"Did you hear about Kun?"

"Terrible, isn't it? He's a mess. Hasn't left his room since he got the news."

"Damn bandits are everywhere these days. Last week they weren't too far from my village."

"They got his girl, too, you know."

"Spirits. I don't know what I would've done if..."

A short screech of metal sliding against marble filled the room, and it was suddenly very quiet. The guards of Zaofu abandoned their gossip and laughter and food to observe their captain warily as she stalked across the mess hall like a storm. Kuvira felt their eyes on her. She did not care. For now, she was simply grateful for their silence.

Of course, it wasn't their fault for talking about the horrors washing over the Earth Kingdom. It was still their country, even if Zaofu itself seemed like an untouchable bubble of paradise, and many of them had family there. Besides, the whole world was talking about it. It was impossible to miss or to ignore, and her refusing to listen would not make it go away. But there had simply been too much bad news lately—it was in the papers, the radio, even in the uneasy whispers of the residents of their little utopia. The air was thick with it, and it was driving her insane, because she could do absolutely nothing about it. Suyin had made that clear.

Kuvira scowled at nothing. She decimated a completely innocent punching bag, sparred so ferociously with a hapless recruit that he would feel it for the rest of the week, and left several targets with ragged edges of torn metal where their heads should have been. None of this provided her with any considerable measure of relief, and she took her brooding with her to her post in the watchtower that night. She thought of the litany of towns that had been sacked, of the mayhem within the walls of the once great Ba Sing Se, of the grief in Kun's face, and the stars seemed infuriatingly calm and bright, so distant and uncaring for the troubles of the world. She sighed.

For a moment, she wanted nothing more than to be a child again, safe in Suyin's soothing embrace. Things had been simple then. There had been no desperate pleas for help, no chaos, no cutthroats gutting the cities and little farming villages of their rapidly crumbling nation and leaving spatters of red on the earth wherever they went. There had been only the strong walls of Zaofu and Suyin's warm smile, and she had been at peace and entirely content. She had, of course, never fooled herself into thinking that the world was perfect; how could she, when she had seen firsthand just how cruel it could be? No, the world was not kind—but it was hopeful, at least, full of heroes who raged and fought against its cruelty and injustice, heroes like Suyin and the United Forces and the Avatar, and that was more than enough. Or so she had thought.

But she was not a child anymore, and those heroes had fallen.

The Avatar had failed. She had been weak, and her weakness had left the Earth Kingdom in tatters. They had even rescued her, and then she had slunk off to hide at the edge of the world, broken and useless. The United Republic, for all its power, would not come to their aid. Never mind that they lived on what was rightfully Earth Kingdom land, or even that the very purpose of their existence was to maintain order and protect the innocent. No, for all that, this struggle was not theirs, and they would not lift a finger in assistance, although they were perfectly happy to beg and plead with Suyin to do the work for them, because of course they simply could not bear to witness such a terrible tragedy.

She might have been able to endure those disappointments. They disgusted and pained her, but she could have endured them. She could have accepted that from the world she knew was full of selfish, conniving people who were only good when it would save their own necks or even their petty profits. She could not accept it from Suyin. Suyin who was good and kind and strong. Suyin who had taken her in when no one else cared. Suyin who had fed her and clothed her and told her that she was destined for great things. Suyin whom she loved...

She did not allow herself to finish the thought. It was too much. Even after what Suyin had said, she could not reconcile the image of the woman to whom she owed her life and everything she was with the one who had been so willing to abandon the entire Earth Kingdom and all of its people. It simply did not make sense. There had to be some sort of misunderstanding.

Her feet, unbidden, began to carry her away from her post. The guards she passed in the halls eyed her questioningly, but knew better than to stop her, and said nothing. The clicking of her boots was the only sound in the still night, and it made lonely echoes against the walls until she stopped in front of the elegant doors to Suyin's study. Perhaps she should not have come. In truth, she was more than a little afraid. But she could bear it no longer.

