Chapter Seven
Convince Me
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind
-William Wordsworth-
The 70th Harmony Games, Reaping Day
For the past four years, Mai has watched the reaping with anxiety in the pit of her stomach. This is her fifth, and they only seem to become more and more nerve-wracking.
Sitting in her living room at a small and dreadful party, she twists her ring around her finger absentmindedly over and over again. District 1 does not bother her. District 2, for once, does. The boy is the grandson of a victor and the girl is a daughter of one. The girl volunteers, which makes Mai twice as uneasy.
Mai closes her eyes.
One more year. One more year and she can breathe.
She has done everything she was supposed to do. Her only fear is that he would do it anyway, just because he could.
No. Mai convinced everyone, even him.
Her district is last.
She convinced him.
"I think I love you."
District 8 reaps a teenage boy and a little girl. Mai does not care anymore. She has forgotten how to hurt for those kids.
The scenery shifts.
She convinced him.
A second twelve-year-old is Reaped, this time from 9. Mai thankfully does not recognize her. She closes her eyes and then forces herself to open them.
She convinced him.
Therefore, she knows she must be imagining what happens next. Maybe she is in some kind of withdrawal, panicking over visions that do not exist.
"Tomo Ukano."
No. A girl sets her hand on Mai's hand in a rushed movement. Mai almost punches her for her act of pity, but forgets how to move.
She thought she convinced him.
This time, no one volunteers to take her brother's place. No brash girl shouting.
There is no sound but the wind.
After the Quell Announcement, Asami chases Korra behind the homes of the Victor's Village. All are vacant save for three, and Korra expertly weaves behind them. Asami is not nearly as fast as her, but she refuses to quit.
"We can't run from this! You realize that, don't you?" Asami breathlessly shouts, stumbling and stopping. She does not have the strength to keep going, and just hopes that Korra will listen to her and turn around. Thankfully, she does.
"We could," Korra insists, blinking quickly and trying to get a hold on her racing heart.
Asami tenderly inquires, "How?" as she steps closer to her wife.
"I don't know yet," Korra says, trying to speak loudly and failing, "but I don't see another choice. We can't hide, and we can't go back into the Games. We can't."
"Korra," Asami says, at last catching her breath and straightening her posture. "You don't run from things. That's not who you are."
In a fit of rage, Korra thrusts her hand to the side and sends a hunk of earth flying into the woods. She lowers her hand and remembers she is not supposed to bend anything but water. "I don't know who I am anymore."
"Well, I do," Asami assuredly claims. "I know you and I really care about you, okay?"
Korra stares at her for a few moments, trying to make up her mind. Finally, she sighs and caves in; Asami is right.
"Let's go to the boat." Cameras and bugs could not follow them there, or at least Korra assumes.
"Okay," Asami agrees, and they both take off down the worn dirt trail behind their house.
They fade away into the swamp, but know they will have to eventually return.
[X]
In the Capitol, the president and his daughter sit at a mahogany desk. She trembles but tries to conceal her anxiety; he easily sees through her veil of faux confidence.
"What am I looking at?" asks Azula as Ozai sets a stack of papers in front of her.
"The failure of your grand schemes," he coldly replies, sitting down. She feels very small. "The public didn't react well to the Quell announcement."
"It is a little unflattering to the government," Azula admits, "seeing as the entire point of winning the Games is being shown the mercy of the Capitol and never having to be Reaped or go hungry again, but trust me on this. Please, trust me on this."
Ozai glares at Azula and a dizzy spell hits her. "There was a full blown uprising in District 8 today. This isn't riots; this is war."
Azula does not know how to remedy the violence. The Avatar was revealed and no fantastical love story or barrage of propaganda or brutal reminder of the power structure can take that back. Korra gives people hope, and hope is dangerous.
"There's been unrest since before the United Republic was the United Republic," Azula attempts to justify. "District 8 is a very bleak place. We have the loyalty of the others, I'm sure, except maybe 6 and 7 and 9. And maybe 5, but they're neither here nor there."
"How many districts are there, Azula?"
"Nine."
"Yes. How many did you just list?"
"Four." Azula shrinks.
"District 2 is an obvious problem, given who their only victors are," he says. "Which makes the final count?"
Azula nervously whispers, "Five."
"Yes," he states. "Five out of nine of the districts are likely to erupt within the month."
"Right." There is nothing more she can say to him. The damage is done.
He says, "I have a task for you."
