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Lake Laogai	By : TheDaiLi Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > General Views: 56824 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Relaxing back in his chair, Long Feng languished for a while before making any effort to look at the reports or to issue any commands. He’d been doing that all day back in Ba Sing Se and had come to Lake Laogai to take a break from it all, to ‘smell the roses’, so to speak.

Truthfully, he missed the simpler life he once had underneath his lake and behind his king’s back. Long Feng admitted it. At least then he didn’t have to spend any time consolidating his power, or headhunting loyal but competent generals to replace those he had to lock away. No, he could just content himself with the smooth, stable running of his empire...and the odd girl who took his fancy within the Lake.

He looked down at the reports, a bemused grin on his face. Well, it looked like the latter half of his ideal life was still intact; just that he was going to use it to expand the former. Picking up the first report he unrolled it slowly, wanting to take his time over the reading. Noting the small size of the characters he felt a little impressed with himself; even after all these years of poring over documents his eyesight remained as sharp as ever, with no need of reading glasses. A little thing really, but when one grows old they learn to appreciate the little things in life.

Pushing such vanities aside, he attempted to focus more on the content of the characters rather than their size.

As always the Dai Li mentioned they subject they had the most success with first in order to garner more favour from him, then slide the one they were having trouble with immediately afterwards so he wouldn’t look too harshly upon their progress. Long Feng tsked at the transparency of the act but found little reason to complain, given that it ordered them quite nicely in this particular case, starting with his soon-to-be dancer, Ty Lee.

Leaning heavily on the arm of his chair, he considered the minder’s report with a diligent lethargy, stopping every now and then at a particular point to ponder how to proceed with the matter. The agent who had been assigned to her had done an exemplary job by all accounts; were the girl not needed in order to help break down her friend, he would have no real problem in moving her into the palace as she was. She would, of course, still need some instruction, but he was satisfied that she was inducted enough into her new lifestyle that she would not attempt to injure him or escape from the grounds, and that was good enough for Long Feng.

The only area that really needed work as far as he could tell were her more...’private’ performances, but the agent had already started working on those a couple of days ago, so Long Feng wasn’t worried. By the end of the week, she would likely be ready to provide ALL her services, whenever required.

He sat back and considered her current status for a moment, wondering whether or not he would like a few of her triggers to be left in for his own personal enjoyment. By the end of it all she would be incapable of disobeying anyway, but there was always something to be said for being able to turn someone into an ACTUAL puppet at the snap of your fingers. No doubt her trainer was enjoying said rush of power even as he sat there pondering it. Surely it would be unfair for only her handler to experience such fun?

Tutting to himself for having such terrible thoughts, Long Feng made a mental note to request that a few ‘suggestions’ be left in. He would be careful not to push for anything too far gone from the norm though; there would always be the risk of damaging his property if he sunk his hooks too deeply into her mind. No, something lighter and more fun was called for in this case...perhaps some form of mental bondage? He would put more thought into it later.

Next was the much more interesting case of Mai. Long Feng had to admit he had taken quite an interest in the girl since their little tit-for-tat last time he visited the Lake; it was probably the highlight of his visit, infact. That the girl had held herself together for that long was nothing sort of miraculous, and definitely worthy of his attention.

Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, her resistance had since eroded to the point where her handler had decided to move onto the next phase of training. Even before he had left the needle master had drilled that ‘one plus one equals three’ nonsense into her; now that things were gearing up he was interested in seeing what else the man could do to her with his gradual, patient moulding.

Smiling, Long Feng lay back as he read over a particularly interesting line about how the needles were now being implemented. They certainly were versatile instruments, those needles. Though it seemed it took longer to get results from them, there was a certain charm about the way in which they extracted those results that amused him. After Mai’s indoctrination had been completed he would have to charge the needle master to select some younger members of the agency to learn his craft. It wouldn’t do to have the secrets die with the man, afterall.

Long Feng grumbled at the closing comments as he finished the report to move onto Azula. It looked like Mai’s training wouldn’t be ending for a while yet; she still had a very important part to play in her friend’s downfall. A friend that, apparently, had been through quite alot recently.

An escape attempt, a small mental breakdown and a friends betrayal. Dear dear Azula, you must be a mess by now. Which was just as planned, but now that those steps were over, a small hitch had come up which Long Feng needed to address before he would be happy with moving onto breaking her completely.

That, namely, was how to deal with her fluctuating moods. It had become rather apparent after her escape attempt that her mind was now primarily composed of two parts, and if he couldn’t control which one of these was dominant whenever he wished then he would be left with an unreliable tool at best...or something completely uncontrollable at worst. In some ways he found it ironic; the one who prided herself most on being in control was the one that was the hardest TO control.

Skipping over a few sentences about her mood after the recapture, Long Feng lingered over the details of her meeting with Ty Lee. He found it rather interesting how vulnerable the princess allowed herself to be with that one around. He doubted she would have been so eager to follow her friend’s lead had he not already put the poor girl through so much, but their rapport was worth bearing in mind for the future, when he’d need to handle Azula more overtly.

For his short-term plans to work though, he didn’t WANT Azula to be so easy to handle. He needed her to be, for all appearances, that same fiery, terrifying presence she was before coming to the Lake...except under his influence; knowingly or otherwise. To do that would require the ‘softer’ emotions to be locked away. His to command.

That was were Mai would come in. He’d already thought her part through in this little game, but now he was going to add a new angle to it. It probably meant that her part in the whole process would be delayed for another day or two, but as long as it set Azula up to be properly conditioned then it would be worth it.

The sooner the better, too. It seemed that the princess’s entourage were growing ever more concerned over her long ‘vacation’ away from them, and the Joo Dee’s he’d instructed to mimic the Princess’s handwriting were beginning to have trouble coming up with excuses for said royalty to remain within his city walls. Apparently her presence back in her homeland was starting to become more urgent than her ‘work’ inside Ba Sing Se’s walls; likely something to do with the eclipse which was not too far off the calendar now.

Snorting in amusement at their ignorance, he set the document aside and stood up, stretching. If everything went to plan then the entourage needn’t wait so long to have their princess returned to them. Not her ‘bodyguards’, obviously; they would forever be unsuited to such endeavours after he was through with them, but their princess would certainly make it back to the Fire Nation. Or should he say HIS Princess?

Thinking-time over, he rang a stone against a metal plate on the wall to summon his agents into his chamber, preparing himself for another few hours of giving orders and signing forms.

Ah, having power. He’d find it a chore if he didn’t love it so much.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The room vibrated, and Mai was herself again.

Finding herself unable to shake off her grogginess, she instead opted to look around and get her bearings that way. Trying to bring her hand up to her head though, she found such observations were unnecessary; she was bound wrist to ankle, and they only did that when she was back in her cell. So, presumably, they must have finished what it was they were doing to her.

She touched her forehead to the ground, shutting the world out.

Mai felt...she felt cracked. Was she really back in her own cell? How long had they kept her like...what did they even do? Mai was struggling to even comprehend it anymore, even when they weren’t doing things to her. Playing their games. It was like the gears of her mind were grinding down, stuttering, taking longer to get going every time she could work them and stopping more easily every time she couldn’t.

She vaguely recalled that she used to be callous. Was she still callous now? She doubted she acted nonchalant in the sessions; not if she couldn’t grasp what was happening in them. What else was she missing?

Giving up on her bonds before even testing them, she rolled cheek down on the cell floor, closed her eyes, and tried to concentrate.

Her name was Mai.

Good. They hadn’t taken that away from her.

She recently turned fifteen. She was born in the Fire Nation. One plus one equals three.

Good. As long as she could remember the basics, she would be okay.

Opening her eyes, she tried to think of some other things. Things to cheer her up. Things to make her feel something. Mai realised that, once, she probably would have tried to avoid feeling anything. That wasn’t her anymore. All she had left were feelings. If everyone knew they were there, then why bother hiding them anymore?

Mai thought of a person.

She knew someone called Ty Lee. She was acrobatic.

Mai frowned, trying to picture her. There seemed to be something missing about her, like...she knew the girl and knew what feelings she SHOULD have for her, but it didn’t really matter anymore. Mai couldn’t force herself to feel them. She didn’t want to. Feelings like that were painful and Mai wanted to avoid pain. So now...now Ty Lee was just someone she knew. Like how Mai knew blue was a different colour from red.

Mai tried to picture someone else.

Azula. She was a princess.

She tried again.

Tom Tom. He was her brother.

Again.

Zuko. He was...he...

