Earth
Fire
Air
Water
Only the Avatar can master all four elements and bring balance to the world
THIS JUST IN:
Amon's revolution grows stronger by the day. First, he attacked the bending arena! Then it was discovered that Hiroshi Sato was the mastermind behind the Equalist gloves and mecha tanks! And most recently, Amon ambushed Councilman Tarrlok, took his bending, and nearly captured the Avatar as well! Everyone is on edge, wondering where Amon will strike next.
Asami silently watched Mako watch over Korra as she slept, his hand holding hers tightly as she shifted around. Asami's eyes drifted to the floor and she pressed her palms flat against her skirt as she walked away to head back to her own room.
Over in Pema and Tenzin's room, Tenzin quietly entered his room and sat beside his wife, placing a hand on her pregnant stomach and watching both her and Jinora open their eyes. "Daddy, you're home. We waited up for you. Is Korra okay?" Jinora asked.
"Yes, she's fine, sweetie," Tenzin replied, picking up Ikki and squeezing her as she woke up.
"I was scared," Ikki said, "I thought she wasn't coming back." She snuggled into her dad's neck, and he pressed a soft kiss to her neck in response.
"I'm sorry you were scared, but everything is going to be fine now. I promise," Tenzin sighed, leaning over to embrace the rest of his family.
Later, after Korra woke up from her much-needed rest, she joined the others in the dining hall to fuel up on some food. "Mmm. Mmm. The food tastes amazing, Pema. I'm finally starting to feel like myself again," Korra mumbled as she pushed away her finished plate away from herself.
"We're so thankful you're home safe," Pema said. Smiling, she retrieved Korra's plate and a few other dirty ones and headed off to the kitchen.
Standing up, Asami picked up a few more dishes that Pema missed. "Here, let me help," Asami said as she walked after Pema.
"Korra, I realize that you've been through a lot, but I need to know everything that happened," Tenzin sighed.
"Well, first off, Tarrlok isn't who he says he is. He's Yakone's son." Tenzin turned to Lin with a confused glance, Bolin and Mako's heads partially peeking up at the sudden silence.
"It all makes sense now. That's how Tarrlok was able to bloodbend us without a full moon," Lin said into the silence.
"But how did you escape? And where's Tarrlok?" Tenzin asked.
"Amon captured him and took his bending," Korra said, a lump forming in her throat as she played idly with her fingers.
"What?" Tenzin gasped.
"Yeah, he showed up out of nowhere. He almost got me, too." Korra took a deep breath and looked up to catch Mako staring right at her with a thin smile.
"This is very disturbing news. Amon is becoming emboldened. Taking out a councilman, almost capturing the Avatar...I fear that Amon is entering his endgame."
In the kitchen, Asami stood by Pema's side as they washed down the dishes in the sink. Pema then doubled over, clutching the sink tightly as she wired her eyes shut from her cry of pain. "Pema, are you alright?" Asami asked worriedly as she grabbed Pema's shoulder.
"The baby is...just kicking, really hard, is all. I'm fine," Pema breathed, standing back up.
"Should I get Tenzin?" Asami continued as her eyes brows creased at the sight of Pema regaining her breath.
"No reason to worry him. It's nothing." Pema waved Asami off and returned back to the dishes, Asami joining her before her attention was pulled away to Mako entering the kitchen with a teapot raised in his hand.
"Can I get some hot water? Korra needs more tea," he said.
Asami rolled her eyes and began harshly scrubbing at the soapy plate in her hand. "You're a firebender. Boil it yourself."
"I'm- gonna step out in case you two want to talk." Pema quickly dried her hands and scurried out of the kitchen, Mako's raised hand falling as he set the teapot down on an island in the middle of the kitchen.
"Is there something we need to talk about?" Mako questioned with a wrinkled nose as he stepped closer to Asami's back.
"I've noticed how you treat Korra. How you acted when she was missing." Asami let out a warm breath and dried off the dish she finished cleaning before wiping her hands on a clean towel and saying, "You have feelings for her, don't you?"
"What? No! She was taken by a crazy bloodbender! How did you expect me to act?" he said defensively.
"Listen, I want to be okay with you and Korra's close friendship, but you've been keeping the truth from me this whole time."
"The truth? About what?" he said while crossing his arms.
Asami scoffed and turned to face Mako with a frown. "You're really going to make me say it?"
"Yes! Because I don't know what you're talking about!"
"The kiss, Mako. I know," she said plainly.
Mako froze, his voice coming out as stammers as Asami did nothing but glare at him. "I-Well I-" he sighed, "Bolin told you, didn't he?"
