Matchstick Wars

by Daezil

With the world teetering on the brink of another war and battered by threats from angry spirits one would hope for better than a cynical, apathetic, and untrained child for an avatar, least of all one born on the wrong side of the battle-lines. In fact, the only one more disappointed about the identity of the new avatar is the new avatar himself.

3. Meiling Wrecks the City

So, this chapter ended up being about 5k words longer than I intended, but, there you go... Also, one of the scenes in the first half of this chapter contains direct quotes from season four episode 11, so I'd like to reiterate that I don't own any of the LoK characters or dialogue.

Thanks go out to everyone who has left a review or favorited. You guys are awesome!

---

Chapter Three: Meiling Wrecks the City

---

Three days into what Wei was referring to as Operation Bound to Go Horribly Wrong Uncle Bai showed up at the palace surrounded by Dai Li agents and looking about ready to punch a rock through the nearest wall.

"Why is it," he asked through clenched teeth once they had all sat down to tea in his parents' sitting room, "that no one ever tells me anything?"

Wei knew it was probably meant to be a rhetorical question. On the other hand the silence hanging around the table was really making him uncomfortable, especially since he usually relied on conversation to drown out the sound of Meiling scheming unholy monstrosities.

"It's okay Uncle Bai," he said, just as his mother gracefully began pouring Cheng a cup of jasmine oolong, "no one bothered to tell me that I was the avatar either."

"That's in poor taste, Wei." Their father reprimanded about the same time tea spilled all over the table as Li Hua dissolved in a fit of giggling.

"It's not funny!" Uncle Bai insisted, though Wei was pretty sure from the look on his face that he was trying really hard not to smile. He stabbed an accusing finger at their father "An entire spirits blasted month, Ling! Imagine my surprise when I show up to check in on my little brother only to find out he and his family have been arrested by the Dai Li!"

Cheng, who had finally gotten his cup of tea, nearly spit all over the freshly wiped table. "Arrested! Who was arrested? We weren't arrested!"

"Escorted, then," Uncle Bai corrected. "None of the neighbors know what happened other than that they saw you being escorted toward the Upper Ring by Dai Li agents. Can you blame them for thinking you were arrested? That one man, Gung, is spreading rumors that the government has turned anti-Equalist."

"That could be troublesome," Their father mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "We wouldn't want to indirectly cause any political unrest."

"What, like the Equalist party doesn't cause enough unrest on their own?"

Li Hua eyed them dangerously over her cup. "I do hope you gentlemen aren't trying to start any political debates at my table." When both men fell immediately silent she smiled at them serenely. "We are truly sorry, Bai, that you had to find out about this all so indirectly. There are few telephones available in the palace, and the empress is quite strict about what they can be used for."

"Of course she is," Bai muttered under his breath. A little more audibly, he said, "But still, an entire month to send one letter?"

Their father laughed dryly, "Oh yes, you know how the bureaucrats love their red tape. We wrote the letter on our second day here when we found out we couldn't call anyone, and then we had to hand it in for screening to make sure that it wasn't going to give away any government secrets. The Grand Secretariat nearly had an aneurism when he found out that we wanted to inform someone of Wei's situation, which the empress wishes to remain secret to the public. Then we had to spend the entire month getting approval to disclose the information to you, during which the letter was rewritten four times and Empress Kuvira herself consulted. After the empress finally gave it the go ahead, the Secretariat insisted that the letter was too sensitive send through the postal service and that it must be hand delivered by an imperial messenger."

"Which is why I had two Dai Li and some rich snob show up on my door step at the crack of dawn," Uncle Bai concluded, looking none too pleased with the explanation. "Kyoshi's toenails, politics gives me a headache."

"Can we swear by past avatars anymore since we're technically family?" Meiling asked, looking terrifyingly delighted. "How long before we can use Wei's name?"

Their father, Wei noticed, looked like he sorely wanted something stronger than tea. "No Mei, you cannot use your brother's name as a curse word."

"Not until he gets outed as the avatar, at least," Cheng muttered under his breath. Wei kicked his shin under the table, and the dork jumped hard enough to nearly come out of his chair. Their mother, sharp as ever, arched an eyebrow at him but said nothing.

"Spirits, though, what are the odds, you think?" Bai continued. "And I thought I was the genetic black koalasheep in the family just for bending one element."

"It's fairly certain that reincarnating as the World Spirit has no genetic heritability, if that's what you're implying." Ling deadpanned.

Uncle Bai scowled, "All I'm saying is that I find it just a little ironic that after centuries of claiming to have no bending connections and two generations of preaching Equalist doctrine your son just happens to turn out to be the spirits blasted avatar!"

And there goes the pleasantries, Wei observed, and then caught himself chewing his lip nervously.

"My son," his father said, all light traces of amiability gone, "happens to also be your nephew. You would do well to remember that, as much as I know you take pride and distancing yourself from family relations, and I would gladly ask you to leave my children out of trying to prove your passive aggressive would also do well to remember that believing the Equalist doctrine in no way equates to hating benders, and that attacking those who only seek equality just serves to further prove our point."

"Don't hate benders my a–" Li Hua sent him such scathing look that he backtracked, "–Aunt Chu's back hair. Maybe not everyoneis hateful I conceded you that. But if you think that Equalists don't harbor any resentment toward benders then you didn't know our parents like I did."

Meiling shot Wei a surprised look, and–surprisingly enough–leaned over to Cheng.

"Psst," she whispered, camouflaged by Li Hua's outraged shouts about airing long standing family grievances at the table. "Cheng, you remember gran-gran, right? She wasn't actually prejudiced towards benders, was she?"

The dead eyed that he gave her was a pure testimony to just how much crap Cheng had put up with over the past couple of days. Wei made a mental note to cut the guy some slack later.

"Why do you ask these sorts of things," Cheng hissed back, shaking his head. "How would I know? I was only eight when she passed–what kind of an eight year old picks up on those sorts of things!"

Wei took a moment to be glad that he hadn't started bending yet when the last of their grandparents had died and had never had to find out for himself. Then he heard his father, red faced, defending his parent's reputations to Uncle Bai and felt a little bad for the thought.

"Sorry for even bringing it up!" Uncle Bai spat finally, standing. "If you're going to turn everything into an argument I might as well not even bother!"

The tension in the air was solid enough that Empress Kuvira probably could have bent it into a giant ball and beaten the snot out of him with.

When Uncle Bai turned, Meiling, who had always been the faster of the two of them, shot to her feet too.

"You're not leaving already, are you?" she asked, and Wei knew just enough about his sister to know that the touch of hurt in her voice was real. "You just got here!"

Uncle Bai rubbed the back of his neck roughly. "Nah, kid, I'm just going for some air." He took the back door into on of the royal gardens instead of the main one, so Wei figured he meant it.

Their father sighed with enough force to make himself look like a deflating balloon. "This is why I won't invite him to dinner parties," he lamented to his wife.

Li Hua shook her head and started gathering up the dishes. "Honestly, for two grown men you bicker like children! If you can't discuss your differences civilly then it's best not to mention it at all! Especially not on such an occasion!" Sniffing derisively, she blew out the candle inside the tea warmer and stood to put away the kettle. A moment later a servant stopped her mid turn and took the tea set from her, disappearing the next instant while another appeared to clear the table. For a moment, their mother stood there and watched them work, lips pursed and eyes brooding.

"Oh, I hate it when they do that!" she spat the moment both servants were out of earshot. "I've been cooking and clearing dishes for a living my entire life, and now I'm just expected to stand around and act helpless!"

"It's not so bad, Mom," Meiling said. "Now you have time to do whatever else you want to do!"

Li Hua stared at a space on the wall just behind her children, looking strangely lost "Like what?" she asked no one in particular. "My children are being taken care of. My restaurant is being run by almost strangers. I can't even clear up the table. What else is there?"

"Wei," their father said after a moment, sounding more gentle than he had all afternoon. "Why don't you go talk to your uncle in the garden. He's likely already calmed down some by now."

"Uh, right," Wei said, eternally grateful for the chance to excuse himself. It took nearly all of his carefully built up discipline not to sprint for the door.

Uncle Bai apparently moved fast when he was in a stormy mood, but that was okay because Wei could move pretty fast when he was feeling uncomfortable. He caught up to him standing at the edge of a koi pond at the far end of the garden, staring into the water and doing some of the calming breathing exercises that he had taught him for earthbending. Wei sat down next to him on one of the big rocks overlooking the water and watched the fish.

"Erm, sorry to interrupt," Wei said.

Uncle Bai was rubbing the back of his head again, "Nah, you're not interrupting, kid. Sorry for causing a fight with your folks. More importantly, sorry for bringing you into it."

Wei was starting to chew his lip again, and had to force himself to stop. "It's alright. I mean, I do appreciate the irony of the situation. I just don't think that Equalists are bad people."

"Of course not," Uncle Bai said quickly. "I didn't mean to imply that your parents are bigoted."

Only my parents though, Wei mused. So the rest of the Equalist party can go wade in quicksand then? He shook the thought from his mind. He hadn't come out here to start another fight.

"I didn't say it earlier," he said instead, "but I really am glad to see you. Things have been weird the past month."

"Oh I bet," Uncle Bai grinned, finally, finally looking relaxed like he should. "So I hear you're taking lessons from the Great Uniter now."

Wei barely suppressed a groan. "Yeah, pretty much."

"And how's that going?"

"The empress is…a strict teacher. But I've been learning a lot, I guess." It wasn't like he had stuff like a well-rounded educationto distract him any more, in any case. He felt Uncle Bai looking at him oddly and realized that without thinking he had slipped into the blank slate face that had been coming easier and easier lately. That…kind of scared him. He tried to smile. "It's not nearly as fun as squaring off with you, though."

Uncle Bai let out a laugh, though it sounded almost as forced as Wei's smile, "Don't go telling the empress that! I don't want to get accused of being more fun than her!"

Wei chuckled a little in response. Then, he stiffened as he remembered instructions that had been forgotten in all of the tension from earlier, and his stomach sunk. He was going to put ice cubes in Meiling's slippers for making him do her dirty work, even if this was technically a team effort.

"What's up, kid? You don't look so good," Uncle Bai observed.

Wei ignored him in favor of pressing his hand flat against the rock they were sitting on and feeling out the vibrations around them. He was no Toph Beifong, but he couldn't make out any footsteps in their general vicinity in the garden, and the garden wall was far enough away that no one watching would be able to overhear as long as they didn't shout.

He opened his mouth. "Meiling thinks we could get out of the city. We've got it planned out, see, and we were wondering…" It shouldn't be that hard to say. Uncle Bai had never been a fan of Kuvira's regime, even if he kept it on the down low and isolated those opinions for drunken moments talking late, late past midnight with Dad in the kitchen about 'the old days'. He would support them, probably, regardless of whether or not he thought their plan was crazy. If Wei told him that he thought the empress was crazy, he would believe him, little to no questions asked.

That…wasn't what Wei wanted. Meiling was one thing; she had seen the empress herself and had gotten to observe her behavior an entire month before Wei had talked with her, even if it was only from afar. Meiling wouldn't have hesitated him to tell him to his face if she thought he was wrong. But while Wei trusted her as a second opinion, he wasn't sure he was willing to risk his neck (and his family's necks for that matter) based off of only two people's bad feelings. He needed to be sure that they weren't overreacting here; if they were going to break out of the most defensible and secure city in the entire known world, he wanted to be absolutely sure first that there really was something wrong with the woman in charge and that they weren't just being paranoid.

For that…for that he needed an outside viewpoint. From someone who didn't have Wei's own opinions clouding his perception. So…

"What do you think of all this really?" Wei asked.

Uncle Bai raised an eyebrow at him. "You're going to have to be a bit more specific–"

"No one can hear us if we keep our voices down," Wei pointed out. You can't play clueless with me anymore, Uncle–I've been playing mental chickenpig with the Great Uniter for the past month. What was more, the empress hadn't called him out on it yet. Like it or not, he had been learning far more than bending from Kuvira. "So, tell me what you really think about what's going on."

His uncle gave him a searching look, and, apparently not liking what he found, let out a short puff of air. "You don't miss much. You've always been a sharp kid, Wei." He paused, considering his words. "If you want my honest opinion, I think you're all in a very dangerous situation right now."

