Bolin spun around and pushed Korra back, letting himself be a shield between her and the masked man that had just spoken.

"Oh good," Amon continued, "I had been starting to think that my sources were mistaken. After listening to your dull conversation I joyfully thought that I had actually captured the right brother by happy mistake. I did dread that I would have to later reprimand my underlings. But as it turns out, our little Avatar does indeed have feelings for the younger bending brother."

Bolin didn't seem to be processing any of what was being said.

"Where is my brother?" he yelled at Amon, while still making a now restless Korra back away with him slowly.

"Ugh, Bolin let me go! I need to get this bastard back for what he did to me on Aang's memorial!" She yelled. His grip didn't loosen.

"It's quite a shame you two didn't get here a few minutes earlier. I had just finished taking that other one's bending when I was informed of your presence." Amon waved his hand, as if the matter was trivial.

"That other one's name is Mako and you're going to pay if what you did to him is true!" Korra screamed.

Chi benders dropped from the ceiling, wielding sparking rods.

"I told you this before Korra; I am not making a martyr out of you. It is not your time. But I don't see the problem with reminding a few pro-benders of their place in this world. The fact that they're dear to you is just an added bonus."

Both Korra and Bolin snarled at the man and flew into action. But even with their great teamwork and effort, they were no match for the chi blockers. Bolin was taken down by three unison hits of electricity to his back and Korra failed to dodge a chi bender that jumped on her after she had finished off a counterpart.

They both fell to the floor, unable to move their bodies but still aiming ugly grimaces at Amon and his lackeys. Under the mask, the leader of the equalists was most likely smiling.

"What are you going to do to us?" Korra growled.

"Oh, I'm done for today. I'm going to let your friend go and he can drag you both back to that pathetic arena you seem to like spending time in."

"You're not...going to take away our bending?" Bolin managed to say as he was starting to regain his strength. He tried to prop himself back up, but that only prompted another shock in the shoulder.

"I thought I had made that obvious." Amon stated as he walked away. All the chi blockers followed except for two of them. From off to the left, a door opened and another masked equalist dragged an unconscious Mako towards them. They were tied together and pulled up a manhole by some sort of pulley system.

Another equalist opened the manhole from the outside and pulled them out onto the abandoned street. As soon as he untied them, he left the three unmoving friends the abandoned alley somewhere in Republic City.

"Bolin, hey Bo, wake up."

Bolin struggled to open his eyes. He had a hard time figuring out why he was in so much pain. Sure, his bed wasn't the most comfortable, but it had never seemed this rock solid.

Wait. Rock. He was lying on concrete.

Bolin's eyes flew open as he sat up, nearly bumping foreheads with Mako.

"Mako! Bro!" Bolin launched himself at his older brother.

"Hey, hey okay Bo, calm down!" Mako chuckled a bit as he returned his brother's hug

"You're okay! You're alive! Wait….What about...did he really take your..." Bolin's voice trailed off with the question.

"Yeah. It's gone." Mako's voice perfectly matched his sullen face and sad eyes. "I'm sorry Bo. I cost us the pro bending championship. Well I guess you could find another fire bender. Or Korra could take my place and you could convince Hasook to come back. He always liked you more than me." Mako struggled to keep a steady voice. Bolin just hugged his brother even harder.

"We'll get your bending back bro. Not for the tournament, but for you. I know how much you love it." Bolin promised.

"That's impossible." Mako said quietly.

"We can't be too sure about that." Korra said from behind them. Bolin looked up and saw the water tribe girl looking particularly gorgeous as she rode her polar bear dog with the sunset to her back.

"What? What do you mean?" he asked, shaking his head to snap out of it.

"Well," she jumped off of Naga, "Really, the only time that someone's bending has been taken away was when Avatar Aang did it. I honestly can't see how Amon does it."

"What are you getting at?" Mako asked.

"Think about it. Amon uses chi blockers to terrify us. If he has the power to take away bending, that would take an enormous amount of spiritual power." she continued.

"That only an Avatar is capable of?" Bolin asked.

"Yeah, I guess." she answered.

"You guess? You're basing your speculations on a guess?" Mako raised an eyebrow at her.

"What else do I have to go on?"

"No, hold on. I think she's on to something," Bolin held up his hands to appease them. "Really. He shouldn't be able to take away bending."

