Pre-Chapter A/N: Happy Holidays Everyone. Here's this week's chapter right on time for your enjoyment. As always, the following two chapters are up on pa-treon. There's a handy little December discount on both monthly and annual plans. If you just want to read complete chapters and not my work in real-time, then feel free to purchase this story as a collection on my pa-treon page. It's a nice way to support this story and me while you're at it. Enjoy!

I wasn't a good person. I had no doubts about that. I was selfish, power-hungry, and far too prideful to even be vaguely considered as a good person. So maybe that is why I did not hesitate when I was given the power to do as I wished. Brainwashing. The power to change the memories of others. It was one hell of a trump card to have in the deck. The Dai Li had kept it in reserve but still used in indiscriminately to take and maintain control of the city. After Long Feng had delivered the secrets of brainwashing, he delivered even more secrets to me. Things like how the Dai Li had kept the city pliant and in control. He had given up names and places and dates and amounts and a thousand other things that he used to keep his reign in order.

Upon understanding the scope of what he had at his disposal, I had my decision made, and it was not one that I had seen coming, or even one that Maki was very approving of.

"So you want just to use the brainwashing on both Long Feng and Princess Azula?" Toji asked with a smirk on his face. Toph was crumpling a piece of metal between her hands, feeling out the material and trying to get used to it, while Amara hovered over the Princess, doing her work to keep the royal unconscious and unaware of our discussion.

"I do. Long Feng would be useful as a tool for keeping the city in order. You heard all the things he said. There are a thousand things keeping this city in order, and to be honest with ourselves, we would fail to keep them all in check" I said in reply even as I spotted Maki tighten her clenched fist at my words.

"He gave his secrets to us, we have as good a chance of managing it as he did. His Dai Li agents are gone for the most part so what is even the value of one old man to us" Maki said, bargaining into the conversation.

"We both know that isn't true, Maki. He still has undercover agents across the city. The Joo Li corps are still a valid instrument on the table that we can only use with his help."

"What if the brainwashing doesn't take? What if he has some defences against it?"

"We already confirmed that it will and he doesn't. There's no way to defend against it, in fact."

"And the Princess?" She asked next.

"We need to undo what Long Feng did to her and he already did confirm that that was the only way to get all the brainwashing solved" I replied.

"And that's all you'll do?" She asked, eyes flickering between Toji and I. I wondered when this mistrust had built. Oh yes. It came when I recruited a child and turned her into my own personal murder bot. Having her as a witness to Long Feng's torture had probably also been a bad idea.

"That's all we'll do. Believe me you, I would never want something as ridiculous as brainwashing the FireLord's daughter on my head" I said with a smile while I lived through my teeth. Behind Maki, Toji looked to be having the time of his life as he tried to prevent himself from erupting in hysterical laughter.

"Alright then. I'm going topside. I want no part in all of this" She said as she left without turning around. She hadn't believed me. What a shame. Not a surprise, though.

"You're usually a better liar than that" Toji said once Toph had closed the door/wall behind Maki's exiting form.

"Only an absolute idiot would fail to take advantage of the tools open to him. The Princess had shown no small amount of hostility towards me for no just cause earlier so why not use the opportunity to make things square." I said. This was to be my revenge against Azula. My revenge against Azulon for placing the unjust punishment on my family in the first place. My revenge against Ozai as well for using my Grandfather as a tool and leading the old man on with false promises. Azula would be my tool in the end.

"Fair. Now, when are we getting started" He asked.

"There's no better time than now" I replied with a shrug.

"Amara, are you capable of placing them in the requisite trans? Long Feng mentioned that they use a combination of drugs and hypnotism to replicate the skill but that it had been one from the water tribes initially" I asked, turning to her. I knew she would not betray me now. I could read people as well as I could read books, and Amara was a coward. She wouldn't mess this up because I would be able to trace it back to her, and she knew she wouldn't have a choice if I decided I wanted her dead.

