Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or Teen Titans. I own only the plots/ideas/situations that I have placed the characters in and any OCs.
Important notes at the bottom.
Fractured Minds
Chapter 10: Descent Into Madness
The Dragon's lair; Azula's mind
There was no light but somehow the shadows danced along the walls and when they did the rattling of chains echoed, drowning out the steady drip of water. The absence of screams, moaning, and whispering filled the cruel silence of this dungeon; no other prisoners were inside it as far as she knew. She loathed the silence that descended upon her from time to time as that was when she found herself in this place. But she's had no one to fill the silence, a silence she wrought upon herself, for a long time; she was used to its suffocating grasp.
Solitude was never far out of reach and perhaps she'd always longed for it but never did she want it to ache or pain her. It's how her current state came to be. She took ragged shallow breaths that breezed through a curtain of matted filthy hair, that she once was proud of. If one felt brave enough to wade through the glimmering darkness and reach her, they would see the gold eyes of an animal that held nothing but rage and fear within.
Were they to venture ever closer to her, whether to jeer at her or free her they would be driven back by the biting cold that the black bars shed into the air. Even then they would not see the evidence of her tears for she'd run out of them long ago. As her tormentor would be driven back they would see how her captors kept her locked away. The same icy blackness made up the floor where her knees rested, her arms were drawn back and the chains were as taut as a bow string.
As the gravity forces her body downward, the cuffs' edges slice through her skin and the blood pools on the ground. With the slightest touch of pressure to her back, the chains would tear her arms from the sockets. Her agony would be swallowed up by the muzzle she wore, made from metal and volcanic glass, it can be flooded with water and then frozen. It was an ancient technique developed to quell the surge of chi as a firebender's temper ignited and they expelled flame from their mouths uncontrollably.
Her prison rages hang off her frail frame. The bones of her ribs are the most prominent but the rest of her body also resembles a skeleton beneath the dull red tunic and trousers. Her head jerks violently and she thrashes un-heeding of her restraints as her latest visitor speaks. 'This place doesn't have to reflect the torment of your surroundings. Its really difficult to see us this way.'
"What's the matter Ursa? Is this not to your liking? This is your doing as much as it is mine. Is it not enough that I begged you, sniveling on my knees, to stop tormenting me? Of course it isn't. Do what you will for I know that you're just another delusion come to laugh at my expense." The voice was rough and the raspy plea nearly drove her from the dungeon. But now it was no longer about their survival. She stood firm in her resolve and stepped toward their Sifu.
She forced away all the warmth and kindness that she had, she had very little to begin with, and called forth that which pervaded everything in their life; focus. The static that gathered in her body was forced outward lighting the darkness and dispelling the dancing shadows. The prisoner did nothing to avoid the bolt. White hot pain coursed through her but even when it faded; it did not abate, she writhed and twitched in time with her spasming muscles.
In the wake of the pain an ominous symphony of rattling armor approached her.'First you ignore me, then you push me from all conscious thought, and in so doing you've made me the one thing that you still care far too much about. The weakness that you fear is the very same thing that you can't escape from.'
"H-he hurts me if I'm weak." It is surprising how well they can keep the shaking in their voice to a minimum. But she could never fool them. As she swept her sifu's hair aside she placed a hand underneath their chin and forced their head up.
'I may sound and act like our mother. But I am not her as I could never abandon you. My name is Azula, you however, will call me Affection and I'm here to save your pathetic worthless hide.' The emote was shocked at how drastically her words affected their sifu. The chains and muzzle clattered to the floor while the various injures and dirt simply vanished. The last thing to change was the prison rags, they morphed into armor that was similar in style to Affection's, the color and state of it was far worse; a pale gray that was riddled with cracks.
"Where the hell am I?" The rasp in her voice was fading but still easily heard.
Heaving a sigh and trying not to laugh Affection answered. 'The answer should be obvious...' At her sifu's un-amused look the emote elaborated. 'This is our mind or mindscape. At least that's what our visitor called it.'
"Mindscape? Visitor?"
'There isn't time to explain. She's gone to the throne room but Rage is there. We need to gather reinforcements or I fear that our new friend won't make it out of here alive.' Azula felt put off by Affection's presence but she agreed with her, whatever her problems with the emote were she'd deal with them later. No other words were exchanged as they both went deeper into the dungeon attempting to find some assistance.
