Ally Beifong

26: Meeting the Queen

"After we recruited Kai, against everyone's better judgment, our next stop is Ba Sing Se. I wasn't a huge fan of Kai, but I believed anyone could change. But if that kid messes up again, his ass is grass."

Ally sat on the deck of the ship, feeling the air blow onto her face. She wasn't a huge fan of flying, mostly because she couldn't feel much vibration-wise, and she couldn't bend as well. She was an earthbender before anything else, that was what she was good at. They flew for a while and eventually saw the huge wall of Ba Sing Se. To say Ba Sing Se was big would have been the understatement of the century. 

The city was divided into sections, called rings, there were 3 rings. The lower ring, middle ring, and upper ring. Ba Sing Se is the home to millions of people and has two walls, that's why it's known as the impenetrable city. The outer wall surrounds everyone, the entire city. The outer wall is several feet thick and over a mile high, the second inner wall is smaller and surrounds the middle ring, separating it from the lower ring. The lower ring was in the worst shape, the houses were crumbling and cracked, and the stench was overwhelming. The airship landed in front of the royal palace so Korra and Ally could talk with the Earth Queen. Ally practically ran off the ship, thankful to be on land again, and almost ran into Grand Secretarian Gun. He was an older man with green robes that fell down to his feet, a round hat, and a gray braid that almost touched his waist. Bolin walked up to Gun, his Fire Ferret Pabu on his shoulder, Naga and Oogi following behind. 

"No! Queen Hou-Ting cannot stand animals!" Gun put his hands in his sleeves. "We have to get them out of here!" He walked off and took the group to the house they would be staying in. Gun explained the rules, bow low, don't look her in the eye, don't eat before her, etc. It was a ton of rules and if you didn't follow them, Gun got in trouble. He led Korra and Ally to the queen's palace where she was overseeing decoration. Ally was wearing her traditional earth kingdom clothing and was tying her hair up in a bun at the nape of her neck. 

"Oh this'll be interesting," Ally muttered to Korra. 

"Yo-your majesty," Gun's voice quivered. "Presenting Avatar's Alice and Korra." The queen didn't even turn to face them. Her arms flew out revealing long fingers with talon-like nails. She had gold metal casts on two of her fingers like golden claws. 

"How dare you!" The queen shouted. "You're ruining the view of the koi pond! It's much too overshadowed by the topiaries. Guards take him away!" Two men in long black and green robes escorted the gardener out. They were Dai Lee agents, the Queen's personal guard. 

"What in spirits?" Ally hissed. 

"Well look who decided to show up," the queen turned around, revealing her face. She was older with a lined face, red lips, and hooded eyes. She was wearing exquisite robes they had a neckline of jewels and wide sleeves. "Let me guess, you want something from me."

"Well, your majesty," Korra stepped forward. "I was wondering if-" she was cut off. 

"You are hardly in a position to demand anything from me," the queen snapped. "The last avatar stole our lands by taking advantage of my father's goodwill. So, the United Republic as it's called is still Earth Kingdom property."

"I can't do anything about that," Korra replied sheepishly. 

"What's left of my land is in ruin," the queen continued. "Bandits are roaming around, raiding villages, and now my subjects won't pay their taxes."

"That's not what we're here for," Ally said roughly. "We're not here to solve your problems with your subjects." The queen turned back to the balcony. 

"Wrong! Incorrect!" She yelled. "I explicitly said I wanted those topiaries to be eel swans, not turtle ducks!" Gun started quivering and hid behind the wide sleeves of his robes. For several more minutes, Korra and Ally listened to the queen yell at her servants about the garden and how everything wasn't perfect. 

"Okay, we're here because we're looking for airbenders," Korra was fed up with the queen. "They've been popping up all over the Earth Kingdom and we need your help to find the ones here in the city."

"Airbenders? Here?" The queen scoffed. "What gave you that idea?"

"We got reports of airbenders here before we left Republic City," Korra explained. 

"Hmm, well, before I think about assisting you, you need to help me," the queen said. 

"Sure," Korra agreed. The queen told Korra to retrieve her tax money from a vault in a southern village, then she waved them away. Gun muttered nervously and tried to escort Ally and Korra out, and they replied by shoving him back. 

"Get off me," Ally grumbled. "I don't need your help finding the door." Gun tripped and landed in a heap behind the queen, his sandal flying off. 

"I'll go get the tax money," Korra said. 

"I'll stay here and look out for the group," Ally replied. 

Meanwhile, Kai, who turned out to be a scamp, sent Bolin and Mako to the lower ring where they found their family. And in the Northern Water Tribe, Zuko, Tonraq, Eska and Dezna went to check on a secret prison in the western tundra of the North Pole. The prison held the last person Zaheer was going to recruit, a firebender named P'Li. She was tall and could create explosions with her mind, a combustion bender. She had a mark on her forehead that looked like a vertical 3rd eye with 3 stripes on both sides. The prison was deep in an icy mountain so P'Li couldn't escape, the cold prevented her bending. Back in Ba Sing Se, the queen said there were no airbenders in her city, but others told different tales. They said the airbenders were being taken away, locked up, and used for experiments. Turns out they were capturing airbenders and training them for the queen's army, her personal fighting force.