AN: Hey kids it's time for another new story…what's that you don't want a new story, I should just finish my old ones well to F &king bad enjoy this instead!
It was cold, but that's what you'd would expect a place like the South Pole to be a cold tundra. But in this desolate wasteland there were still many signs of life, after all the first people of the Southern Water Tribe wouldn't have made it their home if it were.
But to those who lived and spent their whole lives at the pole rarely ever felt the cold nipping at them, to natives it was as if a friend was tapping them on the shoulder just to say hello. Suffice to say the two young men sitting in a parked snowmobile where feeling the unwanted embrace of the land.
The taller and more muscular of the two with long black hair and the first stages of a stylish mustache tried to rub his covered arms to warm himself up even more. "Tell me again why we can't run the heat while we're waiting here?"
The other young man who was doing a better job of keeping the cold off himself by meditating didn't even open his eyes as he said back. "Two reasons…" He said as he raised his hand to count off. "One the heat will only turn on if I ignite the engine and because the individual who insisted that we get the older model from the lot because it was cheaper didn't account for the fact that this vehicle sounds like a noble air bison trying to cough out a bad head of cabbage."
The long haired young man stopped rubbing his arms as he scoffed out. "You're the one who said we have to ditch this thing once we get to the docks, it made sense to get the cheaper one."
The meditating young man ignored his friend as he continued counting. "And two that same individual neglected to fill this snowmobile up like I asked. Giving us just enough fuel to reach the randevu point and even then, we may have to walk a bit more."
"Fine I get it." The long haired man mumbled to himself as he began to shuffle his hands into his green coat and pulled out a couple of rocks. "I'll just keep myself warm."
It was then the meditative young man finally opened his eyes. "And signal our location to any White Lotus sentries whom might be patrolling the perimeter of this area."
The long haired young man placed the rocks back in his pocket as he leaned his elbow on the side of his door window and propped his chin in the palm of his hand. As his eyes shifted to his rearview mirror he saw two figures scaling down the wall of the building they were currently parked by.
"Hey, Zaheer turn on the heat." The long haired man called out to his friend. "It looks like Ming-Hua and P'Li actually did it."
The man called Zaheer smiled as he turned the engine on and let out an all knowing smile spread across his face. "There was never a doubt in my mind, Ghazan."
Two young ladies entered the snowmobile from the backseat doors. One was a tall woman; her statue was so great she even towered over her two male companions. The the other was a woman with long black hair that was tied not to cover her sharp face but a rather looming feature on the woman was the fact that she was missing her entire arms all together showing no sign that she ever previously had them.
"So, did you get her?" Ghazan asked. "Did you find the one?"
"Got the little chosen one right here." The woman called Ming-Hua said as water began to sprout out from the water skins strapped along her sides and collect at the base of her arm sockets as the water then shaped into tentacle like appendages.
Using her new fluid limbs Ming-Hua controlled them to reach around her back to lift up a rather large bundle that was strapped to her back. P'Li then reached over and pulled the flap of the bundle open reveling the face of a sleeping little girl inside of it.
"So, this is the great and powerful Avatar Korra." Ghazan said as he reached over and gently patted the sleeping girl on the head. "Hard to believe this little squirts' supposed to be the most powerful bender on the planet."
P'Li smacked Ghazan's hand away from the child as she wrapped the little Water Tribe girl back up. "Well for now she's just a kid, so we don't need her waking up and causing a ruckus while we make our escape."
Ghazan turned around as he rubbed his hand. "Yeah, yeah I guess you're right. Zaheer we should get going."
Zaheer narrowed his brow a bit in confusion as he addressed his friend without turning his head. "I started driving the second the backdoors were closed."
Ghazan blinked, he blinked again and then a third time before looking at the windshield and saw that they were indeed moving. "Huh for a nosey old thing she moves rather softly."
"That's a good thing." Zaheer said quietly. "There's a less chance the Avatar will wake up now."
"You know for future reference I think one of us should invest in some sort of sedative to use on her if she becomes a hassle." P'Li stated looking down at the sack containing the girl. "I have an old underworld connection who mentioned something called Shirshu-spit darts that are strong enough to take down a komodo rhino."
"I don't think we'd need anything like that, my love." Zaheer said affectionately as he looked back at P'Li from the snowmobile's rearview mirror who smiled back when she saw him. "At least for the time being. Did you run into any problems while capturing the Avatar?"
"It's sad how easy it was." Ming-Hua said as she shifted and reared her head back against her seat as she kept boasting. "Everyone in that fancy palace were too busy arguing with one another. We could have just walked in from the front door and taken her, but it wouldn't have been as much fun."
That caught Zaheer's attention. "Arguing about what exactly?"
"About the girl's fate." P'Li answered. "Her parents or rather her father seems all for her Avatar training and all. But apparently Avatar Aang's son and the White Lotus want to keep the kid in some sort of compound cutting her off from the rest of the world."
"Avatar Aang's son?" Zaheer asked.
"Yeah you know the one who can airbend like him." P'Li said as she looked back at Zaheer slyly. "If you're worried if he's the cutest bald guy I've ever laid eyes on, you don't have to worry. You have that title safely secured." P'Li stretched over and gave Zaheer a peck on his bald head and gently nuzzled against it.
Ghazan and Ming-Hua both let out a passive aggressive sigh in unison. Zaheer chose to ignore them both. "It's too bad as crazy as it sounds I really would have loved a chance to meet a true Air Nomad such as him."
"I think you might get your chance." Ghazan said as he leaned in closer to the windshield and squinted his eyes and tapped his finger against the glass. "Is that what I think it is?"
From the back P'Li and Mung Hua exchanged looks as they where both just as bewildered as Ghazan.
"I don't remember seeing one of those things flying around the airbender." Ming Hua said as she used a water tentacle to scratch the top of her head.
"Neither did I but look at it there's no way that it can be a wild one."
Zaheer shifted his eyes over towards the left and saw a winged lemur sitting on the hood of the snowmobile looking back at the four of them. Almost immediately three things about the small little animal entered Zaheer's bald head, making it almost impossible to look away from the creature.
One it wasn't a ring-tailed winged lemur that had made up most of the species, but the endangered white furred solid tailed kind that Avatar Aang used to keep as a pet.
Second the expression the lemur held wasn't the big eyed innocent one that every lemur regardless of sub-species had. This one looked irritated as though it didn't want to be there right now. With its eyes narrowed and brow brought down casting small shadow half circles under its eyes making the adorable creature look sinister.
And finally, the winged lemur had a tuff of its fur tied in a top not while dressed in a small red and gold outfit identical to old ones worn by someone from the Fire Nation about fifty or so years ago.
"That lemur it has to belong to someone right?" Ghazan asked as he pointed at it.
"No Ghazan, all wild lemur's fly around in cute little outfits like that." Ming Hua snapped back sarcastically.
Ghazan turned around with a dry look on his face. "I meant that those little guys aren't native in the South Pole, right?"
"No, they are not."
Ghazan, Zaheer, Ming Hue and P'Li where all surprised by a mysterious fifth voice somehow getting their attention.
P'Li's first instinct was to check the Avatar, only to see that the girl was still sleeping.
Ming-Hua began looking around the cabin, looking under the seats, and over the back to see for a any stowaways.
Ghazan faced forward again to see that the flying lemur was now gone making him look over towards Zaheer. "You… you don't think?"
"There's someone up ahead." Zaheer replied not responding to whatever Ghazan's question was going to be and getting everyone else's attention as well.
The other three rouges all saw a figure standing at least a few yards in front of their snowmobile. This lone stranger didn't show any sign of getting out of the way as they stood firmly still.
"Don't slow down." P'Li said as she pulled back the hood of her jacket reveling a tattoo of a sideway half open eye on her forehead where a person's Light chakra resided in. "I'll take care of this."
The statuesque woman opened her door and hung onto the side of the snowmobile. With a little finesse she managed to climb on top of the vehicle as she steadied herself up and looked straight ahead at the human shaped obstacle on the road.