Mai gave up. That wasn’t the root of the problem anyway; she knew them, and as long as she knew she SHOULD be feeling something for those people then that meant she was still her. What worried her more were these memory lapses she was having.

No, not so much memory lapses, she recalled. Not lapses at all actually. The memories were still there in her head, so it wasn’t like she blacked out...it was...it was like she...she had just been switched ‘off’. She’d just stopped being Mai for a while.

She rolled her tongue over the glassy object in her mouth, trying to think harder. She remembered some of the earlier lessons first...they went into the room, and...they set her down...then...

Mai felt a thrill of terror run through her.
They were making her do things without her even thinking them. She didn’t think AT ALL. Every time she tried they...HE did something and she just stopped all over again, submerging her even deeper. And while she was like this, he...did something else, like a movement, and she kneeled on the floor without meaning to. Then he did another thing, or maybe nothing at all, and she stood rigidly to attention. She...

...She couldn’t stop herself. She couldn’t even think to stop herself. What were they turning her into?!

She heard footsteps approach her door, heavy stone steps on a heavy stone floor. She couldn’t do a thing to stop them coming, and now...now she knew she couldn’t stop them from using her body. It was like they could just reach inside of her soul and...and just twist it to what they wanted. Worse, she didn’t know how they were doing it because she couldn’t THINK of anything WHEN they were doing it. She only remembered the most basic of things; her postures, his touches...nothing jumped out at her as more important than anything else, she couldn’t mentally signpost any action as more important than any other made. Not even now.

The footsteps grew closer and she could feel herself shaking. Not her body, that was paralysed, unable even to squirm in its bonds. She was shaking in the very core of her being. Did they strip away her restraint as easily as they stripped away her mind? What else had they done without her knowing?! Anything?! Nothing?!

Desperately, Mai tried grasping for something else to feel; ANYTHING else other than this...inevitability. A sense of certainty that said that no matter what...they owned her; right now just the body, but they WOULD get the mind, and they WOULD get the soul. The feeling was beyond pain. The word ‘pain’ did it no justice. Pain seemed as distant as her friend’s faces compared to this looming, inescapable fate.

Jerkily, other sensations stabbed at Mai through her memories. She recalled pain being inflicted on her as she knelt, trying to think again; pleasure being given as she stood, arms above her head. She didn’t know why she felt those things, but they were both fleeting experiences. Transient, no matter how bad or good they were. What was being done to her now though...she knew it was going to be with her forever. And the worst thing was, she didn’t even know what force was doing this to her. Maybe she would never know.

The door opened and the two agents stepped through; hard-gravelled hands palming her naked flesh as they lifted her up, taking her away.

Mai shivered in their arms. She couldn’t do anything else.

He watched dispassionately as his subject was brought into the room and set down, giving a brief bow to the agents who brought her in before they left, sealing the door behind them. The girl was still, not trying to free herself as she had the first few times she found herself locked in those crystal shackles. For some reason he thought of Rhinophants from the circus, kept in check by chains they could easily break, but from trying them once as babies thinking they couldn’t.

Letting the peculiar thought go, he stepped forward to appraise her properly. Making some quick gestures the bands came apart, forcing her limbs away from each other until she was spread-eagle on the floor.

He paused a moment. No shortness of breath, no clenched fists or toes. Again, it seemed that she had learned not to fight it. He recalled he took his time over the act when first performed, letting her struggle against it with all of her might as her legs were drawn apart and her hands dragged above her head. She provided ample entertainment as she thrashed around, yelling into her gag.

He probably had Long Feng to thank for that show. His visit had done a wonderful job of restoring some of her stubbornness, and even though it seemed to have drained out of her now it was quite a spectacle while it lasted. All too often the subjects he worked on broke completely during the first couple of phases of training, forcing him to hand them over to one of the lantern teams to complete their indoctrination and so denying him full satisfaction from his craft. It was rare thing, being able to complete a project from start to finish.

Luckily, it seemed his wilful white beauty was quite willing to allow him such fulfilment. Making a few more gestures he raised her up off the floor, earthen blocks coming out of the walls to envelop her hands and feet, suspending her in the middle of the room. As ever, even though she might not have any fight left in her, it was always best to err on the side of caution. He was always mindful when it came to his personal safety, as anyone should be in his line of work; he’d known of plenty who had neglected such precautions in the past and had paid the price.

Stepping infront of his subject, he examined her body. She was a little thin from lack of food, but otherwise she was fine. Certainly fine enough to go through this session’s training. It wasn’t his place to carry out a through medical examination, nor was it his desire to reach out and feel the perfectly helpless girl before him. This was the time for business, not pleasure.

Finished with his casual inspection of her figure, he moved his eyes up to her face. Frowning at the latticework of black crystal that adorned it, he bended it into a band that circled her forehead so he could get a better look, ungagging her in the process. No need to worry about her biting her tongue out now, she wouldn’t attempt it with somebody around to save her life...though for some reason he believed she was beyond such escapist day-dreams now.

Maybe it was the expression on her face. She was determinedly looking away from him, but it wasn’t through boredom or disgust like all the other times she had done so. It was fear. All of her fear, not just the parts she gave away everytime she glimpsed one of his needles. All of it. He could see it plain as day, shining at the back of her yellow eyes, an uneasy terror of what she knew he could make her do. Even better, she knew he could see it, which is why she was looking away so determinedly. She was trying to hide it and was failing miserably.

So much for that outer shell of hers. He tightened his fist and her head sprang up straight, the circlet of crystal holding her skull steady for his needles. She stifled a whimper at the movement, but it was an effort born out of shame than out of a wish to keep face infront of him. Not that she ever kept face infront of him.

Moving around behind his subject he parted the hair at the back of her neck, resisting the temptation to run his fingers through it. Even after so many weeks of captivity her black locks were still enticingly soft. Putting such temptation out of his mind, he stepped back, turning to the tray set against the side of the room and removing three needles from it, holding them between the gaps of his fingers.

He could hear her breathing now; that interesting sound of a deep breath trying to sound shallow. She knew what was coming, even if she didn’t know what it was going to do to her. He lingered a while longer, just standing there, listening to her breathe, watching her attempt to move despite efforts to control herself.

He tried to imagine what her expression looked like, what she was thinking. Why hasn’t he put it in yet? What’s he doing back there? Has he put it in but I can’t remember? Or is I just can’t feel it? He wondered if she would ask him.

She remained silent. It seemed his subject knew that words wouldn’t do her any good where she was. Clever girl; she was learning.

Deciding enough was enough he finally slid the first needle in; the ‘standard’, to keep her from falling unconscious from either pain or pleasure. He savoured the little ‘Nah’ she gave but wasted no time in sliding the second, longer, needle in; angling it upward towards an area at the back of the skull.

She gave a full-body shudder, and he allowed her some time to adjust. He’d just improved her muscle-memory for her. He’d have thought a warrior such as she was would be grateful for the enhancement...but for the nature of the moves he was going to teach her.

Feeling her calm down, he slid the third needle in carefully, also angled upwards, but more to the right than the other one. This time it wasn’t so much a shudder she gave than a low quiver. He’d just linked her sense of touch to her muscle memory far more acutely than it ever should be, amplifying both. He would have to be very careful about how, where and when he touched her now; he didn’t want to imprint anything unnecessary onto her reflexes.

Reaching back to the table he picked up a forth needle, so stubby it looked more like a tack, and pressed it in towards the upper-right at the base of her skull. He couldn’t pierce into her brain directly, that would be too dangerous, but there were plenty of sensitive points for him to manipulate where it would be just as effective as doing that.

The subject twitched but gave no other indication of the needle, probably not feeling it at all as it stimulated the more primitive learning centres of her brain, putting emphasis on physical sensations and correlating them to thought processes...or a lack thereof.

Finally satisfied, he walked around to her front and waited. The changes he’d made to her brain chemistry would take some adjusting to on her part before he could begin in earnest...that, and it was always fun seeing her reactions while she could still make them.

Mai almost felt glad when the first needle slid into her neck.

She knew they were coming, afterall. What happened before then, the thought of ‘what will he do’ as he stalked around her, parting her hair in that sickeningly gentle way, the ‘clink’ of the needles being picked up, his warm breath on the back of her neck...that was agony.

Her current mood wasn’t much improved from agony, though. When the other two slid in she’d felt her whole body jerk, surges of awareness creeping up her spine and cascading over her mind. It was getting impossible to shut them out as the sparks dancing inside her head began to subside; she could feel every swirl of dust in the air pound against her skin as keenly as one would feel a fist. It wasn’t a painful feeling, but it was overwhelming her all the same; there was too much there to process. To take in. Experience.

