This chapter was inspired by recent events. So, if you don't like political shit, don't read this muthafucking chapter, because, it is what it is.

Chapter Forty Four

"I'm sorry to call you in so early, but I'm sure you've all seen the news," Lin says glumly.

"You're damn right we've seen it. Three people beaten within an inch of their life, a pipe-bomb thrown through the SWT Cultural Center, and rioting in the streets. It's madness," Mako says.

"It's hateful and it's shameful," Lin tells them. "I won't stand for this shit in my city. Raiko may be afraid to make a statement, but I have one. This is getting shut down now and the people responsible for this will be dealt with swiftly. You have my blessing. Find them. I've called Asami in for this and she and Opal are going to work to get positive ids through the videos that have been uploaded on social media. Kuvira, I want you to help them. Iroh, I want you to take lead on this. You talk to some of them and gain their trust. They have a rally planned for ten a.m. I need names. Mako, I want you to bring their leaders in for questioning. There's no way I'm going to let those Pure Nation freaks run amok in my city. June and Bolin, you are our direct lines of communication. You make sure everyone gets the necessary intel. I want you two to take lead as we set up for the rally. Strategize positions and set up barricades. I have a press conference to get to. Make this happen."

"We're on it, but chief, where's Korra?" Bolin asks.

"Right now, she's serving as the liaison for the chief of the SWT. Tonraq will be making a stop in Republic City in about three hours. Once she gets him settled, she will join you, Mako. I want you to keep her out of any situation that will get her killed. She's a target. I don't care if you have to drag her kicking and screaming."

Lin walks out the room quickly. Last night, she'd watched in horror as the rally that her men and women in uniform were working turned into something vicious and ugly. The Pure Nation group had gotten a permit to protest the building of a statue that depicted a person from each nation holding hands in unity. It was going to be the first of several installments in the new unity park square that F.I. was funding. It was supposed to be new business district/ tourist draw with shopping, restaurants, live entertainment, and bars. There would be a manmade lake in the center where people could rent paddleboats and go for gondola rides with a fountain in the middle.

Somehow, that became controversial. The statue which was meant to be a symbol of stronger relations became a target of hate. Hate from those that did not like the direction the city was moving toward. Hate of immigrants, those that kept their cultures and did not assimilate the way "they" wanted them to, and hate of the unknown, or a fictional loss of power for "their kind." The Pure Nation people do not believe in unity- they believe in power and domination.

The rally quickly turned violent as more people than expected showed up. Apparently, people had flown in just to be a part of the rally. They wore military pants and helmets. Some carried bats. Lin was forced to tell her people to just maintain a safe distance, to not cause any unnecessary excitement if they could avoid it. After all, it was more of them than police. She was arranging for backup while taking the scene in personally when she heard the sounds of an explosion. Suddenly, mayhem broke out.

The counter-protesters, called the Equalists, that were on scene making a wall so that the First Nation couldn't advance any further began to be attacked. Unarmed, some ran, but many stayed to fight. They tried dragging some of the injured away, but it was madness. She had to order her men to begin macing and shooting pepper balls into the crowd to disperse it. She helped who she could and they made many arrests, but they couldn't catch everyone.

She felt guilty for not being more prepared- for not reading the energy of her city better.

So, she made it her mission to do better.

Kya called her soon after, crying. She told her that the SWT Cultural Center was fire-bombed and that thankfully no one was physically hurt, but her heart was. She was tired of being hated for the color of her skin and in all her years, it had never gotten easier. Lin couldn't say that she really understood completely what that felt like, but hearing the pain in her lover's voice made her stop, listen, and want to understand. She'd do her part to pay more attention, to help pick up the pieces, and to find who the hell these people were.

The city revoked their permit for the rally this morning, but she knew they'd come anyway. They felt energized, their cause justified. And best of all, the president still sat silent, out of touch and uncaring of the harm his silence was causing.