"No warning shot, no turning back…" P'Li said to herself as she took in a powerful breath.
Letting out her chi an almost invisible beam of power came out from her forehead and shot forward. The invisible force gained a few small bursts of fire before it was just above it's intended target, exploding into a great big ignition of fire that engulfed the entire area the obstacle was standing in.
"…No mercy."
"Are you sure about that?" A voice asked coming right behind P'Li.
Turning her head in fright the tall firebender saw another person standing on top of the snowmobile. Wearing a long hooded cloak which was pulled back revealed a young woman slightly older and much shorter then P'Li with flowing red hair starring back at the firebender, as a shit eating smile spread across the red haired woman's face. "I'm more then willing to show just a little mercy to a stupid little kid like you."
The woman began to chuckle a bit as she scratched the side of her left cheek and closed her eyes slightly giving her the impression of a foxy animal. "And by little, I mean that figuratively great spirits look at the size of you, you're huge!" She said throwing her arms up in the air.
P'Li ignored the other woman's quips as she steadied her breathing. "Who are you?"
"Me?" The red haired woman asked as she grasped the side of her shroud and threw it off, reveling a rather simple green and white sleeved dress underneath that seemed rather out of place in the South Pole. Other then the fact that it didn't appear to be insulated what so ever. "I'm just a concerned citizen, mother, master of hand to hand asskicking. Who was about to go visit a very dear friend of mine, when I suddenly felt the presence of her daughter and my son's little playmate moving at a speed that five year old's don't normally run in."
P'Li didn't drop her guard but did move her foot slightly and began to tap with it in a cryptic rhythmic pattern. "Listen lady I don't know what think you felt but for your own good you should go back home to your own kid, alright. I won't miss a second time."
The red haired woman let out a laugh as she began to roll up her sleeves. "Oh sweetie, you didn't miss the first time."
P'Li shot another combustion blast straight at the red haired woman as a look of terror and confusion spread across her face as she saw the red hair woman make a few quick strange hand gestures before reeling a fist back and actually punching her combustion blast off it's intended course and spiral away until it hit the ground near by that when it exploded Zaheer ended up swerving the snowmobile to keep it from tipping over.
"How did you do that?!" P'Li asked as she steadily flung her arm across from her body dramatically.
The red haired woman still held on her same grin and lifted her arm showing off that her fist along with the rest of her limb was tattooed in a series of runes and symbols that the firebender had never seen before. "You have your special markings, and I have mine." And as if she could some how see it coming the red haired woman tumbled forward narrowly avoiding two spikes of ice piercing up from the snow mobile.
Inside said vehicle Ming-Hua let out a disappointed grunt as she pulled her icy tentacles back down. "Damn it I missed."
"Aren't you worried she might hit your girlfriend?" Ghazan asked Zaheer as he continued to watch Mung-Hua try and repeat her attack by sticking it up again.
Zaheer kept his focus on the road and pointed up to the roof when a series of taps echoed in the cabin. "You hear that?" He asked his other male companion. "P'Li's wise enough to signal where she is so Ming-Hua will know which foot steps to attack on." Looking back at his friend he also added. "I have faith in all of your abilities, untied we are strong."
"Really because your friends kind of suck." The red haired woman said as she stuck her upside down face through Ghazan's open window. "So, what are you a bunch of circus preforms or something, trying to kidnap Korra to be your opening act?"
Ghazan shot his arm forward in hopes to grab the woman by the hair only to watch in awe as the woman's hair instead warp its self around his arm holding it in an iron clad vice. Gripping his teeth to keep himself from crying out in pain the earthbender used his other arm to bend out the rocks from his pockets and kindle them until he was levitating a small shuriken made of molten lava.
"Eat this!" Ghazan shouted as he launched his new weapon out the window.
The red haired woman relaxed her grip from the side of the snowmobile but had her hair still hang onto Ghazan's left arm while she was suspended a few feet off the fast moving road as she reached behind herself and shouted back. "That looks a little under cooked!" as she pulled a frying pan out and used it to swing and redirect the lava shuriken from herself and onto an unsuspecting P'Li just as the firebender was getting ready to launch out another combustion blast.
Seeing the oncoming projectile heading her way P'Li panicked and shot her blast only to feel the force of the two attacks and tumble backwards until she was left helpless and dangling on the opposite side of the snowmobile.
"Hold on P'Li!" Zaheer shouted as he attempted to swerve the snowmobile around only to feel resistance from the steering wheel. Looking down he saw that the cause was from a wooded spoon that somehow found itself impeded in the handles of the wheel.
"It looks like…it looks like…" the red haired woman who was still in a throwing position indicating that she was the one responsible for the wood spoon's placement. Set a hand under her chin as she began to pounder out loud. "…damn I thought I had something for this…oh well." Shrugging she reversed her grip on her frying pan and used the backside to repeatedly strike Ghazan in the face.
"Somebody…do…some…thing!" the lavabender shouted in between hits when the cooking instrument wasn't colliding into his head.
"I think it's time someone gave this witch a haircut!" Ming-Hua bent six water tentacles while making the tips into the sharpest edges of ice as she drove them towards Ghazan scarlet covered arm.
The waterbender managed to slice though a few strands before the red haired woman swung herself under the snowmobile and released her remaining grip on the lavabender's arm.
Pulling her tendrils back Ming-Hua gave Ghazan a worried look as he used his freed hand to hold his nose in place and reel his head back in order to control the trickle of blood coming out of his misshapen nose. "I think she broke my nose." He said weakly as he looked over towards the waterbender.
Using some of her tendrils to heal Ghazan she used the others to brake the spoon that was impeding Zaheer's driving.
"Thank you, Ming-Hua." Zaheer said as he managed to gain back control of the snowmobile. "Do you two have any idea who this woman is?"
"You're suppose to be the leader here, aren't you suppose to now of any major players out there?" Ghazan asked as he shooed Ming-Hua's tendrils when she managed to stop the bleeding. "But from what I can guess I think she might be some kind of waterbender."
"What makes you say that!" P'Li asked as she managed to pull herself up and stead herself once more on the roof of the snowmobile.
"Because her hair was covered in some kind of liquid gel, see." He lifted his arms to show that it had a thin coat of some sort of malleable transparent goo covered on the parts that were trapped by the hair.
"Hey that's a pretty good guess." A faded voice coming from the floor said in a mocking tone. "You're not as dumb as you look lava boy!"
Ming-Hua snarled her teeth as she looked down and reformed her ice spears and punctured the floor of the vehicle in order to finally silence the woman.
"Nice going their broom stick be sure to give you're self a round of applause for that one…get it?"
Ming-Hua struck the ground again and again each in different locations hoping to give her new found waterbening rival a wound that would prove fatal. Pausing for a second, she saw a violet eye appear out of one of the holes she made looking up at her. "I was making fun of the fact that you don't have any arms."
The topside waterbender used every ounce of power she had to rapidly strike the same spot the eyes was coming from until the water tendrils she were using appeared as a fast moving blur.
"Ming-Hua stop attacking the floor you might hit the…" What ever Zaheer was going to say next was momentarily stopped by the snowmobile beginning to rattle and the engine sounding like it was on it's last breath. Looking down at the gauge the leader of the rag tag group of rouges let out a calm yet irritated breath as he finished his sentence. "…fuel line."
Not waiting for the vehicle to stop on it's own Zaheer parked the snowmobile stopping it himself. "Quickly get the other packs we're going with the shell game here on out." He said addressing Ming-Hua who nodded back. "We can make it to the docks from here if we continue on foot!"
The limbless waterbender pulled up three identical packs, the same in which a sleeping Korra resided in and passed two of them over towards Zaheer and Ghazan before bolting out of the snowmobile followed by the others.
"You know I don't want to jinx it but how has she been sleeping though all of this?" Ghazan asked while he fastened his pack while continuing to rub his swollen nose.
