At once Toph bends away the walls that formed their shelter and they step outside, to see Azula grinning maniacally. They all take a big gulp and take one step closer.
"I knew you all wouldn't let the Avatar die. But I must say when I did capture him he was very sloppy and looked like he was crying. Did his only friends hurt him?" She teased looking at each of them in turn but none of them make eye contact with her. "No matter, I'm sure I will find out soon enough. GUARDS, tie the prisoners up and put them on board the ship. I want you to set sail as soon as possible." With that she turns her back on them and strolls off, with the group following not far behind. Before they know it, they are on the ship, sailing to some unknown destination, Toph and Sokka in a wooden cell on one side of the room and the cell on the other side made out of metal containing Suki, Katara and Zuko.
"Well look on the bright side guys, at least we definitely know that she has Aang." Everyone scowls at him and Toph punches his arm. "Owww what was that for?"
"How can being in a cell with no idea where we are going, be on the bright side?" Zuko growls out, itching to punch him too, but restricted from doing so behind these bars.
"Hey at least I was trying to ease the tension!"
"You know, what has me really surprised is that Azula put Toph in a wooden cell and me in a metal cell, as if she knows… well you know what I mean."
"Yeh that had me stumped too Sugar Queen. Maybe it was coincidence?" Before Katara could reply they hear the sound of heavy footsteps of guards.
"Princess Azula wants to speak to all of you." They take them out of their cells and leads them down a couple of corridors and around a few corners, and inside a huge room where Azula is sitting on a throne in the middle of the room.
"Well hello all, I hope you were all getting comfortable." She grins wickedly.
"Enough games Azula, show us where Aang is!" Zuko grows, if his hands were not tied and the promise he made to Azula he would have taken her down right now. Azula gets up and circles around the group.
"Always getting to the point are we ZuZu? Don't worry I'll show you to your friend, but I must warn you he might not be the same as you know him." She walks off and the guards behind the group pushes them forward, but not before they all frown with concern. They get to a door which is opened and as they go inside, nothing could have prepared them for this sight. Aang's arms were chained to opposite poles and so were his legs, and on him was massive bruises and cuts scattered all over his fragile little body, his clothes were torn, barely just hanging off of him. He looked like he was ready to collapse if it wasn't for the chains holding him up. But what chilled them all to the bone was when Aang lifted his head slightly to see who had entered, his eyes was bloodshot red with bags under his eyes, his fun loving cheerfulness was gone all that was left was dull pain.
"You monster! You lied Azula!" Zuko bellowed, having to be restrained by one of the guards.
"No actually I didn't lie, he's alive isn't he? I never said I wouldn't harm him did I? Now guards take them back to their cells."
Back in their cells…
"I…I can't believe Aang he… oh buddy I'm sorry we didn't come quicker." Sokka choked out, trying to be strong for the others, but failing miserably, 'if she did that to Aang then what's stopping her from doing that to any of us?'
"Erm guys not needing to remind you or anything, but kind of blind here, what was wrong with Twinkle Toes?"
"Trust me Toph you don't want to know."
"That monster! We need to escape from here with Aang before we are shipped over to the Fire Nation! And in there, there will be no mercy what so ever!" Zuko declares while pacing up and down in the cell.
"Oh no kidding? Well if you haven't realised genius, we are in a cell that we can't get of!" Katara scoffed, hugging her knees to her chest.
"Well at least I'm trying to think of something. You haven't thought of anything, actually you don't even care that Aang has been beaten half to death!" Katara jumps up and paces right in front of him
"Don't talk to me about caring! If I correctly remember you had something to do with the last time Aang nearly died!" Zuko steps back shocked.
"Well at least I've changed to the better you've changed to the worse!" She scowls at him and moves her face mere millimetres away from his face and shouts,
"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT?!"
"HOW CAN YOU BE SO CARELESS?!" Katara steps back and looks at him in shock.
"W…w… what did you say?"
"I said you're careless! Surprise surprise I never thought I'd say that to you of all people but hey even the kindest people can be despicable." Zuko turns away from her giving her his back. Katara raises her hand ready to slap him, but Suki decides to intervene.
"That's enough. We are all worried about Aang and getting on each other's nerves. We just need to cool down, so we can come up with a plan to get out of here."
"Humph, I'm sure Katara is not worried at all." Zuko mutters under his breath just loud enough for Suki to hear, who gives him a glare.
Next day the group is again brought out of their cell and in the same room with Azula.
"I heard you all getting restless of being in your cells, so I have a special treat for you all. You will all be moved to another room and not only that but get to watch some entertainment. Now follow me." Everyone frowns but walks after her.
