AVATAR: LEGEND OF KORRA

SECRETS AND LIES

PART 1

The room was dark, laden thick with curling black smoke etched in faint, haunting light giving a sickly brown hue to its ever twisting edges. Korra coughed heavily as she pulled her collar over her nose and mouth. She glanced back once to her companion. He stood square, a hand on his dirtied scarf to hold it in place over his mouth and nose, and gave a thumbs up. Korra nodded once, "I have to do this alone. You go find the others."

He nodded and rushed down the hall. Mako's eyes narrowed as he pushed his legs harder, carrying him just a few steps faster. It was a race against time. The echoes of Korra's footsteps disappeared in the pounding thumps of his own. His heart crashed against his ribs and his lungs burned like the fire he breathed. There was no way to be certain where his brother and friends were, but he had to find them.

Korra skidded to a halt at the end of the hallway. The door was cracked open. Her eyes narrowed and she resisted the urge to check over her shoulder though she could have sworn Mako followed her once again. The silence fell. No, he was no where nearby. She was alone. The palm of her hand gently touched the door, her fingertips lightly gracing it's surface for a brief second before a surge of power shot through her arm like lightening and a barrel of glowing red fire blasted the wide metal door open.

The room was cold and a skirting fog rolled eerily along the floor. It reeked of rot; a polluted swampland was comparably a bed of sweet honeysuckle and roses. She sneered at the foul stench and guardedly stepped forward. Her foot sank into a soft muck the bubbled and gurgled at her weight. She feigned disregard as she proceeded to yank her book free and push through overgrown vines and brush that hung lifelessly, coated in a thick grime. "What is this place?" Korra asked aloud and she made her way to mess.

A laugh echoed on the deathly trees and resonated around her as if omnipresent. She swung her head around, her breath caught tight in her throat. It was a low, familiar laugh. Short and arrogant. Korra's fist tightened, "Amon. I know you're here! Show yourself!" Her arms frantically shoved through the ghostly flora, the fog grew thicker around her ankles as she broke through to a clearing. A pus yellow light shone through the canopy in as if a spotlight illuminating the man that stared her down. Korra's eyes narrowed. Hate bubbled in her chest the way the mud had beneath her foot. His head lifted slightly, his eyes gleamed and she felt her muscles tense in coils ready to spring.

Bolin and Beifong panted heavily as they continued form after form. The heat was rising and their energy was near drained. Bolin cringed with every twist and turn. He was sore, injured from the fights, but he stayed focused. Beifong glanced at him. The blood was seeping through his makeshift bandages again. She stopped, panting and placed a hand on his shoulder, "We need to save our strength if we ever want to get out of here."

He frowned, "I'm not sure how much long we're going to be around if we don't get out of here soon." His eyes shifted, signaling the mass on the floor. Tenzin laid still, sweat beaded from his brow and a low heavy pant was all the more noise he made. Beifong cringed. The burns along his clothes were the reminded of the open wound that he desperately clenched. The lightening was intended for her. She shut her eyes and swung her arms around again, in another futile effort to bend platinum.

Mako's eyes stung as he turned down another corridor. All the doors were open here too. He spun around, blind and confused. Each hallway was empty, no one anywhere, not even a fleeting footstep, no furniture, it was as if none of it had existed in the first place. Mako took a few steps back and hit a mass. The mass gave way with a groan and thump against the metal wall. Mako twisted around on his toes, grabbed the first bit of fabric he could find and ignited the other hand with a roaring flame, "Where are they!"

"Hey, it's me!" The boy scrambled, shoving Mako's hand off and knocking him in the chest with the other hand. Mako's fist lowered as he recognized his opponent. Tahnoe dusted off and flipped his hair, "You think I was going to let you have all the fun?" He said through a cloth wrapped around his face.

Mako smirked, "No, I guess not."

"They're down here." He gestured toward the hallway just ahead.

"Then why did you come up here?"

"A smelled something."

"Now's not really the time, Tahnoe, where's my brother and the others?"

"Lighten up, Mako." He groaned as he turned to lead the way, "I think I liked you better when we were rivals." Tahnoe said under his breath as they hurried down the dark pathway. Suddenly he stopped. "Here, they're in here." He pointed to the door, scored with the slices from waterbending.

Mako placed a hand on the door, then pulled it back, shaking it off, "It's scalding."

"Yeah, they're heating them up in there somehow. I'm not sure how thick it is, but I've been working on it for a while now."

"With what?" Mako looked around.

He wiped the back his hand across his forehead, "It doesn't hurt to be resourceful."

Korra cracked her knuckles, "You ready, Amon?"

"I'm ready, Avatar." He said plainly. His hand remained folded behind his back as if waiting. Something felt wrong. Korra hesitated.

She clenched her teeth and threw a solid punch.

Nothing.

Korra stared at her fist and looked up at Amon in horror. He laughed. He laughed at her. He laughed at her failure. But why? She threw another punch, a kick, a swing...nothing. His laughter filled her ears and made her cheeks burn. "What did you do? Why can't I bend!" She shouted desperately.

"I've done nothing. While you're here," he held out a hand presenting the surroundings, "this fight will be equal."

"I don't understand." She shook her head, "How? Why can't I bend!" Her frustration was like as venomous snake bite.

