AN: So still being relatively new to this website, I recently found out about a cool thing called a Traffic Graph and I've been able to piece out that I have something like 1400 consistent readers based on chapter to chapter traffic. I already knew I was lucky enough to have a bunch of readers based on reviews, favorites and follows, but this number really blew my mind. So I just want to thank all of you guys, literally every one of you for stopping by and sticking with me as I make my way through this story, I can't tell you how grateful I am to know just how many people think my writing's worth a squat. Much love to you guys and hope you enjoy!
Chapter 13: Whipped by Torchlight
The tents, lights and crowds extended along the coast for a distance that was impossible to measure by eye. Laughing, talking and shouting echoed all around as countless festivalgoers walked about every which way. Firebending performers put on spectacular displays almost everywhere that one looked and with at least half of the population dressed in some kind of costume, it was an explosion of color no matter where you looked.
Sasuke hated it.
It was entirely too cramped, too loud and too festive for his liking. He supposed he might have suspected this on the long flight to this side of the island, but his preoccupation for how crucial his mission was kept thoughts of the actual event far from his mind.
He stood at a junction between a long strip of tents that sported food, games and other vendors, watching as the ceaseless torrent of indulgent vacationers and tourists washed over the sand past him. Though he stood in the front of his small group, he felt hardly at all then like he wanted to play the part of leader; rather, he would have liked to wander to the treeline where the lights of the festivities flickered out against and hide in the dark until it was time to move. Fortunately, he had unwillingly brought along others to whom that duty wasn't as foreboding.
"Alright, girls," Suki intoned in a leveled voice. "We've got a job to do and the faster we get it done the better."
Sasuke turned to face his three companions. Azula looked like how he felt: utterly at odds with being forced into this sort of situation regardless of the circumstances. Toph looked mildly nervous, though he supposed that with her extra sensitive sense of feeling, the marching of all these people probably felt like an earthquake. Suki was the only one who seemed not only stable to the scenario, but confident as well. Sasuke could see an almost excited fire in her eyes as though the idea of an undercover mission such as this was something she had been waiting for quite a while.
"Follow my lead. Sasuke, do that moping and broody thing that you do and stick close behind us. I'll do what I can to keep us moving, but Toph you're going to need to do your best to monitor anything suspicious you might feel."
The blind girl rubbed the sole of her bare foot on the ground. "Like a needle in a haystack."
Suki looked at her sympathetically. "I know, just do what you can. And Azula…"
She paused for a moment as though taken very much aback at the sudden realization she was addressing the daughter of the Fire Lord as a member of her team.
"Keep your eyes open for any of those people you mentioned. Any sign of someone who might be involved with the chief advisor, give me a pinch and I'll slow us down and find a spot to evaluate how to proceed, based on where we are and how many people we're talking about."
Sasuke was distantly impressed. It was clear during the relatively quiet flight over that she had spent a good deal of time thinking out how best to approach the mission itself.
Azula growled from where she stood with her arms crossed, "You said follow your lead, what exactly does that—"
A curse flew from the princess's lips as Suki grabbed her and Toph's wrists and pulled them into the throngs of people, her previously stern demeanor vanishing as she giggled like a proper drunk. Bobbing and weaving her way through the crowd, she pointed and laughed at just about everything, blending in with other partaking women her age almost instantly. Sasuke nearly forgot his job to follow, but he did so, moving around people that he could and shouldering aside those whom he couldn't.
It was both rather humorous and unsettling just how much Toph and Azula's acting contrasted with Suki's; on one hand, Toph was doing a good job laughing, but her expression hardly reflected how she sounded as though a knife was at her throat while someone had just told a properly funny joke. And on the other, Azula was cackling to a point of almost being too festive. As though she were being tickled by a horde of invisible hands, she outdid Suki's mock giggling at every turn, though it almost sounded unnatural, like she didn't quite know how to laugh. At one point, Suki turned back and caught Sasuke's eye, looking worried, but he shook his head to deter her concern. There were plenty more people acting far more obnoxious and noisy than Azula's strange attempt at eliciting happiness.
They trekked the beach for near an hour with nothing that spoke of success and as they saw a break in the tents with a set of standing tables nearer the water's edge, Suki gestured them over to it. The dark of night made the ocean before them seem invisible with the only proof of its existence being with the flicker of the orange fires bouncing off its surface. Sasuke looked back to see if they had been followed, but they remained alone on the beach, twenty yards or so from the festivities.
As fireworks went up with sparkling, heavy thuds above them, Suki spoke, breathing heavily. "We've almost reached the end of the festival grounds. No sign of anyone?"
She directed this at Azula who shook her head; the princess was also taking in deep gulps of air and when she spoke, her voice cracked with dryness. "Not one. It's possible he's at the other end, or he may have not arrived yet."
Looking back at the myriad of tents they had walked past, she looked doubtful. "But he should have been here by now."
Suki watched her carefully and Sasuke knew exactly what the warrior was thinking; if Azula was hoping to betray them, the first thing she ought do was make sure that her father's people weren't alerted to their presence to ensure a swift end to their infiltration of the festival. Eventually, she seemed to decide that it was pointless to try and decipher any hidden meaning on Azula's face and slapped her palms on the table in a gesture of finality.
"I'm going to go get us something to drink," she said, and walked back to reenter the current of people, disappearing from view. There was a moment of silence between the remaining three of them that Sasuke didn't realize was awkward until Toph spoke up with an edge to her voice that was unmistakable.
"Sure is weird, that we haven't seen a single sign of him or anyone that was close to him. Almost like he's invisible here."
The lofty and accusatory tone couldn't be missed and Sasuke closed his eyes as Azula seemed to fire up all at once.
"Maybe you haven't noticed, but there isn't exactly a small pool to sift through. He could be anywhere, and we've only made one pass along the beach," she snapped.
"Well I sure would appreciate it if you'd try a little harder. At this rate, we're going to waste the night away and I'm getting pretty tired of pretending to be in a good mood."
