Wei's murderer was a coward. The lowliest kind there ever was and ever will be. - Kazu

Kazu found it hard to remember faces--even more so with names. It baffled him how others could match them together without effort. Just the briefest glimpse, the slightest flicker of an image, a twitch in their minds, and they perked up with recognition. All smiles and waves, or begrudging acknowledgement and grumbled greetings.

So much ease. It was usually so hard for the waterbender.

And yet...he couldn't forget one face. Not ever since the day his existence crumbled. Not ever since his reason for loving bled out slowly in his arms. Not ever since. Never since.

Kazu recalled every detail of that face. A thin mouth, lopsided with a permanent scowl. Nose bulbous and hanging low, a whisper of a gap between it and the upper lip. Tanned and damaged sunspots peppering cheeks, barely hidden by stubble. A square head and jaw. Pronounced, caveman-like brow, but not protruding too far as to slouch over his gaze.

That gaze. Those eyes.

They were so cold while in the light of fire. While stealing his cherished person's life. Kazu couldn't comprehend it.

And he couldn't speak. Another thing Wei had taken with her beyond the grave. The squadron had tried to coax him, to encourage him to talk. No such luck. No such hope. No more idiotic commentary nor naive inquiries. The ex-prisoner had withdrawn into himself, retreating. Hurting. Perpetually healing with no end in sight.

Or maybe there was a way to seal the gash in his heart. Something to fill the crater that Wei left behind. Anything. And so maybe, just maybe, perhaps--there was a way. He had stewed and mulled and simmered over it for weeks, all while stumbling behind his teammates like a brain dead pet on a leash.

There was always that one option. The unspeakable. The taboo path that only the broken traveled down...Was that not him? Was he not broken? He felt like it, terribly, achingly so. His soul's dissonance was agonizing. If only he could eradicate and destroy this misery, and mourn the loss with an iota of peace in his system...

So be it.

}:{

Bodies filled the corridor.

Their figures, thin and gangly, limbs intertwined and bent in unnatural angles, laid face down. Some with a vice-like grip cemented around their throats. Some with brittle fingers digging into crumbling faces, seeming as ancient and fresh as time itself. The night carried a winter's breeze through the hollows of their corpses.

It was so cold. A phenomenon unheard of in the halls of Gooling Prison.

Kazu's feet dragged, but continued to haul him forward. He passed several cells, all empty and their bars hacked to pieces. He could vaguely register the riot unfolding outside. None of his business and none of his concern, though entirely his doing.

He had but one face in mind.

Water whipped about him in loops. They moved with an infinite fluidity, showing no signs of stopping until his dying breath. They were not mighty nor ferocious, but flowed with a contained power about it. Highly condensed and pressurized. One blast from it could surely pierce metal.

Kazu wasn't smart, wasn't a fast-thinker, but he had weeks to theorize. In that time, he came to a simple deduction.

Wei's murderer was a coward. The lowliest kind there ever was and ever will be. No more of him was seen after killing the earthbender, as he had hid behind his wall of men. If a prison-wide outbreak unraveled... Kazu knew that he would hide again. But in comfort.

In his highly guarded office.

Well, previously guarded office.

He stood before the door. A tall slab of metal bearing the plaque of Warden.

His water lashed out and sliced the entrance in two. Almost in two. With three more slashes, half of it finally loosened and fell to the floor with a groaning thud.

The warden stood with his back to Kazu, hands resting on his desk as he overlooked the prison courtyard through his window. Watched the slaughtering and revenge and carnage unfold. "I'm impressed," he said.

Kazu didn't move.

Slowly, the firebender turned to reveal a smile. One of expectancy and resignation. "You came sooner than I thought, Rebel. I can only imagine what you're here for."

}:{

One second. The warden's fist sizzled.

Within that same second, flames erupted.

He shot three globes at the waterbender, whose arms lifted to create a liquid shield. The attacks instantly extinguished on impact. However, the warden rocketed several more, taking a step closer with each punch. Kazu remained firm, stance unwavering--

"Do something!" A fist smashed straight through his defenses. However, the gap sloshed around the firebender's arm and squeezed tightly like a boa monkey. The man winced. He could've sworn blood had stopped flowing into his fingers with how deeply the water bit into his skin. He dispelled the shield completely with a high kick, forcing Kazu to physically block. A boot drove into the waterbender's gut and knocked him onto his back.

