Last Airbender

Gale lay against Alexis, trying to stay awake, but knowing that it would ultimately fail. He had used every last bit of his power to shield her mind. He had consumed a lot of fat and some muscle from his body to make sure it worked. His stomach growled and he finally closed his eyes.

This was a bad situation. But Alexis would know how to use her time stuff to get them out. If not, then...

No.

They wouldn't get into his head. He wouldn't let them. There was always a way to save his mind - they could have his battered, scarred body. It was his mind that was his. There was always a way to separate himself from his self.

But for now, he slept.

Ling looked down at the sleeping child for a long time. Trying to remember what she should do, what she would have done before. To try to comfort the boy in some way. But her mind was blank, dangling the potential memories just out of reach.

She frowned as she noticed that he was weaker than before…. Did he hurt himself trying to help her? He had to have…. There was no other explanation…. A foreign part of her hurt terribly seeing the child in pain. She had to help him somehow. But what could she do? She didn’t have enough room to bend air effectively enough to break the door open so he could escape….. But….. Her mind went back to the fight earlier…. The boy could open the door himself. She didn’t know how his powers worked, only that they did….

But for that to happen, she’d need to give him time. Time to recover enough that he’d be able to escape on his own… But how to do that… She’d need a way to stall the agents from taking him away…. She needed to hide him somehow…

She gently set the boy down in the corner alcove, patting his hair slightly before backing away. “……………..stay still……ok?” She whispered to him before getting to work. Glancing around to see what was there. Not terribly much, but it’d have to do. She raided the bed, pulling off the few sheets and blankets and tossing them over the child, leaving the top blanket on the bed to hide the missing coverings. She moved the bedding to the corner of the room, blocking him in.

She shifted the scant items in the room around, to try to make the change seem more natural. Then….. she waited…. When the agents arrived to take someone away, the only one who seemed to be in the room was her. And if they tried looking for him…… She’d have to-

The girl clutched at her head, which began throbbing painfully, sending the girl to her knees. Apparently……. Apparently thinking of… fighting back like that…. hurt…….. She grit her teeth, thinking about something else. Focusing on what the man had told her before. ‘uhibbuki….’ The pain subsided tremendously as she focused only on that. She tried to calm herself down, beginning to hear footsteps coming down the hallway.

She looked up to see several auras coming towards them…. It was now or never….. If she failed…. She forgot she ever tried…. If she succeeded… She’d be alone…. She glanced back at Gale… Hopefully she wouldn’t be alone….

'…………You’re never alone……..'

“……..Hello?”

Jing-Wei continued to follow the group of teens, keeping back only far enough to make sure that Pala wasn't left behind. Several times, she had to dodge rocks that came at her and she could've sworn she'd heard her name being called...

"Exit's up ahead!"

Hanging back a pace, Jing-Wei set a wall of fire between the agents and the group while the little earth bender sent the door to the tunnel flying. Turning, she moved to catch back up.

"Jing-Wei wait! Why are you doing this?"

She hesitated, glancing between the Dai Li and the open door. Her mind was screaming at her not to go, to return and work things out, everything seemed to tell her that things could be worked out...but a slight doubt had crept into her mind ever since meeting Pala. She glanced back at the door, then turned to face the Dai Li.

"I can't stay..."

It was difficult to ignore the screaming of her mind and the agents behind her, though it became slightly easier as she was forced to doge stone during her retreat.

She came out onto the edge of Lake Laogai just behind the others and half a second later, the Dai Li were out behind her. She sprinted to catch up to Pala and the rest. They were cornered...

She wasn't entirely sure what happened next...a strange...fluffy...thing came flying out of nowhere to knock the Dai Li down and send them flying into the lake. Taking the moment of distraction, Jing-Wei grabbed ahold of Pala's arm.

"Come on...while we have a chance, let's run."

Pala and angelique eventually managed to make it to a nearby patch of woodland, and pala called for a stop.
"We..need to rest. I need to, anyhow. The others are still inside, and i'm worried they may be in danger." After a few moments of silence, pala turned to Angelique and took her hands. "Thank for helping me, and thank you for trusting me. If we can rescue the others, they can help me bring your normal self back...despite what i say, i don't know you all that well. But you've helped me before and i need to help you. You watch my back, and i'll watch yours...mine has already been burnt once."