Crescent Isles, Ashfall; Zen's place
Zen was used to strange and no place was stranger than an asylum, she always prided herself on being able to sleep no matter how trying or exciting things were from day to day. But the unfortunate downside for the waterbender was her ability to be woken by the slightest hint of noise. Because of this quirk she was fully awake when the door to her home was flung out of its frame to crash land on the far side of her living room.
"What in Agni's name is the meaning of this?" Her question was ignored as twenty imperial soldiers poured inside her, now empty, doorway.
"Ma'am-"
"Its doctor." She cut across him. "And I demand to know why-"
"Doctor please silence yourself or I will have my captain do it for you." The owner of this voice stood at the foot of her stairs, she immediately recognized General Shen. "Thank you, doctor."
"Yesterday, around early evening I escorted a woman to Crescent Isles on the Fire Lord's order. But we have reason to suspect that she's involved in a plot to destabilize the Fire Nation and rule of Fire Lord Zuko. Evidence has surfaced that she was directly responsible for the attack on Obsidian. I'm assuming that you've heard of that." When she nodded, looking appropriately appalled, at his statement even though she hated the slimy bastard and didn't trust him further than she could throw him, he said,"Its imperative that you tell me where she is."
He doesn't remember me. At this lucky break, Zen swallowed thickly, what was expected of a fragile civilian, and hating herself for what she told him. "She should still be in her room. Up the stairs and its the black and red door."
Without another word she watched as the general ascended to the second floor while a bad feeling settled over her. I can't just let him take her. As she made to follow the general and do something unpleasant to him, the imperial soldiers exited as quickly as they'd entered. The bad feeling from earlier intensified and she bolted up the stairs, threw open the door, and stopped dead inside an empty room. Its just like that time he took Azan.
The Dragon's lair; Azula's mind
Her progress through the empty palace that was devoid of warmth and life, was swift and everything was a blur of color. As she came upon two huge ornately decorated doors, they swung open and a blast of hot air rushed from within the space beyond. She did not hesitate to step past the threshold. Once she was inside the doors slowly shut and when the the click of the doors sounded, blood red flames sprang to life halfway across the room, she was bathed in the faint light. Her eyes narrowed to slits and she glimpsed a shadowed figure sitting above her on the other side of the wall of flames.
'How dare you come here? Who are you?'
She remained silent. Silence was the perfect weapon and something she perfected, not out of a desire too, but a need to be. Before long her silence got under the emotion's skin as she heard the smile in its voice.'I frighten you. Which is how it's supposed to be, I am a monster that many fear.'
She did nothing to fight back the words that spilled forth. "I do not see a monster. And I do not fear you. What I see is a girl who wonder's why she wasn't loved by her mother the same way that her brother was. I see a girl whose own father used her and then tossed her aside like a broken weapon. I see a girl that fell to pieces when her friends betrayed her, one for her brother and the other for the friend she liked better. I pity you."
The blood flames grew higher as she'd spoken, as they grew so to did the heat. The intensity of the heat made the stone floor bubble like hot tar. This heat would have harmed most who came before Fire Lord Rage but she simply rose into the air lazily. Her soul-self formed a sphere around her as the fireballs sped through the air towards her.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Her tone of voice was lower and slower than normal as she felt her magic responding to the focusing words. When she'd gathered enough magic, she drew the sphere shield even closer to her causing it to begin molding itself around her to from a suit of armor. Another wave of flame engulfed her and as it did, her armor absorbed it. Runes that matched the color of the flames inscribed themselves across the smooth surface as she chanted, "Beschütze mich vor dem Feuer der Wut mit den Feuern von mir."
The armor slowly dissipated and as it did, a vortex of flame greeted her. Rage stood in the center. A self-satisfied expression was firmly in place on the emotion's face. She so enjoyed bursting bubbles and with the cockiest bored sounding tone she could muster, she said,"That's it? How...utterly disappointing and here I was expecting a challenge. Its beyond me why the avatar and his friends are so frightened of you, when you can't even singe my cloak."
'Ha,' The laughter started and stopped rapidly in the span of a couple seconds before the emotion gave up fighting it down, the insane cackling reverberated off the walls. But that is not what held her attention, at first she dismissed it as trick of the flickering light but as the emote began to lose their composure...a larger arc of blue static leapt into existence. Her blood ran cold as the static was sent rushing through the air directly at her. 'This is why I am feared. It's not fire.'
The sound of thunder rent the air as the bolt of lightning struck her chest. Arcs of blue dance over her skin as she drops like a stone and crashes into the ground with enough force to break a couple of bones. Her body was numb from the impact and she was hovering on the edge of unconsciousness.
