It felt as if the driver purposely drove over every hole in the ground that he could, we found ourselves constantly being bumped and tossed about in the dark prisoner carriage.
My head kept hitting against the wall while Felicity's elbows kept ramming into me.
"Sorry" She would reply repeatedly.
I could tell that everyone in that carriage didn't want to talk about what was going to happen to us, because we all knew exactly what we were headings towards.
Death.
How did this happen? How did we not notice them sneaking up on us, almost every time we find a way out, but this time they actually got us.
Jarom, Ivan, and Dax still hadn't said a word ever since we were thrown in here, I didn't know exactly what was going through their heads but I hoped they weren't mad at me, if I knew we were going to be surrounded I would have gotten us away as soon as I could.
Soon the ground seemed to level out and we were on a smooth surface.
I don't know how long we had been in the carriage but I know this was the first time that we were on smooth ground, smooth enough that I could fall asleep and ignore this whole thing.
"What will they do to us?" Felicity asked with fear in her voice.
We all stayed quiet, saying it out loud only made it that much more real.
"That bad?" Felicity replied to herself.
It was so dark in here that I didn't see how people were feeling, especially the boys, were they scared? Angry? Plotting something? I wish they would speak.
"At least we will die doing the right thing" Felicity continued.
"Felicity!" I said loudly, "We are not going to die! It won't happen!".
Ivan scoffed at me and instantly took the time to speak, "How can you be so sure? Do you think they are going to let us go after all of this?"
I didn't want to argue, not in a time like this.
I knew perfectly well what was going to happen to us, but the truth of the matter was that the Emperor didn't want them, he wanted me.
"Exactly" Ivan continued, "You know we are all doomed, so let's just accept the fact and move on".
"The emperor doesn't want any of you".
No one responded because they knew where I was going with this.
"He wants me, he wants to see me dead, not any of you".
"That's noble and everything, Ëthia, but you have no ground to bargain for anything, they already have you." Ivan began, "They have the prince of the Earthern Territory, The Princess of the Air Realm, The Princess of the Fire Empire, and of course they have you, The Water Princess. You have nothing left to bargain, nothing."
Ivan may have been right about me not being able to bargain anything, but fate had gotten me this far, and I know it wasn't about to abandon me now.
"Ivan, you're right, I don't have a thing to bargain with, but somehow, just like we always do, we will find a way out of all this".
Ivan didn't respond but continued to stay quiet.
Through the breath holes on the ceiling of the carriage you could tell that it was getting darker out, a whole day went by and according to Ivan we wouldn't live to see another.
The carriage halted and instantly Felicity tensed up.
The men on the outside began talking loudly to other men, "Open the Gates, we have the prisoners".
A loud medal clashing sound began and we knew the gate was being lifted.
The carriage jolted forward and we once again were on the property of the Emperor.
It wasn't long before the back doors of the prisoner carriage opened, no light flooded in this time considering it was the middle of the night at this point, and guards were dragging us out as if we were animals.
As each of us were dragged out of the carriage our hands were tied behind our backs very tightly, almost to the point of cutting all circulation off.
"Ow! Not so tightly!" Felicity shouted, instantly the man turned her towards him and hit her across the face muliple times.
Felicity fell to the ground without having her hands to catch herself.
"What's wrong with you!" I shouted as I tried making my way towards Felicity.
A different man stopped me and quickly delivered a hit to the stomach and fist across my face.
I fell to the ground with nothing to ease the fall.
I couldn't catch my breath and I felt as if I was going to die right there.
I looked up at Felicity as tears poured down her face.
"I'm so sorry" I said to her.
I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt, to be put in this mess, for us to be treated like this, and yet this is how our lives were.
Jarom, Ivan, and Dax each were trying to break loose from the men that held them but they couldn't move any more than the men wanted them too.
"You like the looks of that?" One of the men spoke as he forced Jaroms head to look down at me. "This is your queen? This pathetic girl?"
