Chapter Text
“I told you I would destroy you.”
Amon’s unmoving masked face stares down into her eyes as his thumb remains on her forehead, the cold numbing effect running of his power through her body like electricity.
It can’t —
It feels disgusting, violating—
She can feel herself screaming, but she’s not even sure if any sound is making it out of her mouth.
Her eyes closed against her will, time passes like an eternity. It can’t have been more than just a second, but in her mind it is endless. Images flit through her mind; Her training by the White Lotus, struggling with Air Bending, Pro-Bending and making her first real friends—
She feels the pressure of Amon’s hand leave her forehead: It’s over. She’s done.
Drained, good as dead, Korra doesn’t have it in her to struggle; She slumps onto the ground, he’s won.
Who even is she without her bending? How is she supposed to be the Avatar now?
“Finally, you are powerless.”, she hears Amon declare. He’s released his grip on Korra’s veins, now that she’s no threat to him anymore.
Laying on the ground, she can see him push Mako onto floor, forcing him to kneel much like he did with her. He’s not satisfied with just ruining her. He wants to take everything.
Forcing in a deep breath, she puts everything she has into one more punch, trying to stop him from destroying Mako too— and misses.
She misses. Her fist collides with nothing, only sending tumbling to the ground again. She’s pathetic.
Suddenly new footsteps join the fray, a powerful beat of a experienced fighter she’s heard more than once before.
“Amon! Everything the Avatar said is true, isn’t it? I just saw you bloodbend!”, she hears the unmistakable sound of glass breaking, as she desperately tries to find out who joined their side.
“You traitor! I dedicated my life to you!”, the person shouts, breaking out into a run towards Korra, and Amon.
Out of the corner of her eyes she sees Amon shift his stance, facing his new attacker head on: “You’ve served me well, Lieutenant.”
A loud crash follows, certainly the noise of the Lieutenant being flung into one the tower’s walls.
Barely inconvenienced by his subordinate’s change of heart, Amon marches toward Mako with intent written into his steps—
Just when he is an arm’s length away from Mako, a crack of thunder echoes through the storage room, Lightningbending breaking through the Bloodbender’s hold on Mako’s body. Blue streaks of energy surge through and over Amon’s entire body, making his body twitch unwillingly. He’s thrown towards the nearest wall, and her friend wastes no time in sending two more fireballs his way, collapsing the wooden supports Amon’s standing under and trapping him beneath the debris.
Before she even fully realized what had happened two arms wrap around her, carrying her up and away. Only after the first few meters have been left behind them she realized it’s Mako who grabbed her.
Reaching up to his shoulder, she tries to tell him where to go, but all that comes out is what is on her mind already: “Mako...my bending...”
Quickly, he glances down at her in his arms, eyebrows knit together and eyes filled with worry: “Everything will be all right!”, he claims in between gulps for air, “We just need to get out of he—”
He’s cut off as a invisible force yanks at the blood in his body, holding him in place as Korra tumbles onto the ground and slides away from him.
The last thing she sees of Mako is him being thrown against the walls and the ceiling, until - after what to her felt just like the blink of an eye – he’s kneeling in front of Amon.
“I’m impressed. No one has ever gotten the better of me like that. It’s almost a shame to take the bending of someone so talented. Almost.”, and suddenly his hand is on Mako’s forehead, ready to do to him what he has already done to her.
She can’t — She can’t let it happen or she never deserved him as a friend in the first place; She never deserved being the Avatar in the first place.
Gathering all her strength one last time, she fights herself onto her feet, like she’s done so many times in training, and prepares to throw a punch. Any punch; Something in her imagines fire, water or earth to follow her command but deep down she already knows it won’t happen; Something in her let go.
And then - just then - air flows from her fist, sending Amon skidding backwards and away from Mako.
“Impossible!”, the Bloodbender cries, scrambling to regain a strong stance.
It’s unbelievable! Korra gazes at her hands, wondering why now she has finally made progress.
“I— I can airbend?”, Confidence surges through her and she stands up straight as she realized she can still win this fight, “I can airbend!”
Wasting no more time in awe of her new abilities, she sends out a flurry of air blasts at Amon, ready to turn the tide of the battle before he can regain his footing.
She won’t let him harm anyone else in the same way again.
Amon is on the back foot, losing ground step by step; His back is to a window at the end of the corridor, and for the first time, Korra sees him take on a bending stance as she starts to feel the signature pull on her blood.
“Oh no you don’t!”, she shouts as she frees herself out his weak hold on her body and sends one more kick of Air his way, pulling him off his feet and sending him flying.
With a loud crash the glass window behind the Bloodbender shatters into pieces as his body tumbles into the waters below with a loud splash.