Rage brought her smoking fingertips up to her mouth and blew on them before a lopsided grin stretches across her face. She walked slowly towards the crater where their assailant landed moments before. As she reached the halfway mark, a dragon like hiss stopped her cold. Quite literally as a veritable chill seemed to leech the warmth from the entire room. And she couldn't quite prevent the shivering in her limbs.
"Were you trying to kill me?" The voice was like a cold bottomless void of darkness that promised undue suffering.
And all of a sudden their visitor was standing in front of her and she felt the ever present fear break through and weight down her mind. Before she could speak, pain erupted along her back and as the disorientation faded the emote found herself in a frozen limbo. The ice seeped into the armor then it seeped into her skin, sapping what little strength that her fear left behind. Relief flooded her moments later when the cold receded. Her relief was short lived at what greeted her as she flew from the void.
The cloak was no longer white but an eerie dark blue and black, which in her mind was far more disturbing then the solid canvas of white from earlier. Their assailant had four eyes with the same color as the cloak. As her body rushed toward their assailant, a black object appears in the air swinging back and forth with very little resistance.
"Batter up," The object sends her smashing through the doors to the throne room and down the entire length of the entry hall beyond it. "Its a home run."
The sound of applause shatters the silence of Rage's departure and before she can escape, a green blur knocks her to the ground. 'That. Was. Bad. Ass. I think I love you. Its too bad the others weren't here to see the high and mighty fire lord get her ass handed to her.'
Her cloak was slowly bleached of color and once her brain was no longer rattling around her head, she sees that she is face to face with another of Azula's emotions but this one was in bad shape.
'W-ack,' The emotion quickly rolled to the side. Then proceeded to cough out blood and red and black sparks. 'Ugh sorry that's been happening far too often for my liking recently.'
'Who are you?' The emotion asks as they climb up off the floor and offer their hand to her.
"I'm Raven." She takes the emotion's hand and once she was on her feet again, "I'm here to help."
"Like we haven't heard that before." Raven watched as the green emotion jumped a foot in the air and turned, white faced, in the direction of the voice. Raven followed suit and located the speaker.
'I see that Affection succeeded in liberating you from the dungeon, sifu.' The emotion bowed low and went to join the various emotes standing slightly apart from Azula.
Raven noted the varying degrees of damage and injuries that each emotion had. Some were worse than others but Azula was by far the worst off. Her armor hung loosely on her frame and looked far too big on her, filled with large cracks. Vivid dark circles ringed her eyes and Azula's eyes reminded Raven of Robin's; when he'd accidentally inhaled a hallucinogenic drug.
"I've come to help. Whether you choose to believe me or not." Raven said and saw Azula go unnaturally still.
As Azula opened her mouth to respond another voice interrupted. 'You are so dead Raven.'
Rage's breathing was fast as she staggered past the destroyed doors and into the throne room, another emotion followed her; the emote wore pitch black armor and looked as well as Rage did. All of Azula's other emotes hastily formed a circle around Rage and Fear, halting their progress. When they did so Raven saw that some of the damage in their armor repaired itself. A wave of blood red and black flames flooded the entire circle threatening to overwhelm the emotions.
"I have to trust that you are real, even if you're not. You need to leave, there is nothing more that you can do. This is my fight." A determined focus settled in her voice as she spoke and a wall of azure flames flickered to life in front of the throne. The last that Raven saw of Azula's mindscape as she flew through the blue flames were flashes of blue, red, and black.
The pain that her body was in was expected but the black sack over her face wasn't the sight that she'd encountered often after an astral excursion. Nor were the chains on her wrists. It took what little strength she possessed to keep her soul-self from reacting and giving her state of awareness away to the people she sensed in the area. She heard the grinding click of the lock as whoever had her, entered her cell.
"We've tried everything to wake the suspect but nothing has gotten a response." The voice sounded young and nervous.
"Did Shen have any success?" This voice caused a strong surge of anger to well up in her mind and the temperature in the room to drop rapidly.
"No Fire Lord Zuko. He left the task of waking her to me and my squad. General Shen's overseeing the study of the device with Soto, he doesn't want to let the only evidence disappear because of Soto's incompetence."
"Do you have a report on what methods were attempted so far?" There was a faint rustle and, "As you can see we've tried everythin-"
"Not everything. Clear the room and ensure that no one disturbs me."
"Yes Fire Lord." The sound of footsteps echoed before the door clanged shut.
All she could hear for a while was Zuko's breathing and as it fell into a steady rhythm. "I need answers. If only you'd have woken up."
