Unalaq, in his entire life, had never truly been cold. It was something he took pride in, hailing from the coldest reaches of the North Pole. The winter wind simply gave him life, the frost fueling his movement. He had pioneered complex waterbending techniques focused solely on sustaining the body in the lowest of temperatures possible, for extended periods of time. For all extensive purposes, he simply wasn’t affected by the perils of the cold.

Until he was.

He said it was nerves, that was what he kept saying to himself. It had to be nerves- but weren’t nerves supposed to make the body warm, not cool it? The air of the small elevator seemed to still around him. It had been a full seven-or-eight years since the combustionbender had arrived in his tribe, guarded under his jurisdiction, and yet this was the first time he was visiting her. It was the first time he and P’li were speaking since directly after the attempted kidnapping of his niece, Avatar Korra. Korra, now nearly twelve years old, was in the middle of learning her second element, Earth. The thought of the young Avatar reminded Unalaq of a false reality where the kidnapping had gone to plan- if he hadn’t interfered at the very last moment to change things for the better. If that truth had come true, Korra would most likely now be training under Ghazan’s watchful mentorship. From what he vaguely remembered of the Si Wong-born, street-rat lavabender, he would’ve gotten perfectly with the rambunctious young Avatar Unalaq had met with recently. Thankfully, he didn’t have to deal with Ghazan ever again. It was the one decision of Tenzin’s he could agree with.

The elevator ride down to the prison was too long. Unalaq was going to have to fire whatever engineer built it- probably some government-paid slack from the city down south, commissioned by the White Lotus. If there was anyone Unalaq despised more than his former colleagues, it was the lazy, good-for-nothing guards he was forced to keep around in case P’li somehow gathered the courage or strength to break out of her cell. It was, above all else, humiliating to every party involved. Unalaq wondered, not for the first time, why they hadn’t just executed the lot of them when they had the chance. They were in perfect legal jurisdiction to do so, yet they had chosen to keep the Avatar-kidnapping group of terrorists arrived. The only real explanation would be that it was in some idyllic memoriam of what the late Avatar Aang would’ve wanted- the airbending Avatar’s reputation for pacifism was almost as iconic as his arrow tattoo, both traits passed on to that insufferable son of his. It was just like his brother, too, to value the wishes of the old Avatar despite being the father of the new one.

Tonraq always got the good fortunes of the family, though. Unalaq wasn’t surprised.

The doors of the elevator opened with a terrible metal groan, letting the cold wind of the outside in and letting Unalaq out. He gathered his robes and exited the cabin, walking carefully over the frosted path of ice. P’li’s prison had been built into the heart of a glacier, carved into a man-made trench made with a combination of drills and waterbending. Even by Northern Water Tribe standards, it was cold, bitterly, biting cold that seeped through the fabric Unalaq wore- through his skin and muscle, gripping his bones. The White Lotus guards all wore layered versions of their standard uniforms in order not to freeze to death. It was so cold it was excessive- all this just to prevent one woman from even dreaming of escape.

“Your Highness, sir.” One of the guards approached Unalaq. From the color of his eyes and the emblem on his lapel pin, Unalaq could tell this particular White Lotus guard was a squad captain of Earth Kingdom origin. “I’m Dehaja, one of the on-shift guards here right now. Can I get you anything?”

Naturally, Unalaq wasn’t going to be questioned about the visit’s purpose. He was the Chief- the Nation’s leader. It was only natural that he got only what he wanted.

Unalaq glanced towards P'li's cell door, noting the few guards flanking the entrance. They were likely just outside the firebender’s range of hearing, if it hadn’t been impaired by the cold. He turned back to Dehaja. “Get me a chair to sit in close to the door- I need to see the prisoner while I talk to her. And clear all the guards of the area.”

Dehaja hesitated and put his hand to the back of his neck in worry. “But sir, the prisoner-”

“Did I ask, Captain?” Unalaq looked at Dehaja. The man nodded slowly, as if he was starting to understand the power he held. Little did he know what would happen in the near future.

“Alright.” Dehaja nodded and stared at his boots. “Under your orders, sir, it will be done.”

Moments later, the blue-hooded guards cleared the area, replaced by a singular folding chair facing the cell door. It was one of the more uncomfortable chairs Unalaq had sat in, but that was decidedly an issue for another time. He had business to do.

