Chapter 25
Okay so for anyone whose confused about the emailed update for this story[apologies for the hope of a new chapter, they'll be here soonish], the update is for chapter 23.
First off Happy holidays everybody. As always I own nothing except for the ideas/situations/plots that I have placed the characters in as well as my ocs. I hope you all enjoy the chapter and as much as I would love to promise more regular updates all I can say is I will try.
?
It was like a void of nothingness at first. Then with increasing awareness her eyes took in the world once more. Only instead of the real world she seemed to have woken up in Nevermore. She released a frustrated breath and, "What is so urgent that you had to drag me here to discuss it?"
She waited and waited but the emoticlone responsible for the abduction didn't appear, that in and of itself alarmed the half-demon. It wasn't possible for her mind's inhabitants to refuse a summons from her, at least not while she was physically present in her mindscape.
"Confused?" The voiced caused the half-demon's brow to twitch in annoyance. And as she turned to face the speaker she barely managed to get his name out, "Koh…"
The face stealer had apparently shed his centipede shtick and regained his human form; standing at six feet with gangly limbs and a pencil thin neck. His hair was parted to either side of his porcelain white face that had a crack running from one corner of his mouth to his left temple.
"Welcome home and please allow me." With that he clapped his hands together like a waiter at some high end restaurant and the half-demon's vision blurred briefly before coming back into focus. She was standing in a throne room of shorts, the floor shone with an eerie purple luminescence dissuading anyone of the notion that the stone was black. The floor was the room's only source of light and as she moved further into the room the luminescence spread further with each step.
About half way across the room the light revealed a throne, the chair was black with four rubies set at the top of the chair's back; giving the illusion that the owner was all knowing or all seeing. An irresistible pull drew the half demon to the throne and as she settled into it a ripple of energy spread throughout the room. "Comfy?"
A nod and, strangely, a sigh of contentment was all that answered the inquiry. "Good that means we can get the party started. Although you are a teensy bit ahead of schedule."
"Get to the point Koh my patience is wearing thin. And what do you mean ahead of schedule?" She said tone fit to bursting with an arctic chill. Shrugging he stepped into her view holding, of all things, a mirror. A feeling of serenity filled the half demon as she studied her reflection in the mirror. The most striking detail was the four black eyes that offset her long bone white locks. Her skin surprisingly enough had remained its natural tone; allowing her birthmarks, glowing blue, to contrast sharply beneath the black cloak she wore.
"Your awakening is at hand curtsey of that Psimon fellow; whom managed to create a serum that would trigger the awakening much earlier than anticipated." He slowly set the mirror aside so he could step closer to the half demon and he bowed low before her. "I was selected by the other lesser demons to guide you through this crucial development."
As he straightened out he felt his world turn upside down. "Start talking sense or I will start breaking bones." She gave the face stealer a rough shake and then proceeded to toss him across the room.
"As a half demon you wouldn't be aware of this but with the birth of every demon, a dimension is also born. More specifically a dimension that is like a home for said demon. Lessor demons and half demons normally have very small dimensions that are no larger than a room, however the spawn of a demon lord get larger ones." He spoke steadily despite having been tossed around like a ragdoll. "When you killed your father, not only did you gain his powers and titles, you also receive his dimension. Of course neither of which you would receive until your demonic half's awakening.
"Over the last three years the demons, lesser demons and half demons that wished to ally themselves with you after the advent of your awakening have been conquering your father's dimension. Making it and its denizens more agreeable to your dominion."
"Like some kind of demon puberty?" When he nodded she couldn't help but laugh at that. But the sound he heard was hollow and joyless. "I haven't the time for this bullshit. Send me back, now."
He felt the agonizing crushing despair in her tone and Koh really wished someone else was assigned this task. "My apologies Lady Raven but until the changes being made to your body, mind, and soul are complete, you cannot leave this place." Her retort was swallowed as he stepped from the shadows and spoke once more. "I am aware of the situation on Kyoshi Island and the hostile environment that those dear to you have been left in."
