The Girl in the Iceberg

by RainbowRosieS

Summary:

Approximately 10,000 years ago, Wan became the first Avatar and locked Vaatu in the tree of time.
Several centuries later Korra, the 7th Avatar, was born. After fleeing into a storm trying to escape her pursuers, Korra wound up entering the avatar state and freezing herself in an iceberg. Over 9,000 years later, after being discovered in the ice by an anthropologist named Asami, she wakes up in a strange new world, where bending has seemingly disappeared, the industrial revolution has turned society on its head, war is tearing apart the Earth Kingdom, a new nation called the United Republic is flooded with refugees, while a theocrat is tightening his grip over the Northern Water Tribe. Avatar Korra will need to learn to navigate this new world and return it to balance, while also preparing for the next Harmonic Convergence.

Chapter 1: The Expedition.

Chapter 1, The Expedition

 

 

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. My mother used to tell me stories about ancient mythology, about a time when there was balance between humans and spirits and they lived together in harmony. But that all changed when the dark spirits attacked, when they forced humanity to fight back by wielding mystical power over the four elements. Only the Avatar mastered all four elements. Only he could stop the ruthless dark spirits and bring balance to the world.

I wasn’t the only child who was told such stories, myths and legends about humans controlling the elements, about dark spirits, and about a legendary savior called “the avatar” have been told all over the world, throughout all of recorded history. These myths have been extremely influential on the world’s cultures and religions, to this day most nations and ethnic groups still name themselves after one of the 4 elements. Yet little is known about the origin of these myths, or the reason why they are so ubiquitous. Most researchers agree that there must be some kind of underlying truth from which these myths all originate, but what that truth is remains a subject of scholarly debate. Some scholars believe that we will never know the truth, or never even come closer to it, due to the simple fact that there are so few archeological artifacts that remain from the ancient times from which these myths must have originated.

But I haven’t lost hope. I still believe that there remains more knowledge to be discovered about these ancient times. 

For my master’s thesis I will delve into this mysterious subject and propose my own theory. 

I am not so arrogant to believe that I will arrive at the definitive answer to a question so many brilliant scholars have devoted their entire careers to, before I have even graduated, but I do believe that, on my expedition to the South Pole, and the research I've done before I began on this expedition, I have made a few significant discoveries which will help advance our collective knowledge and help bring us closer to a real understanding of ancient cultures and of what influenced their beliefs.

 

-Asami Sato, student of anthropology at Republic City University.

 

 

Asami paused, looking away from her typewriter while collecting her thoughts, she was happy with the introduction to her thesis, but she probably wouldn’t continue working on her thesis much more until she returned to Republic City and had a proper desk to work on. 

Her gaze traveled through her small tent, which was located at the center of the camp that their team of archeologists had set up, near the glacier where they had made so many incredible finds. Perhaps most people would not consider the bits of cloth and fur, or the broken pottery and bone tools which lay scattered throughout her tent, or even the small scroll that was central to her thesis, to be all that “incredible”, but Asami knew better. 

This trip, expensive though it had been, was already proving to have been well worth the effort. Not only had they tested her father’s new ice-breaker ship, opening up many new possibilities for travel and trade, not to mention the developing industry of off-shore petroleum drilling, they had also uncovered a wealth of artifacts from their dig site in a nearby glacier. 

Early preparations for the expedition had begun after a tigerseal hunter had inadvertently stumbled upon the frozen remnants of an ancient sailing vessel, which had become visible due to a large piece of ice breaking off a massive glacier. That hunter had returned to the United Republic to sell furs, while also bragging about an ancient spear he had found in the sailing vessel, unaware of the historical significance of the artifact. 

Asami’s father, Hiroshi Sato, happened to hear about the spear from an acquaintance with a love of exotic furs. Her father was no student of history or anthropology, but he was smart enough to understand its value and made sure to buy the spear from the hunter, along with a description of where he found it. Both of which he then passed on to Asami, who was currently studying anthropology in Republic City University, as one of its few female students.

A year, and a lot of arguments with professor Raiko later, Asami had finally gathered the funds and the resources for an expedition to the South pole, one of the few remaining parts of the world that remained a mostly unexplored frontier. Some tribesmen lived on the Northern edges of the Southern continent, but even they rarely ventured this far towards the actual Southern pole. 

The spear, with its bronze tip, had already been an incredible discovery. The clothing, with metal studs and remnants of various blue dyes, were also valuable discoveries. The numerous carved and painted bowls and urns, depicting warriors and hunters, as well as what Asami believed were scenes of ancient mythology depicting Raava and Vaatu, were even more valuable. Proper carbon dating would have to be done back in Republic City, but Asami was already confident that these were some of the oldest artifacts of their kind to have been so well preserved.

The scroll, which appeared to show a person demonstrating a kind of martial art or some sort of religious ritual, or perhaps a combination of both, would by itself have been a groundbreaking discovery. 

But the true treasure was located outside of Asami’s tent, it didn’t fit inside the tent, or even inside of her father’s ship. In fact, Asami had spent the afternoon drawing up plans for how they could tug it behind their ship all the way to Republic City’s harbor.  

The block of ice was large enough that, if Asami’s calculations were correct, only a small part of its outside layer would melt on its journey North, before they could repurpose one of the warehouses her father’s company used to cool fish, to preserve the block of ice and allow them to carefully examine and extract the artifacts contained within.

 

They had previously discovered a few frozen corpses, kept partially intact by the ice, but none of them were as well preserved as what they could see inside the block of ice they had found the day before. 

Inside they could see a person, someone who appeared to be a woman, wearing heavy fur clothing, carrying a backpack of some sort. The woman was surrounded by spears and clubs floating in the ice around her, as well as a small kayak, and what looked like the severed remains of a several more people. Part of the ice was opaque, including a white form next to the woman, but much of the ice was surprisingly clear and translucent. Asami chuckled to herself as she thought back to the moment when the block of ice had broken free and violently crashed up through the water’s surface, startling everyone. 

The woman in the ice seemed perfectly preserved, even her skin still looked intact. Even assuming that they would discover more damage once the body was thawed, this was likely still one of the best preserved pre-historic bodies ever discovered. Asami had to contain her excitement at the thought of how much information they could discover by studying the poor woman’s corpse and hopefully the contents of her stomach. She had already started working on a list of doctors and biologists to contact for assistance in examining the frozen corpse.  

She was also very excited to examine the woman’s backpack and what its contents might tell her about the technological development of people who lived thousands of years ago. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early in life, Asami had wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a mechanical engineer like him. The death of her mother, an anthropologist, as well as society’s stigma against women in higher education, especially in engineering which is considered a masculine field for some reason, caused Asami to pursue a degree in anthropology instead. Asami quickly discovered that the way in which human societies are constructed, the way that culture, technology, economics, architecture, and religion all fit together to create complex societies, can be an even more interesting puzzle than the way that fuel and gears can be used to create a combustion engine.

The fact that her dumb university refused to allow her to study engineering did not however mean that she was wholly ignorant on the subject, she had learned much from watching her father work in his private workshop, as she was about to demonstrate when she showed the ship’s crew her detailed schematics for tugging the block of ice back to Republic City.  

Everyone had patronized her at the beginning of the journey, thinking that she was just there as a result of nepotism, as the unfortunate burden that they had to accept in exchange for getting to use her father’s ship. Once they started to examine various artifacts however, and doing real research, Asami had quickly been able to impress the other researchers on the trip.

Setting aside her typewriter and her unfinished thesis, Asami grabbed the schematics and prepared to set out to the tent that housed the ship’s Captain and other officers.

After putting on about a dozen additional layers of thick winter clothing, Asami braced herself for the cold and pushed through the flaps that covered her tent’s exit. An awkward and freezing jog through the thick snow later, she pushed through another set of flaps and entered the Captain’s tent, watching him talk to one of the lead researchers of the expedition.

“I understand that this is not what you want to hear,” Captain Uson said, sounding exasperated as he continued the argument Asami had walked into. “but we simply don’t have any other options. We don’t have enough supplies to stay here much longer, we could stretch our supplies a few more weeks, but I’d rather have more room to spare. Besides, you keep saying that you’d need at least a month to dig to the center of that big iceberg! You’re simply going to have to hope that the dig site will still be intact when you return. I don’t understand why that’s such a big concern anyway, don’t you people all keep talking about how the cold helps to preserve stuff?” 

“It’s not that simple!” Said Ho-Sook, the lead researcher. “Cold temperatures help, yes, but the conditions need to be perfect. When this glacier was originally frozen, the conditions were apparently very good. But there’s no guarantee that those conditions will be the same if we abandon the dig site and allow it to freeze over again! We can’t even be certain that we’ll find it again, what if a snowstorm covers up the dig site and changes the entire landscape? We were lucky to find it this time based on that hunter’s directions! We have to stay longer, and see if we can find a way to quickly drill into the iceberg without damaging its contents.”

The ship’s engineer sighed, and replied: “As I’ve said a dozen times already, it can’t be done. The only way to get through such a large block of ice would be with our automatic hammer, which you keep calling too brutish, any other method would take far too much time.”

 

“I have another way,” Asami said, trying to put an end to the argument before it got too heated, nobody seemed to have heard her though, as Captain Uson spoke again.

“We can’t dig through the ice, and we can’t stay, we’d run out of supplies before we even begin the journey back. We’re simply going to have to hope that everything is how we left it once we return.”

Ho Sook seemed to be winding up for another round of argument, so Asami quickly stepped further into the tent before speaking up again. “I have another way,” she said, louder this time. “We don’t need to dig into the iceberg, it floats! We can simply tug it back to Republic City and dig into it there instead. My father owns a warehouse with large refrigeration units at the docks, we can store it there while we carefully dig to its center.”

Everyone stopped and stared at her, Ho Sook spoke up first. “Tug it back to Republic City? Are you insane? It would melt before we get even halfway!”

“No,” Asami said. “It wouldn’t, I’ve done the math, even if this turns out to be an unusually warm autumn, the iceberg’s mass would only decrease by around 45 percent, but since its most valuable contents all appear to be located close to the center, those should remain intact on the journey.” 

The Captain spoke next. “Even if it doesn’t melt, do you really think we can tug such a big block of ice? It’s half the size of our ship…”

“It would slow us down,” Asami said. “It would add a few weeks to our journey, but it would get lighter over time as it melts, and as you said we can stretch our supplies for a few more weeks if we have to.”

The engineer, who’s name Asami couldn’t remember, spoke next. “What about our fuel? Do we have enough fuel to drag it all that way? And how would we even attach it to the ships?”

 

“We should be fine on fuel, we brought plenty with us so that we could use it for the camp’s generators. As for how we could attach it, I’ve drawn up the schematics right here,” Asami said, handing them over to the engineer so he could look them over. She turned to the Captain and said “He should be able to confirm that my plans will work. The quick summary is that we’ll have to hammer the stakes from our tents into the ice, we can then use the tents themselves to create a net of sorts around the entire thing, reinforced by all the chains we have. The biggest issue will be navigating our way out of the icefield, the ship is strong enough to break through the ice, but you’ll have to ensure that our cargo doesn’t slam into large ice sheets.”

The Captain frowned, then looked to the ship’s engineer and gave him a questioning look. The engineer hesitantly nodded; the plans looked doable. Then the Captain smiled and slapped Asami on the shoulder. “I’ve always liked a challenge kid, your plan’s got guts. You’re pretty much in charge of this whole thing anyway with this being your father’s ship and all, if you want to do it then I’m ready, are you sure about this?”

 

“I’m sure!” Asami said with a grin. “Lets do it, I kind of want to see people’s faces as we pull into port.”

 

 

About a month later they were finally pulling into Republic City’s port, Asami was watching from the ship’s bow as a group of onlookers were gathering. She smirked, knowing how unusual their ship would look. Even after it shrunk to two-thirds its original size (it turned out that Asami’s estimations for how much of the ice would melt had been a tad pessimistic), it would still be a stunning sight to see an actual iceberg being pulled into a warm water port.

Everyone always saw Asami as a reserved and humble girl, but those who knew her best knew that she had a flair for the dramatic, and that part of her was certainly enjoying the shocked faces she could see on the docks, her grin got even wider as she noticed a few photographers arriving. She was glad she had taken the time to apply makeup this morning, something she hadn’t done since her departure from Republic City at the start of this adventure. 

A short while later, as Asami stepped off the ship’s gangway, she saw her father’s automobile arriving, so she pushed herself through the onlookers as politely as possible and made her way over to him. “Hello dad, good to see you again,” She said, walking into the hug of her smiling father.

Her father chuckled as he replied. “I must say that I didn’t expect you to commandeer one of my warehouses upon your return, or to try to drag the entire South Pole back with you. Have you really grown that fond of ice that you had to take an entire iceberg with you?”

“Dad be serious, were you able to prepare the warehouse the way I asked over the radio? Do you have the cranes we’ll need to lift the ice inside?”

Hiroshi smiled. “Don’t you worry my dear daughter, everything has been prepared according to your requests. You should be more concerned with this media circus you’ve started, remember what I’ve taught you, never pass up a good opportunity for positive publicity, this could be great for your future career! Once you’re done dealing with the media, I’ll be looking forward to seeing what’s inside this hunk of ice that has made you so excited.”

 

 

Asami took his advice to heart as she approached the gathered group of photographers and journalists, some of whom took out notepads and started asking questions as soon as they saw her approach. Asami answered all of their questions, she also ensured that it would be abundantly clear that this was all her idea, she knew that as a woman there was a risk that people would be tempted to give the credit to someone else instead. In fact, some would probably do that anyway even after she told the media about how she’d created the plans for tugging the iceberg with them and for using the cranes to lift it out of the water.

Complaints about the patriarchy aside, Asami still looked on with a feeling of satisfaction as she watched the iceberg being lifted out of the water and loaded inside of the cold store warehouse. 

The next few days, Asami was busy with the other researchers, carefully whittling away at the massive block of ice. Asami had spent this last day cutting free one of the various spears that could be seen all around the block of ice. She looked the spear over, sitting at the desk her father had cleared for her, in the office outside of the refrigerated part of the warehouse.

The weapon was remarkably well preserved, which made its broken tip especially interesting to Asami. It hadn’t rusted away, it hadn’t broken either, it looked as though the bronze spearhead had been sliced clean through, though Asami couldn’t figure out how this could have happened. They had sent samples to a lab that was capable of carbon dating, so they were still waiting for confirmation of the age of these artifacts. But unless Asami’s estimations were wildly off, she didn’t think that iron tools would have existed yet, steel certainly wouldn’t have existed yet, so what could have possibly been used to cut so cleanly through the bronze spearhead? Bronze wasn’t the strongest of metals, historians all agreed that bronze weapons wouldn’t have been very durable in battle. But surely they would  usually be strong enough to at least partially deflect a hit from another bronze weapon? A weapon from wood or stone would be even less likely to produce such a clean cut… 

Asami sighed, carefully placing the spear down before moving away from the desk and grabbing her coat. Obsessing over something like this likely wouldn’t amount to anything, archeology involved a lot of guessing, at the end of the process she would be lucky if she narrowed it down to a dozen theories, she’d likely never have any certainty about what exactly happened thousands of years ago. It was one of the most frustrating aspects of this kind of research. 

So instead she moved to grab her coat, then opened the door that led back into the refrigerated area. The block of ice had been sort of secluded, using big tarps hanging around it as though they were walls to a big room. The smell of fish still lingered, even after they had done their best to clean up the warehouse. It couldn’t be helped, they were lucky enough to have this place at all, Asami was a bit embarrassed to think of how much money it was costing her father’s business. Asami was confident in her skills and knowledge, she knew she’d earned her place as a university student, but as she walked through the massive warehouse and approached the iceberg preserved within, she had to admit that perhaps there was some truth to it when people called her spoiled.

No ordinary student, or even professor, could’ve had the resources to arrange all of this. Asami decided that she shouldn’t be ashamed though, she was working with the tools available to her, she decided that she should simply be proud of how she used her time and resources to contribute to society’s collective knowledge, instead of spending it all on frilly dresses and expensive food.

Nobody could fault Asami’s work ethic, considering how she was the only one still here after everyone else had left for the night. Thinking about the spear had gotten her to think about the person in the ice, what was her story? What had happened to her, how did she get stuck in the ice? With the iceberg having melted on the journey here, and the researchers slowly whittling away at it, they were able to get an even clearer look at the person in the ice. It was definitely a woman, even with the winter clothes she was wearing, the outline of her body was visible enough for that. Asami had heard the other researchers wondering what a woman could have been doing, that led to her being frozen in ice surrounded by so many weapons. Asami was less confused than they were, they didn’t seem willing to acknowledge the possibility that seemed obvious to Asami; this woman had been a warrior, or at least a hunter of some sort.

Still wondering what sort of life this woman could’ve lived, Asami picked up a hammer and chisel, and decided to see if she could make a bit more progress before she headed home and went to bed. Even her indulging father wouldn’t let her project occupy his warehouse indefinitely, plus, she’d need to resume her regular studies eventually. The excursion had already taken much longer than expected and she hadn’t gone to any of the university’s lectures even after returning. She resolved to finish as quickly as possible, so that she could resume her studies and hopefully find a good way to work all the things she learned into her thesis.

The work went slowly, after every small chunk of ice that she cut free, Asami paused and wiped the ice clean with a rag, to make sure that she was only picking at regular ice and not damaging anything of note without realizing. After about half an hour of work, Asami wiped off the chunks of ice from the last round of chiseling and looked more closely towards the center of the ice. Was the light playing tricks on her or was there light coming from inside of the ice? Everyone continued to be surprised at how well they were able to see to the center of the object, so it almost seemed like a viable explanation. But no, it was impossible, Asami couldn’t think of any logical reason why the inside of an ancient iceberg would be glowing, she had to be imagining it.

As she once again placed her chisel against the ice, she decided that she’d head home after one last round of chiseling and cleaning, she needed sleep. But then, after she carefully tapped the chisel with her hammer, she yelped in shock as she heard a loud crack, which seemed to spread throughout the entire block of ice. Then, even more surprisingly, she felt a strong gust of air blow into her face from inside the block of ice! Could there have been some kind of gas, somehow compressed inside of the ice? 

 

 

Asami stepped back in horror as she saw more and more cracks appearing throughout the entire block of ice, had she just ruined this entire project? What if the cracks spread throughout the frozen body within? Flawlessly preserved all this time but suddenly shattered by Asami’s sloppy work? 

She looked towards the center of the ice, then she squinted as she thought she saw something MOVE inside, surely she must have imagined it? But as she looked more closely, she was certain that she saw the woman’s body moving, it almost looked as though she opened her eyes, and then the light that appeared to emanate from within the ice appeared to grow even stronger. It had to be some kind of strange reflection, right? 

Then, suddenly, the ice exploded, Asami fell back to the ground and looked up at an impossibility. The woman inside the ice stood up, wind coming from nowhere blew tiny shards of ice in Asami’s face as she watched the woman take a couple steps forward, then collapse. Without thinking, Asami moved forward and caught the woman before she hit the floor. Outside of the ice she looked younger than Asami had thought, about the same age as Asami herself, perhaps even slightly younger. Still a teenage girl, not quite a fully grown woman. Asami was stunned, unable to process what was happening, unable to think about the impossibility of the ancient girl breathing as she cradled her in her arms, instead, her mind focused on how the girl was not only much younger than she had imagined, but also much prettier. The girl groaned, and she quickly went from pretty to gorgeous when she opened her deep blue eyes and met Asami’s gaze. It all seemed impossible in more ways than one, as she stared into the most beautiful shade of blue she thought she’d ever seen.

Chapter 2: After All These Years

Summary:

Korra flashbacks, and Korra waking up in the present.

Chapter 2: After All These Years

 

A long time ago:

 

 

Cold streaks of pain cut across Korra’s cheek as she moved through the freezing storm at high speed, lines of rain and hail seeming to move horizontally besides her as she propelled her raft made of ice forwards. A large wave shot up ahead of her, not wanting to slow herself down by cresting it in its entirety, Korra used her waterbending to steer to the side, shooting up along the lower left side of the wave, before landing hard in the water again. 

She continued like this for an impossibly long time, moving deeper into the storm with aching muscles, not daring to look behind at her pursuers or at the painful memories of the recent past. Then she saw another wave, building up in front of her, easily twice the size of any of the previous waves, too wide to dodge, too high to go over the top.

Korra yelled in pain and frustration at having to exert her already aching muscles, as she froze her feet onto the raft into a stronger stance. Then she thrust her hands forward to take hold of the wave with her bending, and yelled as she pulled her hands apart, splitting open a tunnel in the wave, which the raft shot through while the rest of the wave continued on behind her. 

She heard panicked barking from Naga, who’s paws were also frozen to the raft and who had been impressively calm and brave throughout most of their journey, but apparently that large wave had intimidated even the brave polarbear dog. 

They continued like that for a time, but then, just when Korra considered chancing a look backwards to see if they’d lost their pursuers, she saw a figure standing on a wooden kayak in front of her, shooting towards her from atop a medium wave. 

The enemy waterbender flipped into the air as she abandoned her vessel, pulling a large stream of water behind her which she then slammed down towards Korra. Korra pulled up water to her right, lifting the side of her frozen raft and, just barely, causing the raft to dodge out of the way of the attack. The enemy waterbender, standing atop a spinning sprout of water with a look of fury and with runny facepaint streaming down her face, continued her assault while screaming in rage. Korra couldn’t make out any of the words over the raging storm they fought in, she didn’t bother trying to listen as she dodged and deflected all the attacks while desperately fighting to prevent the waves from toppling her and Naga’s raft. 

 

 

The enemy waterbender moved closer, too close for her own good, continuing to attack with intent to kill. Korra saw an opening as she split the enemy’s attack in half, letting it shoot past harmlessly to her sides. She took control of the water behind her opponent, then jumped free of her raft as her opponent shot a sharp and spinning blade of ice towards her. The blade passed beneath her as Korra spun horizontally to pull the water she was still controlling towards herself, Korra used the water to cut through the sprout her opponent used to keep herself aloft.

Surprised by the attack from behind, Korra’s opponent fell down towards the water as she struggled to recover. Korra continued to spin horizontally in the air, taking control of the icy blade that had passed beneath her, and shooting it back towards the one who’d sent it. Her opponent had recovered her balance just in time to look up in shock towards the blade of ice that promptly bisected her. 

Looking away from the defeated enemy's figure as it disappeared into the dark water, Korra saw many more figures appear in the waves around her, the enemy she’d fought had slowed her down enough to allow her other pursuers to catch up. Some were waterbenders, standing on vessels made of ice, or on small kayaks like the woman Korra had just defeated. Some of the waterbenders stood on larger vessels, along with nonbenders wielding spears.

Standing on her frozen raft again, Korra created a massive vortex of water around herself, which blocked the attacks that were launched against her from all sides. Spears, icicles, and blades of water and ice, were all deflected and spun off course, disappearing harmlessly in the water around her. Korra then widened the vortex and pushed it outwards, pushing her opponents back in a move that gave her some space but did little damage. 

Korra took control of the water beneath her raft, and pushed the raft forward again, though at this point she had little hope that she’d actually escape her predicament. Then, to her surprise, the enemies in front of her parted and let her break through their encirclement. As she left the enemy benders behind, Korra saw other figures, glowing figures, ahead of her. Dark spirits… 

As her raft crested a large wave, Korra shot several strong fireballs towards the spirits. The fireballs hit their mark, but barely slowed the spirits down as they moved to attack. Dark tendrils shot out, missing Korra but breaking her raft to pieces. Naga yelped in fear before disappearing beneath the dark waves, Korra immediately dove after her. She was nearly blind beneath the cold water, but as she swum through it with the aid of her waterbending, she managed to reach Naga, still stuck to a piece of the raft. 

Korra, exhausted, freezing, and grieving, hugged her soaked companion tight and prepared for the end. Then suddenly she felt a warmth, a power, spread throughout her, while a light from within her own body lit up the water surrounding them. 

Korra saw her own limbs, moving without her instructions, creating a sphere of water around her and Naga. Then she saw ice beginning to form around the edges. Then, everything faded to black…

 

 

 

Several millennia later, the present:

 

Korra groggily opened her eyes, ready to complain about how much she hates mornings, but then she shot awake as she looked into the beautiful green eyes of a stranger, who was holding Korra in her arms for some reason. Still sleepy and unsure of what was happening, Korra made it her mission to impress the beautiful stranger. So she deployed her signature crooked grin, and tried to think of something smooth to say. “Uhhm, what’s up.” Was what came out instead. Real smooth Korra.

Trying to find another way to impress the beautiful woman, Korra extricated herself from the woman’s arms, then rolled backwards and shot to her feet in one seamless motion. Her words sometimes failed her, but her athleticism usually managed to impress. 

“Sooooo, what’s going on here, what is this place?” Korra asked, as she looked around at her strange surroundings for the first time, while subtly flexing her muscles slightly more than necessary. They were inside a building of some sort, with tarps hanging in a big square around them. Amazingly the tarps, which were made of a strange material, seemed to be hiding a structure that was even larger. Korra briefly thought they were in a large cavern, but as she looked up at big metal beams above she was sure that this place, whatever it was, was man-made. The place smelled of fish, so Korra figured that they must be near the sea.

“Uhh, this is my father’s warehouse, in Republic City,” the stranger replied.

“Huh,” Korra replied, as she squinted at one of the strange lights hanging from the ceiling, trying to figure out what kind of fuel it was burning. She started when she suddenly heard a feminine voice inside her head.

“Korra, stay calm. Much has happened these past years, there have been changes in the world that even I don’t understand. You must hide your bending, for the time being. I will try to contact you again, if you open yourself up.” Korra shook her head, then scratched her head in confusion, was that one of her past lives? Or Raava, even? Why would she need to hide her bending?
Then, Korra remembered something. She looked around herself with a sudden sense of urgency, then left behind the confused looking stranger as she scrambled over a wrecked kayak and some scattered blocks of ice toward the white blob of fur she saw peeking out behind the biggest piece of ice.

“Naga!” She exclaimed as she fell to her knees and grabbed the beast’s head. “Are you okay girl?” She rubbed the polarbear dog’s cheek as she lifted the beast’s head, then finally Naga awakened, and immediately began licking Korra’s face. 

 

 

Korra laughed, letting herself fall backwards while Naga moved over her and continued licking. “Naga stop, bhlah, bhlah, not the face!” She finally pushed Naga off and stood back up, looking over to the beautiful stranger who had a shocked expression on her face.

“What is that thing?!” The stranger asked, fear in her voice as she pointed to Naga.

“Oh that’s Naga, my pet polarbear dog,” Korra replied with a grin. “Don’t worry, she’s a total sweetheart I promise. The worst she’ll do is stain your clothes with her gross spit, but even that will simply wash out,” she said as she looked over to Naga, who panted happily with her tongue hanging out. 

“Right…” The stranger responded. “I thought polarbear dogs were wild animals, since when can they be tamed?” 

“Oh yeah normally they’re super dangerous,” Korra responded. “But I’ve raised Naga since she was a young cub, she’s totally tamed,” she followed the statement by giving Naga a powerful hug. 

The stranger looked a bit wary, but after looking to Korra for permission she still approached and scratched Naga behind the ear where Korra had been doing the same a moment before. “How is this possible?” She asked. “You were both frozen solid a minute ago, how are you alive?” 

Korra paused. “I was frozen? That explains a few things I guess,” She said, looking around at the chunks of ice on the floor. She supposed that it could be possible that she froze herself with waterbending, then later unfroze herself somehow. She paused, sorting through her scrambled memories. “Anyway, you didn’t really answer my question, where am I? Last I remember I was in a storm off the coast of the South Pole, nowhere near any buildings like this.”

The woman rubbed her head and seemed to struggle to figure out her response. “Uhh, we’re in Republic City, which is part of the United Republic, which used to be part of the North Western side of the Earth Kingdom." 

Korra scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. “The United Republic? I’ve travelled all over the world but I’ve never heard of such a place. I know of the earth tribes of course, but I don't know any Republic.”

The woman stepped closer and put a hand on her shoulder. “Right, uhh, I’m not sure how to tell you this, but I think you were in the ice for a long time. For a really long time.”

Korra scoffed. “Long enough for whole new nations to form? That’s ridiculous,” she stormed off through the tarps, stepping into the larger room outside. She started pacing, filled with doubts. That voice in her head, whether it was Raava or a past life, did say that years had passed, didn’t she?

She heard the stranger follow her and push through the tarps behind her. “Ok, so I was frozen in ice? How long has it been? When was this Republic thingy founded?” Korra asked, stopping her pacing and trying to put on a brave face to hide the feeling of horror building inside her. Horror fueled not just by the idea of being frozen for who knows how long, but also fueled by her memories of how she had ended up in that situation to begin with, memories that were starting to return. “How long has it been since Avatar Aang died?” Korra asked, trying to think of what would be the most widely known milestone in recent history.

The strange woman briefly perked up, an excited look crossing her face at the mention of Aang, which she then quickly covered with a more serious and thoughtful expression. “I don’t know when Avatar Aang died, I wasn’t even certain if he really existed. All I know is that myths about the Avatar have been traced back at least 8 thousand years.” 

Thousand… Thousand!?!? There’s no way, right? Korra started pacing again, then began pulling on her ponytails, trying to put her thoughts in order. “What about Roku? Or Kyoshi? What do you know about them?” Korra stared desperately at the woman, feeling herself grow increasingly frantic. The world can’t have spent thousands of years without the Avatar, can it? What about the dark spirits, and Vaatu’s lingering influence?

 

The woman seemed to realize that Korra was spiraling, she gently grabbed Korra by the arm and led her to a strange thick door made of metal, which she closed after waiting for Naga to follow. Suddenly the air was much warmer, causing Korra to look around in surprise, before deciding that she had more important things to worry about than the temperature. She looked to Asami, silently asking her to explain even though she was beginning to realize that the woman felt similarly stumped by their situation.

“I’ve never even heard of the name Roku before, and I know less about Kyoshi than I do about Aang,” She said. “Hearing you speak though, I’m quite certain that you must have been frozen for millennia. I still don’t understand how you’re alive, but I guess that’s not the most important thing to you right now, it’s probably going to take some adjusting for you to get used to this new society, and I’m guessing that you’ll need time to grieve.”

“Grieve? Why would I need to… Oh, right,” Korra slumped down, sitting on the floor as the woman looked at her with sympathy. If thousands of years had passed, then… Everyone she’d ever known was dead. 

Korra looked down at the floor, feeling her eyes water. Then she sniffed, shook her head, and looked up to the kind woman. “My parents actually died before I got frozen in the ice, so I’ve already grieved for a while now. For thousands of years, technically. I’d rather focus on different things first. For now, could you tell me your name? I just realized that we haven’t introduced ourselves yet. I’m Korra.” 

The woman still looked at her with sympathy, then she smiled and responded. “My name is Asami, Asami Sato. I wish the circumstances were different, but it’s nice to meet you. You must have a lot of questions.” 

Naga walked up to Korra and started nuzzling her, Korra smiled at her friend while she responded.

“I suppose I do have some questions, like why there was an iceberg inside that weird room of yours, and why that room was so cold while this room is so warm?” 

“We dragged the iceberg behind our ship,” the woman responded. “So that we’d be able to more closely examine it. I’m an anthropologist, which means that I study human behavior and society. This includes studying societies of the past, in an effort to gain further insight into how different circumstances affect human behavior. We found a glacier with many artifacts from a long time ago, that were remarkably well preserved. A piece of it broke off, the piece that you were inside of. We brought it back and were going to slowly open it up for study, but then it suddenly started cracking apart. Then you stood up amidst the remains, almost giving me a heart attack! As for the room, it uses a kind of technology that cools it down, normally it’s used to store fish.”

“That explains the smell.” Korra said, before she processed the rest of what Asami had said. “Wait, so you thought you were bringing back a corpse? That’s kinda creepy! What were you going to do with me?” 

The woman, Asami, flushed, looking a bit embarrassed as she started to explain. “It’s how we learn things about ancient cultures, by examining whatever they left behind, including corpses. It’s generally considered an accepted practice, so long as the graves are old enough that there are no living descendants who feel aggrieved by it. Anyway, you’re one to talk about creepy, you’re literally a walking corpse!”

That last part made Korra laugh, with Asami joining her shortly after. She spoke after they finished laughing. “Right, well I guess I can forgive you, after all, who knows how long I would’ve been stuck there if it wasn’t for you. Anyway, I have some more questions. First of all, what’s going on in the world right now? Any major problems? Wars? Famines?” The Avatar had been gone for thousands of years, Korra worried what happened in her absence, worried what disasters she failed to prevent and what further horrors Unalaq had committed after destroying her tribe and getting rid of the Avatar. He’d managed to team up with dark spirits, how much damage had he done?  

Asami thought for a while before she responded. “We’re living in a relatively peaceful time, the biggest conflict right now is an internal conflict in the Earth Kingdom, which some would argue isn’t even a single state anymore, but rather a collection of smaller states that Ba Sing Se has little influence over anymore. There are currently no major world powers at war with each other.”

“There are some issues between the Northern Water Tribe and the Southern Tribe, but nothing that’s led to violence so far. The world economy has recently recovered from a major recession and some refugees from the Earth Kingdom are coming to the United Republic, but things have been much worse in the past.” 

Korra nodded, that was enough for now. She’d ask for more details later, but the Avatar’s job was not to get involved in every minor conflict. If the only war right now was an internal war then there was probably no need to rush, it was probably best to first focus on getting herself oriented and learning as much as she could about this new world. Her stomach grumbled, reminding her of a much more pressing issue. “Uhh, do you have any food? I literally haven’t eaten in millennia,” Asami laughed, opening a drawer in the table she was sitting at. “I’ve still got a sandwich in here, and there’s some raw fish in the back that your dog might like.” 

 

Korra eagerly reached for the “sandwich”, which was apparently a kind of bread, with meat and greens in the middle. It was stored in a paper bag of some sort. By the time she finished devouring the sandwich, Asami returned and threw a few fish down for Naga, who ate them one by one while barely even chewing. 

Korra yawned, stretching her arms over her head. “I know that I’ve slept for thousands of years, but somehow I’m still tired, could we pick this up tomorrow?” 

Asami opened a door behind her desk, then led Korra to a square mattress that was lying on the floor there. She looked a bit embarrassed for some reason, mumbling something about how she’s been too busy to sleep at home. Korra didn’t see an issue, this mattress, made from some strange material, seemed very comfy to her, certainly better than her normal bedroll. She fell asleep almost as soon as she lay down, yet it was a restless sleep. She tossed and turned, thinking about the crazy situation she had found herself in, and about the traumatic experiences that in her mind had happened only a short time before.  

 

 

At least 8,000 years ago, before the storm:

Korra woke up, though she wasn’t sure why. As she looked around her tent she saw that it was still dark outside. She thought that a sound had woken her, but she didn’t remember what it was, so she stayed silent hoping to hear it again.
After a short wait, she heard something. It was a soft thud, followed by muffled groans. Now high on alert, Korra reached for her water pouches beside her bedroll, uncorking them while crouching down, muscles slightly tense, ready to move.

 She bend some of her water to the stakes that pinned her tent down, then bend some more to the bottom of the tent’s cloth and to the roof above her head. She froze the water, then waited. As she heard silent footsteps approaching, she prepared. She hoped that they were the footsteps of someone who went for a piss and didn’t want to wake the rest of camp, that what she was about to do would be an embarrassing overreaction. Then, she stood up while bending all the ice upwards, shooting the entire tent up into the air and allowing her to see what was happening. 

She saw warriors, waterbenders unknown to her, not part of the small tribe of traders led by her father. Two in front of her with surprised faces, two more at the tent to her left, preparing icicles aimed towards the people sleeping inside. One more in her peripheral vision, stepping into the tent behind and to the right of her. 

She moved quickly, jumping forward and kicking the first warrior in the face. Then she spun and pulled out the remainder of her water, which she used to freeze the other warrior’s head, after which, continuing her spin into a kick, she kicked the man’s head encased in ice. The kick, enhanced by her bending, sent the man flying into the air, towards the shoreline just outside of their camp.

She reached upwards with her hand, feeling the ice still attached to the tent, which had just reached the apex of its flight above her head. Then she sent the tent, stakes first, towards the two warriors to her left, who had only now begun to turn towards her. The tent hit them both, covering their bodies after it knocked them down and they stopped moving. She saw water leaking out of waterskins at her feet, belonging to the first man she’d kicked. She swept it up as she spun, turning to the man she’d seen enter the tent behind her. She whipped the water around his leg just before it disappeared inside of the tent, and pulled him back out. He landed in front of her while she moved, she’d released the man’s leg but continued her movement, spinning the whip around her and then slamming it down onto the man’s head, turning it to ice just before the moment of impact. 

She turned, looking around the camp for more attackers. She didn’t see any yet, so she moved for the tent to her right, where she’d heard those muffled groans after she woke up. As she opened the tent’s entrance, the sight was exactly as she’d feared. A corpse, still bleeding, icicles shot through the chest while ice covered the mouth. This was Katak, one of their tribe’s elders, who’d stopped joining their hunts due to his bad knee and had instead made it his task to prepare all the furs and leathers for sale. He’d taught Korra how to use every part of the animals they killed, not letting any waste disrespect the animal’s unwitting sacrifice.

As she saw his corpse lying there, left behind by his killers so they could move on to the next tent, Korra balled her fists. She then turned and left the tent, looking for more attackers to fight. 

As she exited the tent, she looked to her left, seeing her own tent lying over the two men she’d shot it towards, there was still no movement underneath. She saw the head of one of her fellow tribesmen poking out of the tent those two had been about to attack. “We’re under attack!” She shouted as hard as she could, deciding that waking up the camp was more important than the possibility of her taking more attackers by surprise. Then she shot up into the air, launching herself with a pillar of earth. As she neared the apex of her jump she scanned the camp, noting more figures sneaking in darkness, while a dozen more stood about 50 feet in front of her, on a small ridge that overlooked the camp. 

She kicked fire behind her, launching herself further upwards and towards the ridge. The fire produced a sudden burst of light, piercing the darkness of the starless night. Korra saw warriors squinting against the sudden brightness as she passed just over their heads, then she landed, punching the ground and sending cracks into the rock behind her, collapsing the ridge and sending all of them tumbling down amongst the rubble. 

She now heard fighting throughout the camp, as her fellow tribesmen had begun waking up and fighting back. She punched the air with a fast combination, sending numerous fireballs towards now-empty tents, setting them ablaze so they could shine upon what was now a battlefield. 

Another earth-pillar shot her back over the chaotic scene. She spun forwards in the air, then, while upside down, she punched a powerful stream of fire towards a group of attackers, knocking them all down while helping to carry her even further across the battlefield. 

She landed in a roll on the wet sand of the coastline they had camped besides, then immediately began pulling large amounts of water and shooting it towards the camp. The attackers were all prepared for this fight, each carrying several water pouches. Her tribe was less prepared, having just woken up. She hoped that adding more water would help even the odds, even if the attackers were waterbenders too. 

Korra suddenly rolled to her side, finishing her roll before processing the fact that she’d instinctively dodged a volley of icicles shot her way. As the next volley approached, she pulled up a shield of water and quickly froze it, the shield cracked under the impact of the attack, but it held.
Korra pulled water underneath herself as she sprang to the side, sliding over a ramp of ice she made while dodging more icicles streaking past behind her, she continued adding more ice to the ramp, turning it towards the waterbender attacking her. She slid forwards in his direction while pulling two streams of water at her sides, her opponent began pulling up a shield of ice as she shot the two streams towards him, but her attack overwhelmed his unfinished shield and knocked him backwards. 

The man attempted to stand up, but slumped back down as three icicles shot into his chest, launched by Korra. Korra froze, staring at the man’s corpse, blood beginning to seep out around the icicles she’d used to pierce the man’s flesh. She stood still for a while to process what she'd done, then she shot back into action as she heard her father's voice calling in the distance...

 

Chapter 3: Welcome to Republic City

Summary:

Asami takes Korra outside, introducing her to modern civilization.

Chapter 3: Welcome to Republic City.

 

Asami gently closed the door, leaving a sleeping Korra behind as she stepped back into her office. The girl had fallen asleep almost immediately, Asami had checked her heartbeat and breathing patterns, still not quite able to believe that the girl who’d been stuck in the ice was really here, sleeping in her office. But she was, along with her giant polarbear dog. Both seemed sound asleep, making Asami confident that they’d stay that way for a while, which gave her time to sort through the mess left behind in the shattered iceberg’s wake. As she entered the large, refrigerated room, she began looking for what could be salvaged of the ancient artifacts that scattered across the floor when the iceberg exploded to pieces. It was a far cry from the careful and meticulous extraction from the ice that they had planned. 

The miraculous opportunity to talk to a living and breathing tribeswoman from ancient tribes seemed like a fair exchange for a few artifacts being damaged, but still, she’d prefer to preserve everything the best she could under the circumstances. 

After retrieving and carefully drying several spears, then placing them in a box that would protect them from the humidity, Asami stumbled upon something she had seen before in the iceberg, but had forgotten about after the shock of the girl stumbling out of the ice. There was another body here, this one was truly dead. When it was still in the ice, they hadn’t been sure if it was a single person, or parts of several different people. Willing herself to look more closely at the corpse, which was much grosser when it wasn’t encased in ice, she became confident that both pieces were once part of a single person, somehow cleaved perfectly in half at the torso’s midsection. She wondered what had been the cause of such a straight cut.

Deciding that she’d have to ask an expert to examine this body later, Asami moved it to a box filled with ice, moving some more ice on top to ensure that the body would remain as cold as possible. Then she continued sorting through everything else she could find in the frozen rubble, while reflecting on what had happened when the ice broke apart. I could swear that her eyes were glowing, but that had to have been a trick of the light. There’s no way that I imagined the gust of wind though, where in the world did that come from?

She’d never heard of pressurized gasses frozen inside ice like this, she’d have to do research on that later. Of course, I’m avoiding the camelephant in the room, how in the world is Korra still alive after being frozen for a thousand years? I’ve read of wood frogs, which can survive being frozen. But they’re cold blooded amphibians, who’s biology is very different from that of humans. As far as I know there are zero examples of mammals that can survive being frozen in ice. 

Knowing that she probably wouldn’t figure this puzzle out anytime soon, Asami tried to focus on other things, like how she’d share this news with the other researchers. She was worried that it wouldn’t go well, she had earned some respect during the expedition, then earned even more thanks to her successful plan to move the iceberg all the way to Republic City.

But would that respect last, or would it disappear when they blamed her for the iceberg’s sudden destruction; which happened while Asami was alone in the warehouse? She feared that her accomplishments might quickly be forgotten, that they’d revert back to treating her as spoiled and incompetent just like they had done before, all because of her gender. The upside was that this was a Friday, nobody would come back here for the next two days. 
Suddenly feeling exhausted from staying up so late, Asami started cleaning up the last of the ice. She felt confident that she’d recovered every major piece of ancient weaponry and clothing that had fallen loose when most of the iceberg had collapsed, as well as the remnants of the broken kayak. 

She returned to her office, then briefly peeked through the back door to check on Korra, still sound asleep. She noted the girl’s blue clothing and wondered if the color had cultural significance, or if it was just a personal choice. Either way, she thought the girl looked very pretty. This surprised her for some reason, it wasn’t rational but she realized that her mind had subconsciously imagined people in ancient tribal societies to be less pretty than people in modern civilized society. The girl sleeping in the back room thoroughly disproved that silly notion. 

She had taken off her thick coat when she went to sleep, revealing her muscled arms and a decorated bracer on her upper arm, which Asami would have to ask her about later. She stared at the girl’s muscles a few moments longer, before suddenly feeling embarrassed and closing the door, unable to place the emotion that had taken hold of her. 

She shrugged off her strange, flustered feelings, it didn’t matter right now. She needed sleep but she couldn’t leave Korra alone here, so she walked to the chair at the desk, then slumped over the desk as if she’d fallen asleep while reading or writing. She’d slept in this same position plenty of times, doing so one more time wouldn’t hurt. 

***

Korra woke up, slightly groggy, but surprisingly quick to remember where she was as she felt the soft mattress she’d slept on. You’d think that it’d take more time for her mind to catch up to the insane reality that she’d been frozen in ice for thousands of years, but apparently not. 

She stood up, did a few stretches, then gave Naga a few pets while the big fluffy dog stretched onto her back but kept her eyes closed. Then she moved to the door, opening it to find the woman, Asami, sleeping half on a chair and half on a table. Had she spent all night there while leaving the mattrass for Korra? 

The woman moved suddenly, having heard Korra enter the room. She squinted at Korra for a while. Then, judging by the wide eyed look on her face, she remembered the events of the previous night. Maybe she’d briefly believed that it had all been a dream. Either way, Asami was awake now. After running her hand through her hair and placing a few strands back behind her ears, she asked if Korra had slept well. 

“Probably better than you, if you were sleeping in that chair,” Korra replied. “Thanks for letting me use the mattress, you didn’t need to do that though.”

Asami smiled, looking at Korra with her bright green eyes, Korra had forgotten how beautiful the woman was with her black hair and flawless skin, despite it being the first thing she noticed when she first saw her. The shock of learning how long she was frozen had taken precedence for a while, as had the memory of what happened to her tribe. “It’s no big deal, I figured you deserved some comfort after sitting cross-legged and frozen in ice for several millennia.”

Korra returned her smile, then looked around the room. “Anyway, what’s next? I’m starving, Naga will be too once her lazy butt wakes up. Do you have more of those raw fishes?”

Asami briefly considered before replying. “We can grab some fishes for your dog, but I don’t have anything for us to eat here. I’m thinking we could go to one of the food stalls nearby, they sell food to dockworkers that work early morning shifts.”

“Sounds good to me, let’s go!” Korra replied, feeling ready for some fresh air. They entered the refrigerated room again, its fishy smell making her feel nauseous so early in the morning, but she knew that Naga wouldn’t share such concerns. Asami opened a wooden box, revealing a bunch of fish inside. Korra grabbed a couple in each hand, then turned back to feed Naga. Asami hesitated behind her, so Korra turned back with a questioning look. “Was there something else?”

“I kind of wanted to ask you something,” the woman said, turning to another box nearby. “I found this in the ice, after you went to sleep.” She opened the other box, revealing a corpse that looked vaguely familiar to Korra. As she stepped closer, her nausea increasing with each step, she recognized it as the woman she’d fought in the storm. The woman she’d killed, by slicing her in half with her own blade of ice.

“It made me want to ask more about how you ended up in the ice,” Asami said, “were you shipwrecked? Or were you in a battle of some sort? I did also find a lot of spears and clubs in the ice.”

Korra stood there for a second, unsure of how much she wanted to reveal, but deciding that she wanted to be honest to the beautiful woman who’d been nothing but kind to her thus far.

“The battle was before; they attacked my tribe in the night while we were camped on Whaletail Island. I fled out onto the ocean, then they ended up chasing me into a storm.”

Asami stood still for a moment, seeming to process that information. Korra got the impression that the woman hadn’t witnessed much violence in her life, Korra hadn’t either until recently. She had fought a lot of sparring matches, but she now knew that a real fight felt completely different. She suppressed a chuckle as she considered whether the word “recently” truly applied to this particular situation.  

“Why did they want you so badly, that they chased you all the way into a storm?” Asami asked.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Korra responded, though she was fairly confident that she knew why they had chased her and why they had attacked her tribe. It was because she was the Avatar. She couldn’t tell Asami though, not if she wanted to hide her bending like Raava had told her.

“I think I killed her brother,” she said instead, nodding to the woman’s corpse, “when they attacked our campsite.” It was a partial truth, it’d have to do for now.

They were both silent for a moment, then Korra picked up the lid of the box and covered the woman’s corpse up again. “Can we not talk about this anymore? It’s not my most pleasant memory.”

Asami nodded. “Yes of course, sorry. Part of me still treats this as an archeological study, but it’s obviously far more personal to you.”

Korra just grunted, then picked the fishes back up and turned around to walk back to Naga. She wasn’t sure what “archeological” meant, but it didn’t seem to matter. They returned to Naga and Korra cheered herself back up a little by throwing the fish right onto the sleeping dog’s head, causing the dog to let out an annoyed growl.

Naga devoured them all with astonishing speed, somehow managing to do so without truly waking up. The big beast then turned over, returning to a full sleep shortly after.
“Well, I guess Naga is sitting this one out, shall we go outside?” Korra asked as she turned back to Asami.

Asami nodded, then pointed to a hallway. “The exit is that way,” she said. “I feel like I should prepare you though. The world is not as you remember it. You may have had some sense of how our buildings have changed, by being inside this warehouse. This is nothing compared to the rest of the city though, and it doesn’t end with the buildings, our technology has changed significantly as well, especially the last couple of centuries.”

Korra shrugged, not sure what response Asami was expecting. “If you say so. I guess I’ll see for myself soon enough.” Asami shrugged too, then motioned for Korra to follow as she turned into the hallway, at the end of which was a door that she pushed open once they reached it. 

Korra heard several rooster pigeons somewhere in the distance, then she heard something that sounded like someone blowing on a horn, only much louder. The sounds of bells, and of metal on metal, could be heard coming from several different directions.

As Korra stepped outside, she saw a landscape unlike any she’d ever seen before. She saw the sea, but most of the horizon was obstructed by numerous enormous ships. These ships were many times larger than the biggest she’d seen in her life, even more astonishing was that they were made of metal. She’d never even imagined boats made of metal; wouldn’t they be far too heavy?

The docks themselves were extremely straight, made of a very flat and artificial looking kind of stone, though she wasn’t sure how it had been made. Even constructions made by earthbenders would be made from separate blocks, usually no more than 6 feet wide, but Korra didn’t see any seams in the stone beneath her. Was it some kind of clay? The docks were full of movement, even early in the morning there were people hauling crates into or out of ships, this part at least was familiar to Korra. Less familiar were the large cranes with ingenious looking designs that were used to haul large crates onto even larger ships. To her right Korra saw a group of people shouting and waving to a ship as it pulled into the port, that ship was the source of some of the bell sounds Korra had heard. 

She stood still for a moment, trying to process it all. She shook it off as Asami gently pulled her off to the side, then they began walking along the docks to wherever their destination was. Once they rounded the warehouse and turned away from the docks, Korra was treated to another, even more insane, view. She saw buildings, towering up hundreds of feet into the sky, dozens of them. There were smaller buildings in-between, but “small” turned out to be a very relative turn, as they were still larger than almost anything Korra had seen before.

She crunched up her nose at the smell of some kind of smoke in the air, but couldn’t stop a smile from creeping onto her face at the sight of such a wondrous city. She had worried about what humanity had gone through in the absence of the Avatar, about what kind of havoc Vaatu would’ve been able to orchestrate from within his prison, using minions such as Unalaq. But the sight of this city seemed to prove that she needn’t have worried too much. Humanity had thrived in her absence; how else could they construct such marvels? 

She looked around in wonder as they walked further away from the docks, Asami looking at her with a smile. “What do you think so far?” She asked, real curiosity in her voice.

“It’s kind of overwhelming,” Korra replied honestly, “not sure if I’m capable of much thought at the moment.” Asami’s smile broadened slightly as they continued walking, in a comfortable silence. “How many earthbenders did it take to build this?” Korra asked. “What kind of earth did they use? I’ve never seen anything like it.” 

Asami stopped walking, turning towards Korra with a serious look on her face, the look that Korra was starting to recognize as the look of a devoted “anthropologist”, as Asami had called herself. An anthropologist who had discovered new information that was of interest to her. Asami stood there silently for a second, then responded with a question. “What do you mean exactly, when you talk about earthbenders?”

Korra wasn’t certain how to answer, Raava had told her to hide her bending, but she hadn’t said anything about just mentioning bending in general, had she? She decided to just play it straight and go from there. “You know, earthbenders, people who can control stone and dirt and stuff, do you use a different word for them?”

Asami seemed to process that for a second, before responding. “I’m still not sure I understand. When you say ‘earthbenders’, do you mean people who specialize in construction work of some kind? Or are you talking about mythology, about people who move earth without touching it, using magical powers rather than the strength of their body?”

Korra snorted, then replied without thinking. “It’s not magic, it’s bending, and they’re not a myth I’ve seen them!”

Asami looked a bit longer, a strange look on her face, then turned to resume walking. Korra followed; this time the silence was a bit awkward. “I don’t want to offend you,” Asami said, breaking the silence. “Please believe me, my intention isn’t to undermine whatever beliefs or superstitions you hold. But I don’t believe bending is real, this entire city was built without it, using technology. The earth they used is called concrete, it’s a special mixture, sort of like clay, which hardens when it dries up.” 

Korra fought to hold in her anger. Superstitions?!? Did she think Korra was some kind of idiot who got fooled by some lying fortune teller? She resisted the urge to show Asami what’s what by putting on a display of earthbending prowess, Raava had told her to hide her bending and Korra was starting to realize that it wasn’t just to hide her identity as the Avatar. According to Asami, this entire city was built without earthbending… It seemed impossible, not just because of the incredible size of the structures, but also due to its location. They were in the territory of the earth tribes. According to Asami this was a separate state called the United Republic, but surely there would still be earthbenders who made their way to such a large city so close to where most of the earthbenders settled after leaving their lion turtles?

“So…” Korra asked. “You’ve never seen an earthbender, or a waterbender? No fire or airbenders either?” She already knew the answer Asami would give, but she wanted to be certain.

“No, never,” Asami replied. “I’ve heard legends about them, but they’re all about the distant past. Nothing about our modern world suggests that they really exist, their existence also just wouldn’t make logical sense; based on my understanding of the laws of physics.” 

Another awkward pause followed as they kept walking, Korra’s frown deepened. What in the world has happened, how could all benders be gone? It seemed like Raava’s warning had hinted at a change far more significant than Korra had initially thought.   

“Please don’t be offended,” Asami said again, “we can just respectfully disagree if you prefer, lots of people hold beliefs that don’t meet my standards of evidence.”

“It’s fine,” Korra said, growing irritated regardless. She knew that it wasn’t really justified, if benders had somehow disappeared from the world then it made sense for Asami not to believe in them. It still bothered Korra though, that Asami thought of her as some ignorant savage with superstitious beliefs.

“I do believe that there must’ve been some truth to the legends, by the way,” Asami said. “They’re too prevalent to be completely fabricated. Maybe you could help me understand the truth behind the myths?” She asked, sounding hopeful and excited. “I said it’s fine!” Korra snapped, not knowing how to continue this conversation if she couldn’t demonstrate her bending. 

Asami seemed to take the hint as they continued walking a short distance further, then she pointed to a small cart that stood along the street. Behind the cart stood a man flipping pieces of meat on top of a metal grate, causing delicious smells to float out onto the street.

“That’s where we can get some breakfast,” Asami said.

“Finally,” Korra responded. Asami gave the man some small metal discs, then he gave them both some bread grilled meat in-between. Korra bit into it, then she moaned in pleasure. “Hmmm, this is some good grub,” she said, forgetting her irritation at Asami as they smiled at each other.

 

***

 

Asami stood, chewing her hotdog, watching the tribal girl as she did the same. She still worried that she’d offended Korra, but the food seemed to have improved the mood between them. She smiled as Korra insisted on thanking the person manning the food stall, bowing to him in a formal looking way. It looked similar to how conservative people still bowed in the Fire Nation, though her hands were positioned differently. Asami’s mind was racing with all the questions she wanted to ask the girl, but she fought to restrain herself to avoid offending or overwhelming her.   

They began walking back towards the warehouse, but stopped to sit on a bench as they finished their food. A shadow passed over them, then as she looked up she saw an airship flying overhead. “What in Raava’s name is that?!” Korra asked, also looking at the airship. Hearing her use Raava’s name as an expletive, Asami desperately wanted to ask more about what Korra’s beliefs were regarding this mythological being that many religions still worshipped to this day. But she let it rest for now, not wanting to offend the girl further. 

“That’s an airship,” she explained. “One of those new kinds of technology I talked about. They were invented about 70 years ago, though they didn’t use to be this big.” 

Korra stared in awe, as Asami decided to chance a question, unable to resist the opportunity to learn more about the girl’s mindset. “How do you think it works? I’m curious, I’ll explain it shortly but I’d like you to guess first. I still don’t know much about your society, your answers could help me understand how much knowledge your people had.”

The girl stared up a moment, then answered. “Hot air, inside the big round part?”

Asami stared at her, surprised. “Very close, that’s how the first airships worked, some of the smaller ones still do work like that. These larger ones use a special kind of gas though, instead of hot air. The gas is lighter than air, making the entire thing fly.” 

Korra briefly frowned, then nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer, though she still looked amazed as she looked back up. “What made you guess hot air?” Asami asked, she really hadn’t expected such a good answer. She’s always subscribed to the theory that humans haven’t gotten more intelligent, biologically speaking, that they’ve simply accumulated more knowledge over time. But she still hadn’t thought that someone from thousands of years ago would’ve had any idea of how an airship might work. 

“Well, hot air goes up right?” Korra answered. “You can see that simply by looking at a campfire, it even lifts up leaves sometimes if you throw a handful of them over the fire. The heat makes the air expand, making it lighter, it’s the same with water.” 

Asami nodded, the answer was exactly right, and it suddenly made perfect sense that the tribal girl was able to answer it. Like Korra said, all the mechanics could be observed simply by looking at a campfire, obviously humans already had fires even thousands of years ago. 

“I’m more curious about where you get all the materials,” Korra said, “what’s it even made of?” 

“They’re made of a metal framework, covered by cloth. Kind of like a big tent,” Asami answered, a bit of an oversimplification, but it didn’t seem like the time to go further in detail.

“Where do you people get so much metal? Are you sure you don’t have earthbenders?” Korra asked. 

Asami chuckled. “Yes, I’m sure. We mine it, using explosives to blow the earth away when necessary.”

“Explosives?”

“Yes,” Asami answered, she hadn’t realized explosives might be a new concept to the girl. It was a very strange experience, talking to someone from a different time. Someone who was obviously intelligent, but who simply didn’t have the same basic set of knowledge as people in Asami’s time did. The other girl would probably be similarly confused by Asami’s lack of knowledge about setting up campsites or about which wild plants to eat, if they ever talked about that subject instead. 

“Explosives are highly flammable materials, burning many times faster than wood. Like you said, heat expands the air, so when something heats up quickly enough while encased in a solid container, the sudden blast from the rapid expansion is so powerful that it could cause rocks to break apart and get thrown into the air.”

A smile appeared on Korra’s face. “That sounds awesome! I’d like to see that someday!”

Asami laughed, then continued smiling as a car drove past, interested to see how Korra would react to this new technology. 

The girl watched it roll by, then coughed at the fumes it spewed in their direction. “Ugh, are those things why this city smells so gross?” She asked, turning to Asami.

“Part of it yeah,” Asami answered. 

Korra looked at the car disappear, looking as if she wanted to fight it.     

“Any guesses on how that technology works?” Asami asked. Korra frowned, thinking for a while.

“Well I guess it uses fire and heat again, based on the smell alone. The heat makes stuff move I guess? Beyond that I’ve got no clue.” 

Asami smiled. “Well, you’re totally correct, and I don’t blame you for not knowing any of the specifics. Anyway, shall we get going? Wouldn’t want your polarbear dog to find that corpse we left behind and start gnawing on it,” She said, blushing at how crazy that sounded, quickly looking around to check if anyone else overheard her. 

“Yeah fine, lets go,” Korra said, seeming a bit down again. Asami wasn’t sure of the cause this time, but the girl had plenty of reasons to be gloomy, considering her situation.

***

They don’t speak much as they walk back, Asami seems to be sensing Korra’s mood and respecting it. Which Korra is thankful for, even though she’s still irritated at the woman’s attitude. The woman is just being so patronizing! Looking down on her, asking her all these questions as if she’s an elder teaching a young kid how to skin a fox antelope. She’s the same age as Korra, she has no right to look down on her! Especially if she’s an ignorant fool who thinks bending is a myth while walking next to the Avatar! 

She was definitely being unfair now, but she didn’t care as she kept silently seething, occasionally looking at the infuriating woman with her stupid pretty hair and her black & red dress. 

They returned to the warehouse, where they found Naga still sleeping, though she woke up as soon as Korra started petting her. Korra retrieved her backpack, which Asami looked at excitedly, probably eager to rifle through it and learn more about history or whatever. All it contained was a knife, a water pouch, some fishing wire, and some fresh clothes, but Korra decided to have some fun making Asami wait to learn those facts. 

Asami tells her that they should head to her home now, which is apparently on the other side of the city. She says that they’ll take her car, whatever that is. On the way, to Korra’s mild amusement, a few people shy back in fear at the sight of Naga following her. A surprising number of people just ignore the big dog though, looking as if they’re in a hurry to get somewhere. 

As they walk up to the car, Korra recognizes it as one of those smelly loud things that rolled by earlier, which Asami had used as an opportunity to remind her of her ignorance. “I don’t blame you for not knowing any of the specifics," gee thanks for your kindness to this poor savage! How was she supposed to know this stuff? She was never interested in scholarly things to begin with, some of her tribe’s elders probably would’ve had better answers, they were also annoyed with Korra’s ignorance sometimes. Wasn’t her fault that she liked punching stuff instead of meditating! 

They stepped into the car, Asami opening a door to do so while Korra simply hopped into her seat by jumping over the side, after convincing Naga to jump in the back. The giant dog inside a tiny seat looked rather comical. Asami fiddled with some stuff in front of her, then the whole machine started making a rumbling noise and began moving. Korra did her best to keep a straight face, even though the ordeal was a bit scary. The sight of the city around them provided a distraction, though it didn’t really lift Korra’s mood. At first, Korra had simply been impressed with the size and grandeur of the place, but now she started seeing it in a different way. The smell was disgusting, there was a dirty fog in the air, there were barely any living plants in sight, and in the dark gaps between the buildings Korra occasionally saw wretched looking people in worn down clothing. 

This society may have been able to build grand structures, but it seemed like it wasn’t able to provide grand lives for all of its people. Korra had seen similar things on some of her travels, societies ruled by vain men who built grand shrines to some spirit or even to themselves, while many of their people starved or suffered illnesses. 

The lack of nature also bothered Korra, the entire city seemed to just be missing something, balance was the word that came to mind. Human achievements were to be commended, but balance had to be maintained, that was her job as the Avatar. She’d never considered herself to be particularly good at recognizing this sort of thing, she never really understood the spiritual lessons some of her mentors had tried to give her, but the imbalances in this city seemed so blatant that even Korra intuitively felt it. 

This tour of the city was convincing her that the Avatar’s absence had been a detriment after all, just in a subtler way than she had initially imagined. She almost wished the world was at war instead, her teachers always told her that she lacked spirituality and focused too much on fighting. How was she supposed to fix a problem like this? 

Their vehicle suddenly started slowing down, as it rolled towards two large metal gates decorated with gold. They reminded Korra of those wasteful shrines she’d been thinking of earlier. Beyond the gates was a lot of grass, with carefully maintained hedges and other shrubbery. Then, in the distance, there was a large building. The building had a small pond in front of it, which was somehow spewing water up into the air. 

Korra had no idea how this would work without waterbending, but if these people could make a metal carriage move without an ostrich horse to pull it, then it kind of made sense that moving some water wasn’t an issue either. 

The building loomed large, even though it wasn’t nearly as big as many of the buildings in the city had been. Several decorative archways and towers lined a set of stairs leading up to the building. It all looked very expensive in a way that most of the city hadn’t, even if some of the buildings in the city had been larger they had seemed more utilitarian and less showy. Vain men with wasteful shrines came to mind again as Asami brought the car to a stop. 

They stepped out of the car as a man emerged from the building’s entrance. “Welcome back, mistress Asami," He said, walking out to meet them as they climbed the steps.

“Hello Doyun, it’s good to be back,” Asami replied with a kind smile.

The man glanced at Korra with a slightly confused look, then looked even more confused when he saw Naga behind her, but the man didn’t say anything more as he led them inside. “Could you please prepare one of the spare bedrooms for our guest? Korra will be staying for a while,” Asami asked Doyun, who quickly walked off to obey the woman’s orders. 

The inside of the building was overwhelming, there was lots of furniture, much of which left Korra guessing at its purpose. Two stairs led up to a second floor, the walls were decorated and the floors were covered with red carpet. Korra had to admit that it all looked quite nice. “Welcome to my home!” Asami said, as they stepped further inside. “My father had it built after he launched his second line of Satomobiles.” 

They walked between the two stairs, through a door that led to a wide hall with a large table, it reminded Korra of the halls for feasts that some towns had. “This is our dining room, the kitchens are to your right,” Korra glanced to the right while following along with Asami, who was moving to another door straight ahead, which led to a room with several very comfortable looking chairs and some smaller tables. “And here’s the sitting room,” Asami said.

They need a separate room for sitting? Plenty of chairs in the last room! Korra thought. 

Asami led her through another door, then they stepped into the outside again. It was some kind of inner courtyard surrounded by the rest of the building, the courtyard was lined by decorated pillars. In the center there was a large pond of water, a waterfall fed into the pond, coming out the mouth of a lion turtle statue. 

“Here’s one of my favorite parts of the mansion, the swimming pool,” Asami said, Korra had to admit that it looked amazing. She watched with a smile as Naga ran to the pool and started drinking from it, tail wagging bag and forth. “You can swim, can’t you?” Asami asked.

“Yeah of course,” said Korra. 

“If you’d like you can stay here for a while, I’ll go talk to my father and arrange a few things in the meantime.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Korra, after which Asami went back inside. Korra looked around for a while, then she set down her pack, took off her boots, skirt, trousers, shirt, and arm bindings, leaving only her chest bindings and undergarments. 

She dipped her toe into the water, surprised at how warm it was. Then she dove in. It felt amazing and her mood improved immediately, she quickly made it all the way to the opposite end of the pool before coming back up for water. A gasp behind her announced the arrival of a man she hadn’t seen before, Korra waved at the man. The man was bright red in the face and quickly went back inside after dropping down some cloths, failing to respond to her wave. Korra shrugged and dove back under. 

***

Asami’s mind was racing as she approached her father’s office, still not sure how to explain Korra’s presence. She knocked on the door, then entered after hearing her father say “come in.”

Hiroshi looked up from some papers he’d been drawing on, then gave her a big smile from behind his thick mustache. “Hello daughter, I almost assumed you’d spend the whole day with your project again, I’m glad you’ve been able to set aside some time to spend with your dear old father.”

“Hey dad,” Asami replied with a smile, “I’ve got something to ask you.”

“I hope you don’t need another warehouse, I may be rich but even I have limits.” her father replied, still smiling. “Nothing that big, I’ve brought a guest, I was hoping she could live with us for a while.” 

“That shouldn’t be an issue, spirits know we’ve got enough room to spare,” her father replied. “Who is this mysterious guest of yours?”

“That’s kind of a long story, it’s actually related to my project,” Asami said. 

“Oh, a fellow anthropologist? I thought you said you were the only female anthropologist at the university?” Her father asked.

“Yes, I am. She’s not an anthropologist. It’s more complicated than that, it’s kind of hard to explain…”

“You’re going to have to explain if you expect me to let her live in my house,” said her father. Asami sighed, preparing herself.

“Ok, so last night I stayed late in the warehouse, chiseling at the iceberg after everyone else had left. Then the iceberg started cracking and falling apart. Next thing I knew, the girl who’d been frozen in the middle started moving and standing up, scaring me half to death! I have no idea how she survived inside the ice, but she did. We had breakfast this morning and then we came here.” 

Hiroshi was silent for a solid minute, he almost started laughing, then was silent for another minute when seeing the absence of a smile on Asami’s face. “You’re serious, aren’t you?” He finally asked, an incredulous look on his face. 

“Yeah I am, trust me I still have difficulty believing it too, but it’s real.” 

Her father stood up from his desk, walking away from it without looking back, even as his pen fell to the floor behind him. “I do trust you, but you’ll understand if I have to see this to believe it.”

So far it was going well enough, Asami thought as she followed her father out into the hallway. She told him to head for the pool, where she’d left Korra. Then, suddenly worried, she stepped up beside her father to speak to him. “Please be nice to her, she’s in a completely foreign place. Things are surely intimidating enough for her, no need for you to add to it.”

Her father harrumphed, then responded. “What? I’m not that intimidating, am I? I can be a friendly guy!”

“When people get used to you, sure,” said Asami. “But you’re often not great at first impressions, especially when you start bragging about your massive manufacturing company.” 

Her father actually flushed with color, then just nodded. Even he had to admit that he gets overly excited sometimes when talking about his passions, without realizing how intimidating it can be when a wealthy and powerful man starts talking to you. 

She and her father walked through the door that led to the courtyard with the pool, part of Asami’s mind vaguely registered the belated warning coming from the servant she’d tasked with grabbing some swimwear for Korra, the rest of her thoughts were occupied with the sight before her. 

Korra was pushing herself up on the edge of the pool, then stood up in a very fluid motion. She wasn’t wearing swimwear, she was instead wearing simple wrappings covering her breasts, surprisingly large breasts, along with a simple loincloth. Korra watched them approach while she squeezed some water from her hair. Her hair was falling loose beside her face, removed from the ponytails the girl had been wearing until now. 

The girl’s polarbear dog could be seen in the pool besides her, happily paddling around in the water. 

Korra walked towards them while Hiroshi moved to grab a towel that was lying nearby, the girl seemed blissfully unaware of the scandalous nature of showing this much skin, especially while wearing your regular underclothes instead of specially designed swimwear. Some of the more daring and modern types of swimwear showed just as much as what Korra was currently showing. Asami had never found any rational reason for why showing the same amount of skin was suddenly considered more acceptable when you wore clothes designed for swimming instead of your underclothes, her heart however seemed to know something her rational mind would never understand, as the muscular girl once again threatened to give her a heart attack and caused her to start blushing furiously. 

Asami watched her father awkwardly hand a towel to Korra, which Korra accepted with a thanks, then promptly used to dry her face. 

Asami, finally able to move, grabbed a bathrobe from one of the chairs and handed it to Korra after the girl finished drying her face. Korra, finally seeming to figure out how flustered Asami and her father were, quickly put it on. “I take it that your culture isn’t very comfortable with nudity?” She said, a smirk on her embarrassed yet still confident face.

“You could say that,” said Hiroshi, as he stared at the large dog he seemed to have only just noticed. 

Asami quickly spoke up. “Korra, meet my father, Hiroshi Sato. Father, this is Korra, the girl from the iceberg.” 

“Pleased to meet you,” Korra said, giving the same formal bow she’d given to the food vendor near the docks. “Should I put on my normal clothes again before we talk?” 

 

A short while later, Korra stepped into the sitting room, wearing her pants, fur skirt, and blue shirt again. Her hair was still down though, which Asami thought looked very good on her. “Sorry about that,” Korra said with another smirk. “The pool was really nice though.” 

“It’s not your fault, assuming you are who you say you are,” Hiroshi said, while sitting in one of the large chairs. “Would you mind if I asked you some questions about that?” 

Korra frowned at that, still standing before the door. “That’s fine I guess, though I’m not sure how I could prove anything. The only real proof I have is the fact that Asami saw me emerge from the iceberg, but it seems like she already told you that part,” the girl shrugged, then hopped into one of the remaining empty chairs, reclining her legs over the chair’s armrest. 

Hiroshi paused, seeming to consider the problem. “You make a valid point. I suppose the best approach would be to simply ask you to tell your story a few times, then check it for inconsistencies. In addition to that, I must say that your pet already makes a rather compelling argument,” he said while looking at Naga, who was snuggled against Korra’s chair. 

Korra told her story, talking about how she and her tribe had been travelling traders, sailing along the coasts and islands of the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation and South pole. She talked of how they’d catch fish and hunt animals along the way, which they would then trade in the towns they passed. She spoke of how they’d camped on Whaletail Island, the name wasn’t familiar to Asami or her father, the island’s name had clearly changed over the years. But Korra was able to point to it on a map. (After spending some time to figure out the concept of the map, with Asami pointing out a few landmarks so Korra could get oriented. Apparently Korra had never seen a map before, at least not such a detailed and proportional one.) 

She spoke of how they were attacked, though she didn’t go into detail about it. Then she talked about how she fled and was chased into a storm, the details all matched what she’d told Asami before, as Asami quickly confirmed to her father. 

“Well, I guess that’ll have to do for now. Welcome to my home, my daughter will help you get settled in, then I’ll see you for dinner,” her father said, before stepping up and walking off. 

Asami brought her to the bedroom that’d been prepared, then left the girl to get settled in. The rest of the day was relatively uneventful, Korra explored the mansion, asked Asami to explain the purpose of a few things, then eventually went back to be alone in her bedroom to rest before dinner. The only thing of note happened shortly after dinner, when Asami called Ho-Sook to arrange a meeting with the other researchers the next Monday, where she planned to inform them of everything that’d happened.  

Asami told Korra not to hesitate to wake her if she needed anything, then they wished each other goodnight and retired to their bedrooms. Korra took her polarbear dog with her before she closed the door. Asami went to bed dreaming of brown skin glistening wet in the sun, paired with a crooked smirk and deep blue eyes.

Notes:

This turned out to be the longest chapter so far, mainly because I really wanted to include all of Korra's first impressions of this strange new society. I hope that its length didn't make it boring ;p

Chapter 4: Looking for Trouble.

Summary:

Korra is bored.

Chapter 4: Looking for Trouble.

 

Korra had breakfast with Asami and her father, it was pleasant but uneventful. After breakfast, Korra searched out a quiet place in the mansion’s garden, underneath a tree. There she did a stretching routine, before moving on to practicing several bending forms. She didn’t dare to actually use her bending out here in the open where someone might see, but that didn’t stop her from practicing the movements, it was something that her various masters had often made her do when they taught her new techniques.  

It wasn’t as satisfying as the real thing, but it’d hopefully prevent her from getting too rusty.

Korra had moved on to strength exercises and was hanging upside down from a tree branch, doing hanging situps, when she heard someone approaching through the grass behind her. “How did you even reach that branch?” Asami’s voice asked, Korra smiled, glad for the opportunity to show off. She finished her last three situps, then unhooked her legs from the tree branch, flipping in the air to land on her feet. 

She flashed a cocky smile to Asami, who simply rolled her eyes in response, then she looked up at the branch above her, a good 9 feet up in the air. Korra rolled her shoulders and cleared her throat, then she answered Asami’s question. “I had to run up against the tree trunk, then jump off and grab the branch.”

“Well color me impressed,” Asami said with a genuine smile. “is this your usual morning routine? It looked quite intense.”

Korra’s grin widened. “How long were you watching? Enjoy the show?” As she’d hoped this made Asami blush and begin stammering, so Korra continued her teasing. “It was all purely out of scientific curiosity I’m sure, hoping to learn more about my people’s culture or whatever by watching me working out and building my muscles.” She flexed her biceps, as if to emphasize the point. 

“Whh... well,” Asami stammered. “I actually do have some questions about that, if you don’t mind. Did everyone in your tribe train their muscles like this? Or is that just you?” 

Korra thought for a second. “Mostly just hunters and warriors like me. Though even among them I trained more than most. Most felt like regularly sparring with each other was enough exercise, they didn’t really do any strength building exercises. What about you guys? Do you still exercise or have you all gotten lazy, letting your fancy machines do all the work?” 

Asami laughed. “Compared to your people I’m sure that most of us are terribly out of shape, many people’s jobs no longer require as much physical labor. They spend their days sitting down and writing on papers, even factory work isn’t very good exercise. Some people do play sports in their free time and stay in shape that way, most of those sports are sadly considered unfeminine, but thankfully my father has never cared much about those kinds of social conventions.” 

Korra frowned at that, while grabbing up her towel and preparing to walk back to the mansion with Asami. Preventing women from playing sports? Seriously? As if reading her thoughts, Asami asked Korra if her people had similar rules prohibiting women from doing the same things that men did. 

“Not really, not in our tribe at least,” Korra responded. “It’d be a waste of potential to let a talented ben- A talented hunter waste their talents by sitting down and weaving baskets or something all day. Not that we don’t need people weaving baskets, but we encourage people to find a role that they think suits them, regardless of gender. Plus, even hunters do help crafting tools and such during their downtime.” Korra mentally chastised herself for almost casually talking about the waterbenders in her tribe, she should be more careful. Asami might stop assuming that bending was a mere superstition if it became too clear how it was such an important part of Korra’s daily life.  

“That’s very interesting,” Asami responded. “it certainly seems to contradict the claims that many of my conservative colleagues like to make, about what the natural and traditional role of a woman is.” The black-haired woman seemed happy about that.

They walked to the mansion in a comfortable silence, until Asami spoke up again. “Anyway, I came to find you because I wanted to talk to you about something else. I called the other researchers, who were expecting to be able to continue excavating the iceberg tomorrow. I’ve called them to meet me at the university instead, so that I can tell them about what happened. They’ll probably want to talk to you once they find out about you, but if you want then I can tell them that they’ll have to wait.” 

Korra considered the issue. “Tell them to wait then. I’m not too eager to be poked and prodded by a bunch of weirdos, looking at me like some dumb barbarian they can study.” 

Asami looked worried about what Korra had said. “That’s not how you think I see you, is it?” 

“Not really,” said Korra. “you’ve been kind towards me, and treated me with respect.” Korra found that she meant it, her previous irritation towards Asami and the woman’s dismissal of bending as a primitive superstition had started to fade. 

“On that note,” Asami said. “I thought that you might appreciate some more clothes, so that you’re not wearing the same thing every day. I’ve laid them out in your bedroom, do you want to go see?” Korra shrugged, new clothes might be nice. 

As they began walking towards Korra’s bedroom Asami surreptitiously glanced at Korra several times, looking as if she wanted to ask something. Eventually the woman worked up the nerve and asked her question. “I know you said you didn’t want to speak to my colleagues yet, but could I at least take some pictures of you that I can show them as evidence?”

“Uhhh, I don’t know. What’s a picture?”

Asami facepalmed, then began looking around the hallway and eventually walked towards a small table nearby. She picked up a small object, then showed it to Korra. It looked like a painting, a man and a woman, with a small girl between them. “Look, this is a picture of my family, that’s me in the middle, about ten years ago.”

Korra looked at it, briefly awing over how cute a young Asami looked, but then focusing on how amazingly detailed it was. “How is this made? It’s so detailed, it almost looks real!”

Asami was about to answer when Korra cut her off. “Let me guess, it’s a new kind of technology?”

Asami laughed. “Yeah you’ve got it. We’ve got a device that you can aim at whatever you see, then you press a button and create a picture like that. I’d like to make one of you to show to my colleagues.”

“That’s amazing!” Korra said, before stopping to consider Asami’s question. “And I guess I’m fine with you making one of those pictures of me, how long does it take?”

“Thank you!” Asami said. “It only takes a few seconds, I already put the camera in your bedroom with the clothes. We can take the picture after trying out the clothes.”

As they arrived at her bedroom, Korra was disappointed to find a bunch of dresses and skirts, like the ones Asami wore. They looked great on Asami, but it wasn’t really Korra’s style, and seemed terrible for a fight. 

“Don’t you have any pants? I like to be able to move around more, but these dresses would start flapping around too much if I do.” 

Asami frowned. “They’re not that bad are they? Most dresses are far worse than this, I specifically chose the sleeker simple ones instead of the puffier types that many ladies wear, because I assumed those might be too much for you. It’s not like you’ll be doing backflips in them right?” Korra gave her a look, telling her that she did in fact want to be able to do backflips, should the need arise.

Asami sighed, then responded. “Fine, we could go into the city later, buy you something you find more suitable. I picked these out of the clothes I wore when I was younger, you’re a bit shorter than me so I thought they might fit. But if it’s not your style then we’ll have to buy something new.” 

Korra was bothered by the offer, though it took her a while to figure out why. “Thanks, but I’ve been meaning to ask you something. Is there any way for me to contribute? To earn all the food and stuff you’re giving me? I don’t like to feel useless, in my tribe everyone was expected to earn their keep. I noticed that you have a currency that you use to pay for things, like the food at the docks, what could I do to earn my own money?” 

Asami looked at her, thoughtfully. “I understand where you’re coming from, but honestly I’m not sure what there is for you to do, not while you’re still so new to our time and our society. Your skill in hunting isn’t really needed much anymore, we rely on farming for our food. You could probably work in a factory somewhere, but I wouldn’t be rushing into that sort of work if I was you. The conditions can be terrible, and the pay is too. Other jobs usually require you to have at least some basic schooling, and to spend time as an apprentice first. Even people with an education often struggle to find work. Just let us take care of you while you find your feet, there’s no shame in that and we have plenty of money.” 

Korra nodded, even though she wasn’t sure if she liked the answer. She allowed Asami to take a few pictures of her, and of Naga. As Asami had promised it only took a short time. She spent the rest of the day bored out of her mind, just wandering around while Asami left to continue sorting through the artifacts left in the warehouse. Hiroshi had already left earlier in the day. She played fetch with Naga, but even that got boring eventually. 
She tried speaking to some of the staff around the mansion, but most of them insisted on being weirdly formal and it creeped Korra out.

The chef in the kitchen was nice though, he’d introduced himself as Tuzo when he saw Korra peeking in, looking for some food. He was already preparing for dinner, so he offered to let Korra help by cutting up some of the vegetables while he quickly made her something to eat for lunch. Helping in the kitchen made Korra feel a bit better, but she was still bothered by what Asami had said. She doesn’t expect me to just sit around doing nothing, does she?

Not wanting to become a nuisance, Korra left Tuzo behind after her quick (and delicious) lunch. Then she wandered around for a while longer until Asami returned. They talked for a while about what the world had been like in Korra’s time, with Asami asking various questions about what resources and technologies people had, and about what beliefs they had. Korra spoke openly about the spirits that some venerated, though she quickly discovered that Asami believed that they too were a myth. 

The spirits have gone too? Along with bending? Did they all go into hiding? Even with the portals closed some spirits still crossed over into our world, especially during the solstices. Surely a knowledgeable woman like Asami would’ve heard credible stories about that or would’ve read about that. Do such stories truly not exist?

They had dinner, went to bed, then the next day began to play out much like the previous one. Korra had asked Asami to go into the city with her, but Asami said she’d be busy with the other researchers.

Korra said that she could just go into the city by herself but Asami had warned her against it, telling her that there were too many cultural norms and expectations, not to mention laws, that she didn’t understand yet. Warning her that she could get herself in trouble. 

Korra was getting sick and tired of being cooped up though, so after doing her exercises in the tree again she fetched Naga, then climbed over the estate’s fence and walked towards the city’s center. Naga was able to leap after her. 

Jumping into the dog’s saddle, Korra realized that she kind of wanted to get into trouble. Just some mild trouble, she decided, would do wonders to relieve her boredom. 

At first, Korra and Naga encountered few other people, the houses they saw around them were large and built far away from each other. As they got closer to the city’s center, they started to see more people, and the buildings were built closer togethe. Korra guessed that Asami lived in an area meant for rich and powerful people, but she kind of preferred the look of this more populated area. It felt more like it was part of a real community, instead of the gated and isolated grounds of the Sato mansion. 

It'd certainly be hard to feel lonely, with this many people around. Korra thought, as Naga ran through the streets while keeping pace with the cars, they were drawing a lot of looks from the people walking on the sides of the streets. 

The cars in front of them suddenly stopped moving, like they were all waiting for something/ They were still spewing out smoke behind them though which made Naga cough, so Korra directed the dog to walk on the sidewalk, at a more reserved pace so that they wouldn’t knock over all the other pedestrians. This went fine for a while, until Naga seemed to smell something and started running towards the source of the smell, almost knocking several people over while Korra tried to apologize for her mighty steed’s behavior. The source of the smell turned out to be a market stall, selling various kinds of roasted meat that Korra was now also able to smell. 

Korra’s mouth began watering, yet she ordered Naga to stop and wait. Jumping off the polarbear dog’s saddle, she approached the stall’s owner, a stern looking woman who looked a bit shocked by the large beast’s appearance, but quickly adopted a more businesslike demeanor. 

“Sooo…” Korra started. “I’m guessing I’d need to pay you to eat any of this, right?”

The woman frowned at that. “Of course, what else do you take me for? This isn’t a charity!”

“Right, well, I don’t have any money right now.” Korra said, an awkward smile on her face.

“Then what good are you to me?” The woman replied, sounding angry. Korra retreated, feeling defeated, her charming smile had failed her! She hadn’t expected it to work, but still, she was hungry! It shouldn’t be allowed to entice people with such delicious smells without allowing them a taste!

She tried to comfort Naga, then went further into the city, seeing if they could find something else to eat. They happened upon a large field of grass, with trees surrounding it and a lake in the middle. It seemed a strange place to find in the middle of such a large city with stone buildings and stone streets, but it seemed to serve like a nice respite from all the unnatural buildings and smelly cars, that was probably exactly why they’d left it like this. 

It also seemed like an excellent opportunity to find some food for an experienced hunter & gatherer like Korra. (Asami had used that term the night before, saying that that’s how she would classify the lifestyle of Korra’s tribe, nomadic hunters & gatherers.) 

Her lack of bending would make it harder than usual, but Korra knew some hunting methods using regular tools too. She found a suitable stick near a small thicket of trees, after snapping it in half on her knee it already had a crude point, which became even sharper as she peeled off a few splinters. It would be a very poor spear, but Korra hoped it was enough to skewer a few fish. She should also be able to use her bending to sense the location of fish, without needing to move the water and reveal her bending to any onlookers.

As she walked up to the small lake, Korra was happy to immediately see several fishes swimming lazily beneath the surface. Doesn’t anyone at all hunt anymore? What about those poor sad looking people in the side alleys? Surely they would love such fat easy to catch fish… Whatever, Korra shrugged. If no one else will eat them then I will.

She quickly skewered three fishes for herself, then watched Naga catch a few more by simply diving after them. They then returned to the thicket of trees where she’d found her improvised spear. She gathered enough wood for a small fire, including her former spear, then retrieved a knife from a pouch in Naga’s saddle and used it to filet the fish. 

Her firebending teacher had taught her to create a fire using just a few sticks and some dried leaves, saying something about learning how to nurture and care for a small flame in order to appreciate the value of fire, before they moved on to actual bending. Korra had thought it was dumb, considering how she’d been able to bend fire since she was a toddler long before she received any formal teaching. But the lesson came in handy today as Korra quickly got a small fire started without risking anyone seeing her bending. 

She’d begun eating her roasted fishes when she heard rustling in the bushes beside her. Suddenly a scruffy looking man appeared from within the bush, with a big smile on his face, slightly startling Korra. “Ahem, say, think I can get one of them tasty-smelling fishes?” The man asked.

“Oh,” Korra said, recovering from her surprise, “uh yeah, sure.” She handed over one of the sticks she’d been using to hold the fish over the fire. 

So people do want to eat these fish? Why don’t they then? They were ridiculously easy to catch, even someone with little practice should be able to catch one after a bit of effort.

She watched the man eagerly devour the fish, then as he paused to chew, asked him a question. “So do you uhh, live in that bush?”

The man responded, not seeming offended by the question as Korra had feared. “Yes, presently that is what I do call home. Took me a while to precure a bush that beauteous. This park is quite popular with all the vagabonds.”

Korra frowned. “So there are a lot of you out here? Why don’t you hunt these fishes yourself? And how could you not have any better shelter when this city is so wealthy? Surely they could at least give you some decent hides and leathers to make a tent?” 

“Hides and leathers?" The man smiled. "You really are tribal girl aren’t ya, newcomer? Regardless, sure, they certainly could endeavor to give us more, but they don’t appear inclined to do so. We make or buy tents on occasion, but they tear them down saying that it ruins the aesthetic of the park. Welcome to Republic City,” he did a fancy bow with a flourish, as if to mock the luxury of the city. Then he continued speaking.

“They won’t let us catch these fish either, they chase us away if we try, you’re fortunate that a constable hasn’t arrived at the scene yet.”

As if someone had listened to their conversation and waited for just the right moment, they then heard a whistle in the distance, followed by a man shouting. “Hey you, stop! You can’t fish here. And no fires in the park!” 

“You best skedaddle,” The strange vagabond said to Korra, giving her a wink before diving into the bushes with a whoop. Korra whistled for Naga, grabbed the remaining fish, then jumped on the dog’s back as it came running. They raced away from the man chasing after them. Korra didn’t know the term “constable”, but she figured it was someone meant to enforce the rules of this society, and she didn’t much care to find out how they’d respond to her unlawfully catching their precious fishes. 

They seemed to have shaken their pursuer by the time they reached the other side of the park, so they continued in a more leisurely pace while Korra snacked on the remaining piece of fish, before throwing it in a metal basket that she’d seen other people use to dispose of their trash. (Asami had given Korra a talking to after seeing all the places where Korra had been leaving trash inside her mansion, explaining to her that people usually put it inside special bins, since otherwise the trash piles up so quickly if you stay in one place for a long time.)

Korra looked on curiously as she saw an angry man, shouting into a strange looking instrument that seemed to be increasing the volume of his voice somehow.

“Are you tired of living under the tyranny of the multicultural elite? Then join the separatists! For too long, the multicultural elite have forced us hardworking citizens of the United Republic into poverty and unemployment, while importing refugees from other countries to eat our food and steal our jobs. They’ve forced us real patriots to live as lower-class citizens! Join Amon, and together we will close our borders, deport these ‘refugees’ and tear down the global establishment!”

Korra didn’t like what she was hearing, so she spoke up. “What are you talking about, helping refugees is a good thing isn’t it? Besides, my friend said this nation was founded by people from all over the world?! How could you take away that same opportunity from others, how could you take away their right to travel the world and seek their fortune?” 
The idea seemed genuinely bizarre to Korra, who had traveled all over the world herself. How could anyone think they have exclusive ownership over giant swaths of land and have the right to prevent other people from travelling? Asami had shown her a map of the United Republic, it was massive, how would you even begin to bar people from traveling to and from such a huge territory? 

“Oh yeah?” The man responded. “And I bet you’re a refugee!” He said it with a very accusatory tone even though Korra didn’t see the issue with being a refugee.

Korra thought for a second. “No, I’m not a refugee.” She hadn’t even come to Republic City of her own volition, she just happened to wake up here.

“Well then you’re probably paid by the establishment! They do this all the time, they use their money to hire hecklers and undermine our movement! What’s next, will they hire thugs to beat us up?” He asked, theatrically turning back to the rest of the crowd.

Korra got mad now. “I’m seriously thinking about beating you up myself!” She said, diplomatic as ever. 

“This is what’s wrong with this city!” The man continued. “The elites use their power to hire stooges like this girl, to oppress us and trade away our culture for profit!”

“What?!?” Korra responded, as the crowd turned around to boo at her. “I’m not oppressing anyone! You’re… You’re oppressing yourself!” Korra tugged on Naga’s leash, then they turned to walk away while the man shouted after her that her comeback didn’t make any sense. You’re one to talk. She thought. Seriously, what was up with that guy?

Korra and Naga left the park and entered the regular city again, Korra simply walking beside the big dog to give the animal some rest. As she walked around, she noticed that this street somehow looked much poorer than the streets she’d passed through on her way to the park. The people looked more ragged and hunched over. The buildings were still the same apartment buildings that could be seen all over the city, but they didn’t look as well-maintained. For some reason Korra felt certain that there were a lot more people living crammed into these buildings, than there were in the other buildings of identical size and design.

The inequality of this society is much subtler than I assumed. She thought. It isn’t just that the outskirts where Asami lives are the wealthiest, while regular people live in apartments and the poorest vagabonds live in alleys or bushes without proper shelter. There’s a hidden class of people, living in identical buildings but under very different circumstances. How am I supposed to fulfill my role as the Avatar when there’s so much that I don’t understand about this society?

She realized suddenly that she had no idea where she was or how to get back to the Sato mansion. She’d thought when she left that the mansion was so big that it’d be easy to find, but as she continued walking through the city she realized that she’d seriously underestimated its size. The Sato mansion was on the outskirts of the city, but those outskirts must be stretched out for miles and miles in a ring around the city, it’d take hours to find the mansion if she didn’t narrow down her search first. 

She approached a friendly looking woman and tried to ask her for directions, but then something seemed to spook the woman and she advised Korra to get moving, telling her that it isn’t safe. The woman quickly followed her own advice and retreated into the building she had been sitting in front of, before slamming the door closed. Korra turned around and saw a car slowly coming to a stop, in front of a building that seemed to be selling a bunch of strange devices that kind of looked like the thing the man in the park had been yelling through. 

The man who had been trying to sell those devices looked at the car in fear, yet didn’t retreat back inside as the woman had done. Three men exited the car and approached the shopkeeper, the smug looking one in front started talking, sounding even more smug than he looked. “Mister Chung, please tell me that you have my money, or else I can’t guarantee I can protect your fine establishment.”
Who were these people, hired guards or something? But why would everyone be so afraid of guards?

“I’m sorry, business has been slow,” mister Chung responded. “please, take one of my phonographs!”

Another of the three men, a scrawny looking one, stepped forward and kicked the device out of Chung’s hands, causing it to shatter on the ground while Chung fell backwards in fear. Clearly these men weren’t guards, they’re bandits of some sort, trying to make their raiding sound more civilized than it really is. 

“My friend here isn’t a music lover,” the smug man said. “give me the money, or else—” 

“Or else what bandit?” Korra interjected, walking to the middle of the street and causing the three men to turn around and look at her, while she stood there confidently.

 

They looked at her, then at each other, then all three of them began laughing. “Well hello there little girl. Since you’re obviously fresh off the boat, let me explain a couple things. You’re in Triple Threat Triad territory, and since we’re not afraid of hurting a woman, we’re about to put you in a hospital.”

Korra smirked, realizing how much these guys were underestimating her due to this society’s weird view of women. “I don’t know what a hospital is, but when I’m done with you guys you’re going to need a healer! And for your sake, I hope there’s one nearby.” 

The smug guy’s face began twitching in anger. “Who do you think you are?”

“Why don’t you come and find out?” Korra responded, slamming a fist into the palm of her hand. Each of her bending instructors had instructed her to spar without using her bending, to practice the bending forms while fighting a melee fight with only her hands and feet. She’d always enjoyed those sparring sessions, they were much more fun than rubbing sticks together to create a fire! Making direct contact with her kicks and punches really helped her understand why the forms were designed the way they are and where exactly their power came from. Even without using her bending, a strong earthbending stance could help Korra hold her ground against much larger opponents.

Korra started walking towards the three men, then the smug guy reached into his jacket, probably to retrieve a weapon of some sort. Not waiting around to see what exactly it was, Korra began to move into a kick. She spun around and kicked the man’s wrist soon after he retrieved whatever had been in his jacket, making him drop it to the ground. She continued her spin into a second kick, which connected with the man’s head and caused him to crash into his own car. Korra spared a brief glance at what the man had pulled from his jacket, it was a strange metal object she didn’t recognize. 
She quickly looked back at the remaining two men, the scrawny one pulled out a knife while the other one, a big muscly looking guy, pulled out a wooden club. 

The muscly guy approached first, Korra kicked him in the gut while she stood in a strong earthbending pose, the man stopped in his tracks and buckled despite his considerable weight advantage, especially after Korra followed up by punching him in the same spot where she’d kicked him before, putting all her weight behind the punch.

She then followed up by jumping into the air and slamming her knee against his face, which knocked the large man flat onto his back. 

The scrawny guy with the knife looked on in fear, he pointed his knife towards her but his stance was terrible, his arm was fully extended and he was leaning backwards as if trying to stay as far away from her as possible. The terrible stance left him unable to jab his knife forward or to quickly step forward, so Korra simply walked up and grabbed the man’s wrist. Her powerful grip caused the man to groan in pain and drop the knife, he brought up his other hand to try to pull Korra’s hand off his wrist, but Korra intercepted him with her remaining hand. Holding both of the scrawny man’s wrists, she leaned backwards, using her bodyweight to pull the man after her. Then she spun, garnering speed before throwing him away from her towards a building nearby.

The man went flying off, then crashed through the building’s window. Whoops, are those expensive? Korra briefly wondered. She then walked up to the man, lying half-conscious inside the building’s broken-down entrance. “Got an idea about who I am now, chumps?” Korra asked, feeling pretty good about herself. She’d almost forgotten about how much fun melee fights could be, maybe hiding her bending wouldn’t be so bad after all. 

She turned around and walked to the strange device the first guy had pulled out. He’d tried to aim it at her as if it was a ranged weapon of some sort, but as she picked it up and looked it over she couldn’t figure out how it worked. There was a hole in one end, did a small arrow come shooting out of there or something? But then where was the bowstring?

As she considered the strange device, she heard a sound of loud horns approaching, they were attached to several cars that skidded to a stop right behind the bandit’s car. 

Korra turned to face these new arrivals, wondering if they were bandit reinforcements. As people began stepping out of the car though, she noticed they were wearing the same clothes as the “constable” from the park. Ah good, if these guys keep the order then they’ll know what to do with the bandits. She thought, as she walked up to talk to them. “Are you the peacekeepers around these parts? I caught the bandits for you,” she said. 

They didn’t look particularly grateful, in fact they all pulled out the same kind of device that the smug guy had and pointed them at her. “Drop the gun!” They yelled.

“What’s a gun?” Korra responded, genuinely confused.

“DROP THE GUN RIGHT NOW OR WE’LL OPEN FIRE!” They yelled, even lauder this time. Korra dropped the device she was holding to the ground, these constables seemed to be trying to threaten her with the same kind of device, so Korra finally realized that they must see her holding it as a threat.

“You meant that thing? Sorry I didn’t know what it was, it belonged to that guy I just picked it up!” She said, pointing to the smug guy, who was just starting to regain consciousness as a constable approached and began binding his wrists behind his back with strange metal bindings. Korra smiled, until she felt those same bindings lock around her own wrists...

“You’re under arrest too,” the man behind her said…

Notes:

Another chapter ;p

This one was pretty fun and easy to write, probably because it most closely follows the plot of an actual episode, unlike the previous chapters.
Anyway, here it is. I'll be going on holiday next week, so I'm not certain if I will be posting another chapter then. It depends on whether I figure out how to do so on mobile and on whether or not I remember XD

Chapter 5: The Waterbending Scroll

Summary:

Asami loses her composure, Korra hears some troubling new information about the modern world.

Chapter 5: The Waterbending Scroll

 

Asami walked onto the familiar university grounds, dragging a heavy trolley loaded with carefully packed boxes behind her. Despite drawing funny looks from the students and teachers she simply kept dragging the heavy cart behind her, before finally making it to the room that had been cleared for the researchers that had joined her expedition.

The room was part of a relatively new building, one that had been built separately from the main structure of the university itself. It was occasionally used for various projects, by students and professors alike. The room contained all the artifacts they had uncovered during the expedition itself, plus everything they had been able to cut free of the iceberg thus far.

Of course, the entire iceberg had exploded since then, but the other researchers didn’t know that yet. Which was why Asami herself had carefully packaged everything she’d found inside her father’s warehouse, between the chunks of ice that had been all that remained of the icy mountain after Korra’s dramatic awakening.

The building’s doorway was built atop a small stone step, so Asami was unable to simply roll the trolley inside. With a sigh, she opened the door and began carrying the first of many boxes inside. About an hour later Asami was finally able to rest as she sat down with a sigh. She had just finished unpacking the final artifact, an ancient waterskin with decorative figures carved into its sides.  

She had left only two artifacts back at the warehouse, or three depending on how you counted. There was the corpse, of a woman who had been cut in half. And there was another waterskin, one with the cork still on and liquid still sloshing around inside. Asami had decided that it would be best if those two remained in cooling for now. To properly analyze the corpse they’d need someone who’s studied medicine and human anatomy. To properly analyze the waterskin they’d need a chemist, to examine its insides. What if it’s not simple water inside, but some other kind of drink? Maybe even a primitive fermented alcoholic drink? Asami chuckled, it’d be the oldest vintage in the world! They probably wouldn’t let her drink it though. 

She looked at her watch; it was only 3 PM the other researchers wouldn’t arrive for another 30 minutes. She stood back up, then walked up to a glass box containing an earlier find, inside the box they had carefully unfurled one of the most exciting finds of the expedition; an ancient scroll depicting figures standing in various poses. It looked like the different poses had been drawn in a specific order, like the poses in each line were meant to represent a single continuous motion. 

Next to the box was a stack of papers containing copies as close as possible to the drawings of the original scroll, the copies had been made by an art student Asami was acquainted with.

In addition to the human figures, the drawings also featured shapes of blue drawn next to the human figures, usually close to one of the figure’s hands of feet. Asami was convinced that the scroll was meant to depict bending, waterbending to be specific. That the scroll had been made to teach people the stances and movements that were associated with waterbending. What she wasn’t sure of was if the blue shapes were meant to be taken literally, whether they were meant to represent water floating in the air, or whether they were meant to represent some sort of spiritual energy that the “bender” was meant to visualize as they went through the different stances. 

Another theory was that the blue shapes were meant to represent the figure’s center of balance, or the direction in which they were moving. This last theory could be tested relatively easily, so Asami began to mimic the different stances depicted on the scroll, trying to imagine how she could move between them in a single fluid motion. 

It took some practice, but after a while she felt like she was starting to figure out one of the moves depicted in the scroll. It involved standing on her left leg while kicking her right leg straight forward, then stepping forward on that right leg while kneeling low, before punching her right hand forward. The image depicted blue shapes extending out of the figure’s leg as they kicked, while also extending from their hand while they held it backwards. Having now tried the motion herself, Asami did notice that holding her hand back like that made it work like a counterbalance, which lends some credibility to the idea that the blue shapes are used to symbolize a person’s center of gravity and/or their momentum. 

As she went through the motion several times, she became convinced that it was a martial art of some kind. She didn’t know what kinds of superstitions were attached to it, but as she followed the steps, she could feel the power behind her kick and behind the subsequent punch, the steps were tailored to ensure that she remained balanced while still able to put a lot of power and weight behind the kick and punch.  

She couldn’t be certain though, she was no martial artist. After her mother’s murder her father had insisted that she learn how to defend herself, but this had involved a shooting instructor teaching her how to use various firearms, such as the small revolver she always carried in her purse. When it came to melee fighting Asami didn’t know much. 

She was trying to figure out where she could find a martial arts expert when a knock sounded on the door. The door opened shortly after, after which Ho Sook stepped inside. He’d been the lead researcher of her expedition, he was also the one who’d spoken to the university and arranged this room, something he was easily able to do given how he was employed part-time by the university as a professor. Asami quickly reminded herself that even though in her mind she thought of it as “her” expedition, Ho-Sook had technically been in charge. Asami had informed the university of the ancient spear her father had bought, and of where the hunter had found it. She had convinced them to help fund an expedition and had helped with its organization, but she hadn’t been put in charge of it, Ho Sook had been. In fact, she almost hadn’t been able to convince them to bring her along, which was something that still upset her even when she was just thinking about it. 

She didn’t blame Ho Sook for this, he’d been very gracious about the matter and had argued on her behalf to the rest of the university, telling them of what a great student she was. 

“Ah, miss Asami, I see you’ve already arrived.” He said as he hung his coat on the wall, when he turned back he finally seemed to notice all the new additions to the room. “Is this why you’ve called us here? Where did you get all these new artifacts? Don’t tell me these are all from the iceberg? Why would you dig them all out without us? Did you cause any damage?!?” 

Asami blushed. “Hello professor. Uhhm, yes they are all from the iceberg, it’s kind of a long story. I didn’t mean to do anything without your supervision, but things happened that weren’t really under my control. I think it would be best if we waited for everyone else to join us,” Ho Sook looked eager for answers, but he settled for inspecting all the new artifacts that he had previously only been able to observe through a thick blurry layer of ice. Some of them hadn’t been visible at all. 

About ten minutes later Asami watched the final two archeologists enter the room, like the others they were both shocked and upset to find all the new artifacts and questioned why they’d been uncovered without their supervision. 

Asami cleared her throat, calling attention to herself, before she began to explain. She explained how the previous Friday after everyone had left, she’d stayed behind to keep chiseling away some more ice. She stressed how she hadn’t been chipping away any of the ice close to the artifacts within. She’d simply wanted to get a head start on clearing away the bulk of pure ice that didn’t contain anything interesting, so that they wouldn’t have to waste as much time on that the next week. She explained how the ice had suddenly begun cracking and falling apart. She left out the glowing she thought she’d seen, and the wind that had seemed to come from inside of the ice. 

Asami explained how, as far as she could tell, she’d been able to save and preserve most of the artifacts that had fallen out after the iceberg fell apart.

She was trying to think of how she would explain the next and most difficult part when one of the other researchers, Thawi, spoke up with an angry voice. “Stop dancing around the issue and get to the point, obviously our main concern is with the body that was at the center of the ice. Go on girl, tell us how your carelessness destroyed a priceless artifact!”

Several of the other men in the room murmured their agreement with Thawi, then gave hostile looks to Asami, daring her to respond.

Asami struggled to compose herself before replying, careful not to give them any excuse to call her immature and unprofessional. “Actually, the body has been perfectly preserved, better than any of us could’ve hoped for. I’ll admit that I’ve been dancing around this issue, but only because I haven’t been sure how to best explain it. The truth is… The girl who’d been frozen in the ice is still alive, after the ice broke apart she stood up and fell right into my arms! I know it’s difficult to believe, but it’s the truth. She’s staying at my father’s mansion, her name is Korra.”

Asami watched, anxious, while all the men at the room stared at her. Finally, Ho Sook was the first to speak. “What do you mean she’s alive? That’s impossible!”

Asami shrugged in response. “That’s what I thought, but it’s true. Here, I took some pictures of her.”

She took the pictures from a folder, then handed them over. It had been difficult to get Korra to hold a proper pose, so several of the pictures showed the girl standing awkwardly with an uncomfortable smile, one showed her awkwardly waving at the camera, another showed her flexing her muscles. There were also a few pictures of Naga, which now that Asami thought about it might actually be more convincing than the pictures of Korra herself. “Oh right, I forgot to mention. Remember that white blob we saw in the ice, how we couldn’t figure out what it was? Turns out that it was the girl’s pet polarbear dog. The dog survived too!” 

Ho Sook’s eyes widened as he stared at a picture of Korra riding on Naga’s back. Thawi approached, taking a brief glance at the pictures before scoffing and speaking up loudly. “You’re not actually buying this ridiculous story, are you? Obviously the girl is just embarrassed of ruining all of our work, and is now coming up with this pathetic excuse to try to cover up her failure. The truth is that it’s our fault, we never should’ve let the foolish child alone with such an important and fragile object. We never should’ve accepted someone like her into the university to begin with, her sad excuses make it clear that women just don’t have the wisdom or maturity to ever hope to become true scholars!”

Ho Sook stammered, seemingly wanting to come to Asami’s defense, but Asami spoke first, the man’s insults had shattered her composure. 

“Ruined your work!?! I saved OUR work; we would’ve left it behind at the South Pole and probably never found it again if it wasn’t for my plan to tow the iceberg back to Republic City! Believe me or not, I honestly don’t care. I’m telling you the truth; Korra is alive and she represents the single most valuable discovery in the history of archeology! She can give us first hand accounts of what society was like thousands of years ago. Even better than a first hand account that’s been written down, we can actually interview her and ask her whatever we want.” 

“Correction, I can ask her whatever I want. She’s living in my family’s house. She was being stored in my father’s warehouse, after we found her on an expedition that was organized by me and funded by my father. I’ve allowed you all to take part in this research because I want your help, a decision that I’m seriously starting to reconsider.” 

She pulled a contract out of her folder, the contract her father had drawn up when he agreed to fund the expedition.

“This contract states that everything we found on our expedition is the property of my father, all the artifacts in this room are being loaned to the university, I could have them all confiscated if I wanted to. If you ever want the opportunity to speak to Korra, or to study any of these artifacts, you better start treating me with some damn respect!” 

With that, she turned around and stormed out of the room, leaving all the men to stare at her in shock. She walked across the university’s grounds, still furious. She’d almost reached the parking lot by the time that Ho Sook caught up with her. “Miss Asami, please wait. I understand that you’re upset, but these artifacts are too valuable, you’re not seriously considering denying the university the chance to study them are you?” 
Asami stopped, then she counted to ten, then finally she exhaled as she unclenched her fists.

Having regained a semblance of calm, she turned to Ho Sook. The man looked nervous, but also sympathetic. “You have every right to be angry, but please just try to think of the bigger picture.”

Asami sighed. “You’re right. I would never deny the university the chance to examine these artifacts, they’re too valuable to be hoarded like that. I’m seriously considering the idea of making sure that Thawi is completely shut out of the project though…”

Ho Sook laughed at that. “Fair enough, to be completely honest I’ve never liked the man to begin with, if that’s your decision then I won’t complain, I’ll even support you! Now that you’ve cooled off though, would you consider joining me at my office? I’d appreciate the opportunity to ask you more questions about what happened, and about this Korra girl…” 

 

Asami assented, then they turned around to walk towards the university’s main building. As they entered the building though, one of the clerks at the reception called out to Asami. “Miss Asami, I was just about to look for you. There’s someone on the phone for you, they say they have a message from the Republic City Police Department.”

 

***

 

Korra glared at the metal bars in front of her, frustrated at the recent turn of events. All she’d done was beat up a bunch of bandits who had threatened a trader and then threatened her when she spoke up. Admittedly, if she’d been a bit more careful then she wouldn’t have thrown that last guy through a window, but dragging her away and imprisoning her seemed overly harsh. 

They’d nearly even hurt Naga after Naga began barking at them in defense of Korra, until Korra intervened and promised to calm down her pet. She wasn’t sure where they’d taken the polarbear dog, but after Korra got her to calm down the constables had warmed up to the dog, so Korra trusted their promise to take care of her. 

All in all, Korra wasn’t particularly worried, she could break out of this cell whenever she wanted if she used her bending. She wasn’t worried, just irritated. It’s not like she was asking everyone to fall to their knees and sing her praises, she could handle some constructive criticism, but she felt like the least they could do was to recognize her good intentions rather than treating her as some sort of malevolent villain that needs to be contained! It all just seemed terribly unfair and ungrateful. 

Glaring at the metal bars was starting to lose its charm, so Korra turned around for something new to occupy her time. She’d already counted all the bricks in the walls, and scratched her armpits to the point of obscenity, so she really needed new ideas. Other than the brick walls and the metal bars, the only thing of note in the room was a small bench attached to the wall furthest away from the metal bars. Korra decided to start working out again, she began by jumping up and down the bench until the muscles in her legs started burning. She moved on to doing pushups while her legs were elevated onto the bench, but then she heard footsteps approaching from the hallway behind the metal bars. 

She pointedly ignored the footsteps while she finished her exercise, if they were so willing to waste her time and let her sit in this room without telling her anything then she wouldn’t act as if she was at their beck and call as soon as they finally deigned to show up.

Someone cleared their throat to get her attention, but she continued her pushups for a while longer. When she finished her pushups she finally looked up at the person standing in front of her, it was another constable wearing the same clothes as all the others, the guy looked sort of inexperienced and insecure. “Uhh, I’m supposed to escort you to the interview room, put your hands behind your back and come closer so that I can cuff you again,” he said, clearly struggling to adopt an authoritative tone. Korra almost felt sorry for the guy, she sighed and then complied with his orders.

As they walked through the building, she heard people whispering about her. She caught fragments of what they were saying, apparently her actions had caused quite a stir... “-said she beat up three armed triad members, high ranking ones too,” said a guard nearby, talking to his colleague.

“-fluke, no way some broad would ever get the better of Viper in a real fight, ain’t no way,” a prisoner said, talking to other prisoners in a shared cell. Korra chuckled listening to all the tales of her own infamy. She had thought that they were ignoring her while making her wait in the cell, but it seemed like the opposite was the case; she was all anyone was talking about. Was she really the first to teach those three losers a lesson? 

“Quiet, just keep walking,” the constable escorting her said, though it sounded more like a plea than a command. Eventually they entered a new room, it was dark and empty save for a sturdy table and some chairs in the middle of the room. She was directed to sit on one of the chairs, then one of her hands was uncuffed so that the other could be cuffed to the table. Then the constable left the room and Korra was alone again. 

She felt a bit more worried now, the floor was still concrete, but being cuffed to this table would be an issue if she had to fight her way free. Fighting with her hands cuffed in front of her wouldn’t be too big of an issue, but fighting while dragging this table along behind her seemed like a tall task even for her. She was wondering how long it’d take for her to melt the chain attaching her to the table when the door opened again, and two men walked in. 

They didn’t wear the same clothing as all the regular constables did, instead they wore regular coats like she’d seen many people wearing around the city. Yet she got the impression that they were higher up in the hierarchy of the city’s armed forces, an impression she based primarily on the overly smug expressions they wore on their mustachioed faces.

“So, you’re the girl who interfered with police efforts and smashed up a store?” The shorter one said, his voice as smug as his face.

The other one spoke up immediately after. “Why would you ever think the police needs the help of a pretty little thing like you? Next time just stand back and let them make their arrest, you could’ve ruined everything if one of those men took you hostage before the police took them down.”

“What? I didn’t interfere with anything, your people were nowhere in sight until after I beat those bandits up. They didn’t take anyone down, I did!” 

Both men started laughing, as if it was the most ridiculous thing they’d ever heard. “Yeah sure,” the short one said.

“How’d you do it, did ya make them swoon after a kiss on the cheek?” The other one started laughing even louder.

“Hahaha yeah, what? Did you knock them out by batting your eyelashes real hard?!” 

The two kept laughing, while Korra seriously weighed the consequences of breathing fire at them both, she was pretty sure that she’d be able to burn off both of their stupid mustaches. “Enough with the comedy routine,” the tall one finally said, pulling out paper folder and looking through it. “We’re not here to talk about your charges, we’ve already got all the evidence we need from the testimonies that the constables gave. We’re here to ask you some questions regarding your identity; says here that you haven’t given us a full name. You also didn’t carry any papers, so we haven’t been able to confirm your citizenship status.”

“I told you, my name is Korra, a warrior of Chief Tonraq’s tribe,” Korra said, unsure what the rest of what they’d said meant. 

“Riiiight…” the short guy responded, “is that a stage name or something?”

Korra frowned, were they just insulting her name, or was there something she was missing? “Anyway,” the short guy continued. “are you a citizen or not? If so, do you have anyone who can confirm your identity, or do we need to call immigration services to have you deported?” He smirked at that last part, so she assumed that would be a bad thing. It seemed like they were finally getting somewhere though.

“Someone to confirm my identity? Asami Sato can do that.” 

“Asami Sato? Daughter of Hiroshi Sato, founder of Future Industries? THAT Asami Sato?” The taller guy said, sounding very skeptical.

Korra nodded eagerly. “Yeah, that’s the one, I’ve been staying at her home the past few days.” She thought about telling them all about the iceberg stuff but decided that it’d probably be better received if it came from Asami.

The two officers looked at her, stroking their ridiculous mustaches in consternation. “You better not be messing with us, if you are then I promise that you’ll regret it,” the tall one said, in a suddenly gruff and serious voice. Both men turned away and walked to the door, she hear them talking softly about how they should discuss this with their boss.   

They slammed the door shut behind them, leaving Korra alone again. She was never a very patient person to begin with and had been spending hours in empty rooms at this point, so she was quite proud of herself for the restraint it took to not use her bending to cut through her cuffs and tear her way out of the room. She huffed in frustration as she tried to think of something to occupy her mind, she briefly considered trying to reach out to Raava or her past lives, but immediately dismissed that thought. She was terrible at meditation even under the best of circumstances and had never been able to make contact with her past lives on purpose, so with her current mindset such an attempt was clearly doomed to fail. 

This mental tangent did get her thinking about another important issue though, an issue she probably should’ve thought of before. If all benders were gone, how was she supposed to learn airbending? Before they were attacked, Korra’s tribe had been traveling towards the Southern air temple. The plan had been for Korra to find a master who could teach her about airbending and spirituality, just like how she’d learned earthbending and firebending during her tribe’s previous travels. 

But this was no longer possible, so how could Korra learn airbending without a master? She suddenly remembered the waterbending scroll that Asami had shown her, hoping that Korra could tell her more about it. She’d awkwardly dodged all of Asami’s questions, not knowing how to talk about it while keeping her own bending a secret. But now she realized that this may be the answer to her problem, could such scrolls exist for airbending? If so, Asami would be just the person to ask, so much so that Korra meeting the woman almost seemed fated.

She resolved to ask Asami about this as soon as she was free from her current confines. Having the beginnings of a plan made her feel slightly better, but it ultimately did little to relieve her of her boredom as she was once again waiting around with nothing to do. She blanked out, staring at the ceiling, until she snapped back into focus at the sound of the door opening again. 

A woman stepped through, it was an intimidating looking woman with a stern expression on her scarred face. “Let’s see,” the woman said, apparently not feeling the need to introduce herself, “multiple counts of destruction of private and city property, not to mention threatening law enforcement officers with an illegal firearm, interfering with an arrest… You’re in a whole mess of trouble, young lady.”

Korra tried to defend herself, to explain that she’d been trying to protect a helpless shopkeeper, but the woman wasn’t hearing it. “Can it!” The woman said. “You should have just stayed out of the way and let the police do their job.” Korra felt her knuckles turn white as she dug her nails into her palm, as she struggled to calm herself before responding. 

“Listen lady, I don’t know what those chumps with their stupid mustaches told you but there were no police in sight when I confronted those bandits. I didn’t interfere with anything, I beat those three losers up long before the police appeared, if I hadn’t stepped up then that shopkeeper could’ve been seriously hurt! I couldn’t just sit by and do nothing, it’s my duty to help people.”

“Your duty? Do you have some special title I wasn’t aware of?” The woman asked, raising her eyebrow.

Korra blushed, realizing the slip of her tongue. “Well no, but it’s everyone’s duty to help those around them isn’t it?” She said, trying to recover from her mistake. The woman scoffed at that, though it did seem to make her slightly less hostile towards Korra. 

“So you're really telling me that you beat Viper and his thugs all on your own?” The woman asked, looking Korra up and down, seemingly rethinking her initial assumptions. “Who trained you?” 

“I’ve had several different teachers,” Korra hedged, not wanting encourage this new line of inquiry. Korra decided to try to switch to a new topic. “Anyway, I told those guys a while ago to go talk to Asami Sato, did they manage to find her? She can help explain exactly who I am.” 

The woman sighed before responding. “They were too spineless to try to contact someone as high-profile as the Satos, so they came to me instead. I did call the Sato mansion, the servants there surprisingly did confirm that you currently live there. Asami Sato wasn’t home when I called, but they said that they’d pass the message along. Hopefully for you she’ll show up soon, otherwise you’re going to have to spend the night in a cell.” 

At that exact moment, a knock sounded on the door. “Chief, Asami Sato is here.” 

“Ah, perfect timing, let her in,” the door opened, then Asami stepped into the room, looking beautiful as ever in a neat black dress with red accents. 

“Miss Sato, right on time, this girl here assured me that you can help us clear some things up regarding her identity.” 

“District Attorney Beifong,” Asami said, nodding to the older woman before turning to Korra. “Korra! Are you okay? What in Raava’s name happened? You were supposed to stay at the mansion, then suddenly I get a call telling me you were in a fight with the triads and that the police arrested you!”  

Korra grew slightly embarrassed, remembering how Asami had warned her that something like this might happen if she left. “I just got bored, okay? Sitting around all day with nothing to do isn’t really my thing, I just wanted to learn more about the city. Everything was going fine until I saw some guys threatening an innocent shopkeeper. I keep telling everyone that I was just trying to help!” 

“Yeah well your good intentions mean diddly-squat,” said the woman. Beifong, Asami had called her. The woman turned towards Asami as she continued speaking. “This idiot girl is charged with destruction of property, interfering in an arrest, and threatening law officers with a firearm,” she said.

“What?!” Asami exclaimed. “Where did she even get a firearm?” 

“One of the guys I beat up dropped it on the ground,” Korra explained. “I didn’t threaten anyone with it, I just picked it up off the floor, I didn’t even know what it was. Also, AGAIN, I didn’t interfere with anything, I knocked all those guys unconscious before the police even showed up.” 

Asami looked very worried at this explanation. Beifong looked between the two of them before speaking. “I will admit that there’s been some inconsistencies in the story that the officers told me, I promise that I’ll get to the bottom of that. Spirits know that those meatheads have ruined plenty of cases thanks to their sloppy investigations and lack of questioning witnesses.” 

“In the meantime, how in the world could you not know what a gun is? There’s also still the question of your citizenship that needs to be resolved, which is why we called Miss Sato in the first place.”

Korra stayed silent, not sure how to answer the woman’s question. Luckily Asami answered for her. “I have the answer to both of those questions,” she said, calmly, “in fact, it’s the same answer for both. Did you see the news about that iceberg in port, a few days ago?” She asked.

The older woman looked confused by the apparent non-sequitur. “I read some headlines, something about an old fossil in the ice. What about it?” 

 “Well, I know it’s going to be hard to believe, but that fossil turned out to be Korra. Somehow, she was still alive inside the ice. She’s been frozen for millennia, which is why she’s ignorant of certain aspects of our society and has no knowledge of firearms, among other things. It also makes the question of her citizenship rather complicated, her people lived a nomadic lifestyle and traveled all over the world, including what’s now the territory of the United Republic. I probably should have worked to officially get her registered as a citizen, or to get her a visa or something, but the thought honestly hadn’t occurred to me. Either way, there wouldn’t be anywhere to deport her to. She’d face the exact same issues in the Fire Nation or the Water Tribes.”

The other woman remained remarkably impassive, as she processed everything Asami just said. Meanwhile Korra was happy to have finally figured out what “deport” means; apparently, it’s some form of exile.

“Ugh,” the woman finally said, “that’s going to be a lot of paperwork… Guess it explains the wild beast she has as a pet though. Fine, under the circumstances I think I can go easy on her. There’ll be a fine to pay, but I trust that won’t be an issue for the Sato family fortune. If you promise to keep her out of trouble then I’ll release the girl into your custody, I’ll be keeping an eye on you though.” 

Asami nodded her consent, then the woman moved to unlock Korra from her constraints. As she followed Asami out of the room, she looked back to see the stern woman gesture her intent to keep an eye on them. She cheekily returned the gesture, then turned back around and hurried after Asami. “Heh, thanks for getting me out of there. Sorry for the trouble,” she said, awkwardly rubbing her own neck.

Asami shot her a comforting smile before she responded. “It’s not a problem, I was just about done at the university anyway. You should really be more careful though, I was worried. The Triads are no joke, you could’ve been seriously hurt!” 

Korra scoffed. “Oh please, those losers could barely stand up straight even before I hit them, are they really what passes for warriors in your world?”

Asami grabbed her shoulder and forcefully turned her around, staring directly into her eyes with an intense look. “I’m serious Korra, he had a gun! You have no idea how dangerous those are, you’re lucky he didn’t get a shot off.”

Korra nodded her assent. “OK fine, I’ll be more careful. I still don’t understand those things though, they don’t look like any weapon I’ve ever seen. Are they some kind of ranged weapon?”

Asami nodded, as they began walking again. “Yes, remember how I told you about explosions? These weapons essentially use tiny explosions to launch pieces of metal at high speed, like a bow and arrow except much faster and much easier to use, just one pull of the trigger and you’re dead!”

Korra was shocked to see Asami’s eyes wet with tears, threatening to spill out. The woman kept walking, not seeming to want to acknowledge how emotional the subject made her. Korra asked her about it anyway. “Uhh, I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to upset you so badly. I’m sure those guns are dangerous but I’m totally fine, he didn’t even manage to point it in my direction before I kicked it out of his hands.” 

Asami sniffed, then nodded. “It’s not your fault, it’s just… My mother was killed by a gun, when I was still a child.”

Korra wasn’t sure how to respond to that, staying silent while they went to a desk where Asami briefly asked where Naga was being kept. They exited the police station, Naga in tow, and made their way down the steps to where she saw Asami’s car. They stepped in the car and drove for a while, before Korra spoke again. “Do you want to talk about it?” She asked, unable to sense the other woman’s mood as she looked forward to keep an eye on the other traffic.

“There’s not much to say really. Some radicals broke into our home while I was sleeping, apparently they wanted to take my mom hostage and then use the ransom money to fund a revolution or some nonsense like that. She resisted, then one of those idiots shot her. The sound alerted the guards and then all the radicals were shot too,” she sighed. “There wasn’t even anyone to be mad at afterwards, by the time I walked out to see what happened everyone was dead! I’ve hated guns ever since, even after my father made me learn how to use them. They just make it too easy for people to kill each other!”

Korra stared ahead, mind racing with her own memories of violence and death. “It’s always been easy,” she said softly.

She wasn’t sure if Asami heard her, until the woman nodded her agreement. “Yeah, I guess so.” They drove the rest of the way in silence, although Korra felt like they drew comfort from each other’s presence. 

 

***

 

During dinner, Asami spoke to her father about how they needed a visa or a passport, or something, for Korra. He promised to ask one of his lawyers to look into it, Asami hoped that it wouldn’t be too much of an issue. After once again watching in amazement at the sheer volume of food that the other girl shoveled into her mouth, Asami eventually stood up and made for the sitting room, Korra following closely behind. 

“Man, that Tuzo guy really knows how to make good food,” the warrior girl said.

“Yeah he really does,” Asami agreed, “when did you learn his name?”

“Oh I was bored the other day, so I walked into the kitchens. We talked a bunch and he let me help him cut some vegetables,” Korra said happily, as she sat down on one of the chairs with a happy sigh. Asami smiled at the girl, at the lazy unashamed way she slouched down on the chair, hand on her full belly. Asami admired the girl for the sense of freedom she seemed to embody in the way she carried herself, so very different from the way Asami has always tried to please everyone and to abide by society’s norms, all to placate pricks like Thawi. 

“That’s really nice of you, helping Tuzo out like that,” Asami said.

“Oh I’m pretty sure he just thought I was getting in his way, though he was too nice to say anything. I was bored though so I didn’t care,” Korra responded. 

Asami frowned at that, she’d seriously underestimated how bored Korra would get. In hindsight it made perfect sense though. “I’m sorry,” she began, “I didn’t realize how bored you’d get if I left you here, that was a big oversight on my part.” Korra started to object, but Asami continued. “I’d like to ask you to do some things for me, if you wouldn’t mind. It would be a great help for me and my research, and it’d give you something to do.” 

She watched as the girl considered her question. “What kinds of things?” Korra asked. 

"Well, in your tribe you all did a lot of crafting, did you not? Making spears and pots and baskets and such?” The girl nodded.

“I’d like you to do that again now, the same way you would’ve done it before, I can arrange for someone to provide you with all the raw materials you think you’ll need. I’ve spent the last few days working to preserve all the things we found from your time, but it’s occurred to me that I could probably learn even more from watching you make them yourself while you explain your process.” 

She watched as the warrior mulled it over. “I can do that I guess, I’ve never taught anyone else but I can give it a try. What else did you want from me?” 

“I’d like you to show me how you fight, how you beat those triad guys. I know you said that you didn’t recognize the movements depicted on that scroll I showed you, but if you show me how you fight then I can still look to see if there’s any similarities. Even if there’s no similarities, it would still be valuable regardless for me to learn more about how you and other warriors of your time fought. And about how you were trained.” 

The other girl thought it over, suddenly a very serious look on her face. It took her a surprisingly long time, but eventually she seemed to make up her mind. “I can show you some things if you want, I want something in return though.”

“Oh? What do you want then?” Asami said.

“I want you to show me how guns work,” Korra answered, “I know you explained the basics, but I still can’t really picture how they’d be used in a fight. I’m a warrior, I don’t like the idea of living in this new society without understanding the way your people fight. Could you show me?” 

Asami nodded. “Yes I could, in fact we can do that right now, my father set up a gun range near his workshop.” As they walked over to the workshop, Asami replayed the girl’s words in her head. It must be terrifying, to be thrown headfirst into a completely foreign society, not understanding anything around you. Asami was continuously surprised at the lack of fear Korra had displayed thus far, although hearing about what she’d done to three armed triad members did help to explain some of the girl’s confidence, Asami was beginning to wonder if the warrior had simply been putting on a brave face this whole time. 

“I’m really sorry about what happened by the way,” Asami said, “the police arresting you like that, it must’ve been scary. Especially since you didn’t understand much of what happened. I don’t think I had even told you about the police yet, or about our government in general, I should’ve prepared you better.” 

Korra shrugged. “You did tell me not to leave the mansion’s grounds without you. Anyway, it wasn’t so bad, I was mostly just bored again while waiting in an empty room.” 

Asami let the subject drop, even though she couldn’t quite understand how Korra hadn’t been more scared, confined in an empty room and surrounded by complete strangers. She suspected more and more that the young warrior was feigning her bravado to some degree, but decided that if this made the girl more comfortable then it wasn’t really an issue. 

“By the way,” Korra said, “I did see some other things before all that stuff with the triad. I talked to some homeless guy in the park, he said there were many more like him. And there was this other guy shouting really loudly using a weird device, complaining about refugees and elites, and about manyculturism or something?”

“Multiculturalism,” Asami said, “it must’ve been a separatist protestor, there’s been more and more of those lately, they like to blame all of our problems on the refugees. They’re mostly just a bunch of close-minded fools if you ask me.” 

“Yeah,” Korra agreed, “I started arguing with him, dude really annoyed me.” Asami laughed, that did sound like something the girl would do; get into a shouting match against someone with a megaphone. “He talked about closing the border and deporting refugees and stuff,” Korra continued, she looked genuinely disturbed by it. “Is that even really possible? Closing off such a large area of land? Forcefully exiling so many people?”

Asami regarded the girl, who she felt she was really starting to bond with. How could she not, when the girl was so open and so compassionate? “I’m not sure if it’s possible to be honest, it might be. It would be insanely expensive, to put up barriers and patrols across the entire border. People like the separatists like to complain about the refugees driving us into poverty, but their border would almost certainly be worse in that respect, especially if you consider the effect it would have on trade. As for exiling the people already here, that would also pose some issues, I can’t imagine everyone would go willingly, so it would probably involve quite a lot of violence, and a lot of detective work to find those in hiding.” Korra didn’t really respond, she just stared ahead with a troubled look on her face, until they finally arrived at Hiroshi’s workshop. 

Asami unlocked the door with a key, then moved to the gun safe, unlocking that too. She began to look through the assortment of weapons that were gathered inside, many of which were still only prototypes. “As a demonstration it would probably be best to show you weapons that are widely used, rather than the new ones my father is developing,” she picked out several different guns, while Korra curiously looked over her shoulder. “Most of these are way bigger than the one that the triad guy had,” she said. 

“Yeah, he probably just had a small handgun, like most civilians. Many of these bigger guns are only really used by the military, though I’ve heard that some of the triads have somehow gotten their hands on them too.” 

She tossed all the guns in a bag, along with a few boxes of ammunition, then turned and motioned for Korra to follow her to the range.

She picked up two handguns first, a revolver and a pistol. “Most common criminals will have one of these,” she said, “they’re smaller and less accurate, but still very deadly.” She began loading the revolver, turning so that Korra could see what she was doing. “These bullets are all filled with gunpowder, a powder that burns very quickly. The explosion then launches the metal tip forwards, out of the barrel.” She spun the revolver’s chamber, before shutting it closed. Then she cocked the hammer. “This little hammer is what sets off the gunpowder, it slams against the back and causes a spark.” Korra nodded, seeming to understand. “Stay behind this line please, just to be safe. You may also want to cover your ears,” Asami said, pointing to the line on the ground. Then she turned towards the targets in the distance. She pointed the revolver, briefly checked her aim, then shot all 6 bullets towards one of the targets. 

“Wow!” Korra exclaimed after Asami was done. “You weren’t kidding, that was loud! I feel like I missed something though, I didn’t see anything shoot out.”

Asami smirked. “That’s because the bullets travel too fast to see, you should look at the targets instead to see what happens. I’ll shoot the pistol now, look towards the closest target,” she said, pointing towards it before picking up the pistol and inserting a magazine. She aimed it with both hands, then started firing towards the target, all the bullets hitting in or around the bullseye.” She then turned to regard Korra, who stood with her ears still covered, and shock on her face. 

“Wow… Can I cross the line now? Look at the target up close?” Asami nodded. When they reached the target, Korra touched some of the holes with her finger. “How much damage do these things do? Can they pierce armor? What about bones?” 

Asami considered the question. “They can sometimes be deflected by bones, but not always. Even when they do, that still causes bone fragments to break off, which can still be dangerous. One bullet can easily be enough to kill someone, depending on where it hits. It can shoot through most historical types of armor, certainly through anything your people might have used. Today we make helmets that can usually withstand a bullet or two, but full body armor would be too expensive and too heavy.” 

“Well then how in Raava’s name do you defend against these things?” Korra asked, concern in her voice.

“Well, our armies dig long trenches into the ground and hide in there. That way most of their body is protected by the earth and their upper body is only exposed when they peek out to shoot at the enemy,” Asami explained, “hiding behind a stone wall would usually work too, if it’s thick enough.” 

Korra perked up at that. “How thick would the stone need to be? How about water, or ice? Would that block a bullet?” Water? When would you be hiding from a bullet behind water? 

“Well, a regular concrete block should be enough to stop most bullets, although there are guns that are more powerful than any of the ones I’ve gathered here, those are usually mounted on cars or large ships. Even if you fire multiple normal bullets though, then eventually the stone would fall apart. As for water or ice, I think those would actually work quite well to stop a bullet, I don’t think it would be very relevant in most fights though.”

Korra quickly nodded. “Yeah I guess not, not a lot of ice here in the city,” The blue-eyed girl said, followed by an awkward laugh.    

Asami continued to demonstrate the other weapons she’d gathered, a couple bolt-action rifles, a semi-automatic rifle, and a couple of automatic rifles. One of which had a design she’d always hated, with a round magazine attached to the top of the weapon. 

She demonstrated the different ranges at which the weapons could be used effectively, and even let Korra fire one of the bolt action rifles. She hit the target on her first try, and looked very troubled when the demonstration was through. “You weren’t kidding, I can definitely see how easy these things would make it to kill people.” 

Asami nodded, and a somber mood fell between them. “The number of casualties in war have certainly increased since we invented weapons like this. The one upside is that it seems to have made countries more hesitant to go to war with each other, ever since the Great War.” 

“What kind of casualties are we talking about?” Korra asked, looking guilty for some reason. “And what’s that about a Great War?” 

Asami sighed. “The whole war was stupid to be honest, it ended almost 20 years ago so I didn’t experience it, but I learned about it in school.”

“Someone from the Earth Kingdom assassinated a Prince of the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom swore that it was just a random civilian and that they had nothing to do with it, but the Fire Nation declared war anyway. Many think they had been looking for an excuse to declare war. They started invading the Earth Kingdom with the help of the Northern Water Tribe. Then the United Republic, along with the Southern Water Tribe, were forced to join the conflict to honor alliances they’d made with the Earth Kingdom. Both sides quickly dug in and fortified their battle lines, so very little progress was made by either side during the next four years of war. In the end both sides kind of just gave up and went back home, but only after 40 million people were already dead.” 

“FOURTY MILLION?!?” Korra exclaimed. “You can’t be serious?” Asami nodded, sorry to have to be the one to explain this harsh reality of the modern world. 

“I’m afraid so. I think the entire world was shocked by how deadly the war was, but that fact wasn’t enough for each country’s rulers to change their minds about it. They all wanted to be the glorious victors, they weren’t the ones fighting on the battlefield so they didn’t really understand the true cost of the conflict. Or maybe they did but they just didn’t care,” she shrugged, she’d never truly been able to come to terms with humanity’s capacity for callous murder, even after years of studying various societies and history in general. 

 She looked over to Korra, who’d sat down on the concrete ground. She was surprised to see the girl quietly sobbing, tears streaming down her face. “Korra are you OK?” She asked, moving down and placing a hand on her shoulder. Korra didn’t respond at first, she just continued sobbing, so Asami sat down beside her and continued trying to comfort her. 

 

***

 

Korra stared away into the distance, leaning against Asami, though her tears had dried up by now. She felt like a failure. Fourty million people… The world needed the Avatar but I wasn’t there for them, I was frozen and useless!

She’d asked Asami to clarify, hoping that she’d misunderstood what the number meant. She could barely wrap her head around such a large amount of people existing at all, let alone it being the amount that died in a single conflict. She felt like a fool, Asami told her that there weren’t any major conflicts in the world right now, and she’d taken the woman’s word for it. But she now realized that “major conflict” was a very relative term, Asami was simply used to a world with so much large-scale violence, it wasn’t as unusual or noteworthy for her. 

“You said there’s an internal war in the Earth Kingdom, right?” She asked, finally forcing herself to calm down. “How many people have died in that war, so far?”

“I think the latest estimate was that almost 300,000 people have died, after 6 months of fighting. It’s hard to get an accurate number though, while the conflict is still ongoing and the government is so disorganized.” 

Three hundred thousand deaths already. Korra thought in horror, Asami had technically been telling the truth, it was a much smaller number than the fourty million that died in the “Great War”, but it felt wrong to use such a diminutive term for suffering at such an unimaginable scale. She began to rethink everything she thought she’d learned about this new world.

When I saw the city and the stable prosperous lives people seemed to be living, I assumed that despite my absence Vaatu’s influence hadn’t been as bad as I’d feared. Especially after I confirmed that there weren’t any dark spirits roaming the world and causing havoc, Asami didn’t seem to even believe dark spirits exist. But what if Vaatu HAS been influencing the world and causing chaos, only in a more subtle way? What if Vaatu didn’t even need to do anything? What if he’s realized that in the absence of the Avatar, all he needed to do was to step back and watch as humanity destroyed itself?

Korra sat back, thinking about what her teachers had taught her about Avatar Wan, about what the world had been like after he’d closed the spirit portals and humanity first left the safety of the lion turtles. They’d told her of all the war and conflict Wan had tried, and failed, to prevent over the course of his life. About how people fought over territory, how different tribes refused to work together and refused to coexist. How it had taken several generations of Avatars to bring some order to the world, when many of the tribes stopped wandering and began to settle down in areas that suited their respective elements. They had told her epic tales about the achievements of her past lives, achievements that she wasn’t sure she would ever live up to. 

Yet in those times the conflicts that the Avatar dealt with usually only involved hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people. Shin the Conquerer had been famous for uniting many of the earth tribes, yet even his legendary army had only held twenty thousand soldiers in total. 

Daunted by the size of the problem facing her, Korra stared up at the darkening sky, where the first stars were starting to become visible. With a sudden shock, Korra considered something she should have considered a long time ago. 

“Asami, when is the next harmonic convergence?” She asked, unable to keep the panic from her voice. Asami looked at her curiously. “Harmonic convergence? I don’t know what that means.” 

Korra stood up with a huff, then began pacing. “The sages say that it’s when all the planets line up or something, creating a lot of spiritual energy. The Fire Sages’ temple had some fancy star charts carved into the stone that supposedly explained it all, not that I understood them. They said that that harmonic convergence would happen every ten thousand years.” 

Asami thought for a second, a curious expression on her face. “I’m not very knowledgeable about astronomy, but I think I’ve read about this. All the planets of the solar system lining up in a single line? It’s supposed to happen in a couple of years, I think. Were people in your time truly that knowledgeable about the movement of planetary bodies? That’s incredible! What kind of religious significance did this have?” 

 

 

“This is serious Asami, not just some curious little tidbit for you to study!” Korra snapped. “The sages said that Vaatu might be able to escape his prison during harmonic convergence, depending on how much chaos there is in the world. If there’s massive wars in which millions of people die then Vaatu must’ve been growing in power for thousands of years! If Vaatu escapes, it will mean the end of the world.” 

Asami looked at her sympathetically. “Look, I can’t promise that I-“ she cut herself off, “I’ll try not to be judgmental, okay? What you’re talking about does sound vaguely like what the church of Raava preaches about the end of the world, although I’ve never heard them relate it to the alignment of the planets. Anyway, do you know how long it was exactly since the last harmonic convergence, before you were frozen? If nothing else we might now be able to discover exactly how long you were frozen.”

Korra quickly did some math inside her head, her people didn’t usually keep track of the dates, but the fire tribes did. They used harmonic convergence, when Wan had become the avatar, as the year zero. “Uhhh, I think I was born 462 years after harmonic convergence. I’ve seen 17 winters, so that would make it 479 years before I was frozen in ice?” 

“Then that would mean you were frozen for 9,520 years or so, assuming I remembered correctly and harmonic convergence is a year or two away. Wow, you were frozen for even longer than I thought.” 

“Yay,” Korra said sarcastically, causing Asami to give her a look.

“I’m trying to help okay?” She said. “I can go to the library tomorrow, to find out for certain when the next alignment of the planets will be.”

“Yeah ok, thanks,” Korra said, regretting her attitude. Asami had done nothing but give her valuable information. “Anyway, I still need to hold up my end of the deal don’t I? You showed me how your people fight, want me to show you my moves now?” 

“If you’re up for it then yes, I’d love to,” Asami responded, looking eager. 

 

***

 

Korra leaned back after Asami pushed her, Korra had asked her to do so in order to demonstrate this next move. She saw Korra shift her weight backwards and step to the side while she grabbed onto Asami’s arm, Asami immediately felt herself being pulled off-balance. The muscular girl then stepped forwards and placed her hips where Asami’s center of balance was, causing Asami to yelp and fall back. Korra caught her just in time to save her from a sore butt, Asami felt her face grow hot while the warrior held her in her muscular arms. 

“As this hopefully demonstrated,” Korra said to Asami while lifting her back to her feet, “my people’s fighting style is all about momentum, pushing and pulling, using your opponent’s attack and weight against them. When you tried to push me, I moved along with that motion and used your own momentum to pull you out of your stance, after which I was able to push you back.”

Asami nodded, feeling like she mostly understood. It also reminded her of what the scroll she’d found appeared to be depicting, despite Korra’s claims that she couldn’t help decipher the scroll. Maybe Korra just wasn’t as used to those kinds of visual guides, after all she also hadn’t been familiar with maps.   

Korra continued explaining things, now punching and kicking an imaginary opponent instead of using Asami as a prop, she occasionally stopped to explain the reasons behind different attacks. The girl seemed to have forgotten, for the moment, about her fear of some sort of mythological doomsday that her people had foretold. The girl seemed eager to show her skills to Asami, to distract herself from her existential worries.

Asami didn’t mind one bit, it was an incredible display. The sight of the girl’s toned body, sweat beginning to form on her muscles, made Asami feel things she didn’t quite understand. It reminded her of how she’d felt about some of the boys that she’d watched from afar back in secondary school. But it didn’t make any sense for her to feel that way about Korra, did it?

Asami watched as Korra cartwheeled backwards, ending with an insane backflip and then launching into a series of kicks. Had all of her people’s warriors been this incredibly athletic?

No, she decided. No matter the time or place, she was certain that Korra was one of a kind.

Notes:

I'm back! Didn't post a new chapter last week due to my holiday, but this new chapter is crazy long so I'd say we're even ;p (That's totally the reason why it's so long, it has nothing to do with me not knowing where else to end it!)

Anyway, I had fun writing this chapter, it has some more emotional moments that I think worked fairly well.

Chapter 6: A Leaf in the Wind

Summary:

Korra gets ambushed, sees people playing a familiar game in the park, then meets a useful new friend.

Chapter 6: A Leaf in the Wind.

Korra was kicking a tree; it was slightly less silly than it sounded, it was a training exercise that her firebending teacher had taught her. It was also a great way of dealing with her frustration. 

After breakfast, Asami had dug up a book which confirmed that harmonic convergence was imminent, only two years from now. Korra wasn’t immediately sure what to do with this information, so she’d fled outside and started kicking a tree instead. It was a perfectly rational thing to do, in her estimation. 

She was distracted from her perfectly sane coping mechanism by the sound of Asami clearing her throat behind her. “Uhhm, are you OK?” Asami asked.

Korra turned around, fake smile on her face. “Yeah I’m fine, totally fine HAHA! …Why wouldn’t I be?” 

“Riiight,” Asami responded, definitely not falling for Korra’s acting. “Well, if you’re finished, I was thinking we could go out into the city soon. Maybe we could even avoid being arrested this time,” she smirked while saying that last part.

Korra dropped her fake smile as she responded. “Yeah, that’d be nice. Thanks.” 

She gave the tree one more kick for good measure, then walked back to the mansion with Asami while the black-haired woman rolled her eyes. “So, what will we do in the city?” Korra asked. “I was thinking we could beat up more triad losers, but if you don’t want to get arrested this time then I guess that isn’t an option.”

“Yeah no definitely not,” Asami responded, “first off we should go to city hall, my father spoke to his lawyer. The lawyer arranged for you to receive a work visa, on account of your value to our research at the university. This should clear up any issue with your immigration status for now. It also means that we’ll be giving you a wage by the way, as payment for you answering questions about the time you come from.”

“Huh,” said Korra, “doesn’t sound like much of a job, just answering a bunch of simple questions.”

Asami laughed. “I suppose not, but sometimes someone’s value lies not in how hard they work, but in how irreplaceable they are. It convinced the government to not have you deported so no complaining! Anyway, after that I thought we could go shopping for clothes, get you some new clothes more suited to your tastes, I don’t even want to think about how often you’ve worn your current clothes without washing them.” 

“I washed them yesterday in the pool! I may not be some fancy city girl like you but I know how to wash my clothes!” Korra responded, Asami looked unable to think of a reply so Korra considered it a win. “Anyway, I won’t say no to some new clothes. Can Naga come with?” 

Asami looked at her like she was crazy. “Uhm no, we’re trying not to get arrested remember? I don’t know if there’s any specific laws against polarbear dogs in the city, but it’s probably best not to risk it. Naga has plenty of space here doesn’t she? And the staff seems to enjoy playing fetch with her.” Korra pouted, but ultimately conceded the point.

 

They made it to the car, then after a short drive they arrived at city hall. It was a beautiful building made of white stone, with gold-covered towers and a big green dome in the center. There was some kind of commotion near the entrance when they entered the building, but Korra thought nothing of it, the city was noisy to begin with by her standards. 

Getting her paperwork in order was a surprisingly quick affair. Some serious looking guy said stuff she didn’t understand, then told her to write her name on a piece of paper while another serious looking guy watched. Asami wrote her name too, and then they were done. When they stepped outside they were suddenly bombarded with the sounds of people shouting, and with strange flashes of light. Korra entered a fighting stance, but Asami gestured her to calm down. “Don’t worry, it’s just cameras. Like the ones I used to take your picture, remember?”

Korra nodded. “Why are they all here though?” She asked.  

Asami didn’t need to answer her question, since she started to be able to make out some of what the people shouting were saying. “Asami Sato, is it true that the person inside the iceberg was still alive? Is that her with you now?!” One person shouted.

“Some are saying that this was all a ruse to cover up your destruction of a priceless artifact, care to respond?” Another person said.

“Is it safe to let some savage roam the streets? I heard that she assaulted several people yesterday!” 

The barrage of questions intimidated Korra, but Asami calmly stepped up to the group of shouting people while they held weird bulby sticks pointed towards her. “One question at a time please,” she said, “first of all, yes, the person in the iceberg turned out to somehow still be alive. And yes, that’s her behind me. Her name is Korra. We currently have no idea how it’s possible, but I’ve contacted numerous scientists from the university and beyond to ask for their theories. Either way it’s an amazing discovery, especially since she’s turned out to be a very nice person.”  

It went on for a while, people shouting questions and Asami answering, Korra was impressed by how she kept her cool. Asami did briefly get shaken by one question though. “Is it true that you’ve threatened to withhold your discovery from the rest of the university? Don’t the people deserve access to such a precious artifact? Is it even legal to keep it as private property?”

Korra could hear Asami struggle to contain her emotions, as she answered the question through gritted teeth. “Korra isn’t a thing to be ‘accessed’ or possessed, she’s a very kind and smart person with her own free will, she can make her own decisions about whether to work with the university.”  

“As for me. I did, in a closed-door meeting, remind some of the other researchers at the university that it was my father’s funding that made our entire expedition possible. I would love to continue working with the university to discover as much as we can about our distant past, I merely expressed my wish to be treated with all due respect, a matter that has occasionally caused issues for me as a female student. I don’t know how this private conversation made its way to the press, but I assure you that I have no intention of depriving the world of knowledge.”

There were several more accusatory follow-up questions about the same topic, which Asami handled as best she could.

She continued answering questions for a while longer, answering them all with a calm grace that Korra envied. Eventually the people asked if Korra would respond to questions too, Korra was reluctant, but eventually nodded her consent. She may be hiding her identity as the Avatar, but she still felt that it was her duty to talk to the public when an opportunity like this presented itself. 

"Uhhh… Hi, I’m Korra,” she said, awkwardly laughing and waving while bright lights from cameras flashed in her face.

She pointed to a random person to ask her a question, as she’d seen Asami do previously. “What are your first impressions of our society?” He asked.

Korra thought for a short time before responding. “It’s all very new and foreign to me. The inventions your people have made are amazing, as are many of the buildings. Given all of this prosperity though, I was surprised to see people without a home, living in bushes and struggling for food.

“In my time we lived mostly in small tribes, we all knew each other and looked after each other while sharing our resources. It’s sad to see so many people being forgotten and ignored in this big city.” Several people shouted more questions in response to that.

One in particular stood out. “So do you think the world has gotten worse as society ‘advanced’? Were we better off when things were simpler?” It was a question that Korra herself had been thinking about ever since she woke up in Asami’s arms, especially after what she’d learned yesterday about the devastating wars that people had fought. She was surprised to realize that she’d come to a conclusion.

“No, I don’t think the world is worse than it was before. People are still the same as they’ve always been there’s just more of them now. Look, all I know is that it was Avatar Wan’s dream to create a world in which different groups of people could learn to live together. To use Raava’s light spirit to guide the world towards peace. From what Asami has told me about Republic City’s history, I believe this city represents an opportunity to make his dream a reality.”

More questions followed after this, they eventually switched to more mundane topics, like which modern advances of society Korra enjoyed most. She told them how she’d love to ride an airship sometime, that the speed at which people could travel the world in a few days via airship or train was an amazing improvement over the weeks or months it would’ve taken her tribe to travel such distances. 

Korra answered a few more questions before she got overwhelmed and Asami stepped in, telling the reporters that that was enough for today. Once they made it back to Asami’s car, Asami spoke to her. “I’m sorry about that, I have no idea how they knew we’d be there. Are you OK?”

Korra sighed and calmed herself down. “Yeah I’m fine, just not used to that many people. You were very impressive though, totally calm and in control!”

Asami blushed. “Yeah, comes with having a rich and famous father who always takes me to fancy galas where I get to watch him give speeches.” 

Korra didn’t know what some of those words meant, but she got the gist of it. “Hey, don’t underestimate yourself, I’m sure there’s still plenty of people with similar backgrounds who wouldn’t have done as great as you did! Anyway, now we go get some clothes, right?”

“Yep.” Asami responded. But then she looked away and frowned. “That’s Thawi!” She said, pointing to a man standing in front of the reporters that had followed them to the car. He was looking right towards them with a smirk on his face. “He must’ve orchestrated this all, he must be how they knew what I said at the university! We should get out of here,” she said, quickly bringing the car into motion.

Korra glared at the man as they drove off, before turning back to Asami. “Will you get in trouble? If people keep accusing you of hoarding knowledge?”

Asami shook her head. “No, not really. I’m legally within the right, he’s just trying to shame me into not kicking him off the project. Sad thing is that I think he’s succeeding, I don’t want a reputation as someone who uses her wealth to hoard valuable knowledge, that’s the opposite of what I want to be known as!” 

“Well, I think you’re a very kind person,” Korra said. “Whatever you decide, I’m sure that anyone who matters will be able to look at you and see the same thing I see.” 

Asami blushed at that, she didn’t seem to know how to respond so Korra kept talking. “Thanks for what you said about me by the way, did you mean it?”

Asami looked confused. “Mean what?” She asked.

“You said that I was smart and kind. When you first showed me around the city I thought that you were looking down on me as some sort of ignorant savage, with all those questions you asked about how I thought your new technology works.” 

Asami shook her head vigorously. “Is that why you seemed so upset then? That isn’t how I see you at all! I thought your answers were very insightful, I was amazed that you immediately guessed the way that our airships function. It actually helped reinforce my belief that people haven’t gotten smarter throughout history, we still have the same brains, we just benefit from knowledge that was passed on by our predecessors. You’re clearly an intelligent person even compared to people today, I can tell from the questions you ask and how well you’ve already adapted to our world.”

Now it was Korra’s turn to blush, at least her complexion helped to hide it somewhat. “Thanks,” she said, shyly. “Anyway, how far away is the clothing store?”   

They eventually made it to the store. Nothing too exciting happened while they tried out and bought clothes, the lady at the store frowned a lot at Korra’s choices and requests, but quickly gave up on trying to convince her to wear more conventional fashion for young ladies. Eventually she found some clothes that looked remarkably like her old clothing, except the material was very different from her old clothes. She found dark blue pants with a lighter blue shirt, even some blue cloth she could wrap around her arms. She even found another small pelt to wear as a decorative skirt.

The lady at the store kept pointing out that the shirt was supposed to be worn underneath a dress, that the pants were meant for men and were way too baggy for her, and that the pelt was meant as to be draped over her shoulders, not worn as a skirt. Korra liked them though, the baggy pants allowed for a lot of movement, the shirt was warm enough, and the pelt wrapped perfectly around her waist.

She also found a blue dress that she liked, it wasn’t as bulky and restrictive as most of the other dresses she’d seen, the slit at her side would allow a lot of movement for her legs. It still wasn’t as practical as her pants but she liked how pretty it looked. Plus, Asami did insist that she should own at least one outfit that was slightly fancier, in case she ever needed to attend a formal event of some kind. 

 

After storing the bag of clothes in Asami’s car, they decided to walk around the city, starting with the city park. They walked for a while, with Asami asking questions about the past and writing down Korra’s answers in a notebook, somehow continuing to walk at the same time. She was especially interested in asking about Avatar Wan, since Korra had mentioned him while speaking to the reporters. Korra figured that there was no harm in talking about something that was ancient mythology even for her, so she told Asami all about the legend of how Wan became the first Avatar. 

Korra was about to suggest they stop and sit for a while when she saw a bunch of mostly old people sitting at familiar looking tables, playing a familiar game. “Are those Pai Sho tables?” She asked.

“Asami looked up from her notebook. “Wait, Pai Sho existed 9.000 years ago?” Asami asked, shocked look on her face.

“Guess so.” Korra shrugged, before remembering something that might prove useful. She considered it for a time, then asked Asami another question. “Can anyone just sit down and play a game?” 

Asami quickly responded. “Yeah, my father used to take me here sometimes, said that it would be good to practice against people other than just him. There’s usually plenty of people looking for strangers to play against, with tiles for you to use.” Korra smiled at that, she and Asami agreed to play some games and went looking for someone without an opponent.  

Korra eventually found one, he was dressed sort of like an airbender, in the same yellow and orange colors. He even had tattoos on his bald head, though they looked different from the ones Korra remembered from her time. She pointed the man out to Asami. “Oh wow, that’s Senator Tenzin. He’s an air nomad, the leader of Air Temple Island in fact, sort of a Guru to his people. He’s also one of the country’s elected representatives, he’s an independent but he usually sides with the most progressive parties in the senate.” Sounds like just the sort of guy I’m looking for, Korra thought. This might actually work!

 

 

She approached the older man, questioning look on her face, while Asami looked for another empty table where she could play. The man looked up at Korra and smiled. “Ah, would you like to play a game young lady? It’s rare to see someone your age who’s still interested in Pai Sho.”

Korra smiled back and nodded, even though she’d never been particularly interested in the game. “Yeah, I’d love to. I’m Korra. You’re Tenzin, right?”

He nodded. As she sat down, Tenzin pushed a bunch of tiles in her direction. “The guest has the first move.” He said.

Korra smiled, it was the exact phrase she remembered. It didn’t necessarily mean that he knew the actual passcode, but it was a good start. She looked for the right tile, then placed it down in the right spot in an exaggerated motion, looking at Tenzin to gauge his response. He quirked his eyebrow and started stroking his beard.

“I see you favor the white lotus gambit, not many still cling to the ancient ways,” he said, sounding confused and hesitant.

The phrase had changed slightly, it used to talk of “secret ways” not “ancient ways”, but Korra definitely still recognized the code. “Those who do can always find a friend.” She said, using the words her mentors had taught her.

Tenzin looked shocked that Korra knew the correct response, then he responded. “Then let us play,” he said, they both quickly began placing their tiles. They weren’t really playing a game, they were just following a secret pattern that’s been passed from person to person for generations, apparently for over 9 thousand years. Finally, they finished, having drawn the symbol of the white lotus with the tiles they’d placed on the board. “Welcome sister,” Tenzin said, “the White Lotus opens wide for those who know her secrets.”  

Korra smiled wide. “I can’t believe that worked, I was sure the White Lotus would be all gone by now!”

Tenzin frowned. “Not so loud please, we can talk under that tree there,” he said, gesturing with his head to a tree nearby. Korra agreed, though she briefly paused to smile when she saw Asami defeating what was already her second opponent, with a small crowd starting to gather around to watch her. 

“Was that Asami Sato who was with you?” Tenzin asked once they reached the tree. “You’ve got friends in high places, but I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.”

Korra nodded. “No, you wouldn’t have. I’m new in town.”

Tenzin bowed to her, which felt strange considering his older age, so Korra decided to return the gesture. “Regardless,” Tenzin said. “It’s always an honor to welcome another member of the Order of the White Lotus. Was there any particular reason why you’ve decided to make contact?” He asked, curious look on his face.

“Well yeah, sort of. The White Lotus was formed to gather and share knowledge, right? I was wondering what you know of the ancient Air Nomads, particularly their martial arts.” She hesitated briefly before continuing. “Their airbending, I mean.”

Tenzin smiled. “That happens to be one of my specialties! The other Senators tend to mock me for my pastimes, or my superstitions as they call them. Many intellectuals nowadays neglect the value of physical exercise, but as monk Tang Xu said: ‘For in everything that men do the body is useful; and in all uses of the body it is of great importance to be in as high a state of physical efficiency as possible.’ I believe it’s of the utmost importance to exercise not only the mind, but the body as well. I also believe that the martial arts of the air nomads contribute not only to a healthy body but also to a calm and peaceful mind, which is why I’ve spent a lot of time doing my best to uncover their ancient techniques.” 

Korra smiled, this sounded very promising, if there was any way for her to learn airbending, this had to be it. “What about the mythology surrounding it? What about airbending?”

“Ah,” Tenzin responded, “well now you’re really touching upon a controversial subject. As I’ve said, many of my peers mock my beliefs, but within the White Lotus I’m not the only one who believes that bending was real, yet was somehow lost to us…” 

Korra nodded. “Any idea why?”

Tenzin shook his head. “That’s been the subject of many debates, but no, no one knows,” he said, stroking his beard again. “Why exactly is this of such an interest to you?”

Korra frowned, not sure how to answer. Part of her was excited to find someone who didn’t mock the existence of bending, part of her wanted to tell him everything. But the rest of her still urged caution, she barely knew this man and she wasn’t sure how much she could rely on his membership of a thousands of years old secret order as a sign of trustworthiness. She decided to tell him as much as she could, while still hiding her bending abilities. “I can’t tell you everything, but please trust that it’s important. I’ve always wanted to help the world, but I don’t know how exactly. My mentors always told me that I need to be more in touch with my spirituality before I go out to try to change the world. The air nomads are supposed to be spiritual and stuff, right? I was hoping that learning more about them could help me, I’ve always been better at physical stuff so I thought that starting with their martial arts instead of with the more boring stuff might be a good idea.”

Tenzin regarded her with a broad smile, or at least, as broad of a smile as she suspected the serious looking man ever held. “Well, you wouldn’t be the first to feel a need to get in touch with your spiritual self, many others come to Air Temple Island for the same reason. I’ve taught many people all I know of the ancient martial arts, including my own children. You’d be welcome to join me sometime so I can teach you, it isn’t often that people your age are interested in this sort of thing.”

“I teach public classes every week, but since you’re a White Lotus member I could make some time for a few private lessons. In fact, I have time later today; should you be interested.”

Korra nodded eagerly. “That would be perfect! When should I get there?”

Tenzin thought for a second, stroking his beard again. “Hmmm, 5 pm would be best, we’d have over an hour of time before my wife finishes dinner.” He reached into his pocket to grab something. “Here, this is a ticket for the ferry to the island, it’ll get you there and back for free. I’m afraid I have to go now, there’s a senate hearing that I can’t afford to miss.” 

“Don’t let me keep you,” Korra replied, “good luck!”

Tenzin quickly said his goodbyes before he turned to leave the park, Korra stared after him a while before returning to the Pai Sho tables. There was still a small crowd watching Asami play, Korra returned just in time to watch Asami land the finishing blow to her latest elderly opponent. “Have you finished beating up all these old geezers yet? Don’t you know you’re supposed to respect your elders?” Korra said as she walked up next to Asami.

The black-haired beauty looked up to her with a smile. “Ohh Korra, sorry, I almost forgot about you! It’s been a while since I’ve properly played Pai Sho, I get really caught up in it. How did your game with Senator Tenzin go?”

“It went fine I guess; it was a tie. But we had a good conversation,” Korra said. “Anyway, I think that’s enough Pai Sho for me, how about you?” Asami agreed, so after she quickly said her goodbyes to the other players, she and Korra began walking through the park again. “How come Tenzin was the first air nomad I’ve seen?” Korra asked. “I thought this city was a melting pot of all different cultures?” 

“The city is a melting pot,” Asami responded, “it’s just that there aren’t that many air nomads to begin with. I’m not sure what it was like in your time, but throughout recorded history the air nomads have been a relatively small group. They’ve also faced a lot of oppression over the years, since they’ve always been nomads and never had a country of their own.” 

“Well in my time their home country was in the mountains, but I guess it makes sense that that was no longer possible for them,” Korra responded without thinking. Stupid. She chastised herself. 

Asami faced her with a questioning look. “What do you mean? Why does it make sense that they’re no longer in the mountains?” She asked.

Korra scrambled for a decent answer. “Well you know, uhhm,” she laughed awkwardly. “There’s so many more people nowadays, not a lot of farmland up in the mountains.” That sort of made sense, right?

 

“Yeah I guess,” Asami said, “the real population boom didn’t begin until last century though.”

Korra quickly tried to change the topic. “Anyway, I’ve been wondering, what exactly started the current conflict in the Earth Kingdom? Isn’t there anyone trying to bring an end to it?” 

They found a bench that they sat down on, before Asami answered. “After the great war, we’re all afraid of getting involved in another international conflict. So the Southern Water Tribe, the United Republic, and the Fire Nation signed a non-interference pact, banning us from directly interfering in the conflict and banning us from selling weapons to either side. Our leaders believed it to be the best way to prevent this conflict from escalating into another great war. The only nation that abstained was the Northern Water Tribe, they’re supporting Kuvira by shipping weapons to her. This all means that the Republic can’t do much in terms of direct military involvement, President Tarrlok has tried to mediate the conflict through diplomacy but hasn’t had much success.” 

“As for what started the conflict; well, there’s a lot of factors that contributed to it. The short version is that the monarchy has been weakening for a long time, many factions in the Earth Kingdom have been demanding a more democratic government, following the example that the United Republic and later the Fire Nation set. After Queen Hou-Ting died she was succeeded by King Wu, a nephew of hers since she had no heirs of her own. King Wu faced a lot of opposition when he ascended, so while the Queen had been strong enough in her grasp on power to resist calls for more democratization, King Wu felt pressured to give in to their demands and turned the Kingdom into a constitutional monarchy like the Fire Nation. This made him an ally of the Republicans and gave him a stronger base of support, though the anarchists and socialists still weren’t happy and didn’t think the changes went far enough.” 

“Hold up,” Korra interrupted, “a constitutional monarchy? What’s that?” 

Asami briefly paused, seeming to consider the question. “It basically means that the King, although he still exists, doesn’t have much real power anymore. The real power is held by parliament, which is elected by the people. Much like how there’s a council of elders in your culture, which makes many decisions even while technically the Chief is in charge.”

“That sounds pretty good right?” Korra asked. “It’s hard for one person to consider every possible angle, so a council to debate and decide things is better than a single person deciding everything, isn’t it?”  

Korra thought of her father, of how he’d sat her down and explained the way their tribe worked. Her father had been chief, he’d formed his own tribe after learning that Korra was the Avatar and realizing that she’d need to travel the world and master the different elements. He’d been a good leader, that’s why dozens of people had been willing to leave their home in the South and join him as a tribe of nomadic traders. 

But he’d also always respected the wishes of an advisory council, even when they disagreed with him. When Korra was young, she’d once gotten angry with her father and demanded to know why he didn’t just order people to obey him as their chief. He told her that a true chief ruled on behalf of their people, always keeping their people’s best interests in mind. If his people disagreed with him, then how could he simply ignore them? Surely they knew their own desires better than he did. 

“I agree, having a broader debate about social issues is much better than having a monarch or a handful of oligarchs decide everything,” Asami said. “But many people were upset about the change, especially those who held positions of privilege under the Earth Queen’s rule, they feared losing their privileges at the hands of the electorate. These people, a collection of business owners, monarchists, and conservatives, broadly categorized as the ‘nationalists’, eventually tried to orchestrate a coup and overthrow the government in Ba Sing Se, installing a different monarch who they say is the true heir to the throne.”  

“Their attempt failed, but they won the support of a General called Kuvira. Thanks to Kuvira, the nationalists currently control over a third of the Earth Kingdom. They almost conquered Omashu too but they were fought off by the local citizens of the city, who’s trade unions organized themselves into militias. Many of those militias are socialists and anarchists, so they form sort of a third faction, they’re opposed to Kuvira and on paper they’re allied with Ba Sing Se. But they desire self-rule and economic freedom, which Ba Sing Se doesn’t want to grant them, so it’s unclear how long this alliance will last. Even now we have reports that Ba Sing Se is refusing to send supplies that the militias need to hold Omashu and the surrounding mountains against Kuvira’s forces.” 

“That’s where the main fighting is currently taking place, there’s also some fighting in the North-West, but the main front lines are in the mountains surrounding Omashu.”

Korra nodded, having listened intently to Asami’s every word. “Omashu, I know that name, I’ve been there! It’s the city of the two lovers, Oma and Shu.” 

“What?” Asami asked, an excited look on her face. “The etymology of the city’s name has been lost to time, scholars have debated it for centuries, are you telling me you know its origins?” 

“Well yeah,” Korra said, “everyone knows the story, it’s a love story.” She looked out across the park, seeing a few couples walk by. “It’s always been one of my favorite stories. It’s about a woman named Oma and a man named Shu. They were from two different tribes that were engaged in a bitter blood feud, with a mountain forming the border between their territories. Yet somehow, they met and they fell in love. They struggled to find a way to meet in secret, until one day they found badgermoles in the tunnels beneath the mountain. The badgermoles taught them earthbending, allowing them to navigate the tunnels and change their shape to create a moving labyrinth and prevent anyone from following, so that they could meet in secret beneath the mountain.”

Korra paused briefly, smiling when she saw how Asami was fully engrossed in the story. 

“But one day, Shu missed their arranged meeting, Oma learned that he had been slain in a battle between the two tribes. Oma was sick with grief and anger, furious that such a senseless conflict had taken her lover from her.”

“Learning from one of the original benders gave her power and skill that far surpassed any of her peers, she used her new skills in a terrifying display of power and destruction, showing both tribes that she could easily destroy them if she wanted to. Instead of destroying them, she used her power to form a peace between the two tribes, ending the war that took her lover from her.”

“Together, the two tribes created a city, on top of the mountain that had divided them. They named it after the two lovers, combining their names together to form the name ‘OmaShu.’ Oma left soon after the war ended, she lived the rest of her life in the caves beneath the mountains, mourning the death of her lover and, according to the legends, creating a large monument in his name.“

“That’s a beautiful story,” Asami said, wistful look in her eyes, “sad, but beautiful. I hope that I find someone I love that much, someday.” 

“Yeah,” Korra snorted, “I’ve always said that if I ever have a girlfriend, I want her to be badass like Oma.”

 

***

 

Asami’s brain short-circuited. Girlfriend? Did Korra really just say that? No, Asami decided, she must have misheard, or maybe Korra misspoke. She thought for a moment about how to subtly pry more information out of Korra, without risk of accidentally insulting the girl. 

“Have you had any romantic relationships before?” Asami ventured.

“Ehh, not really,” Korra said, casually leaning back on the bench. “We were a small tribe, there wasn’t anyone my age who really caught my eye. I did have a few flings with some boys and girls I met in the places we traded with, but since we were always on the move I wouldn’t exactly describe that as ‘romantic’. It was mostly just us making out as much as possible until I had to leave again.” A slight blush appeared on the brown girl’s skin, but it didn’t match the extent of the scandalous behavior she had just admitted to. 

Asami grew incredibly flustered, not sure what to do. She looked at Korra, then quickly looked away again, suddenly the sight of the muscular girl caused Asami to imagine all sorts of scandalous things. “Are you okay?” Korra asked, softly grabbing Asami by the wrist as she looked at her with a concerned expression. Suddenly the girl’s warm touch was all Asami could think of, until she glanced up at the girls lips and again saw sinful fantasies flashing before her eyes.

She stood up suddenly, pulling her wrist free from Korra’s grip. “I uhm. I’m fine,” she said, knowing that her stuttering voice wouldn’t sound very convincing. “It’s about time we head back home, don’t you think? I’ve got some work to do, and I’d like to go over my notes of what you’ve told me about Wan and Omashu, while it’s still fresh in my mind you know?” 

She quickly walked off, away from the bench where Korra was sitting. She heard the girl’s footsteps as she caught up with Asami. “You know the car is in the other direction, right?”

Asami stopped in her tracks, then turned around and walked back the way she came. “Of course I know, I was just uhh, warming up for the walk over there.” Warming up for a walk, by walking? How does that make sense?!? Get it together Asami! And stop thinking in the third person!

A confused looking Korra caught up to her again, but wisely didn’t say anything as they walked back across the park. By the time they left the park, Asami’s heart had stopped beating in her ears and she was able to think more clearly again, although this didn’t exactly help her figure out what to do next, or why she was feeling this way to begin with. 

Korra had kissed other girls, she didn’t seem to consider it as much of a taboo as it was in Asami’s society. That was very interesting, objectively speaking, especially for an anthropologist. Asami should’ve been trying to discover more about the social norms of Korra’s society, regarding romantic couplings. So why was she rushing away from the park without talking to or even looking at the confused watertribe girl? Why had she grown so flustered all of a sudden?

 

Wasn’t she supposed to be a progressive open-minded person? She was the first female anthropologist student at the university for spirit’s sake! One of the only female students in general, a true trailblazer! She’s written essays about the need for female suffrage. Why did hearing about something considered taboo by her close-minded society shock her so much and leave her so flustered? 

She decided to ignore it for now and reflect on it later, she just needed to get in the car and focus on driving. She opened the door and sat in the car, but noticed that the other girl wasn’t following suit, she was standing awkwardly and scratching her neck. 

“Uhh, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but if you want to go back to the mansion then that’s fine. Is it okay if I stay in the city a while longer though? I know the route back now, and I sort of have plans,” the girl said.   

“Plans? What plans? Since when?”

“I’m meeting Senator Tenzin, I told him about my interest in martial arts and he offered to show me some moves. Apparently he has studied old scrolls and murals portraying ancient airbending forms or something, and worked to revive their lost arts.” 

Asami knew all about that, she’d actually written to the Senator to ask him about his research, he’d responded by saying he was too busy. How in the world had Korra arranged a meeting with him? 

Her frustration must’ve showed on her face, because Korra spoke again with a conciliatory tone. “I was going to tell you earlier, but then you started acting weird and rushing to the car. Anyway, I promise that I’ll be fine, I won’t punch anyone, except maybe Tenzin I guess if he offers to spar… Anyway, he gave me this ticket for a boat to the island, I’m sure I’ll figure it out!” 

Asami stared at the other girl for a while, a multitude of thoughts flashing through her mind. “That’s fine, see you later,” she said, before driving off with screeching tires. 

***

Korra watched as Asami’s car drove off into the distance. That was weird. She thought. Normally Asami is so calm and collected, why was she so flustered all of a sudden? Korra herself hadn’t been very composed either, for a moment she could’ve sworn that Asami had glanced at her lips, almost as if she was having the same thoughts that Korra has had pretty much since the moment they met. 

But no, Korra has been trying to flirt with the other woman for as long as they’ve known each other, with the other woman either oblivious or uninterested. It seemed clear that Asami didn’t like other women in that way. 

Shrugging off Asami’s strange behavior, Korra walked back into the park. She had some time to kill before speaking to Tenzin again, so she decided to try to find the homeless man she’d encountered her first time alone in the city.

It didn’t take too long for her to find the man, he was lying on his back with his eyes closed, next to the “beauteous” bush that he claimed as his own, while bathing his bare feet in the water of the lake nearby. “Hey,” Korra said, waiting as the man opened his eyes and sat up.

He looked around in alarm but calmed down as he saw her. “Well, hello there, newcomer. I see you successfully circumnavigated the police’s clutches after your daring act of aquatic larceny.” 

“Suuure,” Korra said, not knowing what half of that meant. “I brought you some food, pretty sure that it’s legal this time,” she said, as she pulled some meat jerky and some chocolate from her pocket. Chocolate had been a mind-blowing experience when Asami first introduced it to her, so she was happy to share it with the kind man who probably struggled to find enough food most days. 

“Ah, most generous, you have my sincerest gratitude,” the eccentric man said, while bowing with an excessive flourish.

As the man chewed some jerky, Korra realized that she still didn’t know his name. “I just realized we never introduced ourselves, my name’s Korra.”

“I’m presently referred to by the name Gommu,” the man said, in the slightly verbose way Korra was starting to realize was the norm for him. 

“Well Gommu, nice to meet you again,” Korra said, sitting down next to him and resting her feet in the water like he did. They sat there a while, talking about the city and the world at large. The man had a lot of insightful things to share with her, it helped her feel like she was truly beginning to understand the society she’d found herself in. 

She couldn’t fathom how this society could let a man like this waste away unnoticed while living in a bush, surely someone of his intelligence and kindness could contribute in a meaningful way? 

Either way, it was eventually time for Korra to head to her meeting with Tenzin, so she said her goodbyes and headed to the docks. It took some asking around to find the ferry to Air Temple Island, but ultimately it wasn’t too hard. While the ferry made its way to the island, Korra stood at the bow and stared out towards a sight she hadn’t noticed when she’d first stepped out onto the docks, the day after waking up from the ice. 

It was an enormous statue, large enough for Korra to ask herself once again how it was possible for this society to build such structures without the use of earthbending. By now she’d seen several large buildings throughout the city that were still in the process of being built, so she had a vague idea of what the process was like without benders, but it was still hard for her to fathom. 

Regardless, the ferry began to dock at Air Temple Island. It wasn’t a very large island, but it managed to look very impressive. There were rocks jutting up out of the sea, with a staircase winding its way up between them. Beyond the staircase Korra could see a tower, much like the ancient airbenders had built for their temples, along with some smaller buildings surrounding it. 

At the island’s docks a woman was waiting, wearing yellow robes along with a reddish-orange sash over her shoulder. “Are you lady Korra?” The woman asked, with an impassive face.

“Just Korra is fine, Tenzin is expecting me right?” 

“Yes, that is correct. Follow me please,” the woman said, turning around and climbing the stairs without waiting for a response, apparently assuming that Korra would follow. She did follow eventually, after briefly considering staying put just out of spite.

As she reached the top of the stairs, the woman pointed her towards a pagoda in the distance where she saw Tenzin sitting in a meditative pose. Korra made her way towards him after the woman excused herself and left to tend to other matters. Korra didn’t mask the sound of her approach, yet Tenzin didn’t respond even after she walked up just behind him. Korra simply looked at the beautiful view over the island’s cliffs for a while, until she got bored and decided to speak up. “Nice view,” she said.

“Indeed,” Tenzin responded, though his eyes were still closed. 

He got to his feet in a sudden and remarkably agile motion, then nodded to Korra. “I’m glad to see you didn’t have any trouble finding the ferry, I must admit I was a tad concerned that I didn’t give you detailed enough instructions. I mean no offense but you don’t seem very accustomed to city life.

Korra chuckled. “Heh, you have no idea. I figured it out though, just had to ask around at the docks. Anyway, thanks again for offering to teach me.” 

“It’s my pleasure, I would love nothing more than for my people’s teachings to be spread around the world. The world could certainly use a more non-aggressive attitude.” 

“Yeah no kidding,” Korra said, following along after Tenzin told her that her lesson would take place somewhere else. “I wanted to ask you earlier by the way, is the White Lotus doing anything about what’s happening in the Earth Kingdom? Or at least keeping an eye on it?” 

Tenzin nodded. “We have some sources monitoring the situation, of course. But few are in a position to change the overall course of events. Our members have primarily focused on helping people resettle elsewhere in the Earth Kingdom after their homes were destroyed or occupied, or helping them flee to one of the other nations. I myself am housing a few dozen refugees here on the island, and have helped fund several shelters in the city.” 

Korra smiled. “That’s not nothing, I’m sure you’re really making a difference in those people’s lives.” She then pointed at the structure they were approaching, a bunch of painted wooden boards attached to round wooden poles. “What’s that contraption?” 

“It’s a time-honored tool that teaches the most fundamental aspect of airbending, it’s not an original of course, but it’s a largely faithful recreation of what my ancestors used. The goal is to weave your way through the gates and make it to the other side without touching them.” 

Korra folded her arms. “Seems easy enough.”  

“You didn’t let me finish,” Tenzin responded, “you have to make it through while the gates are spinning.” He stepped up to a large lever. “Based on the scrolls and murals we’ve recovered, we believe our ancestors waited for a windy day to make the gates spin, whenever they did this exercise. This would of course have been easier in their more mountainous homeland. Luckily, we have technology to help make the gates spin.” He pulled the lever, causing the gates to all begin spinning, though not as quickly as Korra had feared. Korra turned back to Tenzin when she saw him bend over to pick a leaf off the ground. 

“The key,” he said, “is to be like the leaf, flow with the movement of the gates.”

He then threw the leaf towards the gates, Korra watched as it flew between the gates, pushed back and forth by the wind that the spinning gates generated. “I will demonstrate,” Tenzin said, before calmly stepping in the midst of the spinning gates. Korra watched in amazement while the man, somehow looking both stiff and agile at the same time, calmly moved through the gates while spinning and stepping back and forth depending on the movements of the gates.

“The martial art of the air nomads is all about spiral movements. When you meet resistance, you must be able to switch direction at a moment’s notice,” he said this while suddenly darting to the side, keeping himself flat while squeezing between two gates that just barely missed him. A second later, he emerged from the other side of the gates, Korra walked around to meet him.

“My turn?” She asked.

Tenzin nodded. “If you think you’re ready.” 

Korra immediately turned to the gates, bent her knees, and prepared to charge in. “Lets do this!” She said, then she charged forwards. She ran up to the first gate, thinking to jump past it as soon as it twisted past her. But she mistimed it and jumped forwards too quickly, face-first into the gate. Her momentum carried her forwards into the next gate, and the next, and the next. She tried regaining her footing, but this just resulted in even more pain when the next gate hit her, since her strong stance meant that she wasn’t knocked away as easily. 

She crashed out of the ring of spinning gates, falling flat on her ass in an embarrassing way. She got up, determined, then charged right back into the gates. It seemed to go slightly better at first, she squeezed through two outer gates without any pain, but the motion left her unbalanced and unfocused, so before she realized it she slammed into another gate and once again crashed into every single gate in her path.

“Don’t force your way through.” Tenzin called out, but it didn’t help, Korra crashed into several more gates before exiting the torturous contraption, unsteady on her feet after the battering it gave her. 

Tenzin sighed. “It seems like we’d better start with some simpler exercises,” he said.

He spent the next half hour or so teaching Korra several simple forms, then taught her some footwork used to smoothly change direction. They then began circling each other, Korra’s task was to follow Tenzin’s pace, and switch directions whenever he did, so that they remained directly in front of each other at a consistent distance away. 

It was much harder than it sounded, yet also much more boring than the sparring she was used to. She tried her best to dedicate herself to the task but couldn’t keep herself from growing increasingly frustrated. After tripping over her own feet, surprised by Tenzin’s change in direction, she huffed in anger and turned away before slumping to the ground. “Ugh, why is this so hard!” She groaned in annoyance. 

Tenzin calmly placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s perfectly normal,” he said, “I can tell that you’re athletically gifted, so this must be frustrating. But you must understand that this isn’t just a matter of athleticism. You need to learn to adopt a new mindset, which is no small thing. These teachings will sink in over time, then one day they’ll just click. It may sound tedious, but this is precisely why I value these martial arts so much. They truly change your way of thinking, they help train your mind and develop a mindset that is applicable to many other things in life, not just to fighting.” 

Korra nodded. “You sound like my other teachers, always talking about how I focused too much on the physical side of things, how I still needed to learn the spiritual side,” she sighed. “So you’re saying that if I keep practicing and crashing into gates then eventually I’ll have some sort of mental or spiritual breakthrough or something?”  

“Yes, something like that,” Tenzin said.

Still frustrated, she blew a raspberry. “Pffhhh, I thought starting with the physical side would mean I get to start off easy.” 

“It would also help if you practiced meditating. Find a position where you can sit comfortably and take deep breaths, then just clear your mind and open yourself up to the universe.” 

“Uh huh, the universe,” Korra responded, she then looked past Tenzin as she saw a pregnant woman approaching.

“Tenzin dear, it’s time for dinner,” the woman said. 

“Ah, there’s my wife, I suppose we’ll have to finish our lesson for the day. Would you like to join us for dinner?”

Korra considered for a moment. “No, thanks for the offer, but I’d rather go check on my friend, she was acting weird earlier.” 

She and Tenzin arranged another lesson later in the week, then they went their separate ways. Korra took the ferry back to Republic City without issue. She jogged the entire way back to Asami’s mansion, which drew some funny looks but made for a great workout, it also helped work off the frustration from her lackluster performance in Tenzin’s lessons. 

When she returned to the mansion she was informed that Asami had already eaten dinner, then gone to bed early. So Korra ate alone, played with Naga for a while, then also retired to her bedchambers. She fell asleep wondering at Asami’s strange behavior, worrying she’d done something to upset her. 

Notes:

Another known character is finally introduced! Expect more actual plot progress from now on. Don't expect the chapters to get any shorter though, apparently I struggle with that ;p

Chapter 7: The Tale of Korra and Asami

Summary:

Asami tries to get a grip on her emotions, while Korra drags her along on a girl's night out.

Chapter 7: The Tale of Korra and Asami.

Korra was attempting to meditate; she wasn’t doing a very good job. The last few days had been frustrating and confusing, so her mind was racing trying to make sense of it all. The morning after she’d returned from her first practice session with Tenzin, Asami had come down for breakfast pretending as if nothing unusual had happened the previous day. 

Korra would’ve been willing to do the same, to chalk up Asami’s weird behavior when she fled from the park to her just having a bad mood or something. If not for the fact that Asami’s weird behavior had persisted these last few days. 

Korra had thought that they were getting closer, that they were becoming real friends. But ever since that day at the park Asami had grown more distant, Asami rarely made eye-contact anymore, and whenever Korra tried to really talk to her the other woman seemed to grow uncomfortable and quickly fled after giving a few curt responses.

Korra barely saw her anymore, especially now that the black-haired woman had begun attending lectures at the university again. They saw each other at breakfast and at dinner, and at the sessions Korra now had with the people from the university, where they asked her all sorts of questions about what her life had been like before she was frozen. 

Asami was less curt at those sessions, instead she was painfully formal and professional, talking only about things relating to her research as an anthropologist. Even the other researchers, despite being a dull group of socially awkward dorks, were more willing to engage in small talk. 

Korra thought that part of the reason for Asami’s attitude during these interviews was because of the other people from the university and their sexist attitudes towards Asami, making the woman feel like she needed to constantly be on her best behavior. But that didn’t explain what she was like in the privacy of her own mansion… Something important has changed in their dynamic ever since Asami acted so strange at the park before leaving with screeching tires, but Korra can’t figure out what caused it. 

Thinking about her training with Tenzin did little to cheer Korra up, she still didn’t feel like she was making any progress. She was perfectly able to replicate the forms Tenzin showed her for punches and kicks, those weren’t too different from firebending. The problem was the footwork that was needed to combine the different forms together through seamless movements. 

Korra just couldn’t figure out how to move the way that Tenzin does when dodging and weaving his way through the spinning gates, she didn’t understand how he always knows which direction to go. She’s always had an aggressive fighting style, preferring to aggressively move forwards and put constant pressure on her opponents. 

It’s a style that suits her, it’s always clear where she needs to go and what she needs to do, even if her opponent temporarily puts her on the defensive, she knows how and when to block or dodge. 

But the extreme reliance on dodging that air nomad martial arts focuses on leaves her completely stumped, it just seems so… Aimless. Even when fighting defensively Korra always has the goal of setting up counterattacks, of turning the tables back against her opponent so that she can move forwards and begin pressuring them again.

It gives her a clear goal, a direction, she dodges in the direction that brings her closer to her opponent or that allows her to easily turn the momentum of the movement into an attack. 

It’s completely unlike the air nomad fighting style where she’s supposed to dodge endlessly while intuiting which direction to move in, where every dodge mainly just sets up a different dodge, constantly moving in different directions depending on the inscrutable rhythm of the gates. 

Tenzin’s insistence that she has to “be like the leaf” doesn’t help much, if leaves had brains then they probably didn’t relate to Korra’s desire to set all of the spinning gates on fire in retaliation for the countless times she’s bumped into them by now. 

The one bright spot these last few days had been when Tenzin again invited Korra to have dinner with his family, after finishing the first public training session that Korra had attended. 

Korra had accepted this time, happy for the excuse to not have another awkward dinner with Asami. Tenzin’s quirky kids were fun to hang out with, and they’d been elated to play with Naga after dinner. 

The much younger kids were hardly a substitute for someone like Asami though, someone closer to Korra’s age. Korra stood up from her meditative posture under the tree that had become her favorite exercise spot, then walked back to the Sato mansion. All this meditating and dodging wasn’t her style, it was time she confronted Asami and got some answers.

 

***

 

Asami sat at her desk, staring at the introduction to her master’s thesis, before crumpling up the paper and throwing it in the trash. She’d written it while still in the South Pole, before she knew she’d have the opportunity to speak to someone with a first hand account of the ancient world. She needed to start again from scratch, without any preconceptions. 

 She had originally planned to write her thesis around the idea that people in ancient times developed different martial arts styles based on the climates they inhabited and the terrain they were likely to fight in, that this was why ancient societies had defined themselves by the four elements, because those elements symbolized the terrain they fought in. 

It was a theory she’d toyed with before, based on ancient painted pottery and engravings that depicted what most researchers believed to be what the ancients called “bending”. She was however becoming more and more uncertain that her theory was correct, at the very least she no longer believed it to be the whole truth. 

Korra’s demonstration of her people’s fighting style had been impressive, but Asami didn’t feel like it did much to confirm her theory. Korra hadn’t talked much about terrain, she’d referenced water a lot, talking about “fluid” movements and about pushing and pulling like the tides. It was still possible that the environments her people lived in had been what influenced their choice of analogy, but Asami was no longer convinced. 

Especially because it seemed like Korra was hiding something whenever they talked about bending or about martial arts. Asami originally assumed that it was just because the girl didn’t like feeling judged for believing in what Asami considered superstitions, but she was starting to suspect that the girl’s cageyness had an additional motivation behind it. 

She had no idea what that could be though, was the girl just trying to keep some tricks up her sleeve, to feel safer in an alien world full of strangers, or was there more to it than that?

Asami sighed. I should stop trying to distance myself from Korra, she doesn’t even seem to have any clue why I’ve been so weird lately. I just have to get it together and act normal towards Korra while I sort out my feelings. It felt like we were getting along and growing closer, until that moment in the park. Surely our relationship can be salvaged?

She pointedly ignored the emotions that thinking about the word “relationship”, in the context of the blue eyed warrior, made her feel. She resolved to go and find Korra right away, to apologize for her weird behavior and promise to spend more time together again.

She was about to stand up when the door flew open and Korra stormed in. 

“Did you just literally kick the door open?!” Asami asked, put off-guard by the girl’s sudden appearance. 

“Yeah, it was necessary!” Korra responded, with an angry tone in her voice. “Why have you been avoiding me lately? Why are you being so weird?” 

Asami reflexively went on the defensive. “I’m not avoiding you, we spend hours together yesterday at the university!” She said, immediately regretting the words. The time they’d spent at the university had been unbearably awkward, with Asami’s overly formal attitude and constant deflections whenever Korra tried to joke around or talk about something not directly related to her anthropological research. 

She saw that Korra was about to blow up in frustration at Asami’s denial of the obvious, so she quickly spoke up again. “Forget I said that, you’re right I have been distant lately, no point in denying it. You just put me on the defensive by storming in like that.” 

Korra grew bashful at that. “Right, I guess kicking the door was a bit much. How expensive are those? Pretty sure I saw some splinters flying… Anyway, it’s your fault! Seriously why have you been so weird and distant? Was it something I said at the park? I’ve been trying to figure it out but I just can’t think of what made you behave like that all of a sudden.” 

Asami pouted while tapping her chin, unsure of how to respond. She’d planned on apologizing, but she still hadn’t figured out how to explain herself. She’d hoped that an apology would be enough to satisfy the tribal girl, but now that Korra had taken the initiative it seemed unlikely that she’d get out of this without more of an explanation. 

She hadn’t totally figured out all of her own feelings on the matter, so for now a partial explanation was all she could give. “It was something you said at the park, it’s my own fault though you don’t have anything to feel guilty about,” she briefly paused to consider how exactly to phrase the next part, before continuing. “Do you remember your first day here, at the pool? How you didn’t realize that our modern society has more of a stigma surrounding nudity than yours did?” She asked. 

Korra blushed. “I wasn’t nude I was wearing my underclothes!” The girl said. 

Asami laughed. “Well yeah, but that’s my point, even that is considered scandalous in our society, we’re a bunch of prudes! I like to think of myself as a progressive person, I kind of have to be, because conservative members of our society wouldn’t accept a female student studying at the university. But I’ve begun to realize that subconsciously I’ve still been ingrained with the stigmas of our society, I sometimes still have instinctive emotional responses to certain things even when my rational mind realizes that it’s just an irrational stigma.” 

“I think I understand that,” Korra said, sounding a bit hesitant, “but what did I say that was so scandalous? All I remember is telling you the story of the founding of Omashu, then suddenly you started acting weird. But you said it was a beautiful story didn’t you?” 

“It was a great story! I was really enjoyed it; it was also incredibly historically valuable. It’s not about the story, it’s about what you said afterwards, about your romantic life. Again, I’m not judging you! It’s just that in our society nobody, especially not a girl, would talk about flings and making out in the casual way that you talked about it…” 

“That’s it?!” Korra exclaimed. “That’s why you grew so flustered, because I told you I’ve kissed a few people?” 

“I guess, yeah,” Asami responded, leaving out the fantasies that Korra’s comment had triggered, and how it was specifically the part about kissing other girls that had shaken Asami to her core. “I know that it’s dumb, it’s probably also because of my relatively sheltered upbringing, it’s just not something I’ve ever heard anyone talk about in that way before.” 

“Well if that’s all then you’ve got to just get over it!” Korra said, as if it were that easy. “We should make up for lost time, are you done studying for the day? I’d like to go into the city, I’ve seen some cool papers hung up around the city that talk about stuff we could go see.”

“I’d love to,” Asami said, “you’re talking about flyers aren’t you? What kinds of flyers caught your eye?” 

 

A short while later, after Asami changed into a new set of clothing, they began walking towards the city’s center. Korra was particularly interested in the music clubs that she’d seen advertisements for, telling Asami that the new kinds of music she’d heard so far were very strange and foreign to her yet also very beautiful. She was particularly interested in what she’d described as big metal flutes, which she’d heard a street performer using a few days ago. 

Asami figured that it was probably a saxophone or some other horn instrument, so she took Korra to her favorite jazz club. The club employed a large band of musicians, while also having many different guest performers every single night. In addition to the music they also frequently hired dancers to perform. 

It was the most successful venue of its type, if you were only counting the legal ones that is, Asami was aware that there were similar underground clubs that illegally served alcohol (among other things) despite the prohibition.  

Korra was chatting excitedly while they walked towards the club, but fell silent as soon as they entered, staring slack-jawed at the various sights and sounds. Asami tried to imagine what the club must look like to the tribal warrior, the electric lights, bright red fabrics along the walls, the large open room with a tall ceiling, the dancing girls on the stage in their sparkling outfits, and finally the band playing various instruments, most of which would be totally unknown to the girl. 

Asami had always enjoyed the jazz club, but looking at it with this perspective made it seem even more magical. Especially when she saw the look of pure joy on the other girl’s face. 

“About what you expected?” Asami asked with a smirk, knowing that this probably greatly exceeded Korra’s expectations.

“Are you kidding me? I couldn’t have imagined this in a million years!” Korra exclaimed. “This place is amazing!”

Asami struggled to keep up as Korra rushed forward and weaved her way through the crowd with surprising agility, heading straight towards the podium where the band was playing. They stood there for a while, Korra looking enraptured and asking Asami various questions about all the different instruments. Asami wasn’t very knowledgeable about music, so her answers mostly focused on the technical way in which the instruments worked, but Korra didn’t seem to mind as she listened to Asami talk while bobbing her head to the rhythm of the music.

Asami went to get them some drinks, and when she returned she found Korra facing towards the dance floor, an intense look of concentration on her face while she seemed to be studying the movements of the people dancing. 

“Do you want to try dancing?” Asami asked. “Dancing to jazz can be tricky, but if I could learn it then I’m sure you can too.” 

Korra looked towards her and smirked, a look of challenge appearing on the girl’s face. “Just let me watch a little while longer, I think I’m figuring it out,” the girl said, sounding cocky. 

True to her word, a few minutes later Korra suddenly rushed forwards and started dancing along with the others on the dancefloor, perfectly mimicking the Charleston dance, stepping forwards and backwards while twisting her feet to make an O shape, she was even adding in the extra flourishes by kicking her legs outwards, all while dancing in sync with the music. Asami had expected the athletic girl to be able to learn how to dance, but was still shocked to see how easily she taught herself this modern style of dance. 

She watched for a minute or two while Korra danced, before moving to join her on the dancefloor.

 

***

 

Korra laughed out loud, barely able to hear herself over the strange music that was being played. She looked up towards the lights in the ceiling, then spun around, still copying the energetic dance style she’d watched everyone else doing. 

When she finished her spin, she found Asami in front of her, also dancing. The woman looked beautiful in her flowing red dress, and her beauty was enhanced by her surprising dancing skill. Korra watched happily as the normally kind of stiff and serious woman danced and hopped around the room, making the same cheerful dance that everyone else was doing look far more graceful than had previously seemed possible. 

Their eyes met, and Korra saw a challenge in the other woman’s face. She gladly accepted the challenge and laughed out loud again as she watched Asami immediately jump and spin around to show off some elaborate footwork, footwork that built upon the same type of base movements everyone else was doing yet took it to another level. 

Not to be outdone, Korra also started adding more elaborate footwork into her dancing, some of it was inspired by what she’s seen others do but she also incorporated some bending forms into her movements. They kept going like that for a while, pausing only briefly when the musicians switched songs, laughing and jokingly arguing about who was “winning” their contest during those brief breaks.

It took a while before Korra noticed that they were drawing a crowd, a bunch of onlookers had gathered to watch them dance. This only made her more eager to show off, so things continued as they had for a while longer. Korra made eye contact with a smiling Asami, she briefly admired the woman’s bright green eyes but then noticed her expression suddenly change to fear and her movements grow much more reserved, it seemed Asami hadn’t noticed the attention they’d drawn until this very moment. 

They both awkwardly came to a stop, then exited the dance floor. Korra laughed while pulling Asami behind her towards where she’d seen people going to get drinks. “That was amazing. YOU were amazing, I didn’t expect you to move like that!” She said as they reached a tall wide table where someone seemed to be handing out drinks. 

She turned around to face a shy looking Asami. “It was nothing special, everyone does the Charleston nowadays.” Asami said. 

“Not like that they don’t, you saw the attention we were drawing didn’t you? Everyone was impressed, including me! I gotta admit, I had you pegged wrong. I thought you were kinda prissy.”

“Uhhh, no offense,” she rushed to add. “Normally you’re so elegant and pretty, but you’ve got some killer dance moves too, and great stamina!” Asami blushed, then in a not-so-subtle attempt to cover up her embarrassment at being complimented the woman turned to the man handing out drinks, so Korra let the matter rest for now. 

She tried to get Asami to return to the dance floor after they finished their drink, but Asami refused. She blamed sore feet but Korra was sure it was an excuse, Asami didn’t seem to feel comfortable being the center of attention in that way. Korra did dance for a while longer, then they sat and listened to the music, but eventually they exited the club and entered the cool night air. 

 “This was amazing! I’ve never heard music like this, it’s so cheerful and amazing!” Korra said, causing Asami to nod in agreement.

“Yeah that’s what I love most about this music, my dad prefers the opera, but that’s very slow and somber in comparison.” 

“Sad songs can be nice too,” Korra said, “maybe we can try that another day? This was really fun, we should go out like this more often,” she added, trying not to sound too eager. This night had been the most fun she’d had in a long time, since before she was frozen in the ice. 

“I’d like that,” Asami said immediately, making Korra smile. It seemed like the night had gotten the other woman to get over her awkward attitude towards Korra, it was still hard to understand why exactly Asami had been so embarrassed the last few days. Even if Korra had broken some sort of weird stigma, it wasn’t the first time she’d done so, yet in the past Asami never responded so strongly… 

Oh well, things are better now, probably best not to dwell on it. Korra thought, she was just happy to have her friend back.

As they walked Asami asked her about her thoughts and perspectives on the music, about how it compared to the music of her own tribe. A pang of sadness took hold of Korra as she thought about her parents dancing, along with all the others of her tribe who she would never see again.

After regaining her composure, Korra told Asami about the drums and other instruments she was used to, which Asami eagerly started writing down in a notebook that seemed to magically appear out of nowhere. 

Korra watched in amusement at the woman’s pen rapidly writing, while she kept talking and answering the woman’s questions. It was very different from the last few days, when Asami had been painfully professional while asking these kinds of questions. Asami was still eager to do her research, but she was now able to incorporate fun small talk into the conversation so that it still felt like they were two friends having a conversation.

It went on like that for a while before they started to run out of things to talk about.

“Alright, the night isn’t over,” Korra said, pulling out another flyer. “Do you know how to get to ‘Toza’s arena?’ “

 

***

 

Asami looked at the flyer Korra had pulled out, it advertised a “no holds barred” fighting venue she’d never heard of, which boasted of the great number of up-and-coming talents that would be fighting tonight in an attempt to qualify for a future tournament.

“Boxing? Really? Are you sure that’s a place we want to visit? Those kinds of venues aren’t always the most reputable,” Asami said. 

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, if they’re openly promoting themselves then they can’t be that bad can they?” Korra responded, Asami had to admit it was a good point. “Besides, I’ve been curious about how your people fight. It might help with your research or whatever, if I can watch and see how your people’s fighting styles differ from mine.”

That actually got Asami excited, so she ignored her apprehension and led Korra to the arena’s location. It wasn’t the same upper class area where most of the clubs and theatres she frequented were located, but as they arrived Asami noticed that it was in a much nicer area than she’d feared. Perhaps boxing’s ominous reputation was a tad exaggerated in the elitist social circles she engaged with.

The building itself was a tall nondescript stone structure, made more interesting by wooden cutouts of boxing gloves covered with electric lights decorating the entrance. A large crowd was slowly shuffling its way towards the ticket booth at the entry, making Asami fear that there wouldn’t be any tickets left by the time they reached it.

Her fears seemed to be confirmed when a series of groans and complaints sounded in the line in front of her. The complaints were followed by the man from the booth shouting. “I’m sorry to announced that our regular tickets have all sold out, you gents will all have to listen to the matches on the radio. We will be playing the radio broadcast on speakers outside the building, courtesy of Flamey-O Instant Noodles, the noodliest noodles in the United Republic.” 

Asami sighed, about to explain a confused looking Korra what the issue was, but then she heard the man continue speaking. “We still have a number of luxury seating tickets left for sale, so the most dedicated boxing fans will still be able to attend. Luxury tickets are sold for 500 yuans a piece!”

More complaints sounded after this, the price was clearly too steep for most of the sport’s working-class audience. It was mere change for Asami though, so she pulled Korra with her while pushing her way through the crowd. 

“I’ll take two luxury tickets please,” she told the man at the booth, as soon as she and Korra reached the front.

The man looked surprised when he saw her and Korra, he gave them a quick once-over before he responded. “Ah, two lovely ladies looking for an exciting night out eh? You know you don’t need these expensive tickets for some excitement,” he said, before giving a suggestive wink. When he saw Asami’s affronted expression he burst out laughing. 

“Relax, relax, I’m just messing with ya. You’re not exactly our usual audience you know? Can’t blame a guy for poking fun. Two VIP tickets coming right up.”

He got out two tickets, which Asami quickly paid for. Inside the building was a large crowd of people, standing around an elevated square platform walled off with several ropes. Around the main crowd were several stairs to provide elevated seating on three sides, the fourth side featured an elevated section sparsely filled with several tables, with waiters moving between to provide food and drinks. Clearly that was the luxury seating, so Asami gestured for Korra to follow her in that direction.

There weren’t many other women in the audience, none were in the luxury seating section, which made them draw a few interested looks. Asami in turn was also curious, the people in this section were all members of the upper crust of society, she recognized several of them. She would’ve never expected them to attend an event like this, it certainly wasn’t something they would openly discuss at the various galas Asami attended. Or maybe it was the sort of thing they didn’t discuss in front of women?

