WARNING: This chapter contains actions of intimidating and intentionally manipulative violence, of a highly personal nature. There is no sexual content.

Faces, New and Old

One morning on Kyoshi Island, a man was gathering sand on the beach. He wore the plain brown clothes of a mainland peasant, but no hat on his head to protect him from the sun. He smiled as he worked, strolling the beach with bare feet, collecting the dry and loose sand by the handful into a bucket. It was a wide bucket, like the island's amateur fisherman used to keep their larger catches alive until the last prudent moment. The man seemed to have no trouble with the bucket's increasing weight as he went along. His thick arms supported it solidly, although his body seemed bowed by some invisible force.

He obviously delighted in the feel of the wind in his long, dark hair.

When his bucket was full, the man ambled his way back to the main paths, taking the road that led towards the Kyoshi Warriors' dojo and apartment shacks. The few who saw this thought nothing of it, because many were the locals who helped to support the island's elite protectors. Their family members, especially, liked to support them whenever possible.

One week prior, two of the Kyoshi Warriors met in the dark early hours of the morning within one of those huts. Ty Lee went straight for the stove and used a pair of spark rocks to set a pot of tea heating. Suki went to the portable makeup cabinet she kept beside her bed, and set out the mixtures that would remove the traditional Kyoshi Warriors' face paints. She made room beside the built-in mirror for her partner, and together they wiped away the visage of their Patron Avatar.

Together, they exposed their true faces.

Only afterward did they kick off their boots and sit at the small table beside the stove for some tea. "This is good, Ty. You said it would help me sleep?"

Ty Lee nodded eagerly. "Chamomile tea relaxes the body and spirit, so it's a very popular cure for insomnia. I know you're having problems with nightmares, but maybe easing some of your physical stress will improve your dreams."

Suki gave her own nod of agreement, sipped her cup of tea, and said, "I also seem to be having problems with a lot of my friends from the war. What can you tell me about why they're shunning me and keeping Sokka away?"

Ty Lee frowned, put her cup of tea down, sighed, picked her cup of tea up, looked out the single window, and then put her cup of tea down again. "All right," she finally said, "you have to understand that what I want the most is for you not to get hurt, okay?"

Suki didn't move, or say anything.

Ty Lee picked up her tea again and took a long sip. "There's only so much I can say... only so much I understand, but... Suki, they have their secrets. They're worried... worried about what you'd think if you knew about them."

Suki snorted. "Aang has dark secrets, sure. Tell me another one."

Ty Lee shook her head sadly. "I can't tell you much more. But, Suki, that's the real truth. I'm sure, as time goes on, they'll come to trust you the way I do. But, really, I think you would be a lot happier if you never found out what they don't want anyone to know."

Suki finished her tea, and put the cup down. She kept her eyes on it, on the bits of dead leaves floating at the bottom. "I understand that you have to keep your promises, Ty Lee. But I'm not the type of person that could ever be happier in the dark."

In an unimportant town, in an unimportant section of the Earth Kingdom, a woman named Mianju left her home in the dark, early hours of the morning and walked to the bakery and eatery where she worked. It was a quiet town, and though she was a relatively recent arrival, she had already become used to the safe and happy life she had been given here. She walked the lonely streets, her black hair and heavy green robes blending with the night, and almost didn't notice when a shadow stepped out in front of her from between two lifeless buildings. Before she could react, the shadow spoke. "Joo Dee, the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai."

Her stomach flipped at those words, freezing fear spreading out from it to slow her limbs. "No," she growled, "they healed me, they healed-"

"Then we'll do it the hard way." The figure snapped an arm up, and something flew in the night air. Before Mianju could figure it out, something unrelenting clamped around her throat. The pressure was stifling, and she felt her breathing become more labored. Darkness peppered the edge of her vision. "My name is not Joooooooooo..."

She collapsed, and the shadow dragged her into the darkness with him. One down. Hopefully, they would all be this easy to find.

A week later, on the day that the strange man collected sand on the beach, Suki led her warriors in sword katas. "Strike!" As one, a dozen girls all raised their katanas above their heads, and brought them down again as they took a step forward. "Settle," Suki barked, and the Kyoshi Warriors simultaneously twisted the swords around, released one hand to grab and position the scabbards hanging from their sides, and smoothly sheathed their swords. "Good work, girls. That's enough for this morning. Those with shifts tonight, get some sleep. Everyone else, chi-blocking lessons are this afternoon. Everyone is dismissed."

