“Why are you gasping, did I tell you that you could breathe, pea brain?”

If there was one thing that Raian Ametashi hated more than being yelled at by his commanding officer, it was being yelled at by his older brother who was in fact said commanding officer. The man looked up into his older brother’s eyes; the darkness that he saw there was enough to make even the best firebenders turn away in fear. Aivan barely seemed to register the little four-year difference in age between them. While he, the youngest son, was coming of age at twenty, Aivan thought himself a courageous leader at only twenty-four. It was strange that three years had already passed since his return, since Ankita’s death.

An angry looking face appeared in his vision, distracting him for only an instant. It looked like a koi fish at first, his brother’s mustache resembling whiskers. Raian freaked and sucked in a deep breath. Doing so was a bad idea as it caused him to release his grip on the bars. Raian rolled to the side as he fell, barely missing the spikes that were popping out of the ground below him. Almost as soon as he stood up, Aivan was in his face.

“Stop daydreaming, Pixie! Resume your position!”

The taunt was a low hit, but one that was expected. Aivan loved to make fun of Raian’s choice in men over women in romance situations. Raian gritted his teeth at his brother and did as he was told. He leaned over the pit full of sharp spikes, gripping one set of bars on one side and keeping his feet on the other side. This was what his brother called training. Unfortunately, the younger man knew the truth. Aivan wanted him to get hurt because he was jealous.

Somehow, though he was the new outcast of the family, he had also been blessed with the good looks. His skin was tanned the color of tree bark with his face as smooth as a leaf. His raven black hair he kept short for fear of getting it burned off. It was shaved all the way to his ears. Unlike the rest of his family, his eyes were a kindly brown. They shone when he smiled, complementing his every emotion. When he was angry or sad, they looked like darkness, forever trapped in marbles. The only marred part of his features was the angry red scar that covered his entire back. When looked at closely, you could see the beginning at the bottom of his spine and then follow the ripple effect across the entire bag. It continued onto his neck in a vine looking streak, but stopped there.

He wore light clothing, even though man people told him that one hit and he would go down with smoldering clothes. He did not mind. His greatest defense was being able to move quicker than his opponent. With his comfortable, thin, black shirt that hung loosely off him like his pant of the same color, he was able to move with ease and precision. His brother, however, was a bumbling oaf that could be heard clinking about in the forest for miles.

“The Resistance against our Nation is growing Pixie, what are you going to do about it!”

The twenty year old did not answer. He felt the sweat pouring down his back, his gasps for air as he struggled to keep himself up over a ten-foot deep pit. He received a glancing blow to the back of his head in punishment. He heard his brother repeat the sentence, but his voice seemed further away.

There were times when Raian would recall the years long ago when he was younger. It would happen whenever he stopped to wonder if Aivan had always been this cruel. Going that far back was hard, he had been through a lot of pain and suffering, some that he had inflicted upon himself.

His father had always adored his sons, but there had always been a difference between them, other than the four years. Aivan shared the views of their father, General Norio Ametashi. Together, they sought put different ways to help the Fire Lord in his conquest of the world. Raian was on a completely different scale. He hated conflict and most of all he hated killing. He was the protector of the nature around him and he defended it as much as he could. His father was always disappointed in him and somehow that bothered the boy.

Then there was Ankita, his adorable younger sister. It had been instantly decided as soon as the girl was born. She would have nothing to do with the family proper. Their mother handed her over to one of the servants to care for. Norio threatened the harshest punishment on anyone in the family that spoke or even acknowledged the existence of the lowly female. When the girl was very young, when she discovered her Firebending, she was banned from using it.

Raian was afraid of his father, of that no one had a doubt. Nevertheless, it did not stop him form disobeying his father when it came to Ankita. At first it was in little ways, ways that even the little girl did not recognize. He left her treats that were denied her because of the little pay the servants had. He slipped gifts into her room. One in particular was the youngling of a predator bird. Over time, Raian had noticed a connection to nature in his sister. She loved it as much as he did. With more free time on her hands, she could take care of the orphaned bird whose parents had been killed for food.

These little gifts were never enough in Raian’s point of view. His little sister was cut off from everything that should have been natural to her. Family, Firebending, everything. He finally started spending time with his sister. They would sneak off in the middle of the night and spend most of it talking about what had happened. They created games to play and somehow avoided being caught.

He started his Firebending training with Aivan when he was ten. He was never as good as his brother and often came close to being killed during every sparring session. The boy got extra lessons from Hio, another boy his age. Hio was his first love, a boy that understood what it was like to fall off the scale of manliness. He didn’t mind sharing his feelings with Raian and vice versa. Neither of them minded who the other was or how they acted. Hio also adored Ankita like his own little sister and did his best to help whenever Raian started teaching her as well.

Teaching his little sister Firebending, with only three years of training had been hard. Yet, she learned quickly and that made it a whole lot easier. The one thing that he and Hio taught her that he instilled time and time again in her head was the phrase, ‘Your Firebending is connected to your wrist. The strength of your wrist is the strength of your life. The movement of your wrist could save your life’

Raian loved making his sister happy. He would do anything to make her smile. He taught her how to firebend; he taught her how to control the pet bird that she called Yuko with only a whistle. There was nothing else in the world that could turn his day upside down like the smile that Ankita could give. Unfortunately, that newfound happiness was short-lived, for the both of them. Aivan eventually had his brother followed, suspicious of all his night wanderings. Norio was not pleased when he discovered what had taken place right under his nose for years.

