It was cold. It was lonely. Those were the first things that Zeraphina could feel as her body was riddled with pain, causing her eyes to open in order to see what was causing her so much pain. Immediately, she noticed the metal ceiling above her. A familiar red glow illuminating the room she was in.
On high alert, she quickly sat up, hissing at the pain in her stomach. Just as quickly as she sat up, Zeraphina grabbed her stomach and saw that it was bandaged well.
"Who..." She questioned herself, but didn't have the time to think about who bandaged her wounds. Zeraphina slowly got out of bed, clutching her injured stomach as she leaned against the wall for support.
She limped to the door and left the room, but didn't see any soldiers of the Fire Nation there. She didn't even hear anyone walking down the halls, so she took the chance to get out of there.
As she walked down the quiet halls, the silence was finally cut when two voices echoed down the halls.
"Do you really have to treat her, Katara?" A male voice said with a little bit of disgust and disapproval in his tone.
"Yes, dad. She helped save both me and Aang. This is the least I can do to help her out." Zeraphina recognized the second voice as Katara. She didn't dare try to hide, as she wanted to see Katara again.
Just then, Katara and a man who looked similar to Sokka, but he was glaring at Zeraphina while Katara looked both surprised and relieved.
"Zeraphina, you're awake." Katara said, running up to Zeraphina with a smile on her face.
Zeraphina wanted to smile back, but she was uneasy about being on a Fire Nation ship.
"Katara, this is a Fire Nation ship. We were we captured? What's going on?" Zeraphina asked. Katara shook her head.
"No, we weren't captured." She said and took Zeraphina by the hand, "Come on, I'll explain everything on the deck. But first, let's get you something to eat, you've been out for about two weeks."
"Two weeks?!" Zeraphina shouted. Katara nodded and took Zeraphina to the deck, but as they passed the man, Zeraphina couldn't help but feel a shiver down her spine.
"He's quite cold towards you, isn't he child?"
"He is, but I can understand why. You know as well as I do that DragonBorns are not always well met in the world."
Katara dragged Zeraphina to the upper deck and there standing on the deck wearing Fire Nation armor were a couple people, including Katara's brother Sokka. The sun was setting along the horizon, making the sky look as fiery as her hair.
"Hey, Katara!" Sokka shouted and rushed to her, surprised to see Zeraphina with her, "Hold up, when did you wake up?"
"Just a moment ago." Zeraphina answered then turned to Katara, "So, you said that you would tell me what we're doing on a Fire Nation ship."
"Right, right. But first, let's get you something to eat." Katara said and sat Zeraphina down before getting her a bowl of fried rice. Once Zeraphina was done eating, Katara started explaining everything.
"After we escaped Ba Sing Se, we came back to Chameleon Bay to regroup with our dad. The bay was overrun with Fire Nation ships and so we captured one to make our disguises. We then treated yours and Aang's injuries. You've been unconscious for about two weeks."
Zeraphina smiled and sighed, "Well, thank you for treating me, I know you didn't have to."
"You helped save my sister and Aang." Sokka said, "It was the least we could do."
"Now that she's awake, she can leave now." The man from before said from behind the group.
"Dad, we can't just kick her off the boat." Sokka said.
"No, it's all right." Zeraphina said not giving into the possibility of a fight. She put the now empty bowl down on the floor and turned to the man.
"You're Hakoda, the chief of the Southern Water Tribe, right?" She asked, surprising Hakoda.
"How do you know me?" He asked.
"Being stuck in your room for most of your life allowed me to learn many things. And being a DragonBorn, I was given a special insight to certain things. And I learned many things about the different nations when sneaking out of my room at night."
"So you spied on the different nations?" Hakoda asked, "What secrets did you tell the Fire Nation?"
"I told no secrets to the Fire Nation about the other nations. I just needed some information to help when the time was right."
"What are you talking about, Zeraphina?" Katara asked.
Zeraphina sat a little further away from the group so she could talk to all of them without turning her head so often.
"Tell me, what kind of person do you believe a DragonBorn is." Zeraphina asked.
"A person loyal to the Fire Nation and is at their beck and call. A proud member of the Fire Nation that fights for the victory of the Nation with no concern for the lives and happiness of others." One of the men, Bato, said with the same anger Hakoda had spoken with.
"That's just a lie that the Fire Nation told the world so that they could keep the DragonBorn within their hold." Zeraphina answered, "DragonBorns aren't considered people in the eyes of the Fire Nation. From birth we are taken from our parents because the Fire Nation told the entire world that DragonBorns were far too powerful to live with other nations. So, the other nations were to give up the DragonBorn once they saw their fire red hair and multi-colored eyes."
