Disclaimer: I do not own Legend of Korra.

Earth. Fire. Air. Water. Only the Avatar can master all four elements and bring balance to the world. Years ago, Avatar Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai, and ended the Fire Nation's war on the rest of the world. However, the Crown Princess Azula escaped and took direct control of the colonies the Fire Nation had established, forming the Sun Empire and continuing her forefathers' mission of global domination. Although Avatar Aang continued to fight for the remainder of his life, he never managed to restore peace to the world.

Book One: Earth

"Korra!" The man's voice snapped. "Korra, you lazy seal-hog, where's that herb I asked for?"

"I left it on the counter, you cranky lobster-crab!" Korra shouted back, heaving the heavy crate of supplies onto a shelf. She smirked at the grumble she got in response. Wiping her brow, Korra left the storage shed and went into the main room of the store. Sighting a bag full of sea prunes, she snagged one and popped it into her mouth, savoring the salty sweet taste.

"Those are for patients, not greedy, good-for-nothing apprentices, you know." Korra's master crossed his arms.

"And what about hardworking, underpaid, totally awesome apprentices?" Korra grinned.

Yakone rubbed his brow. "I wouldn't know, I've never had one of those. Perhaps you'd prefer it if I paid you entirely in sea prunes?"

"NO!" Korra's eyes widened in horror. Yakone was a fair, if tough master, but she wouldn't put it past him to do such a thing as a joke. He had a rather strange sense of humor. And as much as she loved sea prunes, she'd rather be paid in actual money.

Yakone laughed loudly. He rarely managed to outwit his headstrong apprentice and daughter, and he enjoyed these rare victories even more as a result. He turned back to the young boy sitting on the bench. "Now, what happened with you, little one?"

"I burned my hand." The boy sniffled, holding out his blistered fingers. "I was playing and I tripped and fell into the cooking fire."

"I see." Yakone reached out to the nearby barrel of water, bending some out of it over to the boy's hand. The water surrounded his hand in a globe and began to glow brightly. Within seconds, the pain faded and the boy sighed in relief. Yakone bent the water away, and handed the boy a sea prune. "Now, you be careful, Akko. Try not to play around the fire next time."

"Okay. Thanks Mr. Yakone!" The boy jumped off the bench and ran off. He sidestepped the young man entering the store on his way out.

"Tarrlok! You're back!" Korra ran over and tackle-hugged her older brother.

"Oof!" Tarrlok grunted in surprise, dropping his bag. "I'm glad to see you too, Korra."

"I'm glad you're back, but you are quite early, son." Yakone scratched at his thick gray sideburns. "Hunting not good, I take it?"

"Nah, the Empire's scared off all the game. It's gonna be a rough week, eating only fish and sea prune stew." Tarrlok grumbled.

"Hey!" Korra exclaimed. "Sea prune stew is good!"

"Not everyone can live off sea prunes entirely like you do, Korra." Tarrlok patted his sister's head. Though she was muscular and tall for a sixteen-year-old girl, she still only came up to his shoulder. "And I did manage to get a couple of Komodo chickens."

"Komodo chickens?" Yakone raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "You'd have to have traveled pretty far south to catch one of those."

Tarrlok shrugged. "Who says I caught them? I stole it from a Sun Empire raiding party."

"What?!" Yakone roared. "Tarrlok, you fool! You could have been caught and killed!"

"But I wasn't!" Tarrlok crossed his arms. "Those soldiers wouldn't have done anything anyways, they were conscripted earthbenders. They probably hate the Empire as much as we do!"

"Tarrlok." Yakone put a hand on his son's shoulder. "I've already lost your brother and mother to the Empire. I don't want to lose you too."

Nothing more was said of Tarrlok's reckless actions. The Komodo chickens were eaten quickly, to get rid of the evidence. Fortunately, no battalion of the Empire's forces came to the village looking for him. Though their village was on the outskirts of the Empire, located on what was formerly the northern coastline of the Earth Kingdom, the army was known to show up fairly often.