"Let's see how great you are without your bending, Avatar." He said as he lunged forward with grace and speed. A single hand shot out, striking her in arm and throwing her off balance. Korra fumbled and spun, her eyes caught his as he circled her to strike the other arm. She grabbed his wrist and flung him toward the trees. He slid to a stop, his fingertips brushed the ground to steady his balance, "Well played."

"You haven't seen anything yet, Amon." She readied herself for his next attack.

He snickered menacingly. Not a moment later he launched towards her again, somehow faster. He was but a blur and then she saw the sky. He moved impossibly fast. "Get up." Amon's voice ordered as she rolled over, "Get up and face me."

She groaned out feigned laugh, "A little ironic, don't you think," Korra pushed herself up and wiped the dirt from her cheek, "coming from a guy without a face."

Amon stood frighteningly still. Then he jumped forward for a downward strike, dirt and dust clouded around from his launch. She easily blocked up. He fell back and rushed her again. Her arms flew up to block and through he managed a few strong punches to her sides, something changed. He was sloppy.

Beifong fell to her knees. Her face was flushed and she gasped for air. Bolin wobbled on his feet. The heat was too intense, it was suffocating with every breath they took. "It's useless," Beifong whispered before doubling over, "not even my mother could bend platinum." Her face fell to the floor and her chest rapidly convulsed as her body struggled to find the last bits of oxygen left in the room.

Bolin's eyebrows pushed together and he stared at the door. He looked at his hands and shut his eyes, breathing out in a painful slow breath. With a swiftness he'd not known before, he threw the backs of his hands against the door. A flash of light in rings swept over the room. He could see it. All of it. Tenzin, Beifong, himself, the pipes and vents that fed the heat into the small prison. Most importantly he could see the earth. He could see the metal that made the platinum and the earth left unrefined in those bits. It was nothing more than dust etched in the door and walls but it was there. Bolin pulled his hands back and looked down at them with a quirky smile. "Got it," he said and stepped back. He cracked his knuckles on each hand and threw them forward into the door once more.

Tahnoe continued to slice at the door, while Mako carefully heated the bolts along the edge causing them to pop and melt as he worked to unhinge the door. Mako looked up, "This isn't working. They're going to be cooked alive in there if we don't figure out a way to get them out faster!"

"Well if you have a better idea," he threw another whip of water at the door, "I'd love to hear it!" Tahnoe glared at him, collecting more sweat from his clothes and face.

"I don't know," He replied completely exasperated by the situation, "Something has to work."

Suddenly the door bulged out where Tahnoe had so fruitlessly attempted to cut through. Both boys stared at the welt. Then it popped farther out. They looked to one another and quickly stepped away from the door just as it came flying off. A thick heavy steam rolled out, intertwining with the smoke the poured through the hallway. Bolin gasped for air. Tahnoe folded his arms and looked to Mako, "That'll work." He gestured to the younger brother with a crooked smirk.

"Bolin!" Mako snapped back to his senses and hurried over, wrapping his arms around him.

"Oh, hey, bro" He panted, "you don't have worry about us, I got this." With that, he fell to the floor. Mako threw him over his shoulder and turned to Tahnoe. He was gone.

"What are you waiting for, a little help?" Tahnoe dragged Tenzin by the arm while Beifong hung limply on his back, "They need air, and water."

Mako nodded once and joined Tahnoe, lifting Tenzin by the other arm pulled him from the seething hot box. He looked to thin boy at his side, "We have to find Korra."

"We will," Tahnoe stared ahead, "but don't worry about her too much, she's the Avatar. She can hold her own, even against Amon."

Amon panted. The fight was taking its toll on him as well. Korra gasped for breath and swallowed hard, "Is that all you've got Amon? And to think I was afraid of you!" She taunted as she took the offensive. She came at him with fury of punches. He dodged, moving back one swing at a time. Then his hood shifted and Korra saw into the depths of his eyes. There was a strange lingering darkness. She gasped and he caught her fist. She twisted and threw the next punch. His hand wrapped around hers and he pushed down, her knees buckled and sank into the soft ground.

"You have no reason to fear me, Avatar." He said coldly.

Korra yanked and pulled, struggling at his overwhelming strength. Though he clearly overpowered her, she still tried. Amon stepped forward and shifted his hand to grab her wrist, she broke free and swung her arm out. Her fingertips caught the edge of his mask. It peeled away effortlessly. In the silence came the hollow sound of ceramic mask clunking against a tree stump before settling in the distorted moss. Amon released her in the same instant and threw his hands to his face screaming out in an inhuman agony. Korra scrambled back as his body convulsed. Amon fell to his knees. His clothes pulled tight and straining, tearing at the seams, as he writhed about. Suddenly, his body buckled forward as his cries intensified. The fog began to swirl and build, darkening behind him.

A voice called out, "It seems even you have underestimated the Avatar; and just as I warned, you have failed."

Korra's eyes widened as the fog began to thin the ominous creature stepped into the sickly light. Amon reached a quivering hand out and desperately called out, "Where is my mask!"

TO BE CONTINUED...

A/N: Just a little something I threw together. I really hope I managed to keep the characters true..it's so hard being so unfamiliar with them right now. I haven't taken the time to get into their personalities as I did with the gAang but I hope I'm on the right track.

Feedback is always appreciated!

So, who do you think the mysterious creature is that seems to have Amon under his power? What the F just happened to Amon? Did Bolin really just bend platinum? Will the rest of Team Avatar find Korra in time? Why can't Korra bend?

Find out next time in Secrets and Lies Part 2!