Chapter Four
An Illegal Lullaby
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence."
-Leonardo da Vinci-
Between the 68th and 69th Harmony Games, The Capitol
Mai stands in a puddle of blood, over a lifeless body. This is not a dream. She wants to wake up from the nightmare. She does not want to be a killer but she is.
This cannot be justified.
Not like in the Games, not like when she had no choice.
All the girl did was try to poison her unborn child. Maybe it would be doing Mai a favor, maybe she should've just poured out the cup and walked away.
Yet, instead, she holds a damned letter opener from the president's office in her bloody hand. She is drenched in it from tearing her throat out with a knife. Slashing open the throat of President Shinohai's secretary.
Maybe he will kill her.
She does not care as much as she thought she would.
Mai never had an excellent sense of self-preservation, but here she is willing to kill just because someone tried to kill her baby. Does she love it? Does this mean she loves the child she promised herself she would not love?
All she can do is gaze down at the dead body of her husband's former lover.
Former. Because she is dead.
Dead. Because Mai is a murderer even outside of the Harmony Games.
The door opens.
Mai's breath catches.
With prominent dark circles under her eyes, Azula sits in an early meeting with the leaders of District 10, focused on the next step in their war of propaganda.
Azula sighs, exasperated and lacking in patience.
"We need Mai. I told you to rescue Mai," Azula coldly says to both Beifong sisters. "I said rescue me, rescue the Avatar, rescue Mai. I understand why we would want the other rebel victors, but they were less important. You all screwed up."
Lin scowls and states firmly, "We thought she was dead. Her cannon fired."
Azula knows. They have told her before, but she still struggles with the concept. It seems absurd that such a powerful secret society could make such a crucial mistake.
Coldly, Azula offers an idea she conceived last night while lying awake. "Your spy in the Tribute Center could reach her. We could still use her."
Suyin shakes her head, lips pursed before she at last decides to speak, "I would say that was impossible, since breaking her out of prison to make a propo would be impossible, but she no longer is in the Tribute Center."
Azula demands, "Where is she?"
Suyin replies, "She had her baby."
Azula remarks, "Early."
Suyin retorts, "Not exceptionally early. The baby girl is healthy enough to survive, especially with Capitol technology. She is in the Presidential Palace."
"Which is harder, I imagine." Azula drums her sharp fingernails on the metal conference table.
Lin must admit, "Which is much easier. We already know their own propaganda videos are being shot inside of it, and it will be far easier to break her out of a bedroom than a fortress."
"Good." A wicked smile creeps onto Azula's face. "We show the Districts her, we show the Districts the baby, we let her at last tell them what she really thinks."
"I will set it up for tomorrow night," Suyin says, and Azula's eyes glimmer.
This will be it.
This will be the television special to rival any past Harmony Games.
In the Capitol, Mai stares at the ceiling of her bedroom with her hands clasped over her lower abdomen. She does not have the desire to do anything but sleep, and sleep does not come easy, even without the lullaby of screaming.
She hears the electricity on her door power down and sits straight up.
Only one person has access to this room, but it is not him who walks inside. It is a man and a woman who look vaguely familiar but she cannot name.
"We're sorry to disturb you, but we need your help, and we have to be quick about it."
Mai dryly states, "I'm not interested in whatever it is."
"We want you to tell the Districts what you really think."
"See," says Mai coldly, locking eyes with the intruder, "I've done that a few times and it's never worked out well for me."
"You don't have to do this if you don't want to, but, if you want a revolution—"
The passion in Mai's voice surprises the spy. "I don't. I don't want a revolution. I never wanted a revolution. All I ever wanted was to forget and move on."
"You of all people should know why we need one."
Mai sits up and stares at her feet, her head spinning.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You want to forget and move on? This is the best way."
"Azula told us to give you this." He sets something cold and metal in Mai's hand.
She opens it and opens the locket. It hums its haunting tune and she cannot help but see the two pictures inside. Mai snaps it shut before the song is over.
"What do you have in mind?"
"The people have seen Korra and Azula and the other victors. They need to see you. We already set up the recording equipment where your interviews were shot. We already hacked the security cameras and bugs so no one will know you were ever out of here."
"Fine." Mai stands up. "I don't look so pretty."
"You don't have to. We want to show the Districts the real person you are, not the person he made you into. Come on."
They walk down the halls. Mai wraps her arms around herself, ice cold from the layer of sweat on her skin. She enters the room and sees two other people waiting for her. One of them holds her newborn daughter.
"Why do you have her?"
"Will you hold her for us?"
Mai thinks for a moment about how Mimi instantly belonged to cameras. But she walks forward and accepts the baby from the woman.
