Avatar Book IV: Raijin
Prologue: Empty White Flame
Madness, insanity…what is it that causes one to lose their mind? What is that causes one's thoughts to become irrational? What is it that savers a one's subconscious from reality? There are many things that drive one mad, but for the former Princess Azula, the answer lies in…Fear. The betrayal of her two only companions, Mai and Ty Lee, left her floating alone in a wide open sea of uncertainty and confusion. She could not understand their betrayal; she could not understand why they ceased fearing her. How could there possibly be something stronger than Fear? The thoughts replayed in her mind over and over again until she finally shut them out and wrote the two off as fools. However, after her defeat at her own coronation, her grasp on reality faded and she fell into in a sea of insanity, her mind shattered like glass smashed upon a stone.
When she first arrived at the special Mental Intuition on Insa Niti Isle and placed in the highest room of the white stone tower, rage and mad cries ruled her every behavior. Bound with chains, around hands and feet, for her own safety, she thrashed about her room like a mad beast in a cage, destroying everything she could. The doctors ordered her to be left alone; one doctor was heard to say, "Approaching her is like trying to approach a bound dragon."
And thus for two straight weeks, the former princess raged about her room until fatigue and hunger took their toll and her rage simmered into a calm, bitter silence. Only then did the nurses enter the room to clean up the mess she had made, replaced burnt furniture, and leave her food to eat.
But that was all. For another week following, still bound by chains, she was forced lean over the plate and eat like an animal. At first the resolve for revenge fueled her will to persevere, but that resolve was soon lost when nurses, many of whom were her former servants sent by her brother to look after her, began to unleash the hatred they built up under her reign of cruelty. They began to tease and taunt her like she was some beast. They looked down at her and smiled with glee at her misfortune.
"Oh how the mighty have fallen," they would laugh.
"Would Her Highness like a napkin to clean her mouth?" they mocked.
Their teasing and taunting quickly set her off, but before she could spout any fire the nurses would kick hard her in the gut, stopping cold, her fiery breath, and then they kicked and beat her a few more times before leaving, laughing victoriously.
Day after the day, the nurses would take out their frustrations on her. The doctors were either unaware or didn't care. Many of them weren't very fond of her either, due to an earlier comment the former princess had made during an inspection to the effect that the institution's funding should be completely halted and the patients left to rot on the barren island. She had called the place a den of worthless idiots and the doctors themselves weak fools with the brains of rhinos and severely burned their previous chief of staff when he tried to argue the intuitions importance. He even went as far as getting on his hands and knees and begged her to keep the institute open.
As for Fire Lord Zuko, he was completely unaware and also far too busy with the aftermath of war to really pay much attention to his sister.
For the first time in her life the princess felt helpless, her hands and feet bound by chains, her hair a tangled mass, her body bruised and beaten, her inadequate robe tattered, dirty and drenched in a nausea-inducing stench that roiled her gut when she breathed too deeply. It didn't even fully cover her upper half, leaving her bare and bruised torso partially exposed. The chains that bound her were never removed, even if she had to conduct business concerning her lower half and as a result the room stank with the flumes that radiated from her bodily waste. To make matters worse, the nurses would sometimes pour her food onto the effluvia, and though she often tried to resist eating it, hunger eventually forced her to do otherwise.
Betrayed, defeated, bound like a beast, and humiliated, the former princess wept, and wished for death. She cried for her father, she prayed and hoped that he would break free and come for her, but that slight glimmer of hope faded when she learned from one of the nurses that former Fire Lord Ozai had been executed at the demand of both Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom nobles. However, it was not that news that shocked her most; what shocked her most was that, deep down, she wasn't even sad for him. Though she had followed his commands to letter, though she had done everything he told her to do, she did not feel remorse for her father, but hatred. Hatred bread of a sorrow of she could not understand.
She cried for her life. She cried for her horrid fate. She was once at the height of power, worshipped by all around her. Now she was nothing, crushed hard into the mud. More than at any time in her life, the former princess felt alone… She had nothing left, her title snatched from her by defeat, betrayed by her only friends, and her father, who she'd tried her hardest to always please and whose favor she tried to keep, was now dead. She had nothing…nothing but her own life and she didn't see reason for keeping even that.
She lay helpless on the floor, her body too wrought with pain to stand, and curled up like a ball, her mind rioting. "How could this have happened to me?" she asked herself. "I'm perfect! I was perfect, what did I do to deserve this? Where did I go wrong? I did everything father asked of me and more. I never once disobeyed him. I was worshipped, people worshipped me, I was perfect…so why. Why did all this happen, why am I here, how did I end up like this? Why… why did they betray me? Why did they abandon me? Why…why…why…?"
