Author Notes:
This is a no holds barred story for the most part so if you're looking for pure fluff you've come to the wrong place. Just thought I'd warn yah.
"Uh, I don't know how, but Water Arm Lady and Lava Guy found us," Mako warned in a hushed tone as he turned away from the cramp rooms window and marched urgently to the bed against the wall. Korra still sat there crossed legged and breathing softly, blissfully unaware of the danger approaching.
"How?" Asami called incredulously as she rose from the floor and glanced frantically between Mako and the unconscious Avatar. Keeping the panic out of her voice was a difficult task. After what they'd saw in Zaofu just two of these guys would be way too much for the three of them to handle as well as trying to protect a mediating Korra.
"I just said I don't know how," Mako muttered in his usual rash manner and Asami wanted to whack him across the head. The gravity of their current predicament kept her arms rigid.
Bolin ignored the tension between them completely and hopped in front of Korra, grabbing the muscular girl by her shoulders and shaking her gently. "Korra, come on, wake up!" The earth benders shaking became a little more frantic then when his friend remained unresponsive. Can Korra even feel anything of her physical body whilst in the Spirit World?
Asami shook her head viciously. Now was not the time to think about that. "What do we do?" she asked with a quiver in her voice as Mako picked Korra up roughly from the bed. There was also no time to be gentle apparently. Asami chanced another glance out of the window and felt her heart catch in her throat. Ming Hua and Ghazan. Maybe only 20 seconds away from discovering them.
Mako's amber eyes bore into Asami intensely as he placed Korra down at the front of Naga's saddle and held her drooping body in place as he gestured with a free hand. "Get Korra out of here."
What?! Asami narrowed her brows and did as commanded unconsciously, climbing onto the back of Naga's leather saddle and securing her arms around Korra's waist before tightly taking a hold of the polarbear dog's reigns. Mako gave her a quick nod and then glanced over to his brother. Bolin nodded in tandem.
This kind of close contact with the Avatar was something that Asami had started to dream about in recent weeks, but sadly there was no time to revel, not with the severity of circumstances which meant she had to support Korra like this in the first place. Her brain was running a million miles an hour. She wanted to bombard Mako with questions that would take much longer than 20 seconds to answer.
Where should she take Korra? Zaofu? That was really far away by polarbear dog never mind jeep.
And what if she couldn't wake Korra up at all, what if something terrible had happened with Zaheer in the Spirit World?
Or worst of all. What if more of Zaheer's cronies, like the one with exploding head, were waiting for them outside of town?
"Got her?" Mako questioned firmly as he shifted towards the door and peered outside briefly. "We've got 10 seconds." Asami nodded as confidently as she could, adjusting herself slightly in the saddle to tighten her grip on the Avatar. Directing Naga and not dropping Korra whilst also trying not to get taken out by the two criminals outside and whoever else had beef with the Avatar was going to prove very difficult.
"Bolin and I will hold them off," Mako explained as he wrapped a trembling hand around the handle of the door. "Once I open this keep your head down and run like hell, don't look back for a second. Keeping Korra safe is our number one priority."
Once again Asami nodded. "I'm ready when you are."
With that Mako yanked the door open with a bang in the same moment as Asami kicked a heel into Naga's side. Immediately the polarbear dog tore off at a speed that suggested the white furred giant already sensed its owner was in serious danger, so much so that Asami nearly lost her grip on one of the reigns as she slipped to the side slightly before adjusting herself and Korra.
"The Avatar!" Ming Hua shouted in her cackling voice as Asami glanced briefly towards the rag tag pair. A second later and the armless bender sent a tentacle of water shooting across the pool area.
Asami closed her eyes tightly and expected to immediately be knocked clean off the saddle, Korra in tow. But the hit never came as a sizzling sound echoed in the air and Naga turned a corner and out of Ming Hua's deadly reach. Mako's flames must have batted away the attack. The noise of earth crumbling also rang out from the inn. Bolin had joined the fight as well.
