Eyyyyy guyz, I put out the pic of Keisai on the 30th. For those of you who do not tumblr-stalk me, this is your heads up that the pic has been posted. And to everyone who told me he was hot... glad to know I make an attractive man? Thank-yous are in order for the guest reviewers, and if I haven't thanked you personally yet omg I will I'M SORRY. I liked how unanymousdeen called the Keisai-Varrick interview "the face-off between two masterminds." For those of you eagerly awaiting the trial scene, you can take that interaction as a taste of what is to come. ;)

Long author's note is long. Onward!


"Chief?" Mako knocked on Lin's office door. "I got your message. What's up?"

"You're going to need to sit down, kid," Lin said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I have a new case for you, and let's just say it may be a doozy."

"Really? That's great!" Mako said, pumping his fist. "I mean... uh.. what does it entail?"

Lin pushed the police report across the desk to her young detective. "My idiot nephew was accosted by Earth Empire loyalists on the bus last week, in the evening."

Mako groaned. "What did he do now? He's not trying to restore his seat of power, is he? That's so stupid-"

"Watch it," Lin said sharply. "He was potentially at risk, and he's not so dumb as to encourage the rebels."

"Sorry. But they're here, in the city?" Mako said, furrowing his brow as he read. "Last I heard from Wu, they're scattered throughout the kingdom, and they're harmless. They mostly just demonstrate, calling for Kuvira's release and proclaiming their loyalty to the empire."

"It's all harmless until Baatar Junior gets shanked on his commute," Lin said frostily. "He's concerned about Kuvira too.. I've had the security doubled on her cell. She received an anonymous phone call from a man purporting to be a supporter of the empire."

Mako drummed his fingers on the desk. "So you think she'll try and keep them riled up?"

"Actually, I think the opposite," Lin said. "I'm concerned that they'll try to break her out. She's been a model prisoner, and even if these loyalists think they're helping they'll ruin any chance of her receiving a fair trial."

"I'd be more worried about Baatar," Mako said. "Working on rebuilding downtown, full compliance with the United Republic government orders.. looks like a setup for them to call him a traitor. I think these are the same people who tried to kidnap Wu for Kuvira, and her camp literally had no clue."

"Well detective, you've got your work cut out for you," Lin said, standing and reaching across the desk to pat Mako on the shoulder. "I need you to get to the bottom of this."

"I won't let you down, chief." Mako grinned, saluting. "By the way, your sister left a message."

Lin started. "She did?"

"Yeah, something about coming for a visit soon. Opal's birthday, or something." He stood. "We're all probably going to celebrate at Air Temple Island. She wanted to let you know well in advance, since you're swamped with the whole Kuvira thing and keeping things under control on the beat."

"Thanks for the heads up, Mako." Lin said. "I should probably head up to check on the prisoner. Baatar and their lawyer are briefing her, and I need to let them know what updates I have. I don't think we can discuss anything via phone anymore.. I suspect the lines are being tapped."

"No problem." Mako rolled up the report, tucking it into his uniform. "I'll get on the case right away. Why do you suppose he gave Baatar the papers?"

"My best guess is they think it's helpful," Lin said grimly, "but we'll see what the lawyer thinks."

"Oh, that reminds me," Mako said, snapping his fingers as he reached into his pocket. "He uh... left this for you."

Lin took the envelope, pinching it between her index finger and thumb, her brow furrowed and her eyes blazing. The deep red of the stationary did away with any hopes that it held strictly professional documents. "I'll be sure to... thank him."

Mako laughed nervously. "You do that, chief. I'll give you weekly updates on the case," he said, knocking on the door as he exited, as if for luck.

Lin entered Kuvira's cell to behold something that resembled a strategy meeting rather than a prisoner visit. "In the event that they find him again," Kuvira was saying to the lawyer, "what do you think the odds are of a...mishap?"

"Too soon to say," the lawyer said, rubbing his chin. "Ah, Chief Beifong. Always a delight," he added, standing to greet her.

"Not now," Lin snapped. "Junior, I have good news, bad news, and... well, I'm not sure what you'll make of the last bit of news. The good news is my best detective is on the case of these loyalists, and the bad news is that things are heating up in the Earth Kingdom with the main branch of the group."

Baatar raised his eyebrows. "What's the... amphoteric news?"

