A/N: Story takes place after the series finale.

Pillow Talk

Chapter 21: A Breaking of the Minds

She hated it here. This cold, sterile, isolated room that had become her prison. She, the once proud and powerful; mighty and beautiful princess of the Fire Nation, reduced to this hollowed shell of her once great self.

It was never easy. In the earliest days of her incarceration, she would thrash wildly about, clawing at her unblemished flesh until she would tear away pieces of herself, as though desperate to get to the core of her instability. Her freedom had been stripped from her and she was left as naked and exposed as if her captors had torn every garment from her body and left her unburdened by the dignity of basic human decency. Against her will, she was left alone in this room while attendants and doctors would come and gawk, proclaiming how tragic the life of their once wondrous princess had become. In those early days, much of what was expected of her was against her will or desires, and her own powerlessness only deepened her fragilely teetering stability.

When it had become too much, when they feared she would inflict permanent scars upon her beautiful body, they bound her hands and feet, only further proving how little control she had in her own life. She was once the almighty princess Azula, second only to her father in power and fear; she commanded whole armies in fact, and yet here she lay strapped and confined to her own bed while her caregivers looked upon her with something many would classify as pity.

Bastards!

Who were they to pity her, to look upon her with remorse and compassion? They should fear her, gaze upon her with awe and trepidation and serve her every whim. Release her from this unsanctioned prison. Let the shackles fall from her wrists and ankles, grovel and beg for her forgiveness and prostrate themselves at her feet.

"How dare you?" the words came out as little more than a mumbled whimper. She hated how truly helpless she sounded. "Release me now you worthless peasants and perhaps I'll make your deaths quick! If not then I will line all your heads up on a pike and leave your rotting carcasses for the flies! Do you hear me? Let me go NOW!"

In the days prior, she had exhausted herself, thrashing against her bindings until her muscles tore and screaming until her voice burned raw and no longer worked. Now, in her weakened, miserable state, there was nothing for her attendants to do but laugh at her misery. Even now she heard their mockery echoing in her ears, taunting her as she lay in her own sweat, spent and exhausted from her feeble attempts at liberation.

"My how the mighty have fallen," a voice, so very familiar, spoke in echoing tones that sent a shiver of discontent down the spine of the fallen princess.

"Wh-who's there?" Azula asked, straining her head against her limited range of motion and protesting body as she glared about the large, empty room in an effort to see who it was now who taunted her. "Show yourself…I demand you show yourself!"

"You're in no position to demand anything," the voice proclaimed as the taunting young woman seemingly melted from the shadows of the far corner, standing in all her glory before the restrained princess. Her garments were those of the Fire Nation military and her raven-black hair pulled back in a beautiful yet serviceable style only added to her mystique. As she approached the bound princess, her black, piercing eyes bore into her as if reading her soul, and the partial smirk that tugged at the corner of her lips gave the incapacitated young woman the impression that her unwelcomed intruder was sizing up a potential victim. "Spirits you look a wreck."

"N-no…it can't be…"

"What's the matter Azula," the intruding apparition stated as she smiled triumphantly over the terrified form of the young woman, "Don't you recognize the better, stronger you?"

"Y-you're not real…you can't be real!"

"Of course I'm real dumb, dumb; because somewhere inside that brilliantly twisted mind of yours, I still exist. The Azula you've forgotten."

"No. You don't exist, you can't…" the restrained princess pleaded, her eyes wide with fear and trepidation in the presence of this hallucination. "My mind is just playing tricks on me, that's all…"

"Perhaps," the echoing shade commented as she moved to the bedside, running one long finger along the curve of Azula's arm. "But you well know I'm you're only chance of getting out of here."

