Chapter 17: The Earth King's palace
Three cloaked figures moved through the streets of Ba Sing Se, their faces hidden by wide hats that were angled downward; their hands were concealed beneath the loose and wide fabric of their sleeves. Walking quickly and with haste, the three figures moved alongside the base of the nearby buildings on the sidewalk. The three of them moved in a single-file line as they continued along the street; the first figure, leading the other two, glanced up at a large building that they were approaching. Lowering their head once again, the front figure leaned back and whispered to the other two.
"We're almost there," the figure whispered, "the palace is within my sight."
"Wow, Azula, how did you know where to find it?" the second figure asked.
"The Earth King's palace is a symbol of power; it's only natural for it to be placed close to the center of any city - it represents the 'heart' of the citizens," Azula replied, the circular hat still hiding her eyes.
"How much longer until we get there? This uniform is really itchy," the third one replied.
"Come on, Mai, it isn't that bad," the second figure chuckled.
"Speak for yourself," the third, or rather Mai, said.
"Ty Lee, Mai - Silence!" Azula growled, slightly turning her head back to the bickering girls, "You are going to blow our cover."
"Sorry," the two teens whispered in unity.
"Our mission is not like some vacation on Ember Island," she continued, "this is something that requires all of our skills and attention."
"Well, then, where's Accelerator?" Mai absentmindedly asked.
Azula remained silent for a moment as she continued to walk along the path; her golden eyes remained glued to the ground that slowly moved in front of her as she took deliberate steps. It was true, the white-haired esper wasn't present, but why? Why did he leave so suddenly, and where did he go? The thoughts that swirled around in the Fire princess' head were not ones of concern, they were thoughts of suspicion. He said he had something to do in Ba Sing Se before he left, but he had never been in the city before. The only thing that he could do in the city would have to be connected to the avatar - but what would he want with the avatar?
"Azula?" Mai asked, noticing that the Fire Nation princess didn't respond.
Azula bit at her red nails in deep thought as her ideas became more prominent.
Is he trying to help the avatar? After all, Accelerator hadn't fought the avatar in the drill - in fact, he didn't try to engage the avatar in battle.
"Azula?" repeated Mai, now confused by Azula's silence.
Perhaps he is attempting to betray her. Yes, that MUST be it….but why? He has no reason whatsoever to join the avatar. Is she thinking about this too much?
"Azula!" a voice erupted, suddenly jolting the princess from her thoughts.
Turning around, she glanced at the girls behind her and shot them an irritated look.
"What?" she demanded.
"We're here," Mai replied, pointing up at a massive building that stood in front of them.
"The Earth King's palace," Azula muttered to herself.
The three of them took in the majesty of the massive structure before them; two rows of long, green carpets jutted out from the base of the entrance and led into arched openings. The building itself was large and rectangular; on either end of the main structure were positioned two similar rectangular buildings that stood parallel to one another. The surface of the palace was colored red and the light of the sun seemed to bounce off of the paint. Elevated roofs extended from the top of the structure that overlooked the entirety of the ground below and glistened with the golden embroidery that decorated it. Almost each wall on the outside of the palace held green posters that displayed the symbol of the Earth Kingdom.
"Where's Accelerator? He said he was gonna meet us here," noted a confused Ty Lee.
"Maybe he's late?" Mai wondered.
Azula remained silent. Now the thoughts that she had before were starting to take root in her mind once again. Perhaps he really did betray her; maybe he decided to join the avatar.
"Hey," a voice suddenly sounded from behind the silent princess.
Azula whirled around, and was met with a set of red eyes that stared down at her; white hair gently rustled in the wind across the face of the figure that stood in front of her. A sudden (and unexplainable) sense of relief flooded through her entire body as she stared up at the esper.
"Took you guys long enough to get here," Accelerator said with a cocky grin.
"Where were you?" Mai asked, placing a hand on her hip.
"Indeed, where were you?" the Fire Nation princess repeated, a sense of warning in her voice.
Azula looked at the esper; she would like to know the answer to that. What did he do while the three of them were headed to the palace? Of course, he wouldn't tell them if he went to the avatar, but even a lie could reveal bits of the truth.
"Oh, I went to see the avatar," the esper said with a dead-panned face.
The three girls went silent upon hearing his admittance; however, Azula was surprised for a much different reason. He just told the truth. Why would he just tell them the truth? Wouldn't it make more sense to hide the fact that he went to see the avatar….unless he wasn't planning on joining the avatar in the first place.
"Did you fight him?" Ty Lee asked.
"Nope," Accelerator responded as he picked his ear.
