"We'll tunnel in from the side," Su tells them. She is standing around a table with Mako and Opal. The room they are in is a near replica of the one where Korra decided to hand herself over to Zaheer to save the new Air Nation three years ago, and Su hopes she is not handing her daughter and her sister's favorite detective over to the resistance this time.
"Won't that be a little conspicuous?" Mako asks, raising a sculpted eyebrow. "A giant whole in the side of the city?"
"It's a vertical drop outside of a wall," Su answers. "With any luck, no one will be looking, at least not until they realize something's wrong."
"And what happens when they do?" Mako challenges. "The palace is at the center of the city. We're going to have a long way to run. What's going to stop them from surrounding us as soon as we come out on the other end?"
"Nothing," Su admits. "But there are three of us. When we have Kuvira, there will be four. "
"And there are hundreds of them," Mako argues. "We'll never make it back here."
"What if we don't leave the tunnel open?" Opal asks, breaking the tension that is building between the two of them. "What if we cover the tunnel behind us in both directions? What way they won't know where to find us and they won't be able to follow us. Most of their people are at the palace. That means the number of soldiers who will be able to surround the city right away will be small. If we can take them out quickly, we might be back here before they've even realized we got out."
"That's… actually a good idea," Mako admits, and Su wants to scold him for how surprised he sounds, but they have other matters to attend to.
"We'll have to hide the airship," she adds. "The first thing they'll do when they realize there's a rescue attempt in progress is seize it so we can't leave."
Opal turns to her. "Can you bury it, Mom?"
Su furrows her brow in thought. She does not think any members of the resistance are able to use their earthbending to see. She taught Kuvira how to do it once upon a time, but even if Kuvira did start to teach the skill to her troops, all of her lieutenants are awaiting trial in the United Republic, and Su cannot imagine an entire army having the time to perfect the technique. If anyone in the palace in Omashu can do it, they might be dead in the water anyway.
"Yes," she decides. "Good idea, Opal. We'll park it a little farther out and then bury it." She folds her arms behind her back as she walks over to the windows. "Tomorrow morning, before the sun comes up, we'll walk to the outside of the wall. From there, we'll tunnel through the side of the cliff under the city. When we're close to the center, I should be able to find the cell, assuming it's where Princess Azula says it is."
"And we, what, come up through the floor?" Mako asks.
"We should try to come up under a piece of furniture," Su replies. "So we can count how many people are in the room before anyone sees us. If there are only one or two, we can take them out before anyone has realized we're there. If there are more, we'll have to come up all at once, and we'll have to come up fighting. Hopefully, Kuvira will be able to help us. If not, Mako, I want you to grab her. Opal and I will need our hands free." She turns back to the group. "I want everyone to keep in mind that we're not trying to take out as many resistors as possible. We're trying to get in and get out quickly. As soon as Kuvira is with us, I will tunnel us out. I'll close the tunnel behind us, and we will make our way under the wall."
"Why can't we just come all the way back to the airship underground?" Mako asks.
"Digging a tunnel with earthbending requires a lot of energy," Su answers. "I'll have to use my bending to move earth and to keep the earth above us stable so it doesn't cave in. I don't think even my mother had that kind of endurance. If Kuvira is well enough to bend, we can revisit the idea, but I don't think we should plan on it. She looked like she was in pain in the flyer Opal brought us."
She sees her daughter grimace and she moves to wrap an arm around her shoulders. She wants to promise that Kuvira is fine, but she is a strong believe in not making promises she cannot keep. "Don't worry, Opal. This time tomorrow, she'll be back here with us, and you can go back to looking like you have a skunk fish under your nose every time she's in the room," she tells her instead.
Opal sighs. "I don't see that happening."
"It's easy to aggressively hate someone when you know they'll always be there for you to aggressively hate," Su comments. "I felt similarly, albeit less vigorously, about your aunt before your grandmother sent me to live with her parents."
"Umm, do I still need to be here?" Mako interrupts. Su looks up at him in surprise, having completely forgotten he was in the room.
"No, Mako, you can go," she answers before turning back to her daughter.
