Asami traced a path with her finger from their current location to Ming-Hua's prison, and then from Ming-Hua's to P'Li's. She did it a second time, going a different route, being careful not to cross over the main islands of the Fire Nation. The island where Ming-Hua's prison was located barely showed up on the map, and P'Li's prison was so far up north that the nearest bit of civilization was hours away.
Asami sighed. "There's no way that we can get to the firebender's prison before morning." She said. "If we factor in about an hour that it will take to break out the waterbender… the earliest we could get there is by mid-morning… and that's if we travel all night."
Asami placed her finger on the northern most point of the Earth Kingdom. "And that doesn't even include the time it will take to travel to her prison on ground."
"But you're going with us to get P'Li. You're going to need sleep." Korra said and started to reach for her but stopped.
"I know."
"Maybe Bolin or I could go instead?" Mako suggested looking over Asami's shoulder.
"Um… they put her prison in the North Pole to weaken her fire bending." Korra reminded. She vaguely recalled that, during the war, the Fire Nation had put their incarcerated firebenders in coolers if they had caused any sort of trouble, to prevent any fire bending. The temperatures at the North Pole would be far colder.
"No offense but you won't be much help up there." She suddenly remembered that Mako could lightning bend. She waited for him to point this out but he didn't say anything and she came to the conclusion lightning bending was also weakened by the cold. "And there isn't much earth available up north for Bolin. Asami really is the best choice."
"That's not even the problem." Asami said and pointed to southern most point of the North Pole. "We're going to need something that can travel through snow and ice. I can figure out how to drive whatever we find."
She took a quick peek out the window. "And that is a good enough excuse for one of us to go with you. It's not really necessary to have a fifth person, but we can't send you alone."
"So do you have any ideas?" Mako folded his arms.
"I do actually." Asami replied looking at him. "I think you should be at the controls over night."
"Huh?" Mako blinked and placed his hand on the back of his neck.
"I can show you how they work on our way to the Fire Nation." Asami continued.
Mako gulped. "I don't know about that, this is my first time being on one of these things." He looked up and around the inside. "I mean I really don't want to be the reason that we all end up dead."
"But that's really our only option." Asami said her lower lip stuck out. "We're already pressed for time. And the sooner we get to the firebender the less likely the White Lotus will be ready for us. It will take them time to get their soldiers up north."
She paused. "And honestly, you're the only person here I would trust not to get us all killed."
Mako gave out a loud audible sigh and slipped his hands into his pockets. "Okay fine." He looked directly at Korra. "Can you keep an eye on those two? I really don't trust Bolin to keep his guard up; he's already made friends with lava guy."
"Yes Mako, I'll watch for any signs that Zaheer and Ghazan are going to betray us at thirty thousand feet in the air." Korra laughed.
Mako groaned and looked down at the floor. "You never know." He mumbled.
"We'll get started when the others get back." Asami smiled at Mako.
She looked back down at the map and put her finger on Ming-Hua's coordinates.
"You know, we got very lucky. The waterbender's prison is located on one of the smaller uninhabited islands of the Fire Nation." She said. "We won't have any problem entering; however, the Fire Nation's military can get there in less than an hour." She eyed Korra. "You're going to have to be quick."
Korra folded her arms. "I don't think that will be much of a problem. The guards haven't been that much trouble for us."
In all honesty the guards had been too easy. Korra wondered if the White Lotus were confident enough that the prisons would never be found and felt it okay to have substandard benders and martial artists on watch.
"Yeah I know." Asami replied. "It's just that by the time we get there, the order will probably have been informed of what's happening."
"Gotcha."
They heard footsteps approaching. Zaheer and Ghazan had boarded the airship with Bolin following behind. Bolin was levitating a few earth bits between his palms. Ghazan had washed up and was wearing a new set of clothes. He was also carrying some earth bits.
Asami looked a Korra. "Don't let anyone try to lavabend." She whispered. "The last thing we need is an accident."
Korra gave a quiet laugh. Had Ghazan decided to give a lesson while in flight, she would have attempted to lavabend, not considering any possible disasters. But come to think of it, had she or Bolin lost control of the lava, it could easily burn a hole through the floor.
Asami stood up and gestured for Mako to follow. She stopped before they passed Zaheer and Ghazan.
"Hey Zaheer, we figured out a solution, Mako will be at the controls overnight."
Before he could respond Asami turned to Mako.
"Come on Mako, this is a newer model and it's a bit more complicated to fly than most airships, you're going to need a lot of training."
Zaheer raised his eye brows but then just shrugged.
Asami gave Mako a quick smirk before they continued on.
Korra rested her against a window looking down at the sea that separated the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation. Despite the fact that the distance between Ghazan and Ming-Hua's prisons was the shortest, time felt like it was dragging.
