Rules

"You tell me that you hear me and all your memories are real—but how do I know you don't just feel what you've been told to feel?"

Part Six

Korra watched in stunned silence as the Equalist she'd been mocking and cursing mere seconds earlier paced before her, agitated and distressed and revealing to her far more than she'd ever expected to hear. With just a few words, she had triggered a reaction so strong that his voice seemed to blow the fire around in billowing tendrils. A few embers had even jumped out from the wood towards her.

What had she said that had bothered him so?

She had called him a weak link, something she'd thrown out rashly when she couldn't think of anything else to say in her fury towards him—but it had to have an inkling of truth to it, because otherwise, why would he have reacted so violently?

Her thoughts raged on loudly in her head as the Equalist's voice echoed throughout the cove. Something about him, something about the way he moved and waved his hands around as he spoke, drew her in, fed her curiosity—and then his words kept her there.

"I joined the Equalists because Amon had a plan. Firebenders killed my parents when I was a kid, and I've been on my own ever since. I've never had a plan."

Against her will, Korra felt a pang of pity for him. She'd never known that kind of pain; although she missed them, her own parents were safe and sound in the South Pole. Asami, on the other hand, had lost her mother to a firebender long ago as well. She rarely spoke of it, but Korra understood that the event had also caused Asami to lose her father in a way as well. The unexplained, undiscussed, obvious hurt in Asami's eyes whenever the topic arose was enough to tell Korra just how difficult and painful it was. She imagined the Equalist before her must have felt the same way.

And now, Amon had a plan, he'd said. I guess it makes sense that the Equalist has a reason to be an Equalist. He just wants to protect himself.

Still, Korra thought, steeling herself again, Asami had borne the same pain, and she hadn't given in to the Equalist movement.

"But this plan, now..." His voice was quiet, unsure, and again, some of her anger dissipated. "I don't know."

He stopped pacing and looked over at her.

"Is it really the answer?" he wondered aloud. "To take away everyone's bending?"

Korra stared in awe. An Equalist more skilled than any she'd ever fought before—and yet he was the most ambivalent one she'd ever met. Was it possible? For the first time, inexplicably, she wondered what he looked like underneath the mask.

He had asked her a question, she realized. How would she even begin to answer a question like that?

She swallowed. "No. I can tell you right now that it's not the answer at all."

"That's what I'm starting to wonder about myself," the Equalist muttered, and he sat down, shoulders slumped. He seemed very tired.

Korra waited a moment, wondering if he'd say anything else. He wasn't stupid; he had to know that he was putting his job and his life on the line by revealing so much to her. And yet, Korra waited with bated breath, hoping that he would tell her more—not because she wanted to use it against him, but because she was genuinely curious, wondering what drove him, what drove this startling uncertainty.

And sure enough, he spoke, although he caught himself after two words and appeared to wonder how much more he should tell her, after all. "My brother..."

But it was enough of an explanation for Korra. He had a brother. And perhaps he was involved...

Korra was reminded of the boy she'd met in the city—Mako. He'd had a brother, too. She wondered if this Equalist was as good to his brother as she presumed Mako to be to his.

There was a long pause where the Equalist continued not to speak. Korra bit her lip, and then she urged herself to speak, to let him know that he could say more. "Is your brother an Equalist, too?"

He remained silent for some time, and just as Korra wondered if he'd just choose to end it here, he lifted his head and spoke again. "My brother... My brother has always been that 'weak link.' As a soldier, I've always kind of thought that, too." He lowered his head again, and Korra was certain he was staring at his hands, which were stretched out before him. "But now, I wonder if he's stronger than me."

Somehow, Korra knew immediately. The mingling of wonderment and exasperation in his voice said it all. She leaned back on her hands and gazed at the ceiling of the cove for a moment before staring into the fire and making a statement, as opposed to asking a question: "Your brother would have done what you did tonight."

"Yes," the Equalist whispered. And then, it was as though she'd opened the floodgates. "He would have risked his life to save you, even if it's against orders. And he'd probably nearly have died in the process. He has a knack for getting in trouble," the Equalist muttered, fondness and vexation coloring his tone all at once. "But...if he got hurt, I could never forgive myself. He's all I have left."

Korra stared back, speechless. The Equalist was, underneath that suit and that mask, completely real—utterly human. The fact had never seemed clearer to her in her life. And strangely enough, the image of Mako came floating back into her mind's eye, as his own tone of voice when regarding his brother had been nearly identical. She recalled the job that Mako had said he and Bolin both had to do, the one he'd much rather have done only on his own because his younger brother could get hurt...

The Equalist offered her permission to leave and tacked on an empty threat at the end, but his words did not quite register with her as she felt the certainty rise in the pit of her stomach. Somehow, she was almost positive...