"You hated Aunt Lin?" Opal asks, her eyebrows raised in shock, and Su chuckles.
"She certainly didn't make my life any easier," she explains. "Of course, I didn't make her life any easier either. She was always getting in the way of my plans to make a career out of being a getaway driver. When I was a teenager, I thought it was all because she didn't know how to have fun and was jealous that I did. It wasn't until a couple of years later that I realized she was trying to stop me from throwing my life away because she cared about me."
Opal frowns. "That's not the same thing though. Kuvira didn't do what she did because she cared about me."
"I know she didn't," Su answers. She sighs and looks away. "She did it because she cared about the people of Earth Nation. What Kuvira did was wrong, but the situation wasn't as black and white as I made it out to be. I can hardly blame her for disagreeing with my decision not to lead the Earth Nation out of crisis. Many people did, including Tenzin and Lin. I think she should have listened to me when I told her not to leave but…" she breathes another heavy sigh, "I'd been easing her out of the family for years. I understand now why she might have been disillusioned. More than anything, I regret severing ties with her when she decided to go. Maybe if we'd still be in contact, I'd have realized that her motives were starting to shift. Maybe all she would have needed was a gentle reminder where her priorities were."
She turns back to Opal. "All I'm saying is that Kuvira isn't the only one who made mistakes. A lot of people's actions led to her being the one to step up."
"I know." Opal shrugs. "But it's easier to blame her than think about how you made it easier for her to leave or how Baatar went with her."
Su raises an eyebrow. "Why? Because she's the one you're not actually related to? That's the kind of thinking that got us here in the first place." She plants a kiss on the side of her daughter's head. "It's okay to be angry at Kuvira. Goodness knows you've spent enough time being angry at your brothers, but don't make the same mistakes I did."
When Korra wakes up, Asami is already sitting up beside her fastening her backpack. Korra arches her spine and rolls her knuckles up and down her back to work out the ache, making a mental note never to sleep in a tree trunk again. Seriously, why did she think this was such a good idea? Asami looks over at her and laughs.
"I see you're having the same regrets I did," she comments. She holds out a sweet bun. "Here. Eat."
"Thanks," Korra replies, gratefully. She takes a bite, infinitely glad they raided the kitchen back at the air temple before leaving. "How did you sleep?" she asks with her mouth full. "Any, you know, nightmares or anything?"
Asami sighs. "No more than the usual. I woke up crying, but I can't remember what I was dreaming about, so it couldn't have been that bad."
Korra reaches out to place an hand on her girlfriend's back. She remembers waking up screaming but not knowing why. Those nights were almost worse than when she did remember her dreams. At least then she knew exactly what was tormenting her. The things she could not see were always the most terrifying.
"I just wish it would stop," Asami continues. "I don't know how I'm supposed to get over it when I keep seeing it happen over and over again in my head. And ever since we were in the Fog of Lost Souls, sometimes I dream about my mother too."
"I know it's hard," Korra replies, though that is the understatement of the century. "I know what it's like when every night, the worst thing that's ever happened to you happens all over again, and I don't know what to say other than it'll get better with time. The sooner you accept that it happened, the sooner you can start to heal."
"I just can't imagine ever feeling like things are normal again," Asami admits. "I know I never spoke to him, but it's easy not to talk to someone when you you'll have that choice forever. It's completely different not seeing them because you can't." She brushes the back of her hand across her eyes. "I wish I hadn't seen it happen. Maybe then I could just pretend he was still in prison."
"But then you would never come to terms with it," Korra replies. "You would never be able to move on."
Asami sniffles and then pastes a pained-looking smile across her face and turns to the Avatar. "Enough about that. Do you know where to find the Mother of Faces?"
She groans. "No, I've never heard of her." Every moment they are here is a reminder that Korra does not know the Spirit World as well as she feels like she should. There are no tales of any of the other Avatars getting lost here. Then again, they did all have the experience of their past lives to rely on for direction. Korra is alone.
"She came out of a lake in the memory," Asami remembers. "It didn't look familiar to you?"
Korra shakes her head. "No, I don't even know if it has a counterpart in the Spirit World."
