PART III: FORTY-FIVE
Sokka stared in shock as Nobu tilted his head, kissing Mai with a fierce possessiveness, one hand tangled in her dust-covered dress, the other in her hair. Mai made a soft sound, her bound hands lifting between them. Garin let out a laugh against Sokka's ear, his hand tightening on Sokka's mouth, muffling the rising gasp coming out of him.
The other men tittered as the kiss went on, Nobu pulling Mai another step closer, until her hands were crushed between their bodies. His hand untwisted and wrapped around her waist. Sokka saw his lips part, then his head tilted again, and with a flash of tongue, he kissed her even deeper than before.
Something sour rose up in Sokka's stomach. He didn't know if it was jealousy, fear, or disgust. He thought it might be all three, rolled up in one big nasty ball that lodged in his throat. He breathed in panting gasps behind Garin's crushing hand, glaring at Nobu, wishing he could cut the man's head off the way he'd done Lord Kun just moments before.
Mai wasn't fighting the kiss, seemingly returning it with interest. She made another sound, that soft, breathy sound she made when she and Sokka made love and her fingers twisted in his hair, and her long legs wrapped tightly around him...
He knew that sound.
And he hated hearing it here, now, with her mouth on Nobu's.
"Well now, seems you've got competition, Ran," the Master said, breaking the tension in the room with a loud laugh. Nobu finally lifted his head, pulling back and staring into Mai's eyes. His nose brushed hers, his eyes heavy-lidded, his red lips open in a soft pant.
Mai's eyes cut to Sokka over Nobu's shoulder. Sokka didn't know how to read the expression on her face. He didn't know anything at the moment.
The Master's men were watching the two of them, clearly torn by the scene. The stench of blood and death was on the air. No one moved a muscle.
"Do you have any idea what I've been dreaming of doing to you if I ever found you again? All of the lovely tortures and punishments I've fantasized?" Nobu asked, and the sizzling threat in his voice was as sharp as the sword he'd sheathed on his back. Sokka stiffened in Garin's crushing grip. Nobu didn't turn to look at him again. He only had eyes for Mai. "And yet here you are...and all I can feel is my heart racing... Tell me, did you miss me as much as I missed you, my love?"
Mai trembled, her face pale beneath the dust and debris from the explosion in the street. Sokka could see the fear in her eyes then, suddenly, but it gone just as quickly. The next moment that wall of ice he knew so well came down over her face, and with a curl of her lips, she smiled.
"Of course not, Nobu," she said in her bored and husky drawl.
Then she fisted her bound hands together and slammed them across Nobu's face in a hard blow that staggered him. The Master's men grabbed Mai, one of his guards wrapping his hand around Mai's slender throat and yanking her back, while Nobu clutched at his face.
Sokka tried to meet Mai's eyes, but she was glaring at Nobu like she wanted nothing more than to start Combustion Firebending at him. Any sane man would take one look at the hatred in her eyes and be cowed by it, but Nobu's head came up, blood trickling down his bottom lip, he laughed.
"That's the Mai I remember," Nobu said, rubbing at his jaw. Then his eyes flicked to the guard holding her. "Get your hands off of her."
The guard glanced at the Master, who nodded shortly, his arms crossed over his chest. The guard let go of Mai, who stumbled a little. Nobu approached her, his head cocking to the side. He studied her for a long moment, as Mai glared at him.
Then Nobu's head turned and he looked at Sokka measuringly. There was something appraising there, but no recognition yet.
Nobu still hadn't figured out his real identity. And the Master had still not told him, despite having every reason to rid himself of Sokka now. Sokka glanced at the Master, who was watching him with a closed expression on his shrewd face. Waiting to see what Nobu would do.
"You're fucking him?" Nobu asked. Mai swallowed and her chin lifted, but she too glanced at the Master, probably also wondering why he hadn't revealed Sokka's identity to the former Smoke Demon yet. The Master's men hadn't said anything either; they were watching the Master, following his lead. They were loyal to a fault; they wouldn't say anything unless the Master did.
