AEWFS Ch. 2: The Prisoners
With the announcement of the banquet, the Court was dismissed. As the rest of the group got up to leave Shio and Azula went to step down from the platform.
Azula stopped, as if an idea had suddenly occurred to her, "Wait here," she ordered Shio.
She approached her father and spoke for a few moments, Ozai thought, stroking his goatee for a moment, then nodded and said a few words. Azula stood, a smug grin spreading across her face.
She returned to Shio and they began to leave the throne room. "What was that all about?" Shio asked.
"My father has given me permission to interrogate the prisoners for the next few days…" she let the sentence trail off.
"That's nice," Shio said raising an eyebrow, "I guess," He felt bad for the kids, they already would have had a hard enough time dealing with the normal interrogators that Ozai employed but now they had to deal with the borderline psychotic princess.
"Yes, yes it is." As they left the throne room Azula's mood quickly darkened. As soon as they got out of eye and earshot of anybody important, Shio dropped the strut he had adopted and walked beside the princess with a more casual gait; Azula dropped her short, graceful stride and dropped into her natural aggressive stride as she seemed to get angrier and angrier as they continued down the hallway.
"What's wrong?" asked Shio, glancing at her through the tint of his glasses, raising an eyebrow.
"That little bastard wasn't supposed to come back…" she hissed through gritted teeth, "I was supposed to be the one to sit on the throne, not him. That sniveling little…"
Shio rolled his eyes, thankful she couldn't see them thanks to his glasses, and tuned her out as she ranted about how underserving of the throne her brother was. He sighed internally, in his opinion; Azula had always been too ambitious for her own good. She would do just about anything to make sure her father favored her, even leading small military campaigns in the earth kingdom. And she always dragged him along; he had seen her order entire villages burned to the ground just to find a few rebels. He genuinely hated going on these military campaigns, not only did he dislike destroying the lives and homes of civilians but he knew that it was the only reason she kept him around. Azula was an extremely skilled hand to hand combatant, but she knew almost nothing about military strategy and how to manipulate the natural environment to her advantage. Shio, was very skilled in the use of large number of troops; however, while he was well above average in his hand to hand skills, he had no doubt in his mind she could beat him if it came down to a fight.
Azula finished her rant and they continued walking in relative silence. Azula parted company with him at his quarters.
"Make sure you're ready in time to escort me to the banquet this afternoon." She snapped.
"Yes ma'am." he said somewhat sarcastically, but if she picked up on it she gave no reply and continued walking down the hallway.
He spent the next two hours getting caught up on the sleep he had lost that morning and then spent the next hour after that getting dressed for the feast. He really wished that he didn't have to go to these stupid feasts, he had much more important things to do, like training more palace guards He donned a fancier version of his normal jacket, it had essentially the same color scheme and had sleeves that actually covered his arms. He strapped his broadsword onto his back, he took it wherever he went, but left his two short swords back in his room.
Azula arrived at his room right on time and he escorted her to the dinner. The dinner was almost entirely uneventful. Zuko was basking in the fame and glory that was being directed his way by just about everyone. Azula eventually couldn't stand it any longer and excused herself as soon as it was polite to do so. Azula gave no indication that Shio should follow, so he stayed for a little while longer and enjoyed his meal and drink. He had a seat close to the firelord as he was the princesses 'bodyguard' and everyone around him was discussing military and political matters; Shio kept his mouth shut for the most part, as his opinions on these matters would not have been taken to very kindly in the presence of such powerful men. Eventually he excused himself, changed his outfit once again and spent the rest of the night drilling himself on various sword techniques and forms.
The next morning at breakfast, Azula practically entered the room with a bounce in her step. She looked both happy and eager and left the palace as soon as she was done eating no doubt off to torture the avatar and his friends. Shio spent a good portion of the day drilling some new, non-bending security force recruits on their sword techniques. He didn't see Azula again until dinner where she looked extremely pleased with herself. The same thing happened the next day: she disappeared early and didn't come back till late. Although this time she looked markedly less happy than the day before.
The next day at breakfast, after she was done eating Azula ordered Shio to accompany her to the prison that the children were being held at.
"What?" he asked taken aback, "Why?"