"Why do I have the feeling I'm not going to enjoy this 'entertainment'?" Sokka whispers to Zuko, who merely shrugs and notices this was the same route they took them to go to see Aang yesterday.
"I think I agree with you Sokka." They go inside the room and see Aang in the exact same position as yesterday.
"Guards tie the prisoners on that wall, I want them to see everything." She smirks while the group already have dread filling the pits of their stomachs. "For my special guests I will do something new, which has not yet been done in the world, and you will be the first ones to witness it." She brings out a pole which has two spikes on the top, connecting them together is a wire. "Now Avatar are you ready for your punishment?" Aang stirs a little but doesn't lift his eyes to meet the princess. She forms a fire ball and slaps his arm causing him to jump. "I said… ARE YOU READY?" This time he lifts his head up to look at the princess and gives her a death look as much as he can muster. "Avatar you have guests, let's try to make this entertaining as possible for them ok? Now let the entertainment begin!"
Azula flicks a switch on the pole and the wire sparks alight, she then stabs it into his arm causing him to flinch and grind his teeth in pain, 'I'm not going to cry or scream, not with my friends watching, I can't, I have to be strong for them, they came to save me and look at the mess they got in.' His eyes shift to look at his friends, Sokka shouting something inaudible, Zuko and Toph struggling from their bonds to get free, Suki crying and Katara, she's looking straight at him, her expression unreadable. Azula takes off the electric pole.
"Are you trying to ruin the entertainment? Looks like I need to take this to a whole new level. I need to find your weakest and most vulnerable part. Hmm I know what about the scar on your back?" He could vaguely hear the sound of gasps on the other side of the room, and vaguely feels Azula ripping off the remaining top half of his clothing revealing his pink raw scar, the next thing he knows is absolutely blinding pain, he jerks back and gasps aloud. "Hmm you like that? Well let's try to crank up the electricity current then."
She thrusts the pole in the centre of his scar and this time, no matter how much he tries he can't stop the scream working its way up his throat.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHAHHAHHAAAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHA!"
The blood curdling scream emitted from the young boy cause his friends' hearts to break.
Aang jerks back violently, his body trying to squirm away from the intense pain, his fingers digging deep into his hands to try to withstand the agony, allowing drips of blood to fall from his hands. Soon Azula removes the pole but the boy is still jerking and violently shaking from the electric current, as if he has no control over his own body.
Azula steps closer to the boy and whispers to him in his ear. "You know you can still change your mind, you don't have to take all the pain, let your friends join in, or what about the water tribe peasant? Didn't she cause you pain? Don't you want to inflict the same pain to her? You know you want to."
"N…N…N…Never! She's … not … a peasant…" Aang manages to croak out before he slips into unconsciousness.
"As you wish Avatar!" She turns her back to him and walks out closing the door behind her.
"Aang? Aang buddy? Can you hear me?"
"It's no use Sokka he's unconscious." Zuko tries to tell him gently.
"Your sister is an EVIL MANIAC!"
"Don't tell me about it."
"Erm guys how… how long can Aang well you know… hang in there?" Suki questions worryingly. Sokka and Zuko turns to look at Aang but what catches their attention is the small pool of blood forming behind him.
"Aang is tough, we just need to get out of here as soon as possible. Hey Katara what do you think? Since you're a healer and everything." Everyone turns to her except Toph who stares into the distance looking completely helpless and blind. Katara looks at each one of them in turn and sighs.
"I don't know guys, I can heal but I don't know how much blood he has lost." At that the group looks at Aang in despair and one by one falls into an uneasy sleep.
Four hours later…
Aang stirs awake, his whole body screaming in anguish, he lifts his head ever so slightly and sees his friends still tied up and asleep. 'How are we going to get out of here? This is my fault, I shouldn't have ran off. If any of them are harmed I will never forgive myself, that's why I made that deal with Azula… But how can I trust her? The sooner we get out of here the better.' This is his last thought as he falls into an uneasy sleep
Next day…
"WAKE UP PRISONERS!" The clanging of metal jerks everyone awake. "I have a little surprise in store for you all!" She gives a wicked grin and with her pole in hand she walks towards the weak airbender. "On my pole of pain here, I have 6 settings, 1 being the lowest electric current and 6 being the highest electric current which could lead to death if held for more than a few seconds." The group takes a big gulp and sweat starts to pour down their faces. "Yesterday the highest I used was 2. So this is how we're going to play the game I have in mind. I will electrocute the Avatar and slowly go up the different settings until the water tribe peasant forgives and says sorry to the Avatar for whatever he did."