Kuvira raised a hand to her mouth, stifling a giggle. Baatar glanced at her, a slight smile on his face. Lin's eyes narrowed. Keisai's grin broadened.

"Your mother will be visiting for Opal's birthday," Lin said. "Mako told me... I figured you'd appreciate knowing as soon as possible too."

Baatar frowned. "Thank you," he said. "I'll definitely want to talk with you about that later. For now though, what's new with the case?"

"Some of those documents are fraudulent," Lin said. "The news of the ethnic purging is spreading like wildfire, and as crazy as it sounds these documents- I think they were meant to help you in the trial."

"Allow me," Keisai said, inclining his head in Lin's direction. "Something our dear Great Uniter failed to think through when she decided to handle the prison camps personally was that it's impossible to physically check the background of every prisoner. There was some degree of delegation, though Kuvira tried to keep it minimal, which meant the individuals under arrest as dissenters were at the mercy of the lower-ranked officers in charge of their districts." He frowned at her, causing Kuvira to look away. "An attempt to keep her officers' hands clean blew up in her face... sorry, is it too soon to say that? With such a cult-like, ideological regime, I'm a bit shocked that someone so smart could be so naive."

"Precisely," Lin said. "A military dictatorship is doomed to breeding extremists. And these documents are geared to indicate Kuvira's direct role in the ethnic cleansing of the Earth Kingdom population."

"Which is ridiculous," Kuvira said firmly. "Yes, blame me for it- I signed off on all the orders, at the end of the day. But I never once gave an order to purge the population of specific ethnic groups. I wasn't able to check the reasons for arrest for ever dissenter as the empire was nearly one hundred percent reunited, and for that I know I'm responsible."

"It makes re-acquiring your original order for the imprisonment of dissenters all the more crucial," Keisai told her. "Because even if this is fake, the prosecution will be all too happy to charge you with transgressions of the international laws and customs of war. I'm hoping to push this off as an internal Earth Kingdom issue and worry about it for your trial there. That's not for a while."

"The other thing," Lin said, "is that these loyalists are doing everything in your name. Right now, that's not an issue.. The prince is safe in Omashu trying to cultivate his ruling persona with more than adequate security. But protests are getting violent, and though it pains me to say this, without your police state it's been hard to reestablish order."

"You don't mean they refuse to accept the new government," Kuvira said, her tone exaggeratedly disappointed. "What a shame. It's almost as though the people of the earth kingdom recognize that the system they've been returned to was the one that made them in need of a strong leader in the first place."

"A strong leader is not the same thing as a tyrant," Lin snapped. Kuvira fell silent, her eyes narrowed, but she nodded curtly as Lin turned to Keisai. "You'd better start grooming her public persona. If she acts like this in the trial, good luck winning over some sympathy for any of the good she's done."

Keisai winked. "She didn't go to charm school like you, chief." Lin's eye twitched. "But in all seriousness, she's so much better. You should have seen her in our first week working together... I've never seen a more broken-down defendant in my life. I think the little meetings with-"

Baatar cleared his throat. "This is all very touching, but regarding the rebels- how do we know the documents are fake?"

Kuvira looked at him, visibly upset though she remained composed. "My signature is wrong, for a start." Baatar opened his mouth to reply, but the lawyer held up a hand.

"Settle down, you two." He pulled the order sheet towards him, pointing out little subtleties in the handwriting. "Kuvira, sign your name for me, please." She obliged, and he compared the two. "See the differences? The slant isn't quite right, the hooks of the letters- I'm no graphologist, but I'm pretty confident it's not hers."

"The graphologist will get back with me today," Lin added, "and I agree with Keisai, for once. It isn't hers, Baatar."

"But then how would this help restore us to power?" Baatar said in irritation. "The camps are arguably what I'm least proud of.."

"Not the spirit gun death ray on the mega maid?" Keisai muttered.

"That was a marvel of modern engineering," Kuvira snapped. "It just.. was in the wrong hands."

"My point," Baatar said loudly as Keisai made a sound that sounded suspiciously like an 'aww' though he covered it with a yawn, "is that ethnic cleansing hurts our case. Are you sure they're trying to help?"

"Your supporters appear to be young, slacktivist mindslaves who have completely succumbed to groupthink," Keisai said with a rueful shrug. "They're the sort of stupid teenagers and young adults that fancy themselves edgy revolutionaries-"

"Not too different from us, three years ago," Baatar murmured to Kuvira, nudging her. She managed a smile.