Regardless, she and Korra sat down and were immediately served cooled drinks, she watched as Korra looked around with a bemused expression. “So this is what your money buys huh? Doesn’t really seem fair, we arrived late yet we’re way more comfortable than everyone else.”

“I guess not,” Asami responded, “I usually try to avoid throwing my wealth around like this. Makes me feel self-conscious to elevate myself like this in front of the less fortunate, it feels like I’m rubbing salt in the wound or something. You seemed really excited about this though, so I didn’t want you to miss it.” 

Korra smiled at that. “Don’t get me wrong I definitely appreciate it, this is great! Just makes me feel a bit guilty is all,” Asami continued to be impressed by the girl’s empathy and thoughtfulness, it was especially refreshing after spending her whole life watching so many people not think twice about the excessive wealth they surrounded themselves with.

They chatted a while longer, until a man stepped into the ringed square at the center of the arena and began speaking through a microphone.

“Ladies and gentlemen in the audience tonight, and all those listening on the radio. I’m speaking to you live from Republic City’s most prestigious fighting arena, where tonight the best in the world continue their quest for a spot in the upcoming championship tournament. Grab your snacks and grab your kids because this next match is going to be a doozy!”

Korra seemed to take this instruction very seriously, there were no kids nearby but the girl started grabbing various snacks that a waiter was carrying, before she began stuffing her mouth. Asami couldn’t help feeling jealous of the girl’s ability to maintain such an amazing figure while consuming so much food, it probably had something to do with the amount of muscle the girl needed to feed though, so she clearly paid for it with her brutal workout routine.

Asami started munching on a small breadstick while returning her attention to the center of the arena as the announcer continued speaking. 

“First up, a newcomer to professional fighting, by way of the Fire Ferret gym, we’ve got Mako here to fight his second professional bout! Fun fact, his brother Bolin will also be fighting later tonight! I recommend everyone to keep an eye on the two of them, they have the makings of a truly inspiring rags-to-riches story! But first, Mako will have to fight Yomo, a slightly more experienced fighter with 9 wins and zero losses so far in his career!” 

Asami couldn’t help becoming engrossed in the match when, after the introductions were finished, this “Mako” guy began advancing on the other fighter, relentlessly pressing forward while weaving his head to the side and dodging all of Yomo’s punches.

“This Mako’s got moxie,” the announcer said, “he advances, strikes with two quick jabs, Yomo is hammered back into the ropes, clock is winding down, can Yomo hold on? He’s teetering on the edge of the ring now, Mako winds up for a powerful uppercut and Yomo goes down into the ropes! It’s a knockout! Mako wins the fight after just one round!” 

Asami flinched at the sight of the brutal finishing punch, she could swear that she heard the thudding sound of the punch even from this distance, piercing through the roar of the crowd. It was a brutal sport, yet she felt that part of her was enjoying it even as she watched a dazed Yomo only now beginning to regain consciousness. 

She glanced to the side where Korra was leaning forward, huge grin on her face, the warrior girl was clearly loving it. “That was great! Did you see the head movement from that Mako guy? He was getting up close and personal, yet the other guy couldn’t touch him at all!”

“Was it very different from how you fight?” Asami asked.

“Well, sort of,” Korra said, “I do tend to be an aggressive fighter like Mako, dodging my opponent’s attacks while getting in close. I don’t have to get THAT close though since I… uh” Korra suddenly stammered a bit. “Well yknow, since I usually fight with spears, not just my bare hands.”

Asami regarded her with suspicion, but quickly forgot about it when the next bout started. They watched several matches, most were much longer than the first one, one lasting for ten rounds. Other than the enforced pauses between rounds, there didn’t seem to be many rules. There were fighters who wrestled and threw their opponents, these fighters wore smaller gloves than other fighters. Though most fighters seemed to focus primarily on punching and occasionally kicking, this latter group wore bigger gloves. 

 

 

 

It seemed unfair to Asami that some fighters were allowed to wear smaller gloves, wouldn’t that make their punches hurt more? But when she voiced this thought to Korra, the girl explained that it was probably actually the opposite. That the gloves were to protect a fighter’s hands, not their opponent’s heads. 

Korra explained that the gloves would allow them to punch harder without hurting their hand, that they would also add more weight to each punch, while smaller gloves would allow fighters to grapple their opponents but would mean they have to worry about hurting their knuckles against an opponent’s skull.

It continued like that for a while, they watched several sights while Korra made insightful observations. Asami’s attention started to slip a little but she perked back up when the announcer introduced the brother of the first fighter they’d seen. “Bolin”, he was called. He didn’t look much like his older brother, he was much bulkier and broad-shouldered, he also seemed much cheerier, excitedly waving to the crowd whereas his brother had been very stoic and serious. Asami found herself wondering about the story of these two brothers, how did anyone find themselves competing in such a brutal sport?

 

 

“Like his older brother, the rookie Bolin came from out of nowhere and won his first match of this qualifying tournament in a surprising upset,” the announcer said, while Bolin could be seen flexing his muscles in various poses with a wide grin on his face. Asami blushed, she hadn’t really thought about the impropriety of watching a bunch of shirtless men, but this Bolin character was bringing attention to it in a way that previous fighters hadn’t done. 

“Facing Bolin will be Hahn, by way of the Golden Temple Tiger-Dillo gym! A seasoned veteran with 32 wins and 15 losses, Hahn’s favored fighting style is to keep his distance and use his superior footwork to catch opponents off-guard. Will the rookie Bolin find a way to counter Hahn? Only one way to find out!” 

The bell rung, and both fighters moved towards each other. In the corner of her eye, Asami saw Korra leaning forward while pulling her own hair. The girl was engrossed in every fight in a way that Asami found very cute, Korra was arbitrarily picking favorites and rooting for them in every fight. 

Her favorite in this fight was clear, as the girl cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted: “Go Bolin, punch his teeth out!” The tribal girl’s bloodthirsty exclamation drew bemused and scandalized looks from all the well-dressed men in luxury seating, which made Asami laugh. It’s what they’re all here for isn’t it? To watch people beat each other up? Was it the content of what Korra said, or the fact that it was a girl saying it, that scandalized them? 

Korra herself didn’t seem to notice the reaction, she was focused solely on the two fighters while they began circling each other. Taking the other girl’s cue, Asami also focused back on the match itself. 

Bolin threw a few punches, while Hahn jumped back out of range, before quickly jumping forward again in an attempt to counter. Bolin however responded in kind, with surprisingly quick footwork for a man of his build. It went back and forth like that for a while, until out of nowhere Bolin ducked down and dived forwards, wrapping his arms around Hahn’s legs. He lifted the man up in a display of pure strength, then slammed him down onto the arena’s raised floor.

Hahn tried to kick Bolin off of him, but in another surprisingly quick flurry of movement, the bulky fighter rolled behind Hahn and began choking him. Hahn tried to roll around and shake Bolin off, but Bolin relentlessly held on, wrapping his legs around the other man’s torso in order to further secure his grip. 

Hahn’s face was changing color and Asami was starting to get worried about how long it would continue, until the man tapped Bolin’s forearms and Bolin released him.

“Hahn taps out, Bolin wins the fight in the first round! What a wingdinger of a fight folks! It would appear that neither of these fabulous fighting brothers is interested in wasting time, both rookies have impressed with exciting first round victories!”

Korra was loudly cheering beside her, her excitement was so infectious that Asami stood up and joined her. She hadn’t expected to enjoy this tournament as much as she did!

“What did you think?” Korra asked/shouted as she turned towards Asami. “That was amazing right? That Bolin guy is a great wrestler.” 

“I don’t think I’m really able to judge his skill to be honest,” Asami responded, “when they’re punching each other it seems simple enough, but I can’t get a good sense of the technique involved when they’re rolling around and wrestling like that.” 

“Yeah I guess it’s a bit less straightforward than just punching,” Korra responded, “that’s what makes it fun though, I could teach you sometime!” 

Asami wasn’t prepared for the images that that statement brought to the forefront of her imagination; Korra with glistening muscles, standing close to her, pulling Asami into her muscular arms before throwing her to the floor and jumping on top...

Asami tried to stammer out a response but was saved by the announcer pulling Korra’s attention away from her. “We’ve got one more special treat for the night, former champion Chang, with the longest undefeated reign in professional fighting history, is in the building!”

The crowd exploded with a roar of applause and cheers, apparently this guy was a really big deal. After waiting for the crowd to grow (relatively) silent again, the announcer continued.

“As many of you know, in this arena we have a long and proud tradition of allowing audience challengers to try to prove themselves in the arena against our professional fighters. Today, anyone brave enough will have the opportunity to challenge Chang, also known as 'the Boar-Q-Pine'. If anyone manages to last at least three rounds against the former champ then they’ll earn fifteen thousand yuans, as well as the opportunity to compete in the upcoming tournament. If they do the impossible and defeat this living legend then they’ll earn thirty thousand yuans! Anyone brave enough to meet this challenge please come towards the fighter’s entrance.”

The announcer gestured towards the cleared pathway through which the fighters had approached the ring throughout the evening, where now several staff members could be seen piling up boxing gloves and such, presumably for prospective audience challengers to use. 

There didn’t seem to be too many people who dared to challenge a former champion, Asami turned to Korra to say as much but found that the girl was no longer in her seat, she had stood up and begun walking towards the area the announcer had indicated. Asami quickly stood up and chased after the girl. 

“You’re not actually thinking of challenging him are you?” She asked once she’d caught up. 

“Why wouldn’t I? I’m a good fighter, it’ll be fun! Honestly it seems like your people’s skills have waned now that you rely so much on guns or whatever, pretty sure I could beat everyone we saw tonight.”

Asami sighed, she probably should’ve predicted this. Korra’s confidence in her fighting was nothing new after all, she still worried that the reckless girl would try to fight the triads again, this seemed tame in comparison. She tried for another approach. 

“I’m not even sure they’ll let you fight, they probably weren’t expecting any women in the audience to take their offer.” 

Korra shrugged this off while continuing to move towards the cleared pathway. “Guess we’ll see, I didn’t hear the announcer guy say that only men could apply, he just said ‘anyone brave enough.’ “

Asami didn’t think it would be that simple, but she couldn’t find a good argument so she just followed along as they moved through the crowd. When they almost reached the cleared area, Asami could hear a member of the arena’s staff yelling out to the crowd.  

“Come on, surely someone here is brave enough to challenge the former champ, for the chance of winning thousands of yuans?!” The man yelled out. “You won’t even have to defeat him, you just have to last three rounds!” 

“You do it then!” A member of the audience yelled, causing murmurs of agreement.  

Finally Korra and Asami emerged from the crowd and entered the cleared area, Korra immediately moved towards the staffer who’d been daring the crowd to accept the challenge. “I’ll fight him,” Korra said. 

The staffer just scoffed. “Nice joke,” he said, before turning back to the rest of the crowd. “Surely someone is brave or crazy enough to give it a shot? Even if you fail, you’ll still be able to say that you fought a living legend!” 

“I’m not joking!” Korra said, darting in front of the staffer. “I’ll fight him, bet I won’t even need three rounds to beat him!”

The staffer’s earlier smirk dropped, and several others moved in closer. “Is that even allowed?” One of them asked.

Korra responded. “You said ‘anyone brave enough’, you didn’t say anything about needing to be a guy.” 

The first man spoke up again. “You do realize what you’re getting into, don’t you? These audience fights are real fights, they’re not just for show, Chang won’t go easy on you, not with fifteen thousand yuans on the line.”

Asami watched as Korra just smirked and folded her arms. “Maybe you should be more worried about him,” she dropped her smirk and turned more serious, “I’ve trained, just look at my muscles. I know what I’m getting into, sort of… I know how to fight but what are the rules exactly in this tournament?” 

Asami resisted the urge to facepalm, but it was a close call. 

“The rules are very simple,” the staffer said, “each round lasts five minutes, during that round you can attack your opponent any way you like, the only thing that’s banned is eye-gauging. The fight continues until the referee tells you to stop, which he won’t do unless one of you has passed out or surrendered. You can surrender verbally, or by tapping either your opponent or the floor of the arena.” 

“Got it,” Korra nodded, “what about the gloves? I saw people wearing different kinds, can I choose?” 

The staffer nodded. “Wear whatever gloves you like, or none at all, most opt for the heavier gloves, but wrestlers usually pick smaller gloves or no gloves.”

“Can I wrap my hands with these?” Korra asked, pointing to the cloth wrapped around her lower arms. 

The man nodded. “I don’t see why not. As for your shoes, you're allowed to wear them but only if you don't plan on kicking, if you want to kick your opponent then you have to go barefoot." Korra quickly took off her boots in response.

"Are you really sure about this?” The man asked. He looked highly skeptical, but when Korra said she was sure the man moved to the ring and called out to the announcer. Korra quickly began to unravel the cloth around her lower arms, before rewrapping it around her hands. 

“Are you really sure?” Asami asked. “I know that you’re confident, and I’m sure that confidence is not entirely misplaced, but it sounds like this guy is one of the best. The people we watched so far were fighting just to qualify for the real tournament, they were not the best of the best.” 

Korra harrumphed. “Yeah no kidding, they weren’t bad, made for a good show, but I’ve definitely seen better.” Asami gave her a look, causing the young girl to respond more seriously. “Maybe I don’t win, so what? I’ve been hit before, trust me I can take a punch, I’ll be fine.”

Asami wanted to argue, but the staffer from earlier interjected. “The announcer needs your name, to announce you to the crowd, last chance to back out without a public humiliation…”

 

“My name is Korra, daughter of Tonraq,” the blue-eyed warrior said, with a look that made it clear she wasn’t backing out. The staffer nodded and ran back to the ring while Korra finished wrapping the cloth around her hands and pulled it tight.  

Asami accepted that there was no talking the tribal girl out of it, so instead, without really thinking about it, she pulled her in for a hug. “Please don't get hurt,” she said. 

It wasn’t until after releasing Korra from the hug that Asami realized that it was the closest she’d ever been to the other girl, she felt the heat rising to her face as she processed the feeling of Korra’s firm muscles, and how the girl’s hair had smelled like the ocean.

She thought she couldn’t possibly feel more awkward, as she stood there surrounded by a crowd, finally beginning to understand why Korra was making her feel this way. That was until Korra pulled off her shirt, leaving her in only a cropped white tanktop that exposed her midriff, toned abs on full display. 

Korra turned away to face the arena when the announcer began to speak, leaving Asami to watch the girl’s exposed shoulders from behind, barely registering the announcer’s words as he shouted out to the crowd. “Looks like we’ve ferreted out a challenger after all folks! At the last-minute! It’s a bit of an unorthodox one, but we’ve been unable to dissuade her from trying her luck.” 

A gasp sounded throughout the audience, which made Asami try to shake off her lustful feelings. Lust, that’s what it is isn’t it? Towards another girl… This is so wrong. Asami thought, before finally focusing on the announcer’s words. 

“You heard that right folks, I did not misspeak. I did say ‘her’, because this challenger is indeed a woman. I’ve been informed that there are no rules specifically barring a woman from competing, probably because none have ever been crazy enough to try it!” 

Korra jumped onto the raised platform, before casually hopping over the ropes.

“Say what you will, but the girl has guts,” the announcer said. “Maybe she’s crazy, or maybe she’s just out to shame all the men in the crowd who were too afraid to answer the challenge. Show them what true courage looks like!” Boos sounded at that.  

“Either way, entering the ring now we have ‘Korra, daughter of Tonraq.’ I can’t say that I like the lass’s odds, but I must tell you folks, she is very muscular for a woman. Perhaps this is her way of auditioning for the circus?” 

The crowd laughed and jeered, spiking Asami’s anger. She was worried about Korra, but she’d seen the girl display her martial arts abilities and was certain that she’d be able to put up a good fight. She was a warrior who worked hard every day to train her skills, she didn’t deserve to be mocked like this. Asami found herself no longer just hoping for Korra to be OK, but hoping that Korra would win. Prove them wrong, she thought.

 

 

***

 

Korra walked up to the center of the ring where the referee was standing, opposite her was Chang, looking very confused. “You really expect me to fight this little girl?” The man said in a gruff voice.

The referee just shrugged. “No rules against it.” 

“Don’t go easy on me,” Korra said as she started stretching her legs, “I don’t want anyone to say it was just a fluke when I beat you.” 

As she’d hoped, Chang’s face hardened when she said that. “Fine, you’ve brought this on yourself!” He said in an angry voice, Korra just smirked in response. The referee asked if they were ready and if they understood the rules, then told them to back away to opposite ends of the “ring.” Why do they call it a ring when it’s a square?

“Fighters, are you ready?” The ref asked, Korra nodded. The ref blew a whistle, a bell sounded, and the fight began.

Notes:

I was very tempted to just keep writing and include the fight in this same chapter, but this cliffhanger is just too perfect and I have to make SOME effort to keep these chapters a reasonable length, right?

Anyway, here it is, it was really fun to write Korra and Asami bonding while Asami struggles to come to terms with her crush.

Chapter 8: The Spirit of Competition

Summary:

The fight commences! (Sorry for the cliffhanger last chapter ;p)

Notes:

Some very brief and mild smut in this chapter, I wasn't really planning on it but it felt fitting. I've changed the rating accordingly. (I think.)

Chapter 8: The Spirit of Competition.

Korra tuned out the jeers and screams of the crowd as she slowly circled her opponent, if she was honest with herself she wasn’t quite as confident as she’d pretended to be when she spoke to Asami. True, she was a highly skilled fighter, but the man in front of her was much larger than her, which wasn’t that big of a problem in a bending match but would be a challenge when she couldn’t use her bending. 

Chang had a broad muscular build and was a head taller than her. He was also wearing shoes, which meant that he wouldn’t be allowed to kick Korra. So that was one less thing to worry about at least. Chang looked like he descended from the Earth Kingdom, but Korra wasn’t sure how much that would tell her about his fighting style. Watching all the fights this past evening Korra had thought that she could recognize some familiar tendencies based on people’s ethnic origin, but the differences hadn’t been very pronounced. 

Either way, Korra felt like she’d learned all there was to learn from just circling her opponent, so she decided to take the offensive. She charged forwards, feinted a right hand punch, then pretended to throw that same punch again. But this time she used it to distract from the right leg kick that she threw at the same time. 

It connected hard against Chang’s side and caused the man to grunt in disguised pain, but he powered through it and responded by moving forward with a combination of punches. Korra dodged backwards, staying barely out of his range, then jumped forward again as soon as his combination ended. 

She started with a push kick, meant more to push him backwards and off-balance than to hurt him. Her firebending teacher had taught her many kicking attacks that were easily adapted for use in a nonbending fight. She kept moving towards him even as he threw a punch with his left hand, she ducked beneath his attack while responding with an overhand right-hand punch. It went above Chang’s extended arm and connected right against his chin, connecting twice as hard because he had been trying to put his full weight behind his own missed punch.  

Korra immediately followed up with a left punch to his gut, then dodged back out of range again, bouncing on her feet. Her attacks clearly hurt a now slightly hunched-over Chang, but not enough, he was already nearly recovered. Korra moved forwards to keep up the pressure, she jumped up with a spinning kick aimed for his head, but he leaned back to dodge it, then tried to attack her as she landed. Korra dove away from his attack before quickly rolling back up to her feet, she could hear the announcer yelling about something but she was too focused on the fight to make out any of the words. 

Moving forwards again, she responded to Chang’s incoming punch by dodging slightly to the side and catching his wrist with her left hand. She placed her right hand on his shoulder and then heaved with all her strength, pulling him out of his stance by using his own momentum against him, much like how she would redirect an opponent’s waterbending attack. 

The move caused him to bump into the ropes at the edge of the ring, then bounce back to the center of the ring, where Korra awaited him with a powerful earthbending stance, which she used to end his momentum with a solid kick to the gut. He began to topple forward, but then surprised Korra by jumping forward and wrapping his arms around her. He pulled her into the air, clearly meaning to slam her back down to the ground again. But instead she embraced her new upwards movement and twisted her body as if she was doing a frontflip. The movement released her from Chang’s grip and caused her to do an actual frontflip as she flew over Chang’s shoulders before landing on her feet behind him. 

She spun around with a low sweeping kick, connecting to his lower legs, making him stumble but not sweeping his legs out from underneath as she had hoped. It still gave her an opening to rush forwards with a flurry of punches, making him cover up his face with his forearms while trying to dodge his head from side to side. His defense was good, but not good enough to prevent four or five of her punches from landing, two on his head, the rest on his undefended torso. 

He rushed towards her with his head down and hands forwards, a crude but effective way of pushing her off and halting her flurry of attacks. 

Separated again, Korra resumed dancing on the balls of her feet, waiting for Chang to make the next move. He was starting to look worse for wear, which was the moment in a fight when she liked to slow down her pace and exploit her opponent’s mistakes, instead of taking the initiative like she had at the start of the fight. 

Chang looked bewildered at the challenge she was giving him, and was beginning to breathe heavily. Yet he was smiling as he stepped back towards her. He moved forward with a flurry of punches, sloppier than at the start of the fight. She dodged the first few, then began responding with her own, more accurate, punches. He was still moving forwards even while she was landing punch after punch, so Korra was forced to take several steps backwards during the exchange.

An incoming right-hand haymaker caught her by surprise, she threw her head backwards and watched his gloved fist fly past, just barely missing her face. The dodge put her off-balance and she was about to fall backwards, so she decided to embrace that backwards movement and jumped into a backwards cartwheel. 

At the end of the movement, she quickly realized that she’d failed to account for how close she’d gotten to the edge of the ring. Which meant that when she landed from her cartwheel, her back leg got tangled up into the lower ropes of the ring, she looked down in surprise, then looked back up in shock as Chang advanced towards her, an even wider grin now on his face. 

Korra tucked in her chin and covered her face with her forearms while she began moving her head up and down and from side to side, trying to keep her movements unpredictable so that Chang would miss his punches, all while dedicating the rest of her mind to trying to untangle her foot. Her head movement helped her dodge the first couple of punches, but it didn’t help against the several punches to her body that followed. 

 

She forced herself to endure the pain and keep her hands up while Chang tried to hit her head again, keeping herself from bending was also a challenge. A glancing blow to her head caused her to stumble to the side, the upside of which was that she’d finally gotten her foot untangled again.  

She managed to dodge several of the following blows, and block the rest with her forearms, which didn’t stop them from hurting or prevent the shock from reverberating through her arms into her skull. 

Slightly dazed, but still ready to launch into a counter-attack and regain the offensive, Korra began to step towards Chang once again. At that moment however, a bell sounded. “End of round one,” the referee shouted, “fighters return to your corners!” 

Korra and Chang both stopped in their tracks. Chang gave Korra a brief nod of respect, before turning around and walking away. Korra spun around, not sure where her corner was, before she jogged towards the corner where she saw Asami standing. When she arrived she chuckled awkwardly while scratching the back of her neck. “Heh, I kinda messed up in the end there. More experienced fighters probably know by instinct how large the ring is, but I forgot and got my leg tangled up…” 

Asami looked worried. “Are you okay? Looked like he hit you really hard in the end.”

Korra shrugged it off as she accepted the small cup of water Asami handed her, which she simply splashed into her face instead of drinking. “I’m fine, it probably looked worse than it was, I mostly blocked them or moved with them to soften the blow.” Mostly, she thought as she felt the last of her mind fog slowly disappearing. “Anyway, it went pretty well overall right?”

Asami’s expression lit up as she smiled. “You were amazing! The announcer didn’t know what to say, which is probably a first for him!”

Korra laughed out loud at that. “Haha, I haven’t heard a word he said, too focused on the fight. But yeah, I’ve probably shocked the pants of a few people huh?” She said.

Come to think of it, the crowd seemed rather silent, as Korra stood up and looked around, she saw much of the crowd staring at her with a mixture of shock, confusion, awe, and suspicion. Korra just smiled and waved at them, then winked at one of the few women she saw in the audience, who responded by blushing and covering her face.

A bell sounded and the ref told Korra to return to the center of the ring, so Korra nodded to Asami before turning around and focusing on the fight again.

 

***

 

Asami watched as Korra returned to the ring, where she bowed to her opponent before the ring of the bell. As soon as the second round began, Korra started relentlessly attacking Chang. She began with a series of kicks, catching Chang off guard with a spinning kick where he dodged it on the first spin but got hit when Korra returned with a second spin. Asami watched as Korra then stepped in with a forward kick to Chang’s gut, which, as the man hunched over, she tried to follow up with a knee to the man’s face that he just barely dodged. 

“I don’t know who this Korra girl is folks, but she fights like she’s been possessed by a dark spirit! I can’t think of the last time I’ve seen anyone put Chang on the back foot like this!” The announcer said. 

Korra paused her attack and stepped back, seeming content to let Chang make the next move. When Chang moved forward with a punch, Korra responded with a move that looked similar to one that Asami had seen her use in the first round too, and to the ones that she’d demonstrated to Asami the night Asami had showed her how guns work. The muscled girl seemed to perfectly predict Chang’s attack, then as Chang leaned into his attack she used his own weight and momentum against him to pull him off balance. 

As Chang stumbled forward, Korra caught him with a vicious looking knee in the chest, before jumping on his back and pulling him to the ground. She tried to wrap her legs around his neck, seemingly attempting to choke the man, but he pulled her legs off and began to get up, causing Korra to roll backwards and get back up on her feet as well. The next time Chang attacked she dodged and spun around to hit him on the head with the back of her fist, another example of what Korra had explained was her people’s signature fighting style. Preserving momentum while turning your defense into your offense. 

Credit where credit’s due, Chang continued attempting to press forward and attack Korra, despite the man’s injuries clearly adding up and his stamina seemingly beginning to fail him. During the man’s continued attacks, Asami thought she noticed a change in Korra’s fighting style, her way of dodging Chang’s attacks became subtle and graceful in a way that it hadn’t been before. 

Before, she’d been dodging just one or two attacks at a time, usually while standing her ground or moving forward to retaliate with a vicious counter. But now she was dodging one attack after the other, spinning around the older man’s attacks and moving in every direction while seeming completely untouchable, all while not attempting a single counterattack. Chang looked stunned at his inability to land a single blow, and when the two fighters turned so that Korra was facing Asami, Asami noticed that Korra herself seemed surprised too.

Suddenly Asami remembered how Korra had complained about Tenzin’s lessons, how she couldn’t get the footwork right and how it shouldn’t even be called a “martial” art when all it focused on was dodging. Was Korra finally starting to figure it out, right here and now in the middle of an actual fight? Somehow Asami thought that it made perfect sense for that to be the environment in which the tribal girl performed best. 

Whatever the case, Chang was clearly getting winded after his strikes continued hitting nothing but air. At the end of the man’s latest combination, when it was clear he was beginning to reach the end of his stamina, Korra suddenly began to claim the offensive once more. She advanced with precise and vicious punches and kicks, confidently striding forwards and showing the power packed within her muscles with every single attack, in a display that inspired awe and fear, and something else that Asami wasn’t ready to confront but that made her body heat up and her heart begin to race. 

The fight didn’t last much longer after that, it ended with Chang hanging dazed in the ropes while Korra stepped back. The entire crowd was silent as Chang hung in the ropes for a few seconds, before finally collapsing like a sack of potatoes.

The announcer seemed to be the only person able to form words. “Can you believe it? This has got to be the most incredible match in the history of prize fighting! I’ve seen some surprising contests before, but never quite like this! An audience challenger, and a woman at that, delivering a total beatdown against the former champ!” 

The referee stepped between Korra and the unconscious Chang, pushing Korra away to ensure she didn’t continue attacking the defenseless fighter. Then he blew his whistle and pointed at Korra. “The match goes to the challenger!” The ref shouted. After which the announcer resumed talking.

“And it’s official, what an upset folks! A match that for better or worse is sure to go down in history, as a girl from nowhere defeats a former champion and wins thirty thousand yuans!” 

Roars now exploded from the crowd, many were cheering, but some seemed to be angry. After a while, Asami made out voices complaining about the match being rigged, causing anger to rise up inside her. Did they watch the same match that she did? Surely nobody whp paid any attention could believe that these punches and kicks were faked, or that the entire thing was choreographed.

The announcer also seemed to pick up on these complaints as he continued speaking. “I hear some in the crowd who are doubtful of the outcome of this match, but as a man intimately familiar with the organizers of this tournament, with Chang himself, and as someone with years of experience observing the best fighters in the world, let me assure all of you fine people that this match was the real deal. I have no idea who this girl is, but anyone who denies her skill after watching this display tonight clearly knows nothing about fighting!” 

Asami felt her respect for the announcer grow, he was clearly a true fan of the sport, whatever sexist preconceptions he did or didn’t hold, he didn’t let them cloud his judgement when it comes to judging martial arts talent.

Asami watched as Korra stood proud, before turning to bow towards Chang, who had finally begun to regain consciousness. Chang returned the gestur, which caused the cheers in the audience to increase. 

Several people had begun to enter the ring, so Asami hoped that it’d be OK if she did the same now. She climbed up and stepped through the ropes before making her way over to Korra and giving her a big hug. “You were amazing!” She said, after releasing the hug.

Korra looked at her with a bright smile. “Told you I could do it!”

“It’s not that I doubted you, I was just worried,” Asami responded. “I’m not exactly accustomed yet to this kind of violent competition.”

Korra’s smile only grew wider. “Yet?” She asked. “Are you planning to see more?” 

“Well…” Asami responded, “part of the prize was a spot in the tournament, I don’t expect you to pass that opportunity up. What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t come to support you in all of your matches? Besides, I quite enjoyed watching you show everyone what us girls are capable of.” 

 “As did I,” a voice sounded from behind, Asami turned to watch the announcer as he approached them. “Shiro Shinobi, at your service,” the man said, extending his hand to Korra. Asami watched as the two shook hands, before the man turned to her. “You’re Asami Sato aren’t you? Wouldn’t expect to see you at a place like this...” He stood there for a second, before a look of realization crossed his face. “Ah but it all makes sense now, this is her isn’t it? The girl from the iceberg?” 

Asami nodded, the man began to smile broadly in response. “This is amazing, think of the drama, the suspense we’ll be able to build up around your fights! An ancient warrior woman, like the myths of the Kyoshi warriors, up against the modern man. The past fighting the future, a savage versus modern civilization, which will emerge victorious? Everyone will want a ticket, and everyone else will be listening on the radio!”

“First thing’s first,” Korra said, holding up her hand. She didn’t look very pleased with being called a savage. “You promised me prize money, didn’t you?”

“All right all right,” Shinobi replied, “it’s not like I have it on me right now. Follow me backstage, I’ll get you your money.” 

Korra followed, as did Asami. Nobody said she could join Korra backstage, but nobody said that she couldn’t either. They quickly crossed the path that cut through the arena’s crowd, then pushed through a curtain covering the entrance to a large room of half-dressed men. The men were all the fighters from the previous matches, the room itself was filled with mats and dummies and other training equipment, clearly this was where the fighters all warmed up or just sat waiting for their upcoming fights. 

The men had all been talking amongst themselves, but fell silent when they saw Korra enter. The looks they gave her ranged from curiosity to anger and jealousy, but nobody seemed willing to talk to her or Asami as Shinobi left them behind while he went to fetch the prize money.

That is, until a familiar muscled boy enthusiastically approached them. His name was Bolin, if Asami remembered correctly. The younger of the two brothers who’s story Shinobi had been hyping up during the tournament. 

“That…” Bolin said, “was pretty much the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” Asami felt a strange spike of jealousy when she saw Korra blush in response.

“You had some nice moves too, I was rooting for you and your brother when you fought. You were both incredible out there,” Korra responded. 

“Heh, thanks,” Bolin responded. “You know, me and my brother have been fighting pretty much our entire lives, but I’ve never seen anyone move like that, it’s like you’ve got a whole new style! Do you think you could show me a few tricks? I’m sure I’ve got some things I could show you and your ladyfriend in exchange.” 

“Absolutely,” Asami heard Korra say, “it’s more like an old style though.” The muscular girl added, before winking to Asami.

Asami rolled her eyes but couldn’t contain her chuckle. She watched for a while as Korra and Bolin started showing each other different fighting techniques, she tried her best to note the differences in their styles. Korra threw a punch from a strong looking flat-footed stance, it looked very similar to Bolin’s techniques, except Bolin was only flat-footed for the exact amount of time it took to deliver the punch, before returning to a more light-footed stance where he hopped from one foot to the other. 

Korra nodded at whatever explanation Bolin gave, before perfectly copying the other fighter’s technique. “She’s a natural at this,” a voice said from beside Asami. She turned to find another man standing beside her, she recognized this one too.

“You’re Bolin’s brother, right?” 

“Yeah that’s me, I’m Mako,” he said.

“I’m Asami,“ said Asami, before Mako spoke again.

“She seems to fit right in, strangely enough considering that she’s a girl. Not you though, you look like you should be dancing at a gala or something,” he said with a serious voice, staring at her like she was a puzzle of some kind. 

“I came here with Korra, not exactly my choice of venue but she insisted,” Asami replied. “Not that I need to explain myself to you,” she didn’t bother keeping the annoyance out of her voice. 

“What?” He asked, not understanding why he’d annoyed her. “I’m just curious.”

“Well, since we’re asking personal questions apparently, what about you? How does someone begin competing in a sport like this? Seems like it has a rather steep learning curve.”  

“Well you’d be surprised, you learn a lot of things when you grow up on the streets as orphans, like me and my brother,” Mako said, grimacing. “Toza discovered us just a couple months ago, his lessons are all the formal training we have, the rest we learned the hard way.” 

“I’m so sorry,” Asami said, “I lost my mother when I was very young, but I still had my father and his wealth to keep me safe.”

“I’ve tried to do the same for Bolin,” Mako said, a faint smile creeping onto his face as he watched the younger boy excitedly chatting to Korra. Eventually Bolin looked up at them and began running over to them. 

“Mako, you’ve gotta come talk to Korra. Did you know she’s the girl they found in that iceberg a while ago? She was born thousands of years ago! She says that in her time there were lots of female hunters and warriors, isn’t that crazy?!” 

“Hmm, that’s pretty cool,” was all the brooding man had to say in response. “It’s getting late, I think I’m gonna turn in. You kids have fun. Nice to meet you, Asami,” he said, before walking off. 

“Yeah, been a real pleasure,” Asami mumbled under her breath, while he rudely walked off without giving her a proper chance to reply. 

“See you upstairs!” Bolin yelled after him.

“Upstairs? You guys live here?” Korra asked. 

“Yeah, in the attic. It’s nothing fancy, but we have some great views,” Bolin said.

“So, back to fighting, can you show me that combo one more time?” The boy asked. 

They continued like that for a while longer, Bolin even insisted that Asami joined them. The boy’s muscular physique was intimidating at first, but it didn’t take long for it to become clear what a kind and cheerful guy he was, as he patiently showed Asami how to throw a special kind of punch. An ‘uppercut’, to be specific. Bolin claimed it was the perfect punch to follow up with after kicking someone in the balls. Which Asami supposed was a sensible strategy for self-defense, though it wouldn’t be very sporting in a tournament. 

They said their goodbyes to Bolin after Shinobi finally returned with the prizemoney, Korra promised that they’d speak again since she would also be competing in the tournament, which seemed to excite the boy. Which again made Asami feel jealous, Bolin looked like he was already developing a crush on the tribal girl. Is that what I’m feeling too? Asami thought. A crush? 

It was difficult to wrap her head around, she’d never felt this way about another girl before, she certainly wasn’t supposed to. She’d never been very religious, neither was her father. But still, every faith she knew of preached that this sort of thing was sinful, that it would anger Raava and other light spirits, some even preached that these sorts of feelings were caused by dark spirits. 

Obviously Asami didn’t believe that, but then what did cause these feelings? It wasn’t natural, was it?

Maybe it’s because Korra isn’t very feminine? She’s a warrior, I just saw her fight a man. Maybe I feel this way because I perceive her more as a man than as a woman?

Something about that thought didn’t feel right though. Sure, women didn’t usually fight in her society, but breaking one specific gender norm didn’t automatically make Korra less of a woman, did it? If it did then what would that say about Asami and her decision to study at the university in a field dominated by men?

These thoughts kept running through her mind while she and Korra exited the arena, Korra didn’t seem to notice as she chatted excitedly. “I can’t wait to tell Tenzin about this,” Korra said, “I feel like something finally clicked at the end of my fight, did you notice? I think I’ll be able to make it through his gates of doom now.” 

“I noticed,” Asami said, “you were suddenly dodging all of his punches, not even punching back at all. He kept swinging until his stamina ran out but didn’t land a single blow.” 

“Yeah exactly!” Korra replied. “It was crazy.” The girl started repeating the footwork while they walked to Asami’s car, circling around Asami even as Asami kept walking forwards.

Asami had no idea what to do about her feelings towards Korra, even though she was gaining clarity on what exactly those feelings were. But as she watched the athletic girl darting back and forth across the street she was sure of one thing; she didn’t want to let any social stigma prevent her from enjoying their time together. 

 

It was well past midnight by the time they made it back to the mansion, in fact it was probably getting close to morning by the time Asami opened the door and turned some of the lights on inside. Her father would probably have some stern words for her tomorrow about what was considered an appropriate time for a lady to be out in the city.  

“I’m hungry,” Korra said, Asami was about to tease the girl for her insatiable hunger before realizing that she herself was hungry too. I guess staying up all night will do that. She thought to herself, before telling Korra they should go to the kitchen to make themselves something to eat. They decided to make an omelet with some onions, so Asami had Korra slice some onions while she grabbed a pan and some oil. She showed Korra how the stove worked before quickly cooking the omelet. 

After they finished eating, Asami heard Korra softly groan in pain while the girl stood up to bring the plates back to the kitchen. Asami rose from her seat in alarm and followed to the kitchen. “Are you OK? Is it an injury from the fight?” 

“It’s fine,” Korra said, trying to shrug Asami off while she put the dishes in the sink. “It’s just the bruises from Chang’s punches to my belly, they’re starting to hurt more after sitting down for a while, it’s normal.” 

Concerned, Asami put a hand on Korra’s shoulder. “I could get a doctor to take a look if you want.”

Korra laughed at her concern, which Asami thought was rather rude. “Seriously I’m fine, I don’t need a healer, it was a short fight. I’ve had worse bruises than this from just a normal day of sparring.” 

Asami wasn’t letting it go though. “I don’t care if it’s normal, I’m worried. At least let me see, then maybe I’ll leave you alone.”

Korra sighed in annoyance, before lifting her shirt up to her chest, revealing her sculpted belly. It was covered in red marks! Some of them were blended together, but there was one solitary mark where Asami swore she could see the imprints of each of the knuckles of the fist that had inflicted the injury.  

Without thinking, Asami got down on one knee and softly put her hand on the mark. “I had no idea he hit you so many times, when did that happen? Why weren’t you defending yourself?!” She asked. 

“I was busy protecting my head,” Korra responded with a chuckle, “a girl’s got to have priorities.” Asami had no idea how Korra was so casual about this, she’s never seen this much bruising on anyone!

She absently began rubbing the largest bruised area, thinking about whether they had a salve somewhere in the mansion that she could apply, before her mind returned to the present and she began to see beyond the injuries. Korra’s brown skin felt smooth beneath her hand even despite its injuries, the muscles beneath were firm and moved with the girl’s breath. Asami’s mind ran away from her and she felt her body begin to warm up while she ran her hand over the tribal girl’s abs, until an “ow” noise got Asami’s rational mind working again. 

“I know I said it was fine, but it still doesn’t feel great when you prod my bruises like that,” Korra said with a laugh, before dropping her shirt and turning back to begin washing the plates. The moment was over and Asami awkwardly got back to her feet, turning away to make sure Korra wouldn’t notice the feelings that were stirring within her.

Shortly thereafter, she and Korra went upstairs to their respective bedrooms, but sleep wouldn’t come for Asami as she tossed and turned, unable to stop thinking about Korra. She pictured the girl’s dancing, the way she’d moved in the arena as she casually hopped over the ropes and as she fought.

She remembered the warm touch of Korra’s skin underneath her hand…

A need began to stir between Asami’s legs, making her begin to hike up her nightgown before she even thought about what she was doing.

She’d done this a few times before while thinking about boys from school, the part of her that wasn’t consumed by her memories and fantasies of Korra noted that there was little doubt remaining about exactly what kinds of feelings she felt towards the blue-eyed warrior, as her fingers began rubbing her sensitive clit. 

It was finished very quickly, she struggled to stay quiet as her body writhed in ecstasy. A slight feeling of shame set in even as she experienced the last few waves of pleasure, but mostly she felt a deep sense of satisfaction before she finally fell into a deep sleep, thinking about nothing but Korra’s blue eyes and brown skin.

 

***

 

It was the next day when Korra exited Air Temple Island’s ferry, excited to show off her breakthrough to Tenzin. She’d spent the past morning trying out all the different exercises he’d shown her and was very excited about the progress she’d made ever since her fight in the arena. Tenzin had been completely right when he said that one day something would just “click”, Korra still couldn’t explain exactly what happened when she fought Chang, but near the end of the fight she had suddenly been able to dodge his strikes in a way she never had before.  

She still couldn’t actually airbend, but she was becoming more confident that she’d be able to figure it out eventually. 

When she met Tenzin, she insisted that they immediately begin with the spinning gates exercise, Tenzin looked skeptical but gave in to her request. The gates began spinning and Korra jumped right in, letting herself be guided by the motions of the gates, darting every which way based on her instincts, letting the slightest movement and slightest feeling of wind on her arms tell her what direction to dodge away from. 

It was working! She made her way through the gates, finally understanding what it meant to “be the leaf”. On her earlier attempts, she’d been trying to dodge towards something, trying to force her way to the other side of the gates. But a leaf doesn’t move towards something, it doesn’t have goals, it just lets the currents of the wind guide its course without trying to assert its own will. 

It was funny how the goal of reaching the other end of the gates only became posible once Korra stopped with so actively trying to do it. Smartypants philosophers probably had more eloquent ways to word it, but she guessed that this was key to the air nomad philosophy.   

Tenzin approached to congratulate her once she exited the gates. “Congratulations!” He said, genuine joy in his voice. “You’ve finally begun to move just like an airbender. I take it that my teachings finally ‘clicked’ like I said they would?” 

Korra smiled. “Yeah it was just like you said, suddenly the movements just started to make sense to me. Sorry for being so frustrated during your previous lessons, I should’ve been more patient like you told me.”

Tenzin accepted her apology, before moving on to teach her more advanced techniques. They spent the next half hour going through these new techniques, Korra surprised herself with how quickly she managed to get the hang of them, after struggling so long with the more basic techniques. 

At the end of the lesson, Tenzin complimented her progress before asking her a question. “Might I ask, what exactly triggered this breakthrough of yours? If it was the perfect teaching tool for you then perhaps I could use it for my other students as well.” 

“Me and my friend visited this ‘no-holds-barred’ fighting arena, where people were competing for a spot in an upcoming tournament,” Korra said, happy to tell Tenzin about her victory. “At the end they asked if anyone in the audience was brave enough to volunteer to fight some famous professional fighting dude or whatever, I volunteered and totally kicked his ass! During the fight I suddenly started to understand your teachings, I dodged all of his punches like it was nothing!” She said, miming a few dodges before moving as if to punch an imaginary opponent in the face, unable to keep herself from adding a few sound effects.

Korra watched as the smile disappeared from Tenzin’s face and he sighed heavily. “That’s not exactly a method I can recommend for the rest of my students,” he said, sounding exasperated. “But I suppose that if it worked for you then that’s good. Though I do have to question how well you’ve truly internalized my teachings if you’re taking part in such a barbaric sport.” 

Korra brushed off his comment. “It’s just a friendly competition, it’s not true violence or aggression. Anyway, in addition to some prize money I also earned a spot in the upcoming tournament, so I’ll be able to test your teachings even more in the future!” 

Tenzin didn’t look too excited about that prospect. “I would ask you to please not tell anyone at those tournaments that I’ve been training you, it wouldn’t look good for me as a senator when people start talking about how I’m encouraging young women to compete in violent tournaments.” 

“That’s fine I guess,” Korra responded, “you didn’t exactly encourage me anyway; it was my own idea. I didn’t even really apply your teachings until the end of the fight, I probably would’ve won regardless.”

Tenzin nodded his approval. “I must say, you’re quite an unusual young woman, I can’t imagine many others even going to visit such a tournament, let alone competing in it. I’m sure Ikki would approve, even if many others do not.” 

Korra smiled, remembering the hyperactive young girl she’d met when she ate dinner with Tenzin’s family one day. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said, before they said their goodbyes and she took off running to catch the last ferry off the island. She was excited to see Asami again and tell her all about Tenzin’s new lessons, now that she and the green-eyed beauty were back to getting along as friends.

Notes:

So, that was the fight. Did it fit people's expectations?

I considered making it more of a challenge for Korra, but that didn't really feel right. It seems to me that with the disappearance of bending there would be far less of an emphasis on martial arts skills in the present society, compared to Korra's time. So of course Korra would outclass basically everyone in a melee fight even without her bending! I did include a moment where she struggled with the bounds of the arena, to add a bit more tension to the fight.

Anyway, arguably the real excitement in this chapter came from Asami acknowledging her own feelings! (And touching them girl abs!)

Oh and I guess we finally properly met Mako and Bolin too.

Chapter 9: The Revelation: Part One.

Summary:

Korra reads the news with Hiroshi, then shows Asami her tools. Meanwhile Bolin has gone missing.

The Revelation: Part One.

 

A few days had passed since her and Asami’s night out, the bruises that Korra had suffered on her arms had already nearly healed, which was nice since she was currently using them to put the finishing touches on a stone hatchet she’d made.

It was one of various items she’d crafted this past week, at Asami’s request. She’d never considered herself to be particularly good at it, but Asami was very excited whenever she finished something new. Next to Korra was a tent she’d begun making after she’d been provided with the bodies of two fox antelopes, Korra chuckled softly as she remembered the simultaneous disgust and interest with which Asami had watched her gut and skin the two animals, before using the furs for a tent and making many other tools with the bones and antlers. It wasn’t quite enough fur to finish the entire tent, but the beginnings were there.

They had eaten the meat of course, and to Asami’s disgust Korra had made waterskins out of the stomachs of the two animals.

Korra stood up and made her way back to the mansion, setting the hatchet down in the sitting room so that she could show it to Asami later when the other woman returned from her classes. 

She saw Hiroshi sitting in one of the room’s chairs, reading one of the various newspapers that were delivered to the mansion each day. Korra greeted him, then picked up another paper to read for herself. 

It was a habit she’d gotten into lately, after Hiroshi explained to her what newspapers were. Hiroshi was a difficult man to read but Korra felt like they’d been getting closer lately, reading newspapers together. These newspapers seemed like the perfect way to learn more about the world and its various problems, the only issue was that they were also dreadfully boring. 

As if to prove her point, the first headline already threatened to make Korra rip her hair out due to frustration with its difficult terminology and dull phrasing.

 

Union leaders demand change in employment contracts to provide more certainty for workers.

Speaking with reporters for The Republic Times, union leaders representing tens of thousands of workers explained their demands for paid sick days and for protection against arbitrary termination of their employment.

Business leaders were quick to respond, warning that the increase in labor costs would result in bankruptcies and in an even higher rate of unemployment. Some went as far as calling the union’s demands part of a dangerous path towards communism and anarchism, likening it to what’s happened in the regions surrounding Omashu.

 

Korra sighed, before turning to Hiroshi. “What are ‘unions’ exactly? Why do business leaders seem to hate them so much?”

“Hmmm,” Hiroshi responded, “that’s a difficult question. First of all, I should note that not all business leaders hate unions. I for one pride myself on my good relations with worker unions. As for what unions are, to keep it simple; unions are groups of workers who’ve decided to work together, so that they can better negotiate with their employer. The argument they make is that employers are in a greater position of power compared to an individual worker, and that by working together in solidarity workers are better able to stand up for themselves.” 

“That sounds reasonable,” Korra responded, “says here that the unions want paid sick days, what does that mean exactly?” 

Hiroshi folded up his own paper, giving Korra his full attention. “It means that when a worker gets sick they continue being paid, despite not being able to work. Many workers barely have enough money to pay for rent and food, missing even just one day’s worth of pay could be disastrous for their financial situation. Paid sick days are a way to provide more certainty for their future, to know that they’ll be taken care of by the company they’ve worked so hard for when they get sick. I consider it the least I can do as an employer, but many of my peers think otherwise.” 

Korra frowned; it seemed like a perfect example of what bothered her about this modern society. It was so foreign to her, the idea that someone would just be left to fend for themselves if they fell ill. In her tribe the sick were always cared for, everyone was always happy to help, it was a comfort to know that they would be similarly cared for if they were the ones who were sick. 

They kept reading in silence for a while, there were more stories about unions, including a worrying story where unions claimed that their members were disappearing and possibly being murdered. There were similar stories about refugees and homeless people, these stories also briefly mentioned how the “separatists” like the one she’d encountered her first day in the park, were increasingly hostile towards the refugees. The article stopped just short of openly speculating that members of the separatists were responsible for the disappearances. 

There was also a story about the Earth Kingdom civil war, talking about the supply issues of the Republican side, especially around the frontlines near Omashu. An interview with a farm owner who’d fled the region blamed the incompetence of Omashu’s militias for their supply issues, he warned that Kuvira would soon overrun the region if Ba Sing Se didn’t establish more direct administrative control. It was kind of impressive how the newspapers could make a war sound like it was mostly just boring bureaucracy and paperwork. (Asami had taught her the word “bureaucracy" a while ago, while ranting about some issue with arranging Korra’s citizenship.)

Korra and Hiroshi kept reading for a while longer, chatting occasionally about a headline that stood out. Until finally Asami walked in. “Asami!” Korra exclaimed, throwing away the newspaper. “Please save me from my boredom!” 

“I’ll try not to act offended,” Hiroshi said, making Asami laugh.

“Were you two reading the papers again?” Asami asked.

Korra nodded. “I learn a lot from it I guess, it’s still boring though.”

She walked over to the table where she’d placed the hatchet, then picked it up to show Asami. “Anyway, I made this earlier today.” She flipped it in the air before catching it again and handing it over to Asami. The green eyed woman was used to her antics by now though, so she didn’t respond at all to Korra’s irresponsible handling of a sharpened weapon. 

Korra watched as the other woman’s intelligent eyes analyzed every part of the tool, weirdly enough it was moments like this that made Asami most attractive to Korra. Even under normal circumstances she already had to stop herself from staring too long into Asami’s emerald eyes, but it was made more difficult when watching Asami’s clever mind dig into something she found interesting. 

“This is the stone you’ve been chiseling the past few days right?” Asami asked. 

“Yeah, took about five days, working on and off,” Korra responded. Of course, it would’ve been much faster if she’d used earthbending, but that would’ve made Asami suspicious. Plus, it wouldn’t have been representative of how most people from Korra’s tribe or other water tribes made a hatchet. 

Asami now looked more closely at where the stone was fastened to the wooden shaft, Korra had used some wood fiber to tie around it, but the stone was mainly held in place by the hole in the wooden shaft which she’d hardened in fire before hammering the stone in place. 

“How did you make the hole in the shaft?” Asami asked, finally looking back up at Korra.

“I chiseled it at first, then towards the end I put some burning wood inside to burn through it and begin charring up the sides,” Korra responded. 

“Hmm,” said Asami, “that makes it stronger, right? How did your people discover this?” 

Korra thought for a second. “No idea how we discovered it to be honest, the knowledge was passed down by our elders. It’s not just about making the wood stronger by the way, charring it also helps make it easier to polish and prevent it from splintering, just like what I did with the stone.” 

Asami frowned, clearly disappointed that Korra couldn’t tell her more about how her people had discovered these techniques. This had been a trend in their conversations, whenever Korra showed her something she’d made. Most of the techniques had been passed down by their elders, but the knowledge of how they were discovered was not something that had been passed down.

Korra had only been able to think of one exception; Sokka, one of the tribe’s elders who had died when Korra was still young. He had been known to come up with several new innovations and techniques for the crafting of new tools and materials. The one that Korra found most exciting was what Sokka had called a “boomerang”. Sokka used it mainly for hunting, but Korra and the other kids also found it an exciting toy to play with. 

“Anyway,” Korra said, “wanna come back to the arena with me? Bolin said that he and Mako reserved the ring this afternoon so that they could do some proper sparring, they asked me to join them.”

“Sure,” Asami said, “it’ll be fun to see Bolin again.”

“Not Mako?” Korra asked with a teasing smile, knowing that Asami seemed to dislike the man for some reason.

“I’ll put up with him,” Asami responded, “I just hope he stops being so smug and rude.” Korra shrugged and turned to leave the mansion.

 

A short time later, she and Asami walked into the arena, which looked very different during the daytime and without the crowds. Nobody said anything as they walked through the open doors and approached the “ring” in the center. (Korra still couldn’t figure out why they called the square shape a “ring.”)

There they found Mako, who had been pacing but now ran towards them as soon as he saw them. “Korra, Asami, have you seen Bolin?” He asked, sounding worried.

“What? No, we figured he would be here, that’s why we came. He said we could spar together.” Korra responded. 

“Is something wrong?” Asami asked from beside her. 

Mako frowned, bringing his hand up to massage his weird eyebrows. “Ugh, Bolin has a knack for getting into stupid situations, I’m kind of worried. I hoped that maybe he went to see you since he’s been talking about you so much lately, but I guess not. Sorry I can’t spar with you Korra but I’ve gotta try to find my brother, see you galls later,” he said, before turning to walk away. 

“Hey,” Korra said, reaching out to grab his shoulder, “we could help you look for him.” 

“Nah, I got it,” Mako responded in his aloof way, making Korra understand why Asami disliked him.

“Hey cool guy,” she said, “let me help you, we can take Naga. She’s a great tracker.”

“Who’s Naga?” Mako asked. Which was how, twenty minutes later, Korra and Asami found themselves back at the Sato mansion, laughing as a terrified Mako was assaulted by the polarbear dog’s wet tongue licking him all over. 

“Guess he can’t be that bad if Naga likes him,” Asami said. Korra smiled, she knew it was a joke but at the same time she really appreciated the idea that Asami liked Naga enough to trust her judgement of strangers. Korra didn’t know what she would’ve done if Asami didn’t get along so well with her animal companion. 

After discovering that Naga didn’t appreciate three people riding her at once, Korra rode back to the arena while Asami and Mako followed in Asami’s car. Korra waited below with Naga, while Mako and Asami went up to Mako & Bolin’s apartment to find something that carried Bolin’s scent. 

After a while, the two of them came back downstairs, Asami was complimenting Mako on their apartment, which made Mako flush a little and rub his neck. “It isn’t much, but it’s a much better neighborhood than where we used to live,” he said. “There’s less crime than the immigrant district, which I’d hoped would help Bolin stay out of trouble, but he still likes to hang out at many of our old haunts so it hasn’t helped as much as I’d hoped. That’s probably where we should begin our search.”

 

 

 

That task finished, they moved on to what Mako described as Bolin’s “usual hangout”, hoping that Naga would be able to catch his scent from there. But even after circling the square several times, Naga still didn’t seem to find any scent of the boy. 

Korra looked around in confusion, before turning to Mako. “What did Bolin hang from anyway? It’s an empty square, there are no trees or anything.”

Asami facepalmed, while Mako looked confused for a second before he started to explain. “Oh uhh right, you’re not from around here. ‘Hangout spot’ is not literal, it’s just a saying. He doesn’t hang from anything he just comes here to sit and to talk with other street kids.” 

Embarrassed by her own ignorance, Korra looked away from the others and tried to find a way to switch the subject, she found the perfect opportunity when she saw a bunch of scruffy looking kids playing on the sidewalk. “If Bolin comes here to talk to other street kids, why don’t we ask them if they’ve seen him today?” She asked, pointing to the group of kids.

“Good idea,” Mako said, already moving towards the kids. “You guys see my brother around here today?” He asked them, apparently he and the kids were well-acquainted enough that he assumed they’d know who he was talking about.

“Perhaps,” one of the kids responded, he was wearing a hat that Korra normally only saw adults wearing, “my memory is a little foggy,” the kid continued. “Maybe you can help clear it up?”  

It didn’t make any sense to Korra, but apparently Mako understood, as he got out a bunch of money and gave some of it to the kid. “You’re good skoochy, a real pro.”

Apparently the kid was leveraging whatever he knew in exchange for money. Was this a common thing for people to do, or just something poor street kids did? It seemed rather mean to withhold information from someone looking for his missing brother.

As soon as he received the money, the kid began talking. “Yeah, I’ve seen him. Around noon.”

“What was he doing?”

“He was performing some kind of monkey-rat circus, and then…” the kid held up his hand again, wanting more money before giving up the rest of what he’d seen.

 

 

 

 

Earlier that day:

 

Bolin and Mako were in the gym, working out, while trying to figure out how to earn more money. Bolin, in his usual naivete, had assumed that once they started fighting in professional matches they would be rolling around in cash. The truth wasn’t quite so glamorous, they had more money than before, but if they wanted to afford the rent for their new apartment then they’d have to earn some more money. At least until they began competing in higher ranked bouts.  

“I’ve got it!” Bolin exclaimed, acting on a sudden flash of inspiration. “I’ve been training Pabu to do circus tricks, now people would pay good money to see that!”

“Come on Bolin, we need serious ideas,” Mako said, as he shot down the idea.

“I was serious.” Bolin mumbled. Mako walked away after that, he said something else but Bolin wasn’t listening, he was resolved to prove Mako wrong.  

 

Noon that day:

 

Bolin sat on the mat he’d laid down on the square, wearing his fake mustache and colorful vest. “Come one come all! See Pabu, the fantastic fire ferret, as he crosses the ladder of peril…”he gasped for effect, before continuing. “UPSIDE DOWN!!” Pabu missed his que, but a subtle reminder from Bolin got the fire ferret to jump on the small wooden bridge with his front paws, masterfully walking across it on only his front paws! “Big finish buddy, stick the landing,” Bolin whispered, then he cheered as Pabu did exactly that. 

Soon after the show, Bolin looked at his earnings with disappointment. He’d only earned a handful of coins, barely enough for a single meal, certainly not enough to help for their rent. Yet he and Pabu had spent hours repeating their performance! It seemed like Mako had been right. Again…

Bolin was distracted from his self-pity when a car pulled to a stop right in front of him. “Hey Bolin, is that you?” A familiar voice asked.

“Oh, hey there, Shady Shin,” Bolin said.

“Heard you’re a big time pro fighter now, not bad,” the man replied. Bolin thanked him, but it didn’t seem like Shady Shin was actually interested in small talk as he immediately continued speaking. “So listen, I got an offer for you. Lightning Bolt Zolt is looking to hire some extra muscle.”

Bolin sighed. “Uh, I don’t know Shin. Mako told me to stay away from the Triple Threats.”

Shin scoffed. “Your brother aint the boss of you,” he responded, “besides, it’s just a little security work, nothing crooked. As you know we always offer to 'protect' all the local businesses in the immigrant district. No matter what you and your brother may think of us, we do in fact occasionally make good on those promises. Wouldn’t be good for business if we didn’t. The boss got word that the separatists, those damn fanatics, are planning to start trouble in the immigrant district tonight. They’re planning to target businesses owned by immigrants and refugees, trying to drive us all out of the country where we’ll end up in Kuvira’s labor camps or freeze to death at one of the poles…”

This got Bolin’s attention. He hasn’t interacted much with the separatists, but out of everything he’d heard about them, none of it was good. He didn’t really understand all the political lingo used by the newspapers, but from what he understood the separatists were some kind of weird conservative group that wanted to ban all immigration and isolate the Republic from the rest of the world. They frequently made the news for assaulting or otherwise targeting random immigrants, mostly homeless and refugees.

As the son of two immigrants, one of which had fled exactly the kind of violence in the Earth Kingdom that people were still fleeing from today, Bolin certainly didn’t have any sympathy for this group. 

“So...” Bolin began, “you just want me to help protect the neighborhood from a bunch of crazy hateful rioters?” He asked.

“Exactly!” Shady Shin responded. “The pay is good,” he said, throwing a wad of cash into the cup Bolin had used to collect donations. It was enough for a whole month of rent, maybe two! Bolin couldn’t hold back his excitement, causing Shin to smirk as he asked a question they both already knew the answer to. “You game?” 

 

The Present:

 

Bolin tried not to let his nerves show as he followed the members of the triad out of the triad’s headquarters and onto the streets, he left Pabu behind in the headquarters to keep him safe. Noise could already be heard in the distance as they began to move to the edge of the immigrant district, it was starting to get dark outside but the electric streetlights had already turned on to illuminate the street. 

Bolin clutched the wooden baton they’d given him, which he kept under his jacket for now. The rest of the “muscle” that the Triple Threats had gathered all had similar batons, but Bolin suspected that some would have more serious weaponry. He was pretty sure he’d seen Ping hide a couple knives up his sleeves. He hoped none of them would have to resort to those weapons, but when they finally made it to the source of the commotion it wasn’t looking very good. 

The first thing he saw was a beleaguered looking group of union activists standing in a line that spanned the entire street, many of them carrying signs preaching solidarity, a few signs bore the slogan ‘they shall not pass.’ When he looked past them he saw the separatists in their greenish uniforms with red scarves, shouting loudly at the outnumbered activists trying to keep them back. It looked like more separatists were arriving by the minute. 

One of the activists trying to protect the immigrant district from the hostile mob turned towards Bolin and the Triple Threats as they approached, like many of the other protesters he was holding a sign calling for solidarity among workers. He was a portly looking man with a round face and glasses, Bolin thought that he would’ve been more at home in a library than at a noisy street protest.

The man wasn’t looking happy to begin with, but his expression soured even more when he saw their approach. “We don’t want any help from the likes of you!” he said to Shady Shin.

“What happened to solidarity?” Shin replied with a smile, not seeming bothered at all by the other man’s hostility. “We want to protect our turf, you want to protect your precious workers from an anti-immigrant mob, our interests are aligned. We don’t discriminate, that’s why our very name refers to how we accept people of all nationalities!”

The other man just scoffed. “This is just a turf war for you! You don’t care about protecting the immigrant workers here, you just want to be the ones oppressing them!”

“Be that as it may,” said Shin, not bothering to deny it, “we don’t want everyone’s shops getting smashed, that’s just bad for business. They’d no longer be able to pay us our protection fee! Regardless of our motivations, neither of us want a violent mob rampaging through the district.” 

The other man still didn’t look convinced, so Bolin jumped in, pointing to a man he’d spotted on the other side of the line of protesters, standing with the separatists. “The Triple Threats aren’t the only ones treating this as a turf war. Look, that’s Sairo, he’s a member of the Agni Kais!”

Shady Shin and the other man looked to where Bolin pointed, the smile disappeared from Shin’s face, and although it had seemed impossible the activist’s face soured even more. 

“Fine,” the man said, “we’ll work together, make yourself useful and join the line. With any luck you lot will wipe each other out.”

Shady Shin turned to Bolin and the rest of the hired muscle. “We can’t treat this as a regular turf war, there’s too many bystanders, a bloodbath will bring the coppers down on us. Feel free to pummel the bastards if you can, but no killing! I’m sure the Agni Kais will have the sense to follow the same rules. Probably… Maybe...”

After that inspiring speech, Shady Shin motioned for his thugs to join the line, but Bolin briefly lingered, turning back to the tired-looking activist. “For what it’s worth,” he said, “I really do want to help.”

The man looked doubtful but gave him a quick once-over, Bolin gave him a genuine smile, hoping to convince the man even if he wasn’t sure what good it’d do. “If that’s true, then join one of the unions or mutual aid groups next time, don’t get involved with these triad thugs! If you’re really interested in helping, then meet me at the Red Lotus headquarters when this is all over, there’s always a way for a young man such as yourself to help. Just ask for Har Dayal and you’ll find me,” the man said, before turning away and speaking with some of his fellow activists.

 Bolin nodded, before he moved towards the line of protesters. Once he reached the front, the shouting from the gathering separatist mob sounded even louder than it had before. It was hard to make out anything that was actually being said as the mob and the counter-protesters were all shouting at each other. All Bolin could make out was various slurs and accusations of treason from the opposite side, while people on his own side were shouting about fascists and “greenshirts” and oppression.

For now, there was about 10 feet of space between the two groups, with mostly just insults being exchanged between them. Although occasionally things were thrown across the gap, and Bolin noted a few times when someone dashed forwards to attack someone on the opposite side, then quickly dashed back again. It was all very overwhelming and confusing, and Bolin found himself feeling even more scared and nervous than he had felt during his professional fights.  

His reflexes were still there though, as he dodged his head to the side to avoid a piece of rotten fruit, feeling slightly bad as it hit the person behind him right in the face. He looked back to see Two-Toed Ping looking annoyed as he wiped the rotten juice from his face.

He quickly looked forwards again when suddenly the energy of the crowd of separatists seemed to change, he wasn’t sure what caused it until he saw the mob part, and a person with a thin and drooping mustache emerged, along with dozens of additional separatists with more official looking uniforms than most. (Most simply wore shirts that were more or less the right color.)

Mustache-guy was carrying two clubs, all the other men that joined him were armed too. All the separatists began to adopt fighting postures and stopped shouting, allowing for the mustache-guy to speak out. “You migrant scum need to understand, there’s no place in the world for you anymore!”

The man then pointed one of his batons forwards, after which the mob of separatists charged forwards.

Bolin felt himself grow frantic, he tried to adopt a strong stance even as he was pushed from side to side by his own comrades. He held his ground when the wave of separatists pushed against him, and briefly felt his hope swell when he pushed two separatists back, causing them to trip backwards. 

His panic quickly returned when he noticed that although he and some of the other triad members had held their ground, their line had still been shattered as many of the counter protesters had been shoved aside. Dozens of separatists were streaming through the holes in their lines while some were using their batons to pummel the fallen activists. 

Bolin stopped pushing and began punching as he noticed the situation grow more dire, he knocked out several people even as he began stepping backwards. “Shit, retreat!” He could hear Shady Shin shouting. But as he turned around, Bolin saw that there were already numerous separatists behind them.

He retrieved the baton from his vest, but he wasn’t able to get a single good swing in before a blow to the back of his head caused him to drop down to his knees, where he retained consciousness just long enough to see mustache-guy step past and knock Shady Shin to the ground. Several henchmen moved in to tie Shady Shin up, as dozens of separatists were rushing past and already beginning to destroy windows and market stalls in the street beyond. Bolin vaguely registered someone tying his hands behind him and then begin dragging him away before finally everything faded to black.

 

***

 

Korra grabbed tight onto Naga’s reins as she raced to the immigrant district, following the directions of Mako who was holding on to her back. The two of them had raced off after Skoochy told them where Bolin had gone, Korra trusted that Asami would catch up to them eventually. 

Skoochy’s information, as far as Korra understood it, was troubling. He’d said that the triads, as well as several labor unions, were “muscling up” in response to rumors that the separatists were planning some sort of assault against the immigrant district. According to Skoochy, Bolin had somehow been roped into this mess.

“Ugh I’m so stupid!” Mako said behind her. “I used to always keep one ear to the ground, so that me and Bolin would never be caught in the middle when the triads made a big move of some kind. It only took a few months of living at the arena for me to completely lose touch with the streets, and now my brother is paying the price.” 

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Korra said, trying not to be too distracted by her sympathy for the older brother as she continued steering Naga towards their goal. “You can’t always stay totally on-guard. Besides, it sounds like there’ll be plenty of other people trying to beat us up soon enough.” 

They turned a corner, then Korra reined Naga in as they were faced with dozens of people running away in a panic. So much for arriving before the separatists mob began their attack.

Korra directed Naga to continue forwards, they were still able to move quickly, even in their panic everyone made sure to give the polarbear dog a wide birth. When they reached the next intersection, they arrived at a scene of pure chaos. The electric streetlights cast the street in pockets of bright light interspersed with darkness. Throughout the street were several groups of uniformed people beating and chasing away the few remaining locals that were out on the street, other people were smashing windows and looting stores. There were even some small fires in a few places. Almost all of the people causing this havoc were wearing the separatist’s colors.

One of the stores had a group of people mounting a resistance against the separatist attackers, but they looked like they were about to be overrun. 

At Korra’s direction, Naga launched herself towards the separatists trying to beat the store’s defenders with wooden clubs. The polarbear dog’s roar, as she jumped in the midst of the group of equalists, was enough to send them all scrambling away in fear, giving Korra and Mako time to dismount. 

“Are you OK?” Korra asked the people at the storefront, who looked relieved, but also intimidated by Naga who was still growling towards the group of retreating separatists.

“We’re- We’re fine,” one of them responded. “Thanks.”

Korra turned away from them, looking around at the chaos surrounding her. “How are we supposed to find Bolin in this mess?” Mako asked from beside her, voicing her exact thoughts. 

Korra gritted her teeth as she considered the question. “We’re not,” she said resolutely, “we’ll just do what we can to put an end to this. He should be doing the same so if it all works out we’ll run into each other eventually, right?” 

Mako just nodded with a grunt, the odds weren’t great but it still seemed like the best plan available. Korra ran towards one of the other groups that had just entered and begun smashing up a store, two of them were still outside.

A kick to the chest sent the first one flying backwards through the already-smashed store window, the second barely had time to cry out in surprise before her spinning elbow caught him in the face and sent him stumbling back. She idly pushed him to the side where he collapsed, then she advanced into the store. Inside the store were four people laughing while they knocked over the store’s shelves and randomly destroyed various wares. 

Korra made her presence known by grabbing the closest guy and flinging him towards two of the others. She advanced on the fourth man, who tripped as he tried to walk backwards through the mess of broken wares he himself had tossed all over the floor. Korra didn’t feel too sorry for him when she took advantage of his self-inflicted loss of footing and kicked him in the head. 

“Savage bitch,” she heard from the side, where she’d thrown the man towards two of his fellow thugs.

“Go back to your iglo with the other tribers!” One of the three men said, as they all regained their footing and began moving towards her. They didn’t notice Mako entering the store behind them, so together Korra and Mako made short work of the three separatists. 

As he knocked the last man out, Korra noticed that Mako had put on his fighting gloves. She wished she’d thought of that, or at least wrapped her arm bindings over her hands again. She still wasn’t used to fighting without her bending and having to worry about hurting her knuckles.

Deciding she’d just have to use more kicks and elbows instead of punches, Korra moved on to the next group of separatists. Before long she and Mako defeated this group too, then with the help of Naga they sent another group running.

By now they were starting to gather attention, both good and bad. Several people also defending the neighborhood were starting to rally around them, but the separatists they’d sent running were regrouping with a bunch of others and began to head their way. There was maybe twelve of them, briefly pausing to face off against Korra and Mako and four others whose skill in combat Korra couldn’t be sure of. 

Deciding that she might need to cheat a little, Korra leaned down and put her hands on some of the cobblestones the street was paved with. Using her earthbending she easily pried two of them out of the ground, which she hoped wouldn’t look too suspicious, she’d seen loose cobblestones before so it should be fine. 

She took a few steps forwards before adopting a powerful earthbending stance, wielding the two bricks like extensions of her fists. “Come on losers, are we going to fight or what!?” She shouted to the separatists opposite her, in the corner of her eye she saw her impromptu allies standing to her right, nervously adopting combat stances of their own while wielding wooden clubs. Some of them looked at least somewhat competent. Mako stood to her left, also adopting a combat stance. 

The separatists advanced, two seeming to target Korra. She took a step forward and smashed one of her bricks into the face of the one on the right, who’d made the mistake of getting slightly ahead of his comrade instead of attacking simultaneously. The man went down like a rock. 

The other yelled out in rage as he swung a knife towards Korra, she dodged his first slash, then met the second by smashing a brick against the man’s wrist. She heard a snap as the man collapsed to his knees, clutching his wrist in pain. She kicked the man to the ground just to be sure.

She looked left to see Mako holding his own, before turning to her right and using subtle earthbending to throw one of her bricks to the head of one the separatists fighting her unknown allies, making it look like just a normal throw. 

The man instantly collapsed as her brick made contact, as did a second man when she threw her other brick. Now unarmed again, Korra charged forwards and jumped up to hit another separatist in the head with a spinning kick, knocking him out instantly. Another attacked her, but she dodged while stepping forwards, she placed her foot behind his and pushed forward to trip him and put him on his back. A stomp to the face put the man out of commission.

Her allies now began to gain the advantage over their own opponents, and soon the entire group of separatists that’d banded together to attack them was either unconscious or fleeing. 

Even more people rallied to Korra & Mako’s side now, including several people who’d been hiding inside their homes but who now left their shelter to fight back and defend their neighborhood. eventually their group grew so strong that, as they pushed forwards, all the separatists in their path went running without putting up a fight. 

“I think they’re leaving,” Mako said, dropping out of his combat stance. 

Korra leaned down to catch her breath, exhausted from what must’ve been almost an hour of fighting. Mako looked similarly exhausted.

“Crap,” Korra said, as she noticed something behind her, “we’ve got new things to worry about.”

An entire building was going up in flames, in the distance she saw the same happening to several others. Apparently, some of the separatists had gone much further than smashing some windows and toppling some shelves. 

“Oh no,” Mako said, his voice matching the hopelessness Korra felt. “This fire is going to spread to other buildings,” Mako warned, several members of the group that’d joined them in fighting the separatists ran off, yelling that they’d go find the fire brigade, which Korra assumed was trained to put out fires. 

She wondered how they did that without bending, but shook off those thoughts as she heard a girl cry out for help. She took off running towards the sound and saw that it was coming from the third floor of an apartment building. On the ground floor was a store that was burning furiously.

“Give me a boost,” Korra said to Mako, as she gestured to a balcony on the second floor.

Mako obeyed without hesitation and cupped his hands before him, letting Korra step inside and then boosting her up to the balcony. Korra quickly climbed from the second floor balcony to the third, where she met a crying girl. “Are you okay?” Korra asked. “Where’s your mom, is anyone else in the building?”

“My- my mum’s working,” the girl, who looked about eight years old, said. “Her friend was watching me, but he went downstairs when those scary men broke into the store, is he okay?”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Korra said, even though she wasn’t sure at all. “There’s no one else inside?”

The girl shook her head. “No, they were all still working at the factories, and the other kids went playing in the square.” 

Still working at the factories? It was already dark when the mob attacked. Korra thought, before dismissing the irrelevant thought. She convinced the girl to grab onto her, then, with effort, she held on to the girl with one arm while she jumped down to the second floor’s balcony, and finally back to the ground, where Mako waited to receive them. 

“An aid station has been set up over there,” he said, pointing in the distance, someone else took the girl in that direction before Korra and Mako went on to find others who needed help. They found another burning building with people shouting for help from the top floors, this one didn’t have convenient balconies that Korra could climb up to. 

Not at the front anyway, they dashed to a side alley, where they saw a set of stairs hanging from the side of the building, but for some reason it ended at the second floor instead of going down to the ground.

“I can give you a boost again,” Mako said, but Korra already took off running, jumping from wall to wall in the narrow alley before getting high enough to reach the metal stairs. From there she found a door that she kicked in, only to be met with an overwhelming heat rushing out to meet her. 

Fire spread throughout the hallway, but Korra used her firebending to push it down and smother it, as she ran inside while holding her breath.

Eyes tearing up from the smoke, she moved through the hallway until she found a door with the sound of people behind it. She kicked the door in to find half a dozen people, one adult and one child had already passed out from the smoke. She picked up the adult that’d passed out, while one of the still-conscious people picked up the child. 

They followed Korra back through the hallway, where Korra again had to subtly use her bending to smother the flames, before they moved towards the fire escape where Mako waited to receive them. Apparently he’d also managed to get up on his own. 

With Mako’s help they were able to lower everyone down to the ground, Mako sat down with an exhausted sigh while Korra also paused to take a breath. 

But then, as quickly as she was able, Korra forced herself to keep moving again. She began running towards the next fire that she saw glowing in the distance, even as Mako shouted from behind. “Korra wait, you need to rest!”

She couldn’t think about resting, not while so many needed help. I’m the Avatar, how could I let this happen?

 

 

She ran through the street until she saw an entire building collapsing in flames, people on the street watching with tears and horror while the building beside it also begun to catch on fire. Someone was ramming their shoulder against the building’s front door in desperation.

“Someone help!” They shouted, Korra ran towards them.

“What’s going on?” She asked the man, who looked like he came from the water tribes.

He briefly looked at her in shock before collecting himself and explaining. “I locked the door when I went to help the group of people fighting back. I thought that it’d keep my kids safe, but then I lost my keys in the fighting!” 

“They’re still inside?” Korra asked, watching as the flames started spreading through the building.

“Yes!” The man said, desperation in his voice, as he began ramming his shoulder against the door again. 

The door looked very sturdy, so Korra knew his efforts were in vain. The door’s frame was set in stone though, so Korra quickly formed a plan. “Let me,” she said, pushing the man outside. Then she rammed her shoulder against the door, using earthbending to crack the door’s frame at the same time. The entire door, along with the frame, fell down as Korra stepped backwards. She did her best to try to look surprised by that. The man looked to Korra in confusion, before pushing her aside and running up to find his family. 

 Korra moved on, finding another building that was recently on fire after the one beside it was already beginning to collapse. The ground floor was awash with flames, but since she heard screaming from above she didn’t waste time except to bind some cloth over her mouth before she hopped through the store’s broken windows, using her firebending to shield herself from the flames.  

She ran through the building, then up two flights of stairs, all while holding her breath. Finally she was forced to inhale, the cloth helped filter some of the smoke but didn’t stop Korra from coughing as she frantically tried to locate the source of the sounds. 

After turning around to use firebending to push down the flames creeping up the stairs, she stumbled through the hallway until finding the right door, which she forced open with her shoulder. She lost her footing as she stumbled through the doorway, landing at the feet of a shocked mother with two children.  

“Are you okay?” The woman asked, pressing a wet cloth to Korra’s head, Korra noted that the mother and her children already had similar cloths tied over their faces.

“Ugh, I’m fine,” Korra half-spoke half-coughed, before taking the cloth and using it to replace her own. 

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Korra said, wet cloth pressing against her lips.

“I tried, the stairs are on fire,” The woman said, wiping away her tears.

“The roof!” Korra coughed. She took one of the kids, then together they moved back into the smoke-filled hallway. The woman pulled Korra after her when she almost took a wrong turn, but eventually they found a ladder leading to the roof. The woman and kids went up, Korra smothered all the nearby encroaching flames now that nobody was watching, before climbing up after them. 

Finally Korra made it up to the roof, where she lay down for a while until her coughing calmed down. 

“Now what?” The woman asked, sounding too tired to be afraid anymore.

With effort, Korra stood up to look at the building beside them. Its roof was the same height, that was good, but this family wouldn’t be able to make the jump. Korra probably couldn’t either. Not in my current state, she thought as she stood unsteadily and began coughing again. A plan did form though, so she returned to the ladder they’d climbed. It was secured to the concrete roof with metal bolts, which were easily loosened with a bit of earthbending, allowing Korra to detach the ladder and lift it up to the roof.  

She stumbled to the edge of the building, before slamming the ladder down across the alley, forming a bridge. 

She gestured for the family to cross it, but the kids shied back and their mother looked hesitant too. “I can’t I’m scared,” the girl said, her brother stayed silent but seemed to share the sentiment.

“I’ll go first, trust me it’s easy!” Korra said, before moving to the ladder and climbing across on her hands and knees. 

Eventually the family followed, first the kids, then finally the mother. They rested on the new building’s roof for a while before realizing this one had a metal staircase on the side, which they used to get down. They found an aid station nearby, after getting down the alley and stumbling out into the street. That was where Korra left the family behind, while ignoring the people saying that she also needed to stay and receive treatment. 

Korra fought to keep going as she stumbled into an alley and trudged her way towards another burning building, but her exhaustion got the best of her and she collapsed against the side of a wrecked store. With eyes starting to droop she looked at all the desperate people that she’d failed, standing in the street and watching their homes burn. Despite her exhaustion she felt a rage bubbling up inside her. Why had Raava, or her past lives, told her to hide her bending? Had that voice in her head even been real, or had she just been delirious after waking up from the ice?

She knew that she wasn’t strong enough to extinguish a whole apartment building with her firebending, not without the avatar state. However she still felt like she would’ve been able to help many more people if she hadn’t hidden her bending. Feeling angry and cowardly, Korra watched as fire brigades arrived and began putting out fires. The last thing she noticed before she eventually fell asleep, was Naga finding her and snuggling up against her. 

 

***

 

Confusing images flashed before Korra, she saw a young boy with blue arrows tattooed on his head and arms, learning waterbending from a young girl. Aang? She thought, even as the images kept flashing. She saw the boy running through a dark forest towards a clearing, where that same waterbending girl was fighting against an older woman, who was also waterbending. 

The girl was winning, but then the woman turned to Aang, and Korra watched as Aang’s limbs were suddenly under the woman’s control and he was tossed towards the watertribe girl. The image shifted, suddenly an older man with the same tattoos appeared. Aang again, but older? Korra thought. He was standing in an amphitheater of some sort, a man with bound wrists before him. 

The man moved his bound hands, Aang began twitching again, like when that older woman had controlled him, so did the rest of the crowd. Aang was tossed back, but this time he entered the avatar state and overcame the control. It’s BLOODbending! Korra realized. I didn’t even know that was possible… She thought Why was she seeing this though? It didn’t seem particularly relevant, was it a message from her past lives, or just a dream?

Suddenly she felt a presence pushing against her mind, it felt desperate to get through, but not hostile. Hesitantly, she tried to mentally reach out to it. It was difficult, but eventually it felt as though she made a slight connection with the entity, enough to receive a message from it. “Korra, you must keep your secret, or they will come for you. You’re not ready, we must strengthen our bond. Trust Tenzin, he can help you.”

The presence faded again, leaving Korra to fall back into a normal sleep.

 

 

***

 

Asami pushed her way through the mass of people, frantically making her way to yet another one of the makeshift infirmaries that had been set up by the locals, in the aftermath of the separatist mob’s rampage and the following fires. She still hadn’t seen any sign of Korra, or Mako for that matter. She hadn’t seen either of them since they’d raced ahead on Naga’s back, they had already disappeared in the chaos by the time that Asami had left her car behind and made it the rest of the way to the immigrant district on foot. 

She’d spent the first half hour or so doing her best to organize people into establishing a makeshift aid station, but she’d abandoned that effort as soon as more qualified people arrived. Those qualified aid workers had begun to arrive once the separatists started being pushed further and further away from the side of the district where Asami, and presumably Mako and Korra, had first entered the district. 

 

Since she’d begun her search for Korra and Mako, she had interviewed numerous different locals throughout the neighborhood. Some of them told her that two people matching the descriptions of Korra and Mako had helped to inspire everyone and rally them together to fight back against the separatists. But so far nobody she talked to had seen them since the fighting ended, they had likely been lost in the crowd again due to the renewed chaos that was caused by the spreading fires at the time.

Even now there was still smog in the air, from the smoldering remains of several dozen collapsed buildings.

Asami tried her best to keep herself from imagining what might’ve happened to Korra, while she walked through the rows of wounded that were spread around the latest makeshift infirmary she was visiting. The problem was that it was so very easy to imagine what Korra’s response would’ve been if she heard a child’s scream coming from inside a burning building…

Away from the wounded were several other human forms, lying still beneath blankets covering their faces. Asami forced herself to look underneath those blankets, she had to be sure. Thankfully, none of them turned out to be Korra. 

As she looked up from the final shrouded body, Asami saw a familiar person wandering through the infirmary. “Mako!” She shouted, as she jogged towards him. “Are you okay? Is Korra with you?!”  

He shook his head. “I’m fine, but I can’t find Korra, or Bolin.”

“Why did you leave her to begin with?” Asami snapped at him, harsher than she’d intended.

“I didn’t mean to,” Mako sighed, “I just couldn’t keep up with her. We’d been fighting for an hour, then we helped two different groups of people out of burning buildings. I stopped to catch my breath, then the next thing I knew she was running off to help again and I lost track of her.”

It was hard to get mad at him anymore, hearing the shame in his voice. Asami looked around desperately, not sure what her next move should be, when she felt someone tugging at her coat. She looked down to see a little girl, maybe 7 years old.

“I saw a lady running into buildings and saving people, she saved me and mommy! Is the lady you’re looking for a watertribe lady, with big muscles?” The girl asked, spreading her arms wide to indicate how big she thought Korra’s muscles were. 

 “YES!” Asami said eagerly, “do you know where she went?”

The little girl shook her head, before pointing. “She went into that alley, even though she looked real tired and everyone said not to! I wanted to follow and say thanks but mommy stopped me,” the girl pouted, before glaring at a nearby woman who must be her mother. 

“Thanks for telling me,” Asami said, kneeling down to the girl’s level, “I’ll thank her for you when I find her, OK?” The girl nodded with a smile, before Asami turned around and headed to the alley, Mako in tow. 

She ran through the alley without seeing a sign of Korra, she began worrying that they hadn’t come any closer to finding the blue eyed warrior, but then as they exited the alley she saw a pile of white fur lying down against the building on her left.

Lying against the polarbear dog she found Korra, alive and well, despite looking and smelling as though she’d crawled through several burning coalmines. Asami struggled to keep herself from sweeping Korra up in a hug, the girl clearly needed the rest so Asami didn’t want to wake her. Instead, she settled down beside the sleeping warrior, then silently began petting Naga while trying not to stare too much at Korra’s sleeping form.

Strangely the girl looked more beautiful than ever, despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that she was covered in soot and wearing clothes that’d been singed by fire. Both were a testament to the girl’s bravery and compassion. Finding Korra alive and well allowed Asami to finally feel how tired she herself was, causing her to slowly fall asleep next to Korra, both of them leaning back against the large polarbear dog.

Notes:

This is the first of a two-parter! I initially wrote it all as a single chapter, but it ended up so long that I felt like I had to split it in two. Which has the added bonus of teasing you guys with a cliffhanger where Bolin is still missing ;p

This was an interesting chapter for me to write, since I had to further flesh out what exactly motivates the equalists, or "separatists" in this universe, due to how they can't be motivated by a bigotry against benders. It required some worldbuilding in this chapter and in part two, and resulted in this chapter featuring what I would describe as "Battle of Cable Street meets Tulsa Race Riot." (Some interesting history there if you've never heard of those real life events.)

Plus, there was a bunch of action, and a mention of a certain organization named after a colored lotus...

Anyway, hope y'all found it an interesting chapter too ;p

Chapter 10: The Revelation: Part Two.

Summary:

The Krew tries to find out what's happened to Bolin, following the separatist attack on the immigrant district.

The Revelation: Part Two.

 

Korra awakened slowly, not realizing at first where she was or what had happened. She could feel the familiar warmth of Naga’s fur, but there was another warm and soft shape pressing against her shoulder and the side of her head. She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was a mess of black hair pressed against the side of her face. 

She slowly realized that it was Asami, peacefully sleeping while leaning against her. When did she get here? Korra thought. She began to remember all the events of the last night, as well as the vision she’d had, yet despite all those unpleasant thoughts the sight of the other woman made her smile. She looked around at the street surrounding them, there were still many people up and about even though it looked like the entire night had passed and the sun was already beginning to dawn.

Korra felt Asami beginning to stir beside her, but then a voice suddenly spoke up. “Good you’re awake, you’ve gotta help find Bolin,” she heard Mako say. He’d approached without Korra noticing. 

Korra looked towards Asami, watching her pretty eyes slowly fluttering open, a confused and sleepy look covered the woman’s face. Then, suddenly, Asami’s eyes opened wide and she pushed Korra off before scrambling away. “AAHH!” They both yelled at each other.

When they both began to calm down, Mako tossed a wet cloth at Korra. “You should clean yourself up, you’re covered in soot,” he said. Apparently electing not to comment on her and Asami’s behavior, which Korra could only appreciate.

“Hmm hmm, yep, I’ll do that,” she said, briefly glancing Asami’s way and seeing that Asami also looked rather embarrassed. “What happened after I fell asleep? Last thing I remember is the firefighters finally arriving,” Korra asked, addressing both Mako and Asami while working to wipe some of the soot off her face.

Mako was the one who responded. “Over a dozen apartment complexes burned to the ground, a few more sustained damage, and some smaller buildings were destroyed too. It seems like mainly businesses were targeted, but of course many of the local stores and restaurants had apartments above them,” he began. “From what I’ve been able to find out the amount of injured and dead is relatively low, many people were still at work when the mob arrived, and most families evacuated before the separatists broke through and entered the neighborhood.” 

He said it all in a very matter-of-fact tone of voice, which Korra wanted to get upset over, except as she watched the man’s expression she realized that it was simply the only way he could get the words out without being overcome by emotion. Either way, his words echoed in her mind. Injured and dead…

She wanted to ask for an actual number, since she’d learned from her previous mistake how deceptive the word “relative” could be. But then she realized that this knowledge would do neither of them any good right now, so instead she focused on the thing they could actually do something about. “How do we find Bolin?” She asked, looking between Mako and Asami. Asami didn’t seem to have much of a plan, but after considering for a while, Mako responded. 

“Well, we know he was with the Triple Threats. I checked out their headquarters earlier, but it was empty, we should check again to see if any of them have returned.” 

Korra and Asami nodded their agreement. “So where are we headed?” Korra asked, once she’d finished cleaning up as best as she could. Mako indicated their direction, then the three of them, along with Naga, began walking.

“So how did Bolin get tangled up with the Triple Threats anyway? I beat up some of those yahoos a while ago, they don’t seem like a nice bunch.” 

“Well…” Mako started, sounding embarrassed. “We used to do some work for them back in the day.”

“WHAT?” Asami responded. “Are you some kind of criminal?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about! I just ran numbers for them and stuff, we were orphans out on the street, I did what I had to do to survive and protect my little brother!”

“I’m sorry,” Asami said.

“It must’ve been really hard,” Korra added.

Mako waved away their apologies. “Whatever, we’re here,” he said, pointing towards an inconspicuous looking building. 

“That’s it?” Korra asked, some slight incredulity in her voice. 

“Well what were you expecting?” 

“I don’t know, I was kind of picturing a bandit fortress with wooden palisades, but then again I didn’t exactly grow up in the city.”

Asami suppressed a chuckle while Mako just grunted in annoyance and began peeking through the building’s windows. “There’s usually thugs posted out front, and I don’t see any lights inside. Doesn’t look like anyone’s back yet,” he said, trying to sneak around in a very over-the-top looking way. 

Korra walked up to the building’s door, then kicked it open. Or kicked it down actually, she wasn’t sure if she’d kicked too hard or if the building was just shoddy, but both doors fell off their hinges and fell inside the building. 

“Yep, this place looks pretty empty,” she said as she casually walked inside.

“Bolin, you in here?” Mako shouted out, though it didn’t seem likely to yield any results. 

Korra was surprised however to hear someone respond to his call. “Mako, that you?” A squeaky voice asked, as a man peeked out from behind a corner where he’d apparently been hiding. 

“Two Toed Ping, is that you?” Mako asked, causing Korra and Asami to exchange glances over the weird name. “I’m just here looking for my brother, you’re safe,” Mako said. 

“Not for long,” Ping replied, “half the triad’s been wiped out, even Lightning Bolt Zolt has gone missing and he wasn’t even part of the fight! They must’ve ambushed him at his home! It’s only a matter of time until the Agni Kais take advantage. They were there you know? Helping the separatists. In fact, your brother was the one who spotted them.” 

“You’ve seen Bolin?” Mako asked, eagerly, but the man was distracted when he noticed Korra. Korra now recognized him as one of the three guys she’d beat up when she first encountered the Triple Threats.

“Relax,” Korra said. “I’m not here to beat you up again, just helping Mako find his brother.”

The man still looked hesitant, but apparently decided that helping was his best option. “I haven’t seen him since the beginning of this mess,” the man said, “we were trying to hold the separatists back, prevent them from entering the neighborhood. But they broke through. I almost got trampled in the chaos so I didn’t see much, but I did see some of the separatists knocking Shady Shin unconscious, before dragging away both him and Bolin.” 

“Why would they do that?” Korra asked. 

“No idea,” Ping replied. “I’ve been hearing some strange stories though, apparently many of the people who evacuated the neighborhood have gone missing too. Some trucks showed up promising to take them to a place where they could shelter, but they haven’t been seen since, and no one knows where those supposed shelters are.”

“Could they be headed to the border?” Asami asked, causing everyone to look to her in confusion. “That’s what this is all about isn’t it? They want to get rid of immigrants, maybe they’ve taken matters into their own hands and decided to deport them extrajudicially.”

“Maybe,” Mako replied, sounding worried, “that still doesn’t sound right though. It explains the missing evacuees, but it seems strange for them to focus on that during the chaos of the initial fighting. Why focus energy on capturing a handful of people from the frontlines, when they’re still pushing their way into the neighborhood?” 

“Maybe they’re trying to control the narrative,” Asami responded, “it doesn’t look good for the immigrant community when the triads are the ones defending their neighborhood. Maybe the separatists are planning to exaggerate the role that the Triple Threats played, to make themselves look more justified.”

It sounded incredibly diabolical to Korra, but Mako nodded and Ping did too. “Yeah yeah that makes sense, sounds like something those Agni-Kai weasels would be involved in.” Ping said. 

Korra wasn’t sure how this guy could call anyone else a weasel, but was distracted from that thought when small furry red creature suddenly appeared and ran towards Mako. Naga almost jumped towards the animal but Korra held her back. “Whoa Naga, no. I’m pretty sure that’s not a snack,” she said. 

“That’s Pabu!” Mako said. “Bolin’s pet,” he explained, after Korra and Asami gave him a confused look. 

“Oh yeah, Bolin left him here before we headed out. He’s been keeping me company since I returned,” Ping responded, while the furry creature crawled around Mako’s shoulders. 

“Well now what?” Korra asked.

“Where have the police been during all this? Why didn’t they prevent this?” Asami asked, almost at the same time as Korra’s question.

Ping just snorted. “Oh I’m sure plenty of coppers were there, they were just wearing separatist uniforms for the day.” 

Mako nodded, as if that made perfect sense. “Aren’t they supposed to protect people and keep the peace?” Korra asked.

“Well yeah, but then they arrested you for embarrassing them by doing their jobs for them, remember?” Ping asked, apparently not ashamed in the slightest to admit that he’d been threatening people and disrupting the peace. 

“They’re just another gang, only with fancier uniforms. We do the same thing as they do. Make people pay us ‘protection money’ all while we’re the ones threatening them. The coppers just happen to be more successful at the con than we are,” Ping said. 

“Whatever, where does that leave us? How do we find all these missing people, and Bolin?” Korra asked. 

“No idea,” said Mako. “I don’t exactly run in the same circles as the separatists, I don’t know where their base is, or who any of their members are.”

“Me neither, all I know is I’m not waiting here for them to return!” Ping said, before running out the back door. Korra wanted to chase him but Asami held her back, which was probably the right thing to do. His usefulness had run out anyway. 

Korra huffed in frustration. “The only separatist I know is that guy who’s always yelling in the park,” she said. “Do you think he could tell us more?”

“You said that guy hands people pamphlets, right?” Asami asked. “He must have at least some contact with the separatist leadership, whenever they supply him with those pamphlets.”

 

It seemed as good of a plan as any, so they all headed out towards the park. Korra noticed that she was drawing funny looks, probably because she was still wearing her half-burned soot-covered clothing. 

When they arrived in the park, they saw the guy standing on a table, shouting through his megaphone again.

“Purity now, purity now. We want purity now!” The guy shouted, Korra saw Asami purse her lips in disgust at the man’s words. “Patriotic citizens of Republic City, Amon calls you to action. Take back your city from the filth that’s begun to overrun it! It’s time for the-“

The man’s next words cut off as he saw Korra approach. “It’s you again,” he gasped, “you cannot silence me, no matter how much the elites pay you!” He said. 

Asami looked at Korra, cocking an eyebrow in confusion. “He keeps accusing me of being hired by the elites,” Korra responded with a shrug, “probably doesn’t help that I started throwing trash at him when he did it the second time,” she chuckled, remembering how her and Gommu had made a sport out of annoying the noisy separatist whenever they met up at the park. Which they did regularly whenever Korra needed to kill time before going to Tenzin’s lessons. 

Anyway, the man was about to start shouting through his megaphone again so Korra slapped it out of his hands. “Shut your yapper and listen up!” She said, her appearance hopefully helping to make her look extra intimidating. “My friend got kidnapped by some separatists, where’d they take him?” 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” the man responded, crossing his arms in a childishly obstinate gesture.

“Ohh, I think you do,” Korra responded with a huff, before lifting up her foot and axe-kicking the table the man was standing on in half. 

The man’s pamphlets went flying everywhere while he fell down with a shocked scream. Then once he recovered from his fall he stubbornly began to gather them up again. Korra watched as Mako picked one of the pamphlets out of the air and began to read it out loud.

“ ‘Witness the revelation tonight, nine o’clock.’ What’s this ‘revelation’?” He asked, turning to the separatist.

 

“Nothing that concerns the likes of you three,” the man responded, venom in his voice. Korra had enough and grabbed the man by his collar, lifting him up while he shrieked in fear. 

“You better believe it concerns us, spill it!”

“No one knows what the revelation is, and I have no idea what happened to your friend,” the man responded, sounding desperate. But apparently, he regained some of his courage as he continued speaking. “But if he’s an immigrant or an immigrant-lover, then my bet is he’s getting what’s coming to him.”

“Where is it happening?” Mako demanded, but then a whistle sounded, and the familiar sight of a park cop began to run towards them.

“Hey, what’s going on over there?” The distant figure shouted. 

“The globalist elite is oppressing us, help!” The man yelled while Korra was still holding him up by his collar, which probably wasn’t the best look if that cop caught up to them.

“Let’s scram!” Korra said, tossing the man to the ground before running to Naga and hopping in her saddle. Asami hopped on behind her right away, followed by Mako after he picked up a few more pamphlets. 

Seemingly sensing their urgency, Naga didn’t complain about carrying three people. The large dog quickly began running, carrying all three of them to the edge of the park until they lost the cop. Some time later, they paused to sit on the bench of a tram station, where they thought about what to do next. 

“Why didn’t the separatists put a location on these?” Korra asked, grabbing one of the pamphlets Mako had taken. If they wanted to tell everyone about this ‘revelation’ at nine o’clock, then wouldn’t they also want people to know where it’s happening?

“Probably because they don’t want just anyone waltzing into their big ‘revelation’, whatever that is,” Mako said, using a mocking tone.

“I bet the information is hidden on here somehow,” Mako said, staring at the rest of the pamphlets. “look at the backs.”

Korra looked, only seeing a bunch of random looking lines.

Mako seemed to be seeing a pattern in them though. “There’s four different images,” he said. 

“So… It’s a puzzle?” Asami asked.

“Yeah, of a map!” Mako said, excitement seeping into his voice.

I hate maps. Korra thought.

Mako took several of the pamphlets and held them up against the wall of the station, where apparently another map was displayed. Korra had thought that those were just a bunch of squiggly lines too.

“Bingo,” Mako said, when the lines on the pamphlets seemed to match up to those on the metro station’s map, “that must be where it’s going down.” 

 

Since the revelation was happening at nine, they had some time to kill. Mako brought Korra back to his and Bolin’s apartment at the arena, so that she could take a shower. Meanwhile, Asami went to the police station to report what they’d found. Mako supported that idea, even though he didn’t seem to think it would amount to much. 

“I’ve encountered plenty of cops in my life,” he said, “none of them have ever tried to help me or Bolin. All they’re ever interested in is arresting and persecuting us, like they do to everyone else from the immigrant district. As if we’re the only ones who commit crime! I’ve been working odd jobs for years, half of them have refused to pay me the wages they owe me, when I tried to report them to the police the cops all just laughed at me. But when me and Bolin steal some scraps of food to eat they’re all too happy to arrest us.”

“That’s not fair,” Korra replied. They’re just another gang, Ping had said. Could that really be true? There seemed to be no end to the problems that needed to be addressed in this society, which selfishly made Korra glad that she’d continued to hide her identity thus far.

It wasn’t as if she really knew what she should be doing, even if she publicly revealed herself to be the avatar. She wasn’t ready for people to be looking to her for answers. She also wasn’t sure if people would be looking to her for answers anyway; after all they considered the avatar to be an ancient myth, with no role in the modern world. 

She didn’t like it, she continued to feel guilty about it; but in the end Korra decided that it would still be a good idea to hide her bending and her identity.

At that moment, Asami stormed into the apartment, looking very frustrated. Mako barely looked up from his lazy position on the couch, before slouching back down again. “I’m guessing they didn’t take you very seriously?” He asked, while staring at the ceiling. 

“No, they didn’t,” Asami said, mouth drawing a thin line. “ ‘Leave the detective work to us missy’, they said. They didn’t even listen when I told them about all the people who’ve gone missing after they evacuated the immigrant district! They just said that it’s normal for things to be chaotic after a riot.”

“They’re not looking into it at all?” Mako asked, sitting up now. Apparently even his cynicism wasn’t so strong that he wasn’t still shocked by this. 

“No,” Asami said with a huff, “after I pressed them on it, they said that there’s been a few other reports of missing evacuees, but they said they didn’t have the resources to waste on looking for some ‘rural Earth Kingdom hicks who got lost in the big city.’ ”

 

“I guess it’s just us three then,” Korra said, trying to project confidence. “We’ll head to the ‘revelation’ at nine, try to blend in, then try to find out where Bolin and the others who’ve gone missing are.”

Mako nodded, then stood up. “Speaking of blending in, you’ll need a change of clothes, both of you.”

“What’s wrong with my clothes?” Asami asked. 

“They’re expensive looking, the map on the back of the pamphlets points to an abandoned warehouse, not exactly the place where a wealthy heiress will blend in,” Mako said, while digging through a closet to look for suitable clothes, picking out a jacket that he threw at Asami. 

“Not like people would suspect an heiress of trying to bust out a kidnapped immigrant,” Korra heard Asami mumbling under her breath, even while she did replace her own jacket with the one Mako had given her. It looked like it was one of Mako’s own jackets, and it fit her surprisingly well. 

 

That same night, shortly before nine, the three of them peeked around a corner, looking towards the warehouse that the map had indicated. Korra was also wearing one of Mako’s jackets, as well as his scarf. Mako was now wearing one of Bolin’s jackets, which was baggy on him but not as bad as it was for Korra. 

Korra looked towards Asami, who was making sure her gun was stored safely in her front pocket. She had shown the gun to Korra and Mako earlier that day. Apparently, she always carried one around in her purse, while storing another in a locked box in her car. Korra been surprised to learn that, but under the circumstances she was glad for it, what they were doing was certainly not without danger. 

Asami had tried to give one of her guns to Korra, but Korra had insisted that Mako should take it instead. After all, she had her bending to fall back on if she really needed to. That wasn’t the argument she’d used of course, but she’d gotten her way eventually.

“This is the place,” Mako said, as they watched a suspicious number of people walking towards a supposedly abandoned warehouse late at night. 

They all put on the hats that they’d brought as part of their disguise and began walking towards the warehouse. Korra was momentarily distracted by Asami grabbing onto her arm while walking beside her. “What are you doing?” She asked. 

“We’ll attract less attention this way,” Asami said. Korra supposed that she had seen plenty of women behaving similarly, when walking through the streets with friends.

When they neared the warehouse’s entrance, they saw a burly looking man preventing people from passing through, until they showed one of the pamphlets that the guy at the park had been handing out. Luckily they’d taken a few of those pamphlets with them, which Mako showed to the man.

“The revelation is upon us, my brother and sisters,” the man said, stepping aside to let them pass. Korra tried to flash him a smile, despite his words creeping her out.

As they walked into the building Asami adopted a strange expression, looking around at the machinery and other stuff that lay abandoned. “What is it?” Korra asked. 

“I’m not sure, this place feels familiar,” Asami responded. “Nevermind, it’s probably nothing.”

 

 

As they walked up to a raised platform, overlooking a large open space filled with thousands of people. The sides of the room were filled with machines of some kind that spanned almost the entirety of the building’s walls. A set of stairs led down from the platform to the open space where everyone was gathering. 

Mako spoke up. “I knew a lot of people hated immigrants, but I’ve never seen so many in one place.”

Korra and Asami concurred, before Mako continued. “Keep your eyes out for Bolin.”

As they’d previously discussed, they split up slightly after coming down the stairs. Mako went off by himself maybe 20 feet to their right, while Korra and Asami walked straight ahead into the crowd. At that moment, stagelights much like those Korra had seen at the jazz club lit up, and a voice spoke up over the speakers installed on the podium. 

“Please welcome your hero, your savior, Amon!”

A man rose from underneath the podium, standing on a platform that was somehow being raised up to match the height of the rest of the podium, the man surrounded by a number of thugs wearing the separatist uniform. 

The man wore a mask, the same as the one that was plastered on the flags and posters behind the podium. The crowd cheered as he appeared, it wasn’t until this moment that Korra realized that she knew almost nothing about this guy, save for how he was the leader of this terrible movement and apparently thought very highly of himself. Even the newspapers never mentioned any details about him.   

Amon walked up to a microphone, then without further preamble he began to speak.

“My quest for a strong nation, with a singular national identity, began many years ago,” he said.

“When I was a boy, my family owned a small factory. We weren’t very politically powerful or well connected, and all of us stemmed from the Water Tribes. We had lived in the United Republic for generations, yet in the rural area where my father bought this factory we still stood out. The area was inhabited almost entirely by people who were ethnically from the Earth Kingdom.”

“This made us very easy targets for the people who lived around us, who treated us as outsiders while feeling solidarity towards each other. These people extorted my father, they gathered in mobs and unions to protest his ownership of the factory, all motivated by spite. They couldn’t handle the fact that someone from another nation and culture was so much wealthier and more successful than them.”

“One day, my father confronted these people, but when he did, we were driven out of town, and all our property was confiscated by the local government. My father committed suicide not long after. That place took my family from me.”

The audience gasped in sympathy at this statement, even Korra felt moved by his statement, though his broader argument remained unconvincing.

“My family believed the lie that many of us have been told, that the United Republic’s cultural diversity brings us peace and prosperity, that our diversity and our open borders enrich us and provide balance to the world. But this is a falsehood, deliberately spread by those who stand to profit from it. The only thing that immigration has brought to the world is suffering. It has been the cause of every war, in every era, but that is about to change.”

“Of course, I realize that we live in a nation of many different people with different backgrounds, many of whom have lived here for generations. This was a mistake, but it is one that cannot be reversed. Our only course now is for us to form our own singular cultural identity, to rid ourselves of the divisions that caused my family so much grief. But this can only be achieved if we stem the tide of immigration, we cannot integrate others when we have yet to integrate ourselves!”

Applause sounded from the audience, which Amon capitalized on by more energetically continuing his speech. Korra had to admit that he was a talented orator.

“We must become a nation that is proud of its traditions, proud of its heritage, and loyal to its institutions. This cannot be achieved if we constantly bring in new people, if we allow ourselves to pick and choose between different cultures and cuisines while discarding whatever we decide no longer suits us, if we act based on our hedonistic whims instead of forming a strong national identity. This is why I hide behind a mask, as a symbol of what we must become; a uniform collective, freed from the trap of individualism, striving towards a common goal!”

 “Many of the people in our nation have bought into the lie spread by the air nomads and their socialist agenda, that multiculturalism is the way forward, but that will soon change. I know you have been wondering, ‘what is the revelation?’ You are about to get your answer.”

“Since the beginning of time the spirits have acted as guardians of our world, under the divine leadership of Raava, the light spirit. Raava himself has spoken to me.” Korra heard Asami scoffing at this from beside her, and subtly tried to shush the woman. 

“They say our leaders have failed humanity, that we’re supposed to live as separate tribes, proud and protective of our respective heritages and traditions. That is why the spirits have chosen me, to help create our own national identity and to usher in a new era of balance. They have bestowed upon me the divine authority that is needed to make this a reality, just as they have bestowed it upon Kuvira, to do the same in the Earth Kingdom, which has also begun to collapse thanks to the degenerate politics of multiculturalism.”

“Our struggle is a worldwide struggle. We must work together, yet separately, to strengthen our respective borders and cultural identities. That is why I have personally made contact with Kuvira, she has given me her assurance that she will do everything within her power to prevent more of her people from betraying their country and fleeing towards ours.”

“This guy is insane,” Korra whispered to Asami.

“If he’s working with Kuvira though, then he’s more powerful than I imagined,” Asami responded. 

“Now for a demonstration, to show the power that this newfound alliance has given us. Many of you will have heard of the riots instigated by the scum living in the immigrant quarter late last night, with the help of certain treacherous trade unions and triads. Brave and patriotic members of our movement stepped in to end these riots and restore order, while doing so they managed to apprehend many of the instigators behind these violent riots. Please welcome ‘Lightning Bolt’ Zolt, leader of the Triple Threat Triad and one of the most notorious criminals in Republic City!”

He gestured behind him, where a man in ostentatious purple and golden clothes was dragged onto the stage, followed by several others. Korra gasped as she saw Bolin at the end of the line of captives. 

“These men behind me represent the very worst of the violent savages that attacked our peaceful city, late last night,” Amon said, while Korra and Asami began to make their way towards Mako, who looked about ready to jump on stage and try to save Bolin all by himself. 

“Of course, all the triads are bad, but at least most of them have their own heritage and identity that they take pride in, like the Agni Kais who proudly name themselves after a time-honored Fire Nation tradition. This is not the case for the Triple Threat Triads, they flaunt the multi-ethnic makeup of their gang as though it were a badge of honor!” Amon said, prompting jeers from the crowd. 

“I will personally make an example of these violent instigators, in the meantime, Kuvira’s generous aid has provided us with numerous large trucks, which we will use to deport the rest of the rioters back to the Earth Kingdom where they belong. We’re preparing these trucks for travel as we speak, in the warehouse next to this one. If the government won’t do its job and won’t protect us against the wave of vermin invading our country, then we must take matters into our own hands!” 

Applause and cheers sounded again throughout the crowds. Finally, Korra reached Mako, she grabbed him to prevent him from rushing onto the stage. “We can’t fight them all, we need to be smart about this,” Asami said.

“Then give us the game plan, oh wise heiress,” Mako said. Asami looked around for ideas.

“Zolt has amassed a fortune by profiting off of immigrants and refugees, all while extorting and abusing decent citizens and making us watch as our jobs were stolen from us,” Amon continued speaking in the background. 

“There!” Asami said, pointing to the side of the warehouse. “Those machines are powered by steam, if one of us breaks them then they could provide a distraction, and maybe the fog will impede the separatist’s vision while the rest of us move to free Bolin.” 

“I’ll break the machine,” Korra said, already planning to use her waterbending to make sure that the steam would provide the cover they need. “I’ll find my own way out after, don’t wait for me just get Bolin out as soon as you can.”

“But now, his reign of terror is about to come to an end,” Korra heard Amon say, she ignored his words while pushing her way to the side, towards the machine that Asami had indicated. But then she paused in shock as the sound of a gunshot rang out through the warehouse.

She looked towards the stage, where the kneeling body of ‘Lightning Bolt’ Zolt slumped over with blood seeping from his forehead, she watched as Amon slowly lowered the handgun he had used to execute the man. It was a horrible sight, made even more sickening when the crowd began to cheer and applaud. 

Now moving more frantically, Korra pushed her way through the crowd until she reached the edge. She slipped past a small gap between the machines, leading to a hallway of sorts, it was completely free of people since it was separated from the rest of the crowd by the line of machines.

There were lots of pipes and metal wheels that could be turned, steam could be seen escaping from minor leaks, and Korra could sense all the water hidden within. 

She turned one of the metal wheels, which seemed to increase the pressure and the amount of steam leaking from the pipes, but it wasn’t enough. Suddenly a voice spoke out behind her. “Hey you!”

Korra turned to face the man, it was the burly guy who’d kept watch at the entrance of the warehouse. “Euh, is there a problem, my brother?” Korra asked nervously.

“What are you doing back here?”

“Uhh, looking for the bathroom?” Korra said, realizing too late that she probably shouldn’t have made that sound like a question, but trying to make up for it with a smile.

It didn’t seem to work, seeing as the man grabbed a metal tool of some sort from his pocket, wielding it like a club. He swung it towards Korra, who felt grateful for Tenzin’s lessons as she dodged it with ease. She dodged several more swings, all while retrieving Mako’s scarf from around her neck. 

She used the scarf to catch the man’s wrist, then swung him around towards the steam pipes. He crashed hard against them, causing several to break and begin to spit out steam. “Thanks. This should be enough,” Korra said, trying to stay glib in an effort to ignore the burns the man suffered from the steam before he passed out. 

She began bending the steam, gathering as much as possible, before directing it past the line of machines, past the audience and towards the stage. 

 

***

Asami watched in horror as another man was executed by Amon. “That was Shady Shin,” Mako said, while clearly using every ounce of self restraint that he possessed to keep from rushing towards his brother. “Come on come on, where’s that distraction?” Mako asked, as only a few men remained until it would be Bolin’s turn. 

At that moment, a sound of bursting metal pipes caused the audience to gasp in surprise and fear, a cloud of steam from the side of the room suddenly made its way into the open space before drifting towards the stage. 

That was far more effective than I’d expected, good job Korra. Asami thought, briefly watching the panic spread throughout the crowd before turning to Mako and grabbing hold of her pistol.

“You still have the revolver I gave you, right?” She asked him. He nodded grimly, then they both moved towards the stage, where the panic seemed to have spread to Amon’s men. 

The steam covered the entire stage by the time that she and Mako climbed up. They rushed to Bolin’s side, where Mako grabbed a separatist from behind, slamming him to the ground and knocking him out before kicking away the man’s sidearm.

Thanks to the fog that man had been the only separatist that was still in view, which hopefully meant none of the others saw what they were doing while Asami moved to cut Bolin’s restraints. 

“Bolin, you alright?” Mako asked as he turned towards them, while pointing the gun at the fog, towards any potential incoming separatists.

“YES! Mako, I love you!” Bolin shouted, making Asami worry that he’d give away their location. This is insane, I’m insane, they have guns! Asami thought, as she pulled Bolin after her so they could flee this place. 

She led Bolin through the curtain behind the stage, behind which a set of stairs could be seen leading to a side-exit. The path somehow felt familiar to Asami as they ran up the stairs and pushed through the door, which led to a metal balcony of sorts on the outside of the building, with a ladder leading down to an alleyway.

“Hurry,” Asami said to Bolin, who immediately began climbing down the ladder, Asami soon followed while Mako covered the door they’d come from. “What about the trucks Amon mentioned? All the people they’ll deport?” Mako asked.

“First, we’ve got to get out of here. He said it’s the warehouse beside us, maybe we can go around and sneak in,” Asami responded, even though she hated the thought of running back into danger after escaping this place. 

She made it to the ground, then walked to the side so that she could point her gun up towards the exit while Mako began climbing down the ladder. It wasn’t a great angle, she faced the exit from the side and wouldn’t be able to see anyone until they walked basically all the way though.

Suddenly a gun appeared from inside the door, followed by the man holding it as he stepped through. The gun was pointed straight towards Mako while Mako was still turning around to begin climbing down the ladder. 

Asami began firing before even thinking about it, and the man disappeared back into the doorway. 

Asami wondered if she’d killed him or if he just retreated, when suddenly there was movement in the doorway again and shots were fired her direction, the shooter had repositioned himself so that he could shoot to the side in Asami’s direction while still being protected by the doorway. Asami ducked behind a dumpster before returning fire, aiming at the narrow slit of the door while Mako jumped down to the floor without using most of the ladder’s rungs.

Asami began walking backwards, still training her sights on the doorway. “We have to cover each other, you run back, then cover me while I run back, and so on,” she said to Mako, who nodded while he and Bolin ran past her.

Asami waited a few seconds before hearing Mako shout “go”, then she turned around and ran as hard as she could. She passed Mako while he began firing shots in the direction she came from. She kept running until taking cover behind a large metal pipe that jutted out of the building to her side, Bolin was at the opposite side of the alley, looking terrified as he hid behind another dumpster.

“GO!” Asami shouted, while aiming her gun towards distant figures that could now be seen on the metal balcony and climbing down the ladder. 

She began firing, careful not to hit Mako who was still within her line of sight as he turned around and ran back towards her, then past her. At this range it was unlikely that she’d hit anyone, but she hoped to at least deter them from pursuing, to make them duck for cover instead of taking the time to aim too carefully at her or at Mako & Bolin. 

They continued this pattern a couple more times, the number of shots fired after them appeared to be decreasing, then finally Asami ran around the corner of the alley, Mako firing a couple more shots to cover her. 

“I’m out of bullets,” Mako said, while his revolver made a metal clicking sound. 

“I still have another magazine,” Asami responded, discarding the old magazine and grabbing the new one from her pocket, before slamming it inside the pistol. 

“We have to help the other captives,” Bolin said, “we can’t let them be deported.”

Asami nodded, a quick peek back around the corner confirmed that nobody was pursuing them yet. She turned back, then joined Mako and Bolin as they ran around to find an entrance into this second warehouse. 

I hope Korra is OK, Asami thought. Korra’s distraction hadn’t involved her directly confronting the separatists or climbing onto the podium, so Asami hoped that Korra hadn’t faced as many pursuers as she and Mako had. 

 

***

 

Korra made her way out of the warehouse while blending in with the rest of the panicked crowd, before turning to her left at the sounds of gunshots from the nearby alley, between this warehouse and the one beside it. 

She ran towards the alley and peeked around the corner. She saw Mako climbing down a balcony, while Asami fired a gun towards the door leading up to the balcony. She watched as Mako now began firing, allowing Asami to turn around and retreat. She noticed Bolin retreating along with Asami, so their breakout had been successful so far!

Separatist pursuers began to climb onto the balcony though, firing shots towards her friends. 

Screw it, Korra thought as she began to gather water from the humid air, enough for several small pointy icicles around her fingers. She peeked around the corner again, then shot the icicles towards one of the men climbing down the balcony, causing him to scream in pain and fall on top of the man beneath him. 

The man still on top of the balcony turned around in surprise. “Are you hit?” Korra heard him shout, for the moment he was no longer aiming at Asami. “I didn’t hear gunshots.” 

“Ugh I don’t know, he’s bleeding!” One of the men on the ground shouted. Korra watched as in the distance, Asami and the others turned around the corner of the second warehouse and escaped. 

 Korra quickly darted across the alley and began running around this second warehouse as well, her friends should be on the opposite side, so she should find them simply by running around and meeting them halfway! 

Korra rounded the corner, only to catch sight of Bolin as he entered the warehouse’s side-door in the distance, at the opposite corner of the warehouse.

Oh right, the other captives. They’re in this second warehouse. Korra thought. She considered running all the way to the door Bolin had entered, but then decided otherwise. It would be easier for her to sneakily use her bending if she wasn’t so close to her friends, if the only possible witnesses were her enemies.

She looked around, then after confirming that nobody was watching her she used an earth pillar to shoot herself up to the building’s roof. There was a window up there which she was able to pry open, allowing herself to climb inside onto one of the narrow metal support beams that ran beneath the ceiling, which left just enough room for her to stand. 

The warehouse was filled with rows of trucks, and the last few captives could be seen as they were loaded inside a truck close to Korra. “What in Raava’s name is happening out there?” One of the separatist guards asked. 

“I don’t know, something went wrong at the rally. It doesn’t matter just do your job,” another responded. 

Korra looked as her friends, on the opposite side of the warehouse, started to sneak their way towards one of the trucks while the two guards beneath her continued talking.

“Where’s the drivers? We’ve almost finished loading up all the captives,” the first man said.

“I told you just do your job, they’ll get here when they get here,” the other responded. 

That was good information, they had until the drivers arrived to try to break the captives out. There weren’t many guards, apparently they relied on the locks of the trucks to keep the captives contained. 

In addition to the two men talking close to her, Korra spotted three more in the direction of her friends. 

Korra made her way over to almost above where the nearest two guards were standing, watching as they closed the final truck’s door. These two were carrying what looked like automatic rifles, based on her memory from Asami’s demonstration at the Sato gun range. 

 

They were standing next to two large metal containers like she’d seen before at the docks, the containers were poorly stacked on top of each other, which gave Korra an idea. She jumped down behind the two containers, then as she landed she used earthbending to soften her impact, while at the same time redirecting the energy to lift up the concrete beneath the containers. This caused the two containers to tilt over, only slightly, but enough to cause the top container to fall off.

A shout of surprise could be heard on the other side, quickly muffled by the crash of the container. Korra hurriedly moved the concrete back into place, then ran around and saw that one of the two guards had been able to dodge out of the way, he was staring in shock at the container that’d crushed his friend when Korra crashed into him from behind, slamming him head-first into that same container and knocking him out in one blow. 

 

Korra kept moving as she quickly climbed on top of one of the trucks, trying to keep her footsteps silent while gaining another vantage point. While climbing up she gathered more water from the air around her, storing it as ice around her wrist. She jumped from truck to truck until finding another guard. The man never had a chance as Korra shot an icicle through his heart before he even spotted her, she made sure to quickly melt the icicle afterwards.  

It was scary how easy it was, no different from hunting fox-antelopes.

But that was when gunfire sounded, from the other end of the warehouse. Asami and the others must’ve been discovered by the guards! Korra jumped down to the ground and tried to run around a truck in an attempt to reach her friends, when she bumped into another separatist.

They briefly stared at each other in shock, but then they both began to move. The separatist raised his rifle up, Korra pushed it aside with her left hand while punching her right palm forwards. 

The man fruitlessly fired his rifle while Korra continued pushing its barrel so that it fired harmlessly past her side, then her palm slammed into the man’s throat and sent a searing fire burning straight through it. The man slowly collapsed, leaving Korra to stand there while still holding his rifle in her hand, a sickening smell of roasted flesh filling her nostrils. 

Another round of gunfire shook Korra out of her stupor, she ran forwards and peeked around the truck. This gave her a view of a hallway of sorts running along the side of the warehouse, trucks on one end, the wall on the other. 

A few trucks ahead she saw her friends, pinned down in the warehouse’s corner, hiding behind a container while the remaining two separatists fired their rifles at them with their backs turned to Korra. Asami blindly tried to return fire but she was clearly outgunned. 

“Drop your weapons you foreign scum! You don’t stand a chance!” One of the two men shouted, before again firing towards the container where Korra’s friends were pinned down.

Korra changed her grip on the rifle she’d taken, then she ran forwards. Surprising them from behind allowed her to use the butt of the rifle to knock the first one out before they even noticed her, she knocked the second one out too, slamming the rifle sideways against his temple while he looked over to see what’d happened to the man beside him.

“Don’t count us out yet,” Korra said to the unconscious men, a small smirk finding its way onto her face. “You’re safe!” She then shouted to her friends. “Hurry, we must free the captives before more separatists arrive!” 

Mako quickly rushed to action, followed by Asami and Bolin. Mako grabbed a rifle, then also grabbed something else off the body of one of the guards. Korra handed her own rifle over to Bolin. “Looks like they all have keys, grab the keys from the other guy too and begin unlocking the trucks,” Mako said. 

Bolin did as he asked, while Korra backtracked and got the keys from the guy she’d killed, trying not to look at the burnt hole in his throat while retrieving them. 

She used the set of keys to open the back of one truck before quickly moving on to the rest. Some people came out to thank her, while others stayed huddled inside the trucks, scared. There were entire families with kids inside! They found more keys, which they handed to some of the former captives, allowing them to open more and more trucks at an exponential rate. 

As Korra struggled to fit the right key into the next lock, a voice shouted from beside her. “Stop, drop those keys!” The man shouted, Korra looked up to see a separatist pointing a rifle towards her. “Step away from the truck!” The man shouted, the man had a long mustache and Korra thought she recognized him as one of the men who’d been standing right behind Amon during the revelation.

She obeyed his command, yet as she stepped back and turned towards him with her hands up, she noticed him only grabbing the rifle more tightly while moving his finger towards the trigger, aiming right at her. 

She was about to pull up an earth wall for cover when the sound of a gunshot rang out, she began to check herself for injuries until she noticed that it was the man in front of her who collapsed, blood trickling down from a small wound right between his eyes. 

“Korra! Are you okay?” Asami asked from behind, Korra felt the woman press in to hug her tightly before she had time to turn around. 

“I’m- I’m fine,” Korra said, struggling to get her bearings. “Lets just free the rest of the captives,” she said, extricating herself from Asami’s arms while a few of the men she’d freed from the last truck already rushed over to grab the rifle from the fallen separatist. 

“Right,” Asami said, frozen in place while staring at the man she’d killed, only now processing what she’d done. Korra fought the urge to comfort her and instead hurriedly moved on to the last lock, opening it up to free the people inside.  

“Where’s my daughter?” A woman asked. “They split us up, put us in different trucks, where is she?!?” The woman shouted hysterically, grabbing Korra by the collar.

“I don’t know, I-“

“Mommy!” A girl shouted, the woman instantly turned away and ran towards her daughter. The moment seemed to shake Asami out of her stupor, Korra watched the expression in the woman’s green eyes harden before she turned away from the body.

“Everyone needs to leave right now!” Korra heard Asami shout. “Don’t wait for the police, just run straight home!” 

Together they rushed to the exit, where Mako and Bolin, along with several other recently-armed former-captives, were waiting. They opened the door and ran outside, bringing them face-to-face with Amon and over a dozen armed separatists. 

The two groups faced off, pointing rifles at each other. Meanwhile more men, along with women and children, began pouring out of the doorway and gathering in the alley behind the half-dozen escapees that were armed. 

 

 

 

A tense moment seemed to stretch on for an eternity while both sides considered their options. The separatists had more rifles, but there had been hundreds of people inside the trucks, many of whom had armed themselves with random objects. 

It would be a bloodbath, but they would likely overrun the separatists eventually, even if they didn’t have Korra. But they did… Korra began to take deep breaths, readying herself to punch a massive fireball towards the separatists as soon as someone fired the first shot-

 

“Let them go,” Amon said, speaking to the other separatists, “they’re the perfect messengers to tell the city of my power.” 

“You leave first, I’m not turning my back on you!” Someone on Korra’s side shouted, yet the tension started to decrease slightly. Korra began gesturing for the women and children to start backing away, while the armed and many of the unarmed men held firm and continued facing off against the separatists. 

“Very well,” Amon said, in his eerily calm voice. He gestured for his men to lower their rifles, then the separatists slowly started to walk backwards, before eventually turning around and running away. Some of the escapees looked tempted to shoot the running separatists in the back, but they thought better of it. This was no place for a bloodbath, and their families would still be in the line of fire. 

“I can’t believe that just happened, I nearly pooped my pants!” Bolin shouted, finally lowering his rifle. 

A few people chuckled as the tension finally began to leave entirely, then everyone decided at once to turn around and began to leave as fast as they could.

Korra jogged beside Asami as they went. “Are you okay?” She asked. “I know it isn’t easy to uhh… Do that.” 

“I’ll be fine,” Asami replied, looking towards the mother they saw earlier, now reunited with her daughter and carrying the young girl as they fled from their would-be deportation. “We did good.”

Korra nodded. “Yeah, we did.” 

At that moment, she made a decision. She had sat by enough; it was time to be more proactive as the avatar. Even if she needed to keep her identity and her bending hidden, this night had proven that there were still ways for her to help.

 

Notes:

So, that was the revelation ;p

I had fun writing Amon's speech, trying to figure out who he should hate and what his ideology should be when benders aren't really a thing. The action was really fun to write too, especially when, as you've probably noticed, it was all much deadlier than the show.

Plus, thanks to tips from a kind guest who commented on the previous chapter, I believe that the formatting and grammar should be improved and should be more readable than it was until now.

I hope you all enjoyed, and as always I'd love to read your comments!

Chapter 11: The Aftermath

Summary:

Korra and Asami process the traumatizing events of the previous chapter, then they receive an invitation and a visit from Bolin. Asami begins an investigation...

The Aftermath.

 

Asami squeezed her mom’s hand in excitement as she watched the warehouse’s big door roll open. It was a really nice door, she thought, as it moved upwards like a weird caterpillar or something. She wondered how it worked as she stared up to the ceiling while her mother pulled her inside.

She kept staring up at some interesting lights while allowing mommy to drag her through a hallway, then the ceiling suddenly became way taller as they stepped into a new room.   

“Here we are, the next step in Future Industry’s expansion!” Daddy said. 

Asami looked back down towards her daddy as he swept his arms around himself, revealing a big room they could see from the raised platform where they stood. She looked around in excitement, then her expression dropped as she took in the disappointing sight. “It’s just a big empty room!” She pouted.

“Ah yes, right now it is,” her father laughed. “But just think of the possibilities! Steam-powered machinery will be lining the sides of the main chamber, there and there!” He pointed, as Asami made her way to the metal railing of the platform, pressing her face against the metal bars that her father towered above so that she could better look across the wide-open space.

 

Suddenly Asami’s view changed, she was in the center of the warehouse. She turned around in shock, noticing the machines her father had imagined, now lining the walls of the previously empty space. When she turned around again, suddenly she was surrounded by people, all frozen in place while they stared towards a big podium.

Confused, Asami climbed onto the podium and stared out across the frozen crowd. She turned back and walked further onto the stage, suddenly noticing the separatist banners covering the walls behind it. 

Glancing around again, she shrieked in shock as she saw a man’s body lying on the stage in a pool of blood, she backed away in fear and confusion when she suddenly saw a whole line of bodies, all lying in their own pool of blood. A familiar person in a green shirt lay at the end of the line.

“This isn’t real!” She yelled as she turned around and pushed through the curtain behind the podium. She ran up a flight of stairs, then pushed open a door, which led to a metal balcony of sorts on the outside of the building, with a ladder leading down to an alleyway.

She started towards the ladder, “hurry,” she said, though she didn’t know who she was talking to. She turned around to begin heading down the ladder, revealing Mako on the balcony behind her, tears streaming down his face.

“They killed Bolin,” he said, just standing there, frozen. Asami wanted to get him to follow her, but her mouth remained closed while her hands moved on their own accord, continuing to climb down the ladder and causing Mako to disappear from her view. A gunshot sounded, followed by the sound of a body dropping on the balcony above.

Then a figure appeared, standing above the ladder. Amon, face hidden behind an expressionless white mask. Asami’s hands slipped and she began to fall, she fell for an eternity, until Amon became a small dot at the end of a dark tunnel. Then, instead of falling on her back, she suddenly stood on her feet again. 

The reversal of gravity made her stumble, when she regained her footing she looked up to find Korra, held at gunpoint by a mustachioed separatist. The separatist fired his rifle, causing bullets to rip through a defenseless Korra. 

Asami screamed in rage, pulling the trigger of a gun that materialized in her hand, shooting the separatist right between the eyes. She began running towards Korra, but then looked past the tribal girl’s body at the man she’d shot. It was no longer a man, it was a woman in a red dress, lying in a pool of blood. It was the same image she’d seen every night for the past 12 years. Her mother, dead in their house’s living room. Except instead of the familiar gunshot wounds in her chest there was now only one wound, right between her eyes…

 

 

***

 

 

Asami woke up in a cold sweat, she felt her throat hurting before she realized that she was screaming. It took a few more moments for her to realize where she was and begin to calm down, she reached over to her nightstand for a cup of water, before jumping back in fear when her bedroom door was pushed open.

“Sorry,” she heard Korra say, the girl’s presence was an immediate comfort as she walked into the room. “I couldn’t sleep either, then I heard you scream,” Korra said, sitting down on the side of Asami’s bed. 

It had only been one day since they had saved Bolin, since the night of the revelation. They hadn’t gone to the police, they’d followed the brothers back to their apartment, then returned to her father’s mansion. Her father had still been away, working late into the night again.

They had stayed in the empty house without even trying to go to bed, they just sat in the living room the rest of the night, until servants appeared and began to prepare breakfast and they hurriedly changed into new sets of clothes.

Her father had of course noticed that something was wrong during breakfast, but Asami couldn’t bring herself to explain and apparently neither could Korra. It was a Saturday, so Asami’s agenda was open and Korra didn’t have training with anyone either. Which meant that they’d been able to go the entire day without talking to anyone except each other about what happened, before they’d finally gone to bed in their separate bedrooms. They hadn’t talked much to each other either, they just kind of sat quietly next to each other the whole day, neither of them wanting to talk about what’d happened, nor talk about anything else while pretending nothing had happened. 

“Can you stay here?” Asami asked, not even ashamed of how desperate she sounded. “I don’t want to be alone.” 

“Me neither,” the warrior girl responded, as she lifted the blankets and snuggled underneath, turning to lie face to face with Asami.

Asami let herself get lost in the girl’s beautiful blue eyes for a moment, their color was barely visible in the dark bedroom, yet they were still just as pretty as always. Then she asked a question she’d been wanting to ask all day. “You- You’ve done it before haven’t you? Kill people?” 

Korra’s eyes widened briefly, before she nodded. “Yeah, I have. Right before I ended up in the ice; our tribe was attacked, I helped us fight to defend ourselves but it- It wasn’t enough.”

“Does it get easier?” Asami asked. 

“Honestly, I didn’t think much about it at the time, I had other things to worry about and be upset over, and then I woke up in the future! But after I got more used to living here, I did start having dreams about it sometimes, about the people I killed.” 

Korra’s expression then turned angry. “But mostly I still dream about my parents, about how they were killed. I didn’t like killing, but I would’ve killed even more in order to save them, and I would’ve slept better afterwards! I think it’s the same with the separatists, tonight I did dream about the ones I killed, but I also dreamt about Bolin being executed, and about you also being-” tears now began streaming down the girl’s face, after she interrupted herself. 

Asami hadn’t realized that Korra also killed people last night, it must have happened during the time they had been separated.

Korra continued speaking. “That part didn’t even happen, yet it’s still giving me nightmares.”

“Me too,” Asami admitted. “I dreamed of Bolin dying, and Mako, and you… I can’t even imagine how I would feel if it all really happened like that.” 

“Things worked out,” Korra said resolutely, grabbing one of Asami’s hands in her own before giving it a squeeze. “I’d rather deal with the nightmares of those I killed, than wake up in a world where I let Bolin die like my parents died. Or a world in which you got hurt.”

“Yeah,” Asami said. She could see the logic in what Korra was saying, though she suspected that it would take time before she really believed it.

It did help to have Korra there, the girl was the kindest, strongest, bravest person that Asami had ever known. She could never think of Korra as a monster, despite knowing that the young warrior had killed people. If killing people didn’t make Korra a monster, then it stood to reason that it didn’t make Asami one either. 

 

Korra was still holding her hand, softly rubbing circles on it while they lay there in bed, facing each other, drawing comfort from the other’s presence until their eyes started to droop and they both fell asleep. 

 

***

 

Korra woke up, groggily blinking away the bright morning light. “Ugh, mornings are evil,” she grumbled to herself. Or at least, she’d thought it was to herself, until she heard a giggle coming from across the room. 

“Good morning to you too,” Asami said, standing by the curtains while already fully dressed. Apparently, she was responsible for the sudden light that’d caused Korra’s rude awakening. She thought that maybe she had to revise her theory on mornings, as she watched the raven-haired beauty standing in front of the windows like that, the sun’s morning rays framing her figure in a beautiful golden light. 

“Oh, hi,” Korra replied, now remembering coming into Asami’s bedroom last night. “Sup?”

“I slept quite well after you joined me in bed, no nightmares,” Asami said, before turning away and heading towards the bedroom door. “So thanks for that. Will you be down for breakfast soon?” The beautiful woman asked. 

“Sure, just have to get changed,” Korra responded, Asami nodded and closed the door. Only then did Korra realize that her clothes were still in her own bedroom. Oh well. She thought as she walked to the door still wearing her pajamas, then crossed the hallway to her own bedroom directly opposite Asami’s. 

She saw one of the mansion’s maids in the hallway to her left and waved hi, but for some reason the woman started blushing furiously and darted away around the corner. Korra just shrugged it off and went to get changed. 

As had become their routine, Korra and Asami had breakfast together before walking to the tree on the mansion’s grounds, where Korra began her morning workout and Asami sat nearby, switching between watching Korra and reading through some of her research or textbooks.

Korra usually did it with a lot more flair, trying to see how many eye-rolls she could induce from Asami, but she couldn’t summon the will or the energy for doing that today. The events of the separatist attack still hung over her like a dark cloud, she’d never realized how tired you could get just from emotions.

After finishing her final set of upside-down sit-ups, Korra dropped down from the tree’s branches. As she walked over to Asami, she heard a commotion at the mansion’s gate. She exchanged glances with Asami who heard it too, then they both began walking over to the gate to investigate. 

As they arrived, they saw Bolin, arguing with the guard at the gate. He waved when he saw them, which almost made him drop one of the several items he was holding. For some reason he had a box, and two bundles of flowers, with him.  

“Hello fellow humans!” Bolin said loudly, cheery look on his face. Korra couldn’t understand how he was so cheery so soon after what happened, especially when he was the one who’d been tied up on the stage where people were being executed.

“Hey Bolin,” Korra replied, trying to return a smile but knowing it wasn’t nearly as convincing as his own.

“What’re you doing here?” Asami asked. 

“Do you know this man?” The guard interjected, Asami waved him off saying that it was fine, causing Bolin to briefly pause and watch victoriously while the guard he’d been arguing with returned to his post, then he answered Asami’s question. 

“The reason I came by was to give you both this…” He hid the flowers and the box behind his back, then pulled them out again as though they hadn’t already seen them. “TA-DA!” Bolin said, giving them both one of the flower bundles, then opening the box to reveal two baked treats. 

“Oh thanks,” Korra responded, though she felt a bit confused. “What’s this for?” 

“Oh… Uh, I can’t remember now.” Bolin replied, clearly pretending as part of a joke. “Oh, yeah now I remember!” He then exclaimed. “You saved me from Amon!” 

“Oh, that?” Korra responded, not really wanting to be reminded of it. “It was no big deal.”

Asami began ushering them away from the front gate, probably to keep the guard from overhearing, since they still hadn’t told anyone about their experiences during Amon’s revelation. “ ‘No big deal’ are you serious?” Bolin questioned. “I was totally freaking out when he was coming at me with his gun and his creepy mask, all ‘I will wipe away the vermin from our land!’ I mean, that is scary stuff, I still can’t sleep well.” 

The frank admission at the end surprised Korra, Bolin’s energetic behavior had made him seem unbothered by it all, but maybe that was just his different way of dealing with the stress. She was saved from having to respond when the guard approached again, joined by an older woman. 

“Messenger for Asami Sato,” The guard said, before returning to his post. 

“A message? What’s in it?” Asami asked.

The woman responded by handing over a letter, before beginning to speak. “It’s a formal invitation from Thawi, inviting you and miss Korra as guests of honor to the grand opening of the public exhibition that the university is holding tomorrow at the museum, to showcase all the findings of your trip to the South Pole,” The older woman responded. 

Korra made a face at the mention of Thawi, the man had been on his best behavior after Asami agreed to let him research the artifacts and join the bi-weekly interviews where the researchers asked Korra various questions, but Korra still didn’t like the guy.

“Who’s this ‘Thawi’ guy? Is he bothering you? Huh? Because I could have a word with him!” Bolin said, smashing a fist into the palm of his other hand.

“Heh, no,” Korra snickered. It was silly, but nice to see Bolin promising to stick up for her like this. “It’s not like that,” she said, “Thawi is just some annoying old guy who works at the university.” 

“Oh, good, good. That sounds better,” said Bolin.

“Anyway,” Korra said, turning to Asami. “what’s this about an exhibition?” 

“Oh right, I forgot all about it after everything that happened!” Asami responded. “It’s an event where various items are shown to the public, often paintings or statues, but in this case it will be archeological findings, specifically the ones we found in and around the ice you were frozen in.”

The messenger lady nodded. “As a reminder, the grand opening will be a formal event, so pick out your best clothes,” The woman seemed to briefly glance towards Korra as she said this, making Korra glare at her in return, which the woman politely ignored.

“The event will be used as a fundraiser for the university, along with the invitation Thawi has included a list of the most notable guests that will be attending, in case you want to prepare and help entice them to donate.” 

The woman then said her goodbyes and marched back out of the gates to the Sato mansion. Asami, having finished reading it over, handed the invitation over to Korra. 

“Huh,” Korra said. “Says here that we can invite guests. Do you want to come with?” She asked, turning to Bolin.

“Sure!” He replied, enthusiastically. Asami made a weird face in response to that. 

“You don’t have a problem with Bolin coming, do you?” Korra questioned. She thought that Asami and Bolin were cool and couldn’t imagine why there’d be a problem, but Asami’s expression towards Bolin did seem sort of hostile. 

“No, it’s fine,” Asami said, now with a totally neutral expression that made Korra wonder if she’d been imagining things. “It’ll be fun, maybe Mako can come too!” 

“Okay,” Korra replied, somewhat skeptically.

“Awesome!” Said Bolin. “But I don’t know about this ‘best clothes’ situation, me and Mako’s best clothes still have a few holes in them…” 

“Just give me your sizes, I’ll prepare some clothes for you both, they won’t be custom-fitted but they should do well enough.” 

Bolin nodded, then shifted to conversation to a new subject. “Ooh ooh oh, by the way, I wanted to ask you guys something. I met this activist guy in the immigrant district, right before everything with the separatists went down. He was one of the people trying to prevent the separatists from entering the neighborhood. He said that if I wanted to help, I should come to see him at the Red Lotus headquarters. After everything that happened I definitely want to do more to help, and I thought maybe you’d feel the same?”

“What’s the Red Lotus?” Korra asked. Do they have anything to do with the White Lotus? She wondered.

“They’re an international far-left syndicate,” Asami responded, “mostly trade unions and small newspapers, though I think they’re also actively involved in the defense of Omashu against Kuvira. My dad doesn’t seem to like them much and prefers the more moderate unions, but I think they at least seem well-intentioned, and have some interesting ideas.”

“Sounds interesting,” Korra said, perking up. She’d been looking for a way to work more actively to address the issues in the world, maybe this could be it. “Should we go?” She asked Asami, but the woman shook her head. 

“You should go if you want, but I think I’d better stay here, or I’ll ruin your chances at a good first impression.” 

“Huh? Why’s that?” Korra asked, genuinely confused. 

Asami performatively looked around herself, at the large estate surrounding them. “You might have noticed, but my father is a ridiculously wealthy businessman, which likely doesn’t make me the sort of person that most Red Lotus members will have a high opinion of. I faced the same issue with some of the student activists at the university, they warmed up to me eventually, but my wealth didn’t exactly help to endear me to them. You should just go with Bolin, if it works out then maybe I can join you some future time, once you’re trusted enough to vouch for me, okay?” 

Korra nodded at the compromise. “Well okey then, guess I’ll see you later? I hope you won’t be too bored without me,” she added with a smirk. Asami rolled her eyes in response, but Korra also noticed a smile that the woman failed to hide.

Not long after, Korra and Bolin began walking towards downtown, to go meet these “Red Lotus” people.

 

***

 

Asami watched as Korra and Bolin disappeared off into the distance, as she fought to keep her stupid jealousy under control. Bolin had clearly been trying to flirt with the muscular girl, but Korra had seemed oblivious to it. Odds were that nothing would come of it. 

Even if Bolin persists and something did come of it, so what? What alternative am I even hoping for? Asami thought to herself, as she began walking back to the mansion. As she began climbing the stairs leading up to her home, her mind shifted to a different subject. A detail from the dream she had last night.

 

Why did I dream of my father showing me around the separatist’s warehouse? Was it just a dream, or a memory? Something about the warehouse had felt familiar the day of the revelation, the thought had been nagging in the back of Asami’s mind ever since they escaped the separatists, and its nagging had only grown louder after her dream. She was determined to get to the bottom of it and she knew exactly where to start, her father had a filing cabinet that contained all the major properties he’d ever owned, if he really did own that warehouse at any point in time, then it would be listed in that cabinet. 

As far as Asami could tell, there were three possibilities. The first possibility was that she was simply mistaken and that the warehouse never had any connection to her father, that her dream was just a dream and that neither she nor her father had ever set foot inside that warehouse until the night of the revelation.

The second possibility was that her father had owned the warehouse but that he had sold it at one point. This could prove to be invaluable information, maybe she could follow the paper trail to identify the property’s current owners and unveil any possible ties they have with the separatist movement. 

The third possibility was that her father still owned the warehouse, but that he’d left it abandoned for the moment, allowing the separatists to squat inside without his knowledge or consent. This possibility was troubling, but it would still be important to know. Even the police, uninterested as they so far appeared to be in addressing the separatist’s threats to the city’s immigrant population, would surely be forced to do some investigating after learning of the murders Amon committed and the people he kidnapped.

Asami knew for a fact that several of the people they had freed from the trucks had planned to go to the police the next day, it was one of the reasons why she and Korra, along with Mako and Bolin, decided not to do so themselves.

They weren’t sure what good it would do, so given the fact that together they had killed several people in what could technically be considered illegal acts of vigilantism, it seemed like it would at best be more trouble than it was worth. Especially for Korra who had already received a fine and a warning for a similar offense, when she fought those members of the Triple Threats.

Asami wanted nothing more than to stop thinking of that warehouse and the blood that was spilled, but the thought of her father possibly being caught up in it just because the separatists, through sheer coincidence, may have happened to choose his property to squat in, was enough to spur her into action. She was going to get to the bottom of this!

 

***

 

Korra and Bolin walked up to the entrance of a townhouse in the immigrant district, completely nondescript and indistinguishable from the surrounding townhouses, except for a few potted plants hanging outside its windows, and the small wooden sign crudely nailed above the front door. “Red Lotus headquarters,” the sign read. 

“Should we just uhh, knock?” Bolin asked. 

Korra shrugged. “Guess we’ll find out,” she said before knocking on the front door.

She was excited, she really needed something to do. Sitting still and doing nothing all day except constantly thinking about the people Amon killed, or the people he could have killed, or the people that she herself killed, wasn’t doing her any good. She needed a way to feel like she was helping to put a stop to the separatists, and really hoped that this was it.

Instead of the entire door opening, a small hatch in the middle of the door slid open, revealing a pair of distrustful eyes. “Who knocks at the garden gate?” The man behind the door asked. 

They are related to the White Lotus, Korra thought. That’s the first half of one of the White Lotus’s passcodes.

“Uhh, I’m Bolin, Har Dayal told me to come find him here when I saw him the other day,” Bolin said, nervously tapping two of his fingertips together. 

“Who’s the broad?” The voice asked. “Did Har Dayal invite her too?”

“Well no, but-“ Bolin started, before Korra interrupted him. 

“One who has eaten the fruit, and tasted its mysteries,” Korra said, prompting a questioning look from Bolin, and an intrigued look from the man behind the door. 

“Very well, you can both enter. Please forgive the precautions, it’s not usually like that, but we’ve been on-guard ever since the separatist attack, and since some of our members began to disappear even before that,” the man said as he opened the door, then gestured for them to enter. He closed and locked the door again behind them.

“My name is Enuk. Har Dayal is upstairs with some of the others, right this way,” the man said while turning to lead the way.

“What’d that mean, about the fruit and the mysteries?” Bolin whispered to Korra.

“Kind of a long story, I’ll explain later,” Korra responded.

They began climbing a flight of stairs, then they crossed a hallway littered with stacks of papers. In some of the rooms beyond Korra saw strange devices with lots of interlocking gears, along with some kind of paper stretched taut across the top. There were also a surprising number of potted plants throughout the rooms. 

Korra made eye contact with a young man, who looked up from inspecting one of the devices while they walked by.

Enuk did not lead them to any of these rooms however, he led them to another staircase, up to another floor. “Forgive the mess,” Enuk said. “Dayal needed a place to move all of his equipment after the building next to his caught fire during the attack. It’s only temporary.”

Finally they reached the third floor, where several voices could be heard arguing from behind a half-closed door. “We have to do something, those fascist extremists have to know that there’s consequences to an attack like this!” One of the voices said, with several others loudly speaking up in agreement.

“Of course there must be consequences, but we also have our public image to consider, not to mention possible state reprisals if we go too far. The government barely tolerates our existence as it is, we mustn’t give them a pretense for clamping down on our movement, not when our public support is still too weak for us to survive a direct clash with the state,” another voice cautioned, in a much calmer tone.

The men in the room stopped speaking when Enuk pushed the door all the way open, there were over two dozen of them crammed into the room, all looking towards the new arrivals.

“Pardon the interruption,” Enuk said. “Dayal, this young man says you told him to come find you,” he said, addressing one of the older men in the room, a portly man with glasses. The man regarded Bolin for a while, until a look of recognition appeared on his face. 

“Ah, I remember you,” the man said. Korra recognized his voice as the one that’d been arguing for caution earlier. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Bolin,” Bolin responded.

“Well, it would seem that you really do want to help, that’s a welcome surprise,” Har Dayal said to Bolin. “Who’s your friend?”

“He brought some girl with him, who somehow knew our passcode,” Enuk said.

“Hmm, well, excuse me comrades, but I think I will step out for a moment to talk to our guests, you’ll have to continue the debate without me. If during my absence one of you proposes to bomb city hall, just try to imagine me calling them a reckless fool.”

Chuckles sounded throughout the room, as Har Dayal exited and closed the door behind him, before leading them to an adjoining room. 

“So,” he said, turning around to face them. “You’re interested in joining our movement, in helping the worker struggle for a more free and fair society?”

“Yeah!” Bolin exclaimed.

“What does that mean exactly?” Korra asked at the same time, prompting a smile from the portly man.

“Well,” the man began, “there’s some disagreement about what exactly that means, we’re not actually a single organization, but a collection of several smaller organizations who try to coordinate their actions together.”

“Can you give us the general gist of what it means?” Korra asked, she never had much patience for people hedging their words so much.

“Most certainly,” the man responded, “I always encourage people wanting to learn more, especially young galls like yourself, sadly we haven’t been very successful in attracting more female members to our movement. But I’m getting sidetracked, to put it simply; we’re all socialists of some sort,” the man appeared to think that this would be enough to go off, but Korra wasn’t sure what the term meant despite having seen it mentioned a lot in the papers. 

“What does that mean, to be a socialist?” Korra asked.

The man explained, his voice was calm and patient without being condescending. “We seek to overthrow the current system of capitalism, a system in which a small group of people own and control almost everything, most notably the places where people work. Then we seek to create a new society in which workers control the economy and control their own workplace, where they get to keep the fruits of their own labor instead of slaving away under the tyranny of capitalist business-owners while those same owners steal all the profits.

“Our current liberal democracy is certainly an improvement over the feudal Kingdoms of the past, but we don’t think it goes far enough. We’re called radical extremists by our detractors, but we merely seek to reaffirm the precepts that our current system was supposedly founded upon. The precepts of autonomy, of everyone having equal rights and an equal say in how society is run, by applying them not only to the state but also to other aspects of society such as the economy. To build a society in which people are truly free and able to choose their own path in life.”

Korra gave that some thought before responding. “I guess that makes sense, maybe,” she said. I don’t totally get it, she thought, but then again that’s also the case for the society that currently exists. If anything, the society this guy is proposing actually sounds more familiar and less strange to me compared to the one I come from, than the one that exists now.

She thought about how much the subservient attitude of the personnel at the Sato estate weirded her out, about how strange it seemed for Asami and her father to live in such luxury while elsewhere in the city there were homeless people struggling to eat. Asami had said that it was because of the factories that her father owned, but lots of people worked to make those factories function, didn’t they? Yet none of them were as wealthy as Hiroshi was. That level of artificial inequality was something Korra hadn’t ever really witnessed before, living in her small tribe where everyone shared resources and worked together. She knew that similar societies already existed back then, but her father had avoided those.

“Anyway,” Korra said, “what does all of that have to do with fighting the separatists?”

 

“Why nothing,” the man responded, “other than the fact that their goals are the exact opposite of ours. Violence isn’t our goal, in fact some of our members preach absolute pacifism. However, if you ask me then fighting the separatists appears to be a prerequisite for us to be able to achieve our actual goal. We cannot allow the separatists to continue to gain power, which they will then use to undermine our efforts to build a freer society.”

“That’s why you came here, isn’t it?” The man said, turning to Bolin. “The other day when the separatists attacked, you saw a glimpse of the kind of world they want to build and knew instinctively that they had to be opposed. Even if you don’t fully understand or share our entire ideology, you can trust that we agree on this part at least.” 

Korra and Bolin both nodded at that. “I still would like to know more about your ideology though,” Korra said.

“Well, in addition to my work in the auto industry union, I help run a small newspaper. We publish leaflets that outline our basic ideology, you can always start with that. We’re about to begin printing our latest edition, which will also talk about the recent attack.” 

“OK so you’re a newspaper guy, what about the other organizations that are part of your ‘collection’, what do they do?” Korra asked. “Are some of you really planning on blowing up city hall?”

Dayal laughed out loud at that. “Haha no, that was just an exaggerated joke. Most of the organizations are labor unions, or part of our mutual aid network, we’ve got a few homeless shelters and medical clinics, community gardens where we grow food for our soup kitchens. And some other newspapers like mine. None of our organizations are specifically focused on fighting, though some of the unions can be rather militant, often by necessity. We were discussing how to respond to the attack by the separatists, but none of us are seriously considering any direct violence towards the state for the moment, even if we do believe many within the police force were complicit.”

Korra still regarded him with some skepticism, though he did appear genuine as he continued speaking. “My own proposal was to organize a general strike, to give us leverage while we petition the government to take real action against the separatists. Some of the others have been suggesting that we retaliate more directly against the separatists, but rest assured that none of us are intent on bombing public buildings.”

“How would you ‘retaliate directly’ then? Do you know where their headquarters are?” Korra asked. 

“We do have some intelligence regarding a few of their hideouts and storage facilities,” Dayal said, “but I hope you’ll understand if I’m unwilling to give any more specifics to a stranger like you. The police have tried to infiltrate us in the past, as have the separatists.”

Bolin gulped in response to that information. “It’s not illegal to be here is it?”

“Oh no, our right to organize is protected under the law,” Har Dayal said. “But sadly this doesn’t stop the police from harassing us, breaking up our protests by throwing some of us in jail for a few days without charging us with any crime, then letting us go again.”

“That’s horrible,” Korra said.

“Oh it’s not so bad, I’ve been arrested a few times myself,” Dayal said. “Also, to be completely honest, we do occasionally do illegal things. Sometimes we even get arrested on purpose, to highlight how unjust the rules of our society are.”

He then glanced over to Bolin, who was starting to look nervous. “If you’re not willing to take those sorts of risks, there are plenty of other ways to help. Our soup kitchens and overnight shelters can always use an extra pair of hands.”

“Anyway, it’s time for me to ask you some questions now,” the man said, turning to Korra. “How did you know our passcode? I don’t recognize you, are you a daughter or a niece to one of our members or something like that?”

“No, I don’t know any of you either,” Korra replied. “I just recognized the passcode because it’s the same as the one the White Lotus uses,” she continued. “Are you related to the White Lotus somehow?”

“You could call them our ancestors,” Dayal said, “several of the Red Lotus’s founders, namely a man named Xai Bau, were frustrated former members of the White Lotus. They were dissatisfied with the endless philosophical debates and theoretical discussions that the White Lotus spent its time on instead if actually doing something, so they created an organization meant for more direct action.

“I’m the one who came up with our passcode, it was just meant to be a funny reference to our roots, I didn’t expect anyone from the White Lotus to show up on our doorstep. Not that I mind, it’s not like we consider them our enemies, if you’re looking for a way to help beyond what the White Lotus offers then that makes you just like us.”

“Wait,” Bolin interrupted as he turned to Korra, “you’re a member of this ‘White Lotus’ group? How is that even possible when you were frozen for so long?”

“Frozen?” Har Dayal asked, looking puzzled. “What are you talking ab-“

Suddenly they heard shouting from the adjoining room, causing Har Dayal to stand up and rush to investigate. He opened the door, allowing Korra to make out the words of the argument even before she followed into the other room.

“We know exactly where they are, and thanks to the escapees from the revelation we’ve got several new automatic weapons that we can use for an ambush. Only a coward would refuse to take advantage of this opportunity!” One of the men in the room shouted, he looked like he was one of the youngest men present, he also looked quite fit, like he could handle himself in a fight. 

“We should at least try to petition the government first, before we do anything drastic!” An older man with round glasses and a thin mustache responded.

“What’s the government going to do? Half the police force is sympathetic to the separatist movement! Some of them even wore separatist uniforms and joined them during the attack!” The young man shouted.

“That’s precisely the problem, what if we kill an off-duty cop during this ambush of yours? The entire city will turn against us!”

“The city is already against us! We already tried to petition the government, remember? We went to the police when our families were taken by the separatists, they didn’t listen, the city didn’t lift a finger to help us. Those vigilantes who saved the separatist’s captives are the only reason my family hasn’t been deported! We should follow their example instead of being cowards like you!”

 

“How dare you!” The older man said, he looked as though he was about to punch the young man until Har Dayal intervened and pushed them both back.

They continued hurling insults for a while, until Har Dayal eventually got them to calm down and listen to him. “What’s this ambush you two are arguing about?” Dayal demanded. 

“We’ve discovered the location of a warehouse outside the city in the middle of nowhere that is controlled by the separatists, they walk around in their uniforms and everything, and a lot of trucks from Kuvira can be seen coming and going. Our source says that people could be seen carrying munition crates, they suspect that the separatists are being armed by Kuvira! If the separatists spread those guns among their ranks then they’ll become much more powerful, but if we steal them then we become more powerful instead,” the younger man said.

“Unless you bring the cops down on us, then we’ll be wiped out! We can deny the separatists those weapons without risking ourselves, if we manage to convince the government to confiscate them. We don’t have to go directly to the police, we can go over their heads. There are some sympathetic senators, what about senator Tenzin?” The man with the glasses asked.

“Ugh, no senator is going to listen to us, they don’t have time for us working folks. Those out-of-touch pricks have all sold us out long ago, Tenzin included!” The young man said. 

“I can talk to Tenzin,” Korra said, causing everyone to shift their attention towards her.

“What do you mean?” Har Dayal asked. “How would you talk to senator Tenzin?” 

“Same way I knew your passcode,” Korra responded, “I was actually already planning on seeing him tonight, I can relay the information about that separatist warehouse to him then, if you want.”

“I believe I see a compromise,” Har Dayal said, “for the moment, we wait for uh- Forgive me, I don’t believe I caught your name,” he said as he turned towards Korra. 

“I’m Korra.”

“Right, for the moment we wait for Korra to speak to senator Tenzin, in the meantime we can begin preparing for a mass strike in case we need to apply additional pressure before the state is willing to take action. If that doesn’t work, we can start to discuss taking matters into our own hands.” 

“What if the girl sells us out to the separatists, or if senator Tenzin does?” The young man said. “The separatists would abandon the warehouse as soon as they learn that it’s no longer hidden, we’d lose the opportunity to attack it.” 

“I could talk to Tenzin without giving him the specifics,” Korra said after a moment of thought, “no need for him, or even me, to know the exact location, not until it’s clear that the government is willing to actually do something with the information.”

The young man seemed to calm down as he considered Korra’s proposal, before looking her up and down. “Who are you anyway?” He asked. 

“I’m that girl who was frozen inside the iceberg that was pulled into the harbor recently,” Korra responded, deciding that she might as well tell them right away. On that note, she gave them another piece of information. “Also, me and Bolin, with a couple other friends, were those ‘vigilantes’ that helped free your families from the separatists two days ago.”

The young man scoffed in disbelief, but someone else spoke up. “I recognize you now, you were also there before the fires, fighting the separatists and riding some big wild beast!”

“Yep, that was me,” Korra responded in affirmation. “I was there with Bolin’s brother, looking for Bolin. But then we got mixed up in the fighting and trying to help people during the fires. Afterwards we learned that Bolin had been captured by the separatists during the early fighting, so then we tracked down the separatists until discovering the location of Amon’s ‘revelation’, where we freed Bolin and then the rest of the captives.” 

“You were there for the revelation itself? When Amon spoke?” Har Dayal asked. “What did he say?”

“Just a bunch of weird stuff about how multiculturism is bad and the cause of everything wrong in the world,” Bolin responded. 

“Yeah, plus he talked about how he was working with Kuvira, but it seems like you guys already know that,” Korra added.

“Very well, I call a vote, proposing that we take no aggressive action against the separatists, not until Korra petitions Tenzin on our behalf. Those more militant among us can make themselves useful by patrolling the neighborhood in a defensive manner and standing ready for another separatist attack. All in favor?” Har Dayal asked loudly.

The entire room answered in the affirmative, including the young man who’d been calling for action, though he said it somewhat begrudgingly.

“I have one condition,” Korra said, looking directly at the young man. “If the government doesn’t listen and you attack the separatists yourself, I want to be part of the raid.”

Everyone agreed, then shortly after the meeting came to an end.

 

***

 

Asami pinched her forehead in frustration, before taking out yet another folder and leaning forward to read it. Digging into her father’s paperwork had given her a new appreciation for just how ludicrously wealthy he was.

As she scanned the property deed in front of her, she noticed that it was the deed to yet another apartment building that he had recently acquired through a number of obscure Future Industries subsidiaries. That’s odd, she thought, when did dad get into real estate? Especially residential properties? He always used to say that he had no interest in being a landlord. They’re all in the immigrant district too, not exactly the most desirable properties.

Her father had made quite a few odd purchases lately, like the warehouse he’d bought outside of the city in the middle of nowhere, for no apparent reason. She’d have to ask him about that sometime. 

She shrugged it off, then put the document aside to continue her search for warehouses her father owned, she had to know if the one where the separatist rally had been held really did belong to her father.

A long and arduous search later, she finally found it. “YES!” She exclaimed to the empty office. 53^rd St, by the docks, number 14, this is the warehouse! After the excitement of finally finding what she’d been looking for wore off, Asami’s happiness quickly waned. So father did own the property…

When she looked at the document though, she was happy to discover that her father had sold it, just a month ago, to Cabbage Corp. That settles it, my father’s name is clear even if the police dig into it. Cabbage Corp must not have moved in yet, leaving the warehouse empty and free to use for the separatists.

Happy to have completed her task, Asami moved all the folders back to their previous location, before deciding to focus on more important matters. Like what she was going to wear to the grand opening of the archeology exhibition… It was almost certainly going to be one of the biggest events in her early career as a researcher, so she had to put her best foot forward. Plus, Korra would be there too, another reason to dress to impress.

With a smile on her face she skipped into her room and began picking out various clothes from her closet, while trying to decide if she should try out a different makeup look for the occasion.

 

***

 

Korra and Bolin stuck around the Red Lotus headquarters for a while, getting to know everyone. Korra had some time to kill anyway until her next training session with Tenzin.

She walked up to the guy who’d been pushing for a raid on the separatist warehouse, she’d learned since then that his name was Shaozu. “So, were you really frozen for like a thousand years, like the papers say?” He asked when he saw her approach. 

“Over nine thousand years actually,” Korra responded, “but yeah, I was.”

Shaozu chuckled in disbelief. “That’s insane,” he said. “What was life like back then? I’ve barely even left Republic City, so I really can’t imagine.”

Korra considered his question. “Well, there weren’t many big cities yet, most people moved around and lived in temporary homes. My tribe moved even more than most, we traveled up and down the coast while trading and hunting.”

“Did you personally hunt?” He asked, looking her up and down. “You said you wanted to join the raid, if it ends up happening. Normally I wouldn’t even consider taking some girl with us, but you seem different from modern girls. And they say you’ve already held your own against the separatists.”

“Yes I hunted, I also trained and fought as a warrior,” Korra responded, before looking him up and down in return. “I probably have more experience than you when it comes to fighting. Have you been in any real fights?”

“Well no,” he said, growing defensive, “a few scraps with teenagers when I was still in school, but that’s about it.

“I’ve trained with guns though, my friend lives on a farm, we practiced with his dad’s hunting rifle.” 

“What about the others?” Korra asked, “Is anyone on this raid going to have real experience, or just me?” 

“Of course some of us have experience!” Shaozu responded. “Some of the older union members are veterans from the Great War, especially the dockworker union has lots of navy veterans. A bunch of them have even joined the international brigade in Omashu to help fight against Kuvira!”

“How come all those veterans weren’t able to defend the neighborhood from the separatists then?” Korra asked.

Shaozu scoffed. “They could have, if they used guns. But they feared that we would look like the aggressors if they used guns to create a bloodbath against separatists with wooden clubs, that it would be a short-term victory with negative long term consequences. They thought showing restraint like this might achieve the opposite, a short-term sacrifice for a long-term gain where we win public support. I wouldn’t have shared their restraint, but that’s why I’m no leader I guess, I’m not one to sit still and play the long game like that.”

“Me neither,” Korra said, “anyway, do you guys train or anything? So that you’re ready when you do need to fight?” 

“I told you, me and my friend practice with his dad’s hunting rifle.”

“I mean train to fight as a unit, to fight together and hold a battleline. Bolin told me that your line crumbled basically as soon as the separatists attacked,” Korra said, nodding over to where Bolin was talking to Har Dayal.

“No, I guess we don’t train like that,” Shaozu responded with a frown. “Maybe we should.”

“I’d say so. Also, you should throw up some barricades next time, should be easy enough inside a city like this, buildings already protect your flanks so you just need to build a single barricade to block off a whole street.”

Shaozu began nodding excitedly, “I’ll discuss it with the guys when we meet tomorrow, make sure we’re better prepared next time.”

Korra nodded, then looked away and looked towards a clock in the corner. “I better get going if I want to make it to my meeting with Tenzin, see you around.”

“Just one thing,” Shaozu said, grabbing her elbow to stop her from leaving, “when you speak to senator Tenzin, ask him if he can send more medical aid our way, the district’s hospitals are full of burn victims and other wounded.”

Korra promised that she’d bring the matter to Tenzin, then, after telling Bolin that she was leaving, Korra began making her way towards the ferry to Air Temple Island, nervously trying to think about how to best tell Tenzin all the things she needed to tell him.

 

“Trust Tenzin,” her dream had said, did that just mean that I should continue to train with him, or that I should tell him I’m the avatar? That bending is real? She wasn’t sure, but at this point she felt like she needed to tell someone.

She stepped onto the ferry, still not entirely sure how much she wanted to tell Tenzin, she decided that she’d begin by telling him about her role in fighting the separatists, about all the things Amon had said and done during his rally.

She left the ferry after it finished its crossing, and stepped onto the island, then as she made her way to the pagoda where Tenzin normally waited for her, she noticed that the senator was absent. Maybe he’s with his family, Korra thought as she made her way to the communal buildings where Tenzin and his family lived, and where she had stayed for dinner a few times by now. 

“Tenzin?” She asked, as she slid open the door to the dining area. “Are you in here?”

“Korra, is that you?” A female voice said from the kitchen, Korra pushed past the cloth separating the two rooms and saw Pema, Tenzin’s wife, washing dishes in the sink while a pot was simmering on the fire, filling the room with delicious smells.

“Tenzin isn’t here yet,” the pregnant woman said. “He’s been very busy with the senate after what happened in the immigrant district, as I’m sure you can imagine.”

“I understand,” Korra said. It was frustrating, but she realized that she was lucky that Tenzin had so generously committed to spending this much time with her at all, even without knowing that she’s the avatar. “Is he coming at all? I could help you while I wait.”

“I’d love the help dear, you can help me fill some dumplings,” Pema said. “I assumed Tenzin would be late, so dinner is later than usual. You’re welcome to stay and eat with us, he should be home by then.”

“Great,” Korra said, “so what are dumplings and how do I fill them? Also, could I use your telephone, to call Asami and let her know I’ll eat dinner here?”

Thirty minutes later Korra’s face and clothes were covered in flour, but she felt like she was starting to get the hang of folding the little dough balls. Hers still weren’t as pretty as Pema’s, but they seemed passable.

“Soo, what has the senate’s response been? To the attack from the separatists?” Korra asked after she crimped shut the final dumpling. 

“Tenzin hasn’t said much about it,” Pema responded, “he doesn’t like to talk about it in front of the kids. But from his mood I gather that his colleagues are being as bad as usual.”

 

“Which means?” Korra pressed, not exactly familiar with what the senators were usually like.

“It means that they’re all more worried about their own careers than they are about actually helping the people that were hurt, or preventing it from happening in the future,” Pema said, more venom in her voice than Korra had ever heard from the kindly woman. “I imagine they’re trying to use people’s fears as an excuse to give themselves more power, as if they’ve been doing such a good job with the power they currently have… I’ve never understood how Tenzin can stand to work with those people, being in the same room as them certainly challenges my vow of non-aggression,” Pema said, aggressively scrubbing some of the grime on the dish she was washing.

Korra chuckled in response, in part to mask how intimidated she felt. “Remind me not to get on your bad side,” she joked/pleaded.

After a while, when Tenzin still didn’t arrive, Pema went ahead and put the dumplings in the steamer baskets, while Korra helped set the table. Dinner was delicious, and Tenzin’s family was great, but Tenzin still didn’t arrive by the time that they began clearing the table again.

“The food was delicious Pema, thanks! I’m going to head back home now though, I guess Tenzin really is very busy.” Korra said.

“Thank you for the help, I’m sure Tenzin will have more time again once this separatist business is taken care of,” Pema responded, before waving her goodbye. 

“Just you wait, my greatest nemesis, when you next return I’ll be a man and I will finally defeat you in mortal combat!” Meelo shouted after her, he was still sore about Korra winning the impromptu arm-wrestling competition the kids had insisted on. 

Korra chuckled as she slid the paper door closed, she turned to walk to the ferry but then stopped short as she almost bumped into Tenzin. “Oh, hey,” she said, surprised.

“What’s this about you fighting my son in mortal combat?” Tenzin asked, a small grin on his face despite him looking absolutely exhausted.

“Oh well, you know Meelo,” Korra chuckled, “he was just really into our arm-wrestling competition.” 

Tenzin chuckled in response. “That does sound like him…” 

An awkward silence followed, with Korra not sure if she should still leave now that Tenzin finally did show up. It was clearly too late for them to have another martial arts training session, which, difficult as it was to remember now that she had several different agendas for wanting to speak to Tenzin, was ostensibly the reason Korra had visited today.

“I’m sorry for not making it to your lesson,” Tenzin said, breaking the silence, “I was stuck all day in the senate, filibustering a terrible bill that President Tarrlok is pushing for in response to the separatist attack, I was up there speaking for 8 hours before they finally suspended the senate session. I’m glad that you’re still here, I feel like we should talk about our uhm, arrangement,” he said, gesturing for Korra to join him as they walked through the temple grounds to the pagoda looking over the sea towards the Republic City mainland.

Oh rats, Korra thought, is he going to say that he’s too busy to keep teaching me?

“Uhh, before we do that,” she quickly said, “I’ve got some stuff to tell you. I was actually at the immigrant district, when the separatists attacked, and at Amon’s rally the next day,” she said.

“What?!” Tenzin exclaimed, looking shocked. “Are you all right? What in the world were you doing at Amon’s rally? Surely you don’t support those awful separatists?”

“No of course not,” Korra quickly said, “my friend was taken by the separatists, so his brother, my friend, and I, went to go rescue him. We kind of ended up rescuing a bunch of other people too, you probably heard about that right? What with you being a senator and all?” 

“Yes, I did…” Tenzin responded. “You know, you really should’ve gone to the police with that, running away without reporting it automatically makes you a criminal suspect. People were killed!”

“Yeah well, we tried to go to the police before, we told them about everyone who was missing, but they didn’t want to help us. So I didn’t really feel obliged to keep them in the loop after the fact,” Korra said bitterly.

Tenzin grunted in understanding. “I do understand that, I suppose. You should’ve seen Lin, she’s furious about how this all went down. She’s convinced that some of the police were complicit in the separatists’ actions, or that they at the very least deliberately remained idle after getting word of the separatist plans. She already suspected them before of withholding evidence from the DA’s office, preventing her from charging key figures of the separatist movement with crimes.”

“So, the police really are on the side of the separatists?” Korra asked. Were Two-Toed Ping, and the Red Lotus, right? Can I not trust the cops and the government? It was a daunting thing to consider; with all the problems facing this world her job as the avatar would already be difficult enough regardless, but if she was unable to work with the people currently in charge of this society then where would she even begin?

“I honestly don’t know,” Tenzin said, “I hate to say it, but my faith in them has certainly taken a hit. As has my faith in my colleagues in the senate.”

Korra had been planning on telling Tenzin about what the Red Lotus had discovered about the separatists, so that he could get the government to act on that information, but from the way he was talking it didn’t seem like he’d be able to do anything useful. She didn’t fully understand the senate, but Asami had explained it enough for Korra to realize that a majority was needed to get anything done, clearly the majority wasn’t on Tenzin’s side on this matter.

“What was that bill the senate was pushing for?” Korra asked. “What is it you said you did in response? Flybusting?”

“Filibustering,” Tenzin responded, “a bill can’t be voted on until debate ends, which means that one way to prevent a bill from passing, or at least delay it, is to just keep talking non-stop, to sabotage the entire process. So that’s what I did today.”

“For 8 hours?” Korra exclaimed. Now that he mentioned it, Korra realized that his voice did sound a bit hoarse, clearly a result of how much he’d been talking. “What exactly were you preventing?”

Tenzin sighed. “Tarrlok wants to enforce a curfew in the immigrant district, and throw up checkpoints around it, allowing the police to prevent anyone from entering, or leaving, if they’re determined to be potential a threat to the peace. All with very little oversight as to how they determine who is or isn’t a threat, they would answer only to Tarrlok himself.

“It’s completely backwards! Locking the immigrants up in their neighborhood, restricting their freedoms, while they’re the victims. He also wants to declare the separatist movement an insurgency, so that he can use emergency powers to curtail the freedom of assembly in the city.”

“What’s the freedom of assembly?” Korra asked.

“It means people are free to gather and organize, for their personal political causes, or even just to socialize.” That sounded like the freedom Har Dayal had talked about, the freedom that protected the Red Lotus’s right to exist...

Tenzin continued talking. “Tarrlok says that he just wants to prevent the separatists from continuing to operate with impunity, but I worry that he will use these powers to attack unions and other political opponents of his, that he’s not actually motivated by wanting to prevent the separatists from continuing to operate in our city.”

“But you stopped him… By talking for really long?!?” Korra questioned; the senate made zero sense to her.

“No, I just delayed them. The senate’s session will begin again tomorrow, so I will need to do the same thing again all day, unless I manage to convince enough senators to oppose the proposals.”

“Do you think you can?” Korra asked.

“I don’t know, a few senators support me but only from small opposition parties, we’re nowhere close to a majority. I’ve suggested alternatives, where the people in the immigrant district are given more autonomy to protect their own neighborhood. I’ve also called for investigations into the corruption of the police department, but thus far my calls have fallen on deaf ears. Perhaps the best I can hope for is some marginal amendments to Tarrlok’s proposals, adding some more oversight, or just to delay things as long as possible.”

“Spirits,” Korra said, “I was hoping you’d be able to offer more help.” If even Tenzin didn’t trust the police then she was going to have to come back empty-handed to the Red Lotus, they would have to organize their own raid after all.

“So did I,” Tenzin said, sounding genuinely sad. “On that note, I’m afraid that I’ll have to disappoint you if you were hoping to continue our lessons. I appreciate your desire to learn more about the ways of my ancestors, and I encourage you to continue practicing what you’ve learned so far, but I simply will not have time anymore to continue your private lessons, or the public group lessons for that matter. Now if you’ll excuse me, but I’ve had a very long day, I really should turn in for the night.”

“Wait!” Korra said, grabbing him by the wrist, despite not yet knowing what she wanted to say to him. She couldn’t just let him leave while cancelling all of their lessons, she HAS to learn airbending and he represents the only hope she has. Raava said he could help her!

“No wait please,” she began, “I really need you to-“

“I really am sorry, but you must see how busy I am!” Tenzin snapped. “I haven’t even seen my children today, and I have the nation’s governance to worry about, I can’t waste any more time on your spiritual pursuits, no matter how admirable I find them,” he turned from Korra and began walking away, while Korra’s desperately tried to figure out how to get him to listen.

She could think of one simple way to grab his attention, so without thinking of all the possible ramifications she stamped her feet down, then pulled up an earth wall in front of Tenzin, blocking his path and preventing him from walking away.

Tenzin froze in place, he just stood still for several seconds. Then he gingerly reached forwards to touch the earth in front of him. “Impossible…” Korra could hear him mumble to himself, before finally he turned around to face her.

“I really do need your help, please,” Korra said, while giving an awkward smile. “It’s important.”

Tenzin looked as though he’s been knocked in the head a few too many times, as he began to sputter out a response. “What- You- You’re an- Earth--“ Tenzin closed his eyes and calmed himself, before speaking again, more coherently this time. “Bending is real?!? You’re an earthbender?”

“You’re right, I’m an earthbender,” Korra began, “and a waterbender, and a firebender.”

“Incredible!” Tenzin said while stroking his beard. “All the myths said that each person could only bend one element. Were they all mistaken? Who are you? Are there more like you? Why did bending disappear?” He asked.

“The myths are right,” Korra said, while gathering some water from the air with one hand, and summoning fire with the other. She pulled a small clump of dirt up into the air too, then began spinning all three elements around in a circle above her palm. “Nobody is able to bend more than one element, except for the Avatar. I can bend all four of them, theoretically.”

“The, the avatar?” Tenzin asked, stunned. “You’re the avatar?” 

“That’s me!” Korra said, fake excitement in her voice. “I have no idea why bending disappeared though,” she said, in a normal tone again, “back in my time benders were everywhere. I was about to go find an airbending teacher at the Southern Air Temple, but then I ended up frozen in ice. When I woke up suddenly bending was gone. Raava might know why, she did warn me not to reveal my bending to people. But I haven’t learned how to really talk to her yet, that’s part of why I need your help.”

“Frozen? Oh!” Tenzin said, shaking his head and seeming annoyed with himself. “Of course, I should’ve known. The first time I met you, you were with Asami Sato. I read about you in the papers, how Miss Sato discovered you at the South Pole.”

“Yeah,” Korra said, “it’s been a bit of an adjustment, learning about this modern world. I want to help fix things and restore balance, it’s my duty as the avatar! But I still haven’t learned airbending or mastered the avatar state, that’s why I need your help!”

Tenzin looked daunted by the task that Korra was laying before him, so it wasn’t surprising that it took a while before he responded. “I may be able to help you with airbending, unless all my studies on that subject have been for naught, “he said. “But I’ve never even heard of the avatar state. What exactly is that? How do you expect me to help?”

“Well, to be honest I have no idea how the avatar state works!” Korra said, huffing in frustration, shooting some fire out of her nostrils in the process. It was really nice to be bending openly again, even if it was still only in front of Tenzin.

 Tenzin looked intrigued at her minor display of bending, but Korra prevented him from commenting on it when she continued to speak. “All I know is that it involves meditating, which I hate. I’m bonded to Raava, and through her I’m bonded to my past lives. The avatar state is supposed to be a way for me to tap into my connection to Raava, giving me access to her power and to the knowledge and skills of my past lives, but I’ve never been able to tap into that connection. Not on purpose at least, I think I did it once, when I froze myself in the ice.”

“Her?” Tenzin asked.

Korra didn’t understand what he was asking, her confusion must’ve shown on her face, causing Tenzin to expand on his question. “Did you just refer to Raava as a woman? All the world’s religions portray Raava as male, opposite to Vaatu, who’s portrayed as female.” 

Korra snorted. “That figures, you guys have some weird issues when it comes to women! Anyway yeah, I called Raava a “she”, everyone does in my time, she sounded like a woman when she spoke to me. I guess it’s sort of random, a spirit like her doesn’t exactly have female parts as far as I know… But it feels right somehow to refer to her like that. I haven’t like- shattered your entire worldview or something, have I?”

Tenzin just chuckled in response. “Not at all, not because of this at least, you being the avatar will still take some time to wrap my head around. But my people have never worshipped Raava, our religion is focused on achieving personal enlightenment and freeing ourselves from the endless cycle of rebirth, not on worshipping a deity.”

“Well then you must have plenty of practice with meditation, right? I’m sure you can help me with my avatar state, Raava said you could.”

Whether he worshipped her or not, Raava knowing who he was seemed to rattle Tenzin somewhat. Despite that however, a big yawn escaped the older man’s mouth. 

“I’m sorry, you told me you’ve had a busy day, you must be exhausted,” Korra said, “you should go to bed. You’ve got a lot to process, and your work with the senate sounds important, even though I don’t understand much of it.”

Tenzin nodded reluctantly. “Yes, I believe you’re right. I’ve found that staying up all night working, like I was able to do when I was younger, destroys my productivity. You’ve given me a lot to consider, and I’ll try to research what I can regarding meditation techniques and ancient texts hinting at this so called ‘avatar state’. You can keep coming to my training sessions, I’ll cancel the public classes and focus all my time on you, and we can lengthen the sessions, to include extra meditation lessons after the martial arts lessons.”

“Great!” Korra said, unable to keep it from sounding somewhat sarcastic, due to how much she dreaded the idea of more meditating. “I have one more question before you go to bed, could you tell me how to find the hospitals in the immigrant district?”

 

It was dark by the time that Korra took the ferry back to the mainland, which was perfect for what she was planning. She brought some water with her, before making her way to the nearest hospital. A window at the side of the hospital allowed her to sneak her way in and find the ward where the burn victims were sleeping. She tied a cloth over her face to hide her identity in case anyone woke up, then began healing everyone, one by one, before disappearing back into the night. The larger problems facing society were tough to grasp, but this was a relatively simple problem that she could do something about, she intended to take the opportunity before her. 

After visiting several hospitals Korra noticed that the streetlights, which were turned off late into the night, turned on again to help people as they got up and went to work in the morning. Korra decided that this should be her que to stop if she didn’t want to get caught, so she began making her way over to the Red Lotus headquarters.

Fortune smiled on her as she saw Har Dayal opening the building’s front door right as she approached. “Hey,” she said from behind, startling the man until he turned around and recognized her. 

“Oh hi! Sorry, you gave me a fright. Did you speak to senator Tenzin?” The man asked, disappointment already seeping into his voice as he saw Korra’s expression. 

“Yeah,” Korra said. “Tenzin wants to help, but he said himself that the police can’t be trusted and that the senate won’t listen to him, so I didn’t even bother telling him about the warehouse. We’ll have to take care of it ourselves,” she said. 

“I see,” Har Dayal said with trepidation, yet he looked determined.

At that moment, Shaozu approached the two of them. “You have news?” He asked.

“Yes, I do. You should gather up a task-force, we’ve got a raid to plan!” Korra responded, prompting an eager smile from the young man.   

Notes:

I've given up on trying to keep each chapter somewhat short haha.

This chapter was fun to write, though I'm a bit worried about how much y'all will enjoy it. I hope the Red Lotus/union stuff wasn't too dense, and didn't seem too preachy. (I'll just openly say now that I'm a socialist myself, with strong anarchist leanings, but I don't plan on completely white-washing the Red Lotus even though Korra is aligning with them at the moment.)

Anyway, I feel particularly proud of the opening of the chapter, of Asami's dream & her talk with Korra afterwards. I haven't written too many emotional scenes yet but I feel like this one went fairly well ;/

And of course the other notable thing is that Korra finally showed someone her bending! It'll still be some time before she reveals it to the general public though, so there's still a bigger reveal to come in that respect ;p

I'm always happy to hear everyone's thoughts in the comments, stay tuned for a party and a raid in the next chapter ;p

Chapter 12: The Exhibition

Summary:

The girls prepare for the archeology exhibition, Asami snoops on her father.

The Exhibition.

 

Asami smiled as she watched Korra finally come downstairs, slightly past noon.

After leaving with Bolin, Korra had stayed away the entire day and not returned until after Asami had already gone to bed. Today was a Monday, but Asami decided to skip her classes for the day to make sure she had time to prepare for the exhibition this evening and give herself some more time to mentally recover from her encounter with the separatists.

“Welcome to the land of the waking,” Asami said to Korra in a teasing stone.

“Shutup, I had a busy night,” Korra mumbled in response, shuffling her way to the kitchen to grab some food.

“Busy with what exactly? Was the Red Lotus that interesting? No offense but I didn’t think you were the type to become engrossed in hours-long discussions on political theory, until late into the night.”

“Heh, no, definitely not,” the tribal girl responded as she returned from the kitchen with a dry sausage and some bread.

“The Red Lotus was cool; I think they really want to help to improve society. But yeah, I would quickly get bored if I spent too much time talking with them. I did some other stuff after meeting them, had dinner on Air Temple Island, but Tenzin didn’t make it back from the senate in time for our lesson. We did talk a bit right before I left though.”

“Figures that he doesn’t have much time,” Asami said while gesturing to the newspaper on the coffee table in front of her, “I was just reading about him filibustering the senate.”

“He told me about that,” Korra said, “I still don’t really understand it though. Our tribe’s council didn’t have so many weird rules, but I think that what Tenzin is doing is good, right?”

Asami was touched that Korra would look to her for validation on something like this, but since she thought that the girl should make up her own mind, she responded with more of an explanation instead of a direct answer. “I suppose that that depends on how much you dislike the laws he’s filibustering, personally I do share his concerns. It doesn’t seem like a great idea to attack the freedom of assembly and curtail the freedoms of immigrants, even if it’s ostensibly for the sake of protecting them.

“Regardless of the intent, it puts them at the mercy of the government, all while there’s an increasingly large movement in our country actively attacking them.

“What if the wrong parties win the next election and use these measures that were supposed to protect immigrants, to oppress them instead? The rights of minorities are meant to be protected by our system, this kind of government overreach endangers that, even if we assume that it’s well-intentioned. Which, mind you, I’m not actually inclined to assume. President Tarrlok has pushed for terrible policies in the past, all designed to give himself more power.”

Korra just grunted in response, before taking a big bite from her sausage. “Anyway,” the girl said after she finished chewing, “we have that exhibition thing tonight, right? Do you think it’ll be fun, or just a bunch of boring stuffy old dudes?”

Asami briefly considered the question before answering. “Well, I think it’ll be fun for me, but you and I may have different tastes in this matter. It will mostly be people who are interested in discussing history and sociology, or people who pretend to be interested in it so that they seem cultured and sophisticated, not people who enjoy combat sports or dancing. The liveliest thing that’s likely to happen is a heated discussion about whether Shin the Conqueror and Shin the Great were the same person or not.”

 

“Ughh,” Korra groaned, “I’m bored already. That’s not even a difficult question, they were definitely the same person, it just depends on whether you ask his supporters or his enemies.”

“Wait really? You know the facts about Shin the Conqueror?” Asami asked, perking up at another opportunity to learn something truly valuable from Korra.  

“Well, it was more than a century before my time, but I know some stuff about it,” Korra replied.

“He tried to unite all the different earth tribes under a single banner, then tried to claim the entire continent just for them. But he died when he came to Kyoshi’s peninsula, that was also when the peninsula became an island.”

“Wait what?” Asami asked. “How did a peninsula become an island?”

Korra blushed slightly before responding. “Ugh, you- You’re not going to believe me. But what happened is that avatar Kyoshi, when Shin the Conquerer showed up to the peninsula where her tribe lived, used her earthbending powers to move the entire peninsula into the sea, turning it into an island and protecting them from Shin’s ambitions. She didn’t directly attack Shin, but Shin was too stubborn to get out of the way when she split the land apart, causing him to fall down the cliff that she created and die as a result.”

“Huh,” Asami said, then she got up and walked to a nearby bookshelf, where a folded up map was kept. “Could you show on a map exactly how far Shin got with his conquests, before he died? And where that island is located, the one that Kyoshi created according to the story?”

“I hate maps,” Korra grumbled, even as she walked over to where Asami was and began to look over at the map that Asami unfolded. “Is that the South Pole?” The girl asked, correctly pointing to where the South Pole was on the map.

“Yes,” Asami responded, “despite your complaining, you seem to be getting better at reading maps.”

“Whatever,” Korra said, before using a finger to circle a rough area inside the Earth Kingdom, “that’s about as far as he got with his conquests, I think,” she said. “I think this is where he died, where the peninsula used to be, “she said, pointing to the map again. “Now it has become that island, just off the Southern coast. It’s to the East of Whaletail Island, where my tribe was attacked.”

Korra had pointed out “Whaletail Island” before, when Asami had asked her about where exactly her tribe usually travelled for their trading, so Asami knew which island she was referring to even though its current name was different from the one Korra used.

The island to the East of “Whaletail Island” was very small, barely even visible on the map. Asami traced it with her finger, then took out her notebook to write down everything Korra had said.

“So yeah, that’s Kyoshi Island,” Korra said, before walking off and plopping down on the couch. “Anyway, basically you’re saying that everyone at the party will be weirdly obsessed with history stuff, like you? It shouldn’t be too bad then, after all I haven’t gotten bored of you yet.”

It was supremely embarrassing for Asami to realize how happy that back-handed compliment made her, but it really did make her feel good. She sometimes worried that Korra would grow weary of the way Asami interrogated her whenever she mentioned something noteworthy about her life in the distant past, but so far that didn’t seem to have happened yet.

“Are you going to wear that dress we bought?” Asami asked, she’d only seen Korra wear it once so far, when she briefly tried it on when they were shopping. That was before their conversation at the park that had caused Asami to start to look at the girl in an entirely new way, so she was both excited and nervous to see the athletic girl wearing the outfit once again.

“I think so, isn’t this sort of thing exactly why you thought I needed a dress? Besides, I think it looks pretty, it’ll be fun to dress up for once,” Korra said.

It was probably the most girlish sentiment Asami had ever heard the tribal warrior express, it also gave her an idea. “Do you want me to help you put on some makeup too?”

“Uhh, I’m not sure,” the girl responded. “I’ve never tried before, all I’ve ever worn is warrior facepaint, never that subtle paint stuff that you wear. Which does look real pretty by the way.”

“Thanks,” Asami said, trying not to blush too much in response to the casual compliment. “Do you want me to help you try? I think I have some colors that would match your complexion.”

Korra consented, and allowed Asami to lead her to the powder-room where she applied her makeup every morning. The blue-eyed girl seemed to quickly grow very uncomfortable when Asami began applying a layer of foundation to her face, trying very hard not to stare at the girl’s ocean blue eyes too much while they were face-to-face like that.

Korra insisted on trying to apply the makeup herself, saying that there’d be no point anyway if she couldn’t do it herself. A short, disastrous, and frankly hilarious while later, Korra fled the room, coughing up fumes of setting powder that had flown up when she smashed the powder puff into her face with far too much force. 

Asami followed, trying not to laugh too hard. “Maybe makeup isn’t for you,” she said, a sentiment to which Korra eagerly agreed.

Korra left towards the bathroom, to clean off her face, leaving Asami to wander the mansion’s hallway without having much to do. She found herself wandering towards her father’s office, hoping that maybe he’d have some spare time to chat.

As she approached his office though, she heard him speaking to someone on the telephone. Oh well, she thought, guess he’s busy. Before she left however, she couldn’t help but overheard some of what he was saying.

“No, no, I assure you everything is going exactly as planned,” her father said. His way of speaking sounded far more deferential than she’d ever heard from him before, even when he’d spoken to powerful senators. It piqued her curiosity enough to make her eavesdrop, something she normally never did.

“Selling the property to Cabbage Corp has bought us some time, my sources tell me that the DA’s investigations haven’t turned in our direction yet, nor has anyone raised any questions about my other recent investments, in fact I received the first of the insurance payments just this morning.

“Aside from those that are loyal to us, law enforcement remains completely blind to our operation. Trust me, we’ll have plenty of time to keep preparing until we’re ready to strike.”

What is he talking about? Asami thought, while presumably a voice on the other side of the phone was speaking, why would the DA be investigating him?

Her thoughts were cut short when her father began speaking again. “The unions won’t be a problem, the disappearances of several of their leaders have weakened them already. My associates are currently finalizing their plans for another move, against one of the leaders who’s eluded us thus far. Har Dayal. They will strike next Friday, at midnight.”

Asami listened as her father finished up his call, then heard his footsteps begin to advance towards his office door. She wasn’t sure what it was that she’d heard, but her instincts told her that she didn’t want him to know that she’d been listening, so she quickly fled the hallway before her father opened the door and stepped outside.

Is he union busting? He always talks about how proud he is of his good relations with the unions… And what investments was he talking about? Asami wondered if this had anything to do with the documents she’d found while trying to discover if her father really owned the warehouse where the separatists held their rally, the documents showing his recent investments in residential buildings.

She decided that she’d simply have to ask her father about it at some point, then she set her thoughts on the matter aside as she took a long shower and began to prepare for the exhibition this evening.

 

Once she grabbed the clothes she’d picked out and began putting them on, she felt herself getting excited again. It had been a long time since she had really looked forward to this kind of formal event, but the thought of another night out with Korra certainly helped to make her want to look her best.

It probably wouldn’t be as exciting as the jazz club or the fighting tournament they visited last time, but there should still be plenty of new things for Korra to experience at her first formal event like this.

After putting on her dark-red shrug over her lighter-red dress, before making sure that the golden pendant around her neck was at exactly the right height, she finally put the finishing touches on her makeup.

She blotted her lipstick like she’d done hundreds of times before since she began wearing makeup, but this time she found herself thinking about Korra while she did it. The thought of her lips touching the other girl’s warm body, leaving a mark on the girl’s brown skin instead of on the paper towel, flashed through her mind. She felt her entire body heat up, only through great effort was she able to keep herself from completely smearing and ruining her lipstick.

After regaining her composure, she left the powder room and went to find Korra, to ensure the girl was also getting ready. What am I even doing? She thought, even as she walked over to Korra’s bedroom. What kind of life could these feelings amount to? It’s not like I can keep them to myself forever if I keep spending time with her like this. Someone will notice eventually.

Part of her was amazed that someone, especially Korra herself, hadn’t already noticed. She felt like she was being incredibly obvious whenever she stared at Korra and quickly looked away as soon as the blue-eyed girl looked back.

She wasn’t sure whether Korra being the one to notice would be good, or bad. Korra had also felt these kinds of feelings for girls before, right? And in hindsight Asami could recognize that the girl had sort of been flirting with her from the moment they’d met. So, it seemed like there was a chance that her feelings would be returned. At least Korra didn’t seem likely to shun her as a perverted freak, like the rest of society surely would.

She knocked on Korra’s door, then heard the girl shout “come in” from beyond.

“I’m in here,” Korra said from the adjoining bathroom, as Asami stepped into an empty bedroom with clothes strewn all over and the blankets bundled up into a messy ball. “I’m almost done,” the girl said.

Asami looked around the messy bedroom for a while, almost not noticing when Korra opened the door and stepped inside. “What do you think, is this fancy enough?” The tribal girl asked.

Asami looked up to find Korra looking more beautiful than ever, wearing a blue dress with a long darker-blue skirt underneath. She wore different, sleeker-looking armbands than her usual ones, along with a small hat on the crown of her head to complete the outfit.

Possibly the most striking was her hair, she still had the same front tails, though they looked neater than before, but the hair on the back of her head was now down, a look Asami hadn’t seen before. Presumably she also had a small hair bun that was keeping the hat in place.

Asami briefly glanced down from the warrior’s head, but then quickly looked back up, before she could be caught staring at the girl’s chest. Korra’s dress was slightly more form-fitting than the shirts she usually wore, which certainly helped accentuate a couple of her features.

A distant part of Asami’s brain quietly confirmed that it clearly wasn’t just the less feminine traits of Korra that she found attractive, as she struggled to keep from glancing back down at the girl’s chest.

Maintaining eye-contact, Asami tried to stammer out a response. “Uhm, you look- differen- not that you don’t always look good but ehh-“ Asami was now blushing furiously, while briefly composing herself to form a coherent response. “You look good, really good. More than fancy enough, if anything you’ll look better than the other guests.”

Was that too much? That was too much right? Asami thought.

“You’re acting like you haven’t seen me in this dress before,” Korra responded with a smile.

“Well, you look even better this time,” Asami said. “I’m loving the hair,” she added.

“Thanks,” Korra replied, seeming self-conscious, “I think I’m better with hair than with makeup. Anyway, you’re looking snazzy as always.”

“Come on,” Asami said, “Bolin and Mako should be arriving any minute now, we’ll get to see how they look in a suit.”

 

***

 

Korra fought down a feeling of jealousy, as she followed Asami downstairs to see if the brothers had arrived yet. Asami wanting to see how they look in a suit didn’t have to mean anything; it could just be casual curiosity!

But then, her compliments of my look probably didn’t mean anything either, she thought.

It seemed like, after they both couldn’t sleep and spent the night together in bed, Korra was beginning to develop an actual crush on the beautiful woman. Obviously she’d always considered Asami beautiful, and had already been flirting with her. But she hadn’t really been serious about it, until now when she was starting to really get to know Asami for what a brave and kind woman she was.

Too bad that actually growing interested also meant that she became more foolish in front of the woman. “Snazzy!?” What does that even mean? She thought to herself. 

As they got downstairs, one of the servants informed Asami that the brothers had already been shown inside and were both getting changed into their new suits.

Trying to distract herself from Asami, Korra reviewed what she and Shaozu had discussed regarding the upcoming raid. Shaozu and the others who’d pushed for the raid hadn’t been idle while Korra spoke to Tenzin, they’d known that the raid was still a possibility and had already gathered enough volunteers to carry it out.

Their sources said that there were at most a dozen armed guards stationed at the separatist warehouse, both at night and during the day. Additionally, there were the drivers and passengers of the trucks that drove back and forth between the warehouse and the Earth Kingdom border. These people seemed less heavily armed than the warehouse guards, but to be cautious the Red Lotus decided to assume that they would all be armed with pistols at the least.

The plan was to attack soon after another caravan of Kuvira’s trucks arrived at the warehouse, so that the trucks would still be fully loaded and none of the weapons would yet be distributed among the separatists throughout the city. This meant that they would have to fight both the guards and the drivers, meaning there would be up to two dozen hostiles.

But the guards were usually spread thinly across the grounds, two at the front gate and the rest spread throughout the area.

The trucks would also be parked some distance away from each other, with a few people working to unload at each truck. So, with a fast frontal attack and the element of surprise, it should be possible to only engage the enemy one or two at a time, instead of all at once.

Based on that logic they decided that the fifteen people who volunteered for the raid, Korra included, would be enough. Even if they were slightly outnumbered in terms of the total manpower, they would have the upper hand in each engagement with smaller groups of hostiles. Which ideally would mean that they’d be able to threaten at least some of them into dropping their weapons and surrendering without a fight.

They would attack at dawn three days from now, shortly after the trucks were set to arrive, assuming they kept their usual patterns. They’d decided that if they wanted the raid to be quick and decisive then they couldn’t attack at night, the lack of visibility might help surprise the separatists but it would also make it harder to ensure that the warehouse was fully cleared of hostiles, which they needed to do before they could begin sorting through the loot and deciding what to take with them and what to destroy.

They would take the trucks to a field away from the warehouse, where with the help of several non-fighters that would be waiting, they would quickly move the supplies over to their own trucks before driving back to Republic City.

Korra reminded herself that she’d have to ask Asami if they could go to the gun-range again so that she could practice some more with a gun before the raid, the Red Lotus warriors would probably object to her trying to join the raid unarmed.

She was shaken out of her thoughts by an excited Bolin greeting her and Asami, she looked up to see him in a dark-green suit, admittedly looking quite dashing. As did Mako, who gave his own more reserved greetings as he approached.

“This place is amazing!” Bolin said. “Was that a pool I saw? You live in paradise!”

“Yeah, nice house,” Mako said without his brother’s excitement, though he did look genuinely impressed.

“Thanks,” Asami replied, Korra saw that she was a bit embarrassed by the extravagance of her home while speaking to the two brothers who’d grown up on the streets. “You two look great in these suits, I’m glad the sizes were right,” Asami continued.

A short tour of the most important parts of the mansion later, (a full tour would take far too long,) they all went outside to begin their walk towards the museum which would be housing the exhibition.

“Oh by the way, Korra, you never really explained how you knew that passphrase that the Red Lotus used?” Bolin asked. “You said something about a white lotus? I don’t really remember.”

“Yeah, in my time there was an organization called the White Lotus, they used the same passphrase. Apparently they still exist, that’s all there is to it really,” Korra responded. She decided not to tell them about Tenzin’s membership of the White Lotus unless necessary, it was supposed to be a secret organization after all. 

“Seriously?” Asami responded, “An organization from over nine thousand years ago still exists? That’s groundbreaking! Why didn’t you tell me this? What kind of organization is it?”

“It’s not that exciting to be honest,” Korra responded, “it’s not even very organized, that’s probably why they were able to exist for so long. They don’t really have rules, just a broad philosophy about how knowledge and ideas should be shared across tribal boundaries. Or I guess you’d say ‘national boundaries’ nowadays, but the idea stays the same.”

“That does make sense,” Asami said excitedly, “one of my professors wrote a book about how the cultures and religions with the greatest longevity seemed to be the ones that were the simplest, their simplicity made them resistant to minor changes adding up over time and changing them into something unrecognizable, because it’s not really possible to make a ‘minor change’ to something that lacks any specific dogma, you’d have to change the core beliefs.”

“How do you write an entire book about that?” Mako asked in a skeptical tone. “It sounds simple enough to me.”

“In our field it’s not enough for something to just sound reasonable,” Asami said, “you have to look for evidence to back up your hypothesis. The book was mainly focused on collecting such evidence, listing various different religions and establishing a pattern between their longevity and their complexity.”

Mako actually seemed to become genuinely interested in a conversation for once, as he and Asami continued chatting for a while longer. In the meantime Korra and Bolin stayed mostly silent. Korra figured there’d be more than enough time to talk about stuff like this at the exhibition itself.

She grew distracted when she saw a paperboy on the streetcorner they were headed towards. “Late edition, late edition!” The boy yelled. “Miraculous healings of burn victims in the immigrant district leave doctors scratching for answers, patients facing lifelong scars wake up with perfectly smooth skin! Read the full story now!”

Clearly Korra’s actions last night hadn’t gone unnoticed. Of course she hadn’t expected them to, she didn’t think it would be an issue so long as it couldn’t be traced back to her.

“I heard about this,” Mako said, “one of the guys at the factory says he was cured, said the doctors wanted to keep him at the hospital to run tests or something, but he ran away so he could get back to work before his landlord kicked him out. I thought he was full of it, but apparently he wasn’t the only one.”

