caught between dreams

[anatural]

WHO: Korra and Hei
WHAT: Amber’s been playing with Hei’s new toy.

[Korra wraps her arms around herself and shivers a little as she watches Amber just...vanish. The other woman's ability to control time is something she still hasn't gotten used to, even after working with her for almost six months. What it enables her to do is unnerving, and makes Korra feel powerless in a way she hasn't in years, if she thinks about it too much.

Don't think like that, Amber would tell her. You are so much more powerful than you realize. You're the only person who can do what needs to be done.

Someday, maybe she'll even explain what that means. The other woman's relentless mysteriousness is more than a little aggravating -- but only once she leaves. When Amber's around, it's impossible not to adore her. Everyone in the organization loves Amber. (But have all of them kissed her, or is that something special to the two of them?)

Korra tries to shake off those thoughts. She knows better than to attach much significance to physical intimacy. Mooning like this is unbecoming. And yet she stays where she is, enjoying the smell of salt water on the wind and the way she can still taste Amber on her lips.]

Comments

[mortemscintilla]

[ They meet again in Bangkok. ]

[ Ostensibly it's an international joint operation. An easy kill -- and there's no reason it shouldn't be, between NC108 and BK201's ruthlessly efficient reputations. Though maybe it should have been -- diplomatic emissaries normally have more hi-tech security. Of course, this isn't the first for either of them, so it's the equivalent of a wham-bam-thank-you. The best missions end this way, with a dead body (a US ambassador) and a handful of shiny secrets (a microchip, tucked into his right cufflink). ]

[ Of course that's one layer to the complex tapestry. ]

[ Hei had been debriefed before he'd left Tokyo. The Syndicate suspects NC108 is defecting. They say she's in bed with Evening Primrose. Huang's beady eyes had fixed on him. If it turns out they're right, you'll need to dispose of the girl before there's a problem. An operation within an operation -- 'focused prevention' as it is referred to, a construction that hides within it the more straightforward phrase of 'assassination.' ]

[ Is she really working for Amber? The thought holds the echoes of a deep, uneasy chord, struck far off but lingering. In their trade, loyalty is a daydream as fantastical as the real stars. Contractors are notorious vipers: to them, the world is a playground of treachery, and war, and politics, and money to be made. Korra isn't any different. If she's betrayed the Syndicate, it should come as no surprise. ]

[ It doesn't. Within forty-eight hours of hanging around her, it's evident to Hei that she's hiding something. There is something knowing and heavy in her eyes. Her smile always seems incomplete. (Impossible not to think of Pai, of how Amber lured her into martyring herself with the meteor-shard. Is that what she plans to do with Korra, too? The back of Hei's throat is clammy and slime-coated at the thought.) ]

[ That evening, he'd tailed her after she'd gone out, determined to learn who she was rendezvousing with. Halfway, he'd lost track of her -- only for her to mysteriously reappear by the beach. Except Hei had felt that chilling displacement between one heartbeat and the next -- a deja vu, yet not. A signal that Amber had used her power. ]

[ His veins churn with ice-water -- but it's rage, not dismay. It's tempting to confront Korra, to drag her somewhere he can drug and interrogate her until she gives him whatever information Amber has shared. But that's no way to go about it. He can't risk spooking her. ]

[ When Korra returns to their hotel, she'll find him at a curry stall with its tables in the open street, sipping guava juice and watching the colorful swarm of pedestrians out in the humid pink evening. ]

[anatural]

[Korra knows Hei was following her before, though thanks to Amber's little parting gift, she doesn't realize he caught her at the beach. He clearly knows something is up -- and Amber didn't give her any advice for how to deflect him off the trail. Korra contemplates going straight up to the hotel room and not talking to him, but she's hungry and they're sharing a room for their cover, anyway.

So she slides into the seat next to him and kisses his cheek. Good for their cover and guaranteed to irritate him, all at once. A win win. To the vendor she says:]

One bowl please! [To Hei:] Hi sweetie.

