An expectant group awaited for the airship's landing and as soon it touched firm ground, the ramp was lowered, allowing the group of medics that were lined up in their green and white tunics to rush inside and mere minutes later, they were transporting Bataar to the Beifong mansion's own state of the art medical facility. A weary Kuvira observed the scene unfold and once again, thanked all the spirits in existence for the timely assistance of Thran's medic which in an ironic twist happened to be a skilled waterbender healer. The worst of Bataar's injury had been dealt with expediently and the ice stake did not lacerate any major blood vessel or the femur. All that he had to look forward now was to rest and for reasonable time for convalescence until he was strong enough for their next diplomatic appointment in two weeks before the big electoral event at the Northeastern province. Counselor Asakawa was still deeply disturbed and embarrassed by the misleading information he had relayed to his team. In a rare display of emotion of the usually collected official, Kuvira had overhead the government official on his last radio communication with Ba Sing Se irately demanding a throughout investigation of their sources of information. After this, he simply could not discount malicious intent behind the faulty report and feared that this might not be the last attempt to derail the negotiation efforts after their string of successes over the past couple of months.
Kuvira let a long sigh as she gathered her belongings and followed the last group to disembark the vessel. The metalbender couldn't wait to make it to her room to literally collapse over her bed with the single purpose of getting some proper rest before setting to the rather tedious task of writing her portion of the after action report. Bataar would usually transcribe the final version after he had collected her input but with him out of commission for at least a few days, the job fell squarely on her. The former captain was halfway through the vast manicured garden that bridged the gap between the main edifice of the Beifong Estate and its peripheral buildings on the way towards her room when an elegant hand landed brusquely over her shoulder, forcing her to abruptly stop.
"You have a lot to explain!" spat a livid Suyin to Kuvira's face. Her hair was uncharacteristically messy and there were shadows under her eyes. The metalbender turned around dumbfounded, an involuntary wince forming on her lips at the aching on her shoulder where Suyin's fingers dug deep.
"I'm not sure I'm following you" Kuvira replied confused, managing to escape Suyin's steeled grasp.
"Don't play dumb with me. You know exactly what I'm talking about. How is it that my son has returned injured and here you are completely unharmed?"
"Spirits Suyin, are you really going to do this?" the former captain exclaimed in disbelief dropping her travel bag to the ground. The Metal City matriarch's outburst had garnered the attention of the people around them.
"Suyin, what the hell is going on here?" Chief Lin Beifong approached her younger sister with a worried look moving between Su and her former protégé.
"Stay out of this Lin! " Suyin warned harshly. Her face was taut with tension.
"You're making absolutely no sense" the elder Beifong sister replied.
"It is you that doesn't make sense to me. My son, your nephew returns from what was supposed to be an easy diplomatic mission and what do I find out in his return? That some lunatic almost killed him and yet she managed to escape unscathed." Suyin was pointing at Kuvira over her sister's shoulder.
"Kuvira had nothing to do with what happened to Baatar. We received crappy intel from the government and that's how we ended facing an angry mob and bandits instead of a peaceful group of citizens."
"And where were you that you couldn't protect my son?"
Lin eyed her sister coldly. If there was something that could immediately set off Chief Lin Beifong, it was that anyone could doubt her commitment to her job or her skills. Suyin was doing exactly that.
"What are you insinuating here Su, that I didn't do my job?" the elder sibling growled menacingly.
"If you weren't playing favorites with that woman, you might have actually been more effective performing it."
Lin's eyebrows came together in a deep frown and her hands balled into tight fists.
"Su, you're taking this thing with Kuvira too far. You're being insufferable."
"Oh, now you're taking her side" Suyin retorted sardonically.
"Stop!" yelled Kuvira wedging herself in the middle of the sisters. "Suyin, leave Lin out of this. If you have anger issues, at least direct them to the right person. You want to take me down? Let's do it then."
"You dare challenge me in my own house? In my city?" Su glared at her incredulously.