Ty Lee bounced over as the rest of the girls dispersed. "How did I do?"

Suki smiled back at her friend. "Very good! I told you that swords aren't so bad."

Ty Lee shrugged. "Oh, training with a blade is one thing, but I don't know if I want to actually carry one yet. People could get hurt!"

Suki held back a sigh. She had no desire to bring that old argument back to life. "Fair enough. I'm going back home to get a quick nap before your practice session. Don't throw all the katanas in the ocean while I'm gone."

Ty Lee quirked her head to the side. "I already promised I wouldn't do that to your swords! Anyway, why the nap? I thought you were sleeping better?"

Suki shrugged. "I guess I am," she said. "At least, I'm not waking up with nightmares. But now it's like I'm not even experiencing sleep. I put my head down on the pillow, and the next thing I know it's time to get up. I don't feel very rested. Maybe it's a side effect of the tea we've been having?"

Ty Lee blinked, then a large grin slowly blossomed on her face. "Ha. Ha. Maybe. Ha. Or you're just getting used to sleeping again. Or something."

"Right," Suki drawled. "Well, in that case, I'm going to get some more practice in. See you later." With a wave, she set off for her lonely little hut.

Mianju screamed as they wheeled her into the chamber. Dong Min just shook his head slowly at the sight, but his assistant couldn't help but speak up. "Shouldn't we sedate her?"

"No," Dong Min said. "She needs to be entirely lucid for this potion. She'll calm down eventually. Let's get her in the chair." The psychologist moved to unstrap the restraints that kept Mianju down on the wooden gurney, and the burley assistant immediately grabbed her and lifted her up into the air. She tried to resist, but the man kept her arms pinned to her sides, and he didn't even notice the shallow kicks she rained on his legs. He placed her gently in the chair at the center of the otherwise barren room, while Dong Min locked her down in another set of leather restraints. "There. Time to begin. Get the lights. I'll set up the rig."

The assistant moved to the torches ensconced in the stone walls, while Dong Min dragged four metal stands from the room's corners to compass points around Mianju's chair. He left the room briefly, and came back with a large circle-shaped track made of metal. This, he placed on top of the stands with the chair precisely at its center. The whole time, the torches went out one by one as the assistant doused them, until a single small lamp lighted the room. "Place it on the track," Dong Min said, "then step back. Keep it moving at a constant speed."

From the dark edges of the room, the assistant moved his hands in an Earthbending move, setting the stone-based lamp in motion along the circular track. It went round and round, sometimes shedding light on Dong Min, but always keeping Mianju visible.

She never stopped screaming.

The sun was shining brightly and the air was still when Suki arrived at her hut. She was still a short sprint away from the entrance when she noticed the footprints on the path leading right up to her residence. She bent down to examine them- large, shaped like common sandals. Her sword was back at the dojo, but she always had her fans tucked into her belt. Drawing one in each hand, she snuck up to the door and paused there. She could try peeking in through the window, but if the visitor was waiting in ambush, she might be spotted and lose the element of surprise. So she kicked open the door and immediately took a defensive stance.

There was a man sitting at the table in the center of the single-room space. "Who-" she began, but her voice trailed off when he stood up and gaped at her in shock.

He raised a hand as thought to reach for her, but Suki drew her right hand back in preparation to throw her war fan. The man lowered his own, his eyes never leaving her. "Oh, Azula. Look at you. What have those monsters done to my lovely daughter of Fire?"

"What," was all Suki could say.

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire," Dong Min said for the one hundred and sixty-third time.

Mianju's voice was long since worn away, but she shook her head lethargically and tried to keep her eyes off the rotating lamp. "No," she croaked.

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire," Dong Min said for the one hundred and sixty-fourth time.

"I called you Azula," the man replied. Looking at him now, Suki recognized him. She had only seen him once before, but she knew that face, that sickly slump born of permanently twisted chi-paths. He was, not to put too fine a point on it, the most awful man on the entire planet. Fire Lord Ozai had risen to power by exploiting his family and destroying their lives, then proceeded to escalate the global war of conquest that his forefathers had started, trying to wipe out the entire Earth Kingdom before Avatar Aang stopped him. Aang had used his powers to take Ozai's Firebending, and his son Zuko locked him away where he would never again see the sun.