"It's just best not to question when the universe decided to make at least one aspect of our journey easy for us." Zaheer replied as they were joined by P'Li as she ran up towards them.
"What about the red haired woman, what if she tries to follow us?" Ming-Hua asked as she used her water limbs to pass the remaining bundle to P'Li.
P'Li answered that by turning around, swinging her pack over her shoulder, and planting her feet on the ground as she launched a super concentrated combustion blast right at the snowmobile. It only took a second to pass as the vehicle blew up in a giant fireball of destruction leaving nothing but open flames and twisted metal in it's place.
Smiling like a cat capturing it's prey P'Li reeled her head back as she said to the others. "Problem solved."
"Oh yeah like I was still underneath that thing."
All four rouges turned around to see that the red haired woman was alive and well with out so much as a scratch on her. She had her arms folded as she looked back at the younger group with a raised eyebrow and a look of pity and annoyance.
Zaheer steadied himself losing the look of shock that the rest of his band still had plastered to their respected faces. Taking a few steps forward he spooked up to the woman in front of him. "It seems as though that you have us at an impasse."
The woman stayed silent as she seemed to be humoring Zaheer's on coming sermon.
"I have no doubt in my mind that if we try to move forward towards our goal you'll chase us in order to stop us where we stand…"
The red haired woman continued to stay quiet not moving an inch except for one finger tapping it's self on her arm in a rhythmic pattern that seemed to go unnoticed to Zaheer and the others.
"…but what I would like to know is why, why are you trying to stop us?" Zaheer asked as he narrowed his eyes trying to get a read on the mysterious woman. "You don't appear to be a member of the White Lotus or look as though you could be related to the Avatar by blood, so why stop us?"
The woman was still silent only letting out a wide open yawn as though she was mocking the younger man's insight.
And while P'Li reacted to the look, about to attack the woman for taunting them Zaheer raised an arm at his taller companion as he continued to press on. "Is it for some sort of reward that rescuing the Avatar from a group of outlaws and reprobates such as us will be given to you either cosmically or financially. Or is it simply for honor for you and your family?"
The woman held a steely gaze as Zaheer watched the woman's eyes shift from him to the bundle Ming-Hua had strapped to her back.
"You stupid kids" the woman said to herself as she let out a sigh and scratched the back of her head. "You just don't get it, I don't care that Korra's the Avatar, and no matter how many times I see her use more than one bending discipline I still don't see her as one to me…"
The woman momentarily paused as a memory of the past entered her mind.
The red haired woman was seated at a small table inside a modest domicile. As she slowly sipped on a cup of hot tea she looked at the girl who was sitting in front of her holding her arm out with a look of grit and determination.
"I'm the Avatar, lady!" the little Water Tribe girl said as she addressed the red haired woman. "And you gotta deal with it!"
The woman took a final sip of her tea as her bangs were hiding her eyes and the true emotion she was actually feeling. "All right you cheeky little rugrat I'll show you how I'll deal with it."
Before the little girl had a chance to escape and launch an attack the red haired woman's arms reached out and across the table, capturing the little Avatar.
"Mommy!" Korra cried out as her mother had her back to the two as she was preparing some snacks to go with the tea she offered her guest.
Turing around Korra's mother dropped the worried look on her face and exchanged it for one of laughter and amusement as she saw her red haired house guest hold Korra in her arms and lowered her face on Korra's exposed big tummy to blow raspberries onto it like the toddler was an infant.
Lifting her face up the red haired woman laughed alongside the Avatar's mother as she looked down at Korra. "I'm sorry Korra but this is how I deal with adorable little trouble makers like you and that little brat of mine." She said as she lowered her face and blew another raspberry on the Avatar's belly.
Korra herself was trapped in a fit of giggles and annoyance as she tried to muster a serious look on her face. "S..stop it Aunty I told you I'm the Avatar and you…" but the young girl couldn't finish as she broke into another round of giggling.
Back to the present the woman didn't have a smiling look on her face from recalling such a happy memory but a look of pure anger as she held her hands together and aligned her fingers with her left thumb above her right. "To me she's nothing more than the loud adorable little girl who lives next door, who pulled my son from out of his shell and became his partner in hijinks and roughhousing. Against that and her being the Avatar is nothing more than a responsibly she's going to have in the near future."
The air and snow around the woman started to shift as what looked like a sinister mist began to encircle and cover the woman. Her hair than began to rise and wave around as if it had a will of its own only it and her eyes that seemed to be glowing were left as the only visible parts of her now shadowy silhouette.
Zaheer responded by this ominous tactic by reached behind his back and pulled out small staff that he twisted until it grew in length, while Ming-Hua reformed her water tendrils, Ghazan pulled out more rocks to turn into a lava shurikens and P'Li shifted from her heavily used combustion skills to shift into a traditional firebending stance.
"And for trying to take that away from her…" The woman's voice said as it some how began to echo. "I'm going to beat you all so hard that your corpse will end up in the North Pole!"
P'Li scoffed at the threat that she perceived as idle. "I'd like to see you try you scarlet haired hag!"
Mean while a few miles away another group of people where making their way towards the giant fireball explosion that they saw a few moments ago.
Riding on the top of the head of a red dragon was an old master who looked over to the horizon as he directed the fire breathing beast towards it. With a distinguishing scar over his left eye and upper part of his face, the old man was dressed in traditional royal Fire Nation garb as he also had his long white hair tied in a top knot. Right now, he was trying his hardest not to focus on the angry bickering coming from the other mount flying next to his.
Riding on the back of a flying bison, a giant white furred beast with six legs, a flat tail and a patch of brown fur in the shape of an arrow that ran along it's back from tail-tip to its forehead an Air Nomad and a Water Tribesmen were arguing with each other over their current objective.
"All I am trying to say Prince Tonraq is that if you allowed the White Lotus to take Korra into their custody when she first revealed herself as the Avatar to them an incident like this wouldn't have happened." A middle aged Air Nomad said addressing the man who insisted to sit next to him on the air bison's rather roomy saddle.
"I've already agreed to sequester Korra to this training compound you and the White Lotus plan to build here, Master Tenzin." The Southern Water Tribe member called Tonraq said as he lowered his binoculars to address Tenzin. "I don't need you to constantly remind me of my mistake in trying to raise my daughter myself." His tone in the last part was spiced with a dash of sarcasm which Tenzin immediately picked up on.
"This has nothing to do with your abilities as a parent." Tenzin said. "Prior to his death Avatar Aang left the task of protecting his next incarnation to White Lotus and myself. We're just trying to make sure that when the time comes Avatar Korra will be ready to face her duties as the Avatar with the proper guidance."
"Just don't forget as far as my wife and I are concerned she's our daughter first and the Avatar second."
Before Tenzin could say another word, a blunt instrument struck the back of his head with enough force for him to rock his head forward but not enough to get knocked out. On the rebound the same tool struck Tonraq on the side of his head as the foreign object returned to it's owner, an older Water Tribesmen who sat at the back of the saddle wearing a set of traditional Water Tribe body armor and the wolf style war paint coated on his wrinkly face.
"See what you made me do!" the old timer cried out as he twirled his trusty boomerang in his hand as he used it to point over at the airbender. "Tenzin lay off the guy already, I know you airbenders are supposed to be detached and see things logically with no emotion. But even your own father knew when to touch down back down to earth so he could connect with human society from time to time so he could act with more empathy."
Tenzin rubbed his head silently as he let out a deep breath and nodded in agreement with the older man. "I'll try and be less removed in the future, thank you Chief Sokka …OH!"
"How many times do I have to tell you?" The old man yelled as he regripped his weapon of choice. "You call me Uncle Sokka!"
Tonraq couldn't help but sprout a childish grin on his face which was immediately wiped off by a clonk from a club to the head.
"And as for you. You should have listened to us when the White Lotus first confirmed that your daughter was the Avatar!" Chief Sokka replied with a huff as he turned his head and looked out towards the horizon. "Truth be told if it was up to me we'd only keep that little girl of yours in the future compound until she was twelve or thirteen. Teach her the basics and let her go off across the world learning from different masters until she became a fully realized Avatar."