"Yeah I can tell that's pretty hard for you to manage period," Azula retorted and Toph seemed to swell with indignation.
"At least I know what good moods are, princess! You ever had a moment where you weren't so totally full of hate and violence? Oh wait, probably not since you're staking a career on ruining lives."
Azula's face took on a heated snarl and Sasuke sighed; this wasn't going to be conducive to succeeding in their mission any faster and he raised his hands.
"Alright, you two, why don't we take it back a—"
As though they had both been suddenly possessed by the same entity, both girls turned to face him, shouting as one, "Shut up!"
He did so and watched as they looked at one another in disbelief.
"Don't you talk to him like that, tunnel rat!" Azula snapped.
"Oh what, you're the only person who can tell him to be quiet?! This isn't your royal palace, your majesty!" Toph shouted back.
Sasuke looked back towards the vendors and crowds, hoping this fight wasn't something that was going to be overheard and was relieved to see only Suki returning with refreshments. He took his as she approached and drained it; Suki looked at him curiously.
"Thirsty, huh?"
He nodded, "I guess listening to these two chew each other's heads off dries me out."
Suki then seemed to notice that Azula and Toph were looking resolutely away from one another, their faces still pulled back in scowls. She sighed. "I guess we should get back to it then."
As Sasuke waited for the three of them to finish their drinks, Sasuke turned his head back towards the crowd as there was a swell in volume. A small mob seemed to be pulling their way past the tents and vendors, torches clutched as they cheered and chanted their way past. There was a moment where Sasuke thought he could spot someone being dragged along through their midst, bound in chains.
"What was that?" Toph asked as the noise and ruckus moved along towards the other end of the shore.
"That," Azula said through gritted teeth, "was probably Shen."
"Who's that?" Suki inquired and Azula made a disdainful noise.
"Every year at this festival, the most notorious criminal the Fire Nation has captured is brought here to be publicly humiliated and punished before being sent back to the capital for execution. It's a chance for the common folk to be given an opportunity to put a face to a severe threat to the Fire Nation. My grandfather started this practice sixty or so years ago."
Toph seemed to have forgotten all about her feud and looked at Azula curiously. "What's going to happen to him?"
Azula shrugged her shoulders. "Shen was a spy for the Earth Nation, he passed a lot of secrets about our military might to Ba Sing Se before he was caught. He's been rotting in Boiling Rock for a few weeks, but now his time is up. They might whip him, burn him, and then drag him through the crowd to the first ship to the capital. He'll be lucky to even survive until then."
Suki looked thoroughly disgusted. "That's horrible."
Azula's eyes only shown with a distant, fiery malice. "He's a traitor. He deserves all that's coming to him and worse."
The four of them stood in silence for a while, all likely with vastly different thoughts, before Sasuke gave their table a gentle slap. "Alright, well let's move."
They had only just begun to push their way back into the crowd when Azula reached out and grabbed Sasuke's hand. He felt a rush of warmth that had nothing to do with the actual heat of the evening air rush through his gut before she gestured ahead of them.
"There. That's one of his bodyguards."
A slender man with a long, thin beard was awkwardly taking a tray of food from one of the vendors and beginning to move back towards where Sasuke and his small troop had initially entered the festival.
"You're sure?" Suki asked and Azula nodded intently.
"Let's tail him, see where he takes us," Sasuke intoned quietly and the four of them started up their façade of a procession again. Trying to ignore the phony giggles from the young women in front of him, Sasuke tried to focus as best he could on the man they were following. If he could manage it, a quick genjutsu might tell him all he need to know, but it would hardly be an inconspicuous act. On the other hand, if he was able to get close enough, a kunai at the man's back might prove incentive enough for him to take them immediately to where he might find the advisor. But he knew these were really nothing more than wishful thoughts; for this to go off without a hitch, he would have to use that patience that so often eluded him and—
Sasuke grimaced as a child running around at a height approximate to his waist went slamming into his right side. The kid spiraled away, nearly falling to the ground and Sasuke turned to him, expecting the child to burst into tears and throw an entirely new wrench into this already risky situation.
Instead, the kid flashed him a toothy grin. "Sorry mister!"
Sasuke only stared as someone back the way they had come called out, "Tom-Tom, watch where you're going! You're going to hurt yourself!"
"Okay, mom!" the kid hollered and ran to her side a dozen feet away. Sasuke watched as the woman and her child joined another small group of people lingering by another tent. The most noticeable person was a rather vain looking man with long features and shoulder length hair. His eyes tracked the child's movements back the way he had come before he looked up at Sasuke.
Their eyes remained locked on one another for a few moments, with people milling about around them carelessly, before Sasuke realized he was looking at the Boiling Rock prison warden.
It wasn't lost on him that the warden seemed to have recognized him too. As the man's eyes widened and his mouth slowly fell agape, Sasuke turned to follow after his companions and, alleviating himself from his part as the moping older brother, he rushed up between Suki and Azula, who stopped their own act and looked at him with Toph just ahead of them slowing down to listen in.
"Boiling Rock warden. He saw me."
Suki inhaled sharply but her face betrayed no sudden alarm. Azula on the other hand grit her teeth and looked back before Sasuke took her chin and pointed her back forward.
"Don't look back. Just keep moving."
But even as he said this, Toph tugged at his arm looked worried. "There's a whole lot of movement behind us."
In utter hypocrisy of the gesture he had just imposed on Azula, Sasuke looked back. With the warden behind them, a small troop of Fire Nation soldiers numbering at about eight or nine were making quick progress through the crowd behind them, the lead soldier barking out for people to move aside. They were a couple dozen yards back, but gaining.
Suki's face reflected that her mind was racing furiously. "This is okay, we just have to stay calm."
"We're going to have to split up. They follow me, I can make sure the three of you don't get spotted as well," Sasuke growled. She looked at him in confusion and dismay.
"We can't do that! You take off and there's a chance we won't ever see you again!"
