Hauntings
"Please Stop this madness!" Kuvira heard Avatar Korra call out as she made her way through the spirit vine forest looking for her, "It has to end now!"
"If you really want to end it, then come and get me!" Kuvira called back to her, or rather she heard herself call back to the Avatar. Rather than a participant, Kuvira felt herself to be more of a spectator within her own body, a captive audience of one with a gnawing sense of Deja-Vu at the back of her head. Indeed, Kuvira had a feeling that she'd seen all this before, enough to the point that she predicted the exact moment that Korra would run out into the clearing she herself was in, right into the path of the spirit energy cannon that she was currently perched on. "Now it's over," Kuvira heard herself say.
Korra, wide eyed with shock, cried out, "Don't!" and to be honest Kuvira wanted to comply. However, Kuvira was just as powerless to stop herself from pushing the lever forward as she was with controlling any of the words that led up to this. As the spirit energy built up for discharge, Kuvira saw Korra leap out of the way before the discharge hit the ground and inwardly breathed a sight of relief. However, she felt like she knew that it wasn't over yet, and as her head turned on its own to look over her shoulder she saw the spirit vines that was holding the cannon aloft start to glow pink with the spirit energy they were feeding into it just before the beam surged, changing its trajectory and starting it to spin under the momentum of the blast.
"Shut it down!" Korra called up to her, and thankfully the Kuvira whose body she was inhabiting decided to comply with the request. However, the cannon was unresponsive to her efforts to shut it down. "I can't!" Kuvira heard herself reply, to which Kuvira couldn't help but rail back at her other What made you think that activating it in that condition, in that precarious position, was anything approaching a good idea you idiot! But her other showed no reaction to the silent rebuke as they were jostled from the spinning, out-of control cannon and fell hard to the forest floor. They then looked up in time to see the spirit energy beam swing back around and sweep their way just as the Avatar leapt between her and the beam threatening to consume her. Before it could strike either of them, however, things took an even stranger turn for the bizarre as everything seemed to just stop: the movement of the beam, the sounds of its discharge, her own breathing, everything. Then Korra turned her head to look at her and Kuvira felt a pulse of fear vibrate through her. Korra's eyes were glowing white and narrowed in hate and righteous anger, and when she spoke her voice sounded like a discordant, angry mob speaking in unison as she said, "You killed Asami's father and nearly killed Asami herself! You tried to kill Zhu-Li Moon! Despite my warning you still went and activated that spirit energy cannon to take one last shot at me! You have quite literally brought this fate upon yourself, 'Great Uniter'!" Then Korra leapt back out of the way as time resumed its flow, and the spirit ray was all she saw or heard as it swept over her.
Kuvira, gasping, sat bolt-upright in bed, her bedclothes clinging to her sweaty body. It took a moment for her addled mind to recall that she was back in her quarters in Zaofu, where she was serving her sentence of house arrest handed down by the Tribunal. She had been happy when Suyin Beyfong, the foster mother she never really appreciated back when she was young and definitely didn't deserve, had interceded on her behalf to suggest this alternate sentence due to her expression of remorse and her efforts to reverse the damage she and her "successor" Commander Guan had done, but now it felt like a slow torture. Of course these nightmares didn't help, which seemed to be growing worse and worse since she volunteered to be the test subject for the machine Baatar Jr had built to reverse Guan's brainwashing, but that wasn't the whole of it. No, it was being so close to the only family she had ever known (especially Baatar Jr, whom she found that she still loved as much as ever) and being denied the closeness that was once offered so freely to her before. Indeed, she was wondering if she wouldn't have been better off being sent back to that maximum-security prison, especially after what had happened earlier tonight during dinner...
"Are you settling in okay, Kuvira?" Suyin asked her as she took a sip from her goblet.
"I guess, but I've been getting a bit restless staying cooped up inside all the time," Kuvira admitted, "Now I know that I couldn't possibly be allowed to go outside, but if perhaps I might be able to burn off some nervous energy with some laps around the amphitheater when it's not being used for practice or whatever?'
"I think that could be arranged," Suyin said with a small smile, "In fact I was just thinking that you, and maybe Baatar Jr, might be welcome to accompany me out to the courtyard from time to time to talk in the fresh air."
Kuvira, caught unawares by this unexpected proposition, couldn't help the small smile that split her face as she said, "Yes, I think that would be very nice."
"Great!" Suyin said as she returned to her meal.
Baatar Jr kept his face impassive as he said, "Could you pass the salt, Mother?"
Kuvira watched as Suyin used metalbending to float the salt shaker across the table to her son, who took it and began seasoning his plate with the dame neutral expression. When the silence grew uncomfortable Kuvira said, "You haven't said much since I came here, Baatar."
"There really isn't anything to say," Baatar Jr said in a flat tone without looking at her, "The decision's made, our sentences passed. There's not much that either of us can do about it without violating the terms of our house arrest so we just have to make the best of it."
Kuvira thought that she had been prepared to handle such responses from him for a while, as she had earned it after her actions during the invasion of Republic City. However, the almost robotic tone of his response after days of silence turned out to be more painful than she had expected, and before she knoew it she foound herself saying, "Would it help if I told you that I wasn't actually aiming the spirit ray at you, that I was trying to take out the Avatar and you just happened to be there? I couldn't just surrender my plans for the Earth Empire like that after sacrificing so much to get that far, and if she followed through on her threat to drag you with her on the run then she would still be out there, a hidden threat to the stability I'd worked so hard to achieve! I believed that only a swift, unexpected strike would ensure a peaceful, united Earth Empire for generations to come, no matter how much I would agonize over the decision later."