Mai’s chest tightened, her breaths coming in shorter to limit the sense of assault on her lungs, the tears in her eyes pressing down on her like warm oceans.

“Aah...aa...”

She tried to form some words, to what end she had no idea, but found it an impossible task; her tongue stung sour and sweet for every movement it made, rolling around her mouth like a beached whale. The tears were carving glacial tracts down her face now, and she could feel every tendon, every nerve in her body flex and relax as she tried to twist herself out of this new hell.

...Or not so new, something told Mai. Her thoughts felt as sharp and lasting as her senses, they were connected to her body somehow, and they were telling her...this was familiar. He had done this for several days now. He’d done it just before...

Just before he stole away her thoughts.

Her eyes widened and she instantly regretted it, the sensation akin to blasting sand across her whites. Attempting not to grimace she tried to focus her thoughts towards this new information, feeling that sense of dread stir fitfully inside her again, twitching against the edges of her mind.

How? How did he do it? If she could just know that much, then she could do something to prepare for it, or counteract it...ANYTHING would be useful. But her memories abruptly cut out the details past this point, removing objective opinion of the situation so clinically it was almost as if it were surgically removed.

...Maybe that was for the best.

Wait. Was it? Did she really believe that? Thinking was a good thing, surely.

But...Mai couldn’t deny that, during that mindless time, she never once felt as overwhelmed as she did now. Nothing pressed on her, nothing grated, nothing felt unbearable. She just...was. And that was that. It was...peaceful.

Mai grit her teeth; tectonic plates grinding together. She couldn’t let herself think like that. It didn’t matter how it felt...or it SHOULDN’T matter how it felt; she couldn’t afford to throw away her identity for the sake of comfort. It didn’t matter how painful thinking was, or how tiring carrying all of her memories seemed, losing them wasn’t up for discussion. It couldn’t be.

Not for a second.

Steadying herself as best she was able, Mai looked ahead, towards the man who had been ‘training’ her for...however long it had been now. It seemed incredible to Mai that she hadn’t even met him until only a...a few months ago? A month? A few weeks? She wasn’t sure. Still, in such a short time, he’d gotten to know her more intimately than any other person on the planet. At least she assumed so; he never said anything to give away how much he knew or did not know, he just...did. And right now, all he was doing was looking back at her; curiously, as one would look at a pet clumsily attempting to do some new trick it was being taught.

She couldn’t be sure of why he had that expression, or even if it WAS that sort of expression. All of her other senses, sight included, seemed dull and chipped when compared to how conscious she had become over her body. She could feel three hairs rising along the back of her left arm more keenly that she could see the man looming infront of her.

Mai wondered if she hated him. If she did, she couldn’t get to it through the fear. It was funny; she could almost believe she held the opposite opinion at some point in the past, before she really got to know him. That was another strange thing; familiarity was supposed to remove fear, not instil it. Maybe it had just taken this long for her to see exactly WHY she should have feared this man from the beginning; cool composure be damned.

Mai didn’t want composure right now. She just wanted to keep being herself.

Feeling her nerves start to unravel under the pressure put on them, she resolved to focus all of her attention on the man before her, intent on being able to recall every move he made, determined not to overlook even the slightest change in his demeanour. It wasn’t going to escape her, not this time, YES, even though she clearly remembered having this exact same resolve for the past three days before everything went dead to her. It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter, as long as she still TRIED to put up a fight.

The agent stiffened and took a step forward; a step Mai had seen so, so many times before in her mind’s eye. This was it, he was going to do it. Whatever it was he did, he was going to do it now.

Here he comes.

Stay focused.

Stay vigilant.

Watch him closely.

Watch him....

He observed the intelligence die from her eyes with some respect, admiring her determination to understand what he was going to do.

A noble effort...but also a wasted one.

Taking his two fingers away from her temple, he almost felt like sighing, noting with some small satisfaction that her dull expression remained. She would never be able to figure it out because that was the way she had been broken in.

He’d spent the first two days of her new training to condition her to the technique, touching his fingers to her forehead and using a needle to send a lance of pain right through into her head whenever he saw her actively thinking; not so hard a task, if you know what to look for. He kept it up for hours, waiting infront of her until he saw that twinge of sentience emerge again then repeating the same actions over and over. Eventually her more adaptable instincts correctly recognised that her pain was being caused by two things; her own thoughts, and his touching the centre of her forehead.

Now, he no longer needed even the needle; the pain was ‘implied’ now, so her thoughts simply dispersed the moment he touched her forehead on reflex...which included the sensation and the meaning of his touch. She could never figure it out because the act was just a meaningless, thoughtless instinct to her; a knee-jerk reaction to avoid pain that she could never hope to control.

It was sticking for longer, too. Every time he used it the gap before she became self-aware again grew larger and longer. He knew her mind would never be completely gone, that would be an unfeasible achievement, but that wasn’t why he had worked so hard to wipe it in the first place. Rather, without her consciously thinking through and fighting against everything he was doing, it would help him create a new, better position to redesign her from. In effect, he was working towards making a new base for her personality.

It would take time yet, but some of the groundwork was already there; he’d already proven her base beliefs could be altered through extreme stimuli, afterall. When he felt the time was right, he would go back and attempt much more drastic changes than a simple ‘one plus one equals three’. If she couldn’t object to these suggestions when he put them forward, well, then all the better.

He swept his hand away, the restraints bringing her to a standing position before removing themselves back into the ceiling and floor. She just stood there, not sure what was going on, but making no to attempt to move herself. He found her mood rather comical, actually. He’d taken mind away from her so she couldn’t act according to her own will, but she still wasn’t ‘brain-dead’, or else he couldn’t do anything with her; instead she was just a perpetually confused girl, unable to gather her thoughts together to make any action of her own, but perfectly capable of performing things by instinct, or absorbing experiences. She still had a memory.

He raised his hand towards her, the movement causing her to notice his form, if not his actual human presence. He often wondered exactly what it was his subjects felt like when he did this to them. It must be a peculiar experience to say the least. Stubbing his curiosity out for the tine being he extended a finger, softly stroking along a rib on her left-hand side, rubbing it twice.

Back and forth. Back and forth.

The girl stiffened, her arms raising into the air and staying there. Removing his finger he stepped back to better appraise her reaction. She seemed as confused as ever over what was going on, but made no effort to lower her arms or otherwise shift from her position. Infact, she looked entirely incapable of moving at all. She had remembered the pose well from the last session.

He walked a circle around her, seeing if motion would startle her enough to shift without prompting. It didn’t. He was pleased; it wasn’t even an action he had to reinforce anymore. Reaching towards her side he rubbed the same rib twice again, her body relaxing as her arms fell back down to her sides. He wasn’t confident enough yet to try applying the stimuli when she was sentient, this was only her second day without restraints afterall, but the results were certainly promising.

What helped the fact was that it was a fairly simple command. All he had to do to get her to learn it was bend her arms upwards and link that sensation to his touching her rib, then repeat it and lower her arms, giving her a little needle of pleasure for each successful stage of the trick. After enough attempts, her body associated all the actions as analogous to one another, the arms raising from the prompt as if to ‘earn’ the pleasure. It was straightforward, like all imbedded commands should be; they were only to be used as a handling device at the end of the day...well, that, and to further undermine a subjects psyche by showing them just how little control they had. The point was, though, that they shouldn’t be complicated.

Not like the one he was going to teach her now.

He swirled a circle on her right thigh, his subject sinking down onto all-fours. Stroking a line down her back she sat up into a kneeling position, hands palm down on her thighs, looking straight forward.

Long Feng had messed things up. The man wanted his subject to play a very complex role in subjugating the princess, one that required a great deal more finesse than would be possible for him alone to extract from her. He would require both hands and a firm stance to control her movements for the embedding process, leaving nothing behind to form the catalyst of her action. And there certainly was no chance of the girl performing her part ‘willingly’; not for a good few weeks yet.

He considered using his voice as the trigger, but that would be to the detriment of his subject’s training. The silence was as important as anything else; talking limited learning and gave her a platform on which to understand the situation.

In the end, there wasn’t a choice.

His private grumble over, he slid open the door to the cell and waved the Dai Li member waiting there through. He detested having his sessions be anything but a personal one-to-one experience...but it couldn’t be helped this time. The younger man would direct her movements, he would provide the needle and the stimulus.

