Isolation was quite a different experience when one was not truly alone.
Kuvira had experienced many forms of isolation in her life. As an orphan wandering the slums of Ba Sing Se, she'd experiences the isolation of a child lost at sea, devoid of any direction besides the pursuit of food and shelter. As the adopted "daughter" of Suyin Beifong, she'd experienced the isolation of knowing she could never truly be one of her children. During her rise through the ranks to become captain of Zaofu's city guard, she'd experienced the isolation of superiority and the jealousy born of it. In the three years she'd spent building her Empire, the isolation of true leadership had been her closest friend. And of course, she'd experienced the truest isolation in her five years within her cell, in those long months with no human contact, the only voice to be heard her own.
All of these isolations were different from what Kuvira experienced now. Korra sat beside a fire, laughing and smiling with her lover. Kuvira had come to know the Avatar's laugh in her visits to the metalbender's prison. Those irreplaceable hours sharing tea and stories had changed her forever. To hear that laugh so close and know she was not welcome to share in its acceptance and understanding was a loneliness, a separation, that Kuvira could recall no comparison for. Korra would openly welcome her. Kuvira knew this. It was the woman beside her who made approach impossible.
Ms. Sato had warmed slightly in the weeks the three women had spent traveling the Earth Kingdom. She no longer regarded Kuvira with open distrust, instead content to hide it beneath polite smiles. Sometimes she would not fall back when Korra talked to the metalbender, and lately joined in their conversations. Her words were most often directed towards the Avatar, but not always.
And Korra herself was no fool. She understood the tension, the reason for its existence. It was the same tension sharp as a thousand knives in the eyes of every Earth Kingdom citizen they had come across during their travels, waiting to stab Kuvira back into non-existence. Many towns and villages still bore the damage inflicted on them by or because of her campaign. They spit stories of unruly bandits run amok without Kuvira's iron grip to contain them, of families lost or ruined.
"I thought today went well," Korra said, as if reading the metalbender's mind. "Better than the others, at least."
"It would be quite difficult not to do better than before," Kuvira mumbled.
That first village, long dead even when Kuvira first saw it and no better after the war, had been among the hardest steps she'd ever taken in her life. Loose shutters battered the windows of empty houses lining the street like a ghost town. A pig farm, still alive five years earlier, was now home to rows of graves. Many homes had collapsed, and even more were on the verge. Those few villagers who showed themselves spat Kuvira's way. One boy tossed a rock the size of his fist at her face.
Even when they left the next day, every waking hour spent repairing homes and situating those merchants who'd agreed to set up shop in the struggling town, nothing had changed. Kuvira was seen off with the same hatred which greeted her. She bore it stone-faced, as she bore everything. It would have done no good to linger on thoughts of their hate.
Korra laughed beside the fire, and Asami chuckled softly as well. "True. But still, at least I didn't have to make this town give you dinner. They might even have appreciated your help when we left."
Kuvira kept silent.
"Keep doing what you're doing," the Avatar continued. "You'll never get all of their love, but you're not doing this only to redeem yourself in the eyes of others. You're doing this to redeem yourself in your own eyes. The love of the people is secondary to your own spirit."
"This coming from a woman who used to want to fight the media every time she read the newspaper," Ms. Sato said with a roll of her bright green eyes.
"Hey! I don't do that anymore!"
"Oh really? What about that poor woman two months ago whose notepad you set on fire?"
Korra feigned innocence. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
The two lovers broke down into shared giggles and whispers, and once again Kuvira found herself in isolation. She felt the Avatar's eyes on her as she retreated to the small canvas tent containing her bedroll; rock tents were not allowed. The first night of their travels, Kuvira had only just bent shelter into place around her when Korra returned each side back into the earth.
She woke the next morning to find the Avatar still beside the fire, both as bright as they had been the previous night. They were sharing a modest breakfast of fruit and water when Ms. Sato woke to join them. As usual, they were packed and again traveling before the sun had fully escaped the horizon. All three women shared a desire to always be moving, always acting in some way. They knew no other way too live.
Kuvira sensed something different the moment they set foot in the sprawling town covering the banks where a large river forked in two separate directions. It wasn't the spirits roaming free in the azure sky; Kuvira had grown used to the sight of them. Everywhere else she'd been had felt walled off, the hostility in the air pressing in from all sides until the pressure threatened to cave in her chest. This town was different. This town felt…open.
A rumbling groan shook the ground beneath Kuvira's feet as she followed Korra across a bridge fording the span of one river. The Avatar and Ms. Sato both smiled brightly, smiles of recognition. A colossal sneeze preceded tufts of hay sent gusting out of a thin alley between two buildings. Korra sent Asami ahead and turned back to Kuvira.
"If this is Opal, it's probably best if you stay close to me," she said. It seemed just barely a joke.
Neither of the excited squeals Kuvira heard matched the one she often heard in Zaofu, watching a shy young non-bender with a fire within her thin frame tail her older siblings around. Korra held a hand to halt the metalbender when they reached the alley, and smiled when she saw who was there. She had not fully lowered her hand back to her side before a slim young woman with the tips of blue arrows peeking past at the edge of her hairline and the cuffs of her sleeves bowled into her arms.
"Korra!" the young airbender squealed. She somehow managed a graceful separation. "It's so great to see you."
