(no subject)

After this:

Billy waits until clothes are delivered to the cell and then footsteps fade. He dresses and then walks to the cot and lays down. He turns towards the wall and carefully, deliberately, gags himself with some of the cloth from the pillow, making sure not a sound can be heard.

Then, and only then, he screams.

He screams for as long as his lungs will let him, then he takes a breath and screams again, even as horror rises up, choking him like bile.

He hurt Stephanie.

He hurt Zuko.

He hurt them and he couldn't stop it, couldn't control it, couldn't keep it from happening, No matter who had made it happen, no matter why it had happened, it was his power that had fed the Hate and the Rage... his power that had made it possible.

He couldn't remember any of it. Not from the moment he lost himself while talking to who he now believed was Blodwen Rowlands... he couldn't remember anything. But that didn't change what was true, what was real. He had almost killed the woman he loved and another man.

Billy screams and screams and screams, pounding fists into the cot. He isn't sure how long he does it, only that consciousness eventually slips from him, and his last memory is screaming.

OOM: The Watchers, The Choice, and The Call

They watch, six minds, from somewhere beyond time and space.

They watch their chosen one.

And they are not happy.

They watch Billy fall in love, and give himself to a woman, and then lose her in less than an eyeblink, and they are not happy.

They watch the damage done by the loss of his love, made worse by the actions of a petty young man, and they are not happy.

They watch, as, hurt, feeling hatred and anger at a level he had never known before, and vulnerable, Billy made himself open to suggestion moreso by taking tea with the White Rider.

They watch as with mere manipulative words and but the slightest touch of magic, the Rider of the Dark pushes him towards a cycle of uncontrollable rage and hate.

They watch as Billy's own power, borrowed from them and learned from the former Wizard, is drawn into the cycle of hate and rage and feeds his own personal darkness.

They watch as the darkness within Billy, given that so- subtle push by the White Rider, comes alive at the touch of power and corrupts his own power, gaining a mockery of life.

They watch as Billy lives alone in the woods for days, his hatred and rage feeding on his power and on itself as well and growing more powerful, more sentient, more vicious, until it becomes an entity in its own right and subsumes his true personality.

They watch, as finally, the Hate, in control of every movement of Billy's body, launches an attack on Zuko, nearly killing him and the girl.

They watch as Billy falls, and is taken away.

They almost cringe as the Phoenix Childe intervenes, and, in order to free Billy from the taint of darkness, pulls the corrupted power from him, leaving him temporarily drained.

And they rage at such a thing, but fear the Childe enough that they continue to watch.

They watch as Billy breaks, his mind shivering under truths and pain.

They watch and they decide.

It is time.

The Chosen will be summoned.

The Chosen will be brought to New Olympus to be judged, to be tested, and to either be strengthened.... or destroyed.