A/N: Hiya! Thanks to all that reviewed. Behold! This is the second-to-last chapter! Yeah, I'm psyched (even though you're probably not…). But this is the climax; and next chapter will be the epilogue/resolution/whatever. So yay for me. I should have the last chappie up soon.
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender; rather, Nickelodeon does. And Mr. DiMartino and Mr. Koneitzko created it. And I came up with a few minor characters in this story. Um. Yeah.
The Engagement Necklace
The rain pounded on the golden roofs of the great Fire City, streaking the windows of the palace, drenching the gardens and courtyards that the palace's walls encompassed. In the west end of the palace, there was something reminiscent of a small lake, a gigantic puddle of water than had flooded the normally arid area. Below the great towering spires of the western palace lay the dungeons, flooded already up to one's shins.
Such was the situation that Kana was in. She worked hurriedly, attempting to blast down the bars of the cell but not having much success. The bars were made of metal and they were more resistant than she had originally thought. But still, she persistently bended wave after wave of water at the bars, at least hoping that it would do something for her.
A thought struck her and Kana mentally smacked herself at her stupidity. Of course, she could have just—yes, that would work fine; she had been too rushed to think of it before.
Kana summoned up a substantial amount of water in the air, and she froze it so that it became ice. Turning towards the bars that blocked her way from freedom, Kana pulled back her arms and very suddenly pushed forward with all her might. The ice slammed hard against the bars, shattering into several pieces so that Kana had to duck down to avoid being banged in the head by the flying debris. When she looked at the bars, they had not broken—but they were bent outwards a bit, and she could tell that the hit had done a considerable amount of damage to them.
She pulled up more water into the air and meant to repeat the process again, but she faltered as she heard a door clang open and she heard someone wading hurriedly through the water toward a cell near her own. Curious, she released the water from her mental grasp and observed as a tall man she thought somewhat familiar opened the cell of the Prince and begged the Prince to come out of the cell. The Prince happily obliged. He needed no second bidding.
As the two men turned to hurry out of the dungeon, Kana saw that she was not going to be freed. She pulled the water back up into the air, froze it, and heaved it against the bars in a desperate attempt to be free. The ice chunk clanged loudly on the bars, causing the two men to turn around in bewilderment.
"What was that?" whispered the man that Kana did not recognize.
"I am not sure. Do you think anyone has heard it?" hissed the Prince, sounding somewhat afraid. Kana listened to the two men debating over what to do until they finally decided to investigate what was the matter. They approached Kana's cell slowly and peered inside. When the two men could not see well enough, one lit a small flame in his hand to illuminate Kana's cell—and Kana immediately recognized the man she had not recognized before. It was the Fire Lord.
Kana backed up against the wall farthest from the two Firebenders, an expression of pure fright on her face. Her plans had failed. She was not going to be able to escape. The Fire Lord would kill her personally, here and now.
But all that Kana thought would surely happen, did not. The three benders sat in stunned silence for quite a while. And then, the Prince said softly to his father, "That is the Waterbender who I brought from the Northern Tribe, father."
The Fire Lord cupped his chin in a hand as if thinking hard. At long last, he spoke, but this time, to Kana. "You were the one that made that noise, I assume?" Too afraid to speak, Kana just nodded her head to show that she had. "Well—I say, look at these bars, son! And you did that, I assume?" Kana nodded again. "And you want to escape then—and you have overheard my son and I—all the other prisoners are asleep—you will go with Iroh, away from this place, if not for the time being," concluded the Fire Lord.
And, without hesitation, the Fire Lord opened up the cell and motioned for Kana to come out. Kana stared, hazy-eyed. She had been working so hard to gain it—and now it had just come so freely? But the hopeful part of her mind overrode the logical part, and she stood and walked away from the back wall. Freedom, she thought happily.
Once Kana was in the hallway (which was now flooded up to her knees), she waited as the Fire Lord locked her cell and led the way through the dungeon back to the entrance from where he had come. As the three waded through the murky floodwaters, however, something crossed their path—the silhouette of a woman striding without haste through the waters, right towards them.
The Fire Lord's eyes widened and he hissed, "Maia!"
Kana gasped, knowing it was the Fire Lady—in the dungeons? But if the Fire Lord had said so, then it probably was true—for surely the Fire Lord could recognize his own wife.