A lump formed in Asami's throat as Naga tore through the night, huge paws pounding on the dirt road. The fabulous bending brothers lived up to their name in a lot of ways but it was hard to imagine that even Mako and Bolin's elemental prowess was enough to compete with Ming Hua and Ghazan, two of the worlds most dangerous criminals, for very long. Please be okay. Please be okay. She had to make sure that her friends selfless efforts didn't go to waste. She had to get Korra to safety no matter what. Getting out of town seemed like a good start. As faraway from the fighting as possible.
The Avatar remained stubbornly still as Asami directed Naga into the narrow side streets and away from the main road where potentially more enemies awaited. It was late, very late as stars glimmered above and so horribly quiet. The alleyways of what had once been a bustling market place in the day were now totally deserted. However that fact did allow Naga to maintain a rapid pace as the creature whined slightly. It was difficult to tell whether the polarbear dog was complaining because Asami was pushing her too hard, forgetting she was driving a living being and not a motor car, or because Naga was keenly aware that something was wrong with her owner. Korra would know...she always knows what Naga wants like some polarbear dog interpreter...
If only the Avatar had the same interpretation skills when it came to Asami's increasingly unambiguous flirting. Maybe Korra was totally aware but just ignoring all those hair flicks.
"You're heavy you know," Asami muttered half to herself half to unconscious Korra sat in front of her, wolf-tailed head bobbing up and down every second. "Please, wake up. This would all be so much easier if you just woke up. Mako and Bolin need you...I need you."
Of course Korra didn't respond as Asami tugged on Naga's reigns and directed them back onto the main road now that they had reached the end of town. A second later and they were gone, off into the night as the archway that formed the entrance to the desert settlement became smaller and smaller. The sounds of fighting had also faded into the air. All that Asami was left with was the noise of Naga panting in exhaustion and the constant thudding of the Avatar's body bouncing up and down in the seat.
Asami glanced over her shoulder as they neared the top of the large hill that led back to the Misty Palms Oasis. The road behind them was completely void of life. Nobody had followed them. Mako and Bolin really had held Ming Hua and Ghazan at bay then. I shouldn't have underestimated them so quickly. Now she had to formulate the route back to Zaofu. Being the groups go to driver meant that task only took a few seconds. Once they reached Su's borders they'd be safe. She could get Korra medical attention if the Avatar still hadn't woken up by the time they got there.
The sound of earth crumbling a few meters away grabbed Asami's attention as she wrenched her head forward and felt the air catch at the back of her throat. A wall of earth shot up from the ground in front of them, throwing Asami forward in the saddle as she fought to keep herself and Korra upright before pulling at Naga's reigns to turn the beast around. Another wall of earth shot upwards and all of a sudden Asami was enclosed in total darkness as she exhaled heavily. Naga was growling furiously as the polarbear dog's white fur stood on end.
Ghazan. Is Ming Hua with him? Asami clambered down off of the saddle and pulled Korra off a second later, laying the still unconscious Avatar in the dirt gently before pulling up her leather gloves and tightening the straps on her boots. Even if just one of the criminals awaited her outside this brown tomb this would be like no battle she had ever faced. Calling it a fight at all seemed overly optimistic. I won't even get a hit on them. I don't even have my shock glove.
Naga would fight furiously that was guaranteed. That dog would do anything to protect her owner. Asami had to do the same no matter how futile. She wouldn't hand Korra over without a fight. Not until she had absolutely nothing left to give. The Future Industries CEO would make these criminals work for the Avatar if that's all she could do. Mako and Bolin would expect nothing less.
"Wake up soon," Asami quietly begged Korra as she lowered herself down beside the Avatar and laid down as still as physically possible. "Naga, lie down and don't do anything until I do." The polarbear dog did has commanded, lying completely still on the ground. Asami did the same and closed her eyes. Even as a non bender she still had the element of surprise. Her one gambit.