Almost.

Kazu extended both arms behind him and expelled jets of water from his palms, shooting him back onto his feet. He answered with a whopping double-fisted strike to the warden's chest, followed by a stiff jab to his throat and cracking into the back of his skull with an overhand blow.

Instead of collapsing, the warden bounced back with a series of powerful straights and wheeling kicks. "Your hits are weaker than last time!" he cackled. Thick streams of fire swarmed all around Kazu, furious arcs of heat and destruction just missing him by a hairsbreadth. The waterbender tapped into his training, evading with a balanced mixture of fluidity and hardness, just as Kena taught him. Turn your enemy's power into their downfall, bring defeat unto themselves from themselves.

Sweltering heat ate away at oxygen in the air. Flames snapped and kindled along the floors and furniture, but the warden didn't seem to care. Sweat pouring down his visage, he launched into yet another assault without pause.

Kazu couldn't find an opening. This man's attacks were vicious. Confident--

Crack!

Sharp ringing pierced his ears.

The waterbender stumbled, his vision doubling. Blood rolled down his temple. He grit his teeth, squinting through the pain as the warden's figure blurred in and out of view. This was bad. If he didn't finish the fight soon, he would likely fall unconscious.

For the briefest moment, the warden's guard relaxed. A smug smirk tugged at his lips. "And here I thought you were going to avenge that earthbender."

Kazu froze.

"Where's your spine, boy? Your anger!"

Wham!

A punch clocked Kazu clean in the jaw. He took the entire brunt of the hit, his instincts clouded. Distracted.

"Oh, I see! I must've been mistaken!"

Temple. Chin. Chest. Kicks to the side. Bruises and cuts forming.

Bam! Pack!

Sweat glistened on every inch of the warden's skin. Yet, he didn't stop. Didn't let up on the bloody onslaught. Crimson rivulets cascaded down Kazu's face, past the swelling and dripping from his chin.

"You never even," a cough, "You never cared about her to begin with! Your drive is weak! Passionless!" The warden's strikes were gradually losing energy. They came slower and slower, weaker and weaker. Sweat pooled at his feet. More chest-rattling coughs.

"She... She didn't m-mean a damn thing to you! Just a worthless..." He lifted his palm to create a ring of fire. "No named p-piece of rebel scum!" His tongue felt unbearably dry.

No flames.

No heat.

The warden's eyes strained to widen. "W-what's going..."

"You killed her."

He tried to inhale, to fan his inner flame. And yet, his throat clenched in upon itself, grating like a cotton pipe. Brittle. Rough. Kazu advanced slowly.

"She's gone," a red mist peeled from the waterbender's face. Blood--his blood. Smears and streams lifting from the angry swelling and bruises. "Because of you."

Weakness struck the warden like a bolt of lightning. He fell to his hands and knees, violent coughs piercing his chest, trembles and quakes traveling through his limbs, sweat continuing to pool underneath. "W-what are...you doing t-to...me..." he wheezed.

A palm enveloped his forehead, yanking his gaze up to meet Kazu's. "You took her away from me." Pain--so much hollow pain in his voice. And sweeping through the warden like a plague. His skin began to shrivel and tighten, sticking to his bones like a second film. The volume and filling of his flesh rapidly dwindled. Deflating. Akin to watching a corpse decompose in the span of seconds.

The liquid pooling beneath him shifted, rising from the ground like gelatinous stalagmites. They flowed around Kazu and fed into his arcs, rushing around him with the fury of a forsaken ocean spirit. Woeful. Ten digits jammed into the warden's brittle face and pushed until he was bent backwards by the spine. The hind of his skull met the floor and forced him to peer up into dead brown eyes.

"You took her away," Kazu whispered, "And now, I'm going to take everything from you."

A chunk of tongue chipped off and tumbled down the firebender's chest, dusty and dry like a piece of charcoal.

He would never realize in time that he drew his last breath.

Tears streamed down Kazu's face.

"All of it."