Police Airship
(season 1, episode 7)
"I need to be alone," Asami managed out in a rasp. Ache pulsed down her arms, through her chest. What she'd meant to say was 'Korra, you need to stay away from me.'
Korra nodded quietly. "Okay."
She watched, and felt, Korra's warmth leave her side. Somehow every muscle in Asami's body began to throb harder, the pain soaking in deeper. Had she been standing, it would have made her knees buckle. Asami looked up from the floor. The motion rotated her tender shoulder in the sling, shifted her ribs around. She lost her breath at the pain of it. She kept her head down, maintaining a sort of pain equilibrium in her body. The more still she was, the less everything hurt. The less she could see everyone in the room. Watching her. Blaming her.
Bolin's feet inched into view.
"Does it hurt much?" he asked.
Asami swallowed, barely shaking her head. "I'll be fine. If I stay still and don't move my head, it's not too bad."
"Then you're way tougher than you look," Bolin said. He slid down to the floor in front of the bench, folding his legs underneath himself. "With those moves back there? That was amazing! And, uh, you know, scary." He threw his hands up. "I mean that in the best way, though. I don't know many pro-benders who could take a hit like that and then deal out even worse. If they ever start a pro non-bending league, I'm putting all my yuans on you."
She found a gentle smirk on Bolin's face. Asami tried to return it. "I think that's just called a fist fight," she chuckled. Pain tore through her chest. She winced as air left her lungs and they viced shut.
"Easy." Bolin got up on his knees, holding tight to her good arm. "Are you gonna be okay? What can I do?"
"Stop making me laugh," she wheezed. Her eyes began to water.
Bolin sighed with more drama than needed. "Alas, resigned to a fate of constant agony, then."
She fought to hold her smile. The air came back slowly the less she moved. Her throat was raw. "I thought that you'd hate me." The words fell between tears.
"Mako's wrong," he said. "You didn't know any of us when Amon tried to take my bending away. How could you have stopped it?"
"Korra and Mako made a scene when they tried to save you. It's why the Equalists sent me." The truth of her mission turned sour in Asami's mouth. She grimaced through it. "You two were a weak spot."
Bolin slowly lowered himself back onto the floor to find her eyes.
Asami swallowed, keeping her breathing shallow. "When my father told me you two were raised by Triads, that was all I needed to know. I didn't ask any questions."
She watched Bolin choose his words. "Hiroshi said...they hurt your mother?"
A trembling smile found its way to Asami's lips. "She used to sing." Memories of her mother could outshine almost anything. Except for what came next. The smile flickered out. "Triads torched the club she was performing in," Asami said.
"I'm sorry," Bolin murmured.
They were silent for a long minute. It was a kind gesture, but it was more for themselves than for her mother's ghost. Asami looked up, barely able hold the boy's gaze. "The moment we met, I knew my father had made a mistake. You don't have cruel thought in you."
"You didn't want to lose your family," Bolin said. "I can understand that."
Bolin had lost his parents at an even younger age than Asami. And now, she had willfully rejected her own father. She'd chosen to tear her family apart.
"Mako was right. When Amon started taking people like you, innocent people, that should have been the line for me."
Bolin frowned. "Triads are people, too. A lot of them are just stuck in a bad situation. They're scared and desperate, or they don't have anywhere else to go."
"Of course," Asami grimaced. "I'm sorry."
"Mako got involved with them to keep me safe. He didn't like the collateral damage he caused, but he didn't want me to grow up on the streets anymore. It was like a home, for a while: We had food, a place to sleep. People looked after each other, as long as you were one of them. It was almost a family, you know?"
Asami nodded silently. In a few short weeks, her world had shifted to every shade of gray. It seemed reasonable that things weren't as simple as The Triads vs all decent people ever.
"I was too young to know any better," Bolin continued, "Mako got himself picked up a few times by police, but if he had ever gotten put away…" Bolin glanced over to his brother, quietly seething next to Korra. "...Mako didn't want to leave me alone with them. He snuck us out in the middle of the night. We went back on the streets. It was hard for a while, but neither of us regret picking the honest path over the comfortable one."
Bolin reached out for her hand and squeezed it. "Neither should you," he said.
"I should have left sooner," Asami sighed. Another twinge coiled out from her chest.
"What matters is that you did," Bolin said.
Asami watched tears fall onto the metal floor beneath her. "I'm so sorry, Bolin."
"Don't start crying," he warned, smirking. "I bet that hurts as much as laughing."