"I can do it."

"Good. Get on it. Toph, I understand if you don't want to be around for this" I said.

"Are you kidding? This is going to be so cool. I've never met a spirit before." She said with a wide smile. I nodded at her enthusiasm and reached out to ruffle her hair.

"Let's move out" I finally said.

Toph created two floating platforms for each of our targets and we began to move through the base. Long Feng's brainwashing was so much more complex than what the series had made clear. For one, it was not technology that made it possible, it was something beyond true comprehension.

We arrived at the dark cavern and with a flick of my wrist, I provided lighting for our journey, a strong orange flame that lit up our immediate surroundings but failed to go further. Almost like the darkness of the cavern was fighting the light of the flames. We walked deeper and deeper in, and when we found it, I could barely resist the urge to retch.

It was bound by rusted iron chains. Chains around what looked to be its wrists, ankles, neck, and chest. What looked to be, because its appearance was constantly shifting to my senses. Almost like my brain could not entirely understand what it was seeing. All I could tell was that it was terrible. I saw Toph move to a corner to quietly throw up and made the decision to ask her about what the spirit had felt like to her senses. It must have been something terrible to provoke that kind of reaction from a girl who was otherwise one of the strongest teenagers I had ever had the pleasure of acquaintanceship with.

"Kah the Dreamweaver" I said as an introduction, and the form before me shifted in recognition as it recognised its name. Now, I had its attention. It's attention, I thought with no small amount of revulsion. I could feel the weight of its interest upon me and it was making me want to cover up. Want to turn and hide. Want to run.

"Ahhhh Natsu Wu….or should I say, xxxxxxx." I felt my body freeze at the words. That was my name. That was my name from my first life. What in the actual fuck? It was in my mind.

"Yes, I am in your mind. Minds are easy for me, you see" It began, and I did not even wonder why his voice sounded so wrong to my ears. It was like the sound of nails on chalkboard.

"Yes, that must be quite uncomfortable" It was still in my head. Fuck.

"Shut up" I growled out.

"I don't quite feel like" It began.

I flashed my flames out, making them brighter and enjoying the way it cringed away from the fire.

"Longing, Rusted.." I had barely begun the sequence when the spirit began to scream.

"Oh fuck you. Fuck you. You won't make me" it wailed

"Seventeen, Daybreak, Furnace, Nine, Benign…" I continued, ignoring its protests

"Please. Please. Please don't" it was begging now

"Homecoming, One…"

"Ahhh"

"Doom" I said the last word and the spirit locked up, going still.

"Command me, Master" It said instead, in an audibly mechanical tone.

I nodded, pleased that it worked as expected. All the while, Toji watched with a tilted head.

"Have you got him in the right state?" I turned to Amara and asked. She nodded, struck dumb for some reason.

"What? Cat's got your tongue?" When she didn't reply, I scowled but turned to the target. Long Feng's eyes were glassy and empty. Just like he had described that they would need to me for the brainwashing to work. I wanted to ask Toji to handle the next step, but looking at him told me that he would not be pleased to do it. He'd obey, of course, but I was not that type of leader. I struggled with his weight for a few seconds but managed to lift him with ease when I sent the heat running across my body. As I did so, I felt my head clear itself for the first time since I'd stepped into this cavern.

It was the darkness, I realised. Even trapped and overcome, Kah's influence still stretched over the cavern. It was nothing overt. It was almost insidious with how subtle it was. It didn't make me any less myself. It just made me more prone to feeling string emotions and allowing them to dictate my actions. That was why I'd felt panic when he'd said my name and not just fear. It was an amplifier of emotions. How fascinating.

I dropped the Dai Li leader at the foot of the spirit and pushed it closer.

"Assume the position" I ordered with a blank face, repeating the words as Long Feng had offered them. This was a statement he'd attempted to deceive me on no less than four different times. I tossed Toph a fond smile that she would never see but she had really more than earned her keep with me. Not like she ever needed to but the point stood.

