Disclaimer: The following chapter is entirely fictitious. Any similarity to the history of any person living or dead or any actual events is entirely coincidental and unintentional, except where specifically noted otherwise in the cast and crew credits. All celebrity voices are impersonated and no celebrities have endorsed any aspect of this fic.
Chapter forty-four: The Parable of a Mudblood
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The quad of girls returned to the table and took their seats. Hiashi was about to pull up her chair when Zuko grabbed her wrist. "I need to speak with you, now!" Zuko stood up violently and dragged her down into an empty corridor.
"Hey, do you mind me inquiring where we're going?" Hiashi hissed.
"Shut up," Zuko snapped. He continued walking until he found an empty room. He threw her inside and closed the door behind him.
"Do you mind illuminating a candle or something?" Hiashi asked. She held her fist up and a flame ignited.
"Do you have anything you might want to tell me?" Zuko snapped, lighting a lamp. The room became dimly lit to reveal a small office.
"No," Hiashi hissed, throwing her fist down. "What could I potentially have to enlighten you of that I already haven't?"
"Oh, I don't know," Zuko growled sarcastically. "Maybe that guy got a little inebriated and he said a thing or two about the day he attempted to assassinate you."
Hiashi was silent. "What did he say?"
""What did he do to you?" Zuko said, quietly and gently.
Hiashi wanted to speak, but she remained speechless. "It was nothing," Hiashi mumbled. "He didn't do anything."
"Yes he did," Zuko said more forcefully. "Tell me what he did."
Hiashi clenched her jaw. "He might have done something," she finally said.
"Hiashi, I order you to tell me!" Zuko said forcefully.
"Fine!" Hiashi snapped. "He raped me, okay? Is that such an immense deal?"
"Yes," Zuko nearly shouted. "How could you let that happen?"
"I couldn't impede it!" she said quietly. "I was rendered immobile."
"How do you become immobile?" he asked. Zuko paced around the office, picking at the different knickknacks that festooned the shelves. He looked up at her, waiting for the response.
"It was a toxin," Hiashi sighed. "It—"
"Wait, toxin?" Zuko choked. "What toxin?"
"From a… a… from a tattoo, okay?"
"Wait, what tattoo?" Zuko asked baffled.
"I have a tattoo, alright?" Hiashi growled. "It's nothing."
"Why the hell would you get a tattoo?" he yelled.
"It was to get rid of my earthbending power, okay?" she finally said. Zuko stared at her. "I went to this witch doctor and she said I would be able to neutralize my earthbending abilities, but I had to get a tattoo with this ink. It succeeded but the only rule was that I was not to expose it to heat for four weeks."
"What the hell happened?" Zuko asked quietly. Hiashi looked away. "Tell me!"
"Alright!" she said. "It was two week after I got it when they attacked. He and this other guy came to my house. I don't know who the first one was, but the other… well, it was the guy sitting at our table. I had just been practicing my violin when my room suddenly caught on fire. I was going to control it, but the ink the woman used started to absorb itself into my skin. The heat from the fire heated the chemicals in the ink and soon turned it into a toxin. All there was was sharp pains in my lower back. It spread to my legs and up. Parts of the roof began to fall, so I kicked them away, but the pain was too much for me, I had to lean against the wall for support. I called of for my father, but he didn't come. It wasn't long before I became trapped, but somehow, he got in." She took a shagged breath and continued.
"'Where do you think you're going?' he sneered. I turned around to see him standing there. He struck me in the ribs with something, I don't know, but I fell. My first instinct was to defend myself, but before I could even hoist myself to my feet, he grabbed my hair and slammed me against the wall, one arm wrapped around me, pressing himself to me…" She choked, but continued. "His other pinned my neck to the wall. 'You're so pretty,' he mocked me; 'it's a shame I have to kill you.' I coughed and choked, gasping desperately for air. I didn't get a good look at his face, but I could hear him laughing. It was so sickening I couldn't stand it.
