AN: Written for the "Flesh" theme at avatar contest on LJ.

Pound of Flesh

She will not pay with her life. They will leave her to rot in prison and convene with her moot desires. Her crimes will settle inside her like bile in her stomach, but she will not pay for them with death.

The first weeks slide by and she screams herself hoarse - making demands, fighting phantom attackers and cursing rivals who aren't there. Her strangled screams drown the prison and reverberate against the walls. Some guards have even put cotton their ears when she bemoans her suffering, but they will not listen. They are not there to care.

Soon, reports flutter throughout the Fire Nation that the former fire princess has gone insane, and her madness travels outside the walls of the prison. Other prisoners beg to be kept elsewhere, and guards come to the Fire Lord and lobby for her execution.

Some days she says nothing. She shuffles her feet in the dirt and throws weak charges of electricity at the padded walls. She eats a little. She relieves herself. She picks the dirt and bugs from her matted hair. She sleeps and cries for her mother in her sleep.

Though, the silence in Azula's prison cell doesn't last. She regains her voice and screams again. Each demand more ludicrous than the next. Sometimes, it's obvious she doesn't know herself and what she's done.

"Hey, hey, come here," she says to the guard sweetly. Her voice is ragged from an hour of wailing. The guard ignores her. He doesn't even meet her eyes. "Do you know who I am? There's been a misunderstanding. Please let me talk to my father." She pauses. "Please...please…" And it continues and trails into a low pitiful whisper.

The guards change, and Azula tries again. The result is always the same.

The padding in her cell walls has scorch marks from her fury.

"How much longer must I stay in here? Haven't I paid enough?" But only months have gone by, not even a year. Time is slower for Azula, but she knows that with her brother and the Avatar ruling it'll never be enough. She'll always be here - for life.

The thought sends her into a bout of terrified screams, and she's throwing a fit in her cell and ripping everything apart.

The guards change again. The last guard takes a different route than home, and he heads toward the palace.

--

"She's at it again," Zuko says bitterly. "I don't know what else to do with her."

Aang nods. "I don't know what you're thinking, but prison is the best you can do. She committed crimes against your country and people, worse than some officials under your father, and she deserves this fate."

There's a heavy silence, and Zuko's eyes narrow.

"You can't execute her." Aang watches him with a steady expression. "It's too cruel. Yes, she's done terrible things, but you can't fall to that level. It's like with Ozai..."

"I know..." Zuko says quickly. "But she's driving people crazy. That's the fourth guard who's quit on me. They can't take it anymore." Zuko sighs and rests his face in his palms. "And I don't blame them. I can't even go there and see her like that. I know she deserves it but..."

Aang averts his eyes, and a thought rises as he ponders the dilemma. "You can take her to a more isolated prison, one that's not so close to the public. Or maybe to one that's more underground."

Zuko shakes his head. "We still need guards there, and I prefer her to be contained within the fortified city in case she decides to escape."

Aang looks stumped. "She has to settle down eventually. Solitary confinement might give her time to think." Zuko gives him a doubtful look.

"Azula doesn't think about mistakes the same way as you or I do, or like anyone else. She still thinks she made no mistakes. I guarantee it," Zuko says.

"Well," Aang replies with a hopeful smile. He stands up and smoothes the wrinkles from his orange and golden robes. "Maybe it's time someone reminded her."

Aang leaves with a bow, and Zuko leans back in his chair with a contemplative expression.

--

Aang walks through the prison doors, and the lethargic guard stiffens in surprise when he sees him. Aang puts up his hand. "It's alright. I've come to see the princess."

Slowly, the guard nods and lets him through. Aang's solemn expression changes when he sees her cell.

He could have never pictured her like this a year ago, not Fire Princess Azula. It's almost inconceivable, but here she is, sitting in her own filth, tracing her finger idly in the dirt. Aang looks down at her with pity.

He settles his staff on the floor, and she jumps. Slowly, she raises her head to acknowledge his presence. He sees the flash of hope on her face quickly vanish. She already knows he will not release her.

"You!" she screams, and she jumps to her feet and reaches out to him. She rattles the bars and whips him with blue fire. She hollers garbled words, and Aang dodges her weak fire with a simple air bending shield. Perhaps her powers are getting weaker the more she stays in confinement. If so, he thinks there are fewer chances for her to hurt people again, which is good news.

When she finally stops firing at him, he meets her again with compassion. He takes in her image; her clothes are torn, and her hair is messed up. Dirt is mottled over her face and body. Her cell is completely sacked with her scant belongings broken or tattered. Even her bed is no longer usable.

"What are you doing here, Avatar?" she snaps at him. She glares through her wild hair, gripping the bars of her cell until her knuckles turn white.

"I came to see you," Aang says simply. Azula audibly scoffs. She starts to pace her cell like a restless animal.

"Come to take my powers away like you did my father, eh? It's time for my punishment too?" she asks with a bitter laugh.

Aang shakes his head. "No." He lets out a small sigh. "There's no need to, Azula. Your punishment is your imprisonment."

"Don't you think I know that? I was just hoping..." She looks away sadly, but her mood quickly changes back to anger. "When is my brother coming? Is he going to execute me?" Her face beams with a wild, anxious smile.

Aang frowns. "No, he will not be coming. He's not going to execute you." Aang pauses. "But I think he is concerned for you."

Azula doesn't like that answer, and she rattles her bars again with another tirade. "Concerned? My brother is anything but concerned for me. He's a stupid, disgraceful little puppet, and now he answers to you. He doesn't have a brain in his head, and if he did, I'd be dead by now. So why tell him to spare my life at all, Avatar? Why make him kneel to you again?" She spits at his feet again and resumes her pacing.

Aang doesn't give into her games. Instead, he keeps this meeting brief and simple. "No, Azula. He will not kill you, but he will take care of you during your sentence."

She throws up her arms and snorts loudly. "Why are you really here, Avatar? If it's not by Zuko's doing than what is your reason? Have you come to torture me with kindness?" She stops and gives him a hard stare. "Leave. I know my fate." She turns from him and sits in the pile of blankets on her broken bed.

Aang watches her as she keeps her eyes from him, impatient for him to go. He sees her grit her teeth, and she starts to cry. She gets angry, and she leaps up to knock her things around the room again. She rambles to herself, acting as though he isn't here, cursing and mocking him and her brother, damning them to hell. Aang watches her with pity, and he understands how difficult it is to see her like this, every hour and every day. She's paying for her sins in a way that she has no control over. She wants them to give her death; it's the one end she yearns for rather than living like this, and to some more vengeful than he, it's an easy sentence. But to Aang, it isn't the way Azula isn't going to learn from her mistakes, and Zuko knows that as well.

No. Azula will stay in prison, and maybe in the length of all this stretched time, she'll understand the mandatory justice for her tyranny. He will be the one to start her on this path of realization.

"I came to forgive you," Aang says to her finally, breaking through the tension. Her whimpering tirade stops for a moment. Her wide eyes grate across him in insult, and she visibly bristles to his audacity.

Aang knows Azula might not want his forgiveness, but she's getting it anyway. The first nick of flesh in the debt she owes is scraped away, and it paves the way for a new beginning.

The next choice is up to her.

END