Published June 30, 2011. Updated October 23, 2011.
Disclaimer: Most of the trial scene is based on the dialogue in the 1998 movie Les Miserables, directed by Bille August, screenplay by Rafael Yglesias.
Note: The Mayor is the same Mayor who appears in "Avatar Day," and I imagine the false Sokka is the Actor Sokka from "The Ember Island Players."
"Is this the courthouse?" Sokka asked.
"Yes, sir," a passerby said.
For a moment Sokka stood and stared at the ominous Upper Ring building. He tried to steel himself for what he was about to do.
Maybe he had known all along that discovery was inevitable. But if he had to go back to prison … at least he had come to regret his crime, and helped others the way Fire Sage Iroh had helped him. He'd had ten years of freedom and even prosperity – and fear. Fear of discovery and capture and imprisonment. But now he was about to face that fear. Strangely, it almost felt like he wasn't afraid anymore; he knew what he was doing, and that brought a strange, fleeting sense of peace in him.
Sokka straightened his shoulders, held his head high, and entered the courthouse.
The place was jammed full of spectators. Zhao, the officer who had harassed Kya, was one of the jury members. Sokka started when he saw the two men in the witness stand: Haru and Chit Sang, two convicts he had known during his sentence. And there, in the accused box, was a thin middle-aged man. To Long Feng's credit, he did somewhat resemble Sokka. The man looked terrified.
It seemed the proceedings had already started before Sokka arrived. He sat down with the spectators and listened as Long Feng called Haru and Chit Sang each to testify. Each time he called a witness, Long Feng told them, "Remember, what you say may destroy a man's life." Those words rang in Sokka's ears, and reminded him of why he was there.
After each witness had been called, Sokka quietly went over to the Mayor's stand. "May I address the court?" Sokka asked the mayor.
"Yes, sir. Certainly, Master Lee."
Sokka walked over to Chit Sang at the witness stand. "Look at me. Do you recognize me?" The firebender looked dubiously at him, but Sokka interrupted before he could answer. "I recognize you. Hello, Chit Sang. And you, Haru."
The two convicts looked at him in disbelief. "Don't look at my fancy clothes," Sokka said forcefully. "Look at my eyes!" He turned to the man in the witness stand. "Chit Sang," he said. "You're a firebender, and one guard in particular tried to provoke you into firebending so you would go to the Cooler as punishment. One time, we used this as an opportunity to escape. I obtained a wrench for you, and when the guard put you in the Cooler, you unscrewed it from the wall and we used it as a boat to get across the boiling lake. We were halfway across the lake when you dipped a piece of metal into the water as a makeshift oar, and you burned your hand and yelled in pain. The guards sounded the alarm, we were caught, and we each had five years added to our prison sentences."
Ignoring the stunned looks Chit Sang and the court were giving him, Sokka addressed the earthbender. "Haru, you were arrested for earthbending, which was forbidden by the Fire Nation in your village. You used your bending to save an old man in a cave-in; and that night the man turned you in to the Fire Nation. Your father Tyro was also an inmate; he was one of the earthbenders who defended your village when the Fire Nation tried to take over. He had been in prison for five years before you were arrested. You and the other earthbenders tried to escape by bending the coal in the prison – your only source of earth, since the prison was made entirely out of metal and was located in the middle of a lake."
Sokka turned back to the Mayor. "Honorable Mayor, I know these men, and they know me. I am the man you want." He paused, and then declared calmly, "I am Sokka of the Water Tribe!" Oh, it felt good to say his real name, to announce it in front of everyone – though that act would likely be his undoing.
Long Feng slammed his fist on his desk. "I knew it!"
The Mayor stuttered. "Master Lee, I know you to be a kind man, but this …"
"I'm Sokka, and I can prove it." A disturbed murmur rippled through the courtroom as Sokka started to untie the front of his robe. "I am prisoner number two. Four. Six. Oh. One!" He opened the front of his shirt, revealing the tattooed prison number: 24601.
Once they had gotten over the shock, the Mayor and other officials were very flustered. "Well - I suppose - we'll have to make a full examination -"
Sokka waved his hand indifferently. "Continue with the investigation. You'll find further proof that I am Sokka." He paused, and added, almost jokingly, "Feel free to arrest me whenever you like." And with that he quickly exited the courtroom.