"With all I could muster, I struck my knee in his gut. He wrenched back in pain, while I fell to the floor, sucking in the lost air, only to cough it back up." Hiashi laughed quietly. "All I could shout was, 'You sick freak!' I jumped to my feet and ran, but more fire came and the pain just got to the point where I just fell and I felt nothing but. He grabbed me by the leg and dragged me to the center of my room and…" Hiashi stopped talking and looked away again.
"Well are you content?" she laughed sadly. "Something I tried to stifle and you just exposed it."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Zuko asked, with what seemed to be, genuine concern.
"I didn't think it was obligatory," she said quietly. "I told you only what I felt you needed to hear. I guess you wanted deeper?"
Zuko shook his head. He picked up a paper weight and tossed it up and down. "So," he started, "um… did he… do anything… bad?"
"The hell, of course he did!" Hiashi said. "I think that was bad enough!"
"That's not what I meant!" Zuko snapped. "I meant… never mind!" He slammed the weight on the table and opened the door. "Before anyone suspects anything."
Hiashi swept out of the room into the once dim but now bright banquet hall. She stormed gracefully but angrily to her table. No more than ten minutes had passed for them. But their table had apparently been served during their absence, and Hykiru, now a drunken disarray, was yelling at Kurogane.
""I fucking told you not to say anything if Admiral came here!" Hykiru spat. "How dare you address him!"
"Hykiru, calm down!" Xang said forcefully. "She just answered a question!"
"That doesn't matter dammit!" Hykiru snapped. Hiashi sat in her chair followed by Zuko. Zayika was looking around elsewhere along with Park and Lian. "I told her!" Hykiru raised his hand and slapped Kurogane.
"Hykiru!" Xang shouted, jumping from his chair along with Lian.
"No, don't even bother!" Hykiru growled. He slammed his hand back down on the table and shoved his face towards Kurogane. "What do you have to say for yourself?" Kurogane said nothing. She continued to stare at her tightly clasped fists. "Well?"
No one saw what happened next, but no less time later when he finished his words did he jump back from her in pain, hand bleeding. "Damn it all!" Hykiru yelled, holing his hand. The people who had already situated themselves at the surrounding tables began to stare.
"You're making a scene, sit down!" Xang hissed. Hykiru snatched up his cloth napkin and wrapped it around his hand.
"How dare you do that to me, you bitch!" Hykiru growled.
"She didn't even do anything!" Lian defended.
"Then how else did this happen?" Hykiru snapped.
Lian looked at the table and picked up a knife that sat next to his chopsticks. The wooden-handled utensil had blood on the top of the blade. "I think you may have stabbed yourself with the steak knife," he suggested. "When you leaned forward, I think it was positioned just right."
"Whatever," Hykiru mumbled. He stood up and said, "I'm getting this fixed."
"I think I need a break," Xang mumbled after Hykiru disappeared from sight. "Be right back." Xang stood up as well and walked off.
"I'm going to follow," Lian said shortly after, leaving the table.
Zuko, saying nothing, stood up and followed.
Zayika looked around and said, "Kurogane, why the heck would you let that idiot do that? I mean, I would have hit him back."
Kurogane shook her head. "Men like him never stop. When someone is the leader he must be followed. No arbitration may be accepted."
Park gave her a look. "You're weirder than he is," she said candidly, "and he's a freak. I mean, the moment he walked in, he started claiming Sara was that Hiashi girl." Park took a bite from her food. "I mean, come on, that has to be so silly."
"I know, right?" Zayika chirped in. "Sara, I doubt you look anything like that ridiculous shame for a human."
"I wouldn't call her a 'shame for a human'," Hiashi said stiffly. "She was just a pawn in a misfortunate game."
"Oh, that's just stupid," Zayika laughed. "What do you think on the whole 'He-she' situation, Kurogane?"
Kurogane's face became stone. "Any mudblood must be killed." She shook her head to flick her hair. "They're nothing but a disgrace to the peace that once was. That was a boundary that was broken and that trespasser must be destroyed." Hiashi looked at the knives on the table. The anger in Kurogane's words shook the knives, as if ready to spring up and kill Hiashi if she dared to make a move.