The men all started laughing and Jarom quickly kicked the man in between the legs causing him to fall to his knees in which Jarom kicked him across the face.
"I like the look of that!" Jarom said and spit in his face.
The man holding Jarom threw him to the ground and stomped on his arm, breaking it.
A loud snap accorded and Jarom yelled in pain.
The man Jarom had kicked was tall, strong, and seemed to be of high status. He had the same features as the rest of the Fire Benders yet he was unique in his look.
"Jarom!" I yelled hoping that somehow it would do something.
The man who had thrown me on the ground picked me up and hit me across the face once more, "Be quiet you dirty rat, next time you speak we will hurt your friend even more".
I looked away from the man and my eyes had locked onto Seviahs eyes, who had seemed to be neutral about this whole thing. No emotion came from her.
"This way!" A man in the distance shouted.
The men violently began to drag us to wherever it was that we were going.
The pain seemed to spread throughout my body, the pain seemed to have a pulse of its own. Starting from my stomach, which the man held nothing back from hitting, all the way to my face.
Jarom groaned in pain as the man kept hitting his broken arm and laughing at each groan Jarom made.
The man holding Felicity obviously found her very attractive as he held her extremely close to him and she pushed to get him away.
"Push me again girly and I'll make sure you remember this face of mine".
The men had no problem whatsoever speaking to all of us the way they did, they had no problem treating us the way they did, and I knew they had no problem for what they were about to do to us.
The guards seemed to have dragged us throughout the whole palace before we got to the place in which we were supposed to be.
The throne room.
All of us were thrown to the ground as we lay in front of two empty thrones.
I was able to turn my head and look at Jarom, who looked as if he just wanted to protect me, although he himself was in lots of pain.
Tears started forming in my eyes and I just wanted all my friends to leave and get out of here, to continue with their lives and not have to go through all this torture, all this unfairness.
"Kneel before the Emperor and his family" A man who we couldn't see demanded.
The guards picked us up roughly and forced us to our knees.
We waited a few moments before the Emperor himself showed up.
He was tall, skinny, handsome for an older man, and was dressed in silks of reds, golds, and whites.
Following behind him was a beautiful woman, she had long, dark, black hair that was incredibly straight, she was in an extravagant red robe that reached from her neck to dragging on the floor behind her.
The Emperor and his wife took the seats on the throne.
Everything was quiet for a moment before three people walked into the room. Two boys who stood on the side of the Emperor and the one girl who stood on the side of the Empress.
They were a family. The girl looked so similar to Seviah that it would be odd if they didn't realize that she was their sister.
The Emperor stood up and walked up to us and began sizing us up. He started at the exact opposite end of where I was and worked his way from there.
When he got to Seviah, who was third from where he started, his eyes didn't change emotion, it was as if she was nothing to him already.
Seviah on the other hand looked excited and pleased to see her father again, but he quickly made his way past her.
Soon the Emperor stood in front of me and demanded that I stand up.
Once more the guards didn't give me a moment to do it on my own and forced to me to my feet.
The Emperor wasn't that much taller than me, he wasn't as tall as Jarom, Dax, or Ivan.
"So you're the girl this prophecy is all about" The emperor spoke with a very mellow voice, "You don't seem like a threat at all".
The emperor smiled as if he were proud of himself for having other people go and retrieve me.
"For years I thought we had ended this all when we killed your mother, but I guess somehow you got away, didn't you?" He said with a crooked smile on his face.
I tried to lunge forward but the guard held me right in place followed by the laugh of the Emperor and his family.
"Very feisty I see, I heard your mother was like that" The emperor egged on.
Without thinking it through I spit on the Emperors face for talking poorly about my mother.
The emperor quickly wiped it off his face and then proceeded to hit me repeatedly across the face, once he was done he grabbed me by the chin and forced me to looked at him.
"You and your friends will be dead by tomorrow afternoon, it's a shame, I was going to let your friends go, but after what you just did they will experience the same fate as you".
