You know, you'd think that for someone so heavily experienced with the criminal world, both sides of it, paranoia wouldn't come easily.
That's the thought that occurs to me as I peek out the blinds of my apartment, searching the rows of windows across from me, the street below me, and the pedestrians walking across the sidewalks and streets that are hopefully ignorant of the half-crazed, sleep deprived woman staring at them from above.
As always, my eyes settle on the enclosed black Satomobile parked across the street, the same one that has been parked there for the last three days. It hasn't moved an inch since I first saw it. Sure, it could be a broken car that the owners were too lazy to repair. Or it could be watchers. Having been on the other side of a stakeout more than once, you could say I have a wealth of experience about the best ways to spy on people.
I shut the blinds, shaking my head and rubbing my eyes in exhaustion, striding over to my desk purposefully and slamming down the glass of tea mixed with hard liquor, staring at the words I have read time and time again, my vision shifting and throbbing.
I was set up. Why? For what purpose? By who? Am I wrong? Something isn't right.
I replay the scenes in my head as I have for the last few days, wracking my brain for every detail, yet the more I remember, the more things seem skewed and even fake. Is it confirmation bias? Is my instinctual, unwavering belief that everything is not as it seems tainting my memories of the past? Or is there really something going on?
I sigh in frustration, closing my notebook and hurling it away. My head slumps to the surface of my cluttered desk, and my eyelids droop closed.
I walk in the front door, stretching my arms and tugging at my school uniform in annoyance, the heat making the fabric of the uniform fit uncomfortably. I enter, seeing Lee taking his shoes off.
"Rai," he says, tiredly.
"What's wrong with you?" I ask, taking my own shoes off.
"Big test today. I'm just tired, that's all. Aren't you supposed to be at firebending training right now?"
I dump my satchel on the floor, pushing my younger brother's shoulder playfully.
"How can you think of exams and training right now? There's a big party at Chan's in an hour. I'd much rather-"
"-go to a party than train?" interjects a stern voice.
I stop cold, then turn slowly, meeting the harsh gaze of my mother with fear.
"Mom! Uh, I mean… no. I don't mean… what are you…. What?" I stammer.
My brother snorts derisively, slipping away into the house. My mother doesn't budge, grasping my hand and pulling me with her.
"Come with me, young lady. We need to talk."
I protest the entire way, squirming and cursing, until we reach the empty living room. A servant bows and leaves hurriedly as we enter, and my mother sits me down.
"Rai…"
"Mom, I was just joking. I swear. Instructor Nakata said that we were-"
"Don't. Just, don't, Rai. That's beneath you."
I huff a sigh of defeat, anticipating the lecture to come. My mother's eyes bore into me.
"Rai, do you remember the story of how you got your name?"
I roll my eyes.
"You tell it to me all the time, Mom," I say, settling on the route of vindictive pettiness.
My mother is silent for a while, then speaks again.
"Humor me. You were named for my older sister. Raia. Raia and I were born poor. We lived in the slums around the Capital City, begging for food and water, fighting with the other street children. But my sister and I, despite having no money, no parents, and nothing to our name, survived. Through all that time, Raia looked out for me. She thought nothing of herself; she went hungry for days at a time just to protect me. She taught me what firebending she knew, and when she left for the Army, it was like losing a sister and a parent."
"When I heard she had been killed in the Second Siege of Ba Sing Se, my life fell apart. Nothing seemed worth it. I almost… well."
She paused again.
"The point is, my sister thought nothing of herself. She gave up everything to make sure that I could have a good life. When Saemo and I had you, he wanted to name you Mai or something. But I could think of only one name; hers. You know why? Because I had faith in you. When you were born, I hoped you would become like my older sister. Strong. Selfless. Brave. And you are those things, but… you could be so much more, Rai."
I cross my arms, looking away.
"Honey, look at me."
I refuse for a minute, then reluctantly look at her. Her face is pleading, tired, and suddenly somewhat pale.