Korra bought the paper, just to see what it said. It turned out to be just a short story with barely any more information than what the paperboy had already said. She would feel like the boy scammed her, if she wasn’t happy to know that her secret was safe.

She talked to Mako and Bolin for a while about the upcoming tournament, planning to spar together again sometime soon. By the time they pinned down a date they’d made it to the museum’s entrance, where some kind of long red carpet was rolled outside. A bunch of fancy looking people could be seen exiting their car directly in front of it, leaving servants to drive the car away to make room for the next Mr. Fancy Pants.

Korra watched as several couples walked across the carpet, arms hooked together. Trying to copy them, she hooked her arm with Asami’s. “Ready to make our grand entry?” She asked with a smirk.

Asami briefly seemed surprised by Korra’s action, making Korra wonder if she’d made the woman uncomfortable, but then Asami gently pushed against her shoulder with a smile while grabbing her arm more firmly. “I’m ready,” she said, “it’ll be great! I loved our last night out, this opening gala will be kind of like the jazz club, except the music is quieter and there’s no dancing.”

They now walked onto the red carpet, one of the workers standing by the entry recognized them and let them pass with a nod. Asami briefly paused to inform him that Mako & Bolin were their guests, then they kept walking, Mako & Bolin behind them.

“Will there at least be boxing?” Korra teased as she turned back to Asami. Asami didn’t deign to respond with anything other than a flat stare, Korra just smirked at her.

They walked through the buildings open doors, into a large open space where on one side a few musicians were softly playing music. At the center of the room was a small pedestal displaying several items, including one spear. “Do you think they’ll want me to demonstrate how my people fought with spears?” Korra asked, “I bet I could hit that ugly lamp over there from across the room,” she continued, nodding over to a lamp standing by a wall.

“Somehow I don’t think they would appreciate that,” Asami said, “it’s a good idea for the next time we go meet the research group though.”

“This place is great,” Bolin said as he walked up next to them, “is that food free?”

Korra immediately looked in the direction he pointed, seeing a whole table set up with small treats like the ones they’d had at the luxury seating section of the fighting arena. Apparently sensing where this was going, Asami pulled Korra along with her as they began walking towards the table, a gesture that made Korra realize that their arms were still hooked together even though all the other couples had detached after entering the building. 

Korra wasn’t complaining though, as she softly leaned against Asami while using her free hand to swipe a tasty looking snack off the table.

Sadly, they eventually did unhook their arms, as a few people approached to greet Asami. “Miss Sato, it’s an honor to meet you. Your father funded the expedition that led to these discoveries, correct?” 

“Well yes, he did, but I also personally worked as part of the team that-“ Asami began to respond, before being cut off by a second man.

“Ah yes, I heard about your dalliances at the university. I always thought it was a mistake of your father to play along with it, but I suppose that in this case it paid off.”

Korra felt herself grow angry at the men’s insulting attitude towards Asami and was about to interject, but then Asami warded her off with a brief look. Korra stepped back and watched as Asami responded. “Yes, I’m happy to say that my father’s investments usually do pay off. Quite unlike your recent dalliances in investing, or so I hear. What did you invest in again, Cabbage Corp?

“Now, I’d love to tell you both all about the discoveries we made and the things we’ve learned so far, but I wouldn’t want to bore you with such academic details. Please just enjoy your wine and the shiny objects, while I continue to mingle and speak with some of my intellectual peers.”

When she finished speaking, Asami curtly turned around and grabbed Korra by the arm, pulling Korra with her while Korra struggled to hold in her laughter.

She couldn’t keep a small giggle from escaping though, even though she noticed that Asami didn’t share her amusement. “Sorry,” Korra said, “those guys really sucked, but the way you handled them was badass! Don’t worry, I’m sure there’s plenty of people here who actually appreciate your achievements.”

 Thankfully that statement proved to be correct, Korra stuck by Asami’s side for a while longer as they were approached by several more people asking Asami about her discoveries with a genuine interest, while also asking Korra about what life was like in her time. There was still some condescension and a tendency to give most of the credit to Asami’s male colleagues, there were also a few people being rather disrespectful to Korra and looking down on her as a savage, most notably one guy who’d asked her if her people practiced cannibalism.

“Only on people with poor eyesight, we turned their weakness into the tribe’s strength by consuming their flesh,” Korra had replied, smirking to Asami as the man, who wore glasses, quietly made his escape.

Asami had clearly tried to look as though she disapproved, but the attempt was thoroughly undermined when she’d burst out laughing along with Korra.

Currently, Asami was engaged in an animated discussion with a few men who’d asked her how they managed to tow the iceberg all the way to Republic City. Korra couldn’t really follow the conversation, so she decided to strike out on her own.

She spent some time with Mako and Bolin, eating snacks and looking at the items on display while the brothers asked her questions about the past. Mako’s questions were quite sensible and downright boring at times, while Bolin’s questions became increasingly ridiculous. “Did you ever befriend a wild hogmonkey by saving it from a predator, causing it to lead you to a lost treasure as payment?” Bolin asked.

Mako just facepalmed, prompting a response from Bolin. “What? I read that in a book one time, it could happen! Pabu has led me to lots of treasures!”

“Ugh Bolin, for the last time, empty tin cans aren’t treasures, they’re just trash,” Mako said.

“We’ll agree to disagree,” Bolin responded, dumb smug look on his face. He seemed to enjoy getting a rise out of his brother, and Korra enjoyed egging them both on.

After a while she left them to their bickering and began to wander the exhibition, casually looking at a few of the items on display but not really understanding what was so interesting about them for everyone here, since to her they were just ordinary everyday objects.

After a while, she spotted a familiar face in the crowd. It was the stern woman who’d spoken to her when she was arrested, the woman had been rather intimidating, but she’d ultimately been the one who decided to let Korra go, which Korra supposed had been nice, she didn’t think the woman had needed to do that.

“Uhm, hello,” Korra said, approaching the woman after she ended her conversation with someone else, “Mrs. Beifong, right? I didn’t expect to see you here, I just wanted to thank you for letting me go that day.”

In truth, Korra didn’t think it was really something that required thanks, since her arrest was so unfair to begin with, but politeness seemed like the right approach.

“It’s ‘miss,’ not ‘Mrs.’ ” the woman responded, “and trust me, it wasn’t my choice to come here. Attending useless events like this is just something that’s expected of me, if it was my choice then I’d rather be anywhere else.”

Clearly the woman didn’t care much for politeness, making Korra struggle to figure out how to continue the conversation. “Uhh, I don’t really get the event either, to be honest. All this stuff is just regular junk where I come from, it’s weird to see it on display like this as if it’s so special.”

 Ms. Beifong grunted in response, before speaking. “Yes, I suppose our society must be rather confusing to you. Me telling you to stay out of trouble seemed straightforward enough though, yet you clearly haven’t tried to follow that command. You realize that the police unions are calling for me to issue an arrest warrant against you, after the involvement of you and that beast of yours in the riots at the immigrant quarter?” The woman asked, before immediately following up with another question. “You do realize that your identity isn’t exactly hidden when you take that beast with you, right?”

“They weren’t riots, it was an attack by the separatists!” Korra responded, she’d read some newspaper articles that used similar language as what Beifong had used, as if it had been immigrants causing trouble and “rioting”. They would also acknowledge the separatist involvement, but they would frame it as both sides being equally troublesome, which seemed like an insane way of recounting the events and made Korra understand why people like the Red Lotus felt the need to create their own newspaper.

“Yes, you’re right,” Beifong responded, surprisingly. “I’ve been talking with the police too much; it’s made me adopt their phrasing. But I agree, the people in the immigrant district were the victims of an unprovoked attack by the separatists. Which is precisely why I haven’t listened to demands to press charges against you, the police say that they saw you being violent and that you were attacking people, but I’ve interviewed other witnesses who told me you were acting purely in defense of the neighborhood.”

“Thanks, I think,” Korra said. “I didn’t see any cops that entire night by the way, does this mean that it’s true that several of them were dressed as separatists and fighting on their side that night?”

Beifong snorted. “Yes, I believe that it is. They didn’t think that part through when they tried to report you, none of them were quite able to explain how exactly they were in a position to witness your violence when there was no official police presence in the area that night. A few of them were sporting some rather suspicious bruises though, one had a broken nose, I think he was hit in the face with a brick.”

Korra couldn’t keep a laugh from escaping. “Yeah, I think that was me,” she said, it probably wasn’t the smartest idea to admit that, but it didn’t seem like Beifong would get her in trouble over it.

Indeed, as she watched the other woman she saw a small smirk appear on her face. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to do the same to one of those morons, they certainly love to make my job more difficult. I know you won’t listen, but I’ll tell you again to stay out of trouble, or there may be a time when I have no choice but to press charges against you.”

“I’ll try my best,” Korra said, though she realized that her intent to join an illegal vigilante raid on a separatist warehouse a couple days from now made that a blatant lie.

 

The conversation with Beifong ran dry, so Korra excused herself and went looking for Asami. She found that Asami was still talking to the same group of people, though their conversation had now moved on to the mechanics of different kinds of automobiles.

They did briefly make eye contact, and Korra could swear that she saw Asami blushing after glancing down at the chest area of Korra’s dress. I’m not imagining this, am I? She’s been checking me out all night.”

Either way, Asami turned back to her conversation, so Korra walked away to find Mako & Bolin again, but before she reached them she was met by Thawi, who was approaching her along with several other men.

“Ah, our guest of honor! Korra, lovely to see you again,” Thawi said, before gesturing to the men accompanying him. “I’d like to introduce you to some people; here with me I have Zhenren Wang Chongyang, Grandmaster Zhuangzi, and High Sage Zhang Bairen,” Thawi said, while indicating each man in turn.

“They’re high-ranking leaders of the Irohist church of Ba Sing Se, and of the Northern and Eastern orthodox churches of Raava, respectively.”

“Uhm, okay,” Korra said, slightly intimidated by all the titles and not sure how to feel about it, “nice to meet you.”

“They came to me expressing a desire to speak to you,” Thawi said, “regarding the beliefs of your people and what we can learn from them in our modern era.”

“I heard what you said to those reporters at city hall,” the first man Thawi had introduced said, referring to the time when Korra and Asami had been ambushed by reporters after arranging for Korra’s visa.

“What about it?” Korra asked, somewhat rudely. Asami suspected that the moment with the reporters had also been orchestrated by Thawi, which didn’t help to make Korra feel more charitable towards these men that Thawi now brought before her.

“You talked about the failings of modern society, about how we should return to the light of Raava for the sake of a more peaceful world,” the man responded, Korra realized that she didn’t really remember the names of most of these dudes.

Did I? Korra thought, she honestly didn’t remember what she’d said back then, all she remembered was talking about the lack of care for the homeless, despite the wealth of this society.

Another man spoke up now, Korra tried not to be distracted by his funny hat. “Our churches have been collaborating on a project to bring attention to the decline of spirituality in our modern world, due to the degenerate and sinful focus on short-term pleasure that infects our younger generations. Our hope is that you’ll have some insights that you could share with us, that we can use in our call for a return to tradition, to help those who have strayed from Raava’s light.”

“Uhm, what’s wrong with pleasure?” Korra asked. “Shouldn’t we want people to be happy?”

“Well yes of course,” the man responded, “but our concern is that people are too focused on this life, instead of worrying about the next. That they’re opening themselves up to divine punishment by failing to worship Raava in the way that he should be worshipped, as the prophet Wan commanded.”

 

“Raava’s never asked anyone to worship her!” Korra responded, a powerful feeling of indignancy washing over her, a feeling that seemed to come not from herself, but from Raava.

It wasn’t the first time Korra felt something like this, she’s never been able to communicate with Raava more explicitly, but in times when Raava felt strongly about something she’s always been able to feel Raava’s emotions as though they were her own. In this case, Raava clearly didn’t appreciate these men speaking in her name.

“Her?!” The man said, looking appalled. “Blasphemy!”

Another of the men quickly intervened, his name was Zhuangzi, if Korra remembered correctly. “Raava is a divine being, far beyond our understanding of gender. Technically it’s not really accurate to refer to a superior being such as Raava as though they’re a member of either gender, wouldn’t you agree Zhang?”

“Well yes,” Zhang said, “I suppose. But to call Raava a woman! Referring to him as a man may not be totally accurate, but surely it’s more accurate than to refer to him as a woman? Leadership is a masculine trait is it not? Women are meant to serve and obey, anything else is an affront to Raava.”

Another strong emotion washed over Korra, this time it was a feeling of anger, and this time it didn’t come from just Raava.

“You asked for my people’s beliefs, well here they are!” Korra said. “We didn’t share your stupid ideas about men and women, we treated both as equal. I was a hunter and a warrior, half of the members of our tribe’s elder council were women, with an equal say in our governance.”

“Well that’s… Quaint.” Zhuangzi said. “But yours were a primitive people, I suppose for such a simple civilization women might still be able to possess the qualities needed to lead.

“But a more advanced society where leadership requires more skill and intellect can surely only be maintained by having men in command and women as subservient, as Raava has prescribed. Just as how only men can achieve enlightenment and escape the cycle of rebirth by joining Raava in the spirit realm, while women need to serve well in this life so that as a reward they can be reborn as men and receive their own chance at enlightenment.”

“Raava didn’t prescribe any of that!” Korra said. “Anyone can learn to meditate into the spirit world, with practice.” Even though I still can’t manage it, she thought.

Undeterred by the literal embodiment of Raava telling him that he was wrong, Zhuangzi responded. “Nonsense, it has always been church doctrine that only men can ascend, that it’s possible only with proper guidance from the church and proper tithes paid to its leaders.”

“Why don’t we set aside the matter of gender for the moment?” Zhang intervened. “There are other matters of spiritual importance. What would your people say of the sexual degeneracy of our time? Of couples having sex before marriage, or getting divorced?

“Worst of all, what of men lying with other men, or women lying with women? You must agree that this homosexual perversion is an insult to the sanctity of marriage and to family values, that it’s an affront to Raava and a major driving force in the spiritual decline of our society.”

“What do you mean?” Korra asked, genuinely confused, “lying where?”

 

***

 

After finishing her conversation about the engineering and calculations involved with dragging the iceberg back to Republic City, a rather pleasant conversation that had diverged into a broader discussion about modern engineering, Asami went looking for Korra again.

While she was talking to the group of engineers, she’d seen Korra from the corner of her eye, joking around with the two brothers. Korra didn’t seem to be with them now though, Asami noted while she watched Bolin’s poor attempt at flirting with an upper-class woman who she knew for a fact was already married.

 She hoped Korra was also having a good time, as she briefly paused her search to go get a drink. She’d only just begun sipping her drink when she heard raised voices on the other side of the large open room, with a bad feeling she made her way through the mass of people, towards what sounded like an increasingly heated argument.

“Who are you to tell people what Raava would say?!?” She heard a familiar voice say, it wasn’t quite shouting, but it was definitely loud enough to be causing a scene.

Oh no, Asami thought, as she finally found Korra and saw that the girl was arguing with what looked like several religious leaders, is that the High Sage?

As she got closer, she began to make out more of the argument.

“I’m the High Sage of Republic City, I’ve studied theology my entire life, I will not have some savage girl challenge my knowledge of the divine!” The High Sage said.

“Well I won’t have you tell people who they can and can’t love, or pretending to speak for the spirits,” Korra said. “You’re standing in the way of the peace and harmony that Wan sought by dividing people with your close-minded hatefulness!” As Korra finished her sentence, Asami noted with dread that the girl was pretty much shouting at this point.

This is a disaster, Asami thought, as a crowd gathered around the argument.

“Homosexual relations are not only an affront to Raava, but to nature as a whole. How could twisting the act of sex, which is meant to produce offspring, for the sake of a relationship with no hope of producing offspring, by anything other than a perversion? I believe you’re a fraud, a servant of Vaatu, sent here to deceive us about our past and our heritage!” The High Sage said, the men standing next to him nodded their agreement.

Asami noticed with a shock that they were both high ranking members of two other major churches.

“I know for a fact that you’re a fraud,” Korra said, “You don’t speak for any spirit, most of them barely understand or care about human society. Raava has certainly never been opposed to the stuff you’re talking about, Avatar Kyoshi loved a woman, I’m attracted to women myself!”

A small gasp sounded throughout the room as Korra outed herself, Asami finally sprung into action and moved to get the girl away from the public argument, cursing herself for being too slow to jump in.

“It’s time to go,” Asami said as she reached Korra and grabbed her by the arm. Korra tried to protest but Asami cut her off. “This is not the time or the place, you have no idea how much trouble you’re creating for yourself,” She hissed at the young warrior.

“The girl admits it!” Asami heard the High Sage say. “Beifong, you must press charges against the degenerate!”

“I will do no such thing,” Lin thankfully responded, “all she’s admitted to was feelings, which aren’t a crime. She admitted to no actions that could potentially be criminal. Anything she may have done probably happened thousands of years ago, well outside my jurisdiction. Besides, I know of no laws explicitly restricting the relations between women, only between men.”

Korra, who’s eyes had widened when the High Sages called for charges against her, finally seemed to begin to realize the seriousness of the argument and allowed Asami to drag her away.

They soon reached the exit of the building, where they were joined by Mako and Bolin, who followed them outside while looking extremely uncomfortable, Asami couldn’t blame them.

They walked across the red carpet, then crossed the street and began walking back to the mansion. Asami cursed herself for giving in to Korra’s desire to walk more instead of using a car.

A somber mood fell between them all as they walked without anyone saying a word.

“At least the food was good,” Bolin eventually said, in an unsuccessful attempt to lift the mood.

It didn’t lift the mood, but it did break the silence, as Korra began talking too. “What in the world was that guy’s problem? Did you hear all the nonsense he was saying? Is this why you dislike the church?” The girl asked as she turned to Asami.

“I only really heard the last part,” Asami said, “about you being attracted to women.”

“Right, well he said lots of dumb stuff before that too!” Korra said. “About Raava wanting women to be subservient, about only men being capable of leadership, all sorts of nonsense. Does anyone listen to that idiot?”

 “Korra…” Asami began, “he’s the head of the largest ecclesiastical district of the Eastern Church of Raava. Millions of people listen to him, he also has a lot of sway over the legislature. Last I checked about half of the senate goes to his church, the other half goes to the churches of the other religious leaders you were arguing with.”

The color drained from Korra’s face as Asami watched her process that information. “Is this really something they arrest people for?” She asked. “Just for loving someone of the wrong gender?”

“I don’t uhm-“ Asami said. “I’m not sure about women, I’ve never heard much about that. But with men, yes, people get arrested for it with some regularity. The prison sentences can be quite harsh, though they no longer receive the death penalty.”

“Death penalty?!” The girl asked. “Are you serious? That’s- Evil! The police enforce those laws? This whole society is broken!”

The girl sped up her walking, making Asami and the brothers struggle to catch up. 

“It’s not always enforced,” Mako said, “there’s a bar downtown, it’s an open secret that people with uhm, unusual tastes go there to find like-minded people. It’s been there for years, the cops must know about it, but the place is still open.”

Korra began to slow down again as she listened to Mako.

“Except it burned down during the separatist attack, so it’s closed now.” Bolin unhelpfully added, causing Korra to huff in frustration while kicking at some trash on the street.

Then, suddenly, the girl spun and pointed at Asami. “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?!? I told you that I’ve kissed girls, THAT is why you were so weird afterwards, isn’t it? It wasn’t just because you people are prudish about kissing in general, it was because I kissed other girls!”

“Well yes, that’s- That’s true,” Asami said. “But-“

Korra cut her off. “So what? You were disgusted with me? You think I’m a ‘degenerate’ or whatever?” The girl asked.

“NO!” Asami shouted in response. “That’s not at all why I- I’ll admit that I was shocked, and I probably am affected by the stigmas of this society, but I started treating you like normal again didn’t I?”

“Yeah, after three days, and while still lying to me about what caused you to be so weird. What? Is three days how long it took you to get over your disgust, by pretending like it never happened?”

“No- That’s not-“ Asami stammered, “I wasn’t disgusted, I was just confused and-“

“What’s there to be confused by? I like who I like, it’s none of your business anyway!” Korra said, before turning away from Asami and the brothers and starting to run away.

“Thanks for coming guys, but I want to be alone for a while,” Korra said, causing the brothers to hesitate after they’d begun moving to follow her. They then looked to Asami.

Asami nodded to them. “It might be best to give her some space, we’ll see you guys later okay?” She said, before turning around and ignoring her own advice as she tried to catch up to Korra.

Her efforts were for naught though, as the girl’s impressive fitness allowed her to easily widen the distance between them before eventually going out of sight, Asami noticed that the girl wasn’t going in the direction of her home. Leaning down to catch her breath, Asami finally gave up on chasing Korra and simply hoped that she would return to the mansion eventually.

 

***

 

Korra kept running, even after passing the borders of the city. She found a gravel path leading up to the mountains, which she began to follow. She needed to vent her frustrations, which meant that she had to find a place without any possible witnesses. 

After hiking up the mountain for a few miles, she took one final look around to ensure there were no people or buildings nearby. Then, she unleashed her anger. She kicked up a boulder, before punching it towards a tree.

She sucked the water out of the grass around her, before using it to slice another boulder to pieces. She set the tree that she’d already hit with a boulder on fire.

Her rampage continued, but even this wasn’t enough to distract her from her thoughts.

She’d never felt as embarrassed as she did tonight, watching all the people who’d listened to her argument with those pompous assholes looking at her in shock and disgust. According to Asami, those guys’ views were shared by millions and were a powerful influence on society. Great, as if there wasn’t enough broken stuff in this society for me to fix, Korra thought, as she begun using a boulder to start smashing the smoldering remains of the tree into dust.

Am I going to be some sort of social pariah now? How can I even do my job as the avatar if nobody respects me, if I’m seen as some perverted “degenerate?”

The boulder cracked in half, not directly due to her earthbending, but due to the force with which she’d been slamming it down to the ground.

She was trying, and failing, to not think about the worst part of it all. Asami.

I was really beginning to think that she might be attracted to me too, especially after she kept looking at me in this dress…

Korra had never really thought of herself as pretty, Asami’s reactions to her dress tonight had begun to change that and begun to make her think that maybe the other woman was attracted to her too. But now she didn’t know what to think anymore, or where her and Asami stood.

She should’ve told me, Korra thought bitterly as she flung the broken pieces of the boulder further up the mountain, trying to ignore the way her eyes were watering. Could’ve saved me from this embarrassment. Why didn’t she tell me?

As she reflected on it further, she realized that disgust really couldn’t be the answer, especially as she thought back on their previous night out together, when they’d gone dancing and visited the fighting tournament. Asami never seemed disgusted by her during any of that.

They’d even spent a night in bed together, after the revelation, and they’d held arms when they entered the gala tonight… That kind of closeness wasn’t how you treated someone you were disgusted by.

Her anger finally dissipated, though her frustrations remained. She ensured that the remains of the tree were no longer burning before she finally began heading back down the mountain.

About an hour later she jumped over the walls surrounding the Sato estate, before making her way to the mansion. She climbed through the kitchen window and saw that the lights in the sitting room were still on.

As she quietly made her way over, she saw Asami sitting there, eyes puffy as though she’d been crying. “Hey,” Korra said, scaring Asami, not entirely by accident. She was petty like that.

“Oh, Korra, you’re back,” Asami said, relief in her voice. “How did you get in?”

“Window was open,” Korra replied, leaning against the doorway. “I’m sorry about earlier, I may have been a bit too uhm, rash.”

“It’s fine,” Asami said, “it was my fault. I really should have told you sooner. I swear that I’m not disgusted by you, not at all! I just, I didn’t know how to talk about it.”

“Yeah, me neither I guess, it’s kind of an embarrassing subject” Korra said, her cheeks heating up as if to prove her point.

“Anyway, I wanted to ask you something,” Korra said.

“What is it?” Asami asked.

“Can you help me practice some more with a gun tomorrow?”

Asami looked surprised by the question, but she agreed, which is how they found themselves at the gun range the next morning.

 

 

 

Korra first tried a few automatic rifles, but they weren’t really to her liking. It didn’t feel like she had any control over the weapon when the recoil from the automatic fire kept throwing off her aim. 

The bolt-action rifles were better, but when she tried firing them while moving her aim still left something to be desired. She kept only slightly glancing the targets. Asami told her that she probably wouldn’t need to move so much while shooting anyway, but Korra disagreed, so Asami eventually gave in and began looking for an alternative.

“Try this one,” Asami said, “people call it a ‘trench gun’, it’s a shotgun, meaning that instead of firing a single bullet it fires shells filled with a bunch of small bullets that are then all launched at the same time. Normally shotguns are used for hunting, but this one is designed for warfare.

“It’s often used in relatively close quarters, which is why it’s called the ‘trench gun’, the way it fires several projectiles at once means that accuracy is slightly less of a concern. It also gives the gun a lot of stopping power, one shot should usually be enough to disable any enemy.”

Korra watched as Asami loaded the rifle before handing it over. “You have to slide that part backwards in-between each shot, before you can fire the next round,” Asami said, pointing to a brown bit underneath the barrel.

Korra tried out the weapon, she immediately liked it more than any of the previous ones. It felt powerful, like the automatic rifles had, yet it seemed much easier to control. She was also more able to hit her targets than she had been with the bolt-action rifles, even as she tried walking around a bit while firing.

Asami handed her a bunch of bullets when she ran out. “To reload, pull back the slide and first put one shell in the top chamber, then load the next 6 shells in the bottom magazine.”

Korra did as she asked, then fired the gun again. After a few more rounds of firing and reloading she felt like she was getting the hang of it.

“Why did you want me to teach you?” Asami asked when they took a break.

“No reason,” Korra lied, “I just want to be able to fight the separatists, if need be. Along with whoever else needs their ass kicked,” Korra responded simply. The Red Lotus had told her not to share the plan for the raid with anyone who didn’t need to know, and she intended to keep that promise.

“Does that include the police?” Asami asked, sounding worried. 

“Maybe,” Korra replied stubbornly. “If they ever try to stop me from loving who I love, then I can’t accept that. I can’t accept them doing that to anyone else either, can you? How can you just sit by and do nothing while so many things are wrong in this society?”

Asami grew visibly angry after Korra said this. “Sit by and do nothing?! I haven’t done nothing, have you already forgotten about the revelation? I helped save Bolin, I saved you!”

“I know,” Korra said, “I- That wasn’t fair. But it’s not enough, we didn’t actually change anything we just prevented things from getting even worse than they already are.”

“You can’t expect to fundamentally change society by yourself,” Asami said, “that’s not your responsibility, it’s not anyone’s responsibility.”

It is though, Korra thought, though she couldn’t say it out loud.

After practicing a while longer, they stored away the guns so that Asami could go to her classes at the university. Korra noted where Asami left the keys to the gun shed and safe, since she planned to take the trench gun with her for the raid.

They hadn’t really talked about what happened last night, Asami had tried to bring it up but Korra hadn’t wanted to talk about it. Which made her sympathize more with how Asami hadn’t been more upfront about her society’s view of these things, it sure did make everything very awkward.

Asami did warn her that maybe she should skip the newspapers today, which was a piece of advice that, after reading the headline of the first paper, Korra was all too happy to follow.

“Primitive girl that was frozen in ice causes scene at museum, shouts at religious leaders and promotes various perversions,” the headline had read. Korra didn’t bother reading any more after that.

 

 

 

Later that day, Korra travelled to Air Temple Island for another lesson she’d scheduled with Tenzin. She took Naga to travel to the ferry, partially as an act of defiance, since she knew her pet would help people recognize her as she travelled throughout the city. Indeed, as they ran through the city she noticed a number of hostile stares.

The other reason however was that the air nomad kids loved to play with Naga, so she left the polarbear dog with them before going with Tenzin to the training grounds. To start, they jumped straight into the familiar martial arts forms that Tenzin had been teaching Korra all along, she also ran through the spinning gates a few times.

Then, Tenzin tried to teach her meditation. 

“I’ve been doing my best to discover any information that I could about this ‘avatar state’ you mentioned,” Tenzin said, “but I haven’t had much luck. The closest thing I’ve found are these texts outlining meditation techniques that are supposed to help people gain a deeper mastery and understanding of their own body and their inner spirit. If you’re bonded with the spirit of Raava, then it would stand to reason that these techniques would help you explore that bond.”

Up to that point, everything Tenzin said made perfect sense, too bad that everything else he said afterwards made very little sense to Korra.

“In order to bring balance to the world, you must first bring balance within yourself,” Tenzin said, before droning on and on about chakras, saying lots of things that Korra couldn’t really make sense of. She didn’t want to be rude, but Tenzin didn’t seem like the greatest teacher. He clearly knew what he was talking about, but his way of explaining left much to be desired.

Sensing that he was losing Korra’s attention, Tenzin decided to call it a day. Before they parted ways, Korra talked with him some more. “Are you still doing your ‘filibuster’ thingy?” Korra asked.

“Yes, I’m afraid so, the senate isn’t backing down with their proposals, even with all the other business the senate is supposed to be dealing with getting delayed because of my filibuster,” Tenzin said with a sigh. “I’m afraid that I may have to be the one to blink first, Tarrlok’s proposals are dangerous, but the senate not passing any bills is dangerous too. I’m meeting with the progressive caucus late tonight to discuss bills that will help fund the reconstruction of the immigrant district, among other needed social programs. If I’m guaranteed a majority on those bills, I believe I will feel forced to drop the filibuster in order to pass them those bills.”

“That doesn’t sound like a defeat,” Korra said, “you’ll still have achieved something, right?”

“Yes,” said Tenzin, “I just wish it didn’t always have to be a tradeoff. I wish my sense of duty to all of my constituents wasn’t used as a weakness against me, it should be something that everyone in the senate feels equally strongly about.”

“Yeah, well, at least you’re trying. I feel useless, like I can’t even defend myself, much less anyone else,” Korra said.

“I heard about what happened yesterday,” Tenzin said, “I don’t trust the papers or gossipers to tell the full or accurate story, but I want you to know that I support you. The church has always been far too close-minded, and I cannot see what harm could possibly be done by two people caring for one another, regardless of their gender.”

Korra felt her eyes well up, then felt stupid because of it, so she tried to brush it off with a joke. “Yeah well, as the embodiment of Raava, I’m quite confident in saying that the church’s teachings are wrong.”

Tenzin responded with a rare laugh, before Korra continued talking. “I just don’t know what to do about that, how do I convince millions of people that their entire worldview is wrong? I don’t think even revealing myself as the Avatar would do the trick, they’d just say that I’m possessed by Vaatu or something.”

“I cannot tell you,” Tenzin said, “all I can say is that your attempt to learn more about your inner self, to connect with Raava, is surely a good start. Perhaps she will offer you advice?”

“Maybe,” Korra said, “but I can’t wait for that, I need to help now, there’s too many things going wrong for me to just ignore it while focusing on my training.

“I want you to know that I’m planning something, the day after tomorrow, it won’t be entirely safe. If I don’t come back, could you speak to Asami? Tell her uhm, everything?”

“What are you planning?” Tenzin asked.

“It’s better if you don’t know,” Korra said, “aren’t you supposed to uphold all the rules of your own government? It’s not exactly going to be legal, but I have no choice, you said yourself that the police are corrupt and can’t be trusted to fight the separatists.”

“I didn’t say that to promote vigilante actions,” Tenzin responded.

“I know,” said Korra, “but it’s my duty. Besides, if the police are breaking their own laws then what choices are left? They helped the separatists, Beifong basically said so herself yesterday, that makes them vigilantes too, doesn’t it?”

Tenzin sputtered for a moment, before seemingly giving up.

“I’m not sure if I’m ready to support these kinds of drastic conclusions yet,” he said, “but I won’t oppose you. Do what you need to do, I’ll tell Asami you did what you thought was right.”

Korra nodded, then they said their farewells before Korra left to catch the ferry.

 

The next day Korra spent more time at the gun range, first with Asami there to instruct, but later by herself while Asami left to study at the university. Then she went to the arena, where she sparred with Mako and Bolin. It seemed good practice for the upcoming raid, even if she wouldn’t necessarily be engaging in any hand-to-hand combat, she felt as though certain kinds of fighting instincts would still translate no matter what type of fighting it was. 

Bolin chatted excitedly about the soup kitchens where he was now helping on a regular basis, which was good. Eventually it was time for Korra to return to the mansion, she knew that she had to go to bed early, since the members of the raid would have to leave just past midnight to be ready to attack at sunup.

 

***

 

Asami watched with suspicion as Korra quickly finished her dinner before excusing herself, saying she wanted to go to bed early. Something was off about the girl these last few days, she didn’t think it was just because of the scandal at the exhibition, it was like she was preparing for something, the girl reminded Asami of herself, whenever she’d had to study hard for an exam or something of that sort. 

Except the tribal warrior had been studying guns these past few days, not history or sociology… She didn’t think the girl would be up to anything immoral, but she didn’t discount the possibility of her doing something reckless. Asami couldn’t shake her concerns, so she followed Korra upstairs and knocked on her bedroom door. 

“Come in,” Korra said, so Asami opened the door.  

Korra was still fully dressed, looking curiously at Asami. “What is it?” 

“I just wanted to talk to you. You’ve been different lately; I feel like you’re not telling me something. I regret not being more upfront with you after you told me that you’d kissed other girls, I don’t want you repeating my mistakes.”

Korra looked like a cat-deer in headlights, eyes wide as the girl briefly seemed to struggle to find a way to respond.

“I don’t want to get you in trouble,” Korra finally said, “plus, I promised not to tell anyone who doesn’t need to know.”

“Need to know what?” Asami asked, now she really wanted to know. 

Korra sighed. “It’s related to the Red Lotus, and to fighting the separatists, that’s all I’m going to say. I’ll leave tonight, should be back by midday, don’t try to follow me.”

“Will you be taking one of my guns?” Asami asked, Korra’s face told her all she needed to know. “How dangerous is it?!” 

Korra shrugged. “Probably less dangerous than what we did at the revelation, we’re certainly better prepared. Anyway, now that we’re being honest, we still haven’t really talked about why you didn’t tell me that my kissing other girls was the part that shocked you, about how that’s a taboo in your society.”

Asami huffed at Korra’s unsubtle way of changing the subject, but Korra’s stubborn stance, arms folded before her, told Asami that Korra wasn’t going to talk more about this dangerous plan she was involved in.

Part of her wasn’t even surprised that Korra would do something stupid and dangerous, the girl had never seemed like she was entirely joking when she talked about fighting the triads again, for example. Part of Asami had always assumed that the young warrior would be picking more fights in the future, if she saw an injustice to fight against.

So, Asami went along with the change of subject. “Okay, fine, you want to talk about this?! I’ll tell you!” She said loudly, just short of shouting.

Pausing to consider her next words, Asami suddenly lost all her confidence and grew very shy, realizing what she’d have to admit now. “I didn’t tell you because you made me consider certain uhm- things, possibilities, that I’d never really considered before. Made me look at other girls in a way I’d never looked at them before, in ways that society would say are wrong.”

She couldn’t look Korra in the eyes, as she felt her cheeks flushing with heat while she stared down at the floor. 

“Look at ‘them?’ Or at me?” Korra asked, now sounding just as shy, though not too shy to step closer to Asami judging by the footsteps Asami heard.

Asami saw the other girl’s feet appear on the ground before her, and her heart began racing. She then felt the girl’s hand on her chin, softly lifting her head until she was looking Korra in the eye. Korra’s eyes were filled with curiosity and trepidation as she tried to read Asami’s expression, there was also a calmness in the girl’s face, telling Asami that it was okay if she didn’t feel what Korra clearly suspected her of feeling.

Korra let go of her chin, Asami glanced to Korra’s lips, she noticed that Korra’s blue eyes did the same to her.

Asami’s chin felt like it was on fire where Korra had touched it, the girl’s hand had felt impossibly warm when it made contact. Instead of being put off by that heat, Asami’s entire body felt like it was screaming at her, craving more of that same warmth.

Korra seemed to be feeling the same, as the girl still hadn’t fully lowered her hand after letting go. Without thinking Asami reached out and grabbed Korra’s hand with both of her own, stepping even closer and causing the shorter girl to have to look up towards her.

How have I never really noticed that I’m taller than her? Part of Asami wondered. ‘Cute’ wasn’t a word she had ever really associated with Korra, until now, when she saw Korra nervously looking up towards her. They looked each other in the eye, “Korra, I-” Asami began, but then the tribal girl pressed forwards with her eyes closed, until their lips connected.

Their bodies pressed together, her hands still held on to Korra’s, though the warmth of the warrior’s soft lips was all she could really think about. She’d never felt closer to another person, yet instead of feeling as though her personal space was being invaded she just felt… Whole.

Asami closed her eyes as she pressed even closer against Korra, slightly opening her mouth to deepen the kiss. 

Then Korra pulled away again, Asami did the same as she slowly opened her eyes, watching the tribal girl shyly looking at the floor and blushing, before glancing up at Asami with her ocean blue eyes, a soft smile on her face.

“I’m sorry, I didn-“ Korra began to say, but Asami cut her off by pulling her back in for another kiss.

Notes:

Sooo, turns out I inadvertently lied to you all last chapter, no raid this chapter just the exhibition. (Not sure how I convinced myself I would be able to fit both in a single chapter haha.

Anyway, I hope that certain developments in the end make up for the lack of a raid <3

By the way, I've run out of completed spare chapters, so I can't 100% guarantee that the next chapter will be up by next Tuesday. (Though I've already written a fair portion of it so it should be fine.)

Chapter 13: The Raid

Summary:

Korra leaves for the Red Lotus's raid, Asami tries to distract herself from her worries.

The Raid.

 

Well, I’m probably not going to be able to go to sleep early after all, a part of Korra’s mind absently thought, while the rest of her was focused on kissing Asami.

Asami kissed me back! She thought with glee, slowly stepping backwards while the taller woman continued leaning into their kiss. Her legs touched the bed behind her, so Korra sat down, then laid down backwards onto the bed. Asami continued their kiss while climbing on top. Her lips were perfect and soft, with a slightly sweet taste that reminded Korra of flowers and honey.

Asami parted for breath, leaning over Korra with her hands on either side, slightly panting while her hair hung down to frame her face, it was the most beautiful thing Korra had ever seen.

Korra absent-mindedly pressed her hips upwards against Asami, trying to fulfill a need she hadn’t consciously registered, she then moved back in for another kiss.

Asami’s eyes suddenly widened, and she scrambled away from Korra and off the bed, leaving Korra feeling confused and insecure. “What’s wrong?” She asked.

She watched as Asami briefly paced around the bedroom, one hand behind her head, trying to calm herself down. “Nothing’s wrong,” the raven-haired beauty finally said, “things were just moving really fast, that’s all.”

Korra hesitantly smiled, though she still needed a bit more reassurance to allay her sudden insecurity. “So, you don’t uhm, regret it?” She asked.

As soon as Korra said that, Asami turned around and jumped back on the bed, sitting on her knees and taking Korra’s hands in her own. “Absolutely not,” Asami said resolutely, before a dreamy smile appeared on the gorgeous woman’s face. Korra only now noticed that Asami’s painted lips were smeared, though this did nothing to make her smile less beautiful.

“Kissing you was amazing, even better than I imagined,” Asami said.

Korra instantly adopted a cocky smile. “You imagined it?” She asked, in a teasing tone. “Just how long have you been ‘imagining’ this?”

“Don’t be an ass,” Asami said with a giggle as she pushed Korra away, making her fall backwards on the bed. “I told you, didn’t I? I started to eh- Consider certain things after that day in the park, when you told me you’d kissed other girls.”

Korra continued her teasing while still laying down on her back. “So, I really opened up a whole new world for you huh? I’ve got to admit, you’re kind of inflating my ego by telling me that I was the one to make the gorgeous Asami Sato realize she was into girls.”

“’The gorgeous Asami Sato?’ Really?” Asami asked skeptically. “That’s a bit much don’t you think?”

“Are you joking?” Korra said, sitting up. She couldn’t let this kind of anti-Asami slander stand, even if it came from Asami herself. “Have you looked at yourself? I’ll be the envy of the city for catching your eye.”

Suddenly all the joy seemed to drain from Asami’s face, though Korra didn’t understand why until the green-eyed beauty started speaking. “I think that after what happened the other day, we both know that ‘envy’ won’t be the primary response if people hear about us.”

“Right,” Korra said, that sure did ruin the mood. ‘IF people hear about us’, so that means Asami doesn’t want to tell anyone… Probably smart, if it’s really something that people get so angry over.

She was still disappointed though, she wanted to shout it off the hilltops and tell absolutely everyone. She tried to find a bright side to it. “There is an ‘us’ though, that people could theoretically hear about?” She looked at Asami with a hopeful smile.

“I think so,” Asami said, “if you want there to be,” she shyly added.

“Definitely!” Korra said, leaning forward to give Asami a small peck on the cheek, before laying down with her head in the other woman’s lap. Asami began stroking her hair. They stayed like that for a while, silently enjoying each other’s presence.

 

 

“I really do need to get some sleep tonight, before I get up for the uhh, thing I’m doing in the morning,” Korra said eventually, to her own regret.

“Right,” Asami said, “the thing... You better come back safe and sound,” she said it softly while gently stroking Korra’s hair, yet it sounded like a threat.

“I will,” Korra responded, reaching up to grab Asami’s hand that was stroking her hair, giving it a slight squeeze, “I swear. I have you to motivate me.”

She then got up out of bed to grab her pajamas, which she’d been about to change into before Asami walked in. “I’m going to try to get some sleep,” she said, Asami immediately moved to leave but Korra held up a hand to stop her, “you can stay if you want, that night in your bed was the best sleep I’d had in ages,” she said shyly, “I had nightmares again when we slept apart the following nights.”

Asami softly smiled. “Me too,” she said. “I’ll go to my room to get my pajamas, but then I’ll come back, ok?”

Korra nodded, feeling slightly embarrassed of how giddy she felt about all of this. She couldn’t help it though, part of her still couldn’t believe everything that’d just happened between her and Asami.

She changed into her pajamas and slid under the covers, then, to prove it hadn’t all been a dream, Asami returned and slid under the covers next to her. At first they laid down facing each other, like their first night together in bed. Asami’s beautiful face proved too much of a distraction though, so Korra rolled around, pressing her back against Asami while facing away from her. 

They fell asleep like that, with Korra lying pressed up against Asami, one of Asami’s arms draped around her.

 

***

 

Asami awoke from her blissful sleep when Korra suddenly began moving and got out of bed. She’d half expected, and hoped, that Korra would sleep past the time she needed to get up, but apparently she had no such luck. 

Which shouldn’t have surprised her, the girl had spent her whole life travelling, having to pack up camp early to avoid wasting too much daylight. Of course she’d have a finely honed internal alarm clock, even if she was usually grumpy in the morning.

“Sorry I woke you,” Korra whispered softly.

“I’m not,” said Asami, “I want to see you off.”

Korra nodded, then walked into the bathroom with some of her clothes. She emerged shortly after, fully dressed. “Will you get changed too then? I don’t want to wait too long.”

Asami nodded, then quickly went into the bathroom to change as well. As she stepped back out and turned on the bedroom’s main electric light, she struggled to contain her laugh as she looked at Korra’s face. 

“What?” The muscular girl asked, looking very confused. 

“You- Your face,” Asami said, “it’s covered with my lipstick.”

The tribal girl’s cheeks darkened with embarrassment, she quickly returned to the bathroom to wash it off. When she returned, she joined Asami as they began walking towards the gun shed. Asami watched without surprise as Korra effortlessly located the keys from where they were stored near the mansion’s backdoor, she’d clearly taken note of their location, initially planning to retrieve the gun without telling Asami. They then moved on to walk the rest of the distance to the gun shed.

“Sorry but I have to ask,” Asami said when they reached the shed, “I already know it’s not going to be legal, but… Is what you’re planning moral?”

Korra looked as though she wanted to answer straight away, but the girl stopped herself before seeming to take her time to really consider the question. “Well I mean, obviously I think that it’s moral, or I wouldn’t be doing it,” she said. “Without giving you the details; as you know there’s a bunch of bad guys going around doing bad stuff, executing people and deporting families from their homes… We’re going to sabotage their operation, depending on how it goes we might end up fighting and killing some of them. But that’ll be their fault for planning to hurt innocent people.”

“You really think it’s that simple?” Asami asked her, uncertainty creeping into her voice.

“It was when we saved Bolin, wasn’t it?” Korra replied.

“I guess,” said Asami, “but he was an innocent captive, in direct danger, is there anyone in such direct danger now?”

Korra again considered the question. “Not really no, but I don’t really think that it matters how ‘direct’ it is, they’ve got plans to hurt people, we’re going to interfere in those plans. That’s not any less moral just because their current plans are still in an earlier stage, is it? I’m not waiting until they have people on a podium lined up for execution again.”

This time Asami was the one who took her time to consider the matter, before responding. “How far back can you go with that logic though? With this kind of pre-emptive violence? You could accuse pretty much every one of potentially being a future threat, you need some standard by which you judge if the threat they pose is severe enough to act, especially if you’re going to be killing people. Normally the state has a formalized process for this, with checks and balances, but you’re acting outside of that process.”

“Well, no offense, but clearly those processes aren’t working,” Korra retorted. “I’d say we have plenty of evidence that they’re planning evil things, enough for me to feel like I’m doing something immoral by sitting still instead of trying to stop them. It’s not like the goal will be to kill them, killing them is just if they fight back. That’s different than-“

Korra cut herself off, seeming to need some time before putting her thoughts into words. “It’s not like I’m deciding whether they deserve to live, I’m just deciding that they need to be stopped from doing what they’re doing. What exactly that means kind of depends, if they surrender then that works for me.”

Memories of the man she’d shot raced through Asami’s mind. When she woke from her nightmares, she frequently wished that she’d been able to find some way to convince him to surrender instead of shooting him. There was no time for that though, she thought, he was about to shoot Korra, shooting him first was the only way to stop him.

As she thought about it, she realized it was the same logic Korra was using now. It’s not like I wanted to kill him, I just needed to stop him, if there had been another way then I would’ve taken it. She decided that it all came down to whether she trusted Korra to do the same, to find another way if possible.

“You don’t think that I’m a bad person for thinking like this, do you?” Korra asked, looking up to Asami with watery eyes. It seemed Asami’s lack of a more immediate response had made the warrior girl doubt herself.

Asami shook her head. “It’s not immoral, I think. It’s just- It’s a lot. I wish we didn’t have to think about this stuff at all.”

 

They opened the door to the shed, then opened the large gun safe inside.

Asami retrieved the trench gun, along with a bandolier which she filled with shells. After ensuring that Korra remembered how to use it, she put both inside a duffel bag, along with an extra box of shells and a pistol with two magazines and a holster.

Korra moved to leave the shed, but Asami stopped her. “After this, you’re going to tell me exactly what you and the Red Lotus are up to, and you’re going to make introductions for me. I will not be kept into the dark again, worrying about you without knowing anything. I deserve to be kept in the loop, especially after tonight.”

Korra nodded, looking guilty. “Yeah, that’s fair. I’m sorry about keeping you in the dark like this, but I made a promise to ensure we have the element of surprise. I’ll tell you more if I return, ok?”

Asami nodded, Korra hesitantly moved in for a kiss, but Asami put up a hand to stop her. “When you return,” she said, before closing the rest of the distance and kissing Korra.

 

***

 

 

Korra was giddy as she walked through the dark streets of Republic City, duffel bag on her back.

She’d been dreaming of kissing Asami since the moment she’d first laid eyes on the woman, and now it really happened! Several times! She chose to see it as a good sign for how the upcoming raid would go, as she continued making her way to the arranged meeting spot, which was a tram station.

Asami challenging her morality had made Korra fear that this raid would end their relationship before it even really began, but it seemed like Asami accepted it, or at least respected where she was coming from. It’d have to do.

The trams wouldn’t operate at night, but it was a good place to wait for the truck that would come to pick them up. As Korra approached the station she saw that Shaozu was already there, to her surprise he was sitting there next to Har Dayal.

“Hey,” Korra said, before setting her bag down against the station’s wall, “Dayal, I didn’t know you were joining the raid?”

Dayal chuckled in response. “Oh no, I’m not. I’ll leave that to you youngsters, I just wanted to come wish you all luck, and tell you to be careful.”

“You managed to bring a gun?” Shaozu asked Korra.

“Yeah, Asami said it’s called a ‘trench gun’, I’ve practiced with it a bunch these last couple of days, I also brought a pistol.”

Shaozu nodded and turned away again to stare at nothing while they waited, until suddenly his eyes widened and he turned back to Korra. “Wait, you didn’t tell that rich girl anything, did you?”

Korra held up her hands in a gesture of innocence. “She figured out that something was up after I asked her to help teach me to shoot, but I didn’t tell her any specifics, it’s not going to hinder our plan tonight. I did tell her that I would be introducing her to the Red Lotus afterwards though, she wants to be part of what we’re doing.”

Shaozu looked highly skeptical. “No offense, but I don’t think she’s a great fit for us. The whole point is that we’re opposed to people like her father.”

“That’s what she said you’d say,” Korra replied, “but trust me, you’re wrong. She doesn’t care about wealth or whatever, she just wants to help people. She’s already helped people; she helped save Bolin and fight the separatists.”

“I hear Bolin has been a great help, at the soup kitchen and homeless shelter,” Har Dayal piped up.

“Yeah, he sounds like he enjoys it too,” Korra responded, Bolin had been gushing over how grateful all the people he helped to feed were. Part of Korra wanted to join him, to directly help people and feel their gratitude, but a bigger part of her realized that that sort of thing was too small-scale for the avatar to spend too much time on.

She needed to focus on bigger things, even if it meant less direct interaction with grateful people.

“I read about you in the news by the way,” Har Dayal said, causing Korra to mildly panic. She didn’t think that he would share the church’s views, but then again, she’d also underestimated how prevalent those views were. 

“Only good things I hope?” Korra said with a grin, trying to fake a sense of confidence.

Dayal chuckled in response. “That’s not how the papers are portraying it, but reading between the lines; yes actually, I think it’s good and admirable for you to stand up to the church like that.

“I feel like I should warn you though, our organization is probably one of the most progressive and open-minded group of people you’ll find, but even many of our members will have an issue with-“ He briefly paused to consider his words. “With certain kinds of relationships,” he finally said.

Korra wasn’t sure why he felt the need for such euphemisms, but she appreciated his support none the less, so she nodded gratefully. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said, before shifting the conversation back to lighter topics.

 

They continued chatting like that for some time, as more and more Red Lotus members began to arrive one by one, carrying bags like the one Korra had, presumably with their guns inside. “There’s number fifteen, that’s everyone,” Har Dayal said.

Right on que, their transport turned around the corner and drove towards them. Korra got up from the bench and picked up her duffel bag.

“Strength and luck to you all,” Dayal said, “remember, our true enemy is the system, not a handful of brainwashed stooges. Blood may need to be spilled, but don’t do it lightly.”

“You’re sounding like Jingbo,” one of the men joked, referencing an air nomad who was also a member of the Red Lotus. Korra only met the man once, so she didn’t know much about him, but presumably he valued the air nomad philosophy of non-aggression.

So did Korra, at least she thought she did. As far as she was concerned, the separatists started this, stopping them before they did even more harm wasn’t aggression, but defense.

Two trucks rolled up behind the first one, they split into three groups, five per truck. Korra entered the front truck with Shaozu.

“Are you sure about taking this girl Shao?” One of the other three men in the truck asked as Korra finished climbing inside and sat down on one of the benches inside the truck. “There aren’t that many of us, we can’t afford a liability who requires a babysitter.”

“She can handle herself,” Shaozu said, “she’s got fighting experience.”

The other men regarded Korra with curiosity, as the truck began moving again. “What kind of experience?” One asked. “Me and the lads are veterans, but she’s too young for that.”

“I hear there’s still a lot of banditry in parts of the Southern Water Tribe”, another of the men said, “is that true? Did you fight bandits?”

Korra shrugged. “I wouldn’t know much about the water tribe these days. But I’ve fought the separatists.”

“Street brawls aren’t the same as what we’re doing today girl,” one of the men said, “odds are that we’ll be shooting some of these separatists, and that they’ll shoot back. Are you ready for that?”

“I’ve killed before,” Korra said, “never with a gun though. But I’ve been shot at, and I’ve practiced with a gun. Now if we’re done wasting time, we can go over the plan. When we’re there we divide ourselves into three groups, right? I assume we’ll stick to the same groups that we share a truck with?”

They started going over the plan, though two of the others still didn’t seem comfortable with Korra’s inclusion in the plan. Eventually Shaozu snapped at one of them. “Would you drop it Shui? She’s part of the team, just accept it! Aren’t you always going on about how important it was during the war to trust the people beside you in the trench? At this rate you’re the one who’ll be a liability, by preventing us from working as a team.”

Shui nodded. “Alright, fair enough. I’ll trust you,” he said, turning to Korra, “but you better not make me regret it.”

“Right back at you,” Korra responded, causing the others to chuckle. They spent a while longer talking about tactics, Shaozu asked Shui for advice on what to do when you’re in a firefight out in the open.

“Dropping down low is usually smart, make yourself a smaller target,” the veteran replied, “mostly though you just have to make sure your aim is better than the other guy’s, hit him before he hits you. That, or you both run out of bullets, in that case you best hope you attached your bayonet properly.”

After that blunt but useful advice, they spent the rest of the drive mostly in silence, occasionally engaging in small talk unrelated to the raid. It seemed none of them wanted to spend too much time worrying about what would happen and risk psyching themselves out.

After a several-hours long drive, the trucks finally came to a stop, everyone promptly clambered out and looked around at their surroundings. They were on a road, leading up to a hill with a ridge covered in trees. The sun was just beginning to dawn, so everything was proceeding on-schedule.

“We walk the rest on foot, so they don’t hear us coming. We should be able to see the warehouse once we get past those trees. Get your weapons ready, leave the bags in the truck,” Shui said.

Korra retrieved her shotgun, Shui gave an appreciative whistle when he saw it. “Where’d you get a M97? I had one of those during the war, saved my life a dozen times when our trench was nearly overrun.”

 

 

“My friend gave it to me,” Korra said, having to consciously stop herself from saying girlfriend instead, though the thought of that word applying to Asami did put a smile on her face.

She began loading the gun, gaining another appreciative nod from Shui, who had apparently suspected that she wouldn’t even know the basics of how the gun worked. His look turned a bit more skeptical again when he had to help her strap on the holster for her pistol, but overall, he seemed reassured that Korra wasn’t wholly incompetent.

Shui himself was carrying a bolt-action rifle with a magnifying scope attached, Asami had showed one of those to Korra. The magnifying effect has amazed her, but she’d quickly found that she wasn’t very good at accurate long-distance shooting.

They joined up with the other two groups as they bid the truck-drivers goodbye, the drivers quickly began turning the trucks around, so that they’d be ready to leave as soon as possible when the raiding party returned. Together with the other groups they made their way to the tree line, they walked a few hundred feet away from the road, where the trees grew closer together and provided more cover.

They made it to a ridge overlooking the warehouse, the warehouse was just a big ugly block, surrounded by flat open space and a fence. 

Shui looked through his scope to inspect it. “Looks just like the maps our informants drew, I see two guards at the fence gate, two more patrolling the Eastern grounds, one in the West. There’s probably more hidden from view. We should get as close as possible, then me and another sniper take out the two guards and we all storm in. Sweep the grounds first, then move inside the warehouse.”

Korra squinted, trying to make out the guards. She’d hoped that it might be possible to sneak up on them, to take at least these first two out non-lethally by catching them by surprise, but the complete lack of cover near the fence gate made it clear that this wouldn’t be possible. 

“Wait for Kuvira’s trucks to arrive first, right?” Korra asked, just to make sure. 

“Yes obviously, wait for the trucks, then we move,” Shui responded.

 

***

 

Asami hadn’t been able to sleep all night. Her excitement over having kissed Korra and over the girl wanting there to be an “us” likely would’ve been enough to keep her awake, but sadly that development was overshadowed by something else that was also keeping her up. Her worry for Korra; about whatever she and the Red Lotus were up to exactly. 

She’d felt like she needed to ask Korra about the morality of it, but it had been more of a formality than anything. She didn’t truly worry that Korra would be doing anything morally wrong, strange as that sounded when she knew the girl was taking firearms with her and engaging in illegal vigilantism. I guess the separatists aren’t the only ones growing more radical, Asami thought as she reflected on how she would’ve been far more shocked by this sort of thing before she’d seen first-hand the things that the separatists did and the unwillingness of the police to do anything about it. Before she herself shot a man during what she supposed could also be construed as an act of vigilantism.

Being morally in the right wasn’t the same as being safe though, which was the real source of the worries keeping Asami awake as she tossed and turned in bed. Not knowing any of the details made it even worse as she imagined all the things that could go wrong, Korra said that they’ve planned out whatever they’re doing, but what if the separatists still turn out to be more than they can handle? If they get in a firefight, even if they win, will the cops show up? Will they be able to get away quickly enough?

These kinds of thoughts kept Asami up until well past midnight, until at some point she heard footsteps in the hallway. A look at her alarm clock showed that it was well before the time that any of the servants would be up and about. Curious, she slipped on her night-gown and went to investigate. 

As she opened her door, she caught her father turning around a corner at the end of the hall.

She turned around the same corner, then saw that he’d already gone down the stairs and to the front door. He opened the door and let someone inside, she didn’t recognize him. They said some things to each other, Asami couldn’t make out much of it, other than the words “short notice” and “Kuvira,” then, just as quickly as he’d arrived, the stranger left again, with Hiroshi closing the door behind him.

Asami hid when he briskly walked back up the stairs, not wanting him to know she’d been eavesdropping. As he walked into his office though, she decided that now would be as good a time as any to ask him about the strange purchases he’d made recently, as well as what she’d heard him saying about DA investigations.

She walked up to the door, which was still cracked slightly open, while her father mumbled to himself on the other side. “-getting ridiculous, how does he expect me to get three full airships off the books?”

“What airships?” Asami asked, as she pushed the door open all the way. “What are you up to?”

Her father looked startled, eyes wide open as if he’d been caught doing something wrong. Then suddenly he smiled brightly as if nothing had happened. “Asami, what are you doing up?” He asked.

Asami just shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep, then I heard you walking around. What are you doing?”

“Ah, nothing to concern yourself with dear. I was just informed by my accountant about a bookkeeping error, it’s a real hassle but not a very interesting one I’m afraid.”

“Is this related to that DA investigation I heard you talking about a few days ago?” Asami asked.

Her father’s expression grew angry. “Have you been eavesdropping?” He asked.

“Not on purpose,” Asami said, she couldn’t help feeling like a young child being scolded for stealing from the cookie jar, “I just wanted to talk to you and then I heard you on the phone. Something about a DA investigation, and your recent investments. Why didn’t you tell me you were getting into real estate?”

She might have imagined it, but she could swear that she saw a flash of concern on her father’s face, before he covered it up again. “Ah well, you know how it is,” he said. “My advisors are always telling me what to do with my money. I’m not terribly interested in the real estate market, but it’s supposed to be a good investment. I’m mostly just letting my accountants deal with it, except now it seems one of them may have messed a few things up.”

“Why buy properties in the immigrant district though?” She asked. “Surely you can afford properties with less troublesome tenants.” She didn’t think poorly of people who lived in the immigrant district, but that didn’t mean that she had to pretend as though they’d make the most desirable tenants. Their poverty meant they would be the kinds of tenants to miss payments, plus, the amount of crime in the area could result in property damage that the landlord would have to fix.

“You’ve gone through my records?” Her father asked, angry again, which Asami had to admit was understandable, she had done a fair amount of snooping lately, though she felt her reasons were justified. 

“I was just trying to help,” Asami said, “I heard about the building that the separatists used for their executions, and I remembered you taking me there as a kid after you first bought it. I went through your records to make sure you didn’t still own it and didn’t get in trouble just because the separatists trespassed on your property.

“I wasn’t able to find the right records though,” she lied, acting on a sudden flash of inspiration, “so I just forgot about it afterwards.”

Her father now smiled. “Thanks for your concern. You needn’t have worried though, I sold that property ages ago.”

Asami struggled to keep a frown off her face when she caught her father’s lie. He hadn’t sold the property until just over a month ago, but, under the false impression that she hadn’t been able to find the records, he had just exaggerated the date of the sale to make it seem less suspicious.

She’d dismissed the recent date of the sale as a mere coincidence, but his lie made it seem like perhaps it hadn’t been a coincidence at all. Like it had been a very deliberate choice to ensure that there would be an empty warehouse for the separatists to use, while he still maintained plausible deniability because technically it had already been sold.

She forced herself to smile as she responded. “I guess I worried over nothing then, I’ll see if I can still get some sleep. You should do the same, stop working so hard, that’s what your accountants are for.”

With that, she left the office and returned to her bedroom, though she already knew sleep wasn’t an option. He can’t really be involved with the separatists, can he? Not voluntarily, are they blackmailing him or something?

 

***

 

The trucks arrived, four of them. Korra and the others used the temporary distraction that they caused when the gate guards had to open the gate to move down the ridge and close in towards the gates.

They stopped when they reached the last bit of cover, several small bushes, which gave way to a couple hundred yards of grass that was still between them and the gate.

Korra could now hear them talking, though she couldn’t make out the words. Shortly after they reached the bushes they watched as the trucks rolled through. This was one of the key moments that would decide how this raid would go, as they weren’t certain where the trucks would park.

Korra watched with a slight smirk as two of the trucks each turned around and backed up to two separate entrances around the right corner of the warehouse, while the remaining two stopped and waited just beyond the gate, seemingly planning to stay there until the others finished unloading. It was exactly what they’d hoped for, if they moved quickly then they could take out the drivers of these trucks immediately after they came through the gate.

Shui gave Korra a nod, before bringing up his rifle and sighting on the guards, the other sharpshooters did the same. Korra held her own gun and prepared to take off running as soon as they fired.

Gunshots sounded from beside her; Korra immediately began running along with the other Red Lotus fighters. She heard loud voices from the trucks and watched as several figures exited the vehicles, looking confused but not yet realizing they were under attack. Korra slowed down slightly, realizing she was getting ahead of the others. She ran past the gate, ignoring the two bodies lying still beside it.

She slowed down even more as she raised her gun and pointed it at the men who’d exited the trucks, she saw the other Red Lotus fighters doing the same from the corner of her eye.

The men at the truck finally noticed them but didn’t yet reach for any weapons. “Get on your knees, hands on your head!” Shui yelled from beside Korra while they continued walking towards the trucks.

Korra took her first good look at the men; they were wearing the green uniforms she’d previously only seen in black-and-white pictures in newspaper articles about Kuvira’s army.

There were only five of them, most seemed to realize their hopeless situation as all fifteen Red Lotus fighters walked up and held them at gunpoint. One of them however, on the left, looked to Korra as though he was up to something. She pointed her gun in his direction. “Don’t do anything stupid! On your knees, no sudden movement, just sit still while we take your weapons,” Korra said, repeating the commands that Shui had told her to use in this situation. 

The man snarled at her and suddenly reached towards his waist; Korra pulled the trigger, then quickly pumped her gun to load another round. She wasn’t the only one, several shots sounded, she watched grimly as the man was riddled with bullets, he dropped to the ground while still holding the pistol he’d reached for. His friends quickly wizened up in response, as they all got down to their knees with their hands on their heads.

Korra briefly hesitated at the grizzly sight, Shaozu looked about ready to vomit, but Shui quickly approached and kicked the dead man’s pistol under one of the trucks.

“Group three, disarm the captives, everyone else follow me,” Shui said, already moving past the trucks.

Korra followed him while being careful not to bunch too closely together, as the man had warned that this would make them an easy target.

She saw two men rounding the Eastern side of the warehouse, Shui shot and dropped one of them before Korra even had time to react, the second man quickly raised his hands up into the air, still holding a rifle in one of them. Korra ran up to him, this man was one of the separatists stationed at the warehouse, not one of Kuvira’s drivers.

“Drop the gun,” she said. The man complied, letting it fall down onto his own toe. Watching the man hop around while clutching his foot would’ve been funny if it wasn’t such a waste of time under these circumstances. Korra stepped forward and knocked him out, receiving a nod of appreciation from Shui.

Shaozu and the others ran up soon after, Shui looked around the corner of the warehouse, before signaling everyone to follow.

This was the side of the building where two of the trucks had parked to begin unloading, everyone here was caught off-guard by the Red Lotus fighters and surrendered without issue, they’d heard gunshots but hadn’t realized what was going on until Korra and the others ran up towards them. This new group of captives included two more separatists, and five more of Kuvira’s men.

Korra struggled to keep her heartrate down as she watched Shaozu take their guns one by one, while she helped to keep them at gunpoint.

Gunshots suddenly rang out behind them, from where they’d left group three to guard the captives near the gates.

They left group two to guard this new set of captives while they backtracked to the corner of the warehouse, they peeked around it to find group three exchanging gunfire with enemies on the other side of the building, while taking cover behind the trucks. Looked like they’d locked the captives in the truck’s cabin, making them able to focus on the firefight.

“We should go around,” Korra said, “finish sweeping the grounds, then attack those guys from behind.”

Shui nodded, then they went and did just that. They encountered no other hostiles as they ran around the building, then they were able to get close behind the three separatist fighters without being noticed. Korra pumped her gun to get their attention. “We’ve got you surrounded, drop your weapons,” she said, thankfully they complied.

After calling out to group three to prevent friendly fire, they led the captured separatists back to the first two trucks, to join the first group of prisoners. Korra saw that group two was doing the same with the second group of prisoners.

“I count nine separatists dead or captured,” Korra said, “and I think we got all of Kuvira’s truck drivers and passengers. Do you think there’s anyone still inside the building?”

“Let’s find out,” Shui said, grabbing one of the captured separatists by the scruff and pulling him away from the others. The young man looked ready to piss himself as Shui stared him in the eye. “Anyone still inside?” He asked, somehow sounding both bored and intimidating. “Tell me the truth, or you’ll regret it.”

“I don’t know, I swear!” The man said as he started hyperventilating. “I’ve only- I’ve only been here for a day, I- I- I don’t remember how many- I’m scared!”

“What about the rest of you?!” Shui asked, facing the other separatist captives. These were all far more composed, staring straight ahead while refusing to answer.

“Hey Shui, we’ve got a problem,” someone shouted from behind one of the trucks. Shui ran up with Korra following.

“What is it?” Shui asked, the man just pointed at the open doors behind the truck.

“The whole truck is empty, it makes no sense, they didn’t even begin unloading it yet!”

Korra frowned, then turned back to the captives, none of which wanted to make eye contact with her, but they looked like they knew something she didn’t. Suddenly, it all made sense. “They’re not bringing guns, they’re picking them up!” She said. “Kuvira isn’t supplying the separatists, someone in Republic City is supplying both the separatists and Kuvira’s army with weapons.”

She looked at the captives, their expressions told her that she had it right. 

“Well, then we have no choice, we’ll have to enter the warehouse. Guess we’ll see if anyone’s still inside,” Shui said.

The trucks being empty meant that all the captives could be loaded inside one of them, and they only needed two guys to guard them. The thirteen remaining Red Lotus fighters all gathered at the warehouse’s side-entrance. Korra shot the door where Shui indicated, blasting away the door’s locking mechanism, then Shui kicked the door open and entered the building.

Korra followed behind, they began to split up, clearing the warehouse. It was filled with various boxes and crates, as well as large artillery cannons and other weaponry that Korra had previously only seen in pictures. “Yeah, this is definitely meant for Kuvira’s army, not for the separatists,” someone commented. “Even the separatists aren’t crazy enough to use this kind of heavy weaponry inside the city.”

“Then what are we supposed to do with it?” Another asked. 

“Destroy it,” said Korra, “except for what we can safely use inside the city.”

The men nodded, then they silently continued their sweep of the warehouse. 

 

Korra followed one of them down a hallway, then as he turned a corner, Korra reacted in shock as a gunshot sounded and he dropped to the floor, screaming in pain. Korra turned the same corner with her gun at the ready, she was just in time to see the shooter running away around the corner, she tried to shoot him but missed. She turned to her wounded ally, dragging him around the corner in case the shooter returned.

She hit the floor with her palm, using earthbending to feel the vibrations and locate the shooter, she sensed him watching the corner where she’d watched him disappear, probably waiting for Korra to follow so he could shoot her too.

She didn’t follow, instead she turned to her wounded ally. He’d already passed out from shock, which was fortunate for Korra as she opened the water pouch she had brought with her. She began bending the water, first cleaning away some of the blood before beginning to heal the wound. He’d been shot in the gut, water healing wouldn’t be enough to heal the wound entirely, but she did her best to at least try to clean up and heal the man’s intestines, to prevent his insides from getting infected by his own excrement. 

She was just about done when she heard someone approach, she released the water and let it splash down on the ground before she turned to watch Shaozu approach. “Grab some cloth, keep pressure on the wound!” She said, before grabbing her gun again and walking towards the corner where the shooter was waiting for her to appear. “I’ll stand guard,” she said, though she was planning more than that.

She heard Shaozu behind her, doing as she’d asked, before she punched the wall, again using seismic sense to locate the shooter. He’d changed his position, he was now inside a small broom closet, perhaps hoping Korra would run through the hallway without checking that door.  

Making sure to keep her steps silent, Korra moved through the hallway lined with brick walls. She came close to the closet’s door before she stopped, she touched the wall, sensing that the shooter was just behind it. She readied her stance, then punched one of the bricks, sending it flying out of the wall and into the shooter’s face. She then kicked open the door, happy to find that the man was knocked out. 

That done, she put the brick back inside the wall, before grabbing the unconscious man’s gun and hauling the man himself up over her shoulder. She walked back to Shaozu and the Red Lotus man who’d been shot, before unceremoniously dropping the shooter on the floor. 

“He’s still alive?” Shaozu asked, Korra just nodded in response. “Shame,” Shaozu responded.

At that moment, Shui and several others ran in. “We heard the shots, that the shooter?” Shui asked.

Korra nodded. “I haven’t checked the rest of the hallway yet, this guy was hiding in the broom closet.”

“We’ll clear it, we’ve already cleared the rest of the warehouse, seems like this was the only separatist remaining,” Shui said, before moving further up the hallway.

 

 

Soon, Korra and Shaozu were left alone again with their wounded and unconscious ally. “You know his name?” Korra asked.

“Pasho,” Shaozu said, “he works with me at the docks, he’s got two kids.” He looked at his rifle, then at the wounded shooter. Korra worried about what he might be considering so she put a calming hand on his shoulder, which seemed to be enough to make him think better of whatever thought had briefly entered his mind.

“I think he’ll be fine,” Korra said, “he just needs to get stitched up.”

Right on cue, another Lotus member arrived, the one who’d been trained as a field medic, which Shui had explained was a healer trained to help people who are wounded during a battle.

“There’s no smell of excrement, that’s good,” the man said as he inspected the wound.

Korra left him to his job, following after Shui and the others. She found them inside an office of sorts, looking through various papers before gathering them all up in a big stack. “Looks like they kept records, might be something useful we can learn from them,” Shui said. “Here, take these with you, we’ll look through them later,” he said, handing the stack over to Korra. 

Korra nodded and turned to leave, but Shui stopped her. “You did well by the way, sorry I doubted you.”

“Happy to prove you wrong,” Korra said with a smirk, before leaving. While she walked up to the truck they’d loaded with captives, she looked at the papers on top.

It was a list of some sort, recording all the weapons and things that’d been part of a shipment headed to a place Korra hadn’t heard of before. Most of the papers seemed to have the same kind of information. Korra paused suddenly, as she read a name she did recognize. Future industries.

The destinations listed for the shipments were all different, but according to these papers they all came from a Future Industries factory in Republic City…

She stood there for a while, going through various documents, all saying the same thing. Does this mean that Hiroshi-

Her thoughts were cut short when Shui slapped her on the back. “What’s taking you so long?” He asked, sounding amiable until he noted her expression.

“Uhh, these papers,” Korra said as she handed them back over to Shui, save for one which she folded up and shoved in one of her pockets. “Maybe I’m wrong, but it looks like they’re saying that these weapons all come from Future Industries.” Please tell me I’m wrong, she thought.

But no. “You’re right,” Shui commented. “Looks like they listed false destinations, but then sent all the weapons here instead so they can be illegally smuggled to Kuvira, breaking the arms embargo that the United Republic signed on to,” he chuckled. “So much for the pro-worker pro-union millionaire, seems like Sato is just as corrupt as the rest of them.”

Korra didn’t know how to respond, so she just joined the others in looking for weapons that the Red Lotus might be able to use, then helped load them up in the trucks. “We’ll grab some of the heavier weaponry too, enough to fill one truck” Shui said. “We have our own smuggling route into the Earth Kingdom, we’ll use it to arm our comrades in Omashu.”

He pointed Korra to a bunch of strange looking weapons, seeing Korra’s curiosity he began to explain. “Those are mortars, they shoot explosives up into the air, which then fly in an arc and explode when they land. Here’s the explosives they fire,” he said, opening up a box stacked beside the weapons and taking out an oblong shaped object. “The tip here is a striker, if it hits something hard enough then it ignites the explosive charge.”

Just like a revolver’s hammer, Korra thought. “How do you know where they’ll land?” She asked.

“Math,” Shui responded, looking as though he ate something sour, “it was never my strong suit, but some of the smarter soldiers can calculate the angle at which to shoot in order to hit the right spot, more or less.” He handed Korra a box of the grenades that these “mortars” fired, telling her to start carrying these boxes to the truck.

 

 

Eventually it seemed like they’d emptied the warehouse of everything they could use, much of it was heavy weaponry that was no good to them in the city. They’d already filled a whole truck with that to send to the militias around Omashu. But they did discover a few crates with snipers and other lighter weaponry, as well as crates filled with ammunition and regular grenades, they would keep these for themselves. 

Before long, they finished loading up all the trucks, other than the one filled with captives. They moved that one away from the warehouse. Shui explained that there was likely to be a rather big explosion when they set the warehouse on fire, keeping the truck here would be consigning the captives to death.  

The plan instead was to abandon the truck further up the road, locked with the keys still inside. Whoever found it would be able to free the captives.

Korra volunteered for the job to set the fire, they handed her a couple cans of fuel, which she spread all over everything that looked flammable, as well as over the crates of ammunition. These were lined with straw, so they should burn nicely.

Then she stepped towards the exit, before turning around and launching several fireballs towards the places she’d covered in gasoline, and several fireballs to other places too for good measure. 

She smiled as she turned around and ran away before things began exploding. The trucks were waiting for her on the ridgeline, everyone stepped out to “enjoy the fireworks,” as Shaozu put it. The explosions were loud, Korra watched in amazement as the building began to go up in flames. They didn’t stick around to watch all of it, the place may be remote but eventually someone would come to investigate all this noise, especially now that it went from gunshots to explosions.

They drove up to the trucks they’d arrived in, worked to swap the contents as quickly as possible, then began their drive back to Republic City while abandoning Kuvira’s trucks. 

Korra again sat in the same truck as Shaozu and Shui and the others from last time, she smiled as they complimented her performance, while she tried her best not to think of the man she’d shot.

Their one wounded had been loaded in another truck, the medic said, with surprise, that it looked like his guts somehow hadn’t leaked and that he wasn’t suffering from any blood poisoning, so it seemed like he’d be fine. 

“I’ve got to talk to you,” Korra said to Shui, “about Future Industries.”

“Yeah,” he responded, “looks like we’ve got our next target.” That wasn’t what Korra had meant at all… “If he’s producing weapons for Kuvira and the separatists then we could strike a major blow against them, maybe even against their alliance,” Shui continued. “We’ll have to do some research into how Sato is cooking the books to hide the fact that he’s smuggling all these weapons to Kuvira. Once we have a better grasp of their operation, we can blow it up.”

“I’m friends with Asami Sato, I live at the Sato mansion,” Korra said, causing everyone other than Shaozu, who already knew, to look at her in surprise. “Whatever Hiroshi is or isn’t involved in, I’m sure Asami has nothing to do with it.”

Shui looked at her skeptically, but she kept speaking, mind racing while she tried to figure out how to handle this situation. “Asami gave me the guns I used today; I didn’t tell her any details, but I told her that I would be fighting the separatists and she gave them to me anyway. She’s fought them herself at the revelation!

“She’s obviously not on their side. I want you to promise not to do anything rash before talking to me, maybe this is one case where we can get the cops to take care of it for us. With Asami’s help I’m sure we can get plenty of evidence. You said that there’s this uh, embargo to prevent people in the United Republic from giving weapons to Kuvira, right? The cops may not care about stopping the separatists, but maybe they’ll enforce that embargo.”

Shui nodded. “Fine, we’ll hold off on any attacks on Future Industries. Blowing up a weapons factory in the middle of the city doesn’t seem like a great idea anyway. You go talk to your friend, if she’s really on our side then hopefully with her help we can build a case to bring to the government.

“You’re right, the government may be corrupt but there’s some things that even they can’t ignore. They don’t want to get dragged into the conflict in the Earth Kingdom, so his ties to Kuvira may be enough for them to act against Sato.”

Korra smiled gratefully, then promised that she would return to the Red Lotus headquarters tomorrow night to give them more information. The rest of the ride back was uneventful, until finally they dropped Korra off at the outskirts of the city around noon, within easy walking distance to the Sato mansion.

 

***

 

After staying up for hours, Asami had come back down for breakfast with her father. He’d seemed like his usual self, though neither of them mentioned their midnight talk.

Asami had planned on snooping some more as soon as her father left to the Future Industries office, but to her surprise he’d stayed home. He told her that he’d work from home this morning, even though he’d said yesterday that he would have a big meeting soon after breakfast.

A couple hours later several workers arrived at the mansion, they carried out all the filing cabinets from her father’s office. Once they were finished, her father left too. She entered his office, confirming that all his paper records had been removed. So much for snooping after he leaves for work, she thought. Which is probably exactly the point.

She desperately wanted to be charitable towards her father, to believe that he simply valued his privacy and that taking efforts to protect it didn’t prove he was up to anything immoral. But at this point she wasn’t sure if she could really believe that. Her father almost never rescheduled a meeting, yet he’d done so today solely to prevent Asami from being able to snoop through his files before he moved them to his office downtown. All because he’d learned that she’d gone looking for records on the warehouse that the separatists had used. After catching him in a lie last night, it seemed highly suspicious.

She was shaken from her thoughts when she heard Korra’s voice downstairs, talking to some of the staff. She quickly ran to the stairs, finding Korra in the mansion’s entrance hall. “You’re back!” She said, getting down the stairs as quickly as she could before hugging the muscular girl.

“Hey Sami,” Korra said, hugging her back.

After enjoying the hug for a moment longer, they both leaned their torso back so they could face each other, Asami almost moved in for a kiss until she realized that Mr Lao, the butler, was still watching. It seemed like Korra had similar thoughts, as the tribal girl’s brown skin was unable to hide her blush. Asami’s blush must’ve been even worse on her pale skin. 

“Lets go upstairs,” she said, “then we can talk.” 

“Right,” Korra said, clearing her throat, “talk.”

 They went upstairs, where Asami led the other girl to the upper sitting room.

“Wait, I’ve never even been in this room before!” Korra said as she entered. “Why do you have another sitty downy room? Doesn’t the one downstairs have enough seats?”

Asami shrugged, to her recollection they had rarely ever used this room, though the maids kept it perfectly clean anyway. “I guess my dad wanted a sitting room on every floor, for symmetry or something.”

Korra snorted, then she moved in as if for a kiss, Asami held her back with a laugh. “I was serious Korra, we need to talk,” Korra’s smile dropped, so Asami coyly added, “then we can kiss.”

This made the other girl smile broadly, a look so cute that it made Asami briefly reconsider the order of events she’d just outlined. But no, they needed to talk.

“What happened?” She asked. “Are you okay? Did everything go as you planned? Was anyone hurt? You promised you would tell me everything when you returned!” She kept herself from asking even more questions, as she waited for Korra to answer these ones first.

Korra adopted a more serious expression and sat down before answering. “I’m fine, one of us got shot but we’re pretty sure that he’ll live,” she said.

“So, it did turn to violence?” Asami asked.

“It was always going to,” the tribal girl said, “I mean, I hoped they would just surrender, and most of them did in the end, but you can’t exactly raid a warehouse with armed separatist guards and expect to avoid any violence.”

Most of them, Asami thought, immediately recognizing what was being left unsaid. “Now can you tell me what it was all about?” She asked, happy to leave that other part of Korra’s answer unsaid for a while longer. “What was in that warehouse you raided? Was it worth it?”

Korra frowned for a moment as she considered the question, making a pouty face that made Asami ashamed to notice how cute it looked. Now is not the time! She thought to herself.

“Well, our information on the warehouse turned to be kinda wrong, but it was still worth it,” Korra said as she began her response. “The place had separatist guards, and the Red Lotus received word that there were trucks coming in from the Earth Kingdom, and people carrying around crates with weapons.”

The Earth Kingdom, Asami thought. “You mean, this warehouse was part of a smuggling route between the separatists and Kuvira?” She asked.

Korra nodded. “Yeah, we thought that the separatists were receiving weapons from Kuvira, but it was the other way around. The separatists are giving weapons to Kuvira, we discovered that they’ve got someone in Republic City to produce them,” the girl looked like she wanted to say more but she hesitated, then stayed silent.

Asami also stayed silent for a moment, processing this information. The United Republic has a very strict arms embargo in place around the Earth Kingdom, she thought, the government is keeping a close eye on all major manufacturers and their buyers, how could anyone manage to avoid notice while doing this?

“So,” Asami began asking, “you raided a warehouse filled with weapons?” It was far crazier than what she’d imagined Korra would be doing. 

“Yeah,” Korra said, “we figured we could intercept the weapons as soon as Kuvira delivered them, prevent them from being handed out to the separatists across the city and take them for ourselves instead. I guess we mostly succeeded, we did take a bunch of weapons for ourselves, only instead of denying weapons to the separatists we denied them to Kuvira. That was kind of fun actually, blowing up the warehouse.”

Asami was slightly worried by Korra’s use of the word “our”, how well did she truly know the people of the Red Lotus? It was slightly concerning to hear the girl already consider herself a full member of the organization. Then she processed the last of what the girl said. “Wait, you blew up a warehouse full of weapons? Not inside the city I hope?”

“Oh no,” Korra said, “it was way out in the middle of nowhere. That’s why we could attack like this without worrying about cops showing up.”

Asami nodded, then she noticed a strange look on Korra’s face, the girl seemed to struggle to figure out what else to say, as if worried that Asami would respond poorly. “We uhh-” The girl began. “We think that we discovered who’s been producing these weapons for the separatists and for Kuvira.”

Asami didn’t understand why Korra would be so hesitant to tell her who it was, until it hit her. Oh no, she thought, as she watched Korra struggle with how to say the next part. Suddenly all the pieces fell into place.

“It’s my father, isn’t it?”

Notes:

So... That was the raid ;p

I'm not sure how many of you expected Korra to be using guns during the raid, or at all, but I figured that it made the most sense if she still wanted to preserve her secret identity. I did try to have her use some bending anyway though.
I also tried my best to show the characters grappling with the ethics of this kind of action, which was quite fun to write actually, I hope you enjoy it ; )

In other news, Hiroshi's secrets are finally coming to light 0_o

All in all, it's probably not exactly the happy honeymoon period that our new couple was probably hoping to have after their first kiss ; (

I hope ya'll enjoyed, looking forwards to any comments, & I'll see you for the next one <3

Chapter 14: Snooping

Summary:

Korra and Asami talk about Hiroshi's schemes, before coming up with a scheme of their own.

Snooping.

 

“It’s my father, isn’t it?” Asami asked.

It was gut-wrenching, watching the pained look on Asami’s face. Korra couldn’t form words to reply, but clearly her expression was enough to answer Asami’s question.

Tears began to form in Asami’s green eyes, prompting Korra to quickly move towards where she saw on a sofa. She sat down beside the other woman, wrapping an arm around for comfort. Asami responded by nestling herself on Korra’s shoulder, it took a while before either of them was ready to talk. 

“What exactly did you find?” Asami asked. “I discovered some suspicious things myself, but I still wasn’t sure what exactly he’s been up to. Are you sure my dad is the one supplying the weapons?” As she finished speaking, she buried her face in Korra’s shoulder, as if wanting to hide from Korra’s response.

Korra responded anyway. “We found lots of lists of uhh, I forget the word,” she thought for a second. “Supply manifests! We found supply manifests, talking about which weapons were being transported in trucks. The destinations were all different, Shui said that they were probably all falsified, to make it seem like everything was transported to a legitimate destination while in reality it was all taken to the warehouse we raided.

“The destinations were different, but the sender of each shipment was the same, a Future Industries factory.” Korra took a folded piece of paper from her pocket. “Here”, she said, “I grabbed one of the papers to show you.”

Asami looked up from where she’d burried her face in Korra’s shoulder, then took the paper from Korra. She stared at it for a while, not saying anything.

“What did you discover, that made you suspicious?” Korra asked, Asami startled from the trance she’d been in while she stared at the manifest.

“What did you say?” Asami asked, Korra repeated the question before Asami responded.

Korra waited patiently, occasionally squeezing Asami’s shoulder for comfort, while listening to her explanation of how she’d dug through her father’s paperwork after recognizing the warehouse of the separatist rally, how she’d listened in on a suspicious phone call, finally she explained what happened last night, when she couldn’t sleep out of worry for Korra.

 

 

“I’m sorry,” Korra said when Asami finished recounting her investigation into her father, “for making you worry. I wanted us to be happy after we finally kissed but instead I left immediately and made you stay up and worry all night, and now I’m telling you this about your father and-”

Asami cut off Korra’s rambling with a surprising but never unwelcome kiss. Korra wasn’t sure of Asami’s mindset, so she only tentatively kissed back while letting the other woman set the pace. It seemed that Asami needed a distraction, as the kiss only grew deeper and hungrier.

Then, as suddenly as she began their kiss, Asami pulled back again. “I’m sorry,” she began, “that probably came out of nowhere, I just-”

“Don’t be sorry,” Korra said, “I don’t mind.” She grinned slightly, trying to lift the mood a little.

“You don’t need to be sorry either,” Asami said, “I think you’re the only reason I’m still holding it together.”

Korra cuddled Asami more tightly after she said that, while the raven-haired beauty continued speaking. “I just don’t understand, there must be an explanation for why my father is mixed up in all of this. I’ve never known him to be cruel or hateful.”

“Maybe-” Korra hesitated. “Maybe you don’t know everything about your father.”

Asami’s expression hardened in response. “Not yet,” she said.

“You want to investigate him even more?” Korra asked, Asami nodded.

“How though? You said he took all his files to his office downtown.”

“That’s why I’m going to break into his office,” Asami responded, a slight smirk on her face, which Korra returned.

“I like it!” Korra said. “I was kind of hoping you’d say that, some of the Red Lotus guys were talking about attacking your father’s factories next, but I talked them out of it by saying that we could gather enough evidence for the police to get involved, especially if we have you on our side.”

 

***

 

Asami spent several hours nestled on the other girl’s shoulder while they discussed their next move, occasionally stopping when she grew too emotional, at which point Korra would gently stroke her hair and talk to her about random nonsense until she calmed back down, or simply stay silent while Asami vented her emotions.

Asami was amazed by how gentle and comforting the tribal warrior was, Korra had always been kind, but for some reason Asami had still expected the muscular girl to be a bit cruder and more insensitive. Instead, she found that Korra was being exactly what she needed. A shoulder to cry on, a sounding board to talk to and who knew when to be silent, yet also someone to distract her when needed. It was as though Korra could read her mind and knew exactly what she needed, as though they’d been together for years already.

She was also, to her shame, gaining a new appreciation for the girl’s muscled body. It didn’t feel appropriate to notice such things under these circumstances, (or at all really, she still felt the shame of giving in to feelings that were such a big taboo,) but she couldn’t help it.

She’d expected all of Korra’s muscles to feel stiff and hard, but they didn’t, they were soft, up until the moment that Korra moved and flexed them. It was as though Korra was a soft human pillow for Asami to rest against, but with a power hidden underneath, a strange combination that made her feel comfortable and protected in equal measure.

She breathed out a sigh of contentment, feeling all her troubles melt away as she cuddled up to the tribal girl.

“I’m hungry,” Korra said after some time.

“Yeah, it’s probably almost time for dinner,” Asami said lazily, before shooting upright as she realized something. 

“What is it?” Korra asked, seeming alarmed.

“Dinner! Dad will be there, I can’t see him right now, I’d never keep a straight face!” Asami said, on the brink of hyperventilating.

“Oh shoot,” Korra said, taking her by the shoulders to calm her down, even though Korra also looked panicked as she tried to think of a solution. “Uhhh, we could go out to dinner in one of those restaurant things you’ve been telling me about, instead of eating here. Then we’ll just kill time downtown, before going straight to bed when we return. Then we avoid him again tomorrow, then you’ll gather evidence to bring to Beifong, and then-“ Korra trailed off, probably realizing that what would come next wasn’t exactly an uplifting thought either, even if it was the right thing to do.

“Yes,” Asami said, “yes that will work. We’ll just go out to dinner in a restaurant, it’ll be a date!” She said it without thinking, immediately growing embarrassed afterwards. Was that too forward? They hadn’t really defined what exactly they were, just that they were something, that there was an us.

“Cool, that’ll work,” Korra simply said while standing up, “I’ll go get ready.”

Does she even know what a date is? Asami wondered, half-glad and half-disappointed that the moment seemed to have flown over the girl’s head.  

 

Dinner at one of Asami’s favorite restaurants turned out to be mostly casual and uneventful, though it was still rather date-like as Asami ended up asking Korra about what she used to do for fun, back in her time. She wasn’t particularly surprised by the hobbies the girl mentioned, swimming, sparring, climbing trees, playing with Naga, mostly lots of athletic endeavors.

Which led them to talking about the upcoming tournament that Korra had won a place in, which would be starting next week. “Are you nervous?” Asami asked.

“A bit yeah,” Korra replied, with a grin that told Asami that she was about to say something really cocky and dumb, “worried that they’ll get mad when I humiliate all the current competitors and take the grand price!” The girl said, prompting an obligatory roll of the eyes from Asami. After dinner they tried going to a jazz club again, but Asami found that she really wasn’t in the mood, her mind was too occupied with thoughts about her father, about what had led him down this path, and what would happen to him once she collected enough evidence to bring to Lin.

Am I a terrible daughter, to even consider turning in my own father? She thought to herself.

Korra seemed to sense her mood and took her back out of the club, leading her to another very date-like activity as they ended up walking the park while bathed by moonlight. Asami linked their arms together, which Korra seemed to happily accept.

“You know, my people often do stuff like this, when wooing someone,” Korra said shyly, once they’d circled the entire park.

“Things like what?” Asami asked, smiling.

“Eating nice food, music, walking in the moonlight,” Korra said. “The only thing that’s missing is ritual battle with a giant sea serpent.”

Caught off-guard, Asami looked at Korra only to find her sporting a cheeky grin. She shoved the girl aside playfully. “You’re ridiculous,” she said. “Anyway, is that what you’re doing? ‘Wooing me?’”

“That depends,” Korra said, “is it working?”

They’d walked into a secluded part of the park, surrounded by bushes and trees, making Asami feel safe as she stepped in front of Korra, blocking her path and staring into her beautiful blue eyes. “You know the answer to that,” she said, before looking down at the girl’s lips.

They both moved at the same time, pressing their lips together while grasping each other’s bodies. Asami cupped Korra’s head, while the girl grabbed on to her hips. Asami moaned slightly in response to Korra sucking on her lower lip, the girl’s soft lips tasted of the ocean, she thought as they briefly pulled apart. 

Korra smiled at her, while softly moving a hand across Asami’s forehead, pulling aside some stray strands of hair that had fallen in front of her face while they were making out. 

Making out… Asami thought, as she smiled down on the slightly shorter girl. She’d never really done this before, short pecks on the lips were as far as she’d ever gotten with boys in school. Not that she hadn’t been interested in more, but she seemed to always chase them away once she began talking about engineering or history or her other interests.

Most boys apparently weren’t interested in a partner who was smarter than them.

Either way, Asami couldn’t bring herself to regret it, not now that Korra was the one she did this with for the first time. She never would’ve imagined her first real kisses to be with another girl, it no doubt complicated things in any number of ways. Yet as they moved back in for round two, she found that she wouldn’t change a thing.

 

***

 

“Are you sure you want to do this by yourself?” Korra asked Asami, she didn’t like that part of their plan whatsoever. Which made her feel guilty and hypocritical for how she’d left Asami alone while going on the raid against the separatist warehouse. 

It was Friday now, the day after the raid, the day after their dinner and moonlit walk through the park. Korra could swear that her lips still felt slightly warm and tingly from how long they’d kissed, though it was probably just her memory playing tricks on her.  

It was getting late, in an hour or so Hiroshi’s office would be closing for the day, though Asami would wait a bit longer than that before trying to enter.

Asami nodded. “It’s best if I go alone, most of the people working there know me, I’ve visited dad’s office plenty of times. Even if anyone is still inside and sees me, I’ll probably be able to talk myself out of trouble. I’ll get inside, then I’ll start looking for evidence. Which will probably take me until well past midnight. You wouldn’t know what types of documents to look for anyway, all you’d be doing is causing suspicion if someone spots us, while being bored out of your mind.”

“Stop being so logical!” Korra pouted. “I’m still worried, whether you like it or not.”

Asami laughed. “I kind of like it actually,” she said. “Makes me feel all safe, having such a big and strong warrior looking out for me.”

Korra pouted even more as Asami stood up on her tippy toes while saying this, making her almost a head taller.

“Well now you’re just being mean,” Korra said in a whiny voice.

“I’ll be fine,” Asami said with a laugh, “what’s the worst that could happen? It’s my dad’s office. I don’t care who he’s working with, he’s still my dad, he’d never hurt me even if he catches me.”

Korra nodded, she didn’t know Hiroshi that well, but he’d always seemed to dote on Asami, and it was hard to imagine anyone hurting their own daughter to begin with. Then again, my own uncle didn’t exactly respect such familial bonds… Her treacherous mind argued, adding a few flashbacks to the attack on her tribe’s camp for good measure.

She shook that thought away as Asami continued speaking. “Besides,” the green-eyed beauty said, “you wanted to go to the Red Lotus didn’t you? To keep them up to date?”

“Ugh fine,” Korra said, “just… Be careful, okay? I’ll go to the Red Lotus once you drop me off, I’ll call Har Dayal to let him know when I’ll arrive, and we’ll see each other later tonight.”

Asami agreed, then they walked to the car and began the drive downtown. Suddenly Asami turned to Korra, a concerned look on her face. “Wait, did you say ‘Har Dayal’, when you said you would let the Red Lotus know when you’ll get there?” She asked, apparently recognizing Dayal’s name. 

“Uhh yes, he’s a prominent Red Lotus member, runs a small newspaper, why?” Korra asked, surprised that she apparently hadn’t mentioned his name to Asami until now.

“I just remembered another thing my father said, when I listened in on his phone call. He said something about weakening unions, and about how he had people ready to strike against Har Dayal, Friday at midnight. Today is Friday…”

Korra frowned, that sounded… Bad, especially considering the stories she’d read in the papers, and heard from the Red Lotus, about how various union leaders they worked with had mysteriously disappeared. “I guess I’ll keep my eye on him then,” she said simply.

“Yeah, uhh, do that,” Asami said. “I don’t know what my father’s plan is for him, I don’t really want to think about it, just be careful okay?”

 

 

It was past dusk by the time Korra made it to the Red Lotus’s building, though when Enuk let her inside she saw that plenty of people were still present. “You’re late,” Enuk said, “Shui is upstairs waiting for you, with several others.”

“I told him that I wouldn’t arrive until now,” Korra said. She’d phoned Har Dayal in advance, who’d said that he would pass the message along.

“I guess everyone’s just eager then,” Enuk replied with a shrug.

As Korra walked upstairs and entered the meeting room, she walked right into an argument the men there were having. Jingbo, the old air nomad who was a member of the Red Lotus, was arguing with Shaozu and several others.

“We must take care to align our means with our ends,” Jingbo said as Korra walked in, “by relying on violence we will be creating just another oppressive hierarchy no better than the current ones, a hierarchy where the strong rule over the weak.”

“We’ve been over this Jingbo,” Shui said, sounding exasperated, “we voted on the raid, you were the only one who opposed it. Which puts the decision well within the ‘consensus minus three’ condition that our association has decided to base its decisions on. If you no longer wish to adhere to that principle, you’re free to leave. This is a voluntary association, after all.”

“I’m not saying that I wish to leave,” Jingbo sputtered, “I’m not even saying that I disagree with the raid on principle, I’m merely questioning whether you truly did all you could to avoid bloodshed. I’m told that your group fired the first shot!”

“What else were we supposed to do?” Korra asked, making everyone in the room notice that she’d entered. “Give away our advantage, let a few of us get shot needlessly in the name of our principles?”

“I’m not sure,” Jingbo admitted, “I just struggle to reconcile this sort of thing with the principles of non-aggression.”

“They ‘aggressed’ on us!” Shaozu said, “When they attacked our neighborhood and tried to kill and deport us! Just because they left our neighborhood for now, doesn’t mean that the fight they started is over. They’re gathering weapons, obviously preparing to keep attacking us, like Korra said we would just be giving away our advantage by never shooting ‘first’.

“Unless you’re advocating for absolute pacifism, you’re just going to have to accept that this is how it works. I know you’ve never fought in real combat yourself, so how about you leave this discussion to those who have?”

Korra frowned, agreeing with Shaozu on the substance of what he’d said, but not liking the idea of barring someone like Jingbo from speaking out on the issue. Especially when Shaozu himself was hardly an experienced warrior, by his own admission yesterday had been his first real fight.

“You’re not exactly an expert yourself,” Shui said to Shaozu, echoing Korra’s own thoughts, “as I recall you never even fired your weapon yesterday, and you nearly puked at your first sight of blood.”

A few chuckles sounded throughout the room, while Shaozu clenched his fists in anger. “Whatever,” he said, “I’m sick of all this talking, we need to take more action against the separatists!”

With that, he stormed out of the room, which was left silent in his wake.

“How about we table this discussion for another day?” Har Dayal eventually spoke up. “I’ve been writing an article about violence and its legitimacy as a tool, which will perhaps allow for a calmer exchange of ideas than live debate. Regardless, right now I’m eager to hear from Korra.”

He turned to Korra before speaking further. “Have you spoken to Asami Sato? Will she help us gather evidence against her father, like you promised?”

“Yeah,” Korra said, “she will. Apparently she was already suspicious of him and already did some snooping. But to find more evidence she’ll need to break into her father’s downtown office, which is what she’s doing tonight.”

A man Korra didn’t know yet whistled, before speaking up. “She’s breaking into her own father’s office?” The man asked. “Well damn, that’s real dedication to the cause right there. Too bad Shaozu stormed off, he bet me twenty bucks that you were wrong about miss rich-girl’s loyalties, now I don’t get to see his face when he realizes that he’s got to pay up!”

“When can we expect Miss Sato to find this evidence?” Har Dayal asked. “Before you arrived, Shaozu was already calling for aggressive action against Future Industries, I’m not sure how long I can hold him and others back if we don’t get the government to take action sometime soon.”

“She said it would probably take her until past midnight to find the right papers,” Korra said in response, “though she also said that it might take a while to make sense of the evidence, even after retrieving it. She’ll also need access to the documents we took during the raid, to get a full picture of her father’s operation. So… It may be a few more days before we’ve got something we can take to Beifong, something that’ll give her and the police no choice but to take action.”

That’d been something that Asami seemed to dread, having to spend even more time around her father, all while working against him. Korra was beginning to develop a seething hatred for the man, for the things he was putting his daughter through. He really doesn’t deserve someone as amazing as her, Korra thought.

“Asami doesn’t want to be around her father during this, so we’re going to go to a hunting lodge that her father owns in the mountains.”

Shui spoke up. “Wouldn’t that make him suspicious? If his daughter suddenly makes an unplanned trip like that?”

Korra shrugged. “He’ll be more suspicious if Asami loses her composure, which seems likely if she’s forced to spend too much time around him right now. Asami came up with a cover story, she’ll tell him that she wants to learn more about how my people used to hunt, that we’re going into the mountains so that I can show her.”

It wasn’t the greatest cover story, since Korra’s tribe had mostly stuck to the coast rather than hunting further up the mountains, but they figured that Hiroshi wasn’t likely to catch that inconsistency. Especially since the man apparently had many other things to worry about, as a major figure in the separatist movement.

“Sounds like a plan,” Shui said, “is that all? I’d like to return to my family for the night, my wife is already mad about me going on that raid yesterday.”

The meeting came to an end, then everyone began to disperse. Dayal tried to leave too, Korra awkwardly moved after him, not sure how to tell him about the vague threat that she wanted to protect him from.

“Was there something else?” He asked as he saw her approach. “I have to get home, to get the next edition of my paper printed before morning, in fact I still have to come up with another small article to write to fill the last page, I’m way behind the normal deadline.”

That’s perfect! Korra thought. “Can I come?” She asked. “I have to wait up for Asami anyway, and I’d like to see how it works, creating a newspaper.” This would be the perfect excuse to keep an eye on Dayal, without seeming paranoid while awkwardly explaining the potential threat he faced.

“Sure,” Dayal said with a smile, motioning for her to follow. “I must warn you though, it tends to be quite hectic right before we begin to press a new edition.”

They walked outside, until they made it to a nondescript building. Korra recognized it; the building beside it, now a sad pile of ash and brick with the occasional charred wooden plank sticking out, was one of the buildings she’d entered to save people trapped inside.

“Where are your neighbors living now?” Korra asked, the pile of rubble reminding her that the people she’d saved didn’t exactly have all their problems solved just because they escaped burning to death as their home burned to the ground.

“Much of the community has banded together,” Dayal said, “many people have invited those who’s houses were lost to live in their homes. It’s a temporary solution, but for now it’s working quite well. Papers like mine do our best to help, by listing those willing to make their home available to those in need.

“It feels wrong to say it, as if there’s an upside to the separatist attack, but it really has done wonders in terms of inspiring a greater sense of worker solidarity. Even many from outside the district have offered their help, and the recruitment rate is surging for the Red Lotus and other similar leftist coalitions and unions.”

“Nothing wrong with looking on the bright side,” Korra said, “I just hope it lasts.”

“That’s what my paper is for,” Dayal said, “to remind people of the threats we face and what they can do to fight back.” He then turned towards Korra, eyes lighting up as though he just had an idea. “I know what to write my article about, I’ll just need to ask you some questions…”

 

***

 

Asami’s heartbeat was racing when she entered her father’s office building, she’d waited until her father’s secretary left, at around 10 PM. At this time only the cleaning staff should remain, and she happened to know that they cleaned the building top to bottom before locking up behind them. 

She entered through the front door, then walked to the stairwell, where she waited until she heard the cleaners going down to the next floor. She waited a while longer, then silently went up the stairwell, past the cleaners, to the topmost floor where her father’s office was and where she assumed he’d moved the documents.

Her instincts proved correct as she quickly located the filing cabinets that had up until yesterday morning been in her father’s room at the mansion, placed haphazardly next to Future Industries’ own filing cabinets. She decided that she’d search Future Industries’ files first, before looking through her father’s personal files that he’d moved.

Wasting no time, she immediately began seeking out the supply manifests of trucks leaving her father’s weapons warehouse in Republic City. That finished, she began the ‘exciting’ task of searching for financial records with dates matching the dates listed on the supply manifests, which should help to reveal any discrepancies.

As she set herself to this monotonous task, her mind began to wander. She wondered if her father had heard yet about the factory that Korra and her Red Lotus friends had blown up. He probably had, but since Asami had been avoiding him she hadn’t been able to notice any change in his behavior that the news might have caused.

Looking through some of the financial documents, she thought she got a sense of a pattern. Some of the cargo manifests listed shipments headed towards several of her father’s subsidiary companies, selling products to his own subsidiaries wasn’t suspicious by itself, but she noted that the money that her father received per-shipment that he sold to his subsidiaries seemed very disproportionate compared to the prices that he was receiving per-shipment when he was selling to other companies.

That must be how he’s laundering it, she thought, he buys weapons through his own subsidiaries. Then since he controls those subsidiaries, he’ll be able to prevent anyone from wondering why half the weapons they bought haven’t arrived. Then he somehow funnels money into those subsidiaries to make up for the difference, so that it doesn’t create a big hole in their budget.

The financial records of those subsidiaries wouldn’t be stored here, they would be stored at the offices of those subsidiaries, but there was potentially still a way for Asami to further explore this money trail.

If her theory was right then some of the payments that Future Industries made to its subsidiaries must be inflated too, to make up for the products that the subsidiaries had bought but never received.

 

 

Hours passed, after which Asami concluded that none of this was nearly as exciting as breaking into her father’s office ought to have been. Her eyes were dry and tired from staring at the paper documents so long, but it seemed like she was really getting somewhere.

It would take many more hours to further study these documents to get a more exact understanding of the discrepancies, which she would have to do over the course of the next several days, but she was confident that the evidence of the fraud was contained within the documents she had gathered so far.

She kept looking though, to try to see how her father was covering up the loss of millions upon millions of Yuans that this operation must be costing Future Industries. Even a company as profitable as this must notice so much money vanishing, no matter how much clever bookkeeping is used to cover it up. 

Asami suspected that her father was somehow injecting his personal wealth into the company, to cover the losses. Which was quite concerning, in a selfish way. She really hoped that he wasn’t bankrupting himself for the sake of this xenophobic agenda, since she was wholly reliant on her father’s wealth and hadn’t exactly chosen the most profitable field to study.

As she looked for signs of her father injecting money into the company, she found a number that she recognized. She was relying entirely on her memory, but she could swear that it was the exact price for which her father had sold the warehouse of the separatist rally to Cabbage Corp, if her memory was right then the date also seemed to match up to that sale. The warehouse had no longer belonged to Future Industries though, it had been her father’s personal property for a number of years, so there was no reason for Future Industries to be receiving that money. 

Indeed, the financial document Asami was looking at didn’t say anything about the sale of a warehouse, it stated that the money came from the sale of “office artwork,” which the company had allegedly sold to her father. Asami was quite certain that she would have noticed if her father hung millions of Yuans worth of new paintings in his mansion.

As she dug further, she noticed another suspicious number. Her father had supposedly bought millions of Yuans worth of furniture from Future Industries, yet another addition to the mansion that she felt like she would’ve noticed. (Notwithstanding the fact that there were entire sitting rooms that she never used.)

She finally opened her father’s cabinets, that he had moved here. Digging through his personal records confirmed that the amount he’d supposedly spent on “office artwork” was indeed the same as the amount he’d received for the sale of the warehouse. 

The money spent on furniture corresponded to insurance payments her father had received recently, which piqued Asami’s curiosity. She looked closer into those payments, then grew furious by what she found. The insurance money was in return for fire damage that his recently acquired real estate properties in the immigrant district had suffered…

The bastard got the separatists to set fire to his own buildings, then used the insurance payments to pay for the weapons he’s been giving them…

How could her own father be the man that these records were revealing him to be? She’d always known him as a kind and loving, albeit busy, father. Yet according to these records he had callously helped orchestrate an attack that left countless people without a home, an attack that had caused several people to burn to death, all to cover up the way he’s funneling weapons to the separatists.

Tears began welling up in her eyes as she considered her father’s monstrous actions. She scoffed to herself as she noticed how the tears were helping to relieve the dryness in her eyes, from staring at these documents for too long. Thanks dad, she thought sarcastically.

She decided that she’d gathered enough documents, once she sorted through them she would have more than enough evidence to bring to the DA’s office.

She began putting things back in the filing cabinets, before putting all the documents she’d set aside in the bag she’d brought, the weight of it made her walk leaning to the side to compensate.

 

She turned to leave, then she paused. She heard sounds, coming from inside the building. The cleaners left hours ago! She thought as she entered the hallway.

“There’s no one here Shaozu, let’s just get this over with!” She heard someone say from the floor below, as the sound carried through the stairwell. 

“Come on, it’s just one more floor. We’d best make certain, I want to hurt Sato, not any fellow members of the working class,” another voice replied.

Who are these people? Asami thought. She could hear the voice moving up the stairs, so she quickly ducked into the bathroom to hide. She’d rather not stay to find out which Sato, if not both, these intruders wanted to hurt.

She heard steps moving up and down the hallway before a voice rang out again. “See? There’s no one here, now can we just do it already?”

Asami felt her heart beating in her throat, as she lifted up her feet to ensure they couldn’t be seen from outside the toilet stall. Just as she set them down on the toilet seat, the door to the bathroom slammed open, it took all she had to avoid yelping in response, though she could swear that the sound of her heartbeat would reveal her anyway.

“All right let’s do it. We’ll begin a few floors down, let’s go,” the person at the bathroom door replied, before turning around and walking away, slamming the door behind him.

The footsteps disappeared back down the stairwell, as Asami hesitantly left the bathroom while retrieving the revolver from her bag. She waited until no she no longer heard anything, then began making her way down the steps, holding her gun out just in case the intruders hadn’t left after all.

She made it down several floors before she noticed a strange smell. Smoke, she thought.

The smoke grew thicker as she continued descending with a sinking feeling in her stomach. She was starting to suspect the reason why the intruders were making sure that the building was empty…

She could barely see by the time she made it down another floor, holding her breath to avoid inhaling too much smoke. Then, as she turned down to the next flight of stairs, she saw the light of flames piercing through the smoke. A wave of heat washed over her; she tried to push on, but the heat was too much. She retreated up the stairs, coughing as her breath ran out and she instinctively inhaled.

She stumbled up several floors before leaving the stairwell, desperately moving back and forth throughout the entire floor, hoping against hope to find a fire exit on the outside of the building, despite being almost certain that the building had none.

After checking the entire floor a second time she leaned against the window, staring down with her hands on her head. I’m trapped! She thought. 

 

***

 

Korra watched in amazement as the paper press machine began working, stamping paper after paper before shooting them out onto a pile and stamping the next one.

Har Dayal chuckled as he watched her wide-eyed expression. “It’s a sight to behold is it not? The wonders of modern industry! The ability to spread your message amongst thousands of people, at relatively low cost, has truly empowered the common worker.”

“It’s amazing,” Korra said, getting closer to the machine while careful not to get her hair stuck inside the mechanism.

Har Dayal had spent some time interviewing her about her fight against the separatists during their attack on the district, before quickly writing a short article. In the article he used her as an example of how everyone, man and woman, should do everything in their power to oppose the separatists. 

It was a short article, Korra wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about thousands of people reading it tomorrow, but it seemed like it would be worth it if it had even just a small a chance to inspire more people to stand up for what’s right.

She turned away from the machine, realizing suddenly that she shouldn’t let it distract her when she was supposed to watch out for threats against Dayal. She walked back over to the front window of Dayal’s house to peek outside.

The man had dedicated the entire ground floor and much of the second floor to his non-profit newspaper company, several other workers were here to ensure they’d finish printing by morning. He said that his wife was sleeping upstairs, though Korra couldn’t fathom how anyone could sleep with this ruckus.

Regardless, all she had to do was to keep looking out the window and make sure that she spotted any incoming threats. She kept at this for who knows how long, as the press machines continued making noise behind her. 

She looked away briefly, when Dayal showed her one of the pages that featured her story, which he’d just pulled off the pile of newly printed papers. “Are we done then? You said my story was on the last page, right?” 

Dayal smiled. “Yep, all done,” he said. Before stepping in front of her, obscuring the window she’d been looking through. “Now, will you tell me why you’ve been so paranoid all night?” He asked. “It’s been rather distracting, to be completely honest.”

“THAT’S WHY!” Korra said, pushing him down and to the side as she saw movement through the window behind him. The streetlights lit up a shadowy figure standing across the street, raising up a rifle.

Shots rang out from across the street, while at the same time the windows of Dayal’s house shattered to pieces, falling on top of Korra and Dayal as they landed on the floor.

Luckily the house’s brick wall seemed to withstand the bullets, leaving Korra and Dayal unharmed as they heard the impacts of the bullets thudding against the wall. This wouldn’t last long though as Korra saw the mortar and some of the bricks cracking.

The shooting stopped; Korra peeked up to see the shooter reloading. She was about to hop towards him through the broken window to take advantage of this opportunity when a bang sounded against the back door.

She looked back and heard another bang as she saw the door bending from an impact from outside. Someone’s kicking in the door, Korra thought. Quickly making up her mind, she turned away from the front window and sprinted across the room, past the press machines and several of Dayal’s frightened coworkers.

The back door flew open when Korra was just a few steps away, at the same time that she jumped into the air with a flying kick. A man with a gun entered the doorway, Korra briefly saw his eyes widen before her foot made contact with his head. The man reflexively leaned back, which saved him from being knocked out but meant that her kick threw him off balance and knocked him onto his back outside the house’s back door.

As soon as she landed, Korra scrambled forwards and wrestled the gun away from the man, before wrapping her legs around his neck and arm and beginning to choke him out. Then, laying on her back in a puddle of mud as she choked the man out, she spun his rifle around so that she could properly grip it at the trigger, before aiming it at the building’s ruined front window and pulling back the bolt to load a round in the chamber.

A figure appeared at the window; Korra immediately pulled the trigger.

The figure disappeared again, Korra thought she heard a yelp and a curse as they jumped out of view. Meanwhile the man she had in a chokehold finally stopped squirming. She kept squeezing his neck with her legs for a few more moments before letting go.

She left the unconscious man behind as she stepped back into Dayal’s house, struggling to bring her heartbeat back down so that the gun would stop shaking in her hands. “Someone make sure that guy doesn’t cause trouble when he wakes up,” Korra said to the newspaper worker who looked the least frightened, while gesturing at the unconscious man behind her.

“I think- I think you chased him off,” Har Dayal said as Korra made it to the front of the house, where Dayal was peeking through the window.

Korra peeked out too, briefly wincing as she saw something lying on the pavement. “I think I did a bit more than that,” she said, gesturing at the finger lying on the ground with some blood around it. “Guess I hit him in the hand.”

She stepped away from the window, just in case the shooter returned, then leaned against the side wall, sliding down to the floor. “For Tui’s sake, my hands won’t stop shaking,” she exclaimed in frustration. “Are any of you good with a gun? I won’t hit anything like this.”

One of Dayal’s coworkers took the gun from her, before moving to the wall opposite Korra, keeping an eye on the front windows and door while Korra struggled to bring her heartbeat down. Shouldn’t I be better at this by now? She thought. It wasn’t exactly her first real fight, so why couldn’t she calm herself down?

During the fight, and especially after the fight, Korra’s thoughts had turned towards Asami, to how awful it’d be for Korra to get herself killed, leaving Asami all alone right after learning of her father’s allegiance to the separatists. The thought had made her panic, worse than during her previous fights.

After a while, she managed to calm her own breathing, right around the time that Har Dayal spoke up. “How did you know?” He asked. “You’ve been on guard all night, then you shot into action as soon as you spotted them. 

Korra sighed, then took a deep breath. “Asami overheard her father last week, something about weakening unions and making some sort of move against someone named ‘Har Dayal’, today at midnight. She didn’t remember the specifics and didn’t know your name until I mentioned you today.”  Korra inhaled again before continuing. “I didn’t want to worry you when I wasn’t even sure what the threat was, I didn’t expect something so-” She trailed off.

“Something so brazen?” Dayal asked. “If Sato is responsible for the disappearances of union leaders, then this attack was certainly less subtle than the previous ones. The others disappeared without a trace.”

“Have you made any other enemies?” Korra responded.

“Only every other wealthy businessman in the country,” Har Dayal responded, with a slight chuckle, Korra couldn’t resist a slight grin. 

Then, everyone froze in shock as a knock sounded on the door. “Dayal are you here? I need to talk to you,” a voice said, Korra recognized it but couldn’t place it. “What in the world happened to your windows? And is that a finger?!?”

“Enuk is that you?” Har Dayal asked. “Who knocks at the garden gate?” He added belatedly.

“One who has eaten the fruit and tasted its mysteries,” Enuk replied, Korra was now able to place him as the man often guarding the door of the Red Lotus’s headquarters.

Dayal opened the door. “What are you doing here?” He asked. 

“Uhh,” Enuk said, clearly wanting to ask about the mess and the bulletholes. “I heard that Shaozu is planning something stupid, I knew you’d still be awake due to your work, so I came here.”

“What’s he planning?” Korra asked. Enuk looked slightly surprised to see her at Dayal’s house, before he responded.

“Apparently after he left this evening, he started gathering up some of the other younger union members, trying to get them to help him burn down the Future Industries office downtown. Some of them felt wrong about doing something so rash without it being approved by other lotus members, so they came to me.”

The Future Industries office… Korra thought, beginning to panic again. Shaozu left before I told everyone that Asami was breaking in tonight.

 

Dayal seemed to realize the same thing Korra was realizing, as he looked at her with worry. “Go,” he said, “we can clean up over here, go stop Shaozu before he ruins our chance at taking down Hiroshi and gets Miss Sato killed.”

Korra didn’t need his approval; she’d already taken off running.

 

She knew the route, as she’d taken this same route earlier this evening after getting a ride from Asami.

She ran as fast as she could, at one point using earthbending in an alley to jump up to the roof of an apartment building. It was a good shortcut, it allowed her to travel from rooftop to rooftop for a while. Eventually she spotted the office building, realizing to her dismay that she could already see smoke coming from several floors.

Please tell me she got out, Korra thought as she jumped down an alley and used a blast of fire from her feet to break her fall.

She wasn’t feeling optimistic though, Asami had probably tried to hide when she heard people inside…

As she approached the office Korra saw three people running out, she recognized one of them. “Shaozu, what are you thinking in that nut-brain of yours? Where’s Asami!?” She asked as she ran up to him.

“What do you mean ‘where’s Asami?’ How should I know where your prissy girlfriend is?” Shaozu asked. “What’re you doing here anyway?”

“Asami’s in the building you idiot! She broke in to look for evidence of her father’s crimes!”

Shaozu paled, turning back to the building. “But- We cleared the floors, are you sure?” 

“Like I said, she was breaking in. So she probably hid when she heard you guys,” Korra said. “She was supposed to wait in that alley, if she finished before I returned.” She pointed to the alley she’d just come through.

“I- We poured oil down the stairwell,” Shaozu said, “if she’s on the upper floors then she’s trapped, there’s no way you can get through those fires now.”

“Watch me!” Korra said, before running to the building’s front door and into the blazing fire.

 

***

 

 

Asami finally found the building’s roof-access, which was made harder due to the smoke that’d already made its way to the top floors. She opened the trapdoor and quickly climbed through, hauling the bag of evidence up after her before closing the trapdoor back behind her. 

She went to lie down on her back, then she took off the wet cloth she’d tied around her mouth and nose. She stayed there for a while, feeling tired and miserable while cradling her burnt arm and pushing the wet cloth against her burnt face, unable and unwilling to think about anything other than this immediate pain.

She’d suffered these burns when she tried a second time to force her way down the stairs, after running to the bathroom to make herself as wet as possible. It hadn’t made a difference.

Eventually she sat up and forced herself to consider her situation. It can’t all end like this, can it? She thought. 

She stood up, forcing herself to walk around the entire edge of the roof, hoping to find a way down that somehow hadn’t been visible or accessible from the lower floors, maybe a ladder or something?

She rounded the entire building, but no luck. It was far too tall to have the metal fire escape on the outside like smaller apartment buildings often had, and she’d never heard of a 40-floor tall ladder. Climbing down such a ladder would probably be impossible anyway with how exhausted she was.

It’d be better than just standing here thinking about how I’m going to die though, she thought. Which made the reality of her situation really sink in. I’m going to die!

Tears formed in her eyes as she began panicking, turning in every direction as if expecting a solution to magically appear the next time she turned towards the same bit of empty roof. As if she would suddenly find an airplane parked there that she had previously overlooked.

The roof would be too small to serve as a runway anyway, her stupid rational brain unhelpfully informed her.

She sat down on the floor, hugging her bag filled to the brim with the evidence she’d gathered, as she pulled it up in front of her. She tried to ignore the pain from her burns.

I can’t die, she thought, I can’t do that to Korra. She’s still so new to this time, and we just- I can’t leave her all alone. And my father-

Her thoughts derailed; she wasn’t sure what to think of her father. Did she hate him, was she spitefully happy of the pain her death would cause him, or did she still love him despite it all? How could she know how she felt about him, if she died before ever getting to confront him and talk to him about the things he’d done?!

As much as she’d like to pretend as though her unfinished business would somehow make her immortal, she didn’t believe that, so she decided to rationally consider her options. I have a gun, or I could jump, or just wait for the building to collapse…

She began to consider if she could somehow combine all these options into one, before she heard a loud noise behind her. She turned around to see that a smoking hole had just opened up in the middle of the roof, it’s already collapsing? She thought, but then she saw a figure shooting out of the smoke, flames following behind them.

The flames disappeared back into the hole as the figure fell down and landed in a roll, it took Asami a while to recognize her. “Korra?!?” She exclaimed. “What?! How?”

Korra looked up at her, smiling. “You’re alive! I knew it!” The tribal girl ran up and hugged her tightly, she smelled of smoke and was covered in even more soot than she had been the day of the separatist attack.

Asami had barely recognized her with her blue clothes turned black and her skin covered too. “How are you here?” She asked, smiling back at the girl, before her smile dropped again.

“Now we’ll both die!” She said, tears forming in her eyes. 

“No,” Korra said resolutely, “we won’t.”

Asami’s shoulders fell as she saw Korra’s confidence, the thing she’d always admired so much, knowing that this time it would be in vain. “You can’t punch your way out of this Korra, I’ve looked all around, thrice, there’s no fire escape.”

Bizarrely, Korra’s smile broadened as she looked at Asami. It was the same careless crooked grin that was always on the girl’s face, as if no part of their hopeless situation was affecting her.

“You’d be surprised how many problems I can punch or kick my way out of,” she said, taking Asami’s hands in her own. “Do you trust me?” She asked, as she intently looked Asami in the eye with her two bright blue eyes, surrounded by soot.

“Of course,” Asami said without hesitation, though she didn’t see how trust would save them. 

“Then just hold on,” Korra said, taking Asami’s bag into one hand, before bending down and wrapping her other arm around Asami’s right leg. Before she knew it, Korra lifted her up into a fireman’s carry.

Holding on hardly seemed necessary with how strong Korra’s grip was, Asami tried her best anyway. “Now what?” She questioned.

“You may want to close your eyes,” Korra said as she began to run. Asami barely had time to parse the words before the girl jumped onto the roof’s edge, then leaped off.

Asami screamed, loudly, as they began falling down. Air rushed into her ears as she watched the ground getting closer, then suddenly the ground disappeared, covered up by a massive stream of fire that roared into existence beneath them.

Asami watched in shock and confusion as the fire seemed to move downwards, as though it manifested just beneath Korra’s feet. Their fall seemed to slow, but they were still moving.

Around the edges of the massive flames, Asami saw the ground still closing in. Suddenly the flames disappeared, the ground continued closing in and Asami closed her eyes when they made impact.

Korra grunted, a strange rumbling sound could be heard as Asami felt her body getting pushed harder against the tribal warrior’s shoulders, but then it was over.

All she heard now was Korra’s labored breathing, no rush of air, no roaring fire, just breathing. She hesitantly opened her eyes, she saw the ground, a cracked and torn crater of asphalt, with regular earth sticking out between the cracks. It’d been a perfectly flat road when she’d seen it rushing towards them. 

Suddenly Korra pulled Asami off her shoulders and set her down on the ground. “I should fix this,” the girl said, before entering a strange-looking fighting stance.

She moved her hands up, then suddenly Asami felt the ground beneath her moving. She stumbled as she was suddenly pushed upwards, the entire crater moved upwards, cracks closing, until the road was perfectly flat again. If you looked closely only faint lines remained where previously she could’ve fit her whole foot inside the cracks in the asphalt.

“I- What- How-” Asami stuttered, looking from the road, up to Korra, up to the burning building that still towered behind the tribal girl, a good thirty feet away.

“How?!?” She repeated, after struggling to calm herself down. A few moments to think didn’t add much eloquence to her previous stuttering, she had no idea what was going on.

“Uhhh,” Korra said, holding Asami by the shoulder, inspecting Asami’s burn wounds. “I used bending to slow us down and to break our fall. I’ll explain more, but right now we’d better run before someone spots us.”

 

***

 

Shaozu watched helplessly from the alleyway Korra had come from, as the office building continued to burn. He’d tried to run after Korra, to pull her back from her suicidal run into the building, but the heat and smoke had forced him back.

The others, fellow dockworkers that he’d talked into this, had long since run off. But Shaozu forced himself to watch the consequences of what he’d done, to keep watching until the building collapsed and he knew without a doubt that Korra was dead. Along with Asami Sato, who’d apparently been trying to help gather evidence against her own father.

Two brave young women, who’s plan for hurting Hiroshi Sato would’ve been smarter and more effective than his own, dead because of him. All because he’d wanted to prove how tough he was after he’d kept freezing up during the raid, while watching Korra instantly spring into action time and time again like an experienced veteran.

All he’d proven was what a reckless immature dunderhead he was, he thought, punching the wall beside him out of frustration.

He began picking at the torn skin of his knuckles, beginning to bleed slightly, when he looked up at something strange falling off the tower. Large flames were shooting out of it. What in the world is that? He thought as he watched it fall. Some kind of gas tank maybe?

The object began slowing down, though it continued moving towards the ground. Eventually, Shaozu was able to make it out more clearly. It was a person, holding another person, with fire shooting out of their feet! The fire disappeared shortly before they hit the ground, then as they landed the ground gave way! The asphalt moved as though it was a cushion, softening their blow.

Shaozu watched in shock from within the dark alleyway, mouth hanging open, until suddenly the two people began to run his way. He looked around in fear, not sure what to do, before settling for retreating further into the shadows. As the figures came closer he recognized one of them as Korra, her blue clothes barely visible beneath all the black soot. 

“Korra!” He exclaimed, his gladness to see that she was alright overcoming his fear of whatever strange powers she’d displayed. “You’re alright!”

Korra stopped in her tracks, having almost run past where Shaozu had been hidden in the shadows. “YOU!” She yelled, turning towards him. Shaozu shied back as he saw the furious expression on her face, Korra grabbed him by the throat before lifting him up and pushing him against the wall. 

Shaozu was briefly stunned, focused on the pain from the back of his head slamming against the brick wall, until he looked down in shock at Korra. Her eyes were glowing, a bright white light shone out of them as she began to speak in a terrifying voice, which sounded as though a dozen people spoke at one. 

“Shaozu, you and your friends’ reckless actions have endangered innocent lives, tell me why you shouldn’t pay the ultimate price?”

Korra released his throat, yet he remained hanging up against the wall, as the wall’s bricks had somehow morphed to cuff his arms and body. He watched as Korra stepped back, clothes fluttering in the strange wind that now filled the alley. Her eyes were still glowing, a fire burst to light inside her palm while she wound up as if for a punch. Another girl stood nearby, looking shocked and terrified. 

“I- I didn’t-” Shaozu stuttered. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, I just- Please let me make up for it!” Tears ran down his face as he beheld the being from myth and legend, from the sermons he’d barely listened to the few times he’d gone to church, confronting him with his mistakes.

He was certain that he was about to die until the other girl, probably Sato, he now realized, stepped towards the Avatar. She grabbed the Avatar by the elbow, at the arm that the Avatar was winding up for a punch while holding fire inside. 

The Avatar turned towards Miss Sato, the expression in her glowing eyes seeming to soften as the other girl hugged her and whispered something in her ear. Finally, the light in her eyes went out and the wind that filled the alley went away as suddenly as it had appeared. Shaozu watched in amazement as Korra slumped down in Asami’s arms, her entire aura seeming to change again.

It seemed that he was safe, for now.

 

***

 

 

The only thing Korra felt was an all-consuming fury, as she watched Shaozu, the man who’d nearly killed Asami, who’d caused her beautiful skin to be burned and charred by fire. She felt as though she had little control over her actions as she stepped back and lit a fire in her palm, while speaking in a voice not entirely her own.

Suddenly, she felt the strange sensation of being lifted out of her own body. She floated above her own body, watching herself threatening a terrified Shaozu while Asami tried to calm her down.

She continued flying upwards, until an ethereal sky bison flew towards her, turning in the air to sweep her into its saddle. An air nomad, just as ethereal as the bison and with the ancient air nomad tattoo design on his forehead, was riding the beast.

Aang… Korra thought, as the monk turned towards her.

“It’s time you learned,” Aang said.

The bison turned upwards, they flew into the clouds before bursting out into a magical land, stars shining brightly above, while clouds were all beneath them.

Several figures were standing atop the clouds, Korra recognized them as her past lives. Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, Yangchen, Wan…

Behind Wan, a being of white and blue light burst out of the clouds before moving towards Korra.

“Raava,” Korra said. “Can we finally talk now? Why did you tell me to hide who I am? Clearly the world needs our help!”

“The world does need us,” Raava responded, “which is precisely why we must be careful. It’s no coincidence that you awoke just a few years before the next Harmonic Convergence. While you were asleep, I was… Dormant, but not entirely without consciousness. We may be tied together, but my presence will never be entirely contained to a single location.

“I have spent these years sensing Vaatu’s influence as he sent more and more waterbenders to try to locate you, before giving up on finding you and instead using his influence over certain mortals to spread chaos throughout the world. 

“To this day he still has many followers, some fully aware of what they’re doing, others doing his bidding without consciously recognizing his influence. I have communed with several other spirits, including some that were formerly under Vaatu’s control. They have helped me piece together what’s happened in the years we were gone,” Raava said.

“Vaatu is responsible for the disappearance of bending; after Unalaq failed to kill you, Vaatu eventually gave up on hunting you and helped Unalaq to conquer all the waterbending tribes and form a powerful dynasty. He also helped them to master the art of bloodbending.

“Several generations later, Vaatu gained influence over a powerful bloodbender known as Noatak. Vaatu showed this man how to use bloodbending to sever people’s chi paths, permanently, allowing him to take away people’s bending. Noatak’s followers scoured the earth in a major conquest, hunting down benders.”

Korra watched as the clouds swirled, forming into vague images of war and conquest, of thousands of people lined up before a cruel-looking man.

“Only the most powerful benders were spared,” Raava continued, “they were inducted into a secret order that follows Vaatu. This order continued hunting down benders even after Noatak died of old age. Over time, their focus shifted from hunting benders to maintaining their own bending bloodlines while influencing world events. 

“Eventually it reached a point where virtually all major royal and noble families were secretly part of this order, through Vaatu’s influence they wreaked havoc on the world.

“Monarchies have begun to disappear, the light spirits I’ve communed with tell me that this wasn’t a part of Vaatu’s plan, but his secret order remains and still clings to positions of power. I don’t know how strong their bloodlines are or how many benders they have, but if your identity becomes known, they WILL hunt you.

“I will not tell you to stop trying to help, it is vital that you do what you can to bring more balance to the world before Harmonic Convergence arrives, so that when the time comes Vaatu will be weakened. But you must be careful, and aware of the risk that will come when your identity becomes known. 

“Continue your training with Tenzin. You may not notice it, but I sense the change in you. You’re making progress, it’s why we were able to talk today. Now, return to your body, try to ensure that the foolish mortal you’ve threatened doesn’t reveal your secret to the world.” 

Raava disappeared into the clouds, then Aang directed his bison down as well. Republic City sprung into view as they popped out underneath the clouds, the city came closer and closer, until finally they flew into an alley and flew inside Korra’s own body.

 

***

 

“Korra please, calm down. I’m safe, you saved me, it’s done,” Asami whispered in Korra’s ear, as she leaned in for a side hug while simultaneously trying to hold back Korra’s arm, to prevent her from attacking Shaozu. She’s holding FIRE, in the palm of her hand, Asami thought to herself, with the small part of her mind that wasn’t concerned solely with breaking Korra out of this strange trance and bringing her back to herself.

She watched in relief as Korra turned towards her, before finally the strange white light went out in her eyes, returning them back to the beautiful blue color that Asami remembered.

I DID see light inside, when the iceberg broke apart, Asami thought to herself, before focusing back on Korra, who stumbled and slumped down, as if suddenly very tired. 

“Korra, are you okay? Are you back?” Asami asked, shuddering slightly as she thought back to the voice Korra had spoken in. It had come from her own mouth, yet it had sounded like a dozen different people speaking at once, as if she’d been possessed.

“Yeah, I’m- I’m back,” Korra said. “I’ve never entered the avatar state before, that was… Weird.”

Just like that, the girl confirmed what Asami had already suspected, what had been the only possible explanation for their escape from the burning office and the only explanation for what she’d done to Shaozu, who was still stuck on the wall.

She couldn’t exactly call it a rational explanation though, given how impossible it was. “You’re-” Asami started saying. “You’re a bender? You’re the avatar?!?”

Korra looked up, giving her a weak grin. “Yeah, I am,” she said. “I told you bending was real! At least now you finally know how I survived in the ice, right?” She continued. 

“No!” Asami said. “I don’t know anyhing! This doesn’t make sense, it’s impossible, it-”

Owww, Asami had brought her hands up to her face, the contact giving her an unpleasant reminder of the burns she’d suffered. 

Korra put a calming hand on her shoulder. “I’ll tell you everything soon, ok? First, I need to talk to Shaozu, then we need to get some water, then we go to the mountain like we planned. That bag there has the evidence you’ve gathered on your dad, right?” She asked, motioning to the bag Asami had left on the floor of the alley. 

Asami weakly nodded in response, Korra curtly turned around and faced Shaozu. “I’ll forgive you for endangering Asami, so long as you swear on your soul to not tell anyone about this, to not do anything so reckless ever again, and to spend the rest of your life to make up for this!” Asami heard Korra say, she’d never imagined that Korra could sound so terrifying or angry. 

Shaozu frantically nodded in response. “I- Ye- Yes of course Miss- I mean your holiness! Or divine- Holy Prophet- Wh- What should I call you?!?”

Korra just snorted in response, a casual flick of her wrist causing the bricks in the wall to release Shaozu and return to their former place. “Just call me Korra you idiot, ‘avatar Korra’ if you must. I keep telling people; Raava has never asked anyone to worship her! Just go back to the Red Lotus, tell them that despite your best efforts the plan hasn’t been ruined, remind them not to make any move against Future Industries or Hiroshi Sato until they’ve heard from me and Asami.”

Shaozu nodded dimly, though he stayed rooted in place. “Now scram!” Korra said, causing the lad to jump in panic. He finally turned and ran, after briefly bowing to Korra.

“That’s going to be awkward moving forward… Do you think I can get him to stop bowing to me?” Korra asked with a frown on her face, before turning to Asami. “We should get going, find you some water for those burns,” the girl said, not waiting for Asami’s response to her question.

Asami twisted up inside as she looked in a nearby window and saw her own reflection. “I’m going to be scarred for life!” She said, seeing the burns on her face and arm for the first time.

“You’ll be fine,” Korra said, “I’m a healer, like I said we just need some water.”

Asami followed her skeptically until they made it to an empty square with a small fountain, where Korra gestured for Asami to sit on the edge. 

Asami watched as Korra gestured to the water, which began to move at her command, shooting up towards her hands. She felt foolish for ever believing that the forms depicted on the scrolls and demonstrated by Korra herself were merely metaphorically connected to water, as she watched Korra’s fluid movements causing the water to move exactly as she directed it to. 

Korra moved the water to Asami’s arm, Asami flinched briefly as cold tendrils of water snaked around the limb. Then, suddenly, the water warmed up and began to glow with a bright light. Asami watched in amazement as her burnt skin underneath the water healed up, until it was as if nothing had ever happened to it. 

Korra casually directed the water back into the fountain, before shooting a cocky grin at Asami. “See? Just as pretty as before. Now I just need to heal your face.”

Asami watched in amazement as Korra magically pulled more water from the fountain, then closed her eyes as Korra directed it to her face. She felt that same warmth again, washing over her face and sweeping all the pain away. This time, instead of directing it back into the fountain, Korra used the opportunity to sweep over the rest of Asami’s body too, healing a few other smaller burnt spots and cleaning off the soot and grime. 

Korra sent the remaining water back into the fountain, then she gestured towards Asami and pulled. Asami watched with an amazed smile as small drops began to shoot out of her drenched clothes before collecting into a floating blob of water, which Korra also returned to the fountain. 

She must’ve been staring for a while because Korra started to shift and seem uncomfortable under Asami’s gaze. “Uhhh,” the girl said, “I was kind of expecting you to talk more. You know, ask a bunch of questions like you always do?”

“I don’t know where to start,” Asami said honestly, “but trust me, questions are coming. We’ll have plenty of time when we head to the mountains, be ready for me to grill you with questions every second that I don’t spend sorting through the evidence against my father.”

“Do you think you found enough?” Korra asked.

Asami nodded grimly. “Yes, I’m going to take him down.”

Notes:

Avatar state, yip yip! XD

Korra finally reveals her powers! Not to the world at large, I still have a bigger reveal planned for that moment, but she finally reveals herself to the person who really matters <3

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and that the accounting stuff wasn't too boring. (Or too nonsensical, I don't actually know how secretly funneling weapons into a terrorist organization would work haha.)

Next chapter: Two lesbians spending a weekend alone in the mountains ;p

Chapter 15: The Hunting Lodge

Summary:

Korra and Asami spend time at the hunting lodge, Asami digs through the evidence she gathered while Korra enjoys the ability to openly bend again.

The Hunting Lodge.

 

Asami’s mind was reeling during the drive back to the mansion. She tried her best not to think too much about the insane events that had occurred and to focus on her driving. But when everything you know about science, the material world, and reality itself is turned on its head, that’s not exactly the sort of thing one can just stop thinking about.

The avatar is real, she thought, not for the first time, it was as though her mind was a broken record player replaying the same line over and over again.

The avatar is real, she’s sitting right next to me, and I made out with her!

Asami wasn’t sure if having been a true atheist her entire life made this a more shocking or a less shocking fact to discover.

On the one hand, someone who was religious would probably be even more freaked out by the idea that the object of their worship was someone they had seen in nothing but their wet underclothes, someone they had slept in bed with, someone they had kissed. 

On the other hand, someone who was religious would not have been so shaken by the discovery that bending is real, they already believed in the supernatural so the existence of bending would not fundamentally change everything they thought they knew about how the world works.

Asami tried to tell herself that maybe there is a scientific explanation for the existence of bending, and she was almost able to convince herself. But even if that were true, the science behind it would be so new, so different from anything they currently thought they understood about the laws of physics… It would still mean that Asami had severely overestimated the degree to which she understood- Well… ANYTHING!

The laws of physics still seemed reliable enough for her car to not suddenly float off into space, so that was something, she supposed. But still, what was she supposed to make of any of this?

It was almost crazy enough to make her completely forget about her near-death experience and about her further discoveries regarding the extent of her father’s secrets and evil plots. Almost.

It appeared that her understanding of who exactly her father was and her ability to judge a person’s character were just as tenuous as her understanding of the laws of physics. Korra moves water and bricks with her mind and summons fire in her hand, and Asami’s father is a monster who burns down people’s homes without concern for anyone’s safety or wellbeing, all so he could use the insurance money to fund a murderous group of hateful fascists. That’s just how the world works, apparently.

She tried to focus on her driving, steer left and the car goes left, steer right and the car goes right, press the gas to speed up, press the brakes to slow down. At least there are still some familiar things that continue to function as I expect them to, Asami thought to herself, almost worried that she would jinx herself by thinking it. But no, the drive went smoothly and they soon arrived back at the mansion.

“So,” Korra said, “we’re still planning on going to the hunting lodge tomorrow, right?”

“Yes,” said Asami, “if anything we now have more reasons for it. You’ll be able to demonstrate all your abilities without worrying about anyone seeing, other than me.”

 An eager smile appeared on the other girl’s face, as soon as Asami said that. “Oh fogs yes! I’ve barely been able to do any bending ever since I woke up from the ice, I’ve been worried about getting rusty. Do you think I’ll be able to go all-out?” 

Asami regarded her for a moment, considering the question. “What exactly would you going ‘all-out’ entail?” She asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Korra’s smile somehow turned even broader. “A lot of noise, smoke, and mayhem! You weren’t there, but it’d be about on-par with the noise from when we blew up the weapons factory.”

Asami gaped at the girl for a moment, not entirely sure how serious she was. “In that case, maybe you should tone it down just a tad,” Asami eventually said, as it became clear that Korra hadn’t been joking.

“Regardless, we should try to get at least a few hours of sleep. As much as I’d like to avoid him, we’ll have to speak to my father before we leave, which means that we’ll have to get up before he goes to work.”

Korra nodded in response, seemingly wanting to comfort Asami about her father, but unable to find the words. Then they both went upstairs to take a shower, before going to sleep in their own beds.

 

***

 

The morning arrived, far, far too soon. Korra grumbled at Asami as the woman stood near the curtains she’d just opened; she was stunned to see that Asami had already put on all her eyepaint.

“Ugh, how are you awake already?!” She asked. 

Asami shrugged. “Hurry up, dad is eating breakfast already.”

Korra forced herself to get up and get dressed, slightly surprised by how normal Asami was acting. Shouldn’t she be acting all weird and stuff, after finding out I’m the avatar and finding out that bending is real? She thought. She had at the very least expected Asami to be more hesitant about speaking to her father, rather than continuing to urge Korra to hurry up.

Once Korra dressed, she followed Asami downstairs. As they walked up to the door leading to the dining room, Asami finally showed some of the hesitance that Korra had been expecting, but the black-haired woman quickly adopted a blank expression before pushing through to the room beyond, where they found her father finishing the last bite of his breakfast. 

“Ah darling, I’m glad to see you this morning. I was worried that we wouldn’t see each other before I left for the day,” Hiroshi said, followed by a nod to Korra. She returned the nod, careful to keep from scowling at him.

“The guards at the gate tell me you two had another late night out,” Hiroshi said, a slight admonishing tone making it into his speech even though he continued to smile.

Asami returned the smile, though Korra was able to spot the small signs that showed the effort that this took her. “Yeah, I’m just excited to show Korra around town you know?” Asami said in an impressive display of acting, sounding completely genuine while pretending to be nothing more than an innocent teenager excited about spending time with a friend.

“I do wish you’d be more careful,” Hiroshi said, “I received a call late last night, informing me that my office has burned down, the police suspect foul play. These are dangerous times for a wealthy young woman to be roaming the streets late at night, certain groups are growing more and more radical by the day.”

Korra watched as Asami feigned surprise. “Your office burned down? Was anyone inside? Is everyone okay?” 

Hiroshi responded to reassure his daughter, telling her that as far as they knew nobody had been harmed, before gesturing for a servant to take away his empty plates and cups as he stood up and prepared to leave. 

“I had something to tell you father,” Asami quickly said, “me and Korra are planning to go to the hunting lodge today, we’ll stay there for a few days.”

Hiroshi turned around in surprise. “You’re leaving today? Why is this the first I’m hearing of it? You’re telling me? Don’t you think I as your father might have something to say on the matter?”

Asami had assured Korra that her father loved to dote on her and give in to her desires, but right now Hiroshi was giving her cause for concern, it seemed like he wasn’t inclined to approve of this idea.

“I know it’s sudden,” Asami said, “but Korra and I were talking and I realized how helpful it would be if she demonstrated exactly how her people used to hunt. We own a hunting lodge, I don’t have classes until Tuesday, it just seems like a perfect opportunity.”

Hiroshi’s expression softened briefly, but then hardened again. “Just the two of you? Have you considered your reputation? We haven’t really talked about it but we both know of the rumors that have been surrounding Korra, after the scene she caused arguing with the High Sage.”

“What about those rumors?” Asami asked aggressively.

“I just worry what it could do to your reputation, and future prospects, if word got out that you spent a whole weekend alone in the mountains with uhm-” Hiroshi hesitated, glancing towards Korra. “With the victim of these awful rumors. So far the rumors have focused mainly on Korra, that could change if people learn how much time you two spend together. People will gossip about how she’s infecting you with her uhhh-” He hesitated again. “With her alleged predilections.”  

“I don’t care about my ‘prospects!’” Asami said. Korra wasn’t sure what she and her father meant by that term. “But even if I did, I certainly wouldn’t care about any ‘prospect’ who puts so much stock in idle gossip! Anyway, weren’t you just talking about how dangerous the city is getting? You should be glad that I’m leaving, even if it’s just for a few days.”

This argument seemed to win Hiroshi over, judging by the change in his expression. “Very well,” he said, “just be safe. Make sure to bring a radio with you, so that you can check in with me every night,” he said. 

His expression seemed filled with genuine love and concern, making Korra briefly forget the things they knew he had been doing in secret and remember her previous impression of the man. He always seemed like a calm and thoughtful man, how is this the guy responsible for arming a bunch of hateful lunatics?

Korra watched with concern as similar conflicting emotions flashed across Asami’s face, but thankfully Hiroshi didn’t seem to notice as they bid him farewell and watched him leave the mansion. 

Asami sagged down as soon as her father disappeared out of sight, as though she was finally able to drop a heavy weight she’d been carrying. “Are you alright?” Korra asked, before realizing how dumb that question was. 

“Lets just gather our things and get out of here,” Asami responded curtly, before turning around.

 

 

They began packing things, Asami gathered a bag with a bunch of stuff from her father’s workshop which she got Korra to carry for her, she didn’t know what it was exactly, but it was heavy.

About an hour later they got in the small truck, Asami’s regular car wouldn’t have enough room for both their luggage and Naga. Then, after Korra firmly commanded Naga to stay seated in the truck bed, they began their drive up into the mountains. They talked about a bunch of random things for a while, Asami’s mood had improved considerably, the process of packing their things seemed to have helped her to stop thinking about her father for a while.

 

Then, Asami began asking about avatar stuff, Korra was surprised it had taken so long. 

“What is the ‘avatar’ exactly? You’ve made it clear that the church’s story is wrong, so what’s the real story?” Was the first question Asami asked. 

Korra responded to the best of her ability, starting with the story of Wan, how he was exiled to the spirit wilds for stealing weapons and food, how he learned the ways of the spirits, learned firebending from a dragon, and eventually met Raava.

She told Asami about Wan’s quest to master the elements, about his battle with Vaatu, and his decision to send the spirits back to the spirit world so that humans no longer needed the protection of the lion turtles. 

Asami’s interruptions throughout this tale were minimal, though that clearly required great restraint on her part. Korra finished the tale by speaking of Wan’s death, how he regretted his inability to bring peace between all the different tribes, before being told by Raava that they would be together for all his lifetimes.

“So that part is real?” Asami asked, sounding shocked. “People reincarnate? Their soul or whatever gets turned into a whole new person when they die?” 

“Yeah, that’s real.” Korra said. “The sages all say that reincarnation is not unique to the avatar, it happens to everyone. The avatar’s reincarnation cycle simply happens to be easier to track thanks to the abilities that Raava gives them, you just look for the kid who starts bending multiple different elements.”

“So Raava exists, but she’s not all-powerful. She’s just one of many spirits, and would’ve been defeated by Vaatu if not for her alliance with a human?” Asami asked. 

“Yeah, pretty much,” Korra said.

“And she’s not some kind of ultimate moral authority?” Was Asami’s next question.

Korra had to think about this one for a while. “I don’t think so, the story always makes it clear that Raava didn’t really understand or care about the struggles of humanity, not until she met Wan. She was flawed just like anyone else, human or spirit, she had things she needed to learn. An ultimate moral authority wouldn’t need to learn anything, right?” 

“I wouldn’t think so,” Asami responded. “Anyway, giant lion-turtles, seriously?! People lived on the backs of giant lion-turtles?!” 

Korra laughed in response. “That sounds crazy, right? It sounds crazy to me too, I’ve never seen one. Supposedly they all left when humanity no longer needed their protection.”

Asami hummed non-committedly, seemingly still unwilling to set aside all her skepticism, even when Korra’s bending ability proved at least part of her story. 

“What about enlightenment?” Asami asked. “The church teaches that anyone who reaches enlightenment, which is done by obeying all of Raava’s commands, will stop reincarnating and live with Raava in the spirit world. If Raava isn’t an all-powerful being levying divine judgement against us, then that’s all nonsense, right?” 

“Yeah,” Korra said, “Raava doesn’t control access to the spirit world, she doesn’t even live in the spirit world she’s bonded to me. They say that anyone can enter the spirit world, through meditation.

“Closing the portals prevented people from physically entering and made it harder for spirits to cross between the worlds, but by meditating people can leave their physical body behind while their spirit enters the spirit world. Some spirits are able to do the same in reverse. Usually, people return to their body afterwards, but there are stories about people who stayed in the spirit world while their body died, after which they remained in the spirit world forever instead of reincarnating. Those are usually cautionary tales though, escaping reincarnation isn’t really a goal that people pursued in my time.”

Asami nodded in response. “I never really understood that anyway, reincarnation doesn’t sound so bad to me. It seems like you’d get bored if you lived forever, but with reincarnation you switch things up a little, even while a part of you always remains. That’s always sounded kind of nice to me, even if I never believed it. As a girl I liked to imagine meeting my mom’s reincarnation, maybe befriending her or something.”

“Maybe you will,” Korra said, with a small smile. “How old would she be?”

Asami paused for a moment, thinking. “Uhm, she would be twelve. Not exactly the right age for me to befriend her.”

“Maybe you’ll meet ten years from now when you’re both adults, you never know,” Korra said. “I keep thinking about whether I might run into the reincarnations of my parents someday, about whether they would even recognize me after reincarnating so many times the past nine thousand years.” She felt tears welling up in her eyes but decided to let them flow freely.

A silence fell, Korra felt comforted by Asami’s presence during their shared feeling of grief, and hoped the other woman felt the same way. 

Eventually she decided to change the subject to something a bit less weighty. “Anyway, I’m excited to show you all I can do with my bending, I’ve missed it. I used to love showing off and impressing people in every new town we visited, and showing my all my progress and all the new things I learned whenever we visited a town where we’d been before.”

Asami laughed. “I’m also looking forward to it,” she said.

“Well yeah, obviously,” Korra teased. “Even just my workout routine without any bending seems to get you real excited.”

Asami turned beet-red as she tried to stammer out a response, Korra kept teasing her the rest of the drive until finally, after turning onto a bumpy path, they made it to a big building in the mountains. 

“I was expecting something smaller,” Korra said as they walked up to the three-story building, Naga excitedly following now that she was finally allowed to leave the truck.

Asami turned towards her with a cocked eyebrow. “You’ve been living in my dad’s ridiculously big mansion, but you expected his hunting lodge to be small and humble?”

“Maybe not ‘humble,’ but I guess I expected something more practical,” Korra said. 

“My dad doesn’t even enjoy hunting,” Asami replied, “this lodge is just something rich people like him are expected to have so they can take business partners on trips and stuff. He’s always complained about the pageantry of it all, says that if he must deal with all that nonsense he might as well make sure that he’s comfortable during it.”

“Makes sense I guess,” Korra said, petting Naga while Asami took out the keys to open the front door. “By the way, what did he mean when talking about your ‘prospects?’”

Asami moved as though stung by a scorpion bee, dropping her keys in the process. “Uhhh, why do you ask?” She said, trying and failing to sound casual as she scrambled to pick the keys back up.

“No reason,” said Korra with a smirk, “but given your response I’m actually starting to get curious now.”

Asami sighed in annoyance, as she finally grabbed the keys and moved to open the lock. “Ugh, ‘prospects’ in this context are people who might be willing to marry me. In this stupid society everything that a girl like me does is judged by how it hurts or improves our future ‘prospects.’”

“Marry?!?” Korra asked, while Asami finally opened the door. 

“Yeah,” said Asami, “dad hasn’t really tried to push me into anything yet, he’s relatively patient. But other girls like me would already be actively sorting through their ‘prospects’ at my age, or they would’ve already moved on to the courting process.

“I’ve sort of always imagined myself growing up as an old spinster though. Marriage hasn’t really been on my mind, even though part of my pitch for letting me go to the university was that it would make me an interesting conversationalist and therefore would help my prospects. I just don’t like the idea of giving up my independence like that, of some guy getting control over my entire inheritance.”

“Why would they get control over your inheritance?” Korra asked, not seeing why the two would be related. 

“That’s just how it works,” said Asami as they walked into the building, it looked quite similar to the mansion, except with more wood, and blankets thrown over all the furniture for some reason, which Asami started to remove.

“When a woman gets married most of her property becomes her husband’s property, since he’s the head of the household.”

WHAT?!? Korra thought to herself. “Seriously? I’ve seen people in the papers going on and on about the sanctity of private property rights, but it’s suddenly not important when it’s the property of women?”

Asami shrugged. “Guess not. We do retain some property that we personally control, things have improved a little in that respect, but my bank account for example would become my husband’s and I would be unable to open one for myself.”

“Well, if some dude wants to marry you then they’ll have to go through me first!” Korra said, grabbing Asami by the elbow to pull her in for a kiss, which Asami returned with a smile. 

They made a few trips back and forth between the car and the hunting lodge, taking all their stuff inside. Including the bag of evidence that Korra dumped onto a chair, resulting in a satisfying bounce when it landed. “Now what?” Korra asked. 

“Why don’t you bring our clothes up to the bedrooms and sort through the other things we brought, while I get started on the evidence?” Asami asked. 

Korra agreed and began carrying stuff upstairs, opening a few doors to decide which bedrooms looked the nicest. She dumped her own bag in one bedroom, she began to turn around to put Asami’s bag in another but then changed her mind. We both sleep better when we’re in the same bed, right? And we don’t need to worry about keeping our relationship a secret out here…

Korra began to smile, thinking about the possibilities that this place might offer. She wasn’t sure if Asami felt the same, but she was starting to feel the urge for more than just kissing. Back in her tribe, where the tents that everyone slept in didn’t provide much privacy, new couples would often go away for a few days, looking for privacy in which to explore their new relationship by taking their tent out into the wilderness.

Going into the mountains with only Asami as company felt kind of like that tradition, now she just needed to find a way to get Asami to start thinking along the same lines…

 

 

***

 

While Korra was settling in Asami began to take out all the folders from her bag, putting them in stacks inside her father’s office room in the lodge, sorting them based on the type and date of the documents inside. Then she began the arduous work of not just figuring out the broad method that her father had used to cook his books, but figuring out specific numbers and amounts. 

How many weapons had gone missing? What kind? Where did he pretend they were going and where did they end up going in reality? What she found shocked her, the sheer quantity of the armaments her father had smuggled was enormous, there was so much that it hadn’t been smuggled to just one location, but to several. 

Korra had given her the full set of documents that the Red Lotus had recovered from the warehouse they raided, as well as the exact address of where that warehouse was located.  The warehouse was the same one that she’d noticed her father had bought out in the middle of nowhere. It was nice to have the complete paper trail for that warehouse, but she still had no idea where the others were located.

She was a bit peeved that the Lotus had blown up the entire warehouse, it would make it more difficult to get a complete inventory of the weapons that had been inside. Regardless, she would definitely have enough evidence for the police to act against her father. 

As she continued digging, she noticed that some of the shipping logs didn’t list trips taken by trucks, but by airships… Three of them in total. What’s more, these airships seemed to have completely disappeared after their last shipment. For their previous shipments there was a log of when they left and when they returned, but their last shipment only logged a date for when they left, without logging a return. 

As she dug deeper, she found a financial document that recorded the sale of these ships to one of her father’s subsidiaries, he’d used the same scheme for the airships that he had used for the weapons they shipped, pretending like one of his subsidiaries bought it but delivering them elsewhere. 

As she looked at the dates, she noticed that this must’ve been what he’d been doing when she caught him in his office late at night after speaking to a mysterious visitor. 

Thinking back on it she remembered that he had been mumbling something about airships, and short notice… 

Deciding that these airships might be important, Asami decided to set them aside for later, before continuing to dig through the more mundane files first. 

She kept working until suddenly her stomach growled, loudly, making her realize just how hungry she was, and how long she’d spent without speaking to or hearing from Korra. 

She got up and left the office to go looking for the tribal girl. “Korra?” She asked out loud, after finding no sign of the girl in the sitting room.

“I’m out here!” Korra shouted from outside.

Asami opened the back door and walked around the house, before yelping out in surprise at the gory sight before her.

“Heh, hey Sami,” Korra said, giving an awkward wave while standing in front of the cadaver she’d strung up from a tree and had been in the process of gutting. 

Naga was laying on the ground to the side, with a facial expression clearly trying to guilt-trip Korra into tossing some meat her way, but Korra was ignoring the dog. 

“Hi…” Asami said, further taking in the sight before her. “Is that a boar-q-pine?” She asked. 

“Yeah!” Korra replied. “I figured that since you were busy I might as well actually do the thing that we’re pretending to be doing, so I went out to hunt. We were always happy when we managed to catch one of these guys, the spines they’re covered in are useful in lots of ways and the meat is delicious.” 

Asami gagged. She did not want to think about eating while staring at the bloody and skinless corpse hanging before her. Looking for something to distract her, she noticed the blade of ice that Korra had been using to gut the poor creature.

She pointed to the icy tool. “Was that common in your tribe? Using tools made from ice? How many of you were waterbenders?” She just realized that the existence of benders meant that a lot of what Korra had told her about the tools and methods of her people had only been telling part of the story. As the icy knife in her hand demonstrated, it was clear that at times Korra’s people had used bending to replace ordinary tools. 

“Yeah, we used icy tools fairly often,” Korra began her response. “Not all the time though, even if you can prevent them from melting it’s still cold, so not super comfortable to hold for extended periods. Plus, not all of us were benders. I’d say maybe one in three? Or one in four? I’m not sure to be honest.”

Asami excitedly memorized what Korra was saying, before asking a follow-up question. “Was that ratio the same amongst all types of benders? Was one in four of the people of the earth tribes an earthbender?” 

“No actually,” Korra said, “it was different for each element. Pretty much every air nomad was an airbender, but earthbenders were far less common, maybe only one in ten of all earth tribers was a bender.”

“Interesting,” Asami said, having dug up her notebook and writing it down. “Any idea why?” 

Korra shrugged. “Not sure, some say it had something to do with how spiritual people were, that air nomads were more likely to pass on the ability because they were the most spiritual. But others said that it’s the world’s way of maintaining balance, that the air nomads had the highest ratio of benders because their total population was the smallest.”

This is great, Asami thought, writing it all down. It was really too bad that she couldn’t share it with other researchers, she noted that she’d have to ask Korra about why exactly she was keeping all this a secret.

“Anyway,” Asami said, “I came out here because I’m hungry and I thought you might be too, do you want to come to the kitchen and make lunch together?”

“Sure!” Korra said, before changing the ice she held into liquid and sending it in a thin slice towards one of the legs of the boar-q-pine. The water sliced clean through, then Korra caught the leg before it fell to the ground. “We can roast up some of this meat!” The girl said with a grin, before finally taking pity on Naga and throwing her big pet some of the internal organs she’d removed from the boar-q-pine.

Asami did her best to not be grossed out as they walked to the kitchen. She got out some bread and vegetables, then watched in amazement while Korra began roasting the boar’s leg using fire that she shot from her fingertips. 

Their meal turned out to be delicious, so delicious that neither of them talked much while eating it. 

Korra leaned back with a hand on her belly, the girl had eaten about twice the amount of meat that Asami had. “I was kind of hoping for a demonstration of your bending,” Asami said, “since I’m tired of staring at papers. But maybe you should wait until you’re less full.”

Korra sat upright, an excited grin on her face. “I thought you’d never ask!” She said, jumping to her feet. “I can go right now, no need to wait!”

Asami smiled, following the excited girl as she ran outside. 

“Me and Naga found a clearing where we can go,” Korra said, “I’ll try not to cause too much noticeable damage to the landscape.” 

What exactly is she capable of? Asami thought to herself as she continued following behind.

Eventually they made it to a large clearing on the mountain slope, a stream of water ran along the left side of it, the clearing itself was filled with several boulders and rock formations sticking out of the grass.

“What do you want to see first?” Korra asked. “Water, earth, or firebending?” 

“No airbending?” Asami questioned, making the girl’s face drop. 

“Not yet,” she said, “I’ve been trying to learn it but no luck so far.”

A sudden realization hit Asami. “That’s why you went to Tenzin, isn’t it?” Korra nodded.

“Does he know?” Asami asked.

Korra nodded again. “He didn’t at first, but then he said that he was too busy to keep teaching me, so I told him in order to change his mind.”

Asami frowned, feeling a bit jealous that she wasn’t the first to learn the truth. Then she considered the question Korra had asked. “I’d like to see you waterbend,” she said. 

Due to the girl’s insistence that bending was real, Asami had at times imagined her as a bender. When she did, she’d always imagined her as a waterbender.

She watched in surprise as Korra spun around herself, pulling water from out of the grass! The grass was left dead and dry while Korra continued her spin while making a slicing movement with her hand. The water, obeying her command, flew towards a big rock and looked as though it sliced straight through.

For a moment nothing else happened and Asami began to wonder if she’d really seen the water slice through, but then the top of the rock started to slide down. Korra hadn’t made just one cut, but several, all along the same diagonal angle.

Asami wanted to look more closely at the cut, but it seemed the demonstration wasn’t over. Korra whipped the water out a few times, slapping the remainder of the rock with it. For the last attack against the rock she turned the water-whip’s tip to ice, slamming an icy hook against the rock with enough force that it caused both to shatter.

She then spun around and launched the remaining water towards a tree, forming it into several icicles which then turned the tree into a pincushion. 

Korra grinned, turning back to Asami with her hands on her hips. “You can cut through rock?!?” Asami asked.

“Yeah!” Said Korra. “Pretty cool right? You’ve seen nothing yet though.”

She girl then ran towards the stream, held out her hand, and as though it was no big deal she swept up ALL of the water inside. She spun it around to form a large vortex around herself, then suddenly she jumped upwards, somehow standing atop a spinning pillar of water while remaining stationary herself.

 

She went up at least twenty feet before coming back down, catching herself with a wave of water that she turned to ice, causing her to slide to the side and launch herself up again. She kept adding more and more ice to the path in front of her, sliding along the path while thawing the ice behind her. It looked almost as though she was riding one of the rollercoasters that had become increasingly popular this past decade.

She raced around the entire clearing like this before coming to a stop before Asami, letting the ice-bridge she’d been sliding across collapse behind her. She smiled that crooked grin of hers, seeming to enjoy Asami’s slack-jawed reaction. 

“One element down, three to go!” The warrior girl said, before launching herself thirty feet into the sky with a pillar of earth. The earth crumbled beneath her while Korra soared in an arc through the sky, when she landed a crater formed around her, and she seemed to somehow use the energy of her landing to launch several boulders up into the sky. 

She then pulled a wall of earth out of the ground, she began punching and kicking the wall, sending chunks of stone shooting out towards the trees. 

She used another earth-pillar to launch herself up into the sky, this time punching out with fire as she fell, burning half the clearing with a giant gust of flame before landing in the middle of this inferno. 

She punched and kicked the air, summoning several fireballs that all slammed against a single poor tree, before dousing the tree with water.

Suddenly Asami understood why Korra had never seemed particularly scared, even when fighting the triads or being arrested by the police. She could crush tanks with ease, destroy entire buildings… The police never could’ve held her if she decided to resist.

To cap it off, Korra turned towards Asami, then tilted her head up into the sky and roared, breathing fire as though she was a dragon from mythology.

It was terrifying, but also extremely attractive for some reason. Asami crossed her legs together, irrationally worried that Korra would somehow be able to see the reaction she’d stirred up deep within Asami.

In stark contrast to how she was breathing fire moments ago, Korra now turned to Asami with a cute, almost childish, look on her face. A look that showed a desire for praise and validation, which Asami was happy to provide. “That was incredible!” She said, not needed to fake any of her excitement.

After learning that it was real Asami had tried to imagine all the things that might be possible using bending, but some of the stunts Korra had just displayed were beyond anything she could have imagined.

They spent several hours in the clearing, hours where Asami asked various questions about Korra’s abilities, while Korra showed off numerous less flashy things she could do with her bending.

Korra’s ability to turn water to ice was particularly interesting to Asami. If she could freeze water, could she also change the state of other substances? Could she melt earth? Would she be able to liquify air once she learned airbending? 

This line of thought made Asami consider another question, one that Korra understandably wasn’t able to answer since her people didn’t have advanced knowledge of chemistry.

Which elements was she actually able to bend? After all, air isn’t actually a single element, but a mixture of different gasses, mainly nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. Did airbenders control all those gasses, or perhaps just nitrogen?

And what about earth? Did earthbenders control carbon, or silica, or cobalt, or calcium, or all of these and more?

Korra did confirm that some earthbenders were able to bend and create lava, though apparently it was very difficult. Which made sense, given how the temperature difference needed to bring stone from room temperature up to its melting point was far greater than what would be needed to thaw and freeze water. 

As they talked, it became clear that bending had allowed Korra and her people to gain a surprisingly advanced understanding of certain concepts in chemistry and physics. For example, the idea that temperature is nothing more than the speed at which particles vibrate was something that Korra immediately understood, since slowing down the vibration of water particles was something she had to consciously do when she froze water. 

Eventually they headed back to the hunting lodge, Asami’s mind racing with possible experiments she could set up for the next day, glad that she’d thought to bring various things from her father’s workshop that would help in this regard. 

Meanwhile Korra talked about the stew she wanted to make for dinner, using various roots and herbs she had spotted in the forest. The girl was gushing over how many edible plants were just growing out in the open, apparently the amount of foraging that she and other nomadic tribes did in her time resulted in many plants being harder to find than they were now that people relied mainly on agriculture for their food.

When they returned to the lodge Asami spent the rest of the day going through the documents, making good progress and getting a clearer and clearer picture of her father’s operation. This much progress was good, but learning so much about her father’s immoral activities didn’t exactly make her happy. Thankfully Korra was able to sense her mood and leave her alone while she worked on sorting through the evidence. 

Eventually they had dinner, while Naga happily gnawed on a bone while lying on the floor next to them. The stew Korra had made was delicious, it contained several roots and vegetables that Asami had never eaten before, since they weren’t usually cultivated and thus couldn’t be found at markets. She told Korra that Tuzo, the chef her father hired, would probably love to talk to her to learn about new ingredients he could use while experimenting with new recipes.

 

Korra shyly accepted Asami’s praise of the food, apparently it wasn’t something she was used to receiving compliments about. “My mom usually did most of the cooking, I just watched, occasionally helped set stuff on fire. Guess I learned more than I thought,” she said.

“Definitely!” Asami said. “If your boxing career doesn’t work out then I bet you could get a job in a restaurant, who wouldn’t want to hire a chef who can shoot fire from her fingertips?”

Asami watched in amusement as Korra used waterbending to clean the dishes, in a way that was far showier than needed. Amused smile still on her face, she walked up to the radio she’d brought. Might as well get it over with, she thought, before using it to call her father. 

He answered quickly, asking Asami if they’d managed to get settled into the lodge. She gave simple terse replies, just enough to not be blatantly rude while keeping the conversation as short as possible. Asami shuddered all over when it was done. The worst part was how normal he still seemed, how she was temped to still see him as the kind and loving father that she’d always believed him to be, that he’d pretended to be.

But she knew better now, she knew he was living a double life, she was going to prove it and put a stop to it! She returned to the office to resume examining the evidence against her father, it was very dark outside by the time that Korra practically kicked in the office door and dragged her out to the hallway, telling her that she needed sleep. 

“I’m fine!” Asami whined, realizing immediately how unbelievable the exhaustion in her voice made the lie sound.

“Liar,” Korra said, equal parts amusement and annoyance in her voice. “I’m pretty sure you barely slept last night either.”

Asami stopped struggling, letting Korra drag her upstairs and into the bathroom, where the girl had already laid out her pajamas for when she finished showering. 

Korra left the bathroom, giving Asami privacy to shower. As she let the warm water wash over her, she felt her thoughts beginning to wander. Fearing the numerous unsettling subjects that her mind might settle on she tried to consciously think of things that made her happy, Korra was the first thing that immediately came to mind.

Asami had stubbornly tried to keep working on the case against her father, but simultaneously her heart had fluttered at the way that Korra was trying to take care of her and look out for her by forcing her to go to bed. She’d heard other women talk about how they wanted to find a husband who would “take care of them,” it’s how everyone talked about what a girl should look for in a suitor. But Asami had never liked the sound of it, it sounded patronizing, she’d always thought that her pride would prevent her from enjoying it.

Korra was proving her wrong, Asami loved the way Korra was looking out for her these past few days, how mindful the girl was of her feelings. Even the little things like laying out her pajamas for her…

She felt the urge to begin touching herself but she fought it down, not wanting to shower for a suspiciously long time. She feared she would die of embarrassment if Korra asked her what’d taken her so long after she’d been doing- That.

Asami opened the bathroom door, walking past Korra’s room to try find the room where the girl had put Asami’s things. As she checked all the bedrooms though she found that they were all empty and untouched. 

“Korra?” She asked, knocking on the girl’s door. “Where did you put my things? I saw you carrying them upstairs, didn’t I?”

She heard the girl scrambling on the other side, before opening the door and facing Asami. “I put your things in here,” the blue-eyed girl said with a smile, “I thought we could sleep together again… Don’t you want to?” The girl pouted shyly. “I just thought that since we have so much privacy here, and we’ve been helping to keep each other from having nightmares, and we’ve been kissing-”

The girl cut herself off, seeming embarrassed. “If you don’t want to then that’s fine but-” She began to say, before Asami pulled the girl in for a hug. 

“I think it’s a great idea,” Asami said as she leaned back, before moving in for a kiss. They walked over to the bed, lying down on it while continuing to make out. They spent what felt like an obscene amount of time kissing, occasionally venturing out to kiss each other’s necks and shoulders, finding out which spots received the best results. 

They broke down into giggles several times as one of them playfully bit the other’s lips, at other times they both got really into it, grabbing on to each other’s hips and butts as they deepened their kiss. Asami gasped as she felt Korra’s hand moving up, stroking across her pajama towards where it covered her breasts. 

The movement was slow, giving Asami plenty of time to protest if she wanted to. She didn’t. Korra’s hand softly beginning to knead her breast felt amazing, it made Asami feel vulnerable in a very exciting way. Along with all these feelings came a slight sense of shame that she pushed down, the rest of society would shun her if they knew about this, but the rest of society wasn’t here right now. Overall, this new addition to their kissing certainly added a whole new and highly enjoyable dimension to it. Especially once Asami began to return the favor, touching the young warrior’s breasts, reveling in the sounds that this elicited from the other girl.

Eventually they seemed to reach an invisible line, one that neither of them seemed ready to cross, which caused their kissing to come to a somewhat awkward end.

They whispered each other goodnight before settling into what was becoming their familiar sleeping position; Asami as the big spoon, one arm draped over Korra’s side.

 

***

 

Korra woke up, for once she wasn’t grumpy when she did. It probably helped that it seemed to no longer be morning, that she had slept until it was past noon. The memories of last night certainly didn’t hurt either, she sighed contentedly as she felt Asami still asleep behind her. Clearly she’d been right, Asami had needed a good rest.

Korra stayed there for who knows how long, happily listening to Asami’s breath while feeling the beautiful girl’s warm body snuggled up against her back. This moment, even more so than when they were making out last night, made Korra feel as though she had done at least one thing right since arriving in this strange future. She hadn’t yet fixed any of the problems that society faced, but she had found Asami, and Asami found her. It just felt right whenever they were together.

I wish my parents were here, Korra thought sadly. None of the flings she’d had in the past had reached a point where she’d wanted to introduce the other person to her parents, with Asami on the other hand Korra felt like she would’ve dragged her over to her parents immediately after their first kiss.

She tried to imagine what it’d be like, introducing them to Asami. How would I introduce her? Is she my girlfriend? We’re an ‘us,’ that means she’s my girlfriend, doesn’t it?

Either way, she was sure her mother would like Asami, and felt like her father would be interested in all the engine stuff that Asami sometimes talked about.

Asami finally began to stir, making Korra turn around to look at her with a smile as she opened her eyes. “Hi,” Korra said.  

Asami smiled back. “Hi,” she said, “I could get used to this.”

“Can I call you my girlfriend?” Korra blurted out.

Asami’s look turned apologetic. “I told you, it’s not a good idea for us to let the rest of society know about our relationship,” she said. 

“I know I know,” Korra responded, “I meant inside my head. I keep tripping over my words while thinking about you, which is dumb because I’m not even actually saying anything. Anyway, can I call you my girlfriend, not in public but in my thoughts?”

Korra shyly waited for a response as a fond look appeared on Asami’s face. “Of course,” Asami said, followed by a giggle. “I’ve been having the same issue, so I’m glad you brought it up.”

“Happy to help,” Korra said with a grin, leaning forward to give her girlfriend a small peck on the lips, before rolling backwards and landing on her feet next to the bed. 

“Showoff,” Asami said.

 

They had breakfast, then Asami resumed sorting through her father’s documents. Korra had briefly tried to help, but quickly realized that she didn’t understand any of it and would only be a liability if she asked Asami to explain.

Korra went outside for her morning workout, happy that here in the mountains she could finally return to what had been her standard routine before she was frozen in ice, a routine that involved actual bending!

She followed it up by going through all the ancient air nomad forms that Tenzin had taught her, before making what felt like another fruitless attempt at meditation. I still don’t understand what I’m supposed to do when I meditate! She thought to herself.

She spent a while after that playing fetch with Naga, enjoying the sight of the tireless polarbear dog running after the projectiles she shot away with bending while she leisurely leaned back against a tree.

Which was where Asami found her, after Korra totally didn’t doze off or anything. “Hey! What’s up?!?” Korra asked, shooting to her feet when Asami cleared her throat. 

“Nothing,” Asami said, “I just needed a break, and I was wondering if you could show me more of your bending abilities. I think I have devised a few tests that would help me better understand your exact abilities.”

“Sure,” Korra said, before coming to a realization, “oh I actually have some things I want to try too. You brought a gun, right?”

 

***

 

Asami frowned, wondering why she’d ever agreed to this, then she finished loading the rifle and pulled back the bolt to ensure there was a round in the chamber.

Having a girlfriend was already something Asami had never imagined, shooting said girlfriend even less so. Now of course she wasn’t shooting directly at Korra, in fact the first few tests would just involve Asami shooting at walls of ice while Korra stood safely behind her. 

But the girl said that she wanted to try with liquid water too, which would require her to be actively controlling it. Asami would aim next to Korra instead of directly at her, but still…

First thing’s first, the ice. Korra had created several ice walls, trying to form the kinds of defenses she would apparently have used in a duel with another bender. (Asami had just filled several pages of her notebook on that subject.)

She fired at the icy structures, one at a time, then they went to inspect the results. They were quite positive, a wall of ice just under two feet thick was evidently enough to completely stop a bullet, apparently Korra making the ice extra-cold also helped. Although gladdened by these results, Asami made sure to remind Korra that heavier weapons would penetrate more deeply.

They repeated the experiment with stone structures, the results were again pleasing for Korra. Asami watched as her girlfriend experimented, jumping and cartwheeling around the clearing while fighting imaginary opponents, trying to see how quickly and reliably she could pull up defenses that were, based on their experiments, thick enough to stop a bullet.

Then came the time for the liquid water test. “How do you want to approach this exactly?” Asami asked.

“I guess we’ll start simple,” said Korra, “I’ll hold up a wave of water in front of this tree next to me, then you shoot it. Then we check the tree for holes after.”

They did just that, repeating the experiment several times with different amounts of water. The result was that the wall needed to be thicker than the wall of ice, but actually not as thick as Asami would’ve expected. 

“I want to try one more thing,” Korra said to Asami. “I want to see the effect of a bullet hitting moving water, maybe an amount of water that isn’t enough to completely stop a bullet could still be enough to change its course, if it moves fast enough.”

“When would that be useful?” Asami asked, preferring the thought of Korra not seeking out any fights to begin with. 

Korra shrugged. “Well for example, a traditional defensive move for waterbenders is this.” The girl said, before sweeping up water from the stream beside her and spinning it around herself, like the rings around a gas giant.

“It’s great for both offense and defense,” the tribal girl explained, “I feel like if I use a bit more water than normal and spin it fast enough then it might be enough to deflect a bullet, even if the amount of water wouldn’t be enough to completely stop a bullet.”

They put the theory to the test, Korra made a wider ring than usual, so that the side of it would be far enough away from her for Asami to feel comfortable taking the shot.

She made triple sure that the ring was spinning the right way and that it wouldn’t deflect the bullet towards her girlfriend instead of away from her. Then Asami took the shot, she fired a few more times just to be sure, then joined Korra in inspecting the tree. If the deflection worked then the tree should be free of bullet holes, as they would’ve been deflected just past it. They inspected the tree trunk for a while, but neither of them found a single mark. “I knew it!” Korra said. “Well, that’s basically all I could come up with for defending against bullets, I already know that fire will be useless for blocking bullets so we don’t even need to try that.”

Asami nodded. “Air probably wouldn’t be great either in that respect, you’d have to be extremely powerful to use a gas to stop a bullet, or even just to deflect it.”

“Yeah,” Korra said in agreement. “I guess that’s true.”

“Anyway,” Asami continued, “Now it’s time for my tests.

 

***

 

 

“Your tests are boring!” Korra said, as Asami took out yet another small lump and asked her to bend it.

“Just do it would you?” Asami said. “It’ll only take a second.”

“Fine,” Korra responded with a huff, holding out her hand to try to feel the lump with her earthbending, then closing her hand into a fist. The lump compressed in on itself, meaning that Korra could indeed bend this stuff too. “What was this one called?” She asked.

“Silicon,” Asami responded.

Asami had explained earlier how scientists had discovered the tiniest kinds of particles that all physical objects were ultimately made of, that they had created a list of all these different core particles. These particles were what Asami called “real elements,” she said that “earth” wasn’t actually an element but a word that described a broad collection of different materials, consisting of several different elements.

So, at the request of her girlfriend, Korra was going down the list, trying to bend different kinds of “real elements” to see what exactly she could bend with her earthbending. Quite a lot it turned out, so far Korra had been able to bend pure carbon, pure cobalt, pure silicon, and some others Korra couldn’t remember.

Asami assured her that this meant that she would be able to bend most things that people would consider “rock” or “earth.” Notably though, Korra wasn’t able to bend iron, nor lead, nor copper, nor several other metals. She had of course known this, at least when it came to copper, since people in her time had already used bronze weapons.

Korra could bend mercury, a strange substance she’d never seen before. It was shiny like metal, but apparently it was a liquid at normal temperatures. With some effort Korra was able to use earthbending to cool it down enough to solidify it, suddenly making it seem more like regular metal. It was quite strange, using earthbending to bend a liquid, it definitely took some getting used to. 

Her girlfriend found it strange that Korra was able to bend one metal but not others, and she supposed it was, but ultimately she wasn’t totally sure what the point of all this was. She could see how it might be useful in theory, but in practice she could simply feel what she could and couldn’t bend, she didn’t think that memorizing a bunch of fancy new words would help her much in this regard. 

“What exactly does that mean?” Asami asked. “To ‘feel’ the earth?”

Korra shrugged. “It’s sort of like an extra sense I guess, it’s not the same as touching something, though actually touching the earth does seem to help. I can sort of use it to ‘see’ the world around me even when I have my eyes closed, like what badger-moles do.

"I feel the earth and also the vibrations from anything that touches the earth. That’s how I found you on the roof of your dad’s office.”

Asami paused, seemingly considering this for a while, Korra could see from her expression that her amazing mind was hard at work and once again found herself thinking about how this only made the raven-haired beauty even more beautiful.

“I have an idea,” Asami said, taking out her revolver. She opened it up, making sure there were no bullets inside, then handed it to Korra.

“This is a steel revolver. I know that you said you couldn’t bend it, but I want you to really try again, try to ‘feel’ something you can bend inside. Steel contains carbon, we just confirmed that you can bend carbon, perhaps you can feel and bend the carbon inside this steel.”

Korra held the revolver on her palm, then closed her eyes, focusing on the 6^th sense that she used for her bending. She felt the earth all around her, then she focused on the gun inside her hand, searching for that same feeling in what initially seemed like a dark empty spot. But no, she could sense something there, small pricks of light in what initially appeared to be pure darkness.

She focused on those pricks of light, took hold of them with her mind like she did when taking control of a boulder, then she closed her fingers, smiling happily as she felt the metal being bent and crushed inside her hand. 

 She opened her eyes, looking at what had previously been a revolver, now crushed up into an ugly metal ball. She looked at Asami, who smiled happily at her. “I knew it!” Asami said, before taking out something else, a bunch of tiny metal needles. 

“What are these?” Korra asked. 

“They’re nails,” said Asami, “made of iron. You couldn’t bend the pure iron sample I gave you, but most consumer-grade iron isn’t pure, there’s some slag inside from the imperfect smelting process. Slag is usually composed of mainly silicon, which you can bend. Give it a try, just like the carbon inside steel.” 

Korra held up her hand, allowing Asami to drop the tiny needles inside. Korra closed her eyes again, searching out with her earthbending sense, looking for those same kinds of pricks of light again. She found them, more easily this time. Instead of crushing them in a ball Korra lifted the pinpricks up into the air, opening her eyes to see the needles floating above her hand.

She then looked at a tree two dozen yards in the distance, she lined up the metal needles and punched them towards the tree. With several satisfying thuds they all bored their way inside.

She grinned at Asami, this would change everything. Her confidence in fighting against people with guns had already grown after testing her ability to block bullets with water and earth, but this increased her confidence even more. She would be able to pull guns out of her opponent’s hands, bend a gun’s barrel to stop it from working, or even knock guns back in the face of the person wielding them!

 

They did some tests, to see if Korra could block bullets that Asami shot. (Obviously while aiming to the side of her, not directly at her.)

But sadly it seemed that the bullets moved too quickly for Korra to grab a hold of them with her bending, maybe with more training it could be possible, but for now it seemed like she would be limited to using shields to block them, or using metalbending to disarm her opponents before they had a chance to fire at her to begin with.

Asami returned to the lodge to continue her work, while Korra practiced her newly discovered metalbending. Bending metal was… Interesting. Normally with earthbending everything she did was very rigid, just like the earth itself. But with metalbending she could actually- well, bend the metal. Rock didn’t bend, it either stayed still, moved, or broke apart, literally bending it wasn’t an option.

But it was an option with iron and steel, a fact that Korra eagerly began experimenting with, she found that waterbending stances were often more suited for bending metal, that this better suited the more flexible nature of metal.

She returned to the lodge so that she could prepare dinner, happy with the progress she’d made while practicing metalbending.

 

***

 

Asami put away the document she had been looking at, it was the last of the supply manifests she had been looking it, finishing it meant that she now had a clear view of the amount of weapons her father had supplied to Kuvira and to the separatists. The amount was staggering, enough to arm a small army.

This should be enough to present to Lin Beifong, Asami thought. The fact that her father’s office had burned down was unfortunate, it would make it much harder for Beifong to delve even deeper into her father’s records and would possibly give her father an opportunity to cry foul during the eventual court case. But there should be copies of the records somewhere, and if Beifong raided her father’s subsidiaries then she should still be able to verify from that end that her father had indeed been cooking the books.

Her primary task finished, Asami now returned to the folders she’d set aside, the ones listing her father’s supposed sale of three airships. She felt like these files deserved a closer look, though she wasn’t sure why. 

Her father had apparently arranged these three airships on very short notice, they were also the only example she could find of her father providing vehicles rather than just weapons. She began looking at the supply manifests of the airships, on the last recorded journey they had gone on. One of the names of products being shipped caught her eye. It wasn’t actually a name, it was a chemical formula, one vaguely familiar to her. She considered it for a while, trying to figure out what the formula represented. She almost gave up on it, but then finally it hit her.

That’s the formula for mustard gas! She thought. Is that why Kuvira needs airships, to drop mustard gas on her enemies?

The thought was horrifying, the use of chemical weapons had been banned after the great war, and for good reason. A layman’s understanding of the effects of mustard gas was more than enough for Asami to abhor the thought of it being used in warfare, especially considering the imprecise and indiscriminate way in which it was deployed, since it couldn’t exactly be fired with the same thought and precision as a bullet from a rifle.

She dug deeper into the files, desperate to try to find out where exactly these airships had been sent, which was difficult since the whole point was that the destination listed on the supply manifest was a fabrication. She dug deeper, cross-referencing with land purchases that her father had made, with the amount of fuel that the ships were carrying, everything that she could think of.

Eventually she was 90% confident that she had deduced the destination of the ships, an abandoned military base up in the mountains, relatively close to the hunting lodge, a base that her father had bought two years ago.

One of the logs also included a note, hastily scribbled into the margins in her father’s handwriting. Ensure that they’re ready for transport on Monday 30-11, at noon.

That’s tomorrow, Asami thought, unsettled by the thought. Even if we bring all this information to Lin, it will be too late to prevent this shipment from going through.

She continued digging through the files relating to the airships, all the information she dug up seemed to confirm her conclusions. Mustard gas, shipped to a former airbase, before being sent to Kuvira tomorrow…

At that moment Korra called out yelling that dinner was ready, so Asami momentarily put these troubling thoughts aside. Dinner was again delicious, apparently Korra had found some edible mushrooms in the forest late this afternoon, which she’d roasted up along with more of the boar-q-pine meat from yesterday.

Asami briefly returned to the office to gather up all the files and prepare them, so that she could present them all to Lin tomorrow. She then returned to the sitting room where she and Korra had some tea, she smiled happily, watching Korra sipping her tea while sitting with her feet pulled up onto the chair she sat on.

These two days in the lodge with Korra had been amazing, Asami hated that it had to end so soon, that it was difficult to imagine them carelessly living together and sleeping together in this manner when they returned to Republic City. Seemingly also not wanting the day to end, Korra asked Asami to come with her outside, so they could look at the stars.

 

***

 

Korra led Asami outside, cradling a flame in her hand to illuminate a path leading up the mountain, to a spot she’d found earlier today. 

“So uhhh, did you finish sorting through all the evidence?” She asked Asami.

“Yeah, all done,” Asami said, trying to sound excited but failing to convince. “We can go to Lin first thing in the morning.”

“We can wait a bit longer,” Korra said, “if you’re still not ready.” After all, having the files ready wasn’t the same as being emotionally ready to turn in her own father, to help the police imprison him.

“I’m ready!” Asami insisted. “Way past ready, I want to confront him, so that I can ask him directly why he’s done all these things. Why he’s betrayed my mother’s memory.”

“Do you think he’s doing this because of what happened to your mother?” Korra asked, she had considered this before, but hadn’t wanted to bring it up to Asami. Asami hadn’t discussed it either until now.

“It’s the only thing that makes any kind of sense,” Asami said, “it still doesn’t actually make sense though. He’s hurt so many totally innocent people, targeting the unions and the Red Lotus for their superficial ideological similarity to the radicals who killed mom would be one thing, but the separatists go way further than that… The people who killed mom were also immigrants, but- It just doesn’t make sense, I know I was young at the time, but I’m sure that mom wouldn’t have supported blaming all immigrants for what happened to her! She was nice! She was-”

Asami fell silent, audibly getting choked up by the emotional subject. That’s when they arrived at the spot Korra had picked out, they had to climb up a small ridge, where they could then sit with their feet dangling off a ledge, they could see all the way down and across the valley, and the starry sky was totally unobstructed by trees.

They sat there for a while, silently, Asami leaning her head on Korra’s shoulder while Korra draped an arm around her shoulders.

Eventually, Korra broke the silence. “Could you tell me about her?” She asked. “The happy stuff, not the uhh, you know.”

Asami didn’t respond for a while, Korra began to worry that she’d overstepped but then Asami finally spoke. “She was really smart,” she said, “she was an anthropologist like me. Except unlike me she hadn’t been allowed to go to university, so she was completely self-taught. She collected an entire library full of books about history and sociology, even wrote a few books herself, though those weren’t published until after she- Anyway, every night she would pick out one of her books for inspiration, then she would come to tell me a bedtime story.

“Most history books weren’t really narrativized, but she turned them into stories anyway. She told me stories about Shin the Conqueror, about the Hami Tribe in the Si Wong Desert, I loved it. Years later I read the books she got her inspiration from, they were all super dry and boring historical texts, as a kid I never fully appreciated how she was able to turn them into such exciting stories…” 

“She sounds great,” Korra said sincerely. “My father always told me stories of his most exciting hunts, he wasn’t a very gifted storyteller, but I loved it anyway.”

“Mom also used to tell me about the stars,” Asami said, removing her head from Korra’s shoulder to look up at the sky. “She taught me all the different constellations; she also showed me how to use a telescope. She told me how the water tribes in the past used them for navigation.” 

“Definitely a smart lady then,” Korra joked, Asami laughed softly in response. “My mom taught me the constellations too, then later my dad took me on trips, so I could put my new knowledge to the test by using the stars to navigate. He was really committed to not interfering, so much so that he allowed me to get us both lost for over a week before I finally found the way back!”

Asami laughed out loud. “Seriously?” She asked.

“Yeah seriously!” Korra said. “That’s how I found Naga, she’d also gotten lost, her parents were nowhere to be found. I convinced dad into letting me save her, he never could resist me when I used my puppy dog eyes against him, especially when I had Naga backing me up!”

Asami laughed, then they both stared out onto the stars for a while longer, watching the moon travel across the sky. “Did I ever tell you the story of the moon spirit, and of Yue?” Korra asked.

Asami said that she hadn’t, so Korra began to explain, telling her the whole story, starting from when Yue was born as a sickly child.

“Then, realizing that the moon’s lifeforce still existed inside of her, Yue stepped into the holy waters, cradling Tui’s mortal body in her arms,” Korra said, bringing the story to a close. “She willingly gave up her own life, to restore Tui’s body and restore balance to the world. Ever since that moment the moon spirit has had two names; Tui, the moon’s original name, and Yue, the name of the mortal girl who saved her. People say that Yue’s spirit still lives on, having merged with the spirit of Tui.”

“Like you and Raava?” Asami asked. 

“Sort of, I guess,” Korra said. “Either way, people all over the world revere her and thank her for her sacrifice. Especially us water-tribers, given our reliance on the moon and the tides.”

“Do you have any romantic stories that don’t end in tragedy?” Asami asked. “First Oma and Shu, now Sokka and Yue.”

“Ours?” Korra said, looking to Asami, who pushed her aside in response.

“Spirits, that was lame!” Asami said. 

“I thought it was pretty smooth…” Korra pouted.

“Oh yeah sorry, you’re suuuuper smooth,” Asami said sarcastically, before pulling Korra in for a long kiss. Korra considered it an acceptable apology.

They spent a long time out on that ridge, looking out at the stars, and kissing. Mostly kissing.

 

 

“What happened to Zhao?” Asami asked, as they walked back to the lodge.

Korra shrugged. “Nobody knows. Some say the spirits took him, dragged him to the fog of lost souls.” 

“What’s that?”

“Some place in the spirit world,” Korra answered. “Or maybe the fog is a spirit, not a place, I’m not sure. Either way, apparently this fog traps people and drives them mad. It’s one of the dangers of meditating into the spirit world, my mentors warned me about this when they feared I might accidentally meditate into the spirit world, before they realized how spiritually inept I am. If you meditate into the spirit world, then your spirit could get trapped in the fog and prevented from returning to your body.”

“Huh,” Asami said, “then I guess the church’s stories of damnation aren’t totally inaccurate after all? It’s just that it isn’t Raava judging sinners for their sins, but some other spirit acting on their own?” 

“I guess,” Korra said, she still didn’t have a good grasp on all of the church’s teachings. “You said the church has a holy book or something, right? Do you own a copy? I’d like to read it.”

‘Like’ was a strong word, but it did feel important to know more about the church of Raava’s teachings, if she was going to convince people that the church was wrong.

“Sure,” Asami said, as the lodge came into view. They got back inside the lodge and began to prepare for bed. “So tomorrow we go back to Republic City, give all the evidence to Lin?” Korra asked. 

“Yeah,” said Asami, frowning for some reason. 

“What is it?” Korra asked.

“It’s just- I discovered that one of the latest shipments my father hid was sent to a base up here in the mountains, it will be sent on to Kuvira tomorrow at noon. By the time we get back to Republic City to tell Lin it will already be too late to stop it. The shipment includes some nasty weapons, illegal weapons.”

“Aren’t all of these weapons illegal?” Korra asked, confused.

“Yeah, but that’s just because they’re breaking the embargo. These weapons are different, they would be illegal even if it wasn’t for the embargo, they’re banned from being used in war because of how horrible they are.”

Korra looked at Asami, worried about what her girlfriend was saying. In a world with various kinds of guns and explosives used to kill people from a distance, what weapon could be so terrible that nations agree to ban it? “What kind of weapon is it?” She asked.

“It’s a gas,” Asami said, “released using bombs or mortar shells. It gives people blisters when it touches their skin, and when inhaled it damages their lungs and kills them through suffocation. They say it’s incredibly painful, it’s also notoriously imprecise, a wrong wind can push the gas cloud towards your own troops, or towards a civilian settlement.”

It sounded horrifying, which must’ve showed on Korra’s face, since Asami looked away as though ashamed. “My father really is a monster,” she said.

Korra shook her head, though she wasn’t sure what she was disagreeing with. “I- It’s not your fault,” was all she could think of saying. 

It didn’t seem to comfort Asami much. They both brushed their teeth and went to bed, this time with Korra as the big spoon, holding tightly onto Asami. She wasn’t quite ready to go to sleep though.

“Where exactly are these weapons?” She asked. “Lin won’t make it in time, but maybe I will.”

Notes:

Not much action this chapter, kind of a setup chapter in many ways, but Korra does learn metalbending and how to block bullets, and I thought Asami adding her modern perspective to Korra's understanding of bending was fun to write.

Anyway, as always I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

Chapter 16: The Downfall

Summary:

Korra tries to prevent the airships from taking off, Asami presents her evidence to Lin.

The Downfall.

 

Korra ducked down, avoiding yet another branch while she rode Naga, who was racing through the woods at top speed. After waking up early in the morning, (or very late in the night depending on how you looked at it,) Korra and Asami had parted ways. Asami drove back to Republic City to present the evidence of her father’s crimes to the district attorney, while Korra rode Naga through the mountains, headed towards an old airfield where Asami suspected three airships were docked and would soon take off.

They were making good speed, but riding Naga at a full gallop for such a long time was exhausting, she could tell that Naga herself was also getting tired. She also wasn’t entirely sure they were still headed in the right direction.

She pulled on Naga’s reins, telling the polarbear-dog to slow down. They started to crest a ridgeline that bled down from the nearby mountain into the valley they had been racing through.

Naga crested the ridge at a slow canter before coming to a stop, allowing both Korra and her mount to take a rest. She stepped down from the beast’s saddle, then she reached out with her waterbending, pulling water from all nearby vegetation. This process yielded a fair amount of water, enough to give Naga and herself something to drink before cooling Naga down by splashing her with the remaining water.

After resting for a few more minutes Korra jumped back onto Naga’s saddle, she was about to signal Naga to begin running again when she spotted something through the trees. Is that it? She thought, as she looked at the strip of concrete peeking out between the spruce trees. I think that’s the airfield, guess I’m not so lost after all.

She sent Naga trotting forwards, not too fast since she didn’t want to alert anyone to her presence. At they reached closer it quickly became clear that it was indeed the airfield, since Korra could see three humungous structures standing on the field of concrete, surrounded by a buzz of activity. 

Trucks were zipping this way and that, delivering various goods that were being loaded onto the airships, several people were also getting on board, while others seemed to be inspecting the outside of the airship and unhooking various ropes attached to it.

Korra had only seen these things up in the sky, never parked on the ground. You would think that such a giant structure would look more unnatural up in the sky than it does on the ground, yet somehow this wasn’t the case. At least when they were up in the air it wasn’t quite as clear just how enormous they were, it seemed wrong for anything of that size to exist without collapsing in on itself.

Korra tore her gaze away from the ships themselves, focusing on the base that surrounded them. Chain fences surrounded the entire base, and she could see armed guards patrolling the perimeter. The entire base was a buzz of activity, and many of those taking part in those activities looked to be armed as well. There seemed to be hundreds of people in total.

Could I take them all on? Korra thought. It seemed plausible, but only if she openly used her bending. She wouldn’t need to conquer the base, just get close enough to destroy all three airships.

I could begin my attack with several fireballs aimed at their ammunition crates. Then I could make a turtle seal shell out of stone, push forwards inside of that shell while it blocks their bullets. Begin shooting rocks and fire towards them while remaining behind cover, blow up even more of their munitions…

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she saw all the people surrounding one of the ships begin to run away, the airship lurched slightly, then steadily began to lift up into the air. The ship was seemingly guided into the right position by people pulling ropes below it, then it finally took off completely, it moved surprisingly quickly once its propellers engaged.

With a curse, Korra jumped back in Naga’s saddle, racing around the camp so that she could get below the area that the airship took off towards. By the time they made it there the first airship had already flown past, while the second airship was just beginning to take to the skies. 

She stood atop Naga’s saddle, trying to get a good view of this second airship as it flew over, noting the rectangular metal structure that looked stuck beneath the main round body of the ship, that rectangular shape would be where its passengers are held. Unlike previous ships that Korra had seen, these ships seemed to have additional metal structures hanging beneath, in addition to the closed rectangular structure there were also several metal balconies, seemingly meant for people to be able to stand outside.

These balconies were currently unoccupied though, and the height looked doable, when the second ship flew over Korra’s head. 

She nodded to herself, as if to confirm with herself that she was really doing this, then she turned to Naga. “I’m sorry girl but you can’t come with me, you can find your way back home right? Back to the mansion?”

She dug inside Naga’s saddlebags, taking out two water pouches that she slung over her shoulders. She then took out the map and notepad that Asami had given her, using a pencil she hastily wrote a note for Asami. ‘Ships took off when I arrived, I jumped on-board one of them and told Naga to go home, not sure how long before I return.’

She hated leaving Asami alone again, leaving her to worry. But if this gas was as bad as she had described then Korra had no choice.

She turned to Naga again. “You have to go home! Back! To the mansion!”

Naga barked, tilting her head. “Home!” Korra said. “Go home! To the mansion.”

Naga made a whining sound, pressing up against Korra. “I’ll be fine,” Korra said, “you have to go. You can comfort Asami in my place, give her some big licks for me huh?” 

She blushed at the accidental innuendo, then quickly collected herself as the third ship lifted up in the sky and began to move above her. “GO!” Korra said, watching as Naga obeyed and took off running from where they came.

Korra then looked up towards the airship, bent her knees while reaching for the earth beneath her, before pulling up a pillar of stone to launch herself into the sky.

 

***

 

 

Asami tried to calm herself down and control her breathing as she stepped into the lobby of the district attorney’s office. She was only now beginning to really think about the conversations ahead of her, about how she was about to talk to Lin Beifong, (which was already a discouraging prospect by itself,) to officially turn in evidence that would expose her father as a criminal and ruin the Sato family name. 

She’d spent the entire drive over here worrying about Korra instead, which wasn’t exactly a pleasant thing to think about either but it did serve as a good distraction from having to ponder the betrayal she was about to commit. He betrayed me first, she thought to herself as she made her way to the front desk, carrying her bag of evidence, by doing these things to begin with, and lying to me about it.

“I need to speak to Lin Beifong,” she said once she made eye contact with the secretary at the front desk.

“And who might you be?” The secretary asked, looking her up and down. “The DA is a busy woman; she doesn’t have time for everyone who waltzes in without an appointment.”

“I’m Asami Sato, daughter of Hiroshi Sato, I have evidence which proves that someone committed millions of Yuans worth of fraud, broke several international treaties, and helped arm violent partisans responsible for numerous deaths. Trust me, Beifong will want to speak with me.”

The woman’s eyes widened, she quickly got up and walked through a door behind her, leaving Asami standing behind the wooden barrier that spanned the entire width of the room. A short time later an annoyed looking Beifong showed up, barely looking at Asami before turning around and motioning for her to follow. The secretary opened a door in the barrier to allow Asami through, as she rushed to move after Beifong. 

“This better be worth my time,” Beifong said once they entered her office, a bored tone in her voice while she sat down and rearranged some files on her desk. “If you’re just using your family name to try to skip the line or to get preferential treatment for some petty personal issue then I promise you; you’ll get the opposite of the result you were looking for.”

“I don’t want preferential treatment,” Asami said, “I want you to arrest my father.”

Beifong did a double take before continuing to stare at Asami, seemingly needing some time to ensure that she heard it right. “Any particular reason why you want me to arrest the wealthiest man in the country?” The older woman finally asked. “Or did he just ground you or something?”

“I don’t have a particular reason, since his crimes are so numerous,” Asami said, lifting up her bag of evidence to set it down on the DA’s desk with a satisfying thump.

“I have evidence of him committing numerous counts of financial fraud and tax fraud, stealing from his own company, breaking the arms embargo against the Earth Kingdom to supply Kuvira with weapons, arming the separatists and colluding with them in various ways, including to burn down his own buildings and commit insurance fraud.”

“Is that what happened to his office building? He had the separatists burn it down for him?” Lin asked, eyebrow quirking after she stopped frowning at the way Asami’s bag had pushed the files she’d just rearranged askew again.

“No,” said Asami, “at least, I don’t think so.” It didn’t seem like a good idea to tell Lin that she knows that that’s not what happened, since she had been there while the building caught fire.

“I’m talking about the tenement buildings he owned in the immigrant district, they were burned down during the attack.” Asami began pulling out the relevant files as she continued speaking. “The majority of the buildings that were burned were recently bought by my father, I believe they were deliberately targeted.”

“Can you prove that?” Lin asked. “It could just be a coincidence.” 

“I have no direct evidence that he ordered his buildings to be burned,” Asami admitted, “but I have evidence that he’s been pretending to sell millions of Yuans of weapons to his subsidiaries. In reality most of those shipments never actually arrived, they were instead sent to warehouses that he owns in several remote locations, from there they were smuggled over the border to the Earth Kingdom, and I suspect also distributed among the separatists here in Republic City.