"Because I can't break them," she replied, sounding incredibly frustrated, "I need you to do it, your work on some of the prisoners we've brought in has been excellent."
"No," Shio replied firmly, "I'm not torturing kids."
"Fine…." Azula said, rolling her eyes, "then help me figure out HOW to break them."
"And if I refuse to come with you?"
"Well…" she said a sadistic smile creeping across her face, "then I guess I'll just have to be your new sparring partner, and believe me I will not go easy on you this time."
He knew from experience that she was not bluffing and he had no doubt that she could defeat him easily and leave him a bloody, burnt mess. Put five well trained swordsman in front of him and he could dispatch them rather easily, but combating benders had always been his weakness; amateurs he could handle but an extremely skilled bender like Azula was trouble.
He sighed, scowling, "Fine." He muttered through clenched teeth, gulping down the last of his milk and rising from the table. They left immediately for the prison.
"Besides," she said as they left the palace and started up the road to the prison, "the guards won't let me be alone with the prisoners and they stop me if I get too rough." She smirked at him, "I have a feeling you, my potential sparring partner will be a little more lenient on me, right?" she said, letting some fire gather on her fingertips.
His mouth formed into a grim line as she laughed and walked a little faster. "They're just children," he muttered under his breath, wishing to be anywhere but here.
Azula whirled around, eyes blazing, "What did you say?!" she yelled, getting right in his face.
Shio took a step back, "I said, they're just kids, you can't beat on them like you would a regular prisoner." He replied folding his arms.
"Well I have been!" she shouted at him, "and do you know why?"
He shook his head no, still surprised by her sudden intensity.
"I've been talking to father's intelligence division these last two days, and we've come up with a theory," she said speaking in a slightly more quiet tone of voice, beginning to pace in front of the swordsman, "and we've come up with a theory that since the avatar is only a child, then that means an entire avatar cycle has passed right under our noses!" her voice began to get louder again, "three avatars have lived and died and we knew nothing about it!" She whirled on him, "Meaning," she said stabbing a finger into his chest, "there is some kind of underground organization that has been raising avatars for the last hundred years! Either that, or all of the other avatars died early." She was silent for a moment, and removed her finger from his chest, he rubbed the spot a little. "Either way," she growled, resuming pacing, "I'm going to get it out of them if it's the last thing I do," She turned glaring at him, "and if you stand against me," a slight smirk crossed her face, "well, you won't be standing much longer…" she hadn't even bothered to veil the threat that time. "Are we clear?" she asked.
"Crystal." He replied nodding. Without another word she turned and strode towards the prison, the swordsman trailing in her wake.
Azula dismissed the guard standing by the door of the prisoner's cell, took a key from her pocket and opened it. Shio followed Azula into the cell.
"I brought a friend today," Azula said to the children, smugness dripping from her voice, "he's going to help me…"
Azula began to monologue again, as she tended to do around with people she had absolute power over. Shio once again tuned out the princess and observed the children. Their clothes were essentially in tatters at this point, holes burned and torn in them from Azula's brutal interrogation. The three had, burns cuts, and bruises covering their bodies; the burns and cuts seemed to have been hastily taken care of if only to prevent infection. They looked incredibly tired. He noted that the avatar had a muzzle of sorts over his mouth; apparently the young boy was apt at bending without the use of his hands.
Azula finished her monologue and began to go to work on the kids, using her fists, the blue fire she generated and limited use of her ability to generate lightning. Like she had asked he watched the kid's reactions. He quickly picked up a pattern: if you wanted to get an emotional response from the avatar, hurt the watertribe girl, and if you wanted to get to the girl, hurt the older boy. The older boy with the ponytail was much harder to read. He looked to Shio like he was around his age, maybe 15 years old or so.
It was quite obvious to the swordsman that Azula had picked up on this pattern as well and was employing it quite effectively against the children although they refused to even divulge a single word. To be completely honest, Shio was impressed with them, he had seen professional soldiers crack under her techniques. The big question was, if she could already figure this out on her own, why did she need him to be there?
At some point during the interrogation, Azula stopped getting the reaction she wanted from the avatar. She smirked and without taking her eyes off the bald boy, zapped the watertribe girl with a bolt of lightning. The girl writhed in pain but didn't scream; Shio admired her resilience.