After he gave his two bits into the decision for Korra's future he turned his head forward. "But it's not up to me or any of us for that matter. While I never gave faith or destiny the reigns towards controlling my life I have let circumstance and change give it a go. And unfortunately, with these kidnappers in the mix it completely changes things."
"That's right." The man dressed in crimson riding on the dragon said, finally getting into the conversation. "We have no way of knowing if these people took Korra for money, power, or some misguided ideologic reasons."
"Whatever the reason," Tonraq said as he narrowed his eyes in determination. "They better hope that I don't find one hair harmed on Korra's head or so help me…" He left the last part up towards anyone's imagination as he punched his fist into his hand and tightened it until one of his knuckles popped.
Taking his uncle's advice Tenzin tried to console the worried father. "Don't worry Prince Tonraq we'll get Korra back. Unlike my dear uncle I believe destiny does have a grand plan for Korra, with all of us in it to help forge it into fruition."
Tonraq softened his face a little as he tried to be a bigger man and humbled himself just a tad at the airbending master. "Thank you, Tenzin…and just so we're clear I'm not a prince, not anymore ,not since I left the North Pole."
"Oh, please don't go into a long sad speech about getting back your throne or restoring or lost honor back." Sokka said with an annoyed tone in his voice. "I already heard all that from him to last me three life times." He said pointing over towards the dragon ridder.
The dragon rider responded by giving his old friend a sour look just as he saw something from the corner of his scared eye. "We're getting close for whatever reason they seemed to have covered their tracks with some sort of fog."
"It might be a trap." Tonraq said as he began to stand up on the saddle. "They must be setting some sort of cover to blind us and keep us from perusing."
"Agreed." The old master said as he commanded his dragon to slow down a bit. "From what some of the White Lotus sentries told us they have us out numbered by four to three."
Chief Sokka looked over at his old friend with a glance of confusion as he used his club to scratch the side of his head. "I think your math may be a little bit off there, buddy. If they only have four people with them then we…Hey wait a minute did you count me out because I'm a nonbender!" he accused angrily while using his war club to point with.
The firebender didn't even look at Sokka as he replied. "That and your old."
"Old?! I'm a year younger then you Zuko!"
Everyone remained silent trying not to make eye contact to the old chief as he continued to fume in anger when he noticed that neither his nephew or his apprentice war chief came to his defense.
"Oh, is that it huh? Well let me remind everyone here that I might be old, I might be a nonbender and I may even sometimes leave the house with out checking to see that I forgot to put on pants. But I'm the one who stopped and defeated Dr. Cerbo and his army of mechanized automation automatons from taking over Republic City and world!"
They all went quiet again as the howling arctic winds was the only sound heard as it rushed passed them. It was a whole half minute latter when the tense silence was broken. "…That never happened."
"Damn it Zuko it did too!"
It was at that moment a combustion burst erupted a few feet away from them in the air. The heat and shockwave from the explosion caused all of them to brace from the impact, especially Chief Sokka as he was standing up at the time. The shockwave and Tenzin bison's quick maneuvering caused the old warrior to fall over on his face.
"Good job Oogi!" Tenzin said congratulating his flying beasts for his quick work. "We have to land and find cover before we can come up with a countermeasure."
"But where do you expect us to land?" Tonraq asked as he nodded over towards the ground as the fog began to grow even thicker as it blanketed the whole area.
A moments later and a few more blasts of combustion pierced out from fog but were sent out in the opposite direction then where the air bison and dragon where.
"They missed?" Tonraq asked as he raised his head a little.
"It's possible that the fog is working against them." Tenzin said as he tried to lower Oogi. "We can't see them, but they also can't see us."
"No." Sokka wedged himself between the two younger men and looked down as well. "There's something else down there. Something else that they're fighting."
The fog had gotten so thick the quartet could barley see their own hands in front of their faces, let alone each other. All it took was a few steps for all of them to be scattered across the ice field relaying on their voices.
"Ming-Hua can't you clear the air already?" P'Li requested as she herself used a simple breathing technique to exhale heat from her nostrils to clear her vision.
"What do you think I've been doing?" The limbless waterbender snapped back. Ming- Hua sprung her water tentacles out and tried to bend the fog away, even change it back to water but proved to be fruitless.
"Just keep calm and stay focus on our task at hand." Zaheer said as he began walking calmly and carefully in a straight path. "We stick to the original plan." He tried to remind his friends cryptically knowing that the red haired woman was somewhere in the haze watching, waiting.
Ghazan chose to remain silent. In his past life he had some experience in fighting with low visibility. So, with his lava shuriken hovering between his two palms the lavabender was crouched down while using his impromptu weapon as a lantern to purposely expose his location waiting for the red haired woman to find him.
Closing his eyes and using his other senses Ghazan opened them immediately when he heard Ming-Hua shouting close by.
"I found that witch I got her everyone get here quick!" The waterbender shouted, Ghazan was about to launch his attack in the direction of Ming Hua's voice when he heard her again.
"Wait she's got me I can't no…NO!" Ghazan swiftly moved out of the way as he saw an object shoot over towards him from the fog but immediately cursed to himself when he realized that the unknown object was non other then…
"Ming-Hua!" Ghazan shouted as he dashed and skidded over towards his fallen comrade. Even with the fog covering most of the ground even thicker up to shin level, the bulky lavabender could make out the messy black unbound hair from her usual hair tie.
Looking down at her it was the first time he'd ever seen his friend look so helpless blood dripping down her chin, her eyes flutter back and forth and a tremble in her voice as she started to speak.
"That lady s…she's a lot tougher then she looks cough…cough." The waterbender spat up some more blood that gushed onto Ghazan's left arm which he ignored in favor trying to comfort his fallen friend.
"Can you heal yourself?" Ghazan asked as he began to sense if the red haired woman was somehow watching them through the fog.
"No…I..I..can't…listen do you have the Avatar with you?" She asked trying desperately to hold back her tears.
Ghazan looked a bit puzzled as for some reason he was starting to feel a bit woozy using his forearm to wipe some sweat from his forehead. "No, I got one of the false bags."
"You have to listen to me." Ming-Hua whispered softly. "Please come closer…"
Ghazan listened as he felt a hand brush against his cheek.
"There's something, something I've always wanted to tell you. But I've never had the boobs to tell you.."
"The boob?"
"Yeah, it's not like I can say the balls."
"Then why not the ovaries?"
"How the hell does that make any sense you can't suckle on someone's ovaries, rockhead!"
Ghazan was a bit taken back by Ming-Hua's strange euphemism which the waterbender saw as she reeled her head back and stuck her tongue out dramatically "I mean I never had the courage to do…"
Ghazan just believed Ming-Hua's strange outburst from the current hostile situation as he shook his head and begin listening again despite starting to get a little bit dizzy.
I…I've always."
Ghazan leaned in closer. "You've always what?" His curiosity was starting to over cloud his instincts and inner eye as his heart which should have been beating faster felt like it was only beating slower then a turtle duck.
"I've always…."
"Ghazan!"
The lavabender looked up to see a silhouette come emerge into the lower visible area of fog. "What…what the hell is that!?"
Ghazan could only blink rapidly in order to clear what he perceived as double vision another Ming-Hua stared back at him, this one with her hair still up and not a scratch on her using a water tentacle to point over towards the fallen Ming-Hua.
"It must be some sort of enchantment!" the fallen Ming-Hua stated as she pointed over towards the other Ming-Hua. "I said it before that red haired woman's an enchantresses."
"I called you a witch!"
Trying to get back up the lavabender found it difficult as his words slurred a bit. "I…I don't….who…which is the real one?"
"….How about the one who has arms!?"
Ghazan blinked and then he blinked again as his eyes drifted down to see that Ming-Hua who was down, the one who he was trying to comfort, and had her hand placed on the side of his cheek as she rapidly slapped him back and forth in a dope motion. "Did you figure it out yet, smart guy?"
