I no owns nothing... no sues me

"So this is the great Avatar. Master of all the elements."

Looking down his nose at Aang, Admiral Zhao was a fairly tall man; his armor gleamed in the firelight. He wore his hair in the traditional style of the Fire Nation - a style that hadn't really changed, Aang realized absently, over the last century - and he didn't even crack a smile as he mocked Aang. His voice leaked with malice and contempt and… something else. Boredom?

The room that contained him was built of stone. No one in their right mind would try to trap an Earthbender in a room of stone, even chained up as Aang was now; you'd only make them angry. But Admiral Zhao knew Aang couldn't bend Earth, somehow, even though he knew Aang was the Avatar. The young Avatar grit his teeth and strained against his bonds, but they only chafed and tore at his wrists and ankles; he couldn't bend enough air with his fingers and toes to cut at iron, and even if he could the process would have been too slow.

Time was not something Aang had a lot of at the moment.

Zhao ignored his struggles, walking around the pillars to which Aang was tethered. "I don't know how you managed to elude the Fire Nation for 100 years, but your game of hide and seek is over."

Hide and seek? Aang snarled. "I've never hidden from you! Untie me and I'll fight you right now!" Aang would win, too. Even without water to bend, he was a Master of Airbending; in close quarters he could defeat the Firebender long enough to get away - and back to his ailing friends.

Unfortunately, Zhao wasn't as easy to get to rise to the bait as Fire Nation Prince Zuko. "Uh ... no." He twisted to face the Avatar again, bending close. His breath was hot almost to the point of stinging. "Tell me: how does it feel to be the only Airbender left? Do you miss your people?"

It felt a bit like being punched in the chest. Aang had only been awake in the current era for a few months, and the question raised a flurry of memories like dust picked up on the wind - not the least of which was Monk Gyatso's bones, propped up in the ruins of what had been his home...

He bowed his head and drew a shaking breath through his nose, determined not to cry in front of a Fire Nation officer. He was almost startled to hear Zhao chuckle, and he angrily jerked his head up again. "Oh, don't worry," Zhao said. "You won't be killed like they were."

Aang clenched his teeth. The fires burning atop the pillars he was chained to flickered in a bended breeze. "See, if you die you'll just be reborn and the Fire Nation will have to begin its search all over again. So I'll keep you alive ... but just barely."

With that Zhao raised his hand and whipped it across his prisoner's left cheek. Aang let out a startled cry and grit his teeth against the sheer crudeness of the slap. It was so… primitive. Aang silently swore to himself, let him do what he please, but don't you dare let him see your pain. Again, Aang whipped up his head to glare at the Admiral, but the latter was already strutting away. In a split decision powered by his rage, Aang sucked in a large mouthful of air before spitting it back out at Zhao, slamming the Admiral into the steel door.

Zhao climbed to his feet seething. "You may be the "master of all four elements"", Zhao sneered, "but don't forget that you are still my prisoner, and you are still a child. Your incompetence will cost you dearly, young one."

And with that, Aang was left alone. He faintly heard the door slam shut, taking the flames from the torches and leaving the Avatar in sudden darkness. Finally alone, he allowed the tears to fall.