Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or Teen Titans. I own only the plots/ideas/situation that I have placed the characters in and any OCs.
TRIGGER WARNING! TRIGGER WARNING! TRIGGER WARNING! THIS CHAPTER HAS TRIGGERS CONTAINED WITHIN! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION!
Fractured Minds
Chapter 11: Darkness Greets You At The Bottom
Nevermore; Pride's domain
It was an unofficial rule that when Raven slept she wasn't to be disturbed by anything, especially so if she were in a healing trance. But for once Intelligence, no, they could not afford to maintain radio silence, and loath as she was to get on Raven's bad side again, the others elected her to intrude upon their mistress.
Contrary to popular belief, namely Raven's, Nevermore was actually a dimension all its own as well as Raven's true home and her mind. Thus a structure existed within, it was hard to decide on what to call it, a mansion or a castle. It was fairly large but made use of the space available and it was sentient. It had no doors. The window were large and each one boasted gargoyles, some took the shape of ravens, others were the horrors of Wicked Scary, and one was a miniature Cthulhu.
As she approached the silent structure she saw two shadows break off of it and disappear. The two shadows rose from the ground in front of her. She stopped before them as they came into focus. The first was recognizable as Pride. The second was a little surprising and worrying, it was Azula's Rage. A blood red fireball was being tossed back and forth in the emote's hands.
Pride addressed her, 'Speak quickly.'
'My business is urgent and it pertains to that one.' Pride's eyes shifted briefly to where she was pointing and then just as quickly were back on her.
'Wait here.' She shivered at how cold the emote's voice was and just before Pride vanished, she could've swore she heard a quiet giggle. It put her even more on edge. Luckily she did not have long to wait before she was very suddenly before her mistress, who looked terrible. It seemed as though they'd not even gotten any sleep since this whole vacation started.
'I'm surprised that you let me in.' Their mistress sighed tiredly, basically telling her to get to the point.
'Azula will never get better on this accursed island. We need to move her somewhere else, anywhere else.' She fell silent as their mistress's attention was riveted on her.
"And Robin will need to be informed about the suspicious attacks. It reeks of the Brotherhood." Her voice gave nothing away as to her current mood. Intelligence took this as a bad sign and said,'What about Gar?'
"We won't be needlessly worrying him or Black Magic, all we have to go on is 'a strange creature' considering what we know of this dimension, it could have been a displaced spirit. I'm sure Gar is already preparing for the worst. Anything else?"
'Zen was able to heal everything.' She winced at the look that their mistress sent her way. 'And by everything I mean our resurrection wounds.'
With that she vanished in a flash of yellow with their mistress's shocked expression burned into her memory. It was times like these that she wished she had a camera...
Ashfall, Zen's place; two days later.
The boss, as Jang had called the head doctor, was not feeling generous as he arrived at Zen's home on the same morning that Raven had finally been pronounced well rested by Zen. As with Jang her impression of him went from zero to eviscerate in the first ten seconds. Chen was best described as off putting. He was short and lanky, His eyes were coal black and a thin triangular goatee framed his mouth. His hair was neatly trimmed and slicked back.
"Ah you must be that Revan woman that Jang was telling me about." She had to fight back a snort at how he mangled her name. Zen wasn't quite as successful. To her further unease Chen ignored Zen as he moved to sit at the table across from her, while pouring himself a cup of tea.
"Considering what happened a couple days ago. I've decided to keep you rooming with Zen. So she can keep an eye on you." He took a loud sip of his tea, that grated on her nerves. Behind him, her soul-self was doing shadow puppet theater and pantomiming strangulation.
"Very prudent of you." She kept her face blank but the shadow puppets reflected the glee she felt when he choked on his next sip of tea. She wasn't going to let him recover, "Of course you'll then have Zen show me around the facility today and monitor me as I familiarize myself with Azula's case. Before you'll allow me to see her."
The shadow puppets grew much more sinister as her glee transformed into sheer unadulterated joy. "Also prudent."
"Well then. I'll just leave you ladies to it then." He said as he practically ran out the door. She heard Zen's laughter moments later.
"It's like you were reading his mind."
