A/N- Fair warning. This chapter contains some language, as well as violence. Please read accordingly.

[-Chapter Sixteen-]

"Let all who see this today…"

I tuned the drone of Aku's voice out; it was plain to anyone that he was going to enjoy this very much. I couldn't bring myself to care. I was completely empty inside. There was no fear, no horror, no urge to resist. What was the point? I wasn't fighting for anyone. There was no one worth saving—they'd already taken my sister away from me. What more could they possibly take? Perhaps I should have just run away when I had the chance, to spare myself the crushing loneliness. To save myself the guilt and humiliation, or the absolute despair that came over me every time I was forced to look at my father. To save myself the sight of my mother, broken and half-crazy with sadness after losing her little baby.

"…Hear and understand the…"

It had been three weeks since Aiko was stolen from me. My birthday was tomorrow, my sixteenth birthday, but I had never cared less about that than I did right now. I just couldn't bring myself to care about anything. I'd gone into seclusion, avoiding my friends and family. It turns out that Makoto was out of town indefinitely, and I wasted my time foolishly waiting for him. Not that it would have made a difference—what could Makoto do against twenty Chen-Li agents? His father may have been the most important man in town, but that didn't carry over much to Makoto.

"…Consequences of disobeying Empress Koori's laws…"

Or maybe, I mused, it actually did. He was rich and influential, just as much as his father was. People even tended to disapprove of the friendship and relationship that Risu and I had… once had, with Koto. He was just "too good" for the poorer class. I sighed to myself: it didn't seem fair that the good-looking people got all of the money, too.

"Remember, citizens: Violators of the law…"

Makoto, I remembered, could return today. Well, hopefully he wouldn't see my punishment being carried out. I couldn't handle seeing him break down when he learned that Risu was dead, when he realized that I had lost all desire for anything and might as well be dead too. I didn't want to know what would happen. I wanted to go back to that day in his room with him and Risu, and say that Pai-Sho was stupid and anyone who played it needed to get a life. Then I would chuck his stupid Pai-Sho tiles out the window and he'd flash that crooked little smile at me, the one that used to make my heart melt... Of course, my heart was long gone, ripped away for storage deep in the recesses of Omashu.

"…will be severely punished."

I was just glad to get the never-ending speech out of the way—I had the distinct notion that Aku was drawing it out to make me more uncomfortable. But he was failing miserably, because I couldn't feel anything at all. I was still quite empty inside, and I could tell he registered that fact after staring at my blank expression. At a nod from Aku, two Chen-Li agents seized me underneath my arms. They lifted me bodily to a post near the center of the square. My wrists were bound in manacles, which they chained over my head. The handcuffs chaffed; their weight seemed to drag me into the ground. When all was said and done, Aku walked to stand in front of me. His henchmen were behind me, shuffling around. I kept my eyes on the demon.

"For her crimes against Empress Koori," —only this prissy lapdog would know the true title of the leader of the Earth— "Hikari of Gaoling will receive five lashes. She will also receive thirty five lashes for interfering with the enforcement of a law." A gasp rippled through the crowd behind me, and though I could not see them I could feel the astonished stares piercing my back. Forty lashes was unheard of, ever, and I knew that to them I looked very frail and petite, like I could break after just one.

But I would not break. I would not cry out. I couldn't give that vermin the satisfaction.

Besides, it will be a relief to feel something after a month of nothingness.

"One." The whip cracked through the air. My shirt was still on, which offered me some protection from the sting of the lash on my back. "Two." It was starting to burn. "Three." This time it landed across my arms, which my shirt did not cover; I thought of when a nest of hornet-wasps had stung me in the field. I was eight, but I still remembered the burning. A whip on bare skin felt very much like that burning. "Four. Five."

By now I was beyond the stage of "uncomfortable." My body twitched each time the lash struck. I felt tears forming in my eyes, and just as quickly blinked them away. No. I will not break. When the next blow landed ("Ten"), my mouth popped open. Aku moved in the corner of my vision; I forced my mouth shut.

