In His Element(s) || avatar / bnha

Fear Leads To Anger, To Hate, To Suffering

The world was still kind of foggy all around him.

They'd given him something again and whatever it was, it made it hard to focus. With his hands bound and his breathing restricted on top of that, his bending slipped through his fingers time and time again, just barely out of reach.

How long had it been? Without a point of reference to the sun, he had no clue. The room they'd been keeping him in didn't have windows.

Aang had been imprisoned before, sure.

But this time was... worse.

He didn't even know why he was being kept here. He'd thought General Old Iron had wanted to kill him. So why hadn't he?

Is that how he got Zhao on his side? By promising... he didn't know, the opportunity to deal the final blow?

With nothing but the chains, the walls, and his thoughts, his ponderings took on a dark tone very quickly.

At some point he was more lucid than he'd been in a while, enough to actually pay attention to the world around him.

He was no longer alone.

Aang shook his head, trying to disperse some of the fog and flinched automatically as the figure of Iwayama loomed over him, the minimal lighting from the hall streaming in behind him in jagged splashes of color.

The man knelt on one knee, his face impassive, and started working on the two chains attached to the wall; taking out a small key to unlock the pair of them. They fell free after a moment, clanking against the floor.

Aang pushed himself backwards, trying to get some space. Iwayama simply rolled his eyes and grabbed him by the shoulder, rising back to his feet.

Aang could have struggled. He wanted to. He wanted to fight this, every step of the way.

But Iwayama was stronger than him on a normal day, and at the moment he could barely even stand under his own power.

The man began walking, pulling Aang along with him, back down the hallway. The painfully tight grip on his upper arm was a clear message: walk, or be dragged.

The light changed from dull to brighter, passing by various open doors to other rooms before settling on one in particular.

Small room, bright light. A table. A box with a blank screen sitting on it.

He felt the back of his knees hit the table as Iwayama pushed him forwards, stumbling sideways into a seat on top of the low surface.

The man was clearly on a mission, as he grabbed Aang's wrists a moment later, dragging him up. He fiddled with the lock for a moment. There was a soft clicking sound as the manacles fell open, to be carelessly discarded directly after.

Aang jerked instinctively once his hands were free, but the static behind his eyes overpowered any resistance he was capable of putting up at the moment. Iwayama easily grabbed his left wrist as he struck out, forcing it down with bruising strength until the man could buckle a leather cuff around it tightly enough to stop him from moving that arm.

Aang felt his head slump onto his shoulder, a bone-deep exhaustion returning with full force. He drifted for a few seconds, barely registering the feeling of his other wrist and ankles receiving the same treatment. The faint metallic clinking sounded much louder than it should have been, locking him into this situation with a tone of dreadful finality.

"Avatar Aang. Your attention, if you please."

Aang blinked rapidly, the world sharpening once again at the sound of that familiar voice.