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Chapter Twenty-Five - Awaiting the Dawn

Ursa wasn't sure how far under Ba Sing Se her prison was. She was led through areas with glowing crystals everywhere, deeper and deeper until she was taken into a tunnel that held a row of cells on either side. It was darker in the tunnel than some of the other areas, since there were only a few luminescent crystals along the floor. The cell she was thrown into was even darker. She could hardly make out the small cot in the corner.

Her Dai Li guard earthbended off the bonds he had put on her wrists and then locked her inside. She rubbed her wrists, staring at the metal walls and the door with its thin grated window, and she tried not to despair.

There's nothing else I could have done. She could almost hear the voices of the Water Tribe men in her head, reminding her that as long as she was alive, she couldn't give up.

The footsteps of the Dai Li faded as he walked away from the cell, and Ursa slowly sat on the thin cot. Her mind swirled with thoughts. Azula. Zuko. Hakoda. The Water Tribe fleet.

"What'd they get you for?"

The voice jolted Ursa out of her miserable thoughts, and her head turned to the wall on her left.

"Hello?" the voice came again. It was very young—too young, Ursa thought, to be locked in a cell in the depths of Ba Sing Se.

"Hello," she replied.

"So?" the voice prompted. It was more difficult than usual for Ursa to tell if it belonged to a boy or a girl, but as it continued, she decided it that it sounded more like a girl talking. "Why are you down here?"

"The new ruler of Ba Sing Se didn't like what I had to say," Ursa said quietly.

"Wait. New ruler?"

"I don't know how long you've been in here," Ursa said, "but the Fire Nation has control of the city now."

"What? How?"

"That's a very long story." Ursa leaned back against the cold wall. "I'm Ursa. What's your name?"

A moment of silence, and then the voice said, "Smellerbee."

"That's a very interesting name—"

"—for a boy?" Smellerbee shot back sarcastically.

Ursa was certain now. "I was going to say for a girl."

"Huh."

"Smellerbee. What did you do to get put down here?"

"My friend Longshot and I got tossed in here. He's in the cell across from us. You could say we stuck our noses where they weren't wanted." Her tone was hard and bitter. "And we lost our leader before we were put down here. I thought for sure they were gonna brainwash us, but maybe since the Fire Nation took over, they stopped brainwashing? Or maybe we just weren't worth the trouble." She sighed—a very heavy sigh if Ursa could hear it through the metal wall. "We've tried everything to get out of here. I don't suppose you have any explosives or something that these lousy Dai Li didn't find on you?"

"Sorry. I'm fresh out of explosives."

"Times like this, I miss The Duke. Ah, well, it was worth asking. But we'll get out of here sometime, won't we, Longshot?"

If there was any discernible answer from the mysterious Longshot, Ursa didn't hear it.

Smellerbee cleared her throat. "So are you going to tell us how the Fire Nation was able to take over Ba Sing Se? However long the story is, we're not exactly going anywhere." There was a brief pause and then she added, "Yet."

:-:-:-:-:

Hakoda watched Appa rise into the night sky with his children, Toph, and their lemur on his back. They were going again…going to find Aang and to lie in wait until the day of the eclipse. Katara turned around on Appa and waved to Hakoda. He waved back as she disappeared into the clouds.

He missed them already.

At least Katara had finally opened up to him before she'd dashed away. Everything she had said to him—her pain and anger at Hakoda leaving the South Pole—had been what Hakoda had suspected was pent up inside of her. Each word and accusation out of Katara's mouth had been a knife to his heart, because he knew he had only done what he could to keep Sokka and Katara safe, but he had also known the hurt it would bring them. He had lost his father at a young age-to death, not because he left, but Hakoda still remembered the anger he had felt that his father wasn't there for him when he needed him. Even if it couldn't be helped, even if it couldn't be changed, the anger had been something he'd had to work through.

So he did understand Katara's feelings, and even though it hurt, he was so very glad that she had finally been able to express them. She had needed it, and Hakoda had needed it, too.

Because there is no healing without the pain. Hakoda braced his hands against the rail, his eyes still in the direction where Appa had vanished. Despite everything happening, Hakoda had a measure of serenity that he hadn't had the past weeks in knowing that he had made peace with his daughter.

And he needed that serenity in the weeks that followed his children's departure. The Water Tribe had been left with the task of collecting some of the people that Sokka had thought would be helpful during the invasion. The Fire Nation ship moved faster than the Water Tribe ships ever had, so they were able to go quickly from one place to the next. Even so, Hakoda would have taken his Water Tribe boats over this monster of a ship any day.

Their journey took them to some interesting places—from swamps where Hakoda met some very…interesting waterbenders to the Northern Air Temple where he met an eccentric inventor, and there were many other people and places along the way. His children had certainly befriended a wide variety of characters.

Their last stop was the North Pole. There were many volunteers in the Northern Tribe who said they would join the invasion force, but Hakoda had to limit the amount of people he brought. The plans they had to get into the Fire Nation left space for only a certain amount of people.

