trans_9 | Meat n' Greet

"No!" She felt the cold crawling ice making her arms immobile and let out a scream, "Not again!"

Fueled by fear and panic fire exploded from her arms shattering the still forming ice and Azula jerked backwards. Stumbling and rolling into a clumsy crouch. Her eyes were wide with a look of fear that was unbecoming of Azula and she was panting to catch her breath. Smoke rose from her fingertips and she turned from fear into a deadly glare.

She would never allow that filthy peasant to make her feel so...so...helpless! Never again.

Kaya knew that Azula's fears were likely going to get her hurt, hurt more than any fire or water they could shoot at each other. So right now, Kaya really didn't have a choice. It was take Azula out of commission, or let Stacy deal with her.

And she was unwilling to let that happen, no matter what the cost. So she raced over to Azula, using all the speed she'd acquired on the ship, and without a word, brought the shield out and hit Azula with just enough force that it would keep her unconscious.

It was clear to see, looking at Kaya, that she was torn. She knew Azula to be the monster that haunted the GAang, who almost killed Aang, Zuko and then Katara, who would have continued that long line of violence and cruelty the Fire Nation was known for.

But she was also somebody's sister, and clearly still suffering from some insanity.

"No killing," Kaya said, looking at Mai. "No matter what happens, none of us take a page from her book."

Where he'd been in the Sensoriums, he'd let out a yelp of "Monkeyfeathers!" when he saw his omnicom and then he'd come running. Hence there was a gust of air and there was Aang, skidding to a stop and ending in a fighting stance.

"Right! What Katara sai--you're not Katara."

Aang's memories shifted, suddenly, and while he didn't know who she was, he did know who she'd been. How could this even be possible? How could he have been so certain it was the girl he loved and then somehow it wasn't?

Could any of his memories be trusted now?

What had Stacy done?

The problem with this little revelation was that it was a distraction at the absolute worst time possible.

"How--?"

Edited 2011-04-02 04:21 (UTC)

Zuko skidded to a stop next to Aang, drawn in by Mai's message.

"Mai, what -"

He was momentarily distracted by Katara - or, wait, no, not Katara - too. This was the girl they'd fought beside for . . . perhaps a year, certainly, but she wasn't Katara, somehow. Even though it had never entered his mind before to think she was not.

Regardless, he had more to be concerned about with the girl he DID know for certain was his sister - his sister, who was going to steam her way out of the ice, if he knew her.

Zuko raced forward to take a stance in front of her. If she was going to attack the crew and rack up violations, then fine, but he would have to stop her firebending from injuring any of them .

"Azula. Stop this."

She . . . probably wouldn't listen to him. But it was worth a shot.

Sokka was hot on Zuko's heels, finally having been attracted to the fight by the prodigious amount of bending and fire being slung around. He skids to a halt next to Katara--wait. He boggles over at Kaya for a moment.

"Wait--who--I--But--Later! Azula now!" He has his shotgun out and leveled, finger not yet on the trigger but he's waiting. Hopefully he wouldn't have to use it, though.

"Kill her."

Her voice is quiet, but filled with steel and bitterness and anger.

"ENOUGH with the killing talk!" Kaya's voice rang out. "Put that away Sokka! You could get a punishment for that, are you crazy?! And stop egging him on Mai!"

She wiped the sweat from her brow. The bending had been bad enough, attacking Azula straight out and now all of the GAang were here (most of them, anyway). She knew she may as well have left Azula for them to decide, but Aang was only one person and the rest of them definitely had no love for Azula.

She didn't either when it came down to it, but at least she wasn't thinking haphazardly about this.

"We have to get her contained. She shouldn't be able to do any more bending for now or she's just going to get more violation. And...um, hi guys. I'm Kaya."

Did they even remember her?

"Uh, new girl, Kaya is right. It's against the laws of this ship. We get Security involved. We deal with this the right way."

She was sick. Regardless of how genuinely evil she was, she was still also sick. Not that killing her would be the right thing to do even if she wasn't sick, but that made this very complicated.

