Title: Invincible Summer
Rating: K
Word Count: ~1200
Summary: P'li reflects on her life and freedom before the final battle. "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus [Be the Peaf Prompt #61 – Serenity]
Author Note: I have wanted to use this quote with P'li for a long time but I wanted more insights into her character. I'm not sure how pleased I am with this…
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Warmth.
It was something that she would never take for granted, especially never again.
Warmth was fire, carefully controlled in her palm. It was light and heat dancing between her fingers elegantly in the night under her full authority. It was the ability to provide for herself one of her body's most basic needs. This was something that she always assumed that she would have. From birth to death, no one could take her bending away from her.
But in imprisonment, she learned that she didn't need to have her bending taken; she only needed an environment so hostile to be formed around her.
The first time she awoke in the icy prison cell in the North Pole, she was panicked. P'li remembered being drugged, but nothing that occurred afterwards. A old, sheet of metal covered her ability to combustion bend. The tundra sapped all heat, and made the creation of even an ember impossible. She had no idea where her friends were or if they were even alive. And Zaheer…
She was alone and again without freedom, and this time she was cold.
It wouldn't have been so bad if she didn't truly understand what freedom was. There was a time when the concept was completely foreign. As soon as the local warlord found out she had the ability to combustion bend, she was nothing more than a tool. She was just another piece of equipment used as a means to achieve power through force over others.
Things were simple then. P'li, the destructive force, had a place. She was told what to do, and she executed the order. She was fed. She had a place to sleep. And she could light a fire near her private tent to keep her warm and watch the flames cast flickering shadows to keep her company.
Then he came.
Zaheer appeared in the middle of the night. She was prepared immediately to destroy him, until he sat down and offered to talk. The Warlord and his men only spoke to her when necessary. When they did, it was only orders and commands.
But this man, he was different.
"Do you know what it means to be free?" Zaheer sat down next to her by the small campfire.
And with that question he ignited a fire within her. She fled with him that night and didn't look back.
She followed him.
"You realize I am not forcing you to be with me."
P'li smiled, "I know, but I am using my freedom. I choose to follow you."
Zaheer's ideas were intoxicating. The idea of true freedom for everyone was mind blowing. It was even more amazing to her that her abilities and her person could help change the world forever. She had great power, and she refused to use it as power over others. To Zaheer she was never an object; she was human.
What she didn't count on was falling in love. As someone labeled a "freak" for so long, it was difficult at first to even believe that she could be loved. Slowly but surely, her want to protect this man who had such vision for the world turned to affection and later more. She replayed their first kiss, first "I love you," and first time over and over in her desolate cell. It was a sort of campfire for her spirit that kept her mind warm while her body shivered and barely managed to maintain.
She would hold conversations with him as she paced in her cell, desperate to retain heat under her given cold-weather clothing. It was a period of forced reflection about who she was and who he was as she flipped through the mental file of real conversations they had once had.
"May I ask you a question?" P'li asked despite knowing that he would always say yes.
"Of course."
"You speak often of the idea of your 'earthly tether.' I don't mean to be blunt or too questioning—"
"You could never be. You are free to speak your mind."
"If you understand this idea of letting go so well, why have you yet to enter the void?"
"That is simple. My earthly tether is you. And I am not willing to give you up."
Thoughts like that kept her anchored. She thought about him every single day. She knew that he would one day find a way to free her. To her, this idea was a ray of warm sunlight; something she knew was overhead though blocked by ice and iron bars.
Despite the cold, there was an invincible summer that burned at her core. She might wait for years, but Zaheer would find her again. Rebalancing the world was something that was inevitable. They, the Red Lotus, were a force of entropy looming over the world. They were change, and they would come.
And now it was time. The years of wait had led up to this very moment.
"Thank you, P'li, for everything," Zaheer's back was turned to hers.
"Of course," she nodded.
"I want you to know, not one day went by in prison when I didn't think of you."
P'li closed the distance between them and took his hands in hers. "The years apart only made my love for you stronger, and deep down I knew you would find a way to get me out." She caressed his face sweetly. "Just like you saved me from becoming that warlord's killing machine when I was a girl. You've shown me what true freedom means."
"And after today," he reached for her hand and interlaced their fingers. "We'll show the entire world what it means. No more prisons, no more running."
"I love you, Zaheer."
"I love you too."
Their lips met for what she realized might well be the last time. She would do anything for this man and this cause. She would die. She would suffer decades in prison alone. She had tasted freedom in its purest form. She was doing the right thing.
With this, she was at peace.
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"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy." – Albert Camus