Welp, I didn't think I'd be back to fan fiction again, but here I am. Legend of Korra actually roped me back in. Hope you enjoy.
Surprisingly, Kuvira found freedom to feel a little too free. She already missed the feel of enclosure, of earth in all directions, comforting despite her inability to use it for any practical purpsoe. The sky was too open, promised too much. The endless stretch of forest past the high stone walls hinted at too many possibilities. In the moment, she found herself truly believing in the idea of acceptance, of stepping into Ba Sing Se and not being greeted with iron eyes and hate. She fooled herself that she could walk into one of the villages she'd cajoled into her empire and not hear a hundred curses. Perhaps the Avatar had been right. Perhaps she could still make things right.
Korra waited in that harsh sunlight, as she promised she would. After so many years Kuvira should not have been surprised. The Avatar had rarely failed to deliver on a promise and, even in failure, had never failed to try her best. A flash of raven tumbles, described in such detail during Korra's visits as to make them identifiable without a face, stood at her side, the expression beneath them suggesting Asami Sato did not share Korra's forgiveness. Kuvira could not blame her. She'd killed the woman's father, after all.
Ms. Sato glared while the Avatar stepped forward, past the White Lotus guards lined to either side, and offered a genuine smile Kuvira's way. "How does it feel?"
"Hallucinogenic," Kuvira answered. "As if I do not recognize the colors around me. I don't suppose I've been imprisoned in the Spirit World all this time?"
Korra crossed her arms, familiar muscles rippling like taught cords from fingertip to shoulder. "Close enough. You've been gone a long time."
"Five years." Kuvira could hardly believe it; both how long she'd been gone, and how much longer her sentence could have been. "I will not know this world you've created."
"We've created," Korra corrected. "After all, you were the one who fired that weapon."
Ms. Sato seemed to especially bristle at those words. She seemed to take offense to the idea of Kuvira helping create anything great that her lover was responsible for. Lover. The word brought back memories of Baatar Beifong, the second, and from there the Beifongs as a whole. Kuvira had hoped at least one of them would be here today. The Avatar had promised to make the attempt. Kuvira could ask for no more.
"I'm sorry," Korra said. "Baatar wished to be here. Opal, too, surprisingly. Still not sure why. I would have let her if I wasn't worried she'd attack on sight."
That was enough. Kuvira allowed herself a slight smile. She raised her still cuffed hands. "What now? Do we transfer to another prison given a nicer name, but a prison nonetheless? I'm at your mercy, Avatar."
Korra rolled her eyes. "Really? After five years I'm still 'Avatar' to you?"
Kuvira snuck another glance at the dark-haired Ms. Sato. "I did not wish to presume a certain familiarity. I might cause offense."
A snort answered her. Korra signaled the White Lotus forward, two taking a hold of an arm each while the others lined ahead of and behind her. Korra stayed just ahead of her. Ms. Sato stepped in stride beside her. The Avatar's cheeks flushed when their hands intertwined.
Kuvira heard the airship past the gates. As the metal scraped open, surrounded to either side by stone, she felt the possibilities within them, the lure of power long unused. It would have been a simple thing to escape if she had ever slipped from her cage. The opportunities had been there. She'd dreamed of them, dreamed of the necklace a guard had worn while delivering her meal, dreamed of those first days when she'd been kept in a cage with metal lock and key. Such a simple thing.
Only Korra kept her complacent. Korra, and the redemption only possible through her. Above all else, isolation forced reflection upon one's successes and failures. There was nothing to do in her cell but think. Even when she danced, she thought. Memories flowed alongside her limbs, the years transitioning in synch with her bare feet over the smooth platinum. Despite the years spent pondering, she could never pinpoint the moment of transformation. A lifetime would likely never be enough. Eventually, she'd simply given up. Instead she focused on Korra's promises.
"I believe you know Asami," the Avatar said, a silly attempt to break the ice so central to her personality. The tension between her lover and Kuvira was a crumbling mountain over their heads, threatening to crush them all. Of course Korra would attempt to dispatch the boulders.
"Hello, Ms. Sato," Kuvira greeted amiably. The turned head and silence she received was better than she expected.
"Sami," Korra said.
Kuvira did not need to see Ms. Sato's glare to feel it's heat.
Earth Kingdom soldiers waited at the bottom of the ramp leading inside the airship. Their faces were too young and too innocent to have served under Kuvira, but she noted with a lingering pride the influence of her Empire upon the design of their uniforms. She climbed a ladder, walked a comfortably claustrophobic hallway, descended another ladder, turned right at an intersection, and waited as Korra opened a bulkhead. The White Lotus were gone and the Earth Kingdom soldiers had taken their posts elsewhere, leaving only the Avatar and Ms. Sato beside Kuvira. The metalbender followed past the open bulkhead and down yet another hallway, obviously a crew quarters. Kuvira wondered how many soldiers had sacrificed their bunks out of their superiors' fears she would poison them if stationed too close.