"Dangerous how?" he asked, as if he didn't already have an idea.

"That fact that the empress is keeping your existence a secret is…troublesome. What reason could there be for keeping you hidden?"

He felt his pulse pick up a little, and he wasn't sure whether he was glad or disappointed to have more support for his suspicions.

"She claims that there has been trouble with rebels–that they would want to kidnap me," Wei pointed out. In retrospect, it was probably more than ten kinds of illegal that he was discussing top-secret government matters with someone without clearance. On the other hand, Kuvira had never said he couldn't tell anyone, and he was just a kid who hadn't been in the palace nearly long enough to understand anything about the deeply complicated workings of politics. Really she should have made it clearer if she wanted his silence on the matter.

"Kid," Uncle Bai said, "do you honestly think that the ruler of the entire Earth Empire, who reconquered an entire continent and put a sudden and violent stop to years of anarchy in the entire Earth Kingdom doesn't have enough military power to guard one fifteen-year-old from a couple copperless rebel?"

Wei considered the earthbending prowess he had seen from the empress firsthand during practice and wondered if an army would even be necessary.

"Honestly," he admitted, "it wouldn't surprise me if she could keep the entire palace defended by herself."

"Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration," his uncle chuckled, even though Wei was dead serious. "Point being, Kuvira doesn't seem like the type who needs to hide behind walls and secrets to achieve what she wants."

"No, that's much too pre-empire monarchy for her style," Wei mused. "She's much more of the smug, gloating type, from what I've seen." Like a catowl with a freshly caught koi. And what was the point of an achievement if you couldn't parade it around for others to see? Which…didn't make sense, actually, because if Kuvira was that type of person then why was she being so overly cautious? There was no question about defensibility, and if Wei had Kuvira's sense of self confidence mixed with pride the first thing he would have done was announce to the world that the avatar had been found just to let the rebels know that she had him. In the very least it should lower enemy morale. At most it would draw rebels into the capital, right where she could easily dispose of them if she had the presence of mind, which he didn't doubt she did. Like dangling a fish right in front of a liondillo, just out of swiping distance. Or better yet, more like dangling a carrot on a stick in front of an ostrichhorse.

Even better. Then they could at least think about negotiations with the Fire Nation to see about getting him a firebending teacher. Even if the Fire Nation didn't like dealing with Kuvira, the avatar was supposed to serve the world, so even they should see the sense in sending someone…

The avatar serves the world.

Wei slapped himself on the forehead, ignoring the weird look it earned him from his uncle. I am a tremendous idiot.

"This isn't about rebels," he realized. "This is about me."

Because Kuvira had him right where she wanted him–in the palace safe from prying eyes where she could train him in earthbending and politics. She was in absolutely no hurry to find a firebending teacher for him because as long as he was stuck in the palace he was her Pai Sho tile up her sleeve to move as she pleased. The Earth Empire was in the middle of an arms race. Kuvira would probably be more willing to chew off her own arm than give up what could potentially be her biggest trump card against the Fire Nation. And the second the other nations got wind that he was here was the moment that they could start (rightly) demanding she turn him over to them to carry out his 'Avatar duty'. Because the avatar wasn't supposed to be under that control of one nation. The avatar was the reincarnation of the spirit of the whole damn world.

"Wei, what's wrong?" Uncle Bai asked. The expression on his face probably wasn't pretty because his uncle was giving him concerned looks. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking I'm pretty much fucked," Wei admitted. Uncle Bai actually choked (probably because Wei had never cursed around him before) and looked like he was going to give him an earful, so he quickly added "But listen, that's okay, because Meiling has a plan."

A plan that was seeming progressively less drastic in retrospect. That could only be a bad sign.

---

Daily spars with the empress were growing increasingly uncomfortable, even if he was pretty used to getting rocks chucked at him by now.

It wasn't even so much the lessons themselves that bothered him, because, the thing was, he was improving, say what you will about Kuvira's possibly unorthodox approach to teaching. His reflexes had gotten so honed at this point that he had nearly punched a rock through his father's sternum the last time he had grabbed his shoulder to get his attention. He was even getting better at defensive bending, and, thanks to both bending and tactical thinking exercises, had started coming up with some creative ways of catching Kuvira off guard enough to get some offense in.

The problem was that, between planning a grand escape attempt and trying to pretend like he didn't notice that the empress was kind of insane, Wei was having a hard time not being distracted.

It certainly didn't help matters that his ignoring of those weird dream of a much younger Kuvira facing him in yet another combat situation had only resulted in visions from said dream interrupting his careful watching of his teacher across the practice yard with overlaying images of two different versions of her.

A full week into Operation Bound to Go Horribly Wrong, Wei relented to the fact that this was probably less the result of head trauma (the palace doctor insisted he was fine) and more the result of inconvenient avatar stuff.

He wasn't an idiot. Liao had suggested that one of the past avatars was trying to communicate with him, and with all of the mental flashes of what were obviously memories of some kind, Wei was inclined to believe him. The thing was, there was only one other avatar that had been alive during Kuvira's lifetime. And, with the way Liao had reacted last time he brought this particular dream up, he figured some tact was in order.

"So, in theory," he mentioned during his next lesson with Master Liao, "I can talk to past avatars, right?"

"Yes, it's certainly within an avatar's capabilities." Something uncomfortable flashed in Liao's gaze, poorly concealed a moment later. "Why the curiosity, all of the sudden?" In truth, Wei hadn't really been the most vocal during their sessions, preferring to sit quietly and mull over some of the finer details of how they were going to convince their parents to break out of Ba Sing Se with them.

Wei put on his best sheepish smile, "Oh, well, I found some reading material from Avatar Kyoshi's time in the Imperial Library. She sounds really badass."

Liao frowned sternly at his language, but seemed to ease up in his posture. No scheming here, just dumb teenage shenanigans.

"Well, communicating directly with past incarnations usually requires a deep state of meditation, sometimes even a journey to the spirit world. At this stage in your training and since you have little experience with meditation, I don't think such an attempt would be within your range of abilities right now. Most avatars must train for years before they can achieve a deep enough connection with the spirits to achieve such a thing."

"But Avatar Aang was only twelve." Even if Aang had been an outlier, surely that meant that it could still be done, in theory.

Liao's lips quirked into an indulgent smile. "Avatar Aang was raised as a monk, trained in meditation long before he even found out that he was the avatar. In any case, the man was considered by many to be a prodigy, even among avatars."

"Damn," Wei sighed, letting his teacher focus on his foul language instead of the thoughtfulness that he didn't doubt was readable on his face, "I was hoping Kyoshi might help me learn a few tricks for earthbending."

Liao sniffed, but still looked amused, "I dare say it'll take more than a few pointers if you ever want to pull one over on the empress."

He smiled sheepishly, the picture of an embarrassed student. Oh don't I know it.

---

Breathe in. He concentrated on the feeling of air entering through his nostrils and swirling through his lungs–focused on the expansion of his chest and the pulsing of blood through his veins. And out.

He wasn't exactly sure how long he had been at this. The few times he had tried meditation with Uncle Bai it had ended fairly quickly. The fact that Wei's usually long attention span for things like reading and listening to history lectures did not apparently extend to sitting quietly in a room with nothing but his thoughts and the companionable sense of impending doom did not help. It wasn't that he wasn't capable of focusing himself…the problem here seemed to be more that he didn't really have anything in particular to focus on.

Relax, he told himself, repeating advice that pretty much every book on meditation in the imperial library had to offer, clear your mind.

This felt counter-intuitive. How was he supposed to clear his mind and contact his past lives at the same time? Otherwise wouldn't he just kind of…drift off without putting any effort into making contact? Maybe meditation for avatars worked different. It wasn't like he had much to go off of in that department.

A frustrated sigh escaped his lips, and he cursed himself for breaking his flow of breathing. What good is having a connection with your past incarnations if you can't damn well communicate with them?

He chewed his lip anxiously, then caught himself. Breathe in. Not like he had many other options. They only had one day left if they were going to pull this off. If one of his past lives was trying to warn him about something, he had to know now. And out.

Either minutes or hours passed. His sense of time perception had never been the best when nervous, and he didn't dare raise his eyes to look at the clock on the wall. He needed to sleep. He couldn't keep doing this all night.

Breathe. What was he doing wrong?

Feeling that amateur meditation was getting him nowhere, Wei slumped his position and ran a hand through the hair on the back of his head. Looked like it was time for Plan B. Even if Plan B was pretty much awful.

"Um," he said to the empty room around him, letting his eyes fall fully shut, "Avatar Korra?" He paused, hearing nothing other than the awkwardness of talking to himself in an empty room echoing back at him. "I'm assuming that you're the one messing with my head?"

Silence. Not even the chirping of insects in the garden, which was…spooky, but not relevant right now. "Look, I'm kind of in deep shit here. I know I'm supposed to have this strong spiritual connection or whatever, but I'm kind of on a time crunch here. So…If you're trying to tell me something important, could you maybe cut me some slack here?"

If the spirits, past avatars, or anyone else had heard him, they did not feel inclined to respond. Groaning, Wei lied back on the cool marble floor of his bedroom. Well, it's not like I expected anything different. It looked like he would be getting himself out of this mess without the spirits' help.

The clock chimed from his sitting room, announcing that it was two in the morning and long after he should have gone to sleep if he wanted to be fully alert tomorrow. Wei had just resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't going to be getting any decent rest when his mind drifted off to sleep with him still sprawled out on the floor.

He was so used to the weird dream shit that he honestly wasn't surprised at this point when the next thing he knew he was standing in a strange place and surrounded by people he didn't know. He was a little surprised though, when he looked down to see that not only did he look like himself but his entire body was transparent.

Well, he thought, either this is more than just a normal dream or someone has murdered me in my sleep and I'm a ghost.

It looked like he was in a storehouse of some kind because the room he was in was spacious and housed multiple crates along with some very strange looking vehicles set out ready for testing. There were more than a dozen people in the room, and almost half of them were dressed in red, form hugging suits that he vaguely recognized from textbooks that standard modern airbender attire. Most of the rest were dressed in various shades of Earth Empire green with metal shoulder and chest pieces, one of which was a man tied up in a chair. It was a young woman standing in front of him that caught his eye though. She was dark skinned with short brown hair and blue eyes, dressed in water tribe attire even though a glance out the window was enough to tell him that they were no where near the poles.

Wei was so busy taking in his surroundings that he missed most of a very tense conversation going on between a middle aged woman in Empire attire and the man tied to the chair.

"…The United Republic belongs to us," he was saying, staring the woman down through the glasses siting crookedly on his face. "And we're taking it back!"

United Republic? The words hit Wei like a splash of ice water to the face. "Oh are you shitting me?" I'm in the spirits damned past!

No one visibly reacted to his outburst, so he figured that no one could actually see or hear him.

"But at what cost?" the woman demanded while Wei stood there reeling. "How many people have to lose their lives before Kuvira is satisfied?"

Shit, shit, this before the fall of the United Republic. Or, maybe during, given how quiet the city outside seemed. Where were the sounds of traffic and business–

"It doesn't have to cost any lives if you would all just surrender–"

And there was a giant-ass mecha suit standing on the horizon bigger than Wei had ever seen before except in history books. Oh shit!

"All Kuvira and I want is a United Earth Empire."

Who was this guy? How delusional was he that he could talk as if he and Empress Kuvira were equals? As far as Wei knew, the creation of the Earth Empire had always been her grand vision. There had never been any mention of a partner in planning or otherwise.

For a while the rest of the words being spoken faded out of his perception as he turned to stare at the giant war machine on the horizon with an increasingly sinking feeling in his stomach that he might know why this guy never made it into the history books. When he finally shook himself out of it, the Water Tribe woman had stepped forward and was speaking to the captive.

Wei was starting to realize that, logically speaking this was probably some sort of memory from a past life. A very recent past life. Which meant that this woman, being they only person obviously of Water Tribe descent in the room was most likely Avatar Korra herself.

Hopping hogmonkies I'm looking at me. Sort of. The realization struck him like one of Kuvira's rocks to the stomach.

"Is taking the city worth losing the one you love forever?" Avatar Korra demanded. And, okay, yeah, this was really weird.

"You can't!"

