There are no days or nights in the spirit world. There are simply times when the sky is drenched with beautiful yellows and pinks and times when it fades to deep blues and purples. Korra and Asami arrive at a small building with a sprawling lawn speckled with tables during one of the pink and yellow phases.
"Ah, Korra," an old man greets. He has long, white hair and he wraps Korra into a hug that she eagerly returns. "I didn't expect to see you here just now. I thought you would be dealing with the aftermath of the new portal in the physical world."
"Yeah…" Korra answers, shrugging and rubbing the back of her neck. "It's kind of right in the middle of Republic City. But Raiko—the President—seems like he has things under control. For once," she adds under her breath. Asami giggles and covers her mouth to hide it, but the old man does not look like he hears the remark. "So we decided to take a vacation. You know, get away after everything that's happened the past few years."
"Of course, of course." the man nods understandingly. "And who, may I ask, is your lovely friend?" He turns to survey Asami, smiling pleasantly. "She reminds me of my wife. She had the same beautiful black hair."
"Oh, sorry." Korra grimaces. "This is my, umm… my… well, this is Asami. Asami, this is Iroh, Lord Zuko's uncle." She looks completely mortified at having drawn attention to the fact that they are still at the stage in their relationship where they still do not know exactly what they are, but the engineer simply smiles contently over at her and some of the tension leaks from her expression.
"Oh, Iroh," Asami says, relieved to finally know who she is talking to. "You were with Lord Zuko during his banishment. General Iroh was named after you."
"Yes, I did guide Zuko through his three years on the sea, and my great niece was kind enough to honor me by passing on my name." He nods at her in approval. "Can I get you two some tea? I was about to close up for the day, but it is always nice to catch up with a friend. Or to make a new one."
"Sure," Korra answers quickly. "Come on, Asami."
She clasps the engineer's hand and leads her to a table near the door of the little shop. She gracelessly drops down to the ground, and Asami lowers herself onto the grass beside her.
"I met Iroh the first time I meditated into the spirit world," Korra explains in a rushed whisper as Iroh clinks around in the small building brewing tea. "I was terrified because I'd never been here before and I didn't know where Jinora was, and he helped me learn that here, your emotions become your reality. It was only scary because I was already afraid." She pauses in thought. "Maybe that's why everything seems so peaceful now. I've never been here when I was just… happy before."
Asami squeezes her hand and Korra beams up at her, her eyes lively and excited in a way that used to be so incredibly Korra, but that Asami has not seen since her final fight with Zaheer three years ago.
The past four years have been hard on all of them: Asami, Mako, Bolin, Tenzin, Chief Beifong, but Asami cannot begin to imagine what they have been like for Korra. She is not responsible for every bad thing that happens in the world, but everyone, including her, seems to think she is.
Iroh lays a tray on the table in front of them and passes each of them a steaming teacup. "This tea, I created myself when owned a tea shop in Ba Sing Se," he tells them. "It was one of my nephew's favorites. So how long do the two of you plan to spend in the spirit world?"
"Oh, we don't know," Korra answers, glancing over at Asami. "Just until we're ready to go back, I guess."
Asami nods. "I can't leave my company for too long," she adds. "We did just loose our entire warehouse."
"Asami's the CEO of a huge company," Korra explains to Iroh, and Asami detects, to her own slight embarrassment, a hint of pride in her voice. "She's an engineer. She designed mecha-suits and these hummingbird flying machines and new wing suits for the airbenders, and she helped redesign Republic City after the spirit vines pretty much made all of downtown uninhabitable."
Iroh turns to Asami. "It sounds like you have a great mind," he tells her. "When I was in the physical world, one of our greatest minds was Sokka. He started out a boy, the only non-bender in his group of friends, unsure of his purpose, but he became an ingenious inventor and a wonderful leader."
"Yeah, well, Asami never really had an issue with being a non-bender," Korra replies, grinning at the girl beside her.
Asami shrugs. "I can take care of myself in a fight." She pulls her hand from Korra's with an apologetic smile to reach for her cup of tea. "Besides," she adds with humor in her voice. "We all know I'm the brain behind the operation. And the money. You guys would never have gotten anywhere without me."
