Ch14
The heavy iron door rattled loudly as it was slid open, opening the cell entrance. Light spilled into the darkness of the holding cell. The compartment was devoid of any windows to the outside, except the small viewport in the cell door to the cell block. It was very easy to lose track of the passage of time here, and the only noises that echoed in was the anguish of other prisoners and the yelling of the guards. Every now and then, once in a while, there would be the sounds of fire blasts and the commotion of the prison guards restraining an unruly inmate.
Suki had tried her hardest to try and keep track of time's passage ever since she was thrown in here. And she was successful for a number of weeks, longer than most who were incarcerated here, but unfortunately even she lost track of time eventually. But she tried to remain optimistic.
Although she was nimble, resourceful, and capable, this prison, she admitted, was all but impossible to escape on her own. It became apparent very quickly after extensive observation of the operations, routines, layout, and structure of the facility, that the Fire Nation spared no expense when developing the Boiling Rock. Surrounded on all sides by volcanic scalding water, the only way off the physical prison was by a heavily guarded gondola which arrived and departed routinely just twice a day. Even if she managed to somehow transit the suspended cable car, it was also likely that the only way off the island was by ship or airship. She was willing to bet the Fire Nation would not be so willing to fly her out of here, so for now she suppressed any notion of trying to break free. Survival was the game now.
But she held on to her hope closely. The hope he would come save her. She knew he would, it was just a matter of when.
"My my, you do look different without all that makeup pasted on. It's like you're a completely different person."
Suki recognized the voice and looked to the door with an expression of dread. The very girl who landed her here. "What do you want? This seems like one of the last places I'd expect to find you."
"I thought I'd check up on one of my prisoners," she replied rather uninterested, "I don't have many you know. Prisoners that I have captured. It's usually below me."
"Well, I should be just honored to have the Princess of the Fire Nation in my presence in such a lowly pocket of the earth," she spoke in full sarcasm.
"Still spirited enough for sarcasm aren't you. I admire it, honestly. Most people aren't so lively at this point."
"The thought that soon, it will be you in this position is what keeps me going, if I have to admit," Suki replied.
Azula crossed her arms. "What? Because you're going to find a way out of here? Still under the notion that your precious boyfriend- your brave warrior of the water tribe is going to come save you?" She looked off to the side, completely void of any interest. "Please, don't make me laugh. That oaf probably doesn't even know of this place or that you are even here."
Suki's eyebrows furrowed in irritation. "You greatly underestimate Sokka's capabilities. He's smarter than you know."
"I seriously doubt that," the princess plainly replied. She changed the topic briefly. "You know, while I was busy posing as you and toying around with the trust of the feeble leaders of the Earth Kingdom, I actually managed to learn what brilliant plan he managed to come up with. As it turns out, there is a solar eclipse coming up in the coming weeks. Whatever is left of the Avatar's company plans to lead some sort of invasion of the capital city when we are powerless- as expected of the cowards they are." The princess looked to the arrested Kyoshi Warrior. "If he truly cared about you, don't you think he wouldn't be able to resist trying to break you out of here during their best opportunity to simply waltz by defenseless firebenders? But no, they are going to sail right by this prison without even a second glance or thought." She sighed, "such a pity."
Suki's fists tightened in their already clenched states. This wasn't the first time Azula prodded at her with only words. "Why did you visit me if all you intend to do is have a casual chat. I don't see any direction here."
"I don't know," she sang, "Boredom? You are becoming my favorite prisoner you know. Maybe, I'm starting to enjoy toying with your emotions."
"Hey! You guys are back! How was it? Able to finally get a bond started?" Sokka remained optimistic at the sight of the two girls returning. He genuinely hoped they were able to foster some sort of connection. But it was soon becoming apparent to him, the opposite likely occurred.
Suki roughly set the canisters of water down by the supplies. She also inevitably had to carry them all back on her own. Azula, as expected, did not aid in the slightest way, trailing behind Suki in a far too casual manner; just as someone who was high above the level of doing physical work would be.
The Kyoshi Warrior wasn't trying to come off as irritated, but Azula's words kept ricocheting off the corners of her mind. Truthfully it bothered her how much what her enemy said was bothering her. She hated how she could see even the smallest sense of validity in her statement. It was all a mental game. Azula was obviously trying to stir a pot and create tension. And Suki could admit, it was working. She needed to address this.
