ASHES, the last airbender

CHAPTER TWO

"Well that was just stupid."

The Avatar had been lead away in rusted chains stained with vile age, pulled along by two of the finer firebenders her brother foolishly seemed to believe in, and disappearing off around the corner with his dread thick in the air like smokey sin. And Honora had only stared off after him for a moment or two before she turned and began a brisk pace to the isolation of her room, teeth bared and frightful as her fingers begged to sink into the pale swells of her flesh and tear into it, needing to get the itch of ruin, of her armour off from her body before she'd burst into ivory flame.

It was hard to breathe, her gasping breaths catching in the ruined ash of her throat, choking her on her misery as she stumbled into her safe haven and slammed the door shut behind her with a snarl, feeling very much like an animal ensnared in a trap of it's own creation as her teeth gnashed together. She thought, prayed, believed she'd have more time, at least enough to ensure that Zuko would be alright, would stumble from the ominous promise of her shadow, would be more than she'd ever had the chance to be. She should of had more time, why the hell wasn't she given more time?

Everytime she closed her eyes at night it was to the smell of burning flesh suffocating her senses with its rot, drowning her in that stench that never left, that haunted her with the memories of its devastation. The palace walls, the red silk of the curtains, the flames that brushed her pale cheek as she'd screamed and begged for salvation, forced to watch as skin was stripped from bone and listen to the wet gurgling of death, the accusations that it was her fault, it would always be her fault a phantom that followed her into the wretched night where the ghosts of all the blood she'd spilled condemned her.

And now they were going back there, to the horrors blissfully named home, to the place she had left rage and ash in her vengeful wake, all to prove a point of what happened when you created a monster and expected it not to bite the hand that had once fed it.

Honora tore at the golden armour that adorned her body frantically, ignoring the way the iron sizzled beneath the bare excruciating heat of her trembling fingers that flickered with blue currents, just needing the sudden weigh off of her shoulders before it would melt into her flesh and scar what was already disgusting and ruined. You're a weapon and weapons don't weep, the instruction came swiftly and abrupt, echoing around her mind, snarling at her for the tears building in the glare of her amber eyes, you're a weapon, you're a weapon, you're a weapon...and that is all you will ever be.

And then she suddenly heard the screams as they echoed around the ship as they tore her away from her dread, the shouts, the desperate calls of the Avatar escaping, as footsteps stormed past her head...and she thanked every god she knew for that distraction as she bared her teeth and grinned at the absolute carnage that embraced her like a lost friend before she hit the ground running, rushing across the metal, flying past crewmates as she burst through the doors out to the ships deck...just in time to see the glowing Avatar sending their soldiers soaring overboard with a large wave that he controlled like a puppet to strings.

The air was alight with raw power, overwhelming and dangerous, and even as the Avatar fell to the floor after exhausting himself, it lingered and festered until she could practically taste it on her tongue. And then she found her searching eyes drifted to a large...bison? Yes, there was definitely an extremely large hairy monster bison thing that really was something that she'd have to think about later...because her main focus was on who was in front of it, cradling the boy in her arms while her brother protected them from the remaining crew that charged at them like pathetic amateurs.