"I hope so," the engineer comments. "I would hate to have to camp out in that forest for years, trying to guess which lake she was going to come up in next."
"I know," Korra agrees, a smile stretching across her face. "Last time I disappeared for an extended amount of time, Kuvira took over the Earth Nation. I don't know if I have it in me to end another war."
"But maybe when you have your past lives back, they'll just tell you what to do," Asami suggests between gasps of laughter. Korra is relieved to see a genuine smile on her face. "Don't a lot of them have experience with ending wars?"
"Aang, obviously," she lists. "And Kyoshi, but she'd probably just tell me to push whoever was causing the problem off a cliff."
"Is that what she did?" Asami asks, her giggles dying down as she tries to pay attention.
"Well, he fell when she separated Kyoshi Island from the rest of the continent," Korra explains. "Supposedly it was an 'accident,' but it sure made things a lot easier for her."
"I'm sure," Asami agrees. "So what do you want to do about the Mother of Faces? It seems like Katara knows where to find her. We could go through the spirit portal to the South Pole and ask. Or maybe the answer is back in Wan Shi Tong's Library somewhere. We should have taken that book with us when we ran."
"Yeah," Korra answers slowly. "Or," she perks up, "We could ask Iroh! Zuko was with them. I bet he told Iroh about it when he got back, and if there's a way to find her without leaving the Spirit World, I bet he'll know."
"Okay," Asami replies, standing up. "At least this way we won't have to risk certain death for another library book. And I thought the library system in Republic City needed work. I hope you remember how to get there though, because I don't."
"Don't worry," Korra answers. "I've got this." She pulls her backpack on, folds her girlfriend's hand into her own, and they leave the Tree of Time, climbing over huge roots until they are on the ground.
"I had… someone like a sister," Kuvira mutters. Her entire back hurts now, something between an ache and a sting that one of the most unpleasant sensations she has ever experienced. Her fingers and toes tingle and she feels light headed. She stopped trying to sit up… a while ago, and she is not even sure she could now. She has no idea how long it has been or how long she has left. She no longer cares how this ends, with a rescue or her execution, she just hopes it ends soon.
"You did?" Shou asks in surprise. "I thought you didn't know anything about your family."
"I don't," Kuvira answers. "She was Su's daughter. She had four brothers, and I think she considered me a sister. I thought of her that way when I was younger."
"But not anymore?" Shou prods. Kuvira wonders if maybe she is after information after all, but she is too tired to care. She needs someone to hear her out before she goes.
"When I was a teenager, I realized that Su was starting to distance me from the family. I don't know why. Maybe she had too many kids to take care of. I don't think she was expecting her twins to be… twins." She takes a deep, painful breath and continues. "I started reminding myself that they weren't my real family, forcing myself to think of them as friends and not parents and brothers and sister." She tries to shrug, but her shoulders protest and the noncommittal gesture becomes a hiss of pain. "It was nothing personal. It was just self-preservation."
"And what about her?" Shou asks. She rests her chin atop her fist in interest. "You used the past-tense. Did something happen to her or something?"
"She got airbending," Kuvira answers. "And she went to the Northern Air Temple to train, and I was happy for her…"
"But?" Shou raises and eyebrow, and Kuvira sighs.
"She was the last person in Zaofu who still treated me like family," she answers. "Without her, there was really nothing keeping me there. I didn't really plan on leaving, because I had nowhere better to go, but when the opportunity presented itself, when the world leaders asked Su to lead the Earth Nation and she wouldn't step up, it seemed like the pieces were falling into place."
"Was she mad at you for leaving?" Shou guesses, and Kuvira nods, hiding her wince at the dart of pain that shoots down her back and across her shoulder.
"When Su told me not to come back, it didn't seem like a big deal," she explains. "There wasn't much left for me in Zaofu. By then, the Air Nation was already in the Earth Kingdom trying to restore some sort of order. I figured we would see each other, and I would be able to explain that I didn't agree with her mother's decision but I wasn't the one who cut off ties."