[X]
Meanwhile in District 2, Korra shoves her new boat into the water and hops on. Asami already sits on it, covering her ears to muffle the scraping sound. Korra never liked oars or paddles; she likes using her bending. Asami never liked boats; she likes staying safely on land.
Despite Asami's loathing for drifting through a swamp, she does like being away from prying eyes.
"I thought we did what we were supposed to. I thought we convinced them," Asami whispers, her voice barely audible over the water.
"I'm the Avatar. We couldn't stop this no matter what we did. Lightning hit a dried up forest," Korra says, stopping her bending, leaving the boat bobbing in the middle of the reeds. "There was nothing anybody could do to stop it."
"Things couldn't have been that bad under the surface," Asami says, shaking her head as she speaks.
"Hama said there were a lot of attempts to rebel and a lot of chances," Korra explains, now somehow fearless. Asami wishes she could be that way, but her mind always trips her up. "They kind of enslaved a lot of people for their own ends after killing those people for like a hundred years. We didn't do anything except lose a war."
"I still remember this little boy in District 7," Asami says, gazing at the sweet, ignorant turtleducks playing in the murky water. "He was on the side of the road begging and he looked me right in the eyes and I didn't do anything. I just looked away."
"You couldn't do anything," Korra vehemently insists. "I don't think you understand that this is completely out of our hands and it has been since the fates of our lives were selected by lottery. And I didn't even know I was the Avatar and you were just trying to survive."
"We got the other victors killed," Asami replies.
Korra remembers that day in District 7 like it was yesterday. The news after it was the worst she had ever received. "You were trying to help. We were trying to help."
Asami opens her mouth to talk but then hears a roaring sound of some sort. It takes her a moment to realize that it is an engine. More than one.
"Korra, we have to get back to land. I don't like that sound."
[X]
At dusk in the Capitol, Azula examines a hideous dress that she would never wear in a thousand years. It is worse than anything anyone has ever forced her to wear on camera.
"I like it," Azula lies, and she easily convinces Ty Lee's mother. She lifts her fingers from the magenta fabric and turns around.
"I'm glad," says the tattooed woman. You would never know where her family came from. Not unlike Azula herself, so she cannot judge.
Azula stands in a popular but currently empty boutique, awkwardly trying to converse with her girlfriend's family. They own the place, and their designs are decent for Capitol standards. Azula finds the number of sequins to be both blinding and tasteless.
"I will be taking your daughter out of town for an undetermined amount of time," Azula says, picking up a sewing needle and gently poking it. "We're going to District 2."
"Is it safe there?" very slowly asks Ty Lee's mother.
"Safer there than here, I assure you." That is not a lie, although Azula would like to convince herself otherwise.
Finally, Ty Lee comes downstairs before her mother asks any more stupid questions. She is lucky to have such a beautiful face and body, because her clothes are ghastly. It would be a grand entrance no matter what, although Azula pretends to be unimpressed.
"Yes. Ty Lee, finally," Azula says, "let's go elsewhere as fast as possible."
"I thought we were having dinner here." Ty Lee pouts.
"I lied," Azula brazenly replies. "You asked me before I announced the Quell, and so I decided to placate you."
Ty Lee frowns, and then realizes that Azula does not want to face Ty Lee's family. They are very strongly affected by the Quarter Quell, but Ty Lee assures her love, "You didn't know. No one is mad at you. It's not your fault."
"Of course," Azula smoothly lies, tapping one finger on the glass countertop, "but I was the one who had to say it in front of the entire United Republic."
"Please stay for dinner," desperately interjects Ty Lee's mother, batting her fake eyelashes and warmly smiling.
Azula sighs. She supposes she might as well cave in; she will not be around for much longer.
[X]
After a dinner consisting solely of mildly uncomfortable small talk, Azula stands on the front steps of the boutique with Ty Lee. The cold night air makes her hair billow and the neon lights stain her and her girlfriend various colors.
For the first time, Azula declares, "I have to go to District 2 for a while. You are coming with me."
Ty Lee furrows her brow. "Why?"
"Because I said I would never leave you alone, and I might have caused a full blown uprising in District 8, and so you might be kidnapped and tortured to get to me," Azula says before she can stop herself.
Ty Lee's eyes widen. The red light from across the street flashes in the night and hues her horrified expression the shade of blood. "I do need a vacation. I'll get to packing."
"I will be packing for you, because I know that you won't pack appropriately for a place that's half swamp and half filthy city," Azula says, trying to be lighthearted.
"I'll wear dark clothes to hide the dirt!" she chirps.
