Even as the waters of Yue Bay melded together with the black canvas of night sky above, Kanon could still feel the ebb and flow of the waves resonating deep within her as they crashed upon the pier she stood on. Her black hair was swept up in the salty sea breeze and frolicked against her lightly bronzed skin in long, flowing strands. She stole a fleeting glance back at the shoreline with eyes colored the vivid blue of a flame's core, intently watching the sea surge and retreat on the beach's white sands in its endless dance of the tides.
It had always been her eyes that betrayed one half of her ancestry, her firebending heritage, and gave greater promise for the hydrokinetic abilities of a waterbender. Without a railing on the dock to hold her back, Kanon kindly reminded herself to be careful as she reached a hand closer down to her element and concentrated on the ocean's placid lapping to call up a sprinkling of water droplets at her fingertips. A laugh bubbled up in her throat as the chilled liquid dewed on her palm and swirled around her before returning whence it had come, to the bay's dark water.
Being at the waterfront was a sweet but ephemeral escape from the cacophonous noises of Republic City's bustling streets. It was only there that the sea would play for her its lilting melody and pull her back to the shores of Ember Island, where she continued to visit her parents during the halcyon days of summer. Her fond reverie was too soon cut short by the shuffle of boots on wood. She turned to meet the stranger's arrival with a smile, but shortly found herself thoroughly shaken by the person who stood a mere foot away from her.
The newcomer's appearance could only be described as odd. Kanon thought the slender, green-clad figure to be a man, but what appeared to be a gas mask worn over the face served to obscure any evidence of an identity. A pair of luminescent green lenses stared back at her through the surrounding shadows, scrutinizing her face for a reason that Kanon came to grasp in a single horrifying revelation. The man was an Equalist, a radical supporter of the so-called "anti-bending revolution." His intent was immediately made clear with the offensive stance he took. It didn't appear that he would take her waterbending abilities lightly.
"Um, hello…" she said quietly, deliberately ignoring the apprehension that tugged at her consciousness. "It's a nice night, isn't it?"
The Equalist had no qualms about making the first move, and he lunged at her with all the ferocity of a wild beast intent on its kill. Kanon stifled the urge to scream as she narrowly dodged his fist, which punched at the air where her head had been just moments ago.
She put her hands up in an innocent gesture. "I don't want to—!"
The quickly-executed roundhouse kick to Kanon's side had managed to completely knock the wind from her lungs, deprive her of breath, and send her crashing to the ground with deadly efficiency. Her willowy frame trembled like a weather-beaten leaf as she breathlessly struggled to her feet and slid into an unsteady defensive pose.
"Please," Kanon said between shallow gulps of air. Fighting had never been her forte, nor had she ever claimed to be a master waterbender.
The Equalist merely ignored her pleas and charged at her once again. Kanon, seeing no other feasible option, threw one arm forward and directed a torrent of seawater up from the bay. With a deep exhale, she pushed arms out to drench and freeze the ground at her enemy's feet.
In a last, desperate attempt to escape further conflict, Kanon dashed past the Equalist as he struggled to free himself and headed for the cover of the labyrinth of warehouses dotting the oceanfront. However, the Equalist proved to be much more persistent than Kanon had expected. She barely had time to blink as the Equalist hammered into her right arm with a barrage of vicious knifehand strikes.
Pain exploded from the point of impact like a burning inferno beneath her skin. A strange, acute stinging furiously raced up and down her arm, lacing her very nerves with tongues of pure agony. Kanon breathed deeply, trying to refocus her blurred vision as the hurt gradually dulled into an aching white noise in her muscles. She gritted her teeth and fought through the consequential pain of raising her arms for a retaliatory attack.
The water would not move. Panic began to coil up in the pit of her stomach. It wasn't moving. She swung her arms up, growing increasingly desperate to move the still water. Her eyes flashed up to her attacker and then to her own hands. Under normal circumstances, her gestures would have engendered movement in that puddle and caused a jet of water to spring forth at the enemy with all the strength of a swirling maelstrom. However, it refused to even so much as twitch. Kanon realized that her inexplicable inability to bend could very much be attributed to the Equalist and the few attacks he had managed to land on her. Her bending, as well as the fight, had been lost.
Kanon, completely powerless to continue on, took a tentative step backwards. She was cornered, but prepared to shift back another foot when she found too late that there had been absolutely nothing behind her but open air. The heel of her shoe slipped off the edge of the platform, and time seemed to freeze for one heart-stopping moment as she tipped towards the sea to be caught in its tides and smashed against the jutting rocks below. She squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed for the nonexistent support she so desperately needed.
An unexpected hand wrapped itself around her right wrist with an iron grip and jerked her forward, nearly dislodging her shoulder in the process. She didn't dare open her eyes until her body was pulled upright and into someone's waiting arms. The feel of a comforting embrace quietly opened the floodgates, and Kanon buried her tear-streaked into the unknown savior's shoulder.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you…" The words spilled forth from her trembling lips in a slow, ever grateful mantra.