The boy was shifted and tossed, moved and covered. He lay still as Alexis moved about the room, breathing lightly. Food... he needed food. Food and sleep.

"Food..." He said, lips barely moving. "Bring... some." Suddenly, his ears twitched and he silenced. A stone wall fell, was engulfed by the ground. golden eyes watched as two Dai Li agents entered the room and he silenced, watching them. The shields should hold. They should. They had to

Jing-Wei looked slightly annoyed as they came to a stop in the woods.

"I was really hoping to get some answers...what other powers do I have? What was that odd mark that I was able to use to blow up the door? Are there others like me who can resurrect?" She sat down against a tree across from Pala. "I mean...I just attacked the people I know as my comrades and left behind the only friend I can remember..."

She eyed Pala, then sighed, picking up a branch and beginning to fiddle with it. Her hands wouldn't sit still...they had to be constantly moving. After turning it over in her fingers for a few moments, she began to peel the bark off of it.

"So what should we do now? Do you have a plan on how to get the rest of your friends and Ling out?"

"Patience. I can't answer everything at once. I...think there are more like you, but i have never met any..." Pala sat down as well, tired and weary. "Honestly, the others will tell you more...but for now, we need to rest. Trust me, after a good night's sleep, i can do alot."
She sighed, Angelique still looking at her expectantly. "Please, i just need a little. I've beean beaten and bruised, i've spent hours fighting and my leg is still healing. I'm not a miracle worker. If the Dai Li, have the others, then they're not going anywhere.
Besides...it's not as if we'll be out in the open." She gestured to a nearby clearing, and in a few swift motions, raised a small igloo-like structure out of the earth.
"Angelique, get some sleep, tomorrow all will be as it was."

Ling stood solemnly as the two agents came into the room. She resisted a look back, hoping that the boy would be able to escape. She’d do what she could to protect him, just like she promised. She sadly didn’t know any other way than this… Give him time to recover enough to escape on his own… Even at the cost of…. Never knowing she did so….

She stepped out of the room, past the guards, standing there slightly expectantly. Drawing their attention away from the room. They bought it, following her out, and began leading her away, towards the re-education wing.

….

Long Feng sat calmly in the cell, waiting for one of his men to report to him. He had been incarcerated for several days now, and even here he was still keeping busy. Coordinating the Dai Li, setting a coup into place, tracking the suspicious Kyoshi Warriors, moving all of the pieces where they should be. Soon he heard footsteps coming down the long metallic hallway, a Dai Li agent stopping by his cell door. Passing several scrolls through the bottom to him. He began glancing through them, as the agent began his daily report.

"The re-educations are progressing, though we've run into some trouble..."

"Such as?"

“We've spent the last several days attempting to get the perfect rewrite of the airbender, as you know, it was difficult initially breaking in. We still have not discovered the cause of the barrier, but whatever it was, it prevented us from doing anything. After enough pressure was applied, we were able to break through, and began trying to regress the original programming. After the information we gained from Jing-Wei about the girl, it was determined that we should try to delve back and see what information we could obtain.”

“Sir, if I hadn’t seen what the others can do, I would have just believed her a lunatic! Tales of other worlds, of magical powers, of armies fighting on a broken planet… Sir… The airbender led thousands of people under her! She’s just a young girl…. How is that possible?”

“I’ve seen it happen before…” Long Feng mused to himself, “Continue.”

“Even though she apparently does not have access to her original abilities, which we are currently researching on what she could have meant by moving islands, she did have something we could find useful. Strange sorts of magic and mysticism that she apparently picked up on her traveling. Using papers, inks, chalks, herbs, strange words and symbols, she allegedly can perform spells of various types. We have been working on integrating that into her current personality. We tried to dig deeper, into the ‘time’ magic’s she apparently is sealed away from, but every time we tried, she would just shut down. All we could get out is the word ‘Moipai’, but any mentioning of this… group…. And she’d blank out. We have been working to get the perfect rewrite of the girl, when we tried to let some of her personality stay, it proved to be too much trouble and we had to wipe her again and again, trying to balance out her new persona.”