"How old were you when you found out you could turn earth into lava?" Bolin asked.
Korra barely managed to stifle a groan. Since they had left the beach, Bolin had kept asking the same questions over and over. Even when he got the same exact answers, his eyes still glowed. Somehow this hadn't annoyed Ghazan who seemed happy enough just to talk about earth bending.
Not wanting to hear the same answer for about the fifth time, Korra went over to Zaheer. The blueprints for Ming-Hua's prison were laid out in front of him across a table.
Korra sat down next to him. She saw that there were platforms at different heights that curved around the inner walls of the volcano. The lowest were at the same level of the cell and she could see where the bridge would extend with the word "metal" marked above it.
How are we getting her out of that cell?" Korra asked. "No one here can metal bend." The cell dangled right above lava and the bridge was the only way to get to it.
"I mean, I could use earthbending to break the lock on her cell door and use air bending to get over to her..."
"No, one wrong move and you'd be dead." Zaheer glanced over at Ghazan who was repeating yet another answer. "We'll only have you do that if she's too weak to get up. Otherwise, well just get her some water and she'll get herself out."
Korra looked back down at the prints to see if she had missed anything. There didn't look to be anyway to get out with waterbending. Thinking about it, in temperatures that intense, only a very skilled waterbender could keep the water cool enough for it not to evaporate.
"I don't understand, how is a waterbender supposed to get out of there? Isn't the whole point of keeping her in a volcano to cut her off from water?"
Maybe an earth or an air bender could get out, but never a waterbender.
"Have you ever heard of Guru Laghima?"
Korra raised her eyebrows. That sure as hell was random. "No I haven't."
"Guru Laghima was an airbender who lived about four thousand years ago. He-"
"I'm sorry," Korra interrupted folding her arms. "But what does this have to do with the prison break?"
"Guru Laghima once said," Zaheer continued, "that when you base you expectations on what you see, you blind yourself to a new reality."
Korra looked back down at the blueprints. She had never understood that philosophy stuff. Was Zaheer trying to tell her that she wasn't really looking at a volcano? No that didn't make any sense.
"All I see is a volcano."
"He's telling you in very complicated way that he doesn't know what she's going to do." Ghazan was looking over at her, having somehow overheard their conversation over Bolin's non stop questioning. "But he's right, get Ming-Hua water and she'll get out."
"Guru who?" Bolin asked.
"You don't want to know."
Korra leaned back in her seat."Well you have me curious about her."
"You should give her some space." Zaheer eyed her. "She doesn't do too well with people she's not familiar with."
"Okay." Korra shrugged
About an hour later, she understood why that particular island was chosen for the prison. It was miserable. She grabbed her arms and closed her eyes as wind kicked up dust and dirt. It was of no use, her hands and face still stung. The ground was covered in dried lava with the occasional weed poking out. And there was dust everywhere.
Bolin walked next to her wiping sweat from his brow. Surprising to her, he had been quiet for most of their trek to the prison. It may have been the miserable conditions or it was possible that he was finally done asking questions, possibly now having the answers memorized.
Ghazan walked ahead carrying a large barrel on top of his shoulder as though it had weighed nothing. The swishing sound of water from inside only reminded Korra of how dry her mouth had become. She had a water skin, one that Katara had given her years ago, but she dared not drink any. It was for Ming-Hua, who they were almost certain was being kept dehydrated.
A siren had gone off as soon as they approached the entrance and two guards were slowly walking towards them. There didn't seem to be many waiting outside the volcano portion of the prison and Korra only assumed that the order had only recently gotten word that some of their prisoners had escaped. But that meant that the military would be on its way.
She dashed ahead of Zaheer and Ghazan and used fire to knock one of the guards back and immediatly followed up with air blast throwing him back and smacking him into the prison wall. More guards waited within the gate.
"Go inside." Zaheer gestured towards the entrance of the volcano. "Ghazan and I will take care of them out here."
Korra nodded and she and Bolin ran up the long and winding path to the entrance. She reached the top long before Bolin, who trailed behind panting. Two guards stood on either side of the entrance, both were trembling.
"Avatar Korra... please don't..."
Korra slammed him with a rock, knocking him out feeling no sympathy. She dodged the other's fire blast and then hit him with the same rock. At her third prison break, taking down the guards was now easy.
She rushed inside the prison and doubled over coughing once she had breathed in the smoke rising from below. Her eyes felt like they were drying out and before she could blink, she saw a guard in front of her. He raised his hands about to attack but she forced her hand up and hit him with a burst of air sending him flying back and falling over the railing.
Bolin collapsed to his knees next to her, having finally caught up, but still managed to hit another nearby guard using a technique from the pro bending arena.
"Got him!" Bolin cheered between coughs and pumped his fist in the air.