But for now, she had to cool off. Suki was, for the first time rather unreachable by Sokka. She shut herself in her tent and sat in a rather uncharacteristic silence for the remainder of the early evening. The Kyoshi Warrior pried the headpiece from its position on her forehead and ran a hand through her silken hair, then plopping her head down on a pillow she had taken from her pack.
"Suki! What's wrong?" Sokka called from outside her tent. He desperately wanted to know what upset his girlfriend so much. "Can't we talk about it."
Oh yes they could, and inevitably they would. But not while Azula was around and awake.
"Not right now, Sokka!" she shot back from behind a closed tent. "I'm just..not in the right mindset."
He had never heard that mode of reply before.
"Okay maybe I was a little too insisting, okay? I was a bit harsh earlier too. I take it back, let's just talk it out and-"
"She's armed isn't she?" Azula asked. That made him pause mid sentence. "I can't speak for her specifically, but when girls are rather heated, like right now, it would be in your best interest to give some space. Lest you want a thirty five inch blade being thrust at you."
"She wouldn't do that," Sokka replied.
Azula wanted to test the water on how much she could influence her captor's actions. She said no more, and simply motioned with her hand to Suki's ominously silent shelter as if to say, "fine go ahead and see what happens," before recrossing her arms.
Sokka looked back to Suki's tent and folded. He frowned and gave in to Azula's advice. "I'll give you space. But, I'll be out here whenever you want to..talk this out," he said as he retreated. He trusted Azula's word, partially because she was a girl and so her warning could very well hold water, but also partially because he felt that giving trust- even a little bit at a time, was important to building a connection. She did after all save his life earlier, so despite their past and numerous warnings, Sokka felt some sanctity in granting her some level of trust.
The two of them sat a distance away from where the tents and tarps were set up, out of earshot of one Kyoshi Warrior.
"Are you sure you don't want help with that?" Azula inquired, watching Sokka work at trying to start a fire.
"No no, I think I've almost got it," Sokka insisted, fully focused on his kindling activity. What he would do for a pair of spark rocks at this time.
"This can go a lot faster, if you just ask you know."
"Fine then," he said still continuing his attempt to ignite a fire, "Azula can you-"
"Beg, I meant," she corrected.
"Yeah, not happening, your highness," he replied sarcastically.
The sound of continual and heated friction between wood carried on its rhythmic ambient noise which prevented any complete awkward silence between captor and prisoner.
"Besides, faster isn't always better ya know?"
"As a matter of fact, I don't," Azula replied shallowly. "Speed and efficiency are rather important. Results are what carry the day. That's why your little tribes and kingdoms have been so easily controlled for the past century"
"I would have thought so too years ago," Sokka added, "But yall the traveling around and all of Aang's goofy little side trips.. As annoying and a handful as some of them were, looking back they were a lot of fun and they taught me a lot."
Azula was rather uninterested, but she let him go on. Listening to this oaf was becoming easier and easier. Maybe she was becoming accustomed to it, or at the very least she was becoming numb to his incessant yapping.
"Now, with all that over, and nothing but politics, and law making, and policing writing, and moderation, and yadayadayada...we kind of miss all that. Not being bound to some desk with scroll and ink, traveling the world, screwing with enemy firebenders, and running from you-," he paused, "No offense."
"None taken. You weren't very good at running anyway."
"As a kid, I felt this extreme need to grow up and mature and take control of things; to prove myself as quickly as possible. There wasn't any time to be a kid in a war, when the only thing there really was..was the war, ya know?"
She could relate to his story, and listened, rather intently.
"My father left to fight in the war as a kid and left me in charge of defending and managing the tribe, this carried on for nearly a decade, and then I run into some bald headed goofy nomad of a kid in a block of ice who is apparently supposed to save the world. And rather than going straight from point A to point B in the most efficient way, we go all over and wasted so much time and effort, and nearly get killed on several occasions," he rambled.
"Get on with it!"
"But doing all that helped me learn that the journey is just as important as the process. I got to actually enjoy life, to enjoy the process. And in the end-"
The flame finally ignited, bursting into a promising flame.
"The result was even more rewarding," he concluded.
"Sheesh, you sound like my fuddy-duddy uncle," she hissed. "Yet another romantic story about the process and 'life is as much about the journey than it is the destination', yeah yeah yeah I've heard it all. It's all nonsense anyway."
"No it isn't! You just haven't had the opportunity to see it that way."
"You talk about this grandiose experience as if it applies to everyone. Well it doesn't!" Her head shot up from looking at the base of the bright fire and bore straight through Sokka, taking him aback by surprise. "For some of us, results are what are most important! And the only way we get noticed!" Her usually powerful and sharp voice cracked slightly as she drove the point across like a thrown spear.
