Paradise of Infinity

"*Snort* Hehe *Khen*" The odd, snorting chuckled almost drove Aang crazy as he snapped his head in the direction of the man suspended within a metal casket with lots of tubes attached to its surface. This dungeon had various devices of torture with only two lamps to somewhat lighten the area and Aang himself was tied onto a wooden apparatus with his hands spread out.

"Young Avatar, oh, Young Avatar! *Khnnk* What is the quickest way to descend from the palace to the gates of Omashu?"

"Old Sir," Aang pouted with annoyance, "I don't know who you are. But please let me think about how to get out of this mess. I promise I will get you out of here."

"Hahahaha *Khnnk*" The man had dark skin layered with wrinkles that converged with his laugh. The remnant of his white hair disheveled and his set of teeth less than half of a normal human. The sheer difference of the dilation of the pupils of his two eyes that would flicker oddly under low light made Aang uncomfortable.

"No need to get me out of here, young Avatar. No need, I say. But... look there," the man gestured with his chin towards the circular earthen platform around him with thin pillars keeping them up.

"Be wary of them. Protect your mind using the teachings of the monks. You do remember them, don't you? To be focused and peaceful," the man grinned, his yellow teeth now seemingly more wild in their tone.

"How do you know the about the monks?" Aang took another look at the old man as his grin widened.

At this point, the metal gates were unlocked and the entrance was pushed open to reveal Zhao who walked with his fists pressed against each other behind his back. Behind him was Nik dragged by two firebenders as they caught his wrists and twisted them against the confines of their sockets causing his expression to twist in pain, too.

"Hey! You promised to let my friends go!" Aang instantly struggled against his shackles but sadly, the air did little to metal in such a short period of time.

"I will let them go, in time," Zhao smiled as Nik was shackled against a similar pillar like Aang opposite to him.

"Oh, hey," Nik smiled bitterly, "Did you at least enjoy these few days with other kids?"

Speechless for a moment, Aang nodded eventually, "It was short... but really fun." The Avatar smiled without care at this moment. This short gap had allowed him the much-needed recollection of composure and the ability to understand the world through the point of view of the current generation.

"I believe things should end with a high note. It also seems that Mad King has taken a liking to you," Zhao interrupted before turning around, "Nik, right? You stole many things from the Mayor's office. Where are these items hidden?"

"They are destroyed," Nik replied without missing a beat, speaking truth for the most part for they have indeed been lost forever in the grind for A.P.

Zhao frowned hearing this as he grew thoughtful. Walking towards the bench with an array of devices that had familiar shapes even if different details, Nik's expression worsened somewhat. He discreetly tried to touch things around with his shackled hands and felt revealed at his fingers barely able to fold and touch the shackles that caught up even his thumbs.

"And what did you find in the documents that you stole?" Zhao inquired, picking up a thick wooden staff while twirling it in his hands.

"All of them were destroyed right then and there."

"That youth from the Southern Tribe, Sokka, said that you do have the ability to magically carry things. Now, please excuse my doubt at your words," Zhao smiled and turned to look at Nik. His grip around the wooden staff tightened as the old man suspended in the air cackled, "Uh-oh, that's gonna' be painful..."

Nik finally looked up, surprised.

"Who are you—"

*Swish*

*Tha*

The staff created a bloodcurdling noise as it struck Nik on his chest with his shriek ringing alongside in an instant.

"I love this more than Dai Li's ways," Zhao sighed in satisfaction, his expression pleasant as Nik writhed against the shackles, his legs struggling against the locks as he pained scream made Aang shout.

"Stop that!"

"I won't—" Zhao only smiled when a pillar of wind struck his body squarely, sending him flying and smashing against the bench with the devices falling on him.

Aang exhaled furiously again, a pillar of wind shooting out when Zhao hurriedly dodged and threatened with a glower, "Attack me again, young Avatar, and those two lovely women in the cell would face a fate worse than your friend over here!"

Aang came to a stunned stop as his heart went cold.

"Now, Nik. Again, what did you find out?" Zhao inquired.

Nik knew better than to admit that he had knowledge of a very sensitive plan so he would rather go through pain. It was an external one anyway and all the while, he was trying to find ways to get out of this place. Right now, he didn't want to make the palace disappear because he himself will fall to his death.

"It was simply a clever ruse to divert your attention. I never checked anything... I don't know how to read or write! Let me go!" Nik gasped, his forehead matted with cold sweat as he felt that a long mark would definitely form over his body.

*Tha*

Nik's expression twisted with agony again as he screamed.

---

"You cannot be impudent in front of the Admiral, understand? This is a chance for you to truly distinguish yourself..." In the dining room while eating their breakfast, Ukano spoke softly as Kai kept his head lowered in indignation, still blissfully unaware that he, too, was never in control of his mind from the day he was engaged to Mai.

"Check this out," Tom-Tom, meanwhile, nudged Mai's shoulder and began to wave the fork caught between his thumb and index finger. The sight made Mai roll her eyes, her mind hung on other thoughts.

*Thck*

"What is going on?" The moment the door was opened, Michi hurried in while raising her voice by a few notches, "Why am I hearing that my maids and waiter is captured?"

