ThatSexyShikamaru: Thank you so much! And you're welcome. :D "I see thing like writers who if they don't get a lot of comments on a single chapter they stop so." I've come across this too. I can understand why to a degree; if you put a lot of effort into something and no one really interacts with it, it can feel like your hard work is being wasted and you kinda wanna move onto the next thing. Personally, I usually write fics I enjoy and as long as I'm having fun with it, I'll keep writing it. I've actually dropped a story that had lots of comments, because it just wasn't fun anymore lol. But the way I see it, if it's fun I'll finish it. I've also had so many people mention that they love the story but just don't know what to comment/don't have time to comment. No comments doesn't necessarily mean no love. As long as I see views and enjoy writing the story, I'll keep doing it, comments or no comments. :P
gemsofformenos: She's about to face more of them too. "She is afraid, being back out here still scares her, but she faces this fears, she fights against them." She almost died there so she's definitely not thrilled about going back out there. But she is very goal driven and determined and she's not alone so that helps her a lot. "It's awesome to see how good Sokka understands her, how he reminds her that all of them are here to help her, that she isn't alone." That's the kind of thing she really needs. "I feel Zuko would ve either clueless." At the moment, Zuko is kinda oblivious about them lol. "Thank you for this chapter. Have a wonderful day and keep on having fun with your stories." You're welcome and thank you!
RadioDog77: You caught me just on time lol. I was just about to post when I noticed your review. xP "fast updates! sweet." This one was a Sonic The Hedgehog fast one lol. "can't wait till the next update to see what they find there." You don't have to xD "Azula has come so far, and for her to find the place she escaped from is gonna be hard for her," Yeah, she's in for a rocky ride. "but i would assume she will also be relieved to really sort out what happened or at the very least figure out what happened while she was there, and what happened to the others." Yeah, it's one of those things that both helps and hurts.
She gives the other teams only until she can scope out the building for a second entrance to arrive. For now stealth and a smaller team will be better anyhow. She makes a second and third trek around the compound.
"Azula, I don't think that there's a secret or even a second entrance." Zuko says. She resentfully must admit that she thinks he might be right. Though she does not say as much out loud, instead she mutters, "there has to be another way in."
"Maybe we should wait for the other team and storm the place?" Sokka suggests.
Azula shakes her head. "If they know we're here, they might destroy their notes." Her face pales at the idea.
"So, what? We just break in and…" Zuko starts.
"I can take as many of them down as I have to." She replies with a healthy dash of confidence. "Everyone tells me that I'm a prodigy." She lets a small burst of fire wave in her palm. "And I like to think that you've got some skill, you are the Fire Lord afterall."
"And I have a boomerang that I'm not afraid to use." Sokka declares with the spunk she had hoped to induce in Zuko.
She puts a hand on his shoulder, "come on, Zuko."
He gives an audible sigh before caving in. "Keep an eye out for the other teams." He instructs the Imperial Firebenders.
The first sign that something is startlingly off comes when the door simply slides open with a grimace-inducingly loud groan. She slinks into the dark of the building building-her second sign that something is wrong. The last time she was here the place was decently lit by torch light.
Even without the speculation that something isn't right, Azula finds herself nearly overcome with dread. Just seeing these dismal halls again, feeling the heavy atmosphere of distress and hostility. She swallows hard and summons another blue flame.
"It's abandoned." She mumbles, her stomach sinking. This should relive her; they can't re-capture her if they aren't around to do so.
"Maybe they're hiding?" Sokka asks.
Azula shakes her head. "There's no benefit to hiding. Not when they have research to protect. Unless…" she trails off. She shines her flame over the walls, they are barren and seemingly endless.
"Unless what?" Sokka asks.
She slides her hands over the walls looking for something, anything out of place. A loose panel in the wall perhaps or a broken tile in the floor. "Why would they just leave their notes and instruments in plain sight?" She asks. "There has to be something else, some secret annex or a hidden entrance…"
"I thought that we said there weren't any of those." Zuko points out.