[mortemscintilla]

[ BK201 is too well-trained to bristle at unexpected touch. He doesn't bat her off -- though it's tempting. Just gestures her to the cushioned teak chair next to him, beneath the cool shade of the tamarind tree. The clientele at the other tables is mixed: some tourists, some locals, a melange of different accents. No one who sets off his alarms -- except for the girl right before him, bright-smiling and fresh-scrubbed as if she hasn't just been wading through the dirty waters of double-dealing. ]

[ Oh, how you've grown, Hei thinks, the knowledge cold and bitter-tasting with its inevitability. He breathes in, lets it go in favor of slipping into his cover. It is a matter of shuffling the cards of his thoughts. A magic trick; a sleight of hand. Getting the right one to the top. Is this the one you chose, sir? Yes, it is. ]

Did you enjoy your walk? [ he asks, his smile a gentle, flirtatious thing, like they're a pair of honeymooners still drunk on their intimacy, ] I was getting worried.

[anatural]

I did. Thanks. [She digs into the curry with gusto.] This is a beautiful area. You have such wonderful taste.

[She watches him from the corner of her eye as she eats.] Have you eaten yet?

[mortemscintilla]

No. I was waiting for you to get back.

[ The words dripping tendresse as if they're already tangled in a down duvet, but not all 'Li's layers are so sweet. There is a sharp bite to that faint smile of his, like bitter fruit. Letting her know that he's aware she was somewhere she wasn't meant to be, and that while he won't condescend to oblique conversational gambits to afford him only hints and clues of what she's up to, they're both too well-trained for the clumsy mess of directness. ]

[ Taking a sip of the thick pink-green juice, he regards her soft-eyed over the rim of his glass, ]

I have a nice place in mind for dinner. I think you'd like their cuisine.

[ It's not a lie. But more to the point, he wants her to feel far away from Amber and whoever else she's bargaining with. A sense of distance, of disconnection, will increase the likelihood that she might talk openly, or at least that she might slip. The place also has to be secure -- neither on the Syndicate's radar or Evening Primrose's. ]

[anatural]

[Korra is all innocence.]

But we're already here. I've got curry! You should have said something if you already had dinner plans!

[She really wishes Amber had offered her a script for this. Korra isn't afraid of what Hei might do -- she's not the same terrified teenager he crushed all those years ago -- but fighting him would draw more attention than Evening Primrose needs, making it something she'd like to avoid if at all possible.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Her body-language may speak hedgingly, but her eyes are still so damn frank. Even if she doesn't mean them to be. Hei can read the dismay there, the hasty calculations, the tumbleweed schemes. So far all the data he's gathered has arrowed toward the obvious: her defection. The jury is in, at least where the Syndicate is concerned, and the evidence is piling up. Yet her transparency bothers him, at some level. Not because it's come to this deadly dance of prevarication and prodding. He can deal with that -- they both are professionals, and business is business. But what bothers him is how ... out of her depth she still seems. Like she doesn't understand her life is on the line. Like she can't comprehend she's leapt from the lion's den into the snakepit. ]

[ Are you so naive? Hei thinks, then realizes the question is double-edged. Korra plays the brash ingenue often and well -- but that's no reason to be lulled and gulled by the big-eyed facade. She's a killer, and so is he. She's betrayed the Syndicate and his objective is clear: Eliminate. ]

[ Spycraft spreads its fingers from that well-trained box inside his brain, clamping down on any other unnecessary impulse. His self-control is like cold iron, and the set of his shoulders is relaxed, his smile indulgent. ]

You'll forget the curry once you have their black seaweed stew. [ Or any of the other traditional Haida dishes they serve, among the delicious multitude of international cuisines. Draining his glass, he sets it aside, before reaching out to curl his hand around hers -- a gentle imperative. ] Give it a try.

[anatural]

I don't trust any seaweed stew this far south. You should know better. [She makes a face at him, but quickly finishes off the curry. She knows he's not going to relent. The question is just making sure he can't corner her, being prepared for his inevitable attack.]