Aang lifted his chin slightly.

"But whether or not we take you in the hard way or the easy way depends on you, Azula. You can stop faking that you're knocked out annny minute now. We know you. You can't trick us anymore."

Edited 2011-04-02 05:08 (UTC)

Heh heh heh heh EH heh heh heh..." She was shaking as she lay flat on her stomach , face on the ground. Her entire body trembled as the unstable laughing grew louder and louder, "HEH HEH HEH AHA HA HA HA HA AHHHHH HA HA HA HA!" Tears streamed down her face as she curled up clutching her sides. She was in hell. Absolute hell. Why wouldn't they all be here? If everything this nightmare was saying was true she had nothing left in the world except these people around her. The same people who had destroyed her life in the first place.

So she laughed, and cried and shook on the ground every muscle winding tighter and tighter as her laughter echoed in the chamber.

If there had been one good thing, one good thing at all, about being on this ship . . . Zuko might have once said it was not having to hear that laugh of hers, or see her like this, or think about her at all, except to worry that she might be let out of a pod some day.

That this might happen.

He breathes in to steady himself, and lets it go in a huff. "We're not killing her, Mai."

It would be SO much more convenient if she would just . . . die though. Zuko has the thought, and instantly feels like a terrible person for having it.

"She . . . she needs to go back into holding, though. We need to make sure she's restrained, so that she can't hurt anyone."

Because she will. He's not worried for himself - not after he and Katara defeated her, not now that he knows he can survive her lightning - but she'll hurt someone else. And as her only relative, he'll be responsible for it happening.

"Somebody should go get help. Somebody to lock her up."

"If we don't, she's just going to try and kill all of us again," she snaps back. Zuko could be an idiot sometimes.

She flicked her gaze over to Kaya. She'd figure out who she was later, but she certainly wasn't Katara. Then over to Aang.

"Can't you do that thing where you take away her bending? At least then she can't burn us to death."

His weapon wavers, then Sokka turns and darts into the crowd. "I'll be right back--Gonna get security!" He dashes off, slinging his weapon as he goes. Gotta find someone to help get Azula safely under lock and key.

Good. Backup would be there in a moment, they could get her locked up, and then figure out what to do from there. Aang stood there, locked in a fighting stance still, eyes constantly trained on Azula.

"The problem with bending someone's energy is I put my entire spirit at risk. It can be corrupted by the energy of the other person and I could be destroyed. It's will against will."

And he nearly lost against the Firelord. Even while crazy, it was entirely possible that Azula's will could be stronger.

"I also don't know what it could do to her sanity, and I'm pretty sure it violates the laws here. We have to do this without getting arrested ourselves, or making anything look suspicious enough for her to twist against us. We can't let her gain a foothold here to manipulate anyone."

Edited 2011-04-02 06:03 (UTC)

Kaya listened, thinking of Azula lying there. She vaguely remembered Katara's feelings on Azula: dangerous, psychotic, deranged at the end. Yet at that end, Katara had seen Azula lose everything, and saw the pain there despite all of it. There was no joy in that, no way to do anything but wonder what on earth could fix a thing like that?

"We might need to just rework her now," Kaya said. "I mean yes, there's killing her or imprisoning her, but that won't fix her at all. All that'll prove is that we fell to her way. And the risk of losing Aang while she's in that state isn't something we should risk either."

She could really, REALLY not believe she was saying this.

"If there is a non killing way to take this craziness out of Azula, we should try that. Azula is going to have to live on this ship, the same as us. Doesn't she deserve at least a chance? She's not exactly in the best state right now."

"If none of you are going to do it..."

She takes a step forward and suddenly, there is gleaming, sharp metal in her hands. She looks at Aang, then Kaya, then Zuko. Her expression is set, grim and there is a sharp, intense anger in her eyes.

"Don't you understand? If we let her live, she will do everything in her power to kill all of us! And you want to let her live because it might offend your sensibilities!"

