I do not own the Legend of Korra franchise, but this story, and all original characters I own! ^_^


Chapter 2

The cold bitter wind blew wildly as the siblings continued their stand-off. Tenzin, who was still teeming with rage, breathed heavily under the barrage of snow. He was glaring at Kya, who was standing before him. She turned her gaze away from her little brother. She clenched her chest with her trembling fist, trying not to look weak in front of him. Seeing his sister tremble at Tenzin's calloused remarks, Bumi grabbed Tenzin by the shoulder.

Pulling him closer towards his face, Bumi curled his brows, showing Tenzin his anger. "Stop it right now, Tenzin!" He snarled in a whisper.

Seeing Bumi suddenly be filled with anger, Tenzin realized that he had plucked a nerve with his siblings. He found it amusing that he had given him the same treatment they gave him and refused to stop.

Pushing Bumi aside, he walked towards Kya as he blasted more unpleasant words to Kya. "Why the sudden silence?" He mockingly said to his sister as he spread his arms. "You know that I'm not lying this time! You keep telling me that I do not spend time with my children, but you never left your daughter's side, and where is she now?"

Kya withheld her anger by tightening the her fist. She did not want to succumb to Tenzin's outbursts but his words were reopening old wounds and looked at her brother; her eyes holding back her tears.

"Tenzin, please. Stop." She uttered in her shaky voice.

It seemed like Tenzin did not hear his sister's plea and continued. "She's dead Kya! She's dead, because you wouldn't stop experimenting your new found 'healing' techniques on her. Even Konan would be ashamed of what you've done."

"Konan would understand why I had to do those things!" Kya finally cried. "I was trying to save her!"

"Save her?" Tenzin snorted. "You killed her! You knew that she was beyond saving, and yet you pursued your medical conundrums on that poor girl. Your experimentation quickened her death, Kya. You are a murderer!"

Bumi could no longer stand and watch and interrupted. "Tenzin that's enough –"

Bumi was about to force Tenzin to cease his heated outbursts. But when he was about to step in, he felt his body froze. He couldn't move his feet, nor his hand and he started to panic. He looked at Kya, giving Tenzin a petrifying glare, and noticed both her hands at her side with their palms wide open. He could not prevent what he feared the most.


"Kya!" Bumi roared.

Tenzin looked at his little brother, who looked like he was frozen, and raised a brow. "Don't interrupt us Bu –" Suddenly, he felt his body fly towards the compound's fortified walls and struck its icy surface. When he opened his eyes, he realized he couldn't stand up. He saw Kya, walking towards him while holding a stance. His eyes started to tremble, and his heart raced. He knew what his sister was doing to him.

"Let me go, Kya!" Tenzin roared. "Mother never taught you how to blood bend!"

Kya raised Tenzin's body and kept it afloat. "No, she didn't. I taught myself." She sneered. She hurled Tenzin's body towards the wall repeatedly until she created a large fissure using Tenzin's back.

Tenzin felt feint. His body was being controlled by a furious Kya and he couldn't unbind himself. Another strike to the wall and he could lose consciousness. Suddenly, he fell to the snowy filled ground and was somehow thankful that he was still alive. When he raised his battered body, he saw Bumi grabbing Kya from behind.

"Kya, that's enough!" Struggling to get Kya back to her senses, Bumi slowly tightened his hold around her. Kya kept squirming in his grasps until she couldn't breathe. When Kya had finally released herself from her own rage, she breathed heavily on Bumi's chest. "Are you done?" He asked.

Kya looked at Bumi and scowled. She pushed herself out of his grasps. She looked at Tenzin, who was striving to get on his knees and felt that her fists were tightening once again. "Never make me do that again!" She then looked at Bumi. Her fearful appearance turning into grief; and then leaving her brothers as she returned to her tent.


A few minutes after the argument, a few Southern tribesmen came out from their huts to inspect the loud noise they heard. They were surprised to see a section of their wall in a severely damaged state. The wall was riddled with cracks and at the center of the wall, a small crater formed. One more hit from whatever they thought stroke the wall would have crumbled it to pieces. Bumi and Tenzin were seated at a wooden bench near the scene, being interrogated by the Southern water tribe authorities. The authorities wanted to what happened to the wall and what they were doing at the time the wall was struck.