Whatever game the Master was playing, Sokka couldn't see it. Neither could Mai, but her quick mind came to the same conclusion that Sokka had. The Master was protecting Sokka, and lying to Nobu. There was probably a reason, a reason Sokka wouldn't like, but he was in no position to complain about it.
"I've been spying on the Master for months. Fucking his prizefighter was the perfect cover. Ran is nothing to me. Just a means to an end. I've been using him this whole time."
"The way you used me?" Nobu said, and his voice was chilly, the words forced out past an old hurt. Mai's icy expression faltered for a moment, just the briefest flicker in her eyes that told Sokka more than anything she could have said.
"Nobu..."
But Nobu wasn't listening. He wiped the blood off his jaw and came over to stand in front of Sokka, who stood up straighter in Garin's crushing grip. The man's hand was digging bruises into Sokka's face and he glared down at Nobu, wondering if he would recognize him, waiting for that shoe to drop.
Nobu conjured flames out of the air and held them up to Sokka's face.
"I should kill you."
"He's mine," the Master said sharply. "I have quite a lot of money invested in him. You heard the woman, she was using him. Wasn't she, Ran?"
Garin's hand lifted away from Sokka's mouth. He glanced at the Master and then at Mai, whose eyes pleaded with him over Nobu's shoulder. She nodded a little, telling him without words what she wanted him to do.
Sokka's heart beat out of control. He knew what he had to do, and he didn't want to do it.
His jaw hardened, however, and he glared at Mai.
He hawked back and spat dust and blood onto the ground at Nobu's feet. He conjured Ran, the identity he'd built the last few months, letting his disgust show in his eyes as he settled into Ran's skin. His lips curled and he let out a snort.
"You can have her if you want her. If I knew she was going to be so much trouble I never would have touched her. There's a million just like her out there. I'll just buy another one," Sokka grunted, as Mai's dust-covered face grew stone cold. He hoped she knew that he was lying through his teeth. It was all he could do.
It seemed to work. Nobu glanced at the Master.
"In honor of our new understanding, I'll let him live. But keep him out of my sight," Nobu said to the Master. Then he turned on Sokka and reached out with his handful of flames, holding them very close to Sokka's face. He flinched away from the heat on instinct. "And if you so much as look at her again, I'll burn your eyes out of your head. She belongs to me."
The possessiveness in his voice made Sokka's blood run cold. He didn't look at Mai, but he could practically sense the fear coming off of her in waves. Mai hadn't spoken about Nobu much. Nobu had recruited her into the Smoke Demons, and Sokka had the feeling that Mai was terrified of him. He'd thought it was because Nobu was both an accomplished fighter, assassin, swordsman, and a Firebender, someone no one in their right mind would want to cross in a fight. Sokka had gotten that impression the one and only time he'd met the man.
That impression hadn't changed one bit in the year since. Nobu was a true believer, someone willing to both kill and die for his cause. He was a threat.
Not just to Sokka at the moment, and his not-so-secret identity, but to Mai. And to Zuko and Azula, somewhere below his very feet right at that moment. He was trying very hard not to think about Azula, and how close he was to her. He needed to focus. He'd find a way to get to Azula once Mai was safe...
Somehow he didn't think he would get the chance, but he was going to try.
Toph and Katara had been right. He was in over his head. Way over.
Sokka swallowed and nodded.
"Understood."
But Nobu was turning away from him, facing Mai again. She was still standing in the center of the room. She wisely hadn't tried to make a run for it; the Master's men had all of the exits covered, and most of them had weapons drawn. The three bodies in the room—Lord Kun, Trang, and Mika—were slowly bleeding out onto the floor. There were flies already buzzing around the warm bodies and the smell of the blood was overwhelming in the stuffy, humid air inside of the abandoned inn.
Everyone watched as Nobu approached Mai. When he reached for her, she backed away, but he surged forward, grasping her hair and twisting his hand in it. She struggled, grasping his wrists and trying to twist out of his grip, but he held her tightly against him.
Sokka flinched, but didn't try to save her, even though he wanted to.
Mai was on her own.
He hoped neither one of them regretted this. He hoped that Mai was right, that whatever plan he'd seen hatching in her eyes actually worked.