The Northern Water Tribe gave them a great gift, though: new boats to replace the ones that the Southern Water Tribe had destroyed, and it was on these that Hakoda and those with him set sail to meet up with Sokka, Katara, Aang, and Toph.

Through all of the traveling and preparing, Ursa was constantly on Hakoda's mind. After the one letter from the Order, there had been nothing but silence. He didn't know if the Order had tried to rescue her and had failed, or if they hadn't yet found a way to rescue her. The worst part was not being able to directly do anything to help her; he couldn't rush off to Ba Sing Se and help get her out.

"You're doing the best thing you can to help her." Bato joined him on watch during their last night of sailing to the invasion rendezvous point.

Hakoda closed his fist around an object he had been looking at when Bato approached. It was nearing dawn, and they were nearing their destination.

"When Avatar Aang takes down the Firelord, we'll be able to free all of the prisoners," Bato continued.

Hakoda looked over at him. "I didn't say anything."

Bato smiled wryly. "Of course you didn't. Doesn't mean I don't know what you've been thinking."

Hakoda was quiet. He had to go into this preparing for the worst, but believing for the best. He always had to believe for the best—otherwise, what would have been the point of fighting all this time? They were so close to the end that he could almost see it, but at the same time, the idea of life without a war was so foreign that he didn't know how to imagine it.

Bato leaned against the railing. "You're not going to fail her, Hakoda."

Hakoda's hand clenched tighter around the object in his hand and he looked up at the sky lightening with the coming dawn. And he said to Bato what he wouldn't say to anyone else. "I try not to be afraid of that. I don't always succeed." It was difficult, sometimes, to keep the fear away. There were times when he would think of Kya and how he had been too late to save her, and he knew he would do anything to keep from being too late again.

"I know." Bato pulled away from the rail and clasped Hakoda's shoulder. "It's a new day. Let's go take down the Fire Nation."

As Bato walked away, Hakoda unfolded his fist and looked down at the item in his hand, running his finger over the smooth, round metal that he had been slowly etching with symbols. It was almost finished. It just needed one last thing.

Hakoda reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue ribbon. He hooked it through the etched metal and tied it into a necklace.

Maybe it was foolish to have made a betrothal necklace during the weeks he had been collecting an invasion team. Maybe the endeavor to take down the Firelord and secure the palace would go down in flames. Maybe even if they were successful and he was reunited with Ursa, she wouldn't want a betrothal necklace.

But maybe making it had helped him cling to the hope and determination that he and Ursa had a future. That whether she would accept it or not, he would at least be reunited with her so he could ask.

Hakoda tucked the finished necklace into his pocket and stood at the edge of the boat until they arrived at the meeting point where his children were waiting.

:-:-:-:-:

Ursa had no way to mark the passage of time except by the number of meals brought to her cell. The prisoners were fed twice a day—it seemed to be once in the morning and once in the evening, but Ursa soon lost track of the amount of meals she'd had.

She stretched and exercised in her small cell to keep herself in fighting condition, and to help keep busy. It was all she could do, and it was maddening. She wondered and worried about what was happening in the world, what was happening to the people she loved. She didn't hear anything from the guards; they were silent when they brought her food.

In fact, her only company was Smellerbee and Longshot. Ursa had no idea why they were the only prisoners being kept in this particular section of cells. She assumed there must have been other places where prisoners in Ba Sing Se were kept, and perhaps this small, deep, little-used area had been the most convenient place to put Smellerbee and Longshot at the time they were captured.

Smellerbee was the talkative one, but Ursa did finally hear Longshot say one or two things—enough to know he was still breathing. It was from Smellerbee that she learned about their pasts as freedom fighters and then refugees, and their acquaintance with the Avatar's group.

If not for their company, Ursa knew her time in prison would have been far more grueling. Days blurred into weeks. Maybe months. She didn't know. It seemed an endless expanse of time in the never changing almost-darkness.

One day, right after one of the meals had been brought to the cells, Ursa heard footsteps approaching, and she paused in the middle of exercising. In all the time she had been there, the Dai Li who brought the food had never turned around and come back. Maybe it was nothing, but any deviation from the ordinary made her pay attention.

Then she heard a voice—one that was familiar, but which she couldn't quite place as it whispered, "Lady Ursa! Lady Ursa, are you here?"

Ursa was on her feet in an instant, crossing to the cell door and peering out into the dim tunnel. There was a man walking quickly down it; he seemed to be wearing the same clothes the Dai Li always wore. "Yes, I'm here."

He hurried to her cell, and as he got close, she made out the features on his face, and relief and hope overwhelmed her. "Ran!" She hadn't seen the young man since he had helped her and Hakoda escape from Zhao's ship, and that seemed several lifetimes ago.