"It was an accident officer!" Bumi explained. "I couldn't sleep so I decided to take a midnight stroll. I was having a great time when I heard a strange noise. I followed the sound and saw a massive Tiger Seal rummaging through the festival's garbage. It was probably hungry, 'coz when I got closer to check it out it chased me around this place!" Bumi flailed his arms up in the air, trying to re-enact the scene while sitting down. The two officers could not make out Bumi's explanations and looked at each other with their weird out faces. "Then, I placed myself in front of that wall, and dodged before the tiger seal could even bite my head off. It slammed right on the wall. Realizing it could not catch me, it decided to leave." Bumi had a triumphant smile drawn across his face after he had said his tall tale.

"Okay...?" The officer on the right uttered. "Where did it escape?"

"Huh?" Bumi looked up and thought. "I haven't thought of that." He said to himself.

"And what about you, Master Tenzin, have you seen this uhm… Giant Tiger Seal?" The other officer asked.

But Tenzin couldn't respond. He was sitting on the wooden bench, with his back slouched, hands together, and his mind elsewhere. He looked melancholy, almost guilty, making the officer suspect that he knew the real story. The officer was about to ask him again, when Bumi patted his brother at the back and started to laugh.

"Now I remember!" Bumi exclaimed. "Tenzin came out and saw me in a pickle, yes he did! Then after the Tiger Seal hit itself on the wall, he lifted the animal with his bending and carried it to the other side of the wall!"

"Is this true master Tenzin?"

Tenzin looked at the officer, with the same surprised and confused look. "Uhm, yes! Yes it's all true!" He smiled at the officers in full agreement.

The officers looked at each other, thanks the brothers for their time and cooperation and headed towards the restless crowd, telling ordering them to return to their huts and that the situation has already been handled. The brothers kept their blissful smiles until the officers left them. When they were finally alone, Bumi punched Tenzin's right shoulder.

"Ouch, what was that for?" He questioned as he rubbed his sore shoulder.

"You know perfectly well why I had to do what I did!"


"… I know…" Tenzin returned to his previous position, looking at the ground. "It was wrong to bring up Konan and Anana, but I was so angry that I –"

"Do you even remember why we rarely talk about them in front of Kya?" Bumi reminded. "They were Kya's whole world; and they died, Tenzin. Kya had a difficult time getting through their deaths, and we both know that until today she has not moved on. You've just made it worse! And accusing her as a murderer no less!" Bumi's chest broadened. His nostrils flared in anger and his face scrunched with rage. He then stood up.

Tenzin looked up and saw his brother, standing straight beside him with his hands tucked behind his back. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm going to look for Kya!" Bumi took a few steps, but decided to stop and leave Tenzin an explanation. "Oh, and one more thing. I chose not to get married, because I knew that someday I would die in the battlefield. I did not want my family to grieve for me!" Bumi howled before leaving his brother.


Now that Tenzin was alone, he gave out a loud sigh and looked at the snow covered sky. It was gray and heavy with ice.

"It might snow tonight…" He said to himself. Looking at the ground, he contemplated on what he was going to do next. He looked at the direction where Bumi went off to, and started formulating apologies for Kya.

He came up with simple ones, those which started with I'm sorry and ended with this will never happen again. Complicated ones that used hifalutin words to confuse his sister that he did not mean all the things he said. But as the minutes flew by, his mind could not decide the proper action.

"Why is it easier to make speeches, than apologies?" He groaned.

Footsteps were suddenly heard. Tenzin looked up and saw his eldest daughter, still half-asleep. Jinora propped herself next her father and rubbed out the sleep out of her eyes as she gave out a big yawn. Tenzin was glad that someone from his family came out to join him. But he wondered, why it was Jinora.

"Shouldn't you be asleep, Jinora?" Wrapping his arm around his daughter to warm her, Tenzin brought Jinora closer.

Jinora looked at her father expressionlessly. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed too?"