"Mai, no."

Zuko does something that he knows is a terrible idea.

He turns his back to Azula. Specifically so that he can get between her and Mai.

"This isn't about our sensibilities anymore. We're not in the Fire Nation - if the Council was going to prosecute everyone who committed a crime on their world, half this ship would probably be in jail for something."

Which is a convenient excuse - even if Zuko thinks it would be much easier on them now if one of them did just kill her, and even if he loves Mai just a little bit more for being the pragmatist to act on it.

He steps aside just enough so that Mai can see Azula, iced into submission. "Besides - I remember what it was like now, visiting her in the asylum, back in the Fire Nation. She was pathetic. She IS pathetic. She's not the monster Ozai raised her to be anymore. Now she's just a mess."

The crying stopped for a moment and there was a hissing sound. At first it seemed to be coming from Azula's teeth but it was steam rising off the ice.

"She's right you know." She whispered softly sounding like a scared child. "You should have just let her kill me."

The ice shattered with a sickening crack and Azula didn't even bother to rise all the way. She thrust her hand forward screaming, "I'll show you...show you who's pathetic!" her head rose up, tears staining her red rimmed eyes and cheeks. A horrible twisted smile on her face as a blue fireball shot from her fist right for her brother's back.

And as the fire left her, she closed her eyes feeling the tears fall to the floor, her lips moving to whisper two barely audible words before Stacy lashed at her one more time.

"Kill the monster."

And she was on the floor again, her head bouncing off it in a way that no body was meant to tolerate.

|| Azula, attacking your fellow crewmates is forbidden. You have earned another violation. Fifteen violations will result in a punishment. ||

Mai was ready to argue with Zuko. To berate him until he finally realized what a terrible idea it was to leave Azula alive. Even Azula agreed with her. She opened her mouth to retort and then she heard the sharp pop and crack of the ice shattering and falling away. Time seems to slow down and she can't move fast enough. Her hand comes up, but Zuko is still blocking her shot.

"Zuko-!"

He crumples. And for a moment her eyes and mouth are wide in shock and surprise. No, no, no. This wasn't supposed to happen like this. She was supposed to make sure that he didn't-

Perhaps the most terrifying thing is that, despite the tears that are welling in her eyes (her mother told her never to cry), despite the anger and hate and pain and sorrow that's boiling underneath the surface, she doesn't make a sound. She simply steps forward and flicks her hand out, sending a knife spinning towards Azula - it would miss, perhaps fortunately, cutting a thin line across her cheek (she'd been aiming for her throat).

"I'm going to kill her and none of you are getting in my way."

Her voice is low and intense and there are suddenly more knives in her hands as she prepares for another throw.

The whole thing with Mai and Zuko was distracting, and Aang's eyes widened as Zuko turned his back to his sister and got in the way. Azula was whispering something to herself, but what was of greater concern to him was how he no longer had a clear view.

"Zuko, you're blocking--"

And then there was that sizzling, her screaming voice and that horrible crackling noise that made Aang realize he'd taken his eyes off of Azula to look at Zuko just a little. Too. Long.

Monkeyfeathers!

"ZUKO!"

They'd gotten careless. Caught up in their emotions, in their debate of right and wrong. All it took was looking away for a second. He knew that much from experience. How was it they always made just the right mistakes for her to get her shots in?

Mai let her blade fly and Stacy's voice, chiding her for her attack and warning of Violations was a dull hum in his ears as he moved quicker than a blink of an eye. There was a running flip, aided by a gust of air that put Aang near Zuko, between Mai and Azula. The last remnants of fire that were burning on Zuko's clothes were extinguished and the water that Azula had melted was swept up around her prone form. More greenish water joined it as a meatcouch burst, then another, and then Aang swept half into a wide and tall greenish ice wall between himself and Mai, making it so she'd have to at least move around it to toss a knife. Azula was then swept up in a bubble of water that swirled in a way that kept her head in the air--and likely kept her dizzy if she was even still conscious.

||Aang, for causing damage to the ship, you have received 1 Violation. 15 Violations result in Punishment.||

A tentacle whipped out and reached through the water to inject Azula with a sedative before Aang could even react to it.

