Chapter Text
The first thing that Korra remembered in her youth was that she wasn’t just a waterbender, or an earthbender, or a firebender. She could do all of it. Her parents said that she was the Avatar, but her baby brain didn’t compute that very well. She just enjoyed tearing stuff up and breaking things. The smash and shatter was funny, and it made her laugh so hard her chubby belly ached. Then the men dressed in blue with the flowers on their backs arrived, and the training began in earnest.
Over the years, Korra first learned waterbending. At first she learned from Kysa, a woman born in the Fire Nation. Korra was six when she realized that Kysa didn’t have any arms. Master Kysa used her waterbending to replace her limbs, and she was very scary because of it. She moved unlike Korra ever could imagine, and taught Korra many tricks because of it. Tricks that even the stuffy old benders in their White Lotus uniforms couldn’t understand. In the night, when Korra couldn’t sleep, too amped up from horsing around during training, Kysa was always the one who found her, and she used her bended water-tentacle arms to move items around her, and make her tea.
“My mothers always told me that they knew a man who said tea was the cure for everything,” Kysa told her. Korra didn’t understand what was so great about hot leaf water, but she sipped it anyway and listened to Kysa tell her stories about where Kysa grew up. Kysa wasn’t born in the South Pole like Korra, but her mother had been born there, and her grandmother. Although that’s where it got confusing. Kysa didn’t come from a mom and a dad like Korra, she had two moms.
“Is that why you don’t have arms?” Korra asked, because it was a fair question. Maybe without a dad, you didn’t get arms, how was Korra supposed to know? Nobody explained this stuff to her. The White Lotus members looked nervous, and Korra stuck her tongue out at the penguin-people she had grown to dislike under their very strict tutelage. Master Kysa was the closest thing to freedom that Korra had ever had.
“No, Korra. I don’t know why I wasn’t born with arms, my siblings were all born with them and they came from the same parents,” Kysa said. Korra didn’t know what to do with that information, so instead she held her cup out so she could have some more of her leaf juice. Maybe with more leaf juice, she wouldn’t make the penguin-lotus folk so nervous, and maybe she could get some decent shut-eye. After a few more cups, Korra didn’t remember what happened, she just remembered that she woke up in her bed surrounded by animal hide blankets and cozy as could be. When she got up and dressed, teeth brushed and whatnot under her mother’s watchful eye, she headed right out to Kysa.
“Good morning, Master Kysa. You ready to help me kick some Lotus butt?” she asked, already calling the water forth with the wavy movements that Kysa had shown her years prior. Kysa shook her head.
“No, Avatar Korra. I’m going to be with you, and make sure to heal you when you get hurt, but you have mastered the element of water, and are thus moving on with your instruction. Your earthbending teacher should be arriving any moment now.”
“Who is it?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know,” Kysa admitted. Korra sort of resented the fact that Kysa didn’t have any arms, it made it real hard for Korra to get her caught in a good hug, but she would make do. She stood beside Kysa as they waited for the White Lotus to haul in their earthbending teacher. It was just some guy, completely unnoticeable at first, but he was pretty cool, Korra decided. The guy was calm on the outside but that was just a front, because as soon as he got even a little bit excited, he acted like he wasn’t much older than Korra, who was now nine years old.
“I’m Bumi, and you don’t gotta call me none of that master stuff,” Bumi exclaimed before he slapped his hands together. “Let’s go throw some rocks!” Korra ran off along with her new instructor, because throwing rocks was always fun. She could throw lots of rocks, and had been for ages, but he was here to teach her the complexities of things.
“Wait a minute,” she said a few days after Bumi’s arrival. “I know about Bumi. I heard about him. Apparently he was a crazy king and master earthbender…” She inspected this Bumi with a curious eye and made sure to even check if he was hiding anything crazy under the back of his tunic -- he wasn’t. He was just a plain guy, she decided, and he wasn’t crazy, he was just fun.
“I never met King Bumi,” Bumi said. “But my dad knew him.”
“Who was your dad?”
“Avatar Aang,” Bumi said with a grin before he jumped up. “Now, how do you feel about splitting rocks with your toes?”