"Who ever said that I was asleep in the first place?" She heard his heart rate increasing as she spoke.
"We're on to your games Raven. I wonder if that's even your name... I want to know a few things. Why are you really in the Fire Nation, where's my father hiding, and what have you done to my uncle?"
Instead of answering him she let go of her hold on her soul-self. The black hood obscuring her vision was perforated by five sharp talons and was then torn to shreds. Similar talons made short work of the chains keeping her attached to the wall and as the links of chain fell to the floor, "Normally attempts to contain me are very entertaining and irritating at the same time. The entertainment I derive is the absolute shock on my captor's face when I let my soul-self handle my liberation. The irritation stems from how pitiful the attempts to hold me are."
Zuko's mouth went dry, despite the biting chill in the air that he hadn't noticed until now, as he watched the shadows enclose the entire cell. Heedless of his state of unrest, she continued speaking, "In my travels I've surprisingly gained new insights into how the abilities that I possess work. You see, I was forced into undertaking a mission that I wanted no part of. But as these things usually tend to happen my protests were ignored."
He watched as her eyes turned that disturbing white. Moments later she summoned more shadows to her and then she drew a series of strange symbols in the air with them. Once she'd completed this exercise, he saw a dark blue sphere appear in the air in front of where she stood. Then to his shock she plunged her entire arm inside of it and when she pulled her arm from it, she was holding her black and red cloak.
She set this on the table to her left and repeated the process until all of the possessions that his soldiers had removed from her person were laid out on the table. And to his further shock he saw that she'd retrieved the strange device or the evidence of her guilt. "When a person does not wish to undertake a task but is saddled with one regardless and should the person's can do attitude rise to the surface, you get a determined individual whom starts learning new ways to achieve satisfactory results in half the time. Like allowing my soul-self to maintain a permanent connection to my emotions thus granting it a sentient nature. It is my soul after all and I should be in control of it, most of the time."
He saw a grin on her face as she reached for the bracers, not to put them on, but to detach a large wickedly curved dagger from each one. He saw that the hilts were shaped like black birds, birds his soldiers no doubt thought were solely for decoration. "Of course your Uncle set me along that path six years ago but I'm stubborn when it comes to my powers and learning to embrace them. However, in situations like the one you've just put me in, that connection more than makes up for how much self-loathing I feel when I am faced with my other nature."
In the blink of an eye he loses sight of her and then feels the kiss of ice on his neck. "Give me a reason."
His mind is a fog of pure panic and fear. And suddenly the cell is as it was a couple minutes ago, Raven was still chained to the opposite wall and he was still in control of the situation or was he.
"You have thirty seconds to release me." He was still too shaken to properly respond and once more the shadows freed her. He tensed, waiting for her to start boasting...intimidating...terrifying him. But nothing of whatever vision had crept upon him happened, except the part where she went to retrieve her possessions. This seemed to be his breaking point.
"You will cease this at once." His shout did nothing to halt her progress as she donned her cloak and began strapping the bracers to her arms. The vision of earlier imposed itself over the scene and he saw, to his horror, the bird like designs started moving.
"Stop making them move!" He jammed the heels of his hands into his eyes and started rubbing them mercilessly. Nothing helped. Then he again felt that kiss of ice upon his neck.
"It takes a lot more than chains to keep me, Zuko." The flashes of what he'd seen from before stopped as she addressed him. He seemed to hang on her every word."And even if I could have been in two places at once, which I can't be. How do you explain the attack on Obsidian? I was eating breakfast and getting the third degree from you when the report was delivered."
It took him a moment to realized that she'd asked him to explain one of the inconsistencies, that he somehow overlooked, in his overzealous-ness to find her responsible. "You must have accomplices who carried it out on your orders."
She hesitated but he failed to notice as she returned fire with, "Like I'd need help toppling the Fire Nation. And if this is your smoking gun against me," She was holding the device out to him and as he took it, he thought, This has... no resemblance to the other device that I saw. It isn't yellow and it doesn't have that T shape on it. He was jolted from his thoughts. "then my estimation of your intelligence was wrong, as it seems that you don't have any."
His hands were empty but that didn't stop him from closing them, trying to determine if the device had even been real. A low growling hiss brought his head up and he searched frantically for the source, he saw nothing. A pit of unease settled at the bottom of his stomach as it dawned on him as to where that sound had come from.