She couldn't fight the smirk down as she said, "I was."
"Anything you've seen or heard contained with in my head can not be used against me and I will vehemently deny everything." Zen's words and outlook on the seemingly bizarre was refreshing and exactly what she needed.
"Shall we?" As a huge shadowy smiley face drew itself on the wall she followed behind Zen as the waterbender led the way to the fractured minds, screaming in silent agony for help.
The Asylum was no different as Zen led her from the ground floor to the sixth and back. Zen was surprisingly a terrible tour guide; the distinct lack of anecdotes about the other staff members, the bland descriptions, and the near constant glances towards the guards stationed by the doors they passed. She had had enough.
"Zen." When she had the waterbender's attention, "Take me to Azula."
It was the tiniest stretch of hesitation but she felt it. And after it had past, the fidgeting had started. "I'm really not supposed to...If I don't you'll probably find her yourself anyways."
She nodded in response as the waterbender began leading her to a set of black reinforced steel doors with two heavily armored guards on either side. Predictably the guards said, "Halt. Only authorized staff are allowed past this point."
"Relax Chung, Kei. Chen wants me down there to inspect the ice and perform routine maintenance." Both the guards gripped their weapons as their eyes shifted to the cloaked woman behind the waterbender.
"Oh," Zen's voice was brimming with amusement and nonchalance. "She's here on the fire lord's orders. A specialist for his sister. Surely Chen showed you those orders?"
The guards shared uncertain looks and shifted uneasily where they stood, Chen had show them but he said the specialist wouldn't be allowed to see Azula for a week. Zen could sense the tension in the air thickening. "But if you want, I can go and tell Chen that you are questioning his orders on both accounts? Then it might lead him to telling the fire lor-"
"Okay, Okay, sheesh Zen we get it." The guard on the left said as the guard on the right pulled the metal bars that lay across the door up before pushing them both open. And as the two passed through the same guard said, "Next you see Chen, tell him we're loyal and we don't question things that ain't none of our business."
On the other side of the door was a long hallway that was dotted with dozens of flickering torches and at the far end she caught sight of the beginning of a spiral staircase. They walked in silence for a few moments more before the waterbender relaxed slightly. "That was easier then I expected."
"Expecting trouble?"
"Chen's peculiar about who he lets down here." Zen was deep in thought and she wasn't sure that she'd like anything the waterbender was going to say. "In the two years that I've been asylum staff, I've only ever been down to the Tundra four times. And each time I was told a week in advance. But the first time...I tried going in early and Chen almost had me thrown off the island."
"The Tundra?" She wasn't one to assume anything about nicknames even if they were obvious. But she couldn't quite hold back a glare when Zen looked at her like she was stupid.
"What do you know about firebending?" Zen's question went unanswered for a moment.
'I told you we should have picked Iroh's brain about firebending before we left.' Anger and frustration was thick in her voice.
'And I told you I'm not...ready yet.' Her mistress's voice sounded small and fragile, she swore at the next available opportunity that she was going to have words with Red.
'We don't have a choice now...' She paused a moment and summoned G.I. Jane. 'So suck it up.' With that she chucked the green emote at their mistress.
"Not much." If Zen heard the vulnerable undertone in her voice as she answered, the waterbender didn't comment.
"Firebenders don't do well in extreme cold and the Tundra is as extreme as it gets. Even master level firebenders have a hard time staying warm down there. The tundra is a re-purposed secondary magma chamber. The architect turned it into a giant maze of hollowed obsidian. The walls and floor of the maze were filled with water and frozen. I heard from the older staff that during the war, waterbenders were forced to maintain the ice. Interestingly enough it stays really cool and only the occasional section needs to be re-froze. Hence the Tundra and why I've only been down here four times." Zen fell silent as they reached the stairs.
Despite her love/hate relationship with the cold, she felt how saturated the air was with a chill. As they descended the spiraling stairs the cold grew even worse. There was no wind but every flutter and swish of her cloak zapped the warmth from the skin that was exposed to the air. Her breath steamed with every exhale and every inhale made her nose, mouth, and throat burn. It was as they reached the bottom that she started shivering.