Mai sits in the familiar chair and looks down at her child. Awkwardly tries to cradle her, not sure how to do it anymore. She stares at the cameras and keeps thinking that they are absolutely going to get caught. Ozai would never let her be out of his sight, promises of hacking cameras or not.
It could be a test.
She does not have the desire to find out.
"Tell us what you think. Please, tell us what you really think."
Mai has heard those words. She has never properly answered them, and so she is not certain how to do so. All she wants is to give the easy, rehearsed response to go back to bed. But she can feel the locket on her chest.
She looks in the direction the woman points. "Ten years ago I volunteered for the Harmony Games to…" Mai trails off. This is not her forte. "I volunteered to save my brother. President Shinohai killed him anyway. Three months ago I volunteered for the Harmony Games to… to prove a point. President Shinohai locked me in a cage and had me tortured from the moment that Arena broke until the moment my…" She glances down at her daughter. "My baby was born." The baby wakes and she almost panics. Thankfully, the infant does not cry. But her golden eyes make her speech much easier.
Her voice shaking, she continues, "He told me after I volunteered the second time around that he thought that they reaped me because they knew he would love me. But the Capitol also says it loves the Districts and only wants to protect them. If you believe that, you are painfully mistaken."
She looks at the camera, uncertain what else to say.
Mai looks at her daughter again, knowing now what to say.
"I never wanted children when I grew up in District 9. I saw them starve to death, I saw them suffering all around me, I saw them sent into the Harmony Games to die. Even after I was a victor, I didn't, because it only made it more likely that they would be sent off to die for entertainment. I can't imagine…" Mai glances at the baby again, and continues, "her ever being in the Harmony Games, and I have never been able to fathom what it must be like to raise your kid for the slaughter.
Mai forces herself to continue, "I want to live in a world where you can celebrate your twelfth birthday instead of dread it, and I want to live in a world where no one—Harmony Games or not—is lost to the world before their life has even begun. That's…" Mai hesitates. "That's all."
It works well enough. They film her for a few more moments, watching the interactions with the infant. They are cold, unfeeling, distant and detached. It is nothing a person can work with.
"Can you read to her? No, can you sing to her?"
"Why?"
"It would look good."
Mai thinks about it for a moment before she nods. She has nothing left to lose.
Awkwardly, she tries to adjust her new baby in her arms. They do not match, like pieces of a puzzle that do not quite fit together right.
"Are you, are you coming to the tree / they strung up a man / they say who murdered three / strange things did happen here / no stranger would it be, if we met at midnight in the hanging tree," Mai sings and it at last provides something properly chilling for the cameras. "Are you, are you coming to the tree / where a dead man called out for his love to flee…"
Azula was right about Mai.
In District 1, they exchange whispers.
In District 2, the ghosts cannot speak.
In District 3, an avalanche is not accidental.
In District 4, three victors lead the first riot there and lose their lives.
In District 5, there are public executions to try to combat the inevitable.
In District 6, the granaries burn.
In District 7, the mother of a would-be-assassin the First Lady tried to spare weeps.
In District 8, the war zone is silent for hours after the broadcast.
In District 9, upon hearing a song they all knew, sung by a girl they thought they knew, seeing their sister or daughter reflected on the screen, the fire of rebellion blazes brighter than anywhere else. She looks like she belongs to their district without the make-up, withered, chapped lips, tired eyes. Scars of torture were visible.
"Do you know what she would do?"
"Do you know what she wants us to do?"
"Do you know why the Capitol would destroy her?"
Because of the things she said. Because of those four men everyone almost forgot about who tried to destroy the Laogai Dam.
It is one act of defiance that would cause more damage to the Capitol than any strike or riot.
They succeed at what others failed to do.
The neon lights of the Capitol vanish at midnight.
[X]
When the lights go out, Mai sits up in bed.
She walks across her room against all better judgment and opens the now unlocked door. Slowly, she creeps through the halls.
They promised her the Capitol would never see the propo she made, and she thinks they were telling the truth since she is not hanging from a noose at the moment.
Mai walks to the offices of the Presidential Palace and opens the door. She steps inside, hoping there is not a flood of advisors and aids. It is just President Shinohai, setting down the phone as soon as he sees her silhouette.
"Why is the electricity gone?" Mai whispers.
"Why are granaries on fire and avalanches destroying factories?" He stands. She knows. He sees that she knows. "I am told that the power went out for a very obvious reason."
"They blew the dam," Mai says, because it could not be more obvious once pointed out.
Coldly, Ozai replies, "Yes."
"Why do you think they did it?" Mai whispers.