As instructed, the agent had brought a Joo Dee with him. Gagged to stop her from blabbering and naked from the waist down, she would be used for his subject to practice on before the real thing. He suspected that they would end up going through a couple more ‘training dummies’ before they got the movements right though; what Long Feng was asking them to accomplish required an absurd level of precision, even if the procedure itself didn’t take a long amount of time to do. Honestly, the agent wondered what Long Feng was thinking when he ordered this done; there were dozens of other ways he could have achieved the same effect without such complications...and that were a little more ‘tasteful’, too.

The younger agent stepped infront of the girl, letting go of the Joo Dee and securing her in place with earthen bands. Together, he and the agent spent some time adjusting the Joo Dee’s height relative to his subject; truthfully he wasn’t sure that the subject’s subconscious wouldn’t just compensate a difference in height, but he did not want to work underneath such a bold, unproven assumption.

Finally satisfied he gestured to his partner, the man backing off into a corner and taking his earthbending stance. Taking another couple of needles off the tray, he shifted around until he could get a good side-view of his subject.

It was strange; despite the exactness of her pose she looked so very lost to him. Her eyes darted wherever there was motion, but were incapable of searching for the forces compelling her to move or stay. He wasn’t interested in using her eyes though, he didn’t need them. Her hands, however...

He shattered the crystal headband, reforming it into several sets of rings looping around each finger, thumb and wrist; one enough for every joint, but slim enough so her hands could move without hindrance. When he finished they looked a little like slimmed down black versions of the Dai Li gloves; he hoped the familiarity would breed better control from his accomplice. Lastly he took one of the needles from his hand and put it in hers; a suicidal move under normal circumstances. As things were, they had nothing to fear for probably another half-hour or so.

He closed his eyes to think for a moment, then reached out and started stroking a cross on her right forearm, nodding for the younger man to begin.

The first movement made her fumble the needle within two seconds.

He struggled not to sigh and placed it back into her hand, resetting the scenario.

This was going to take a while.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

It turned out that feeding her wasn’t a problem for the Dai Li.

Azula had hoped, vainly perhaps, that come mealtime they would be forced to remove the gag. That way, she could put up a fight when they attempted to reattach it...the sort of fight she should have fought the first time around.

That hope was quickly crushed though. It seemed the centre of the ball, or maybe all of it, was made of some bendable material; they just opened a hole through the centre of the ball and funnelled some bitter-tasting soup through. It was humiliating.

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

What was more humiliating was that Azula was getting used to it.

She didn’t bother trying to remove her gag anymore, or strain against her bonds. The impulses to thrash her head about or chomp into the ball had worn away, instead just letting it sit all-too-comfortably on her face. More than the cell she was kept in or the chains holding her inside it, the gag was a constant reminder of her lack of power. It reminded her...of just how weak she could be sometimes. How little it took to dethrone her. All it took was a kind touch here, the right word there...and...

Azula tried to stop herself from closing her eyes. It didn’t help her sleep and it didn’t stop her thinking...it just made the princess picture HER. How she looked, how she smelt...

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

How she betrayed her. And it WAS betrayal, she had decided. Could it have been anything else? No. As such, it was Azula’s duty to forget all about such trash until an appropriate punishment could be given. Expending thought on such a waste of life was certainly not an efficient use of her time.

It wasn’t even like Azula ever trusted her anyway. The acrobat had just been tricking her. It was all one big, complex ruse.

Azula frowned at that. No, that explanation wouldn’t do. It wasn’t convincing enough.
There was definitely something more plausible she was forgetting. Right, wait, she HADN’T been tricking her, as she wasn’t smart enough for that...so...if her betrayer hadn’t tricked her, then...why was she wearing the ballgag?

A stupid, pointless question. A stupid, pointless question that she couldn’t stop asking herself ever since she’d decided that girl was a traitor. And since she started asking the question, she couldn’t get said girl out of her mind. If Azula wasn’t so tired it would be infuriating. No matter what she did, her thoughts kept on getting dragged back to...to...

The Princess examined the puddle in her cell intently, making a firm effort to shift her thoughts away from soft hands and gentle words. They weren’t real anyway. Just illusions. That whole encounter was just a lie. The acrobat didn’t like Azula any more than Azula liked her; and she didn’t like her at all because she wasn’t supposed to like traitors. Thus, it was worthless remembering how relieved the girl seemed when she said her name, or how safe she felt around her before...

There is no war in-

-Azula went back to the puddle. She DIDN’T feel anything. She didn’t. She still didn’t. And she wasn’t going to think of her anymore, because she didn’t feel anything for her. Never did.

“...”

It still wasn’t convincing enough.

She stared at the puddle.

When she wasn’t staring at the puddle, Azula was staring at the lanterns during her sessions. In a twist of perverse irony, she’d begun to look forward to those; sitting there and listening to that agent drone on about the same thing over and over kept her from considering much outside his words and the light.

Of course she was still cautious, but it didn’t feel like she’d been ‘caught out’ yet. Her thoughts hadn’t been altered by what the Dai Li were doing...which was more than she could say for Ty- for that thing they sent to her. That idiot girl who needed help. Needed help but didn’t get it.

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

Azula didn’t bother asking herself whose fault that was, she found there to be little value in thinking through her thoughts now. She hadn’t given up of course, but there still wasn’t a point to it. There wasn’t a need to question her thoughts; she would be much better off going along with them. Going along with things was fine. That’s what she’d like to do. That’s what she DID, when...

Azula stared a hole through the puddle.

This wasn’t working.

“...”

She wished she could talk. If only to say a name.

If she could say it, then maybe it would go away. If she could say it...then maybe...maybe Ty Lee would come back to her. Maybe Ty Lee could have come back to her if she had said it back then. Maybe...if she had told Ty Lee everything...maybe she could have kept her.

Not that there was anything to tell. She didn’t want her around anyway.

“...”

Before Azula could start cycling through her thoughts again something from the outside world intervened. Someone was coming to her cell. Normally she wouldn’t care at all, but something sounded a little...off, this time. A little unusual.

Abandoning the quest to win herself over for the moment, she lifted her head up a little higher and peered at the door, listening for clues as to what was happening. Two people were approaching. One walking in that serious, methodical gait that all the Dai Li were trained to march their stone shoes in, the other...

The other walking in bare feet.

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

Oh no.

No no no no NO.

What did they want with her?! Was he going to show off some new trick his ‘pet’ had learnt? Worse; was she coming here to apologise to her about how she left all those days ago? Be nice and beautiful and understanding until he snapped his fingers and stole it all away? Spirits, did she even know that he could do that to her?! Would she even care if she did?!

Azula didn’t know how she would handle it if it was just some cruel, mocking repeat of their last encounter. There wasn’t anything she could do or say to change the outcome, she’d just watch, helplessly, as they took her friend away from her all over again.

No! She couldn’t think like that! Besides, she didn’t even know if that was why they were coming, it might be some other test, or some other new torture. She had to be prepared. She couldn’t be affected by what they were planning. And that SLAVE wasn’t her friend!

As best she could, Azula tried to adopt her normal, superior air. It was hard, particularly with her- no, with A ballgag on her face. Azula could almost find the difficulty of it amusing; the expression used to be so natural to her, now it was like she was trying it out for the first time in her life.

Azula established a decent, if not her best withering gaze, building her mental defences up behind it. She wasn’t going to lower them this time. She was an idiot for lowering them in the first place. Again, she found it odd she was even thinking about them; people just HAVE them, don’t they? What was wrong with-

-The footsteps had stopped outside her cell. They were coming in any second. Azula forced herself not to tense. She was ready for this.

There is no war in Ba Sing Se

The door opened and Mai was stood in the entrance, completely naked.

Letting out a muffled cry of surprise, Azula completely abandoned her guise and tried to look anywhere other than at her friend. What the hell was this?! She hadn’t expected this. She hadn’t expected this at all. She was NAKED!! It’s not like Azula hadn’t seen a naked body before, she’d seen her own in the bedroom mirror, but...

She glanced back up, then back away.

Azula was ashamed to realise that she had almost completely forgotten about Mai over the last few days. Her thoughts had been somewhere alot more...personal, instead of around her knife-throwing friend. But now she found herself even more ashamed as, no matter where she looked, no corner seemed more interesting than the body that had just walked into her cell. No, not ASHAMED, just...

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

Azula to finally gave in and looked her friend over as she entered the room. If only to see how she was holding up under the Dai Li’s thrall.

