Name: Breaking Point
Disclaimer: I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him
Archives: Sure, just let me know where
Summary: Azula tries to break Suki's spirit.
Notes: This takes place during season 3 following Azula's return to the Fire-Kingdom, prior to Boiling Rock.
Notes2: Azula verbally tortured Sokka during the Day of Black Sun. I think she would have done the same thing to Suki.
--Day 1--
"What do you want?" Suki asked as the cell-door was opened and Azula strode in. She had been in this prison, floating on an island of steam for several weeks now, ever since she and the other Kyoshi Warriors had been ambushed by Azula. However this was the first time the Fire-nation princess had come to see her, and the cruel smirk on her face didn't bode well.
"Oh, I just wanted to give you something. You know, to keep those long lonely hours in your cell from getting boring." Even as Azula spoke, she unwrapped the cloth she'd been holding, and nonchalantly threw the object contained therein to Suki.
Suki caught it almost without trying, and as her eyes snapped down to it, they widened in horror. Held in her hands was a boomerang, made of metal, and dyed in blue, and pitted and melted as if through tremendous heat. She knew only one person who carried a boomerang like this, and also knew he would never be willingly parted from it. As she gasped in horror, Azula chuckled to herself and turned back to the door.
"You should know, he screamed your name before he bit the big one."
With that the princess left the cell, and as tears began to run down her face, Suki could hear cruel laughter coming from the hallway.
--Day 2--
Mealtimes in the prison were an odd affair. Some days the warden would let them eat in the prison mess-hall, others the food would be brought to them, and others still they weren't getting fed at all. The warden obviously knew that he wouldn't get into trouble for abusing prisoners, and Suki was just grateful that the fact that all the prisoners, male and female were considered extremely dangerous had convinced the warden to dissalow any of the more disgusting perversions that could happen to a person in prison.
Today, as she smelt the faint aroma of food wafting in through the door, it appeared that she was getting fed in her cell, which considering she'd last eaten two days ago was a vast improvement. She clutched the remains of Sokka's boomerang as she stood up and waited for the inevitable sound of the cell-door opening. However to her surprise it wasn't one of the regular mooks who brought her food, but Azula. The princess walked in holding a plate of food, and tossed the tray onto the bed next to Suki.
Suki ignored it and stared at Azula, trying to fathom why she was here, before deciding to go on the offensive. "I don't believe you."
Azula gave her a bored look. "About the boomerang?" she shook her head. "Don't believe me then, it doesn't change anything."
Suki bit her lip to avoid showing any reaction, but the complete disinterest the princess was showing was more terrifying than any attempt to convince her that Azula was telling the truth. Her tormentor genuinely didn't seem to care if she was believed or not, and Suki couldn't think of any reason why that would be true unless she was utterly convinced that Sokka was indeed dead.
She turned to the plate of food and grabbed a piece of meat and bit into it, even as Azula watched. It took Suki a moment to realise that the same cruel smirk that had been on her face the day before was back again, and she looked back at the meat she was eating. She considered and discarded the idea that it was poisoned, or would make her ill in any way. She was in a Fire-nation prison, utterly under the control of the sadistic warden, and the daughter of the Fire-lord. If they wanted to kill her, they wouldn't need to stoop to poison.
"It's good isn't it," Azula said almost conversationally. "I tried some myself before coming down here. I wanted to make sure the cook got it just right." She went silent for a long moment, almost drawing out the anticipation. "After all, if you're going to eat the last flying bison, you want to make sure it's a good meal."
Suki couldn't help herself, the sheer visceral horror of that statement overrode her brain, and she managed only just to turn quickly enough to throw up in the corner of her cell. Even as her body heaved at the instinctual reaction of having been told she'd just eaten Appa, her mind tried to find comfort in knowing that the odds of Appa being taken down and cut up for food was virtually non-existant. Aang would die before he let that happen. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve, and spat once to clear the taste of bile out of her mouth, even as Azula laughed.
"You're lying," Suki shouted as she rose to her feet. She desperately wanted to strike out against the Fire-nation princess, but she hung on to her self-control by her fingertips, knowing that any attempt to attack Azula would end badly.
"Don't you wish," Azula grinned as she left the cell. On her way out, she turned to the guard by Suki's cell. "Make sure she doesn't get fed again untill she's finished everything on her plate."
--Day 3--
Suki shivered in her cell as dried tear-tracks itched on her face. The cell stank from the remains of the food she wasn't going to finish, and the stale stench of the vomit in the corner. She wondered absently if they would ever clean it, or if she'd be left to stew untill she was driven mad by the smell. In some ways, she might have welcomed that fate. If Sokka really was dead, and Appa too, then that meant that Aang and Katara were probably dead too. Katara wouldn't let her brothers death go unavenged, and Aang would never let Appa be killed if he could help it. And that was the worst torture of all. Aside from her feelings towards Sokka, the only boy she'd ever kissed, Aang was essential to the world. The Fire-nation couldn't be beaten without the Avatar.
She shivered as another blast of cool air came from the vents. Part of the security system was to keep the prison cool to hinder the various Firebenders in the prison population should they get any ideas. Unfortunately where the Firebenders could warm themselves up reasonably well, the non-benders didn't have that luxury. The door opened, and this time she just merely raised her eyes as the now well worn image of Azula walked into the room, carrying yet another bundle.
"The Avatar is dead," she said without preamble, and even though Suki had begun to suspect that already, to hear it put so bluntly made her breath catch in her throat.
"I," Suki started, then took a deep breath. "I don't believe you."
