Avatar: The Legend of Korra "Shadows"

Sir Mako of Republic City

The Fire Nation was way hotter than it was in Republic City. There were flies everywhere. In the streets, in shops, in the toilet and even in the Royal Palace, flies waged their war on the Fire Nation during their summer. Ironic, really. The Fire Nation was known for the superiority in war, yet they stood no chance against an invasion of flies.
"Sir Mako." A Royal Messenger came from the Palace and into the Pond Garden. "The Prince has requested your presence." And a turtleduck quacked.
"Now?" Mako sighed, throwing in another piece of bread into the water. "I just got here like... yesterday."
"I'm afraid that Prince Iroh has called for an audience. So, that may be hard to postpone."
Mako rolled his eyes as he threw all the bread in the paper bag into the pond. Back when they laid siege to Zaofu, Prince Iroh was only General Iroh, a guy that couldn't just order Mako around, but even still, Mako was in the Fire Nation and the Prince of the Fire Nation had called on him.
"Alright." He said, and he pushed himself off from the grassy ground with his left arm. His right arm was heavy in the sling around his neck. After his totally-on-accident display of combustion firebending on Zaofu, his arm broke and became inactive. Some Earth Kingdom doctors said that it was gone for good, but Master Katara, however deemed it dormant for the time being. Mako should be able to use his arm again in a few days. "Okay!" He cried, bending to pick up the paper bag, "Let's go see His Highness." And the Messenger led Zuko back into the brightly lit Palace.
The walls were crimson red and the skirting of the walls were an impressive gold. The Palace was much more grand than they were in the textbooks. The Palace was spectacular. Amazing. Awesome. Huge. And as Mako trekked through the red corridors of the Fire Nation's Royal Palace, he saw a woman adorned with a royal gown. Her hair was frosty white and her posture was aged. She wore the same robes as Li and Lo, the Fire Nation's oldest citizens EVER, but she had the face of snake. She looked quite rather attractive for an aged Fire Nation woman, but nonetheless, she was old and wrinkled, and still looked little stern.
"Who is that?" Mako whispered into the Messenger's ear.
"Her? I'm not sure, Sir. Apparently she's one of the highest ranking people within the Nation, even the Firelord respects her. But she speaks to no one, takes no guards with her and never exits the Palace." Mako crinkled his nose. He didn't like being curious, unless of course it was a case. But he hadn't solved a case in months, not after wrecking Zaofu.
On and on they went, walking through the Palace, seeing things, smelling things and definitely swatting flies from their faces, but finally, they came to the doors of the Royal Spa. Just about everything in the Capital was royal.
"He's in here, Sir, just go right in!" The Messenger smiled, bowed and made his leave.
The last time Mako saw Iroh was two weeks ago, when he and Mako defeated Bataar Jr.'s defence forces. And here was Mako now, ready to face Iroh again, even after what they did in Zaofu.
Mako pushed the doors open and the sound of running water and the soft sensation of steam came to him.
"Ah!" Iroh called. The servants in the spa were all woman. They were at his feet, at his hair, at his hands, feeding him grapes. They were basically all over him. "Just the war hero I wanted to see."
Mako's eyes darkened and his eyes began to sting. He wanted to cry. He really did.
"Oh, no, don't be so sad! Kuvira called for war when she took the Earth Kingdom for herself. Zaofu was her capital, and thanks to you, Zaofu is no more."
"Neither is the Metal Clan." Mako whispered.
For a while, only rushing water and the sound of nail filers was what filled the silence.
"Girls," Iroh breathed, "leave." The Servants obeyed and stood and bowed and took their leave.
"Mako." Iroh stood from his seat at the foot of the spa shirtless and only wearing a towel around his waist. "Listen. Zaofu was the capital of an EMPIRE. That Empire said that we'd be crushed. We crushed them first."
"Kuvira said that whoever gets in her way would be crushed. She did say: stay out of Earth Empire business."
"THEY BUILT A DEATH RAY, THREATENED THE EXISTENCE OF OMASHU AND TRIED TO KILL THE AVATAR!" Iroh was technically wrong about those things: the pure energy from the Vines was not a death ray, but a high scale laser beam, Omashu declared war on Kuvira and Korra was the one who picked the fight with Kuvira. Nothing was truly the Earth Empire's fault. But the fault was all Mako's.
"But all those people though..." And his mind went back to when Fire Nation soldiers stood outside Zaofu ordering Bataar's surrender. Mako was supposed to shoot lightning at Bataar, but instead... something happened. Fire happened. Not lightning.
Mako had done what P'Li had been able to do from the third eye on her head. He blew up Zaofu. He missed Bataar and blew up Zaofu.
The fact that they had a spirit energy development laboratory beneath the city made it worse. Mako accidently blew up a portion of the city, but the Vine's energy made the damage worse.
It was all over for Zaofu. But what mad Mako lie awake every night was the screaming. People actually screamed from the city, and Mako heard it ALL.
It was as if he could tell one scream from the other in his mind. The point was that he heard it. Screaming.
"Listen Mako, you can visit my cousin, Hanora. She's a bit like the Fire Nation Katara. She can heal with firebending- well actually it's more like spirit firebending, but she can still heal."
Mako gave Iroh the look he gave Bolin when he was told Kuvira was just like Korra. A look saying: 'what are you on about, bro?'.
"Spirit firebending?" He asked.
"Yeah. You know how Korra can put spirits to sleep with waterbending, like spirit waterbending? Hanora can do the same thing with fire. She's pretty gifted."
Mako nodded and headed for the door, but stopped in his tracks.
"Hey, um... who's that old lady that walks around the Palace all the time but doesn't speak?"
Iroh cocked his head to one side but then a light came over his head with realisation.
"Oh, her? You don't want to speak with her."