The emperor's son, who seem to be a little older than me, came forward and began observing the rest of my friends.
"What strange colored hair you have" He said to Felicity who still had tears coming down her face.
The prince instantly reminded me of Felicitys brothers, who tortured her and couldn't care less about what happened to her.
"Stop crying and look at him" The emperor demanded to Felicity.
For the time being the attention was taken off me and yet I didn't like where this was going.
Felicity looked up at the Prince but couldn't stop the tears from falling down her face.
"Make the tears stop" The prince demanded.
I could tell that all these orders were only making Felicity more scared, they were reminding her of the men who had treated her so badly in her life, they were making things worse.
"I said stop!" The prince shouted and raised his hand to hit Felicity.
Instantly a chunk of earth flew up and hit him in the stomach causing him to fall back.
We stood there in silence for a quick moment before each of the guards dropped down into the ground and disappeared.
Our bending wasn't numb anymore.
Quickly, with my hands still firmly tied behind me, I used the tears from Felicity's face and created a small sharp dagger that cut the ropes off me.
I rushed over to everyone else and released them from their ropes and we stood there facing the royal family.
"What do you think you're doing!" The emperor yelled.
"Getting our freedom" Dax shouted back at him.
"You've made a very terrible mistake" The emperor insisted.
"I think you're quite wrong" Jarom said as he grabbed the Emperors son with his good arm and held him in a choke hold.
Instantly the Empress stood up and demanded that we let him go.
"Not until we get the answers we need" I said strongly trying to ignore the pain my whole body was in.
"What do you want to know!" The Emperor insisted.
The Emperors son struggled a little but Jarom was too strong for him, even with just his one arm.
"Why did you murder my entire family?"
"Because I wanted to make sure we got everyone!"
"The prophecy said it would be a woman of royalty, there was no need to kill the men!" I yelled at him.
"Of course there was you foolish girl, If I didn't kill the men then they could just unite with someone else and create more princesses, and I didn't want that".
I was about to ask him another question when suddenly my whole body went limp and I fell to ground.
I looked over at my friends and found that they too were on the ground and couldn't move.
"Did you really think you could just come into my home and boss me around? You all are a lot more foolish than I thought.".
Instantly my body was able to move again but I had two guards already holding me down on the ground.
"Now, just to make sure that we don't have to worry about another outburst, I'm just going to take care of this bending problem that we have". The emperor said.
Once more the guards were forcing me to my knees along with the rest of my friends.
A woman, who had a little darker skin than Ivan and was dressed in a light green robe, appeared from behind us and faced the Emperor.
"Please get rid of their bending, they are beginning to be a real problem".
The woman nodded her head and then walked towards me.
"Start with the rest of her friends and make her last, I want her to see all of this".
The woman nodded her head and began with Dax.
She placed her middle finger and index finger in the middle of Dax's head and let it set there for a moment, then she gently lifted her fingers off his forehead and a green sphere of light seemed to exit Dax's head. As soon as the sphere was completely out of his head Dax's whole body went limp.
The guard that was holding him up was demanded to let go of him and Dax's body fell to the ground.
All our eyes were stuck on Dax and we waited to see what happened to him.
Eventually Dax regained his strength and focused on the rest of us, "I don't feel any different" He admitted.
The guard that was behind Dax walked up to him and cut his ropes off.
Without another moment to waste Dax went to water whip the man but nothing happened.
Stunned Dax looked at his hands as if something was wrong with him, then he tried again and again and yet nothing happened.
"You're bending is gone. Permanently" The emperor said with a smile on his face, "Now, let's move on to the others shall we".
The guard forced Dax back down his knees and Dax knew he was completely powerless.
The next one in line was Ivan, Ivan began squirming around and shouting out threats to the emperor, "Once my father hears about what you've done you'll be ruined, your whole empire will be ruined".