Korra looked around for more guards but heat waves were distorting her vision. Her skin felt hot and any sweat was immediately evaporated. The prison had completely outdone the first two. In fact, it had out done the prisons used for waterbenders during the war. Even Sozin and Ozai hadn't been cruel enough to put their waterbenders at the bottom of an active volcano.
She sniffled, wondering why the White Lotus would ever do this to someone. There were far better ways to imprison her, the Water Tribes had their own fair share of criminals that they had no trouble detaining.
She saw Bolin looking down at the cell, his lower lip stuck out. It had then occurred to her that the Fire Nation had bound up their prisoners arms whenever they were given water to drink. Had they done the same to Ming-hua, she would never get out. Korra scanned the prison for any possible way to get to the cell hoping that an extension had been added in recent years. But there was nothing.
Her nails dug into her palms. She heard footsteps rushing up the metal steps and she dashed in their direction.
"Hey wait-" Zaheer voice was heard, he and Ghazan must had just entered. Ghazan was setting the barrel of water on the ground.
Korra kept running, wanting someone to pay. Before the guard even realized who she was, he instinctively held out his palm and directed a blaze of fire at her. Korra intercepted the flames with both hands and then extinguished them. The last thing the prison needed was more heat.
She threw both arms forward and hit both guards with a gust of wind, sending both flying back. They were lucky to hit one of the lower platforms. Bolin ran up and put his hand on her arm and then moved his eyes in the direction where more guards were making their way towards them.
"Get her out of there."
Korra nodded and ran back to Ghazan and Zaheer.
Ghazan opened up the barrel and Korra guided the water out and down to Ming-Hua's cell, cooling it to near freezing to keep it from evaporating. She still lost some, especially when she first looked down at the cell, which hung directly above lava, and was forced to squint. Once the water was inside the cell, she felt it being pulled violently from her control. There wasn't any time to watch, more guards were on their way. But she did smile when she heard the screeching sound of metal door bursting open.
Guards were coming up from the other side of the platform. She ran pulling a large rock from the wall of the volcano and slammed it into the nearest one. She surveyed the prison for more guards. Her eyes passed by Bolin on a lower level who was looking up while his mouth hung open. Then she spotted two guards on the opposite end. She was about to run over but stopped when she saw a small woman land several steps behind them. Water tendrils that connected to her shoulders, giving her arms an unnaturally long appearance, swung towards the last two guards. Her brow furrowed as she froze the ends into ice hooks and gripped them both.
The guards looked absolutely terrified and they both trembled before her."Hey we didn't mean-"
Her motion never stopped and both guards were tossed off the platform.
Bolin came back up to their platform and ran to Korra, his eyes beaming.
"She. Is. Awesome!" He said his entire face lit up.
"Yes she is." Korra nodded, her eyes were fixed on Ming-hua who had her back to everyone, staring at her cell taking slow deep breaths.
When Korra got a closer look at her, she almost gasped. Ming-hua did not have arms. Her shoulders ended where her water tendrils began giving the illusion that she had them. Korra glanced at Bolin who hadn't seemed to notice, or else he surly would have pointed it out.
Now she wondered what had happened. The thought of the White Lotus amputating them so that she wouldn't have to be restrained whenever given water. But neither Ghazan or Zaheer were shocked by their absence.
Ming-Hua stopped her deep breathing and whirled around, giving Zaheer and Ghazan a smile.
"I never thought I'd be so happy to see your ugly mugs again."Her voice was strained and raspy but her eyes had lightened up.
Korra almost had to take a step back when she saw the toll that prison had taken on her. She had a thin narrow face and her eyes were sunken in with dark circles beneath. Her skin was shriveled, it would have been difficult to estimate her age if Korra hadn't assumed it to be around Ghazan and Zaheer's. More alarming were the burn marks that were visible on the exposed part of her legs which appeared to be old wounds, inflicted years ago.
"Good to see you too Ming-Hua." Ghazan smiled back at her.
"I'm flattered," She eyed Zaheer. "You busted me out before that girlfriend of yours."
"We're getting her next." For a moment Zaheer's eyes lifted.
Korra blinked and looked at Zaheer. He hadn't told her that he had a girlfriend. Ming-Hua had to be referring to the firebender, which, of all his friends, was the one he had spoken the least about. She remembered that he had her prison blue prints face down and separated from the other two.
"Who are the new kids?" Ming-Hua eyed Korra and Bolin.
"That's the avatar." Ghazan pointed to Korra giving a half smile. "She's the one busting us out of these prisons. Cool right?"
"The avatar?" Ming-Hua took a step back. She looked down at the ground and then back at Korra.
Korra stepped forward. "Um hey," she started but Bolin stepped in front of her.
