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Title: Avatars and Princes
Summary: Korra runs away from the South Pole only to get intercepted by the United Forces. Fortunately, the commanding officer, a certain General Iroh II, comes from a family tradition of not catching Avatars.
Notes: I don't know you guys. Just… I'm sorry for everything.
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It took the Order of the White Lotus an almost embarrassingly long time to realize that Korra had gone missing.
Over the years, they had gotten used to her willful nature and her tendency to sulk and hide when she couldn't bully them into getting her way. The compound was large, and as a waterbender, Korra could make her own hidey-holes, so rather than fruitlessly searching for her, they had ultimately settled into to just waiting until she got hungry and turned up on her own.
But she didn't turn up, not for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner.
It wouldn't have been the first time she snuck out either, despite the Order's best efforts to keep her inside the compound itself. Naga was gone too, as well as some supplies, so perhaps she had gone to work out her frustration on the ice.
Except that Korra didn't return, and there was no sign of her usual unsubtle stress relief bending in the distance.
As the Order began to panic, Katara calmly sipped at her tea.
"The Avatar is missing!" the leader exclaimed, gesturing passionately, as if trying to bend the the old master into action. "She could be injured and trapped out there somewhere! She could have been kidnapped! She might have run away!"
"Running away seems to be becoming something of a tradition," Katara mused, smiling in fond reminiscence. "In any case, the Avatar's place is out in the world, not trapped here at the South Pole."
The White Lotus leader narrowed his eyes, not quite daring to glare at her. "So Avatar Korra has run away," he muttered to himself. "She's still too young and untrained. We have to bring her back. But where could she have gone?"
The answer was obvious, when he thought about it. Korra had suggested it herself - Republic City, where her airbending teacher resided. The city created by the Avatar before her, where all the nations and people came together, in both chaos and harmony.
"Get a line to the Council," the White Lotus leader snapped to the sentries. "Call up the United Forces. Have them search every inbound ship. She must have stowed away. We have to find her!"
~.~.~
Korra started awake as a heavy clang resounded through the cargo ship's metal hull. She had been dozing restlessly, curled up with Naga deep in the dark hold.
With nothing to do but wait and little opportunity to even stretch her legs, lest she be discovered, Korra had fallen under a sort of listless stupor, and it took a moment for her mind to start working again.
"Did we arrive?" she asked Naga, who looked at the girl blearily with one half-open eye before unenthusiastically lifting her head and sniffing the damp, stale air. Both of them froze as the sounds of hurried footsteps reached them, echoing through the otherwise empty corridors.
Naga growled lowly, her body tensing as Korra quietly moved toward the edge of their little alcove. Through the water beyond the hull, Korra could tell that another large shape had drawn up beside the cargo ship, too even and rounded to be anything but another vessel. And that heavy clang - a gangplank?
Pirates? Korra wondered. There weren't any screams or sounds of fighting, so maybe… smugglers? What should she do? It was her duty as the Avatar to stop anything illegal going down, but on the other hand… she didn't want to get caught either.
"Naga, wait here, okay?" Korra decided quickly. "I'm gonna check it out."
Sticking to the shadows, she crept out of the alcove they had hidden in and slowly began to make her way out of the cargo hold. Members of the crew were running around some compartments in agitation, and Korra was forced to scramble for a hiding spot several times before she reached the deck and found the cause of all the commotion.
She had never seen soldiers of the United Forces before, since entry to White Lotus compound was strictly restricted, but she recognized the uniforms on the men who stood rigidly on the deck of the cargo ship - and on the ship next to it.
From among the uniformed ranks, one young man - an officer, judging by the fancier details on his coat and the way the rest of the soldiers remained respectfully behind him - stepped forward.
"I am General Iroh, of the United Forces, in command of the navy's First Division," he announced.
"To what do we owe the pleasure?" a gruff older man in civilian clothing asked mockingly, crossing his arms as he stood between the soldiers and the rest of the ship. From her spying right after the ship had set sail, Korra knew he was the captain.
"We have orders from the Council, to conduct a search of all ships entering the Republic from the Southern Water Tribe territories. We ask for your full cooperation, so that this matter can be concluded as swiftly as possible," the general replied evenly, his hands clasped behind his back. He must have been an officer.
"Search? On what grounds? We're not doing anything illegal." But instead of waiting for an answer, the captain snorted indelicately and shook his head, gesturing to his crew to stand aside. "Fine, do as you will. Not much we can do to stop you," he sneered.
"Thank you," General Iroh said, dipping his head in a shallow bow, his men already moving. "Don't worry. We have no interest in your cargo, whatever it might contain. We are looking for a stowaway."
Korra couldn't stop herself from flinching in surprise - they were looking for her! There was no other explanation. The Order had guessed where she was headed and how she would get there, and they had mobilized the United Forces to find her.
That small movement was all it took, her elbow knocking over a stack of poles next to her hiding place. They tumbled onto the deck with a deafening clatter that made Korra cringe. No matter how hard she prayed, there was no way the men, both crew and soldiers, would miss that.
There was only one thing to do.
Leaping from her hiding place, Korra simultaneously gathered water, from the dew on the deck and from the sea far below, and sent it flying outward. The wave crashed over the men closest to her and immediately froze solid, trapping them in place and blocking way for the others.
As she took off back toward the ship's hold - and Naga - Korra chanced a glance back. Her stalling measure seemed to be working, but in the next instance a section of the ice wall melted away, revealing the young general, fire around his fists.
"Stop!" he yelled, chasing after her, his men following after a moment of hesitation.