"Then why did you go to see him?" Azula questioned with suspicion.
"It was more of a warning, I guess," the esper replied, shrugging his soldiers.
'A warning? What does that mean?' Azula silently wondered.
A loud 'gong' suddenly sounded from the top of the Earth King's palace; the vibrations of the sound spread through the air, earning the attention of the four teens bellow. The sound slowly died down as the seconds passed. Accelerator was the first one to speak, turning to the girls before he opened his mouth.
"We need to find General Sung," he said, looking at each of them.
"How are we supposed to do that?" Mai asked, "This place is huge."
"Found him," Ty Lee said as she pointed to the entrance.
Past the open entering area, the four teens silently watched as General Sung walked down a hallway within the palace. Surprised by their luck, the four of them gave each other an exchange of looks ranging from excited to confused.
"Come on," Azula whispered, making her way to the entrance.
Turning around, she noticed that Accelerator hadn't joined them.
"What are you doing?" she practically yelled.
The young esper gestured to his clothes, "I'm not wearing a uniform, remember?"
Azula didn't protest and instead nodded in understanding; he was right, given his appearance, it was much more likely that he would be discovered. With this in mind, the Fire princess adjusted the hat on her head and beckoned for Ty Lee and Mai to follow closely behind her. Swiftly moving into the halls of the large palace, the girls cloaked themselves in the black cloth of their robes as they pursued behind the unsuspecting general. The walls of the hallway were fairly well-decorated, with intricate golden designs that spread along the stretch of the long passage. Rows of closed doors were equally spaced from each other and were almost identical in terms of size and design. Continuing down the hall, Azula watched as the general made a sudden turn around a nearby corner; coming to a stop, she peered around the corner and saw Sung approaching two guards further down the hall.
"I need to see the Earth King," General Sung demanded.
"Regrettably, sir, I'm afraid that cannot happen," one of the guards stated.
"What? But I have information that's very important," he retorted.
"His Majesty is preparing for the upcoming Party tomorrow night; he must not be disturbed," the guard said with a glare, "you will be allowed to meet with him sometime after said event."
"B-b-but…I…"the general tried to reply.
"Leave, now!" the guard commanded.
Nervously lowering his head in defeat, the Earth General turned his back to the guards and wandered back to where he came from. As he was headed to the corner, Azula quickly turned to Ty Lee and whispered something in her ear; nodding in accordance with the Fire Nation princess' words, Ty Lee ran down the hallway back to the front entrance. Turning her attention to Mai, she then pointed to one of the doors further down the hall; Mai nodded as well and moved to stand beside it. The hallway became silent, except for the constant footsteps of General Sung as he neared the corner.
In the meantime, Ty Lee sprinted out of the palace and ran up to a bored-looking Accelerator who was leaning against a wall. Coming to a stop in front of the confused esper, the circus girl placed her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.
"What the hell's wrong with you?" Accelerator asked through the sounds of the Ty Lee's heaving.
"Azula told me to get you," she said as she looked up at his blank face, "it's important."
The esper let out a short sigh and gently pushed himself from the wall, "alright…where is she?"
"This way," Ty Lee said running back into the palace, followed closely by the white-haired teen.
The two of them made it almost halfway down the hallway before witnessing Azula crouch down next to the corner; it seemed as though she was waiting for something. A little closer to them stood Mai who had her hand placed on the handle of a nearby door. There was a sudden rush of action as Azula practically jumped up when someone rounded the corner; quickly placing her hand over his mouth and forcing his arm behind his back, she was able to restrict his movements and pushed him down the hall. Nodding to Mai, Azula watched as the kunai-carrying assassin opened the door that lead into a dark room. Looking up, Azula noticed Ty Lee and Accelerator watching the events unfold; throwing her head to the side in a beckoning motion, she continued to force the man into the room. Accelerator realized that the person caught by Azula was General Sung, who looked particularly terrified at the moment as he feebly attempted to free himself from the Fire Nation princess' grasp. Shoving him directly into the room, Azula waited for Accelerator and Ty Lee to enter as well before closing the door swiftly behind them.
General Sung was pushed to the back of the room and stumbled against a wall. The room was dark, so he squinted his eyes in order to get a general feel of the four figures in front of him.
"Who-who are you? What are you doing?" he demanded in fear.
"My, my, my, have you forgotten us already?" replied a female voice from beyond the dark veil.
"What?" General Sung asked in confusion.
Suddenly, there was a spark of light that soon burst into a concentration of blue flames that danced around one of the figure's fingers. Sung gulped almost immediately out of horror; he now knew who they were, and he began to fear for his life.
