Asami does not look at Korra the entire time they are packing up their campsite, and when Korra takes her hand as they prepare to leave, it is stiff and sweaty.

"Asami," Korra finally asks as they cross the summit of Hai-Riyo Peak after climbing in silence all morning. "Is everything okay? You seem…" What? Embarrassed? Nervous? Upset? Maybe all of those things.

Asami sighs. "I'm sorry I sort of jumped you last night." She looks over in surprise when Korra laughs.

"I wouldn't say you jumped me," she answers. "In case you didn't notice, I was pretty into it."

"Well, I'm glad you stopped me," Asami replies. "I would have regretted it afterward."

Korra gives the engineer a playful shove on the shoulder. "Hey! I'm offended."

"That's not—" Asami breaks off in frustration. "I just meant I wouldn't have wanted our first time to be like that. You know, spur of the moment with me crying all over you and everything."

"Really?" Korra says with a laugh. "I can't think of anything sexier than that."

"Stop it!" Asami cries, her cheeks flushing red. It is nice to see her smile again. "I just want to have a plan when we do it, you know? Mako and I didn't and I spent the entire time wondering if we were even ready."

"Had you… done it before?" Korra asks. Her heart is suddenly rushing.

"What? Had sex?" Asami looks over at her and Korra feels the blood rush into her face. She nods. "I had. He hadn't." Asami smiles slyly. "I had a boyfriend when I was in school. We used to meet in the afternoons when my father was still at the factory."

Korra feels her knees weaken. She knows she should not have assumed that Asami was a virgin, considering she and Mako were in a relatively serious relationship, and especially considering that Asami is completely gorgeous and could have anyone she wanted, but it still feels like the wind has been knocked out of her. It highlights her own inexperience. "Did you go to school together?" she asks, trying to keep her voice casual.

"No, I went to an all-girls school," the engineer explains. "Besides, he was a little older." She leans close to Korra conspiratorially. "He was one of my father's interns. His name was Zusheng. He'd come from Omashu to attend Republic City University. Anyway, with Zusheng I waited, and we talked about it, and I felt a lot more ready when it finally happened."

"Oh," Korra replies. "I just… I don't know, I guess I figured we'd just let it happen when it felt right."

"Oh," Asami echoes. A slight pause. "Did that work for you and Mako?"

She asks with genuine curiosity and not a hint of sarcasm. Korra sighs and looks away. "Mako and I never had sex. We never stopped fighting long enough."

Asami pulls her hand from Korra's and covers her face. "Now I'm completely mortified. Here I was all over you and—"

"Asami," Korra grabs her wrists and pulls her hands away. "It's okay. It's not like I was telling you to stop, remember? I was very okay with where things were going. Besides, I'm sure it wouldn't have been all bad," the Avatar assures her. "But don't worry about it. You were upset and you needed to feel close to someone. I get that."

"Really?" Asami raises an eyebrow at her. "If I remember correctly, you tried to push everyone away."

"Right after I got hurt," Korra explains. "But once I was in the Southern Water Tribe with just my parents and Katara and Kya…" she shrugs. "That's why I tried to come back. I mean, Katara was really helpful, but I wanted to be with people who'd seen everything I'd been through the past two years."

"Oh," Asami answers.

"Yeah," Korra shrugs again. "Anyway… I know I don't understand how you feel, but… I just want you to know that you're not alone. You never will be."

Asami squeezes her hand. "I know that. It' just feels like it sometimes." She redirects her attention forward and they break apart as they begin to descend the small mountain. "Right now, I just want to put as much distance between us and that fog as possible."

"You and me both," Korra agrees. She points across the plains ahead of them to a clump of trees in the distance, the forest where she got lost as a child. "The Tree of Time should be right on the other side of those trees over there. We can probably get there before we have to sleep again. Maybe we can make camp inside the tree."

"It won't… play out our dreams or anything?" Asami asks, and Korra shakes her head.

"No, it only does memories, so if you have a dirty dream about me, you'll be safe." She nudges Asami in the ribs and the other girl laughs.

"Okay," she agrees. "But you better not be lying to me so you can find out what I dream about, Avatar Korra."


Opal is in Omashu buying food when she spots the flyer. She is handing twenty-four yuans to a fruit vendor when it catches her eye, nailed to a post on the neighboring stand, fluttering in the wind. Her brow furrows as she approaches it. It bears a picture of Kuvira, one that Opal has never seen before, and Opal has seen all the ones than ran in the newspapers leading up to her coup. She is somewhere that looks like a courtyard kneeling on the ground. Her eyes are wide and her mouth is slightly agape. She is leaning heavily to the left, like her right side is in pain.

