Chapter One: Out Of The Past- Alternate Ending

A long, deep howl filled the air.

"That sounds like Naga!" Mako exclaimed, his voice tense from three long days of worry and shouting. The sky bison, Oogie, flew down to the deserted streets of Republic City. "Naga!" Mako called. Everyone's hearts spiked to see the polar bear-dog running to the bison. Korra was not with her. Mako was, of course, the first to jump off of Oogie to Naga, which meant he wasn't on his feet for three seconds. Naga, apparently delighted to see Korra's human friends, pushed Mako to the ground and licked his face affectionaly.

"Naga," Tenzin said, still on Oogie's head. "where's Korra?"

Naga's ears perked up and she turned around and stamped her front paws onto the ground. Naga knew where to start looking, but all that was beyond them was the mountains that separated them from the Earth Kingdom. Hearts sank and blood froze. Mako, of course, was the first to recover. From her place on the sky bison, Asami frowned and beside her, Bolin cringed.

Mako jumped on Naga and grabbed her rains. "Alright, girl. Take me to 'er." He commanded, pulling his scarf up over his mouth. Naga complied, running as fast as she could into the frozen wilderness. Oogie followed. From the air, they lost Naga a couple of times but her periodic howls kept them on the trail. Naga followed, more than Korra's scent, the scent of gasoline and tiers.

"Look!" Bolin pointed to a hill with a cabin on top. Everyone's hopes began to rise and Naga and Oogie touched ground at the same time. The scene was more like a battlefield. The door was open but beside it there was also a large hole in the wall with pieces of broken wood littering the ground, like someone had busted through the wall.

"Yep, Korra's been here." Bolin joked. Lin found what looked like truck tier tracks leading away from the cabin as well as the ice spears that imbedded in the ground which could have only come from a waterbender.

Tenzin and Mako raced into the hut calling Korra's name, but not finding a trace of her on the ground floor. The basement was quite a different story. The ground was leveled from earthbending and there were scorch marks on the wall. In the middle of the fray was a large metal box which looked perfect for imprisoning someone. Finding not even a hair, Mako's fists clenched and blazed. He punched a scorched dent into the box, his eyes starting to water.

'She was here.' he told himself. 'If we'd just been faster...'

Mako jumped as he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. It was Tenzin, looking at him with understanding eyes. "I know you're upset, Mako, but we can't lose our heads over this. She'll be alright."

"Guys!" Their heads snapped to the stairs. That was Asami's voice. They rushed up and out of the cabin to see what the commotion was.

Everyone was gathered to one spot, a bit further from the ice spears. A trail of small depressions in the snow which were believed to have once been footprints lead to a slope down a hill. There was a wider depression on the slope that pointed to waterbending, and more snow was thrown sloppily along the sides of the path. Mako's eyes widened as Naga sniffed the ground and howled.

Mako, Bolin and Asami all leaped onto Naga and Tenzin and Lin bent their ways down to slope. Bolin couldn't help but admire Lin's skill so that there was now an uprise of earth parting the snow. As they reached the base, they found nothing. Naga, however, sniffed a pile of snow at the base of a large tree and whimpered. Tenzin airbent the snow away.

And there was Korra; hurt, unconscious, half-frozen and frighteningly still. No one spoke, but Mako cradled Korra in his arms, placed her carefully on Naga so that she was nestled safely between their bodies, and started back up the slope. Asami, feeling especially insulted now, hitched a ride with Tenzin and his airbending, and Lin earthbent herself and Bolin back up the slope.

By the time they all got back to Oogie, Mako was sitting on the saddle with Korra practically in his lap. His scarf was now wrapped around her neck and lower face and he held her like she was the most precious thing on Earth. Asami couldn't bare to watch and kept looking everywhere but where they were, Lin was sitting away from them and thinking about somthing herself, and Tenzin flew Oogie back home. Bolin had silently volunteered to ride Naga back to the city.

Tarrlok was gone, so it seemed, which was a shame because Mako would have gladly given him a peice of his mind. He couldn't hide forever. Mako swore to himself that Tarrlok would pay someday. Right now, though, all that mattered was that Korra was back.

These scenes will not be in chronological order. Since I really liked 'Out Of The Past' (seriously, there's no part of that episode I didn't like), I've expanded the search. In this version, Korra's been missing for three days instead of one. Review.