"Wait," she found herself saying. He looked up at her, and even beneath the mask, she could see that he had suddenly tensed up. "Who... Who are you?"

He scooted back ever so slightly. "I can't tell you that."

His defensiveness would have ordinarily been enough to stop Korra, but she was entranced now, possessed by her curiosity and certainty. She crawled around the fire, closer and closer towards him. He seemed as ensnared as she was—for suddenly, he wasn't moving back anymore, either.

"It's just... You remind me of this boy..." she found herself saying as she drew closer, and when she was close enough to touch him, she stretched her hand out towards his face, suddenly itching to remove the mask.

His hand wrapped around her wrist just then, stopping her before she could go any further. But Korra felt no force in his touch, and she felt the overwhelming need to see him, to know him—and maybe even to help him, spirits forbid—rise up inside of her.

"Please," she whispered, and after the briefest moment of waiting—to see if she would falter, to see if he would fight back—she pushed her hand forward, and his own hand fell back into his lap.

Korra held her breath as she lifted the mask from his face, and as soon as she saw that angular, chiseled face and the fiery amber eyes, she felt a strange rush of relief and pity and shock. It was as she'd thought—it was Mako.

Her mind's eye flashed back to the memory of yesterday, when Mako had uttered those strange words at her—"What if I were the enemy? ...I'm a complete and total stranger. I could have been feeding you lies all along."

So he'd tried to tell her—or had he just been toying with her, dangling the truth in front of her and seeing if she'd catch it? Korra felt her head spin.

There was a long period of silence where all that moved was the fire beside them and their eyes searching each other's. Korra felt the rubbery texture of the mask in her hand and heard his breath, even and shallow, as he watched her watch him, his face somehow vulnerable and devoid of expression all at once.

Carefully, she got off of her hands and sat back on her knees. "You," she finally breathed.

Mako nodded, and then he looked off to the side, brow furrowed. "When I met you yesterday..."

Her shock and strange sense of calm finally began to ebb away, and suddenly, she felt a sense of anger at having been deceived, although even she could have admitted that it was dull, not the sharp and cutting hatred she'd felt towards him when she'd known him merely as Amon's Equalist assistant.

Amon's assistant.

There were a thousand things she wanted to say to him, shout at him, now that his mask was off and she could say them to his face. She wanted to tell him how the Equalists had driven the kindest people she'd known to leave their homes and hide away underground. She wanted to tell him that one of her closest friends had lost the only parent she had left to this pointless cause. She wanted to scream at him that he had exhausted her both physically and mentally in these last few weeks, chasing down her and her friends night after night, her stomach churning each time at the possibility of losing any one of them. She wanted to tell him that in the darkest, deepest parts of her soul, she had wanted to hurt him so badly that it would scare even Amon into submission.

And yet, when she saw how obviously lost he was, she couldn't say any of it.

She clenched her fist around the mask, and a pained look crossed her face.

"Why did you help me?"

"You already asked me that—"

"No!" Korra interjected, shaking her head. "Why did you help me yesterday? You were still you then—and you knew who I was!"

Mako was silent, although his frown grew deeper.

"You're not going to tell me?" Korra demanded, and she felt oddly comforted by the anger that was rising up in her chest. Anger was good—at least she knew what it was. It made sense to feel it.

"No, I..." Mako sighed, clearly aggravated. A few seconds passed before he managed to speak up again. "It didn't make sense to me, to take you captive or to kill you, or even to hurt you."

"Well, why not?" Korra snapped. Somehow, that explanation was even more infuriating. But he responded immediately, almost with no pause, surprising her.

"You acted like I was human." He said it so simply and matter-of-factly, watching her now with eyes that glowed orange in the firelight.

Now, it was Korra's turn to pause as she weighed the words in her head. That was it?

"You are human," Korra finally said, furrowing her brow, and all the anger had left her in one great whoosh, so that she couldn't even bother faking it. She sat back and wrapped her arms around her knees.

"Yeah, well, it's not so easy to see that when you're on one side or the other of this war," Mako muttered. "Think about it. Wasn't it simpler when it was like this?" He reached over and gently grabbed the mask out of Korra's hands and slid it back on.

Korra stared. He was right. When the mask was on, he was just another Equalist—another faceless creature, not human. He was just someone who wanted to bring an end to the world as she knew it. She grew uncomfortable, and she reached over and pulled it back off. For a moment, she couldn't bring herself to meet his eyes, and she stared down at the mask again, her lips in a slight pout as she thought to herself.

"See?" Mako said. "It was the same with you. Before, you were just the Avatar, the leader of the opposition. But I met you yesterday, and at first, you were just a normal girl. You were a human. So when I realized you were the Avatar, I couldn't not see that in you anymore."

"So it was that simple?" Korra asked.