The blue flames in front of him lit up the entirety of the room; the glow of the light illuminated the walls of the room that surrounded them. The room itself wasn't very large and was probably just a place that was used for storage sometimes. General Sung's attention, however, was on the four individuals who stood before him. Even with the overwhelming blue hue of the fire, Azula's golden eyes cut through the atmosphere and stared at him with a particular sense of intensity. Beyond her, stood the other two girls of the group, who seemed considerably less preoccupied with him than Azula was; their body language spoke of uninterest and indifference to his presence. Then, the final figure emerged next to the female fire bender and stared down at him. Like Azula, the color of Accelerator's eyes seemed to be unaffected by the blue flames; however, unlike her, his eyes seemed to glow by themselves as they glared down at him and pierced at his very soul.
Slightly shaking his head to rid him of his fear-induced hypnosis, the general finally opened his mouth to speak.
"What are you going to do with me?" he asked.
A wicked smile began to grow on Azula's face as she took a few steps closer to him. The general tried to retreat away from her, but his back immediately collided with the wall behind him. Holding his breath as the Fire Nation princess got closer to him, the general couldn't help but let a few drops of tears stream from his face.
"P-please…don't kill me," he pleaded as he got down on his knees, "I'll do anything…please, please, please."
His begs quickly turned into sobs as the words he spoke deteriorated into incoherent babbling; the small drops of tears transformed into heavy streams of uncontrollable fear as he grasped his hands together. He held his hands up to the approaching Fire princess in an almost prayer-like fashion as he gazed up at her face. Mercy was what his heart begged for. He was horrified to see that instead of any hint of remorse or pity, what the general saw was quite the opposite – Azula looked down at him with an even wider smile, her expression turned to that of glee. She was happy that he was suffering, happy that she had this much power over him, and happy that his pleading was not going to sway her from what she was going to do next.
Kneeling down and placing both hands on either side of his face, the Fire Nation princess looked him in the eyes.
"Accelerator," she said without looking away, "I need you to keep any sounds from escaping this room. Can you do that?"
"Sure," the esper curtly replied.
"Good," she said with a calm voice.
Staring into General Sung's eyes, Azula whispered one more thing to the sniveling man, "Try not to scream."
With that, an outpour of fire erupted from the palms of her hands and quickly surrounded the general's head. The sounds of the rapidly burning flesh were only surpassed by the horrific screams of the general as he gripped at Azula's arms in pain; struggling to remove her grip on his head was futile and within a few seconds his own arms became limp as they fell to his sides. The release of the general was not enough to Azula as she held his head in place, watching intently as the skin itself started fizzle and change color.
Mai and Ty Lee had averted their eyes since the first five seconds of this horrid event, but Accelerator stared on with an emotionless face at the scene before him. It was strange; it was almost like he was looking into a mirror – or rather a mirror of his past self. Sure, he still killed people, but it was usually in the quickest way possible; he wasn't really one for torture, but he supposed he could understand the appeal. Something inside of him felt strange. Watching the carnage unfold in front of him was almost like a reminder – a reminder of what he once was.
He could even guess what Azula was feeling right now: elation, euphoria, joy, power, control, superiority – it was all happening at the same time. The sudden flood of emotions was all too familiar to the esper.
The screams of the man had long since ended and now the only sounds to fill the air was that of the fire itself that continued to ripple around the dead man's head. Finally satisfied with her work, the princess released her grasp of the head and allowed the lifeless body to fall to the ground. The flames went out, causing the room to become filled with darkness once again – hiding the evidence of the body within the shadows.
"There, our work here is done," Azula said, turning around and heading back to the door.
Pushing it open, allowing light to spill into the room, Accelerator had a split-second look at the state of the corpse. Almost all of the man's features were entirely burned off, with only small indications of where the eyes and mouth used to be. The skin had become dry and brittle, loosing its tan complexion in favor of a charcoal-like color. After taking a short, yet remembering glance, the white-haired esper quietly exited the room along with Mai and Ty Lee
End of Chapter 17
Author's Note: Wow…so…that got really intense. Although there weren't a whole lot of fighting sCenes, this was prObably the Most violent and gruesoME chapter I've writteN Thus far. However, one of the reasons I decided to include this in the story is to highlight the extreme tendencies that Azula has and would probably engage in if the avatar show wasn't for kids. This, of course, also had another purpose. I wanted to create a way for Accelerator to realize certain similarities that he has with Azula; this thing that they share (being pretty power-crazy) is really going to be the driving factor for the initiation of their relationship. Also, read the bolded words in order to figure out what you need to do…then do it.