WARNING: This chapter contains sexual assault.
Ursa shifted in bed and reached behind her. The spot was empty, the covers thrown back. Ozai must have gone for a walk. Again. She sighed and pulled the covers higher, trying to replace his missing warmth, but she couldn't fall back asleep. The tides of favor were shifting again, and only weeks after the treaty was signed. Ozai had been the number one son only briefly. Azulon gave Iroh the freedom to gather an army of any of the generals and soldiers—including those that served Ozai and Azulon—in order to bring Yi and Sel to justice, again focusing his attention on the favored son. Iroh had torn apart Ozai's ranks, preventing him from hunting more Air Nomads, taking the more seasoned generals and leaving the useless and the quarrelsome. He took Ozai's second, Din, and left, of course, Bara.
Ozai said he needed these nights to think, when his head was most clear and no one would bother him. He had been thinking for an entire year since his division was crippled, and still had come up with nothing more than suspicions, and Ursa was tired of listening to Ozai rant about how Iroh wasn't even using his men. He's just keeping them out of my reach, he would complain.
Once or twice, Iroh sent Ozai out on an assignment, rather than overlooking him as he had done in the past, but he still preferred his own generals over his brother. Ozai felt he didn't need to depend on Iroh's sometimes-generosity because he and Ursa together were unstoppable. She didn't let on how much that idea bothered her. It would be very easy to stop them.
Ursa blinked in the darkness and curled herself into a ball. If she really concentrated, she might be able to get a little more sleep. She hadn't been feeling well the past couple weeks, and being able to sleep through the entire night would be very welcome. Feeling exhausted all the time was very annoying, but if she couldn't get back to sleep, she might as well head to the office and get some work done. But the door was opening, and if Ozai was coming back, maybe his warmth would lull her back to sleep as it had before.
"See, I told you he was gone."
That was most definitely not Ozai. Ursa closed her eyes and feigned sleep, listening to the voices and hoping they would just go away.
"We better hurry just in case he doesn't get intercepted."
Ursa bunched the blankets in her hands, hoping they'd steal what they were coming to steal and go. She tried not to breathe too loud, afraid that they'd notice she was awake, and that the robbery would go bad. Maybe the guards would catch them on their way out, and the problem could be put behind them all.
"There she is, the little cunt." They were standing on the other side of the bed, and Ursa bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out. Her heart was pounding, and she was terrified. "I don't know what hold she has over him that he'd listen to her over us."
"We've been loyal to him this whole time, and then this bitch comes along. I bet it's Azulon's doing."
"His or Iroh's. Finally a member of this damned family gets it right—the first since Sozin—and they're determined to hold him back. We need to lay waste to everything."
There was pressure on the bed, and Ursa's stomach knotted. She wasn't a fighter; there was nothing she could do to hold them off. There was one on either side of her, and she couldn't stop the whimper as the pressure got closer. She hadn't thought helping Iroh create chaos among Ozai's generals would go this far. She hadn't thought anything would go this far.
"I bet she'll call out for him."
"I'll make her before this is through."
One of them roughly grabbed her, and she only got out half a scream before a hand was placed over her mouth, muffling any noise she made. Her eyes widened when she saw that her chances of survival were lower than she'd even thought. Four of them. Four of Ozai's generals had come to murder her in the night. Among them was Bara, that big nasty welt looming over her. It was his fist that came crashing down into her face. All she could do was gasp, and when she tried to bring shaky hands to her face, she couldn't. The harder she pulled, the harder someone squeezed, and something was cutting into her skin.
Her vision was blurry with the tears that pain caused, so she couldn't tell who the others were, but that was Bara hovering over her, twisted just-killed-something grin on his face. Bara grabbed her neck with one hand and squeezed, and the two that had been holding her hands let go. Someone was laughing as she scratched at Bara, but it felt like he was wearing gauntlets, like he still had on his armor, even though it was the middle of the night. He was too heavy on top of her, and she couldn't get away, no matter how much she squirmed.
"Wait, wait, don't knock her out completely," another said, pulling at Bara's shoulder. "I want to see if her cunt's good enough to make me forget my duty, too."
Painfully, Ursa wished that she'd worn a real nightgown, not just one of Ozai's robes. And some underwear. Bara moved off the bed, and she took advantage of the freedom to curl herself into the tightest ball possible. Hands were on her, too rough, scraping her skin and pulling and trying to stretch her limbs, and when they wouldn't stretch, one of them shoved his hands between her legs anyway, stroking her with his thumb. She wanted to give in and say this was hopeless, but she remembered Io, and how she'd remained defiant to the last moment. These were big, hulking men, and she was small and lithe. She could evade them long enough, hopefully, to reach the door.
"What's the matter, whore?" the one with his thumb inside her asked, leaning over her from behind and grinding into her butt. "Did you inherit some special Avatar powers that allow you to make people forget themselves?" He was grabbing at the robe, lifting it, pulling it away from her body, rubbing his hand along the back of her leg, probing deeper. "Your grandfather was a traitor to this nation, and death was far too easy for him."
