The Missing Necklace (on editing/revision)

Chapter 11: Adrenaline and Ecstasy

A/N: This chapter does contain slight sexual content. If you wished to skip it you can stop reading after the elevator scene. 

They say that when you die your brain plays your memories for a total of seven seconds before finally shutting off and letting you rest. It's almost like a movie, a recap of your life before it gets lost to oblivion and is forgotten forever. Your actions, your mistakes, love, hate; everything catches up to you in an instant. You get to feel and see every one of importance for those seconds before ceasing to exist, almost like a farewell. I often wonder if this is true if this is what my mother saw when she took her last breath. I could see the police sirens now, the shooting, my mother's body. I could feel the anguish, the pain, the suffering that came when I felt her go limp in my arms. Everything kept flowing back to me as I saw the black car halt to a stop in the middle of the intersection and we were approaching it at full speed with no plan of stepping on the brakes. Korra's scream rang in my ears in the distance, silenced by the sound of my heart pumping hard against my chest. I refused to allow those seven seconds to happen now. Not today, not tomorrow. Not when I know that I won't rest in peace until this whole mess is sorted.

"WATCH OUT!!" I heard the pain and fear in Korra's coarse scream. I reacted as quickly as I could, slamming my feet on the clutch and brake, doing what I told her not to do hours ago before I moved the gear shift to second and pulled the steering wheel completely to the left, and forcefully to the right once I had half passed the car. We drifted around it, surprisingly missing it by an inch, and faced the opposite way from where the car had come from. I couldn't see what Korra was doing nor hear what she was saying. My sight and mind were tunneled on getting out of that situation. I sped up again, running through the traffic of the main road quite abruptly and cutting people off as soon as I saw the opportunity. My whole being was shaking and it didn't cease until I saw the Red Lotus swing by. So close, yet so far.

"I think we lost them. I think he meant they would follow up until the neutral border, not the Sato one. You can slow down a bit." Korra said to me with a shaky voice, looking back to the road we left behind then at me.

"I put you in danger." I responded in a voice I didn't even recognize as mine. "I have to get you safe, I am so sorry." Once I started speaking there was no going back. "I...I'm so stupid. I shouldn't have sung so loud, I shouldn't have told Varrick about the necklace. I..." I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, my knuckles going white, and gritted my teeth.

"Asami, listen to me." I looked at her for a second and turned my gaze back to the road. "I signed up for this, to find your necklace. I was the one that suggested the ball. I'm the one that put you in danger, knowing someone could recognize you. It was reckless of me." Korra ran her hands through her hair in desperation. She must've taken off her bun somewhere along the way. "I swore to protect you. It pains me to not keep you safe."

"Well, it pains me to not keep you safe as well." I had relaxed a little, but my lip and voice still trembled. "I dragged you into this whole gang mess-"

"That you didn't know had anything to do with it. It still might not, we are just following leads." She looked behind again. "That's part of the job..." I sped up to try and get through a bundle of cars that were in the way. I sighed in relief when we passed one of my father's factories, Korra noticing my change of emotion, and taking one of my hands from the steering wheel to hold. Regardless, I still felt like I was having a heart attack and took a deep and long inhale when we reached her building. I parked in front of it and shut off the car. Korra quickly got out of the car and jogged to the driver's side, opening the door for me. I tried to get out but fell into Korra's arms with a sob. She sat me on the bonnet of the car, closed the door, and hugged me until I calmed down.