Regrets (Complete)

Epilogue

Kurai was over it all.

This most recent failure was the final straw. He was done with the Red Lotus. He had given his entire life to their cause and had lost everything in the process. He was lucky he made it out of it alive, Lao hadn't been so lucky. In fact, he had been unable to reach anyone after the raid on their compound.

Kurai pulled his traveling cloak tight around him as the train slowed in front of a small station in the heart of Ba Sing Se. The city was so big that he was sure he could live out the rest of his life in anonymity. He had found a small home out of the way of any major roads and was content enough with its location.

He had been living there for only a week when he returned home to find his door opened just a bit. The door was old and rickety and it had creaked opened more than once on him. But he thought he had fixed that problem by adding a new lock to it. Maybe he just forget to check the latch before he left that morning.

Cautiously, he opened the door and scanned the room. There was no one there. He let out a sigh and closed the door behind him, double checking that the door was locked this time. He ate some leftover soup and headed to bed.

He had just closed his eyes when he thought he heard something. Opening his eyes he looked around, seeing only shadows in the small room. He was just about to close them again when one of the shadows moved and face came into view in the sliver of moonlight seeping in from a slit in the roof.

He tried to yell but his mouth was covered by a thin piece of metal clamping around his head. He tried to back away, to move at all but he couldn't, his arms and legs bound together by strong metal cables. For the first time in a long time he was actually afraid as the terrifying figure that was Lin Beifong got close enough to him that he could feel her breath on his face.

"Did you really think I'd just let you get away after what you did to me?"

She stood back up, reaching her full height as she carefully pulled the badge from her chest and set it on his nightstand. She turned back to face him and he closed his eyes, resigned to his fate.