Hey again! I'm so glad some people liked my story. I was going to continue it no matter what for my own entertainment, but it's good to know others will read it with me! :D
So! Korra's off to Central on Winry's words. Heh. I've got so much to do to her...
**SPOILER WARNING** IF YOU HAVEN'T YET SEEN EPISODE 4 OF KORRA BOOK 4, DON'T READ THIS CHAPTER UNTIL YOU DO. Because I put something from there in here. Unless you don't actually care.
"You did WHAT?!" Edward Elric's angry voice ripped through the phone and right into Winry's unsuspecting ear harshly.
She held the phone farther from her ear as she spoke again.
"It's just a passing woman I met. She's really something else, and she wants to meet you two! At least give her a chance. She's on her way to Central as we speak. Come on, Ed, don't be yourself on this one," Winry told Ed.
"We don't have time to stop for passing visitors! We're busy!" Ed shouted.
"With what, exactly? Surely, you can tell me if it's that important, so I can call her and tell her to stop her travels!" Winry hissed back.
There was a grumble on the other side and Edward responded. "And just what does this woman have that's so important to us?"
Winry groaned. Leave it to the State Alchemists to wrap in 'Equivalent Exchange' into everything.
"She's got some special skill, Ed. Don't call me crazy, but she told me and showed me herself. She can control Water, Fire, Earth, and Air with a movement of her hands. No Alchemy is with her, she barely even knows what Alchemy is. She calls it 'bending', and she calls herself The Avatar," She whispered.
Silence.
"You said... bending? I feel like I've read something about that before..." Ed mumbled over the phone.
Winry listened to the muffled words of Ed as he held Winry on hold and talked to Al about the subject. She couldn't make out any of the words, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to. If this 'bending' was connected to Alchemy, then that most likely meant it was dangerous information. The brothers might have to push her out again.
"Yeah, Winry, I'm right. Both Al and I have seen that word somewhere in an ancient Alchemy book. We're going to have to find that book again, just to be sure it's the same thing you're talking about." Edward replied, sounding more serious toned now.
"So does this mean you'll meet her?" Winry asked.
Ed sighed, "Alright. We'll meet your mystery woman. But could you at least tell me her name before we rush off to some unknown stranger and teach her about Alchemy?"
Winry responded, "her name's Korra. And she calls herself Avatar. Avatar Korra is her full name, I think."
"Ugh." Korra groaned as she shifted for the fiftieth time on the train seat, grumbling uncomfortably.
"You'd think they could get better quality seat cushions, this is ridiculously hard." She continued her quiet rant, retrieving the map once again from her bag, and looked at it.
"I wonder what you'd have to do to become a State Alchemist..." She wondered, focusing intensely on the map, trying to figure out where exactly she was and how much longer on this uncomfortable seat it was to Central. However, when she looked up, she was no longer on the train.
"What the..." Korra snapped up from her seat, and she suddenly saw herself, and Amon. Amon let her drop to the floor, weak, powerless. He had taken her bending away.
She gasped and backed up, only to turn around and see herself again, and Unalaq as she was fighting him. She saw Vaatu rip Raava right out of her, and he continued to destroy her.
She turned to run, only to be caught in her worst fear. There Korra was, hanging above the ground, chained, while she cried out in pain and fought the poison inside her. Her eyes constantly flashing white.
"No...!" Korra whispered, a bit too loudly. Suddenly, Zaheer and his followers turned around from the Korra in chains to look at her instead. She gasped, ready to scream, when she found herself back on the train, nothing had changed.
She panted, looking at her hand. She was shaking, badly. Korra breathed slowly, to calm herself down. That had been the last thing she needed.
Edward Elric groaned as he hung up the phone, and turned to Al. "Well, it seems we're going to have to stop our search for a Philosopher's Stone for awhile, because Winry is making us help someone she just met."
Al looked up from his Alchemy book. "The one with the bending?"
"Korra. Yeah. Winry had already sent her on her way to Central." Edward sighed, rubbing his metal head on his forehead.
"So she's coming here? For a change, all we have to do is sit around waiting?" Al asked.
"Well we might as well meet her at the train station. She'll most likely be here in an hour or two." He mumbled.
There was a knock at their door.
Ed growled. "Tell them we're booked for the rest of the day. I really don't feel like dealing with any of the military crap right now."