"Because the Avatar and my own daughter are running around stirring up trouble and an uprising has become a war. I assumed you were clever enough to figure that out."
"Maybe being tortured for two months had adverse effects on my cleverness."
"No, I think it's much more likely that it made you change your mind about everything you believe in. I saw it. Of course, I saw it."
"Everything I said was true. I meant it all… but I haven't once lied when I said I never wanted a revolution. I knew I was helping rebels fan the flames, of course I did, but I just wanted to…" Pause. "They wanted me to say what I really think."
"Well, they'd better get in line."
"Everything I said in that video was true, but so was what I said my first night in the Arena and those things can both be true but I know they can't coexist."
"What you said to Zuko?"
"Yes. I meant it. I know it doesn't seem like it but I do love you. At least, I dislike you much less than I dislike everyone else, which is as close to love as I think I'll ever get."
"Oh, do you?"
"We promised not to lie to each other, didn't we?" says Mai, her words lackluster but honest.
He begins to consider sparing her. Then he remembers himself and the game changes.
"You seem passionate about that song, with that story. You really care about that hanging tree, don't you? Maybe we should indulge your obsession."
"Go ahead. I became ready to die the moment I decided to volunteer for the Quell. I'm still ready. Maybe I want you to execute me."
"I don't need another martyr."
"No, you don't."
"You will undo this. I will either obliterate 10 or 9 and that will be up to you this morning. Make your choice. Your home or the home of the people who want nothing more than to use you."
"I will. I promise."
But she knows him well. She knows he will destroy them both no matter what she does.
At breakfast, Azula and Korra sit across from each other in silence. They never have much to talk about; they never before have.
Suddenly, the television begins to blare with the Capitol anthem. Azula looks up. There would be a response to Mai's propo and a strong one; she knows that much. And so it unsurprising that it is not Asami or Ty Lee or Bolin or any of the other weapons of President Shinohai.
It is Mai.
She is dressed beautifully and looks surprisingly healthy, unlike her in the last video. Oh, what a talented make-up artist can do. A crown of white roses rests on her head.
"There have been reports of riots, granaries on fire, an avalanche and a devastating attack on the Laogai Dam. These are senseless acts of defiance and they can only lead to more suffering." Mai takes a breath. "The rebels used me and they will use you. All the Capitol wants is to protect its people from the greed of these extremists. If they will hurt me that way, they will not hesitate to hurt you, and the Capitol has protected us all for seventy-seven years."
Mai closes her eyes. She looks up and locks eyes with the camera.
"The images of District 2 were not false and District 9 and District 10 are next." She adds softly, half-broken, almost locking eyes with a stepdaughter she cannot see, "Run."
And the feed, predictably, abruptly cuts out.
Azula turns to Suyin Beifong as Korra sits down on the metal floor.
"I trust that warning. What do we do?"
Suyin, her eyes hardened instead of kindly, says, "It's time for an Air Raid Drill."
Korra interjects, "What about the people in 9? What about them?" Then she thinks about the other repercussions. "What about Asami?" she screams at Lin. "You have to save Asami!"
Suyin states, "Asami is too much of a bargaining chip to give up now. The bombings, however, are an immediate threat." She presses a button and the sirens screech. "I'd get to the bunker if I were you."
Korra begins to run and Azula turns. Suyin grabs her arm.
"What?" Azula snaps, no longer hiding her fear.
"You're President Beifong's advisor and you stay with us. Now, hurry up, Korra! These doors are about to seal."
The Avatar obeys, and hastens.
In a wild rush, Korra pretends to be headed to the bunker before she runs to find Zuko and Katara. They are together, thankfully.
"We have to get to 9!" she pleads.
Katara interrupts, "Korra, they've probably bombed it already. There's nothing we can do."
Korra glowers at her. "There is always something we can do."
Biting her lip, Katara nods. Zuko grabs her arm and starts walking towards the hanger bay. As soon as they reach the end of the corridor, they are blocked off by Lin Beifong.
"We're gonna try to save those people," Korra says. "You can't stop us!"
"I don't want to stop you. I want to fly you there," Lin says, punching the password into the door's keypad.
"Thanks!" Korra sheers.
"Don't throw a party yet," says Lin with a scowl. "Come on, soldiers."
Korra deeply inhales and clenches her fawn fists.
[X]
Lin's crew of fighting victors narrowly escape the ire of the Capitol ships beginning to crowd the sky. Lin is a good pilot like that. 9 is not far away. It takes twenty minutes to get past the fence and into the District. It is broken, panicked, and Zuko jumps down before they even finish landing. They know it could be too late, but they will try anyway.