Tenzin quickly averted Jinora's question and started to improvise. "Um, er… Look at the sky Jinora." He said while pointing up into the gray heavy sky. "It might snow tonight. You haven't seen snow, right? Stay here for a while and maybe –"

"I heard everything dad." Jinora suddenly spat. "I even saw what aunt Kya did to you."

Tenzin had thought that he left his tent in a mouse like fashion, but unlike the Southerners, who are used to hearing heavy snowstorms in the middle of the night, Jinora was a light sleeper. When he and his siblings started to argue, Jinora was suddenly disturbed from her slumber. She thought that it was one of her siblings talking in their sleep, but when she turned around to find that her father was not in the tent, she got up and peered through the door. She saw her aunt, uncle and father, at the middle of the square having a heated conversation at the middle of the night. Grabbing her coat, her initial plan was to walk straight to her elders and scold them that there are people trying to sleep. But once she stepped out of the tent, Tenzin raised his voice at Kya. Jinora has never seen this side of her father before and was afraid. She hid behind one of the empty food stalls and saw everything.

Realizing that Jinora had heard a dark family secret, Tenzin felt worse about himself. "I'm sorry… It's just that I…"

Father and daughter was suddenly surrounded by silence. The humming wind, was awaiting for a voice between them to break the silence. Jinora looked at her father with disappointment and spoke.

"Did aunt Kya really have a daughter?" She asked.

"Yes, Jinora." He then stared into the sky and got lost at its infinite grayness. "She would have been around her twenties now."

"Then who's Konan?"

"Who?" Tenzin asked.

"You mentioned someone named Konan."

"Oh… Him." Tenzin did not know how to tell her daughter about Kya's past, but whenever he would look at her, she would look at him with her eyes filled with expectations and answers. He gave out a deep sigh and gave Jinora a quaint smile. "Konan is your uncle; and Kya's husband."

Jinora was surprised to learn this information and was taken back. "If I have an uncle, then why haven't I seen him?"

"It's a long story." Tenzin confessed.

"Don't worry dad, we've got all night."

Tenzin has gotten himself into a trap. Jinora was eager to know more about Kya's dark past, and even though he was not very fond of sharing the story, he had already brought the subject up.


About thirty years ago, the Southern Water tribe was famous for their healers, evidently because of my mother and sister's expertise. My mother kept close with the traditional type of healing, which has been passed down from her great grandmother. Kya, on the other hand, was a forward thinker. Besides mastering all of mother's healing techniques, she had created a set of her own. One of her famous treatments was known to relieve the patient from their traumatic experience. She would have the patient submerge their head in water and she would control the water's current with her bending until the patient would be relieved from the experience. It was a very dangerous and grueling process; depending on the situation of the traumatic experience. Released too early, the memory would surge back into the brain in an instant and shock the patient. Released too late, and the patient will start losing their memories. This new technique shocked the medical field, and doctors across the world traveled all the way to the South Pole to catch a glimpse of Kya's work. Most of them were there for medical purposes, while others found a reason to ask for my sister's hand.

Eligible men from the Northern and Southern water tribe courted my sister. Sending her rare flowers, medical herbs, and outrageous gifts like a pack of polar bear dogs. Why go to the depths to marry my sister you ask? I'll give you two answers. She's an innovator in the field of medicine, and she's Avatar Aang's only daughter. She had been turning down betrothal necklaces even before the hype of her healing career, for reasons she never discussed with me. It was only Konan who was able to win my sister's heart; even today I still wonder what she saw in him.

Konan was from the Southern Water tribe, but he was a non-bender. He was from the same village so we grew up together ever since we were kids. When I discovered that I had a talent for air bending, your grandfather sent me to Air Temple Island to train. From time to time I would visit mother and Kya in the South. Each time I visited, he did his best not to be so obvious when he was courting Kya. But he couldn't even hide behind a tree, let alone hide from me. He was a burly man. Tall, for a man from the Southern water tribe, and because of his height and weight, he was pretty strong; and fearsome. He was like a boulder with feet because whenever he walked around, you could feel the ground quake a little. I do not know why my sister married him. He's clumsy, loud, and he can be slow both in movement and in the head. I even found his hobby useless.

