Tzo'sai woke up in the cage he had been put in by the fire nation guard that he had mistakenly run into on the roads. Tzo'sai was a renowned rebel in the area a fire bender himself he had been first taken in for burning down a shop on accident, little did he know the shop keeper had connections amongst the city guard. Tzo'sai was taken in when he was only 14 to prison. He would have simply let it go and gone back to his normal life had be not been attacked by the guards on a regular basis, they burned him and gave him multiple scars, most noticable of which was an X that cross his cheek. This marked him as a criminal giving him reason to wear his mask, but no mask did he wear now. He was only given a pair of torn pants to keep him warm at night, and a pair of steel hand guards that blocked him from bending, he watched at the fire nation guards ate their food, munching on meat and fried vegetables. One of the guards noticed him and walked over holding a piece of meat in front of his face, he set it afire and let it burn then tossed it to Tzo'sai. The man watched as Tzo'sai hungrily scarfed it down, they merely kept him alive for their own entertainment. Their commander walked out of his tent and they all stood at attention, he gave each a stern look then began barking orders. 

"We have been called to collect tax on a village not far from here!" the man shouted "We are to take any prisoner we should deem necessary, which means we must have an empty cage. Lieutenant, take care of it." 

A man began walking towards the cage where Tzo'sai was held, the man stopped not far from the cage and readied himself in a fireball stance. Tzo'sai caught on quickly and moved aside quickly as the fireball passed through the bars just to his left. Tzo felt the heat of the ball pass his shoulder and then an arrow struck the man that had shot it, then a boulder destroyed the tent of the commander. Panic struck the men as chaos broke loose amongst their ranks, solders in random pieces of armor ran into the camp. Tzo saw a girl take the keys off the lieutenant and unlocked his cage.

"Your free," she said smiling "Go! Run!" 

She ran into battle along side the other soldiers and began fighting, Tzo looked stunned that she had forgoton to remove his steel hand cuffs. He was of no use if he could not bend, he ran after her but a fire nation soldier with a sword ran at him. Tzo raised his cuffed hands and blocked the weapon driving it into the ground, he brought his elbow back into the soldiers face and the man fell over backwards. Tzo ran into the battle and saw an earth bender fighting with rocks on his hands, Tzo jumped in and kicked the opposing soldier in the chest. He looked at the earth bender then nodded at his cuffs, the earth bender brought his hand up and then chopped the cuffs in half, Tzo moved his hands easily out of them now and produced a fire in his hand. The earth bender looked at him shocked and raised his fist back. 

"Wait," Tzo said quickly "Wait...Wait!" 

The earth bender swung at Tzo and Tzo ducked under it and tackled the earth bender to the ground. Tzo sat on the man and punched him until he stopped fighting, Tzo got up and began running down the road. He soon started walking and eventually he watched a city come into view, he crossed into the city and pulled a scarf from a passing vendors cart. He wrapped it around his face to prevent his burned X from showing, some watched him pass but eventually he found a store and checked the pockets of the mans clothing which he stole. He found three water tribe circular coins and a single silver fire nation coin, he smiled at the oddity of these coins together. He set them all on the counter and asked the man what he could get for this, the man brought him a bowl of warm noodles and a cup of tea, Tzo'sai thanked the man and began eating. A hand was placed on his shoulder and pulled him out of his seat, Tzo turned and looked at a man wearing an official looking uniform backed by two men wearing the same uniform. 

"We have reports that you stole an article of neck wear," The man said in a deep voice. 

"And what might you constitute as neck wear?" Tzo asked jokingly. 

"That scarf you're wearing at this very moment," The man said pulling scarf off his neck exposing his criminals X scar. The man's eyed widened and he grabbed Tzo's arms and put the behind his back, he put a set of cuffs on him and pushed his head into a nearby table. Tzo felt a pain in his head and blacked out shortly after only to wake up in the town square with a set of chains around his body and restrains on his arms legs and neck. He looked around and saw the entire town gathering around the podium on which he sat on his knees.