#

Korra stands before a group of people from the SWT in a business suit and begins to speak. "You may not know me personally, but you know my father, Chief Tonraq. I am Korra, one of you, and also a detective in this fine city. Last night, the Cultural Center was attacked. It may have felt like an attack on you personally. That's how it felt to me. It hurt as I woke up to see the flames burning a place of refuge, a nod to our achievements as a people, and a symbol of our bond with the community. It hurt to know that in this day and age, there are still people that hate us simply because our skin is darker than theirs. As if that makes us inferior. I say that the bronze of our skin reminds us that we were forged in fire. What I mean is through adversity. We conquered the snow and ice, we built our homes, hunted off the land, live, no thrived, we conquered the seas and rivers around us. We bent the elements to our will and we did a damn good job."

There are cheers around her.

"We are a proud nation with traditions that flow deeper than the roots of the trees around the city. But we are not just of the Tribe anymore. We are citizens of the great Republic City and we have just as every right to be here as anyone else. Members of the Tribe helped to found this city too. We won't let them forget that. We live her, we shed blood and tears here, we love here, and we grow here. This is our home and no one is going to push us out. Not without us pushing back. We push back by letting our voices be heard, we push back by looking out for one another, we push back by growing better each day, by being better than them, and we push back by voting out the politicians that don't give a damn about us."

The cheers are louder this time. They chant, "Our lives matter, our lives matter!"

Tears fill Korra's eyes just as a strong hand touches her shoulder. She turns to find herself enveloped in a crushing hug.

"I don't think I tell you that I'm proud of you enough. Thank you for stepping up," her father's deep voice rumbles in her ear.

"I don't mind being a beacon of hope from time to time."

"Korra, that was… moving and powerful. You have a way with words, my daughter."

"Thank you, dad. And I know what you're thinking. I know my place and it's not as a politician."

He chuckles. "Hey, it's a thought." He touches her face gently and then steps up, raising his voice so that he can get everyone's attention.

#

"Sometimes, the power of social media astonishes me," Kuvira says.

"You have no idea. It's like for every food pic or cat video, people turn into social justice warriors and restores my faith in humanity," Opal says.

"I guess we weren't working fast enough for them. Six men involved already identified. Through all the videos, it wasn't hard to find the leader of the pack. Eric Wagner. Thirty-three. He has a podcast called "First Nation, First." On it, he talks about infanticide of SWT babies and the domination of those pure of blood. He literally is making me sick," Asami tells them.

"Fucking nut job. Pure blood my ass," Kuvira mumbles. "Thank you, Asami for coming back and helping with this. I know you've been really busy with your next project."

"It's fine. You're short a person right now with Korra dealing with this and besides, the woman I love is who their savages are talking about. I want them in jail. I want them under the jail."

"Bigots. They see someone who looks like us and they can't tell us apart. When I was in college, I had a man call me a "mud monster." I punched him in his face," Kuvira tells them.

"Ooh, I remember that," Opal responds.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that," Asami says. "I'm sorry that people suck."

"Yes, they do. Now, let me call some officers to go pick up the others and Mako to pick him up before the rally. He just posted that he's going to church to pray before the rally. Spare me," Kuvira says, rolling her eyes.

"Make sure you explicitly tell them not to pick him up until after he's done praying. We don't need any bad press," Opal advises.

"Good point."

#

"Because our cause is a righteous one! We shall prevail and win the war. First Nation, first!"

Applause burst out in the room. Iroh joins in so as not to draw suspicion.

"If our enemies meet us today, they shall fall. They will fear us first for they are cowards and animals, with impure blood."

"First Nation!"

More cheers.

"Brothers and sisters, do not come unarmed. The police mean to squash our resistance, but we are many. We will push them back too if they side with the enemy."

The man stops speaking and then they rest of the group seems to mingle about. Iroh begins to walk around with his body camera on as he tries to identify people. He creeps closer to a group as they brag about beating up the "darkies" from last night.

