Chapter 16: Melted Steel
Kuvira thought it an extraordinarily good stroke of luck when her temporary jailors, Suyin Beifong and Lin Beifong, ran away from her wooden prison, leaving Kuvira alone in silence. She was thoroughly enjoying her solitude, and the first thirty minutes felt like bliss - no constant quips from Lin, and no more motherly lecturing from Suyin.
After about an hour, Kuvira realized that everyone of any importance or power had left along with Lin and Suyin. She even spotted a lone female guard who had foolishly carried some metal jewelry with her - this was it, her chance to escape. While a small voice gnawed at her mind -one she had ignored plenty times before - Kuvira carried out the first part of her escape, manipulating the guard's necklace into blacking her out. She didn't feel like killing anyone - she had been genuine in a portion of her remorse. "Only a portion," she mumbled under her breath, causing the annoying shrill voice in her head to scream even louder - she sometimes wished she were like the Fire Nation princess who some said had been born without a soul.
As she bent the guard's necklace closer to the wooden prison, she trembled with excitement. She used the necklace - some sort of profession of love - to form a small saw. As she began working on an out-of-sight corner, her mind raced. She remembered she had told General Jinshu Kuangmai to hold a position outside the city, not matter the circumstances or cost. Perhaps she could meet up with him - though, she realized with a dry horror, she might not be well received by him. At all, she remembered with a grimace - his specialty did unnerve her, ever so slightly. In a moment of absent pondering, she asked herself - how had she brought herself to associate with his kind again?
See? This is why you should just stay in this box, and serve time for your crimes! Quit resisting already!
Kuvira let out an unstable laugh - this was the first time her conscience had manifested itself this strongly in years. She began to wildly use the small saw to go deeper into the wood, her hair swinging in front of her field of view. When she finally cut through a cross-section, she sat down on the floor and idly played with her messy locks of hair. She heard a sound behind her - that of a woman rummaging through her pockets. Kuvira turned to see the guard looking for her necklace wildly, slightly crying as she did so, before letting out a dejected sigh, seemingly too lost in her grief to bother checking on Kuvira. As she watched the guard leave, Kuvira smirked - what a fool.
As soon as she thought to return to her work -she figured she could be out in another ten minutes, being conservative - the same shrill voice in her head said If you won't listen to me, let's see if you'll listen to someone else! Kuvira laughed lowly - what could happen to stop her? As she began sawing once more, she let out a muffled scream - the saw suddenly stopped moving! Turning around to face an odd sound, she saw a hallucination, saying, "Uhoh, this is not good - I read that scholars think Azula saw these kind of things before snapping." Kuvira had not realized she said this out loud, so she fell backwards when she saw the hallucination respond. A small, white-haired girl said, "This is no hallucination, 'Great Uniter'. I have temporarily blocked your bending, Kuvira - no small feat, and likely to… you don't need to hear such things, reprobate. Now, I will let other, more 'human-y' spirits take over." As the blackness took her, Kuvira heard a familiar voice that said Let's see you run away from this!
Kuvira realized with a start that she had no physical form - she was floating above what appeared to be an Earth Kingdom village, watching its activities. She felt herself whisked near a dog, who was looking for something frantically. Suddenly, she heard a voice in her head that said "Where is my owner? The last time I saw him, he was yelling at some men in green." Kuvira was forced to track the dog, stopping its sniffing at a mound of fresh earth. Again, the thought - "Why is Master under this mound of dirt? Surely, the nice green men didn't…" Kuvira felt a horrible sensation course through her, as she saw the mangy hound begin to howl furiously.
Now you can see the true fruits of your labors. But we're not done yet - we're only getting started.
Kuvira sat up inside the cell, sweating wildly. A dog grieving its master wasn't going to break her! …
Before she could think, she felt the blackness take her again, and she got the distinct impression that she perceived it as black, when it was really blinding light. The fact that when she thought this she began to see a very dark grey sphere appear in front of her didn't help any. She felt her hand shoot out to touch it without her input.
She was transported to hover over what she recognized as one of the greatest sources for war fuel on the planet - the Swamp. She was jerked closer to the butchered central tree against her will, and once her skin touched its bark, she felt an immense, beating energy - one that seemed on the verge of dying. As she heard a groan from the tree, she felt this portion of it lose its energy, and a large swathe suddenly turned an eerie brown. A part of her felt as though it had died with this section of the huge tree.
As Kuvira sat up again, she noticed in terror that two guards were standing outside her cell, one of which was waterbending an ice support where she had cut, before the odd girl had apparently blocked Kuvira's bending. One she recognized as the female guard who she had taken the necklace from, who was crying wildly. She pointed her finger at Kuvira, screaming, "You ruined the last keepsake I had of my beloved - killed by your army! No - by YOU! He was on guard duty that day, the outpost… If you weren't such an important prisoner of war, I'd have half a mind to make you join him! Though I doubt you'd understand my grief - you shot that same horrible weapon at your own boyfriend!" All sorts of horrible feelings ran havoc inside of Kuvira, gripping her chest in a vice-grip - feelings she hadn't felt since Suyin had adopted her orphaned self all those years ago. She felt an odd sensation when looking at the girl - one that Suyin had tried to teach her the meaning of, and failed to do. Kuvira began to say something, but found she could not speak, and she fell backwards once more.
This endless cycle repeated itself countless times, with the grey ball gradually becoming lighter, until Kuvira was once more plopped into the viewer's seat of a gut-wrenching scene. She had noticed the shape of yin and yang, slightly darkened, in its surface before she was forced into this vision. Over the course of the past three to four hours - Kuvira did not know exactly how much time had passed - she continued to feel emotions and sensations that were increasingly familiar to her. She had names for many of them now - guilt, compassion, remorse, empathy, self-loathing, to name a few - but it still felt as though they were walled off from her. The vision of the yin and yang sphere again - they must all be trapped inside. But when would the sphere break, and release her from this torture?
