Their eyes were the same, Katara could see that much. Maybe not in color or shape, and perhaps Korra's were a bit more narrow and intense, but they too gleamed against the moonlit southern sky. If she looked closely enough into the pupils of this new Avatar, Katara could swear she saw a reflection of Aang looking back at her. His lips smirked off to one side, his eyes tender and loving as he looked back at her. As if he was just waiting for her to laugh, for the crows feet along her aged eyes to crinkle with her smile. As if he were saying, "Come on Katara, show me that move one more time. Teach me again."
"I have to leave. I have to find my own path as the Avatar." Korra said timidly, afraid of how Katara would react. But Katara was lost in thought. Lost in the realization that she used to look down when speaking to Aang for so many years, and now she had to tilt her aged chin upward to catch a glance.
But when Korra's voice pierced the icy air, the words struck a chord within Katara, pulling her back to all the times she chased Aang as he ran from his destiny, watched him fly off on his glider or searched for his footprints on the beach before the comet. Aang had spent a lifetime running away, scared of being the prisoner of his own destiny, and now Korra stood here wanting to embrace it, wanting to immerse herself within it.
"I know you do." She spoke, the words coming unexpected from her own lips. If there was one thing that Aang had taught her, it was that everyone must be free to find his or her own destiny. She never expected to be here, training Aang all over again, but somehow it all made perfect sense. Destiny is funny in that way, the road is never quite as smooth or straightforward as you think it will be.
"Aang's time has passed. My brother and many of my friends are gone. It is time for you and your generation to take on the responsibility of keeping peace and balance in the world," Katara felt a pang in her heart, remembering the sight of Aang on the day Ozai fell, the day he stepped out into the world as the Avatar so many had waited for. He had come so far from the kid trapped in the iceberg, and here he was again. A new face, a new name, a new life, but Katara could still see it. That glimmer in Korra's eyes. The same glimmer Aang's eyes had when he opened them for the first time after being freed from the iceberg. He was here with her, he had never left.
"I think," Katara pulled her into a hug, "You're going to be a great Avatar."
"Thank you." Korra fell into her arms. Katara lingered for a moment, hugging her pupil, this hotheaded waterbending girl, but then held on for a moment longer and squeezed her eyes shut tighter.
And she could feel him. She could feel Aang hugging back.
-o-o-o-o-
Tenzin had heard the stories a million times. When he was a child, not a day went by where Aang or Uncle Sokka referenced their times during the Great War. By the time Tenzin had come of age, he could rattle off stories by heart, as if they were engrained in his memory for all time.
He and Aang had shared a special bond, the only living air benders, father and son, and Tenzin believed he knew everything there was to know. He studied his father's form long after he had already mastered airbending. After all, Aang was the Avatar, and Tenzin knew, even at a young age, how important that was. He idolized Aang, and shortly after his death Tenzin knew that the legacy was meant to fall onto his shoulders.
That is, until the new Avatar was born, a young waterbender in the South Pole. When Tenzin and his family caught news of the discovery, he couldn't help but be excited by the idea of seeing his father again, perhaps not the same old man with arrow tattoos and graying beard, but he knew he'd never truly lose his father if he had this waterbender, this reincarnation. But destiny has a strange way of working out for us.
The long hoped for reincarnation of Aang was nothing more than a strong willed, arrogant, and fiery waterbending girl. She threw punches and spoke her mind, argued and fumed, and was the polar opposite of Tenzin's kind and gentle hearted father. Her blue eyes glowed ferociously in comparison to Aang's calm grey, her eyes rolling at absolutely everything and anything that crossed Tenzin's lips.
And breaking her out of Lin Beifong's iron grasp didn't help the animosity between the two. Korra had gone behind Tenzin's orders to stay in the Southern compound, endangered her own life by coming to Republic City and then got herself incarcerated by a bitter old flame who would want nothing to do with his plea of releasing her. Luckily, Beifong folded reluctantly under Tenzin's plight, but Korra was far from out of the woods.
