The tiny airship descended into the Republic City air field well after midnight, but still both Korra and Asami were there to greet it. As president, Asami had been notified immediately of the team's approach, and she had been sure to contact the Avatar on her way to join her. The landing crew secured the vessel in place, allowing the gangway to lower. Kuvira appeared first, marching out of the airship with a slight limp in her stride.
Korra raced forward with a beaming smile, meeting her girlfriend with a welcoming hug. "You're back!"
"And way sooner than expected," Asami said, with a gently raised eyebrow. "Was the mission a success?"
Kuvira huffed out a deep sigh, and glanced over her shoulder. "Not exactly..."
Kya emerged from the airship next, carrying an unconscious girl in her arms. Lin limped along at her side, hunched forward with an arm clutched across her ribs. Her armor had been removed, dressed down in a once-white tank top that had been soaked almost entirely crimson with dry, crusted blood.
"Quick, we need to get these two to the hospital for recovery," Kya said, as she hurried down the gangplank.
Korra balked, lifting her brow in concern. "What on earth happened?"
"And who is that?" Asami added, noting the girl in Kya's arms.
Kuvira swallowed, shifting a distant look towards the girl. "That's Shayu... Yula's sister."
Asami's expression creased with concern. "And why do you have Yula's sister with you?
"I'll explain on the way, but we really need to get them to the hospital now," Kuvira insisted. "Kya healed them as best she could, but they should still be looked at by doctors."
"Right, of course," Asami replied, with a tired shake of her head. "I'll call for an emergency transport. Should just be a few minutes."
Korra stood outside the small hospital room, Kuvira lingering close by her side. Shayu lay unconscious in the bed within. Various beeping machines had been attached to the unconscious girl, monitoring her vitals. A mere precaution, according to the doctors. Kya had already done most of the work healing her. Lin had fortunately only required a brief checkup before being cleared to head home and rest in her own bed. She wouldn't be back in fighting form for a while, but she would recover perfectly fine.
"Yula used her own sister as a decoy?" Korra gazed through the window of the hospital room door, watching Shayu sleep. "She must have known something like this could happen."
"I've no doubt she did," Kuvira muttered, with a shake of her head. "I don't think she cared. She put her sister in a dangerous role, regardless of the circumstances. Just another example of how far she's fallen."
"And how far she's willing to go."
Kuvira turned away from the door and raked her fingers through her hair. A deep, weighty sigh huffed out her throat. "I can't believe I fell for it. I was so sure she was Yula, I didn't even bother to be certain before I attacked. An innocent girl almost died because I was impatient."
"It's not your fault." Korra reached down and held Kuvira's hand tight, lacing their fingers together. "They had everyone fooled—the people, our scouts... You couldn't have known."
"I could have if only I'd waited a minute longer," she groaned, smacking the back of her head against the wall behind her. "I shouldn't have done it in the first place. What was I thinking? Me, of all people, carrying out an assassination? Stupid."
"I'm sorry... I know this must be hard on you." Korra tightened the hold on Kuvira's fingers, her best attempt at comforting her girlfriend. "I'm here if you need anything."
"I'll be fine," she sighed. "I just need to let my head clear out."
"Do you want to go? It's getting late."
Kuvira shook her head. "No, I think I'll stay here a while. I'm the one who put Shayu in that condition, I should be here when she wakes up. To apologize, at the very least."
"Well, if you're sure..." Korra leaned forward to give a deep kiss, before pulling away down the corridor. "I'll be back on the island when you're ready."
Shayu awoke with a soft groan, gently blinking her eyes open. Vague shapes and outlines filtered through her blurred vision. Oh spirits, why was everything spinning? Where was she? What was that beeping? She blinked her vision clear and rolled her head from side to side atop the pillow. So many machines. So many wires and tubes. All hooked up to her? A hospital?
"What's going on?" She lurched upright, her voice cracking with rising panic. "Where am I!"
"Shayu, relax, it's okay!" The voice came from the other side of the bed. Shayu blinked towards it, where she noticed a woman sitting in a chair. A woman with a long braid, and shiny metal armor with green robes underneath. "You're in a Republic City hospital. You're safe."
"Republic City?" Shayu focused her thoughts, trying to remember what had happened before she passed out. There was nothing, at first. Only an empty, blank void where her memory should have been. Then, a flash. Images roared through her mind, sudden and rapid. The blade, the pain, the blood, her screaming. Understanding and recognition ignited in her eyes, fueled by a sharp stab of fear. "You... You're Kuvira. You attacked me. You tried to kill me! And then you..." A pained throb pulsed between her ears, forcing a tired groan out her lips. She slumped back against the bed. "...kidnapped me?"