Not too well, it seemed; Mai looked...almost broken. She was thin, even for her, and she obviously hadn’t been cared for and pampered like...like Ty Lee had. Her hair was tangled and long, draping down to the small of her back, and she...uhh...her...

Azula refused to let her face redden.

...Her ‘bush’ wasn’t neat or shaved, either. Feeling she spent too much time admiring that particular area, Azula let her eyes wander elsewhere and noticed that Mai wasn’t completely naked. She was wearing something on her wrists and ankles, like black crystal, longer than Azula’s own cuffs and with no notable rings in them. They...didn’t cover anything. Making an effort to pass over her still-perfect white breasts, Azula saw another band of the material around her head, like a circlet. She saw that...and something else. Something wrong.

Mai wasn’t even looking at her. She was just looking straight ahead, with a very strange expression on her face. It was hard to place, but it reminded Azula of how she felt when attempting to reassert herself. What was she doing?

“...Mmn?”

Azula’s expression turned from questioning to almost cringing as her friend regarded her. She was never one to be cowed with a glace, but the way Mai looked at...no. No, that was completely wrong. Mai didn’t ‘look’ at all....because it wasn’t her looking. Azula couldn’t see her friend in there anymore.

Infact, there wasn’t ANYTHING in there that Azula could see, aside from some dull, intrinsic instinct that told Mai’s body a noise had come from what she was looking at. That was it. And now that there was no other stimulus, she wasn’t looking away. She was just...staring at her. Staring with eyes that lacked any form of understanding or thought.

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

Azula could only stare back. This...was impossible. Mai was...Mai was strong. Azula didn’t know or care where Mai got her strength from, but she knew the girl never so much as flinched when she chewed her out after the fiasco with the drill, and that sort of front took ALOT of strength to maintain.

Sometimes, not ALL the time, but sometimes...Azula thought all Mai was doing was tagging along with her. Waiting for something else, something better to come her way...then she would just up and abandon her. It was never a thought Azula enjoyed, and was the reason why she made sure to interfere in whatever relationships Mai tried to have...brother included. She just...was it so wrong to want her around?

That didn’t matter now. She’d lost Mai anyway.

Azula felt a little sick. At least when they had ‘claimed’ Ty Lee she sounded a little content. The acrobat could still...she was still in there, somewhere. Feeling things. What they had done here was just...

...Wait. She was missing something. Wasn’t there somebody else with-

Her robe was torn straight off her back before she even realised where Mai’s handler had gone. There was nothing underneath it.

For a second she just hung there, paralysed through shock. She couldn’t grasp what he had done. Then...she remembered she had an audience.

“MNRFMNN!!”

She thrashed violently, anger screaming out of her lungs while she tried to cover herself from eyes that didn’t even see her.

“NNNMPH!”

Azula twisted sharply again, feeling the leather tighten but not give, forcing the Princess to display herself infront of what remained of her friend.

“NNN...NN...”

And just like every other time...

“...NG...”

...She couldn’t do anything.

“...Nh...nmph..”

Azula gave up. Sagging in her bonds, she bowed her head to look at the floor, mortified.

She’d overreacted. She’d planned on being calm and controlled, to weather everything thrown at her, but...she didn’t expect...she wasn’t ready! Now after that stupid outburst her composure was shot and it would be worthless trying to get it back. Her conduct wasn’t the problem though. No that. It didn’t look like either spectator cared how she acted, so why should she? No, her own weakness wasn’t much of a concern anymore, not when she had a good reason to let it show. Though there was NEVER a good reason to let it show. That she was WAS weak; no, she was-

-There is no war in Ba Sing-

-She...she was naked.

She was naked infront of somebody else. Damn it, BOTH of them were naked! Mai, or whatever she was now... she could see everything. EVERYTHING. Her legs were splayed wide infront of her, her hands couldn’t cover her breasts. It was all exposed for inspection and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. Azula had never felt more humiliated. She could feel Mai’s eyes on her...looking at her in that strange way, as if she were just a piece of meat. A nothing. And the only questions she could think to ask herself weren’t ‘how can I stop this’ or ‘how can I recover from this’. No, instead, INSTEAD it was just a USELESS, POINTLESS repetition of the same thing.

‘Where is she looking?’

‘What was she looking at?’

What WAS she looking at? Azula was too ashamed to check, now that she had committed herself to staring down. She knew she would give Mai’s tortured body another once-over were she to look up now. That wasn’t desirable...but she couldn’t tell which areas of her own figure were being scrutinised if she didn’t.

She tried to concentrate on movement around her, but the only thing Azula could sense was her own heavy breath and the scent of leather. No clues. No answers. Just a long, drawn out silence draped over the room to disguise which parts of her body were being examined. It was excruciating.

Which parts? Which parts?! Her breasts? Her...her sex?

Azula clamped her teeth around her gag, trying to stop her imagination from getting carried away. Stop thinking about it. Stop thinking things like that. This wasn’t the time for idle...idle ANYTHING! Yes she was naked around other people; so what? It was going to happen anyway, eventually. You don’t care. You don’t care. Get over it. Get your head together. Stop thinking about how it feels. It doesn’t...it doesn’t feel of...

There is no-

-She pulled on her restraints, now more from a security reflex than any attempt to cover herself. There was nothing she could do or say to stop the show. How much time has past? It was humiliating. It was so humiliating...

...Where was she looking?! Azula could feel the chill of the cell air on her breasts. She was looking at them, wasn’t she? It was so cold without the robe on, and she would look where there was movement, so...

Azula shook herself away from the idea, dispersing the tingling that was beginning to form up around her nipples. She was better than this, wasn’t she? This wasn’t her doing. This was being inflicted on her, and she would not give them the satisfaction of a reaction.

The agent behind her came back around the front, an impassive look on his face. She wouldn’t give HIM the satisfaction least of all. He wasn’t going to get a reaction out of her infront of...of ‘Mai’. Maybe that was why they were here, perhaps this was some final hurdle to overcome so they could destroy Mai completely by showing her how pathetic her leader was. Well that wasn’t going to work. Not a chance.

She made to glare defiantly at him, only to find he wasn’t paying attention to her at all. Instead, he was just looking at Mai, judging her. A little thrown off, she watched as he touched her right thigh, making a circle with his finger. Azula jerked in surprise as Mai smoothly got down onto all fours, alert like a guard dog, her head coming down mere inches away from her crotch.

Her gaze flicked between the two alarmingly. What...what was he going to have her do?! It was too close; Azula could feel Mai’s breath on her mound, and she couldn’t will the sensation away. How did he get her like this, to respond to commands in her state? What had he done to make her friend react to triggers like touch and movement when she didn’t have a mind to control? And why THAT trigger?!

She could feel her pulse starting to pick up as the man left his new marionette in place, seemingly more interested in the cell walls now. Every tendon in Azula’s body felt like piano wire. She didn’t dare to move away, not even squirm. For all she knew that might be part of his plan, her moving away could trigger Mai to reach up and grab her thighs, holding them tight in her smooth, strong hands as she leant forwards and...started...to...

The feeling of rock bands encircling her waist and legs yanked Azula out from such terrifying thoughts to find that everything below her hips had been rendered completely immobile. In a weird way she felt a little relief. Whatever came next, she would not be the one to start it. It wouldn’t be her fault.

Ignoring her acute awareness of Mai’s position as best she could, Azula tensed as the agent reached down and stroked a line down Mai’s spine, only to sag again as the command merely prompt her friend to kneel up, her hands placed placidly on her lap. That was close. Her heart was still pounding though, and as she considered her friend on the floor it slow. The human puppet at her feet was still staring at her mons with that confused sort of expression, like she didn’t know what it was, or why it...it changed a little. And what did he need to secure her legs for?

None of it made Azula comfortable and she deferred to the agent for an answer, seeing as he was the one holding all the cards now. Rather than provide any answers though, he was busy searching around the sleeves of his robes for something, ignoring her completely. Infact, he hadn’t so much as looked at her since he arrived. The Princess felt a pang of anger towards him for that; like she wasn’t even important enough to be worth paying attention to.

As she saw him take a needle out of his sleeve, she became a little more thankful over said lack of attention, and hoped it stayed that way. Eying him warily, she watched as he slid the needle neatly into one of Mai’s passive hands. What was he planning? Azula looked to Mai for a clue. It didn’t prove helpful; the knife thrower just kept looking straight forward, not even seeming to notice what was happening to her. Surely that wasn’t right, she should be looking at where there was movement, unless...what she was looking at was also...doing things.

