Chapter Text
Kuvira sat, her hands bound, in her wooden prison, knowing she faced life imprisonment. Whether that would be sufficient to pay for all the things she’d done, as Su had promised she would, she didn’t know. She would have preferred to have died, committed to the bitter end to her ideal, rather than stand down and admit defeat. But perhaps, she considered now, in the silence and calm after the battle, it was better she had survived, otherwise the fighting might have continued, long after her death. With her surrender, she had been able to bring about a swift conclusion, ending everything far more certainly than her death would have done.
She had brought about a swift end to the trial as well. Having surrendered so completely, she felt there was no point in dragging anything out, trying to draw attention to why she’d done it or what she’d done in the way of good. If that had been going to work, it would’ve done so before now. She was now just another tyrant, as Suyin had labelled her. She had never managed to get Su to see what she’d been trying to achieve, right from the beginning and had given up, in the end.
A lifetime behind bars. She should have felt restless, nothing to do, nothing to think about. Instead, there was emptiness. If she was feeling anything, she was too far detached from it. The most she could do was analyse her actions, wonder how her ambitions would have turned out, had she succeeded in realising her dream, but having seen the might of the Avatar, she couldn’t see now how she could have won the battle, let alone keep her victory if she had. She wondered if the Avatar would take her bending away, although if she were to be kept out of reach of earth or stone or metal, there was little point.
Even hunger didn’t reach her. She stared at the bowls of food as if they were from another world, something foreign to her that she struggled to consume. Whether it was from the lack of food or her concentration on her deep reflections, she’d fallen into a daze and was surprised when the cell door opened and she was dragged to her feet.
“You’re being transferred to your new prison. Get up.” The guard seemed impatient. His feet knocked over the half empty bowls in his haste and he cursed both at them and her, shoving her somewhat roughly into the corridor. She stumbled. Her ankle felt weak still, after the injury it had sustained during the battle. She hadn’t asked for it to be healed, doubting her request would be granted.
“Kuvira?”
Suyin’s voice felt like an arrow of metal into her mind. Thoughts came racing now. This was it. This was what life imprisonment meant. She was never going to see Su again. The person who had always affected her the most, always been the most capable of stirring everything up in the depths of her. She looked up, not wanting to see those eyes, harsh and judging, and yet, this was the last time, the last opportunity. She tried to memorise the particular shade of green. They looked confused now; unsure and uncertain, worried even, or was that Kuvira’s imagination? She felt her lips crack painfully as she smiled, although she didn’t know why she was smiling, unless it was some inexplicable attempt to reassure Suyin.
“I’m sorry.” The words felt weighted down as they left her, sticking in her throat as her hoarse voice cracked trying to get them out.
Suyin was frowning at her now, as they stood face to face in the corridor. Chief Beifong was waiting impassively in front of her. The guard behind was impatient. Why she did it, she could not have said. A long-forgotten desire to, always tamped down, from the awareness that Suyin was married, but she was never going to see Suyin again, so what did it matter now? She was a war criminal, what would one stolen kiss be against that? She leant forward and brushed her dry lips against Suyin's. She expected cries of outrage, but silence filled the corridor, as heavy as her apology had been.
She drew back; it had been but a swift moment. Rather than anger or disgust, Suyin looked stunned, her eyebrows raised, her lips dropping half open as if she were about to question Kuvira, but there was no time to clarify her intention or explain. Chief Beifong had already placed a hand on her shoulder. “Goodbye.” Kuvira broke her gaze as she uttered the word and let Chief Beifong drag her away, leaving Suyin and the guard behind them in silence.