“What is her status now?” Long Feng inquired, to which the agent made a motion down the hallway. The door opened, and quiet padded steps made almost no sound against the metallic floors. A figure with a long braid in their hair approached, in a similar uniform to the other agent. She stopped in front of the cell door, looking through the metal at Long Feng, a cold steely glint in her amethyst eyes.

“…Ling reporting for duty, Sir.”

He thought he hurt, but he felt nothing. It must have been cold, but he couldn't feel. Numbness consumed him, mind and body, as he let the Dai li questioned him. Empty laughter his only mocking response. Let them poke; let them prod. They wouldn't break him. He'd break them first.
The lamp he knew so well and despised all the same would circle the room. He didn't watch it, though. He watched the Dai li across from him. They spoke. "Welcome to Ba Sing Se...", they began in monotone, rambling on with the re-education. He'd heard it so many times he had it memorized. Coden didn't hear them, though. Didn't see them. He never saw them. Their words twisted in his mind. "Welcome to hell....", he heard instead. "You are no one and you will die." Their words became his own. His eyes bore into them, seeing them and not. His lips twisted inhumanly. Though his hands were bound, he still saw them bleed. Saw them crumple and fall to their demise at his command.
Each time they spoke to him...they eventually stuttered. Faltered. Sensing his sick fantasies as he'd bore into their minds. And they crumpled under his blackened gaze. If they didn't beat him until he couldn't see, or break his bones until he finally screamed, they simply turned with tails between their legs, terrified by his eyes....And left him to his prison. Unwilling to free him for fear of experiencing the unknown terrors he stare at them with.

As of now, it was dark. He couldn't remember if it was because the lights were off or if his eyes were swollen shut from the beatings. It was quiet. Almost quiet. He always heard something. Weather it was hurried footsteps rushing abounds beyond his dark and dank prison, or Dai li discussing whom would break him next. Or rather...who he would break next.
It felt like days since they last bothered to educate him. Teach him to be something he wasn't. They were trying to turn him into their mindless zombie like they'd done to Alexis. He always kept his mind sealed and trained, though. Gale was out there beyond his cell somewhere. He had to get out the first chance he had and find his boy. Every moment he reminded himself of his predicament, he couldn't help but think how Gale might be locked up just like him and worry the boy was going numb and insane in broken silence....again.

Abruptly reminded of the present, Coden squinted his eyes as a door opened. The room becoming illuminated by an eerie yellow green glow from the halls outside the dark cell. Save for the silhouettes of his keepers as they shuffled in one at a time.
"Good morning, Xuexie. How are you feeling today?" He gave the first a diminishing glower. "My name.....is not Xuexie....." They had begun calling him this name now. Like a test to see if he'd submitted or not. Or else they were mocking him. Their own little way of saying He'd never see the light of day again.
The agent stood in the middle of the room, staring at Coden as the others set up the ringed track and lit its lamp. "You may as well be. The only way you are getting out of that chair is by the name Xuexie....or dead...."

Agents had returned to Alexis's room. They looked around, messed with her bed, wondered where some of her stuff went. Gale was unnaturally quiet. He had slept for who knows how long. Minutes? Hours? Days? But it still wasn't enough. He was exhausted, starving. If he wanted to get them, he needed... power. More power. Time to delve into his own mind and just... dig deeper, pull it out.

The agents soon left, but they were idiots. They left the door wide open. Gale could escape. Maybe find some food or get out. Carefully, he slid from the alcove. But his legs couldn't keep him up. He immediately collapsed to the ground, groaning. Trembling, he glanced up. The door was still there.

He tried...

Not even enough energy for a probe. Damn it.

Shakily, skinny arms reached out and pulled, tearing and clawing at the ground. Slowly, he crawled out of the room, determination the only thing driving him now. Out of the room and into the hall. Ears twitching, he began crawling away from the noises. But they inevitably caught up. Running footsteps.

The boy found a rock and rolled, hiding behind it. With monstrous effort, he pulled his lead filled legs to him. The footsteps stopped.

"Uncle, some one was here," the boy heard the familiar voice. He stifled a hiss. What were the tea shop people doing here?!