If you don't want curry, why don't we go up to our room and order room service... [She leans in flirtatiously, her lips just a breath away from his. No hope of seducing him out of this... Damn his stone cold dick.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ [ Something shutters very clearly in his expression as she leans in. Not warning, not menace -- closer to cold amusement, maybe, though it's hard to tell. Somehow he'd hoped she wouldn't resort to this coy amateurism. As a counterstrike it is crudely direct, and often effective -- but he's never cared for the underlying assumption that as a man, he's propelled by his lust and nothing else. Their torrid fling in the USA had been about mutual stress relief, killing time, without either of them surrendering their actual leverage of control. In this context, it would be something completely different. ]

[ And ineffective. Up close, his smile turns sharp-edged, a glint of the blade unsheathed and his eyes telegraphing his lack of reluctance to use it. (Is there a difference, in the end, between the lack of space between their bodies on a bed or if she's tied to a chair?) ]

[ His lips brush the soft shell of her ear. When he speaks, his soft rebuff is as unambiguous as her proposition. ]

If we went upstairs, you'd never get out of bed.

[ Or out alive. He'd kill her, no two ways about it. Whereas if she accompanies him to dinner -- if he can pry valuable information out of her -- it may prolong the length of her precariously short life. ]

[anatural]

Promises promises. [Still, she will follow where he leads, at least for now. It's the safest option, both for herself and for everyone around them. Korra doesn't particularly care about the civilians, but it's better to avoid unnecessary damage. The more people around, the more variables to complicate a conflict.]

Take me to this seaweed stew. But it's not going to be as good as my grandmother's.

[mortemscintilla]

Or it could be better.

[ He dismisses her skepticism with a light kiss to her cheek, one hand curled around her elbow as he coaxes her to her feet. They make their way across the crowded street, through the crush of camera-happy Japanese, the sunburned Germans, the badly-dressed Americans. Even with the pink slats of evening sunlight pouring across the city, the air is too warm, too moist. Hei wastes no time flagging down a taxi: during the ride, he keeps his stroking hand on the back of her neck, thumb flirting an electric charge millimeters from her skin, but always staying gently, harmlessly in place. ]

[ At the restaurant, they check in under the rafters of the open-air entrance pavilion. As they are guided to their table, Hei scopes the interior, noting the mixed, sleekly-dressed crowd, the votives flickering from a variety of glassware, the art nouveau decor of teak and stone, all the trappings of luxurious dining that he usually avoids. But the place boasts the presence of multiple guards, all extremely discreet. The restaurant is a celebrity-and-politician magnet, and the management takes security seriously. Which, to him, is part of the attraction. Even if Korra informs her employers of her whereabouts, they will have a hell of a time getting in here unnoticed and unobtrusive. ]

[ As uncompromising and paranoid as he is, Hei takes the seat facing the entrance. In a moment of idle whimsy, he remembers Amber once telling him that the deadliest assassins came from the kitchens, not the entrance. Hei had shot back that the deadliest assassins sat across from you. Amber, smiling her maddening little smile, had agreed verbally while never taking her eyes off him. Hei hadn't dissected the double-edged response at the time. But since the disaster at Heaven's Gate, the conversation -- like so many others -- loops ghostlike through his mind. ]

[ Easygoing in appearance, he picks up his menu. To Korra, with that unwavering gentleness, ]

Order anything you like.

[anatural]

[Korra is perfectly relaxed on their trip to the restaurant, even with the subtle hint of electricity at her neck. She's worked hard and found a way to counteract his charge using her own abilities; if he tried to shock her, he'd be in for a nasty surprise. Nobody, not even Amber, knows she can do this. It's one of her backup weapons in case of emergency.

The fact that he actually takes her to a nice restaurant is a surprise and a sign...of something. The level of security here would make things complicated for other Syndicate operatives, but it'd be nothing to Amber's power. Is this Hei's way of signaling that he'd like to defect? Korra can't tell. She knows Amber would be delighted if he did, but it would complicate her own life.

She sets those thoughts aside for now.]

