Guardsman Rai had stood before Su Yin before, every last guard who stayed during the exodus from Zaofu had met with her in private. He remembered she was warm and friendly, her voice was song like as she invited him in before and when she spoke she thanked him for his loyalty and asked about his family. Today she simply yelled "Enter."
When he walked in the shutters on her windows were down and the lights were on despite it being midday. She had been up before dawn. She leaned heavily over her desk with her hands on her forehead, shadowing her face. Beneath her gaze was an annotated map of the Earth Continent. It was dotted with pins of United Republic purple, Air Nation yellow and Water Tribe blue, to show the relief operations. The Warlord's forces were black, and the black pins were slowly growing to the east, like a rot upon the land. She slowly craned her head upwards and looked at him by the entrance with heavy, tired eyes pressed into a small scowl.
"Ma'am, Kuvira and your son are here ." He said quickly after a formal bow.
"Send them in."
"Feels like it's been a life time since we were here." Bataar commented as they walked briskly up the stark metal corridors of the Beifong Estate. Even the servants reared up and shot them dirty looks as they passed.
"And I wouldn't mind waiting a little bit longer." Kuvira said with a nervous sort of smile.
"I'll be right next to you." Bataar said softly as Rhee appeared in the crack of the doors.
Su Yin's office felt larger, more cavernous, than it ever had in the old days. With the addition of a few guards it also felt much tenser. Korra and her people were there and so was the entire Beifong family, Lin included. If they had been talking it fell to a deathly silence when the high, heavy door parted.
"Have you learnt anything new?" Bataar asked curtly as they entered the office. Bataar had picked his finest robe for the occasion and carried his ledger with him. Kuvira picked a grey and black robe with sharply cut sleeves and shoulders. Her hair was wound into a familiar braid, though looser and more casual with a few stray strands framing her face. For a moment the two of them had a sense of the authority that seemed too reminiscent of the Great Uniter and her Science Commander. Su, however wasn't fooled. Bataar only ever dressed up when he had someone to impress and Kuvira had selected her loosest, darkest set of robes to disguise her weight. As they entered Su Yin noticed their gaze roll from looking at Korra and Asami to Chief Beifong, to Su and everyone else in the room.
"That's how you want to start?" Asami asked a tad venomously as she crossed her arms and stiffened her posture.
"This is our city, Sato, we're not going to waste time on manners when there's a warlord on our doorstep." Kuvira snapped. She noticed the slight dip of Korra's brows into the beginning of a glare. Kuvira's face softened. "The irony isn't lost on us." She offered by way of an apology.
"We've liaised with the White Lotus; all of your former generals are either dead or in prison." Su Yin answered.
"I've been out to the refugee camps, they've got descriptions but no names." Opal explained.
"And I've looked at the sketches but I can't recognise him." Bolin commented.
Mako handed the couple one of the sketches. Kuvira flinched as her finger's brushed against the rough, crumpled scar tissue of Mako's burn. He grunted and gave her a withering look but he didn't have anything to say on the matter.
Bataar cleared his throat. "I recognise him." He said awkwardly. "The nose is a bit off, but it's definitely him. He traced a finger over that wide rictus grin sketched into the paper. "I'd know that smile anywhere." He grimaced.
"Rhee." Kuvira said heavily as she peered over Bataar's shoulder. "He was the Deputy Watchman for the Omashu Guard's nightshift."
"How on earth did you end up talking to someone that far down the chain?" Lin pressed from the opposite end of the table.
Kuvira dipped her head for a moment. "He was crooked, I mean really crooked. We hadn't even laid siege for a whole day before I heard him over the radio, offering to open the gates in exchange for a promotion."
"So what happened?"
"We opened the gates, we promoted him, we moved on." Kuvira explained simply.
"What kind of man are we dealing with?" Korra asked sharply as she took a look at the sketch.
"Nothing special, an average officer, non-bender, fairly bright. I never trusted a man who could turn traitor that easily, though." Kuvira said. She looked up to a few sceptical faces. "Again, I can appreciate the irony." She remarked dryly.
"Why would he be coming here?" Asami asked.
"Greed, I imagine." Su Yin postulated. "Zaofu's taken a beating but it's still the richest city on the continent."
"Perhaps, but Rhee could have asked for money at Omashu and instead he chose power, if I had to guess I'd say he's making the same choice now." Kuvira said with a surprising amount of certainty. "Zaofu is also a relatively small place compared to Omashu or Ba Sing Se, and it isn't very popular with a lot of the other big states, if he were to take Zaofu no one on the mainland would be too bothered."
Su Yin gasped. "You're telling me this guy wants to become king?" Kuvira nodded.
"I'll call my father, maybe he can send help." Korra suggested. "Maybe Tenzin could help as well."
"Some of my cadets are starting to get a handle on Lavabending, we might be able to set up lava fields to keep most of the army out." Bolin suggested.
Su Yin paused for a moment and then turned to the Avatar. "Call for all the help you want but we're going to try diplomacy first." She announced commandingly. "The city couldn't survive another war right now." She said pensively.
The group filed out and as Bataar and Kuvira "Bataar, can I see you alone for a minute?" Su asked gently.
"Of course, mother." He replied in kind. Kuvira gave him a quick hug and went out the door. "Bataar, sit." Su asked as she flopped, somewhat heavily into a low, green couch. She put on a tired smile and scooted over to give him some space.