"And that's such a bad thing?" Sasuke asked and she looked at him with something like indignation and hurt. But before she could so much as manage a retort, Azula grabbed both their forearms and pulled them close as they came to a halt, Toph colliding with Sasuke.
"When I move, run on ahead."
She pointed forwards at the advisor's guard. "With this, he'll have no choice but to run back to the chief advisor and let him know the news. Tail him and you'll get your man."
And then, before Sasuke even had a chance to ask what she was talking about, Azula turned away from them, wiping away a good deal of her face paint on her sleeve. Running over to the busiest vendor in sight, she leapt on top of the counter, fire spouting from her open palms. Sasuke watched as the soldiers that had been coming after them turned to look at the spectacle she was putting on.
"I am Princess Azula!" she crowed almost triumphantly as the crowd immediately around her quieted and turned to stare. "All of you are utter fools for believing my father will lead you on the righteous path forward! I have defied him and have been labeled a traitor, but the only traitors I see are the incompetent sheep around me who haven't even the thoughts to think for themselves!"
Oh no.
As the armored men closed in, Sasuke found himself backing away as soldiers and civilians alike began to circle in around Azula. He bumped into Suki who caught him by the arm, giving him a deeply frightened look. Toph's mouth was agape as they stared at Azula's display.
"What do we do?!" she hissed furiously. "We can't just leave her!"
"We have to," Toph whispered, sounding almost in a trace.
Suki glared down at her before quietly exploding. "Look, I don't know exactly what's going on between you and her, but just because you're sporting some nasty differences doesn't mean you have to be okay letting her take the fall like this and potentially—"
"She's right," Sasuke said quietly and they both turned to him. He watched as Azula looked around with a wild look in her eyes as the soldiers pushed through the throngs of bewildered people and found himself clenching his fists in anger.
This shouldn't have been such a difficult choice.
Azula felt as though she were in some kind of trance as she was pulled from the counter and was shoved roughly to the ground. The captain of the guard that had led the soldiers over to her looked down with an astonished look in his eye.
"Picked a hell of time to come out of hiding, your highness."
She was yanked roughly to her feet and her arms were pulled behind her back as she felt the cold iron of binders clamped over her hands. It struck her then that she had just in a single moment been rendered powerless; the binders that she was currently restrained with were Fire Nation make exclusively, the restriction of movement they offered made it so that any benders would be ineffective at wielding their natural element. Azula was by no means a physically weak person without her bending, but as her hands were clasped in these metal restraints, she suddenly realized how relatively vulnerable she had just been made, just at the snap of some cuffs.
The warden pushed past the soldiers and looked down at her with both an angry and mystified expression. His garb suggested that he was very much here on a leave of absence himself, but his attitude revealed he had absolutely no difficulty reverting to his traditional ways. Azula couldn't help but remember how low he had bowed to her when she had arrived at the prison only in the weeks prior, how respectful he had been. Now, it was as though she were just another common criminal, though his expression told her that he was still both wary and tense at her mere presence.
"Your majesty," he bowed low to her before straightening, distaste etched into his features. "What a tragic disappointment."
"Warden," Azula replied, equally as revolted. "I think you're out of your league with this one. Perhaps you ought to go back to your prison and play house with the rest of those pushovers."
She knew how seriously he took his job and this seemed to push his buttons just fine and he flared up immediately. But instead of addressing her back, he turned towards the crowd of people that had come to gather around and spoke to them broadly.
"Citizens of the Fire Nation how blessed we are to have one of the most despicable traitors of all our history grace us this evening! It seems that after she attempted to assassinate her own father, she couldn't resist a last insult to his good name!"
Is that what they're telling everyone, Azula thought. It hadn't occurred to her that it was entirely possible a completely fabricated story had come out in favor of her father, branding her as a backstabbing defector to her own nation.
"On this most important night, we were granted Shen the spy as our apostate to be punished for his crimes, but with such an appealing alternative, perhaps this night will have two individuals brought before the people to be repaid for their transgressions!"
Azula felt her pulse quicken as she realized what the warden was talking about.
"You can't treat me like a lowly peasant who betrayed the nation behind closed doors!" she snapped at him angrily. "It is my father's judgement and his alone to decide what to do with—"
His eyes suddenly coming alive with sudden fury, the warden rushed up to her, seizing her throat. As she cut off with a gasp, he whispered into her ear words only for her to hear.
"My niece has been branded a traitor and a criminal because of your actions. She will never be able to live the life of nobility and lawfulness that awaited her, and I hold you responsible. This is just as much for me as anyone else."
He relinquished his hold on her and she coughed bitterly; ahead of her the warden gestured forward.
"To the pillory!"
With an earsplitting roar, Azula looked around to see that the people who had come to attend the festival and who had just witnessed her arrest now bore looks of the deepest contempt; it was as though in mere moments, the happy and celebratory attitudes had been snatched aside and replaced with the desire only to see the traitors of their country punished. With a yank on her restraints, she fell to the ground before being pulled up and dragged along roughly as jeers and chants sounded all around her.
Azula felt herself in a near sunned state, just barely able to comprehend what was happening. She didn't know exactly what she had expected to happen as a result of her actions to buy Sasuke a very useful distraction, but now faced with whatever was to come, bearing the full hate of the now hundreds of people milling around her, she could feel herself growing deeply anxious.
Eventually, the crowd broke apart and she could see clearly ahead of her. An area on the beach had been cleared whereupon a raised wooden platform stood six or so feet from the ground. On it, a wooden stake was raised, jutting at the starry sky above, metal shackles protruding at about waist height. As Azula realized what exactly she was looking at, she swallowed and began to struggle, but her captors were much larger and stronger than her and she was dragged along without much trouble. Remembering that she could also channel firebending with her feet, she made to lash out with kicks, but the moment one of her legs lifted, a guard slammed a fist into her thigh, drawing it into numbness and causing her to gasp with pain. She turned to the warden as her eyes watered with pain, desperation making it into her voice then.
"The Fire Lord will have your head for this!"