Not all of us can fit a whole cow in our left leg. [She orders a juice from the waiter and waits for Hei to make his next move. And/or order.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei has no intention of defecting. There's no love lost between him and the Syndicate -- as an entity, he regards them with nothing but a trodden-on hatred, low-level and ruthless. Contractors can't be too picky over their employers. You have to blow with the wind in this business. Loyalty on a mercenary is like armor on a swimmer. ]

[ That said, he'll never join Evening Primrose. That's Amber's brainchild: her silken spiderweb of toxic. Anything, caught in its quivering skeins, is poisoned in the foulest sense. Anyone associated with her will die in the ugliest way. He'd learnt that, in Heaven's War, and he means to profit by the hard lessons. ]

[ There's only one reason he wants Korra off the Syndicate's radar. So he can learn how deep into Evening Primrose's maw she's sunk. So he can figure out her objectives. Maybe he can turn the situation around, if that's what is called for. They've faced a conflict of interests before and found a way to work things out. If they can do that again -- if he can learn what Amber's up to, whether she knows about Pai -- he might let Korra live. ]

[ He lets a brief smile stir at her wisecrack, but doesn't glance up from contemplating his menu. Finally, he settles on a roast duck with red curry, soft-shelled black crab sautéed with chile paste, a bowl of genuine Haida stew with clams and seaweed, and stir-fried bean sprouts with tofu and chili. When the waiter slides away, he lets his hands clasp at the edge of his plate, as if he is about to say grace. ]

[ Anyone in their trade will recognize the gesture for its implication of neutrality. A silent I'm armed and dangerous -- but not the threat. A lie, of course -- but better him than a hit-team sent by the Syndicate. ]

[ When he speaks, his voice is neat and efficient as a trigger's click. Not yet shedding his cover, but letting the sharp edges peek out, ]

Just juice? Did they feed you on your excursion -- or was that curry too heavy?

[anatural]

Not everybody can pack away three different dinners in a half hour. Are we really here so you can criticize my eating habits?

[The annoyance in her voice is entirely for the benefit of bystanders -- giving the appearance of a bickering couple doomed for divorce. (Amber, of course, would also be using this opportunity to get the sympathy of bystanders, so they would step in to protect this poor woman from her abusive partner. But emotional manipulation is not one of Korra's strengths, and she knows better than to play to her weaknesses.)]

[mortemscintilla]

[ He's hardly abusive if he's asking her why she doesn't have an appetite. Come on. ]

[ Her sniping comes across as more petulant than needling. Hei doesn't rise to it. He reaches out, a shift of wrist that is easy to see coming, letting his fingertips skim her knuckles -- a conciliatory gesture that carries within it the traces of a warning. Stop raising your voice. His patience for carrying their newlyweds charade too far is limited: nor is he interested in them gaming each other. They're off the Syndicate's radar -- for now. He plans to utilize it and learn what she -- and Amber -- are up to. ]

[ His expression doesn't change. But his voice does: an eyeblink transition from peaches-and-cream to icy gravel. ]

Maybe you'd prefer if I criticize your social habits.

[anatural]

[She wasn't raising her voice — just sounding annoyed as opposed to emotionless.]

I'd prefer you'd cut the crap.

[Say what you want and get this farce over with.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei's mouth quirks, like she's said something funny -- she might as well have, the way he studies her expression. In terms of verbal sparring there's not a lot to commend Korra, but the charming way she cuts to the heart of the matter in the bluntest way possible might be one of them. Most men would be considerably more fond of that when it isn't being used on them -- but Hei isn't most men. ]

[ He doesn't match her candor with his own. There's no payoff to that sort of honesty. Especially if you'd prefer to downplay your personal motives. But he doesn't pussyfoot either. ]

The Syndicate knows you've defected to Evening Primrose.

[anatural]

[Korra doesn't rise to his bait either. She figured the Syndicate had made her from the moment Hei had dragged her to this dinner. This is hardly a revelation.]

...and?