The same small girl appeared in front of Kuvira once again, blocking her view of a now stilled scene. Suddenly, the girl began to shift, seemingly possessing a hundred faces, and then exploding to take an unfamiliar larger form. What she assumed was a huge spirit had a blinding radiance, but was still not white - a perfect grey, completely neutral. One of the spirit's two strange large tendrils touched Kuvira's forehead, turning her to face yet another small village, with a powerful voice booming in Kuvira's head, "Before you can shatter that ball, Kuvira, you must witness this final scene - this will be the hardest for you. Keep in mind that all your progress could be lost in an instant, and your mortal mind will shatter - just like Azula's, over 70 years ago. You will feel everything connected to this event - not just the individual's feelings. I wish you good luck, but I have more important matters to attend to - such as finishing undoing the damage you did to the Great Banyan tree, for example. Goodbye - I still do not see what Korra saw in you." Kuvira's eyes widened at the mention of the Avatar's name.
With that, what must have been Raava vanished, and Kuvira felt her gaze transfixed to a small girl, no older than eight. Kuvira felt a sudden immense pain that felt as though it threatened to cleave her in two, and gritted her teeth, realizing what was about to be shown to her - though this orphan's parents would likely have died, unlike Kuvira's own… She endured many different individual's pain and visions, all revolving around the girl that was constantly fixed in the center of her view. Every time she saw someone fall to her troop's hands, she felt the ripples their actions caused. Finally, as she witnessed the hapless girl's parent's demise - they had resisted after Zaofu had fallen, fighting after the official surrender out of loyalty to Suyin, her own adoptive mother - Kuvira felt a strange sensation. As she saw the orphan fade from view and the last of her torturous feelings fade, Kuvira felt an odd crack - as though she had split in two.
When she opened her eyes again, she was met with a fearsome visage - she saw a metallic representation of herself, with unnerving steel eyes, reaching out to grasp the yin and yang sphere. Realizing what would happen if this half of her was not stopped, she extended a fleshy hand, hitting the orb at the same time as what must have been her evil self. She tugged with this awful creature for what seemed like an eternity, time having no meaning as she felt indescribable pain. Having had enough, Kuvira found herself finally yelling "I WANT TO LIVE!" and striking a foot into its leg, shattering the metal spectre as though it were glass. The shards on the floor faded slowly, Kuvira feeling more and more as they vanished…
"I am not done for yet!"
Ignoring the strange voice, Kuvira felt a rush of emotions that she had not felt since she was a little girl, and also the nasty emotions she had caused others to feel - it was a wonderful yet awful mix of emotions. But they were hers. Kuvira noticed that she was back in the physical world again, and felt so transformed, that she did something that she never would have tried before - she began to meditate. As she crossed her legs, a familiar voice screamed "NO! WAIT! IT'S NOT SAFE! NO…."
Kuvira awakened - despite all the odds, and never having been so inclined before, she had made it into the Spirit World. She became aware of a presence near her.
It sent chills down her spine. This presence was more foul than the metal Kuvira she had just faced - and that was saying something, she realized bitterly.
A long, serpentine form came into her field of vision - and Kuvira felt her heart fill with pure terror. She felt herself shrinking, smaller and smaller, until she was the same size that she was when Mother Suyin had rescued her. The oddly colored spirit began speaking, saying through its massive beak, "Ah, Kuvira 'the Great Uniter' - a pity Raava hadn't given Korra and Asami that party favor when you were running amok - the Spirit Civil War would have been over in less than a month!" The spirit began cackling wildly, and said, "I'm afraid your reformed presence would have a moderating, or even healing effect on the world, and humanity's behavior - and I can't have that. Oh, no - I need humans acting at their worst if I am to maintain my following, and pry the title of Grand Dark Spirit away from that pathetic fool, Vaatu. Then, Harmonic Convergence or not, I can try and destroy Raava myself. Your little games with the Earth Kingdom - your 'Empire'? You knew nothing! When I am done with humanity, the spirits will retake their rightful ancient place as supreme masters, with humans as slaves - no, worse."
During this terrifying monologue - which Kuvira knew she would have to report to Korra, if humanity stood any chance of remaining free - Kuvira clasped her hands together, wildly pleading for help. She opened her eyes to see a long, centipede-like form crawling closer to this awful spirit in front of her.
The much larger spirit said, "Good, good - Koh is almost here, little girl. He always did love a pretty face…"
Kuvira began crying wildly, "Please… anything… I know I haven't exactly been good, Universe, but I'm begging you…" She saw a familiar figure appear in front of her body: a small, white-haired girl. It must be Raava! The small girl said, with a hint of a smile, "Request accepted. Please stand by." The small form began glowing a brilliant white, and both of the much larger spirits behind what must have been Raava's human 'avatar' began howling - though, disturbingly, the most important one seemed to be much less affected. The centipedal spirit she must have assumed was Koh managed to inch closer, saying, "Oh, my, such a pretty, and intimidating face… a rare quality!"
That was when what seemed to be a huge spirit cannon beam with a strange wavy line in the middle raked both malicious spirits, sending them into a fit of pain - Kuvira could see a gash taken from the closest spirit's carapace, and the largest was missing a small part of his beak. Except the beam hadn't come from Raava - it came from the side. Fairly certain she was now safe, Kuvira stood up to face the source of the beam - and smiled broadly. Kuvira ran to the figure, who was performing some odd hand movements, yelling, "Korra!"