Korra laughs. "We'd have to fly everywhere on Oogi. I love flying bison as much as the next Avatar, but I don't know how Aang and his friends did that for a whole year." She nudges Asami in the ribs. "Not to mention that we'd have to take Tenzin everywhere with us."
Asami furrows her brow. "But Sokka was the chief of the Southern Water Tribe. I met him once with my father. Are you saying that when he was younger, he was ashamed of not being a bender?"
"We have only what we see in front of us," Iroh comments. "When Sokka first met Avatar Aang, he could not see his own abilities. It took time for him to find them in the dark. You see your intelligence and your strength, despite your inability to fight the way your friends do, so it has never been a detriment to you. Korra, you see your power as the Avatar: your bending prowess, your spiritual connection, and the infinite knowledge you can call on from thousands of past lives—"
"Not anymore," Korra sighs, her body deflating. Asami sets her cup down and places a comforting hand on her shoulder that Korra gratefully covers with one of her own. "I lost that connection when Unalaq ripped Raava out of me during Harmonic Convergence. I haven't been able to communicate with my past lives in years."
Iroh knits his brows together. "You mean they didn't come back to you when you defeated Vaatu and reunited with Raava?"
"Nope," Korra answers bitterly. "I was too late."
Asami sighs and moves her hand from Korra's shoulder to slide it all the way around her body and pull them together. Korra has learned to live without guidance from the previous Avatars. There was not much to get used to, to be honest. She was only really in contact with them for a year, but Asami knows that Korra blames herself for their loss, nonetheless. On both her own account and behalf of all of the future Avatars who will have thousands fewer past lives to consult. She was eighteen when she made the decision to trust her uncle and open the spirit portal at the South Pole, and she is barely twenty-one now. Asami wishes she would not carry the weight of all of the mistakes she has ever made with her.
"That is unusual," Iroh comments.
"What do you mean, unusual?" Korra asks, her interest suddenly peaked. "Have Avatars been separated from Raava before? Was Aang?"
Iroh shakes his head. "It is unusual because, like the energy of the physical world, spiritual energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. That is something I have learned from living here among the spirits for many years. When Raava was destroyed, your past lives were transferred into Vaatu. I do not understand why, when you destroyed Vaatu, they were not transferred back into Raava."
"Does that mean my past lives are out there somewhere?" Korra asks, perking up to Asami's relief. Korra has a smile capable of making her feel warm even in the South Pole, but Asami has hardly seen it in the time they have spent together since her friend's return to Republic City.
"I am not an expert on spiritual energy," Iroh replies. "But I do not believe that they were destroyed forever."
"But if they're not gone…" Korra pauses like she is expecting to be corrected, like she thinks it is too good to be true. "I can get them back."
Iroh nods. "Perhaps."
"How?" Korra exclaims. She jerks forward, slamming both hands on the table in unbridled excitment. Asami grasps both her and Korra's cups of tea to keep them from spilling, but Iroh is unfazed.
"That, I cannot tell you," he answers. "But I can point you to a place where you might find the information you are looking for."
"Kuvira."
Su's voice is as cold as Kuvira has ever heard it. She remembers eating dinner with this woman's family. It was only three years ago, but it feels like ten.
"Hello, Su," she answers almost too quietly for the other woman to hear. They are in the old council room in City Hall. Su and the Prince are standing in the back of the hall, directly in front of the semi-circular table where five individuals used to govern the city.
"Has Lin told you why you're here?" Su asks without any further pleasantries. Kuvira did not expect any. She was willing to sacrifice her relationship with her mentor when she believed she was doing the right thing for her people. She still believes that reuniting the Earth Kingdom when Su would not was right, and she does not regret refusing to hand her people over to an incompetent ruler, but she regrets the way she did it. She should not have announced her own ascension at the Prince's coronation without even speaking to the other world leaders first, she should not have goaded the Avatar into fighting her, and she should not have invaded the United Republic. She was over-confident and over-zealous, determined to prove how serious she was by starting a war. Now her mighty Earth Empire, the one she painstakingly put together over three years, is under the control of the idiot Prince. The idiot Prince and Su. Well, at least Su knows how to govern. She should have been the one to reunite the nation in the first place. Kuvira still believes that.