Katara and Korra quickly step onto the ground. No one is nearby, but there are no planes in the sky and no smoldering ruins. It is not time yet.
"Get as many people as you can and bring them back here," orders the Beifong sister, before grabbing onto Korra. "But you can't save them all. We only have so much space on the hovercraft. Just do what you can."
Korra shakes Lin off of her, despising that idea.
As they enter the heart of District 9, a flood of peacekeepers on their way out start fighting.
That must be the delay. Those loyal to the Capitol need a chance to escape.
As they battle, Zuko and Katara have a duality Korra admires. They combine water and fire to kill and disabled every single peacekeeper who tries to stop them. In the Square, the people have gathered. Korra wonders if the same thing happened in 2, if people just said goodbye to their loved ones. No, Korra imagines they were taken by surprise.
Once they reach the Square, Zuko screams over the desperation, "Follow me! Hurry up! I'm taking kids first!"
Katara hastily helps the children clinging to their parents and crying, while Korra feels her heart pounding. There is not enough time to save everybody. Not enough space—there are thousands here—and she knows that Lin was right. The ships black out the sky as she runs with them, holding a baby as she guides the others and helps them along. Korra looks at the crowd and looks up at the ships about to drop their bombs.
The moment her mind turns to the skeletons of those she loved, her eyes begin to glow.
Zuko and the other inhabitants of his District stare as the Avatar rises and bends four elements at once. She creates a shield of ice and stone over the crowds and then powered by her airbending, rises further. The ships look about to release the bombs when her metalbending comes into play.
She crushes two of the ships and they swivel towards the ground. The bombs go off past the fences. Zuko dodges for cover and notices that Korra has tried to save people but has also inadvertently trapped them. He cannot save anybody but himself and it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.
Even as Korra fights, the hovercrafts keep coming. Zuko thinks she might have a chance, until three bullets fired from a peacekeeper on a roof in 9 hit her. She falls, spinning and swirling, and hits the ground. She closes her eyes and Zuko curls into himself as only a few bombs fall and crush the cover Korra built.
He would do anything to undo hearing the screams.
Zuko gets up as soon as the hovercrafts leave and picks up Korra. He combs through the rubble for a few moments but cannot manage, so he runs with the bleeding Avatar towards where Katara took the children.
The hovercraft took off. The remaining slums explode behind Zuko and he runs as fast as he can towards the Victor's Village. He weaves behind the buildings with Korra and finds the weak point in the fence he used to crawl through.
Thankfully, the electricity is down, and Zuko slides under it.
He carries Korra in the direction of District 10.
Maybe they can make it by tomorrow if he pushes himself.
[X]
Enduring the surprise attack on 10, prioritized over anything happening in 9, Azula stands in the control room as the walls shake around her. The bombs make her dizzy, but her thoughts are strongly on Ty Lee. On her Ty Lee. And then Mai. Her best friend, her only real friend. Then Asami, the little sister she would die to protect.
She is tired. She is so tired, both from lack of sleep and the kind of exhausted that sleep can never fix. She is a mad, mad girl crying her eyes out with no shame.
Hama approaches Azula and sets one hand on her back.
"Why are you afraid?" softly asks the Puppetmaster.
Azula knows that she should lie, but she decides not to.
"If he's doing this… if he's doing this he's going to kill them. He's going to kill them because of the videos I made. I can't lose them. I can't lose them all." She breaks down and falls into Hama's arms, clinging to her as she sobs hysterically.
"We will save them," says Hama, stroking Azula's hair. "I promise we will save them."
Azula is crying too hard to tell Hama that hope is long lost.
[X]
The next morning, the attack on 10 is confirmed to have ended.
The next morning, Lin Beifong returns to her district, and begins to prepare her best soldiers for an assault on the Capitol. The importance of haste cannot be overstated; she needs to get them into the Tribute Center to rescue the victors before President Shinohai can slaughter them.
Thirty minutes before Lin readies her army for war, Azula has been sitting in a chair in Command with a thousand-yard stare. The door opens and Azula looks up to see Katara and Lin. They are dirty and slightly bloodied.
Suyin asks, riddled with concern, "What happened to you?"
"We lost Korra and Zuko," Katara blurts out, fighting desperately to hold back tears of agony. "We saved the children but we didn't…"
"Explain this to me," says Azula, slowly standing. She lost her Avatar. They lost her Avatar like utter fools and Azula wants nothing more than to kill them all.
"Before the lockdown we went to 9. We just finished settling in the refugees and we looked for Korra and Zuko but…" Katara purses her lips and closes her eyes.
Lin finishes for her. "We waited for them as long as we could, but the bombers were closing in and we needed to leave."