'I d-don't even think our f-f-fire minions could w-w-w-warm this place.' Courage's teeth were chattering so badly that she barely made out what she said.
'I'm to cold to dignify that with an appropriate response.' The emote shivered from the cold and the promised retribution from their mistress.
'Y-you know you l-l-love me.'
Zen led them to a blue-white wall of ice that blocked their path forward. The waterbender released a breath and moved her arms in a circular motion. As the wall began melting, the excess water swirled in the air where the wall had been and was forced to either side as Zen's arms completed the circle the water froze in place; forming an elaborate archway. "There are three guard outposts down here. Chen rotates the guards out every two months and those are the only hot spots in the Tundra. And that means, if we should get into trouble with other guards or a patient, no one is going to lift a finger to help us."
"So there are no doctors down here? At all?" Zen was already shaking her head at Raven before she finished speaking.
"I think the firebending patients are kept down here until their bending is diminished enough to not be dangerous or in danger of burning the place down. Then they are moved back to their rooms."
"Who's in charge of Azula's case?"
"Chen."
A heavy silence fell between them as they moved further into the maze of corridors. It wasn't long before they reach a four way crossing and turned left, at the end of the corridor they were ordered to stop. "Ah if it isn't Zen. I could've swore that Chen made no mention of you doing maintenance this week. I also spy an extra with you. Now I know that you aren't supposed to be down here and whomever is with you, sure as Koh will steal your face, isn't supposed to be either."
"My extra," She knew of only one person who could sound that menacing effortlessly, and she knew that Rage hadn't escaped, she was impressed. "Is here by order of the Fire lord. To help his sister."
"Is she now?" The guard's sick satisfaction made her nauseous even more so as he continued with a smug grin on his face. "Must have slipped Chen's mind to inform us when he escorted the other doc down here to treat Princess psychotic earlier. He also said that we weren't to let her have visitors until she's healed some."
Something snapped within her and she did nothing to restrain her soul-self as it lashed out. "What the fuck-"
He was cut off as the cold became animate and slammed him into the wall on his left. But the cold didn't stop there as it bounced him off of every surface like he was a pinball and with one final collision, the cold left him in a heap on the floor. "Its cute that you think you can stop us from reaching Princess psychotic."
"D-Demon."
The grin on her face was terrifying and for the first time she enjoyed how much the pathetic guard was trembling before her. As she stepped past him she glanced at Zen. "Come along."
"Where have you been all my life." The two shared a grin but a second later and the waterbender was left standing in an empty corridor with the image of Raven's face burned into her eyes, she had two sets of red eyes and a reverberating echo of the most blood chilling growl that she had ever heard.
"Who died making you fire lord? I'm next soon as Chen says she can be visited." The slight twang in the guard's voice reminded her of Billy Numerous.
"Boo." Both guards turned their heads to see who it was that had spoken and tripped over each other in the process of running for their lives.
A groan of frustration followed by a chuckle filled the air. "That really wasn't necessary Jirin. After all those two dip shits scare easy. Now take off that ridiculous get up and go find them or they'll freeze to death down here."
"Ah Hirkjo you're no fun. I just wanted to keep them on their toes. It doesn't help to be unprepared, especially because they're taking over for us once we retire."
"Even so go find them or it will be our asses and then boom we don't get our retirement pensions."
His words had Jirin's shoulders slumping as he meandered off after Lei and Dao. This is going to take forever and just my luck that today is my last day.
He was about eighty feet from Hirkjo when both Lei and Dao came racing back towards him. Without even stopping to explain what was going on both Dao and Lei grabbed Jirin and proceeded to sprint down the corridor towing a resisting Jirin behind them. Both of his arms were hooked by Lei and Dao and his feet was dragging along the floor, he was trying to dig his heels into the smooth floor but to no avail.
"What in the name of Agni has gotten into you guys?!" His shout was ignored by his coworkers as they continued to run. The reason for their near mindless run came into view and Jirin lost control of his bladder not that he noticed as he started shouting again, "Run faster!" Those eyes a-and mouths, the teeth. And then to his further horror and a bowl movement, he heard skittering as a centipede like body rushed at them from the ceiling. Just as Koh the face stealer and the other creature brushed against his skin they vanished altogether.