Before Azula could do anything about it, the Dai Li agent traced a cross on Mai’s arm...and it didn’t matter anymore.

“MMN!”

Azula jerked as Mai slid her hands forward and touched her slit, one staying where it was as the other moved up, slipping a finger between her lower lips and rising.

“Mmm!...mmnn...”
Azula couldn’t do much more than shudder as Mai mechanically went about her business, the other hand finally sweeping up and helping in parting her lips, the tip of the other finger pushing up the hood of her clit, unintentionally putting pressure upon the bundle of nerves.

Azula couldn’t see what was going on though. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was trying desperately not to make too much noise as her friend took advantage of her. Another firm press down on her clit put paid to that idea, a light moan passing around her gag as she flexed, her head falling back even as the rest of her struggled fitfully against the person touching her.

There wasn’t a word, phrase or scenario Azula could think of to describe what was happening. What she tried so hard to imagine was NOT happening. It was what it was; the person who used to be Mai was feeling out her most sacred area. She was horrified-...no. She was beyond horrified. She was MOANING.

“Mmnmm!”
Boths hands had travelled up around her clit now. The worst thing was that her body felt like it had been expecting it...maybe even wanting it.

Oh PLEASE, why would- that wasn’t true! She never, EVER wanted this! Nobody would want this! This was cold, clinical, against her will...there wasn’t...there wasn’t anything in this that she wanted! Not from anyone! NEVER!!

So why was she crying out?! Shut up!! SHUT UP!!!

A sudden sting of pain opened Azula’s eyes, and a lack of action after it made her look down to her tormentor. One of her hands still nuzzled against her crotch; frozen, yet still somehow grating against her. The other was held out towards the agent, open, as if expecting something. The handler, rather predictably, was once again taking his time over finding just what it was he was going to give her to continue.

Azula closed her eyes again, choosing to use the pause to recoup herself. Alright, that...that was bad, but if she could slow her breathing down, then at the least she wouldn’t embarrass herself any-

“-Ngrmmh!”

She shrieked behind her gag as Mai abruptly continued on, now more painful than... ‘pleasurable’, both hands working away at the next segment of their programming. She thought she heard something metal hit the floor, but she didn’t check. Checking was the furthest thing from her mind.

Mercifully it wasn’t long until Mai froze again, holding out her hand for the next part of the procedure. Deciding there wasn’t a point in even attempting to recoup, Azula merely watched her motionless friend, frozen between her legs. She didn’t want to look all the way down to see where the other hand was though, or know why she was hurting. Those things, she didn’t want to think about. Not when she could so easily distract herself by considering what was right infront of her. Yes. Much easier.

The agent produced a thin, broad tin from his robes, twisting the lid off and placing it in her palm. Azula shuddered a couple of times as something was applied to her, the soreness and the pulsing being replaced with a cold numbness. What little she could feel told her it was some sort of lotion.

She stayed silent and her apply it. No moans. No crying. No movement.

After Azula couldn’t feel anything anymore, Mai backed off, the tin hitting the floor as she assumed her former posture. The agent moved forward and started picking up the discarded instruments, waving away the extra restraints dismissively. A few more touches and his doll was on her feet, at attention. A few more seconds and the door ground shut, leaving Azula in her cell.

Alone again.

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

There wasn’t anything left for her to consider. She had to start thinking again. So she turned her mind onto the situation.

The first thing she thought of was how Mai had changed. All that screaming she’d heard through the bars of her cell had somehow led to the knife-thrower losing her identity. Now all she did was follow orders. Sharply. Clinically. Without complaint or thought or emotion. She just did the job, then waited until there was another job she could do. A perfect little orderly.

Exactly what Azula always wanted her to be.

The second thing she thought of was what had been done to her. She looked down, doing her best to thrust out her crotch for inspection. There was a clear lotion covering a fair amount of the area, and a glint of gold could be seen within her folds. A piercing. They had erased everything Mai was...so they could give her a clitoral piercing.

Azula lowered her hips.

She considered how she felt during the whole procedure. She panicked about being naked. She had never been naked infront of anyone else since she was a baby, and, were she to choose it to happen, she would have revealed herself while she was in perfect shape. Not as a withered, worthless husk.

Azula then thought about how much the silence and Mai’s touches had affected her. The indecent, prolonged exposure before the piercing had made her more sensitive. When she finally was touched, it felt good. But she didn’t want it to.

She thought about how she felt about that.

Ashamed. Small. Disgraceful.

She was glad that Mai hurt her. It was so much more tolerable than the other sensations she inflicted her with. It was what she deserved for being weak. For being useless.

And now she had been stamped with a mark of her humiliation. A piercing. Now everyone could see, from one glance at her body, just how unworthy and pathetic she was. There was no hiding from it. She had tried fighting, and she had failed. Failure wasn’t acceptable, so it was completely fair to be punished for it. Her father would understand.

She should have been angry about it, though. Failing. She knew she should be angry about how they handled her body, about how they handled her friends...or her ‘tools’. Whatever they were to her. She didn’t want to know; she didn’t need to feel anything more for them than she already did. It would just make her more disgusted with herself.

Disgusted. Disgust. She was disgusting. Her father would be disgusted with what she had become. By what her friends had reduced her to. What THEY had reduced her to, using those things her friends had become. Those tools turned on their master.

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

Those perfect, perfect tools that the Dai Li had taken from her.

“...”

Something was there, fighting within her. She wanted to scream. She wanted to scream SO MUCH. Why wasn’t she screaming? No-one would care; she had no friends to hold an image infront of, and Azula KNEW she didn’t have an image to protect. She was a naked girl with a clit piercing, hanging in some chains. That’s what she was. Alone. Cold.

Unloved.

“Hnm.”

That was funny. Like she was ever loved to begin with. Even if she wasn’t so pitiable she was still a monster; all that had changed was she’d been declawed so she couldn’t scare people into being around her.

That didn’t have anything to do with her mood though. It was Mai’s fault she was like this. It was all Mai’s fault. All her’s and all Ty Lee’s. She knew it was true. She did. But she wasn’t SATISFIED. It didn’t make her happier, it didn’t make her angry, it didn’t do or mean anything to her, to think that other people were the problem. It was the answer her father gave her; it was the CORRECT answer, but...for her...it-...it w-wasn’t...

“...”

And she was just...just feeling like...

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

A naked girl with a clit piercing, hanging in some chains.

Azula wasn’t tired. She could just sleep during the lantern sessions if she was. This problem needed solving.

She stared at the puddle, and thought about being distracted.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It had been a fun few days for Shin. There hadn’t been any ‘special’ tasks to perform or anything else untoward. The only piece of work that was left for him to do was to write up the daily report on his progress.

The progress itself, well, that wasn’t really work anymore.

“How’re you getting along?”

“You...are...so...mean!”

He smiled and continued writing, deciding to give her another minute before further antagonising the poor slave-dancer. The actual ‘scheduled’ sessions for the day had finished; this was just a little late-night entertainment to amuse him and excite her. Shin supposed that it was still training, given that he wouldn’t do anything to mar their progress this late in the game, but he didn’t really expect it to go anywhere. The truth was, he was just having a good time. He hoped she was too.

Finishing up on a sentence he leaned back on his chair, checking out the girl sat cross-legged on his bed. Or was that ‘their’ bed now? Regardless, it was quite a sight to behold. Ty Lee’s outfit seemed greatly enhanced by the lack of a bra, her perfectly shaped breasts complimenting her silvered slave collar nicely. Her hands were held a few inches away from said breasts, tensed as if to touch them but struggling to do so.

“Noooo...” She whined adorably, her hands slipping a little further away from her chest, down towards her knees.

“Giving up, are we?”

She made a face at him, but was concentrating too much on trying to keep her hands up to think of a snappy comeback. Grinning, he kept up the pressure, deciding to reinforce the suggestion he’d given her.

“No? But you know the more you want to touch them, the heavier your hands get. Heavier and heavier, the more they need to be touched. The harder you try, the heavier they get; the heavier they get, the more sensitive they become.”

Her hands shook, threatening to lower a little more as her breathing deepened, her eyes taking on a slightly glassy look before she shook herself out of it.

“J-Just wait!” She stammered, furrowing her brow and concentrating as hard as she could on trying to raise her arms, “I’ll...show you!”

He loved doing this to her; giving her a task she couldn’t possibly complete. The more she wanted to touch herself the less able she was to do it, and the less able she was to touch the more she wanted it. It was a vicious circle that could only end one way; the only question in his mind was how long it would be before it came to that conclusion. It had taken ten minutes to get her this far, but then for five of those minutes he was ‘prepping’ her for the task, and he expected the suggestion would start to snowball soon enough.