"Yes Su, I'm fed up with your moods. You're here accusing me of somehow being guilty of Bataar getting hurt and you're even lashing out at your own sister putting her professionalism in question. If taking me down will make you stop this nonsense, then let's get it over with." The tone of voice Kuvira employed brought unpleasant memories to both Beifong siblings. It sounded awfully close to the one the younger metalbender used when she was known as The Great Uniter.
"Kuvira don't do this. This is exactly what she wants" warned Chief Beifong as she brought Kuvira apart from her former teacher.
"It's too late Lin. Since I've arrived here I've been dealing every single day with her hostility and her contempt. I've done my best to stay out of her hair and keep to my own business but I can't stand it anymore" the metalbender said as she cracked her knuckles.
"You are lucky my mother vouched for you when you arrived. If it weren't for her, you would have been staying in a cell like you deserve instead of being treated like a guest" affirmed Suyin.
"Would that make you happy? Throwing me into a cell...I bet it would!" retorted Kuvira angrily.
"Perhaps I should. Maybe it could fix that insolence out of you."
"Come and try to beat it out of me then!" challenged Kuvira.
"Stop it the two of you. This has gone too far!" intervened Chief Beifong.
"Let her try Lin. I'm sure she's still regretting missing her chance to kill me" muttered Suyin darkly.
Kuvira's mouth dropped. If Suyin had intended to wound her, she had just scored her first hit and it went deep.
"I do not regret anything of the sort but I think you do" the metalbender replied soberly. "Since the day you plotted to have me killed, you've been wishing for my death. Are you angry at Korra for saving me in the South Pole? It would have been so easy for the storms and the freezing cold to end it all. But yet here I am. I am still alive Su. Is my mere existence an affront to you?"
"You shouldn't be here. You should had stayed in prison paying for your crimes" Suyin replied as she dangerously closed in on Kuvira. The former student held her master's stare with a saddened expression on her face.
"You say that you've been treating me like a guest but you've never been good with definitions Su. Like when you affirmed I was like family to you. I haven't really felt welcome here by you just like I never really felt like part of your family when I used to live here."
A loud clap reverberated across the garden. An astounded Kuvira brought her hand against her aching reddened cheek. It wasn't the discomfort of the slap but the gesture itself that lodged an unsettling pain deep inside. She inhaled deeply fighting to hold down the lump that had lodged in her throat.
"How dare you! You don't understand anything!" From the carefully tended lawn a tear opened in front of Suyin's feet. Kuvira leapt back putting distance between herself and Suyin, observing the woman she once called teacher still with pain and shock in her eyes.
"What there is to understand? That you took me in and cared for my needs yet never made me feel as part of the family?" Her voice was low and raged.
Suyin didn't reply. Instead from the open gash in the ground a large rock arose over the matriarch's head and she hurled it against the metalbender. Kuvira reacted mere inches before the rock crushed her and the boulder disintegrated in much smaller fragments as if it had imploded from its core.
"Kuvira, you were my best student yet you were so oblivious to it all. You've never really understood it, why I've been so disappointed in you." More rocks flew in rapid succession towards the former captain, forcing her to evade and erect barriers against the projectiles while she returned the fire with her own volleys. Su kept her offensive, now directing the metal from her outfit towards Kuvira's wrists. The metalbender redirected the metal binds towards Suyin, who managed to gather and merge them into a bigger piece that elongated until it transformed into a thin, sharp lance. Kuvira's eyes opened wide as she saw the lance dangerously fly past her. Before the Zaofu matriarch could recover it, Kuvira took control of the lance and summoned a column from the ground that catapulted her high and with a somersault, she landed behind Suyin with the weapon in her hand. A cold shiver ran down Suyin's back.
"If I wished to kill you, I would have done it already" the metalbender said as she impaled the weapon in front of Su's feet. "I believe this is yours. If you have nothing left to say to me, then we're done."
Suyin stared at the steel lance and then at the former dictator. She noticed that Kuvira's eyes were shimmering with tears that she refused to shed.