"On the outside, yes. But inside…" she pauses. "There might be something in here, a hidden entrance to a deeper part of the facility. Tell the Imperial Firebenders to get in here and help us look.
.oOo.
Azula lingers rather close to him. She is doing surprisingly well for being within the walls that constantly present themselves in her nightmares. He wonders if she is more anxious than she is letting on; with Zuko and the guards present he can't imagine her expressing her stresses quite as openly.
Her sheer closeness is confirmation enough. She doesn't say it but she heavily implies that she doesn't want him to stray too far from her. And when he tests the waters and does, she drifts closer to Zuko.
He is beginning to think that she is correct in her assumption that the place has been vacated. They haven't been particularly quiet and not one personal has come to check out the ruckus.
"Sokka!"
He jolts at the abruptness of her call. It takes him a moment to register that there is no distress in her voice.
"I found something, give me a hand."
He turns the corner to see the princess struggling to push aside a rather large badgermole statue. They line the entirety of this hall, "what's so special about that one?"
"Just…" she huffs as she pushes all of her weight against the statue. "Help me move it."
He watches her struggle for a moment longer, faintly amused by the dainty, petite princess trying to heave something at least twice her weight and height. "If I can't move it, we might have to wait for Toph or Aang." He notes as he adds his strength to her fight. It doesn't give even an inch.
Azula gives another pant before wandering off, presumably to fetch more man power. It takes the entirety of their party to move the badgermole aside. It scrapes thunderously across the floor, if anyone remained in the compound they surely would have come to check things out.
With the statue out of the way, they can now see a yawning opening in the floor.
"So...who wants to go down first?" Sokka asks.
He doesn't need to see it to know that Azula is rolling her eyes again. She lets the flame blaze brighter in her grasp and begins her descent.
.oOo.
The hidden staircase opens into another long and narrow hallway. Azula isn't particularly fearful of tight spaces but something about the low ceiling and overall orientation of the hallway, has her feeling disoriented and uncomfortable. She, for once, is grateful that she lacks height. Even having such a slight and small build, she has to dip her head to keep it from colliding with the ceiling. Zuko and Sokka have to crouch and the tallest of the Imperial Firebenders have to crawl.
There are several rooms, shining her fire into them, she finds them mostly vacant save for a desk and a chair or some abandoned cleaning supplies. She is grateful that they hadn't locked her in a room down here, she could only imagine the hellish images her mind could conjure from time in one of them.
She doesn't have to imagine for much longer. The room at the very back of the hallway is not as empty as the others. It has only one perk; that she can rise to her full height in here. But that is as far as the comforts go. Everything else has her deciding that she would rather be out there again. Not that she will leave so soon, not when there are shelves to be searched.
Azula doesn't quite get that far though. Her attention is captured by the metal table at the center of the room. Its leather straps are unbound and waiting for something to hug. Under the eerie blue light of her flame, it gleams menacingly, inviting her back into its clutches. Next to the table are various tools; she spies scalpels of various sizes, needles, and a set of carving chisels. Their wooden handles are stained with blood, despite efforts to clean them. They couldn't get the blood out of the straps either.
Her belly flutters, she wonders how much of that blood is her own. How much of it had pooled on the floor of this room. She notices that there is, in fact, a rather liberal amount of it coagulated on the floor alongside clumps of vine and residue of vine sap.
She takes a reflexive step back. If she stares for too long, she can almost picture her prone body strapped onto the cold metal, limp and abused. Her mouth runs dry and she pries her eyes away from the scene.
Just as reflexively, she clutches Zuko's hand. Sokka is on the other side of the room, opening and shutting drawer after drawer. She notices that she is shaking slightly. Undeniably, Zuko knows it too.