"No," Kuvira said, with an insistent rise in tone. After a moment's pause, she flinched back with a frown of guilt. "Well, yes, but... Let me explain. I wasn't there trying to kill you. I was there for your sister."
Shayu blinked. "Yula?"
"Yes. She was the target, but you were there in her place. As her decoy." Kuvira held a hand to her forehead, heaving a deep sigh. "According to our intel, you were Yula. Turns out, you had us all fooled. After I realized the mistake, my team and I had to take you, so we could heal you and escape. We brought you with us here, to Republic City."
"I don't understand. You and my sister used to be friends. Why would you attack her like that?"
Kuvira bowed her head. "It's complicated."
"Is it because she broke up with you, huh? Is that it?" Shayu folded her arms across her chest and frowned, narrowing an accusatory glare at the woman. "You couldn't handle it so you tried to get back at her?"
"What? No, what kind of question—No." Kuvira huffed in exasperation, pressing her palm against her forehead. Almost like she actually couldn't believe Shayu was asking such a thing. She had to be lying, though, didn't she? What other reason could she have had to attack Yula like that? "This mission was decided on by the remaining world leaders. It wasn't something I decided to do on my own. We were trying to stop her before she starts a war with the rest of the world."
"She's just trying to help people," Shayu insisted, deepening her frown. "Why don't any of you understand that? If she brings the whole world together under one ruler, everyone will be safe. They'll never have to worry about wars or anything. What happened to my family and so many others in Ba Sing Se when the city fell into chaos will never happen to anyone else again. Don't you see? Yula wants what you want, she just has a better way of doing it."
"A better way?" Anger flashed in Kuvira's gaze, nearly lifting her out of her seat. "Is that what you call what happened to Zaofu? People lost their homes—their lives! That isn't 'a better way' to achieve world peace, it's madness!"
"That's because Zaofu tried to resist," Shayu said, clutching her fingers in her hair. She shook her head, trying to make the pounding behind her eyes go away. Spirits, why did her head hurt so much? "You attacked us first. Yula was just defending herself."
"After we were threatened by her army. After she marched on us with the sole purpose of conquest and domination. You think we attacked for the fun of it? We were defending ourselves."
Shayu shook her head again, squinting her eyes shut tight. "No, that's not right. That's not what Yula said."
"Take it from someone who's had to pay for the same mistakes your sister is making now," Kuvira said, settling calmly in her seat. "Yula is not some grand savior to the world. She's a tyrant and a bully, who only cares about showing how strong she is and crushing whoever gets in her way. She has played and manipulated you this entire time, right down to turning you into a target by having you impersonate her. She doesn't care about world peace or uniting the people. She only cares about herself and her own ego."
"No!" Shayu smacked the sides of her head with her hands. Her head throbbed, dull pain flaring beneath her skull. With each new word that came out of Kuvira's mouth, the pain grew. Deeper, fiercer. Why wouldn't this headache go away already? Why did this woman keep saying such mean things about Yula? "You're wrong! You don't know her like I do. Yula's not like that. She's not mean, she's not evil, she's not a... a tyrant. She just wants to help the world. If that means being a little hard on people who want to stop her, then that's okay. Because it's Yula, and she's nice, and caring, and... and good!"
"I wish I were wrong, Shayu. Believe me. That would be so much easier than the truth. I'm afraid you don't know your sister as well as you think you do."
"I don't want to talk to you anymore!" Shayu shrieked, burying her head close against her chest, hands clawing at her hair. She pressed her eyes shut tighter, desperate to stifle the stream of tears threatening to spill outward. "Just go away! Get out!"
Kuvira stood up and made her way to the door. She paused, looking back with a deep sigh. "I wish I didn't have to be so blunt with you, I really do. Unfortunately, we don't have that luxury right now. I get that you look up to your sister and you don't want to believe she's capable of terrible things, but life doesn't always go the way we want it to. We're all capable of terrible things. Just think about it, Shayu. Who's the real villain? The people trying to defend their homes? Or the one trying to destroy them?"