He turned to sneer at her. "Then I'd better make this count."
Feeling astounded at how quickly this entire situation had changed, she looked about to see a now raging crowd of angry and spiteful faces, their voices all merging into a booming roar that sounded all around her. As she was led towards the pillar, several more guards broke the circle of people, dragging a scrawny and unkempt young man between them; the warden approached the soldiers as they did so.
"What happened?" he growled, not loud enough for the nearer spectators to hear. Looking even more embarrassed, the first of the men replied sheepishly.
"Shen made a break for it."
The warden stared at them in displeasure. "He made a break for it."
The man seemed to adopt a defensive look at that point. "We brought him back!"
Azula looked over at Shen and he looked back to her; his expression was tired and he didn't seem to have much of a reaction to seeing her. She could have expected him to be happy to see her in such dire straits; after all, she had been one of the most prominent voices in calling for his execution only weeks ago. But he just looked at her with a dark expression, his eyes black pits of unfeeling before looking down and away from her.
"Put him aside for now. We'll make a show of him after this." The warden said and the men who had carried Shen over looked to her and their expressions fell into that of utter shock.
"This way!" At the urging of the warden, Azula's captors drug her towards the stairs that led up to the pillar; fear starting to set in now, she dug her heels into the sand and began to writhe against them. Had her hands not been sealed, her firebending would have been enough to utterly obliterate these fools, but without it, her struggling was little more than wishful thinking.
As she was brought to the top of the wooden stand, Azula was pushed up against the pillory and the bindings that held her hands were chained to it at about the height of her stomach. Suddenly taking in that she was now utterly and completely vulnerable, she tried to keep her breathing steady. The crowd that had gathered seemed to have grown, faces lit by the torch stands that dotted the strip of shore and the fireworks that still boomed overhead. As she watched, she saw several families usher their children away as to not bear witness to what was about to happen; the rest of the faces were not but hateful and eager.
The warden walked up with his back to her, raising his hands towards the people. This gesture only slightly quelled their angry hysteria, but enough to allow himself to shout over the noise they produced.
"My friends, tonight we are joined by two of the most wretched enemies of our glorious Fire Nation. Not born from other nations, not enemies from beyond our walls, these two were brought up in the very heart of our nation and sought to destroy it."
The crowd yelled furiously.
"Now we are granted a chance to see that treachery repaid. It will not be enough for the damage inflicted, but now, we may be given a chance to see some satisfaction granted for our joint suffering at the hands of these two vile people!"
He turned and pointed at Azula.
"Our very own princess! The daughter of Fire Lord Ozai by whom she was granted every liberty, luxury and chance to serve our nation! Now, she seeks to destroy all that has bestowed this fortune upon her."
Gesturing to the guards, Azula grit her teeth as they dug their hands into her clothes, ripping open her garb and exposing her back to the warm night air. She felt a roiling of chills pass down her spine as the warden was handed a long black coil of cord that he unraveled as he looked at her insidiously.
"Guards, pick out some lucky volunteers!"
Several men jogged down the creaky wooden steps and began pulling people about who were flailing and gesturing, desperate to be chosen. After several moments, a line of a couple dozen people had formed at the base of the steps. The warden looked at them all and uncurled the lash which gave the surrounding crowd pause as they waited in eager anticipation.
A cold sweat had broken out across Azula's entire body as she came to distantly accept what was about to happen. Her pride kept her from trying to plead her case, though the curses and insults she wanted to shout couldn't seem to make their way to her tongue either. The harsh orange glow of the torches seemed to bear down against her with a burning, oppressive heat, a heat she should have been able to control. Her heart slammed against her chest at the thought of the impending pain and abruptly, she found herself looking about the faces that glared up at her, trying to find Sasuke's.
Are you watching? Are you seeing what I'm willing to do for the good of what you want? For you?
Surely this would be enough for him to know that she was impassioned with him and his plight. She wasn't the angsty, spoiled royalty that he presumed her to be. Azula was prideful, but had no reservation in making the sacrifices necessary to—
The first strike caught her entirely by surprise and as the crack of the whip snapped its brutal sound against her ears and the crowd roared in approval, she groaned and arched her back, the pain feeling less like the sting she had expected and more like a hot iron had just been laid across her back.
"Well done!" the warden was shouting as the first person to have swung the whip, a middle-aged woman, walked past her to descend the other set of stairs on the other side of the scaffolding, spitting in Azula's face as she passed by. "Next!"
The wait was just a moment too long and Azula looked back just in time to see the shadowy curve of the lash against the glow of the stars before it came down against her right shoulder and pulled down across her skin. She was able to keep from crying out this time but she shook where she stood chained. The agony was unlike anything she could have expected.
Another spit and another cry of "Next!" and her again it felt like her back was being peeled open; Azula looked skyward and yelled in pain. Around her the crowd cheered ravenously, utterly unmoved by the distress of another human being.
I'm not a human being to them though, she realized as her mind spun at the torment being laid upon her. I'm a stain upon their vision of a perfect nation.
Another blow and she screamed this time, the verbal expulsion providing her with a meek measure of respite. She had never been subjected to this level of affliction before and her mind was having trouble dealing with it. Thoughts of Sasuke were few and far between as she was flogged by the people she so sought to champion. Every strike drew another cry from her and every roar of the crowd pushed her mind into further distress.
It can't last forever. It can't, it can't, it can't…
She became aware then that there was a voice shouting loud and hoarsely above even the cacophonous cheering of the spectators.
"Is this what you people call justice?! Torture at the hands of a mob without even the slightest regulation or authoritative overwatch?!"
Her eyes blurring with tears of pain, Azula pulled in a shaky breath and looked to see that Shen had broken free of his captors and was raising his hands before the crowd as he hollered at them. The warden had waved back the guards and was watching Shen's pleas with silent amusement.
Shen continued, "You people are told a story and believe it, without even getting a chance to hear the other side?! Are you that deluded into thinking that things are always how they are told to you?!"