"Your water bending is so awesome I've never seen anything like that!" He exclaimed leaning in towards her causing her to back up. "I mean the way that you used your water to swing up and over here, and when you got to those guards… that was so cool!"
"Um thanks?" Ming-Hua looked passed him and locked her focus on Korra. She closed her eyes and opened them slowly and then squinted.
Korra was trying to figure out how she had managed to water bend without having arms. As far as she knew, there was not a style that would allow for it. Not only that but her water tendrils acted as her arms, extending from her shoulders, and she gave the impression that she needed little effort to hold them in place even while in the scorching heat.
Ming-Hua started to fidget making Korra aware that she had been staring.
"Ready to leave?" Zaheer asked.
Ming-Hua nodded.
When they approached the exit, Ming-hua slowed to a stop and gazed out the exit. Korra stopped next to her to figure out what was up but before she could do anything, Ghazan tapped her lightly on her back which made her walk forward.
The outside air was much cooler than the inside. Ming-Hua's entire body shook. Ghazan tried to reach for her but she pulled away, glared at him, and forced herself to stop shivering.
When she had acclimated to the temperature, she kept looking around at everything, especially up at the sky, which was a blend of colors ranging from orange where the sun was setting to dark blue eastward. Korra looked up with her, it was a much more appealing compared to the reds and oranges of the inside of the volcano.
"So how long were we in there?" Ming-Hua asked still looking up.
"Thirteen years." Ghazan answered.
Ming-Hua came to a stop. "That's it?" Her mouth hung slightly open.
"I know… it felt more like thirty." Ghazan responded his eyes had become wistful and his pace slowed.
Bolin had been lagging behind everyone. He finally picked up his pace and walked between Ming-Hua and Ghazan turning his focus to Ming-Hua. "How did you lose your arms?"
Korra nearly stumbled and felt her face get hot. She wanted to grab Bolin and pull him away from her. Though she shouldn't have been surprised that he would ask such a question.
Ming-Hua gave an audible sigh. "I didn't… I never had them."
Bolin's eyes widened and his mouth opened.
"Hey I brought this for you." Korra held up the water skin running to Ming-Hua, not giving Bolin a chance to ask anything else. "You sound like you're very thirsty."
At the very least, she now knew that Ming-Hua's arms hadn't been forcibly removed. But now she had to wonder who her waterbending master had been.
Korra started to open the water skin but Ming-Hua snatched it away. Her control of water was so precise that she had no difficulty twisting off the lid.
A little bit of water dribbled out of her mouth as she gulped it down, her head was tilted straight up. By the way she drank, one would wonder why she hadn't started drinking her water tendrils once out of the volcano.
"Hey not so fast!" Ghazan grabbed the water skin. Ming-Hua tugged back and glared at him. She managed to pull it out of his grasp and turn her body away from him to continue to drink.
"Come on, you're going to get sick!" He tried to reach around her but she moved in such a way that he could never get to it. She smirked at him when she stopped drinking. Ghazan folded his arms and put a distance between them, probably expecting her to start for her to start throwing up.
When they arrived back at the air ship, Korra's stomach nearly dropped when she saw that Asami had one of the panels opened and her hands buried inside.
Mako sat below her with his chin resting on his hand. When he saw that they had returned, he jumped up and sprinted over.
"We need to get out of here!" Mako said breathing heavily. "The military came by earlier and wanted to know what we were doing. Asami told them that we landed on the wrong island and that the air ship was having some problems. She's been pretending to fix it for over an hour."
They made a stop in the Earth Kingdom to let Ming-Hua wash up. She had needed it far more than the other two. Layers and layers of dried sweat covered her body and one could only guess what all covered her clothes.
Korra led her to a lake, carrying an extra set of clothes and some soap. Ming-Hua put a distance between herself and Korra. Earlier on the airship, she had kept drinking water,making herself unavailable to talk. She had spent her time around Zaheer and Ghazan, and looked all a little disappointed when neither were going with her while she bathed. Zaheer was going to the Spirit World and Ghazan was going to stay back to watch over him. But Ming-hua had really wanted to get cleaned up and had agreed to let Korra go with her.
Korra put up rock walls and set the clothes on a small rock within the bathing stall. Ming-Hua stepped into the waist deep water and her eyes lit up like Ghazan's had when he had first stepped onto earth. She kept forcing her lips not to curl up.
"I'll be out here," Korra said.
Before she got to land, Korra completely dowsed herself with water, washing off sweat and dirt. She stepped onto land, dried herself off with a simple waterbending technique and then sat in the grass yawning. Looking up, she saw that there was a full moon and sighed. The night would have been a great night for waterbending but they had to be on their way to P'Li.
