Interlude

Sitting at the table, Bolin suddenly found it strange as to how things turned out. He glanced across the table to his brother whom was preoccupied with his bowl of rice and seemed uncharacteristically tranquil. He glanced to the other side of the table to Korra chatting zealously with his father, the earthbender. Little did his father know that the tips and battle strategies he gave her were probably not anything new to the Avatar. If that was the case, then Korra showed little apprehension and was nothing but polite and respectful to his father. Occasionally, she would nod and ask a question, but mainly would smile softy at his father's enthusiasm in the subject.

As Korra sat, patiently listening to the brothers' father, she couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed by his passion for the art of bending and strategy. Some advice she somehow was able to absorb in the torrent of technical terms that flowed like a waterfall from his mouth. But a majority of his wisdom went in one ear and out the other. Korra just continued to smile and nod and nibble away at her bowl of food. This is probably where Bolin gets his motor mouth, she thought, and maybe (just maybe) some of his bending skills.

Korra glanced to the other side of the table to the boys' mother. She sat, silently eating her rice. But Korra turned to her, they caught gazes and Korra quickly turned back to the boys' father. She had fearlessly jumped into the role of mastering the four elements as well as putting evil-doers in their place… yet a mother's stare, she found, could be one of the scariest things to face. It was… probably best that she stayed away from their mother. Mako probably got his 'silent but deadly' nature from her, she thought.

After dinner, Korra and the boys slipped out of the house for "a little exploring around town". Despite their mother's unease with their departure, she waved from the kitchen as they left, laughing and joking.

"I'm not too sure about that girl," she said as she fiddled with the dishes ,"there's something… strange about her." Her husband ambled into the room and assured her by placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Don't worry. I had a nice long talk with her and she seems like a nice girl. Plus she's a bender." He sounded a bit too pleased with the last statement. His wife sighed.

"I know but having a stranger stay in our house like this doesn't seem quite… safe."

"Honey, she's a nice, respectful, teenage girl who ran away from home. She's never left the Southern Water Tribe ever since she was born. If we didn't let her stay here with us, she would get eaten alive out there. If anything, she should be the one who doesn't feel safe right now." Her husband reasoned as he leaned against the counter.

"That's what I find so odd about her. She seems so calm and composed. No girl in her situation should act like that."

"Well I will admit that is somewhat… strange."He moved his way to the other side of the kitchen, "But what does she have to worry about? She has a place to stay, food to eat, and our two boys by her side." Her husband stated as he smiled in her direction.

"That's the thing," She muttered under her breath, "as if those boys didn't have enough to fight over…"

"Hey Naga! How's my girl, huh?" Korra grinned as she buried her face in her thick, white fur. Naga's tail wagged furiously as she nudged at her master's head.

"We can keep her here for now." Mako spoke quickly as he shut the door to the secluded courtyard.

"Are you sure?" Korra asked as she began to feverishly scratch behind Naga's ears.

"Yeah, the only one who lives here is Sifu Fong and he's out traveling to Ba Sing Se. Besides, it's better keeping her here rather than out at the shipyards." Mako stated as he began to dig around in one of the many rooms that faced the courtyard.

"Yeah, imagine if mom found a polar bear dog hiding in the attic! She'd lose her mind!" Bolin burst out laughing. Korra chuckled along.

"Probably not as much as she would if she found out the Avatar was living in her attic." Korra giggled as did Bolin. They were both having a good time while Mako wrestled with their sparring gear in the next room.

Mako appeared a pile of red armor overflowing in his arms. He grunted as he dropped it onto the floor and glared at both of them.

"I know you all are having a great time and all but it's time to get to business."

"Yes, finally!" She grinned as she suited up.

"Now let me go over a couple of rules again," Mako growled which made Korra flinched, "because somebody almost got us disqualified in the last match!"

"Hey, how was I supposed to know that I wasn't supposed to actually have any sort of physical contact with the guy? He was like, this far away from me! It would've been stupid if I didn't punch him." Korra gestured about a foot with her hands.