A few months later however, the soldiers came anyways.

"Attention!" The man seated atop the Komodo rhino was dressed in full armor, the color of his helmet denoting his rank as a sergeant. "By decree of Empress Azula, all able bodied men between the ages of fifteen and thirty are to serve in the Sun Empire Army. Should any resist or choose to ignore their duty to their ruler, they shall be executed."

"That's a pile of shit!" A familiar voice shouted. Korra's blood froze. She watched in horror as her brother pushed his way forward to the soldier on the rhino. "We don't owe your ruler anything! All she's done is take from us! First our land, then our money, now our people? How much more till you bleed us dry?!"

"Tarrlok, no!" Korra rushed forward and pulled at her brother's sleeve. "Please, forgive my brother." She pleaded with the grim-looking soldier. "He's suffering from a fever, he doesn't know what he's saying!"

The sergeant jumped down from his mount. "Disloyalty to the Empire is punishable by death." He grabbed Korra's chin in his hand and sneered at her. She could smell his foul breath, reeking of sour smoke. "But you're a pretty little thing. The Empire could overlook your brother's transgression if you'll...do me a favor." His eyes dipped lower and he licked his lips hungrily.

Korra leaned away, repulsed. Tarrlok pushed the man back and bent the nearby snow into water, slamming it into him. The soldier was pushed back into a snowdrift, and the villagers burst into laughter.

The sergeant scrambled to his feet, fists bursting into flames. "You'll regret that, water rats." He snarled. "Burn this village to the ground! Leave no survivors!" He barked to the other soldiers awaiting orders and sent a plume of fire at Tarrlok and Korra.

Tarrlok pulled Korra behind him and waited for the blast of fire to incinerate him, but suddenly the flames faded. A look of surprise filled the soldier's face, replaced by agony. Slowly, he rose up into the air, his body contorting unnaturally.

"NOT MY CHILDREN, YOU BASTARD!" Yakone bellowed, his face filled with rage. He made a twisting motion with his hands, and the sergeant's head twisted all the way around, the bones in the neck snapping like twigs. Yakone dropped his hands and the limp body flopped to the ground gruesomely.

Korra turned around and lost her lunch. Tarrlok had turned white. "Dad? How-"

"I trained you both how to heal using the water inside the body." Yakone said without looking at his son and daughter. "But you can do more than heal with this water; you can bend it, control people with it. My mother discovered this many years ago, when she was captured by the Fire Nation. She used it to escape and taught it to me. I used it to fight the Empire, until I accidentally hurt someone close to me. Since then, I haven't used bloodbending. Until today, that is."

"That's horrible." Korra gasped.

"I know." Yakone bowed his head. "But I have no choice." He turned to look at the other soldiers setting fire to the village. "Help people get out of here. Don't come back for me. Go!"

Tarrlok ran off to find the other villagers, but Yakone held Korra back. "Wait. There's something I need to tell you."

"Can't it wait until we get out of here?" Korra pleaded.

Yakone smiled sadly. "I'm afraid I'm not going to be leaving, Korra." He began to cough up blood, and Korra noticed for the first time an arrow sticking out of her father's side.

"DAD! Oh, spirits, no!" Korra screamed. "I can heal this! Just hold still!"

Yakone held up a hand. "I'm afraid it's too late for me. I only have a few minutes left. So please, listen to me."

Korra gripped Yakone's hand, tears falling down her face.

"Korra, you were adopted. Your father and mother were killed by the Empire when you were just two years old. Your uncle and his family also perished that day, leaving you alone in the world. Your father, Tonraq, was a good friend of mine, so I took you in." Yakone coughed up more blood. "I raised you, along with Noatak and Tarrlok, as my own. Even though you're not of my blood, you're still my daughter."

"Dad..." Korra sobbed, in shock at the revelation.

"Look after your brother." Yakone groaned. "He's all you have now. Now go, help the other villagers and get out of here. Now!"