The room the Avatar led her to was expectedly small, with a narrow bunk shaped from the same metal as the wall, a with a single candle, and a waist-high shelf packed with books and newspapers. One newspaper sat atop the shelf with scraps of paper wedged between the sheets. Two distinct sets of handwriting had been inked upon the paper. Kuvira wondered how Korra had convinced her lover to help with the notes, or whether she even told her the purpose.
The Avatar sighed, turned, and placed balled fists upon her waist, an unnecessary attempt at intimidation. After the day she'd seen a God save her life, Kuvira could never be anything less than intimidated in Korra's presence. "It should only take a day to reach our destination. Do I really need to remind you to behave yourself?"
For the first time, Kuvira noticed the weariness in Korra's eyes. She thought of putting them to question until she remembered the woman waiting outside the room. "No."
"This is your chance, Kuvira. I put myself on the line here. I'm trusting that everything you've told me over the past five years is the truth and not some scheme you're been hatching. Don't betray my trust."
"I wouldn't dare, Avatar," Kuvira said. "I may be a lot of things, but stupid is not one of them."
Korra's broad shoulders relaxed. She struck Kuvira's shoulder half-heartedly with a fist, still strong enough to feel past the muscle, at the bone. "What did I just say about calling me Avatar?"
Kuvira smiled. "I wouldn't dare, Korra."
"Good."
Ever one thirsty to stay ahead of the rest of the world, Kuvira immediately grabbed for the newspapers in and atop the bookshelf when the door closed and locked behind Korra. She even managed to ignore the muffled voices tempting her to listen. The headlines she read were consistent with the tidbits fed to her during those sparse visits allowed to her this past decade. The Earth Kingdom's newly established system of delegates was firmly established by now, with "King" Wu retaining his throne mostly through name only. Firelord Izumi continued to defend her inaction during the Battle for Republic City, claiming she had mobilized her forces to move in the event the city had fallen. The Air Nation continued its expansion. There was little word of the Water Tribes, as ever. Kuvira had known them as an reclusive people, apart from Unalaq's madness.
Korra's personal notes cluttered the more interesting stories, her trademark intensity evident even in print. She seemed content only to comment on those stories involving the pacification of the remnants of Kuvira's army. Most of them had hidden away, still believing the war would continue upon Kuvira's return. Some continued the fight and were dealt with swiftly. Kuvira scanned for details she did not know. There were not many.
Besides those, Korra seemed to take pride in offering greater detail on those brief blips reporting the ever-constant traditions of the Southern Water Tribe she still considered her home. A lifetime in Republic City had not stolen her heritage from her. Festivals, important birthdays, resignations and elections, things that no one outside the culture found important enough to write more than a few hundred words about were expanded upon and explained. It brought a smile to Kuvira's face. She had lost her soul preserving her homeland. No one understood that type of pride better.
She had just begun to delve into an article about some new piece of Future Industries technology when the door to her room clanged violently open. Asami Sato stepped inside, flushed and fearless. Her jade eyes were afire.
"I need you to hear it directly from you," she said. "I trust Korra implicitly, and I do not doubt her, but that does not mean she cannot be wrong. So I need to hear it from you. Tell me you are not going to betray her. Tell me this is not some ploy."
Kuvira stared down the woman before her, thinking of those few interactions she'd had with Asami Sato back in Zaofu. She'd always been a confident woman, but also a woman hiding an uncertainty in herself and her life, masked beneath the mascara and blush upon her face. She'd also held a fear of benders despite her considerable talents in combat. That uncertainty and fear was gone now, vanished into the air like a screeching bird in mist. In its place was a polished platinum wall; unbreakable, unbendable, without weakness to exploit.
"There is nothing I can say that will convince you of my sincerity," Kuvira said. "Only actions will sway you, so that's what I intend to do."
"Say it anyway."
"Fine." Kuvira stood, and the woman before her did not flinch. "I will not betray Avatar Korra. I would not dare. More than anyone alive I know the power that woman possesses. I watched her stare down a weapon capable of leveling entire city blocks, a weapon of pure evil, and do so without hesitation. I watched her turn that evil into the purest good. I was there beside her when she displayed a power beyond comprehension."
"Ms. Sato, I would have to be a blind fool to again make myself the target of that type of power. And if I was that blind a fool, I would never have surrendered five years ago. I would have fought until she had no choice but to smear my remains across the spirit vines I had desecrated. That I am here now is proof enough in my own mind that I am no such fool."
Kuvira met the cold flame of those green eyes as they searched her own. "I will never forget that day," Ms. Sato said, with a tinge of sweet memory riding in her voice. "Make sure you do not either." With that, she turned sharp as a sword and left Kuvira to her prison.
The metalbender returned to the newspaper, soaking in the cold, but hopeful scratch upon paper accompanying an article about the reconstruction of Republic City.