She drew shapes in the dirt with earthbending and listened to the crickets chirp. Ming-hua was taking much longer that she had expected. She was about to go check on her but then she saw her come out from the stall. Ming-Hua dried her hair and clothes off once on land and slowly walked over to Korra, stopping next to her.
Korra waited for her to say something but she remained silent.
"So which of the water tribes are you from?" Korra asked once they had started their walk.
"South." Ming-Hua's eyebrows briefly lowered and she didn't turn towards Korra.
Korra straightened up and smiled. "Really! That's where I'm from!"
"Yeah." Ming-Hua looked up at the sky.
Korra closed her eyes and sighed. It felt like it had been ages since she had been around someone from the Southern Water Tribe who did not disregard that half of their heritage and she thought that she had found some common ground with Ming-Hua.
Though now that she thought about it, she had never heard about Ming-Hua. Someone who could water bend without arms should have been very well known. Anytime Korra had felt discouraged Katara would tell her stories about notable benders, specifically those that had to overcome obstacles to master their element. More times than she could count, she had heard the story of how Katara challenged the waterbending master of the Northern Water Tribe to a duel to convince him to take her on as a student. And there was also Toph, a blind earthbender who had been the one to discover metal bending. Never once had Katara mentioned Ming-Hua. Not even a vague reference to her.
But Katara had lived most of her life in Republic City at Air Temple Island, helping Aang bring back the Air Nomads. It's possible that Ming-hua could have left the south before Katara had returned home after Aang's death. But still, someone would have at least mentioned her to Katara.
Her parents had never said anything about her either. Her mother had lived in the south her entire life and Ming-Hua was probably around her age. But after the incident thirteen years ago, her parents would never have had anything positive to say about her anyway, especially her father.
She glanced at Ming-Hua who was staring at the full moon. Her eyes were heavy and glazed over. Korra reached for her but Ming-Hua almost seemed to sense what she was doing and backed away from her and scowled.
"Sorry." Korra put her hand down at her side.
She had never been so relieved to see the airship.
Korra rolled over in her bed trying not to groan. A light had been turned on and she heard the sound of rustling. She opened her eyes and peered down over the edge of the bed and saw Asami grabbing one of her bags. She turned her head towards the small circular window in the room and saw that it was still dark out. She glanced at the clock and it was definitely morning. She pulled herself up, rested her head against the window, and saw snow and ice covering the land. They were over the Northern Water Tribe. Asami had said that they couldn't land on snow and ice and were going to have to stop in the Earth Kingdom and take a boat over.
She slid off the bed landing next to Asami's. Asami was sitting in her bed with a mirror in her lap doing her make up.
"You're putting make up on for a prison break?" Korra said sitting next to her.
Asami laughed and reached for her blush. "I know… I just don't feel right without it."
Asami looked into her mirror.
"Wait, did I wake you up?" Asami's looked at her.
"Yeah but its fine." Korra smiled but then remembered everything that had happened a little over a month ago.
"Listen, I'm very sorry about the whole Mako thing. You were dating him and I never should have gotten between you too."
Asami sighed. "It's okay, I'm over it."
"No it's not." Korra said. "You've been such a huge help these past few weeks. I mean, we'd still be stuck in Republic City if you hadn't come with us."
Asami smiled and Korra thought she saw her blush. But she had quickly gone back to putting on her make up.
Korra eyed the clock. "So, were in the North Pole, I thought you said that we couldn't land on ice?"
Asami breathed. "Well, last night when Zaheer went to the Spirit World he met with someone. When I asked who it was, Zaheer said that he didn't know us well enough to reveal their identity. But whoever it was said that they can make so that there won't be too many soldiers at the prison and that we could park on their landing pad." She looked in the mirror, frowned, and picked up a darker shade of eye shadow than she had just put on.
"Wait how are they going to do that?" Korra folded her arms.
"I really don't know. He just said that his friend would take care of it all. Maybe they had someone infiltrate the order?"
"Maybe."
About an hour later, Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin sat nibbling on breakfast. Mako rested his head in his arms and refused to go to bed despite the others urging him to get sleep.
"I thought you two were never going to get up." Ming-Hua's voice was heard.
They all turned to see her running to catch up to Ghazan.
"You didn't have to wait for me." Ghazan had to look down to make eye contact with her. She looked so tiny walking next to him.
She followed Ghazan over to the others and used her leg to move the nearest chair closer to him. She stepped on the seat and sat perched on the backrest. Korra glanced at Ghazan, who didn't see at all fazed and she just wrote it off as a personality quirk.
Zaheer came shortly after carrying papers and set them down in front of Ming-hua.
"You're going to have to flip those over." She curved up her water tendrils. "Unless you don't mind them getting ruined."
The papers were the plans to P'Li's prison. Korra tried to look but from where she was sitting they were upside down.
"They really buried her." Ming-Hua commented her eyes moving downward. "But this will be no problem for me."
