Hello. If you have read my stories before you will know not to take these fore-warnings lightly. This story is a reverse damsal in distress. I will not go into detail but this story is rated T for a reason. I think it is better suited for older T, or those of you with open minds and hard stomachs. I do tend to delve into the darker side with far out plots. Let me know what you think and I will gladly reply.
Warnings: Strong Language. Vulgarity, and adult situations.
I don't own anything. No money, No avatar...No Zuko..and that's a shame.
"Aang! I told you this wasn't a good Idea." Aang looked at Katara with a smile. He shook his head. As he washed the dirt off of his face at the small pond.
"They'll be fine."
"I don't know there Twinkle Toes. Sparky and Snoozles don't like each other, remember." Aang nodded and stood up looking at the two girls. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled widely.
"That's why I sent Haru with them." Katara shook her head.
"Zuko has only been with us for a few weeks. I still can't believe you trust him." Aang's face dropped a little as he shook his head.
"I can't believe you don't. He's on our side now. Everyone deserves a second chance." Katara crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.
"I know. I'm just worried. They have been gone almost all day." Toph shook her head.
"They just went to get supplies in town." Aang nodded and looked at Katara.
"Yeah, Katara, what could happen?"
Sokka could feel the blood pumping wildly in his head as he began to regain consciousness. His eyes hurt and his head felt like it was going to explode. He pushed himself up a little way and nausea over took him. He laid back down on the wood floor and took a few deep breaths. He sat up slowly and tried to opened his eyes, but they felt swollen. He picked his hand up and ran it over his neck. He winced as his finger found a small hole. He groaned and opened his eyes looking down to see why his shoulder was on fire. He squinted his eyes against the dark and noticed that his shoulder was red and swollen at the joint, and really resembled a hunk of meat. He tried to clear his throat from the scorching dryness that had over taken it.
He looked around blinking into the darkness until his eyes focused. It didn't take him long to realize he was in a cage. His heart leapt and started playing hop-scotch in his chest. He looked around the cage and he felt his body freeze.
Haru was laying on the other side of the cage and looked as if he was a discarded doll. His hair was out and spread out widely around him. Sokka crawled over and rolled the boy onto his back. Sokka frowned. Haru's face had been shaved and his hair let out, but there was something different that caught Sokka's attention. He leaned over him and looked at the boy's neck closely. There were three small holes that appeared to be deep. They were in the shape of a triangle and the edges around the circles were swollen and black with bruising. Sokka frowned as he tore a piece of his shirt and wiped off some of the puss that was oozing from the holes. He pushed the fabric against Haru's neck and looked around.
The large room they were in was full of cages along the edges of the room. He looked at the cage around and frowned. Haru and himself were in a wooden cage, top bottom and bars were all wood.
"Sokka..." Sokka looked around until he caught a glimpse of the person in the next cage. Zuko was shaking his head as he pushed himself up. Sokka frowned. He would have thought Zuko would have been behind this, but obviously not. Sokka started to crawl away from Haru but realized that his shoulder wasn't going to let him crawl. He hissed and sat up clutching his arm.
"Zuko? What's going on?" Zuko sat up holding his head and looked around. He let out a string of curses and looked back at the other boy.
"I have no idea. But we're in cages." Sokka growled as the pain in his shoulder throbbed.
"I knew that!" He hissed again as he tried to move his arm.
"Come here." Sokka jumped as he heard a voice break behind him. He turned around stiffly and looked at the man in the cage next to him. A man a little older them himself was reaching his hand out towards him.
"I'm the least of your worries in hear. Now come here and I'll fix your shoulder." Sokka started to make a wise-ass come back but a shot of pain screamed through his shoulder, down his arm to his finger tips and back up again. He moved over against the cage and got a good look at the man. He had deep blue eyes and the dark brown hair that gave him away as water tribe.
"Your water tribe." The man nodded and looked up at Sokka.