"-and my guess is, since they aren't actually living in the Earth Kingdom they've accepted all of Kuvira's reforms as gospel truth, including the extremist ones she didn't necessarily make." Keisai smiled. "Although to be fair, it's easy to see how she got such a following. That steely resolve! The brutal authority! Those eyebrows! The face that men would die for, and launched a thousand mecha-suits-"

"All right, that's enough," Baatar said irritably. "She'll be safe here?"

Lin snorted. "Are you trying to insult me?"

He glanced from Kuvira to her, smiling. "My apologies."

Lin punched his arm gently. "She'll be safe in solitary."

"I'm more concerned about you," Keisai said. "You were prepared to cut that guy.. something tells me these loyalists won't stay loyal once they catch on that you aren't interested in ruling the empire."

"I would anticipate pleas for help," Kuvira said bitterly. "Expect them to turn on you once you tell them you're in no position to aid them.. I certainly had no qualms doing that to Suyin, and I can't expect more of others than I would of myself." She brought her hand to his arm, stopping short of it as she glanced at the others. "Please be careful."

"The good news," Keisai said, waving the packet of papers, "is that this tells me which underlings I need to reach out to. If we can extract testimony from them admitting they were overzealous with the prison camps, we'll be in business." He stood. "I think we're done here. Baatar, I have an audience with Nuktuk coming up soon-"

Baatar raised an eyebrow. "You mean Bolin," he said flatly.

"Lighten up, I won't call him to the stand that way," the lawyer said, rolling his eyes. "Get your ass home at a safe hour and make sure you aren't followed; I'll call when I'm ready for you to come over." He paused, realizing what he had just said. "I'm not your wife; I shouldn't be worrying about your safety..."

Baatar inclined his head. "I'm looking forward to hearing what you find out. Thank you, Keisai."

"It's just my job, man," the lawyer said, but his smile was warm. "I would thank you, but I'm waiting on a check so I'll hold off til then. Oh, and chief, I wanted to talk to you, shall we give the kids the room?"

Kuvira's eyebrows shot up, and she looked to Baatar for an explanation. Baatar buried his face in his hands. Lin looked livid, but her voice was polite all things considered. "Sure, I'll give the kids the room... but if you have any intentions of joining me, you should've said clients, kid."

Keisai laughed, holding the door, and Baatar winced as he heard it shut behind them. "He isn't serious," Kuvira said matter-of-factly. "But I'll be damned if he isn't pushing his luck with her."

"Aunt Lin is old enough to be his mother," Baatar growled. "I don't care if it's a game to him, it's wrong on multiple levels..."

"Speaking of mothers... Suyin will be visiting you," Kuvira said. "Just her, or the entire family?"

"I'd assume the entire family," he said. "Opal's birthday is coming up. She'll be twenty-one, soon."

"Right, I'd forgotten." They were silent for a little while, the conversation typically becoming stilted once they were alone together. "Does Suyin know?"

"Of course, she does, Kuvira," Baatar snorted. "It's her only daughter's birthday-"

"No, I meant about us. Well, not us... this," she said awkwardly. "Does she know about these visits?"

He reddened. "I think it's in my family's best interest if I keep Mom in the dark as long as possible. I don't want any of them to become... hearing impaired."

Kuvira raised an eyebrow. "You know, speaking as the cause of ninety-five percent of your family's current turmoil, I think you're being unfair to your mother."

"The standard deviation on that statistic must be massive," he said, amused. "Did you know that eighty percent of statistics doled out on the fly without citations are made up?"

"It's a manner of speaking," she said, smiling.

"It's a disservice to an already imperfect science," he retorted, mirroring her expression.

"Either way, I think you're being unfair. It probably has less weight when I say it, but I feel obligated to tell you anyway." Kuvira crossed her arms.

Baatar sat up a bit straighter, surprised. "You're taking her side? Before you continue, should I tell you what she's said about you?"

"Baatar, you and I know most of that is justified," she said. "What mother wouldn't want her son to stay away from the callous bitch that fired on him while professing to love him?" Her words were light, but her fingers were interlaced on the table between them, her gaze lowered. "Suyin loves you. She still trusts you despite everything, and she doesn't want to see you hurt. Maybe she's wrong, but she has no way of knowing that. After all, she was betrayed in a way... I doubt I'll ever regain your family's trust."

