I relieve myself of the weight on my shoulders, lowering her body carefully on to the remains of the crumbled building we just escaped from. I see her closed eyes and take the chance to inhale for a much-needed-deep-breath. Though, before I could exhale, I catch her eyes fluttering. Instead of continuing my deep breath, I go straight in to words.
"It's over, you're gonna call off your team and surrender to General Raiko. Then you an-" My spiel ends faster than I thought it would when I am hit with a grainy sand-like substance. As I flail in an attempt to regain balance, an obstruction hit the back of my knee and it caves outward. Before I knew it I was falling backwards while blind from the front. I wouldn't call my landing beautiful, I don't think being stabbed in my sides by pointed rocks with a landing on my stomach can be called beautiful.
I almost want to give up, right here and now. With my heavy uniform and gear weighing me down and the merciless sun showering its fury on me. My body is beaten and sore and I have no idea how much longer I can handle this whole ordeal. I would have if I hadn't heard her run. It wasn't much of a run because it was accompanied by a dragging sound. Then the advantage popped into my strategically trained mind. If she's dragging her foot, she's injured, and if she's injured I can catch her. I brush the substance from my eyes as best as I could and barely catch sight of her as she turns to look at my fallen body.
"Stop!" I yell out as she limps away further into the deserted town. I get up on my feet still rubbing at my eyes in an attempt to completely clear them. I grab my helmet and clip it close under my chin as I made my way up the rubble of the building searching first with my eyes then my hands for my weapon. After looking for a few seconds I find it near the same spot I stood earlier. I pick up my gun and check for damage. When I was sure the gun was useable, I pull out a magazine from my back pocket, reload, and head in the direction she went. I stick to the walls of the alleys between the buildings, using the shadows created by the brightness of the sun to my advantage. I keep my gun primed and ready; moving at a steady pace with my senses working at 100% to catch any movement. I inch towards the end of another passage when I notice a flicker on the other side of the street.
"Kuvira, give up!" I order as I run out into the middle of the street forsaking my cover. I watch her form run into the darkness of another alley and plead, "Please stop this madness; it has to end now!" I slow my pace as I enter the alley, keep my guard up and look for another sign of movement.
"If you really want to end it, then come and get me!" I snap my head to the right at the sound of the voice. My brain goes into overdrive as I race on to the street and through another alleyway. I keep my gun ready as I break through the shadows of the alley and on to another sandy and sunny road searching for the owner of the voice. I look up and a gasp escapes my mouth as I stare upwards with the fear clawing at my chest.
"Now it's over," Kuvira states simply standing at the edge of the roof of a two-story building. Her hand resting on a new automatic machine gun and another was ready to allow it to unleash its fury on its one target, me. I couldn't help, but think of the irony of the situation. A week ago, during the testing of the new weapon, I had ordered that it be placed on top of that roof to be released on attackers from above. Now, I was the one caught in the trap of my own strategical technique. As my thought process roamed back towards the past another terrifying thought entered my mind. The testing for the weapon had not gone well, and due to its lack of control, an order had been sent out to discontinue the use of the weapon until improvements could be made in the flawed design.
"Don't!" I scream out pushing my hand forward as if that would stop Kuvira. I watch on in horror as Kuvira switches on the weapon. And as if the world slowed down, I watch the gun prime itself and everything in my body freezes. I keep my eyes on the machine as I push myself with sheer will out of harm's way. I run to the left as fast as my legs can carry me and use the momentum to jump and land with a somersault behind one of the remnants of a wall ruined from the weapon the last time it was used. I hear the pounding of the bullet and grip my helmet trying to pull it lower over my head, scooting down against my cover to avoid the crazy mass of bullets. Even though everything in my body scream not to, I peer over the edge of the wall to see the progress of the weapon. I look up just in time to catch the machine gun lose control as it arcs towards my position. The gun jerks, moving in a random motion spraying bullets everywhere just as it had before.
"Shut it down!" I yell over the sound of bullets connecting to unaware targets and causing destruction as objects fell under the shattering force.
Kuvira's voice wavers as she yells back, "I can't!" Then I watch in shock as the jerking movements of the weapon causes the back end to crash into Kuvira. Her body gets thrown off the two-story building and she lands with a resounding crunch and a scream of pain.
The uncontrollable weapon, which was spewing randomly in every direction, finally found a target. The barrel of the automatic gun began its slow journey towards the fallen body of the traitorous Captain Kuvira. My body jumps into hyper drive as I realize the direction of the gun. Without even considering the many risks, I jump the wall I was using for cover and sprint towards Kuvira using the last of my energy reserves to carry me. As soon as I reach her I don't stop to think, I grab the shoulder strap of her camouflaged bulletproof vest and begin to drag her behind me. I don't have time to think of her injuries, only of her life. I pull Kuvira toward the building she just fell off and shove her and myself against the wall underneath the firing weapon. I stick to the wall trying to catch my breath. For now, we are safe and out of the sight of the gun, but the spray of bullets did not stop yet. As I look around for a better cover while waiting for the end of the showering of high-speed metal, my eyes fell on the open entrance of the building. The same entrance Kuvira must have gone through leaving it wide open. Without another thought I grab Kuvira's strap again to begin the treacherously short journey to the entrance. This time I heard Kuvira's grunt of pain, but choose to ignore it again. I pull her through the opening into the middle of a bare room. I look down at her with my hands on hips taking in a deep breath, but before I could exhale the world ended.