"Whew," Hirkjo waved his hand in front of his face and laughed, "They got you good Jirin. Never would have expected them to be enough to scare the piss and shit out of you."
Two of the three were huffing and puffing to be too bothered with what Hirkjo was saying and Jirin was too frightened to be embarrassed, besides it was a game they played trying to literally scare bodily fluids out of each other.
"Though you did manage to get them first." Hirkjo said with a wide grin. When no one said anything it was then that he noticed the state that they were in.
A frown marred his face. "What? Did those idiots from sector A do that Koh ruse again or something?"
"We have to get out of here now." said Dao, while Lei was frantically searching the ceiling of the corridor for the black spirit that frightened him, more then the patient that he'd been guarding for the last half year.
"Why do we need to abandon our posts?"
A skitter echoed in the corridor and a flash of white blinded all of them and when the glare faded a monster with sickly green skin stood before them. Several large gaping mouths with razor sharp glimmering black teeth pockmarked its body. As the monster reared back it sent green tentacles racing toward them. The four guards were ensnared by a tentacle and as they were lifted from the ground they blacked out. The monster hurled each of them down the corridor and four thuds echoed off the walls. As the echos faded she vanished the monster back into nothingness.
"Azarath," The fall into the bottomless pit of fear ceased. "Metrion," The panic was silenced. "Zinthos." The haze of emotions that had been clouding her mind settled and her awareness of self returned.
'That was intense.' Intelligence was stunned at how completely overwhelming that surge of emotions had been.
'And this,' She drew back from the tone of their mistress's voice. 'Is exactly why I didn't want to enter her mind.'
She saw red. 'I had, no, we had nothing to do with that. Can you honestly say that being synced with her emotions is a bad thing? Considering that Ashfall is exactly like Arkham and Dr. Leads.'
'No.' Before she realized what had happened their mistress was already gone and she was left with more questions then answers. She really hated that.
Her soul-self tore the steel door out of the frame and crushed it into a ball the size of a marble, it too was thrown down the corridor. The soft thunk of its landing was drowned out by a psychotic roar, followed shortly by bright orange red flames. The flames died as quickly as they came and when more then a minute passed without so much as a spark, she lowered the shield. And immediately had to force down a growl.
Azula's wrist and ankles were chained together, the shackles had rubbed the skin raw. The firebender's skin was covered in black, blue, and purple bruises, several lacerations were oozing green-yellow pus, and two of her ribs were broken; the rest had minor fractures. In the dark of the cell her eyes were pale yellow like a cat's.
"If you want your money's worth come and get it." Raven remained unnaturally still as the rough, almost purring, voice spoke. And as if the firebender could sense the hesitation. "I hope you are ready to bleed for it."
"I'm here to help." Unfortunately Raven's emotionless response served to incise Azula. More flames poured forth lighting up the dark cell. She paid them no mind as she moved into the cell. The barrage of flames petered out and as the last of the light died, the firebender caught a glimpse of her visitor.
"S-So you were real..." her voice shook with uncertainty as the cloaked woman, whom had just recently starred in another hallucination, appeared in the flesh.
"I really am here to help you." Raven said still keeping the emotion out of her voice, her soul-self was still hypersensitive and reactionary.
A hollow bout of laughter filled the air and set Raven's teeth on edge. "I've heard that countless times before. Its always just a ploy to coax me into letting my guard down with their earnest sincerity and then the hammer drops."
"Well come on then." Raven see's the way she's being beckoned forward, hears the faint clinking of the shackles, and the disarming grin on Azula's face. "Administer the aid you've promised me."
Never having been one to disappoint her first action destroys the shackles and when Azula's anticipation reaches its height, her second action zaps Azula's earlier confidence and as the shadows themselves move to immobilize all movement, all Azula feels is fear. But it is her third action, it is her words that are the final straw. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos."