"Yeah." She strained the word out. "Can you...sit with me for a while?"
Without another word, Bolin hopped up from the floor and sat down on the bench. A polite few inches between them.
Asami turned her head to the boy, and instantly regretted in. Her body froze in spasms of pain. She clamped her eyes shut as she eased her head back into her default stare at the floor.
Bolin grabbed her hand again and held it through the pain. She squeezed back.
When they arrived back at the police station, Asami found herself surrounded by strangers. Prodding healers, policemen with questions. All through the night, Bolin never let go.
Air Temple Island
(season 1, episode 8)
Asami traced the smooth skin along her nose, where the bruises had once blossomed across her face. Where metal and fists had drawn blood. Her body, broken and beaten hours earlier, held a soft warmth within it. Fueled by waterbending healers who wielded the magic of the world. If it weren't for the weight in her chest, she could almost pretend that none of last night had happened.
Her room at the Air Temple was small, simple. Its window didn't face the city skyline her father had helped to raise and now wanted to control. It looked out to the open sea. Blue waves and clear skies stretched out for miles before they fell beneath the horizon. Asami imagined herself at the center of an infinite ocean. The salt on the air and the wind in her chest. Her eyes drifted closed. She breathed it in.
A heavy thud came from the hallway. Then scuffling. Panic rose in her chest—a new, constant impulse she'd discovered. Asami bolted for the stun baton on her bed. Defunct, but still of use. She held the weapon aloft as she crept to the door. Silent and swift, like her teachers had trained her. Like her father had expected of her. She slid the door open.
Suitcases flooded the hallway in columns. Korra crouched over a stack that nearly rose up to her waist. How had she managed to get this all so close to the door without Asami hearing before now? Glancing up, Korra flashed a smirk at her that sank into her skin.
"Uh, hi." Korra eyed the baton.
Two seconds ago, Asami had been ready to bash in a skull. She took a calming breath and rested her weapon at the foot of the door. "Sorry," she sighed. An ivy pattern shared between a garment bag and a hat box caught her eye. Old and familiar. "What's all this?"
"We brought your things over from the house." Korra flipped the lid off the closest suitcase and rifled through it. "Clothes, makeup, books, some...okay, I don't know what those are." Her smile hesitated as she latched it closed. "We didn't know what you'd need, so...we just kind of brought it all."
Down the hall, a pair of legs trudged towards them, balancing even more luggage on a large steamer trunk. "We'll get this place feeling like home in no time," Bolin grunted out. He grinned around the stack in his arms. "Where do you want it?"
Unable to find her voice, Asami pointed at the far wall near the wardrobe. With a nod, Bolin squatted under the door frame and scooted past her.
Asami had spent all night trying to ignore the life she'd abandoned in favor of this one. Hiding in the dark, sacrificing her safety for people who could only push her away in the end. But remnants of her home now filled the hallway. Those people were smiling at her, welcoming her into their lives. The suitcases blurred around the edges and Asami blinked away the start of tears.
"You didn't have to do all this," she managed out. Looking up, she found Korra watching her with gentle eyes.
"No trouble," Bolin called back from the room. "We hitched a ride with some of the police that Chief Beifong dispatched to watch your house."
"Where's Mako?" Asami asked. She already knew that the answer was somewhere along the lines of 'as far away as he could get'.
Bolin slid the trunk against the wall for support. "He stayed behind to walk the recon team through the estate. Beifong's got him reporting back to her with whatever they find."
Asami nodded. Amon had an entire network of underground facilities. They didn't have the manpower or the energy to comb the city for every possible entrance. Until Beifong's replacement took full control, they'd at least have some sense of how the investigation was going. The Chief had quit the force, but she wasn't about to lose her edge over a little thing like not being a cop anymore.
"There was no sign of Equalists. Or your father," Korra said. She dipped down to her stack of luggage to pick it back up. "Looks like they set explosive charges in the tunnels below the workshop and caved the place in. It'll be a while before we can follow them."
Asami pulled a few cases off the top of Korra's pile, earning a smirk. Like the girl who dug canyons out of asphalt and rode a polar bear dog through the tundra had needed help.
Together, they piled up the suitcases in the corner of the room. As they worked, they spoke of small things. Bolin mourned that their diet was going to be strictly vegetarian while on the island. Korra laid out the daily and nightly meditation schedules of the air acolytes. They avoided mentioning Mako or his absence.