Former Great Uniter Found Guilty Of Treason, the flyer reads above the picture.

Public Execution At Dusk In Two Days' Time, it says on the bottom.

Opal drops the bag of fruit as she runs up the street to take flight, the flyer still crumpled in her hand. Execution? What? Opal was finally starting to think that Kuvira might not be working with the resistance and might actually have been captured, but execution? It seems too hasty. The rebels have to know that Kuvira is an asset.

Her mother is waiting for her outside the airship when she returns. "Opal," she greets. At the top of the ramp, Mako appears in the doorway.

"Where's the fruit?" he asks. "The Prince is getting impatient."

"I don't know," Opal pants, realizing for the first time that she is not carrying it. "I… forgot it."

"How do you forget a bag of fruit when that's the only reason you even went into the city?" He does not sound angry, merely curious as he comes down the ramp to stand beside her mother.

"I saw this." She hands the flying to Su. It is crumpled into a tight ball and damp with sweat, and her mother has to peel it apart carefully so that she can read it. She draws her brows together, and then her eyes widen.

"Execution," she murmurs. Over her shoulder, Mako is squinting so hard that his eyebrows look like they might fly off his face.

"Why are they doing this?" Opal asks, her voice sounds small and it betrays her utter confusion.

Su's expression softens as she looks up at her daughter. "To send a message," she answers fiercely. "So that no one will mess with them. Executing Kuvira is their way of showing the world that if you cross them, it doesn't matter who you are."

"We have to do something," Opal insists. "We have to rescue her." She does not think she will ever forgive Kuvira for tearing apart her family, for imprisoning them, and for turning the entire Earth Nation against them, but she still remembers the metalbender teaching her how to climb trees as a child. She still remembers when she thought of her as a sister. She cannot just let her die.

"This says two days' time," Mako speaks for the first time since Su opened the flyer. "When is that?"

"They took her two days ago…" Su's forehead creases in thought.

"She's not already dead, is she?" Opal gasps.

"No," Su answers with certainty. "They must have tried her yesterday. It would have taken them some time to put that together. Which means this was probably posted this morning."

"So we have two days," Mako says, looking up at Opal like this is somehow good news. "We can come up with something by then."

"We have a conference with the world leaders in an hour," Su adds. "We can talk it over with them."

"An hour?" Opal repeats. "This is serious. We can't wait that long. We need to call them now."

"Opal," Su takes a step toward her daughter. "No one is expecting our call right now. It could take us almost that long just to get everyone on the line."

"But don't we need to do this as early as possible?" Opal protests. "What if they… what if they decide to move up her execution or something?"

"They won't," Su assures her. "They'll want a full audience. They'll stick to the time on the flyers. I promise you, Opal, an hour this morning is not going to be the difference between life and death for Kuvira."

She sets her hand on Opal's shoulder and guides her up the ramp. Mako follows them, and Wu waits anxiously at the top. "Where's my fruit?" Opal hears him ask his bodyguard. "I need my morning parfait."

"I remember when Kuvira first came to live with us," Su tells her as they make their way to the lounge. "We already had you and Huan and Baatar Jr., but your father and I decided we still had room." She sighs. "I lost track of her around the time she went into her teens. The twins were just a nightmare when they were toddlers and she was getting older. I didn't…" her voice is pained, "feel as responsible for her as I did for you kids. I let her slip through my fingers. By the time you left Zaofu, she felt less like a daughter and more like a niece I was fond of. I thought I was giving her the space to find her own path. I wanted her to know that she wasn't bound to your father and I just because we took her in. I didn't want to her feel like she owed us anything. Now sometimes I wonder if all I was really doing was reminding her that she wasn't really a Beifong."

It is strange hearing her mother talk about her regrets surrounding Kuvira. Part of what she is saying makes sense. When Opal was young, Kuvira ate dinner with the family every night. She slept in a bedroom in their house and went to earthbending lessons with Opal's brothers. By the time Opal left, Kuvira had a standing invitation once a week, lived in her own house, and supported herself with a job when Baatar Jr. and Huan did not have to. And she was not at Opal's farewell dinner. Opal still wonders why that is. Because whatever Kuvira was to Su, she was still like a sister to Opal.

"Remember when I first got airbending?" She looks up at her mother, and despite the fact that they are all nervous and worried and constantly on edge, Su descends into laughter.

