gemsofformenos: This fic is coming to a close, so I'll definitely send you a PM when it's through.
"So far he doesn't seem to have a real clue how bad the situation is and he still thinks of taking down." Yeah, he hasn't seen just how bad it is. "She has changed her goals totally. It's not about starting or winning a war, not about ruling the world, nation or even a town or a group. It's about surviving." Pretty much. The world is pretty much gone and there aren't many people to rule. At this state it's about survival over reorganizing. "The meeting with Ruon was another hard hit. Another person, who has helped her and who has spend her comfort and she couldn't save him." It was just one more thing to remind Azula that the world is twice as cruel as it was before. "In case Ozai would stick to his goals of rebuilding a new nation instantly it will hold up opportunities for big quarrels." He and Azula may or may not butt heads over this. And the secret between she and Li is a danger as well. "Maybe Ozai would also abandon her if he finds out or if he realizes that she's not sharing his goals anymore as an act of leaving the lost behind." This is something that she very much does fear. Thank you once again. :D
C0rrupt3dSpy: She's got an assortment of problems and they are slowly overwhelming her.
She doesn't speak as they emerge from the alleyway, she isn't much in the mood for talking anymore. "That poor boy." She hears Li mumble. "Are you alright, princess."
Azula shakes her head, she feels thoroughly ill and anxious. She wonders how many others are dragging around husks of bodies, vacant of both spirit parasite and soul. She wonders it that will soon be she and Li. She leans heavily against the wall of a crumbling building, her head dizzy with nerves.
"That was badass!" Declares a voice. A wave of annoyance comes over Azula like a chill down her spine. The girl is tall with two long and messy braids and a dusting of freckles on her muddy cheeks. "I've never seen someone blast a hole through someone's chest before."
"Shut the hell up!" Azula snaps. "Are you trying to draw a larger hoard?"
The girl shrugs. "They aren't doing anything." She glances over her shoulder. "Not since your trio got here."
"What are you trying to imply?" Azula asks.
She shrugs again. "Nothing. These things are freaks, I don't know how they work. If I did, I'd still have the rest of my group."
The implications here are clear. "Unless you have something to offer my group, we're not taking on any extra baggage. I've got enough of that on my own." Her grip on her crutches tightens. She leaves it unsaid, that she simply doesn't want to be responsible for another person.
"You're whole party is infected?" Ozai asks.
The girl nods. "'Cept for me."
"And how did you survive?" He questions further.
"I'm quick. Quick and agile." The girl says with a swift demonstration.
Azula exchanges a look with her father. "I suppose that we can use someone with speed."
The girl smiles, she is missing a tooth. "I'm Zirin."
.oOo.
The girl chatters a lot, a steady stream of pointless conversation that begins with where she had been when the world ended (trekking up the rocky side of the volcano's outer rim for sport) and ends with the death of her party.
Apparently they had gone scavenging when a cluster of hosts ambushed them.
Azula isn't particularly interested, she only half listens as Ruon's bloodshot eyes haunt her imagination. Night is going to be hellish if she can't even keep his rotting face from her mind in the day time.
"So what is our goal?" Zirin asks.
She will leave it to Li to answer. She is so tired.
So tired, and itching to ask her father to hold her.
But this world has no room for childish inclinations.
No room for comfort.
"Where have you been taking shelter?" Li asks.
"Nowhere." Zirin answers. "We never stopped for more than an hour."
That explains the massive bags under her eyes. Azula can't fathom how the girl is still teeming with so much energy. She thinks that the girl has reached that manic point where tiredness gives way to erratic vigor.
Azula massages the bridge of her nose. "The port is only a day away. We can get there if we walk through the night and sleep during the day." She pauses. "We can sleep in one of the boat houses and sail after a period of rest."
She can't see herself able to get any sound sleep tonight, she might as well be productive about it.
"I need my rest, princess." Li points out.
"We can leave you behind if it is a problem." Ozai responds.
Feeling cross and moody, Azula states plainly, "you will carry her, father."
"Have I been in prison long enough to make you forget what happens when you talk to me that way?"
Wholly exhausted, it strikes her that she doesn't have the energy to care. She almost tells him that it doesn't matter, that he can do what he will to her because she is dying anyways. "Things are different now." She says instead.
"Spirits, you guys are an intense lot." Zirin remarks.
.oOo.
Azula closes her eyes and takes measured breath after measured breath. Her head is pounding furiously and she is hot all over…
Feverish.
She rolls onto her side and clutches her head. She is completely drained, her body yearning for sleep. But her mind won't let her get there. Each time she falls into even a semi-state of sleep, she can hear the screams and whispers. Moments and memories blend together in ways most hellish; Bujing scowls at her as she tugs at chains. "Pathetic. Dead weight." Her skin sloughs from her bones. The hosts with their dead eyes topple the gates and swarm her. Her hands aren't her own, they are Ruon's. She is now Ruon. She wakes in a sweat to the sun beaming on her face through the cracked windows. Ozai sleeps like a babe next to Li who is out cold. Granted the woman had slept through the night in Ozai's arms, but she has had enough strain to keep her asleep for days.
Zirin snores in the corner on the opposite end of the room, leaving Azula the only one troubled and awake. She puts her head down again and only begins to drift off when she is thrown into another unpleasant situation; The palace is burning, she can see human silhouettes within the flames. A hand reaches out and grabs her robes. "Why?" Chan's face is contorted in pain. In a flicker, it is Zuko who is burning away. "Why'd you do it?" She doesn't know what they are referring to. She can't ask because his eyes have gone milky white and begin spilling down his cheeks. In another flicker she is looking at herself; bound again but to one of the throne room pillars. Her crown juts from her throat.
She wakes for a second time and sleeps for a third; her face is decaying, a mush slides down it. Her face pressed against the grate, she watches blood droplets and chunks of skin slip through the holes and into the rushing water below. This time when her body jerks awake, she doesn't force it back to sleep.
It is somewhere around midafternoon when she rises. There is a burning sensation on her chest, her head is spinning, and her stomach is lurching violently. She doesn't have time to gather her crutches before she succumbs to the nausea. She hasn't eaten enough for anything to truly come up so she isn't surprised to feel her throat burning and see a mess of blood on the floor.
Assaulted by trembles, Azula drags herself to the cracked mirror on the other side of the room. Hesitantly, she tugs the collar of her shirt down.
Her head reels in double time.
There is a raw and angry patch on her chest. It is rimmed in black and weeping blood and pus. Silver-blue wisps submerge and resurface excitedly in the discharge.
She stifles a gasping sob. They haven't claimed her mind, but Agni, her body can't handle hosting them.
She tries to keep herself from crying too loudly as she quickly recovers the festering patch of rot. She crawls back into her corner and props herself against the wall as another burning sensation shoots up the back of her calf. She squeezes her eyes shut.
"That don't look good at all." Zirin comments.
Azula stiffens.
"Do they know?" She nods at Li and Ozai.
"Li does…" Azula trails off, she wonders if the old woman is going to wake to the same burning.
"You gonna tell him?"
Azula shakes her head. "He doesn't have to know yet."
"Shit, that's why they act different around you, ain't it." The girl mutters. "So are you contagious?"
"I've been traveling with others like this for a while now. They didn't get infected until the swam got to them."
Zirin nods. "You think that they're going to let you into the Tribes like that?"
Azula presses her mouth into a thin line and says nothing.