He had to trust her. It was all he could do.
Nobu pulled her head back, exposing her throat.
"I should kill you."
"You won't," Mai ground out.
"You think I won't?" Nobu said and then he ran his tongue up her throat to her chin. Then he bit down on her bottom lip, hard enough to draw blood. Sokka surged forward before he could stop himself, but the Master stepped forward, putting his hand on Sokka's chest in warning. He stopped dead in his tracks, as the Master shook his head, his snake-like eyes sharp.
"You're right," Nobu said. "We both know I can't kill you. Why were you spying on the Master?"
It was the Master who answered, in a crisp, all business clip.
"She was trying to stop me from killing that Water Tribe guy. Sokka. She failed. He's dead," the Master said. "When she found out I'd killed him, she insisted she come along with Ran for the Chen fight. I think she was planning on killing me for assassinating her friend. The madam at my brothel informed me who she was just before we left. We took her prisoner when we landed. Ran didn't know... He thought I was trying to take his woman. A misunderstanding. But he understands now, don't you, Ran?"
Sokka nodded.
"So Sokka of the Water Tribe is truly dead?"
"His body is rotting in a shallow grave in the mountains outside of Republic City. There's nothing to tie me to his death. The Avatar won't come looking. No one will miss him. Except your little friend there. What are you going to do with her?"
"That is none of your concern, Chil-Hyeon. She belongs to me. She has always belonged to me. She even knows it. Don't you, Mai?" Nobu said, and then smiled, and with a wrench, he dragged Mai against him again. "I think you and I have some things to discuss, don't we, my love?"
"And what about this mess you've made?" the Master said, gesturing to the bodies, and then to the door and the world beyond it. "Not that I'm not grateful for you taking Kun's head, but his men will return soon. I think I can convince them he left me in charge, but not if his body is at my feet."
"Hide the bodies in the cellar and clean up the mess," Nobu said. "I trust you to take care of the details. I have the only key to the cell where I'm keeping the Fire Lord and Princess Azula. Leave them to me. Don't even talk to them. Do you understand?"
The Master nodded. "That's your business. I'm only concerned with Lord Kun's empire at the moment. Do I have your support?"
"For now. We'll discuss the rest of this tomorrow. I have other things to attend to..."
And then, with another yanking wrench, he dragged My by the hair toward the stairs. Mai struggled, her bound hands yanking at his hand in her hair. Sokka surged forward again, but the Master's hand shoved him back.
"Don't," he growled in warning, and Sokka watched in horror, as Mai slipped and slid through the blood at the foot of the stairs, stumbling past Lord Kun's sprawled, headless body. Nobu didn't stop, yanking her with him up the stairs. Mai didn't scream, but she looked back once and their eyes met.
Mai shook her head, telling him to stop. Then she was gone, Nobu pulling her up the stairs and out of sight. Sokka heard a door slam above them and realized that he was breathing in hard pants, like he'd been running or fighting. Sweat slid down his skin in buckets.
"Let me go. I can kill the son of a bitch right now," Sokka bit, looking down at the Master, still standing there with his hand on Sokka's chest, holding him back as his heart raced with fear and regret. His mind made up all of kinds of terrible things, things he didn't want to think about, things that would drive him crazy if he let them.
"I don't want him dead. You can't help her now. She's not worth it."
Sokka punched the Master in the face with all of his might. The blow knocked the man back. Hands grabbed him. Someone forced him down to his knees and wrenched his arm up behind him. A hand caught his face and he was forced to look up at the Master. He felt a sword against his throat, the edge sharp against his skin, biting in just enough to draw blood.
The Master was helped back to his feet by one of his men. His nose was bloody, flowing down his lips. He licked at it, and then smiled crookedly, showing off his golden tooth.
"No wonder Bohai lost. You hit like a raging moose-lion, boy. I have no doubt you would have killed Chen in the ring. I never intended for you to fight him, but it would have been a hell of a spectacle."
"What do you mean, you didn't intend for me to fight Chen? That's why you didn't kill me in Republic City, isn't it? You told Nobu you were going to kill Lord Kun. Kun's dead. You don't need me anymore. Why did you lie to Nobu? Why didn't you turn me in, you son of a bitch?"