Korra stopped. Running just wasn't her style, and her natural instinct was to fight back. And anyway, hadn't she proven herself a master of three elements?
More water gathered around her, snaking out at the soldiers. Iroh countered with fire, but his subordinates were swept away. Korra didn't wait for him to recover, sweeping her arms in to draw the water back and around. To her surprise, he read her attack perfectly, ducking and flipping over the ribbons of water.
"Avatar Korra, I don't want to fight you," he said, landing neatly and settling again in a classic firebending stance. "It serves no purpose. We're in the middle of the sea. There's nowhere for you to go."
Korra scowled. "Forget it! I'm not just going to roll over and come quietly!" she yelled. General Iroh looked faintly exasperated, under his calm, stoic demeanor. He was good, she was willing to admit. In another time and place, she would have loved to spar with him for real.
But he had obviously never faced an Avatar, and Korra wasn't about to lose, even if she had to play dirty.
...Even if he was totally right and she had no game plan beyond this fight.
Taking advantage of his apparent unwillingness to attack her, Korra drew in a deep breath and gathered her chi. Iroh watched her sharp, sweeping gesture with narrowed eyes - he could tell it was too wide, too broad compared to her previous moves.
That was because she was doing something unlike her previous direct attacks. In the next moment, the entire ship groaned, tilting sharply sideways as a massive wave crashed into it, moved by the power of the Avatar's waterbending.
Iroh stumbled, and Korra went on the offensive. In a sharp gesture unlike most waterbending, she sent a rain of small ice knives flying. As she had expected, his firebending easily dissipated them, but he was left open for a moment.
He barely blocked Korra's own fire blast, not nearly enough to dissipate it completely. The force of it sent him sliding back, only to step on the ice that had suddenly formed across the deck. As Korra gestured, the frozen water moved up, grasping at his feet and pulling him down to the deck.
Before he could retaliate, his limbs were completely trapped in ice, leaving him at Korra's mercy. She smirked down at her opponent, crossing her arms in smug satisfaction.
General Iroh sighed, looking entirely too reproving. "Now what?" he seemed to say, making Korra scowl again. He was completely right, of course. What was she going to do now, threaten the cargo ship crew into taking her all the way to Republic City?
Glaring at the man with all the annoyance a rebellious teenager could muster, Korra didn't notice that something wasn't right until he sighed again - no, that wasn't a sigh. It was heavy breath, so hot she could almost see flames in it. The ice holding the officer in place literally steamed away, leaving him free to shift into a ready crouch.
"I don't want to fight you," he repeated again.
"I'm not going back to the compound!" Korra snapped. "You're not taking me back!"
Iroh's eyes widened a fraction and he seemed to study her for a moment, then he - well, it wasn't a smile, he still looked too serious for that, but Korra something in his expression softened.
"Of course," he agreed, to her obvious surprise. "I have no such orders. We were simply directed to find the Avatar. I'm sure what the Council intended was to make sure you arrived in Republic City safely, Avatar Korra."
There was something sneaky in his golden eyes, more so than Korra would have expected from someone who otherwise looked so proper.
"It would be our honor to escort you," Iroh concluded.
"Oh," Korra realized suddenly. "Oooh."
She smirked. Iroh didn't quite smirk in return, but she was sure he was smirking along in his heart.
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Trailing after Iroh onto the deck, Korra had to squint against the bright sunlight. Even with the stiff sea breeze, it was much warmer in the United Republic than at the South Pole. Behind her, Naga sniffed and nudged Korra onward.
As her eyes adjusted to the glare, Korra drew a sharp breath.
"We're entering Yue Bay now," he said. "I may be biased, but I believe this is the best way to see Republic City for the first time."
Korra could only nod dumbly, trying to take in the breathtaking sight before her. The capital of the Republic was spread out before them, its impossibly tall buildings gleaming in the morning light, the faintest remnants of mist still curling along the shores.
And there, rising above the dark waters, was the statue she had heard so much about - her predecessor, posing as if to welcome her. "This is your city," he seemed to say.
"The Aang Memorial Island," the general was explaining. "And beyond that, Air Temple Island."
"It's amazing!" Korra exclaimed. She flung her arms out as if trying to embrace the entire panorama, before turning to her faithful companion. "Isn't it, Naga? What should we see first?"
The polar bear dog huffed, calmly weathering Korra impulsive hug as the girl practically vibrated with excitement.
"The Council will want to see you without delay. We would need to head directly to City Hall after disembarking. I imagine there's an escort waiting at the docks," Iroh mused.
Korra turned to him with a look of betrayal, but the man only looked back expectantly.
Finally, he added, "It's a short swim to shore." He glanced meaningfully at Naga, then back to Korra. "A polar bear dog could make it, I would guess."
"Oh," Korra realized suddenly. "Oooh."
"It's been an honor to escort you, Avatar Korra," Iroh said, bowing.
"Heh, same!" Korra agreed, returning the gesture.
Without waiting a moment longer, she vaulted onto Naga's back. The polar bear dog reached the edge of the deck in barely two stride and, easily clearing the railing, jumped overboard. A high wave rose to meet them and carried them on their way, toward the shore.
On the ship, soldiers scrambled, panicking. "General! The Avatar jumped overboard!" someone yelled.
"I can see that," the young general said. Rubbing at his chin thoughtfully, he mused, "She must be very excited to have arrived. I suppose we'd better inform the police once we dock." Sparring once more glance at the swiftly shrinking figure of girl and polar bear dog, he smiled. "Good luck, Avatar Korra."
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