“He used the insurance money from the fires, among other things, in order to fill the holes he created in the budget.” Asami dug through the files for a few seconds, until she found the one she was looking for. “Do you know about the warehouse the separatists held the rally with their big ‘Revelation’ in?” Asami asked.

“Yes of course I do,” said Lin, while she was looking through the supply manifests Asami had given her, “Cabbage Corp recently bought it from your father, but hadn’t taken it into use yet. We figured that the separatists simply took advantage of the warehouse being temporarily abandoned, so we didn’t press charges against anyone over it.”

“That was probably my father’s intent,” said Asami, before handing a financial document to Lin, along with the record of the warehouse’s sale. “But as you can see, he used the money from that sale in order to fill the holes his schemes created in Future Industries’ budget, he spent the exact amount that he received for the warehouse on ‘art’ from Future Industries. Art that I’m certain either never existed or was ridiculously overvalued. He did something similar with the money from the fire insurance. I dug through all the arms shipments that went missing, the money these shipments were worth lines up with the amounts of money my father later injected back into the company.”

She gave Lin her notebook, filled with calculations and hand-drawn flow-charts meant to illustrate the financial scheme her father had created.

Lin was silent for several minutes, brow tense as she read through some of the files. Eventually she sighed, pinching her own forehead. “Ugh, I hate financial crimes, they give me a headache,” Lin said, before looking past Asami.

“SHAN!!” Lin yelled, causing her secretary to open the door and peek through. “Get some of the financial guys in here, I’ve got a stack of files for them to look through.” Lin said. 

She then looked up at Asami. “Where did you get these files exactly? Will we be able to use them in court?” The woman asked. 

“Uhh,” said Asami, “I’m not sure about the laws for the handling of evidence. I got them from my father’s office, I had a key, for what that’s worth, but I did sneak in after they closed for the night.”

“Would that be the office that burned down?” Lin asked.

“Yeah,” said Asami, “I had nothing to do with that.” 

“I didn’t think you did,” Lin said, though she now looked at Asami with some suspicion, “it will impede our investigation though if the other records were all burned, we need a complete understanding of Future Industries’ financial structure.”

“My father has copies in another location,” Asami said, “and you’ll also find evidence of the fraud in the records belonging to the subsidiaries.”

Lin groaned. “I’ll have to talk to Chief Saikhan, and Chiefs from other municipalities, to coordinate simultaneous raids on as many holdings as possible, to prevent any evidence from being destroyed by your father’s accomplices.”

“So you believe me then?” Asami asked.

“Well yes,” said Lin, “you’ve been rather thorough, at the cost of your sleep it seems,” the woman noted.

“And the evidence is admissible?” Asami asked.

Lin thought for a moment. “It should be, the exclusionary rule exists to protect people’s privacy against excessive intrusion by the state, it doesn’t apply to private citizens such as yourself, even if they broke a law while obtaining evidence. I’m not even certain that you broke any law, since you had a key. Either way, even if this evidence isn’t admissible, I’m sure we would be able to find plenty of evidence that is admissible, given the scope of your father’s crimes.

 

 

 

After a short while others began to enter the office, they were attorneys who specialized in financial crimes. They all sat together, looking through the files Asami had prepared. The room was filled with silent muttering as they did calculations in their heads, along with occasional curses and exclamations as they all processed the scale of her father’s crimes.  

“The number of weapons your father has funneled away…” One of the men said while shaking his head in disbelief. “It’s enough to arm a small army! His skill in bookkeeping is incredible, for him to have managed to hide his fraud for so long despite the extra scrutiny from the state after they enacted the embargo. I’m impressed that you were able to uncover it, it’s taken a while for me to spot the pattern even after you pointed it out.”

“Where have all these weapons gone?!?” One of them asked, his voice betraying genuine fear.

“I’m not exactly sure,” Asami said, “the whole point is that that part is off the books. I uncovered some of the warehouses he owns that I suspect they were shipped to, but I’m not sure if I have the full list of them. I know about one for sure though-”

She cut herself off, getting to her knees to dig through one of the piles of folders stacked on the ground. “Here! This one. My father owned a warehouse here, it actually blew up recently. I’ve been curious if law enforcement heard about that yet, or if my father covered it up somehow.”

Lin walked up, snatching the file out the hands of the junior attorney Asami had given it to and giving it a quick read. “It’s outside of my jurisdiction, and that of the local police. So I’ve got no idea. How did you hear about it?” 

“Uhhh,” Asami said, not sure how to answer the question, she now realized that she should’ve thought further ahead. She couldn’t just rat out Korra and the Red Lotus, so what could she say?

Lin seemed to see the conflict on her face, so the woman pulled Asami out to the hallway, then into an empty adjourning room. “You’re not telling me something,” she said, “spill it.”

“Uhm, I may or may not know somebody who knows somebody who’s a member of a certain uhh- Organization that opposes the separatists. They told me that their organization discovered the location of a separatist warehouse full of weapons, they may or may not be responsible for the explosion of the warehouse.” 

Lin regarded her skeptically. “They just told you this? You, the daughter of their enemy?”

“They knew that they couldn’t take him down all by myself,” Asami said, “so they wanted me to get evidence, so that the police could do it for them.”

“And you’re not going to tell me who they are?” Lin asked, sounding like she already knew the answer. She cut Asami off before she could reply. “You can keep your secrets for now, but I recommend that you get a lawyer. My priority will be your father and the separatists, but eventually I expect that I will be looking into this ‘organization’ of your ‘somebody who knows somebody,’ so you’d best make sure that you’re in the clear.”

 

***

 

 

Korra strained her muscles, as she held on to the underside of the airship’s metal walkway. She was starting to think that maybe she hadn’t fully thought things through. 

Lets summarize, she thought, I’m thousands of feet in the sky, heading spirits know where, and everyone on-board will want me dead if I’m discovered. Which is why I’m now hanging underneath this walkway, since these two assholes decided to go out for a smoke.

Putting it like that, it didn’t sound great. On the upside though, the conversation between these two guys was giving her lots of useful information. One was a skinny guy, the other was bald, both seemed to be of Fire-Nation descent. They had to shout to hear each other over the wind, which helped Korra to hear them too.

“Why is Amon sending us on this mission?” Skinny asked. “Let Kuvira fight her own wars, while we concern ourselves with our own country. That’s the whole point isn’t it? Get all the foreigners out, so that we can all mind our own business and focus on our own nation’s prosperity?”

“It’s part of some deal that this Hiroshi fella made with Kuvira,” Baldy responded to his friend, “in exchange for the help Kuvira has given us, we’re supplying her with weapons.”

“A trade deal is one thing, I suppose I can live with that,” Skinny said. “But captain says that we’re going to bomb those anarchists at Omashu, can’t this Kuvira bitch fight her own battles?”

Baldy shrugged in response. “I’m still not sure how a woman ended up as a general to begin with, but they say she’s capable. Certainly better than those perverted communists in Ba Sing Se that are running the Earth Kingdom into the ground. Not that their shithole of a country was ever that great to begin with.

“Anyway, Omashu is on the route to Fort Bosco, if we’re flying over the anarchist front-lines either way then we might as well bomb them. Apparently Kuvira’s forces are planning to launch some big assault on the enemy trench after we finish our bombing run. It’ll hardly take any effort at all on our part, we just have to chuck those bombs overboard, small price to pay in aid to our allies. They may be of inferior stock to fire-blooded men like us, but they still share many of our ideals.”

Fort Bosco! Korra thought, finally these guys named their destination. She had no idea where that fort was, but she memorized the name anyway. She knew they were flying over Omashu, so she could make an educated guess regarding their end destination. If you went past Omashu then after a short distance you entered the Si Wong Desert… 

That lines up with what the newspapers say, she thought, they said that Kuvira’s army controls a stronghold in the desert, some kind of airfield. They’re surrounded by the Republicans from Ba Sing Se and the Popular Front in Omashu, but their superior fleet of aircraft has allowed them to resupply and their position in the desert is highly defensible.

The papers all talked about how Kuvira’s goal was likely to try to take Omashu, to connect her armies in the North-West to her armies in the desert before making a push towards Ba Sing Se. This bombing run, with these new gas bombs, might be part of her plan to take Omashu. Or more likely; this first bombing run is just taking advantage of how they’re flying over the front lines anyway, but the real plan is to deliver these gas bombs to the airfield so that they can launch more bombing runs from there.

I won’t let that happen! Korra thought, gritting her teeth as she desperately held on to the metal walkway. It took a lot of concentration to avoid audibly grunting from the effort, even these two clueless idiots would notice her presence if she started making noise. 

A metal noise sounded as someone opened the door of the airship’s main quarters, shouting for Skinny and Baldy to come inside. When the door clanged shut behind them Korra pulled herself up, before lying down on her back on the metal walkway. 

Breathing deeply, she began massaging feeling back in her arms, before trying to think of what to do next.

She looked ahead to where she could see the other two airships. The other ships were quite close, closer than they had been before. That was good. She had a rough plan, it would involve jumping over towards the middle ship from the one she was on currently, the one furthest behind.

She wasn’t totally confident that she could jump all the way to the middle ship though, even if she used fire to boost herself forwards and stay in the air for longer.

She glanced to her side, several yards above her were windows, in the room where most of the airship’s crew was. The airship had two metal balconies with mounted machine guns, the walkway Korra was on led towards these balconies, but they were currently unoccupied. The altitude made it very cold for anyone who wasn’t a firebender like Korra, so she figured that they wouldn’t come outside until they were about to fight someone.

She began crawling on the walkway, ensuring that she remained out of view of the windows above while she headed towards the cabin with the controls. If I increase this ship’s altitude then I’ll easily be able to jump over to the next one, she thought to herself.

She went up to the cabin’s door hoping to eavesdrop, but then she was caught off-guard as she heard the someone opening the door’s latch. Thinking on her feet; she jumped up from the railing, then used metalbending to create a handhold in the metal above the door, allowing her to hang above the door and hopefully remain undetected by whoever was exiting.

She pressed her hips as close as possible to the wall to decrease the amount of weight she’d have to hold up with her small handholds, then she watched as she saw a man exit.

“I’ll tell the men that we’ll fly over the frontlines at around midnight, I’ll make sure we’re all ready by then.” The man said.

“You better be,” someone inside responded, “we’ll only get one shot at this. I’m not turning around for a second bombing run, just the one, then we fly straight to the desert to deliver our cargo.”

Korra held on to the wall while the man passed beneath her, oblivious to her presence. Korra’s grip onto the wall almost slipped, causing her to briefly panic and hold on more tightly. Almost by accident, Korra used her metalbending to sense the interior of the ship’s cabin.

If she wasn’t still hanging on to the wall she would be slapping herself. Why didn’t I think of using seismic sense before? She thought. Part of her clearly still wasn’t used to being able to sense and bend the metal that the airship was made out of.

She concentrated, now purposely reaching out with her senses, as she did so she noticed that there was a hollow area in the ceiling, between the cabin itself and the large hollow balloon that held the ship up.  

She waited for the man who’d gone outside to enter the crew’s quarters, then she used metalbending to rip open a metal panel, allowing her to worm into this hollow space in the ceiling, before closing the panel back up behind her.

She crawled through the metal space, it seemed to be meant for ventilation, there was a grate in front allowing air to come in, there was a grate below too, which gave Korra a clear view of the ship’s cabin and of the man at the controls.

She settled in, preparing for a long wait while watching to try to figure out the basics of the controls.

 

 

***

 

 

“Can’t you just arrest him today?!” Asami asked, not even ashamed of how desperate she sounded.

“Can’t do,” Lin responded, “we can’t afford to tip him off and risk him or his accomplices destroying evidence, and it’s going to take a while longer before we can organize a raid on all of Future Industries’ holdings, along with your father’s private holdings. Especially since I also don’t want to tip the police off, given the ties that many of their members have to the separatists. I’m keeping them in the dark about who they’re going to be raiding, which they’re predictably getting very uppity over.”

“Does it even matter if you keep them in the dark or not?” Asami asked. “Once the raid actually happens they’ll quickly discover that you’re targeting my father and the separatists, they won’t be able to tip anyone off but they won’t need to, they’re the ones gathering the evidence so they’ll be able to tamper with it.”

“No they won’t,” Lin said, “at least, not the regular rank and file cops. Given the amount of fraud your father has committed I’ve been able to arrange it so that the IRS will be in charge of conducting the investigation, their agents will be handling the evidence. The other cops will just be there as muscle for the initial raid, they won’t be handling any evidence. Separatist sympathies are strong in beat cops, but I don’t believe they’re as strong among the IRS’s agents.”

Asami nodded numbly, not really listening anymore. She’d have to go back to the mansion, have dinner with her father, spend another night with him, all while knowing that he’s about to be arrested because of her…

Lin seemed to sense Asami’s distress, as she moved closer to Asami, awkwardly laying a hand on her shoulder. “Listen kid, I know it can’t have been easy, turning against your own father. Playing nice with him afterwards while keeping a straight face must be even harder, but it’s just one more night. We’ll work through the night to get all the warrants approved by a judge, we’ll have him in cuffs by tomorrow morning.”

“Will I be able to speak with him after?” Asami asked. “I’ve been keeping a straight face this whole time, but I want to ask him why he did these things.”

“I can’t make any guarantees,” Lin said. “He won’t be in my custody, I’ll be the one prosecuting him, meaning that his defense attorneys will try keep me as far away from him as possible. But if you want to confront him I can put in a good word for you with the agents that will be leading the investigation, they’ll probably be happy to let you into the room during an interrogation, making him emotional might cause your father to slip up and confess something.”

Asami nodded again, then one awkward goodbye later she left Lin behind and began to drive over to the mansion. Her route took her past the immigrant district, but the closer she got, the slower traffic became. She’d never seen so many cars blocking the road at this time of day. The cause of the congestion became clear when she finally got to the road that ran around the district, a large barricade was being erected along the length of one side of the intersection, the side leading into the district. The next block over a similar barricade was being erected. 

I guess we missed some things while we were gone, Asami thought, Tenzin’s filibuster must’ve failed, Tarrlok’s law passed after all.

As one would expect the street was filled with angry demonstrators. Surprisingly however, the crowd of demonstrators seemed much more mixed than just the usual crowd of working class immigrants and union members. There were many people who looked to be middle or even upper-class, dressed in the neutral colors that many people born in the United Republic often preferred, as opposed to the bright elemental colors often used by more recent immigrants who wanted to pay homage to their origins.

They weren’t even holding any signs, they looked like they had spontaneously decided to join the protests. Asami pulled her car to the side, traffic was barely moving anyway.

 “We should be helping these poor people, not sequestering them!” One woman yelled at a group of nearby cops, she was wearing a nice dress, holding the hand of a young boy while standing next to a stroller. Several people shouted their agreement with her words, but the cops just ignored her. The woman shook her head, turning to walk away. She walked right past Asami’s car while pushing her stroller.

“Do you mind?” Asami said to the woman as she got out of her car. “Can I ask which version of the bill passed? I’m not caught up with the news, last I heard there were several amendments being considered.”

The woman shrugged. “I don’t know about stuff like that, I just know that my cleaning lady was crying today, all panicked about if she’d be able to make all of her appointments if she has to come through these checkpoints every day. I told her that I don’t mind if she’s later than usual, but she shouldn’t have to deal with this to begin with!

“She already lost her house in the fires! I just don’t understand why the government is doing this instead of going after those horrid separatists, it’s not like most of them have kept themselves hidden, I can name a dozen people in my neighborhood who bragged about being part of the attack, surely the police could just go and arrest a bunch of them instead of putting up these crazy checkpoints?”

“You’d think so,” Asami responded. She stayed near the protests for a while, the woman with the kids excused herself and left, but Asami spoke to several others. It seemed like many people in the city were upset about the government’s new actions, seeing them as ridiculous and as not directly addressing the root problems. There were talks of a general strike, and apparently a group of nationalist counter-protestors had showed up earlier but had been chased away while being massively outnumbered.

It all helped to distract Asami, but if she wanted to get through this traffic and make it home by dinner then she’d have to leave now, so she returned to her car and began to find an alternate route out of the city center.

 

At around 6 PM she drove through the estate’s gates, then walked up to the mansion.

The butler, Mr Lao, informed her that her father wasn’t back yet. He was busy dealing with the aftermath of the fire at his office but promised that he’d be home for dinner, that they’d eat only slightly later than usual.

Great, Asami thought sarcastically to herself. It would’ve been better if he didn’t make it to dinner at all. She went up to her room, where she fruitlessly tried to come up with a new subject for her master’s thesis. Her efforts didn’t amount to much, but they did serve to distract her from worrying about dinner with her father, up until the moment that she heard her father’s car pulling up in front of the mansion.

She steeled herself, then headed downstairs for dinner. Her father was clearly in a bad mood, unsurprising considering what’d happened to his office. It would surely involve a nightmarish amount of work to get back on track after his business’s headquarters went up in flames.

“Hey dad,” she said, trying to sound cheery. “Have you found a new office yet?” 

“A temporary one, but yes,” her father responded, a smile formed on his face as soon as he saw his daughter, not knowing that she’d plotted to have him arrested tomorrow morning.

Trying to ignore the feeling of guilt suddenly gripping her, Asami led the way to the dining room. As they sat down at the dinner table, her father vented about the amount of work that this fire was causing for him. 

Doesn’t he feel like a hypocrite? Asami thought to herself. He’s complaining about having to move his office and get his paperwork sorted, after scheming to burn down the homes of hundreds of people who lack the resources needed to so quickly find an alternative, even a temporary one!

She bit her tongue and listened to her father as he continued to complain, once he finished he began asking her about her trip with Korra. “Did you learn anything interesting?” He asked. “I have to admit, I’m still surprised to learn that in her time women also hunted and trained as warriors, I always thought they’d be weaving baskets and picking berries while the men did the hunting. Then again, she’s very muscular for a woman, I don’t doubt that she’s a great hunter.”

“She killed a boar-q-pine,” Asami said, now glad that Korra had done so, it really did strengthen their cover story. “It made an excellent stew, especially combined with all the roots and herbs and stuff that she foraged. I really need to get her to talk to Tuzo, she used a bunch of ingredients that he’s probably never even heard of or considered using, it’d be a nice opportunity for him to develop some unique recipes for the restaurant he wants to start.”

“Restaurant?” Her father asked, apparently not knowing about the dreams of his private chef.

At that moment, Tuzo walked in with two plates of appetizers. “Hello Sir,” he said, “I never told you about that? I’ve been using your generous salary to save up. I think I almost have enough so that, combined with a loan from the bank, I’ll be able to start my own restaurant.”

“And leave me without my chef? You’d have me starve to death?!” Her father said in mock outrage. Asami laughed at her father’s signature humor, then abruptly stopped as she wondered if anyone was starving as a result of his plots against an already impoverished community.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to find a good replacement sir, but I want to follow my dreams,” Tuzo said, after which her father assured him that he’d never stand in the way of that, and even offered to give him a loan with better terms than a bank would offer.

Asami didn’t know how to feel, this was the man she’d always known, kind and generous towards his workers, she didn’t know how to reconcile that with his support for the separatists and their violent actions. 

It made her glad that he’d be arrested tomorrow, it would give her a chance to confront him, she hoped that such a confrontation would somehow help to show that the man she’d always thought he was still existed, that it hadn’t all been a lie all along. 

She was shaken from her thoughts as she noticed Tuzo and her father looking at her expectantly. “I’m sorry, did you say something?” She asked.

Tuzo repeated his question about which ingredients Korra had been using, Asami told him as much as she could, but said that he should talk to Korra when she returned.

Tuzo left to prepare the main course, leaving Asami alone with her father again.

“Where is Korra anyway?” He asked. “I’ve missed us reading the news together.”

Asami covered a grimace, as she too wondered where Korra and Naga were, if Korra was even still alive. Luckily she’d already come up with a story. “We couldn’t eat a whole boar together, and she caught some other animals too. We didn’t want it to go to waste so she went to bring them to a soup kitchen where her friend works, so they can be used to feed those who need it. She stayed there to help them to cook and serve it all.” 

It was partly true, Asami had dropped off the meat with Bolin before she’d gone to the DA’s office.

The main course was served, though her father left abruptly when his assistant walked in to tell him about an urgent phone call. She didn’t see much of him the rest of the night, she worried that he’d somehow been tipped off about the police preparing for his arrest, but that worry was laid to rest when he briefly stopped by to wish her good night without giving any sign of concern. He said that the ‘emergency’ had just been some complications with getting the new office up and running.

Asami went to get one more cup of tea before bed, when she noticed something in the back yard. She opened the door and was met with a disheveled looking Naga, sticks and leaves sticking out of her fur, panting heavily as she ran up to Asami. Korra was nowhere in sight. 

Asami petted the beast as it pressed against her, her worry nearly overwhelming her. She then had the idea of looking through the beast’s saddle bags, as though those would give her a clue of what’d happened to Korra.

It seemed like a long-shot, but as she looked through the saddlebags she found the notepad that she’d given to Korra, a new note had been hastily scribbled onto it.

‘Ships took off when I arrived, I jumped on-board one of them and told Naga to go home, not sure how long before I return.’

Asami sighed in relief, even as a new sense of worry took hold of her. She jumped on-board of a ship full of separatists?!? Even as the avatar, even with her newly discovered ability to bend metal, that still sounded incredibly dangerous.

Asami took Naga inside, giving the dog a quick clean before taking her up to her bedroom. Cuddling up to the big dog somehow helped to alleviate some of her concerns for the beast’s owner.

 

***

 

“Everyone to their stations!” The captain said, speaking into a microphone of some sort that was built into his control panel. “30 minutes before we drop our payload.”

It’s time then, Korra thought to herself, trying her best to silently do some stretches and to limber up even while she was still stuck in the confined space in the ceiling. She thought she had a decent understanding of the ship’s basic controls, enough to direct it upwards. She looked through the grate at the front of the ventilation system, which allowed her to see the ship in front of them.

The distance still looked doable, assuming that she’d be able to give herself some more height. 

No time to hesitate, she thought, spending just a few more moments to massage the stiffness from her muscles before jumping into action.

With a quick movement she punched the metal beneath her head, causing an entire panel to fall down to the cabin’s floor. She shifted forward slightly, letting her upper body fall through the hole and flipping in the air to land on her feet, on top of the panel that’d gone down before her.

The captain yelped as he turned around to look at her in shock. “What!?! Who-”

Despite his confusion he was apparently smart enough to identify her as an enemy, as he reached for the pistol in his holster. Korra reached out to the pistol with her open hand, before squeezing her fist shut, causing the gun to crumple up as though it’d been inside of her hand.

The captain pulled the now-misshapen gun from its holster, squeezed the trigger, but nothing happened. He looked at the gun in confusion, before shaking his head and swinging it towards Korra. 

She easily dodged his swing, then grabbed his arm and redirected his movement to slam him to the ground. He landed right onto the loose panel on the floor, which she then bent around his arms to keep him from moving. He was about to scream for help, but Korra used his open mouth as an opportunity to shove the hat he'd been wearing inside.

“Mhhmh!” The man grunted with his muffled voice, fear and confusion showing on his face, Korra ignored him as she turned towards the control panel. She grabbed the lever she’d seen him using to adjust the ship’s height and pulled on it. 

There was a delay, but she noted happily that the ship tilted somewhat, its nose pointed up and they began gaining altitude compared to the ship in front of them. Her happiness disappeared as she heard a bang against the cabin’s door, before someone began twisting the metal wheel that opened it.

“Why are we going up?” A man said as he walked inside, before noticing the captain wrapped inside a metal panel, lying on the floor.

He immediately pulled a pistol, Korra responded by punching forward with an open palm, slamming the pistol into the man’s chest with enough force to send the man himself flying backwards out of the cabin.

Korra stepped out, seeing that the man had managed to grab the railing of the walkway, preventing him from falling overboard. Several people ran to help him climb back up, while several more stared at Korra in confusion. She ignored them all, as she looked up to the large round shape overhead. 

She bent her knees in preparation, then jumped upwards with a blast of fire. She grabbed onto the metal shape that one of the ship’s propellers was attached to, from there she climbed up until she stood on top of the airship’s large bulbous shape, which according to Asami was filled with a highly flammable gas…

She turned around, briefly hesitated, but then used metalbending to rip apart the metal framework around which the ship’s gasbag was stretched. The bag’s skin tore apart and gas began to audibly leak from the opening. Korra twisted around to look back at the ship she planned to jump towards and confirm that she’d gotten high enough, then faced towards the hole again. 

She punched fire towards the opening, immediately the gas rushing out caught on fire, the fire quickly began to burn away the bag meant to contain the gas. 

Korra turned around and began to run, once she reached the ship’s front she used metalbending on the ship’s metal framework to launch herself upwards into the sky. 

She aimed herself towards her destination as she reached the tip of her arc through the sky, then punched behind her with jets of fire, which rapidly began to propel her forwards.  

Despite her speed she was losing attitude, but the ship she was targeting got closer and closer and it was clear that she was still high enough to make it to the metal walkway beneath the ship. She landed in a roll, which ended just in front of a surprised crewmember who jumped back in surprise. 

 

Not giving him a chance to respond Korra shot a blast of fire into the man’s chest, launching him backwards along the walkway where he slammed into several other members of the ship’s crew. Korra opened her water pouches and immediately pulled out all their contents, she spun the water around herself, then used a sweeping motion to cut through the metal bars that attached the ship’s gunner platform to the ship itself.

The gunners, one of which had just begun to aim his mounted machine gun towards Korra, screamed in shock and fear as their entire platform began to plummet back to earth.

Still controlling the water, Korra spun around and sliced again, doing the same to the second gunner platform. She then used the water to cover the crewmember she’d blasted backwards when she landed, freezing him and the two others he’d bumped into so that they were stuck to the floor of the metal walkway.

By now everyone on-board seemed to realize they were under attack, though it was clear they were all still very confused. They began aiming guns at Korra, who responded by sweeping her hands left and right, using metalbending to flick several people’s guns to the side and send them flying out of their hands.

She didn’t get everyone, a few people got their guns aimed towards Korra, she punched towards them to slam their guns into their chests and send them flying overboard, where their screams soon disappeared into the howling wind.

Everyone in sight was now either disarmed, frozen, or plummeting down to earth. Korra spared a glance backwards, where she saw that the first airship was already little more than a metal framework surrounded by a roaring fire, the fire lit up the clouds beneath as the ship began its fall to the ground.

Focusing back on more immediate problems, Korra ran towards the ship’s cabin. The person inside twisted the metal wheel that would unlock the door but Korra used metalbending to destroy the mechanism, locking the captain inside for now. 

“Who- What are you?” One of the disarmed men asked from the walkway behind her.

“I’m your captor,” Korra said, “just stay calm and quiet if you don’t want to join your friends on their quick trip back to the ground.”

One of the men was about to protest, but Korra used a bit of water to cover his mouth and freeze it shut. “Back inside, all of you!” She yelled, ignoring the frozen crewmembers for now as she herded the others into the crew’s quarters. She followed them inside, where she used metalbending to send anything that looked like a weapon flying out through the windows. She then turned to the frozen guys, using waterbending to send them flying into the crew’s quarters. They landed in a pile, ice-cold water splashing around them as Korra thawed it.

She heard the ship’s captain, still locked in his cabin, yelling through a speaker system installed in the crew’s quarters, using a lot of expletives while asking what in the world is happening.

“Stay here, you’ll be fine so long as you don’t cause any trouble!” Korra informed them, before slamming the door shut and using metalbending to lock it.

Then she turned to look towards the third airship, still flying in the distance. Taking a few deep breaths, she gathered her chi and punched forwards, sending a ball of concentrated fire towards the final blimp. It wasn’t especially large, but she’d made it extremely hot, she controlled it for as long as possible while it went off flying towards the final ship. 

It slammed against the ship’s gasbag, which immediately began spitting out a large gust of flames as the gas leaking out was lit on fire.

The stream of fire shooting sideways out of the back of the blimp caused it to begin turning in the air, giving Korra an even bigger target as she sent several more fireballs towards it. It wasn’t long before she watched grimly as this metal carcass also plummeted to the ground, which at this time of night mostly just looked like an infinite darkness.

She then turned to the cabin, using metalbending to kick in the door before stepping through the now empty doorway.

The captain was on the floor, with the detached door on top of him. Korra used metalbending to lift the door in the air before pointedly setting it down beside him with a loud thump. She gave the man her best glare, daring him to do something.

The man swallowed, looking confused but seeming to realize that Korra wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

“I need to you bring the ship down to the ground for a landing, on the Popular Front’s side of the battle lines,” Korra said to the man, after using metalbending to pull his pistol out of his holster and to the side.

“What? Who are you, how did you get here?!?” The man asked.

“I jumped,” Korra responded simply. “You only have two options right now, you either do what I ask and take the slow way down, or you take the quick way down like several of your buddies just did.”

She wasn’t actually about to throw him overboard merely for disobeying her, not when he was disarmed and totally harmless, but he didn’t need to know that.

“What are you?” The man asked, glancing towards the pistol Korra had tossed to the side, looking confused as to how she’d done so without touching it.

His look towards the pistol seemed more like a look of curiosity than like he was planning something, but just to be clear Korra pulled the gun up towards herself, then crumpled it up in a ball between her hands.

“I’m the Avatar,” she said, “and I’m not feeling very patient right now. Do what I asked, or I’ll throw you in the fogs of damnation myself.”

The man’s eyes widened, he tried to push himself even further into the corner of the room that he’d crawled towards, as if a few more inches of distance would make a difference.

“For Tui’s sake,” Korra said, grabbing the man by the shoulders, lifting him in the air and setting him down in front of the controls. “Just do your job, think about the controls, don’t think about anything else, how would you bring us down for a landing?”

“Uhh,” the man said, seeming to focus a bit more now that he was standing in front of the familiar controls, his hands hovered over the buttons and levers.

“I can begin changing the pitch and let a bit of hydrogen escape, then we’ll begin losing altitude. But the landing itself isn’t the problem, you can’t seriously expect me to touch down on enemy territory? Those communists will tear me to pieces!”

“I’ll protect you,” Korra said. Surprisingly that seemed to reassure the captain, as he began pushing buttons and pulling levers.

“I need to know where exactly the battle lines are,” the captain said. “Before uhh- Before you arrived my crew told me that they’d spotted the flares shot by Kuvira’s forces to mark the enemy trenches for our bombing run. I need you to tell me if you can spot any more flares, then I’ll try to put the ship down a few miles behind the commie trench.”

Korra sent him a distrustful look, he held his arms open to the side in a disarming gesture. “I don’t know what to tell you, I need someone to help me navigate, if not my regular crew then you’ll have to do.” The man paused for a moment before continuing. “What happened to the lads anyway?” He asked.

Korra sighed. “Three went overboard, the rest are fine, just locked in their quarters…” Korra paused as the captain breathed a sigh of relief. “What’s your name?” She asked.

“Sizon,” he said.

“Fine,” Korra responded, “I’ll go outside, tell you where to go. Just don’t try anything funny.”

She went outside, peering out into the darkness. Eventually she spotted a few bright lights on the ground. She turned back to talk to Sizon. “I see a bunch of bright white lights, are those the flares?” She asked.

Sizon nodded, then began to initiate the landing, following Korra’s directions as she continued to look down at the ground, it slowly got closer and more detailed. Eventually she was able to make out what she thought were the trenches, just a bunch of thin sad-looking lines on top of the hills that led up to the mountain range. The trenches were already behind them, meaning that they had already left the territory held by Kuvira’s forces, passed the front-lines, and were now in the Popular Front’s territory.

Now she just had to figure out how to explain to the people down on the ground that she was on their side, that she’d single-handedly brought down three enemy airships and was here to help.

 

 

***

 

 

Asami woke up early, then took a shower to calm her nerves. She decided against putting up makeup this morning, it didn’t feel appropriate. She went down for breakfast, where her father told her that he’d just talked to the police, that they were coming over to tell him about a development in the investigation of the office fire.

That must mean Lin has gotten everything on-track, Asami thought, they wouldn’t come here unless they were ready to arrest him, ready to launch simultaneous raids on all his properties.

Irrationally worried that he might somehow read her mind, Asami stopped thinking about it and simply smiled at her father, trying to fool herself and pretend like she didn’t know all the things she knew. “That’s great,” Asami said, “I hope they’ve caught who did it, that there won’t be any more fires. Someone could’ve gotten hurt!”

“Exactly,” her father said, “we can’t have some maniac running free and starting fires. Nevermind the property damage, I can afford to pay for that, sooner or later someone will get hurt!”

It took everything Asami had not to start screaming in rage about her father’s hypocrisy, instead she just clenched her fists beneath the table, quickly finishing breakfast before excusing herself and heading upstairs. She changed her mind about her makeup, she needed something to do while waiting for the police to arrive, and a petty part of her wanted to look her very best while she watched her father being marched away in handcuffs.

The doorbell rang just when Asami was putting the finishing touches on her eyeliner, she quickly put her makeup away, then headed downstairs.

“Chief Saikhan, here in person. I’m honored, but surely a mere fire doesn’t warrant your personal attention?” Her father said once he personally opened the door, after waving away the butler who’d been about to open it instead.

Her father stepped aside to let the Chief of police enter, he was accompanied by two uniformed cops. “I’m pretty swamped at the moment,” Saikhan said, “but I’m afraid that this situation warrants my personal presence.”

“So the fire definitely was foul play then,” Hiroshi said, “who was responsible? Some sort of radical organization? Don’t tell me it was one of the unions, I thought our contract negotiations were going well!” 

Asami could swear that she heard a hint of excitement in her father’s voice, at the thought of being able to blame worker unions for the fire.

“I’ve got no idea who started the fire,” Saikhan said, “I’m here regarding a different matter.”

Hiroshi looked confused once Saikhan said this. “I spoke to your assistant, she said that-”

“My assistant lied,” Saikhan said, “I’m here to arrest you.”

Asami watched as her father’s eyes widened in shock. “On what charges?!” He exclaimed.

“Numerous counts of fraud, other financial nonsense I can’t even pronounce, breaking the weapons embargo against the Earth Kingdom, numerous counts of conspiracy, membership of an insurgency movement, arson, the list goes on,” Saikhan said. “We can discuss it at the station, I’m sure you’ve got a fancy lawyer who’ll know all the right questions to ask.”

 

“This is outrageous,” Hiroshi said, “all these charges are nonsense! Why- Who put you up to this?”

“We’ve had an anonymous witness come forward, they provided us with numerous documents that clearly demonstrate your crimes,” Saikhan said. “Please don’t cause a fuss, the cuffs are just a formality, I’m sure that with your lawyers you’ll be able to get a relatively light sentence, in a minimal security prison.”

Saikhan motioned for the uniformed officers to move forwards, but neither Hiroshi nor Asami were watching them. Once Saikhan had mentioned an anonymous witness her father’s eyes had glanced towards Asami, and Asami hadn’t been able to keep a guilty look from her face.

They just stared each other while the cops began to read her father his rights. Asami felt herself wanting to retreat into a small corner beneath her father’s withering stare, but then she straightened her shoulders. He’s got no right to feel betrayed, I’M the one who’s been betrayed!

“Just give up father, we have more than enough evidence,” Asami said. She continued speaking after a brief pause. “Why did you do these things?”

Asami watched as many different emotions flashed across her father’s face, it started with anger, then shock, then sadness. “Sweetie,” he said, “I wanted to keep you out of this for as long as I could, but now that you know the truth, please forgive me. These people- These filthy immigrants, with their radical ideologies, they took away your mother! The love of my life! They’ve ruined the world! But with Amon and Kuvira we can fix it, and build a perfect world together! One without ethnic conflicts, where every group has their own state that protects their own traditions!”

Asami just stared at him, she felt… Disappointed. Were his motivations really that petty?

“Join me Asami!” Her father said, but Asami just shook her head.

“No,” she said, “I’m the one who turned you in, you have to face justice for the things you’ve done, for the way you’ve disrespected mom’s memory. Maybe one day you’ll come to your senses and we can be a family again, once you’ve served your sentence.”

“HOW DARE YOU!?!” Her father said, causing the police officers to reach for their guns. I’M AVENGING YOUR MOTHER’S DEATH!”

Her father then turned around and nodded to his butler, Mr Lao.

What happened next went by so quickly that Asami was barely able to follow along. Mr Lao, who’d previously been ignored by the police, reached behind his back, pulling out a pistol that he aimed towards the two uniformed officers, while Hiroshi punched the Chief in the face!

The officers pulled out their own guns but they were too late, two gunshots sounded, causing blood to splatter the front hall before the two cops fell down to the floor. Asami shrieked in shock, while Mr Lao stepped forward, firing several more rounds at the prone bodies. 

Chief Saikhan jumped backwards while clutching his nose, then slid down to the floor once his back hit a wall. “Please don’t!” He said, raising his hands in the air while Mr Lao aimed his pistol at him.

Lao looked to Hiroshi, who shook his head while rubbing the knuckles of the hand he’d punched Saikhan with. “Not him. Bad enough that we’ve killed two officers, best not add the Chief to the list,” Asami’s father said, before casually stepping over one of the dead bodies.

“There’s more cops outside,” Lao said, “they heard the shots.”

“Let them know we have the Chief,” Hiroshi responded, walking towards the stairs while completely ignoring Asami. “I need to grab a few things before we leave, just stall them!” 

He ran past her while going up the stairs, she wanted to stop him but she just… Didn’t. Asami stood there, frozen, staring at the two dead bodies with blood beginning to pool around them. He- He just-

She’d known Mr Lao her whole life, she remembered him pushing her on a swing, she remembered him comforting her after her mom died. She’d known that he was a war veteran, but she never would’ve imagined him killing two innocent people in cold blood like this. And he’d done it on her father’s orders. 

She watched as Mr Lao grabbed Chief Saikhan by the shoulder and janked him to his feet, before dragging him to the front door with a gun pressed into his back. Lao kicked the door open and then began talking loudly. “I have Chief Saikhan at gunpoint!” He said. “If any of you try to enter the building I’ll put a bullet in his skull!”

Asami slowly walked over to the fallen police officers, to where one of them had dropped his pistol. She bent down to grab it, all while Mr Lao’s attention was still focused on the cops outside.

She stood back up, gun in hand, but then she heard her father’s voice from upstairs. “I have everything I need, we should run for the back door before they get this place surrounded.”

Asami turned her body, to make sure the gun wasn’t visible from where her father was standing. “You’re leaving, just like that?” She asked. “You’re really going to spend the rest of your life on the run?”

“It won’t be the rest of my life,” her father said, “this corrupt government won’t last forever, someday soon me and Amon will overthrow it and install a government that truly serves the people of this nation. When that time comes, I hope you’ll return to my side and we can be a family again.”

Asami scoffed in response. “Are you insane? How can we be a family after everything you’ve done?”

Her father just shook his head sadly. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, you’re brilliant, just like your mother was. But you’re naïve, weak in the way women naturally are, not capable of facing the harsh realities of this world.”

Mr Lao kicked the front door closed, then dragged Saikhan a few steps back through the foyer, before using the butt of his pistol to hit the back of the Chief’s skull, knocking him out.

“Time to go Sir!” Lao said. 

Asami was still looking at her father. “You have no idea what I’m capable of,” she said, before revealing the gun she’d been holding and aiming it at Lao, who froze as he stared at the gun’s barrel. He still held his own gun but it was aimed towards the ground, while Asami was already aiming right at his forehead.

Lao’s eyes widened, but then his face turned smug. He scoffed before speaking. “Have you ever shot anyone girl? Think you’ve got what it takes?”

“I have,” Asami said, immediately punctuating the statement by changing her aim and shooting Lao in the hand. The trusted family butler screamed in pain and shock as he dropped the gun, he quickly recovered and tried to reach for it with his other hand, but Asami fired again, now hitting him in the shoulder. 

She stepped forward while he fell down on his back, grunting as he clutched his wounded shoulder. Asami stepped on the gun, then swept her foot backwards to slide it away across the floor.

She turned around and looked up the stairs to where her father had been standing, but saw no sign of him. She kept her gun on Lao while circling around him so she could watch both him and the stairs, she then yelled as loud as she could. “The Chief is safe, get over here now, Hiroshi is getting away!”

Almost immediately she heard officers kicking in the front door, before flooding into the mansion. Everything afterwards was a blur, someone held her hand, got her to let go of the pistol she’d still been aiming at Lao even while officers had begun to treat his wounds.

She was sitting down now, she wasn’t sure when that had happened, nor did she know where the cup of tea in her hands had come from. Someone was talking to her but she wasn’t listening, she could only think of one thing. My father escaped…

 

 

***

 

 

The light of the morning sun was illuminating the clouds on the horizon, though the sun itself was still hidden behind the mountainous terrain. Korra helped Sizon down from the ship and marched him over to where the other captives sat down on the ground, all with their hands cuffed behind their backs using metal bars that Korra had bent around them. That metalbending really is coming in handy, she thought as she watched the pretty orange & red colors of the morning sun lighting up the sky.

All the captives had finally stopped crying and whimpering, though she wasn’t sure if it was because she’d managed to convince them that she wasn’t a dark spirit in service of Vaatu who was about to drag them into the darkest corners of the spirit world, or if it was just because they were all exhausted.

She leaned back against the airship’s gondola, trying to seem casual even when she saw the silhouettes of dozens of soldiers appearing from further down the valley. They formed a wide half-circle around the airship, probably confused and not sure what to do. Eventually they began to cautiously move forwards, allowing Korra to begin to make out more details. 

They couldn’t have looked more different from the uniformed soldiers that fought for Kuvira, or even the slightly less uniform separatist members. Their clothes were torn and dirty, they had messy facial hair, and they looked underfed. They moved like a proper warband though, as they methodically made their way through to the open field where Sizon had landed the airship. 

They paused, standing around the captives sitting in a circle in front of the ship, it seemed as good of a time as any for Korra to step forward and introduce herself. “Hi!” She said, awkwardly waving while she held both of her hands up in the air in a sign of surrender. 

“I uh- captured this airship for you. You’re the Popular Front, right?” It was going to be really awkward if these were Kuvira’s men after all, if Korra’s sense of direction had failed her and she’d landed on Kuvira’s side of the battle lines.

“Yeah we’re with the Popular Front, the 229^th Brigade,” one of the men said, seeming unsure whether or not to point his rifle at her. “Who in Raava’s name are you?”

Korra shrugged. “I’m the girl who just stopped three airships from bombing you guys, I’m here to help.” She paused for a moment, then continued. “I’m a member of the Red Lotus chapter in Republic City, sort of.”

As she said that, another man stepped forward, his demeanor somehow much more intimidating than that of all the other soldiers. The other soldiers almost seemed to part to make way for him, even though there was already plenty of space.

The man had long greying hair and a beard. A scar on his left eyebrow, combined with his serious expression, gave him the look of an experienced warrior. He stopped a few steps away from Korra, looking her up and down, before briefly glancing back at the dozen captives still sitting down in the field.

“My name is Zaheer,” the man said, clearly trying his best to not look just as confused as the other soldiers, “I’m the leader of this company, and one of the leaders of Omashu’s Red Lotus chapter. It seems like we have a lot to talk about.”

Notes:

Quite an action-packed chapter right? I certainly had fun writing it.

Took me a while before I was happy with the moment when Asami's father was arrested, but I feel like I got the scene to work well enough. It helped that I eventually remembered that I could just rewatch the show's scenes where Asami confronted her father, for inspiration ;p

Anyway, as y'all can probably tell Korra and Asami will be split up for a while, now that Korra is behind enemy lines... Also, next chapter will be an interlude from the POV of characters other than Korra & Asami. Just felt like they could use a break, and I've been wanting to explore the perspectives of some of the other characters. I might actually end up splitting them up into multiple interlude chapters, one for each character. I won't make you wait several weeks before Korra & Asami return though, if I split them up then it'll mean that I post several chapters next week instead of just 1 ;p

Chapter 17: Interlude: Amon

Summary:

Amon's POV, past and present.

The United Republic, 30 years ago:

 

 

Noatak peeked through the half-closed door, listening to his parents arguing again. “You don’t have to do this, we have plenty of money. You’ll turn us into pariahs!” His mom said.

“This dirt-eating scum will never accept us anyway, we’ll always be outsiders to them,” dad said. “Bribing them with higher wages won’t suddenly make them love me, why should I care what they think? I own the biggest factory in the region, I can do whatever I want. They’ll complain about ‘starvation wages’ but eventually they’ll come crawling back to come work for me.”

“Maybe they won’t love you, but at least they won’t actively hate you,” mother responded. “Please would you consider just reversing the change in wages? Nobody at the market will even speak to me anymore!”

“I don’t want you speaking with those lowlifes anyway, stick to your own class. We’ll just have our food delivered directly to us from now on, no need for you to go directly to the market.”

“There’s nobody else from ‘my own class’ for miles around! You’re the one who wanted to move all the way out here for this factory of yours, now you don’t want me to befriend any of the locals?!”

They continued arguing like that for over an hour, Noatak went outside to play with his little brother, but when they returned their parents were still going at it. 

“Why doesn’t daddy just pay the people in his factory more money? We’ve got plenty, don’t we?” Tarrlok asked. “It’s not like we needed a second pool.”

Noatak scoffed in response. “He’s right not to let those greedy losers push him around, they’ll just keep asking for more and more. They should know their place!”

Tarrlok pouted in response. “They don’t seem greedy to me, just hungry. My friend says that he doesn’t even get to eat lunch anymore because his dad can’t afford it, his dad works in daddy’s factory!”

Enraged at his weakling of a brother, Noatak slapped him in the face, hard enough for him to fall on his butt. “You should know your place too! Why are you friends with that low-class scum?!”

Tarrlok looked up at him in shock, tears in his eyes while he held the side of his face that’d been slapped, but Noatak just ignored him and walked up to his room.

 

The following weeks and months didn’t stop the arguments between their parents, it seemed like every day they argued about the exact same topics. They rarely even had dinner as a family anymore, probably because dad was getting sick of mom nagging him like she was doing now.

“I spoke to some of the union activists,” mom said, referring to the people walking around and screaming in the streets while holding signs that insulted their family.

“You did WHAT?!?” Yakone said, slamming his fist on the table.

Mom ignored his warning tone and kept speaking. “They said that you’ve been forcing people to work overtime without paying them for it!”

Tarrlok gasped in response. “Isn’t that stealing?” He said from beside Noatak, their parents just ignored his little brother while Noatak kicked him in the shin.

“They also said you’re firing them just for joining the union!” Mom continued in her shrill voice.

 “So what if I am?” Dad replied.

“It’s illegal!” Mom said. “President Sokka banned union-busting! Maybe you’re right, maybe they’ll eventually accept these lower wages, maybe the strikes will end and the factory gets up and running again. But if you keep breaking the law then-”

“What are these hicks going to do about it? Hire a lawyer? They’ve said themselves that they barely have any money didn’t they?”

“That’s exactly what they’re doing!” Mom said. “They’ve been pooling together their money so they could afford to hire a lawyer, they said he’s sympathetic to their cause and giving them a discount so-”

“HA!” Yakone laughed. “They think some discount two-bit lawyer is going to defeat me in court? I’m glad we moved here, these people really crack me up! Can’t find entertainment like this in the city.”

Noatak laughed along with his father while mom got a defeated look in her face, Tarrlok just looked sad.

The worker strikes continued, their parents banned them from leaving their villa’s grounds, saying that it was too dangerous. The few times that they left with their dad’s car they were bombarded with rotten fruit and vegetables, which is what was happening now while they set out on a trip to the city. “Savages,” dad said while the police cleared the road for them.

Noatak voiced his agreement, then watched with glee as one of the protestors was pummeled to the ground by several officers.

“Did we have to bring the kids?” Mom said. “They shouldn’t have to see this, look how scared Tarrlok is.”

“Tarrlok is a crybaby! Who cares what he thinks? I want to see daddy win in court!” Noatak said.

“I want to set an example for our kids,” Yakone said, “show them that they shouldn’t let themselves get pushed around. Show them how their dad is victorious in the court of law and puts these lowlifes their place!”

 

They eventually made it to the courthouse, but dad wasn’t victorious… Noatak didn’t understand everything the judge had said, all he knew was that there were fines that dad had to pay, that dad was forced to repay the workers for their missed wages, and that the government revoked several permits that the factory needed to stay open. 

Just like that, their father was forced to sell the factory, sell the house, sell almost everything. They spent their remaining money on a small apartment in Republic City with a leaky roof and noisy neighbors. “Those monsters took everything from me!” Dad said, as he lay drunk on the couch again. “They just couldn’t stand to see someone from the water tribe who was more successful than them!”

“You’ve got no one to blame but yourself,” mother said in a dismissive tone, “I warned you time and time again, money doesn’t buy everything.”

Mom left for her work, leaving Noatak alone with his drunk dad. “She’s right you know,” dad slurred, “money doesn’t buy everything, at least not for watertribers like us. If our family had been from the Earth Kingdom then I would’ve gotten away with it all.”

“That’s so unfair! Aren’t we all supposed to be part of the same country?” Noatak asked.

Dad just laughed. “Ah yes, the United Republic… What a joke, one look at our face, at our skin color, and there’s an instant divide between us and everyone else. Even if people somehow got past our difference in appearance, there’s still our different traditions and holidays. How can we be a ‘united’ nation if we all still have our different holidays, if we continue to segregate ourselves?

“Do you remember that lawyer who beat me? Air Nomad scum, it’s what his kind are good at, turning the superior races against each other so they can steal the crumbs like the rats they are! I was a fool to buy into any of their lies, if I’d recognized the ethnic war I was in then I would’ve been able to win it, but I thought my economic class would protect me.”

Dad started laughing hysterically, before continuing. “The wealthy of this country never accepted me as one of their own, didn’t protect me as one of their own. They didn’t see a successful businessman they just saw some tribal immigrant!”

Dad threw his beer bottle to the wall, shattering it. “Now look at me! Just another drunk bum laying on the couch, while my wife nags me to help her pay the bills. Two loser kids who won’t amount to anything now that they’re going to public school… My life is finished.”

Noatak found his father later that night, after hearing screams from outside. He’d jumped off the balcony, dying instantly when he landed on the street below, a crowd gathered around his corpse. He’d left a letter behind, filled primarily with rants about how the government was corrupt and the rest of the upper class had betrayed him just because he wasn’t from the Earth Kingdom like them. Only a few sentences were spared for his family, a bitter condemnation of mother and how she’d turned Tarrlok into such a weakling, along with what could almost be seen as an apology towards Noatak, outlining how he’d shown great potential but would never amount to anything now that he was no longer being taught by private tutors.

Proving his father’s point, Tarrlok cried when he heard of their father’s death. Noatak didn’t, his father had been weak as well, too weak to fight back after a single setback. The country was broken, he agreed with his father on that much. But unlike his father Noatak was going to fix it, he was going to put an end to the ethnic divides that plagued his country so that such petty divides would no longer stand in the way of the natural order, in which the competent and strong rule over the incompetent and the weak.

 

 

Republic City, the present:

 

 

Amon looked out over the warehouse, watching through his mask while his loyal footsoldiers moved through the course they had set up to simulate an urban warfare environment. It reminded him of his time as a soldier in the great war.

They practiced how to cross a street while their friends laid down suppressive fire, how to reload while lying prone on the ground behind cover too low to crouch behind, they threw dummy grenades through windows. In short, they practiced everything they needed to be able to do for the violent coup Amon was planning.

Of course in his propaganda he didn’t refer to it as a “coup,” he referred to it as the “great liberation,” but in his own mind he liked to be more explicit. He didn’t believe that the rhetoric in his propaganda was inaccurate per se, but he didn’t like the idea of using anything resembling a euphemism in his own thoughts. As the leader he needed to have a clear and accurate understanding of what exactly he was doing, euphemisms and sugar-coating are for the koala-sheep, not the shepherd.

He turned away from the open space of the warehouse, back towards the council of sorts that he had gathered. “Training seems to be going well,” he said.

“It is, they’re becoming proper soldiers,” Wonyong Keum said, as though the spoiled businessman had any idea of what proper soldiers and proper military training looked like. The man had inherited his father’s business, he hadn’t really done anything innovative with it after inheriting it, all he’d done was keep it from going bankrupt yet somehow he thought that this earned him the right to be insufferably smug.

Amon idly considered what would be the best excuse to get rid of the man as soon as possible, once he took power. I’ll just accuse him of embezzling, Amon thought, it probably wouldn’t even be a lie, someone as petty and greedy as him will surely try to embezzle money once our movement becomes the actual ruling government. I’ll get people to collect evidence against him, then I’ll execute him myself.

“We had a few setbacks,” another member of Amon’s inner circle said, “we had to find new instructors after the death of the Lieutenant during the Revelation. I must say that his replacements don’t quite measure up, but they’re doing well enough thus far.”

“Yes, he served me well,” Amon said. He’d known ‘the Lieutenant,’ as he insisted everyone in the separatist movement called him, ever since the great war, where Amon had been the Captain of the unit they served in.

He’d been the closest thing Amon ever had to a friend. Finding the man’s corpse inside that warehouse, with a single bullet to the forehead, had been more emotional than finding the corpse of his own father splattered on the street.

“Has there been any progress in the investigation of those who interfered with the Revelation? I would like to make an example of them.”

“Nothing yet,” another of his advisers replied. “We’re still investigating the possibility that one of them was a firebender. We bribed a coroner to examine the bodies, he was clueless as to what could’ve caused that man’s throat to be burned like that, but then again he didn’t know that firebenders still exist. We have no alternative explanations, so a bender being responsible seems to be the only explanation left.

"However, none of the bloodlines we know of are likely to be responsible. Most are either members of our movement, or at least sympathetic. We know of one firebender with a history of assassinations, more of a collared beast than an actual person. But her masters normally send her on missions in the Earth Kingdom. I can’t imagine why they would send her here to interfere in our affairs. Plus, her methods aren’t this subtle, they tend to be more ehh- Explosive.”

Benders, Amon thought. They were an interesting, albeit outdated, part of the world. His father had always told him about how their family was part of an ancient bloodline, a bloodline that used to have special abilities, though those abilities had been lost over time. Supposedly Amon himself, back when he was still ‘Noatak,’ had been named after their ancestor who was a legendary bloodbender.

The fact that his father knew about benders at all and about the secret councils they were part of proved that it wasn’t entirely a lie, but Amon’s family had long since lost their access to these elite councils, ever since their bloodline had thinned out too much for any bending ability to manifest. It had taken a considerable amount of effort, along with some violent ‘persuasion,’ for Amon to worm his way into these elite circles.

Of course Wonyong Keum had already been a member, smug bastard that he was. He himself wasn’t a bender, but his sister was. Perhaps I’ll marry her, restore the ancient powers to my family bloodline, Amon thought. Bending may be outdated in the face of modern weaponry, but it would still have great symbolic value.

The meeting turned to other concerns, mainly logistical issues. Everyone liked to talk as though they would have a say, as though their movement was an oligarchy where all the elite councilmembers had an equal say. But in the end they all knew the truth, they were nothing more than an advisory council, Amon always had the final say. He’d made that point quite clear when he killed several of his rivals.

The meeting continued, until suddenly Hiroshi walked in. “Sato, I wasn’t expecting you,” Amon said. The wealthy businessman had an ego, much like Keum, but unlike Keum he had the competence to back it up. His skill in finance, along with several inventions he’d made in service to their movement, had proven invaluable to their movement. Most importantly he was also smart enough to know not to challenge Amon’s leadership.

“I know,” Sato said, “but there’s been a development, not a good one.”

Amon frowned beneath his mask. “Out with it,” he said in a biting tone.

“My cover is blown, the police tried to arrest me. It’s safe to assume that they’re currently raiding all my properties.” 

“What about this warehouse?” Someone asked, glancing around nervously as though the police would kick in the door any moment.

“I own this one,” Keum responded, “Sato isn’t the only wealthy supporter of this movement you know?”

“Indeed,” Amon said, “this is a regrettable setback, but it’s not insurmountable. It was likely to happen sooner or later. It’s a good thing that we’ve moved most of our weapon stores to Keum’s warehouses ever since that explosion last week. Even if they dig through all of your shell companies, they won’t find much of value.”

“True,” Hiroshi said, “but still, we’ll be losing out on many more weapons that my factories were still producing.”

“Again, a regrettable setback,” Amon said calmly, “but we have plenty of weapons already. Much of the police and military are on our side, I don’t expect too much resistance when the time comes to act on our plans.”

“That’s another thing I need to tell you about,” Hiroshi said, seeming hesitant. A glare from Amon quickly loosened his tongue. “Two cops ended up dead when they tried to arrest me. It may hurt the support for our movement within the police force, depending on who those two cops were and how popular they were. I’ve already sent people out to investigate.

“Given the fact that their plans to arrest me didn’t leak I suspect that they chose officers that they were sure had no separatist sympathies. Hopefully this means that they were unpopular within the police force and that they won’t be missed.”

“Yes, hopefully…” Amon said coldly, with an implied ‘for you’ at the end.

He gave the matter some thought, then continued to speak. “I believe the best solution will be for you to flee the country. Go to Kuvira, you can be an ambassador of sorts for our movement. Make sure to leave a trail, one that the police will notice. If they know that you’ve fled to Kuvira then we can use that to downplay your involvement with our movement, any anger that the police may feel will be aimed against you or perhaps Kuvira, rather than against the rest of us.”

“You’re exiling me? Disavowing me? After everything I’ve done for you?!” Hiroshi demanded in a loud booming voice.

“Don’t take it personally,” Amon calmly responded, knowing that his eerie calmness in this situation would be ten times as intimidating as any amount of shouting could ever be, “it will only be temporary, once we take control of the United Republic you will be welcomed back as a hero of our movement. But for now I need you to make one more sacrifice, for the good of our movement.”

Hiroshi nodded, his anger dissipating. “I understand,” he said, “You’re- You’re right of course, as always.”

Now that that matter was settled, they began to talk about various other issues again.

“What about the recent protests?” Keum asked. “The unions are getting more and more active, half my workers are already on strike, and now there’s talks of a general strike! To make matters worse they’re receiving support from the general public, those fires that Hiroshi insisted we started have been a huge loss for our public image. Not to mention those new laws that the senate passed, they’ve declared a state of emergency and labelled us as an insurgency! Why didn’t our supposed allies in the conservative parties stop that?”

“Why would we stop a law that makes the government look so tyrannical?” Amon asked, making his tone extra condescending. “We don’t need everyone to support us, it’s enough if they fear us while feeling apathetic about protecting the current government that doesn’t help them anyway. We’ll deal with the unions in time, once we take power most will be too scared to oppose us. Then once we deal with the socialist propaganda that plagues our country, nobody will even want to oppose us anymore.”

Amon paused, partly because it seemed appropriately dramatic, partly because he needed time to think.

I’ll need to come up with a plan to make sure my little brother isn’t harmed or seen as a traitor for having been part of this current government, once we take over. In truth he was quite impressed with Tarrlok for rising as far as he had. He wasn’t the same weakling he had been as a child, he’d grown after Amon ran away and changed his name, though his platform of moderate conservatism still betrayed a lingering weakness.

“Still, you raise a valid point about these protests. It may be time to accelerate our plans, to prevent them from gaining steam.”

Notes:

Two more interlude chapters coming this week, back to Korra/Asami POV next week ;p

Chapter 18: Interlude: Tenzin, Tarrlok, Mako

Air Temple Island, two days ago:

 

 

Tenzin sighed sadly, as he prepared to go to the senate. Today would be the first real session after he had dropped the filibuster, the bill he had tried to keep from passing had passed after all. He had managed to slip in a few amendments but overall it was still a horrendous bill, he felt genuinely ashamed to be part of the institution that had passed it.

“You did everything you could,” Pema said from behind him, as she helped him put on his robes.

“I know that,” Tenzin sighed, “it’s just starting to feel like it’s not enough, like there’s too much inherent corruption in the system. It’s only gotten worse over time; this bill is only the latest example of the government granting itself even more unchecked power.”

“I know,” Pema said, “but it’s not all bad. There were some senators who agreed with you, many ordinary people did too. There’s already protests being organized, I heard Jingbo talking about them.”

Jingbo, Tenzin thought, maybe it’s time that I start talking to him more. In the past he had often debated with the fellow air nomad, especially during his first run for office.

Jingbo was clearly more on the anarchist side of the ideological spectrum, as well as being even more of a pacifist than Tenzin was. He’d criticized Tenzin for wanting to join an institution as violent as the state and insisted that he could do more good by helping to set up and expand mutual aid networks.

Tenzin doubted that he would ever fully agree with the man but decided that perhaps they could still find ways to work together. Because Tenzin was certainly starting to realize that activism outside of the senate was a prerequisite for getting anything done, relying on the sense of duty (or just sense in general) of his fellow senators was sadly not an option.

He kissed his wife goodbye, then set out towards the ferry that’d take him to the mainland. He spent the ride on the ferry thinking about Korra, Avatar Korra. He hadn’t heard much from her after that mysterious mission she’d gone on, other than a brief call where she assured him that her mission went well and that she was safe.

If half the stories about the avatar were true then he was sure that she would be alright, that wasn’t why he was thinking about her. When she first told him she was the avatar he had downplayed the degree to which this had shaken him.

While it was true that neither Raava nor the avatar were objects of worship to his people, that didn’t mean that their existence didn’t have major philosophical implications for him to grapple with. He had always believed in destiny, in some sort of cosmic force bringing some degree of order to the world while laying out a path for those who pay attention to follow.

Was it a coincidence that he and the avatar crossed paths? It seemed unlikely, she needed to learn airbending, while he has devoted a good part of his life to reviving the ancient fighting styles of his ancestors. She also needed to learn more about spirituality, while Tenzin is the son of a famous guru, his father was one of the few people in modern times known to have had the ability to meditate into the spirit world. (A claim that many people have disputed and ridiculed, given its unfalsifiable nature, but Tenzin has never doubted.)

It felt like it was his destiny to teach Korra all she needed to know, the pressure of it weighed heavy on him, as though his duties as a senator weren’t burden enough. He couldn’t help but feel like he was already failing, he’s spent hours digging up all the texts he could find to help Korra reach the ‘avatar state’ and get in touch with her inner spirit, but unlike his father he has never been able to enter the spirit world.

Was reading about the spiritual successes of others enough to teach about the subject? Was it even something that could truly be put into words?

He kept worrying about these issues until he reached the senate building. He’d deliberately arrived before the senate session started so that he could meet with two other progressive senators beforehand, they were from the social democrat party and the socialist party.

“Why did you ask for us to meet?” Senator Juchaz asked after they all greeted each other, she was the senator for the social democratic party. She was the first female senator to be elected to office, based on a technicality where the law didn’t specify gender while discussing the right to be elected to office, everyone had just sort of assumed that it only applied to men, until Juchaz took advantage of the oversight and ran for office. It’d been quite the controversy when it happened and was part of what inspired Tenzin to run for office himself. Sadly, the right to vote did not include the same loophole for women.

“We’ve already had more than enough time to consider our votes on the bills today,” Juchaz continued, “while you were delaying us with your filibuster. Valiant effort by the way, shame it didn’t work.”

Senator Zetkin of the socialist party nodded in agreement, then began to smile as he spoke. “What was that one story you told during the second day of the filibuster, the story about the guy who never ate?”

“The story of Monk Tang Xu’s legendary fast,” Tenzin replied. It was one of the longest stories in the air nomad canon, that was why he’d chosen it. Reciting the events of all 101 days of the monk’s fast had been enough for almost an entire day of filibustering, he liked to think that perhaps some of the people present had also been inspired by the story of the monk’s dedication.

“Wait- So that’s a real story your people tell? I thought you were just making it up! You didn’t even add any days? It’s really that long?!” Zetkin asked, laughing out loud. Juchaz joined him in laughter.

So much for inspiring my fellow senators with the tales and philosophy of my people, Tenzin thought. Granted, the story had been completely irrelevant and his true purpose for telling it had been a blatant effort to waste the senate’s time, he doubted that many people had paid much attention to what he was actually saying and couldn’t even fault them for that.

“Seriously though, it’s kind of impressive, reciting that from memory,” Juchaz said. “I won’t claim to understand or even know about half the stuff your people believe, but I’ve always admired your culture. You’ve certainly been ahead to the rest of us when it comes to gender equality.”

Tenzin nodded in gratitude, glad to hear some appreciation after all. Then he spoke. “To answer your first question, I wanted to meet because I have been working with my staff to draft some other bills, which I plan to introduce as soon as possible. I’d appreciate your input.”

“What kinds of bills?” Asked Zetkin. The man has always had a knack for drafting well-worded policies, he was often able to account for possibilities that few others would, which was why Tenzin always valued his input.

They spent about thirty minutes discussing various ideas Tenzin had, before the senate’s session started. All the votes that day went as expected, luckily none of the other laws that passed today were as bad as the one Tenzin had tried to block.

He returned home, laden with alternative drafts for the laws he’d talked about, drafts which Zetkin had apparently already written during the senate’s session. He really does have a knack for policy, Tenzin thought as he read over a few of the sensible suggestions the man had written down.

His kids greeted him enthusiastically once he returned home. At least Ikki and Meelo did, Jinora barely looked up from her novel. It was good to be able to get home in time for dinner with his family again, it helped him to finally unwind from the burdens he carried.

 

 

Republic City, City Hall. The Present:

 

 

Tarrlok smiled, watching from the windows of his Presidential office as Senators arrived one-by-one. That damned obstructionist monk had finally given up his futile struggle, allowing Tarrlok’s emergency law to pass and allowing the senate to return to its normal operations.

Tarrlok had spent the last few days fielding calls from various lobbyists and special interests, who were concerned about the senate’s shutdown and how this would affect the various laws they wanted Tarrlok to help pass on their behalf. Short sighted idiots, Tarrlok thought, do I have to spell everything out for them? This law will help solve all of their problems.

Despite his best efforts, Tarrlok had spent the past few years watching while congress passed countless bills that helped protect the rights of unions and workers while limiting those of business owners. Tarrlok knew exactly what he was, why he was in the position he was in. He’d never lied to himself or pretended like he went into politics for altruistic reasons, he was here to prove his father and his brother wrong, and he’d made it this far by shamelessly serving the interests of powerful elites.

His father had always treated him as a failure and a weakling, before he ran away Noatak had begun to do the same. They thought Tarrlok would never amount to anything, well look at me now! Tarrlok thought, turning around to look at his office, including the ostentatious water feature he’d had them install once he was sworn in, depicting the ocean and moon spirits.

He’d always seen it as a symbol, not a symbol of how watertribe minorities finally got the representation they deserved or other such ostrich-horse crap he fed to the public. No, this was a symbol of Tarrlok overcoming the obstacles that his father had failed to overcome. His father had always blamed the loss of his company on the rejection that he faced from his wealthy peers because of his status as an immigrant from the water-tribes, in a nation that was still controlled primarily by those of Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom descent.

Yet Tarrlok had proven those to be the pathetic excuses that they were, by becoming the President of the entire country despite that obstacle. Who’s the weakling now?

Being President didn’t mean that he was no longer beholden to anyone else though, rising to this position had required Tarrlok to make promises to various different business leaders and others who had the power and influence to help his campaign succeed. Which was exactly what the new law he’d passed was all about, though apparently many of the idiots who inherited their daddy’s companies still failed to see it.

“Sir I have a call for you, from Mr Wonyong Keum!” His assistant’s shrill voice said from behind his office door. Speak of the dark spirit, Tarrlok thought, Keum perfectly represented the kind of spoiled idiot who was unable to see the gift Tarrlok had just given to him.

“Put him through,” Tarrlok said in response, turning towards the phone on his desk. He picked it up and soon heard the sound of the call being connected. “Mr Keum, wonderful to speak to you again. How’s your sister?” Tarrlok asked.

“Cut the pleasantries!” Keum demanded. Thank Raava, Tarrlok thought while Keum continued speaking, he despised pleasantries. “What were you thinking with this bill of yours? The unions are up in arms, half my workers are already on strike, the other half is planning to! Not to mention how many of them are from the immigrant district, showing up late to work because of these checkpoints of yours!”

Tarrlok just let him rant for a while, waiting for a chance to speak. “Why did I even bother financing your campaign if all you’re doing is causing me trouble?” The man asked before finally giving Tarrlok a chance to respond.

“Mr Keum, I realize that you’re upset, but if you’ll allow me to explain I believe you will find that this law is to your benefit.”

“How is you angering the immigrants with useless checkpoints while declaring the separatists enemies of the state supposed to benefit me?” Keum said. “Explain it to me!”

Tarrlok rolled his eyes, the fool really did need everything spelled out for him apparently. Was he trying to get Tarrlok caught in a scandal, explicitly admitting to corruption and conflicts of interest in a recorded call? Tarrlok doubted it, but still tried to speak in code just to be safe.

He just hoped that Keum wasn’t too foolish to understand the hidden message.

“I understand that the unions have been a problem for you,” Tarrlok began, “especially after the laws preventing you from firing workers without due cause.”

“Laws that you also failed to stop from passing!” Keum interjected.

“Indeed. However, this is precisely why I’ve called for these checkpoints around the immigrant district. This way anyone who might be a problem to society will be detained by the police, they will be held in our custody.”

“I don’t want my workers detained I want them to keep working for me!” Keum said, still not getting it. “I want something to be done about the union leaders, instead of you causing all my workers to clock in late because of your waste of time checkpoints!”

“I assure you, most of your workers will still arrive on time. Only the problematic ones will be detained for longer, I’m sure that you wouldn’t want such criminals to work for you anyway, and you’ll have cause to fire them when being detained for their crimes prevents them from making it to work,” Tarrlok said.

“The separatists aren’t my problem, why would I want to fire them or for you to detain them? They’re not the ones trying to sabotage my business!” The idiot said.

Tarrlok sighed, trying to figure out how to get the message through. “It’s not only separatists that will be detained at these checkpoints,” he began, “we will be detaining criminals of all sorts. Anyone with a warrant against them, murderers, triad members, union leaders suspected of fraud or corruption, we will arrest them all. Then when they don’t arrive at your workplace, you’ll be able to fire them at your discretion.”

There was a pause, Keum didn’t immediately respond. Tarrlok could almost hear the gears turning in the man’s mind. “Corrupt union leaders you say?” Keum responded. “Yes, yes, wouldn’t want any of those working for me, victimizing their fellow workers with their schemes.”

“Nor would you want murderers or separatists to work for you,” Tarrlok continued, keeping up the pretense of the checkpoints not specifically targeting unions.

“Yes of course, those too I suppose,” Keum said. “Thank you Tarrlok, your explanation has shown me the potential value of this new bill. I’m eager to see the results.”

Tarrlok smiled as he ended the phone call. Another powerful businessman pleased with the job he was doing as President; his reelection was virtually guaranteed at this point.

 

 

Republic City, above the boxing arena, the morning of Hiroshi’s arrest:

 

 

Mako sighed as he got out of bed for another early shift at Future Industries’ weapons factory. Working the assembly line wasn’t the most exciting job in the world, in fact it was mind-numbingly boring, but it helped pay the bills. We really have to do well in the tournament, he thought, win 5 matches each, at minimum. That’ll pay for half a year’s rent. Even better if we last longer, winning in the quarterfinals or up would mean we get paid a portion of the profits from ticket sales!

He did his best to stay silent while he put on his clothes and brushed his teeth, not wanting to wake Bolin from his sleep. He was often vocally critical of his little brother, but the truth was that he was proud of him. He really did dedicate himself to his fighting career, as well as to his new work at the local soup kitchen. 

The soup kitchen didn’t pay him a wage, but Mako wasn’t too cynical to be proud of Bolin for working so hard to provide a valuable service to those in need. Plus, Bolin getting free lunch and dinner at the kitchens did help put a reasonable dent in the amount of money they spent each week.

“Hhmrmrm, sup bro,” Bolin suddenly said from the other side of the room. So much for not waking him. 

“Hey Bolin, didn’t mean to wake you.”

“S’fine,” Bolin said as he got out of bed, “I’ve been feeling bad about doing my early morning exercises late in the morning, just doesn’t feel right you know? Thanks to you I’ll finally do them on time.”

Mako just sort of grunted in response, as was often the case he wasn’t sure what else to say to his brother’s weird statement, nor was he ever sure how serious he was being.

“By the way,” Bolin said, “did I tell you about what happened at the soup kitchen yesterday?”

“No,” Mako responded, “what happened?” He hoped the story wasn’t too long, he needed to get going soon.

“Asami Sato came by, she dropped off a dead boar-q-pine!”

It took Mako a while to process that sentence. “What?” He asked.

“I know right? Took us a while to figure out what to do with it. Apparently she and Korra went hunting, but they obviously couldn’t eat a whole boar by themselves so they brought the rest to us. I’ll tell you what, butchering isn’t my favorite thing in the world but the stew we made out of it was amazing! Everyone loved it!”

“That’s pretty cool,” Mako said. “Did she say anything about when Korra will come train with us again?” It was an open invitation, which the girl had taken them up on a few times, but not very recently. He really did hope she’d be back, he’d already learned a lot from her strange fighting styles in the short amount of time he’d spent with her.

Bolin responded, saying that Asami wasn’t sure when Korra would be back. Mako left for work, as he walked he noticed a big commotion near the edge of the neighborhood. Oh yeah that’s right, he thought, I have to go through these checkpoints now.

“Hey Mako,” a voice said from behind shortly after he joined the line for the checkpoint.

Mako looked around to see Ronu, one of the other workers at the factory. He returned the man’s greetings.

“Have you given any thought to my offer?” Ronu asked. “You’re a smart guy, we could really use someone like you.”

“I already pay my union fees,” Mako said, slightly annoyed. Ronu had been incessantly trying to get Mako to take more of a leadership role in the metalworkers union, while badgering everyone at the factory to join the union too. As of right now their sector had a very low unionization rate, so low that they weren’t sure if joining the general strike many were calling for would be a good idea, if only a handful of workers joined the strike then they would be far too easy to replace.

“Me paying my fees to the union will have to be enough for now,” Mako said, “I don’t have time for anything more, not while training for the tournament.”

Ronu scoffed. “Bloodsports for the entertainment of the bourgeois, I still can’t believe you’d degrade yourself like that.”

“I actually enjoy the sport,” Mako said, “it’s a great challenge.” Though he wished he could do it solely for fun, even if he would still choose to do it of his own free will, he couldn’t deny that he had mixed feelings about having to risk getting beaten to a pulp for the sake of other people’s entertainment just to be able to eat and get a roof over his and his brother’s head.

They finally made it to the front of the line, where a bored-looking cop accepted Mako’s ID and checked it against a list he held in his hand. “Is that a list of separatist suspects?” Mako asked. 

He’d heard others complaining about these new laws, and some of it did seem to go too far, but the checkpoint seemed like a decent enough idea. It was inconvenient but if it kept separatists out of their neighborhood then it’d be worth it. 

“None of your business!” The cop said.

Fair enough, Mako thought as the cop handed back his ID and waved him through. He began to walk away but then heard Ronu behind him.

“What?! What did I do?” Ronu was asking the cop, confused look on his face while several other cops approached from nearby, grabbing his arms and pulling them behind him.

The cop just shrugged. “You’re on the list, we’ll take you in for questioning.”

“That has to be a mistake!” Mako said, approaching the blockade. “There’s no way he’s with the separatists!”

“I don’t care,” the cop said, “we have the right to detain any suspect trying to come through the checkpoint.”

“Suspect of what?” Mako and Ronu asked at the same time.

“I told you, none of your business! You’d best step back citizen, or you’ll be arrested too!”

“Just go Mako!” Ronu said. “I need someone to tell our supervisor that it wasn’t my fault! I can’t afford to get fired over this.”

Mako nodded. “I’ll make sure to let him know!” He then hurriedly made his way to the factory, him vouching for Ronu wouldn’t be worth much if he arrived late himself.

He saw a supervisor, watching as all the other workers were clocking themselves in. Mako put his own work card into the punch clock, then he walked up to the supervisor.

“Ronu won’t make it to work today,” he said, “it’s not his fault, he was detained at one of those new checkpoints.”

“Ronu you say?” The supervisor said, paging through a list of employee records. He got to Ronu’s record, which Mako saw had many notes attached to it, unlike most of the others. The supervisor smiled. “You can tell your friend not to bother coming in after today,” he said, “he’s fired.”

“What?! Why?”

“Because I can,” the supervisor said, “he’s always been a nuisance and now on top of that he’s a criminal? I’m happy to finally have due cause to fire him.”

“Due cause?” Mako asked. “He didn’t do anything wrong, he’s not a criminal he was just detained, he hasn’t been found guilty of anything yet!”

“Doesn’t matter the reason, he didn’t show up for work, that’s due cause,” the supervisor insisted. “You’d best get to work yourself lad, or I’ll write you up for loitering around after punching in.”

Begrudgingly Mako walked away and got to work on the assembly line.

 

Mako spent a couple hours on the line, welding together parts that would eventually be turned into a machine gun. It was difficult and tiring to maintain the quality welding that was expected of him, while also keeping pace with the speed of the conveyor belt.

He was already looking forward to his break, even though that was still hours away. While he was fantasizing about a break the conveyor belt suddenly stopped moving. Mako took off his welding mask, looking around in confusion. He saw similar looks of confusion on all his coworkers’ faces.

In all his time working here, which was admittedly only a few months, Mako hadn’t seen the conveyor belt stop moving for this long, EVER. Even when one guy accidentally cut his own finger off, the assembly line had only stopped for exactly as long as it took for another worker to rush to take his place.

But this time the line stood still for five minutes, then ten minutes. Eventually the bell that normally signaled break time sounded, causing everyone to leave the assembly hall.

As they walked outside Mako saw a bunch of cops massed outside, arguing with several supervisors. “Tell all your workers that the factory will be closed for the foreseeable future,” one of the cops said, “court’s orders. Apparently the owner has been smuggling weapons to enemies of the state, we’re shutting down his factories and freezing his assets while we conduct our investigation.”

Sato was smuggling weapons? Mako thought, he immediately thought of Asami, though obviously this was referring to her father. I wonder if she knew about this? Probably not, right?

As he thought about it, the likeliest recipients of smuggled weapons right now were probably the separatists. Based on Mako’s encounter with them during the revelation they certainly did have a source of high-quality military-grade weapons.

If they’re the ones he smuggled weapons to then Asami definitely didn’t know, or at least didn’t support it. She helped us fight them after all.

Mako watched as several people from the office above the factory were led down in handcuffs, the cops clearly weren’t messing around with their investigation.

Mako shrugged. Guess I have an early day off now, he thought. His contract entitled him to a monthly salary, the company could dock his pay if he showed up late or not at all, but if something went wrong on their end or they failed to schedule him for enough hours then they’d still have to pay him regardless of whether he’d done any work or not.

Works for me, Mako thought as he walked back to his and Bolin’s apartment, trying to think of what to do with all this free time.

Chapter 19: Interlude: Zaheer

Summary:

Zaheer's POV, past and present.

Omashu, 7 months ago:

 

 

Zaheer sat at his typewriter, early in the morning, typing out his latest missive to the local ruling party. In the letter he criticized the government’s lack of action against the rising threat of a fascist coup from the side of the landowners and the military, as well as the supposedly leftist ruling coalition’s apparent unwillingness to make good on their promises for land redistribution.

 Not for the first time he sighed, frustrated by the feeling that none of this would make even the slightest difference. Throughout his life he’d lived through various military coups and other violent upheavals, he had frequently taken part in fighting on behalf of the working class. Sometimes it seemed as though that was the only way to get things done, violence, not words. Yet despite these thoughts he continued typing, even a cynic like him had to admit that the left’s recent electoral victories had been promising, as a leading figure in the local worker unions he felt obliged to give peaceful negotiations a chance. Even if it was only because it’d hurt their movement’s popular support if they did otherwise.

Either way, the issue at hand was that recently a group of farmworkers, most of them tied to various local trade unions, had begun to occupy the farmland owned by their former employers. They had been motivated by the latest drop in wages and arbitrary changes in working conditions that had been instituted by the landowners, as well as the promises of land reform that the ruling coalition had made in order to win the latest election but that they had yet to deliver on. 

Taking matters in their own hands, the farmworkers now refused to hand over any of the crops they harvested, instead they cut out the middle-man and began to personally sell the crops they harvested directly at the market.

Zaheer paused as he considered how to phrase his description of these events, he’d never liked the way the word “expropriate” is used to describe events like this. In his mind using that verb in situations like this implied a completely backwards picture of which side is the passive side, and which side is committing violence.

“Expropriating” farmland was talked about as though it was an act of violence committed against landowners, but in reality this form of expropriation was hardly even an “act” at all. The workers were still going to work in the fields every day, same as they’d always done. The only difference was that after the day’s work they no longer handed the fruits of their labor over to the landowners, they stopped giving in to the threats of the landowners who wielded their property rights as a weapon. Weren’t the landowners, under the capitalist status quo, the ones who were “expropriating” the fruits of people’s labor?

Zaheer resumed typing, resolving his hesitation on how to phrase the issue by simply typing out these exact thoughts he had on the subject.

He then went on to talk about the actions that the landowners had committed in response, setting out in the dead of night to drive through the fields they formerly owned, maliciously destroying crops right before the harvest. It seemed that now that the workers would no longer allow them to reap the profits, they would rather that nobody benefited from the land anymore.

A few had gone further, they had attacked and even imprisoned several farmworkers, locking them up in a shed at one of their farms. Zaheer and other Red Lotus members had showed up in force late last night, armed to the teeth, after which the farmowner and his hired goons had allowed them to free the captured workers without any resistance.

He described these events, then made sure to stress how it was all the inevitable consequence of the government failing to live up to its promises, of the government continuing to protect the unequal power of the owner-class.

Zaheer finished the missive he would send to the local government, then began typing the exact same text again so that it could be read by the union members he was representing. At that moment someone barged into his room.

“Zaheer, it’s happening!” Ghazan said, panting from apparently running all the way over to Zaheer’s small apartment. “The army is staging a coup, they’ve already captured several Northern provinces. Word is that it started with the army in the Western protectorate, they crossed the sea and captured Zigan City, Generals from all over the Kingdom are part of the coup and are ordering their troops to seize major cities.”

Zaheer shot to his feet, typewriter forgotten. “What about the garrison at Fort Shen Guan?” He asked, referring to a military base up in the mountains, not far from Omashu.

Ghazan shrugged. “Not sure, but I’m assuming that they’re marching our way right now, I’ve sent a few of our comrades to scout ahead and report back.”

“What about the civil guard stationed here in the city?” Zaheer asked. “And the assault guards?”

“A number of them have fled the city, including most of the officers.” Ghazan said. “Presumably the ones who fled will join up with the enemy soldiers at Fort Shen Guan before they march on the city, but the bulk of their forces remains here, loyal to the government.”

Zaheer nodded as he put on his coat, then grabbed his rifle along with extra ammo, before rushing out of his apartment and down the stairs, Ghazan close behind him. “How many soldiers are stationed at the military base again?” Zaheer asked while running to the Red Lotus headquarters.

“Around five thousand,” Ghazan said, “which is more than the barely four thousand civil guards here in the city, especially now that a few hundred of those have left and likely joined the enemy.”

“The military will also be better armed,” Zaheer said, “the civil guard is meant to combat peasant revolts, not to fight a real war.” He turned the corner that led to their headquarters, where he saw several others already there, handing out the few weapons that the anarchist union kept in storage. Most were depressingly old, dating back to before the great war.

Zaheer immediately began shouting orders, knowing that most of the union members respected him enough to listen despite the horizontal structure along which they organized, in which there were no official leaders with the authority to give orders without first calling for a vote.

“We’ll need to build barricades, to block their entry into the city.” Zaheer said. In medieval and ancient times the city had been surrounded by a huge moat and was only accessible by a bridge, that was still the case for the city center, but over time the city had expanded, meaning that it was now far less defensible.

“Begin prying out paving stones, and grab whatever furniture is suited for the task.” Zaheer said. “Try to build the barricades within sight of tall buildings, so that our snipers can be used effectively to aid those manning the barricades. I assume we already have people running to rouse all militia members, and anyone else who’d be willing to help?”

People nodded in response, several immediately bent down to begin prying stones out of the street.

Zaheer then turned to Ghazan. “You’ve got everything we need to make some improvised grenades, right?”

Ghazan nodded, Zaheer kept talking. “Go ahead and make those then, hand them out to our most experienced fighters. Also, gather some men and start raiding the nearby bars, grab all the strong liquor you can find and turn it into firebombs.”

“What will you be doing?” Ghazan asked.

“I know some people in the civil guard, I’ll try to convince them to hand their spare weapons to us,” Zaheer said.

Ghazan agreed, then they both turned to their respective tasks. Zaheer made it to the local police station, which was a flurry of activity. He soon found the man he was looking for, a Sergeant named Gomi. Zaheer was glad to see that as he’d suspected the man had stayed behind instead of joining the traitors who ran over to the military base at Shen Guan, the man had always seemed relatively sympathetic to the worker cause.

“Reporting for duty!” Zaheer said sarcastically, along with a mock salute.

Gomi frowned as he turned to Zaheer. “I don’t have time for this, the governor has already made it clear that we’re not to turn to worker militias for help. In fact I should be arresting you right now, for carrying that rifle of yours.”

“The governor won’t be fighting on the front lines,” Zaheer responded. “He’s also not here right now. The soldiers from the military base will be better equipped than you, you’ll need all the help you can get. I know for a fact that you’ve got more rifles than you have men, all you need to do is hand them over. We’ve got hundreds of men and women willing to fight by your side, right here in the city. We just need a few spare guns that you have no use for anyway.”

“I assume you’ll also want ammo, which we do have a use for,” Gomi retorted, though Zaheer did seem to be getting through to him. Eventually Gomi relented, arranging for Zaheer to meet him near a back entrance to the station. Zaheer went back to gather a few men, along with several wheelbarrows, to carry everything.

Gomi let them in, everyone immediately set to work grabbing rifles and loading them in the wheelbarrows. “Any idea when the enemy will arrive?” Zaheer asked, Gomi nodded. 

“We’ve sent out scouts, they spotted two enemy columns marching on the city, they’ll be here in maybe two hours.”

“What routes are they taking?” Zaheer asked.

 

 

An hour later Zaheer crawled up a hill, joined by Ghazan on one side and Ming-Hua on the other. The one-armed woman had been wounded during a failed worker uprising some years ago, but she remained a highly skilled sniper.

They were waiting for the enemy soldiers to march through the valley on the other side of the hilltop, where they had hurriedly prepared an ambush. The militiamen from the other unions had sent out fighters to carry out similar ambushes against the other military column, which was approaching the city from different direction.

The civil guard back in the city wasn’t part of these ambushes, they wanted to stay on the defensive, but Zaheer knew that taking the initiative here would be worth the risk. It wasn’t even about inflicting a lot of damage, the psychological toll of being ambushed and then having to continue marching towards the city for another round of fighting would hopefully demoralize the enemy.

Zaheer put his rifle down as he began to hear the sounds of marching soldiers, as well as the horses of their cavalry units. He grabbed a grenade, watching to his left to see Ghazan do the same. He pulled the pin but kept hold of the grenade to prevent the fuse from starting.

He grabbed his rifle again with his other hand, then nodded over to Ghazan. They both stood up, took a few more steps up the hill until they could see the valley on the other side, then they threw their grenades. 

Before the grenades had time to explode Zaheer was already firing his rifle, aiming at the confused mass of enemy soldiers. Beside him Ming-Hua, still prone and leaning her rifle on the ground using a tripod, was also firing. Every one of her shots dropped one of the enemy officers who were marching at the center of the column.

The grenades exploded, adding to the chaos. The enemy’s cavalry struggled to control their horses, several were thrown off. Zaheer ran out of ammunition, instead of reloading he simply turned around and ran, following Ghazan who had run out of bullets before him.

They weren’t here to hold their ground, just to harass the enemy during their march to the city. They retreated to the second ambush position, that second ambush went much like the first. 

Then they returned to the city, taking position on the second floor of a building next to the main street that led directly to the city’s center. They had barricaded the city as best they could, the help of numerous ordinary citizens had helped them to quickly build chest-high walls, enough for their comrades on the ground to take cover behind it while firing at the enemy.

The enemy forces arrived, but after hours of fighting they were beaten back. Zaheer’s fighters were never even forced to fall back to the second line of barricades. By now night was falling, word came that other positions hadn’t fared quite as well, the enemy had broken through in other parts of the city. Though their attack had ultimately still failed, these members of the military coup had now gotten themselves surrounded by loyalist forces. Some of them were holed up in a hotel, others inside the telephone exchange building.

Early in the morning Zaheer gathered everyone from the Red Lotus militia and led them in a raid on the telephone exchange building. Thirty minutes of bloody fighting later, the remaining traitors inside surrendered and the Red Lotus took full control of the building.

As he stepped back outside Zaheer was faced by Gomi, who smiled happily when seeing him.

“Thank you for your help,” Gomi said. “We’ve just secured the hotel, the remains of the rebels are now in full retreat!”

Zaheer nodded. “Will you give chase?” He asked.

Gomi shook his head. “Not me, our General got killed. Which, since so many of our upper ranks joined the rebels, somehow makes me the ranking officer… Chasing down the rebels seems a bit above my pay grade, so I’ll just hunker down for now and wait for someone with more authority to come tell us what to do.”

Zaheer nodded, sympathizing with the man’s hesitance to take a leadership role, though he still found the man’s willingness to submit to another’s authority pathetic.

“I expect that you’ll do the same?” Gomi asked. “Just hunker down for now, make sure there isn’t another attack? We will of course ask you to hand the buildings you’ve captured, such as the telephone exchange building, back over to their rightful owners once this is over.”

Zaheer nodded, though he had no intention of simply hunkering down, or allowing the buildings they had captured to become private property again. As soon as Gomi left Zaheer gathered Ghazan and Ming-Hua and as many other Red Lotus fighters as he could find. They joined up with the militiamen from several other worker’s unions, leaving only a small contingent to stay behind and continue occupying the telephone building. They gathered a few trucks, then drove out of the city, straight towards Fort Shen Guan.

Only a small token force of rebel soldiers had been left behind to guard the fort, they were easily defeated by the Red Lotus fighters, who then stormed inside the army barracks. Zaheer happened to know something that Gomi had not, Fort Shen Guan wasn’t merely an army barracks, it was also an arms depot!

He grinned as he stepped into the fort’s arms warehouse, filled with thousands of guns and artillery cannons. This would shift the balance of power in the entire province! From now on worker unions were the real power in Omashu…

 

 

Front lines near Omashu, the present:

 

 

Zaheer scribbled in his notebook while leaning against the wall of the trench that’d been dug into the hillside, ignoring the occasional gunshot that sounded from the fascists who were positioned about seven hundred meters away, on the hilltop opposite the one Zaheer was currently on. He didn’t write as much as he’d used to, being at war and all, but he still tried his best to record his thoughts and observations. He hoped to turn them into a book when he returned from the frontlines.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have the time, trench warfare was incredibly boring and monotonous so time was the one thing they had plenty of. A lack of paper was the main reason why he tried his best to limit the amount of writing he did.

He glanced up briefly as Ghazan came running up the hill and jumped into the trench, Zaheer could hear the bullets flying overhead as Ghazan settled in besides him. “I should shoot you,” Zaheer said casually, “you forgot to say the passphrase.”

Ghazan just shrugged, dumping a pile of dried shrubbery down to the ground. “This should keep us warm for tonight,” he said.

That was another thing they lacked, firewood. Nights were already cold this late autumn, Zaheer tried not to think of what conditions would be like in the winter, when right now they were already bad enough for idiots like Ghazan to run through a hale of gunfire just to forage for stuff to burn, after they had already picked the safe side of the hill clean. The fascists were too far away to fire accurately but still, foraging in sight of enemy guns was a sign of how desperate their conditions were.

Zaheer grunted in response, then went back to writing. He was worried that the fascists were planning one last offensive, now that winter was approaching and the fighting season was almost over.

He wrote down his concerns, his analysis was pieced together using the bits of info he gathered from other soldiers whenever he went down the hill to pick up a new load of supplies. The frontlines near Omashu had been more or less stationary ever since the beginning of the war, especially up here in the hills, but rumors suggested that this might change soon.

It was hard to tell how credible these rumors were though, they did occasionally capture a fascist deserter, but did those tell the truth? Or did they just say whatever they thought the popular front wanted to hear in the hopes of receiving better treatment?

Either way it was certain that Kuvira’s forces were consistently gaining ground in the North, yet they made no sign of attempting to march on Ba Sing Se. People speculated, reasonably so in Zaheer’s estimation, that the fascists would first try to break through in Omashu so that they would be able to attack Ba Sing Se from two sides.

Enemy aircraft had gotten more and more common recently, sent out from the fort in the desert. Few of them tried to attack their trenches, they mostly just seemed to be scouting, which actually made Zaheer more concerned than he would be if they were simply attacking. An increase in enemy scouting was usually a good sign of an upcoming assault.

He kept writing until the lack of sun made it impossible, then after briefly meditating he went to sleep. Tomorrow another company should arrive, to relieve them of their position and allowing Zaheer and his company some real rest away from the frontlines.

The night was uneventful, if you ignored Ghazan almost getting shot for forgetting the passphrase again. Luckily the would-be shooter’s gun jammed, the frequency with which their guns jammed was beginning to get a bit concerning though.

The next day seemed to drag on for far too long, as the company meant to take over the position failed to arrive on the appointed time. Zaheer was beginning to worry that they wouldn’t arrive at all, but then at around 5 PM they finally arrived. “Sorry for the delay,” one of the new militiamen said, “we had to replace a tire.”

“Whatever,” said Ghazan with a wry laugh, “I’m just glad I won’t be stuck here during winter. Good luck comrades, try not to freeze your toes off. Make sure to zig and zag while getting firewood, we already picked the safe side of the hill clean.” 

Their replacements didn’t seem to appreciate the joke.

Zaheer and Ghazan made their way down the safe side of the hill along with the rest of their company, then marched over to the line of vehicles that their replacements had arrived in.

The truck drivers took them away from the frontlines, the terrain around them quickly began to change from hills to actual mountains like the ones surrounding Omashu. They didn’t drive up these mountains, instead they drove through a large valley that ran between them, to a former farm that now served as a supply depot and as a barracks for militiamen moving to and from the front lines.

They were just a few miles away from the front lines, yet the atmosphere was already completely different. People were drinking and singing, either to celebrate getting away from the front lines or to have one last bit of fun before being sent to the trenches. Ghazan eagerly joined them in their revelry while Zaheer stayed back and looked for a quiet place to sit and rest.

It’d be a few days before another transport arrived to take them back to Omashu, he planned to use the time to meditate. The stress of being on the front lines meant that it had been a while since he achieved any real success in his meditations, which had seriously impacted his ability to keep in touch with other Red Lotus members and to stay informed about world events.

He settled in a lotus pose, hoping that some distance from the front was enough to achieve the needed tranquility.

 

 

After a few hours of meditation, Zaheer went to sleep. He was awoken when the sounds of revelry changed. The barracks were still noisy, there were still shouts and people talking, but instead of being sounds of revelry the tone had shifted into something more ominous. Zaheer got out of his cot, then he grabbed his rifle and the rest of his kit, just in case.

He stepped out into the darkness of the camp, where he saw all the other soldiers staring up at the sky, pointing. He turned to look in the same direction, then saw a bright orange light in the sky. 

He initially thought it was just a tiny light, but quickly reassessed that idea. It’s large, very large, just far away. 

Whatever it was, it began to lower from the sky, lighting up the sparse clouds in the otherwise clear sky as it went past them.

As Zaheer continued looking, he made out two other shapes, they blotted out the stars but didn’t light up the sky like the first one had. “They’re airships!” Zaheer said. “Douse the campfires and anything else giving off light, don’t give them a target to bomb!”

Everyone quickly followed Zaheer’s commands while he continued looking up at the sky. Suddenly a ball of light shot out of one of the airships, followed by several more. The balls shot from the back ship into the one in front, which immediately lit up in flames. An airship battle? Zaheer thought in surprise. He’d never even heard of such a thing, airplanes got into dogfights, but not airships. Those things could barely even maneuver, how did they find each other in the dark?

He watched as the ship in front rapidly caught fire before beginning to crash down to earth. The first ship that went up in flames had already gone down somewhere in the hills, its exact landing site wasn’t visible as it was obscured by the hilly terrain. This second one however crashed down on the side of a hill that was visible from Zaheer’s current position, Zaheer thought that it may be the very same hill where Zaheer had been stationed these past couple of months.

Ghazan walked up next to Zaheer, apparently sharing those same thoughts. “Wow, exciting first night for our replacements eh? I’m kind of jealous, looks like that wreck is going to keep them warm all night!”

Zaheer smirked slightly, then looked up to find the third dark shape again. Eventually he spotted it, slightly to the South. He could be mistaken but it seemed to be losing altitude, despite not being on fire like the other two. “Go find the rest of our company,” he said to Ghazan when he saw the airship begin to turn around slightly, the pilot was seemingly trying to make sure it landed in the valley instead of on top of the mountains. “Not everyone, just two platoons should be enough.” Zaheer knew that although airships looked very large they generally only had room for a couple dozen people at most.

“It’ll be nice to have some real action before getting back to the city,” Ghazan said with a grin on his face, once they had two platoons lined up and ready to go.

“I’m not sure if we’ll be seeing any action,” Zaheer said. “It looked like this ship shot down the one in front of it, didn’t it? And presumably the other one too. Maybe they’re on our side, somehow.”

Ghazan shrugged. “Deserters maybe? Either way, I’d say it counts as excitement compared to counting our toes while sitting on a hill. Ready to go?”

They marched out, leaving behind the other companies at the barracks who seemed happy to let someone else investigate the potentially dangerous incident. They ran in a slow jog towards where they could see the airship beginning to touch down further up the valley. By the time they arrived the airship had finished its landing, Zaheer crawled over a small hilltop, peering through the darkness towards the ship.

There was movement, one silhouette was helping several others down from the ship’s gondola. The figure escorted them over to a field where they all sat together huddled in a circle. They looked like they were captives of some sort, though there were no guards except for the solitary figure, now leaning against the gondola.

Puzzled, Zaheer silently gestured the men forwards. They silently approached the airship, rifles held in a low ready position. As they got closer it became clear that the men sitting in the field were indeed captives, their hands were all tied behind their backs.

The entire situation was puzzling to Zaheer, as he looked ahead towards the ship. The figure he’d seen before was still the only other person present. Did one person really somehow hijack an entire airship, then use it to destroy two other airships?

The figure stepped towards them, hands in the air. “Hi,” they said, Zaheer was surprised to hear the voice of a woman, as she walked towards them and waved with her hands both still raised in the air.

“I uh- captured this airship for you,” the girl said, she looked and sounded like she was still a teenager, early twenties at most. “You’re the Popular Front, right?”

“Yeah we’re with the Popular Front, the 229^th Brigade,” one of the men said, Zaheer winced slightly as he heard the man identifying with the Popular Front rather than with the Red Lotus militia. Zaheer still didn’t support the way that the worker militias had been officially folded into the government's army. The weapons he had captured had briefly allowed workers to become the true power in Omashu, but their fear of Kuvira had quickly caused them to give up much of that power again in return for aid from Ba Sing Se. Aid that remained suspiciously slow to arrive…

Either way, the man answering gave Zaheer more time to watch the mysterious girl. She was clearly water tribe, based on both her dress and appearance. Zaheer wondered how she wasn’t cold, standing here on an autumn night while wearing a sleeveless shirt.

“Who in Raava’s name are you?” The man from Zaheer’s company continued.

“I’m the girl who just stopped three airships from bombing you guys, I’m here to help,” the girl said with a shrug, as though that was a totally normal and believable explanation that didn’t raise more questions than answers. “I’m a member of the Red Lotus chapter in Republic City, sort of.”

That’s something at least, Zaheer thought as he stepped forwards. He gave the girl a once-over, she was very fit, and her stance betrayed some training as a fighter. He could see her as a soldier, but still… He looked back at the captives, there were over a dozen of them.

He kept his face passive as he turned back to the girl. “My name is Zaheer,” he said, “I’m the leader of this company and an active member of Omashu’s Red Lotus chapter. It seems like we have a lot to talk about.”

The girl grinned, before breathing a sigh of relief and dropping her arms down to her sides. “Phew, I was worried that maybe I landed on the wrong side of the trenches. That would’ve been something right? If a bunch of Kuvira’s soldiers suddenly surrounded me after I ruined their big attack? Would’ve been tough to fight my way out of that one.”

Zaheer noted that when the girl said “tough,” she didn’t seem to be using it as a synonym for “impossible.” He would’ve written it off as empty posturing, if the girl hadn’t been standing on an airship that she had captured seemingly single-handedly.

Wait… “Did you just say ‘big attack?’ ” Zaheer asked.

“Oh yeah,” the girl said, “I heard some of the crew of this ship- Well technically not the crew of this ship but of the other one… The guys I overheard are probably dea- Anyway, they said that Kuvira’s army was planning to attack after they finished their bombing run. I don’t know if they’ll still attack even after I ruined that part of the plan.”

Shit, Zaheer thought, forcing himself to stay on task instead of immediately running back to the front lines. “You didn’t really answer my man’s question,” he said. “Who exactly are you, how did you capture this ship?”

“She’s a monster, a dark spirit!” One of the girl’s captives said, rising to his feet before Ghazan slammed the butt of his rifle in the man’s gut, making him drop to his knees. “She’s a servant of Vaatu, a false prophet wielding unholy powers!”

The girl looked at the man, bemused expression on her face, before turning back to Zaheer, hesitating slightly before answering his question. “Well, I’ve been trying to keep it a secret, but I guess I’ve kind of exposed myself to those dudes and clearly they’re not going to keep silent.”

The girl paused briefly, then continued. “I’m the Avatar,” she said. A ridiculous statement, suddenly made less ridiculous when she lit a fire in the palm of a hand, before lifting up a large rock and making it float above her other hand.

Zaheer looked at her in shock. The Avatar, he thought. The existence of the avatar wasn’t a complete surprise, he’d talked to spirits in the past, when asked they had always insisted that the avatar was merely “sleeping” and that they would return one day. Zaheer just hadn’t expected it to happen during his own lifetime.

Chapter 20: The Trenches

Summary:

Korra gets acquainted with Zaheer and the other soldiers, meanwhile Asami comes to terms with her father's escape and pays a visit to the Red Lotus.

The Trenches.

 

 

“I’m the avatar,” Korra said.

As far as she could see there really wasn’t a way around telling them. Her prisoners had already witnessed her powers and they clearly weren’t keen on staying quiet, as that one guy had just proven. ‘A servant of Vaatu,’ she thought to herself, she’d just known that such accusations would be made against her as soon as the wrong people learned of her powers. She hoped that this Zaheer dude would be more accepting, given how she’d likely need his help to find her way back to Republic City.

For now he was just staring at her with wide eyes, as were all the other soldiers. But she could worry about that later, first thing’s first; she needed to destroy the mustard gas bombs that were still in the airship’s hold.

“If there’s an attack coming then I want to be there to help,” Zaheer said after closing his jaw back up. “So uhh- Miss, would you let us take custody of these prisoners and join us back at the camp? As I said, we have a lot to talk about. Apparently even more than I thought…”

“Not yet,” Korra said, “this ship was transporting chemical weapons, I want to destroy those first.” She turned towards the airship as she tried to figure out the best way to destroy the bombs without releasing clouds of toxic gas.

She walked over to the part of the ship that stored all the bombs, Zaheer followed her inside. “Mustard gas?!” He asked as he saw the bombs, he had an angry look on his face. Korra just nodded.

Zaheer quickly composed himself. “I really shouldn’t be surprised,” he said, “tyrants like Kuvira would do anything to seize the power they want, no reason why chemical weapons would be out of the question.”

Zaheer pointed to an even larger metal container towards the side of the room. “It seems like that container has even more of the gas, they were probably planning to use it to create more bombs on-site, at whatever their destination was.”

“Fort Bosco,” Korra said distractedly, interrupting Zaheer as he was about to say more.

Zaheer nodded, seemingly already having guessed the destination, then he continued speaking. “Regardless, how are you planning on destroying these bombs without creating a cloud of poison gas?”

Korra was glad that he was on-board with this, she had briefly feared that Zaheer would want to keep the bombs and use them against Kuvira’s forces. “I figure I could just stuff them in a hole,” she said, “that’ll keep the fumes from spreading.”

Zaheer nodded. “Very well, I’ll get some men to help carry them down while the rest starts digging.”

“No need,” Korra said with a cheeky grin, “avatar, remember?” She looked around the room, noticing that a large metal hatch was installed in the floor beneath where the bombs hung from the ceiling, presumably so that they just needed to detach the bombs to drop them on the target beneath, instead of needing to carry the heavy-looking bombs and throw them over the side of the ship.

Instead of figuring out the hatch’s mechanism Korra just punched at it, using her newly discovered metalbending to begin to peel open the metal and expose the room to the outside. She’d need to practice metalbending some more, she felt like she would’ve been able to rip away the entire hatch in a single movement if she’d had more experience. For now though she settled for crudely prying it open using several more punches, creating a large hole in the bottom of the room through which she could see the ground beneath.

She walked to the edge, then punched down to create a large pit inside the earth. She punched a few more times just to ensure that it was deep enough, then thought about her next steps.

“Do you know how these work?” She asked while pointing to the bombs. Zaheer, who’d been peering down into the pit with an astonished look on his face, turned to face her.

He quickly adopted a more neutral expression as he looked the bombs over. The bombs were large conical shapes, with funny metal shapes that looked like hats above them which attached them to the ceiling. “Looks like these are time-delay fuses,” he said, “pulling on the release cable drops them to the ground, which activates the fuse so that after a couple of minutes they explode.”

Korra nodded, then using metalbending she quickly pulled all the release cables, dropping all the bombs down into the hole one-by-one. She then picked up the larger metal container and dropped that down after them.

“Are you insane?” Zaheer asked, “I just told you that this ignites the fuse!”

“Calm down,” Korra said, “I’ll cover the pit up to contain the explosion and the gas.”

She jumped through the hole in the floor, landing besides the pit in the ground. From there she quickly worked to collapse the walls of the pit she’d made, covering the bombs in several meters of earth. She pressed the earth down more densely, then added even more earth on top of it.

Many of the soldiers gathered around, astonished looks on their faces as they saw Korra moving the earth with her bending. Shortly later Zaheer ran up to her, he’d left the ship through its intended exit instead of through the bomb-hatch like Korra.

Soon after Zaheer arrived a muted thump sounded from the earth beneath as the first of the bombs exploded, several more thump sounds followed as they all exploded one after the other.

“See? Perfectly contained,” Korra said as she patted Zaheer on the shoulder. “Now we can go to that camp of yours.”

“Alright comrades, get the prisoners and march back to camp! Quickly! An attack may be imminent,” Zaheer said to his men, who grumbled a bit while turning towards the prisoners.

It took a bit of prodding but eventually the prisoners marched out in front while Korra, Zaheer, and the other soldiers marched behind them. By now the morning sun had risen above the mountains, making them cast long shadows as they walked down the valley.

“So, you’re with the Red Lotus in Republic City?” A man with a gruff voice asked as he walked up next to Korra and Zaheer. He had long black hair and a thin mustache that ran down the sides of his face. “How is Har Dayal doing? Is he still running that newspaper of his? And how in the world did he end up meeting the avatar?”

“Uhh, he’s doing fine I guess,” Korra said. “Someone tried to kill him a while ago, but they failed. Anyway, we met because I sought him out. He doesn’t actually know that I’m the avatar…”

“You’re trying to keep that a secret?” The man asked, looking around at all the people Korra had just shown her abilities to. “I have to say, you’re doing a terrible job,” he said with a smirk.

“I’m afraid I have to agree with Ghazan,” Zaheer said, “there’s no way of keeping this quiet, people will talk. Why are you keeping it a secret to begin with?”

“Ugh, I know that people will talk,” Korra said frustratedly. “It was worth it to stop those bombs though. I’m keeping it a secret because Raava told me to, apparently there’s this shady group of secret benders with members all over the world, many are in positions of power and they hunt down any bender who isn’t part of their group.”

“You mean all those conspiracy theories are true?” Ghazan asked. “Royal families are all part of a secret cult with secret powers?”

Korra shrugged. “That’s what Raava said. How quickly do you think word will spread about me?” She asked.

 “Hmmm,” Zaheer said, briefly considering the question as they continued walking. “Rumors of what you’ve done here will spread, it may take a few days but once people who saw you go on leave in the city it will spread like wildfire. You haven’t told any of us your name yet though, which is good, by the time the rumors reach Republic City they maybe won’t be traced back to you.”

“That’s something,” Korra said, though she frowned as she considered the information. She had wanted to ask Zaheer if he could send a message to Asami to reassure her that she was safe, but now realized that this would probably not be a good idea, since it would allow people to trace her actions back to Asami and to figure out her identity.

She kicked away a pebble as she walked, frustrated by the situation. Leaving Asami alone to deal with her father was bad enough, leaving her without any kind of reassurance that Korra was okay was even worse. She hoped Asami had at least found the message in Naga’s saddlebag.

“You said you can commune with Raava?” Zaheer asked after they’d walked in silence for a few minutes. “How does that work?”

“Beats me,” Korra shrugged, “I’ve only done it by accident. I’m bonded to her but apparently that doesn’t mean that talking to her is easy, I need to develop my spiritual abilities or whatever, but I’m terrible at meditating!”

“Hah,” Ghazan said, “Zaheer loves meditating, he even claims to be able to enter the spirit world. Maybe he can help.”

“Is that true?” Korra asked as she turned to Zaheer, he nodded.

“Have you heard of Guru Laghima?” Zaheer asked.

 

 

***

 

 

Asami sighed as listened to the uniformed officer reporting to Chief Saikhan. After the disastrous attempt at arresting her father she and the Chief had been taken over to the police station, while other officers attempted to chase her father down.

But based on this report they still hadn’t turned up any new information.

Saikhan sighed as his subordinate ran away to rejoin the hunt, then he rubbed the back of head where he’d been knocked out, flinching slightly from the pain.

“Shouldn’t you have gone to the hospital?” Asami asked.

“Ahh no, it’s nothing,” Saikhan responded. “Especially not compared to what happened to Osu and Shuhi,” he said, referring to the two officers who had died. “Besides, there’s far too much going on right now for me to waste time on hospitals. I’m likely already out of a job after that disaster at your house, best not make it worse by failing to give it my all. There’s still the raids on your father’s properties to coordinate. Now that your father is on the run I’m thinking we should broaden their scope, search ALL of his properties rather than just the ones that are tied to his smuggling scheme.”

Asami hummed in approval, though she doubted that her father would be stupid enough to try to hide anywhere that could be traced back to him.

“Then there’s the protests against the new emergency law… I’ll need to speak to the Mayor, our current budget isn’t enough for us to afford this many overtime hours.”

“I’ll just leave you to it then,” Asami said with a sigh, already turning to leave.

“Wait!” Saikhan said. “I should assign you a security detail, your father clearly figured out that you’re the one who gave us the evidence against him, you might be in danger.”

“You just said that you’re short on manpower,” Asami said, dreading the idea of a bunch of cops hovering around her while she just wanted to be left alone. “If you want to help me then just send as many officers as you can to chase down my father. I’ll be fine, he wouldn’t hurt me. Besides, I can hire private security if I feel like I need it.”

Saikhan hesitated, seeming torn between insisting on assigning her security, or just taking the easy way out that she’d offered him. In the end he chose the latter, allowing Asami to leave without a security detail.

She walked down the steps of the station, unsure of where to go next. She considered the mansion, but then had a vision of the violence she’d recently witnessed and committed there. I wonder if they’re still cleaning up the blood, she thought, before deciding that she’d rather not have the answer to that quite yet.

The university then? But no, that wasn’t a very appealing prospect either. She’d been stuck on her thesis for ages, even before she discovered that she needed to come up with an entirely new premise, since bending turned out to be real and so her entire theory for why it was such a prominent part of all culture’s myths and legends was completely disproven. Plus, today’s lecture would be from Professor Raiko, one of her least favorite professors.

Then what? She thought.

She briefly considered visiting Mako and Bolin, but no, they were more Korra’s friends than hers, without Korra’s martial arts prowess Asami wasn’t sure if they had anything in common.

Then she had an idea. I should visit the Red Lotus. Originally the plan had been for her and Korra to visit the Red Lotus together after turning all the evidence against her father over to the police, to let the Red Lotus know that Asami had helped as promised and that there was no need for any further vigilantism against her father’s operation.

Korra striking out on her own had derailed that plan, but Asami figured that she could just do it on her own instead, since she had no idea when Korra would be back. (She refused to even entertain the idea of Korra not coming back at all.)

They probably didn’t really need Asami to inform them of the police’s actions against her father, raiding dozens of properties all around the city wasn’t exactly something that stayed quiet. The Red Lotus and its affiliated unions probably had plenty of members who worked in her father’s factories, so they’d likely already heard about it.

But Asami needed something to do, she’d also been dying to learn more about this organization that Korra was spending time with and going on dangerous missions with. Her recent experience of almost burning alive didn’t exactly help her to see them as trustworthy, even if Korra assured her that Shaozu had been a rogue element acting without the agreement of the rest of the Red Lotus.

Korra had given her the address of the Lotus’s headquarters, Asami decided to walk since it was just a few blocks away from the station. It did require her to walk past a line of protestors and then pass through one of the new checkpoints, which didn’t take too long since there was hardly a line. It was probably a different experience at rush hour though…

Either way, it didn’t take long for Asami to make it to the address Korra had given her. It looked like just a normal residential home, Asami knocked on the door.

 

A small hatch in the door slid open, revealing a man’s face. “Who knocks at the garden gate?” The man asked.

Oh right, Korra mentioned a passphrase… Asami couldn’t remember the proper response though. “Uhh, I don’t remember the proper answer,” she said honestly. “But my name is Asami Sato, I’m here to give you all an update on my father.”

The man seemed to look more closely at her, then his eyes widened in shock and he quickly opened the door. “Come in come in,” he said, “I’m sure everyone would love to hear from you. Where’s Korra though?”

“That’s another thing I have to tell you,” Asami said as she stepped inside, “probably best to wait until more of you are gathered though, so that everyone hears.”

“Right, that makes sense,” the man responded. “Most are away at the moment though, they’re leading the protests.”

“At the checkpoints you mean?” Asami asked, the man nodded. “Will they stay there all day?”

“No,” he said, “they should return in thirty minutes or so. We protest mainly during rush hour, so they leave around noon, then return for the evening rush.”

Asami nodded. “Ok, so I guess I’ll just wait?”

“You can head upstairs to the third floor, Har Dayal is there. He’s better at conversation than me, plus he makes great tea. I’ll just guard the door.”

Asami agreed, then made her way up the stairs. It was kind of awkward, moving through a strange house like this without a guide, it felt like she was intruding even though the guard at the door had told her it was okay.

“Hello?” She said once she made it to the third floor.

“I’m in here,” A voice said from behind the door to the right, Asami moved towards it and opened it. Behind it was a portly man with glasses, he briefly remained absorbed in the notebook he was writing in, but then looked up to Asami. 

“Who-“ He started, before a look of recognition appeared on his face. “Ah, Miss Sato, is Korra with you? We were expecting to have heard from her by now. Based on everything I’m hearing about raids on Future Industries factories, I presume that you did indeed collect evidence against your father like she promised you would?”

“Yeah, I did,” Asami said, unable to keep a deep sadness from washing over her and making itself visible in her expression.

Dayal looked sympathetic as he responded. “Well… You’ve done the people of this city a great service, I’m sincerely grateful. I expected Korra to be with you though, where is she?”

“She’s uhm, busy,” Asami said. “I came here to explain everything, but it’s probably best to wait until more people are here? The guy at the door said they’d be arriving soon.”

“I see Enuk still isn’t introducing himself properly,” Dayal said while shaking his head.

“Nor did I, I’m Har Dayal,” he said while holding his hand out to Asami, who shook it. “Would you like a cup of tea while we wait?”

She accepted, then began wandering around the room while he went away to prepare the tea. She approached a bookshelf with various books on politics and philosophy, it was rare to find a bookshelf that didn’t contain a single book she had read, or at least heard of, but all these book titles were unknown to her.

She picked one at random, it was very simply titled Anarchism. She opened it on a random page and began reading.

“Millions of individuals have worked to craft this civilization on which we pride ourselves at present. Millions more, throughout the world, still work to sustain it. Without them there would soon be nothing left but ruins.

There is not even an idea, or an invention, which is not common property, born of the past and the present. Thousands of inventors, some famous, some unwritten, some who died wealthy, some who died in poverty, have worked together to invent each of these machines which embody the brilliance of man.

Thousands of writers, of poets, of scholars, have worked to increase knowledge, to dispel misconceptions, and to create that culture of scientific thought without which the wonders of our century could never have appeared. And these thousands of philosophers, of poets, of scholars, of inventors, have themselves been supported by the work of past centuries.”

“Ah, one of my better works, if I do say so myself,” Dayal said from behind, making Asami quickly turn around and shut the book. “Don’t stop reading on my behalf, I wrote it because I want people to read it.”

“You wrote this book?” Asami asked, she’d only read a few paragraphs so far, but they had been very well-written.

“Sure did! I spend most of my time on the newspaper, but I occasionally find the time to write a longer text. What did you think?”

“Not sure yet,” Asami said, “I didn’t read enough to know the full message. I liked the bit I did read though. The prose is good at least, not as hard to decipher as other theoretical works.”

Dayal laughed. “Heh, that’s part of why I became a writer. I studied other socialist works at the university but half of them were completely unreadable even to me, let alone to a less educated factory worker! I strive to make my writing understandable to everyone, without sacrificing any of the substance.”

“This is actually another reason why I came; I want to learn more about your uhm, organization,” Asami said. “Korra is putting a lot of trust in you and jumping into danger because of you, I don’t want her trust to be misplaced. You know she’s still very new to this world right?”

“I do know,” Dayal said, “you’re the one who found her in the iceberg, correct?” Asami nodded. “I actually think that her unique perspective is why she’s ended up with us, why she so easily sees the flaws of this society that others are too blind to see,” he continued.

“How so?” Asked Asami.

“As I say in the book you’re holding, it can be hard for people to dare to challenge the ideas that their society treats as a given. I often engage in what some critics consider ‘utopian’ writing, writing in which I really try to imagine the possibilities of a future society. Some consider it a waste of time but I believe it to be vital. If we do not try to imagine the unimaginable, then how will we be able to push towards it when the time of the revolution comes?

“I consider it a sort of practice if you will, mental practice. Only once we dare to imagine a better world will we also dare to put it into practice. Without training ourselves to imagine a different world I fear that any ‘revolution’ will only be a farce. That it will inevitably create a society much like our current one, simply because we’re unable to imagine anything truly different. That a ‘revolution’ will overthrow capitalism and abolish money only to install a group of tyrants at the head of a new state while replacing yuans with ‘tokens.’

“Your friend Korra has a head start when it comes to imagining a different world, she has grown up in a world completely foreign to our own, a tribal society without a real state and without such a powerful concept of private property. A society that, in her own words, was more akin to the one that anarchists and socialists like me aspire to than to the capitalist system we currently live under.”

That was certainly an interesting way to look at it. Asami had never really thought in these terms about how a primitive tribal society could in many ways be seen as what would in the modern world be described as a ‘communist’ society.

“How do you imagine this ‘revolution’ would happen?” Asami asked. “I’m not sure if Korra fully grasps the power of the modern state, but you should know better, right? I just want to make sure that Korra isn’t getting involved with a bunch of insane radicals that’ll get her killed.”

Har Dayal’s core ideological beliefs may sound good, but those were never Asami’s main concern with this Red Lotus group. Even good ideas could be twisted and used to justify terrible and dangerous actions if the people trying to implement those ideas are reckless and irresponsible, Asami needed to make sure that not everyone in the Red Lotus was like that Shaozu guy who’d nearly burned her alive.

“That’s fair,” Dayal responded, “I can’t deny that I’m a radical, by definition that term certainly applies to me, I want a society that is radically different from our current one.

“But rest assured that I have no desire to seek out violent conflict, nor do most in our organization. Ideally, we would be able to fully implement our agenda just by petitioning the powers that be and engaging in peaceful protest. In reality it seems naïve to assume that the state and the capitalist owner-class will ever willingly give up their power without a fight though.”

“So then what happens, when they refuse to give up their power?” Asami asked.

“Well, we’ve seen this before,” Har Dayal said. “We won’t be the ones who draw first blood, the owner class and their thugs will be, when they violently break up our protests, attack us unionists, and so on. I imagine that a revolution will be defensive in nature, triggered by yet another case of the state attempting to violently suppress a political movement that threatens it. One day people will fight back and keep fighting back until the entire oppressive system has been defeated.

“I don’t imagine this to be something that can truly be planned, it relies entirely on the mood of the general public, sometimes the most unexpected things can trigger a major shift in public sentiment and suddenly rally people to action. As someone who publishes his own newspaper I’ll say that it’s actually quite frustrating how unpredictable these things tend to be.”

Asami nodded, he certainly sounded like a measured man. Her concerns wouldn’t be fully assuaged until she met more of the movement’s members though. In the meantime, she talked more to Har Dayal about what he thought of the similarities between ancient tribal life and anarchist/socialist philosophy.

It was a fascinating conversation, which made Asami think that perhaps she had accidentally stumbled upon a new topic for her master’s thesis. Either way it certainly helped to distract her from thinking too much about her father’s violent escape.

 

 

***

 

 

Korra leaned forward, inspecting a warrior’s wounds. They’d made it back to the army camp Zaheer had come from, he had quickly run to the radio room to see whether or not there was any report of an attack being launched by Kuvira’s forces. In the meantime Korra had wandered over to a shed that was filled with wounded soldiers, along and who she presumed to be medics to care for them.

“Who are you?” One of said medics asked. “You’re in the way,” she said, looking annoyed.

“I can help!” Korra responded.

The medic looked her over skeptically. “Do you have any medical training?” She asked.

“Probably not the kind that you did, but trust me I can help. I just need some clean water,” Korra said. The woman still looked skeptical, but pointed Korra to a corner where large containers of water were stored. Korra opened one of the containers, then used her waterbending to remove a good amount of water, she then walked back to the wounded warrior she’d been inspecting.

The man had somehow lost an entire leg, leaving only a small stump attached to his lower body. It was a gruesome sight, made only slightly less gruesome by the bloody bandages covering the wound. The man was unconscious, and his breathing seemed weak, if Korra had to guess then there was probably some infected tissue beneath the bandages. “Could you remove those bandages please?” Korra asked.

“Whh- What- Who?” The woman stuttered, staring at the blob of water Korra was bending around her right hand. The entire room had turned silent as they began to notice the water levitating in the air.

The woman managed to steel herself, before looking to the leg of the man Korra had talked about, then back to Korra. “I- He’s my patient, I don’t know what’s going on but I won’t let-”

“Just humor her,” a voice said from behind. Korra looked back to see Ghazan standing by the doorway, an intrigued look on his face. “She seems to be on our side thus far, I want to see what she can do.”

“This is a patient! Not an experiment!” The woman replied. 

“Ugh it’s not an experiment it’s just water healing, I’ve done it tons of times!” Korra said. “Here, I’ll start with something smaller just to show you,” she said, turning around the room to find someone with more superficial injuries.

She found a man with a cut on his face, he was pressing a bandage against it to stop the bleeding. He shied back when Korra approached. “Relax,” she said as she playfully moved the water around above her hand, “this will help you, it’ll be a bit cold at first, then a bit warm, that’s all. Just remove the bandage please.”

The man looked very hesitant, but after a nod from Ghazan he did as Korra asked. She covered her hand with water almost as though she was wearing a strange translucent glove, then she pressed it up against the cut on the man’s cheek.

She closed her eyes in concentration, then began using the water to heal the man’s injury. She opened her eyes again, watching the glowing water slowly begin to heal and close up the small cut.

When she removed her hand the wound was almost entirely healed, the man touched it with his hand in amazement. “It doesn’t even hurt anymore!” He said.

The medic woman went to inspect the man’s cheek. “He was still heavily bleeding a few minutes ago! How did you-”

“She says she’s the avatar,” Ghazan said as he cut the woman off. “I never thought that I’d buy into something like this, but I’m actually inclined to believe her.”

“Can you please remove the bandages now?” Korra asked, pointing back to the man with the missing leg. “I don’t think he has very long if I don’t treat him.”

The woman suddenly adopted a neutral expression, quickly moving to do as Korra asked. She was seemingly choosing to focus on doing what she was trained to do instead of questioning the strange phenomenon Korra was confronting her with.

Once the bandages were gone Korra bent the water around the man’s stump, before healing it she did her best to try to wash out anything that looked infected and collect it in a separate blob of water, she even used some tiny icy razors to cut away some of the infected tissue. Then she began healing, it took a while but slowly the stump began to look less like an open wound and more like a half-healed one.

“I can’t fully heal a wound this bad,” Korra said, “but this should do for now.”

After that demonstration the medic was now eager to allow Korra to go around the room and heal more people, a crowd started to gather but Ghazan chased them away. “This is a med bay not a circus!” He’d said.

As Korra went about healing people, she thought back to what Zaheer had talked about when they made their way to this camp. He’d been happy to tell Korra some of what he knew about how to meditate. Much of it sounded similar to what Tenzin had said, but some of it was very different too. Tenzin often talked about seeking out areas that were “spiritually charged,” but Zaheer didn’t mention this at all. When asked about it he dismissed the idea, saying that pretty much the entire world is flowing with spiritual energy, that Korra should be able to tap into it no matter where she was.

As she moved on to treating the people with minor and easy to treat injuries, she tried to see if she could feel this ‘spiritual energy’ Zaheer had talked about. She thought that she could feel something, but wasn’t sure if she was just imagining it. It did feel like progress though.

She finished healing the last patient, so she decided to try meditating again some other time, to first go and see what Zaheer was up to. She walked through the camp, where she noticed everyone staring at her. Some seemed merely curious, others looked awed, or confused. A few looked frightened by her but thankfully there weren’t a lot of those.

She walked up to the building with a radio, where Ghazan stood as well. “Zaheer spoke to all the commanders at the frontlines, no attack so far,” he said. “He’s got a couple more calls to make, then you can talk to him again.”

Korra nodded with a smile, happy that there hadn’t been an attack yet before she’d made it to the frontlines to help. “Well then, since we have to wait, can I ask you about everything that’s going on?”

“You mean the war?” Ghazan responded. “What do you want to know?”

“Not just the war,” Korra said, “the uhh, I forgot what the newspapers call it. But they all talk about how the things you guys are doing here are against the wishes of the government in Ba Sing Se, some even accuse you of being a bigger threat than Kuvira, or of sabotaging the war effort. They also talk about violence against churches and farm-owners.”

“Right, well I’m not the most political guy, so take my perspective with a grain of salt,” Ghazan began. “But the way I see it is that when Kuvira tried to launch her coup half the government’s fighting force joined her, including more than half of the generals and military bases where heavy weaponry was stored. The remaining loyalists would’ve been quickly overrun if they had to fight by themselves. Luckily worker unions stepped up, we were very organized and this made us able to quickly form militias to help defend against Kuvira’s forces.

“After we fought off Kuvira’s soldiers we captured one of their arms depots, those weapons made us regular workers the most powerful force in the region, even more powerful than the government. The government demanded that we gave up all of this power, but we refused. We fought for it and it gave us a strong position to bargain from, why wouldn’t we make use of that?

“The people who are mad at us about it are just the elites who want to be able to ignore the will of the masses and drive through their own agenda, instead of having to bargain with us like equals. It’s not like we’re refusing to cooperate, if you ask Zaheer then we’ve already given up too much in our negotiations with the central government.”

“What about the churches though? And the farmers?” Korra asked.

“The actual farmers are on our side!” Ghazan said. “They’re still working the same fields they worked before, happier than ever now that they profit more directly from the labor. It’s the landowners who oppose us, accuse us of stealing their land.

“I guess that technically they’re right, we’ve stolen a bunch of land. They never should’ve been allowed to own it all to begin with though.” Ghazan said. “The people who work the fields should own the fields,” he then recited.

Korra nodded, this was an argument she’d already heard from others in the Red Lotus, it seemed to be a common mantra amongst socialists. “What about the people who say that your priorities are wrong, that you should focus on the war before worrying about land ownership? Isn’t defeating Kuvira more important?”

“That goes both ways doesn’t it?” Ghazan said. “Why doesn’t anyone tell Ba Sing Se to focus on the war instead of focusing on the property rights of their precious landowners? We are focused on the war, it’s Ba Sing Se that’s refusing to send us supplies because they’re upset about this land reform debate.”

“Fair enough,” Korra said. “And the churches?”

Ghazan looked a bit hesitant to answer, but eventually he did. “Look, I won’t deny that some bad things were done, especially in the early days. But you’ve got to understand, the church’s leaders explicitly supported Kuvira’s coup, they’ve openly opposed democracy and worker’s rights for years, they hold a LOT of power that they have used to actively oppose our cause. There’s a lot of resentment because of that, which led to some excesses in the early days back when the outbreak of violence made everything rather chaotic.”

“What kind of excesses?!” Korra demanded.

“Executions,” Ghazan said, Korra had to admire his frankness if nothing else.

“A few hundred of them, a thousand maybe,” Ghazan said. “Some of them had it coming, some didn’t. In a few places people just went around killing anyone wearing the church’s robes. Some church buildings were burned to the ground too, they were seen as a symbol of the conservative ideology that inspired the coup.”

Korra stayed silent, shocked by what she was hearing. So far she wasn’t the biggest fan of the church either, but this sounded like it went way too far!

“The scale of it was nothing compared to what’s happened and is still happening in Kuvira’s territory though,” Ghazan said as he continued talking, “unionists, nonbelievers, foreigners, even just people who support democracy, they’re all being slaughtered by the thousands or put in labor camps. The fascists are also targeting air nomad enclaves in or near their territory, all with the active support of the church of Raava. Justified or not, what happened to the clerics here was a natural consequence to the things the church is doing and has been doing for decades. I can’t blame anyone for hating them, and hate makes people do rash things.”

Korra was horrified, she understood that no side could keep its hands clean in war, but still…

“Y- You did- You did put a stop to it though, right?” She asked.

Ghazan nodded. “To the executions and the targeting of anyone who’s part of the church? Yes, that only lasted a few days. We’re still targeting the church as an organization though, we’d be fools to let them continue operating with complete freedom like they did before, while they’re known sympathizers of the enemy we’re at war with. United Republic newspapers can criticize us for it all they want, maybe they’ll sing a different tune when that Amon fella does the same thing Kuvira did here.”

On that ominous note Ghazan turned around and left, leaving Korra to wait for Zaheer to speak to her.

 

 

***

 

 

Asami sat next to Har Dayal, watching as other Red Lotus members began to stream in. Many of them gave her surprised and curious looks, last to arrive was Shaozu, who turned pale and seemed like he was considering turning around and running away as soon as he spotted her, but eventually came in anyway.

“Right, first thing’s first, does anyone have anything of note to report from the protests they attended?” Dayal said.

What followed was a few people giving reports, talking about how a couple of the Lotus’s members were arrested, one was hit with a rock, another was dragged away and sent home by other Lotus members after attempting to throw a rock at the police. It was good to see that their organization practiced such self-discipline and prevented members from escalating things with the police.

Finally, after the last man gave his report, it was Asami’s turn. Dayal introduced her, then gave her the floor. “Uhm, so, I’m sure you all know about me, about who my father is and what he did,” Asami began. “I uncovered some evidence by myself, and after joining you guys on a raid Korra was able to bring me even more, proving beyond any doubt what my father was doing. I then planned to break into my father’s office to collect evidence, which was a success, despite some setbacks.” She glared at Shaozu as she said this, and noticed that several others did as well.

“Anyway, I put all the evidence together and developed a fairly clear understanding of his operation, then I brought all of it to the DA. The evidence was compelling enough for Beifong to immediately plan raids on my father’s properties, as well as his arrest. Those raids are happening as we speak, which should put an end to any further arms being smuggled to the separatists and to Kuvira,” she said. Grimacing slightly at the happy smiles and tiny cheers that she saw throughout the room, knowing that there was less positive news to follow.

“The arrest on my father failed though,” she said, “two arresting officers were killed and then he fled. Last I heard he’s still at large.”

She saw many of the smiles around the room disappear, thankfully none of them turned to anger, even though she irrationally did blame herself for her father’s escape.

“Well, we can’t fault you for that,” Dayal said. “You’ve done us a great service, the most important thing is that we’ve cut off the separatists’ arms supply.”

“How many weapons do they have though? And what kind?” Another man said, looking Asami directly in the eye. Dayal had said he was named Shui.

“Do you have any insight into that? I’ve been helping some of the lads to train for combat, properly train, in case it comes to real fighting. But it’d be good to know what to expect in terms of enemy weaponry.”

Asami nodded. “I was going to get to that,” she said, “the problem there is that it’s been hard to get a clear picture of which weapons went to Kuvira and which went to the separatists. But considering the amount of weapons my father smuggled, even a small fraction of them being in the hands of the separatists would be very troubling. We’ve been working on the presumption that most of the heavier weaponry was sent to Kuvira, since that heavier weaponry wouldn’t be as useful in the city.”

“Unless they don’t care about collateral damage,” the man said, “plus, even if they want to avoid damage to the city they could still use heavier weaponry in the rest of the country. To conquer the rural countryside, to cut off reinforcements from the United Republic’s military bases in the North and West, and so on.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” a man in air nomad garb interrupted, “we don’t know if the separatists are planning a full scale coup, they could be arming themselves just as a precaution, same as we do.”

“Stop being so naïve Jingbo,” Shui said, “they’ve attacked our district, burned our homes, tried to deport us, and they’ve got the police and several conservative parties on their side! They’ll do whatever they think they can get away with, which is probably a lot if they have this many weapons.”

Asami nodded, she didn’t like it but what Shui said seemed like the most reasonable analysis of the situation, especially considering what she herself knew. “That fits what my father said before he fled,” she said, “he said that someday soon he and Amon would overthrow the government.”

Curses sounded around the room, it was clear that most the people here dreaded the idea of things escalating to violence. She should have been relieved by that, since making sure that that was the case was one of the big reasons why she came here, but instead it only worried her more.

“By the way,” she said, “I discovered something about those fires. It turns out that my father recently bought most of the buildings that burned down, he actually used the insurance money to try to cover his smuggling. We also think that he was likely attempting to kill two birds with one stone by doing this, he still owned the ground and had been in contact with construction companies from out of town to develop new buildings there, aimed towards wealthier citizens.”

“He was trying to gentrify us out of the neighborhood?” Someone asked, Asami nodded.

“Who is ‘we’?” Another person asked. “Is the DA allowing you to be part of their investigation?”

“Uhh, they did yesterday, and this morning, after I brought them the evidence we all looked through it together,” Asami said. “I’m not sure if they’ll continue to let me be part of the investigation for any longer though, I expect not.”

“Shame,” the man responded, “could’ve been useful to have an inside man in the DA’s office. Or ‘inside Ma’am’ I suppose. Or ‘inside Miss’?”

Some chuckles sounded around the room, though Asami was suddenly worried that she’d given the wrong impression. “Don’t get me wrong,” she said, “I’m not suddenly a member of your movement. I sympathize with many of your goals but I’m not planning to be one of your agents or whatever, even if I could remain part of the investigation. I’m just here because I knew Korra was planning to report to you, but she couldn’t make it.”

“Why couldn’t she make it?” Shaozu asked, giving Asami a knowing look. He and Asami were the only ones in the room who knew she was the Avatar.

“Uhh-” Asami said, “That’s the last thing I wanted to mention, I discovered that one of my father’s final arms shipments to Kuvira included three airships carrying mustard gas, that shipment was supposed to be sent out yesterday at noon.”

“And Korra went to try to intercept it, by herself?” Shui exclaimed. “Don’t get me wrong, she handled herself well during the raid, certainly proved herself. But intercepting three airships by yourself is insane no matter who you are!”

“You’d be surprised,” Shaozu muttered, before quickly shutting his mouth after a glare from Asami.

Asami answered more questions, though she tried to deflect away from the topic of Korra, for various reasons. An end to the meeting was called after she finished giving Shui a more detailed overview of how many weapons her father had smuggled, several people came up to Asami to express their gratitude to her, for standing up to her father and helping to fight against the separatists.

She accepted their thanks while trying not to think about it too much, despite everything it still felt wrong to accept praise for turning against her own father.

She waited until nobody was paying attention to her anymore, then walked straight up to Shaozu, dragging him away towards and empty room. Shutting the door before rounding on him. “You swore to Korra that you wouldn’t tell anyone!” She whisper-yelled.

“I didn’t!” He responded.

“You’re not exactly keeping suspicion away though,” Asami said, “saying stuff like ‘you’d be surprised.’ Are you trying to help people figure it out?”

“I shouldn’t have said that,” Shaozu admitted, “but come on, how is anyone supposed to figure anything out based on that?”

Asami sighed, then counted to ten. “You’re right, I’m uh- Overreacting.”

“I get it,” Shaozu said, “I’m worried about her too.”

“You don’t get to be worried about her!” Asami snarled, not even sure what that was supposed to mean.

“Well I am! She’s literally the being that my parents always told me to worship, someone who’s supposed to return to help the world in a time of need. I never believed the avatar existed, that any kind of cosmic being cared about any of us.

“Now that I’ve seen otherwise, now that I have hope, I’d hate to think that her grand destiny as the world’s savior will be ruined because she gets herself killed.”

“Well your worry isn’t going to help her,” Asami said, “and I still haven’t forgiven you.”

“I- I understand,” Shaozu said. “I’ll leave you alone, but know that if you need anything then uhh-” He trailed off due to Asami’s withering stare, then he just awkwardly walked out of the room and down the stairs.

Asami wasn’t sure if her treatment of him was fair, but she also didn’t really care. She took a moment to collect herself, then walked back out into the hallway.

“I’m leaving,” she said to Dayal, who was cleaning up in the meeting room, “thanks for keeping me company before the meeting started, I enjoyed our talk.”

“Likewise,” Dayal said, “I’d like to speak to you again someday, even if you’re not officially joining our organization. I’ve dabbled in history and anthropology but it’s never been my main area of study, I’d like to test some of my theories against your knowledge.”

“Maybe,” Asami hedged, “we’ll see.”

She then left the building, as the door closed behind her she realized that she would now finally have to return to the mansion, to the scene of her father’s and the butler’s murderous escape. She dreaded it the entire drive back to the mansion, but as she walked inside she noticed that the foyer had been immaculately cleaned, leaving no clear visible signs of what happened other than a missing rug on the floor.

“Miss Sato, you’re back!” Mrs Su said with a bow as Asami walked further inside, at least as much of a bow as the woman’s elderly body allowed for. Mrs Su was the head maid, in charge of cleaning the mansion, though these days she mostly just directed the rest of the staff. Asami had known the elderly woman for her entire life.

“We’ve cleaned things as best as we could,” Su said, “I still can’t believe that Lao would do such a thing. Much less your father… Are you- Do you need anything?”

Asami numbly shook her head, not sure how to respond. She reached out to touch a small hole in the wall, presumably from one of the bullets that Lao had fired.

She was about to head to her bedroom but then, without warning, she burst into tears.

“Oh dear,” Su said, running up to hug Asami as quickly as she could, while Asami began sobbing uncontrollably and fell down to her knees. Now that the floodgates had opened it was all just too much to keep in. Lao’s actions, her father’s actions, her own actions, her worry for Korra, the always-present grief for her mother, all of it suddenly rushed to the forefront of her mind now that there was nothing left for her to distract herself with.

Part of her wondered how she’d kept it all in for an entire day, as she leaned deeper into Su’s arms and allowed the woman to comfort her, wishing that Korra was there instead.

 

 

***

 

 

“A MONTH?!?” Korra exclaimed. She’d just asked Zaheer how long it would take for her to get back to Republic City.

“I’m afraid so,” Zaheer said, briefly grabbing on to the truck’s side as they drove over a bump. They were currently being taken to the frontlines, to the part of the trench where Zaheer thought Kuvira’s forces were most likely to focus their attack, if they did still plan to attack.

Korra had planned to stay here a few more days so that she could be there to help defend against the attack she still believed was coming, and to then make her way back to Republic City as quickly as possible. But she hadn’t counted on the trip back taking that long.

“Travelling by land isn’t an option,” Zaheer said, “the entire land border with the United Republic is under Kuvira’s control. Going by sea is the only choice.”

“Why would that take a whole month though?” Korra asked. They weren’t that far from Republic City, even her tribe’s ships would’ve made the trip faster than that, weren’t modern ships supposed to be faster?

“Kuvira has a blockade in place,” Zaheer said, “they sink any ship belonging to the Earth Kingdom or planning to trade with the Earth Kingdom. The only way to safely travel to Republic City is by sailing around the blockade, which requires you to sail all the way around the Southern Air Nation’s islands.”

“What about travelling unsafely?” Korra asked.

Ghazan laughed in response. “I like your way of thinking!” He said.

“You could try,” Zaheer said, “but I’m not sure you’ll be able to find a Captain willing to take the risk.”

“Can’t I just travel by land?” Korra asked. “If I pose as a noncombatant?”

Zaheer shook his head. “You’re clearly from the watertribes, Kuvira’s regime doesn’t approve of foreigners.”

“I thought they were working with the Northern tribe?” Korra said.

“They are, but that doesn’t mean they’ll just accept your presence, even if you pose as a Northerner. You’d need to explain your presence and provide documentation, especially if you’re crossing over from our territory.”

Right, Korra thought, I definitely don’t have any explanation they would accept.

She set the matter of her return to Republic City aside for the moment, since the truck was coming to a stop. Korra looked around at her surroundings, they’d driven along a road through the mountains, then all the way down a different valley further to the South. They had now made it to the last hill on this side of the mountain range, beyond this hill the terrain would be much flatter.

As Zaheer had explained most of the popular front’s defensive lines were situated further up the hilly terrain, but in this area they had dug their trenches beyond the hills and on the flatlands. They’d done this because the mountains didn’t reach all the way to the coast, extending their line across several miles of this flatter and harder to defend terrain was a necessary part of preventing Kuvira’s forces from simply walking around the mountain range to attack the lands beyond.

Which meant that Kuvira’s only ways of attacking the lands South of the Si Wong Desert were either by attacking from water and trying to land her troops on the heavily fortified coastline, by attacking over the highly defensible mountains, or by breaking through the defensive line on this narrow bit of flat land between the mountains and the coast.

Korra could definitely see why Zaheer thought this last option was the most likely. She looked to the side, where she could see the ocean in the distance. She knew from her personal experience of having sailed past this coast that most of it was lined by tall cliffs, which would give defenders a huge advantage. Definitely not where she would want to attack.

Zaheer waved a hand in front of her to get her attention, then pointed to a path that led down into a long ditch that was cut into the ground, with sandbags lining the sides. “That’s the beginning of the trench,” Zaheer said, “once it turns around the hill you’ll be in sight of the enemy guns, so keep your head low and do NOT peek out above the walls of the trench. The enemy trench is only a hundred to two hundred meters away from ours, close enough for sharpshooters to accurately target anyone who carelessly stands up.”

Korra nodded, then followed Ghazan into the trench, copying his awkward looking hunched-over walk, though she didn’t have to hunch over quite as far as he did to avoid sticking out above the walls of the trench.

As they walked further into the trench, the sounds of occasional gunshots could be heard. Then, scaring Korra and almost making her jump before she remembered not to put her head up too high, several even louder blasts sounded nearby.

One of the explosions was right next to the part of the trench they were talking towards, it caused some dirt to be thrown over the men that sat along the side of that trench, though they barely even reacted to it, other than one who’d accidentally swallowed a bit of the dirt.

“Is the attack beginning?!” Korra asked, making Ghazan laugh.

“Oh no, this is just the normal amount of shelling,” he said. “Their mortars often fire a few dozen times a day, that’s not too unusual. Doesn’t mean an attack is coming, if they’re about to attack then they’ll fire hundreds of shells.”

“YOU MISSED, SUCKERS!!” Someone ahead of them in the trench shouted through a megaphone. “Stop fighting your own class, turn your guns against your officers, against your true enemy!”

“Uhhh, what’s that guy doing?” Korra asked, while the man continued yelling and shouting slogans, almost reminding her of that separatist protester at the park.

“Kuvira doesn’t care about you, she only cares about the wealthy industrialists who profit from your deaths. Resist fascist conscription!!”

“Propaganda duty,” Ghazan said, “It’s supposed to demotivate the enemy, encourage them to defect.”

“We’ve got bacon and buttered toast! What’s Kuvira feeding you?” The man shouted.

As they got closer Korra noticed that he was simply reading from a script. Contrary to his words the man looked rather malnourished, though he did seem to be enjoying himself as he continued shouting through the megaphone, repeating various slogans that seemed to Korra as though Har Dayal could’ve written them.

“Does it work?” Korra asked skeptically, while some gunfire and shouting sounded from the enemy trench in the distance. People shouting at each other from across a field while hiding in a ditch didn’t quite live up to her idea of what war was like.

“Long live the Earth Kingdom, glory to Kuvira!” A voice shouted from the enemy trench, as if in response to Korra’s question.

Ghazan shrugged while he continued walking down the trench. “Who knows. Occasionally someone does desert and manage to cross over, but maybe they would’ve done so anyway.”

“Most of Kuvira’s forces are conscripts, not volunteers,” Zaheer piped up from behind. “I do believe that being reminded of that fact, day in and day out, will have an effect.”

“I do remember one deserter being disappointed by the lack of toast we had to offer him,” Ghazan said with a laugh, “so at least that one dude fell for it.”

 

 

They made it to an intersection, where they crossed into yet another trench. Korra had always pictured the trenches as just a single line, but they turned out to be much more complex than that. Several trenches ran parallel to the one at the actual front, with occasional hallways and intersections to connect them.

As Korra observed the soldiers they passed she noticed just how dirty and poorly fed many of the soldiers were. She was surprised to spot a couple of women among them, the first female warriors she’d seen or even heard of since arriving in the future.

The trench they’d crossed into led them to a room that looked almost like a cave, dug even deeper into the earth and covered by a reinforced layer of earth. A handful of marginally better dressed soldiers were inside this cave, looking up as Ghazan approached.

“Ghazan, Zaheer,” one of them said, “I thought you were going to be on leave, what are you doing here? And who’s this?” The man asked, pointing to Korra.

“We’ve received information that suggests an attack may be imminent,” Zaheer said, ignoring the question regarding Korra’s identity. “I brought my company as reinforcements, just in case. I would’ve told you over the radio but I didn’t want to risk the enemy hearing. Did you see those airships last night? They were meant to bomb us with chemical weapons as part of the opening salvo of their attack.”

“Hah! So much for that idea, we saw them crash and burn!” The man said. “I didn’t know we had such good air defenses, how did we take them down?”

“We had some help,” Zaheer responded simply. “Either way, they may still attempt an attack soon. I doubt that the entire attack hinged on that bombardment, even if its failure made them rethink their timeline.”

The man nodded. “That sounds right to me. I’ve had some of the lads tell me that it seems like Kuvira’s forces are suddenly peeking their heads up more often than normal, people often do that when they know they’ll be storming the enemy trench soon. As though a brief peek will somehow prepare them.”

After speaking to the commander, Korra, along with Zaheer’s company of soldiers, settled in with everyone else that’d already been stationed at the trenches. “Soooo,” Korra began, “everyone just sort of sits here, not doing much of anything, other than staying ready for an attack?”

“Pretty much,” Ghazan answered.

“And you’ve been doing that for months?!?” Korra asked. It was exactly as the newspapers had described it, but somehow she had still expected it to be more… Exciting, once she actually saw it in person.

Despite the monotonous nature of the task Korra quickly realized that it was also quite nerve-racking and mentally tiring to stay on-guard for such an extended period, especially since Zaheer insisted that their company moved to the frontmost trench. She sat there with the other soldiers, chatting with them while deflecting questions of who she was and why she didn’t have a rifle with her.

At one point Korra looked up as she heard a strange whistle in the air above. Another artillery shell! She thought.

It didn’t land anywhere near their part of the trench, but it still scared Korra. A few of the soldiers laughed at how much she flinched, making Korra blush even though she rationally didn’t feel as though a sense of self-preservation was anything to be ashamed of.

Night fell and Korra tried to get some sleep while others took the first watch, but at night the waiting became even more nerve-racking than it had been during the day. She gave up on sleeping and went to one of the guard-posts, the one where Ghazan was standing watch.

He nodded at her, but didn’t make a sound, Korra didn’t either. They both kept their ears peeled, listening for any sign of an enemy. Zaheer had said earlier that day that night was arguably the most dangerous time, that occasionally the enemy would try to launch surprise night-time raids by slowly crawling their way over to the enemy trench, especially on a cloudy night like this where not even the stars were providing any real light.

Korra had to fight the urge to use her firebending to give herself some light, especially when both she and Ghazan heard some shuffling in the distance, from the direction of the field between their trench and the enemy’s trench.

Taking a deep breath, Ghazan suddenly stood up and scanned through the darkness with his gun. Korra adopted a combat stance, ready to jump up and start fighting too if Ghazan saw something.

But no, after a few moments Ghazan just sat back down and shook his head.

Probably just a spider-rat or something, Korra thought. Later in the night some brief bursts of gunfire sounded from other parts of the trench, but eventually dawn came without anything of note happening. Korra had eventually gotten a few hours of sleep in one of the cramped underground barracks they had dug in one of the back trenches, but it hadn’t been a very deep sleep.

Which did help her awake much more easily than she did most mornings, so that was nice, she supposed.

I hate waiting, I hate waiting, I hate waiting, Korra thought to herself all morning. Lunch arrived, I hate waiting, I hate waiting, Korra’s mind still said on repeat.

Asami has to be worried sick about me, not to mention all the stuff with her father. She needs my support but I’m just sitting here doing nothing! Korra thought. 

She’d been badgering Zaheer about alternative ways of getting to Republic City, but he hadn’t offered any feasible suggestions. Korra had suggested the airship, but Zaheer said nobody here knew how to operate it.

The moment Korra was finally fed up with waiting arrived a few hours past noon, when another mortar shell whistled through the air. Like the other soldiers at the trench Korra barely flinched anymore when it happened. But this time, instead of landing in empty field between or behind the trenches, the shell landed right in the middle of a trench.

Korra wasn’t there when it landed, but she heard the screams and came running. “It hurts! It hurts!” A man was yelling as he clutched what remained of his leg, while a couple other soldiers held him. Korra uncorked her water pouch, about to try to start healing the man, though she wasn’t sure if she should start with his leg or with his bleeding gut. Before she made up her mind the man suddenly fell silent, while his body went limp.

“He’s dead,” one of the soldiers who’d been holding him said, pressing a finger to the man’s artery to look for a pulse.

Spirits, Korra thought, looking at the gory sight. Another man had been hit as well, but he’d already died before Korra even arrived. It looked like the explosive had landed right on the table where the two men had been playing a card-game together.

Korra watched helplessly as soldiers arrived to carry away the men’s bodies, she was still staring in the direction they had gone in when Zaheer came from behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“How many die, per day, or per week, whatever?” Korra asked without turning to face him, still staring towards where the bodies had been carried away on the brancards.

“On this part of the frontlines?” Zaheer asked. “A couple dozen per week for every mile of the trench, give or take. One died last night, shot by a sniper after he foolishly lit up a cigarette.”

Korra balled her fists in frustration. I can’t just sit here and do nothing, I’ll go insane! She thought. She wasn’t meant for this, sitting idly by while people died. She wanted a way to jump into action, to fight the enemy and turn the tides instead of just waiting for them to attack!

Most of all, she wanted to get back to Asami as quickly as possible. An insane thought occurred to her, a way for her to work towards both of those goals at the same time. “I’m just going to walk,” she said, her mind made up.

“Walk where?” Zaheer asked, confused.

“Republic City,” Korra said, “I’ll run actually, not walk. Bet I can make it in 5 days or less if I go in almost a straight line.”

Zaheer looked at her like she was crazy, maybe she was. “That’s enemy territory, there’s a fortified trench in your way.”

“I’ll just fight my way through it, help you guys capture the enemy trench while I’m on my way,” Korra said, mind already hard at work at figuring out what would be the best way for her to approach the enemy trench.

 

 

“I don’t think-“ Zaheer began before Korra interrupted him

“Tell everyone here to get ready, make sure they don’t shoot me in the back. When I get close I’ll use earthbending to lift up the enemy trenches, make them level with the ground again, maybe even higher. It’ll leave the soldiers in those trenches without any cover, easy pickings for your men.”

“I’m not sure this is a good idea, you’re the avatar you shouldn’t risk-”

“You’re right, I’m the avatar!” Korra said. “I’m supposed to make a real difference, on a global scale! Not just sit here and help make this one trench slightly safer against attackers!”

Zaheer looked her in the eye, seeming to search for something, Korra looked right back at him, not allowing any doubt to enter her expression. “Fine,” Zaheer said, “I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Sure I do,” Korra said, partly to convince herself. “It’s a great plan, the last thing they’ll expect is for us to attack while they’re planning an attack of their own!” She wasn’t entirely sure if that logic checked out, but she said it anyway.

Zaheer swiftly jumped to action, first gathering Ghazan and several other officers from his own company and explaining Korra’s intentions to them. They then began ordering men from the other companies to prepare to fire an artillery salvo, they ordered people from the back trenches to get to the front trench and prepare for action.

Everyone looked confused, but they did listen to Zaheer even though Korra was pretty sure he didn’t have the authority to order everyone around like this. She’d noticed these past couple of days that Zaheer was very well-known throughout the army, more so than the leaders of other companies.

“Is the enemy attacking?” Some of the soldiers who’d obeyed Zaheer asked.

“What’s the meaning of this?” One of the men Korra remembered from the cave-room said while he was pushing his way through a mass of soldiers. “Why are you causing this ruckus? There’s still no sign of the enemy attacking!”

“We’ll be the ones attacking,” Zaheer said after briefly looking to Korra to confirm that she still wanted to go through with this, “we’re about to get an opening.”

“That’s right,” Korra said, slamming a fist into her open palm to pump herself up.

The other officer was about to respond, but fell silent when Korra turned around and began climbing the ladder that led up to what Zaheer had called ‘no man’s land.’ She quickly went all the way up the ladder and then stood tall, looking out across the charred field full of craters, towards the enemy trench.

“What is she-” A voice sounded from behind her, they cut themselves off when Korra pulled up an earth-wall. Shortly after she did so enemy gunfire began to ring out, she could hear the bullets thumping into the earthen wall as she held it up in front of her.

Korra briefly turned back to the trench she’d climbed, to the officer who’d been demanding answers. “Sorry for the ruckus,” she said with a smirk. Then she lifted up the wall and held it before her as she began to run towards the enemy trench.

Notes:

Back to Korra & Asami ;p

I couldn't help myself with Zaheer by the way, I just HAD to make him do the Guru Laghima meme. Anyway, it's a bit of a setup chapter again, obviously ending on a cliffhanger for Korra. I don't know about you guys but I quite like the idea of Korra storming an enemy trench just to get back to her GF sooner XD

Fun fact: That bit of "Dayal's" book that Asami read was actually me paraphrasing from Kropotkin's "the conquest of bread," which is a pretty good read that I highly recommend to anyone interested in anarchism ; )
Next chapter: VIOLENCE! Also, Asami talking with lawyers, AKA even more violence.

Chapter 21: Turning the Tides.

Summary:

Korra assaults the enemy trench.
Meanwhile Asami tries to distract herself and return to a sense of normalcy, but receives news that makes this even more challenging than it already was.

Turning the Tides.

 

 

Asami woke up in her bed, quickly feeling embarrassed when she remembered what happened the previous day. She hadn’t cried like that or had anyone hold her like that since before her mother passed away. I thought I was stronger than that, she thought to herself, though part of her realized how silly she was being. Anyone, no matter how strong they were, would struggle in her situation.

Regardless, she wanted to do her best to avoid another tearful outburst. She reasoned that the best way to do so would be to find something to distract her, so she decided to go to the university like normal, she’d already missed enough lectures these past few weeks.

She put on her makeup and got herself ready for the day, then during breakfast she finished up the coursework she’d neglected the past few days.

Su, the head maid, talked to her before she left. The older woman didn’t seem to think it was a great idea for Asami to go to the university right now, but stopped herself from voicing any objections. Asami was her employer after all. Except, technically father is her employer… Asami thought, making a mental note to check when all the staff would be expecting their next paychecks, and to find out which bank accounts she could access that hadn’t been frozen. 

She arrived at the university, where she immediately noticed that everyone was staring at her. She was used to turning heads, especially on the campus where women were still a rarity, but this was nothing like that normal amount of attention.

Of course, it wasn’t surprising. Everyone knew who her father was and by now they had surely heard the news of how her father had become a fugitive. One of the country’s most influential multi-millionaires being outed as the mastermind behind arguably the largest criminal conspiracy in the nation’s history wasn’t exactly something that happened every day.

As far as Asami knew her own involvement in these events still wasn’t known to the public, she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Do they think I support my father, or that I was ignorant about all of it? The latter wouldn’t be too far off, she’d discovered the truth only shortly before everyone else did, but the hostile glares that some people were giving her as she walked through the university’s halls suggested that some were assuming the former.

 

 

She made it to her first lecture, where it felt like the entire lecture hall turned to look at her, making her decide to sit in a back corner instead of her usual spot closer to the front. Eventually the professor chastised them and made everyone look to the front of the room. Throughout the class several people still occasionally turned around to stare at Asami though, which she tried her best to ignore but it still didn’t help her focus on her studies.

After finishing her first lecture of the day she had a few hours to herself, which she planned on spending in the library, digging up books that would help with the new subject she was planning to write her master’s thesis on. She wanted her thesis to be about whether ancient tribal ways of life could be seen as a precedent for the kind of society that anarchists espouse, about whether there were any other examples throughout history of their ideology successfully being put into practice, and what this could say about its feasibility as an ideology in the present day.

It was a very broad subject, one that she would likely have to narrow down to turn it into a coherent thesis, but she figured she could cross that bridge when she got to it. For now, she just needed to do a ton of research. Which was perfect for distracting herself.

Almost half an hour later she was busy carrying a second stack of books towards her desk, where the first stack she had gathered was already waiting. She’d lasted almost half an hour without thinking about her father or about her worries for Korra, almost…

That’s when she heard a voice call out to her with a sneer. “I can’t believe you’d show your face here, after your fascist father went on the run. I’m surprised they even let you into the building!” A voice said.

Asami tilted her head to the side to look past the stack of books she was carrying, allowing her to see the person who’d been talking. She recognized Chule, a fellow anthropology student and someone who was active in the National Student League, one of several progressive student organizations active at Republic City University.

“Why wouldn’t they let me in?” Asami said, after depositing her books with a loud thump. “My father is the fascist, not me.”

“So you don’t even deny his guilt?!” Chule said.

Asami felt herself growing frustrated at the way he was running his mouth while clearly being ignorant of the finer details. “Of course I don’t deny his guilt, I’m the one who turned him in!” She yelled.

“Now if you’ll please leave me alone, I’m trying my best to NOT think about what a bastard my father is!” She said, trying her best to keep tears from forming.

Chule did at least have the decency to look ashamed, before quickly apologizing and making himself scarce.

 

 

Asami spent about an hour afterwards absorbed in her studies, so distracting herself wasn’t a total failure. She was reading through a book about the emergence of the police as a separate institution, distinct from the military, when she noticed a shadow darken her desk.

“Hey there Sato,” a voice she recognized said. It was Tahno, one of the most obnoxious students on the entire campus, who was also known for being a member of extremely conservative student groups. He’d frequently insulted Asami in passing, telling her that women had no place in a university.

Asami sighed, fearing that she already knew why Tahno would seek her out today of all days. She looked up at him, noticing that as always he was flanked by his standard entourage of sycophants.

“I think I had you pegged wrong,” Tahno said, “I thought you were one of those feminist suffragette types who cares nothing for tradition or patriotism, with an overly indulging weakling for a father. But it turns out your father is a true hero! Maybe you and I could get along after all,” he said, as though Asami should be honored that he would be willing to grace her with his presence. “I hope your father manages to escape the authorities,” Tahno continued.

“That makes one of us,” Asami said in response, “I hope they catch him. Your first instinct was right, we won’t be able to get along.”

“You want your own father to be imprisoned?” Tahno asked. “So you’re not only disregarding your place as a woman, but your filial duties as well?! You’re even worse than I thought!”

“Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment,” Asami said calmly, continuing to read until she finished the chapter, then slamming her book shut. She then began gathering up her books and preparing to leave. Maybe going back to the university so soon wasn’t the smartest idea after all, she thought. She’d obviously known that people would stare and gossip, but she hadn’t been prepared for how it felt to have so many people assuming that she shared her father’s vile beliefs. Even people she was acquainted with like Chule!

Haven’t I always tried my best to be a good person? Isn’t that something people should be able to recognize before assuming the worst of me? Then again, I suppose father also always seemed like a good person.

“Whatever,” Tahno said from behind her as she walked away, “I guess sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree! Or maybe it’s just because you’re a woman. Either way, you’ll be put in your place when Amon’s revolution arrives!”

Asami shook her head in disgust, hating the idea of anyone associating her with people like Tahno. I should talk to the DA, she thought, see if they can make a public statement to let everyone know that I’m the one who turned father in.

There was a chance that it could be dangerous, even if her own father wouldn’t harm her, other separatists might. But then again, being seen as a supporter of the separatists wasn’t exactly safe either, her experience at her father’s office proved that much. If she was going to be a target of hate and possibly retribution either way then she figured that she would prefer it to be for who she really was, not for who people wrongly believed her to be.

 

 

***

 

 

Korra ran towards the enemy trench, careful not to stumble by stepping into one of the numerous craters that the ground was littered with or trip over any of the barbed wire that was strung out across parts of ground. This part of the attack was already harder than she’d expected it to be, the earthen wall she was holding in front of her was obscuring her vision and preventing her from really seeing where she was going.

She pressed on, hoping that she hadn’t bitten off more than she could chew as the bullets thumping into the wall reminded her of how high the stakes were. She nearly rolled her ankle a few times, but eventually she got the hang of how best to run through the crater-filled terrain without seeing more than a step ahead. 

Mortars fired from the Popular Front’s side were whistling overhead, before landing in and around the trenches of Kuvira’s side. Zaheer had promised there would only be a couple volleys, that they would stop firing once Korra got near the enemy trenches.

She heard the whistle of a mortar shell, of several mortal shells in fact, this time coming from the opposite side, from the enemy side. Without looking up she reached out with her earthbending senses, trying to see if she could sense the shells. She could! She came to a stop, then while holding up the rock wall with one hand she reached up with the other. She took hold of the shells headed her way, then she pushed forwards with her hand, diverting their course and sending them back towards the enemy trench. 

She heard the explosions as they landed, followed by the distant sound of screams.

By now the wall she’d been using was getting pretty beat up, plus, she was about to get so close to the enemy trench that she’d have to worry about getting hit from the side. So she reached for the earth around her, pulling it up and forming it into the shape of a large turtle-duck shell that protected her from all sides. She condensed the earth to make it extra strong, then dropped the old wall she no longer needed. 

Now she couldn’t see at all anymore, so she walked forwards at a much slower pace, moving the shell along with her. Loud blasts hit the outside the shell, she thought that it was probably grenades that the enemy were throwing at her. She had confidence in the strength of the shell she’d made and in her ability to maintain it, but it was still terrifying to not be able to see what was happening outside as she marched closer and closer to the enemy trench. 

When she felt like she was close enough she dropped to her knees, putting her palm to the ground so that she could use seismic sense to figure out exactly where she was. She discovered that she was now just a few meters from the first enemy trench, right in front of an intersection that led towards the second trench.

She could feel some of the enemy soldiers shaking in their boots. They probably had no idea what was happening, all they’d know was that a big piece of earth had inexplicably begun to move towards their trench, undeterred by bullets and explosions.

She paused briefly, considering the mayhem she was about to unleash, she wished there was another way, but there wasn’t. She bent her knees into a powerful earthbending pose, then pushed forwards, slamming the walls of part of the enemy trench into each other, crushing several soldiers in-between. She did that one more time, now on the opposite side, making it so that the parts of the trench to her left and her right were now closed shut. She then punched forwards, launching the front of the earth shell she’d been hiding inside straight towards several enemy soldiers. 

The enemy soldiers were knocked back by the earthen shell, Korra jumped forward, landing in the enemy trench in the middle of what had been an intersection but now had walls on both sides, leaving only the path that led to the second line of trenches. 

A couple soldiers were on the ground, several more were in front of her in the path leading to the second trench. For a moment everyone stood still, then Korra exploded forwards with a flurry of movement, using metalbending to grab hold of enemy rifles and pull them out of their hands or knock them into their own faces. 

The last soldier who still had a rifle raised it up towards her, Korra punched towards him, hitting him with a powerful fireball that launched him back and against a wall, where the impact knocked him out. 

She kept moving, using earthbending to restrain everyone by making the floors or the walls partially swallow them up inside, preventing them from reaching for their sidearms or doing anything else to further threaten her. That done, she pulled up another wall, to close off the path leading to the second line of trenches.

 

 

She took a moment to catch her breath, then turned to her left, to where just past the part of the trench she had crushed together she knew there were still dozens of soldiers. She bent her knees, reached down towards the floor of that part of the trench, then she heaved, pulling up the floor of the trench, exposing all those soldiers to the rifles from Zaheer and his men, who she’d told to be ready for exactly this moment. 

Korra soon heard the gunshots ringing out from the loyalist trenches as they fired at Kuvira’s now-exposed soldiers, along with confused screams from Kuvira’s soldiers as they scrambled to find cover again in parts of the trench where the floor hadn’t suddenly betrayed them.

Korra now turned to the right, where instead of lifting the floor she elected to kick forwards, sending the mass of earth that she’d used to close the trench flying backwards through the trench, sweeping away every soldier in its path.

She also kicked away the wall that blocked the path leading to the second line of trenches, crushing several soldiers she’d heard gathering behind it. Then she jumped to the second intersection and punched to the left while simultaneously kicking to the right, sending massive gusts of flame streaming out and burning everything to a crisp. She got both her feet back to the ground again, then sent jets of fire out of the soles of her feet, using them to launch herself to the left, out beyond where the gust of flame had reached, where several terrified looking soldiers were waiting. 

As she landed she also punched forwards, grabbing hold of all the metal she could sense, mainly rifles and helmets and ammunition packets, sending it all flying away from her along with the soldiers that carried/wore it. She’d landed at another intersection, with a path leading back to the first trench. She ran down that path, taking rocks from the walls that she punched and kicked towards several soldiers that ran out to meet her.

She pulled up a wall to the left side of the trench, the side that led to the area where she’d first begun her attack. She then jumped up and kicked at this wall with both of her legs, while punching her hands towards the opposite side of the trench. Doing this caused the wall to fly back and sweep clear that entire section of the trench, while simultaneously launching Korra forwards towards the opposite section of the trench, with a massive blast of fire that knocked back dozens of enemy soldiers. 

Zaheer had told her that just one small breach in the enemy line of defenses wouldn’t be enough, for this attack to be meaningful Korra would have to clear a wider section of enemy trenches. She planned to do just that.

 

 

***

 

 

Asami finally drove back to the mansion after a long day at the university, her goal of distracting herself had pretty much been a failure. She had been able to do a bit of research but at no point during the day had she been free of the stares, and she’d been confronted several more times by people either complimenting her or condemning her for her father’s actions. She wasn’t sure which bothered her more, but neither was pleasant.

As she drove up to the gate, she saw to her surprise that the DA, Miss Beifong, was waiting for her there along with a bunch of men in suits.

“Miss Beifong, I wasn’t expecting you,” Asami said as she got out of her car. “Do you have news about my father?”

“I do,” Beifong said, “we have clear evidence showing us that he’s fled the country.”

“Fled where?” Asami asked in a shock, her father fleeing the country seemed like an obvious thing to happen after he went on the run, yet it caught Asami off-guard. The way he had spoken had made it seem like he would stay here to help the separatists try to overthrow the government, not like he would flee the country.

“He crossed the border to the North, to territory held by Kuvira’s rebel forces in the Earth Kingdom,” Beifong said. “We’ve got several witnesses and other evidence to corroborate it.”

“I see,” Asami said. She wished her father had stayed in the country, now that he’d left the country the odds of him ever being caught had probably plummeted. “Why are you here though, to tell me this? You could’ve just told me over the phone, or gotten an underling to do it.”

“There’s more,” Beifong responded, “under the new emergency law the government has the authority to revoke the citizenship of anyone who’s joined forces with a foreign military. As prosecutor I will be arguing that given your father’s extensive support for Kuvira’s military, combined with how he’s now fled to her territory, your father has effectively made himself part of her military operation and is therefore subject to having his citizenship revoked.”

“He’ll- He’ll no longer be a citizen of the United Republic?” Asami asked.

“That’s right, I’ll be arguing the case in front of a judge later today, I expect him to rule in my favor. But that’s not why I’m here, I’m here because of what this means for your father’s holdings.”

Asami tried her best to figure out what Beifong meant by that. Her father would no longer be a citizen, but non-citizens could still own property in the United Republic, right? Even criminals could still own property. “What does it mean for his holdings?” She asked.

Beifong frowned. “This part is a bit more tenuous, legally speaking. But I’m planning to argue that by engaging in so many illegal and subversive activities, before fleeing to a foreign nation, your father has renounced not just his citizenship but also his ownership rights over his company and other holdings. Which would mean that the ownership rights automatically revert to you, his heir.

“As I said, the legal argument here is slightly more tenuous. However, nobody likes the idea of one of our nation’s largest arms companies being owned by a foreign national, much less a foreign national who’s hostile to our current government. So I believe the judge is likely inclined to side with us.

“I just wanted you to be prepared, you’ll suddenly have a lot to deal with if your father’s company does become yours. I owed you a heads-up, after all you’ve done to help us. I need to get going now though, I have another appointment soon.”

“Just one more thing!” Asami said before Lin turned away. “Speaking of the help I’ve given you; I know that you’ve been protecting my anonymity as the one who provided evidence against my father, but could you stop doing that? Release some kind of statement to the press or something? Everyone at the university is assuming I’m a fascist like my father!”

Asami watched as Beifong thought it over. “If you’re sure,” the older woman said while scratching her chin, “I can tell my assistant to prepare a statement to the press as soon as I return to the office. I just hope you’re aware of the risks.”

“I’m certain that my father already knows anyway,” Asami said, “besides, being seen as a supporter of the separatists could also be dangerous. Not to mention bad for business, if I’m about to become the head of Future Industries.”

After she said it out loud, the gravity of the situation suddenly sunk in. Am I really about to become the owner of all of Future Industries? She thought. Will I still have time to continue my studies? Am I even qualified?

 

 

After Beifong left Asami drove the rest of the way through the gate and to the mansion, where she reflected on these new developments over a cup of tea.

She was surprised to realize that this was the first time she had really thought about the future of Future Industries. Before now she had just kind of assumed that while her father was in jail someone who’d previously worked below him would manage the company in his stead, and that would be that. Obviously the company’s reputation would suffer, but the products they sold were still top quality so she had simply assumed that it would be fine in the end.

If she was going to end up in charge of the company though, directly responsible for the jobs of thousands of people, then she needed to think more deeply about it. She immediately went to work, gathering information, writing down calculations, doing her best to get a true grasp of the company and what it needed to remain profitable.

The positive was that it wasn’t a publicly traded company, so there was no need to worry about a drop in stock prices. That didn’t mean that the arrest of her father and the resulting reputational damage would leave Future Industries unscathed though, their reputation was still important for securing large contracts, for example Future Industries supplied all the cars that were used by police forces throughout the country. If the government went to another company from now on then that would be a huge blow…

She first contacted a lawyer, she would certainly need one, likely several, before all was said and done. Then she began contacting several high-level executives that worked for her father, simply to inform them of what Beifong had said. She could already predict that they weren’t going to be happy if suddenly a teenaged girl was in charge, so she figured it was best if they got used to the idea as soon as possible.

Ideally the worst of their rage would have already abated by the time that Asami gained control.

 

 

***

 

 

Korra stomped her foot down to the ground, sending a wall of earth up just in time to block a hail of bullets. She immediately followed it up with a punch that sent that same wall flying towards the person shooting, she then used metalbending to throw back several grenades as they were were tossed in her direction from the next trench over.

She stomped her foot again, lifting up the floor of that entire trench with such speed that it actually sent the soldiers within flying up into the air. She sensed the metal those soldiers were carrying and punched out to send them flying even further away.

It had taken a while, but Kuvira’s soldiers were starting to fight back against Korra’s assault more effectively, coordinating their attacks and making use of grenades and mortars if she stayed in the same spot for too long.

They had even repositioned some of their mounted machine guns, which had resulted in some close calls when Korra turned around a bend in the trench only to be faced with a machine gun that rapidly fired bullets towards her, quickly enough to wear down the barriers she erected unless she made them extra thick.

Deciding that those grenades from earlier were a sign to keep moving, Korra wrapped a cocoon of earth all around herself, then launched herself into the air. The cocoon was thick enough to protect her from gunfire, though she left holes for her hands and her eyes. The risk seemed worth it, she rarely seemed to get hit anyway when she jumped up into the air like this.

As she flipped through the sky she saw that dozens, no hundreds, of soldiers from the Popular Front were charging across No Man’s Land, storming the part of the trench where Korra had first attacked. Good, she thought. Korra had been tearing her way through the enemy trenches, heading West towards the coast, so the place where she had first attacked was a couple miles away by now, but hopefully it was still in disarray and unable to defend against the charge from the Popular Front.

As she continued spinning through the air she oriented herself towards where she was about to land, before landing she punched down a large stream of fire, setting an entire section of the trench ablaze as she flew over it. She watched as the soldiers within that trench frantically jumped towards the dugouts where they were safe from the blaze, or climbed up out of the trench, exposing themselves to gunfire from Korra’s allies.

Then she landed, blazing trench behind her, a dozen soldiers in front of her. She used earthbending to protect her back from the blazing trench, just in case, while at the same time she opened her water-pouches, which she hadn’t used thus far. She pulled all the water out with a spin and immediately formed several thin blades of water that she sent spinning towards the enemy soldiers, before using the remaining water to form a barrier of ice to block the enemy’s counterfire. 

The icy wall cracked, but held, making Korra glad that she performed tests with Asami to find out exactly how thick these barriers should be.

“What IS she?!?” A voice shouted, as the soldiers on the other side of the icy barrier paused to reload.

“Does it matter? Just reload and shoot her!” Another soldier responded.

Korra wasn’t going to give them a chance. She punched forwards, sending several chunks of ice flying out, only one of them hit their mark, it hit a soldier’s skull and instantly knocked him out. Korra jumped over the remains of the wall of ice, then in an instant she thawed the ice and as she spun around she split it into three separate streams of water, sending each stream towards a different soldier and encasing each of them in a solid block of ice as soon as the water enveloped them.

Two remaining soldiers finished reloading and pointed their rifles at her, one of them crouching to allow the one behind him to fire over his head. As she ran towards them Korra used metalbending to grab control of their rifles and throw their aim off to the side, firing uselessly at the wall. She made it to the first soldier, who tried to stick her with his bayonet. She jumped to the side, pushed off the wall of the trench as she flew past this first soldier, then kicked the one behind. As she landed she grabbed the first soldier by the back of his head and slammed him against the side of the trench. She then used earthbending to close off the trench, as she heard more soldiers approaching from past a curve in the distance.

Said soldiers threw grenades over the top of Korra’s newly made barrier, grenades that she quickly buried with earth, underneath the earth she could hear them explode with harmless thuds.

Korra then heard shouting, from dozens of voices, growing closer and closer. She looked up just in time to see several figures appear above her before jumping down in the trench beside her. Looks like my allies stormed this part of the trench too, Korra thought.

“Don’t hurt the soldiers I froze,” Korra said, “they can’t reach their guns, they’re already defeated.”

“Roger that comrade,” one of the militia’s warriors said, “never thought I’d be fighting alongside the avatar!”

Korra grinned, then turned serious. “There’s two more trenches behind this one,” she said, recalling the view she’d gotten when she flew above the trench moments ago. Other parts had even more rows of trenches but here it was just three. “I can raise up their floors, you just get ready to shoot them while they’re exposed!”

“Got it!” Several militiamen replied, before stepping onto the fire-step that would allow them to look over the paraphet. (Korra had learned a lot of trench-lingo the day before.)

Korra raised the floor of the next trench over, then heard all the other warriors in her trench open fire on the enemy soldiers who were suddenly standing out in the open. She was glad that she couldn’t see the slaughter from where she stood down inside the trench. She went further West, then did the same thing again, lifting the floor of the next trench over. Only this time she heard the enemy soldiers all instantly surrender, having seen what happened to the other soldiers last time Korra did this.

“Hold your fire!” One of the militia’s warriors said.

“Don’t shoot them!” Korra said at the same time. She jumped up onto the fire-step, and immediately used metalbending to disarm the surrendering soldiers who hadn’t already dropped their weapons. 

“Get over here, NOW!” The warrior who’d commanded everyone to hold their fire said from beside Korra.

Then suddenly gunfire rang out, and several of the surrendering soldiers fell dead to the ground. Korra was surprised and reflexively entered a combat stance. Did some of them still have a weapon after all? She thought. Why did someone shoot them?

Only then did she realize that the shots had been fired from the opposite trench, by Kuvira’s soldiers. They shot their own men! The surrendering soldiers scrambled forwards, diving head-first into the trench that Korra and her comrades were in, to take cover from the fire they were taking from their former allies.

“Why are they firing at their own men?!” Korra asked.

“For surrendering,” someone answered.

“Hands up!” Someone told the soldiers who’d surrendered, they did it, only for one of them to be shot in the hand as it stuck out above the trench. “Uhh, my bad. Hands behind your head!” The person who’d given the first order quickly amended.  

Korra briefly stopped to use waterbending to heal the man who’d been shot, all while she was fuming with rage.

“Get ready to storm the second trench,” she said, “I’m about to clear the way.”

She’d been somewhat holding back before, trying her best to defeat enemy soldiers in non-lethal ways. But she wasn’t about to show that same mercy for the people who had shot their own in the back for the ‘crime’ of surrendering.  

They were about to find out what the Avatar was truly capable of.

 

 

***

 

 

Asami woke up early the next day, having resigned herself to another week of skipping university classes. She had received a call late last night, informing her that her father’s citizenship had indeed been revoked and that she would be inheriting his companies and other possessions.

It had been a difficult message to receive, even though she thought she had already been prepared for it. The fact that it was now official left no room for the part of her that had still been in denial about it all. At this point it was likely that the only way her father would ever return to the country was if Kuvira’s rebellion was defeated and her father was extradited for his crimes against the United Republic, though even that was unlikely because the Earth Kingdom would likely want to try him in their own courts as well…

Either way, Future Industries was about to officially become hers. Given the unique circumstances in which this ‘inheritance’ would take place, namely the fact that her father was still alive, the court had appointed an executor who would supervise the distribution of her father’s assets, though this executor would still be required to follow her father’s will as much as possible.

Asami thought that if she’d been less emotionally attached to it all then she probably would’ve found it funny how the courts were still respecting her father’s testament for the most part, even while branding him a criminal and a traitor and stripping him of his possessions.

Either way, she tried her best to steel her expression before stepping into the office of the court’s executor, who she had already spoken to over the phone. Their conversation began in earnest once Asami’s lawyer also arrived. Most of the conversation was rather boring, it mainly involved the executor reading out loud from a piece of paper, listing all the possessions that she would be taking possession of, as well as the debts that would soon become hers. She consented to those debts, not feeling too concerned about them. Her father’s assets far outweighed his loans, the only reason why he took out loans at all was because it was often easier than liquidating his assets whenever he needed to make a purchase.

It was going to be a nightmare to get all the paperwork in order though, especially while the investigation into the exact scope of her father’s fraud was still ongoing. Her lawyer warned her that by taking possession of her father’s company she would also become responsible for some of the fines that the company would have to pay because of her father’s mismanagement.

It was definitely going to take an army of accountants to sort through it all, Asami had already contacted an accounting firm to do it for her since there was no way she’d be able to do it all herself.

After signing all of the paperwork and becoming the official owner of Future Industries, Asami went to the company’s temporary office, flanked by her lawyer, Mr Yao. Several female secretaries were at the door to receive her, before guiding her to a meeting room upstairs where upon opening the door she saw over a dozen grumpy men awaiting her.

She had only directly invited five of them, the managing director, the chief financial officer (who was looking rather overworked,) and three others, including a worker representative.

“Welcome Miss Sato,” the Managing Director said as he got up out of his seat, “it’s always a pleasure to see you, though of course we all wish that the circumstances were different.”

“Yes, well… I’m glad you could all make it on such short notice,” Asami responded.

“We’ve got nothing better to do anyway,” the worker representative said, “all the factories are closed down because of the government’s investigation.”

“Right,” Asami said, “anyway, no offense but who are these other people? I didn’t invite all of you.”

“Forgive me Miss,” Mr Izaru, the Managing Director, said, “we took the liberty of bringing our lawyers along for this meeting, as you yourself did as well.”

Asami nodded. “Very well. Where would you like to begin? I want to have as thorough of an understanding of the company as possible, and of the difficulties that have arisen because of this investigation.”

“An investigation that was caused by you,” Zerai, the CFO, mumbled under his breath, though Asami was still able to make out the words.

After a brief hesitation Asami decided to ignore the comment and keep talking. “Since you’ve invited all these lawyers here, I’m sure some of you will be able to tell me more about the legal future of the company. When can we expect the government to unfreeze assets and wrap up the investigation? How bad should we expect the fines to be?”

“We?” Izaru asked. “Forgive me Miss, I know that legally you’re now the owner of the company, but you must understand that none of us expect you to take a very active role in running it. Surely it’s best to leave these things up to people more suited for the task?”

“Trust me, I’ll be sure to delegate a lot of the work,” Asami said, doing her best to ignore the condescension in his voice. “But before I do so I’d still like to understand what’s going on, if people are working in my name then I want to have at least some idea of what they’re doing.”

“Well, I suppose that that’s admirable,” Izaru said, though Asami still detected a hint of condescension in his tone. He gestured to one of the lawyers he’d brought, who began outlining the legal case that the state was making against Future Industries and the consequences it would have for their future operations.

After some time, the CFO spoke up. “The fines won’t cripple us, but they will sting. Worse than the fines though is the salaries, we’re looking at weeks or months of salaries that we’ll be paying out to workers, even though our factories are closed and the workers won’t actually be doing anything. We’ve already had our lawyers looking for ways to address this issue and-”

“Excuse me?!” Mr Ruolan, the Worker Representative, exclaimed. “Paying your workers isn’t an ‘issue,’ it’s a legal obligation. It’s not their fault if you’re unable to give them anything to do, the price of their rent or mortgage remains the same, they still need their wages.”

“Well,” one of the lawyers said, “under normal circumstances it is indeed an obligation, but there are ways to-”

“Stop,” Asami cut in, “I’m not looking for ways to snub my employees, we’ll just have to find a way to deal with the financial strain. I would rather look for ways we can make use of their labor, even while the factories are shut down. Surely there are still things they could do other than sitting at home?”

“Their employment contracts do allow for some leeway in the tasks that we assign them,” one of the lawyers responded, “mainly so that we can assign them to work in different spots of the assembly line, but technically there’s no reason why we couldn’t assign them work in a different location entirely. What do you have in mind?”

“Nothing specific yet,” Asami said, “I was hoping to speak to our Worker Representative about this,” she said, nodding to Ruolan. “Perhaps we can best save that for a later conversation, after Ruolan has spoken to the workers he represents, maybe they will also have ideas.

“My thoughts on it are that it doesn’t even need to be profitable, we could also employ them for more charitable purposes, to help repair the damage my father has caused to the company’s reputation.”

Ruolan was visibly excited by that idea. “If we combine the resources of Future Industries with the organization of the worker union we could do a lot of good!”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Asami responded, “worker unions are already involved in many community programs, which means that much of the needed organization is already in place. I’m sure that many of our workers are already using their free time to help their community, all we’d need to do is officially direct them to continue their efforts, and maybe give them access to some of the company’s resources. That would go a long way to helping the city and helping to restore people’s trust in us.”

“Now hold up,” Izaru said, “now you want to spend even more resources on this?”

“Like I said, I don’t have any specific plans yet,” Asami responded, “so let’s argue about it later.

 

 

“I did have one idea to earn at least a bit of money. We have an army of quality inspectors and engineers who normally work at the assembly line, to ensure that every car is functional and to fix certain production mistakes. While the assembly lines are down and we’re no longer using these workers to inspect new products, we could direct them to repair old products instead. Put the word out to anyone who owns a Future Industries car, or even a car from another brand, that for a limited time only we’ll repair it at a discount.”

“Would that work?” Izaru said, looking towards the Chief Engineer.

“I don’t see why not,” the Chief Engineer, who’s name Asami couldn’t recall, said. “They should have the technical expertise, even if it’s slightly different from the work they normally do. All they’d need is some tools and parts for repairs, the police have already finished their investigation and returned our control over a couple warehouses that should have everything we need to set up a temporary car-repair workshop.”

Everyone around the table nodded appreciatively at this idea, giving Asami a proud feeling. Going into the meeting she had worried that nobody would take her seriously, that she wouldn’t even be qualified enough to warrant being taken seriously, but as the meeting progressed she lost most of those worries.

In fact, it seemed as though her own investigation into her father’s company, combined with her preexisting engineering knowledge, gave her a greater understanding of the company’s inner workings than some of the other people present. Which made her begin to question the qualifications of some of those other people.

The Chief Engineer and the Worker Representative seemed to be the only other people present who actually understood the finer details of the company’s day to day operations, Mr Izaru on the other hand seemed to have only ever interacted with the upper managerial layers of each department, without knowing anything about what the workers beneath actually did. The CFO was just as bad, he didn’t seem interested in anything other than cutting costs.

Maybe some restructuring is in order, Asami thought, smiling innocently at Izaru while he tried to convince her to give him the position of CEO instead of retaining it for herself.

 

 

***

 

 

“You need to destroy the enemy's long-range artillery cannons before they adjust to our current position!” Zaheer said to Korra, shouting to be heard over the sound of scattered gunshots that could still be heard in the distance.

He’d found her a while ago, after she’d stopped to take a break from fighting. She’d fought almost non-stop for two hours, during which she’d made it all the way down to the coast.

She was very impressed that Zaheer had been able to follow her. He would’ve had to fight his way through several miles of the enemy trench. Sure, Korra had weakened the enemy trenches as she fought her way to the coast, but she had still left plenty of pockets of enemy soldiers in her wake that Zaheer would’ve had to fight his way past.

Either way, Korra had started to use waterbending to heal some wounded warriors, while listening to reports from several officers. She still wasn’t sure why they felt like they had to report to her, but whatever.

It did turn out to be helpful, the reports told her that Kuvira’s lines had fallen from the coast all the way to the hills, in some places the trenches furthest back were still holding out but even those weren’t expected to last long.

They also talked about the number of casualties they had suffered, it was a staggering amount from Korra’s perspective, but the militiamen themselves seemed relieved and in disbelief at how low the numbers were. Which did make Korra feel like her efforts had been well spent.

Korra finished healing a man with a wound in his shoulder, then turned to give Zaheer her full attention. “All right, where can I find those cannons?” She asked, standing up to stretch some of her tired muscles.

“They should be about six miles behind these trenches,” Zaheer said, “not in a long line like the normal trenches though, there will be several clusters of cannons that we need you to destroy.”

“Got it,” Korra said, “what will you do in the meantime?”

“We’ll finish securing this trench, then see how much further we can push forwards before Kuvira’s forces regroup,” Zaheer said. “We might try to surround the enemy positions in the hills, take over that area as well.”

Korra nodded. “So, if I wait at the artillery cannons after destroying them then you’ll catch up to me?”

Zaheer answered yes, Korra promised that once the militia forces pushed forwards to their new positions she’d use earthbending to help them dig in and fortify, before she moved on towards Republic City.

 

 

Then she took off running, occasionally launching herself forwards using a pillar of earth to boost herself. It was incredible how much the terrain changed as soon as she left the trenches. The dead and scarred earth, dotted by the occasional tree stump, quickly made way to lush vegetation and woods. Which, although beautiful, made Korra very paranoid about whether any retreating enemies may be lurking behind a bush or a tree.

Her paranoia soon paid off as she came across a group of soldiers, who thankfully hadn’t noticed her yet. She uncorked the water pouches that she had refilled before heading out, then swiftly pulled out several streams that she used to freeze the soldiers against the nearby trees. They were all rendered harmless before they’d even realized they were under attack. 

Korra kept running, ignoring the cries of confusion from the frozen soldiers behind her. They’d unthaw, eventually… Hopefully by then some of the militia warriors found them and took them into custody.

Either way, Korra continued towards her goal, which was made much easier once the sound of cannons firing in the distance became more and more common. Does that mean they have adjusted their aim? Is each one of those blasts a shell heading towards the trench we just captured?

She did her best not to think of the devastation that would be wrought by the dozens of blasts that she heard every minute, and instead simply focused on reaching and destroying those cannons as quickly as possible.

When she arrived it barely took any effort at all to destroy the cannons, she cut the first one to pieces using the remaining water she had, before using that water to freeze the people that’d been manning it. She then used metalbending to squeeze the barrels of several other cannons closed, which caused them to explode when their crew, who hadn’t yet noticed Korra’s presence, tried to fire them.

In total she took down 5 artillery camps, it was surprisingly easy. None of the people there seemed to have expected any enemies to make it this far yet, not when their own troops hadn’t even finished retreating, which allowed her to catch them all off-guard.

While waiting for her comrades to catch up, Korra decided to get started with using earthbending to create a new line of fortifications that they would be able to make use of. She started with the basic shape of the trenches themselves, copying the same kind of uneven line full of bends and turns that the trenches she’d just fought in had.

After fighting in them she definitely appreciated the logic behind these bends and turns, they made it so that usually you couldn’t see more than a couple dozen feet ahead in the trench, making it very defensible even after your opponents had made it across no-man’s-land and inside of your trench. Unless your opponents were earthbenders like Korra…

As she thought about it, she realized that the uneven lines probably also made it harder for enemy artillery to figure out the right distance for calibrating their cannons.

Speaking of artillery, she then moved on to creating dugouts that soldiers would be able to hide in while they weren’t on active guard duty. She made sure to make them more spacious than the cramped spaces she’d seen in the trenches she just came from, and to also make them deeper and hopefully more resilient against artillery strikes.

Occasionally a few retreating groups of Kuvira’s soldiers ran past her, but each time Korra was easily able to scare them off. Turns out that breathing out fire and threatening to burn them all to a crisp, after having already torn through their defensive lines that had held for over half a year of active fighting, made her rather intimidating.

Korra had created new trenches to connect three of the five artillery camps she had just conquered, by the time that warriors on her side made it to her position. After they finished gawking at her bending they began giving her some feedback on how to better construct the trenches, which she took into account from then on.

Eventually Zaheer arrived, inside a weird-looking car with a machine gun mounted onto the back. He asked Korra to bend the trench she was making Northwards, so that the trench would cut off the entire peninsula between here and the large bay/river to the North, allowing Zaheer and the rest of the Popular Front to conquer that entire peninsula.

Korra agreed, it’d be more work but on the plus side she would already be heading in the direction of Republic City. She figured that it would probably be best to start her journey after dark, so she had plenty of time before then.

 

 

After several hours of hard work she collapsed to the ground, panting. She didn’t think she had ever done this much earthbending in a single day. She nodded gratefully to Ghazan, who approached with a bucket of cool water that he set besides her.

Korra immediately dunked her entire head inside, then kept it there until she started to run out of breath, then she pulled her head back out.

She sighed happily as she felt the cool water running down the rest of her body. “Thanks!” She exclaimed. “I really needed that.”

“I should be thanking you,” Ghazan said, “you’ve been working hard. Not to mention how you’ve already handed us our biggest military victory since the opening weeks of the conflict.”

Korra shrugged off the praise. “It’s my duty as the avatar, a duty I’ve neglected for the past nine thousand years. That’s nothing to be proud of, if I hadn’t failed so badly then there wouldn’t be a war to begin with.”

Ghazan slapped her on the shoulder. “That’s just stupid,” he said with a laugh while Korra yelped in pain, then he sat down beside her, “why would you be responsible for a war that us idiots started? You didn’t make anyone go to war, Kuvira did, and I guess me and Zaheer did, but you didn’t.

“We’re all responsible for our own actions, that’s the flip side of anarchism, rejecting authority also means that we can no longer push all responsibility onto anyone else. I don’t care if you’re bonded to some fancy spirit or whatever, you’re not the boss of me and you’re not responsible for me either. I appreciate the help, but don’t get too full of yourself!” He said, followed by a stern expression while he wagged a finger at her in an exaggerated way. 

Korra laughed in response, even though Ghazan didn’t seem to be entirely joking with that warning. Her laugh caused Ghazan to also break into a smile.

“My mom always said the same,” Korra said, “told me that while I should of course use my power to try to help others, ultimately I wouldn’t be able to solve every problem in the world. Told me that I shouldn’t even try, that I should have a life of my own too, otherwise I wouldn’t even understand the world that I’m trying to protect.”

“Sounds like good advice,” Ghazan said, biting into a piece of bread that he was suddenly holding, though Korra had no idea when he’d grabbed it.

“I guess,” Korra said, “but all I’ve ever wanted was to be the avatar, I love bending, and I love the idea of using my powers to help people.”

“Really?” Ghazan asked skeptically. “That’s all you want? I figured you had a boy waiting for you in Republic City or something, that that’s why you wanted to go back so badly.”

Korra was unable to hide her blush in response. “Well, you’ve got me there,” she admitted. “It’s actually a girl though.”

Ghazan burst out laughing, slapping the ground beside him in amusement, though Korra wasn’t sure what was so funny. “Oh man, please let me be there when you tell a church leader about that! I’d love to see their face when they realize the avatar is a deviant!”

Korra grinned. “I kind of already got into a shouting match about that with a High Sage,” she said, “he didn’t know I was the avatar though.”

Ghazan laughed even harder at that, then demanded that Korra recounted the entire argument she’d had, which she happily agreed to.

“Soooo,” Korra said after Ghazan finished laughing, “you don’t think there’s anything wrong with it?”

Ghazan shrugged. “None of my business,” he said, “can’t see how it hurts anyone. All of those religious pricks like to talk about how it damages your soul or whatever, but I’ve never been religious. Plus, with you being the avatar and all you’re kind of disproving everything they’ve ever preached.”

Korra nodded, thinking that Ghazan was done, but then he continued speaking, now much more reserved. “I actually uhh- I don’t usually tell anyone this,” he began. “I’m attracted to men myself, so I’d also be a hypocrite for condemning you.”

Korra looked at him with sympathy. “Is that why you dislike the church so much?”

Ghazan shrugged. “It’s certainly part of it, but far from the only reason.”

Korra nodded. “I can’t figure out what I should do about that, but I have the feeling that it’s going to be far more complicated than this war. That High Sage I mentioned already condemned me and accused me of being a servant of Vaatu, I don’t imagine that telling everyone I’m the avatar will change the minds of people like him, he’ll just accuse me of being a fraud.”

Ghazan agreed with that assessment, but couldn’t offer any insight for how to resolve that issue. 

 

 

After resting a while longer Korra finally finished the last part of the trench. By then it was already past dusk, it seemed dark enough for her to begin her journey. She was planning on travelling at night as much as she could, at least this first day. That way she would be far from the frontlines when the sun came up, her hope was that the further she got from the frontlines the less suspicious people would get. Though just to be safe she also planned on traveling through the wilderness as much as possible.

She found Zaheer, who gave her a set of green Earth Kingdom clothes for her journey, along with a bunch of food and water. “Thanks,” she said. “I’m sorry for leaving you guys, but I’ll try my best to help from a distance by preventing any more weapons from being shipped to Kuvira.”

Zaheer nodded. “You’ve already done a lot to aid our cause, I’d be very grateful for any further help you can give,” he said.

“I do advise caution; earlier tonight I was finally able to meditate into the spirit world again, where I contacted a Red Lotus member who lives in Republic City. He’s very worried about the separatists and believes they will turn to large scale violence soon, which is why I suspect that Republic City is exactly where you need to be right now.”

“I think so too,” Korra said, though she was mainly thinking about Asami as she said it.

She bid Zaheer farewell, then dived into the water that bordered the new trench she’d made. She emerged on the other side of the bay, in enemy territory. She had a long journey ahead of her.

Notes:

I hope you all enjoyed the fight, I had fun writing it at least ;p

I'm afraid that I won't be able to post another chapter next week, some stuff has come up that'll keep me rather busy for a while, so for now I'll be posting chapters every other week instead of every week.

Anyway, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts in the comments ; )

Chapter 22: Future Industries

Future Industries.

 

Asami sighed in relief when the meeting finally ended, it was one of many meetings that she’d had in the days since she’d become the owner of Future Industries. Unlike some of those other meetings this one had been very productive, in the meeting she spoke with Ruolan and several other worker representatives, and together they had been able to nail down all the plans for the work that Asami’s employees would be doing while Future Industries’ factories remained close pending the government’s investigations.

She’d been happy to see so much enthusiasm from the worker representatives as they presented their and their constituents’ ideas for work they could be doing for the city. However, the meeting being fun, as far as meetings go, did not mean that it wasn’t still exhausting.

Not all the proposals had been realistic or had fit within the budget Asami had set, (which was already too high if you asked most of the board’s members,) but it seemed like almost everyone was happy with the ideas that did end up being approved. The biggest of the plans was to finally clear all the rubble from the apartment buildings that had burned down after the separatist attack on the immigrant district, and then construct temporary but high-quality and winter-proof shelters using large cargo crates that Future Industries normally used to ship their cars all over the world.

Asami was the one who owned the land, and she had already received permits from the city, so now all that was left was for everyone to get to work on clearing away the rubble. She planned to go there in person tomorrow to see how things were progressing, before going to help at the temporary car-repair workshop that was also being set up. In the meantime though she had one other thing to arrange.

“Mr Ruolan, hold up if you please,” she said to Ruolan, the company’s foremost worker representative, as he was about to leave. Most of the others that had attended the meeting had already left.

“Was there something else?” He asked with a friendly smile. He’d been somewhat distrustful of Asami initially, but it seemed like she had won him over.

“There is,” she said, “and I would appreciate it if you could keep it between us for now.”

“Sounds interesting,” he said, “spill it.” His casual and irreverent way of speaking was quite refreshing, ever since she inherited Future Industries everyone had begun to treat her differently, she was spending whole days with a bunch of older men acting deferentially and always calling her “Miss.”

Truth be told it was a bit unsettling, especially when she got the sense that half these people secretly didn’t respect her at all and believed that someone her age, a girl no less, had no business being in her position.

But Ruolan didn’t give her that feeling at all, or well, he didn’t think she had any business being in her position but that was because he wanted worker ownership, not because he had any sort of personal issue with Asami’s age or gender. Strangely his irreverent language came across as more respectful than the feigned politeness of others.

Either way, Asami responded to his request to “spill it,” telling him about some of the ideas she had for restructuring the company.

“You want to fire the managing director?” Ruolan asked.

“Yes,” Asami said simply. She had originally considered firing the Chief Financial Officer too, but was holding off on that idea for now. Once she had made it clear to him that she didn’t agree with certain kinds of budget cuts that he’d initially tried proposing the CFO had quickly adapted and stopped suggesting such cuts, and he did seem to be genuinely capable at managing a budget and dealing with the mess her father had left behind.

On the other hand, Izaru, the managing director, still incessantly continued to complain about every single thing where he hadn’t gotten his way, every time she spoke to him he tried to change her mind about issues where Asami had already made it clear that her mind was set.

He never would’ve treated her father like that, she knew that for a fact. If he was just sore about the non-meritocratic way in which Asami gained control of the company then that would’ve been one thing, but the way Asami saw it was that he could at least deal with that frustration in a way that didn’t reveal such a lack of intellect and self-control, which was all he really accomplished with his whining thus far.

On top of that he had proven repeatedly to lack a clear understanding of how exactly the company produced its products, he certainly didn’t have any knowledge of engineering. Which wasn’t necessarily always a problem for a top-level executive in a company, but it still didn’t sit right with Asami.

“Are you against the idea?” Asami asked Ruolan. “I didn’t get the impression that you and the managing director got along very well.”

“No, you’re right,” he responded. “He’s an insufferable prick who doesn’t know the first thing about what goes on at the ground floor of the company. It’s just…”

“What?” Asami questioned, gesturing for him to continue.

“Can you do that? Fire the managing director? Just like that?”

“I’m the sole owner of the company,” Asami responded, “father was always very careful not to give away any of his control over the company, even when investors came with tempting offers. So I don’t have any stakeholders to deal with, the board serves entirely at my behest.

“Plus, I’m not actually going to ‘fire’ Izaru, if I did that then I would have to pay him a significant severance package. I’m just going to give him a new position in the company, where he will serve out the last year of his five-year contract.”

“Riiiight,” Ruolan said, “he probably won’t see it that way though.”

“Maybe not,” Asami conceded, “but legally I’m in the clear. Either way, that’s not what I wanted to discuss, my mind is made up on that front. I want to talk about his replacement, and the replacements of others that may wind up being fired or reassigned, as well as the replacements of those who’ve been proven to be complicit in my father’s crimes.”

That latter group was growing larger by the day, as the state’s investigation progressed.

“In the end I expect that a significant portion of the upper management will end up being replaced,” Asami said, “I want to ensure that the company’s management has a real understanding of the company’s inner workings, which is why I want to rely mainly on internal promotions to find replacements, instead of hiring people from outside. I’ll need your help to identify suitable candidates.”

 Ruolan grew excited at the prospect. “Internal promotions? Including people working the line? Or just those already working in management?” He asked.

“Including the line,” Asami said.