Zaheer wouldn't look and he had cringed a little at Ming-Hua's comment. Ghazan however was slowly shaking his head as he looked at the bottom of the blueprints where her cell was located.
Bolin straightened himself up. "So the firebender… does she have any cool bending abilities? I mean, you're a lava bender." He pointed at Ghazan. "And you're an armless waterbender." He eyed Ming-Hua. "There has to be something about her right?"
Ghazan looked up and grinned. "P'Li is awesome! She shoots explosions out her head!"
"She's a combustion bender." Zaheer clarified and side eyed Ghazan.
Korra felt her insides go cold and she darted her eyes over at Asami, Mako and Bolin. Mako had his head raised and was the only one who looked the slightest bit concerned.
She had only known of one combustion bender. Firelord Zuko, at that time the prince, had sent one to kill Aang. Aang and the others had called him "combustion man". Sokka had said that his attacks were powerful enough to instantly kill anyone within a large radius. When Prince Zuko had chosen to side with Aang and had told the combustion bender to back off the guy had completely ignored the command.
Aang had told the others that the combustion blasts had come from his light chakra and that it was probably only possible by having an over active one or a misalignment of all chakras. No one knew for sure what they were or how those blasts were possible.
Sokka had also told Korra that they were dangerous. He also told her she would recognize one by a tattoo on their forehead that resembled an eye and that hitting it would stun them. He had also bragged that he had stopped combustion man by hitting him in that spot with his boomerang.
Neither Sokka nor Katara had told her that there had been another. It's not like they wouldn't have known about P'Li, Sokka had fought her thirteen years ago. If he had come up with those conclusions about combustion benders long after Korra had gone to live in the compound, then P'Li was probably very similar.
She had to wonder what the hell Zaheer was doing with one. But he was dating her... it was possible that Sokka was wrong about them. Then she recalled that quote from yesterday When you base your expectations on what you see, you blind yourself to a new reality. And she sighed, resigning herself to give P'Li a chance. But she would not for one second put her guard down.
Mako cleared his throat. "I've heard that combustion bending is a very rare ability… and that it's illegal in every nation."
That last bit had gotten Asami's attention. Her gaze shifted between Mako and Zaheer and then to Korra.
"Yes both of those are true." Zaheer confirmed.
"So where did you find her?' Mako lowered his eyes.
Zaheer, Ming-Hua and Ghazan all froze. Ming-hua looked up from the papers pressing her lips together and she and Ghazan looked at Zaheer. Zaheer just looked backed and forth between the two.
"Sorry I asked." Mako grumbled.
"So, what's the plan Ming?" Ghazan asked obviously trying to change the subject. But his question still ultimately referred to P'Li.
Ming-hua breathed and eyed Korra. "Only me and the avatar going. Waterbenders only."
Korra blinked, surprised that Ming-Hua had wanted her to go. Any excitement that she would have had was overpowered by her concerns with P'li.
"Wait what do you mean only you two are going?" Ghazan folded his arms. "Zaheer said that we'd be dealing with some of the higher ups."
"Yes I know." Ming-Hua said lowering her eyes at him. "And there is a full moon tonight. They're not stupid; every sentry they send is going to be a waterbender."
"But it will only be you two against them…"
"Yes and we'll be fine." Ming-Hua rolled her eyes. "And besides, it's still going to be a bit of a walk to and from her prison, " She looked directly at Zaheer, "We don't need him and P'Li holding us up."
Ghazan started to say something but Zaheer spoke first.
"Just let them go."
"You serious?"
Zaheer breathed. "If we had the time we'd reschedule her prison break a day or two from now. But we don't. You've seen how powerful waterbenders are on a full moon."
Ghazan sighed in defeat. "Yeah... there was that night I asked her to spar." He eyed. Ming-hua gave him a wry smile.
"Wait." Asami put her hands on the table. "I'm going with you. I'm sorry, but we don't know any of you well enough to send Korra by herself. I promise I'll stay out of the way."
Ming-Hua looked at her opening her mouth but then shrugged. "Fine."
Korra slowly zipped up her coat her hands trembling. It wasn't long after Ming-Hua had announced that only waterbenders would be going on the prison break that they were ready to land giving her no time to pull Mako or Asami off to the side. Before they had landed, Ming-hua had wanted her hair put up. But P'Li had always fixed her hair for her. Asami offered to do it for her. It had taken longer than she had expected because Ming-Hua's hair was so tangled. And Mako was practically falling asleep and could barely form a coherent sentence.
Asami was next to her putting on her gloves and Ming-Hua was already outside pacing around. It was too late now to bring up any concerns especially now that they were on borrowed time. It didn't matter much anyway, she wasn't going to leave that woman in a prison up north. Judging by the last three prisons, each that each gotten progressively worse, she shuttered thinking about how they were imprisoning a combustion bender.
