' it was my fault ... it was all my fault !! '
there’s not much that korra can do except for stay. kneel in the dust and tree roots beside the desolate beifong, wrap arms made to cradle around shoulders that should not have to shudder under a load so heavy as the one opal has burdened herself with, and remain until the weeping stops.
’ none of this was your fault, opal. i can promise you that. ‘
they’d suspected, of course, that kuvira’s regime was corrupt even beyond the blatantly obvious flaws it held. labour camps and purges are phrases that bolin had murmured to her in a dark, quiet moment after his return to the city a few weeks ago, but terrible though their implications had been, nobody had known the entire truth of what had been going on under the quash of the great uniter’s ruling thumb until now.
they’ve found thousands crowded into tight spaces and spartan prisons, bones brittle and bodies worn. men, women, children, those deemed as threats or traitors of the empire — if they were strong, they were made to work, and if not, they were punished. the unity brought by kuvira’s campaign was at a cost too large, and as the avatar and her companions advance further into the heart of the dismantling empire, the desolation only mounts. there were valid successes to kuvira’s movement, yes, and the world that they are all uncovering is not wholly corrupt. but the ex-leader is being tried for war crimes with utterly valid reason, and for all that many have gone fed, defended, and liberated, just as many have starved, have been beaten down, have been wronged.
( they saw a young woman today, fire nation descent, a year or two older than herself and opal. there was a rattle to her lungs that’s going to require more careful, extensive treatment, a tremble to her very bones born of severe malnourishment, and as limbs were exposed, lacerations and bruises bloomed ever darker. it was when the woman carefully teased off a worn shoe to reveal three mangled toes and a caved in foot — an injury gained in manufacturing mechs, left untreated, not one that any healer or doctor will be able to fix — that korra found herself gaping, and even the airbender at her shoulder was wordless.
a beat, a swallow, a lump in her throat, and eventually korra had managed to ask how she’d been left in such a state for so very long. the reply ? she’d been known for being difficult, vocal in her hatred for her captors, and suffering her injury had been deemed a suitable punishment for previous behaviours. it’s how she got most of her other wounds, too, running that mouth. but she’s alive, and she can still walk, even if her foot isn’t pretty, and hey — the avatar and her airbenders are here now, right ? so it isn’t all a tragedy. it was then that korra had started to cry, tears mindlessly falling, darkening her cheeks as apologies stumbled out of her, and healing hands halted in their work to wind around the other woman and cling.
opal had retained her composure a little longer at least, but korra hadn’t missed when the young beifong had disappeared from her company, and it isn’t hard to imagine why these discoveries would trouble opal. the woman who had ordered ( or at least enabled ) these cruelties had once been family. there was a brother who had aided them similarly. these are the kinds of tortures that, while not exactly matching those inflicted on the imprisoned beifongs, had been dealt to them similarly during their captivity. aside from that, opal is simply compassionate, and it’s the most admirable quality in action, but one of the most agonising for its possessor. )
korra can’t make this better. she can’t give that young woman her foot back. she can’t go back in time and save zaofu before the beifongs would ever have to suffer. korra can’t bring back all the countless dead, injured and scarred who this war and regime have made. she can’t even make opal stop crying. but she can stay, she can stay and try to do as much as she can toward fixing things, so with arms still tight around the slighter woman’s shoulders and her concern focused utterly on opal, that’s exactly what korra continues. it’s not enough, but maybe it might somehow help.
’ blame kuvira. spirits, blame me. but these aren’t your wrongs, and they’re not on your head to fix. none of this is your fault. you’ve only ever helped. ‘
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