[X]
After reaching shore, Asami and Korra made it to town just in time to see the peacekeepers entering in force. They brought a thousand kinds of equipment that Korra did not recognize, and made speeches about curfews, new rules and the imminent construction of a detention center.
They tried to convince the public that the military invasion is for their own good.
Then they blew up an entire factory.
In the late evening, Korra sits on the rug while Asami makes tea. They barricaded themselves in their house as if they could hide from the reality outside.
"Does the curfew apply to us strictly?" Korra inquires, trying not to look out of the window.
"I'm pretty sure it applies to us double strictly." Asami laughs mirthlessly.
"But they can't kill us," Korra protests. "We're going to be killed on TV in a few months."
Asami wants to explain that there are worse things than death, but she does not have the heart. Instead, she asks, "Why do you need to get out of the house so much?"
"Because the Capitol blew up an entire building and a lot of people died and I need to go talk to Hama because she probably knows what's going on!" Korra shouts, digging her fingers into the carpet. Asami keeps her eyes on the teapot.
"What's going on is that we're not the most well-behaved district anymore," Asami says, although it is just an educated guess. "We used to be really close to the Capitol and now we're not."
"So they blew up a building with people in it?" Korra screams, spinning around.
The tea kettle whistles and Asami seizes the opportunity to end the conversation.
[X]
In the Capitol, Azula walks home from Ty Lee's house; she likes this section of the Capitol and knows it like the back of her hand.
When she walks into the Presidential Palace, she hears a horrific shattering sound that echoes through the entire mansion. She lights up her hands and runs towards the series of crashes that follow the first smash.
She sees Mai holding a broken chair, doused in alcohol from the liquor cabinet she just broke in a fit of emotion. Azula thinks that perhaps Mai does not handle feelings well, judging by the broken glass and slick, pungent floor.
Mai and Azula wordlessly lock eyes.
Finally, Mai speaks.
"I've decided to quit drinking," she says, dropping the chair onto the mess.
Azula means to laugh but can only manage a small smile.
"I'm sorry about this," Azula says. "I know it affects y—"
"Shut up," Mai snaps, startling Azula into doing so. "You know nothing and you never will, because you don't know or care about any of the people that you're about to send to their deaths."
"It isn't my choice."
"You make the games. It doesn't matter that you were taken by surprise by the Quell; you chose to engineer the nightmare you will put my only friends through."
"I declined the position once and you saw what happened."
Mai knows that is true, but she does not apologize for her accusations.
"Your sister lived," she says. "That's more than most people got. That's more than I got. But they had a chance; no one does this time. You fucked up and now he's casting a very wide net."
Azula feels a bitter rage when she hears the insinuation that she brought this on herself. She did not.
"You sent them the poison," she argues.
Mai sighs and rolls her shoulders back.
"This is going nowhere. We're both terrible people with a lot of blood on our hands." Mai looks at her palms and sees that her statement is literal. She sits down on one of the dining room chairs. "Asami is going to die anyway. Everyone in there will have been friends for years. She and Korra will be the first to go."
"Not exactly." Azula sits down. The distance between them is abnormal due to the broken chair in the middle. "You can't tell anyone, but I am going to volunteer. I already spoke to my father about it and he said she wouldn't get hurt."
"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life." says Mai. "Don't do it. I don't care if he's in on the scam. That won't matter the moment you do something unpredictable in the Arena, and the odds of your plan going seamlessly aren't exactly in your favor."
"I am risking my life no matter what. I don't have a lot of friends in there either, as you so eloquently pointed out."
"You aren't risking your life and you know it. I'm sure you'll rig the arena so that you're certain to win—just fill it with metal and water, maybe. Your expression tells me that I'm spot on with that. Secondly, the person who is supposed to win always wins, except last year. And he can't physically touch you in there, and he may have promised not to harm your sister—and that would be stupid when she's the Capitol's darling, despite the fact that you completely shouldn't trust that promise—but he said nothing about your girlfriend."
"You think I care what happens to her?"
"Yes, yes, I do. This is a really bad situation and a lot of people are going to do stupid things to try to save themselves or the people they love, but you are by far the worst. I destroyed a liquor cabinet. You might destroy a country."
"I like you better when you're drunk."
"I like you better when I'm drunk. Don't do it. Let him put Asami in there, and use your powers as gamemaker to make sure she wins. I'm sure that was the original plan."
"Maybe I am not going in there to protect her. Maybe I am going in there because I have my own plan that is much better than this alleged original."
"What side are you on?"