"You're a smart girl. You're only fifteen, and you have some of the highest marks in your class. Your teachers always say that you would be the best in the school if you didn't get into so much trouble. You have so much potential… I don't want you to waste it going to parties that won't matter in five years."
"So what's your point?" I ask, harshly.
"My point is… or rather, my question is… why? You have the gift of fire. You have the gift of intellect. Why throw that away?"
My first instinct is to lie, to insult, but something in her eyes brings out the truth.
"I'm… I'm not good at it, Mom. That's why. I'm not a good firebender. I can't even do half of the katas, and the others laugh at me."
My mom looks at me, then smiles softly.
"Rai, whether or not you're good at it doesn't matter. What matters is that you try. Even if you fail, over and over, you have to try. You'll get better at it, I promise. Look at Firelord Zuko. They say that when he was growing up, he was one of the worst benders in the history of the Royal Family. Yet now he's one of the greatest masters in the world. And his sister, the prodigy, went insane and disappeared. Effort is always more important than skill."
I pout, but the truth in her words are undeniable.
"How about this? I'll make you that mango juice you like so much, and then we'll go into the courtyard and I'll show you a few moves. You can show them to your father when he gets home next month."
My angrier side tells me to refuse, but I relent, and smile.
"Alright."
As I open my eyes, I see light filtering through my blinds and am seized by a sudden burst of inspiration and drive. I glance through the blinds, seeing the black Satomobile and a dark-coated man smoking a cigarette while leaning on it inconspicuously, and smile slightly, walking over to my phone and dialing a number in.
"Hello," I say, with trepidation.
The response is short, questioning.
"They're coming for me soon. I'm talking to a contact. You know what to do," I say.
The stammered response is cut off suddenly as I put the phone down. I grasp the coat hanging in my closet, buttoning it closed, looking around at my apartment for what might be the last time. Then, giving myself a mental push, I exit the dim apartment and enter the unknown.
I finally corner Tired Tepeu in an alleyway after following him for several blocks. As he withdraws a large cigarette full of a deep green plant-like substance, I clear my throat, making him jump. He stuffs the cigarette into his suit, his face pale.
"Spirits, Osada, you scared the-"
"Cut the crap, Tep. I need information."
"I mean, if you want to meet up tomorrow, or something, I can give you-"
I grasp his collar and slam him against the wall, a fiery dagger sprouting from my fist.
"We're friends, aren't we, Tep? Then don't make me put you to sleep once and for all. This case has been lie after lie since the beginning. You know something, and I want to know what."
"What the hell are you talkin' about, Osada? I told you everything I-"
I raise the jet of roaring flame and he whimpers.
"FINE! Fine! J-Just don't kill me, alright? Please?"
I stare at him with an angry expression.
"L-look a-alright? R-R-Red Car Ryu w-wasn't the first we heard about this-this S-sandbender, alright? About a week before, w-we got a pack of T-Terra Triad g-guys come over to H-HQ. I… I was muscle for that. They asked Z-Zolt if they wanted to get in o-on a revenge killing."
"Revenge for what?"
"O-One of their m-merchandise guys, back in the day, got k-killed by a copper. Some g-guy in the T-Terra Triad wants revenge, said they was gonna lure this copper out a-and take 'em out. I… I didn't think they was talkin' about you until-"
I let go of his collar, and Tepeu lands on his knees.
"I'm sorry, R-Rai. I swear. I-I-I just didn't want to make the b-boss angry, ya know? You know what they say about Lightning Bolt… he-he-he ain't merciful. I gotta protect my own skin, ya know?"
I walk away, grimly. So my instincts were right, for once. I should have known that the Terra Triad wouldn't let a grudge go that easily. My slaying of Yaza had been more than two years ago, but it seems that they hadn't taken well to the execution of one of their members, and had waited in the shadows for their chance to strike.
I hate being right.
I melt into the crowd, more alert now. I find myself staring at every black Satomobile that passes on the road, and searching the face of every pedestrian I brush past, looking for that glint of intent or determination; the burst of quick movement, the flash of a sword, or dagger.