“I bet I can do it better than you,” Korra went so far as to dare her instructor, because while he was probably a master, he didn’t really act like it. In fact, Kysa, who was definitely a master, didn’t act as stuffy as her parents originally warned, or as the White Lotus folk acted. They seemed really fun, and they seemed connected to the past Avatar in some way or another. Kysa mentioned that her parents both knew the Avatar before her. They had been best friends, or something like that. Now, Bumi’s dad shared a soul with her? It was weird, but it was fun. It was like her family kept growing, and they definitely treated her like family. Bumi was honestly more familiar with her than her own dad who was always busy with stuff under Chief Sokka.
Her dad only remained busy for a few more years, because suddenly Chief Sokka died, and her father, Tonraq, became the Chief. Then he didn’t have any time for her at all. Still, Bumi and Kysa were there, and so was her mom.
Bumi’s family came to visit often, or a small portion of them.
“I’ve got eight siblings, but you’ve only ever met Tenzin, arguably the most boring,” Bumi said. “He’s an airbender. We take after both our fathers, but I like to think I take after our firebending father the most.”
“The firebending father?” Korra asked. How did a firebender and an airbender make an earthbender?
“Yeah, he’s a dra-- special. He’s special. I’m not gonna lie to ya, kid, I’m not supposed to talk about him around you. They get all weird about him. They think he might try to steal you for himself if he were to figure out about you.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because he made me by taking a part of his husband -- the Avatar’s -- soul and merging them. That’s pretty intense, and the White Lotus knows he won’t hurt you, but he’s sort of overly protective, especially ever since dad died… It was actually pretty terrible. I know you don’t understand now, but I’ve never heard him cry like that, and I never have since--” Korra watched Bumi’s carefree attitude morph into something surprisingly somber and very, very wrong on his wide face. He was always supposed to grin, it was just how things were supposed to be! “--anyway, don’t be sad if Tenzin is a stick in the ice, he’s a pretty boring guy. All about peace and whatnot. Dad gave him special training since he was the only airbender in the family.”
“You had seven siblings and there was only one airbender.”
“Well, most of them were adopted,” Bumi explained. That made more sense. “Shen, Feng, Kuzon, and Druk were all adopted, and Lila came from… Well, it’s complicated. Me, Tenzin and our sister, well, we were the only ones that came from Aang.”
“What’s your sister’s name? I know all your other siblings, but what about her?”
“We don’t talk about her, kiddo.”
“Why not?” Korra asked.
“Because when father was busy trying to hold everyone together when dad died, she just disappeared and hasn’t come back since. She’s as good as dead, kiddo--” Bumi was back to being cheerful, but he wasn’t talking about very cheerful things-- “but let’s not worry about her. She can go brood somewhere and never bother us again. Tenzin’ll be here any minute, and maybe he’ll even have brought his little wyrmlings wit him.”
Korra nodded enthusiastically.
“Hey, Bumi, what’s a wyrmling?”
“Oh, shit, kid, I wasn’t supposed to say that. Look, I’ll explain it when you get older, but for now, I need you to do me a real solid, and pretend like I never said that word, alright? You don’t want Tenzin to lecture me, do ya? I’ll owe ya one.” There was a tall man in red and yellow robes walking closer through the flurry of snow, and she saw him before she looked back at Bumi’s dumb face.
“You’ve got yourself a deal, Boomster,” she said, slapping his hand to seal it. He smiled, but so did she, and it was less playful. She was going to ask for the most difficult thing she could think of, maybe something imported… she’d just have to ask Kysa what sort of things were imported, and what imported meant since she had only ever heard in it in the context of how difficult it was to get the stuff to the South Pole.
Tenzin was a tall and brusque man that visited every now and again ever since that first meeting. That first meeting went rather horribly, and it devolved very quickly to Bumi poking his older brother until Tenzin finally lost his composure and threatened to bite him. Korra went around biting Bumi for the next week until Kysa told her that she needed to stop. Still, it was a rather good threat, especially coming from a pacifist, she thought.
Korra knew how to use and wield her firebending on a basic level, but the advanced techniques needed to be learned through a teacher. She didn’t get to learn that until she was fourteen, and Bumi and Kysa both eagerly awaited for the former Fire Lord to arrive.