"I'm guessing that didn't happen," Shou murmurs. Kuvira considers shaking her head, but, because of the pain still radiating through her body, decides against it.
"She was already angry at me," she replies. "I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised. Zaofu and the Air Nation are both staunchly pacifist, and I was building an army. I'm sure my actions probably contradicted everything she believed in."
"But you've renounced those ideologies now," Shou points out. "Publicly. She's still angry at you?"
"There's more to the story," Kuvira answers. "When I invaded Republic City, they captured my fiancé off of an airship in midflight. It was very impressive. They made him call me to offer me a deal. If I stopped the invasion, they would release him and we could go home to our empire. I accepted the deal, but then I aimed my weapon at the warehouse and fired with the intention of killing the Avatar, even though I knew my fiancé was there, and so was Opal."
It is the first time she has spoken allowed about that decision, and everything that went into it. It was never just about Baatar or just about Korra. It was about Su, and Opal, and Wing, and Wei, and Huan. It was about all of the people who raised her and treated her like family for however long a time. She knew they were all in the building. She knew she was not only fastening a noose around Korra's neck, but around theirs as well. She knew all of those things and still she decided her empire was more important, because one family could sacrifice their lives for the Earth Nation to be reunited, and they were not really her family anyway. The ends justified the means.
She would never have been accepted back at the Beifong's family table, not after everything that happened when she took Zaofu, but more than anything, she regrets doing something she thought would killed them. Su probably wishes she had left her an orphan in Ba Sing Se. Maybe she had not felt comfortable taking charge of an entire nation, but Kuvira has never seen Su abandon a person. Not when the first nonbender to be born in Zaofu was her daughter, not when her second son steadfastly refused to learn any combative earthbending forms, and not when she found a dirty eight-year-old huddled behind a dumpster in any alleyway in Ba Sing Se, and that reality forces Kuvira to confront the idea that maybe the problem was never with Su. Maybe it was with her. Maybe, even as a teenager, Su saw her potential to become something horrible. Maybe that is why she pushed her away.
"I almost killed her entire family," Kuvira remarks to a stunned Shou. "None of them will ever want anything to do with me again. They only had me released from prison because they needed me." They will probably put her right back in after they rescue her.
She knows she deserves it.
After everywhere they have been, it is nice to sit at Iroh's tea table again, where they do not have to worry about having their faces stolen or being thrown into the Fog of Lost Souls. It is the safest Asami has felt since they arrived at Wan Shi Tong's Library.
Her fingers curl around Korra's in the grass as Iroh sets a tea tray on the table and sits down across from them. "I am glad to see the two of you back here so soon," he tells them. "I know you can take care of yourselves, but that does not stop an old man from worrying."
"Well, you didn't have anything to worry about," Korra answers, shooting Asami a mischievous smile. "I am a very responsible tour guide."
"I am sure you are," Iroh replies. "I have found that people who are under enormous pressure in their everyday lives tend not to look for trouble when they are finally free." But there is a glint in his eye that makes Asami think he may have spotted Korra's lie.
"We've just been looking for information about Korra's past lives," the engineer cuts in. "We visited Wan Shi Tong's Library, like you said, and we were in a swamp for a while, and then we headed back to the Tree of Time."
"That sounds very relaxing indeed," Iroh replies, but he gives her an appraising look that tells Asami he is not at all convinced. "A little mystery is a good thing. It keeps life interesting. That is why I chose to run a tea shop. There is a bit of intrigue with every new customer."
"Well, after this, I think we'll have had enough mystery for a while." Korra grins at Asami before continuing. "Honestly, when we get back, I'd like to take a little bit of time to just live, you know?" She shakes her head. "I can't believe I used to go looking for trouble."
Iroh holds up his hand to stop her. "We are all foolish in our youth. And sometimes when we are not so young." A frown flickers over his face, but it is gone just as quickly. "I could tell you stories about my nephew and niece that you would not believe."
"We already know they tried to kill each other," Korra points out. "Everything that happened during the war is kind of… famous."
"I learned about it in school," Asami agrees. "The Prince and Princess' last agni kai." But Iroh merely shakes his head.