"I will! Unless you convince Kuvira to back off. You two will still have the Earth Empire, just leave the United Republic alone."

Wei had a very, very, bad feeling about where this was going.

There was a phone call made. An exchange of words with the woman who was inevitably going to destroy this city.

"Is the avatar there with you now?" A sickening familiar voice on the other end of the line said. Wei almost laughed. In more ways than you know, lady.

"Yes," the man said, "everyone is here."

Korra's terms were repeated. And oh, the man in the chair, Kuvira's lover apparently, was actually convinced that that would be enough to convince Kuvira to back down.

And for a shocking moment, it sounded like that's exactly what was going to happen.

"You're right. This city isn't worth sacrificing our life together. I love you Bataar."

The man, Bataar, was untied. Everyone visibly relaxed. Wei stared out the window at the mecha in the distance. "Oh, tell me she didn't."

One metal arm began to rise towards them. Wei groaned, dropping his face into his hands. "Of course she fucking did!"

"Guys, she must have our location!" someone shouted.

It's just a memory, Wei told himself, watching everyone turn and stare in horror.

"No! She wouldn't!" Bataar said, though even he didn't seem completely sure.

It's just a memory, He told himself. You can't do anything to stop it. He balled his hands into fists at his side.

The first flash of pink light came from the end of the weapon, and Korra shouted, "Everyone out! Now!"

It's just a memory, he told himself as the light coming towards them grew and a sound like the exploding of worlds rattled his eardrums. It's not real.

The room was engulfed in light and fire and screaming long before anyone made it to the door.

It's just a memory. The thought was echoing in his mind as his eyes shot open back in his too large room where he was still lying on the floor. It did not stop him from rolling over and puking all over the polished marble.

After his stomach was empty, he slowly sat up, sweaty and panting with an awful taste in his mouth. He got to his feet without really thinking and walked out into the sitting area connected to his bedchamber, stopping in front of the book shelf there. His fingers stroked the spine of the thin volume at the very end of the top shelf and tugged it from its place.

The Triumph of the Earth Empire the cover read. It was a book he had flipped through many times in passing over the past month.

His hands were shaking as he turned the pages to the second to last chapter, causing him to fumble with the pages and give himself a paper cut.

There. He stopped halfway through the chapter, staring at one of the few printed pictures in the book: a gigantic mecha suit, standing amidst the towers of an enormous city that was smoking and slumping after facing bombardment. He forced his eyes to the caption:

One of the Earth Empire's earliest models for a full war-ready mecha, and to date still the largest ever used in combat. Designed and piloted by Empress Kuvira herself, this model was key in securing the capture of Republic City.

Wei read the statement again four times, feeling just a little less numb and a little more pissed off with each reading, his eyes going back to the same four words over and over again.

Piloted by Empress Kuvira.

Based on the events he had just seen, it was pretty easy to draw some logical conclusions about the Battle of Republic City.

Kuvira killed Avatar Korra.

That feeling was back. That helpless rage that clenched his stomach and made him desperately want to hurt the nearest thing within punching distance. He dropped the book and let his fingernails dig into his palms, feeling flames lick at his knuckles.

That bitch. He thought through the haze of red. This is all her fault!

---

Unsurprisingly, there was something about finding out that your instructor had killed you in a past life that made earthbending practice lose some of its charm. There were no hard feelings what so ever, then, when General Nainzu interrupted Wei on his way to the practice courtyard to inform his that Empress Kuvira had been called away to settle a problem in one of the near provinces and obviously wouldn't be able to meet with his that morning.

Instead he got to spend his morning discussing past foreign policies over Pai Sho with the general, which was…almost pleasant, considering he hadn't actually gotten to play against someone who could give him a run for his money since Meiling had declared the game boring and turned over to building mechas.

Nianzu conceded that it would be redundant to hold their usual meeting later in the day, so Wei got the rest of the afternoon off. Seeing an opportunity, Wei tracked down Master Liao and, after pulling some random questions about meditation out of his ass, managed to convince him to hold his usual lesson earlier than usual as well.

By the time four o'clock had rolled around the empress had still not returned, and Wei was completely free of obligations. Things were going unexpectedly…convenient.

It was early evening when Uncle Bai showed up again. Like the last time, there was a scowl firmly fixed on his face, though this time for completely different reasons.

"You're late," Wei said under his breath as they walked through the corridors.

"You try getting your superior to let you off two hours early on the day three separate idiots try to rob a radio shop. The same radio shop."

Meiling was waiting for them in the main garden that Kuvira had received Wei in on his first day here, lounging on a bench with a book in hand. The moment they entered, she set the book aside and bounced to her feet to embrace their uncle.

"We're good to talk, right?" she asked while they were all gathered in close.

"More or less," Wei said, "just be careful and keep it down."

Meiling rolled back on her heels and gave Uncle Bai and expectant look. "Did you get what I asked?"

The frown, which had momentarily been lifted from their uncle's face, fell heavily back into place, and he started muttering some rather choice swear words under his breath. "Spirits of the earth, girl, you kids are going to be the end of me! 'I just need you to pick up a couple of things' she said. 'Could you handle some business with a friend of ours,' she asked. You didn't damn well mention that your little 'friend' was a blasted underground fight-club organizer!"

"You didn't ask," Wei said before Meiling could cut in with something worse. "Did you get it though?"

"Yes, I got your thrice damned money. And spirits help both of you when your parents find out what you two delinquents have been doing behind their backs!"

Wei hid a grimace, feigning interest in the clouds.

While Meiling usually liked to keep plans flexible, there were several key components to Operation Bound to Go Horribly Wrong that they had both agreed were nonnegotiable if they were going to actually go through with it. And unfortunately one of those parts involved discussion with Fight Master Xiao about some rather sensitive financial matters. Since there was no way that Meiling or Wei were going to be able to sneak out of the palace long enough to handle said business, the best alternative was to send someone else with appropriate written permission to do it for them.

Even more unfortunately, the only person available for the job was Uncle Bai, who happened to be a cop and rather uninformed as to the hidden finesse of mecha fighting.

"Honestly, though, why?" Uncle Bai demanded. "What could have possibly possessed you? Mecha fighting is illegal!"

"Um," Meiling offered, "because it's illegal and fun?" And, okay, even for her, that was a little blasé.

Uncle Bai's fingers dug into his scalp so hard Wei was worried that he might draw blood. His face had also begun to take on an interesting shade of red. "Why can't you damn kids take up something normal when you're bored? There are plenty of perfectly legal sports!"

"Yeah, and they're boring," Meiling said, shrugging. "And anyway, it's not like we're going to be participating anymore, so can we talk about this later? You can lecture us all you want then, but right now we've really got more important things to talk about."

"You–" their uncle noticeable took a couple of deep breaths, and shoved his hands into his pockets. "We're not done discussing this. Your parents are going to absolutely kill you. And me too, probably."

"Just so long as they do it after we're out of Ba Sing Se." Meiling tugged on one of her braids, looking at the ground. "I'm sorry, okay. For being dishonest, anyway." Apparently satisfied she glanced back up and looked Uncle Bai in the eyes. "You did get it, though–the money?"

Uncle Bai let out an exasperated sigh and dug a pouch out of the pocket inside his jacket. "I already said yes, didn't I? I'm not even going to comment on how the blazes you two got your hands on a full mecha unit."

Meiling caught the pouch as it was tossed to her, but surprisingly stuck it in her pocket without even glancing at its contents.

That mecha took her two and a half years to salvage and build. Even longer with the modifications made to the final product. Two and a half years of blood and sweat that Wei had watched as she slowly and painstakingly pieced together bits of scrapped parts and found gears based on what would have only ever been considered a passing fancy for most kids. Wei might have known every mechanism that had to be bent into place in order to pilot the thing, but Meiling literally knew that machine inside and out better than her own anatomy.

Two and half years of love and work. And they had just sold it.

"Mei…" Wei said, hating the slight quiver he couldn't help but notice in her lower lip.

"It's okay," she said in a voice that clearly was not, "we need the cash for after…" She crossed her arms over her chest and turned to look at the sun sinking down closer to the garden wall. "It's not like we could have taken it with us, anyway." True, and Xiao would have just auctioned it once their hanger rental ran out and no one came to claim it. That still didn't mean that Wei felt any less like he had been sucker punched in the gut, and if he was feeling bent out of shape he hated to think what Meiling was feeling.

"Uh," Uncle Bai was looking between the two of them like a man interrupting an emotional moment only could. "I um, well, there was some stuff in your locker there too. The man I talked to–and I didn't get his name because I would have been too tempted to do some arresting if I had–gave me what you had stored there. There was a tool kit that would have come in handy, probably, but obviously I couldn't sneak it into the palace. Anyway, there was also this." He pulled a small bundle out of his pocket and shoved it at Wei.

Wei stared at the pair of goggles in his hand and, despite the somber mood, almost laughed. "You grabbed my goggles?"

Meiling scrubbed at her eyes and gave him a shaky grin. "Oh, don't pretend like you're not thrilled. Nerd."

"Oh, yeah," Uncle Bai said, reaching into his other pocket. "I also stopped by the house like you asked and grabbed this for you." His hand came out holding a familiar floppy brown had (missed by the servants who had been supposed to pick up their clothes–irresponsible really), and Meiling broke out in a grin bright enough to outshine the sunset behind them.

"Really," Wei teased, "you made him go back for the hat?"

Meiling stuck her tongue out at him. "Hey, if you get to keep the stupid goggles then I deserve to have my hat."

He would give her that. And really he didn't give a damn so long as it made up even a little bit for having to give up the mecha suit.

Looking just a little self-satisfied, Meiling stuffed her hat on top of her head. "Right! Well. Who's ready to cause some trouble?"

---

As was only practical for mad plans, Operation Bound to Go Horribly Wrong required a strict level of secrecy and was only known in full to Meiling and Wei, and even Wei was a little leery about whether or not his sister had actually told him everything she had planned for their daring escape. Uncle Bai had been let in on only the barest of facts: they intended to escape Ba Sing Se to get away from Kuvira, they had a plan (mostly), but they needed him to secure some funds for them so that once they did get out they would have something to live off of for spirits knew how long. Other than that, Meiling and Wei had made sure to breathe not a word outside of their own carefully whispered planning sessions.

The point being, Mr. and Mrs. Yuan were still not, strictly speaking, in the know.

It was an hour and a half until go-time. As much as Wei was not eager for 'go time' to get there, he was even less eager for what they had to do now.

The Yuan parents had been understandably surprised when Uncle Bai showed up with the twins for dinner. They were even more surprised when he stayed long into the evening despite little attempt at conversation or pleasantries.

It was exactly half past nine, and they had all retired to their parents' sitting room, their tea and conversations having both long gone cold. Li Hua had lost her patience and dismissed the servants half and hour ago, leaving the perfect opportunity for private conversation.

"I must admit, Bai, I was a bit shocked you decided to come again so soon." Their father said after a long lapse of silence.

Meiling, who had been staring at Wei intently for the past five minutes, finally gave up on her patience and elbowed him in the ribs. Finally seeing that there was no point in putting it off any longer Wei steeled his nerves and spoke up.

"Uh, actually, Dad, me and Mei asked him to come."

Ling Yuan raised a baffled eyebrow. "Whatever for?"

"Um, well, you see…" Great, this is just like the firebending thing all over again. Nine thirty-five on the clock. Meiling elbowed him sharply again, and he decided that subtlety could go die in a hole. "Mom, Dad, Empress Kuvira is wolfbat shit insane, and Mei and I have a plan to break out of the city tonight."

It was a curious sort of quiet that enveloped the table. It was the kind of quiet that was less a lack of talking and more the absence of sound that came when everyone had so many words that they wanted to say immediately flooding their minds that they were having trouble picking out which would be the best to say first. With Uncle Bai somewhat in the know that really only left half of the table that was staring at him with mixed degrees of horror and utter bafflement, but the sheer degree of staring coming from that half was enough to make Wei squirm down in his chair in a most un-avatar-like fashion.

Cheng was the first to find his words, which was unsurprising given that he probably had the least amount of space in his head for words to begin with.

"Sweet badgermoles, you guys actually are crazy aren'tyou!"