“Why is the Fire Lord coming here?” she asked Kysa.
“She gave her crown to her daughter, Malina… my sister.”
Korra couldn’t help that her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. She turned on Kysa so fast, she nearly slipped in the snow. Kysa was royalty? She hadn’t ever thought about it, but it sort of made sense. Kysa was born in the Fire Nation, and then moved to the South Pole. That was suspicious -- nobody did stuff like that.
“Oh wow, I’m going to get to meet your parents,” Korra said to herself. Kysa nodded, and a water whip smacked her on the back to force her to stand up properly straight. “What was that for?”
“They’re coming this way. It’s only proper to stand up straight when you meet the former Fire Lord and Fire Lady,” Kysa said, her teeth held tightly together and her chin extra pointy. It was almost like she was nervous to see her parents, as much as Korra was anyway. Bumi didn’t seem to have that problem, and he ran forward and embraced both women.
“Auntie Lala, and Katara-bara!” Bumi shouted. He yelped when a plume of blue fire -- blue fire! -- burned his beard, and Katara, who looked a lot like Kysa, held her hand to her mouth to laugh. “You’re still so mean to me!”
“I see my brother relinquished the title of dumb-dumb and passed it onto his youngest,” the woman Korra assumed to be the Fire Lord said. She was a shorter woman, but she still looked younger than Katara, who had far more wrinkles. “Where is the Avatar?” Her voice was so imperios that even Korra wanted to obey her, and Korra didn’t like obeying just about anyone.
“I’m here, uh, Fire Lord… your highness?” she said, looking to Kysa for more coaching. Kysa nodded for her to approach them and Korra took a few hesitant steps.
“I’m not the Fire Lord anymore, I’m just a Lady,” the woman said before she reached out, her hot hands running against Korra’s cold flesh. How was he so warm in the South Pole? It was insane, like magic… or like bending, she supposed. “I see that you do have some semblance of an inner flame. We can work with that. I’m sure Katara would love to show you how to heal and to blood--”
“No!” Kysa shouted. Her mother, the Lady, looked at her with half lidded eyes, although her eyes were a lot squint-ier than Katara, but she supposed that maybe it was a Fire Nation trait (Korra had never left the South Pole before, so she wouldn’t know). “ I am her waterbending teacher, and she will never learn how to do that .”
“I see…” the Lady said. “Whatever you insist, daughter. Where will we be staying?”
“You can stay in Sokka’s hut,” Kysa said. The Lady rolled her eyes, but Katara seemed to tear up as she agreed and embraced Kysa, holding onto her armless daughter as she rubbed her back. Kysa rested her head on her mother’s shoulder. Korra wasn’t the most socially aware, but she did note that Kysa and the Lady didn’t really get along. Kysa took them away, and Bumi lingered with Korra. He elbowed her lightly enough to get her attention as they watched them leave.
“You’re gonna have a rough time learning under that lady. Azula’s a killer, a real slave driver,” Bumi said.
“If she was that bad, then the White Lotus wouldn’t have let her teach me,” Korra insisted. He laughed, but shook his head.
“Eh, I don’t think she’d have taken ‘no’ for an answer even if they tried. She knew the previous Avatar too. She’s my aunt, if you didn’t catch it. My father was her older brother.”
“You talk about him like he’s dead,” Korra said, although she tried to sound as sympathetic as possible. Everyone knew that for her to exist, the former Avatar had to die, but if he was dead and was Bumi’s dad, and his father was also dead… Bumi was alone.
“Nah, he’s not dead,” Bumi said, and Korra sighed with relief. She had been hoping that was the case. It would be so awkward if it wasn’t. “He’s just… he’s not like my siblings or I. I mean, I’m in my forties now, and my father’s nearly in his nineties, but… he doesn’t look like it. He looks maybe a decade older than you at most. It’s really weird.”
“That is weird,” she agreed. She wondered vaguely what could cause such a thing, but Azula didn’t look like she was as old as Katara, so maybe it was just because of where they were from. She didn’t pay it much mind at all as Bumi took her back to the practice field so they could do some earthbending warmups. He left her to do some waterbending warmups and warned her that starting the next day, Azula would be there to whip her into shape with firebending.
