Revenge part II

In the land of the blind...

Ok people, this is the last vital chapter. There will be either a lemon and an epilogue following, or both in one chapter. So, for this being the last vital chapter, I'd like to say, thank you all! For reading, reviewing, taking your time to think about this story. As I drive away in my straitht-jacket, of to the madhouse, I shout "Thank you all! Muhahahahahahaaaaa!" An then I'll probably try to escape as soon as possible, to write another story, an dark, twisted one like this? Or a nice cute fic? Who knows?

But seriously, thanks.

And NO! No I don't own Avatar.

Chapter twelve: The way of the blood

She started to come to. Voices, loud and sharp were running through her brain. Words she couldn't understand puzzled her mind. She wondered where she was. For a while she drifted in this place between consciousness and unconsciousness. The sounds pained her and she wanted to get away. To the people she knew. She wanted to be able to grip something, to 'see' something because in this darkness she was truly blind. After a long time, or at least that's what it felt like, she realised what had happened to put her here. What had happened to Sokka and Hurio. She had to get back, she had to realise what had happened, where she really was. The thought of Sokka filled her with deterrence and slowly the voices became more understandable and she got vibes of vision.

First vibe: She was lying down. Second vibe: Lying down in a smile room. Third vibe: She wasn't alone. Fourth vibe: Two of them. Fifth vibe: They got up from the chairs they were sitting on. Sixth vibe: They were standing over her. Then she heard it, his voice.

"I think she's waking up." Said the familiar voice.

"I hope so." Agreed another.

"S...Sokka?" She brought out weakly.

"Toph!" He said kneeling by her side and gently brushing her hair.

After that her vision started to come back quickly. She was aware of her surroundings. Although her body ached she sat up right. But a hand pressed her back, she could feel his pulse and knew who he was. Hurio had survived.

"So, everything is allright?" She asked

They remained silent.

"What?"

"We've got a little problem... But you don't need to worry about that now." Said Sokka.

"Yeah, you just worry about resting, and getting better." Hurio agreed.

"What problem? Tell me." She demanded.

She tried to get up but Sokka held her down. "Rest." He said. Although she tried to stay awake her injuries overpowered her and she fell asleep again.

When she got up, she felt a lot better and Sokka and Hurio had fallen asleep. She got out of bed and walked around the room. It was small and rather empty. All there was were the two chairs and the small uncomfortable bed she lay ed on. Also two doors, but she didn't want to check them yet. She walked over to Sokka who was sleeping while sitting on the ground against a wall. She placed herself next to him and put his arm over her and let her head fall on her shoulder. Slowly she fell asleep again.

The next thing she knew when she woke up again was that Sokka was up to. He hadn't moved though. He kept perfectly still not to pull Toph from her sleep. When she opened her eyes and squeezed his hand he said "Good morning sleepy head.". She kissed him, like she never had before, sparks were practically flying through the room. But just as it got interesting one of the door's opened. It was Hurio with a bag.

"I brought some food. I thought you might be hungry." He said placing the bag on the ground.

Toph could smell fresh bread and wasn't surprised that that was what she got. It tasted great with such an empty stomach. Along with the grape-juice they ate their small breakfast. As the meal finished with Sokka letting out a rather loud burp, Toph asked where they were exactly.

"Under lake Laogai." Said Sokka.

"It was the only safe place I could think of." Explained Hurio.

"You could think of? So you saved us? But I thought you were to wounded to even get up again." She said.

"Well no. After being shot I got paralyzed for a little while. But after I got up I could see you, Sokka and Azula and her dead guards all lying on the floor. The guards outside of the room nearly got in, the door was nearly ready to break. The explosion you and Azula caused made a hole in the ceiling. So I got you guys on the roof by placing you on the earth and sending it to the roof, then I did the same with me. Our past base was the only safe house I could think of."

"So we're safe."

"Not for long. I think we should leave this place behind at latest by tonight."

"He thinks someone who's a rat in the Dy lee will think of this place soon enough." Said Sokka.

"But why?" Asked Toph. "Azula is dead right?"

"About that..." Sokka started.

"That's the problem? We didn't get her?"

"... Kind of."

"How could you?" She asked Hurio. "If she was lying down on the ground, unconscious. You could have finished her of."

"I could have." He agreed.

"So why didn't you?"

"Because, I couldn't, she wasn't fighting me, she was defeated. I've only killed to protect myself or others. I just couldn't."

"Then we have no choice but to run for it." She sighed, thinking about the hopeless future that now awaited her.

"That's not true." Sokka brought up.

"You don't have to comfort me Sokka, we'll just have to hide for the rest of our lives."

"No, I mean we've got a choice."

"You can't do that. I won't allow it." Hurio spoke, trying to stop Sokka.