"And your in trouble. Now clench your teeth and do NOT yell." The man said. Sokka didn't have time to ask him what he meant. The man grabbed Sokka' arm and jerked it up and shoved it hard against his body. Sokka bite his tongue hard as he fought back a shriek. The man smiled and patted Sokka on the shoulder and caused him to wince.
"What do you mean we are in trouble?" Zuko said his hands wrapped tight around the black stone bars that cage him. The water tribe man looked across the cage at him.
"You just are." He hissed as he settled back against his wooden cage. Zuko growled and looked around the large room.
"Quit playing with them Kercha." A smooth voice hissed from behind the cage Zuko was in. The boys turned and looked at the man in a cage made from the same black stone that Zuko was in. He looked over at the boys and his yellow eyes seemed to glow in the dimly lit room.
"You are here because someone wants you as a part of a collection." Kercha shook his head as the other man stated a rather blunt but terrifying sentence.
"You are a bastard Vitani." Vitani looked across the cage as a small half hearted smile pulled at the corner of his lips.
"It's kept me from becoming a pet." Sokka frowned and shared a glance with Zuko before he looked over at the man.
"What does that mean?" Before Vitani could answer a soft laugh began to ring through the room. Vitani turned and glared at the man in the cage next to him.
"Don't worry kiddies. Xia will love you if your nice. I personally like being a pet." Sokka could hardly see the man that owned the voice. But Zuko could see him rather clearly. He was a small man with light brown hair barely touching his ears. He had bright green eyes and had a very feminine appearance that matched his voice. Zuko stated to ask another question but Vitani shot across his cage and grabbed the man by the neck.
"Mark me, Hiiu, we get out of this I will kill you." Vitani dropped the man in coughs and sputters. Vitani sat back against the cage. He was in his twenties and built like a solider. He had angled tattoos going down one arm and around the back of his neck. His black hair was pulled tight into a high pony tail. It hit Zuko then. He was a Black-Shade. A group of highly skill assassins that did his father's dirty work. They were very rare to see and even more rare to be caged.
"How are you in here? Why can't I bend?" Zuko said keeping his eyes on Vitani's. Vitani rolled his head to the side to look at Zuko. He brought his hand up and tapped the bars with his knuckle.
"Moon stone. It weaken's our ability to bend." Kercha shook his head and grunted causing Sokka to turned to look at him.
"Not only that. But we are three hundred feet underground. No sunlight. No moon light. No fire." Sokka frowned.
"Are you a bender?" Sokka ask. Kercha turned his blue eyes to the boy and nodded.
"Yes I am. Can't take water form there air, there is none. Can't pull water from the wood cage you are in because it is so dry. .." A voice chimed up behind him. Another man.
"We have been trying to wear down the metal bars with sweat but...when you are dehydrated it doesn't work that well." Sokka looked at the man. He was another young man of the water tribe. He had hair past his shoulders with half of it tied back. He wasn't over twenty five. Sokka felt his neck began to hurt. He looked over at Haru and shook his head.
"What's going to happen to us?" He said his voice echoing through the dense cavern.
"You really don't want to know kid." Vitani said shutting his eyes and shaking his head. Hiiu laughed again, sending the velvet laughter ringing off of the walls.
"Xia will take you into his bed and make you into a toy. You will be used to his pleasure and kept in his collection." Hiiu began to laugh but was cut off when the man in the cage behind his grabbed him by the hair and jerked hard causing him to knock his head against the bars.
"SHUT UP! Hiiu, you speak that way because you enjoy it. While we are forced into submission with the needle." This man was another young man. Sokka shook his head. This was a nightmare. It had to be. He had eaten to many of the scabbaberries and now his over active imagination was punishing him. Zuko looked to Vitani with a scowl on his face.
"Needle?" Vitani nodded and again rolled his head lazily to look at the young fire bender.