She felt that same gloved hand slide up her arm, stroke her shoulder with the utmost care, and then gently push her away.
"Wait," Kanon said, wiping at her damp eyes. She blinked, staring in dull shock at the one who had saved her. "You—"
It was the Equalist who stood in her rescuer's place.
"But… why?"
Those words echoed over and over in her mind, rendering her unable to abolish the cold waves of reality that had already tainted the words she tried to speak. The Equalist had spared her life. She corrected herself; her enemy had saved her life. She shook her head out of sheer disbelief, unable to fully process what had happened. The green lenses of his mask could only look at her with indecipherable emotion and without any explanation for what he had done. He started to retreat into the darkness before freezing at the sounds of voices ringing out over the docks. In one swift movement, he latched on to her wrist and led her from the pier to safety in the shadows of a nearby warehouse.
"I—"
Kanon's sentence was muffled as the Equalist slapped his free hand over her mouth and roughly pulled her down into a sitting position. She tried in vain to fend off him off, but stopped altogether as the shouting grew louder. It had quickly occurred to her that the Equalists were currently patrolling the area, and that it would be wise to keep quiet. And so they crouched there in silence, with warehouse walls closing in on them from either side. A mass of black shadows had formed in the streets, contorting and undulating as the footsteps reached the zenith of their volume. Inaudible words resounded from the surrounding blackness like the whisperings of a spirit before whosoever had spoken disappeared altogether under the cover of night.
"…What are you doing?" Kanon demanded in a suppressed whisper, with more confusion than anger.
The Equalist said nothing in a moment of infuriating silence. He wouldn't even look at her.
Kanon tried once more to elicit some sort of response from him. "Why did you save me? If you want me dead, you would've had it."
A heavy tension had pervaded the atmosphere like an unbearable miasma. The Equalist turned back to Kanon and appeared to be studying her expression, raking his unseen eyes over her own behind jade-colored lenses. As Kanon opened her mouth to speak, he focused his attention on the opposite wall and brought his hands up to the mask he wore.
A weak gasp escaped her lips.
Kanon found herself looking at the most beautiful man she had ever seen. He gazed at her with long-lashed eyes that held a sort of distant sorrow within their deep brown color. Layers of wavy, jet-black hair fell to the length of his chin and framed the delicately-sculpted features of his face. His handsome visage and refined mien could have easily passed him off as a prince, and neither the uniform nor the mask of an Equalist would ever suit him.
"I'm sorry," he said in a low, husky voice. A gentle and somewhat tremulous smile played on the young man's lips.
"…I'm sorry too… I should be thanking you. But I can't…" Kanon had to tear her eyes away from him. A maddening blush had already begun to sear in her cheeks.
"I understand," the Equalist said under his breath. She watched his smile crumble away under the weight of her words. He had begun to stand, but Kanon immediately grasped for his wrist.
"…Not until you give me an answer. Why are you helping me? Why did you help me?"
He sunk back down to the ground, looking miserable all the while. "I… I couldn't let you fall back there. I wouldn't wish that upon anyone. That wasn't my intent."
"Then what was your intent? Please, tell me why. Why are you doing this?" Her voice sounded thick and ungrateful in her ears.
"Forgive me. I… I'm just fighting for the non-benders of Republic City. Equality… Maybe equality could be achieved if I could have just…"
"Just?"
The Equalist heaved a long sigh and rested a hand against the smooth curve of his cheek. "Bring you back to our leader. And… make you like us."
"…Take away my bending, you mean? Excuse me for being born this way," Kanon said, trying to ignore the ensuing sadness that washed over her. "Do you really think that all benders are these terrible, power-hungry people who take advantage of others?"
"N-no," she heard him say. He turned his eyes on her. "It's just—"
Kanon smacked him gently on the forehead.
"Idiot," she murmured.
He did nothing but stare at her in his shock and crestfallen defeat. Kanon had a considerable amount of difficulty facing up to the heart wrenching shame in his face, but she gave him a careful, tentative smile as he tried to avert his gaze from her.
"Hello, I'm Kanon. It's nice to meet you. What's your name?"
"…Hiraku."
"Thank you, Hiraku, for saving my life."
"I don't deserve thanks," he said, his voice bitter.
"Why not? I don't think you're a bad person. You just want this world to be a better place. What's wrong with that? But… this isn't the way to reach equality."
"Tell me, then." He desperately searched her face as if the answer to every one of his questions could be found in the blue of her eyes. "How?"
Kanon extended a hand out to him. "Talking. That's the first step, you know."
He slowly took her outstretched hand in his own, wholeheartedly accepting all of the forgiveness that his former target had offered him.