#questionable ending

Kuvira’s reign across the Earth kingdom had started to slow as she was met with resistance from Zaofu and the Avatar. Dealing with them had been easy, beating Korra had been easier, and now she was on her way to Republic City, to rightfully claim the district as official property of the Earth Kingdom. 

Kuvira felt powerful having so many people support her, especially when it came to her. Y/n had been there at the beginning, supporting Kuvira and boosting her esteem so much so, Kuvira’s own motivation took the step forward to claim the Earth Kingdom. Locked eyes, lingering touches, shivering shoulders made up the tension between the two; with the passion of war, it made it all that more bitter sweet. So why did Kuvira feel this way? She knew that y/n was loyal, perhaps the most loyal of them all, and yet the little voice in her head was screaming that something, somewhere, someone was going to betray her. Zhu Li was kind of a given but y/n? Trusting, beautiful, y/n? 

Kuvira’s relationship with Baatar, in her eyes, was political: losing him would be surprising, considering how strong his feelings were against his own mother. Could he be persuaded? Hopefully not, but yet here we are.

Kuvira’s hands were formed into fists as she listened to his pleading. Leave this? Now? We are so close, why would I give up now? Why would I when the last piece of the puzzle is in my hands?

Aiming the spirit weapon towards his location was easy. Pulling the trigger was even easier. But the voice in her head was now a full roar, claiming that no one was loyal, no one was on her side. So as the war machine rebounded from the shot it took, Kuvira straightened her shoulders and looked to her left. Sitting in one of the command chairs, was y/n. Back straight, hair gleaming, Kuvira wanted to swallow her whole, wanted to take her existence and keep it to herself. Y/n might have been lying this entire time, and Kuvira didn’t want to lose her to the avatar. That is one thing she couldn’t stand for, losing this war was not an option and Kuvira would do anything to reach her goal.

“Y/n.”

Snapping her head towards Kuvira, she stood and walked over, placing herself to the left of the platform. Looking her in the eyes, Kuvira stood even taller and her plan was falling into place. This will be easy.

“Come with me for a moment.”

Kuvira commanded the remaining soldiers to stay in their positions and alert her if there are any changes. Knowing the efficiency of the spirit weapon, she doubted that the avatar would have survived the latest shot.

Stepping off of the platform, Kuvira and y/n walked down into the belly of the weapon, where the roar of the machine made the thundering in her heart a little lighter. They came to a stopping point and y/n’s shoulders relaxed. It was just the two of them, perhaps this was a pre-game to victory? Kuvira was faced away from y/n and she could see where the muscle tensed in the uniform that Kuvira wore. Where the metal framed her shoulders and where it flared at her waist and constricted at her knees. She wondered how long it would take her to map every freckle that Kuvira had. Not knowing how many, she wondered if she would have the opportunity to ever count. Is this going to be it? She snapped her eyes back up when Kuvira turned around, crowding her space.

“It’s happening. The end is near and victory will be ours,” Kuvira murmured.

Their eyes were locked and their breaths were shared. How y/n craved to get closer.

“You’ve done wonderfully, I can’t imagine any other trying to accomplish what you have,” y/n whispered. 

Kuvira smirked, “Oh? Tell me, y/n, what have I accomplished?”

Y/n shivered, hearing her name come from her lips was a taste of heaven that she wanted every drop of. She wanted more, she craved more, so she easily answered, if only to savor every drop.

“Conquering the city-states, making the lords bow to you, creating a super weapon that is extremely effective, and should I mention the fact that you won against Korra?”

Toe to toe, their noses almost touched, their breaths were clouding each other and y/n jumped at the feeling of gloved hands fiddling with her own. Oh. Oh Oh-

“I could stand to hear more, if you’ll humor me,” Kuvira whispered.

Y/n took the jump and linked her left hand around Kuvira’s, and she looked her straight in the eyes. She could smell the metal and lavender that left Kuvira and y/n thought she would erupt. 

“Taking apart Zaofu to create something for yourself in a direct response to Su, you are incredibly powerful and what I wouldn’t do-”

Kuvira brought her face to y/n and latched herself to her lips. Her right hand clutched the back of her neck and she squeezed, playing with the hairs that rested there. Her left hand traveled from y/n’s hands to her lower back, pulling y/n forward. 