"Okay, so your parents gave you up?" Bato asked.
"They would never." Zeraphina answered, "My village, the place where I was born, is far away from any nation, on an island that's so small that it couldn't be seen on a map. When I was born, the entire village didn't tell a soul and treated me as an equal. I was raised with my parents and my island village for six years. But somehow the Fire Nation found our island and saw that I was a DragonBorn. They tried to destroy my village and take me by force, but I saw that it was going to happen weeks in advance."
"How did you know that the Fire Nation was coming to your island?" Hakoda asked.
"Some DragonBorns are gifted with strange abilities blessed by the spirits. My ability is to see small bits of the future through dreams. I was able to see myself giving into the Fire Nation as they tried burn my village to the ground. So I followed the vision and left with the Fire Nation without a fight. I was then taken to the Fire Nation and used as a doll and nearly broken from words and abuse. I was nothing but a puppet that wasn't even called by my own name."
Zeraphina pulled down the collar of her shirt and showed off the two marks on her chest. The DragonBorn symbol and the Fire Nation brand the Fire Lord himself burned into her skin himself.
"This is the punishment I endured because of one misstep. I protected a friend and was branded, told that I was nothing but a puppet to toy around with. I realize that this won't erase the terrible things the Fire Nation did, but I will fight against them to bring the world to peace. That's all I want."
No one said anything for a few minutes, until Zeraphina turned to Hakoda and smiled.
"And, if I may say, Chief Hakoda. You and your wife have raised an incredible son and daughter. A boy with the heart of a warrior and a girl blessed by the moon and ocean. I knew it as soon as I saw them for the first time at the South Pole. Your children and the Avatar will be victorious in this war. And the world will finally be in balance."
Hakoda was a little taken back when Zeraphina mentioned his wife, who died years ago by the hand of a Fire Nation soldier.
"Kya." Zeraphina whispered, "I offer both my condolences and my apologies for what happened to her."
"What do you mean?" Katara asked.
"Years ago, several weeks before the attack on your village, I had a dream of a woman lying in the snow with no life in her eyes, and a little girl crying over her. That little girl then grew into an incredible waterbender that would help turn the tides in this war."
Katara, Sokka and Hakoda's eyes all widened.
"You saw... me?" Katara asked and Zeraphina nodded.
"I did. And I thought that while this was a future that couldn't be changed, I didn't want a child to grow up without a mother like I did. So I went to the Fire Lord, as was my orders, and told him about the dream I had. I did however, change it a little bit. I told the Fire Lord that if any soldiers of the Fire Nation attacked the Southern Water Tribe and drew blood on their land, the Fire Nation would suffer greatly and their defeat in this war would been set in stone. The Fire Lord was arrogant and decided to go ahead with the attack, no matter how much I begged and pleaded for him not to. When news that the last waterbender in the tribe was killed, I had another dream and saw Katara standing with the Avatar, raising waters greater than her strength and putting out the flames of this war."
Everyone was stunned by this and Katara and Sokka rushed to hug Zeraphina.
"You tried to save our mom. We can't repay you for that?" Katara sobbed.
"There is one way that you can repay me."
"How?" Sokka asked.
"Let me join you on your journey. The Fire Nation will want me back, I won't return. I'm a fugitive of the Fire Nation and I want nothing more than to take them down."
Everyone quickly agreed to take her along. Having a DragonBorn would be best for them, and Aang would need a Firebending teacher when the time came for him to learn.
Zeraphina smiled and stood up before turning to Hakoda.
"Chief, could I borrow your knife?" She asked. Hakoda was confused.
"Why do you need my knife?" He asked.
"Just for a small thing. It will help with me hiding from the Fire Nation."
Hakoda didn't know what she wanted to do with it, but he complied with her request and handed her the small knife he carried on his belt.
She took it with a smile and took in a deep breath. Before anyone could ask her what she was going to do, Zeraphina took the knife, gripped her long hair and cut it all the way to her shoulders. The hair in her hand was then burned with her white flames, the ashes of her long hair now scattered with the soft winds.
"Zeraphina! Why did you do that?" Katara asked.
"It will be easier for me to hide if I cut my hair so short. And besides, it will take less hair oil to color it if it's short like this." Zeraphina answered with a smile, "No longer am I Zeraphina the DragonBorn. And unless we're by ourselves, call me Mingxia. It's a Fire Nation name and it won't cause too much suspicion while we travel."
As the sun finally disappeared from the day's sky and transformed into night, Zeraphina disappeared along with the sun's light. No longer was she Zeraphina the DragonBorn, the weapon of the Fire Nation.
She was Zeraphina, refugee and traitor to the Fire Nation. And it felt amazing to her.