[Finish the thought.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei wonders what color of madness has to be injected into someone's bloodstream, for them to be as cleansed of caution as Korra is. Admitting without a flinch that she's crossed over to the other side, as if the confession isn't a signature on her death warrant. (Unless that's what she's after? An elaborate, attractive alternative to suicide.) ]

[ His look remains bland, seemingly conveying nothing but a mild and professional curiosity. It is one of the deadliest tools in his arsenal. ]

I don't need to remind you what they do to traitors.

[ They. Not We. A subtle distancing, if she cares to read between the lines. Letting her know that his and the Syndicate's interests are far from aligned -- at the moment. ]

[anatural]

[What would be the point of denying? Once the Syndicate has decided you're a traitor, nothing you say matters. There is no trial; there is only execution.]

They haven't done it yet.

[So the big question is: why? What is Hei waiting for?]

[mortemscintilla]

[ It's the smartest way of operating. Working for the Syndicate is like slo-mo evolution. And just like in evolution, Mother Nature throws everything she's got at a species. If it makes it, she knows that species is fit to live. If not, then it dies out, and no harm done. That's what the Syndicate is like. They want to know who's fit enough, smart enough, to be allowed to work for them. They don't want to have to babysit anyone. Every operative has got to pull his own weight, to stay on the safest course. Each assignment, they weed out the fighters, the survivors, and kill all the rest without the handlers having to waste any bullets. ]

[ Korra knows this. So does Hei. Which is why he is aware, on some level, that by prolonging Korra's life, buying her time to suit his own ends, he is rationalizing, that his team would view his determination to pursue his own agenda as a betrayal. It doesn't matter. The Syndicate's investment is different than his. To them, Korra is no more than a piece on a chessboard. ]

[ To him ... She can be either a wildcard, or an ace in the hole. It all depends on what she knows about Amber. ]

[ Flatly, ]

Because I haven't contacted them. [ A beat, before something shutters across his expression -- not honesty, exactly, but the final layer of soft-eyed, soft-hearted Li dissolving to leave the edgeless dark of the Reaper behind. ] I'm not going to. As long as you explain what Amber is after.

[ If she's shared her plans with Korra at all. ]

[anatural]

[Korra stares at him for a long moment. Amber's made no secret of the fact that she wants Hei to be a part of their plans. But she's never made any move to actually loop Hei in, never even tried to test the waters. Korra though maybe she was waiting for something.

Or maybe she was just afraid, because of their bad blood. Maybe this is the chance. Hei won't get involved in anything he's not fully informed about. Or he could take this information to the Syndicate.

How much of a risk is she willing to take?]

[mortemscintilla]

[ The silence stretches out in a gelid, suffocating weight. Korra's eyes remind him of burning-blue blackout lamps, the flickers of her thoughts like moths buzzing ghostlike in their orbit. The longer she stays quiet, the more he's convinced Amber has told her valuable information. Now she's contemplating whether or not to play it straight with him. That, in itself, takes Hei by surprise. Is she truly that loyal to Amber's cause -- whatever it is? Enough to shed her default brashness? How is that possible? The disquiet is like a thorn in his mind, pricking at his self-control. What is it about Amber that inspires such blind and starstruck faith in her followers? ]

[ (Except he knows the answer. He'd been more blinded -- dumbstruck, bedazzled -- than anyone. Even now, late at night, when his wayward thoughts segue toward the most tightly-trammeled boxes in his brain, he thinks of the way the wind used to catch Amber's hair, the way her fingers traced his body in the darkness, his ribs, the fortune-lines of his palm...) ]

[ Irritably, he shakes it off. Korra's ambivalence is clear. He watches her silently for a moment, before he says, quietly, ]

...Is she worth this misguided loyalty?

[ An emotional litmus test. Seeing how completely Amber has -- or hasn't -- spellbound her with all her glittering lies. ]

[anatural]

[Is she worth this mis-guided loyalty? Korra smiles a little, not offended like she might have been.]

Is the Syndicate worth yours?

