All was quiet at the Southern Air Temple save the for the rustling of wind in the late night. Most inhabitants of the temple rose with the dawn and lived more or less as modern monks.
Kuvira slept on her back in a humble room with curved walls and a small window with a view of the vast mountainscape. Its only furnishings were a cot for sleeping and a mat on the floor for meditating in seated position. There was space enough at the city-sized temple for everyone to have their own room, and for the first time in weeks, Kuvira had solitary albeit troubled sleep.
The door of her room creaked open and Bae tiptoed in, her hair and face obscured with a shawl to reveal the slits of her eyes, which were red and swollen from crying and glaring at the sleeping Kuvira.
On the floor lay one of Kuvira's daggers in its scabbard and Bae swiped it stealthily, inching her way toward the woman in the bed. The waxing moon spirit shone through the small window illuminating specs of dust floating in the wind.
Kuvira turned to her side, and Bae froze in place as the other woman flopped on her back again. Several minutes later, Bae stirred after making sure Kuvira's breaths were slow and heavy as that of a person in deep sleep. She found herself hovering above Kuvira with the dagger raised above the former Great Uniter's chest, the light of the moon glinting off the blade.
She looked at Kuvira's face again and softened before once again finding resolve in justice. She kneeled and kept her gaze fixated on the woman who was her friend and incidentally her greatest enemy – at the very least, she would give Kuvira the honor of her gaze, a living witness to the next life. She inhaled deeply, clasping the dagger with both hands and swung down hard toward the other's woman heart.
In a fell swoop, Kuvira caught Bae's wrists with one hand and held her second dagger's edge at Bae's neck with the other. Kuvira looked steadily at the other woman.
"I didn't think you had the gumption, but I'm impressed." Kuvira husked.
Tears streamed down Bae's eyes, collecting in the fabric that obscured her face, and it broke Kuvira's heart to see she caused someone she cared about so much pain. Still, she kept up her banter:
"You thought I was asleep but you would know I stir at the slightest sound if you weren't the heaviest sleeper I ever met, and heavy-footed to boot." Kuvira found herself egging the other woman on.
Bae remained silent - the quietest Kuvira had seen of her since they met. She released her tight grip on Bae's helpless wrists and lowered the dagger. Bae fell back on the ground and unraveled her shawl.
Kuvira sat up on the edge of the cot so that she looked down at Bae on the floor. "What? That's it? You're not going to avenge your husband's death? I didn't take you for a weakling, but perhaps I was wrong."
"Stop it!" Bae's voice crackled. They were the first words she spoke since running away from the Hall of Avatars earlier that day.
Kuvira joined Bae on the floor and got down on her knees. She grabbed Bae's wrist, which still clutched the dagger and lifted it to her own neck.
"I've wronged you." Kuvira began. "Now serve me justice!"
The former Great Uniter could see the wild pain in the other woman's eyes, but in a few moments they changed from murderous to anger to something she couldn't place.
"I thought you were so wise. And cool. But now I see just you're a Fool. And I'm a lonely dreamer for following you, which also makes me a fool." Bae seethed. "I could kill you – but that'd just bring you peace. I see that now. It's not something I'm prepared to give you. Better to live with what you've done."
Kuvira fell back and they both sat in silence for several minutes, watching the angle of the moon's light shift along the floor of the room.
Without a word, Bae dropped the dagger, got up and exited the room, not even bothering to close the door behind her and leaving Kuvira in the same defeated position on the floor.
Bae sat at a terrace watching the sun rise. From a distance she saw an airbender riding in on a skybison. She had to admit this was truly a sight to behold – airbenders and skybisons and Avatars and… former dictators turned vigilantes, well just one of the latter. She let out a deep breath and sat up straight trying to meditate, something she had never done before.
The skybison landed behind her and made a guttural moan.
"I know Juicy. I didn't mean for us to get lost. But we're home now! Yay!" A young woman's voice said.
Bae turned and saw an airbender float down from the bison's saddle holding a basket filled with an herb she could smell from where she sat. The airbender pet her companion awhile before noticing Bae watching her.
"Oh, hello." Opal said, blushing. "Sorry, I didn't see you there."
"I sure feel invisible right about now," Bae mumbled.
"Didn't catch that," Opal called from where she stood.
"I said I shouldn't a stared. This is all new to me – sorry."
Opal approached and said "May I?" before sitting next to Bae at the edge of the balcony, their feet dangling. She turned toward the guest and held out a hand. "I'm Opal, nice to meet you. I saw you pull in earlier with Korra and the gang."