At her growl he hastened to add, "There is a way to help them. But I would advise against using this method."
The air inside the room pressed in upon the face stealer and just as his discomfort reached its peak, a skull piercing snarl made him jump. "Start talking…"
Kyoshi Island; Unagi Bay, sunset
In. Out. In. Out.
'Sifu?'
In. Out. In. Out.
'Yes.'
'What exactly are you doing?' The emote felt a sense of calm overcome her as the firebender measured each breath.
"Figures,' She paused to breath once more. 'Seeing as how you've probably never had much sway or say so in regards to how I've felt in the past; you wouldn't be aware of my pre-battle practices. In other words I'm trying to find my center.'
There was but a breath of quiet before, 'But why though?'
'Fights are messy affairs, there is no time to think or falter. There is only survival. All master level firebenders learn to find an inner calm, so their flames don't run amok.' She said and dare the pink armored happiness believe it, her mistress's tone held a smidgeon of patience. 'I'm growing on you.'
'I haven't the faintest idea of what you may be referring to.'
The two shared a smile before all hell broke loose as the sand all around the firebender exploded becoming superheated shrapnel.
She woke to smoke in the air and the taste of blood on her tongue. The firebender turned on her side narrowly avoiding a wave of earth spikes. "Hello princess."
"Lon-" A spray of blood was expelled from her mouth as her opponent forced her to scramble to her feet in order to avoid getting impaled on a jagged column of rock. "Long Feng, I was wondering when you'd crawl out of that hole I put you in."
His very name would send lesser men running but she wasn't lesser nor was she a man; she was the Azure Dragon and it was time for her to dance once more. But first she had an annoyance to deal with. "And now my dear it's time for me to return the favor."
"Unfortunately I don't have time for a grudge match." She'd never much believed in taunting, unless her brother was involved, after all, he was way too easy a target. But for the moment she needed an angry earthbender not a calm, patient one. Her eyes were glinting with amusement as chunks of rock jutted from the ground haphazardly around him and as she dodged the first projectiles, she said, "As I thought, you were never truly a player; just a sad little boy who got burned."
As his frustration grew the rocks got bigger and slower until a rock the size of a sky bison was rushing through the air in her direction. In an attempt to avoid the giant rock she dove gracelessly to the side, right in to his waiting trap. The rock wall shoved her back into the path of the oncoming projectile. 'Sifu no, you heard what Zen said!' The emote's warning fell on deaf ears as the first blackish blue sparks surged through the air around Azula.
When the rock's shadow blocked everything out she thrust her left hand forward like a jousting knight with a lance. The crack of thunder drowned everything else out; the screaming Long Feng as the bolt of light struck his chest, the metallic wheezing, and the far off cries for help. Then all sound came rushing back louder than before bringing agony along with it. She felt as though every muscle in her body had been shredded and as a particularly huge spasm hit she collapsed to the sand, with sparks of blackish blue leaping off of her skin all the while. T-That wasn't normal. That wasn't even lightning what in Agni was that?
Shakily she regained her footing on the loose sand while pushing her pain to the back of her mind and staggered off the beach into the trees. In a haze she stumbled out of the trees and rested her sights on Kyoshi's biggest and main village. Her fight with Long Feng hadn't seemed that long but night had fallen, allowing for the destruction before her to stand out harshly in the darkness. The whole village was ablaze with orange red fire filling the night air with an ominous chorus of crackling wood as the devouring flames spread across it.
However the worst part aside from the flames was the mechanical soldiers wading through the eerie tableau seemingly unaffected by the inferno that surrounded them.
Her earlier pain was forgotten entirely as her body moved of its own accord towards the nearest imperial soldiers and their mechanical opponents but stopped short when three soldiers sailed passed her denting the ground as they landed. One of the three jumped back up and was about to rush back into the fray. "Lieutenant Han you need to pull the men back and regroup."