Ursa reared back as hard as she could, surprising the man with an elbow to the eye. The others pulled back in momentary surprise, but a moment was all she needed to start running across the bed, but the door was too far away, and someone grabbed and twisted her ankle. She hit the floor with a hard thud, and not a second later, someone had a fistful of her hair, grabbing at the roots like he was trying to rip it out. Save your tears for when they would do some good, her mother said. Why didn't she take up knives at the Academy like her adviser suggested? Her poisons were no good, here.
She was drug back to the bed, where Bara put her in a headlock. His arm was massive around her throat and she struggled even as her limbs were feeling heavier. The one who'd grabbed her by the ankle punched her hard in her stomach, and all the air left her lungs, and she whimpered as she bunched up, feeling nauseous and faint and weak. No matter how she gulped for air, none would make its way past Bara's arm. If she gave in and let the unconsciousness take hold of her, she might not feel whatever it was that man was about to do to her.
"We tried to warn Prince Ozai, but he wouldn't listen. You are simply a distraction and must be removed. We've seen women like you before." He pulled out a knife, and Bara let go of her only a little so she could get some air. Ursa clawed harder at Bara's gauntleted forearm, kicking her legs wildly. "He doesn't want to believe that his wife would intentionally hold him back. He thinks you're good luck."
"Yeah," said another, stepping closer. She could see the tigerdillio insignia on his shirt. "But you're only good luck for him. As one's luck must rise, another's must fall. For a whole year, those of us who have always been loyal to him suffered."
If the situation had been different, Ursa would have rolled her eyes. These men hardly suffered, and not nearly as much as they were making her suffer. Ozai relied on them less because he wasn't relying solely on his army anymore, and Iroh was doing his best to dismantle that altogether. Ursa had simply given him the tools to seek other avenues. The only thing that suffered was their egos when Ozai's praise went to other places first. They were making it her problem that they were no longer as useful as they had been; the nobility had dealt with the natural rise and fall of favor for ages. Why was it so hard for them to do the same?
Bara kept his arm around her neck, and with the other, he grabbed her breast her through the robe. "You dishonor us, bitch, and now we'll dishonor you."
Ursa stopped caring about being strong and brave. She cried and tried to plead with them, but only got punched again for it. Bara was laughing and rubbing himself on her back, reaching down with his free hand and shoving his fingers inside her even though she was trying to keep her legs closed. She remembered that crude remark Bara made back at Councilman Somchai's estate, the one that caused Ozai to melt his face, and said to Agni that she wished it could have been anyone else as he forced four fingers inside her.
"Pity," the man with the knife said as he untied her robe, "that we have to mar the Jewel of Kirachu."
Fear was making her heart beat too fast, and she thought she might pass out. She was cold but hot at the same time, and knife man roughly grabbed her breast as she tried to squirm away from him, and he leaned in, and Ursa spit in his face. As she did it, she knew it was the wrong thing to do because he drug his knife from her right hip, across her stomach, and stopped just under her left breast. The tearing and the searing wasn't something she'd ever expected. Her body went numb and tears slid down her cheeks. They were saying things, but her ears were ringing, and she didn't understand anymore. Someone was grabbing her thighs, digging their nails into her skin, and burning, and she could smell her own flesh as it was seared.
Warmth was running down her body and she felt one of her hips pop as her legs were wrenched apart. The bastard was stroking the inside of her leg, and she wanted to throw up as Bara wiped the hand that had been inside her on her face. Her body was shaking, and she couldn't see clearly, not just because of the tears, but Bara's gauntlet was biting into her again. Distantly, she heard the door banging open, and there was heat too close to her, but not on her, then she was falling to the floor. People were moving around her, and she shakily drug herself under the bed. She rolled onto her back and touched her stomach. She knew it was blood, even though it was too dark to see it.
They were shouting, but she couldn't hear individual words over the chattering of her teeth and her whimpering. More feet, more shouting, the noise was louder, but still only barely audible over the agony of her body. Someone was reaching out to her, but they were so far away, and she curled into herself, hoping to increase that distance.
A/N: Everything has its boiling point. You can push and push, but things push back. The women in the Fire Nation's royal family never seem to fare well. Ozai favors the lay waste to everything approach, and that's why the generals followed him. They believed nothing except the Fire Nation was worth existing, but now he's starting to change his tactics. He's falling more in line with Azulon and Iroh, which they would see as a betrayal. Unfortunately, Ursa has become the catalyst in this family; her goal was to secure a measure of peace for the Fire Nation and maybe the rest of the world, but she's in way over her head. Things are going quickly downhill. If you're reading The Chase, this is the attack Chem referenced.
About Ursa thinking these are just petty theives: From time to time, some servants have to go through and steal stuff. Some, I imagine, would get away with it, while others would get caught. You just have to weigh your odds. And while the murder of a princess wouldn't ever go unpunished, there are ways for it to be spun, such as the robbery gone bad thing. It would be easy to pin it on one servant or another, and there's not much those poor scapegoats would be able to do. Now, there are no scapegoats, and now, there are consequences for all involved.