"Your father fell off the patio," she replies. "And I spilled my drink all over myself, and Kuvira—"

"Kuvira was convinced I was tricking you guys," Opal remembers. Because of Zaofu's isolation, they had had no way to know at first that airbenders were appearing all over the continent. "She took me all over Zaofu and made me airbend things because she thought I was taking advantage of the ventilation system or something. And then she finally gave up, and she just looked at me and said, I can't believe you're an airbender."

Su wraps and arm around her daughter's shoulders and pulls her to her side. "It's okay to miss her, you know."

Opal shakes her head firmly. "No, it's not."

But she does miss Kuvira, and she is only now realizing exactly how much.


"It's no good," Korra sighs. "She drops her hand from the inside of the tree and hangs her head. "I can't access Aang's memories."

Asami furrows her brow and walks to Korra's side. She studies the trunk of the tree like it is one of her malfunctioning machines. "But it's supposed to retain all memories, isn't it? So Aang's should be here."

"That's what I thought," Korra answers helplessly as she looks back at the inside of the tree. "That's what Tenzin told me it did."

"It didn't… stop working or something, did it?" Asami asks. "Can you still see your own memories?"

Korra sighs and focuses on a memory. Images of themselves appear in front of them. The image of Korra runs to hug Asami. Their bodies press together as their hands fist in one another's hair and clothing. "The first time we saw each other again," Asami murmurs. "After you got back."

Abruptly, the duplicate Korra and Asami dissolve into thin air. "My memories are fine," Korra grumbles, crossing her arms.

Asami smiles gently over at her. "Listen," she says, and Korra cannot help but be calmed by her voice. "I know this is frustrating, but we're going to figure this out." She glances at the spot where their mirror images disappeared from for a moment before speaking again. "I knew that I lo—liked you even then, you know."

"Really?" Korra asks. Asami nods. "I did too. Well… I didn't really. I think I realized it right in that moment. Like I saw you again, and suddenly something was different."

"For me it was when you were poisoned," Asami replies, her voice soft and hesitant. "And it was… enlightening, because I was just realizing something that I'd been feeling for a long time."

"I'm sorry I left you like that—" Korra begins, but Asami shakes her head.

"I already told you, you have nothing to apologize for," she says. "I just glad you're back now." She blinks and looks back at the trunk of the tree. "Have you tried accessing any of the other Avatars' memories?"

Korra shakes herself out of her thoughts to focus on what the engineer is saying. "Oh… no, I haven't."

"Maybe something happened when Raava was destroyed," she suggests. "Maybe when Vaatu absorbed your past lives, they were somehow… broken from the Tree of Time. Is that possible?"

Korra shrugs. "I don't know if anything is really impossible in the Spirit World." She sets her hand back on the side of the tree and focuses on Avatar Kyoshi. She knows that her spiritual connection to Avatar Roku would be stronger, but, during the year she was in contact with her past lives, she always found Kyoshi's perspective most similar to her own.

"Is anything happening?" she mutters to Asami out of the corner of her mouth, her eyes squeezed shut in concentration.

"Umm, no," Asami answers slowly. "Sorry."

Korra shrugs again and rests her head against the tree. "It's not your fault. Honestly, Asami, do you think this is really worth it? I mean, it's taking over our entire vacation."

She feels a hand on her shoulder. "Stop saying things like that, Korra," she answers. "I have gotten to do things the past… however long it's been, that I never dreamed of doing. If I minded a little bit of action and mortal terror in my life, we wouldn't have been friends in the first place."

When Korra looks up, Asami is smiling reassuringly down at her, and the Korra covers her girlfriend's hand with her own, and then realization dawns on her. "We don't need Aang's memories!" she exclaims so loudly that Asami jumps.

"But I thought Koh said—"

"It doesn't matter!" the Avatar interrupts. "We know what we need is in Aang's memories, but if Aang was there, I bet he wasn't alone."

"Are you thinking…" Asami touches her fingers to her chin and raises an eyebrow, "Tenzin?"

Korra shakes her head. "No, if Tenzin knew about something that had any chance of reconnecting me to my past lives, he would have told me. Besides, he's told me pretty much everything there is to know about what he did with his father. But up until Bumi was born, Katara travelled with Aang and helped him with all his Avatar duties."

"You don't think Katara would have told you if she knew something like that?" Asami asks skeptically.

"The next time I saw Katara I couldn't walk I was severely depressed," Korra explains. "She was probably too occupied with trying to help me heal that she didn't want to distract me with something like that. Or something. Katara never does anything without a reason."

