Thanks, Irako, ender-jones86! (Very late... sorry...)
You know, Irako, I like the idea of bender criminals being made to use their talents toward community service, repair some of the damage they've caused. Earthbenders making lots and lots of little, little bricks, Waterbenders getting put on snow removal duty (especially this time of year around here-geez), Firebenders stuck stoking the boilers at power plants, Airbenders-hm. Airbenders getting cashiered by Tenzin, for one. But yeah. I like the idea. And you're right-we haven't seen too many bender specialists. That part only makes sense, especially as the technology in the Avatar world advances. I could see diamond-benders being very useful, for one thing.
This next story is one I had the idea for back at the end of Season 1 (in case you couldn't tell), but I couldn't find the parts to stick the whole story together until recently; it figures that it took me so long to do that that my story wound up getting finished after the series did. But there it is. I'm glad I got the thing done, at least.
I wish that Mike & Bryan had explored this part of their story and not simply moved on to Season 2 without addressing this part of Season 1's issues; we do get a little, little taste of it when we see a certain someone reunited with their daughter at the end of the series, but... I really wished for more. I suppose if there's one advantage to Mike & Bryan's approach, they've left lots of little "historical" tidbits for us fanfic-writing sorts to ponder and explore ourselves. I hope to do some more of that in the future.
This one will be part of a series; I'll be bringing out a part of it every Friday until the series is complete. I hope you like it. I'm very interested in what you think about it, in particular where I get things wrong so I can remember that for next time. Thanks again for reading, as always.
Bonds IV: In Plain Sight
On the outside, it looked as if Republic City was recovering well from the Equalist war. All the rubble and wreckage had been cleared from the streets and the harbor, and buildings damaged in the fighting were either under repair or already fixed. Traffic, both Satomobiles in the streets and ships in the harbor, was near what it was before the war. The massive Equalist mask that had been hung on the statue of Avatar Aang in the bay had been dragged away and demolished. All the signs that there had been a war in Republic City were rapidly disappearing. Things looked normal again.
There were a lot of people in Republic City that preferred it that way.
"So all told, our trade levels are at their highest level since the end of the war," said the Northern Water Tribe Councilwoman, smiling at the others in the Republic City Council Chamber. "Excellent."
Lin Bei Fong, sitting on one of the front benches in the Chamber, found it all she could do to keep her mouth shut.
"Good," said the Southern Water Tribe Councilman amid appreciative murmurs. "Another step closer to normal."
None of those happy sounds came from Tenzin. He cleared his throat. "In the spirit of the desire to return things to normal, I wanted to know what you thought of my repatriation plan."
That brought a confused quiet to the Council chamber. "Re…patriation plan?" asked the Fire Councilwoman.
"Yes," said Tenzin. "A week ago I sent you all a copy of the plan as I currently have it. I think you've now had sufficient time to look at it and tell me what you think." He held out his hand to the side. "Of course, 'repatriation' may not be the best word to describe it, as no one will be entering or leaving the Republic, but—"
"What… exactly is this plan?" asked the Northern Water Tribe Councilwoman.
Tenzin raised an eyebrow. "So you haven't read it, then."
"No. I think I know where it is in my office, but I haven't read it yet."
Lin had a vision of Tenzin's plan being under a potted plant in the Councilwoman's office. Lin had her reservations about the plan, but at least she had taken the time to read it.
The look on Tenzin's face said he was thinking the same thing. After a brief moment of reaction, he visibly made himself more cordial. "The plan simply is to evaluate the prisoners within our jurisdiction and set up a process by which some of them, if they continue to exhibit good behavior, can obtain an early release from prison."
That was met with silence.
The Northern Water Tribe Councilwoman gathered herself. "So that I fully understand the intent of your plan, Councilman Tenzin… are you talking about letting the Equalists go?!"
"Only some of them, Councilwoman," said Tenzin. "And only the ones that have shown they are ready to return to society. I am not talking about letting the entire—"
"But all the same, you are talking about letting some of them go!" The Water Tribe Councilwoman turned slightly red. "These are not people who can simply pay their debt to society and walk away! They fought a war against us!"
"Every war must end, Councilwoman! And this war ended months ago! If we are going to speak of normalcy, it is not just a matter of trade! We have to talk about healing the rift between benders and nonbenders! They're just as much citizens of Republic City as we are!"
"They forfeited that when they took up arms against us!" said the Fire Councilwoman. "Not to mention kidnapping us! And everything else!"
"They are prisoners of war and should stay prisoners!" the Earth Councilman barked. "Just like your father and Fire Lord Zuko did at the end of the Great War!"
"That is not true, Councilman!" Now Tenzin was turning red. "My father did not imprison entire armies of Fire Nation soldiers! That wasn't even possible! Only the worst offenders were thrown in jail, the rest were let go!" He turned to the Fire Councilwoman. "And if we do not want to repeat the past and start a whole new war in Republic City, then we had better do something about the people we have jailed!"