Y/n felt conquered and completed and finished, any word you could think of, her brain had fried with the machine and her insides turned to jelly. Being placed in Kuvira’s arms and kissing her was something that Y/n yearned for. Her center throbbed and she looped her arms around Kuvira’s neck. She wanted all that Kuvira could give her. Even if Kuvira left her now to take out an entire city, Y/n could live with that, her spark of life had turned into an inferno and had burned her inside out. She wanted to share that fire with Kuvira and as if the devil had knocked on her door, Kuvira licked her bottom lip and Y/n was so easy. She would let Kuvira do whatever she pleased, even right here on the machinery floor. She was entranced by the whole essence of Kuvira. She whimpered when her lip was bitten and she sighed when Kuvira seemed to ravage her being. Closer- She needed to be closer-

Pain.

Wha-

What is that?

Heat radiated from her side, what is-

Y/n’s eyes snapped open and she pulled herself from Kuvira. Kuvira had a grimace on her face, her eyebrows drawn together and lips tightened into a line.

Y/n’s breath stuttered and she looked down, red was encompassing her right side. She had been- Kuvira?- Why would she? Kuvira stabbed her? What?

Kuvira metal bended the weapon back into her sleeve and caught Y/n as she started to get dizzy. She lowered her to the grated ground as Y/n clutched her jacket, hissing in pain. Lips red, cheeks flushed, your eyes are so pretty like this..  Kuvira held y/n’s head in her lap as blood dripped from her wound. Pity, how distraught you look. The voice claimed victory and screamed in her head. See? How easy? The avatar will never touch her and the city will be yours. Just flatten the republic and you’re as good as gold.

But it wasn’t easy. Kuvira’s eyes watered but never flushed.

“I had to, for you, for me. I have to finish this now, I hope you understand.”

Kuvira placed her head gently on the ground, taking advantage of y/n’s stunned silence. Wiping her eyes, she left y/n there and composed herself to rejoin the bridge. Scaring the officers on deck, she ordered them to continue, they had a city to recapture.

Then a hummingbird got too close to the sun.

Her chance at freedom was disabled.

And the avatar, as always, brought balance to the world.

…

Her whole body hurt.

 It would start as a dull throb and then crescendo into a sharp point that radiated from her right side. Y/n was stunned, when she said that she would let Kuvira take over the world, she didn’t really expect to be a martyr. But did she really believe in Kuvira still? The blood that was staining her uniform said no, but the stuttering of her heart and the tears on her face said otherwise. She was gonna die in the center of destruction, how fitting. At least it was warm. . . She closed her eyes to the rhythm of a stepping behemoth and took a breath, knowing her fate was just the same as Baatar. They were both foolish, loving someone who couldn’t feel anything and yet thinking, I’m different. I can change her, she will love me, right?

Look how that turned out.

A shrill screech interrupted y/n’s pity party and she opened her eyes to see Su and Lin Beifong. Their determined eyes meeting hers. At that moment, she was made priority number two; number one being the destruction of the spirit weapon. Once the Beifong sisters had wreaked havoc with their metal bending, Lin dropped down to y/n. Gently placing her arms around her shoulders and her knees, Lin rejoined Su. The trio was then tossed around the metal tavern surrounding them before they tethered themselves to the wall. When the spirit weapon finally descended and crashed to the ground, y/n had passed out from blood loss. Stepping out from the carnage, the sisters stopped the bleeding enough that it wouldn’t cause a mortal end. Once they were satisfied with her steadying heartbeat they placed her with the other wounded. Then, they turned to finish the war. 

. . .

Y/n had heard that Kuvira surrendered after she witnessed the power of the one and only avatar. To be honest, y/n was shaken to her core after finding out that Korra created another spirit portal. The avatar was so powerful- she created a rip in space and caused two different worlds to mesh together in a brand new location? Holy Avatar did y/n regret being on the wrong side. 

Repercussions were being made of course. Baatar Jr was to spend life in house arrest for his involvement in the spirit weapon. After being seen by water benders, y/n’s trial was next, and she entered the courtroom in a wheel-chair. Although the wound didn’t sever any major organs, it was a major stress to the body and her back muscles were cut clean through so major movements weren’t recommended. That wasn’t the worst of it.