"You know, as violent and vicious as their kind is, they sure can't take a hit," Iroh jokes, swallowing back his disgust. He changes his accent to match theirs.

The men turn and laugh.

"Damn Snow Monkeys."

"Here, here, brother." They clap him on the back. "My name's Peter." He extends his hand.

"Michael."

"George."

"Thomas."

"Steven."

"Well, boys, here's to the revolution," he says, throwing them each a shooter of Fire Nation Whiskey.

#

Thirty minutes before the rally, SWAT moves into position. They're outside of a diner that Iroh lured him to. He was walking slowly to the counter so that the team could see what was going on inside. They decided that it was empty enough to go ahead and move on them. Four of the SWAT team were already inside the kitchen area waiting to move. Two were on the opposite side of the front door where the wall kept them out of view of the window, and two more were behind a parked car covering their men in the front.

On Iroh's signal, he asks the men if they're ready to order, the team moves. He purposely blocks their exit on one side of the booth to make it harder to resist and before they know it, all the suspects are under arrest. SWAT arrests him too so that he can continue to get something out of them.

#

Mako follows Mr. Wagner for about three streets before he pulls him over. The lights flash on in his unmarked car and carefully he looks around to make sure there are no surprises. Finally, he walks over to the vehicle and Wagner rolls down his window.

"Is there a problem, officer?" Eric Wagner asks politely, already poised to give his license and registration.

Mako silently looks over his license so that he can be sure he's exactly the person he's looking for. "Mr. Wagner. I'd like it very much if you'd follow me to the police station. We have some questions for you regarding the events from last night."

"Officer, I am recording this conversation as we speak. Now, do you want me to come in for some friendly questioning, then, I will have to decline. Unless, I'm not free to leave, in which case I will assume I'm under arrest."

Mako takes a deep breath, choosing his words carefully. "Mr. Wagner, I am detaining you under suspicion of inciting a riot. I want to give you the courtesy of driving to the police station on your own, but if you do not comply, I will be forced to handcuff you and place you in the back of my squad car."

"Fine, I will drive myself to the police station and have my lawyer meet us there. I will not answer any questions without him present."

"That is your right, sir." Mako walks back to his car and dial's Lin's number, putting the call on speaker.

"Beifong."

"Chief. I think it worked. He's probably calling all of his supporters now. They'll probably rush to the station and start to protest his unlawful detention."

"Good," Lin responds. "They can be contained there. They won't try anything stupid in front of the station. That means the other rally is probably cancelled or the turnout will be so low that we can keep the public safe. Good job."

"You're welcome. I was hesitant about your plan, but as always, you were right."

"Of course I was. It's why I get paid the big bucks." She hangs up.

#

"They can't keep us in here caged up like animals. We are the revolution," one of the men spouts. When they let Iroh out for his "phone call," they told him that the last of the aggressors were being brought in. He would have to be moved out soon.

"They don't have anything on us. That's why they're going to make us wait so we can think that they do."

"I heard the first person to talks gets the deal. What if there's another group back there already talking," Iroh suggests bitterly.

"They wouldn't do that. We stick together," Steven says.

"We don't know them. Plus, there were cameras everywhere. What if they got me on video punching that guy's face in," Iroh tells them in a whisper.

"We coulda been anybody. No way they saw me with that bat, no way. They don't have my prints either."

"I just came down here for the weekend. Everybody else was beating on people too. Why are we the ones here?" He steps back from the bars and puts his hand on his head.

"They don't got nothing. They don't."

Just then, a group of four other men walk past making eye contact with the group. They get escorted to another cell and then a group of officers come to escort "Iroh's group."

"Make sure you put them all in separate rooms," Kuvira says around the corner. "The district attorney is on her way."

The men look at each other wide-eyed and Iroh continues to play along, tripping as an officer pushes him forward.