Wei stared at him across the table. "Maybe." He hadn't exactly expected Cheng to be his biggest supporter anyway. "But however bad you think we are? Kuvira is worse, and as of right now you're going to have to pick which of us to go along with because Mei and I aren't sticking around to see what happens when she gets bored and starts thinking up ways that the avatar can be useful."

Cheng shook his head fervently. "Wei, what the blazes do you think the Empress could possibly have planned? I mean, politics aren't the best, sure, but it's not like we're at war." He shot a sidelong look at their father, but Ling wouldn't look at him.

Ling Yuan took off his glasses, wiping them on the edge of his sleeve in slow, deliberate movements. A moment later, he replaced them, and rubbed his temples as if he had a headache.

"Your uncle would know firsthand I am no fan of the Empress' regime. But, Wei, Cheng is not incorrect. I would hope that you would recognize that suspicion alone is not a good enough reason to act out upon. To break out of the palace and personally disrespect the Empress…Wei, Meiling, please tell me that you have a very good reason for suggesting such a thing. Other than you disliking the empress."

Wei pursed his lips. This. This was what he had been worried about, why he had wanted their uncle's opinion. Because, while claiming the empress was mentally unstable was justified from his and Meiling's observation, it did not seem so solid an argument when he considered how this must look to their father: like two incredibly smart but also incredibly flighty teenagers complaining about the newest authority figure to break into their lives. And it was an incredibly frustrating to realize that to your father you sounded like a whiny child who didn't like their teacher. Especially when all of sudden Wei couldn't think of any words to explain his suspicions about Kuvira using him against the other nations, and that they weren't the only ones who thought that something was not right here, but then, even if Uncle Bai was a good outside source he was still only one other person.

One-man support group or not, Uncle Bai apparently had enough experience arguing with his father for the both of them. "Come on, Ling. You can't tell me you haven't seen the lady setting you all up from the moment you stepped foot in the palace. Because from the things you've all said and not said, she's got you all nicely put in order."

The sound of Li Hua's hands slapping down on the table rang like a gavel in Wei's ears, and all of them jumped, swiveling their heads around to stare at her in startled surprise. She was half standing, leaning over the table intently. There was a fierce look in place on her usually reserved expression that Wei had never seen before, and it scared him ten times more than any one of Kuvira's predatory smiles.

"How dare you," she hissed at Bai, "How dare you come in here and accuse us–don't you interrupt, the accusation is in your eyes, even if you wont say it–accuse us of turning a blind eye here. I have put up with this damned place for over a month for the sake of my family, and I'll be damned if I let a fool like you come in and start pointing fingers because we refuse to defy a woman that has an army at her back and currently has my son at her mercy! You think everything is so simple? What would you have us do here, surrounded by soldiers? I would bow my head to a thousand tyrants if it meant keeping my children safe!"

"I didn't mean–"

"Oh, I know good and well what you mean, Bai Yuan! And the answer is no! I will not abandon this horrible place just to send my family running into exile. Honestly, how far do you think we'd make it before the military catches us and brings us back? I tell you, there will be a far less friendly welcoming then! I will not help lead my family out of darkness just to cast them into some deeper, darker pit! Ba Sing Se may be corrupt to its core, but it has always been our home. Even if by some miracle we made it out of the empire, do you really think that those other world leaders out there are anymore interested in our wellbeing?"

Bai, looking gobsmacked, leaned back in his chair and shut his mouth.

"Mom," Wei said into the empty air around them once she had slid back into her seat, staring at the table. It took just about every ounce of courage he could muster and then some. "I know you really want to keep me safe but…" Should he say it? Oh he really hated to say it…"But, well, I'm…I'm not just you son anymore. I'm the avatar. And, well, I know that you're the one in charge of keeping me safe, but I keep hearing that the avatar is sort of supposed to help keep the world safe. And I can't really be doing that when, from what we can tell, Kuvira is planning on keeping me in a box."

His mother opened her mouth to protest, but he kept talking before she could, because he couldn't stop now or he might not pluck up the courage to pick back up later. "Kuvira plans on keeping the avatar a secret. That might work for a while, maybe a couple of years even. But sooner or later word will get out and there's going to be some major trouble kicked up over it, and well, if I'm going to be the cause of international mayhem I think I'd like to stir it up based on my own terms. I know that it's dangerous to leave now, but I–we really think that however hard it is now, it's only going to get worse the longer we wait. And also I'm kind of afraid that I'm going to start burning down buildings if I can't get someone to give me some firebending pointers, so there's that."

There was also the fact that Kuvira was a known avatar killer, but, well, he really wasn't sure he was ready to bring that up.

Ling Yuan sighed thoughtfully and laid a hand on his wife's shoulder. "Son, I agree that leaving might be for the best, but time is necessary for thinking these things through…"

"Dad," Wei cut in. Time for the big guns. "When we first came here, you said that, since it concerned me most, you would go along with whatever I decided." He took a deep breath. Another. "Well, now I've decided that Kuvira is crazy and that we should get out of this damned city before she gets us all killed or worse."

For a moment, Wei stared at his parents, and his parents stared back. Neither of them looked particularly convinced, but his mother had a thoughtful look now, rather than an angry one.

"Well," Ling Yuan said finally. "Tell us, then, what is this plan of yours?"

---

"Technically speaking" Meiling walked them through, "this is all classified information. The empress wasn't kidding when she promised me the best tutor they could find."

Apparently it had just so happened that 'the best tutor they could find' was also a retired professor of Ba SingSe University who had in recent years been hired on to advise on most of the city's domestic affairs, including crop imports and transportation. As such he had seen more than a few of the less well-known transportation options that Ba Sing Se had to offer.

Fact: under that change of regime that came with Kuvira's rise to power the vast caverns underneath the palace had been converted to massive storage units. Some were used for stashes of emergency supplies in case of siege or other emergencies. The contents of many were unknown. The biggest of them all, however, were used as hangers for the empire's finest war machines, standing by for defense of the city.

Wei didn't ask how Meiling had managed to snatch a peek at the monthly timetable for all hanger activities. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. All that really mattered anyway was that at eleven that night Hanger Five was scheduled to switch out its current units with newer models. At that time the older units would be driven out through one of several restricted tunnels running deep under the city and taken to be redistributed to different military outposts throughout the empire.

There were several entrances to the caverns under the palace. The one closest to Hanger Five was out in the yard where the imperial airships came in, which was, for all intents and purposes, an completely empty stretch of land if you discounted the two airships currently at rest.

"Why not just stow away on an airship?" Cheng demanded in a whisper as they all slunk along the wall of the yard in the shadows.

"You're welcome to try," Meiling had whispered back. "It might make a good distraction for the rest of us when you get caught."

Cheng had lapsed into a sulky silence after that, though that might have been because he was still sore that they'd decided not to bring along any possessions they couldn't carry with them in their pockets for practicality's sake.

It was a long way around the yard sticking close to the wall, but they didn't have the benefit of a new moon that night, so they needed to stick to the shadows. Once they were close as they could get to the airship landing ground without leaving the shadow of the wall, they stopped.

"My tutor said that the Hanger Four is almost directly under the landing pad, and then Hanger Five is accessible from there."

"And he just…told you that?" Uncle Bai asked doubtfully.

"Oh yeah. All I had to say was, 'oh, but I guess you aren't cleared to know where the hangers are…' and he practically gave me a verbal map."

There were only a couple of actual security guards that walked around at regular intervals patrolling the area, so the risk of getting caught wasn't quite as high as Wei had feared. However, it was safely assumable that, while most soldier class earthbenders weren't very good at reading vibrations in the earth, they would still have to tread softly just in case. In the end, they decided to run for it in one large group toward the airships rather than chancing going one by one or in smaller pairs. If one of the patrolmen was good enough to notice them running in a group then going one at a time wasn't going to make that much a difference anyway, and it would only take longer and increase the odds of someone seeing them.

They thankfully made it to the landing pad without anyone noticing them and putting up the alarm. However, upon further inspection after darting around the edges of the airships, they couldn't find any evidence of a door.

"Please tell me that you didn't hear your tutor wrong." Cheng hissed at Meiling in the dark.

Uncle Bai suddenly let out a laugh, startling the rest of them. "I think I see how it is! Why make doors when almost your entire army is made up of earthbenders?"

Without waiting for a reaction, Uncle Bai crept away from the side of the airship a couple of yards until he was standing just at the edge of the landing pad, where the metal surface changed into rock again. He slipped off a shoe and stomped his foot against the ground. Then, grinning wildly at them, he stomped again, this time moving his whole body into the motion and bending forward, sweeping his arms out from the center of his chest to his sides. In the same motion, the ground a few feet in front of him split open, revealing a stairwell descending down into the earth.

"Nice," Meiling whispered as they scurried to get into the opening before any guards noticed. "Why can't you do that Wei?"

Wei bit back his response. One of them had to be the mature one, and now was really not the time for bickering.

Uncle Bai closed the earth back up behind them, but instead of being plunged into complete darkness they found their surroundings illuminated by a dull green glow from crystals staggered at different intervals along the ceiling. The staircase stretched far before them, carrying deep into the bowels of the Upper Ring. Wei hoped for all his luck was worth that no one decided to come up the other way and caught them. There was no sign of anyone coming down behind them and no sounds of anyone else up ahead, but Wei's heart was pounding in his chest like a struck drum.

It didn't take that long before the stairs ended and they found themselves facing a long hallway. The floor turned to metal there, and, after a brief, whispered discussion between Meiling and their father, everyone slipped off their shoes in favor of going it in just socks for fear that echoing footsteps might give them away.

There were several doors lining the left side of the hall at wide intervals and one door a little ways down on the right.

"At least one of the left doors should lead into Hangar Four directly." Meiling whispered. "I'm not sure what the one on the right leads to."

"Any chance that its a supply closet?" their father asked, fiddling with his glasses in a way that meant he was definitely forming an idea.

"Hmm, possibly," Meiling said, "There's no guarantee that its a closet though, and if the room isn't empty, we're all in trouble."

"But if it is a supply closet…" Ling Yuan said.

"Then there's a chance we might find spare uniforms." Uncle Bai finished, nodding thoughtfully.

It might well be worth the risk. They had all been relying heavily on stealth and moving quickly up until now. So far they had been incredibly lucky to not have encountered anyone, but the chances of Hangar Five being uninhabited during a military procedure was nil. If the door on the right was a supply closet and had some spare uniforms lying around, even if they didn't exactly fit it would help them blend in more than wandering around in civilian clothes.

Some quick whispers were exchanged between Uncle Bai and their parents.

"Oh, for goodness' sakes," Li Hua said finally. Before either man could object she walked over to the right door and gently pressed her ear to it. For a moment everyone in the hallway held their breath.

"Silent on the other side." She reported. "Now I think it would be a good idea–"

Before she could finish the clacking echo of boots on metal flooring came from down the hall. Wei grabbed the door without thinking, yanked the handle, and was shoving family members through the threshold before he even thought to wonder if the door was locked.

Judging by the distinct lack of space that had them all squished up against each other in the dark, the room probably was a closet. That was good for their immediate escape plan, but bad for elbowroom as, the second the door clicked shut behind Wei, everyone was stuck pressed up against each other trying not to breathe too loud. With the lack of lighting, Wei couldn't tell whose toes he was stepping on, though he was pretty the elbow in his side belonged to Cheng.

Despite some minor wiggling, no one moved as the sound of footsteps came closer and closer. By the time they were right outside the door, Wei was fairly sure that it was a small group of people (three or five, maybe? Who could tell?) instead of just one guard, which made him doubly glad that they had dived for cover because with only Uncle Bai in any real form of fighting condition he highly doubted they could have handled a hallway skirmish.

The footsteps had long since faded before anyone dared to move too much, but eventually the uncomfortable wiggling got more pronounced and he could feel someone squirming around in the dark, squeezing between people–

"Hold on," his father's voice said in the darkness, startlingly loud after all the quiet, "I think I've found a light switch…"

"Wait–" Meiling cried out, probably thinking about all the other types of switches that might be in a strange room in a military hangar that would very much be not good to flip when you were hiding, but before she could get anything else out there was a soft, electric hum, and above their heads a lightbulb flickered to life.

Upon inspection it was confirmed that, yes, they were indeed in a supply closet of some kind. Also, apparently it was Uncle Bai's foot he was standing on. And, oh yes, that definitely was Cheng's elbow.