"Even if we could, Tenzin," said the Southern Water Tribe Councilman, somewhat placatingly, "just how would we go about it? How could you know that the people you release aren't going to start up where they left off?"
"I agree, it won't be an easy process," said Tenzin, glad for the chance to explain rather than defend, "but my plan does deal with those specifics. I agree, we would have to see. We would need proof that they wouldn't turn against us again. At the same time, there are hundreds of people from the Dragon Flats district in jail right now whose only crime was to come out into the street the night power was cut to their district. They were accused of being Equalists and convicted on the spot by one man—Tarrlok. What kind of justice is that?"
"But how would you get that proof?" said the Fire Councilwoman, heavily skeptical. "They could promise you anything to your face, and then the moment you turn your back, poof! They're Equalists again!"
"Their leader has been unmasked and discredited. Amon himself was a bender. All of Republic City now knows it! Now is the time to try and make peace with the rest of the Equalists." Tenzin spread his hands. "If we don't offer the Equalists and their supporters some way to come back and join us, they will find some way of coming back and attacking us. Their cause is still unaddressed. It is a bleeding sore on the City itself. We must find some way of dealing with it!"
"Their leader is still unaccounted for," said the Northern Water Tribe Councilwoman. "Discredited or not, he could still come back to lead the Equalists. And I think we have found some way of dealing with it—and that way is leaving them in prison, where they belong!"
"But—"
There were enough murmurs from the others to tell Tenzin that his efforts weren't going anywhere… today, at least.
Lin looked away from the Council, disappointed. Again.
o o o
Lin took a walk down by the harbor to clear her head. The harbor certainly was busier than it had been a few months ago, during the crisis. Spices, lumber, and ores from the Earth Kingdom, machines and metalware from the Fire Nation, oil-fats, furs, and preserved seafood from the Water Tribes… trade continued. The almighty yuan was still exerting its pull. Business was business.
She still had to chuckle looking out at the harbor now, compared with how it had been before, full of Hiroshi Sato's mines. Avatar Korra had taken care of clearing the mines personally. So overjoyed she had been at getting her bending back and so angry at having been duped again and again by Amon, slamming explosives together out in the harbor had been visibly therapeutic. Lin wished that she could have done it, too, Korra was having so much angry fun, but alas, Lin wasn't a Waterbender.
Lin had been present at the City Council meeting to give her weekly police report on the state of the City. Crime was lower across the board compared with a few months ago, but then again, many of the bending crime triads, the Triple-Threats, the Red Monsoons, the Agni Kais, and others, were all but completely knocked out of action by—who else?—the Equalists. (Not that she really liked the gangsters, but having had her own essence messed with by Amon, she could sympathize.)
After the war, too, people tended to go out, do their business, and go home—and hunker down until they had to do it again. Distrust hung and stank in the air; you stuck with who you knew, and you made it clear you didn't want to be messed with. If people got together at all, they did so in highly visible, highly protected places. Criminals that operated there were either bold… or discreet. Still, the numbers and facts Lin had to report to the Council at present were definitely a case where they didn't tell the whole truth. Not surprisingly, most of the Council preferred those particular facts and figures.
Pro-Bending announcer and one-time newsman Shin Shinobi was still working his contacts, as Lin had asked him to do, but so far none of them had been willing to come forward and talk to her. That was understandable; Shinobi's contacts had no reason to trust her. For all they knew, she might try to lock them up. She had tried looking around herself with what time she had, but no one had spoken up. No one had been willing to say anything about the Equalists.
Across the water, construction blimps were hovering over the Pro-Bending Arena, delivering glass plates and steel girders to rebuild the roof. Lin remembered when the Arena was first being built—and the distaste she had felt that bending could be reduced to just a sport, even given the hand that her dear mother had had in the sport's creation in the first place. She also remembered the pride she had felt, though, how in a way it was a symbol of everything that Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko had worked for that had now come to pass. Benders of all nations now came to compete, not just Water against Fire or Fire against Earth, but as teams… teams of all the nations. Water fought with Fire and Earth on each side.
Lin's expression grew lighter. Actually, she thought, that young blockhead Bolin came closer than he knew when he talked about benders bashing away at each other "in peace".
Then she grew sad again. Who knew that that new unity would come to create a brand new rift… one that separated bender from non-bender?
Maybe the Equalist mask had been taken down from the face of Avatar Aang's statue in the harbor… but the Pro-Bending Arena, repaired or no, was still Amon's symbol of a divided Republic City.
Lin sighed. To think we have several hundred of our own people locked away in prison because one of 'us' accused them of being Equalists, and they might very well become Equalists if we leave them where they are—and with every right to do just that!
She shook her head. And we still don't know who the Equalists were or all the reasons why they wanted to fight us. Even after all this time. And without knowing that, how can we reach out to them?
We still don't know w—
Lin looked up.
The prison.
Hundreds of suspected "Equalists".
We don't know why.
Lin growled at herself.