Again and again she asked herself, WHY. Time slowed: hours became days, days become weeks as she fell further and further into herself, until there was nothing left but a near lifeless doll of flesh that acted purely upon instinct. Eating when it needed to and sleeping wherever it lay. Those at the facility who once picked on her lost satisfaction in making her suffer since she no longer reacted in a way that amused them. Some felt guilt and even pity. They removed the chains that bound her, took off the dirty, smelly robe that had turned brown, cleaned up her body, dressed her into a new clean white robe and brushed out her hair now a long, wild mane that was nothing more than a shadow of its former ebony glory. It became a routine: everyday a pair of nurses entered her chambers and washed her, clothed her, sometimes feed her, and brushed her hair. But the princess…she would just sit there quiet and calm, like a life-size pet doll.
The doctors finally began to talk to her and try to help her like their other patients, but the princess…she did not notice them or even knew they were there. An artist sent by the young Fire Lord needed only one word to describe her: "Empty." And it was with that word that he named the painting he made of her, the "Empty White Flame." The portrait of the white-robed, long-haired former princess, sitting against the wall of her room stunned her brother. The image was beautiful, but a painful, grotesque beauty so unbearable he ordered it covered and placed into the palace storeroom, never be seen again. To his fiancée, Mai, he said, "My sister, the Princess Azula, whom I once envied and feared…is dead…" The young Fire Lord even once thought about bringing his sister home, where she could be better cared for and looked after, but that was all it remained: a mere, passing fancy and nothing more.
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Nearly three months had passed since the princess first arrived at the facility. Fall was nearly at an end, and winter was approaching. As always, she sat in her chamber at the top of the tower, her back against the wall, her black hair, neatly combed out by the nurses, now reaching to her thighs. Her skin, having not seen the sun for many a day, had grown pale, nearly verging on cadaverous. She had lost all sense of awareness. Her consciousness was trapped within itself, constantly questioning itself, questions to which she could not find answers…
'Why…why…do I breathe...why…why do I eat…why…why do I go on…why…why do I live?' Hopeless disorder dominated, her words echoing about her each time she spoke. 'For what….for what do I continue…for what…for what purpose do I live…' Suddenly the white realm slowly began to be filled with… 'Smoke…I smell smoke…' Bit by bit, the white realm then slowly turned red with… 'heat…I feel heat…I feel hot…' finally the realm began to fill with, 'Fire…I feel fire…am I…am I going to burn? Am I …am I going to die…'
'Do you want to do die?' an intruding voice suddenly asked.
'Do I…do I want to die?'
'Yes…do you want to die? Is death truly what you desire?'
'I…I…'
'Your body still eats, your body still breathes, are you sure you wish to die before finding the answers you seek?'
'The answers I seek…'
'Yes, do not wish find those answers?'
'Do I wish to find the answers?
'Do you?'
'I…I…'
'Come…come with me and we will find the answers…'
She raised her head. Standing before her in the empty white realm was a figure of crimson fire, holding out a hand. She stared at the intruder, a strangely familiar, comforting sensation washed over her. She slowly raised her hand and placed it into the figures as a bright flash filled the realm.
The princess's eyes opened wide and looked around to find her chambers set ablaze with roaring flames. But an unseen force shielded her. Dazed, Azula noticed gentle warmth encompassing her right hand. It was then that she noticed the man, swathed head-to-foot in a dark cloak, kneeling before her, her right hand cradled in his left as it were a precious, delicate object. He rose, and slowly she stood with him, confused yet oddly secure in the way he held her so dearly.
Suddenly a man burst into the room. He was dressed completely in red, bore a full head re mask, a long sword on his back, and a pouch hanging from his black belt from he pulled small metal star. He attempt the throw it, but was stopped cold by ray of crimson flames.
Azula looked at the cloaked man, who was holding out two fingers toward where the one in dark red had been standing. His eyes met hers.
"I think it's time we took leave of this place," he said, lifting her up into his arms, "Hang on."
She did not know what was going on, but wrapped her arms around his neck as he ran towards a large hole in the back of the room. Three more dark red figures charged in from the flames giving chase. The cloaked man jumped through the hole and into the air just as three fiery metal stars soared an inch above his head. As they fell, her rescuer cried out words the former princess couldn't understand, and a four-legged, cinnabar-scaled dragon the size of a komodo-rhino soared down and caught them firmly on its back. The edges of the beast's large wings then gleamed with a red-yellow light and soared off into the night sky like a shooting arrow, with a trail of brilliant vermillion particles streaming in its wake.
Azula looked back to find the tower that was once her cage completely engulfed fire. Overwhelmed, she fainted. The man smiled at her and readjusted her to where her head was on his chest and then placed his hand over her chest. It glowed a crimson fiery light that spread to the unconscious girl's chest; from the glow rose a red fiery crystal in the shape of a diamond, a small flame radiating from the center.
"Good, it's still here. I just barely managed to make it in time," he said to himself. The crystal retreated back into the light and vanished. The figure lowered his hand and looked up at the star-filled sky and frowned, "Those men; they were…" He closed his eyes and breathed slowly. "So they're finally going to make their move. But the question remains which one will be the restored: the one that strived for peace and knowledge or the one that strived for power beyond their control?" He smiled lightly and looked at the princess, "I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. Either way, it's not my place to intervene."