I hope you enjoy! Let me know by reviewing!
I Do Not Own the image~ Bea-Gonzalez from DeviantArt owns this beautiful image!
(Revised 4.17.20)
Zuko
Zuko had been finishing up his preparations for the long departure home when a loud commotion had him running out into the hallway. The air whooshed by him as he saw the girl, Clara, soar past. Guards were chasing after her and Dai Li agents scaled the ceilings and walls. Before he could take a step, a loud crash came, sounding like rocks colliding together, and everything went quiet.
The silence didn't last and a scream pierced the air, which had Zuko covering his ears as the sound was so loud it seemed to ricochet off of the walls. He ran when it ended, needing to see if it had been the girl. Rounding the corner, Zuko came upon the guards beginning to regain their composure. The girl was encased in a rock boulder, it forged everywhere around her form to her neck. Agents stood seemingly unfazed circling her. Struggling, she was panting and her eyes were scared as they flickered from face to face, stopping when they found his. That uncomfortable feeling returned to his chest as her light blue eyes wet with tears bore into his. His throat constricted bit by bit as her eyes continued to stare at him.
"Knock her out you fools!" Azula's commanding voice broke through everything. Zuko tore his eyes away to see his sister storm up beside him. She looked enraged but seemed to be trying to keep her calm as her gaze fixed on the girl. Reluctantly, he looked back up to Clara.
The agent closest behind her brought his arm up, moving to hit her neck.
"NOOOO!" Clara shrieked, the noise echoing like it had before and Zuko winced as he watched her get free from the boulder. It cracked and colossal pieces of stone flew from her in every direction. Leaping out of the rocks paths, he saw as she flew up high in the air before taking off down the hall where a large window was. Agents moved to grab her, while others sent dozens of rock pellets flying at the girl. They hit her but she continued, seeming to not notice them. Two agents managed to get close to her when they were thrown back by something invisible. It reminded Zuko of when he had fought with the Avatar, the air attacks had been hard to see at times.
Right as it looked like she would make it, a couple of agents threw one of the hallways pillars her way. It shot through the air and Clara seemed to sense it coming. She swirled around just as it closed in on her. For a moment, Zuko thought she had been crushed. He blinked and she was there in the air, eyes wide with the pillar split clean in two. The two massive rocks floated by her in the air. Seeing her eyes narrow, she swiftly pulled her right arm back and just as quick, moved it forward. When her arm motioned forward, the pillar to her right moved ahead as well. The agents she aimed it at caught the pillar with a rock barrier. The fear on her face was replaced with rage and Zuko tensed to fight when lightning flew up to Clara.
That's four times she's been hit...
The girl began to fall, the other half of the pillar fell, crashing to the floor. An agent caught her unconscious body in time before she could meet the ground. The hall went still as everyone waited for Azula or Zuko to speak. Looking at his sister, Azula was angry. Her brows furrowed together as she swiftly walked over to Clara. After analyzing her briefly, she ordered to have the girl taken to the healers before being placed back in confinement. Afterward, she said she wanted to have a Dai Li agent to keep constant surveillance over her as well as multiple guards lining the halls of the dungeon.
Azula put her index finger under her chin in thought, "Did you notice how the Dai Li's stone's hit her and yet... there is no sign of injury on her from it?"
Zuko lifted an eyebrow in response but didn't comment. It was true that he had seen this girl get hit by attacks but he had just thought she had a higher level endurance for pain.
"I'll have to talk to those healers. We need a way to keep her immobile until we reach the Fire Nation." One side of her lip quirked up as it was obvious she had just come up with an idea.
"How do you plan to do that?" Zuko asked as he tried to conceal the curiosity in his voice. Azula smiled and his body unconsciously tensed up at seeing it. He reminded himself that she was no longer his enemy.
"It's nothing you need to worry about Brother," the smile faded and before she turned to follow the agent carrying the girl she added, "Mai said she was going to be in the main hall earlier. You should go find her. I'm sure she'll love to finally get to speak to you after how long you two have been separated."
Zuko looked away but tried to feel happy about hearing that. Going to see Mai was a good idea. It would help get his mind off of... everything.
Clara was groggy, she was unable to tell if she was still asleep with how strange her body and head felt.
"About time," a female voice said, her tone annoyed. Clara was scarcely able to open her eyes. She strained to keep them open.
"It should be obvious to you, but I'll be nice enough to spell it out."
Her vision finally focused and Azula stood over her. Clara vaguely registered that she was back in her prison room. But, she couldn't feel chains anywhere on her! She tried to sit up... only she couldn't...!
Why can't I move!?
Clara's breathing began to increase as she realized this. It was like her whole body had some invisible weight pressing down on her! She could only move her eyes to blink and look around and that required some effort to even accomplish!
"I had the healers use a very special remedy on you. It's something I ordered to be made in the event of a rebellion ever happening. A poison, but I had it be watered down so it would paralyze you instead of killing you."
Azula's eyes glittered with sinister glee before continuing, "It should keep you like this for days at a time. I had originally been planning to do this to Uncle when I eventually tracked him and my brother down. The healers aren't sure of the lasting side effects but I'm sure you needn't worry about that," the Princess crouched so she was close to Clara's face.
She brought her hand up, two fingers pointed. A short blue flame shot out and burned with intensity. Azula grinned as she brought the fire down on Clara's left cheek. Her eyes widened in fright as she tried to force her body to pull away but found that even with the adrenaline pumping through her veins, her body wouldn't cooperate! At contact, she inhaled sharply. To her horror, whatever it was those healers had used had stripped Clara of her voice! She couldn't even give out a whimper, let alone scream.