"It's great to see you, too, Jinora," Korra said fondly. "And you, Kai."
Asami exited the alleyway with another young airbender at her side, this one just as slight as Jinora, even shorter, and with a poor attempt at a mustache above his upper lip. "Hi, Korra."
"Looks like Pepper's throwing a fit," Asami said to Korra, grinning.
"Probably because these two spoil him rotten," the Avatar said.
"Maybe a little," Jinora admitted.
Kuvira watched silently, keeping her distance, as the four tossed barbs at each other with the same friendly nature she used to pass liquid meteorite back and forth during her youth in Zaofu. She breathed deep, chasing the memories away.
Eventually, all four pairs of eyes turned her way. Kuvira ignored the naïve judgment in Kai's stare, focusing instead on the curiosity in Jinora's. Korra often spoke of the talented young master with a sisterly pride, sharing stories of the many deeds she accomplished as her father's right hand.
Jinora stepped towards Kuvira, straight of spine and calm as a placid lake. "You're most definitely different," she said to Kuvira. "I still remember that moment when you and Korra stepped out of the spirit portal. The air felt alive with an energy unlike anything I'd felt besides the Spirit World. All except around you. Around you was…nothing. Like you'd imprisoned your spirit long before."
"You're not far off." A bitter piece of Kuvira's mind, solid metal lodged too deep to remove, still believed she had been right, that anyone would have sacrificed the way she sacrificed to see their homeland made whole.
"But now it's back. Like it was a piece of a puzzle lost and found." The young airbender bowed her head sheepishly. "I…wasn't sure if you'd really changed. I thought Korra was wrong. Sorry."
Over Jinora's shoulder, Kuvira could see Kai's slanted eyes lose their tension and return to normal. She also noticed the smile on Korra's face, the way her eyes bragged when they glanced at Asami. "Apology accepted."
"So, Kai?" Korra said, gesturing towards Jinora. "Behaving yourself?"
The poor kid's face burned as deep a crimson as his gliding suit.
A four-level inn rose tall above its neighbors on the river bank. Kuvira followed towards the building, entirely unaware of the attempt by her four companions to inconspicuously surround her; Korra and Kai walked in front of her, a giggling Asami and Jinora behind. It was an unnecessary reminder of how little trust they truly felt towards the metalbender.
A busy common room broke off their conversations and swarmed once Korra was recognized. They just as quickly hushed when Kuvira entered, unmistakable with her hair again in the bun that had been her style for years. Along with the forest green of her clothes and the metal strips pinned to her shoulders, forearms, and thighs, her appearance was as close as it would get to that of the cold-hearted woman who'd conquered the Earth Kingdom six years prior.
The innkeep was a vaguely recognizable woman dressed in green. She eagerly provided five small cups and poured them full of tea from a kettle. "It is so wonderful to see you again," she said. Long, awkward moments passed before Kuvira realized the words were meant for her. "We still appreciate what you did for us."
Only when she was gone did Kuvira take note of the others occupying the inn. Every stare in the room was directed her way. Most looked away when her head turned their way, but not all. A few smiled and nodded. It felt like a cruel joke, and Kuvira found herself breathing deep to stay calm.
"I told you," Korra said, snapping Kuvira's attention back to the table. Jinora, Kai, and Asami had left to retrieve their meals from the innkeep. The bowls placed before them clearly did not require all three. "I may not like it, but not everyone hates what you did. Your methods were inexcusable, but you did bring peace to a nation tearing itself apart. Many are still grateful."
"I never mistrusted you when you said so before." Kuvira took another look around. Most had returned to their meals and conversations, though some still peeked her way. "It's just…nice to see. No one wants to remember how much of the Earth Kingdom willingly joined me. To be honest, I did not remember this town as one of them."
The others returned with their food. Only Kai did not have a bowl. "I already ate," he said, his voice low and somber. "I think I'll go check on Pepper."
Asami hardly waited for the boy to leave before leaning forward conspiratorially. "What is going on with you two?"
Jinora blushed. "I don't know. We just sometimes…I don't know! We just got back together and thing should be great. Today was horrible, though. He should be nicer to Pepper."
"Ah, teenage love," Asami teased, elbowing her fiancé.
"Stop it!" Jinora whined. "Not everyone can be so in love like you two. And I may have been a kid but I still remember you two and Mako."
Korra snorted, spraying bits of broth and meat from her mouth. "You got us there," she managed to choke out once she was done coughing and laughing."
Kuvira watched the three women talk and laugh, their smiles never leaving their faces. She remembered having similar conversations with Opal, and similar problems in her teenage love life. No one was immune to dumb teenage love, after all. And she had spent her fair share of nights listening to Opal's complaints, which were always followed by promises to never speak a word of it to "their" mother. She remembered the heartbreak on the young girl's face the day Kuvira left Zaofu, and the cold, open hatred on Opal's face three years later.
The acceptance in the eyes of the strangers surrounding her no longer mattered so much, and she again felt alone.
This chapter kind of got away from me length wise. I looked up and I was already hitting close to 2000. I liked the idea of Kuvira not being a pariah in the eyes of everyone in her former Empire, and I'm especially liking the idea of Kuvira and Opal having once been like sisters. After all, Opal is the only daughter of her family.