She could see the disobedience flaring to life in his eyes and across his face, "General Immortus's machines are resistant to fire. So unless you or Lieutenant Rau can bend lightning pull the men back and regroup with the Kyoshi warriors."
"What about you?" He felt a bone deep chill pass through him as her arctic gold eyes locked with his brown ones. "Don't pretend to care, Han. Because you and I both know you never have, so why start now?"
He watched as she turned to meet the rushing enemy soldiers with black sparks arcing through the air slamming into the four of them and as the black sparks touched the metal, blue light forced him to look away. He looked back after the light died down and all he saw were four molten pools glowing bright red.
She was constantly in motion never halting for even a second for if she did the enemy would land a hit. Slowly she carved a swath through the mechanical soldiers until she found herself in what she assumed was the village's center. As she entered the space filled with rubble and broken bits of metal, she could have sworn one piece looked like a fan; she caught sight of the two people she did not want to encounter here.
"What is Rook still doing in the village Zen?" The evacuation had been hours ago. At her tone the waterbender let out a high pitched squeal of fright and whirled around to come face to face with her.
"W-Well Azula we kind of lost track of Lily." Zen didn't like the look in her eyes as the gold seemed to get darker and brighter at the same time.
"No you mean Uncle Zuzu lost track of her and our bastard father is suspiciously absent the battle." Hearing that Zuko was responsible only served to increase her ire tenfold but as she regarded her son, she found it easier to keep a rein on her wrath. "Never the less, Rook you shouldn't be here. I want you to have Kuutak transport you out of here."
He was already shaking his head no as she spoke, "I tried that already and she's not responding to me. I think something might be blocking her."
"Zen-
"No. I'm not leaving without Lil." His entire body was rigid and tensed, waiting for the slightest hint that either adult would make a move for him. Seeing this Azula wanted nothing more than to start breathing fire at him. Instead she knelt down so that she was eye level with him; hesitantly she placed both of her hands on his shoulders. "Rook I don't want anything to happen to you or your sister but I'll be too worried about your safety and I won't be able to properly focus on finding Lil, if you stay here. So please, let Zen take you to the evacuation site."
For a moment mother and son stared each other down until Rook closed the space between them, trying to squeeze the life out of his mother. "Find her mom and beat Shen's ass too."
She felt as though Sozin's comet was contained within her heart at hearing him call her mom but rather than let the emotions overwhelm her, she returned the hug before releasing him, "I'll do my best little dragon and he will not escape me."
"Zen." And with that the waterbender scooped Rook up and sped from the square; jumping over and weaving around the rubble strewn about. She watched as they vanished into the thick smoke. "Well wasn't that just touching?"
She whirled around to face the speaker, acid spewing from her mouth, "You…" but the animosity that had flared up, along with the flames in the distance died a swift death as she failed to recall the speaker. "Sorry whelp or rather I heard that your pitiful brother had reinstated you Princess, I, as are you am the superior sibling in the family dynamics."
A deep rooted hatred burst from within her as her mind finally registered the half orange, half black mask the figure wore and let out a frightening hiss. "Slade."
Applause, measured and patronizing at the same time was his response. And while she couldn't see beneath his mask, somehow the smug grin was translated through his actions, "Very good and I am ever so glad you remembered me. Perhaps this time you'll do more than amuse me, I'm sure to be quite entertained this time round. If not I can always hunt down that boy and play with him."
Her retort was a wave of bright azure colored fireballs infused with black sparks. He easily dodged around them and rushed forward crossing the ten feet between them in the blink of an eye. "Boo."
Before she could react both of his fists connected hitting her abdomen with enough force to send her flying backwards, spinning like a top. Gritting her teeth against the mind numbing impact, she thrust both hands outward and willed the flames to spill forth as she continued to spin in circles. As she came to a stop she retracted both of her arms causing the radiating flames to contract.