When the attack does come, it's when I'm in sight of my house, funnily enough. It's not a painful attack- just a sudden prick of pain on my shoulder- followed by my muscles weakening. I slouch towards a wall, crying out weakly as my tongue swells and I collapse to the ground. Several civilians look at me in surprise, starting forward to help, but a man in a black coat kneels by me.
"Rai? Spirits. Why did you drink so much? I always tell you to stay away from that bar. C'mon. I'll take you home," he says, in a worried voice.
The pedestrians take this as a sign of public drunkenness and move on, but panic shoots through my quickly fading system; I have never seen this man before in my life, and dread sets in as the black Satomobile's door opens and I'm bundled into the back seat. The man in the black coat sits in the passenger seat and nods at the driver, before taking his hat off and looking at me with a crooked smile.
"A little sloppy, but it worked. And good timing too; you had just started figuring it out. I'll hand it to you, detective, you figured it out a lot quicker than I thought you would. Looks like time hasn't tempered your intuition."
I try to scream for help, but only manage a hoarse whisper, and my eyes droop closed again.
At least it wasn't from booze this time, I think to myself as exhaustion takes me in its warm embrace.
I come to in a cold, dark warehouse, tied to a rickety chair. The panic builds dully in the pit of my chest, and I look around, my neck sore and tired. Two burly thugs stand behind me, staring straight ahead, at an empty chair and a table with a pail of water on it.
"Hello?" I say, loudly, hoping someone will hear me.
The echoing sounds of footsteps resonate from the far end of the warehouse, and the man in the black coat approaches me, followed by a swankily dressed woman in a red suit. The man is tall, well-built, with jade eyes and darker skin. I try to struggle, but my arms don't quite respond, and my attempts at bending don't work. Panic seizes me then; did they somehow… take my bending? The thought is terrifying.
"Don't worry," the man says, as if he can read my mind.
"The Equalists are scum, but their use of chi blockers is quite handy. We have a couple on staff here. It'll come back in a couple of hours, but by then… well, it won't really matter."
The man nods to the woman, who stands outside of the circle of light illuminating my chair and the other that he promptly sits on.
"What am I doing here? What do you want?" I ask, angrily, wishing that looks could kill.
He smiles, crossing his legs.
"Fair questions. I'll introduce myself first. My name is Vinh."
I look at him in surprise. The reaction amuses him, and he chuckles.
"Yes. Your elusive and nonsensical quarry. It was a lot of fun, actually. Trying to come up with a twisty, mysterious case that was enigmatic enough to capture your attention but confusing enough to confuddle you. And I'll admit, you surprised us more than a few times. Your man in the Triple Threats was unexpected, as was your visit to Hwan. Those poor bastards… they had been told to expect you in a week; you came on their first day, when they actually had a job to do. And surprising Jasha at her apartment? Impressive. We had to change course more than once, and I'm not easily thrown off."
I snort derisively. I'm still terrified, of course, but putting on the air of being an arrogant dunderhead is nothing new in my career.
"Alright, so we're reenacting the plot of a bad novel. Now, if you're gutsy enough to let me out of the cuffs, let's end this once and for all, Vinh."
He laughs.
"Maybe so. You'll have to forgive my flights of drama. But before we get to any unpleasantness, I'd like to answer your last two questions. You're here because, as Tepeu told you, you killed one of our own two years ago. That's not something the Triad ever forgives or forgets. You had to have known that retribution was coming one way or another."
"As for what I want… well, this is personal for me. You know enough about our operations to know that a higher-up like myself doesn't normally get personally involved in the nitty gritty operations. You see… I came here a long time ago. Your friend Jasha didn't lie about that much; I'm a sander, born and raised. I came here- not with her, she's just a pawn- ten years ago with my brother."
He pauses again, as if to let his words sink in.
"My brother and I never had it easy, but we knew that Republic City was a melting pot. A place of opportunity for entrepreneurs like ourselves. So we came, and we joined the only business that was profitable then; criminal ones. I won't bore you with a long tale about rising through the ranks of the then-small Terra Triad, but needless to say we were living a good life."