Of course, as far as she was concerned, it wasn’t a ‘suggestion’ as such; to her mind there were weights clearly being added to her cuffs, as well as whatever other internal ‘dream-logic’ she came up with to explain away her increasing sensitivity and arousal. Shin had given some thought about these safeguards recently, wondering if they were truly necessary deceptions anymore. Maybe, at some point, he actually WOULD play with her like this with her being fully aware of what he was doing. She might well go for it.

But then, that would be going beyond his mandate. It didn’t matter if he thought she wouldn’t mind, it simply wasn’t allowed.

Her hands dropped a little lower, a whimpering sigh accompanying the change.

Still...it was very tempting.

This was ALOT harder than she thought it was going to be.

Master had gone for some rather...’unusual’ foreplay today, taking her hands and circling her own fingers around her nipples while he sat behind her and whispered, asking her to concentrate on the feeling and nothing else. She could do nothing but oblige, really, and closed her eyes; feeling her own warm touch on her breasts, circling, spiralling...

Ty Lee didn’t even notice his absence until she reopened her eyes to see him across the room writing his report, nor notice the weights until she looked down to see them, hanging delicately off her cuffs. None of that was her concern though. She’d been ordered to concentrate on touching herself...and...well, she didn’t have any objections at all about doing that. Not infront of him.

For the first few minutes it didn’t seem to be a problem, but the more she touched, the heavier the weights felt upon her wrists, and the harder she found it to hold up her hands for the task. Now, it was just a struggle to keep them from falling into her lap and staying there.

And the worst thing was, she wanted to touch herself more than ever.

“You’re looking a little flustered, slave.”

She bit her lip as the cuffs became a little bit heavier. He was doing it again, teasing her...controlling her. He was the one who was adding the weights, denying her far-too-sensitive breasts the pleasure of a good, rough groping as effectively as if he were holding her wrists himself. It was just a show of how strong he was that he didn’t even have to touch her to assert his control over her body.

She felt her Master shift himself onto the edge of the bed.

“What’s the matter? Just try. Try as hard as you can to lift your heavy arms.”

Ty Lee grit her teeth, her muscles straining as her hands lowered another inch. What did he think she’d been doing for the past minute?! They were just getting too heavy for her now...

He passed his own hand infront of her chest, hovering temptingly over her skin without touching her directly. Ty Lee could feel it so acutely she was almost aching.

“Mmm...you’re burning up,” He breathed, moving his hand a little lower, “Oh... and if you don’t mind me saying, your nipples are rather hard, too.”

He was right; this was really turning her on. Afterall, she was just a helpless slave, powerless to stop what was happening to her. Only her Master could give her what she wanted...and she would have to beg for it.

Maybe.

“I don’t know...what you’re talking about, Master...” She smiled, shifting a little to see if she could just lean into his hand.

“Uh-huh,” He grinned, seeing her attempt and moving his hand away to her chin, tipping it up, “Not going to be that easy, slave. New rule; you can’t bend forward.”

Her hands dropped a little lower.

“Oh?” She quizzed playfully, raising an eyebrow, “Aaaand if I don’t?”

“Well, if you don’t it’s no big deal...” He replied, running the back of a finger along her cheek, “Except that you’d feel like a bad girl if you didn’t, wouldn’t you?”

Ty Lee furrowed her brow, trying to come up with a smart comeback. His point wasn’t THAT compelling, was it? She could stand to act up a little more.

“Well, I...”

Ugh. What could she reply with? She didn’t REALLY want to be a Bad Girl, but she couldn’t just give up like that.

“...Umm..”

Okay, now she was just feeling really crappy. If she talked back that meant she would be disobeying, and maybe he’d end the game or something. That really would make her a Bad Girl. That would absolutely suck. So....damn it!

“...Oh...you...!” She grimaced, arching her back into proper posture.

Her Master smiled. Secretly, she was smiling too; it felt SO much better to please and perform than to do anything contrary. Not to mention it was really hot that he could rein her in so easily, without hardly doing anything.

She’d chosen her Master really well.

Despite her best efforts to look pouty and upset, Shin could tell she didn’t mind the new rule at all as she complied with it. Aside from the little things, the smile in her eyes and the tone of her voice, the most obvious thing that betrayed her mood were her hands sinking even lower, now almost, ALMOST in her lap.

His little slave had such an adorable expression on her face over the whole thing too; one of hopeless concentration, knowing it was a losing battle, but still fighting it anyway. Her chest and face were flush, her breasts and their crowns begging to be touched; even her hands were still shaped like they wanted to cup them, visibly shaking against the mighty weights now holding them down. She was almost at breaking point; he just needed to give her that little, extra push.

“’Oh me’ indeed, slave,” He carried on, once again ghosting a hand over her body, “I mean, look at you. Your arms are so heavy you can’t even lift them anymore; as soon as they touch your lap, that will be that until I take the weights off them. And that’s not mentioning-”

He leaned down and blew a little air over her breasts, smirking at the light moan it produced.

“-How sensitive your breasts have become. So sensitive now, you would probably cum if you could touch them, wouldn’t you?”

She gave a light whimper as an answer. That wasn’t going to do though. He ghosted his hand even closer to them; barely a centimetre away, and fixed his eyes onto hers.

“Wouldn’t you, slave?”

“Yuh-yes...” She managed, the word forcing its way through her arousal.

“Yes WHAT?” He replied as he edged his hand away from her.

“Yes, M-Master...” She added quickly, not wanting to lose even that slight sensation.

“Mmm. You’re so sensitive now,” Shin carried on, trailing his other hand along one of the chains linking to her collar, “But, no matter what you do, you can’t raise those hands to touch them, can you? Too heavy now. So heavy they are just laying down on your lap. You can’t move them at all, can you?”

“N-No Master...” She admitted as she hazily strained once more to check, her eyes half-closed, “...Too heavy now...”

Shin didn’t need to look down to confirm; it wasn’t like she could lie in her current condition. Besides, it would spoil the moment if he did that, or moved his free hand away from the small of her back. He had shifted himself a bit further onto the bed as he talked, positioning himself a little bit behind her so he could reach around her, if need be.

“Mmm, far too heavy now...far too sensitive...” Shin ghosted from one breast to the other, almost able to feel her pulse through the air, “They want to be touched so badly now, don’t they?”

The dancer let out another low gasp in reply, but couldn’t summon up a coherent answer. That was fine; he didn’t mind pressing a little harder.

“You want to touch them so badly, don’t you slave?”

“Yesss...but...can’t...” Again, she made that strained, sleepy face, “...Can’t move...”

“No, you can’t, can you? Completely stuck in place. Can’t move forward. Can’t bring your arms up. Can’t do anything. Just a helpless dancing girl. Powerless.”

He enjoyed a brief shudder from her before carrying on, moving closer as he idled with one of the metal bands securing the girl’s plaited hair, releasing the catch.

“But I’m not.”

Shin kissed behind her ear, the slavegirl leaning into it as best she was able, sighing lightly. Undoing the second band restraining her locks, he took his time before speaking again, letting her linger on his words and squirm for a few moments. If there was one thing he’d learned from his job, it was that timing was everything.

Ty Lee was pretty sure she was going insane. She NEEDED to get off...but she couldn’t move. At all. Not her hands or her back. All she could do was sit there and be excruciatingly teased to the brink of an orgasm by her Master and absolutely no further because HE WOULDN’T TOUCH HER BREASTS.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Ty Lee knew he would...provided she did a certain thing for him first.

Beg.

The dancer bit her lip as he feathered yet more kisses along her shoulder, a warm hand sliding around her waist. Oh this was SO unfair! There wasn’t anything she could do to stop the little shocks of pleasure rippling up and down...mmm...this was nothing short of torture! Was this how Azula felt when she did it to her?!

Ty Lee hoped so.

“Tell me what you want.” A voice breathed into her ear, smothering dirty thoughts with simple obedience.

Ty Lee could feel her spirit bend to the command, much as her body had to the weights and rules. It was getting very hard to refuse him anything now; she didn’t want it to be so easy, but she was quickly finding out it wasn’t up to her anymore. He was giving Ty Lee her wants. Giving her desires. It was so hard to fight when everything she wanted would be given freely if she just stopped struggling...gave in...

Her hands curled into fists. Not just yet.

“I...I don’t know wha-...aah...”

