Korra and Mako slinked out of the bay as they came upon the shores of Air Temple Island. Letting her hands fall, Korra removed the water that she had used to keep them alive under the bay and let it plop somewhere behind her. From their back pockets, the two of them slide on chi-blocker masks in order to blend in and climb up the rocky shores. Korra lifted her head and immediately pulled Mako closer to the ground, lifting her finger slightly to point at a man beginning to board one of the Equalists' airships.
"There's Amon," Korra whispered.
"We need to get into the temple," Mako said," Then when he returns..."
Korra nodded. "We ambush him." They begin stalking towards the temple but then froze in their places as a voice called out to them from behind.
"What are you two doing here?" Korra and Mako slowly turned around to face the voice, recognizing him immediately as Amon's Lieutenant.
"Uh, we were just transferred," Mako lied.
"Well, you're getting transferred again. Amon wants extra security at the arena today," the Lieutenant replied.
"The arena? For what?"
The Lieutenant leaned closer to the pair while narrowing his eyes. "The rally. You should have been briefed about this." He yanked himself back, however, as Korra fell into a sudden bow before him.
"We'll be there, sir." The Lieutenant gave her a weird glance but paid it no mind given the Equalist mask that covered her face. He carried on further down the island, leaving Korra to whisper to Mako. "I know another way in." Korra led Mako off to the west side of the island, helping Mako climb up the side of a tall building until they reached a small ledge. "Let's hide in the attic." Korra lifted a wooden panel on the wall in front of them and they stepped into the room.
Mako returned the wooden panel back to the wall and followed Korra up the attic's trapdoor that she was making her way up to. Pulling themselves into the attic, Mako furrowed his brows at a person-like shadow hunched over behind a row of bars.
"Uh, we're not alone up here," he said.
Korra peered around Mako's shoulder and gasped, leaning forward to see if her eyes were deceiving her. "Tarrlok?"
"I don't suppose you're here to rescue me," Tarrlok sighed as he stretched his legs further out in his cell.
"We had no idea you were here. Are there other prisoners on the island?" Korra walked up to the front of the cell and carefully placed her hands around two of the bars.
"No, I'm the only one."
"And what makes you so special?" Mako asked, crossing his arms as he placed himself next to Korra's side.
"I'm Amon's brother," Tarrlok said. He folded his chained hands over each other and leaned his head back. Korra's jaw slacked as Mako's eyes widened in surprise, the two of them looking over at each other with disbelief littering their faces. "Amon is from the Northern Water Tribe. He's a waterbender and a bloodbender, just like I was." Tarrlok lifted his head to look Korra directly in the eyes, his demeanor tired and exhausted.
"What?" Korra gasped.
"Did you know this all along?"
"No." Tarrlok looked off to the side as he let out a deep breath. "Not until he captured me."
Korra leaned as close to the bars as she could. "How did your brother end up becoming Amon?"
"From what I have been told, it all began with my father, Yakone. With the help of his former gang, he escaped prison and underwent surgery to change his appearance. He assumed a new identity and settled down in the Northern Water Tribe. That's where he met my mother, a warm, caring woman.
"Before long, they started a family together. Amon was the firstborn, under the name Noatak. I was born three years later. Noatak was a good-natured kid, always looking out for me and others around us. Those were the good years. Before my brother and I discovered we were waterbenders. At first, we were excited by our new abilities, but our training brought out a different side of my father..."
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"Tarrlok, you'd better shape up or you'll be out here in the cold all night until you get it right," Yakone demanded, staring down at his son.
"I'm trying, but-"
"Try harder!" Tarrlok squeaked and dropped the blob of water that he was desperately trying to float smoothly across the sky. "Your brother was never this sloppy." Tarrlok swallowed, hard, as he rubbed his hands beneath his wet eyes.
"Dad, he'll get it. He just needs time," Noatak said as he waved his arms fluidly around himself.
"Don't talk back to me, son! Ever!" Yakone snapped, making Noatak flinch back.
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"Even back then, my brother wanted everyone to be treated fairly and equally. When I was seven, my father took me and Noatak on a hunting trip far away from our home. He told us his true identity was Yakon, Republic City's most notorious crime boss, and that he was once a bloodbender of rare skill..."
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"What's bloodbending?" Tarrlok asked as he curled up into himself in the warmth of the fire roaring in front of them.
"The most powerful and feared form of bending in the world. It was declared illegal thanks to that coward, Katara. Our family has the strongest line of bloodbenders in history. You boys have this power inside of you, and I will teach you to master it."