I expect the next words that come out of his mouth, but they still strike fear into my heart as I sit there.
"Until my brother was killed by a detective during a drug bust. My brother and I… we were a team. Everything we did, we did together. He was the only family that mattered to me, and… well you hurt me that day. And what did the cops do? They didn't toss you in prison, no they just booted you to the corner and let you go on living your hateful, corrupt life."
"Corrupt?" I snap, angrily.
"Your brother kidnapped girls and overdosed them on drugs to use them for whatever screwed up purposes you people had in mind. I regret killing him without letting the courts do what they wanted to, but removing that scum from this earth was an improvement," I said, knowing that my provocation would not be unrewarded.
The red-suited woman moves in a single, fluid motion, and a thin tendril of water whips towards my face, ripping a tear in my cheek and causing pain to radiate all over my face. I cry out despite myself, and she draws back.
"You should know when you're done, Detective. From here, we'll torture you for as long as we can, then dump your body in the streets to show people that you can't kill a member of the Terra Triad without repercussions. I'd say it's just business, but…"
He looks at me cruelly, nodding towards the woman.
"... That'd be a lie."
The woman starts forward, and I tense up, anticipating what comes next.
I stoop over the railing of the liner, vomiting into the sea for the fifth or sixth time in the excruciating voyage. I heave for several minutes, before wiping my mouth with a handkerchief and tossing it into the sea with a groan.
My nausea quiets again, and I stagger back to the exterior seating of the ocean liner, sitting down with a grunt, and leaning against the wall, closing my eyes. The discomfort is almost enough to dull the biting pain that lingers on my face. I press my hand against the bandage there, and wince as pain from the stitches shock me.
I heave a sigh, leaning my elbows on my knees as I stare at the damp wood of the deck.
"Spirits. And I thought I had it bad," says a voice from beside me.
I look to my left. A handsome man sits next to me, and by the blue coat he wears, is Water Tribe. I smile heartlessly, and turn away, hoping he'll sense my aversion to, well, all people.
"Republic City?" he asks.
I nod.
"The city of dreams, they call it. Gotta be better than everywhere else."
Despite myself, I smile.
"Hope so."
The man smiles, leaning forward as well.
"Nothing like running away from your problems, right?"
"Solves everything," I say, sardonically.
There's a silent understanding there. An acknowledgment.
"I'm Taktuq. My fri-" he pauses, catching himself. "People call me Tak."
He offers his hand. My first instinct is to refuse to shake it. After all, why should I? After what I just went through? The last years had shown me the fallacy in taking solace in others. It only opened you up for pain.
I shake his hand, despite myself.
"Rai."
"Pleased to meet you, Rai. You want a drink?"
He withdraws a clear bottle from his rucksack, and I grin.
I awaken with a scream as frigid water splashes over my face, and I splutter water from my lungs, gasping and coughing onto the freezing concrete floor. This goes on for a while, until I'm hoisted back onto the chair by the two thugs, the waterbender smiling at me.
"Admirable, fire-rat, but you've got a ways to go."
Vinh nods, and the waterbender repeats the same process she has ten times already; in a single movement, she bends the water around my head, encasing it in a globe of undulating water. I hold my breath desperately, as long as I can in the shockingly cold liquid, but as it has multiple times before, after what seems like an eternity of agony, I open my mouth, and I suffocate was water rushes in. Then, it stops, and I cough again, tears falling from my eyes in despair.
"Beg," Vinh says.
"Go to hell," I spit.
This time, when the waterbending bitch repeats the process, I nearly pass out, and am shocked back to consciousness by another pail of water.
"Beg for your life and apologize for killing my brother. Maybe I'll consider letting you keep it."
Part of me screams at myself to take his offer, damn the consequences. Nothing is worth this pain, is it?
"Dunk your head in the sea."