He held up his hand, and the crowd buzzed with what I hoped was gratitude. Oh, Aku is going to let her off with only ten, they seemed to be saying. But I glared at him, panting, because I knew better. Aku made a swift hand motion, shook his head once, waited, and then nodded. When he saw me glaring at him, his entire face darkened. He marched up to me, trekking through the mud in his precious uniform—shit he must be really mad—and grabbed my face in one hand over the whipping post.

"You think you're so tough, you little bitch. Well I finally have my one chance, and I am not going to miss it. I. Will. Break you." Then he pulled back and spit on my face. The crowd gasped. And I, after weeks of nothingness and abject despair, felt the beginnings of a rage simmering in my blood. "Let's see how you handle this. Eleven!"

I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't as painful as what I got. My back erupted in flames of hurt and my body contorted before I could stop it. "Twelve!" Again, the pain seemed to come from everywhere at once: my back, my arms, my neck. Then I realized what was happening. "Thirteen!" That bastard was using the nine tails on me, so every whip was really nine in one. That meant not thirty more lashes, but three hundred and sixty more lashes. "Fourteen!" My fists clenched and rubbed against the manacles, jerking with the rest of my body. I tried to focus on keeping control over my legs, but… "Leave no area untouched! Fifteen!" And suddenly my legs stung and I lost my footing and I was face down in the mud.

"Get up," Aku snarled. I hesitated, running a quick mental check of my limbs. "Get up!" he screamed; desperate to retain any dignity I had left, I worked my way to my feet slowly. I do not dance for you.

There was a wild look in Aku's eye now, which carried into his voice. "Sixteen!" I stared him down with my jaw set, even as my body twitched. "Seventeen! Put your backs into it!" It was getting harder and harder for me to stay silent, but I could see that it infuriated him. "Eighteen!" By now my shirt had shredded under the lash. I felt more exposed than ever; there was little I could do save close my eyes and wait. "Nineteen!" My teeth ground up against one another. I felt the tears again. I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep them at bay. "Twenty!" That last breath was a little sharper, close to a hiss but not quite. When I let my eyes travel down to the mud pit, I saw that it was a strange reddish-brown. Then I felt the wind across my back and I knew by how cold I felt. I wondered how badly cut up my back was. My blood swirled around my ankles, mingling with the earth of my birthplace. I was freezing, bleeding, and utterly alone. But I was beating Aku at his own game.

When I made eye contact with Aku again, he had his hand up. That explains why it doesn't hurt right now. "Gentlemen, that will be enough. I can take it from here."

"But sir, that goes against custom—"

"I WILL BREAK HER!" For the first time in my life, I felt a shiver of fear that was unconnected to my baby sister. Aku disappeared from my line of sight. I heard more rustling, a gasp from the ground, and the sound of rocks clicking against each other. Rocks?

"Twenty-one!"

I liked to think that everyone has their breaking point when it comes to pain. Surprise pain can make anyone cry out, but when someone expects that the pain will be there, they can usually last a little longer against the assault. Maybe. I also liked to think that I had a pretty high tolerance for pain. At the very least, I had enough pride to disguise my discomfort. But when that new whip hit me, and then hit me again, I lost sight of myself.

The scream ripped out of me before I could stop it. Dull bruising points dug into tender, exposed flesh that was already throbbing. My entire world narrowed to the pain that radiated from my back. I bit down on my lip immediately, but I was too late. Aku laughed, a wild and demonic sound. The rocks clicked together again.

I don't remember how long, or how often, I screamed. I know that I did not beg. I could not form the words to beg. My mind had forgotten them.

At some point my vision turned into a series of little black dots. The dots grew and expanded until they took over what I was seeing. Then I saw only blackness, and I knew only pain.

"Thirty-five!" His voice was dark with malice and delight. My mouth was salty. I'm crying, I realized suddenly, but then the whip lashed across my arms and the rocks ripped into my skin. I stopped thinking again.