“When will I learn airbending?” she asked. “Will Tenzin come here?”
“I would prefer Ty Lee, but she’s been really busy at the Western Air Temple, she’s got kids of her own she has to train, and grandkids, too, so I mean, you’ll probably be stuck with my sour brother,” Bumi said. “But don’t worry about that just yet, kiddo. You’re a good firebender, sure, but Azula’s a master, and it’s gonna take you a long time to figure out how to do what she can.”
Over the next few years, Korra learned just how brutal Azula could be, and Katara and Kysa spent most of the time patching her up while she argued with the White Lotus that dared to intervene.
“Do you want an Avatar, or do you want a weakling!?” Azula shouted at the White Lotus the first time they dared to step in. She growled at them like an animal before walking away, barely sparing Korra a glance as she stormed past them. Korra had never been more afraid of someone in her life, than she was of Lady Azula.
“She’s not always like that,” Katara said. “She’s just… she’s not adjusting well.”
“She was always like that, mom,” Kysa whispered back, as they worked on healing the burns on Korra’s arms. “She just tempered herself in front of you. That’s how her father taught her, it’s all she knows.”
“She knows her father was wrong. She treated Dasa and Azumi well,” Katara argued, but Kysa just shook her head. Katara dropped the topic entirely. “Do they still have stewed sea prunes? I have been dying for a bowl, and I think that’s exactly what we need right now.” Korra eagerly dragged her to her home so that they could steal some of the sea prunes from her mother’s cabinet and they could make them. Katara helped stew them while Kysa sat at the table angled to see into the kitchen through the archway and watched. Korra sat across from Kysa as well as Katara hummed and cooked. Kysa’s furrowed eyebrows had yet to disappear despite Azula having been gone.
“What’s wrong, Kysa?” Korra asked. Kysa shook her head.
“Nothing. I’m just… not as thrilled at seeing my mother again as I thought I’d be.”
“Didn’t you miss her?”
“I missed both of them every day I was away, but somehow, it doesn’t make their return any better,” Kysa admitted. Korra didn’t understand such a sentiment, but she had never had to leave her mother for any real reason before. She was always there, even if her father was busy with his chiefly duties. Katara returned with three bowls of sea prunes, and sat down with a spoon to help Kysa eat.
“Has Kysa told you some of the stories about how she used to run about the palace?” Katara asked as she helped her daughter eat. Korra had never seen Kysa need help doing anything before, but she had never seen Kysa eat either, even when they were at a banquet, Kysa just never ate, she just bended liquids into the air for herself to drink. She couldn’t seem to bend the sea prunes though, too fleshy. Korra shook her head, and Katara told her a wonderful story of how Kysa used to run around with her cousins, Druk, Lila, and Tenzin. They were the closest, Katara swore, and Kysa didn’t interfere. There were details that Katara was holding out on, but of course, Korra knew better than to ask. She knew there was something weird going on with the Avatar’s previous family. So many secrets, and they didn’t seem to tell Korra any of them.
“When Kysa was still in Azula’s belly, she lived in the Western Air Temple, too, before it became as full of nuns as it did, back when it was still just for Zuko and Aang. I wish you could meet them,” Katara said. “I know Zuko misses you, Kysa.” Kysa shrugged her shoulders.
“I don’t know why he would.”
“Because you’re his niece,” Katara insisted. Kysa knocked the table back as she stood up and left. Katara sighed and looked at Korra. “Why don’t you tell me about some of your adventures here. I’m sure you had fun doing lots of things, like penguin sledding and whatnot.”
“Oh, sure, I’ve been penguin sledding with Bumi, but otherwise, I’m not really allowed outside the gates,” Korra said. Katara’s face morphed from a soft smile to a frown. She then slowly nodded.
“I’m sorry to hear that. You should be allowed out. It’s your duty to know the world and all its people,” Katara said. Korra got queasy anytime her ‘duty’ or duties were mentioned. She didn’t know if it was too late, but she didn’t feel like she could live up to the previous Avatars’ reputations at all. “That’s okay. One day, you’ll be able to explore the world, and you’ll learn and flourish, because that’s just who you are, I can sense it. So much like Aang, but so much of you is your own person. I can’t wait to get to know you.”