Vinh shakes his head, and sits across from me as I cough violently and shiver with the cold and the nerves.
"I admire you, Osada. I do. I hate you, of course, but that doesn't mean I don't respect you. You're sticking to your morals- even if that means you'll die a slow, painful death because of it. You have to understand, though. You killed my brother. You disrespected me, and the Triad. How would we look if we let something like that slide? No, Yue Bay is filled with people like you who thought they could flaunt the rules in this city and get away with it."
He smiles, as if remembering a long-lost memory.
"It's like my ancestors in the North said; we all return to the water, sooner or later."
Rage builds inside of me, and steam rises from me as my anger does.
"The Triads aren't in control of this city. Not yet. You bully, you threaten, you cajole, and you kill, but you just can't suppress the spirit of this place, can you? Its people will never stop fighting, not as long as you harm innocent people. You and the other clans like to say that you're making this city better, giving people jobs, creating a sense of community, but you're really dividing us more than ever before. You're just greedy, selfish criminals."
I cough again, and can see blurry red splotches on my lap.
"I'm not proud of everything I've done in my life. Killing your brother isn't one of those things. What he did… even someone like you must see that what he did was evil."
Vinh shakes his head, nodding at the waterbender again. I brace myself, knowing that I probably won't survive much longer. Maybe it's for the best; I'm so tired… maybe it's time to rest.
I close my eyes, feeling… at peace. I regret a lot, of course; not seeing my brother again, not acting on my feelings towards certain people… so much was squandered in my life. If I had another chance-
The sound of breaking glass shatters the silence, and my eyes fly open. The dark warehouse is illuminated by several spotlights flooding the area with blinding light. Gray figures swing in through ropes, enveloping guards with the cords while the front doors burst open, allowing a swarm of gray-clothed figures to enter.
"No!" Vinh shouts, as he bends a chunk of the concrete towards the approaching figures. I close my eyes again, opening them again, and watch the battle end as quickly as it began.
The metalbending police officers are still as effective as ever, and I can see five thugs in cuffs. Three officers encase the waterbender in an earthen cone as a very familiar woman presses her foot into Vinh's back, fastening cuffs onto his wrists.
I shake my head, trying to dispel the fuzzy feeling, and can dimly feel arms holding me gently, and the metal shackles sliding off my wrists. I collapse off the chair, slumping into a pair of warm arms.
"You're okay, Rai. Take it easy," says a familiar voice.
My vision shifts again, and I smile dimly at Tak as he looks down at me.
"So you got my message?"
He nods.
"Scared the hell out of me, Rai, but yeah. I've got your back."
"Good," I mutter.
I turn my head as Chief Beifong hoists Vinh off of the ground. The man curses the entire time, swearing vengeance and retribution at the stony-faced police chief.
"I don't know how you were under our radar this whole time, punk, but you're sure as hell on it now. Take him downtown, men."
"Damn you all. Damn you all to the deepest pit of nightmare. I curse you."
He's dragged by me, and I sit up, still unsure of whether any of this is real. The anger I feel, though, is enough to make me not care.
"Vinh."
The bedraggled man glares at me with a murderous look.
"If you or any of your people come after me again, I'm going to kill you. That's a promise."
He snarls in rage, struggling against the grips of the officers as they drag him out. Beifong walks by, looking at me with something resembling a bemused expression.
"You okay, Osada?"
"Not really, ma'am," I groan, the pain flaring up again.
"Well, in any case; you did the right thing. Don't get into any more trouble."
She walks away, I lean back into Tak's lap, closing my eyes as tiredness grips me more than the pain.
"You okay, Rai?" Tak asks, concerned.
"More or less," I murmur.
"I just want to go home."
Tak smiles, and lifts me up.
"Then let's go home, shall we?"
Sorry for the super long wait, guys: I've been working on finishing the first draft of my novel, but now that I've completed that goal, I'm back! Republic City Noire will continue with our next case: The Cult of the Flower. Watch this space!
And as always, I'm happy to hear your feedback. Hope you enjoyed!