"Well, okay," Asami replies. "If you think that'll work, we can try it."

Korra grins at her. "Let's do it." She sets her hand back on the trunk of the tree and focuses on Katara. It feels strange to be digging into the memories of someone who is still alive, who Korra is close to, without their knowledge. Katara has told Korra quite a bit about her time with Aang over the years, but Korra imagines there are some things she would rather keep to herself.

"Wow," Asami murmurs. "Look how young she is."

They are watching a small girl and boy run around in the snow. The air is filled with laughter and snowballs until it is not. Silence settles over the scene as black smoke fills the air. Korra watches with baited breath as a ship crunches through the ice and a swarm of Fire Nation soldiers file out. "It's a raid," Korra whispers. They see Katara, no older than eight or nine, enter a tent and find her mother with a one of the soldiers.

"Korra, can you… skip this part or something?" Asami asks, her voice suddenly hard.

"Yeah," Korra answers quickly. "Sorry. It's just… Katara never told me why her mother died so young. I guess I never thought to ask."

She focuses her attention forward and sinks to the ground. They see Katara and Sokka, both unbelievably young, find Aang in the iceberg. Korra marvels at how underdeveloped the South Pole is. Scenes flash past their eyes as Korra and Asami watch for Koh's polar opposite. Aang learns that his nation has been destroyed and accidentally goes into the Avatar State. Lord Zuko attacks over and over again. Sokka meets a beautiful Kyoshi Warrior whom Korra knows he will end up marrying, even though Korra never got to meet her. Princess Yue sacrifices herself to save the moon spirit. They are just meeting Toph when Asami speaks.

"They went through so much."

Korra nods. "They were teenagers when they ended the war. Young teenagers. Zuko was the oldest, and I think he was only sixteen." She shakes her head. "Aang makes me look pretty lazy."

Asami sets a hand on her knee. "That's not true, Korra. You've reshaped the world. So you didn't end a one hundred-year war. So what?"

Princess Azula arrives with a drill in Ba Sing Se. Lord Zuko betrays Katara. Asami gasps and covers her mouth with her hands when Aang is killed. "I didn't know that happened."

Korra nods. "Katara says the only reason she was able to save him was because she still had the water from the spirit oasis at the North Pole."

Lord Zuko joins them and teaches Aang firebending. He and Katara go to find the woman who killed Katara's mother, and Korra watches her girlfriend carefully as Katara decides to spare his life.

"She's a better person than I am," Asami comments, and Korra does not know what to say, so she simply holds Asami's hand.

Katara defeats Princess Azula. The Princess breaks down as the war comes to an end. Katara, Aang, and Sokka leave to help rebuild the Earth Nation. Aang stops a war by proposing the plan for Republic City. Aang and Katara get a call from Lord Zuko to accompany him and Princess Azula to find their mother.

"Stop!" Asami calls suddenly. "What's that?" The image she is pointing at is one of something rising out of a lake. The spirit resembles a tree, but has many faces. "Could that be Koh's polar opposite?"

"The Mother of Faces," Korra murmurs as the spirit introduces herself.

"She has the power to give people a new face," Asami adds excitedly. "Korra, she has to be the spirit we're looking for."

"I think you're right," Korra answers, a smile making its way across her face. Asami is beaming at her and they are back on track, and even though Korra has been telling herself all day that maybe they should be a little less physical after everything that happened last night, she cannot help but pull Asami into a kiss. Slender arms wrap around her back, and as they sink to the ground and fall asleep tangled in each other, Korra does not even think about how this is not the vacation she wanted Asami to have. Everything about it feels right.


"What do you mean, execute?"

President Raiko is surprised to say the least. Su raises an eyebrow at Mako. They have both had dealings with the man, Su on behalf of the Earth Nation after Kuvira's fall, and Mako through Korra. They are both aware that he can be difficult.

"Execute as in, they're going to kill her," Opal answers impatiently. The only world leader Opal has experience with is Tenzin, unless you count her mother, which Su does not, and Tenzin is just about the least political being Su has ever met.

"Do you know where she's being kept?" Tonraq asks. "Do you think the three of you can carry out an entire rescue mission alone?"

"Excuse me," Wu interjects. "There are four of us here." He turns to his bodyguard and pats him on the arm. "Don't worry, Mako. I'll never forget about you."

Mako's eyes narrow dangerously as Su continues. "We think she's being kept in the palace. Opal has been doing surveillance three times a day since Kuvira was taken. It's the only place she could identify a large group of resisters."