"Is she?"

Kuvira tilted her head, meeting his eyes. "Is she what? You really need to learn to stop with the sentence fragments."

"Is she wrong?" Baatar asked her, voice low. "Is she wrong about you? Was she wrong about you?"

She twisted her mouth. "Yes and no."

"Kuvira," Baatar groaned, "stop being evasive. I'm trying to move on and move past-" Hurt flickered across her expression, and he found himself unable to continue. For a moment, there was nothing he wanted more than to hold her against him as he had so many times in the past, but his limbs felt leaden. "The first time we spoke, I asked you why," he said softly. "But we never finished discussing it."

"Think about the position I was in," she said, her eyes on a point he could not see. "For the past three years, I built the loyalty and trust of our followers by making good on my promise that I would never ask anyone to do something I wouldn't do myself. I asked men and women to give up their homes and loved ones for our cause. And now, on the cusp of victory, with the one person who could stop us a sitting turtleduck, I was supposed to put my own needs above our people's?"

"But I was there," Baatar protested. "You said it yourself. The city wasn't worth sacrificing our life together-"

"It wasn't just the city," Kuvira said, closing her eyes and bringing her fingers to her temples. "I fought Korra in Zaofu and I saw the power of the avatar state firsthand. I knew then that even if I conquered the United Republic, Korra would try to stop me, and she would have a damn good chance of succeeding, even with the weapon.. If someone else were in my exact position, speaking as a commander, I would have ordered him or her to fire. It was strategic."

"Yes," he said softly, finally understanding. "You would have."

"War orphans children and widows women," Kuvira continued, "and makes widowers of men. I would have ordered a subordinate to fire... what makes me special? Why do I deserve something different than what I would expect of my people?" Her cheeks were wet, but her voice was as steady as ever. "When I heard you were missing, I had a sinking feeling, and when I heard your voice over the radio, I knew it was over. Even before you told me Korra was with you, I somehow knew what I would have to do.."

"At least you were a lousy shot," he said gently, taking her hands in his.

"I couldn't watch. It doesn't change the fact that I fired," she said bitterly, one hand at her forehead and obscuring her eyes. "I should've handed over the city and gotten you out... we could have figured out some other way...in the moment I truly thought I had no other options. I couldn't betray the troops, and instead I betrayed the one person who-" She stopped, withdrawing her hand and standing abruptly as she turned away from him. "Anyway, now you know why I fired," she said, her old impassive facade back in place. "I hope it clears everything up for you and makes it easier to move on."

"Kuvira, you don't need to keep this up with me," Baatar said, also standing. "And I think you and I both know that Korra would have stopped us regardless, and rightfully so. I don't know about you, but going over the case with Keisai is like slapping myself in the face with all of my mistakes, multiple times."

"No, you're right," she said with a sigh. "But now imagine how I must feel, having been willfully ignorant of my own wrongdoing and destroying the one meaningful relationship..." She stopped again, leaning her weight against the back of her vacated chair. "It's over, at any rate."

"I think this visit is, too," he said with a bit of an awkward chuckle. "My aunt is probably hoping we wrap up quickly so I can get her out of Keisai's clutches..."

"Go," Kuvira said, smiling tentatively. "But Baatar... do you understand why I did what I did now? Believe me when I say that was the most difficult thing I've had to do in my life.. It completely broke my callous, microscopic heart."

"I do," he said, giving her hand a final squeeze. "But don't start lying to me now. I know you aren't callous." He paused. "You could have said bossy, uncompromising, pretentious- any of those and I'd agree. But never callous."

"Be careful," Kuvira said as he left the room. "That was an order, not a request."

o0o

Baatar knocked on Keisai's door, tapping his foot in anticipation. The lawyer had called him exactly thirty minutes after his workday ended, just as he had promised, ready to share his findings from his interviews with Korra and Varrick. The encounter on the bus the previous week had taken over their attention, and Keisai had been furiously going through papers from both the United Republic and the Earth Kingdom in attempts to amass information on the loyalist. He had come up with little, but had hinted at a lead on the phone. Baatar couldn't be sure, as their phone conversations had turned decidedly cryptic once Kuvira told them of the mysterious call she'd received. Suspicions of tapped phone lines and loyalists tracking him made Baatar all too happy to have their meeting in person, and he waited impatiently at the door of the lawyer's apartment, going through a mental list of all the witnesses Keisai had wanted to question. There were still interviews to be conducted with Bolin, a follow-up with Zhu Li, the various captains in charge of the twelve different prison camps Kuvira had set up, and the president. Obtaining an audience with Raiko was proving more difficult than Keisai had thought, and if his trial wasn't on the line Baatar would have been amused. The lawyer had a temper that he had seen once or twice, and when it was set off he was quite a different person.