"You blatantly disobeyed my wishes and the order of the White Lotus!" He seethed, as they awaited the return of her polar bear dog.
"Katara agreed with me that I should come! She said my destiny is in Republic City." Korra argued, Tenzin's face turning a bright red at the thought of Korra using his elderly mother against him for argument's sake.
"Do not bring my mother into this!"
"Look, I can't wait any longer to finish my training. Being cooped up and hidden away from the world isn't helping me become a better Avatar. I saw a lot of the city today, and it's totally out of whack. I understand now why you need to stay. Republic City does need you. But it needs me, too." She plead, the guard opening the door to release Naga from imprisonment and all Tenzin could do was close his eyes and breathe.
No, Republic City didn't need Korra, Tenzin knew that much. The city needed Avatar Aang.
"Are you coming to live with us on the island?" Ikki smiled, looking up at a disgruntled Korra. Her face softening as she looked down at the young airbender.
"No, I'm sorry Ikki, I have to go home." She answered quietly, but assertively. She let her body squat down to the level of the children, her hand on Ikki and Jinora's shoulders.
Tenzin was so sure of his decision to send her home back at the station. He couldn't both train the Avatar and uphold his father's legacy. It was too much, even for the last airbending master. He didn't have any choice but to send her back. Sure, she was cooped up in a compound, but she would be safe for another day. Far away from the uprising in the city. That's where she needed to be. Not here.
But there was something about the way she looked at his children. The children his father had never met. Her eyes wide as Ikki and Jinora begged her to stay, her lips fighting a smile as she watched Meelo roll around the docks like a baby platypus bear. There was a glimmer in her eyes that he had seen in his own father's. The same glimmer that he had seen the day he produced his first puff of air, when Aang nearly bolted across the island towards him, throwing him in the air in excitement. The first time he had heard his father laugh, the first time he had heard his father say, "I'm so proud of you, Tenzin."
He swallowed hard looking back at the scene. He didn't know how, or why, but he couldn't help but feel that this wasn't Korra looking at his children. This wasn't the strong and arrogant Korra. This was Aang, trying to reassure his grandchildren that everything was going to be okay. This was him saying goodbye to them, something he never had the chance to do when he was alive.
"Wait." Tenzin sighed, "I have done my best to guide Republic City toward the dream my father had for it, but you're right. It has fallen out of balance since he passed. I thought I should put off your training in order to uphold his legacy…"
He looked over the young girl once again, hardly believing that his even-tempered father resided somewhere within her spirit, "But you are his legacy. You may stay and train airbending here with me. Republic City needs its Avatar once again."
"Yes! Thank you! You're the best!" She cried out, grabbing the small airbending family in one fell swoop and lifting them off the ground in a hug.
And suddenly, Aang was gone, and all that was left was Korra. But for a moment, Tenzin could have sworn that he saw his father in those eyes.
-o-o-o-o-
"The Avatar needs to learn airbending! It's not optional!" Tenzin raised his voice above Korra's, but she always seemed to be louder.
"No! This is what I need to learn! Modern styles of fighting!" She gestured back towards the arena, her gear soaked through to the bone and her eyes on fire. The anger and frustrating that exuded from her was enough to send this building up in flames.
"Being the Avatar isn't all about fighting, Korra! When will you learn that?"
"I have a match to go finish." She slid past him onto the rising platform, making her ascent to the arena above.
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. The very idea that the Avatar thought she didn't need airbending baffled him more than any disobedience on Korra's part. What had happened to the man who spent days cross-legged with him on the island, eyes shut, meditating? The man who taught him to create his first air scooter and taught him how to glide over Yue Bay. Perhaps he had made a mistake letting Korra remain here, maybe now wasn't the time for teaching.
"Hold the phone! Stop the presses! She's still in the game, folks! And she's moving like an entirely different player! All of a sudden the Platypus Bears' strikes are only striking air!" The announcer bellowed through the speakers, Tenzin's head snapping back around in an instant to see something he never expected.