Ruolan’s smile grew. “We could hold elections, unless that’s asking too much? Elected management is something the unions have been demanding for ages.”

Asami gave a small smile in response. “I know, but I can’t promise too much yet in this regard. I’m fine with arranging a vote to identify the workers’ preferred candidates, in a few days I’ll give you a list of all the openings that need to be filled and then we can work together to organize an election. But for now that would just be a one-time thing, I’m not yet willing to commit to a systemic change where elections are how all management positions will be selected in the future.”

“I’m happy with this much,” Ruolan said. “For now,” he continued, with a cheeky grin on his face.

“Glad to hear it,” Asami replied with a smile, happy that she’d managed to build up such a good professional relationship with him, something that was still proving to be a struggle with many of the other people that now worked for her.

 

 

 

As she said her goodbyes to Ruolan she reflected back on what it had been like so far, to take possession of Future Industries. It’d been two days since her first meeting with the board, several more meetings had followed, during which several members of the board continued to call for more budget cuts and constantly questioned each and every thing that Asami proposed, sometimes it seemed like they questioned things just because she was the one proposing them.

Either way, that hadn’t been her biggest struggle these past few days, her biggest cause of stress was that it had now been four days since she had last seen Korra... Four days since her girlfriend had gone away to try to stop Kuvira’s airships from taking off, and then sent Naga back with a message stating that she’d been too late to stop them and had instead jumped aboard one of them.

Asami had started to struggle to maintain her baseless optimism regarding Korra’s wellbeing, but then yesterday she had finally learned something interesting as she scoured the papers for news out of the Earth Kingdom, something that reaffirmed her optimism.

The news article had said that the Earth Kingdom recently won one of its largest victories yet against Kuvira’s rebel forces, that the worker militias near Omashu, despite the common criticisms they faced for their allegedly poor organization and issues with discipline, had somehow broken through Kuvira’s lines and reconquered a large swath of territory.

Apparently, there was a lot of confusion regarding exactly how the militias had managed such a feat. The newspaper just talked about “strange and unconfirmed” reports, claiming that many of the accounts they had received from the militias themselves were “downright ridiculous,” “not even worth repeating,” and even “potentially the result of a mass delusion resulting from a chemical weapons attack.”

They had ended the article promising more details once they managed to interview first-hand witnesses from Kuvira’s side, which was apparently proving difficult because so many of them had been captured or killed after their lines were so suddenly overrun.

On its own Asami would’ve found this mildly interesting, but wouldn’t have immediately assumed it to be related to Korra. However the article also off-handedly mentioned how it had received credible reports from both sides about how several airships had crashed near the frontlines in the middle of the night, not long before Kuvira’s lines had been broken.

Combining those two things; the strange unconfirmed reports, and the crashed airships, it seemed very likely to Asami that Korra had been involved. The timeline added up perfectly, the night those ships crashed would’ve been the night after Korra had taken Naga towards the airfield, which would mean Korra had stayed aboard those ships for quite a long distance, before eventually managing to destroy them as planned.

The ’strangeness’ of the reports would also make sense, if Korra had openly used her powers in aid of the militias. As a witness to Korra’s abilities Asami definitely thought that it was something one had to see to believe, so the journalist’s skepticism would make sense.

If Korra had broken through Kuvira’s battlelines, did that mean that she was currently on her way back, travelling through Kuvira’s territory?

How long would that take, on foot?

Asami had no idea, but she chose to take the news as a positive sign, as a sign that Korra was alive and well and hopefully would be back soon. She had said as much to Naga, though she wasn’t sure the big beast really understood any of it. The polarbear dog did seem to perk up when Asami said it but that may have just been because she recognized her owner’s name, not because she understood the rest of the words.

Either way, after the meeting, which Asami had planned early in the morning, she headed straight to the university. It was the schedule she had settled into over the past few days, Future Industries related meetings in the morning, university the rest of the day, then spend the night doing coursework and reading over various documents.

It was a very tiring schedule that left little room for anything else, which meant that it also prevented her thoughts and worries from running wild. Considering her present circumstances this meant that the schedule was just the way she liked it.

 

 

 

When she arrived at the university she still noticed people gossiping as she walked past, but it wasn’t as bad as that first day had been. The DA office’s public statements to the press about how Asami had been a key witness against her father had put most of the rumors that had circulated regarding Asami sharing her father’s political convictions to rest, the gossip that remained was still not great but at least it was marginally more accurate.

She went to a couple lectures, then moved on to the library for her studies. She pulled out several books that she’d been reading the past few days, then immediately went to her favorite corner of the library and began her research.

“So what are you studying anyway?” Someone asked, pulling her attention away from the books she had been referencing while making numerous notes.

“What?” Asami asked, looking up while still shaking off the haze that came with suddenly being pulled out of her studies.

“I asked what you’ve been studying,” the person she now recognized as Chule said, “you’ve been here for hours, so I got curious.”

“How do you know I’ve been here for hours?” Asami asked. Has it really been that long already?

“Because I’ve been here for hours too,” Chule said distractedly, leaning forward to read some of the titles of the books stacked on Asami’s desk.

“Interesting books to be reading, as a newly minted multi-millionaire businessowner,” Chule noted, pointing to one of the books on socialism that Asami had been referencing, titled ‘Socialism, Past and Present.’

“I suppose,” Asami said, while watching Chule look at the other books stacked on her desk, including more books about socialism, but also books on the origins of the modern police force, books on the social organization of pre-industrial rural communities, and even a fictional novel about life in a small town under feudalism.

“So are you going to tell me what you’re studying?” Chule asked, looking puzzled when he saw the fiction novel in-between the rest of the more scholarly books.

“Sure,” Asami said, already growing a bit excited before she even began explaining, it was already proving to be a very interesting subject.

“I’m trying to see what historical precedent exists for the kinds of social organization that are proposed by socialist and anarchist theorists,” she said, “so I’m reading about those theories, but also about life before the invention of the modern state and modern policing. Specifically life in rural areas, where there was often very little, if any, formal policing. It’s hard to find much about that subject though, since most books about history focus on the lives and politics of the nobility and never really delve into detail while discussing the lives of lowly farmers.”

Chule nodded. “I’ve run into similar issues,” the fellow anthropology student said, “though I haven’t studied exactly what you’re trying to study. Cool subject by the way, is that going to be what your thesis is about?”

Asami nodded in response, then Chule continued speaking. “I imagine part of the problem is that the people who wrote during those times often didn’t actually know those details, since writing was largely something done by the nobility. They weren’t just uninterested in writing about peasants, they were genuinely ignorant.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” Asami said. “Some peasants did write though, I found this one novel from 500 years ago, it’s a fictional story about the life of a farmer, written by an actual farmer.”

“Sounds fascinating,” Chule said, sounding genuinely interested.

Asami pulled a face in response. “The writing is terrible to be honest, but there’s still some insights that can be gleaned from it. For example, there’s several chapters about an argument between two neighbors, about a broken fence and who should repair it.”

“Sounds riveting,” Chule said with a smirk.

“It’s not,” Asami said dryly, “but it’s still informative. In the book the town initially just leaves the two neighbors to try to settle it amongst themselves, but once their conflict escalates the rest of the town elects someone to mediate and settle the issue once and for all. In the end the issue is resolved by making the neighbors work together to fix the fence. But what I found interesting is that throughout the entire affair the town never once looked towards the authority of the lord who governed over their region, or towards any other formal source of authority, it speaks to how accustomed they were to self-governance.

“Which is very interesting to me, given how hard it is for people to imagine nowadays, even while the idea of a professional police force is still a relatively new invention.”

Chule nodded in response. “I’m still curious what triggered this research,” he said, “like I said it’s kind of interesting for a rich girl like you to be researching something like this, isn’t it? No offense but you’re the one who profits most from the current system, I generally wouldn’t expect someone like you to be questioning it.”

“That’s fair,” Asami said, “someone else I know said something similar,” she said, thinking back to her conversation with Har Dayal. “That’s kind of what triggered my research into this subject, you know about Korra, right?”

“That girl who was frozen in ice?” Chule asked, Asami nodded.

“That’s the one. Someone I spoke to noted how Korra’s unique perspective is actually very interesting, not just for understanding the past but also for analyzing the present. She doesn’t share our status quo bias, because for her our modern society is still completely alien.

“She has sort of drifted towards certain radical leftist groups, and at first I worried that they were taking advantage of her ignorance of modern society, but now I’m wondering if she drifted towards them because they felt more familiar to her.”

“Can’t you just ask her?” Chule asked. Asami must’ve made a face in response because he immediately put his hands up in a defensive gesture. “Sorry if I touched on a sore subject,” he said, “I thought you two were living together.” 

“We are,” Asami said, “but Korra went away for a while, on uhh, a hunting trip.” That was the explanation she’d given to the staff at the mansion, that Korra had enjoyed their trip to the mountains so much that she had decided to stay a while longer while Asami returned to the mansion.

Chule looked curious as to why that made Asami so emotional, so she quickly continued speaking, not wanting him to find out the truth of where Korra had gone or of just how close she and Korra were. “Besides,” she said, “proper research wouldn’t allow me to rely too heavily on a single source, not even a primary source like Korra.”

Chule shrugged. “Fair enough. Anyway, I didn’t really come here just to ask about your research, I’ve been meaning to apologize for how I acted towards you when you first came to the university after your father’s arrest. It was uhh- stupid, and uncalled for. I shouldn’t have judged you like that, should’ve understood that you were probably one of those who’ve been hurt most by your father’s actions.”

 

 

“Thanks for apologizing,” Asami said, “I’m not the one who was hurt most though, people died, or lost their homes, meanwhile I became the owner of a giant mansion and one of the country’s biggest companies…”

“That’s true,” Chule said, “but as a socialist I would be a hypocrite if I acted as though money was all that matters!”

Asami laughed. “Anyway, I’ve been working on something to help the victims of the separatists. Since my factories are still shut down and my workers are standing idle, I’ve arranged for them to instead work to clear the rubble in the immigrant district and help create temporary shelters. Figured that if they’re not doing anything profitable then they could at least do something useful for overall society. I’ll be going there tomorrow, if you want to help too then you’re more than welcome.”

“I’ll definitely think about it,” Chule said, before giving Asami a curious once-over.

“What?” Asami asked.

“It’s just- I don’t really understand how I ever believed that you agreed with your father, you seem like a good person.”

Asami grew flustered in response, not really sure how to respond.

“Anyway,” Chule continued, “I’ll get out of your hair, so you can get back to your research. Let me know when you finish your thesis, I’d love to read it if that’s okay?”

Asami said her goodbyes, while promising that she’d led him read her thesis once it was done. He’d actually be doing her a favor, it was always nice to have someone proof-read her work before she submitted it to her professor.

 

 

 

After finishing her studies Asami returned to the Sato mansion, where she briefly played fetch with Naga, both because she herself needed to unwind for a moment and because she worried that Naga was feeling lonely and neglected while Korra was gone for so long. She wouldn’t be the only one.

She had planned to keep going until Naga was tired out, but ended up having to quit because her own arm was so tired. Meanwhile Naga still bounced around enthusiastically, before whining sadly when she realized the game was over. Clearly Asami was no match for the stamina of a polarbear dog, Naga was much like her owner in that way.

As she went back inside, Asami began to look over some of the documents that she’d taken with her after her last visit to Future Industries’ offices. Some progress was being made in the court, giving her a better idea of the amount of money that Future Industries would be expected to pay in fines once this was all through. She felt a bit conflicted about this, part of her thought that the honorable thing to do was to hardly even put up a defense and just pay whatever the state’s prosecutors demanded, but the more pragmatic part of her rebelled against that idea.

After all it wasn’t the overall company that was really at fault, her father and a handful of accomplices were responsible, there was no reason for the overall company to suffer overly much as a result, especially if that were to affect the company’s ability to continue paying the wages of its workers.

So in the end Asami had hired the best lawyers she could find, to ensure that the fines would not cripple the entire company or require drastic budget cuts. She was fairly optimistic in that regard, the greater concern was getting the factories to open again as soon as possible, and working to make sure that the company’s reputation didn’t suffer so much that people would no longer buy their products. 

Getting the factories to open again was another problem for the lawyers to take care of, she briefly glanced through a few legal motions they had filed on her behalf to try to force the state to wrap up its investigations, but didn’t bother reading it too thoroughly since she wouldn’t understand it anyway.

The company’s reputation was something she could be more personally involved in, something that she would be personally involved in starting tomorrow. On that note she decided to go to bed early to make sure she was presentable tomorrow, as the press were sure to be there.

 

 

The next day quickly arrived, since Asami had fallen asleep at almost the exact moment when her head met her pillow.

She quickly went through her morning routine, washing, brushing her teeth, doing her makeup (a lighter layer than normal, as that seemed more fitting when she’d be doing manual labor,) checking to see if Korra had returned yet- Then she came down to eat breakfast.

Once finished she drove up to the Future Industries offices, where she parked her car and met up with several other members of the company’s upper management. Together they walked the rest of the way to the immigrant district where they would be helping to clear rubble with the other workers from the company. They had decided together that it would be best to walk instead of going by car, since cars were such a rare occurrence in the immigrant district, especially after the checkpoints went up. Standing out didn’t seem like it would send the right message.

On that note, Asami was a bit disappointed as she looked over the clothes that the others were wearing. She had specifically asked them all to dress down a bit, as she herself had done by wearing the clothes she’d always worn when she joined her father in his workshop, but every one of them was still wearing a fancy suit that must cost at least two months of the average worker’s salary.

She shrugged. It’ll be their loss, when their suits inevitably get dirty.

They made it to the checkpoint, which as Asami had expected was much busier so early in the morning while everyone was getting to work than it had been when she’d last passed through there.

Asami moved to join the back of the line, but then to her surprise one of the officers at the checkpoint waved at her. “Asami Sato? We’ve been expecting you. You and yours can pass by through here, no need to wait in line.”

So much for not standing out, Asami thought as she noticed the glares that many of the people in the line in front of her were now giving her.

How come they even knew to expect me? Asami thought. She had talked to the city government to arrange some needed permits, but she hadn’t told anyone she would be coming in person, much less which checkpoint she would be passing through.

“Aren’t you glad I called ahead?” Someone said from behind her, she turned around to face Mr Izaru, Future Industries’ managing director. “Who knows how long we would’ve been stuck in line otherwise,” he continued, visibly turning up his nose at the others in line, “lets just get this over with.” 

Asami struggled to maintain her outward composure, though inside she was fuming. “What part of staying ‘low key’ did you not understand? The last thing we want is for everyone to perceive us as arrogant and classist!” She hissed at him.

“What?” He said. “I dressed in my cheapest suit and everything, then walked all this way, what’s next you want me to take the tram when we leave?”

“I hadn’t thought about it, but yeah that’s a good idea,” Asami said, more out of spite than anything. Then she waved back towards the officer at the checkpoint. “Thank you, but I’ll just wait in line if that’s OK!”

The officer shrugged, then went back to his station. Izaru looked like he wanted to object but one of his colleague’s stopped him with a hand on the shoulder, at least some of them were able to notice the anger that Asami was barely keeping contained. I ask him to do one simple thing and then he does the exact opposite, without even telling me! Any second thoughts she’d had about changing his position at the company were now completely gone.

While the overdressed men behind her grumbled, Asami tried to engage in conversation with some of the people in front of her, many of whom were staring at her. She discovered that a number of them were actually her own employees, who lived outside of the immigrant district and so had to travel through the checkpoint.

“I should thank you really,” one of them joked while talking to Asami, “my wife is lovely but she’s best enjoyed in small dosages, spending so much time at home after the factories closed was threatening to give me a severe headage. I’m glad to have something to do again!”

The others in line all laughed in agreement, Asami chuckled along politely even though she’d never really understood this kind of ‘guy humor.’ If they didn’t like spending time with their wives then why’d they get married?

“Seriously though,” another man said, “I’m glad that you’ve set up this initiative, several of my drinking buddies lost their homes in the fires, one even slept on my couch for a week or so until he found a better place to stay. I’m happy to do something more to help the lads out, I’ve been enjoying the time off but this will be even better.”

The others nodded, then shared a few more anecdotes of the people they knew who’d been affected by the fires. One particularly grumpy looking man said that he didn’t really care about any of that, but that at least it’d be less repetitive than working the assembly line. A few of the others tried to shush him and tell him not to be rude but Asami gestured for them to let him speak. 

“I can imagine that the assembly line isn’t the most interesting work,” she said, “I’m not sure how much I can do about that, but if you have any suggestions to make it less monotonous then I’d love to hear them.”

The man was quiet for a moment as he considered the question. “Music,” he finally said.

“Music?” Asami replied, caught a bit off guard.

“Yeah, play some music we can listen to,” the man said, “it’ll liven things right up.”

“Oh uhh, I guess that could probably be arranged,” Asami said. “Any favorite genres?” She asked half-jokingly, not predicting the heated debate this would trigger between the group of men, who began arguing about which genres they liked best.

By the time they made it past the checkpoint Asami had finally settled the issue by promising to provide music in a variety of genres.

“Should you really have made such a strong promise on the spot?” Lee, one of the company’s top managers, asked from behind her. “I’m sure you mean well, but now if you don’t deliver there’ll be hell to pay.”

Asami shrugged. “Seems like something I should be able to deliver on, if I can’t even do something small like this then I don’t deserve to be in charge. The only real obstacle I can think of is the music being drowned out by the sound of the machines...” She mused, mind already racing with thoughts of how this could best be addressed.

“I suppose,” Lee said, “I’m more worried about how things are going to work out here, since you’ve left most of the organization up to the workers themselves.”

“I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised,” Asami said. Ruolan had kept her in the loop about how the preparations were going, even though she really had left it mostly out of her hands.

They turned a corner, giving them clear view of the rubble where a whole apartment building had burned down. The entire area was a buzz of activity, trucks were parked near the rubble, with trains of people handing rubble from one to the other before dumping it in the truck beds, like how during fires people would pass a bucket from one person to the next. Some cranes were being set up to lift the larger pieces of rubble. 

“Did you approve of the funding for those?!” Izaru asked, pointing to the cranes.

“Nope,” Asami said, “the unions arranged the cranes, some of the trucks are ours though, but the cost of the fuel and a bit of wear and tear is negligible. Anyway, time to get our hands dirty,” she said as she rolled up her sleeves.

“Shouldn’t we wait for the press to arrive?” Izaru asked.

“So they can interview the workers and hear all about how we just stood and watched until it was time to have our pictures taken? No! Besides, you know that people talk amongst themselves, don’t you? Fooling the press wouldn’t do us any good when hundreds of workers will still spend their evening complaining about how we came here just for show.”

Asami decided not to waste her time by arguing about how it was never just about the company’s reputation to begin with, it didn’t seem worth the effort. Plus, she had used the company’s reputation as her primary argument for convincing everyone to come with her, so she couldn’t entirely blame Izaru for thinking along those lines.

Either way, Asami walked up towards the pile of rubble, forming a new train along with men who she’d talked to at the checkpoint. After some grumbling Izaru and the other managers, still wearing their suits, joined them.

Asami hadn’t expected too much, in terms of Izaru and the other’s capacity for manual labor, but somehow they had managed to fail to meet even the low bar Asami had set in her mind. They frequently delayed everyone, causing a sort of traffic jam for the rubble they tried to pass forwards, all because they were busy complaining and panting and just generally being unproductive.

Asami had to admit that after an hour or so she was beginning to feel tired too, but she felt like she was keeping it together much better than most of the other office workers. At least their lacking performances seemed to be boosting the morale of everyone else though, judging by the snickers Asami could hear around her.

Overall, the atmosphere was a bit awkward. Everyone here knew what Izaru and Asami looked like, but most of them had never actually interacted with anyone so high up in the company. Few could restrain some snickers, yet many still seemed afraid to make some kind of mistake that would cause them to be reprimanded.

Izaru had seemed like he was about to do just that to a group that was admittedly being particularly obnoxious while laughing at him, but Asami had warned him off with a glare. Let them have their fun, she thought as she passed another chunk of concrete over to the person next to her, they’ve earned it.

She couldn’t help but notice how few of the other workers were even breaking a sweat yet, this must not be that much harder than their work in the factories, Asami thought.

Eventually the time for a break arrived, Asami shamelessly rushed over to the table where fresh water was prepared for everyone who wanted it.

“Asami?” A familiar voice asked as she wiped some of the water from her chin, she turned around to see Mako standing there, Bolin behind him.

“Oh, hey guys,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting you here.”

“Yeah I uhh, work at the Future Industries weapons factory, so I was sent here with all my coworkers. Bolin is just volunteering.”

Asami nodded, Bolin wasn’t the only one. Her whole scheme had relied on people being on her payroll, but in the end many people were helping for free, some had even arrived extra early in the morning, then left when the time for their actual job came.

“We thought about reaching out to you, after uhh-” Mako began.

“After your father was in the news for being an evil mastermind!” Bolin piped up, finishing his brother’s sentence, probably with less tact than Mako had been going for, judging by the glare Mako gave his younger brother.

Asami just laughed in response. “It’s fine,” she said, “we don’t know each other that well, despite what we went through together when we fought the separatists, it’s mostly been Korra who’s hung out with you guys.”

Mako just nodded while Bolin spoke up. “We had fun at that exhibition thingy though, didn’t we? We should all hang out again sometime!”

“Where has Korra been?” Mako then asked, after Asami failed to respond to Bolin. “I was hoping to practice with her again before the start of the tournament tomorrow.”

Oh shoot, Asami thought, she’d forgotten all about the tournament, she tried to think of a reply but then Bolin saved her by interjecting.

“Will you come watch?” Bolin asked, “Korra isn’t scheduled to fight yet tomorrow, but me and Mako both are.”

Asami briefly doubted, but then responded. “Yeah sure, I’ll come, it’ll be fun! I’m not sure if Korra can make it though.”

She did her best to deflect their further questions of where exactly Korra had been, after giving them the same hunting trip excuse that she’d been giving everyone.

She better get back soon, Asami thought to herself, she didn’t know what she’d do if Korra didn’t return, not emotionally, nor in terms of what she would tell people.

“I uhh, had another thing I wanted to ask,” Mako said somewhat nervously. “It happened before you became the new owner, so I’m not blaming you or anything, but…”

“But what? Was there some kind of misconduct at the factory you want to report?” Asami asked when Mako stopped himself and seemed hesitant to continue. “Just spit it out, I’m your friend I’m not going to fire you or anything.”

Mako sighed, then started talking again. “I’m not sure if it qualifies as misconduct, but my colleague was fired and it was totally unfair. We were both headed to work, but then the police stopped him at the checkpoint, preventing him from getting to work on time. The manager fired him that same morning just for being late, even though I explained that it wasn’t his fault!”

“Why did the police stop him?” Asami asked.

“No idea,” said Mako, “he was released after a couple hours and was never charged with anything. They just checked a list and said he was on it.”

“And he was generally a good worker?” Asami asked. “Or was it the straw that broke the camelephant’s back? If he was already on the brink of being fired then I’m not sure if the specifics of this final incident really matter that much.”

“He was a good worker!” Mako said. “Always showed up on time, always did what was expected of him. Management never liked him though, because of how active he was in the union and how he tried to recruit others to join too. I suspect that that’s why he was fired, the manager checked a list of employee records before deciding to fire him.”

“This was just a ground floor manager, right?” Asami asked. Mako nodded. “Then those records aren’t supposed to list if someone is unionized or not, they should only list infractions,” Asami said. “Do you know the name of the manager? I could look into it some more.” 

 “Uhh, his name was Rak, I think,” Mako said.

“Rak Asahi?” Asami asked, recognizing the name. Mako confirmed that that was the one.

“He was arrested recently,” Asami said, “there’s strong evidence that he was complicit in my father’s schemes. I already figured that union-busting was one of the things my father has also been doing, this pretty much confirms it as far as I’m concerned.”

Could they have been colluding with the police at the checkpoints? Asami wondered. Mako said that those were working off of a list too, and Senator Tenzin was warning all along that the new laws that created those checkpoints could be used for union-busting, among other things.”

“I’ll look into it more, see how systemic the issue was,” Asami said. “Don’t tell your friend that we talked about this, I don’t want people accusing me of nepotism, but I’ll make the arrangements to ensure that he gets his old job back if he still wants it, along with anyone else who was fired in this way.”

Mako thanked her, then during the rest of their break Asami mostly just listened to Bolin while he explained how much they had been training for the upcoming tournament.

 

 

 

Eventually they all got back to work, that was also around the time that some of the press showed up. Asami maintained that it wasn’t all just about repairing Future Industry’s reputation, but that didn’t mean that she was too principled to do her best to look good on every picture that was taken. She was pretty sure that it resulted in some good pictures.

Some of the journalists tried to pull her aside for a full interview, but Asami refused, instead she just answered a bunch of simple questions while continuing to work. Which wasn’t as hard as one might think, the work was physically demanding but mentally? Not so much, just passing chunks of rubble from her left to her right barely took any thought at all, if anything focusing on answering questions helped to make the work seem less tiring since it distracted her from her tired muscles.

She had made it clear right off the bat that she didn’t want to talk about her father’s trial in absentia, or about his escape, and was glad to find that most of the reporters listened to that request and focused their questions on the project of cleaning up the rubble and eventually building temporary shelters in its place.

She tried her best to focus all her answers on the fact that this project had largely been organized by the workers themselves, that Asami, as their employer, had merely given them the initial push.

“I understand that you’ve also started a different project, which makes use of the expertise in engineering that some of your workers possess,” one journalist eventually asked.

“That’s true,” Asami said, “at Future Industries we pride ourselves on the quality of our products, which is why our assembly lines employ a legion of engineers, to test the quality of every car we produce and to fix any production mistakes that might have occurred. Our assembly process is the best in the industry but sometimes mistakes still happen, our engineers are there to spot these mistakes and fix them.

“With our assembly lines temporarily shut down it seemed like a shame for the expertise of these engineers to go to waste, which is why we have turned two of our warehouses into temporary car repair shops, where for limited time only anyone can bring their car to be looked over by our engineers for a great price, whether it’s for specific repairs or just for general maintenance.”

“I have to say, it’s a great idea,” one of the reporters said. “When people first learned that you would be taking control of the company there were many doubters, but I dare say that these ideas you’ve implemented after such a short time in your new role will help put most concerns regarding your competency to rest.”

“Thank you very much,” Asami said, “I’ll do my best to-”

The same reporter cut her off mid-sentence as he continued speaking. “However, how would you respond to the new accusations that some are now making? That this is all part of a smart but cynical ploy to repair the harm that your father’s actions have done to your reputation? That you came up with a shrewd and selfish scheme, not to help the city, but to help yourself?”

Asami swallowed instead of immediately answering, then took a rock from the person next to her. She took a bit longer than normal to pass it forwards than she normally would, which gave her even more time to consider how to answer this difficult question. “I admit that that’s a fair question. Harsh, but fair,” she began. “My answer is this; I won’t apologize for being ‘clever’ or ‘shrewd,’ I also won’t pretend as though the company’s reputation, and my personal reputation as a Sato, weren’t things that I took into consideration.

“Of course I considered those things! I see it as a perfect example of killing two birds with one stone, I get to help the city while at the same time hopefully regaining people’s trust. I don’t think that working to atone for my father’s actions, actions that I wholeheartedly disagree with, is something I should be ashamed of. I’m proud to have taken this opportunity to begin to restore the honor of the Sato name, and I’m glad to be in a position where I’m able to do so while at the same time helping those in need.”

The reporters looked impressed with her answer, so much so that none of them had an immediate follow-up question.

Asami took that opportunity to put an end to the questions. “I’m afraid that’s all the questions I’ll be able to answer. Speaking of those temporary car repair shops, that’s my next stop. It’s about time that I get going, I’m confident that the work of clearing this rubble will be in capable hands. More capable than my own frankly, I’m already exhausted!”

She shook the hands of a few of the people who’d been working alongside her, then she began her walk back to her car.

 

 

About half an hour later she drove past over a dozen cars that were all waiting in line to be serviced, before parking around the back of the warehouse. Given that the repair shop had been open since early this morning it seemed like a great sign that there were so many people still showing up well past noon.

Asami made a quick note to remind herself to find out who had been put in charge of getting the word out about these shops, clearly they’d done a great job.

She walked out onto the main floor of the repair shop, where several cars were suspended by car jacks and being examined by engineers. She saw a few try to get up from their work when they recognized her but she gestured for them to stay where they were. “Just keep up the good work, pretend I’m not here,” she said, before walking to the front of the shop where the man she’d put in charge of this repair shop was talking to a customer, they were standing next to a small tractor.

“We did say that we would repair any brand,” he said, “but we meant normal automobile brands, not tractors!”

“Your advertisement talked about what a crack team of engineers you had!” The customer said. “It’s all just a bunch of gears and stuff innit? It’s got four wheels and an engine, just like a regular automobile!”

“I don’t know if-” the engineer started to say, but then Asami cut him off.

“I’ll look it over,” she said, “are there any specific issues you’re having with it?”

“Darn thing won’t start,” the man said, “that’s the main issue. Not sure if that counts as ‘specific’ though.”

Asami laughed. “Fair enough, I’ll make sure to find out what the issue is and to repair it as soon as possible.”

She got the man’s contact information, then promised to notify him when repairs were finished.

“Welcome Miss Sato, I hadn’t noticed that you arrived already,” the engineer who’d been talking to the customer said.

“Are you sure about this?” He asked. “I know you said on the phone that you learned from your father and that you’d come here to help, but a tractor isn’t quite the same as a Satomobile…”

“Satomobiles aren’t the only things that me and my father worked on,” Asami said. Her father frequently bought machines from other companies, sometimes to see what his competition was up to, sometimes just so that he could take them apart for the sake of his own curiosity.

Asami had helped him take apart and put back together numerous cars and other machines, including a tractor. In fact, while it hadn’t been this exact model, she was pretty sure the tractor she had helped to disassemble had been from this same brand. ‘Cabbage Corp.’

 

 

Half an hour later Asami had identified the problem, it turned out that a part had broken. It was a gear that fit standardized measurements, so it could simply be replaced with a gear that they had on-site, they didn’t even need to search out a specific replacement part. Asami did wind up having to disassemble part of the engine, then reassemble it, which took about an hour.

But after that time she was rewarded with the sound of the engine rumbling to life as she turned the ignition. She smiled, deeply inhaling to smell the grease and grime of the workshop. She had missed this, she had barely even entered father’s workshop after her dreams of studying engineering had been crushed and she had entered the field of anthropology instead.

The other engineers congratulated her on getting the tractor to work again, then she moved on to another customer, this one had just a regular car that needed to be repaired.

It went on like that for several hours, until it was time for everyone to stop and head home.

 

 

 

Asami had greatly enjoyed herself while she was busy repairing cars, but now that she was alone and cleaning off the grease she was suddenly hit with a crushing sense of loneliness. The environment of the car repair shop suddenly seemed deliberately designed to remind her of her father, to rub salt in the still-open wound that his actions had caused by reminding her of the fact that there was a very real possibility that she would never see him again.

She wasn’t sure if she ever wanted to see him again, but that was besides the point, she had thought that it would be her choice, that he would be in prison and she would be able to visit him if she wanted. But instead, he had lost his citizenship after fleeing to the Earth Kingdom.

The Earth Kingdom, where Korra had likely also gone after jumping aboard hostile airships...

Was Korra safe, or was that another person she would never see again? She didn’t want to believe it was possible, that Korra had suddenly jumped into her life, completely shaken everything she thought she knew about the world and about her own sexuality, only to just as suddenly disappear again without Asami ever even learning what’d happened to her.

She didn’t want to believe it, and the things Korra had shown her almost made her believe that there might be such a thing as destiny that would prevent their story from ending prematurely like that, yet it was a silent fear that had been growing larger and larger over the past few days. Right now, standing in the garage that reminded her of her fugitive father, the weight of it had grown almost unbearable.

Asami quickly finished washing off, then began her drive back to the mansion.

She entered the large building, it’d always been ridiculously large for just her and her father, but it wasn’t until both her father and Korra had left that it had started to feel not just large but empty.

She ate dinner alone, at the oversized dinner table. She tried to do some paperwork that she’d planned on doing, but quickly gave up on that and decided to go to bed early. As she was about to step onto the stairs however, she heard a sound from outside. Is that Naga? She thought.

She had tried one night to get the polarbear dog to sleep in her bedroom, something that Korra also occasionally did. She had thought that the large dog would help her miss Korra less, but it’d had the opposite effect. So now Naga just stayed outside at night, there was plenty of shelter under the porch in the event of a storm, and she was native to the South Pole so a Republic City autumn certainly wasn’t too cold for the beast.

Regardless, Asami went to investigate the sound, stepping outside onto the porch.

As she peered out onto the starlit grounds of the mansion and her eyes slowly got used to the relative darkness, she did indeed spot Naga on the grass lawn.

As she looked more closely she noticed that Naga was standing over a person who was down on their back and appeared to be getting assaulted by Naga’s licks. “I missed you so much, girl,” Asami heard a familiar voice saying from underneath Naga.

As soon as she heard that voice, Asami began running. Once she reached them, she managed to squeeze beneath Naga to give the person underneath a hug.

“Oh hey,” Korra said, clearly surprised that Asami had jumped in out of nowhere. “I missed you too! And you’re also a girl!”

The comment was so ridiculous that Asami just collapsed in laughter, the surprise of Korra being here in the first place probably helped add to Asami’s hysterical laughing as she lay flat on top of Korra, breathing in the other girl’s scent as she nestled her face in her neck.

Her laugher slowly abated, then suddenly she had the paranoid impulse to check if the person she was cuddling was really Korra or if she had been mistaken somehow. She propped herself up on her elbows to look at the girl beneath her, with familiar deep blue eyes.

“It’s really you!” She said.

A beautiful smile lights up on Korra’s face. “Yeah, it’s me! Sorry I took so long.”

Notes:

Hi everyone! Hope you didn't miss me too much now that the wait is two weeks instead of one ;p

As you've surely noticed Korra was pretty much absent throughout this chapter, I thought about including her journey back to Republic City but it didn't really seem neccesary, and this way it's hopefully not just Asami who misses her but the readers too ;p

Anyway, there'll be lots of Korrasami content next chapter to make up for it!

Oh and by the way, I really struggled coming up with a title for this chapter, I eventually just went with "Future Industries" but I'm not really happy with that title TBH :/
Why are titles so hard?!?

Chapter 23: Reunion

Summary:

Korra and Asami reunite, & fill each other in on what happened in their time apart. Also, other stuff.

There's a couple somewhat smutty scenes, you can either take that as a warning or as something to look forward to ; )

Reunion.

 

 

 

Korra was exhausted, worse than after her most grueling days of training, but it was all worth it now that she was able to stare in those beautiful emerald-green eyes again while Asami sat straddled on top of her. 

She had spent the last few days running North, staying away from busy roads, in fact doing her best to avoid roads altogether. All while stopping only to drink, sleep, and eat. She had then spent most of this last day swimming with the aid of waterbending, after deciding that travelling the last of the way across the sea would be easier than crossing the mountain ranges surrounding Republic City.

In the end she had made it all the way to the Sato estate feeling like a sweaty and salty mess, with muscles that were aching worse than ever before. Yet these negative feelings all faded into the background as soon as Asami had shown up to hug her.

She didn’t remember exactly what she’d said in response to Asami’s surprise hug, but she was pretty sure it was rather dumb and embarrassing. She decided to just blame her exhaustion and pretend it’d never happened.

“It’s really you!” Asami said.

Korra smiled happily in response. “Yeah, it’s me!” Initially she was glad that her girlfriend had missed her as much as Korra had missed her. But then her happiness waned somewhat, as she remembered everything she had left Asami to deal with by herself. “Sorry I took so long,” Korra said, she was about to expand on that apology but was cut off by Asami’s warm lips pressing against her own.

I’ll apologize later, Korra thought before focusing fully on returning the kiss, kissing is more important.

Eventually Asami broke the kiss, coming back up for air. “I’m just glad you’re safe,” Asami said. She looked around for a moment as she was still straddled over Korra, a confused look on her face as she had seemingly forgotten that they were lying down in the grass, outside.

“We uhh, should probably get inside,” Asami said, getting up and straightening her clothes before reaching out to help pull Korra up to her feet.

Korra gratefully accepted Asami’s hand, her muscles were letting her know that they were very unhappy at being forced back into action again but with Asami’s help she got back up to her feet, after which she followed her girlfriend inside.

“I was about to go to bed,” Asami said, “but now that you’re here that can wait, I want to know everything that happened to you!”

She turned around to face Korra, then scrunched her nose. “You need a shower first though, you reek!”

 

“It’s kind of your fault if you think about it,” Korra said with a grin, “you’re the reason I was in such a hurry to get back, that’s why I got all sweaty!”

Asami just rolled her eyes. “Shower, then we’ll talk.”

“Fine,” Korra said, going up the stairs.

They made it to the bathroom with the shower, where Asami awkwardly moved to turn away once Korra opened the door. “You can join me if you want,” Korra said impulsively, not wanting Asami to leave again after only just having reunited.

“Wh- What do you mean?” A flustered Asami asked.

“I mean that I missed you,” Korra said while moving forwards to kiss Asami, a kiss Asami eagerly returned, “so I don’t want you to leave.”

“But- You’re going to shower.”

“Yeah, so? You’re my girlfriend, we kiss, we sleep together, why not shower together?” Korra felt herself growing eager, she had been hoping for them to take another step in their relationship while they had the privacy of the hunting lodge, but they hadn’t gotten around to it during those few days. She had dreamed of what Asami’s naked body would look and feel like, but so far they hadn’t gone further than making out while clothed, occasionally fondling each other through their clothing.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” Korra said, not wanting to pressure Asami. “I know nudity is a bigger deal in your culture so-”

Let’s do it,” Asami said, pushing Korra inside and closing the door behind them before pulling Korra in for another kiss.

Korra grinned during the kiss and could feel Asami doing the same, once they pulled apart Korra reached for the hem of her shirt and quickly pulled it off, leaving her in just her chest bindings and pants. She soon removed the latter too.

Now nearly nude, she suddenly felt much more flustered, especially as she saw Asami’s eyes roaming over her body. When Asami saw Korra looking back at her the raven-haired girl startled as though she was caught doing something wrong, as though getting Asami to look at her wasn’t the whole point.

“You can look, that’s kind of the point,” Korra said as she began unwinding her chest bindings.

“I know!” Asami said, turning beet red, contrary to her words her girlfriend then turned to look away from Korra while she begun to remove some of her own clothes. Korra finished removing her chest bindings, she looked up to see Asami’s reaction but found that her girlfriend was still faced away from her, resolutely staring as a wall while only now beginning to remove a few of her own clothes. 

Korra took that opportunity to remove her underpants and get fully nude, then turned around to open the shower door which was made of opaque glass. She stepped into the shower, then turned back towards Asami. “Join me when you’re ready,” she said with a grin, waiting for Asami to turn and look at her before closing the shower door.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami stared at the closed shower door, the image of a fully nude Korra still burned into her retina, though now only a vague silhouette could be seen behind the blurry glass door. The sound of running water soon filled the bathroom, bringing her back to her senses and prompting her to finish taking off her own clothes.

Once she was done she looked in the mirror, looking over her own body. She suddenly felt self-conscious, she didn’t have the kind of gorgeous muscles that her warrior girlfriend had, would Korra think that she looked too skinny?

And what about her breasts? Were they big enough? She grabbed one of them experimentally, is that even something another girl would care about? She pondered. The image of Korra standing naked in front of the shower flashed before her again, well, Asami concluded, if my own thoughts are anything to go off of then yeah, Korra probably likes breasts too.

Suddenly she thought of something. My makeup! She didn’t want it to get all runny in the shower in front of Korra, so she quickly turned the faucet of the sink and began splashing water onto her face.

Once she got the makeup off she had no more excuses, no more reasons to stall. “Uhh, can I come in?” She asked, awkwardly knocking on the shower door.

Instead of a reply, the door simply opened and Asami was pulled inside, immediately caught in a kiss. As they kissed they began touching each other in ways they had done before, only now there was no layer of clothes between them. Korra grabbed her breasts, it felt amazing yet Asami couldn’t help but break into giggles when she saw the wide-eyed open-mouthed look on the girl’s face while she looked down at Asami’s chest.

She may have insisted that it was less of a big deal in her culture than it was in Asami’s, but clearly this was just as exciting for Korra as it was for Asami herself, which helped put Asami at ease and enjoy the rest of the shower. Touching Korra like this, directly onto her surprisingly soft skin, while the warm water kept falling on them from above, was a transcendent experience. The shower ended up lasting obscenely long, since it took a while for them to remember that the point of a shower was to wash yourselves.

All was laid bare, by the time they exited the shower and began drying up Asami found that she didn’t even really feel the need to immediately cover herself with her towel, as she initially thought she might.

They still hadn’t really touched each other… Down there, Asami wasn’t sure how that would even work between two girls, but they’d touched each other pretty much everywhere else, something that hadn’t become any less sensual when they had begun to actually wash each other instead of just making out.

They didn’t say much as they dried up and put some clothes on again, before making their way to Asami’s bedroom.

“That was fun,” Korra said, looking towards Asami, “right?”

“Definitely,” said Asami with a smirk, she was already hoping to make it a regular thing.

 

 

 

They entered Asami’s room, where Korra let herself fall backwards onto Asami’s bed. “Anyway, we said we’d talk after I showered, right? I’ve got some questions too, what happened to your father? Was the evidence you gathered enough to arrest him?”

It took Asami a moment to adjust to the emotional whiplash of that change in topic, she took that time to sit on the bed next to where Korra had lain down. “It uhh, didn’t go exactly according to plan,” Asami began.

Korra sat back up beside her. “But we got lots of evidence! I barely understand all that bookkeeping stuff, but even for me the evidence was clear once you explained it!”

“I know,” Asami responded with a sigh, “that wasn’t the problem. The police accepted my evidence and they tried to arrest father, but-”

Understanding flashed across Korra’s face. “He escaped?”

Asami just nodded in response. “They- He- Two officers died, then he just ran!”

Korra hugged her tightly as she began sobbing, she kept trying to explain what happened in-between her sobs but she was pretty sure it was all completely incoherent to Korra, who just rubbed her back and whispered comforting words in her ear.

“I’m sorry,” Korra eventually said, Asami’s sobbing had started to subside and she had just been laying on the bed, coddled up against Korra while Korra ran her fingers through her hair.

“I should’ve been here while you went through all that, instead of leaving you alone.”

Asami didn’t respond, the truth was that she did feel a bit resentful towards Korra for exactly that reason. They had both agreed at the time that Korra should try to intercept those airships, but that should’ve taken a day at most! The plan was never for Korra to jump aboard those ships and stay away for almost an entire week!

Her frustrations may have shown in her expression or her stiffened muscles, because Korra kept apologizing for a while longer, with kisses to Asami’s neck interspersed throughout each apology. “Did you at least get the message I sent with Naga?” Korra eventually asked. “I wasn’t sure if you’d look in her saddlebags, but it was the best I could think of.”

Asami nodded. “I found your message,” she said, “didn’t exactly make me less worried though,” she continued, not bothering to keep a bit of anger from her voice.

Korra sighed. “I know, I’m sorry.”

“But you’d do it again, wouldn’t you?!”

Korra paused for a while after that, giving the question thought. “I would, yeah. You were right about the mustard gas, a lot of people would’ve gotten hurt if I didn’t do what I did. You should- You should know what you’re in for if we continue doing uhh, this,” she said, gesturing between them.

“I’m the Avatar, I like being the Avatar, I like being able to help people.” Korra smiled sadly while she said this. “So I’ll keep putting myself in harm’s way if necessary, I hate making you worry but-”

Asami cut her off by kissing her, it was a short kiss, after which Asami pulled back to look at her. “I know,” she said, “I already knew this before I discovered that you’re the Avatar, you’ll always do what you think is right, even if it gets you in trouble, that’s what I like about you.” She punctuated that last statement by booping Korra on the nose with her finger.

“It’s not like I’m that much better,” she said, dropping back down to the bed, now face-to-face with Korra, “I was right there with you during the revelation. It seems that neither of us shies away from danger.”

This made Korra grin for some reason. “I guess we’ll just have to keep each other safe then,” the girl said, “you should join me for my morning workouts, add some combat practice and make sure you’re in good shape next time we’ve gotta kick some ass!”

Asami laughed at that, before realizing that Korra was being serious. “Only if we shower together afterwards,” she said, laughing even harder at the blush this caused on her girlfriend’s face.

They talked well into the night, filling each other in on what had happened while they were apart. Asami nearly had a panic attack when she heard about how Korra had broken through Kuvira’s lines, she seriously just attacked them head on?!? She knew Korra could be reckless, but this was a whole other level.

It had already happened so rationally there was no reason for Asami to stress about it now, but she couldn’t help herself. On the other hand though, the fact that it worked was equally insane.

Just how powerful is she? Asami thought, it was crazy to think that the person she was holding in her arms, who was currently the little spoon, was powerful enough to single-handedly turn the tides in battles between entire armies.

For her part, Asami told Korra all about what’d happened with her father, how she’d spoken to the Red Lotus, become the subject of gossip at the university, and suddenly gained control over her father’s entire business.

She’d needed to force Korra to stop apologizing for not being there to help her, otherwise she never could have managed to finish the entire story, but eventually they were pretty much all caught up about what they’d both been up to this past week.

“I’m proud of you,” Korra said after Asami finished telling her about the project to build shelters in the immigrant district. “Only you could go through all that, suddenly inherit so much responsibility, and immediately find a way to use it to help so many people.”

Asami blushed in response, though thankfully Korra couldn’t see that due to their current positions. “It’s not that big of a deal really,” she said truthfully, “others did most of the work, I just came up with the rough idea.”

“Sometimes just having a good idea is the hardest part,” Korra responded, “I only know how to kick people’s butts, I don’t have a clue when it comes to actually fixing stuff like you’re doing. I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around all the problems this city is dealing with, never mind what’s happening in the Earth Kingdom. I don’t know how to bring real changes, even though that’s also supposed to be part of being the Avatar.”

The insecurity in her girlfriend’s voice made Asami immediately want to find a way to comfort her. “I’ll help you,” she said, “we’ll be the perfect pair, kicking butt and then rebuilding afterwards! My interest in anthropology used to be purely academic, but I’m starting to think that maybe it could help me figure out what sorts of structural changes might be possible, what changes might make society better.”

“Does that mean you figured out a new topic for your thesis?” Korra asked. She had apologized repeatedly to Asami once Asami told her that she had inadvertently disproven Asami’s original thesis and forced her to come up with a new one, though of course Asami didn’t think it was something Korra needed to apologize for at all. It just added to the pursuit of knowledge, which was all that really mattered.

“Yeah, we should talk about that more later,” Asami said, “I think you might be able to help me with it by telling me more about your time. But for now we should probably go to sleep, I’m exhausted.”

Korra yawned loudly. “Me too.”

No wonder, Asami thought. She could still scarcely believe the insane distance Korra had crossed, mainly on foot, in just a few days.

I knew she was in shape, but wow, I didn’t even know this was physically possible. Korra said she had used some bending at times, especially when she’d crossed a mountain range, but Asami was quite certain that it was still primarily a testament to the girl’s insane physical prowess.

Speaking of physical prowess… Asami suddenly remembered something she hadn’t discussed with Korra until now. “Oh one more thing, I spoke to Mako and Bolin and said that I would come to watch their matches tomorrow. Want to come? We can make a whole date night out of it, since your match isn’t until the day after.”

“Sounds perfect,” Korra said, “we’ll make up for lost time.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra woke up, her muscles were aching but not as badly as she’d feared. It probably wouldn’t be up to Asami’s scientific standards, but Korra decided to credit her quick recovery from her journey to the fact that she’d spent the night sleeping in her girlfriend’s arms.

Right at that moment said girlfriend gave her a kiss on the forehead, she had already gotten out of bed, which was probably what had woken Korra up. She didn’t mind.

“Morning sleepy,” the black-haired beauty said, “almost noon actually. I guess we both needed a good rest.”

Korra slowly got up, rubbing her eyes as she did so. “No kidding,” she said. She may have rushed to conclusions a bit, regarding the aching of her muscles. Now that she was actually moving they begun to hurt more than when she’d initially woken up. She began rubbing some feeling into them, before remembering the water on the bedside table.

She bent the water towards her, then began using water healing to help relieve her muscles. Maybe running and swimming for over three full days was pushing it a little.

Worth it though, she thought as she looked back towards Asami, who was looking at het casual waterbending with an expression of awe. “So, what’s the plan for today? Do you have any fancy business meetings to go to?”

Asami shook her head. “No, I cancelled most of them. I do have to sign some documents, but I arranged for someone to bring them to the mansion later today. Shouldn’t take too long.”

Korra smiled. “So we can just hang out all day?” She asked, Asami nodded to confirm, also smiling.

They started with breakfast, during which the chef, Mr Tuzo, questioned Korra about which wild roots and herbs her tribe used for cooking. Apparently Asami told him how delicious the food Korra made during their stay at the hunting lodge had been.

He also excitedly told them about the restaurant he was planning to start, he had finally saved up enough money so he was now searching for a building that was suited for his grand plans.

After wishing Tuzo good luck with his restaurant, Korra grabbed a telephone and called Tenzin. This was probably the piece of technology that still astounded her the most, to be able to talk to people as if they’re right next to you, across such long distances…

Anyway, she hadn’t spoken to Tenzin for quite a while, so she figured that she’d best let him know that she was alright and that she would like to schedule some more lessons with him if he had the time.

It wasn’t a very long call, but Tenzin did tell her that he had discovered something new that might help her enter the avatar state, so that was something to look forward to. He sounded excited about it at least, though Korra expected that she herself would find it rather boring.

 

 

A short while later, Korra stepped outside the mansion, turning around to see if Asami was following her.

She smirked as she saw the exasperated look on Asami’s face. “Seriously Korra? I thought you said your muscles still hurt from running so much, now you want to work out again?”

“It’s fine,” Korra said, “it’ll just be a light workout, just stretches and stuff. I can teach you some basic fighting skills at the same time.”

They made it to the tree where Korra always did her exercises. Korra hadn’t been sure if Asami had realized that she was serious the previous night, when she said that Asami should join her for her morning exercises so that she would be better prepared the next time she joined Korra in something dangerous, but by now she had definitely made it clear that she was serious.

Asami liked to call Korra reckless, but Korra knew her girlfriend well enough to know how hypocritical that accusation was. Unlike the first impression that she gave most people, Korra included, Asami had quite a big reckless streak and was not afraid to take risks for the sake of something she believed in.

Which was fine by Korra, in fact she loved the idea of a girlfriend who could kick ass right alongside her! But she still wanted Asami to be safe, which meant ensuring that she was well trained.  

Korra started with just some simple stretches that Asami was able to easily copy, even the ones that required some more balance and flexibility. Korra realized halfway through that she was inadvertently giving herself a taste of her own medicine by having Asami join her in these exercises.

Watching Asami in her workout clothes, stretching the muscles in her beautiful long legs, showing all her beautiful curves, certainly helped give Korra an idea of what she’d put Asami through all the times she had shown off during her morning workouts.

The fact that they had showered naked last night didn’t help put a stop to Korra’s lecherous thoughts, she now knew exactly what was beneath those clothes and was already aching for another look.

Once their muscles were all loosened up it was time to make things more interesting. “Okay, now let me see your combat stance,” Korra said.

Asami looked confused. “I don’t have a combat stance, nobody ever taught me hand to hand fighting.”

“Sure you do, you taught me your combat stance when you taught me how to shoot a gun,” Korra said. “Just because it’s not a melee stance doesn’t mean that it’s not a combat stance. Just pretend you’re holding a gun, how would you stand?”

Korra watched as Asami briefly thought it over, then quickly changed her stance.

She bent her knees slightly, put her feet apart, left foot forward, then held her hands together and before her as though she was holding a pistol. 

“Ok, good,” Korra said, “Now-” she pushed Asami hard against her shoulder, causing her to lose her balance, “lets practice.”

Asami yelped, clumsily falling on her side. “What was that for?!”

Korra just smirked at her. “You have to be ready for anything in a fight,” she said, “you have to be able to change direction or dodge attacks at a moment’s notice. From what I’ve seen, that fundamental concept remains just as true when you’re using a gun.

“You’ve got to be ready to quickly duck behind cover, to jump over obstacles. You’ve got to be ready to dodge, quickly turn around, land in a roll to recover from a fall or an explosion, and so on.”

“And pushing me helps with that?” Asami asked grumpily as she got back up from the ground.

“Well yeah, with training you would’ve instantly adjusted, you would’ve regained your balance instead of falling, or fallen into a roll before quickly jumping back to your feet,” Korra said. “Like this,” she jumped to the ground and rolled, then sprung back up to her feet while facing Asami in a fighting stance. “Plus, pushing you is fun,” she said with a smirk.

Asami glared at her in response. “So that’s your plan? You’re just going to keep pushing me until I stop falling?”

Korra gave it some thought, she had only briefly pondered how to train Asami, so she was still largely just making it up as she went along. Her observations of the soldiers she fought in the Earth Kingdom had certainly her an idea of the holes in the training of modern soldiers, holes that she didn’t want Asami to share.
She also thought back to how she herself had been taught by her bending instructors, and how that could be translated into training for Asami.

My instructors all started with the base stance, Asami already has that part covered, her stance when she’s shooting a gun is solid and adaptable. After the student figures out the stance, they practice specific moves. Basic ones first, then more advanced ones.

That seemed like the place to start, but what would a ‘move’ be for someone wielding a gun?

Korra came up with a bunch of ‘moves,’ some were as simple as Asami just switching her aim, spinning to her left or right in a quarter circle or a half circle. It seemed important to be able to quickly do that while maintaining a strong stance, without tripping over your feet.

Then came moves that were meant to mimic how one would jump towards cover, from her recent fighting experience Korra had noted that this was something a lot of modern soldiers struggled with, many just clumsily dove towards the ground, knocking the air out of their own lungs with the impact, after which they were basically immobile for several seconds.

So Korra taught Asami a basic roll, and a few other ways to quickly get down to the ground without hurting yourself. She could tell that Asami thought it was a bit insulting to have to drill something as simple as getting down to the ground, so she decided to step up the difficulty level.

“Okay, now that you’ve got these basic moves down it’s time to combine them. When I say ‘aim left’ you aim towards your left, when I say ‘roll right’ then you roll behind imaginary cover to your right, when I say ‘dive left’ then you dive behind imaginary cover towards your left, got it?”

Asami nodded confidently, with an expression that said, ‘of course I’ve got it this, it’s ridiculously easy!’

But then they began the exercise. “Roll left!” Korra yelled, watching as Asami rolled towards her left. “Dodge right!” Asami hopped towards her right.

“Aim behind!” Asami tried to spin around, but she hadn’t yet finished her dodge and tripped over her feet, falling to the ground. Korra smirked as she walked over and looked down at her girlfriend. “I win,” she said.

Asami huffed in response. “I didn’t realize we were competing.”

“Oh we are,” Korra laughed, “I’m going to make you trip up as often as I can.”

True to her word, Korra did her best to make Asami trip over her feet again, shouting out different directions that Asami had to move in, sometimes pausing briefly between commands, or suddenly giving them more quickly, to throw off her girlfriend’s rhythm.

It was quite fun, making Asami dance to her tune like that and watching as she occasionally tripped over her own feet by the sudden changes in direction. Korra began to multi-task, doing some stretches and simple strength exercises while continuing to shout commands to Asami.

“That’s enough for today,” Korra finally said, holding back a laugh after Asami tripped one final time and fell face first into the grass.

“Finally!” Asami explained, spitting out a blade of grass.

“You did make progress,” Korra said as she held out a hand to pull Asami up, then as she pulled her up she pulled her right into a kiss. Asami returned the kiss with a happy sigh, but then suddenly pushed her away. “Not out in the open!” She chastised.

Korra’s mood dropped. “Sorry,” she said, “I forgot.”

Asami briefly looked around to look for witnesses, then smiled comfortingly at Korra. “I forgot too.”

Then Asami’s smile turned naughty as she looked at Korra. “You did promise we would shower together again, after I joined you for practice. We’ll have plenty of privacy behind the bathroom door…”

Korra gulped in response. She had totally forgotten about that promise, but she wasn’t about to complain. She practically sprinted back towards the mansion, dragging Asami with her by the arm. She was deliberately exaggerating her excitement for comedic effect, making Asami laugh and call her a dork, but truth be told she didn’t actually have to exaggerate all that much. At this rate she would definitely need a shower soon, not for the sweat but for the dampness collecting between her legs.

They briefly split up, going to their respective bedrooms to grab fresh clothes. Then they made sure to enter the bathroom separately, just in case a servant spotted them.

The water was already running by the time that Korra entered the room, Asami had already stepped into the shower. After shutting the bathroom door Korra just stood there for a while, staring at the silhouette behind the tantalizingly blurry glass of the shower. Then she got to work removing her own clothes, before standing in front of the mirror and inspecting herself.

She flexed her muscles with a grin, but then felt some insecurity washing over her. Was this really the type of physique Asami was attracted to? Or would she prefer someone more ‘feminine?’ Someone skinnier and less muscly, more like other women, someone who wore makeup and dresses like Asami herself?

Korra wouldn’t be able to fault her, Asami’s makeup looked amazing! Though she still looked beautiful without it too. Korra shook her head, then thought back to the eager expression on Asami’s face as she suggested another shower. Whatever preferences her girlfriend had, Korra certainly seemed to fit within them. She shook off all lingering doubt and then opened the shower’s glass door, behind which Asami immediately pulled her into a kiss.

 

 

 

The shower’s hot water fell onto their bodies and between their lips, the water added to the experience as Korra ventured out with her tongue while grabbing Asami’s left breast. Asami moaned against her as Korra pushed past her lips and their tongues met, Asami pressed her breast more firmly against Korra’s hand as Korra began to tease her nipple.

Korra then pulled away from the kiss, moving down to replace her hand with her mouth as she began to suck on Asami’s breast.

“Hmmm, Korra!” Asami moaned, before grabbing onto Korra’s rear, eliciting a moan from Korra herself.

“Sami,” Korra said as she finally pulled away from her girlfriend’s gorgeous breast, before moving on to its twin, sucking it and giving it a small bite, before moving up and catching Asami in a kiss again.

Asami released her rear after a small smack, before grabbing onto both of Korra’s breasts and pushing her up against the shower’s wall, where she began kissing the pulse point on Korra’s neck while squeezing and teasing her nipples. It felt amazing.

Korra began to lose herself in the moment, without thought she moved a hand towards her own crotch where she began rubbing herself.

Just at that moment some knocks suddenly sounded at the door. “Miss Sato? Is that you? You said to come find you once your lawyer arrived. He came early, he’s waiting in the sitting room.”

Korra completely froze, while Asami slowly rose up from where she’d been kissing Korra’s neck until they were looking at each other with wide eyes. Then suddenly Asami shut off the water while putting a finger to her lips.

“Miss Sato?” The voice asked again.

“I’ll be there in a moment!” Asami said loudly, while Korra remained frozen, not even daring to breathe.

They both waited silently, until the maid’s reply could be heard, followed by the faint sound of steps moving down the hall. They waited several moments more, before they both burst into giggles. Korra felt her cheeks warm up as she sat down onto the shower floor and hid her face behind her legs in embarrassment.

“That- That’s never happened to me before,” Asami said between her giggles. “Why am I so embarrassed? We didn’t even get caught!”

Korra just kept giggling, trying and failing to get her breathing under control and her heart to stop beating in her ears. “That was scarier than the trenches!” She laughed.

“Well, I best get ready,” Asami eventually said, opening the glass door and stepping out of the shower. Korra happily sat back and watched while Asami toweled herself off.

Asami picked up her watch from next to the sink, presumably checking the time. “He’s forty minutes early!” Asami said with a frown, before beginning to mutter to herself as she put on her clothes and then began to get all her makeup supplies ready.

“Stupid men should try putting on makeup in a hurry sometime, then they’ll understand why being early is just as rude as being late,” Asami grumbled. 

Korra watched in amazement as Asami rapidly applied her makeup, something Korra had completely given up on trying to learn after her own failed attempt. “You’re really good at that,” she said once Asami popped her lips after finishing with her lipstick.

“Looks good?” Asami asked, spinning around to face Korra, then immediately blushing since she had apparently forgotten that Korra was still naked. 

“Yeah,” Korra said with a smirk, “you look great! How about me, like what you’re seeing?” She asked as she flexed her biceps.

Her smirk grew as she saw Asami bite her lip while looking down at her chest, she then watched Asami shake her head in frustration. “Oh no, now I have to fix my lipstick again!”

Korra laughed, watching Asami quickly fix the lipstick she’d bitten, then looking herself over in the mirror one more time before going out to meet that lawyer.

Asami had said that it’d take half an hour at most, so Korra decided to seek out Mr Tuzo, see if he had any recommendations for a good restaurant for tonight. She wanted to surprise Asami by making the reservations herself, instead of Asami taking the lead again like she had during their previous nights out.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

The lawyer left, Asami watched him go, hoping that she hadn’t been overly rude towards him, she had definitely been more curt than usual though, unable to hide the resentment towards him for cutting her shower with Korra short.

Once he was gone Asami immediately went out in search of Korra. She found the blue-eyed warrior in the sitting room, putting the phone back in its holder after finishing up a call.

“Who were you calling?” Asami asked, slightly confused. 

“I made a dinner reservation for tonight!” Korra replied excitedly. “For our date,” she said more softly, with a shy smile. “We were going to go out for dinner before watching Mako and Bolin fight, right?”

Asami nodded. “Yeah we were, I was just about to make a reservation myself. Where are we eating? How’d you even know how to do that?” She sometimes forgot that Korra came from a whole other era, due to how quickly the girl had adapted to modern society.

Korra puffed her chest, looking even more proud. “Tuzo told me how it works! Oh and I’m not telling you where we’re eating, it’s a surprise.”

“Guess I have something to look forward to,” Asami said, “if Tuzo recommends them then they must be good.”

“That’s what I figured,” Korra replied while picking up one of the newspapers that one of the servants put on the coffee table every morning. “Anyway, I should probably catch up on what else was happening while I was gone. Hey look, you’re on the front page!”

Asami looked at the paper Korra was holding up, she was indeed on the front page, it was one of the pictures that’d been taken while she was helping to clear the rubble.

“Future Industries’ new teenaged owner impresses!” The headline read, Asami sat down on the seat opposite Korra, where she continued reading the article.

“Even those skeptical of a teenaged girl gaining control over a major company have to admit that the company’s future may be brighter than initially feared, as Asami Sato wastes no time repairing the reputation that was tarnished by her father.”

The article went on, featuring a few excerpts of the answers Asami had given to various questions, interspersed with speculation regarding Asami’s intentions for the future of Future Industries. The article also featured quotes from a few of the workers who’d been clearing the rubble and had apparently also been interviewed by journalists, she recognized one of their names as one of the men she had talked to while waiting at the checkpoint to enter the district.

All of these quotes were quite positive too. “Huh, people really love you,” Korra said as she read a different newspaper apparently talking about the same topic. “Good thing I got to you first!”

Asami continued reading the newspaper, holding it up to try to hide her blush. “There’s also an article about how Omashu’s militias broke through Kuvira’s lines, they still seem confused about how it happened.”

Korra snorted in response. “I’m reading about that too, sounds like they know exactly what happened, they just don’t believe it. Says here that they think many of the witnesses may have suffered from delusions caused by a chemical weapons attack! I stopped the chemical weapons attack, that was the whole point!”

“Well to be fair, the alternative is not that easy to believe,” Asami said. “I’m not sure I would’ve believed it either if I hadn’t seen your powers with my own two eyes.”

She continued reading the article, which speculated that the attack by Omashu’s militias must’ve been extraordinarily vicious in order to inspire the kinds of ‘apocalyptic’ descriptions that Kuvira’s soldiers who’d managed to retreat gave when describing what had happened. Though afterwards the article briefly conceded that, based on their findings, the soldiers that had been captured alive by the militias were treated well and in accordance with international law.

“Anyway, sounds like Zaheer managed to capture the whole peninsula like he hoped,” Korra said. “That’s good I guess, he worried that Kuvira’s soldiers would dig a new line of trenches and halt his advance before he got that far.”

Asami looked up at Korra, after the tone of Korra’s voice suddenly turned somber towards the end of her sentence. Korra’s expression matched her change in tone, looking very troubled. “I wonder how many died,” she said, “I have no idea. Isn’t that terrible? I helped cause this yet I have no idea how many died because of it! The papers don’t know either.”

Asami nodded solemnly, not sure what to say. The one man she herself had killed still haunted her. They hadn’t talked about it explicitly, but she knew that after destroying several airships mid-air and then storming a trench, the number of men Korra had killed was probably in the high dozens by now, at the very least.

“It usually takes several weeks at least before estimates of death tolls from recent battles are reported in the news,” Asami eventually said, deciding that she should at least be informative if she wasn’t able to think of anything comforting to say.

They sat there a while longer despite the mood turning somber, continuing to talk about things they read in the papers. Eventually the time came for them to leave for their night out.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra shook off her somber mood, as she felt herself getting excited for the night ahead. “Turn left here,” she said to Asami, who was in the driver’s seat beside her.

“To the docks?” Asami asked.

“Yeah, I asked Tuzo for a place with good seafood, he said this was the most underrated seafood joint in town.”

“Been a while since I’ve had some good seafood,” Asami said.

“Me too, haven’t really eaten any seafood since before the ice,” Korra said, surprising herself as she thought about it. Not for the first time she noticed that her life before she awoke in Asami’s arms was beginning to feel like a distant memory, she wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

There were painful memories in her past, but also joyful ones that she would never wish to forget, yet life was so different here in Republic City that it seemed to make it harder than one might expect to remember what things had been like before.

Her journey back to Republic City these last few days had made that difference clear to her. Somehow the change in environment, as she traveled through wild forests and swam across the sea, had caused her to remember her life as part of her father’s tribe more clearly.

When she first awoke from the ice she had tried her best to repress thoughts of the past, the loss of her parents and tribe had still been too painful. But now, she found that she was better able to think about it without immediately bumming herself out.

Asami pulled into a parking lot, at Korra’s direction, then Korra spoke up again as they both got out of the car. “I hope they have sea prunes, mom always made the best sea prune stews!”

She laughed as she saw Asami pull a face. “What, you don’t like sea prunes?”

“They’re so slimy!” Asami said.

“Exactly! They slide right down your throat!” Korra said, laughing again when Asami pretended to gag. “You just don’t have the same sophisticated palate that I do, city girl.”

Asami rolled her eyes. “I think I can live with that.”

They walked to the boardwalk alongside the beach, passing by several cafes and restaurants until Korra found the one she was looking for. “There, Blood Moon Restaurant, that’s the one Tuzo recommended.”

They entered the restaurant, it was nothing like the fancy looking places that Asami had taken her to, but Korra thought it was very charming. It was decorated with a bunch of oars and fishing rods and other random things that one would normally find on boats, which added to the theme of a beachside restaurant. As for the furniture, it was just simple wood chairs and tables.

 

 

 

“Wow these are great!” Korra said as she was stuffing a bunch of fried mussel-oysters in her mouth, which she had ordered as an appetizer. “Forget phones and electricity and stuff, fried food is the best thing people have invented while I was frozen!”

Asami chuckled from across the table, where she was eating a noodle dish. “I’m pretty sure fried food was invented thousands of years ago, but yeah it’s great. These noodles are good too.”

This got them talking about the kinds of foods that had existed in Korra’s time. There were already noodles in her time, in places where people stayed in one place and farmed instead of being nomadic like Korra’s tribe, but she had to admit that modern noodles were far superior.

The main dishes arrived, sadly they didn’t have sea prunes, but they did have an ocean kumquat stew, which had a similar taste. The stew also featured flounder-codfish.

“Hmmm this is great,” Korra said, slurping up a big ocean kumquat. “Sure you don’t want any?”

“I’m good, thanks,” said Asami. She was eating a delicious looking roasted fish, and had allowed Korra to try a few bites. “Tuzo was right though, this place is great, the food was ready really quickly too.”

Korra agreed, and expressed that same sentiment to the waiter when he returned. “Should I pay now, or do you want desert?” She asked Asami. 

Asami shook her head. “I’m full, so as far as I’m concerned we can pay now.”

“Okay,” Korra said, pulling out some money from the pouch she kept beneath her fur skirt. She was glad to finally get to spend some of it, she was still being paid by the university in return for helping them with their research, and still had the prize money from that fight she’d won, but usually Asami paid for everything so she never really did anything with all that money.

The sun had gone down by the time they stepped outside again, but there was still an orange twilight in the sky, which looked beautiful above the gentle waves of the sea. Korra and Asami walked casually on the boardwalk along the beach, slowly making their way in the general direction of the arena where they would be watching the opening matches of the tournament.

Asami had reserved tickets, so there was no rush, they had all the time in the world to admire the beautiful view of the twilight. Korra linked her arm with Asami’s, wishing that that wasn’t the extent of how much they could touch while they were in public.

“I’m really looking forward to this,” Korra said, “I kind of forgot about it after everything that happened, but it’ll be great to see the skills of all the top fighters of this time.”

The previous fights they watched had been to compete for a spot in this tournament, which should mean that the skill level would be higher this time.

“Yeah I’m actually excited too,” Asami said, sounding a bit surprised about that fact, “I hope Mako and Bolin win their fights, it seems like they’re both really hoping to make a career out of this.”

“They’ve been training hard, and they were definitely among the best at the last tournament,” Korra said, “I bet they’ll win, at least in these early rounds.”

From what Korra understood, each fighter would be fighting three fights on the same night, in the early days of the tournament. Then if they won each of those fights they would move on to the next round of the tournament, where they only needed to fight one time each night.

So, they’d be able to see Mako and Bolin fight several times tonight, assuming that they weren’t immediately eliminated.

They made it to the arena, where they joined the line to enter.

“You’re the girl from the ice, aren’t you?” Someone in line asked, causing several others to turn to face her. “I heard that you qualified for the tournament by beating Chang! Are you fighting today?”

Korra shook her head. “No, my first match is tomorrow, I’m just here to watch. Two of my friends are fighting today, Mako and Bolin.”

“Oh I know them, they’re the rookie brothers, right? I saw one of them fight, he won with a first-round knockout!”

Korra and Asami chatted some more with the guy in line, but after their tickets were checked they went their separate ways. They had tickets for the area right next to the stage where the fights would be fought.

“I’ll miss the snacks they had in the luxury seating area last time,” Korra said as she took a seat, “but I bet the view is way better from down here, it’ll be more up close and personal!”

“I think we can get snacks here too, but there’s no waiters and they’re not included in the price of the ticket so we’ll have to-” Asami began saying, just as the announcer walked up to the center of the ring and pulled all attention towards himself.

“Ladies and gentlemen in the audience, and all those listening on the radio. I’m speaking to you live from Republic City’s foremost fighting arena, where tonight the best in the world kick off the championship tournament! Grab your snacks and hold on to your hats because we’ll be starting off strong with the opening match.”

Asami tapped Korra on the shoulder, then pointed to what looked almost like a market stall, where someone seemed to be selling snacks. Korra nodded in understanding, then turned back to listen as the announcer continued speaking.

“Our first fighter, hailing from Makapu city, a seasoned boxer named Moha!” A few cheers sounded throughout the audience. “He will be facing off against a Republic City resident hailing from the Bizon Flats Borough, ‘The Bear of the Streets’, RAAAZUUUUU!!” The crowd now exploded in cheers as the second fighter walked up to the ring, during his entrance he had been wearing a big cloak made of a bear hide, with the bear’s head as the hood, he took off the cloak before entering the arena itself.

Korra looked to Asami. “I wonder why one is so much more popular?”

Asami shrugged, also not familiar with the different fighters or why the audience favored one over the other. “Maybe it’s just because he’s a local,” she said, “I doubt that it’s because of his fashion sense,” her girlfriend made a face as she said that, clearly not a fan of the whole ‘dead animal’ thing.

“You might be wrong about that actually,” Korra said, “Bolin told me that some fighters like to make crazy flashy entrances, said he planned one himself too.”

Either way, both fighters, relatively skinny as far as fighters go, began to square off in the ring while the referee waited to give the starting signal. The referee gave the signal, a bell sounded, and the fight was underway.

Both the fighters were light on their feet, staying light on their feet while jumping back and forth towards each other with quick jabs, testing each other’s reach.

Razu threw the same feint two times, the Moha dodged the same way both times, and Korra was pretty sure that Razu noticed this too. 

“Razu’s about to hit that other guy with an uppercut,” Korra said, shortly before Razu threw that same feint again, following it up with an uppercut when the other fighter dodged the same as he did the previous two times, the uppercut hit him square on the jaw.

He wasn’t knocked out yet by that first uppercut, but he started wobbling backwards while Razu advanced and started attacking him with a ruthless volley of punches, many of which successfully bypassed Moha’s guard, so it seemed only a matter of time.

Indeed, it only took two more combinations until Moha was knocked out and Razu was declared the victor.

“How did you know?” Asami asked, turning towards Korra while still clapping for the victor.

“About the uppercut? That was easy,” Korra said. “The other guy was too predictable, reacted the same way both times Razu threw a specific feint. Razu got the read on him and was ready to take advantage the third time.”

“Huh,” Asami said, “you noticed all that? Half the time I can’t even tell whether their punches land or not.”

Korra shrugged. “Comes with experience I guess. You’re probably focusing on their hands too much, try looking at how their overall body moves instead of just their hands, then you’ll be able to predict their punches.”

The next fighters were announced, Korra watched as Asami leaned forwards, serious expression on her face, clearly trying to implement Korra’s advice and better follow the action this time.

 

 

***

 

 

“Wow, that guy got destroyed,” Korra said with a laugh before sitting back down next to Asami, the girl had jumped up and cheered along with most of the rest of the crowd after the previous fighter, Tahno, from the university, finished his opponent with a flashy spinning kick to the face. Asami had known that he practiced combat sports, but she didn't know he could compete at such a high level.

“Yeah,” Asami responded, she felt like she was getting better at noticing some of the nuance in each fight as the night went on, thanks to the explanations Korra gave each time. They were now four fights in, if her memory served. “That Tahno guy kept timing his attacks perfectly, to catch his opponent off-guard,” she said to Korra. She, begrudgingly, had to admit that Tahno seemed very skilled.

“Yeah exactly!” Korra agreed. “He’s a pretty good fighter, kept switching up his timing and stance, and using feints to disrupt the other dude’s rhythm whenever the other dude tried to set up an attack.”

“You could beat him though?” Asami asked.

“Well yeah, obviously.”

Asami was about to give a witty retort but then she noticed a familiar figure walking up to the ring. “Oh hey Bolin is up next!” She said, right before the announcer said essentially the same thing, she stood up and cheered along with Korra while Bolin struck a few poses for the audience, before putting his pet fire ferret on the ropes of the arena, where it did a handstand and a backflip and a few other admittedly impressive tricks.

Was that the big entrance Bolin had planned? Bolin seemed very proud of it, but the audience’s response was rather tepid, that didn’t seem to bother Bolin though as he finally entered the ring.
Didn’t seem to bother Korra either, “YEAAAH! PABUUU!” She shouted from besides Asami.

Asami had thought that Bolin was exceptionally muscular, but the guy that was announced as his opponent turned out to be even more so. He barely even seemed to have a neck anymore, it was just swallowed up by the muscles of his shoulders. Asami felt herself getting nervous as Bolin faced the goat-gorilla of an opponent, she really hoped that neither he nor his brother would get hurt tonight.

“WOOO, GO BOLIN!” Korra shouted from beside her, seeming entirely unconcerned.

The ref gave the signal and the fight was underway, the difference between Bolin and his opponent was immediately very stark. Both were strong and muscular, but while Bolin remained light on his feet his opponent was very flat-footed and seemed to move much more slowly. His punches did look very powerful though, something Bolin clearly noticed too since he was very careful whenever he got within striking range of his opponent, always ready to quickly dart backwards again.

For the first minute or so Bolin seemed to be the only one to land any punches, but then one time after Bolin jumped forwards for a quick jab at his opponent, he was too slow to jump back away again, his opponent struck him with a nasty looking punch to the side.

It was immediately clear that Bolin was hurt, he stumbled backwards while reaching towards his side. His opponent didn’t give him any time to breathe though as he advanced on Bolin, landing another punch on that same spot at Bolin’s side, which again looked like it hurt a lot.

Bolin ducked beneath a heavy-looking punch aimed at his face and dove forwards, wrapping his arms around his opponent’s lower body.

“Bolin got hurt!” The announcer says. “But the rookie fighter seems to have great instincts even when challenged, as he decides to grapple his opponent to give himself time to recover.”

Eventually his opponent manages to push Bolin off, but by that point Bolin seems to have mostly recovered. His opponent throws a punch, but Bolin dodges it and connects hard with a counter, the punch lands with an audible thud and now it’s his opponent who looks hurt. Bolin lands several follow-up punches, then with a surprising move he jumps up and finishes his opponent with a kick to the face.

“Wow! Bolin turns the table on his opponent, showing a surprising amount of versatility for such a large fighter!” The announcer says, though Asami can barely hear him over Korra’s cheers. She joins her girlfriend’s cheers, smiling when Bolin spots them and waves at them. 

After that match Korra briefly leaves to grab some snacks, then before long it’s time for Mako’s first fight of the evening. “Want some fire flakes?” Korra asks, proffering a cardboard box filled with them.

Asami shakes her head, but immediately changes her mind and takes a handful anyway, causing Korra to give her a mildly bemused look before focusing back on the upcoming fight.

Mako’s opponent is a slightly larger man, but as the fight begins that doesn’t seem to affect the outcome very much. Mako just walks forwards and begins exchanging punches with the man, it initially seems like an insane strategy for him to take, until Asami realizes that Mako is managing to dodge almost all of his opponent’s punches, while landing all of his own.

“Mako’s head-movement is incredible!” Korra says without looking away from the fight. It isn’t long before Asami is cheering again as Mako also wins his first fight. He wins with another knockout in the first round, just like his younger brother did, a factoid that the announcer also makes note of.

The night goes on, each match quickly follows the last, even after one guy bled all over the canvas and they weren’t able to clean all of it away before the next contestants entered the ring, which was rather concerning by Asami’s standards, though Korra seemed to just laugh at her concern. “Will he be OK?” Asami asked. “That was a lot of blood.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Korra said, “head wounds bleed a lot, even if it’s just a small cut that won’t even leave a scar. He might feel a bit woozy though, cause yeah, that was a lot of blood.”

The second round of the tournament arrived, so now all the familiar faces who won their previous matches faced off against one another.

The guy who won the first match, after Korra rightfully predicted he would use an uppercut, was now matched up against Bolin. “I hope he doesn’t get a read on Bolin like he did on the last guy,” Korra said, clearly a bit worried for her friend.

To Asami’s surprise Bolin rushed forwards as soon as the referee gave the signal, the other fighter never even had a chance to get a read on him as he immediately started throwing punches in rapid succession, the other fighter seemed to initially assume that Bolin would let up on his offense, as he just covered his head and tried to dodge without throwing any counter punches.

Once the man realized his mistake it was already too late, Bolin had already landed several strong hits and the counters that the man belatedly tried to use were all weak and inaccurate, Bolin won the match more quickly than any other match in the tournament so far. “What was THAT?” Asami asked, shocked at the vicious aggression from Bolin.

She turned to Korra, who looked worried. “I think he’s hurt,” Korra said, pointing to Bolin as he walked to his corner without much of a celebration, Asami did see him grabbing his side with a disguised grimace. “Those hits to his body in his last match must’ve hurt him more than I thought, maybe he busted a rib or something. He couldn’t afford a long fight where he gives his opponent a chance to notice and exploit that weakness.”

“Should he keep fighting if he broke a rib?!” Asami asked.

 Korra just shrugged. “That’s up to him, isn’t it? Anyway, so far so good.”

“I guess…” Asami said hesitantly, wondering how big of a part the financial needs of the two brothers played in Bolin’s decision to keep fighting despite a possible injury.

Either way the night went on, Mako also won his second match, though this time it lasted a full three rounds and he won based on points awarded by the judges. It was still a dominant victory though, as his opponent was very beat up by the end of it while Mako had been able to avoid most punches and still looked just as handsome as he did before the match began.

It felt wrong for Asami to be enjoying this brutal sport as much as she did, but she found that she really did enjoy it, Korra’s enthusiasm certainly helped but that wasn’t the only reason. Something about people competing in such a raw and straightforward fashion just seemed to appeal to the competitive side of Asami, she’s always strived to be the best at everything she does, but frequently found that either her age or her sex caused people to dismiss or her achievements or give the credit to her father or male classmates.

There was certainly no risk of that here, if you won, you won, there was little room to dispute a victory, especially a victory by knockout. A sore loser would just be embarrassing themselves if they tried to dispute your achievement while their bruised face still told the story of what happened.

At that moment, Asami promised herself that she would fully commit to the lessons that Korra had insisted on giving her every morning from now on, she wanted to learn how to fight, not just to defend herself or to help others, but also just to prove that she could.

The night went on, Bolin managed to scrape by and win his third match of the evening, despite this next opponent seeming to realize that Bolin was hurt and attempting to target his wounded side. But Bolin had managed to tackle him to the ground and win by choking him unconscious.

Mako won his third match too, with a 2^nd round knockout.

After the final match finished, Korra and Asami left the arena. They briefly managed to talk to Mako and Bolin, but they then had to leave for the post-fight interviews all fighters apparently gave to the press.

As Korra and Asami walked away, a gaggle of reporters caught sight of them and quickly surrounded them while shouting questions. “Miss Korra, is it true that you’ll be competing in this tournament, against male opponents? Any second thoughts now that you’ve scoped out the competition?” 

Korra looked offended that they would even ask her that. “Not at all! I’m excited, I’ll prove to everyone that my win against Chang wasn’t a fluke.”

“Miss Sato,” another of the reporters began, “this isn’t a venue that one would expect a young lady like yourself to patronize. Don’t you think that appearing to condone such a brutal sport might hurt the image that you’ve been trying to repair?”

“I don’t care,” Asami said frankly, “I came here to support my friends, and I’ll be back tomorrow to support Korra as well, I won’t abandon those I care about for the sake of PR. Anyway, we’re here for a night out, not to talk to the press.”

“Speaking of your ‘friends,’” another reporter asked, ignoring Asami’s attempt to politely ask them to leave her alone, “what about the reports of the scene Miss Korra caused, shouting blasphemy at religious leaders while promoting various perversions? According to my sources you’ve spent a lot of time with Miss Korra. Some people are saying that you’re in danger of being corrupted by her sinful influence.”

Asami felt herself growing angry, but also ashamed and scared. The thought of the public finding out about the nature of her burgeoning relationship with Korra… She decided to focus on the angry part and ignore the rest of her feelings.

“I don’t know who’s been saying that and I don’t care, I refuse to pay any attention to baseless slander and rumors; I know Korra, she’s a good person and I’ll continue to enjoy my time with her!”

After that statement she curtly turned to Korra, hooked their arms together, then walked away while ignoring any further questions from reporters.

“Anyone who has a problem with that can challenge me in the ring!” Korra shouted over her shoulder while they walked away, she then turned to Asami with that crooked smirk Asami liked so much.

Asami chuckled in response, though despite her best efforts to keep her emotions under control her chuckle soon changed into quiet sobs.

“Are you okay?” Korra immediately asked, sounding worried.

“I just- I wish we didn’t have to- I don’t understand why me feeling this way about you is such a problem, why we have to hide.”

“It’s not a problem, they’re just stupid,” Korra responded. “I told you, Raava doesn’t care either way, none of the spirits do, they barely even understand human relationships to begin with.”

Asami pulled Korra into a side alley, to begin walking in the right direction again. In her attempt to get away from the reporters she had gone in the exact opposite direction of where she’d left her car. “It’s not that simple,” Asami said, “they’re not stupid they just-”

“They’re not stupid?!” Korra demanded, turning towards Asami. “How are they not stupid?”

“It’s what they were raised with!” Asami said. “We’ve all been taught that it’s wrong for two women to- For us to-”

“Yeah well they should think for themselves instead of being a bunch of Koala-sheep!” Korra said, turning away from Asami in order to continue walking down the alley. “I mean, you were taught those same things, but you can see how stupid it is.”

“Well yes, but- It’s not easy for me either,” Asami said after a moment of hesitation, hoping that Korra would hear her out instead of taking it the wrong way.

Korra stopped walking again and turned back towards her. “What do you mean it’s not easy?”

“I just- I uhh- I really like spending time with you, especially these past two days…” She immediately felt a blush forming as she thought of their showers together. “I know that there’s nothing wrong with it, rationally, but sometimes it still feels-”

“Feels what?”

“Shameful, I guess. Wrong. I’m not saying that it makes sense, but sometimes when we kiss it still feels like we’re doing something wrong.”

The tears forming in Korra’s blue eyes immediately made Asami regret ever bringing it up, especially in such a dirty side-alley. She was honestly expressing her feelings, she did sometimes still feel ashamed of her feelings, but she didn’t know how to make it clear to Korra that this didn’t mean that she had any doubts or regrets about their relationship.

“You’re ashamed of me?” Korra asked softly, her voice cracking slightly while she sounded genuinely hurt.

“NO!” Asami immediately answered. “I just- Ugh, it’s just something stupid I have to get over. Like when-” She paused for a moment, trying to come up with a good analogy.

“Like when you went swimming in your underclothes instead of in swimming clothes, I would be mortified while doing that in front of others. There’s no good reason for it, I know that it doesn’t make sense and is just an arbitrary cultural norm, there are nude beaches in the Fire Nation! But knowing about that wouldn’t stop me from feeling mortified. It’s not that easy to completely disregard values that have been instilled since childhood.”

Korra still looked upset, so Asami took her by the hands and looked her in the eyes. “But I’m trying my best to do it anyway, for you!” She said. “I don’t know where exactly this will all lead, our secret may be exposed eventually, but if I get to be with you then it’ll be worth it in the end.”

She looked at Korra for permission, then leaned forwards and kissed her passionately, grabbing on to her sides to pull the girl’s muscular body close against her, pulling Korra into a hug as soon as they broke their kiss.

“I-” Korra began, “I’m sorry. I should have realized that it wasn’t easy for you, that-”

Asami stopped her from continuing. “You don’t need to apologize, it’s not your fault. Besides, I meant what I said to those reporters. I enjoy my time with you, I enjoy it a lot, so don’t ever apologize for it.”

Her girlfriend nodded in response, then hardened her expression. “I don’t know how yet, but I’ll find a way to fix this, so that we no longer have to hide,” she said it very determinately, with a passionate look in her eyes, before pulling Asami in for another kiss.

It seemed like a tall task, but as she returned the kiss Asami was certain that they could do it, so long as they worked together.

 

Notes:

Hey everyone! I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to upload this chapter today with the issues the site has been having, but it looks like things are working okay now. (Thanks to all the volunteers who keep the site running <3)

Anyway, here's the latest chapter I wrote, hope you like it ;p
It's another long one, apparently I just can't help myself. Chapters with 10K words is just what I do, and you've gotta deal with it!

Chapter 24: Chakras Part 1

Summary:

Tenzin has a new exercise for Korra to try, Asami reassigns a troublesome employee, and Korra fights in the tournament.

Chakras Part 1.

 

 

Asami sat down on the grass, still panting slightly after another morning of exercising with Korra. She had done more strength training this time, along with Korra who had somehow already recovered from travelling an insane distance in just a few days and was back to her usual routine.

Asami had tried to do all the same exercises that Korra, did, though she obviously didn’t manage to do them as many times as Korra, in fact she wasn’t able to do some of them at all. She’d been embarrassed to realize that she wasn’t able to do just one pullup, even after Korra helped her reach up to the tree branch that she used for that exercise.

Either way, Asami had done a good amount of exercising by her standards, then she’d practiced the same drill as last time, jumping, rolling, quickly spinning around to change her aim, ducking behind imaginary cover, all in response to commands shouted by Korra. In the meantime, Korra practiced her airbending forms.

This time Asami carried a rifle during the practice, just to make the exercise more realistic. (Though for safety she had ensured that it wasn’t loaded and had even removed the firing pin.)

Asami felt like she had already made progress after these two mornings of training, by the end of this morning’s practice she didn’t trip over her feet as often as she did before, and she felt like she was really getting the hand of the roll Korra had taught her.

Frustrated grumbles from Korra pulled Asami from her thoughts and made her turn to where the tribal girl was currently sitting in a cross-legged position, attempting to meditate. For Korra, attempts to meditate usually turned out to be a rather noisy affair involving lots of grumbling and complaining, which Asami was pretty sure was a bad sign and just about the opposite of what meditation should look like.

“Pffff, I’m done!” Korra said, suddenly rolling backwards from where she sat before springing back to her feet in the same motion.

I hope she teaches me that, someday, Asami briefly thought to herself, this time it didn’t even seem to be part of Korra deliberately showing off, it was just her girlfriend’s natural athleticism shining through.

Asami then followed Korra, who was already walking away in frustration. “Well, you’re meeting Tenzin today before the tournament, right? Maybe he’ll help you achieve a breakthrough then.”

“Maybe,” Korra said, with very little conviction in her voice.

“Either way,” Asami said, letting the subject drop, “I have a few business meetings planned, then I’m off to the university. I’ll also be spending some more time in the car workshop, so we probably won’t see each other until tonight.”

She stopped talking, a bit confused by the look Korra was giving her. “Why does that make you look so happy? Shouldn’t you say that you’ll miss me?!” She said, feigning offense.

“Well yeah, I will miss you,” Korra responded. “But I’m also proud of you, for working so hard. At this rate I’ll have nothing left to do as the Avatar!”

Asami snorted, then waved away the compliment. “It’s not like I’m working to save the world, I’ll mostly be focused on making sure my company still turns a profit.” My company… Still feels weird to refer to it like that.

“Anyway, so you’re fine with me being busy all day?”

Korra nodded. “Sure, so long as you’ll make it to the tournament tonight?”

“Of course I will, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I might end up going directly from the workshop to the arena though, will you be okay going to the arena by yourself? I can arrange for someone to drive you if you want.” 

“Nah that’s okay,” Korra said, “I’ll take Naga. I’ll also ride her when I make my entrance towards the ring!”

Asami laughed. “That will certainly make an impression. Are you sure the owners of the arena are okay with that?”

“Pretty sure. When I talked to Bolin yesterday, he said that the announcer guy specifically asked for it, that it’d help to ‘build my legend’ or whatever. I dunno about that, but it’d look cool right?”

Asami just nodded, unable to form a verbal reply. Thinking about how Korra looked had become a dangerous thing as of late, she frequently found herself just staring at the muscular girl and being at a loss of words.

After a while she was usually able to shake it off and temporarily stop thinking about how pretty her girlfriend was, but inevitably Korra would do something to remind her again. Apparently, this time just talking about ‘looking cool’ was enough to do the trick, enough to prompt Asami to rediscover her girlfriend’s beauty.

Thankfully Korra accepted her nod as enough of a response, so Asami’s brain getting turned off by the girl’s looks, again, went unnoticed and didn’t become ammunition for Korra to tease her with. (Again.)

They walked back into the mansion, where Asami began gathering up the papers she needed for her meetings, while Korra prepared for her visit to Senator Tenzin. They both left the mansion at the same time, Asami driving her car through the gate while Korra followed, riding her polarbear dog.

Asami smiled as she looked at her rearview mirror, where her girlfriend and her mount became smaller and smaller, then she looked forward again both literally and figuratively, as she thought about the meetings ahead of her.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“That was you?!” Tenzin exclaimed, after Korra just told him about her recent adventure in the Earth Kingdom. “I spent several hours yesterday in foreign relations committee hearings, where we tried to no avail to figure out how the militias managed to break through Kuvira’s lines.”

Korra held up her hands in defense. “It was an accident okay!”

“You ‘accidentally’ helped Omashu’s militias win the largest victory in the history of modern trench warfare?” Tenzin asked incredulously.

“YES! Well, no- I mean sort of- I just wanted to stop Hiroshi’s airships, since Asami discovered they were transporting some crazy illegal weapon and they were going to leave before the police could do anything. I wanted to stop them before they took off, but I was too late, next thing I know I’m in the Earth Kingdom and there’s an enemy trench between me and Republic City!”

Tenzin sighed, pinching his forehead. “So you decided that the most rational course of action was to punch your way through?”

 Korra shrugged. “Maybe not, but it was definitely the fastest…” She said with a grin.

Tenzin sighed. “Well, I’m glad that you’re safe. Though it seems like you still have a lot to learn about the air nomad philosophy of finding the path of the least resistance.”

Korra gave that some serious thought, even though it seemed like Tenzin had said it partly as a joke, it was hard to tell with how serious he always looked. “Well, I’m the avatar, so I’m supposed to master all the different elements, all with different philosophies behind them. Earthbending certainly isn’t about finding the path of the least resistance…

“So I’m pretty sure that I shouldn’t completely stop punching my way through stuff just because I’m trying to learn airbending, right?”

Tenzin gave this some thought as well, stroking his beard while he sat on the floor across from Korra on one of Air Temple Island’s cliffside pagodas. “That does sound reasonable,” he admitted, “there must by some kind of balance, or synergy, to be found between the different styles of bending and their underlying philosophies. It wouldn’t make sense for you to be capable of bending four different elements, yet to always approach problems in the way that an airbender would. I can’t tell you how to find that balance, teaching airbending is enough of a challenge. I’m not even certain if I’m qualified to do that.”

“I think you are,” Korra said honestly, “there has to be a reason why the two of us met.”

She watched Tenzin’s expression suddenly shift, as though a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulder. He was silent for a moment, before a small smile appeared on his face. “I’m glad you think so, I’ll do my best to live up to your faith,” he said.

“In that same vein, as I said over the phone, I made a new discovery that I believe may prove useful for your training. It’s an ancient tome that lists the seven chakras and how to open them. Many other ancient texts talk about this same thing, but this one specifically talks about how it was the way in which the avatar unlocked their ‘true potential.’ That they needed to ‘bring balance within themselves’ before they were able to bring balance to the world.”

That does sound promising, Korra thought to herself. “Okay, soooo, what are chakras?” She asked.

Tenzin looked at her, waiting briefly before answering. “First, switch to a proper meditation pose,” he said, frowning at Korra’s current poor posture, as she sat with one knee up, resting her chin on top of it. 

“Ughh, fiiine,” she said, folding her legs up beneath her and straightening her back.

Tenzin nodded in approval. “There are seven chakras in the human body,” he began, “each chakra is a place where the energy that flows within us is more densely concentrated. The ancients say that all humans are born with pure spirits, but our mortal lives cause us to pick up all sorts of emotional baggage along the way, which can dirty up our spirits and result in blockages, preventing our spiritual energy from flowing freely within us.

“It’s like- A river, under ideal circumstances it would flow down to the sea and the water would remain clear. But life tends to be messier than that, herds of animals cross the stream and sweep mud up into the water. Rain can cause mudslides, farmers dump the straw and husks of their harvest in the water, after separating out the grains that are fit for consumption.

“Dead branches and leaves fall from trees, into the water. All this combined can cause an otherwise clear river to become muddy and brown, in some cases it can even cause a river to get clogged up and stop running at all.”

“What does all that have to do with the avatar state?” Korra asked.

“The avatar state, presumably, involves the power of both you and Raava being fully unleashed and flowing freely within your body. This can only happen when your inner pathways are unclogged.

“Our own emotions, particularly certain negative ones, are the equivalent to the mud and sediment that cause a river to clog up, but instead they cause our inner chakras to clog up.”

“I guess that makes sense, sort of,” Korra said. “Soooo, which emotions are you talking about?”

“There are some inconsistencies in this regard,” Tenzin said, “the modern church of Raava has engaged in a lot of revisionism, choosing which emotions they labelled sinful based on what suited their agenda at the time, creating twisted doctrines very different from what the ancients believed. But I believe I have found texts that predate this revisionism, that more accurately identify them.

“Each of the seven chakras deals with a certain purpose and is blocked by a certain type of emotional muck. It is said that opening your chakras is an intense experience, not to be undertaken lightly. Are you ready for that?”

“I’m ready,” Korra said, though she didn’t feel like she completely understood what she was signing up for. How could sitting around and meditating ever be ‘intense’?

Whatever the case, after receiving Korra’s agreement, Tenzin continued with his instruction. “The first chakra to unlock is the earth chakra, located at the base of the spine. It deals with survival and is blocked by fear.”

“What does that mean?” Korra asked. “’Blocked by fear?’ I’m not afraid of anything!”

Tenzin just chuckled and shook his head. “Everyone is afraid of something,” he said, “this is precisely what meditation is for, introspection, self-awareness. I want you to clear your mind, close your eyes, begin by focusing on nothing but your breath.”

Korra did as he asked, by now it was a familiar exercise. Tenzin had her follow along with his breathing, once they both fell into a relaxed rhythm he continued speaking, “now, continue with your breathing, but search out with your senses. Begin by focusing on your toes, don’t move them, just feel them as they are.”

Korra did as he asked, then, following his instructions, she did the same for her feet, her lower legs, her knees, and eventually her lower spine.

“Now,” Tenzin said, “as you feel your lower spine, feel the weight of the rest of your body resting above it, I want you think about your fears. Tell me, what is your greatest fear? What’s the first that comes to mind.”

My greatest fear… Korra must’ve been deeper in her trance that she had realized, as Tenzin’s words made her see a vision in front of her, vivid as a dream, perhaps even more so. She saw a burning building, one that she vaguely recognized. Children’s screams sounded from above.

She kicked at the door that barred her entry, expecting her earthbending to help her easily break it out of its stone frame. But her efforts were in vain, she kicked and kicked but her earthbending wasn’t working! Eventually she managed to break the door open anyway, she then found herself in a burning hallway, children’s screams coming from the opposite end. She ran forward, but the more she ran, the more the hallway simply stretched to become longer and longer. She kept running despite the lack of progress, until eventually the children’s screams suddenly intensified- and then stopped.

Flames flew across her vision and suddenly the scene changed, she was outside, looking up towards another burning building, the office of Future Industries. Despite the impossible distance she was somehow able to see Asami up on the roof, leaning over the edge, desperately looking for a way to escape. She wanted to run up to help, but her feet were frozen, literally, to the pavement below.

She tripped, fell onto her knees, and watched helplessly as the building crumbled before her while she stretched out her hands in a futile gesture.

“ASAMI!!” 

“Korra,” a calm voice said from the void, “your vision is not real, you must surrender your fears. Acknowledge them, then let them go. Let them flow down the river until they dissolve in the endless waters of the open sea.”

With his voice grounding her back to reality, but her eyes still closed, Korra calmed herself down. She focused on her breathing again, moving her legs back to a lotus position as the ice she had imagined around them melted.

“What was it that you saw?” Tenzin asked.

Korra fought down the brief panic that she felt, thinking back on the vision she just faced. “I- I was powerless, I couldn’t help anyone, I couldn’t save anyone,” she said, feeling tears forming in her eyes. “I felt so helpless!” After that admission, a sudden sense of calm washed over her.

“Well done,” Tenzin said, “admitting your fears is the first and most difficult step in overcoming them.” He paused briefly, seeming a bit lost on how to proceed.

“I’m not sure how we could reliably tell whether or not you have actually opened your chakra,” he said, “but I think this went well, do you agree?”

“I uhh, think so,” Korra said. She had managed to fall into a trance more deeply than ever before, and it had really felt like she had overcome something and achieved something after identifying and admitting to her fear.

“Very well,” Tenzin responded, “then we shall move on to the next chakra.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami had to admit, she was nervous for this next meeting. She’d just finished a couple simple meetings to deal with a few tedious bureaucratic and legal matters, but up next was her meeting with Mr Izaru. She would finally be informing him of his reassignment, let’s be real, his demotion, within the company.

She had no idea how he was going to respond. In her experience he already seemed to have a bad temper, but so far she had only seen him respond to minor grievances, she had no idea how bad it would get for something like this.

“He’s coming, he’ll be here in a minute or two,” Asami’s new secretary, Mrs Teena, said while cracking open Asami’s office door.

Asami gave a nod of acknowledgement, after which Teena closed the door again. This was to be a one-on-one meeting, Asami figured that it would be better this way, it wouldn’t be in anyone’s best interest for too many people to be present if Mr Izaru did end up causing a scene in response to losing his position as the managing director of the company.

While waiting for Mr Izaru, Asami briefly looked through her notes to ensure she wouldn’t forget anything. As soon as the door opened she picked up the pile of notes, tapped them on the desk to straighten them out, before setting them down to give Mr Izaru her full attention.

“Mr Izaru,” she said, “thank you for coming.”

“Asami,” he said curtly, “thanks for inviting me. I was meaning to talk to you about your decision to re-hire all the employees we recently fired. I realize that it seems unfair to fire them for being held up at checkpoints, but you have to understand that it makes us look weak if we-”

Asami quickly held up her hand. “Stop! We’ve been over this, I’m not budging on the matter, I don’t want a workplace ruled through fear and I won’t make anyone lose their livelihood just because I’m unwilling to look weak by admitting fault. We’ve already begun contacting them and re-hiring them so it’s too late anyway.”

Izaru looked like he wanted to argue, so Asami quickly began speaking again. “I called you in here to discuss a different matter, to discuss your position within this company. I’ve determined that managing director is not the right role for you.”

An eager look appeared on Izaru’s face. “Have you decided to relinquish your position of CEO after all? I must say that it’s a wise choice, you’ll be able to focus on your studies while I-”

“You’re mistaken,” Asami interrupted, “I’m staying on as the CEO, you will be moving to a different department, suited to your talents.

“You’re- You’re demoting me?!?” He demanded, his face turning red.

“I wouldn’t call it that, though I understand why you might feel differently,” Asami said. “You’ll still be in a leadership position, it will just be more specialized, you’ll be leading a department suited to your personal talents, rather than leading the company overall.”

“What department?”

“The Office of Government Affairs,” Asami said. She had to admit, she had mostly just wanted Izaru gone from his current position and had then worked backwards from that conclusion to find an alternate role for him, but that didn’t mean that she hadn’t tried to find something that suited his talents.

“You and your subordinates will serve as liaisons between Future Industries and the government, you’ll be responsible for securing permits, subsidies, speaking to lawmakers about legislation that affects our industry, and so on. You’ll be responsible not just for our interactions with Republic City’s government, but also for our dealings with the Fire Nation, the Water Tribes, and the Earth Kingdom.”

She really did think it would be a good role for him, he was educated in business law, and his real talent had always been politicking, rubbing shoulders with other educated elites, not overseeing the workers in the lower tiers of the company.

“You want me to be your errand boy? That’s beneath me! My contract states that-”

“Your contract prevents me from outright firing you, but relocating you falls well within the terms of your employment,” Asami said. “I’m not doing this to insult you, I genuinely think this new role will suit you better than your old one, and your salary will remain the same.”

“This isn’t about my salary! It’s- It’s an insult!” He said.

“If you’re worried about how others will perceive it, worried about future job prospects, I’ll do everything in my power to communicate to people that changing your position within the company was not because of a poor job performance on your part, per se.”

“Per se?” He asked with a scoff.

“Yes. It’s more a difference in philosophy than an objective fault in your performance,” Asami tried to explain. “You’re good with office politics, but I want a managing director who understands the fundamentals of the company, who understands not just the workings of upper management but also the daily goings-on at the factory floor, and ideally also the engineering needed to develop our products.

“You’re good with office politics, and I think you’ll do great as a liaison between us and the government, but I want the next managing director to be more… Well-rounded.”

“Good luck with that!” He said. “Who put you up to this? It was that worker representative, wasn’t it? Ruolan? I’ve seen him trying to weasel his way up the corporate ladder, you’d be a fool to trust him! He’ll steal this entire company out from under you, him and the rest of his socialist friends!”

“I think for myself!” Asami said, now growing a bit angry. “And frankly I’m tired of the way you question all my decisions, that’s another reason why I’m doing this. On top of everything else, I just know that you and I are never going to have a solid working relationship, so we’re better off with some more distance between us. I’m sure you feel the same, that’s why you’ve been so insistent that I should give up my position as CEO.”

Izaru opened his mouth to speak, before seeming to stop himself. He sighed heavily before speaking. “I think you’re making a grave mistake, but you’ve made it very clear by now that you care not for my advice. I’ll accept your decision on this matter, but don’t expect me to stand idly by while you run this company into the ground, your father’s legacy-”

“My father tried his best to destroy his own legacy!” Asami began. “And don’t pretend like you’re being gracious by ‘accepting’ my decision, I’m giving you an order as the sole owner of this company, either you accept it, or you violate your employment contract and make it so that I can in fact outright fire you, either one is fine by me!

“This meeting is over, I trust you can see yourself out, my secretary will hand you a folder with instructions for your new role in the company.”

Izaru was visibly fuming, but held himself back. “Fine, I’ll go,” he said before turning around. He walked up to the door, then turned back to look over his shoulder. “You’ll find out the hard way that running a company is more difficult than playing with a dollhouse,” he said, before exiting Asami’s office and slamming the door behind him.

Prick, Asami thought, I never even had a dollhouse as a kid, I played with toy cars!

She was a bit frustrated with herself for losing her self-control, she certainly could’ve been more diplomatic towards Izaru. His new position wasn’t quite as important, but she would still need to work together with him occasionally, at least for the remaining years of his contract.

It kind of felt good though, putting him in his place… Maybe it wasn’t smart, but it probably would’ve happened sooner or later if they had to keep working together. Sometimes it’s good to just get it over with, get it out of your system, Asami thought.

It took her a moment before she realized that that was something her father used to say…

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“The next chakra is the water chakra, located in your sacrum, it deals with pleasure and is blocked by guilt,” Tenzin said, after again leading Korra into a trance where she focused on her breathing.

“Now, I want you to focus on your senses, and feel your sacrum.”

“What’s my sacrum?” Korra asked.

She heard Tenzin shuffle a bit across from her, and briefly lose his breathing rhythm. “It’s at your uhh, your groin, between your legs,” he said awkwardly.

Oh, right, ‘deals with pleasure…’ Korra thought to herself, laughing softly before focusing back on her breathing, before focusing on that part of her body.

“Now,” Tenzin began, “what guilt are you carrying? What do you blame yourself for?”

 Another vision came to mind, Korra was in a storm, in the storm, the one that had ended in her freezing herself in the ice. She was watching herself as she fled from her pursuers, looking through the eyes of one of the warriors who had given chase. She watched as the warrior attacked her past self, but her past self dodged the attack, spinning horizontally in the air before sending it back towards its sender. Korra flinched as the blade of ice spun rapidly towards her and was about to bisect her-

Then, the vision shifted, she was back in the warehouse by the docks, where Asami had freed her from the ice. She looked down at a frozen corpse, cut in half…

The vision shifted again, she looked through the eyes of one of the separatists at the revelation, tripping backwards and holding up his hands in a futile defensive gesture as a large container toppled and was about to crush him-

-then she was on an airship, knocked overboard by a fireball, panicking as she fell down and the ground got closer and closer, holding out her hands in a doomed attempt to try to break her fall-

“I- I’ve killed people,” Korra said. “Not without reason, but- It feels wrong, to just go about my life and enjoy myself after cutting their lives short.”

“You know better than anyone that this has always been the way of the world, for as long as humans have existed, probably even longer,” Tenzin said. “Violence has always existed and will always exist, there will be times when it’s the only solution. Even us air nomads, who try our best to find another way and are more pacifistic than most, recognize it as a valid last resort.

“You need to find a way to accept what you have done, to forgive yourself. You cannot be a positive influence on the world if you’re full of negative energy. Hating yourself will make you hate the rest of the world too, depriving yourself of joy as some kind of penance will not help anyone, it will only result in less joyous world.”

Korra continued breathing, taking his words in. Forgive myself… She hadn’t thought that she needed to forgive herself, after all she had already told herself, and Asami, that she had done the right thing. Yet the pangs of guilt she occasionally felt, at times when she was otherwise happy, told a different story. If she had already forgiven herself then she wouldn’t feel guilty for being happy.

It will only result in a less joyous world, Tenzin had said. Korra recognized the truth in the words. Everyone is guilty of something, right? If that meant that they no longer deserved any joy in life, then where did that leave everyone? By taking their lives, Korra had permanently deprived others of future joy, but… She hadn’t done that because she didn’t think they deserved happiness, she had done it to stop the harm they were causing, or planning. If she had thought that there was a way to stop them without taking their lives, then she would’ve done it.

If she was capable of forgiving them, of wishing that there had been a way in which they could’ve gone on to live joyful lives, then surely she could extend herself that same courtesy?

She took a deep breath, then breathed out, feeling as though a burden left her shoulders just like the air left her lungs.  

 

 

“I think that’s enough chakras for today,” Tenzin said, “since you said that you have somewhere to be later tonight.”

 

“Yeah, that’s probably best,” Korra said. “How late is it? We should have time for a bit of sparring, it’ll be a good warmup for the tournament tonight.”

“It’s about 5 PM,” Tenzin said. “That’s what you’re doing tonight? That fighting tournament? I assumed you pulled out of the competition, given how preoccupied you’ve been.”

Korra shrugged. “I almost didn’t make it back in time, but I’m back now, and I’ve got free time. The cops are going after the separatists for now, no need for me to interfere with that that will just land me in trouble. So I figure I should just keep trying to learn airbending and meditation and stuff, while competing in this tournament on my downtime.”

Tenzin rubbed his beard, not seeming to entirely agree with her. “Aren’t there better ways to spend your downtime though, ways that aren’t so… Brutish?”

“It’s not that bad,” Korra laughed, “there’s referees and stuff to prevent fights from getting out of hand, it’s just a fun way to challenge myself. You just helped me unlock my pleasure chakra or whatever, this is what I enjoy, competing with people.

“Aren’t you curious to see how your air nomad moves work in a real fight? You can come watch if you want.” 

As Korra hoped, that did actually seem to catch Tenzin’s attention. “I suppose that it can’t hurt,” he said, causing Korra to start grinning with excitement.

He gave a more reserved grin in response. “In that case we’d best start our sparring session, make sure your technique is presentable. I wouldn’t want you to embarrass my entire culture with sloppy technique!” 

Korra got to her feet and entered a fighting stance. “Oh you’re going down old man,” she said with a grin.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami got down onto the creeper, then rolled herself underneath the car she was repairing. Just as I thought, the brake line is leaking, she thought to herself, as she tapped a drop of fluid that hung beneath the defective line in question. Well, that was easy, she wheeled herself back out from under the car again.

“The brake line is worn down and leaking,” she said to the customer that stood next to the car, “it’s a common issue with these Cabbage Corp models, it’s an easy fix though, I can have your car ready this afternoon.”

“Really?” They asked. “That’s only an hour from now!”

Asami nodded. “Like I said, it’s an easy fix. If you go out for some noodles or something, then I’ll have it ready by the time you get back.”

“Thank you so much!” The man said. “I need to travel to Makapu city for work tomorrow, I thought I was screwed for sure!”

“Happy to help,” Asami said with a smile, before sending the man on his way and getting started on fixing his car.

This is the fourth Cabbage Corp car with the exact same issue, just today! She thought to herself. She hadn’t personally fixed all of those cars, but the other engineers in the temporary shop had filled her in on how their day had gone before she arrived.

Father always said that Cabbage Corp’s products were shoddily made, but this is worse than I thought. It wasn’t even much of a mystery why these break lines were getting worn down so quickly, the way they were attached to the rest of the car predictably exposed them to a lot of stress and wear and tear, and they seemed to be made with subpar materials to begin with. In Future Industries cars the brake lines were far more integrated and well-protected within the car’s chassis, it made the assembly-process more difficult and time consuming but resulted in a far more durable product.

I guess you can cut corners on some things if you really want to, but the brake-lines? That’s just wrong. Whatever else Asami thought of her father, she had to admire him for never compromising the quality of his products in this way.

As she worked on replacing the brake lines, a task simple enough that it allowed her to think of other things while she did it, she began to think back on her meeting with Izaru earlier that day. Was I wrong for demoting him, and being so rude to him in the process?

She had been fully convinced about the decision beforehand, but afterwards, after thinking about how this seemed like exactly how her father would’ve handled it, she had begun to start second-guessing herself.

I’m not becoming like him, am I? I- I have good reasons for my actions, don’t I?

She didn’t think that she was abusing her power, but she certainly was making use of the fact that she was the sole owner of the company. She was using the power that this gave her to drive her will through, even while people who had worked with the company far longer than she had, like Mr Izaru, vehemently disagreed with her.

Was it ever justified to wield power in that way? Korra’s new socialist friends would certainly not think so. Then again, Asami was planning to let the company’s workers elect Mr Izaru’s replacement, that’s a good thing, right?

She briefly focused her attention back on the car again, as she finished detaching the brake-line and pulled it out in one satisfying motion. She rolled out from under the car and threw it in the garbage, before seeking out a replacement part. As she thought more about her actions, she realized another difference between her and her father.

The problem with her father hadn’t merely been the power he wielded, the problem had also been with his fundamental goal, his senseless hatred for anyone that was superficially similar to those who had killed her mother, his desire for a totalitarian state that would forcibly try to erase any ethnic differences between different parts of the population.

Asami still hadn’t made up her mind about how justified it was to lord her powers over everyone else in the company, after only just inheriting it without having done much to actually earn it, but she could trust that at least her core goals were different enough that she would avoid ever causing as much harm as her father had.

Feeling more at ease with herself, Asami found a replacement brake line and walked back to the car, where she quickly set about installing it.

 

 

 

About an hour later Asami finished freshening up, glad that the warehouse where she had set up this car repair shop had a surprisingly spacious bathroom, where she was able to clean herself off and make herself presentable for the arena where she would be watching Korra compete. It’s not the most high-class venue, but still, she thought as she put the finishing touches on her makeup.

If nothing else she wanted to look her best for Korra, to maybe give her girlfriend just that extra bit of motivation.

With her makeup finished, she put on her favorite black shrug and began to make her way to the arena. She may have been imagining it, but as she entered the arena she could swear that it was more crowded than the previous night. She also noted the men working at the ticket booth, loudly advertising the last remaining tickets by talking about the ‘historic’ fights that would be taking place. ‘Who will win, a savage tribeswoman, or a modern man?!’

It didn’t seem like the most respectful way to advertise the fight, but it did seem to excite the people that were entering the arena, from what Asami could overhear nearly all of them were talking about Korra and her chances of success.

“I heard she also beat up a group of triad thugs,” one man said, “I don’t think it’s just a gimmick, she’s the real deal.”

This time, thanks to Korra, Asami had a special ticket that allowed her to enter certain backstage areas as one of Korra’s ‘cornermen.’ She immediately made use of the privilege, flashing the ticket to a guy who was guarding the door backstage, allowing her access to the room where the fighters waited for their turn to fight.

Once there, Korra wasn’t hard to find, she stood out quite a bit thanks to the giant polarbear dog besides her. A big smile lit up the girl’s face as soon as she spotted Asami, and she immediately ran up to Asami to give her a quick hug. “Hey Asami!”

A look of understanding passed between them when they broke the hug, they both wanted to go further than hugging, but realized that they shouldn’t while they were in public.

Someone cleared his throat beside her, causing Asami to only now recognize the man who’d been standing next to Korra; it was Senator Tenzin! “Miss Sato, pleasure to meet you, I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said while extending his hand.

Asami shook it gladly. “We’ve met before, technically, at a few galas. I don’t think we ever really spoke though.”

“Indeed,” Tenzin said, “but that was inevitably going to change, given your new position at the head of Future Industries.”

“I suppose,” Asami said, “not to mention our mutual acquaintance here,” she nudged her shoulder against Korra’s as she said this, “did you both come here straight from Air Temple Island?”

“Yes,” Tenzin said, while Korra also answered affirmatively at the same time. “Korra suggested that I might appreciate the opportunity to witness her apply my teachings in a real fight, and I must admit that I was curious.”

“I’ve actually wanted to talk to you about your studies of ancient air nomad-”

“Wait, you were taught by Senator Tenzin?!?” A familiar voice interrupted from behind, Asami turned to see Mako and Bolin approaching.

“Hey guys,” Korra said, “yeah Tenzin has been giving me some lessons lately, teaching me his style of fighting. Anyway, I’m glad you could make it.”

“Glad you could make it too, yesterday,” said Mako. “Sorry we didn’t get to talk much afterwards, but we appreciated your support.”

“Aww man,” Bolin said with a pout while staring at Naga, “you riding in on Naga is going to totally outshine me and Pabu’s entrance!” The fire ferret in question popped out of Bolin’s sleeve and began sniffing at Naga’s snout, then jumped on top of the beast’s head. Apparently they still recognized each other from when they last met.

“Sorry for being too awesome,” Korra replied with a smirk.

“I liked Pabu’s performance though,” Asami said, trying to cheer Bolin up again. “How did you teach him all those tricks?” 

In response, Bolin began rambling about all the intricacies of training a fire ferret, he had just begun talking about how you have to think, eat, drink, and sleep like a fire ferret, when a man in the arena employee uniform entered the room to announce that the first fight would be in five minutes. “That’s you, icicle girl!” He said while pointing at Korra, before disappearing back out of the doorway again.

“Oh shoot, we’d best go find our seats,” Asami said, while Bolin snickered at the name that the arena employee had called Korra.

As Korra’s ‘cornerman’ Asami could choose to wait right next to the ring while Korra fought, and give her girlfriend some water between rounds, but Korra had told her that she might as well sit with everyone else during the first fight, that she didn’t expect to get tired or thirsty so soon.

By the time they found their seats Bolin had somehow procured a variety of snacks, which he offered to Asami, but she refused, feeling a bit nauseous out of worry for her girlfriend.

They chatted for a bit, until the announcer stepped into the ring and began talking.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the second day of the championship tournament, with another batch of talented fighters! Get ready, there are a number of veritable knockout artists fighting today, so you’ll want to avoid looking away for even a second! 

“Some say that it’s best to save the best for last, but today we’re elected to ignore that sage advice. Starting off we have a much-discussed fighter, new to the scene, and new to modern civilization as a whole! She, that’s right, she, qualified for the tournament through a surprise victory against the legendary former champion, Chang!

“Was that victory a mere fluke, or a sign of more to come? Get ready to find out! Coming up, making her entrance right now, a tribal warrior from another time, ‘the girl in the iceberg,’ riding a wild beast that she tamed with her own bare hands, is KOOOORRAAAAA!”

True to the announcer’s words, Korra rode into the arena atop Naga, smiling broadly as she waved to the crowd. She somehow directed Naga to roar loudly as they made it to the edge of the ring. After that, a slightly fearful arena employee led the polarbear dog backstage again, unable to escape from the licks that Naga assaulted them with.

The crowd’s reaction to Korra was very enthusiastic, though not always in the politest ways, as Asami made out numerous voices shouting rather explicit things about her girlfriend’s appearance. Those voices grew in number once Korra made it to the edge of the ring and took off her shirt, leaving her only in a cropped white tanktop. Korra looked around for a moment, then once she found Asami she crumpled her shirt into a ball and tossed it towards her with a wink, that special attention helped Asami get over any jealousy she may have briefly felt while her girlfriend partially stripped in front of a large crowd.

Korra then ran up towards the ring, hopped onto the platform, then somehow frontflipped over the ropes to land inside the ring! “Wooo, go Korra!” Bolin shouted in response, the rest of the audience seemed impressed too.

“Challenging this real-life Kyoshi warrior,” the announcer began, “we have Bong! An experienced fighter, 53 professional victories, of which 34 were by way of knockout! Known for using his brute force to overpower his opponents, he could prove to be a tough mountain for our female contestant to climb. She may be an ancient warrior who tames wild animals, but one can’t help but notice the size difference between them as Bong makes his way towards the ring!”

Trying to ignore her anger towards a man behind her, who was talking about how Korra could try climbing his lap instead, Asami looked at the man entering the ring. The announcer wasn’t kidding, she thought, he’s almost twice her size!

“Not that I doubt her skill…” Mako said. “But how is she going to fight that guy? He’s huge.” Beside him, Bolin seemed to share his brother’s concern. 

Asami set aside her own worry as she looked at Korra, who seemed completely unintimidated. “She told me she would use a different style in each of her three matches,” she said, “so that none of her opponents will be able to get a read on her.

“If this guy relies on brute force then she’ll probably use water-style, to turn his own power against him.”

They all quieted down in anticipation, as the referee directed both fighters to the center of the ring. “Are you ready?” He said twice, turning to each fighter and waiting for them to nod, he then directed them back to their corners, and signaled for the match to begin.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

This’ll be fun, Korra thought as she strode towards the center of the ring, casually stretching her arms above and then behind her head in a purposeful attempt to rile her opponent up. It seemed to be working.

“You really think you can beat me, little girl?!” The man said. “You better get your guard up, protect that pretty face of yours.”

“Give me your best shot,” Korra said with a smirk, as she lazily entered a waterbending stance.

The man swung, Korra was shocked by how telegraphed the muscled brute’s attack was, as he cocked his whole body back in preparation. She easily dodged the punch, then dodged again as he threw another soon after. She deflected his third punch instead of just dodging it, she pushed it towards the side, then pulled on it to make him stumble due to his own momentum. 

As he stumbled past her, Korra spun and stuck her leg out, tripping him. After he fell onto his hands and knees she delivered a powerful upwards kick against his gut, then dodged backwards as he tried to grab her legs.

“Lucky hit, didn’t even hurt,” her opponent said, dismissing the kick to his gut even while looking as though it very much did hurt, judging how he was holding his side as he got back to his feet.

He advanced again, now a bit more cautiously. His punches were still very telegraphed though, Korra kept dodging and deflecting them, kept pulling him off-balance, looking for a good opening. She had to be careful herself too, their size difference meant that if she slipped up even once then the match could be over instantly.

She finally found her opening, as he over-committed to a punch. She grabbed his wrist, pulled with all her strength, then as he once again stumbled past her she punched him in the side, same place as where she had kicked him earlier. She then used the momentum from her pull to jump up into a spinning kick and swing her foot hard against the back of his head.

He continued stumbling forwards for a few steps, then fell to his knees with a loud thump, then the rest of his body fell forwards too, getting tangled up into the ropes at the edge of the ring.

The entire arena was suddenly silent, except for the referee who ran forwards to check on the health of her opponent and to see if he was in any shape to continue their match. Korra already knew though, as she bowed towards him in a sign of respect. He’s finished.

She turned around, looking through the crowd for a moment before locking eyes with Asami, at which point she did her best to look as smug as possible, you weren’t worried, were you? She tried to say through her expression, as she cocked her head in a questioning manner.

Asami just rolled her eyes in response, causing Korra to smirk and focus on the rest of the crowd, turning around to wave at no one in particular, as she’d seen other fighters do after their victories.

“Korra exceeds even the wildest expectations, toppling the giant in just two short attacks, in the opening minute of their fight!” The announcer said, as the crowd finally seemed to realize what had happened and broke their silence to begin cheering. “The referee is still checking on Bong, but it looks to me like he’s not getting up any time soon, not after that brutal kick to the back of his head!”

“The fight may have been short, but our tribal warrior certainly displayed her skill yet again, subtly sabotaging her opponent’s balance before following up with a precise attack! I’ve never seen a technique like that, her people’s technology may have been primitive, but the same cannot be said of their fighting styles!”

Happy to be recognized for her skill, Korra locked eyes with the announcer, at the table where he sat with his microphone, and nodded at him in thanks.

The referee finally called the end of the fight, after which Korra walked up to the arena’s ropes and jumped over them, before walking back to the waiting area backstage. She held her head up high, she noted with a grin that nobody in the audience seemed to be brave enough to make the same comments they had been making during her entrance.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Wow!” Bolin said, “I’ve seen Bong lose once or twice, but never like that!”

“Yeah,” his brother agreed, “that was incredible. Did you teach her those moves?” He asked, turning to Tenzin.

“I’m afraid I can’t take the credit,” the senator said. “As Miss Sato predicted those moves were distinctively part of the water-style martial arts, albeit slightly different from the water-style moves I know of.”

“I didn’t know you studied other styles too, I thought it was just air-style,” Asami said, now even more disappointed that Tenzin had never found the time to reply to her inquiries regarding his research into air nomad martial arts, back when that was still the subject of her thesis.

“That was certainly my focus, but in order to gain a better understanding I found it useful to contrast it to other styles,” Tenzin replied. “I’ve always respected water-style, it’s more aggressive than the martial arts of the air nomads, but I must admit that the way it combines offense and defense is quite elegant. Though Miss Korra does seem to lean more to the aggressive side.”

“No kidding,” Bolin said with a snort, pointing to where Bong finally got back up to his feet, before walking backstage with the support of some of his cornermen, “I bet Bong will be seeing stars for the next week at least, and he’s already sporting a nasty bruise on his side,” he followed up that rather morbid observation by digging into his box of snacks and stuffing his face with fire flakes.

 They watched the next few matches, where the brothers both shouted encouragement to a few fighters that they knew from their gym, Senator Tenzin occasionally also became surprisingly engaged in the action.

Asami found that she was mainly just anticipating Korra’s next match, though between matches she did manage to have an interesting conversation with Tenzin, about the evolution of martial arts. She discovered that Tenzin had studied anthropology too, though it hadn’t been his major.

The conversation was a bit awkward, with them both having to dance around the fact that they now knew that bending was real, that it was the origin of modern martial arts, but it still passed the time well enough. 

After a while, the first round of fights were finished, so it was now time for the victors to face each other, starting with Korra and her next opponent.

Asami stood up as Korra’s opponent was announced first, trying to catch a better view of him while he walked towards the ring. The man’s name was ‘Josei,’ he was older compared to the other fighters, probably in his late thirties, though still visibly fit. The man’s last fight had made it clear that he was far from a has-been and should not be underestimated. He had methodically beaten down his opponent, never taking any unnecessary risks, using many feints and usually staying out of punching distance of his opponent, yet still winning with a knockout in the final round.

“Oh man, I sparred with that guy,” Bolin said. “At first I felt bad about maybe beating up an older guy, but then I was barely able to land a single punch on him! He always knew exactly what my next move would be, it was kinda creepy.”

“That’s the benefit of experience,” Tenzin noted, “I doubt that a man his age has lasted so long in this sport by relying on brute strength, he must be an intelligent fighter.”

“He is,” Mako agreed.

Korra is too though, Asami thought. Her girlfriend wasn’t what anyone at the university would consider ‘intelligent,’ but from listening to Korra explain her fighting techniques Asami knew very well that there was a lot of very quick thinking and risk-assessment involved, as while as some longer-term strategy. You’ve got this Korra.

Asami grabbed a water bottle and got up from her seat, she’d be supporting Korra from her corner this time.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Facing Josei, in what one might call a battle of the ages, is Korra!” The announcer yelled, prompting Korra to again make her entrance and walk towards the ring. “Don’t let her appearance fool you, Josei has often been the oldest competitor in the race, but this time Korra has him beat, by several millennia in fact!”

“I wish my wife aged as well as you!” A guy yelled from the crowd, Korra couldn’t help but giggle in response.

As she neared the ring she decided to show off, she jumped up to the platform, then jumped over the ropes without touching them with her hands.

“Pretty spry for an old lady,” her opponent, Josei, said.

Korra smirked. “I’m going to put you in your place, youngun.”

She then turned around, spotting a familiar head of black hair approach her corner. “Hey Asami, wanna give me a good luck kiss?”

Asami turned beet red, even though Korra had said it softly enough that nobody else would hear.

Her girlfriend briefly composed herself before responding with a smile. “Better not. But I’ve got water if you need it between rounds.”

“Thanks! The ref is calling me though, gotta go,” Korra said, turning around, then hearing Asami wish her good luck as she walked up the to the center of the ring to face her opponent.

The ref went over the rules again, as though Korra might’ve somehow forgotten them after her first match. Then again, I guess forgetting a few things is a possibility when we’re all punching each other in the face, she chuckled at the thought.

“Something funny?” Josei said from opposite her.

“Just wondering how many people get punched so hard that they need a refresher on the rules,” Korra answered, receiving a laugh from Josei and a glare from the referee. She and her opponent bowed to each other in respect, then walked back a few steps to wait for the ref to give the signal.

Korra focused on the fight ahead of her, she’d watched Josei’s first fight, he was quick on his feet and used a lot of rapid kicks and punches, in a way that reminded her of firebending. She considered fighting fire with fire, but then changed her mind and decided to fight with an earthbending stance instead.

The bell rung, Korra took just a few steps forward, then she waited, daring Josei to approach. Just remember my lessons, focus on neutral jing, listen and wait before striking.

Josei approached, cautiously, stopping just before entering Korra’s striking range. Korra simply remained in her flat-footed earthbending horse-stance, keeping her elbows in a right angle by her sides, her feet wide apart, her right side facing her opponent. She could tell that Josei considered it a bizarre stance, yet clearly he knew better than to underestimate her because of it.

He threw a feint, then another, and another, but Korra didn’t flinch, she just watched as the punches all pulled up short.

Finally he adjusted his stance in preparation for a kick, and Korra could tell that it wasn’t a feint this time. His leg moved up for an axe-kick, but Korra finally moved, stepping outward towards him by slamming her foot to the ground, taking full advantage of her powerful footing to punch her fist against his upper thigh, right when his leg was high up in the air but before it had begun its downward motion towards her.

The result was Josei being thrown several feet backwards, flipping in the air, just short of a proper backflip as he landed flat on his face. The punch itself was sure to leave a nasty bruise on the man’s leg, and would hopefully impede his movement the rest of the fight.

He recovered quickly from his fall though, pushing himself up and pulling his feet back under him quickly, while Korra slowly advanced. Korra began hopping from one feet to the other, adopting the more light-footed footwork that Bolin had taught her, where she would only fully dig in her stance the moment it was time to strike.

Josei tried a few punches and spinning kicks, but Korra was able to dodge them or block them. When Josei tried the same spinning kick he had tried once before, Korra saw it coming. Instead of dodging it she stepped a bit to the side, still within the path of the kick but past the point where the kick would be at its peak momentum. She caught his leg on her side, quickly wrapping her arm around it and moving with it to absorb most of the blow and prevent it from hurting too much.

She then stepped forward and pushed him in the chest, it wasn’t enough to knock him on his back but it did knock him off balance, giving Korra an opening to move forwards and follow up with numerous punches, pushing him back against the ropes.

After slipping to the side, Josei was able to escape the ropes and return to the center of the ring. Korra followed him, then just as he tried to throw a punch she suddenly ducked low and wrapped her arms around his legs, just under his hips. Using all her strength she lifted him up into the air, then slammed him back down to the ground, where he slammed into the mat with his head and shoulders first.

He landed hard and was clearly dazed by the impact, but it wasn’t enough for the ref to end the fight, so Korra jumped to sit on top of his chest, allowing her to keep punching him in the face until the referee moved to pull her off of him.

Different from the last fight, where the crowd was initially silent after her victory, the crowd now immediately roared with applause. Korra spun around, holding her hands up in victory, then she ran to her corner to give Asami a hug over the top of the ropes.

“Another first round victory for Korra! And what a victory it was! I don’t know about you folks, but I sure as fogs wasn’t expecting her to bodyslam an opponent a foot taller than her!” The announcer said in the background. “Her fighting style was suddenly completely different from the last match!”

As she broke the hug she smiled happily at Asami, while Asami was giving her… A look, one that most reminded her of how Asami had looked at times during their shared showers. But that couldn’t be right, could it? She just beat someone up, and that made Asami look at her like she wanted to tear her clothes off?

I mean, I guess I’ve always wanted a kickass girlfriend or boyfriend too, so it’s not that weird if Asami feels the same, Korra thought, she had just always thought that Asami’s tastes in a partner would be a bit more… Refined.

I can work with this though, she thought while she accepted the water that Asami awkwardly offered her, mind racing with all the ways she could now tease Asami in the future.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami returned to her seat, hoping that nobody noticed how weird she was acting. She still hadn’t gotten over watching Korra straddling her opponent and then pummeling his face in, or to be more specific, she hadn’t gotten over the bizarre way that watching it had made her feel. Like she wanted to be the one getting thrown around and having Korra sit on top of her…

Why would she feel in any way jealous of the guy who walked out of the arena with a bleeding and probably broken nose?

Mako, Bolin, and Tenzin, again commented on the fight, praising Korra’s performance, but Asami tuned most of it out at first. That is, until she heard Tenzin talking about how Korra hadn’t exactly been incorporating his teachings so far. “She said that she’ll use air nomad techniques next fight,” Asami told him, “Korra just wanted to have some fun first. Said that you couldn’t get mad about that because you just helped her unlock her fun chakra.”

Asami had no idea what that meant, but Korra had assured her that Tenzin would understand. Tenzin huffing in response seemed to indicate that while he did understand, he did not quite agree.

Asami was no longer worried about the next fight, not after another dominant performance from her girlfriend, she was just excited and looking forward to it.

She paid close attention to all the following fights, trying to learn as much as she could about the various techniques that were being used by observing them and talking about them with the three martial artists that were seated next to her.

‘I’ve always said that if I ever have a girlfriend, I want her to be badass’, Korra had said to Asami what felt like forever ago, before Asami had even been totally cognizant of her attraction to the girl.
At the time Asami hadn’t thought much about the full meaning of that statement, as she had gotten hung up on the ‘girlfriend’ part of it, but her own reaction to seeing Korra in the ring made Asami think back on it. She could now fully sympathize with Korra’s desire to have a ‘badass’ girlfriend, which strengthened her resolve to learn how to fight, she already wanted to learn for herself, but now she also wanted to learn as a way to fulfill her girlfriend’s desires.

She found herself miming the punches of the other fighters, trying to picture herself making the same movements, trying to predict their next moves, and so on, she became really absorbed in the action, until suddenly she noticed that Mako was saying something to her.

“Huh?” She asked, turning to him.

“I said that I didn’t expect you to be into the sport as much as you are,” Mako answered, “I thought you were just humoring Korra, but you’re really into it huh?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Asami said, turning back to watch the action even while continuing to talk to Mako. “What about you? Korra obviously just enjoys it, but you and your brother do it in part to pay the bills. Do you actually enjoy it or is it just a job?”

Mako didn’t answer right away, so Asami just focused back on the fight in front of them. One of the fighters was very aggressive, putting the other fighter on the back foot and eventually pushing him against the ropes.
Asami could tell however that he wasn’t necessarily winning to the degree that the crowd that cheered him on seemed to think he was, the other fighter was still calm, still able to dodge most punches even while pressed back against the ropes.

“I enjoy it,” Mako said, “there’s just something about how uhh, clear everything becomes during a fight. I can get stuck in my head sometimes, worrying about bills and such, and I’ve never been good at expressing myself. But during a fight all of that just falls away, I have one simple goal and I know that I can do it, so long as I keep focused and fight well. It makes life seem simple, for a short while at least.”

Asami nodded. “I can see that. I’ve always been competitive, but the kinds of things that us girls traditionally compete in are rarely so simple and straightforward. Neither is running a company, some of the guys I work with certainly make me wish I could just punch them in the face.”

The fight continued as they talked, the guy who’d been on the ropes ended up winning in an impressive comeback, thanks to a powerful counterpunch that seemed to come out of nowhere.

“It’s Korra’s turn again,” Mako noted.

Asami nodded excitedly, then jumped to her feet before making her way to Korra’s corner so that she’d be able to better see Korra’s entrance. Korra rode atop Naga again, as she had done every round, Naga seemed to just be enjoying herself, not really playing the part of the fearsome wild beast to help make Korra seem more badass to the crowd, as she was wagging her tail and happily panting with her tongue out. 

When Naga spotted Asami the polarbear dog ran up to her and began licking her. “Pfhwah, not now Naga!” Asami pleaded to the beast.

Korra pulled Naga away, then turned back to Asami and began laughing at her.

“What’s so funny?” Asami demanded. “Naga licks you all the time!”

“Yeah but-” Korra said, clearly struggling to keep her laughter under control. “I don’t wear makeup.”

“Oh rats!” Asami said, immediately feeling embarrassed, looking around at how many people could see her. “I uhh, I’m going to clean up backstage, I’ll be back before you start!” Asami said, before jumping on Naga and riding her back to where she and Korra had come from.

She passed Naga’s reins over to the arena employee who had been taking care of Naga this whole time, the man had gotten over his fear of the giant dog and seemed to have also resigned himself to having tons of dog saliva smeared all over his face and hair.

Asami found a bathroom, where she quickly walked up to the nearest sink and looked in the mirror. Her makeup was indeed a mess, red smears around her lip, black and purple smears around her eyes.

She elected to just wash it all away instead of touching it up, then moved to return to the arena and watch the beginning of Korra’s match. Before she made it to the arena’s entrance though, someone stepped in front of her.

“Hey there Sato,” a familiar obnoxious voice said to her.

“Piss off Tahno,” Asami said, trying to avoid even looking at him, “I don’t want to miss the start of the match.”

“Ahh yes, your savage girlfriend is fighting again. You two are perfect for each other, neither of you know your place.”

At this, Asami’s eyes snapped up to Tahno, taking in him and his stupid hair. “You’re the one who needs to learn their place, you know nothing about me, and even less about Korra! Now let me past!”

“Very well, right this way Miss,” Tahno said, stepping aside with a mocking bow. “I hope that savage wins, so I get to fight her later in the tournament. Then I’ll show you that even a savage like her is no substitute for a real man.”

Asami just scoffed as she jogged past him, she could hear the announcer and could tell that the match was about to begin. She made it to Korra’s corner just in time to wish her good luck, and to impulsively give her a kiss on the cheek. Tahno’s teasing had made her feel a bit possessive of her girlfriend.

Korra looked surprised at Asami’s public display of affection, a blush visible even beneath her brown skin as she held a hand up to her cheek, and she ignored the call from the ref to head to the center of the ring, until Asami gestured for her to turn around and focus.

Hope I didn’t distract her too much before the match, Asami thought to herself, though by the time the ref signaled the beginning of the match it seemed clear that there was nothing to worry about, Korra entered a fighting stance and immediately had a serious and focused look on her face while she faced off against her opponent.

Her opponent was a guy with a similar build to Mako, taller than Korra, but not too broad or muscly, Korra may even have the upper hand in terms of strength.

 

As soon as the fight began, Korra moved like a completely different fighter. Whereas previously she had often dodged backwards, staying out of her opponent’s range, she now seemed to dodge in every single direction, as untouchable as the wind even though she remained within her opponent’s striking distance.

Her opponent tried punching her again and again, with increasingly wild haymakers, in response Korra simply spun to her left or her right, utilizing perfect looking footwork that she had complained about endlessly when she’d first begun trying to learn it.

With the recent training Korra had been giving her, Asami felt more able to appreciate just how difficult the feat that Korra was currently performing was, Asami had no idea how Korra wasn’t constantly tripping over her own feet with all the pirouettes she was doing at a moment’s notice, in response to her opponent’s movements.

Korra hadn’t yet thrown a single counterpunch, but then suddenly, as she spun out of the way of her opponent’s punch, she stepped in-between her opponent’s feet, sweeping his legs out from under him when she completed her spin. From there she tried to jump on his back and choke him out, but her opponent turned out to be a rather skilled wrestler and managed to defend against Korra’s attempts to submit him, lasting until a bell marked the end of the first round.

“With the bell marking the end of the first round, Radak becomes the first fighter of the night to last a full round against this deadly female warrior,” the announcer said, “though I have to be honest folks, it didn’t seem like Korra was trying very hard.

“She seems to be having fun by surprising us with a different fighting style each fight, in this fight she has clearly decided to show off her dodging abilities. But impressive as those may be, it seems to me like there were numerous moments in this fight where she could have won, if she employed the more offensive capabilities she demonstrated earlier tonight.”

Korra approached her corner and motioned for Asami to give her a bottle of water, which she immediately began to drink and pour over her head. “Phew, Tenzin’s techniques are effective, but they’re super tiring too!”

“It’d probably help if you actually fought back, instead of just toying with him,” Asami said disapprovingly.

Korra just shrugged. “I promised Tenzin I would show off how his techniques work in a fight, figured I should give him at least one full round. Besides, I did try in the end, didn’t think the dude would be such a good wrestler.” As she said that, she turned around to stare at her opponent, stubborn look on her face.

It took Asami a moment to realize what that meant. “You’re going to try to beat him through wrestling, aren’t you?” She asked with a sigh.

“Yep,” Korra said, as though that was the sanest thing to do.

 

 

The bell sounded again, and another round was underway. Korra entered the round the same as the previous, using air nomad martial arts to dodge and weave and leave Radak punching nothing but air, except this time she added a few kicks and punches in-between her dodges. Nothing too powerful, as that would commit her to a stronger stance and therefore require her to stay in one place for longer, but it was clearly still enough to sting her opponent.

The round went on from a while, then suddenly Korra rolled backwards on the floor and grabbed a hold of Radak’s ankle, taking him down to the ground. She wrapped her legs around the rest of his legs while she began bending the man’s foot the wrong way, which looked quite painful. Asami was just starting to worry about if Radak’s foot might end up breaking when he, wisely, ended up tapping out.

“AAAAND SHE’S DONE IT AGAIN FOLKS! With a surprising roll Korra grabs Radak’s ankle and takes him down to the ground, then submits him with an ankle lock! I’ve never seen a takedown like that before, and I don’t think it’s too soon to say that Korra ‘the girl in the iceberg’ has been the standout fighter of the night!”

Asami watched as Korra first walked over to where Tenzin was sitting in the audience and bowed to the man, presumably to thank him for his teachings. Korra then ran back to the corner where Asami was waiting, giving her another big hug over the ropes.

The tribal warrior was covered in sweat, but Asami didn’t care at all, it was still one of the best hugs she’d ever received, it felt great that her girlfriend was so eager for Asami to share in her victory.

Korra hopped over the ring’s ropes, then walked with Asami over to where Tenzin and the two brothers were seated. “You’ve certainly won over the crowd,” Tenzin said when they approached, “and your technique was nearly flawless!”

Asami looked around at the crowd, only now realizing that they were chanting Korra’s name. Korra’s reaction was much the same, she looked around with glee and began waving at everyone, even briefly jumping back onto the arena’s platform so that she’d be more visible, though she jumped back down again once the next fighters were announced.

“Is she ready for what comes next?” Mako then asked Asami.

“What do you mean?”

“The post-fight interviews, she’ll be expected to participate in them, and uhhh- The reporters at these types of events aren’t always the most respectful type, unlike the ones you’re probably more used to. They love digging into as much personal drama as possible, especially if it helps them make it seem like there’s a personal grudge between two fighters. They might ask Korra some uhh- Uncomfortable questions. I heard you two already got a taste of that yesterday when you left the arena.”

Oh rats, Asami thought, watching as her girlfriend was still happily basking in her victory, this isn’t going to go well is it?

Notes:

I know I say this a lot, but the length of this chapter really got out of hand haha. 12k words even after splitting it in half instead of including all the new chakras!

Speaking of chakras, Korra may or may not be exploring her newly opened pleasure chakra next chapter. (In other words, smut incoming.) So be ready for that.

Hope you all enjoy this chapter, happy to hear your thoughts!

Chapter 25: Chakras Part 2

Summary:

After a post-fight interview, Korra and Asami head back to the mansion together...
In the morning, Korra resumes her chakra training, while Asami goes to work and receives some bad news.

Chakras Part 2.

 

 

 

“Relax,” Korra said, trying to calm Asami down.

 Asami had pulled Korra aside after the fight, reminding her of the post-fight interview she was expected to give. Apparently Mako had warned Asami that these interviews often didn’t focus just on fighting. Given their experience yesterday, he and Asami thought that it seemed likely that there would be more questions regarding Korra’s ‘degeneracy.’

“It’ll be fine. I’ll just be careful with what I say.”

Asami didn’t reply, she just raised an eyebrow and gave Korra a skeptical look.

“Ugh! I know, holding my tongue isn’t exactly my strong suit!” Korra said. “But what do you want me to do? I promised yesterday that I would find a way to help change this dumb attitude your society has, how can I do that if I’m not even willing to publicly defend myself? I don’t want to run from this fight, it’ll happen sooner or later anyway, so it might as well be now.”

“Shouldn’t you maybe-” Asami began, but she seemed hesitant to continue.

“Maybe what?”

“Maybe wait until you go public as the Avatar?” Asami said. They had talked about this, or well… It had mostly been Asami talking. She’d talked before about how Korra couldn’t keep hiding her identity forever, especially after she’d openly fought on the battlefield outside of Omashu and was clearly going to continue using her powers to help when it seemed necessary.

Korra froze, as she always did when this subject came up. I- I’m not ready yet! She thought to herself.

“I know it’s a touchy subject, but-”

“It’s fine, I can talk about it,” Korra lied. “I guess you’re right that it would be more uhh, authoritative or whatever, if I revealed myself as the Avatar before defending my attraction to women. But people shouldn’t be okay with it just because I’m the Avatar, it should be okay for everyone!”

Asami sighed. “You’re right, it probably wouldn’t really solve anything if people accepted you just because you’re the Avatar. They would probably come up with some reason why it’s okay for you, but not for others. Just… Be careful, okay? They’ll pounce on any perceived weakness. Trust me I know; I was part of the high school debate club.”

“Huh,” Korra said, not entirely sure what a ‘debate club’ was but confident that she had the general gist of it. “Got any more tips?”

 

Asami thought on it for a moment. “Try not to be overly emotional, like you’re overly invested in the subject. Try to give off the aura of someone who’s just calmly and rationally analyzing the situation, without their emotions clouding their judgement. Even if your emotions are valid, they’ll be used to paint you as irrational, especially if you’re a woman. Just… Try to act aloof.”

“Aloof, got it, I can be aloof,” Korra said, trying to hype herself up. Truth be told, she was nervous about this too, she hated public speaking. “Anyway, don’t worry I’ll deflect all attention away from you. If they suggest that I’m ‘influencing’ you or try to cast you in a bad light, I’ll just refuse to engage and bring the attention back to myself.”

“You don’t h-” Asami began saying, before seeming to change her mind. “Thanks,” she simply said.

“It’s fine,” Korra said genuinely, “I’m the one who shouted at a sage or whatever and made everyone see me as a degenerate, that was my own fault. I don’t even regret it; I’d do it again.”

That made Asami laugh and look at Korra as though she was the most amazing thing that Asami had ever seen. “I know you would,” she said, “that’s what I like about you, remember? You’ll do what you think is right, even if it gets you in trouble.”

“It’s not exactly the same as beating up triads or separatists though,” Korra said, though she doubted herself immediately afterwards. Is it?

“Dad would disagree,” Asami said, Korra watched as her girlfriend briefly winced, as she always did when she accidentally brought up her father while briefly forgetting that he was now a criminal and a fugitive. “He uhh- He always said that debates were like battlefields, where people battle each other with words. Embarrassing someone with words, making them look like a fool and exposing the weakness of their argument, is sort of the equivalent of beating them up.”

“I guess that’s another fighting style I should master then.” Korra was only half joking when she said it.

“Miss Korra?” A member of the arena staff said, peeking into the room Korra and Asami were in. “You’re up for your interview.”

“No time like the present,” Korra said, trying to sound confident while smiling to Asami, she then followed the arena staff guy. They made their way to a pretty large room, a desk with tons of microphones on one end, a bunch of reporters with cameras on the other.

“I never knew combat sports were such a big deal,” Asami said from behind Korra, as she also took in the room, “I’ve seen senators give press conferences that were smaller than this.”

“No pressure,” Korra said, prompting an apologetic smirk from Asami.

She walked up to the desk, at the direction of the arena staff guy, and before she even sat down the reporters had already started snapping pictures and asking questions. “One at a time! For Tui’s sake!” Korra said, causing the room to suddenly get much quieter.

She pointed at a random reporter, who then asked the first question. “Miss Korra, I think it’s safe to say that many of us were shocked by your dominant performance tonight, after counting you out beforehand and assuming that a female competitor didn’t stand a chance. Are you at all surprised yourself, or was this an expected outcome for you?”

“Uhhh,” Korra said, momentarily caught off-guard by the question actually being related to the tournament, after they’d spent all their time worrying about questions regarding her personal life. “I’m not that surprised, I always knew I could win. I can tell that the average skill level is higher though than it was at the qualifying tournament that I watched, so I’m excited to see what further challenges I’ll get to face.”

“Anyone in particular who’s caught your attention?” A reporter asked.

Korra shrugged. “A few, maybe that Tahno guy. I also kind of want to fight Mako and Bolin in a real match, though I’ll feel bad about beating them since they’re my friends.”

Another reporter spoke up with a question. “Your presence here was advertised as a challenge between a ‘savage tribeswoman’ and the ‘modern man,’ how do today’s fighters measure up to the fighters of your time?”

“Not great, to be honest,” Korra said with a grin, causing both laughs and jeers to erupt from the room. “Of course, to be fair, the ‘modern man’ has largely changed the way they fight. You people now fight with guns and stuff, melee fighting is just a sport, it’s no longer as important for waging war or defending yourselves.
Fighting people with guns is certainly more challenging,” Korra said. “I imagine,” she added belatedly, after realizing that she wasn’t supposed to have experience with that, as far as most people here knew.

Several more questions about the time she came from and about her nickname, ‘the girl in the iceberg,’ were asked. Korra was just starting to get comfortable and forget about the worries she’d had going into the interview, when finally someone asked the sort of question she had dreaded.

“Surely you’ve heard that your sex is not the only reason why your presence at this tournament has caused controversy,” the reporter asked, “yesterday you ran away from questions regarding your promotion of sinful perversions, will you do the same today?”

“I don’t run from anything!” Korra said angrily. “I was just having a fun night out with my friend, I wasn’t obligated to talk to you losers. Anyway, fine, I’ll answer questions now, even though it’s none of your business. I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

That seemed to catch the person who’d asked the question off-guard. “Oh! Uhh, okay then. Is it true that when you visited the archeology exhibition, dedicated to the artifacts found in the same iceberg you yourself were found in, you got into an argument with High Sage Zhang Bairen? Is it true that you confessed to having sinful relationships with women, that you promoted such relationships?”

Korra shrugged. “I don’t know what you people consider ‘sinful’ exactly, I’ve been meaning to read the holy book or whatever that you have, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I said that I’d kissed other women and that I’m attracted to other women, if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t see the big deal, personally.”

“Well, I recommend that you do read the holy texts, because what you’ve just said is certainly sinful,” the reporter said. “It’s an affront to the spirits, and to nature itself!”

Korra just shrugged again, doing her best to stay calm. “Nobody thought it was a big deal in my time,” she said. “You know, High Sage Zhang came to me that day, asking for my insights about the decline of spirituality in modern civilization, he said that he wanted society to ‘return to tradition’ and that my perspective as someone from the ancient past would be helpful in that respect.

“But when my answers about the past didn’t suit his goals, he totally disregarded everything I said! So it seems to me like your spiritual leaders aren’t actually very concerned with tradition, or spirituality, just with reaffirming their close-minded worldview.”

Outraged gasps sounded throughout the room, and Korra saw Asami face-palming. Maybe explicitly attacking religious leaders wasn’t the best idea, but she decided to double down on it anyway.

“If you’re worried about a decline in spirituality then maybe you should look towards your churches, not towards me. I’m not hurting anyone.”

Even more angry noises came from the audience, some even spoke up and demanded that the arena staff removed Korra from the premises or turned off her microphones. For now though, the arena staff seemed hesitant to give in to those demands.

Meanwhile, reporters kept asking questions, they had long since abandoned the ‘one at a time’ principle, but Korra was still able to make out what one of them said. “What would you say to those who argue that, contrary to your claim that you’re not harming anyone, people like you in fact threaten to tear apart our very social fabric? That promoting this kind of… Behavior, will tear apart the family structure?”

“Why would me loving someone tear apart anyone’s family?” Korra asked, genuinely perplexed by the logic. “I’d just call anyone who says that an idiot, I guess.”

“But it’s unnatural, such relations can’t produce children!”

Korra scoffed at that. “I read an article this morning about how overcrowded the city’s orphanages are, so I’m pretty sure that a few couples failing to sire even more children wouldn’t be the end of the world, might be a good thing if anything, they could adopt instead.”

People were still shouting and speaking over one another, to the point where Korra wasn’t sure if anyone had even heard her answer, even with the microphones enhancing the volume. Screw this, I’m done, Korra thought, standing up and preparing to leave.

She changed her mind at the last moment, as she turned back to the microphones to say one last thing. “I’ll just repeat what I said yesterday,” she said loudly, the microphones enhanced the volume even more, to the point where she saw a few people in the room visibly cringing at the volume, “anyone who’s got a problem with this can challenge me in the ring!”

There, they definitely heard that, Korra thought, as she turned around and walked away.

Thankfully none of the reporters, or anyone else in the room, seemed inclined to follow her. Except for Asami and the two brothers, who shoved their way through the crowd and joined Korra soon after she exited the room. She wasn’t sure where Tenzin had gone but wasn’t inclined to wait for him.

“That didn’t go very well…” Mako noted.

“What a bunch of jerks!” said Bolin.

Korra kept walking as she responded. “Whatever, it did kind of feel good to say my piece. Let’s just get Naga and go.”

She wished that she could say that she wasn’t bothered at all, but she realized that the fact that she was only able to speak through gritted teeth made it very clear to everyone how bothered she was.

She turned around a corner, where she found Tenzin waiting for her. He held up a hand to stop her from just storming past him. “I should get going, thank you for inviting me. As I said, your technique was flawless in that last match! Will you be able to come to Air Temple Island tomorrow, so that we can finish what we started?”

Korra nodded, though at the moment she wasn’t able to summon much enthusiasm for the idea of sitting around and meditating all day, she felt more like she wanted to punch stuff. “Yeah, sure, I guess. See you tomorrow.”

 

 

She made it to the dressing room, where Naga was waiting for her. The big polarbear dog was lying on her back, enjoying the way the arena worker who’s care she’d been left in was petting her.

It was enough to bring a smile back to Korra’s face. “Well, at least you’ve been having fun, huh girl?” She cooed, walking up next to the man so that she could pet the big dog too.

“You really have a great pet Miss Korra! Freaked me out a little at first, but she’s really nice once you get to know her!”

“She sure is, if you’re nice to her, then she’ll be nice to you! I wish people were that simple.”

“Well anyway, I’d best get going,” the man said, “congratulations on your victory!”

“Yeah, thanks,” Korra replied, though the post-fight interview had really put a damper on things. “Thank you guys for sticking by me,” Korra said, turning to Mako and Bolin, “all those jerks today really make me appreciate you for still treating me the same, even after you already knew about my attraction to women ever since the exhibition.”

“Of course!” Bolin said. “It just gives us something to bond over if anything, did you see that new mover star, ‘Ginger?’ She’s so foxy!”

“Bro, not the time,” Mako chastised, though Korra just laughed.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Korra said, “I still haven’t seen any of those ‘movers’ yet. Maybe we can go there on our next date!” She said to Asami, realizing too late that although the brothers knew about Korra’s attraction to women, they hadn’t known about her and Asami yet.

She was about to apologize for spilling that secret, but then Asami spoke up first, taking the reveal of their secret in stride. “Yeah, that would be fun. You guys should get a girlfriend too, then we can go on a double or a triple date!”

“Yeesh, no need to rub it in!” Mako said with a pout.

“Mako will be alone forever, but I shall indeed procure a girlfriend and take you up on your kind offer!” Bolin said, adopting a weird accent for some reason.

“Good luck with that,” Korra said with a laugh, “but first I’m going home and straight to bed. We should spar again, later this week.”

The brothers agreed, they were about to leave before Asami spoke up. “Oh and this should go without saying, but don’t tell anyone about me and Korra.”

Mako immediately nodded. “Yeah I know! And I’ll make sure Bolin keeps his mouth shut too, even though he struggles with that,” he said. Bolin looked like he was about to interrupt, but then nodded his head in a gesture that said, ‘fair enough.’

“I’m happy for you two though,” Mako said, before he and his brother left, leaving Korra alone with Asami, and Naga.

“Sorry for telling them about us,” Korra said.

Asami just shrugged. “It’s okay. Like you said, they never made a big deal out of it after they knew about you, so they might as well know about the both of us. It’ll be nice to have people we can talk to about it.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Korra said. It felt like a weight was lifted, and it helped a lot with her insecurity about their relationship that Asami wasn’t ashamed to admit that they were together, so long as it was to friends who didn’t share society’s small-minded beliefs.

 

 

***

 

 

 

“So what’s up with you and Tenzin, did your training go well today?” Asami asked, she and Korra had just returned to the mansion, where they had put together a few late-night snacks, since Korra was understandably hungry after her fights.

“I think so?” Korra said, her insecurity making her answer sound like a question. “We worked on opening my ‘chakras,’ which are mental blocks or something that can block more positive emotions, and also prevent spirit juice from flowing through your body like it’s supposed to, or whatever,” Korra was swinging a meaty drumstick around, gesturing with it as she explained.

“It sounds wacky, but it’s the first time that I’ve felt like I achieved something while meditating,” Korra said, before taking a big bite out of her drumstick.

“Sounds promising,” Asami responded, she had heard enough of Korra’s complaining after her sessions with Tenzin to know that this was quite a large positive change from how she usually felt about her progress. “So, what are those mental blocks you mentioned?”

“Weelll,” Korra began, with her mouth full of food, chewing a bit before continuing, “apparently there’s seven chakras, we only got to two of them today. Dunno what the others are blocked by, but these were blocked by fear, and guilt.”

“So uhm-” Asami began, but then paused. She was curious, but it seemed like it might be too personal to ask what Korra’s fears and feelings of guilt were. “So you’re not afraid anymore?” She asked instead.

Asami watched as Korra frowned while considering the question. “I don’t think it’s about not being afraid at all,” she said, “it’s more uhh, how to explain…”

Her girlfriend took another big bite of meat while still frowning in thought. “I guess it’s about being aware of your fear. About acknowledging that it’s there, so that you can learn how to keep it from poisoning you without you even realizing.”

Asami nodded. “I’ve never been a big fan of most of the ‘spiritual’ stuff that religion tries to push on people,” she began, “most of it always seemed like a bunch of nonsense that they used to control people. But I think introspection is always a good thing, and it’s not something that can be used to control you, self-awareness will make you freer!

“Even if it wasn’t for all the avatar stuff, even if you hadn’t shown me that there was truth to all the talk about Raava and spirits and bending, I would still be sure that meditating for the sake of learning to be more introspective is a good thing.”

“Glad you approve,” Korra said with a grin, as she cleaned up the final bits of food from her plate, “I’ll go back to Tenzin tomorrow, as soon as we finish our morning practice.”

Asami’s hand subconsciously rubbed her muscles that were still sore from this morning, as soon as Korra talked about their morning practice, a move that something that didn’t go unnoticed by her girlfriend. “Let’s go upstairs,” she said, “I know a way to help soothe your muscles.”

Asami gulped in response, though Korra had already turned around and walked away. Was that an innuendo, it sounded like an innuendo…

Once they moved upstairs it became clear that it was not, in fact, an innuendo. After they entered Asami’s bedroom Korra used waterbending to grab water from the adjoining bathroom, which she then used to soothe Asami’s muscles.

The water somehow warmed up during this process, and even softly glowed, Asami asked about the glow but Korra was unable to explain what exactly caused it, only that it was something that happened whenever a bender used water to heal.

It may not have been an innuendo, but damn this feels good, Asami thought to herself, sighing as she laid back on her bed while Korra used the water to soothe her legs.

“You know,” Korra said once she finished healing Asami and discarded the water, “the second chakra was the pleasure chakra,” Asami gulped again, while Korra moved to sit straddled on top of her.

“Want to help me find out what my newly ‘unblocked’ pleasure feels like?” Korra asked, affectionally running a hand through Asami’s hair. This time there was no doubt whether it was an innuendo or not.

By way of answering, Asami grabbed onto Korra’s shoulders, pulling the muscular warrior in for a passionate kiss. She felt Korra smile into the kiss, a smile that broadened once Asami explored out with her tongue, her girlfriend’s tongue responded in kind, in just the way that Asami liked.

Shortly after, they had both discarded of most of their clothing, Asami remained in only her panties, Korra remained in her briefs and the wrapping on her chest. They stopped undressing at that point, interrupted by their need to keep kissing and touching each other.

Asami relished in the sounds she was able to induce from her girlfriend, sweet, soft sounds that she never would’ve imagined the tribal warrior making. She felt herself growing warm, and wet, down at her loins, and felt herself pressing up against Korra, trying to fulfill a need that she didn’t fully understand yet.

“I want-” She said, before devolving into a moan when Korra sucked on her breast. Korra stopped soon after, realizing belatedly that she’d interrupted something.

“Want what?” Korra asked, as she dropped onto the bed besides Asami and cupped Asami’s face in her warm and slightly calloused hand.

“I want to go further this time!” Asami blurted out, feeling like she wouldn’t have been able to finish the sentence if she’d said it more calmly. “We always, uhm-” She began, struggling with a rising sense of embarrassment. “It always feels like we stop at the edge of a precipice, whenever we do this, I don’t want to stop anymore. But- I don’t know what the next step looks like,” she said.

It felt embarrassing, admitting her ignorance on something that seemed like it ought to be a kind of innate knowledge, a primal instinct that she shouldn’t even need to think about or question.

Would it feel more natural if I was with a man? She couldn’t help thinking, though she felt like a traitor for even considering it.

“It’ll be my first time too,” Korra said with a reassuring smile, “but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. I did accidentally walk in on other people’s tents, once or twice, while they were uhh- Busy.”

Asami let out an undignified snort, laughing as she pictured Korra accidentally walking in on a couple of her fellow tribesmen. “They give you any tips?” Asami asked, still giggling as she buried her face in the crook of Korra’s neck.

“Not exactly, but I uhh, saw some things- Things I tried my best to forget at the time, but now…”

“Now what?”

“I kinda want to try them out,” Korra said, leaning back to look Asami in the eye.

“Oh, uhhh-” Asami said, while her brain began short-circuiting. She pulled Korra in for a kiss, that always seemed to clear her mind.

“Let’s do it!” She said, after coming up for air.

“Okay,” Korra said excitedly, pushing herself off of Asami and finally removing the wraps around her breasts, “take your panties off then,” she said casually, before blushing in a cute, embarrassed way as she seemed to realize what she’d said.

“Aye aye sir,” Asami replied, doing her best not to think too much while she did as her girlfriend asked.

Korra’s briefs soon followed suit, leaving both of them fully nude. It somehow felt different when they were in the bedroom instead of in the bathroom, even though they hadn’t exactly kept their hands to themselves in the bathroom either.

“Now what?” Asami asked shyly.

“You’ll see,” Korra said with a grin, before pushing her so that she fell onto her back again. Korra climbed on top of her and kissed her, pressing a knee between Asami’s thighs that hit her in just the right spot and made her yearn for more.

Then, Korra broke from the kiss and moved downwards, kissing Asami’s neck, breasts, her tummy, Asami felt herself warming up in anticipation as Korra moved closer and closer to the thus far neglected part of her body. The part that had been yearning for attention this entire time.

She felt warm lips on her inner thighs, first one, then the other, then Korra seemed to pause for a moment. “Just tell me if you want me to stop, ok?”

Asami just mumbled in an affirmative tone, her heart was beating in her throat and the anticipation left her unable to form words, she embarrassingly was able to thrust up her pelvis as a subconscious way of making her needs known, though her mind still wasn’t sure what those needs were.

“Okay,” Korra said, right before Asami felt a finger briefly touch her outer lips, then move up to rub her clit.

That brief touch sent shocks throughout Asami’s entire body, making her convulse with pleasure, especially when, in addition to the finger rubbing her clit, Asami soon felt a finger slip inside of her.

“Are you okay?” She heard Korra ask from between her legs.

“YES!” She responded, grasping blindly downwards with her hands, trying to get Korra to keep doing what she was doing.

Korra got the message, and began moving in and out of Asami, all while still rubbing her clit. The finger inside only seemed to remind Asami just how empty she had felt before, “more!” She said, not sure how else to communicate the need she felt.

Her girlfriend seemed to understand, as she soon felt another finger slip inside.

Then, catching her by surprise, the finger rubbing her clit was suddenly replaced by something warmer, and wetter, something amazing!

She looked down in shock, seeing nothing but Korra’s dark brown hair, as the girl’s face was buried between her thighs.

Is she really- Asami thought, before her train of thought was shattered by another wave of pleasure coming from deep within her.

She stopped thinking, as she grabbed a hand full of Korra’s beautiful hair and shamelessly pushed her girlfriend’s head deeper between her legs. Asami had never even considered this as an option, but she certainly couldn’t question the results as she felt her girlfriend’s tongue bringing her closer and closer to completion, as she felt herself trying to push against and ride Korra’s fingers.

“I’m gonna, I’m gonna,” she said, causing Korra to look up at her with a smile while speeding up the movement of her fingers.

“Good girl, just a little longer,” Korra said.

Asami would never admit it, but that pet name was what pushed her over the edge, what caused her to scream Korra’s name while her vision briefly exploded with bright colors.  

She was still in a daze, moving with the occasional aftershock of pleasure, not noticing that her girlfriend had moved back up until she suddenly felt herself being pulled in for a leisurely kiss, one that she gladly returned.

“Hmmm, you liked that?” Korra asked, Asami merely nodded in response, swallowing awkwardly as she realized that she just tasted… Herself, thanks to Korra kissing her after she-

“I didn’t know that people uhh,” Asami began, “‘kissed’ each other down there.”

Korra just hummed in response, snuggling up next to Asami and rubbing her nose against her neck. “Weird right? Sure seems to work though.”

Asami laughed at that. “Sure does. But isn’t it uhh-”

“Gross?” Korra said, finishing her sentence. “Nahh, you could never be gross, you tasted amazing.”

Asami started laughing uncontrollably at that. “That- That’s got to be the weirdest compliment I’ve ever received,” she said, between her laughs.

Korra joined her in laughter, it took a minute or two for them to both calm down. “You were amazing though,” Asami said, “thank you.”

Korra nodded happily, then snuggled up even closer next to her.

“Don’t you want me to, uhh-” Asami began.

Korra just shook her head. “This was more than enough, I’m sleepy now,” she mumbled into Asami’s neck, “you can return the favor next time.”

Soon after saying those words, Korra fell asleep, leaving Asami to carefully pick up the blanket and pull it over them without waking her girlfriend back up. As she lay there, listening to Korra’s soft breathing, she guiltily admitted to herself that she was glad that Korra hadn’t asked her to reciprocate.

The thought of going… Down there, with her mouth! It terrified her, no matter how amazing it had felt when Korra did it for her. With those guilty thoughts in her mind, intermingled with a lingering sense of pleasure, Asami eventually fell asleep.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra woke up with a happy sigh, which turned slightly less happy when she realized that Asami had already left their bed. Still though, thinking back on the previous night was more than enough to alleviate her usual dislike of mornings.

After a quick trip to the bathroom, she went out in search of her girlfriend. As expected, Asami was in the dining room, drinking a cup of tea while presumably Tuzo had gotten started on preparing breakfast in the kitchen the next room over.

“Hey, you’re up early,” Korra said. “Everything okay?”

Asami always got up early, but this was even sooner than normal, it was still dark outside! Granted, they were approaching winter, so it being dark in the morning wasn’t unusual, but still.

 

“I’m fine, I just didn’t sleep well,” Asami said, looking away from Korra.

“Really? I would’ve thought that after last night-” Korra started, but then Asami shushed her, glancing back towards the kitchen, though she did wear a small smile on her face.

“Trust me, it wasn’t your fault,” she said. “Just had a lot on my mind I guess,” she looked away again as she said that last part, looking like she felt guilty about something.

“Aww, I was hoping that I blew your mind,” Korra pouted, prompting a burst of giggles from Asami as she hoped it would, cheering up her girlfriend was her most sacred avatar duty after all.

“Shut up, stupid,” Asami said, pushing her against the shoulder.

Korra just grinned in response, she wasn’t sure what her girlfriend had on her mind, but she could take a guess. ‘It’s not that easy to completely disregard values that have been instilled since childhood,’ Asami had said a few days ago.

She probably has mixed feelings about last night, Korra thought, surprised to realize that she wasn’t offended by the idea, like she thought she would be.

I was crazy nervous last night, and I wasn’t even doing anything my culture considered wrong or shameful… The fact that Asami had taken this next step in their relationship showed that, true to her word, she was indeed trying her best. And Korra loved her for it.

Tuzo walked in with breakfast, and excitedly told them about how he’d found a building for the restaurant he wanted to start. “It’s right on the corner of the immigrant district,” he said, “which is a bit inconvenient for now, with the checkpoints, but down the line it will be a perfect location for the mixed clientele I hope to attract.”

He and Asami talked about a bunch of business stuff, the details of which Korra couldn’t really understand, but the gist of it seemed to be that Asami approved of Tuzo’s business plan. Tuzo also told Asami that he’d be quitting his job two weeks from now, which saddened Korra. She didn’t know too many people yet, so it’d suck for Tuzo to no longer be around all the time.

After breakfast, as they walked to the tree that they had dubbed the ‘training tree,’ Asami seemed to notice Korra’s mood. “What’s got you down?” She asked.

“It’s kinda dumb,” Korra answered, “I’m still not really used to living with so few people around. My tribe wasn’t that big, but there were still dozens of people, all eating at the same campfire every night, sleeping in tents next to each other. It feels kinda lonely in this big empty mansion, I know there’s a bunch of maids and butlers but frankly most of them creep me out! Me and Tuzo got along, but now he’s leaving.”

“Ah,” Asami responded, “so you’re going to miss Tuzo, that’s the problem?” Korra nodded.

Asami smiled sympathetically, briefly squeezing her hand for comfort. “I’ve always been used to being on my own, so I honestly can’t relate to you feeling lonely without dozens of people around all the time. But if that’s what you’re used to then it makes sense to miss it,” she said, “it’s not dumb at all.”

“I guess,” Korra said, not fully convinced even as they began with their daily exercises.

Exercises finished, and another shared shower later, (sadly one where they actually mostly focused on showering, since they were pressed for time,) Korra was ready to head towards Air Temple Island, to resume the ‘chakra’ training she had begun the day before. To her surprise she found that she was kind of excited for it, it finally felt like she was making progress!

 

 

 

Once she arrived at Air Temple Island, Tenzin wasted no time and immediately directed her to another meditation spot where they could continue the process of opening Korra’s chakras.

“The third chakra is the fire chakra, it deals with willpower and is blocked by shame,” the senator said, after again directing Korra to first focus on her breathing, then on a specific part of her body. This time it was her stomach.

“Great, so now I have to tell you my greatest shame?” Korra grumbled. She trusted Tenzin, but still, this was all rather personal.

“Indeed,” Tenzin said. “I understand that it must feel embarrassing, but then again, overcoming that embarrassment seems a necessary component of overcoming your shame, don’t you think?”

Korra hummed in agreement. I guess I wouldn’t be embarrassed to talk about it if I wasn’t ashamed about it to begin with, so he’s got me there.

“Then tell me,” Tenzin said, “what is your greatest shame?”

Well, I guess that one’s easy, Korra thought. “Being frozen in ice for so long, being away for thousands of years, instead of protecting people and righting wrongs like the avatar is supposed to.”

“You feel responsible for everything that happened in your absence?”

“YES! Of course!” Korra said. “It often keeps me up at night, thinking about all the horrible things that have happened throughout history, things where an avatar should’ve been there to intervene. Asami told me about slavery the other day, how it didn’t fully end until just over a century ago, how could I not feel ashamed for allowing that to happen?

“Worst of all, I’m ashamed when I think about all the people who lived and died, expecting an avatar to come and help them. How long did it take, after I was frozen, before people gave up hope and stopped believing in the avatar? How many people’s faith in me did I betray?! I get sick to my stomach just thinking about it!” Huh, so that’s why this chakra relates to the stomach, Korra absently noted.

“Given our current dominant religion, it seems that some people never gave up faith,” Tenzin remarked.

“But that not- That’s not me they worship, or even Raava, or any of the past avatars. They have faith in something that never actually existed! Half the stuff they believe is pure nonsense, the other half is still a big misrepresentation of reality.”

“Is that truly a new development?” Tenzin challenged. “If you had never been frozen in ice, would you have been able to live up to every single expectation that people placed on you? Would everyone be realistic in what they expected of you, so that you needn’t disappoint a single person? Or has the legend of what the avatar can do always been impossible to live up to?”

That gave Korra pause, it was something she genuinely had never considered before. Hearing about the legendary feats of Wan, of Yanchen, or Kyoshi, of the reason why Wan became the avatar in the first place, all she’d ever wanted was to live up to those legends and to achieve Wan’s goals. But- Even Wan hadn’t been able to succeed…

Tenzin took Korra’s silence as an opportunity to keep talking. “As I said, this chakra deals with willpower. The key is to not fear failure, you will fail, many times. But you mustn’t let the shame of failure serve to demotivate you, you must have the strength to stubbornly keep trying.

“Any time you feel a crippling amount of shame, you must have the willpower to avoid wallowing in it and to focus your energy on better things. Don’t waste time feeling ashamed of what happened during your absence, instead you should have the will to make up for it, to the best of your abilities.”

“What if my abilities aren’t enough?” Korra asked, though part of her already knew the answer.

“Failure is nothing to be ashamed of, so long as you can honestly say that you tried your best,” Tenzin said, giving Korra exactly the answer she was expecting. “Wan himself failed, did he not? There was still rampant infighting throughout the world at the time of his death. Yet from what you’ve told me you look up to him as an inspiration, you don’t think he needed to be ashamed on his deathbed, do you?”

“No,” Korra said immediately, “I don’t.” It was actually very simple, now that she thought about it. If she was ashamed of the state of the world, then she simply needed to dedicate herself to fixing it! What else was there to do? Wan didn’t sit still feeling ashamed of how he had accidentally helped Vaatu escape from Raava, he got to work on fixing his mistake, and he became a legend even though he failed! 

Korra took one more deep breath, then exhaled, with a renewed sense of resolve.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“There’s good news and bad news,” Zerai, Future Industries’ CFO, told Asami at the beginning of the board meeting. “Good news first, the state has finished its investigations of most of the company’s factories and warehouses, many are already cleared to resume their operations, several more will follow suit in the next few days.”

“Is that enough time to finish the shelters we’re building in the immigrant district?” Asami asked. It was of course good news that normal operations would be able to continue, but her employees were currently doing other good work that she also wanted them to continue.

“If progress continues at this pace, then yes,” Saburo, the company’s Chief Engineer, and also the man who had been overseeing the construction, said. “We already don’t need as much raw manpower as we did when we were just clearing the rubble, I’ve already sent most people home, other than the ones with some skill in construction. So most of your employees will be able to return to the factories first thing tomorrow.”

“Good,” Asami said, “in that case, please do whatever it takes to finish the shelters properly, no need to cut corners when we’re already near the finish line. For all of my father’s faults, his reputation for creating top-of-the-line products remains intact and I want to keep it that way, the fact that we’re doing this for charity doesn’t change that.”

Saburo nodded, over the duration of this project Asami’s respect for the man had been raised considerably, as she saw the dedication with which he worked no matter the task at hand. Other workers had noticed too, last she heard he was a leading contender for the vote on who the next managing director should be, even though elections weren’t even officially announced yet and he hadn’t yet said if he even wanted the job.

“What about the bad news?” Asami asked, causing literally every single board member to wince. “Is it that bad?” Asami asked with a joking tone, though she got the sense that perhaps it wasn’t a joking matter at all.

“The fines that the company will have to pay to the government, as a result of your father’s uhh- Mismanagement, are considerable,” Zerai said. “They’re within the margins that we expected, but they’re near the upper end of those margins, so they will put a significant strain on our budget going forward.”

“Then it’s a good thing that we’re ready to resume operations and will no longer be leaking money,” Asami said, “and a good thing that our car repair shops were such a success. I’ve already arranged for more permanent repair shops to be established, with a discount for Future Industries cars, the investment will barely even strain our budget since they’ll be housed in warehouses we already owned.”

“Right, I saw those plans, and I approve,” Zerai responded, “but things aren’t quite as bright as you’ve imagined. You’ve done an admirable job, trying to repair the company’s reputation, but our market research has suggested that the number of customers we can expect once we resume operations is… Disappointing. Certainly not the same as before your father’s flight. We’re assuming that those numbers will go back up eventually, but in the meantime our budget is being stretched to its limits.”

“What about government contracts?” Asami asked. “Will they still buy our vehicles, to supply the police and fire brigades?”

“We don’t know that, they claim to still be examining their options,” said Zerai. “That will be a task for Izaru, in his new role.”

 Several other board members shuffled uncomfortable in their seats at the mention of the former managing director, they looked at Asami with what seemed like… Fear? Are they that worried I will do the same to them?

 

 

Eventually the meeting concluded, Zerai was still worried about the budget, but he seemed confident that they would be able to squeeze by just barely, provided there weren’t any other unexpected setbacks. Asami was about to leave when she was approached by Ruolan, the worker representative.

He looked hesitant as he approached her, quite different from their usual rapport. “Hey Ruolan, everything okay?” She asked.

He looked ashamed, but to his credit he immediately responded. “I uhh- I’m personally fine, but I’ve got some bad news to deliver,” he said, still looking ashamed of something.

“Spill it,” Asami demanded, growing worried.

“The uhh- The unions held a vote, we voted in favor of a general strike in protest of the government’s treatment of immigrants and refugees, and the increasingly unchecked power of the executive branch.”

Ruolan kept talking, about how bad he felt about the timing, how it wasn’t a personal slight, how grateful he was for the reforms she’d made to Future Industries thus far, etc, but Asami was only half listening. In fact, she was tempted to start screaming instead.

I’m fucked, she thought, we were on a knife’s edge with our budget, this strike will push us over the edge…

“What are the worker’s demands?” She asked, interrupting Ruolan’s apology.

Ruolan sighed before answering. “We’re still working on the exact list of demands, we haven’t officially announced the strike yet, in fact the union will probably be mad at me for telling you.

“Anyway, the demands will include a full repeal of the recent laws targeting the immigrant district and giving Tarrlok the power to essentially abolish the freedom of assembly. Several immigration reforms on top of that, regulations that prevent our wages from being undercut by foreign workers, better worker protections in general, an end to prison labor that undercuts wages for free laborers, all the other usual demands.”

“Shit,” Asami said, “what am I supposed to do about that? Those are all demands for the government!”

“I know,” Ruolan said, “like I said, it’s nothing personal, Future Industries isn’t the target, the entire economy is the target. We need leverage over the government, and ultimately the government is just like a business, they don’t care about anything unless they feel it in their budget. They’ll feel this.”

The worst part was that Asami couldn’t even argue against him, he was right! That didn’t stop her from feeling like she was being screwed over though. I was so close to getting the company back on track! What am I going to do now?!

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“The fourth chakra,” Tenzin began, “is the air chakra. It’s located in your heart, it deals with love, and is blocked by grief.”

“How is love blocked by grief? Isn’t grieving after you lose something a part of loving it?”

“Of course,” Tenzin said, “there’s nothing inherently wrong with grief, just like there’s nothing inherently wrong with fear. All things must exist in moderation, opening your earth chakra didn’t require you to be utterly fearless, the point is to moderate your fear, prevent it from crippling you.

“Grief is the same, of course you’re allowed to grieve the things you lose, but you must not let that grief cripple you. If you focus only on what you’ve lost, then you blind yourself to all the new things you could gain. All of life exists as part of a cycle of death and rebirth, it’s natural to grieve those who pass, but not if it’s at the cost of your ability to love those you’ve yet to meet.”

“So, like a father who’s unable to love his new child, because the mother died giving birth?” Korra asked. There had been a man like that in her tribe, it had been tragic to see it unfold, the rest of the tribe made sure to take care of his son, so it wasn’t as if the kid was totally neglected, but it was always clear that the kid wanted his father to notice him more instead of largely ignoring him the way that he did.

“Precisely,” Tenzin said, “that would be one classic example of a person’s grief leaving them emotionally stunted, leaving them unable to find new love. To open this chakra, you must think of all you have lost, all the things you grieve,” he paused then, giving Korra time to do as he said.

She struggled to maintain her steady breathing rhythm, as images of what had happened to her tribe flashed through her mind. With a deep breath, Korra allowed the memories to wash over her.

 

 

 

9,520 years ago:

 

 

 

Korra turned towards her father’s voice, away from the man she’d killed with three icicles through the chest. Her father was rallying the tribe’s warriors against these unknown attackers, Korra needed to be by his side!

She gathered water around herself, then sprang up, launching herself into the air with a powerful sprout of water, then pulling that same water with her as she flew. She crashed back down like a powerful wave, sweeping away a group of warriors that had been trying to attack her tribesmen from the side.

She kept moving, falling in formation beside the rest of her tribe’s warriors, who formed a half-circle around those unable to fight, where from the corner of her eye she saw her mother helping to heal the wounded.

“Dad, who are these people?!” Korra asked, briefly glancing towards him after she finished deflecting an enemy’s attack and returning it back to sender.

“Not sure,” he said in his deep voice, “but I can guess.”

Korra had no time to wonder what her father’s guess was, as she continued fending off enemy attacks. Several of her tribe’s warriors worked together to create a powerful shield of ice, which gave Korra the time she needed to pull several large chunks of earth out of the ground and prepare to launch them at the enemy.

The enemy warriors managed to summon an attack powerful enough to shatter the icy shield but were then left unprepared for the blocks of earth that flew towards them at bone-crunching speeds. Several enemies were downed, many more were pushed back by the attacks from the rest of her tribe, the only ones who held firm against the onslaught were two young warriors, around Korra’s age, who looked nearly identical.

“Eska? Desna?!” Korra’s father said, before shouting loudly: “Brother, show yourself!”

Brother? Korra thought, since when does dad have a brother? Suddenly there was a lull in the fighting, Korra used the opportunity to create some strong earthen defenses for herself and her tribe, then narrowed her eyes as the enemy warriors made way for one man, who moved between them while casually riding a wave of water, showing his skill as a bender by smoothly directing said wave to set himself down on the ground.

“Hello, brother,” the man spat out, venom dripping from his voice. “About time we had a family reunion, don’t you think?”

“Why are you doing this Unalaq?! I know our brotherly bond hasn’t been the strongest, but why would you attack us like this?!” Father said.

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand, you’ve always been deaf to the spirits,” the man, Korra’s uncle, said. He was taller than her father, and had a narrower face, but she still saw a bit of a family resemblance. “I’ve come for the abomination you call a daughter; I have spoken to the great spirit of chaos, he has ordered me to restore the natural order of the world!”

“You serve Vaatu? Brother this is madness!”

A terrifying grin appeared on the other man’s face. “To the contrary, I am repairing the damage caused by Avatar Wan’s madness. He drove the spirits from this world, the spirits want revenge!”

Once he finished speaking, a black and purple blur shot past him, dark tendrils crashing into the warriors of Korra’s tribe. The monster’s tendrils shot all around it, knocking a dozen warriors to the ground, before a large ice-attack from her father sent it flying back. “I’ve got the dark spirit, Korra, you handle the rest!” He yelled, before launching after the monster on a ramp made of ice.

The enemy warriors launched a barrage of attacks at Korra and her fellow tribesmen, but Korra further raised the earthen defenses she’d created and managed to block them all. Then, with a scream of exertion, she punched forwards, launching these same earthen walls towards the enemy.

Again, the two twin warriors were the only enemies who seemed unphased by the attack. They split up, one went left, one went right, they were perfectly in-sync while they flanked Korra from two sides. They launched a hail of icicles towards her, which Korra deflected by spinning a fast bubble of water around herself, she then spun as she turned the bubble into an attack, sending a powerful stream of water after one of the twins, before punching a powerful fireball towards the other.

Both twins blocked the attacks in an identical manner, before countering by flipping in the air and kicking water towards Korra. Her uncle, Unalaq, just stood off to the side, watching with that creepy grin of his.

Korra dodged and blocked a barrage of attacks from the twins, waiting for an opening. The opening finally came as they both jumped off a wave of ice they had been riding, landing on the earth right where Korra had hoped they would. She closed a fist, and as she did the earth swallowed up their ankles, making them trip and fall. One of them screamed in pain as this happened, likely because his foot getting stuck had resulted in a broken ankle.

Korra gave them no time to recover, jumping forwards using a jet of fire, then as she landed blasting even more fire towards them. One of them got their foot unstuck and was able to block Korra’s attack, but the other, still gripping his ankle in pain, was unable to properly defend himself.

His screams grew louder as he was engulfed in flames, as did those of his twin, who was untouched by the flames yet clearly pained by having to witness it. After a couple seconds of sustained fire, the former’s screams ceased, though the latter’s remained.

Korra stopped her firebending, revealing a charred corpse, still with one foot stuck in the ground.

“DESNA!” The man’s twin yelled, running up to his corpse. Korra watched her warily, but it seemed she was no longer a threat, grieving as she was while cradling her brother’s charcoal body.

Korra turned over to where her father had gone to fight the spirit, just in time to watch him get thrown backwards through the air, landing hard on the ground in the middle of where mom and the other healers were helping the injured, with Naga standing guard. Kind of convenient spot to land, in a way.

His injuries didn’t look good though, so Korra quickly ran over to help heal him. The fighting had stopped for the moment but that certainly wasn’t going to last.

“Enough of this,” Unalaq said, sparing a brief glance back to the remaining twin, tearfully hugging the dead one, before directing his attention back to Korra’s tribe, “time for you to discover the power that Vaatu’s support has given me, BROTHER!” He spat out that last word as though it was a piece of rotten fish.

“It must’ve been fate that your daughter turned out to be the avatar, I will capture her, force her to open the portals and free Vaatu, then darkness will reign!” With a maniacal grin, he raised his hands up in an ominous gesture. As he did, the dark spirit that Korra’s father had been fighting crested the hill behind Unalaq, along with at least a dozen slightly smaller ones beside it.

“Run,” Tonraq said, as soon as he spotted those spirits, “Korra you have to run! You have to live!”

“What? No, we have to fight back, protect our tribe!”

“Korra you don’t- You don’t understand. You can’t beat these dark spirits, believe me I just tried. Just your bending isn’t enough, no matter how incredible you are, there’s a reason why your teachers kept saying that you need to focus more on your spiritual powers…”

“Okay, then let’s run,” Korra said, pulling her father’s arm over her shoulder and heaving him up onto his feet, no easy task with a man of his size, “the mountains of the Southern air tribes aren’t that far, we were going there anyway, they can help us!”

Her father shook his head, then put his hand on her shoulder. “We’d just slow you down, you’d never make it if we’re with you,” he said.

“You can’t expect me to-” Korra’s words were cut off as her father harshly shoved her backwards, at the same exact time that the spirits attacked.

She flew back through the air, by the time she flipped and landed with her feet back under her, the spirits were already wreaking havoc throughout the camp, tentacles struck out and grabbed people, then tossed them in various directions. To her horror, a few were grabbed by more than one tentacle, resulting in different parts of their bodies being thrown in different directions…

With a scream, Korra stamped her foot down on the ground and punched up with her fist, a crack in the earth spread from where she stood to where the spirits were attacking, then dozens of jagged and sharp spikes of earth burst out of the ground and impaled over half of the dark spirits.

Korra grinned, these aren’t so hard to beat, she thought. Her elation was short-lived, as the spirits that were impaled simply phased through the earthen spikes, seeming completely unbothered by the attack.

“Korra run!” Her father yelled again, before attacking the spirits with everything he had, despite his injuries. Korra didn’t listen, instead she tried to back up her father. Together they launched attack after attack, but none of them did more than temporarily knocking the spirits back, half the time they didn’t even do that, half the time an attack sliced a spirit clean in half, only for it to stitch itself back together and continue forwards without even losing speed.

A few of the tribe’s fighters were still standing, but they were losing ground fast. From the corner of her eye Korra saw one of them, Kavrok, stumble and trip as he was pushed back all the way to where her mother was still desperately trying to heal the wounded. Kavrok tripped and fell over Senna and the man Senna had been trying to heal.

“MOM!” Korra yelled, too late, as the spirit that had pushed Kavrok back struck out with one of its dark tendrils, which then shot through all three of them like a spear.

A blade of water launched by Korra amputated the spirit’s tendril, several more cut the spirit’s main body in two, four, then eight pieces, even a dark spirit would take a while to recover from that.

But the damage was already done, Korra turned to her mother with tears in her eyes, a second later her father was there too, cradling his wife in his arms. “Senna, I-”

Korra couldn’t hear the rest of what he said, as she was forced to fend off more attacks from dark spirits. It was hopeless, they were being overrun. She screamed, spewing forth a giant gust of fire breath into the toothy mouth of a spirit that’d been about to devour her, the fire inflated the spirit until it popped. Korra kept screaming, kept attacking, summoning more and more fire. Screaming with rage, she created a giant wall of flames, then pushed it outwards, pushing the dark spirits back.

Then she turned to her parents, her mother was still breathing, she smiled weakly at Korra as she knelt beside her, along with Naga who muzzled her with a whine. “Oh honey,” Senna said softly, “I’m sorry.”

“NO!! I- I should’ve protected you! I’m the worst avatar ever!”

“No you’re not,” Senna said, a sudden strength in her voice, “you’ll survive this, and you’ll go on to do great things, I just know it. You’ll find someone, just like I did,” she said, briefly looking over to her father, who squeezed his wife’s hand with tears in his eyes, “and you’ll be happy together. I’m just sorry that we won’t get to meet them.”

“No, you will! I’m going to-” A sudden wave of water shot through Korra’s wall of fire, which had already been petering out anyway. Korra reflexively rolled backwards to dodge it, Naga dodged it too, but her parents were both caught in the middle of the water. The wave pushed them up and then froze them both in place.

Unalaq calmly walked up, Korra tried to stop him, but several dark spirits attacked her, preventing her from getting close. With that same maniacal grin of his, Unalaq cocked his arm back, then shot a powerful stream of water towards the block of ice that contained Korra’s parents.

Korra slapped away a dark spirit with a wave of water, just in time to be able to look her parents in the eye, they looked at her from within the ice, with oddly calm expressions. Then Unalaq’s attack hit the ice, shattering it, along with her parents, into a million small pieces.

Korra wanted to scream, but she couldn’t even do that. She just stood, rooted to the spot, as she watched the shattered pieces of ice fall in a neat yet disturbing pile, with the shattered pieces of her parents mixed in-between. Meanwhile dark spirits went around tearing apart the rest of her tribe, they were all helpless now that the last of the tribe’s warriors had finally been defeated.

A spirit swallowed up Varin, the tribe’s most skilled craftsman who’d spend most of his days carving beautiful patterns into wood and bone tools. Another spirit tore apart Kyo, who just yesterday had excitedly shown Korra the new healing techniques she had learned from her tutor, who was already lying dead on the ground nearby.

Niyok and Nutha were killed next, then Qanitt, Massak, even little Nini…

Korra blinked away her tears, then she turned, and ran.

 

 

 

The present:

 

 

 

She heard a voice in the distance, telling her to breathe, that what she was seeing was a vision, that it wasn’t real. It was though, it really happened. It wasn’t the present, she remembered everything that happened after, fleeing, freezing, waking up in Asami’s arms-

But this memory, the slaughter of her parents and her tribe, it was real. Flashes of it had passed through her mind all this time, whenever she saw anything that reminded her of those events. But she’d always tried to push them away, never allowing them to play out like this before. Even in her nightmares she always woke up before the memory was complete.

She felt tears falling down her cheek, and pain stabbed through her heart, but she kept her eyes closed and kept breathing, just breathing, trying to maintain her trance.

“You have indeed felt a great loss,” Tenzin’s voice said from the void, suddenly the formless black in front of Korra shifted, turned into a dark blue, she was in the ocean, waves roiling around her. Somehow, she was sitting on the water’s surface, in front of her she saw her parents, Niyok and Nutha, little Nini, all the other members of her tribe, they all smiled at her as Tenzin’s disembodied voice continued speaking, “but their love for you has not disappeared from this world. Love is a form of energy, it swirls all around us and can never be destroyed, their love still exists within your heart, it can be reborn in the form of new love.”

A shape arose from the water, initially translucent and blurry, but then it became crisper, and additional colors were added to the dark blue shape. Asami, Korra thought, as a large statue of her love arose from the water.

Her parents rose too and grew to match the size of Asami. A smile arose on her mother’s face, as, after all this time, she finally met Korra’s girlfriend and shook her hand. You’ll find someone, just like I did, she heard her mother’s voice say. Her father also shook Asami’s hand, then, after looking back to Korra one last time, her parents turned to water and disappeared back into the ocean, along with the rest of her tribe, leaving behind only Asami.

“Let the pain flow away,” Tenzin said.

Korra opened her eyes, then gently wiped away her tears, feeling surprisingly calm and content. This chakra still took a lot out of her though. “Can I have some noodle soup please?” She said.

 

 

A short break later, Tenzin brought her to a new area, a mess hall, where dozens of air nomads gathered and talked. To her surprise he directed her to meditate in this noisy and public area. “The fifth in the chain is the sound chakra, located in the throat. It deals with truth, and is blocked by lies. The ones we tell ourselves.”

Korra began her breathing exercises, then focused on her throat, before letting Tenzin’s words sink into her. The lies we tell ourselves… What lies do I tell myself?

Unbiddenly, a memory from the previous day came to mind. It’s fine, I can talk about it, she heard herself say, in response to Asami talking about going public as the Avatar.

Why exactly am I still hiding my identity? Korra thought to herself. She had given herself many reasons, she needed to learn airbending first, needed to learn more about this modern world, needed to finally read that dumb holy book people believed in, wanted people to respect her for who she was first before telling them about what she was, she wanted to learn more about the secret organization of benders that would begin to hunt her…

But were those all just excuses, to hide from the truth? Then what’s the truth? She thought to herself. Once she confronted this thought, the answer was immediately obvious. I’m scared of being rejected, of being judged as unworthy, undeserving of comparing myself to the avatars of the past that are worshipped as saints by the modern church.

She was pretty sure that Asami believed that her reason for continuing to hide her identity was a fear of taking responsibility, of having people expect her to fix everything once they learned she was the avatar. But that wasn’t it at all, she wanted to take responsibility.

But- What if nobody expects anything at all from me, even if I tell them I’m the avatar? What if they just ignore me anyway and don’t listen to a word I have to say?

“I’m afraid of telling people the truth, about who I am,” Korra said. “What if- What if they don’t believe me? What if it only hurts my credibility? It feels like it would be easier to keep lying than to convince people of the truth!”

“Lying often seems easy,” Tenzin said, “and in the short term it really can make things easier. But it comes at an unseen and unspoken personal cost, keeping your story straight, distrusting those around you, distrusting yourself… The more you lie, the more mental energy it begins to occupy, the more you become incapable of interacting normally with others. It’s not hard to see how this might result in a spiritual blockage, is it?”

Korra shook her head.

“I can’t tell you what to do, certainly going public with your secrets will have significant consequences and should not be done lightly, but at the very least you must be honest with yourself about exactly why you keep these secrets.”

Korra sighed, then took in another deep breath. Be honest with myself, if I make it clear to myself why I’m not revealing my identity yet, then I can make it equally clear at what point I should reveal my identity. Then once that condition is met, I’ll have no more excuses left.

It was a trick that her earthbending teacher had taught her, to trick herself into doing things she was afraid of doing. If she could punch a boulder, and she could sense the earth while blindfolded, then she could also stop a boulder that rolled towards her while she was blindfolded!

“I’m worried that nobody will listen to me, or take me seriously,” Korra said. “I’m worried that they might even take me less seriously than they do currently, if they believe I’m some sort of imposter.”

It was funny, even as she said this she was still being careful with her words, since they were in such a public setting and she was afraid of being overheard. It helped to underline Tenzin’s point about how much energy it takes to lie or keep secrets.

“Then what will it take for you to stop hiding?” Tenzin asked.

“Either I need to trust them,” Korra said, silently resolving to tell Mako and Bolin as soon as possible, she could trust them at least, “or I need to wait for a moment when they have no choice but to listen to me.” Just wait for a time when I’m the only one who can save the day, all seems lost, but then there I come, using all my avatar powers to turn things around. It’ll be hard to ignore or dismiss me once I save everyone’s sorry butts. That’s sort of what I did near Omashu, it worked quite well then.

As she opened her eyes, it felt as though a weight was lifted from her shoulders. She hadn’t actually done anything, but she had a new sense of clarity of what she needed to do, and she knew that she would be able to do it, she no longer had a vague and amorphous collection of excuses she could use to keep delaying and postponing.

Seeming to sense the change in Korra, Tenzin nodded. “Very well, I believe that’s it for the sound chakra. Let us move to a quieter place for the next one.”

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Asami sat at her desk, after several hours of furiously crunching numbers. She now had several plausible solutions for her predicament, a few of them were certainties, a few others were long shots.

The first, and easiest, option was for her to start selling parts of the company until she had enough funds to keep the part that remained afloat. Future Industries had plenty of offshoots and subsidiaries, reaching into various other sectors and industries that weren’t directly related to the production of cars.
She could sell those subsidiaries while keeping the main part of the company intact. Zerai’s latest report had helpfully included estimates of the total worth of each part of the company, so it was relatively easy to figure out how much money she would be able to raise by selling off various parts.

No matter what, I’m probably going to sell at least a few of the subsidiaries, she thought to herself. It’s just a question of how many of them I sell, that will depend on how my other ideas pan out.

Many of the subsidiaries that Future Industries owned were part of a vertical integration strategy, they owned various metal mines and refineries, allowing them to produce their own car parts without relying on anyone else to provide them. These were too important to sell.

But other subsidiaries were less important, she began to prepare a list of those. Top of the list was the arms manufacturing division, she already had mixed feelings about owning entire factories dedicated to producing tools of death and destruction, maybe it would be best to sell those. Both for her own peace of mind, and for the sake of clearing the company’s debts and weathering this new general strike.

 

The second option was to find lots of scabs to hire, to dodge the issue that the general strike created by simply finding an alternative workforce to replace those that went on strike. It was plausible, but not as easy as it sounded.

Normally, the way to encourage strike-breakers to come work for you would be to offer them higher pay than usual, but the whole problem was that Future Industries lacked the budget for that! Especially in a general strike, where all her competitors would be competing with her in their attempts to hire scabs. The odds of successfully winning that bidding war, with her current budget, seemed slim. Plus, she would have mixed feelings about undermining the strike, since she agreed with their goal of protesting Tarrlok’s tyrannical new laws.

Option three was to help the strikers achieve their goal in order to help the strike end as soon as possible, to somehow convince Tarrlok’s government to repeal their own laws, before the strike lasted long enough to bankrupt her. She quickly dismissed this option, it was too far-fetched, not something she could stake the future of her company on. She made a note to tell Izaru to try anyway though, it couldn’t hurt.

The unlikelihood that option three would work had made her get a bit creative for options four and five. These plans were both the most promising and the least certain to work. She read them over one more time, then nodded to herself before getting up and walking over to her secretary, Mrs Teena. “I need you to set up a meeting with my lawyers and accountants,” she said.

“Okay, which ones?” Teena asked, already writing down a note.

“All of them.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Next is the light chakra, located in the center of the forehead,” Tenzin said, after again leading Korra into a trance through the use of breathing exercises. “It deals with insight, and is blocked by illusion. There are many things in this world that people treat as vitally important, but that in reality barely exist at all. One of the clearest examples of this would be the social classes that we divide ourselves by, we use differences in ethnicity or sex, or economic class, to create a sense of separation and distinction.

“By doing this we blind ourselves to the reality, which is that when it comes down to it we are all very much alike, in all the ways that matter. We have the same wants and needs, the same struggles in life, the same grief when those we love pass away, yet we treat each other as though we’re completely alien, as though the difference between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom is as stark as that between the mortal world and the spirit realm.”

“Sooo,” Korra said hesitantly, “this chakra is about recognizing stuff that we think matters, but actually doesn’t?”

“In part,” Tenzin answered, “there are many different kinds of illusions, but those tend to be the greatest ones.”

“How about the distinction between different fighting styles?” Korra said. “I’ve met a lot of different fighters, back in my time my dad took me all around the world trying to find the best tutors he could. Everyone always talked about earthbending as though it was a single type of bending, but in reality I’ve found that there’s many different styles. Defensive styles, aggressive styles, I’ve seen earthbenders who used sand to develop techniques almost identical to airbending, even though those are supposed to be opposite elements.

“After mastering three elements, I’ve noticed that there are many waterbending techniques that can be applied to firebending, earthbending techniques that can be applied to ice, and so on.”

“Precisely,” Tenzin said, “that would be another example of the illusion of separation. We name things, we categorize them, which then becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. The way we name something affects the way we see it, which blinds us to the similarities between different categories. Name something as an airbending technique and suddenly nobody will think about applying it to earthbending, even if it’s perfectly applicable.

“The light chakra is about opening your mind, seeing that all things are one, rejecting the illusionary barriers that we use to form artificial divisions.”

“I think I understand,” Korra said. Open my mind, I can do that.

 

 

After a short tea-break, they moved on to the final chakra. “In theory,” Tenzin said, “opening this last chakra will grant you full control over your own spiritual energy, and thus allow you to enter the ‘avatar state’ at will, like you’ve said that your predecessors were able to do.”

“Sounds great! Lets do this!”

“Very well,” Tenzin said, “I’m glad that you’re finally showing some excitement for meditative exercises.”

Korra sputtered in response. “Well uhh- You see- This doesn’t count, don’t get used to it!”

This got a chuckle out of the older man, but he quickly composed himself and returned to breathing calmly and deeply. “The thought chakra is located at the crown of the head, it deals with pure cosmic energy, and is blocked by earthly attachment. Meditate, on what attaches you to this world.”

Immediately, one thing came to mind, Asami. For all the shame she felt over leaving the world without an avatar for millennia, finding Asami in this strange future was the one thing that made Korra feel like she was exactly where she belonged. She was the main thing that made Korra feel attached to this new point in time. Well… That and modern cuisine, after discovering fried food she never wanted to go back.

 

“Now,” Tenzin said, “let all of those attachments go, let them flow down the river, forgotten.”

