Notes: This is the point at which things get substantially darker for a while. The next chapter includes an incident that is the reason I raised the story's rating to M.
Zuko became aware of a squeaking sound and footsteps on metal. He opened his eyes blearily, blinking at the two figures in firebender armor silhuetted against the light from the window. What the? Not another nightmare. Then something hard grabbed his hands, jerking them roughly together behind him.
Zuko tried to scream for help, but his cry came out a mere whisper. He thrashed weakly - why wasn't his body responding properly? - narrowly evading the first set of earth cuffs aimed at his feet, but not the second. He tried to cry out again, but got the same result. He lay panting, closing his eyes at the sudden dizziness. Could he fall out of bed and knock something over?
Then one of his attackers grabbed him. Zuko thrashed weakly as he was picked up, and carried a few feet. "Where are you taking me?" he whispered. Feet rang quietly on the ladder as the other person clambered down. Zuko twisted, but couldn't see much. The man holding him lowered him through the trapdoor, handing him to the second, who quickly lowered him to the floor of the tunnel.
Then was picked up again and thrown over a shoulder. Zuko squeezed his eyes shut against a wave of dizziness. Behind him, Zuko heard the trapdoor closing.
Suki and the two other Kyoshi warriors were not in uniform when they headed for the Fire Lord's quarters. They were just going to hang out and talk to the guards. Suki wasn't entirely surprised to see Guard-Captain Kumaro there, as well as four rather than two other guards, when she rounded the final corner. She smiled, and greeted him. He didn't smile back, and a couple of the guards eyed her mistrustfully. Outside, a nightjar sang a few notes, repeated it, then stopped.
"Captain Suki," he said. "What brings you here?"
"Couldn't sleep, and thought I'd come and keep an eye on things for a bit," said Suki. "How are things with you?"
"Tense. I imagine you heard about the War Council?"
"Yes," said Suki. "How is Zuko? I heard he's not talking to anyone." One of the guards tensed, and glared at her.
"The Fire Lord is resting," said Kumaro. "It is, after all, late at night."
"And Firebenders wake at sunrise. You're not going to get much sleep tonight, are you?"
"Comes with the job, sometimes," said Kumaro, finally cracking a smile.
Which was when Suki heard footsteps behind her, and turned just in time to see a corridor full of soldiers that were not the palace guards, led by someone wearing a general's stars.
"Stop right there!" said Kumaro. "General Mung, what is the meaning of this?"
"We are here to rescue the Fire Lord," he said.
"What?" said Kumaro. "The Fire Lord is not in danger. Stand down."
"You are terribly mistaken. I just received news of a Dai Li plot to brainwash the Fire Lord on the orders of the Earth King. You will stand down at once, and allow us to check Fire Lord Zuko's wellbeing." Mung pointed at Suki. "Under the circumstances, the presence of Earth Kingdom operatives loitering around the Fire Lord's chambers is cursed suspicious."
"Soldiers, General Mung is a sore loser who resents that Fire Lord Zuko just fired him from the War Council. Don't believe anything he says."
"I'm not working for the Earth King," said Suki. "Kyoshi Island is independent. And I certainly wouldn't hurt Zuko!"
"The Fire Lord is a sick child who needs to accept help from his competent, loyal ministers." Mung glanced at Suki. "And you worked for the Earth King recently. That's how you got captured."
"If you truly believe that, then step forward alone, Mung, and I will wake the Fire Lord-" said Kumaro.
"And got rescued by Zuko!" said Suki.
Mung ignored her. "Don't make me kill you, Kumaro. You can't win this fight." He paused. "Captain Kumaro, how about you, me, and one each of our men go check on the Fire Lord? We're both just trying to protect him."
Kumaro scowled. "How can I trust you? You bring an entire platoon and start making threats and demands."
"You can do as I ask, or I'll open that door by force," said Mung.
"Fine," said Kumaro jerkily. "Kuzon, you'll open the-"
"I am coming too," said Suki.
"Oh no you're not," said Mung.
Yes, she is," said Kumaro. "I want a witness you can't intimidate or buy off."
"I suppose it can't hurt." He jabbed a finger at her. "But behave yourself. Any untoward action, and you die."
Suki raised an eyebrow, but nodded. In a confined space like a bedroom, war fans and physical combat skills could match firebending more easily than Mung probably realized.
