Kuvira raised her wrists to one of the prison guards. Her hands, palms facing downward, hung lifelessly. With aggression, he clamped the cuffs of platinum, one at a time, onto her tired arms. Looking at her fallen face, he tightened the cuffs a notch or two too tight. Kuvira clenched her jaw in response. If it was one thing she learned in prison, it was to not show emotion to those in greater power.
The guard grabbed onto the short chain in between her wrists, and pulled her out of her prison made of glass. Kuvira looked over her shoulder, already yearning for her space. She was safe there. Her rights to roam the prison, Republic City required the prison to give to inmates for an hour every few days, had been revoked. Since then, other inmates would glare at her from the outside, but she knew they could never touch her. Being outside of the glass had returned her strong feeling of vulnerability.
She was lead into a large courtroom made of oak. She felt no metal in her surroundings. The courtroom was nearly empty; only the world figureheads were present, as well as a select group of jurors. Kuvira's footsteps echoed through the high ceilings. Her own heartbeat seemed deafening. She was lead to the far side of the room, next her single representative. Passing the plaintiff representatives, Kuvira made sure to keep her eyes fixed on the ground in front of her. There was a presence she could not ignore, however. Her eyes skidded to the lower left corner of her vision depth.
Suyin Beifong locked her eyes on Kuvira. Her precisely groomed eyebrows pushed together as she glared at the younger woman walking passed her.
Kuvira sat at the defendants table, resting her cuffed hands on the wooden table. She looked at her representative. He nodded to her, sighed, and continued to look forward.
The nearby window of the courthouse revealed a much different world on the outside. In the courtroom, nobody spoke. Tension filled the air. Kuvira knew all of the world leaders hoped for the worst out of her sentencing. Particularly Su.
She heard shouting from outside the courthouse. Looking out the window, she saw a mass of people in chaos. Some of them chanted demands of Kuvira needing to be punished. Others simply wanted to see the sentencing for themselves. The remainder actually defended her, shouting phrases along the lines of 'free our Great Uniter'.
That title was something she was not used to hearing anymore. It was a name her followers had given, despite rumors stating she claimed it as her own. Kuvira could not admit she hated the name now, but instead hated what it had become.
Police officers had to physically barricade themselves between the courthouse and the people of Republic City. If it had not been for their intervention, the doors to the court room would have been broken into hours ago.
Kuvira was so consumed with what was going on in the world outside, she had not noticed the judge being introduced. She inclined her head in order to see the man, dressed in black, sitting at a large, elevated podium. He read all of the counts of which Kuvira was found accused of.
"On the counts of crimes against humanity, the jury has found the defendant guilty of all charges."
Kuvira heard a high-pitched ringing in her ears. Her chest felt heavy.
"On the counts of crimes against peace, the jury has found the defendant guilty of all charges."
She turned her attention back to the window. The crowd was growing more chaotic, as they heard the judge reveal the charges. The shouting became louder. The more she heard the title, the more intense the ringing in her ears became.
"The jury has decided on the death penalty," the judge spoke, after all of the counts had been announced. "But, they have also allowed me to lighten or intensify their decisions."
Kuvira closed her eyes, in an attempt to remove herself from the shouting crowd and the judge.
"So, it is my personal decision to state the sentencing in this case, is to revoke the jury's death penalty sentence."
The crowd of the Great Uniter supporters roared in approval.
"For a punishment of death would be all too easy. It is what Kuvira would want for herself," it sounded as if the judge was speaking at Kuvira, instead of to the room. Kuvira locked her eyes on her hands. "The punishment for all the crimes of which Kuvira is guilty with, is the removal of all her bending abilities."
Kuvira looked up at the judge in fear. Her brows creased in worry. Her mouth gaped open without her realizing. The ringing in her ears had subsided. The shouting outside no longer seemed to exist. The court room was silent.
The face of the judge no longer belonged to the man who was introduced as such. Instead, Suyin replaced the figure at the wooden podium. She gave Kuvira a half-smile as her eyes glared with satisfaction.
Kuvira's heart sank. She nearly lost her breath as her chest became heavier. Her throat tightened. Dying for her actions would be the lighter option, in comparison to her bending, her real identity, being taken away from her.
One of the officers took her cuffs and dragged her to the front of the court room, nearly giving her enough time to remove herself from the wooden chair. He pushed Kuvira to the floor, and onto her knees. Her hands shook with fear, knowing what was to come.
Avatar Korra rose from her seat in the crowd, almost as if she had been told of the outcome previously. She stood in front of Kuvira, and she shared the expression Su had. Without hesitation, Korra placed her left hand on Kuvira's corresponding shoulder. Her other hand rested on Kuvira's crown, and her thumb pressed into the center of her forehead.
Kuvira watched the Avatar's eyes turn a glowing white. Her heart raced in her ears.
In an instant, she felt lifeless. Her bending abilities slowly left her body, her mind. Kuvira's head felt light, and her extremities turned numb. The world seemed to spin around her quickly, yet it seemed to be so still at the same time. She opened her mouth in shock as the Avatar lifted her hands off. Kuvira fell forward, lifeless. She knew she was alive, but she felt quite the opposite. She now had nothing worth living for.
Kuvira awoke in a near instant in a cold sweat. She screamed as her eyes pulled open. She flung her upper body off the stiff pillow. Her breathing was deep and heavy; her chest rose and fell quickly. She wildly looked around for something metal. She was still in her glass prison, under the starchy sheets on her stiff bed. Had she lost her bending abilities? Was it really all just some horrid nightmare? With shaking hands, Kuvira clenched her face. She brought her knees up, still underneath the thin sheet. She had been suffering from vivid nightmares for a while, so now sleeping was always something she hated succumbing herself to.
Tears welled up in her eyes. The fine line between reality and her dark imagination was fading. She just wanted to feel complete again – to be able to bend metal. She yearned for the warmth from the sun to touch her face. She wanted her mind to be at rest for the first time in forever.
A/N: I was pretty hesitant about expanding Glass Walls, but I kept having ideas of Kuvira having horridly lifelike hallucinations while in prison. Please note this was a nightmare, so if the sentencing wasn't 100% accurate as to how it really is done, that's ok. I'm thinking of putting 1 more hallucination after this, so stay tuned (: