Lightning ripped across the sky. Kuvira stood her ground, raising her earth wall higher to block. She focused, condensed the stone. Chips of rubble blasted free from impact, but the wall remained standing. Aoi didn't slow, running across the rooftops for a better angle on her target below. When she had an opening, she fired another shot of lightning. Kuvira shifted, and with a simple stomp she shielded herself with another earthen block.

"You'll have to do better than that!" Kuvira shouted, with a series of swift arm thrusts.

The earth wall split into pieces and launched towards the Red Lotus girl. Aoi ducked and spun out of the way, never losing the confident grin plastered across her smug face. With each evasive move, she countered with lightning, once again forcing Kuvira on the defensive.

"You disappoint me, Great Uniter!" Aoi flipped from one building to the next. She stabbed two fingers forward and sparked yet another bolt of lightning into the air. "Is that all you can do?"

"All I can do?" Kuvira blocked the lightning with another wall. "You're the one with no new tricks!"

Kuvira slid back her leg and raced across the ground, earth surging beneath her stance as though a moving wave of water. The air sizzled with another stream of lightning. With a stomp of her foot, she launched herself skyward upon an earthen pillar to evade the blast, landing in a controlled roll on the rooftop next to Aoi's. In the same motion, she sprang to her feet and thrust her fists forward. Several chunks of the flat roof ripped free and fired at the girl. Again, Aoi danced around the attacks with ease.

Aoi grinned, eyes sharpening on her advancing opponent. "Perhaps, but they're the only tricks I need!"

Another thrust of her fingers, another bolt of lightning. Not at Kuvira this time. Electricity exploded at the edge of the rooftop, just as Kuvira began to leap to the next one. Clay tiles erupted in a cloud of shrapnel, forcing Kuvira to stumble back and cover her face. She reached out and bent the crumbling rubble beneath her feet, lifting herself into the air across the alley towards the next roof, where she expected Aoi to be waiting. Instead, she recoiled. Aoi had run forward as soon as she stumbled, closing the distance between them. With a single leap, the Red Lotus girl flipped forward through the air, straight above her target.

Kuvira's gaze followed the girl flipping over her. She shifted her stance, one leg sliding sideways to widen her base. Aoi charged another bolt of lightning at her fignertips, arms extended toward her target. While still in midair, she released the bolt, igniting the night sky with electric blue. Kuvira spun away, rolling across the rooftop a split second before the lightning charred the spot where she'd be standing. When Aoi landed, she tilted herself backwards with two fingers outstretched. Another bolt sizzled the air. Kuvira ducked to avoid it, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck lift as lightning tore through the air inches from her head. The air itself charged with an electric hiss. Bending the roofing beneath her feet, she glided in a wide arc around the girl.

Kuvira thrust her arms forward. The bracers she wore with her robes were the same sort she typically wore with her armor, including a series of small metal plates along her forearms. Several of those metal plates sprang free and arced through the air towards Aoi. The Red Lotus girl held her smirk, weaving through the projectiles with expert precision. Always with that cocky smirk. Kuvira grinned right back at her. So cocky, she didn't notice Kuvira's left foot slide forward, kicking up a rippling line of roof tiles that arced behind her.

Aoi stepped backwards to dodge another incoming metal strip, only to stumble when her foot tripped against a newly raised bump on the otherwise flat rooftop. The smugness in her eyes vanished. Kuvira seized the opportunity, firing another pair of metal strips from her bracers. The first wrapped over Aoi's wrists, pulling them together. The second bound her ankles.

"Got you," Kuvira said, widening her grin.

Weaving her arms through the air, she lifted Aoi by the metal strips and threw the girl across the rooftop. Aoi slammed against the tile and spun wildly with each new wave of Kuvira's hands. Once, twice, thee times. The pin holding Aoi's hair in her topknot sprang free, causing the girl's dark locks to spill in a wild mess around her shoulders. Each time Kuvira slammed her into the rooftop, her hair grew wilder, strands sticking out in disarray. When Kuvira finished her assault, Aoi lay motionless with her back to Kuvira. The girl twitched a few times, as if attempting to move after the vicious assault. She managed only a weak groan before falling limp again.