“Same here. Kysa doesn’t talk about you all that much, and Bumi is always cutting his stories off short just at the best parts,” Korra said. Katara gave her a sad look, and then soon after, they parted ways.
***
Her masters, Kysa, Bumi, and Azula, watched from the sidelines, and Katara was there as well to help any injured, as she was to fight her way through the field to prove her mastery. She hopped and jumped, using fire to elevate herself, using earth to propel herself forward, and using water to defend herself before using fire as an offensive measure. She felt confident and strong, but she often felt that way. She was the Avatar, and not much could really stand in her way, except the White Lotus jerks. She knocked down her final opponent and took a moment to catch her breath before she turned back to her masters. Bumi and Katara clapped for her, but Azula stood with her arms crossed, her lips pinched, and Kysa offered a small smile of approval. She approached them and Katara helped the last injured bender heal his scorched shoulder before she turned to help Korra.
“So, what did you think?”
“I think,” Azula began, and Korra knew she wasn’t the only one holding her breath, “you’ll make a fine firebender after all.”
“Thank you, Master Azula, that means so much to me!” Azula held her hand up, a signal that Korra needed to calm herself and Korra nodded and cleared her throat, lowering her tone and her volume. “I mean, thank you.”
“I believe Tenzin will be here anyday to train you in airbending next,” Azula continued. “My least interesting nephew.”
“Because I’m the best,” Bumi added quickly. Korra smiled, of course Bumi was the best, he was the most awesome.
“Because Druk is the best,” Azula said, and Bumi started to huff and puff and give examples as to why that simply wasn’t true. He was so riled up that he didn’t notice that Azula wasn’t frowning for once, but trying to smother her laughter. Even Korra was elated at seeing that Azula was capable of some form of joy. Kysa and Katara however, separated from the others, and soon Bumi and Azula joined them in Korra’s hut. They all gathered, even Korra’s mother, Senna, and her father were there. Her mother beckoned her now seventeen year old daughter to sit in her lap like a child, and Korra couldn’t deny her. Her father stroked her hair in a way he hadn’t since maybe a year or two before Chief Sokka passed.
“Now that you’re ready to learn airbending, and you’re seventeen, we are ready to trust you with a secret. It is well known that dragons exist, but it is not entirely common knowledge that there are different kinds, and that there is a very special one, different to all the others before and after him,” Azula said. “My brother, Prince Zuko, was born different, and the spirits intervened due to my mother. When you see him, you will know he is different, and he is more spirit than dragon, and more dragon than human, do you understand?”
Korra didn’t understand, so she took a moment to try and process. She couldn’t let Azula down just after she had seemed to finally impress her.
“Your brother’s a dragon,” she said with a nod. Her brother was a dragon, and her brother’s son was Bumi who-- she looked at Bumi who was trying not to grin. She pointed at him with an open mouth, unsure what to say and even less sure on how to articulate the abundance of thoughts crowding her head. Finally she shouted, “Dragon you!” That was the best she could get out. Bumi started to laugh, falling back and holding his slightly pronounced belly as he did so.
“Yeah, I’m a dragon, not like father, though, just a normal dragon. I’m really not supposed to be human, so things don’t always work the same ways. None of us know what’ll happen, or if we’ll live as long as him, but hey, it sure is fun!” She jumped forward to tackle Bumi, who caught her. Katara, Azula, and even Kysa moved out of the way to let them lay on the ground.
“You’ve gotta show me what you look like as a dragon,” she insisted.
“I’m sure you’ll figure out what a dragon looks like when Tenzin flies in,” Bumi said.
“You all look the same?” she asked.
“Hell no! I’m much handsomer than boring Tenzin,” Bumi insisted. “My scales are green, and his are grey. How boring is grey? I bet everyone wants their scales to be as green as mine, like little jade stones.”
“Now you’ve done it, he won’t shut up about gems for days now,” Kysa said with a smile, a real one that Korra hadn’t seen since Azula and Katara had arrived three years earlier. She looked to her mom and dad, and they offered wavering smiles at her.
“Did you know?” she asked them.