It took a good five minutes to do a thorough search of the contents of the shelves around them since movement was pretty restricted with the six of them all packed together. It was Meiling who eventually gave a muted cheer and tugged a box of uniforms from the bottom shelf with a victorious arm pump and nearly clocked their father in the face. As it turned out, all of the boxes on the lower two shelves on the left wall contained unused uniforms, all smelling of the factory they had been made in and moth balls.

It took even longer to sort through the uniforms enough to find some that fit Cheng and their father well enough to pass. Uncle Bai's took some searching since his shoulders were broad enough to use as a raft, but they did find one eventually. Their mother nearly conceded defeat altogether before they finally found something small enough for her short frame, and it was a damn good thing that the standard army uniform was unisex.

Wei and Meiling on the other hand…

"There's no way that we're going to pass." Wei finally deadpanned, even though Meiling was still rifling through the clothes with interest. It was kind of obvious, really. Even if the army was recruiting pretty young these days, there was no way trained soldiers weren't going to bat an eye at two awkward fifteen year olds walking around in uniforms.

So masquerading as an underage recruit definitely wasn't going to work. But, well, the more he thought about it, maybe he didn't need to be masquerading at all. Not with Kuvira still out of the palace. If Kuvira wanted to pretend that the avatar was her trusted guest, maybe it was time to play along.

"Look, Mei, don't bother with the uniform," he said, picking her floppy hat off of the ground from where she's dropped it and slipping it back on her head. "I've got an idea."

Changing in the closet was a challenge, but no one was injured in the the end, with the exception of some bumped arms and more stepped on toes. Cheng, Uncle Bai, and their parents' discarded clothes were left buried in the bottom of one of the uniform boxes where they weren't likely to be discovered within the next couple of hours. They had had to keep their original shoes, unfortunately, and while Uncle Bai's usual police issued boots passed well enough, Wei really hoped that no one bothered to look down too hard.

When they walked down the hall this time, they walked in rows of two. Uncle Bai and their father walked in front, the picture of confident soldiers with somewhere to be. Cheng and their mother took the rear, looking notably less confident in their new attire. Wei and Meiling were sandwiched in the middle, dressed in the same street clothes that had come in with.

Now that they were doing more walking and less sneaking, they noticed numbers above each door on the left side of the hallway marking which hangar they lead to. The first three were marked with fours, but the forth one down switched over to five–just the one they wanted.

"This is a really dumb idea," Meiling whispered as they came to the door.

Wei, though not exactly confident in this latest idea, couldn't help feel a bit offended. "Says the one who came up with all of this," he hissed back, waving vaguely to everything around them. Meiling, like the mature young adult she was, stuck her tongue out at him, and he wanted to come up with another retort, except he was so tense now that he couldn't be sure his voice wouldn't squeak embarrassingly. In any case, when he happened to glance at his twin's hands they were shaking like leaves in the wind, and any sour words he had died in his throat.

Their father hesitated with his hand on the door handle, like he wanted to say something, but ended up just shaking his head and pushing it open.

They came out on a metal landing that ran along the side of the massive hanger in front of them, suspended two stories in the air. The railing was the only thing that kept Wei from stumbling over the edge when he got so distracted at the view before him that he tripped over his own foot coming in.

Hangar Five was…huge, for lack of a better word. The place was easily three times the size of the Imperial throne room, which prior to this had been the biggest singe room that he had ever been in. But the incredible thing…the spectacular thing was the display of machinery lined up in neat rows packing the room from one end to the other.

Mecha suits. Wall to wall, state-of-the-art, almost brand new mecha suits.

Next to him, Meiling let out a stunned breath. "Kyoshi's balls."

Wei couldn't really think of anything to one-up that, so he settled for, "I don't think Kyoshi had balls, sis."

And, despite the fact that her hands were still clearly shaking, Meiling turned and smirked at him. "Well she does now."

The sudden rush of heat to his face was almost worse than the nervous knot in his stomach. Almost.

"Um, guys," Cheng said, eying the rows of mechas with noticeable doubt. "Just so we're clear, you said the plan was to hitch a ride out of the hangar, right?"

"Of course," Meiling said, and, oh, their parents were starting to cast some rather doubtful looks now.

"How the blazes do you 'hitch a ride' with a fully manned mecha unit?" Cheng demanded.

"Oh, no, I guess I wasn't clear enough there," Meiling said lightly, and Wei knew damn well that she had been intentionally vague. "We're not stowing away–that would be impossible! We're going to drive it out ourselves."

Collectively all three adults present opened their mouths to protest, but before anyone could get a word out, there was a shout from the other end of the platform, and two soldiers were hustling over to them, looking clearly irritated.

"What are you doing up here just standing around?" One, a stern faced woman with a hard jawline, demanded, eyeing Uncle Bai and their father distastefully. "Prep started an hour ago! Which unit are you from?" Her eyes slid to Wei and Meiling, and her frown drew even further down on her face. "And who are the damn civilians?"

"Actually, ma'am–" Uncle Bai started, but Wei placed a hand on his shoulder and shoved past him and his father to stand in front of the group all on his own. Well, here goes nothing.

The way he figured, none of them could lie well enough to get off without suspicion, and if they wanted to get through this step of the plan they needed to be able to move freely without some official goatdogging their steps. If they were going to do that, something needed to distract these officers away from the fact that the rest of the family didn't quitefit the bill for trained military personnel. Something, or rather someone.

Ignoring the pounding in his chest as best as he could, Wei straightened his back and puffed up his chest in the best imitation of every egocentric schoolboy he had had to deal with. Summoning every bit of audacity and obnoxiousness in his body, Wei looked right into the female officer's eyes.

"Who am I?" He demanded, laying sarcasm on so heavy that it could crush a small animal. "I'm the spirits damned avatar! You know, Spirit Bridge, balance keeper for the whole damn world, the empress's honored guest, or so I thought. Just who the blazes are you?" his entire body was shaking. He hoped it looked more like self-righteous fury rather than gut-wrenching terror.

It must of worked because the lady in front of them looked taken aback.

"I had heard rumor that the avatar was a guest of the palace, but…" she looked to her fellow soldier, "have you heard anything about this?"

The man shook his head meekly.

"Look, lady," Wei snapped with as much force in his voice as he could muster, "I don't have time to deal with this! My sister and I were invited by the empress herself to view the new mecha units coming in tonight. Personally, I know I sure wouldn't want to be the one who has to tell her that there was a change of plans because someone too low on the payroll to know about my schedule was walking around throwing red tape at my feet and interrupting her plans!"

The woman paled visibly, but still looked a bit skeptical. "How do we know that really are who you say you are?"

A nervous laugh escaped Wei's lips, but luckily the slight note of hysteria in it seemed to come across as irritation. He glanced back at Meiling, glad to let go of the officer's eye contact for a moment.

"You hear that, Mei? They don't believe I'm the avatar!"

Meiling, who was by far better at acting anyway, grinned widely. "Well, you know, you really don't look that impressive when your eyes aren't all glowy."

Ooh, nice idea. "What, are you suggesting I go into the avatar state? Here?" He looked back at the officers, both of whom looked pretty nervous now. He adopted a thoughtful look. "Hmm, I don't think it would be a very good idea with all of this expensive equipment, but I guess if I really have to prove it."

"T-That won't be necessary!" The female officer said, clearly losing composure now. "I think I do recall reports that the avatar was here with his sister, anyway, so…But, sir," Oh wow, she actually called me sir, "it isn't safe for you two to be wandering around here without an officer to assist."

Wei snorted. Actually snorted. "What do you think I have these four lackwits for?" he motioned to his family around him, hoping that they looked enough like they had some clue what was going on. "You think I'm dumb enough to walk around alone when there could be rebel forces sneaking around wanting to kidnap me? Use your head!"

The woman chewed her lip, resistance crumbling. "The new units won't arrive for at least another half hour, sir. Wouldn't you rather wait somewhere more comfortable?"

Wei waved his hand dismissively. "What, and miss the chance to look at military issue mecha units up close and personal?" He nodded to the mechas currently housed in the hangar. "I'm a bit of an engineering geek myself–wouldn't miss a chance to get a first hand look up close. Plus it'll give me something to better compare the new units with when they do come in. That shouldn't be a problem, right? Not if we're just looking around." She hesitated, and he laid on his most charming smile. "After all, it would be easier protecting the empire if I knew the technology I had at my back, right?

"Of course, sir," she said, voice still a bit strained. "The current units will be heading out in about fifteen minutes. Let me know if we can be of any assistance."

"Of course," Wei said, still staring her down.

The two soldiers bowed deeply and then all but scurried off back towards where they had come from, shouting something to some of the officers below about an escorted guest coming in.

The second the soldiers were out of sight, Wei fell back and caught himself on the railing, breathing hard.

"Shit," he breathed, "that actually worked."

Meiling was leaning beside him trembling…with laughter. "Oh, oh wow," she chortled, "that was hilarious!"

"It's not funny!" Wei snapped, but there wasn't enough venom left in his voice to really fight back. He heard a snort from above them and saw Cheng shaking with unheard laughter as well, adding insult of injury.

"T-They actually fell for that," he gasped between chuckles, "'Avatar state' my ass, they totally could have called your bluff!"

"But they didn't!" Wei defended, pushing himself back onto his feet.

"Enough," Ling Yuan, unlike his children, did not look amused. "We don't have time for this." He zeroed in on Meiling sharply. "Now what do you mean about driving a mecha unit out of here?"

"Yeah, kid," Uncle Bai said, rubbing the back of his head. "I know you two know a lot about these things, and, yeah, I can metalbend, but this isn't just something you can jump into without actual piloting experience."

Wei and Meiling exchanged a surprised look. "Uh," Meiling said, "Uncle Bai, what exactly do you think Wei and I were doing with that mecha unit we sold?"

Uncle Bai stared blankly back, ignoring their parents' startled exclamations. After a moment, he covered his face with his hands. "Patronizing one of the trained fighter pilots?"

Wei chewed his lip nervously. It was a fairly common trend for pilots coming from the Lower Ring who couldn't afford the cost of upkeep and hangar usage to get picked up by patrons from the Middle and Upper Rings for a share of the profits. Given that Uncle Bai had trained Wei personally in earthbending with no logical reason to believe that he could metalbend, it actually was a much more logical conclusion to believe that the two of them had been acting as patrons rather than participating themselves.

"You two weren't just patrons, were you?" Uncle Bai asked from behind his hand.

"Ah, well, no, actually," Meiling admitted, looking appropriately sheepish.

"What is going on?" Their father demanded sharply, clearly not happy to be being ignored. Meiling and Wei both flinched.

Uncle Bai removed the hand from his face and placed it on their father's shoulder. "Brother, there's no easy way to say this–I can't really believe I'm saying this. Ling, your children are a couple of delinquents who fight mechas for sport."

A strange look crossed Ling Yuan's face. While his wife let out a scandalized gasp and his eldest son stood slack jawed at the news, Ling stood staring at his two children with the look of a man too tired and too used to outrageous news from the past month to really truly feel anything but the numbness of an exhausted and exasperated authority figure who could use a stiff drink.

Meiling opened her mouth to say something, but their father raised his hand to cut her off. He shifted his gaze back to the rows of war machines standing before him, and then back to his children again.

"So, let me get this straight," he said slowly, a dangerous deliberateness hanging on each word. He turned those empty eyes on Wei. "You, son, have the experience necessary to pilot one of those out of here."

"Uh, yes," Wei said, very much wanting to bend a hole in the ground to sink into.

"We can't just–" Cheng started. Their father turned and looked at him, and the words just kind of seemed to die in his throat.

"Right," Ling Yuan stated, rubbing his temples. "Well. We are standing in an underground hangar full of mecha suits. We apparently have a fully trained mecha pilot. It's not like turning back is much of an option now, anyway, so, let's steal a damn mecha unit."

"Ling," Uncle Bai said, somewhat nervous, "Are you–"

The man held up his hand, stopping him in his tracks. "We don't have much time. Let's…let's just get out of this thrice damned place." His eyes sharpened, and he pinned Wei with a dangerous look, "Then we will have words."

Understandably, there was little conversation after that.

