Tenzin could not believe it and neither could Lin then before them stood the reincarnation of Avatar Aang.
Said reincarnation walked confidently past them into the council chamber. She made a small bow to Lilith, a brief "Good evening, Chief" passed her lips before she stood next to the older woman. She looked at Tenzin then at Lin as if she was waiting for something. When it became clear that neither Lin nor Tenzin would say anything she huffed and rolled her eyes. "Alright you two. What do you want? You travel so far out of your City to talk to me and when you finally meet me you don't speak a single word. I may be the Avatar but even I can't read minds." The last part was said exasperated.
Both shook their head briefly before Tenzin asked the questions that were on both of their minds.
"How are you alive, last you were seen it was the night the Red Lotus attacked your home? The world thinks you are dead and yet you are here alive and well. How did you even end up out here?"
The young Avatar took a moment to think before answering.
"Alright I'm going to tell you my story, but I'm only doing it because you are Avatar Aang's son and you are Toph's daughter." The last part was said in Lin's direction. "Please try to keep the interruptions to a minimum, it's a very long story and a few parts are very hard for me to talk about." She paused a moment before she began her tale.
"The night the Red lotus invaded our home I heard them speak about a big plan. They were arguing about what they should do with me. One pointed out that it would work in their favor if they could use me against their enemies. The person said that I would be more useful to them if they could train me and use me later against all who oppose them. The others seemed to be in an agreement and so they took me that night instead of simply killing me. I don't remember much of the following days because they kept me drugged with a special herb that made it hard for me to stay conscious, but I know that they fled to the Earth Kingdom because one day, they stopped at the border of the Si Wong desert in a small village.
Coincidentally a group of five people were in the same small village. These five were members of this tribe. Chief Vasrir, Lilith here and his council members Kano, Hiko and her brother Akio. They were trying to stop a group of bandits who were terrorizing the farmers in the area. Kano recognized P'Li and Zaheer from his past because he was working with them for a while. They later went separate ways long before the two joined with the Red Lotus." Here Korra made a short pause before she began again.
"Anyway it came to a fight between the two groups when Vasrir pointed out that something was wrong with me. I don't know exactly what happened but Vasrir and the others overpowered the Red Lotus. They took me with them back to their home a place very similar to this one here. It's on the other side of the desert by the way. Anyway a little later I woke up for the first time truly lucid since the night of my kidnapping. Vasrir asked me a while later if I wanted to live with them. I don't know why I wanted to stay with them but something told me that it would be in my interest if I grow up with the Raiders. Sometimes I think that one of my past lives tried to tell me something. After they found out that I am the Avatar, Vasrir and his council became my teachers."
She paused for a moment and closed her eyes. When she opened them again there was a tear in the corner of her right eye.
"A few months later. The Red Lotus returned and attacked Vasrir, Kano, Hiko, Akio and I when we were outside the village walls because they wanted to show me something that would later be vital for my training. On our way back to the village they struck. I knew my way back to the village so Vasrir told me to run while they tried to fend them off. I hadn't even brought two hundred meter between us before I heard a shout behind me. When I looked back I saw that Ming-Hua had Vasrir run through with an ice spike. I saw my mentor go down to his knees before P'Li attacked him with a compulsion blast, killing him instantly. The others were enraged and attacked with new vigor. But it wasn't enough. I couldn't move, it was as if someone chained me to the ground. I was forced to watch as the Red Lotus killed first Hiko then Kano and lastly Akio. I lost my mentors one after the other and I couldn't do anything. It was the worst night of my life. After the Red Lotus was finished with them they turned to me. But they didn't get very far. Lilith appeared together with Korio, Taria, Miko and another friend of theirs called Adym. They were star gazing that night and had heard the fighting. Enraged they engaged the Red Lotus and managed to fight them off." Tenzin and Lin listened enraptured as Korra told the story. She made a short pause but before she could begin anew Lilith opened her mouth.
