174 AG

Kai and Opal had been flying for a few days straight and exhaustion was settling tightly in their bones. Taking the knowledge of camps together with the fact that Kuvira had finally conquered the Earth Kingdom officially meant that there was no time they could waste. They hadn't heard of any attempts of retaliation by other nations but the leaders didn't know what Kuvira was doing, what she was capable of.

If Kuvira was imprisoning her own people she was a threat to everyone else. She'd nearly convinced Opal otherwise and the airbender was increasingly finding that she couldn't trust herself around Kuvira. The woman easily threw off Opal's understanding of reality; she tried her best to be objective around her but there was too much history there and trying to distrust Kuvira made Opal sound like she hated her. She couldn't find neutrality.

Kai hadn't been her partner two years ago when Kuvira had been appointed the president of the Earth Kingdom. Back then, she and Jinora had worked together; Opal felt like it had been a babysitting gig for Tenzin's benefit even though it was completely unnecessary. Opal had still been a little unsteady with her bending but it came to her easier than anything else ever had, especially under the tutelage of the airbending master she fought alongside with.

Together, she and Jinora both did their best to fill the recently vacated role of the Avatar and try to bring balance to the world. Bolin had set out to do the same in the Earth Kingdom army and he quickly rose through the ranks. He didn't think it was relevant, and it probably wasn't, to mention that Kuvira was the one who had spotted him and promoted him to his position. While Opal didn't like soldiers she was happy for him; he told her he had really found his calling and she'd been proud.

When Opal first heard rumours about the army's treatment of those who opposed them, she didn't know that Kuvira was at the forefront. If she had she might've formed her views differently but she didn't. With new victories being won by the month, and Kuvira's face on posters and in papers, Opal soon learned who their leader was. But before that, all Opal Beifong knew was the primary purpose of armies.

From studying books upon books since she was a child, and having been indoctrinated with her mother's own distaste for police and military personnel, she knew an army's purpose was to invade and kill before it was to aid and protect. When she found out that the Interim President was on the frontlines, her title of "Great Uniter" spoken with reverence, Opal felt chills and for the first time ever, doubt.

Opal couldn't stop herself from overhearing gossip and the gossip didn't stop either. Even in the towns that had called out for Kuvira in the beginning, one could hear whispers of the ways her army dealt with people who refused to deal with her. Opal didn't believe the rumours at first, she'd known the Great Uniter after all, but the rumours didn't abate the way rumours always did.

With the clear views her family held, Baatar Jr. aside, Opal had no reason not to doubt Kuvira. She didn't want to, and the few times she'd run into her brother and Kuvira the doubts would evaporate and she'd feel relieved. However, Opal could not ignore the way the world was changing, the way Kuvira was changing, the way her eyes got sharper and her face grew harder each time Opal saw her.

When Kuvira had found Opal in Yi and put her hand on her shoulder she'd lured her into complacency so swiftly, just like she lured everybody. Kuvira would try to play nice but if it failed she would bully people into doing what she wanted. Opal knew this for a fact now but back in the beginning she'd only had a feeling, a sick, sinking feeling, that Kuvira had changed.

After a year of being Jinora's partner, the girl had gone back to the Air Temple to be with her family and oversee new airbenders and Kai had been assigned to be Opal's new partner. Kai was quiet now, at the reigns of his bison. She sat up near the head with him, reading a book. They were both the kind of person that was comfortable with silence.

The book she was trying to read had been given to her by a villager they'd helped awhile back. There was no real room to pack books on Lefty and she'd finished all the ones she'd brought with her so she'd been savouring this one. However, at this moment, thinking was proving to be painful so she'd given up saving the novel and had started reading it again.

"Hey, Opal," Kai spoke up. She looked away from her book immediately. She was jumpy, and hadn't really been reading attentively anyway.

"What is it?" she asked. She put down the novel and waited for him to speak. He just looked at the horizon, considering his words, and she combed her hair through Lefty's fur and looked down at the patchwork fields beneath them.

"How are you and Bolin?" he asked after awhile. Opal said nothing. "It's just, it kind of looks like you guys fought. Badly."

"I guess we did," Opal said. Honestly, it was the last thing on her mind at that moment. And Kai knew that, of course he did, he was trying to distract her. She wished he could distract her with more pleasant things but that obviously wouldn't work. Her relationship with Bolin wasn't a life or death situation. It felt almost, safe, to think about them as opposed to the camps she'd seen. It was something a normal person would think about.