"Calm down," Ukano frowned in dissatisfaction, "I was waiting for everyone to enter before explaining. You lot, leave us," he glanced at the three waitresses who left without a word, and only now did Mai pay them any attention only for find a distinct lack of awareness in their gaze. But her thoughts, again, made her secretly glance at Michi before she felt a strange sense of pressure.

'Should I ask her? It's annoying that I had to come over and talk to her about my marriage just when...' Her gaze flickered momentarily.

Needless to say, she had never heard her mother... like 'that', and quite honestly, she wished she hadn't heard anything at all since she couldn't wrap her head around it at all!

"This morning, the recent Assistant Butler— Sokka, and his distant family hired by Kai were ousted as spies that wish to harm our family." Ukano began and everyone except Tom-Tom grew serious. Kai's expression relaxed slightly and the mayor continued, "With the help of Admiral Zhao, they are detained. Tom-Tom, did the Avatar say something about what he was trying to do?"

"The Avatar?" Tom-Tom cluelessly cocked his head sideways while Michi's lips parted in shock. Her immediate worries were suppressed but the sense of foreboding in her only grew viciously.

"That boy... Aang... you're saying he is the Avatar?" Mai narrowed her eyes and Kai nodded.

"Yes, sweetheart. He wanted to destroy everything that the Mayor has been planning—"

"What Kai is trying to say," Ukano snorted, shooting the impatient boy a glare as he shrunk his neck, "is that the Avatar opposes the rule of the Mighty Phoenix King. We must handle the situation appropriately."

"Why would the Avatar oppose the King? The Fire Nation respected the Avatar. We have a hundred-year festival for all the past Avatars on the day of Roku's comet passing by which was five years ago."

"What are you hiding from us?" Michi interrupted with a sharp glare as she curbed the sensation of the pit in her stomach. She held her daughter's hand, not in worry, but just to gain enough courage and even the usual stoic Mai could feel something wrong with her mother.

It was actually a series of strange actions and reactions for the past few days that made Mai realize that something was wrong with her mother.

Ukano frowned, "What do you mean?"

---

"What do I mean?" Zhao chuckled as he flicked the wooden staff over Nik's chest making him shout in depression, "You perverted old bastard!" he cussed despite himself, "I'm telling you I don't know anything! Stop getting off of by beating others!"

His left leg and torso felt numb with pain yet each strike would be registered fully.

Capturing everyone, Zhao wanted to take it slow. It was clear that he enjoyed torturing others and Nik understood that blue marks on the skin are simply the first level of all. He was hurt, but his tolerance was high, or else he could never have made it big with rich women, politicians, even, with demonic tendencies.

"What I mean, my young Avatar, is that you're an Airbender. The world was purified of your kind to begin what would later be honorably known as the Hundred Year War.

Why, Mad King? You love to chat. Laugh and snort. You laughed in the face of techniques brought by the Dai Li from Ba Sing Se and almost made our staff crazy by your rambunctious personality. Could you not tell him how his kind was naive enough to die in the festival to honor this boy?

You are said to be alive from that period. Known to the Air Nomads and the Southerners well. Could you not break the boy's heart that he is the reason why his kind are dead?"

Zhao chuckled.

"Mmmgh, I don't remember *Khnnk* *Khnnk*" The man suspended above the floor in the metal casket overhead Nik and Aang cackled but the ominous glint in the man's eyes couldn't be hidden at this point.

'I'd shout don't listen to him... but I'm still in a situation of my own,' Nik groaned internally. Zhao, at this point, had either lost interest in Nik or actually believed he knew nothing. After all, Zhao didn't hold his punches one bit. He walked over to Aang and pushed his chin up by the end of the staff, making the boy level with his cruel gaze.

"Avatar Aang, how did you survive the purge? Why is the Avatar so young when the airbending Avatar is supposed to be hundred years old. If you tell me this, I promise to tell you what happened to your people," Zhao smiled.

"You killed them!" Aang hissed.

"Down to the last infant, we did," Zhao remarked with an icy stare, "But do you not wish to know the details? To go and lay respect to their burial grounds? Or is that virtue, too, lost to you when you abandoned your people?"

"Aang! Don't listen to him! I slept with his mother last night and he's taking out his anger on you," The old man chortled and Zhao's eyelids twitched.

"If possible, I would want to welcome you with a feast as I did back then. Only this time, it won't be a bowl of salted soup but a banquet of vegetables, rice, and fruit!"

Aang snapped out of his thoughts as he looked up in a daze.

"I... wait, what? How..." The boy gaped. His heart could only handle so much in this short frame as the old man cackled, "It's me, your pal! How the heavens have blessed me with such a good pal to even follow me down in this hell! Hehehe *Khnnk*!"

"Truly a mad king," Zhao shook his head and looked towards Nik, "Nik, fine. I believe you. You don't know what is going on, right? Then you shall work for me from now on—"

"Don't listen to him, boy! He's a man as empty as his father's existence in his life!" The old 'Mad King's' insults... Nik respected them. Tasteful and painful at the same time!