“Finally here to rescue me?” P’li’s voice was deep and gravelly, lower than Unalaq remembered it being. If he was reading her correctly, there was a mocking laugh to her voice. “Sure took you long enough.”

Unalaq stiffened, tightening his grip around the leather-bound tome in his hands. It had been so long since he had spoken to P’li, he almost forgot who she was.

“Why are you really here, O Great Chief of the Northern Water Tribe.” P’li mocked. Had she always been this bitter? Unalaq struggled to remember what his former comrade had been like before being imprisoned.

Unalaq cleared his throat, the breath turning into fog in front of him. It really was cold down here. “You should be thankful I’m here- you’ll be the first to know of the changes to come to the world.”

The sound of chains clinking against each other came from the cell- P’li was shifting her stance. “What?”

Unalaq opened the book he had brought with him, carefully so that the pages wouldn’t break. A frozen glacier ravine was not the ideal condition for this millennia-old book, but he doubted he would succeed in getting clearance to take P’li to the surface without getting side-eyed by the other world leaders- not that he would’ve felt safe doing it. “Come closer, I need to show you something.”

“No.” P’li stated simply. Unalaq had to gather himself after she said it- How dare she treat him like that? He was clearly the one in control of the situation. The slightest glance of P’li’s gaze through the prison bars was enough to make him reconsider ordering her to approach him. Maybe it was safer to keep his distance after all.

“Fine, then.” Unalaq traced the illustrations on the page- the inked characters handwritten long before the printing press. The book he held now was most likely the oldest- and most valuable, save for his own life- man-made object in the entire ravine. “Do you recall the story of Avatar Wan? The first Avatar?”

P’li scoffed over the chattering of her teeth. “Yeah? What about him?”

“Tell me the story, then. I want to know what of it you remember.”

After scoffing again and grumbling about being treated like a child, P’li complied. “Avatar Wan was a normal citizen living on the Fire Lion Turtle until one day he got kicked out and became the first to master Firebending. Later he fused with the Light Spirit Raava and became the only person to gain more than one element and defeated the Chaos Spirit Vaatu during Harmonic Convergence. He then closed the Spirit Portals, separating the two worlds and dedicated the rest of his life to stopping wars amongst the rest of humanity. The end. Happy now?”

Unalaq would be lying if he said he wasn’t surprised by how much P’li recalled about the first Avatar. “You mentioned Vaatu- let’s elaborate on that.”

“Spirits, you’re more annoying than I remembered. What’s there to talk about with Vaatu?”

“Harmonic Convergence is quickly approaching us. Don’t you think it’s time the Universe changed?

“The world already changes naturally, it doesn’t need you to aid it.” P’li paused. “But what were you thinking about doing?”

This was the moment Unalaq had been waiting for- the very reason he had come down to the prison at all. P’li had the honor of being the first to know what would come of his new world order. “Come Harmonic Convergence, I will fuse with Vaatu like Avatar Wan once did with Raava and become a new Dark Avatar, bringing change into the world.”

To Unalaq’s displeasure, his brilliance was met with laughter. “Spirits…” P’li said through spasms of laughter and gasps for cold air. “Fuck, you’re not just annoying, you’re the dumbest person I’ve ever met. You aren’t serious, are you?”

Unalaq didn’t respond, letting his silence speak for him.

“You’re serious? What the fuck?” P’li stammered. “Why?”

“You of all people should know that-”

“Yeah, yeah. Things need to change, I get that. I always thoight we were going more for ‘no more oppressive govermnents that ruin people’s lives’ not ‘fusing with a chaos spirit and ruining life for everyone.’ What happened to doing this for the people?”

Unalaq couldn’t bear to admit to P’li that he had never really been in it to save the people. “It’s to rid the world of the Avatar- you can’t argue with that, it’s the very reason you’re here in the first place. You tried to do the same!”

P’li’s chains shifted again. “We weren’t going to kill Korra, we were going to free her and teach her the truth about the world- truths she wouldn’t get under the guidance of the White Lotus. Not that you’d understand that, obviously.”

Unalaq closed his book and stood up. He turned his back to P’li. “I’ll be seeing you, P’li.” He didn’t mention how that was a lie, it was clear to both him and P’li.

“Get lost, bitchass.” P’li called, the satirical, mocking laugh returning to her voice. “Good luck with that Vaatu thing of yours!”

Unalaq ignored her as much as he could. Come Harmonic Convergence, he would be the only one left laughing. They would all see. They just had to wait for what was coming.