Training Part 1: Metalbending

Korra was hanging on to Mako's arm like there was no tomorrow. She was biting her lip and had her eyes shut, sweat trickled down her face. She was in a healing session with Katara in hopes that her deep wound in her leg would close enough to let her walk on her own. They had been at it for almost an hour already but it hadn't closed much because of how deep it was. It didn't help that when Korra removed it while in the avatar state, she didn't just pull it out. She had made the wound wider than it was making it extremely painful to heal.

"Korra, I like having two arms" Mako told her when she tightened her grip even more.

"Sorry Mako!" she said through her teeth loosing it up.

"Ok Korra, I'm getting ready to close up the deepest part of the wound, hold still" Katara warned.

Korra nodded but didn't open her eyes. Mako could tell she was in terrible pain, but the deal had been that if she cried out in pain the session will be cut. That was the main reason Korra had been holding back. Katara placed water over her wound and the deepest part began to close. Korra grabbed onto a blanket but only a few seconds into the healing she threw her head back and yelled.

"Ok Korra that's enough" Mako said.

"NO! I can do this!" Korra panted, opening her eyes.

"Korra you can't the wound is still too tender, it's not going to close anytime soon" he told her.

"It has to!" she replied.

"Korra, I don't think it is, you are too tense and the wound is very deep, I need to close off the very bottom where the muscle is so you can move your leg again and it will be extremely painful" Katara said looking at her.

"No more for today Korra" Mako said. Korra looked away with her arms crossed.

"Korra don't-" he started.

"Mako just go" she said.

"Fine!" he said and walked out the room.

"You were too harsh on him" Katara commented.

"He knows I have a limited time before I meet with Amon, I have to do this or else I'll be a sitting turtleduck like I was last time" she said.

"You want to continue, don't you?" Katara asked. Korra nodded.

"Okay but you should probably bite into something and once I'm done you have to put a wet cloth on the wound every so often so your leg doesn't swell" Katara warned.

"Let's just get this over with" Korra said and Katara began the healing process again.

Korra couldn't sleep. Her leg ached really bad. After another hour of healing, Katara had managed to close the deepest part of the wound. Now it was the middle of the night and Korra had ran out of water to wet a cloth and put it on her leg. And to make matters worse Mako hadn't come back. She was going to have to get up and get the water herself.

Korra sat up in her bed. Her face was covered in sweat, she was trying her best to not cry out the pain she felt, but it felt like someone had stuck a torch in her thigh. She put her leg on the floor and put pressure on it to get up. She almost fainted. She couldn't put a lot of weight on it but he could limp around with it. Slowly she went to the door and opened it and got out to bring water.

It took her half an hour to get to the kitchen and she was very exhausted by then, not to mention drenched in sweat. She filled up the bowl of water and began to walk back. This time it took her almost an hour to get back to her room. The pain wasn't getting any lower; it started to feel as if someone was sawing her leg off. She finally made it and laid down in bed after putting the wet cloth on her thigh. She flinched.

"Ugh!" she said, now her leg really was on fire. She tried to sleep but couldn't she would just toss and turn and wet the cloth again. The pain was too much. Just at about 2 o'clock Mako walked into her room.

"Korra can I-" he began but saw how she twisted in pain. He went over to her and placed a cool cloth over her wound.

"I'd say I told you so, but it doesn't look like a good time" he said.

"It's…not…" Korra breathed. It wouldn't be long before she would start screaming again.

Mako gave a nervous laugh but then with a concern in his voice he said "Korra, why do you have to be so stubborn, this could have waited. Look at you".

She looked for his hand and squeezed it. "Mako…I'm sorry…but I had to…I have to-OW!" she said through her teeth, tears of pain finally rolled down her cheeks.

"Here, drink this" he said handing her a cup of tea. Korra held it and took sips of it.

"I just came from Katara's room, she says, she can hear you from over there". Korra gave him a tried laugh and drank the rest of the tea. She started to feel better.

"It's going to put you to sleep though, but it will take the pain away" he said. Korra nodded, she needed to sleep. Mako held her hand and played with her hair. "I hope you learned the moral of this" he said.

"Don't do a healing session at night?" she said, her eyes closed. Mako laughed.

"Don't get your boyfriend mad because then you have to walk to the kitchen and back and make the pain worse". She grimaced.

"Why didn't you help me?" she asked.

"I heard you when you had already gotten here" he replied. "Now go to sleep because tomorrow, Chief Bei Fong is going to teach you the basics of metalbending". Korra groaned.