"I was just angry that he didn't believe me when I said he shouldn't trust her," she shrugged. "I know we haven't been around each other for awhile, and I know he really thinks he's doing a good thing, but he isn't. Kuvira isn't trustworthy, but she's very good at making you want to trust her." She swallowed her disappointment and anger and looked back to the land below them.

"Is that why you're so mad at her?" Kai asked. Opal was silent for awhile. She watched the clouds pass by beneath them. They'd slept on the ground last night, Lefty had needed it desperately, but Opal hadn't been able to sleep. Her whole sleeping schedule had crashed and burned so she'd stayed up all night, heart beating against her ribs, screaming at her for trying to sleep when innocent people were being put into camps. She was exhausted and could hardly think.

"How do you and Jinora do it," she asked Kai. "How do you trust each other?" She was cold up here, and she had a little headache, and talking to Kai was making her feel more lonely and lost then his silence had. "It's been three years. Sometimes I feel like I can't trust Bolin to make the right decisions because he can't or won't see the whole picture, and he doesn't trust what I have to say about Kuvira either."

Kai puffed out a sigh. "Well, for one," he said. "Me and Jinora are kinda on the same side so that's easy. But also, trust isn't just something you just - give to another person. It's something you prove to each other, constantly. Jinora's always come through for me, and I've tried hard to do the same for her. I stopped stealing, I stopped lying. Trust isn't something that automatically comes when people love each other."

"Kai," Opal grinned all of a sudden. "Did you just say . . ." Kai's spine stiffened and he blushed.

"I didn't say anything!" he said loudly. "I, I meant, hypothetically, if two people were in love with each other -"

"Anyone I know?" she teased.

"No, I mean, Jinora and I -" he said. As if summoned, Jinora suddenly appeared floating over Lefty. Kai turned his neck, forgetting his backtracking, and grinned at his girlfriend.

"Jinora!" he cried. His arms tensed like he wanted to hug her but otherwise he didn't move; he just looked at her with a bright smile and held on Left's rains tightly. Opal got to her feet and walked over to the girl as Kai coaxed Lefty to hover instead of fly.

"Jinora," Opal said, forcing Jinora's attention onto her. "We have something to tell you about Kuvira."

"So you know?" Jinora asked tensely.

Opal's heart missed a beat. "Know what?" she asked.

"When I heard I knew I had to come and tell you," she said. "Zaofu radioed us as soon as they found out."

"What about Zaofu?" Opal asked, a sinking feeling pouring into her chest.

"Kuvira's travelling to Zaofu right now," Jinora said. "She wants them to join the Empire."

Opal didn't know what to think. Kai let go of Lefty's reins and grabbed her by the arm. "Thanks Jinora," he said to his girlfriend.

"I thought you'd want to know, Opal," Jinora said, sounding almost regretful.

"Thanks," Opal said.

"You wanted to tell me something?" the airbending master asked tentatively.

"It's not important," Kai assured her, keeping his grip on Opal's arm. Opal's mind was blank. "I'll see you soon." Jinora nodded. With a quick smile at her boyfriend and another concerned glance at Opal, Jinora's projection fizzled out of existence.

Kuvira had lied to her so viciously, and now she was going to invade Zaofu and bring down the domes that had been her job to protect. Opal blinked and Kai let go of her arm. She turned to him. "I have to go back," she said. "I have to - I'm sorry Kai - I -"

"Don't worry," Kai insisted, eyes wide. "Go be with your family. Take Lefty, I'll glide back." She grabbed into a tight hug, his chin digging into her shoulder.

"Thank you," she said.

"Just make it there in time," he said as he hugged her back. "Kick her ass for me." She choked on a little laugh but she was terrified.

"Go back and tell Tenzin everything I saw," she ordered him. "If you see Jinora again, tell her." They all probably already knew about the camps and Kuvira's threat on Zaofu would look just as bad to the world leaders, but Opal couldn't leave it up to faith. There hadn't been time to tell Jinora, Opal need to get back to Zaofu immediately.

Kuvira - Opal didn't believe that she'd be able to stop her from doing whatever she'd set her sights on, but Opal needed to be with her family right now. She was grateful that Kai immediately understood that and helped her. He took the money and she kept most of the supplies, she wouldn't have time to buy things. She hugged Kai one last time and he unclipped the wings of his suit. He dove off of his bison and glided away. Opal watched him fade into a dot beneath her before turning Lefty around, settling in for a few more sleepless nights.