[Amber wouldn't have to be as amazing as she is to be worth more loyalty than the Syndicate.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei waits two seconds to reply; a subtle critique on her tactic. Answering a question with a question won't derail his focus. The ones who get sidetracked that way suffer from a lifetime's training in the proper social behavior of responding when they are addressed. Average joes, straightmen, civilians -- those whose objectives are easy to override. ]

[ Neither Hei nor Korra qualify. ]

[ A group of people laugh on the far side of the restaurant. Neutrally, Hei sips his glass of water, before moving both cool palms to his own thighs underneath the level of the table. He has no napkin in his lap. It should seem a threatening gesture, yet his posture is simply self-contained, watchful, like a cat's. ]

[ Quieter, ]

She's smarter than the Syndicate. She'll run you as her agent. Get you to do her dirty work. Orchestrate what you know and what you don't know. Except -- unlike them -- she'll make everything seem like your choice. [ The fine distinction between amateurs and master-manipulators is the way they handle their assets: the former's agent is aware that he's working for them. The latter's agent believes he's working purely for himself. ]

[ The next words are carved off from the cold edge of his voice. Echoes of secrets Amber had once shared with him and Pai. ]

Has she put the moves on you yet? Told you how unique you are? How she'll count on you in the future because there's something only you can do with your powers?

[anatural]

[Korra knew Amber was feeding her lines, but it stings to hear them come out of Hei's mouth like that. ]

You don't know anything about her. Not nearly as much as you think you do. I haven't done anything for her that the Syndicate hasn't asked me to do twice as worse.

And I'll tell you what she doesn't do. She doesn't ruin lives. She doesn't destroy families.

[Korra knows about Pai, though she doesn't realize Amber's shining star and her infatuation are related. If she did, she would have put more venom in her voice.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei's eyes narrow but the stone mass of his face barely shifts. It's laughable, the idea that he doesn't know Amber. He's known her since he was a boy -- and though the irony isn't lost on him it certainly has lost its charm. In moments where he cross-examines himself, he wonders why he of all people hadn't spotted a clue, a pattern of behavior, anything that could have revealed Amber's true nature. He, who had spent his whole life with killers, who understood they were shaped by nothing but serpentine cunning and a willingness to sink in the blade. He, who privately understood women better than he ever understood men, who could soothe the crux of any trouble inside them, exterior or interior. So why couldn't he read her? ]

[ I was in love. A pathetic excuse, but no more than the truth. Emotions are all about faith, not facts. People need to believe something, even if they have to invent it -- the way he'd invented a soft, human skin, a hot beating heart, for a two-legged viper. The way Korra is doing now. ]

[ (More than that, her words serve as a tacit admission. She doesn't know about Pai. Or, at least, what Pai was to him. She doesn't know about the rest of his South American team, butchered by the deadly radiance of the meteor shard.) ]

[ His words are flat, but laced with icy contempt, ]

You're right. She doesn't destroy. She erases completely. [ Clinks of glass and silver in the room around them. Voices rising and falling. Yet he and Korra may as well be suspended in space, disconnected from the chaotic low-level warmth of the restaurant. ] Don't imagine she won't do the same to you. A leader is as good as their word. But she just uses words to get what she wants.

[ Like every Contractor. Korra is as big a fool as he was, not to understand that. ]

[anatural]

Like you're any different? [The contempt in his voice has nothing to the disgust in hers.] You manipulate people just as much as she does. Except you do it in service of the Syndicate.

[mortemscintilla]

[ At her words, a cold tremor runs through Hei like electricity. It doesn't show. He takes another sip of his water, the glass clinking against the table. His expression remains unchanged. ]

It's a living.