"There's the man I wanted to see," Keisai said, swinging the door open and inviting him in. "Don't go in the office... it'll give you a heart attack."

"I doubt it," Baatar said. "I never did see the floor-"

"No, that's why. It got to the point where I had to clean," Keisai said ruefully. "So, I've been transcribing my interviews with Korra and Varrick. One was a real delight and the other was a bit of an ordeal."

Baatar arched a brow. "Really? I always thought you and Varrick would get along well..."

"Oh no, Varrick's was the delight!" Keisai said, smiling fondly at the memory. "No, Korra's was the ordeal. Lovely young woman, but I couldn't get straight to business. I had to coax this gem out of her," he said, waving the file in front of Baatar's face. "But there's some good stuff in there once you get past the banter... I went ahead and underlined it for you," he said with a wink. He watched Baatar's expression intently as he read through the files, a confident smirk slowly spreading over his features as Baatar's face went from neutral to surprised to thoroughly impressed. "Good stuff, eh?"

"I am sorry I ever doubted you," Baatar said, clasping the man's arm. "I don't think any other attorney-"

"Save it for when I get you out," Keisai said. "Now, there's something else we need to discuss. I've done a bit more research on the subject of the rebels, and it's not as benign as your aunt made it out to be."

"You think you know more than a woman with twenty more years of experience than you?" Baatar asked skeptically. "By the way speaking of her, why did you-"

"The Kuvira supporters here in the city seem to be more like the ones that threw pies at Wu on the day of his coronation," Keisai said, pulling a newspapers clipping from the papers he had brought to the table. "The ones in the Earth Kingdom seem to be part of the group that sought to kidnap the prince."

Baatar growled in frustration. "They're not trying that again, are they? We didn't sanction that."

"I don't know," Keisai said, his eyes narrowing, "but I have a bad feeling about the whole thing, and if there's one thing I've learned in all my years-"

"All thirty of them," Baatar muttered.

"-is that my instinct is rarely wrong." The radio was on, and something being said suddenly caught the lawyer's attention. In an instant he was at the knob, turning up the volume and waving Baatar over, a grim expression on his face. "See? What did I tell you, man? The proverbial shitstorm is brewing, and it's going to hit the fan if Raiko doesn't take action."

"...the assault on Prince Wu's life comes as no surprise, what with the slew of political upheaval following the arrest of the Great Uniter," the reporter was saying. "Three men identifying themselves as citizens of the Earth Empire are in police custody, having confessed to the crime. The group is currently under investigation. Little information has been divulged thus far, but the men's grievances seem to stem from 'a puppet on the throne' and 'continued interference in empire affairs' by the United Republic..."

"No," Baatar said, face paling.

"Shhh," Keisai said, holding up a hand and listening intently.

"General Xi has finalized the formal military surrender with the world leaders, as both Kuvira and Baatar are incarcerated," the radio newsman continued. "President Raiko is expected to send the United Forces to help bring stability to the region if necessary..." Keisai powered off the device.

"This is the last thing I needed," he said grimly. "And with the expedited trial.."

"I have faith in you," Baatar said bracingly. His next words were out before he could stop them. "How would you like to join me when my mother arrives for Opal's birthday? You can finally meet her.. and get a break from all of this."

Keisai's old crooked smile spread over his face. "Meet the mother-in-law? It would be my pleasure."


A/N: Cutting it off here. This chapter was a necessary bridge to the next few plot points, so I apologize if it felt like filler at times. There's a lot of ground to cover, but I hope y'all are still enjoying the ride. If you're mad at me for not telling what Keisai gave Lin, don't worry- I'll address that in the next chapter too.

Today's chapter title is from Ariana Grande's "Honeymoon Avenue." And it isn't just about Baavira... Lemme hear it in the reviews, lovelies, and have a happy and safe New Year! Happy 2015!