Title: Occupation
Author: shadowsong26
Rating: R
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Characters/Pairings/Warnings: Joo Dee, various OCs, sex, murder, and mass murder.
Summary: Snapshots of the resistance and collaborators during the Occupation of Ba Sing Se, three days before the liberation
Disclaimer: All characters are the property of their respective creators.
Note: Written for the AtLAland Soundtrack Title Prompt challenge, tied for third place.



Early

The four of them had gathered in the old man's basement. The city had fallen nearly four months before, and, with the comet coming in three days, it was time for desperate action.

"We don't want to destroy too much of the framework," Huang cautioned. "If we bring the palace down on the invaders, there won't be anything for the King to come back to."

"If the king comes back at all," Xia pointed out, irritably. "We still haven't even managed to confirm that the Avatar took him out of the city when it fell. For all we know, he's dead."

"What about--," Huang started.

"If Suyin's alive, she's collaborating," Xia snapped.

"Both of you, quiet," the old man cut in. "Huang is right. We cannot destroy the palace. Our goal is to restore our city. We cannot do that by tearing it down."

"The buildings don't matter. We can recreate them," Xia said, shaping the floor into a model of the palace for effect.

"But the things that make them special will be gone," her sister Ting said sadly. She ran a hand over the model, dragging little nicks into it with her subtler, weaker 'bending. "The little pieces of history."

Xia growled something unbefitting a young lady like herself, but didn't argue the point.

~~~

Midmorning

Joo Dee trailed a hand along the silken curtain of her room, half-listening to the Fire handler who'd been assigned to her after the Princess had left her in charge. It was an odd sort of feeling, knowing she wasn't compelled to listen to the man who held her, for the first time in...she wasn't sure how long.

The odd thing was, she missed the expert handling of her former masters. The ones who knew just the right amount of steel and silk to make her want to obey, even though she'd learned tricks to get around some of the compulsions years ago.

"So now all we need is your signature," the Fire man finished.

Joo Dee turned from the window and scanned the paper. "This is a death list."

"All the names on it are guerilla resistance fighters," he assured her.

I highly doubt that, she thought.

"Sign it," he prompted.

She picked up the pen and turned it in her fingers. It was a beautiful pen, a jade pen, and she reshaped it slightly, to make the carving please her more.

She smiled sweetly at him and said, "No."

"Sign your name," he said, with greater firmness.

Joo Dee stared up into his eyes again. "No. I will not."

He looked down at the paper and smiled. She followed his gaze, confused.

Somehow, despite her efforts, the years of conditioning to obedience had overcome her.

She'd already signed.

~~~

Afternoon

They had gathered the condemned in the Agrarian Zone, and the execution had been swift. Chao felt a certain savage pleasure as he and a dozen other trusted young mixed earthbenders dug out the pit for the remains.

The pit was tiring work, but it was fun, almost, chatting with his friends--the disenfranchised, the ones who were always on the edge of every group, at school, in the neighborhood...no one wanted them. Chao had it especially hard, as his mother had actually loved his Fire father.

And now the bastards were all dead, dead for resisting the New Order.

Tossing the bodies in was less fun. It was monotonous, and didn't give him a chance to stretch his wings and do the flashy stuff he'd always been Looked Askance at for trying in the past.

He came to some he recognized, and felt a jolt of glee.

You I asked to teach me. I begged. But you said I wasn't worthy, being Fire. But you were so proud of your daughter being the King's whore.

And you I asked to touch me. You're a fucking prostitute, and you wouldn't take my money.

The next body to toss in almost stopped him short. "Oh, my," he whispered. His smile, still savage, was a little sad at the same time.

And you I asked to love me. Why didn't you love me, Mamma? You loved him.

At the signal from the foreman, he started shoving the earth back into place.

~~~

Late

Suyin closed her eyes as she let the Fire man unbraid her hair. She felt a little sick inside, every time she let that happen. She was of the King's harem, no man was to touch her save him.

But maybe, if she survived...when the Occupation was over, she might be the one to give the King his first son, and become Queen.

It was what her parents had hoped for, sending her here five years ago when she turned sixteen. But Suyin had never felt like a whore until the Occupation and the Fire hands running down her back.

But Suyin had a secret. And, now that she'd finally gotten the attention of the Traitor Joo Dee's handler, she could move.

She turned her head and smiled over a naked shoulder at him.

"You've been wasted on the others," he said. "I should have sought you out sooner."

"It was distasteful," she murmured. "I am meant for greater things." This was true, but she'd phrased it to make him think he was the Greater Thing. Flattery made men complacent, she'd learned in four months of whoring.

He smiled, and pulled her over on top of him.

Perfect.

One hand trailed down to touch the stone floor next to the bed. She yanked, and his head and the pillows sank into a hole she closed over them. She gripped tight on the stone, waiting for him to stop moving, and then another minute, until she was sure he was dead.

When Suyin released him, she spent a careful half-hour disarranging the bedclothes. Then she lay down next to him and curled up in a little ball, feigning sleep so she wouldn't be punished for not informing them of his death.