"Of course you do," Azula countered. "You're a smart girl, you just don't want to admit it. Still, I can't blame you for denying the truth. After all, it's your fault."
That made Suki's head snap up and look at Azula incredulously. The princess threw the bundle in her direction, and as it sailed across the room, the air unfolded it and Suki realised it was her uniform. The garb of the Kyoshi warriors.
"I used this costume to infiltrate the Earth Kingdom. Together with some friends I managed to decapitate the leadership of Ba Sing Se, which is now a Firenation city, and I electrocuted the Avatar with a bolt of lightning in the caverns under the palace. He looked so shocked when I nailed him infront of his friends." Azula gave her the same evil grin she'd given her every day. "And I couldn't have done it without your costume. It got me through the gates, and into the palace. So if you hadn't failed, Ba Sing Se wouldn't have fallen. If you hadn't failed, then the Avatar would still be alive. And you know what the funniest bit of all is? Your boyfriend was the one who vouched for us, and told the king how the Kyoshi Warriors were such good allies. I made sure he knew that too, before the end."
Suki let out a wordless scream as the words washed over her, and buried her head in her hands as Azula laughed and left. Alone in her cell, Suki wept for what she had allowed to happen
--Day 4--
The cell stank, badly. She hadn't been let out since Azula's surprise meal had been delivered, and stale vomit and rotting food was joined by other inevitable smells. The cells didn't have toilets after all. As Azula entered, her aristocratic nose wrinkled, and the small part of Suki's soul that wasn't crying out in pain took an almost gleefull joy in that knowledge. Maybe if it got bad enough then Azula would order her cell cleaned, or maybe she'd just leave her alone.
"I guess it's true what they say about Kyoshi Warriors being like animals. No matter, I have a surprise for you." She nodded to the guard by the cell-door, who nodded to someone else that Suki couldn't see, and suddenly the hallway was filled with screams. Suki flinched once, as the screams sounded vaguely familiar but didn't react other than that. Torture was horrible, but it wasn't unexpected, and she was a warrior after all. Her eyes met Azula's and cruel yellow met dark blue for a long moment.
However Suki's resolve was shattered when the voice screamed her name. Suddenly, it was no longer random, it sounded horribly familiar. "Sokka," Suki shouted, and despite her previous resolve not to antagonise the princess, she couldn't help herself. She threw herself forward with all the energy she had left, her right fist aimed straight at the jaw of her tormentor, of the evil sadistic woman who had tortured her mentally as badly as Sokka was being tortured physically. It did her no good. Azula was well trained, and Suki was weak from lack of food and water, and Azula caught and redirected her attack, sending her crashing to the ground.
"I thought you might appreciate the entertainment," Azula said nastily, as she left the cell. Suki said nothing, her mind was still screaming in time with the screams coming from down the hallway. A perfect harmony of pain that reverberated in her soul, threatening to shatter her sanity like glass, untill her eyes fell on the half melted boomerang lying on her cot. Suddenly, as if a switch in her brain had been tripped, she stopped listening to the screams. Azula had said that Sokka was already dead, on that very first day. If Azula had told the truth, then it couldn't be Sokka being tortured. Someone who sounded like Sokka yes, but not Sokka himself.
And if Azula had lied once, then why not more than once. Suki had been prepared for physical torture, but she hadn't expected mental torture, and she had allowed Azula to play her. HEr fear and anguish began to abate, and very softly she began to repeat a phrase to herself, one that would become a mantra soon enough. Azula always lies, Azula always lies.
--Day 5--
Suki was ready for Azula as she entered her cell. She stood tall in the midst of filth and rotting food, her back straight and her eyes every bit those of a warrior. Azula noticed the change as she came in, but was obviously unsure what had caused it.
"You know, " Azula began, but Suki interrupted her before she got three words into her prepared spiel.
"No."
Azula looked almost afronted at being interrupted. "What do you mean, no?" she demanded.
"I won't believe anything you say," Suki responded and hefted the melted boomerang. "This could be anyone's boomerang, you could even had it made specifically to get to me." she dropped the thing, and hefted the plate of rotting food and hurled it towards the princess. She simply took a step aside, and the flying tray sailed right past her and smacked into the guard at the door. "You say that's Appa, I say you're lying. I say you always lie, and I'm not going to believe a word you say."
She took a step towards Azula, who had begun to get a thunderous look on her face. Suki's own eyes blazed as she spoke. "The Avatar is alive, so are Sokka and Katara and Appa and everyone else. and even if you've hidden me at the ends of the earth, even if you do your worst, I know Sokka will come for me."
For a moment there was nothing but silence in the cell, then Azula's hand lashed out and smashed into Suki's face with all the force the younger woman could muster. Suki was in no physical state to resist the blow, but even as she fell into darkness she knew that she had won a victory today.
--Day 6--
When Suki came too, she found her cell had been cleaned, the smells covered up, and fresh food left for her. As she went back to the normal prison routine, she heard rumors that the princess of the Fire-nation had been there for several days, but had left angry the next day. No one knew what she had been doing at the Boiling Rock, and Suki didn't enlighten them. The melted boomerang and her Kyoshi garb had vanished along with everything else while she'd been unconcious, but as she returned to her cell after time in the yard she found she didn't care.
Because Suki had something that no physical object could ever replace, that no pain could overcome. She had hope, she believed, and she knew that no matter what, she would see Sokka again.
As the cell-door closed behind her she took a deep breath of slightly stale air, and dropped into the first stance of the Kyoshi Warrior's martial art. She was out of practice, and needed to fix that.
When he came for her, she'd need to be ready.
-finis-