Korra stumbled away, as her father pulled the arrow out of his body. Yakone breathed in deeply, steeling himself. He reached out with all his might, grasping at the water he felt inside the firebending soldiers. With a wrench of his hands, he snapped their bodies, breaking them like puppets. The remaining soldiers noticed their dead comrades and focused their fire on Yakone. He stopped them with waves of his fingers, lifting them up in the air helplessly. He brought them down into the ground, squashing them like insects.

More and more soldiers came, desperately trying to kill the bloodbender. Yakone concentrated, and spread his arms wide. Blood exploded from every orifice in the solders' bodies, and they fell, dried husks in armor. Yakone bent the blood into spikes and hurled them into the other soldiers, punching through armor as though it were made of cheese. Although the pain in his side was like fire, and his vision was fading, Yakone fought on doggedly, determined to buy time for the other villagers, and his children, to get away.

Meanwhile, Korra herded a family out of the village. "Go! Get as far away as you can!" She turned around to see a soldier on a rhino thundering towards her. Korra cast around for water, but the snow had all evaporated. She screamed and covered her head with her arms. A column of earth erupted from the ground and the rhino and its rider smashed into it, crumbling it into rocks. One of the small boulders struck Korra's head and she staggered. Dark spots swam in front of her eyes, growing larger until her vision turned black.

When Korra came to, night had fallen. The remains of the village were smoldering, but she didn't see anyone, so the other villagers had apparently gotten away. Korra ran back to where she had left Yakone and gasped.

Almost thirty soldiers lay dead. Some had huge gaping holes in their chests, as though they had been impaled. Others lay like broken toys, their bodies at odd angles. Worst of all were the mummified ones, their faces frozen in horror and pain. Korra retched, her stomach empty. Her father had done this, destroyed all the soldiers.

Yukon's body lay in the middle of all the destruction. Two more arrows stuck out of his chest, but otherwise he could be sleeping. Korra fell to her knees next to the man who had raised her. "Daddy..." She sobbed. "Daddy, please wake up!"

Even seeing the horrors Yakone had caused, knowing what terrible destruction he had been capable of, Korra desperately wanted him back. She stayed in the middle of those corpses for the rest of the night, crying for her father.

The next morning, Korra buried Yakone's body in the ground next to his wife. Maybe it was her imagination, but the earth seemed easier to dig, which made her wonder. Yesterday, she had thrown up her hands on instinct, and a column of rock had exploded out of the ground, as though she had earthbent. But that was impossible. No one could bend more than one element.

Korra searched the rest of the village. A few unlucky villagers had died, but the rest had gotten away, including her brother. Her heart sank. Tarrlok probably thought she was dead, and she had no way to find him. She buried the villagers that she found, and dragged all the soldiers into a pile that she set on fire. As much as she hated the Empire, she knew at least some of the soldiers hadn't wanted to be part of the army.

Somehow, Yakone's store remained intact, so Korra took as much money and supplies as she could fit in a large backpack. She didn't know where she was going to go, but she knew she couldn't stay in the ruined village. Maybe she'd try to find her brother, as impossible as that seemed. The world was so huge, and Tarrlok was just one person.

As the sun began to set, Korra walked down the road leading out of her former home. She turned around to look at it one last time. Her father was dead, her brother was lost, and her home was destroyed. There was nothing left for her.

A/N: Hope you guys like it, please read and review!

Some background info: Yakone's wife died many years ago, and Noatak was conscripted into the Sun Empire Army years ago when Korra was younger. He hasn't been heard from in ten years, so Yakone believes he died. In this world, Yakone never got into crime, he was a Freedom Fighter until he stopped bloodbending.

The Earth Kingdom was destroyed, with only the most powerful city-states like Omashu or Ba Sing Se remaining free from the Empire's control. The Water Tribes have united in the North Pole, forming a huge and powerful city. The Fire Nation is the leading force against the Empire, being the most technologically advanced civilization. The few Air Nomads reside within the Fire Nation, protected by Fire Lady Izumi and White Lotus Grandmaster Zuko.