In a haze, she gathers the dazed Mako, the two of them supporting each other as they stumble towards the broken glass, looking out at Republic City in the distance. Something in her fears the fight is not over yet. Amon would never give up easily.
People surround the Pro-Bending Arena, all having waited for Amon’s rally. Now, they all stare at the spot where their great leader hit the water, just his mask floating on the surface now.
Where is he?
Amon is a Waterbender, he can save himself from drowning without even having to lift a finger. Why won’t he surface?
“Did you see that?!”
“Bending tyrant!”, the Equalists outside the Arena chant, ripping her out of her thoughts.
They think he told them the truth..., it hits her first, and then, just a blink of an eye later, They think she killed him.
Steadying herself, ignoring the sting in her ribcage at the movement and leaning more on Mako so she can fully fill up her lungs to retort:
“Your leader is a fraud! He’s a Waterbender! I swear on my honor as the Ava—!”, the word dies on her lips, for one because a cough ripples through her body, but also because she’s not the Avatar anymore.
The murmuring crowd grows louder and louder, whispers of ‘Murderer!’, ‘She killed Amon!’ and ‘Tyrant!’ slowly crescendoing into a roar as the people grow angry and restless.
Korra watches in horror as the people she only wished to protect keep following the man who built an empire of lies.
Gathering her strength to shout once more in spite of her body fighting her every step of the way she desperately attempts to convince the citizens of Republic City of the truth again:
“Amon is a Bender! HE LIED TO—”, but her voice is drowned out by the rousing of the crowd, now calling for ...—Revenge!?
Mako tugs at her shoulder as the people’s cries for violence just keep becoming louder.
“We should leave. Now.”, he tells her, already pulling her away from the hole in the wall Amon left behind.
She lets him, feeling numb. Some part of her wants to keep arguing with the crowd, telling them the truth over and over, but another, rarer, more exhausted part of her just can’t listen anymore.
Korra came into the Arena this day as Avatar, sure of their victory against the Equalists because the truth was on their side.
She leaves as an Airbender, robbed of her future, the fight she hoped to end still raging on.
***
I cannot restore Korra’s bending.
Katara’s words echo in her head, sitting on the cliff overlooking her home. The icy shores of the South Pole stretch out endlessly in front of her. Cold wind is biting at her skin, and everything in her wishes for her inner fire right now.
But it’s gone. Just like how the earth provided comfort when she was alone. Just like how the water calmed her nerves when she grew furious. It’s gone.
Who even is she anymore?
What is the purpose of going on? She couldn’t stop Amon, the Equalists still fight, spreading with fervor after their leader is ‘dead’, and the United Forces have to clean up her mess. She failed at everything she had tried. And she’s lost everything in the process.
Tears run down her face, but Korra can’t bring herself to care. No one is going to see them again anyway.
She takes one more look at her home—
Footsteps. Someone stalks closer. Lazy footsteps, not used to the snow of the pole. She can already tell who it is.
“Go away, Mako.”, she says, not even turning around to face him, “I want to be alone.”
She really hopes he listens. She just wants to get this over with.
But to her horror he doesn’t stop, coming closer until he plops down next to Korra at her spot on the cliff with a tired, weary sigh.
Only then does she glance over, hiding the lower part of her face with her arm. Who she sees next to her shocks her to the bone; That’s not Mako.
Lin sits next to her, pulling a cigarette out of a pocket of the beige coat covering her officer’s uniform. Dark circles surround her eyes, and a permanent frown seems to be painted onto her forehead.
She lights the cigarette with trained ease, and the smoke leaving her nose after the first drag almost feels like a warm hug of Republic City air when it hits Korra’s skin.
For one moment, Korra’s mind is sent back to her first her day in the city. She gladly welcomes the memories.
Lin takes another drag, admiring the cigarette in her hand with glazed eyes.
“You know, I stopped smoking after becoming chief of police. Thought it was better for the job.”, she huffs something between a laugh and cough, before exhaling another burst of smoke from her nose, “ ‘Guess it doesn’t matter now.”
She’s quiet again, then. Silently smoking watching the wild wilderness stretch out in front of them.
Korra has no idea what moved her to come here, but she doesn’t have it in her to send Lin away, even when all she wants is to be left alone.
But then, Lin lost even more than Korra. Where she can still airbend, Lin is now just an non-bender, robbed of her mastery of her element.
Maybe she came here for the same reason as she..?
Once the cigarette is reduced to just a glimmering butt the ex-Metalbender sighs, putting out the last embers by suffocating themin the snow.
“What’s the plan now, Avatar?”, she asks, releasing the smoke of her last drag from her nose, smiling meekly, almost cheekily.
Korra’s eyes widen at the bold question, incredulously blinking at Lin.
“What’s the plan?”, she intones, somehow believing she must have misheard the other woman.