"We were torn between hunting them down and taking care of Korra and the bodies of our fallen brothers and sister. Adym had offered to take care of Korra and to bring the bodies of the fallen back home. So we started hunting, it took us a few days but we found the Red Lotus hiding near the village where our tribe met them for the first time. We confronted them, defeated them but in the end we couldn't kill them. Because if we had killed them we would have dishonored everything our mentors taught us. We Raiders life with a philosophy in which we live free and don't let anyone else decide something for us that we don't want, we don't steal the freedom to decide their fate from others. And above all we don't kill because killing someone is the ultimate taking of freedom, except for traitors because they betray our trust and they dishonor the oath they took when they became members of our tribe." She paused for a second and took a deep breath.
"For this we use the only death sentence that we have which is the 'Judgment of the desert' where the convict is abandoned deep inside the desert without any tools to aid him or her and if he or she is a bender they get chi blocked. If the person wants to live he or she needs to fight for their life and freedom. It's complicated to understand for outsiders like yourself. Our philosophy is in the core similar to the one of the Red Lotus but we don't believe that true balance lies in the chaos. But I'm getting off topic, Korra should I tell the rest or do you want to finish the story?" Lilith turned to Korra when she asked the question.
"Let me finish it." Lilith just nodded "So Lilith and the others did decide to let the beaten Red Lotus members live and simply left them to the authorities to find and deal with. A few days later we laid our brothers and sister to rest. Lilith took the mantle of Chief together with Korio, Taria and Miko as her first council members. Later two others joined the council, Mai our resident genius, she is Kuro's mother by the way and I joined two years ago. Anyway after we laid our brothers and sister to rest Lilith and her council became my teachers. I was six years old when we first started. Miko was the first one to train me. For two years she taught me anything that she knew about water manipulation and how to use it in a fight. After the first two years of my training was finished Taria and Korio started to train me, first in earthbending and later in metalbending, after one and a half years of earth- and metalbending training, Adym joined us. He is a very skilled lavabender and he took me under his wing and taught me lavabending, it took me five months till I got it right and then one month to mix all three forms together in a fight. Then Lilith started to train me for two years. She trained me in firebending and later she trained me in lightningbending. The first six years of my training was over. When I became twelve years old, I mastered three of the four elements. The last element was air and I must say it was the hardest element for me to master but after two years of hard training it paid off and I mastered it."
"Excuse me but how did you learn airbending?" Asked perplexed Tenzin. The entire group of Raiders began to smirk. Korra looked at Lilith and the Chief seemed to ponder over something. "Lilith may I show them the secret?" Lilith looked at Korra, then at Lin and Tenzin before back to Korra. She hummed once then said. "Alright but they need to swear that they won't tell anyone about this. We have hidden it for so long it would be a shame for it to be discovered now." Korra nodded and turned to them with a strange look in her eyes. She made a motion with her hand for them to follow her.
They went through a few doors, down a few flight of stairs, through a few halls, and again through a few smaller doors till the three were standing before a very large door. There Korra turned to them. "Alright I'm going to show you something. And you can't tell anyone else about this because it will have grave consequences if word gets out about this, understood? So you need to swear that you won't tell a soul about what you will see now." She looked at Lin than at Tenzin. Both shared a look before he nodded and said "Alright I won't tell anyone about this." Lin sighed and muttered "Alright I won't tell a soul about what I will see." Korra scrutinized both for a moment before she seemed satisfied and nodded. She turned abruptly and pushed the door open. Behind the large stone gate was a very large room, it had a very high ceiling with pillars scattered around the room.
Inside the room were four people, three children and one adult. The children were young not one of them was older than twelve years old. They reminded Lin a bit of Tenzin's children. The oldest one was a boy he looked to be eleven years old with short dark brown hair and olive-green eyes. The other boy was clearly the youngest. He looked to be about seven years old with equally short dark brown hair and large grey eyes. The girl was the second oldest she looked to be about nine years old with shoulder length black hair and strange cyan blue eyes. The man looked to be in his mid-twenties from what Lin could see he had his short brown hair styled in a military cut his deep grey eyes spoke of a calm mind and soul.
Lin and Tenzin were shocked to the core then all four of them were airbending.