As the Fire Lord and the Prince turned away from the silhouette, searching for somewhere to hide, Kana spotted a quick shadow dash through the area, past them and toward the Fire Lady—and Kana thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, but then again, she swore she heard a small swish of water as the shadow passed.
"Waterbender!" whispered the Prince urgently. "This way!" He motioned for Kana to follow him, and she obeyed, sloshing quietly after him through the dungeon, trying not to be frantic, trying not to be frightened.
The Prince, who was following the Fire Lord, led Kana down the long corridor of the dungeon. At the very end, the narrow corridor met with another, wider, corridor, and the three of them took a right and swished through the passageway to wherever they were going. Kana was starting to wonder if the three of them would ever reach the end of the passageway, when she saw that the two Firebenders had stopped walking. She nearly crashed into the back of the Prince, but she was able to stop herself in time.
The Fire Lord turned around and gazed past Kana, as though he could see through walls and was seeing something that no one else even knew of. His gaze lingered there for a minute, and the three of them were perfectly soundless. Kana soon twisted around as well, her eyes scanning the walls and down the corridor to try and see what the Fire Lord saw. Once again, she saw that shadow—and now she was perfectly certain that shadow was the one she had seen earlier, and that it, whoever it was, was following them.
"There," she whispered, nudging towards the shadow, "I see it—that shadow. I saw it earlier too. It's been following us."
The Prince gritted his teeth. "Father—"
"Be quiet, Iroh," the Fire Lord chided. "Keep silent."
The trio watched as the shadow moved, bit by bit, down the flooded passageway until it was no more than ten feet away, looming darkly still. The Fire Lord pushed his arm out a bit and lit a fire in his hand, trying to light up the otherwise dark hallway. Kana saw that the shadow was a person (a male, judging by his tall, looming frame and broad shoulders), but she could not tell who he was; his face was too obscured by an overhanging hood of the dark cloak he wore.
"Speak, stranger," ordered the Fire Lord.
The shadow kept his hood down, and barely whispered, "My client perhaps might want you dead, but you are all as good as dead anyway. So go. I have no concern with you."
"What have you done?" the Prince shouted, shoving Kana out of his way and stepping aggressively towards the cloaked man.
The shadow chuckled. "If anything I have done you a favor. But you need not know. As I said, you are of no concern to me. Please, do escape; it will only make my job easier."
At this point, Kana was rubbing her sore arm and she noticed that the water was just below her waist now—they had to get out of here before they were completely flooded in. But as she looked around, she saw no way out—just an endlessly long corridor. The Prince was advancing closer to the cloaked man, but the man did not move.
"If you please, would you at least get out of the way? I have a job to finish still, you know."
"What have you done? And what are you going to do? And where—" But Iroh cut off nearly just as soon as he had begun. Kana wondered at the expressions on the Prince's face as he went from anger to bemusement to horrid shock. "You have—she was in the dungeons with us—you have—killed her! And you are going to—to kill my—"
"Shush!" hushed the cloaked man. "You see, if the Fire Lord finds out, I will be condemned to burn in eternal flame, according to my client." The cloaked man chuckled humorlessly. "What a fool he is. After I have finished his orders, I shall just add my own personal touch to the job and erase the witnesses."
Kana squeaked in fright.
The cloaked man faced Kana now. "Oh no, I shall not get rid of you or the Prince; you are worthless, both of you. And the Fire Lord—well, perhaps I should just get rid of him now, but why do not the two of you youngsters leave now so I can deal out my business with the Fire Lord, hmm?"
"Father!" exclaimed the Prince. The cloaked man snarled and lunged at the Prince. Kana screamed as the two of them went underwater, wrestling each other. Thrashing her head about frantically, she saw the two jet upwards from out of the water, taking the Fire Lord down with them as they tore at one another and making the fire in the Fire Lord's hand go out, rendering Kana blind to all that happened. She thought she saw the glint of a knife in the cloaked man's hand and she snarled, trying to aim a blast of water at the three. The blast hit the surface of the water and made a small splash, having no effect on the three underwater at all.
The water level was rising fast; it was now at Kana's chest. Searching through the water blindly, she tried to see; but there were no torches in this tunnel and it was perfectly dark. She shoved water to the side, holding it back as she groped around, straining her ears to hear any sound of movement.