"Unfortunately, palaces tend to be pretty big," Mako comments. "And they have a lot of… you know, rooms." Opal rolls her eyes. "We have no idea how we'd find her."

"Tenzin, your father was once taken prisoner in that palace," Su says. "Do you know where he was kept?"

"They were in a basement prison cell," Tenzin recalls. "There were crystals growing there. I think the room was round. Unfortunately, Dad was never big on description. He liked to skip forward to the action."

Su sighs. "It would be easiest for us to tunnel in, but we'd need to know specifically where her cell is."

"Can't you use your seismic sensors?" Wu waggles his fingers dramatically.

"I can see bodies through earthbending," Su quickly discounts. "I can't tell who they belong to. That would have saved us a lot of trouble in Zaofu."

"It's too bad my mother is no longer living," Izumi adds. "She lived in that palace briefly. I bet she would have remembered where the prison cells are."

"Of course she would," Eska comments. "Prison cells are the most interesting part of a palace."

"Wait a minute," Fire Lord Izumi tells them. "I know someone who might know. I'll be right back."

After a momentary pause, President Raiko sighs. "Su, I know you and your family have a personal connection to Kuvira, but I want you to know that if you are unable to put a rescue mission together in time, I am not prepared to send troops into Omashu to save a prisoner who many of them risked their lives to stop."

"I understand," Su answers. Opal looks like she might be about to speak again, but Su wraps her arm around her and the airbender clenches her jaw. "Her safety is not a priority for the United Republic, and it could be seen by the resistance as an act of war."

"There must be something we can do," Tonraq offers.

"If we can't get an exact location on Kuvira, we'll fly into the palace," Su informs him. "The problem with that is that we'd come in on the top floor, and we'd have to get all the way to the basement to look for her. The place is full of metalbenders. It would be risky to say the least."

"I am told someone here has a question for me."

This voice is new. It sounds like it is coming from an elderly woman. It is smooth and purring and makes Su uncomfortable, makes her feel instantly like she is being played. She thinks she has an inkling who it belongs to, but she cannot be certain. She only met the woman a few times, on the rare occasions in her childhood when her mother visited with Fire Lord Zuko.

"I have a question about the Royal Palace in Omashu," she answers. There is a pause.

"Yes, I spent some time there," the woman replies. "Most of it in the throne room, of course." Another pause.

"Do you remember where the prison cells are?"

The woman laughs. It sounds cruel, more like a cackle. Opal shivers against her side. "What a ridiculous question. Of course I remember where the prison cells are. I nearly had the governor taken there on more than one occasion. The man was a complete imbecile. Pentapox. How gullible do you have to be? How he ever succeeded in politics—"

"I'm sorry," Su interrupts. She braces herself for an onslaught of demeaning accusations, but the woman does not argue. "But could you tell me where the prison cells are?"

"And why should I do that?" the woman asks. "What's in it for me?"

"Please," they hear Izumi groan over the speaker. "We're trying to save a woman's life. You remember Kuvira."

"Ah, yes," the woman replies. "The dictator in the Earth Nation. I have to say, it was nice to see someone over there taking initiative. She transformed all those lowly peasants into an army, the likes of which the world has not seen since I was on the throne." A conflicted sigh. "Yes, alright, I'll help you."

"Thank you," Su replies. "So, the prison cells?"

"There are two of them," the woman explains. "One of them was newly renovated when I was there. I'm sure it's falling apart by now though. I doubt the earth peasants care enough about their own culture to keep it maintained. One of them is near the east side of the building, directly under the room where the coal is stored. The other is in the center of the lowest basement level down a long spiral staircase. Is that what you need from me?"

"Yes, thank you," Su answers.

"Thank you, Aunt Azula," Izumi repeats. Even over the radio, Su can hear relief flood her voice.

"At least I feel useful again," the old woman grumbles. "This one forced me into retirement, you know," she directs her voice back into the speaker. "She seemed to think I was so preoccupied with my wife's illness that I could no longer give sound political advice. Please, I won a war when I was fourteen, and I was hallucinating at the time."

"You know that's not what I said," Izumi argues. They continue to converse, but their voices grow distant over the radio.

"Her mind is twisted," Eska comments. "I like her."

There is a pause, and then Raiko speaks again. "Is that enough?"

Su glances between Mako and Opal. "Yes, I think we can work with that."


It is impossible to tell what time of day it is. Kuvira no longer has any idea how long she has even been in the cell. She has faded in and out of consciousness since she was sentenced, a result of combined exhaustion and repeated electrocution. She can no longer lie on her back, and her shirt stings when is touches her burns. She knows Su is coming for her. She knows it, but she wishes she would hurry.