"My purpose is the same as it was, to help your sister. Not the destruction of your country." She said and debated with herself for a few minutes on if she should say more. "In light of the events that spurred your desire to have this 'conversation' with me, one-sided as it is. I can only assume, seeing as how I wasn't there, that when Plasmaus or Monsieur Mallah began ransacking Obsidian another villain, named Warp, broke your father out of prison-"
"What? So then you were responsible, you've just admitted it." With his mind no longer so out of shorts he interrupted her.
But before he could get too ahead of himself, she said, "I don't even know where your father was imprisoned."
The logic in that one sentence took the wind out of his sails and somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard his father's cruel laughter. The same laughter that was his father's response when he asked after his mother. She has to be lying. I need her to be lying. She's somehow responsible for everything! Especially how Uncle started supporting Azula's rehabilitation. How he was pushing for custody.
"If you will excuse me. I've had a very trying night and would like to get some sleep." Her voice was lost in the volume of his thoughts and too little, too late he watched as she sunk into a pool of shadow and vanished. As soon as she was gone, the door to the cell flew open and an imperial soldier tumbled to the ground looking dazed. Ten more stood in the hall and to either side of the door wearing confused expressions; they'd been trying to pry the door open for the last hour.
"Fire Lord Zuko," The general's voice would normally have eased any worries that Zuko had when things went wrong but not this time. This time his suffering would never end. Gone. Hopeless. Ruined. Forever.
"Agni the prisoner's escaped. Lieutenant Tzai organize a search of the ship from top to bottom. Exercise caution as she is very-"
"No." His voice was quiet but firm and even though the general was higher in rank than them, he was not the Fire Lord.
"Lord Zuko?" His voice was tentative as he waved the other soldiers out of the room and closed the door.
"Raven had nothing to do with the attacks, Shen. We were gravely mistaken and we acted rashly." Zuko was still reeling from the entire exchange. She'd just instilled a healthy fear in him. "She could destroy us all." The general staggered back as if struck. "I've been a fool. When we reach the capitol I'm going to inform the rest of my council that Raven is to be treated as the sovereign of a country, a very powerful country. She will be treated with the utmost respect and given the best accommodations within the palace that can be provided."
All the general could do was nod and make reassurances that that was the right decision but he knew that Zuko got like this after a negotiation went south. He would talk about how to make it up to the offended party and that was all this was, talk. Shen knew that whatever had transpired between Zuko and Raven had cost the young leader dearly.
Crescent Isles, Ashfall; Zen's place
Zen was always amused whenever she met someone who thought firebenders were dangerous. It took effort on her part not to laugh at people like that, sure firebenders could breath fire and shoot fire balls at you and their tempers weren't anything to underestimate. But as a waterbender forced to grow up in the Fire Nation, only being tolerated because she could heal and her father was a decorated General, she realized a few things about water. One, it was everywhere, in the plants, in the air, and in the ground. Two, waterbenders could change the temperature of water at will, freezing and unfreezing it. Three, the wrath of a waterbender was to be feared.
How could I have been so stupid...I knew that asshole was bad news when he came for Azan. And just like that time, I acted too late to make a difference. A loud crack was the only warning before the block of ice shattered. She did nothing to avoid the chunks of ice that sped her way. Just before they'd have hit she swept her arm through the air and the cold drops of water peppered her side. I should have just let the ice hit me. Its no less then what I deserve.
With a sigh she drew the spent water from the ground and her clothes before directing it back into her water skin. Once it was secure she trudged slowly back into the house and collapsed onto the couch in front of the fire place. The fire was just barely hanging on, its flickering light casting shadows along the floor. And with one particularly bright flare the wood collapsed into embers, plunging the room into darkness. Before the light went out, she saw the top half of her door but she was in no hurry to fix it. Its not like anyone was going to try and rob her. I'll need to get up early to fix it so Jang doesn't come round to help. Right, like I can even attempt to sleep knowing what I've probably sentence that woman to.
These thoughts would plague her all night and not an ounce of sleep was to be had for her. So she sat in the darkness cursing her own foolishness until a muffled thud sounded above her head jolting her into hyper awareness. It was like someone doused her with water to wake her up. Again these series of events reminded her strongly of her friend Azan. Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay.
She made her way up to the second floor and stopped in front of the black and red door. She grasped the knob and opened the door a crack but jumped back when the door was overtaken by the shadows and slammed shut. No matter what she tried the waterbender couldn't get the door to budge. It wasn't until the shadows over the door nearly took off her hand that she retreated and as she walked away the shadows receded from the door.