[ And a means to an end. He isn't blind to the nature of the menace he works for. The Kafkaesque, totalitarian machinations of faceless, nameless men -- this is the enemy he's engaged -- as real and deserving of his hatred as Amber. Yet, daily irony, he functions as a cog in that machine. He too works in the castle, answering to the very higher-ups whose agendas he undermines, whose actions he opposes. ]

[ For a second, Hei feels a wave of tiredness wash over him that brings with it a brief but nearly overwhelming sense of pointlessness. It isn't pointless, of course, this road he'd set himself on to find Pai. Frightening, infuriating, distressing, humiliating. But not pointless. Because if it had been, he would have given it up, and he can't give it up. This is the mast to which he's bound the shell of life. And even when he feels in danger of crumbling inside, he isn't going to yield. ]

[ Stubborn, Pai used to call him. ]

[ At least we have that in common. ]

[ To Korra, flatly, ]

I understand your reasons for defecting better than you know. [ You aren't the first. ] But I also understand you're wasting your time. Amber will tell you how much her organization needs you. How necessary you are. But she only 'needs' whatever helps accomplish her own ends. She will not hesitate to cut ties once she's gotten there. Is that how you plan to die?

[anatural]

[Korra's voice is equally flat. It doesn't matter how much his words sting. When push comes to shove, what matters isn't how Amber feels about her, or the sincerity of her intentions. What matters is Korra's commitment, the decision she made to dedicate herself to the cause.]

Her agenda is my agenda.

[If that means her death, so be it. But Korra doesn't think it will come to that. She caught sight of one of Amber's agents; the other woman knows she's here with Hei. Unless her plan is to have Korra die at his hands, help will be coming.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ It's disconcerting, and dangerous -- how completely Amber has gulled her. It's also a reminder of how careful you must be about what you believe in, and how much it can cost you. Studying Korra's face -- a hard shield, as if primed for his resistance -- he wonders how certain she is of her own mind. How easily can she be swayed, how much of this weird faith in Amber -- or Amber's cause -- is self-delusion? ]

[ His next gambit might give him a clue. Warnings and threats have yielded little results. Maybe it's time to be more direct? Something in his gut clenches a little -- a chill white lattice of tension -- at the prospect, which goes against every operational aspect of his nature. ]

[ If he notices her gaze flickering beyond his periphery, as if she's spotted someone -- help, threat -- he doesn't let on. (Impossible to imagine he hasn't noticed, though.) ]

[ Quietly, ]

You don't know what she's involved you in. I do -- because the last time, she wiped out half a continent to achieve her goals. I can't let that happen again. [ Not without learning where Pai could be. ] Help me take her down. In exchange, I'll help you break away from the Syndicate. New identity. New life. Whatever it takes.

[ The Syndicate won't devote half as much manpower to hunting her down -- when they're too busy coming after him for his betrayal. Not that it matters. He's set himself on this path since he'd learnt UB001 was still alive, her star dazzling in the sky. This slow-sweeping bonfire of bloody-minded self-destruction was sparked so that no one else would beat him to his own revenge. ]

[anatural]

[Oh please. Korra outright rolls her eyes.] I know exactly what happened in South America. She told me all about the Contractor who destroyed the Gate. [There's a faint note of smug satisfaction in her voice. She knows more than he does.] That Contractor is the reason you're alive.

I don't need your help getting away from the Syndicate. Once this is over, there won't be any more Syndicate.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Once this is over, there won't be any more Syndicate. ]

[ Hei's skin is prickling and his chest feels tight -- with the dumb, inexplicable anger Amber always inspired in him, but also with a kind of stomach-swooping uncertainty as when he was young -- untrained and clumsy -- and would leap off a high building and miscalculate the drop. A hot burst of adrenaline that blurs everything into red-noise. ]

...What?

[ He sucks in a soft, jagged breath, trying to absorb her words, to let go the shock. He can't. One sentence keeps rattling in his brain, over and over: The Contractor who destroyed the Gate. Pai. Has Amber shared details about her? Does Korra know where his sister is? Hei's pale, frozen face -- just a flash, then gone -- is nonetheless evident of how her words have resounded with a chilling echo, a dopplering resonance colliding with that iceberg of unanswered questions inside him. ]

[ Rage sharpens his voice into a raw undertone. ]

What the hell has she told you about Pai?