“What? Why?! What’s wrong with being attached? That’s what gives me something to fight for!” Korra argued, snapping her eyes open and leaving her trance.

“To let in the pure cosmic energy, you must be selfless, impartial, an empty vessel waiting to be filled,” Tenzin said. “There’s nothing wrong with having something to fight for, but there are times when you must… Prioritize, when the needs of the many oblige you to set aside your selfish personal desires.

“Especially as the avatar, as someone capable of channeling so much power, it would in all actuality be rather scary if you used that power selfishly, would it not?”

“I suppose,” Korra said. “So what you’re saying is, it’s fine to have things I care about and want to fight for, I just shouldn’t be so attached to them that I let them prevent me from doing what’s right?”

“Precisely,” Tenzin said. “I’m not sure if it’s ever possible to get rid of ALL earthly attachments, especially if you’re the avatar, why would Raava have bothered bonding with a human if the avatar was meant to have no earthly attachments whatsoever?

“But all things exist in moderation, if you let your attachments control you, then you’ll be unable to fulfill your duties to the world at large. When thinking of your attachments, you’re thinking of your friend Asami, are you not?”

Korra blushed. “Am I that obvious?”

“Well,” Tenzin said, “I’d like to think that I know you better than most, after spending so much time together. Regardless, your friend Asami, presumably you want to keep her safe, to protect her, correct?”

“Well yeah, obviously.”

“What if a war breaks out, right here in the city? The entire city is in danger, and you have to choose who to protect. What would you do?”

“I uhh-” Korra started. It was clear what Tenzin was getting at. Would she let the whole city suffer for the sake of ensuring the safety of the one person she was personally attached to, or would she prioritize the city at large, go to where the need was the greatest, even if that left Asami to fend for herself and potentially get hurt?

It was painful, but she knew the right answer. “I would help those who need me most, which probably wouldn’t be Asami, she can take care of herself.”

“Good,” Tenzin said, “now, return to the meditative position I showed you, breathe, in, and out, focus on the crown of your head.”

Korra did as he said, allowing him to guide her back into a meditative trance. She fell deep into the trance. For some reason it seemed like focusing on the crown of her head helped her to sense something else too. A kind of power, just beyond her reach.

She imagined herself in a vast open space, a black void, stars in the distance, and a path of pure energy leading away, towards the vast source of power she could sense.

“Now, again,” Tenzin said, “think of all your earthly attachments, all the things that bind you to this world, and let them go, let them flow away. Then, once you’re unchained from your attachments, reach out to where you previously could not, to the power that was beyond your grasp.”

Korra did as he asked. She imagined Asami in some form of potential danger, tempting Korra to turn back to help her girlfriend, to make absolutely sure that she was alright.

But then she imagined turning away, putting that out of her mind, trusting Asami to fend for herself while she focused on the greater purpose right in front of her. I’ve done it before, she thought, we split up during the revelation. It sucked, leaving Asami’s side during such a dangerous situation, but it was necessary to save Bolin, so I did it anyway.

She walked forwards, along the path made of pure energy, towards the power she sensed in the distance. As she came closer, she discovered the source of the power. She saw herself, but vast, filling almost her entire view as she stared out across the cosmos, and holding a sphere of pure power. The path led her towards that sphere, as she approached it, she felt a glow beneath her eyelids. I’m doing it, she thought, the avatar state!

She touched the sphere, and a feeling of raw power washed over her. Along with that feeling came a sudden awareness. Asami, Korra thought, somehow the power was connecting her to Asami, making her sense her girlfriend’s current fears and concerns.

Asami was worried, something had happened to Future Industries and she was worried that it would all come crumbling down. Along with the fear and worry was a shocking sense of loneliness, she was in a room filled with employees, but it felt like none of them respected her or took her seriously, she missed her father, her mother, and she missed Korra most of all.

Korra was briefly tempted to drop everything and rush to her girlfriend’s side, to soothe that aching sense of loneliness, but with effort she was able to set that desire aside, to let the power continue washing over her.

She opened her eyes, and knew even before she saw Tenzin’s expression that they were glowing with a pure white light.

Notes:

Another chapter! With some steamy action ;p

Also, 400 kudos! I never expected to reach that point, so thanks everyone who's been reading the story so far, it really means a lot <3

Chapter 26: Skeletons in the Closet.

Summary:

Korra explores her new powers, Asami announces a controversial plan for the future direction of her company.

Skeletons in the Closet.

 

 

 

“Whooohoooo!!!” Korra yelled ecstatically, right after she launched up from beneath the water’s surface and exploded out into the sky. After unlocking the avatar state, she couldn’t resist the opportunity to test out her new power.

She could make all sorts of perfectly logical arguments for this decision, a new power should be practiced like any other, she should learn the limits of what she’s capable of when she entered the avatar state, etc.
But the truth was, she just thought it’d be fun!

Either way, obviously there weren’t many places in Republic City where Korra could practice her bending, much less practice her bending while it was enhanced by the avatar state. That’s why swimming out onto the open sea had seemed like the best option, hence the reason why Korra was currently diving in and out of the water like an overly excited flying dolphin fish.

The water was cold, it was almost winter after all, but the breathing techniques that her firebending master had taught her made the cold bearable.

She completed a flip, then pulled up a wave of water, to soften her landing as she fell down from the insane height to which she had jumped.

That must’ve been at least 100 feet! She thought to herself as she dove back down beneath the water’s surface. I wouldn’t even be able to jump half as high without the avatar state.

Grinning with glee, Korra decided to further explore the extent of her newfound power. She halted the momentum of her underwater dive, then, still underwater, she begun to spin herself around, pulling the water around her.

Before long, a large vortex was forming around her. She pushed down with both of her feet and shot fire out from beneath them, launching herself up in the sky. Her grin went even wider when she realized that, with the added power of the avatar state, she was now able to sustain her own flight. Without the avatar state she was only able to use firebending to enhance her jumps, or to fall with style, she had never been capable of sustained flight, until now…

Part of her realized that normally she would’ve needed to practice flying like this, but thanks to the knowledge of the past avatars this was no longer necessary. It was a strange experience, to have muscle memory for movements she had never made before.

Either way, as she was flying above the vortex she continued pulling on the water, making it spin harder and harder, making it wider and deeper with every movement of her hands. It’s gotta be several hundred feet wide by now!

Once it was large enough for her liking, she pulled some water towards herself and turned it into an icy surfing board. She could sense the disapproval of a few of her past lives, and the excitement of several others, as she used her newfound avatar powers to surf what was quite possibly the largest water vortex in history!

She would’ve been happy to keep exploring her powers in this way for at least a few hours, but Raava’s voice in her head warned her against it. Korra, I’m sure this is very fun for you, but you mustn’t stay in the avatar state for such extended periods, your body wasn’t meant to channel so much power for such a long time.

“Ughhh, fine!” Korra said, before leaving the avatar state. Once she felt the power leave her body she did notice that it’d done a number on her body, making her briefly slump over, before remembering that she was still standing on an icy board and surfing in a huge vortex.

She continued surfing until the vortex naturally dissipated, then added more ice to her vessel so that she’d have enough space to sit down and rest without capsizing.

Another voice spoke up in her head. There’s a technique you should learn, instead of remaining in the avatar state for prolonged periods you need to learn to enter it for just a moment, just long enough to gain the power and experience you need. The power and experience linger long enough to be of use, but this way you avoid overtaxing your body and avoid the risk of dying in the avatar state.

“Sounds good,” Korra said, “thanks uhhh- Who said that anyway?” It wasn’t until that moment that it really registered to Korra how weird it was to be speaking to her past lives like this, the few times she’d done this before had been more brief, and not while she was calm and wide-awake like she was now.

I’m Roku, the fifth avatar. It’s good to see you Korra, what took you so long?

Korra blew a raspberry. Great, now my past lives are also mocking me for my spiritual ineptitude. She could sense a faint sense of amusement from her past lives, but the moment she tried, she realized that she was able to tune them out, to close the connection again instead of leaving it largely open like she had done automatically after entering the avatar state.

After that discovery, she decided to try out his advice anyway, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes while punching a fist into her palm, then after briefly focusing she was able to allow Raava’s power to flood her body again, it was easy now that her chakra pathways were all unblocked. As soon as the power flooded her body, she immediately shut it off again.

Then, with the lingering power and knowledge that that brief flash had given her, she pulled up a wave out of the water. The wave was massive, definitely still far larger than what she could do without the avatar state. She nodded to herself while relinquishing control over the wave and letting it fall back down. “Thanks Roku, you’re right, staying in the avatar state is definitely overkill if I can do this instead. Well anyway, this was fun, but I’d best get back to Air Temple Island.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“You can’t be serious?!?” Zerai said to Asami, voicing a sentiment that many of the other board members seemed to share, judging by their shocked expressions.

Asami responded in a deadpanned manner, tired of being second-guessed. “I’m completely serious,” she said.

“You want to sell off half your company? After all the lengths your father went to, to avoid being beholden to outside investors?”

He was responding to the plan that Asami had just finished outlining, to sell exactly 49.999% of her ownership of Future Industries to the employees of Future Industries. As she had explained, she hoped that this would be a way to earn money in the short term, while also being a way to hopefully win the unions over to her side, to convince them to exempt her company from the strike and allow her to continue operating during the general strike. In past sectoral strikes and general strikes unions had always listed demands that, if met, would cause a company to be exempted from the strike. Worker-ownership was usually one of those demands.

To the best of her knowledge no company had ever given in to such demands, but there’s a first time for everything, right?

These were her options four and five, raise funds by selling shares to her workers, and convince the union to exempt Future Industries from the general strike, all in one fell swoop.

“These wouldn’t be outside investors,” Asami said to Zerai, “they would be my own workers, with a vested interest in the company. I trust that they’ll share my interest in keeping the company healthy and successful, this won’t be a hostile takeover where an outsider suddenly completely tosses the entire company and its work culture upside down.”

“Be that as it may,” Zerai said, “will these workers even have enough money to pay for your shares? Future Industries is worth billions of yuans, how many employees do you have?”

“One hundred and fifty thousand, give or take, not counting temp employees and contractors,” Asami said. “So no, with the average salary and savings of my workers, they wouldn’t have nearly enough money to buy half of my shares in Future Industries outright. I accounted for that, my idea is to essentially mortgage these shares to my employees, they can then pay off that mortgage in monthly installments, helped by the dividends that the shares will pay out in the meantime once we become profitable again.”

“Even then, it’s still far too much money for ordinary workers, they would likely still be paying off their loan by the time they’re ready to retire!”

“True,” Asami said, “which is why I want a system in which, if an employee retires, quits, or is fired, they do not keep their share. Their share is contingent on their continued employment, and is passed on to whoever replaces them, partially paid mortgage included. That’s why I invited the company’s lawyers too, to tell me of such a scheme is legally tenable.” She looked over to where her team of lawyers was seated, raising her eyebrows in a questioning manner.

She had already spoken to her own personal lawyer, Mr Yao, who had hesitantly said that it seemed possible. But this wasn’t his area of expertise, and he was just one man, which was why Asami now posed the question to Future Industries’ company lawyers instead.

“It’s not unprecedented, for the most part,” one of the lawyers said, “it’s just never been done on this scale before. Usually, a company that turns into a worker’s cooperative has the workers outright buy their shares, but as Zerai noted, this wouldn’t be possible with a company as large and valuable as Future Industries. Your idea to mortgage the shares instead is ingenious, I can’t see any legal obstacle to it at first glance. I would have to delve into the relevant caselaw, but whatever issues might come up, I’m confident that they will not be insurmountable.” Once he finished speaking, the other lawyers all nodded and voiced their agreement.

“Very well,” Asami said while clapping her hands, “I want you all to work together, lawyers and accountants, to find a way to make this scheme work in a way that’s legal and will provide the funds I need.

“Zerai, I’d like you to help me figure out which subsidiaries I could sell, to raise additional funds. Ideally, I want that to be done before I start selling stocks, because once I do that these decisions will no longer just be up to me.” She would technically still own a majority of the company, but in the draft of the shareholder voting bylaws she was working on with her personal lawyer some kinds of votes would require a 66% majority vote, the point was to win the unions to her side after all, giving them partial ownership only to continue to rule the company as an autocrat probably wouldn’t be enough.

“Understood,” Zerai said, to her surprise Asami thought that she saw a look of respect flicker across his normally steely expression, before quickly disappearing again, “looks like we’ll have plenty of work to do.”

“Indeed, I want a draft proposal that we can present to the unions to be finished by the end of the day.”

“Teena,” Asami said, turning to her secretary, who was sitting at a separate table and had been making notes throughout the meeting, “I would like you to arrange a meeting with the unions, as soon as possible tomorrow morning.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

After profusely thanking Tenzin for all of his help, and playing with his kids for a little while, Korra took the ferry back to Republic City’s mainland. She expected Asami to be busy with Future Industries for a while longer, so she decided instead to pay the local Red Lotus headquarters a visit.

She hadn’t spoken to any of them since before her accidental trip to the Earth Kingdom, the last time she’d spoken to them was when she’d promised that she and Asami would be able to gather enough evidence to have Hiroshi arrested, so it was long past time to visit them anyway.

She approached one of the checkpoints that surrounded the neighborhood where the headquarters were located, a bit curious what all the hubbub was about, knowing that Tenzin had tried to prevent them and that the Red Lotus also vehemently opposed them.

She joined a short line, then once she arrived at the front she gave her papers to the cop who manned the checkpoint. “A work visa huh? What type of work do you do?” He asked.

“Uhm, research, for the university,” Korra answered, hoping that he didn’t ask further questions, since she still wasn’t entirely sure how what she did constituted as ‘work.’

He didn’t ask further questions though, he just handed back her papers and let her through, allowing her to reach the Red Lotus headquarters after just a few more minutes of walking.

She was greeted by a familiar face before she even entered the building, Shaozu, who for some reason looked very happy to see her despite the glare she was giving him, still mad about how he’d recklessly set fire to a building Asami was in.

“Avat- Uhhh, Korra! You’re okay!” He said, after initially trying to bow before her, until a glare from Korra reminded him not to.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Asami told us you’d left to try to intercept three of her father’s airships, then after that we didn’t hear anything else. I know that you’re uhhh- You know, you, but still, it sounded dangerous. I know Dayal was worried too.”

Korra shrugged. “Fair enough I guess, I probably should’ve checked in sooner, but I’ve been busy.”

“What happened with those airships?” Shaozu asked eagerly. “Did you manage to stop them?”

“Welllllll, sort of,” Korra said, before going on to explain how they had already taken flight by the time she arrived, and she had inadvertently traveled to the Earth Kingdom after jumping aboard.

“So that big territorial gain that the militias made, that was you?” Shaozu said. “I heard some rumors, but nobody knows how seriously to take them.”

“Yeah, it was me,” Korra said. “Let’s keep it as rumors for now though.”

“Why? With your power you could defeat the separatists in no time! You could overthrow this bourgeois government and help create a nation that actually represents the people!”

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” Korra said with a sigh, “trust me, I’ve thought about it, but I just don’t think it’d work. First of all, regarding the separatists, no amount of power will do me any good if I don’t know where they are. Do you know where their headquarters is, where that Amon fellow is?”

Shaozu shook his head, then Korra continued talking. “Secondly, I definitely don’t know enough about how governments work to be able to design one from scratch, it probably wouldn’t be better than the current government, it’d be a mess. Would it even be a people’s government if I’m the one who forces it on everyone? It doesn’t seem like something I should be doing on my own. And that’s all assuming that I’m actually that powerful, which I’m not even sure about. From what I’ve learned so far, modern weaponry is no joke.”

 

Shaozu just sighed, seeming disappointed.

“Not the savior you thought I’d be?” Korra asked him.

Shaozu blushed in response. “I uhh- I mean no offense!”

“But?” Korra asked with a teasing tone.

“But yeah, I guess I did hope that you’d be able to just fix everything, after learning who you are.”

Korra laughed. “You’re lucky that I just had a whole meditation session about this issue, or else I might’ve been offended. Anyway, I’ll do my best, and I do have big plans, but it probably won’t be quite as miraculous as you were hoping. If it was that simple then Wan would’ve fixed everything and none of the following avatars would’ve been needed.”

Shaozu spoke up in response. “The church says that Raava has deliberately allowed suffering to persist in the world in order to test us, to see if we’re worthy of ascending and joining him in the spirit world.”

“Joining her,” Korra said, prompting a surprised look from Shaozu, “Anyway, the church is filled with a bunch of idiots, don’t listen to them. Raava isn’t even in the spirit world, she’s right here with me! I still haven’t gotten around to reading that dumb book of theirs, but I do know that much of what the High Sage and others preach is nonsense. They’re just a bunch of close-minded dimwits.”

“I guess you’d know,” Shaozu hesitantly said. “So you’re saying that I wasted my time by going back to church after discovering that you’re the avatar?”

Korra was unable to stifle a laugh. “Yeah, I’d say so,” she said, while they both walked the rest of the way towards the headquarters’ entrance. It seemed more crowded than usual, which Korra remarked on.

“Oh, you didn’t know?” Shaozu said. “Over half of the city’s unions have just voted in favor of a general strike, the other Red Lotus members are still inside, ratifying the demands that our representatives agreed on with the other unions. I stepped out to wait, the details are all a bit beyond me to be honest. Anyway, presenting a unified front between the more and the less radical unions is proving a bit challenging, but I think we’re getting there.”

A general strike? “What’s the difference between a general strike and a regular strike?” Korra asked, she understood more or less what a regular strike was, but she didn’t think she’d heard the term ‘general strike’ before.

“Oh, uhh, well- A regular strike tends to only involve the employees of a single company, or sometimes of a single sector, dockworkers for example. A general strike on the other hand involves all union workers in an entire region, no matter what industry they work in. Sometimes it’s just in a single city, but we’ve managed to win the support of unions throughout the country, not just here in the city!”

“That sounds impressive,” Korra said honestly, the scale of these kinds of undertakings in modern society still never ceased to amaze her, back in her time it had been impressive when several tribes worked together on something, even though that kind of effort only involved somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand people at most.

“It all started with people getting fired, after being delayed by the checkpoints,” Shaozu said, “your girlfriend Asami has reversed those firings after she took over her father’s company, but she’s the only businessowner to have done so, the others are all sticking to their guns, despite protests. And it’s glaringly obvious that they’ve targeted union members, especially those with leading roles!

“Anyway, tensions were already high, the final straw was a farm just outside the city, that people from the city commute to every day. Apparently the farmowner beat a worker half to death for showing up late cause of the damn checkpoints, then threatened to fire anyone who tried to come to her aid. All the other workers of that farm defied his threats and walked out in protest, then things snowballed from there.”

“He beat someone?!?” Korra demanded.

“Yeah, pictures of her all black and blue were in all the papers today, in all the good ones anyway, like Dayal’s,” Shaozu said, nodding to someone behind Korra.

She turned around to see the portly man in question walk up to them. “Oh please, you give my little paper too much credit,” Dayal humbly said to Shaozu while pushing his glasses further up his nose, before turning to Korra. “Korra! I’m glad to see you’re alright, you’ve had us all worried, after your friend told us what you were trying to do.”

“Yeah, uhh, what did Asami say, exactly?” Korra asked with a nervous laugh.

“Something about you trying to stop three whole airships that were about to ship out, by yourself?! Since you’re standing here alive and well, I trust that you rethought that insane idea?”

“Uhh, not exactly,” Korra said. “I sort of ended up as a stowaway, took me a while to return to the United Republic.” Dayal looked like he was about to respond, but Korra held up a hand to stop him. “I’ll tell you more, but not here, somewhere private.” She shared a look with Shaozu, who seemed to understand.

“I suppose we can find a room,” Dayal said, “we’ve concluded our meeting, our members voted to ratify the list of demands that the other unions proposed, so most of them will be leaving, now that that’s finished.”

Like Dayal had predicted people began trickling downstairs and leaving the building, allowing them to find a room in which they could talk with relative privacy, though Korra still worried a bit about how loud Dayal’s reaction might be. She was committed to this course of action though, if only because she worried about her sound chakra being closed off again if she continued keeping this secret from even those she trusted.

“Have you been in contact with Zaheer? Or any of the other people from the militias in the Earth Kingdom?” Korra asked. “They said that they knew you.”

“Uhh, yes,” Dayal said, a surprised look on his face. “I talked to Zaheer about their recent victory, but he was weirdly tight-lipped about it. How do you know Zaheer?”

“I told you, I accidentally stowed away on those airships,” Korra said. “Then I sort of uhhh- Destroyed two of them and landed the third near the front lines, where I met Zaheer.”

Dayal looked like he was lost for words, so Korra just kept talking. “I’ve been trying to keep this a secret, but I’m a bender, I’m very powerful. I want to tell you because I trust you and I want you to know that you can come to me for aid if you ever need some backup firepower.”

“A- A bender?” Dayal said, the normally eloquent man was still largely tongue-tied.

“She’s the avatar!” Shaozu said excitedly, though he quickly quieted down after Korra gave him a look. She’d hoped to hold off on revealing that particular factoid and all its theological implications, just her being a bender would already be a shocking enough revelation.

Har Dayal didn’t strike her as particularly religious or superstitious, but she still vividly remembered the prisoners she’d captured on the airship, how terrified most of them had been of her and how they’d accused her of being a servant of Vaatu, there was no telling who else might see her in that way.

“That- That’s how Zaheer broke through Kuvira’s lines? Isn’t it? I heard rumors, but…” Dayal asked, Korra nodded in response.

“Yeah,” Korra said, before very briefly entering the avatar state to make her eyes flash white before him as evidence, the man’s eyes widened in shock at the sight. “I uhh, I just wanted to get back home to be honest, Kuvira’s forces were in the way. I’m glad that I helped Zaheer and his men score a victory though.”

“I’ve been telling her that she should use her power to help us! If she can break through Kuvira’s lines then she can help us beat the separatists, to launch a revolution even!” Shaozu said.

Dayal still looked like he was digesting what Korra had told him and shown him, but nevertheless he quickly turned towards Shaozu to shut him down. “No, no I think Miss Korra is right to stay her hand,” he said. “All leftist ideology is based around the premise that power is dangerous, that it should not be wielded lightly. If she is indeed as powerful as you claim, then I’m thankful for her restraint. If a revolution comes then it must come from popular support, not raw violent power, otherwise we’d just end up creating an even worse police state than exists today, since that would be the only way to preserve the system that we’d be forcing upon so many people who disagree with it.”

Dayal argued his point effortlessly, in a rote manner, it was a subject that he was clearly well versed in, allowing him to talk about it even while he was still visibly grappling with the information Korra had just given him.

 Korra gave Shaozu a smug ‘I told you so’ look, before turning back to Har Dayal. “Yeah uhh, I’m not sure what I ought to be doing, I’m still just trying to understand how this society works, seems a bit premature for me to start smashing it to pieces and saying that I know how to do it better. Besides, I’m still in training, I can’t even airbend yet! I feel like you’ve helped me learn a lot though, so thanks for that.”

“That’s quite alright,” Dayal said distractedly, “I’m just going to uhh, need a minute to wrap my head around all this.”

 

 

 

A while later, Shaozu had gone to get tea, leaving Korra and Dayal both awkwardly sitting in the room together without speaking.

“So… Raava is real?” Har Dayal suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, I spoke to her today actually. I used to only rarely be able to do that, but I’ve been training and meditating, so I’m able to do it more reliably now.” Despite her recent success with it, Korra still pulled a face when she mentioned meditation, something that Dayal seemed to notice too.

“I must admit, I have a hard time imagining you meditating,” he said with a laugh. “Or being the avatar for that matter, I guess I would’ve expected you to be more- Uhhh-”

“Calm?” Korra asked.

“Full of yourself,” Dayal said at the same time, before immediately holding his hands up in defense. “No offense, I never even believed the avatar was real, my idea of what they’d be like is solely based on what the church is like.”

Korra huffed. “Yeah well, they certainly are full of themselves, you’re right about that.”

Dayal suddenly began laughing, causing Korra to raise an eyebrow. “What’s so funny?” She asked.

“I just remembered reading about the scandal surrounding you, that argument you had with the High Sage” Dayal said, still laughing a bit while he got the words out. “You’ve got to promise me that I get to be there when you show the High Sage that you’re the avatar! I want to see his face!”

Korra laughed along with him, though her mood quickly soured. “I’m not sure he’d believe me,” she said, “I’m actually kind of surprised that you believed me so easily.” She had shown him a bit of bending while they waited for Shaozu to bring the tea, and before that she’d entered the avatar state and made her eyes glow, but still.

“Well, as you know there were already a lot of questions and rumors, regarding the recent military success of the worker militias in the Earth Kingdom,” Har Dayal said. “I won’t pretend like this is an explanation I had considered, but it’s an explanation none the less, one that adds up.”

“Doesn’t rule out me being a false prophet though, or a servant of Vaatu. That’s probably what the High Sage will be calling me. Fogs, he’s called me that already.”

Dayal winced in sympathy. “Yes, I suppose that’s true,” he said. “For my part, I don’t really care whether you’re a false prophet, or whether you secretly serve Vaatu instead of Raava. All I know is that I feel like I’ve gotten to know you, and you’re a good person. That’s more important to me than how you fit within the church’s doctrines, which I never believed in in the first place.”

Of all the responses Korra had considered, this wasn’t one of them. “Thanks,” she said, “for the record though, Vaatu really is evil. If I was a servant of Vaatu then I wouldn’t be trustworthy!”

“If you say so,” Dayal said, though he didn’t sound totally convinced.

Korra wanted to further argue the point, but wasn’t sure what evidence she could give to support her claim, so she grudgingly gave up on it and switched the topic. “By the way, speaking of the worker militias, if you’re in contact with Zaheer, I’ve got a plan for how to help him even more, but it’d require some long-distance coordination.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami returned to the Sato estate after what’d felt like a very long day at her office, even though she’d surprisingly managed to end the day along normal office hours.

The amount of work that’d needed to be done resulted in Asami feeling utterly exhausted both mentally and physically. She’d already made a note to make sure that the new office, to replace the temporary one they currently worked in, would have comfier chairs.

Of course, that would all have to wait until after she got the company’s finances back in the black. After today’s work though, she was confident that she’d be able to make that happen.

“Where’s Korra?” Asami asked Mrs Su once she took her coat off, refusing Su’s attempt to do it for her. Su was officially the head maid, but she had taken up some of the butler’s duties now that Mr Lao was a fugitive along with her father.

“Miss Korra hasn’t returned yet from wherever she’s gone,” Su said after she finished bowing to Asami. Asami had tried to get the old woman to stop doing that, but she’d long since realized that this was a losing battle.

Either way, hearing that Korra was still out surprised Asami. What could Korra be doing so late? Even if she was finally making progress, it was hard to imagine her doing meditation exercises with Tenzin for a full day.

Su continued talking. “Forgive me for asking, but how is she doing? I saw that there were more articles about her in the papers again? I didn’t finish reading them mind you, I’ve no desire to read such horrible slander. But the poor girl can’t shield herself as easily as I do, can she?”

“No, she can’t. But I think she’s fine, she can handle it. We’re supporting each other.”

“Well, I’m glad,” the older woman said. “She doesn’t seem to like me very much, but I’ve grown rather fond of her.”

“She thinks you’re creepy,” Asami said with a laugh, “you could stand to be a little bit less formal with her, she’d probably like you better that way.”

“I’m not that bad, am I?” Su said, looking a bit flustered. “I’m just polite.”

Asami rolled her eyes. “I’m sure she’ll warm up to you eventually, don’t worry. I’m going to take a bath, could you ask Tuzo if he can get dinner ready at seven? I’m sure Korra will be back by then.”

Su went to do as she asked, while Asami went upstairs to run a bath. Once she let herself down into the hot water, it felt as though the day’s exhaustion was being washed away. With a happy sigh, Asami was reminded of the previous night, of the things Korra had done to her and the way it’d made her feel.

She felt her face heating up, though she pretended like that was just a result of the warm water. Leaning back to further submerge herself, Asami’s mind was filled with thoughts of her girlfriend’s beautiful brown skin, rippling from the muscles tensing underneath, of her beautiful large breasts, of her brown hair while she sunk between Asami’s thighs…

Without consciously deciding to, Asami began to touch herself, not bothering to hold back her sighs and moans of pleasure. With thoughts of Korra on her mind, it didn’t take long to bring herself to completion.

She didn’t stop there though, once she recovered from her climax, she returned to exploring herself. She even put a couple of fingers in, which she normally rarely did. I could practice this, right? That’s the benefit of being with another girl, she’s more or less the same as me down there.

She sat up, trying to see what she was doing instead of just going by touch like usual. I want to be ready next time, Korra deserves better than me being too afraid to reciprocate.

Throughout her explorations she made some interesting discoveries, curling her fingers while they were inside of herself, for example, felt way better than just keeping them straight. She felt like it was helping her feel more confident in the idea of making Korra feel as good as she had made Asami feel last night.

Though the idea of using her tongue still worried her. What if it’s super gross? What if I gag? It’d totally ruin the mood and she might even get mad at me! Deep down she knew that Korra would never get mad over something like that, but it still felt scary.

She mulled it over for a while, continuing to soak in the warm water. Eventually the only conclusion she could come to was that when the time came, she’d have to get over herself and try her best. Easier said than done, but I guess that’s just how it is.

She left the bath, toweled off, then as she waited for Korra and for dinner she worked on her schoolwork for a while. By now she had purchased every one of the books that she’d found in the university library, so she could read them both at home and at the university. It was one of the perks of her wealth that she was willing to shamelessly indulge in.

Her thesis was starting to take shape, and recent developments had given Asami a lot of inspiration on how to continue. As she’d said to Zerai earlier in the day, Asami had a hundred and fifty thousand employees, give or take. The fact that she didn’t even know the exact number exemplified just how insanely large the number was, and up until this point none of them owned any part of the company, they were purely wage workers.

Historically, anyone having this level of control was completely unprecedented. Sure, on paper there’d been Kings who owned entire countries. But in practice the vast majority of people throughout history have been subsistence farmers, who managed their own farms with a great deal of autonomy and kept the proceeds for their own use, minus whatever tax their lord demanded from them.

Today, “worker self-management” has become a dirty word in the eyes of many, but historically it had been inevitable, there didn’t use to be any state or organization that was large and powerful enough to micromanage so many people. The fact that Asami, albeit indirectly and through several layers of managers, was able to dictate exactly what happened on the ground floor of every factory she owned while the workers of that factory had virtually no say in it, was a level of control that would make any historical King green with envy.

It certainly challenged the idea that hierarchies, at least this level of hierarchies, were natural. She still hadn’t decided whether the societies that socialists and anarchists proposed would be more natural than this one, but at the very least she was becoming inclined to conclude that the current system was a massive, and kind of insane, experiment, in which society handed unprecedented amounts of power to individuals such as herself.

It was, frankly, terrifying to think about. To realize that she had power over more human lives than some of the tyrants she’d read about in history books. If it was scary for herself to think about, how did it feel for her employees, to know that their lives would be dictated by a teenaged heiress that they’d never even met?

She’d been writing down some of these thoughts, when Su came into her room. “Miss Korra has arrived,” the old woman said, “and dinner is almost ready.”

“Thank you Su,” Asami said, the news immediately put a smile on her face. She’d really missed Korra, throwing herself into her work had only partially helped to remedy her loneliness, but Korra being back did the job instantly.

That sudden feeling of contentedness became even more pronounced once she came downstairs and actually saw Korra. Her girlfriend looked very happy and excited too, making her even more beautiful than normal.

“Did your session with Tenzin go well?” Asami asked.

“YEAH!” Korra said, excitedly hopping around on her feet while waiting for Asami to continue descending the stairs. Once Asami’s feet touched the ground floor, Korra grabbed her by the arm and pulled her aside into a small room, used by the maids to store cleaning equipment.

“What are you-” Asami began to say, as Korra closed the door behind them and left them in darkness. She cut herself off when that darkness was suddenly replaced by a white light, emanating from two oval shapes, from Korra’s eyes!

In the dark room, Asami was able to notice that a fainter light was also emanating from the rest of her girlfriend’s brown skin, it didn’t come just from her eyes, that was just where the effect was most pronounced.

“You did it,” Asami said with an awed gasp, “you mastered the avatar state?!”

“Yeah!” Korra responded, in that same creepy multi-layered voice that Asami remembered from the night she’d almost died in a fire, when Korra had threatened Shaozu. It was kind of creepy, but Asami did her best not to let hamper her ability to share her girlfriend’s excitement.

The light quickly faded from Korra’s eyes, after which her voice returned to normal, so it was a bit of a moot point anyway. “What about you? Is everything alright with your company? I sensed- Uhh, I mean, I got the feeling that something may have gone wrong,” Korra said.

“First we should probably leave this closet, what’ll the staff think if we’re in here too long?” Asami responded with a laugh, before she opened the door and stepped back outside. She looked around quickly, it didn’t seem like anyone had spotted them jumping into this closet, and she didn’t think any of her staff would rat them out anyway, but with all the rumors and controversy surrounding Korra it was better to be safe than sorry.

“I don’t know what feeling you’re talking about, but yeah, I ran into some issues. I think I found a solution though,” Asami said, only slightly overstating her optimism. “Turns out that there’s a general strike coming, right after my factories are finally back up and running! We were already bleeding money due to the investigation into my father shutting down the factories, even Future Industries can’t afford to not make any money whatsoever for months on end, so yeah that’s uhh- A problem.”

Korra’s face fell. “Ohh man, I heard about the strike, but I didn’t think about how that’d affect you,” she said. “Shouldn’t they like, spare you from the strike or something? You’ve helped them a bunch, you’re not their enemy.”

Asami shook her head. “I’m a private businessowner, so from a class-warfare perspective, which is certainly the perspective of worker unions, I am in fact their enemy. I’m the owner-class, they’re the worker class, I may not be at the top of the list of their enemies, but I’m still on it.”

Korra looked like she was about to argue, so Asami held up a hand to stop her. “You’re not totally wrong though, relative to others you could argue that I’m something of an ally to worker unions, and I am in fact planning to leverage that. I’m sure that once the news of what I’m doing breaks there’ll be people calling me a class traitor, it won’t endear me to the gala-crowd, but it’ll hopefully earn me some goodwill from the unions.

“Anyway, how did you even hear about this? I thought I had a scoop on the upcoming strike.”

“Oh uhh, I went to the Red Lotus after I finished with Tenzin, they were talking about it.”

Ah, that’d explain it, Asami thought. We’re really quite a pair aren’t we? A multi-millionaire businessowner, and a tribal warrior who’s friends with activist socialists and anarchists…

“Anyway, dinner is almost ready, so we might as well sit and talk in the dining room,” Asami said, already leading the way there, while beginning to explain the solution she had planned for Future Industries’ finances. She wasn’t sure how much of it Korra would be able to grasp, but generally she’d found that her girlfriend was surprisingly adept at following at least the general gist of a conversation, even when it centered on something completely foreign to the time she came from.

Indeed, the questions Korra ended up asking proved that she understood the essence of what Asami said. “Sooooo, you’re basically giving them exactly what they want? ‘Worker ownership of the means of production,’ or whatever the phrase they keep using is? That’ll definitely work to win them to your side then, right?”

“Well, not necessarily,” Asami said. “It’s only partial ownership, I’ll maintain a slight majority of the shares, which will also mean that I maintain most of my control over the company. It’ll depend on the bylaws, which I expect will be part of what I’ll be negotiating with the unions tomorrow. Depending on the bylaws some things may require a supermajority instead of a simple majority, in that case I would need the workers on my side to make certain kinds of decisions, so they will get more of a say in the company.”

Korra looked at her with glazed over eyes. Okay, maybe that was a bit too technical after all, Asami thought to herself.

“You lost me there,” Korra finally said, confirming Asami’s suspicion. “What’s a ‘supermajority?”

“Well, normally a majority is simply ‘half plus one,’” Asami said, “but a supermajority is when you need even more than that. It can be 60%, or 70%, it depends really. Assuming a 60% supermajority, while I only own about 50% of the shares, that’d mean that I need to win 20% of the workers over to my side.”

Korra nodded hesitantly, seeming to understand. “Right, so, you’d still be able to do things that the majority of workers disagree with?” She asked with a frown.

“Yes, exactly. So don’t uhh- overstate my generosity I guess, I’m not quite ready to give up my control over my family legacy.

“Anyway, why are we talking about this? Your day was way more exciting! You unlocked the avatar state! Did you talk to Raava? Or your past lives?!” It still felt bizarre to even ask this question. Korra’s bending was one thing, by now Asami could think and talk about that without it inducing an existential crisis, but this kind of actual avatar stuff was a different matter entirely.

Past lives, spirits, Raava, I still can’t believe that stuff is actually real… Asami thought.

“Yeah,” Korra said happily, not seeming to notice Asami’s internal struggle. “I spoke to Raava, and Roku. Nothing too interesting though, they just said to be careful with my new power.”

“Roku?” Asami asked with great interest, her inner anthropologist taking over and distracting her from her worries about spirits and past lives and what this all meant about the nature of reality. After all, Korra’s past lives didn’t just have religious significance, they were also all very influential historical figures. “You’ve mentioned Roku before, but I hardly know anything about him. What’s he like?”

“I don’t know, old?” Korra shrugged. “Like I said, we didn’t talk that much. I can tell you some of the stuff I’ve heard about him though.”

Korra began to talk about all the stuff she’d heard that Roku had done in his time, including fighting a volcano! That lasted until dinner was served, at which point they paused their conversation in order to enjoy Tuzo’s wonderful cooking. I’ll miss him too when he leaves, Asami thought, resolving to visit Tuzo’s restaurant as soon as possible after it opened.

“By the way, does this mean you can airbend now?” Asami asked, after making sure no one else was within earshot.

Korra’s face fell. “No. I mean yes, but also no- I mean, I can, but only when in the Avatar state, when I’m using the knowledge and skills of my past lives. But outside of that, still no.”

That’s so weird! Asami thought. Knowledge and skills of past lives? “And you just forget immediately afterwards?” She asked.

Korra shrugged. “More or less, it fades really quickly, feels kind of weird.” She pouted a bit before she continued speaking. “I really thought that I’d be able to airbend after this, but I still can’t! I don’t understand what I’m missing, I’ve memorized all the forms Tenzin taught me, and now I’m making progress with spiritual stuff!” She huffed in frustration, then asked if they could talk about something else.

Despite her relative optimism regarding the solution she’d come up with, Asami didn’t want to talk any more about her struggles with Future Industries, so during desert, and some time afterwards, they talked about Asami’s progress on her thesis, and about a bunch of random other things.

 

 

 

Before bed, Asami spent a bit of time arranging a few final things for her meeting with the unions tomorrow, a meeting that they had thankfully agreed to.

Whether or not they would sleep in the same bed was no longer even something they needed to discuss, it was just assumed by the both of them, which made Asami giddy to realize. Korra briefly went to her own bedroom only to jump around on her bed and mess up the covers, to make it look like it’d been used when the maids came to clean and change the sheets tomorrow morning. It was endearing to see the childish enjoyment that Korra derived from this task.

Asami was briefly anxious, wondering if Korra would want a repeat of yesterday’s evening activities, but Korra made no move to that end, she just flopped onto the bed and talked about how tired she was. “Are you nervous about tomorrow?” She then asked.

“A little,” Asami said, “I don’t think I’ve ever done anything with such high stakes.”

Korra snorted in response. “You’ve literally been in a life and death battle, to save Bolin from execution and save others from deportation… If you could handle that, then you’ll be fine talking to a bunch of stuffy dudes in suits.”

“I guess,” Asami said skeptically, “it’s not quite the same though, is it?”

Korra just shrugged in response. “I can come with you if you want, for support or whatever. Dayal will be there, right? I wanted to talk to him anyway.”

“That’d be really nice actually, thanks!” Asami said, leaning over to give Korra a quick peck on the cheek.

“By the way,” said Korra, “I’ve been thinking about what you said, about selling your gun factories or whatever.”

“What about it?”

“It’s just… If you don’t trust yourself with owning ‘factories dedicated to producing tools of death and destruction,’ then who will you sell them to? Who can you trust more than yourself? Couldn’t you possibly help improve things, by putting those weapons in the hands of the right people?”

Asami sighed, it was a good question, one she’d been grappling with herself. She felt like she’d come to a good conclusion though. “That’s what my dad thought he was doing, isn’t it? Putting weapons in the hands of the ‘right people?’”

Korra seemed about to object to this, but Asami preempted it. “I know what you’ll say, I’m better at judging who the ‘right people’ are than my father is. You’re probably right, but that’s not the only issue.

“Funnily enough, your friend Dayal has actually helped my sort out my thoughts on this matter. I’ve been reading a couple of his books, one of them talks about the importance of ‘aligning your means with your ends,’ to live according to your values, instead of trying to achieve change by working within a corrupt system. Because by doing the latter you risk corrupting yourself.

“I’m not uhh- Principally opposed to the use of weapons, or the use of violence, but profiting off of it just feels wrong. I’ve spent all day trying to figure out how to fix my company’s finances, and at one point that made me think of what’d happen if a war suddenly broke out. The profits of the weapons factories that I own would suddenly skyrocket, potentially to the point where my budget is suddenly balanced…

“I don’t ever want to be in a position where I’m happy that a war breaks out, where a war solves all my problems. I’m already out of touch as-is, living in a giant mansion while most people live in small apartments, or in rural homes that don’t even have plumbing or electricity yet. I don’t want to be so separated from ordinary people that I profit off of a war, while everyone else suffers from it. If I’m ever THAT isolated from the lives of ordinary people, then I really will become unable to tell right from wrong.”

 

Korra was quiet for a while, after that, it was a comfortable silence though, Asami understood that Korra needed some time to digest all of that, it was quite a heavy subject after all.

“You’re very wise,” Korra said eventually, which caught Asami off-guard.

“Wise?! No I’m not I just-”

Korra cut her off with a hand to her lips. “Shut up, I said that you’re wise, you calling me a liar?!” She demanded, with mock-anger.

“I think you’re wise, and I’m the avatar so I’m always right.” Korra said with a smirk.

“Seriously though, Tenzin sort of said something similar today. He said that Raava bonding a human must’ve been because the avatar is supposed to have worldly attachments, otherwise how could they know how to help the world?

“I think you’re in a similar boat, with your wealth and luxury it’s almost like you’re in a totally different world than ordinary mortals, which could prevent you from knowing how to help them even if you have the best of intentions, just like how Raava used to not understand mortals. I think you’re right to sell those weapons factories, it’ll help you to stay in the same world as the rest of us.”

“Thanks,” Asami said, it really did mean a lot to have Korra’s approval. “You’re quite wise too, by the way,” she said, which seemed to catch Korra off-guard, but Asami definitely meant it.

 

 

 

Asami took Korra up on the offer to accompany her to the meeting with the unions, which was how, the following morning, they wound up both walking towards the place where the meeting would be held. They walked with their arms linked together, it was an accepted way for platonic friends to touch each other, yet it was still enough to make Asami heat up in excitement from the contact.

Which felt a bit embarrassing, but not enough to keep it from being totally worth it.

The meeting place was a big hall that could be rented out for parties, conventions, etc. Right now the unions were using it as a place where all the different union representatives could get together to discuss their strategies and demands, with enough room for their members to show up and watch, for maximum transparency.

Asami made a mental note to remind herself that she would need to arrange for a similar space, to accommodate the debates and eventual votes that would come with all her employees becoming shareholders with voting rights.

“You don’t have to wait if you don’t want to,” Asami said, turning to Korra, “this will probably take a while, and it won’t be very interesting.”

“But I want to!” Her girlfriend said, a caring look in her eyes that Asami couldn’t bring herself to deny.

“Okay, you can just take a seat in the audience then,” she said. “But don’t blame me if you get bored.”

“I won’t get bored, you’re going to kick ass and I’m going to enjoy seeing it!” Korra said as her parting words.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra was extremely bored. Don’t get it twisted, Asami was kicking ass, as far as she could tell, and it was kind of fun, and surprisingly arousing, to see her stun all the union bosses and to see how she had an answer prepared for everything they threw at her. But that wasn’t enough to overcome just how tedious it all seemed, all the boring little details that they were arguing over as though they were the most important thing ever.

Part of her realized that this sort of thing was in fact very important, that if she wanted to learn how to fulfill her role as the avatar in this new world then she needed to learn to at least sort of understand it. It’s just so dull though!

Right now, as far as Korra understood it, Asami was arguing with the union heads about how exactly shareholder meetings would be recorded. Apparently, some of the union heads considered it a matter of vital importance that a ‘neutral third party’ would be ‘maintaining the minutes’ of each meeting. Initially Korra had been unsure of what ‘maintaining the minutes’ meant exactly and she had assumed that it was super important, but she’d asked one of the union members that were observing in the audience, and he had confirmed that no, it was actually totally boring and meaningless. As if meetings weren’t boring enough, now they were having a meeting about meetings, and about how to write down everything said during a meeting?! How many different ways are there to write stuff down?!

Even Har Dayal, who was one of the union heads at the table, seemed frustrated by the way that the other guys were pretending as though it was a matter of such vital importance.

In the grand scheme of things though, Korra was pretty sure that Asami was achieving everything she’d been hoping to achieve during this meeting. The union heads had all been very surprised by Asami’s proposal, and initially they’d been skeptical, but once Asami had begun outlining the specifics of her proposal she seemed to be slowly winning them over, or at least convincing them that she wasn’t trying to trick them or anything.

There’d been some back and forth on a few things, like which things would require the ‘supermajority’ that Asami had explained to Korra earlier, and how large such a ‘supermajority’ should be, but Asami didn’t seem too unhappy by the terms they’d ended up agreeing to.

After an agonizingly long time, the matter of who would ‘maintain the minutes’ was finally resolved, and the meeting eventually came to a close. The unions had agreed to exempt Future Industries from the general strike!

“Congratulations!” Korra said, when Asami walked up to her. “Uhhh, congratulations are in order, right? Or did I misunderstand everything that happened?”

“No, you got it,” Asami said, looking more beautiful than ever thanks to the proud smile she was sporting. “They agreed to exempt Future Industries from the strike, that should be enough to save my company! If I can’t make money when I’m literally the only functioning business in town, then I just flat out cannot make money.”

Har Dayal followed closely behind her. “With any luck, you won’t be the only business in town. We’ll be sure to let every other business know that if they want their union employees to return to work then they can simply give them the same terms that you’re giving your employees. That way, regardless of the outcome of this strike, we’ll at least have achieved far better employment contracts for those workers.”

“I’m not sure anyone else will take you up on that though…” Asami said. “A lot of business owners can be short-sighted, but not with stuff like this. They’ll all see it as a step towards socialism, the prospect of which terrifies them.”

Dayal nodded to concede the point. “You’re right, it seems unlikely that many others will follow your lead. I’m glad that we were able to work things out with you though, now that our negotiations are complete I’m willing to admit that I was a bit conflicted about potentially harming your company with this strike, after all you’ve done to help the people of this city.”

“You needn’t be conflicted,” Asami said, Korra didn’t entirely agree but she remained quiet while Asami kept speaking, “it’s just business, I completely understand. I helped take down my father because it was the right thing to do, not so that you’d owe me a favor.”

“Well, I’m totally willing to call in favors,” Korra said. “What about the thing I asked, have you talked to Zaheer?”

Dayal nodded. “He thinks it can be done, but it will take some time to arrange, several weeks at least. I’m not sure why you’d consider this me doing you a favor though, if it works then you’ll be doing a great service to our movement.”

Asami looked increasingly confused during this conversation, so it wasn’t a surprise when she interrupted with a question. “What are you two talking about? What service will Korra be doing? What does Zaheer have to do with it? He’s the militia soldier you met in the Earth Kingdom, isn’t he?”

Korra nodded, then looked around to see if anyone else was listening before further answering Asami’s question. “I uhh, told Dayal everything about who I am,” she said, prompting a surprised look from Asami. “It’s mainly because I want the Red Lotus to know that they can call on me for help, if the separatists attack again, or anything else goes wrong. But it’s also because I want to do more to help the militias in the Earth Kingdom, it feels wrong to just come back here and abandon them while they’re still fighting a war.”

“What can you do though?” Asami asked.

Har Dayal answered before Korra needed to. “Korra has offered to break through the sea blockade that Kuvira has created in the Baizhi Sea, to allow us to send supplies to our comrades in the Earth Kingdom.”  

“I was going to tell you,” Korra said, “just didn’t seem like the right time yesterday, you had enough on your mind already.”

She nervously looked to see Asami’s reaction, but thankfully she didn’t seem mad, just mildly exasperated. “Of course you did,” she said with a small smile. “How much aid are we talking about?” She asked, turning to Dayal. “Surely a hole in the blockade, even one created by Korra, would be fixed fairly quickly?”

Dayal nodded. “Yes, of course. But if Korra is correctly estimating her own abilities then I expect that we’ll be able to send several large ships through. We’ve been stockpiling supplies since long before Korra made this suggestion, waiting for an opportunity to send them across the border to aid our comrades. So we’ll have more than enough supplies to fill up each ship.”

“If you need more ships, I might be able to arrange one or two, plus some more supplies,” Asami said, causing both Korra and Dayal to look at her in surprise.

“Are you certain?” Dayal asked. “The legality of this will be murky, at best. Attacking Kuvira’s ships, not to mention the embargo-”

“The embargo only covers weapons,” Asami said, “not armored vehicles for example… As for attacking Kuvira’s ships, we won’t be doing that, Korra will. We’ll maintain plausible deniability, and it will be happening in international waters anyway.

"My lawyers are the best of the best, it should be fine. This probably isn’t the place to discuss it, but I think there’s ways I would be willing to help. Here’s my card, contact me anytime.”

She handed a small piece of paper to Dayal, then turned to Korra. “Are you ready to go? I could tell that you were bored out of your mind,” she said with a grin, to which Korra responded in kind while scratching the back of her neck.

“Heh, yeah, I don’t know how you make it through so many meetings like this,” she said. “Anyway, I’m ready to go I think.” She turned to Dayal to give him a questioning look. “Unless there’s something else you want to talk about?”

“There is actually,” he said. “The strike begins tomorrow, since it doesn’t target any specific business, the picket lines will instead be at major transport hubs, train stations and such. The scope of President Tarrlok’s powers, under his new laws, is rather vague, some of us fear that our demonstration will technically be illegal and that he’ll try to violently break us up.

“He might do that anyway, the police aren’t friendly to worker strikes at the best of times, but historically it’s been even worse during general strikes. It’d like for you to join us, perhaps with your powers you could help if things threaten to get out of hand.”

Korra nodded. “Sure, I’ll come. Not until a bit later in the day though, we have another session with the nerds from the university, right?” She asked Asami.

“Oh right, yes,” Asami said, she’d clearly forgotten about it until Korra reminded her. “We do.”

 

 

 

They returned home for the day, but were caught off-guard by a mob of people outside the gates of the mansion. Many were carrying signs, and some were wearing weird robes like the clergy from the Church of Raava wore. Once the mob spotted Korra and Asami walking up to the gate, they were immediately swarmed.

“Sinner!” They yelled at Korra. “How could you let such a heretic into your home!?” They yelled at Asami.

Korra and Asami wordlessly agreed to just push their way through the crowd without engaging with them, ignoring the other accusations that were flung their way, most of them were basically the same as the first ones. Pushing their way through involved Korra shoving a few of the protesters aside more harshly than needed, she felt zero shame in doing so.

The guards at the gate helped them through the entrance, while preventing the mob from following, allowing Korra and Asami to take a breather.

“Shit!” Asami said, it was rare for Korra to hear her girlfriend curse like that. “Guess they finally discovered that you’ve been living here with me,” she said, a wry smile aimed towards Korra.

“They didn’t before?” Korra asked.

Asami shrugged. “It wasn’t a secret, but I didn’t go around telling people either. I figure that that’s the only reason why it took so long before protestors showed up here, I sort of expected it to happen sooner to be honest.”

“Now what?” Korra said. “Do we just… Ignore them?”

Asami shrugged. “Pretty much, shouldn’t be too hard, the mansion’s grounds are quite large after all, I doubt we’ll hear them when they’re all the way at the gate, even if we go outside.”

I guess, Korra thought, though it didn’t sit right with her.

Asami must’ve recognized the look on her face, because she gave Korra a flat stare before giving her a warning. “You can’t chase them away. It’ll just give them what they want, it’ll let them paint you as an unhinged menace to society.”

“Well maybe I am an unhinged menace to society,” Korra mumbled, though she already realized that she’d have to concede the point.

She and Asami continued to the mansion itself, while Korra started cracking jokes and trying to prevent the mob from putting a damper on the rest of the day. After all, Asami’s negotiations with the unions had been a resounding success and her company had been saved!

Once they returned, Korra loudly instructed Tuzo to ‘prepare a feast in celebration of Asami’s victory over her adversaries,’ causing Tuzo to laugh and agree while Asami tried to hide her face and her blush.

Asami had a bunch of phone calls to make, related to her company, so Korra spent most of the rest of the day practicing her bending forms, frustrated by her continued inability to airbend.

Dinner, as instructed, was even more glorious and delicious than usual, and Asami seemed to be in a good mood while she teased Korra for her table manners, causing Korra to take even larger bites than usual, before chewing exaggeratedly.

“Stop it, ugh! So gross!” Her girlfriend said while pushing her shoulder, though her attempt at sounding angry was undermined by how she was clearly holding back her laughter.

“Whaaht? I’hm nhot dohing anythwing?!” Korra said with her mouth full and her very best shit-eating grin.

 

 

 

Soon enough, the day came to an end and they began to prepare for bed.

Korra hesitated briefly before entering Asami’s bedroom, memories of what they’d done two nights ago had been at the forefront of her mind this entire time. She desperately desired a repeat, but worried that maybe it would be too soon.

Yesterday hadn’t felt like the right time, since Asami had clearly been worried about the upcoming meeting, that was why Korra hadn’t tried to initiate anything then. But now that that meeting was over, and it was a resounding success for Asami, maybe she’d be up for some late night ‘celebrating…’

“Hey,” Korra said as soon as she walked in and saw Asami just finish putting on her pj’s. “You know, the night doesn’t have to end yet, we can celebrate some more…”

Her girlfriend audibly gulped, while Korra tried to look as seductive as possible while walking up to her. “I loved seeing you so confident in that meeting, none of those guys even knew what hit them! Want me to show you how proud I am?”

In lieu of a reply, Asami just smiled, before turning off the lights.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Eekasi watched from the end of the dark hallway, as the watertribe girl entered mistress Asami’s bedroom, just as she’d done the previous night, and the night before that. After waiting a few minutes she walked up to the bedroom door, the sounds she heard from the opposite side left little room for doubt regarding what Miss Asami and her savage pet were up to.

Disgusting filth, Eekasi thought to herself, before turning to walk away. Normally she should’ve left the mansion hours ago along with the other maids, but after making her usual rounds where she put out all the candles that burned throughout the massive home she had instead remained in the dark hallways, waiting, all to gather more information on behalf of her new benefactor.

I can’t believe the others haven’t noticed yet, these two aren’t exactly subtle… Sure, they tried to make the savage’s bed appear as though someone had slept in it, but it didn’t hold up under any real scrutiny.

Eekasi had subtly pried for information from the other maids and staff throughout the mansion, to see if they could help her find even more dirt on their employer, but none of it had borne any fruit. Are they actually ignorant? Or do they have a misguided sense of loyalty to the mistress, despite her degenerate behavior?

Most of them did seem to genuinely like Mistress Asami, just like Eekasi had used to, so they didn’t tend to engage in much gossip, even the harmless kind.

Any loyalty that Eekasi felt though had been erased after she learned of how Asami had turned in her very own father, forcing Master Hiroshi to become a fugitive along with Mr Lao, who’d helped Eekasi land this job in the first place.

So, when her new benefactor had approached her asking for information to use as blackmail against Asami, Eekasi hadn’t felt even the slightest sense of hesitation. She clutched the necklace of Raava that she wore around her neck, the symbol of her faith, the faith that Asami was spitting on with her sacrilege.

Allowing her savage friend to continue living in the mansion, even after the woman had publicly disrespected the church’s High Sage, was one thing. Maybe Eekasi would’ve been able to chalk that up to some misguided sense of charity on the part of her Mistress, aimed towards a girl with no place else to go. But nothing could excuse the depts of depravity her mistress was engaging in! Then again, what else could you expect from someone who would betray even her own father?

The way Eekasi saw it, it was a sign of the slow collapse that their society faced, that their elites were being allowed to engage in such depravity. But not for long, she thought to herself. Her benefactor would see to that, he’d wipe the smug smile off of that spoiled brat’s face.

Tonight, her mistress had been even more insufferable than usual, celebrating some success she’d booked with her company. A success that was no doubt more attributable to the experienced and qualified men working under her than to the girl herself, yet she shamelessly took the credit anyway as she feasted with her savage pet.

Enjoy it while you can, Eekasi thought to herself, she found herself grinning at the thought.

Even if her benefactor failed to take Mistress Asami down, she was certain that Amon would not, he would restore order to this broken society.

Separatist rallies had moved deeper underground, but Eekasi had still managed to gain access to them, she had found that the excitement of the members of the movement was more palpable than ever before, the persecution they faced from the corrupt government only added to their motivation! Soon enough, they would see faith and tradition restored to this farce of a nation!

But that was a concern for another day, for now, Eekasi simply needed to give another report to her benefactor. She left the mansion, then walked past the servant’s quarters where she would normally retire for the night, before leaving the mansion’s grounds altogether.

A brisk walk later she knocked on an inconspicuous gate, it was the servant’s entrance of a large villa, though compared to the Sato estate it was a very modest building.

The door opened, and a man wordlessly let her in, before guiding her over to the office where her benefactor awaited. Eekasi mentally went over the report she would give before taking a deep breath and opening the door.

“You’re late!” Her benefactor said with his commanding voice, even though Eekasi was certain that she was exactly on time. “Well? Spit it out, what’s your report?”

Eekasi felt a smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she replied. “I believe you’re going to like this, Master Izaru,” she said.

Chapter 27: Picket Lines

Summary:

During the ongoing strikes, Asami continues managing Future Industries, while Korra struggles to help maintain the peace.

Picket Lines.

 

 

 

Business was booming, for Asami that is. She allowed herself a small grin as she looked over the latest financial reports of Future Industries.

After two weeks of most of the city’s largest unions participating in a general strike, many of her largest competitors were starting to buckle under the pressure. Over twenty percent of Republic City’s total population was participating in the strike, across all industries. In some industries the percentage was even higher.

It led to some industries almost completely grinding to a halt, companies in virtually every economic sector dealt with shortages at best, a complete inability to produce and sell their products at worst. Outside of the city the scope of the strike wasn’t quite as large, so there the effects were similar but not quite as severe.

Either way, customers were frustrated with all the lines and empty shelves, which drove them towards whichever company was managing to continue operating. In other words, it drove them towards Future Industries.

Of course, even a conglomerate as large as Future Industries couldn’t provide all the needs of the people of Republic City, especially now that Asami had finalized the sale of the last of the subsidiaries she’d decided to sell. That still left her with a very large company that provides a wide range of products and services though, for example the fleet of fishing vessels that she owned was currently raking in record profits, since many of the other suppliers of food were dealing with labor shortages either for their harvests, or for the transportation of their harvests, often both.

Some of her workers had initially been skeptical about the concept of having to pay for a share of the company, even if it was in installments. But with the help of Ruolan, the company’s worker representative, she had managed to convince her workers to agree to it. All the skepticism had disappeared once the company became profitable again, and the first of the dividend payments were made.

Asami didn’t think that she would ever forget the celebratory cries and cheers when her employees read out the cheques and double-checked whether too many zeroes had been added to them, she was definitely glad that she’d thought to go to the factory floor for that moment.

A simplistic analysis of the issue would suggest that in the long term Asami would be missing out on a great deal of money, now that half of the company’s profits went to her workers instead of into her own pockets. But a more nuanced analysis would mean taking note of the fact that she would’ve missed out on even more money if her company had gone under, which certainly would’ve happened if she hadn’t come up with this way to garner the short-term funds she needed to recover from the fines and the investigations that shut her factories down, and if she hadn’t won the unions to her side.

Plus, this was a less objective and scientific belief, but one that Asami held none the less; having happy and well compensated workers, motivated by a direct stake in the company’s success, could help Future Industries rise to unprecedented heights. Losing out on half the profits would be a small price to pay if it helps the profits triple in size!

 

 

To try to discourage overly simplistic analyses of the situation, Asami paid to put out advertisements in newspapers, in which she did her best to explain how her business decision were both socially and fiscally responsible. In which she reminded company-owners and citizens alike that if they were struggling under the strike then the blame should be placed squarely on the businesses unwilling to make the same concessions that Asami had made, and on the government, led by Tarrlok, for similarly refusing to give in to the striker’s demands.

The response to this campaign was mixed, Asami certainly expected the number of gala-invitations that she received to decline in number. The accusations against her, due to her proximity to Korra, also weren’t dying down. People were still protesting outside her mansion and accusing her and Korra of all sorts of things. Thankfully though the negative impact of this seemed to be limited, there was no sign of any meaningful boycott against Future Industries because of it, and the protests seemed to mostly be coming from a relatively small group of wealthy religious conservatives.

That resentment from the upper classes was more than made up for by the praise that she’d been receiving from the general public.

She had even made an appearance to where the workers were picketing, where she’d been received with cheers and praises, which was a rather unprecedented way for striking workers to receive a multi-millionaire business-owner.

Surprisingly it wasn’t just her own employees, or even only union members, who were praising her. The fact that everyone knew that Future Industries’s garbage trucks were the only reason why garbage wasn’t piling up in the streets and stinking up the place probably had something to do with this. Future Industries’ garbage truck company was the only one still able to operate despite the strike.

From what she’d heard, some of the unions regretted not thinking of this fact when they’d negotiated this deal with Asami to exempt her from the strike. (If she was being honest, Asami herself hadn’t even realized she owned a garbage truck company.) Garbage piling up in the streets certainly would’ve helped give the unions more leverage, by making the impacts of the strike that much more visible and severe. But they were smart enough to realize that their negotiation power would be hurt even more severely if they publicly went back on their word and broke the deal they’d negotiated with Future Industries, that it would definitively shut the door to anyone else making similar deals with them.

Asami’s support for the goals of the strike wasn’t strong enough for her to undermine her own company by keeping her garbage trucks idle unnecessarily, it seemed to her like it wasn’t truly a matter of how much leverage the workers had anyway. They had plenty of leverage, not just because of the strike itself and the amount of people participating, but also because of how clear they’d made it that if the strike was declared illegal then they would be willing to resort to other means instead.

It was primarily a matter of how stubborn those in power decided to be. They were largely insulated from the damage caused by the strike, so they could potentially choose to be very stubborn.

Conservative factions in the senate certainly weren’t responding calmly, since day one of the strike they had been calling for Tarrlok to call in the army to disperse the protestors and force people back to work, a power that he did have thanks to the law that he had pushed. Thankfully though even Tarrlok had been hesitant to give those factions what they wanted and to actually make use of this power, making him a surprising voice of reason.

It reinforced Asami’s view that the man was more a pragmatist than an ideologue. He usually sided with his donors, but was smart enough to realize that he also still needed to keep the general public on his side if he wanted to maintain his position of power.

Instead of directly picking a fight with the striking unions, Tarrlok had been going around giving interviews with newspapers, insisting that the whole thing would blow over soon enough, once the union’s strike funds ran out and everyone returned to work, that therefore there was no need for drastic action.

This wasn’t to say that Tarrlok’s government had been completely idle during the strike, there had been a number of violent clashes between picketers and the police, relatively minor in scale thus far, but enough to make Asami worry for Korra. Her girlfriend had joined the picketers almost every day since the strike began, except for the day when she’d fought in the quarter finals of the fighting tournament. (And won once again, just like Bolin, Mako had sadly been eliminated from the contest after losing against Tahno.)

For now, Tarrlok was resisting calls to escalate the government’s conflict with the unions, but who knew how long that would last? The unions were already holding out far longer than anyone had expected, so perhaps even a relative moderate like Tarrlok would run out of patience soon.

There was a very real possibility that Korra would be stuck in the middle of some serious bloodshed sometime soon. Despite her better judgement, Asami had been reading up on historical labor strikes that the government had broken up, usually violently, and often with dozens of deaths as a result. It did not help to assuage her worries, but it also didn’t deter Korra, nor did Asami want it to. She knew who she’d entered a relationship with, and she had no regrets.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra stared up at the snowflakes gently drifting down from the sky above, the peaceful sight created an odd juxtaposition with the chaos that was unfolding on the ground. Union workers that were on strike were lined up outside of the train station in the industrial district, this station was used by many workers who had to commute to their job.

In the not too recent past, many of these union workers would be on their way to work right now, alongside the other workers that sat inside the train that was currently starting to slow down for its stop at the station.

But not today, today the workers were divided in two camps, those who joined the strike, and those who continued going to work. The unionists, as their signs and shouts were demonstrating, saw the other group as traitors to the working class, because by continuing to work they helped keep their companies and the overall economy running, undermining the leverage that unions tried to achieve through their strike.

‘Strike-breakers,’ they were called, though many of the trade unionists called them more derogatory terms like ‘scabs’ or ‘blacklegs’ instead. According to Har Dayal the latter term originated from coalmine workers having legs covered in black soot from their work in the mines, which during a strike separated them from striking workers who kept their legs clean by abstaining from work. Apparently during a strike there were sometimes people who claimed to support the strike, but then secretly went to work anyway, lured by the higher pay offered to strike-breakers. If such people were coal miners, then their black legs gave them away.

Historical trivia aside, Korra had mixed feelings watching this all unfold. The unionists formed a corridor of sorts, making it so that the strike-breakers could pass them by and travel to their work, but only by walking through this corridor with people shouting accusations at them from two sides.

Dayal had explained the theory behind it, it was meant to shame and ostracize people for not acting in solidarity and not standing up for the shared interests of the working class. But Dayal had conceded that there were often sympathetic reasons for it. People needed money to live, and if they went on strike then their employer no longer paid them.

Striking was important, Korra could see why, but it was also risky, it made it harder for people to feed and otherwise support their families.

To be fair, the picketers also had pamphlets that they tried to hand out to the strike-breakers, as a less hostile way of persuading them of the errors of their ways, but the more hostile shaming was definitely the predominant tactic at play right now.

Thankfully, Korra’s job at the moment wasn’t to judge the exact philosophy behind striking and picketing, her job was to stand ready and step in when needed if things threatened to escalate with the police, who formed the third group of people present at the scene.

A handful of scuffles aside, as well as some rotten fruits and vegetables being thrown back and forth, things seemed to remain mostly quiet this time around. The police seemed relatively calm too, content to just stand on the side and watch without interfering.

Korra was about to walk over to Har Dayal to tell him that she’d be leaving, to head over to another one of the picket lines where maybe things were more likely to get out of hand, when she noticed a sudden change in the crowd of police officers. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something about the mood they were given off had suddenly shifted after the arrival of a handful of new officers.

It’s their stances, they’re suddenly bending their knees into more of a combat stance, and palming their batons, ready to draw them.

Korra ran over to Dayal, but now with a very different message. “Dayal, I think there’s about to be trouble!” She yelled directly into his ear, it was the only way that anyone was able to hear anything amidst the shouts of protestors.

She pointed towards the line of police, who for the moment were still just talking amongst themselves, but the sudden impatient and tightly wound little movements they were all making suggested that this wouldn’t last long.

Thankfully Dayal immediately seemed to see the same thing that Korra was seeing. The portly man didn’t look like the sort of person who’d have any experience in fighting, or in recognizing when someone is preparing for a fight. But the man had been an activist his whole life and had proven over these past few weeks to be very adept at recognizing when a crowd was about to shift towards violence.

Dayal’s eyes went wide, then he immediately began shouting to his fellow unionists, telling them to not escalate with the police even if provoked, to not retaliate. However, before that message was able to spread throughout the entire picket line, the police officers suddenly pushed forwards, towards the picketers on the other side of the corridor.

“This is an illegal gathering, cease your violent action and return to your homes!” Someone behind the line of cops said through a megaphone, at the same time the line of cops had already crashed against the protestors and begun pummeling them with their batons.

“Oh fogs!” Korra said, the protestors were fighting back against the police, and some of them, not seeming to realize where the attack was coming from, had begun to brawl with the strike-breakers instead.

In a matter of seconds, the scene had shifted from controlled chaos to just regular chaos. People were running every which way, some to flee, others to find someone that they could beat up.

Thankfully most of the strike-breakers were simply fleeing, and after an initial period of confusion most of the protesters were letting them do so, realizing that the bigger fight was that against the police. Dayal continued shouting to not fight at all, to not give the police what they wanted, but it seemed like it was already too late.

Korra pushed forwards, breaking up two unionists who in the chaos had somehow begun fighting each other, then she continued pushing herself through the chaotic mass, towards the line of police that was slowly but surely pushing the protestors back.

Protestors were armed too, either with their signs, or with batons of their own, but the police clearly still had the upper hand, Korra saw several protestors already retreating, clutching their bleeding or bruised heads from where the police had hit them.

The police’s helmets and shields, combined with their greater cohesion, were helping to give them the advantage. One protestor though, a large beast of a man who looked like he’d been through his fair share of brawls before, was giving the police more of a challenge. He wasn’t actually fighting much, but he was standing his ground, refusing to step back.

He caught a baton in one hand, easily wrenching it from the officer’s hand and tossing it backwards, while ignoring another baton that was hitting him in the side. The cop who’s baton he’d taken stepped back with a furious look on his face, Korra knew a sore loser when she saw one, so she was unsurprised and ready for it when this officer pulled his gun and pointed it towards the large man.

She reached out with her metalbending, then before this cop was able to squeeze the trigger she yanked the gun out of his grip and down towards the ground.

All the protestors who’d seen the cop pull his gun shied backwards in fear, clearly realizing how close they’d come to being shot. Many hadn’t seen it though, they continued fighting back against the line of police that was still pushing forwards. To make matters worse, the same disgruntled officer, now twice-disarmed, began shouting “they took my pistol! They’re armed!!”

“Everyone just get back!” Korra shouted, while at the same time she saw several other officers respond to their colleague’s cries of alarm by pulling their own pistols. The sight of guns being drawn probably contributed more than Korra’s shouts did, but either way the mass of protestors finally began retreating backwards instead of trying to stand their ground against the police.

They didn’t fully clear the area though, seeming reluctant to just let themselves be completely driven away like this. “What’s the big idea? We’ve been doing this for weeks, since when is it an illegal gathering?!” One yelled towards the police.

“This is an illegal gathering, clear out immediately!” The voice through the megaphone helpfully repeated.

“We have every right to be here!” Dayal shouted, even while gesturing for his fellow protestors to continue walking backwards, keeping pace with the police who were still pushing ahead.

“The rules are clear!” One of the cops shouted. “You can yell all you want, but you may not physically obstruct the workers from reaching their workplace!”

What? Korra thought. When the police attacked there was still a wide-open corridor for the strike-breakers to walk through…

Dayal voiced a similar thought, but the cops weren’t receptive. “This isn’t a debate, clear out immediately or you will be shot!” One said.

Korra couldn’t help herself. “Oh yeah? Try it!!” She yelled. She had, after all, not been idle when the cops began drawing their guns. She hadn’t trusted them to hold their fire and had instead used her metalbending to sabotage their firing mechanisms. She’d been practicing her metalbending a lot, and Asami had shown her the best way to easily disable a gun, so she’d become quite proficient in doing this.

Disabled guns or not, it was probably for the best that none of the cops took her bait and actually pulled the trigger. I wonder how long it’ll take before they realize their guns are busted, she thought, feeling her lips tilt upwards in a slight grin.

Eventually Dayal managed to get people’s attention, allowing him and a few other union leaders to convince everyone to back down and leave. It was a rather anti-climatic ending to the whole affair, but Korra supposed that that’d been the whole point of her presence.

It was now the 3^rd time that her intervention had prevented people from being shot at one of these protests, this was the first time however that the violence from the police was so one-sided and unprovoked, that the police just suddenly attacked a peaceful group of protestors. Previous times there had at least been a semblance of an excuse, with some of the protesters growing quite rowdy before the police stepped in.

With her body still filled with unresolved tension, Korra ran over to Har Dayal. “What was that?! Why did they suddenly attack?” She asked.

Dayal just sighed. “They’ve been trying to paint us as violent terrorists this whole time, we’ve mostly managed to maintain discipline and avoid feeding into their narrative so far, which they must think is rather inconsiderate of us. They’re trying to provoke a fight, to make their narrative more convincing. Doesn’t matter who really started it if they lie about it afterwards.”

“That’s- That’s-” Korra began, at a loss for words. What do you even do in response to that kind of dishonesty? How do you fight that? She thought to herself.

“Speaking of,” Dayal said, “I’d best get back to my printer, get our side of the story out there as soon as possible, before the police begin spreading their lies.”

The portly man then left the scene in a slow jog, to fight in his own way, leaving a frustrated Korra behind, surrounded by unionists who seemed similarly disgruntled. Dayal, as a writer, was able to do something to ‘fight’ this issue, Korra’s talents however seemed less suited to that task.

Ugh, why can’t I just punch this issue away? She thought, for the umpteenth time. She began to consider just entering the avatar state, telling everyone to stop being assholes, and throwing rocks and fire at them if they tried to argue. It might work, right?

She scoffed at herself in frustration, then decided to head over to Mako & Bolin’s place to calm herself down.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Kanpai!” Asami said, along with the rest of the office, before downing her beverage in a single big gulp.

They were celebrating Saburo’s official promotion to managing director of Future Industries, after he was announced to be the clear winner of a company-wide election. (Unofficially they were also celebrating the fact that they weren’t bankrupt, which was a genuine victory considering the recent challenges they’d faced.) Either way, the former chief engineer had earned Asami’s respect, so she was happy with the result and looked forward to working with him in his new position.

Everyone else in the office seemed happy with it too, though for some it seemed to Asami like it was for the wrong reasons. Many of the white-collar workers had had the unrealistic fear that the factory workers would all be voting for some illiterate uneducated idiot completely unsuited to the task, so the mere fact that Saburo wasn’t literally drooling out of his mouth was a pleasant surprise to them.

Saburo deserved better than to just be seen as not quite as big of a disaster as he could’ve been, so Asami made sure to tell him that she was genuinely glad and genuinely thought that he deserved the position. Either way, I’m sure that he’ll prove it to everyone else soon enough, so there’s really no reason to worry.

Asami went to refill her glass, when she did she overheard a few of the office-workers who’s names she couldn’t recall. “Wish this was alcohol,” one of them said.

“Yeah,” another responded, “I don’t agree with the unions on much, but I’m certainly down for an end to this ridiculous prohibition.”

“If you want then we can go to the Ear Inn after this, they’ve got a back room where they know how to have a real party, if you catch my drift,” a third said, prompting looks of alarm and nonverbal gestures to shut up from the others when they saw that Asami was nearby.

“Don’t mind me boys,” she said with a smile, “I don’t care, so long as you don’t get yourselves arrested and don’t show up to work with too big of a hangover.”

She chuckled at the audible sighs of relief, before walking away again, fresh non-alcoholic drink in hand. Truth was, a part of her had also been tempted to find a speakeasy that she could take Korra to, since she’d heard rumors that the clientele of some of those were much more accepting towards certain kinds of taboos than the rest of society, it might be a good place for them to go on a date and be themselves. She just wasn’t sure where to begin when looking for such a place.

Thinking of Korra soon proved to be a mistake, the celebration was nice enough she supposed, lack of liquor notwithstanding, but now all she could think of was how she wished that Korra was there too. She ended up leaving early as a result.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Hey, anyone home?” Korra asked, knocking on the wall next to the open door that led to Mako & Bolin’s apartment.

“Korra?” Mako’s voice said from up on the interior balcony of sorts, where she knew the brothers slept. “Yeah I’m here, give me a sec.”

Shortly afterwards, Mako came down the stairs into the living room of their apartment. “What’re you doing here?” He asked. “I thought you’d be busy with the strikes and stuff.”

Korra huffed in frustration. “I was, but the police suddenly came in and started pummeling people, chasing us all away. Dayal said that they’re trying to provoke a response, so that they can play the victim after.”

Mako looked disturbed by the news, but he didn’t immediately respond so Korra just kept venting her frustration. “It’s probably going to work sooner or later, I was definitely tempted to start cracking skulls! That’s why I came here, I need to blow off steam, want to spar?”

“Not if you plan on cracking my skull!” Mako said with a laugh, briefly seeming to forget about his concern, though that lasted only a moment. “Do you think they did the same at the other protests? Bolin also joined a picket line, the one by the docks.”

Korra shrugged. “No idea, I considered going straight to another protest, but like I said I wasn’t exactly in the mood to ‘deescalate,’ so I figured that I’d be doing more harm than good.”

“Fair enough,” Mako said dryly. “Well, I guess there isn’t much I can do about it either way, so I’m up for some sparring.”

“I’ll try to restrain myself,” Korra said, “are you ready now, or should I wait a bit?”

“I’m ready, let’s do it,” Mako said.

 

 

Exercising with Mako was going well, instead of jumping straight into sparring they had begun with an exercise where Mako strung up a rope horizontally, and instructed Korra to duck back and forth underneath it to mimic the movement of ducking beneath an opponent’s punches. It was a clever exercise, and Korra figured that it’d work just as well to dodge attacks from enemy benders, or even bullets, if she saw that they were aiming for her head.

After a few rounds of sparring, Korra then began showing Mako a waterbending technique, where you used your opponent’s momentum to throw them off balance. He was struggling to try to use the technique against Korra, when suddenly the gym fell quiet.

A few other guys had also been sparring or training in the gym, creating a constant buzz of background noise from people hitting punching bags, or each other. Suddenly, Korra realized that this noise had all disappeared. She looked around and saw that everyone in the gym was staring towards gym’s entrance for some reason. When Korra and Mako turned to where they were all looking, they saw a bloodied Bolin stumbling into the gym, clutching a shoulder wound that seemed to be the source of all the blood.

“Bro!” Mako said, immediately jumping into action, with Korra close behind him. “What in Raava’s name happened?” Mako said, already throwing his brother’s arm around his neck to help support his weight.

“I uhh- I think I got shot,” Bolin said.

“Shit! Someone grab some clean towels, and some water!” Mako yelled. “Where’s the first aid kit?”

Nobody seemed to be responding to his request yet, which was just as well, since Korra had a better idea anyway. “No, just take him upstairs,” she said.

“What? Wh-”

“Just trust me, I can help him, but we need some privacy,” Korra said, interrupting Mako’s protest.

He seemed skeptical, but Korra did her best to project confidence while looking him straight in the eye. “Fine. I do trust you, I guess,” he said eventually. “But you better know what you’re doing!”

Thankfully Bolin still seemed to have much of his strength, so getting him upstairs wasn’t too difficult. It also meant that his blood loss can’t have been that severe yet.

Once Bolin got upstairs, Korra took over Mako’s position under his shoulder, allowing her to guide the younger brother over to the bathroom, for the easiest access to the water she would need.

With how busy she’d been lately she hadn’t found the right time to tell the brothers about her identity as the avatar yet. I guess now is as good of a time as any, she thought, causing a slight feeling of mirth to wash over her, despite the circumstances.

“Now what?” Mako questioned, after Korra sat Bolin down onto the toilet, ripped away the shirt that covered the wound on his shoulder, and then twisted open the sink.

By way of answer, Korra swept up the water coming out of the sink with a single movement from her wrist, and directed it to Bolin’s shoulder, where she quickly cleaned away the blood before beginning the process of healing the wound, making the water glow.

“I don’t sense a bullet in there,” she said, “it must’ve gone straight through. Which hopefully means that it didn’t hurt shatter any bones or anything like that.”

“Mm, mm-hm,” Bolin hummed in agreement, “yeah that’s good. Makes perfect sense. Just one question though. Why is this water glowing!?! What’s happening?! I’m very confused right now!”

“I’m using waterbending to heal you,” Korra said calmly, trying to avoid losing her focus while she used the water to redirect the energy from Bolin’s body towards his shoulder, to make it heal faster. “So how did you get shot anyway?”

“Oh, well uhh-” Bolin began, seeming momentarily caught off guard by the change of the subject. “Everything just got very loud all of a sudden. Or well, louder than usual at a protest. Next thing I know there’s a baton flying at my face, I caught it and punched the guy holding it, I swear I didn’t realize he was a cop until after I punched him! Then uhh, I don’t know, there was a loud bang, and the other protesters dragged me back, I didn’t feel anything at first, I just ran away with everyone else. But then I noticed that I was bleeding.”

“So the cops attacked all of a sudden, without a clear reason? That figures, they did the same at the protest where I was,” Korra said, cursing herself internally for not immediately going to another protest like she’d considered doing and going to Mako’s place instead. Maybe she could’ve prevented more bloodshed if she’d been there.

“Okay, cops are bastards,” Mako said. “But let’s backtrack a little, did you just say you’re a waterbender? As in a bender, from mythology, master of one of the core elements?” He asked it as though he wasn’t currently watching Korra make water float in the air.

“Yep,” Korra said, while moving over to begin healing the exit wound at the back of Bolin’s shoulder, now that the front had already healed enough that it was no longer bleeding. “I’m a waterbender, and an earthbender, and a firebender.”

“Wouldn’t that make you…”

“The avatar? Yep,” Korra said casually, hoping in vain that her treating it like it was no big deal would somehow mean that the brothers would do the same. She really didn’t want them to change the way they treated her, to get all weird about it like Shaozu from the Red Lotus.

“Am I hallucinating?” Bolin asked with panic in his voice. “Does that mean I’m dying? I’m too young and beautiful to die! I haven’t even confessed my love to Ginger yet!”

“Bro, you’ve never even met her!”

“Such petty bounds cannot constrain our love! The connection betwixt us transcends time and space! But alas, it appears that death is the one thing that can keep us apart.”

“You’re not dying,” Korra said flatly, “but your recovery will take longer if you don’t start sitting still while I work.” Both the entrance wound and the exit wound were clean now, healed to the point where they weren’t actively bleeding anymore. But a full recovery would still be a ways off, there were limits to what could be done through waterbending healing, since ultimately it still relied on the body’s own healing abilities.

“No way, so you’re really the avatar?” Bolin said loudly, before covering his mouth and ‘whispering’ at his brother, at almost the same volume. “The avatar! What do I do?! Should I pray?!”

“Ugh please don’t,” Korra said. “You don’t need to do anything, except to forget everything the church told you about me and Raava. At the end of the day, I’m still just Korra.”

 

 

This helped to ease some of the tension, but it didn’t stop both brothers from grilling her with questions. “So does this mean that you’re friends with the moon?” Bolin asked after a while.

“Wha- How does that even make sense?” Mako responded, the two had been bickering constantly, with both criticizing the questions that the other asked.

“It makes perfect sense! The moon is a spirit, right?”

“Well yes, technically, but I wouldn’t say that we’re friends,” Korra responded. “I’ve never really talked to any spirits to be honest, except Raava. I’m kind of a failure in terms of spirituality.”

“Are you kidding?! You talked to Raava! That’s great! You should’ve said so to the High Sage back at the exhibition, and then stolen his hat!”

“Whh- Why would I steal his hat?”

“Cuz the only reason why he gets to wear that hat is because he claims to be able to talk to Raava! He’s a liar and you’re not, so you should get his hat.”

“That- Actually kind of makes sense,” Mako said, to Korra’s surprise. The surprise must’ve shown on Korra’s face, because he rushed to clarify his statement. “I mean, not the hat part, but your existence totally undermines his entire claim to power. Why are you hiding?”

“Because of what you just said! If I go public then what, I overthrow the entire church that millions of people follow? Trust me, I’d like to, I’m just not sure what would come after. Or if I would even succeed, if they reject me then that’d mean that I just made an enemy out of a super powerful organization with countless followers.”

“Aren’t they already your enemy?” Mako asked. “I thought you said that they’ve been protesting outside of Asami’s home for the past few weeks.”

 

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Korra said, letting herself fall backwards from her cross-legged position to lie on her back on the floor. “Can we talk about something else please? I came here to calm down after the stupid police attacked the stupid protest, not to heal bullet wounds and talk about all the problems I should be fixing as the avatar!”

“How about some music?” Bolin said, turning on the radio.

It served as a fine distraction for a time, with some pleasant jazzy music coming from the device. Korra kind of missed the more drum-heavy music from her tribe, but she was starting to become a real fan of this ‘jazz’ music none the less. After a while though, the music was interrupted by a strange scratchy sound, then a man began speaking, his voice immediately recognizable even though Korra had only heard it once before.

“Good evening, my fellow separatists. This is your leader, Amon.”

Korra immediately shot upright, Bolin started to say something but his brother quickly shushed him, they all stared at the radio with both terror and rapt attention, as Amon continued speaking.

“As you have no-doubt heard, several riots broke out today that resulted in injuries to numerous brave officers, who are the guardians of order in the face of anarchy. These riots were of course instigated by the terrorist gangs that call themselves ‘unions.’

“Despite weeks of terror and violence and labor-desertion resulting in the city and the nation at large being brought to the cusp of starvation and poverty, the Republic’s senate has been almost completely passive in the face of this threat. Rather than giving the police and the army the means to handle this threat, our weak leaders have neutered themselves, convinced themselves that allowing these violent criminals to do as they please is somehow vital to our ‘freedom.’

“All of this comes after they voted on making me and my loyal followers public enemy number one. Proving once again that the supposedly conservative ruling parties in our government will stop short of doing what needs to be done, while the elites who truly pull the strings will stop at nothing to squash the glorious revolution that our movement represents.

“But we cannot be stopped. We have been persecuted, pushed underground, yet our numbers grow stronger by the day. Soon, you will no longer have to live in fear, the time has come for our oppressors and their degenerate allies to experience fear.

“Sinners and degenerates roam free, some even control our nation’s titans of industry, all while foreigners are allowed to invade our borders and desecrate our culture with their blasphemous traditions. Soon, they shall all receive their comeuppance.

“Not long from now the worst offenders, the ‘air nomads,’ will celebrate one of their pagan so-called ‘holidays’ called ‘Yangchen’s festival.’ It’s bad enough that our leaders have permitted this obscene festival to be held on a yearly basis, despite the foul suggestion that a woman was once the Avatar, and the fouler-still suggestion that the Avatar of Raava would bow down to any spirit other than Raava himself.

“But to make matters worse, over the years many of our good light-fearing countrymen have begun to be seduced by this pagan festival, unknowingly corrupting their own soul as they partake in this sinful worship of dark spirits.

I call on you, good citizens of our not-yet-united Republic, to join me in putting an end to this celebration of sin, and in so doing take the first step towards the creation of a true nation; united behind shared traditions and a shared faith, free of the divisive filth that is brought by the endless stream of immigrants plaguing our country.”

Another weird scratchy noise sounded, then, just as soon as it begun, the interruption ended. Jazzy music resumed playing from the radio as though nothing had happened.

“‘Some even control our nation’s titans of industry,’ he’s talking about Asami, isn’t he?” Korra asked, though of course the brothers knew exactly as much as she did.

“I think so, yeah,” Mako said, sounding concerned.

“When’s that holiday they talked about?”

Mako didn’t seem to know, but Bolin answered immediately. “Oh, it’s Friday next week, same day as the tournament’s finale!” The younger brother’s face immediately fell once he talked about the tournament. “I won’t make it to the finale with my shoulder, will I?”

Korra shook her head. “I don’t think so, no.” The semi-finals were tomorrow, Bolin would probably have to forfeit. If she was being honest Korra had lost most of her excitement for participating in the tournament, but it’d feel wrong to drop out while Bolin would be so envious of her ability to still compete.

“I’m going back to Asami’s place,” she said decisively, while standing up, “if that Amon bozo thinks he can make veiled threats against my girlfriend and get away with it, then he’s got another thing coming.”

“What are you planning?” Mako asked, looking a bit afraid of the expression on Korra’s face.

Korra blew out from her nose, accidentally causing fire to come out, which almost scorched her own shirt. “There’s a group of protesters outside that I’ve been wanting to chase off for a while now…”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami paced around nervously, she’d listened to the radio while they talked about the clashes between police and protesters, there wasn’t much official information yet but it seemed certain that several people had died. Then on top of that, the broadcast had been interrupted by Amon! Who it seemed was playing off of the rumors surrounding her and Korra to insinuate that she was a sinner and/or degenerate.

He’s technically right, I guess, Asami thought, according to the church at least, her and Korra’s recent activities were certainly sinful. Not too long ago she would’ve felt some amount of shame at that thought, but not anymore, now all she felt was a simmering rage. How dare they try to tell me that I can’t love my own damn girlfriend?!

Amon adding fuel to the flames certainly wasn’t doing anything to calm her concern for Korra. Was she caught in those clashes with police? Is she alright?

She longed to rush outside in search of her girlfriend, but the annoyingly rational part of her brain told her that she wouldn’t even know where to begin and that it was more likely that it’d result in her not being there when Korra finally returned.

Unable to sit still and do nothing, Asami put on her winter clothes and walked outside, it was already dark thanks to the shorter days in winter. She was still able to find her way though, ignoring the mild snowfalls as she walked up to her father’s workshop, where she turned on the lights and began picking out several weapons.

The separatists were clearly planning something in the near future, they probably wouldn’t be targeting her directly, but Asami wasn’t planning to be caught unawares. She loaded a duffel bag completely full of weapons and ammunition, then brought it all to the mansion, where she made sure that there was at least one weapon within reach at every room where she spent significant amounts of time.

By now the duffel bag was empty, save for a shotgun, the one that Korra had borrowed that one time. Asami loaded the weapon, then walked outside, towards the gates of the mansion’s grounds.

The protesters there had been a mere annoyance thus far, but with Amon now potentially siccing his followers on her, it wasn’t one that she was willing to tolerate any longer. It was time to chase them off.

As she began crossing the grounds she was joined by Naga, which seemed quite fortuitous, the giant polarbear dog would certainly help make her more intimidating.

She was trying to work out the best way to threaten these protestors in a way that wouldn’t cause too much work for her lawyer afterwards, when a sudden commotion beyond the gates distracted her from her thoughts.

“All of you get out of my way and leave, right now, unless you want a broken nose!” Korra’s voice shouted from beyond the gate.

At once, Asami felt elated to discover that Korra was alright, yet also worried for the trouble she was currently getting herself into.

She’s tough, but she can’t beat two dozen protesters without her bending, can she? And of all the ways for her to reveal her bending to the world, beating up a bunch of religious protesters has to be one of the worst.

Asami gestured for the guards at the gates to open them up and then quickly slipped through, unseen by the protesters, who were all focused on Korra.

“Not until you repent! We have every right to protest!” One of the protesters responded.

“No, you don’t,” Asami replied, pumping her shotgun to load a round in the chamber and to grab everyone’s attention. They turned around to face her, shocked expressions on their faces.

“I’ve been humoring you these past two weeks, but you’re standing on private property. My property line extends beyond the gate, and I’d like you to leave now.”

“Then we’ll move back, to the actual property line!” A protester retorted.

“No you won’t,” said Korra, grabbing the guy by his collar and pulling him backwards, the man stumbled and fell flat on his ass. “Leave, now!”

Another protester grabbed Korra by the shoulder, and Korra looked just about ready to break the woman’s nose, but Asami beat her to it, slamming the butt of her gun in the woman’s face. “Keep your hands off of her! Leave, now! I won’t ask again,” she said, ignoring the woman’s cries as she fell to her knees and clutched her nose, blood was already gushing out from between the woman’s fingers.

The group of zealots finally seemed to get the message, thankfully they were intimidated enough that Korra and Asami wouldn’t need to fight them all off, as they began leaving on their own. They grabbed up the injured woman and quickly disappeared from the scene. Asami turned back to the guards at the gate. “If any of them come back, call the police and make them leave, make sure the next guard shift knows to do the same,” she said to them. They nodded, it seemed like even they were a bit intimidated, one of them audibly gulped.

Korra on the other hand was smiling broadly as she enveloped Asami in a warm hug. “That was awesome!” She said. “Nice form too, you really put all your bodyweight behind it!”

Asami couldn’t hold back her laugh. Of course that’s what Korra focusses on.

“I’m not sure if it was smart though,” Asami said.

“I don’t care,” Korra said, still smiling. “It felt good, and I’m sick of having to push my way past them every day. Especially after that radio broadcast from Amon, did you hear it?”

Asami nodded, slightly surprised that Korra had heard it too.

“He was definitely talking about you, wasn’t he?” Korra asked. “When he talked about degenerate ‘titans of industry’ getting their ‘comeuppance’?”

“I think so, yeah,” Asami said. “That’s why I was here at the gate, I was also going to chase off the protesters. I refuse to be afraid in my own home, now that Amon is threatening me I’m not going to keep ignoring these protestors harassing me.”

“I’m glad we agree,” Korra said, “part of me was worried that I was being too impulsive again.”

“Oh, you probably were,” Asami smirked as she responded, “it’s just that I’m equally bad this time.”

“Either way, I guess that means we’re perfect for each other,” Korra said, to which Asami responded by playfully bumping against her shoulder.

“I suppose we are,” she said. The rest of the world may disagree, but so long as the two of them agreed, Asami found that she really didn’t care what the rest of the world had to say on the matter.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

The next day, early in the morning, Korra received a call from Har Dayal, telling her that the arrangements with Zaheer were nearly complete and they would be ready to leave the next morning.

Finally! She thought. Breaking through a blockade was the sort of thing that she actually knew how to do, it essentially just required her to punch real hard, nice and simple, like she wished all problems could be.

“Hey Asami?” She said, walking back into the breakfast room where her girlfriend had still been finishing her breakfast while Korra took the call. “You had everything arranged right? For the supply ships to the Earth Kingdom?”

Asami nodded, though she clearly didn’t share Korra’s excitement. It wasn’t hard to imagine why. “Yes, the ships are ready, the Red Lotus just needs to send over a crew to staff them.”

Asami had been willing to lend material aid, but not to send her own employees into a dangerous situation, so the ships she was helping to provide for this mission would be manned solely by volunteers that the Red Lotus had gathered.

“I hate to leave you again,” Korra said, “even if it’s just for a few days.”

“It’s fine,” Asami said with a forced smile. “So long as you promise to spend tonight giving me something to remember you by,” she added, with a far more genuine smile.

Korra felt her cheeks reddening at the implication, the past couple of weeks she and Asami had spend nearly every night passionately exploring each other’s bodies, finding out exactly what made the other moan in pleasure. It was definitely the highlight of every day, especially once they’d both begun growing in confidence.

After their second time, which had been Asami’s first time reciprocating, she had confessed to Korra that she’d been very nervous about doing so and had kind of dreaded it. That was certainly no longer the case, if anything Asami had grown to be the bolder and more daring one in bed, making it a fun challenge for Korra to try to think of way to out-do her tonight.

 She did have one idea she had been toying with…

 

 

About an hour later, Korra showed up to Har Dayal’s home, where he also produced his own newspapers and pamphlets. Most of the snow that had fallen the previous day had already molten, it was cold up in the clouds, but down here on the ground it wasn’t quite freezing yet.

There were still some bullet holes visible in the façade of Dayal’s home, but for the most part everything had been repaired after the attack on Dayal. New windows had been placed and the window frames had been repainted.

Korra suspected that Dayal had deliberately left a few of the bullet holes visible. After all, the man did know how to tell persuasive narratives, and his enemies trying to kill him certainly made for a useful story.

She found Dayal leaning over the press machine, watching it churn out a stack of papers, before picking up one of them and inspecting it.

Korra greeted him and he responded in kind before gesturing for her to sit on a nearby stool, while he continued inspecting the paper for a while. “How did it go, countering the police’s lies?” Korra asked.

Dayal shrugged, “hard to say, some people would side with the police no matter what, so I can never tell who I actually persuaded or who already agreed to begin with. Either way, I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but the unions have decided to stop picketing, for now at least.”

Korra was sure that the shock was visible on her face as she responded. “Really? I didn’t think you were one to give up just like that.”

“We’re not giving up!” Dayal said promptly, while simultaneously gesturing for Korra to follow him to a room where they could talk privately. “The strike will continue, that’s where our real power comes from, picketing is just a small and nonessential part of it. We decided that we can’t risk open conflict with the police, at least not unless it’s on our own terms. That we should instead fight where we are strongest; the labor market.”

Korra shrugged. “Fair enough. Anyway, why’d you ask me to come? We already know what to do tomorrow, don’t we? The fleet leaves, I leave around the same time, except I leave by swimming. Then I punch a hole in the blockade and escort the fleet to the Earth Kingdom’s shore. Easy.”

“You call that easy? You realize that you’ll be swimming for over two-hundred miles, right?”

“I swam a long way last time too,” Korra said, “it’s doable with waterbending. Besides, this time I can simply sneak aboard one of the ships to rest when I get tired.”

They weren’t telling people that Korra was the one who’d be punching a hole through Kuvira’s blockade, so she wouldn’t be able to come aboard openly. Korra wasn’t entirely sure what they were telling people, it didn’t really matter from her perspective, all that mattered was that she’d be punching said hole while otherwise staying hidden. But it was kind of impressive to think about, that they’d been able to find enough volunteers for the mission even though none of them knew exactly how they would be protected from Kuvira’s battleships.

“And you’re sure you can do this?” Dayal asked, for the dozenth time. “You realize that these are large, armored, metal ships? Can you really disable them?”

“Pretty sure,” Korra responded, whipping out a small piece of scrap metal, she always carried something like that these days so that she could train her metalbending by fiddling with it in her pocket, “I’ve been practicing my metalbending.” She closed her fist, crushing the metal beneath.

“Plus, I have the avatar state now, I’m more powerful than ever.” Her past lives hadn’t been able to metalbend, so their knowledge would be less useful in this situation. But the raw power that Raava provided would still help, and she wasn’t planning on solely relying on metalbending anyway, seemed to her like giant waves would probably also prove helpful in breaking a naval blockade.

“Very well, I’ll trust that you know what you’re doing,” Dayal said, “you’ve earned that much. I wanted to ask one more time before we go ahead with the plan, but that’s not the main reason why I asked you to come.

“You told me that the reason you revealed your identity to me is that you want the Red Lotus to be able to call on you for aid, if need be. I appreciate the offer, but frankly I’m not the one to make it to. Shui has been taking the lead on the more militant side of our operations, he’s been training people on how to fight as a unit.

“In light of Amon’s threat on the radio yesterday, he’s decided to take advantage of the fact that we’re no longer spending manpower on picketing and has organized a big training exercise outside of town. I wanted to suggest that you join them, whether you tell Shui everything is up to you, but he’s the one who’ll actually be on the front lines and in need of backup should fighting break out, so it might be sensible.”

“I’ll consider it,” Korra said, “and I’ll be glad to join the exercise, sounds fun! I do need to return in time for the tournament though.”

“Ah yes, I heard you’ve made it to the semi-finals,” Dayal said with a smile. “Don’t worry, the practice will be finished well before then. Speaking of the tournament though, you’re quite the revolutionary, successfully competing in a man’s sport like that!

“My wife and her friends have been talking all about it, about how you’re a symbol of female empowerment. They even bought tickets to see you fight in person tonight! She insists that I need to interview you again and write more articles about you, but that’ll have to wait for another time.”

 

 

He told Korra where to go to meet everyone who would be joining Shui’s militia exercise, it was the same place where they’d gathered for the raid on the separatist warehouse. When Korra arrived, she immediately spotted a few familiar faces from said raid. There were also a lot of new ones though, clearly many more were participating in the exercise than had participated in the raid, especially since Dayal had said that there were multiple pickup points throughout the city.

Korra approached the guys she recognized from the raid, they greeted her warmly.

“Comrade! Glad to see that you’re joining us again, you did well last time,” one of them said, his name was Shoka, if Korra remembered correctly.

“Glad to help,” Korra replied, “this time it’s just practice though, isn’t it?”

“Well yes, but it always pays to have some battle-tested veterans as part of a training exercise, to help show all the virgins what’s what,” as he said this he clapped his hand on the back of a younger man beside him.

“I’m not a virgin!” The younger man protested.

“I meant a virgin in battle lad,” Shoka laughed, “though I’ll bet you’re a virgin in both ways.”

Korra opted to remain silent, not wanting to risk her own sex life becoming a subject of discussion.

Everyone continued teasing the younger man for a while, but then Korra noticed the approach of two more familiar faces, one was expected but another was a big surprise to her. “Pasho?!” She asked. “I didn’t expect to see you, have you recovered well?”

He was the man who’d been injured during the raid against the separatists, and he was walking beside Shaozu, they both approached the group that Korra was with.

“Hey there comrade,” Pasho said, “thanks for helping to patch me up back then. I’ve recovered well enough, I figure that I wouldn’t have gotten shot in the first place if I’d had more training, so I wasn’t going to skip out on this.”

Korra laughed at that, he said it in a joking tone so she was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be offended.

Several people around them were giving them curious looks, which in turn confused Korra, something that Shaozu seemed to pick up on.

“None of them know what happened during the raid,” he said, “we kept it a secret even from many other members, given how illegal the whole thing was. Hard to hide Pasho’s injury though, so there’s been lots of rumors.”

Ah, that makes sense, Korra thought to herself.

Chatter continued while they waited, a few more people talked to Korra, asking about her past and about her part in the tournament. Many of them seemed to genuinely respect her, which was a nice change of pace. Some time passed, then just like with the raid several trucks came to pick everyone up and bring them to their undisclosed destination.

 

 

 

The destination turned out to be a logging camp, located at a relatively flat area in a valley leading up into the mountains. Felled trees had been used to create numerous obstacles throughout the otherwise open area, mainly in the shape of large squares and rectangles that Korra guessed were meant to simulate buildings, with streets between them.

Most of the obstacles were less than a story tall, but you couldn’t look over them, so she supposed that for the purpose of training they would work well enough. A few of them were higher, more like one and a half stories tall, these had holes in the shape of windows cut out on their second story. The shorter ones had similar holes, emulating windows on the first floor.

 

Shui was already there, once everyone piled out of the trucks he began to explain the exercises they would be doing for the day, while doing so he confirmed Korra’s suspicion that these squares made of fallen trees were meant to simulate buildings.

He outlined several exercises, meant to drill how to cross streets using covering fire, how to peek around a corner to shoot at an enemy, and also how to throw grenades through windows, which he explained was the most effective way of eliminating an enemy taking cover inside a building.

It was very clear that all these exercises were specifically designed to prepare for a possible fight within Republic City, which was a very sobering thought. It was clear that everyone present realized that the possibility of a real conflict of the kind they were preparing for was more than just theoretical, which resulted in a rather grim mood. A few of the younger participants were initially fooling and joking around, but quickly stopped once they noticed the glares many others were shooting their way.

The exercises were all ‘dry fire’ exercises, meaning that they were using unloaded weapons rather than weapons with actual bullets. In lieu of grenades they were just using rocks or random chunks of metal that were more or less the same size and weight as the real thing.

The number of people who threw their ‘grenade’ against the wall of logs and thus would have blown themselves up was rather depressing…

Korra, standing by the side and sipping one of the drinks of water she had been provided with, chuckled when another Red Lotus militiamember missed his throw, then had to duck out of the way to avoid the rock landing on his own head.

Her laughter increased when Shui yelled at the guy to stay down on the ground, so that his friends could practice for the inevitable need of dragging his sorry wounded ass off of the battlefield.

Shui kind of reminds me of one of my earthbending teachers, Korra thought, she was a real hardass too.

“You think that’s funny?!” Shui asked, rounding on her.

“A little bit, yeah,” Korra said, putting a hand on her hip while standing her ground.

“Then I’m sure you can demonstrate how it’s done?” He asked, challenging tone in his voice while he handed her one of the mock-grenades they’d been using, in this case it was just a rock, slightly larger than her fist.

“Sure,” Korra said confidently. She accepted the rock, then instead of walking over to the training course she just cocked her arm back, twisted her entire body, then flung the rock right through the mock window in the fake log house, which was at least 70 feet away. She didn’t even cheat by using earthbending.

She then lifted the cup she was still holding in her other hand up to her lips, stifling a giggle by taking a sip, while enjoying the shocked and impressed looks everyone was giving her.

“Alright, well…” Shui said. “I suppose you can sit out the rest of the grenade practice.”

Korra used that time to ask about what the larger strategy was, should fighting break out. “How will everyone know where to go? They don’t all live in the same place do they?”

Shui nodded. “We’ve drawn a map, made different plans and contingency plans for what everyone should do depending on which district they live in. We expect that the immigrant district will be our biggest stronghold, unknown to the cops manning the checkpoints we have established caches with arms and other supplies close to each of those checkpoints, when the time comes we’ll quickly be able to take them over and fortify them with sandbags to defend against anyone who tries to attack the district.

“We’ve made similar preparations in parts of the industrial district, in fact-” He paused briefly, seeming to hesitate on whether or not he should continue, the reason for which quickly became apparent when he did choose to continue. “In fact, we’ve made plans to take over some of the Future Industries factories, as well as the weapons factories that your friend recently sold. Wouldn’t want so many shiny new weapons and bullets to fall into enemy hands, plus, in a protracted conflict it might prove useful if we’re able to keep those factories running.

“Much of downtown is almost certainly a loss, assuming that the police will side with the separatists when the time comes for whatever kind of coup they’re planning. Their presence in the city’s center is too strong, many businessowners will probably side with them too and already own weapons to defend their stores.

“Once all sides fortify themselves it will mainly be a matter of supply lines, which is why we’ve also got plans for several fortified corridors out of the city, so we can still bring rice and grain and whatever else we need inside. Those are on a need-to-know basis, but Dayal insisted that you need to know, so…”

He went on to show Korra a map, which she did her best to memorize. She considered telling him why Dayal insisted that she needed to know, but decided that if he was already including her like this then there was really no need. Besides, it’ll be more fun if he finds out when I suddenly start chucking fire and boulders at the separatists.

The training continued, of course when the time came Korra didn’t expect to be fighting with a rifle like she was currently training to do, but she appreciated the insight into the kinds of tactics that her allies and enemies alike would be using. She also happily noted that much of it shared similarities with the kinds of things she’d made Asami practice, though there were a few new things that she’d have to tell Asami about.

 

Eventually training finished, so everyone piled back into the trucks to be brought back to Republic city. One of the trucks called for everyone who’d be watching the fighting tournament to enter, so they could be dropped off directly at their destination. Korra entered this truck, along with Shaozu and a few other guys their age.

They all seemed excited to watch Korra fight, as they questioned her on what her strategy would be for the match. It was actually helping to make Korra a bit excited for it too, despite having so many other things on her mind.

Her opponent today would be a guy with about the same build as Bolin, except a bit taller. Like Bolin, the man was also a skilled wrestler, so Korra would definitely need to avoid being grabbed by him and being tackled to the ground, because in that position she wouldn’t be able to overcome his greater strength.

“I’ll just try to keep my distance I think,” she said, “wear him down over time with kicks and punches.”

“Just be careful,” Shaozu said with a meaningful look, “you don’t want to get injured before tomorrow.”

“I’ll be fine,” Korra said, though Shaozu did raise a good point. Even waterbending healing could only do so much if she got her face bashed in today before attacking the blockade tomorrow.

An even greater motivation for staying safe though was the fact that she’d promised Asami a night to remember, she already had a plan formed and wasn’t going to let any injury stand in the way of it.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami entered the tournament venue, glad that she’d successfully managed to avoid notice from the press outside. It felt a bit weird to visit the tournament today, considering everything going on, and she knew that Korra felt the same way.

Nevertheless, she wasn’t going to let Korra fight without showing up in support, so here she was. I just wish I was able to help tomorrow too, she thought to herself while she made her way to her reserved seat.

She kept herself busy with Future Industries and by working on her master’s thesis, even though student strikes meant that she never really went to classes anymore. Despite her efforts it was hard to distract herself from the knowledge that her girlfriend would be putting herself in harm’s way, especially when it was by attacking an entire navy blockade!

The morality of it no longer troubled Asami too much, even though she knew that people would likely lose their lives. Frankly she considered it an absolute disgrace that the United Republic, the Fire Nation, and the Southern Water Tribe, were allowing Kuvira to enforce this blockade. Allowing the blockade to persist would also cost lives, except in that case it would be through slow painful deaths of starvation and disease, not just for soldiers but civilians too.

They justified it by saying that they didn’t want another large war, that they wanted it to remain an internal Earth Kingdom matter, but it seemed like a poor excuse to Asami. Kuvira clearly couldn’t afford a war on two fronts, if other nations made it clear that they wouldn’t tolerate her blockade then she would be forced to lift it.

Besides, the nature of the blockade meant that Kuvira was threatening to sink ships from the other nations, even civilian ships, just for wanting to trade with the part of the Earth Kingdom still under the control of its sovereign government, didn’t that make her the one threatening international conflict?

It seemed to Asami that the only reason why the other nations were allowing the blockade to persist was because of the factor of the socialists, without their presence other nations wouldn’t be so hesitant to defend the sovereignty of Ba Sing Se’s government. But the socialist uprising around Omashu made other world leaders hesitant to pick a side, despite the extreme humanitarian crisis that was looming because of the blockade.

She wasn’t certain how much Korra’s plan would help, even with the additional ships and supplies Asami had donated, but it seemed better than nothing.

 

She was shaken from her thoughts by the announcer’s voice coming from the speakers throughout the large room.

“Ladies and gentlemen in the audience, and everyone listening on the radio. I’m speaking to you live from the United Republic’s greatest fighting arena, where tonight you will watch the penultimate match of the tournament! Sadly there will only be one semi-final fought today, since as a result of an injury Bolin has been forced to forfeit his match, making Tahno the winner by default.”

Asami frowned, sad that Bolin wouldn’t be able to compete despite all his hard work, Korra had told her this would be the case but it was still sad to hear it being made official.

Boos predictably sounded throughout the audience, the announcer let them continue for a while before he resumed speaking. “Worry not though, there’s still one exciting semi-final match to be fought, additionally there are also other matches scheduled for the day, with new competitors already fighting to qualify in the next tournament! We’ve also arranged a very special match to replace the other cancelled semi-final, featuring our very own former champion ‘Chang,’ once again returning from retirement, this time for an international match!

“He will be facing off against Azeen, an acclaimed champion from the Fire Nation who happened to be visiting our fine nation in order to watch this very tournament, and graciously agreed to step in to entertain all of you fine folks!” Cheers sounded in response to this announcement, apparently this ‘Azeen’ guy was quite well known even here in the United Republic.

Asami didn’t really care, she was just here for Korra. She sat through half a dozen matches, only half paying attention, until finally it was Korra’s turn.

“Now, here comes the match you’re all been waiting for, yet which none of us ever expected! Korra ‘the girl in the iceberg’ has defied all expectations by making it all the way to the semi-finals!”

He paused for a moment while Korra made her entrance, somehow, despite her thorough examinations of the other girl’s naked body, Asami still found herself aroused at the sight of Korra once again taking off her blue shirt, leaving her in just a white tanktop.

Others in the crowd noticed too, jeering and whistling at the sight, though neither Korra nor the announcer paid them any heed, as Korra entered the ring while the announcer continued speaking. “Will she continue to make combat sports history by qualifying for the final, or will her shocking streak of dominance be ended by the other challenger, an immigrant hailing from the Southern Water Tribe, specializing in wrestling, Tiiiiilriq!!!!

“I’ll tell you one thing folks, Tilriq will certainly have the strength advantage in this match, something that his focus in wrestling will theoretically allow him to take full advantage of, so it will be interesting to see how Korra plans to deal with that challenge.”

Asami of course knew what Korra’s plan was, she had discussed it with the tribal girl, but as she watched her girlfriend’s opponent enter the ring she still found herself worried. Can she really stay out of his range? He’s so big! He just has to grab her once and then it’s likely over.

One consolation was that, since he was a wrestler, it made it more likely that Korra would leave the fight relatively uninjured even if she lost, since being briefly choked out was far less damaging than being knocked out through punches.

Asami wasn’t about to count out her own damn girlfriend though, so she set aside her concerns by standing up and loudly cheering Korra’s name, while the fighters walked up to the center of the ring to listen to the referee’s instructions.

Asami was glad to hear much of the arena’s crowds also shouting out support for Korra, it seemed like her girlfriend had become a crowd favorite over the course of this tournament, despite the controversies surrounding her.

Asami watched Korra’s determined expression as she returned to her corner, where Mako waited to give her advice, and water if she needed it. Part of Asami wished that she was the one literally in Korra’s corner, but she realized that Mako was the more logical choice, given his own experience in the sport.

Either way, the bell sounded, causing Asami to lean forward on the edge of her seat as the match got underway.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra cautiously walked to the center of the ring, but her opponent showed no such caution, as he immediately charged forwards and bend down low to try to grab onto her legs. Korra sprawled, throwing her legs backwards out of his reach, while using her hands to hold herself up above his shoulders.

After defending against Tilriq’s takedown Korra quickly rolled away and back to her feet, then after Tilriq also got back to his feet she charged forward with a frontkick aimed at his face, but he blocked it with his forearms.

Tilriq then again pushed forwards, throwing a few punches before again trying to grab on to Korra’s legs, this time Korra simply managed to dodge out of the way without needed to sprawl.

Korra countered with a spinning kick aimed at his head, but he dodged by leaning his upper body back just out of range, then while Korra was still finishing her spin she saw him try to close the distance from the corner of her eye. Oh rats, she thought while responding quickly, only barely managing to cartwheel out of the way.

“What’s the matter little girl? Afraid to stand and fight?!” Tilriq shouted.

“Kind of, yeah,” Korra said with a smirk, though contrary to her words she was then the one to charge forwards against her opponent. As she’d hoped, he was caught off-guard by it, she slipped past a rushed punch that he threw, then jumped up to knee him hard in his gut.

He tried to grab her, but grasped only air while Korra slipped out of the way with quick footwork. Thanks Tenzin.

After stepping back, Korra managed to throw another spinning kick his way, which he managed to partially block with his forearms, but she still felt her foot connecting with his head too so he must’ve been at least partially dazed.

She saw him shake off that hit, then move to charge forwards again. Korra turned around, pretending to run away from his charge, but then instead she jumped up into a backflip, at the end of which she used the momentum of her flip to kick towards where Tilriq had been bending down to try to grab her legs again.

Her foot landed flush against the back of his head, causing him to awkwardly flop onto his belly with the remaining momentum from his charge. Korra quickly jumped onto his back, trying to choke him out, but to her surprise he was still conscious enough and strong enough to resist her attempt and shake her off, before getting back up to his feet.

She vaguely registered the roars from the crowd, who were clearly enjoying the show. She prepared to run forward and kick him, but then a bell sounded to mark the end of the first round.

She returned to her corner, while simultaneously searching through the crowd to find Asami, giving her a cocky grin.

Mako gave her some water once she got to her corner. “Any advice?” She asked.

“His takedown attempts are getting predictable, yet clearly he’s not willing to stay standing up and exchange punches. Next time he ducks low, knee him in the face,” he said. “That should be enough, I doubt he can take much more after eating those earlier kicks of yours.”

That was pretty much the plan Korra had already formed in her head, but it was still nice to have it affirmed. The bell sounded and Korra walked to the center of the ring again, mirroring her opponent, who still looked fatigued even after their short break, a good sign for Korra and a bad one for him.

He walked forward, then threw a spinning kick at her that she easily dodged, probably because it was just meant to try to disguise the takedown attempt that followed immediately afterwards.

Slightly breaking with Mako’s advice, Korra decided to, instead of trying to knee him, lean down and put her hand on the floor to her side, then with her opposite leg she spun a low kick, aimed directly at where Tilriq was himself beginning to lean down for a takedown.

She felt her foot make contact, and before she even finished her spin she knew what she would see at the end of it; Tilriq was flat on his back, completely unconscious.

She bowed to him in respect, even while the ref stepped in to drag her away in a needless effort to prevent her from trying to land any followup hits on the already downed opponent.

She returned to her corner with a big smile aimed at Mako, who jumped over the ropes to give her a big hug. “That last kick was insane! Way better than a knee!” He said.

“What can I say? I wanted to keep you on your toes,” Korra said.

She was distracted by someone slamming into her from the side, she turned her head to look at Asami, who’d apparently jumped into the ring so she could hug her too. Korra hugged her back with one hand, while holding the other up in the sky for the crowd, who roared even louder in response.

Korra had no more care for them though, as she turned to Asami. “Hey, wanna head home?” She asked.

“Don’t you have a post-match interview?”

“Nah, screw them. Let’s dip out before anyone realizes, that way we don’t have to deal with the press again, not like they’re actually going to ask about anything interesting.”

She thought back to the interview after the quarter-finals, which had been even worse than the one before that and had focused almost entirely on all the rumors and criticisms about her sexuality.

She smiled at Asami, before leaning right next to her ear and adding; “besides, I promised to spend tonight giving you something to remember me by, before I go to the Earth Kingdom again.”

“Alright,” Asami said, clearly struggling to keep her blush under control, “let’s go home.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami was nervous as she followed Korra up the stairs, it was the good kind of nervous though, a mixture of excitement and trepidation filled her entire body as she waited to find out what her girlfriend had in store for her tonight.

They began with a shared shower, which was exciting as ever, but Korra assured her that there was more in store. After drying off they left the bathroom, into Asami’s bedroom, while they were both still naked.

She admired the tribal warrior’s muscled back while she hopped onto the bed, glad that she hadn’t bothered trying to dry herself very thoroughly between her legs, as she felt this area already growing sopping wet anyway.

“So uhh,” Korra said, leaning over the side of the bed to grab something which she then hid behind her back, “I made something. I think it’ll be really fun, but if you don’t want to use it then you don’t have to, we can just do what we’ve been doing before now. Again though, I think it’ll be really fun, for both of us!”

Made something? Asami thought, caught off-guard by the apparent non sequitur, what could she have made that would be useful for sex?

“Well, I won’t know unless you show me,” Asami said, trying to sound as sultry as possible, she always felt a bit silly doing it, but as always Korra’s gulp in response showed that it was very effective none the less.

While looking criminally cute, nervously sitting cross-legged on the bed, breasts jutting out as she held her hands behind her, Korra slowly revealed what she’d been hiding behind herself.

It was… A rock? Asami curiously leaned forward, examining the oddly shaped and polished rock. “Is that larvikite?” She asked, she’d taken a chunk of it with her to the hunting lodge, when she’d asked Korra to test if she could bend various different materials.

“Yeah, I hope you don’t mind, I took some from your workshop to make this,” Korra said. “My people called it blue pearl granite, I used my earthbending to shape it, then polished it further with waterbending.”

“It looks nice,” Asami said, still confused, “but what’s it for?” She asked, though just as she finished asking the question, the answer suddenly hit her. That shape, it’s awfully phallic, isn’t it? She thought to herself.

“Ohh, well uhh-” Korra said, clearly embarrassed at having to explain it. “Well, since we’re both girls, we lack certain uhhh- Options, that other couples have. I thought we could use this to uhh-” She awkwardly scratched her neck, seeming at a loss for how to continue her explanation.

“To fill in those gaps?” Asami said with a giggle. “That’s actually quite clever, in a weird way.”

Korra’s cheeks were more flushed than they’d ever been before. “Soooo, you like it?” She asked.

“I don’t know yet,” Asami said, before lying down on her back and wiggling her bottom, “why don’t you try it and find out?”

 

Korra eagerly obeyed that request, allowing Asami to discover that as it turned out, she did in fact enjoy it, very very much. They’d started slowly at first, with Korra first using her fingers to ‘warm her up,’ then using her hand to slowly push the polished stone in and out.

At Asami’s embarrassingly loud requests Korra had quickly picked up the pace. At some point Korra had even found a way to attach the polished stone near her own crotch, allowing her to thrust it in with her hips as she leaned over Asami’s spread legs, which gave Asami a wonderful view of her girlfriend’s amble brown breasts.

“Ohhh, yes!” Asami yelled, wrapping her legs around her lover’s body. “Yesyeysyesyes!” She continued while Korra kept thrusting, she wasn’t getting any more eloquent as the pleasure build up and began to spread through her entire body.

Being filled up like this felt amazing, she finally hit her climax, writhing under Korra, who let herself fall on top of her while still slowly thrusting in and out, adding to the ripples of pleasure she felt from the aftershocks of her orgasm. “Oh fuck, Korra, that was amazing,” Asami sighed in her girlfriend’s ear.

“Yeah?” Korra asked shyly, Asami again couldn’t help but think that there ought to be a law against being so damn cute! Especially when you were such a skilled and dangerous warrior!

“Yeah,” Asami said, before pulling Korra in for a kiss, “it was perfect.”

 

 

 

Sadly, their peaceful bliss couldn’t last forever, as early in the next morning Korra had to leave towards the docks, off to jump headfirst into danger once again.

Asami considered coming with her, to see her girlfriend off from the coastline, watching her disappear beyond the horizon, but she ultimately decided against it. It wouldn’t make their goodbye any less painful than it was right now while she stood on her mansion’s steps, watching Korra disappear through the gates in the distance.

It’s just for a couple of days, she reminded herself. So long as everything goes right, her stupid treacherous brain added.

 

Tuzo had finally left to start working on opening his own restaurant, so breakfast was prepared by his replacement, a female chef named Yor. The breakfast was good, but she was no Tuzo. Her cooking included more traditional Fire Nation cuisine, the novelty of which helped a little to take Asami’s mind off things. After that though, Asami began wandering through the mansion, unsure of what to do until a bell sounded at the door.

Curious as to who it could be, and quickly grabbing a gun with her just in case, which she tucked underneath her waistband, Asami moved to answer the door. She shooed away Mrs Su, who’d been about to answer it in her name.

A well-dressed man stood on the other side, handing out a letter for her. “Hello ma’m,” he said, “your guards at the gate let me through. I’m here to deliver a notice for a court hearing,” he said.

Asami accepted the letter, after which the man asked her to sign a document to confirm that she’d received it, he tipped his hat before turning to leave.

A court hearing? What about? She thought to herself. Future Industries was still embroiled in a number of lawsuits brought by the state, thanks to her father’s actions, but if the legal entity of Future Industries was sued then that wouldn’t mean that Asami herself was summoned for a hearing, she would usually be able to just let her lawyers handle that.

Does that mean I’m being personally sued? What’s going on?

She closed the door, then walked back to the sitting room to grab a letter opener which she then used to open the letter. It took her a while to understand what it meant, in fact, even while she felt her anger rising, she still wasn’t entirely certain what exactly it meant, all she knew was that it wasn’t good, and that she was going to have to contact her lawyers immediately.

She reread the beginning of the letter again, just to be certain of what it said before she called her lawyer. It read:

 

Notice of hearing- guardianship or conservatorship.

This notice is required by law. This notice does not require you to appear in court, but you may attend the hearing if you wish.

 

 

Beneath the standardized text of the form were a few lines that had been manually filled in.

 

 

Petition for Appointment of Probate Conservator of the Person of Asami Sato.

This hearing will be held to establish the mental and physical competence or incompetence of the proposed conservatee, as well as to establish the suitability of the proposed conservator.

 

 

“Incompetence?!” Asami muttered to herself, struggling to contain her anger while she once again read over the next line of the form.

 

 

Name of proposed conservator: Mr Benjiro Izaru.

Notes:

Phew! This turned out to be a long one, with a bunch of different things happening, it was fun to write though! ;p

Obviously after a sexy scene I had to end the chapter on a downer. I mean, that's basically the law, right? ; )

If anyone is confused on what a 'conservatorship' is, one prominent recent example is all the drama surrounding Britney Spears' conservatorship. It's essentially a way for someone else to gain legal control over someone's life/assets, if they're deemed incapable of properly taking care of themselves/their assets. It can be a totally legitimate and necessary process, but historically it, and similar systems, have also been rife with abuse. Especially back when people's understanding of women's mental health was, shall we say, incomplete. (Hysteria, anyone?)

So yeah, that's some fun stuff for Asami to have to deal with eh? Wouldn't want things to be too easy.

Chapter 28: The Great Divide.

Summary:

Asami responds to Izaru's latest move, while Korra travels to Kuvira's blockade.

The Great Divide.

 

 

 

Korra focused on her breathing, using the technique her firebending master had taught her to warm herself up. She was sitting on the ludicrously large bow anchor of the cargo ship at the front of the small fleet she was supposed to escort past Kuvira’s blockade.

She opened her eyes, watching the cold ocean water begin to evaporate from her warmed-up skin. Maybe I should’ve just told everyone, she thought, then I could be on deck, it’d be way more comfortable than this. Even if the anchor is stupid big.

She remembered the ‘anchors’ of her own time, which had basically just been big rocks tied to a rope. Then again, this ship was also much larger than any ship from her time, so relative to the ship this anchor was actually kind of tiny.

Ugh, why am I thinking about anchors?! Korra thought to herself, wishing that she’d considered sooner just how boring this trip would be until they finally reached the blockade. She almost considered jumping back in the cold seawater and swimming alongside the fleet again, just for the sake of having more variety.

But no, she’d need to be well-rested when the time came to break through the blockade.

There’s one thing I can do though, to pass the time and be more well rested in the future, Korra thought to herself, grinning at the small sense of excitement that would come from it.

She’d noticed, when watching the ships docked in Republic City’s harbor, that these cargo ships all had roofs that were inaccessible to their crew. If Korra snuck her way up then that would be a more comfortable place for her to hide, until the blockade was finally in sight.

All it would require was sneaking up several floors of the ship, without being noticed by the couple dozen crew members aboard. Easy. It wasn’t like the stakes were that high, even if she was noticed, the people on the ship weren’t her enemies, they’d just be surprised to discover that the avatar was real, that she was a girl aboard their ship, and that she was helping them bust through a blockade.

The main concern was the indirect risk that rumors would spread and that Korra’s real enemies would discover her identity too, Korra’s personal discomfort hadn’t seemed like a big enough problem to warrant her letting so many people in on the secret, but that was before she’d realized how boring this trip would be while she was hiding all by herself!
Korra had the sense that the time was nearing when the secret would come out anyway, as the looming threat of open violence in Republic City grew larger and larger and she knew for a fact that she would feel forced to intervene in such violence.

She shook off those thoughts, she was committed to hiding on this trip, it’d be really awkward to suddenly just walk up to the crew and introduce herself at this point. What would that even look like? ‘Hi, I’m a stowaway on your ship, also I’m the avatar, pretty cool huh?’ Yeah no, hiding seemed less embarrassing, and more exciting to boot, so it was a win-win really.

Korra pulled some water up from the sea, which she used to create icy handholds, to allow herself to climb up from the anchor she sat on to the edge of the main deck of the ship.

She peered through a hole in the metal wall that lined the entire side of the ship, before jumping over it in one smooth motion once she determined that the coast was clear.

Then she quickly but quietly ran past the rows and rows of wooden crates filled with Asami-knows-what, over to the middle of the deck where a large structure that looked kind of like an apartment building stuck out. Her plan was to climb to the roof of this structure, only problem being that this structure was probably also where most of the crew was currently located…

Thankfully she was able to bend metal, which, given that that was what most of the ship was made from, allowed her to use seismic sense to check if the coast was clear, each time she climbed up another level.

The closest she got to being caught was when she hung beneath the railing, while a crewmember unexpectedly turned around and walked outside. They didn’t look down though, after all, what were the odds that some crazy stowaway girl would be climbing their ship in this manner? It wasn’t even worth considering!

Korra smirked, jumping up to grab the lip of the roof, then pulling herself up with a minor grunt of exertion. She did it! She allowed herself a moment to just lie on her back and relish in her victory, before sitting back up.

In hindsight, she really should’ve allowed herself a longer moment of gloating, because now that this minor bit of excitement was done with, she once again had a long and boring boat trip to look forward to, with no one but herself as company.

Except… She suddenly realized, I can talk to my past lives! There’s tons of stuff I could ask them, if not for myself then for Asami, what better way to pass the time?

She crawled over to the center of the ship’s roof, then folded her legs into a cross-legged position, trying to let the motions of the ship moving through the ocean waves help her sink into a meditative trance.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami slammed down the telephone with probably more force than needed, resulting in a satisfyingly loud metal clang as she rammed it back into its metal holder. She’d just spoken to her lawyer about that ridiculous letter she’d received, which said that Izaru wanted to place her under a conservatorship due to alleged mental incompetence!

She wasn’t sure what she’d expected her lawyer to say, but the disappointment she felt showed that at least part of her had hoped that he would tell her that Izaru’s ridiculous play had no chance of success. Apparently though, that wasn’t the case.

They were once again venturing outside of her personal lawyer’s specialization, which was why Mr Yao had said that as soon as they ended their call he would be calling for help from several of his colleagues who specialized in this part of the legal system. From what he did know though, he had warned Asami that the laws surrounding conservatorships were notoriously vague and lax, creating a system rife with abuse.

Asami had already been vaguely aware of this, as she recalled a scandal from a couple of years ago, when a fellow girl from high society, who had been orphaned and had inherited a not-insignificant amount of wealth from her father, had been diagnosed with hysteria and placed under a conservatorship by her uncle.

The rumors that had spread throughout the galas and other high-society events she attended after this happened had all agreed that the diagnosis had probably been a complete fabrication, part of a scheme by the girl’s uncle to gain control of the wealth that he felt had been rightfully his all along.

Asami had nearly forgotten about the entire scandal, but recent events had returned it to the forefront of her mind. She couldn’t help but notice several eerie similarities to her own situation; A wealthy and female heiress, an orphan, (or close enough at least, in Asami’s case,) and a spiteful male acquaintance who resented her for inheriting wealth and power that he felt should have been his…

Stinking Izaru, what a filthy weasel snake! Asami thought, pacing around the sitting room in anger, does that nut-brained gasbag seriously think he can oust me from my own damn company with an underhanded move like this?! Well, he’s got another thing coming!

While she waited for her lawyer, Mr Yao, who should at this moment already be conferring with his colleagues and beginning to work on her legal defense, she decided that she herself could get started on her offense instead. Izaru crossed a line, and she was going to make certain that he would live to regret it, though honestly in her current mood she almost considered the ‘living’ part to be optional.

She walked back to the phone, opening up the phonebook next to it to find the name of a private eye that her father had once told her about, he’d told Asami that from time to time he would seek out the man’s services, when certain competitors or other ‘enemies’ of his refused to play fair and he felt forced to retaliate.

Considering her recent discoveries about her father’s lack of moral scruples, Asami no longer trusted that he had only hired the man when he was provoked into doing so. But if nothing else she could trust that her father only employed people who were good at their job, so regardless of what this private eye had done for her father in the past, Asami was certain that he would be able to do exactly what she wanted him to do, which was to spy on Izaru and dig up whatever dirt could be found on the man.

I’m going to destroy him, Asami thought grimly, as she began to dial the number she found in the phonebook thanks to a bookmark left by her father.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Ugh, this is even more boring than being alone, Korra thought while Kyoshi droned on about the ins and outs of setting up a system of governance, something she had experience in as one of the founders of what had since grown into Ba Sing Se. Korra had asked for advice on the more complicated parts of the duties of the avatar, to which Kyoshi had responded with this lecture.

“You realize that I can hear your thoughts, right?” The apparition in front of her said. “I’m your past life after all, I only exist within you.”

“Well maybe I wanted you to hear,” Korra stubbornly whispered in response, not wanting any of the ship’s crew to hear her, which would be awkward even if it wasn’t for how it’d look like she was talking to herself.

“I suppose we can pick this up another time,” Kyoshi responded with a sigh, “or perhaps you should ask your friends in the Red Lotus instead, truth be told I think their knowledge on this sort of thing is far more advanced than mine ever was. It certainly ought to be, after humanity has spent thousands of years perfecting it.”

“Okay,” Korra said, “see you later then, I guess?” She shut down the connection to her past lives after Kyoshi responded with a farewell. I wonder if talking to them will ever not be weird and awkward? Korra thought, though she was immediately distracted from that thought when she heard some people running along the metal walkway outside the ship’s cabin.

“Yeah, that’s them, that’s the blockade!” A voice said from below.

“Now what?” Another voice said. “Dayal said the blockade would be dealt with, but how?”

“Dunno, I figured our comrades in Omashu would attack them with a fleet from the South or something,” the first voice said. “Doesn’t look like they’ve done so yet though. Either way we should be fine for now, Captain said that Kuvira’s fleet will give us a warning if we get too close, they won’t just sink us immediately.”

“How nice of them,” the other man responded dryly.

Korra squinted her eyes as she peered into the distance, after a little while she did indeed see a few shapes in the distance, they looked tiny from here but she knew that in reality they were massive metal ships. She had seen United Republic navy battleships in Republic City’s port once or twice, so she had some idea of how big Kuvira’s ships must be.

There weren’t as many of them as she’d thought, when thinking about this ‘blockade’ she had kind of pictured them as a long almost unbroken line, with only a ship or two’s length of empty sea between each ship.

But of course, that was unrealistic considering the amount of territory that the blockade had to cover, they would need thousands of ships if their line was that dense.

In reality Korra could only make out six, maybe seven ships, they stayed in pairs, in a formation that approximated a line and spanned across the entire horizon. Presumably the line stretched beyond the horizon too, with many more ships that Korra wasn’t able to see. That was why they would have to move quick once Korra broke through, because Kuvira’s reinforcements would arrive shortly after.

Ok, guess it’s time, Korra thought, beginning to stretch her limbs in preparation for a swim.

Once she felt appropriately limber, she walked to one side of the cabin’s roof, then sprinted across and dove off the other side before landing in the frigid water of the Baizhi Sea.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Can you think of what will likely be used against you, in an effort to prove the need for a conservatorship?” Ha-Joon asked, she was the lead lawyer of the team that Mr Yao had gathered and was apparently the foremost expert in laws surrounding conservatorships. She was a kind looking woman, with a cute round face and features that clearly showed her Earth Kingdom heritage.

Luckily the woman had a hole in her schedule, which was how she’d been able to travel to Asami’s mansion on such short notice so that they could have this discussion in Asami’s office. (She still felt uncomfortable using her father’s former office, even though it would be much more spacious and convenient.)

“Nothing specific,” Asami said, “all I have is my theories. I’m guessing that they’ll point to my mother’s death and to my father being on the run, how that means that I’m all alone. They’ll say that the loss made me traumatized and irrational or something.” If Asami recalled correctly, that had been the argument they’d made against the girl she’d heard about in that scandal years ago, who’s uncle had used a conservatorship to take control of her inherited fortune.

“They might also point to the recent reforms in my company as evidence of my irrationality.”

“Are they? Evidence of your irrationality?” Ha-Joon asked.

Asami had only just met the woman, but she already appreciated her bluntness and willingness to get straight to the point.

“No, not at all. They’re fiscally sound, in fact they’re the reason why my company is profitable again, instead of being bankrupt. Even my CFO has said as much, and he’s hardly my biggest fan. It does hand more powers to my employees though, while limiting my own, so those that are paranoid about a socialist revolution could try to paint it in a more negative light.”

“I see,” Ha-Joon said in an ominous tone. “In my experience much of the judiciary does tend to be filled with fervent supporters of privatization and the free market, so I’m afraid that there’s a real chance that the judge in your case may be sympathetic to arguments painting you as a socialist.”

“Even if I was a socialist though, that wouldn’t automatically make me mentally unwell though, right?” Asami questioned.

“I’m afraid that there’s no clear standard for who is or isn’t mentally well,” Ha-Joon said, “especially for women. Have you ever looked through the list of symptoms for ‘hysteria’? It includes practically every thought or emotion you could possibly have.”

Asami’s stomach dropped. That had already been her impression, but she had been holding out hope that an expert in the field would be able to tell her that there were clearer standards for them to work with. “If the standards are so vague then how do we fight against the claim that I’m mentally incompetent?!” Asami asked.

“Appearance plays a big role, you have to look like you’re well put together,” Ha-Joon said. “You should be fine in that respect, if you simply look the way you do now, except with slightly more formal clothes. Frankly I wish I was as good with makeup as you, yours looks perfect!” The woman said with a slightly envious look.

Asami laughed. “It’s always come naturally to me,” she said.

The other woman’s look of envy grew, before she shook it off and continued. “Well, in addition to your physical appearance, you’ll need to stay in control of your emotions. Avoid anger especially, try to keep a polite smile the entire time, but a reserved smile, excessive happiness will also be seen as a symptom of hysteria and irrationality.”

“I should be fine on that count too,” Asami said, “I’ve attended formal events with my father since I was a young girl, he made sure I mastered polite smiles.”

 

“What about the proposed conservator? ‘Benjiro Izaru,’ I believe his name was,” Ha-Joon asked, looking down at her notes to presumably double-check that name. “What’s his connection to you exactly? That’s another avenue through which this conservatorship can be challenged, at the very least we might be able to sue for a different conservator to be named in his stead.”

Asami sighed. “He was the managing director of Future Industries, until I took over and reassigned him. Which he clearly hasn’t taken well.”

“On what basis does he think that the judge will accept him as a conservator with your best interests in mind?” Ha-Joon questioned. “Is he a relative of some kind? Usually most conservators are relatives of the conservatee.”

Asami shook her head. “I have no close living relatives, except for my father, who obviously isn’t an option. Izaru came to our home fairly often though, when my father was still around. Often to talk business, but he sometimes joined for dinner too. He’ll probably argue that he was a close family friend, I don’t agree and I suspect that my father wouldn’t either, but from an outsider perspective he’d have a decent case, probably.”

“Got it,” Ha-Joon said, making a few notes. “In the end we won’t truly know what we’re dealing with until the first hearing tomorrow, where the proposed conservator will be making their case and where you will be allowed to say whether you accept or reject the conservatorship.

“Since you’ll be rejecting it, there’ll be another hearing at a later date. There won’t be an opportunity for arguments in your defense in the first hearing, so for our purposes tomorrow will purely be an opportunity to get an idea of the case being built against you.”

Asami nodded thoughtfully.

“It’s always best to prepare sooner rather than later though, do you have any other ideas for what might be used against you?” The lawyer across from her asked.

Asami continued thinking for a moment, before answering. “Just one thing, are you aware of the rumors about me and about Korra, that girl I excavated from an iceberg?”

“I only know the rumors, but yes,” Ha-Joon said.

“Well-” Asami began, frustrated by how she kept being forced to talk about this. “As far as I know all they have are rumors, but maybe they could still use that against me.”

“They probably could,” Ha-Joon said, “it would be better for them if they had more than rumors though. Is there- Uhh-” The woman paused briefly, her sudden flustered appearance in stark contract to how calm and professional she’d been up to this point. “Is there any chance that they have evidence that proves the veracity of these rumors?”

In other words, ‘are the rumors true?’ Asami thought.

Given the way that her reddened cheeks already answered the question, Asami decided that there was no reason to hold much back. “In theory, yes, I guess it’s possible,” she said, falling quiet when a maid walked in and asked if she wanted her tea refilled.

Once the maid left, Asami stayed quiet a while longer as she stared thoughtfully at the fresh cup of tea in her hand. The staff here at the mansion probably knows that something is up between me and Korra, right? We haven’t been kissing out in the open or anything, but still, they’re here all day, and small details add up over time… What if Izaru bribed one of them, or got them to talk some other way?

She hated to suspect any of her own staff, most of whom she’d known for at least half her life, but under the circumstances she couldn’t rule anything out.

“I see,” Ha-Joon said. “As you might know, there are no laws against relationships of this sort, not for women. But it certainly won’t work in your favor, if there is indeed evidence of it. I’ve fought many cases on behalf of clients in homophilic relationships, or with proclivities for such. I won some of them, but not as many as I lost. The judiciary often does tend to see it as a sign of mental instability and mental incompetence. Your enrollment at the university might also work against you, it’ll be used to paint you as ‘eccentric’.”

Asami was briefly unable to process this, due to the sheer volume of emotions running through her head in response. Her mind cleared once she decided to settle on her feeling of anger. All I want is a happy life with Korra, how dare people try to keep me from that?!

“I hate this damn society,” Asami said, prompting a laugh from the other woman. “Anyway,” Asami continued, “you claimed that you did win some of your cases, so tell me how.” She was determined to win this fight, no matter what.

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“I hope they try to break through, I’m dying for some action,” Big Lee said, leaning against the ship’s railing while staring out towards the ships in the distance. He’d been in the battleship’s cabin when they were first spotted, radio contact had been made but the distant ships weren’t turning around as ordered, claiming to be having problems with their rudders and their engines. In all 7 ships? Fat chance, Big Lee thought.

“What? Why? That’d mean that we have to work, I’d rather keep enjoying this extended holiday,” said Tiny Lee, who stood beside him.

“Hmph,” Big Lee grunted, “Captain makes us work either way, even if there’s nothing to be done, he’ll just order us to scrub an already spotless deck. At least in a battle the work would be exciting for once.”

Big Lee cursed the fates that’d caused him to be assigned to the navy, to this boring job in a blockade that nobody ever tried to attack anyway. He must’ve done some bad stuff in his previous life, to be cursed to this kind of boredom! At least the Northern fleet had seen some action while stamping down a rebellion by the air nomads in the Western protectorate, not to mention when they’d battled the Republican fleet in the Northern seas.

The real action though was in the infantry. Down in the trenches, nice and dirty, fighting the enemy bayonet to bayonet, that’s the stuff, Big Lee thought. He’d heard about a big battle of some sort, where Kuvira’s forces lost a lot of territory after a major defeat against the militias of Omashu. That’s what they get, should’ve invited me to help, Big Lee thought with a smile, flexing his muscles as if to prove the point to himself.

Tiny Lee just scoffed in response. “I’d sooner avoid any action, thank you very much. Never wanted to join anyway, only reason I didn’t run from the draft was cause I was afraid they’d hurt my family if I did.”

“Yeah well, I’m not a coward like you,” Big Lee said to the tiny weakling who he unfortunately happened to share a name with.

Tiny Lee scoffed again. “If you want excitement so badly, why don’t you just tell the Captain to shove it where the sun don’t shine, next time he orders you to scrub the decks? That’d be some real bravery!”

Big Lee felt the blood drain from his face just thinking about it, something that the tiny twerp next to him didn’t fail to notice. “See? That’s what I thought. I may be a coward, but you’re just as bad, we’re both kneeling down and doing what our betters tell us to, at least I’m self-aware about it.

“Now those folks in Omashu, the worker militias, they are brave, they looked their masters in the eye and told them to sod off! Now they’re free! Doing what they want while resisting attempts to subjugate them again, by both that prissy King in Ba Sing Se and that bitch Kuvira.”

“Quiet down would you!” Big Lee hissed, shocked at what he was hearing. “They’ll put you before a firing squad for talking like that, and me for being next to you.”

Tiny Lee just shrugged. “You’re the one who wished for the enemy to attack our blockade, sounds like you’re an enemy sympathizer if you ask me.”

“What, that’s not-” Big Lee began, before noticing the shit-eating grin on Tiny’s face, showing that he was just teasing. “Screw you,” he then said, turning away from Tiny again to stare down at the waves lapping against the hull of the battleship.

“By Raava, you’re easy to mess with,” Tiny said, “you’re lucky you’re so big, otherwise-”

“Otherwise, what?” Big asked, looking back up towards Tiny, who’d suddenly gone very pale, as he stared ahead to the ships in the distance.

What’s he looking at? Big thought, trying to follow Tiny’s line of sight. As he did, he noticed something strange, it was a wave, except like none he’d ever seen before. It moved in a very unnatural way… And its size! It was tough to even grasp its size at first, since there was nothing else in the open sea to compare it to, which allowed Big to trick himself into believing that it was just a tiny wave, instead of the unfathomably large mass of water that it was in reality. 

“What in the fogs is that!!!” Big yelled, grabbing Tiny, who’d been frozen to the spot, by the shoulders and pulling him after while he ran for cover from the massive wave that could slam into them at any moment and would surely sweep them both off the deck.

He ran towards the door to the lower deck, certain that they’d be too late to escape the wave that’d been rapidly speeding towards them, but then a sudden shock ran throughout the entire ship, causing him to stumble and fall to the deck.

A massive and metallic groan sounded, while the entire deck began to sway back and forth worse than it had during even the worst thunderstorms Big had experienced since he’d been stationed here. What’s going on?! Big thought, scared out of his mind, barely even noticing that he was hugging Tiny for comfort. That was when he noticed that the entire ship was being lifted up into the air!

Then, with another massive metallic groan, suddenly it felt as though the entire deck was pulled out from under him, causing him and Tiny to roll in a tangled mess until they hit the back railing of the ship, thankfully neither of them went overboard.

A roar of water sounded from the sea beneath, Big looked down to find that the water beneath them was moving at an impossible speed. Or… No, we’re the ones moving at an impossible speed! He thought, as he stared back towards the battleship they were paired with, which had been just a couple hundred feet away moments ago but was growing more and more distant by the second, while the ship they were on was speeding away as though it’d been launched by a massive slingshot.

Alarms began to ring, calling for all hands on deck, a bit late if you asked Big. He just ignored them, what would we even do, what’s even happening? He thought.

He kept looking at the other battleship, which had been right next to them a moment ago but was now at least a mile away. He saw another massive wave forming right next to it, it grew taller and taller, then as though it was alive it began to bend towards the other ship and it just- Swallowed it up, like a big metal snack!

“Great Raava and all your light spirits, please protect us!” Big Lee said, in what was probably his first prayer in over a decade.

He got back up to his feet, just in time to hear another big metal crash and fell back to the floor again. “What in the fogs was that?!” He asked, before realizing that the ship had stopped moving, just as suddenly as it had begun.

He turned around and looked towards the bow of the ship with a sinking feeling, once he did, his fear was immediately validated. They had crashed right into another one of their own battleships, which was insane considering how the closest ship had been over a mile away.

“Get to the lifeboats!” Someone shouted, it was probably the best idea that anyone on this damn ship had ever had, so Big made sure to listen. He picked Tiny, who still looked completely shell-shocked, up off the deck and ran towards the nearest lifeboat.

“Stand and fight you cowards! That’s an order!” Someone shouted from behind, after Big Lee finished putting Tiny Lee in the lifeboat. Are they for real? Big thought, glancing to the side, where their ship’s hull had damn near cut the other battleship in half, while the rumbling sound from below confirmed that their own ship had sprung several massive leaks as well. He turned around to find the Captain standing close behind him, visibly fuming with rage.

“Or what?” Big asked.

“Or I’ll have you court-martialed for mutiny!” The Captain said.

“Good luck with that,” Big said, rolling his eyes. “What are we even supposed to fight? As far as I can tell we’re fighting the damn sea!”

“You’re sailors aren’t you?! It’s your job to fight the sea!”

Big Lee just scoffed. “I’m not the smartest guy, but I’m pretty sure that that’s not supposed to be literal. Frankly Sir you can shove your court-martial up your ass, I’m getting on this lifeboat one way or another, and if you want to live then I suggest that you do the same.”

“Cowards, all of you!” The Captain yelled. “You don’t want a court-martial? Fine, then we’ll skip straight to an execution!”

He reached for his side-arm, but before he was even able to grab the handle Big Lee’s fist smashed right into his nose, right into the stupid twirly mustache that Big had once admired.

The Captain collapsed into a pathetic pile, onto the deck, and Big turned around to join the others in the lifeboat. A nagging thought stopped him from getting into the lifeboat though, not until he begrudgingly turned back and threw the Captain’s unconscious body over his shoulder. The guy may have been an unreasonable prick, but leaving him to die just didn’t feel right.

Once Big got in, the others used the pulleys to lower the lifeboat down to the sea’s surface, where they began rowing away from the two sinking battleships, joined by numerous other lifeboats.

Everyone was very tense, even as the sinking wrecks grew more and more distant, given how they still didn’t know what the hell had even caused all of this.

“Do you think it was U-boats?” Someone asked.

“Since when can U-boats create tsunamis, and smash ships into other ships?!?” Tiny said. “No, this has to be some new kind of weapon. Maybe the same as the one they used outside Omashu, to break through our lines!”

“Do you think they’ll go after us next, once they finish with the other battleships?” A Sergeant asked.

“How should I know? I guess we’ll just have to find out.” Tiny said, causing another tense silence to fall.

Big looked back towards the fleet of ships that had approached, were they somehow responsible for this attack? They hadn’t moved an inch, as far as he could tell, but it seemed like too much of a coincidence for them to have nothing to do with it. Whatever, he thought, grabbing one of the oars and helping to row the lifeboat back to shore, or perhaps to another battleship further down the line. Nothing I can do about it, I can’t punch a damn wave! Or well, I can, but I doubt that it’d help much.

He enjoyed the simple task of pulling the oar through the water for a while, until Tiny had to ruin it by talking again. “Are you sure about taking him with us?” He asked, nodding over to where the Captain still lay unconscious. “He’ll be able to tell everyone that we disobeyed his orders, that you told him to shove it and then punched him!”

“Hey, you’re the one who challenged me into telling him to shove it!” Big Lee said. “So don’t blame it all on me!”

“That was a joke!”

“Whatever, you’re assuming that he even remembers anything at all, I did punch him pretty hard…”

“I guess we can always throw him overboard later,” Tiny said, shocking Big with his ruthlessness, though even more shockingly none of the other occupants of the lifeboat bothered to argue against this idea.

 

 

 

They’d made it about halfway to the next battleship, when suddenly they saw it lurching into the air, supported by another one of those bizarre and unnatural waves. Even more bizarrely, the wave turned to ice, and then even more spikes of ice shot up out of the water, before long the entire battleship was lifted up out of the water, supported by a massive floating iceberg.

They all just sort of stared at it for a while, which Big quickly grew tired of. He grabbed an oar and began rowing again. “Guess we can’t ask them to help us,” he said casually. “Look on the bright side, that means we don’t have to figure out what to do with our dear Captain yet.”

In his mind though, he was working on an idea. Them folks in Omashu are free, after they told both Kuvira and the King to piss off, that’s what Tiny said. We’ve already committed mutiny, what’s stopping us from making landfall on the other side of the blockade? On the free side?

It’d mean a fair bit more rowing, but Big had never been afraid of hard work, so long as it was exciting. Defecting to the militias sure did sound exciting…

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra moved on from the frozen battleship, towards the next pair of ships in line. She surfed towards them on a board of ice while using her own power, only once she came close did she enter the avatar state.

She used the massive surge of power that this gave her in order to summon another giant wave, though before she was able to send this wave to wash over the ship she noticed the ship’s massive cannons turning towards her, or more accurately, towards the wave she was riding, they probably didn’t even see Korra herself. I guess it was only a matter of time until they at least tried fighting back.

So far dealing with the blockade had been a breeze, the avatar state had given her more than enough power, and clearly Kuvira’s fleet had been caught completely off-guard and didn’t have the faintest clue of what to do. It didn’t seem like too much had changed in this regard, as an almost lazy swipe of her arm allowed Korra to pull a blade of water from the sea, cutting the ship’s cannon in half before it was able to fire a single shot. She disabled the other cannons using metalbending. After this, Korra created a large wave again, which she used to smash the ship into its neighbor and then freeze the two of them together.

That should be enough for now, Korra thought, I best get back to the Red Lotus ships, make sure they’re making it through okay.

She dove underwater again, bending the water around her to propel herself forward, while also trying to sense any strange objects moving beneath the water. Dayal had warned her about possible underwater ships that might be here as part of the blockade, and about how they could potentially sink their fleet of supply ships even if Korra was able to deal with all the battleships on the surface.

So far though she didn’t sense any of such ships, just a few large elephant koi fish. She made her way back to the supply ships, who still weren’t moving forwards for some reason.

What are they waiting for? She thought to herself.

 

 

 

She swam to the back of one of the ships, then used a watersprout to launch herself up to the roof of the ship’s cabin, where she hoped to hear whatever the Captain and crew were talking about.

In terms of overhearing the crew it was a total success, however, what the crew was saying was far less promising. “Captain, we have to turn back before that monster, whatever it is, comes for us next!” One said, followed by murmurs of agreement from others.

“Wh- Why would it do that? Dayal promised us that the blockade would be cleared, his promise came true, clearly whatever did this is on our side.” A voice, presumably the Captain, said in response.

“So what, Dayal can control the ocean now?! There’s no way!”

“What’s the alternative, it’s all just a complete coincidence that the blockade happened to be attacked, right when Dayal promised it would? What’s the odds of that?” The Captain challenged.

“Haven’t you guys heard about the way the militias beat through Kuvira’s trenches?” Someone else said. “The stories talk about things similar to this, don’t they? Someone controlling the elements? Some even said it was the avatar!”

There! Finally someone’s making sense, Korra thought, struggling to keep herself hidden while waiting for these dummies to make up their minds, though she was starting to think that it might prove necessary to reveal herself. In hindsight she really should’ve predicted that a completely mysterious force wiping out a whole fleet of battleships might be a bit intimidating, even if the cargo ships were not the ones being attacked.

Some of them did seem to come around thanks to that last argument, but not all of them. It was the Captain who thankfully ended up convincing everyone. “It seems to me that this is all a moot point,” he said. “If whatever it was is not on our side, yet clearly also not on Kuvira’s side, then what guarantee do we have that it’ll leave us alone if we turn around now? If we assume that it’s on our side then we can continue safely, if we assume that it’s on nobody’s side, then it matters not which direction we choose, so we might as well press on.”

None of them seemed enthusiastic, but they conceded the Captain’s argument and shortly after the ship began moving. After this ship took the initiative, the rest of the fleet soon followed.

Korra felt bad though, leaving the crews of these ships in such frightful uncertainty just because she wanted to keep her own secrets, just because she was afraid of becoming a target once her identity became known.

There’s one thing I can do, she thought, before checking if the coast was clear and then diving back into the water.

She swam out ahead of the fleet, then using ice she began spelling out a message. ‘Don’t worry, on your side,’ it said.

After some hesitation, she swam ahead further and used ice to spell out an additional message, this one was even shorter, just one word in fact.

‘AVATAR.’

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

The following morning Asami got up early. She had a court hearing to prepare for, as well as one other meeting even before that. She got dressed, had breakfast, put her makeup on, and finished just in time to hear the doorbell ring.

She came downstairs just as Mrs Su let the expected visitor inside. “Mister Jigo, welcome,” she said to the surprisingly short and slightly dirty-looking man, he was the private eye she’d contacted over the phone the day before.

The man looked around the mansion with a whistle. “Nice digs you’ve got here Miss. People don’t usually invite me through the front door, not in broad daylight at least.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t want to be seen getting their hands dirty, I s’pose. Plus, people just seem to assume that secretive business ought to be conducted at night. Big mistake, let me tell ya,” he said while wagging his short stubby finger, “nothing more suspicious than a late-night meeting! That’s some expert advice, free of charge.”

“Appreciate it,” Asami said with a raised eyebrow, the man certainly was a character. It was kind of hard to imagine her father dealing with the exuberant man, the fact that he had anyway seemed like it must be an indication of the man’s skill.

“So, what’d ya need? Want me to find proof that your boyfriend is two-timing you or something?”

“What?! No, nothing like that!” Asami quickly said. Is that really something that people hire a private eye for? That seems so petty! If you mistrust someone so strongly then why even stay with them?

“I need you to find dirt on someone, he crossed me and is attacking my livelihood, I don’t want to stay purely on the defensive. I want to completely discredit him, get as much dirt on him as possible and use it to destroy him.”

“Wow! Didn’t expect that, but I like it! A lady with bite! So, who’s the lucky fella?”

“Mr Benjiro Izaru, he works for Future Industries,” Asami said. “He used to be the managing director, but now he’s the head of the Office of Government Affairs. I honestly don’t know much about his personal life, but I’ve got his address right here,” she said, handing a small piece of paper over to Jigo.

“Ah, I know that neighborhood, lots of clients there, and targets too. He must have some fancy digs as well.”

Asami shrugged, she’d never visited him at his home.

“Anyway, so what exactly do you want me to do? Find out if he’s got any corrupt or illegal dealings going on? If he’s cheating on his wife, or if his wife is cheating on him? Or if he secretly has a passion for ballet? I tell ya, that one happens surprisingly often, it’s always the ones you least suspect!”

“All of the above,” Asami said, “except the ballet, I don’t see how that would help me.”

“The full package, got it. I’ll get some of my assistants together, set up a full 24-hour surveillance team. He probably has some staff too, gardeners and maids and such, I’ll find a way to approach them and interrogate them for dirt on their boss. Rich pricks like him usually don’t inspire much loyalty, so it shouldn’t be too hard.”

Asami nodded, though the possibility that something similar had been done to her own staff worried her. Do I inspire loyalty? I don’t think I’m a ‘prick,’ but I’m not particularly inspirational either am I? Most of them probably just think I’m some spoiled rich girl.

“Want me to break into his home too?” Jigo asked, shaking Asami from her thoughts.

Asami froze. “Break int- But that’s illegal!”

Jigo shrugged. “That’s why it comes at a premium. If you really want dirt on someone then this is the best way, your dear old daddy hired me to do it once or twice. Comes with a guarantee that I won’t squeal to the authorities if I’m caught, so long as you pay me a bonus for any time I spend locked up.”

Oh wow, that’s… Something. Asami thought to herself. “How about-” She began after a moment of thought. “How about you sneak into his office at Future Industries, that wouldn’t technically be illegal, it’s my property. Are you able to install listening devices on phone lines?”

Jigo nodded. “Do that then,” Asami said, “do it to his office phone, I’ll make sure that the office is empty at the time. See what you can find this way, if you can’t find anything then perhaps we’ll revisit certain uhm- Other options.”

Part of Asami couldn’t believe that she would even consider such far-reaching and illegal options, it spoke volumes on how much Izaru had angered her with this move against her.

Calling me mentally incompetent, how dare he! It brought all of Asami’s normally well-hidden feelings of resentment to the forefront, all the sneers she’d received in high school, and when she’d first enrolled in the University, the condescension and patronizing attitude she was always addressed with at high society galas even compared to others her age, when those others were male…
It was an injustice she was usually able to ignore, in part, she realized, thanks to her position of wealth and privilege. But that wealth was now under direct attack! There was no way she’d let Izaru get his grubby paws on it!

After some final arrangements with Jigo, Asami sent the man on his way, before getting her driver to roll the car up front, it was almost time for the court hearing.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Korra stood on the docks, watching the ships she’d escorted all this way finally pull into port and begin to unload their wares. She’d swum out ahead of them for the final stretch of sea, confident that Kuvira’s fleet had given up the chase.

Korra had disabled two more of Kuvira’s battleships, after the supply ships she was escorting began to cross through the hole she’d punched in the blockade and said battleships foolishly tried to give chase.

After that they’d continued sailing through the night without anything else of note happening, except for Korra developing a slight cramp in her back.

The loud cheers that sounded while the supplies began to be unloaded made it all worth it. During her brief exploration of the town, which still bore numerous scars from its recent capture by the worker militias, the lack of resources available had already made itself very apparent.

At the same time though, there had already been a surprising sense of optimism, which still gave the town a very pleasant atmosphere. Korra wasn’t immediately able to put her finger on what exactly it was; obviously the town, at the Southern tip of the peninsula that the militias had recently conquered, was much smaller than Republic City. But Korra didn’t think that the size was the only difference, the way people interacted with each other was also very different from Republic City.

In Republic City it often seemed like there was a large chasm between people, even while they walked alongside each other on the street. There were always very clear and distinct class differences, immediately obvious based on how someone dressed, those in fancy suits barely spared a glance at anyone dressed less immaculately than themselves, while those in ragged clothing averted their eyes whenever you came close. Waiters and others working service jobs always acted in a very servile manner to customers.

Everything in this town stood in stark contrast to those aspects of Republic City, which made it at once more familiar to Korra, but also a bit shocking after she’d spent these past months finally getting used to how Republic City worked. Everyone here dressed more or less the same, not in terms of color or even style, but in terms of the level of wealth on display. Nobody seemed to be setting themselves apart, trying to seem like they were above everyone else.

The frequent use of terms like ‘comrade’ seemed to evoke a similar feeling of solidarity. Despite the clearly strained resources the town suffered under, Korra had even been offered some free food from a street vendor, a stick with some grilled meat and vegetables and some kind of sweet and spicy glaze, which was absolutely delicious.

Korra continued staring out over the scene at the docks, thinking that she should probably try to find Zaheer, when suddenly she felt a hand tapping her on her right shoulder.

Korra turned to her right, but nobody was there, so she turned to her left instead, where a smirking Ghazan stood. “Long time no see, avatar,” he said in his gruff voice.

“Hey!” Korra said. “I was just about to go look for Zaheer, is he here?”

“He’s around,” Ghazan said with a shrug, “probably telling everyone what to do with the supplies, he can be kind of hypocritical for an anarchist if you ask me, with how bossy he is.”

Korra chuckled in response. “It’s good to see you doing well. It hasn’t been that long has it?”

“I suppose not,” Ghazan answered, “a lot has happened though, after you helped us break through Kuvira’s lines. We had a whole new territory to secure, this town included, while having to fend off counterattacks at the same time. Guess it feels like more time passed, with so much going on.” He had a bit of a haunted look on his face, presumably thinking back on those recent battles.

Korra nodded. “That makes sense. So, how’d the trenches I dug hold up?”

“Very well! Almost made me feel bad for Kuvira’s goons, they barely even made it inside our trench, even after several waves. It helped that their counter-offensive was very rushed, probably because their commanders wanted to save face and avoid punishment from Kuvira by retaking the trenches as soon as possible, but still, we’ve never fended off a full assault with so few casualties before.”

“That’s great!” Korra said, even though if she was being honest then hearing about all this death and war wasn’t very uplifting, even when it was ostensibly good news.

“Yeah well, I’m just about ready for this war to be over, hopefully these supplies will help. From what I hear Kuvira’s own supply lines aren’t doing so well either, so who knows, maybe we’re finally getting the upper hand,” said Ghazan. “Anyway, how about you, what’ve you been up to?”

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami regretted arriving early at the courthouse, the wait gave her too much time to think, time that she spent coming up with all the horrible things that could’ve gone wrong for Korra, during her girlfriend’s dangerous mission to break through Kuvira’s blockade to aid the militias outside Omashu.

Her regret quadrupled when she saw that Izaru arrived early too, before her own lawyer, so she couldn’t simply ignore him by pretending to be busy talking to Ha-Joon.

Once he saw her, he walked right towards her. “Miss Asami, I really am sorry it has come to this, but I cannot in good conscience stand by while a close family friend ruins her own life like this. Your father may not have turned out to be the man we all thought he was, but I still feel dutybound to protect my former friend’s daughter, even if it means protecting you from yourself.”

“Save it for the judge Izaru,” Asami said, fighting to keep her tone somewhat courteous since she didn’t want to cause a public scene, “lie to him all you want, but please show me the courtesy of not lying in a private conversation. We both know you’re full of it.”

“I would never lie under oath,” Izaru said, in an infuriatingly smug tone, thankfully though Asami saw Ha-Joon walking up the courthouse’s steps behind him, giving her a perfect excuse to escape from this insufferable conversation.

“Miss Ha-Joon, glad to see you again,” Asami said. “Shall we go inside, go over the case one more time?” There was absolutely no reason to go over the case again right now, As Ha-Joon had said today was just about Izaru making his case for a conservatorship, and about Asami rejecting it and demanding another hearing where they delve deeper into the merits.
But a quick glance over to Izaru, before looking back at Ha-Joon, seemed enough to silently communicate Asami’s plea for help and to get the other woman to play along.

Thankfully it wasn’t long before Izaru’s own lawyers also arrived, and they were all called into the courtroom for the hearing.

“Miss Asami? I presume?” A man in a judge’s clothes asked Asami, unless something very strange was happening he was presumably the judge. “And Mister Izaru? And these are your respective attorneys?”

Everyone answered affirmatively, after which the judge motioned for them to all take a seat around a table, the judge took a seat at the same table as well. “These kinds of hearings aren’t usually as formal as most court proceedings,” he said, “since they aren’t usually very combative and don’t usually take very long. After all, ideally we all want what’s best for the proposed ward.

“Which would be you,” he added, turning to Asami and changing his tone and manner of speaking to become extremely condescending, just shy of babytalk. Asami balled her fists in frustration under the table, but otherwise maintained a perfectly calm outwards expression.

“I know,” Asami answered politely, “Miss Ha-Joon explained everything to me beforehand, but thanks for reminding me.”

“Right,” the judge said, clapping his hands together, “let’s get this over with shall we? Mister Izaru, if you please, you’re the one who requested this conservatorship, explain why. I should note that you would be a bit of an unusual conservator, given that as far as I’m aware you have no blood relation to Miss Asami.”

“Yes, well, I’m afraid that Miss Asami’s situation is already unusual to begin with,” Izaru began. “And very tragic at that. Her mother died at a young age, and as I’m sure we all know, her father is also-” He briefly cleared his throat before continuing. “Let’s say, out of the picture.”

The judge nodded his head at this and gestured for Izaru to continue.

“Of course, ordinarily there would still be grandparents, or aunts and uncles, or other such more distant relations. But in Miss Asami’s case, tragically, neither of her parents had any extended family to speak of. Her mother was an immigrant from the Fire Nation who never maintained any relationship with her family there, for reasons that she always kept for herself. And her father was an orphan himself.

“Which is why I, as a close friend of her father, the man her father trusted to be managing director of his company, felt dutybound to step up once I noticed the deteriorating mental state of his young daughter.”

“Very well,” the judge said, “can you tell me more about this, what does this ‘deteriorating mental state’ involve exactly, when did it first become apparent?”

“As one might expect, it all began when the police attempted to place Hiroshi Sato under arrest,” Izaru said. “Truly, the outcome was nearly inevitable, young Miss Asami was witness to all the violent events of that day, I’m told that it was a horrible sight that no young lady such as herself should ever be subjected to.

“To go through all that, while at the same time essentially becoming an orphan, truly I can’t imagine that there are many young ladies who’s tender minds would be able to withstand such a stressful series of events. It would turn even the strongest of women hysterical.”

“Indeed, I can only imagine what it must’ve been like,” the judge said, sending a sympathetic look over to Asami, who had to admit that she couldn’t be too mad at him, he was just doing his job and responding to the lies and distortions that Izaru was spreading.

“To top it all off, Miss Asami then inherited control of her fathers businesses and assets, including Future Industries, one of the largest industrial conglomerates in the world!” Izaru said. “Truth be told, I’m of a mind to sue the people responsible for allowing this to happen to begin with, no young lady should be expected to deal with such enormous responsibility.”

 

 

 

As expected, Izaru then went on to talk about the events at Future Industries after Asami took control, and as expected his version of events was incredibly biased, painting every decision that Asami had made as supremely irrational.

“I realize that some might want to frame this as me being proud, or powerhungry, and merely lashing out in anger in response to being removed from my position as managing director,” Izaru said. “But although I believe that I was the best candidate for that job, if not to take over as CEO, this alone would not have been enough for me to conclude that Miss Asami was acting irrationally.

“I would’ve been willing to let things lie there, however that was before I learned that several bottom-feeding weasel-snakes had caught her ear, namely the ‘workers representative’ Ruolan, who somehow manipulated her into selling half of her company! I suspect that some of her fellow students at the university may have also manipulated her, we all know how that place is infected with socialists.”

“Half her company you say? I believe I read something about that in the newspapers,” The judge said, eyebrow raised.

“Yes, well, the newspapers aren’t treating it like the scandal it is if you ask me,” Izaru said. “She’s essentially allowing her company to be stolen out from beneath her by socialist radicals, even if she’s too naïve and distracted by her trauma to realize it.”

“That’s when I truly grew concerned, I’m ashamed that it took me so long, I had of course been busy with work but that’s no excuse. I finally began to inquire about dear Asami’s wellbeing, asking people who saw what she was like at home, not just what she was like at the office. What I learned shook me to my core, especially once I began to take the rumors that had already been circulating more seriously.”

Asami’s eyes widened in alarm, but she quickly fixed her expression again once Ha-Joon placed a calming hand on her arm.

“What did you learn exactly, are these the rumors I think they are?” The judge asked, to Asami’s concern he seemed more like someone excited to hear some juicy gossip than like someone rationally examining Asami’s wellbeing.

“I believe it’s best if you hear directly from my witness,” Izaru said.

“A witness, for a simple conservatorship hearing? That’s highly unusual,” the judge replied.

“It’s allowed though, is it not?”

“I suppose, yes,” the judge conceded, after which Izaru motioned to the door, and one of his lawyers moved to open it.

Behind the door a familiar face appeared, confirming all of Asami’s fears. “Eekasi?” Asami couldn’t help exclaiming. The woman in question, who’d served as a maid at the mansion for a decade at least, didn’t make eye contact, she just entered the room with her eyes downcast.

“Well come on then, don’t be shy,” the judge said. “This is already taking longer than I had hoped, so let’s not drag this out unnecessarily; what did you see exactly that makes Izaru here think that Miss Asami is unsuited to take care of herself, or of her estate?”

“I-” Eekasi began, while Asami waited breathlessly for the hammer to drop, “I’m sorry Mistress Asami, I swear that I-”

“Just say it already, no apology is going to make up for this,” Asami interrupted, unwilling to keep smiling politely while she was being stabbed in the back like this.

Eekasi shook her head, then turned to the judge instead. “Very well. I’ve witnessed mistress Asami engage in sinful degenerate behavior, that no lady of sound mind would ever engage in, thanks to the corruptive influence of her female houseguest.”

There it is, Asami thought, it was kind of anticlimactic actually, for the secret to come out like this, in a small and private court hearing, in which the matter of the conservatorship wouldn’t be resolved yet anyway. I’m sure the real fallout is yet to come, but for now, I can deal with this.

The judge still didn’t seem to understand, as he pressed for more information. “What kind of behavior are we talking about? We all sin sometimes, do we not? That doesn’t automatically make someone unfit to govern their own lives and their own estate.”

“These are sins of the gravest kind,” Eekasi said, “she has regularly invited this savage woman into her bed for carnal pleasure, this unchaste behavior, with another woman no less, is an affront to the spirits and to nature itself and-”

“Don’t speak of Korra that way, don’t you dare!” Asami said, finally losing control, though she absently registered Ha-Joon grabbing her by the elbow, fruitlessly trying to stop her from springing to her feet.

“You can see how this woman, Korra, has wrapped Asami around her finger,” Izaru interjected, making Asami realize how much her outburst played right into his hand.

“Now, what Eekasi is saying is of course absolutely true, these are very grave sins, but we mustn’t blame poor Asami too much. In the end she’s the victim in all this, she’s understandably lonely, abandoned by both her parents.

“Sinful and misguided though it may be, it’s no wonder that she’s given in to the allure of a companion who has no doubt made all sorts of promises, to help soothe her loneliness and grief even if it’s at the cost of her purity and her very soul. The real wrongdoer here is this ‘Korra’ woman, an admitted pervert who confessed to her degenerate tendencies in front of the High sage himself, she has taken advantage of a poor and traumatized young girl who is essentially an orphan, who has far more responsibility on her shoulders than any young lady should ever have to bear.
There may even have been threats of violence involved, the woman in question is known to compete in brutal bloodsports in which she somehow manages to defeat grown men, there’s likely a mixture of fear and misplaced affection involved, according to the psychiatrists I’ve consulted.”

Asami was raging inside, but with great effort she was able to avoid another outburst. She found that the trick was to imagine all the ways she could pursue her vengeance, in ways much more satisfying than a petty outburst right now would be.

The judge nodded, making some notes. “Is that all?” He asked.

“Yes, I believe I’ve made my case,” Izaru said.

“I must say that it’s a compelling case. You seek to personally become the conservator of Miss Asami here, correct?”

“That is correct.”

“I approve of your petition, provided that the conservatee consents. Which brings us to you, Miss Asami. Do you accept this conservatorship, or do you wish to challenge it.”

The judge watched her intently, making Asami think that the question itself was a test, that he was trying to see if you would understand what was happening without looking to her lawyer for an explanation. “I wish to challenge it,” Asami said without breaking eye-contact.

“Do you desire another conservator, or do you reject the conservatorship in its entirety, believing yourself to be of sound mind?”

“The latter.”

The judge sighed. “Great, no quick resolution… Then we’ll have to schedule another hearing, in which you’ll have to prove to be of sound mind. I will have to check for an opening in my schedule, but I expect that it will be about two weeks from now. If any of you seek to invite witnesses to speak for you, you’ll have to fill out a form beforehand. I don’t appreciate being blindsided,” He said, with a slight glare towards Izaru.

 

 

“Sooooo, what do you think? Do we have a chance?” Asami asked once she and Ha-Joon were leaving the courthouse. Thankfully there was no media outside or anything like that, part of her had feared that Izaru would turn this entire affair into a public spectacle, but she suspected that he avoided doing so because the judge would frown on that kind of interference in the proceedings.
So the circle of people who knew about all this remained small, for now.

“I do think there’s a chance,” Ha-Joon said, “the judge seems somewhat amenable, already a bit wise to the stunts that Izaru is pulling, like bringing a witness without informing anyone, when bringing one at all is already highly unusual.”

“Eekasi also hurts us though,” Asami said with a frown.

“Yes, certainly, it would’ve been easier if we didn’t have to deal with her accusations as well. Thankfully you haven’t confessed to anything yet.”

I came rather close though, coming to Korra’s defense the way that I did, Asami thought. “You think I should deny?”

“I’m not sure yet,” her lawyer answered. “First of all, does her contract stipulate that she must respect your privacy, not disclose the things she sees to others?”

“Yes, of course, that’s standard for hiring maids and such,” Asami said.

“Then first and foremost, you should immediately terminate her employment contract,” Ha-Joon said.

“Gladly,” Asami said dryly. “What about Izaru? I’ve considered doing the same to him, but it feels like that might be a bad idea.”

“I would listen to that instinct. He hasn’t so obviously violated any contract, and he’s the one bringing this case, firing him would potentially make it look like you’re insecure in your ability to prove your case, like that’s why you’re lashing out at him through other means instead.”

“Great,” Asami said sarcastically, “I’ll just keep working with a snake in my office then.”

There was one thought giving her comfort, that thought being that even if everything went wrong there was always plan Z, which was to sic her girlfriend on them all.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Ah, there’s Zaheer,” Ghazan said, pointing to a figure almost on the other side of the town’s harbor. When she squinted Korra was able to see that it was indeed Zaheer.

Korra had spent a while catching up with Ghazan, but now it was probably time to talk to Zaheer as well. Just to check if there was anything else she could do to help before she returned to Republic City.

She and Ghazan walked over to the stone walkway that ran along the docks, dodging past various numerous people that were hauling goods to or from the ships, or visiting various market stalls that covered the entire shoreward side of the walkway.

“Korra,” Zaheer said once he watched them approach, he then walked up to clasp her hand in greeting. “I was wondering where you were. You’ve again done a great service to our cause, I must admit I wasn’t sure if you could do it.”

“It was surprisingly easy, if I’m honest,” Korra said, while following Zaheer, who briefly gave her a strange look, before gesturing for her to join him inside a small building next to the port. It looked like it was used to store fish, smelled like it too, but it did help them keep their conversation private.

“Generally not the best idea to challenge the avatar in her native element,” Korra said once Ghazan closed the door behind them, “Though to be fair, they didn’t exactly know to expect me.”

 “Yes, most seem unwilling to accept the story of what happened at the trenches, even though it spread far and wide,” Zaheer said. “I’m concerned though, you claim that the elites know that bending is real, and that they have benders on their side, correct?”

Kora nodded. “Some of them, yeah. That’s what Raava said.”

“Then surely they haven’t simply dismissed the stories, they must have planned something to counter you. If they haven’t yet then they certainly will after this, you need to be careful.”

“I know,” Korra said. “That’s part of why I’m still maintaining secrecy, I don’t want to expose myself to an attack from them. I’m sure that after today they’ll know that the avatar, or at least a powerful bender, is fighting against them. But if they don’t know who or where I am, then that’ll still help me.”

Korra leaned back against the wall, next to the door through which she’d entered.

“Makes sense to me,” Ghazan said.

“Either way,” Korra said, “I want to get back to Republic City as soon as possible, I get the feeling that the separatists could make a move any day now, plus I don’t want my girlfriend to get lonely. So is there anything else you need? Cause otherwise I’ll get some food and some sleep before I get started on my way back.”

She’d already told Ghazan that she had a girl waiting for her in Republic City, back when they first met, and Zaheer already knew plenty of her secrets, so she didn’t see a need to hide the fact that she had a girlfriend from them.

Zaheer didn’t even react to the information, Ghazan looked like he was about to tease Korra for it but he was cut off when Zaheer began speaking. “There’s one minor thing, but it’d be a great help,” he said. “There’s a freshwater well that was damaged when we captured this town, we think there’s a bunch of rubble stuck inside, once that is cleared the natural ground water should fill up the well again. We haven’t gotten around to doing this yet though, so now the locals have to get their water from a nearby river. You and your bending should be able to address this issue.”

“You bet,” Korra said, “I’ll just get some grub first, then go to sleep. I was planning to leave in the night anyway, which is also the perfect time to fix the well without being seen.”

“Follow me,” Ghazan said, “I know a guy, best food in town.”

Zaheer was about to excuse himself but Ghazan grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him with. “You too, you work too much,” he said. “Besides, I’m pretty sure they can manage to unload the supplies without your help, aren’t you always talking about the working class’s ability to self-govern?”

Zaheer’s sputtered protests died down at that. “Fine,” the normally very serious man said with a slight grin on his face.

His mood seemed to improve even more once they began walking down the stone walkway alongside the docks, watching the supplies being unloaded from the ships, most of the market stalls were clearing out for the day so it wasn’t nearly as crowded as it had been a while ago, except for the people hauling crates from the ships. “I wasn’t expecting Dayal to be able to procure so many supplies, give him my thanks too, when you see him again. This’ll go a long way towards helping us make it through the coming winter.”

“Sure,” Korra mumbled distractedly, as she caught something from the corner of her eye. It was a woman, one she’d also seen before they entered the small fish storage building, then again when they’d exited. The woman had been dressed inconspicuously and with a scarf wrapped around her head, but that hadn’t prevented her from sticking out like a sore thumb due to being a foot taller than everyone else.

The woman now stood atop a nearby building, watching them.

Korra turned towards her and was about to ask Zaheer and Ghazan if maybe they knew who she was, when the woman tore off her scarf and revealed a tatooed forehead-

“GET DOWN!” Korra yelled, while at the same time she saw the woman inhale deeply. She’d only heard stories about tatoos like that, but she was pretty sure that she knew exactly what was coming.

She bent her knees and pulled up a stone barrier out of the thankfully very solid walkway, the barrier covered herself and the two senior Red Lotus members, who instead of getting down had just turned towards her in confusion and alarm.

Korra finished pulling up the barrier just before on the other side of it she heard a pop, then another pop, she braced the barrier but it made frighteningly little difference as the barrier still broke apart with a deafening explosion, knocking all three of them down from the walkway, onto a narrow strip of uneven rocks jutting out of the sea.

Unlike the others, Korra landed on her feet, allowing her to jump right back into action, launching herself into the sky with a fire-enhanced jump while pulling several of the surrounding rocks after herself.

She flipped in the air, using that motion to kick one of the rocks towards the enemy bender. A bender! She thought. It’s been so long since I’ve fought another bender!

Before her time in the ice, she’d usually sparred with other benders at least once per day, so going without it for several months now had been a huge change of pace. She felt a bit guilty about it, but Korra felt a small grin creeping up on her face now that she was finally testing her skills against another bender again.

The tall woman jumped off of the roof she’d been standing on, right before the rock Korra had sent towards her tore through it, with a roll she landed on the adjoining roof and instantly fired another blast of combustion bending towards Korra.

When the woman had landed on the other roof, Korra had sent another rock towards where she guessed the woman’s roll would end. Both of their attacks wound up cancelling each other out with another deafening blast, leaving Korra to kick her third and final rock up towards the woman, though she didn’t really expect it to hit its mark.

While the woman dodged her attack, Korra began running forwards. Clearly she’s at an advantage at range, I should get close so that any explosion will hurt us both, see how good her regular firebending is.

It was a solid plan, only problem was the surprising speed with which the enemy bender was able to generate these blasts. Korra ducked beneath one blast, rolling to keep her momentum when the explosion close behind her launched her forwards. It wasn’t enough though, by the time she finished her roll the other woman was already breathing in in preparation for another blast.

With a grunt, Korra pulled up another barrier, she tried to make it stronger than last time but it still wasn’t enough. After the two initial pops, another deafening blast sounded and tore right through her barrier. Korra screamed in pain as several chunks of rock hit her in the face and shoulders and she was knocked backwards once again.

The enemy bender wasn’t letting up, unleashing blast after blast while Korra kept being pushed further back. Korra launched herself up in the air with an earth-pillar, which promptly exploded beneath her feet due to another combustion-bending explosion she’d narrowly avoided. 

While flipping through the air she tore a hunk of stone from the walkway and threw it towards the enemy bender, but as always the tall woman just blasted right through the attack, before retaliating with her own.

In a split-second decision Korra decided to change strategies, instead of charging forwards she dove off the walkway and into the sea, where even the water crashing in around her ears wasn’t enough to mask the sound of the explosion on the walkway above her.

She used waterbending to maintain the momentum from her dive, then launched herself right back up above the water, immediately unleashing a flurry of icicles towards her opponent before she even landed on the water sprout that she was simultaneously pulling up beneath herself so that she could maintain this elevated position.

The tall woman ducked and rolled and otherwise dodged the storm of icicles with surprising agility, jumping from rooftop to rooftop while unable to find the time to return fire with her combustionbending. The fact that Korra forced her opponent to focus entirely on defense made it inevitable that, after a while, Korra’s attacks began to strike true. It begun with a few glancing hits, but then after Korra took slightly more time to aim her shots she managed to shoot one that went straight towards her opponent’s head. The woman brought up her arms to cover her face, saving herself from mortal injury, but she still screamed out in pain.

Korra pressed her attack, continuing to launch icicles while now leaning forwards and using her watersprout to launch herself back to the shore. The tall woman retreated to the back of the roof she stood on, then jumped off, escaping from Korra’s view.

Soon after, Korra landed on the same roof and looked down the alley behind, but she didn’t immediately see where the woman had gone. She stood there for a moment, panting from the exertion, considering her next move.

She’s strong, she thought to herself, where’d she even come from? She scanned the alleyway again, then jumped across it over to the next roof.

Don’t want to give her the high ground again, she thought as she continued jumping rooftop to rooftop while checking the alleys beneath, looking for anything unusual.

If she enters someone’s home, the people inside will probably scream in response to the giant lady with the weird tattoo, right? So she’s probably still in the alleys somewhere.

The moment she finished that thought, she heard the exact kind of scream she’d predicted. It came from just a couple houses over, so Korra quickly ran towards it, jumping down to the alley and listening to what was happening once she found a building with blood marks on the front door.

“Shut up, don’t make me hurt you,” the woman said to whoever was inside, then louder, she yelled: “Face me avatar! In the open, at the town square in five minutes, or these civilians are dead!”

Korra cursed, considering the situation. Punching the wall to get a read with seismic sense didn’t give her an easy resolution, it told her that the woman had one person in a chokehold, while two others sat huddled against a wall across from her, far enough away that the woman could blast them to bits without getting caught in the explosion herself.

So a human shield, plus two innocents in her sight… “Crap,” she mumbled to herself, “she’s got me.”

She backed away a little before responding. “Fine, town square, five minutes!” She backed away a bit more to make it clear that she really was leaving. “Doesn’t matter to me, I’ll kick your ass either way!”

She ran away from the alley, only to realize that she wasn’t sure where the town square was. She took a random turn, which quickly proved to be a wrong turn, since it brought her to the docks again. She did find Ghazan and Zaheer though, both climbing back onto the walkway, while a few of the dockworkers also poked out from the various places where they’d taken shelter.

“Hey, was anyone hurt?” Korra asked.

“I don’t think so, no.” Ghazan said.

“Cool, uhh, can either of you point me to the town square? I’ve got an explodey assassin to fight.”

“I’ll show you, this way, Ghazan you make sure nobody was injured,” Zaheer said, beginning to walk down the alley that Korra had just come from.

“You sure? You might get caught in the midst when we fight again.”

“I’ll take that chance. You said she was an assassin; how do you know? And how do you know she’ll be in the town square?”

“An assassin makes sense, doesn’t it? We were just talking about how Kuvira and others can’t just have dismissed the stories of what I did at the trenches, that they must’ve planned a way to counter me. I think we just discovered their way, they must’ve had her watching you, since I was last seen with you.”

Zaheer nodded. “Yes, that makes sense.”

“As for the town square, that’s where she said she’d be, she took a few hostages to make me back off, then told me to meet her there. Probably just wants to get me out in the open and away from the sea, instead of fighting in close quarters in these alleys or at the docks, where I have the advantage.”

“And you’re going along with that? Fighting her at a disadvantage?”

Korra shrugged. “I’m not going to let any innocents get hurt, if I can help it. So yeah.”

 

 

They arrived at the town square shortly after, where a bunch of people were standing around, looking concerned about all the explosions they’d heard. They all cleared the area upon Zaheer’s request.

“You got everyone’s loyalty quickly,” Korra noted while strolling to the center of the square, where a busted well stood. Probably the one Zaheer asked me to fix, she realized. “Didn’t you guys only conquer this town a few weeks ago?”

“We liberated it, we didn’t conquer it,” the man replied, “that’s why we earned their loyalty. After living under Kuvira’s yoke, all it really took was for them to realize that we didn’t come here just to replace her, that we weren’t just a different master with the same leash.”

“Ghazan says you like to boss people around,” Korra replied, while looking around the town square for any sign of the tall woman.

“I like to take the initiative,” the man replied, stroking his beard. “I’ve considered this question many times. I believe there’s a meaningful distinction between taking the initiative, having people choose to follow you either because they trust you or just because you’re the only one stepping up, or coercing them to obey you. I don’t feel as though I cross that line, I don’t think Ghazan feels that I do either, he just likes to stir up trouble.”

“Oh, I know,” said Korra. “I’m just talking to fill the time, kinda nerve-racking to wait for an explosion to fly my way any minute. Speaking of, you should probably get to cover, pretty sure the five minutes are almost up.”

Zaheer nodded, then with a quick “good luck” he turned around and jogged to the edge of the square.

Zaheer left right on time, since just after he disappeared into an alley the tall lady appeared, on a rooftop next to the square, close to where Korra and Zaheer had entered the square themselves.

“Hey!” Korra yelled, unsure of what the proper way to talk someone was, when you were about to fight, possibly to the death. “What’s your name?”

“What does it matter?” The woman asked with a frown.

Korra shrugged. “In my head I keep thinking of you as ‘tall lady,’ if that’s how you want to be remembered then that’s cool I guess.”

The woman cringed a bit, then shook her head in frustration before answering. “My name is P’Li.”

“Okay, so uh- Hey.”

“You said that already.”

“Right, soooo- Why are you attacking me?!”

“Just following orders.”

“That’s it? You didn’t even ask why?” Korra asked. Seriously, what’s up with this lady? There were burns on her arm, showing how she’d stopped the bleeding caused by Korra’s icicle attack by burning the wound with her firebending. Effective, but it had to also be incredibly painful.

“I learned the hard way that my masters don’t appreciate such questions. Anyway, isn’t it obvious? You’re the avatar, you’re a threat to their power.”

“So are you! Just tell them to leave you alone, then shoot explosions at them if they don’t listen!”

The woman shook her head. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, how powerful they are. It doesn’t matter, I’m done talking, your life ends here.”

“We’ll see about that,” Korra said, wiping some blood from her brow from a small cut she’d suffered during their first round of fighting.

The town square was paved with numerous small cobblestones, with sand in-between. Korra reached around herself with her earthbending, not for the cobblestones, but for the sand between them. Once she felt like she had control over enough of it, she threw her hands up, the sand followed that same direction, shooting up all around the square, making it impossible to see far in front of yourself.

Korra still moved from her current position, hearing the telltale popping sound at the beginning of another attack from P’Li, who’d presumably be aiming for where she’d last seen Korra.

After gaining some speed Korra dove forward, landing in a roll when as she predicted an explosion sounded behind her.

She again took control of the now-airborne sand, now sending all of it towards where P’Li stood on the roof. The sand wouldn’t have remained airborne for long anyway, and she just needed to buy herself a bit more time.

She ran over to the well, reaching for the stone rubble at the bottom and pulling it far up into the sky, then reaching even deeper for the water beneath. A quick glance up told her that the sand around P’Li had almost all fallen back down already, so she had just a few moments more. Luckily everything was proceeding right on schedule.

She jumped down into the well just as the crackle of another attack sounded, the deep well was more than enough to shield her from the explosion, and the water beneath was perfect both for breaking her fall and launching herself back up again.

She exploded back up out of the well with a gush of water behind her, just in time to catch the rubble she’d previously thrown up into the air, which she promptly shot towards P’Li.

The combustion bender was able to blow away some of it, but not all, the remaining rubble was enough to seriously damage the building she stood on, forcing the tall woman to jump down to the ground lest she be caught in the collapse.

Meanwhile Korra manipulated the water beneath her, standing atop a wave that launched her at rapid speed towards her opponent, she turned the wave into a ramp upwards, allowing herself to jump over top of the next explosion P’Li shot towards her.

This evaporated most of her water, but what remained was enough for Korra to shoot it towards P’Li, knocking her back and then freezing her against the rubble of the building that’d collapsed behind her.

“Surrender! You’re beaten!” Korra said.

“NEVER! Just kill me, it’s better than the punishment I’ll get for failure!” The other woman said, ice already evaporating around her in an impressive display of firebending. Guess she’s no slouch in regular firebending either, Korra briefly noted.

“It doesn’t have to be this way, I’ll protect you from whoever you’re afraid of!” Korra said.

The woman just scoffed. “I’m no fool, you’d just turn me into a weapon again, that’s all I’m good for, all anyone wants me for!”

Korra opened her mouth to argue, but before she could get a word out she heard the familiar crackles and pops of an incoming attack, so she pulled up the cobblestones between them to block it. This time, with P’Li still a bit dazed, Korra was able to create the barrier closer to her opponent than to herself, so this time P’Li was the one launched back as she was caught in her own explosion.

I really don’t want to kill her, Korra thought, I don’t know what’s been done to her, but I don’t think she chose this path.

Nevertheless, she jumped forwards with a blast of fire from her feet. They might’ve cleared the square but who knew how many innocents still lingered around the outskirts? This fight needed to end, one way or another.

She shot several fireballs towards P’Li, blasting her even further backwards, until she rolled hard against the wall of a nearby building. Korra pulled down the building’s wall, planning to drop it on top of P’Li to restrain her, but P’Li somehow managed to get to her feet quickly enough to dodge it, before disappearing down a nearby alley.

“Stop it! You said you’d face me in the open!” Korra yelled while giving chase.

Rather than cross into the narrow alley, she elected to launch herself up with an earth-pillar, jumping over the building P’Li had disappeared behind. She landed on the building’s edge, just in time to watch P’Li run towards a group of people huddled in a dead-end alleyway.

“Stop!” Korra yelled again, punching the air without thought, knowing only that her usual attacks seemed too risky with so many people in the crossfire. To her shock, she felt the air respond to her punch, which she now realized she’d thrown using a stance that Tenzin had taught her.

A powerful and condensed blast of air shot from her hand and towards P’Li in a spiral movement, twisting to knock her head-first against the wall of the alley instead of towards where the townspeople were.

“I can airbend? I can airbend!” Korra exclaimed happily, before throwing a combination of punches, just like how Tenzin taught her. She hit P’Li with a number of additional blasts of air, knocking her against one wall, then the other.

P’Li slumped to the ground. Korra jumped off the roof and approached her downed opponent. Then, not wanting to let her escape again, she reached up above her to rip the metal raingutter from a roof above, which she then bent around the forehead of P’Li. She ripped off another piece of metal to wrap around the woman’s arms and torso too, for good measure.

“Uhhh, sorry about that,” Korra awkwardly said to the people huddled in the corner, staring at her with wide eyes. “Don’t worry, I caught explosion-lady.”

She then used metalbending to lift P’Li up into the air and carry her back to the town square.

 

 

“Zaheer, you still around?!” She yelled out across the empty square, after plopping P’Li down next to the well.

“You captured her?” She heard him say, she turned towards his voice and saw him cautiously re-entering the square.

“Yeah,” Korra said with a proud grin, “and I fixed the well, ahead of schedule.” The wall that’d been build around the well’s top had been kind of exploded, but the watery bit at the bottom was the part that really mattered, right? Clearing out the rubble had made the water run back into the well again.

Zaheer raised his scarred eyebrow before leaning over to peer down the hole. “So you did,” he said, mildly amused.

They both looked over to P’Li, who’d finally regained consciousness and began shifting around in her metal restraints. Korra felt a pang of sympathy, as she saw numerous scars beneath the woman’s torn and burned cloak. They didn’t look like battle scars, but rather like scars that’d been purposely inflicted.

“Don’t try anything stupid, or I’ll throw you down the well,” Korra said harshly. “It was a good fight though,” she added more softly, even deciding to give her a small bow of respect.

“I failed!” P’Li responded with a baffled look on her face. “Just kill me already, get it over with!”

“I’m not going to kill you!”

“You’re going to have to! I won’t work for you, I won’t go through that again!”

“I don’t want you to work for me!” Korra said frustratedly. “I don’t know who hurt you, or what they’ve made you do in the past, I just want you to be free of them.”

The woman scoffed, hateful look on her face. “Don’t even try, you think my masters never tried more gentle forms of manipulation? It was always just lies in the end.”

“I don’t care if you believe me, I won’t kill you,” Korra said resolutely, before turning away and holding up a hand to make a small whirlwind spin in her palm, reveling in the fact that she could finally airbend!

“She has a point though,” a voice added from behind, Korra turned around to see Ghazan approaching. “I mean, what kind of prison could hold her?”

As if to prove his point, P’Li suddenly sat up and roared at Korra, breathing out a powerful gust of fire that Korra was only barely able to contain with firebending of her own. Korra then unceremoniously kicked the woman in the chest, causing her to fall backwards down the well, followed by a splash.

“Told you,” she said with a smirk, while Zaheer and Ghazan looked on in shock. Korra’s mirth quickly disappeared once she started to consider the woman’s words, combined with the comment from Ghazan. What can we do with her, if I don’t kill her?

She was still pondering that question even as she walked up to the edge of the well and used her bending to pull out a very soaked and grumpy P’Li.

“Why are you making this so much harder for yourself!?” Korra demanded. “I don’t want to hurt you any more, clearly you’ve been hurt enough throughout your life, but if you keep acting like this I don’t know what else to do!”

“There’s nothing else to do, just kill me. I’m done being a weapon, yet that’s all I am, so just kill me!”

Korra started pacing, ignoring the handfuls of people beginning to enter the square, their curiosity winning out over their fear. Could I take her with me to Republic City? I’m probably the only one capable of guarding her, right? Except, I can’t possibly watch her literally all of the time.

Leave her here then? The Red Lotus militia has enough to deal with, they don’t need this to add to their burdens.

Korra shook her head in frustration, turning back to Zaheer and Ghazan. “I don’t know what to do, help me out here guys!”

“Kill her,” Ghazan said.

“Release her into my custody,” Zaheer said simultaneously, unperturbed by the stunned look that Ghazan gave him afterwards.

“Are you crazy? She’ll blow you up the moment that the avatar leaves! She just showed us that she’s still dangerous even with these restraints!”

Ignoring his comrade, Zaheer knelt down in front of P’Li, staring her intently in the eye. “Let me show you what true freedom means,” he said, “just as I’ve tried to show everyone else in this town.”

A strange new look suddenly replaced the scowl on P’Li’s face, a much softer and thoughtful look. “I’ve watched you these past weeks, waiting to see if the avatar would show up again like my masters said she might,” she said. “You’re- You’re different, honest.”

“I’d like to think that I am,” Zaheer said. “In the name of honesty though, I’ll just come out and say that I would indeed appreciate it if you decided to fight for us. I won’t force you into it, but turning the elite’s weapon back against them would be a very satisfying form of justice, don’t you agree?”

P’Li looked tempted, but ultimately shook her head. “I- I’m done with violence, for now at least.” She cringed back slightly as she said it, as though she expected Zaheer to lash out in anger at her rejection. It was heartbreaking how relieved she looked at the lack of such a response.

Korra looked between the two of them, feeling oddly optimistic about this arrangement. “If you’re sure, then I’m fine with it,” she said to Zaheer.

“Really?!” Both Ghazan and P’Li asked in response.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m not going to watch her every waking hour, and executing someone just isn’t who I am. Seems like the best option. If you threaten innocent people again though, I won’t spare you a second time,” she said, before pulling the water from the woman’s soaked cloak and using it to heal her wounded forearm.

“I- Thank you,” the woman said, before turning to Zaheer in panic. “My masters, they won’t stand for this, they’ll send assassins after me, AND you, you’ll be endangering yourself!”

“I’ll take my chances,” Zaheer said. “Besides, I have a feeling that you’re more powerful than any other assassin they could send.”

 

 

They argued some more about the logistics of it all, but eventually it was all settled, Korra would leave P’Li here in Zaheer’s care, while she returned to Republic City, back to Asami.

Notes:

A new chapter, named after the best ATLA episode ;p

I had a pretty big scare where my desktop PC was throwing a fit and refusing to work, even after tons of restarts and troubleshooting, it kept freezing up and not letting me access any files and documents, including all the writing I do for this fic. I eventually got it working again, in time to upload this chapter, but yeah it was scary, so I've decided that I should finally jump on the cloud-saving bandwagon haha, and update my decade-old PC hardware.

Anyway, that rant over, this was a pretty exciting chapter right? It turned out pretty long, but this way Korra's entire trip was able to fit into a single chapter and she and Asami will be back together in the next <3

Chapter 29: A Much-Needed Break.

Summary:

Korra returns, she and Asami go on another overdue night out.

A Much-Needed Break.

 

“Teena?” Asami asked, calling out to her secretary sitting at the desk right outside of her office.

After a short delay Teena poked her head into the office. “Yes Miss Sato?”

“I’d like you to summon Izaru here for a meeting,” Asami said, checking the clock on her wall.

Half past ten, Jigo should be in position to sneak into Izaru’s office as soon as he leaves, all I need to do is delay him long enough for Jigo to snoop around. Tapping Izaru’s phoneline could be done from outside of Izaru’s office, Asami had watched Jigo do it earlier this morning, so Jigo wouldn’t need to spend any more time on that. 

Coming up to my floor, then back down again, will take about 15 minutes, Jigo said that this would already be enough time for some decent snooping. Asami considered just immediately sending Izaru down again after he came to her office, it’d be kind of satisfying to see how frustrated he gets at his time being wasted like that.
But no, all that would really accomplish is potentially give him more ammunition to ‘prove’ that Asami wasn’t mature or stable enough to run Future Industries. Best to actually come up with a halfway decent reason to speak to him. 

About ten minutes later, plenty of time to come up with a reason, Izaru arrived at her office. 
“Izaru, good, you’re here,” Asami said, only briefly glancing up towards him while pretending to be busy with some paperwork.

“How are those permits coming along, for the thing at the docks?” Asami asked him.
He looked a bit surprised that Asami simply wanted to talk business, but then he answered her anyway, telling her that he expected the permits to come through by the end of the week.

“Good, that’s good. I have another task for you,” Asami said. “As you may know, with all the other garbage truck companies suffering under the strikes, Future Industries is picking up most of the slack. I’d like you to negotiate with the government, see if we can take over those contracts on a more permanent basis. Undercut their prices if you need to, talk to Zerai to find out how much wiggle room we have on the profit margins.”

“You want me to take out your trash?” Izaru asked, clearly struggling to keep his cool, she could almost hear his teeth gnashing together.

Asami struggled likewise, only in her case it was because she had to hold back a smirk. She was quite proud of this little jab towards Izaru, of how she had successfully predicted that he would feel insulted by this task even though it fit perfectly within his duties at the office of government affairs.

“I want you to do your job,” she said sternly. “That’s all, you’re dismissed.”

That did it, Asami swore that she saw a blood vessel or two popping on the man’s forehead in response to her curt dismissal. “You think you’re clever don’t you!?!” He said, spittle flying out of his mouth. “Enjoy it while it lasts little girl, you won’t be able to push me around for much longer, I’ll have you locked in an asylum by the time we’re through!”

With that threat lingering in the air, he turned on his feet and stormed out of the room. Locked in an asylum… Asami had kept a steely expression when he said it, but she couldn’t deny that it was a troubling threat, by now she knew enough about conservatorships and the powers that the conservators wielded over their wards to know that it wasn’t an empty threat.
She’d asked Ha-Joon if she knew what happened to that high-society girl, from the scandal she remembered involving a conservatorship. Ha-Joon’s face had immediately fallen, apparently the girl had been a client of hers.

Her perfectly normal and understandable grief over her parents had been used to paint her as a lunatic and lock her in a mental asylum, something Ha-Joon had been unable to prevent. By the time that Ha-Joon was finally allowed to visit her client again she had found her to be a heavily medicated shell of her former self.

Ha-Joon had continued fighting to get her client released but in the end it had backfired, her client’s frequent arguments with the staff of the asylum whenever they tried to deny her meetings with her lawyer had resulted in the staff diagnosing her with ‘violent mood swings’ and recommending a lobotomy, which her uncle had eagerly agreed to, knowing that it would permanently secure his control over the girl’s fortune.

I won’t let it come to that, Asami thought, no matter what, I won’t let that happen, even if I have to kill my way out!

It was a terrifying thought, a lobotomy, she’d read about what happened to people who were subjected to the procedure, how they were often rendered unable to think clearly or to even speak…

“What was that all about?” Teena’s voice said, cutting through the rising sense of panic that’d been boiling up within Asami. 

“Wh- What?” Asami asked, trying to clear her mind. 

“Mister Izaru, why was he so angry? What’s going on with him?” Teena asked. 

Right, Izaru, of course Teena overheard his outburst. Thankfully nobody at the office knew about how Izaru was trying to place Asami under a conservatorship, that remained private information for now. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve got it under control,” Asami said, not sure how she would even begin to explain it otherwise.