"This isn't happening…"

"Oh please, just look at yourself," the specter recanted, stepping one foot in front of the other as she gracefully made her way to Azula. "You don't even know what's real and what isn't. For all you know, I could be the real Azula and you're just that annoying little voice of doubt in my head that I'm here to silence…"

Strapped in her bed, eyes wide with terror and fear, Azula tried desperately to scoot away from the apparition that seemed to smile tauntingly at her. "Nurse…doctor…someone please…help me…"

"Nurse…doctor, lord you sound pathetic," the shade replied in mockery as she folded her hands in front of her face as if pleading for assistance. "When has the great Princess Azula ever begged for anything? If you want something, take it! We never asked for anything before, we just took whatever we needed, whatever we wanted! People were obligated to surrender it to us. And now look at you, strapped to a bed by people who should serve you whatever we wanted. But here you are, strapped in a bed and locked in a little room, forgotten and unwanted, abandoned and unloved…"

"That's not true!" Azula cried, the tears welling in her eyes, causing her beautiful golden orbs to glisten all the more gracefully, and yet never had her eyes shimmered with such pain and uncertainty.

"You can't even say that with impunity can you?" Again the mocking smile crossed the near-perfect features of the psychosis elicited illusion. "Face it Azula, they've taken everything from us; Mai, Ty Lee, mother…even your bending no longer serves you since you're in this state. And you know whose fault it is don't you? Darling, precious Zuzu. Everyone has abandoned you because of him…"

"No," she said, and though the denial was spoken aloud, the conviction of her hopes reached neither her eyes nor her lips. "Y-you're lying. Azula always lies…"

"You really cannot be such a simple creature. If they loved you, if any of them cared for you, why haven't any of them come to visit you?" A moment's pause earned a smile of triumph from the taunting form of Azula as she fixed her eyes pointedly at the quivering orbs of the imprisoned princess. "You can't even answer that can you? Face it Azula, you're alone here…all alone."

"No."

"No one is coming to care for you; no one is coming to ease your pains and suffering because they're all happier without you."

"Stop saying this…"

"Why should I? You know its true Azula. I'm all you have left; that last semblance of who you used to be, and without me, you'd be left the wretched, babbling, broken excuse of a human being you are now; unloved, unwanted, just discarded like the refuse of life you are…"

"Shut up!" Azula screamed as loudly as her tattered voice would endure, tears pouring freely from her eyes as she tossed her head from side to side as if denying the words her other self offered while attempting to drive the self-depreciating words from her mind. "You're just trying to confuse me!"

"You don't need me for that," the mocking princess sneered as she leaned against the far wall and crossed her arms over her chest. "Remember what mother said, before you faced Zuzu?"

"She said…she said she loved me," Azula replied, clinging to the memory as though it was all that would keep her from drowning in the sea of her own lost mind.

"Not that idiot. She said you were confused. All your life you've used fear to control people, like Mai and Ty Lee? Now look who's afraid?" For but a moment, the other Azula toyed with her fingernails as if bored with the conversation before continuing. "You, the once proud princess of the Fire Nation, strapped to a bed and held against your will while those who should be flocking to your aid have abandoned you to rot in this room. You're terrified aren't you? That maybe all those people who've ever said all those horrible things about you are right? That at the end of it all you'll end up alone and isolated…and here you are."

"I don't care, I just don't care anymore."

"Of course you do, why else would I be here?"

"To torment me," Azula sobbed, her face slick with tears as she thrashed once again against the bindings holding her against the bed and ignoring the thin trail of blood that dripped from beneath the straps where her skin had split open from the effort. "Just like everyone, you just want to laugh and make me feel the victim, tell me how worthless and meaningless I am.

"I HATE YOU!"

"You realize you're just condemning yourself."

"Shut up…just leave me alone!"

For the first time during their communication, the spectral Azula seemed genuinely pained. "Don't do that Azula…don't send me away. I'm the only semblance of sanity you have left; don't cast us to the darkness…please."

The word seemed to bring a lucid joy to the mentally disturbed young woman as she sneered in delight at the shaken apparition. "Now who's pleading you wretched, unwanted thing…I want nothing from you!"

"Azula, don't…"

"GO AWAY! I want you to leave, just leave me alone. Leave me alone…leave me alone…" Azula flopped back onto the mattress, her body spent and exhausted as tears continued to pour freely from her stinging eyes. The words continued to escape her lips long after her voice failed her.

Whether by design, desire, or madness, Azula was left alone, with only the taunting voices of her own failure and shortcomings echoing within her mind, for that last semblance of sanity had at last fallen silent.

-End

A/N: I'm not sure, this was an idea I had, but I wanted it to be darker than I wrote it. Hope this works. Anyway, as always, reviews are greatly appreciated.