I once again don't have time to respond to the reviews as I have a few things to do IRL + I have to finish today's femslash feb prompt. But as per usual I'd like to thank everyone for reading and commenting! All of that means a lot and helps keep me motivated to type.
"I killed all of us." Azula whispers.
At her wits end, she weeps quite openly.
She expects Bujing to sneer and agree. Instead, the man silently tends to her leg. In one excruciating motion, he pops the bone back into place. She isn't sure that, that is proper care. She doesn't get to ponder it before her world goes dark.
She wakes up on the floor with her leg bound in a fresh makeshift cast.
She feels a cool wet rag on her forehead. "She's awake."
"Li?" She asks weakly. She tries to sit up.
"Shh…" the old woman whispers. "Just keep laying.
"I got everyone killed." She says again.
"It was going to happen eventually." Bujing says, gruffly.
"Why did you save me?" She asks. "You should have let me die with the rest of them."
"You and the old moth-bat are all I have left." Bujing grumbles. "I can't afford to be choosy about the company I keep." She almost doesn't hear him add, "maybe I'd have more company if I would have accepted that sooner."
They are quite a sorry trio.
Azula tries to sit up again, earning herself a glare from Li.
This wouldn't have happened if her father had been around. "We need to get to the prison." She says with more urgency.
"What's at the prison?" Bujing asks.
"My father." She answers quietly. She braces herself for the man to accuse her of reckless selfishness. Instead he surprises her again.
"If he's alive I'm sure that he'll be glad to have you back. I'd do anything to see my girl again."
"Is she dead?"
"I like to think that she made it out. She was headed for the Earth Kingdom before the disaster."
Azula decides that she should end the conversation there, she doesn't want to get attached to the man in any way. She had let herself get close to Ruon and now all she has left of him is a mournful ache in her heart.
.oOo.
A sensation of uncomfortable warmth and a light pressure in her sinuses coaxes Azula from sleep. She winces in pain as she registers the pounding in her head. Her face is flushed and has a light sheen of sweat. This time her shivers have nothing to do with fear.
She picks up her crutches, only briefly wondering which of her remaining companions had gone out and fetched them for her. She makes her way to the bathroom adjacent to her bedroom and takes a reluctant look in the mirror.
Hey eyes are still clear, the whites still white. Her face is noticeably red with fever. She thinks that her cheeks have grown hollower still. It makes her nauseous with anxiety. Dread doesn't truly set in until she notices the light gush of blood pooling from her nose.
She realizes that this is the sensation that has caused her to wake so rudely.
Her lower lip begins to tremble.
She is, indisputably, dying.
She has know it all along, but seeing symptoms start to rise is another matter.
She takes a deep and shaky breath and wipes her eyes with the back of her sleeve.
She scans herself all over for even a faint shimmer of silver-blue. She doesn't understand why they hide from her when she knows that they are there.
Azula swallows, wondering if she should isolate herself. But if it were to happen, wouldn't she have spread the infection already? She rubs her hands over her face. She finds herself wishing that she had never freed herself from the gate at all.
She gives another gasping cry.
She can't go find her father, not like this.
But what else is she going to do.
Her shoulders shake as her cries come more openly.
A knock startles her away from the mirror. "Can I come in?" Li asks.
Azula makes her way to the door and pulls it open.
The old woman eyes her sympathetically. "Oh dear…"
She realizes that she still has blood smeared beneath her nose. "Li…"
"I won't say anything." She says, her lips pressing into a thin line. "Here, let me." She holds out a cloth.
Azula finds herself a seat and lets Li dab the blood away. "Child, what am I going to do with you?"
"If you were smart, you'd see me dead."
"Then I must be an old fool." She shakes her head.
"Yes. You must be." She agrees. Just like Bujing was a fool to save her and the others were fools to follow her. Just like Lo was fool enough to pick and probe at a space rock. They were all fools to some degree or another and that is why the world is dead.
"You're a special case." Li comments.
"How do you figure?"
"This thing, I've thought a lot about it. And I have a theory." She pauses. "It is a disease of the mind and soul not of the body. I felt it with Lo, that it takes root in the spirit. I believe that the decay begins because our bodies can handle the spirits within…"
Azula nods. She supposes that there is some sense to that theory.
"They take over the mind and it is easy to do. Until they find someone with a stronger will. Or…" she trails off.
"Or someone like me." She finishes.
Li nods. "Someone with a unique mind. You are harder to navigate and you have a stronger will."
Azula swallows. The voices, her lapse in sanity...
If the spirits can't even work around the twists in her mind, then what does that say of her?
"I don't know exactly what this means for you." Li says. "But you have a better chance then the rest of us…"
So long as her body doesn't give up before her cognizance.