Bae shook the woman's hand, realizing who she was. "So You're Opal. And wow, of course you're very pretty. I'm Bae."
Opal recoiled a bit and her cheeks turned ruddy.
"Sorry I didn't stick around to say hello earlier." Opal motioned behind her. "I had a mission and it ended up taking longer than I anticipated."
Juicy groaned. Before Bae could reply, Opal spat out: "Why did you recognize my name? Does it have to do with the other person you arrived with?"
"Pa—I mean Kuvira?" Bae said. "Yea it does.
Bae found herself sizing up Opal then, but not out of jealousy – as a friend protective of her other friend. Oh no, she thought. She wanted hate this person, but she couldn't after all.
Opal sighed with her entire airbending being, floating up a few inches in the process.
"Exactly." Bae said.
They both laughed.
"You two look great together, by the way. I mean, I noticed as I flew away. She looked happy with you," Opal said after an awkward silence.
"What?" Bae realized what Opal meant and laughed with reckless abandon, coming unhinged. "Oh NO! We're not together! Matter fact, I just tried ta kill her! You know she killed my husband? Well, sort of."
"Oh." Opal said. "Sounds like Kuvira. She took my family hostage once and used to be engaged to my brother - before she tried to kill him. All of us, really."
Again both women laughed, near hysterically this time.
They broke the ice with stories about Kuvira – Bae regaling their travails on the road and along Serpent's Pass, and Opal sharing selective stories – the ones that guarded her own feelings.
The morning sun burned up the dew as it rose higher in the sky, eventually meeting the clouds.
"Kuvira is a complicated woman." Opal had picked up on the other woman's sadness throughout their conversation which was friendly but also like an interview.
"No kiddin,'" Bae said.
"So is it true?" Opal had wanted to know for sure and waited for the right moment to ask.
"Is what true?"
"Kuvira's bending – is it gone?"
"As far I can tell, yes. I thought she was a nonbender like me when we met. Took out three earthbenders easy." Bae smiled thinking back to the good ol days a few weeks ago.
"Wow!" Opal said. She thought a moment.
"Also…She loves you." Bae said.
Once again, Opal became flush. Watching the airbender's reaction to this news, Bae thought Kuvira mustn't be so terrible if she caused another person to react that way at the mention of love. She reached out a hand and placed it on Opal's shoulder.
"But if you hurt her, I swear I'll find a way back to this remote, extremely difficult to reach temple and take you out!" Bae found herself saying.
Opal smiled. "No promises. But you're a good friend."
"Not liking that about myself at the moment."
"Did you know I used to hate her? For the longest time, I couldn't stand her. I thought she was just terrible – and awesome. But my brother followed her around like a little puppy dog. He'd rather play with her than me. But now I -" Opal stopped herself from continuing.
Bae didn't need to hear it. She knew. It was her turn to sigh.
"By the looks of it, we both been up all night to the bright morning. I'm gonna try to get some shut eye if I can."
"Me too," Opal said.
But they both knew they wouldn't. They were too affected by Kuvira to rest.
It was late morning. Kuvira sat meditating under the window of her room. She hadn't left since her encounter with Bae hours earlier and didn't plan on leaving all day.
She heard a familiar voice clear their throat and opened her eyes to see Opal leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed.
"Opal!" Kuvira said, breaking whatever calm she had finally managed to wash over herself. "I, I didn't hear you."
"I'm light on my feet these days," Opal said flatly.
"Won't you come in?" Kuvira gestured toward the nothing that filled the room.
"No thank you. I have a lot to do, plus I'm exhausted from an errand. I just – wanted to say hi."
They held each other's gazes awhile until heat built up in their chests and traveled to their heads. Despite this, they both played it cool, a most challenging task under the circumstances.
"Hi," was the only word Kuvira could say to follow up.
"I met Bae by the way," Opal said.
Kuvira's eyes widened and she controlled every muscle in her body from reacting.
"Oh?"
"Yes. She told me what happened."
Kuvira looked at the floor. "I see."
"I just wanted to say – I don't think anyone else in this world would have done what you did – taking away your own bending like that. It's extreme but also really really… cool."
The former Great Uniter looked up, wondering if her ears deceived her. Her chest and stomach fluttered.
Opal couldn't keep herself from smiling. "And one more thing," she said. "I missed you."
Kuvira wasn't sure how to respond or what was going on. A flying lemur monkey flew in and perched at the windowsill. The two women turned toward the lemur who ate a piece of fruit it had brought with it.
When Kuvira turned her head back to the door, Opal was gone.
"I missed you too," Kuvira whispered.
The lemur finished its snack and flew off.