Suyin somberly stands. "The Avatar can't be…"
"Maybe not," whispers Katara. "She and Zuko are strong. They might have even won the fight. She is the Avatar, isn't she?"
Azula does nothing but glare.
There are no words to express her anger.
[X]
In the evening, Azula sits alone in the mess hall. She does not know how to fathom the loss of the Avatar, nor the potential loss of her sister and only true love.
Someone approaches from behind.
"The soldiers have entered Capitol air space," states a familiar voice. Azula jumps when Suyin taps her shoulder. "I need you to go to the surface. You have to make a propo."
Her eyes brimming with angry tears, "First, I need you to finish your assault on the Capitol and save my sister and my fiancée and my stepmother," Azula snarls. "I refuse to make any more little videos until you do it."
Suyin shifts to stand in front of Azula and shakes her head.
"I'm trying to do that. I need you to help me," she says, and Azula does not understand. "The propo isn't a normal one. The Capitol is on generator power after what 9 did, and we can get onto their air waves—and past many of their defenses. Your propo will break their system while we send soldiers in to save the victors and Ty Lee."
Azula is tired. Tired. Tired. Tired.
But she will do anything to save Asami, Mai and Ty Lee.
"I… yes. Yes, fine," Azula says, nodding, her eyes still vacant and lips still parted. "Take me to the surface. Let's get this over with."
Azula walks up with Jet and his two assistants.
She looks around her and thinks she must be hallucinating like she has been lately.
"Are those real?" Azula asks softly.
Jet picks one of the roses up. "Yeah. They're real."
Azula sinks onto her knees.
"No, no, no. I can't… I won't… I can't do this…" Tears drip from her eyes onto the blanket of roses. "He knew we would survive. This was just to taunt us…"
Longshot turns on his camera, while Azula is unaware.
She clings onto the roses and cries.
Jet dares to say, after a moment of that footage, "Azula, what do you want your father to know? Tell him."
Azula looks up and starts to laugh through her tears.
"Oh, and in the end, it's still about good television, isn't it? Me crying here, grieving the pain and deaths of my fiancée and my sister and my best friend is going to be the perfect video. Oh, the public will see how much I'm hurting…"
"Think of them," Jet says. "Think of what the Capitol has done to them."
Azula reads between the lines. He is reminding her that this will aid their rescue.
She looks up and at the camera.
"Father, you…" Azula chokes on her tears. "I used to dream about you and dream about how it would be to be your daughter and to be loved by someone after my mother and stepfather despised me. Now I dream of you every night, and they are not the sweet kind. I have nightmares about you sending peacekeepers to drag away and beat half to death the woman I love. I have nightmares about not being able to save my sister from your wrath. I have nightmares about how ashamed I am for… ever once thinking the Capitol was worth preserving."
Azula gazes at the rose in her hand. She intends for it to signify drama, a small break in her words, but then she crumples it in her fist. The thorns sting her palm.
She knows this will do nothing.
She knows her father does not care about his name being besmirched. They have surpassed a battle of propaganda; they have entered a true, brutal, bloody war.
Azula takes a breath and looks up. "Screw this. Let me speak to my father. Get Katara to do the propo. Tell them about 9 and anything else you can manage. I need to speak to him directly."
Katara rolls her eyes at being ordered around but Azula, but she agrees with her, so she exits the room as fast as she can.
In the dark Capitol night, "I don't want to go!" Mai screams, fighting against the rebels who filmed her three days ago. "I want to stay! Stop it!"
They have her by the arms and she does not have the strength to resist.
One of the men insists, "We have to get you out of here before the rebels leave."
"Leave? Who's here?" Mai hisses, unaware of the battle raging not far away.
The sole woman explains in a frantic tone, "A rescue party went to the Tribute Center. We offered to get you there."
"I don't want to go there, and you will not take me." Mai takes her opportunity to break free.
Mai runs from them, because she know they will not take no for an answer. They will call her damaged and force her. She runs to the office of the Presidential Palace and throws open the door.
Ozai mockingly asks, looking up from his focus on the rebels he knows have entered the Tribute Center. "Have you come to kill me?"
"No." Mai sinks to the floor, exhausted from that short run. "I…"
She curls up and Ozai waves his hand to stop the peacekeepers from dragging her away. He returns the image to the room. Mai sees Korra describing the rescue of District 9.
Mai has never felt such relief. She did not kill her District.
Ozai twists through the airwaves, knowing Zaofu would love to taunt him over breaking through the Capitol defenses to show one of their little short films.
"Father," says a shaking voice over the radio, "Father, can you hear me?"
Mai bites her lower lip.
Ozai freezes in place.