Stepping outside, Korra breathed out deeply to watch her breath rise. She had missed the cold as well as the snow and ice. The moonlight reflected off the snow and ice illuminated the terrain and they could see the watch towers far into the distance.
Asami threw her arms around herself. "You grew up with this?" She shivered and tried to tilt her face down so that the top of her coat covered her nose.
"The South Pole is actually colder." Korra said giving a half smile. She didn't actually know if that was true but for some reason had felt the need to say it.
Ming-hua was already on her way and Korra and Asami ran to catch up. She wished that she had Naga with her. Though she liked the cold, the temperature was still dangerously low and Naga could traverse the terrain much faster than they could.
"So… what can you tell us about P'Li?" Asami asked. MIng-hua had been walking ahead of them with her shoulders slumped and did not once look back at them.
"She's very tall." Ming-Hua responded and picked up her pace.
"Um… Okay." Asami looked at Korra and Korra shrugged.
Korra was actually very annoyed. If she was going to work with P'Li, she needed to know if had a temper, if she listened to orders, if she was violent, or most importantly, what set her off. Worse came to worse, she could go avatar state and hope for the best. But who knew who else would be hurt.
Korra hung her head and breathed deeply. Asami, taking notice, moved closer and reached for her, putting her had on her shoulder.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
She couldn't tell Asami of her concerns, not with Ming-Hua nearby. Who knew how Ming-Hua would react to her suggesting that her friend might be dangerous.
"Yeah I'm fine," She curled her lips up.
Two sentries were waiting between the watch towers. The prison had no walls, no one would have ever found it without coordinates.
"Stop where you are!" One yelled. "You're not getting in here!"
Ming-Hua sighed and dashed forward, her water tendrils trailed behind her. The two sentries attacked with with torrents of water. She ran right at them and when close, threw her water tendrils into both torrents, absorbed both into her water tendrils making them much larger.
Both sentry's jaws dropped before she swung her tendrils at them and froze them to the ground.
She ran to another sentry and froze him in an ice pillar right from under where he stood.
"Not bad." Asami blinked.
Korra nodded. Despite her frustration with her earlier she was impressed. "Stay back here." She said and ran towards two other sentries, not wanting Ming-hau to do all the work. Though she did wonder if Ming-hua had even needed her.
Both sentries sent a wall of ice at her. When it was close enough, Korra reached out with both hands and, using a move that Katara had taught her years ago, melted the ice into water. She turned in a circle wrapping the water around her, and used it to raise herself into the air. When she was up high enough, she kicked two bursts of air and knocked both to the ground. They both slid in opposite directions from each other. Asami ran to one and zapped before he could get up while Korra, taking a cue from Ming-hua, froze the other to the ground before landing.
As Korra landed, she was knocked to the ground by rushing water. Her hair fell out of its holder and hung in her face. She cursed and tried to grab his feet with the ice. But he had seen it coming and avoided it. It had given her enough time to jump up. She tried to hit him with a water whip but he dodged again. She bared her teeth and wildly threw more water at him and once even tried to air bend but he was way too fast. She thought that she might have recognized him from long ago, someone that may have visited the compound, but she didn't really give a damn.
"Korra give it up." He said. "We're taking you home." He gracefully avoided another one of her attacks and threw his own water whip at her. She barely managed to not get hit and then realized that he was trying to tire her out.
Asami caught her attention. She was several steps behind the sentry and she nodded her head at Korra and held up her hand. Korra had to force herself not to smile and then threw weaker water bending moves that would force him to back up to avoid. Asami ran up and grabbed him from behind and pressed her glove to the back of his neck. She held on to his uniform while he fell to the ground.
A loud explosion startled them. They turned to see a cloud of smoke. When it had cleared, a woman was standing next to Ming-Hua. Two sentries lay on the ground several meters away and several more lay about. Korra looked at the three she and Asami had fought and sighed.
She locked her eyes on P'li, who was slowly following Ming-Hua, looking for any signs of hostility, but there wasn't enough light to see the features on her face.
P'Li towered over everyone. Now that she was nearby, Korra saw the tattoo that covered most of her forehead. It resembled an eye, just as Sokka said it would. She was scanning the area her eyes blazing. Korra raised her arms and faced her palms outward as a precaution.
"Where's Zaheer?" P'Li demanded turning sharply to Ming-Hua.
Ming-Hua didn't even flinch. "Don't worry, he's back at the airship."
"And Ghazan is with him?"
"Yes."
She slowly turned towards Korra and Asami and Korra shrunk up feeling P'Li's eyes pierce into her. She did not like that she was right in line with her third eye tattoo and she considered nudging Asami out of the way.