Jumping to his feet Ghazan tried to launch an attack but found that he couldn't even find the strength to stand up as he ended up stumbling backwards until his back slammed into a rock formation. "What, what the hell?"
The Ming-Hua on the ground used her arms to flip herself up and back on her feet, only to pivot to the side at the last second to dodge two water tentacles strikes.
The other Ming-Hua reeled her whips back and saw that she managed to nick the cheek of her doppelgänger.
"Not bad, kid." The doubled placed her fingers on the side of her cut and dug her digits deep into the open wound. With one quick tug she pulled her whole face off revealing another one under it. "You almost got me."
All it took was a blink of the eye for the woman's hair to change from black to red as the red haired woman gazed back at Ming-Hua with an all too familiar self-assured smile on her face.
"What did you do to him?" Ming-Hua asked trying to keep herself calm as she was shifting from anger and fear. Fear from the fact that the mysterious red haired woman could make herself look like someone else effortless. And anger as she watched Ghazan groggily try and get up but ended up falling back down.
"Oh so you two do have a thing for each other, don't you?" The red haired woman said as she wagged her finger back and forth. "I had a feeling you kids were paired up, with that walking tree and the bald one being all kissy, kissy."
"You didn't answer my question witch!" Ming- Hua began to charge forward as she let out a volley of lashes. "What did you do to my friend?!"
The red haired woman swayed with the motions, avoiding all the belts by swaying and spinning out of the way. She laughed at the other waterbender as she let of the face she was previously wearing and let it sail out of her hand.
Ming-Hua stopped charging as the face floated right towards her as it was about to crash into her's. Grabbing it at the last second the limbless waterbender was intrigued and disturbed by the quality of work she was holding. "This thing looks so real." She said while stretching what looked like her own face out.
Distracted by the mask the red haired woman took the opportunity to launch her counter attack by creating another series of hand signs before shouting. "Kai!"
Almost instantaneously the fog covering the whole area converged into a whirlwind of arctic wind onto one target, Ming-Hua.
The red haired woman began walking calmly at the other waterbender. Ming-Hua began to panic as ice started to cover her legs, torso, and finally her head with the exception of her real face being left un iced. By the time the red haired woman was just a breath away from Ming-Hua the rouge waterbender was unable to move an inch let alone attack.
"Well if you're that worried about you're not so little lavabender then don't he's just a little paralyzed." Chuckling to herself she looked over at Ghazan as she explained. "See before when I wrapped my hair around his arm I coated it with a special type of venom that I use as a conduit to control my hair."
Shifting her attention to the frozen Ming-Hua she tossed up a small red pellet from her hand and began to toss it up and down. "But the venom only works if it's mixed with its counterpart right here which by the way makes for a good fake blood pack."
Gritting her teeth Ming-Hua tried to bender herself out of the ice but found her efforts to be moot.
"Don't bother Broomstick if you couldn't bend the fog you're not going to be able to bend that ice." The red haired woman said as she walked passed Ming-Hua and set her sights on both Zaheer and P'Li who noticed that the air was clear again. "That's my own special blend made from my blood sweat and tears…along with some other bodily fluids. If you know what I mean." She said with a wink.
Ming-Hua let out a cry of disgust as she tried to thrash her way out.
"So, two down and two more to go. I don't suppose I could ask you two to just hand Korra over and scurry off back home, can I?"
"Sorry but we've wasted enough time as it is." Zaheer stated as he began to run off away from the red haired woman. Looking back, he gazed an apologetic look on Ghazan as the lavabender still laid down for the count. "I'm sorry my friend."
P'Li on the other hand made her stand clear as she focused her chi, took a deep breath and let out another piercing bolt of combustible power.
The red haired woman easily avoided the strike as their was a great distance and space for her to do so. "Ha-ha, you missed Stretch!"
"I wasn't aiming at you, bitch."
P'Li's declaration stayed true as the attack was on a collision course towards Ming-Hua.
Now having spent a lot of time with P'Li, Ming-Hua could tell just about how powerful the firebender's combustion blasts could be. And even though she knew it wouldn't be fatal it didn't stop her from closing her eyes and bracing for impact.
It took her about twenty seconds later to realize that the blast was somehow delayed and open her eyes back.
From the sky the same flying lemur as before swooped down along the frozen Ming-Hua, tumble rolled itself down and at the last possible second spun around and some how used its tail to ricochet the combustion blast right as it exploded.
The clothed little animal then landed and perched it's self on top of Ming-Hua's head.
"You missed."
"I didn't miss you deflected my….. DID THAT FLYING MONKEY JUST TALK?" The firebender asked while her eyes wear opened wide from shook and her jaw had dropped on the ground with a inquisitive finger pointing at the animal.
That made Zaheer stop in his tracks and look on with wonder as he too witnessed the lemur's abilities. "Amazing…" was all he could whisper out.
"I knew it!" Ghazan shouted or at least tried his best to shout as he was struggling to get back up on his feet. "I told you that I heard a voice talking remember back in the snowmobile, ah you don't remember."
"Congratulations." The lemur said sarcastically as it held the same monotonous manner as before. "You just showed us your own naivete if something as simple as a talking animal is something you would label as surprising or amazing."
"Oz quit being such a little asshole and help me take these guys out." The red haired woman ordered.
The lemur called Oz let out a chuckle as it let it's tail sway back and forth causing the still frozen Ming-Hua to scrunch up her face in a pre-sneeze fashion. "I thought you only needed me as a scout?"
The red haired woman let out a huff as she blew a strand of her hair out of her field of vision. "I can't go full throttle if I don't know which of them has Korra. It's down to the Three Eyed Tree over there or Sir Baldy Bald the Third so, just pick one of them to fight so we can take her home already."
That made P'Li take a step back but not from fear, but bewilderment. "That lemur can fight?"
Oz ignored the tall firebender as he stroked his furry chin and looked back at her and Zaheer. "Fine I'll take the Agneya, you can handle the one with the apparent Air Nomad obsession."
Both P'Li and Zaheer both showed a look of dread as they stood in their current places and sweat gathered on their brows.
"Agneya, what the underworld is a Agneya?" The red haired woman asked looking at Oz with her hands at her side.
The lemur's eyes feel on P'Li as he explained. "It's the title the Fire Nation would bestow on a specially trained firebender that could create a super-heated beam of explosive energy that ignited a few inches away from their intended target."
"I already knew that part, it comes out from their stupid eye tattoos, right?" The woman asked rhetorically purposely throwing a verbal jab at P'Li.
"Well at first, the idea was for them to be able to shoot that blast from any were on their bodies." The lemur continued to explain. "By the time of Fire Lord Sozin he was satisfied if they just learned the basics turning one of the greatest peacekeepers of the Fire Nation into nothing more than mindless berserkers for war."
It was obvious by the look on P'Li's face that she didn't know that part of her she was. Clearing her head with a deep breath, all it took was a second to pass as the firebender began to charge forward out right ignoring Zaheer's pleas to fall back.
Running past the red haired woman, ignoring her in the process P'Li let out another carefully aimed blast at the lemur who dodged by taking up in the air again.
As P'Li started to fire of another volley of strikes on her opponent, Zaheer let out a sigh as he pulled his bo staff forward and began to twirl it. "I have no right to be mad or upset by P'Li's actions. When I first met her she was made into an assassin for a Warlord who treated her as nothing more than a living weapon."
"And so what she's now you're sword to wield?" The red haired woman asked trying to get a rise out of the cue ball. "She just traded one master for another?"
"I love her." Zaheer stated without hesitation. "And I swore on the day that I met her that the two of us would be free in this world either it be from titles or regimes."
The red haired woman looked back at Zaheer with actual sympathy as she pulled out her frying pan from before and gave it a few rotations from her wrist. "Sorry kid but whatever dreams of freedom you may have had end right here."
The woman clicked her teeth as she held the cooking tool seriously against the side of her face vertically, like it was a sword.
