Normal Narration
Emphasis
thoughts
Chapter Two
Pain, that's all that Sokka felt as he watched Azula shoot lightning at him. A flash of blue, and then darkness was all that he saw as pain overwhelmed him. 'Thankfully, I'm about to pass out, maybe I'll at least die with no pain… right?'
Oh how wrong Sokka was…
(Ty-Lees POV)
The entire operation had been a success, but at what cost? She knew what the original plan was, and the extent of the acting involved. As she watched the guards drag the water tribe boy's body behind them, the charade was too much.
She thought over the past day as they heard new updated information about the Avatar's whereabouts. But what shocked her the most was the plan of attack.
(flashback to one day ago)
Ty-Lee sat in the briefing room as Azula marched in, Mai was sitting across from Ty-Lee with a similarly neutral face. "We've found the Avatar yet again, but this time we've got a foolproof plan." Azula stated with a smirk over her face.
Ty-Lee winced internally at that smirk. It was only reserved for when Azula's bloodlust was being piqued. This was not a good sign.
"We're going to use the water tribe boy as bait, for the Avatar, but what's even better, is that we will use him against the Avatar."
"Haven't we tried this plan before?" asked Mai with a face of calculation.
"It will be a bit… different then last time. This time…" Azula paused and looked confidently at her teammates, "We will train the water tribe boy to fight against the Avatar… and win."
Ty-Lee was shocked, but still put on a smile as if nothing happened. This was disturbing indeed. To willingly change sides is one thing, but to be forced to change was something entirely different.
"You both have tonight to prepare yourself for battle. Ty-Lee, you will neutralize the water tribe boy before he has a chance to counter, and Mai, you will back me up. Is that clear?"
Both Mai and Ty-Lee shook their heads in the affirmative and both exited the briefing room, to prepare for the next days events.
(Flashback end)
As they approached the mobile command center, which was a remake of the drill that almost defeated Omashu, but smaller and without the drill, Ty-Lee felt worse and worse, for now the horrors of war was about to begin…
(Sokka's POV)
Sokka realized that he wasn't dead when he awoke from his pain induced nap in a prison. At first he assumed that it was a fire navy ship, but upon closer attention, he noticed a rumbling sensation.
"It must be a land vehicle." Sokka thought as he tried to move, and noticed he was shackled up tightly to the wall. Unfortunately he didn't have long to decipher any more items, as the door opened up.
And the lucky visitor was… Azula, in all her horrid glory with her two lackeys behind her, he had dubbed one 'The knife girl' whereas he called the other acrobatic one 'Pokey.'
He soon found that knife girl was Mai, and Pokey was Ty-Lee, from the orders Azula gave them to unshackle and disable him, in that order. Although Mai looked neutral, Ty-Lee's happy face was unusually downcast.
Too bad he was going to find out why the hard way…
As he was being dragged down the hall, slaves, and soldiers alike gave Sokka something he had rarely seen from the Fire Nation Military… sympathy…This only led Sokka to one conclusion. The room he was being led to was bad… really bad.
Sokka was dragged down a long stretch of hallway to an unmarked room that was strangely dark, except for one light over a table and two chairs. He finally managed to figure out what was going to happen to him… albeit too late…
Torture.
After being seated and reshackled to the table, Ty-Lee opened up his chakra points allowing him to move again. But that was all to fast, as the speech began…
"Sokka, do you know why I kept you alive?" Azula asked with a smirk on her face. She expected an insult, a crude joke, a smartass remark, but she received none, but silence from the tan prisoner.
"Sokka, I brought you here, because you are going to do a mission for us, your going to defeat the avatar." This response was met by a chuckle from the prisoner. It was slow and it took about a minute to pick up.
"And what I may ask is so funny you worthless piece of trash?" Azula retorted with a frown going down on her face.
"That's exactly it, worthless. That's all that I am, just a pawn in a game of chess. What you fail to realize is that as a normal person, I cannot match the powers of three masters of elements, and you expect me to defeat them? Hah, when Mai over here gets a sense of humor, is when that'll happen." Sokka then sank back into his blank face.
Azula and the rest of the girls sat in silence as the statement permeated the air. Azula then activated her fire bending abilities with a flame in her hand. And then slowly drew closer as she began a prepared statement.
"Sokka, do you know what a crucible is?" Azula asked with only silence as a response, therefore she continued. "A crucible is a test in which the participant is put under the most stress, and is melted down to their basic element. It is from there that they are molded into what the people want."
By now Azula was leaning in front of Sokka with the flame in her hand. It was nearing closer and closer to Sokka's bare chest, as the guards removed his tank top after throwing him in the cell.
"Sokka, I am about to break you down and build you into something that you yourself will hate, and then, you will love it, Sokka…BURN!"
By the end of that statement, she slammed her palm into Sokka's chest as he screamed his lungs out, the pain being further and further painful than anything that he had imagined throughout his life.
Mai sat in the corner reading a book with a wavering face, but Ty-Lee's face showed open shock at the torture being inflicted at the poor boy. This wasn't happening is what she told herself, yet she was a front-row witness to it.
The scream ran throughout the ship and even the people in the most noisy of locations stopped work as they heard the sounds of a poor soul being pulled apart by a maniac.
Finally after he fell unconscious again, Azula threw Sokka to the floor. "Guards, take the prisnor back to the cell, and Ty-Lee… you are to watch him, we wouldn't want our little pet project to go to waste now would we?" Azula said with a smirk as she walked out with Mai behind her.
As Sokka was being put back into the cell, Ty-Lee followed back into the cell with him. His chest was a mess, with second to third degree burns everywhere, the only thing holding him from the brink of death were the expert healers taking care of him.
Still it didn't matter, because the person that Ty-Lee saw was not a prisoner, but a boy, the one that she had crushed over, and this incident had caused her heart to ache for him, harder than any other boy in her life.
As the healers left, she stayed behind for a little bit longer, with a bucket of cold water and a rag placed on his head and changed regularly. What surprised her was when he awoke from his pain induced coma, the first words out of his mouth were this:
"Am I in heaven?" Sokka looked over at Ty-Lee with glazed over eyes, "Are you my angel?"
Ty-Lee couldn't take it anymore, she broke down then and there on the spot. An epiphany had just occurred though… She didn't crush on him anymore…
No…
She loved Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe…
Hey everybody! I'm sorry for Chapter 2 being late, but having a family crisis and dealing with a lot of stuff within the confines of my own head has caused me to try and get this cleared.
Anyway, Please read and review, and NO FLAMES PLEASE!
And a side note to Pika-Chan, I apologize for not running this chapter by you, I promise that the next one I will send to you!
And to all my Love Hina fanfiction fans, I HAVE NOT LEFT YET! I will come back for those stories, but right now, I just need to get back into the writing groove. Just give me some time k?
Thanks again, and Please READ AND REVIEW!
-GunRose (Formerly Wolfpacker44)