She knew when she had first leaped onto those airships that this is how it would be. Hope had told her that, no, she would not end up here, but her head and said that, yes, this... this is how it would end when she decided to sacrifice herself for that family of a dying breed. It was raining, the cold drops hitting her face, finding the seams in her armor, slipping through the metal and soaking through her thin clothes onto her skin. A chill covered her body. She was unsure if it was from the icy winter rain or the fact that here she was, finally, on her knees in the mud, looking into the skinless, lifeless face of the masked nightmare of her city. She hated him with every fiber, every cell of her being. It burned hot, so hot that it weighed cold and heavy in her torso. But fear, fear is an incredible force. She was terrified, she knew these would be the last moments she would ever, ever hear the earth. The last seconds that she would ever feel the flecks of earth in her armor that linked together with invisible cables, spider-webbing across the steel of her uniform, creating a sacred, holy union known only to a metalbender, becoming something wonderful that would bend at her fingertips. And terror coursed through her, fast, violent. Panicked. Her chest heaved and she prayed to every spirit she knew that maybe, just maybe, they would save her from this fate worse than death that was speeding towards her in the shape of a demon in human form, in the shape of human hands she could not look away from.
She begged the deities, but only for a second, only for the instant that it took the demon to cover half a step towards her. She grabbed at every vibration, closed her eyes and heard the earth sing at every touch that befell it. She felt every heartbeat, saw every raindrop as it hit the ground. It was the most beautiful moment in her life.
This was their goodbye.
And then her mother came to mind and when she did, hate and loathing refilled her blood. It danced and charged through her veins, her mother's voice screaming at her to, to defy, not to dare give in, to get up. The demon spoke and the words barely registered. "I won't tell you anything, you monster," she spit, lifting her face to stare into the porcelain face of the nightmare.
She would not raise her head to the demon. She would not willingly allow him to take her bending. To take her being. He moved out of her sight, she could feel his steps as they fell almost silently on her precious earth. His hand fisted in her hair and yanked it back, her neck cracking. Her eyes snapped open and she saw the night sky, saw the rain falling and for an instant, thought she saw a bright flash that, somehow, reminded her of her mother's smile. And suddenly she felt her chi being sucked through her veins, refusing, dropping it's weight to its heels, digging in and refusing to be stolen. But the demon had powers in his fingertips that were new and unholy and she couldn't fight it. She felt the heartbeat of the earth slip through the center of her forehead and her blood went dark. Her body felt dead and terrifyingly numb as it slipped from the demon's grip and she fell to the silent, songless earth.