"We haven't much time." Ran reached for her door and Ursa heard the lock sliding. "We have to hurry. There are two others guarding the tunnel, but if we're discovered, we won't be able to get out." The cell door opened, and Ursa stepped out into the tunnel, immediately moving to the next cell.

"Smellerbee—" she began.

"Oh, I'm ready," Smellerbee said.

"Ran, will you let Longshot out?" Ursa motioned to the cell across the tunnel as she opened Smellerbee's door.

The girl who leapt out of the cell was small, bedraggled, and filthy, and Ursa knew she had to look just as bad. But there was a light of determination in Smellerbee's eyes, and Ursa knew she had been waiting all along for this opportunity. Longshot had the same expression on his face when Ran let him out of his cell.

"Come, quickly!" Ran motioned them, and they all followed without hesitation.

When they reached the end of the tunnel, Ursa saw that Gue, the Order member who had helped her when she got to Ba Sing Se, was standing there with a woman. Gue held one of the glowing crystals in his hand. Ursa had time only to see that the woman was about her own age before they were all urging Ursa and her two fellow prisoners to move back through the catacombs a short way. Then they cut into a small side tunnel. As soon as they were all inside, the woman jutted her hands out and closed the opening with earthbending.

"We have a long way to climb to the surface," the woman whispered as she turned to look at Ursa, Smellerbee, and Longshot, "through several different tunnels, and you must be as quiet as you can."

The pathways led upward sometimes, and then there were periods where they had to go sideways before they went up again. Finally, the woman who was in the lead stopped when the path ended, and then broke through the earthen wall barring their path.

Sunlight poured into the hole she had created, and Ursa immediately closed her eyes. It was far, far too bright. She felt fingers on her arm, and heard Ran's voice saying, "I'll help you—it will be a while before your vision adjusts. You've been in the darkness for a long time."

The next part of the journey was a lot fuzzier. Ursa couldn't see where she was going; every time she cracked open her eyes, the sunlight blinded her, and she had to rely on Ran to guide her. It wasn't long before she was being lifted into something, and there was no longer sunlight pouring onto her face. She blinked her eyes open slowly and discovered that she was sitting in the back of a covered wagon. Longshot and Smellerbee were being assisted into it behind her, blinking and squinting as much as she was. But at least in here it was not as bright and her eyes could adjust.

The little bit of extra light gave was enough to give her a fuller scope of what a disaster she, Smellerbee, and Longshot were from their stint in prison. They were caked with dirt—Ursa could no longer tell that her robes were red; they looked brown. What skin wasn't completely dirty was pale from the lack of sunlight. She didn't know how thin Smellerbee and Longshot had been before being arrested, but they were both skin and bones, and she imagined she looked much the same.

Ran and the woman jumped into the back of the wagon, and it started moving. "Here." Ran pulled out a water pouch and passed it to Ursa. She thanked him and downed some of the water, then handed it to Smellerbee.

"Thank you for getting us out," Ursa said.

"I'm sorry it took us so long," Ran replied.

"I've never seen the Dai Li take such strong measures to keep outsiders away from that prison you were in," the woman said. "It took us weeks just to find out exactly where they had put you in Ba Sing Se. For a while, we weren't even sure you were still in Ba Sing Se. Then it took us a while to find a way in. The Dai Li have defenses set up against earthbending into certain areas unless they want someone to come in so they can trap them. They went all out to keep people away from your prison." She shook her head, her short black hair bobbing around her cheeks. "I'm Lu Lin. Gue is my father." She nodded toward the front of the wagon.

"We had a dozen members of the Order working to find a way to rescue you," Ran explained. "We'll be going to a safe house in the city. The Dai Li will be looking for you soon."

Ursa rolled onto her knees. "Please, I need to get in touch with the Southern Water Tribe as soon as possible. I—" She stopped when she saw the expressions on Ran and Lu Lin's faces as they exchanged glances. Dread swept over her and the fear squeezed her heart. "What is it?" Her voice came out as a whisper. "What happened?" Oh, spirits, don't let them have been killed. Please, please, please, let them be alive…

"The Southern Water Tribe was captured and imprisoned in the Fire Nation about a week ago, Lady Ursa," Ran told her quietly.

Ursa sank back, a little relief creeping over the dread. She was still worried, but as she knew better than anyone, captured was still alive.

"I'll explain everything when we get to the safe house, Lady Ursa. I promise." Ran shot a glance at Smellerbee and Longshot, and Ursa knew he was concerned about sharing too much in front of people he didn't know.

Smellerbee scoffed. "Hey, you just got us out of prison. We're not gonna go spilling your secrets."

"Please," Ursa said, "at least tell me if you know how the Water Tribe was captured."

She listened to Ran explain about an eclipse and attempted invasion into the heart of the Fire Nation, and in the back of her mind, a whispered mantra was repeating, as though she wasn't sure she really believed it and was trying to convince herself.

They're alive. They're alive. They're in prison, but they're alive. They're going to be all right. They're going to be all right.

And an even smaller voice begged, please let them be all right.