Mako
Mako climbed the steps to the Royal Palace, and then turned to survey the city. Ba Sing Se stretched out before him, a seemingly endless parade of houses, walls, and roads.
He hated it here.
It reminded him too much of the Earth Queen, and her total misrule of the Kingdom, and poverty was still rampant. The city still bore the scars of the civil unrest brought about by the Queen's death, and to top it all off he would much rather be with Asami and the Airbenders looking for Korra.
Instead, he was here.
"Mako!" A voice hailed him, and he turned to see the King stood at the entrance to the palace, waving at him enthusiastically. Wu had taken a shine to Mako immediately, largely because he was someone different to talk to as far as he could tell.
"You're here!" He called, rushing to his side and grabbing his arm.
Mako had to resist saying of course I'm here, it's my job as he was dragged inside. Instead, he settled for asking "where are we going?"
"I am going to teach you to dance, whether you like it nor not," Wu replied, and one of the guards gave them a funny look behind the King's back as they went past.
Mako nodded, not quite knowing how to react to that. He let himself be dragged into Wu's chambers, where a record player wired up to the largest speaker he had ever seen stood in one corner. Wu went over to it and placed a record disk into it, before pressing a few buttons and placing the needle over the disk.
Immediately, extremely loud dance music erupted from the speakers, to the point that Mako could not hear himself think. Wu made himself jump with it, and hastily turned it down a little bit, before his whole manner changed. He suddenly seemed a lot more serious as he turned around and made his way back towards him.
"They shouldn't be able to hear us now," he said. "We should be safe."
Mako, who could barely hear him standing a metre away, was forced to agree.
"I need your help," Wu told him.
"Pardon?" Mako couldn't quite believe what he had heard.
"I need your help!" Wu said again, slightly louder this time. "I've been thinking."
"Thinking about what?"
"Thinking about that woman in the parade. About what she said."
"Oh," Mako replied uncertainly.
"It made me think I don't even know what's going on in my own city!" Wu exploded. "Nobody tells me anything, I gave up asking months ago but now I find out that Kuvira is vanishing people?"
He ran up to Mako and grabbed him.
"Help me investigate. You're the only one I trust here. The others will just report me to Kuvira."
Mako considered. This was dangerous, but he had been sent here to spy anyway...
"I'll do it," he said. "What do you need?"
"I need to get out," the King replied. "I need to see my city."
"Do you have a cloak?" Mako asked. Wu ran over to his closet and opened it, pulling out a succession of ornate green clothes. Mako shook his head. "What about any nondescript ones?"
Wu shook his head.
"We'll get you one then," Mako decided. "You wouldn't happen to know of any secret tunnels?"
"Is it always this dirty?" Wu pulled his robe higher and made a face, stepping delicately over the paving stones.
"Don't be like that, you'll stick out," Mako replied, leading him down the street. The King passed a row of market stands, each one selling a variety of exotic fruits. A few people gave him strange looks, but he was wearing unusually tattered clothing and had his hood pulled up over his head so nobody paid him much mind.
"But yes, not everywhere can be kept so spotless as a palace."
"I see," Wu was suddenly distracted by the sound of music, and he turned to see a marching band coming up the street playing a lively dancing tune.
Mako knew what Wu was about to do a second before the King did it, and immediately Wu was alongside the conductor, dancing happily as the band advanced. The conductor glanced at him, not knowing who he looked at, and smiled before looking at Mako and nodding. Mako nodded back, as Wu gestured towards him.
"Come on Mako!" He called. "Come and join in!"
Mako shook his head.
"Don't worry, he's just shy," The King told the conductor, before running over to grab Mako's arms.
"Come on," he said. "This is easy! You just wave your arms about like this..."
Mako made a very half-hearted attempt to copy him.
"No!" Wu told him. "Do it with more vigour!"
Mako did it again, and Wu beamed at him. "That's more like it!" He proclaimed. "I'll make a dancer of you yet!"
They stayed like that for another five minutes, keeping a steady pace with the marching band as the King tried to persuade Mako to do steadily sillier dances.
Mako was just trying to master a complicated series of kicks that Wu had shown him when he looked up to find a truck bearing the symbol of Kuvira's Earth Empire pulling up on the side of the road. No sooner had it stopped than men in green armour with full-face helmets piled out of it and ran into the nearest building, bashing the door down incredibly easily. The music of the marching band suddenly stopped as they ran away back the way they had come, and Mako and Wu ran to hide behind a merchant's stall.
"Who are they?" Wu asked.
There was a crash from inside, and then two of the men re-emerged, dragging a woman between them as she yelled for her son. Another two came after, with a man with a black eye hanging between them.
"They're secret police," Mako told him grimly.
The two prisoners were roughly cuffed with metal strips around their wrists and ankles and tossed into the van, before more prisoners were brought out; an old man, two younger men, a teenage boy and three more women. Then someone else was dragged outside to join them; a boy of about 10.
Wu looked outraged, and made to stand up, but Mako grabbed his arm.
"They cannot know we've seen this!" He hissed. "They can't even know we're not in the palace!"
All followed them into the back of the van, the policemen piled in after them and the van drove off again. In an instant, the street was quiet and calm again.
Wu stood up. He looked angry and shaken, and Mako did not blame him.
"We should probably get back to the palace," the King said. "I have some thinking to do."