Slade saw the flames dispersing and moved in for the kill, Azula sensed his approach and as he reached her she snapped her hands straight out. There was a blinding flash of white light as Slade was engulfed in blue, heat licking away at his chest and arms. Vainly he tried blinking the white spots from his vision; he was successful, however he couldn't avoid her attack completely. He shifted to the left as a blue fire dagger slashed diagonally from his right shoulder to his left hip, which had been aiming for his masked face.
Stepping back further he managed to sweep her legs out from under her and he followed with a vicious kick to her back, sending her rolling across a jagged piece of metal, which lodged itself into her left side. She forced down a grunt of protest, not giving him the satisfaction.
He pressed his attack and prevented her from regaining her feet for another few minutes, until she caught his foot as he went to kick the metal protruding from her side even deeper into her body. An instant after she had his foot, he felt a cold empty sensation were his foot should have been; only to see a skeletal foot clasped in her hands.
?; dominion of Lady Raven
Raven had grown weary of the throne room after her chat with Koh and once he answered all of her questions, he showed her to the more personal areas of her new abode. The room he directed, she found it odd that he refused to take another step even though she insisted, her to was eerily similar to her room back at the tower but seem more her in a sense. The walls were a vibrant purple that seemed to dance with faint shadows as the torches flickered. Black and white rugs covered the entire floor, creating a pleasant checker board pattern upon it.
Ceiling to floor bookshelves ran the length of the wall to her left with only small rectangular frames, glowing with blue runes, space enough for torches to be placed inside. Opposite the bookshelves was two doors placed on either side of a five foot wide window. She surmised that one door lead to, hopefully, a shower and a closet; while the other door could have been a way to instantly travel to anywhere in her new dimensional space.
She tentatively took a step into the room and then another when nothing untoward happened, drawing level with the window she took in the world she inherited when she killed her father. And instantly noticed several things, the sky was black with red stars, there were several gigantic stone archways encompassing her palace, her palace was floating on a platform of rock that was even bigger than two Azaraths combined, in the distance were sizable rocky platforms with growing settlements on them, and lastly among her blue, black and purple four eyed minions who were patrolling her palace, was G.I. Jane ordering them about.
As her mind raced with several dozen theories she failed to notice her body being dragged towards the door on her right. Once her body had passed through the black wood of the door, she found herself in a rectangular chamber like room with eight different colored doors, although one door was suspiciously lacking color; transparent even. At the room's center sat a long table with four sets of chairs sat directly opposite the door that matched the color of the chair or lack of color.
Something pulled her even further into the room and that's when she spotted her throne situated at the tables head, but instead of four red rubies the gemstones were sapphires. Warily she made for the chair at the table's head and sat, back ramrod straight, despite wanting to throw her feet over one arm of the chair.
The instant her body met with the chair several things happen at once, the markings along her body came alive and spread across her skin turning it a dark shade of blue that could easily be mistaken for black, a steady mind numbing pressure built up just behind her ears before she felt an icy sensation ooze down the side of her neck, and finally the transparent door and chair turned a shade of blue that matched her skin tone.
A moment later she was wracked with violent shivers when all the warmth in her vanished as something, cold, terrifying, and dark broke free. The apparition that stood before her slowly drifted to the chair on her left, blue cloak billowing outward spreading a deep penetrating chill through the air. Once the being had settled itself comfortably upon the blue chair it turned its four black pupil-less eyes to Raven with a smirk plastered across its face. "I will not apologize for frightening you, after all that's what we're good at."
"R-Red?" her voice shook a smidgeon as she noticed the black antler like horns, imitating a crown, surrounding the emote's head for the first time.
"I should like to think that my moniker will change to Blue now or the one-that-will-not-be-spoken-of-in-my-presence will insist upon calling me Red regardless of my…our awakening." More violent shivers assailed her and in a vain effort to stave those off she pulled her black cloak closer.
"W-Why am I so c-cold?" she managed to spit out through chattering teeth. Before the demonic emote could respond the door that Raven had originally entered through was engulfed in electric blue flames. "The reason why you're so cold at the moment Raven is that the awakening has yet to finish. You're body's temperature will fluctuate until it's completed."