Teena excused herself, with Asami asking her to close the door to the office behind her. Which left Asami alone with her thoughts. I wish Korra was here, she thought, knowing that that would be a surefire way to feel safe again, Korra certainly would never allow Asami to be dragged off to an asylum.

But in order to protect Asami she’d need to actually be here! What if she’d bitten off more than even she could chew? She couldn’t protect anyone if she got hurt herself, avatar or not she could still get hurt.

Asami began clearing her desk in a rush, deciding to call it a day early, she wasn’t going to get any work done in her current state. She was just about to stand up to leave when a knock sounded on the door. “Come in,” she said, after which Mr Jiro stepped into her office and closed the door behind him. 

Oh right, I forgot about him, Asami thought to herself. “How did it go?” She asked. “Found anything good?” 

“Sure did,” the short man said while smoothing out some crinkles from his suit that looked like it’d never been ironed, “found his journal, containing rather candid stuff. Made even me almost blush a little,” he said, prompting a raised eyebrow from Asami.

“Tell me more,” she said.

 

 

***

 

 

Korra was exhausted as she entered the Future Industries office, after traveling back across the Mo Ce Sea at top speed, but she was still determined to go see Asami as soon as possible, since her girlfriend was no doubt worrying about her wellbeing.

Asami had said at one point that she was welcome to visit her at her office whenever she wanted, though there was always a chance that she was stuck in a meeting. The looks that the people in the building’s lobby were giving her didn’t make Korra feel especially welcome though.

Is it my clothes? I made sure to dry them! Korra thought, giving herself a once-over. Looks fine to me, she thought, before approaching a lady sitting behind a desk, like Asami had said she should if she ever came to visit.

“Hey uhh, is Asami here? I’m here to see her.”

The woman raised her eyebrow. “Miss Sato, you mean? And who might you be?”

“I’m Korra, her friend, trust me she’ll want to see me. Unless she’s in an important meeting or something, then I’ll wait.” Korra couldn’t help but look around the room while waiting for a response. This is the temporary office? It looks super fancy, wonder if that chandelier is real gold…

“Let me call her secretary,” the lady said. Korra nodded, then awkwardly waited while the woman put a phone to her ear. “Teena, there’s a girl here in the lobby by the name of Korra, says that she’s here to visit Miss Sato, do you know anything about this?”

Mild surprise showed on the woman’s face at whatever the response was from the person on the other phone, then she hung up and faced Korra again. “Very well, you may go up to visit Miss Sato, she’s at the top floor so it’s hard to miss, just take the elevator over there,” she said, pointing to a small room with potted plants outside of its doors. 

“Got it, thanks!” Korra said, before excitedly jogging over to the elevator.

She’d never actually taken an elevator before, last time she went up an office building like this the whole building was on fire and she was using earthbending to smash her way up each floor.

A guy was waiting in the small room, wearing a uniform of some kind. “Hello Miss, where’ll you be going?” 

“Uhh, top floor,” Korra said. 

“Alrighty, strap in,” the guy said, causing Korra to frantically look around for straps while the guy closed the metal door and messed around with a lever of some kind. She couldn’t find any straps, then suddenly with a jolt the room began moving, prompting Korra to bend her knees low to maintain her balance. As they continued moving she saw different floors passing by through the gaps in the metal door. 

“Your first time?” The guy asked with an amused grin.

“Yeah,” Korra admitted sheepishly, beginning to realize that ‘strap in’ had just been an expression, the elevator’s movement wasn’t actually sudden enough to really risk losing balance.

“Alright, here we are, top floor,” the guy said, switching the lever again to bring the elevator to a stop. “Have a good day.”

“You too, thanks!” Korra said, stepping out as soon as the guy opened the door. 

She stepped into a big hallway, at the end of which sat a woman at a desk. Korra walked up to her. “Hey, are you Teena?”

“Yes, you must be Korra. Miss Sato is still in a meeting, but she should be done shortly,” Teena said. “I’m glad to finally put a face to the name.”

“Asami mentioned me?”

“Of course! You two seem to be very good friends, hearing her speak. I’m glad for it. I haven’t known her very long yet, but Miss Sato works too hard if you ask me, and she seems lonely sometimes. It’s good that she has a friend.”

“Good that she has you looking out for her too,” Korra said with a smile, “she doesn’t talk about it even to me, but yeah she does get lonely, with her father gone.”

Korra still remembered that moment when she opened her last chakra and somehow connected to Asami, sensing her emotional state and the crushing feeling of loneliness that it came with… She was resolved to do her best to alleviate that, no matter how busy she became with avatar stuff.

 

 

After chatting for a while longer, the door to Asami’s office opened and a short kind of scruffy looking man exited, closing the door behind him. He looked like he didn’t belong in Asami’s fancy office building where everyone wore fancy clothes.

He tipped his cap towards Korra. “Ladies,” he said with a grin, before passing Korra in the hallway to head to the elevator.

“Who’s that guy?”

Teena shrugged. “Miss Sato wouldn’t say, I didn’t pry any further.”

Korra shrugged too, then opened the door that the man had closed behind him and stepped into Asami’s office, closing the door behind her. Asami was in the process of cleaning up her desk, so she hadn’t seen Korra enter. 

“I’ll be heading home now Teena,” Asami said, back still turned, “please let Zerai know that he’ll have to wait until tomorrow before we discuss his proposals.”

“I’m not Teena,” Korra said, causing Asami to immediately turn around in shock at the sound of her voice, dropping several papers in the process. 

“Korra!” Asami said, with the cutest smile ever lighting up her face.

Korra didn’t use words, she just ran over to sweep her girlfriend up in a hug, Asami giggled while Korra briefly lifted her up in the air, before setting her back down and pressing her cheek up against Asami’s shoulder, breathing in the smell of her beautiful black hair. 
She actually loved that Asami was taller than her, how she was able to lean on her girlfriend like this.

She leaned back from the hug to plant a kiss on Asami’s lips. “Ohh, I missed you!” Korra said.

“I can’t believe you’re already back!” Asami responded. “I was so worried about you! How did it go, did the fleet make it through okay?”

“Yeah, the fleet is fine, and the locals were super grateful for the ships and supplies,” Korra said.

“And the way back went well too?

“Yeah, no troubles at all, the blockade was back in place, but I just held my breath and swam under it,” Korra said. 

Initially they’d considered breaking back through again so that the ships could return to Republic City, but in the end they’d decided that it’d make more sense for it to be a one way trip, that breaking through the blockade twice in a row was too risky even for Korra.

Besides, the militias said that they needed more cargo ships. There already was a fleet of ships constantly travelling between Ba Sing Se and the Southern coasts of the Earth Kingdom to ferry supplies, but apparently Kuvira’s fleet had attacked and sunken a fair portion of this fleet, so these new ships could serve as replacements for the time being.
“So yeah, the blockade wasn’t an issue at all, but I did run into some trouble on the mainland…”

 

 

***

 

 

Asami did her best not to freak out too much out of concern, while Korra told the story of how an assassin, a bender, had apparently been watching Zaheer this whole time, waiting for Korra to return.

Korra is right here, she’s fine, it’s fine, she thought to herself, even while Korra continued explaining the terrifying power that the woman who’d attacked her had possessed.

She did finally learn airbending, that’s good, right? That’ll make her better able to defend herself.

“Wait,” Asami interrupted, after Korra told her about how she’d captured the woman in question, “you just left her there with this Zaheer guy?”

"Yeah, what else was I supposed to do? Execute her?”

“I- I don’t know, she tried to kill you, even after you restrained her!” Asami said.

"You said yourself that you think she’ll be able to escape her restraints!” She admired Korra’s strong moral compass, but there had to be limits, surely? As far as Asami was concerned, crazy superpowered assassins targeting her girlfriend were where she drew the line.

“You weren’t there,” Korra said with a haunted look in her eye, “she was like a beaten deer-dog. She didn’t want to hurt me, she was scared, scared that I’d be just like her masters, and that her masters would hunt her down for her failure. She cringed back whenever someone raised their voice!

“Whoever was giving her her orders really did a number on her. She said that she was born due to some kind of breeding program, never even knew her parents, just handlers who trained her and whipped her when she didn’t perform well. It got even worse once they discovered her talent for not just regular firebending, but combustion bending.”

Despite her desire to hate the woman for trying to hurt her girlfriend, Asami felt her hatred fading away and being replaced by sympathy, thanks to Korra’s description. “That- That’s terrible,” she said. “Did she say anything about who her ‘masters’ were?”

“She said that she got sold or lend out from master to master, all of them belonging to the old class of nobility. Said that the Dai Li were the ones who initially trained her.”

The Dai Li, that’s not surprising, Asami thought. They’d had a terrible reputation even before Kuvira’s rebellion, then during Kuvira’s rebellion they unanimously fled the capital and joined her side, but not before using their position within Ba Sing Se to murder numerous government officials on their way out the door.

“Anyway,” Korra said, “there’s not much we can do about it right now, I’ll just have to be more cautious from now on. What about you, what have you been up to while I was gone? Anything exciting?”

“That’s one word for it,” Asami said, chuckling without any real mirth, something that Korra picked up on.

“What happened?” Her girlfriend asked, concern audible in her voice.

 

 

***

 

 

“Korra, calm down!” Asami asked from behind while Korra stormed down the stairwell.

“No, I’m going to kill him,” Korra said stubbornly. “What floor is he on?”

“I’m obviously not going to tell you while you’re talking like that,” Asami said.

“Oh come on, I’ll just mildly kill him!” Korra retorted.

Asami didn’t dignify that with a response, she just looked at her flatly. Korra turned around in defeat, going further down the stairwell.

“So you’re just going to let this Izaru prick get away with it?!” Korra asked, once they’d stepped in the car and started driving back to the Sato mansion.

“Of course not, but I’ll defend myself the proper way, through the legal system. It wouldn’t exactly help my case when you murder the guy who’s calling me insane and is calling you a bad influence!”

Korra blew out with her lips closed, making them trill. “pfff, you’re no fun,” she said. 

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m not purely staying on defense,” Asami said, Korra turned to her and saw a small smirk on her girlfriend’s face as she turned the car towards the mansion’s gate.

“What’re you planning?” She asked. 
“I hired a PI, that’s someone who’s job it is to investigate people, to uncover certain kinds of secrets, I hired him to spy on Izaru and find dirt on him. What he finds may or may not help me in my case, but it will definitely help me to get revenge. Trust me, I’m angry too, I’m going to destroy him. Not just him, but his reputation, his wealth, everything he’s ever cared about.”

Korra just stared at Asami for a while, her angry and determined look, her set jaw, her focused stare while she parked the car. “Wow…” She said. 

Asami shook her head as if coming out of a trance, then seemed to put on a fake smile before facing Korra. “Heh, that was probably a bit much huh? Don’t worry I’m not-”

“It was super hot!” Korra blurted out. 

Asami looked like she had trouble processing that information, so Korra said it again. “It was incredibly attractive,” she said, “you’re cute when you’re angry, cute and scary, but the good kind of scary.”

Asami laughed it off. “You’re ridiculous,” she said while they got out of the car. 

“Nuh uh, don’t act like you don’t understand, I’ve seen the way you react when I punch people or practice my bending forms!” Korra responded. “Hearing you talk about destroying your enemies and their reputation is basically the same, it’s super sexy, I love it! You should steal his wife too!”

“Steal his- What?!” 

“Steal his wife! I won’t even get jealous, it’ll be for a good cause.”

Asami scoffed, punching her in the shoulder. “Stop being ridiculous.”

Korra rubbed the spot where Asami had punched her, exaggerating the pain. “What? I’m serious, if anyone can seduce someone’s wife it’s you! Just think of how humiliated he’d be!”

“I’m not seducing his wife! She’s like 50 years old!” 

“We’ll consider it plan C,” Korra said with a wink.

They stopped their conversation for a while, as they entered the mansion and greeted Mrs Su.

“Miss Sato, welcome,” the old lady said while bowing to Asami. “And Korra, good to see you,” she said, sans a bow.

“Uhh, you too,” Korra responded, slightly confused. 
She turned to Asami afterwards.

“Since when doesn’t she call me ‘miss’ like she does for you?”

“I may have told her the other day that she weirded you out by being so formal,” Asami responded, “I guess she can learn after all.”

“Hmm, I guess so,” Korra said. That’s definitely an improvement, she thought.

“So uhhh, seriously though, how bad is it? Nobody could actually believe that you’re mentally ill and unsuited to run Future Industries, could they?”

“Probably not,” Asami said, “but it’s hard to be certain. I’ve told you before that there’s a lot of prejudice against women, we don’t tend to be taken seriously, part of that is also that our emotions are used to delegitimize us.”

“Okay, so plan A is what? You defend yourself in court, while in the meantime that PI or whatever delegitimizes him instead by digging up a bunch of dirt?”

“Exactly. I’ll also try to find a bunch of character witnesses, to testify on my behalf, tell the judge that they can vouch for my sanity.”

Korra considered that for a while. “You should ask Har Dayal, and the other union leaders,” she said.

“Wha- Why?” Asami said, though she had a thoughtful look on her face while she considered it further.

“They’re well-respected, aren’t they? And you trounced them during your negotiations, if anyone can vouch for your sanity then it’s the dudes who got their asses kicked by you in a business negotiation.”

“I wouldn’t say that I kicked their asses,” Asami said, “I handled myself well enough, but it was a mutually beneficial agreement in the end.”

“Even better, that means they don’t hold a grudge!”

Asami continued looking thoughtful for a moment, before responding. “You know what? You’re right, I’ll ask them, let me make a note.” 

Asami went to grab a notebook, meanwhile Korra continued stewing in her anger. She’d been trying to hide it a little by joking, since all she would do otherwise was add to Asami’s worries, but she really was furious about what this Izaru guy was trying to do. 

“We should do something fun!” Korra said, when Asami returned. 

“Fun? Like what?” Asami asked.

“I don’t know, go to another club with music or something? I like listening to jazz on the radio, but it’s nothing like that time we went to listen to it in person! Either way, I think it’d be a much-needed break for both of us, from everything that’s happening.”

Asami brightened up in response. “We can do that!” She said. “In fact, I’ve been doing some digging, I know just the place to go!”

 

 

That night, they walked downtown to the club that Asami decided they should go to. They had called Mako and Bolin to ask if they wanted to come too, so they would be meeting the brothers there.

Korra was wearing one of her dresses for once, instead of her normal clothing, and she’d let her hair down in the back. Asami certainly seemed to appreciate the different look, so it was worth it for that fact alone.

“What’s so special about this place anyway?” Korra asked, since Asami had been very insistent that they had to go to this place specifically.

“Well for one, they serve alcohol,” Asami said.

“Wait… I thought that was illegal!” 

“It is, doesn’t mean it doesn’t still happen, there’s tons of ‘speakeasies’ in which alcohol is secretly still served,” Asami said.

“That’s part of why the triads are so powerful, they’re earning millions off of being some of the only ones still selling liquor during the prohibition.”

“Wait, so this place is owned by one of the triads? Why would you want to go there?!” Korra asked. Usually she felt like she had a pretty good idea of what Asami was thinking, but right now she was completely lost. 

“No, this one isn’t owned by the triads. Not outright at least, I’m sure they’re being coerced into paying a ‘protection’ fee to them,” Asami said. “They say the owners are a group of eccentric people, with rather radical political and social views. Who value freedom of speech and freedom of expression and created this place so that musicians and poets and other artists who push boundaries in various ways would have a place to perform and debate freely. I’m told that the clientele is just as eccentric as the owners, that there’s an unspoken yet very strict rule of not talking about anything that happens inside.”

“Uhhh, okay?” Korra said, not sure why that would be important.

Asami seemed to notice her confusion, grabbing her by the arm. “That means we won’t have to hide!” She said. “We can actually be ourselves without anyone judging us!” 

Korra felt herself smiling ear to ear once Asami’s meaning registered. “That’s great!” She said, hugging Asami’s arm with both of her own.

She knew that Asami wasn’t to blame for it, but sometimes it made her sad to feel like she was Asami’s dirty little secret. The fact that Asami had apparently been actively looking for an opportunity for them to not hide as much made her feel all giddy inside.

Asami led her into an alley, which Korra initially assumed to be a shortcut of some kind, until she saw that the two brothers were there waiting for them. “Hey guys,” Asami said from next to Korra, while Korra was still confusedly looking around. 

“Uhh, are you sure this is the right place?” Korra questioned. 

“Yeah I’m sure,” Asami said, “I told you, this place is technically illegal, so they’re not going to advertise it much. The entrance is right there,” she said, pointing to a door that looked like it could fall off its hinges at any moment.

The door itself was up above a stone step, some words were scribbled onto it.
“‘Step high, stoop low, leave your dignity outside,’” Korra read out loud, “charming,” she added sarcastically.

“I left my dignity at home!” Bolin said proudly, though Korra wasn’t sure how that was something to be proud of. “So you best get ready for the greatest dance moves you’ve ever seen!”

“I’m not sure how much swing they’ll be playing,” Asami warned, “I’m told that sometimes they have jazz quartets or trios, playing more understated music.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll find a way,” Bolin responded, making them all laugh. 

Asami knocked on the door, prompting a muted voice on the other end to simply say “password.”
Korra watched a small blush form on Asami’s face before she leaned in and replied. “President Tarrlok’s greasy gross ponytails.”

Huh, Korra thought, that’s certainly a unique password.

The door opened, revealing a hallway with a staircase leading down to a basement, there was also a staircase leading up but this one had been barred off. Korra grabbed Asami’s arm again as they stepped inside. “I’m excited,” she said. 

“Ladies, you’re very welcome,” the guy at the door said. “Gents, you can enter too I suppose,” he added with a smirk.

“So how did you know about this place anyway?” Mako asked. “I know of a few speakeasies, but never heard of this one.”

“Some people from the university told me about it,” Asami said. “They’re supposed to have great sound-isolation, so the there’s no need to actually be quiet like in other speakeasies. They make it sound like they’re planning a revolution from inside, but I’m pretty sure they mostly just get drunk and then start arguing over politics.”

“Ugh, please tell me Thawi isn’t here,” Korra said, referring to the annoying professor she’d met a few times when she came to the university to answer questions about her past, but Asami laughed it off.

“I doubt it. No, it was some fellow students who told me about it. Only progressive types tend to get invited.”

They continued descending down the stairs, as they did the low rhythmic notes of the music began to drift to their ears. They reached another door, once they pulled it open the rest of the music suddenly became audible too. 

Korra looked around excitedly, there was a stage to the left, where like Asami had said a quartet was playing. A big bass that stood on the floor while its player plucked the strings, a piano, a set of drums, and a guy with a trumpet of some sort. 

There was a sparsely populated dance floor, a few people were trying to figure out how to dance to the very relaxed background music, with mixed success. Meanwhile along the sides of the large open room a bunch of chairs and tables were positioned, these were more heavily populated, with people chatting while sipping on drinks. Overall, it was much larger than Korra would’ve guessed based on the entrance.

“Should we get a drink?” Asami asked, pointing to a bar on the far end of the room. 

“I’m good, thanks,” Mako replied, but Korra and Bolin nodded and followed Asami to the bar. 

“What kind of drinks do you like?” Asami asked as they approached the bar. 

“Uhhh,” Korra responded, “not sure. Oooh, my tribe used to make a fermented raspberry drink, my father let me taste once, do you think they have anything like that?”

The barkeep, who’d been listening to their conversation, raised an eyebrow in amusement. “Wow, you really are from out in the boonies huh? I don’t know about any raspberry, but I’ve got some fruity drinks here. How about some Omeshu on the rocks, made of the finest Fire Nation plums?”

Korra shrugged. “Sounds good to me.” 

Bolin ordered a beer, and Asami ordered a wine, the barkeep quickly grabbed three glasses and poured their orders. “There you go, ladies, sir, enjoy your night,” he said with a wink. 

Korra grabbed her glass, inside was a yellowy liquid with a few ice cubes, she gave it an experimental sniff. In addition to the familiar kind of burning sensation in her nose that fermented drinks always caused, there was also a rather nice sweet smell. She tried a small sip and was pleasantly surprised by the taste of the sweet and sour drink. 

They rejoined Mako and made their way back towards the music players, finding a table made for standing around it, perfect for resting their drinks on while they watched and listened to the music.

“How’s your shoulder?” Korra asked to Bolin, he shrugged, then winced slightly at the movement. 

“It’s okay, still healing but it only hurts when I move, even then it’s not that bad anymore. Would’ve taken much longer if you didn’t help me.”

“What about you, where have you been the last few days?” Mako asked. “I thought you would be preparing for the final match against Tahno.”

Korra shook her head. “Nah, I’ll kick his ass in my sleep,” she said. “I had some bigger things to worry about. I went to the Earth Kingdom to help the militias there.”

“The Earth Kingdom? How’d you get past the blockade?!” Mako asked. 

Oh right, Korra thought, I told them I’m the avatar, but they still don’t know about most of this stuff. 

“Oh uhhh, this probably isn’t the place to talk about it,” Korra said. “Let’s just say that the blockade wasn’t a problem, you’ll probably read about it in the papers tomorrow or the day after.”

Mako looked like he really wanted to ask more questions, but Korra pointedly ignored him, instead focusing on the musicians as they played and bobbing her head to the rhythm. 

“This rhythm is so weird,” Bolin said, causing nods of agreement from Mako and Asami. 

“Huh? Why?” Korra asked. "Sounds normal to me."

“What do you mean why? They’re not counting to four like normal! Not even three, they’re counting to- Uhhh-” Bolin stopped talking as he stopped to listen to the music more closely. 

“Seven,” Korra answered easily, “that’s not so weird is it? Last song they switched between three and four, that’s a bit weirder but still not that weird.”

“Well I prefer it when they just count to four, like normal people,” Bolin said. 

“Wait,” Asami interrupted, “are you saying that your culture didn’t have 4/4 as a default time signature?” Asami asked. “I don’t know a lot about music theory, but one of the other students in my anthropology class is writing his thesis on it, about how certain things that we take for granted in our music varies greatly from culture to culture, time signatures among them. He said a lot of more isolated tribes have odd time signatures in their traditional music.”

“Maybe you’re the odd ones,” Korra said, “what’s so hard about counting to seven?”

She watched bemusedly as she saw Asami pull out a notepad from who-knows-where. Her dress didn’t even have pockets, did it?

“You said that your tribe mostly made music with drums, right?” Asami asked, writing in her notepad.

“Uhh, yeah, mostly wooden drums though, not with leather skins like those,” Korra said, pointing to the drums the guy on stage was using. Is that even leather? Whatever, it’s a thin stretchy membrane.

“Hey Sato! I didn’t think I would ever actually see you here,” someone suddenly said as he walked up to their table, he didn’t look familiar to Korra but clearly he and Asami knew each other. 

“Huh?” Asami asked, turning around to face the newcomer. “Oh hey! Guys this is Chule, I know him from the university. He’s the one who told me about this place.”

“Hey,” Korra said, before taking another sip from her drink. 

“Oh Chule, I was actually just talking about you,” Asami said. “You were writing a thesis on music across different cultures weren’t you? You should talk to Korra, she just told me that her tribe made a lot of music with odd time signatures!”

Chule’s eyes lit up with interest, so Korra humored him for a while, answering his questions while she tried her best to just focus on the music being played, which was really good.

This Chule guy seemed nice enough, maybe a bit too much of the academic type as far as Korra was concerned. Though that was an odd thought to have, considering who she was dating…

Korra got a refill for her drink, when she walked back she saw that her friends had moved, Asami was waving her over from a table further to the side of the room, where they sat with Chule and presumably a few of Chule’s friends. 

“You’re really that girl from the iceberg?!” One of them asked Korra as soon as she returned, he was a skinny guy with glasses that looked way too big on his face. 

Korra shrugged. “Yeah, I guess,” she said, handing Asami the glass of wine she had also gotten a refill for. 

"So how did you end up getting frozen anyway?” The skinny guy asked. “Did you trip and fall down a glacier or something?”

Korra laughed. “No, it wasn’t quite that dumb. I uh-” Her mood dropped considerably as she thought back to the circumstances under which she’d ended up in the ice. “I was fleeing,” she said, “I went into a storm, thinking it’d help me shake off my pursuers. I guess I was right on that count…” She abruptly stopped talking, hoping it would be clear to everyone that she didn’t want to continue.

“Let’s just listen to the music for now,” Asami said, in an attempt to diffuse the suddenly awkward situation. Korra shot her a grateful smile, then received a small squeeze of her hand in return. 

They continued holding hands after that, both turning their seats so they could get a better look of the band that was playing. Chule and the others became engaged in some kind of political debate, which Mako joined in on too, but Korra didn’t really pay it much attention, she just focused on the music instead.

After a while, the music stopped and the band began packing up their instruments. “Aww man, are they done already?!” Bolin exclaimed sadly. “I was just getting used to their music!”

“I guess we’re up guys,” Chule said, slapping the table before getting up out of his seat. 

“Wait, you guys are playing?” Mako asked. 

“Sure are, we’re the hottest new band in town!” Chule said. 

“You wish!” Someone from an adjoining table said. 

“See? We’ve already got haters,” Chule said with a grin. “Now, where’d the others run off to?” He asked some of his friends, who were apparently also his band-mates. 
Chule waved over to people sitting at other tables, and they all walked over to a door at the back of the podium, from where they began hauling in a bunch of new instruments.

It was immediately clear that this band was far bigger, they still had a piano, drums, and a big standing bass, but in addition they also had half a dozen metal horn players, a couple stringed instruments that their players held in a weird position under their chin, a percussionist, and what looked like some kind of flute player. 

Korra tapped Asami on the arm once she saw that people were getting up from their tables and making their way to the dance floor, more people were arriving through the entrance as well. “Looks like we’re about to get some good dance music!” Korra said. “Let’s go, show them our moves!” 

“We have moves?” Asami asked with a laugh, though she allowed Korra to pull her to her feet so Korra assumed that she wasn’t opposed to the idea. 

“We’ll make them up as we go,” Korra said, briefly turning back to the table to quickly finish off the rest of her drink. She already felt the effects of it moving through her body, so far it was mainly just making her relaxed and stress-free, meaning that she’d drunk the perfect amount!

She and Asami walked up the dancefloor, then eagerly waited along with everyone else until the musicians finished setting up and fiddling with their instruments and began to actually play. Suddenly, without any real warning, the drummer began. It was a quick and powerful rhythm, immediately enough to begin dancing to. 

Korra began moving her feet, urging for Asami to begin doing the same, people around them were also beginning to follow suit. The drummer played alone for a little while, then the horns kicked in too. By the time that the bass and piano joined in the dance floor was awash with people dancing excitedly to the music, kicking out with their legs and swinging their arms around. 

Korra took Asami’s hand, Asami didn’t need much further guidance as she immediately twirled along with Korra’s motion, Korra pushed her away, then pulled her in close, all in time with the music that was playing.

“They’re really good!” Korra said, before Asami twirled away again.

Asami just nodded and laughed in response, seemingly too caught up in the dance to speak. 

Korra looked around in wonder as she saw couples around them beginning to lift each other up in the air, one even jumped over the woman he was dancing with, another started spinning and then kicking out with his leg, while the woman he was with ducked beneath it!

Wow! I didn’t know people in Republic City could get so wild! Korra thought to herself. 

She nodded towards that latter couple, an eyebrow raised to Asami, hoping that the message was clear. Asami seemed to understand, so Korra began spinning herself, then when she saw a blurry Asami bend down she kicked out with her leg, swinging it right over Asami, a few more spins and kicks later, Korra oriented herself again and grabbed Asami’s hand, both laughing excitedly. 

That was when the singing kicked in, they both turned around in surprise at hearing Chule’s voice. I thought I saw him with a horn? Korra thought, indeed, he was still holding one of those golden horns in his hand, but now he had stepped in front of a microphone and begun to sing. Quite literally. “Sing sing sing sing,” he sung, “everybody start to sing, la-di-da, ho-ho-ho, now you’re singing with a swing! Sing sing sing sing,-”

“He’s good!” Asami said, leaning close to Korra even while they both continued dancing, albeit more reservedly than before. “I didn’t even know he could sing!”

Korra agreed, the lyrics were largely nonsensical, but it sounded really good and made her want to dance even more.

From the corner of her eye, Korra saw Bolin dancing too, with a surprising amount of skill. He’d even gotten a girl to dance with him, the girl jumped up against him, allowing him to swing her around while holding her up, a move that Korra surmised was somewhat well-known for this kind of music.

“You know how to do that?” Korra asked Asami, she was pretty sure that she could do the holding-up part.
In lieu of an answer, Asami simply jumped towards Korra, apparently completely trusting in Korra’s ability to catch her. That trust turned out to be well-placed, and Korra was able to help Asami keep her momentum and swing her back to her feet again. 
It went on like that for a while, until finally the song ended and Asami gestured for them to leave the dancefloor, looking rather tired from the dancing. 

 

 

***

 

 

Asami felt herself smiling, even though she was still panting tiredly from all the dancing. She pulled Korra behind her towards the bar, planning to just get a cool non-alcoholic drink this time. 

Before they made it to the bar though she felt Korra tug on her arm, she turned around, only for her muscular girlfriend to pull her right into a kiss, which she happily returned. It was quite a short kiss, relatively chaste, yet when they parted and Asami regained her senses she looked around in a panic.

She was surprised to find that nobody really paid them much attention. A few people nearby had clearly seen them kiss, but they just smiled at them, one even raised a glass in salutation. 

“You were right! Everyone here is totally cool with it! I saw two other women kissing a few minutes ago!” Korra said excitedly, before continuing towards the bar. 

Asami’s initial feelings were conflicted, part of her was very happy and wanted to keep kissing Korra even more right away, but part of her was still more cautious and anxious about it. Dancing together like how a couple would already felt somewhat risqué…

I thought we would just be dancing and holding hands, not hiding that we’re a couple, but not flaunting it either…
It felt silly, she had sought out this club precisely because they could be themselves here, hadn’t she? 

She felt that she was at risk of overthinking this, so she decided to ignore her conflicted feelings by doubling down on just the positive ones. She grabbed Korra, who was now leaning over the bar and about to order, by the shoulders and pulled her in for another kiss, a much needier and deeper kiss than the short one they shared earlier.

When they pulled back apart Korra chased after her, seemingly not wanting the kiss to end, before pouting in that cute way she did while looking at her with her beautiful blue eyes.
They stared at each other for a while, lost in their own world, before the barkeep, with an amused look on his face, reminded Korra that she’d been about to place her order. 

Asami just kept staring at her cute, flustered girlfriend while she placed their order. I forgot how great Korra looks in a dress, she thought. She always looks great, but wow! 

“Uhh, here you go,” Korra said, scratching her neck with one hand, while handing Asami a glass of soda with the other. 

“Thanks,” Asami said, sipping the soda to try to cover her own blush. It was like they were right back to when they’d first kissed, all shy and nervous whenever they made eye contact. Only now looking elsewhere around the room didn’t help, all it did was remind her that they were in public, that other people were potentially watching their shy interaction.

Asami cleared her throat. “Ahem, so uhh, we should go see where Mako is! I don’t think he joined us on the dance floor, wouldn’t want him to get lonely after inviting him to come with us!”

She grabbed Korra’s hand, then linked their arms together as they walked past the dancefloor along the tables lining the room. She felt Korra sigh happily before leaning her head down on her shoulder, providing a comforting warmth while they looked for Mako. 

They eventually found him alone at a table, nursing a drink while looking slightly bored. “Hey,” Korra said from beside her, before scooting in next to him. “Don’t you want to dance too? I’m sure you’ve got some moves!”

Mako laughed a bit shyly. “It’s not really my thing to be honest, I never really go out to drink or party, even when colleagues invite me. Guess I’ve always been too busy trying to care for my little brother.”

“He’s fine now! Pretty much a grown man, no harm in letting loose a little, he can take care of himself while you take a break,” Korra said, reaching out to take Asami’s hand again while Asami sat down beside her. 

The simple gesture, and the way it showed her girlfriend’s desire to always be near her, made Asami’s heart flutter in a way she’d always sworn would never happen to her when she’d watched other girls with their boyfriends. She scooted her chair a little closer to Korra, so they could lean against each other again.

“I guess I should…” Mako said. “I’ve got to meet a girl somehow, unless I want to be a third wheel forever.”

“What’s a third wheel?” Korra asked, reminding Asami that despite how astonishingly fast she’d learned how to move within Republic City’s society, she was still a stranger to it.

Mako looked very uncomfortable at the idea of having to explain it, so after laughing at his expense for a few moments Asami decided to come to his rescue. “It’s when you’re alone with two others that are in a relationship,” she said to her girlfriend “or just generally when you’re the only one in a group who isn’t in a relationship.”

She saw Korra nod in understanding. “Right, I can see how that could get awkward,” Korra said, before a smirk appeared on her face and she turned towards Asami. 

Asami knew exactly what the watertribe girl was thinking, and was more than willing to play along, so when Korra kissed her she eagerly reciprocated. 

“Ugh, right now?!” Mako whined, but Korra and Asami ignored him, continuing to kiss right up until they reached the line of what was too obscene to do in public, or perhaps slightly exceeded it. 

“If you don’t like it, just go find a pretty girl to dance with,” Asami said. “Or a pretty guy, they say anything goes here,” she added with a smirk.

Mako grumbled for a while, while Asami was content sitting cuddled against Korra, sipping her soda while listening to the surprisingly good swing music that Chule’s band was playing. 

“Oh wow,” Korra said eventually, “looks like Bolin is having more success with the ladies.”
She pointed to a spot on the dancefloor, where Bolin was kissing some woman, a different woman than the one they saw him dancing with before. 

“Not just any lady either, she’s gorgeous!” Korra added, triggering an irrational feeling of jealousy within Asami. 
Maybe she felt Asami tense, or maybe she was just that good at anticipating Asami’s emotions, either way, Korra then kissed Asami’s cheek and said. “She’s just plain looking compared to you though, obviously.”

Asami giggled in embarrassment, then looked closer at who Bolin was kissing. “No need to lie on my behalf, she’s hot!” The woman certainly had a great figure, and her dyed hair added a unique flair that Asami was certainly able to appreciate.

“Wait… No way!” Mako said from besides them. “Isn’t that Ginger, the mover star?!”

“Holy crap! It is!” Asami exclaimed, once the two turned around mid-kiss and she got a better look at the woman’s face.

Korra burst out laughing next to Asami, with Asami following soon after. Once they finished laughing, Korra finished the remainder of her drink and Asami did the same with her soda.

“You’d better get your act together, you’ll be the fifth wheel at this rate,” she said with a wink to Mako, before pulling Korra back to the dancefloor. 

 

 

***

 

 

“Nice to meet you Ginger,” Korra said genuinely to the woman, who was still holding on to Bolin. The woman’s way of speaking was kind of grating, but once she got used to it the woman had quite a few fun stories to tell about all the movers she’d starred in and all the celebrities she’d met.  

“You too!” The woman replied. “You and your girlfriend are wonderful dancers, I still can’t believe you learned swing-dancing so quickly!” The red-haired woman said.

That’s got to be dye of some kind, right? The woman turned to Bolin immediately after. “And you better come back here sometime, cutie,” she said, planting a final kiss on his lips. “I’m telling you, you’ve got the looks of the next big mover star! There’s a lot of directors and film students and such who frequent this club as well, all the contacts you need to make it big!”

“And I’ll get to see you again too, right?!” Bolin asked excitedly.

“You really are as dumb as a boxer, aren’t you? Of course you will doll!” She said in a high-pitched voice that Korra thought was supposed to be seductive but that didn’t appeal to her in the slightest, Bolin seemed to like it though. “You’ll need me to make introductions, and I need you to dance with me again.”

“You got it! How about next Thursday? Ooh ooh ooh, and you can come to the finale of the tournament too, I didn’t make it to the finale, but Korra did!”

Korra worried that Bolin was moving too fast for the red-haired woman, but surprisingly she agreed, saying that she was looking forward to seeing Korra in action. They waved to Chule and his bandmates while they were packing up their instruments, then finally they left the club. 

Climbing back up the stairs made Korra realize that she’d had a tad more alcohol than she thought, Asami seemed to be having a similar experience, as she grabbed on to Korra’s arm for balance. Luckily they had walked here instead of driving, and they did make it up the stairs so it wasn’t that bad. 

“That was fun, right?” Korra asked Asami once they reached the top. Asami responded by pulling her in for a kiss, Korra was certain that her face was covered with Asami’s lipstick at this point, she didn’t mind though, the sweet taste of Asami’s lips and tongue would never get old.

“It was amazing! Thanks for suggesting it,” Asami replied. 

“Hey, I just said we should do something fun, you’re the one who came up with coming here, so that we could be ourselves!” Korra said. “Thanks for that, it was-” She felt herself get choked up a bit with how happy she was to have it confirmed that Asami hated hiding just as much as she did. “I really appreciate it.”

The brothers insisted on escorting them back to Asami’s place, so they were able to keep chatting for a while as they walked. “Thanks for not making it weird, by the way,” Korra said eventually, referring to how the brothers mostly still treated her as normal even now that they knew she was the avatar.

“Why would I? You two are so great together!” Bolin said, misunderstanding what Korra meant, Mako seemed to get it though. 

“You mean about how you’re- You know? With the elements and stuff?”

“Yeah,” Korra said. “You guys are my only real friends I’ve made here, besides Asami. I think that was part of why I didn’t tell you sooner, I didn’t want anything to change.”

“I’m kind of surprised that you haven’t made a bigger deal out of it, to be honest,” Asami added. “It was a pretty big shock to me when I found out.”

“Well I mean, it’s obviously completely nuts!” Bolin said. “But Korra was already a time-traveler, so like- Her whole existence was already nuts to begin with, if anything this sort of explains a bunch of stuff!”

Mako nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I mean, I didn’t think that people were able to move water with their minds, but I didn’t think they could survive being frozen either. Maybe Korra’s bending would keep me up at night if I was a physicist or something, but I never even went to high school. I don’t understand how it’s possible, but I don’t understand lots of things, as far as I’m concerned magnets are pretty much magic too.”

Asami looked like she wanted to argue with them, and Korra could imagine why. Her girlfriend had confided in her that it was something that did in fact keep her up at night, occasionally, when it wasn’t her father or the separatists or her responsibilities at the head of Future Industries keeping her up.

Ever since learning that Asami laid awake at night even while they were cuddled together, Korra had doubled down on making it her mission to ensure that Asami wasn’t able to think about much of anything late at night, to ensure that she fell asleep like a rock in a post-sex stupor.

It was a totally selfless gesture, she definitely didn’t have any other motivations for the great sex with her gorgeous girlfriend, no siree!

Thoughts of her heroic selflessness aside, Korra shushed Asami before she could argue with the brothers. Them not making a big deal out of it was a good thing, why argue against a good thing?

“I don’t even know what magnets are, so you’ve got me beat!” Korra said jokingly. I’m pretty sure Asami mentioned the word once, but I can’t remember what it referred to.
“Anyway, thanks again for not being weird about it, I needed some fun tonight.”

“Sure thing!” Bolin said. “We should definitely do it again sometime soon.”

“I’m still wondering though,” Mako began, “what did you do these last few days? You said that you went to the Earth Kingdom?”

Oh, right, Korra thought, I did sort of promise to talk about that later. “Right, well uhhh, I’ve sort of been in contact with the militias there, the ones that are fighting against Kuvira. The Red Lotus had a bunch of supplies they wanted to send them but that they couldn’t smuggle past they blockade except in very small amounts. I offered to help them by simply busting through the blockade, so that’s what I did. Asami helped too, by paying for a bunch of additional supplies.”

“You busted through a military blockade?!” Mako asked. 

“Uhhh, yes?” Korra said.

“Navy, actually,” Asami helpfully added.

“It was surprisingly easy,” Korra said, “especially now that I’ve learned metalbending and mastered the avatar state. Of course it helps that they were floating in water that I can control.”

There was a moment of silence, as the brothers both let that sink in. 

“If you’re that powerful, can’t you just kick the butts of Amon and all the other separatists?!” Bolin asked hesitantly. 

“Uhhh, maybe,” Korra said, “it’d probably be more difficult in the city though. I didn’t have to worry about hurting any innocents out in the middle of the sea, I could just go all-out. 

“Plus, I’d have to find them first. I have no idea how to find Amon or his goons, they’re probably hidden all over the city. And my power doesn’t protect me from being caught off-guard, especially with those guns you people have invented.”

Bolin hummed in disappointment, while Mako just nodded instead. “Yeah, that makes sense,” he said. “We do know where the separatists are going to be though, don’t we? Amon all but said that he would be attacking the festivities at Yangchen’s festival end of this week. Do you have a plan for that?”

“Not really,” Korra said. “I was planning to talk to Tenzin about that. Anyway, I figure that the best I can do is to just be there, to respond to whatever happens.”

“Well, let us know if you need any help with that,” Mako said. 

“Yeah, we can be part of your ‘team avatar’!” Bolin added enthusiastically.

“Team Avatar?” Korra asked quizzically, before thinking on it a moment longer. “I guess we did make a pretty good team during Amon’s revelation… So yeah, why not? I like the sound of that!” She said, before hugging Asami and both brothers simultaneously.

Notes:

Hey everyone, another chapter, a more relaxed one this time, like the title said I thought Korra & Asami needed it ;p

I've decided to make this story a series, split into several books, and we're nearing the end of book 1 so from here on a lot more will start happening!

In other news, my PC finally ate shit and died, luckily I now have everything up on the cloud though, so I was able to post this chapter on mobile and continue writing on mobile.
It's a bit annoying though, and now I have to also spend time building a new PC, next chapter should still be on time but I'm not 100% sure about the one after that ; (

Anyway, see ya laterrr <3

Chapter 30: Yangchen's Festival.

Summary:

Korra and Asami visit the university, before preparing to protect Yangchen's festival against Amon's threat.

Yangchen’s Festival.

 

Food shortages increase as the general strike continues!

The pressure is rising as we’re well into the third consecutive week of the general strike, still with no end in sight! Many business-owners call on workers to cease their labor-desertion and resume their work, while union-leaders continue to remind us that the government could also end this strike by conceding to strikers’ demands.

Asami Sato, the newly-minted owner of Future Industries, continues to distinguish herself as a remarkably pro-union business-owner by donating a sum of a hundred million yuans to various union strike funds! 

Perhaps more remarkable is the fact that the teenage heiress is no longer alone! She’s joined by Iknik Blackstone Varrick, owner of Varrick Global Industries, a global conglomerate primarily focused on the shipping industry.

The billionaire, well known for his eccentricities, explained his surprising support of union efforts by pointing to his own status as an immigrant and to how this led to him sympathizing with the unions’ goals, which are of course to rescind the recently passed laws of the Tarrlok administration, which many claim unfairly target immigrants.

Critics say that Varrick is simply motivated by a desire to dodge import-taxes and other regulations that impact his global business efforts.

Whatever the case, the aid of these two billionaires means that unions are likely to continue to hold out, leading many who previously ridiculed union demands to turn around and call for the government to give in after all.
Though other factions instead call for Tarrlok to use his powers as chief commander of the armed forces to-

Asami put down the newspaper, as it began to list the insane actions that the right wing parties in the senate, as well as the separatists, were calling for. None of that was really news anyway, conservative factions had been calling for violence since the very beginning, and had stepped that rhetoric up a notch in these past few days leading up to Yanchen’s festival, which was tomorrow.  

“Anything interesting?” Korra asked, leaning over from besides Asami to glance at the newspaper.They were both sitting on the back seat of Asami’s limousine, as Asami was making use of her chauffeur for once.

“Hmmm, not really,” Asami hummed in response. There had also been a short article about the attack on Kuvira’s blockade, but that article basically just said that they didn’t know what truly happened as both sides of the conflict were tight-lipped about it. Interestingly they still hadn’t reported on Asami sending two of the ships that ran the blockade, she though they would have discovered that by now. Maybe some of the paper’s investigative journalists were also on strike? That could explain it. 

 “Mostly just more of the same.” Asami concluded. “It did talk about Varrick again, I’m still surprised that he’s supporting the unions like this, as I recall he doesn’t have the greatest track record when it comes to worker’s rights.” 

She saw Korra shrug in response. “Wasn’t he also an immigrant?” 

“Well yeah,” Asami said, “but Tarrlok’s laws mainly just affect poorer immigrants living in ghettos, not wealthy capitalists like him.”

Korra shrugged again. “Maybe he’s had a genuine change of heart,” she said, before laughing at the doubtful look Asami gave in response. “Did anyone ever tell you that you can be seriously pessimistic?” Her girlfriend said with an adoring and mildly patronizing smile. 

“I prefer to call it pragmatic,” Asami responded flatly.

“My guess is that the unions are just a means to an end, he wants to get rid of these laws because he profits off of free trade and of travel across borders, and this strike is his best chance to do it. That, or maybe he’s just trying to join what he thinks is the winning side.”

“If you say so,” Korra responded. “Anyway, are we there yet?”

“Almost,” Asami said. They were on their way to the university, for one of the meetings with the different professors and researchers in which they asked Korra various questions about the past. These meetings had originally been intended to be regular, but had become increasingly irregular due to the various things currently going on in their lives, as well as Korra’s two visits to the Earth Kingdom. 

“By the way, didn’t you say that many students are also striking?” Korra asked. “Doesn’t that make this strike-breaking? I wouldn’t want to hurt your reputation or anything.”

Asami shook her head. “Student strikes aren’t usually as strict as labor strikes, and you’re not even a student to begin with so we’re fine. Besides, I still haven’t managed to get you actual citizenship, so your work visa still depends on this.”

That was yet another thing for Asami to worry about, the possibility of Korra’s presence in the United Republic being declared illegal. It was something that she probably didn’t worry about it as much as she should, considering the scandals surrounding Korra it was entirely possible that people might begin calling for her visa to be revoked.

Asami avoided thinking about it, simply because it scared her too much to do so. That wasn’t a very pragmatic attitude though, so she made a note to call her lawyer and tell him to double his efforts to get Korra her citizenship.

 

After a few more minutes of driving they made it to the university campus, which, once you got past the picket line at the entrance, was much quieter than usual, as a result of much of the student population boycotting classes.

They walked up to the same building where Asami had first taken all the artifacts she was able to recover, after the iceberg that Korra had been frozen in had exploded.

Wow, that feels like forever ago, she thought to herself as they stepped inside.

Most of the artifacts had since been distributed to various other research sites, for carbon dating and other advanced tests. Now all that remained were pictures, and ‘artifacts’ that Korra herself had made, to demonstrate the methods that’d been used by her people.

Right now Korra was actually carrying another recent creation of hers, that would soon be joining the ranks of these various tools and objects she’d made previously.

“Hey Ho Sook!” Korra said, to the man waiting inside. As far as Asami could tell he was one of the few people from the university that Korra genuinely got along with, it was hard to blame her. Most of them weren’t bad people per se, but they were better with books than with people, a fact that had repeatedly made itself apparent in the way that they questioned Korra about her past.

Ho Sook was the exception to this rule, likely due to the fact that he only worked at the university part-time and actually had a life outside of the building and its dusty libraries, a life in which he interacted with other human beings.

“Ladies,” Ho Sook said, “it’s been a while, glad we could finally arrange another session.”

“Yes,” Asami said with a polite smile, “it’s my fault really, things have been a bit hectic after- Well, you know.”

“Of course, I totally understand,” Ho Sook said. “The newspapers won’t stop talking about you! I never did go to business school like my parents wanted me to, thank Raava, but from what I can tell you’ve done well with the responsibility that you uhm- Inherited.”

“Thanks,” Asami said. As always when the subject of her ‘inheritance’ of Future Industries came up, the awkward specter of her father loomed in the background, nobody quite willing to explicitly bring him up.

Asami still wasn’t entirely certain if ‘inheritance’ was even the right word to describe it, given that her father, as far as anyone knew, was still alive and well. At least insofar as one could be considered ‘well’ after being forced to flee to another country.

 “I got you something,” Korra said with a grin, putting down the big wooden drum that she’d been carrying, that Asami had watched her patiently hollowing out herself over the past few days.

“Thanks! Uhmm- What is it?” Ho Sook asked. Asami could understand his confusion, it wasn’t quite what a ‘normal’ drum looked like. It was made from a hollowed out log, like many drums were, but unlike other drums it had been hollowed out along the side of the log, instead of being hollowed out from the top. It also didn’t have a membrane covering the hole, unlike most modern drums, it was played simply by hitting the rim with a wooden stick. 

“It’s a drum!” Korra said excitedly. “Me and Asami went to a uhhh- Place where they play music, the other day,” the girl said, Asami had caused her to stumble over her words a bit by non-verbally reminding her that it was best not to tell anyone that they had been patronizing an illegal venue.

“While talking about the music we discovered that the music played by Korra’s tribe was rather different from ours,” Asami said, “obviously in terms of the instruments they used,” she pointed to the drum while she said this, “but also in terms of the kinds of rhythms. They have a lot of meter changes and unusual time signatures, instead of mostly just playing in 4/4 or 3/4 like we do.”

“I must admit, I’m not very familiar with musical theory,” Ho Sook said hesitantly, prompting a laugh from Asami.

“Neither am I, but I’ve been reading up on it recently.” It’s actually surprisingly interesting, she thought to herself, it was all kind of like math actually, it felt surprisingly scientific once she’d begun learning more about it. Obviously rhythms involved a lot of counting, but even musical scales had a surprising amount of math behind them.

“I’m not surprised,” Ho Sook said, “you always did like homework.” He shook his head with a small laugh. “Very well, I’m curious to hear how this drum of yours sounds.”

Asami watched with a smile as Korra demonstrated, telling Ho Sook numerous times that she wasn’t very good, even though to Asami’s eyes and ears it actually looked and sounded rather impressive, though she realized that it would’ve sounded far more impressive when it was part of a larger drum circle, when an entire tribe was beating on similar drums as Korra had described to her. 

“Very interesting,”  Ho Sook said, once Korra finished her demonstration, “though as I said earlier, I’m not very knowledgeable on music, so much of this is lost on me. You should speak to professor Tiana sometime, she’s our music professor, but she also studied history and anthropology.”

He then clapped his hands, looking around the room at the other researchers who’d entered the building while Korra had been demonstrating her skills on the drum. 
“Alright then, is that everyone? Good, then let us begin, I trust that you’ve all prepared your questions for Miss Korra?”

 

 

***

 

 

“What were the punishments that were enforced in your tribe, against criminals and wrongdoers?” Thawi asked. “Your father was chief, was he not? Did he personally carry out punishments, or did he have people to do it for him? Some kind of primitive police force? Was there a legal code or was your father’s word law?”

“Punishments?” Korra asked. “Uhh, it depended really, there wasn’t a very strict system for it. We had rules, but the council of elders decided how those rules were enforced after someone broke them.”

This was a subject that Asami had also been asking about recently, for that thesis of hers. Korra was about to expand on her answer when someone else spoke up instead. “I’ve read about tribes where they cut the hands off of thieves, and punished murderers by tying them up at the shore and waiting for the tide to come in,” the other researcher said, leaning forward excitedly, “did your tribe do anything like that?!”

“What?!” Korra asked, she couldn’t help feeling offended, even after she thought that she’d gotten used to the insulting questions that she was often asked, assuming that her people were savage brutes who settled everything with violence. 

“I don’t remember there ever being a murderer in our tribe,” Korra said after she quickly calmed back down, “and the solution to thieves was simple, we just made them give back whatever they stole… Maybe we also became less willing to share stuff with them or let them borrow anything, if they stole frequently. That usually worked well enough. Why would we ever cut off someone’s hand!? That’s insane!”

“Well, it’s not unheard of!” The researcher said defensively. 

“I think that’s something that only really arose in larger societies,” Asami interrupted, Korra was grateful for the rescue. “Just think about it, Korra’s tribe wasn’t that big, there were less than a hundred of them. If we assume that crime was as common for them as it was for us, murder would be exceedingly rare. The murder rate here in Republic City is fifteen murders per year, for every hundred-thousand citizens. If we translate that to a tribe of a hundred people then that’s-”

Korra watched in awe, as yet another example of her girlfriend’s ability to do crazy calculations inside her head unfolded before her eyes. 

“Zero point zero fifteen murders per year,” Asami said, “or in other words-” she again paused briefly to do some math, “one murder every sixty-six years, for a tribe of a hundred people. Doesn’t exactly seem like enough to justify an extensive police force, does it? 

“And that’s assuming that they have the same crime rate, which it seems to me is an unrealistic assumption. Such a tight-knit community would have a lot of peer-pressure, and any crime you commit would be committed against someone you know, not against a stranger like with crime in a big city.”

“Hmm, yes, that does make sense,” Ho Sook said thoughtfully, before turning to Korra. “Would you say that there was a strong sense of peer pressure in your tribe?”

“Uhm,” Korra said, thinking for a moment before answering. “We never used that word, but my dad always taught me to be honorable, to do my part in the tribe even though I was-” She cut herself off before she said what she’d been about to say, ‘the avatar.’

“The Chief’s daughter?” Ho Sook asked, to which Korra nodded. That too I guess, she thought.

“Regarding crime rates though,” Thawi said, “Miss Asami’s guess, that close-knit communities would have lower crime rates, may very well be true. But that wouldn’t necessarily mean that there was less violence or other immoral behavior. After all, there’s also interactions with other tribes to consider.

“What were those interactions like? Was there a lot of raiding and conflict? Disputes over resources or territory?”

Korra shrugged. “Not really with our tribe, we just travelled and traded, we never really made any enemies. I heard about other tribes fighting each other, but never really experienced it.” Not until my uncle attacked, that is. But she’d never told anyone from the university about that, only Asami.

“Uhh, that also may have been because we were a smallish tribe. There wasn’t much of a point to raid us, all we had were hides and tents, stuff that other tribes could make for themselves without needing to risk a fight. I know there were some crystal mines that were fought over, near Omashu. And there was a big copper mine in what’s now the Fire Nation, I think some tribes argued over that too.”

 

 

They continued talking like that for a while, the researchers asking numerous followup questions, until eventually after a big yawn that Korra was unable to suppress Asami stood up and said that it was time to call it a day. Korra looked gratefully up at her, before getting up herself and saying bye to everyone.

On their way back across the university grounds, they heard a sneer from behind them. “Oh would you look at that, if it isn’t Republic City’s most degenerate couple,” an annoying voice said, Korra recognized it as Tahno, the guy she was supposed to fight in the tournament’s finale tomorrow. She’d forgotten that he went to the university with Asami.

Asami seemed like she’d rather just keep walking, as she pulled on Korra’s arm that was linked with her own, but Korra couldn’t help herself. She turned around to face her soon-to-be opponent, who was surrounded by a couple of other students who almost looked more like servants, with how they all but prostrated themselves before Tahno. “Hey, looking forward to our fight tomorrow?” Korra asked him, smirking confidently.

“Trust me, it won’t be much of a fight,” he replied, similarly cocky. 

Korra chuckled. “I agree, but probably not in the way you meant,” she replied, causing Asami to chuckle as well.

Tahno fumed briefly, before turning his ire towards Asami. “Shouldn’t you be boycotting classes, like the rest of your socialist friends?! Or is that all just an act, so that you can excuse stealing your own father’s company? A degenerate like you should be careful, if your new socialist friends reject you then there’ll be no one left to keep you from getting your just desserts.”

Korra balled her fist, but Asami put a calming hand on her arm to stop her. “I wasn’t here for classes, I was here with Korra, to honor the research agreement that she made with the university,” Asami said, surprisingly calmly, though Korra could hear in her voice that she too was clenching her teeth. She’d talked before about how she hated Tahno, how he’d assumed that she agreed with her father’s support for the separatists and had complimented her for it, until she set the record straight.

“Regarding my socialist friends though, trust me I’m still on good terms with them. I heard that you’re still a supporter of Amon… If you keep hanging out with your fascist friends then maybe you’ll meet my friends one day, I hope that you do. That way, after Korra beats you to a pulp tomorrow, they can finish the job.”

A stunned silence followed, Tahno and his groupies looked shocked and scandalized by Asami’s threat, meanwhile Korra almost felt like she had to cross her legs, to cover up the dampness caused by the very different emotions that Asami’s threat had stirred up within her. 

Eventually Tahno just scoffed, and silently gestured for his groupies to turn around and walk away.

Once they began leaving, Korra and Asami did the same. “That was awesome!” Korra said once they were out of earshot. “Did you seriously just threaten to have the Red Lotus kill him?”

Asami turned to her, hand to her breast in mock-offence. “What? I would never, I don’t have the power to tell the Red Lotus what to do. That was a friendly warning, telling him that he may eventually cross someone who takes offense to his separatist loyalties.”

Korra laughed. “Sure, you did look very friendly,” she joked, though as she thought about it she suddenly felt herself growing serious. “It’s a real possibility though, isn’t it? Yangchen’s festival is tomorrow, on the radio Amon called for people to help him put an end to that ‘celebration of sin,’ The Red Lotus and the separatists may come to blows again, and Tahno might be there too.”

Asami turned serious too. “Yeah, I hope it all works out, but after Amon’s public threat it seems unlikely. He kind of has to do something right? Otherwise it’d be humiliating, to make a specific threat like that but then not do anything.”

Korra nodded. “That’s why I’m going to Air Temple Island, to ask Tenzin how the city is planning to deal with that threat. Want to come with?”

Asami suddenly seemed surprisingly bashful, as she considered the question. “Are you sure that would be okay? I don’t really know Tenzin, shouldn’t we call ahead?”

Korra waved off her concerns. “It’ll be fine, worst case is that he’s busy, but then we can hang out with Pema and his kids instead, they love me! Trust me, they won’t mind at all, in fact it’s about time that you met!”

Obviously Korra mostly just spoke to Tenzin, but she’d hung out with his family a bunch of times, whenever Tenzin ran late to their lessons, or invited her for dinner afterwards. He really did have a great family. And after he asked, Korra had told him that it was okay if he told his wife everything about who exactly Korra was.

“If you’re sure,” Asami said, smiling a little as she seemed to get swept up in Korra’s enthusiasm, “if you like them so much then I’d love to meet them too.”

 

 

***

 

 

Asami was surprised by how nervous she felt, as she followed Korra across the small docks after exiting the ferry that’d taken them to Air Temple Island. I meet new people all the time, how is this so different? Tenzin isn’t even totally new, we already met at the tournament.

“I’ve never actually been to Air Temple Island,” she remarked, just to make some idle conversation while she continued thinking about why she was so oddly nervous.

“Really?” Korra asked, surprise in her voice. “Why not? I’ve seen tons of people visit, there’s tours all the time.” 

Asami shrugged. “I guess I just never really thought about going, and my dad didn’t take me either, he used to disparage the air nomads for being so stubborn and backwards instead of embracing the modern world.” 
Asami remembered it vividly, her father ranting about how ‘if their culture is so great, then how come they’ve never made any significant inventions?’ In hindsight, it was one of the few times that he’d shown signs of the bigoted views he’d been hiding all along, though at the time Asami, although she’d disagreed, had just written it off as her father being an inventor who evaluated everything solely through that lens.

Of course, in her studies of anthropology Asami had also discovered that air nomads, at different points in history, had actually made rather significant contributions to humanity’s scientific advancement, their nomadic nature putting them in a unique position of combining the knowledge that they gathered from various more isolated cultures.

This mental tangent distracted her from her previous worries while they wordlessly continued climbing up the steps to the center of the island, until she noticed Korra perk up beside her and begin to wave to someone. “Oh hey, there’s Pema!” She said, increasing her pace as she walked up to greet the heavily pregnant woman.

“Hey Pema! How’re you doing? Is the little brat still not ready to leave yet?” Korra asked, while Asami awkwardly paused beside her.

“Any moment now, or so the doctors tell me,” the woman, Pema, said while resting a hand on her belly. 

“How are the preparations for the festival going?” Korra asked, causing Asami to belatedly notice that the woman had been carrying around a bunch of festive looking ornaments, seemingly meant to be hanged in trees and such.

“Do you need any help?” Asami asked instinctively.

“Sure!” Pema said, immediately shoving some ornaments into Asami’s arms. “You must be Asami, nice to finally meet you in person, Korra’s told us all a lot about you.”

“Did she?” Asami asked teasingly, looking to Korra with her eyebrow raised, causing Korra to flush.

“She did, mostly about how impressed she is with you, managing your father’s company the way you have, holding your own against a bunch of crusty businessmen.”

“Oh, it’s really not that-”

“Nonsense,” Pema interrupted, “if they’re anything like the men that my husband has to deal with, then you’ve got more patience than me. And I raised Meelo!”

Korra chuckled at that joke in the end, but Asami didn’t fully understand it. From the way the woman spoke it wasn’t clear if Meelo was her child, or some sort of wild beast, she genuinely wasn’t sure.

 

While they helped Pema carry the decorations to where they needed to go, the woman told them that Tenzin still hadn’t returned to the island from his work in the senate, so they had plenty of time to help with the decorations while they waited. 

While they were working on the decorations Pema told them more about the history behind Yangchen’s festival, which Asami had somehow managed to know very little about, despite the subjects she studied at the university.

“Man, that General Old Iron sounds like a jerk, why does he have a whole holiday dedicated to paying respect to him?” Korra asked, delicate as always, after jumping out of the tree where she’d finished hanging a colorful banner. 

Pema didn’t seem offended by her people’s traditions being critiqued by Korra, she simply laughed before responding. “That’s what I’ve always said, but Tenzin insists that it’s a very important holiday. Spirits predate humans, their understanding of the world, and of morality, is very different from ours. It’s important for us to be mindful of that, and this holiday helps to remind us of that.” The woman briefly chuckled to herself. “Or so Tenzin tells me anyway, I love the air nomad culture and lifestyle, but I’m not sold on every aspect of it.” 

“You weren’t born an air nomad?” Asami asked. 

“Oh no, not at all, my parents were quite disappointed when I renounced all material possessions and came here to live with ‘all those monks with their heads in the clouds,’ as my father put it. My younger sister was very happy about it though, since it meant that she would get my parents’ inheritance instead,” Pema said with a frown. 

“That kind of attitude is exactly why I left and came here instead, I love being part of a real community, where we all share our burdens and aren’t driven by materialism or consumerism. The spiritual parts aren’t really for me, it’s just the general lifestyle that appeals to me.”

“I think I can understand that,” Asami responded.

Pema just shrugged. “This holiday is a nice excuse for a party though, so the kids enjoy it. I’ve already gotten started on baking plenty of snacks.”

“Wow, you’re staying busy,” Asami said, genuinely impressed that the pregnant woman wasn’t just lying in bed all day at this stage of her pregnancy.

“Aren’t you worried?” Korra asked. “You heard Amon’s radio message didn’t you, or at least heard about it? He basically said he was planning to attack the festival!”

“And that’s probably why my husband is late,” Pema answered with a shrug, “to make sure that the police will protect us. This island will be the safest place in the city by the time he’s through, he can be a bit of a pushover sometimes in the senate, but I know that he won’t budge on this,” she said, staring off into the distance with a slight smile as she thought about her husband, it was really cute to see how much the woman loved him.

“It’s the mainland that you should be worried about,” Pema continued after she shook her head and stopped staring into the distance. “I won’t ever understand the worldview of those horrible separatists, but as far as I can tell it’s the blending of cultures that they disagree with, they want a strong and pure national identity where everyone has the same holidays and rituals. 

“The last few decades people on the mainland have started to celebrate this holiday too, parts of it at least. There’s a big market along the docks where you can buy traditional air nomad snacks, where kids can buy cranefish kites to fly in the wind, it’s become a very big event.
That market will be much harder to defend than just our island, I imagine. And those are the people that the separatists would reaply want to attack, the people who ‘betray their own culture’ by celebrating a foreign holiday,” Pema said, looking quite serious for a moment before shaking her head and adopting her cheery demeanor again. 

She would also be one of those, wouldn’t she? A ‘traitor to her culture'? Asami thought. 

“Anyhoo, I’d best get back to the kitchen before Meelo eats all the snacks I made for tomorrow, want to come with? I’m sure the kids will be happy to see you again,” Pema said to Korra. “You can both stay for dinner if you want.”

 

They agreed, which was how Asami soon found herself at the most bizarre family dinner of her life. It’d begun with Meelo, who it seemed was indeed just a human child and not a wild beast, though the jury was still out on that considering how loud and energetic the kid could get. As soon as he saw Asami he’d called her the most beautiful lady in the world, and began seemingly trying to flirt with her in a way that would’ve been rather creepy if he wasn’t just a silly boy. 

He’d pouted for a while after he didn’t get the lock of hair that he had bizarrely asked for, until he seemingly forgot all about it and began fighting with his sister Ikki and stealing food off of her plate. 

“I need it more than you do! I have to become a big and strong man! It’s just temporary, once I’m big I’ll be able to hunt for my own food!”

“We’re vegans,” the older sister said dryly, not even looking up from her book even while she ducked her head to dodge some food that’d flown her way.

“Are they always like this?” She asked Korra. 

“Usually they’re worse,” her girlfriend responded with a laugh, “I think Meelo is trying to be polite, so that he can woo you.”

Really? Asami said through her expression, looking back and forth between her girlfriend and Meelo, who had now stuck his hand in Ikki’s mouth to try to take the food that she’d put inside to try to keep him from grabbing it.

“OWW,” the little boy predictably cried out, as his sister bit down on his finger. “MOOOOM, Ikki bit me!” He yelled while turning towards an exasperated looking Pema, Ikki immediately took advantage of this distraction to steal some food off her brother’s plate while sticking her tongue out.

Whatever Pema had been about to say was cut off by the arrival of her husband. “DAD! All three kids yelled excitedly, with even the older sister putting her book aside to go hug her father. 

They really did seem like a very loving family, which made Asami realize why she’d been kind of nervous about coming here. She wasn’t used to stuff like this, she talked to a lot of strangers, but that was always business related, even when she was younger most of the people she spoke to outside of school were father’s business partners or acquaintances, or their kids. 

It was kind of pathetic to think about how empty her social calendar had been for most of her life, how inexperienced she was at actual social visits. She was glad that things were going pretty well so far, Korra obviously really liked Tenzin’s family, and if they were important to her girlfriend then they were important to Asami too.

Tenzin nodded to Korra in greeting, then to Asami too. “Asami, lovely to see you again,” the man said. “We were just talking about you in the senate.”

“Nice to see you too,” Asami responded, before she really processed the rest of his statement. “Wait what? Why would the senate be talking about me specifically?”

Tenzin huffed slightly. “Some of the hardline conservative senators are outraged about your support of the unions, some even called it treasonous. Of course it’s all just empty bluster, they lacked any real legal argument for their position, they just really love wasting my time and keeping me away from my family,” he said, kissing his wife on the cheek before finally sitting down to join them at the dinner table.

The conversation switched to lighter topics, though based on the meaningful looks that Asami saw Korra and Tenzin share an unspoken agreement seemed to be reached between the senator and her girlfriend, after dinner they would be talking about what they both knew Korra’s reason for coming was, about how to protect the festival tomorrow. 

I guess it makes sense not to talk about it now, wouldn’t want to scare the kids. They should be enjoying the festival, but they might be too scared to enjoy it if they knew everything.

Dinner finished, and Pema had to literally pry her kids off of Korra in the end, so that she could get up to speak privately to Tenzin. “Are you coming?” Korra asked Asami, who hadn’t been sure if she should join them or not.

Asami nodded and followed along. They walked across the island’s grounds, which were now dark, save for a few lanterns, until they reached a pagoda where they could talk. The pagoda was on one of the island’s cliffs, it was too dark now to really see much, but Asami imagined that the views from here were beautiful.

“So, did the senate discuss the festival’s security?” Korra asked, getting right to it. Asami knew she had talked to Tenzin about this before on the phone, but that he’d said that it was better to wait until after he spoke to the senate.

“Yes, it did, though most seem to not take it as seriously as I think they should. Even the liberal party largely ignores the threat, they only wanted to talk about the strikes. But in the end they agreed to give the police chief the powers he needs to protect the festival.

“I don’t particularly like Saikhan, but I trust that he’ll do his best in this regard. Even he acknowledges that many of his officers have a troubling amount of sympathy for Amon and the separatists, he has promised to ensure that the officers stationed at the festival are those that he trusts the most.”

“Okay…” Korra said. “Where should I go? Pema said that the island would probably be safe anyway, so should I try to protect the market at the docks?” 

Tenzin nodded. “Specifically, I believe you should stay where the market extends further inland. Police presence will be lighter there, since most of the market is directly along the docks, but I know that permits have been given for the markets to extend further into the city. If Amon truly wishes to attack even while the police is ready for him, that’s where he’ll strike.” 

“Got it,” Korra said, determined look on her face. It was quickly replaced by an excited smile though. “I’ve got something to show you by the way, I didn’t want to tell you over the phone.”

Asami looked on with a knowing smile, while Tenzin watched in confusion as Korra jumped down the steps of the pagoda and entered a combat stance. 

“Pow pow pow!” Korra said, punching out towards the bushes around her, making them all rustle from the wind she’d shot towards them. She followed it up with a sweeping kick, which shot off a blow of wind that could be seen pushing down all the grass along its path before it likewise crashed into the bushes.

“Look how high I can jump now!” Korra then yelled excitedly, before jumping over ten feet into the air, seemingly just with the power of her legs, though of course Asami realized that in reality it was thanks to the aid of airbending. Said airbending was more apparent during her landing, which she softened using a small tornato beneath her feet, which blew up a bunch of dirt and leaves from the ground.

“Woahh, ahhhh, ahh!” Korra then yelled, losing her balance atop the tiny tornado and spinning around in a few wobbly circles before dropping to the ground.
Asami didn’t try to contain her laughter, earning her a glare from Korra.

“Okay, so I obviously need some more practice…” Her girlfriend then said, looking away towards her teacher. “But I’m finally able to actually airbend! It’s all thanks to you, your teachings totally work!” Korra said, bowing deeply towards Tenzin. 

Asami was surprised to see tears forming in the man’s eyes, as Korra continued talking excitedly about the airbending she’d learned so far and continued showing some of it off. 

Asami could only imagine what it was like, for Tenzin to have studied these techniques, never even being certain if bending was actually real. But to then discover that not only it was real, but your studies were successful enough for you to actually be able to teach someone how to airbend!

Korra, finally seeming to realize how emotional Tenzin had gotten, stepped in to give him a hug. “Thank you, Master Tenzin,” she said to him. 

 

 

***

 

 

Korra was nervous, when she woke up the day of the festival. She’d slept poorly the night before, thanks to another nightmare. She didn’t remember exactly what the nightmare had been about, just that there’d been a lot of violence, some of it committed by herself. 

Her own growing bodycount, (she didn’t know how many she had killed when she attacked Kuvira’s blockade, but she assumed that some had died,) sometimes still kept her up at night, but it wasn’t what was currently making her nervous. 

Stupid separatists, why can’t they just name a time and place, and then prepare for a duel?!

That’s what really bothered her, all this waiting and uncertainty, it was much easier when there was a simple ongoing battle, when she knew where the enemy was and simply needed to go fight them.

Today wouldn’t be like that at all, the festival would start early in the morning and last until noon, so not only did Korra have to wake up at this unholy hour, she would also have to walk around all day just waiting for an attack. It was going to be miserable. At least Mako and Bolin had said that they’d be there to keep her company.

“Sorry that I haven’t been in the mood,” she said to Asami, once her girlfriend exited the bathroom and began to put on her clothes, which Korra had already finished doing.

“It’s fine, I understand. Besides, we’ll have extra fun making up for it later,” Asami said with a mischievous smile. “Lets just get through today first, then we’ll have plenty of time for other things afterwards.”

Korra nodded, Asami was right of course, as usual. As much as she wanted to continue their recent pattern of having sex every night, (at minimum,) it was normal and inevitable that there would be times when they simply weren’t in the mood, or had too many other things to worry about. 

“You were going to talk to that lawyer lady, right?” Korra asked Asami. Initially her girlfriend had wanted to visit the festival, but Korra had convinced her not to. She was going to be anxious enough as it was, having to just wait around while an attack was imminent, the last thing she needed was for Asami to be one of the people who was potentially in danger. She’d already tried to fight the brothers on this matter too, but with Asami she wasn’t going to budge. 

“Yeah, we’re going to go over our defense strategy for the next meeting with the judge,” Asami said. “I still have several people I want to ask to testify on my behalf, but I’m seriously dreading it. It’s just so embarrassing, having to ask someone to help me convince a judge that I’m not some kind of lunatic!”

“You better make Izaru pay for it,” Korra said while gnashing her teeth, “otherwise me killing him still isn’t off the table.”

Asami laughed, then cocked her head to look at her more seriously. “You know, I still can’t tell how serious you are when you keep saying that...”

“Neither can I,” Korra said with a grin. “All I know is that if I ever meet him face to face, rocks might start flying his way.”

Asami laughed again, which made Korra glad. She knew that her girlfriend was much more worried about this situation than she was letting on, so adding a bit of humor to it seemed like a good idea. She was telling the truth though, she wasn’t sure how well she’d be able to keep her temper in check if she ever saw the man who was attacking her girlfriend in this craven way. 

“Seriously though, I’d really like you to be there during the next hearing, for mental support. But that can only happen if I know that you won’t attack Izaru and ruin my case.”

Korra’s anger towards Izaru was immediately forgotten in the face of the vulnerable look in Asami’s green eyes, and she immediately moved to give her raven-haired girlfriend a comforting hug. “You know I’d do anything for you. If it’s that important to you, then I’m sure I’ll be able to control myself.”

“Good,” Asami said, weakness suddenly gone from her voice, “well, in that case I also want you to promise me that you’ll be safe today!”

“Well I wasn’t planning on it, I was planning on needlessly endangering myself, but if you insist…” Korra joked. 

“Shut up, you know what I mean,” Asami said while gently shoving her. 

“I know, I appreciate it,” Korra said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. 

“Anyway, I’d best get going now, otherwise I’ll have woken up so early for nothing. See you later!” Korra said, giving Asami one more kiss before running downstairs. She began to make her way to the docks, to where the festival would be held, despite the spectre of an imminent separatist attack.

 

 

***

 

 

Come on bro, we’ve got to go,” Mako said, waiting for his brother to finally get done fussing with his appearance. 

“Almost done,” Bolin said, taking the little bit of hair that stuck out over his forehead and pulling it to make it stick out even more.

Wait, that’s intentional? I always thought he just forgot to comb that part… Mako thought to himself. 

Whatever, I guess it’s working for him, he then thought, though he couldn’t for the life of him figure out how that could possibly be the case, as he saw his little brother making finger guns at himself in the mirror. The facts were clear though, Bolin had a date with a beautiful mover star this afternoon, whereas Mako did not. 

“Alright,” Bolin said, pulling Mako outside with him as though Mako hadn’t been the one waiting for him this whole time, “let’s get to the docks, before they run out of lychee nut pie!”

Mako let himself get dragged along, he considered criticizing his brother’s choice of breakfast, but decided that it was best to stay quiet, that way he could eat as many macaroons as he wanted without receiving judgement in return. 

 

 

It didn’t take long to get to the docks, where the festivities were already well underway. After they both ordered their favorite treat from a stall they began walking back to the outskirts of the market, where they were supposed to meet Korra.

“Time for our first mission as Team Avatar!” Bolin said excitedly, walking backwards while he turned to face Mako, who smiled at him indulgently. 

“Let’s hope it doesn’t get any more exciting than the festival itself,” Mako replied. Korra hadn’t wanted them to come at all, and had only agreed to it once they promised they would just be two more sets of eyes, that they would get out of the way if there was any real trouble. 

That hadn’t stopped Mako from bringing a revolver though, which he had tucked under his jacket just in case. Their previous encounter with the separatists was more than enough for Mako to never want to face them unprepared, he’d almost lost his little brother to them last time, and was determined to never let that happen again. 

‘Team Avatar,' he thought to himself, still in disbelief about the fact that that was actually a thing now. That Korra was the avatar. He didn’t recall having ever gone to church in his entire life, so the theological implications of it all went way over his head, but he didn’t need to be an expert on the church’s teachings to know that the avatar was supposed to be a thing of ancient times, the times of myths and legends, not the modern era. 

Call him a pessimist, but Mako had the feeling that the return of the avatar meant that a lot of bad things were about to happen. After all, myths and legends were rarely about happy times when everything was nice and peaceful.

They found Korra eventually, buying what seemed like half the inventory from a stall that was selling various kinds of meat on skewers. “Hey guys!” Korra said with a smile once she spotted them.  

Bolin greeted her enthusiastically, while Mako gave a small reserved wave. 

Boling suddenly hunched over weirdly, and began looking around in an exaggerated way. “Have you spotted any separatists yet?!” He asked. 

“Not yet,” Korra said bemusedly, before using her teeth to rip some meat off of one of the skewers she’d bought, “this is probably going to be a long day. Ugh it’ll be even worse than hunting, at least when I’m hunting I’m the predator, not the prey, it can take a long time before anything happens but at least I get to take the initiative! Now we just have to wait around for something to happen, and we can’t even be sure if Tenzin was right about the separatists attacking here at the outskirts where there’s less police!”

Mako hummed in tentative agreement, a city rat like him had never hunted before, but it sounded logical. “Yeah, don’t get too excited bro, we probably have a long day ahead of us, and you’ve got to save some energy for your date afterwards."

This caused a snort from Korra. “You really got that ‘Ginger’ lady to come to the tournament with you as a date?”

“Sure did! You know, you don’t have to act so surprised about it?! That wounds me, right here,” Bolin said, pointing dramatically to his own heart.

“Well, I’ll try my best to make it an entertaining fight,” Korra said, while they began walking along the outskirts of the market. 

“Is it just me or is the festival way bigger than usual?” Bolin asked after a while. 

Mako shook his head. “Not just you, I think it’s because of the strikes, a lot of stores are closed because their workers are on strike, so the owners are taking advantage of the festival to sell their stuff at the market. Meanwhile a lot of workers are here at the market too with their own stalls, to try to make up for their own lack of income due to the strike.”

“And then there’s the customers, who’re all just bored because everything has been closed the last few weeks,” Korra added.

“Exactly, there’s finally something to do. I expect that the tournament will be busier than usual as well.”

Bolin began chatting excitedly about the tournament, and about how soon he and Mako would be competing again in the qualifiers for the next tournament, Korra responded but Mako noticed that her heart didn’t really seem into it. Makes sense I guess, she’s got bigger things to worry about than some silly tournament. She entered it sort of by accident to begin with, it all started with her responding to a request for audience challengers.

While they talked, Mako made sure to pay extra attention to their surroundings, trying to see if anything was awry or there was any other sign of the separatists. He began feeling a bit pessimistic about it. There’s so much ground to cover, what’s stopping the separatists from simply sneaking past? It’s not like there’s anything forcing them to all wear their uniforms, they could blend in with the crowds. And we don’t even know what they’re planning, a bomb? A mob to tear down all the market stalls? It could be anything. 

Like Korra had said, it felt less like they were predators and more like they were the prey, making Mako feel increasingly anxious as time went on.

He talked with Korra about the preparations that senator Tenzin and Chief Saikhan had made for the festival, but none of it really put him at ease.

Nothing happened for a long time, except for Korra somehow still being hungry and buying out another stall’s worth of food. But then, just as Korra finished paying for said food, the calm was broken by the sound of gunshots coming from the docks, at the center of the festival. 

Without a word, Korra dropped all her food and began running towards the sound, with Mako and his younger brother following close behind. 

 

 

Some time earlier:

 

 

Skoochy grinned as his fingers closed around a fat wallet, slipping it out of the pocket of the Earth Kingdom man in front of him, who was none the wiser as he continued to walk with his family. They all looked very rich in their fancy clothes, they could afford it. 

Skoochy knew better than to inspect his prize here in the open, especially with how much police was present here at the festival, he deposited it straight into the satchel at his side without so much as looking at it. He could tell by the weight and size though, he’d struck gold with that one. 

No reason why poor street rats shouldn’t also get to enjoy this holiday, Skoochy reasoned, besides, this is basically the rules of every public festival. Keep your hands on your valuables, or else you might lose them, that’s the game. Everyone knows that, if they complain afterwards then they’re just being sore losers.

The festival was very busy this year, even busier than usual. Everyone knew about the threat the separatists had made but nobody seemed to take it too seriously. What can they do? There’s coppers everywhere. Even the triads don’t mess directly with the cops.

Skoochy dug into his pocket for his legitimate money that he’d earned from shoe shining, he wasn’t no scab, so those funds were running very low after three weeks of striking.

No matter though, dirty money spent just as easily, and that wallet really did feel heavy so he figured that he’d earned himself a snack, so that he could truly participate in the festivities for once. He found a place that sold tasty looking steamed buns, and bought a few of them for himself, he even almost managed to avoid cringing at the price the merchant asked for the meal.

Just like mom used to make, he thought wistfully after taking the first bite, he decided to walk to the edge of the docks, so he could enjoy his meal while hanging his legs off the side and feeling the mild spray of water from the waves lapping against the shore.

What was this festival about again? He thought to himself, something about a giant metal spirit dude who wanted to wipe out a city, but then the avatar made a deal with him and now everyone has to bow four times and eat a special meal, otherwise he’ll get mad again?

Something like that, he was pretty sure, last year he’d watched some guy putting on a puppetshow that explained the whole story. He’d planned to swipe the box the guy used to collect his earnings from the audience, but ended up enjoying the story too much to go through with it.

He scoffed at himself, now I can’t even remember it! Should’ve just stolen the fog-damned box.

“Can I sit next to you?” A young girl suddenly asked from close behind him, almost making him jump a little. 

“Sure, no laws against it,” he replied extra casually, to cover up the embarrassing little fright he’d gotten.

He looked up a little as he took another bite from his steamed bun, the girl looked nice, she wore a green and white Hanbok dress, if he’d owned such fancy and clean clothes then he’d never sit down on this dock covered in birdshit, but she did so without a second thought. Do I recognize her from something? He wondered briefly, before it came to him. Oh wait, her dad was the guy with the fat wallet.

“Want a sweet bean bun?” He asked spontaneously, offering her one of his remaining buns. 

“Sure, thanks!” The girl said with a smile. “Dad was going to buy me something, but now he’s lost his wallet, he went to find some officers to ask them for help.”

Good luck with that, Skoochy thought to himself, suppressing a grin, even the coppers know, once you lose your wallet at a festival you might as well assume that it’s lost forever.

“Well, I guess I can keep you company while you wait,” Skoochy said, before his mind could catch up to his mouth. Wait, am I flirting with her? Isn’t she like- 8 years old??

He looked over at the girl again, as she happily bit into the bun. No, she’s about my age, maybe eleven instead of twelve, just see her as younger on account of how she’s not a street rat like me. Bet she’s never even been in a fight or run from the coppers.

For some reason he didn’t hold it against her though, like he usually did when he saw rich kids from afar.

Maybe cuz she’s not afar, she sat right next to me even though my clothes are dirty and ragged.

They both ate from their buns, until Skoochy decided to speak up. “You’re not from here are you? You’re from the Earth Kingdom.”

“Yeah,” the girl said, surprised, “how did you know?”

Skoochy shrugged, “I don’t know, something about the way you dress. Plus, people from the city know better than to get their wallets swiped.” That was part of why he’d chosen her father as a mark, not only because he looked rich, but because he looked like he came from out of town.

“Wait, you think daddy’s wallet was stolen?!” The girl asked, as though the thought hadn’t even occurred to her. 
Wow, how naïve is she? Skoochy thought to himself. “Probably,” he said, though the fat wallet in his satchel meant that he was obviously far more certain than that, “happens all the time, should keep a closer eye on it next time.”

“That’s horrible!” 

Skoochy just shrugged. “At least you got some steamed buns,” he said. 

“Yeah,” the girl replied happily, her brief horror at discovering the concept of pickpockets seemingly already forgotten.

"Ooh, my dad already bought me a kite, do you want to try it out with me?”

“Uhh, sure, why not?” Skoochy said after a moment’s hesitation. I wanted to participate in the festival for once, didn’t I?

He felt like he was a bit too old to enjoy kites anymore, but whatever. He followed her over to a woman who looked just like her, only older. “Mom can I go fly the kite now?!” The girl asked. 

“Of course honey,” the woman said, before looking over to where the guy Skoochy had pickpocketed was talking animatedly with several police officers, “looks like your father will be a while. I told him to just give it a rest, these things happen in the city and the police can’t do anything about it either.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty useless if you ask me, dunno why everyone’s okay with paying taxes for them,” Skoochy said. I mean, they haven’t even caught me, and I’m obviously a criminal, just look at me!

“Oh, who’s your new friend?” the woman asked.

“This is-” The girl began, but her smile faltered as she realized she never caught Skoochy’s name. 

“M’name’s Skoochy, nice to meet you Mrs…?” Skoochy said, bowing exaggeratedly while taking his cap off. 

“Mrs Kang, nice to meet you- Uhh, Skoochy,” the woman said, slightly frowning her nose as she said his name but otherwise keeping an impressively neutral face. 

She’d be great at cards! Skoochy thought. 

Her daughter had less self control. “Skoochy? What kind of name is that?!” She giggled, while her mother smacked her in the shoulder and told her to be polite. 

“Well what’s your name!?” Skoochy asked challengingly. 

“I’m Ari,” the girl, Ari, replied. 

“Hah, well- I can’t make fun of that actually, it’s a pretty name,” Skoochy said, suddenly blushing for some dumb reason. 

Ari blushed too, before quickly taking the kite from her mother and pulling Skoochy along to a nearby area on the docks, where space had been cleared to allow kids to fly their kites, as many were already doing. 

“It’d be more fun at the beach outside the city,” Ari said from beside him, pouting a little. 

“Bet they don’t have steamed buns there though!” Skoochy retorted, before helping her unfold the cranefish kite. Why cranefish anyway? Was that a part of the story?

Eventually they figured it out, and Skoochy lifted the kite up into the air until it was picked up by the wind and began to fly on its own, causing a look of wonder to appear in Ari’s face, which made her even prettier than before. 

They kept flying the kite for a while, until eventually Ari said that she wanted another snack and wanted to see if her mother still had any money to pay for it in her purse. “We’ll get something for you too, pay you back for that steamed bun!”

The steamed bun was sort of meant to be Skoochy’s way to make up for stealing from her father, but whatever, it went against his nature to turn down a free meal. 

They returned to Mrs Kang, who was watching bemusedly while her husband was still trying to get the police to take him seriously.

Ari got her mother to give her some money, then began to pull Skoochy along to a stall where she’d seen them sell cotton candy, a staple of this festival, probably cuz of how it’s an AIR nomad festival and cotton candy looked like clouds, Skoochy reasoned. 

Skoochy resisted Ari’s pull though, once he spotted something weird near Ari’s father and the police officers. Some of the guys who stood there were sketchy, something Skoochy could recognize easily on account of being sketchy himself. These three guys looked even worse though, more like some of the scarier triad members, the ones who killed people…

"Mister Kang, look out!” Skoochy yelled, once he saw the guys all pulling out guns and aiming for the group of police officers, a group that Ari’s father was right in the middle of.

The man just turned to him with confusion, right before the sound of gunshots shattered the peaceful and happy chatter of the festival, replacing it with shouts of panic and pain as people began to run in fear at bump into each other.

It wasn’t just the group that Skoochy had spotted, gunfire sounded from all around the festival!

Skoochy pushed Ari off towards the side so they could take cover, but then just as sudden as it started, the gunfire stopped. The shooters didn’t open fire on the crowd like Skoochy feared, they just ran away immediately after shooting down the group of police officers they had been standing near. 

People were still running around in a panic, so it was hard to see through the chaos, but Skoochy was pretty sure that he saw a man in traditional Earth Kingdom colors lying on the ground next to the officers…

“What happened? What’s going on?!?” Ari asked, clinging on to Skoochy’s arm as though she trusted him to protect her. It just made him feel terrible about himself.

Her father, did he...? Because I- He couldn’t even finish the thought, part of him needed to see though, to be sure. “Stay here!” He said to Ari, before running towards the group of officers that lay still on the ground. 

There was a lot of blood, though not as much as one might’ve expected. It was a lot cleaner than some of the triad hits that Skoochy had seen the aftermath of, which usually involved the victims being riddled with dozens of bullets. Partly to send a message, partly because most triad members simply couldn’t aim for shit. 

These cops had been killed with only a few bullets each, in a much more precise attack. That hadn’t prevented collateral damage though, the man with the fat wallet, Ari’s father, lay among the bodies, dead from a bullet through the head.

Skoochy grasped onto the satchel by his side, feeling the weight of the fat wallet that’d made him elated not long ago but that now just felt like it was dragging him down, straight to the fog of lost souls where he belonged.

Only reason he was standing here was because he lost his wallet… Aint no two ways around it, this is on me…

He turned back around, he was new to feeling responsible for anything but he sure didn’t like it, so he didn’t want to add to it by also being responsible for Ari seeing her father like this. “Ari, you still there?” he asked, before peeking around the small stall he had dragged her behind to take cover when the shooting had started. Luckily she was still there. 

“What’s happening, why did you leave?!” She demanded, punching him lightly in the chest. 

“Uh, the uh- I think it was the separatists, they attacked a group of coppers,” Skoochy said. “We should go find your mom, don’t look at the bodies, it aint pretty.”

Thankfully Ari listened to that advice, she put a hand next to her face, shielding her own vision from where the cops, as well as her own father, lay. 

They soon found Mrs Kang, who’d apparently been swept up in the fleeing crowds and was now pushing her way back through the crowds of people that were slowly returning from wherever they’d all taken cover. 

“Ari, thank the spirits!” The woman said, getting to her knees to catch Ari in a hug after the girl ran up to meet her. “You’re safe! And you too Skoochy, I’m glad you’re okay, thanks for keeping her safe!” She said, looking Skoochy in the eye, though his sense of guilt quickly made him avert his gaze, especially after what the woman said next. “Now we just need to find your father, then we can get back to the hotel.”

“Uhhh, Mrs Kang, I- I don’t know how to-” Skoochy began, scratching his neck while he tried to figure out how to break the terrible news. “Your husband, he uh, he was standing next to the coppers when they…”

He could see the exact moment that she connected the dots, though Ari was still visibly confused. “Mom? What’s wrong? Let’s go find dad what are you waiting for?!”

Mrs Kang looked torn, her gaze switching between her daughter and the crowd of onlookers that was now forming around the bodies, trying to figure out how to go to her husband without exposing her own daughter to the sight. 

“Skoochy, I know I don’t know you very well but could you stay with Ari while I- I have to go see him.”

It all just became too much, Skoochy felt tears welling up in his eyes while his feelings of guilt were tearing him apart from within. “I’m sorry, I can’t!” He said, before turning around and running away.

“Skoochy wait! Where are you going?!” Ari yelled, but Skoochy ignored her, pushing and dodging his way through the crowd to get away as quickly as possible.

 

 

***

 

 

Korra ran towards the sound of gunshots, though she soon noticed that there were even more gunshots that followed, simultaneously going off along what seemed like the entire width of the markets.

She ran to the ones that sounded closest, though before she made it the sound of gunfire had already ended, it was followed by the sounds of panicked screaming, and soon people began to flee through alleys towards Korra. 

One group was different from the rest, they were fleeing, but they didn’t seem panicked or confused, they seemed to know exactly where they were going, they were also holding guns…

Korra chased after them, and saw that they were running towards a waiting car that already had its engine running. Oh no you don’t, she thought, quickly coming up with the best way to prevent them from making a clean getaway. 

Sometimes simple is best, she thought, before running past the fleeing gunmen and jumping feet-first through the car’s passenger window, smashing the getaway driver through the driver-side door and onto the asphalt road, where he slumped into a groaning half-conscious pile of limbs. 

Korra didn’t have time to stop, she immediately shot back into action, jumping back through the car door that now hung unevenly on its hinges and grabbing the pistol of one of the stunned gunmen, who had opened one of the car’s back doors and had gotten halfway through sitting down when Korra came flying through the window. 

She grabbed the man’s pistol, along with his wrist, and yanked it as hard as she could, which pulled the man’s head down hard against the roof of the car. 

She quickly climbed through the car’s interior and exited through the back door, where she finished off the gunman, who’d already fallen to the floor, with a decisive kick to the head. 

She tossed the man’s pistol towards one of the other two gunmen, who moved his hands to block the projectile, but it still served its role by momentarily preventing him from aiming his own pistol at her. 

Some subtle metalbending threw off the aim of the final gunman while she closed the rest of the distance, then after that it only took a few punches and kicks to knock these two unconscious as well. 

“Make sure these guys don’t go anywhere,” she said, as she looked up and saw Mako and Bolin approaching, she hadn’t had that much of a head start, but then again it hadn’t taken her much time to render these four guys unconscious, “I’m going to the docks to see if there’s any wounded who need my help!”

She ran off again without waiting for a response.

 

 

***

 

 

Mako watched Korra run off again, before focusing on the matter at hand and quickly gathering up all the pistols from the men that Korra had somehow knocked out in no time at all. She was barely even ahead of us! She disappeared around the corner, then once we turn that same corner she’s already running back, leaving this mess behind…

He looked at the broken passenger window, and the driver-side door hanging loose off of its hinges. Clearly the avatar didn’t mess around, even when hiding her bending. 

“Now what?” Bolin asked, after they gathered four pistols and put them in a pile onto the car’s trunk, and set the four unconscious fellas who were unfortunate enough to cross paths with the avatar in a line along the side of the car. 

“Not sure,” Mako said, “I guess we just wait until-” 

He stopped talking, as he saw a familiar face running out of a nearby alley while looking very distressed. “Stay here bro, make sure they don’t go anywhere!”

“Yeah sure, let’s all just run away, leave Bolin to deal with four crazy separatists, not like he’s still traumatized from being kidnapped or anything!” Bolin yelled after him. I’m sure he’ll be fine, Mako thought. In the meantime, this seemed important too. 

“Skoochy, you doing okay?” Mako asked, as he watched the normally very tough and too hardened for his age streetrat pacing in a circle, looking very distressed. "Were you there? At the docks? What happened?”

Skoochy didn’t even seem to hear him, he just kept pacing, then when Mako put a hand on his shoulder he suddenly spun around as if ready to throw hands. “Woah relax kid, it’s just me, Mako…”

“Oh, hey, what’ya want?” Skoochy asked, though his words lacked their usual bite. 

“Nothing! Just- You know, checking in.” Mako said. “Not used to seeing you spooked like this, I guess it was pretty bad at the festival huh?”

“No- I mean yes- I mean, it was going great at first! Lots of pockets you know? Ripe for the picking! Things were going real well, so I thought I might as well call it a day early, join in on the festivities,” Skoochy said, “bought me some steamed buns and everything.”

“Sounds nice,” Mako said. 

“Yeah it was, I even met- Nevermind, it all went sideways soon after,” the fellow streetrat said.

“What happened, exactly? All I know is that we heard gunshots, then these four guys came running and Korra beat them up.” Mako said. 

Skoochy looked up, seemingly only now noticing the beat up car, with the even more beat up bad guys lined up against it and Bolin standing guard. 

“Those are the guys who shot up the place!” Skoochy said.

“You saw them?”

“Yeah, they walked up to a group of coppers and then they-” Skoochy’s face twisted up in anger, then he suddenly pushed his way past Mako and towards the four gunmen.

“Fuck you, you murderous sacks of hog-monkey shit!” The kid yelled, before punching one of the guys in the head just as he began to regain consciousness. 

“Whoah whoah there,” Bolin said, pulling him off, “long time no see Skoochy, what’s happening?”

“These murdering fucks ruined the festival, that’s what!” Skoochy yelled, seemingly giving up after trying and failing to escape from Bolin’s muscular arms. 

“Did you say they targeted the cops?” Mako asked. 

“Yeah, they opened up on the cops, then immediately left again, didn’t bother with the rest of the festival,” Skoochy said. “Still managed to kill an innocent bystander though! And the cops weren’t that bad neither, didn’t even chase me away from the market even though I’m so scruffy looking.”

They targeted the cops specifically? Why would they- Oh no, Mako thought, remembering something that Korra had said. 

‘Tenzin says that Saikhan assigned all his most trusted officers to the festival, the ones who definitely didn’t have any separatist sympathies.’

All the cops most willing to stand up to the separatists, wiped out in one fell swoop… That’s why Amon made such a public threat despite how that would inevitably mean that there would be a heavy police presence, that police presence was exactly what he wanted!

 

 

***

 

 

There were no wounded in need of Korra’s help, this attack by the separatists had been very precise, all their victims were dead by the time that Korra arrived. The only wounded were some people with bruises and sprains from the panic that ensued, nothing worth the hassle of going public with her waterbending healing right now.  

Just a bunch of dead cops, along with one bystander, who’s wife and daughter could be seen crying off to the side while a few other bystanders laid a tarp over the man’s body. 

In total, the number of death was in the high dozens, maybe even over a hundred. There had been a lot of cops at the festival, almost all of whom were now lying dead throughout the festival’s markets, either by themselves or in small groups. 

I failed, I was right here, we knew beforehand that an attack was coming, yet I failed to do anything to prevent it! Korra thought, helplessly clenching her fists in anger.

Why did they target cops? I don’t get it, I thought- Tenzin said they’d go for the least protected part of the festival!

Korra wandered the docks for a while longer, until Mako found her. “Hey! Why aren’t you watching those guys that I-”

“Don’t worry, more cops arrived, and Skootchy is there, testifying that he saw them open fire,” Mako said. “Or well, maybe you should still be worried,” he then added. 

“What do you mean?”

“You said it yourself didn’t you? All of the city’s most trusted officers were here at the festival, all the ones who could be trusted to actually oppose the separatists.”

Oh- Oh no… Korra thought, as the full significance of this information sunk in. It seemed like the time for spear rattling was over, Amon had just drawn blood in a decisive opening battle, and had managed to purge his enemies within the police department.

Korra wasn’t too familiar with how this sort of thing worked, but that sure seemed like the first step in an attempt to overthrow the government… 

She had the feeling that this time they wouldn’t have to wait so long before the separatists made their next move, they were nearing the endgame now. 

“I should go to the Red Lotus,” she said, “tell them to uhh, I don’t know, to just be ready I guess.”

Mako nodded somberly. “I’ll come with you, if we go get Bolin first. If this is really happening then I don’t want to stay on the sidelines, you can make introductions for us with the union militias.”

Korra nodded, and walked with Mako back to where she’d left those four gunmen behind. 

 

 

***

 

 

Asami’s worries melted away as the gates opened and she watched the distant figure of Korra enter the Sato mansion’s grounds. Naga immediately rushed to Korra’s side, leaving Asami alone for the moment, except for the sounds of the portable radio that she’d been listening to, still providing the latest updates. 

A hundred and five dead officers, that was the latest count that the radio had given. And apparently nearly all of the separatists responsible for the attack had gotten away, only four had been apprehended. 

She was sure that Korra would give her more details momentarily, for now though she was just glad to know that her girlfriend was safe, as she played in the distance with her pet. 

If you can really call it safe, living in the United Republic’s capital during an ongoing attempt at a coup, especially now that the loyalties of the remaining police officers are even more skewed in favor of those committing the coup.

Asami hadn’t missed the implications of these officers, hand-selected by Chief Saikhan for their commitment to fighting the separatists, being the ones to have been wiped out, even if the people on the radio were dancing around it and not talking about it explicitly. 

Chief Saikhan had announced his resignation just a few minutes ago, during a press conference that’d been broadcast live over the radio. It was to be expected after a defeat on this scale, it was considered the honorable thing to do, but Asami feared that whoever would replace the former Chief would not be an improvement. 

Korra finished playing with her polarbear dog and began making her way up the steps to the mansion. “Hey, I’m glad you’re okay!” Asami said as soon as Korra was close enough. She didn’t immediately run in for a hug like she’d wanted to, the stormy expression on Korra’s face told her that maybe she wasn’t in the mood.

Korra’s expression brightened a tiny amount as she looked up to Asami. “Yeah, I’m fine, no need to worry,” she said. “What time is it? Should we get ready for the finale?”

“The finale?! You still want to go?” Asami asked, she’d almost forgotten all about it, and had assumed that Korra did too. Surely there were more important things to-

Korra shook her head while she responded. “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss it for the world, I really need something to punch right now!”

Oh, Asami thought, actually needing to stifle a grin, I guess that’s in-character for you, I should’ve been able to guess.

 

 

***

 

 

The mood outside of the stadium was somber, even though it was as crowded as ever when Korra and Asami walked up to the building. It felt as though everyone realized that tonight may be one of the final nights of peace in the city, like they were all determined to make the most of it, even if the mood had kind of been ruined.

They greeted Mako and Bolin, as well as Ginger, who stood with her arm linked with Bolin’s.

“I’m surprised they haven’t cancelled the event,” the red-haired woman said, “then again, I suppose if there’s one place where the audience would not be turned off by a bit of violence, this would be it.”

“’A bit’ of violence?!” Korra couldn’t help asking, probably more aggressively than needed. “It was more than a bit!”

“More than a bit, obviously, I just mean- Oh forget it, I don’t know what I mean, I just can’t stand this dreadful silence,” Ginger replied. “Bolin told me you were there at the festival, it must have been horrid.”

“Yeah, it was,” Korra said in a conciliatory tone. “And I guess this wasn’t exactly the first real date you had imagined either, was it?”

Ginger shrugged. “I don’t know, it has its moments, I didn’t know I would be going with a genuine hero!” She said with a giggle, squeezing Bolin’s arm more tightly. 

Bolin, after being left to watch the four gunmen by himself, had wound up being photographed and receiving the credit for their arrest in the eyes of the public, which Ginger had apparently heard about over the radio. 

“I told you, it was Korra who actually defeated them!” Bolin protested. 

“I know silly,” Ginger replied, tapping him on the nose with her finger, “which does make me a tad excited for your match,” she said, turning to Korra. “I’ve read about you in the papers before, seeing you in action is supposed to be truly marvelous.”

Korra blushed a little at that. “I don’t know about that, I just know that I’m in the mood to punch stuff right now. Tahno’s face should do nicely.”

 

Before the tournament began, the announcer asked the stadium for a minute of silence in honor of the people who’d died at the festival. But the moment was ruined by a group of separatist supporters yelling and jeering about how those degenerate ‘nomad lovers’ all had it coming. 

They were then in turn shouted and jeered at by others in the stadium, and although it was hard to see Korra was pretty sure that there was a brief brawl before the troublemakers were all removed from the stadium and the tournament could commence.

Korra entertained herself during the preliminary matches by watching Ginger’s reactions to the violence in the ring, the way the haughty woman normally carried herself contrasted in a very funny way to how she laughed and shouted whenever a good punch or kick landed. 

Either way, eventually it was almost Korra’s time, so she left the audience in order to go backstage, to wrap her hands and limber up a little for the fight. She was confident she could beat Tahno but a quick warmup never hurt. 

Eventually she heard her own announcement, as ‘the girl in the iceberg,’ and made her way towards the ring, where it was Tahno who was introduced next. 

“Now, a student from Republic City University, yet also one of the city’s most dangerous fighters,” the announcer said, “which can likely be explained by his military upbringing. The son of a General of the United Republic’s armed forces, entering the ring now is TAAAHHHNOOOOOO!” The announcer yelled, and Korra noted that her opponent’s introduction prompted an equal amount of cheering and jeering from the audience. I guess I’m not the only one who can’t stand him, she thought. 

Whatever, let’s make this quick. 

The ref told them to head to the center of the ring, where he told them to obey his commands and obey the rules. Neither of them really listened, they were staring at each other instead. “Last chance to back out little girl, before I show the world that you never belonged in this ring,” Tahno said. “I don’t know how you got so many others to take a fall, but your luck ends here, I’ll expose you for the fraud you are!”

Is that seriously what he thinks? Korra thought to herself. “We’ll see about that,” she responded, “you’d best hope that the ref pays close attention, I’ve got some anger to work out.”

They were sent back to their corners, where Korra just spent her time glaring at her target until the ring of the bell.

Tahno rushed forward and tried to hit Korra with an uppercut, which surprised her but was still fairly easy to dodge. He followed it up with some more punches and with a spinning kick, which Korra also dodged. He’s pretty good I guess, but I don’t have the patience to draw it out, she thought.

During his next punch, a right hook, Korra moved forwards instead of backwards, catching the punch on her forearm before leaning forwards and ramming her elbow hard against his face.

He stumbled back, trying to throw a counter punch, before that punch could land however Korra nailed him in the face again, this time with a front kick, her foot connected with his jaw with a satisfying thud.

“Still think I don’t belong here?” Korra asked Tahno, who almost looked unconscious even though he was still standing, he probably didn’t even hear her. 

“Well, think again!” Korra said, rushing forward and dodging another punch, before hooking her leg behind his and tripping him. Instead of letting him fall on the mat she caught him, she put both hands beneath his body and heaved with all her strength, lifting him up and throwing him over the ropes and out of the ring, where he landed hard on top of the stairs used to enter the ring. 

“Hmpf, chump,” Korra said, looking at her opponent as he groaned in pain and clearly wasn’t getting back up again anytime soon, before turning away from him and facing the crowd. An overly exuberant celebration didn’t feel appropriate, so instead she just lifted one fist up in the air. 

The crowd didn’t seem to agree with her, as the cheers and applause that followed were nearly deafening. 

“Wow! That looked personal!” The announcer said. “Korra certainly sent a message, Tahno dominated most of his opponents but today he got tossed out of the ring, literally, like he didn’t even belong there! In all my years, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

The announcer, Shiro Shinobi, stepped into the ring with Korra while carrying a microphone. “So, Korra, you just won this entire tournament, earning you a hefty sum of money and officially making you a champion! Is that what you expected when you first entered the competition as an audience challenger?”

“Uhh, I didn’t really expect anything, just thought that it’d be fun,” Korra answered honestly.

“Ha! Can you believe that folks! She stepped into the ring with the former champion just because she thought it would be fun! I would call her crazy, if she didn’t just prove that this sort of thing really is just a breeze for her!

“That said, now that you know you can earn some serious money from this, can we expect you to make a career out of it? I’m sure that with your skills your success could continue, and I can guarantee that audiences will be lining up to see you!”

“Sorry, but no, I don’t think so,” Korra said, prompting disappointed groans and boos from the audience.

“Then what’s next, for ‘The Girl in the Iceberg?’”

Korra shrugged. “Well first off, probably a civil war or something. I don’t know what the separatists plan next, but I plan on doing everything I can to help stop them!” Suddenly the entire arena was dead quiet, seemingly none of them had expected her to say anything like that. 

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Shinobi asked, after looking her in the eye for a moment.

“Of course! I’ve fought them before. I was raised as a warrior, taught to protect my tribe, and the world as a whole. Ever since I woke up here I have considered this city to be my tribe, and I plan on protecting it. If Amon thinks that he wiped out the city’s protectors this morning then I promise you, he’s in far a nasty surprise!”

She left the ring after that, leaving Shinobi to awkwardly try to return things to a more celebratory mood as he brought the night to a close.

Korra walked straight to Asami to give her a hug. The brothers both complimented her performance, as did Ginger, who said that Korra ‘certainly made up for her lack of feminine charm’ with her fighting skill.  Korra wasn’t sure if that was meant to be a compliment or an insult. 

“You want to go?” Asami asked. “I spoke to the tournament organizers, your prize money will be paid directly to your bank account, so we’re clear to go.”

“I have a bank account? Also, what’s a bank account?” Korra asked. 

“You can’t be serious?!” Ginger asked. “I know you’ve been frozen in time, but surely this is one of the first things you learn when you live in the city?”

Korra just shrugged. “I guess I’m lucky to be living with Asami,” she said, “never really had to worry about this stuff. Still haven’t even spent all the money from my first fight, and I kinda forgot that I got paid for all the others too,” she said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Mako, while everyone else just laughed.

They left the arena, which was when Asami spoke up. “I’m not sure if that was smart, publicly declaring how you oppose the separatists.”

“What? It’s not like it’s a secret, Har Dayal  already wrote an article about how I fought them during their attack on the immigrant district.”

“Well, no offense, but not that many people read his paper,” said Mako. 

“Yeah, he’s a doll, but he doesn’t have the kind audience that this tournament draws,” Ginger added. 

“Wait, you know him?” Asami asked. 

“Of course! He went to the university with the same people who founded the speakeasy we visited the other day, except he went into printing while his friends focused on music and movers. He probably could’ve been just as successful if he didn’t insist on working in print. Either way, he gave me some of my first jobs as a model for his paper, then helped me start my mover career by making a few introductions with his old friends,” she said. 

“Like I’ll do for you,” she then said to Bolin, clutching onto his arm again. “You’ll be a star, I just know it, you have everything you need to make it big!”

“I do?” Bolin asked confusedly. 

“But of course you do! You don’t need brains to make it in the mover business, you just need to look pretty and be charming, and you’re both.” 

Korra was kind of impressed by how adept this Ginger lady was at simultaneously complimenting and insulting people. She’d initially assumed the woman was mostly just a pretty face, but started to suspect that there was more to her than that. She really thinks Bolin can ‘make it big’?

They were about to say their goodbyes for the night, when suddenly the speakers mounted to the outside of the arena, so that those who couldn’t get inside could listen along with the radio broadcast, started to make noise. It began as static, which was quickly replaced by a familiar voice.

“Enemies of the spirits, and of national unity, I believe that after this morning’s necessary yet regrettable events, I now have your attention. Let the deaths of these officers who betrayed our glorious nation be a warning not just to all those who contribute in cultural degeneracy and sacrilegious festivals, but also to those who protect them. I will unite this country, behind a single church and a single cultural identity, and if anyone stands in my way then they will meet the same fate.

“It seems fitting, that on the day of a sacrilegious festival, the people of this city also gathered to glorify one of the city’s biggest sinners and degenerates, to crown her as a ‘champion.’"

Korra heard a panicked gasp from Asami next to her, and gave her girlfriend’s hand what she hoped was a comforting squeeze, while they listened to Amon directly calling Korra out.

“A literal savage, from a primitive era, there’s truly no better representative of the kind of evil that ought to be purged from this city, from this country, if we wish to form a nation we can truly be proud of.

“I am told that this savage doesn’t have a very high opinion of me, which of course comes as no surprise. It matters not, simple brutes will not stand in the way of our glorious march to become the greatest civilization that the world has ever seen!

“To my followers, for years we have been forced to stand idly by, watching tradition and family being tarnished by cultural degeneracy and by deviancy. To stand idly by while corrupt unions inspire mass labor desertion. But now, we have the numbers and the strength to create a new order, one where traditional moral values are enforced once more!

"The time for change has finally come, very soon the current tyrannical regime, ruled by the multicultural communist elites who want to allow unions to force us all to bend to their every whim, will be replaced by a fair-minded separatist government.

“You and your children will no longer have to be afraid of all your values being trampled upon and forgotten, it’s time to take back our city from the foreign invaders that have overrun it. My followers and I will not rest until we have restored our borders and our traditions, put our workers back to work, and forged a new nation. A strong and proud empire that will last through the ages! Instead of the washed down and muddled mess, lacking in true identity, that the traitorous elites wish for us to be.

“The revolution has begun!”

“Well, fair is fair I guess,” Korra said after a short silence, once the broadcast ended. “I did call him out first.”

“Korra this isn’t funny! This is-”

“I’m not joking,” Korra interrupted, “I wasn’t joking when I called him out either. If he wants a fight then I’ll give him one, as soon as these cowardly weaselsnakes pop their head up out of the ground, I’ll go after them with everything I have. No more holding back.”

Mako and Bolin nodded determinedly, showing that they were still willing to be part of ‘team avatar.’

Asami nodded too, after a moment’s hesitation. “I wish we could all stay safe, but if that requires a fight then so be it,” she said. "We’ll give them a fight.”

 

Notes:

Another long chapter!

Also, you may have noticed that I have now added a chapter counter which shows that we're finally nearing the end of book 1!
I'm nearly done with writing it, so I'm now fairly confident in that chapter count.
Once book 1 is finished I'll be taking a bit of a break, both to make a more detailed outline of where the story goes next, and to play around with some other story ideas I've had in my head for a while.

Regarding the chapter itself, I felt really bad about what I was putting Skoochy through ; ( And Ari as well of course.

In terms of personal news, I've ordered all the new parts I'll need for my new PC, so I should get those soon, but meanwhile typing on my phone has been surprisingly bearable, so either way it shouldn't impede the progress of writing.

In terms of world news; my heart goes out to the victims of Israel's genocide against Palestine, and to all the innocent Israeli civilians who've been hurt.
With all the news of real life conflict lately it's felt kind of weird to write certain parts of the upcoming chapters, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do amiright?

Chapter 31: City Hall.

Summary:

In the wake of the separatist attack on Yangchen's festival, Asami goes to City Hall for the court hearing regarding her conservatorship case.

City Hall.

 

 

 

Asami dove forwards, landing in a roll to keep her momentum as she dodged the projectiles headed her way. She exited the roll with her rifle already against her shoulder in a firing position, then quickly moved to sight down her opponent.

Once she was confident in her aim she squeezed the trigger, “bang”, she said, while at the same time she saw her opponent already raising her hands.

“You got me! I’m dead!” Korra said with a broad smile, before throwing the remainder of the balls she’d been holding at Asami, forcing Asami to block them with her unloaded rifle.

“Dead people don’t throw balls,” Asami said dryly, though she knew she was smiling too. She had really come to enjoy her morning practice sessions with Korra, especially once they’d come up with this latest exercise in which Korra threw rubber balls at Asami to simulate enemy fire, while Asami ran through a makeshift obstacle course and pretended to shoot targets throughout the course.

It helped that she was able to just trick herself into seeing it as a game, rather than as serious preparation for what was to come.

It'd been three days since Yanchen’s festival, and the entire city felt like it’d been holding its breath this entire time. Thanks to the general strike the streets were desolate compared to before, and the lack of workers performing basic maintenance task on public streets and streetlights and such was starting to have visible effects.

The result of this was that it almost felt as though the city was already at war. Asami held no illusions in this respect though, she knew that things would get significantly worse if, (probably more like when,) real violence broke out.

“Yeah well, pretty sure that the separatists also aren’t going to be throwing balls at you,” Korra said with a grin. “Seriously though, you’re getting good. Amon should be getting worried if he knows what’s good for him.”

Asami smiled at the compliment. Her girlfriend could be surprisingly harsh during their practice sessions sometimes, those frank criticisms meant that Asami knew that every compliment she received was genuine.

They went inside for breakfast. Asami knew that it was ridiculously spoiled of her to be complaining about the private chef who made her several meals every day, but she still hadn’t gotten used to the new chef’s cooking. The food was good, nothing specific for her to complain about, it just missed that extra little something that Tuzo’s cooking always had.

Poor Tuzo, he really ended up picking the worst possible time to try to start up his restaurant... The strikes had prevented him from opening his new business, like he’d initially planned to do several weeks ago. Asami selfishly regretted that fact because of how it deprived her even of the ability to taste the man’s wonderful cooking by visiting his new restaurant, but she also worried that he would run out of funds if he didn’t open soon.

I wonder if he’d accept my help, would that be weird, if I just offered him a bag of money to help him stay open? Would he be insulted?

She didn’t think she’d ever fully figure out how she should interact with other people, when she was so ridiculously wealthy compared to them. Maybe it wasn’t possible to fully figure it out, the fact that she had enough money to help someone never need to work again would always make it weird to interact with friends or acquaintances who actually had to struggle with financial troubles.

Asami was shaken by those heavy thoughts by Mrs Su walking in, informing her that her personal lawyer, Mr Yao, was on the phone. What could that be about? Asami thought.

The court hearing, regarding Izaru’s attempt to place her under a conservatorship, would be later today, what could he have to say that couldn’t wait until then?

“Mr Yao, is everything well?” Asami asked, unable to keep a hint of worry from her voice.

“Yes, Miss Asami, no need to worry. In fact I bring good news! I figured that I should tell you right away, help cheer you up a little instead of you just worrying about the hearing.”

He knows me pretty well, Asami thought, she tried her best to not seem worried about the hearing, but apparently Mr Yao knew better. “Well then, don’t keep me in suspense, what’s the news?” Asami asked.

“Your friend Korra, she was finally approved for citizenship! She no longer has to rely on a temporary work visa. People at the bureau of immigration services were surprisingly receptive to my arguments regarding Korra’s unique circumstances, they agreed that this would be more just than leaving her effectively stateless.

“It took a while for all the final approvals to be given, but that’s just standard government bureaucracy. Everything finally went through today, the documents should all be ready at city hall so you two can pick them up right after the hearing.”

“That’s great! Thanks for telling me,” Asami said.

“It’s nothing,” said Yao, “good luck at the hearing.”

They ended the call, and Asami returned to the breakfast table where Korra was still eating. “What’d Yao want? Aren’t we seeing him later today?” Korra asked, putting down the paper she’d begun to read while Asami answered the phone.

“It was about you actually,” said Asami, “you’re officially a citizen of the United Republic! No more need to worry about anyone trying to deport you.” Emphasis on the ‘trying,’ she thought, as she couldn’t imagine anyone forcing Korra to go somewhere that she didn’t want to go.

“Oh, that’s cool I guess,” Korra said. She’d never fully seemed to understand the importance of citizenship, so Asami wasn’t surprised that she didn’t give more of a reaction. “Anyway, is everything ready for the hearing?”

“Yeah, several union heads agreed to vouch for my sanity, as did Zerai and others from Future Industries.” This alone, the fact that she had been forced to go to the executives at her company and practically beg them to vouch for her sanity in front of a judge, was enough for Asami to swear that she would never forgive Izaru. It’d been one of the most humiliating experiences of her life. Thankfully she already had her revenge planned out.

Zerai had been outraged on her behalf once she told him about the conservatorship, and had been very willing to help her, so part of Asami realized that needing to ‘beg’ for help was an exaggeration. That realization didn’t make her any less vengeful though, luckily everything had been arranged for her payback scheme, the information provided by her private investigator had been very enlightening…

“Anyway, anything interesting in the paper?” Asami asked, though she could already guess what her girlfriend’s response would be.

“Just that everyone sucks,” Korra said. Yep, about what I expected, Asami thought.

“I still can’t believe that a bunch of senators are actually siding with Amon,” Korra said, “shouldn’t that like- Disqualify them or something?”

“Wait, they’re really openly siding with Amon?” Asami asked, frowning, that did indeed sound like there ought to be consequences to it, given that Amon was a criminal who’d openly declared his desire to overthrow the existing government.

“Well… Not in so many words, but they’re saying that Tarrlok’s incompetence makes violence inevitable, implying that it even makes it justified, as a way to bring an end to the strikes. Saying that it’s hard to blame ‘certain radical groups in our society stepping in where Tarrlok’s government does not.’”

Asami huffed. “Is it really so much to ask conservatives that they treat workers and immigrants better, that they’d rather overthrow the government instead?!”

Korra just shrugged, before suddenly setting the entire newspaper aflame and burning it to a crisp, making Asami jump in surprise. “That’s enough of that, we already know that they’re all dicks, no need to get worked up over it,” she said. “Let’s go play with Naga, we haven’t been giving her enough attention lately.”

“Good idea,” Asami said with a smile. Korra’s energetic pet was always fun to play with, it would easily be enough for them to pass the time until the hearing.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra couldn’t help but look around in awe as they entered City Hall. It wasn’t even her first time inside, but the building was still very impressive. Obviously the big dome and the towers on the outside were something to behold, but the inside was too.

The large entrance opened up into an even larger open room, there were no other floors in this central area, so the ceiling stretched all the way up to the big dome that could be seen from outside. Along the edges of the room were pillars lined with balconies of sorts, that formed a walkway along which people travelled to the various rooms on the second floor.

At the end of this large open room was a stage of sorts with benches in front of it, Asami said that press conferences were often held there, as well as very important trials.

Asami pointed out how the room behind that stage, with doors on either side of the stage leading to it, was where the senate gathered, Korra was kind of curious as to what the senate chambers looked like, but that wasn’t their destination, their destination was one of the smaller courtrooms to the side.

Though apparently they were a bit early and couldn’t enter yet, so they had to wait outside, beneath the balconies of the second floor, where a few benches and chairs were prepared for this purpose.

After a while two people dressed in fancy clothes, a man and a woman, walked up to shake Asami’s hand and introduce themselves to Korra. Turns out that they were Mr Yao and Miss Ha-Joon, Asami’s personal lawyer and the expert on conservatorship laws that she had hired specifically for this case.

How many laws are there anyway, that an expert is needed for something so specific? Korra wondered. Does anyone even know them all? Everything in this society seems way too complex for any one person to keep track of.

It made it hard to imagine how she was meant to do her job as avatar, or even how someone like Tenzin was meant to do his.

Asami spoke to the lawyers, most of their conversation went over Korra’s head so she just looked around instead, until she saw a face that perfectly matched the way that Asami had described him. “That’s Izaru, isn’t it? You’re right, he does look kind of like a frog-squirrel.”

The man’s eyes were just slightly too far apart, and they were unusually round, giving them the appearance of a frog’s eyes, his green suit matched the look as well.

She grinned at Asami, who chuckled softly in response, the brief moment of humor wasn’t enough to keep Korra from glaring at the man though, when she looked back towards him.

Thankfully the man kept his distance, so there was no need for Korra to test her restraint while he was in punching distance from her.

A door opened, and someone came out to inform them that the hearing was ready to begin. Korra took a seat in the audience, as directed, while Asami and her lawyers took their seats at one of two desks that faced away from the audience, towards a slightly elevated desk where the judge was seated.

“Is that everyone?” The judge asked.

“Not quite, your honor,” Korra heard Asami say. “A few of my witnesses have yet to arrive, but that’s because I told them they could come a bit later, since their part shouldn’t come up until later in the hearing.”

The judge sighed. “I suppose that’s true, judging by the list of witnesses that both sides have submitted, this is going to be an unusually lengthy hearing for a simple conservatorship case. The number of people also means that I’ve chosen a more formal format this time around.

“That said, I would like Miss Asami, or her lawyers, to make their case first, since Mister Izaru already made his case in our first hearing.”

Asami could be seen nodding to Ha-Joon, her female lawyer, who then stood up from her chair and began speaking. “First of all, me and my client take issue with the suggestion that a conservatorship hearing is ‘simple,’ verifying someone’s sanity is no easy feat, given how difficult it is to even define the term.

“The difficulty of defining ‘sanity’ is why our argument will focus on competence instead, which we believe to be a more objective metric.

“Izaru will try to argue that my client is an unusual woman, this may even be true in certain respects. Our argument is not that my client is an average woman, our argument is that, based on the most objective standards that one can look at, my client is capable of managing her own affairs and her own company in a competent manner. Perhaps this is even because of whatever eccentricities that she may have, after all not everyone is suited to run a large company.

“Most of the witnesses we’ve brought are those who can testify on behalf of my client’s competence, and my client herself is also willing to open herself up to questioning, so that she can demonstrate this competence in person.”

That’s just the opening statement? Korra thought. Wow, this really is going to take a while.

“’Most’ of your witnesses?” The judge asked, raising an eyebrow, and Korra had to suppress a smirk, since Asami had confided in her what the other witnesses were for.

“Yes, your honor, our final witnesses, the ones that are running late, are here for different reasons, once that will become clear when the time comes.”

The judge looked a bit miffed at the lack of an immediate explanation, but ultimately he accepted it and looked to Izaru’s side instead. In their case it was Izaru himself who stood up to speak.

“Sanity, difficult as it may be to define, is not something that you can simply ignore,” he began. “I’m sure that by focusing on numbers and statistics and other such inhuman metrics, Miss Asami’s lawyers will attempt to distract from the fact that we’re talking about a very disturbed and traumatized young woman.

“Even if this hasn’t yet affected her business decisions, though I would argue that it has, it would only be a matter of time before it does begin to affect those as well. And of course I do not believe that we can simply ignore the damage it’s already doing to her personal life.

“ I believe it to be a moral imperative, for both myself and for the state, to protect Miss Asami from herself, to keep her from destroying her family legacy and driving herself into financial ruin.”

Korra struggled to sit still in the audience bench while Izaru spoke. To her dismay he appeared to be a rather good public speaker, capable of making himself sound very reasonable and compelling even if what he actually said was complete hogwash.

He called several people up to testify, first was a psychiatrist who attempted to explain how Asami’s behavior demonstrated clear signs of ‘grief induced hysteria,’ but an interjection by Asami’s lawyer stopped the man’s testimony in its tracks. She challenged the idea that a psychiatrist could diagnose a patient without having ever actually met them face to face until today, and countered by saying that Asami had invited another psychiatrist, one she had actually talked to in-depth several times, who vouched for her sanity.

Score one for Asami, Korra thought when the judge sent Izaru’s psychiatrist away.

Izaru’s next witness was some mousey looking guy wearing glasses, who went on a lengthy spiel about numbers and business stuff that Korra couldn’t really follow, all she really got from it was that according to him socialism was bad and Asami giving her workers partial ownership of her company was a terrible mistake and a clear sign that she was being manipulated by people taking advantage of her vulnerable mental state.

After the boring numbers guy, someone familiar to Korra stood up to speak. Eekasi, the backstabbing maid! Korra thought, gnashing her teeth in anger. She’d always thought that Eekasi was even creepier than the other maids, none of them seemed to understand Korra’s sense of personal space and privacy, but Eekasi especially had always seemed to linger close outside doorways whenever Korra and Asami exited a room.

And now she understood why, as Eekasi had told everyone all about Korra and Asami’s most intimate moments that she had overheard while deliberately eavesdropping outside of Asami’s bedroom. It made Korra feel violated just thinking about it.

When Eekasi talked about ‘sounds that could only be sex,’ Ha-Joon stood up to interrupt.

“Objection, that’s speculative,” she said.

“Does your client deny Eekasi’s accusation then?” The judge asked.

“What  I do in my own bedroom is nobody’s business but my own,” Asami said, now also standing up. “I admit that me and Korra often sleep together, but I mean that completely literally, we lie in bed and sleep. We began doing this after we both suffered from nightmares, we discovered that sleeping in the same bed helped lessen them. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?”

She has a way with words, none of that was technically a lie, she just omitted everything we do in addition to sleeping, Korra thought, impressed with her girlfriend’s answer, though still angry that she was being forced to talk about it like this.

“I suppose not,” the judge said, “but may I ask what caused these nightmares?”

Asami scoffed. “I saw my mother’s dead body after she was shot, when I was just a little girl. I saw our family butler murder two police officers, right around the same time that I was abandoned by my father, and I was unfortunate enough to be in the immigrant district when the separatists set fire to half of it. I don’t think that my not sleeping well is particularly unusual, though for your information my nightmares have actually largely ceased thanks to me and Korra’s- Uhm- Arrangement.”

“So, Miss Eekasi's interpretation of the sounds she heard in your bedroom was mistaken?”

“I question how Miss Eekasi believes herself capable of identifying what sex sounds like,” Asami said, “seems to me like she’s either speaking on a subject she knows nothing about, or like we ought to be questioning her own moral virtue, and by extension her trustworthiness as a witness.”

Korra couldn’t hold fully hold back a giggle, when she saw Eekasi turning red as a beet in response to Asami questioning how an unmarried woman like herself knew what sex sounded like. This had actually been Korra’s idea, and the fact that she saw the judge failing to suppress a smile at Eekasi’s expense made her think that it had worked.

Asami continued her statement. “Of course, I would say that Eekasi’s admitted propensity for eavesdropping and breaches of confidentiality already undermine any credibility that she might have had, how could anyone trust that she’s not simply lying about hearing sounds?”

After excusing herself from the stand, Eekasi made a hurried retreat from the courtroom, and another person Korra recognized stood up to speak. That’s the religious bozo I argued with at the exhibition! She thought to herself.

This is bad isn’t it? Asami keeps saying how big of a deal he is…

His testimony wasn’t too interesting, he basically just recounted the events of the exhibition, making sure to condemn Korra in the harshest language possible, and then condemn Asami for associating with her.

Ha-joon then stood up to speak on Asami’s behalf again, questioning what accusations against an acquaintance of Asami had to do with Asami herself.

“It pertains to her judgement of other people’s character, and her vulnerability to manipulation,” Izaru said. “We know that this ‘Korra’ woman engages in brutal bloodsports, and that Miss Asami has visited these tournaments as a result. A proper lady would never visit such a venue, so the negative influence of this Korra person couldn’t be clearer.”

“If I’m not mistaken, this ‘Korra person’ is here in the audience, is she not? Might she be willing to take to the stand?” The judge asked.

Asami had warned that this might happen, but Korra was still nervous when she stood up and replied. “Sure, if you insist.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami hated everything about this hearing, though she was proud of how well she’d been able to maintain her composure and smile politely throughout it.

Her anger worsened though once Korra was called to the stands, she doubted that she would make it through this without her expression lapsing, so she just had to hope that the judge would be looking at Korra instead of at her.

“So, Korra,” the judge began. “You’re living at the Sato mansion, correct?”

“Uhh- Yeah, I am,” Korra responded, looking very out of place.

“How did that arrangement come to pass?”

“Uhh, there isn’t that much to it, after I woke up from the ice Asami brought me to the mansion, and she let me stay there ever since. It’s not like she doesn’t have room, she doesn’t even use most of the rooms in the mansion!”

“Still, some might argue that it supports the case that you’re taking advantage of young Miss Asami. Do you pay rent?”

“Uhh, no,” Korra said. Asami thought of an additional counterargument and was about to stand up to interject when Korra herself began talking again. “I began living there back when Hiroshi still owned the place though, so if I manipulated anyone into letting me stay then it was him, not Asami.”

Asami smiled proudly, that was exactly the argument she herself thought of, but apparently Korra hadn’t needed her to make it for her.

“Hmm, indeed,” the judge said. “What about the other accusations? I’ve read the papers, so I already know that you do not deny what the High Sage has said. What about the tournaments you compete in?”

Korra shrugged. “I’m not sure what your question is. I was raised as a warrior, when I heard about those tournaments they sounded like fun, Asami is my friend so she came with, simple as that.”

The judge dismissed Korra, after which it was time for Asami to call her own witnesses. She started with Zerai, the Chief Financial Officer of Future Industries, who completely tore apart everything that the accountant that Izaru had brought had said. He stressed how fiscally sound Asami’s decisions, including her decision to sell shares to stave off bankruptcy and win over the unions, had been.

He also went after Izaru himself, saying that in his own estimation Izaru was simply acting out of anger over no longer being Managing Director. He even questioned Izaru’s status as a close friend of Asami’s father, which Asami was very glad for. She’d decided that it would seem too petty if she herself questioned how close Izaru truly was with her father, but if Zerai did it then that was a different matter entirely!

Zerai did mention how he personally thought that Asami was a bit too much of a bleeding heart in some ways, but did so while noting that there was nothing irrational about that, how it’s simply a difference of opinion and of priorities.

Then he went on to praise her general ability as a leader, her knowledge of the company and how it functions. Asami was flattered, before now the stern man had never given her any indication that he respected her this much.

After him came Saburo, the former Chief Engineer, now Managing Director, of Future Industries. He too did nothing but praise Asami, for her professionalism and leadership, and also for her knowledge of engineering. He also said that he, and most of the company’s engineers, strongly supported removing Izaru as managing director, that his lack of knowledge of actual engineering had caused many issues in the past.

Then came the union leaders, including Har Dayal. Asami hadn’t been sure if they would be willing to make the time to come to this hearing, but they had agreed to a man. Saying that they owed it to her as the most pro-labor businessowner in town, and also saying that the sexism inherent to the conservatorship system stood in the way of worker solidarity.

In their testimonies they talked about the negotiations they’d had with Asami, how she’d driven a tough bargain and had certainly not been easy to manipulate.

Then came Asami’s final two witnesses, her trump cards if you will, who had arrived late and had quietly entered the courtroom a while ago.

The first was Jiro, her private eye. Once Jiro explained who he was Izaru immediately seemed to panic. “This is out of line! She hired a PI to stalk me?! Your honor, surely you won’t let a sleazebag like this testify?! What relevancy does it have to the matter at hand?!”

Ha-Joon stood up to answer. “It pertains to Mister Izaru’s character, and his propensity for dishonesty and manipulation,” she said, Asami couldn’t help but grin at her lawyer’s cheeky way of mirroring Izaru’s own words from earlier. “This hearing isn’t just about my client’s mental competency, it’s also about Mister Izaru’s suitability as a conservator who has her best interests in mind. Besides, Izaru got my client’s own maid to testify against her regarding things that went on in her private residence, he hardly has a right to complain about an invasion of privacy.”

“Very well,” the judge said, “I will allow Mister Jiro to testify.”

Asami smiled fully then, and continued doing so while Jiro outlined everything he had learned after following Izaru and tapping his phone at Future Industries.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra laughed out loud, receiving a warning from the judge, when Jiro capped off his tale of Izaru’s whoring and cheating and gambling, by talking about how the man had been slapped in the face on two separate occasions in the mere weeks that Jiro had followed him, after propositioning women far younger than himself in cafes.

“I also discovered,” Jiro concluded, “that Mister Izaru has a habit of not paying those who’s services he requests. This goes for both his own staff at his house, and the young ladies who’s services he hires in ehh- Certain establishments. I spoke to one of the women who runs such an establishment, she also came here to testify.”

An older woman, with a brightly colored dress and heavy makeup, stood up and walked to the stand. “I’m Madame Ah Toy, I run a peep show in Little Ba Sing Se,” she said, “and that bastard right there still owes me money!” She said, pointing over to Izaru. “I have proof, he’s been writing love letters to one of my girls!”

After Ah Toy’s thoroughly entertaining testimony, which had caused Izaru to turn red from anger and embarrassment and caused even the judge to visibly struggle to keep from laughing at times, the hearing was finally nearing its end. Korra leaned forward anxiously when the judge declared that he had come to a final decision.

“Well, unusual as this case has been, it has been far too entertaining for me to consider it a waste of time,” he said. “This does not however override my anger at Mister Izaru, for bringing this frivolous case before me!”

Yes!! Korra thought, barely managing to keep herself from cheering. If he’s so mad at Izaru, then surely that means that-

“Nothing I have been presented with today has made me seriously question Miss Asami’s competence, save for the fact that she hasn’t yet fired you from her company. To the contrary, she appears to be a bright young woman who has used her intelligence to the benefit of our city and our economy. A true credit to her sex, and to her generation, I wish her the best of luck in all her future endeavors and hereby dismiss the petition to have her placed under a conservatorship.”

Korra shot to her feet, planning on running to Asami and giving her a victory hug, but it seemed like Izaru wasn’t willing to accept the judge’s decision. “What?!?” He exclaimed. “Your honor you MUST reconsider, how could you possibly believe that this degenerate teen is suited to run a major com-”

“’I must’? Have I missed something, when did you become the ruler of this court?” The judge asked angrily, causing Izaru to sputter and leave the rest of his angry complaint unsaid. “I strongly advice you to cut your losses and leave this courtroom at once, before I cite you for contempt of court and for wasting city resources,” the judge said.

Even from behind Korra could see that Izaru was angry, she swore that she could see a vein pulsing on the man’s balding head. But he managed to contain another outburst, turning around and glaring at Korra as he left the room, Korra just smirked at him while smugly folding her arms.

Once he was gone she jogged over to Asami and swept her up in a hug. “You did it! That was awesome! Did you see how mad he got? I thought he was going to burst a vein!” She said with a laugh, Asami laughed too, and even her lawyers joined in.

The relief on Asami’s face was clear as day, Ha-Joon looked very relieved too.

Asami turned to the judge and gave him a small bow. “Thank you, your honor, for- Uhm, just for taking me seriously I guess.”

“You made it hard not to,” the man said, “I meant what I said, you impressed me. I couldn’t understand half of the economic arguments you and your witnesses made, to tell you the truth, I’m no economist. But I could tell that you did understand everything that was discussed today, and that’s good enough for me.

“People who try to abuse the system of conservatorships infuriate me to no end, so there’s no need to thank me for putting him in his place.”

Ha-Joon spoke up after that. “If you’re willing, I would like to speak with you about ways in which the system could be improved to make it less vulnerable to abuse. I’ve been trying to lobby the government for years now, but to no avail. Most judges haven’t been willing to support my efforts, so having you as an ally would be a huge help!”

The judge raised an eyebrow. “I’ll consider it,” he said, before looking at his watch, “we could discuss it over lunch, perhaps? This hearing really did run late, I’m starving, I know a place nearby.”

Ha-Joon blushed, before taking the judge up on his offer. “Are they…?” Korra asked to Asami, who just took her by the shoulders and turned her to the courtroom’s exit.

“I don’t want to know,” Asami said with a giggle while pushing Korra forwards, “but yeah, if that wasn’t flirting then I don’t know what is.”

“Huh,” Korra replied, that’s not a possibility I had considered, that’s for sure.

Jiro approached Asami, to whisper something in her ear, something that made her beautiful girlfriend smile deviously before nodding to dismiss him. “We should go out for lunch too, to celebrate!” Asami said. “First though we should pick up some documents, for your citizenship, remember?” She added, briefly scanning the wide open hall before spotting where they needed to go and directing Korra there.

“Oh, right,” Korra said. “Are some dumb papers really going to change whether I’m allowed to live here or not? That’s so weird!”

Asami shrugged. “Maybe, I guess. I’m just glad to finally have it settled though, I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone trying to deport you.”

Korra just laughed and bumped her in the shoulder. “Oh please, like I would’ve let them,” she said.

They arrived at a lady’s desk, and once Korra said who she was the lady got up to get said dumb papers. Korra had to write her name down and then that was that, she was handed a small little book that had her picture inside, along with some other papers. How’d that picture get there? Korra thought, she guessed that Asami or her lawyer had sent it over, she did remember Asami making her pose for a picture at one point.

She shrugged, putting the papers in her pocket. “Okay, time to find some grub!” She said, though as she turned around she almost bumped onto someone. Not just anyone, it was Izaru!

“This isn’t over!” He said to Asami, while completely ignoring Korra and acting like she didn’t even exist.

“Yes, it is,” Asami said. “Oh, and you’re fired by the way.”

“Figures,” said Izaru, “it’s a sinking ship anyway, I’m glad to be getting off-board before you and your socialist insanity drive the company into the ground.”

“You’re mixing up your metaphors,” Asami noted dryly, causing Korra to laugh, which in turn finally made Izaru acknowledge her existence with a glare.

“Oh and by the way, I got Jiro to go to your house before the hearing,” Asami said, turning the man’s attention back to Korra’s girlfriend. “He told your wife all about your eh- Escapades. She wasn’t happy, I’m told.”

All the color drained from Izaru’s face. “You wouldn’t!”

“I did. Also, your staff is preparing a class-action lawsuit against you for the wages you’ve been neglecting to pay, as are some of the contractors who did the renovations for your mansion, and some other people that Jiro discovered you had stiffed. I figure there are probably even more, so I’ve paid for a full-page advertisement in every major paper for anyone who wants to join the class-action. The lawsuit will of course be handled by my own personal lawyers, nothing but the best for you,” she said.

“You can’t- You think you will get away with this?!?” A fuming Izaru demanded.

“With what? You’re the one who thought he was above the law,” Asami said.

“And above his wedding vows,” Korra added with a smirk.

Izaru balled his fist and even cocked it back a little as if preparing to punch, but then changed his mind as he saw a group of police officers walking by. “You’re lucky that I don’t plan on going to prison, little girl,” he said to Korra.

Korra laughed out loud, was he trying to be intimidating? Hadn’t part of his argument at the hearing focused on how dangerous Korra was?

Izaru turned around and stormed off, and Asami tried to pull Korra along to get lunch, but then Korra noticed something from the corner of her eye.

Those police officers who’d walked by met up with another group of men, these didn’t wear police clothing but instead wore greenish clothing. The way they carried themselves was somehow similar though, and as they met up with the officers they all pulled red scarves from their pockets and wrapped them around their necks. That- Crap, that’s the separatist colors, Korra thought, right as she noticed that the police and separatists were converging on the same point at the end of the hall, at the two doors on either side of the back of the hall. The senate chambers.

Korra looked around in a panic, and saw more people with red scarves coming in through the entrance of the City Hall, some seemed to be gathering on the inner balconies too.

Korra roughly grabbed Asami by the arm and began pulling her towards the senate chambers. “Korra what are you-”

“Separatists are taking over the building!” Korra replied, still dragging Asami behind her as she walked as swiftly as possible without drawing attention towards the police officers, who were now entering the senate chambers after the separatists had already entered ahead of them.

A few of the officers stayed behind, taking a defensive position in front of the doors, probably to prevent anyone from entering while the rest of them did whatever they were planning to do inside.

“Where- Oh- Oh no,” Asami said, looking around and finally noticing the signs that Korra had seen. They were becoming more and more obvious, people who had previously blended in with the rest of the crowd were now all adorned with red scarves and gathering in groups that moved to block all the exits of this large central chamber.

“What so we do?” Asami asked, she and Korra were now slowly making their way over towards the senate chambers, most of the other people in the hall seemed to not have noticed anything amiss yet, but it seemed only a matter of time until that changed.

Indeed, just when Korra thought that, the separatists throughout the chamber all began drawing pistols they’d had hidden beneath their clothing. “The revolution has begun! We are taking control of this building in the name of Amon, do not try to flee and do not stand in our way!” One of them yelled as he stepped out into the center of the hall.

The crowd suddenly grew panicked, causing Korra’s path towards the senate chambers to be blocked as people suddenly changed their directions. Korra continued holding on to Asami’s arm while trying to move with the crowd, so as to not attract unwanted attention. Not yet anyway.

“They’ve blocked the senate chambers, they probably intend to take them all hostage,” Asami mumbled, so that she wouldn’t be overheard by anyone else.

“We’re going to put a stop to that,” Korra mumbled back, dragging Asami with her as she followed a group of scared people in fancy suits, who ran towards the pillars along the side of the hall and hid behind them, which brought them closer to the doors of the senate chamber.

One of the men in suits ran up to the officers blocking the door. “Why aren’t you doing anything? This is a coup!”

“It’s not a coup, it’s justice,” the officer said. “The revolution has begun, brother. The elites who betrayed us will finally get what’s coming to them, if you stand in our way then you will join them.”

Three officers at each door, they shouldn’t be an issue, Korra thought, and once we’re inside I should be able to bar the doors, prevent any of the other separatists from following. That still left at least two dozen of them who had already entered the senate chambers, but it was better than staying in the wide open main hall.

“We should just rush inside the senate chamber,” Korra said, “even I can’t protect us from all angles if we stay in this hall, especially the dudes on the balconies would be a problem. I can take the guys at the door. I’ll give you one of their guns, then block the doors behind us. Just stay out of the way once we’re in, only use the gun if you have to.”

Asami looked terrified, and Korra was too, but Asami nodded none the less and Korra similarly sucked it up. Korra gave her girlfriend’s hand a little squeeze before letting go and taking a deep breath to prepare herself.

Gunshots sounded from inside the senate chambers, making it even more clear that it was time to move. Korra rushed forward towards the nearest door to the senate chambers, then punched out with a strong blast of airbending, knocking the three officers backwards and smashing them through the door they were guarding.

Korra, with Asami closely behind, jumped through the doorway while using metalbending to pick up two of the officers’ guns, which she handed to Asami. Once they were both through the door Korra stomped down on the ground and pulled up a thick stone wall to block the doorway behind them.

“Find somewhere safe and take cover!” she said to Asami while she looked around to assess the situation. The senate chamber was shaped like a large half-circle, flat on this side, round on the far side, there was also a height difference, with the floor sloping downwards the further you walked towards the far side. Some senators were still seated behind the desks that faced the far side of the room, but separatists and police officers (who Korra supposed could now also simply be considered separatists,) had begun to corral them towards a door to the side of the room, leading who-knows-where. I don’t see Tenzin, Korra thought, I hope he’s okay.

There was a guard lying dead on the floor, that was probably what the gunshots Korra heard had been. Another guard was being held at gunpoint while he held his hands up in surrender.

Everyone in the room looked up in surprise at Korra and Asami’s sudden entrance, which gave Korra time to act. She turned to her left and ran, towards the doorway that mirrored the one they had just entered through. Instead of running all the way towards it she jumped and enhanced this jump with airbending, launching her halfway towards the opposite door, as she landed she punched out with her hand, morphing the solid stone pillar that made up the side of the doorway and stretching it out to block the entire thing.

Now both doorways that would’ve allowed the separatists in the main hall to enter the senate chamber were blocked.

She then spun around and grabbed control of chunks of the wall to her left, shooting them out towards whichever separatists seemed like the easiest targets.

The separatists, finally seeming to realize that they were being attacked now that their friends were getting their faces smashed in with chunks of marble, stepped out in front of the frightened senators and began to fire at Korra.

She jumped forward in a roll, hiding herself from view beneath the desks of the senate chamber. She scrambled low along the floor, then as she reached an open path leading down towards where most of the separatists and senators were she pulled up a wall from the stone floor to serve as cover. It was a good thing that the floor of the building was made up of solid marble, as that was much easier to turn into a defensive wall than loose dirt or even cobblestone would be.

She waited for a moment with her back against this wall, covering her ears against the deafening sound of dozens of gunshots fired in rapid succession. Thankfully she knew from her experiments with Asami just how thick this wall needed to be, so she didn’t worry whether the wall would hold up under this fire. Meanwhile every chip that flew off of it was another bullet that’d been aimed at Korra rather than at Asami, who had hopefully taken cover somewhere safe by now.

The gunfire ceased and was replaced by the sound of separatists frantically trying to reload. My turn, Korra thought, jumping up onto the wall she’d hidden behind, then jumping off of it with a backflip, ripping the wall she’d used for cover out of the ground and dragging it in an arc that followed her feet before launching it towards a group of separatists.

She landed with her back towards the separatists, but then immediately spun around while reaching down towards the ground. She sent a ripple through the marble floor, that traveled towards three more separatists and sent them all flying by launching up stone pillars right beneath their feet, while sparing the senators they had been trying to use as cover.

Senators ran away in a panic while Korra pressed her attack, launching several fireballs towards the separatists, then grabbing hold of several of their guns with metalbending and using them to smash their own faces in.

It wasn’t enough, six or so separatists were still standing and had finished reloading, a few of the ones she had hit were also getting back to their feet. So Korra was forced to pull up another marble wall to use for cover, only a dozen or so feet closer to the separatists than her last cover had been. Crap, I’d rather be fighting them up-close, Korra thought.

“What’s going on, who is this broad?!” One of the separatists yelled.

“How is she doing this?” Another yelled.

“Does it matter? Just blast her!”

With her back against the wall, Korra began working on a technique that she’d been practicing lately, she pulled in air from all around her, spinning it into a condensed cyclone that she spun in place right in front of herself.

She kept moving her hands, making it spin faster and faster while pulling in as much air as she thought she could control, then she turned around and directed the cyclone past her stone cover, where it immediately began lifting up chairs and desks, creating maximum chaos as it flung them all over the room and broke them to pieces, creating splinters that it then pulled back into its spinning form.

That chaos was exactly what Korra had intended, she used the opportunity to scramble behind the desks on the other side of her stone cover, then as quickly as she could she began to advance further down the senate chambers, while saying low and ducking underneath the desks that hid her from view.

It seemed to work exactly as intended, she heard the gunfire continue, accompanied by the now more distant but still audible thuds of bullets hitting the stone wall she was no longer actually behind.

She risked a peek around the corner of the desk she was crouched behind, to assess the situation again. As she peeked around, she came face to face with a separatist who had apparently also been sneaking around the benches, to try to flank her.

Korra dropped to her back in surprise while the equally shocked separatist raised his gun towards her. As Korra fell though, she struck out with her foot, kicking up a chunk of the floor that sent the separatist flying straight into the ceiling.

After two quick breaths to regain her composure, Korra vaulted over the desk to dodge the separatist as he fell back down and to charge towards the remaining separatists. Despite the interruption when she peeked out, the quick peek had still worked to give her a new sense of the current situation.

Most of the senators had successfully fled to the podium at the far side of the room, which thankfully left Korra mostly clear to unleash her bending without the risk of collateral damage. A few senators were still being dragged away through the side door of the chamber though, while the rest of the separatists, seven or so, converged on that point to try to cover the retreat of their comrades.

The second guard now also laid dead on the floor next to the other one, with blood seeping from his head. Oh no, when did that happen?

Korra, running forward while jumping from desk to desk, began by unleashing a flurry of fireballs. Then, once the surprise of her attack wore off and the separatists turned to adjust their aim to her new position, she jumped up into the air with the aid of airbending. How did I ever do without?! She thought to herself, as she flipped into the air while pulling the pistols out of the hands of most of the separatists beneath her.

At the end of her flip she flung those pistols against two remaining armed separatists, who yelped in pain as they focused on trying to protect themselves from the metal projectiles instead of trying to shoot Korra. A mistake they soon regretted as Korra used airbending to blast them against the wall next to the side door, knocking them out. Then, instead of running towards that door, Korra simply ran towards the wall and smashed right through it with earthbending.

She briefly had to re-orient herself in the hallway she now found herself in, once she did she moved to rush after the separatists who were trying to flee further down the hallway while holding a few senators at gunpoint. A few of them turned to face her while the rest continued onwards, Korra quickly used metalbending to disarm them or throw off their aim, before getting within punching distance and unleashing a flurry of kicks and elbows.

I’ve got to find Tenzin, she thought, certain that she would’ve noticed the air nomad in his distinctive yellow and orange clothing if he was among the clutch of senators she’d left behind in the senate chamber.

She spared a brief look back towards the chamber, she hadn’t really seen Asami since shortly after she entered the chamber, but that was a good sign, right? It meant that she was hidden. And she had a gun too, two of them in fact. She’ll be fine, Korra thought, before turning around and chasing after the captured senators.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami hesitantly peeked out from behind the desk where she had taken cover, stunned by the sheer amount of destruction Korra had left in her wake before exiting through the freaking wall!

“Should we go after her?” She heard one of the few separatists that Korra had left conscious ask, while peering down the hole her girlfriend had left in the wall.

If any of them had seen Asami when she and Korra initially made their entrance into the senate chamber, they seemed to have forgotten all about her by now.

They were also ignoring the senators at the far end of the room, who seemed to be trying their best not to get noticed as they hid behind the pulpits that were normally used by those speaking up in a debate.

She crouched back down behind the desk as she checked again to make sure the pistol Korra had given her was loaded, before silently making her way over to where Korra had exited the chamber. She didn’t see Tenzin among them, was he one of the senators who’d been taken captive and who Korra was presumably trying to free, or had he simply not been present in the chamber during the attack?

The handful of separatists that remained were still making up their minds about whether to chase after Korra, while Asami was likewise making up her mind about whether she should try to fight her way past them. That was when she suddenly heard a crack from behind, she turned around in shock as she saw that the separatists who’d been left behind in the main area of City Hall were breaking through the barrier Korra had made at the senate chamber’s entrance.

Taking that as a cue to make up her mind, Asami took a deep breath and then got up to her feet, aiming her gun towards the separatists next to the hole in the wall. “Hands up, away from the wall!” She ordered.

One of them began to raise his pistol up towards her, but Asami immediately shot him in the head, with two more shots to his chest for good measure. Don’t think about it, she thought to herself as his body dropped to the floor like a sack of rocks.

Thankfully the other two heeded her warning, they dropped their pistols as they raised their hands and backed away from the wall.

“Everyone, we’ve got to go before more separatists arrive! They’re about to break through!” Asami yelled to the senators at the back of the chamber. “Do you want to get captured? I doubt that Amon will treat you fairly!” She added when they didn’t respond immediately.

That seemed to get through to them, and they began to make their way over to where Asami stood. She nodded approvingly as a few of them showed the initiative of picking up some of the pistols that the separatists had dropped to the floor.

Asami then stepped through the hole in the wall. After seeing that the hallway was empty, save for the dead or unconscious separatists Korra had left in her wake, she began leading the way for the group of senators.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Tenzin stood by the bathroom door, trying to focus on the sounds outside. He was certain that he’d heard gunshots. By the great spirits, the separatists have made their move, haven’t they?

More bangs sounded from elsewhere in the building, confirming beyond doubt that they were indeed gunshots. And here I thought that I wouldn’t be missing anything important if I went to the bathroom while Senator Batbayar was speaking…

The amount of gunshots he still heard confirmed to him that this wasn’t some kind of lone gunman, it was a coordinated attack.

Tenzin looked around the bathroom for something he could possibly use as a weapon. A large towel-holder attached to the wall seemed like it might work, it had almost the same dimensions as a traditional Air Nomad quarterstaff. Ripping it from the wall took some brute force, but after a few pulls Tenzin managed it.

He went back to the door and opened it by a small crack, peering out to see if there was any danger directly outside the hallway. He saw a group of police officers and almost rushed out the door to greet them and ask for their assistance, but something about them told him to hold back and observe a while longer. Why are they walking away from the gunshots?! He thought.

Cowardice didn’t seem like a viable explanation, their guns were drawn and their stride was purposeful.

“Let’s check the women’s room first, Sarge will have us by the balls if we don’t capture everyone, apparently Amon is set on ensuring that all of congress is captured.”

Tenzin was glad that he listened to his instincts. These are separatists, in police uniforms! How much of the force has sided with this coup?! It appeared that his worst fears, after the terrible attack on the festival and Saikhan’s resignation, were coming true.

“This can’t be happening,” he mumbled under his breath.

He watched as the traitorous officers, four of them, prepared to enter the women’s bathroom, until he remembered that Senator Juchaz was inside, one of his strongest allies in the senate. They’d shared a small joke at Senator Batbayar’s expense as they both made their way to their respective bathrooms.

Not wanting to wait and see what they would do to Senator Juchaz, Tenzin rushed outside right when the officers opened the door to the women’s bathroom.

“Officers, what’s going on? Are those gunshots?” He heard Juchaz ask, before she screamed out in horror as Tenzin hit the officer nearest to him hard on the back of his head with his improvised quarterstaff. He didn’t stop moving, he spun around and swept the other side of the staff down low to sweep the second officer off his feet, then struck out to disarm the third officer as he turned around to try to respond.

Tenzin kicked down to finish off the officer who’s leg he’d sweeped, while spinning out of the way of the fourth officer, who now tried to get him in his sights. Using one hand to grab the disarmed officer’s wrist, he twisted the man’s arm behind his back and turned him back around to face the fourth officer, effectively using him as a human shield.

“Shit, I don’t have a shot!” The final officer said, right before Tenzin gave his human shield a hard shove and made them crash into each other. Two more quick swings from his staff knocked out the remaining officers.

“Vaatu be damned, Tenzin what are you doing?! Those were police officers!” Juchaz said.

“Not anymore,” Tenzin said, “those are separatists. I overheard them, they work for Amon. They’re trying to take all of congress hostage.”

“Great spirit of light,” Juchaz exclaimed, “what do we do??”

“Be thankful that I’m not a naive pacifist, as many of our colleagues like to claim I am,” Tenzin said grimly, reaching down to pick a pistol off of the ground.

“Do you know how to use one?” He asked Juchaz, who frantically shook her head.

“No, you do?!”

Tenzin grimaced. “I do, it’s been a long time since I practiced though, I favor traditional martial arts.”

“No kidding,” the other Senator responded, sounding impressed as she looked around the room at the men Tenzin had defeated, “remind me to never poke fun at your odd hobbies again.”

Tenzin smiled slightly, before frowning again as he gathered a few spare magazines from the other pistols. I never thought I would actually have to do this, he thought as he checked over his new weapon and made his way back to the door.

Father was never the same, after the great war... There was no time to dwell on that though, not while the entire United Republic government was under threat. “I suggest that you move to hide in the men’s room instead, before these men wake up,” he said to Juchaz, who looked back in fear.

“What- Where will you go? What can you do? Listen to all that gunfire, there’s a whole army out there! It’s over, we should regroup elsewhere.”

“As long as I’m breathing, it’s not over,” Tenzin said, before opening the door and entering the hallway that led back to the senate chambers.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

I hope Asami is okay, Korra thought as she followed the group of separatists that was still keeping ahead of her with captive senators in tow. These long hallways were working to their advantage, they kept leaving one guy behind to keep Korra pinned down for a time, while the rest of them moved ahead.

There were still a couple separatists in the senate chamber, I disarmed them but they could’ve retrieved their guns. Asami was hidden though, and she can handle herself, right?

Korra turned a corner, then immediately jumped back behind it as several bullets flew her way. Stupid! It’s not going to help Asami if I get myself killed because I’m distracted!

She pulled out a chunk of marble from the floor, planning to use it to give herself cover while she closed the distance to the separatist down the hall, but then she heard steps coming up from behind her.

She spun around, fire gathering in her palm, but then stopped herself at the sight of Asami, with dozens of senators in tow. “Hey, glad to see you’re alright,” Korra said with a smile. “I assumed you’d stay in the senate chamber though.”

“We couldn’t, the separatists broke through the wall you made to block the entrance. They’re probably not too far behind us, although two senators are covering our rear for now.”

Well that’s a problem, we’ll be boxed in at this rate, Korra thought. “Then I guess I’d best clear a path, so we can keep moving,” she said, lifting the chunk of marble up into air again.

She turned the corner, marble-first, then as bullets began to chip away at her stone shield she charged forwards. She closed the distance quickly enough, then as she neared the far end of the hallway she launched the chunk of rock towards the separatist holding the hallway. He dodged back behind the corner, but Korra was ready for that, a spinning kick sent out a fireball that flew in a curved trajectory, bending around the corner and producing a cry of pain to confirm to Korra that she’d hit her mark.

She then noticed the sound of gunshots from further ahead. Is someone else also fighting the separatists? She thought. She briefly peeked around the corner into the next hallway, where she saw the remaining separatists, just two of them left, since one was lying in the middle of the hall, dead from gunshot wounds. The remaining two were indeed exchanging gunfire with an unseen person while taking cover in an alcove off to the side, this was presumably what’d halted their progress enough to allow Korra to catch up.

This other person was also distracting them enough that they forgot to watch their backs, which Korra quickly took advantage of. She rushed forwards, and by the time one of them remembered to look behind them Korra was already on him, slamming him into a wall with airbending, before punching towards the gun of his friend and sending said gun flying into the man’s own face hard enough to make him do half of a backflip.

“Hey, coast is all clear now!” She yelled out to the unseen person at the other end of the hall. Wait, where did the captive senators go? She thought, before noticing that the alcove included a door to what seemed to be a closet of sorts.

She opened the door, and saw a dozen or so senators who’d been stuffed inside. Still no Tenzin though. “Hey, have you seen Tenzin?” She asked the group of scared and bewildered senators.

“Uhh, I found him,” Asami said, after she’d caught up with Korra.

Korra turned to her in confusion, before seeing her point towards the place from where someone had been shooting at the separatists. When she looked in that direction she saw Tenzin walking towards them, along with a woman she vaguely recognized from some articles about senate politics.

“Oh Tenzin, that was you?! Glad to see you’re okay!” Korra said, while the senator looked sadly towards the corpse who laid in the hallway, who he had presumably shot before Korra got there.

“Yes, I’m fine, I’m glad that you’re here, avatar.” He said.

“Avatar?!” Several of the other senators in the hallway exclaimed in shock. “Surely she can’t actually-” “But how else would she be doing the things she-”

“Yes, I am the avatar, deal with it!” Korra said loudly. “We’ve got other things to worry about, there’s probably more separatists behind us, what’s the fastest way outside?”

“You want to abandon the building? We can’t just let them take the seat of the government’s power!” One senator said.

“The people are the government’s power, and we’re their representatives,” Tenzin quickly responded. “We can’t very well represent them if we’re captured by Amon, our safety is more important than an empty building.”

“I still can’t believe Amon would go so far! Perhaps we could negotiate-”

“Are you kidding me!?” Asami exclaimed from where she stood beside Korra. “Senator Batbayar, your party has been trying to appease the separatists since the very start, copying their rhetoric to try to win over their supporters, look where that’s gotten you!”

“If any of you are stupid enough to stay behind then be my guest,” Korra said, “but everyone else should follow me. I know where the union militias should be establishing their stronghold right now, Shui and Har Dayal kept me in the loop about their plans for if fighting broke out.”

“Har Dayal, that radical anarchist? We’d be exchanging one evil for another!”

“We can debate it later, for now let’s just get out of the building!” Korra said, before turning around and pulling up a large stone wall to block the entire hallway behind them.

She added a few support beams too this time, to ensure the separatists wouldn’t easily break through.

This display of her powers seemed to shock the senators into compliance, once Korra moved to the front of the group together with Tenzin and Asami, they began to make their way through the hallways, with Tenzin telling her which turns to take.

They finally made it to an exit, where surprisingly there weren’t even any separatists waiting for them. I guess they really counted on securing the senate chamber, Korra thought.

As they stepped outside they noticed plumes of smoke rising up from numerous places throughout seemingly the entire city, while also hearing the sounds of distant gunfire and explosions.

“It’s not just City Hall, it’s the entire city!” A senator exclaimed.

“All the more reason to get out of sight. Go! Into that alley!” Asami said, pointing to the alley closest to the side-exit from which they’d left City Hall, thankfully the side of the building opened to a normal sized street, as opposed to the large empty square at the front entrance where their crossing would surely be noticed.

They made it into the alleyway without any issues, though as they made several turns and ran through a few more alleys the lack of stamina of most of the relatively old politicians became apparent, so they were forced to take a break.

“There’s an alternative to going to the union stronghold,” Tenzin then said, “we could go to Air Temple Island. It’s a highly defensible position.”

“We’d need weapons to hold it though,” the one female senator in their group said.

“We’ll have weapons, the island has a stockpile of rifles, as well as artillery cannons designed to fend off enemy ships,” said Tenzin.

Everyone just stared at him for a while. “What?” He asked defensively. “We’re an ethnic minority that’s been oppressed time and time again throughout history, in an increasingly xenophobic city, of course we’ve taken measures to be able to defend ourselves!”

“How will we get to the island though?” Someone asked. “Surely with an attack this large they will have also taken control of the ports.”

“I can get you there,” Korra said.

“What about the President? And the House of Representatives?”

“The House of Representatives is right next to the central police station,” said Tenzin, “with so many officers supporting the coup, it has almost certainly been lost. As for President Tarrlok, surely the separatists in City Hall have breached his office by now. I believe we should count our blessings if we’re able to escape with the entire senate.”

“I could go back and check, it’s probably the big room with lots of windows above the front entrance, right?” Korra asked, receiving several nods in reply from the numerous senators that had probably all been there to talk to the President at one point or another. “It’ll be easier by myself, I can just enter from the roof,” Korra said.

Asami looked like she wanted to protest, but then seemed to stop herself from doing so. “Just be safe, okay? We’ll be waiting for you in the warehouse where we first met.”

“Got it,” Korra said, “you sure you can make it without me?”

Tenzin and Asami both assured her that they could, Korra had no choice but to take their word for it. She gave Asami a quick hug before turning around and using airbending to jump from wall to wall before landing on the rooftop of the nearest apartment building.

From there it was just a simple matter of running across the rooftops, and making sure that nobody was looking before she jumped the final gap onto the roof of the City Hall that they had just fought so hard to escape. All to save some guy that I think is a blowhard, Korra thought, he’d better be grateful.

She walked up to the ledge at the front of the building, then carefully swung herself down to land on the windowsill. Worryingly though the windowsill was covered in glass shards, while the window itself was completely destroyed.

As Korra entered the office she found that it was riddled with bullets, as well as a few separatist corpses, one of which lay slumped against the wall and messed up the stream of the impressive water feature that ran all along that side of the office.

They got him already, where would they have taken him? Did they even let him live? She thought, before turning back to the broken window as she heard a car’s engine loudly revving up. She looked out the window just in time to spot what looked like President Tarrlok being tossed into the back of a van, which then quickly sped off into the distance.

Korra considered giving chase, but decided against it. She didn’t want to rush into a situation where she might end up completely surrounded, not when just one bullet that she failed to anticipate could spell her doom.

She snuck back up to the roof, then again started jumping from rooftop to rooftop while making her way to the warehouse at the docks. The blowhard is on his own, oh well.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

At first, progress towards the docks was going well, Asami managed to work well together with Senator Tenzin, as they cleared each street before signaling everyone else to follow, and the other senators with guns protected the rear of the group.

Over time though, they encountered more and more separatist patrols, forcing them to wait and hide more often before they could make any progress.

Which had the unfortunate side effect of exposing Asami to the gossiping that the senators were doing about Korra. “How do we know that she is what she says she is? Doesn’t it seem more likely that she’s made a pact with dark spirits, that she got her powers that way? I mean, how could a woman, a girl at that, be the avatar?!” One of them said softly to another, probably thinking that Asami couldn’t hear him.

“Especially someone like her, you did recognize her didn’t you? It’s that girl that was found in an iceberg, the one who publicly advocated for sexual deviancy in front of the High Sage.” The other replied. It wasn’t the first of such exchanges that Asami had overheard.

Bunch of ingrates, she thought. “Why would a dark spirit save you?!” She said before she could think better of it. “If Korra were a dark spirit, don’t you think that that’d implicate you as well, after you were saved by her?! Why are you even still here, with us, if this is how you feel? If you stay with us then Korra will be back soon.” She had to mentally force herself to ignore the possibility that this may not be true, that Korra may run into more trouble than she’d hoped now that she was off on her own.

“I- I- It’s not that I don’t appreciate the help, I do!” One of the senators said. “It’s just a lot to take in, is all.”

Asami just scoffed, too frustrated to accept the man’s conciliatory tone and fairly reasonable words. Tenzin signaled that the coast was clear so Asami just proceeded on to the next alley without a word.

As they walked down this alley, gunshots suddenly sounded from the street ahead. After sharing a quick look, Tenzin and Asami both cautiously yet quickly made their way to the end of the alley to investigate the situation.

They saw a crowd of people scattering away, as a whole squad of separatists continued taking shots at their backs with automatic rifles. A few bodies already lay on the ground, still wielding signs that said ‘down with Amon’ and ‘fascists away’, and other such anti-separatist protest phrases.

Asami lifted her pistol and squeezed the trigger, dropping one, then two, of the separatists before running out of ammo, Tenzin dropped one more.

They both ducked back into the cover of the alley while retaliatory shots peppered the corner of the wall. Instead of reloading, Asami simply tossed her pistol away and drew the second one that Korra had given her. Tenzin did need to reload, once he finished he nodded to a car that was abandoned in the middle of the street. “Cover me while I run behind that,” he said with his commanding voice. He then ran out without waiting for Asami to reply.

Shit, she thought to herself, before peeking around the corner and firing at the remaining separatists. Four more, she saw.

The separatists also ran for cover, two behind another car, and two towards an alcove at the entrance of an apartment complex. Asami aimed for the latter two, firing five shots, one of which hit one of the separatists in the leg.

He fell down in the middle of his street, while his buddy made it to the alcove. For a moment, the wounded man’s pained screams were the only sound that could be heard, as both sides stopped shooting.

But then Asami heard a car door, and noticed Tenzin pushing the car he’d taken cover behind forwards while holding the steering wheel with one hand. Moving cover, nice! Asami thought. If Tenzin followed this path then soon he’d be in a position to shoot at the separatists behind the other car from their exposed sides.

The separatists didn’t seem to share Asami’s appreciation for the air nomad’s idea, as they began taking shots at the car.

Asami continued firing at them in return, managing to hit the man in the alcove as he peeked out at exactly the wrong time.

Now Asami did have to reload, she pressed her back against the brick wall of the alley, trying her best to get her breathing under control and her heart to calm down as she dug in her pocket for a spare magazine. She also glanced at the senators further down the alley, somehow the fact that they looked even more terrified than she herself did helped to calm her down somewhat.

She rammed the magazine in the pistol, loaded the first round in the chamber, then peeked back around the corner, not far enough to expose herself to the separatists, but far enough to see Tenzin. By her estimation he was just about in a position to shoot them from the side, something he confirmed when he stopped pushing the car, and briefly made eye contact with her, somehow just that look was enough for Asami to understand that he wanted her to peek out and fire at the same time as him.

That was exactly what she did. As she peeked out she saw that the separatists had realized how they exposed they were to Tenzin and had begun run away from their car. This only served to expose them to Asami as well though, and they both quickly perished in the crossfire that she and the senator had created.

The senator ran forward to the man with the leg-wound, kicking away his rifle before beginning to take off the man’s belt. “Stop struggling, I’m trying to help stop the bleeding!” He said.

“You caused the bleeding!” The man said, though he did actually stop struggling.

“That was me, actually,” Asami said, while she picked up the man’s rifle and holstered her own pistol. Upgrade, she thought, before she walked up to the wounded man and unceremoniously pulled the spare magazines from his military-style vest. These guys are so well-equipped! I guess I have my father to thank for that.

The man glared at her with a resigned kind of anger as she looted him for his valuables, before yelping in pain as Tenzin pulled his belt tight around his leg.

“We’d best keep going,” Tenzin then said, “reinforcements might show up.”

“One second,” Asami ran towards the body lying in the alcove, and pulled a couple of grenades that she’d spotted from his belt. Those might prove handy, she thought, before following Tenzin into the next alley, dozens of other senators in tow.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra made it to the warehouse, there were some separatists around the docks, but most seemed to be on the piers that stuck out into the sea, or on the ships themselves, not here solidly on the mainland where the warehouses were.

She opened the door to a familiar smell of fish. How long has it been since I woke up here? She thought, it hasn’t even been half a year, has it?

It seemed surreal, but as she thought about it she realized that it was true. Feels like it’s been way longer than that.

“Asami?” She called out to the seemingly empty warehouse. “Sorry I’m late, got distracted on my way here, bunch of separatists attacking random people…”

There was no response. She was certain it was the right warehouse, she definitely recognized it from last time, both the inside and the outside. A check with seismic sense didn’t turn up anything either, she definitely would’ve been able to sense dozens of senators.

A panic began to wash over her. Was Asami hurt before she made it here? Her heart ached at just the thought of it. No, no, probably just delayed, just like me.

She exited the warehouse again, just in time to hear an explosion from behind the next warehouse over. Pulling water from the sea nearby, Korra created a wave beneath herself that she used to rapidly propel herself towards the sound.

She rode the wave up to the roof of the warehouse, once she crested said roof it gave her a good view of the small battle taking place on the other side.

She saw Asami, hiding behind a building across from Korra, together with Tenzin and other senators, though those were further behind. More towards Korra’s side was a group of separatists, hiding behind some forklifts. Several were already wounded or dead, the result of the explosion Korra had heard, the signs of which were evident in other ways as well.

Despite the gruesome fate of their comrades, the other separatists were still fighting, shooting at Asami and co.

Korra swept forward with her wave again, launching herself up at the edge of the roof before she came violently crashing down in the middle of the group of separatists. The water knocked them in every direction, then froze them in place as they screamed in surprise. The entire group was defeated in an instant.

“Korra!” Asami yelled from across the street. They ran towards each other before hugging each other tight.

Korra kissed her once they parted slightly from their hug, needing to feel her girlfriend’s soft and sweet lips to assure herself that she really was safe, Asami reciprocated with an equally needy kiss. “I didn’t think I’d get here before you, how come I didn’t see you on my way to the warehouse? I was so worried, when you weren’t there!”

“I’m sorry,” Asami said, “we had to take a few detours, when there were too many separatists in our path.”

“It’s fine, so long as you’re safe,” Korra said, kissing her once more.

Tenzin caught up with them, along with the rest of the senators, who all looked very uncomfortable as they saw Korra and Asami, who were still caught in each other’s embrace. Korra found that she didn’t care in the slightest about their comfort though.

“We should get to the island as soon as possible,” she said, before turning to the separatists frozen in ice. “Do you think you can hold a bunch of captives there?” She asked Tenzin. “We should at least take the wounded with us,” she said.

She moved to thaw the wounded one by one and begin healing them without waiting for a response, they didn’t have much time if they didn’t receive treatment.

“Can’t we just leave them? They attacked us!” Someone said.

“I could leave you behind too, how’d you like that!” Korra snapped at him as she thawed the first wounded man.

“We can house the wounded,” Tenzin said, “but we don’t have a prison of any kind, our buildings have paper walls, they cannot contain any captives. Though I suppose the island itself could serve as a prison of sorts, so long as we guard access to the boats.”

“We’ll figure it out then,” Korra said, mostly to distract herself from the gruesome injuries of the first guy she freed from the ice, who’s entire foot and ankle had been blown off, she thought that his knee could be saved though, as she used a quick and surgical slice of waterbending to cut a bit more of the man’s lower leg off, so that now the wound was much neater and easier to heal.

The man screamed in pain, before passing out.

“I could use earthbending to build sturdier cells, if it’s really necessary,” Korra said, after shaking off the shock of the gory amputation she’d just performed.

Then she began to use waterbending to heal the man’s leg as best she could, before freezing the stump once she felt she’d healed it as much as she could for now.

“Someone tie off his leg,” she said, before moving on to the next wounded.

In the end they had three wounded to bring with them, while a fourth had died despite Korra’s attempts to heal him. Along with the wounded came 7 healthy captives. Korra noticed that some of the senators, after watching her heal the separatists with waterbending, were suddenly looking at her weirdly. These same senators had regarded her with fear and distrust before, but now the look in their eyes was just… Weird.

“So, what’s the plan for getting to the island? Are we stealing a ship?” A senator asked.

“We’re making one,” Korra said to the group of bemused senators.

She led them to the docks, in an area the furthest away from any of the ships and piers where she’d seen separatists. Then she entered the avatar state, faintly registering the gasps from the senators as they saw her glowing white eyes, before turning towards the water and creating a massive slab of ice with a sweep of her hand.

Then, with a slightly more complicated movement, she added an icy set of stairs leading down to the larger platform.

“Hop on,” she said, gesturing to the slab with a flourish, “I’ll move you across the bay like this.”

The senators were initially too shocked to do what she said, even Tenzin seemed slightly fearful, but after a bit of prodding from Korra and Asami they managed to get everyone literally and figuratively on-board.

After she entered the Avatar state again to create a wave large enough to carry the entire slab of ice along with the sixty some senators, it didn’t take long for them to reach Air Temple Island. It was kind of funny to see all the senators rush to exit the makeshift craft, but Korra was surprised to see most of the senators turning around and thanking her once they finished getting re-acquainted with solid land.

A bunch of armed air nomads rushed the beach where they made their landing, looking bewildered as they watched the icy craft they had arrived on. They lowered their weapons as soon as they spotted Tenzin though.

“Master Tenzin, I’m glad to see that you’re safe. But what- What’s going on?!” They asked.

“The senate was attacked, we had to evacuate. As far as I’m aware, this group right here represents all that remains of the United Republic’s national representatives.”

“I can see that, but how did you-”

“There’s no time for that!” Tenzin snapped. “I need to get to our radio, have you made contact with anyone in the city? What’s the situation like?”

“Amon has launched simultaneous attacks across the boroughs,” one of the air nomads said, while leading their entire group up the island towards where the main settlement was, “we also saw them sink numerous ships, mainly those of the coast guard. Then on the radio we heard that all the river rescue ships have been sabotaged.”

“We tried to save who we could, but- A lot of people drowned,” another air nomad added mournfully.

Tenzin just frowned, and quickened his pace as he made for the long distance radio on the island. “Why do you need the radio so badly?” Korra asked.

“To call General Iroh of the United Forces, if we don’t call reinforcements then the city is lost,” Tenzin said.

Korra saw several people around them pale at that statement, sadly though she didn’t think that it was even the least bit exaggerated.

They made it to the small tower at the center of the island, which was where the radio was located. Tenzin gave the guy operating it some long sequence of numbers, then after an annoying scratchy noise a voice sounded on the other end.

“This is General Iroh of the United Forces, who’s this? How did you get this frequency?”

“Iroh, this is Senator Tenzin speaking,” Tenzin said urgently. “The separatists have launched a city-wide attack in the capital, they’ve captured the President and likely captured most members of the lower house too. Most of the senate is sheltering here with me on Air Temple Island, we’re in desperate need of reinforcements!”

“We’re aware of the situation,” the General responded through the radio, “it’s not just the capital, though that seems to be where they’ve had the most success thus far, all the major cities have seen similar uprisings.”

“Spirits above,” Tenzin said.

“It gets worse, yesterday there was supposed to be a massive training exercise on both the land and sea, led by General Deshmukh and Admiral Izo. I’ve been unable to make contact with the General, and the transponders of Admiral Izo’s fleet have all disappeared from the radar. Either they have both been annihilated by the enemy, or more likely in my estimation, this was all planned out and they have joined the enemy side.”

“General Deshmukh, that’s Tahno’s father!” Asami said.

“How much did we lose, what portion of the army and navy remains loyal?” Tenzin demanded.

“About two thirds remain loyal, in terms of raw personnel,” the General said, “but we devoted much of our heaviest weaponry and vehicles to this ‘training exercise,’ so I believe we’re evenly matched despite us having the numerical advantage.”

Korra felt Asami’s warm hand clutch her own, as her girlfriend held on to her for comfort. “This is a full scale war…” Asami muttered.

“Can you spare us any reinforcements or not?” Tenzin asked.

“I- I can’t abandon all of our military bases,” General Iroh said, “I’ll need to reserve much of our troops to ensure that we keep control of the territory that we currently still hold, and keep the traitorous armies from capturing too much territory.

“We have retained control of all aircraft carriers, none of those were in Ivo’s fleet, I’ll be using them to launch air raids against the separatist ground forces.

 “But Admiral Bumi’s fleet is returning from the Baizhi Sea, I’ll tell him to head straight to Republic City. You should know though, I expect that that’s also where Admiral Izo’s fleet is headed, and I can’t guarantee that Bumi will arrive first.”

“How long until they get here?” Korra asked.

“Twenty-four hours, give or take,” Iroh responded. “That goes for both fleets, one might arrive first, or the other, or they could arrive at the same time. Either way, a major naval battle seems inevitable.”

Korra huffed. “I’m not waiting around that long, I’m going back to the city to meet up with the Red Lotus.”

Her arm ached as Asami suddenly clutched it more tightly, and she gave Korra a pleading look. “I have to!” Korra said, turning towards her and looking into her emerald eyes, which were filled with so much fear and sadness that it almost made her lose her nerve.

Then Asami sighed, and her expression was replaced with one of determination. “I know you do,” she said, “and I love you for it,” she added with a kiss to Korra’s cheek. “Just don’t get killed.”

“I won’t,” Korra said. “The Red Lotus has a radio, I’ll stay in touch.”

They quickly went over a few of the logistics, but once that was done Korra ran to the island’s cliff and jumped into the water to swim back to the mainland, back to war.

Notes:

Lots happened in this chapter, so I'm not sure where to start haha. I'm mostly just glad that I got to write Tenzin being a badass.

Also, since I'll be turning this story into a series, I've been trying to think of a good name for said series. I guess I could just name the series "the girl in the iceberg" too, or like "the legend of the girl in the iceberg" or something, but IDK, I kinda want something cooler than that. So I'm open to suggestions in that regard ;p

Anyway, I finished building my new desktop computer, and I have to admit that writing on that is much easier ;p

Chapter 32: Endgame

Summary:

Korra, Mako, and Bolin fight the separatists on the mainland, while Asami and Tenzin stay with the senate on Air Temple Island.

Endgame.

 

 

 

Mako took a potshot from the apartment window, then quickly ducked back into cover, not even certain if he’d hit anyone or not. He and Bolin had been stationed at this position for a few hours now, after being unceremoniously handed a rifle when they showed up to the militia to help as soon as they heard about the separatist attacks throughout the city.

He was glad that Korra had made introductions for them the other day, and impressed by how well prepared the militia’s defense had turned out to be.

Their position was on the third floor of an apartment overlooking a former police checkpoint, current worker militia bulwark. By the time they had gotten here the checkpoint had already been taken, and fortified with sandbags that the militias had apparently already prepared.

The separatists had tried, twice, to storm the checkpoint and force their way into the district, but suffered brutal losses both times without even coming close to breaching the defensive line.

Their second bloody defeat caused the separatists to switch tactics, they had now taken up positions in apartment buildings on the opposite side of the blockade, from where they exchanged fire with Mako and Bolin and the others inside the apartment, as well as the militia fighters behind the sandbags on the ground floor.

A shot flew through the window, hitting a pretty vase that stood on a shelf in the apartment and causing it to shatter in a million pieces while spilling water and flowers.

“Aww man,” Bolin said from beside him, “poor flowers. I wonder who used to live here, what if they got them from someone special?”

“I think they, like the rest of us, probably have bigger things to worry about right now than some stupid flowers,” Mako deadpanned, before taking a breath and peeking out again, this time taking slightly more time to aim. He squeezed the trigger once he saw a separatist pop up from a second story floor, and was pretty sure that he saw the shot hit its mark before the man dropped back out of sight again.

“It’s not just the flowers, this whole place is being wrecked! Where will the folks who live here go?”

Mako was about to respond, but suddenly a loud explosion rattled the entire building, the sound of things collapsing came from the floors above, and visible cracks formed in the ceiling. “Bro we’ve got to go!” Mako said after a moment of shock. “I think the ceiling is about to-” He cut himself off once even more cracks appeared, Bolin needed no more warning and was already on the move, with Mako close behind him.

No sooner than they had left the room, they heard the sound of the ceiling finally collapsing, filling what had once been a family’s living room with rubble and dust and making both brothers cough.

More explosions could be heard nearby, the separatists appeared to be using artillery cannons in the middle of the city, uncaring of how many civilian casualties and collateral damage this would surely cause. I don’t think we even evacuated everyone from this building, Mako thought, remembering a few of the militiamen arguing with some stubborn old lady in the stairwell, when they’d climbed said stairwell in order to reach this floor.

“We should get outside,” Mako said, “who knows how stable the rest of the building is.”

They reached the stairwell, where they met several civilians who were now (finally) also evacuating the building. “Head to the underground, you’ll be safe there, there’s an entrance two blocks South of here!” Mako said to the civilians once they exited the building, he then nudged Bolin on the shoulder and pointed him the opposite direction, towards where Shui was directing the defense of this checkpoint.

They ran to the checkpoint, ducking low since the barricade of sandbags and paving stones stacked together would otherwise not be high enough to protect from the separatists on the upper floors of the opposite building.

Mako had been introduced to Shui by Korra, immediately after the attack on Yangchen’s festival. He seemed very capable even then, and had definitely lived up to that first impression now that actual combat had broken out by organizing such a strong defense of what was the biggest entrance into the immigrant quarter, even though many of the militia fighters were even more lacking in training than Mako himself.

“They still haven’t zeroed in on our exact location!” Shui called out to everyone nearby, “expect the next salvo to be even worse. When it hits, just lie down and stay down! Evacuate everyone above the second floors of nearby buildings, otherwise it’ll be too late for them to leave once their building begins to collapse.

“Those on the second floor should evacuate as soon as they suspect that the building might come down, we can’t afford to completely give up on those positions unless absolutely necessary though, so try not to overreact after a single shell hits your building!”

“You want us to just stay here waiting to be shelled?!” Someone challenged.

“Unless you want our entire resistance to fall, yes I do! I did so for years in the trenches of the Great War, so long as we remain steadfast these few artillery cannons will definitely hurt and kill some of us, but will not be enough to break through our defenses!”

That was the moment when the sound of distant cannon shots announced the second salvo. “Get down!” Shui yelled.

Mako and Bolin both dove to the ground, lying in the gutter of the street with their head ducked low. Explosions sounded all around while Mako could do nothing but close his eyes and hope for the best.

It only lasted ten or twenty seconds, though he stayed down a while longer just in case.

Cries of wounded sounded, Mako was tempted to help but resisted the urge, there were already medics here, while he himself had no training and would likely just be in the way. Once Mako got back up, he noticed several more plumes of smoke coming from the apartment building he and Bolin just left.

He was just about to comment on that to his brother, when the entire building began to collapse before his eyes. “Damn,” Mako mumbled, though he couldn’t even hear himself over the noise of the crumbling building. Bolin just watched the destruction silently, with tears in his eyes.

In the meantime, those manning the checkpoint continued to exchange fire with the separatists on the opposite side of the intersection.

“Isn’t there a way we can take out their cannons?!” Mako yelled towards Shui, once he turned away from the ruined building that’d once been home to dozens of families.

The man turned towards him and cursed. “Not unless you want to charge directly into enemy lines! These are proper cannons, our mortars don’t have the range to reach them and destroy them. Shit! I had hoped that even the separatists would show more restraint than this, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

Mako had to concur, he was shocked that anyone would be willing to use this kind of heavy weaponry in the middle of the city. It only strengthened his resolve though, such callous people could never be allowed to take control of the city, they had to be resisted at all costs.

“You two! Shui said, pointing to Mako and Bolin, “wait for the dust to settle, then take position on top of the ruins of that building. Hold the line!”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra initially wasn’t sure where to go next, after she reached the mainland and destroyed a coast guard ship that’d been captured by the separatists, as well as defeated a few separatists on the coast who’d tried to attack her afterwards.

Explosions from towards the immigrant district helped her make up her mind, she took off running towards the plumes of smoke in the distance.

After crossing the more industrial area near the docks, she used airbending to launch herself up to the nearest apartment building.

Inexperienced as she still was, she lost her balance in the air and landed far more clumsily than she’d hoped, but she continued on her way none the less. With every jump to a new building she felt like she was getting a better handle on how to use airbending in this way.

Eventually she made it to a high-rise building that towered over even the apartment buildings she was on. Deciding that she could use a better view of the situation, Korra closed her eyes and focused, getting herself back into that mindset that allowed the full power of Raava to start flowing through her.

Once it did, she was able to easily blast herself to the top of this tower using a combination of fire and airbending. When she landed, she and her past lives watched in horror at the scene of destruction they faced. Several apartment buildings had completely collapsed, several more had partially caved in roofs, or just gaping holes in their side. A few had also caught fire.

Despite the destruction around them, she saw that people were still fighting, shooting at each other from opposite sides of the street. Several people, presumably militiamen given their position at the side of the immigrant district, even seemed to be fighting from on top of the ruined apartments, despite the dust not even being completely settled yet.

Korra’s first instinct was to rush to the aid of the beleaguered militiamen, but the sounds of cannons in the distance made her resist that impulse. It was a familiar sound, just like the cannons she had destroyed in the Earth Kingdom. She realized that, like had been the case that day in the trenches outside of Omashu, the best way for her to help right now would be to destroy those cannons.

Entering the avatar state once more, Korra blasted into the direction of where the cannon fire came from.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Shortly after a third round of shelling, Mako and Bolin had awkwardly perched themselves atop and between the rubble of the apartment they had previously been positioned in. It provided surprisingly good cover while they exchanged fire with the separatists in the apartment on the opposing side, Mako peeked up to shoot at one of the separatists he could see behind the broken windows, when suddenly he saw a streak of fire cut across the sky.

Shortly thereafter, the sound of something enormous came from the direction in which this streak of fire had gone. It didn’t quite sound like an explosion, though it was equally loud. It actually sounded more like how the collapse of this apartment had sounded, stone grinding on stone, like what he imagined an earthquake or a rockslide might sound like.

He had his suspicions of what, and who, might have caused this sound, the lack of further artillery strikes against their position seemed further evidence in favor of his theory.

Mako peeked up again, but immediately ducked back into cover as a bullet impacted the stone right beside his face. It felt like a small shard of the stone cut open his cheek, something he confirmed when he touched it and his hand was slightly wetted with blood.

“Ow, shit!” Mako said, more from shock and frustration than from pain.

“You hit?” Bolin asked, panic in his voice, while he looked like he was about to jump down towards Mako, from the higher position he had in the rubble.

“No, no I’m fine, but someone’s got me right in their sight, nearly hit me as soon as I popped my head up, I’m afraid of peeking out again.”

“You see where it came from?” Bolin asked.

“Uhh, third floor I think, building right across from us, towards the right.”

“I’ll see if I can get em,” Bolin said. Mako watched worriedly as his brother, tongue sticking out, prepared to get up from behind his cover. Bolin stood up with his rifle shouldered, fired a couple shots, then quickly stood down again.

“I think I got him!” He said happily. “About where you said, and he was definitely looking our way, but he went down after my second shot.”

“Thanks bro!” Said Mako, forcing himself not to think too much about how his little brother, always so kind in a childish and innocent sort of way, had just shot and killed a man.

Mako stood up again, the lack of bullets immediately shot towards his position seeming like proof that his brother had indeed hit the right guy. As he aimed down his sights looking for a target to shoot, Mako again saw a streak of fire in the air, which stopped right above the apartment building he faced.

With a crack, something crashed through the roof of the building. After which flashes of fire, along with the sounds of stone being crushed and gunfire being aimed not towards Mako or Bolin but towards someone inside the building, sounded from within.

Mako kept watching, transfixed, even though he should probably be ducking back behind cover, as a blast of fire knocked a man out of a 4^th story window. A few more stone-crushing sounds later, Mako watched as several more men were launched out of windows on the 3^rd story.

He then finally came to his senses and ducked back behind cover.

“Woah, what’s happening?!” Bolin exclaimed.

“Looks like Korra arrived,” Mako said.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra punched through the floor with her earthbending, the metal reinforcements that were within the concrete made this a bit harder than if it were just stone, but she was getting used to it and learning how to do it effectively.

“Lee!” Someone in the hallway beneath exclaimed, staring down towards a set of feet that stuck out from under the slab of floor that Korra had slammed down on top of them. Korra jumped down, punching fire at the man to knock him backwards, before kicking even more fire in the opposite direction, where she also heard men in the hallways.

This pushed them in front of a window, allowing Korra to send them all flying outside with a gush of airbending.

She wasn’t using the avatar state right now, raw power didn’t seem like the right approach unless she wanted to level the entire building. She was doing rather well regardless though, as she tore through the ranks of surprised and frightened separatists, floor after floor. They weren’t ready for her at all, since they had been solely focused on the militias on the opposite street.

Once it seemed like she’d more or less cleared this building, Korra ran over to the side and looked towards the next one over. She’d have to cross a street to get to it, and worried that the militiamen who were watching that street might shoot her when she did, not realizing that she was on their side.

The solution that came to her was rather simple, she jumped down to the ground and as she landed used earthbending to burrow herself down beneath it. Then from there she used even more earthbending to dig a tunnel beneath the street, before popping up within this second separatist apartment.

She began clearing this one floor by floor as well, only now starting from the ground up.

Once that was finished, she repeated her tunnel trick, this time in the direction of the militia-controlled immigrant district. She decided that it was time to meet the militiamen, who she thought must rather confused by now with two enemy apartment buildings suddenly no longer firing at them, after a bunch of guys within came flying out of windows.

To keep the shock of her entrance to a minimum, she used seismic sense to find a quiet unoccupied alley, where she used earthbending to create a set of stairs that gave her easy access back to the surface.

She exited the alley to find a mass of activity in the main street, people running here to there carrying ammunition, wounded, or sandbags and paving stones to replace or strengthen their barricades. She was amazed that such an organized defense had been established in the hours since the separatists launched their attack. Has it really only been a few hours?!

The organized chaos appeared to be led from where the main street, leading to the checkpoint, crossed paths with a smaller street. Korra walked in that direction and found Shui, talking to someone on a radio.

“You’re sure it wasn’t any of us? I’m telling you, two buildings were cleared in a matter of minutes, it had to have been a highly trained team of special forces! If they’re not ours then who’s are they?!”

“I can answer that for you,” Korra said, walking up from behind him.

“Korra?” Shui asked, “how’d you get here? I assumed you were outside the immigrant district when the fighting began.”

“I was, I was at City Hall.” Korra said.

Shui winced. “That can’t have been pretty, I assume that the separatists attacked it in force, did they not?”

“Yeah, they did, they tried to take the entire senate hostage but I helped stop them. They did capture the President though.”

“Could’ve happened to a nicer guy,” Shui said with a small grin, “where’s the senate now? How did you get here? We put up the barricades and closed the entire neighborhood in less than half an hour after the fighting broke out.”

“The senate is safe, for now, I brought them all to Air Temple Island,” Korra answered. “As for me, I took a detour to take out the artillery that was hitting you guys and clear those two buildings, then I dug a tunnel to get here.”

Shui just stared at her blankly for a while. “You- A tunn- What?!”

“It’s a long story, short version is that bending is real and I’ve been using it to kick ass. Do you think that me clearing those two buildings created enough of an opening for your men to push forwards?”

Shui still just looked at her blankly, before uttering but a single word. “Bending?” He asked.

“Yeah, look,” Korra said, punching her fist upward to create a massive flame, which she sustained for a few seconds just to make sure the message came through.

By now the chaos of people running to and fro had come to a stop, everything was silent except for the occasional gunshot in the distance, as everyone stopped to stare at Korra and Shui.

“I- I thought I- They all said I was crazy!” Shui finally said.

Now Korra was the surprised one, she cocked her head questioningly. “What’re you talking about?”

Shui broke out of his stupor as he began to explain. “It was during the Great War, everyone else in my unit was wiped out, along with several other units. We had all had to retreat as a result.

“Afterwards command said it was just artillery, but I swear I saw the projectiles, they were too small, and they bent in the air before they hit us! They weren’t no artillery shells! They were balls of fire, being controlled somehow like in the tales of old!”

Korra nodded. “I know that I’m not the only one, so it’s possible,” she said. In fact, what he described sounds a lot like P’Li’s combustion bending.

“Back to my question, can you do it?” Korra asked. “Take advantage of the opening I made? I’ll be there backing you up!”

Shui staying quiet for a while, seeming to consider the matter. “We could push forwards, but I don’t know if we could hold it. Only reason we’re holding here is because we had these barricades prepared, if we push forwards then the only cover will be in the buildings themselves, which is just asking to get flanked and surrounded. And I doubt we’ll have time to build a second line of barricades before separatists arrive.”

“I can help with that!” Korra said. “Look,” she added, before stomping a foot down and creating a small wall between herself and Shui.

“Just tell me where, I’ll put up barricades in no time.”

 

 

 

Once Shui started barking orders, the organized chaos from before returned in full force, even more intense than before. “Three units stay behind and take care of our supply line, keep us flush with ammo! Everyone else, form up at the barricade, we’re about to push forwards!” He yelled. “Mako, Bolin, get your asses in gear and get down from there!”

Korra turned to where Shui looked, and sure enough she saw her friends, clambering down from atop of a collapsed apartment building. “Guys, you’re here!” She said, running up to hug them.

“Korra!” Bolin exclaimed, eagerly returning her hug.

“That was you, wasn’t it?” Mako said, staying further behind, as always he was far more reserved than his younger brother. “Taking out the artillery, tossing people out of windows in those apartments?”

“Yeah,” Korra said, only now really noticing how out of breath she still was from all that action. She sat down before she continued speaking. “What about you guys? Have you been staying safe?”

“Not really,” Bolin said with a wry grin, “we’ve been right here. We were inside that building right before it collapsed,” he added, pointing his thumb backwards to the ruined apartment building.

Korra balked at that information, struggling to process her friends coming so close to dying.

“Good thing you destroyed that artillery,” Mako added onto what his brother said, all Korra could do was nod in response. If she had been just a little bit later, would those cannons have blown up the two brothers?

It was probably still unlikely that that would’ve happened, even with several more rounds of firing from the cannons, but the mere possibility was very troubling to consider. Even if not the brother’s lives though, lives certainly would’ve been lost.

“Korra,” Shui said, walking up to them, “you mentioned a tunnel, is that still accessible? You may have cleared two apartments, but the crossing is still in sight of the buildings besides them, I’d rather begin to clear those too before we commit to a full scale crossing.”

“Oh yeah,” Korra said, “I can lead you through it, it leads to that apartment on the right,” she said, pointing to the building in question.

Shui nodded. “I’ll gather a small team, once we ensure the apartment is clear we can let everyone else cross over too.”

 

 

Not long after, Korra led the way through the dark tunnel, lit up only by the fire she cradled in her palm.

Muffled curses sounded from behind her as militiamen bumped into each other in the narrow damp tunnel.

She allowed the flame to expire once she reached the natural light of the tunnel’s exit, then she ran up against the wall before grabbing the ledge of the floor above.

“Uhh, I’m too old for that,” Shui said from behind her. Korra rolled her eyes, before pulling a set of stone stairs out from the ground.

“Whoah!” Shui exclaimed, before cautiously making his way up the stairs, as if afraid they might fall back down at any moment. “That’s really freaky, you do realize that, right?”

“Not really,” said Korra, “it’s just normal to me. You guys are the freaky ones, living in a world without bending.”

Shui took a moment to ponder that, as Mako and Bolin, followed by a number of other soldiers, also began to ascend the staircase.

“So, in your time bending really was normal? Just like the stories say?”

“Yeah, every tribe had at least a few benders, it was just a normal part of life,” Korra said.

Shui looked at her in amazement, but seemed to hold himself back from asking further questions, since they had bigger things to worry about.

“Right,” Shui said, once everyone was gathered. “Half of us head to the apartment on the left, the other half stay in this one. Once these are cleared we’ll continue to the ones beside them, and then we’ll call for everyone else to cross, got it?”

“Got it!” Everyone said, before moving to do as he said.

“It’s really not necessary, I was thorough” Korra said. “I can sense the vibration of the stone, there’s no one here, except a guy with a busted leg and arm on the third floor. Everyone else is dead or restrained with solid rock or metal.”

“No offence, but I’m still going to verify that first,” Shui said.

“Right, cause I’m ‘freaky’,” Korra said with a smirk, only a little bit offended.

Clearing the building took almost no time at all, once they finished they walked up to the alley behind it and made their way to the neighboring building.

Korra took a moment to punch against the wall and sense the vibrations inside, before finding the perfect entry point. Then, with another harder punch, she tore a hole into the wall, slamming the concrete pieces into two separatists behind it, before sending them out to the side with a sweeping kick to knock out even more separatists.

The militiamen, who were admirably able to just go along with Korra’s ‘freaky’ abilities, then pushed ahead into the building. Gunfire rang out as they began to push into the hallways.

Korra, instead of taking the stairs, ran back outside and launched herself up through a window, where she quite literally scared the piss out of a soldier who’d been trying to look through it to see what was happening downstairs.

Korra slammed a fireball against the soldier, which launched her backwards out of the window again, but she flipped in the air and landed her feet against the wall of the building on the opposite end of the alley, before jumping back through the open window once more.

Then it was the same story as last time, clearing the apartment floor by floor, only now with the aid of over a dozen militiamen. It made it all happen much faster, though to Korra’s regret they were not able to leave as many separatists alive as she herself was able to. Her bending often just knocked people out and then let her restrain them, bullets weren’t as versatile, they pretty much just killed people.

Time was of the essence though, since they wanted to gain as much ground as possible before separatists reinforcements forced them to dig in and fortify again, so Korra made the grim call that the extra loss of life was worth it.

 

 

 

Shui radioed for the others to cross, once this apartment was almost cleared. They just crossed the street instead of using the tunnel, since the tunnel was too small to move a very large group of people through.

With the help of these reinforcements, they began to clear several more buildings, before eventually the separatists went on the run. Eventually they managed to clear about eight blocks of apartments, making it all the way to the square where Korra had destroyed the artillery cannons with a massive earthbending quake, before separatist resistance grew so strong that they had to dig in again.

Korra used her earthbending to create fortifications along every street at the edge of the territory they’d captured.

Worryingly, unlike the buildings they had first captured at the front lines of the battle lines at the time, many of these buildings were not-yet evacuated of civilians. They quickly moved to resolve that issue by directing these civilians back towards where the militia’s defensive line had originally been, which thanks to the battle-line moving forwards should now be a zone of relative safety.

Korra watched tiredly as a group of militiamen directed a group of these civilians in that direction, towards the immigrant district.

“Bet none of them ever thought they’d be headed to Dragon Flats Borough for safety,” Shui said dryly as he walked up to Korra. Who only now realized that this neighborhood, despite being right next to the immigrant district and seeming to have the exact same build style, seemed to house much wealthier citizens.

“Yeah, I guess not,” she said, unable to muster a smile.

“You need to rest girl,” Shui said. “How long have you been fighting now?”

“Uhh, pretty much since the separatists first attacked, why?”

“Spirits, that’s over six hours ago! Get some rest before you get yourself killed! You’re too valuable for us to lose!”

Korra suddenly noticed that it was growing dark outside, how had she not noticed that before?!

“Got it,” she said, before turning around and entering one of the recently captured apartments. She’d been here before looking for civilians to evacuate, and had spotted a couch around here that looked rather tempting. “Hey, can I borrow your radio?” She said to Shui when he followed her inside. “I want to let Asami know that I’m okay.”

Six hours? She thought. I didn’t realize, Asami must be worried sick!

“Sure,” Shui said, “I’ve got a spare one actually, you should keep it, so we can call you for aid directly if needed.”

“Thanks,” Korra said, before fiddling with it a little to figure out how to select the right frequency, and then taking out the note that Tenzin had given her which contained Air Temple Island’s radio frequency.

“Hello?” She said, pressing the button to talk. “This is Korra, uuhh, over?”

“Korra!” Asami’s voice sounded, almost immediately after Korra released the button to talk. Korra immediately felt a great sense of relief at the sound of her voice. “What took you so long?! I was worried sick! Over.”

“Sorry,” Korra said, “I’ve been uhh- Busy, sort of lost track of time. Over.”

“…What are things like over there? We haven’t been able to make contact with many others, but we can hear explosions. Are the separatists really using artillery inside the city? Over.”

“Yes, they are. It’s- It’s pretty bad, a lot of apartments have been destroyed already. The union militias were really well-prepared though, they’re holding firm around the immigrant district, and I helped them take several more blocks of territory after I destroyed several separatist artillery cannons.” Korra said. “Oh, uhh, over,” she added belatedly.

“That’s good.” Said Asami. “Just stay safe, okay? Don’t over-do it. Over.”

“Don’t worry, that’s what Shui said too. He’s making me take a break right now. By the way, I ran into Mako and Bolin, they’ve been fighting alongside me. They’re both still safe and sound too. Or well, sound at least, not sure how safe any of us are. How are things at the island? Over.”

“Lin arrived at the island. You know, the district attorney? Apparently Tenzin reached out to her, told her that the senate was here. She came here and has been helping them set up an emergency government of sorts.