"Stacy, what was--"

||It was a sedative.||

"Oh."

Well, good. She probably needed a whole lot of them.

Edited 2011-04-02 07:11 (UTC)

Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Zuko getting hit, Azula laughing and crying, the knives thrown by Mai and then Aang was up and moving, just as she would have expected him to. She knew now what the most important thing was right now: making sure Mai DID NOT KILL AZULA. She refused to see Mai in the brig or on trial because of Azula.

So when Aang had brought the ice wall up, she knew exactly what had to happen next. It had only been once, but Katara showed her how she had been trapped in icicles by Master Pakku when they first fell. She only had a few seconds, but she was quick. She raised her hands, melted the ice and had it meet Mai in liquid form, knocking her to the ground and freezing her hands in place.

She turned to Aang. "Get medical as soon as you can! I'll be healing him, but we're going to make sure we take every precaution. I don't want him getting any worse than he has to be."

And she stared on Zuko immediately, her hands where the burns had started, tears welling up in her eyes.

She wanted to kill her herself right now. She felt it and she had to forget that right Now, while Zuko was still in pain.

Sokka came hurrying back, leading the members of security (and the council, actually) he'd been able to find back to the fracas. And then he came to a screeching hault, staring open mouthed at the scene in front of him. Mai was frozen in place by the girl with the uncanny resemblance to his sister, Azula was down and looked to be taken care of by Aang, and Zuko was also down with what looked like a bad burn. He opened and closed his mouth, trying to find words.

"I leave for one minute. . .!"

It happened fast; very fast. She hadn't even had time to get a second barrage off. She'd begun moving, trying to get around the Avatar's little wall. That was stupid. She hadn't been paying attention to Kaya or whatever she called herself - she was knocked over and pinned. And her hands were cold. For a long moment she stared at the ceiling and then turned her head trying to see Zuko. He had to be alright. He'd make it.

But the Avatar. The glare she directed at him might have even given Azula pause if she'd seen it.

"This is your fault. If dies because you were too holy to get rid of a problem permanently-!"

"Sprock!"

Jeka had already been heading that way -- screaming and throwing fire around in the middle of a crowded room isn't the most discreet thing ever -- but when Zuko fell, she put on a burst of speed to reach the fallen human. As she came to a halt next to...Katara, she thought the girl's name was, she slipped into Zuko's mind to block out the pain of the burns.

"He's not going to die," she tells the other conscious human girl. Then, to Katara, "I can carry him to the Med Bay, will that interfere with your healing?"

Chase had reacted quickly on seeing the fire, hearing the yelling, but not fast enough. Still, he seems to have ended up coming along with security.

"Lovely... alright." He glances aside at security. "Want a hand taking her down to the brig while they see to healing? I'll speak for the rest... they got attacked. I saw all of it."

Mostly because he was watching the people Nima had either been talking to, or the kid with the same tats.

Provided no one stops him, he moves to pick Azula up, with a reasonable amount of care.

Aang winced as Mai spoke. He promised her. He'd essentially promised to not let Zuko do anything that got himself hurt. Zuko was alive, sure, but he may as well have already broken that promise, given what happened. He could have easily been killed.

As for Chase, Aang stopped him.

"Don't touch her," he said, a little more harshly than he would have liked, but Chase really needed to not touch her, and this took a good deal of concentration to maintain, especially since the mucky Stacy juice wasn't pure water. He wasn't as good as Katara at separating water from other things like plant life. It felt too thick and heavy.

"Azula needs to stay surrounded by water, in case she wakes up. But I can take her down to Security like this. We need an escort, though, Mai needs to be held back until Azula is the brig, and Zuko needs to go to Medbay."

In other words? Help.

Edited 2011-04-02 08:11 (UTC)

Meat n' Greet

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