P'Li just kept looking at her and Korra wasn't sure if she was waiting for her to speak.
"That's the avatar and her friend." Ming-Hua said. "She agrees with us that the White Lotus are a bunch of assholes."
P'Li's eyes widened. "The avatar?" her bottom lip quivered. She abruptly turned her back to Ming-Hua and grabbed her shoulders. Ming-Hua started to pull away but stopped.
"Is the earth queen still in power? If we have the avatar, we'll have no problem getting rid of that woman! And what about the republic city council?"
Korra's mouth opened a little and she eyed Asami who was looking back at her with her lips pressed together. She was not ready to go to Ba Sing Se and deal with their monarchy. She had just broke four people out of prison, each in a different nation, in one day.
Ming-Hua closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "You just got out of prison, you need to rest." Her voice was oddly soothing.
Korra breathed out. For a moment, she was worried that Zaheer, Ghazan, and Ming-hua were all going to want to go straight to Ba Sing Se.
"No I can't." P'Li looked down and dropped her arms to her side. "We should have gotten rid of her years ago."
"How about we talk about it later? Zaheer's waiting for you, we should get you back to him." Ming-Hua was slowly shaking her head.
P'Li lifted her head about to say something, but then breathed out.
"Which way is it?" She asked and Ming-Hua turned towards the direction of the airship.
Korra felt a little better about her, she wasn't as emotionless as Sokka had described combustion man. And she could be reasoned with.
The crunching of snow beneath their feel and the occasional howling wind were the only sounds on their trek back. P'Li and Ming-Hua walked side by side in front of Korra and Asami and neither said a word to each other. Korra and Asami would glance at each other every so often, as though asking each other what to do, but they both remained silent.
Asami was shivering and probably didn't want to talk any way. Korra regretting not bringing Naga along more than she had earlier. All four could fit on her and they could have avoided this uncomfortable walk.
She eyed P'Li in an attempt to try to figure her out. The jailers hadn't given her a coat to wear; only her tattered clothes gave her any sort of protection from the cold. She was visibly shivering but hung her arms at her sides. Even when strong winds came she never once curled up or slowed her pace.
Korra shuttered when she noticed that a broken chain was still clasped around her neck. The White Lotus couldn't have possibly been that afraid of her. But it didn't seem to bother her. Thinking about it, P'li had no trouble firing off a combustion blast in the freezing temperatures. That tattoo had to have been covered up.
When they arrived back. Bolin met them at the entrance.
"Wow." he said looking up at P'Li as she walked by.
He turned to Korra and Asami, who were the last to board, and put his hand to the side of his mouth.
"She's a giant!" he whispered loud enough that P'li had probably heard him.
Korra glared at him but neither P'Li or Ming-Hua reacted.
P'Li ducked under the threshold and stopped. Korra slipped past her and swore she saw her eyes welling up and her hands were trembling.
Zaheer was sitting across the room looking back at her nearly an identical expression. Ghazan was next to him and gave a slow wave, but it was doubtful that P'Li had even seen it. Zaheer stood up slowly. She ran to him and somehow did not knock him over when she threw her arms around him. They held each other in a tight embrace. P'Li rose up a little on her feet as if trying to get Zaheer to lift her.
"I thought I'd never see you again." She said once they pulled away. There was a pained look in her eyes.
"I never doubted it." Zaheer smiled at her. The two embraced again, this time for a kiss.
Korra's eyes darted to the floor. She understood that this was their first time together after being separated for thirteen years, but she had never seen two adults kiss like they did. Her parents only gave each other a peck on the lips whenever she was in their presence.
Ghazan groaned. He got up and walked towards the rooms and Ming-hua followed. Korra was about to suggest to Asami and Bolin that they do the same but Zaheer and P'Li ended their kiss.
P'Li stood her full height and put her hand on the side of Zaheer's face and smiled while he tucked some of her matted hair behind her ear.
Noticing that P'Li was much taller than Zaheer, Korra felt a little warm inside. Looking at them next to each other, Zaheer only came to about her shoulders.
She turned towards Asami who already looking at her. Asami gave a quick glance at P'Li and Zaheer, then back at Korra and they both grinned. Then Asami gestured to the control room.
"Come on Bolin." She said.
"Where are we going?"
"Just come on."
AN: This chapter got rewritten so many times it drove me crazy. P'Li's prison break was originally very similar to canon but I wanted Korra to spend a little time with her before she got back to Zaheer.
There was another section with Mako but I got rid of it because it dragged the chapter out.
Originally Mako was going to go on Bolin's escape but then Bolin was doing absolutely nothing. It was more fun to write Bolin anyway.
I might write some small fics from other characters POVs to fill in the blanks. I'll post them on my tumblr arrownyficblog. I just started with tumblr so there isn't much there yet.