"It's truly fascinating," Azula commented before extinguishing her flame. Exhaling in relief, Clara couldn't help it as tears fell down her temples. The Princess was still close as she gazed at where her fire had been. A second later, something sharp raked across Clara's face, from her forehead to her chin, causing more tears to flood Clara's eyes. She would have cried out in pain if she could. Blinking, Clara saw Azula's eyes look from her pointed nails to Clara's cheek.
She just tried to scratch me!
"Nothing seems to harm you but lightning. Not even when my flames are pressed directly against your flesh... There's no sign of it, no mark or redness... as if I didn't do it at all... The same goes for sharp objects... I know there will be certain scholars back home who will be dying to see this for themselves and figure out why this is. My father too will be interested in this phenomenon."
Clara closed her eyes. She couldn't stand this! Any of this anymore!
I wanna go home!
"Well," she opened her eyes to see Azula rise and turn to the heavy door, "I need to finish getting all things in order before we depart for the homeland." Looking back at Clara she smirked, "You should be honored, peasant. Meeting the Fire Lord doesn't happen to just anyone of low birth."
Clara wished she could curl up into her knees as silent tears fell from her eyes. She heard Azula make a noise of disgust before the slam of the door came. Opening her eyes again, she looked all around as much as she could manage. Her eyes found a figure and she would have gasped if she could move her mouth. A Dai Li agent rested in the corner of the room just behind her. The man looked down at Clara with indifference in his cold eyes. Looking away, back up at the ceiling, Clara silently sobbed.
In all her life had she ever felt so alone and helpless. She couldn't think of how she would be able to get away from Azula and the Fire Nation now.
It seemed impossible!
She was unable to even move... The only thing she was grateful for was her body's spirit energy, the invisible protection around her. It was the only thing keeping her alive and relatively unharmed at this point, but... it was also the very reason why she was being kept in a cage like this.
Clara couldn't help but compare herself to a lab rat from what Azula had told her. Once she reached the Fire Nation with them, who knows what these "scholars" would do to her! Fear trembled throughout her body and her stomach felt sick. She noticed at that moment that she felt more bandages underneath her clothes. In her head, Clara could imagine another gruesome scar marring her body.
For an unknown amount of time, Clara laid like that, just crying. It wasn't until she heard something in the hallway, footsteps maybe, that she realized she somehow felt a little better. She remembered learning about the body healing itself through tears long ago when her mom had taught her that it's okay to cry...
Mentally shaking her head, Clara tried to think of something else. Her body, she could feel the weight still there but she found that she could breathe in deeper. Closing her eyes she tried to organize her thoughts.
My ability to manipulate this invisible energy seems to be getting stronger... I know now that I can break through solid rock with it when I try... I surprised myself before... I didn't think it would work trying to break out of that slab of rock around me... and I was able to split that stone beam pretty easily...
She exhaled in frustration.
I wish I could somehow keep on practicing... I need to learn the limitations of this... But I can't do it now! No matter what I think of the energy seems to be nullified like my body!
Mentally sighing, she tried to think of other critical matters.
It's spring right now in this world... The day of Black Sun doesn't happen for a while, and that is when the GAang will be in the Fire Nation... Right now they will probably be in Chameleon Bay and that was where I had been trying to get to... When I can move again... it will be too late and they'll be somewhere in the middle of the ocean disguised as a Fire Nation naval ship...
Clara felt her heart clench as she realized she had nowhere to go until the GAang showed up in the Fire Nation. Even if she managed to escape she wasn't guaranteed anything on her own. If she had been given the ability to earthbend or waterbend, she could have found some other benders who would have taken pity on her... possibly. But she was given firebending for some reason and that, in this current world's time made her an enemy to all the other nations. It was a cruel twist of fate and at that moment she hated the ability for doing that to her!
Taking another deep breath, Clara sighed. She couldn't change what was but she did need to figure out the show's timeline to give herself hope. If she could figure out how much time passes between the time skip from seasons two and three she could determine how long she'd have to wait.
The Day of Black Sun... I wonder if the Earth King listened to me about keeping the invasion plan a secret... Because of this-
The door reopened and closed as a guard walked inside. He didn't have a mask with his helmet and held a tray of food with him. With her eyes, she watched as he sat down beside her.
"Hello Miss," the guard, now that he was closer looked rather young and his voice was surprisingly gentle. He looked to the agent in the corner, "Help keep her propped upright for me?" A moment later, Clara's eyes bugged out as she was sat up and the agent held her shoulders firmly. The guard must have noticed her alarm.
"It's alright, I'm just here to make sure you don't die of starvation," his voice was still kind as he brought the spoon of soup to her lips. Clara felt suddenly uncomfortable, her cheeks warmed as he used his thumb to part her lips to feed her. He did this over and over again as he made sure she didn't spill. Despite her embarrassment, Clara tried to focus on the fact that the soup was tasty, and not on how weirdly intimate this all was.
This is what it'll be like when I'm old and feeble one day... Will I still be in this world? Or am I gonna even get to grow old!?
She breathed in accidentally as he fed her a spoon full and found herself coughing, struggling to breathe as the soup went down the wrong way. Though since she couldn't move her body, it just shook stiffly as she coughed. The guard motioned the agent away as he patted her back, trying to help her.
"Sorry about that, I'll go a little slower." Clara wished she could ask this man why he was being so nice to her. It was bizarre...
Scared, scarred, and completely helpless. Clara felt her heart sink even further. Once the guard was done feeding her everything, all liquids since she couldn't chew anything, the agent set her back down. She sighed as she realized this was likely how things would be for a while until she was able to move... or arrived in the Fire Nation. The only thing Clara could do was hope and pray that she would be rescued by Aang and everyone!
Please...! If anyone can hear this prayer... please help me to survive this nightmare! Please help Aang heal and... just please help me!
Clara hoped that since there were spirits in this world that one will take pity on her and somehow, in some way help her.