They made it off of the platform and managed to mingle with the soldiers running around wrapping up maintenance on the mechas without a disturbance, though a couple of curious glances were thrown their way. Apparently word had spread that the avatar was visiting the hangar. Which was…kind of good in that people seemed to be giving them their space and deliberately trying not to stare at them too much. Wei just really hoped that Kuvira wouldn't be showing up at the palace any time soon to derail their cover story.

Wei marveled at the mecha units even more now that they were walking among them, getting a first hand view. They were significantly bigger than the ones seen in the underground fights, but, then, there was no real need for subtlety when you were marching these things out in military formations to defend the borders and put down unrest. They were at least two stories taller than the twins' garage-built unit anyway, with thicker platinum plating and larger cockpits that, according to the few mecha related articles he had found in the imperial library, were capable of housing not only the pilot but also two or three technicians to make sure everything operated smoothly.

"Wow," Meiling noted under her breath, "the mobility range on these things must suck."

It was a true enough observation; the thicker plating might keep the units from getting damaged as easily, but it was also enough to limit the movement capabilities at the joints, which mean that there would be no quick dodging or weaving of any sort.

"They're more meant or long range attack than what we're used to," he whispered back. And, boy, could he see why gun attachments weren't allowed in the fighting arenas. The massive barrels attached to the right arm of each unit looked wicked, though definitely not as intimidating as the one Wei had stared done the barrel of in his dream last night.

"Pretty impressive, huh?" A voice asked, nearly causing all of them to jump out of their skin. They were paused at the edge of the fifth row of mecha units, staring down the lines. A man dressed in a simple, gray jumpsuit with the Earth Empire's military insignia blazed on its chest was leaning against the leg of the nearest unit, watching them with a wide grin on his face.

One of the pilots, Wei figured, which really was a no brainer considering the number of people dressed like him running around the place and shouting instructions at the techs working on the units.

Perfect.

"Uh, yeah!" Wei said, not having to fake the impressed tone of his voice. "They're massive!"

The pilot–black haired, solid as a boulder, and cocky if his posture was any kind of clue–gave them a toothy smile, as if he had personally constructed the thing. (It was a smile Wei knew well from seeing Meiling wear it–probably with better cause.)

"Yeah, the Model Tens are pretty sweet. Kind of a shame they're being retired, if you ask me!" He walked towards them, bowing with shallow politeness. "Could it be that the avatar is a mecha geek?"

A choked sound that might have been a laugh came vaguely from Cheng's direction only to be cut off abruptly, which meant that someone had probably had the decency to step on his foot.

Wei smirked. "You could say that. Me and my sister both are, actually." The pilot's gaze shifted to Meiling briefly, curious, and his smile grew even wider. Maybe they could make this work after all. "The empress invited us to get a look at the newer units when they come in, but between you and me I'd really like to see the older ones before they're decommissioned."

"A man after my own heart," the pilot said, gazing at the unit behind him fondly before turning back to them. "The name's Bohai, by the way. Let me know if I can help you guys in any way."

"Wei Yuan," Wei said. Because, well, he had as good as given it out anyway when he announced he was the avatar, and they couldn't paint much bigger of a target on their backs as it was. "Actually…we were hoping to maybe get a closer look at everything, but, well, it looks like everyone's just about ready to roll out, so I guess we're too late." He did his best to look crestfallen and prayed that the idiot took the hint.

Bohai hummed thoughtfully. "Well, Chun, my technician, just finished up diagnostics and I have to run grab a replacement part from him before we leave, but…well, as long as we're quick about it, I don't see why anyone had to know about it." He winked, not so surreptitiously, at Meiling and him.

"Really?" Meiling squealed. "You mean it?"

"Sure!" Bohai said, looking almost as excited as she did. "Why not? It's not everyday you meet the avatar!"

Meiling and Wei shared a look once the pilot's back was turned and fist pumped the air together. This phase of the plan was going much more smoothly than expected.

There was a ladder leading up to the back of the mecha unit's head, where a hatch lead to the cockpit. Bohai didn't seem to think it weird when Wei's supposed 'guards' followed them up the ladder and inside. Or, rather, if he did he didn't have the balls to say anything about it.

"Woooow!" Meiling gasped as they climbed into the cockpit, family trailing behind and visibly trying to look like they had done this before. "there's so much room in here!"

It was true. With the seven of them, there was just enough room for all of them to stand in a ring around the perimeter of the cockpit among several maintenance panels (for the techs, no doubt) while Bohai stood in a slightly raised platform in the center with just enough room to metalbend without hitting someone in the face. Notably, there weren't any harnesses for the pilot to strap himself in with.

"What happens if the mecha has to bend over," Wei asked, cringing at the thought, "does everyone just go flying around the cockpit?"

Bohai laughed lightly. "Oh, well these units aren't really capable of that type of maneuvering since we're mostly for artillery. Flexibility is more left to the smaller units."

"Fascinating," Wei said. Before he could say more, a buzzing signal tone rang through the hangar twice, and all of the other pilots outside went scrambling for their units, technicians and soldiers finishing up whatever they were doing and moving to the sides of the room.

"Departure in five minutes," a voice said over the intercom.

"Drat," Bohai said, snapping his fingers, "I better hurry get that part from Chun. Sorry, avatar, looks like that's all for today."

"Aw," Wei said, trying not to stare as Uncle Bai crept up behind the pilot while they were talking. "That's a shame, you know, I really had a couple more questions to ask."

"Yeah, well, come see me once the new units are all settled," Bohai said. "Maybe I could work something ou–" Bohai's eyes went wide and dazed before rolling up into his head as he crumpled to the ground. Uncle Bai stood behind him, hand still poised in the sharp chop to the back of the head he had just delivered.

"This is okay, right?" Uncle Bai asked. Everyone was too busy staring at the unconscious body to give an immediate response. "We didn't need him for anything, did we?"

"Uh, no," Wei said, and if he hadn't been feeling a little queasy before, he certainly was now. "That's um…good job…"

"Poor, Bohai," Meiling lamented. Their mother had already leaned down and was tearing the sleeve of her under shirt to tie the man up with. Uncle Bai strolled to the other side of the cockpit and pulled the hatch closed, locking it into place.

"Right," he said. "You two delinquents are the experts here. What do we do to get this thing running?"

"On it," Meiling said, sprinting over to the control panel in the front. And, damn, did she sound excited. Wei was usually the one to run start up since, well, there was only room for the pilot in their old unit, but if Meiling wanted a piece of the action now that she had a front row seat, well, who was he to stop her?"

"Just sit tight, you guys," Wei said to the others. "Actually, literal sitting might be good–try to stay out of direct view of the windshield. I don't think anyone would be interested enough to look inside, but we don't want one of the other pilots to see how many people we've got in here."

The unit hummed to life beneath his feet as Meiling switched the power on, and he took up position on the risen platform in the center, feeling more comfortable in his surroundings than he had been for the past month an a half.

"You good for this?" Meiling tossed the question over her shoulder. "It's been over a while–you sure you aren't rusty?"

Wei laughed dryly. "You're asking me that now? It's fine. I'll be fine…it just may be a bit bumpy at first."

---

Fact: in order to move military equipment to and from the Upper Ring without disrupting the city transit systems, man-made tunnels had been erected underneath the city shortly after Empress Kuvira's rise to power. These tunnels all ran outwards from the palace to the stretch of land between the Lower Ring and the city's outermost fortification that had previously been used for farming but had steadily been taken over by military training facilities, train and airship stations, and urban sprawl. These tunnels acted as both highways for military operations and evacuation routes in case of catastrophe.

That was handy because Wei Yuan considered Kuvira's intent to use him like a low level Pai Sho tile a pretty big catastrophe.

Maneuvering the larger mecha unit was indeed bumpy at first. The mechanics didn't feel very different overall from what he was used to, but the sheer mass of the metal pieces that had to be bent in order to walk around was significantly more than it took to move their own little unit. Wei counted his blessings that all they would be doing here was walking in a straight line. Trying to fight in a giant like this would definitely get exhausting fast.

Their first wobbling steps forward didn't seem to draw much attention from surrounding pilots, though the person next to them in the line-up did give him a nasty look when Wei almost side swiped them when stepping forward to file into line once the formation got to their row.

From there it was–though Wei hated to think it–pretty smooth sailing. They entered the tunnel without a hitch, walking in a quick but not uneasy pace along a long, metal hallway, lit occasionally by familiar green crystals. The walls were sleek and mostly featureless except for the fact that every now and then bold letters were painted on the walls, advertising what ring and district they were currently walking beneath. Sometimes there was an opening off to the side that lead to an enormous elevator that looked like it could lift three mechas to the top at once.

"In case of an invasion or uprising, probably," Uncle Bai said in a hushed tone, even though there was no way anyone could hear them unless Wei turned the radio mic on. "That way they can disperse troop quickly and effectively throughout the city."

The second they passed by the words 'Inner-Middle Ring Boundary Line' Wei released a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. He glanced to the right, curious, and noticed that another elevator was located right after the sign, just as he had anticipated.

Personal opinions about the Empress aside, there were several good things that had come about from her rise to power. One of which, at least in Wei's opinion, was the elimination of the famous dividing walls of Ba Sing Se. Not even a month after Kuvira's ascension, what sections of the walls remained after the Red Lotus' 'liberation' of the city were officially torn down, leaving only the wall separating the Lower Ring from the miles of former farmland that surrounded the city, and the outermost defensive wall itself. Despite this, even fifteen years later, few people had the courage (or funds) to build in the spaces where the walls once stood, leaving rings of empty space between all three sections of the city–social and economic walls that were proving to be much more resilient than their physical counterparts. Wei supposed that the unused space made a good spot for deploying mecha units in a pinch, since there would be plenty of room and little risk of damaging property.

There was no real way of knowing what time it was while walking. There was no obvious clock in the mecha unit's controls, and their mother had forgotten the watch she had brought with her in the pocket of her street clothes. A little while after they had passed the boarder between the Inner and Middle rings their captive pilot came to, and after a solid minute of cursing and thrashing, Li Hua gave up another sleeve so that Uncle Bai could gag him and bind his feet. For a long while it was blissfully silent.

It felt like they walked for hours under the Middle Ring, and Wei wondered almost constantly if they had passed underneath their house, the restaurant, or even the school. He wondered if he would ever see those places again. Probably not.

The sign reading 'Middle-Lower Ring Boundary Line' was just barely visible up ahead when the radio cracked to life. Wei jumped and nearly slipped and fell on his ass.

"Unit 547, do you read?"

Wei gaped at the panel rising from the left part of the platform he was bending on, where the radio button was flashing. Then he turned to gape at his parents, unsure what to do.

"Damn it, Bohai," a different, more frazzled voice came over the comm, "this is Chun! Pick up your damn radio!"

Slowly, their father rose to his feet and walked towards the button for the mic, signaling everyone else to keep quiet. Wei gaped at him. It was all he could do to keep the mecha's joints moving forward, trying his best to concentrate on the shifting of metal gears and plates under his body's guidance instead of the words being spoken.

"Bohai, here," Ling Yuan said over the radio, voice pitched a bit higher and lighter to mimic the pilot's speech from earlier. It wasn't very close, but hopefully static would cover most of the difference. The actual pilot, lying a few feet away, was struggling against his bonds and making muffled sounds of protest. After a threatening look from Uncle Bai he slumped back against the wall again, looking resentful.

"Your techs say you forgot to finish your maintenance, before leaving, Pilot," the first voice from the radio said.

"Ah, well," their father said, "I figured it would be fine? Didn't want to hold up the line, sir."

"Didn't want to hold up the–" Chun's voice cut in, clearly irritated, "Your left ankle joint is still stalling, you dumbass!" Beads of sweat gathered on Wei's face. He had though the resistance from that foot was just because he still wasn't used to the weight of this thing. That was going to be a problem if they had to run in this hulking thing… "It takes, like, two seconds to put the replacement part in! Two seconds!"

Their father let out a puff of air that could have been mistaken for a laugh over the radio but was in reality more of a sound of distress. "Oh, well, it's been holding up fine. Besides, its not like we're going to be doing anything too strenuous here…"

An irritated sigh came over the line. The first voice said, "Protocol is protocol, Pilot. I'm having someone meet you the second you get to the hangar in the outer district. Let your techs do their job, sir!"

