Not My Family:

I own nothing...

Kuvira turned to the member of her guard closest to her. "Anyone who refuses to surrender will be sent to a re-education camp," she told him. The man saluted before walking away, checking each house for dissidents.

"With Mother and the rest of them locked up, no one would be brave enough to stand up for Zaofu," Baatar said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Zaofu is as good as ours."

Though Baatar was smiling triumphantly, Kuvira could not force herself to show any bit of happiness. "There's one more thing I need to take care of," she said, shrugging off his hand and walking toward the outlying homes.

Baatar struggled to keep up with her as she walked briskly to the end of the row of houses. It suddenly dawned on him as to where she was heading. It had been years, but he still remembered who lived at the end of this row.

No sooner had Baatar put the pieces together that Kuvira was standing in the doorway of the home. She did not even knock, choosing to instead throw open the door so hard it dented the wall behind it.

Just over her shoulder, Baatar could see a man with his hands up in front of him. Behind him was a woman and two older children, perhaps twelve years old.

"Great Uniter," the man began. "We pledge our loyalty to you." There were murmurs of assurance behind the man from his wife and children. Baatar could not feel relieved, however. It didn't matter what these people said to her; she wasn't listening. He knew what his fiancé was going to do. Their scared expressions did not even faze Kuvira.

Kuvira looked over her shoulder, past Baatar to a group of her guards. "Place these people in re-education camps. They need to be taught what true loyalty means. And make sure to separate them." She said this last part with a wicked smile, one that chilled Baatar to the bone.

Baatar looked away as the guard seized each member of the family, trying to block out their cries. He wondered if they had put the pieces together, that the Great Uniter had strikingly similar eyebrows to the father and the same physique as the mother. Even the beauty mark under her eye was shared by one of the children.

"Kuvira, are you sure?" Baatar Jr. asked her hesitantly, his hand on her arm.

Kuvira turned around, looking positively annoyed at her fiancé. "I didn't question you imprisoning your own family." Baatar let go of her arm and with a nod let her pass. She was right: he had let his own family be imprisoned. But it was different; his family was not loyal to the empire.

"Please!" the mother cried as her two sons were taken away from her. "We've done nothing wrong! Don't punish them! We're family!"

Kuvira stopped, the look in her eyes practically burning a hole in the ground. Baatar prayed that she would just move on, and that she would stop her madness before it consumed her.

She turned, stomping so she was facing the woman, her biological mother, and looked her dead in the eye. "You don't know what the word 'family' means," Kuvira hissed. "If you did, those two boys would have an older sister, and you a daughter."

Baatar saw the woman's eyes widen. He shook his head, turning to walk away. He couldn't handle this anymore. It was clear that the woman had finally put the pieces together.

Baatar wondered if she regretted her past choices. What would the world be like right now had they not given Kuvira away.

~AN~

I want to thank FYYi for this suggestion. I know it was a while back but I want you to know that I've had this written since the beginning of April :) Thank you so much for your idea! I really appreciate it!

Sorry that this stopped happening in chronological order. For now I think I'm going to start posting these more like drabbles that happen at various times during Kuvira's life. Hopefully I will be posting them more consistently also... I just finished finals so I should have a lot of time now.