"I'm kidding Korra, you need a day or two to get your leg moving again" he said laughing.

"You're such a jerk" Korra said groggily.

"So are you and you don't see me complain"

"You complain half of the time you are with me"

"You get on my nerves the other half" he argued. Korra looked at him and smiled. She placed her hand on his cheek.

"What would I do without you" he asked placing his hand on top of hers.

"You wouldn't have anyone to fight with" she said. Mako laughed.

"Go to sleep, we have a big day today" he told while giving her his signature kiss in the forehead.

Korra was happy to have Mako next to her. She hated having "real" arguments with him and she had regretted telling him to leave earlier. Her leg didn't hurt as much and after a couple of blinks she was fast asleep.

"Are you sure you want to get up?" Mako asked.

"Yes, I have to get my leg used to the movement if I want to start metalbending" Korra replied.

"Ok, at least use the crutches until we get outside" he said giving them to her. Korra grabbed them and got up and followed Mako out of the room. She went outside and found her mother and father waiting for her.

"Go towards your parents" Mako said taking the crutches away.

Korra stood there for a while making sure her leg wouldn't give out. It didn't. She started to talk towards her parents. She limped a little but it didn't hurt that much. She smiled as she reached her parents who hugged her. "We're so proud" Senna said. Tonraq nodded. She turned towards Mako. "So what do you think?" she asked. Mako folded his arms and said, "I think we're wasting time, let's go to Republic City"

"Ok Korra, to metalbend you must feel the earth in the metal" Chief Bei Fong said while hitting a metal door. "Go ahead, try it"

Korra breathed in and hit the metal door. "I don't feel anything" she said.

"Place your hand on it, feel the earth that is hidden in it" the Chief insisted.

Korra began to tap the door. She couldn't feel the earth in it, but it did feel familiar so she continued to tap it until finally she felt it. "Got it!" she said.

"Ok now you are going to bend that earth and make a hole in the middle" she instructed. Korra put her hands on the metal door and began to pull the metal apart until there was a hole in the middle the size of a basketball.

"Well done! I've never seen anyone catch on so quickly" she said.

"She's a natural" Bolin said with a smile. Korra smiled back.

"Well then maybe "the natural" can give you some lessons, since it's obvious you can't metalbend to save your own skin" the Chief said turning her attention towards Korra again. Bolin frowned while Mako burst into laughter. "It's ok little bro, you'll get the hang of it eventually" he said patting Bolin's shoulder.

"Ok now back to work, try it again but faster" the Chief continued. After a couple of metalbending lessons using hands Chief Bei Fong decided to move onto bending metal using footwork.

"Watch me and then try it" she told Korra. She stood about 10 feet from a metal cube. She ran forward and earthbended first before landing on her feet and stomping her right foot and to change the shape of the cube to a metal ball. "Got it?" she asked. Korra was nervous.

"Got it" she said before running forward and then earthbended just like the Chief but when she tried to land her right foot it gave out and she tumbled to the floor.

"Korra!" Mako and he ran to check up on her. She was grabbing her leg and faint droplets of blood seeped through her pants.

"Let me see" the Chief said stretching Korra's leg, she screamed. "Ok, you'll be fine but it looks like you forced it too much today. You learned how to metalbend with your hands, we can practice that for a couple of days until your leg gets better. Besides, the rest is pretty simple" she told Korra.

"Korra, I'm going to pick you up, hold on" Mako told her. But when he tried Korra flinched and let out a small cry of pain.

"Wait" said Bolin and he bended the ground around Korra, lifting it up, making it seem as if she was on a bed. Mako picked her up and made his way to Oogi to take her back to Air Temple Island.

"I'm ok" Korra kept saying over and over for almost an hour now. Mako had taken her back to Air Temple Island to have Katara take a look at her leg. It turned out that Korra hadn't bandaged it properly so it had gotten infected with all the movements she had been doing. Pus had come out of the wound and it had been cleaned but as the last time, she had gotten feverish. Her mother hadn't left her side, putting a wet cloth on her forehead and asking her every five minutes how she was feeling.

"You shouldn't have forced yourself so much Korra" her mother told her.

"I don't have that much time. I have to do this so I can focus on airbending, which I still have to master or at least be proficient at" she replied.

"I know that, but Korra, you haven't had any rest, that's why you haven't gotten better" Korra's mom insisted.

"Where's Mako?" Korra asked avoiding the subject.