“No?” He asked innocently, the hand over her breasts having disappeared beneath her sash, “Are you sure? Because I think you do know what I’m talking about. Unless...”

He twisted his fingers.

“Ahn!”

“...I’m just imagining you’re this wet?”

“Haa....aahn...”

She couldn’t even arch her back. She couldn’t even release the smallest expression of what she felt throughout her body. Nothing. It was all Ty Lee could do to pant and moan and shiver and pray that he wasn’t going to stoke the fire any higher than it already was. That thrilling, agonising burning was EVERYWHERE and...she wasn’t strong enough to ignore it. Not anymore. Not when he was helping it; using it to melt her defences. Melt HER.

She felt her pulse drum inside her sex. She could feel tears in her eyes. This...this was too much.

“Now. Say it.”

“...”

Her heart pounded in her mouth.

“...P-...”

The slavegirl swallowed, starting over.

“Please, Master...I...”

“Please? Please what?” He puzzled, a tinge of amusement to his voice, “Please stop?”

“NO! I-”

The hand on her waist curled up to grasp her chin, pushing her head back and turning it to see him.

“Then I suggest you be more SPECIFIC, slave.”

“I-I’m sorry-”

“’I’m sorry’ WHAT?”

“I’m sorry Master!”

He stayed silent for a second, just listening to her heavy, tight gasps and watching the tears trickle down her face. She swallowed again, knowing how completely she was at his mercy. Spirits, she was trembling...this was so far beyond how far she-

“-Alright,” He finally said, his grip on her chin falling away, “Now tell me what you want, slave.”

“T-thankyou, Master. Please, I-...I want you to...ahh...t-touch me...”

“Touch you...where?” He asked, sliding a finger along her slit.

“Naah...m-my...ahn-”

“-SLAVE.”

“M-my breasts!” Ty Lee added, cringing as best she was able from being forced to say it so bluntly, “Touch my breasts!”

There was a slight pause, and when he spoke again it was barely a whisper.

“Was that an order, slave?”

“Ah! No, Mast-“

“-Then...”

He drew in until their lips were almost touching.

“I suggest you ask as befits your station.”

Ty Lee felt her insides twist. He was going to make her announce just how much she had submitted to him...and she loved it. She LOVED that he was putting her on the spot, making her to speak her real feelings like this. It felt right, for whatever reason. It made him happy. And, surrendering like this, being forced to do things for someone else...or choosing, rather...well, it really made her happy too. Happy, and really, REALLY horny.

She swallowed, trying to dissipate the uneasiness in her breathing. Ty Lee was done playing, and she didn’t want to make any more mistakes. She wanted release, and she was going to make him give it to her the best way she knew how.

“Master...please, touch this slave’s breasts. She begs you...make her cum.”

She tilted her head to the side a little more, grazing her lips against his.

“...Please?”

Shin was so tempted. If he leaned forward just half an inch, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from kissing her, and that was all it would take for him to cave in to her needs. At the same time he couldn’t move away to remove the temptation; that would show his little dancer just how weak she had made his position...not to mention how weak he himself would look for backing out in the first place.

Through doing nothing more than conceding to his demands, she’d managed to freeze Shin’s movements more precisely than he had done to her using suggestion and made-up rules. And none of that was taking into account just how effectively her whispered words managed to do all the right things to entice him into her little trap. No doubt about it, she was good; it was terrifying how easily she could control other people when she tried.

All that said, Shin wasn’t quite ready to give in and reward her just yet. Having moved to a more comfortable position beside his would-be temptress, he cupped her cheek, his thumb tracing the shape of her lower lip, feeling out her warmth.

“And what does this slave offer her Master in return?” He asked steadily, over a decade of training barely masking the shake in his voice.

He saw a smile threaten to rise in her eyes, a ripple of thought passing behind a curtain of lust. She knew what he wanted to hear. Shin felt her soften under his hands, all the fight draining out of her as the slavegirl inhaled audibly, her tongue straddling the back of her lips.

“...Everything.”

It was barely a whisper to Shin’s ears. Almost unnoticeable. But it was so much more than a word to the rest of him. He could trace its truth out between her legs. See it in her eyes. Smell it from her scent.

She’d given herself to him. Completely and totally. To do with as he pleased.

Claiming her mouth with his he grabbed one of her breasts and squeezed, nails digging into her soft flesh.

Shin tasted her cries with his tongue, all that pent up frustration finally being released. He didn’t let up, swallowing another muffled shriek as he brought his other hand up and seized a nipple, pinching it between his fingers and twisting sharply, sending her into a second orgasm before the first had even finished.

He pulled out of the kiss, letting her get some much needed air as he shifted around from her side to her front.

“Lie back.”

With her strings cut Ty Lee collapsed back onto the bed, back arching as she pressed hard against the sensations overwhelming her. Keeping up the pressure, Shin trailed his way down to her chest and caught her other nipple between his teeth, lightly biting it.

She arched even stronger and screamed, cumming for a third time, her hips moving of their own accord, searching for something to clench around, something to keep on stimulating her. Nothing was needed; it was no longer the most sensitive part of her body.

Shin listened to her as she bucked and writhed beneath him, wanting, needing, feeling nothing else. She was beyond coherent already, caught between sharp moans and longer, lower, far more primal noises that he had never guessed she could make. He wanted to hear more.

He shifted himself to her other breast and bit down, drawing out another scream.

He wanted to hear Everything.

**** **** **** ****

Ty Lee drifted, her eyes still closed. She could feel a stupid, contented smile on her face. Her head was in another person’s lap, and someone was drawing a hand through her hair. Her skin felt all tingly.

“...Mmm...”

“Awake at last, eh?”

She blinked her eyes open and looked up at her Master lazily, not bothering to move.

“M’sorry. What’s goin’ on?”

He laughed a little. His green eyes sparkled. He really had nice eyes.

“’What’s going on’ is you passing out, that’s what.”

“Passing out?” She wondered aloud, an amused but thoughtful look on her face, “Why would I...”

Oh yeah.

The dancer stifled a gasp and covered her mouth, her face turning crimson. She couldn’t believe she’d done that! Not the asking or anything, but the screaming and...oh man, it’d felt so good, but she was all moaning and shrieking and...and she had called out ‘Master!’ a few times too! She’d never called names or titles out before! Not that she had ever done anything like that before, but still, she didn’t think she was the type. Well, maybe she didn’t call out anything, really, because maybe she was just too busy screaming and groaning to- oh yeah, like THAT’S much better!

“Hahahaha! I see you recall.” He grinned, stopping her from being too mortified.

“...Uh, yeah!” She said, before continuing on a little more meekly, “...And...umm...thankyou.”

“For what?”

Even if it was an innocent question, Ty Lee still felt pressed to answer, inwardly wincing as she felt the words leave her mouth.

“For...um...for getting me off.”

“Oh, that? Don’t mention it. You’ll be making up for it anyway.”

She quirked an eyebrow at him, but couldn’t resist reflecting some of the cheeriness that he was currently exuding.

“Doing...?”

Her Master shook his head, tutting in disappointment.

“Oh dear,” He lamented aloud, “Don’t tell me my slave has already forgotten what she promised to give me in return for releasing her from her torture?”

Her eyes widened. Oh. Oh THAT. She felt a thrill of anticipation run through her, snapping every nerve and muscle in her body to attention. Time to perform.

Closing her eyes, she slid off his lap to stand in the centre of the room, marvelling at the touch of cool air on her bare chest. Back still facing the bed, Ty Lee reached towards her hip, taking hold of the chain keeping her sash in place, unclasping it. Peeling off the last shred of her modesty, she flicked it onto the back of her Master’s chair, the silver jingling as she turned to face him, naked except for the ornaments of her position.

“This slave remembers, Master.”

Without complaint or effort, Ty Lee slid onto her knees and prostrated herself before her owner.

“Please, command her as you see fit.”

Shin stood up, not taking his eyes off the perfectly serpine form before him.

He wondered if he had time for this ‘training’. He hadn’t been planning for it today as he’d already received orders that his subject would be required to attend the Princess’s lantern session tomorrow, given the success of subject Mai’s meeting. It wouldn’t do to have his own girl exhausted for the experience.

Shin traced the patterns on her slave bracelets with his eyes. How perfectly she adhered to the submissive posture.

He would just have to take the risk.

“Stand.”

The girl gracefully rose to her feet to stand at attention, eyes down.

He’d say ‘Time to get back to work’, but...

“Take off my clothes.”

The progress itself, well, that wasn’t really work anymore.
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Lake Laogai