"Those were not the foolish mistakes of youth," he tells them. "They were children whose father pitted them against each other, on opposite sides of a war. But I could tell you about the time Zuko nearly directed a ship full of people into a storm we would never have made it out of to try to capture the Avatar. I could tell you about the time Azula escaped from the asylum, only to order everything on the menu at the finest restaurant in the Fire Nation capital and wait for the palace guards to find her."
Korra laughs, loud and unapologetic, and exactly the way Asami loves. "I don't blame her. People aren't supposed to be trapped like that. I ran away once too."
Asami removes her hand from the grass to rub Korra's knee as Iroh answers. "You must understand that Azula was difficult, and she was dangerous just after the war. She set the hair of more than one servant on fire in the following week." He chuckles at the memory. "She needed to be somewhere secure until she healed. I assure you, my nephew did not keep her there longer than he had to. She was strangely calmer when she returned with her brother after they left to find their mother, and he brought her home to the palace shortly afterward. But I am sure you did not come here to discuss my family. I regret that I know so little about your lives in the human world."
"Well, I grew up in a compound in the South Pole," Korra informs him. "Apparently some anarchists tried to kidnap me when I was little, and the world leaders thought I needed the extra protection, even though they caught the guys."
"When you are carrying a lamp in the dark, the only path you really know is the one over which you have already traveled," Iroh replies. Korra glances at Asami, a mildly confused expression on her face, before continuing.
"Well, my parents still live in the Southern Water Tribe. I've been staying on Air Temple Island… on and off for the past four years. I keep trying to master airbending, but everything else keeps getting in the way."
"Korra, don't be silly. You're a wonderful airbender," Asami tells her earnestly. Korra shrugs.
"I do okay," she replies. "I never really finished my training with Tenzin. Everything kind of got put on hold when Unalaq… convinced me to let him train me instead."
"That wasn't your fault," Asami reminds her. "He was your uncle. You should have been able to trust him."
There is a moment of tense silence before Iroh speaks again, turning the subject of converation away from Korra. "And what about you?" he asks her. "Where did the two of you find each other?"
"Well, it's kind of funny actually." Korra squeezes the hand resting on her knee as the engineer jumps into the conversation. "I hit the guy she liked with my bike. And then I started dating him."
"Oh my," Iroh chuckles. "This sounds like quite a story."
"I didn't like you very much at first," Korra admits, a sheepish smile on her face. "I resented you for being, I don't know, rich and prissy and beautiful."
Asami laughs. "Well, that didn't help me very much when it came to Mako, obviously." She turns back to Iroh. "We, umm, let him go back and forth between the two of us a couple of times—"
"A couple times more than we should have," Korra interrupts, and Asami nods.
"And then, once we'd both broken up with him permanently, we started to become friends with each other," Asami finishes. "And then we started to become more than that."
Iroh nods. "Sometimes the best things that happen to us are exactly what we least expect them to be."
"Yeah…" Korra agrees, her hand absently running over Asami's. "I guess that's true."
"Well, whatever you have been doing since we last spoke, I can see your relationship has grown," Iroh comments. "Are you any closer to recovering your connection to your past lives?"
"That's actually one of the things we wanted to talk to you about," Korra answers. "When we spoke to… a spirit we found in a book at the library," Asami rolls her eyes. Korra has always been completely transparent when she was trying to hide something. "He told us to look in Aang's memories for his polar opposite, and we found this spirit called the Mother of Faces."
"Ah, yes," Iroh recalls. "I remember my nephew telling me about her when he returned from searching for his mother. She is the mother of Koh, the Face-Stealer, I believe?"
"Uh, yes," Korra answers, anxiously rubbing at the back of her neck and completely giving herself away, much to Asami's amusement. "She is. We were wondering if you knew where to find her."
"In the human world, she inhabits a place called the Forgetful Valley," Iroh tells them. "That is where my nephew and niece found her, and where my sister-in-law found her when she needed a new face. In the Spirit World, those lakes are in a place called the Field of Memories. It is the place where the Mother of Faces keeps the memories she has taken."
"How do we find it?" Korra asks, her voice brimming with excitement.