The Master fished an embroidered silk handkerchief out of his pocket, and carefully folded it up. He dabbed at the blood running down his face, eyeing Sokka with those lizard-like eyes.
"You think I brought you here to help me kill an old man? You think I've put everything I've worked towards for years, decades, in jeopardy to kill a man I could have destroyed any time I wanted? I'm risking everything, including angering that sanctimonious Councilman who would have me killed in a heartbeat if it suited him, for a lot more than Lord Kun. And when I'm done... There won't be a man alive who would dare go after me... I'll be untouchable. Feared. Worshiped."
Sokka's blood ran cold, his eyes widening.
"What do you mean?"
But the Master turned away from him. "All in good time. And don't worry your pretty head, Sokka. I have no intention of turning you in to Nobu. He'd kill you, and then me, and then where would we be? I need you alive. For now."
"What are you planning?"
But the Master waved his hand at his men, dismissively.
"Put him in the cellar with the bodies. Perhaps a night spent with a few corpses will make you a bit more agreeable?"
"No!" Sokka ground out, trying to break free, the sword pulling away from his throat at the Master's signal. The hands holding his wrenched his arms up behind his back, and he was pushed down to the floor, his face landing in a spreading pool of blood. It was still warm and it coated his face and clothing, soaking in as he struggled beneath them. Two booted feet hammered the small of his back and he cried out. Rope bit into him as they bound his hands and feet.
He thought about Azula, somewhere below him, in the same cellar they were going to drag him down into. He stopped fighting instantly, thoughts of Azula filling his head and his heart. He felt torn, with Mai above him, and Azula below him. He didn't know what to do.
They he hauled up and dragged him toward the cellar door, giving him no choice anyway.
"And Sokka?" the Master called behind him as Garin and the others wrenched the cellar door open. Sokka turned his head to see the Master lower his bloody handkerchief. He was smiling again. "Don't worry about Mai. I'm sure Nobu will take good care of her."
Something hard came down onto Sokka's head, and the world fell away from him in a rush of screaming darkness.
He was somewhere familiar, but very far away. He thought it was a memory, or perhaps a dream of a memory. But he knew this place, this soft bed, and the scent of jasmine and earthly delights that floated around him, filling him, settled on his skin, in his hair, in his soul.
This was home, a part of him knew. This was the place where he was happiest.
He smiled in the darkness and shifted in the bed, breathing in the comforting smell of home, and sex, and her.
He was not alone.
A soft hand slid along his back, over old scars and warm muscles. He felt hot breath on his shoulder, and then the gentle press of lips to his skin. She kissed his shoulder, dragging her mouth along his shoulder and neck, nibbling at him until every touch made his body into a blazing bonfire of desire.
His eyes opened. There was a beeswax candle burning beside the bed. Her hand slipped around his side, and pushed into the top of his loose pajama pants. He let out a moan as her fingers found him hard and ready for her.
He was always ready for her.
Her mouth lifted from his shoulder and her breath blew softly against his ear. Shivers ran down his skin, tingles spreading where her strong hand gripped him, sliding up and down his aching flesh.
"I need you, Zuko."
He rolled over to face her, and she was as beautiful as he remembered. It felt like it had been months since he'd seen her, not days and days that had gone by, full of loneliness and horrors too dark for this sacred place.
He looked at her with aching eyes, and it was like someone had punched him in the gut. She was beautiful, and his.
Her hair was tinged with red in the glow of the candle, tumbled against the pillows. Her eyes were heavy-lidded, glowing blue like sapphires. She was wearing something soft and silky, the same color red as her hair, and when he reached out, his hand sliding along her shoulder, the strap fell down her arm and the peak of one breast appeared.
"Where are you, right now?" Suki asked, as his hand spread on her side, and he pulled her against him in the bed. Her arms went around him. He felt safe. Warm. Loved.
"I'm here with you. There's nowhere else I want to be."
"But you're not," she said, searching his gaze for a long moment. "You need to come home to me, please. You need to come back to us."
