Meelo was using airbending to load bags onto Pepper, while Ikki stood on top, catching them.
"Tenzin, are you sure you can't go with them?" Pema asked.
Tenzin replied, "Raiko asked me to stay here and help figure out a diplomatic solution to this Kuvira problem."
Ikki chimed in, "Mom, we'll be fine. Grandpa Aang and his friends were around our age when they traveled the world. Plus, Fara is coming."
I walked out of the home and began walking over to my family. "Sorry, I was on the line with Iroh."
Meelo turned his back on Pema and said, "Mom, we're going to be out in the wild, living off the land! We don't need your food!"
Pema added, "But I made your favorite treat..."
Meelo was surprised. "Sweet buns with happy faces on them?" Pema nodded. "Well, I guess we're not officially on the road yet." He grabbed one of them and opened it, only to discover that it had a smudge over the face. "Aww, this one is smudged," he said, showing it to his mother.
Pema tried to console him, "You know, sometimes things get smudged in the wild."
Jinora pulled the bag of food closed and jumped off of Pepper to hug Tenzin.
Tenzin asked, "Were you able to get a read on Korra yet?"
"No," Jinora answered, "but once we're further out, I'll be able to hone in on her spiritual energy. We should be able to find her within a few days."
Tenzin turned to his children who were already mounted on Pepper. "Good luck! And be careful! Remember, Fara's in charge!"
Meelo retorted, "I answer to no man. Or girl, even if she does have rare bending abilities."
Tenzin lightly scolded him, saying, "Meelo!"
"Now let's move out, soldiers!" Meelo said.
I rolled my eyes; I honestly couldn't believe my father had dragged me along with my siblings. Jinora was old enough to look after the other two.
Jinora sighed, "Ugh... Pepper, yip-yip!" Pepper took off, while Tenzin and Pema stared after their children.
After a long ride, we passed a mountainous region, and Pepper landed on the top of a tower. The airbenders got off the bison.
"Finally!" Meelo squealed. "I've been holding my pee for an hour!"
Jinora got behind a small tower, closed her eyes, and started meditating.
Ikki poked her head out, saying, "If you get through to Korra, tell her I said hi." Jinora opened her eyes slightly annoyed.
I looked over at Ikki. "Ikki, leave her alone; she's concentrating."
Ikki poked her head again, "I was just asking her if she feels anything. Do you feel anything yet?" Ikki came completely from behind the tower, grabbing her hips. "What's taking so long?"
Jinora sighed lightly in frustration. "Ikki, I can't concentrate if you keep talking. Why don't you go play with some of those spirits?"
Ikki sighed and went back to where she was as Meelo approached. "Jinora's spirity powers are broken, and she doesn't know where Korra is."
I hissed at Ikki. "Ikki, don't say that."
"What? It's true," she shrugged.
"My powers are not broken. I just need more than two seconds and some quiet," Jinora said.
"While you try to pull yourself together, Poki and I are gonna go into town and find out if anyone has seen Korra," Meelo said.
Ikki bounced in front of Meelo. "Sounds like a good plan to me!"
I glanced over at my two younger siblings. "Just...just don't get into any trouble; I'll stay here with Jinora."
"Trouble?" Meelo laughed. "Do you know who I am?"
I lifted my right lip in disgust.
"Anywho," Meelo pointed his finger to quiet Ikki. "Enough chit-chat; you can hold the picture of Korra I drew." He took out an extremely life-like picture of Korra.
Ikki grabbed the picture, surprised. "Wow, I didn't know you could draw!"
Meelo crossed his arms. "You don't know a lot of things about me, sister." He turned around and signaled Ikki to follow him. "Let's roll!"
I quietly took a seat behind the tower, hoping and praying we could find Korra soon. I didn't want to let Dad down or the rest of the world.
After searching through several villages and receiving no useful information from the citizens about Korra's whereabouts, Jinora had yet to track her down. We boarded Pepper and continued our search, flying through the air as the sun set. When we arrived at another village, Ikki and Meelo went to question, but once again, they returned with no leads.
The next day, Meelo found himself on a rooftop, scanning the area for any signs of Korra. He spotted a girl in an alley below and descended gently using his wingsuit.
As Ikki and I observed, Meelo appeared to be engaging in some light flirting with the girl, who was undeniably gorgeous. We couldn't believe she was responding positively to his advances.
Ikki couldn't resist teasing him, "Ooh!" Both Meelo and the girl, Tuyen, turned to see us sitting on a roof. "Meelo's got a girlfriend!"
Annoyed, Meelo retorted, "Go away, Ikki!"
Ikki persisted, "Hey, what about Fara?"
Meelo chuckled, "Fara, the cool older sister, I don't mind her presence."