"Oh yeah," Chun cut in, "and why in Kyoshi's name did you leave Tech Diyu behind? He was supposed to go with you to make sure that we really did get all the kinks worked out of that left leg function so he could fix it if it didn't take!"

"Um," Ling Yuan said, clearly coming to the end of his quick thinking.

He might have been able to come up with something anyway, given an opportunity. Unfortunately, just as he started to say "Ah, well, the thing is," Meiling sneezed. Loudly.

The line went dead quiet.

"Pilot Bohai," the first voice said, clipped and slow. "If your technicians are both still here in Hangar Five…who do you have with you in that mecha unit?"

Wei nearly tripped again. Instead he gritted his teeth and willed the units in front of him to move faster.

"That's…well…" Their father tried, but right then there was a disturbance over the line, and a voice in the background that sounded distinctly familiar gasping "Hey, have any of you guys seen the avatar and his sister around? Theyseem to have disappeared!"

The second his father pulled his finger away from the mic button, Wei tossed back his head and shouted "Shit!" and a red light started flashing. A voice came over the loudspeaker to the entire tunnel.

"Attention!" the voice echoed through the hallway. It echoed through Wei's bones. "The command for an immediate halt has been issued. Repeat, the command for an immediate halt has been issued! We have a suspected stowaway situation."

The mechas in front of them stopped abruptly, and Wei had to pull back with all he could to keep the momentum of their unit's movement from sending them all crashing forwards. "Shit!"

"What do we do?" Cheng hissed.

"I need a location on Unit 547," the intercom voice said.

Wei weaved his hands through his hair tightly, looking around for inspiration. He found it painted on the side of the wall, right next to a giant elevator shaft.

"Uncle Bai," he breathed, "how's your metalbending?"

His uncle followed his gaze. He swallowed loudly, but nodded, moving to start opening the escape hatch.

"Sir," another voice said over the radio, this time on the open line. "This is Unit 546," the unit in front of them was turning towards them. Wei braced himself, reaching out to feel at the metal gears and joints of the robotics below him. "We have a visual."

"Hold on," Wei shouted, and then he moved, jerking the torso joint and heaving it around. He shifted the legs until they were suddenly facing the elevator, and then he shifted his stance and shot his arms out, willing mechanical legs to carry them forward fast.

It was probably the fact that he wasn't a licensed mecha pilot that saved them. There were certain protocols you were trained to maintain when operating a military issued mecha. After all, these things were expensive, and there was no need to trash your unit trying to take down an enemy you could just as easily shoot at, especially when there were about a thousand other units that had your back.

Wei wasn't trained to drive a military issued unit. He was trained to fight dirty, fight fast, and win.

He barely stayed standing on the platform as they swung around, and he heard shouts as the rest of the family went tumbling into each other, only to slam into the back of the cockpit as the unit slid into the elevator, chest colliding with the side of the elevator shaft hard enough to make Wei's teeth rattle. Uncle Bai wrenched the hatch open just in time to see the units immediately in front of and behind them in the line up staggering towards them more slowly, gun arms pointed directly at them.

"Stop!" one of the pilots demanded over their unit's intercom.

They can't shoot in here, Wei realized. These are spirit-vine powered guns! They'd blow up everyone in the whole tunnel!

"Uncle Bai!" Wei shouted.

Not needing any encouraging, Uncle Bai leaned out the hatch and slid into a stance not dissimilar from the one he'd seen Kuvira open with when she was lifting a particularly heavy chunk of rock to throw at him. Then he made a labored, lifting motion, and suddenly the metal floor of the elevator was lifting upwards.

The elevator didn't move that fast, though that was likely because the weight of the giant mecha standing on top and because it was being forcefully being bent into function. Once the platform was completely above the tunnel entrance and safely surrounded by stone, Wei abandoned the control platform and moved to the hatch to help his uncle. Even with the two of them working at it, the combined weight of the elevator and the unit was damn heavy, but they managed to speed things up a bit.

"Get back to the controls!" Uncle Bai bit out after a couple of moment, panting and heaving. "The second we break the surface, we've got to high-tail it out of here!"

"Oh, we're doomed," Cheng lamented, his face buried in his hands. "Doomed."

Wei reluctantly left his uncle's side. When he got back to the control platform, Meiling was up and active, frantically searching the control panel for…something.

"What are you looking for?" He demanded.

"Isn't it obvious?" Meiling snapped back in response.

"No! Enlighten me!"

Light spilled in from above as their elevator hit the surface, and Wei, shaking and already way too tired for what he was about to do, braced himself again.

Think of it like a mecha fight. He told himself, ignoring the sweat dripping in his eyes. Just another mecha fight. The stage is just a little…bigger.

"I'm looking for the manual controls," Meiling said, sounding like she was talking to herself more than anyone, now.

Just another mecha fight. "The controls for what?"

They slid above the surface to face the empty stretch of land around the elevator shaft. Above them, there was nothing but stars. In front of them stretched the maze of the Lower Ring.

There was the sound of a lever being pulled sharply into place and a low hum emanated from somewhere in the right arm that he could feel shivering through the mechanics and down his spine. Meiling let out an excited whoop.

"The controls for the gun of course!"

---

Fact: the introduction of both the satomobile and other large pieces of machinery in need of transportation resulted in most of the cities around the world undergoing major development projects to install new road systems and expand current roads in order to make them more drivable. Ba Sing Se was not most cities. With centuries of architecture in place and facing overcrowding as it was, the Lower Ring had already been spilling beyond its wall into the outer farming districts as it was when the suggestion was made to expand the roadways. With the amount of money that would have had to be paid in compensation and the amount of relocation and replacement housing that would have had to be built, these suggestions were struck down over and over again, and the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se retained its narrow streets while building upward into towering apartments and business complexes. From the standpoint of a satomobile driver, this was inconvenient during rush hour. From the standpoint of a military issue mecha unit, the Lower Ring was both a maze and a death trap.

Wei knew this as he stared at the tangle of urban development before him. He knew smooth navigation was impossible.

In that moment, he couldn't really bring himself to care.

"Hang on," he said. He dug deep in his pants pockets and, finding what he wanted, slid his goggles over his forehead. "This is really going to suck."

"Wait, a sec," Cheng said as they jolted forward, "Why do you need goggles if its an enclosed cockpit?"

Wei was distracted with edging the unit towards the edge of the Lower Ring so Meiling jumped in before he could.

"Ah, well it's actually kind of a funny story!" Meiling told him. "See, in the first fight we were in–"

"Wha–Shut up!" Wei shouted before she could continue. "I'm kind of trying to save our necks here! I could do with a little more quiet!"

He figured they had a couple of moments before the mecha units beneath the earth got the elevator working again since they had probably messed up some of the machinery by forcefully bending it to their will. The good news was, there were currently no registered and battle ready mechas back at the palace to give chase, and he seriously doubted that anyone was going to chase them into the Lower Ring in a mecha suit anyway. The bad news…he could hear airship in the distance.

Not bothering to look back, he tugged the goggled down over his eyes and plunged them forward into the bowels of Ba Sing Se.

There were a number of problems with charging a mecha unit into the Lower Ring. The most obvious was he narrow roads, which, in most places, barely had enough room for four lanes of traffic. Coupled with tall buildings that had built up on the sides of the streets, Wei was having a difficult time squeezing through places without scraping the siding off of apartments and businesses left and right. Which lead to the number one problem which was–

"Look out! It's coming right for us!" A terrified shout pierced Wei's ears even high up as he was, followed by screams and the sound of asphalt and abandoned satomobiles crunching under the mecha unit's feet as the few people still up and around at this unholy hour fled the streets and dove into storefronts.

–the civilians.

"Thank whatever fucking spirits or ancestors or whatever might have their ears open that this isn't anywhere near rush hour!" Wei spat, swerving and having to slam his elbows back in a sharp motion to keep the mecha from skidding into a hotel building as they sprinted through an intersection. Right. Tight maneuvering wasn't going to be much of an option with this unit.

"Language!" Their father shouted, though it seemed more instinctual than anything else.

"People could be getting hurt!" Their mother noted with a creased brow from where she was keeping the unconscious pilot from sliding around.

"We could get hurt!" Wei shot back. "We will get more than hurt, if we don't find a way out of here!"

"Make for the wall!" Meiling suggested, squealing as Wei kept a foot in the air a moment longer than planned to let a satomobile swerve out of the way and set the whole unit off kilter for a moment before he could right them, sending his heart was pounding somewhere next to his uvula.

"I thought you said you had experience driving these things!" Uncle Bai shouted.

"I do! Just not through downtown!" There was almost no way this could get any worse.

Wei stood corrected a moment later when he felt more than heard a distinctive thunk against the right arm of the unit and swiveled his head around to see figures in pointed hats running along the roof tops around them. Dai Li.

They weren't bending rocks at the unit, so Wei couldn't figure out for a moment what the impact had been until a moment later when he saw a metal cord come shooting at them from out of the darkness and then felt another thunk as the hook at the end of the cord failed to find purchase on the platinum plating and slid off.

To make things even better, he heard the sound of airships coming closer. I could have sworn it took airships a lot longer than this to get up in the air and battle ready!

"Left!" Meiling shouted, and Wei was suddenly throwing himself to the side to force the mecha to skid left and avoid the statue of Earth King Kui that had seemingly sprouted out of nowhere.

As Wei tugged the foot joints to brace with the shift of weight it took to slow and turn, the left ankle joint stalled and, instead of narrowly sliding around the corner, the mecha unit slid left side first into the statue in front of them. They didn't go all the way over, fortunately, and the cockpit stayed just upright enough that Wei managed to stay on the bending platform without toppling over. From the sounds of things though, most everyone else had gone tumbling.

Cursing up a storm that was probably going to have their mother cleaning his mouth out with soap for the next month, Wei strained his muscles, contorting his fingers so that he felt more like a puppet master than a bender. With the self-control and determination of one who had faced far nastier falls in the fighting arena, Wei forced the mecha back under control and got its feet back under it, righting them.

The collision cost precious seconds they didn't have with Dai Li following them. They made it about another block, and then there was a frightening hissing sound as metal cords flew through the air. He saw it coming a split second before impact, barely soon enough to shout at everyone to get down. Not long enough to do so himself before the world in front of him turned into an explosion of glass and hot, sharp pain.

---

There were a lot of reasons that Wei left the mechanical detail of mecha fighting to Meiling. One key point of which was the undeniable fact that Wei had always been the more hazardous twin, even before firebending came into the picture. His early, clumsy attempts at helping out with the construction of their unit had earned him a multitude of cuts and burns, and after a near miss that had nearly cost him two fingers, Meiling had put her foot down and told him to screw off before he got himself maimed.

They hadn't been able to do many practical practice runs before their first match, lacking in both space and someone to practice with. During their first round in the arena, Wei panicked when the heavily armored mecha he had been up against slipped through his defenses and, instead of a solid strike to the chest, aimed a little too high and accidentally elbowed their unit right where the face would have been on a person: the cockpit. Instead of stepping the unit back and away from the blow, Wei did what he had done in every schoolyard fight he'd ever been in in his life and froze like an idiot.

The windshield had shattered directly on impact, and, being strapped into a harness, all he'd been able to do was curl in on himself, shielding his face as best as he could, which was to say, not very well at all.

Wei came out of the experience with lacerations up and down his arms, a particularly nasty cut barely stopping below his left eye that definitely would have blinded him if it had been a centimeter higher, and an absolutely unshakable insistence that he wouldn't go anywhere near a mecha ever again without a good pair of protective goggles.

---

The rain of glass settled in mere moments but felt impossibly long as uncomfortable nostalgia rolled over Wei in waves. Then there were two Dai Li agents climbing in from the broken windshield and he was clambering to his feet in a hurry.

The first agent slid into an offensive stance in front of Wei, only to become well acquainted with Uncle Bai's meaty fist.

"I might just be a cop," Uncle Bai said, spitting blood from a bitten cheek, "but that doesn't mean I can't tangle with the best of 'em!" He jerked his head back over his shoulder to Wei, "Get us moving, kid!"

Wei swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded.

He knew he must be covered in cuts, but at this point there was so much adrenaline pumping through his veins that Wei wasn't surprised he didn't feel anything. He could still see, and that was all that mattered.