“Oh, and Pema has gone into labor!” Asami said. “The timing is kind of terrible, Meelo keeps trying to tell the baby to stay inside, but I guess things are fine, all things considered. Tenzin and Lin have been having a hard time keeping all the senators from complaining too much, but they’ve done a good job. Over.”

“Oh wow, yeah that timing is terrible,” Korra said with a small laugh. It was undoubtedly very stressful for the air nomad family, but to Korra hearing about mundane things like childbirth was a pleasant distraction from the war she’d suddenly become engulfed in. “How are the other kids handling it all?”

They kept talking, focusing more on the small things, rather than on the larger conflict that was hanging over them. It was nice, even though Korra would much rather be holding Asami in her arms instead of talking to her through some device that made her beautiful voice sound all tinny.

As they talked she slowly felt herself growing drowsy, though she tried her best to stay awake.

 

 

 

“Korra, are you there?!? Korra?!? The island is under attack, there’s too many, our cannons can’t stop all their ships, they’re making landfall! Korra we need you!”

Korra shot awake, completely disoriented, fighting against blankets that someone had covered her with.

 “What?! Where-” She said, entering a sloppy combat stance before she heard something clatter to the ground.

She finally noticed the radio, still emitting the sound of Asami’s voice. “Korra- I’ve got to go, they need me.”

No! “Wait, Asami, I’m here, over!” Korra said after scrambling to pick up the radio. There was no answer.

That’s when the door to the apartment Korra was in opened. “Korra, are you okay?” Bolin asked. “We heard-”

“Air Temple Island is under attack, I’ve gotta go!” Korra said, pushing past him. “Tell Shui where I’ve gone!”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami lied down on her belly, at a pagoda on one of the island’s cliffsides. Ordinarily she imagined that it was a very peaceful place, perfect for meditation. It didn’t feel that way right now though, with the sound of the island’s artillery cannons trying to prevent even more separatist speedboats from making landfall.

Asami herself sighted down her rifle, down towards the stairway that was visible from the pagoda, lit by numerous lanterns. It was the only easy way up to the island from the pier where the separatists had made landfall, so any moment now they could expect the separatists to come storming up the stairs.

She looked around, several air nomads and acolytes were beside her with rifles of their own. Compared to Asami’s rifle though, which she had liberated from the separatists she’d fought back in the city, their rifles were ancient. She recognized the models, they were bolt action, loaded one round at the time instead of with a magazine or a clip of bullets, they would’ve already been outdated even during the Great War, over twenty years ago.

Asami herself had an automatic rifle, loaded with thirty round magazines. Considering that other separatists presumably had the same kind of weaponry as Asami, she didn’t particularly like the odds that she and the air nomads had of defending the island. Don’t think like that, we just have to hold out until Korra gets here!

Korra hadn’t answered, but Asami was sure she would come. She knew her girlfriend had fallen asleep while they’d been talking over the radio, because Mako had told her as much after taking the radio from her.

Time for thinking was over, as she hears a panicked shout. “I see them, open fire!”

Gunshots started to ring out, as Asami indeed began to see separatists cresting the lower set of stairs, before storming up the upper set.

Asami herself held her fire. “Wait for them to get closer, we’ve got to make every shot count!” She said to the other fighters beside her.

Despite how shocked the senators had been about the stockpile of weapons that the air nomads possessed, the amount of ammo it included was even more depressing than how outdated the rifles were. That was also why Asami had set her rifle to its semi-automatic firing mode, rather than the fully automatic one.

A few of the nomads beside her followed her advice, most did not. It was hard to blame them, Asami herself had to fight the urge to squeeze the trigger, especially when seeing that some of the separatists were actually getting hit. Her discipline won out though, as she waited until they entered the range from which she could reliably hit her mark.

That’s when she finally allowed herself to squeeze the trigger, trying her best to pretend like it was no different than shooting at the range, even though here she was able to see her targets drop to the ground as her bullets robbed them of life.

Separatists kept pushing up the stairs though, even as the number of bodies they had to jump over continued to increase. Some of them even used these bodies for cover, as they began to return fire.

Initially they only fired on nomads defending from other positions closer to the stairs, but Asami had to fight to retain her composure once bursts of bullets began to thud around her own position as well, some hitting the cliffside beneath, others hitting the pillars or roof of the pagoda behind and above her.

She continued to return fire until her rifle ran out of ammunition.

She grabbed a magazine to reload, making eye-contact with the bearded air nomad beside her who was also reloading.

Splat! It took a moment before Asami realized what happened, as suddenly she felt drops splatter against her face. But then she saw the slumped-over form of the man next to her, blood beginning to seep out the back of his skull while the bullet he’d been trying to load into his rifle rolled out of his lifeless hand.

Asami froze, staring at the man, until the person on her opposite side shook her by the shoulder. “Shake it off, they’re still coming!” He said, before firing down on the enemy again.

Asami followed his lead, as she finished reloading her rifle and sighted down at her next target.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra shot into the sky, having entered the avatar state at the site of one of the collapsed apartment buildings nearby. She pulled several large chunks of concrete from those ruins after herself, while she flew towards the island using jets of fire beneath her feet.

She saw flashes of light coming from the temple, some of them from along the cliffsides, but others from the stairs leading up towards them. I bet that the latter are the separatists, she thought.

She flew further towards the island, where she spotted several more ships landing along the coast, dozens more separatists clambering out and preparing to storm up the stairs. Oh no you don’t, Korra thought, letting loose the large chunks of apartment building she’d carried all this way, one for each boatload of separatists.

They never even knew what hit them, as they were flattened into the sand.

Korra landed roughly on the pier, then shot back up, this time grabbing a lot of water from the sea behind her. She landed halfway up the first set of stairs, forming a large watery spike that she launched forwards while freezing the tip, skewering a dozen separatists like a meat kebap. She then spun around, using the water-tentacle to fling the separatists that remained above her off of the stairs, before completing her spin and using the long watery whip to slam the separatists behind her against the cliffside. It all happened so quickly that none of them had a chance to respond.

With the lower set of stairs now cleared, she ran upwards, towards the sound of gunfire.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Tenzin cursed, a rarity for him, as he again had to reload his rifle one bullet as a time. “I knew we should have upgraded to more modern rifles!” He said to no one in particular. The rest of the council of elders had fought him on it, saying that ‘one who treats violence as inevitable will make it so,’ and that the money would be better spent on charitable efforts.

Tenzin hadn’t pushed further after that, since he also preferred spending money on charity rather than weapons, but it was a decision that he now sorely regretted.

“Hah! Never thought I would hear you say that!” Lin said from beside him, expertly shouldering a rifle of her own as she fired down the cliffside.

The DA’s appearance on the island had been a surprise, but not an unwelcome one. She’d always been a good shot.

Tenzin finally finished pushing the last bullet into his rifle, so he stood back up to aim down the cliffside. He was about to fire when a strange rumbling could be heard, the separatists seemed to hear it too, as some of them briefly halted from their run up the stairs.

Then, bizarrely, the stairs suddenly shifted. Where once there had been steps, there was now only a smooth ramp. The separatists all began slipping down the ramp, save for the ones unfortunate enough to have had their feet stuck between the steps as they shifted, those could be heard screaming in pain as they hung from their broken ankles.

“Hold your fire!” He heard Asami yelling from her position. “Or you might hit Korra!”

“Do as she says!” Tenzin immediately yelled. “Hold your fire!”

“What the flamey-o is going on?!?” Lin demanded. “‘Korra’, does she mean that girl from the ice? And what happened to the stairs?!”

“Yes,” Tenzin said, “she’s the girl from the ice. The avatar has returned.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra cautiously made her way up the stairs, uncertain if everyone would heed Asami’s words.

Or well, it was technically a ramp now, but she made her way up it anyway, by using earthbending to create a platform she could ride to the top like an elevator.

She moved her arms, using earthbending to pull the platform further and further up, until she began to be able to make out the faces of the people along the cliffside.

Their expressions were more confused than anything, making Korra confident that they weren’t about to shoot her. She made it to the top and immediately found herself caught in a hug from Asami. “Hey!” She said with a laugh. “H-” She didn’t finish, or even remember, what she was about to say, as Asami’s warm lips captured Korra’s mouth in her own.

“Hmmm,” Korra moaned, sad when Asami pulled back from their kiss. “Why hello to you too,” she said with a smirk.

“I was worried! Where were you?!” Asami demanded.

Korra’s face fell. “I’m sorry, I fell asleep, woke up when I heard you asking for help. I dropped the radio but was just about to answer it when you left.”

Asami pulled her in for a hug again. “I- It’s fine, I know you did your best. But I was so scared!”

“Wait, there’s blood on your face! Let me look at you!” Korra said, pushing Asami off of her so she could get a good look.

“I- It, it’s not mine,” Asami said. “The guy next to me, he- I don’t even know his name.”

“That was Dechen,” someone said somberly. “Poor guy, at least it was quick.”

“How many did we lose?” Tenzin asked, walking up to them. Before anyone was able to answer the Senator, they all turned around in alarm as a strange sound came from the distance.

“Those are biplanes!” Asami exclaimed. “Coming in for a bombing run, now that their ground assault failed?!”

“Where did they get biplanes?!” Tenzin asked. “I made contact with the nearest air force base, they said all their planes had been disabled by separatist saboteurs who deserted the base once the coup began. That’s supposed to be the only military airfield in range of the city!”

“Does it matter? We need to get to cover!” Lin Beifong said, the stern woman’s commanding voice pulled everyone’s attention.

“Where to? We have no bunkers on the island. Wait- My wife!” Tenzin exclaimed.

Korra stopped him from running off, roughly shoving him in the chest. “Everyone hide in here,” she said, punching down to create a large hole in the ground, Lin cursed in surprise at the sight, but Korra ignored her as she widened and strengthened the makeshift bunker with several additional earthbending moves.

“I’ll go to the temple, build a shelter for Pema and everyone else too!” Korra said, before running off towards the tower at the center of the island.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Is it over? I think it’s over,” Asami said, several minutes after the last of the bombs had dropped. It’d been a terrifying experience, one she could stand to never repeat, hiding in the dark bunker while its roof chipped and cracked from the impact of the bombs above.

One had actually been a direct hit on their makeshift bunker, but thankfully Korra had done her work well when she’d made it.

“Pema, I have to-” Tenzin didn’t finish his sentence, the middle aged senator just pushed his way past Asami and out of the cave.

Asami followed closely behind. As they ran to the main complex on the island they saw Korra, lobbing fireballs towards a pair of retreating biplanes, while a smoke rose from the partially bombed buildings behind her.

Korra actually managed to hit one of them, causing it to spiral out of control before crashing into the sea. Asami faintly made out a small white parachute drifting down from the star-lit sky.

“Pema? The kids, are they-” Tenzin began to ask.

“They’re fine,” Korra interrupted him, “in fact, your new baby boy is waiting for you.”

Asami saw tears forming in the senator’s eyes, before he ran past Korra to go greet the new addition to his raucous family. If the circumstances of his birth were anything to go by, Asami didn’t think that this one would be any less of a handful.

“This is bad,” the DA, Lin, said as she walked up besides them.

“What? No didn’t you hear, Pema and the baby are both fine,” Asami responded.

“Several senators died though,” Korra said, “everyone was too spread out, couldn’t get them all in the bunker I made.”

“Not that!” Lin snarled, “Or well, that’s bad too I suppose. But if the separatists have a secret airfield then Bumi’s fleet will be decimated! We were counting on neither side having an air force in range of the city. With all else being equal, and two fleets on their way to the city, the one with air superiority will surely win.”

Oh no… She’s right, Asami thought. “Then what do we do?!”

“We find the airfield and destroy it, before Bumi’s fleet arrives,” Korra said determinedly. “Asami, you know stuff about planes don’t you? And we saw the direction that last plane went. Think you can help me find it?”

“I have to,” Asami responded, equally determined, “it’s our only choice.”

 

 

 

After hurriedly grabbing a few supplies, and a terrifying yet exhilarating ride in Korra’s arms while she used the avatar state to fly them back to the mainland, they made it to Asami’s mansion, where Korra began calling out to Naga.

Soon, right when the clouds shifted and the moon appeared in the sky, the polarbear dog came running across the moon-lit grounds of the mansion, barking up a storm. “Hey there girl, good to see you too!” Korra cooed. “I bet you were worried, so was I! But we’ve got somewhere to go okay, no time for licking, we need to get this saddle on you.”

 

 

 

Soon after, they were both riding on Naga’s back, running up the hills surrounding the city while the moon lit their way. It was a good thing that the clouds had parted, as without the moon they would never have been able to move through the trees at such a rapid pace.

“Are you sure this is the right direction?” Korra asked from where she sat in front, with Asami’s arms wrapped tight around her.

“No,” Asami said, “but it’s an educated guess. They’ll need enough flat ground to take off, and they’d need a way to transport supplies to and from the airfield. In the direction the plane came from there’s only a few roads that are fit for large trucks, and only one that passes by a valley with enough flat ground.”

It was a lot of guess work, based on too little time studying the maps of the region, but it was the best Asami could do on such short notice.

“Let’s hope you’re right,” Korra said, as they continued racing through the woods.

 

 

After over an hour of riding, which gave Asami a very sore butt, they heard the familiar noise of a biplane’s propellers reflected through the mountains around them. “You were right!” Korra exclaimed. “The airfield has to be nearby.”

It took a bit of searching, as the mountains made it hard to tell the direction of the sound, but eventually they made their way to a ridge that gave them a perfect view overlooking the airfield that the separatists had built.

It was disturbingly large, with not just one, not just two, but five full runways. “By the spirits,” Asami said, “I think- No I’m certain, the separatists must have other wealthy backers. We didn’t track down all of my father’s missing funds, but what remained wasn’t nearly enough to fund a project of this scale.”

“Figures,” Korra said. “I guess things won’t be over, even if we win this battle.”

“No,” Asami agreed, “we’ll have our work cut out for us, rooting out everyone who supported this insurrection. First thing’s first though, we both need sleep. The airfield will still be there this morning, and it looks like they’re not doing any bombing runs in the dark.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Lin frowned, as she watched her ex with his wife, happily greeting the new addition to their family.

She wasn’t bitter, she’d long since forgiven Tenzin for leaving her, and Pema for stealing him away. She couldn’t help but feel a little bit jealous though, as she watched the family that she herself would likely never have, given her present age and how much she’d oriented her life around her work.

She scoffed at herself, then scoffed again at the ridiculous situation she found herself in. The avatar? Phah, it’s like I’m in one of those idiot novellas that my assistant thinks I don’t notice him reading.

A novella would have a happy romance at the end of her story though, would it not?

She turned around, leaving the family of air nomads in peace as she heard yet another argument breaking out amongst the senators in the temple’s main hall. Damn children, I’ve seen kindergartners with more discipline, she thought to herself as she came close enough to begin to make out the words of the argument.

“We have to evacuate the island, if we die here then the people will have nothing left!” One of the senators said, he was one of the more insufferable members of the conservative party, and that was saying something.

“Oh please, it’s not like we’re much help to the people at the moment, we had nothing to do with organizing the current defense of the city, that was all done by the worker unions you hate so much. I dare say that those unions feel like they’ll be better off without you,” Senator Yuchaz said.

I always did like her, Lin thought to herself as she leaned up against the goalpost and decided to just stay there and watch the entertainment play out, instead of trying to interfere again.

The argument went on for a while, accusations of treason and cowardice thrown back and forth, until someone raised the question of who would even lead this sorry excuse of a government, with the President and the House of Representatives both captured by the separatists.

“If the Vice President and Speaker of the house are out of commission, then the President Pro Tempore of the senate would be next in line,” Lin said, deciding to get involved after all.

“He died, in the bombing,” Yuchaz said.

“Then the secretary of state,” said Lin.

“Also dead, I saw him in the hallway when we fled City Hall”

“The secretary of treasury?”

“Captured, probably, he was at the House of Representatives today.”

“Secretary of defense?”

“He’s probably part of the coup, he’s the one who pushed for that ‘military exercise’ that caused half our army and navy to desert us.”

“Then it’s the attorney general, but he’s dead too,” Lin said, “along with the deputy attorney general. They were visiting my office when the separatists attacked, I watched them get shot.”

Everyone just stared at her dejectedly at this point. “Spirits,” Lin said, “I don’t even know how the line of succession continues after that.”

“There’s another option,” Yuchaz said. “We have enough senators here to make quorum, we can elect a new President Pro Tempore of the senate, then he or she would be next in line again.”

“Or she? You’re quite ambitious for a woman, aren’t you?” Another senator said.

“Oh shut it Batbayar,” Yuchaz snapped, “I’m not nominating myself, I nominate Tenzin.”

“He’s got my vote!” Senator Zetkin, leader of the socialist party, quickly said.

Lin raised an eyebrow, as suddenly all the senators began to crowd together and organized as formal of a vote as they could manage. It ended with Tenzin winning the vote by a landslide, as both the conservatives and the far left senators seemed to see him as an acceptable middle ground, and his help in keeping everyone safe thus far obviously hadn’t gone unnoticed either.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Lin said, as she watched how unbeknownst to the man himself, Tenzin was being elected as the acting President of the United Republic.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra awoke with the early morning light, after she and Asami had gone to sleep snuggled against Naga to keep warm. She prodded Asami awake, and watched with a small smile as her girlfriend blinked herself awake, looking disoriented for a moment.

It was a sight she didn’t often get to see, as Asami usually woke before her. “Sun’s coming up,” Korra said, “we should get moving, who knows when Bumi’s fleet will arrive? We should make sure the airfield is destroyed before then.”

In their hurry to leave they had forgotten to take a radio, when they realized this Asami had said that they likely would’ve been out of range of a handheld radio anyway, up here in the mountains.

Asami rubbed her eyes for a moment, before she took Korra’s outstretched hand and pulled herself up to her feet.

“Right, I’ll get my guns,” Asami said blearily, walking around Naga to grab the guns attached to the saddlebags. She’d retrieved them from the mansion, while Korra had gone to fetch Naga’s saddle.

 

 

 

About fifteen minutes later they were ready and moving, slowly sneaking their way up towards the airfield. There had been a fence of razor-wire, but that was nothing that some metalbending couldn’t fix.

In fact, Korra had decided to take some of the wire with her, thinking that it might prove handy.

They had decided to destroy the entire airfield, save a single runway, so that they could then return to Republic City with a biplane, since Asami said she could fly one.

Asami worried about Naga getting lost, but Korra assured her that it would be fine, she’d always proven to be able to find her way back to the tribe, even when they moved camp constantly, finding the way back to the mansion would be a piece of cake for Korra’s oldest friend.

As they approached the airfield they made it to the back of a large shed, which Asami said was called a ‘hangar.’ Korra cupped her hands for Asami to step into, then boosted her girlfriend up to the roof.

Their plan was rather simple, Korra would wreak havoc on the base, while Asami would provide covering fire from atop this hangar. If needed, Asami would jump off the roof and retreat to the hills. The simple plans are always the best ones, Korra thought with a grin, as she cracked her neck and prepared for the fight ahead.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami watched anxiously as Korra ran out onto the runways and began to tear up the ground with her earthbending. It seemed like most of the separatists were still asleep, or at least inside, since the outside of the airfield was almost entirely cleared of people.

Almost, Asami thought, before squeezing the trigger and firing at one of the three men she saw approaching from the far end of the airfield, from where she assumed the access road was.

She watched through her sniper rifle’s scope as the man dropped to the ground, pulled back the lever to load another round, then fired at the man’s friends as well.

She dropped the second one, and was about to fire at the third when she saw icicles flying in from the side to skewer him.

She responded immediately, turning away from the defeated opponents and looking for new ones. There were two main hangars, the one Asami was sitting on, on the left side of the airfield, and the one opposite her, on the right side of the airfield.

She looked towards the opposite one, searching for any movement, while from the corner of her eye she saw that Korra had resumed tearing up the runways.

She saw movement at the hangar, and fired before she was even certain what it was. There’s not going to be any civilians at this airbase, she thought to herself.

All she saw were dark silhouettes, with a dark hangar behind them, so it was tough to see if any of her shots were hitting their mark, but at the very least she guessed that it was helping to suppress them and make them hesitant to come out.

“The bender is here, kill her!” Someone shouted from the hangar beneath Asami.

She immediately checked on Korra, who she saw was now hiding behind earthen cover, while people from the hangar beneath Asami were firing on her.

Korra sent chunks of earth towards the hangar, and Asami heard grunts of pain and shock beneath her as some of them seemed to hit their marks.

Asami focused back on the opposite hangar, where she noticed the doors had been opened and some of the biplanes were beginning to move! Crap, they’re going to take off instead of protecting the base? They could still do a lot of damage to Bumi’s fleet if they succeed!

She began to fire at the biplane’s cockpits, but it was hard to see the pilots within, and even harder to see if she was hitting her mark.

One of the planes stopped moving though, so she counted that as a success, especially since it now blocked the path of another.

“Those shots… They’re on our roof!” Someone yelled.

Oh damn, time to leave! Asami thought as she stood up and ran, while bullets began to spray out of the roof behind her. When she reached the edge she simply jumped off, before landing in a roll. It was a good twelve feet fall, but the roll helped to lessen the impact.

All that training with Korra paid off, Asami thought, as she swapped her sniper rifle for an automatic sub-machine gun that she’d left here on the ground together with some other useful supplies. It was called the Type 100, one of her father’s most recent designs, she loaded a round in the chamber and made sure to set it to automatic fire, before running up to the corner of the hangar to look along the side of the building.

She was just in time to spot a group of men exiting the front of the warehouse, trying to get around to her position. She aimed towards them while they ran up against the razor-wire that Korra had placed in this new location just for this occasion, then she unleashed a barrage of bullets with the terrifying speed of fire that modern weapons were capable of.

She managed to gun down four men, while the rest retreated back around the corner. Good thing they didn’t realize I had to reload, Asami thought, rapidly swapping the empty magazine for a fresh one before changing her position to one of the bushy hills behind the hangar.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra watched Asami retreat to one of the hills behind the hangar, once she was far enough away she threw a few large boulders to the hangar’s entrance, to make sure that her girlfriend had ample time to make it to cover.

Then she switched her attention to the more distant hangar, where several planes were attempting to make their escape. With the aid of airbending she took several large leaps to get closer to the hangar, before beginning to attack the planes with powerful fireballs.

Her initial barrage was enough to destroy two of them.

Focused as she was on this attack, she was only barely able to dodge out of the way of a surprising attack that came in her direction in the form of a large boulder that landed right where she’d been standing moments ago.

“Ha! You think you’re the only bender in the world? We’re about to teach you a lesson little girl!” A man shouted.

He was one of two people who ran out towards her, neither was carrying a gun, both entered what looked like bending stances.

“Bring it on!” Korra shouted back, entering an offensive stance. Remember my lessons, first thing to do is to take away their number’s advantage! Of course, not all her teachers had supported that same tactic, but it was the one Korra had always favored.

She stepped forwards, blasting a large fireball towards her opponents. One of them launched the other up into the air with a pillar of earth, he took cover behind that same pillar while the one in the air spun around to remove water from a pouch at their side, which he slammed down towards Korra.

Korra dodged that first attack, then took control of the man’s own water. She felt him try to resist her control, but Korra was quickly revealed to be the stronger bender. She spun around and turned the water to ice before launching it back towards the waterbender. She kept spinning after this, kicking out to destroy the pillar of earth that the earthbender had lifted up and shot towards her.

After kicking his attack away she ignored the earthbender and kept her focus on the waterbender, who opened another pouch of water to attack her with. Korra deflected his attack, but didn’t try to counter by using his own water against him like most waterbenders would, instead she just let the water fly behind her, out of his reach.

He sent several more attacks her way while she advanced towards him, she remained undeterred as she deflected each of his attacks while letting the water fly away into the distance, until he finally realized that at this rate he was quickly running out of ammunition.

“Ghao, help!” He shouted to the earthbender, who kicked several boulders Korra’s way. She dodged the first, causing it to hit the waterbender it’d been meant to protect, then she caught the second, and punched the third straight back to its sender.

She turned back around to launch the boulder she’d caught towards the waterbender, who had used the last of his water to lessen the blow of the unintentional friendly fire and now had nothing left with which to block the attack. He went out cold as the boulder smashed into his face.

“He was just holding me back anyway!” The earthbender shouted, launching himself up with an earthen platform, before jumping down to send ripples of earth in Korra’s direction.

Korra adopted an airbending stance, ready to respond at a moment’s notice. Be the leaf, she thought, as she felt the earth push out beneath her right foot and simply allowed it to happen, bending her knee slightly to absorb the impact but otherwise allowing herself to be launched up into the air.

Once airborne, she spun around in a pirouette, gathering air around herself that she then sent towards her opponent, before using some more air to dampen her own landing.

The blast of air sent him flying back and made him fall to the ground, Korra immediately pressed her advantage by moving her hands up, directing the earth to swallow up and restrain her grounded opponent. He’d realized what she would try and quickly rolled back to his feet, he'd attempted to jump up to avoid being swallowed. But he was too slow to prevent one of his feet from getting caught.

With one of his feet caught, his attempt to jump away ended up working to his detriment, as his body moved but his leg remained in place, resulting in an audible snap as his leg broke under the pressure. After that, finishing him off and properly restraining him was no problem whatsoever.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami watched in relief as Korra defeated the second bender. Benders! Just how many of those do the separatists have?!

She hadn’t been able to get a clean shot to help Korra, she hadn’t had the time anyway, as she continued to exchange fire with the separatists at the hangar’s entrance.

They were effectively pinning each other down, Asami on the hill, them inside the hangar, neither side really managing to gain the upper hand. At least, that’s what Asami thought.

She realized her mistake too late, once she heard shouts and footsteps coming up the side of the hill, from the direction of the back of the hangar. Dammit, of course they went around! They just left a few to pin me down while the others flanked me!

She turned around just in time to shoot the first separatist who crested the hill. She tossed away her sniper after that first shot, since it was unsuited to such a close range fight, and pulled out her pistol instead.

“Shit, take cover!” The next two said, ducking back down from where they’d crested the hill once Asami started firing at them.

She used the time this gave her to grab another weapon she’d brought, the second of the two grenades she had looted from the separatist in the city.

She shuddered briefly, remembering the damage she’d done with the first grenade, but then she pulled the pin and tossed this one over the hill, to where the separatists who’d flanked her had taken cover.

She turned her back to the explosion, as well as the ensuing screams of pain, as she picked her sniper rifle back up before retreating once again.

This time she decided to run onto the airfield, the earthbending Korra had used to tear up the runways should give her plenty of cover, while the flat open ground surrounding it would keep her from being flanked again.

She ran as fast as she could, but evidently not fast enough to make it behind cover before she was spotted.

Bullets began to rain down around her, as she dove head-first over one of the ragged pieces of earth jutting out of the runway, landing safely but painfully behind the cover it provided.

Was I hit?! She thought in a panic, checking herself all over, knowing that with all this excitement it was possible for someone to not even feel the bullet that hit them.

It seemed like she was fine though, so she picked herself back up and prepared to defend against anyone foolish enough to pursue her.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra rushed back across the runway, as she saw Asami dive to cover amidst a hailstorm of bullets. She entered the avatar state without even meaning to, allowing her to cross the runway in a matter of seconds.

“Asami, are you okay?!” She asked in the voice of herself and her past lives, as soon as she arrived. She had to push away the gun that a startled Asami tried to aim in her direction.

“Korra! You scared the piss out of me! I- I’m as well as I can be, I suppose.”

Korra just smiled happily, giving her a hug and a kiss. “Good,” she said in just her own voice again, as she’d left the avatar state, “time to finish this.” She then closed her eyes, this time deliberately trying to enter the avatar state.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami watched as light shone from her girlfriend’s eyes again, before she blasted off in a gush of fire and air, leaving ripples in the earth behind her.

She had thought that by now she had a decent grasp of Korra’s power, but it was this moment that she realized she’d seen nothing yet. She watched in awe as Korra crashed into the hill that Asami had fled a short while ago, shattering the entire thing to pieces.

She then blasted back up into the air, smashing what remained of the hill into the nearby hangar, which could barely be recognized as such by the time Korra was through with it.

She then tore back across the runway, riding what could only be described as a horizontal landslide, which ignored all gravity as it moved beneath her. She made quick work of the second hangar as well, but not, Asami noticed, before two biplanes managed to escape, hurriedly taking off to flee what must appear to them as an apocalyptic force pursuing them.

Asami stood up, running towards Korra and towards the couple of biplanes that still stood on the sole remaining runway.

“Korra, we should pursue them, are these planes still intact?” She asked, once she came close enough for Korra to hear.

The avatar turned towards her, still with glowing eyes. It was, quite frankly, a terrifying sight. But then the avatar blinked, her eyes stopped glowing, and she was just Korra again.

“Uhhm, I don’t know, I scorched that one pretty good,” she said, pointing to one of the planes. “And you put some holes in this one,” she said, pointing to another, which had a dead pilot in the cockpit. It didn’t look like the cockpit itself had sustained any significant damage though.

“This one should work!” Asami said, clambering up the wing before moving towards the cockpit.

Once there though, she blanched at the corpse within, suddenly very nauseous once she saw it up close. She actually had to swallow down some bile, as she began removing the dead man’s seatbelts. Then, feeling like a monster, she took the man’s arm and unceremoniously hoisted him up, dropping him out of the cockpit so that his corpse fell down to the ground with a thud.

“Uhm, there’s only one seat,” Korra said, having climbed up the plane behind her.

“I know,” said Asami, “you’re going to have to hold on tight. We’ve got a couple of planes to catch.”

Notes:

Hi everyone! We're really getting close to the end now, in fact I've already finished writing it and now just need to check it for errors and bad phrasing!

Anyway, as you can tell getting close to the ending means that the action is ramping up! It feels like a bit of a balancing act to try to get the tone right, obviously this story is more violent than the original show, but I try not to make the tone TOO dark.

As always, I'll be happy to hear everyone's thoughts <3

Chapter 33: Battle of Yue Bay

Summary:

Korra and Asami fly back to the city, where the fight continues.

Battle of Yue Bay.

 

 

 

“Amon, sir! The enemy bender struck our airfield, all but two of our planes have been captured or disabled.”

Amon felt a darkness wash over him, as was happening more and more often lately. It was only through sheer force of will that Amon kept himself from strangling this deliverer of even more bad news and instead continued to project a sense of calm confidence from behind his mask. “Merely a setback,” he said, “they cannot stop us, all they can do is delay the inevitable.”

He dismissed the messenger with a flick of his hand, still expressing a sense of calm even though inside he was fuming with rage. That bender again! This is the last time I’ll allow her to interfere with my plans!

‘Her.’ As if to add insult to injury, the bender that he was increasingly certain was also responsible for the sabotage at the revelation, was a damned woman! First the revelation, then City Hall, and now our airfield? The airfield was what’s supposed to give our navy the upper hand!

He could only hope that the team he’d assigned to placing mines in Yue Bay was doing its job, because that was now the only advantage they had left against the enemy fleet that was sailing in from the Baizhi Sea.

“Lieutenant!” Amon snarled, summoning the poor replacement to his previous Lieutenant, who had died during the revelation. “I want you to gather each and every bender we have at our disposal, man or woman. Get them ready for combat, then send them out as soon as we receive word of this enemy bender’s next whereabouts!”

He hated having to rely on benders to deal with this threat, if felt like he was conceding that these archaic relics still served a meaningful role, while he wanted nothing more than to assign them to the dustbin of history.

All in due time, he thought, I’ll use them to defeat one of their own, then once I’ve finished taking charge or this society, I’ll decide whether or not a purge is in order.

He turned around, looking towards the wall to where he knew his own brother, Tarrlok, was being held. I won’t let anything stand in my way, he thought, as he allowed that same sense of darkness to wash over him again.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Despite the circumstances Korra couldn’t help but laugh in glee as the incredible flying machine lifted up into the air while she stood on one of its lower wings, holding on tightly to the beams connecting to the wings at the top.

She still wasn’t entirely sure how the wings worked without needing to flap like those of a bird, but she was glad for it because otherwise holding on would’ve been far more of a challenge.

As things were, it was actually rather fun. “Whoohoo!!” Korra yelled.

“Keep it down please,” her girlfriend said, Korra was able to hear her clearly over the wind due to speakers in the helmet she had insisted that Korra should wear, “I’m going to try to radio Air Temple Island, see if there’s any word on Bumi’s fleet.”

“Got it,” Korra said, while looking ahead towards the two enemy planes they were pursuing.

She heard a static sound for a while, until suddenly Tenzin’s voice sounded from her helmet. “Miss Sato, is that you?”

“Senator Tenzin? Yes it’s me. Korra and I have successfully destroyed the enemy airfield, and we’re currently in pursuit of the only two planes that managed to take off. Is there any word on when Bumi’s fleet will arrive?”

“There is,” said Tenzin’s booming voice, “they’re set to arrive at any moment, though Admiral Izo’s fleet will arrive soon afterwards.”

“Then I’ll try my best to take down these two planes before then,” Korra heard Asami say, “I’ll call you back when-”

“Wait,” Tenzin interrupted, “we’ve just received word from the militias in the city, apparently there’s a group of people who’ve been fighting the separatists independently from the worker militias. We’re not sure who they are, but they’ve gotten surrounded, the militias are unable to come to their rescue and request Korra’s aid.”

“Hmm,” Korra said, “tell the militias to mark the location in a way I can see from the sky, once we defeat the enemy planes I’ll get Asami to drop me off.”

“Korra are you sure? You don’t even have a parachute, can you really handle a fall like this?” Asami asked worriedly.

“What’s a parachute?” Korra replied. “Whatever, I’ll be fine, I can fly if I use the avatar state, but I don’t think I would even need that to survive the fall, I can use fire and airbending to slow myself down. If you take me to the right spot I can just hop off and safely reach the ground.”

“‘Safely’ reach the middle of a battlefield, you mean?” Asami said wryly.

“Exactly! It’ll be fun!”

“Crap, hold on!” Asami suddenly shouted, before the plane suddenly lurched in the air. “The enemy planes are trying to be clever.”

Korra snapped her eyes ahead, where she saw the two planes they’d been pursuing and slowly gaining on split apart in two opposite directions, one turning left, the other right. “They’re trying to get behind us?” Korra asked.

“Yeah, they want to at least make it so that if I pursue one of them, I’ll have the other right on my tail.”

“Let them,” Korra said. “You take the one in front, while I blast the one behind!”

“Are you certain you can make that shot?” Asami asked. “If not, then he’ll riddle us with bullets.”

“I’m certain,” Korra said, “I’ll just hit em with a fireball, easy peasy. He won’t expect us to be able to shoot backwards right? He won’t even try to dodge!”

“Sounds good to me,” Asami said, while in the meantime Korra noticed that they were already flying over Republic City. In almost no time they had travelled the same distance that had taken them almost half of last night!

Sucks that the separatists are using them to kill people, these planes are amazing!

She tore her gaze away from Republic City and from how several chunks of it were smoking or reduced to rubble, and instead focused on trying to spot the enemy planes again even while Asami kept turning and twisting their own plane in the air, making it a struggle for Korra to even keep holding on to the wing.

Korra finally managed to spot one of the planes as it turned in the sky to aim directly at their rear.

In that same moment, their own plane suddenly somewhat straightened out its flight. “I almost have one in my sights, do you have the other?” Asami asked.

“Yeah I got him!” Korra said. She lifted both of her feet up off of the wing and kicked towards the pursuing biplane while still holding on with her hands to the frame of their own plane’s wing. This launched a fireball as big as she could manage straight towards the enemy plane, right as it fell in-line behind them.

It exploded in a great flash of light, even bigger than what Korra’s fireball would’ve caused on its own, as the bombs it carried detonated prematurely.

About a second later she heard the roar of a machine gun, as Asami fired the guns on their airplane. “I got mine too, he’s definitely leaking fuel and I think his engines are down!” Asami said then.

Korra strained her muscles, pulling her feet back onto the wing again even while the air at this speed fought to blow her off of the plane entirely.

Then she turned around to look at what Asami was seeing, it took her a second but then she saw a smoking enemy plane, slowly losing altitude as it flew towards Yue Bay. “He’s too low to use a parachute,” Asami said, “I guess he’ll try to crash land in the bay instead.”

“He should be fine, shouldn’t he?” Korra said. “I mean- It’s water, it’ll break his fall.”

“At these speeds? And with the size of his plane? It’s better than landing on the ground, but it’ll still be a rough landing,” Asami said. “I hope he makes it though.”

“Yeah, me too,” Korra said. “Hey, is that Bumi’s fleet?” She added, when she saw some dark shapes in the water, sailing in from the South.

“Yes, it’s got to be,” Asami responded excitedly. “Oh,” she added more somberly, “which would make that Admiral Izo’s fleet.”

Korra looked around for a second, before seeing another group of dark shapes in the water, this time coming in more from the West.

From what Korra could tell, which admittedly wasn’t much beyond just counting the number of individual shapes in the water, the two fleets seemed fairly evenly matched. Though as predicted Bumi’s fleet was on track to arrive first.

“That’s going to be a crazy big battle, isn’t it?” Korra asked.

“Yes,” Asami said, “and now instead of dozens of separatist planes supporting Izo, it’ll just be me, supporting Bumi.”

“I bet you’re worth dozens of them,” Korra said, “kick their asses for me, would you? While I help those surrounded guys on the mainland?”

“Same to you,” Asami replied, forced cheer in her voice, “I’ll run out of either weapons or fuel eventually, so then I’ll have to parachute down.”

“I still don’t know what a parachute is!” Korra said.

“Ugh, it’s a um, it’s a safe way to get down when your plane is damaged or there’s no runway nearby. Quite useful for those of us who can’t fly. Think of it like a tiny air balloon that you store in your backpack and deploy when needed.”

“Huh,” Korra said. “That sounds... Weird. Are you sure that that’s safe?”

“Safe enough,” was Asami’s very not-reassuring answer. 

“Korra,” Tenzin’s voice suddenly sounded over the radio. “I’ve received word from the militias, they’re now marking a location near where they need your help, it’ll be marked with blue smoke. About a block North of the smoke is the building that’s being besieged by separatists.”

“On my way!” Korra said.

“Are you sure? From the sounds of it you’ll be surrounded by separatists on all sides,” Asami said.”

“So? That’ll just make it easier for me to find them and kick their ass!” Korra said with a grin. “That’s been the problem this whole time, that they were hiding. I’ll make them regret ever showing their faces!”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Jairo sighed, climbing up the ladder behind his comrade Amar, while the other man continued on another one of his excited rants. “Who do you think we’re signaling? I bet that it’s the Avatar. You heard about him right? We actually have the Avatar fighting on our side, supporting our cause!”

“Hard not to hear about it, considering the fact that you’ve already told me a dozen times,” Jairo responded. Amar, along with everyone else stationed in their position, hadn’t shut up about it ever since the rumor made it to their part of the fortifications yesterday. Supposedly some guy had shown up with powers over fire and earth like in tales of old, and helped the militias conquer several blocks of territory from the fascists.

Bunch of nonsense, Jairo thought, just another way that us workers don’t get the credit we deserve for our labor. I bet dozens of comrades died fighting for that victory, yet somehow some spirit no one has ever actually seen winds up with all the praise!

Amar seemed undeterred by Jairo’s complaints, as he continued chattering while they climbed the rest of the way up to the roof.

“How is this a two-person job anyway? Climb a roof and set off a signaling grenade? I can do that my damn self,” Jairo mumbled to himself.

Jairo took off his pack and took one of the smoke grenades from inside, pulling the pin and unceremoniously tossing it to the roof, where it landed in a small puddle before beginning to spew out bright blue smoke. “Mission complete, good job everyone!” Jairo said sarcastically. “Hey, do you think we’ll get a medal for this?” He asked Amar.

Amar ignored his sarcastic barbs though, as he stared up to the sky. “Look, biplanes!” He said, pointing to three planes in the sky.  

“See? We’re not signaling no damned avatar, we’re just signaling regular old air support,” Jairo said. “I swear, the sooner everyone discards religion, the better. We’ll never have a true revolution when people keep willingly submitting themselves to the church. ‘No spirits no masters,’ that’s what I say.”

Amar finally responded. “That’s what lots of people say, it’s a classic anarchist slogan!”

“Yeah well, you should listen to the classics kid, they’re classics for a reason,” Jairo retorted, before frowning and squinting his eyes. “Huh, that’s weird, they’re fighting each other,” he said, as he watched the way the three planes were maneuvering around each other.

“Wait what? Who’s winning?” Amar said, running up to stand beside him.

“How should I know? They all look the same to me,” Jairo replied, before he saw a stream of fire launch from the middle plane towards the plane in the back, while at the same time the middle plane also unleashed a well-aimed burst of machine gun fire that seemed to hit the one in front.

The back plane exploded, while the one in front slowly lost altitude before crashing in Yue Bay. “Well, someone won,” Jairo said. “Either we just signaled our allies, or we gave our enemies a nice target to hit…”

Amar gulped audibly from next to him, and they both watched with tense anticipation as the sole remaining biplane flew their way. “Well they’ve seen our signal, that’s for sure,” Jairo said nervously, still not sure if that was good or bad. Then… The plane just turned around again, back to Yue Bay. “That was anti-climactic,” he said, before squinting his eyes again.

“Crap! Is that a bomb?!” He asked in a panic as he saw something falling towards them, something that must’ve been dropped by the biplane.

“No- I think- I think it’s a person!”

Jairo squinted his eyes even more, then realized that Amar was right. “You think their parachute is broken?” Jairo asked, since the figure in the sky seemed a bit low to not have deployed their parachute yet.

That’d be something, he thought with a smirk, we climb all the way up here to send a signal for who-knows-who, then instead of them parachuting down towards us we get to scrape their remains of the roof.

They watched the figure drop from the sky, still no parachute in sight. Then- Suddenly, the figure twisted in the air and a blast of fire erupted beneath their feet, quickly hiding them from view.

The roaring fire moved downwards, and Jairo actually had to shield his eyes when it came closer to the building they stood on. He thought that it’d been a missile after all, as he turned away to shield his eyes from the bright light. He was sure he was about to die, yet the explosion he was expecting remained absent. Instead, he heard a female voice.

“Whoah, whow, ahhh!”

He turned towards the voice, and saw a watertribe girl, impossibly floating in the air above what looked like a small dust devil. It looked like she was trying, and failing, to maintain her balance atop the whirlwind. Then finally she spun out of control, flipping around a few times before roughly falling down onto the roof.

“Owww,” the girl said, lying on her back for a while before getting back up to her feet.

Jairo, with absolutely no idea of what was going on, couldn’t do anything other than stare at the bizarre figure that now stood before him.

“Ehh, hi, sorry about that,” the girl said. “I’m still new to airbending. Thanks for the signal! But ehhh, which way is North again?”

Jairo watched as Amar awkwardly pointed to the left, towards the territory controlled by separatists.

“Got it, thanks!” The girl said, before jumping at least fifteen feet into the air with a gush of wind, and then shooting fire from her feet to propel herself even further North.

Jairo and Jairo Amar both just stood there for a moment, processing what’d happened.

“The avatar actually exists?” Jairo said.

“The avatar is a woman?!?” Amar said simultaneously.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra, as she jumped from rooftop to rooftop, quickly found the building where she assumed she was meant to go. It was a big blocky building, with lots of windows, after a dozen stories or so four rectangular towers jutted out even higher, while leaving a cross of empty space between them.

It was surrounded by wide streets and small greenspaces, all of which were filled with separatist soldiers who hid behind various kinds of cover while exchanging fire with the people within the building.

Korra stood on a nearby roof for a while, assessing the situation. They’re surrounded alright, she thought to herself. The problem was clear, the question was how to best help them.

Just getting myself surrounded too wouldn’t be much help, even I would struggle defeating all separatists by myself. It’d be better if I first clear a path for these people, help them get to territory held by the militias before the separatists have time to regroup.

That was all the planning she needed, she moved to the part of the encirclement that was closest to militia territory, then jumped off of the roof.

None of them were looking towards her, so she was actually able to stealthily take out the first handful of soldiers. She stomped down her foot, opening up the earth to swallow up the hindmost separatist before closing the hole back up without a trace. She did the same a few more times, until the remaining separatists were all too closely together to be taken out one-by-one like that without their friends noticing.

I’d best remember to let those guys out for air again before I leave, Korra thought to herself, briefly wincing at the thought of slowly suffocating in a cold dark hole beneath the ground.

Then she focused back on the immediate task at hand; taking out the remaining separatist that were blocking her path.

The first group, who were taking cover behind a stone wall that’d once been the edge of a small park, was defeated by Korra using earthbending to turn their own cover against them.

The second group, who turned around at the noise this had produced, was defeated by Korra blasting them with a prolonged stream of fire. They screamed terribly for a couple of seconds, but then stopped.

The third group, who looked in shock after the brutal and for them inexplicable defeat of their comrades, was defeated by Korra disarming them with metalbending, before jumping amongst them to punch them with powerful gusts of air and to launch a few of them away using earth-pillars beneath their feet.

All in all it only took her a minute or so, and then one of the four streets of separatists that surrounded the square building was cleared of people.

She had to hurry if she wanted to avoid the separatists from the adjoining streets from noticing what was happening and attacking her from the sides, but also wanted to avoid getting shot by the people inside the building, if they didn’t realize she was on their side or were scared by her powers.

Her solution was to not worry about appearing friendly, she ripped out a large chunk of earth from the street to act as cover while she charged towards the building. I’ll have plenty of time to explain myself, once I’m inside and safe from the separatists, she reasoned.

As she has expected, but still hoped to avoid, the people inside appeared unable to recognize the force of nature charging their way as a friend, so they opened fire on the rock while Korra continued charging forwards.

With a final burst of speed aided by airbending, Korra blasted through the opening of the building, then immediately used her earthbending to create a turtle-duck shell of stone around herself, to protect against the strangers who now surrounded her.

She was fired upon from all sides, but her shell held. “What in tarnation is this, some kind of separatist weapon?” Someone outside her shell said.

“It attacked the separatists outside though!” Someone else added.

“Stop shooting, I’m friendly!” Korra yelled. “The militias sent me, they heard some people were fighting the separatists but got surrounded.”

“The militias? Just because we’re fighting the separatists, doesn’t mean th-”

“Shut it,” an authoritative voice said, “we’re in no position to be picky about our allies, we’re about to run out of ammo!”

“Yes Sarge!” The previous voice replied.

“Sooo, it’s safe for me to come out now?” Korra asked.

“Yes, I promise that my men won’t attack you, whoever you are.”

Well okay then, here goes nothing, Korra thought, before lowering the stone shell and folding it back into the floor again.

She looked around the building at the people surrounding her, surprised by the people she saw and the uniforms they turned out to be wearing. “You’re cops!” She said, entering back into a combat stance and summoning fire in her palm, the officers surrounding her raised their weapons too, but then the man with the authoritative voice, the ‘Sarge,’ shouted out to stop.

“Hold your fire!” The man, with an imposing mustache, said while making calming gestures to the men around him, before turning back to Korra.

“We’re not like the other ‘officers’ you probably encountered lately. We’re not with Amon, you should know that if you saw how we’re surrounded by separatist forces! After the attack on Yangchen’s festival some of us saw the writing on the wall, we knew that a coup was coming, that the new Chief and many of the rank and file would be supporting it.

“When the coup happened Amon’s forces took over the precincts and killed or imprisoned every officer who’s loyalty they weren’t sure of, but they couldn’t get us. We were smart enough to stop showing up for work, we were already preparing to fight back! Please, we’re on the same side, so lower your- Uhm, fire? And tell us who you are.”

Korra lowered her hands and allowed the fire in her palm to die out, while the officers in the room lowered their guns. She was about to start explaining when someone else spoke up instead. “I know who she is, she’s the girl from the iceberg, that broad who’s been fighting in cage-matches!”

“Uhh, yeah, that’s me,” Korra said. “My name is Korra. More importantly though, I’m the avatar. And I’ve been working with the militias, as well as what remains of the senate.”

“The avatar?” Several people exclaimed.

“The senate?” The Sergeant said excitedly. “The senate hasn’t been captured? I thought City Hall had fallen.”

“City Hall did fall, and the President was captured,” Korra said, “but I helped the senate escape.”

“Back up,” someone interrupted. “The avatar?! You really expect us to believe that-”

“I don’t really care what you believe,” Korra said, “you’ve seen what I can do, all you need to know is that I can help you break out of this building and safely make it to militia territory.”

The Sergeant looked thoughtful at this. “How safe will we be? I mean- Us and the militias haven’t always been on the best of terms, we were on opposite sides just a week ago while they were protesting and picketing.”

“I’ll personally guarantee your safety,” Korra said, “I won’t let them harm you, we all need to stand together against the separatists.”

After a moment of thought, the Sergeant nodded, his men didn’t seem convinced yet though. “There’s a whole block of separatist territory between us and the militias, last I checked. How are you going to break us through the separatists? They’re all around us!”

“Not the South side, where I came in, I cleared a path,” Korra said.

“Not anymore, they’re already patching the hole you punched,” one of the people who’d been looking out a window and continuing to defend against the separatists while most turned around to focus on Korra, said.

“Then I’ll just punch through again,” Korra said, “you all just be ready to move, I’ll make sure there’s plenty of cover.”

 

 

The Sergeant began to shout orders and tell everyone to get ready, while Korra began to do some stretches to prepare herself. Once the officers who’d been holding positions on the upper floors arrived, there were about thirty or forty of them in total. 

“You better deliver,” the Sergeant said, “or I’ll be ordering my men to march into a meatgrinder.”

“They were already in a meatgrinder,” Korra said, not familiar with the word but assuming that it was exactly what it sounded like, “don’t worry though, I’ll get them out.”

“Sarge? Everyone is ready!”

“Good!” The Sergeant responded. “Well alright then, ‘avatar,’ what’s your plan?”

“You’ll see,” Korra said, before closing her eyes and concentrating in order to enter the avatar state, letting Raava’s power flow through her.

Once she felt Raava’s power coursing through her veins she opened her eyes again, their glow prompting gasps from the officers around her. The officers cleared a path as she walked back towards where she’d entered the building. She stepped outside and, with the ease of several lifetimes worth of experience, she reached down to take control of the earth, and moved her hands up to command a massive ridge to rise up out of the street, cutting a line straight across it. Then she split her hands apart, which split the ridge apart too and created a safe corridor within the center of the ridge.

“There, I cleared a path, everyone move!” Korra said, having remembered to leave the avatar state first instead of speaking in the avatar state’s layered voice that she knew creeped people out.

“I didn’t think it’d be so literal…” The Sergeant mumbled, before ordering his men to comply.

Korra led the way through the pathway she’d created, safe on both sides thanks to the thick stone walls, dozens of police officers followed closely behind her. As she did, she also made sure to let the separatists she’d previously buried back up for air again.

Shouldn’t be too hard to reach militia territory, Korra thought, then I just have to figure out how to get socialist revolutionaries and the police to get along, easy.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami banked her plane, turning back around after she’d passed over Admiral Bumi’s fleet. The fleet, four heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and a dozen destroyers, was moving to an area of open sea a few miles South of the island with Avatar Aang’s statue. They would essentially be blocking the path towards the city.

The enemy fleet was headed to that exact same spot, but Bumi’s fleet was set to arrive a few minutes sooner. Okay, so our fleet arrived first. It won’t matter though, unless they win this battle.

She didn’t want to think about what would happen if the separatists won naval superiority outside of the city. They wouldn’t use their battleships to bombard the city, would they?

Sadly, as she considered it, she was finding it to be a very real possibility. I’m sure they’d leave all the wealthier neighborhoods alone, but the districts  filled with the poor and with immigrants, that are also the power-base of the militias? Their desire to destroy those was basically their entire message all along!

“Alright Miss Sato, it’ll be about two minutes before Ivo’s fleet is in range. I recommend that you start your bombing run only after we fire our first volley. You’ll be all alone up there, so they’ll all be gunning for you. Fly evasively, and hope that we score a few hits to help take the heat off of you.

“Just me against a fleet huh?” Asami said. “Tell me honestly Admiral, am I insane?”

“Not at all! I’ve always done my best work when I was hopelessly outnumbered, why there’s one time when I was surrounded by a gang of angry pirates, just me and a squad of well-trained flying dolphin-fish. The pirates underestimated me, which put them right where I wanted, you see-”

The Admiral cut himself off when a loud explosion sounded, Asami looked out of her cockpit to see a large splash of water shoot into the air at the front of one of Bumi’s heavy cruisers. Another explosion, along with another splash, sounded soon after, this time at the hull of one of the destroyers.

“They’ve placed mines!” Bumi shouted over the radio. “All ships, full speed and hard to port!”

“Full speed?! If we don’t stop immediately then we’ll hit more mines!” Another voice called out.

“If we stop immediately then we’ll be sitting turtle ducks for Ivo’s fleet’s cannons! Our only hope is to press ahead while changing course, and hope that we clear the minefield!” Bumi said, as another mine exploded.

“I repeat, full speed, hard to port. And ready our cannons, Ivo’s ships are almost in range!”

Asami also readied her plane, turning towards Ivo’s fleet while pulling the plane’s flight stick to gain altitude. She’d have to fly low and in range of enemy cannons in order to actually aim her bombs, but swooping down from a higher distance would hopefully help her gain speed and limit the length of time that she spent in range of the enemy ship’s anti-air guns.

She heard Bumi’s fleet open fire, and Ivo’s fleet fire back shortly thereafter. Two of Ivo’s heavy cruisers got hit, Asami picked the closest one as her own target. A plume of smoke was already rising from the back of the cruiser, then Asami swooped down along the length of the ship and pressed the switch to drop one of her bombs.

She pulled up and to the side, then saw a big bang on the front deck of the enemy cruiser. Direct hit!

She turned to starboard, trying to keep her exact flight-path erratic while AA-rounds began shooting into the air and exploding all around her, it was a tense few seconds before she flew outside of their range again.

She took a moment to get her breathing back under control, before focusing back on her assault.

She pulled her plane up into a loop, going fully upside down for a moment before spinning upright again and sighting down the target for her second pass. This time she swooped down far lower, to just thirty feet above the water, which at these speeds felt like she was skimming the surface.

Then she pulled the clearly-labelled switch that dropped an aerial torpedo, which would propel itself through the water before hopefully boring into the hull of the enemy destroyer she aimed towards.

Enemy rounds began to splash in the water around her, while she again turned away and began to zig-zag, before pulling the flight-stick again to regain altitude.

Once she was back out of reach, she continued flying higher, then turned back around to get a good overview of the battle.

One of Bumi’s four large heavy cruisers was smoking, and lurching to the side, landmines had damaged it severely, and Ivo’s fleet had been taking advantage by bombarding the easy target. She had to admire the sailors aboard though, because while their ship was clearly doomed they were continuing to fire back at Ivo’s fleet.

The rest of Bumi’s fleet seemed to have made it out of the minefield okay, their sudden turn to exit the minefield put them in a course to pass rather closely by Ivo’s fleet. Asami was no expert on naval battles, but she was sure that they were usually fought at much greater distances.

Speaking of Ivo’s fleet, the heavy cruiser that both Asami and Bumi’s fleet had hit was burning, seemingly primarily from the bomb Asami had dropped. It actually exploded once she turned to circle high above the battle. Two more of Ivo’s five heavy cruisers were hit, but none seemed to be disabled yet, its two light cruisers and most of its destroyers also seemed fine.

The destroyer Asami had torpedoed however had veered off-course, though it was trying to course-correct.

Asami considered her options, she had only one torpedo and three regular bombs left, so she wanted to carefully pick her targets.

She settled on the heavy cruiser that lagged behind the rest of Ivo’s fleet, since targeting that one would allow her to avoid the AA guns of most of the rest of the fleet. She circled around one more time to find the perfect approach vector, then swooped downwards towards her target.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Seriously? A bunch of cops, that’s who were fighting the separatists?!” Shui exclaimed over the radio. Korra had successfully escorted them to militia territory, where they hadn’t been very warmly received, but she did convince the militiamen present to radio Shui for her.

“Oh well, I guess we’ll take what we can get,” Shui then said. “If they’re willing to fight alongside us then I’ll take it, split them up into squads and send them wherever needed. Send two squads to our forces defending the Eastern bridge, they could use the help. Oh, and get them a change of clothes for Raava’s sake, coppers in uniform mixed with union militiamen is just asking for trouble!”

“Sarge, you’re really going to let them boss us around like this?” One of the police officers said.

“I am,” the police Sergeant replied while he began the shrug off his uniform, “like it or not, they’ve taken charge of the defense of the city. At least until reinforcements from the army proper arrive.”

“If you think we’re just going to hand back control after this is over, you’re sorely mistaken!” Shaozu said, he was one of the first militiamen Korra found after bringing the cops to militia territory, a fortunate coincidence that’d helped a lot in convincing the militia to let them enter.

Shaozu had clearly been motivated more by his creepy devotion to Korra as the avatar though, not by any sort of fondness for the cops she had in tow.

“Cross that bridge when we get to it,” Korra said, “first we still have the separatists to defeat!”

 

 

Korra was given another spare handheld radio, and spent the next hour or two running to and fro, wherever she was most needed. The separatists had set up another set of artillery cannons, which according to the radio had done a lot of damage to apartments that hadn’t been evacuated, before Korra was able to arrive and destroy them.

Har Dayal was the one who’d informed Korra of this, apparently he was running around doing his best to document everything that happened in the fighting, but the amount of deaths caused by these barbaric artillery strikes, which had targeted an area far behind the front lines, filled with civilians, caused the man to audibly need to fight back his sobs.

This put Korra in a foul mood, causing her to eagerly get pulled into a fight when, on her way back to the territory of the union militias, a separatist on a nearby roof took a shot at her.

The separatist was soon left to regret his life’s choices, as Korra used firebending to divert her course and blast her way towards him. A stone chimney ended up becoming a projectile as Korra ripped it off a roof to first block several more bullets he fired at her, before punching it towards him. 

The building he was on, which had been close to the artillery cannons, seemed to be used as some kind of base by the separatists.  Korra decided that while she’s at it she may as well clear the entire building before returning to the closest militia territory, which was where Mako and Bolin were positioned, last she heard.

She ran and jumped off the side of the roof, then kicked the air to fly back towards one of the windows on the side of the building. A blast of fire knocked out the window to keep Korra from cutting herself as she made her entrance, she landed in a run, before coming to a stop by punching another blast of fire forwards towards a couple surprised separatists who’d occupied the hallway she now found herself in.

She heard someone running up the stairwell, but was able to use metalbending to send him flying back down the stairs after knocking his weapon through his teeth.

Then she jumped after this man, landing on the man’s gut once they reached the bottom of the stairwell. She entered another hallway, where she saw another separatist. This one hadn’t even grabbed a weapon yet so defeating him shouldn’t be any trouble.

She smiled grimly as she shot a chunk of wall towards the man, who, bizarrely, just grinned right back at her. She barely had time to process what was happening when the chunk of wall stopped mid-air in front of the man’s outstretched hand, before the floor beneath her suddenly began to move.

She reacted just in time to avoid being crushed up against the ceiling as the floor suddenly flew upwards, earthbending helped her to smash through the ceiling instead. Then, spinning in mid-air, she landed with her feet on the ceiling of the floor above, immediately counter-attacking with a large blast of fire towards the man who still just smirked at her.

Before her fire could hit its mark, someone else jumped in front of the earthbender, Korra could see the fire being bent around the pair to prevent either from getting burned.

A firebender too? They were expecting me! Korra realized. They knew I would go after their artillery, then the guy on the roof deliberately drew my attention.

She stopped her blast of fire, then since this no longer pressed her up against the ceiling she fell back down, flipping back around as she fell down the two floors with holes in them before landing softly on her feet thanks to an airbending cushion.

The enemy firebender, now one floor above her, punched several fireballs at her, but Korra was able to swat them away.

The challenge increased though once the earthbender jumped through the hole in the floor and got down to Korra’s level, before shooting chunks of concrete at her.

Rather than deflect both earth- and firebending, Korra started to dodge instead, resulting in her being pushed further and further down the hallway she was in.

The firebender also jumped down to her level, Korra cartwheeled backwards to dodge another attack when, in the middle of her cartwheel, she spotted another person coming up from behind her.

She leaned backwards, standing on just one leg so that she could punch fire behind herself while kicking fire to her front. The man who’d tried to sneak up behind her was launched backwards out of a window after Korra’s attack blasted straight through his waterbending shield, but the fire and earthbender in front of her blocked her attack.

She noted, right before she spun in a kick to deflect another earthbending attack, that the waterbender had managed to latch an ice-hook onto the side of the building, so she knew that he would momentarily make his way back inside.

The earth and firebender were able to block all of her attacks, so Korra just stopped, causing a brief break in the fighting.

“Did you think you were the only bender in town?” The earthbender said with an evil grin. “We’ve been looking for you, but since you wouldn’t stay in one place we decided to draw your attention.”

“You shelled civilians, just to draw me out?!” Korra demanded.

The man just shrugged. “That vermin didn’t belong here to begin with, they’re an infestation that needs to be purged from our fine city, along with all the rest of the immigrant trash that’s spilling in from the Earth Kingdom.”

“You’re literally an earthbender!” Korra countered, while absently noting the waterbender swinging back through the window using some water tendrils.

“I’m from Yu Dao! Descended from a noble line, my family has lived there for a thousand years, since before the founding of the Republic! I’m nothing like the refugee trash streaming in from the Southern and Eastern provinces!”

“Oh, you’re from a different part of the continent, that justifies murder?!” Korra asked, staying on-guard while she heard more people coming up the stairs. How many benders did they gather for this ambush? She thought, as she noticed that none of these carried guns either.

“It’s not murder, it’s self defense. We’re defending our culture that’s under siege! Protecting our nation from-”

“I don’t care about nations, it’s the people who matter!” Korra exclaimed.

“What’s the value of a mere mortal life, without faith and tradition to give it meaning? A mere man will die and be forgotten, but they can be part of a glorious civilization that will live on for a thousand years!”

Korra shook her head in frustration, knowing that this difference in values couldn’t be reconciled. “I’m done talking,” she said, watching as more people came up the stairwell, there were at least a dozen enemy benders around her now, “you’re here to kill me? Give me your best shot!”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami flew over the battlefield, watching the needle of her fuel-gauge move, it was nearly empty now.

She had long since run out of bombs, having landed hits on three heavy cruisers that had subsequently exploded. Bumi’s fleet now seemed to be gaining the upper hand in the naval battle.

After running out of bombs Asami had focused on reconnaissance, occasionally using her machine guns when she found a target she could strafe but mainly talking over the radio to Tenzin and to the militias, flying over whatever part of the city they wanted her to observe, serving as their eye in the sky.

Her machine guns had since run out of ammo as well.

She had been the one who located the artillery cannons that Korra destroyed, soon after receiving frantic calls from the militias informing her that civilian targets were being shelled.

She spun around, flying over what remained of several ruined apartment complexes while seeing people dig through the rubble to look for survivors.

She hadn’t heard from Korra, not after she confirmed that the artillery cannons were destroyed and said she was headed back to militia territory.

“Any word from Korra?” She asked, after selecting Shui’s frequency.

“Not yet,” Shui said, making Asami’s stomach drop, it dropped further as she heard what else he had to say, “I was expecting her here a while ago. I’m quite certain that she’s still alive though, we can hear the sound of what seems to be her- Her bending, no idea what’s going on but it must be a crazy fight.

“You said that there were other benders, didn’t you? That you fought them at the airfield? It sounds to me like Korra found some of them,” Shui added.

Asami frantically turned the plane back around, trying to figure out where Korra could’ve gone in-between the artillery cannons and the militia territory a few block away. It was tough, since from the sky it was hard to even tell who held which blocks of buildings. Luckily it was one of the outlying boroughs and not the city’s central peninsula with all of its tall office buildings, so she didn’t have to dodge any skyscrapers as she flew as low as she dared, peering at the buildings beneath.

 There! She though, watching a tiny figure in blue clothing fly out of a building that had definitely seen better days, fire shooting from their feet while the building began to collapse and numerous other figures could be seen exiting it as well, jumping down or to nearby roofs in ways no ordinary person could dream of doing.

Benders, there’s so many of them! Asami thought in shock, her worry for her girlfriend increasing as she was forced to keep flying and leave her behind, before preparing the wide turn that she’d need to make to fly back to this same area.

And then what? What can I do from up here?

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Bumi tore his gaze away from all the radar screens and stepped up to the window, to survey the battle with his own two eyes.

It was total chaos- By design of course. After exiting the minefield (which would’ve been easier with a few well-trained dolphin-piranha) and passing close past Ivo’s fleet, Bumi had ordered his fleet to split in two, one turning starboard and the other portside. Then he’d told them to both continue making strange passes instead of fighting a traditional naval battle where they simply faced one another broadside to broadside.

My men are used to unorthodox orders and scenarios, Bumi reasoned, Ivo’s men most certainly are not. That guy’s got such a stick up his ass, I bet he sleeps while sitting upright.

Either way, Bumi’s ships were now bombarding Ivo’s neat little fleet from all sides, and Ivo clearly struggled to adjust to it.

It’d been a tough start, but things were going well now. It was only a matter of time before the rest of Ivo’s fleet went to the bottom of the bay, following the example of two of his heavy cruisers and both his light cruisers.

Which meant that it was time to plan for what came next. “I want all quartermasters to take inventory, prepare everyone with any infantry training, gather every weapon that isn’t bolted down. Once Ivo’s fleet surrenders we need to be ready to make landfall and support the brave citizens that are already fighting to protect our capital!”

He had actually already ordered a few of his destroyers to exit the naval battle, they had already pulled into port and were currently hard at work to secure the docks in preparation for the rest of their forces, so they’d be able to follow once Ivo’s fleet was defeated.

There weren’t a lot of marines in Bumi’s fleet, most of those had joined Ivo’s fake ‘training exercise,’ but many of the regular navy men still had some experience wielding a rifle as a part of basic training, so there was no excuse for them to do any less than the largely untrained militias that were apparently the only reason why the city hadn’t fallen yet.

Bumi didn’t try to suppress a grin. Worker unions taking up arms and taking control of entire neighborhoods, after the police join a coup? The unions are certainly not going to hand that power back for free…

Trying to restore order was going to be a tall task, especially for a government that was in shambles, so of course his little brother had taken it upon himself to become the acting President and to make the entire mess his own responsibility.

Better him than me, Bumi thought, as he continued watching the chaotic naval battle unfold, I’m better at causing messes. I’ll let Tenzin clean up after, it’ll be just like old times.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra grunted in pain, as another half-blocked chunk of concrete knocked her backwards through a wall. She landed in a roll, but the rubble-filled battlefield she was in wasn’t exactly the best place to be rolling around on, the numerous cuts and scrapes she’d suffered over the course of this battle were starting to add up.

She hadn’t had time to focus enough to enter the avatar state, and wasn’t even sure if she should try. The benders weren’t the only separatists nearby, as another bullet hitting the ground next to her made clear. The avatar state wouldn’t save her from a lucky shot hitting its mark, even if she moved enough to make herself hard to hit.

Dying in the avatar state, to once again leave the world without an avatar, simply wasn’t an option.

She spun around in a kick, tearing away the entire facade of the building the bullet had come from. Without the facade to give him cover, it was easy to find the gunman and turn him into a pincushion using a storm of icicles that an enemy waterbender helpfully provided Korra with.

The separatists, monsters though they were, at least seemed to have had the sense to evacuate the neighborhood before setting up this ambush, so that was one less thing to worry about as Korra spun around once more, deflecting another attack from an enemy waterbender, then using the water to block the attacks of an earth and firebender.

Stay on the offensive, she thought, knowing she would get worn down eventually if she didn’t start to thin the enemy’s numbers soon. One fire and one earthbender already lay dead, but for the moment Korra was still vastly outnumbered.

She used the remaining water to make a bridge out of ice, sliding forward as fast as she could while smashing through the earthen obstacles that enemy earthbenders tried to erect to stop her advance.

She pointed the icy ramp up to launch herself into the air just as she ran out of water, smashing head-first through a wall of earth that shot up before her. She spun around in the air towards the earthbender responsible, then used airbending to smash him into what remained of his own wall, before pulling said wall to collapse onto him.

Then she jumped forward, dodging the hole that another earthbender had tried to open up beneath her. She punched this other earthbender in the face with her palm, before blasting scorching hot fire out of said palm.

“Arin! No!” A firebender yelled, blasting fire towards Korra and making her dodge backwards, leaving the now-headless corpse of the female earthbender to fall to the ground, its smoldering neck causing steam to rise from the puddle it fell into.  

The firebender’s rage made him sloppy, Korra stopped dodging backwards and stepped right into his attacks, deflecting them with her own firebending until she was close enough to grab him by the wrists.

Then she stomped the ground, making it swallow up the man’s ankles, she jumped over the man and kicked him in the back, breaking both his legs as he fell forward while his feet were still stuck in the ground.

She used that same kick, with the help of airbending, to launch herself up into the air. Just in time to dodge a barrage of attacks from the remaining benders; about seven were left now that she’d taken out a third opponent.

She landed atop the building with the ruined facade, hoping to get the chance to take a small breather.

Thankfully, the enemy benders gathered in the street beneath seemed to be thinking the same thing, Korra saw them breathing heavily while they looked up at her in rage.

She heard the sound of an airplane but initially paid it no mind, Asami had been circling overhead for a while now. This time the sound grew much louder though, Korra looked up just in time to watch the plane speeding downwards and crashing right into the group of enemy benders, killing several of them instantly.

What? No! “Asami!!” Korra yelled, jumping forwards while the remaining three benders lay on the ground next to the wrecked plane, stunned by the surprising attack and the sudden deaths of their comrades.

Only one of them had the wherewithal to try to attack Korra, something he soon regretted as she bisected him with a spinning metal plate, one of many similar ragged metal plates that were part of the wreckage.

“Asami!” Korra yelled again, frantically using her metalbending to pull away more parts of the burning wreck, as though she would somehow find Asami alive and well, beneath one of the bent and broken pieces of metal. 

“The pilot, the- They’re over there,” A female voice said.

Korra turned towards the waterbender who’d spoken. “What?!” She asked angrily, her rage keeping her from really processing the words. She walked up to the waterbender, who cringed backwards and pointed past Korra.

“O- Over there!” The waterbender said, looking terrified of Korra. “Th- They used their parachute. Please don’t- I didn’t even want to fight, they made me!”

Korra spun around, to where the woman had pointed. She saw Asami, drifting down while suspended beneath a white piece of cloth that somehow kept her from falling more quickly, aiming a rifle right at her and pulling the trigger.

Korra, shocked and confused, cringed back at the sound of a gunshot. But it didn’t hit her, instead she heard a gasp from behind her, and spun around to find the other remaining bender, an earthbender, collapse back to the ground with a gunshot wound in his chest. The man was then crushed by the chunk of concrete he had lifted and had been about to attack Korra with from behind.

Korra quickly learned her lesson, she used earthbending to restrain the waterbender who’d spoken up, before turning around and watching Asami fall to the ground, landing on her side with the piece of cloth draped over her.

Korra ran up, frantically pulling away the white cloth to uncover Asami, alive and well, beneath it. “Oh thank the spirits, I thought you were dead!” Korra exclaimed, hugging Asami tightly.

“How do you think I felt, watching you battle all those benders from up in the sky?” Asami responded. “I finally saw my chance to help when you jumped to that roof, while they were all gathered in the street.” She looked at the wreck of the plane. “I was almost out of fuel anyway,” she added with a grin.

Korra laughed in relief, until a bullet landing next to them brought her back to the here and now. Right, there’s still separatists in the surrounding buildings, she thought, as she quickly moved to erect earthen walls as cover around herself and Asami.

“Help me get this off,” Asami said, struggling with the backpack she wore, which was attached to the piece of cloth that’d saved her life.

“Well,” Korra said, after simply using firebending to burn through all the annoying junk Asami was tangled up in, “I guess I finally know what a parachute is.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Tenzin watched in relief as what remained of Ivo’s fleet finally surrendered, and Bumi’s forces began to make landfall. The fleet was mostly just sailors, not marines with the training to serve as infantry, but from the reports Tenzin received Bumi had still managed to muster several thousand men from amongst his ranks who’d volunteered to fight as infantry anyway, hopefully it’d be enough to help turn the tides and retake the city.

Bumi himself, who thankfully had remained unscathed during the naval battle even though his ship had suffered a number of hits, arrived on the small dock of Air Temple Island with a small landing craft.

“Hey there, little brother,” Bumi said, with the same crooked grin and wild hair he’d always had.

“Bumi, I’m glad you’re safe,” Tenzin said, allowing his brother to hug him.

“Soooo,” Bumi then said, trying to give Tenzin a noogie until Tenzin managed to extricate himself from the attempted headlock. As always his brother was heedless of propriety, even while several of the crewmen who served under his command watched from the dock. “I guess I report to you now eh? Mr President sir? How did you manage that?!”

“Acting President,” Tenzin said with a sigh, “and I’m still not quite certain, to tell you the truth.”

He watched as Bumi turned around to direct the rest of his crew, as they unloaded what they would need to establish a proper command center on the island.

“What happened to the stairs?” Tenzin’s older brother asked, frowning at how weirdly uneven they still were, even after avatar Korra had turned them back into stairs again. There were also several holes from where they’d needed to free the separatists who’s legs had gotten stuck when the steps suddenly twisted around into a smooth ramp.

“It’s a long story,” Tenzin said with a sigh.

“Does it have anything to do with what I keep hearing about the avatar being on our side?” Bumi asked astutely.

“It does, actually. I’m not sure what you’ve heard, but she’s real. And certainly a formidable force to be reckoned with.”

“I hear that I have her to thank for saving my fleet from annihilation at the hands of a secret separatist airforce. Well, her and that pilot woman who helped take out several cruisers.”

“That is correct,” Tenzin said, “they’re certainly a formidable pair.”

“As are we, eh? An acting President and an Admiral? We could launch our own coup if we wanted to!”

“Don’t joke about that,” Tenzin said sternly.

“Oh lighten up little brother, we can at least fantasize a little about how we’d use our absolute power, can’t we?” Bumi asked, poking him in the side, then blowing a raspberry when Tenzin’s expression showed no willingness to give in.

“Okay, fine, let’s talk about more serious matters then, like how you plan to regain governmental control of the city once the separatists are beaten.”

Tenzin frowned. “What do you mean? When the separatists are beaten we will have regained control, by definition.”

Bumi looked at him sympathetically, but also as though he were an idiot. “Have you seriously not considered the possibility that the unions are not going to be willing to hand back power, not without some serious concessions? The way I heard it their strikes were already about to bring the government to its knees, now they have guns? And control over major parts of the city?

“You have a common enemy for the moment, but make no mistake little brother, the unions are not your friend. Especially now that you’re officially in charge of our capitalist state. Maybe not all of the unions want to abolish the state like the full blown anarchists would, but they’d certainly want to take control of it, to abolish private property and decommodify industry and all that,” Bumi said, casually waving his hand.

“With guns in their hand, control over much of the city, the President gone and congress in shambles, I bet that many of them are smelling blood in the water. Trust me, I may act the fool sometimes but I do read. I’ve read enough military history to know that revolutions are hard to predict, but that they’re primarily about momentum. Right now, I’d say that the unions certainly have a lot of momentum.”

Tenzin blanched, seeing the truth in his brother’s words. “But surely-” He began. “Surely people will be done with all the bloodshed, when the separatists are beaten?”

“Maybe,” Bumi shrugged, “or maybe they’ll see it as a chance to ensure that it wasn’t all for nothing. Besides, little brother, you’re the one who’d have to fire the first shot, if you want to forcibly wrest control out of their hands again. They’ll likely just want to negotiate, using their new power as leverage, just as how they use strikes as leverage.

“I’ve spoken to their leaders over the radio, they have not-so-subtly informed me that they do not require my men’s help in holding the territory that they already hold, and ‘requested’ that I direct my men elsewhere instead.”

“And you’ve complied with this ‘request’?” Tenzin asked.

“Of course I did! My orders are to fight the separatists, sparking conflict with the union militias while that fight is ongoing would be counterproductive. I’ve already given my men strict orders to respect the current borders that the militias hold, to push inland and drive the separatists out block-by-block, but stop our push wherever we meet militia forces.”

“That’s reasonable, I suppose,” Tenzin said, already feeling a headache beginning to form. “Since I have, somehow, become the chief commander of the Republic’s armed forces, I’ll hereby officially approve of this- Shall we say- ‘policy of non-engagement’ with the militias.

“Focus on combating the separatists, use your best judgement whenever you need to negotiate closer cooperation with the militias towards that end, so long as it doesn’t require you to agree to anything too drastic or set-in-stone.”

“Aye aye, sir!” Bumi said, doing an over the top salute. “Sounds like you’re making me do all the work, what will you do?”

Tenzin sighed, knowing that previous debates would be nothing compared to what lie ahead. “I suppose I will be preparing to get the senate on-board with any concessions that the unions will demand,” he said. “I’ll go to Senator Zetkin first, he’s always had a mind for drafting policy, he should be able to help me draft some initial proposals to bring to both the senate and the militias.”

I should also speak to Lin, he thought, she should know what exact legal powers I have as acting President in this situation, should I need to rely on executive power to work around an uncooperative senate, which I almost certainly will need to do. Though he had no intention of using his powers in bad faith, Tenzin had the feeling that a number of senators were about to regret the power they had granted him when they elected him as President Pro Tempore.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Who’s this?” Shui asked, when Korra and Asami emerged from another tunnel Korra had made beneath the front-lines, with a captured waterbender and captured firebender in tow.

Making their way back to militia territory hadn’t been too difficult all in all, the main difficulty had been with their captives. But the waterbender was being surprisingly cooperative, and the firebender clearly knew that with two broken legs there wasn’t much that he could do.

“They’re two enemy benders we captured,” Korra said, giving the waterbender, who was free except for the metal restraints Korra had bent around her hands, a slight shove in the back.

“I’m not- I’m not your enemy,” the woman said. “I told you, they forced me to- I never wanted any of this! My brother is the separatist, not me! He never gave me any choice in the matter.”

“Who’s your brother?” Korra asked, before seeing Asami’s eyes widen in recognition.

“You’re Wonyong Ae-Cha, aren’t you? Wonyong Keum’s sister.”

The waterbender nodded. “My brother, he- He was always jealous that I was the one who inherited our bloodline’s power. It didn’t make him respect me any more, it just made him more controlling. He treated me as nothing more than a brood-mare, telling me that he’d find another waterbender to ‘breed’ me with in due time.”

Korra, once again, couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the captured bender telling a story of how she’d been mistreated due to his power.

“For all his faults, even my brother didn’t want me to fight in this war,” Ae-Cha said. “Mainly because he didn’t want to risk the power in our bloodline dying out, but still. This morning though, separatist soldiers came to our house under Amon’s orders, they didn’t give either of us a choice.”

She then looked Korra directly in the eye. “They want you dead,” she said, “they were willing to sacrifice a dozen benders to get it done. I wasn’t the only one who was forced, and they were all members of the upper-classes, just like me. I'm sure my brother isn’t the only member of separatist leadership that Amon has angered just to try to kill you.”

“Well, it’s nice to feel wanted,” Korra said with a grin. “Anyway, the feeling is mutual, and if they want to come to me then that just saves me time and effort. I wish Amon himself would do the same, so I can break his stupid mask in half, along with his nose.”

“Are we sure he has a nose?” A familiar voice said, as Mako and Bolin walked up from among the other soldiers who’d watched Korra exit the tunnel. “I mean-” Bolin continued, “I know that he says his mask is a ‘symbol of national unity’ or whatever, but I bet he’s hiding something underneath!”

“Guys!” Korra said with a smile as she ran up to hug them, glad to see that they were both still alive. “I’m glad you’re both still okay!”

“You’ve seen better days though,” Mako said. “How many benders did you fight? Have you seen a medic yet?”

Korra looked down to inspect herself, her clothes were burned, torn, and covered in dust, while her skin was covered in cuts and scrapes and in even more dust.

“I’m the best medic there is,” Korra said, “I just need some water, then I’ll be good to go in no time.”

“No!” Asami said sternly. “Magic water healing is nice and all-”

“It’s not magic it’s bending,” Korra muttered.

“-but it doesn’t keep you from needing rest. We barely slept last night, you’ve been fighting for hours, and you just faced a dozen benders! You need to heal, and then you need a nap. Besides, Bumi’s forces are making landfall. That’s thousands of new fighters to combat the separatists, who are already pretty much surrounded. We’re winning! It’s not over yet, but we can afford to rest a while.”

“Okay mom,” Korra said, rolling her eyes, though as she did so she noticed that her eyelids did actually feel rather heavy. “Uhh, careful with the captives,” she said, turning around to Shui.

“Don’t let any water near the woman, except small cups when she needs to drink, even then you should be careful. The other is a firebender, can’t do much to keep him from bending, just stay on-guard I guess. And remember that he doesn’t need his arms or legs to bend, he can also breathe fire like this-”

She followed up her statement by tilting her head back and breathing out fire, triggering shocked and awed gasps from the surrounding soldiers, and making them shuffle nervously as they looked towards the captives.

Korra smirked slightly at the response, then she took Asami’s hand and moved to find a place where they could rest.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Asami held Korra’s hand, as Mako and Bolin led them to where they could get some fresh water. The brothers took them to an apartment nearby, which was empty due to how all the civilians in the area had evacuated.

“We’ll uhh, need some privacy,” Asami said to the brothers. “Since Korra will need to undress to heal herself everywhere. We’ll be in the bedroom afterwards to take a nap. Could you make sure no one disturbs us for a while, unless absolutely necessary?”

“Alright,” Mako said with a smirk, giving her a knowing look, “I’ll make sure of it,” he added, before grabbing his younger brother’s sleeve and exiting the apartment.

“Eeeewh,” Korra then yawned, “you were right, I could use a nap. It’s weird though, I’m tired, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to sleep.”

“Let’s get you healed up first,” Asami said, pushing her to the bathroom the brothers had pointed to.

Korra just mumbled her agreement, while allowing Asami to guide her, then she began to strip. “Wait, why are you stripping too?” She asked, when Asami also pulled off her vest and then her shirt.

“I could use a rinse too,” Asami said, “plus, I thought of a way to ensure that we’re both able to fall asleep.”

“Huh, how?” An oblivious Korra asked.

“Same way we do it every other night,” Asami said, “sex.” She wasn’t sure if it was normal, since Korra was the only person she’d ever had sex with, but both of them usually fell asleep like a rock soon after they finished having sex.

“Oh, oh, uh- Yeah that’ll work,” her now-flustered girlfriend replied, looking eager, yet holding herself back. “Is now really the time though? I mean- It feels a bit inappropriate, people are still fighting! Resting is one thing, but-”

“We both could’ve died several times today, and we’ll be risking our lives again before this is all over. Seems like a great time for us to be together, since it might be the last.

“Besides, rest isn’t all we need,” Asami added. “The military has a term for it, ‘R&R,’ ‘rest and recreation.’ They realize that even soldiers, or maybe especially them, need to make time to have some fun. To distract from everything else that’s going on. If all they do is rest then they’ll spend all that time dwelling on things they shouldn’t dwell on. I know that I have some recent memories that I’d rather not think about for a while, I’m sure you do too.”

Korra nodded somberly. “Yeah, I do…” She said. “Well, alright then, let’s get this party started!” She added, before quickly undoing her chest bindings and giving Asami a full view of her wonderful breasts.

Asami smiled, though she couldn’t help but notice the sheer number of cuts and scrapes that covered Korra’s naked body, she imagined that every one of them represented a close call, an attack that would’ve been far worse if her girlfriend hadn’t mostly dodged or blocked it.

When they were both naked, Asami pulled Korra into the shower, eager to get her girlfriend to begin healing herself, to wash away all reminders of the violent and dangerous day they’d had.

Notes:

Hey everyone! We're getting really close to the end of book 1 now, and I'm real excited to share it with you all.

Getting started on book 2 has taken a bit longer than I thought though, in part because I've had a really bad mood lately. Not sure if anyone here follows Dutch politics, but one of our fascist parties (yes we have several, and I'm not exaggerating when I call them that,) became the largest party in the recent election, and to make it worse the "liberal" parties (liberal by European definitions means right wing) are not ruling out a coalition with them.

Which has made me bummed to the point where it feels like the bending in this story isn't the most unrealistic part, feels more like the way that I try to make it an ultimately optimistic narrative where progressive politics actually stand a chance is what's unrealistic and hard to believe.
I feel like if I write now then I'll just write a story where the good guys are crushed and the fascists win -_-

So anyway, the finale of book 1 is already written, you can look forward to that, but with my current mood and with the coming holiday season it probably won't be until next year that I start posting book 2. In fact I might make the target date the anniversary of when I posted the first chapter of this story.

Chapter 34: Victory? And compromise. (Part One.)

Summary:

Team Avatar works together to capture a bridge, meanwhile Tenzin argues with the senate.

Victory? And Compromise. (Part One.)

 

 

 

Tarrlok stared at the wall of his cell, where he was being kept separate from the members of the House of Representatives, which his captors had gleefully boasted about also capturing. No boasts about capturing the senate though, he thought, so it would seem that all isn’t lost quite yet.

The thought wasn’t much comfort, the United Republic’s existence as a democratic state wasn’t what he cared about, all he cared about was his own career and legacy, proving that he was stronger and better than his late father and than the brother who’d abandoned him.

He had no delusions of winning another election after this disaster, even if the coup attempt was thwarted in the end. Especially since he wouldn’t be the one doing the thwarting, he was just uselessly sitting in a cell. Even if he survived his predicament, he would be reduced to a victim at best, while whoever got the credit for his rescue would be able to set themselves up for a victory in the next elections.

He almost wanted the separatists to win, just so that he wouldn’t have to go down in history as the man who’d been captured by a bunch of losers.

He was shaken from his thoughts when the door to his cell opened. He was about to throw a petty barb towards his guard, but then he saw the mask of the man who entered. Amon.

“To what do I owe this visit from the glorious leader of the revolution?” He said mockingly.

The other man just stayed silent for a moment, while wearing that stupid mask of his.

“I suppose that I thought it was finally time for a family reunion, brother,” Amon said.

Brother? What- “What kind of game do you think you’re playing?” Tarrlok demanded.

“No games,” Amon said, “I’m being completely serious, no masks.” He punctuated his statement by unclasping his mask and lowering it, giving Tarrlok his first view of the man beneath.

Or at least, in a world that made sense it would have been his first view. In this world however, it was a face he was already intimately familiar with, albeit the person behind it was much older than he remembered. “Noatak?” He asked. “You- How? Why?!”

“The why should be obvious,” Amon- Noatak, said, “although we parted ways, it appears that we were more alike than I thought. We both wanted to out-do our father, to prove him wrong.”

“Parted ways!?!” Tarrlok exclaimed angrily. “You left us! Not just me, but mother too! Right after father died! How- How could you?!”

“Oh please,” Noatak said, “father’s death was a gift from the spirits, mother ought to have been happy to be rid of him. If she wasn’t then that’s her own fault, nothing to do with me.”

Tarrlok scoffed. “Do your followers know? That this entire movement of yours is based solely on your daddy issues?”

Noatak’s face twisted up in anger, the first sign of actual emotion he’d shown in this entire conversation. “It’s more than that! You and I may be alike in many ways, but there’s one key difference. We both wanted to out-do father, but you wanted to do so simply by grabbing power- No matter the cost. No matter who’s bribes you had to take or who you had to suck up to!

“I, on the other hand, wanted to prove him wrong more thoroughly than that. To prove that it’s possible for this to truly become a United Republic, bound together by shared traditions and a shared culture, with no more ethnic conflicts to divide us.”

Tarrlok scoffed. “You truly believe in your own nonsense, don’t you? I overestimated you, big brother, I thought you were just in it for power and ambition…

“You truly believe that creating a totalitarian ethnostate, with xenophobic policies towards immigrants and towards any and all traditions and holidays that aren’t state-sanctioned, will bring unity?! It will do the opposite, the violence would never end, nobody would ever be pure enough!”

The socialists had it right all along, if you ask me, Tarrlok thought. They were my opposition in my quest for power, but they were right none the less; nationalism and other forms of tribalism are a poison, solidarity is how you build a peaceful and prosperous society.

“I suppose that I will have to prove you wrong too,” Noatak said, “not that you’ll be around to see it. In a next life perhaps, if such a thing exists.”

“What are you-”

“I have decided to spare you the humiliation of a public execution,” Noatak said, “it will just be you and me, like old times.”

Fear now gripped Tarrlok, as the meaning of his brother’s- Of Amon’s, words sunk in. “You’d kill your own flesh and blood?!”

The shadows in the room somehow seemed to darken, as did the expression on Amon’s face. “It’s how it has to be, for the revolution to be complete. If only you truly were the weakling that father always said you were, then you wouldn’t be in this position.

“You should be proud brother, you exceeded father’s expectations, and mine as well.”

“You’re no brother of mine!” Tarrlok snarled. “You stopped being my brother when you left me and mother, she’s dead by the way! I thought that maybe you’d at least show up to her funeral; I even delayed it as long as I could knowing that you’d probably have to travel, but it was all for naught. Did you even know? Or were you too busy planning your insane revolution to take note of your own mother’s death?!”

“No brother of yours? Very well, have it your way,” Amon said, putting his mask back on. “Any last words?” He asked from behind the cold and expressionless mask that would be the last thing Tarrlok ever saw, while drawing a gun from its holster.

“You’ll fail,” Tarrlok said, spitting at the man’s boots, “I’m just sad that I won’t be there to see it, to watch it all come crumbling down. Your ‘revolution’ will be nothing more than a short chapter in the history books, a story of a coward behind a mask, who suffered from delusions of grandeur!”

“Goodbye, brother,” Amon said while Tarrlok defiantly looked him in the eye, in part because focusing on him was less terrifying than looking straight at the barrel of the gun aimed at his head.

He did hear the click of the gun’s trigger though, it was the last thing he ever heard before everything went black.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra woke up, bleary-eyed, briefly confused about where she was. The comforting warmth of Asami lying next to her initially fooled her into thinking that they were back home in the mansion, but as she looked around she realized that the room didn’t look familiar at all.

That’s when things began to come back to her. Oh, right, she thought as she cleaned the goop from her eyes with her pinky finger, we’re at war.

It was still light outside, so their nap couldn’t have been that long, but under the circumstances it was probably already longer than it should have been. Especially considering the time they’d spent on other activities before going to sleep.

Wasn’t my finest work, but it was fun watching her struggle to keep from making so much noise that all the militiamen outside knew what we were up to, Korra thought with a smirk.

“Time to wake up,” she said to Asami, while giving her a smack on her rear.

“Five more minutes!” Asami moaned, digging herself into the blankets.

“You can stay here if you want,” Korra said, “but I’m the Avatar, I should be out there, making a difference. And we should say goodbye, just in case I- Uhm- Just in case I’m delayed.”

Asami shot awake at that. “No don’t leave! I’ll come with you, just lemme grab my clothes!” Korra watched in amusement as Asami threw off the blankets and looked around the floor, unable to find her clothes. Of course watching Asami in the nude also wasn’t something to complain about.

“Pretty sure we left them in the bathroom,” Korra said, as she exited the bedroom, similarly naked, and then crossed the living room before moving to open the bathroom door.

She opened it, then came face to face with Bolin, who’d been about to knock, and Mako who stood right behind him.

Bolin just stood there gaping for a moment, briefly peeking down before comically pulling his gaze all the way up to the ceiling.

“Sorry, wrong door!” Korra yelled, feeling the blood rush to her face as she slammed the door in their faces. Shit, where’s the bathroom?!? She thought, frantically looking around the still mostly unfamiliar living room until she found the right door.

“Uhh, Shui asked us to come get you,” Mako said from behind the front door, his own embarrassment audible in his voice. “He’s planning another push against separatist territory and wants you to be part of the discussion.”

“Sure, just let me get some damn clothes on first!” Korra yelled, entering the bathroom and grabbing up all her clothes. “Not a word,” Korra said when Asami smirked at her, clearly having overheard what happened with the brothers.

Asami’s grin broadened, then she helped Korra with her chest bindings, though sadly she did so in a much more quick and practical manner than usual.

Korra pulled on a shirt, jumped into her pants, and was still tying on her fur skirt while she walked back to the front door.

“Okay, I’m ready, talk,” She said a bit angrily, even though the brothers were hardly to blame for what had just occurred.

“I pretty much said it already,” Mako said while scratching his neck, “you should talk to Shui. With your powers you’re probably going to be able to play an important role in the next stage of fighting.”

“Well, I guess that’s the end of our break then,” Asami said, as she pushed her way past Korra and through the front doorway.

“Yeah, let’s go see Shui,” Korra agreed, before following after her and hopefully leaving this whole dumb incident behind them.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

They walked towards the command post that’d been set up by Shui and the other militia leaders, when a sudden flash of light and sound scared Asami, making her reach for the rifle she had hanging in a sling off of her shoulder.

It wasn’t until after she had a sheepish looking Har Dayal in her sights that she realized the sound had merely been that of the portly man’s camera taking a picture.

“My apologies, Miss Sato,” Dayal said, “I should’ve realized that you’d be a bit jumpy after all the fighting, that catching you off-guard might not be the best of ideas.”

“It’s fine,” she replied, after taking a deep breath. “I think it’s good- Documenting these events I mean, not scaring the piss out of me.”

Dayal smiled at that. “If it makes you feel any better, you’re not the first who’s reacted like this. I’ve gotten a lot of good photographs though, to document everything the militia has done to protect the city. I expect that, before long, people will need the reminder.”

“You’re probably right about that,” Asami replied grimly. After all, we wouldn’t want anyone to start thinking that unions are good, or that workers are capable of organizing themselves! At least, that’s how most of my peers will probably feel.

Asami herself, though she couldn’t claim to have no concerns at all about the armed militancy of the unions, didn’t think it was hard to recognize the vital role they’d played in combating the separatists thus far. She resolved to, once this was all over, do everything in her power to ensure that everyone else recognized it too.

“Avatar Korra? What are you waiting for, get over here!” She heard Shui say, prompting Korra to finish walking to the command post, Asami following closely behind.

“What’s the capitalist doing here?” Someone asked when they saw Asami, before looking at her with undisguised dislike. Asami responded in kind, giving him her worst glare.

“I’ve been fighting on the front lines, alongside Korra,” she said, trying to sound as casual as possible. “Of course you wouldn’t know that, since you look like you’ve never actually been there.”

The man was wearing similar clothing that all the other militiamen wore, including a blue ribbon tied around his arm that was used in lieu of a full uniform to distinguish militiamen from the separatists and their red scarves. Asami wore one of those too.
The man’s clothing however was perfectly clean, which set him apart from those who had been fighting and who were covered in dirt and concrete dust from collapsed apartments.

The man stood up in anger, but Shui silenced him with just a look. “She makes a fair point, Liau. She’s been a valuable ally to our cause, so I have no objection to her presence here. We can put it up to a vote if you wish, but I’d rather not waste the time.”

“If you kick her out then I’ll leave too!” Korra added from beside Asami. “I just want to fight the separatists, I can do that just as well while working with Admiral Bumi and his forces. But then they’ll be the ones that are able to capture most of the territory still held by the separatists, instead of you. I have a feeling that you wouldn’t like that, would you?”

The man, Liau, blanched at that. Asami was impressed with Korra, she hadn’t been certain if her girlfriend had understood the tense relationship that was taking shape between the worker militias and the United Republic government’s official military, now that it’d finally arrived.

But apparently Korra had been able to intuit what had already been obvious to Asami as well, that the militias and the government were not necessarily on the same side, and that the militias having established control over much of the capital city gave them a lot of leverage that they could use once the separatists were defeated and an agreement between the militias and the United Republic government needed to be found.

She always says that she’s not good at this part of being the avatar, but I’d say that she’s a natural, especially considering how new she is to this era, Asami thought.

“Let’s all just calm down,” Shui said, “we agree on one thing, we want to defeat the separatists as quickly as possible, with as few losses as possible for our side.”

“For either side,” Korra said, receiving surprised looks from some others, but not at all surprising Asami, “I want to defeat the separatists, but I don’t want to murder all of them. If they can be captured instead of killed then that’s what we should do.”

“Of course,” Shui said, “we’re in agreement with that,” he said. “As we promised, we’ve been taking good care of the prisoners you delivered to us. In fact, some have been surprisingly cooperative and have given us some good intel that will help us take the city from the separatists.”

Asami couldn’t help but notice the wording there, the use of the word ‘take,’ as opposed to the word ‘retake,’ one more reminder that the militias were not holding this territory on behalf of the United Republic’s government. They were their own faction.

“Regardless, I believe all the elected delegates of the militias are here, so shall we get started?”

“Wait,” Har Dayal said, “where’s Zerao?”

“Relieved from command,” someone said, “once the fighting started he didn’t seem able to handle the pressure so me and the rest of my comrades called a vote to depose him, then they elected me in his stead.”

“Ah, I see,” Dayal said, while Asami marveled at this fascinating example of a democratic military in-action. “Then yes, I believe everyone is here, let’s proceed.”

 

 

 

 

Shui stepped up, seeming to take charge of the meeting as the one with the most actual combat experience. “What I think we should focus on is how to move further downtown, to take or at least surround the central district and the rest of the peninsula, which is still largely in separatist hands.

“Admiral Bumi’s forces have recently taken the Silk Road bridge on the West side of the peninsula, they’ve established a bridgehead and are moving along the coast from there. We on the other hand control the immigrant district, two of the Eastern bridges to the peninsula, and many of the factories and docks. We have managed to push out from there, but it’s been slow going in most places, except for where Avatar Korra lent us her assistance.

“Kyoshi Bridge is still in separatist hands, potentially allowing them to resupply their forces that are entrenched downtown. I suggest that we make capturing Kyoshi bridge and establishing a bridgehead on the central peninsula a priority, while simultaneously pushing North with the rest of our forces to cut off their remaining supply lines.

“Cutting them off from their forces outside the city would make the defeat of the separatists a matter of time. Controlling these supply lines ourselves will also give us more leverage when we enter negotiations with Admiral Bumi and the acting President.”

“What do you mean ‘when’?” Someone replied. “Who says that we’re willing to negotiate with their illegitimate state? This is our chance for a true revolution! Why would we give control back to the failed capitalist state when we have the chance to finally abolish it?”

“This kind of talk is- It’s treasonous!” Someone who Asami hadn’t noticed before exclaimed, as he stood up to speak. “How can there be any question about whether we give control back to the rightful government?”

“Do you know that guy?” Asami asked Korra. He seemed rather out of place, he wore a similar ragged jacket that the others wore, but underneath it she noticed a finer linen shirt.

“He’s the guy I rescued, who was surrounded while fighting the separatists,” Korra said softly. “His name is Ansari. He’s a police Sergeant who leads a bunch of cops who stayed loyal to the government instead of siding with the separatist coup, and now he’s here with the militias.”

Ah, interesting, Asami thought, she’d heard about the man but hadn’t met him yet. I’m glad that at least some cops stayed loyal, she thought. There were many legitimate criticisms of the institution of the police that Asami herself made, but the idea that the police could be so incredibly corrupt that all of them would betray democracy was still incredibly depressing, so she was glad that it wasn’t quite that bad.

“All due respect,” Shui said, “but it’s not ‘treason’ to oppose a state that we’ve never voluntarily chosen to be a part of and never swore our loyalty to without being coerced into doing so. We’re grateful for your help, but you knew from the beginning who we are and what we believe. We oppose unjust hierarchies, we don’t recognize the legitimacy of any organization that claims authority over everyone born within its borders, or that otherwise tries to claim authority over anyone without their consent. We believe in voluntary association.

“If you wish to stop associating with us then be my guest, but it seems to me that when you threw your lot in with us it was because you recognized us as a lesser evil compared to the separatists, I don’t see why that calculus would’ve changed.”

The police sergeant shook his head in anger, but didn’t argue the point.

Asami sympathized with him, she had to admit that she was also rather uncomfortable with this outright talk of overthrowing the United Republic government. Though she also had to admit that the argument could be made that said government had already collapsed.

In her field many writers liked to talk about the ‘monopoly on violence’ as being core to the definition of a state.
If a ‘monopoly on violence’ was what defined a state, yet you considered the last few days of violent conflict involving several non-state organizations as well as large numbers of traitorous cops, then arguably all of that meant that for the moment they lived in a stateless society. Which meant that it’s only logical for there to be a discussion on whether or not the state should be restored, and in what form.

“Well said! I certainly have no loyalty to the United Republic either,” Har Dayal said. “Be that as it may, I wouldn’t consider the United Republic a ‘failed state’ quite yet,” he added.

“They’ve been humiliated, sure, their grasp on power isn’t as strong as they thought it was. But from what I hear General Iroh has been steadily driving back separatist forces throughout the nation, he’s retaken all major military bases, as well as the city of Yu Dao. The only true separatist strongholds left are here in Republic City and in Makapu City, but those will soon fall as well.

“I would caution against underestimating the strength of the state, they’ve suffered a heavy blow but their military might is still considerable, far greater than our own. We may be able to defeat Bumi’s forces here in the city, but he represents only a fraction of the remaining might of the state.

“Frankly, I believe that with our current strength it would be a losing fight. I believe we should negotiate. We should strive to extract as many concessions as possible, perhaps even a degree of autonomy and self-governance for the territory we hold, but ultimately we’ll have to accept that the state will reassert itself for now. Meaning that we go back to what we’ve been doing, gathering strength and support, building up our mutual aid networks, until eventually we reach the level of support necessary to actually challenge the state.”

“Can we just settle this philosophical mumbo jumbo please? Put it up for a vote, so that we can proceed with planning the damn war we’re fighting?!” Shui asked.

Dayal nodded. “Very well, let’s phrase it like this; what should our objective be in this next stage of the conflict? Should we fight to take more territory from the separatists? If so, should we do that with the aim of future negotiations with the United Republic, or with the aim of capturing the entire city and outright rejecting the United Republic’s authority?”

A vote was held, a few people were content with just sitting back, holding the territory they currently held while watching Bumi mop up the rest of the separatists. However, most agreed to launch another offensive against the separatists. The more significant split was on what the goal of this offensive ought to be, but ultimately the winning side of the vote still won with a significant margin. They would negotiate with the United Republic, once the separatists were defeated and the government began to reassert itself.

Asami breathed a sigh of relief, as did the police Sergeant. Korra however looked conflicted.

“Do you disagree with the outcome?” Asami asked her, a bit surprised that Korra didn’t also side with negotiations.

“I- I don’t know,” Korra said. “I see so much wrong with how this city is ruled, I do think it’s oppressive, but I don’t know what to do about it. I wouldn’t be the first Avatar to support the overthrow of a tyrant, but there’s already been so much bloodshed, and I don’t even know if we could win, so… I don’t know.”

“Well,” Asami said, “if you’re not certain then erring on the side of diplomacy seems perfectly sensible.”

“I guess,” her girlfriend said, though she pouted in annoyance.

Asami had to hold back a laugh at how in-character it was for the tribal girl to be upset that an enormously complicated geopolitical matter like this, which would probably have hundreds of books written about it over the course of the next century and beyond, didn’t have any simple answers.

 

 

Then the actual war-planning began, few people had any objections to the basic outline that Shui proposed for the Northern front, which meant that the following discussions centered on which units would be assigned to which tasks, and on things like where the mortars that the militias possessed would be most effective.

The plan to capture Kyoshi bridge however, met more resistance. “How do you expect to capture the bridge?” Sergeant Ansari asked. “They’re dug in deep, you probably won’t even be able to capture the bridgehead. But even if you do, then what? You’ll have to march in a straight line across the bridge, straight towards the enemy, who have several more defensive lines on the middle of the bridge!”

“I’ll admit, I’m surprised by the skill and discipline of these worker militias of yours, but there’s just no way that you can achieve this objective. I certainly won’t be sending any of my men on such a suicide mission.”

“It won’t be a suicide mission,” Shui said, “we have a secret weapon, that I think will allow us to pull it off.”

Asami sighed, guessing that she already knew what, or rather, ‘who,’ that weapon was.

“That is, if she agrees to help us,” Shui finished, looking directly towards Korra and confirming Asami’s suspicions.

“Sure,” Korra said, “I’ll help. What do you need me to do?”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra swam through the frigid water of Yue Bay, enjoying the refreshing cold and the sense of freedom that swimming with the aid of waterbending always gave her. At the same time though, she mentally prepared herself for what came next.

The plan wasn’t too convoluted, Korra would attack the Western side of the bridge that connected to the central peninsula, while at the same time the worker militias would attack the Eastern side of the bridge.

Whoever was the first to capture their side of the bridge, which would likely be Korra, would then attack the separatists on the other side from behind.

Korra swam back up, both to take a breath and to see how close she was to the bridge. Almost under the Western end, perfect, she thought before diving back under.

She swam down a bit, then while drifting underwater she focused her mind, shut away her worry for Asami and for Mako & Bolin who would be part of the attack on the Eastern side of the bridge, allowing her to enter the avatar state.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Bolin grimaced when he saw several perfectly aimed mortar shells landing right on top of the separatists behind the enemy’s sandbag barricades, at the bridge’s entrance. He’d feel more sorry for them if they weren’t firing mortars right back at where he and the rest of the militiamen were positioned.

He ducked back behind cover when a whistling sound in the air told him that another salvo of separatist shells was about to land.

“Where do you think they got all the sand?” He asked.

“What?” His brother replied, from where he was ducked down beside him, pressed up against yet another line of sandbag barricades.

The shells landed, exploding all around them, but none close enough to nullify their cover.

“The sand! Look how many bags of sand everyone has all of a sudden, where did they get it? Did they rob a desert or something? Did they dig up entire beaches outside the city and nobody noticed? I bet that we’ll be able to see the next war coming if we just keep better track of our sand!”

“Is that really what you’re thinking about right now?!” Mako asked, looking, as he often did, like he was in complete disbelief at the way Bolin’s mind worked. Bolin was kind of proud that after all these years he was still able to trigger that look, it required originality and creativity!

“I’m just talking, I talk when I’m nervous, you should know that about me by now!” Bolin retorted, before wincing and grabbing his ears in pain from the sheer loudness of the noise as a shell exploded uncomfortably close, just on the opposite side of their barricade.

It actually knocked over some of the mysterious sandbags they hid behind, making Bolin need to move to the side slightly to stay protected.

“They’re not filled with actual sand, not necessarily at least” Asami said. “Usually they’re just filled with random dirt. That’s part of what makes them so useful, you can just bring some empty bags with you, which don’t take up very much space. Then once you need a barricade you simply dig up the ground from wherever you are and fill up your bags, whether it’s sand, dirt, clay, doesn’t really matter.”

“Huh…” Bolin said. “That makes sense.”

 

“Bolin?” Another female voice asked, he recognized it as Zori’s voice, one of the militia’s female fighters. Some of the men in the militia thought it was weird that women were fighting alongside them, but not Bolin. You don’t need to be that strong to squeeze a trigger, right?

“That’s me!” He said. “What do you need?”

“They say that you’re a good shot, so Sergeant Ansari said to get you and your brother to join us on a mission. We found a way up the roof of a nearby apartment building,” she said.

“It’ll give us a great view of all the separatists who think they’re safe behind their little barricades,” she added with a devious smirk.

It would’ve made her very attractive to Bolin, if he hadn’t already been spoken for. I wonder where Ginger is, Bolin thought idly, after agreeing to come with Zori. Asami joined them as well.

They crouch-walked for a while, since standing up too high would expose them to the separatists on the bridge, until they made it to the shelter of an alley to the side. “First we have to climb up here,” Zori said, leading them to a fire escape that hung off the wall.

A few other men were already waiting beneath the fire escape, including the police Sergeant that was part of the company assaulting the bridge, Bolin forgot his name but remembered him because of his sizeable mustache. I wish I could grow a mustache that big, he thought.

He also found it funny, that after spending his whole childhood as a streetrat running from cops, he now found himself fighting beside one.

“We’ll need to go inside the building to actually get to the roof access, and we haven’t fully cleared the building yet, so keep your eyes peeled,” the Sergeant ordered.

“Got it,” Mako said. They boosted Zori up the fire escape, then she lowered the ladder for everyone else to follow. When they reached the top of the fire escape they entered the building itself, where Zori led them to the ladder with roof access. Thankfully without ever crossing paths with any separatists.

“So far so good,” Mako said, causing Bolin to internally curse his big brother. Dammit Mako, do you always have to jinx things?!?

As they opened the hatch and climbed to the roof though, everything remained jinx-free. They proceeded to the edge of the building without issue, then from there they could see the separatist bridgehead they intended to capture.

Zori was right, this angle gave them a clear view of the enemy, unobstructed by the separatist barricades. It was quite a long range, but still- It’d be like shooting fish in a barrel.

As they prepared to open fire though, Bolin was shocked by how not bad he felt about it. If anything he felt bad about not feeling more bad, like he should feel more hesitation yet he just- Didn’t.

In his time on the streets he’d generally hated fighting and tried to steer clear of it, but there had always been one exception: Bullies. If there was a clear bully, then Bolin had always been willing, eager even, to fight them, much to the chagrin of Mako who was always very risk-averse.

So when Bolin thought about the violence at Yangchen’s festival a few days ago, the devastation caused to people’s homes by separatist artillery, the civilians who’d died from it, the neighborhoods they’d burned down months ago, the way they’d kidnapped Bolin himself, there was no doubt or hesitation in his mind, as he sighted down his rifle.

The separatists are the biggest bullies around, he thought as he aimed for the head of one who was manning a mounted machine gun. Then he pulled the trigger.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Damned fools, Yizo thought as he loaded another belt of ammo in the machine gun’s side, and watched as the gunner again started to unload on the union scum.

Do they seriously think they will capture this bridge? We’ve got lines of fortifications across its entire length! Even if this line of defense falls, they’ll just be forced into another meat grinder a hundred feet down the line.

It confirmed what he had always known, the unions and their supposed love for freedom and democracy were all a scam, they were just another elite cabal sending regular folk to die in their name.

At least the separatists stood for something, they fought for tradition, for the spirits, for a national identity unsullied by a never-ceasing invasion of foreigners! Sure, Yizo figured that many separatist leaders also enriched themselves, but what did that matter if their cause was just?

The union ‘militias’ on the other hand were just faithless barbarians who didn’t believe in anything but their own hedonist desires, Yizo swore that he’d even spotted women fighting for them when he’d looked across to the union barricades.

What manner of men are they, that they don’t even seek to keep their women safe?

So yeah, Yizo didn’t feel bad as the union fighters fruitlessly tried to push their way into a meatgrinder, he was just sad that he was on reloading duty and that he didn’t get to man the machine gun himself, that instead he just had to crouch down behind cover, with the inglorious job of waiting until the gunner asked for another belt of ammo.

He looked to the gunner with envy, just in time to watch the man get hit right in the head, splattering blood and gore all over Yizo’s face.

He sat back in shock for a moment, but then he grinned. This is my chance! He thought, as he pushed the former gunner’s corpse out of the way and took his place.

He grabbed the machine gun and eagerly looked towards the enemy lines to try to spot his first target. His hand moved to the trigger and then-

His legs suddenly gave out from beneath him, as he fell down to the ground a strange coldness washed over him, at the same time it also felt like he’d been punched in the gut. Wha- What happened? He thought, confused.

He thought briefly that someone else had wanted to fire the machine gun and had pushed him away from it, it took a strangely long time to realize the obvious. Oohh, I got shot, he thought, as he touched his lower abdomen and felt his hand get wet, when he looked down he saw red, spreading everywhere.

“They’re on the roof! We’re completely exposed! We have to fall back!” He heard someone yell, from what seemed like very far away.

“Yizo, get moving!” They then shouted, getting directly up in his face, yet it still sounded like it came from far away.

He didn’t recognize the person, but he tried to listen to them. Only problem was that his legs weren’t moving! He couldn’t even feel them. “I- I can’t, I think my spine was hit!” He said, before trying to wrap his arm around the man’s neck so the man could lift him.

His fellow soldier had other ideas though, he just pushed Yizo off and ran away without him.

Yizo chuckled. Well that’s just wonderful, he thought, lying down next to the corpse of the former gunner. Never even got to shoot anyone.

He began to fumble with his belt, a vague idea of using his sidearm to shoot whichever union soldier first stormed these abandoned barricades. His hand was slippery with blood though, so it was slow-going.

By the time he finally managed to un-do the clasp that held the pistol in place, a militia fighter already made it to the sandbag barricade, leaning over it and aiming right at Yizo.

He tried to pull his pistol, but it slipped out of his hand. His vision was starting to fade, but he could see enough to notice that it was a woman, she briefly glanced at him but then apparently dismissed him as a threat, before sighting down her rifle and firing a few shots in the direction of the bridge.

The infuriating thing was that she was right to dismiss him, Yizo felt his consciousness begin to fade as he tried and failed to find his pistol again before eventually just giving up. Then, as everything continued to fade to black, all he could think was what a failure he’d been.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Dayal stayed behind while all the militiamen stormed forwards, taking advantage of the damage caused by the team that’d begun to weaken the enemy lines by firing from the roofs.

Once the return-fire from the separatists began to diminish Dayal peeked up, camera at-the-ready, and began to snap pictures of the militia troops storming towards the enemy barricades.

The separatists had already started retreating by the time that the militia fighters began their push, so it didn’t take long for the barricades to be captured.

They’ve completely taken over the bridgehead, Dayal thought, once the sounds of gunfire began to mostly dissipate, good.

He, like everyone else, of course realized that there would be another line of defenses just a little bit further down the bridge, so the fight was far from over. But it was a victory none the less.

He considered his next options, he could stay here, take pictures of the wounded at the med-bay. Or…

After a moment’s hesitation he climbed the militia’s barricades like the fighters had done, albeit in a less athletic manner, then he ran forwards towards the recently captured separatist barricades.

He had no doubt that Korra, the avatar, would capture her side of the bridge and then make her way here. Now that would truly be something worth capturing on camera, which meant that he wanted to be as close as reasonably possible to the action.

The worker militia fighters began to properly secure the enemy barricades, they reversed the abandoned mounted machine guns, aiming them towards the bridge instead of away from it. Dayal just tried his best not to get in anyone’s way while he crouched down like everyone else.

The separatists seemed to have finished setting themselves back up at their secondary line of defenses, so bullets were again zipping overhead and thudding against the other side of the sandbag wall that Dayal and everyone else were hiding behind.

“Hey Dayal, make sure you get my good side!” One of the fighters next to him said, winking at Dayal before standing up and firing his rifle at the separatists. Dayal grinned and obligingly snapped a picture of the man while he was shooting. The two sides continued exchanging gunfire, but this time there wasn’t a roof to climb to gain the upper hand, so not much progress was made by the militia troops.

Just as well, Dayal figured, no sense in trying to charge towards a fortified position, not when Korra should be attacking them from behind soon.

Right when he finished that thought, he noticed something strange. Gunfire could still be heard coming from the separatist position, yet the sound of bullets zipping overhead and thudding against their barricade had ceased. Dayal chanced a look up above the barricade, and noticed that the separatists seemed to be firing in the opposite direction, at something further down the bridge.

Dayal, quite confident in what that something was, immediately began taking pictures, even though there wasn’t much to see quite yet. That soon changed, a loud roar of water sounded, louder than any natural wave, and suddenly water could be seen shooting up from the sides of the bridge and covering the separatist barricades. Dayal was taking picture after picture, capturing everything while the water could be seen turning to ice, it now formed a large jagged wall- No, a cliff, that covered the entire width of the bridge. Its size reminded Dayal more of a mountain than of any kind of man-made structure.

After taking a few more pictures, Dayal lowered his camera and just stood there, staring in awe at the sight, as all the militia fighters beside him were doing as well.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra maintained her waterbending form for a while longer, even after covering the bridge in ice, she breathed out deeply, lowering the temperature of the ice even further. Once she was satisfied with how strong the ice she’d made was, she released her control over it and relaxed her posture.

Getting from one end of the bridge to the other had been easier than anticipated, while it was true that the separatists had many different lines of defenses set up at the bridge, most of them hadn’t been manned. Maybe they had assumed that any attack on the bridgehead, even if it was successful, would give them plenty of time to retreat, that therefore there wasn’t any need to man the other lines of defenses.

Clearly they hadn’t anticipated Korra, empowered by the avatar state, showing up to ruin their day. She had destroyed their defenses at the bridgehead before they even had time to think about retreating.

She could have left it at that and headed straight to the side that the militia had already been attacking at that point, but instead she’d decided to spend some time using earthbending to create strong walls around the bridgehead, walls too high to easily climb, to ensure that the separatists didn’t just retake it as soon as she left.

She looked up at the mountain of ice that covered the bridge and was now between her and the militias. Maybe I went a bit overboard, she thought sheepishly.

It did the trick though, she thought as she looked at a few of the separatist fighters in the ice, they themselves weren’t frozen and she could actually see their eyes follow her as she walked around them and their wide-eyed expressions. I better get to the militias, make sure they’re ready to take a bunch of captives, so that I can unthaw the ice before they all suffocate.

With a few airbending hops, which she was getting better and better at, she made it to the top of the ice, then she gave herself a pair of ice-skates that she used to slide down the mountain.

“One bridge, as ordered,” she said with a grin as she slid down towards the militiamen who’d gathered beneath the icy structure. “There’s still a bunch of dudes in the ice who you’ll need to take captive once I unthaw it, so get ready!” She added.

They all just stared at her slack-jawed. Ugh, have they still not gotten over the avatar thing? That’s annoying, Korra thought. She clapped her hands to get their attention. “Captives!” Clap- “Get ready!” Clap clap- “Just ignore the whole ‘avatar’ thing and do your jobs!”

“Wait!” A familiar voice said, Korra turned towards the source and saw Har Dayal running towards her with a camera. “Let me get some good pictures while you unthaw the ice!”

“Knock yourself out,” Korra said. Then she turned towards the ice, raising her hands. Thawing ice was always quite interesting, unlike most bending it didn’t involve actually moving the thing she was bending, it required her to kind of like, vibrate it in place, until it warmed up enough to suddenly turn from a solid back into a liquid.

Since Dayal asked for a cool picture, Korra did her best to unthaw the entire mass of ice at once, it would’ve been easier to do it a bit at a time, but she was pretty sure she could manage it like this.

The ice rumbled for a bit, then suddenly it came crashing back down as, all at once, it turned liquid. Korra stepped forward and pushed against the water, to prevent it from washing over and soaking all the militiamen. It flushed away from her onto the bridge, where it drained naturally through grates built into the side of the bridge.

The separatists who’d been frozen in the ice all sort of flopped down to the ground, then began to cough and groan in pain. This seemed to shake the militiamen out of their awed stupor and remind them that they had a job to do, they all began to move in, kicking away any weapons on the ground while holding the separatists at gunpoint.

“Where’s Asami? And Mako and Bolin?” Korra asked, as an open question to everyone around her.

“Last I checked they were up on the roof, over there,” a man said, pointing over to an apartment building that did indeed have some people standing on top. One of them was waving at her, and when she squinted she recognized her girlfriend.

“Thanks,” Korra said to the man, smiling in relief that Asami was safe. Then she jogged over towards the apartment and blasted off towards the roof with fire- and airbending.

She landed on the roof’s parapet, then hopped down to the lower part of the roof where Asami was waiting. She ignored Mako and Bolin and everyone else for the moment, as she pulled Asami in for a kiss, one that her girlfriend happily reciprocated.

“We’re not really hiding it anymore, are we?” Asami said as they broke apart.

“Yeah no, I think the secret is out at this point,” Korra said with a grin, right after whistles and cheers sounded from the street below.

“Well, then we might as well make the most of it,” her beautiful green-eyed girlfriend said with a devious look in her eye, “give them all a good look at their new Avatar and her girlfriend.”

“You really are a genius,” Korra said, “always full of good ideas,” she added, before diving in for another taste of Asami’s beautiful warm lips.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

After getting down from the building, Asami helped the militia haul all of their equipment over to the opposite side of the bridge, to fortify it and ensure that Korra’s work in capturing it didn’t go to waste.

“Now what?” She asked, when it looked to her like their defenses had more or less been set up.

Korra shrugged. “I don’t know, Shui said over the radio not to bother pushing further ahead, that it’ll cost less lives if we just wait for the separatists to run out of supplies. His push up North went well, they ended up meeting Bumi’s forces halfway through, so together they’ve fully cut off the separatists’ ability to escape the peninsula or to get supplies into the peninsula.”

“So that’s it? We just… Wait?” Asami asked. It was strange, she ought to feel happy that there wouldn’t be much of a need for actual fighting anymore, but instead of being happy she felt very dissatisfied with being told to just sit still and do nothing.

She could tell that her girlfriend was feeling much of the same, as she looked like she ate something very sour when she responded. “Yes, I guess so. It’s a good thing- Maybe the separatists will simply surrender without any more bloodshed.”

Asami frowned. “Still though, I don’t want to just do nothing…” An idea then came to her. “I’ll go to my factories, those are in militia hands, right? I’ll go there, make sure everything is in order. There might be a way to help the city in the process. We’ll be able to distribute food from some of my warehouses at least, and I can see if I can send my fleet of fishing boats out without Bumi’s navy sinking them to the bottom of the bay.”

“Sounds good,” Korra replied, “I wish I could join you, but I think I’ll be more useful as a healer. We can stay in touch though, right?”

“Yes, definitely,” Asami said, tapping the hand-held radio she had strapped to her belt. “We’ll stay in touch.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Tenzin sighed, it was getting dark now, yet he still hadn’t made much progress. He had worked with Senator Zetkin to draft a set of possible concessions, in preparation for the inevitable need to negotiate with the worker militias. The concessions were largely in line with what the union’s demands had been during their general strike, but exceeded their demands in some aspects, since Tenzin anticipated that due to recent events the unions would feel like they now had more leverage than they did before.

But when he had brought the matter to the rest of the senate, it hadn’t exactly been well-received. Grateful as they had been for Tenzin helping them get to safety during the start of the coup, much of the senate was now very angry at him instead.

“If the unions refuse to give up their territory and submit to our rightful authority once this is over, then they’ll be declaring themselves enemies of the state! They’ll be insurrectionists, just like the separatists. We didn’t negotiate with the separatists, so we shouldn’t negotiate with them either!” Senator Batbayar said.

“You wanted to negotiate with the separatists…” Senator Yuchaz responded.

“I did, yes. You all mocked and chastised me for it, yet now you want to do the same with the union militias? Give them concessions in response to their violent demands? It’s the height of hypocrisy!”

“I reject this comparison,” Tenzin said loudly, “the unions have made no aggressive move towards us, they’ve even been willing to cooperate with my brother’s forces to launch coordinated assaults against the enemy. Whatever disagreements you may have with them, to compare them to the separatists is doing them a gross disservice.

“The truth is that we have failed, as a state. If we wish to ask people to recognize our authority again, after they were the ones who needed to step up to fight the separatists while the our government’s forces were absent, while many of the government’s forces were even in-league with the separatists, then it’s only natural for this to involve certain concessions on our part. They have every right to feel betrayed and distrustful towards our authority, after most of the police and a large portion of the army turned on them.”

“But you cannot deny that it’s a threat of violence,” another senator said, “to use their militia’s control over parts of the city as leverage, to deny our troops access!”

“We’re also threatening violence,” Tenzin said, “marching our troops in would be violence. The state, by its very nature, is a violent instrument, one that uses the threat of force to make people within its territory obey its rules.”

He could tell that several senators wanted to interrupt, but he kept talking anyway. “By trying to restore our state’s authority over the territory that the militias currently control, we’re threatening to use force to make them obey our rules. The unions wouldn’t be doing anything that we ourselves don’t also do if they decide to hold their territory and rule it in a manner of their own choosing, with rules of their own making. If they use force to protect their territory, and demand that we adopt their rules, rather than the other way around.”

“But- We’re the elected leaders of this nation, the unions are not!” Senator Aran, of the liberal party, said.

“Power comes first,” Tenzin replied, “elections have rules too, you first need to have the power to make people obey the rules of an election. The unions disagree with the rules of our elections. They’re democratic too, in many ways they’re more democratic. For example, most of them allow women to participate in their elections, while we shamefully still do not allow the same.

“Besides, after all this upheaval none of us can be certain that we would be re-elected if another election was called. We cannot purport to be acting with a powerful democratic mandate, not under these circumstances. I, as the acting President, certainly can’t pretend as though my current position is very democratic.”

“So what? You want us to abolish our state, so that we can instead become part of whatever socialist state the unions dream up?!” Batbayar demanded.

“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Tenzin responded. “I’m merely saying that I have no desire to start a violent conflict with those who’ve helped save the city, who are merely standing up for their own rights and beliefs. Not when diplomacy is still an option. The unions have done nothing to make me believe that diplomacy is not an option, unlike the separatists who launched violent attacks all across the city, who killed dozens of people even before they launched their violent coup.

“The senate was already considering concessions in response to the union’s labor strikes, in my view nothing has changed, except they now have even more leverage than before.”

“Well, there’s been other changes as well,” said Jingbo, walking into the room. Tenzin hadn’t seen much of the socialist Air Nomad this past day, but in hindsight he should’ve realized that Jingbo wouldn’t have been idle either.

“I’ve been in contact with the Red Lotus and the other unions,” Jingbo said, “they have drafted a list of demands. If you thought that it would be enough to simply give in to the demands that the unions made before this war then you’ll be disappointed, this new list of demands is far more extensive than the ones they made during the strikes.” Jingbo smiled, before adding a final note. “As you say, they have more leverage now.”

Tenzin sighed. “Very well, how are the unions planning to negotiate? Will they send representatives over to the island?”

“Yes,” Jingbo said, “they’re willing to come over to the island, despite it not exactly being neutral territory. A gesture of good faith that they hope you will respect by treating them as though they have the same diplomatic immunity as proper diplomats would.”

“Diplomatic immunity?” Batbayar scoffed. “See?! They’ve already declared themselves a separate state!”

“Pay attention,” Tenzin said, “Jingbo used the words ‘as though,’ a clear acknowledgement that technically they will not have diplomatic immunity, as they are technically still citizens of the United Republic.”

Tenzin turned to Jingbo. “Tell them that we accept, we can begin negotiations first thing tomorrow morning. Their representatives will be treated with full respect and be allowed to return unmolested once negotiations are through, even if we’ve been unable to reach an agreement.”

Jingbo nodded and left the room, leaving Tenzin with an angry Batbayar and dozens of other angry senators.

“You don’t get to make that decision on our behalf!” One of them said.

“I do, actually,” said Tenzin, looking questioningly towards Lin just to make sure, she nodded affirmatively. “You ensured that I could, by making me the acting President. As Chief Commander of our armed forces and as the head of the executive state, I fully intend to use the powers you granted me in order to negotiate a peaceful resolution. I will welcome your advice: but as the senate your only power is to vote to either approve or disapprove the final treaty, not to help negotiate it. That power belongs to me.”

He saw several senators twist their face in anger and offense, but ultimately he was confident that he was making the right decision. Negotiations with the unions would be hard enough no matter what, things would go much more smoothly if he didn’t have to contend with the senate every step of the way.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Very well, I do believe that that’s everything,” Har Dayal said, bringing the meeting with the Red Lotus to a close. He had the honor of being chosen as the Red Lotus’s representative, and had been discussing with the rest of the Red Lotus what exactly their goals should be in negotiations. They’d also needed to figure out how much authority they wanted Dayal to have, whether or not he would have to consult with the rest of the union’s membership before agreeing to certain things or making certain kinds of concessions.

The Red Lotus wasn’t the only union of course, so before this meeting he’d also needed to talk to the leaders of the other unions, to ensure that their demands didn’t diverge too much and they were able to present a united front. All in all, he was utterly exhausted, his time taking photographs of the battlefield just earlier today already seemed like a distant memory.

He yawned, causing chuckles from some of the others in the room. “You’d best get some rest comrade,” Enuk said, “wouldn’t want you to give us all a bad name by falling asleep during negotiations while serving as our representative tomorrow.”

“You make a good point,” Dayal said, too tired to actually laugh at the joke, “I’d best retire for the night.”

He stepped outside of the Red Lotus headquarters, which now looked more like a military base, and walked back to his own house. It was well within the territory that the militias controlled, far from the frontlines, yet he found that he was unable to put himself at ease as he walked down the street. He kept thinking about how exposed he was, how there was no cover if an artillery shell struck nearby.

How long will it take, before the streets feel safe again? He wondered. Will they ever?

His somber mood brightened a little once he came home and his wife was waiting for him. She’d been one of the women fighting in the militias these past two days, but after their recent victories the militias no longer needed everyone on active duty, so she was back home again, safe and sound.

He was proud of his wife’s active role in the militia, but had to admit that he preferred her to be safe at home.

“I have some soup that’s still warm,” she said after welcoming Dayal back, “want me to pour you a bowl?”

“Yes please,” he said. “I need to sleep immediately after though, busy day tomorrow. As expected I’ll be the representative the Red Lotus is sending to negotiate with the senate tomorrow,” he said, accepting the bowl of soup she gave him and taking a first sip.

“Speaking of, could you help manage things here with the newspaper, in my stead? I mostly trust everyone to manage on their own, but your experience will make absolutely certain everything goes right.”

“Of course,” she said, “I’m always happy to help with the paper, you know that. Just don’t be upset if there’s more feminist and pro-suffrage messaging than usual.”

Dayal laughed. “I’d expect nothing less from you,” he said, “besides, universal suffrage is one of the demands I will be fighting for tomorrow, so it’ll actually be very topical. Speaking of, did you finish developing the pictures I took?”

“Yes, I did,” she replied. “There were some good pictures, including many photographs of female militia fighters like I asked for, thanks for that.”

Dayal frowned though, as certain memories suddenly came to mind again. “They weren’t all very uplifting and empowering pictures though, were they? Call me sexist if you want, but it- It hit different, seeing young women get killed and injured on the front lines, same as the young men.”

“It is sexist,” his wife said with a smirk, “but don’t worry, I won’t judge you for it. It’s not your fault, a generation born without sexist indoctrination has still yet to be born. What matters is that even when you have sexist impulses though, you’ve always been able to override them through rationality. That’s why I married you.”

“And I’m forever grateful,” Dayal said, giving her a kiss. “But perhaps we should play to people’s emotions in this case, and not share any of the pictures of the female militia members who were wounded or killed. Keep coverage of your participation focused on how empowering it is, talk around the sacrifices made but don’t show pictures of it, don’t tempt people into an emotional response where they oppose female participation in the militias for the sake of protecting the tender lives of the fairer sex.”

“That’s probably smart,” she said begrudgingly, “for now. But later down the line we should cover it, to ensure that the sacrifices of both sexes are properly commemorated. Now, get to bed! I won’t have you suffer from insomnia while you fight for my basic rights!”

“Yes ma’am, Dayal said obligingly, truly grateful to have found such an incredible wife.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Korra sighed in exhaustion, as she finished healing the last of the patients that had needed her attention in the latest hospital she’d visited today. Oh, not today, tonight, she thought, as she looked outside for the first time in a while.

“When did it get dark?” She asked.

“Hmm? Oh, several hours ago,” the female doctor who’d helped Korra figure out who most needed her attention said. “You really didn’t notice? You need a break!” She stated.

Korra was about to protest, but then her treacherous body decided to make her yawn loudly, preemptively undermining any argument she might have otherwise made. “Yeah, I guess so,” she said grumpily instead, as she looked around to find an empty chair to sit in.

She plopped herself down in the nearest one, letting out a sigh of relief as she leaned back and closed her eyes. Physically speaking- Waterbending healing wasn’t the most demanding form of bending, but it still took a lot out of her regardless when doing it for such extended periods of time. Not to mention the emotional drain caused by seeing so many horrific injuries, many of which had befallen civilians, despite the militias doing their best to evacuate everyone from the front lines.

The front lines constantly moving, combined with the separatists’ willingness to use artillery in major population centers, meant that many unarmed men women and children had still wound up injured. Or killed, Korra thought, but thankfully she hadn’t been confronted with that reality too often, since the dead were taken to somewhere separate from those who could still be helped.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” The female doctor, Zana, asked after a while of Korra sitting back with her eyes closed.

“Hmm? What’d I do?” Korra asked in response to the apparent non-sequitur, opening her eyes and sitting back up.

“After the separatists set those fires, I was working in the burn ward of St Yao’s hospital. There were many patients with terrible wounds, but then overnight they were all miraculously healed. For many of them their skin bore no sign of ever being burned at all, even the worst patients only had faint scars left to tell of what’d happened. Other hospitals reported similar incidents.”

“Oh, that,” Korra said, sheepishly scratching her neck. “Yeah, that was me. I was still hiding who I was, but I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing when I heard about all those burn victims, while knowing that I could help.”

“Why were you hiding to begin with?!” Zana asked, probably a bit more aggressively than intended, given her embarrassed look afterwards. “Not- Not that I’d question your ways, Miss Avatar, it’s just- With your powers, there’s so many more that you could’ve helped.”

“Don’t look so scared,” Korra pleaded, “I’m not some tyrant, I’m fine with being criticized. I honestly wasn’t sure why I was hiding, at first, I just knew that Raava told me to.”

Zana looked amazed with Korra’s casual mention of talking to the great spirit of light, but didn’t interrupt while Korra continued talking. “It turned out to be a pretty good reason though, turns out that I’m not the only bender left, there’s a bunch more out there, they have a secret society or whatever. And of course since I never get a break, they’re all evil. The ones here in the United Republic seem to have all sided with the separatists, I fought a whole bunch of them the last few days.

“They almost beat me, and we levelled a whole city block in our fight. So it’s probably for the best that I never grabbed their attention by publicly revealing myself and touring all major hospitals or something like that, who knows what sort of trouble that could’ve caused?

“I guess the secret is out now though, so we’ll see what happens next. I’ll just have to deal with it. First thing’s first, I should probably give my girlfriend a call,” she said, pulling out her radio.

“Girlfriend?” Zana asked.

“Yeah,” Korra said proudly, this was one secret that’d been exposed the last few days that she definitely didn’t regret. “Asami Sato, you know her? She’s amazing, she’d probably make a better avatar than me, to be honest,” she said. “She’s super smart, and really good at like- Negotiating and diplomacy and all that junk,” she bragged, “I would probably just end up punching people when dealing with all the stuck up assholes she’s always having to deal with.”

“Sato? Yes, I know her,” Zana said. “Or well- I don’t know her know her, but I know of her. My brother works as an engineer for her auto company, he’s certainly had nothing but praise for her, after the reforms she brought to the company lately,” she said.

Then her face kind of fell though. “He uhm, he’s actually been getting in fights on her behalf,” she said, “loudly arguing that she would never engage in the kind of ‘filthy degeneracy’ people accused her of,” she said. “But it’s- You said she’s your girlfriend, so, it’s all true?”

Korra shrugged. “Yeah, we kiss, sleep together, all that. I don’t see how it’s ‘degenerate’ though, you people came up with some wacky ideas while I was frozen. I promise you that the spirits don’t give a shit.”

“Huh,” Zana said, looking like she struggled to process that. “No offense, but uhm, I think that’ll take some getting used to for ehh- Everyone.”

“No worries,” Korra said, “I figured that one out already. Anyway, I’ll call her now,” she said, beginning to fiddle with the radio like Asami had showed her how to do.

Once she selected the right frequency, she first heard a bunch of static, before hearing the voice of her girlfriend. “Korra hey!” Asami said. “Oh wow, I must’ve lost track of time, when did it get dark outside?” Asami asked.

Korra chuckled. “I’d chastise you for working too hard, but I also only just noticed,” she said.

“So anyway, what have you been up to?” Korra asked.

“Oh, I decided to go to the fisheries first,” Asami said. “I managed to contact Admiral Bumi and get approval for my ships to pass by his fleet and start fishing again right away. And I’ve been at the cannery helping to organize ways to distribute the food already in storage to where people need it the most. You’re still at a hospital aren’t you? We prioritized those, so you should’ve received a bunch of canned fish from us by now.”

“Now that you mention it,” Korra said, “I did have a bunch of fish to eat a while ago, never asked where it came from.”

“Well, uhm, you’re welcome,” Asami said cheerfully. “Will you get some sleep soon? I think I’ll turn in for the night soon, before I head to some of my other factories in the morning.”

“Yeah,” Korra said, “I guess I’ll do the same. I think I’ll sleep over at Air Temple Island, Tenzin called, said that he’s having some sort of important negotiations with the militias tomorrow, that he’d like me to be there at least for the start of it. I figure that I might as well do it, since the fighting has mostly stopped for the moment.”

“Good luck,” Asami said, “try not to punch any senators.”

“I’ll try,” Korra snorted, “sleep well.”

“You too. Love you.”

“Love you too,” Korra replied with a smile, before turning the radio off. We never actually said that before, did we? ‘I love you’? What took us so long? She sighed happily as she stared out of the hospital window for a moment.

Then Zana’s voice pulled her out of her trance. “You two are cute,” the female doctor said.

“I thought it’d take you some getting used to?” Korra asked.

Zana just shrugged. “Hard to deny what’s right in front of me, you two sounded too cute for me to question it,” she said, making Korra blush.

“Oh- Well, thanks? I guess. Anyway, I’ll get going now.”

“Of course. Thank you, Avatar, for all your help today! Your healing powers are incredible!”

“Don’t mention it, it’s the least I could do,” Korra said. “I’ve got thousands of years of absence to make up for,” she mumbled to herself as she stepped outside into the cold winter air.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Batbayar watched as the ferry with ‘union representatives’ reached the shore, as air nomads rushed out to tie it to the small docks of the island. Damn insurrectionists, we should be arresting the lot of them! He thought, as he watched Tenzin and a gaggle of his most sycophantic senators walk down to greet the representatives.

I knew he would be trouble, the second that Yuchaz put him forward as a candidate for acting President, he thought. Not for the first time, he mentally cursed at his conservative colleagues who has voted in favor of Tenzin becoming acting President, all because they saw him as their ‘savior’ for helping them escape City Hall and providing refuge here on the island.

Did they all just forget about the secret armament that he and his fellow ‘nomads’ stored here on the island, just off the shore of our capital city? What were they going to use that for, if the separatists hadn’t attacked first?

As far as Batbayar was concerned the evidence was right before him, as he watched Tenzin chatting amicably with the militia leaders that were actively challenging the power of the United Republic’s government. He was planning this all along! Maybe not exactly in this way- He probably had to struggle to keep himself from laughing out loud when he heard we’d just handed him the power of acting President. But clearly he’s making the most of this opportunity to undermine and delegitimize our government, to lay the groundwork for a socialist takeover!

Batbayar didn’t bother hiding his frown as he watched the group finish their ascent up the stairs and make their way to the air nomad mess hall, where the senate would gather to receive the union representatives, even though Tenzin had shut the senate out of the actual negotiation process! Another outrage that his cowardly conservative colleagues had just accepted without much real complaint.

Who could really blame them? Batbayar thought, as he watched an air nomad armed with a rifle walking past. Tenzin is painting himself as our heroic savior, but at the end of the day we’re stuck on his island, with his people walking around armed and controlling the docks. Sounds more like a captor than a savior, if you ask me. Who knows what’d happen if we stop playing along with the acting President’s power-grabs? He could have his people round us all up and execute us!

Batbayar had tried to subtly suggest to some senators that he thought would be sympathetic that they needed to try to acquire some firearms of their own, to prepare for such a worst-case scenario, or perhaps even to pre-emptively depose this would-be tyrant, but he had been instantly shut down each time. Cowards, he thought, the lot of them.

Not that he was much better, without any allies there wasn’t much he could do, he certainly wasn’t going to throw his life away in some sort of symbolic act of resistance. No, he just followed powerlessly as Tenzin and the insurrectionists entered the mess hall, where the rest of the senate was already gathered to receive them.

Some of them even clapped and bowed to the militias, thanking them for ‘saving’ the city from the separatists!

Worst of all was the savage, the supposed ‘avatar,’ watching the whole thing with a smile. In his quest for allies Batbayar had actually approached the girl, hoping against hope that if she really was the avatar then certainly she would be opposed to the heretical unions and their desire to subvert the natural order.

But no, she’d stated outright that she supported the unions and their desire for ‘worker rights.’ If he was feeling generous then Batbayar would think that she was just ignorant and naive, but he wasn’t inclined to be generous, he had the feeling that something much more sinister was at play here. Especially after this ‘avatar’ had mentioned how Tenzin had helped her learn airbending.

Just how long have they been in-league together? What forces of darkness has our acting President been consorting with? Batbayar thought to himself, while the man in question began to make a self-righteous speech about how these negotiations would be the first step towards restoring ‘peace and unity’ to ‘our great city.’

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

“I’m very impressed,” Asami said to the factory foreman who’d been supervising the work at the factory that produced several of the kitchen appliances sold by Future Industries, when the separatists began their coup. She’s first arrived here this morning, he had explained how he’d helped organize a defense against the separatists when they tried to conquer the industrial district, how he had helped protect the factory’s machinery during the fighting.

“You truly didn’t become a foreman until you were recently elected, after the reforms I introduced? That’s only a few months, you must be a natural leader,” Asami said.

“Well, not quite,” the man said, rubbing his neck while blushing at her compliment. “The previous foreman was useless, so I was already pretty much managing the factory floor long before it your elections made it official. It comes from years of practice.”

“Still,” Asami said, “you’re the one who stepped up, even if you started doing so years ago. What did you say your full name was? I’ll make a note, once this is all over I think I might like to promote you.”

“Ehh, if it’s all the same to you Miss, I’d rather just stay here with the rest of the guys,” the foreman said. “Keep my feet on the ground, y’know? I’m not looking to become some suit who does nothing but telling others what to do, I still work the factory even though I’m the foreman, and I’d like to keep doing so.”

“Hmm, okay, if you say so,” Asami said with a smile. “But if you ever change your mind, or become old enough that a desk job starts sounding more appealing, you know where to find me.”

The foreman nodded, then returned to the rest of the workers that’d fought to keep the factory safe. Asami watched him go for a moment, then looked back to her notebook, where she’d made a list of factories she wanted to visit to see how they’d withstood the fighting.

Hmm, I think I’ll head to the dry docks next, she thought. Apparently the fighting between the separatists and the militias had been heavy there, it had pretty much been the front-line of where the militias and the separatists faced each other in this part of the city, until Bumi’s forces had arrived and pushed the separatists even further back.

The damage was likely quite severe, so it would be good for Asami to get an idea of what kind of repairs would be needed once everything was back to normal. Likely there wasn’t much that could be done quite yet, not while the negotiations between the unions and the senate remained unfinished and there was still a standoff between the militias and Bumi’s navy men, not to mention how the separatists were still holding out on the central peninsula, but Asami wanted to be ready to resume operations as quickly as possible.

As she began the walk over to the dry docks she was amazed by how quickly a sense of normalcy had returned, clearly she hadn’t been the only one who’d returned to the industrial district as soon as possible, she saw numerous other workers and supervisors in and around the factories she passed, evaluating the damage and trying to figure out how to proceed from there. Some of them even seemed to have fully resumed their operations already, which was interesting to see, considering how the strikes technically still hadn’t finished yet. Did the negotiations already settle some things in that respect? She wondered. She hadn’t had any contact with Korra yet today, so there was no way to know.

Of course things weren’t completely normal yet, Asami herself still carried her rifle and sidearm with her, and she wasn’t the only one, but considering everything that’d happened it was still remarkable how calm people were.

She arrived at the Future Industries dry docks, there were six of them in total, and Asami guessed that they would be seeing a lot of use soon, considering the amount of ships that’d been sunk by the separatists in the initial stages of their coup, and by the navy battle that followed.

She felt a moment of nostalgia as she walked towards the dock where, nearly a year ago now, she had watched her father’s new ice-breaker, the one she’d traveled with to the South Pole, set sail for the first time after its construction at the dry dock was finished.

The nostalgia was undercut significantly by all the signs of the fighting that’d taken place here these last few days, there were small craters from mortars and from larger artillery, one ship that’d been in the process of being built had several holes blown in it and had been knocked off of its supports and onto its side, Asami feared that it might be a total loss and that they’d have to tear it apart entirely before being able to use the dry dock again. That’s going to be expensive, she thought as she massaged her forehead while doing some of the math.

“Ho there missy!” Someone shouted from the distance. “Whatd’ya think yer’doing‘ere?!” They said, using an impressively low number of syllables for what would normally be a full sentence.

Asami turned towards the voice, the man who’d shouted was coming from one of the sheds that surrounded the dry docks, and was followed further behind by a number of other men. “I just came here to inspect the state of the docks, to see the extent of the damage,” she said once the man got close enough for her to not have to shout for him to hear. “Do you work here?”

“Aye, I do,” the man said, looking suspiciously at her.

“That’s great,” Asami said, “then maybe you can tell me if you think that ship there can still be saved, or if we’ll have to scrap it in its entirety.”

“Hmmm,” the man said, rubbing his stubbly chin, “I don’see how we’re gon save it, thers’a reason we build ‘em big ships at docks l’dis, once ya start ta build’em an’dey get real big, only way ta move’em is ta make em float. I don’ see a way ta put it upright again, an’it sure as fogs not gonna float.”

Asami nodded, mostly able to parse what he was saying. I think… “That’s what I feared,” she said, pouting a little, “that’s going to be expensive.”

“Ehh, won’t ave’ta worry bout that n’more soon, when arr representatives get to err tempel island and tell em sentors ta abolish all currncy!” The man said.

Asami had to hold back a smile at the man’s naïve optimism. “That’s- Certainly one possibility,” she said diplomatically. “Either way though, whether that work is expressed in currency or some other metric, it’ll be a lot of work.”

“Nothing we can’t handle, when we know the work will be for our own benefit,” one of the other three men who’d been following a ways behind the first one said. “Anyway, who are you? Not some spy for that navy Admiral, are you?” He asked, looking suspiciously at her rifle and pistol.

“No, nothing like that,” Asami said, a bit nervously, as she noticed that these men were all armed too. “I’m Asami Sato, I’ve been making the rounds here in the industrial district, inspecting my prop- Ehm, Future Industries’ holdings, to see how they’ve fared during the fighting,” she said, deciding halfway through the sentence that maybe talking about her ‘properties’ around these socialist militia types wasn’t the best idea.

Her self-correction had been too late though, judging from the expression of the last man who’d spoken. “Ahh, you’re her, Miss Sato, our benevolent overlord, here to see if her serfs have protected her highness’s property for her?” He asked, his tone dripping with vitriol.

“Well, I wouldn’t put it like that,” Asami said, flustered. “I just- I feel responsible, if there’s anything I can do to help then-”

“We don’t need help from a parasite like you!” The man spat. “And you’re not responsible for anything ‘round here, not anymore. We protected the city from the separatists, we are in charge now, you capitalist scum better watch out if you know what’s good for you, because we won’t tolerate any counterrevolutionary action!”

“Excuse me,” Asami said, “but it’s not that simple. First of all, I fought to protect this city too! In fact, as I recall I strafed the separatists a few times with my plane’s machine gun, somewhere around here…” She said, looking around a moment. It looked different from down on the ground, but she’d flown over this area a few times in her plane.

“Yeah, right there, I fired on them from my biplane,” she said, pointing to an area in the distance.

“I call bull-” the man said, “since when does the air force accept women?”

“I’m not in the air force, I just- I went with Avatar Korra to disable the separatist airfield, then I stole one of their planes.”

The man scoffed loudly. “Sure, you’re friends with the avatar? I don’t buy it, no way that the avatar would associate with capitalist oppressors like you. I’ve been listening to the radio, everyone’s saying that the avatar is on our side!”

“I don’t know Kazi, I do remember a biplane shooting at the separatists right over there,” another man said, speaking up for the first time. “Maybe she’s telling the truth.”

“I am telling the truth!” Asami said. “And I’m on your side too! I’ve been supporting the strikes, and I’ve given all my employees stakes in the company!”

“Aye, we’re still your employees though, aren’t we?” The man, Kazi, replied. “Even though none of us voted for you… If you think that you can just march in here and boss us around then you’ve got another thing coming, we’re not letting no one boss us around anymore!”

Asami had to fight her instinct to correct the man for his use of a double-negative, that would not be very diplomatic. “I’m not here to boss anyone around, I just want information, to take stock, so we can restore the needed supply lines as soon as possible once everyone can safely move throughout the city again.

“Besides, no offense, but I’m not so sure that the results of the negotiations on Air Temple Island will be quite as satisfying as you all seem to expect. I’m sure that workers will win some big concessions, and I’m glad about that, but I don’t know if you have the leverage to-”

“I know a way to get some more leverage!” Kazi said with a smile, interrupting her. “There’s a wealthy heiress right here who I bet will make a great hostage!”

Asami went for her gun, but paused, Kazi already had his own gun leveled at her, and the other men drew their guns too. She sighed, slowly putting her hands up in the air.

“Good girl,” Kazi said, while Asami felt like a complete dunce, as she let the men take her weapons and her radio from her.

Stupid! She thought. Just waltzing in here, a wealthy capitalist businessowner, in territory controlled by worker militias, during a time of great social upheaval. What did I expect?!

She was still busy mentally chastising herself, when another person approached. “What’s going on here?” They asked, in a voice Asami hadn’t expected to ever be so thankful to hear.

“Shaozu?” She asked. “Please, help me get through to these guys, tell them I’m not their enemy!” She pleaded.

Notes:

I always planned to split the final chapter in two, if you think that the chapter count looks different than before then don't believe your lying eyes ;p

Seriously though, since I decided to split this chapter in two I thought it'd be fun to post them with only a week in-between instead of the usual two weeks.

I actually had a ton of fun writing the ending, even though I was initially dreading it because I wasn't sure how well I'd be able to tie everything up, but I'm pretty satisfied with the results. I hope you enjoy it too. Final chapter (for real this time) will drop next week <3

Chapter 35: Victory? And compromise. (Part two.)

Summary:

The grand finale.

Victory? And Compromise. (Part 2.)

 

 

 

Korra tried her best to not look as bored as she felt, while watching Tenzin and that other Senator, Zetkin, negotiate with the union leaders. They finally seemed to have finished discussing one of the latest topics though.

“Women’s suffrage is a must, I’m glad we agree on that,” Zeya, the lone female worker’s representative, said. “And our members will be glad to hear of your willingness to raise the minimum wage and grant us many of the worker’s protections that we’ve been asking for,” she added. “But I still don’t see any reason why this would be enough for us to give up all the territory that we’ve won, fair and square. We control half the major entrances into the city, and more than half of the bridges to the central peninsula. Our comrades in other major cities, like Makapu, have similar control.

“We’ll be able to cripple the national economy by blocking supplies coming through our territory, or if we’re feeling generous we could demand sizeable tolls for letting supplies through. We’ve got you by the balls! Even more so than when it was just a general strike! Why should give all of that up and submit to your tyrannical state again when we could just sit back and wait for you to become more amenable to our demands?”

Senator Zetkin replied. “Well- What else would you want in return? I’m uh- Aware of your feelings towards the capitalist state, but you do realize that you’re not the only one with leverage? General Iroh has crushed most of the separatist deserters and has surrounded the holdouts, he’ll be able to spare some reinforcements soon enough, and send them to the city if need be…”

That’s what the conversation had been like for a while now, not-so-veiled threats being exchanged from one side to the other. It would’ve been rather exciting to watch, if it wasn’t interspersed with a bunch of complex policy discussions that Korra struggled to understand.

“We want an autonomous region,” Har Dayal said, “we want the territories that we currently hold, with some minor redrawing of the lines if need be, to be turned into autonomous zones. With our own elected town councils following our own election laws, our own police force, authority to make our own zoning laws, to give out and deny business licenses, et cetera.”

Korra watched Senator Zetkin pale. “That’s- Rather extreme. What about existing businesses?” Zetkin asked.

“We’ll, begrudgingly, allow them to keep operating as private businesses and keep their licenses, albeit with some changes in regulations.” Dayal said. “An exception to this will be the businesses currently within our territory who’s owners turned out to be part of the separatist coup. We’ll collectivize those and consider them spoils of war, our rightful payment for defeating the separatists and for going above and beyond our duty as citizens of our fair nation.”

“That’s-” Tenzin said, sounding hesitant. “Something we might be able to consider. But it’s hard to make any guarantees, when we’re not sure who supported the separatist coup. I’m certain that some business leaders were involved, but we’d need to have trials, hearings.”

“Of course, of course,” Dayal said, “I value the system of due process. I’m quite certain of a few names though. ‘Wonyong Keum,’ for one. His sister was one of the benders that our comrade Korra captured, she’s given us a lot of valuable information.”

That was something Dayal had been doing this whole time, calling Korra his ‘comrade.’ It was a not-so-subtle way of insinuating that Korra was on the side of the unions, and trying to use this as leverage. Korra was fine with it, for now. She did side with the unions, for the most part. And she figured that it gave her power over them too, if they relied on her support then she could threaten to withdraw it in order to influence them, something that she might consider doing if these negotiations took too long and she felt like the unions needed to just swallow some compromises in order to restore society to a working order again.

Either way, Dayal continued speaking. “The leader of Cabbage Corp, Lau Gan-Lan, is a separatist too. Apparently one of his cousins is a bender. Or ‘was,’ I should say, according to Miss Keum our mighty avatar ensured that it’ll need to be a closed-casket funeral…”

Korra winced, thinking back on some of the people she’d killed in her fight with the benders. I wonder which one was Lau Gan-Lan’s cousin, she thought to herself.

“Keum Enterprises and Cabbage Corp?! Tenzin, this goes too far, those are two of our nation’s largest industrial companies!” Another senator said. Aran was his name, if Korra remembered correctly. He seemed to be one of the more conservative senators that Tenzin had invited as advisers during the negotiations.

Tenzin was silent for a moment, before replying. “They are some of the largest companies, but the unions wouldn’t be gaining control of them in their entirety, just of the holdings that fall within the territory they currently hold within the city… So even if the thought of workers gaining more power over the economy frightens you- And I see no reason why it should- Then it’s still not quite as dire as you make it sound.”

Korra had to agree with him. Those industries being controlled by just a couple super powerful men wasn’t an issue, even when they turned out to be separatists, demonstrating the danger of giving so much power to any one person… Yet them being controlled by the people who actually worked in them was going ‘too far’?!

It made no sense to her, she began to tune out the rest of the negotiation though, as her radio began to emit a sound. “Korra, Korra, are you there?” The voice on the other end of the radio said. It wasn’t Asami, it was a man, but his voice did sound familiar…

“Shaozu?” Korra asked.

“Yes, it’s me, Asami asked me to radio you. She’s uhm, she’s in trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?!” Korra asked, shooting to her feet. She absently noticed the senators and union representatives in the room looking at her funny because of her interruption of their negotiations, but she ignored them.

“She uhm, went to the Future Industries dry docks, but the militia men there- They’ve taken her hostage, they say that it’s to help with the negotiations on Air Temple Island. I happened to be nearby when it happened, I tried to change their mind but I couldn’t get through to them.

“Asami told me to call this frequency, so that you could help.”

Korra turned to Har Dayal, who seemed to have overheard the message. “Did you know about this?!” She asked. “Did any of you?” She added, looking over the rest of the union leaders.

“No, Korra I promise you that this happened without our orders. They’re just some buffoons acting on their own initiative,” Dayal assured her. The other union leaders all agreed.

Korra grunted in annoyance, as she thought over her next steps. “Fine, you just keep negotiating then, I’ll deal with those ‘buffoons of yours. They might not be very useful to your militias anymore once I’m through with them.”

“No need to hold back on my account,” Dayal said, “I have no wish to be associated with such reckless fools.”

“Good,” Korra said darkly, “because I plan to make them regret ever messing with my girlfriend.”

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Asami looked over towards Shaozu, who nodded at her from inside the shed where her captors had put her radio. Good, he got the message to Korra, she thought. Credit where credit is due, Shaozu had done his best to help as soon as he learned what his militia buddies were doing.

He hadn’t been able to get through to any of them though, none of them believed that he or Asami were acquainted with the avatar, or that Asami had been such a big help in the fight against the separatists. They still allowed him to remain with them though, which was how he had been able to use Asami’s radio to call Korra.

Asami smirked mischievously as she looked over to her captors, they were in for a very rude awakening. She was tied rather uncomfortably to a pole, but now that she knew help was coming it was no longer such a big deal, she was able to focus on how vindicated she’d feel once her avatar-girlfriend showed up to kick their asses.

Thankfully it wasn’t raining, like it had earlier this morning, she would’ve been far more uncomfortable otherwise.

“I’m telling you guys,” she heard Shaozu say, “it’ll be best if you just let her go, this isn’t going to end well for you otherwise.”

“Since when are you such a coward Shaozu?” Kazi, one of her captors, answered. “You’re the one who talked us into burning down that Future Industries building, not too long ago. What’s with the sudden turnaround? Did Sato bribe you, or was just spreading her legs enough to get you to betray the cause?”

“That was when Hiroshi was in charge, she’s not like her father!” Shaozu said. “And she didn’t spread her- I would never-”

“Oh please, just look at her! Even if she’s capitalist scum, I still wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to-”

“To what?!” An angry voice interrupted. Korra! Asami thought with a grin.

Asami looked around for a moment, before finding Korra standing on top of the shed Shaozu had been inside a moment ago.

“You’d better think real hard about your answer!” Korra said, jumping down from the shed and making the ground rumble as she landed.

“Ehh-” Kazi stammered, seemingly beginning to have some idea of how badly he’d messed up, “I just meant that uh- You know-”

“Just shut up Kazi, before you dig even deeper,” Shaozu said, before turning to Korra. “Hey Korra, don’t hurt them too bad okay? They’re just idiots, like I used to be.”

“Yeah, I heard,” Korra said angrily. “So you’re the ones who helped Shaozu nearly burn my girlfriend alive?!” She demanded.

“Wh- What’re you talking about?” One of the other men asked.

Korra didn’t give them time to answer, with a flick of her wrist all their guns went flying away, then a gust of air launched Kazi right into two of the others, the 4^th of Asami’s captors sank down into the ground up to his waist after Korra stomped a foot down.

With another movement of her hands, a crack opened beneath the three men laying in a pile, and soon they were all similarly caught inside the solid concrete ground.

They all looked terrified, as Korra’s powers had suddenly become very real, and her anger was already very clear. “Please, Miss Avatar, I didn’t mean to-” Kazi cried out, tears forming in his eyes.

“Just shut it! I don’t have time for you!” Korra said.

She turned to Asami instead, capturing her in a kiss before moving to untie her. Asami felt a bit confused by how much she enjoyed being kissed while tied up like that, but the thought was soon forgotten as she felt the rope go slack and rubbed some feeling back into her arms.

“Thanks,” Asami said with a grin, “I knew you’d come.”

“Of course,” Korra said, grinning back at her, “if the separatists can’t stop me then these chumps definitely can’t.”

“What’d you mean about not having time?” Asami asked.

Korra’s face fell. “Oh, right. After Shaozu called to tell me about you another radio message came in, from Shui. Apparently Amon is planning some public event at City Hall, rounding up civilians from all over the central peninsula and forcing them to attend.

“Shui suspects that it involves President Tarrlok, and the members of the House of Representatives that the separatists took captive. Apparently the separatists have refused all attempt to negotiate for their release, and now this…”

Asami nodded somberly, that didn’t sound good. “So how much time do we have?” She asked.

“Shui’s sources say that whatever it is they’re planning will happen at 2 o’clock, so we have some time to prepare, but we’ve gotta leave soon if we want to sneak onto the peninsula and make it to City Hall in time.”

“What’s the plan?” Asami asked.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

“I’m glad we brought flashlights this time,” Asami said from behind her, as Korra led the way through another tunnel she’d made beneath the separatists’ defensive lines around the bridge they’d recently captured.

There were just a few of them, since they didn’t want to be noticed before making it to City Hall.

“I still think these tunnels are creepy though, no offense,” Bolin said. “Feels like we could be crushed at any moment. It’s just not natural, moving earth like this!”

“Pfff, lots of people used to be able to do stuff like this, relax,” Korra said. “It’ll only get more dangerous from here on out, we can’t have anyone recognize us before we make it to City Hall. When we’re there, assuming that we’re right about the separatists planning something with the House of Representatives, we’ll have to find a way to rescue them all from under the noses of a ton of guards.”

“Are you sure we can pull that off?” Mako asked. “How would that even work?”

Korra shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ll probably just glow it up, draw lots of attention while you guys worry about the representatives. Can’t really plan something like this in detail, we’ll have to improvise,” she said, before punching forwards, extending the tunnel even further ahead of them.

“You’re not invincible,” Asami said worriedly, “don’t put yourself at too great of a risk, half the house is corrupt anyway.”

“Doesn’t mean they deserve to die, or whatever it is that Amon is planning,” Korra said. “I have to at least try to save them. If it seems too dangerous then I won’t, okay? I’ll do my best to keep myself safe.”

“You’d better,” Asami replied grumpily, making Korra smile despite it all. Why is she so cute when she’s worried?!

After walking a bit further Korra decided that they were far enough past the front lines, so she used her seismic sense to find an alley in which they could safely come back above ground. Once they made it to that alley they all quickly climbed out, then Korra sealed it shut, making it look like it was never there at all.

“Right,” she said, putting on the cap that matched the gray overcoat she was wearing, all to hide her usual and recognizable water tribe get-up. Asami did the same, as did the brothers, and Shaozu, who covered their rear. There wasn’t much reason to worry about Shaozu or the brothers being recognized, but in their case the big coats still provided a good way to hide the weapons they carried with them.

They made their way to a regular street, where they were immediately accosted by several separatist soldiers. “Hey, you there! Head over to City Hall right now! Amon is holding a rally, attendance is mandatory!”

“Uhh, sure thing!” Mako replied. “We’ll get going right away.”

Korra suppressed a grin, maybe this’ll be easier than I thought, she thought to herself.

Indeed, there were no issues whatsoever as they made it the rest of the way to City Hall. In fact there were a few more instances where separatist soldiers, ignorant of their intentions, urged them on while they made their way to Amon’s ‘rally.’

He’s surrounded, Korra thought, totally cut off from all supplies, vastly outnumbered, what’s the point of holding a ‘rally’ now? Is he actually delusional enough to think that he can still win?!

It worried her, making her think back to her father’s lessons when she’d first started to join him on the tribe’s hunts. ‘Many animals are at their most dangerous when they’re wounded and cornered,’ he’d told her.

They followed along with the rest of the crowd that was being herded towards the large open square in front of City Hall, which had been covered with large separatist banners. Korra took some deep breaths, anxious to see what Amon had in store for them.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Ginger scoffed, as the separatist brute shoved her in her back. “I’m going!” She said. “How about you try wearing heels some time, see how fast you walk in them?”

“Just get to the square lady, quit mouthing off,” the brute said, before blessedly moving on and harassing some other people into going to this ‘mandatory rally’ that that loon Amon was holding.

What’s the point of holding a rally? Does he really believe that he can convince us that he’s winning? Maybe his followers are delusional enough to believe that, but the rest of us can all tell that the peninsula is surrounded, this silly attempt at a coup is finished. She thought to herself.

Oh well, whatever he’s planning, it might be dramatic enough to be worth a watch. Maybe I can sell my exclusive witness testimony to a paper afterwards, I’m sure that someone’s willing to pay for the harrowing experience of ‘Ginger, actress extraordinaire.’

Not that that would make up for the discomfort of the last few days. She’d shown up to the studio to shoot some new scenes, just another day at work, when these lousy separatists had started their little coup. Ever since, she’d been holed up, trying to stay out of the way while eating canned food and waiting for those brutes to fight it out on the streets.

Ugh, canned food, I thought I’d grown past that, she thought to herself.

She finally made it to the square, where she pushed her way through to the front of the audience. If I’m going to be forced to watch this nonsense then I might as well get a good view, she figured.

Once she made it there though, she had to wait for a long time before anything happened, all she could see was a bunch of separatist ‘soldiers’ trying to look all serious while they were stationed on the stairs leading to City Hall.

If they were actually any good at fighting, they’d have been at the front lines, Ginger thought. Eventually something seemed to be happening, the doors of City Hall opened and a bunch of people could be seen marching through. Finally, Ginger thought, as she saw the man responsible for all this horrid discomfort walking in front of the group, wearing that silly mask of his.

Some people in the audience actually clapped and cheered for him, Ginger decided to sarcastically clap along with them, just for a laugh. All while thinking that Amon better provide some proper entertainment to make up for all this hassle.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Amon, Korra thought, glaring at the man while she stood amongst the rest of the crowd. She was going to make sure that he was punished for all the harm and pain he’d caused.

Amon stepped up to a microphone, where he began speaking without much preamble. “People of Republic City, today marks a new day in our great nation’s history. We’ve all suffered in the fight to overthrow the corrupt establishment, but nothing great has ever been achieved without any effort spent, or any blood spilled.

“Today marks the beginning of the end, as those responsible for our collective suffering will finally be brought to justice for their crimes! We have already held trials, in which they have been unanimously found guilty of high treason. The worst of them, our so called ‘President,’ has already been executed, as he simply couldn’t be suffered to draw breath for a moment longer,” Amon said, causing gasps throughout the audience.

“Behold, the cause of our nation’s corruption and degeneracy,” Amon said, gesturing to something that a few of his men were lifting up behind him.

Korra gasped out loud once she processed the gruesome sight. It was a corpse, tied onto a pole and held up high so that he was visible to everyone. Korra had only seen him in pictures before, but she still recognized him, it was definitely Tarrlok.

Poor guy, she thought, feeling bad about her failure to save him at City Hall. She disliked pretty much everything she knew about him, but still… He hadn’t deserved this, nobody did.

More grotesque displays were brought out next, the Vice President, the Speaker of the House… She heard Asami gasp from beside her, and held her girlfriend’s hand, rubbing her thumb across her skin in order to soothe the both of them.

“We haven’t yet been able to eliminate the entire line of succession of this faux-President,” Amon said, “but rest assured, we will, soon. In the meantime, I have already declared myself your new President. Our people have been without true leadership for too long already, so I have generously stepped in to begin to heal our collective suffering right away.

“As we know, true healing begins with justice, which is why these next executions will be held publicly. Behold, your so-called ‘house of representatives,’ which has never represented anything other than its own greed and the interests of the global elite!” He said, gesturing to a group of bound and gagged captives being marched out onto the steps.

“What’s with this guy and public executions?!” Bolin whisper-yelled.

“Who cares, just get ready,” Mako responded.

“Ready for what?! There’s dozens of guards,” Bolin retorted.

“He has a point,” Asami said, “what’s the plan? I don’t think using steam to cover our escape is going to work like it did last time.”

Korra looked around for a moment, getting a good look at the positions of the separatists. A dozen armed separatists were lined up at the top of the stairs, a dozen more were lined up at the sides, covering the whole length of the stairs.

Meanwhile at the bottom there were over two dozen of them holding back the crowd, but these didn’t seem to be armed with anything more than batons. That’s good, at least, Korra thought.

In the center was Amon himself, holding a pistol that he presumably planned to perform the executions with, standing in front of the line of captives.

Korra worried that Amon might have benders hidden somewhere, but that was just something that she’d have to deal with when the moment arrived. Right now she had to act, before these horrible executions were- Well… Executed.

“I’ll get the guys up top, and then the ones on the left,” Korra said. “You guys take out those on the right side of the stairs. Once we’ve secured the representatives we head back up the stairs and barricade ourselves inside City Hall.”

The others all nodded, then pushed their way over to the right. Meanwhile, Korra began to take calming breaths, preparing herself to enter the avatar state. The first representative was made to drop to his knees in front of Amon, so Korra just had to hope that the others were all in position because there was no more time to wait.

She slammed a fist into her palm and let the power of Raava and of her past lives flow through her while at the same time shrugging off her coat.

She jumped up with airbending, then once she cleared the crowd she blasted herself forwards with a jet of flames. She pulled Amon’s pistol out of his hand with metalbending, then as she landed hard on the stairs she used that force to raise the stone steps beneath the entire top line of separatists, sending them all flying up and slam against the stone pillars and stone roof that framed the top of the stairs.

Then she repeated the stair trick she’d used on air temple island, creating a slide that all the separatists on the left of the stairs slid down, after sliding down they landed in a pit that she made at the bottom.

Gunfire sounded from the other side of the steps, Korra made a rocky shield to protect herself, but none of it hit her shield. The gunfire came from her friends, shooting the separatists on the right side of the steps like she’d told them to.

She lifted her former shield, ready to launch it at the separatists if need be, but found that they were all down already, leaving only the ones at the bottom of the stairs, armed with batons, who didn’t seem too excited to mess with the people who’d just taken out all their better-armed comrades.

She made eye contact with Amon, who’d turned towards her, arms clasped behind his back as though he were still in control of the situation.

She felt like she probably ought to just ignore his posturing and get the representatives to safety, but she couldn’t help herself. She left the avatar state before speaking. “It’s over Amon!” She yelled at the top of her lungs, hoping to at least get through to some of the people in the audience who she’d heard still supporting Amon, if not to the man himself or to his actual soldiers.

“Your forces in the city are completely surrounded, all the bridges are in our hands, and your forces aren’t faring any better in the rest of the country! Spare them from pointless fighting, surrender now!”

“Nothing is over,” Amon said calmly, his own voice amplified by the microphone he still stood beside. He actually gestured to the separatists that were doing crowd control, telling them to stay back when some moved to rush at Korra. “Not while the spirits are still on my side.”

Korra glanced over to the side, where she saw her friends coaxing the representatives up the stairs, while trying to cover both the separatists below the stairs, and the entrance to City Hall where more separatists might be hiding.

She saw more separatists approaching from where they’d been positions in the back of the crowd, but it seemed like they were all hesitant to interrupt while their leader was talking to her, so she figured that she’d best keep up the conversation for now.

“On your side? As the avatar of Raava, I promise you, the spirits are not on your side!” She said, briefly entering the avatar state to make her eyes flash white, using that burst of power to trap all the separatists below the stairs up to their waist in the stone, as if to punctuate her statement.

The crowd gasped in response, they likely hadn’t noticed her eyes when she first attacked while in the avatar state, but clearly many had seen them now, and of course bending was also something utterly foreign to them.

Korra decided to give them even more of a show in that respect, pulling moisture from the air and twirling several strands of water around herself as she waited for Amon to respond.

“Raava isn’t the only spirit, or even the strongest one,” Amon said, causing several shocked and outraged gasps from the audience. Korra still wasn’t very well-versed in the teachings of the ‘Church of Raava,’ but she was pretty sure that they considered what Amon just said to be blasphemous.

“Once, Raava may have represented the will of most spirits, but in her absence others have risen, all of them angered by the actions of humanity these past millennia, by our disregard for nature and spirituality.”

“Dark spirits, you mean?” Korra asked, maybe she was imagining it, but she swore that she could sense a sudden darkness filling the ambiance, even if she wasn’t sure what ‘darkness’ even meant while they were standing in broad daylight. “I’ve fought dark spirits before!” Korra said, as she suddenly realized what that feeling meant. “They didn’t stop me then, and they won’t stop me now!”

Of course, they did chase her to the South Pole and cause her to be frozen for millennia, but she chose not to think about that right now. Instead, she prepared herself by pulling even more moisture from the air, adding to the twisting tendrils of water she had circling around herself.

A shadow then rose from the stairs, Amon’s shadow, only it wasn’t actually Amon’s shadow, it morphed into a different shape entirely while leaving Amon’s actual shadow behind.

Korra entered a combat stance as the dark spirit took shape, slithering up into the air. They looked like some kind of… Dragon-eel spirit, yellow lines marking their face and continuing down their side, while the rest of their body was a translucent purple and dark blue.

She gasped, recognizing the spirit as one of the ones that’d chased her to the South Pole after attacking her tribe. “Hello Raava,” the spirit said, “we meet again.”

“Do you think a single measly spirit will stop me?!” Korra demanded, using anger to fight down her fear. “I’ve mastered the avatar state, my past lives know very well how to deal with dark spirits. This won’t be like last time when I lacked the knowledge to defend myself, you’ve lost! Look around you, if you meant to conquer this city in Vaatu’s name, then you’ve failed!”

“Failed?!” The spirit cackled. “Failed?!” It then flew upwards, Korra prepared to defend against it charging towards her, but instead it flew in a loop and then flew… Inside a surprised looking Amon, possessing him.

Amon started moving unnaturally, purple wisps of dark yet somehow luminescent smoke streamed off his body, as he looked towards Korra with a maniacal grin.

“Tell me, avatar, how have I failed my master, exactly?!” Amon, no- The dark spirit, demanded, their unhinged voice a far cry from the calm tones that Amon had always spoken with before.

“You- Your attempt to gain control of the United Republic failed, we were victorious against your forces of chaos!”

The spirit just cackled again, while Amon’s human face began to morph into a grotesque facsimile of the dragon-eel spirit’s own form. “Victory? You think-” They laughed. “You think that defeating these pathetic ‘separatists’ in battle is a victory against my master?! Look around you; death and destruction have engulfed this city, much of it by your own hand!”

A monstrous smile lit up Amon’s face, showing how his teeth had become pointed while his skin slowly started to be covered by scales.

“Whenever mortals fight, my master grows stronger! It never mattered who ‘won’. Violence and chaos have engulfed this nation, as it has already engulfed the Earth Kingdom. You forget your own nature Raava,” the spirit said smugly, “war will never serve you, it only ever serves Vaatu. Which is why I bear a message from him:

“His prison hasn’t stopped him, and your absence has allowed him to grow more powerful than ever! He’s started countless wars, manipulated pathetic mortals into murdering millions of their own kind, never even knowing that they were doing his bidding.  The world wasn’t frozen like you were, my master has been building his strength for ten thousand years! There’s only one solution; free him from his prison, fight him during this next Harmonic Convergence like you were always meant to do. You cannot escape your destiny! As we have proven; even while imprisoned, darkness will still reign!”

Amon’s movements grew more and more erratic, his limbs flailing this way and that. “Release him!” Korra yelled. “You’re killing him!”

The spirit, still puppeting Amon, stood upright and performed a horrible imitation of a shrug. “What? This sack of meat? It’s dead already,” it said with a large scaly grin. “No mortal body can withstand my power for long... We’ll meet again, ‘avatar.’” They said, before flying out of the twisted remains of Amon’s body, letting them drop to the stairs like a sack of rocks while attempting to escape into the sky.

“Oh no you don’t!” Korra said, entering the avatar state even while she shot her water towards the dark spirit. She herself hadn’t actually known what to do with that water, but her past lives knew very well, so they took over from there.

She felt herself move, guided by the knowledge of her past lives, she twirled her arms to form a net of water around the dark dragon-eel spirit, then lifted her arms up, making the water glow with a bright white light. First the bottom, then the top.

The dragon spirit looked frightened at first, undulating within the watery trap, but then began to cackle in laughter again. “You think I’m alone? Countless spirits have joined my master, defeating me is meaningless, avatar.”

“No, it’s not,” Korra, and her past lives, all responded at the same time.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Asami watched in awe, as her slightly luminescent girlfriend spoke in a thunderous multi-layered voice, while her bending engulfed the dark spirit before her in light. “You’re wrong about mortals,” she said, “and you’re wrong about this victory, it does mean something.

“Amon’s tyranny would have unbalanced the world for the foreseeable future; but with him defeated, humanity’s better nature will be allowed to shine. We will rebuild, our new society will be stronger, fairer, and more balanced than ever before. This process has already begun, with the negotiations on Air Temple Island. The violence can end today, it can end this second, if we allow our better natures to prevail.”

Korra seemed to be talking to the crowd now, not to the dark spirit. Which made sense, seeing as the dark spirit could seemingly no longer reply. It let out one last whimper, before exploding into a cloud of what looked kind of like white butterflies, though those butterflies soon disappeared too.

“Your leader is dead, your cause is defeated and proven to be unjust, you’ve been serving Vaatu all along. Put down your weapons, now!” Korra, the avatar, said, still in that creepy but also very commanding multi-layered voice, while looking around to all the armed separatists that still stood awkwardly around the large crowd that they’d herded towards City Hall.

The separatists obeyed instantly, dropping their weapons to the ground after Korra told them to. The timing would’ve been comical, had the situation not been so tense. Instead, Asami had to focus on ignoring the blood that was pooling near her feet from the separatists that she and the others had shot on this side of the stairs, so that she could instead spend her attention on the remaining now-unarmed separatists and hold them at gunpoint.

“We uhh, need to tie them up, or something,” Asami said.

“I vote ‘or something’,” Korra said, having apparently left the avatar state. Asami watched as her girlfriend used metalbending to wrap the separatists’ own rifles around their wrists to restrain them.

It took a while, in the meantime everyone else in the square, Asami included, seemed to mostly be frozen in place, still processing everything they had just witnessed. That was a dark spirit, an actual real-life dark spirit! Asami thought to herself.

“Hey, are there any like- High ranking separatist dudes here?!” Korra asked.

Asami saw one of the separatists that Korra had trapped partially in the ground hesitantly raise his hand. “Here,” Asami said, pointing to the man.

“Oh, great,” said Korra, walking up to him. “Can you like- Radio all your buddies, tell them to surrender?” She asked.

The man nodded frantically. “Yes Avatar- Miss- Ava- Yes, I will, there’s a radio in City Hall, so if you uhm…”

“Oh, right, gotcha,” Korra said, unceremoniously stomping the ground to launch the man’s legs back up above it, then grabbing the man’s ear to pull him the rest of the way out of the hole he’d been in.

“There better not be a bunch of reserve fighters holed up in City Hall, setting up an ambush,” Asami said to the separatist Korra was now leading up the stairs.

“NO! I promise you- I would never- I didn’t know that the avatar- I thought Raava was on our side!” The man said. “We have nobody left inside, our troops were already stretched thin defending our remaining territory, we barely had enough to guard this event.”

“You did not have enough, evidently,” Asami said dryly.

“Well- Yes, I suppose that’s true,” the man conceded.

“What do we do?” Mako asked, looking to Korra.

“Uhm-” Korra said, seeming unsure, so Asami answered instead.

“Get the representatives inside too, we’ll hole up in City Hall until we’re sure that the separatists have surrendered, and until Bumi and the militias have sent us some reinforcements.”

“Got it, sounds like a plan,” Mako said, while Korra gave Asami a grateful look.

They led the anxious separatist inside City Hall, which was indeed empty, where he then led them to where the separatists had set up a radio station. Only one unarmed operator was stationed here, who quickly moved aside when commanded.

It turned out to be surprisingly easy for the separatist to use the radio to tell all the others to surrender, clearly they’d been able to see the writing on the wall already when they’d failed to capture the city and gotten surrounded instead, so hearing that Amon was dead was all it really took for them to agree to surrender.

It was still a bit tense, to hole up in City Hall until the surrender of the separatists allowed reinforcements to reach City Hall, but in the end it didn’t even take that long.

 

 

 

Bumi was the first to arrive, though Shui arrived soon after, both from opposite sides. Asami thought that maybe there’d be conflict there, the two of them arguing over who would be allowed to claim the newly surrendered territory, but there was none of that once they both came to the late President’s office to have an official meeting.

Just the Admiral of the United Republic, the de facto leader of the worker militias, the Avatar, and Asami. Asami had to admit that she felt out of place when included in such an important meeting, but it obviously made sense for Korra to be there, and Korra had made it clear that she wanted Asami to be included too, so here she was.

“Even we aren’t crazy enough to try to claim the central district for ourselves,” Shui explained when Asami asked him why the militias hadn’t tried to do so after the separatists surrendered, “that was one of the first concessions we made, as soon as we began negotiations, that we wouldn’t push beyond the borders at that time. Figured that we were already reaching by negotiating like this in the first place, I’m sure that some of the senators were calling for more violent resolutions in response to us not immediately bending to their authority, we wanted to avoid those voices gaining too much traction.”

Asami nodded. That does make sense, I suppose, she thought. Then a rather gruesome thought occurred to her. They’re lucky that the Vice President and the house Speaker were already killed by the separatists, otherwise one of them would’ve replaced Tenzin as acting President, and they probably wouldn’t have been as agreeable in negotiations.

She pulled herself from those thoughts, when she saw Korra nervously pacing around in front of the windows. Or well, in front of the holes in the wall, since the windows had been shattered during the President’s capture.

“What’s up?” She asked Korra. “Why are you so nervous? We won!”

“That’s the problem!” Her girlfriend said. “We won, and I like- Totally revealed myself, to even more people than before. That means- I’m going to have to- Explain stuff, but I don’t know how!

“Half the stuff I’ll be saying is probably considered blasphemy, even though it’s true, and I won’t even know which half it is! I don’t want everyone to hate me once they learn more about me, but I also have no idea of how to prevent that!”

Asami put a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her while she thought of a way to reply. “Well,” she began, “the last guy people followed ended up being literally possessed by a dark spirit, so it shouldn’t be too hard to be better than him, right?”

“I guess,” Korra said.

“Wait, that’s really what happened?!” Bumi then said. “I thought people were just pulling my leg!”

“No, it’s definitely real,” Shui responded. “I saw the body,” he said with a shudder, “definitely matches what people have been saying. He- He had scales! And a tentacle for an arm! And it wasn’t fake either, I touched it to be sure!”

“I’ve been thinking actually,” Asami said. “I know that it’s kind of- Scratch that, it’s very macabre, but uhm- I feel like we should- Ehh-”

“Display the body to the public somehow? Let some researchers poke at it, prove that we’re not just conning everyone?” Bumi asked.

Asami nodded, thankful that he said it for her.

“My thoughts exactly!” Bumi said. “I’m sure we can figure something out. It’s a tad disrespectful, sure, but after tearing the country apart it’s only fair that my least favorite insurrectionist does us this little favor to help put it back together again.”

“Who’s your favorite insurrectionist?” Korra asked, prompting the Admiral to launch into an exciting and very hard to believe tale about a pirate he’d once fought, who’s fleet of pirate ships allegedly would’ve wreaked havoc on the United Republic were it not for the timely intervention of the Admiral himself, assisted by a team of well-trained dolphin-piranha.

“Anyway,” Shui said, thankfully intervening when the Admiral threatened to launch into another tale of his exploits, “I got word from Dayal, negotiations are finished for the moment, now it’s up to the senate to ratify the agreements, and for the agreements to also pass referendums amongst union members. Which shouldn’t take too long”

“So… You haven’t actually agreed on anything yet? It still needs to be approved?” Korra asked, sounding annoyed.

“Yeah, that’s politics for you,” Shui said, “that’s why I mostly just focus on the militias instead of all the other stuff. We have votes too, but not quite as many.”

Admiral Bumi began to ask Shui about the internal democracy of the union militias, which left Korra and Asami free to talk amongst themselves again.

“Don’t worry,” Asami said, “it probably will be good for you to make a public statement of some sort, to clarify some things, like how you’re not asking people to worship you or anything. But you’ll do great, I know it! And you’ll have me beside you as moral support.”

“Thanks,” Korra said, laying her head on Asami’s shoulder, “for always supporting me. I really do love you, you know that right? We said it over the radio earlier, I wasn’t sure if you even realized.”

Oh- I realized, and freaked out over it afterwards, Asami thought. “I know,” she said instead, “I love you too,” she added as she stroked the hair of the most powerful woman alive, who she held in her arms and who was, to Asami’s continued amusement, shorter than her.

 

 

 

A week later:

 

 

 

“And that is why, after much deliberation, after several rounds of voting in both the senate, the unions, and among the citizens of the regions affected, we have agreed to the desire of the unions to create several autonomous zones in Republic City, and in other cities where the union militias helped to fight off the separatist insurrectionists,” Korra heard Tenzin say through a microphone. She herself stood somewhat off to his side, on the steps outside City Hall. City Hall had been cleaned up as much as possible in the days following the surrender of Amon’s forces, thanks in part to Korra helping with her earthbending.

Korra couldn’t help but chuckle at how the voting that supposedly wouldn’t take too long had ended up taking a whole week of going back and forth, but finally an agreement had been reached.

“Additionally, we have also added numerous provisions to the legal code, namely in sections-”

“He sure is a handy fella to have around when you need to fall asleep, eh?” Bumi whispered from her side. “Should help take the pressure of your big speech, they’ll love anything you have to say so long as you don’t make it another snoozefest,” he said.

Korra grinned in response. Considering what I have planned, I certainly doubt that anyone will be snoozing.

“I don’t know, his delivery might need some work, but I think what he’s saying is quite exciting,” Asami said from where she stood next to Korra, with a fancy new medal pinned to her chest for her ‘exceptional bravery in service of the Republic.’

“You would,” Korra said teasingly, “but that’s because you’re one of those boring university types who’s into that sort of thing.”

Asami bumped her in the shoulder in response, but then seemed to remember where they were standing and how they were supposed to look dignified, so she quickly straightened back up and went back to standing still.

“You didn’t think I was boring last night,” Asami said after a while, right when Korra had gone back to trying to pay attention to Tenzin drone on about which exact laws had been changed after negotiations with the unions.

Korra felt her face flush with heat, while a snort from Bumi confirmed that he had heard her girlfriend’s remark.

She looked to the crowd, which filled the entire square, there were even more people than when the separatists had forced people to attend, which, now that Korra thought about it, was quite impressive. She was immediately reminded though why she’d been trying to avoid looking at the crowd as much as possible, since almost everyone in the audience was ignoring Tenzin and instead spent the entire time looking at her funny.

Some did so with undisguised hatred, many of those wore the garb of the Church of Raava’s priesthood and held signs to protest the ‘false avatar.’ They’d been vocal a few times, but never so much so that they ruined anyone’s speech and caused security to force them to leave.

They weren’t who made her the most uncomfortable though, she just saw them as a challenge to overcome, an opponent who she could face. No, what she really found uncomfortable were the people looking at her in awe and worship, some of whom had even gone down to their knees when Korra first walked onto the stage. How am I supposed to deal with that?!

She had planned out what she wanted to do with her speech, insofar as it could be planned out, but she didn’t think that it would really address this issue. It might even make it worse.

Part of her felt like it was a bit strange to even consider it an ‘issue’ that people decided to worship her, didn’t many people dream of being worshipped? But no, she knew instinctively that it wouldn’t lead anywhere good and that she should try to nip it in the bud. She just hadn’t figured out how yet.

Tenzin finally got around to the part of his speech where he talked about female suffrage, the right of women to vote and to be elected in all levels of government. While they were at it they’d also changed inheritance laws and changed the laws preventing married women from owning their own property and their own bank account.

If you asked Korra then Tenzin should’ve led with that, many of the women in the crowd certainly seemed elated, cheering as Tenzin gave the official news.
It was during his talk about female suffrage that Tenzin also announced the upcoming elections, where a new President and a new congress would be elected.

Of course, much of this information had already leaked during and after the negotiations, so none of it was strictly speaking ‘news,’ that was part of why Korra was rather bored by it.

She still smiled at this part of the speech though, as did Asami next to her. She liked to think that she herself, as a female avatar, as well as Asami, as a female business leader and war hero, had helped play a part in convincing some who had still been hesitant to accept that yes; women are in fact also fully grown people capable of taking on responsibilities. (Duh.)

From what she’d heard, the fact that many other women had also taken part in protecting the city, by fighting as part of the union militias, also played a role in convincing some that women were in fact capable of taking responsibility for society’s overall wellbeing.

“Now, if any of you still have doubts about women taking such an active role in our society, then perhaps the person who will speak next may change your mind. I’m sure that many of you have been anxious to hear from her, I present to you; Avatar Korra!”

Tenzin said, gesturing for Korra to take his place. Ohhh, that’s why he didn’t talk about female suffrage until the end, Korra thought.

That was actually surprisingly smooth by the air nomad. Which means that it was probably Bumi’s suggestion, she thought with a slight grin while she walked up to the microphone.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

 

Hei-Won’s entire body was tingling from excitement, as she knelt down in front of the steps of City Hall. Steps that Avatar Korra herself repaired after the fighting! She could almost taste the avatar’s divine powers, being so near to where she had reshaped the very earth itself!

Hei-Won had always known that there was something out there, some great being that helped to guide the world and give it meaning. She’d never bought the church’s lies though, the evidence of ordinary human hands being the ones to have written the church’s doctrines was too overwhelming.

Surely actually divine scripture would be more- Well… Divine? Provide insights that no human author could hope to provide?

Despite her disbelief in the church’s teachings, Hei-Won has always known that there had to be some truth beneath the lies. She’d spent her life trying to dig for more information. She’d briefly joined an air nomad monastery, traveled to Ba-Sing-Se’s great library, and before the separatist attack she’d been planning to travel to a coastal town near Omashu, to track down rumors of some kind of divine being who’d intervened there by bypassing Kuvira’s blockade and providing much-needed supplies to the worker-revolutionaries.

But then, during the separatist attacks, she’d been hit by an artillery shell. She’d lain there in a hospital bed, scared of dying, only for the Avatar to show up out of nowhere and heal her wounds! Right here in her home city, with no need for Hei-Won to even search her out! It has to be destiny, she thought, looking up from where she’d prostrated herself so that she could hear the Avatar speak. She planned to hang on to every word, to memorize it, even.

“Ahem.”

The Avatar said, as she stood gloriously before the microphone.

“Is this thing on? Uhm, Hello, I’m Korra, your new avatar.”

Hei-Won quickly bowed back down again. She noticed that the Avatar’s introduction had caused a stir in the audience around her. It wasn’t clear what kind of stir, it wasn’t overtly positive or negative, most people just seemed… Confused.

Hei-Won didn’t know what there was to be confused about though, it all seemed clear to her. Their savior was finally here.

“Now, I don’t want there to be any misconceptions about what this means,” the Avatar said, “suffice it to say that there’s a lot of uhm, inaccurate information out there.”

That’s right! Hei-Won thought angrily while she stared at the ground she’d pressed her forehead against. Those vile imposters from the Orthodox Church, falsely pretending to speak in the Avatar’s name, will surely wander for eternity in the fog of lost souls as punishment for their sins!

“I uhm, don’t want anyone to worship me, neither does Raava,”

the Avatar said.

“So please, stop kneeling.”

Hei-Won looked up in confusion, only to look directly in the eyes of the Avatar herself! She’s looking right at me! What do I do?!?! She thought, feeling close to passing out.

She hurried to obey the Avatar and rise back to her feet, after which the Avatar averted her gaze again, looking over the rest of the crowd.

“I have to confess, I’m still not overly familiar with the doctrines of the Orthodox Church of Raava. As some of you must know already I was frozen in ice, for a long time, and didn’t awake until several months ago. Much has changed since I was frozen, bending has largely disappeared, as have the spirits, technology has advanced further than I ever could’ve imagined.

“It’s no surprise that, after thousands of years, the truth has been twisted and forgotten. I realize that many take comfort in parts of the church’s teachings, and I don’t want to take away from that. Whether they come from Raava or not, I’m sure that there’s value in some of the teachings. I’m also certain that, although there may have been some who’ve purposely deceived people, many of the church’s members and leaders were and are genuine believers.”

I suppose that that’s fair, Hei-Won thought, though this wasn’t at all what she’d been expecting the Avatar to be saying. Where are the divine revelations, the truths of our universe?!

“But none of this takes away from the errors that must be corrected.”

Now that’s more like it! Hei-Won thought.

“First of all, spirits don’t care what your sex is, whether you’re a man or a woman, whether you’re attracted to men or women, most spirits don’t even understand the distinction. So stop bothering me or my girlfriend about that!

The Avatar gestured to the other woman who stood on the podium, Asami Sato, Hei-Won knew. Shocked gasps went up throughout the audience, but Hei-Won didn’t really care. She’d known a boy who was attracted to other boys, when she was younger. And she herself certainly never felt like she was the kind of ‘proper lady’ that the church wanted her to be, so these standards being broken suited her just fine.

“Second of all, Raava doesn’t gatekeep access to the spirit world, it’s not a reward for a life of virtue. Anyone is able to enter, though usually only after years of practice and medication.”

Enter the spirit world?! Hei-Won thought excitedly. I could just- Do that?! That’s amazing!

“Much like how spirit world isn’t a place where you’re rewarded for a virtuous life, the fog of lost souls also isn’t an afterlife where you’re punished for your sins. The spirit world is the world of the spirits, simple as that. Neither Raava nor Vaatu dictate what happens to people after they die, it’s beyond even their control. People reincarnate, the exact nature of this process is a mystery even to me, even though I’m capable of speaking to my past lives.”

Speaking to her past lives? That’s wild! Hei-Won thought, confused by all this new information, but still in awe.

Many in the audience were gasping in shock at every blasphemous revelation from the Avatar, which to Hei-Won only made her even more amazing. She’d always hated religious zealots who used the church’s nonsense teachings to chastise people who weren’t hurting anyone and were just trying to live their life, so all their silly rules being contradicted was just comedy gold in Hei-Won’s view.

“Finally, and I feel like this should be obvious; Raava is not all-powerful, and neither am I. If we were all-powerful yet we allowed so much violence to happen anyway, then we would be evil!”

Hei-Won smiled at that, at the Avatar expressing a sentiment that she herself had always shared as well. She liked the idea of a wise and powerful being looking out for everyone, but an all-powerful one? Clearly such a being wouldn’t be looking out for everyone, given the state of the world, and she didn’t really the idea of any being, even a benevolent one, controlling every aspect of life like that to begin with.

“Anyway, I think that’s enough of me talking.”

What? No it’s not! Hei-Won thought. There was so much more that she still wanted to know!

“I’m sure that many of you are still skeptical, and still want proof that I am what I say I am. Especially after Amon turned out to be in-league with a dark spirit. I could put on a bending display for you, which would be fun and all, but since I’m not actually the only bender in the world it wouldn’t really be definitive proof. I’m the only one who can bend multiple, but still.

“So instead, I thought of something truly unique to me. Allow me to introduce you to my past lives, starting with Avatar Aang.”

The Avatar then just stood still for a moment, with her eyes closed. The audience seemed confused, Hei-Won certainly was, but then- The Avatar opened her eyes, which shone with a white light.

A cyclone suddenly appeared and surrounded the avatar, as the sky began to darken around her. The cyclone vanished as quickly as it had appeared, then right where Avatar Korra had stood moments before a man now stood, a man with glowing eyes and a tattoo on his forehead. The tattoo was slightly different from Air Nomad tattoos today, but still clearly reminiscent of them.

All Hei-Won could do was gape, as she saw the man from myths and legends and religious texts alike, standing right before her on the steps of City Hall.

“Hello, my name is Avatar Aang. Now- Watch this everybody!”

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Asami watched in equal parts shock and amusement, as her girlfriend’s past life danced around the stairs of City Hall doing silly tricks with his bending, proving to be just as much of a goofball as Korra herself, if not more so.

Korra had told her what she would do, that according to her past lives it was possible for her to take their form for brief periods of time. But to actually see it- Proof that reincarnation was real… It was hard to really process. Especially when said proof came in the form of a wise-looking avatar from myths and legends, behaving like a total child.

“Ahem, Avatar?” Tenzin said, holding his hand up to stop Avatar Aang while he was racing around on some sort of ball of air. “Perhaps you could uhm, say a few things? To the crowd?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure,” Aang then said, aa he let the ball of air dissolve and got back to his own two feet, before turning around to walk to the microphone. “How does this work anyway?” He asked, tapping the microphone, before shrugging and standing before it.

“Soooo, I’m Aang. I was the Avatar before Korra. Like those before me I helped put a stop to warmongering tribes and helped resolve conflicts between humans and spirits. If there’s one piece of wisdom that I can share with you today, it would be that it is when we’re at our lowest point, that we’re open to the greatest change.

“This city, this nation, has gone through a lot of violence these past days and weeks. Which might tempt some of you into a sense of hopelessness.

But you mustn’t give in to despair, sometimes destruction allows for new growth to take place. For structures that were flawed to not just be rebuild, but to be improved! I believe it’s possible for you to emerge from these tragic events stronger than before, by working hard to rebuild yourself into a fair and just society in which people feel like their needs can be met without resorting to violence. I’m glad to see that your leaders have already begun to take steps towards this end, with all the changes announced here today.

“Anyway, Roku! Now that’s someone who really gives some good advice, I can say that from experience! He should talk to you next!”

Another cyclone appeared for a second or two, then- Where previously a middle-aged air nomad had stood, there was now an old and grey man who looked like he was from the Fire Nation.

“I am Avatar Roku.”

The man’s voice was completely different from both Korra and Aang, it was bizarre to think that they shared the same spirit.

Asami watched in amazement at the sight before her, and noticed that the people in the audience did the same, a good fifty percent of them were literally slack-jawed. Even the religious protestors, who’d tried to start up a chant when Korra walked up to the microphone, had gone completely apoplectic, watching with open mouths and with their protest signs lowered to the ground.

After a dramatic pause, in which the audience was given some time to react to his introduction, this new Avatar resumed speaking.

“I gather that, unlike some of the other past Avatars, tales of my exploits have not passed the test of time. This is probably because in my life I tried to be disciplined and show restraint, to avoid ever resorting to violence. My lack of decisive action meant a lack of memorable deeds.

 My lack of action backfired, a powerful Chief named Sozin took advantage of my restraint and my mercy by murdering me, before exploiting the absence of an avatar to commit numerous atrocities against the Air Nomad tribes while stealing their territories. Something that my successor, Aang, then had to deal with in my stead, while he was still just a child.

“Being merciful and showing restraint isn’t inherently bad, but it must be combined with a willingness to act when necessary. By being more decisive, by acting sooner, you can stop wars before they start. I offer you this wisdom, while you’re standing in the ashes of your own recent war.

“You must be decisive. You must learn from your mistakes, strive to end injustices and dangerous imbalances of power before they escalate into broader violence. It is the duty of the Avatar, but also the duty of everyone else, to help build a peaceful world where people can live in harmony. Which requires everyone to stand up to the likes of Sozin, or Amon.”

It continued like this for a while, Kyoshi came next, talking about her experiences founding what is now Ba Sing Se. Then Kuruk, then Yangchen, who talked about the spirits, and the need to preserve nature.

Asami frantically wrote it all down, not even certain when she’d taken out her notepad. It was probably not strictly-speaking necessary, since this was sure to be one of the most well-documented events in modern history, there were video and photo cameras everywhere and the audio was being recorded too, but Asami still wanted to record it herself too. Almost like she didn’t trust modern technology to accurately report the- There was only one word for it, as much as Korra insisted otherwise- The magic that was on full display before them.

Then came Wan, the first Avatar. He was the most ancient of them all, which was saying something, yet the legends and stories about him were the most numerous and he was most central to the church’s teachings.

Which made the tale he told, of how he largely blundered his way into becoming the Avatar, all the more shocking. He talked about his failings as a youth, how Vaatu had manipulated him, how he learned about the ways of the spirits through trials and error, how he slowly realized that there was a lot that humanity could learn from the spirits, yet how the reverse was also true.

It was very different from the church’s teachings, which talked only about humanity learning from Raava, nit the other way around, and did not portray Wan as such a flawed figure.

I wish Korra told me sooner that she could do this! Asami thought. This is incredible! The historical insights we can gain from this, they’re near-infinite!

All things had to come to an end though, Wan was soon engulfed by another cyclone, then in his place there was Korra again, looking extremely tired as a result of- Uhm- Whatever it was exactly that allowed her to channel her past lives like that.

Asami moved forwards to support Korra when she stumbled and nearly fell. Korra smiled at her and gave her a kiss on the cheek, before looking back towards the crowd.

“Uhm hi, it’s just me again. Anyway, I can’t tell any of you exactly what the future has in store, even Raava doesn’t have that power. But what I can tell you is that the next Harmonic Convergence approaches, just two years from now.

“I will do everything within my power to prepare for that day, but I need your help too. As Amon showed us, and as Wan just told us, Vaatu uses and manipulates people in order to spread chaos throughout the world and in order to increase his own power. People’s continued lack of spirituality has also helped him to turn more and more spirits over to his side, this is largely my fault, I was meant to be the bridge between our worlds and to advance our mutual understanding, yet I was missing.

“As I was frozen in ice, the world was frozen too. Technology has advanced, but the goal that Wan set out to achieve, to foster a greater understanding between humans and spirits, hasn’t advanced at all. That will be my mission, to use Raava’s light spirit to restore a frozen world. To further Wan’s mission by teaching different groups of people, as well as humans and spirits, to live together in peace.

“It will no doubt be the work of countless lifetimes, but I will never give up.”

Much of the audience looked to be in awe of everything they had heard and witnessed, but none more so than Asami. Her intimate familiarity with Korra only furthered the admiration with which she watched her standing there on the stage, strength and determination in her expression and her voice.

By all rights Asami should’ve been terrified from all this talk of dark spirits and of Vaatu, now that she knew so vividly that these things were actually real. Yet when she was watching Korra like this there was no doubt in her mind that it would all work out in the end, especially when the tribal girl turned towards her with those deep blue eyes and pulled her in for a passionate kiss.

She knew there would be consequences to this, both to Korra’s speech and to their most public kiss thus far. Yet while she happily reciprocated the kiss and enjoyed the taste of her girlfriend’s warm lips, Asami didn’t have a care in the world.

Notes:

Here we are, the end of book 1! I didn't quite expect it to reach actual book-length, with 350K + words, but I'm happy with the final product ;p

I hope you all enjoyed the finale too, I like to think that there were a few fun twists and developments in there. I really am grateful for all the support you've all given me, and I'll hopefully see you for book 2 some time after the holidays <3

(So make sure to subscribe to the series instead of just to this work, if you want an update when book 2 starts releasing.)

Notes:

Hi everyone. This is the first fanfiction that I've ever written, after reading many of the stories others have written on this site, mainly in the Korra and Shera fandoms. The premise is one that I've always been surprised to not see others attempt before, a story where Korra is frozen in a way that is similar to how Aang was frozen in ATLA. There will also be guns in this world, I wanted Korra to feel like a real stranger out of time, and I thought that a good way to accomplish this would be to make it so that bending has disappeared during her absence, meaning that she's the only bender remaining and there was more of a drive for humanity to invent other kinds of weaponry.
Anyway, here's the first chapter, there will be more to follow. (I've already written a few more and will try to release at least one per week.)
English is not my first language, so there may be some grammar errors. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Restoring a Frozen World