It was like Korra didn't exist anymore, her body fluidly moving through every attack, evading and changing direction as it met resistance from the opposing team. Light on her feet and quick with her body, Korra was moving…like an airbender. Tenzin blinked a few times; trying to understand how she had completely shut off the abrasive side she had shown only moments earlier and done this. Channeled something Tenzin never dreamed she could.
He watched her arms and legs move in perfect time with the attacks, he could hear the steady breath making its way in through her nose and back out through her mouth, and it brought him back. It brought him back to the time he spent with his mother just watching Aang practice on the island, his demonstration of the basic movements, the way it came so effortlessly to him. The way it was coming so effortlessly to Korra now.
"How about that?" He said, dumbfounded.
Maybe there was still a shred of hope left within her.
-o-o-o-o-
"I'm just really focused on my airbending right now is all." Korra muttered, sitting down next to Tenzin. Ever since she had seen Amon at the Equalist rally, there was something off about Korra. She began to shut off, to calm down, and take her training seriously. Although Tenzin didn't believe for a moment it was because she wanted to learn, it was fear. It was palpable around her, like a dense fog.
"Right, that's what you said. You know, it's okay to be scared; the whole city is frightened by what's been going on. The important thing is to talk about our fears, because if we don't, they can throw us out of balance." He watched her turn her face away.
He knew he had struck something within her, and his father's words echoed in his mind. The same words he had spoken time and time again to his only airbending son, a son burdened with extraordinary purpose.
"I'm always here for you, if you want to talk."
-o-o-o-o-
She was sobbing, tears drenching his robes, as she clung to him for dear life. The monster Amon was gone, but she still cried, gaining momentum with every heave of her chest. Bemused, Tenzin wrapped his arm around her, pulling her towards him like it was instinctive.
"I was so terrified, I felt so helpless." She whimpered, her body nearly convulsing under the pressure of her quick breaths.
"It's all right, the nightmare is over." He comforted her, his hand on the back of her head as he wished for Aang to give him guidance on the right thing to say or the right thing to do for her. His father had always been a strong man, sturdy and reliable, never wavering. He was the Avatar, he was a symbol, and symbols never cried into the robes of their mentors.
"You... you were right... I've been scared this whole time. I've never felt like this before and... and I don't know what to do!" She fell back deeper into his chest, her nails digging into him so deeply that he couldn't help but cringe. What would his mother do?
When he was a child, Yakone had run rampant through the streets, terrorizing everyone in his wake. Of course, Tenzin had never been afraid of Yakone or what he did to Republic City. After all, his father was the Avatar, and he would stop Yakone before any harm came to anyone he loved. Tenzin knew that. He had been only a boy the day the first reports of blood bending made their way to the island, and it was only a few years later that Yakone used blood bent his father in the council chambers. The day Aang took another's bending for the first time since Ozai.
Tenzin could remember the way his father left the island that night, glider in hand, as he walked out of his bedroom and past his son's peering eyes. Tenzin walked in to see his mother wiping her eyes, and looking down surprised at her young son.
"Where is he going?" Tenzin asked.
"Sometimes we all just need a little air." She smiled, picking him up and holding him close, "Even Avatars have a breaking point."
"Is Daddy scared?" He asked.
"He was, Tenzin." She kissed his forehead.
"But admitting your fears is the first and most difficult step in overcoming them." Tenzin's voice echoed his mother as he cradled Korra closer, the way his mother cradled him, the way she held Aang together.
-o-o-o-o-
"I can't believe your sweet-tempered father was reincarnated into that girl. She's tough as nails." Lin remarked as earth disks flew across the arena, Korra bouncing back after every single hit.
Tenzin looked at her for a moment, hearing Lin speak the words he had been thinking since he had taken Korra under his wing. But wasn't sure he believed strongly in those thoughts anymore.
-o-o-o-o-
"Our new son." Pema smiled, handing the small bundle over into Tenzin's arms. After all the chaos of the past few days with Korra's disappearance, reappearance, and the full scale attack by the Equalists, it was incredible to Korra how quickly life came into perspective looking down at the baby.