Azula whirled on the girl and got within centimeters of her face, "Scream for me girl…" she hissed.
The girl scowled at the princess and spat bloody saliva right in Azula's face.
Rage flared on Azula's face, she slammed the back of her fist into the unfortunate girls face, sending her flying into the right wall of the cell where she slumped against it.
Azula advanced on the poor girl, a nearly white hot flame blazing on her fist, "You'll pay…" she growled through gritted teeth. Azula raised her arm, ready to burn a hole straight through the still reeling girl's chest.
"NO!" screamed the boy with the ponytail, straining against the chains that bound him, while the avatar silently strained against his chains, his eyes bugging out of his head.
Azula brought her arm down, aiming right at the girl's heart. Without even consciously thinking about it, Shio darted forward and grabbed Azula's wrist, stopping her fist just short of the girl's chest, merely singing a new hole in her clothes.
"Enough." Shio said calmly, "You'll kill her."
"SO WHAT!?" Azula screamed whirling on him, "YOU SAW WHAT SHE DID!"
"Because," he continued, his voice still calm, "if you kill her, they will be totally useless to us, the other two won't give up any information if you kill her. AND, even if we can't get any information out of them, they can still be used as bargaining chips with those watertribe ships that have been raiding our supplies."
Azula scowled at him but he could see the rage leaving her eyes as the logic of his argument penetrated the haze of anger in her mind. "FINE." she said coldly, ripping her wrist out of the swordsman's grasp, and stalking out of the cell.
Shio turned to follow the princess, but turned and looked back at the sad hungry and bloody children. "They don't deserve this," he thought, "avatar or not." He turned and slammed the door to the cell, following Azula down the hall. He couldn't free them even if he wanted to but he could secretly make life a little better for them. Later that night, he paid off a guard to bring a small meal to the kids, being the princess's body guard paid fairly well.
Azula now insisted that he that he came to all of the torture sessions for the avatar and his friends for the next two days. It became quite clear that she only brought him along to make him squirm as she invented more horrible and painful tortures for the unfortunate prisoners. Both days he took pity on them and had meals sent to them after Azula had left. During the sessions it was clear that the frustrations of not being able to break these incredibly resilient kids; he could see her sanity slowly unraveling. More and more he found himself sympathizing with the prisoners, no one deserved what Azula was doing to them. He found himself questioning his own motives, why did he honestly stay in the firenation? He wasn't happy, and had no friends other than Azula and their relationship could hardly be described as friendship. He came upon the realization that there was no way to get the kids out of the firenation without Azula hunting them down and killing the four of them. He knew there was only one way out of this but he knew he could never go through with it.
The next day Azula brought him with her for the fourth time. This time she didn't even bother asking any questions, as soon as the guards were gone she threw the avatar against the left wall and conjured a massive bolt of lightning and began shocking the two watertribe kids harder than she ever had before with a look of sadistic glee plastered on her face.
"What are you doing?!" Shio exclaimed, "You'll kill them!"
"That's the idea!" she crowed gleefully, "My father wants the avatar alive, he doesn't care what happens to these two and I have no further use for them."
Shio shook his head in disgust as the two kids squirmed and cried on the floor of the cell, "I can't take this anymore," he said turning, "I'm going back to the palace."
"No you're not." Azula snapped, "you do not get to walk away when I tell you to be somewhere."
"Watch me." He said walking down the hall. About halfway down the hall he heard the sharp crackle of electricity and the two screamed louder than he had ever heard during the last four days. He stopped dead in his tracks, gritting his teeth. "Dammit." He muttered turning back down the hall. He knew he had only one chance at this and he had to make it count. He clenched his fists as he approached the cell door, "Time to stand up for something I believe in."
He stood in the doorway behind Azula, "I'm sorry." He said to the princess who was continuing to shock the two.
"Your insolence is forgiven," she said, not even turning to him, "I knew you couldn't stay away."
His hand drifted to the hilt of his broadsword protruding over his right shoulder, he knew as soon as it left its sheath there was no turning back.
"That's not what I was apologizing for." There was a metallic ring as the blade cleared its scabbard and he swung it as hard as he could.