Tenzin's eyes widened before he spluttered. "Airbenders? But how? I thought my family and I are the last airbenders alive." Lin was so surprised that she could not form any words.
Korra chuckled once before whistling, effectively interrupting the airbenders in the room.
The man looked over to them before his eyes widened he turned to the three children and shoed them out of the hall though a door behind him. The children looked at them with mixed expressions on their face. The oldest looked at them warily while the younger ones regarded them with a curious expression. The man waited till the door closed behind the three before walking over to them. When he stood before them he and Korra bowed before each other. He looked at Tenzin with a kind smile. "Hello master Tenzin, my name is Sohar. It's an honor to meet you, Korra told me many stories about Avatar Aang. He was a truly great man."
Then he turned to Lin. "Ah Chief Beifong. It's been a long time but it's good to see you again." Lin narrowed her eyes. "I'm sorry but I don't think we have met." He chuckled. "I was one of the witnesses in one of your cases a few years ago. The one were the Triple Triads blew up the warehouse near the harbor. I was just a teenager at the time and under the name of Lee." Lin thought for a moment but then it clicked. "Ah yes I remember you now you were with an elderly woman, right?"
"Yes the woman was my grandmother. Sadly she died a few years back." The Tenzin asked the question that was on both of their minds. "You and these children are airbenders but how?"
He looked at Korra who nodded curtly. He sighed once then said. "The answer to that is very simple. Before the Air Nomad Genocide, my ancestors and the ancestors of those children didn't live in one of the airtemples they were members of this tribe all those years ago. Korra do you know how many airbenders were living with the Raiders back then?" She looked thoughtful for a short moment. "I think it was about 7 airbenders and two air-nomads with airbender ancestors."
"Right. And because our tribes were and are still so isolated and nearly a secret to the world, those airbenders survived the Genocide in secret. The Chief Norwin and his council together with the other five tribe leaders of our culture came together and agreed to hide the remaining airbenders from the outside world. After Avatar Aang ended the hundred year war with Fire Lord Zuko it was once again decided that it would be for the best for the airbenders to remain hidden. Because even through the war had ended it was too dangerous for us to come out of hiding as then there were many people who wanted to finish what the Fire Nation so long ago started. In the end we really have no reason to come out of hiding. We are happy here and free, and really the only thing that we should try to avoid is to bend somewhere where a stranger could see us." He finished with shrug of his shoulders.
"If I may ask how many airbenders live here and in the other tribes you mentioned?" asked Tenzin after a short moment of silence.
"In this tribe are five and with me six. And I think in the other five there are a total of thirty-two airbenders."
"Nope Sohar, thirty-four. The birth of the twins was last month and trough we aren't entirely sure but we believe that they are both airbenders."
"Oh yeah you are right thirty-four airbenders then, in the other tribes and a total forty airbenders in our culture." Neither Tenzin nor Lin could believe it forty airbenders. A few minutes ago it seemed as if there are only four airbenders alive now it was more than a tenfold.
"So now you do know how I learned airbending, Sohar here was my mentor." "Yes, and it wasn't easy to train you. Airbending isn't really your element Korra." "No it really isn't but the hard work paid off, don't you think so?"
"Yeah it did, anyway I need to run I have a meeting with Kuro in a few minutes in her workshop. We want to finalize the plans for the canyon." "Alright I see you tonight at the fires I take it?" Sohar just nodded before he bowed and walked out of the room, through the same door the children had left earlier.
Korra turned to them "So now that this is over, how about we plan what we want to do with the Equalist problem? The other council members should be in the chamber." Both nodded and Korra led them back to the council chamber.
On their way back they were startled by a loud shout of, "KORRA!" that echoed through the halls followed by a little eight year old boy with raven black hair and ember eyes. The boy ran towards them and jumped into Korra's arms nearly toppling the poor teenager over in his haste. He looked at her with wide frightful eyes. "Is it true that you are going to leave us and that you will go to Republic City? Chang and Chao said so, they told me that you are going to leave us behind." Lin wasn't sure who this boy was but he resembled Lilith a lot.
