Don't say I didn't warn you.
They lost.
They lost and it couldn't be any more apparent.
Here in the familiar trappings of the Fire Nation Palace she is a prisoner in her own home. Azula has never felt fear before. Not true fear but now she fairly shakes with it when he turns his attention back to her.
His hand is cold as it caresses her cheek and he stares at her with those eyes which glow with a faint supernatural light, superseding the soft gray she remembers. There is a sort of tenderness in his touch that was so common in the days before they failed. Now it fills her with a cold sense of dread.
When he leans closer, she turns her head and closes her eyes. Zuko is out there somewhere. Sokka and Katara, too. Toph surely has survived and Iroh is too cunning not to have made it as well. They have to be working on a plan.
With a growl of anger his hand slides into her hair and jerks her towards him hard.
"Are you turning me away?" The low deep sound still elicits shivers in her and not always the bad ones.
"No, of course not." Her voice is quiet, a near whisper. "But we are not alone."
"Since when do you care what others think?" She can hear the smile in his voice as he teases her about the presence of the guards.
"I only care what you think." Azula replies dutifully.
With a chuckle, he lets go of her hair and turns her in his arms, pulling her back against him. He is unashamed as he grabs mounds of flesh making her bite her lip against the pleasure…and pain. Roughly he pushes her against a pillar and steps behind her pinning her to it with his body.
Ozai won in a way, she thinks, as the Avatar continues his unabashed exploration of her body over the silk cloth of her dress. She doesn't know all the details. Ozai lost his bending but Aang lost the war. It's a confusing situation. Even as the fallen Fire Lord sits in prison awaiting his execution, he has still won. Somehow the Fire Lord managed to corrupt the Avatar with his evil.
"Please, Aang." She doesn't want him to humiliate her in front of the guards again. The last time he chose to punish her that way still burns in her memory. The pity in the guards' eyes when they look at her can still bring tears of shame.
One tattooed hand comes around her neck jerking back harshly. "What did you call me?"
"Avatar, Avatar." Azula gasps around his hand, cursing her slip up as he bends her neck at an awkward angle. He always reacts the same way when addressed by his name.
Grabbing her arm, he jerks her towards the doors of the throne room and leads her down the hall.
Servants avoid them. They have learned to tell when he is angry and scatter.
This wouldn't be a problem if he hadn't taken her bending. After Ozai fell, the Avatar turned on his allies. Azula put up a fight, a good fight, but was no match for an unhinged Master of the four elements. She at least bought time for the others to make their escape and for this she will never regret her sacrifice. Azula could have died happily knowing she saved her friends.
The Avatar didn't kill her though. He stripped her of her bending then stripped her of any pride she had left. Claiming her as his, he took the throne and tightened the hold the Fire Nation already had on the rest of the world.
The doors to their chambers open with a gust of wind and slam just the same behind them. The oversized bed is the room's focal point and he pushes her onto it now. Falling back onto the soft mattress, Azula prays to Agni this is over quick but as he settles his weight over her and begins kissing her neck, she sees the look in his eyes. He's in a playful mood.
"Fight me." He orders.
Azula tenses, heart pounding. "Why would I fight when I am more than willing?"
Rising up he looms over her with a dark smile. "You are anything but willing. Now resist or I'll make sure you regret every moment of it."
It's a threat he will deliver on.
It's times like this she wishes he wasn't faithful. Wishes he was like other men of power and made full use of the women at his beck and call. Instead he focuses all his sexual attentions on her. It's a slow torment to be taken by the same man she once so willingly gave herself to. She dares to think that on some level she once loved him. May even still. It's hard to make sense of her own feelings anymore.
His eyes and tattoos flash brighter at her hesitation so she reacts pushing against him and scrambling away.
Azula may not have her bending but she is still quick when she needs to be and having spent a year dodging and avoiding his temper has helped keep her fit. But he does have bending on his side, bending of all four elements and he doesn't hesitate to use them either. It's a game of cat and mouse that never ends well for her.
She dodges a wall that suddenly appears in her way but trips over the small ledge that pops up to her right. She stumbles and he is on top of her. He laughs as she fights against him trying to free herself. Azula doesn't hold back and hits with all her might, aiming for areas that have felled the largest of men. It does nothing but stoke his amusement.
The sound of her dress tearing tells her he is stepping it up to the next level and she gives a cry of frustration as she tries to wiggle away from him. Climbing up her body he tries to get hold of her wrists so she bucks with her hips trying to dislodge him. He holds firm and begins to tear at her dress in earnest.