The Emperor continued to wear his wicked smile, "Do you think the Earthern Territory scares me? You're wrong if you think so".
The woman in the green robe stepped forward and did the same ritual that she did for Dax, Ivans body fell to the ground and he regained strength only to find his bending was stripped away from him.
"Monsters!" Ivan shouted at the emperor, "Your whole Family is monsters!"
The guard behind Ivan quickly knocked him out and the lady simply moved to the next one.
Seviah looked at her father as if he would take mercy on her, "Please, don't do this to me, you don't want to".
Seviahs mother, who was completely oblivious to the fact that this was her daughter, talked to Seviah as if she were a harlot.
"Don't you dare speak to your Emperor like that you piece of filth, the fact that your ruler is even allowing you to live is a blessing, so take it before I decide to burn that face of yours.
Seviahs attention stayed locked on her father as her eyes begged him not to let this happen to her.
The Empress had enough and walked down to Seviah and continued to slap her repeatedly until the Emperor ordered her to stop.
The empress with satisfaction bent down and said some last words to Seviah, "Pathetic. Begging an emperor to help you, you have no right and no position."
The Emperor looked down at Seviah and then walked back to his throne, "Continue" He said.
The woman in green once more bent down and repeated the steps she had done to Ivan and Dax.
When Seviah had regained her strength, she didn't cry and she didn't seem angry, she simple stayed kneeling on the ground with her head down.
Felicity had tears pouring down her face the entire time and when she was approached by the woman she tried to get away but the guard wouldn't let her.
Felicity fell to the ground after the process was over and looked at the emperor with disgust in her eyes, "How could someone love a monster like you!"
The emperor smiled and simply had the woman move on to Jarom.
The woman moved to Jarom and placed her fingers on his forehead, for some reason I couldn't help it but I had to speak out.
"Let him be! He has done nothing wrong!" I shouted.
The guard instantly pulled me by my hair and told me to shut my mouth.
"This is your fault princess, if you would have just let me do what I needed to do your friends would have been released".
The Emperor nodded his head and the lady continued to do what she had been doing.
The second Jarom recovered he looked at me as if to tell me he was okay, that everything was going to be alright.
But I knew it wasn't going to be alright, my friends just had all of their bending permanently taken from them because they chose to faithfully follow me, a girl who really had no idea what she was doing.
"How does it feel, princess?" The Emperor asked, "You just watched each of your friends have something stripped from them, something that they held very close and dear. All because of you."
I looked at him and wouldn't dare give him the satisfaction that he was craving, he wouldn't get it.
"I did nothing wrong, they did nothing wrong, but you, you did. You think that taking their bending from them will stop us from destroying you and this wicked palace that you have here? I will end your life before you end mine. Watch your back".
The Emperor continued to wear that wicked grin while he motioned for the woman to take my bending as well.
The woman stepped in front of me and placed her fingers on my forehead.
Her fingers were soft and warm, something I wasn't expecting.
I closed my eyes and waited for it to happen, to feel the surge of energy leave me and for me to fall to the ground like my friends.
Immediately it was as if time stopped, I couldn't move and I couldn't breathe, all that I could control were my thoughts.
My vision went white for a moment and I thought I was dead.
Soon the blank whiteness that I saw seemed to quickly vanish.
Once my vision focused itself I found that I was on the floor, just like my friends.
I picked myself off the floor and felt the ropes being cut off from behind me.
"Try it" The Emperor said looking at me.
Just hearing his voice made my heart begin to beat with a deep thumping of hatred, like my whole body had to focus on trying not to lose all control that I had.
"Try it princess, try to kill me".
I stood up from my knees and made the short way up the golden stairs and stood right in front of him.
His eyes were dark, his height not impressive, his chest slowly beating up and down waiting with anticipation for whatever it may be that I was to do.
Knowing I couldn't waterbend, and not wanting him to see me try and bend, I raised my hand and let it down on his face.
The sound of contact was loud and made the empress gasp.