The hurt that clouded her heart had leaked to her eyes and her brain and she felt numb. Her brain kept going in a loop, kuvira’s eyes, blood, floor, kuvira’s eyes, blood, floor,- y/n was stuck in a mental carousel that try as she might she couldn’t get off of. She could sense the person behind her who was pushing the chair and when she looked up, she could see the council in all their respective colors and robes. She stopped moving and two officers stepped up behind her. But she didn’t try to escape. What was the point? She would take the punishment and move on. What about kuvira, don’t you wanna know why? Did it matter? Did the heat spread to her too? Move on. move on. move on?

The shuffling of papers interrupted the parade of self-pity that y/n seemed to be the mayor of and she dragged her eyes away from her fiddling hands to look up. Korra was there too. Should y/n bow? Korra saved everyone’s lives and without her-

“-without knowing the direct involvement of the individual before us how can we decide her fate?”

“She didn’t help with the weapon? What about the seizing of the city states? Anything?”

“Baatars testimony proves negative on the first but other witnesses say that she is seen on several occasions with Kuvira herself.”

y/n flinched. Pain pain pain 

“Well, Beifong, your jurisdiction houses the inmates, what say you?” The woman in question sighed and y/n wished she could sigh too without being condescending. Jail or home? Not that hard of a question.

“Community service. Either with the water benders or the rehabilitation of the city. I don’t want this one near my jail.”

. . .What the hell is that supposed to mean? Is she not good enough for jail? For Beifong’s jail? Rude.

“Then it’s settled. Y/n L/n, you are hereby sentenced to 25 years of community service, provided by the council before you and supervised by the United Republic of Nations. Dismissed.”

Y/n nodded and bowed her head to show respect to the leaders that handed her fate to her. Much better than house arrest. 

. . .

Y/n heard later that Kuvira was given a second chance, because Korra saw something in her that she saw in herself. Kuvira was sent to Zaofu to live out her house arrest with her adoptive family. Baatar is there too? Is she allowed to ask? Did he give her a second chance? Would y/n? Y/n was stationed near the infrastructure creation center in the city. She was there to help rebuild. Lin was her only visitor. Y/n’s family was disgraced that she chose the wrong side and she didn’t have any friends besides Kuvira, who happened to be a couple flying bison away. Lin would ask her how her wound was doing and Y/n would tell her. Then Lin would end the visit by insulting y/n’s bending and then she’d leave. It was nice. Y/n had a feeling that Lin felt sorry for her, did she know that y/n was betrayed by the one she thought she loved? Did Lin know that the inferno that raged within her dwindled to a flicker of heat? Sometimes it seemed that way when the silence got too loud but then Lin would go back to insulting her. She needed that routine. She probably would have been lost without it. 

Y/n was back to moving again and on a nice, sunny day in republic city; she was just about to finish the base to an apartment complex with the other volunteers (If you want to call them that, y/n faintly recognized some of the earth benders from Kuvira’s forces). When Korra had pulled up near the site on her polar bear dog. Jumping off of the animal, Korra waited until the supervisor started talking to her. After several beats, the supervisor nodded and shouted across the field, summoning y/n towards him.

Meeting them on the edge, y/n respectfully greeted them both before questioning the avatar’s presence. 

She sighed, “Many of the soldiers lived in Zaofu before the war, you were one of them. The metal domes are in grave need of assistance and since you are tasked with community service, it seems fitting that you return there.” “Is that all? I thought this was supposed to be a punishment? Wouldn’t going back home be a little too comfortable for me?” Not if Kuvira’s there, laughing with her eyes closed, hair frizzy from the day, freckles winking in the sunshine.

“Su requested it. Said, ‘that your greatest potential was misplaced with love that had nowhere to go’” Korra sighed.

Y/n felt like she got slapped in the face by the avatar. That would’ve been better. Of course Su knew y/n, she practically raised the child. Su saw the wandering eyes and the yearning sighs, she wasn’t stupid. 

And yet, here she was, extending a hand of forgiveness, a hand withered by betrayal, a feeling that y/n knew quite well.