With each step Azula felt her body grow और and और weary. Each and every one of her footfalls और wobbly than the next.
Tang-Shin was leading her down a hall that was just as bleak as every other. She wondered how the man navigated the place—everything looked the same to her; white या yellowing-white, lined with tightly sealed doors, and a floor that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in millenniums. She chose to ignore the alarming red splotch near one of the doors.
Was that what she had been sleeping on?
She shuddered.
They reached the end of the hall where stood a giant knobless door.
Tang-Shin offered the man guarding the door a strange signal.
Azula found it odd. Who would choose to guard a heavy metal door that didn’t even have a knob. Perhaps it was a push door and didn’t need one. As she pondered that one over, the guard put himself a few good feet away from the door. He proceeded to drag it open.
It was in fact a pull door.
The man a metalbender.
The dots only half connected themselves in Azula’s dimmed mind.
At least something connected…
Once both Tang-Shin and Azula had passed through, the door slammed shut again. There was no escaping whatever lie ahead. He ushered her through the pitch dark. As if walking in the light wasn’t hard enough. Azula found herself stumbling over her own feet and no sooner tripping to the floor.
Tang-Shin grumbled a string of cusses. He gave her ribs a considerable kick. “Get up, girl.” Apparently he thought her to be so far into a state of delirium that he decided to drop his little refined façade. “Clumsy little brat, आप are.” He muttered to himself.
She was in the middle of setting herself upright—which wasn’t working out—when she felt Tang-Shin’s hand invade her hair. He gripped a nice handful of it and pulled. Azula was back on her feet, but her scalp itched with newfound pain.
This time he held her closer…more firmly. They continued walking at what seemed like a downward incline. The pair came out of the complete darkness and into a hall (identical to the others) with a few drops of torchlight every few feet.
They came to another hall’s end. Though this time it broke off in two directions. Azula was provided a moment’s glance at a very familiar door, before Tang-Shin shoved her around a corner to the left. She twisted her head back to stare puzzle over the door longer; she could have sworn she saw Kirah and Zhu-Ling enter.
The door was now out of sight.
He stopped at a small room.
Azula shifted uncomfortably अगला to him as he fumbled with a large ring of keys.
Two rugged looking men were already lingering near the back of the room. Both were intimidating figures, one barring a jagged scar across his bicep. In her prim Azula could have taken both down in a heartbeat.
Instead she found herself being manhandled द्वारा them. The one without the scar threw her down on some sort of tattered, dirt-ridden gurney.
“Now…” Tang-Shin began. “It has become clear to me that your medication isn’t working…”
A wave of rage washed over Azula. The need to scream that, that was his doing, all too tempting. But she kept her mouth shut.
“Because of this I have decided to try something new with you. And I do believe this treatment is most befitting.” Tang-Shin continued.
The men discarded her cuffs and secured her to the gurney—one strap over her chest, one over her middle, and a third halfway down her legs. She couldn’t budge. Of course Tang-Shin didn’t seem satisfied. He instructed them to place another strap over her head so she couldn’t हटाइए that either.
Ursa, HeeKul, Ling-Ling, and a new presence—the woman with the stitches—were all lined up to see what Azula was in for.
“I will be on the other side of the room making sure everything goes as it is supposed to.”
Azula’s entire body tensed with unspoken fear as the scarred man came near.
The man dropped into a bending stance—working through a technique that was all too familiar to Azula.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Karma is a lovely little bitch.
It could be, that she deserved what was coming.
It was as if her entire brain had exploded. A bright cracking light splintered through her head, bringing with it an agonizing white-hot sensation—searing and burning all that its sparky fingers could touch. Azula’s body convulsed and twitched. Her back arched in a full on shriek, one that hurt her own head.
And then came a sublime dark.
She welcomed it with grateful arms.
For a while the world came to a stop, everything was peaceful. Calm. For the briefest सेकंड she wondered if she should allow this darkness to last forever…if she should just end her bleak existence and trade it in for this kind of nirvana.
After the notion had passed…all other thoughts had come to a momentary cease.
As soon as the unscarred man unstrapped the girl, her sleeping form fell into a violent series of shakes. Head knocking against the floor, limbs jerking rapidly. Tang-Shin yawned. He’d seen a few of his patients react like so to this treatment, it was nothing new.
And he had no plans of tweaking this procedure to accommodate the princess’ needs.
She woke up dazed, confused, and on the floor. Tang-Shin was looming in the corner, waiting for her to come around. When she made no effort to upright herself he strolled over and hovered above her. “Welcome back.”
Azula could only offer him a pained groan.