Asami bellowed a long yawn, wandering into her office early the next morning with a stretch of her arms. Probably should have gone to bed earlier the night before, but after a late night dinner with Sinn, and the arrival of Lin and the others, she'd never had the chance. Oh well. She could survive on a couple hours of sleep for one day. Wouldn't be the first time. Or the hundredth. With a deep sigh, she sat behind her desk and rubbed her eyes. Just a few more minutes and she might wake up enough to start working.
The intercom on her desk buzzed, followed by her secretary's voice. "President Sato, you have visitors."
Asami groaned, absently reaching out to press the reply button. "I don't recall having any appointments scheduled this early. Who is it?"
"Anraq and Azula, ma'am."
"Oh." She blinked herself awake, twitching her brow with intrigue. No one had been able to find those two anywhere in the city for the past three days. Now they showed up for an unannounced meeting with the president? That had to mean something important. "Okay, yeah, send them in."
The door opened several moments later, allowing both Anraq and Azula to enter the office. Anraq stepped in front of the desk and gave a respectful bow, while Azula remained standing upright with her arms folded across her chest.
"President Sato, thank you for meeting with us," Anraq said.
"Of course." Asami gave him an amiable nod, trying not to let the concern show in her eyes. She considered Anraq a friend, certainly enough to be on a first name basis with each other. For him to be using her formal title... Something was wrong. She shifted her gaze towards Azula. This woman, she trusted far less. Maybe not at all. While Azula had yet given reason to doubt her newfound change of character, Asami hadn't forgotten the terrible things she'd done. "Where have you two been? We've been looking for you the past few days."
"We, uh..." Anraq cleared his throat, awkwardly averting his gaze. "...kind of went on an unsanctioned rescue mission?"
Asami's eyes flared. "You what? Where?"
"Ba Sing Se," Azula said, "to rescue my niece."
"Izumi?" Asami paused to think. All contact with Ba Sing Se had been cut off ever since Yula took over the Dragon Empire, and any attempt at reaching Earth Queen Izumi had failed. Considering the loyalty she would have held towards her father and the rest of the world, her being removed from power and imprisoned certainly made sense. "Is she alright? Where is she?"
"She's fine," Azula said, with a deep exhale. "She was removed as Earth Queen and imprisoned after Yula came into power, but we were able to find and free her. Right now, she's on Kyoshi Island with her mother."
Asami relaxed in her seat. "That's good news, then."
"Yeah, well, now we have some not so good news," Anraq muttered.
"What do you mean?"
"Lord Zuko was with us. Actually, he's the one who initiated the mission in the first place. But, well..." Anraq hung his head, uttering a deep, shuddering breath. "During the rescue, we were attacked by Yula. She..."
"She killed him," Azula stated, twisting a furious scowl across her face. A heated glare sparked in her eyes, stricken with a fierce mix of pain and anger. "Struck him with lightning when his back was turned."
"What?" A nauseous jolt shot through Asami's gut. She stiffened in her seat, reaching a hand down to clutch her stomach in some desperate attempt to settle it. Lord Zuko, dead? It didn't seem possible. It couldn't be. "I... I don't believe this."
"Well, believe it," Anraq said, tightening his arms across his chest. He glanced down at the floor, frowning. "We were there. We watched him die."
Asami swallowed the knot in her throat, shifting a careful gaze towards Azula. While she might not particularly like this woman, she could certainly empathize with that kind loss. "Azula... I'm so sorry."
"I don't need your pity," she retorted, intensifying her glare. "I just need an opportunity. Whenever Yula decides to attack, whenever she shows her cowardly face, I am going to be there. Utilize me however else you like when this war starts, but I want to be the one to face her. I want to be the one to end her."
"Yula isn't someone you should face alone," Asami insisted. "With how powerful she is..."
"You think I don't know how powerful she is? I had that same power before she stole it from me. I don't care about that. This is something I have to do, for my brother. Yula needs to pay for what she did."
Asami sank back against her chair and heaved out a sigh. "Alright. I'll consider it, if the opportunity arises. That said, if another chance comes up to stop her before that, we have to take it."
Azula grumbled quietly to herself, as if struggling to fight down an angry retort. After a moment's pause, she gave a begrudging nod of agreement. "Very well. I understand."
"I have a suggestion," Anraq said, raising his hand. "I mean, it's going to sound crazy, especially coming from me, but... What about an assassination? Or abduction, at least? Take out Yula before she attacks. I know, it's extreme, and we did already sort of try that in Zaofu, but it could be our best bet at stopping this war before it starts, and saving thousands of innocent lives."