"To be honest, I don't know yet, and I doubt I will until the point of no return. I have to get ready. I am going to District 2 for a few weeks and need to pack. It's basically camping in such a disgusting place."
Sarcastically, Mai says, "A true Capitol girl through and through. Have fun."
"I will."
[X]
Azula gets off of the train and a man she does not recognize greets her. He wears a very well-kept peacekeeper uniform with honorary badges on the lapel.
"Who are you exactly?" Azula demands, momentarily setting down her luggage. She swiftly picks it back up again when he does not give her an immediate reply. "Never mind. I just remembered that I don't care."
She grabs Ty Lee by the wrist, walking out of the train station and into District 2. Azula forgot how much smoke the factories made; the place has more smog than the Capitol at rush hour. It smells like burning wood, she realizes as she gets closer to the grim grey buildings.
As soon as they enter the city square, the first thing Azula notices is how much has changed. One addition stands out above all else, above the machine gun turrets on innocent rooftops, above the patrolling officers, above the newfound terror in everyone's eyes.
Gallows.
For some reason, Azula doubts they are unused.
"Why is that building so burnt?" Ty Lee asks, nudging Azula with her elbow.
Azula assumes arson.
"Don't look, Ty Lee," whispers the president's daughter.
She hurries to the Victor's Village, because she does not like the looks of this.
[X]
The moment Azula walks into Asami and Korra's house, she drops a silver briefcase down on their table. It lands with a thud that makes both women jump. They already were rattled because of the previous day, and Azula's arrival does not help.
"Study these," orders Azula, leaving the newlyweds quite confused. "They're the past Games. At least, the ones with living victors."
"I don't study," Korra confidently says, cracking her knuckles.
"Then you will die," Azula snarls. Korra frowns and opens the briefcase. "Good. I will be training you both for the next two months. I will have to return to the Capitol upon occasion, as my work is very demanding. You both were terrible in your Games, and just got lucky. These are talented killers you are dealing with, not pathetic children. Do you accept my generous offer?"
Korra replies, "I don't really like you that much, and I'm the Avatar so I have it all under control. Do you know what I mean?"
Azula meets her gaze and softly says, "I know that this home is a tinderbox and I will drug you, chain you to a table in your sleep and burn it to the ground with you in it if you speak to me that way again."
And Korra primly replies, "We accept your generous offer."
Asami smiles and frantically nods.
[X]
Ty Lee kicks her suitcase. She stubs her toe and jumps up and down, hissing from the pain. Azula watches from the other side of the room, leaning against the cold window.
"I didn't pack well for this place. You were so right," Ty Lee whines. Azula shrugs.
"Your wardrobe doesn't concern me at the moment. It never does, but especially not right now. I think this is war. This district didn't do anything to defy the Capitol and they were essentially attacked and occupied. I saw footage of the uprising in 8. It was impossible for me to sympathize with either side, but there aren't rebels in masks rioting here," Azula stiffly says, crossing her arms.
Ty Lee blanches and slowly sits down on the bed. "I don't know."
Azula looks right through her girlfriend.
She coldly says, "In 8 they turned the destroyed factory into a detention facility. I imagine people will start disappearing here soon. Not openly dying, not openly arrested. Just vanishing."
Ty Lee's stomach does a backflip. "That's scary but we're Capitol citizens and safe."
"We are responsible for this," Azula impassively says. "I don't think you have wrapped your head around that yet."
"I haven't," Ty Lee earnestly replies. "I also wish we stayed in the Capitol because this house is so gross."
"This is the house I grew up in," says Azula.
Ty Lee blushes as pink as her clothes. "Oh. By gross I mean really nice."
"It's fine." Azula waves a hand dismissively. "I was never happy here, and my bedroom at home is bigger than this entire house. If it were up to me, I would have stayed there and lived happily ever after like they promised. But we went back on that promise and now we're at war and I think you should be alarmed by this."
"But we're safe, right?" whispers Ty Lee.
"No. We aren't, and we never were."
[X]
Hama takes Azula aside when she wakes up the next morning. They go to her house without saying a word, and Hama leads her up several sets of stairs.
As soon as they are isolated and surrounded by dust, "I'd like to speak to you about something illegal," says Hama.
"Which is why we are hiding in this attic, I imagine?" Azula dryly asks.
"Yes." Hama nods once. "I think the Quell choice was a mistake on the part of President Shinohai; we have all of the power now."
"I know. That's why I'm going to volunteer."
Hama is stunned speechless. She does not remember the last time she was at a total loss for words, or so shocked.
This might work out even better than she and the rebels thought.