"Fire Lord?" called Kumaro, knocking on the door. There was no response. "It's Kumaro. Are you okay in there?" He paused. "I'm coming in to check on you." Kuzon opened the door, and they went in. Kumaro, Kuzon, and Mung lit flames in their palms, bathing the elegant living room in flickering light. Empty.
"Fire Lord?" Kumaro called again, now sounding worried. "Are you all right?" He strode to an inner door, and knocked. There was silence. He opened the door. Suki peered past him to see a dark bedroom. The bed was very rumpled, and a pillow had fallen to the floor, but there was no one there.
"Sun in eclipse," muttered Kuzon. "Where is he?"
The window was closed. Kumaro moved to check another door, which turned out to be a bathroom. Again, no Zuko. Where could he be? Suki looked up, checking the upper corners and ceiling. She'd heard stories from Aang... but Zuko wasn't there either.
Kumaro was frowning at the ground. He pulled the rug at the foot of the bed aside, revealing a trap door.
Mung nodded. "You think they took him out that way?" he said.
"I think maybe he went out that way," said Kumaro. "All the yelling outside his door; he might have woken and thought, oh, that you were executing a coup."
Suki walked over, reached down, and opened the trapdoor. A faint smell of burnt flesh came with it.
"Careful, we don't want to mark him up," said the second man.
Zuko started thrashing, even if he seemed to be too weak to do much. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he scream, or talk, or move properly, and why was he so dizzy? The sleeping draught! Chimon must have drugged him. But why? Who were these people, what were they going to do to him, and why was an earthbender involved? He'd thought his worst enemies were his own ministers.
They laid him down on the floor of the stone passage, and rolled him onto his stomache. Zuko blinked his eyes back open. Someone was carefully tucking padding inside the stone cuffs on his ankles. Zuko kicked them, but they grabbed his leg and used their weight to pin him so they could finish their work. "Lie still, little Fire Lord. The more you try to fight, the harder this will be for you."
"What do you want from me?" Zuko whispered harshly. The man ignored him, and switched to padding his wrists. Then the hands retreated. Zuko struggled onto his back to look up at his kidnappers.
The stone tunnel was now lit by a glowing green crystal sitting on the floor. One of his kidnappers was bustling about setting up some sort of equipment, a pendulum with a glass lamp on a long chain from the ceiling. It wasn't lit. Zuko stared at it. It looked familiar somehow, but he wasn't sure why. This continued for a little, Zuko wasn't really sure how long.
"Okay, I'm ready for him now," the man with the mystery equipment said in a Ba Sing Se accent.
"Good. Do it," said the thin one in a voice that was familiar, but that Zuko couldn't quite place. The one with the equipment gestured, and bent a stone chair out of the floor. Zuko's eyes widened. That was a nice piece of earthbending. This wasn't some half-trained village earthbender. Though the earth cuffs should have already told him that.
The earthbender picked him up and placed him in the chair, the stone cuffs attaching his limbs to the chair. Zuko struggled on general principle, but there wasn't much he could do beyond inconvenience them for a few moments before he was securely held in place. Zuko watched as the earthbender placed the glowing crystal inside the lamp. "Be quiet," he told the other man as he removed his helmet, shaking out his hair. His eyes were vividly green in the lamplight. Zuko stared at the lamp as the man started it whirling around him... and it clicked.
Green circling lantern, green eyes, Ba Sing Se accent, earthbending, earth cuffs. Dai li. Mindbending. These people planned to break his mind to make Zuko into their puppet. Zuko's eyes widened in terror as his breathing went completely ragged. He struggled frantically against his restraints. "No!" he whispered. "You won't get away with this, the Avatar," Zuko gasped. "Don't!" But if he was smilingly doing whatever it was without apparent coercion, would Aang think to question it? And would Katara be able to fix him even if Aang did realize something was wrong?
"You will not remember me or this session. You will not remember me or this session. You are a sick, exhausted child," the man said in a soothing voice. Zuko snapped his eyes shut, and forced himself to focus on his inner fire and stop hyperventilating. Firebending breaths, concentrating fiercely on his inner fire, and will to stay himself, to live. In one two three... out one two three... his inner flame guttered weakly, and he could still see light through his closed eyelids when the lamp came around in front of him, and hear his droning voice going on, and on, and on. His breathing slowed. He felt strangely floaty and detached.