His hobby, which he calls his "profession" is photography. Personally, the only good thing I can think of when it comes to photography, is that it captures special moments. Konan however, takes photos of just about anything. People, glaciers, even the plain sky. Whenever I'd come by for a visit, I keep telling him to get a proper job, and maybe he'll have chance with Kya. Before I left, it looked like he wouldn't put down his camera, and by the time I came back; they were already married.

I decided to take a break from air bending training and stay in the South Pole. My mother was overjoyed, to see me finally spending more time with family. My idea of family bonding would be spending some time with my sister and mother, but Kya had other ideas. She forced me to spend some quality time with Konan, a men's only trip if you will. We would go fishing, hunting, but most of the time, we'd be lying on the icy floor on our bellies so not to disturb Konan's subject for his photographs. I tried very hard; honest. But Konan and I had nothing in common. Then, one afternoon, while Konan and I were looking for caves for his next project; he told me that he was planning to take his profession to the next level. He had heard that Republic City was beginning to build Aang's statue and planned to take a photo once it was complete. Republic City was the place to be, he said. The place to take his profession into new heights. He told me that he would take photos of animals he has heard but never seen before, and sell them to magazines. Of course, I was very doubtful that he was going to pursue this, but he seemed very determined. Two years later, Aang's statue had been completed and Konan and I sailed to Republic City; leaving my mother and a pregnant Kya behind.

Once the boat reached Republic City, Konan and I had already planned where we were going. I was heading to Air Temple Island, while he found a place with a friend in the middle of the city. Before we went our separate ways, he gave me a good firm handshake, and a backbreaking pat in the back. He told me that even though we didn't kick off during my stay in the South, he was sure that once he got the hang of the city life, we'd be hanging out like old friends.

I was skeptical, of course, but as the months went by I slowly got impressed with his work. There was this magazine which showed information and photos of the wildlife in islands that surrounded the city, and Konan was one of the photographers. Color wasn't introduced into film back then, so everything was in shades of brown or gray; but when you took a glimpse of Konan's photos, his subjects seemed to be bursting with life and color in those two shades. Constantly practicing in the white landscapes of the South, had really put him in the edge. The magazine became an instant hit, and Konan was beginning to be a respected photographer and in a span of six months no less. But his career was suddenly cut short one fateful day.

To celebrate his upcoming successes, I invited him to lunch in one of Republic City's high end restaurants. I told him to meet me at the restaurant at 12 'o clock sharp. When I was about to turn into the corner of the restaurant, an explosion came from the inside. I quickly dropped for cover, but when I looked up I saw the restaurant covered in flames. People around the block searched for buckets of water to put the fire out, but it was too strong. When the firemen came, the restaurant was already half eaten by the flames. They were able to put out the flames, but no one in the restaurant was able to escape. I searched around the crowd for Konan, but what I feared the most came true. An hour after the incident, the authorities came in to search the ruined building for any survivors. There were only a few. Women, children, and some of the employees came out with minor burns. Some were covered with wounds, but were still alive. However, most of them have been engulfed by the flames. And Konan was one of them. I told the authorities, that I can identify that this body was my brother-in-law and I requested to have the bodies to be shipped to their respective homes. It was never easy coming back to the South Pole with a couple of bodies wrapped in body bags. But what I couldn't bear, was seeing Kya devastated. When she saw Konan's body, she fell into her knees. I've always seen my sister as someone who was strong and collected. And seeing her weep in front of Konan's body; it was just too much.


Tenzin paused for a moment to hold himself together. Remembering Konan's death had led him to tear up. He wiped his eyes with his sleeves, and took in a deep breath. "I'm sorry…" He uttered.

Jinora let her father wipe the remaining tears in his eyes before she spoke. "How did the explosion happen?" She asked.

"Equalists." Tenzin answered. "Blowing up the restaurant was one of their first major acts of rebellion. The restaurant was a place for both benders and non-benders. Back then, they didn't care who they killed, as long as there were benders in the building."

"And, aunt Kya? What happened to her?"

Letting out a sigh, Tenzin brought Jinora closer to him. He rubbed his daughter's shoulder to share the warmth, and thought about how to answer her question. Looking at Tenzin, Jinora knew that her father had a hard time to find words. Because while his hand transferred warmth on her shoulder, he was doing his best to keep his jaw from trembling; holding in what might have been sudden grief.