"And how the hell do you know that…" Red's tirade sputtered out as her gaze landed upon the intruder. The intruder's armor was white and crawling with blue demonic runes that were flickering like flames upon the armor's surface. Slowly the armor clad intruder reached up and swept the hood from her head, this action revealed a grinning firebender. "I have a lot of knowledge at my disposal Red, ever since you saw fit to ensnare my mistress in the Hall. Also firebenders are intimately aware of changing temperatures."
The firebender scanned the room and a moment later strolled across its length, halting next to Raven's throne. "Seeing as how I'm a bit early for the meeting and there doesn't seem to be a place for me, do you mind terribly if I sit with you?"
Both half-demon and demonic emote stared blankly at the firebender as neither one had been appraised of the new development and apparently a new inhabitant of Nevermore. Growing un-nerved by the silence the firebender said, "I can keep you from freezing to death."
Absentmindedly the half-demon nodded and stood motioning for the firebender to sit down. Unlike Raven, who was ill at ease with the whole eerie situation, the firebender had no compunction about relaxing into the very luxurious and very fuzzy chair. The half-demon's hesitation lasted a touch to long for the comfy firebender so she reach forward and dragged the half-demon on to her lap. While unresisting at first the half-demon's body went rigid as it registered the firebender's rather forward actions. "Don't fight this Raven, as Red is harboring all of your demonic traits at the moment which renders you very much human and the dropping temperature will kill you."
Still sensing hesitation from the half-demon she leaned forward carefully, so as not to dislodge the shivering woman from her perch, and gently eased the black hood from her face as the cloth settled the firebender locked her arms around the half-demon's waist pulling her close.
"Please stop fighting me." A shudder past through the body she was holding flush to her own as her warm breath ghosted over the half-demon's ear.
"I don't want to hurt you as I have no idea what the awakening will do and I'm in the dark about it all, again." Her voice was barely audible to the room's two other occupants. An annoyed huff to their left caused the firebender to level a fire filled glare at the four eyed emote. "Be silent." She hissed at Red while managing to pull the half-demon even closer.
"The fuck I will, parasite." She bit back plunging the already sub-zero temperature even lower. The firebender took measured breaths for a moment or two before opening her mouth and expelling electric blue flames. The flames twisted and danced in the air as they slowly took shape. In seconds an azure dragon comprised entirely of fire encircled the throne at the head of the table, shrouding the room in shadows.
"You will be silent. As it is your fault that a piece of my mistress's mind and soul was forever bound to Raven's and vice versa but I won't hold it against you, once my conscious mind becomes aware of it." There was but a pause as she spat out the last of her words, "And even now I am facing off against Slade while simultaneously experiencing your awakening."
A far off snarl reached the two of them but at that exact moment a pained whimper drowned everything else out. It was extremely hard for the firebender to draw breath upon hearing that sound. Her voice was rough and shaky as she spoke, "Raven, I've, I've always been too afraid to say this to anyone before. Not even Ty Lee is aware of what I'm about to tell you."
Slowly, painfully so, she watched as the half-demon turned her head to glance at her. An ache of fathomless pain settled with her heart at seeing the half-demon's tears. "As a very young child, I believe I was four or five, I was regularly plagued by a reoccurring dream. This dream was of a woman with greyish pale skin and eyes the prettiest shade of purple I would ever see, her hair just a tad darker and having a decidedly more bluish hue than her eyes but still very pretty. I could never actually see her face as it remained obscured by a hood.
I was completely enamored with her even when her visage shifted to a sinister distortion of four dark blue eyes framed by strands of bone white hair, a crown of black antlers stark against the back drop of white, and a darkened complexion to help mesh with the shadows. Even this transition was enchanting to me. I dismissed this dream as a myth something that would never be real not even when my mind fractured. But as the war drew to a close and on the day of Black Sun I collapsed and when I awoke I had the same dream of that woman but this time I heard her whisper 'It won't be long now Firecracker.'."