Lin’s expression remains unmoving, and for no good reason Korra can feel the anger rise in her chest.
“What’s the plan?!”, she repeats once more, disbelief replaced with fury now, “Why do you ask me?! I’m hardly the one who should be doing anything right now!”
And just as quickly as it came, her rage leaves her again, the reminder of her failure stinging hard enough to drain all the fight out of her.
However, her outburst did nothing to deter Lin, who’s small sardonic smile remains in place.
She sighs again, casting her gaze back onto the icy shores below them: “Like it or not we’re still in this fight.”, she sucks in a breath, hand hiding in the coat pocket holding more cigarettes, “War, more like. You’re still our Avatar Korra, you’ll have to see this through to the end with us.”
Lin’s lighter wanders into her hands, being dexterously passed around inbetween her knuckles in a slow, lazy rhythm.
“The Equalists are still out there. Threatening the people more than ever now that their leadership is fractured.”, her hand stills, snatching the lighter in her hand with a satisfying CLINK.
“We’ve got a duty to fulfill.”, she states —like a vow—, shifting to look Korra right in the eyes, “You can’t stop when you promised to fight for justice.”
And then, she stands, the hand with the lighter wandering back into her pocket, the other extended to pull Korra up.
“Come kid, we’ve got work to do.”
Stunned, she doesn’t know what to do; Korra came here ready to give it all up, and now Lin..—
Can they even beat the Equalists now? All she did was show them everything they believed was true...
And yet... And yet Korra doesn’t have it in her to give up.
She takes Lin’s hand.
***
“The United Forces can NOT attack the Equalists wherever they want Korra!”, Iroh bellows over the mapping table at her for the up tenth time.
“They don’t care about the borders! They just hide beyond City lines to strike again!”, she insists, their argument more of a routine than anything else, “We’ll never get any further without moving into the Earth Kingdom!”
Iroh slams his palm onto the table, rattling the pens and mugs on top: “Can you imagine what kind of diplomatic incident the United Forces marching into the Earth Kingdom will cause?! I won’t be fighting two wars at the same time!”
They both scowl at each other now, as is tradition, until the first to give up growls and leaves, muttering to themselves.
Today, it’s Korra.
She’s still grumbling when she’s sitting in Lin’s office, the motion to plop into the chair opposite her desk well practiced by now.
Lin barely glances up from the pile of mail in front of her, just one eye moving slightly upward to take a quick look at her.
“Envying your friends with the ground forces again?”, Lin questions, the usual hint of amusement in her voice just like always when she returns grumbling from a meeting with Iroh.
She folds her arms defensively, sighing: “Mako and Bolin are working fourteen hours a day training Iroh’s soldiers to fight Chi-Blockers.”, she leans her head back, staring at the ceiling, “I’m very sure that would be better than fighting with the guy every single day.”
She shifts her weight back forward, resting her head on the desktop.
“But they don’t need an Airbender to train with...”, she breaths out, pouting just the slightest bit.
Lin shrugs, still focused on her letters. With one hand she reaches out for a new cigarette, the habit sticking after their time at the South Pole.
“Beggars can’t be choosers.”, she says, not even the slightest bit of empathy in her words.
It’s quiet then, the comfortable quiet only sporadically broken by the sorting of letters and ripping of envelopes.
That is, until Lin’s hands suddenly still. Korra watches her out of the corner of her eye intently studying a gray envelope in her palms with eyebrows raised sky high.
She sits back up straight, blinking at the other woman owlishly.
Lin answers her gaze, shrugging, cigar bobbing up and down as she hands over the silver letter.
“This one’s for you.”, she explains, just as Korra reads the words written on the envelope.
‘Hand over to Avatar Korra. From Zaofu’, she skims the address box, noting the date—
“This arrived almost a week ago?!”, she shrieks, to which Lin doesn’t even has it in her to take the cigarette out of her mouth.
“I don’t check letters from that address.”, she says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Shaking her head, a tired expression flitting over her face, she adds on: “You wouldn’t get it.”
Korra doesn’t even deign her with a response to that, resorting to grumbling to herself as she clumsily tears open the letter.
The piece of paper inside is folded neatly, the text written with a type writer.
Avatar Korra,
If this letter finds you through Lin Beifong, we are sure you are interested in our offer.
We are an interest group from the Earth Kingdom, wishing to aid you in your fight against the Equalist aggressors invading the lands of our home. The threat of their radical ideals has spread from Republic City to Ba Sing Se and many, many other rural communities.
We know the United Forces are unable to assist you in your fight against the Equalists. Their power is kept in check by legislation forced upon us by your predecessor. In an attempt to prevent another war between nations the world has grown unable to face any true threat.
We ask you help us prepare the world to help itself. The Equalists are not bound by law, and to combat their advances we must ensure we are able to strike back.