The sudden absence of pain, of any kind, is jarring and as motion returns to the fire bender's body she does not move. To move would break the tentative hope that this time someone is finally doing as they said. It isn't until the woman from her vision collapses boneless to the ground that she risks moving. She creates a small ball of fire in her hand and holds it up, the shadows it creates are long and flicker terribly, as does the flame she holds. What happened?
"I healed all your injuries in one go. I should be fine." Azula scrambled back from where the cloaked woman lay. Before anything more could be said or done, footsteps rapidly approached the cell. As they drew closer Azula dispelled the fireball and darkness surrounded them once more. The footsteps stopped just outside the doorway. The light of a torch spilled into the cell and illuminated the cloaked woman as she turned away from the light. "Zen lower the torch or put it on the wall or something."
As the light moved away and the owner of the footsteps enter the cell moments later, Azula shrank back to the far wall of the cell hoping that the newcomer wouldn't notice her. Her mind had other ideas. "Why did you heal me? How did you do it so quickly? Even a waterbender can't heal instantly."
"Zen," With effort the waterbender managed to tear her attention from the unshackled and lucid Azula to Raven. "please wait outside."
To Azula's surprise the other woman nodded and stepped out, leaving them alone. A moment later and Raven was speaking again, "I wanted you to trust me and to believe me when I say that I mean you no harm. I absorb the pain from a wound into myself and that induces rapid healing in the other person."
"Why? Why are you doing all of this? Least of all for me. Who the hell are you?" Azula's voice was rife with frustration and exhaustion.
"Your uncle showed me great kindness when I found myself at the mercy of this world. He asked me to help you with your mental ills. And here I am doing just that." Raven watched as one of the major side effects of her healing took a hold of Azula, the firebender's eyes were closed and her breathing was deep and even. Raven released a tired sigh and rose from the ground. She used her magic to place her cloak around Azula and stepped out into the corridor. As soon as she did, Zen was opening her mouth but closed it when Raven grabbed her arm and then proceeded to drag her away from Azula's cell.
When Raven let go, Zen winced and rounded on the woman but stopped dead at the glare that greeted her. "Do you know what Chen is doing?"
Zen swallowed the lump in her throat as the shadows grew denser around them as Raven had spoke. She saw flashes of green and red at the edges of her vision, she resisted the urge to turn and look at them.
"Do you know that he's letting people pay for the opportunity to rape a patient of their choice?"
"He's what?!" Her eyes were roiling like the sea during a storm. And that was all the answer that Raven needed. What Zen said next, cemented their friendship firmly in Raven's mind. "We're going to kill him right?"
"Sadly no." At the sheer rage that washed over Raven, she almost reconsidered. "We have to be cautious about how we proceed. I doubt Zuko would believe either of us if we told him about Chen. But I have a plan."
Zen nodded. "I'm listening."
"It could get you banished from the Fire Nation, possibly killed."
"What do you need me to do?" Zen couldn't get the words out fast enough.
There was a spring in his step as he returned to his plush office. His last round of clients had finally made their payments and he didn't need to get his hands dirty by having Jorjun make visits. Although that lousy lowlife has been remarkably difficult to find as of late. Perhaps I should consider that Yen fellow...
When he turned down the hall where his office was his steps faltered upon seeing that strange woman, that the fire lord dropped into the middle of his operation, casually standing by his door. He had to fight back a sneer as he drew level with her. Instead he plastered his patented fake smile on his face.
"Doctor Chen." His fake smile twitched. "I heard you're a man that makes miracles happen for those willing to pay the price."
His fake smile was replaced with a true one as he waved her into his office and closed the door behind him. Hmm...I suspected that Zuko sent her to expose my operation. But this is a fortunate turn of events.
He absentmindedly directed her to a plain wooden chair that was opposite his own cushioned wing backed throne, he like to think of it as a throne. Once he was sat and he was settled comfortably, he regarded the woman in his office with a reserved air about him. As one could never be too careful with the kind of operation he was running. Spirits it was easier to get away with this when Ozai was fire lord. Heh he was my best customer.
"You've heard correctly. But from who did you hear this?" He watched her with a keen eye, waiting for her to fumble.
"No one specifically. Just whispers borne on a non-existent wind and in the shadows cast by flickering candle light." He couldn't decide how to interpret the expression on her face as she passed the first and most critical hurdle.