"I'm sorry, Shen, but I feel that your moral grandstanding, or at least I assume that's what you think you're doing, isn't going to work on these people," the warden called out and laughter billowed out from the congregating mob. Shen didn't seem put off by this and pointed wildly at the warden.
"You take control of this situation like it's your right to even do so! But there is no appropriate authority here! No one close enough to the Fire Lord to condone this type of punishment wrought on his own daughter!"
Azula found herself distantly surprised that Shen would seek to defend her in such a way at all, particularly after how she had so gone after him during his trial. But she supposed that this stalling was just as much for his own good as hers.
"Can you claim to know the Fire Lord well enough to say that this is what he would want?!"
He looked at the warden expectantly and for a moment, the older man looked thrown off and angry at this interruption and open insult to his character. But before he could so much as muster a reply, another voice called out from the crowd, a reedy, yet commanding tone.
"I can."
The crowd parted for a balding, older man to step free of the circle, surrounded by six bodyguards, one of which Azula remembered from earlier carrying a tray of food. And as the warden bowed low to the man and his soldiers followed suit, Azula looked at the man who had spoken up and was looking at her now with a similar disdain to those around him. In that moment, she drew up her strength and shouted in a raspy and broken voice, her tone shattered from her previous screaming; still, she cried out with all the effort she could muster.
"That's him! Sasuke, that's him!"
And all of the sudden, a great many things happened. Shen rushed forward quiet suddenly and grabbed the arm of the chief advisor with astonishing speed, yanking him towards the center of the clearing. As his guard made to retrieve him and subdue Shen, several boulders fell from the night sky and pinned several of them and crushing the rest outright. Shen threw the chief advisor to the sandy ground and drew back a deep breath before blowing out a massive wave of fire that exploded upwards, creating a thick wall of flame between the crowd and pillory. Screams from beyond echoed the fear of that same crowd that had been so eagerly watching the torture not moments before and screams of pain from those caught too close to the fire.
Someone came rushing up the stairs then, scattering the citizens who had been waiting their turn with the whip and reached the guards beside the warden as quick as a breeze. Azula watched as Suki stuck a knife first in the throat of the guard nearest her and when his companion made to retaliate with a fireball, she shoved the first guard into him causing his attack to fly awry. Before he could prepare to unleash a second, Suki had stabbed him through the chest with a spear she had commandeered from another soldier.
All at once, Azula found herself alone with Suki and the now quivering warden that she was holding a blade to.
The Kyoshi warrior snarled in a low tone, "I should have finished you when I had the chance."
The warden only raised his hands and dropped to his knees, shaking with fright, all pretense of a controlling and powerful image gone. The stairs squeaked again as another person came charging up them and Azula saw Toph join the three of them, looking panicked and out of breath.
"Suki, where is he?!" the earthbender cried out in worry and Suki looked around to gesture towards where a furious mob had been assembled not moments before. Azula followed her eyes to see Shen dragging the chief advisor's struggling form towards the pillory stand. But as Azula looked, she saw that it wasn't Shen at all; Sasuke himself was hauling his prize forwards, his face smeared with a look of bitter satisfaction.
He had been here, she thought, relieved that her show of dedication hadn't been for naught.
"Watch him, will you?" Suki asked and Toph moved to stand in front of the warden, her arms crossed, no doubt ready to bring down the force of the earth on this man should he try anything. Suki moved over to where Azula stood restrained and began working on her bindings.
As she was freed, Azula was distantly aware of the seeping, wet warmth that seemed to be flowing outward from her back and the sudden physical exhaustion that had come of her ordeal. She had been openly humiliated and punished by nothing more than the common rabble, a thought that weeks ago might have been enough to bring bile to her mouth in disgust. But now, this was all buried beneath a single, relieving fact that she found herself muttering as Suki undid her bindings and eased her gently to the wooden paneling beneath them. The girl looked down at her, eyes concerned.
"Don't talk now, princess, just relax…"
But Azula wasn't listening. Moments before she closed her eyes and passed into fitful unconsciousness, she gave a final quiet murmur of the words that she had been chanting like a mantra since they had appeared moments ago in her head:
"He saw it."
It was a euphoric sentence, a beautiful thought, as she closed her eyes and slipped away.
"He saw me."
Sasuke found that he had to keep his hands shaking from the suddenness of it all; in a matter of minutes, a great many things had happened that he was having trouble wrapping his head around all at once.
First and foremost, the chief advisor was in his grasp, quite literally. He now had access to the perfect person who could tell him Ozai's whereabouts and could finally usher him on a certain path forward. This should have been cause for nothing short of reserved mental celebration, but there was no joy in Sasuke's heart.
On the other hand, the mission had come under serious fire and the risk level was only going to grow as the panicked crowd fled beyond his wall of flame and other Fire Nation battalions and ships were alerted. Sasuke had already failed in a sense; Aang and his company would likely have to reassess their hiding place as a result of this instant publicity.
As he marched up the wooden steps, the advisor bouncing unwillingly behind him, he saw that Azula had fallen unconscious in Suki's arms, her garments torn open in the back which revealed the deep and scarlet lacerations that had been dealt to her. Blood had pooled at their feet and was soaking the boards beneath them.
She didn't need to do that.
Sasuke repeated this thought in his head, not for the first time. From what he knew of Azula, she was far smarter than to risk what she had. Should circumstances had been different, she could have suffered much worse, perhaps even been killed. Sasuke himself had broken his transformation jutsu just to throw a last-ditch effort to try and force the chief advisor from hiding that had managed to work. But that success only met him with more mental consternation: he shouldn't have cared that Azula was being tortured, he should have been content to wait until the opportunity was perfect, not risk his own cover like that. Why had he done something so stupid himself? Why had Azula?
He remembered what Ty Lee had asked begrudgingly of him before he had left, he remembered Mai's words and her vague warnings. He even thought hesitantly to his own feelings towards the princess, feelings he wasn't even sure he wanted to confront, but nothing gave him the answer he sought.