A loud splash to her right caused her to twist around in a flash; Kana, still yet unable to see, brought her arms down and jerked them apart, causing the water to part to either side of the passageway. She heard now the three men struggling, gasping for breath; she also saw a quick flash of fire and was able to decipher where the cloaked man was. Kana tried to shoot a jet of water at the cloaked man, but it was too much strain to do that and hold back the water; she felt completely helpless, and her energy was draining by the minute.
"I cannot see! Light a fire! Do something to make some light!" she bellowed, hoping that the Prince or the Fire Lord would take her up on her suggestion. Indeed, almost instantaneously, a flame lit on the floor of the tunnel, and Kana was able to see perfectly.
In a last rush of adrenaline, she brought her arms down, sending the water crashing back down to the floor of the tunnel. She directed the water towards where the cloaked man had been—though there was no light again, she knew almost by instinct where he was. She dove and swam through the now chest-high water and wrenched the cloaked man from the grasp of the two Firebenders, pushing the evil one down, down, holding him down with her hands. It would only be a minute now until he ran out of air—wait, wait, wait—she surfaced and took a quick breath, and the water was now at her neck—and held the adversary down still, resisting against his wild lashing of limbs, attempting to get back up for air—and soon the arms ceased moving and the struggle was over.
Leaving the cloaked man underwater, Kana surfaced once more only to realize that the surface of the water was a few inches from the ceiling of the tunnel, and the two men who had rescued her were unconscious, floating somewhere nearby. And now she truly felt alone, lost. Should she save the world's greatest enemy? She would do the world a great favor if the Fire Lord died. But then again, only another person would take over as Fire Lord—but—she did not know what to do. So she prayed.
She prayed to the Ocean Spirit and the Moon Spirit and all the Spirits that would listen—she prayed for guidance, she asked for reason to hope, she begged for mercy—and it was almost as if she had passed out and woken up again—but that was not possible, for she was holding her breath underwater, dragging the Fire Lord in one arm and the Prince in the other. She tried to surface, but she only swallowed water. Choking, she looked around, trying to find a way out—and she saw the light reflecting from above. Kana surfaced, and this time, she breathed in the blessed, blessed air.
The Spirits had decided to show mercy to her.
She had managed to wake the two Firebenders quickly; the Fire Lord had shown them the way to the harbor, running along the rocky beach that the tunnel had brought them to. The winds had howled angrily and the rains had poured down relentlessly and the waves had pounded without mercy upon the cold shore. But still, Kana and the other two had kept running. And it had not taken much time to find a spare boat to use to flee. The Fire Lord had told them to go as quickly as they could away from the Fire Nation. He recommended going south, for it would be expected that they should go east to the Earth Kingdom. The Prince and Kana had set out in a small rowboat right after the Fire Lord had told his son that there was hope for the Prince to return home now that Maia was dead.
The last thing Kana had seen of the black shore was the Fire Lord, standing and watching them depart. The waves at first had threatened to toss over their boat as she and the Prince stared back at the fading Fire Nation, but Kana had enough sense to Waterbend the boat to the open sea where the current carried them seemingly south.
The rain had lessened to a drizzle long after the Fire Nation faded out of sight; and soon there was nothing but the spray of the sea. And now, in the east, Kana saw the long-awaited sun rising, scattering its rays of hope to the world. The sky was clear, and the gulls soared blissfully in the skies, and the sunrise was more beautiful and intense than Kana had ever seen it. And for the first time since her capture in the north, Kana felt really, truly free.
As she stared into the east, something inclined her to turn to the north, back to her old home—she instinctively reached for her engagement necklace that she had previously completely forgotten about, only to find that it was not there.
Kana started out of her content state, now rather frenzied. "My necklace! I—do you see a necklace in the bottom of the boat?" she asked hurriedly to the Prince who she had previously not really spoken to at all.
"What? A necklace? No, there is nothing here…" The Prince's face twisted into a sort of look of sympathy, but it did not help much.
"Oh—it was the only thing left of my home—" Kana frowned, but a memory appeared in her mind's eye almost immediately:
She passed familiar landmarks of her childhood, of her life. Finally, she came to the edge of the walls, where she found a small alleyway through which she maneuvered the canoe into the open sea and sped forward through the gentle waves, traveling farther from her home than she ever had.
She never looked back.
And she scowled at herself for wanting to save the necklace—that life was over. She would start a new life, in the south.
She would be free.