By the time the last crack of the whip faded, I was a huddled mess by the whipping post. My knees were buried in the mud, something for which I was grateful. The mud pooled over the tender lacerations on the backs of my legs. There was probably an irony in that—mud formed by my blood soothes my whipping wounds—but I could not bring myself to think about it. Cool air raced across my back, which felt nice but did little to stop the pain.

A Chen-Li agent came over to me and unlocked the manacles around my wrists. It was as if all the strength went out of me: I slumped to the ground on my side. A sharp ache ran through my body at the contact which I ignored. I studied my wrists dully: rough blisters and weeping sores greeted my eyes.

Well Aku might get his wish. I might actually die. If the pain doesn't kill me then infection will. This bothered me a lot less than it should have. Aku was right: he had broken me. I had screamed, and cried, and lost control. I acted like a child; what was the point of trying to survive such a dishonor?

"You think you're so tough," Aku hissed. He was standing over me. I focused my eyes on his toes. For some reason, I could see six feet wobbling in my vision. Since when does Aku have six feet? "But you have nothing. You are nothing. And now you know it. Look around, Hikari." I tried to lift up my head but my neck screamed in protest—Spirits, he even got my neck—so I stopped. "Your people, your so-called friends, even your family… No one is here to help you. You are all alone now. Completely at my mercy."

My body could not even muster up an energy rush to be afraid at that. I wondered vaguely if I would drown in the mud at Aku's feet. The ultimate humiliation.

"Hikari? I heard that you were being punished so I came to… What have you done?"

The voice was so beautifully familiar that I wanted to cry. I'm pretty sure I actually started crying again, even though it hurt to breathe. "Koto?" My voice was so weak and pathetic sounding, like something a wounded animal would make.

"Makoto," Aku murmured. There was the sound of rustling silks as the Chen-Li bowed.

"What have you done to her?"

"Hikari interfered in the enforcement of the new law regarding Benders. We simply followed the prescribed punishment."

"It's ten strikes to the back, correct? With a reed?" There was a silence.

"Where did you see that?" Aku asked. Surprise laced his tone, but he still sounded like a copperadder ready to strike.

"On the flyers that are posted all over town. I can read, Aku. And that," Koto's voice shook with rage, "does not look like ten strikes with a reed."

"That prescribed punishment is a mere guideline. Hikari committed a very serious crime. She was going to try and run away with the Bender child, and in the process she assaulted a Chen-Li officer while resisting arrest."

"Who was the child?" Another silence. "Who was the child?"

Finally, another agent spoke up to answer Koto's question. "The little girl, Aiko." I heard the harsh sound of Koto's breath before feet stomped over to my head.

"Think carefully, Makoto," Aku's silky voice warned. He sounded almost smug. I could picture the two of them: Koto standing with his fists clenched and glaring daggers at Aku, who had his calm mask on to disguise his triumph. "You don't want to get yourself in trouble." Koto just snorted is obvious disgust.

I didn't know if Koto was trying to be gentle when he picked me up off the ground, but he didn't do it right. My back felt as though he was rubbing sand into it and I gasped. New tears sprung to my eyes. If I didn't know better, I would have said there was a newborn kitten around based on my constant mewling. "Shh," Koto whispered. "Shh, Kari, it will be okay, I promise." The swinging motion of his body would have been comfortable if it hadn't knocked my legs together. Everything just hurt.

I tried to tell him. "Makoto, it hurts."

I wasn't sure I made any sense, because he just said, "Shh," and kept walking. The last thing I remembered was a set of cool lips pressed to my forehead.

A/N- Hi everyone! I hope you've been enjoying your week. It looks like Hikari hasn't been (too soon? That probably wasn't very nice)... Anyway, this chapter is about 2500 words, so a little shorter than last week. However, it's not short on emotion in the slightest.

No reviews to respond to this week, but please feel free to leave me one! I always like to know what my readers are thinking, or at least know that someone is reading this. I will *never* withhold chapters to force people to reply... but you guys inspire me to keep going!

So enjoy the chapter, and hopefully I will see you next week!