She braced herself and opened the door.

The matriarch of the Metal Clan looked up from her papers in surprise. "Kuvira? Is there something wrong?"

"I need to speak with you," she said, as steadily as she could. "Urgently."

"What is it?" An edge of alarm had crept into her voice. Ever since Aiwei's betrayal, Zaofu was no longer the invulnerable stronghold it had once been in Su's eyes, and she had grown rather nervous. The upheaval in the rest of the Earth Kingdom certainly offered her no comfort.

"I...first, I must apologize for speaking out of turn a few days ago in front of your guests. It was not my place. I'm sorry."

"Oh, is that all?" Suyin practically melted with relief, her shoulders dropping and a beatific smile stretching across her tired features. "It's alright. I'm sorry as well. I should have answered you more kindly. You were only trying to do what you thought was right."

"I should not have spoken out in front of others. But I meant what I said. Our country needs you, Suyin. It needs you desperately—"

Suyin's smile disappeared as quickly as it had come.

"Kuvira," she said slowly, but Kuvira had held in her words too long, and the torrent could not be stopped. She was no longer the stoic Captain she had trained herself so carefully to be. She was the frightened little girl Suyin had first taken in so many years ago, raging blindly against the world.

"You must know what's happening. Chaos in the cities, bandits terrorizing the countryside. You know Kun, that Lieutenant we recruited in the south? His village was raided three days ago. They burned it to the ground. They killed his fiancee."

"Kuvira—"

"And it's not the only one! It wasn't the first and it won't be the last. People are dying and they're going to keep dying. The monarchy can't do anything, the Avatar can't do anything, the United Forces won't do anything—but you can. We have the power to help, and you have the influence. Please, Suyin."

"Kuvira! I've said it before and I'll say it again: what do you think will happen if I march an army across the Kingdom and storm the palace? Do you think people will bow their heads and meekly let us pass? We'll be nothing more than tyrants to them, conquerors taking advantage of the chaos for our own gain. They will fight us, and they'll have every right to."

"We'll fight back!"

"Then we will be tyrants, forcing our ideals on them."

"If not you, someone else will. Someone worse. At least we can restore some semblance of order. At least we can do something besides just waiting for our country to crumble."

"My decision is final. I do not want to hear of this again."

Kuvira was shaking now. Her throat hurt. Her eyes stung.

"The Suyin who raised me would never abandon someone who needed her," she spat.

The anger drained from Suyin's eyes. Instead there was a pained sort of tenderness there.

"I'm not your enemy, Kuvira," she said softly. "I'm not against you. Your heart is in the right place. I know that. I'm proud of it. But this time, you're wrong. Please try to understand."

Suyin placed a gentle hand on her face. The gesture was so familiar and so full of comfort that it stung like a slap. How many times over the years had it made her feel like everything was right with the world, like she could face anything? How many times had she drawn strength and hope from Suyin's words, accepting them like they were a decree fallen straight from the heavens? Part of her wanted very badly to do that now, to surrender herself and feel safe and right in that familiar shadow.

But she could not, even if she wanted to. She looked into the tired lines of Suyin's face and saw not the hero she had always seen but a coward. Somehow she had known how this would end, even though she had refused to acknowledge it. That was why she had been afraid, why she had held her tongue as long as she did. The last of her idols had fallen and shattered like glass, and it had left an empty space she knew would never be filled again. It made her feel hollow and sad and old. She knew, now, what she had to do, knew what she would have to give up and how much it would ache.

But for now she allowed Suyin to wrap her in one last, motherly embrace, and she hugged back with all her might.

"I'm sorry," she said.

It was not a lie.

.

.

.

A/N: Kuvira is my favorite LoK villain. I thought she deserved a little more nuance, though. I hated how they only really tried to make her more sympathetic by pulling the orphan card at the last episode.

I intend to continue this throughout Book 4 and maybe beyond.