Kya was dying.
That fact became evident in the short time she spent at the hospital, in the care of waterbending healers. She was coughing up blood, and sometimes she was only semi-aware of her surroundings.
"She thinks her daughter is with her," Yugoda told Sokka when he arrived there. "That's all she's been talking about." She showed Sokka to Kya's small hospital room.
Kya was lying on the bed, pale and thin, her forehead and hair damp with sweat. She was breathing heavily, as though each inhale and exhale took a large amount of effort.
Sokka knelt down next to her bed. "Kya, we don't have much time," Sokka said urgently.
Kya coughed, but somehow managed to speak. "I have to tell you something. I know … I won't be able … I'm not going to live much longer." Kya reached up to the back of her neck and undid the clasp of her necklace, the one Hakoda had made for her all those years ago. Trembling, she handed the necklace to Sokka, pressing it into his hand. "Please give this to Katara," she said. "I saved it for her. Her father made it for me. And tell her I love her, and I'm sorry."
Sokka nodded.
"I leave her to your keeping," Kya said, her voice cracking. "You will raise her, won't you?"
Sokka hesitated. He had no experience with children, and what was more, he might soon be arrested. But he couldn't tell Kya that; the shock would be too much for her, and she deserved a peaceful death.
What Sokka said was, "Yes."
"Promise me."
Sokka squeezed the Water Tribe necklace in one hand and Kya's hand in the other. "I promise."
Kya sighed in relief. "Good. Then … I can die … in peace …"
"Be at peace forevermore," Sokka said softly. It seemed like the right thing to say – the kind of thing people said at funerals.
Kya squeezed Sokka's hand with her last ounce of strength; then the closed her eyes for the last time, and her hand was limp in Sokka's.
He bowed his head. She was gone. Kya's sufferings were over. But he couldn't speak for his own, or for Katara's.
Sokka wasn't surprised when Long Feng appeared in the doorway, having rushed there from the courthouse with an arrest warrant. "Sokka of the Water Tribe," the earthbender sneered. "At last, we see each other plainly."
Sokka stood slowly and faced Long Feng, still clutching Kya's necklace in his hand. "Before you say another word, Long Feng, before you arrest me, listen to what I have to say. There is something I have to do." He gestured to Kya's still form. "This woman leaves behind a suffering child. She has no other friends or relatives. I'm the only one who can help the child. Three days are all I need; and then, you have my word, I'll return, and you can do what you will with me. This is a duty I've sworn to do."
Long Feng scoffed at Sokka. "Do you think I'm mad? There are two kinds of people in this world: those who abide the law, and those who break the law. You fall into the latter category. A man like you can never change!"
"Believe what you will of me. You know nothing about my life. All I did was steal a bag of rice. I've changed! You know nothing of my world – or of Kya's world, or her daughter's."
"How dare you talk to me of crime and the price you had to pay!" Long Feng cried. "You know nothing about me. My father was a thief, my mother a prostitute. I was born with nothing, just like you, and I had to struggle to get to where I am today. Every man is born in sin, and every man must choose his way. Reform is a discredited fantasy. A wolf can wear sheep's clothing, but he's still a wolf."
"I'm warning you, Long Feng," Sokka said, raising his voice. "I'm a stronger man than you, in body and spirit. There's nothing I won't dare to do. If I have to kill you now, I'll do what must be done!"
Long Feng grabbed the chair by the bed and threw it at him; but Sokka ducked and the chair crashed against the wall, breaking to pieces. Sokka rushed to the bed, kneeling beside Kya's dead body and taking her hand in his. "Kya, I swear to you on my life: your child will live in my care, and I will raise her to the light."
Long Feng moved to the doorway, blocking the path of Sokka's escape. "There is no place for you to hide. Wherever you may go, I promise you, I will be there!"
Sokka stood again, and as he turned to face Long Feng he reached behind his back and deftly pulled out a boomerang, which he threw at Long Feng. It hit the man square on the head, knocking him over and causing him to lose consciousness. Sokka took one last glance at Kya, and then sprinted over the unconscious form of the Head of the Dai Li.
