A/N: Yes, that is indeed the infamous Chinese Water Torture. I debated whether or not to include this scene and instead just skip ahead to having Kyuzo meet the rest of the group, but I decided since I wrote it, I might as well include it, to give a little bit of a sense of how things are different here.


Kyuzo wept freely, hanging limp in his restraints. Drip. Every few seconds, a hammerblow came down on his forehead, amplifying his pounding headache. Water soaked into his eyes and he had to keep blinking it away, even as they became bloodshot and painful. Drip. Even with them open, all he saw was the darkness of his cell. His firebending had worked at first, but he hadn't been able to keep it up after the first hour. Ever since then, the time had crept by so that he had no idea how long it had been. Drip. The only other sound he heard was the kind and warm voice of his personal demon.

"I keep telling you this so you can remember it," the other man said. "I am so very sorry that you are doing this to yourself." Drip. "You can end this at any time. I want to stop doing this, but I can't until you let me. You know how to make this end." Drip. "Just give me a single ingredient. It doesn't have to be an important one, just something for me to give them so I can get you out of this terrible place for a little while." Drip. Kyuzo could have sworn he heard a sniffling sound as if the demon was holding back tears of sorrow on his account. "Don't worry. No matter what, I won't stop talking to you. I won't leave you alone in this hell you've made for yourself." Drip.

The firebender could feel the last of his resolve crumbling. What does honor mean down here? What does loyalty mean? What do those pedantic fools who speak about them know about the world? They would have cracked before me! They can't ask any more of me! Only thoughts of his family consumed in the fire of his own creations kept him going, but it was hard to remember them now, with his only comfort being the one who had put him here. Drip. Drip. Drip.

"I…" he whispered hoarsely, his voice thick from disuse and – hours? Days? – of weeping.. "I can't…remember…"

"That's very understandable," the demon assured him. "It's no wonder you're having some trouble, with all that you've gone through. Just try and relax and think of a name. Then it'll all be over. How do you start? Start at the beginning? I'm so happy that you've decided to stop this awful thing."

Kyuzo racked his mind, looking for where it began. He remembered his family's workshop, a table, glasses and jars of powders. There was a handwritten label on the first jar.

"Begin…with…" he began, only to hear another noise, and other voices.

"Hurry, Kyuzo, tell me!" the demon insisted. "What do you begin with?" But Kyuzo was enraptured by even the faint murmurs of other voices and the unfamiliar sounds. And then the door swung open and the light blinded him. He cried out with joy even as he clamped his eyes shut at the burning. I remember the sun!

Then the door swung shut again and he was truly alone. But he had begun to think again, to drag himself up out of the pit. They…they had to cut off the interrogation. Why? What's going on? Have I held out long enough that they're going to try something else? Are they going to kill me? He prayed that he could die with the scraps of dignity he had left. When the door opened again, he heard another voice, a woman.

"Turn him loose. Honestly, this old technique? I suppose you showed him the wire jacket too, when you first brought him in? You'll be lucky if all he does is give you a recipe to blow yourselves up. Spirits know we had enough of that in Ba Sing Se at the beginning."

Kyuzo felt rough hands take hold of him and the jangle of keys. In moments, his wrists and ankles were free, though he felt the blood oozing from them. They seized him and set him down against a cold stone wall. He could open his eyes a little now. The cell was bright with glowcrystals and there was only one other person there with him. He reached a trembling hand up to his brow and carefully wiped off the excess water. There was not, as he had half-feared, a hollow there. He lolled back against the wall with relief. If they threaten to put me back in, I'll be brave this time. I'll bite off my tongue and die with honor. There's no other way out of here. His fantasies of escape were just that. But first, he had to know who had spared him. He cleared his throat.

"Who…who are you?" he rasped, raking one hand through the unbound, greasy black hair that framed his face.

"You can call me Siensao," the woman said, for it was a woman, he saw, sitting on a comfortable-looking chair that must have been used by the demon. "And I'm here to offer you a way out that doesn't lead to the Spirit World."

Kyuzo said nothing and she continued, leaning forward with a smile.

"You've proven you can keep a secret better than most, Kyuzo," she said, "They haven't told you this, I'm sure, but you've been down here for three days since they brought you into the city and you've given them nothing."

"There is a recipe we're supposed to give up under interrogation," he admitted, "Just like you said. I don't know if that's what I was going to give them, though. I can't remember much."

"That's beside the point. I'm here to offer you a way out that doesn't lead to the Spirit World."

"What's that?" he asked, and her smile widened.

"Helping me," she replied. "The people who run this place are under the impression I'm a messenger from Ba Sing Se, here to help break you properly. But I'm here to break you out properly." She held up a small glass vial and showed him the green liquid inside. "This will make you look and feel dead for long enough for your body to get tossed into the sewers where my friends will pick it up. We'll talk more once you've recovered."

"Won't they suspect you?" he asked. He didn't bother to ask what happened if he refused. They could have dosed him with any number of things in the last few days and he wouldn't have known. And even if that vial held death, he'd take it over the bitten tongue option.

"Not with the performance I'll be giving them," she said, winking at him. "Trust me."

"Then I look forward to talking with you," he said, a flicker of his old fire appearing. "I think I'd like to ask some questions myself for a change."