Al opened the door, and let out a short squeak as the door revealed King Bradley and his two bodyguards. Ed's jaw dropped down to the floor.
"King Bradley! Sir!" Edward snapped into shape quickly.
"Gentlemen. I was hoping you could tell me if you were still looking for the Philosopher's Stone." King Bradley asked them, his tone dead serious.
"Uh... well..." Al stuttered.
"We were, but we're putting that on hold for the time being. Our friend has sent a rather... strange person our way and we're to pick her up from the train station an hour or two from now." Ed finished.
"Oh? Strange, you say?" Bradley asked, intrigued, "just what is so strange about her?"
Al and Ed exchanged glances, unsure if they should say anything. However, this was King Bradley. They had to follow his order, even if it was a simple question about something he didn't know.
"She... she claims to have a skill called bending. I swear I've read about it somewhere once, in an Alchemy book. But I've never seen it, nor read about it other than that one time." Ed forced out.
"Bending... What is this bending? Did this book explain it at all?" Bradley asked, wanting more information.
"No... but our friend did tell us a little bit about it. She said it was the power to control 1 or all 4 elements, air, water, earth, and fire. She said it didn't involve any Alchemy, at all. Just a movement of her hands and that's all."
"I see." Bradley said, thinking for a minute. "You said she was coming here?"
Ed nodded, starting to feel uncomfortable with the amount of questions coming at him from the Fuhrer. "We are to teach her about Alchemy. But by what I've heard, it doesn't sound like she needs it for defense, or a weapon. I don't know what she wants to learn, or what she's going to gain from it."
King Bradley held his serious expression for a minute longer, than he let out a laugh. "What a strange thing indeed! I might just come along to see this mysterious bending woman. Maybe she'd like to become a State Alchemist."
Ed started. "But Sir, this woman isn't even an Alchemist!"
Bradley laughed again. "She sounds like a skilled person. We can always just blow it off as a new form of Alchemy. After all, you can perform Alchemy with a transmutation circle." He pointed out.
Ed opened his mouth to protest, but closed it again as he had a point.
"Now then, you said you were to meet her at the Central train station in an hour, give or take? I'll meet you there, Fullmetal Alchemist. Until then!" Bradley walked out the door, laughing, and his bodyguards followed.
Al closed the door shakily and both brothers practically passed out right there.
"That was scary... He came to see us?" Al asked, his voice ringing off the empty armor, creating the metallic sound that was in the background when he spoke.
"Yeah... and somehow, he's wormed his way into the importance of meeting this Korra character. I hope he doesn't use her." Ed replied, sliding down the wall to the floor.
"I hope so too. If she can do this element control, then there's no telling what King Bradley might use her for... if she does decide to try to be a State Alchemist."
Ed and Al both nodded to this statement, wondering if they've gotten into something too big.
Korra knew she was dreaming. She was dreaming, and she was hurting every second she did so.
"Korra! Where have you been? You abandoned us for 3 years!" A black haired girl called out.
Korra groped in the space between her and the girl. "Asami? Where are you?! I can't... I can't see you!"
"You let us down, Korra! You let the world down!" A black hair man appeared beside Asami.
"We're doing the work you should be doing!" Another man appeared, shorter than the first, and had brown hair.
"Mako? Bolin?! Asami!" Korra called out longingly, but she couldn't see them. She was blind.
"You left us! We needed you, and you left us!" The three of them shouted.
"I'm sorry!" Korra cried, and she tripped. She began to fall. Down, down, into the darkness. In the darkness, she suddenly saw the red and black of Vaatu flying up towards her.
"LET GO!"
Fwoooooooooooooo!
Korra jolted awake at the sound of the train horn. The train had stopped moving, and she was now in a train station. Central. It was time for her to get off.
Korra stood shakily, still startled by her dream. She began to walk down the path, out to the door of the train. She took a deep breath.
"Well. Here we go."
Chapter 2! Wooo! I can't believe the inspiration is still alive! Normally it would die after I finished the first chapter! Hah! This is the story my mind's been waiting for!
So! Both King Bradley and Korra think she should try to be a State Alchemist! I wonder how that's going to go... and how're Ed and Al going to react when she shows off her bending?
Remember, this is before Korra reconnects with her Avatar Spirit. That means her Avatar State s still off limits. But I wonder if she'll get it back sometime!
R&R!