"Don't blame your brother for what you did and what Korra did. Do you have feelings for her or not?" Asami snapped.
Shifting his eyes around uncomfortably, Mako thought over the best way to calm down all this hostility. "Woah, this isn't Korra's fault, okay? I sent her mixed signals which is why she confessed and kissed me. Yes, I reminded her about us being together, but I was confused and acting really badly on it so, just- Look, it's a crazy time and we should worry about our relationship problems later." Asami stared back at Mako's sincere eyes with utter disbelief, and she yanked her hand away as he attempted to take it.
"Unbelievable! This is why we have boundaries! You were both conscious of our relationship yet you totally disregarded it. I don't want to hear it, Mako! Either you are invested in every twist and turn of our relationship at any time they might arise or there might not even be one at all!" Asami cried in frustration, storming off out of a backdoor in the kitchen. Asami walked for a couple of minutes across the many paths on the island and wound up near one of the flower gardens, her cheeks completely drenched in tears at this point. She sat motionless on the grass for a few moments, her body still until it became wracked with sobs as she brought her knees to her chest.
Hearing the raised voices in the kitchen, Bolin entered the room only to see Mako shove something off of a counter and walk off out the third door in the room. Figuring that Asami must have gone through the second one, Bolin made his way outside until he found Asami sitting by herself among the flowers. Bolin said nothing as he sat beside her and messed with the blades of grass beneath his legs.
"I should have told you earlier," Bolin said after a few minutes.
Asami sniffled. "No, Mako should have. And you were the one to tell me in the end, not him."
"I know, but I'm sorry that I told you something that's causing you pain. I know what it's like to lose some of your heart to Mako." Bolin dryly chuckled. "I guess I'm actually not over it like I thought I was."
"You did nothing wrong, Bo, so don't worry. And it's okay that you're not over it. We'll both be fine." Asami dabbed her eyes with the back of her wrist before she leaned over to place her head on Bolin's shoulder.
"Yeah, I know we will. We're strong like that," he grinned slightly.
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As Tenzin walked through one of the courtyards on the Island, he smiled as he passed by Naga curled up with Pabu at her side. He approached Lin, tapping her lightly on the shoulder, and said, "Lin, um, I-I need to ask you a favor. It would mean the world to me, but I know it could be a potentially awkward situation. Furthermore-"
"Spit it out already!" she interrupted.
"Uh, okay-"
"Tenzin!"
"Will you stay here and watch over Pema and the children while I meet with the council? With everything that has happened lately, I want to be sure that my family is in safe hands," Tenzin said.
Placing her hand on Tenzin's shoulder, Lin's previous frown upturned into a small smile. "Of course I'll help, old friend."
"I didn't realize that you two were out here," Pema said, narrowing her eyes as she walked up to them both with Meelo perched on her hip.
"Pema!" Tenzin gasped, "Yes- yes, Lin has agreed to help out around here and keep an eye on things while I'm away."
"Thank you! I could use the extra pair of hands. Would you mind giving him a bath? He's filthy," Pema handed Meelo over to Lin as the boy laughed loudly, his tongue sticking out a Lin while he continued to laugh.
Holding Meelo away from herself, Lin angrily yelled out to Tenzin while she watched him mount his sky bison, " This is not what I signed on for!"
"Thank you, Lin! Oogi, yip yip." Lin sighed, turning her head back to Meelo who had swapped laughter for nose-picking.
"I gotta...do something. I forgot what," Meelo giggled. Lin held him further away from herself and hurriedly carried him away in hopes that he would remember what it is he needed. And in the hopes that it wasn't anything too gross.
In a nice home in Republic City, the Fire Nation councilwoman, Lera, nervously paced around the room as her husband sat absorbed in his newspaper. "Do you know where my keys are? I can't find them anywhere!"
"No, dear," her husband said as he continued to flip through the newspaper.
"Oh, found them!" Lera smiled as she pulled her keys out of her purse.
"Good, dear."
"Don't wait up for me. This council session will probably go late into the night," Lera sighed, waving him goodbye.
She heard a knock at the front door and rushed to answer it as her husband said, "The door, dear." Opening the door, Lera finds two exterminators standing at her door, one tall and bald and the other short with long hair.
"We're here to fix a spider-rat problem," the tall one said, holding up a spray hose and poison can in both of his hands.
"I didn't call an exterminator," Lera said with furrowed brows. The bald one lightly chuckled before pointing the spray hose at Lera and electrocuting her, the two in-disguise Equalists stepping into the house as Lera's body collapsed to the floor.
"Dear?" the husband curiously called.
