Wow, thank you all so so much for your support of this story! I am so surprised and touched to see all the views that this story continues to get, so thank you!
I do want to give a warning though that this chapter does contain some violence. Anyway, enjoy!
I didn't sleep at all for the rest of the night. The soldiers had taken me into my own room, which was little more than a holding cell and completely dark. I had pounded on the door, begging and screaming for them to let me out. I had to find Etka and Naheel. We had to flee.
Blindly, I felt the walls around me, my mind playing over scenarios of what Ozai was going to do to me. Flood the room with fire and burn me alive...leave me to starve and rot and go insane thinking about Naheel and Etka...
I wondered where they were. Had Ozai come for them too? Were they facing a similar fate as I was?
The doors were opened and I shrank back from the sudden brightness of the light. To my surprise, I saw Etka standing before me in the doorframe, dressed in the military clothes of a soldier. "Etka?" I said weakly.
"Get up," Etka commanded, and I paused, slightly taken aback.
"Wh - what?"
"You heard me, get up!" He thundered so hard that I flinched. It was absolutely terrifying, seeing him like this, and right away, I knew something was wrong. I scrambled to my feet, standing defensively.
"What is this?" I demanded. "What is going on?"
"You're coming with me," He grabbed my arm, and before I could understand what was happening, dragged me forward and threw me out of the cell. I hit the tile floors hard, and when I raised my head, I saw soldiers standing around, all watching.
I felt disoriented, so confused that I wanted to throw up. The sinking feeling - like a lead weight in my stomach - was only worsening with the knowledge I didn't want to face.
Etka had betrayed me. He was loyal to the Fire Nation, and the Fire Nation only.
All people of the Fire Nation are heartless and cruel, I remembered hearing one of the elders in my tribe say. They only exist to serve their country, and the Firelord.
Etka too, I realized. He was no different than all the rest. I felt tears form in my eyes, but quickly dashed them away. I would not let him see me cry.
My heart racing, I spun around to face Etka, and threw my hands out ready to fight. I was trembling all over, and tears threatened to spill any moment.
"Where is my brother?" I asked in a low voice. I couldn't control how it wavered.
"Naheel is gone," Etka said, circling me and watching every movement I took like a hawk.
"Gone?" I demanded. "Gone where?"
Etka was quiet for a moment, and I noticed his jaw twitch. "I don't need to disclose this with you," He said sharply.
Flames appeared at my fingertips, and out of fury and frustration, I lobbed a jet of fire at him. "What have you done with my brother?" I screamed, leaping up in the air and doing a flip. Arcs of fire soared from my feet and hands and when I landed, I knocked Etka back from his stance by several steps.
His hair was coming loose from his topknot, and his eyes looked shocked, harrowed. "Anahi, stop this now," He said warningly, fire appearing at his sides.
"Where is he?" I snarled, attacking him again with another strike he evasively blocked.
Etka didn't answer me, but began to hurl jets of fire, so fast I barely had time to block myself. I scrambled around for cover and darted behind a pillar, breathing heavily. I had to find Naheel, find my brother and get out of the palace, out of this country.
"Anahi!" Etka thundered, leaping out from behind the pillar and grabbed me by the shoulders, shoving me up against it with an elbow across my chest. He hit me so hard across the face that I tasted blood in my mouth. I grabbed at Etka's chin, his hands, trying to push him off of me. I rolled over, straddling him and conjured a flame in my fist.
"Where is Naheel?" I seethed, drawing back my arm. I was about to strike him, burn him, and I had the total position to do this. "You know!" I screamed, and realized that my hand was shaking.
I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill him. My face crumpled and tears gave way, and I lowered my arm. After everything we had been through, I couldn't do it. Part of me was in agony from his betrayal, and the other part still loved him deeply.
"I won't hurt you," I said quietly, and for a flicker of a second I saw an expression of shock and hurt pass through Etka's eyes. And just as quickly as it had come, it was gone.
Etka shoved me off of him, and I hit the floor and stayed there, waiting for him to kill me. He stood up, looming over me, before bending down and lifting me up by the front of my robes.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Prince Zuko standing behind one of the pillars near a cluster of soldiers, his eyes huge in horror and fear. I didn't want him to see this. I didn't want my brother to watch me die.
Etka hit me so hard my head snapped back, and I collapsed, my legs no longer working. Dark clouds passed over my eyes as I collapsed to the floor, my vision fading to black.