"You're awake," Shou comments from where she is sitting, an arm's length away from the bed. She has been intermittently trying to make conversation for a while now. Possibly it is simply a product of boredom, but Kuvira does not trust the girl to not have something more malicious at heart. Though, she reasons, that cannot possibly matter now. Not when she has already been sentenced to death.

"Unfortunately," Kuvira grumbles in response. She shifts to try to make herself more comfortable, but her shoulder blades ache when she moves her arms. "Perhaps you should just kill me now. I think I would prefer that. It would spare me any more of this."

"We can't," Shou answers. "We have to do it at the time we announced or no one would be there to see it. Ling Dao wants to make sure everyone in Omashu is present."

"That's inconvenient," Kuvira remarks.

Shou sighs. "Tell me about it. This isn't exactly my dream job. It's not like I enjoy electrocuting people. The less time you're down here, the better."

Kuvira turns her head, with a grunt of pain, to face the girl. She is younger than she looked at first glance. Her face is spotted with freckles and she wears her hair in a neat bun, less severe than Ling Dao's. "If you don't like electrocuting people, why are you even here?"

"I have to be." Shou shrugs. "I was part of the equalist movement a few years back, and if there's one thing the People's Resistance in the Earth Nation is, it's pro-earthbending. I was afraid they might start rounding up people who were equalists back then and throwing them in prison. I knew the only way to avoid that would be signing up and offering my," she holds her gloved hand up, "unique skills."

"I thought equalism was a United Republic thing," Kuvira comments. She decides Shou must be speaking to her out of boredom. Anyone trying to get information out of her would definitely not do this much of the talking.

The other woman shakes her head. "No, it gained some traction in some of the northern Earth Kingdom too. You were probably just too isolated in Zaofu to realize it. And everyone there is a bender. Or is related to a bender. They wouldn't have supported it anyway, even if they did know it was happening. Of course the entire movement died when everyone found out Amon was using bloodbending to remove other people's bending. We were helping him create a world where he was the only bender without even knowing it." She sighs and drops her head.

"I'm surprised Ling Dao gave someone who used to be an equalist such an important job," Kuvira points out. "Couldn't you do a lot of damage with," she nods to the glove, "that thing?"

"I guess she thought I'd enjoy taking the bending away from someone so powerful," Shou speculates. "Besides," she lowers her voice, "I'm not exactly any former equalist."

Kuvira furrows her brow. "What do you mean?"

Shou looks around like she is expecting someone else to appear in the room with them. Then she leans a little closer to Kuvira so she can keep her voice low. "Ling Dao is my sister."

Kuvira's mouth drops open. "Wait…" She narrows her eyes. "So you were an equalist, but you have a sister who's a metalbender? Didn't you just say that people who were related to benders wouldn't join the equalists?"

"Look, I was a teenager okay?" Shou answers defensively. "A nonbending teenager who had been overshadowed her entire life by her metalbender older sister. So yeah, taking bending away seemed like a pretty good idea to me at the time. Ling Dao and I never had a great relationship. She was the promising one, and I was just kind of there. I thought… maybe if we were more equal, we could."

"So, is that why you think she would have arrested you?" Kuvira asks. "Because she resented you for wanting her bending gone?" Kuvira tries to picture how she would have felt about Opal if she had joined the equalists before she became an airbender. Kuvira does not think she would have loved her any less for it. She would have looked for the underlying problem, the jealousy or feelings of inferiority, and tried to correct it. But then, she and Opal were close. Closer than Shou and Ling Dao apparently were.

"I don't… know if she does," Shou replies. "But she wouldn't have wanted to look like she was making an exception for me because I was family. You've seen how she is. It's all politics with her now."

"I have," Kuvira agrees. Shou stands up.

"I'm sorry," she says. "I have to do this again." She sets her hand on Kuvira's back. The metalbender's jaw clenches shut and her body arches off the mattress, and then everything fades into black.


A/N: Hey guys. So just to let you know, I may be going off schedule soon. My workload is too irregular right now for me to accurately predict ahead of time how long it's going to be between updates. That said, I am going to stick to my schedule as long as I can, and if I do go off it, I'm still going to update as often as possible, and try not to go longer than ten days between updates. I don't want you guys to worry about this fic not getting finished. It's going to get finished. I'm too excited about upcoming chapters and about my upcoming fics to stop writing.

Anyway, please drop me a review, and I'll see you at the next update.