“We will do this again and again each week, until आप can get this…” He jabbed a finger to her head—specifically on the burn mark left द्वारा the lightning “…in check.”
I’m doing just fine. The thought went unvocalized, as most did. She lie there breathing heavily. Her head was getting all groggy again. What few thoughts she had, jumbled and messy. It wasn’t as bad as a सेकंड spoonful of that medication, but this new procedure was still perplexing.
Tang-Shin offered her no recovery time before hulling her up again. Just like in the pitch darkness, she came crashing down again.
“We have a problem Tang.” It was Zhu-Ling…or was it Kirah… “Haruki is giving us a hassle again.”
Tang-Shin growled to himself. He spared Azula a glance—deciding that, that crumpled heap of a girl wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, he sauntered out the door—his rugged cronies not far behind.
He was terribly mistaken. With the right motivation, Azula could drag herself anywhere. And if they caught her she’d play it off like she had drunkly wandered there—half doped up on meds, it wasn’t a total lie.
She wasn’t all that fast and her stride resembled something akin to a man on cactus juice, but she found her way to that door anyways.
Absent mindedly putting her entire bodyweight onto the door, she fell into the room.
The girl still lie on the operating table, looking worse than before. Her eyes remained unstitched, missing their lids. Her mouth was a different story; through the stitches the girl seemed to be frothing like a rabid rabbitsquirrel.
Something resembling a tumor protruded from her hip and from the चोटी, शीर्ष right of her head.
Azula grew nauseous again.
“Clearly we do indeed need another shock session.” Tang-Shin observed. “Pray tell, exactly how vivid are these hallucinations of yours?”
Zhu-Ling and the two cronies snickered as they brushed past.
It was time to release a nice string of psychobabble. “Shock session. Hallucinations. Shock rhymes with rock.” Her voice came out sounding very distant. “I knew an earthbender who could bend water. The flames he bended were golden. I used to have a golden crown. It was shiny. Shiny, shiny golden crown.” She let her head rock from side to side for good measure.
The look of disgust on Tang-Shin’s face assured her that her plan had worked.
The two simply stared at one another for a good two minutes, Azula taking special care to make eyes look loopy and not quite in the moment.
She broke their eye contact to chance another look at the woman on the operating table.
She was no longer there.
The अगला slur of enraged screaming was nothing but a genuine break. “WHERE IS SHE! WHERE DID आप PUT HER, SHE WAS HERE JUST A मिनट AGO. SHE WAS HERE. SHE WAS HERE. SHE WAS HERE!”
“There was no one in this room I assure you.”
Azula hadn’t intended to do it. Once again, her body seemed to be lengths ahead of her mind.
Tang-Shin recoiled, his hand rubbing at the corner of his mouth. His expression filled with nothing but pure untainted hatred. How dare the wretched girl slug him in the face. How dare she!? He ran his finger over the throbbing area. It would seem that she had burned him too.
Azula could practically see the red in his eyes.
His fist came down on her head. And then again to her stomach—she toppled, voided of air. Deciding against blowing her cover any further, her arms were her only defense against his barrage of kicks.
Zuko hustled to the front door. It was 10:00 exactly.
“I’m here to visit my sister.” He glared at Kirah. “But I think आप already know that.”
“I am well aware.” Kirah replied. “However आप are not permitted to see her. Aside from the fact that she had punched Tang-Shin only an घंटा ago, visiting hours are from 11 to 12.”
Zuko grabbed the woman द्वारा the cuff of her uniform. “Yesterday the visiting hours were 10 to 11.”
“Yes. Yesterday.” The woman seemed unfazed.
He released her. “Alright. That’s okay, I can wait.” He folded his arms over his chest.
“I wouldn’t.” Kirah shrugged. “There is a strong possibility that visiting hours will be delayed due to the multitude of mishaps that occurred this morning.”
Zuko took a सीट and picked up a bundle of scrolls. “I can wait.”
Kirah scowled. “They might even be cancelled.”
Zuko threw the scrolls to the ground. His patience wound way past thin. “You see this!?” He pointed to his crown. “I am your Firelord. When I want something I get it. And I get it right away.” His teeth clenched. “Now, let me see my sister.”
“Oh, but Zuko.” Tang-Shin stepped in. “This is Sun Dragon Island. It has its own king.” He paused. “You see, our asylum is under his jurisdiction, and we are not authorized to release patients and…or allow आप to see them on a whim without permission from कहा king. If आप have a problem with how we run things, आप shall take your complaints to him.”
“Its own king!? Since when does Sun Dragon Island have its own rule?”
“Since we decided to secede from the आग Nation…we were fond of Ozai’s rule, not your sister’s, and certainly yours.”