#

Bolin and June continue to send out details and pics of the growing crowd as they strategize the best way to handle the mess. They've handed out fire extinguishers to nearby businesses as well as made sure that plenty of officers have them in their squad car as well as water bottles. June has been going over the map and placed officers in areas such as alleyways that could be used to lure and assault someone. She also helped strategically station all squad cars at least two of three deep so that large groups of people could not easily move through and start chaos.

Bolin has introduced himself to people on both sides and reminded them that this protest is unauthorized and that any weapons seen would be cause for immediate arrest. He reiterated that the protest was unauthorized, but would not be disbanded by force unless things became violent.

There were officers planted on top of buildings as well so that they could shoot pepper balls over a wider range if needed as well as sound cannons.

All in all, things were looking pretty good and every officer was equipped with a body camera.

Soon, there were murmurs through the growing crowd. Words like arrest and assault were being thrown around.

"They're already vilifying us on social media. Now, they're arresting us?"

Some of the crowd begins to shout angrily at the police and Bolin orders them to put their shields up and stand their ground. But, some more protestors suggest they go to the police headquarters to protest. With half an hour, the crowd has gone.

"I already gave everyone the heads up that they were coming their way. I think these racist bastards are going to be very surprised when they get there," June tells Bolin. She had already sent many of the officers ahead and others were patrolling the area just in case, but everyone had done their jobs perfectly.

"Well, now we go too," Bolin says.

"No, I'm going to stay here and make sure that everything's fine."

"Do you need me to stay too?" he asks.

"No. Go watch the show."

He nods and speed walks to his car.

#

Korra has been her father's police escort for the day with the approval of Lin. She hadn't even been able to speak to Asami today other than a quick message telling her that she was safe. Now, they were on their way to speak to President Raiko- well Tonraq was on his way to speak to him. Korra, would have to keep her comments to herself.

They walk through the halls of the president's mansion until they reach his office where they are escorted by members of the president's protection detail. Tonraq and Raiko shake hands and Korra stands off to the side, her hands behind her back.

"My regrets regarding these unfortunate events. It's really a sad state of affairs."

Tonraq wastes no time. "Then why haven't you made a statement condemning the terror attack on the SWT Cultural Center?"

"Let's not be too hasty in calling it-,"

"President Raiko, I have no interest in playing politics on this. The Southern Water Tribe members that live in this city look to you to be a leader, not just for the majority, but for all its citizens. Your leadership means doing what is necessary to send certain messages- one of those messages should be that hate of any kind should never be tolerated and that it has no place in Republic City, a city founded on the very ideals of diversity and unity. Why is that so difficult?"

"I am looking at both sides of this and trying not to rush to judgment. I don't know why these riots started of who is to blame for the bombing…"

"You offend me, President Raiko. I will not sit here and listen to you dance around the issue as if there are not lives that hang in the balance and people that are now living in fear because you will not condemn those that wish them dead simply because of who they are. Goodbye, Mr. President."

Tonraq turns and leaves before Raiko can even respond.

#

The team looks through the windows of headquarters at the crowd that is now in their thousands, chanting, "You. Are not. Wel-come here! You. Are not. Wel-come here!" to the small but growing group of First Nation supporters. They've formed a line blocking them from getting close to the police station with a group of police in front of them protecting them from the First Nation.

"We are equal-ists! We are equal-ists!" they chant as well.

"How in the world did they know about the arrests so quickly?" Kuvira asks as she looks on.

"Well, my twitter account does have thousands of followers," Asami says. "I may have said that I thanked the brave men and women of RCPD for their swiftness in arresting the men responsible for the senseless acts of violence. I also said that hate and bigotry are not Future Industries values," Asami tells them.

"You did what?" Kuvira asks.

"Hey, I'm a private citizen. I can tweet all I'd like." she says shrugging.

Opal laughs and slaps her on the back. "You are diabolical."