"Ha. A most excellent response." He relaxed his posture and leaned back in his throne and gestured with his hand. "To business."
"Royalty is so alluring and yet so untouchable at the same time." She felt sick as the words poured from her smiling lips.
He loosed an amused huff. "The spitfire eh? She's popular among you 'specialists'. A free uninterrupted session will cost you a fortune."
"I'm very keen on the spitfire. How much would it cost for me to 'treat' her privately off of the island?" It was a struggle to get those words out and to keep her soul-self from breaking free.
"Oh ho, ho, well now, that could be arranged but I have some concerns about safety." A wave of his 'interest' in the picture that her words painted for him swept through her and left her feeling unclean. She swore then and there that when she got away from here she was going to bathe in hell-fire for a week; it was the only way that she would ever feel clean again.
"Safety is of no concern to me. I can grantee that she will be kept in a secure location." Her shadow puppet theater was back and Chen was being perforated like a voodoo doll in the air above his head.
He was lost in thought as the fingers of one hand groomed his beard while his other hand drummed lazily against the arm rest on his chair. "I imagine that you'll want the fire lord kept blissfully unaware of this development in the course of the spitfire's treatment." He received a nod. "And if I were amenable to this indulgence...there is still the subject of payment. She is very high in demand and just serviced my best high paying clients. They visit frequently."
"I have uncut gemstones." She watched as his eyes bulged in disbelief and she imagined that had he been drinking, he'd have sprayed tea or spirits over the front of his desk.
"Cut and untraceable ones as well." She said into the stilted silence trying to not focus on his earlier confession, her and Rage had agreed that death was too quick for him.
"Show me." His grin was hungry and she shivered at how similar this man was to Dr. Leads.
With an ease that she did not feel and resigned to how necessary all of this was she placed four golf ball sized gems on the front of his desk. "These were not easy to find and there are more where they came from. Go ahead."
The undisguised greed in his eyes caused the shadow puppets to shift to Chen's body being bent into the shape of a pretzel with his bones snapping painfully in the process. She knew from her reading that he was greatly interested in the precious stones. In this world they were not plentiful and they were extremely small in size; if they were found at all.
"I am not a fool. It will be difficult for you to keep the fire lord and other interested parties from visiting the spitfire," She waved her hand and four black cloth bags appeared in the air. "but you will succeed in your efforts for at least a month."
His eyes were riveted on the bags as they slowly opened and the contents drifted out to hang suspended in the air. There are hundreds of them and they're huge! With these I'd be richer than the Bei Fong family. He almost let out a snarl of protest as the gemstones vanished back into the bags and then the bags vanished altogether, the only ones remaining sat innocently on his desk. "Those four are initial payment and the fees for interference."
He shifted his gaze from the shiny gems and looked directly into violet orbs. "And you'll get ten more to ensure cooperation. But you won't see the bags again until I've gotten my money's worth."
"Deal." He said in a daze as he fantasized about swimming in a pool of blue sapphires. He didn't see her exit, nor did he notice that her cloak was dark blue and not the black that it had been before, and he was not aware of anything outside of those gems until Jang burst into his dark office hours later in a panic about princess Azula having gone missing and about fire spirits popping up all over Ashfall or something.
Damn. I liked Jang, he was quick on the up take and while he was a man who liked his women feisty, he also suffered from terrible urges of sodomy with other men, often fucking them bloody. But if I ever want to see those stones again... I'll give him just as bloody a send off.
His office was still dark when he slammed Jang face down against the wood of his desk. Jang's cries of mercy fell on deaf ears as Chen, wearing a shit eating grin, tore Jang's trousers off. And as Chen drove in deep, a fountain of blood rode the air as Jang's lungs ruptured from the force of his scream. But Chen did not see blood. He saw rubies raining down from the ceiling and flooding his office with their beautiful luster and shine.
Yeah this chapter happened and yeah...so um...I tried not to get really graphic at the end there. But I still put up the trigger warning. I'm going to go bathe in hell-fire now. Maybe I'll have another edited chapter out next week. Maybe.