gone by. She was no closer now to getting out than she was when she first got captured. Braya sat night after night thinking about her family. She grieved for her brother they told her was dead, and the rest of her family she couldn't see. She tried to stay positive though it all but each day that passed it got harder and harder.

Braya stood up and wobbled over to the door. She slid down the wall and listened to the men talk on the other side. Normally they talked about their home life and the families they had waiting for them once they left, but tonight was different. Gang had approached one of the men, "I need you to get as much information about the girl's family as possible. This is what we have so far." The door opened and the two men walked in. They grabbed Braya and threw her toward the center of the room. "Tell us about your family," the tall, black-haired man said to Braya.

"No," Braya said sternly.

"You either tell us or we will find out for ourselves, and we will kill them all," the other shorter, blonde-haired man said. Braya sat silent. She wasn't going to say anything about her family to these men. The tall man punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground. Getting back up Braya didn't say anything, she just waited for her next hit. After being hit multiple times in the body, she laid on the ground to weak to get up. The door opened again; Gang walked in with a folder in his hand. "I see you aren't cooperating," Gang said to Braya. She stared at him not responding. He opened the folder and started flicking through pictures. First a picture Katara, then Aang, Bumi, Kya, Toph, Lin, Su and then Tenzin with a big red X over his face. "I am done fighting with you. You will learn that I am to be obeyed. I asked you a simple question about your family and you misbehaved. You will learn from this." He turned around and walked out. She felt sick to her stomach with worry.

Another night of beating came and went. She noticed that if she was quiet and didn't fight back, she would get more food, so she took her beatings quietly. At this point she wasn't quite sure how she was alive, but she was. She figured the main reason was the lady who would come in and heal her every night. The lady never talked, but she was one of the better parts of Braya's day.

Another two weeks had passed, and nothing had changed. She was still getting beat every night and then healed partially. Braya stayed strong holding on to the hope of seeing her family again soon, until Gang walked into the cell again. He walked in with a triumphant smile on his face, holding something in his hand behind his back. He walked closer to Braya and threw a few items on the ground. Katara's necklace was the first object she noticed. Katara's necklace she had worn for so many years that belonged to her mother was now on the ground covered in blood. Braya picked up the necklace. She then noticed a bracelet she had once given to Kya and the badge the Chief wore that belonged to Toph. They were also covered in blood. The rich smell of iron filled Braya's nose as she picked up the other items. "Where did you get these?" Braya said anger filling her body.

"Our friends gave them to me. Not willingly, but I do like to take a good souvenir," Gang laughed.

"I don't believe you,"

"You don't have to but let me tell you your mother was more than happy to lay down her life thinking it might save one of her children. I guess after losing the first child she didn't want to lose another one. The pretty young one the bracelet came from she put up a fight, but you can always outnumber someone, and the blind bat never saw us coming. Imagine a great big missile going straight into the Police station in the middle of the day. No one saw it coming," Gang was enjoying seeing the pain come across Braya's face.

"Aang would never let that happen, he's the Avatar."

"Yeah, I guess he wouldn't if he was in the city. He's gone looking for you though, so it made it much easier." Braya stared at the items. Katara would have to be dead for them to have this necklace. Her eyes started to water. First her baby brother and now her mother, sister and Toph were all gone. Soon Braya would have no family to go home to because they would all be dead. Her body started to go cold again. She felt the ice in her stomach as the tears fell from her face. She couldn't hold in her sadness anymore. She was broken. Gang laughed while leaving Braya alone to cry. She curled up into a ball and sobbed until she fell asleep with her mothers' necklace tight in her fist.

Another month had passed and Braya was not the same. She felt cold and empty, sadness robbing her of all happy thoughts and emotions. She wondered if Lin was alive, and if she was how much longer would she be. It was only a matter of time before Gang tracked down and killed everyone in her family. She continued to listen to any news from the guards through the door. Nothing had changed with their conversations, but she did find out that she was the longest living prisoner they had ever had. She wondered how much longer she would live in her cell before dying like the rest of the prisoners.

After four months Braya had given up. She no longer marked days on the wall, she no longer thought about happy memories or had thoughts of seeing her family again. Gang had given Braya the option to either cooperate or he would kill the rest of her family. He showed her a vaccine he had made that completely stopped anyone's bending ability for a six-hour period. He explained how simple it would be to shoot Aang with one of these vaccines and then kill him. So, she agreed to stop fighting with Gang. He hadn't asked her to do anything yet but sitting in the cell alone wasn't making anything better. She was still being beat every night but since agreeing to cooperate the beatings had lessened.

Braya awaited her nightly routine. They came in and beat her until blood was gushing from her nose and she could barely move. After they had fulfilled their duty, they left. She laid in her blood as usual waiting for the healer to come in and take some of the pain away, but when the door opened something was different. The sound of heavy footsteps came into her cell instead of the soft steps of the healer. Braya laid there, in too much pain to move. She felt as a heavy body kneeled over her. He grabbed the bottom of Braya's dirty pants and started to pull down. Realizing what was going on Braya tried to yell and fight, but she was too weak from earlier to do much. He used one hand to cover her mouth while he struggled to spread her legs. She wasn't going to let him have that much of her without a fight.

A fire burned in her stomach. She recognized the feeling from every time she got angry, the first time being in P.E. This time was different though. As he made his way further in between her legs the burning grew more and more intense. He was winning, making progress up her legs as she used all her remaining strength to keep him off her. He punched her in the face, but she kept fighting. He punched her again but as she started to black out the burning was unbearable. She stopped fighting and the burning took over. She heard a scream come from the man who was on top. She saw as he stood up that he had burns all over his body. She lifted her hand up to her face, she was firebending.

When the healer came into the room, she saw the flames die down all over Braya's body. She cautiously approached Braya, then laid her hands on her to start the healing process. Once she finished healing Braya she got up and walked to the door. Before leaving she turned to the guard outside and said, "Tell Gang we have found the Guardian."