She reasoned that it had been her imagination as doors, let alone shadows, weren't capable of maiming people. Regardless of hostile shadows, last night's events plagued her mind as she reached the second floor landing and made her way toward the sentient door. This time she managed to open the door all the way and when no malevolent shadows greeted her she stepped inside. Only to stop short as she saw Raven on the floor.
She rushed into the room and was kneeling next to Raven. "Hey."
She waited and waited and waited but there wasn't so much as a twitch from the other woman. "Come on Raven, wake up."
This time there was a response as Raven rolled away from her. Well that's something. I shouldn't try moving her as there's no telling what Shen did. At least she's not part metal.
"It wasn't your fault." Raven said having been subjected to a very sharp spike of guilt, that pulled her from sleep.
Upon hearing Raven speak, Zen scrambled backwards and didn't stop until her back collided with something very cold. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a wall of shadows. "Oh not again." She grumbled while preparing to fend off another attack, but it never came.
"I apologize if they tried to hurt you last night." Her eyes shifted from the shadowy wall back to Raven. "I wasn't in a position to control them."
She waved her words away. "Its my fault the soldiers took you."
"They would have found me with or with out your help." Raven's words did little to reassure her.
"Still is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" She asked, although it wasn't the question or questions that she wanted to ask.
"No. Unless you're a waterbender."
"That settles it. There's no way you're from the Fire Nation. Most can tell instantly that my ancestors weren't originally from the Fire Nation; my eyes give the game away. I'm glad that you're not though, you would probably hate me otherwise. Because I am a waterbender. So what need's healing?" Her words were bittersweet and met with silence but eventually violet eyes locked with her dark blue ones. "Four broken ribs."
She nodded and, "Lay flat on your back." I guess Shen's losing his touch if he only managed to break four ribs. As soon as Raven was laying flat, she moved the black cloak aside and pulled the strange tunic back far enough to see the deep purple bruising that covered the left half of Raven's upper torso. Her arms were in motion drawing water from the skin she carried.
"Have you ever been healed by a waterbender?" She could tell her question threw Raven off and that gave her all the answer she needed. "Right. Try to keep the shadows off of me while I do an assessment; its going to hurt."
Without waiting for a response she lowered the glowing ball of water and eased it into the bruised flesh. And almost pulled back at the sensation of another person's chi surging against her own; a very familiar person. Why is Azula's chi present, how could anyone break bones as strong as Raven's are, and where the hell is her neutral chi? Even as distracted as she was by the unique turn of events, she concentrated and found in addition to the four broken ribs, multiple bone fractures on the left side of Raven's body, deep tissue bruising, and two large lacerations located near Raven's heart. Finally done with her assessment she drew the water out and placed it inside her water skin. Four broken ribs was an understatement. I may need to use spirit water for this.
But to her shock Raven started talking her voice full of resignation and a slight shake, Zen didn't know if it was because of how much pain Raven was in or if she was afraid. "I'm n-not exactly human. Last night I w-was exploring the Asylum through the use of my abilities. This specific ability allows me to project my spirit outside of my b-body. My other abilities are strengthened in this s-state." Raven paused as the experience of drowning in negativity coursed through her. "I was drawn into Azula's mind. And fought with the embodiment of her rage. Diving into another person's mind is dangerous. Especially so for the intruder as they are at a disadvantage, no matter how powerful they are. Each mind has its own rules and the first rule is that everyone is their own master. I can not heal any of the wounds I received on my own because I got them from inside Azula's mind."
"You were right." Zen's tone was full of mirth and Raven was really starting to become desensitized to telling people about her origins. "That comment you made yesterday. It makes a lot more sense now."
"Wait, what did you mean when you said that you can't heal any wounds on your own?" She could no longer hold back her burning curiosity, she told herself that she needed as much information as possible for better healing.
"I possess healing abilities as well as..." As Raven trailed off, Zen was struck with inspiration and said, "Shadowbending."
"Close enough."
"I need to get more water. But first I'm helping you over to the bed. It'll be a long session and you'll be more comforta-" She watched, open mouthed, as Raven was swallowed whole by the shadows. She was working herself into full panic mode when, "I would've moved earlier but I didn't want to alarm you."
Her eyes were immediately drawn to the bed where Raven was resting with a small grin on her face. Zen flash a smile of her own and left to get the spirit water. I never saw Azan's smile again.
So hopefully everyone is aware that Raven is fluent in German...anyways the words she said mean (protect me from the fires of rage with the fires of mine.) If any of my readers speak German, I do apologize for its terribleness but I'm not skilled and Google Translate is the best I've got. Also HAPPY HOLIDAYS or Happy X-Mas.