And now, he was standing in Suki's hut, calling her by his insane daughter's name. "Right," she said. "Azula. I think you're a little mixed up, there. Surrender peacefully, and I won't have to injure you."

Ozai shook his head, sending his long hair and beard waving. "My daughter would never give her enemies a chance at mercy."

Suki took another step into the hut, fans ready. Why was he just standing there? Did he have a weapon hidden away? For that matter, what was with the Azula business? She was the one who was driven insane by the events that ended the war. Was he on cactus juice? "Well, that would be a good example of why I'm not your daughter, then. Now, surrender."

"Do you truly mean to tell me," Ozai purred, "that you believe yourself to be this 'Suki?' " He took his own step toward her. "You live your life here, think yourself a member of this cult to a dead Avatar, and don't see how they've imprisoned you on what might as well be a deserted island?" He sneered down at her. "If so, then you truly are not my daughter." He kneeled down in front of her, and offered up his hands. "I apologize for the misunderstanding. I surrender."

Suki blinked. This was... odd. Odd like a four hundred-foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings. Why had Ozai come all this way, come here, for this display? Was he who Zuko and everyone were searching for? Then why was this kept from her? Suki glanced down at him. He was wearing a cloth belt that she could use to bind his hands. She was all set to snap her fans closed and give him the same treatment she had to the warden of the Boiling Rock prison, when he suddenly spoke again. "Tell me, do you remember what your father looked like? Who took you in after he died?"

Suki blinked, her mind automatically going to thoughts of her parents. The parents who everyone on Kyoshi Island knew had died in a mudslide. The parents whose faces were not coming to mind. Surely she had some impression of them, some vague remembrance, a feel of a hand, a sound of a voice, a memory of something?

Nothing came to mind, and Suki's mind in turn froze up in a panic as it tried to move in a direction that suddenly didn't exist.

Ozai snapped to his feet and delivered a palm strike straight to Suki's face.

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire," Dong Min said. He had lost count of how long he had been at this.

"M... Mianju..."

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

Ozai had her arms pinned to her back, and shifted to slam her down on the same table where she had shared tea with Ty Lee a week before. Her uniform absorbed some of the impact, but most of it was conducted straight through her solid chest plate. It hurt, but she held onto her breath, and tried to push back up against Ozai in hopes of shifting his leverage. He pressed down in retaliation, putting all his weight on her, but that left him unbalanced, and she moved one of her feet with the intention of hooking his leg and pulling it out from under him.

"Who taught you to use a sword? Or those war fans? Was it hard to learn the Aikido style?" he wheezed right into her ear, and Suki's mind automatically followed the train of thought. She easily remembered the feel of her katana in her hand, of practicing with her fans everyday, and training with the other Kyoshi Warriors in grappling and redirection, but none of those memories went back before the war ended. She tried to seize anything, even the faces of the girls who might have learned alongside her. Her mind flailed about, looking for any purchase in the terrifying sea of darkness where it had been forced, but it found nothing other than Ozai's voice to save it. "Your name," he growled, "is Azula!"

Then he lifted her upright, twisted her around, and shoved her face into a bucket of clean Kyoshi sand that had been left beside the table.

She inhaled reflexively, and a more physical reason to panic blossomed within her as the grains filled her nose instead of the air she desperately needed.

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"My name is Joo Dee. Welcome to Ba Sing Se."

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"My name is Joo Dee. Welcome to Ba Sing Se."

She panicked, and struggled to pull her head out of the sand, but her feet couldn't find purchase on the floor, and her arms alone weren't strong enough to fight against Ozai's weight. She was running out of air in her lungs, and darkness was starting coalesce on the edges of her vision.

Suddenly, her head was yanked upward by the hair. "You are Azula," Ozai bit out. "The Avatar and his allies defeated you, locked you away, and turned you into their little doll. But you can remember what they wanted to destroy. Where did you meet your traitor friend, Ty Lee? Who taught you to fight? What voice guided you through your entire life?"

"I-" she began, but then her face was shoved back into the sands of Kyoshi Island.

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"..."

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"..."