A month after Konan's death, Kya gave birth to your cousin, Anana. I wasn't there. I immediately left for air Temple Island three days after Konan's funeral. I had to continue practicing my bending skills, but mother and Kya kept in touch through letters and photographs. The first time I saw a photo of Anana, she was only three weeks old. She reminded me of you when you were born. Small, harmless, but her eyes were filled with promise. Kya couldn't stop talking about her in her letters. She would even write about the first time Anana tried to stand up. You might think that these letter were useless, but to me Kya's letters had always put my mind at ease. I could see that she was happy. Anana kind of filled Konan's void. They would tell me to come visit so I can finally hold my niece, but I just couldn't. I needed to practice. So I came to know Anana through this type of communication. My favorite photo of her was when she was five years old. She was cute and chubby. Kya wrote it in her letter that Anana had found her father's camera and wondered what she found. Kya set-up the camera and asked someone to take their photo, and the result was hilarious. The camera Konan used wasn't the ones that flashes after a push of a button. The subject needed to hold a pose for a while, and then the camera would do its job. The photo they sent me was one of their outtakes. Kya was sitting on a chair with Anana on her lap. Anana was about to nod off to sleep and almost fell off her mother's lap. Kya immediately grabbed Anana from falling causing Anana to grab her mother's hair but at the same time look at the camera to take the shot. A few more months has passed, and more letters and photographs kept coming in. In one of the letters, Kya had told me that Anana was a water bender. Watching her mother perform healing techniques on her patients, must have been the trigger. She said the first time Anana showed her bending was when she spilled her glass of water and slowly raising the liquid from the ground. Even though I haven't seen Anana physically, I felt like I have created a special bond with her. I had to go to the South Pole. The monks told me that my next free time would be the next year. I became hopeful. But when the year was about to end, something terrible happened.

I learned that Anana had gotten very sick. It was cholera. Back then none of the Southern healers knew what she caught; not even Kya. They did everything in their profession to save the little girl, but they just couldn't. They knew she was a lost cause, but Kya didn't back down. Whenever I received letters from mother, she would write about Kya's sleepless nights, trying to find a cure. Kya thought of a thousand and one ways, and it scared me. I wrote back to mother, telling her that I'll be heading to the South as soon as possible, and set Kya straight. There are things beyond Kya's control, including death. And I wanted to tell her that personally. A four days after I've sent the letter, I snuck out from Air Temple Island and sailed to the South. It was the first time I saw the South empty with children and I was forced to wear a medical mask so that I would not contact the disease.

I didn't want to stay very long because I knew the monks would punish me. So I immediately looked for my sister. When I found her, in one of the tents, I also saw Anana lying on the bed; all pale and thin. That was the first time I saw her face to face. She did not look like the happy little girl in the photo; she looked much worse. Kya was on her medical table, concocting some type of tea, or medical syrup for Anana, when I told her that she should stop what she was doing. Of course she wasn't pleased, and told me to explain myself. I argued that Anana is far from being saved, just by looking at her you'd know that she can go any minute. I told her that she should stop wasting her efforts trying to save her, and that maybe she was killing her faster with her untested methods. We fought for several hours, until I gave up. She was very stubborn, and lacked a lot of sleep. Continuing to fight her would get me nowhere. So I stepped out, and waited to reason with her; but she would not quit. After a week of getting her to stop, Anana died from shock. The Southerners couldn't bury her body because of the disease and burned her instead. Kya was defeated. I could not look her in the eye, and after the funeral pyre, I left to return to the temple.


"Two days after Anana's death, a doctor from Republic City announced that he had found a cure for cholera and saved countless lives. If only Kya hadn't been experimenting on Anana, maybe she would have a chance to live." Tenzin exclaimed. "If only she had listened to me back then!"

Letting out an exasperated breath, Tenzin felt triumphant that he was able to answer all of his daughter's questions. He looked at his daughter, who was staring at the floor and awaited for her to speak.

Jinora looked at her father and was displeased with his story. "You're the worst, dad!"


To be Continued...