Tang-Shin was leading her down a hall that was just as bleak as every other. She wondered how the man navigated the place—everything looked the same to her; white या yellowing-white, lined with tightly sealed doors, and a floor that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in millenniums. She chose to ignore the alarming red splotch near one of the doors.
Was that what she had been sleeping on?
She shuddered.
They reached the end of the hall where stood a giant knobless door.
Tang-Shin offered the man guarding the door a strange signal.
Azula found it odd. Who would choose to guard a heavy metal door that didn’t even have a knob. Perhaps it was a push door and didn’t need one. As she pondered that one over, the guard put himself a few good feet away from the door. He proceeded to drag it open.
It was in fact a pull door.
The man a metalbender.
The dots only half connected themselves in Azula’s dimmed mind.
At least something connected…
Once both Tang-Shin and Azula had passed through, the door slammed shut again. There was no escaping whatever lie ahead. He ushered her through the pitch dark. As if walking in the light wasn’t hard enough. Azula found herself stumbling over her own feet and no sooner tripping to the floor.
Tang-Shin grumbled a string of cusses. He gave her ribs a considerable kick. “Get up, girl.” Apparently he thought her to be so far into a state of delirium that he decided to drop his little refined façade. “Clumsy little brat, आप are.” He muttered to himself.
She was in the middle of setting herself upright—which wasn’t working out—when she felt Tang-Shin’s hand invade her hair. He gripped a nice handful of it and pulled. Azula was back on her feet, but her scalp itched with newfound pain.
This time he held her closer…more firmly. They continued walking at what seemed like a downward incline. The pair came out of the complete darkness and into a hall (identical to the others) with a few drops of torchlight every few feet.
They came to another hall’s end. Though this time it broke off in two directions. Azula was provided a moment’s glance at a very familiar door, before Tang-Shin shoved her around a corner to the left. She twisted her head back to stare puzzle over the door longer; she could have sworn she saw Kirah and Zhu-Ling enter.
The door was now out of sight.
He stopped at a small room.
Azula shifted uncomfortably अगला to him as he fumbled with a large ring of keys.
Two rugged looking men were already lingering near the back of the room. Both were intimidating figures, one barring a jagged scar across his bicep. In her prim Azula could have taken both down in a heartbeat.
Instead she found herself being manhandled द्वारा them. The one without the scar threw her down on some sort of tattered, dirt-ridden gurney.
“Now…” Tang-Shin began. “It has become clear to me that your medication isn’t working…”
A wave of rage washed over Azula. The need to scream that, that was his doing, all too tempting. But she kept her mouth shut.
“Because of this I have decided to try something new with you. And I do believe this treatment is most befitting.” Tang-Shin continued.
The men discarded her cuffs and secured her to the gurney—one strap over her chest, one over her middle, and a third halfway down her legs. She couldn’t budge. Of course Tang-Shin didn’t seem satisfied. He instructed them to place another strap over her head so she couldn’t हटाइए that either.
Ursa, HeeKul, Ling-Ling, and a new presence—the woman with the stitches—were all lined up to see what Azula was in for.
“I will be on the other side of the room making sure everything goes as it is supposed to.”
Azula’s entire body tensed with unspoken fear as the scarred man came near.
The man dropped into a bending stance—working through a technique that was all too familiar to Azula.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Karma is a lovely little bitch.
It could be, that she deserved what was coming.
It was as if her entire brain had exploded. A bright cracking light splintered through her head, bringing with it an agonizing white-hot sensation—searing and burning all that its sparky fingers could touch. Azula’s body convulsed and twitched. Her back arched in a full on shriek, one that hurt her own head.
And then came a sublime dark.
She welcomed it with grateful arms.
For a while the world came to a stop, everything was peaceful. Calm. For the briefest सेकंड she wondered if she should allow this darkness to last forever…if she should just end her bleak existence and trade it in for this kind of nirvana.
After the notion had passed…all other thoughts had come to a momentary cease.
As soon as the unscarred man unstrapped the girl, her sleeping form fell into a violent series of shakes. Head knocking against the floor, limbs jerking rapidly. Tang-Shin yawned. He’d seen a few of his patients react like so to this treatment, it was nothing new.
And he had no plans of tweaking this procedure to accommodate the princess’ needs.
She woke up dazed, confused, and on the floor. Tang-Shin was looming in the corner, waiting for her to come around. When she made no effort to upright herself he strolled over and hovered above her. “Welcome back.”
Azula could only offer him a pained groan.
“We will do this again and again each week, until आप can get this…” He jabbed a finger to her head—specifically on the burn mark left द्वारा the lightning “…in check.”