From where he stood Zaheer saw a frozen Ming-Hua, a wasted Ghazan and P'Li trying desperately to shoot down the lemur.
Flapping its wings in unison, Oz soared and dived out of the way of more projectiles. Doing another swoop the lemur safely roosted itself on a near by ice formation at least twice the size of P'Li.
"You must have stopped you're training at a young age." The lemur said in a bored tone as it let out a yawn in this tense time. "You're not very good at this."
"Shut up you stupid flying rat, you don't know anything!" P'Li shouted in anger as she took a deep breath and shot another blast dead center on the lemur.
With out even bothering to look Oz just wagged his tail lazily like swatting a fly. "Oh, I know a lot of things. About your past, your lineage, your birth right there was a reason only a select few could become Agneya, I could tell you more if I were so inclined."
"I don't care about any of that!" P'Li shouted at Oz. "What I am now is me and only me. I don't care about the Fire Nation or about being some kind of law official. I fight for me my friends and our cause."
"Lair." Oz scoffed amusingly. "I saw the look in your eyes, all three of them, when I mentioned before on what you are. You can't hide what you truly see yourself as, a monster."
P'Li let out a furious roar that would make a dragon proud and shot one more bolt of power up at the lemur.
Oz let out another bellowing yawn that would make Master Tsering, a not so legendary airbender known for his laziness give a halfhearted attempt at applause, as he jumped into the air and spun his body around plunging his body straight at P'Li's attack.
Gritting her teeth P'Li watched again as the little mammal made another mockery of her attack. "How, how are you doing this?"
"What part?" Oz asked as he flapped around P'Li's head. "My ability to speak knowing so much about you having just met you, or disrupting your pitiful attacks?"
"All of them, the last one…I don't know just tell me something!"
"That's easy all of it ties to one simple age-old proverb."
"And that would be?"
Oz stopped flying as he landed right on the ground a few feet away from P'Li. Looking straight up into her eyes again, this time however he had on an angry scowl instead of his easygoing blankness. "It takes a monster to know a monster."
Back a little bit over to the left Zaheer momentary glanced back at P'Li, to see who she was doing only to dodge at the last second from another strike to the head courtesy of the red haired woman's frying pan.
"Better watch out kid you don't want me to give you any more new scars, do you?"
It was true since the start of their bout Zaheer had a small fresh cut going down the side of his left eyebrow while another larger one was bleeding out from the side of his head. "Are you sure it's wise to give advice to your opponent in the middle of a fight?"
"This isn't a fight kid." The red haired woman said with a smile at the end of her statement. "It's an ass whooping."
It was then Zaheer found his opening. For a brief second the red haired woman was distracted as she dropped her smile and stared up to the side as if she felt something coming.
But whatever it was nothing to what Zaheer thought he could dish out as being more important. Taking his advantage with every ounce of chi he had. The bald young man pivoted to the side and drove his staff as hard as he could aiming for the woman's throat.
Or he would have if it wasn't for the fact a pillar of snow rose from the ground and blocked his attack from making its mark.
Trying desperately to pull his staff out of the snow Zaheer felt something rummaging through his pack.
Turning just his head he saw the red haired woman opening the pack and looking inside of it or rather her eyes were transfixed to the red lotus flower emblem stitched inside the flap. "A lotus by any other name, hu?" she asked musingly.
Looking at the emblem himself Zaheer looked a bit surprised himself at the symbol being there before he looked the red haired woman right in the eyes.
"Well our fun is over I can feel three men and a Tonraq coming this way. So, this is were your part in the story takes a little break."
"What?"
"Don't blink." Were the last words that Zaheer heard the red haired woman say before everything in his world turned to black.
As the night sky was encased above the South Pole a few dimly lit houses of the Southern Water Tribe beckoned anyone who saw them to come in, as they had endured enough cold for day.
Tonraq followed by Tenzin, Chief Sokka and Fire Lord Zuko entered one of these houses, all sprouting looks of worry and dread on their faces.
As the last of them stepped into the home Tonraq saw his wife Senna sitting at the kitchen table that sat next to their fireplace/cooking area. Besides her where two other women to her left was the younger sister of Chief Sokka and the former wife of the Avatar before Korra, Master Katara. And to his wife's right he saw the only other person who Tonraq could honestly say annoyed him to no end then his own family, Senna's best friend Kushina Uzumaki.
"You boys look like you could use a hot one." Senna stated as she began to pour four cups of tea for each of the men who entered her home.
"Senna…" Tonraq quietly said as he was having trouble finding his voice. "Do you know where Korra is?"
As she finished pouring the last cup the mother of one looked back at her husband clearly disappointed. "Well she was supposed to be with you because the four of you and the rest of the White Lotus couldn't wait until morning to decide our daughter's future."
Senna sat down at the table with the other two women and took a small sip of her tea as she went on. "I also know that while you were all squabbling with each other a group of criminals took our baby right from under your noses."
Tonraq slowly walked over towards his wife and placed his hands on Senna's shoulders. "Senna, I swear on whatever shred of honor I have left I will walk to the ends of the earth to get Korra back.
"We managed to track down the ones who we believe who originally took Avatar Korra." Lord Zuko said. "But by the time we caught up to them it looked like some other party may have taken the girl. The kidnapers could barely speak when we tried interrogating them."
Senna didn't say anything she just took another sip of her tea and looked onward with the same tedium expression.
Kneeling down Tonraq gently took one of Senna's hands and held it within his own. "Please dear say something anything."
"I think that's enough, Senna." Master Katara said as she took a sip of her own tea. "You should go on and tell him."
Senna's even face bent up into a smile as she tried to hold back a few giggles by placing her hand next to her lips. "Korra wasn't taken again, she's fine dear."
"Waa?" Tonraq asked looking just as confused as the other men in the room. "What do you mean, how?"
Senna chuckled a little more before saying. "You should be thankful that our daughter has a friend who stayed up worrying though the night that his little playmate might be taken away…"
Senna then gestured over towards the red haired woman sitting next to her, sound asleep as she used her propped up palm to rest her chin on. "..And you should be even more thankful that your daughter's playmate has the kind of mother that would trek herself all the way towards the Southern Water Tribe Royal Palace to report back that Korra was fine."
Tonraq let out a huge sigh of relieve as he bent his head down and didn't even try and stop himself from letting out a tear in alleviation. Taking a deep breath Tonraq pulled his face back up and looked across the table to the sleeping red head and said something he never thought he'd ever have to say out loud or ever.
"Thank you, Kushina."
The snoozing woman still fast asleep some how must of heard him as her mouth opened a little bit as she snored back. "It was no problem, ya know."
Tonraq even in his grateful sate couldn't help but give her an exasperated. "She says that even in her sleep?"
"Wait a moment!" Tenzin shouted not out of anger but genuine surprise as she stood next to Kushina and pointed a doubtful finger down on her. "Are you saying that this woman took one three deadly benders and a reputable marshal arts expert, all by herself?"
"You might not believe me when I say this son." Master Tenzin looked back at her youngest child as she placed her tea cup down. "But out off all the benders I've ever met in my entire life time. I have never seen one as versatile or powerful as Kushina Uzumaki."
All it took was one look form Tenzin for Katara to add on. "Yes, I'm also including your father when I say that. As to the best of my knowledge that young woman is the most powerful bender on the planet."
To say that Tenzin looked both shocked and humbled was putting it mildly. The airbender was not only going through very facial expression he'd had but was unable to make legible words come out of his mouth.
Chief Sokka let out a laugh as he twirled his boomerang around his hand. "Your mom's not kidding Tenzin I've seen what that little spitfire is capable of, check this out!" The chief reeled his hand back as he threw his boomerang right towards his elderly younger sister.
Katara looked just as confused as her son as she saw the on coming weapon heading right towards her. Luckily the old girl still had some of the old moves as she managed to duck her head right at the last second as the weapon spun around and returned back to it's original owner.