Mako shut his eyes for a moment and exhaled. "No," he said, opening his eyes again and looking into the fire. "If I'm being honest... I did try. When I was telling you that you could have killed me, that I was a stranger, that I might have been lying to you—I wanted you to attack."

Korra leaned forward, fascinated and disturbed all at once.

"But you didn't," Mako said quietly. "You said you couldn't. Because I had a brother. Because of Bolin."

"It was the truth," Korra said, her voice just as quiet now. "I couldn't do that to him—and I couldn't do that to you." She bit her lip before she let out a long sigh. "And even now..."

Even now that I know what you are, I can't do that to you.

She didn't finish, and Mako smirked mirthlessly before he looked away from the fire, to her, echoing her own thoughts out loud. "Now that we're here... What do we do?"

Korra shook her head. "I don't know. It should be easy." She paused. "We should be fighting right now, to the death."

Mako scoffed. "I really could kill you in an instant. Your bending won't come back for another hour at least."

Korra narrowed her eyes. "I'm a lot more than my bending skills, Equalist. You could try. I don't think you'd succeed."

Mako raised his hands. "I'm joking, I'm joking. I know it wouldn't be that easy," he said with a smirk.

Korra glowered at him, but then to her own surprise, she burst out into full-on laughter, and she couldn't tell whether she was more horrified or amused. "Did we just make a joke about...killing each other?"

Mako chuckled. "I guess we did. Wow, that's messed up." His smile faded as he watched the fire once more, and then, he was somber again. "So what do we do?" he repeated in a whisper, more to himself than to her.

"I'm assuming this means the killing-each-other isn't an option anymore," Korra said, and although her words were joking, her tone was as serious as his expression.

"I don't know," Mako said, and he groaned into his hands. "I don't know. I—" he looked at her. "Right now... I don't know if I can."

Korra felt a painful churning in her stomach. She wished she didn't know what it was, but she was almost certain of its source. To sever the connection she'd just made—this strange, firelit bond—by taking his life, or by letting him take hers, suddenly felt like it would have terrible consequences. "You know... Me, either. Not right now."

"Then should we just leave this until next time?" Mako asked, brow furrowed. "Would that even make sense?"

"It doesn't make sense, but what does anymore?" Korra replied honestly, raising her hands in the air. "None of this was supposed to happen."

"You're right." Mako paused. "Will we have it figured out by the next time we meet, then?"

"I hope so," Korra said quietly. "I don't know what we'll do if we don't."

"Me, either," Mako said, looking at the ground. He looked so torn and lost that Korra wondered if she'd see that face beneath his mask the next time she came across him.

"To our teams, then, we—"

"We keep this between us," Mako finished.

Korra nodded, relieved. "Then..."

"You're free to go," Mako said with a nod. "You'll have to swim... Your bending isn't back yet," he said sheepishly. "But it's a short distance."

Korra didn't know whether to laugh or to scoff. She stood, and Mako stood with her, approaching her. "Do you need me to show you the way back?" he asked awkwardly.

"Maybe it's better that we end it here tonight. We're walking away with our lives. If anyone saw us, we'd be throwing that away. Don't worry about me," Korra grinned. "I can find my own way home."

Mako nodded. "Right. Well, then..."

His eyes met hers, and Korra could not bring herself to look away. She realized just how close they were standing to each other, and she thought again about this bond they'd created, forbidden and senseless but somehow comforting, and what it would mean for them when they inevitably crossed paths again...

She felt her heart jump when he reached out to touch her face, but she didn't find herself backing away—but just centimeters away, he stopped himself.

"Until next time, Korra."

Korra drew in a sharp breath and nodded to him before heading out of the cove and diving straight into the choppy water, hoping that her heart would steady itself.

Hi, everyone! I know it's been a long, long while. I apologize for that. The summer was a bit busier than I thought it'd be, and as I'm in school now and getting ready for law school, I've been studying overtime with literally no time for anything else. However! To anyone who was concerned that I might drop this story, please don't worry. It's really rare that I abandon a story, especially one that I've already finished almost halfway through. I'll continue to try to update when I can—that's a promise!

I also really want to thank all of you for your amazing reviews. Chapter five got the most reviews out of a singular chapter I've posted of anything, ever, which is insane in the best way. You all are amazing, and I really appreciate all of the love and support you've given me. I know it's a lot to ask after not updating for so long, but please keep it up! I haven't responded to many reviews, but I'll definitely go through and at least try to answer the questions that some of you have left me. I'm really sorry about the delay.

This chapter was a bit difficult to write because Mako and Korra are both so stubborn naturally, but I had to make them a bit more pliable here. I apologize if anything seems out of character—they'll be back on their game in the next chapter, no worries. :)

As usual, thank you so much, and please leave a review on your way out! Love you guys.

-boreum dal