"Is that true? That you never felt part of the family?" the matriarch queried genuinely intrigued.
"Should I have done so when I was treated like an outsider who was allowed to live with you but not as part of your family? I'm not sure if you can understand the difference but it existed. There were moments it felt like a chasm separated us even if we lived under the same roof."
"It was never my intention…I just wanted to prepare you…" muttered Suyin as she walked towards her sister who had been attentively witnessing the exchange ready to intervene. Wordlessly, Lin placed a supportive hand over her younger sister's shoulder and after a quick exchange of glances, she nodded wordlessly as in agreement. As Suyin now approached her former protégé, Lin offered a compassionate glance towards the younger metalbender.
Kuvira was staring at both siblings in utter confusion. "Prepare me for what?" she asked impatiently.
"You didn't see it then and even with the years that have gone by you can't see it now. Don't you get it? I was grooming you to be my successor."
Kuvira let out an incredulous laugh.
"Me? Your successor? When I wasn't ever introduced as part of the clan. I was captain of your guards, your student, one of your star performers, but never…your foster daughter." The phrase hurt just by saying it out loud.
"Because I wanted to make you stronger so you could have the strength to care for all the citizens in Zaofu, not just me and my family. I thought the detachment would make you resilient, stronger but I never thought it would make you doubt that I cared for you. I was afraid that the name Beifong could make you vain, conceited. I wanted you to remain grounded, to learn to rely on your talents and your intelligence rather than on a name or its reputation. I conceived a future in which you would have been alongside me until the day that I would have ceded my seat in your favor."
Kuvira was shaking her head as she sat down on the ground still unable to internalize what Suyin was saying. With the benefit of hindsight, she could begin to see the strokes of Suyin's master plan in different stages of her life in Zaofu. The rigorous training she endured once her raw bending talent was unveiled. The way that in a sense more was expected from her than from Su's own children. Her privileged education that sometimes deprived her of playtime that was customary for the other children. The military training that eventually put her in a leadership position from a young age. Her presence as guard captain in many a confidential meeting of Su with important diplomats and government officials. Everything was engineered to prepare her into eventually following in Suyin's steps as leader of the Metal City. Even something that wasn't planned like her sentimental relationship with Bataar worked in her favor in that it would eventually grant her the legitimacy of the name Beifong.
"But why didn't you tell us…why you never sought to help me and Bataar?" The metalbender was desperate for an answer. The anguish of the burden of a whole country placed over her shoulders was still fresh in her memory despite the years than had gone by since she stepped down and surrendered. How different it might have turned out if they had counted with Su's guidance Kuvira had wondered many times inside the solitude of her cell.
"Because I was angry at you and at myself. I blamed myself for enabling you to become so skillful and powerful that you even managed to convince a large portion of my own security forces and many of my loyal supporters to desert me to willingly follow you to Ba Sing Se. Even my own son chose you over me! I just couldn't handle the blow and that's why I retreated inside my city like you said. I was afraid that I had created what I was afraid of becoming myself and when you came for us, for this city, my deepest fears became a reality."
"Suyin" Lin interjected. "If you've been able to give your son a second chance, don't you think Kuvira deserves one too? I can see why you've been so hurt and disappointed but I can also see that you've been afraid of seeing yourself in her because all you can see are the mistakes but you are denying yourself the chance to see what she's been doing to make things right. You're not only avoiding to face your own mistakes, you are denying her of a chance of redeeming herself and you are condemning both of you to this pointless feud. And I know a thing or two about pointless anger and the damage it does."
Suyin chuckled despite the seriousness of the subject. Her sister had struggled in an almost one sided feud with her and their mom for years. "Since when are you so wise big sister?"
"Since I let go of some decades old grudges that were weighting me down emotionally" Lin smirked. "And I've had some healing support from a special someone by my side too" the Chief added with a genuine smile. Kuvira arched an eyebrow in amusement remembering what Korra had told her about Lin's sentimental life. It was the first time the very private Police Chief had partially acknowledged in public her relationship with Kya even if she didn't mention her name.