The boy was afraid of his father, but he was even more afraid of losing his sister. He begged him to spare her, that he would do anything to protect his sister from his father’s wrath. Not that he put it in those exact terms of course. Norio was not to be swayed that far, but his punishment was even worse than what Norio would have done. Their father decreed that Raian would fight his sister. If she won the fight, then she would be free to firebend and become a part of the family. If she did not, she would live forever in her continued shame as the outcast of their family.

The boy found himself cornered by the decision. He was giving his sister a chance at a normal life with her family, but she had only three years of training while he had six. Even worse was that fact that he would not be able to hold back and let her win. Norio or Aivan would notice and step in or make them fight again until they got it right. Ankita and he were doomed from the beginning of the fight. He did his best and so did Ankita she surprised him with how much she had learned. Nevertheless, it was still obvious who had more mastery in the art.

No one could ever be sure who would have one had his selfishness not gotten the better of him. A little ways into the fight, he realized that he did not want to disappoint his dad. He wanted to be better than Aivan. He forgot what he was really trying to win in this fight. As soon as his sister fell, he attacked her blind spot. Disoriented, the young girl had been caught completely off guard. The shriek that followed was what alerted him to what he had done wrong. He tried to get to his sister, tried to help her, but Aivan dragged him away from the burned body that at first, he thought was dead.

He later learned that she had survived, but at a price. She was stuck remembering the betrayal of the only person she ever trusted. A nasty scar was there, always as a reminder of his betrayal. Even Hio turned his back on him, disgusted at what he had done to his little sister. The guilt ate at him for an entire year. He tried to approach his sister a few times, but Aivan was always watching him. Any moment that he noticed him getting near her, he would detour one or the other.

It took an entire year before he was finally able to get anywhere near her and that was on the night before her wedding. Norio had betrothed Ankita to a cruel boy who Raian hated just as much as the rest of his family. Instantly, he decided what he had to do. After convincing Hio of his sincerity, they found passage on an outgoing Fire Nation ship. The three of them snuck out of the city, under the guise of Navy soldiers. The escape almost ended perfectly. They made it to the Earth Nation where they were going to depart and find lives as refuges. That was until another Fire Navy ship pulled alongside theirs demanding to know where Norio Ametashi’s two children were. The three of them were dragged off one ship and onto another.

They did end up in the Earth nation anyway. At least, the boat docked there for a little while. The crew locked Ankita and Raian in the hold while all, but three others went ashore. Hio was one of the three left at the boat. When he was free to explore the ship on his own, he found his friends and released them. They snuck around one guard and almost made it to the deck before they realized that something was wrong. The dead body of the cook was waiting at the top of the stairs leading to the deck. An Earthbender waited at the top, surprised to see them. It was natural that they attacked, making their way onto the deck, but it was impossible to know how many were there. They were overwhelmed in an instant. Then as suddenly as they had appeared, the Earthbenders scattered.

It took a few minutes before Raian realized that he was alone. He searched the boat and found Hio first. He was devastated to discover that his lover had been attacked and was near the brink of death. Rocks as sharp as knives had embedded themselves into his chest. A sticky red substance covered his hands as he cradled the boy. Hio, whose eyes were nearly glazed over with death, only managed two things. The mouthed words, ‘I love you’ and a strangled hand gesture towards the open door leading into the navigation area. He didn’t take the time to cry over Hio at that moment, he had to find Ankita.

He followed the boy’s directions though, stepping into the doorway cautiously. Here he found Ankita, sprawled out on the deck. Fearfully he checked for any signs of life. She was breathing and he silently breathed a sigh. The left side her face was caked in blood caused by a head a wound right behind her ear. He looked around, making sure there were no more intruders. What he saw next, he never had time to register completely in his brain. A bomb made of some sort of substance that he did not recognize. That’s when he saw the line of powder leading up to it and the bright fire leading towards it.
Raian knew he didn’t have time to put out the fire. Instead, he gathered his sister into his arms and fled. The boat exploded, throwing him and Ankita into the water. In the rolling waves, he lost his sister and was eventually knocked unconscious by flying debris. When he came to, he found himself staring at his older brother’s face, a smug look across it. Except this wasn’t in the past, this was the present, the smug look as Aivan paced back and forth in front of his struggling brother.

Three years had passed since Aivan had pulled him out of the water. Three years since he was shown his sisters, charred, waterlogged body. The experience had scarred him mentally and physically. The scar on his back was from the bomb itself, but the deep feeling of hatred was something different. He still cared about living things, the world itself, trees and the creatures in it. He still believed that conflict was terrible and should be avoided. He believed in speaking with respect to his elders and making friends with everybody. The only thing different was his hatred for Earthbenders. They had killed Hio, a wonderful boy who could make any plant grow anywhere he told it to. They had killed Ankita, his remarkable little sister, a girl who could make a rainy day bright with her smile. In addition, they had done it because they felt like it.

Aivan turned back to his brother, recognizing the look in his eyes. He smirked.

“What are we going to do about the resistance, brother?” Aivan growled.

“Kill!” he hissed back.

“What’s that, Pixie?”

“Kill!” he yelled.