Dropping the chief advisor unceremoniously next to the warden, he looked to Suki and she returned his gaze, giving him a nod. Her expression was still stern and calm, and he found himself liking her even more; he was glad she had come along to provide what had turned out to be entirely necessary backup.
Then, he looked at Toph and had to keep himself from wincing.
The girl's chest was heaving, her hands curled into fists that shook at her side as she seemed to be doing everything in her power to keep from snapping. There was a stain of blood on her sleeve and stomach that fortunately didn't appear to have come from her, but the anxiety and stress that had clearly been laid upon her as a result of the turn the mission had taken were apparent.
She shouldn't have come.
Ever thankful that she couldn't see him staring regretfully at her, Sasuke looked at Toph, deep in thought. He shouldn't have allowed her to join the mission, her of all people. His actions in the minutes prior had done nothing but exacerbate the danger; they could have continued to tail the advisor's guard, but he had run ahead and snuck in as Shen's double with substitution jutsu after knocking the prisoner out and hiding him behind a tent. He had broke cover far too early at Azula's cries and it had been smooth, but it could have easily gone any other way. Even if she had been furious with him, even if she had outright come at him with violence as a result, she had been put in danger, and Sasuke was responsible.
Why do I even care?
Even as he thought the question in his head both dismissively and disdainfully, however, he knew that he did care. Perhaps badly.
"How is she?" was the first question out of his mouth as he turned his gaze back to Suki and the whipped girl she was currently examining. She looked up to him with a strained expression, but her words were fortunately more positive than that.
"She'll live. She didn't pass out at the blood loss, at least. Katara will have to look her over, but I can patch her up well enough until we get back to camp."
When she surely noticed Sasuke's persistent eyes, she gave him a reassuring nod. "I've seen people shake off a lot worse than this, Sasuke. Hell, what happened to her here won't be much compared to what you did to her before."
For some reason, Sasuke wanted to shoult angrily at her then to shut her mouth, but he withheld. He instead queried, "And you?"
Suki waved at him almost scornfully. "Not a scratch."
From there, Sasuke turned his attention carefully to Toph who was still looked like she waiting for someone to walk up behind her and put a hot iron to the back of her neck.
"And you?"
Like a snake noticing danger, she snapped her head in his direction, practically barking, "What do you care?! You just had to go off and do things your way, didn't you?! Suki said it would be smartest to go and follow the other one, but you just had to go after Azula and risk everything in the process! Always about doing things your way, I guess, no mind what happens to anyone other than—"
Sasuke stepped in front of her and put his hands gently on her shoulders and she stopped talking immediately. He spoke sternly and coldly, "Are you injured, Toph?"
She ran her tongue over her lips almost breathlessly; there was clearly more she wanted to say, but after a moment, she swallowed it down and said, "No."
Releasing her shoulders, Sasuke surprised her by giving her a soft, but firm punch to the chest. "Then get ahold of yourself. We're not out of the woods yet."
He stepped over to the warden and chief advisor like a fisherman eyeing a pair of less than appealing catches. Both of them had remained silent up until now, but both looked at him with worried, yet distantly challenging eyes. The warden, Sasuke had met before, but his eyes moved to the chief advisor then, the one he didn't know.
He didn't look at all like Sasuke had been expecting. He looked like he would be more at home on the sidelines of his children's sports events, cheering them on, or walking a market square, looking for groceries for his family. There was a very fatherly look on his otherwise relatively young face and Sasuke homed in on that, making a stab in the dark.
"You want to see your family again?"
His bluff seemed to pay off swimmingly and the advisor's expression morphed into one of pleading as rolled to his knees and bowed to him. "My children and wife are my entire world. I implore you to see mercy."
Next to him, the warden sniffed loftily. "Don't embarrass yourself, chief advisor. They're just kids in over their heads, don't go being fooled by—"
With no small amount of vindication, Sasuke drew a foot back and slammed his heel into the warden's mouth. His enhanced senses felt several teeth give against his strike and the warden fell backwards mightily to crash to the floor.
"Quiet, old man. I'm the one talking here."
The warden lay where he fell, clutching his face with muffled groans and Sasuke turned back to the advisor. Hoping that this could be done with minimal force, he crouched next to the man and cocked his head.
"Why is it you do what you do?"
The advisor's face swam with confusion. "I'm… I'm sorry?"
"You work for Ozai," Sasuke continued. "Your job isn't one granted to many people and I'm sure you foster some level of loyalty as such. I want to know if that loyalty is placed more in your superior, or your nation itself."
It seemed to dawn on the advisor then what Sasuke was talking about and after a moment of realization passed over his face, he lowered his head, his expression now regretful and resigned.
"I can't tell you what you want to know."
Damn.
"This doesn't have to be a painful process, chief," Sasuke tried. "You tell me what I want to know and we beat feet out of here real quick and leave you to go home to hug your kids."
A pang of hurt flashed over the advisor's face and, sensing weakness, Sasuke pressed forward.
"Now, I know that you know a whole lot about the good ol' Fire Lord. You get to know a bunch of stuff that no one else does, and you get to know it in confidence. I can respect that. But I need to know, right now, where Fire Lord Ozai is. Where is he holed up and where's he planning to go next?"
He watched the advisor's face go relatively blank and he waited for a reply. After something that might have been close to a minute, the man looked to him in very polite disbelief.
"You can't truly expect me to give up the location of the most important man in our entire nation."
A sting of impatience jabbed at Sasuke's mind as he thought about getting a severely rattled Toph and a severely injured Azula out of there as quick as he could.
"Now, that's where you're wrong, chief, because that's exactly what I expect," he said curtly, letting some of his annoyance slip into voice. The chief advisor stared at him quietly for a moment longer before saying softly.
"I have to refuse."