"It's called probending! Not street fighting. You are only allowed to attack with your designated element. Speaking of which," Mako lectured as he strapped on his chest piece, "When you deflect other elements, please, please make it a little less obvious. That block against that earthbender was a bit scary there. I thought for sure they were going to find out that you are the avatar. Luckily, Bolin took a big hit so I guess that took most of the attention."

"Yeah, with that waterbender? He was like, Wooooooshsh AAAAHHHH!… BOOM!" Korra acted out Bolin's spat with the waterbender in the last match. He turned red and turned in embarrassment.

"At least I got him in the end…" Bolin mumbled insecurely.

"Back to the rules, remember, no physical punching unless some form of element hits first—"

"Like an ice fist?" Mako sighed exasperatingly.

"Yes Korra, like an ice fist. Anyway, you cannot pass the line in the center of the ring until the team who won the coin toss attacks first. The match itself only lasts for two halves of five minutes. You can only use the elements that are provided in the arena. And, you must keep on all of your sparring gear or else you're disqualified from the match. Any questions?"

"Yeah, when did beating a guy up become so complicated?" Korra sighed whimsically as she sneaked away to go play with Naga.

"That girl…" Mako grumbled.

"Give her some slack. I'm pretty sure she got everything you said." Bolin said.

"Willing to bet?" Mako looked at him in the corner of his eye.

Bolin gulped and turned his attention back to his sparring gear. Mako sneered.

"She still needs work on teamwork. She's always going off on her own and attacking the first guy she makes eye contact with. Skilled, seasoned teams will pick up on that and pound us to the ground." Mako said.

"Well, I guess that's because she's never been on a team before. She's so used to being a one woman army with the whole 'three element mastery' thing. But I bet not being able to fight like she's used to must be very frustrating. Just give her some time." Bolin said which made Mako chuckle.

"Look at little brother being all smart and understanding for once. If I didn't know better, I'd say that you lik—" Bolin jabbed him under the ribs before he could finish his sentence.

"What the heck? I was only going to say that you probably li—" Bolin stomped the ground and knocked Mako off his balance.

"Shut up!" Bolin shouted, his face turning very red.

Korra turned her attention from Naga when she heard the commotion. The boys were at it again, and without her. How rude.

"I got to go Naga, before they kill each other." She pulled her helmet on and giggled at the irony. "Work as a team, huh?"

Dinner the next day followed in similar fashion, only this time, the brother's mother sat next to Korra and talked casually to her, asking about her life in the Southern Water Tribe. Korra tried to remain ambiguously aloof and not give too much away but it was hard with her bombardment of questions.

"So what's life like growing up in the Southern Water Tribe?" she asked.

"Well… It's cold. Then you get used to it, I guess." She said lightheartedly.

" I heard that some of the heroes of the Hundred Year War live there. Do you see them around?" She asked. Korra chuckled a bit to herself.

"Hmmm… sometimes." She smiled. It isn't like the heroine of the Hundred Year War didn't teach her everything she knew about waterbending or anything…

"So how did you learn you were a bender, Korra?" she asked nonchalantly.

"Ever since I was little, I guess." She said as she slurped her noodles.

"So you just knew by instinct, hmm?"

"Something like that…"

"Mako was a lot like that. He was shooting flames at his brother as soon as he was old enough to run away." She laughed and smiled as the memories played back in her head. Korra couldn't help but grin mischievously in Bolin's direction. Bolin glowered at Mako but he seemed to ignore it, except for the very subtle smirk that tugged at the corner of his lips

"So Korra," their mother turned back to her, "do you have any siblings?"

"Can't say that I do." She said casually as she took a sip of tea.

"Oh," their mother picked up her cup, "so do you have any friends that you miss back home?" Korra stalled on this question. It just seemed so out of the blue that she didn't know quite exactly what to say. Sure, she had a couple of sparring companions, but to be more accurate, they were more like moving practice dummies. Kids tend to stay away from the kid that could beat them up if they said the wrong thing so she didn't have any friends her age. Then she thought of her waterbending teacher. Usually, a teacher is not really considered a friend, but then again, why not?

"My first teacher was always so kind to me. I suppose I do miss her." Korra said as she smiled warmly. The brothers' mother seemed a bit taken aback. The way the girl answered the question made it sound as though she didn't have any friends… She then began to feel a bit ashamed for asking.