Now Kuvira has nothing, and she knows she will never have a leadership position, never have any position where she is authorized to fight, again, but she thinks that would not be too bad if she had anyone.
"There are uprisings in the Earth Kingdom," she recalls. "In some of the first provinces to joinme."
"The ones that did so willingly," Su adds.
"Yes," Kuvira agrees, straining to keep the emotion out of her voice. "Those ones. Lin wasn't specific about what exactly you want me to do."
"Kuvira, what do you want to see become of the Earth Kingdom?" Su asks. She steps forward, away from the table, to approach the woman still in her wooden handcuffs.
Kuvira sighs and drops her eyes, searching for an answer that will sound right to both her own ears and Su's. "Stability," she finally replies resolutely. "And prosperity. Under any leader."
The other woman nods in approval. "Congratulations. We can work together." She gestures over Kuvira's shoulder at Lin, and then Kuvira can feel the cuffs being removed. She brings her hands in front of her and rubs her wrists as Lin places a hand on her upper arm to direct her farther into the room, toward the Prince and his bodyguard.
"The rebels in the south want you back as their leader," Su explains. "That is not happening," she adds quickly, as if Kuvira actually thought that was a possibility. "But we want to take you down to Gaoling to defuse the situation."
Kuvira raises her eyebrows. "How do you expect me to do that?"
"We want you to publicly declare that you support Prince Wu," Su answers. Kuvira frowns. It is a reflex. She had been trying to keep her face neutral. "You said under any leader," Su points out. "Besides, the Prince will not be on the thrown for long." She turns to the boy beside her. Kuvira is not sure how old he actually is, but he looks like a teenager. "Why don't you tell her your plan, Wu?"
"I would be happy to," he replies. He turns to Kuvira with a dramatic flourish that nearly makes her roll her eyes. "Once I'm on the throne, I'm going to allow all the provinces to hold free elections, where they'll elect their own leaders. The idea of one giant Earth Kingdom is just so outdated, don't you think? I couldn't possibly keep track of Goaling and Omasha," Kuvira grimaces, and she notices that Su does the same, "and Zaofu all between my facials and manicures and shopping outings. My interests have never been in world politics anyway. I'm going to hold elections, and then I'm going to abdicate my throne and begin my career as a pop sensation. That's really where my talents are." He waggles his eyebrows suggestively. "I can get you a backstage pass."
"I'll pass on that," Kuvira answers dryly, and she thinks she sees a smile tug at Su's lips.
"Wu is going to announce his plan in Gaoling in a few days," she explains. "We're hoping if you accompany us down there and give a speech endorsing it, it will put an end to the rebellions long enough for us to get a stable government in place."
Kuvira gives a solemn nod. "I'll do it."
Su raises her eyebrows in surprise. "Just like that?"
"As surprised as I am to be saying this, the Prince's plan is a good one," Kuvira explains. "You've been telling me my entire life that the Earth Kingdom's system of government needed to be updated. I thought I could accomplish that on my own but… I failed. If that's really what the Prince wants," she glances over at him before her eyes return to Su, "then our interests are aligned. I'll make a speech. I'll even write it myself."
"Oh." Su blinks. "Well, good. The Earth Kingdom thanks you, Kuvira."
The Earth Kingdom thanks you, she repeats in her head as Lin takes her by the arm and leads her back out of city hall, back into the sun and the delicious breeze that she has so desperately missed. The Earth Kingdom, not Su.
She did not think that loosing everyone would be quite this painful. Even after her break from Zaofu, she had not been alone. Baatar was there, and it was the two of them against the world. Now she feels only a pressing darkness that she recognizes from her early childhood on the streets and from occasional nights in Zaofu as an adolescent, when she laid curled up in her bed wondering what sort of parents abandoned their child and whether they would have kept her if she had been better somehow. She recognizes it as loneliness.
Kuvira emerges from the council room first, flanked by Lin. She is not restrained, save for a hand from the police chief on her arm as a guide and a warning. Her head is downcast, and she does not notice Opal. The airbender is leaning against the wall right beside the door waiting. Mako and Wu appear next. She receives a dramatic wink from Wu and an exasperated eye roll from Mako, which she returns. Then, finally, her mother makes her way into the corridor.