And she grasped his hand and put it on her stomach. His hand spread along her stomach, pushing under the covers, then up beneath her silky nightgown. Her skin was warm, scorching like fire. He could feel a flutter there, beneath his palm, like a tiny flame beating, stubborn and strong.
He smiled.
"I'm trying to."
"I'm scared," Suki said, and he saw tears glistening in her eyes. He leaned forward, kissing at her tears. He kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her nose, then, breathing hard, he kissed her lips.
She clung to him, kissing him deeply, her hand in his long hair, the other still holding his palm to her stomach. Her kiss was addicting, a drug, and he willingly fell into the warmth and sweet bliss of it. He drowned in her. He was alive in her.
He pulled back with a tremble and her name on his lips, half a prayer, half a hope.
"I'm going to come back to you, I promise. I won't let anything happen to you, Suki. I love you."
"I love you too, Zuko. But it's too late."
"Too late for what?" he whispered, just as the candle guttered out, leaving them in a darkness no light could penetrate. "Suki?"
"ZUKO!"
The sound of her screams filled his ears, and he clasped at her in fear, but the next moment she was ripped away from him by something unseen. Zuko flailed in the darkness, trying to find her again, screaming her name, adrift in a sea of black so complete he felt like he was falling.
He screamed her name over and over again and fell, fell, fell...
"SUKI!" Zuko jolted awake, sitting up against the rough wall at his back, sweat pouring down his face. He was breathing hard, and for a moment, he thought that he was back in the dream again, falling into darkness.
It took him a long moment to realize that he was still in the cell. He could smell urine, and his own fear sweat. The stench made him focus, and he coughed, his throat and mouth dry. It was dark in the cell, as dark as his dream had been.
He conjured a single flame above his index finger, and it immediately sparked to life, dancing before his tired eyes. He flinched away from the blinding flame, and looked down at his lap. His clothing was dirty, ripped and drenched with his own sweat.
He shook a little, the dream still with him, though the details were slipping as reality overtook him. They were still in the cell. They were still trapped.
And Suki...
Suki was in the Fire Nation. He tried to remember the dream, as the details ran like water though his fingers, but all he had was a sense of dread, and the faint memory of Suki's perfume lingering on his senses.
"Fuck," Zuko cursed, banging his head back against the wall at his back. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, the flame making the insides of his eyelids glow a little. It took him in a few minutes to realize that his scar was hurting.
His scar still ached sometimes, especially in bad weather. He'd gotten used to it over the years, but sometimes it was a blinding pain that he couldn't work past. He usually took medication, and tried to meditate through the pain. Whenever it hurt too much, Suki would sit in his lap and gently kiss his scarred eyelid, her fingers running through his hair, massaging his scalp in the way that he liked.
Zuko rubbed at his face, dirty knuckles digging into the scarred tissue. There would be no gentle kisses to get him through the pain this time.
A sharp pang of longing filled his chest, overwhelming him for a moment. He tried to grasp more details of the dream he'd had, but all he could remember was his hand on Suki's stomach, and the soft touch of her lips to his.
"The baby..."
Zuko's eyes flew open, and he stared blearily at Azula, curled up in a ball on the floor beside him. He'd let her sleep, but his own exhaustion had overwhelmed him and he'd also fallen asleep, sitting up. Azula shivered, thrashing a little as she mumbled something he couldn't hear.
"Azula..."
"They're all burning..." she said, and her head moved in the dirt, her hair across her face. "Sokka..."
"It's okay, Azula..." Zuko started, putting his hand on Azula's shoulder. He shifted to his knees, shaking her.
"The dirt..."
"Azula! Wake up!"
"NO!"
Azula let out a scream and her hand struck out, hitting his arm and knocking his hand away. She sat up, nearly bashing him in the chin with her forehead. He barely managed to avoid getting his neck snapped, but it was close. She let out a wail of pain and terror, one that echoed through his chest and made the blistering pain in his skull spike.
"NO!" Azula screamed, and turned to face him, her eyes wild in the tiny flame above his finger. Her hair was plastered to her dirt-streaked cheek, sweat pouring down her face. For a moment he didn't think she recognized him, as they stared at one another for several heartbeats.