The boys eavesdropping from the other side of the table felt a little bad for her. They had a few friends, but nothing too permanent. But they knew that they always had each other to fall back on. They were never completely lonely. It must be hard for a girl her age to not have any friends.

"Oh… well I'm sure she misses you as well." Korra's smile turned slightly grim.

"I'm sure she did." She answered softly.

There was little to no light when Mako made his trip down the hallway of his cramped home. It wasn't as if he needed light, because he had sneaked through that hallway throughout his entire teenage life. It was nothing new. But a new challenged awaited him at the end of the hallway. He had to somehow pull down the staircase to the attic without making too much noise. He had never done this before, but then again, this is the first time someone was actually living up there.

Mako reached up and blindly felt the air for the pull string. Something brushed at the palm of his hand and he knew that he found it. He began the long, arduous process of pulling the stairs down, freezing at every creak and crack. Once he finally pulled it down, he climbed up and scanned the room. Korra was nowhere to be found. He furrowed his brow as his head swiveled side to side in a frenzy.

"Hiya." Mako nearly shouted and fell down the stairs. Korra snickered as she hung upside down from a rafter.

"What are you doing?" Mako whispered furiously.

"Just warming up." She grinned as she let go and landed on her feet with a thud. Mako shooshed her frantically.

"My parents are sleeping, stupid!" He growled.

"Oh, sorry." She laughed weakly. Mako frowned and looked as though he was ready to crawl out of his skin.

"Let's get going. Bolin is already down at the courtyard." Mako stated. They snuck there way passed his sleeping parents through the front door and out into Republic City's thriving night life.

"It's finally here isn't it? We have the main event. I can't believe it!" Bolin shouted enthusiastically. Korra grinned as she strapped on the last of her armor.

"Alright!" Korra stretched and tested the functionality of her armor. She felt ready to go. As she glanced up to the clear night sky, she couldn't help but feel amped. Even the full moon was there to assist her in battle.

"Now don't get too cocky. This isn't a sure win. Remember that whoever we are fighting, they fought just as hard as us to get into this match. They probably have more experience too." Mako warned.

"There's no way we can lose! We have the avatar. On a full moon even!" Bolin slapped his hand onto Korra's shoulder. She couldn't help but feel a little too arrogant after that.

"All I'm saying is stay weary. Don't forget the second, and probably most important, reason we're doing this. You didn't forget too, did you Korra?" Mako scrutinized. Korra grimaced.

"Of course I didn't! It's my duty as the Avatar!" Korra shouted as she jabbed her thumb into her chest. She took a moment to compose herself before continuing. "The Equalists are an anti-bending faction here in Republic City. They've been trying to find ways to get rid of benders for years but it seems like only recently they started to become more aggressive in their tactics. So what's a better way of eliminating benders than going after the place they all gather? With the disappearances of many of the lower level benders in the league, my theory is that they are discreetly getting rid of as many as they can before things start getting too suspicious. Then, when people start to realize what's going on, they're going to want to make an example out of somebody. My bet is they'll go after the top dogs of the pro benders league. Hopefully by that point, it will be us they go after."

"Wait, you want them to go after us?" Bolin asked.

"Well yeah. To be more precise, I want them to go after me. What better way of finding out who's behind this whole operation then to get on the inside?" Korra asked.

"Not as a prisoner, that's for sure. I still don't like that plan. What if something goes wrong?" Mako questioned.

"Then something goes wrong. There is no way that can be planned for. We don't know who these people are or how they operate. That's why I had to come up with such a crazy plan in the first place."

"B-But we'll be there to help too, right?" Bolin inserted. Korra hesitated as she ran her hand across the back of her neck.

"Look… I don't want you guys to get hurt for my sake. It's my burden to carry and I don't think it's fair that I ask you to put your lives in danger for it."

"We're a team. We stick together, no matter what." Mako declared as he walked toward the two. Korra turned to Bolin to ask him what he thought, but as soon as she caught a glimpse of his expression, she knew right away that he would remain loyal to the end. She smirked.

"Alright, it's settled then. Let's win that title!" Her war cry carried them to the arena in high spirits and unyielding confidence. They were ready to take on the world.