"Shut up!" Zhao snapped, hurling a projectile of flame at the metal casket but the old man continued to chuckle, "You won't kill me, boy! Khahaha! But you snap as quickly as your mother!"

"This is the last time you will insult my dead mother!"

"She died with a satisfied smile on her face. Last night was that great!"

"You're Bumi!" Aang shouted.

"There you go!" The old man scoffed a chuckle before revealing his full set of teeth... which weren't that many in the first place.

"You know Mad King Bumi?" Zhao recollected his calm with a snort, "It seems like you really did somehow survive the war and the cruelty of time all these years. A pity."

"Ah, yes, how easily distracted I can get," Zhao suddenly chuckled, "Seeing that you two are old friends, one so old that he doesn't remember anything except for his depraved sense of humor and one so young that he needs an understanding of the world, let me be the one to educate you in our ways."

Zhao snapped his fingers and one of the guards stepped out before bringing in another old man wearing dark green robes.

"Start with the Avatar. I want to use older methods on the rest personally. It will be a magnificent sight to see the Avatar they have their hopes pinned on suddenly standing next to me," Zhao smiled and the guards moved towards the two lamps and blew off the light within, causing the room to descend in darkness.

Only one lamp was lit up and it was placed over the circular ring around Aang.

"What is going on?" Aang frowned, feeling complicated. If he doesn't struggle, he would likely fall into a perilous situation. If he does anything, Katara and Suki might be in danger.

"This is something Ba Sing Se developed over the years. Wait, you will see the effects soon enough.

With only one source of light, everyone could barely make out Zhao, Aang, and the old man in green robes. It was simply too dark with only that earthen lamp glowing like a star.

'The Twilight Dungeon... aah, that makes sense now,' Nik recalled Michi's outburst.

Nik struggled to stand straight, the shackles and the pillar behind him long disappeared.

"Just let my friends go! You want the Avatar, right?" Aang groaned, merely struggling by trying to pull forward.

Nik felt a little complicated. He really did find a semblance of friendship in Aang but he also believed that if push came to the shove, he might have... chosen to betray. The thought was a rational one. Anybody would have chosen the same thing, but then again, it would make him empathize with her. That was even more sickening.

Ordinarily, this truly would have been his cue to leave, maybe escape into his personal space since that was one ability nobody knew or could be prepared for, Nik silently crouched and then crawled towards one of the earthen pillars that supported the ring of earth.

Slow and Steady.

"As I said, I will let them go. But on my terms. When they fully believe in the Pheonix King and for their current actions, they need appropriate punishment."

"Khekhe, you don't wanna do that, Zhao! Think of your mother? How blissfully I sent her away—"

Nik's body tensed as Zhao suddenly threw another ball of flames in the general direction of Bumi's face.

Seeing that nobody noticed him, Nik let out a sigh of relief but the flames had struck the side of Bumi's face, causing Aang to shout in concern.

"Bumi!"

"Kha! I'm fine, I'm fine! I'm just not in the mood or they would be facing hell at this point!" Bumi cackled and Nik secretly rolled his eyes.

Nobody believed in Bumi's claims.

The earthen lamp suddenly moved at this point. It followed the opposite direction but would soon pass the area close to Nik and he had to act quickly.

"You are feeling sleepy." The old man began. His voice was surprisingly dreamy and soothing.

"Not really," Aang frowned.

*Drr*

The earthen lamp created a soft but continuous noise that attracted Aang as it moved along the circular path when—

It disappeared.

For a moment, the Twilight Dungeon descended into complete darkness and with a burst of strength, Nik hurriedly crawled towards the pillar and patted around before touching its surface. The confines on Aang disappeared the next instant and Nik's AP rose again.

He would truly be taking this castle for all the pain he had gone through.

"That's all I can do, Aang," Nim gasped, clutching his chest in pain. Aang couldn't see, but his heart clenched up with all his suppressed anger that the monks had told him to discard finally escaping his confines of peace, joy, and passivity.

"Damn it!" Zhao scowled when a piercing gust of wind hit him instantly.

"W-what?" The old man scowled, the only thing Aang needed to locate him in the dark.

"Bend fire! It's too dangerous in the dark!" Zhao screamed.

"That's what she said!" Bumi 'Aha'd' with a chuckled, happily cackling away.

"What?" Zhao growled.

"That's what your mother said last night, dumbass!" Nik screamed before waving his left hand, "Aang, lookout wherever you are!"

A giant boulder instantly escaped his left hand and followed the momentum of release.

'Look at that, earthbending,' Nik smiled before slumping on the floor like a dead fish.

The momentum of the boulder was barely noteworthy. It barely 'flew' four centimeters above the ground before crashing down and rolling slightly. But the attack was too surprising. Aang felt the force over the bald of his head due to the shift in the air and moved quickly but the old earthbender had his foot crushed, making him scream and punch out in a hurry.

The boulder came sliding back. Nik didn't have to see it. He was lying on the ground, he could feel it.

He vanished instantly as the boulder passed through the area with a long dragging mark before reappearing once again in the same area and the exact position.

The guards had already set their fists on fire while Zhao opened the entrance to the dungeon.

***

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