Zuko x OC : The Phoenix Princess

Chapter 14

"I am the warden of this place. That means that you will do as I comand if you want your stay here to be...uneventful" The warden said with a small sadistic smile, eyeing every single 'newcomer' from head to toe. 

Aria kept her head straight ahead, not looking at anyone. She was looking at the sea, since it was most likely the last time she would see it, for a very very long time. She longed to fly, at that moment. Grow a pair of wings and fly away from everyone and everything, to save herself. With puffy red eyes, cheeks with dry tears and an expresion filled with void, she slowly turned her head watching every prisoner being taken one by one. Knowing it, soon, will be her turn, she turned her head to the sea one more time, trying to feel the gentle breeze for as long as she could, before she was dragged away to the prison which was surounded by huge earthly walls, and a lake so hot no one had any chance of crossing it and staying alive. 

After she was forced to change to red trousers and a dress t-shirt, she was led through endless corridors of cells, towards, what she assumed, would be hers. The guard stopped in front of a cell door, knocked once and opened the door. He told someone that he/she will have a 'roommate', as he sarcastically called it. So, Aria assumed that she would be in her cell with another person. She just hopped it wasn't a man.

She had her cuffs being removed and she was shoved inside the cell. Before she could react the door was slumed close and locked.

"Are you alright?" said a woman's voice. 'Good' thought Aria, she was with another woman inside her cage, that made her relax a little.

"Yeah, I am" she stood up and turned to the direction of the girl

"I am glad, they can be real jerks around here." She said with a smile too sweet, that it caused Aria to chuckle.

"I can see that. I'm Aria by the way"

"I'm Suki"

Aria paused for a little. She has heard of that name, but from who? After a while of looking at Suki with wide eyes and Suki starting to feel really confused by her stare, the silence was broken by Aria.

"Do you, by any chance, know someone named Sokka?" Aria asked as she saw Suki blushing a little at the mention of the guy

"Y-yes, I do..You know him?" Suki asked a little surprised

"Yes! He wouldn't stop talking about you! So, you are Suki the Kyoshi warrior!" Aria said with more excitment, thanking her luck for meeting someone who was friends with team Avatar.

Suki blushed more and nervously laughed, confirming Aria's assumption. The two girls proceeded in talking about how they met Aang, the simblings and Toph and how they got here. Suki was mad when she was reminded of how Azula and her little friends defeated her and her team, especially when she learned of what they did in Ba Sing Se.

"So, Aria why did they bring you here? Why not send you to regular prisons?" Suki asked 

"I am not sure but I suspect it's because I am a phoenix firebender" Aria said with bitterness in her voice

Suki looked very sursprised. She thought that she would never meet a phoenix firebender since the Fire Nation decided to make them almost go extinct.

"Wow, I never thought that I would meet one. In my island we knew of them but we thought that very few of you lived since the Fire Nation did not want you" Suki said 

"Yeah, well I can't blame you. I don't even know any phoenix firebenders either, and I lived in the heart of the Fire Nation. The only one I knew was my dad and I learned he was one on the day of his banishment" Aria expalined with a pained expresion. It was a day she did not like to remember.

"I am so sorry to hear that Aria, really. Your bending should be considered a gift not something you should be chased and haunted down for." 

"Well, mine is more of a curse" Aria said

"I know it may seem like that, but when the war is over I think you will change your mind" Suki said, trying to show a brighter side to Aria.

"No, it's not that simple for me" Aria said with a bitter scoff

"What do you mean?" Suki asked

" Apparently, I am the Phoenix Princess" Aria said with hate in her voice

Suki looked confused, so Aria expalined to her what it meant, the story, how it started, everything. To say that Suki was surprised was an understatement. She found the story beautiful, but the situation that Aria was in was the complete opposite. With no words other than 'it's going to be ok', that neither of them completely believe, Suki gave Aria a hug and proceeded on talking about the prison and the things Aria should avoid doing and saying, in hopes she could make her forget about that situation. For now at least.

Two weeks passed and Aria had seen almost everything in that prison. Riots, fights, prisoners being led to the coollers, awful food, chores, punishments that had no reason behind them. But there was something positive that came out from the long boring hours inside the prison cell. Aria was learning how to use the fans as a weapon by Suki. 

One day she cought her practicing during the night, after their chores in prison, with a makeshift fan made of thin ropes and hay from her bed. Her movements reminded her of how Lia used her wings to firebend, and that made her wonder if she could use them as a weapon too. So, she asked Suki to teach her.

"Keep a stedy form in order to keep others from making you lose your balance. You have to be stedy and strong. And remember, the goal is to use your opponent's strength against him" Suki instracted. 

Aria took a big breath in and out. She started to perform again and again the basic forms, and she was finally mastering them. It would have been better if she could practice them with firebending but she didn't want to risk being send to the coollers and exposing Suki. 

"That's good, let's take a brake for now ok?" Suki suggested, taking a positive nod from an excausted Aria as an answer.

"Thank you for teaching me, I really appriciate it" Aria said after a few moments of calming down

"My pleasure. It's nice to have a training buddy after all these weeks of practicing alone" Suki said with a smile and Aria smiled back.

And after a few moments they continued to pactice together until it was time for them to go to sleep and begin the same thing the next day. That went on for weeks, it actually might have been a month and a half, Aria wasn't so sure. She was starting to get cooked up in the prison, her training being the only good thing in her day. It made her escape. The rest of the day she just wanted to crush all the walls of the prison, make it collapse and escape with Suki. Her days were uneventful, a routine and that killed her.

Everything up until this evening at least. Because right now, in their cell there was a guard talking to them with a strangely familiar voice

"Hey girls! It's me!"