And suddenly there was a pang in her heart, the pit of her stomach finding its way up into her throat as she looked on the new member of Tenzin's family. She didn't feel like herself, her eyes watering and hands shaking subtly at her sides. A perfect little family. A perfect little happy family. A perfect little happy airbender family. Something that didn't seem possible less than one hundred years ago, but here they were. They had survived, after all these years.
Korra cleared her throat, wiping her eyes quickly before regaining her composure. The pit feeling was gone and her heart, although overjoyed, was calm in her chest.
And she felt comfort in knowing that Aang had seen the birth of his new grandchild.
-o-o-o-o-
"I'm not giving up!" Korra said, determined, as she looked up at her mentor. Airships quickly approaching the island as his family rushed onto Oogi's back.
"I'm not asking you to. I sent word to the United Forces. They will be here soon. And once my family is safe, I will return. With the reinforcements, we can turn the tide in this war." He explained, hoping not to begin an argument with the danger looming overhead. This was not the time for Korra to be Korra. Far from it.
Korra sighs, much to his disbelief, "What you're saying is, we need to be patient."
He smiled, putting his hand on Korra's shoulder, "You're learning well."
Tenzin embraced her, holding her close for a moment, understanding what it was his mother saw in this girl. Korra wasn't Avatar Aang, but he was still there, somewhere deep inside of her, guiding her, the way he had guided Tenzin all those years ago.
"Stay safe, Korra." He pulled away and started towards his family, but not before noticing that familiar gleam in Korra's eye as she spoke.
"You too."
-o-o-o-o-
"You had to do it, Aang." Katara's voice carried through the doorway, "He was a bloodbender. You saved the city."
Aang sighed, "Yeah, but at what cost?"
"You saved Republic City." Tenzin assured her.
"But Amon got away." She sighed.
-o-o-o-o-
"I'm sorry, there's nothing else I can do. Korra can still airbend, but her connection with the other elements has been severed." Katara looked down, defeated. It seemed as if there was only so much she could do for the Avatar.
"It's going to be all right, Aang." Katara reassured him.
"It's going to be all right, Korra." Tenzin reassured her.
"No, it won't." Korra snapped as she pulled on her jacket and stormed out of the hut.
-o-o-o-o-
Tenzin couldn't believe his eyes. The hard headed and impulsive girl that had terrorized his life just a short time ago was here, standing in front of Lin with her arms outstretched, her eyes glowing with the wisdom of all her past lives, ready to restore bending to all those who had it wrongly stripped from them.
She glowed, radiated, the Avatar State. The air moving around her as if she wasn't just manipulating it, she was creating it. Her eyes fading as her hands pulled away, and as if the past had been erased, Lin Beifong bent the earth around her, raising boulders hundreds of feet into the air before setting them back down again.
"Thank you." Lin said, Korra bowing in respect. A new aura glowed around her, no longer a palpable fear but a warm glow. It radiated from her skin, and Tenzin was drawn to her, the pride welling up in his chest as he looked onto this girl. She had the same blue eyes, the same strong fists and the same smart mouth, but that glimmer in her eyes never faded. He looked at her, overcome for a moment, 'I am so proud of you, Avatar Korra."
Her eyes widen as she smiles, and for a moment Tenzin catches a glimpse of something in her pupils. He thinks it's just his own reflection, but at a second glance he can see Aang looking back at him. His lips smirked off to one side, his eyes tender and loving as he looked back at him. As if he was just waiting for him to laugh, as if he were saying, "Come on Tenzin, show me that move one more time. You'll get it right this time."
Korra turns away quickly into the arms of her friends, Meelo scaling her back like a winged lemur, with Ikki and Jinora pulling at the edge of her jacket. But Tenzin is still looking at her, his eyes wide and mouth agape.
"It was nice to see your father again, wasn't it?" Katara smiled, stepping forward to stand beside her eldest son.
"Yes." Tenzin caught his breath, "Yes it was.
A/N: Hey guys! This is my first LoK fic since I went on hiatus a few months ago. I've been waiting forever to write this one-shot, so I hope you all like it! Reviews are always lovely!