I’m doing just fine. The thought went unvocalized, as most did. She lie there breathing heavily. Her head was getting all groggy again. What few thoughts she had, jumbled and messy. It wasn’t as bad as a सेकंड spoonful of that medication, but this new procedure was still perplexing.
Tang-Shin offered her no recovery time before hulling her up again. Just like in the pitch darkness, she came crashing down again.
“We have a problem Tang.” It was Zhu-Ling…or was it Kirah… “Haruki is giving us a hassle again.”
Tang-Shin growled to himself. He spared Azula a glance—deciding that, that crumpled heap of a girl wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, he sauntered out the door—his rugged cronies not far behind.
He was terribly mistaken. With the right motivation, Azula could drag herself anywhere. And if they caught her she’d play it off like she had drunkly wandered there—half doped up on meds, it wasn’t a total lie.
She wasn’t all that fast and her stride resembled something akin to a man on cactus juice, but she found her way to that door anyways.
Absent mindedly putting her entire bodyweight onto the door, she fell into the room.
The girl still lie on the operating table, looking worse than before. Her eyes remained unstitched, missing their lids. Her mouth was a different story; through the stitches the girl seemed to be frothing like a rabid rabbitsquirrel.
Something resembling a tumor protruded from her hip and from the चोटी, शीर्ष right of her head.
Azula grew nauseous again.
“Clearly we do indeed need another shock session.” Tang-Shin observed. “Pray tell, exactly how vivid are these hallucinations of yours?”
Zhu-Ling and the two cronies snickered as they brushed past.
It was time to release a nice string of psychobabble. “Shock session. Hallucinations. Shock rhymes with rock.” Her voice came out sounding very distant. “I knew an earthbender who could bend water. The flames he bended were golden. I used to have a golden crown. It was shiny. Shiny, shiny golden crown.” She let her head rock from side to side for good measure.
The look of disgust on Tang-Shin’s face assured her that her plan had worked.
The two simply stared at one another for a good two minutes, Azula taking special care to make eyes look loopy and not quite in the moment.
She broke their eye contact to chance another look at the woman on the operating table.
She was no longer there.
The अगला slur of enraged screaming was nothing but a genuine break. “WHERE IS SHE! WHERE DID आप PUT HER, SHE WAS HERE JUST A मिनट AGO. SHE WAS HERE. SHE WAS HERE. SHE WAS HERE!”
“There was no one in this room I assure you.”
Azula hadn’t intended to do it. Once again, her body seemed to be lengths ahead of her mind.
Tang-Shin recoiled, his hand rubbing at the corner of his mouth. His expression filled with nothing but pure untainted hatred. How dare the wretched girl slug him in the face. How dare she!? He ran his finger over the throbbing area. It would seem that she had burned him too.
Azula could practically see the red in his eyes.
His fist came down on her head. And then again to her stomach—she toppled, voided of air. Deciding against blowing her cover any further, her arms were her only defense against his barrage of kicks.
Zuko hustled to the front door. It was 10:00 exactly.
“I’m here to visit my sister.” He glared at Kirah. “But I think आप already know that.”
“I am well aware.” Kirah replied. “However आप are not permitted to see her. Aside from the fact that she had punched Tang-Shin only an घंटा ago, visiting hours are from 11 to 12.”
Zuko grabbed the woman द्वारा the cuff of her uniform. “Yesterday the visiting hours were 10 to 11.”
“Yes. Yesterday.” The woman seemed unfazed.
He released her. “Alright. That’s okay, I can wait.” He folded his arms over his chest.
“I wouldn’t.” Kirah shrugged. “There is a strong possibility that visiting hours will be delayed due to the multitude of mishaps that occurred this morning.”
Zuko took a सीट and picked up a bundle of scrolls. “I can wait.”
Kirah scowled. “They might even be cancelled.”
Zuko threw the scrolls to the ground. His patience wound way past thin. “You see this!?” He pointed to his crown. “I am your Firelord. When I want something I get it. And I get it right away.” His teeth clenched. “Now, let me see my sister.”
“Oh, but Zuko.” Tang-Shin stepped in. “This is Sun Dragon Island. It has its own king.” He paused. “You see, our asylum is under his jurisdiction, and we are not authorized to release patients and…or allow आप to see them on a whim without permission from कहा king. If आप have a problem with how we run things, आप shall take your complaints to him.”
“Its own king!? Since when does Sun Dragon Island have its own rule?”
“Since we decided to secede from the आग Nation…we were fond of Ozai’s rule, not your sister’s, and certainly yours.”