"He's outside, I'll call him so he can stay with you the rest of the night but don't think we are done talking about this" she said getting up. Korra lifted up the bandage of her thigh wound and saw the pus. She grabbed a cloth and tried to clean it but she touched it she felt enormous amounts of pain. Just then Mako walked in.

"What are you doing?" he asked taking cloth away from Korra and gently cleaning the wound while Korra grabbed onto her blanket with her eyes shut. When he finally finished she let out a breath, and wiped the sweat off her forehead.

"How are you feeling?" Mako asked.

"Tired. My leg feels sore" she replied.

"Korra, your mother is right. You haven't gotten your strength back. You haven't fully recovered since you fought Amon" he said.

"I know" she said looking away. "But I have a duty as the Avatar".

"We understand that Korra. But we don't want you to get hurt, not like-" he stopped there.

"Not like when I almost died" she finished.

"Korra, I don't ever want to be in that position. When I saw your limp body, and thought I had lost you, I-I don't know what I would have done" he said.

She put her hand on his cheek, "Mako, I won't ever leave you. I will fight Amon and I will win".

"I don't doubt you will win, I'm just afraid of the consequences" he said placing his hand on hers.

"Don't be" she said smiling at him. He kissed her.

"Now get some rest that you still have metalbending practice tomorrow" he said.

"That's right! Put your back into it!" the Chief told Korra as she went around an obstacle course. LKorra had to bend any metal disk that came at her and make sure it didn't hit her. She was almost done, but when she reached the end there were no more disks being fired. "Huh?" she said. Suddenly a disk came out flying and hit her right on the side of her stomach.

"Ugh" she said as she was thrown backwards.

"Korra, are you ok?" Bolin asked holding out his hand. She took it and got back up. "I'm fine, I just didn't see that one coming" she said catching her breath. "Breathe" Mako told her.

"You have to see the unexpected or else you won't survive very long" she told her. Mako grimaced.

"Put this on" she instructed handing Korra a metalbender uniform. Korra took it and tried putting it on, but her left arm was sore. "A little help?" she said looking at Mako. He sighed and helped her put it on.

"Now there are metal strips on your back that come out through the top of your hands. I want you to knock out Bolin and Mako using them" she said. Korra nodded.

"You are going to turn your back and they are going to hide, you have to look for them and tie them up using the metal strips. Understood?" she asked. "Let's do this" Korra said turning around.

"Go!" the Chief said.

Korra went and looked for the two brothers. Bolin earthbended a wall when she got close to him. she went through it and flung the metal strip at him and caught him. "Aw, that's not fair" he said. "Maybe if you had learned something from when I was teaching you to metalbend you could have stopped her" the Chief told him. Bolin gave her an annoyed look.

Korra went off to look for Mako. He searched everywhere but couldn't find him. Then he flung a fire whip at her and she dodged it and went after him in hot pursuit. He continued to send life kicks towards her but she dodged them. She threw a metal strip at him towards his legs and caught him. He fell with a thump. Korra ran towards him and was about to finish tying him up when she remembered the nightmare she had and how Mako had been on the floor helpless. She stopped.

"What are you waiting for?" the Chief yelled.

"I-I can't" she said and left the room.

"What's up with her?" Bolin said hoping towards the Chief since he was still tied up.

"Beats me" she growled.

"Take this off!" Mako said frustrated when he couldn't remove the metal bands from his legs. The Chief made a wrist movement and they went off. He ran after Korra.

"Uh do you mind taking mine off too?" Bolin asked.

"Take them off yourself" the Chief said walking away from him. Bolin pouted.

*Back at Air Temple Island*

Korra was outside patting Naga. She hadn't said a word since the gym incident. She had gotten back and went to her room, shut the door and let no one in. Not even Mako. After a few hours he climbed out the window and took Naga out from the stable to the quad, where she sat down to look at the sunset. Naga licked her. She laughed but her laughter turned into tears and she hugged Naga as she sobbed.

"Korra are you going to tell me what's wrong" Mako asked as he approached her. Korra wiped the tears of her face and looked away.

"Korra please" he said sitting down next to her. Korra looked at him and hugged him and tears ran down her cheeks once again.

"What happened at the gym?" he asked gently rubbing her back.

"Remember the nightmare I had. Amon was going to finish you off. I saw your face and I just couldn't" she replied.

"But you were just going to tie me up" he said. "You weren't going to hurt me".

"Just the thought of it, made me stop" she said.

"It's ok Korra, I'm not hurt" he told her. Korra kept her head on his chest as she looked at the sunset.

"Mako" she said.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I love you" she said.

He laughed, knowing Korra would be alright. "I love you more".