After a minute she heard the sound of voices outside the earth prison. Three people. One of them was definitely Ghazan's rough, gravely tone. The others Asami didn't recognise.
"Did you get them?" Ghazan asked brashly.
"Yes Sir, the Avatar, one of her friends, and her pet," an adrenaline filled voice replied. More enemies. So there was more to this 'kidnap the Avatar' group than just Zaheer and his three, make that four, anarchist friends.
Ghazan chuckled a little then. "How many times? No one gets called 'Sir' or 'Mam' or any other stupid entitled name you can think of. I'm just Ghazan. Careful of that polarbear dog's teeth when I pull these walls down. That thing's jaw could rip your arm clean off if you're not paying attention."
A moment later and the walls of earth dropped and Asami steadied her breathing, feeling the cool breeze of the desert drifting across her face once again. Keep it cool Sato. Hold it. Wait till one of them is close.
"Wow, you really did a number on them. All three out cold. Nice," Ghazan noted with twisted admiration as he stepped forward. "Hit the Avatar with those tranquillizer darts the way we've shown you and put her in chains. I'll deal with the polarbear dog."
"What about this one?" another voice questioned as they neared Asami. A young woman by the sounds of things. How did someone so young get roped in with these criminals? Closer. Hold it.
Asami trembled just slightly when she heard a small clicking sound. No doubt the tranquillizer darts being loaded to fire at Korra, no different to the ones Zaheer used in Zaofu. Those had been incredibly effective.
"That's Asami Sato. Hell, I've been in jail for nearly two decades and even I know who she is. Read a newspaper," Ghazan grumbled.
The other two were in her reach now. One of them was mostly definitely an earth bender. Probably the one with the heavier steps. That's who she would pounce on first.
"Put her in chains as well," Ghazan ordered casually, pausing when his two team mates stared at him incredulously. "She's rich, our organisation is poor, 'specially since Unalaq stopped paying us. Ransoming her off to some of her chums in Republic City will at least fix some of the plumbing problems in that damp lair of ours."
Unalaq?! What did Korra's Uncle have to do with any of this? Did the former Northern Water Tribe leader have something to do with all of this trouble with Zaheer? It can't be...he's dead.
With that Asami launched herself upwards and crashed into a young woman, the earth bender, in hooded robes with a red edging, a second before the cloaked figure had been about to fire a dart into the Avatar. The woman looked completely startled as Asami planted a decisive and concussive blow on the side of her opponent's neck. The earth bender slumped to the floor a second later as Ghazan turned to face the engineer.
The huge lava bender was about to launch his attack when Naga reared up at his side, locking her huge jaws and teeth around his stone like arms and biting down.
Ghazan immediately cried out in pain as he slammed a fist into the huge beast's head. Naga barely flinched, instead tightening her vice like grip as blood began to spill down the earth bender's tattooed arm, prompting him to cry out again. Asami took advantage of the momentary distraction of her other assailant, stretching out a leg to knock the young man onto his back. He raised his cloaked arm briefly to defend himself but Asami was already too close, stepping into the weak spot of his frantic blocking stance before bringing her gloved hand into the side of his skull with all the strength she could muster. He too dropped to the floor like a stone.
Now for Ghazan. The lava bender has finally managed to free himself of Naga's grip, though at the cost of further widening the wound on his arm which was really starting to pour with blood. He'd also successfully rid himself of the polarbear dog by managing to fire off several stray tranquillizer darts in his panic. One of which Asami realized to her horror had lodged itself just above her knee.
Damn it! Immediately she pulled the sharp device out and gasped slightly at the pain it caused, feeling herself already becoming unstable on her feet as she slouched over slightly and crouched.
"Nice one," Ghazan grimaced as he held a hand firmly over the gash in his arm. "There was me mouthing off about that damn dog and the Avatar when it was you I should've been paying attention to this whole time..."