Asami cleared her throat, sinking in her seat. "Actually, we already tried that."
Anraq blinked, eyebrows furrowed. "Wait, what? When?"
"When you were in Ba Sing Se. The world leaders sent a small team after Yula to preemptively stop her."
"Let me guess," Azula said. "It didn't work."
"No, it didn't." Asami exhaled a deep breath and bowed her head. "Our intel on Yula's location was wrong. Instead of attacking her, they ended up attacking a decoy, instead: Yula's sister."
"Shayu?" Anraq's gaze flickered with worry. "What happened? Is she alright?"
"She's fine," Asami said. "They were able to heal her and bring her back to Republic City. She's recovering in the hospital right now."
"Oh, thank the spirits..." Anraq muttered, with a breath of relief. "I can't believe Yula would put her own sister in that kind of position."
Azula scoffed. "I can. That woman has gone certifiably mad with power. I'll bet she won't even care when she finds out we have her sister."
"Well, I hope you're wrong," Asami said.
"And why's that?"
"Because we can use Shayu against her."
Anraq narrowed his eyes. "You mean... as a bargaining chip?"
Asami nodded. "Exactly. Assuming she does care about Shayu, we can get Yula to back off in exchange for her safe return."
"Won't work," Azula said. "Trust me on this, you can't count on Yula to keep her word. As soon as she has her sister back, she'll attack us anyway. You can't just give up the only leverage you have."
Asami frowned, and folded her hands in front of herself on the desk. "Then what would you suggest?"
"Keep Shayu, but offer to leave her unharmed as long as Yula stops her campaign."
"And what exactly would we do if she refuses?"
Azula merely shrugged. "Kill her, obviously."
"Azula!" Asami lifted her brow in disbelief. "Are you insane?"
Anraq, too, stared wide-eyed at her. "We can't just kill Shayu!"
"Oh for goodness sake," Azula muttered, with a roll of her eyes. "I didn't mean we'd actually kill her. We just tell Yula that. Honestly, you people need to learn how to bluff."
Asami heaved a deep breath, slowly relaxing in her seat. That actually made a lot more sense. "And what if she calls our bluff? Or if she doesn't care?"
"Simple." Azula narrowed her eyes into a cold glare. "We prepare for war."
Yula stood straight with her arms clasped behind her back, staring at the destruction that had befallen the royal bedchambers in the Omashu palace. The floor had been torn to pieces, the front wall and doorway had collapsed, furniture had been demolished... The whole place looked like a warzone. A warzone that Shayu had been right in the middle of.
"Explain to me exactly what happened," she said, glancing towards the palace guard captain.
"It was a small strike team," he replied, bowing his head respectfully before her. "Three people. One of them was Kuvira. The other two I didn't recognize. An older woman in some kind of police armor, and a female waterbender, about the same age."
Yula's brow twitched. She knew those two—Lin Beifong, and her girlfriend, Kya. So, Kuvira had led those two into Omashu to attack her sister. Why wasn't that surprising? Those filthy, dirty cowards...
"They infiltrated the palace and attacked your sister, then tried to bargain her life for their escape," the captain continued. "Their healer kept her alive while they fled, and they took her with them."
"I see..." Yula sucked in a deep breath and slowly let it out through her nose. She turned fully to the captain, her brow lowered in a heated glare. "So, you let them kidnap my sister. After you let them nearly kill her."
"W-well we didn't let them do anything," he stammered. "They were highly skilled, and it was a well planned operation. We just—"
"That's enough, Captain." She looked to the pair of guards stationed behind him, and gestured them forward. "You two, throw him in the dungeon. I'll be by to deal with him later."
"Wait!" The captain struggled against the other two guards when they grabbed him. They held firm, dragging him down the hall. The man's expression grew wild, panicked. "Empress, no, please!"
She ignored his desperate pleas. When he was gone, she looked to the other man standing at her side. "Ishida, I need you to do something for me."
Ishida bowed low, eager to appease his empress. "Yes, Empress, anything."
Ever since Yula had eliminated the terrorist Sun Warriors and left Ishida as the last one alive, he had been such a good, loyal servant, always ready to do whatever she asked of him. True, he was motivated almost entirely out of fear for his own life, but as Yula had learned so well from Azula, fear was the only truly reliable way to make people do what you wanted.
"Send word to both Captain Han and Avan to prepare their troops," Yula stated, steeling her gaze. "I want my entire army ready to march on Republic City by the end of the week."