I came to under a canopy of trees and fresh air. Soft yellow light filtered from between the leaves, and for a second, I wondered if I really had died and was in some peaceful afterlife. I tried to sit up, and was met with a splitting pain in my head so bad that my vision swam in patches of black until I laid back down against the tree.
I was definitely not dead. Barely alive, but not dead.
"Anahi?" I whipped my head over to the sound of my name, and when the fog disappeared from my sight, I saw Etka, kneeling down beside me and pressing a cool, wet cloth against my forehead.
I screamed, every memory of what had happened in the palace flooding back to me. I tried to conjure fire, but I was so weak and my head felt like someone and split it open with an axe. I was practically defenseless.
"It's okay, it's okay," He held up his hands in surrender, trying to show me he wasn't a threat. I didn't believe him. "Anahi, I'm not going to hurt you."
"You bastard!" I cried, throwing myself on him and hitting him, my weakened arms and dulled perception executing blows that barely hurt him. "How could you?" I cried, tears rolling down my face now. I slapped Etka across the face, as hard as I could, and he sat silently and took it, gently holding me up in his arms. I was crying hard now, and I collapsed against him, loathing myself for it. "Why?" I moaned, my tears running onto his robes, and gingerly, cautiously, Etka put his arms around me.
"Don't touch me," I snapped, pushing myself away from him, and he didn't resist. "How dare you..."
"The Firelord called me in after he saw you," Etka said quietly, and I stared at the ground, kneading my hands together. I couldn't look at him anymore. "And he asked me to kill you. He said exactly what I'd feared he'd say: that you were a threat to his power, to his throne, and that you could no longer exist. If I had defied him, he would have killed all of us."
"Where is my brother?" I demanded, my voice heavy.
"I snuck him out," Etka replied, and I raised my head and stopped crying. "Naheel is at the Temple, the rendezvous point."
I looked over at him in surprise and shock. If Etka was being truthful...if he had saved Naheel...
"The Firelord still thinks that I'm loyal to him," Etka was pleading with me now. "If he thinks that you're dead, Naheel's out of the picture, and I'm still loyal, then it would be perfect conditions for us all to escape. We could go to the Earth Kingdom, or the Water Tribe again, and he wouldn't hunt us down. It would mean safety, freedom..."
"How do I know you're not lying to me?" I muttered, turning away. "How do I know you didn't do to Naheel what you did to me? How do I know he's not dead?"
"Anahi, if I wanted to kill you, I would have done it a long time ago," Etka said sharply, then quickly backed off, realizing what he had said. "I wouldn't have brought you all the way out here alive. I'm going to sneak you into the Temple, and you can see Naheel for yourself."
I stared at him, unbelieving. I couldn't truly process what was happening to me right now. Etka had tried to kill me - to save my life.
"I hated myself the entire time," He said, his voice full of remorse. He kept trying to meet my eyes. "Anahi, I loathed myself. I promised Naheel that I would always protect you, that I would never hurt you..." Etka paused, and I saw him run a flat hand over his eyes, his mouth.
"I can't ask you to forgive what I've done," Etka said, standing up and holding out his hand. Inside it were two small little green pills, tightly compacted. "But please try to understand why I had to do it."
"What's this?" I asked, taking the pills from his hand.
"Take them for the pain," He said gently, and I swallowed them both dry.
I stared pointedly at my hands, my emotions rolling and crashing over me like the waves at the beach. The bruises marring my skin hurt more than ever, but Etka had saved my life. He had risked everything so that would live, so that I could be safe with my brother.
"Etka," I said flatly, slowly understanding. He turned around, looking down at me with pained eyes. Carefully, he knelt before me and helped me stand up, and I leaned heavily on his arms.
"I love you," He murmured, his voice slightly trembling. "And I did this all for you. Anahi - "
I cut him off, taking his face in my hands and kissing him hard, holding onto him tightly. Etka felt tense at first, surprised that I would be embracing him this way, then gradually relaxed, kissing me in return. "I know," I murmured softly, solemnly, still keeping his face in my hands after I broke the kiss.
"I'll take you to the Temple," Etka promised, helping me onto the back of his ostrich horse before climbing on himself. "I'll have to leave right away, but I'll come for you and Naheel when the time is right."
I held onto him close as we began to ride forward through the tiny dirt path through the deep jungle, and wondered how Etka could have known his way. Today was just too much to handle, and while the pills Etka gave me seemed to be working, they made it harder to resist the pull of unconsciousness and I found myself falling asleep against his back for the remainder of our journey.