Asami ignored him and narrowed her brows as the lava bender stumbled forward. His figure was starting to sway in her increasingly hazy vision. "Back off! I won't let you take Korra!"
"It was a good effort I'll give you that, taking down two members of the Red Lotus in just a few seconds, though they weren't exactly experienced," Ghazan mumbled as he straightened himself slightly. It would probably take a lot more blood loss to bring down this huge mountain of a man. "But you aren't going to stop me. I'm taking the Avatar, and I'm taking you as well. Should be able to make a nice profit for the cause."
"No...!" Asami called breathlessly as she tried to pull herself back to her feet. It was useless. The dart had made her legs feel like some foreign object she had no control over as Ghazan marched forward relentlessly. "I said stay away...!" Asami managed to shout as she whacked up some dirt with a trembling hand. It felt harmlessly against his legs.
Ghazan simply laughed. "Now that's just sad. Admirable. But sad."
With that Ghazan raised up a small piece of earth with his intact arm and floated it beside him before raising it into the air. "Lights out."
Korra awoke with a start as she coughed and spluttered painfully. She was immediately aware of a desperate need for food and in particular water. She really wanted water. I was just in the Spirit World...it couldn't have been more than an hour...could it...?
It took the Avatar longer than usual to rouse herself, feeling utterly exhausted as her blue eyes began to adjust and focus. Where was she? A room. A small room covered in metal from wall to floor. It had to be platinum. There was no earth at all to be sensed in the material. Too pure. There were no windows in here either, just a small amount of light drifting through a tiny crack in the door. Some kind of locked hatch. What the hell is this place?
The only furniture in here was what looked like some military standard canvas material on the floor, her bed apparently, or at least where she'd just woken up. That and a stomach churning bucket in the corner. Also made of platinum. A toilet.
This had to be Zaheer and the Red Lotus. The scarred man had said that she would be in his hands when she woke up. That's when she pulled herself from the Spirit World and found herself here. Mako, Asami and Bolin had been surrounding her before. Now they were gone. She was alone.
"Zaheer! You tricked me! Let me go!" Korra shouted angrily as she slammed her fist into the wall. Every movement felt exhausting as her stomach rumbled loudly. When had she last eaten? It felt like days.
After a few more seconds of furious pounding the Avatar dropped back down onto the bedding on the floor and tried to catch her breath. So stupid...I let him distract me in the Spirit World leaving my physical body vulnerable. Something bad must've happened to the others. They wouldn't just let the Red Lotus take me like that.
This place. This room. It was made for her. A prison cell for the Avatar. Somewhere she couldn't bend her way out of.
"Hey! Anyone out there?! You can't do this to me!" Korra shouted from her sitting position. What was it with people and putting her in metal boxes? She managed to pull herself to her feet for long enough to stumble over to the hatch on the wall and slumped against it, breathing heavily. "I want to talk to Zaheer! Let me see Zaheer!"
When no one answered Korra stumbled back over to the bedding and dropped down a little more heavily than she had intended. She wrapped her arms around her knees. Her water tribe arm bands were gone along with her fur trimmed boots. And she'd lost one of her wolf tails. The one that held most of her hair at the back. Now it was drooping down and annoying her. I must look so bad. At least Asami doesn't have to see me like this. That girl always looks so impossibly perfect.
"Korra...Korra are you awake?" a hushed voice whispered from the other side of the wall.
Korra called out a little in alarm before she leaned into the wall, searching for the source of the sound. "Who is that? It's hard to hear you through this."
"You have to keep your voice down. The Red Lotus don't know we can talk to each other."
"Asami?" Korra sighed in relief as a small portion of the platinum wall, barely larger than an eyehole, slid to the side to reveal a glimmering green eye staring back. Even only seeing this much of her friend Korra could easily spot the flash of recognition on Asami's face. This really was the Avatar on the other side of the wall. No trick, no illusion.