There is little left to lose anymore so she takes the opportunity.
The crack of her hand to his face is loud in cavernous room. For a moment he looks at her stunned at having been slapped and the glow fades until she can see gray again. The strongest hits fail to elicit such a reaction but a simple slap has more emotional power it would seem. Before she can feel hope though, he blinks and the glow is back stronger than before. Her face blossoms in pain as he returns the favor, the stars bursting behind her eyes.
The fight is gone out of her and she lays limp under him as he finishes stripping her. She barely registers him lifting and carrying her to the bed where he drops her unceremoniously in the center. Her body bounces and her eyes flutter open as she watches him remove his own clothes. Gone are the yellow and orange silk robes of the Air Nation. They have been replaced with the red of the Fire Nation and Azula never thought she would miss the Air nomad robes this much.
She begins to cry as he crawls on the bed towards her moving like a large predator. When he spreads her legs, settling his weight over her, he kisses her with the same reverence of the past.
"Don't cry." He whispers against her lips.
The tenderness in his voice only makes her weep more. "I miss you." Her voice is a strangled murmur. It is a rare moment of honesty from her.
With a gentle touch he brushes her hair from her face, "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere." He thrusts into her drawing a gasp.
And it's brutal.
He whispers tender words to her while taking her harshly. Slamming into her body, he wrenches whimpers and cries of anguish. Somewhere in there, beyond the pain and the blood, she begins to feel a bloom of something growing.
Even after all this time, all this cruelty, he is still master of her body. He knows just what to do to keep her on the edge while deriving his own twisted pleasure out of it. He isn't above hitting her either while buried deep inside of her. The slaps and smacks only serve to fuel his desire for her. On some level he is punishing her for daring to love him. It's the best explanation she can come up with for his brutality.
As he pounds into her bruising flesh, he wraps hands around her neck. Her eyes snap open as she stares up at him and struggles for air. His grin is malicious as his long fingers dig into her skin.
"So beautiful." He muses as he continues his assault on her body. "So perfect."
Azula never expected beauty and perfection to be her downfall. Never thought she would be punished for it but she is getting what she deserved. She should have killed him. Maybe should have killed herself but she knows that if she wasn't here for him to amuse himself with that he would be devoting his attention to hunting down the others.
There isn't much to lose, not anymore.
She works her fingers around his and pulls against them breaking the hold on her throat some. Breathing in, she arches against him.
"Aang," she calls out.
For a moment he stumbles losing his rhythm but with a growl he finds it again with a vengeance. He releases her neck and instead takes a handful of hair and pulls hard. He lies across her crushing the air out of her with the weight of his body and continues in short stabbing thrusts.
Azula knows from experience that he is close and when his fingers dig into her thigh it pushes her over the edge and she sees an explosion of stars behind her eyes for a different reason. Her body's reaction to his pulls him over and she can feel him pumping deep inside of her. The Avatar wants an heir and soon. He's made that much clear to her.
Leaning against her he draws deep breaths, recovering far quicker than any other man would.
"You are mine, Azula. Never forget that." He claims her lips in a kiss as he pulls away from her.
They lay in bed side by side but they might as well be on opposite sides of the palace. Eventually his breaths even out and he falls asleep. Looking over at him she marvels at the still faint glow of his tattoos. As much as she has scoured the Fire Nation libraries, she has found nothing about it. More than likely the Avatar had all such information destroyed. That is if Ozai or Azulon hadn't beaten him to it already.
Knowing this is only a short reprieve, she lets her own eyes close.
It is a short while later when he wakes to claim her again. This time he is gentle with her almost loving in his touch. She isn't ever sure if it is guilt he feels for mistreating her that leads him to be so tender with her or if maybe late at night he is more like his true self and more apt to let it show.
This time she purrs under his hands as he kisses and strokes her. Gently he traces the bruises on her face and the glow in his eye fades until it is faint and just barely hiding the gray. She reasons it must be because Ozai was a Fire Bender and taking the Fire Lord's bending was what corrupted Aang. Fire Benders have less strength at night.
Azula can feel it coiling inside of her as she draws closer and closer to the edge. Her world explodes in a symphony of pleasure as he fills her yet again.
His kisses are soft and his touch is affectionate. "I love you." He says as he presses his lips to hers.
In moments like these she believes him and hopes one day he finds his way back to her.
AN: Dark, dark, dark. I know. This is perhaps the most controversial chapter I have written but before anyone balks do please consider how it fits into the storyline and would be a reasonable development in the dark twist this story has taken.