Azula's scream stopped, and it echoed in the dusty air. Azula stopped breathing, her mouth gaping like a fish as she tried to pull in air.
"Breathe! Azula, breathe!" Zuko said, reaching out and cupping her face.
That seemed to wake her up from her nightmare completely, and she gasped, drawing in a heaving breath. She fell forward, her hands on the floor of the cell, her head hung as she panted, pulling in oxygen like a marathon runner.
Zuko scooted closer to her, reaching for her, but she knocked his hand away, scrambling back against the wall. She pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in them.
Zuko sat there, watching her for a long time.
Finally, he licked his dry lips and asked her, "Are you okay?"
"No."
"Me neither," he said, crawling toward her. She didn't move away again, and when she lifted her head, he was surprised to see that her eyes were dry. She looked pale and drawn in the light from his flame, though, and her lips were cracked. "But we're still alive."
"We need to get out of here, Zuko. Soon. Before I..." Azula started and then squeezed her eyes shut tightly.
"Before you what? Talk to me, Azula."
It took her a few moments to find the words. He watched as she looked over his shoulder at something, and then looked back down at her knees.
"I think I'm starting to see things again."
"What?"
"Like... Like before? Before Dr. Song found the right medication. It's been... Zuko, it's been days since I took my medication. I have to take it every day. If I don't... Just, just now. You weren't you."
Zuko licked his dry lips again and glanced at the cell door, then back at his sister. "Who was I?"
"One of them. The men who...who..." She swallowed and then looked him in the eyes. "One of the men who raped me."
Zuko didn't know what to say. He knew some of that story, but not all, and he wasn't about to pry, not when Azula was in such a precarious mental state.
"I'm sorry," he said, lamely. He didn't know what to say, or how to make it better. He couldn't take this pain from her.
"It's not your fault, Zuzu. I haven't seen them like that in months. I forgot... I forgot what it was like before. I don't want to go back to that. It's still hard, even with the medication, but without it... Without it I'm right back where I was. I won't go back to that. I can't."
Her voice broke and something inside of Zuko did too. He gathered her up against him, and she didn't stop him. "We're going to get out of here, Azula. I promise."
Azula laid her head on his shoulder and breathed slowly. She wasn't crying, but she was shaking.
"Between the two of us, I'm pretty sure we've broken into and out of enough places that a cell like this should be child's play," he said teasingly. "You were fourteen when you took this city. Surely we can take some tattooed asshat like Nobu? Especially you. One blast of lightning and he's toast."
"Yes, he does seem like a coward, doesn't he?" Azula drawled, her voice small, but amused.
"As yellow as they come. He had to take us by surprise and get your boyfriend to poison us."
He realized he'd said the wrong thing immediately, because Azula stiffened, lifting her head. She rubbed at her nose, sniffing a little.
"And I owe them both for that," she said darkly. "If we get out of here. That door is a foot thick and metal. There's no way we can blast it off of its hinges. We'd exhaust ourselves trying, or get caught in the blow back. And there's no lock to pick."
"I know. If only Toph were here. She'd just rip it in two."
"Sokka used to say the same thing. An Earthbender would certainly have come in handy more than a few times. Especially a Metalbender," Azula mused, a small smile on her lips.
"Well, Chief Beifong is in Republic City, and we're here. And I'm pretty sure we're smart enough to figure this out."
"Well, I am, if nothing else," Azula said, jabbing her elbow into his stomach. He laughed tiredly, rubbing at his aching scar again.
"Point taken. If we just had—" Zuko started, but stopped when someone banged on the door with a metal clang. The next moment the plate on the door slid open with a screech of metal on metal.
Something fluttered to the floor, then the plate closed again, leaving them both staring at whatever had been thrown into the cell.
Azula glanced at him, frowning. Then they both stood, scrambling to their feet. Zuko got to the paper first, scooping it up from the dirt. It was a small scrap, barely the size of his palm. Azula leaned in as he turned it over, and they both stared in disbelief at the hastily scrawled note there, written in an unfamiliar hand.
I'M GOING TO GET YOU OUT.