The spirit's form shifted as it wrapped its body around Long Feng. Its form suddenly began clearer. It was like it had a pocket in its midsection like a Kangaroo's except it opened from the bottom and not the top. The pocket enveloped Long Feng until there was nothing visible of him except his feet. I felt the urge to recoil from the sight but stood tall.

"Long Feng was never truly loyal to the Dai Li. From the day he was recruited, he worked to undermine the organisation, until he met General Wu of the Fire Nation. He instantly became friends with him and swore to serve his family in perpetuity. He wished he could have helped the General with his siege and mourned when the siege was called off by the Fire Nation Prince. Upon General Wu's death, all his love and loyalty which is so intense that he would rather die than betray him, transferred over to General Wu's son, Natsu Wu. " I dictated, and the Dreamweaver began to duo its job. Like Long Feng had said, the dreamweaver could rewrite memories to affect the emotions held by a target on any subject whatsoever. Vague instructions that had emotions tied to them were better as they gave the creature the room to tell a fitting story. It was also why I had not included myself in the narrative until the end. He was going to receive memories of building a relationship with my father. Those memories would be unfalsifiable because it wasn't like he'd ever mention something that he'd expect me to know.

The room seemed to stand still as the weaver worked his sorcery. It took about half an hour for the dreamweaver to finish his work and when it did so, it retreated from Long Feng's form, leaving the man stationary and covered in some sort of goop. I returned him to Toph's platform, trying to do my best to prevent getting any of the liquid on me.

Without asking him, Toji stepped forward to pick up Azula's body and place her down where Long Feng had just been. I nodded at him in thanks. At least not having to do it twice made things better. It also brought me some reassurance, the fact that Toji could overcome the influence of the aura that made one recoil at the spirit.

"Assume the position" I ordered again. This time, the spirit covered the girl from head to toe. I nodded at the sight before clearing my throat and beginning to give the long list of instructiions that would unravel Long Feng's own brainwashing and replace it with my own. What did I brainwash her to do? Nothing complicated, to be honest. Just for her to remember falling in love with the idea and person of Natsu Wu from the first time she heard of him. It made me feel a bit sleazy inside, but Toji and I were in agreement on this course of action. This was the best way to secure our futures in the fire nation.

Besides, if I thought about it and compared it to her fate in canon, this was a noticeable step up. She'd rule beside me as Lady of the Fire Nation instead of being relegated to spending the rest of her life in prison after watching her less deserving brother take her rightful place on the throne. This was mercy. A part of my mind whispered that mercy seemed to very neatly coincide with my interests but I shut it up quickly enough.

Azula's brainwashing took even more time than Long Feng's and when the spirit was done, Toji moved to return her body to the platform. Toph had gotten bored and left the cavern earlier, which was probably for the best.

I turned to the spirit once its work had been done. I'd spent the time it worked debating with myself. This spirit knew the truth of me. Sure, only Toph, Toji, Amara, and I even knew about this place in the first place, bit that didn't matter when one took the level of risk that the reveal of that information presented. The likelihood of the event had to be weighed along with the danger posed by the event. Even a 10% chance of complete and utter destruction was unwelcome to say the least. The secret of who I was- what I was was worth everything. Everything. Long Feng had said everyone who knew about the spirit other than himself was dead, but he did admit that Dai Li agents were still out there. What was the guarantee that the others had not mentioned it to them without Long Feng's knowledge.

The only counterargument I could make against destroying this threat now was the potential for brainwashing the Avatar. But was that even possible? My first instinct was no. But then again Koh the Facestealer was a legitimate threat to the Avatar, so why would the dreamweaver be any different? The counterargument to that was the fact that it's the fucking Avatar.

"Do you think this would work on the Avatar?" I asked Toji, turning to face him. He just looked at me like I had said something extremely stupid. It was the kind of look he had when I first suggested we go cliff diving some years back. He'd ended up becoming a true believer iun the end, but he'd thought it was quite stupid and risky in the beginning.