Sucking in a breath of air in agitation, Sasuke straightened and walked a few paces away. He had other options beyond forcing the truth from this man that were much less physically questionable, but they were elusive to him or altogether too time-consuming; he had distant stirrings that suggested a mind reading jutsu might be something he could use, but its specifics and coordination were not something his addled mind had access to. Forcing the man into a genjutsu might be overtly time consuming in trying to ease out this particular facet of knowledge. If the chief advisor was mentally strong, he could be at it for hours before making headway, and Sasuke knew they didn't have that kind of time. Tapping his foot for a moment, he turned back, remembering a relatively pointless fact, but one that had slipped back into his memory pool in the previous days and one that he thought might be of use now.
"Do you know how many bones are in the human body, chief?"
The man looked up at him, face paling. Sasuke continued, "Two hundred and six. Maybe more than you might have thought. Now, I'm not inherently knowledgeable myself regarding human anatomy, but I imagine if I started at one, I could work my way through at least a few dozen with relative ease. Hear one snap, count one. Hear another snap, count two. And we can keep at it until we're done with all two hundred and six. And if you're still holding out on me then, I've got a couple other ideas."
While Sasuke had no intention of spending the time to break that many individual bones, he also knew that after snapping a few, the reality of the possibility might set in, and from there, the advisor might be willing to reevaluate his priorities. Sasuke gave him a few seconds before shrugging.
"Okay, time's up."
He stepped over and pulled the man's left arm into his grip. He settled his grip on the advisor's bicep, one hand at the top near the shoulder and the other further down near the elbow. With his gradually returning strength, breaking bones would be like snapping dead twigs.
"Wait!"
The shout came just as he prepared to wrench the bone in opposite directions and Sasuke looked up in annoyance to see Toph looking at him, her expression having morphed from anger to panic.
"What?" he snapped as he listened to the chief advisor pant in frightened dread of his own.
"You're… you're not actually going to, right?"
Looking skyward in vexed dismay, Sasuke snarled curtly, "How is this any different from what they did to Azula? You think these people are to be pitied? Shown mercy? Toph, if they captured you, do you think they would hesitate, even for a moment, to pull out your fingernails, beat you like a war drum, and who knows what else to find out everything you know about Aang?"
Toph looked his way as she replied quietly, "And that makes this right?"
Sasuke shook his head and looked back to the arm he was about so crack in half. "I've given him an out. A very easy one and he's chosen not to take it."
Stepping forward, her expression and voice that cracked when she shouted betraying her nervousness and discomfort.
"And that makes this right?!" she repeated loudly and Sasuke looked at her, his temper flaring.
"It's not about what's right now! It's about what will be right in the end!"
There was a brief crackle and then a splintering pop as the man's bone was broken; his howl resounded against the crackling of the fire, and Sasuke stared at Toph's now rigidly frightened expression.
"This is what it's going to take!"
Reaching forward, the forearm now shattered at his touch.
"This is what needs to be done!"
"Sasuke…"
He drove his thumbs into the advisor's hand and cracked open the bone nearest the thumb.
"Sasuke!"
"You think you're going to win this war by trying to make friends with these people?! That Aang's blind philosophy has any place in conflict such as this?!"
He moved his hands toward another joint in the hand before Suki's voice rattled him from his now overpowering rage. Sasuke realized that she had said his name several times but it was only now as she grabbed his shoulder did he snap his head around and realize she had been addressing him.
"Sasuke, stop! Listen to him!"
It was then that Sasuke also noticed that amongst his pained screaming, the advisor had begun to rant off words that streamed together in sentences that were only somewhat coherent, but mixed with information nonetheless.
"He's on his flagship, he's biding time until the comet arrives, please, I don't know anything else, he was sailing from the capital southward was all he mentioned to me, I don't know anything else…"
These sparse but severely important details swam from his mouth over and over as it appeared the pain and breaking of his bones was putting him into something of a state of shock. Sasuke hadn't even noticed that he was being granted what he wanted as he had sought to force his point down Toph's throat. Swallowing, he released the advisor and the man dropped to the wooden deck, groaning and clutching at his now mutilated appendage; looking up to Suki, he tried to formulate some excuse as she glared at him.
"I'm… I'm sorry, I didn't hear…"
"Are you finished?" was all she inquired angrily. Sasuke looked at the chief advisor, a man who until so recently had been the subject of almost all his thought, the next piece of this urgent and harshly important quest of his, now nothing more than a broken and scared man who had been doing his job. The warden was on the ground a little further away looking to be doing his best to not be noticed.
"Yeah, we're done here."
She gave a sharp nod and moved over to where she had lain Azula. She had worked makeshift bandages ripped from her own clothing to wrap around the princess and cover her lesions for the time being; as she knelt to lift Azula, Sasuke stepped forward.
"Here, let me…"
Effortlessly lifting Azula by hoisting her under her knees and neck, Suki shot him another glance. "I think you've done quite enough."
She looked pointedly behind him before marching down the scaffolding and towards the forest where Appa would be waiting for them. Sasuke followed where she had been looking and was nearly knocked over as Toph went stomping past, wiping her face and sniffing heavily as she did. Her tears wouldn't have stayed hidden from him and he could tell she was perhaps worse off now then when they had regrouped near the pillory. Watching his three companions walk swiftly back through the now deserted festival grounds, he turned to look at the advisor who looked like he had fainted and stepped over to look down at the warden. The man finally looked up at him, a wholehearted look of fear in his gaze.
Any pleasure Sasuke felt in slamming his heel into the warden's face once more was swallowed by a staunch sense of guilt, a feeling he did his best to ignore. A part of him was urging him to take off after Toph and try and apologize, to calm her down and keep her from hating him too badly. He had been growing a positive relationship with her, and now, he might have squandered it.
Wait. Why do I care?
As he glared down at the two unconscious men before him with the full moon beating down above his head, he had to remind himself that he wasn't here to get close with anyone, he was here to regain his memory and find the truth of himself.
It was over a minute before he made to follow after his companions as the burning thought singed at his mind, just barely smothered by his thoughts of his own mission, that perhaps he wouldn't mind growing nearer to at least a couple of his allies. Even Toph.
Especially Toph.