Baatar Jr looked at her then, and the cold look in his eyes was almost too much for her as he said, "You mean that instead of trying to outright murder me I was a mere afterthought? An unintended (and possibly unwelcome) yet acceptably casualty of your plans for the Earth Kingdom's future? Sorry, but that news doesn't make me feel any better about it."
Kuvira wanted to tell him that he was much more than an afterthought, that the possibility that he might also get hurt or worse in that blast was the only thing that gave her even a moment's pause before she committed to the attack. However, the looks that she was starting to get from some of those seated around the table told her that she probably stuck her foot up in it already, and that she better back off before she burned through the last of the goodwill afforded to her. "You're right, of course. I've always had a problem with acting on my impulses without thinking things all the way through. I should have come up with some other way, I'm sorry." Kuvira then turned towards Suyin and said, "If you don't mind, I'd like to be excused now and retire to my room."
Suyin looked back and forth between Kuvira and her son as she said, "Are you sure?"
"I am," Kuvira replied with a respectful bow, "Thank you for dinner." Then she turned and set off for the hallway door, a pair of guards following a half-step behind her.
I'm an idiot! Kuvira berated herself as she stared at her feet dangling off the edge of the bed, A brash, impulsive idiot! If I had just thought things through then I could have arranged an exchange, Baatar Jr for President Raiko, and instead used that to stage an ambush to take out the Avatar. Of course that would likely have proven just as successful as my attempt to blast her with the spirit cannon (meaning not at all) but I didn't even think that far ahead. I'm glad that Korra stopped me before I single-handedly brought the Earth Emp-...I mean Earth Kingdom to ruin. I was arrogant to think that someone like me could possibly restore the Earth Kingdom to its former glory. I'm little more than a blunt instrument, useful for knocking heads and nothing more. Now I can't even do that. There's nothing really here for me except painful reminders of what could have been had I not foolishly thrown it away, so maybe I should just ask to be sent back to my cell at the prison.
As she gave herself a mental lashing, Kuvira noticed her room was getting rather bright. Her first thought was that she had gotten so wrapped up in her thoughts that she had stayed up all night, but then she noticed that the light wasn't the warm shade that sunrises here always were. Then she looked up and her breath caught in her throat. Kuvira had never seen a spirit before, not even during that brief period when she and Korra had been blasted into the Spirit World, and even though she heard whispers that the spirits had returned to Republic City she never say any (as though they were turning invisible before she could lay eyes on them.) However, Kuvira had no doubt that what she was looking at now was a spirit. Looking like a giant dragon-eel, it was floating over her head and covering the entire ceiling space of her admittedly spacious room.
Feeling her heart racing, Kuvira tightened her grip on the bedsheets beneath her and hissed as she bent one nail too far and it started to tear. However, the pain barely registered as her mind was filled with the enormity before her. Then her eyes met the spirit's and her heart sped faster as the spirit's eyes narrowed in anger, its colors darkening to a toxic purple hue. Even though it didn't say a word Kuvira knew that its anger was directed at her, likely due to her harvesting of the spirit vines and use of the spirit energy during her time as the Great Uniter, but she had no idea what to do about it. She could try to apologize, but she wasn't sure if it would accept it (particularly because she didn't know what damage that harvesting had done to them) She could try to fight it off, but she wasn't sure if anything that she could bend in here would cause any damage to it or do anything more than make it angrier. She could also try running for it, but even if she was able to get past the guards fast enough she wasn't sure that she would be able to get away from it, and she didn't want to take the chance of anyone else getting hurt because of her mistakes. Before she could come to a decision of how she wanted to handle it the spirit swept down on her.
As Baatar Jr walked closer to where they were standing, the pair of guards straightened to attention. He wasn't sure if it was because his mother was in charge here or if it was due to him technically being a prisoner here as well, but none of that mattered right now. "I need to talk to Kovira," Baatar told them, and he thought he saw one of them give him an odd look. "It's all right," he reassured them, "it's not gonna violate the terms of either of our house arrest, and you can stay right here. I won't be long." They seemed to accept this and let him approach the door, where he knocked and said, "Kuvira? It's me, Baatar Jr." After a moment he continued, I get you might be upset, but as I told you before I loved you. That's why what you did hurt so much. I know that you are trying to change, but honestly don't know when or if I can get over that, if we can come back from it. You understand?" When he still didn't hear a response he asked, "Kuvira, can you hear me?" Still hearing nothing he tried the door handle only to find it locked. The other guards apparently picked up on that something was wrong as one of them pulled out a key and unlocked the door for him. Baatar Jr then entered the room, the two guards following him in, and he looked around. The bed was slightly messed up, but otherwise the room was immaculate. In fact he could not see anything wrong, save for the fact that Kuvira was nowhere to be seen. To make things more confusing he could not see how she had gotten out of here as the door had apparently been locked until now and the windows were still all sealed tight. looking around in confused disbelief, Batar Jr called out, "Kuvira!? Kuvira!"