Ikki jumped down and used airbending to catch herself. "Jinora's been looking for you. We're moving on."
Tuyen handed Meelo a flower, saying, "Looks like you've got to get back to your mission. Good luck." She then walked away, tousling his hair.
Meelo stared after her with a blush and a big smile on his face before turning to Ikki, annoyed. "Thanks a lot, Ikki. You drove away the love of my life." He tossed the flower aside.
I tried to comfort my brother, asking, "Do you need a hug?"
He sighed and replied, "Yes, please."
Later, we arrived at a village dock, and Meelo passed by the fishmonger.
I was talking to Ikki and Jinora, sharing some thoughts when we suddenly heard, "Fara! Jinora! Ikki! It's Korra!"
Ikki sprinted over, using airbending to stop herself by clinging onto her brother's shoulders. "Where?! Where?! Where?!" Jinora and I rushed over.
Meelo pointed to the picture on the wall, next to Aang's.
My face dropped in disappointment. "It's just a photo of Korra."
"At least it's something," Meelo said.
The fishmonger added, "Pretty neat, huh? She came by here, about uh, six months ago."
Meelo was somewhat satisfied with himself. "Looks like someone just strummed up a good old-fashioned lead." He turned to the fishmonger and inquired, "Then where did she go?"
The fishmonger replied, "Oh, I don't know. But she wasn't looking too good."
Meelo pointed at Ikki, exclaiming, "This is all your fault."
Ikki defended herself, "What? I didn't do anything."
Meelo emphasized, "Exactly!" He pointed at her closely. "You need to start pulling your weight!" He then turned to me and said, "That goes for you too, so-called leader!" He walked off.
Ikki couldn't resist commenting, "Remember when he used to be so nice and sweet?"
Jinora and I exchanged glances before responding, "No."
✧༺♥༻∞༺♥༻✧
As time passed, I glanced around, noticing that I was alone with Jinora, who was still trying to locate Korra. I furrowed my eyebrows, becoming concerned, and then asked, "Jinora, have you seen Ikki?"
Out of nowhere, Meelo emerged from the bushes, looking rather miserable, as he dragged a purple-stained sack behind him.
Jinora opened her eyes from her meditation and asked, "Are you okay?"
Meelo, trying to sound fine but sounding awful, replied, "Yep, totally fine!" He gave Jinora a thumbs-up. "I hope you're hungry because we found some... " He covered his mouth, nearly throwing up, and continued, "We found some berries!" He handed the sack over to Jinora.
Poki, one of our flying lemurs, gagged and vomited out his berries. Meelo ran off into the bushes and threw up as well.
I couldn't hide my disgust as I scrunched my face up.
Jinora, equally disgusted, remarked, "Looks like you got some bad berries." She tossed the sack away. "So much for living off the land."
Meelo defended himself, "They're fine, I just ate too many of them because they're so...so delicious."
I couldn't understand why Ikki had gone off to look for food when Mom had prepared some for us. "Why would she go off to look for food? Mom made us a batch here."
Meelo admitted, "Well, I kind of threw it away."
In response to his admission, I created a cloud over Meelo's head, and a hailstorm began to fall upon him. "Ow! Ow!"
Jinora inquired, "Did you run into Ikki while you were picking your poisonous berries?"
Meelo struggled to avoid the hail, saying, "No, ow! What? Ow! Did she run off or something?"
"I think so," Jinora replied.
Meelo complained, "Great. Now I've got to go find the Avatar and her. This mission is getting worse by the day."
Angrily, Jinora pointed out, "This isn't only your mission, Meelo. I thought we were doing this as a family."
I tried to defuse the situation, saying, "Come on, you two. Time to find Ikki." We eventually located a base, and Meelo wasted no time in blasting down the door. I followed closely behind, using my airbending to effortlessly knock out the soldiers against the far wall.
Ikki, who was tied up in a chair, gave us an angry look.
"You're welcome, Ikki," Meelo said with his arms crossed.
Ikki, still annoyed, stood on the chair, freeing herself from the ropes, and said, "Why did you do that?"
Jinora, irritated by her sister's ungratefulness, added, "We're saving you. Let's go."
"I had everything under control. I just found our food, and I have an idea where Korra is," Ikki argued.
"You do?" I exclaimed. "So let's get going. ándale."
"Hold on," Ikki said, placing a snack on the knees of the still-sitting soldiers against the wall. "Sorry my brother and sisters knocked you out. Nice chatting with you!"
✧༺♥༻∞༺♥༻✧
Pepper flew through the sky above the swamp, following Ikki's directions. "Those soldiers said there weren't any troops here, and, I figure, if Korra's not feeling good, she might come to a spiritual place like this to get better."