"Oh really? I think you have neglected to tell me a thing or two about yourself Lin" remarked Su intrigued.
"I might share a thing or two with you later but how about we first do a cease fire and put an end to this feud? I know that you two still need the time and space to heal and forgive but at least we can begin to bury the hatchet today."
"Su, I'm sorry for disappointing you. You once tasked me to protect this city as guard captain and instead I ended up invading it and terrorizing everyone, especially your family. And I want to make something clear: even if I resented not being treated as part of the family, I've always been grateful for taking me in and the opportunities you gave me. I don't want you to believe that I'm an ungrateful brat" Kuvira said emphatically.
Suyin knelt down beside Kuvira and placed her hand over her shoulder. Her features had softened considerably and her eyes had acquired an amiable glint.
"First things first. I owe you an apology for lashing against you about what happened to Bataar. His father and I had just arrived from a business trip this morning when we were given the news and we've been worried sick since then. And I owe you one to you too Lin. It wasn't my intention to doubt you."
Chief Beifong nodded approvingly. "I understand. Water under the bridge now."
Suyin smiled at Lin and returned her attention towards Kuvira.
"I'm glad to hear that you are not an ungrateful brat and I would like for us to talk again. I'm aware it is not going to be easy because I've been refusing to collaborate with you like everyone else has done, but I really want to try. I want you to join us at the dinner table tonight. That is, if you feel comfortable to do so."
Kuvira's eyes brightened. "I will be there."
"Mom! Aunt Lin! Is everything okay?" Out of the blue, Opal glided swiftly over their heads and landed beside Lin noticing both her mother and Kuvira on the floor. Goosebumps ran over her arms as she feared the worst as her sight caught the evident vestiges of combat on the previously immaculate lawn.
"Mom! Kuvira! What happened here?" the airbender inquired desperately.
"Kuvira and I had…a talk but we've agreed to continue our conversations in a less agitated matter. She will be joining us for dinner tonight."
"Really?"
Kuvira nodded, the corners of her lips lifting in a soft smile.
"I'm so glad!" Opal exclaimed as she leaped and surrounded both her mother and Kuvira in an embrace. All three women ended up falling to the ground due to Opal's impulse and immediately began laughing. Lin chuckled from her vantage point and soon she was helping up all three of them.
"Mom, and what about the garden?" Opal inquired as she avoided the earthen column that Kuvira had erected.
"We can worry about that later. For now I think we should all pay a visit to your brother to reassure him that Kuvira and I didn't kill each other because I'm sure he must have received the news by now."
Just when they were about to walk towards the medical center, Opal was almost knocked down by a rushing Korra who was distracted by the sight of the ruined garden.
"Spirits, what happened here?!" Asami stood beside her with eyes wide open and mouth agape. "We came as soon as we found out about what happened in the town."
"You've arrived just in time for our visit. Follow us" replied Suyin with a cheerful tone that made both Asami and Korra exchange bemused glances.
"Just go with the flow, there's a ton of things you need to know" murmured Kuvira to her ear. "But good news: tonight we might be able to use that nice hot tub that was in your suite if you tell Su you want to move back."
Korra opened her eyes wide as she mentally debated what to look forward the most: the backstory she had certainly missed that explained how Suyin and Kuvira were at the same place without glowering at each other, or the possibility of a pleasant private evening with her girlfriend in a nice hot tub. Kuvira noticed the confusion in the Avatar's blue eyes and with a chuckle, clasped her hand as they walked with the rest of the group towards Bataar's room and for the first time in years, feeling really grateful to be back home.
Notes:
At last! Some overdue healing to our favorite pair of metalbending master and apprentice, but we still have a little bit more of story so stick around as we wind down Kuvira's road to redemption and reparations.
Extra special thanks again to my readers for your comments and support. You've kept me motivated to take this story to its conclusion and it has been so far a fun ride. Hope you continue the journey until the end.