"Shh its okay, Malik." She tried to soothe the clearly distraught boy in her arms. "I'm not going to leave the tribe. Why would you think that I would leave my family for some city? Yes it's true that I'm going to Republic city but it's only for a short period of time. I would never leave my godson or my brothers and sisters behind." The boy hide his face in her neck and mumbled something that Lin couldn't' understand.
Before Korra could answer to whatever Malik had mumbled, two boys, clearly twins, with short chopped brown hair and mischievous leaf-green eyes, raced around the corner. Both came to a crashing halt as soon they saw Malik in Korra's arms, both boys adopted the same strange look on their young faces. Lin recognized that look from her work, it was a look that clearly screamed busted. As soon as Korra saw them her eyes narrowed. "Chang, Chao come here you two." Both winced but walked forward with hunched shoulders. "What do you think you two are doing? Why did you tell Malik that I'm going to leave our tribe?"
Both hung their heads but choose not to answer.
Korra narrowed her eyes. "Well, I'm waiting for an answer. Wait a second, you have training right now, so why are you not at the training square with master Adym?" Again no answer came from these two. Korra sighed once then looked at the now calm boy in her arms. "Alright you two we will talk later about this, go to the training square and apologize to master Adym for being late. But be warned that Lilith will know about this."
Both boys swallowed once before bowing and practically racing away the way they came from. They watched them race away before Korra turned to them and apologized.
"I'm sorry for these two, they can be really troublemakers when they are not faced with a life threatening situation."
"Do you have them often?" Questioned Lin after a few seconds of silence. Korra hummed once and resumed her walk to the council chamber. "Oh yes, we help the villages in the area against outlaws and bandits. We may be outlaws ourselves but we don't torment innocent civilians. We just don't like authorities and most of their, in our eyes useless rules. It often comes to a fight between us and them. Chang and Chao are two of our most powerful members even if they are only twelve years old. They learned to lavabend when they were just two years old that's unheard of, normally only master earthbender discover the ability to lavabend."
After a few minutes of walking they were yet again standing before the door to the council chamber. Korra pushed the door open and Lin and Tenzin saw that five of the six chairs were now occupied. On the one nearest to the door sat Lilith the chair to her left was unoccupied, probably Korra's thought Lin, right beside her sat Taria then Korio then Miko and lastly an unfamiliar woman. The woman had long black hair tied in a bun and flashing intelligent bronze eyes. "This is Mai the last council member." Whispered Korra before she walked over to Lilith and passed her the now sleeping boy. Stomping once onto the ground she made two extra chairs next to hers. "Please be seated". Without waiting for them to sit she turned to Lilith and told her what happened with Malik. Lilith eyes narrowed while Korra told her the short story. When she finished she sat down on her own chair and Lilith stood up and turned to the now sitting Lin and Tenzin with a strange fire in her eyes.
"I think it's time that we discuss what we do about the Amon problem in Republic City."
So second chapter done and faster than I had thought it would take for me to finish. I anticipated that it would take me two weeks for this one to be done and yet I did it in just one.
Anyway. There are still many open questions in this fic even for me, I'm still not sure where this will take me. If you have questions just ask them. I will try to answer them as much as I can without spoiling the entire thing.
Sadly I won't be posting so frequently in the future then in one week, on Wednesday the 24th of august school starts again for me and it will be harder than ever so I'm going to need to do more schoolwork. I'm going to try to update within a month between each chapter. If it should take longer I'm not asking for forgiveness but for patience than perfection needs it's time and even if it's not perfection, it is so much work to get a three thousand word chapter done, so please be patient. Anyway I have given the future of this story much thought and I came to the conclusion that I have absolutely no idea how I wanted to involve an Equalist!Asami into this story. But I want to make her one so I'm trying to figure out how to do this, but maybe one of you has an idea how I could make it work. I'm going to spoiler now that probably Taria and Miko are going with Korra to Republic City. So she won't be entirely alone there without her tribe.
And how do you like the idea of Naga living in an underground icehouse? Because it would be too hot for her without it in a desert. Answer me this one question and you are a great help.
This is ScouterFight and I'm out ;).