"Okay. Well while you two theorize, I'm going to find my girlfriend, who is probably worried sick." Mako stood up and left, hands in his pockets.

"Hey Mako, hold up." Korra jogged toward him. She handed him his scarf and gripped his shoulder.

"We'll figure something out." She assured him.

"Korra, they were looking for him. They took my bending because I wouldn't tell them where he was. They don't seem to know that we live in the attic. And they must've been desperate to attack me in broad daylight."

"Amon is pretty scary; I'd try to do as he says if I worked for him too." Korra shrugged. Mako looked at her, tired.

"Why were they looking for him?" He asked. Korra shuffled her feet uncomfortably.

"It seems that they wanted to get rid of some pro-benders and friends of mine. Perhaps Bolin fit that description."

Mako looked at her disbelievingly. She noticed and sighed.

"Also it seems they thought that he and I were in love or something." she rushed her answer. Mako blanched.

"You mean...this all happened because you couldn't make up your mind!" Mako voice rose higher.

"You're blaming this on me?" Korra backed away in disbelief.

"They probably saw you two out on your date and jumped to conclusions! Because of your selfish indecisiveness, you almost put him in the situation that the Triple Threats did before!" Mako's voice dropped to an angry whisper halfway through when he saw Bolin looking at them with curiosity.

Korra indignantly stamped her foot. "I already apologized for that! I didn't mean to lead him on or whatever! He shouldn't have asked me out in the first place! Shouldn't he have noticed that I was feeling down?"

"That's probably why he did it, to cheer you up! How was he supposed to know you had just been rejected!" Mako defended his brother, his whisper threatening to rise in volume.

"He's always bragging about how girls love him! He must've had to deal with a ton of them before!" Korra retaliated.

"He may have a bunch of fangirls but he's never gotten to know any of them! He's even more awkward around girls than I am!"

"Isn't that a bit childish?" Korra leaned back and put her hands on her hips.

"Yes, he is very childish. I've worked hard to keep him that way. I didn't want to make him face the hardships I had to face. It may be bad at times but I much prefer for him to be childish than being miserable." And with that, Mako turned around and stormed away.

Korra sighed and went back to where Bolin was now scratching Naga's ears.

"What was that all about?" he asked, without looking up. He was hiding his face from her, he had heard everything.

"Just Mako being Mako." was her hasty answer.

"Ah." he replied curtly. He looked up and smiled at her. "Thanks."

"For what?" she sounded surprised.

"Helping me find him." he answered.

"Hey, no problem. We're all buddies here, right?" She said.

"Yeah." his wide smiled shrunk a little bit. "Pals."

"I'm sorry we didn't get to him in time." Korra scratched her head awkwardly.

"Hey, that's no one's fault. So what was your theory on Amon's whole 'I AM ALL POWERFUL AND YOU'LL BE LAST KOOOORRA' thing? You really think it's reversible? "Bolin stood up and brushed himself off.

Korra chuckled at his impression. "What I really think he does...is more chi blocking. I mean, he puts his hands on his victims' heads, like pressing chi points on the brain. I think it sort of leaves them under the impression that they...can't bend?"

Bolin looked at her quizzically.

"I know, I sound crazy." she gave a small shrug.

"Not crazy. BRILLIANT!" he gushed. "Really! Who's to say that he's not chi blocking brains!"

Korra brightened at his support. "Though I still don't know why it seems to be permanent." she said. Bolin paused to think.

"Well...if you were told you couldn't bend, you wouldn't believe at first. So you'd try for days and when that failed, you'd give up."

"So when your bending came back..." Korra mused.

"You wouldn't even know!" Bolin punched the air in light of their discovery.

"But wait, isn't that a bit messy? Putting everything on the idea that they'll never try to bend again? It seems a bit unrealistic for an organization like the equalists. "Korra said. Bolin's face dropped.

"Maybe...maybe they sneak up on them when they're sleeping and do it all over again? It's not like there've been more than a handful of people who Amon chose to attack." Bolin was desperate to keep on the bright side.

"Well whatever happens, we've got each other's backs, right?" Korra smiled down at him once she had jumped onto Naga's back. She offered him her hand to pull him up onto her ride.

"There's always that." He mimed her crooked grin and took up her offer. They headed to the stadium.