"Alright," Kuvira muttered, as she approached the fallen girl. "Now, you're going to come with me. My team and I are going to have some questions for you."

She raised a hand to lift the girl into the air by her metal bindings. Nothing happened. She tried again, bu still Aoi remained lying on the ground. Her brow furrowed. What was going on? Why would she suddenly not be able to bend the metal around the girl's body?

"You fool." Aoi's eyes snapped open. She sprang to her feet and extended two fingers forward with a quickly charged blast of lightning. Kuvira swept a desperate chunk of tiling to shield herself. The resulting explosion knocked her clean off her feet near the edge of the rooftop. Aoi's grin returned. "Were you that overconfident you didn't even notice I melted your little metal bands clean off?"

Kuvira sat upright with a pained grunt. Her gaze swiveled towards Aoi's wrists and ankles, where she'd latched the metal strips. Nothing there. Her heart sank. She hadn't noticed. Whether because of the nighttime darkness or because she'd really been that overconfident in her apparent moment of victory, she hadn't notice the metal disappear.

Aoi glanced down at her feet and kicked a pair of molten globs—the remains of the metal strips. "Firebenders can increase their body temperature, you know. Keep themselves warm, melt ice, things like that. Or in my case, melt through metal. You really don't know who you're dealing with here, Great Uniter."

Kuvira jumped back to her feet and sank into her bending stance. "The way I see it, I'm dealing with a smug, self-entitled brat of a firebender who can't even firebend."

Aoi's gaze narrowed. "You haven't earned the right to see me firebend! For someone who's supposed to be as fearsome and talented as the Great Uniter, you've been nothing but a disappointment so far. I'd much rather use my lightning and see you fry!" Despite Aoi's confidence, she couldn't hide her labored breathing, or the way she stood favoring her left leg, or the shuddering in her arms. Certainly not the trickle of blood streaking down the side of her face. For all her skill, she was hurt. Bad.

Kuvira readied another shield composed of roof tiling, as Aoi began charging another bolt of lightning. Had to end this quick. Taking Aoi in alive for interrogation might not be possible. She might very well have to end this girl, before the same happened to her. Either outcome worked. Even in the event she did have to kill Aoi, the Red Lotus would lose one of its strongest members. That would be a serious blow in and of itself.

Another flash of blue ignited in the night sky as Aoi cast her fingers forward. Kuvira reinforced her shield to block it. Lightning streaked through the darkness, but it didn't hit the shield. The bolt struck the roof at Kuvira's feet, exploding the tile into clay rubble. Cracks spidered across the rooftop, until the entire back portion began to crumble. Kuvira made a desperate sweep of her arms to bend the falling rubble, but her feet pulled out from underneath her. She fell free, plummeting into open air.

The world blurred as she fell. She struck an awning partway down the building, tore through it into a second awning, and a third, until finally colliding with the ground. With no armor to absorb any of the impact, dull pain exploded through her ribs. She coughed, air bursting from her lungs. Her breaths shuddered and gaped. Damn it. Not good. Had to get up. Had to recover. She pushed upright, tried to stand. Pain tore deeper, eliciting a loud cry as she fell flat against the street. Everything spun. The buildings, the sky, the moon—everything, so dizzy.

"Kuvira!" Yula raced into view and dropped to her knees at Kuvira's side. Her eyes sparked with panic. "Oh, spirits! Can you hear me?"

Kuvira blinked. The spinning slowed, but still she couldn't sit upright. Every twitch of her muscles brought a new lash of pain. She could only lie there, staring up at the younger woman kneeling over her. A small flicker of movement shifted beyond Yula on the rooftop above. A panicked couch wheezed from her lungs. Blue lit up the sky once again, as Aoi charged lightning into her fingers.

"Yula, move!" she called, with a wheezing cough.