But as he walked down the wooden steps towards the looming shadows of the trees, he couldn't keep from noticing Azula's face as it burned bright in his mind's eye, alluring eyes ever beckoning. Allowing a manic grin to cross his face, Sasuke ran a hand over his face. What were they doing to him?
Toph didn't feel Sasuke follow after her and Suki and she felt herself half-hoping he wouldn't join them period. If he could just… go and stop messing with her head so badly, this would hardly be such a difficult scenario for her, wouldn't it? All he had done since his arrival was sow discord and create problems; truly, he was much more effort than they needed.
But despite the practicality of her mindset that she was trying to impose, Toph just couldn't get over the fact that she didn't want Sasuke to leave. Through everything he was, and everything he did, she still couldn't help but feel herself drawn to him. He was some kind of inexplicable gravity that just kept pulling and pulling on her, and she just couldn't tell herself to turn away.
"Damn it all," she muttered to herself, loud enough for Suki to hear her who was striding along with Azula just a few meters ahead of her. The Kyoshi inquired at the curse,
"Are you okay, Toph?"
Toph ran a hand through her mess of black hair and nodded miserably. "Yeah, sorry."
They resumed walking in relative silence until they hit the treeline, and Toph felt the sand beneath her feet turn into brush and dirt. Then, Suki asked a question that brought an insatiable rush of warmth to Toph's cheeks.
"Have you been crushing on him?"
She found herself sputtering over her own explanation, no doubt making a total mess of herself before Suki said gently. "It's okay. I'm not trying to go after you like Katara might."
Suki added as they walked deeper into the foliage and the warmth of all the torches that had littered the beach behind them faded away, "Unfortunately, he's really cute. Any of the other girls would be able to tell you the same thing if they were willing to be honest. Katara and Ty Lee might pretend otherwise and Mai might lie for Zuko's sake."
"It's crazy, I know," Toph blurted out before nearly clapping a hand over her mouth at the fact that she had more or less just admitted to the crime she was charged with.
"I'm not going to tell you how to feel or what I think you should do," Suki said, seeming entirely unjudgmental about the fact that Toph might have been falling for a potential sociopath. "But you need to be careful. Sasuke seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't think twice about stepping over you to get where he's going."
Somehow… I don't think he is.
"Thanks, Suki."
They resumed walking towards Appa and Toph felt the weight added to Suki's steps that was the motionless form of Azula.
I can't believe she did that.
For what she had verbally accused Sasuke of, it really had come down to Azula's brash actions that had forced the moment. It had been a move completely unlike her and it was possible Sasuke hadn't noticed due to his limited time with her, but from being chased all across the four nations, Toph knew that Azula was not the type to do something uncalculated, something so totally risky. It hadn't been her nature to avoid being shrewd and discreet, but for whatever reason, she had just put herself greatly in harm's way for a reason that Toph couldn't seem to discern.
That's not true, she thought and grit her teeth. Of course she knew why Azula had done it. Everything the princess had done or said seemed to be a premeditated move to near herself to Sasuke or to instill her aid upon him. And as much as Toph didn't want to even think about it, she was showing all the signs of the same feeling Toph had; Azula was just as infatuated with him as she was.
Toph kicked the ground bitterly as they walked on. And why would Sasuke choose her over Azula if given the choice? Toph was younger, less experienced, less… like him. Azula on the other hand was powerful, motivated, power-hungry and possessive; it would likely be a very easy choice, if that's what it came down to.
He doesn't care about me, not really anyway. I'm just an emotional kid to him, someone who annoys him and who he can't stand to be around. Anyone would take Azula over me, and he's no exception, probably.
As they tread deeper into the woods, Toph found herself feeling an emotion much more frustrating than the usual disdain she normally felt for Azula, someone who had just shown a vast deal of loyalty and devotion to Sasuke through her ordeal, and whom surely was sitting relatively well in Sasuke's good books.
She found she was actually very jealous of the princess and the thought made her clench her fists until her nails cut the palms.
Zuko sat under star and moonlight, watching Mai and Ty Lee spar in the surf washing up from the black ocean. Sokka had drifted off to sleep next to him which Zuko found odd; why wouldn't he have stayed up and waited for Suki and the others to come back, which everyone else seemed to be doing? But then again, he had just taken a very spending trip and was surely exhausted, physically and emotionally after saying goodbye to his father yet again.
Zuko sighed and watched as the two young women jabbed and kicked at one another in their own way of passing the time while waiting for the shadow of Appa to descend from the sky and return their companions to them. Aang was taking an evening flight with Momo, surely hoping to catch a glimpse of their allies; it had been nearly seven hours, more than enough time for them to make the trip, carry out the mission and make it back. Zuko was doing his best to keep from going worried himself.
"You have a moment, Zuko?"
He turned to see Katara looking down at him with her arms crossed. In the moonlight, she was very striking, her thick hair flowing like a shadow behind her and her toned body glinting just barely. Zuko nodded and got to his feet, following her as she walked slowly along the beach. She too watched Ty Lee and Mai with him and it was several long seconds before she spoke, her voice measured and serious.
"Something's going to happen tonight, Zuko."
His mind immediately racing with what a statement like this could mean, he asked, "He won't come back, will he? This was his chance and he's going to take off and—"
Before he could go any further, Katara held up a hand and shook her head. "Actually, I made a deal with him. He's promised me he'd come back after the mission tonight."
Zuko stared at her, now drawing a blank; why ever would Katara be opposed to being rid of him?
"How? Why?"
"I told him he could borrow Appa for this as long as he promised to come back for one more night," she said and Zuko pushed the second part of his inquiry that hadn't been answered.
"Why?"
Katara stared up at the beaming moon above them and a sinking feeling began to spread in Zuko's stomach and as Katara started to talk, that feeling traveled throughout his entire body and he closed his eyes. It was stupid that he hadn't seen something like this coming, but as Katara laid out what she intended to do, Zuko could only grit his teeth, wishing beyond wishing that there was another way forward.