The half-demon stared in disbelief at the firebender and in a flash had her pinned to the back of the chair straddling the firebender's waist, nose to nose, solid blue eyes boring into warm gold ones searching for something. "Is that way you were so against accepting my help?"
She tried to look away from those sightless blue eyes as the hesitantly whispered words passed in the air between them. "I have fought against that dream for a long time and even when faced with irrefutable evidence I still fought; old habits. But somewhere along the way, it may or may not have any connection to the Hall, I gave up the fight and I have no regrets in doing so. Because I realized that even monsters like me and you deserve happiness just as much as everyone else."
She watched as the half-demon's eyes returned to their normal violet shade before leaning forward and pressing her lips firmly against the half-demon's. A moment later she broke off the contact at the sound of a throat being cleared. "As much as I hate to break up this touching moment, we do need to discuss the whole Vessel business that Koh mentioned."
The two glanced at the speaker through rapidly dispersing flames and subsequently took notice of the room's other occupants; on the left side of the table sat, Rage, Courage, Rude, and Pride, and on the right was Affection, Intelligence, Happy, and Timid. At seeing the entirety of her mind's emotes, even her sub-conscious Pride, the half-demon made to disentangle herself from the firebender. "Your temperature is still fluctuating."
She ignored the firebender as she proceeded to drape both of her legs over one side of the chair while leaning back against her firebender. Once she was settled she leveled her gaze at the emote who'd interrupted them, "There's nothing to discuss Rage. We will proceed with Koh's Vessel idea."
The dragon's lair; Azula's mind
The first thing that she noticed was that the pathway that allowed her to communicate with Princess Perfection or Knowledge was dark. Normally this would have caused her to panic and she was well on her way to full blown panic when a familiar figure stepped from the shadows. However as the figure drew closer her panic seemed to drain away entirely.
"Oh Raven there you are. What's happening the pathway is…" she trailed off as Raven deposited every last one of the 'royal family' members. She felt a surge of heat course through her at the sight of them, lying there completely helpless.
"They aren't dead. But they were in the way."
"What do you mean in the way?" She managed in a civil tone despite wanting to char broil Raven.
"Before I get to that, I'm not Raven. Well technically I am her but only as a bridge from your mind to hers." She wasn't exactly expecting that as an answer and therefore had to take a couple of minutes to wrap her head around the explanation. There were just some days that she hated being comprised entirely of instincts, as it was really hard to puzzle things out when Knowledge wasn't playing nice or being sociable.
"Anyways, they were in the way of the ritual." The not Raven's words served to further fan the fires of her rage. As she had yet to answer her simple question and insisted upon beating around the bush.
"What ritual?"
"The one that will grant us an aspect or two of Raven's demonic abilities and will speed up the awakening of her demonic half's full powers. And did I mention the tentative bond between you and Raven will be solidified and unbreakable when it's finished?" Not Raven's uneasiness was palpable as the entirety of Princess Void's domain ignited with black and red flames as undeniable rage spilled out from the emote.
Kyoshi Island; Kyoshi village square
That same rage rolled off of Azula's body in physical waves that flung her and Slade apart. Slade barely managed to land on his feet. He wearily glanced down at his foot and to his dismay, saw that his skin was still missing. But that was only what his eyes were telling him, his mind on the other hand didn't buy it. His eye narrowed to a slit as he slowly made his way towards the downed firebender.
As he reached the still body his words pierced the smoke filled air, "I don't know where you learned that trick little princess but you won't live long enough to press your advantage."
"And you will suffer for laying a finger on her." The voice that he heard wasn't the firebender's.
"How is this possible? You're supposed to be in the throes of awakening." He stumbled backward as he spoke, watching as the firebender's body seemed to float up from the ground. What he could see of her skin had glowing blue runes on it. Before the possessed body of the firebender could make any further movements the evil mastermind turned tail and fled.
"You won't escape that easily." A wall of blue fire, the same blue as the runes on her skin, cut off his escape, everywhere he looked all he saw was blue fire.