Noatak looked off to the side and sighed. "What happened to your bending, Dad?"
"The Avatar stole it from me!" Yakone stood up and furiously said, "That's why I brought you out here, to learn your destiny. You two will become bloodbenders of the highest order. When the time is right, you will claim Republic City and you will destroy the Avatar. You must avenge me. That is your purpose in life."
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"The good days were behind us. Every full moon, our father took us on another supposed 'hunting trip,' where he secretly trained us in bloodbending. We kept the truth from my mother. I don't know if either Noatak or I could bear to tell her."
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The boys and Yakone huddled near the snowy ground as they keenly watched a herd of yak-bunnies jump by. Yakone turned to Noatak and nodded, Noatak grimacing before standing up to face the herd. He raised his hands and exhaled a warm breath, churning the blood of the closet yak-bunny in order to make it stand up on its back legs. Noatak forced its head back and the yak-bunny yelped out in pain.
"Stop! You're hurting it!" Tarrlok cried out as he reached up to tug on his brother's coat.
"Toughen up, Tarrlok!" Yakone yelled. "You'll need thicker skin for this." Noatak let the yak-bunny down from its legs and it quickly scurried away, limping as it joined the rest of the herd in a hurried retreat. "Very good son, very good," Yakone congratulated.
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"A few years later, my father taught us to bloodbend anytime, without the need of the full moon. We practiced constantly, and I hated every minute of it. I had no stomach for manipulating such helpless animals. My brother, however, seemed to revel in this newfound power. He seemed like he wanted to understand it and master it, but he never seemed on board with our father's wants and desires. His hours behind his closed bedroom door made it feel as if he had his own plans. I guess, now I know what they were. Either way, he was a prodigy mastering my father's psychic bloodbending technique by the time he was fourteen."
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The boys and Yakone hid behind a few tundra weeds, sneaking up on a pack of polar-wolves that had come out of their homes for afternoon hunting. It was Tarrlok's turn now, and Yakone stared firmly at him until he slowly pushed himself up to his feet. Tarrlok stepped a few paces closer to the polar-wolves and wiggled his fingers, making the polar-wolves stand in a row before pushing them from side to side. The polar-wolves whined loudly as they shuddered in pain and Tarrlok immediately let them go. In light of this, Noatak lifted himself to his knees behind the weeds and breathed, forcing the wolves back together in the row.
Concentrating, Noatak turned them around in unison, lifting his head to raise them into the air. Tarrlok gasped and moved backward, his hands moving to rest gently on his face. Yakone, for a moment, blinked rapidly in shock before grinning broadly over at his son. Noatak lowered the polar-wolves and made each of them bow to him, Yakone's throat rumbling with a deep chuckle.
"That's how you do it! That's the way it's done! That's what you need to strive for." Yakonee shoved a strong finger into Tarrlok's shoulder blades and made him shudder, his lips quivering as he caught the terrified glance of a polar-wolf before it bounded away from them.
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"Even though Noatak was my father's favorite, it wasn't any easier for him. He carried the burden of all of Yakone's expectations and demands. Something changed in Noatak over the years; the loving brother I once knew became cold and detached. I resented him for what felt like him leaving me in the shadows over our father's wrath, but then he did something that changed how I saw him. And it was coincidentally when our father pushed us to the extremes and made us bloodbend each other."
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Tarrlok and Noatak stood in front of each other, their bodies shivering from the flurry of snow and the thunder strikes popping in the distance. "Noatak, go!" Yakone yelled. Noatak inhaled, pressing his palms towards his brother and taking hold of his body. Tarrlok squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to push against Noatak's control, but he couldn't and fell to his knees, leaning back as Noatak narrowed his eyes and forced him there. "Excellent," Yakone smiled as Noatak bowed to him and freed Tarrlok," Tarrlok, your turn."
Tarrlok stood up and shook his head decisively. "No. I won't do it."
"Bloodbend your brother, Tarrlok!" Yakone said sternly.
"That felt awful. I don't want to do that to anyone. I never want to bloodbend again!"
"You're a disgrace, a weakling!" Yakone spat while marching over to Tarrlok, "I'll teach you a lesson you insubordinate-" Yakone spluttered as he seized up, his body contorting over itself.
"Stay away from him," Noatak ordered, stepping in front of his brother.
"How dare you bloodbend me!" Yakone choked out.