More footsteps. He tensed as they got closer, relaxed as they went away and jolted as the face of the old man appeared above him. The boy let out a growl.

"How did you get down here, child?" The old man asked. Gale had no answer. Just keep him away and get out. He could be an enemy. Despite his growls and glares, the old man silently studied him. Took in his all too skinny frame, haggard appearance, and bruised body. Slowly, he reached down and helped the boy up.

"Don't worry, child. My nephew and I were just leaving. I don't believe you want to be a guest of the Dai Li."

"Uncle!" The young man breathed. "Look at his back." The Uncle studied his wing as well, curious. A dragon! Who would have guessed?!

Gale's wing flared out as he glared. Stop staring! he screamed silently. Stop staring at me! "Lemme go," he coughed out. "Gotta... f-find... nng."

He rubbed at his eyes fervently, trying to keep himself awake. Maybe if he ate just a bit more of himself... His legs buckled under him and the Uncle supported him more, lifting him off the ground and carrying him.

"Come, nephew. Let's get him back to the tea shop."

"Uncle!"

The Uncle silenced him with a stern look. "He is starving and may need help. We have more room in the new tea shop anyway." The Uncle's grin had Zuko slap his forehead in his hands.

"Fine." He sighed. "Let's just leave." Gale stared over the Uncle's shoulder as they took off, seemingly knowing where they were going. The boy forced himself to stay awake. He didn't want to leave. He wanted Coden and Alexis.


((So, I am confused on the time thing. I can add more if there is more of a timeskip or something. Um... and... If this interferes with your post, SIlvi, then I'll change it.))

Jing-Wei, or rather Angelique, found herself unable to sleep, simply laying there under the cover Pala had created, going over things in her mind. The woman had said that the "others" would be necessary in straightening out her mind. The fact that they had been the only two to escape the Dai Li headquarters had lead her to believe that Pala intended to go back and rescue said others.

'Going in blind wont be smart, even if I do know the layout of the place...no doubt Long Feng will expect us...'

No...if there was going to be a rescue, it would be better to have an idea what's going on. Quietly as possible, Jing-Wei got up and crawled out into the open air before concentrating on that small break in her powers and transforming back into the bird state and flying off.

Pala was trying to help her, the least she could do was some recon.

((Go ahead and assume she's back by the next morning.))

Anglique was waiting by the entrance of the small stone camp, when Pala awoke from an unusually comfortable sleep. She must have really needed it. A good awakening was soured by the news that the lake had been abandoned. Nobody there, at all. That meant...no Gale, no alexis, no coden.

"I'm guessing...they're together, hopefully. I just hope they merely left, instead of some sort of...disaster. Do you have any idea where they left from, angelique? I have a little experience as a tracker, perhaps we can follow their trail, if they went overground."

Jing-Wei shook her head. "My guess is that Long Feng ordered the base destroyed as it was compromised. The Dai Li are very careful about secrecy." She paused. "I don't know where they'd be at the moment, but Ba Sing Se would be the best place to start looking...we may want to try and get back into the city to search. If nothing else, the Dai Li take their rounds and we could most likely ambush one and have them take us to the new location."

Pala sighed, as she realised things were going to get very difficult, very quickly. How to track people in the middle of a city? How would she tell them apart from anyone else, even if she could follow them? She couldn't, that's how.
"Looks like we'll have to get interrogating. You know Ba-sing-se better then i do, so i'll follow your lead, okay?"
She didn't really want to interrogate anyone if she had to, it could turn bad quite easily, and then they'd be no better then the Dai-li themselves.

After a rather brief time with Long Feng, the Dai Lee soldiers escorted Ling through the depths of the palace, deep underground to the headquarters in the forgotten city below. She seemed to unnerve the agents that were with them, it wasn’t hard to feel the sheer presence the girl now gave as if she were staring right into their souls. With certain aspects of her personality back, she was more efficient, the other agents had decided. If she led people before in a war, and had access to strange magic’s, if she retained those things, she would be much more useful than being simply a mindless doll.