Though she no longer stares at the operating table, visions bombard her mind like pounding fists. They have the effect of fists. She had been awake, she knows it now. Fully aware when the scalpels carefully sliced her arms. Fully aware when those they dug those carving chisels, into her chi points and harvested them. Completely cognizant when they opened her belly and prodded her fire chakra.
She feels trapped. Visions of blood weeping from her arms and bubbling from her stomach and dripping down her sides and hips flash in her mind. The feeling of it seeping under her and wetting her back. Visions of vines wrapped like slimy crowns around her head. They hold her mouth open and force the vines in.
Azula thinks that these all might have been separate instances but they blend together in her mind.
She doesn't know when she had done it, but she is squatting with her head gripped in her hands. Sokka hugs her tightly while Zuko rubs small circles on her back. "You're alright." Sokka murmurs, "you're alright."
She takes a deep breath and pushes herself to her feet. "Yes, I am." She replies. "I just...needed a moment."
"Azula you were shaking…" Zuko starts. She cuts him a glare. "Azula."
Sokka nudges him, "not in front of them." He says quietly and nods towards the Imperial Firebenders.
"What happened back there?" Zuko asks when they make it back to the upper floor.
"I just... the memories of that room came back. A few of them anyways, there were too many at once." She pauses. "Did you find anything?"
"No." Sokka replies. "The drawers were all empty."
"We'll do a final sweep of this floor and then we'll call it a failed mission and head back." Azula replies.
Zuko and Sokka trade glances. "Azula, we can't go back out there. Not until morning." Zuko speaks.
She grits her teeth and holds her head high, "very well. I'll see if I can find an adequate place to sleep while I do my second sweep."
Sokka tags along as she makes her way down the hall. It is just as stressful to navigate as it had been on the day of her escape. They wander, occasionally finding that they have gone in a large circle.
Along the way, she pushes doors open looking for stray papers or any sort of bedding. She finds neither. She finds nothing at all of use or comfort and everything that puts her on edge. And then she comes upon something that runs her blood and soul colder than the world beyond the compound.
She heaves another door open and enters a terrifyingly familiar room. A room where she had previously curled herself into a feeble ball time and time again. This room has not been cleansed; her blood still blemishes the white floor tiling.
The scars that plague her body tingle and twitch as though they have just been newly stitched. The room seems to tilt and spin, her head is dizzy and her stomach threatens to empty itself. Well out of earshot, she allows herself a small choking noise, something between a gasp and a cry. She drops to her knees as the memories come back on full; all of the tortured nights she'd spent naked and shivering on this very floor. The helplessness and that dreadful feeling that she is alive just to suffer and be picked apart.
"Come on, let's go somewhere else." Sokka offers, his voice is distant in her mind. And it fades further until she is very much alone again.
Alone and waiting for them to burst in and carry her off to the operating room. The scar on her tummy pulses violently.
She bunches herself up and wraps her arms protectively around her middle, as though her fire chakra hasn't already been assaulted. She feels hands lifting her off the ground and she shouts. She brings the fire to her captor's chest.
He gives a cry of his own and she seizes the opportunity to give him a hard shove and bolt. Her breathing is erratic as she frantically tries to recall which way will take her to the foyer. Which way will take her to freedom.
She hears footsteps behind her and makes an abrupt choice to go left. She is being pursued. She hears the footfalls behind her. She hears them in front of her too. They have her cornered. She hadn't thought it through, she has managed to corner herself. Her breathing grows heavier as the sets of feet grow closer. "No." She utters. "No, no."
They surround her.
"Azula what's going on? What did you do to Sokka?" The voice isn't gruff nor angry but her mind distorts it in such a way that it may as well be.
They close in on her. She ignites her palms but there are too many of them. They take hold of her hands and one of them takes her around the middle. She continues to kick and struggle. She won't let them strap her to that damn table again.
She won't!
Someone manages to seize her legs. Her mind and body can take no more stress.
At least this time she won't be awake when they rip into her.