Opal pushes herself off the wall and hurries to catch up as Su turns in the other direction. "Mom!"
"Opal?" her mother whirls around. "Where did you come from?"
"Over there. I was waiting for the meeting to end." She tosses a thumb over her shoulder to halfheartedly gesture at the wall. "What happened? Why was Kuvira here? She's not out of prison is she? If she's out, Baatar should be out too—"
"Kuvira is still a prisoner," Su assures her. She sighs and places a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "We need her to help end the riots in the South. If she can do that, we may amend her sentence. It's the only way—"
"You might what?" Opal repeats in disbelief. Her voice is dangerously low, and it shocks her that she is speaking to her mother so similarly to the way Kuvira spoke to her and Korra and Jinora in Zaofu.
"We may have to talk about commuting her sentence," Su answers, and Opal can see the resignation written on her face. "Don't think this is easy for me, Opal. Baatar Jr. is my son, and Kuvira tried to kill us all. If we could use him instead, don't you think I would?"
Opal lowers her head. "Yes," she reluctantly admits.
"He just doesn't hold the same sway with the people," Su continues. "And his relationship to me will make him look more suspicious if he suddenly changes his ideals."
"Did Kuvira suddenly change her ideals?" Opal asks, her eyes darting over her mother's shoulder, where her aunt is guiding the erstwhile dictator into a police car a little too gently, in Opal's opinion.
"Kuvira wants what's best for the Earth Nation," Su replies, choosing her words carefully. "And she's realized that that is no longer her. She supports Wu's plan to break apart the monarchy and form a system of smaller democracies."
"So what are you going to do?" Opal asks. "Won't Kuvira being out of prison just feed the rebellion?"
"We're hoping that if she endorses the Prince, the people will follow," Su explains. "We're taking her to Gaoling to give a speech when he announces his plan. If she is successful in defusing the tension, we will talk about reconsidering her sentence. That's all."
Opal frowns in dissatisfaction, but finally, she nods. There does not seem to be another option. Her mother is right. Her brother's word will not mean nearly as much as his fiancée's—ex-fiancée's—to the regime's supporters.
Su nods in return and begins to turn to leave City Hall.
"Wait," Opal calls after. "I want to come with you."
"Opal, you really don't need to," Su replies. "Mako and I are just going to take her and the Prince to Gaoling, wait for them to speak, and then leave. We're not even staying overnight. It's not going to be very exciting, and there are riots in the streets. I'd really rather you not be there."
"I've been all over the Earth Nation over the past three years, Mom. I helped fight a giant mecha suit," Opal reminds her fiercely. "I can handle it. I might be an airbender now, but the Earth Kingdom is still a part of me. It's where I grew up. It's where my family is. I want to help. Besides," she shrugs, "That's what the Air Nation does, isn't it? We help keep the peace."
Su considers it for a moment. "Okay," she finally decides. "We're leaving tonight. I'll ask them to prepare a room for you on the airship. But once we land, I want you at my side at all times. No wandering off."
"Mom, I'm nineteen, not nine," Opal laughs. "I'm not going to wander into the middle of a riot. It'll be fine."
"I'm sure it will be," Su replies, a smile growing on her face. "Sometimes I forget how much you've grown in three years." She draws her daughter into a hug. "I'm so proud of you."
"I know, Mom." The airbender's voices is muffled by the fabric of her mother's robes.
"We're leaving at sunset," Su adds as she allows Opal to pull away. "If you're not onboard, we're going without you."
"You wish," Opal calls, already turning down the corridor in the other direction. "See you at sunset."
"So do you want to do it?" Asami asks when Iroh stacks their empty cups on the tea tray and takes them into the little building.
"Do what?" Korra asks, confused.
"Try to find your past lives, of course," Asami answers, rolling her eyes as if that should have been obvious.
"Oh," Korra shrugs. "I don't know. This is your vacation. We're supposed to be just having fun. I don't want to ruin it with Avatar stuff. I can come back later. I've been without them for a while now. I can handle another couple of weeks."
