Eight: Season 4

Episode 90: Xia's Resolve

Xia-
I was not feeling great at all, and sniffled as I connected some wires and zapped myself. "AGH! SHIT!" I yelled, shaking my hand out as I put my finger into my mouth.
  "Careful now." Mom said.
  "Oh, go to Hell bitch." I said, looking at the one-sided glass.
  I coughed, and more vomit came up. I was sweating and surrounded by radiation. I felt like shit. "You're not torturing them are you?" I asked, looking up sickly and pale.
  "No Xia, I'm a woman of my word. So long as you build the bomb and don't try any funny business. They'll be unharmed, well taken care of, and set free from the dungeons." Barbra said.
  "I know, but I want to make another deal with you." I said.
  "Oh? Now you speak my language." Barbra said.
  I took a deep breath and smiled coldly. "Maybe this is the radiation poisoning talking, or maybe I went and grew a consciousness after all, like you said Lee. But you have to promise me that you'll let the 18 of them leave your camp, alive, and go off on their own. You'll leave them alone and alive for as long as they have naturally. I know they don't want to be here anymore. They hate your fucking guts." I said.
  Barbra laughed. "If I do that, what do I get in return?" Barbra asked.
  "Me." I said.
  Barbra gasped and I smiled a bit, chuckling. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice the chip in my brain? It's the same one Jade has in her brain, except it's an older model with worse consequences. You put it in my head when you experimented on all of us on the flight here. I know how valuable I am to you." I said, smiling darkly.
  "How did you figure it out?" Barbra asked.
  "I was having major headaches, hearing high pitched buzzing, and seeing things that weren't there, talking to myself. I was slowly losing my mind. My fits of Azula rage, that was also part of my problem. So, I asked Lilith to do a brain scan with her magic, and she told me I was dying. That the more I used my brain, the worse I was gonna get. I figured out I had a chip in my brain when I opened my brain up and saw it...way too close to my brain stem. And now? Well I have the confirmation...why else would you force me to build a bomb." I said.
  Barbara chuckled. "Clever bitch. Fine, you have yourself a deal, you smart little shit. But you're gonna stay in that room and build whatever the hell I tell you to. I'll keep you chained up, no matter what. You'll be my little prisoner." Barbra said.
  "As long as they leave alive, stay alive, and you leave them alone? I don't care what you do to me." I said.
  "Careful with those words Xia, whatever I want could imply a lot of things. And you won't have your little attack dog to stop me." Barbra said.
  "Toya isn't an attack dog, he's a human being with feelings and emotions and he's my boyfriend, though I don't deserve him. Don't pretend I only use him for my own safety, you know damn well that's not what I do. I'm perfectly capable of fighting my own battles, snake." I sneered.
  "I know, I know. I remember the torture I put the two of you through. If you ask me, you're too good for him. He's a liar and a coward, and you're just a means to an end for him...despite all you've done for him. He doesn't love you." Barbra said.
  I smiled. "You may be right about that last couple of lines Barbra, but you're wrong about everything else. Toya is kind and he cares way too much about everyone in that dungeon. He's brave and yeah, he lies...but in the end, he eventually comes around and tells me the truth. He's been hurt and betrayed by people he considered friends, family...true lovers." I said, remembering what Amelia did to Toya and why Toya put her in the palace dungeon in the first place. "But every relationship has its flaws. It's how you deal with those flaws together that really matters. So yeah, maybe I am a means to an end for him, and maybe he doesn't love me...but that doesn't change the way I feel about him." I said.
  Barbra sighed. "Just build the bomb, Xia." Barbra said.
  I continued working on the bomb like I had been the whole time. "I can talk and work." I said.
  Barbra chuckled. "It's ok, you'll have company soon enough. After we blow up Arcadia, we'll take the Jareau family and Jade will join you down here for the rest of your miserable lives after we deal with her family." Barbra said.
  "What?" I asked.
  "Oops, looks like you know my plan now. Oh well, it's not like you can do anything since you're stuck down here." Barbra said, laughing evilly.
  "You're a sick monster with no regard for life. I may be a psychopath, but I have my morals." I said.
  "Morals only get you so far, look at where we are now. You in a soundproof chamber chained to the walls forced to do my biding, me sitting on a throne peacefully watching you suffer." Barbra said.
  I coughed, and wiped the blood from my mouth as I continued to work on the bomb.

  Silver-
  Toya was still trying everything to break free. "Dude! You've been at this for hours! Just stop! We're not getting out of here anytime soon." I said.
  "But..." Toya began.
  I sighed. "Toya, none of us here question how much you love and care about Xia, ok? You need to save your strength for later." I said.
  "What do you mean, later?" Damien asked.
  "We have all known each other a while now, and you all know as well as I do that Xia made another deal with Barbra to let us go free and alive if she stays here." I said.
  "RAGH DAMNIT!!!" Toya roared, fire coming from his mouth.
  "She...what?" Lyon asked.
  "Are you really surprised?" I asked, looking down, sweating.
  "No...she...she wouldn't. Tell me she wouldn't!" Jeanette cried.
  "You know our older sister, Jeanette." I said, sweating.
  "Which is why I have to GO!" Toya yelled, trying harder, in tears.
  "You can't! God, I swear you are too stubborn and hard headed sometimes. If we escape, you know what Barbra will do to Xia." I said.
  "Agh!" Toya grunted, in frustration, hanging his head down and crying. "Damnit Xia." He said.
  "Toya, don't you worry...we won't let Barbra keep Xia. I promise." Tomura said.
  Toya nodded and I exhaled. Xia is so selfless that it hurts.