We know that this fight has taken a lot from you, so we believe you understand what it means to prevent any more harm coming to our nation.
We believe it is time to become strong again.
If you believe in much the same, meet us in Zaofu. You will find us, and we will find you.
The Initiative for Great Unification
Korra reads the letter, once, twice. Then checks the envelope again.
‘The Initiative for Great Unification’... She mulls over the words in her head, trying to figure out if she’s ever heard of that name before.
Her effort must show on her face, as Lin begins to lean forward, urging her to ‘talk’ with just raised eyebrows.
Wordlessly, Korra simply hands over the letter, nodding at Lin to read for herself.
It takes the officer just a second to get through the entire invitation, eyes opening and closing rapidly after she’s done. Her free hand moves up to the take the cigarette out of her mouth, resting it on the ashtray close by.
“At least it’s not who I thought it would be...”, she mumbles, before immediately continuing on as if she had said nothing at all, “I’m surprised, the Metal Clan usually keeps to themselves. Perhaps we’ve been misjudging the situation in the Earth Kingdom...”
Korra, still thinking over the wording of the offer, latches onto one thing Lin said she hasn’t heard before: “Metal Clan?”, she asks.
Lin shifts back in her chair, hand propped against her forehead.
“Zaofu is a city full of just Metalbenders. They call themselves the Metal Clan.”, she sighs, “I’m not too fond, but they make good fighters nonetheless.”
“So you say this may be worth it?”, Korra questions, raising one eyebrow at Lin’s last sentence.
“I say having more capable Metalbenders on our side could be useful.”; she clarifies, “But I know nothing of this ‘Great Unity’. Watch your back.”
Lin throws the letter back onto the table towards Korra, the paper unceremoniously plopping onto the desk.
“You say that like I’ve already made up my mind.”, Korra comments, the way Lin’s talking like she already knows what Korra plans not lost on her.
The older woman just shakes her head, smiling wickedly to herself as she picks up her cigarette again: “Pfft... You are going to go, I know that already. Just don’t ask me to come along. I’ll stay with Iroh.”, she takes a drag, exhaling the smoke from her nose, “Take Sato with you if you want. I think she’ll like it there.”
If it wasn’t true—
“Her name is Asami, you know?”, she focuses on, instead of how well Lin just read her.
Something in her expected a biting response, but all she gets is a nonchalant shrug. Somehow that fits Lin even better.
Standing up, her palms still on the table, she tells Lin: “I’ll go pack then.”, and then, as she turns to leave, more to herself than anything, “...maybe we can even get an airship...”
Lin simply sighs, adding on just as Korra reaches the door: “Just don’t tell anyone you know me...”
Sometimes, Korra still doesn’t have any idea what is going on in that woman’s head.
Interlude
Thirteen years, seven weeks and three days.
The mind is a fortress, impenetrable only when it is allowed to wander.
He cannot allow himself to give up; Their mission remains, the people in chains.
His thirteen years cannot compare to the thousands of years of the world’s citizens. The time of the Red Lotus will come, and all will see reason.
Sunlight flits through the bars of his cell, ever a reminder of what is wrong with the world. The streaks of light fall as always, perfect just as the world was created.
That is, until someone moves to stand in front of his prison. A long, dark shadow falls into Zaheer’s face.
“You are two hours and twenty-one minutes early.”, he states, refusing to break his meditation for his visitor, “That is... Unless you are not with the White Lotus.”
No one will ever come to rescue him. The remainders of the Red Lotus would never risk detection. This will prove interesting.
“Do not waste air. We are here merely to use you. We believe you may be instrumental to our plans. Nothing more, nothing less.”, his guest says, cold and calculating, voice muffled by cloth.
Zaheer recognizes the tone of a fellow dreamer, perhaps the world is slowly realizing the folly of their ways. It seems time did indeed not stop running while he was imprisoned.
Just as he finishes his thought the distant familiar birdsong is disrupted by a disgusting groan of iron bending. He opens his eyes, seeing the bars to his cell being bend out of place.
The stranger outside returns their arms back to their sides as the metal stills, black cloth hiding their identity fully.
“Prove the worth of your ideals. Maybe you will even succeed.”, they say, leaving already, hidden silvery pauldrons glimmering in the sun underneath their clothes.
“Know we will be there to gather what is left when you are done.”
And with that, Zaheer is left alone again, free to leave.
He is not stupid; He understands their warning. He is a tool in their eyes, but a strong wind can tear down any house, no matter how well it’s built.
He stands, his chains broken.
No matter what others think, his plan returns man to it’s natural state. Even if new rulers are to follow long after he is gone, the people will know how life is meant to be.
The circumstances don’t matter; The Red Lotus will be a typhoon that tears down the old order.
He leaves, hoping for a better future.