Yula spun around, eyes wide as she watched Aoi cast her arm forward. The searing bolt scorched straight at her, but she didn't move. Spirits, no! Was she too afraid, rooted in place by her fear?

"Yula!"

The young woman stood her ground. She planted her feet and thrust a hand forward to meet the lightning, two fingers extended. When the blast struck her arm, she screamed. Still, she did not falter. Lightning crackled through her fingertips, raced down her arm, and surged through her body. For one brief moment, her entire body glowed blue with electricity. The lenses in her glasses cracked. Her hair stood on end. Her clothing singed. With a feral shriek, Yula extended her other arm forward, pointing at Aoi. The lightning continued its path through her body, exploding out of her extended fingers to reignite the darkened sky.

Aoi's eyes flared wide. No more confidence. Only panic. Still caught in the follow-through of her attack, she lurched backwards to get out of the way. Not nearly fast enough, as the bolt ripped through the sky in a mere blink. Lightning exploded at the edge of the rooftop, scattering a cloud of tile and debris. Aoi screamed, plummeting into the building below with the roof collapsing around her.

Silence returned to the night. Yula exhaled a sharp gasp, falling to her knees with her arms cradled around her gut. Her breaths were short, rapid and uneven.

"Yula?" Kuvira forced herself upright with a heaving groan. She crawled beside the younger woman, hands resting on her shoulders. "Are you alright?"

Yula shuddered, but gave a nod. "I'm okay. Just a little shaken."

"You... redirected her lightning," Kuvira said, with the slow, dawning revelation of what she'd just seen. "Yula, you're a firebender?"

Yula paused, giving a slow, timid nod in response. "I... yes. I am."

"You never mentioned that."

"That's because I've never told anyone," she said, with a twisting frown. Her eyes sank with shame behind her cracked glasses.

Kuvira opened her mouth to reply, but stopped when she noticed they were no longer alone. A crowd had started to gather, as citizens poured out of surrounding buildings to figure out what was going on. Others appeared in windows, gazing down at the streets below. Given the battle they'd just had, she wouldn't be surprised if they had awoken the entire Middle Ring.

"Maybe we'd better continue this conversation elsewhere," she suggested, as she stumbled back to her feet. "And before Aoi recovers. Can you stand?"

"I think so, yeah." Yula rose from the ground, her legs wobbling with a noticeable tremble.. Kuvira helped steady her, wrapping her arm around her shoulder. "Okay, let's go."

They found their way back to where they'd started: the turtle duck shaped fountain in the Upper Ring. Yula sat at the edge of the fountain, running her hand back and forth through the bubbling water. With wet fingers, she rubbed her face clean of sweat, and straightened her hair back into place. Kuvira sat next to her, watching.

"So, why haven't you told anyone you're a firebender?" Kuvira asked.

Yula eased out so heavy sigh. "You have to understand, growing up in the Lower Ring during the Earth Queen's rule wasn't just difficult because we were poor. There were certain prejudices. If you weren't an Earth Kingdom native, people looked at you different, treated you different. Treated you badly."

She stared at the ground, eyes shifting out of focus. "Everyone knew my father came from the Fire Nation, but as much as they despised him, they'd never say it to his face, or do anything to him. He was a firebender, you see. A really skilled one. A few people tried something once, but he put them in the hospital, so they never took out their hate on him again. But me..."

Kuvira's eyes widened. "They took it out on you? On a child?"

"Throughout most of my childhood, yes," she said, with a simple nod. "I'd come home with cuts or bruises, but I never told my dad why. They always used to tell me that if I said anything, they'd kill my father. So, I kept it to myself."

"That's awful." Kuvira's thoughts wavered, drifting back to her time as the Great uniter. Back to the prison camps. At first, they'd only been meant for traitors and dissenters, a way to 'rehabilitate' them and ensure they returned their loyalty to her. But she was only one person, and could only control so much of her empire at once. She hadn't learned of the additional camps some of her subordinates had started to detain non-Earth natives until after her defeat. By then, it was far too late to undo the damage. Maybe if she hadn't been so focused on her conquest, she might have realized how twisted some people had taken her ideals.