Asami would need to spend a few days sorting through all of it. The luggage formed a miniature city made up of all the distractions she'd used to ignore how dangerous the world had gotten. But it was more of her life than she'd expected to ever see again. "I can't believe that you did all this for me," she murmured, finding Korra's smile again. More warmth surged down into her bones.
"We're your friends," Bolin scoffed, dropping a pair of duffel bags.
Asami stared at the window, that anxious panic bubbling up in her. "I didn't want to assume..."
"Hey." Korra held her arm firm. Waited till Asami finally met her eyes. They were kind, determined. As if making Asami listen was her most vital concern. "You have a place here," Korra said.
Drawn by some force of nature, Asami threw her arms around Korra's neck and pulled her close. Fighting the thick weight in her chest. She had spent too much energy pushing her away. Trying not to hurt her by proximity, when Korra's support was just about the only thing holding Asami together. She breathed her in. Korra smelled of salt air and the sea. The girl squeezed back and rested her face against Asami's shoulder.
Another strong pair of arms wrapped around them, and Bolin hummed pleasantly into the bear hug he clamped them both into.
It took a long moment for Asami to recognize her own laugh.
Republic City, Night
(season 1, episode 8)
Bolin leaped over his door before Asami managed to pull the roadster to the curb. "Thank you thank you thank you! I'll only be a minute!" He lunged for the tea shop and disappeared inside.
No sign of any Equalists as they neared their third hour of patrolling. 'Team Avatar' had been canvassing Republic City street-by-street. They hadn't turned up any real leads yet. All they had managed to do was hassle a pair of triad thugs that were roughing up protesters. Non-benders had broken out into demonstrations citywide, fueled by frustration and anger. With Amon's army confident and inspired, the city was straining at its seams.
Adjusting her rear-view mirror, Asami found Mako and Korra sharing hushed words. Their voices fell beneath the gravelly hum of the engine. Neither looked unhappy to be sitting next to each other. Asami turned up the police scanner, filling the air with the drone of police reports and check-ins. She gripped the steering wheel. Sank into the chatter of unintelligible codes and call signs.
She watched Mako stretch his arms with a sigh. "I'm fading," he yawned. "I need caffeine." With a smile, he tapped Korra's shoulder as he opened his side of the car. "Do you want any ginseng tea?"
Korra flashed a smile at him. "I'm good."
Asami watched the two in silence for a long moment. Mako hesitating at the car door. Korra's smile fell and she nodded at the back of Asami's head. Frustrated, like she was scolding a child.
With a quiet breath, Mako turned to the driver's side. Asami shot her eyes back to the road. "Would you like anything?" he asked. The first words he'd spoken to her since the night in the factory.
"No," Asami said. Catching her tone, she added a quick "Thank you."
Nodding, Mako patted the side of the car and headed inside.
The night hung between her and Korra. The hustle of taxis and delivery trucks ambling past them. The thrum of the engine through the car's frame. Distant shouts and chanting.
"You're making him talk to me," Asami sighed.
Korra's chin fell to the edge of her door as she stared out at the shop window. "If I can't make peace between you two, what chance does the entire city have?"
"There's not much left to mend."
Korra frowned into the mirror. "Asami, he's trying. It's a lot to process. You could stand to put a little effort in, too."
The moment that Mako had seen her with the Equalists, Asami had known things were over between them. A chill had overtaken the looks that he could bear to give her. "He was going to leave me behind," she said. The words stuck in her throat. "Back at the factory. I remember."
"I need you both," Korra said. Asami met her eyes in the mirror for a breath or two, but then Korra turned back to the sidewalk. "...I need you both to be on the same page. Mako knows that the most important thing right now is to work together to stop Amon. We're a team."
"Not exactly feeling the team spirit," Asami muttered.
"Calling all units, Level 4 alert!" The police radio crackled to life. "Jailbreak at headquarters, officers down, electrocuted! Chi-blockers and Equalist convicts are still at large, armed and dangerous, last seen heading east!"
They jolted up in their seats. Sirens faded in from the distance.
"I repeat, Level 4 alert!" the dispatcher barked, "Equalist jailbreak!"
Mako and Bolin sauntered out of the tea shop. They jumped at the blare of the car horn that greeted them.
"We've got incoming!" Korra yelled.
Asami revved the car. "Hurry up!"
Mako downed some of the tea and tossed the rest in a curbside trash bin. He hopped over the passenger's side door and settled in beside Asami. By force of habit, she had to guess. His eyes scanned the intersection ahead. He glanced over at Asami. "You ready?"