Bataar sat rigidly with his hands on his lap, facing straight forwards in an effort not to look his mother in the eye. "I suppose it's been a while since we really talked." He said in a long sigh.
"Too long." Su said softly. "Your brothers and sisters miss you." She said. "They can forgive you, if you'll let them."
"I know, they had a chat with me when you took Kuvira out." He reported. "I don't know what to do mom." He said sadly. For a moment he was still just that fussy child moaning whenever Opal pushed him over.
"What do you mean?"
"Well it's just so much" He explained, his voice cracked for a moment. "Our city's a mess, Kuvira's an emotional wreck and I'm one of the most hated men in the world." He said sadly. "I just don't see a way out." He finally said in a low shuddering sigh. Beneath his glasses a few tears tracked down his face.
"Have you told Kuvira about all this?" Su asked.
"No." Bataar answered meekly. "No, she's barely hanging on; I can't pile that onto her."
Su wrapped her arms around him. For a while that was all she did. "I can't pardon you, either of you." Su said sadly. "But if you can help save the city then I might be able to justify giving you extra privileges. You could come back and live with the family."
"Both of us." Bataar asked.
Su's mood darkened. "We'll see."
Asami kept a risk pace on her walk out of the estate, she dragged the shorter legged avatar at her side. A few paces behind Kuvira was jostled in the corridor between Guardsman Rei and Lin's unyielding metal armour. She waited until the Beifongs and Bolin had left for another part of the estate. Mako departed a corridor later.
"Asami." Kuvira said softly as she placed a hand on her shoulder. In an instant Sato whirled around and grabbed Kuvira by the wrist. With her off hand she shoved the heavier woman into the unyielding steel of the corridor walls. Guardsman Rei apparently had not noticed.
"Asami, let her go." Korra asked quickly. Eventually Asami's grip relented with an angered huff.
"What do you want, Kuvira." Asami seethed. She appeared quite prepared to look after them.
"Bataar was still too afraid to talk to you, I guess he was right." She said softly as she rubbed her wrist, which had already come up in bruises. "I was going to ask if you could come to our Villa and help him with his defence blueprints." She asked.
Asami cackled for a moment and took a step back. "Seriously?" She asked. "I thought you were going to try another pathetic excuse for an apology, but this….this is just insane."
Kuvira looked up and met Asami's withering gaze, she steeled herself and then spoke. "Please, Asami I just….."
"Your little 'humbled' routine might have others fooled but I will never forget what you did." Asami bristled as she leaned in on Kuvira. "Whatever it is you're really planning I'm not going to help you."
"But I-" Kuvira began.
"I'm done here." Asami fumed. She turned on the balls of her feet and walked away angrily without taking a second look.
"I'll try and talk to her." Korra said gently.
Kuvira just nodded mutely, stood in the long stark corridor of the Beifong estate.
Asami pulled her jacket off in a huff as soon as she entered the guest house. "The nerve of that woman." She muttered angrily. "How can they think anyone will give them the time of day after all they've done?"
"Asami, please." Korra said with a certain softness. "I don't like seeing you angry." She held onto Asami's hands for a moment to try and calm her.
"I know." She said softly, she appeared to be relaxing until her hands balled up into tight, white knuckled fists. "But I can't just forgive her for what she did to me. You were there for the funeral, there wasn't enough of dad left to fill the coffin" What started out as a hateful snarl snapped and broke down into the start of thick flowing tears. "."
"I know that what they did was wrong." Korra said as she led Asami to the nearest sofa. "But sometimes forgiving someone isn't about making their lives easier it's about letting go of all that anger, to make your own life easier."
"Bending or not she's still too dangerous." Asami said bluntly. "You mark my words they're planning something, and I'm not going to help." Strangely there was just a slight quiver of fear in Asami's voice.
Korra thought for a moment and then sat beside her. "Bataar might be criminal but he's still a genius, Zaofu needs you working together." She said softly before she clasped Asami's hand in her own. "And I'll be with you all the way." She said as she pulled her in for an almost crushing embrace.
"Really?" Asami asked. "You don't have Avatar duties to attend to."
"Where you go I go." Korra said before she moved in for a deep, loving kiss.
Lin sat heavily in her temporary office within the Beifong estate. A small radio played the evening music hour whilst she read from a small green pocket book. "Chief!" Mako yelled as he ran towards her with a folder in hand. "I've got news for you, about Kuvira's assassin."
"What is it, Mako?" Lin asked with her habitual curtness.
"Doctor Fang finally got the in depth reports out to us." He announced clearly as he put the small file on her desk. "I've read it and according to her analysis Baraz's last drink was a ricewine microbrew vintage from Tu Zin." He explained.
"That's right between Omashu and here." Lin said as she stood up from her office chair. "He came here fleeing Rhee."
"That's what I thought." Mako said proudly. "But then I got to thinking, that was his last drink, the Doctor says it was only in his stomach for five hours. The only way to get here that quickly from Tu Zin is by airship."
"There's no way a village that small has an aerodrome." She thought aloud. "Someone else would need to get him here." She said, her voice ticked up in realisation.
"That's right chief but there's something else." He said direly. "The only aerodromes with airships fast and efficient enough to make the trip are in Zaofu."
Lin gasped as she quickly figured out where the younger Captain was going. "That would mean that whoever organised this is in Zaofu."