Sokka frowns, 'well that's easy, Katara will say straight away she forgives Aang… right?' he looks at her, Toph thinks this through, 'uh oh we're in trouble, Sugar Queen is as stubborn as me, no way she'll say sorry before Aang says sorry first.' Katara bites her lip, 'what?! Me say sorry to Aang, it's his fault in the first place that we're in this mess! He's the one who attacked Zuko not me! But do I want to see Aang hurt? Eurgh! It's as if Azula knows I'm stubborn.' Aang looks at Katara straight in the eye, 'I know she doesn't forgive me, I can see it in her eyes, this will be the ultimate test to see if she cares about me or not, but by the look on her eyes I know this is going to be a very painful couple of hours,' he braces himself for the upcoming electricity.
"Now let the game begin!" She jabs the pole straight into Aang's scar at setting 2, he jerks violently, clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles turn white while grinding his teeth so hard to try to stop the scream working its way up his throat. "I don't hear any apologies! Let's see how much the mighty Avatar can take before he falls." She increases the setting to 3 and he starts howling, trying as hard as he could not to scream any louder.
"Katara why aren't you saying sorry to Aang, so this can end!" Suki yells at her.
"I… I can't… I didn't do anything!" She shifts her body weight away from them, trying to block out the airbender's howl.
"Still no forgiveness, wow peasant you are harsh, kind of like me, too bad you are from the water tribe otherwise I would have recruited you." She turns it up to 4, the boy emits an ear-piercing scream, causing everyone to wince except for the crazy princess.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAAHH!"
"KATARA STOP BEING A STUBBORN HEAD AND SAY SORRY TO AANG ALREADY!" Toph bellows, ashamed at the young water bender. Indecision plays on her face, but only for a fraction of a second, 'what am I doing, letting Aang suffer, I am such a horrible person!' she then nods and turns to the airbender.
"Aang I forgive you!" At once the princess removes the pole from the boy and strolls over to the group.
"You ruined my game! Maybe you would like a taste of my pole." Katara gasps and tries to struggle out of the ropes, but its useless she can't escape from the princess's clutches.
"LEAVE MY SISTER ALONE!" Azula turns to Sokka and thrusts the electric pole onto his arm at setting 3, he jerks back and hits his head on the wall behind him, knocking him unconsciousness.
"SOKKA!" Katara, Suki and Zuko yells in unison.
"Y…uo... pr…om..is..ed!" Aang chokes out, Azula turns back to the Avatar, raising her pole at setting 5.
"Yes about that, I lied." She thrusts it in the exact centre of his scar and he gives out a blood curdling scream, jerking back and forth wildly, suddenly his tattoos begin to glow bright white, and the air around the young Avatar start to form a ball of wind around him, blowing Azula away from him and into the wall. Aang pulls at the chains and they break off, the chains at his feet melt away, he moves his arms above his head then back down, tearing the ground into two, he spreads a ball of fire around the whole room, melting the chains of his friends, Suki catches Sokka just before he falls to the ground, he stirs awake and opens his eyes,
"What's happening?"
"Aang managed to get into the Avatar State." He gets shakily up to his feet with the help of Suki.
"But that's impossible, he blocked his chakra!"
"Snoozles this is no time to ask questions, we've got to get out of here before he destroys the whole place!"
"Guys what happened to Azula?" Katara questions, and everyone looks around, but finds no one apart from Aang rising into the air, causing tornados around him.
"Katara go and stop Aang otherwise we'll all be destroyed along with this place." Zuko yells at her, she nods and runs up to Aang.
"Aang! Azula is gone, you can stop now!" He doesn't seem to hear her. "Aang I'm…I'm sorry, I was horrible to you and I acted like I didn't care, but the truth is Aang I do care, I care about you a lot and I'm so very sorry that I hurt you like that, it was wrong and selfish." Slowly the winds dies down and Aang descends back to the ground, the glow from his tattoos vanishes and just before he collapses Katara catches him and lays him gently on her lap, he opens his eyes and blinks a couple of times.
"I'm sorry Katara." He whispers before slipping into unconsciousness.
"No I'm the one who should be sorry." She whispers back and holds the boy close to her.
"We've got get out of here!"
"How are we going to do that smart guy?" Toph yells at Zuko. He pulls out a bison whistle from around his neck and blows through it.
"All this time you could have called Appa?" Sokka whines.
A/N: Hi hope you liked it. Sorry it's a bit graphic, but I wanted to try to make it seem realistic. Just have to post one more chapter and then I've finished this story; but I've been thinking about making a possible sequel, what do you think? Please let me know, and hopefully it wont take me long to update my next chapter :)