"Wow, I didn't see you as that kind of person," Park said surprised. "All in all, she's totally right."
"I go beyond disagreeing," Hiashi said angrily. "You people have no idea what I—she could have potentially went through."
"Oh, boo-ho for her," Zayika scoffed. "She was the offspring of a traitor and a devil woman. As far as I'm concerned she was pretty much a devil spawn."
"Huh she's a devil spawn?" Hiashi spat. "Well, what about her sister?"
"Sister?" Park inquired. "What sister?"
"She had a sister," Hiashi stated. "I… don't know her name, but her sister was left behind to live with her aunt, on the island she was born. You guys are always talking of Hiashi, but I never hear anything about her."
"Oh, wait; didn't she live on Kuusai Isle?" Zayika said suddenly. "I think my brother got shipped there. He said something about a raid. It was a while ago, like a couple of months. He said they were supposed to destroy the whole place. But like he said the Avatar was there."
"I thought the Avatar was dead?" Park gasped.
"No," Zayika said, shaking her head. Kurogane looked up from behind her bangs. "He was there apparently. Some chick was housing him. But then they got beat by this girl, I don't know, maybe it was her, but she was weird apparently. My brother said she attacked him, she was earthbending and what-not, but then she saved the Avatar from a burning bush, or a tree branch, I don't remember." Zayika picked up her glass and took a sip. "They didn't do much apparently, just destroyed the town and junk. He also said she ended up leaving with the Avatar and hasn't been seen since," Zayika sighed, "which is good riddance to the lot of them."
"But you don't hear much about them anymore," Park stated. "Like, how old were they when the whole dad got banished them moved to Engoku thing? Like twelve or something?"
"The oldest would have been three," Hiashi said caustically." Three when she witnessed her mother's death, three when she saw her father slaughter her mother, three when her entire life became distorted."
"Psh, big whoop," Park laughed. "He stabbed her; she probably didn't even know what was going on."
"Oh, so you think her mother was stabbed?" Hiashi scorned. "On the contrary, her father cut her head off. Now imagine being three and seeing your mother's headless corpse while the head rolls to your feet."
"Yeah, but I'll bet you she doesn't even remember anything," Zayika replied. "I mean, I can't remember anything past four."
"That doesn't mean she doesn't remember," Hiashi stated. "You can never forget something like that."
"You seem to have a lot of sympathy for someone who pretty much is below even the Airbenders. And besides, she's dead, so it doesn't even matter anymore."
"Well, what if she's not dead?" Hiashi inquired. "What if she survived the whole ordeal?"
"Psh!" Park laughed. "Then Hykiru must be dumber than he looks. Only an idiot can let another idiot slip through the cracks like that."
"I heard she was pretty smart," Hiashi said caustically.
"Oh, whatev," Zayika chuckled. "She lived in Engoku. Earth Kingdom hillbillies have a higher education than the people there. Everyone who lives there is some sort of barbarian. I mean really, no government? It's utterly ridiculous. There's so much poverty and crime, I'm surprised they can take three steps there without getting stabbed." Zayika sighed and took a bite of her food. "Ghetto much?"
"Please," Hiashi mocked, "you wouldn't know intelligence if it sat in your lap and called you mother."
"I'll have you know I went to the finest Fire Nation Academy there is. And I got the finest education a girl could get," Zayika said defensively.
"Oh, what 'fine' vocabulary you have," Hiashi scorned. "I suppose you have the world's finest ego as well?"
"You're just jealous that you got second-hand education from those sad drop-out excuses for teachers over in the colonies," Zayika snapped.
"I had the best education, better than yours, probably," Hiashi snapped. "You may have had your textbooks and fancy equipment and classrooms and desks, but I had someone to teach me the why rather than the what. You got standards, I go infinite. I am not second-rate; I am just as good as you or any other prissy private school prep in every way, even better. It may not seem that way, but even the blind could see that."
Zayika roller her eyes. "Whatever," she mumbled. "If you're going to act like a mudblood, then be a mudblood."
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