“We knew the basics,” her father said. “We’ve never met most of them, but Bumi and Tenzin have been here and it was difficult for them to keep it a secret from you if we didn’t know what not to say. They flew here, too, that’s how they travel. It’s sort of difficult to miss it.” She was wavering between being frustrated that such a thing was kept from her and impressed at the amount of deception it took to pull it all off. She hadn’t thought her parents were capable of it, maybe her father nowadays, but definitely not her mother. She never would have suspected.
Sure enough, a few days later, a giant grey dragon landed on the training court, and sure enough he transformed into the stern-looking Tenzin. Tenzin walked into the room and was greeted with all of their faces, but Korra looked upon him with the most awe. She had never seen such a regal creature before. Even her polar bear dog, Naga, wasn’t quite like a real dragon. She wondered what sort of powers it took to make dragons like them.
“Tenzin,” Azula said. “It’s good to see my nephew. I hope you’re here to train Avatar Korra. Although it’s a surprise you didn’t bring your brood with you.”
“My family is currently in the temple back in Pupa Republic. There are pressing matters that I cannot take leave from at the moment. I offer my sincerest apologies, Avatar Korra, but the fate of the Republic is at stake, and I cannot train you at the moment, or for many months yet. Perhaps Lady Azula can reach out to Ty Lee or her progeny to train you in the art of airbending, since you are a woman.” Tenzin glared at Azula, although if they were to have a glare-off, Azula would win hands down, Korra had no doubts at all.
“Well, you could just take me to the Republic with you so I could learn there in a real temple,” Korra suggested, but Tenzin shook his head.
“I’m sorry, but this is non negotiable. I came here out of courtesy. I really must be leaving--”
“So soon? Stay for dinner, Tenzin,” Katara insisted, but Tenzin sighed.
“I’m sorry, Katara, but I really can’t be gone for too long. Who knows what father will teach the hatchlings while I’m away,” Tenzin bowed to Korra, who reflexively offered the same respect to him, before he rushed from the doors and back into the outside. Korra rushed to the window to watch as his human body broke away to form into a much longer, nearly ginormous dragon that was bigger than their entire house and nearly as long as the training court before he lifted into the air and departed with a gust of wind on a downbeat of his thin-looking wings. Korra looked at Bumi.
“Do you have wings like that?”
“Sorta. Real dragons don’t have wings, just us weird hybrids. Not even my father has wings like we do, he just sort of flies, although I wouldn’t be able to tell you how. There’s one that doesn’t even have wings, but you know that we don’t talk about her already…” Bumi rubbed the back of his head nervously, and Korra turned to look out the window again. A warm hand held her shoulder, and from the scent of smoke and cinnamon, it was without a doubt Azula. She leaned down to press her painted lips close to her ear.
“Are you going to just stay here? You’re the Avatar, and you’ve never been out of this little place. This isn’t the destiny of the White Lotus, this is your destiny, and you should do what you think is necessary. If you are already at the temple, then Tenzin will have no reason to not train you, I suppose…” Azula stood back after she finished whispering to Korra, giving her all sorts of amazing ideas that nobody would be able to stop her from fulfilling. “Well, that was underwhelming. I’ll write a letter to let Zuko know that his whelp is a brat, other than that, I didn’t raise him, so what can I say?”
“You’re the worst,” Kysa hissed before she stormed out of the room, her water-tentacle arms breaking the door in her hurry to leave. Korra turned around to see Azula rolling her eyes in the same way that Korra was sure meant that she really cared but couldn’t bring herself to show it. Korra excused herself, and ran out. She had to pack and whatnot. She gathered her clothes and some of her favourite things before she grabbed a few coins from her side table, and the pictures she had of her and Kysa, Bumi, Azula, Katara, Naga, and her parents. She treasured them all, but she would want them if she was so far away from them all. She tucked them into a thick hide bag to keep them safe from any water damage before she grabbed some smoked fish jerky.
That night, when the White Lotus was asleep, and the guards were long since used to her not trying to sneak out anymore, she and Naga headed out the back of the town, and used her bending abilities to get into the water and breathe under the water in an air bubble before they found a boat. She shot them out of the water and onto the boat. She offered her last few coins to ask that they give her passage to Pupa Republic, and just like that, she was on her way. She was finally going to go somewhere. She was finally going to be the Avatar she was born to be.