Avatar: shackled earth

Pain.

It had become the only thing Tomo knew.

It lived in his flesh, gnawed through his veins, and settled deep into the marrow of his bones. It curled around his ribs like a living entity, pressing against his lungs with every shallow breath. Pain was the constant, the single, unwavering truth in this room of stone and shadows.

And yet, somehow, he was still here.

Still breathing.

Still enduring.

Tomo had stopped counting the wounds. Stopped measuring the time between each fresh wave of agony. It was meaningless now, a blurred repetition of suffering layered over itself. Somewhere between the first cut and the hundredth, he had lost track of where he ended and the pain began.

But something was different now.

He wasn't screaming anymore.

He wasn't flinching.

He wasn't even seeing Kael anymore.

The dim torchlight flickered, twisting against the damp stone walls, casting elongated shadows that no longer belonged to the room. The air was thick with the copper scent of blood, but it was no longer just his own. It was older—etched into the very foundation of this chamber, saturating the walls with the suffering of those who had come before him.

The whispers had started hours ago. Or was it days?

It didn't matter.

Jin's voice came first. A low murmur, soft at the edges but firm enough to dig under his skin. Then the others followed—faces half-formed in the darkness, eyes hollow with blame. They were watching. Always watching.

Waiting.

Kael's voice sliced through the haze like a knife.

"You've finally gone quiet," he murmured, crouching beside him.

Gloved fingers gripped Tomo's chin, forcing his head up. The leather was warm against his skin, sticky with sweat and blood. Kael's touch was deceptively gentle, like a master craftsman inspecting his work.

"No more rage?" he mused. "No more struggling?"

Tomo barely saw him. His vision swam between present and past, between reality and nightmare. The walls flickered, the stone shifting like a living thing, writhing under the weight of memory.

Kael smiled. "Good. You're almost done."

Ariya's breathing was shallow in the background, her chains rattling weakly as she shifted. He didn't need to see her to know she was watching.

She was still there.

That meant he had to be there too.

Had to hold on.

Kael stood with a mock sigh, running a hand through his blood-spattered hair. "I really thought you'd last longer." His fingers drifted over the array of blades on the table beside him, selecting one with slow deliberation. He tapped it lazily against his palm, testing the weight. "Let's see if we can still get a reaction out of you."

The whispering grew louder.

"You failed us."

Kael's hand tightened around the knife.

"You let us die."

The blade lifted.

"You're just like them now."

Tomo's world snapped.

BOOM.

The air detonated outward, an unseen force shattering through the chamber like a breaking storm.

Kael staggered back, caught off guard as the pressure shifted unnaturally. The torches along the walls flared and sputtered, their flames bending in unnatural patterns. Chains rattled violently, shaking as if something unseen had grasped them.

Ariya gasped.

This wasn't normal airbending.

This was something else.

Something primal.

Tomo lifted his head, and Kael froze.

Because Tomo's eyes weren't right anymore.

They weren't glowing with the familiar light of an Avatar.

They were darker.

Deeper.

Something void-like had crawled into his soul, rooted itself in the fractures of his mind.

The air twisted around him, warping the very space he occupied. Dust lifted from the ground, suspended in the heavy stillness before the storm. Kael took a single step back, a flicker of something—uncertainty?—crossing his expression for the first time.

Then Tomo moved.

The ropes binding his limbs snapped apart, shredded into nothingness by the air itself. His body, bruised and battered, didn't collapse forward.

He floated.

A deep inhale.

A slow exhale.

Then he struck.

The blast of air hit Kael like a hammer, driving into his ribs with enough force to send him hurtling across the room. He crashed into the stone wall with a sickening crunch, dust and debris raining down from the impact.

Sho, standing just outside the doorway, cursed under his breath. "Kael!"

Kael groaned, rolling onto his hands and knees. Blood dripped from his temple, but his lips curled into something far from pain.

A grin.

"Yes," he whispered. "This is what I wanted."

Tomo didn't hear him.

Didn't hear anything anymore.

Because Jin was still speaking.

"Kill them."

Tomo stepped forward, the air around him distorting like a mirage. The gravity of the room rejected him, space itself twisting in rebellion. His fingers twitched, his mind a storm of violence and whispers.

Kael spread his arms, breathless with anticipation.

"Come on, then," he whispered. "Show me what you—"

A rock slammed into his skull.

Ariya.

Kael's laughter choked off as he crumpled to the ground.

For a single, frozen second, the world went silent.

Then chaos erupted.

Ariya didn't hesitate.

The moment Tomo went berserk, he had destroyed their restraints. Pain screamed through her body, raw and unrelenting, but she shoved it aside. She had one chance. One moment.

She grabbed Tomo's wrist.

"We need to go."

Tomo stiffened under her touch.

His entire body was shaking, his breath ragged, his mind still trapped between two worlds—the real one and the one where ghosts whispered in his ear.

Ariya's grip tightened.

"Tomo!"

His gaze snapped to her.

And for the first time, he saw her.

Not Jin.

Not the refugees.

Just Ariya.

And that was enough.

They ran.

The door burst open, Sho stepping forward, his face torn with indecision. His eyes flickered between Kael's unmoving body and the two escaping prisoners.

He could stop them.

But he didn't.

Instead, he stepped aside.

Ariya didn't question it.

She just ran.

The halls blurred together, torchlight flashing against cold stone as they stumbled forward, every step fueled by desperation. The ache in their bodies screamed louder than their thoughts, but neither stopped.

Then—

A door.

A path to the outside.

They burst into the night, cold air hitting their burned and bloodied skin like a baptism. The scent of salt and distant waves cut through the suffocating stench of blood and stone.

Above them, the sky stretched vast and endless, the stars sharp against the dark.

For the first time in what felt like eternity, they could breathe.

But there was no time to stop.

No time to rest.

Because this wasn't freedom yet.

They had one last place to reach.

A coastal town.

A boat to Kyoshi Island.

And they were running out of time.