#

The police make way for Tonraq and Korra as they walk up the steps to meet with Lin and a group of reporters. Lin and Tonraq shake hands and then Lin takes to the makeshift stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I made a statement earlier in the day, so I will be brief. We have made several arrests in connection with the string of assaults from last night. Many of the arrests were because of coordinated effort by my officers as well as you, the concerned and brave citizens who used video footage and social media to identify specific individuals. Because of your fearlessness, we have sent a strong message that hate is not to be tolerated in any form and that we, the law enforcement of Republic City will do our best to keep everyone safe regardless of their race or culture. There are some that are afraid to call things for what they are, such as the act of terrorism when someone bombed the SWT Cultural Center. I want to assure our citizens that an arrest is coming soon and that we are working with the F.B.I. in that matter. When the individual or individuals are arrested, they will be charged with domestic terrorism and hate crime statutes. Now, Chief Tonraq of the Southern Water Tribe would like to say a few words."

Lin steps away from the podium ignoring the questions from reporters and the cheers from the crowd. When it's quiet again, Tonraq steps up.

"I just returned from a meeting with President Raiko…"

#

Asami and Korra cuddle in the bathtub, Korra's head on Asami's chest. In the background, soft music is playing. For the past ten minutes, Korra's been silent. Finally, Asami asks what she considers to be a dumb question.

"Are you okay?"

Korra chuckles, but Asami can tells it's fake.

"Do you ever become okay with a group of people hating you for the color of your skin? Wishing you were dead, or enslaved, calling you a mongrel, or a mud demon…"

"Korra… I'm sorry doesn't seem like the right thing to say. In fact, I really don't know what to say, honestly."

"Sometimes, there isn't anything to say. Sometimes, it's just about what you do. Sometimes, with some people, it's what they don't say."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Actions, my love. Standing up for someone who's being called an immigrant in the grocery store or when someone accuses them of being a thug just because of what they wear. And on the other hand, it's when people hear their own family talk like that and they never call them on it, when they make racist jokes and they laugh along. Or when they're in a position of power and they choose silence over being an ally. It hurts, Sami. It fucking hurts. I don't think you could really ever understand unless you've gone through it. It's a million little cuts every single day."

"Well, I'm listening, you can try to explain it to me, or you can just sit here and I'll hold you. But, you never have to pretend you're okay if you're not. And, if I ever say anything… insensitive, call me out on it, okay. I want to be better. I want to be someone that may not completely get it, but at least tries to make it hurt a little less," Asami says softly, kissing the top of Korra's head.

"When did equality for all equal less equality for others?" Korra asks.

"I'm not sure, but one thing I have learned through all of this is that if you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention," Asami responds.

"Just… hold me. It's been a long time since I've felt so… unsafe."

Asami holds Korra a bit tighter as they sit in silence once again. They sit there until the water turns cold.

#

Notes:

Look, I know everyone reading this doesn't live in America, or has never been touched by racial discrimination. Let me just put this out there: I live in Nebraska where, believe it or not, there's an extremely high disparity of wealth, health, and education between whites and minorities. I grew up in the hood, where I've seen dreams die because lack of access, and because people I loved were murdered senselessly. But I also went through school taking all honors classes where most of my classmates were white.

I've gone through small towns on class field trips being one of only a few black people and had plenty of "looks" my way. My white friends would tell me I was just imagining things. Nah. Not likely. I've been pulled over in the middle of bum fuck nowhere and damn near panicked for my life because one, I'm a woman in the middle of the night, and two, because what the fuck is my black ass doing out here this late anyway. I've been called nigger while playing softball with my family by old white people driving by. I've been called racist plenty of damn times just for calling out racism.

Where I'm going with this is… is you are a non-minority and you have minority friends. Listen when they tell you their legitimate concerns about what's going on. Check on them when they're seeing image after image of people that look like them killed on social media and then get their entire character assassinated because of a little bit of weed or the fact that they were once suspended from school. All of that weighs on you and if you just don't understand, maybe you really aren't listening. Don't shrug off their fears. If they're uncomfortable with something you're doing, don't make them seem like they're over-reacting.

It's 2017 and this shit is still happening. And truth really is… It just fucking hurts.