"What're you gonna do about it? You're the weak one." Noatak forced Yakone to his knees and squeezed him, making Yakone cough as he tried to catch his breath. "You always say bloodbending is the most powerful thing in the world, but it isn't. The Avatar is. He took your bending away. What could be more powerful than that?"
"I made you what you are. You're mine," Yakone seethed.
Noatak dryly laughed. "We're your sons, not your tools for revenge. We both have goals and wants that you've done nothing for. And we don't need you to get them, you need us." Noatak continued to hold his grip on his father as he turned around to face Tarrlok who looked up at him with wide eyes. "Let's go. We can run away from him. Forever."
"Run away? But what about Mom? We can't just leave her!" Tarrlok cried out.
Noatak sniffled, his eyes staining red. "I guess I got you wrong. You obviously can't do what needs to be done." Noatak flung Yakone away into the snowy banks of the tundra and ran off into the growing blizzard, Tarrlok reaching out for him as he got farther and farther away and tears rolled more and more down his cheeks.
"Noatak! Don't leave! Please! Noatak!"
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"My father and I searched for days, but we never found a sign of Noatak. We thought he perished in that storm. My mother was never the same after the loss of my brother. My father stopped training me. With Noatak gone, his hopes for revenge withered and he passed away a few years later."
Korra let her hands slack on the cell bars. "That's one of the saddest stories I've ever heard."
Tarrlok grimaced, forcing his eyes to meet Korra's. "Avatar Korra, I am truly sorry for all that I did to you. I thought I was better than my father, but his ghost still shaped me. I became a soldier of revenge, just like he wanted me to be. And so did my brother. His revolution is built on his capitalization of the unfortunate plight of non-benders that I and many others have done very little if nothing to help with.
"It's no wonder they followed him, I think Noatak and his followers truly believe that bending is the source of evil in this world. And through no more of it, everything will be solved. To be frank, it's a logical conclusion to make given both Noatak's trauma with bending and the inherent step-up benders have."
Korra dropped her eyes to the ground for a moment, her breath hitching as she realized that she was part of the many that did barely anything to help besides going after Amon. Looking at Mako out of the corner of her eye, Korra sighed.
"How did you figure out that Amon is your brother?" Mako asked, sensing Korra's sadness and rubbing her shoulder lightly.
"When he took my bending, the sensation was somehow familiar. I later recognized it as my brother's bloodbending grip."
Korra raised her right hand and lightly squeezed the hand that Mako placed on her shoulder. "So, he somehow uses bloodbending to take people's bending." Korra stood up straight and looked to Mako as he took his hand off of her shoulder and began mulling over possible ways to take Amon down.
"I don't know how he does it, but then again, I've never encountered a bender as strong as Noatak," Tarrlok said.
"How in the world do we beat him then?" Korra asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
Mako rested a finger on his chin and hummed for a moment before saying, "We can't. Any attack we throw at him, he'll redirect it with his mind. That's how he's been able to challenge any bender."
"So much for our ambush. If we stay here we're toast," Korra muttered as she paced in front of Tarrlok's cell, "but there's another way to beat him.
"How?" Mako furrowed his brows and let his hands fall to his hips.
"This whole time, Amon has been one step ahead of us, but finally we have the advantage. We know the truth about him. If we expose him as a bender in front of all of his supporters..."
"At the rally," Mako filled in.
"...We could take away his true power!"
"And undermine his whole revolution!" Mako exclaimed, "We can finally put Amon's aggressiveness behind us and focus on other aspects of their pleas."
Korra smiled brightly and turned back to Tarrlok. "Thank you for your help." Tarrlok solemnly nodded and shifted his eyes as Mako started to walk off. Korra stopped him with an outstretched hand and said, "We can't just leave him here."
Tarrlok shook his head and stood up as much as he could with his chained restraints. "Go. Amon can't know that anyone spoke with me." Tarrlok shuffled closer to the bars and said, "Defeat him. Put an end to this sad story."
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Hey guys! I hope you're doing really well today! First off, thank you so much for 1k reads, that's crazy! I really appreciate it and hope you guys are still enjoying my story. This chapter is kind of late mostly because school's a royal pain...but it's out and we're heading to the last episode of book one which I can't believe. And Lemaya finally comes back next episode so it's very exciting. Anyways, let me stop rambling. Please stay safe you guys and I hope you have a great day! And cheers, I guess, to the last parts of book one!
-JinxingGinny