[ Just that codename, weighed by a bedrock of jarring intimacy, should tell Korra all about his and Pai's relationship. ]

[anatural]

[It certainly does, and Korra files that away as useful information. A more conniving Contractor would probably find a way to use it right now to her advantage, but that's not Korra's nature. Only an idiot would try to wield a weapon they're clumsy with; she plays to her strengths.]

The Syndicate was going to use the Gates to eliminate Contractors. Pai gave her life to destroy it. She's a hero.

[This is Korra taking a gamble of her own. This is probably the real reason Amber never shared this information with Hei -- not out of fear he'd take it to the Syndicate, but because Pai was important to him, enough to make him irrational. But a rational Hei will never take their side. He's not community-oriented; his rational self-interest is limited in its scope. But if this Pai person is really important to him... Well, there are a few ways this can go down. She's interested to see what the fallout is.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei's rage doesn't flare and sputter out; it skyrockets. None of Korra's words make sense. Why would the Syndicate try to eliminate Contractors? That's like a snake eating its own tail. Contractors are their deadliest weapons, their most expedient tools. It's not good business to eliminate your assets. More to the point, why would Pai -- his cool-eyed, ever-rational sibling -- do something as deranged as martyr herself to save them? His mind stutters disbelievingly. This is a ruse. An elaborate trap. Why would Amber never share these details with him? Even the bare rudiments? Was it because he was human? Because he'd turn on her, or clog up the smooth flow of her plans? Why would Pai keep something so enormous from him? These things, these bonds and burdens, they come in pairs, and if she'd planned to go through with destroying the Gate, if she was okay with sacrificing herself -- he would die with her. It was simple as that. ]

[ His face, fixed on Korra, twists into a rigid, thunderous mask. (What Korra doesn't realize -- and what remains a secret even to Hei -- is that he's nowhere near as rational as anyone believes. So many compartments inside his still-human brain, full of trap-doors jerry-rigged all wrong, so some door in there can fly open and let him electrocute a useful Contractor to death as soon as look at him, and another can spring a convoluted lust for revenge at Carmine's murder by MI6.) ]

[ (But the door that might open up to this chance to trust Korra's words: that one is jammed shut.) ]

Not a hero. A pawn.

[ He speaks with a soft savagery. The rage keeps crashing through him, a series of shuddering cataclysmic sparks. Leaving him wrecked, scorch-blackened, a twisted simulacrum of himself. He wants to curse her, as he seizes her by the hair, drags her forward to strangle her. Because what she's saying can't be true. If it is -- then Pai is dead. Then all his time spent alive, searching for her, has been futile. His every muscle tenses: he can't understand why he doesn't spring up, throw the table across the room, wreck the place. ]

[ No. This -- this Cosmic Fuck You can't be what his sister died for. Can't be what he'd wasted his entire existence for. ]

[ He hates how Korra looks at him, the smugness in her gaze. He can cave her face in with one blow. ]

[ Icily, ]

Take me to Amber. If what you're saying is true... Let me hear it from her.

[ Let me kill her. The same way she's destroyed Pai -- and with her, every iota of goodness inside him. ]

[anatural]

[Korra knows if she refuses, he'll (try to) kill her. And honestly, she has no real incentive to. Hei is no match for Amber, particularly since Amber will have her support and all of Evening Primrose.]

Fine.

[To the waiter coming with their food] You should probably put that in a box. [To Hei] Unless you want to finish eating first.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei doesn't shake his head so much as offer a short, sharp jerk. The whole restaurant is bedlam of noise: what to others might sound like the gentle hum of conversations and tinkling silverware is to him an encompassing hiss and roar, as if countless ants are chewing away steadily at his mind's surface. The whole world seems sharply delineated, as if he is seeing everything in the moment after a camera flash, a layer of faded light across darkness. A moment never actually sustained, except for him. ]

[ Pai might be dead. The words clatter hollowly inside his skull. He's had bad dreams like this. ]

[ To Korra, flatly, ]

Let's go.

[ He has no appetite, beyond a crawling need to get his hands around Amber's throat. ]