10 Years Ago
The Saito Estate

Chou kneeled before her father crying and clutching two broken fingers as her father's steely gaze rested upon her as heavy as steel. He shifted from his chair and his long elegant robes followed, trailing his every footstep like a shadow as his steps echoed their way towards his sobbing daughter. A quick hand flew out from his robes, slapping Chou across the face and sending her to the ground. Sympathy was not a word in Roku Saito's dictionary.
"You let some...some mongrel best you in a fight? What was the purpose of all those years of training? To teach you how to beat some prissy earth bender scum in a duel?" Chou whimpered, she felt compelled to speak up about how it was more than one person fighting her and how they were considerably older than her. She kept quiet though, she had been in situations like these one too many times and reason was not something her father would likely want to hear at the moment.

Her father sneered at her turning away in a flash and moving back to his chair.
"And all that talk of surpassing your brothers not two months ago? I suppose that was all lies then?" A cruel grin grew on his face as he could visibly see his daughter bending to his whim. "Get out of my sight."

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Present Day
A marketplace within the Fire Nation

It had been nine years since Chou had run away from her father and joined the New Dawn rebellion. Roku was no longer her father, no, she saw Minoru, the leader of New Dawn as more of a father than Roku had ever been. She brushed back her messy, unkempt hair and pulled her gloves taut as she peered down upon her target. A politician who, while not explicitly supporting the Fire Nation's actions against the Water Tribes, spoke openly out against the New Dawn and their methods of protest. However, that was not the truth Chou had been told. She had been told he actively supported the massacres in the North pole and thereby needed to be eliminated. Of course, this was all lies, but lies she had been brainwashed to believe.

He was wearing formal attire, long elegant robes that forced memories of Chou's blood father into her head. Her father's dress sense was probably the reason Chou often wore boyish and practical clothes as opposed to the dresses and formal attire often expected of her. He couldn't have been an easier target, had it not been for the strange figure trailing him. A bodyguard most likely, and with his reputation probably not a mediocre one.

Chou sighed, taking a pale mask from her belt and putting it on as she readied herself for a fight. She leapt down from her vantage point, she had chosen her time well, it was getting close to dusk and the marketplace was relatively sparse. She got to a medium distance from her target before quickly stepping out and punching forward, intending to send a blast of fire towards the politician. Unfortunately for her, a passerby managed to trip and fall into her arm, skewing her aim and instead shooting the fire towards the bodyguard. Things were about to get sticky.

The world was cruel and filled with danger. The strong survived. The weak did not. That was the cardinal law of survival.

Tailin heeded that law well.

She was a water bender. However, she was different from her ilk. When bandits took her family, she tapped into a power that could bend another to her will. Unlike water, graceful and mindful, what she did back then was violent. Malicious. Dominating and breaking if the one she held chose to resist. She ensured the bandits' death wasn't fast nor painless. They took something valuable away from her that day and gave something valuable back to her in return. An eternal fury. A taste to the cardinal law that dominated life.

The woman roaming the streets of the marketplace was a product of her cruel deeds. Choosing a life of violence as a mercenary, Tailin continued to build as terrible reputation as she could muster. She relished fear. Intimidation at the mere whisper of her name. It was a tempting draw for clients as well. She was never short on work, for her reputation was not only one of violence but of success. Losing was something she abhorred.

Trailing behind a politician that sought her out, he had hired Echo (Tailin's mercenary alias) for a handsome sum. Dressed in her typical work disguise, Tailin looked about the market place. There were many angles and assailant could come from. Any of the commoners milling about could be an assailant. She voiced her reservations to her client for coming to such an open area, but he disregarded her words. He came anyway. It was Tailin's job to make sure her client continued to draw breath. Whatever the reason he needed to hire her for, it was all moot. As long as she was paid. That's all that mattered.

As they were about to head back to the client's estate, Tailin heard quick footsteps as someone landed on the ground. The politician was shouting while she already turned to face the masked assailant. Reaching out and feeling the water that flowed through another, Tailin chose the nearest commoner and forced him to collide with the assailant.

Seeing the fire come towards her, Tailin reached out towards the water jugs from a nearby vendor. She felt the energy as she formed a water barrier that collided with the flame. When it was extinguished, she brought the water back. Forming a protective layer between her and the assailant, her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. A grin teared across her lips. The thrill of the fight bubbled within her.

Forming tiny shards of ice from a small portion of the water, she sent them screaming towards the assailant.