He kept her planted in the sand until she very nearly passed out again, then once more pulled her up by the hair. She heard him say, over the sounds of her own frantic panting, another strangely terrifying assertion. "You are Azula. You were brainwashed to think yourself a peasant, to hide from your destiny, to love a savage with no power. And the only way to save yourself now is to become who you really are. Remember the Palace, where I forged you into our nation's greatest soldier. Remember the way the sun energizes you, and the burning feeling of passion that fueled your Firebending!"

Then there was only sand.

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"...zul..."

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"a... zul..."

Reality had melted away for her. There was only the lands of the light where she could breathe, and the lands of the dark where her own breath filled her lungs with abrasive death. Then she was given relief again, and some odd part of her mind noticed the colored stains on the sands below her, a legacy of the Kyoshi face paints that had been scraped off her face.

"You are Azula," Ozai shrieked. "You can stop this by acknowledging the truth! Tell me your true name!"

Suki managed to inhale one last time just before she was sent back into the sands.

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"Azula..."

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"My... name..."

She wasn't planning, she wasn't thinking, she was beyond even the most basic survival of instincts. It seemed like he was taking longer, this time, leaving her buried without air more than she could survive. Her body spasmed in panic, twisting and shaking and waving her limbs every possible way, but she was slowing. Her arms and legs tingled, and they felt like they were made of rock. Her lungs burned, and she felt herself dying. She had to do something to make it stop to do something to get some air DO SOMETHING-

Ozai pulled her head up again and she just acted. She took a huge breath, looked down at the bucket full of sand, and-

And-

And spat a stream of blue fire over the sands of Kyoshi Island.

The fire exploded on contact, flaring up and splattering glowing droplets of glass all over. Most landed on the little table where she shared tea with Ty Lee, in turn birthing beautiful new flames of golden orange color over the wooden surface. Some burned through her uniform and she felt the heat on her skin, but there was no pain.

Ozai startled at the explosion, reflexively moving away from the blue flames and molten glass that he could no longer Bend, in process letting go of her hair. Panting, she spun to face him, arms coming up in an unthinking defensive stance, but her gaze kept turning back to the blue flames dancing over the bucket.

Blue flames.

Where there were no memories of peasant parents, or a sword teacher, or fellow recruits to the Kyoshi Warriors, there came intimate images of azure fire. She had a flash of the time she poured her concentration into making her Firebending unique, and watching in delight as the yellow flames turned a new color. She felt a hand on her back, gentle and congratulatory, as she demonstrated her new powers for the court. She saw flashes of her enemies on the other side of those flames, always falling back in fear of her.

Aang.

Katara.

Sokka.

Her enemies?

Why did she still feel like her parents had died in a mudslide?

How did she know what was real?

What had they done to her?

"Your name is Azula," Ozai said from the far side of the hut.

She turned to face him, calming her breathing. She couldn't panic. She had to deal with this. She had to be perfect. She had to master herself.

"My daughter," he added.

"Yes," Azula said, "it seems so."

He grinned. "You remember?"

She put a hand on her hip, and gave him a pitying stare. "Well, that's the question, isn't it? Father. You worked so hard to restore me to who I was, and you've succeeded, to a certain degree." She clapped her hands together in mock appreciation. "Well done. The only problem is..." She drew it out, waiting to see his beaming face slacken in realization that he still hadn't quite won. "It seems I'm having a little difficulty sorting my memories out, so soon after ceasing to be Suki. A whole lifetime is a lot to recall, after all, so it's understandable that there would be gaps. For example..."

She stepped towards him, and gave him a small, tight smile. "I'm having a hard time remembering why I ever wanted to keep you alive, even when you could Firebend."

His eyebrows pinched together. "You wouldn't."

She held up a hand, and watched as the blue flames rose out of the palm. A cold feeling settled in her stomach. "Suki certainly wouldn't," Azula said. "But I'm discovering that I'm a whole new woman, now..."

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"My name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"My name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"Your name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

"My name is Azula, Princess of Fire."

Dong Min exhaled slowly, and motioned for his assistant to let the lamp settle to a stop. "Now the hard part begins," he whispered.

TO BE CONTINUED

Author's Note: This chapter should not be read as advocating 'Deprogramming' techniques. Future chapters will illustrate why, Human Rights issue aside, these methods are not supported by any authority in the psychology field.