Yet another of her failings.

"When I was twelve, there was one particularly bad incident." Yula closed her eyes, and grabbed at the hem of her dress. "You see, my dad had been teaching me firebending in secret once he discovered I had the ability, but I was never any good at it. Not that twelve year old me realized it, of course. Spirits, I was so stupid. Thought I could fight off my bullies, maybe make them pay for hurting me so much. It didn't work." Tears leaked from behind her closed eyelids, a hiccup shuddering through her chest. "They broke two of my ribs and bruised my face so bad I didn't even look like me anymore. No hiding that."

Kuvira reached out, joining their hands together with a tight squeeze. "What happened?"

"My father went and confronted them," she explained. "He said he'd make sure they would never hurt me again. And he did. He killed them. I don't think he meant to, but the next thing my family knew, my dad was arrested by Dai Li agents and we never saw him again. I assume they locked him up in some dungeon somewhere, but he's probably dead by now."

"Yula..." Kuvira leaned close and pulled her into a warm embrace. Yula latched on, holding her head against Kuvira's shoulder and not letting go. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea."

Yula sniffled. "It happened so long ago, but it still hurts, you know? After that, I kept my firebending hidden. I did keep practicing in secret, but I still never got very good at it." She pulled away with a sigh, holding up one of her hands. A small orange flame ignited in her palm. "Just a way to feel like I'm still connected to my dad, I guess."

Kuvira gazed deep into Yula's eyes, watching the flickering firelight dance across her face. "And where did you learn how to redirect lightning? That's a pretty advanced technique."

"I read about it, actually. I have a lot of books about firebending, and one of them teaches how to redirect lightning. I practiced it a lot, just in case I ever needed it. Tonight was the first time I ever tried it for real."

"How did it feel? To have all the energy flowing through you like that."

"Intense." Yula's eyes glossed over, falling into distant thought. "Exhilarating, even. So much power flowing through me, more than I've ever felt before. But I was afraid, too. One mistake, and it could have been fatal."

Kuvira smiled. "But you didn't make a mistake. You were perfect."

"Well, I..." Yula's gaze returned into focus. "I suppose."

"You might say you're not that good," Kuvira said, with a firm squeeze to Yula's hand, "but you have to be exceptionally talented to be able to redirect lightning. I think you're far better than you give yourself credit for."

Yula's lips gradually curled into a satisfied smile, a subtle blush darkening her cheeks. "Maybe. I guess."

"How about you show me what you can do, sometime?" Kuvira asked. "We don't have to tell anyone, if you don't want."

"Okay, yeah." Yula's smile brightened. "I'd like that."

"I look forward to it." Kuvira leaned close again, this time bringing their lips together for a tender kiss. "Now come on, we should get going. We need to tell my team what happened."

A ball of fire exploded from the rubble pile, igniting half the furniture in the room. Aoi shoved a fallen chunk of concrete away and pulled herself free of the wreckage, clambering to her feet. A furious breath seethed from her throat. With a vicious yell, she cast both hands out to her sides and released a massive jet of flames. The fire spread, scorching through half the building within moments.

"That little wretch!" she shrieked, flipping her long hair out of her face. She sucked in several more frustrated, hateful breaths in attempts to calm herself. A lot of good it did. There was no calming her fury now. Looking to the far wall of the already burning room, she kicked out a jet of flames so strong the entire structure ruptured to create a hole leading outside. "When I get my hands on her..."

She shouted again, spewing a wave of fire from her mouth. Several more deep breaths, and she leaped out of the building to the street below. Onlookers gathered, some screaming, others pointing. Some retreated from the growing inferno consuming the building. Aoi paid them no mind. She marched away from the scene with her hands balled into fists, leaving behind tiny flames licking at the ground with each footstep.

"By the spirits," one man said, his mouth hanging open. "Have you ever seen flames like those?"

"No," replied the woman next to him. She gawked at the scene with equal astonishment. "Never."