Breaking the Wheel

Chapter 4

Hiroshi Sato was fortunate, in that Republic City Penitentiary housed a large population of equalists. There were the men he had worked with, of course, but even the non-benders who'd been in prison before Amon's movement seemed to respect him, nodding to him as they passed in corridors with a muted sir.

The triads and the other benders left the equalists alone, in no small part due to the chi blockers among their ranks. The man with the cell next to Hiroshi's, Takumi, was one of them- a short, slight man with greying hair and dark skin that betrayed his water tribe heritage. What Takumi had done to end up with such a lengthy sentence changed according to who was telling the story, but as one of the last people sentenced to imprisonment by the previous Avatar, he wasn't about to get parole any time soon.

Takumi nodded to Hiroshi as he set down his tray next to him at the equalist table. "You hear the news?" Prison food was slop at the best of times, but today's was particularly bad- a small bowl of greying stew, with bread hard enough to be used as an improvised weapon.

"About the Earth Empire?" Hiroshi chewed his bread thoughtfully. "Triads are saying Raiko is going to conscript prisoners for defense of the city."

"That coward?" Takumi raised a spoon of stew to eye level, inspecting the lump. "The only thing he's ever defended is his political office." He made a face as he slurped it. "And I was talking about the superweapon. How's Kuvira doing it?"

"I have no idea." Hiroshi shrugged.

"Some genius you are," Takumi teased. "Fine. How would you do it?"

Hiroshi adjusted his glasses, frowning. The chi blocker rarely asked questions for the sake of it. "The real problem would be generating enough energy. You can get a fair amount out of a galvanic reactor and some batteries, but enough to blast a hole in a mountain like that?" He spread his hands. "You'd need a reactor the size of Republic City. You could never transport it anywhere."

"And there's no way around that?"

"What's my research budget?"

Takumi chuckled. "Let's say it's more than what you could extort out of the triad lowlifes in a few games of Pai Sho."

Hiroshi lowered his glasses, gauging Takumi's intent. The chi blocker seemed at ease, absently poking at his stew with his spoon.

"Future Industries had a few teams working on the problem before Asami took over," he admitted. "Not weaponry, per se, but new energy sources." He frowned. "We had some encouraging preliminary results."

Takumi grinned, but seemed to catch sight of something behind Hiroshi, and raised his eyebrows. "Look lively now," he said, tilting his head back. "We've got company."

On the walkway above them, Republic City's Penitentiary's warden looked down, flanked by two guards in metalbender gear. "Hiroshi Sato," the warden called. "If you would please come with me."

- - -

Tonraq trudged through the snow, his shoulders hunched. He didn't envy Tenzin, knowing that his search party was now entering the spirit realm not only to look for only his little daughter Jinora, but one of his precious airbending students as well.

Tenzin's pain was one he had felt many times, since the day when Korra had first showed him her earth and firebending powers. Her hands had been so tiny. That was the thing he remembered, after all these years- how, after displaying such power, her hands had still been small enough to fit completely in his palm. She had laughed, even as he had been terrified. And he had surrendered her, to the big wide world, to bleed for them. If he had been able to be the Avatar for her, to take it on for her, he would have taken it in a second, but he had been given no such choice. He had joined the White Lotus, sworn their secret vows, with their knives at his throat, all to be allowed to stay with her, but he hadn't been able to protect her, not really. He had almost been relieved, secretly, after what the Red Lotus had done to her, that he would have her back, but the Korra that returned was not his laughing, joyful daughter, but one who stared into the middle distance, reluctant to brush her hair or eat. Once, he had tried to start the waterbending game that they had played when she was a child, snaking a comical tube of water towards her, but Korra had flinched away from it, looking at him with hurt in her eyes.