"It is a three pronged needle, filled with turtle-scorpion venom to cause unconsciousness, and platy-duck venom to make your body numb." Sokka squinted his eyes and noticed the scared over marks on Vitani's neck.
"How many times..." Vitani's harsh eyes cut off his question.
"Being trained as I was we were injected daily with turtle-scorpion venom so that our immunity would be built up." Sokka turned and looked at Kercha who had his hand protectively over his neck.
"I wasn't so lucky." Sokka shook his head and looked down at Haru as he started to wake up. Sokka crawled over to Haru, being easy on his still tender shoulder. Haru blinked open his eyes and groaned. He doubled over and rolled to his side holding his stomach.
"Shit..." He groaned as he felt like his stomach was going to explode from his gut. He felt like something was rolling in his intestines and pushing against his skin. Sokka grabbed him by the shoulders and helped him to sit up. He heard something hit the bars behind him and he turned to look at Kercha. His hands were wrapped around the bars and he was shaking his head.
"Don't move him. The venom is in his stomach right now, you don't want to circulate it." Kercha said. The man behind him nodded.
"Yes, if you move him the stomach will absorb the venom and it will be spread through his body by his blood." Zuko shook his head as he turned away from that conversation. None of this was making any sense to him. There seemed to be nothing but men in the cages, benders of all sorts, but then there was Vitani.
"How did you get captured?" Vitani looked at the young fire bender.
"You obviously know who I am. I was captured the same way you were. I was one a solo mission. What do you remember last before waking up?"
"We were going to the village to get supplies..." Zuko frowned as he tried to force his mind to remember.
"Let me guess." The man that had knocked out Hiiu shook his head as he laid down on the floor of his cage. "You were walking along and were attacked by killer ant-bees." Sokka nodded and looked to Zuko.
"That's exactly what happened."
"No. It's not." Vitani growled and shook his head. Kercha nodded and looked at the three young men.
"Suti's right, but so is Vitani. That was what you thought happened." Sokka looked back to Suti, the man who had laid down in the cage.
"What does he mean?" Suti looked up and shook his head. He set his head down on his arms looking in the other direction. Sokka growled and shook his head.
"Will someone please explain what is going on?" Sokka looked at Vitani, who wasn't giving him a friendly look. He turned to look at Kercha and the other man. They were quiet as well. Sokka looked over at Zuko was looking towards the other end of the room.
"Sokka. Shut up now." Sokka followed Zuko's gaze as two extremely large men drug a man into the room. Kercha gasp and turned to look at the man in the cage next to him.
"Teruit, they broke Juga." Teruit turned to look at Kercha and hiss a silence warning towards him. The two large men threw the man into a cage and walked to the center of the room. They both looked around then went back to the door. They began to walk in opposite directions along the cages. The man with black hair stopped in front of Suti's cage. He kicked at the cage causing Suti to jump up from the floor. He looked over into Hiiu's cage and shook his head. He opened the cage door and flung the small unconscious man out into the middle of the room.
He continued on his walk and stopped in front of Vitani's cage. He bent over and looked at Vitani with a smile.
"Get away form me Brutus." Vitani hissed. The man smile widened as he leaned against the cage.
"Are we going to go through this again?" Vitani hit cage door and landed his knee in the man's gut. Brutus stumbled backwards then straightened up.
"We will break you yet." Vitani snarled his nose and spat on the large man. Brutus narrowed his eyes and wiped the spit from his face. He shook his head and looked into the next cage. Zuko glared at him with his arms crossed over his chest.
"I see you're awake." Zuko glared at the man.
The other man stopped in front of Kercha's cage. He looked in and shook his head. He turned to look at the cage next to his. He walked over and looked down into the cage with the two boys.
"Ah, good to see that the venom has worn off." Sokka growled and pulled the still drunk Haru close to him.
"Fuck off!" The bald man growled and jerked a set of keys from his belt.
"You little..!"