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Tenzin landed Oogi on the roof of city hall, dismounting and walking around the dome in the ceiling where several workers were clearing up broken glass. Tenzin nodded at each of them as he passed, pausing his movements as he heard a buzzing come up from behind him. Ducking, an electric disk spiraled over Tenzin's head and as he spun, another one barely missed him. Tenzin landed on his feet and looked around, realizing that the people who attacked him were the workers working on the dome. The Equalists in-disguise tried to seize his wrists, but Tenzin shot himself up into the sky with a sprout of wind and flung all of the Equalists back against concrete walls. Tenzin let himself down and brushed off his robes, his head turning to a roof-top door that just opened.
"Aah! Ah, I'm so relieved to see you!" one of the council pages said.
"The other council members and secretaries, are they all right?"
"The secretaries are all in their respective nations, giving out reports. But in terms of the council members, I'm afraid not. I just received a call from Chief Saikhan. They've all been captured."
"This can't be happening," Tenzin said, his words wavering as he rubbed his eyes.
"The leadership of Republic City is in your hands now," the page said, reaching out his hands towards Tenzin. Tenzin grimly nodded his head, their bodies suddenly moving over to the edge of the City Hall rooftop as nearby explosions sound.
Looking over the edge, they see bombs falling onto the city from airships, and the council page grabbed his head and wailed, "It is a tragic day indeed!"
Equalist airships began to fly overhead all over, especially by Air Temple Island where Lin ushered Tenzin's kids back into the temple. "All right, kids, time to go inside." Running by them, Korra, Mako, Asami, and Bolin rushed over from various sides of the courtyard, their eyes all straining as they watched the airship streak by.
"We heard explosions, what's going on, Lin?" Korra asked.
"Republic City is under attack."
High above the city in an airship, Hiroshi gently traced his finger across a photo of himself, his wife, and Asami four years after Asami was born. He sadly smiled as he felt his mind wander back to when Asami first talked to him again after the accident with her mom. He remembered how long it had been since she had spoken and how much she had pulled away from everything because of how hard it was. "I want things to be okay again," she had said to him while hugging him tighter than she ever had. Hiroshi remembered tucking some upsetting envelope deep into his jacket pocket and just holding her while he promised that things will be okay again.
"This is what we've been working for and it's finally here!" Hiroshi jumped from the sudden noise behind him. His warm memories faded as he folded up the picture and pushed it deep into his jacket pocket, turning to Lieutenant Zaheer and giving him a pained smile.
"I've dreamed of this day for so long," Hiroshi said, his eyes wincing in pain every so often as he tried to shut out something that kept brimming his mind.
Amon stepped forward towards both of them and placed a firm hand on the Lieutenant's shoulder. "Zaheer, you have been here longer than everyone else, and now the time has come for the Equalists to claim Republic City as their own."
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"Where did you say you parked the car?" Asami asked as she, Bolin, Korra, and Mako ran off the dock they ported in once they crossed the bay to Republic City.
"It's right around here somewhere," Korra said as she whirled her head around to look for the car. "Ah, there it is!" They all ran off to get to it, only to find it lodged into a bent pole.
"Wow, nice parking job," Asami said sarcastically, "You dented my car."
"Hey, you guys got arrested and left me alone with the car! I made it very clear that I don't know how to drive."
"All things considered, you did a great job! But how are we going to pay for all these parking tickets?" Bolin asked, picking up the wad of tickets stuffed underneath the windshield wiper.
Mako grabbed the tickets from his hand and crumpled them up before burning them. Bolin gasped in horror and Mako just rolled his eyes. "Relax, the city is under attack. The police have more important things to worry about."
"This'll come in handy," Asami said as she opened the car's trunk to get out an Equalist glove that she had stored in there. Walking over to the driver's side door and opening it, Asami sat down inside and looked disdainfully over at Mako when he tried to sit next to her. "Why don't you sit in the back? With Korra."
"I think I will," Mako said, yanking open the back seat door and sliding in next to Korra who was already seated there. Bolin slipped into the front seat next to Asami as she started the car, and Korra looked at all of them with a confused glance.
"Everything alright?" she asked Mako.
"Yeah, everything is terrific," he replied with a scoff while he turned his head to the side.
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Hey guys! I hope you're doing well. This part is also short but it averages out with the other part to have a double upload that is around the length of my usual parts. Sorry about the bad math skills, but things are ramping up. Writing this chapter, I was reminded of how quickly things got real in the show which I just never noticed. Anyways, I keep saying this but it's so weird that we're almost at book 2 like so close. I have so much planning to finish, I can't wait to write it. Hope you guys are staying very safe and have an amazing day :)
-JinxingGinny