Well, if you don't know why, then who do you ask, blockhead?
o o o
In one of the interrogation rooms at the Republic City prison, a middle-aged man sat at the table. He was slumped in the chair; his head rested on his chest, and his hands were loose in his lap, doing nothing. A teapot and two cups were on the table. A thread of steam came from the teapot, but the man hadn't touched any of it.
Lin came into the room and closed the wooden door behind her. "Good afternoon…" she said in a cordial, business-like voice.
The man stirred. "Is it? I've lost track of time in here."
"Do you know why you're here?"
"No." The man returned to his slump. "No, I don't."
Lin looked at her clipboard. "It says here that you were arrested the night of the riot in the Dragon Flats District—"
"That's a lie." One eye glowered at her.
"What's a lie?" Lin looked at him. "You're here—clearly you were arrested."
"It's a lie there was a riot in the Dragon Flats District that night." The man slowly sat upright. "I came out of my house because somebody cut off the power. I was trying to find out what was going on, like everybody else was. Then your police came and accused everyone of being Equalists—arrested all of us."
Lin looked at him evenly. "I didn't accuse you of being anything," she said, slight annoyance in her voice. "You're the one who's in here—you tell me what happened."
"That's what happened! Exactly what I told you!" Anger flooded his face. "I'm no more an Equalist than you are! But for what I went through, I might as well be!"
"What happened?"
"Are you kidding me?" The man's face was a study in disbelief. "Summary justice? Accused and arrested on the spot? I didn't do anything, and this is what I get? My family at home, wondering what happened, and I get strung up by a bunch of benders? For doing nothing? And even before that, laws saying I can't go out after dark. Why? Because I'm not a bender. Police combing our neighborhood day and night. Why? Because we're not benders. People asking all sort of questions the moment they find out you're not a bender. Why? I don't know—you tell me! My family and I were living here in Republic City before this whole Equalist business got started, loyal as the day is long, and this is what we get?" The man glared at her and stab-pointed at the wall for emphasis. "There's no proof that I—was doing anything, except that I—was out there when the police came! So I—get arrested! For doing what? Tell me, Chief, for doing what?!"
Lin quietly sat down at the table; she kept her voice quiet. "What would you change?"
"What would I change?" The man looked at her, even more incredulous. "Pfah! What would I change? I'm in here, arrested for nothing by a bunch of benders, and you ask me what I would change? How about getting out of here, for one thing? Huh? What do you think I would change? My word means nothing to you! Why? Because I'm not a bender! I can't get a job in a lot of places! Why? 'Cause I'm not a bender! You can't make me a bender!" He laughed. "What do you think I want changed?"
Lin had had a feeling that things would be getting loud; she was glad she had ordered everyone she could out of earshot. "There are some things I want to tell you."
The man leaned back in the chair. "Yeah, sure, go ahead!" He draped an arm over the back. "Fine lot of good it'll do me!"
"First… I was not in charge when Tarrlok had you arrested." The man looked away, dismissive. "I know that's a flimsy excuse, but I wasn't behind the mass arrests. Had I been in charge, that wouldn't have happened."
"Yeah, sure that wouldn't've."
"Second… I can't offer you anything right now for working with me—"
"Then why are you doing this? This is pointless!"
"—but I am working to get you and your fellow citizens home. I don't like this any more than you do."
"What?" The man looked at her in disbelief, then laughed. "How?"
Lin shook her head, much as she wanted to do otherwise. "I can't tell you."
Another laugh. "Oh, of course, you can't tell me. Some big, secret plan that doesn't exist." He went on chuckling, and Lin went on just looking at him.
Which he noticed. He stopped laughing. Lin met his look with an even stare.
The man didn't break off his own stare, still not believing what he heard… and Lin, during the silence, hoped that her reputation of being tough but fair and above else not a liar was still held to be true.
Apparently it did; the man sat down normally again and put his hands on the table. "All right—why not. It's not like I can do anything anyway. Just what do you want?"
Lin relaxed slightly. "I… am a bender. I can't help being that. I don't know what it's like to live as a non-bender, here in Republic City. I want to know what you don't like and what you would change, if you had the chance."
The man thought about it for a moment, then threw up his hands. "All right. Why not?" The man nodded. "You really want the straight dope? You're gonna get it."
o o o
Unfortunately, not every interview went like that. A good number of the inmates sat there in terrified silence, afraid to say anything to the fearsome Chief of Police. Others simply sat there and glared at her. That was unfortunate; their input would have been enlightening.
Some of them, though, did warm to the tea that Lin offered them, as she had hoped, and some of them did talk. What she heard, and tried to be dispassionate about in their presence, were tales that had little to do with the harmony that Avatar Aang had sought. The Equalists had been a symptom of a problem that had gone on for far too long… possibly even to the end of Aang's time. A lot could happen in seventeen years.
There was one more prisoner that Lin wanted to interview. She didn't think of interviewing him until she was almost done with the others, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. It would be very well worth the time to interview him.
If he would cooperate.