"Nonsense," Asami replies. "Korra, this isn't my vacation, it's ours, and if this is what you need to do then we'll do it. The important thing is that we're here together."
"Really?" Korra winces as she says it, because it sounds stupid and over-eager even to her own ears.
"Of course, really." The engineer drapes her arm around her friend and jostles her shoulder. "I've never been here before. I won't even notice the difference. I didn't come for the sights."
"Oh," Korra squeaks, suddenly feeling very much like her heart is in her throat. They came here alone together, and that was something that both of them wanted, but Korra had not considered the possibility that it may have been one of Asami's primary objectives in agreeing to the vacation. Korra's primary motivation had been only to get her friend away from the pressure that comes with being the CEO of a large company before she started to crack. Roamance was really more of an afterthought. Korra knows that Asami is strong, but she does not need to worry about redesigning the city again so soon after losing her father.
The awkward transition between friends and something more is not something that either of them has ever encountered before. Asami asked Mako on a date the first time they met, and Korra announced her intentions to him before any sexual tension had even had time to develop. They are navigating this transition for the first time together, and while Korra is relieved that she is not the only one who is not quite sure what is happening, sometimes she thinks it would be nice if at least one of them knew what to do.
"How about we go try to figure out what happened to your past lives, and we'll just have fun along the way," Asami suggests, and Korra nods in hesitant agreement. "It'll still be perfect. You'll see."
Iroh emerges from the shop and sets a plate of rice cakes in front of them. "Have you given any more thought to my offer?" he asks as he sits back down across the table.
"Yes," Asami answers before Korra has time to speak. She is making sure that Korra cannot change her mind at the last minute, the Avatar realizes. "We want you to tell us where we can find information on reconnecting Korra to the other Avatars."
Iroh nods. "Very well." He gestures toward the mountain where Korra remembers returning a baby dragon bird spirit to its nest. "If you cross the meadow, you will find the library of the ancient spirit, Wan Shi Tong, knower of ten thousand things, hidden beyond the trees. If you bring him a new piece of knowledge, he will allow you to use his books. If knowledge of the answer exists, you will find it in Wan Shi Tong's library."
"Thank you, Iroh," Asami replies. She smiles over at Korra reassuringly. "We'll start over there as soon as we leave here. Right, Korra?"
"Sure," Korra answers as Asami's hand slips from her shoulder to the small of her back. She ducks her head as she feels her cheeks begin to flush.
"You know, being the Avatar is a job that is almost too big for any person to take on alone," Iroh comments, and Korra finds she could not agree more with that statement. "Aang had many accomplishments during his times as the Avatar, but much of what he did was with the help of his friends. I do not believe that I ever saw him make an important decision without talking through it with Katara first." He nods across the table at Asami. "I am glad the two of you found each other."
Korra's blush deepens. She feels the hand on her back tense, and when she looks up at her companion, Asami's face looks no less red than hers feels.
The wing of the prison where Baatar Jr. is being held is laid out differently from the one that housed Kuvira for a week. It is designed to model Fire Nation prisons, Kuvira is certain. The hallway is lined with thick wood doors. In the Fire Nation they are made of metal, but wood burns, and Kuvira imagines that the Fire Nation prisons do not hold very many metalbenders. Behind each door, half of the room is barred off. The other half is meant for visitors. Kuvira is grateful that she was not imprisoned in a cell like this. She cannot imagine spending so much time in such an enclosed space.
When the door opens, Baatar looks up hopefully, but his face darkens almost immediately. "What are you doing here?" he growls. Prison has not treated him well. His painstakingly groomed military haircut is beginning to grow out. There are dark circle under his eyes, and his glasses are dirty. Baatar was always meticulous about the cleanliness of his glasses, even as a child.
"Hello, Baatar," she replies, despite his lack of greeting. She supposes she will have to get used to being addressed like this. Gaining the trust of the world leaders and then betraying them and invading another nation does not tend to gain a person many friends, after all. "I've been granted temporary release to assist your mother with a situation in the Earth Kingdom."
"She released you?" Baatar's eyes widen in shock and horror.
"I get the impression she wouldn't have if she'd had any other choice," Kuvira assures him.
He nods as if trying to convince himself before scowling back up at her. "What is it that it's so important it be you?"