"Have you finally gone senile?" Katara accused her older brother. "You could have taken my head off with that thing!"
"I was just trying to show Tenzin and Zuko here how bad ass Kushina is." Sokka said defending his actions. "They've never seen her in action." He then chose to ignore Katara and address Lord Zuko. "It's actually pretty cool see me and Kushina have this bit that we entertain people at the bazaar where she wears a blind fold…"
"Then why didn't you throw it at her?" Katara asked angrily.
"Because if I threw it at Kushina and woke her from her nap she would have beet me up. With you if you didn't dodge the worst you could do is just yell at me."
Katara quickly got out of her chair and tried to march up to Sokka "Oh I'm going to do more then just yell at you. I swear close to sixty-eight years later and you're still the same old immature…"
"I'll show you who's immature!"
Both elderly siblings tried to reignite their age-old rivalry by meeting in middle of each other. But Katara was held back by Tenzin and Sokka was kept at bay by Zuko.
Being left out as witnesses for the grudge match Tonraq and Senna looked on quietly before the former asked lowly. "Where is Korra right now?"
"She's on our bed sleeping with Naruto." Senna answered as she couldn't look away from the impeding battle.
Not interested in seeing to old people duke it out in his kitchen Tonraq excused himself and made his way towards their bedroom.
Now seeing that Korra was still just a young child it didn't really make a lot of sense to give her own room yet. So, her parents decided to place her own small bed across the room from their big one.
But as Tonraq entered the bedroom he saw his daughter sound a sleep on his bed. Not wanting to disturb her he tipped towed towards the bed and gently sat along the side of it. Looking down at the sleeping form of the Avatar he couldn't help but chuckle as a little boy around Korra's age with golden spiky hair laid next to her with the two of them sharing the same small blanket.
"Their almost adorable at that age, are they not ?" A voice asked from the other side of the room.
Oz the lemur sat on an old antique rocking chair clearly designed for humans as he looked like a plush toy by sitting on it. He gently swayed himself upon it as he slowly sipped some tea from a small cup that looked like it was made for someone of his size.
"Enjoy it while you can, Waterbender." Oz said evenly as he held his tea in place to speak. "Soon, Avatar or not your daughter is going to drive you mad with her adolescent prattling of her hormones, bodily changes and whatever psychosis puberty has in-store for her."
Tonraq not at all taken by surprise by the talking lemur shook his head. "I'm not too worried after today whatever Korra goes through wouldn't give me as much trouble as what I went through today."
Picking up the sides of their shared blanket Tonraq lifted the covering to give the two children more of it as he placed it up to their necks. "When the compound is complete she'll have an entire branch of the White Lotus to help watch over her. I don't suppose you'd like the position of a guard animal to help look after her too?"
"Unfortunately, I'm going to have to decline your offer." Oz said as he finished his tea and dashed across the floor until he was on the bed and crawled over towards the children. "Kushina has already appointed me the boy's guardian when the time comes."
"When what time comes?"
"You'll know soon enough." Oz said cryptically as he nodded over towards Naruto. "Just be ready for him to be more attached to your daughter when they get a bit more older."
Tonraq shifted his attention down on the children as he watched them slowly roll over towards each other.
"Deal with it."
"Believe it"
"I think you're breathing to much into their dynamic." Tonraq said slightly nervously as he found one of Senna's small throw pillows and used it to inject a border between Korra and Naruto. "This will probably be the last time I ever see the two of them sleeping in the same bed."
"Yes, but how long do you think you can stretch the odds on probably."
Twelve or so years later
On a bright sunny day in the South Pole two members of the White Lotus were making their way down a paved snowy road.
As sentries they were both dressed in identical dark blue cowls and capes with matching uniforms underneath along with white trims, along with the symbol of the white lotus on the center of their cowl's forehead.
"Now there's no reason to be nervous now." The older sentry, a man with greying hair said to his cohort.
The younger sentry who looked to be a young man just out of juvenile years anxiously readjusted his cowl as he let out a chuckle "I'm sorry it's just as first official tasks go, escorting the Avatar to the training compound is a huge honor. I just don't want to make a bad first impression."
"You don't have to worry about that." The older sentry said as he calmly had his arms placed around his back. "Truth is you're not going to make any kind of impression on Avatar Korra."
The younger sentry was taken back by that statement. As he momentarily stopped moving forward but hastily caught back up with his senior as the older man kept moving. "W..what makes you say that?"
"Don't take it personally." The older sentry said with a smile. "It's just how the Avatar is. She feels that she's outgrown our protection, when she was younger she enjoyed us escorting her around giving her what ever she needed. But as Avatar Korra has gotten older she now sees any escort as an annoyance."
The older sentry let out a small laugh. "To her we're just a couple of nannies she'll try to get ride of first chance she gets."
The younger sentry looked a bit disappointed nobody had told him the downside of this task. And yet if it was true what the older sentry said then it meant he wouldn't have to talk and absently say something stupid in front of the Avatar. He sighed in relief from this silver lining.
The two sentries finally came to their destination in the form of a familiar home that looked like any other home in the Southern Water Tribe.
"Good morning Chief Tonraq." The older sentry greeted the waterbender outside of the house who looked like he was in the middle of gathering firewood.
Settling the logs aside a slightly older Tonraq greeted the older White Lotus Sentry with a smile and a hardy handshake. "Morning it seems like you got new partner with you today."
The older sentry grinned. "Yup this young man was initiated just a few days ago."
"Really?"
"Yes sir." The younger sentry nervously rummaged around his pockets until he held up a lotus playing tile from the popular game Pai Sho. Only to fumble it a second latter and momentarily entertain the two older men by trying to keep it from falling on the ground.
Addressing the older sentry again Tonraq with still a smile on his face looked sympathetic at the two of them. "Well I'm afraid you two might have come on a bad day. Korra went to bed pretty mad last night."
"Oh." The tone in the older sentry's voice sounded like it was laced with concern. "I hope everything is all right."
Tonraq sighed has he placed a hand on his head and ran it down his hair. "It's nothing just she apparently got into another fight with Naruto again."
Now that was a name that ran rather infamously with all the members of the White Louts stationed in the South Pole either they be sentry or master. "What was it this time?" the older sentry asked.
"Who knows." Tonraq replied with a shrug. "Those two have been competing with each other since the day they met. My guess is Naruto beat Korra at something probably another ridiculous who can do what the most contest."
The younger sentry was a little taken back by the humdrum attitude both Chief Tonraq and his fellow sentry had on the angry Avatar situation, so he just kept silent and gave a small nod that he understood if they looked at him.
Tonraq just let out another laugh at the newbie's expensive and made his way to the door. "Well I better go give Korra her tenth wakeup call today. You know how she sees the morning as her current archenemies."
The older sentry laughed back at the private joke making a mental note to let the younger sentry in on it later as they watched Tonraq close the door behind him.
"Oh, then that shouldn't be so bad." The sentry turned to address the younger one. "We'll just have our ears fall off from hearing the Avatar bad mouth Uzumaki until we get to the compound. With any luck she'll beat him at something just as tedious and she'll just smile triumphantly on the way back."
The older sentry noticed that his statement might have fallen on deaf ears as he watched the younger sentry crouch down and inspect something he found off to the side of the paved road.
"What do you see?" the older sentry asked.
"Foot prints." The younger sentry said as he used his eyes to follow the rest of the trail of imprinted snow. "They look like they lead up to that part of the house, the one that looks like an extension." He said pointing outward. "Do you know what part of the house that is?"
The old sentry looked at the foot prints, then at where they led to and then back at the footprints as he noticed that they only lead to the house without an additional set coming back and that they looked fresh, as in they looked like they were made last night fresh. "Oh boy."
"What is it, is the Avatar in danger?"
"No but I have the feeling that the person who slept over with her last night is going to be."
Before the younger sentry could ask what the older man meant. A loud blood curtailing scream exploded out of the house and echoed its way across the entire South Pole.
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, UZUMAKI!"