"It's the Avatar" He replied like he was speaking to a child.

"Yes, but he's a man as well. A child even, if the reports from Sung and the others are to be believed. We know that this spirit has worked o everyone that the Dai Li have tried it on. The texts say that Kuruk himself fell to spirits in the end and that Yangchen had lost to a few in her lifetime. That means the Avatar isn't immune to spirits so why not?" I ventured, playing devil's advocate.

"It. Is. The. Avatar" Toji was not interested in playing ball and arguing the merits and demerits of my plan with me, it seemed. I nodded, accepting the logical counterpoint. Fucking with the Avatar seldom went well for all involved, and being on this side of things, I could see the Avatar in a completely different light.

He had escaped a Prince of the Fire nation on multiple occasions, and 'unskilled' or not, Zuko was still beyond 95% of firebenders out there. Then there was the debacle at the Fire Sage's temple that had been hushed up for a while but had leaked heavily in the aftermath of the botched North Pole invasion. He'd dealt our nation the greatest defeat in our history and was still a child. Needless to say, most of the fire nation military wanted to have nothing to do with the Avatar and Toji shared that opinion.

I turned to the spirit next. It was too risky to leave as a threat on the chance that I would need it one of these days. I didn't even consider something as braindead as brainwashing Ozai or Iroh. They were too dangerous to be taken alive.

"No, don't please" Kah snapped out of its dazed state for a second, sensing its doom and dove right at me. It was too late, I'd already pointed my palm at it and let loose. I'd been circulating my inner flame all around my body when I started, so it took a second for my power to concentrate itself, properly. But once it got going, it really got going. The darkness fled the cavern like it was chased. The heat that I'd been allowing to build within my body asserted itself into reality with a snap. I watched the colour of my flames shift as it darkened in the center, shifting from orange to a light blue, and then lightened all the way back to white. All the while, I grit my teeth and ignored the screams that sounded out in my mind.

Toph had collapsed to the floor. Toji was holding his head and Amara had fallen unconscious. It was too late to stop now, I thought as I pushed even more power to my fire. I felt the screams cut off abruptly but kept the fire going. Something told me it wouldn't be that easy, and I was right. I felt my left leg seize up and almost give out on me, and then my right hand, the one I wasn't using began to inch up my body of its own accord.

When it grabbed a hold of my throat, I ignored it and kept feeding all I had into the flames. My own hand began to choke me out but I kept my attention on roasting this creature out of existence. I hadn't even begun feeling the effects of the lack of oxygen when the screams returned to my mind. The cavern had become a boiler in the minutes since I'd begun. I turned to Toji after he managed to make it to his feet again and gestured with my head to get the others out of here. Credit to him, he hesitated. But the heat became too much for him in time as well. The fact that I was being choked was actually working to my advantage. I could just hold my breath and focus on the flames even as I felt all the oxygen in the room be used up in the fire.

It was when the stones behind him began to pop and crackle that I finally felt the feeling of being unable to continue. I pushed through the first signs of exhaustion. I couldn't allow this thing escape here. No. This was it.

Toji took the others out and I felt myself roar even with my hand around my neck as I channeled more of myself into the flames. From white at the centre, the flames darkened once more. I felt it within me as they shifted to a burning green. A familiar green. The screams amplified in my head, becoming even more desperate until they gave out. This time, I felt my hand return to my control as my leg did the same. I returned some of my weight to it cautiously for a second before I fell to my knees as the flames cut off against my will.

Where the spirit had laid, there was just a mass of ash that began to dissolve right before my eyes.

A/N: That's the chappy. I hope you loved it. As always, the next two chapters are up on pa-treon. There's a handy little December discount on both monthly and annual plans. If you just want to read complete chapters and not my work in real-time, then feel free to purchase this story as a collection on my pa-treon page- nice way to support this story and me while you're at it. Enjoy!