Or at least that's what it felt like. Apparently, in my rush to get both of us to safety, I failed to notice the quaking of the structure of the building due to the violently shaking machine on its roof. As the ceiling begins to collapse, I jump on Kuvira's crumpled body on the floor. I cover her with myself waiting for the inevitable crushing force of debris to hit me from behind. As I lay over Kuvira's body, I could feel her shake or maybe it was me. I think my body finally realized that hero mode wasn't the smartest idea. I could hear the building collapse around me, but only the sting of small rocks pelting my back. A quiet dust rose into the air as the noises of the collapsing building ceased. I wait as the dust settled on our still quivering bodies. I test the air taking in a quick breath and immediately begin coughing on the exhale. I look up with my hand covering my mouth and nose and stare up in awe at our luck. The ceiling had caved, but like tent forming two slanting walls around us and blocking us from the rest of the destruction. The open ends of the tent still had rocks covering them, but much smaller maybe even movable ones that look like they had broken apart after hitting the tent covering us. Streams of daylight slipped through the cracks between the rocks allowing me to survey my surroundings and giving us air to breath. I drop my hand from my mouth being able to finally breathe a little better. I look down at the still body underneath me and move my hand towards it to check for any signs of a pulse. As my hand moves towards Kuvira, her eyes slowly flicker open. Before I knew it, I was roughly shoved backwards as Kuvira cries out and hurriedly crawls to the other side of the makeshift tent.
As she turns her eyes hesitantly settled on our surroundings, "What happened? Are we- dead?" I look at her in confusion and then realize there was fear in her voice. The minimal light caused strangely angled shadows, but that didn't stop me from being able to see the hazy look in Kuvira's eyes. She must have hit her head in all the chaos causing her senses to be skewed.
I steel my voice bringing back whatever confidence I had left for her sake saying, "No we're OK, but we're trapped under these rocks. The power from the prototype took down the building it was on." I move from my still position crawling towards Kuvira's side. She jerks away and hurriedly pushes her back against the slab-wall of the tent. I move past her and place my hands on the rocks, hoping to find a loose one to move away. We need to get out of here somehow.
As I found one and turn to place it behind me, I catch Kuvira gripping her side, shaking her head, and clearing the haziness from her eyes, "Why would you save my life, after everything I did to you?"
The answer came to me without any hesitance, I know why I was doing this, "I guess, I see a lot of myself in you."
"We are nothing alike," she denies defiantly as she furrowed her brows.
"Yes we are. We're both fierce and determined to succeed. Sometimes without thinking things through." I turn back around looking for another piece of debris to move as the truth spewed from my mouth.
"This wasn't how I wanted things to end, if you all had just surrendered, none of this would have happened," she says gruffly. I turn around, placing the rock down roughly as I glare at her.
"You brought this on yourself. Messing with the prototypes, acting like a dictator over your team and the people of this town. You had to know what you're doing wasn't right."
She glares right back at me, "I was trying to help these people. Suyin turned her back on this village. You were gone! I had to do something!" I grip on to another piece and carefully extract it as I turn and place it softly behind me.
Suyin's words rush to my head and understanding dawns on me, "I think I get it now," I say as I look up at Kuvira in the growing light.
Kuvira, in turn, looks away, "You don't understand anything about me."
"I do. Colonel Suyin told me how she took you in when you were younger," I softly continue," it must have been so hard being an orphan."
Her eyes turn towards me with fiery glare, "Don't pretend you know what it felt like. You were adored by everyone, I was cast aside by my own parents like I meant nothing to them. How could I just stand by and watch the same thing happen to these helpless people when they needed someone to support and guide them?" Her passionate words struck me and allow me to finally see the intention behind Kuvira's actions.
"You wanted to create a place where you and the people of this village would never be vulnerable again." Our eyes meet again in the streams of light, "I may not have been an orphan, but believe me, I understand what it feels like to be afraid." I shift my body towards Kuvira, slumping against the wall of rocks behind me. I lean back and watch the dust-filled air settle around us. "After the scouting incident and being forced out of commission for so long, I would have done anything to feel in control." I place my hand on my knee, lean my head back and allow my mind to delve into the mental and physical chaos of the past three years.
The sound of grunts and skidding boots fill the air as we drag ourselves back to base. Kuvira is making a strong effort to hold her own, but her side injury had gotten the best of her. She held on to me as I support her back to the camp. I could feel every part of me scream with every step including the numerous cuts we both gained as we escaped from our second set of wreckage in one day. As we near the edge of the village, multiple shouts fill the air. I look up to be met by the dangerous end of a gun.
"Release Kuvira or we will attack!" A threatening voice rang from behind one of the many soldiers behind the guns from surround us. I guide Kuvira's hand off my shoulder as she pushes forward to meet the soldiers.
"Stand down," she says in a calm and authoritative voice, "this battle is over." I watch her back straighten and her head turn up as she continues to talk. "I owe Korra my life. Her ability to lead this army and protect this village is beyond anything I could hope to achieve." She lowers her head in resignation, "I'll accept whatever punishment the military council sees fit." Two figures push through the wall of men surrounding us. I instantly recognize them as my superiors Lin and Suyin. They grab Kuvira roughly and slap cuffs on her wrists. Kuvira looks up solemnly at Suyin as she glares her.
"And Su, I'm sorry for all the anguish I have caused you and your men," she says softly. She turns her eyes downwards as Lin pushes her forward. Suyin steps up next to her as they walk, the anger still visible in her eyes as her voice carries to my ears.
"You're going to answer for everything you've done." I watch them disappear as they move towards the military camp. I feel a hand on my shoulder beckoning for my attention and turn to see the smiling faces of my team. I return the smile as best as I can before feeling the tiredness from the day's events take over my body. I sigh deeply and let out the first thought that comes to my head.
"I need a drink."