"It is in the opposite direction of the library." The old man points across the meadow to a distant tree line. "In that forest you will find a large clearing. You will know it because it will be haunted by memories long separated from their vessels. But I warn you, many spirits will not approach that clearing. They are too afraid of being mixed up with the lost."
"But we're not spirits," Korra replies. "So we'll be okay." She is grinning, and Asami thinks that maybe she is being a little too optimistic, but she does not say so. Korra is excited about their mission again, and Asami is not going to ruin that for her.
Opal wakes up early the morning they are set to rescue Kuvira. When she arrives in the lounge, her mother and Mako are already there, nibbling at pieces of fruit. "Eat something, Opal," Su tells her when she enters the room. "We don't know how long this is going to take, and you'll need your energy. We're going to be doing a lot of bending."
The tension in the room is higher than it was the day that Opal left Zaofu for the Northern Air Temple. "Where's the Prince?" she asks in a feeble attempt to break the silence as she takes a small bite into a piece of bread.
"He's in his room," Mako answers. "He'll be safe here. Don't worry."
"President Raiko is sending an airship to pull him out," Su adds. "But it won't be here until tomorrow." Opal nods and takes another bite of her bread.
"We've been sitting here long enough," her mother comments when Opal is shoving the last piece of bread into her mouth and Mako is reaching for a second piece of fruit. "We have to leave now, or we'll lose the cover of darkness. If you want something else, take it with you."
Opal's stomach is turning so violently that she does not think she could eat another bite if she tried, but Mako grabs the fruit and takes another bite into it as they file out of the lounge and onto the cargo bay. Su drops the ramp and they step down onto the dirt, just on the other side of a hill from the spot they were parked until the night before.
"We're burying it with Wu still inside?" Opal asks in surprise as Su stomps and the ground cracks and drops.
"The ship has a transmitter," she answers. "If we don't come back, the other airship will be able to find him when they show up tomorrow. I talked to Raiko. Lin is with them. She'll be able to get him out. This is really the safest place for him," she adds when Opal does not look convinced.
With a movement of her hands, the earth folds together over the ship. It settles there, looking vaguely upturned but relatively inconspicuous. "Let's go," Su says, and without a backward look, the three of them set off over the hill and across the land bridge toward Omashu's city walls.
By the time they arrive at the wall, the sun is just beginning to peak over the horizon. Su takes a quick look around, and when she does not see anyone or hear any movement, she pulls a large hunk of rock out of the cliff side. "Get on," she tells them, her voice low enough that they can barely hear it. "And brace yourselves. We're going to move."
With a swing of her arms and an unnerving jerk, the rock scrapes slowly around the city, just below the bottom of the wall, until they can barely see the bridge around the side of the cliff. It makes more noise than Opal is comfortable with, but everything stays completely still. The outside of the city is silent at sunrise.
"Does this look good to everyone?" Su whispers as the rock slows to a stop. Opal nods.
"Looks good," Mako adds in agreement.
"Good," Su replies. "Watch out." She pushes them both carefully to the side, and then with a stomp and a wave of her arm, she pulls a cylindrical slice of rock from the cliff side and lets it fall into the deep canyon below. "Get in."
Opal and Mako step into the tunnel, and when Su climbs in after them, she pulls the chunk of rock after her to seal it off. "Mako, light your hand."
"Now what?" Opal asks as a small flame illuminates the area around them. They are crowded into a small bubble, surrounded in stone.
"This way," Su directs. She lifts her arms above her head, and above them, Opal can see the rock begin to run like it is made of liquid from in front of them to resolidify behind them. This is going to be slow, Opal realizes, and she is suddenly glad they buried the airship.
"I can only feel stone around us right now," Su tells them, her voice back at a normal volume. "I'll let you know when we get close." And without another word, the three of them set off into a sea of stone.
A/N: So we are, in fact, off schedule now guys. Like I said, I'm going to try to keep updates within ten days, but they will be a little less regular. Luckily we are headed into the end of the semester.
Please, please, please leave a review if you're able to. I'll see you all at the next update.