As hard as running through the busiest part of the city in a giant mecha suit was, it was ten times harder when you had your uncle throwing down with two Dai Li agents right in front of you. The first tight corner he had to take he almost missed, and he had to shout at everyone to hold on at the last second as momentum send things pitching forward. One of the agents didn't get his balance fast enough and topped backwards out the now glassless windshield. It was a little easier to navigate after that.

"The wall!" Meiling shouted excitedly. Sure enough, after stumbling through another intersection and elbowing some lovely family's balcony out of existence, Wei saw the Wall looming straight above them, one of the large doors leading to the outer districts standing not far to their right…closed shut.

Uncle Bai finally got the remaining Dai Li agent in a headlock as they broke through the last block of compacted buildings and found the wall looming high above them, the last obstacle between them and freedom.

"Okay," Wei said. He couldn't hear airships flying over anymore–why couldn't he hear airships anymore? Oh well, worry about it later. "We're at the wall now, Mei."

"Yeah, we made it!" Meiling punched the air, clearly pleased with herself.

Uncle Bai slammed the struggling Dai Li agent against the wall of the cockpit, sending him sinking down unconscious next to Bohai. Wei didn't want to think of the body count they currently had going. Or the amount of property damage.

"Yeah, Mei, we're here," Wei said, swallowing dryly. The edge of the adrenaline was starting to wear off, leaving dizziness behind in its place. Absently he became aware of the fact that his forehead felt warm and sticky. Bleeding, probably. "Now what?"

Meiling's smile froze, "Ah…well."

"It's you're plan, Mei!" Wei said. Well, shouted, actually. He took a deep breath. Two. More quietly, he asked "What do we do from here?"

Meiling started tugging on her braids, and Wei knew they were in trouble. "Okay, I didn't really get a chance to outline Plan C out this far," she admitted.

"Plan C?" Wei echoed back dumbly.

"Yes, making it through the Lower Ring to the wall was Plan C," she said.

"Well what was Plan B?"

"That was the whole 'escaping through the tunnels in a giant robot suit' thing!"

"Well then what the fuck was Plan A!" Wei demanded. And, oh, he was shouting again. His head was throbbing, and, okay, he wasn't feeling so hot.

"Children!" their father's voice cut through their argument. "Now is hardly the time to be bickering!"

As if to emphasize his point, a voice came from above them. It was not a divine voice, not one of reason. In fact, it was a voice that Wei had grown unfortunately familiar with over the past month and a half.

"Wei Yuan," Empress Kuvira's voice boomed from a megaphone down from where she stood up on the wall looming above them, "is that you down there? What an unexpected surprise."

"Oh, fuck me." Wei snarled.

"Imagine my surprise," the Empress continued, and he didn't need to be able to see her to know that she wasn't smiling, "when my airship arrived back in range of the city only to be informed by radio that both you and one of my mecha units had gone missing."

Wei fumbled for the intercom button and held the mic up to his lips in a shaky hand. On the one hand, he felt exhausted andwas absolutely terrified shitless right now. On the other hand, Wei was confident in the knowledge that there was very little he could say or do to make this situation worse. "What can I say, Your Eminence?" He said over the mic, "Your house is boring."

"I'm extremely disappointed in you, Wei," Kuvira said, and he almost laughed at how ridiculously like a scolding parent she sounded. "What have I possibly done that you would be so desperate to leave my hospitality."

"Oh, it's not what you've done to me that I have a problem with," Wei said, mentally tacking on a silent yet at the end of the statement. An idea was taking root in his head. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was the dizziness, but for the first time in over a month, he was feeling a bit daring. "And it's easy for you to talk down to me when you're all the way up there! If you're really so concerned about my concerns, why don't you come down here and talk to me on my level!"

There was a moment of silence. Wei held his breath. Then, from the top of the wall there was a commotion as a shelf of earth emerged from the flat surface of the side of the wall, and the newly created platform began to descend.

"Meiling," Wei hissed, taking his hand off of the mic button on the intercom. "Man the control panel."

His sister raised an eyebrow at him. She blinked slowly, and then her eyes widened in understanding. "Wei…are you sure that that's…?"

Wei grinned, surprising even himself. "Just…trust me okay? I trusted your insane plan to get us this far, right? Let's give my insane plan a shot."

She started pulling on her braids again, but she did as he asked and went to the control panel, hands sliding over the assortments of levers and buttons.

Kuvira's platform stopped at eye level with the mecha unit so that she could stare him down through the broken windshield. As expected, the smirk was gone from her face.

"I'll admit, I'm very curious to find out how you learned how to drive a mecha unit," she said dryly. "Where did you get the experience, I wonder. Or maybe it's just raw talent."

"I'm a talented guy, these days." Wei shrugged. "I'm also not a idiot, you know. If you're trying to convince me to surrender to you, you're doing a piss poor job of it." The guards on either side of Kuvria went slack mouth at his word choice. Well, the empress had insisted he could address her informally.

Kuvira's lips tightened into a hard line. "Wei, you need to understand; everything I'm doing here is for your own well being–"

Someone started laughing. An awful, dry laugh with just a hint of hysteria creeping into that echoed over the intercom for all of the people of the Lower Ring to hear. After a dizzying moment Wei realized that the sound was coming from him and clamped a hand over his mouth to get it to stop.

I think I've lost a bit too much blood, he thought, cringing internally. But he couldn't let the empress know that. Not if he was going to walk out of here a free man.

"Oh, you're concerned about my wellbeing?" He spat into the mic. Somehow, the steel in his voice was not exaggerated or faked. Riding this wave of something that was lending him confidence, he stared The Great Uniter dead in the eye. "See, that's funny, considering that you're the one who murdered that last avatar!"

There was a gasp somewhere behind him; he couldn't tell who from. Meiling's hands paused over the control panel, her shoulders stiff. But the Empress…Kuvira just stood there, eying him with a look of cold resignation.

"I see." She said. Her hips shifted ever so slightly, the beginning of too many earthbending lessons that he had been on the pummeling end of. Wei caught the motion and thrust his arms forward and up, bringing the right arm of the mecha unit sliding smoothly up to eye level with the ruler of the entire Earth Empire.

"Stop," Wei said sharply, "Don't you dare move!"

Kuvira looked down the barrel of the very gun that she had brought into being, and, for once, her composure and confidence slipped just enough that he could see the shock and outrage beneath.

And that was the beauty of this. The mere fact that Kuvira had been willing to come down on his level to talk to him had been her own way of showing that she didn't believe that he could control this this machine worth a damn. There were ways for people to get ahold of old mecha units or build there own–even the empress would know that. However, even if someone managed it like Wei obviously had, there was no way they could figure out how to use the advanced weapons system attached to it with any kind of speed or accuracy. Not in less than an hour while driving the thing, anyway.

You miscalculated, Empress. I might be an awful student, but I'm a fast learner!

"You wouldn't," Kuvira said, looking at him like she was seeing him for the first time. Maybe she was.

"Meiling," the word was hardly out of his mouth before he felt the spirit-vine gun humming to life, building its charge deep in its barrel.

"Just. Try me." Wei said into the mic, eyes not leaving the empress.

Kuvira watched the pinkish glow building around the gun barrel, her face a stone cold mask.

Wei thought she was going to try to argue with him more, but when she opened her mouth it was only to shout at the soldiers on the wall to open the gate and let them through.

Well…shit. Wei thought, watching the gate open to their right. He carefully walking the mecha unit through the gate, gun arm still pointed at the Kuvira with every step. Robot arms, unlike human arms, did not shake unless you wanted them to.

Well, shit. Wei thought as he watched the gate close behind them, cutting them off their pursuers for the time being.

"Well, shit." Wei said to no one in particular. "That actually worked." And then he finally gave over to the spinning in his head and collapsed.

---

Meiling heard Wei hit the floor behind her and cringed. Now? You choose now to pass out!

She wanted to scream. She wanted to hit something. She wanted to slap Wei until he woke up and helped her come up with another plan to get them the rest of the way out of here.

Logically she knew she was being too harsh, but, as with most half-successful plans, logic had gotten lost somewhere back in the Lower Ring.

Letting out a hard puff of air, she switched off the power lever for the spirit-vine weapon and stepped away from the control panel, ignoring the way her hands were trembling. It wasn't like they were going to be able to use the weapon as a bluff again anyway.

(She wondered if it had been a bluff at all with the way Wei had been talking. She hadn't heard him sound that coldly confident in a long time.)

"What now?" their mother wondered, stooping to cradle Wei's head in her arms and wiping blood coated bangs away from his face with a heartbroken look. "They won't stay on that side of the wall for very long."

There was a harsh creaking sound that the exit hatch was pushed open. Uncle Bai stood next to it, and he had a dangerously obstinate look on his face.

"Now," he said, "you lot are going to get Wei out of here before they have a chance to catch up."

"Bai," their father said, "you can't possibly mean to stay behind."

Uncle Bai set his jaw stubbornly, and Meiling felt her heart beating hard in her chest. "That's exactly what I mean to do." He kicked the side of the cockpit resentfully. "I might not be able to drive this thing nearly as well as your crazy son, but I'm an experienced metalbender, and I can sure as hell do something to keep them distracted while you lot get away."

"Uncle Bai," Meiling said. She had meant for it to come out calm and convincing. Instead it was a hurt choke.

He wouldn't look at her. "This isn't an argument, Ling, it's an order. I'm a damn officer of the law and you have to do what I say!" He quirked his lips into something that wanted to be a smile. "Besides, you know how much of a fuss I've always put up about wanting to fight the system."

"Bai," her mother was crying, holding Wei closed to her, another strip of her shirt torn off and wrapped around his head in an effort to stop the bleeding from the cut above his right goggle. Him and his stupid hazard prone eyes.

"Go," Uncle Bai said. "Don't make me say it again, Ling."

Meiling wanted to fight when her father grabbed her by her sleeve and tugged her towards the exit hatch, but somehow she couldn't quite find it in her. Not while watching Cheng helping their mother carry Wei with those words echoing in her brain:

"…you're the one who murdered that last avatar!"

She had no idea how her brother could know, or if he was even telling the truth or just making a guess. But he had seemed sure. Dangerously so.

Uncle Bai brought up a rock pillar for them to step onto, and then safely lowered it to the ground. She saw him turn and walk back towards the metalbending platform, heard the shifting of metal parts as he got a feel for the mecha unit. His turned back was the last glimpse she got of him before her father hurried him forward.

She wanted to fight for Uncle Bai's sake, but she couldn't. Instead, she let herself be lead away.

Meiling let her feet carry her forward, away from the place that would undoubtably change her twin into something unrecognizable, the place that had started changing him already.

The outer districts were mostly slums right beyond the gate–there was no better way of putting it. She had never been to this part of the city before, and she doubted she would remember anything about how it looked beyond the ground passing beneath their feet as they hurried through the shacks around them, curious eyes following from those who had awoken in the commotion or had never been asleep in the first place. They must have looked wild eyed enough that no one bothered them.

They ran until they found the non-passenger train station, a crossing point for all of the supply trains in the empire coming to or from the city. Fortune smiled upon them for once, and one of the trains was just departing, the order for the halting of all outbound vehicles apparently having not reached the outer districts soon enough to stop it. Right as the engine was starting up, their father managed to force the side door on the last car to slide open and he hopped on with Wei right as the wheels began to turn. Meiling had to run with Cheng and their mother to catch up, jumping and catching herself on the door and hauling herself inside behind the others before the train picked up enough speed to leave her in the dust.

The door slid shut behind her, leaving them with the dark and silence. Somehow five people was a lot lonelier than six. Especially when she knew in that horribly reliable place deep down inside that the number was only likely to shrink from there.

"So," her father said before she could get too comfortable with the silence. "It's still a long time until morning, and we have no way of knowing when this train will stop."

They all shifted in the darkness, settling in for the long haul. Meiling felt her father's eyes rest on her, and a moment later, his hand clapped down on her shoulder, stiff with the tension of the day, but comforting nonetheless.

Well, until he spoke anyway.

"Now," he said, sighing in that heavy way that meant he was much too sober for the conversation he was about to have, "I was wondering if a certain delinquent child of mine could explain to me how on this good earth my son learned how to pilot a screaming metal war machine."

It was going to be a long night yet.