She nodded with a thin smile, slipping her goggles back on. "Hold on." Asami the gearshift and they peeled out onto the street with a roar.
Police Headquarters, Detention Area
(season 1, episode 9)
The cell block thrummed with hushed voices, arguments, sobbing. The police had collected dozens of other protesters since arresting Asami and the boys. In the silence of the morning, Asami studied the sewage and water pipes lining the ceiling. Steel sheeting along the walls bore rivets drilled in a familiar pattern. Maximizing structural support, efficient, effective. Future Industries had likely designed and constructed the entire detention block at Police Headquarters. No doubt Hiroshi had used his knowledge of the jail's bones to help break out Equalists last night.
At the demonstration, Councilman Tarrlok had been so sure of her guilt. Hiroshi Sato was a known Equalist, wouldn't his daughter be one as well? There was little proof of her involvement with Amon's plot, other than hearsay. But there were plenty of witnesses. The testimony of the Avatar and her friends could hold weight. Beifong and Tenzin had no obligation to keep her out of prison. What if they decided that one high-value arrest outweighed any help she could give? Dozens of Equalists that had seen her turn on her father, knew that she had killed more than one of their own. If the police captured and questioned them, they could corroborate Tarrlok's suspicions. Tell the whole sordid tale of espionage and betrayal.
The metal bed beneath her was hard, painful. She had gotten no sleep in this place. Korra promised to get them out of police custody, but night had come and gone. It seems that Republic City Police had committed to keeping them out of the war with the Equalists. Mako and Bolin were off in some other wing of the jail, as far as she knew. Her body ached. Confined in this tiny metal box, she had doubts that she would ever see the outside of a cell again.
Perhaps she would spend her foreseeable future staring at the ceiling, waiting for each hour to lead to the next. Locked in a cell with only her regrets and her sins. Trapped within cold steel walls built by her father.
Footsteps echoed from down the hallway. Asami closed her eyes, distilling the sounds in her mind. Three distinct gaits.
"We're running low on time, boys," Beifong let out in a harsh whisper. "She's just fine where she is."
"Korra wouldn't leave her here."
Mako.
Slipping off the metal cot, Asami stepped to the door. They were close.
"Do I look like the Avatar to you?" Beifong growled.
"No..." Bolin said, "But you do look like a super smart, super fair former police chief willing to give people second chances."
"She wants Amon taken down just as much as we do," Mako insisted. "She can help us."
Asami pounded a fist against the door. "Guys?" she called out. Waiting.
The slot in the door slid open, and Mako found her eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked.
She nodded, feeling the pressure in her chest ease somewhat. He actually looked relieved to see her. "What's going on?"
"The Chief's busting us out of prison!" Bolin said.
"Keep quiet..." Beifong nudged his arm.
"Korra's in trouble," Mako said. "Amon captured her."
Being locked in this cell had been inevitable. She knew the consequences of what she'd done, what she'd tried to do. She could grow to accept them. But not while she still had something to lose.
Asami gripped the edges of the door slot. "Let me out."
"Easy there, missy," Beifong said, glowering. "These two weren't conspiring with Amon."
Asami took a breath, leveling her eyes at the woman with a resigned calm. "When we stop Amon, you can turn me back into police custody. Evidence, names, anything I know about their operation: they'll get it all. I will confess to everything I've done, and accept the punishment. I swear it." That familiar flutter of panic galvanized into anger. For Korra. At her father. "I have to finish this," she said.
Beifong considered for a long silent moment, then turned to Mako. "She's your responsibility."
Mako fought a smirk. "Yes, ma'am."
The Chief swatted at the boys to get out of the way, and Asami backed away from the door. With her smooth, firm motion, the edges of the door crinkled and folded open as if they were paper.
Asami slipped into the hallway. Stretching the ache from her back and shoulders.
Beifong blocked her path, pointing a tense finger at her. "One toe out of line, and you're gonna end your day back in that cell."
"I keep my word," Asami said.
"You better."
Asami's first steady breath of the day came when Bolin patted a hand on her back. She flickered a smile at him, then at Mako. Not waiting for them, or the Chief, Asami began to march down the hallway.
"Let's go get our girl."
Chapter Art is available on my tumblr or my Archive Of Our Own publication of this story. To find it, search online for "darling gypsum tumblr 122791560127" and follow my chapter art link.
Thank you so much for reading! Thoughts? Comments?