Jinora, who had momentarily let go of the reins, closed her eyes to meditate. "There is an enormous amount of spiritual activity here, but I don't feel Korra."
"Well, that's what we get for listening to Ikki," Meelo muttered.
I shot him a disapproving look. "Be quiet."
"Guys! We just got here. Let's at least look around," Ikki urged.
"I'm sorry, Ikki, but I'm with Meelo on this," Jinora admitted. "I don't think we're going to find her here. Let's go, Pepper!"
I glanced over at Ikki, who seemed disappointed, and tried to reason, "Guys, we haven't even gone into the swamp yet."
Jinora made a U-turn, but suddenly, a bunch of vines shot up from the swamp and pulled the bison down into the murky water. Meelo quickly freed Pepper by cutting some of the vines, and the rest of us retracted spontaneously.
Meelo grumbled, "Why did those stupid vines pull us in here anyway?"
"Because," I whispered, "they want us here."
Ikki clung onto me in excitement. "I'm telling you, Korra has got to be close."
"I don't know, Ikki, I still don't sense Korra," Jinora said.
Frustrated, Ikki replied, "Well, you haven't sensed her the entire time we've been looking for her!"
Meelo chimed in, "Next time I go on a mission, it's going to be boys only, just Poki and me."
I let out a tired grunt.
We began to argue, but Jinora suddenly gasped, turning around in surprise, and exclaimed excitedly, "Korra! I know where Korra is!"
"Shut up!" I gasped.
Meelo and Ikki cheered in unison. "Yeah!"
We jumped onto Pepper and flew through the swamp, emerging from the trees in front of the banyan-grove tree.
"Korra!" My siblings screamed.
I noticed a surprise guest beside her.
The airbenders and I jumped off Pepper and unfolded our wingsuits, flying to Korra. Korra turned around and started to cry tears of happiness. We landed and gave Korra a heartfelt hug.
"We missed you so much, Korra," Ikki cried.
"I missed you so much, too. How did you find me all the way out here?" Korra asked.
"Jinora sensed your energy," Ikki answered.
"But we never would have been here if it weren't for Ikki," Jinora said.
"I never would have stormed off and run into those soldiers if it weren't for Meelo," Ikki added.
Meelo tried to take all the credit. "I was trying to toughen up these ladies, but I guess it was a team effort."
I observed Korra, noticing her short hair and how amazing she looked. "I love your hair."
"It's so you," Meelo added.
"Thanks, Fara, but I can never have better hair than you," Korra teased, playfully punching my arm.
The elderly woman behind us coughed, reminding Korra of her presence.
"I'm so sorry. This is Fara, Jinora, Ikki and Meelo. Aang and Katara's grandchildren."
"Your grandpa was a real pain in my butt," she said bluntly.
"Wait a minute. Cranky? Old? Blind? You must be Toph!" Meelo exclaimed.
Toph chuckled. "Oh, I like this one."
I hugged Korra's side as she held me tight.
Jinora turned around to face Korra. "You need to come home, Korra. Kuvira is taking over the Earth Kingdom."
"You have to stop her," Ikki added.
"I don't know... I'm not the Avatar I used to be. I can't even go into the Avatar State."
"Please, Korra," Ikki pleaded.
"The world needs you," I added. "I need you...we need you."
✧༺♥༻∞༺♥༻✧
As the night wore on, Korra stood in front of the fire while Toph had taken everyone back to her hollow tree. The kids watched Korra intently as she stared at the fire. "All right. I'm ready."
"I'm not bending it out of you," Toph said. "You've got to do this on your own."
Korra nodded, took a firmer stance, and slowly exhaled.
Toph began to guide her. "Close your eyes. Clear your mind. And don't freak out, like last time! Now, focus your energy. Find the metal. Let it move through your body."
Korra started to bend the metal inside her, but she lost her concentration and broke her stance.
I frowned and rested my head on Ikki's chin as she sat on my lap, hugging her closer.
"That fight is over. Release the fear."
Korra got back into her stance, exhaled, and started bending the poison again. Tiny droplets of mercury came out of her arms, and she moved them down the length of her arms to form a larger drop in front of her. She repeated the process one more time, removing the last of the poison from her body. Toph bent two hemispheres around it, locking the poison inside.
"Well done, Korra," Toph nodded.
Korra's eyes shot open, revealing the brilliant white glow of the Avatar State.
A smile spread across my face. "She's backkk."
Meelo excitedly cheered. "The Avatar is back in business!"
Korra remained calm. "I feel so much lighter. Thank you so much for helping me. I'd like to give you a hug now, if that's okay with you."
Toph was reluctant but agreed. "All right, you earned it." Korra gave her a hug.
Outside again, everyone hopped on Pepper, with Meelo being the last to board. We all waved goodbye to Toph, and Pepper flew off.