"What's going on here? Tell me now." Toph demanded.

"Hurio was, confused, he couldn't kill her, but he couldn't let her live either." Sokka said.

"Stop it boy, now!" Hurio got mad.

"So he brought her with him..."

Hurio put his hands in his hair in stress and got up, walking throught the small room.

Toph was perplexed. "You ... did ... WHAT?!"

"I didn't know what I was doing... I ... I... did something stupid I know." Hurio tried to explain.

"Damn right it was stupid! Where is she now?"

"In the other room." Sokka said. Pointing to the other door. "Tied up of course."

Toph got silent, suddenly she understood Hurio's problem. Freedom was just one kill away, but how could you do such a deed when the victim was tied up, and couldn't defend herself. That was killing someone in cold blood, not out of defence. Sure she had done such things when she still was sick because of the rape. But now... She couldn't bring herself to getting up and walking in the room. Shooting something metal through Azula's brain. Nobody said anything. Hurio sat down again, on the opposite side of the room, staring first at Sokka then at Toph, then Sokka again. He kept changing the person he was looking at after about half a minute.

"I... tried to undo... what I did... twice ... since I got here." Hurio brought out eventually, hanging his head between his arms.

"I tried three times." Sokka said. "But I never got further then three steps inside the room.".

"You want me... to do it?" She asked.

"I don't know what I want." Hurio sighed.

"I don't want you to do anything you'd regret." Sokka said, tightening his grip around her. "And I don't think I want you to do it. How could I ask you to do something that I couldn't."

"Maybe because..." She started. "When we are together, we fulfill each other. We have to depend on each other to do something we can't on our own."

"Now hold on a minute!" Hurio burst out. "I can't let you do this. If I can't kill her myself, then letting you guys kill her would be the same. Letting something happen is just the same as doing it yourself."

"Are you going to stop us?" Toph asked. "You already got us this far."

"I think I've been sick, and now, I got to my senses, it has to be done the right way. By law."

"There is no law in Ba sing se!" Sokka yelled. "You know that more then anyone else. You just refuse to accept it."

"As long as we fight for the system it will exist. If we let it go, then it's dead! But not yet, I can't let this happen!"

"Who's going to condemn her? Corrupt judges? Who's going to hold her? Your buddies in the Dy lee who took my eye? Who's going to be her next victim? Another Fang? This has to end here!" At the end of Sokka's words Hurio was speechless, he didn't know what to say as he saw the truth, his principles pure as they were wouldn't cut it here.

"Hurio..." Toph said gently after a little while. "Go home, see your daughter, your grandchild."

Hurio sat there for another minute, sighed and a tear rolled over his left cheek. Then he got up and walked to the door. Facing the door he said "You'll have to send a message, to her mafia. Make it horrible, terrify them, with the fact that the one they feared most... was killed in such a gruesome matter that they fear the law once more. I hope, we will never meet again. Not because I don't like you, but because I want to put this behind me." Without looking back he opened the door and walked out of the room.

After Hurio left, Toph and Sokka sat in the room for a little while without saying anything. Eventually Sokka felt that he had to say something.

"Are we really going to do this?" He asked

"I am, your not." She answered.

"I should help you. I can't let you go through this alone."

"I have to go through it alone Sokka. I don't expect you to understand ... but everyone who has tried to help me gets hurt somehow. I believe it's a sign Sokka."

"What do you mean 'everybody'?"

"You, for starters! Your eye, your wounds, your fucking torture! And then that helper from the Dy lee, the one who got killed! Even ... even the priest, he sacrificed himself, for me."

"And what about Hurio? He didn't get hurt."

"No, but he lost everything, his job, his home, his best friend, his belief in what's right in this world."

"I can't talk you out of this, now can I?"

"Afraid not..."

Sokka got up and took a sword that was in one of the corners of the small room. He picked it up and gave it to Toph. She noticed it was the priest's, the one sword she swore herself to destroy. She took it and flung her arms around Sokka's shoulders and kissed him on the cheek. They hugged but eventually Toph had to let go and as she walked to the door, Sokka spoke. "I'll be right here, just one room away."

She actually smiled a little as she walked out of the room, into the room with Azula. She closed the door. Azula, tied up to a chair, hands behind her back, woke up due to the noise, even in her weakened form she still had a glow of dominance and certainty about her. Toph moved the piece of silk that was in Azula's mouth and allowed her to speak, it was the least she could do.

"So..." Sighed Azula, like she was bored. "You're going to try to?" When Toph didn't say anything but just 'stared' at her she continued. "You know, you've got no choice, your going to have to set me free. You and your friends are just to 'good' to do this." The way she said the word 'good' betrayed her despise of the Gaang. "You can't kill someone in cold blood. Definitely not when you could also choose to flee. Isn't that what you guys always did, run like scared rabbits, only to strike in the back like cowards when you had the 'one' opportunity? You have always been weak. You can't kill someone in cold blood, your not like me."