"I'm going to give speech in support of the Prince in Gaoling to quell the riots," she quickly explains.
Baatar knits his brows together. "There are riots in Gaoling?"
"Yes," she answers curtly. "Supporters of our regime."
"Your regime," Baatar amends fiercely.
"You were just as important as I was," Kuvira argues. "You built me an army. I couldn't have done what I did without you."
"You didn't seem to think that when you promised you would save me and we would go home to our empire, and then you shot the spirit cannon at me instead," he points out.
Kuvira sinks to her knees on the other side of the bars. "I knew the Avatar and her friends were with you, all in one place," she answers. "I knew if I took them out, I would finally be able to reunite the United Republic with the Earth Nation. I wasn't going to get another chance like that." She breathes a heavy sighs. "I was willing to sacrifice my life for our cause. I didn't realize you weren't willing to do the same."
He is silent.
"Would you have laid down your life to take down Zaofu, Baatar?" She studies him carefully as he struggles to answer. "You were so eager to take the city by force. Is that because you were sacrificing others' lives instead of your own?" She frowns, though she knows that either of them is in a position to judge the other. "Think what you want about me, Baatar, but I never asked others to risk their lives when I wasn't willing to do the same."
"You forced people to risk their lives when they didn't want to," he points out. "Do you think it made any difference to the people you took from their villages against their will what you were willing to give your life for?"
"The people we took," Kuvira amends. "I admit that that's true," she adds. "But I am not the first ruler to conscript an army. The Fire Nation had mandatory military service until the end of the One Hundred Year War, and the Earth Kingdom still does. I find it very interesting that you never had a problem with any of it until the person I was asking to give their life for the cause was you. Cowardice doesn't suit you, Baatar."
"If you thought I was so cowardly, why did you even let me come with you," he sneers as Kuvira shakes her head in sorrow.
"Because I admired your mind. I knew you could be useful," she replies, before hesitating for a moment. "And because I was in love with you. If you wanted to come, I wasn't going to leave you behind."
"You were already in love with me when we left Zaofu?" he asks, the venom suddenly gone from his voice, replaced with shock.
Kuvira laughs, and it comes out hallow. "I've been in love with you since we were teenagers," she admits. "I still am."
Baatar frowns again. "You tried to kill me."
"And I regret that, and I think if I'd killed you and gotten my empire, I would have still regretted it," she replies. "But I don't expect my regret to make it right. I know that my feelings are no longer returned." She glances up at him for a sign of confirmation and he nods solemnly. "I didn't come here for a romantic reunion. I didn't expect one," she continues. "I came to apologize for nearly killing you and… to say goodbye."
"You say that like we'll never see each other again," Baatar comments in slight amusement. He tilts his head to the side the way he used to when he was watching Wing and Wei fight at the dinner table, back when they were only children who played mostly with each other while the adults in the city exchanged knowing looks that Kuvira would not understand until years later.
"I doubt we will," she answers. "I'm going to help your mother stabilize the Earth Kingdom, and then I'll return to prison to serve the rest of my sentence. Regardless of who gets out first, I don't think your family will want to see me again, and I'm sure I won't be welcomed back in Zaofu."
"Good," he answers, "Maybe I'll actually be able to sleep peacefully when I return home," and though it stings, Kuvira can hardly blame him.
She sighs and drops her eyes before speaking again. "I want you to know that I really did love you, for whatever that's worth."
"I really did love you too," Baatar tells her, but some of the steel has returned to his voice. "It's too bad you turned out to be a psychopath."
"You are just as responsible as I am for everything we did. We did it all together." She stands up and shakes her head at this horribly failed relationship, this relationship she had wanted since she was fifteen. Maybe in another lifetime, where there was no Red Lotus or where Su was a little braver, it would have worked out. "I guess neither of us are very good people. Goodbye, Baatar."
She turns and leaves the cell, and though every fiber of her being is fighting to do so, she does not look back.
A/N: Hey, guys! So, I want to say thank you to everyone who has already favorited, followed, and reviewed. It seems like there was a lot of love for the last chapter, and that's awesome. It's great to know that people are reading. Drop me a review if you have a chance. I'll see you guys next Saturday!
