Part Two: Three

It was cold. I shivered and turned on my other side. I stopped when I noticed I couldn't move.

I stirred awake and blinked away my sleep. I tried to sit up, but I still couldn't. I must have been given paralyzing drugs... I thought.
I looked around the room as much as my paralyzed state allowed me to. I could distinguish a few things. The room seemed to be some sort of cave, made out of natural rock, grown with plants. There was one opening in the cave-like room, but it was blocked with iron bars. The situation was not looking good.

A little way from me, I saw a lump lying on the floor. It stirred slightly whith, what I assumed, was breathing. I listened to the sounds the lump made, a soft breathing, in and out… And I realized, to my relief, that it was Aeiroh. At least we were still together.

I could feel some feeling slowly returning to my body. I could twitch my fingertips and continued to do so, hoping I would soon be able to move some more.
After a little while, it felt as if my face had molten from a frozen state. It was a relief, being able to move my face normally. I swallowed. My mouth was dry. Then I tried to speak.

"A.. Aei.." I croaked, "Aeiroh."

There was no sound for a moment. But then.

"Ki..?" I heard coming from his directon. It seemed he had more trouble with whatever it was that had paralyzed us than me.

I found my speech back much quicker now and felt the rest of my body slowly recovering as well. I lifted up my head. "Are you allright?"

"Yes." Came the reply, with some effort. "You?"

I was able to fully lift myself of the ground now and saw that he was starting to stir more as well. I crawled over to him. "I'm fine." I said, as I reached him. He looked up at me and smiled a little.
He sat up then and looked around the room we were in. "Where are we?" He asked. "I have no idea. But my guess is that we're still in the forest." He nodded and got up to walk to the door. "Come on, let's try to find a way out of here." He go into a bending stance and moved his foot to kick open the iron door which was in a corner of the barred wall.

Nothing happened.

"What's going on?" I walked over to him, trying to see why he was standing there, looking more lost than I had ever seen him.

"I can't bend."

"What?"

"I can't bend, dammit!"

He was incredibly frustrated and punched the wall forcefully. It scared me, the fact that he couldn't bend. It was a serious disadvantage. However, what scared me more, now, was the question if I could bend.

I took a deep breath and felt all the water around me. Then, I tried to pull some droplets out of the air. But it wouldn't happen. Everytime I had it, the water almost seemed to slip from my fingers again, blocked somehow.

Now, I was truly scared. Without my bending, I felt weak, vulnerable. I hated feeling like this.

Aeiroh sat down on the floor again and, at a loss for what to do now, I joined him.
"Do you think they drugged us?" I asked, feeling somewhat like a small child who needed her big brother to comfort her.
Before he could answer me, we heard footsteps nearing us. An iron door in the barred wall was thrown open and unconsciously, I grabbed Aeiroh's hand and scooted closer to him. He wrapped his arm protectively around my shoulder.

"My my, aren't you a cute couple."

The voice made my skin crawl and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge. My heart filled with fear at the sight of the terrifying woman who entered our prison.
Her hair was black and sleek, tied up on her head with her old headpiece. She was dressed in a blood red tunic, with black leggings and black boots.

But her eyes.

Cold, menacing, calculating… Nothing like the warm sunny gold of Aeiroh or the Fire Lord.

No, these eyes instilled a fear in me, so deep, that it almost made me lose hope to ever see the sun again. Which was probably what would happen if she had her way with us. I worked hard to surpress a shudder.

Her cold laugh pierced straight through my soul.
"What dear nephew, aren't you happy to see your aunt?" I felt Aeiroh's grip on me tighten, but he didn't answer her. "Fine, whatever you want."
She turned around to stalk out of our prison.

"Why did you bring us here?" I blurted. It was dead silent then.

Slowly she turned around, smiling menacingly.

"You'd like to know that, don't you? You little water wench!"

She slapped me hard across my face. My cheek stung and my eyes watered, but I would not give her the satisfaction by giving her any reaction. I continued to stare at her defiantly. She smiled slightly.
"Oh well, I might as well tell you. It is simple you see, I will take back my rightful place as Fire Lord and take over this World, the way my ancestors started."

"You'll never succeed." Aeiroh said.

"So naive." She looked at him now. "So hopelessly naive, the both of you. I think we will have some great fun together."

She turned around and nodded to a man I hadn't noticed before. He walked closer to us and looked at me. When I could see his face, I gasped. I knew this face very well and it seemed that he still remembered mine. It was the leader of the rebels who had tortured me last year. And it seemed he was not done with me yet.
"Hello poppit." He said and he yanked me by my hair, out of Aeiroh's safe arms. He tried to stop him, but was stopped by her. She held a dagger of blue fire in front of his throat. "I wouldn't try anything, if I were you, dear nephew. Now sit back and watch."

I was dragged a little farther away and put down in a corner. I got up on my hands and knees, but the rebel leader kicked me harshly in the gut. I fell down with a grunt. He rolled me unto my back and tore open the back of my dress. I knew what came next. I felt the Sharp tip of the whip cut my back, felt the blood drip onto my back.

Again, I made no sound.

Apparently, this frustrated him. "Still stubborn, are we?" He kicked me again and I whimpered. But he was not done yet.|
I could feel the heat, hear the flame tickle and prepared myself for the pain that would come. I looked up and saw his hand encircled in a white hot flame. He towered high above me and laughed maniacally.

This time, I did scream.
I screamed so loud that it was the only sound left, filling the room, my ears, my head. Piercing my own soul.

I didn't kow when it stopped or when I stopped screaming.

I simply ended as a heap on the floor, not controlling myself anymore. I was too weak, too broken. Shivering, I laid there as two strong arms carefully wrapped around me, holding me tightly.

I broke down into tears as the most terrifying sound filled my head, instilling more fear in me than I ever thought possible. It was her laugh. Her cold, manical laugh, filling our prison, filling our minds.

Azula laughed and I could hear it long after the prison door had shut.

Wow you guys really got me on a roll here! Hope you like it, and yess, the roll is still on, so expect part 2 chapter four really soon!;)

Lots of love, C.