Suddenly, from Sokka's view, the fire between them didn't seem hopeful. But rather, as it raged before the fallen princess who sat across from him, it seemed to burn in torment. A small glimpse into a vision of hell on earth. Unrestricted and unpredictable power.
"Maybe it was all fun and games for you, because you had certain people along the way to make everything seem just fine regardless of how the day ended," she said. "But for me? Bestowed upon with the tasks I held responsibility for. I need results. And I need them fast! Life is nothing more than a measure of precision, accuracy, and speed after all. I wouldn't dare waste time or frolic about like you group of imbeciles, else I'd lose face at home. What good is a princess who fails her Fire Lord. Disgraces her nation? I'd lose all entitlement to what is rightfully mine." She narrowed her gaze, as her words involuntarily reminded herself of her present situation in life. "Everything you took from me."
"You see, that's where the problem is," Sokka redirected. He felt a tightness in his throat from sheer nervousness, but hid it impeccably. "You never got to be a proper kid, because of all these responsibilities you place on yourself and expectations you have to meet. War makes us mature so much faster than we should, and it will sting in the long run."
"You wouldn't know anything about it," Azula responded quietly.
"But I think I do," Sokka forwarded as he placed a pot of water near the fire. He intended to make soup this evening. "Your entire life has been nothing but what was imposed on you, stuff you really shouldn't have ever been forced to bear. For crying out loud, you were tasked with falling Ba Sing Se! At fourteen! You don't need to put up this..perfect and superior front anymore. Nobody- I won't judge you!"
"That is a lie! You're lying!" she accused. "I'm nothing without my accomplishments!" She stood from her spot suddenly. "You don't understand at all!"
The full force of her pent up energy today was now being brought full to bear on Sokka. He had managed to strike a nerve.
"Maybe you had the luxury of being able to make mistakes. To waste time. To go off here and there being as airheaded and careless as that ridiculous bear the Earth King had, sure that's fine and dandy isn't it. You had the support for it! People to be there for you despite your absolute failure one day. So don't, for one second, go about trying to lecture me and say that we are even in the smallest instance the same! You don't know what ends I had to meet! You don't know anything about trying to meet your father's expectations! You don't have a true concept of honor and duty! None of that! Not a true concept of worth!"
"Except I do- Azula calm down," Sokka pleaded. He could imagine, vividly, the steam being let out from the woman who burnt a rage before him. He couldn't tell if this was anger, or sadness, or both. And further, he couldn't tell exactly who it was being directed at. "It was wrong that you had to deal with all that!"
"You don't know anything. You don't know anything about me," Azula began reciting to herself. Her head began to hurt, it felt like the world around her was beginning to spin.
"How long has it been since you've eaten anything?" Sokka asked to no avail.
"If your value comes from your accomplishments, your results..and you lost the throne- which you have been working for for so long to a traitor and a disgrace. What does that make you?!"
Azula grabbed at her hair, tugging at it and scratching at her head aggressively. The voices in her head filled her senses and she couldn't notice any noises or voices around her. They seemed to come from everywhere and from everyone. Her brother, her uncle, her father, her friends, her mother, and even her opponents, tormenting her.
Everything came to a sudden stop. Her eyes widened as they gazed into the reflection she could see in the water over the fire, at the demented version of herself which had been haunting her.
"You're a failure," she hissed. "You're worth nothing!"
Azula took a deep and furious breath.
"WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW!?"
She punched forth her tightly clenched fist at the fire and water. A terrifyingly powerful explosion of sapphire flame erupted forth, impacting the fire pit. The flames from the pit then rocketed skyward forming a column of fire!
Sokka managed to jump out of the way just in time. He had memories from the day of Sozin's comet. Seeing the unhinged and unregulated power of one of the most powerful firebenders he knew in existence display a sudden explosion of power on this scale was something he only thought was possible with the aid of the comet. This wasn't too far off.
Instinctively, he seemed to move on his own without a second thought. He latched on, putting a strong arm around her waist and pulled her down from behind into an embrace. Pulled from her stance, the fury of flame suddenly ceased leaving a fuming and squirming Azula remaining. Despite thrashing around in a fit of rage and emotion, she could notice the feeling of warmth and security across her midsection and back.
"Let go of me!" she demanded. A single warm tear streaming down her face.
"I won't," Sokka affirmed.