At that moment a portion of the house's roof exploded sending a dust of the debris into the air and providing cover for a figure to jump up into the air.
Jumping into the air and landing just a few feet away from the White Lotus sentries was another young man maybe a few years down from where the new sentry was.
With spiky golden hair, ocean blue eyes and a series of black tattoos made up of sigils made up in arrays and free styled characters all over his bare torso and arms. This young man had a look of pure terror on his face as he looked back at the house in dread while he carefully and quickly zipped up his pants.
A moment later and the front door of the Avatar's house broke open just like the part of the roof, as a beyond pissed off Tonraq menacingly stormed out from the new hole. His sides strapped with the addition of two water skins as he bent it and the snow around him into ice blades.
"Calm down Uncle Tonraq." Naruto cried out in distress while waving his hands defensively. "It's not what it looks like!"
"Not what it looks like?" Tonraq asked angrily. "Really? Because to me it looks like you spent the whole night in my daughter's bedroom, in your underwear doing…doing, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID!" It was obvious by Tonraq's inability to say out loud of what he was accusing Naruto of must have been very bad, in the father's eyes anyway.
"Dad would you calm down!" A voice called out from the house belonging to a young woman with long dark brown hair free of its usual restrains and sky-blue eyes.
The sentries who were choosing to stay silent for now tried not to make any more visual contact with the young woman then needed, as it was rather obvious that under the dark blue robe she had fastened around herself that she wasn't wearing anything at all underneath it.
"Korra's right, Dear." A voice belonging to a slightly older Senna said as she followed her daughter out of the house. With the apron draped over her usual clothes it was obvious she was in the middle of making breakfast. "Why don't we all come inside and discuss this together privately."
Senna looked over towards Naruto and waved over to him. "You too Naruto come inside before you catch a cold."
Before the spiky haired young man could take a single step a loud and still angry voice shouted. "Don't move, punk!"
"How can you be so calm about this?" Tonraq asked his wife as he finished threatening Naruto, again.
Senna took in a big breath before she looked at her husband, exasperated. "If you took the time to actually look in Korra's room you'd see a blanket and a pillow set up on the floor there." She said in a rather matter of fact way. "As in it looks like someone slept there last night and not with her."
Tonraq looked at Korra trying not to be intimidated himself by the same glaring eyes he was giving Naruto. Then he looked over at the accused seeing that the fear in the young man's eyes was something else, guilt.
"How long?" Tonraq quietly asked over to Naruto, his voice went down a few octaves as he was starting to let a cooler head in.
"How long what?" Korra snapped back.
"How long have the two of you been sneaking off behind my back?" Tonraq asked not taking his eyes off Naruto.
"I don't know a few weeks." Avatar Korra said back with her arms folded and a look of steely resolve on her face. "Maybe a month at least."
"A MONTH!" Tonraq shouted. "You've been dating my daughter for over a month and you didn't even tell me or your mother?"
"Well that's not entirely true." Senna said nervously as she tired to laugh it off but failed. "Korra told me about them being more than just friends about two weeks ago."
"You kept this from me for over a week?" Tonraq let out a frustrated grunt. "I don't even know who to be mad at the most right now."
Senna turned around and faced Korra while shaking her head. "Well obviously I didn't know about their little sleepover I just assumed they were only dating."
"Alright then, Naruto I want you to tell me this time." It was clear by Tonraq's tone what ever the yellow haired boy's response would be that it better be the truth. "How long have you been sneaking into my daughter's room at night."
It was then all the fear and anxiety from getting a beat down by a pissed off Tonraq dissipated from Naruto's face. Standing straight up and looking back at the Chief's eyes with fearlessness he answered.
"Five years."
Tonraq paused for a moment, not from anger or rage but from recollection as to what happened five years ago that would possibly make Naruto start to sneaking into Korra's room at night.
"Come on Dad." Korra's voice was also missing fury as she calmly asked. "Did you really expect a twelve-year-old kid to sleep every night in an empty house all by himself?"
There was a silence in the air as no one said a word. Naturally the Water Tribe Chief was the first one to say something. "I…I'm not doing this right now."
"Doing what?" Korra asked slightly worried by her father's tone.
"Whatever it is I'm supposed to do right now." Tonraq said as he pulled the water skins off his sides and threw down a couple of Water Tribe knives, snares and other weapons he had hidden on his person. "I'm not going to start chasing Naruto or challenge him in a fight for your hand." Taking one final look at Senna he added. "I need to go clear my head for a while."
As Tonraq starting going down the road from the opposite direction the two sentries came from Naruto briskly walked up to Korra and placed and arm around her. Both teens watching Tonraq go until he was a smidge in the vanishing point.
"Is he going to be ok?" Naruto asked both Korra and Senna as the mother shook her head at her husband's actions.
"Well it depends." Senna said with a heavy sigh. "When he comes back and the first thing he does is punch you in the face, you're good."
Naruto was taken back by that as he froze up a bit.
"But, if he comes back and ignores the both of you only saying something to you if it's really important then…" Senna left the rest of that statement in the air.
Naruto looked down at his feet not liking either of those options, until a sharp twist of his nipple snapped him out of his funk. "Ouch what the hell was that for?"
"You wuss since when are you afraid to fight my dad?" Korra asked as she leaned her face closer to Naruto's. "Are you afraid to fight for me?"
Naruto bared his teeth as he brought his head slightly down until his forehead was touching Korra's. "Yeah right and if it was the other way around would you fight my mom if she didn't want us to be together like this?"
A brief flash from the past entered Korra's mind. It was of her and Naruto when they were about ten years old each. Their faces covered in bruises and bleeding mouths, looking exhausted as they both looked up at one Kushina Uzumaki. The red head had one of her evil smiles on her face as she cracked her knuckles at the same children.
"Are you to kiddies ready to back down or do you want some more?"
Korra looked back at Naruto who nodded in silent agreement as the two children let out a battle cry and charged at the full-grown woman ready to strike back. Only to get knocked on their asses by one measly hair flip.
Korra was brought back out of the memory that still had her twitch her left eye every time it came up by Naruto, as he pressed up against her even more and tried to slip his arm in her robe.
"What are you doing, stupid?" Korra asked as she stopped him from trying to cop a feel. "My mom's right there you want her as mad as my dad right now too?"
"I wasn't trying to get fresh." Naruto said shivering. "I'm not wearing a shirt and its cold out here."
"Why don't you two go inside." Senna said. "Go sit down and have some breakfast."
As the two teens entered the home through the remains of the front home, the two White Lotus sentries who were still there made their selves known again having cleverly chosen to stay out of the family squabble.
"I'm sorry you two had to see all that." Senna apologized with a bow. "Korra will just be a few minutes longer, I think its best if she's not here when her father gets back at least until tonight when everyone's had time to cool off."
"There's no need to for that, ma'am." The older sentry said as he nervously rubbed the back of his head. "Sooner or later something like this was bound to happen. I mean she maybe the Avatar but Korra's still a teenager no matter who they are they always some how managed to do dumb teenage things."
"You know I should have seen this coming. With how close those two have been and with Kushina leaving the way she did." Senna placed her hand on the side of her head and lamented a bit. "Eventually Korra's shoulder to cry on would have turned to something more intimate. Truth be told I think I'm more embarrassed by my husband's actions."
"To be honest I can see were your husband might be coming from." The older sentry said with a laugh. "Truth be told I wasn't all that taken by my daughter's fiancé, I thought the boy was a bit of a dud."
The younger sentry looked at his comrade with shock as he pointed an accusing finger at him. "You said you liked me and that I could start calling you Dad right then and there."
"Oh, sure I said that." The older sentry said with a shrug. "But, in my head all I could thing was wow I can't believe my daughter is marrying this guy." Placing his hand on the young man's shoulder he added. "Oh, come on it's not like I think you're a dud anymore, mostly you can prove me wrong this afternoon ."
"W…why what's happening this afternoon?"
AN: Please Follow and Review…or don't I won't take it personally.