The emperor himself didn't make a sound, but rather looked at me with so much satisfaction.
He brushed my cheek with the backside of his hand and whispered into my ear, "Just way till I make you watch each of your friends burn alive".
He pulled away and still the smile remained on face, "Put them in the dungeon" He commanded.
The guards picked the rest of my friends up and shoved us out of the room and towards the dungeon.
The way in which we took had long dark hallways that gradually descended further and further in the ground. Dim torches on the wall barely lit the way for us and for some odd reason there was a slight draft of wind.
Soon we came to a level piece of ground and the guards opened the only cell there was and threw us into it.
"Enjoy your last moments" One of them said before disappearing with the rest of them back up to the main level.
The only light source that was down there was the flickering torch right outside of our cell, it wasn't enough to see the features of someone's face right in front of you but you could at least make out the shape.
"This is really how it's going to end" Ivan said and he slowly sat down on the ground.
I'm sure there was something encouraging that I was supposed to say but I just couldn't find the right words to say, so saying nothing was better in this circumstance.
Jarom groaned as he sat down on the ground and I instantly remember that he had a broken arm.
"Jarom, how much pain are you in?" I asked as I helped him sit down.
"I'm still breathing, that's all that matters". He responded.
I was tired of him acting so tough for me, he didn't need to do that, no one here needed to do that.
I sat on the ground with him, cuddling into his good arm, just letting the moment of quiet take over.
Felicity made her way to Ivan and rested her head on his lap while Dax stood holding the cell bars looking at where the guards had disappeared.
"Dax" Ivan said, "Sit down".
"No". Dax quickly responded.
Ivan took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, "What good is standing there going to do?"
"What good is sitting going to do?" He snapped back.
"What's your problem, Dax!" Jarom's voiced boomed.
"Problem?" Dax questioned turning around and facing Jarom.
The darkness made it hard to see the expression on Dax's face but his voice helped plenty.
"My problem is that it seems that we have all given up!" Dax shouted, "Have we really let them win! We can't go down like this!".
Jarom stood up quickly and instantly grabbed his arm shouting in pain, "We can't do a thing, Dax! They took our waterbending! Our Airbending! Our Earthbending! He even took his own daughters firebending! Just how are we supposed to do anything!"
I stood up and placed myself in between the two of them and shouted in their faces, "This is not how we will spend our last moments! I don't care how stressed we are!"
Jarom and Dax both went quiet and all you could hear was their deep breathing.
"We have come to far as friends to hate each other, we have been through too much. We tried, we really did, but if this is how it's supposed to end then we will let it". I said in a more calm voice.
Jarom sat back down and rested his head against the stone wall.
Dax continued to stand there looking in my direction.
"Is that so, Ëthia?" Dax questioned.
"Yes, Dax, how do you think we got stuck in this mess? Because we tried!" I yelled at him.
He took a few steps towards me and I could see his facial features just slightly better, "And do you know why we tried? Do you know why each of us left our homes?"
"Why?" I asked.
"Because you asked us to. So if you want us to give up and stop trying, just say the word, but I will continue trying until you tell me to stop".
I looked in his direction and thought about what he said, I thought about all the pain that I had caused my friends and the pain that would eventually come down on their families. Each one of them has fought so hard but I don't think I could ask them to keep trying, not after having their bending taken from them, not after being thrown into a dungeon, not after being chased down by assassins who are relentless. I just wanted my friends to relax for the last few moments we had.
"So what is it? What's your answer?" Dax asked.
"I say stop"
Dax immediately backed away from me and went and sat down, "Then so it shall be".
Suddenly a feeling of energy left me, not the kind that makes you fall to the ground, but an emotional loss. Instantly my heart felt empty and I no longer had any drive to do anything. I had completely given up.
I made my way back to Jarom and cuddled into his side, and yet not even that made me feel anything.
I finally came to the conclusion that I had lost.
Completely lost.