"Korra..." Asami breathed heavily, closing her visible eye over as she spoke. "You have to keep quiet. We can't talk for very long or they'll find out about this. Keep your questions quick."
Asami's eye lid was a strange shade of blue and black which made Korra's blood boil when realized what would've caused it. "Asami. Your eye...what did they...what did Zaheer do?" the Avatar questioned with a trembling voice.
"I said quick questions," Asami hissed though it was obvious she appreciated the Avatar's concern.
"Alright...Where are we?" Korra asked hesitantly.
"Somewhere on the coast. I can smell salt in the air. Plus there's some erosion on some of the rocks I can see outside the hatch of my cell. I think we're still in the Earth Kingdom given the travel time it took to get wherever here is. Maybe somewhere East. As faraway from Republic City as possible I'm guessing."
"Mako, Bolin, what happened to them?"
Asami went a little quiet then. "I...I don't know. When you were confronting Zaheer in the Spirit World, Ming Hua and Ghazan showed up. They – they tried to hold them off to let me escape with you but Ghazan caught up to me out of town."
Korra swallowed a lump in her throat. Please be okay. "And how long have I been out?"
"Two days...Zaheer didn't understand. He kept saying he needed you conscious for something, but you wouldn't wake up from the Spirit World. He...he thought that I might know why...but of course I didn't, otherwise I might've woke you up earlier and I – that stuff wouldn't have happened..." Asami murmured quietly as she moved slightly away from the eye hole.
"What stuff...?" Korra asked hesitantly, peering down the hole as much as she physically could. "Please - please tell me what he did."
"He used some metal toxin thing to make me talk, but it didn't work, I had nothing to say..." Asami whispered painfully. "I would've probably talked otherwise..."
Korra gritted her teeth angrily as she unconsciously bent a flame in her hand. "I'm going to make him pay for that! All of them!"
"Quiet Korra!" Asami hissed again as her eye returned to the hole. "I'm okay, the stuff only hurt when he actually put it in, afterwards I just felt woozey. He barely used any of it. I'm guessing that more of the stuff could be pretty deadly though. It's something to watch out for."
"Alright..." Korra exhaled heavily. "How did you – how did you make a hole in this wall?"
"Make shift plasma saw, I always kept a spare battery in my bootstraps and the Red Lotus didn't bother to search me as thoroughly as they should have, plus a bit of glass from my smashed goggles," Asami said smugly. "I mean, it's not really very good. It takes ages to cut anything and the damn battery is running out."
Korra shook her head slightly. Even here with the bare minimum Asami was able to build something useful. "That's our way out of here...I can sense some kind of stream flowing deep below us. Too far away for me to bend but if you can cut a hole down in that direction, that'll lead straight to the sea."
"Listen to me Korra, Zaheer, I don't think he plans anything good for us, but you need to buy me some time. I can get us out of here. But you need to get Zaheer to trust you, at least for a little while. Pretend to buy into his ideology and maybe we won't end up dead so quickly," Asami explained softly. "Now that you're awake he'll want to talk to you. Choose your words very carefully."
Korra nodded even though Asami could could barely see it. Words weren't exactly her strength, not like Zaheer. She'd have to be smart about this. The Red Lotus had wanted to raise her before, maybe they hadn't given up on the idea of having the Avatar on their side just yet, at least not Zaheer.
"Okay...I'll try my best. Maybe even nab you a battery from a radio or something," Korra agreed.
Maybe if she didn't feel so tired she could bend her way out of this place. But that would mean taking out a lot of Red Lotus and bringing the whole place down. That really wasn't an option. Not with Asami trapped here with her. All my fault. I'll make Zaheer pay with the most liberating freedom. Death.
End Notes
Well that was angsty and tense and painful and all those other things. I plan for this to be around 18 chapters, but don't expect much in the way of parallels with the rest of Book 3, there are some things of course, but most of this is new story based on just this little change to the canon.
Would love to hear your thoughts! :D and thanks for reading