She was silent as she was led to her quarters, a rather simplistic room, but still better than the dungeon from before, not that she remembered these things. She had been rewired again, remembering only the implanted lies. She was escorted inside, the wall falling down behind her. She was to rest until the next day when the coup was to begin.

Sitting on the bed, Ling stared at the floor blankly, an elegant façade for the world. Before, in the desperate need to survive in one way or another, Ling had agreed to work with the invisible voice, who had promised her eventual salvation from this dungeon of her own mind. Fragmenting herself down, they hid away in the back of her mind, leaving only a small aspect to be tarnished and marred by their mental tricks. As whatever aspects of the true Alexis remained dreamlessly slept, memories blocked and hidden from her… IT waited. If it just tried to run, it knew it’d get caught. Without her powers, Ling was an easy mark. It needed to plan. To figure out a way to escape with those that would assist Alexis, and find a way to retrieve what had been taken from them.

The surface Ling did not know any of this, It was going to wait till the opportune moment to begin weaving together it’s plan. To get revenge on those that tried exploiting them…… It was worth the wait…

Without any notion that the pieces were moving together around her, Ling changed and went to bed, dreaming of impossible things, mumbling softly under her breath.

“……..Ana behibak…….”

Much sooner than they would have expected, the child was up again. Gale cursed himself for falling asleep and worried that they had seen what was usually hidden by his clothes. After all... he had awoken in a bright, sunlit room on a thin mattress. It was no bed, but was more comfortable that the wooden floor. Covering him was a plain white nightshirt that went down to his knees.

The child stood, stretching out his wing. He was starving. Probably looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks. When he found some clothes set aside - they had to be for him, unless there was another person who needed a hole in the back of the shirt, he slipped it on, examining his body in the process. His ribs were sticking out of his chest and his skinny arms were frail as twigs.He needed food and he needed it now

After dressing, Gale exited the room, headed down some stairs. The smell of food were more enticing than the sounds of people down there. When he peeked out from the stairs, there were so many tables and so many people eating and talking and drinking tea, he just about when back up.

But the scarred boy saw him and beckoned him into the kitchen. Gale followed, dashing quickly, lest people see his wing. The scarred boy pointed to a table, where a steaming bowl of... something delicious... was. "Uncle said you needed to eat," he said, as if he didn't think Gale should eat there food. "Eat all you want, as well." then a loud call had him running out of the kitchen, plate of tea cups in hand.

Gale watched him go. Then sat down at the table himself, digging into the bowl after a small probe deemed it safe. When the scarred boy would enter again, Gale would have the whole pot of the stuff, digging in like an animal.

((Yeah, not really relevant, but I'll post again when I'm not so tired))

[WIP]

"What's this? Since when did we take prisoners?" Azula stood before the unusually timid group of Daili, staring uninterestedly at the strange, dark skinned man bound more securely than she expected necessary. A stone mask covered the lower section of his face and a thick jacket of stone kept his arms wrapped tightly around himself. Chains around his ankles, to keep him from running? Looking the man over, she met his eyes. Dark and black. They looked quite deadening.... Her eyes shifted to the Daili, whom shifted nervously. Always standing just so many paces away from the man on all sides. If he moved an inch when he shifted footing or just breathed...they quickly adjusted their stances.
What, she wondered, was so frightening about this ordinary looking man that even in such heavy bindings they feared him?

"Ma...master Feng wants him re-educated...", replied one Daili quickly.
"Then why isn't it done?" Azula cut in sharply.
"He refuses to succumb, as though immune...We have been trying non stop, nothing is working."
The young woman sneered and curled her lips in disgust. "Then stop wasting you're time and just get rid of him already."
The Daili gave one another a careful wayward glance. Silence becoming of them. Azula looked upon the group darkly. "You dare to hesitate? That was an order. You are expected to 'follow it'!" Still they were unmoving. The man between them shifted with a slight drop of his head, eyes smirking at no one.

observing this, Azula glared between the prisoner and Daili a like. Don't tell me you're 'afraid' of him.... Look at him. He couldn't hurt a fly if he wanted..." Her voice mocked them, teasing the grown men as she stepped past them boldly.
"Azula! I wouldn't if I were--"
"Of course you wouldn't. You're pathetic... "

{WIP}