Toph pushed the piece of silk back in her mouth, to not hear her insults anymore, to not hear her scream in a few moments. Can she scream? It flickers through her head, she couldn't recall ever hearing Azula scream, and the idea just seemed weird and unreal to her. Deterrent and darkly she whispered "I have killed in cold blood, to defend myself, to help myself, to heal myself. And now that I've healed I can't just kill to defend myself anymore. I'm not going to kill you for me, or because you deserve it, but because I have to protect my friends, my real family."

Azula knew Toph wasn't kidding, nor lying. Fully realising that Toph was going to go through with this her heartbeat rose and she wanted to plea, even though it wasn't her nature, if it could help her survive she had to do it. Too bad for her she couldn't, the silk in her mouth blocked her screams and all Toph could hear were soft mumbles. She could feel Azula's heart starting to pump faster though, she could smell the panic, she could feel her fear. Slowly she uncovered her sword and held the soft blade to Azula's cheek. The blood flows quick and sticks to the blade. Small tears of frustration form in Azula's eyes, but she stops trying to yell, if it's not going to do any good, she might as well go down as the princess she is.

Toph knows she has to make this painful and gruesome. To spread as much blood as possible Azula's heart will have to be pumping, she'll have to live through the torture. Toph put her sword at the fingertip of Azula's pinkie. She cut it of, blood spraying out of the wound. She proceeded to the next one, then to another one, and another one. Untill She had lost all ten fingertips. They lay on the floor, in a pile of blood. If Toph could see she could see the tears in Azula's eyes and her tears mixed with the blood on her cheek.

She got on her knees and sliced through her Achilles tendons. A scream was heard, even through the piece of silk in her mouth as the blade cut through them like a knife through butter. Toph felt her heartbeat rise and tears forming in her own eyes. She got up again and blew her nose, which do to her crying had been acting up. She brought the sword up high, above her head, and sliced down. Azula's right ear fell of, and a second later, so did her left ear. The pain was unbearable for Azula, she wished she'd die, soon. Her head felt like it would explode, sending bits of brains across the room. But death didn't come for her. Not yet anyway.

She was rapidly bleeding dry like a pig at a slaughterhouse. The blood flowing from the holes where her ears used to be, flowing from her 'fingertips' and the back of her feet. She felt like she couldn't breath, which didn't improve as Toph suddenly pushed her blade through Azula's stomach. Her breath actually stopped, her eyes widened as far as they could and her eyes rolled back. Her heart froze for a second, but to her agony it started to beat again. Toph pulled the blade out and made sure Azula couldn't cry anymore for one moment later both her eyes were cut out. Azula's entire face drenched in blood and disappeared in it. Welcome to the land of the blind Azula. Toph felt like she was going to vomit, this was different than anything else she ever did.

She had to keep herself thinking: "It's Azula, the worst person ever." But somehow the fact that this person was mentaly ill didn't make her feel any better. The fact that she had been a mistake of nature didn't help her complet her task. Azula had seen enough of this torture, but it had to be a little more gruesome for her followers to be scared enough to stop, to crawl back in the dark holes from which they came.Her blade became a brush and her arm the one of an artist. She painted her picture red with every slice that hit her painting turned more and more red. Every time she tore to pieces of her flesh apart the lines would come out again and the precious fluid that is life flew out, the firs splatters flying along with the sword. It guided them to the walls, the floor and the ceiling.

The silk in her mouth now turned red as she coughed blood. The metal in her mouth was the last she'd taste. She hung her head because she couldn't hold it up anymore. If she still was able to see, she'd see that her skin, at least the parts that weren't covered in blood, was as white as Toph's, but this due to the enormous loss of blood. But she couldn't, and neither could she see Toph holding up her sword for one last blow. It was aimed at Azula's neck, in one swoop she ended it all, the blade ran through skin, the arteries, the bones, the muscles... Azula's head fell on the floor and the heart that still beat for a few seconds sprayed her own blood over it.

Toph, covered in blood, fell on her knees and dropped her sword, she cried for a long time. Eventually Sokka whent inside the room and saw the display. He vomited in a heartbeat and dragged Toph out of the horrid place, in his confusion he took the sword with him.

They reached the surface of the lake, sitting on the shore they held each other. Sokka tried to make Toph stop crying but failed. They sat there for a long time, knowing that sooner or later they had to get up, wash themselves and move on.

A fresh start,

Away from the blood, the blood from the innocent, the guilty, of men and women who all died because of the events of one year before. The blood of heroes and villains, the righteous and the wrong.

Away from the blood...

A/N I hope you all liked it! Come on, review one last time! Let me know what you thought!