"Angus! Brutus! I said check them. Not aggravate them." A voice sounded over the room. Angus and Brutus straightened and turned around. Sokka frowned and glanced at Zuko. Then looked back around the large men. A man stood in the middle of the room knelt down next to Hiiu. He stood up with an almost liquid grace. He had white hair pulled back in a ponytail that hung near to the floor. He had bright blue eyes that pierced the darkness of the room. Sokka frowned as an uncanny resemblance of Yue stood in front of him. The man had very soft features and was exactly what he could see his sister fawning over. He was completely covered in a floor length black fur coat.
"You did harm this one against my wishes did you, Brutus?" Brutus shook his head.
"No, Xia. He was unconscious in the cage. I figured he was dead or dying." Sokka glared at the man. Xia. So this was the man they had been talking about.
"He is not. Take him up to the infirmary. I did hear that you have found me some rather new pets?" The man's voice was an animal all of it's own. It reminded Zuko of the cabbits they had back home, soft and light. Zuko watched the man walk over to them. If Zuko hadn't know this was a man before hand he would have swore it was a woman.
Xia bent over and examined Zuko first. He looked over him and shook his head. He stood up and looked at Brutus.
"Why this one?" Brutus took a deep breath and looked at the shorter man with a look a fear in his eyes. Zuko frowned. This man was twice the size of the smaller one and he looked at him in fear.
"His body, and the unscarred part of his face, master." Xia made an o of understanding and looked back into the cage.
"Come to me." He said in a sweet voice to Zuko. Zuko narrowed his eyes and kicked the cage right in front of Xia's face.
"I'd rather burn." Xia's face only softened. He stood up and looked at his two large bodyguards.
"I like a good fiery one. Good job boys." Xia walked over and knelt down looking into the cage Sokka was in. He looked at Sokka for a moment then dropped his eyes to look over Haru. Xia put his hand through the wooden bars and ran his hand over Haru's hair. He shivered and nodded.
"Soft. Very soft." He brought his eyes back up to look at Sokka. He reached his hand up to touch Sokka but he jerked away from the hand. Xia smiled and stood up.
"Very good. I like a good challenge, and you have brought me two that I know of. I only wish you hadn't have drugged the pretty one up so much." Brutus and Angus lowered their heads.
"Sorry." Xia turned to look at the others in the room. He walked over to Teruit's cell. He smiled and turned to Angus and Brutus.
"This one tonight." Teruit moved to the very back of the cage as Xia disappeared through the large metal door. Angus took Hiiu and disappeared as well. Brutus grabbed a large metal pole from the wall and attached a long vile to the end. Sokka watched with wide eyes as Brutus walked over to the cage with the three pronged pole. He stabbed the pole in but Teruit dodge it jumping to the other side of the cage. Brutus growled and again lunged the pole at the man. Teruit kicked the pole to the side and moved to the other side of the cage. Brutus growled again and stabbed at the man, but this time when he moved to the other side Brutus grabbed him by the ankle and drove the prongs into his leg. Teruit went stiff for a moment then his entire body relaxed onto the cage bottom. Brutus took the pole and placed it back on the wall with the others.
He returned to the cage and opened it. He picked the man up and took him out of the room. Sokka turned to look at Zuko and Zuko turned to look at Vitani.
"Welcome to hell kiddies." Vitani growled. Kercha shivered as he leaned back against the bars.
"Xia is a collector of beautiful men. He uses killer ant-bees raised by his hand and fed his venom for years to collect us. They sting you and you think it is nothing but a insect bite then you wake up here. I've been here for three weeks."
"I've been here a month. But I will get out and kill that bastard." Vitani growled. Zuko shook his head.
"We are getting out of here, Sokka."
"Not shit, Zuko."
Okay I tried to cover all of "How did that happen" kinda things and the "yeah right that would never happen" kinda things. I wanted to lay it all out and still keep some of my aces in my sleeve. Let me know what you think. Review! Review! Review!!