"Why all the fuss? It's not like this is an official ceremony" Lord Zuko dead panned, humoured by the awe he had inspired. Although, right now anything even mildly entertaining would've humoured him, and he just wanted to have some levity in his life.
"Lord Zuko!" Meelo exclaimed, not listening to what had just been said and choosing to kneel to the ground in deference. Everyone else was more subdued in their reactions after hearing the former Fire Lord's quip and Korra cracked a smile, which quickly disappeared when she remembered exactly why Zuko had come to Republic City.
"Have you heard anything about your daughter?" she asked as Zuko dismounted. Not wanting to make the atmosphere even more melancholy, he answered with a nod before heading inside the temple for a drink. Once his thirst had been quenched he relaxed for a bit before heading for the mainland to visit Izumi. He decided to go alone, wanting to spend time with his daughter privately, away from outsiders, even if they were well intentioned.
After failing to get his sons to stop playing with Druk, Tenzin got Korra to one side, keeping an eye out for Meelo and Rohan as they tried to ride the dragon.
"What's your plan?" he asked. Korra was dumbfounded. "What plan?" she asked back, confused as to what Tenzin meant. Apparently the notion of a plan was obvious, at least, given Tenzin's sigh. "About Raiko? How can there be a concrete plan in place?" she answered, eventually getting wind of what Tenzin was referring to.
"This is just a crazy theory that you and Asami think may be true on no basis of evidence! And I thought I was the impulsive one!" she exclaimed. "We shouldn't bother with technicalities if we have a man willing to take out his own citizens!" Tenzin fired back. That was a good point, Korra had to admit. If Raiko was a threat, then he needed to be taken out. The only problem was that they didn't know if Raiko was a threat. But that didn't matter to Tenzin.
"All right- we'll discuss a hypothetical plan" Korra relented, with an emphasis on the word hypothetical. She personally didn't know how to implement a hypothetical plan- what would it entail? How would they take out Raiko? How did you remove an elected leader peacefully? It wasn't like they could do a Red Lotus on him- Korra had heard about how the Earth Queen had died, and she shuddered to think air bending could be so deadly. No, it would just be a coup followed by a trial, Korra thought. Which would still a lot to accomplish, not to mention dangerous.
At this point Asami joined them. Considering that she already was a proponent of Korra's conspiracy theory, neither Korra or Tenzin censored their conversation, the latter curtly informing Asami of what he was planning, and the former insisting it was still just hypothetical.
"A coup? That's all well and good on paper- but how will it work?" Asami asked, intrigued by how Tenzin could pull off a mini revolution. "Simple. We find a piece of concrete evidence confirming Raiko's guilt, expose him to the public, and let them elect a new leader" Tenzin explained, as if it were the most obvious thing,
"How can we find anything to incriminate him? He's the president, if he did it like you two are suggesting, then he would've covered up his tracks" Korra said, taken aback by how complacent Tenzin was with instigating a coup against an elected leader. "Besides, according to Asami everyone in politics here is corrupt- so who's an adequate replacement?" she added.
"To say everyone is a bit too much. There are a few upstanding people. Besides we can always inject new blood into the political sphere" Asami counter argued, her enthusiasm for this coup having grown. Seeing her get so excited calmed Korra. A bit. Asami was the one person who could keep her head firmly screwed on in a crisis, and while Tenzin could sometimes go uncharacteristically crazy, she never did. So if she was supporting the coup, then Korra could at least not oppose it.
"Okay fine. We'll start planning this. But you too come up with the scheme. I'll be turning my efforts to maintaining the city and making sure that Raiko is actually guilty- don't act on anything before I can confirm he is" Korra relented, as she left the two of them to plan out their coup. Even though the idea of replacing Raiko was growing on her, she felt a bit uneasy about it.
It was her job as the Avatar to maintain the balance of the mortal and spirit worlds. How would overthrowing the President help that? Especially so soon after having dismantled the Earth Empire, which still needed attention in rebuilding into the Federation Wu wanted- talk about an ignored issue! They had just managed one crisis. It wasn't like they need anymore imbalance. Besides what was the issue with Raiko?
Of course Raiko wasn't a paragon of virtue, that was for sure. In fact, while Korra was still indecisive on who she wanted to win the election, she knew for certain she didn't want to see Raiko sit another term in office. However, she wasn't for organising coups against elected leaders who weren't confirmed to be oppressing their citizens. Compared to the Earth Queen at least he was a benign enough leader. Besides, even if he was more of a megalomaniac, a coup still wasn't the best idea. It was a coup that allowed Kuvira to take charge in a power vacuum.
However, Korra felt a bit less uneasy when she remembered exactly who were leading the charge on the coup: Tenzin and Asami. Two of the wisest people she knew. If they were interested in a coup then there must be good reason for it. However she wasn't prepared to get involved in an insurgency just yet, and her support for it was still shaky. She wanted to make sure that the coup was being fought on genuine ground, and not just on her conspiracy theory. However, as she heard Tenzin and Asami reaffirm it, she started to think her theory might actually be true.
"Korra?" a voice asked. It was Jinora, who surprisingly wasn't with Kai. "Yes?" Korra responded, wondering why she was needed. "What are my dad and you talking about?" Jinora asked. At this point Korra didn't know what to say. She didn't think that an air bending master needed to have information censored for her just because of her age, but she didn't want Jinora to worry about a coup that may not have even be happening. So she made up something about taking care of Druk, unable to think of anything else. Unfortunately for her Jinora was perceptive enough to see through the fabrication.
"Tell me the truth Korra- it wasn't about Druk" she replied, her eyebrow raised. With a sigh Korra told the truth. Jinora's eyes grew a bit wider and her eyebrows raised more, but otherwise she didn't react crazily. "It figures- tons of people want Raiko gone. So long as they do it peacefully and give him a trial and allow the people to elect a new leader I'm all for it" she remarked once she had assessed what had been said to her.
"So you're for it?" Korra asked, wondering if the coup now had a third supporter. "It's inevitable in my opinion. Raiko needs to be taken down, and if it isn't done properly, then we'll be throwing ourselves from the wok into the fire" Jinora replied, before going back to her boyfriend to pick some flowers.