Alina walked through the door of her small new home. It was smaller than what she was used to, but who could complain when it sheltered the rain off of her head. She shut the door behind her, walking from room to room, searching for her mother, who obviously wasn't there. She was surprised that it was already dusk and there was no presence of her mother in the hallways. She then strode over to her bedroom and fell backwards onto the soft bed. She closed her eyes for a moment, remembering everything and everyone she had encountered for the day.
Korra, the new Avatar. Mako and Bolin, brothers that excelled in bending fire and earth; and she knew that it would be best to avoid all three of them as much as possible. Alina brought her hand up from her side and placed it in front of her face as she flashed her eyes opened. She continued to stare at it, wondering that maybe, just maybe, one day she wouldn't have to hide behind false pretenses. She loved being herself more than anything, but she loved her mother more. She sucked in a quick breath when she thought about her mother and everything that she had done for her. Who wouldn't respect their mother's only request? Alina would make sure to live by it, even if it means to lose her own self respect.
Narrowing her brows, she heard a creaking sound coming from the other room and she quickly sat up. She shot a baleful stare in the direction of the sound and to her surprise; her mother poked her head in.
"Darling, I just wanted to make sure that you were here." Her mother said with a gleeful expression upon her face.
"Where were you?"
"Oh. I was over at Tenzin's house." Her mother said, averting her gaze to the floor. "I didn't know the Avatar was here in Republic City and under Tenzin's care. But I guess there's nothing to do but to avoid her."
Alina tried to keep a straight face, only because she knew that her mother would flip if she mentioned anything about meeting Korra today. She shook her head, "yes ma'am. I know. I'm not allowed to associate with the Avatar."
"That's my girl. So where did you go today?"
"No where really." Alina lied. "I just went over to view the Fire Lord's statue."
"Alina!" her mother snapped. "I told you to avoid that statue like the plague. Why did you disobey me?"
Alina took a deep breath inward as she wiped a hand over her face, "Mother, look. If you keep trying to control my every thought and move, all that will do is make me hide things from you."
Her mother stared at her in awe. She raised a hand, covering her mouth, before she turned and left the room. Alina shook her head and quickly got to her feet. She didn't need this right now and she wouldn't continue bowing to her mother's negativity. She walked over to her dresser drawer that sat on the opposite side of her room and opened the top drawer. Removing a pair of pants and a big T-shirt, she changed and then crawled into bed.
The next morning, Alina woke up early and wandered out of her bedroom. Rubbing her sleepy eyes, noticing that her mother was nowhere to be found. "Mother? Are you here?"
When only silence echoed her back, she knew that her mother was back over at Tenzin's and probably wouldn't be back for hours. She plopped down in a chair, glancing up to the ceiling. She drew in a breath and then exhaled it in one smooth motion as she crossed her legs. She closed her eyes and pressed her lower torso against the chair until she got to her feet. She slowly opened her eyes and walked back to her room to change into her normal attire. Staring at herself in the mirror, she came to the terms that she wasn't beautiful at all. Dressed in a fire nation attire with her black hair tied back into a ponytail with long ringlets that laid against her shoulders. She narrowed her green hues, noticing that her faint blue eye shadow was just that…faint. Again, she drew a breath inward and then headed for the door for town.
She wandered through the streets observing the bystanders and the shops. She cut her eyes over to a group of citizens that were trash talking about the Avatar. She rolled her eyes and pressed forward. The last thing she needed was to get involved with a raging war between benders and non-benders. Before too long, dusk fell across the sky and she found herself standing in front of the Fire Lord statue. The flame burning in his hand reminded her of her new found friends, Mako, Bolin, and Korra. She quickly turned around and saw Korra and Mako, riding on a polar bear dog.
"Hey Alina. What are you doing out here?" Korra asked, gripping the reins around her pet, bring it to a halt.
"Oh, nothing. Just admiring the Fire Lord."
"Have you seen my brother?" Mako asked as he jumped off her the animal.
"Nice to see you too, but no, I haven't seen Bolin since the either day. Why? Is everything OK?"
Ignoring her, Mako approached a kid and found out that Bolin had left with a guy named Shady Shin to do some business with the Triple Threat Triad. Both, Korra and Mako, darted for the polar bear dog and then jumped onto it.
"Alina, are you coming?" Korra yelled over her shoulder. "If so, jump on Naga's back and hold on to Mako."
Mako shot Korra a baleful stare, however, Alina could have cared less. She jumped on to Naga's back and wrapped her arms around Mako's waist. "Let's go. We have to save Bolin, quickly."
Naga whipped her body around and followed Korra's directions from the reigns. Mako pointed to the normal hangout and all three jumped off of Naga's back. Noticing that the front was empty, Korra kicked down the door and Mako and Alina followed her closely. Alina cut her eyes from left to right, glaring at the overturned furniture. To her, it seemed like the raid had already taken place and that they were a step behind.
The roar of engines came in from outside and Alina and her friends duck out the back door, seeing only Bolin gagged in the back of a truck caused rage and worry to overwhelm each of them. Alina fell back and jumped onto Naga's back, figuring that Korra would call for her and chase after them. Being right, Korra and Mako joined her on the polar bear dog's back and chased after the bikes and the truck, that is, until two bikes swirled and turned around and threw a cord, allowing it to wrap around Naga's legs. Being flung from Naga's back, Korra and Mako land inches away, allowing the enemy to come closer. As a fight urges between Korra, Mako and the two other masked men, Korra and Mako ends up getting their chi blocked and became unable to bend. One of the men approached Alina with raised hands; however, she took two steps backwards, "No need to chi-block me. Just bound my hands!"
With that, the man bound her hands together and threw her against Naga. Alina narrowed her hues as she looked down to Naga's bondage and reached for them with her own bound hands.
Moments later, Naga broke free and jumped in front of her owner, along with Pabu, scaring the enemy away. Alina rubbed her wrists, glancing down to see the red lines where her bonds cut deeply into her flesh. Learning about, Amon, Korra glanced over to Alina, and gestured her to come closer. Alina did so, and leaned in so she could hear her without allowing Mako to.
"We are going to search for Bolin. Are you going to come?" Korra asked, sliding a hand through her hair.
"I can't. I have to head home. But…"Alina slid a hand into one of her pockets and took a piece of paper out and jotted down her living arrangements with a pen that she had found earlier that day. "If you get a lead, you can find me here. I would join you, but my mother is…strict."
Korra nodded, "OK. If we get anything, we will come and get you."
Alina was finally home, and before her, was her mother with an aggravated expression upon her face. She knew that her mother would yell at her about her absence, but who could blame her? One of her friends was missing and she could do nothing to assist in finding him.
"Alina! Where were you!"
"Mother calm down." Alina said, trying to reassure her mother that there was nothing to worry about. "I met a friend the other day, and he went missing today. I was trying to help his brother find him."
"Darling…I'm so sorry to hear that…but you know better than to get involved with…such…people."
"Mother! I'm not better than anyone! Just because you don't want anyone to know about me, doesn't mean you can keep them away from me!"
Alina's mother narrowed her eyes as she took a step closer to her daughter. She placed a firm hand against her shoulder, "Darling…I just don't want anything to happen to you like what happened to your father."
Alina shook her head and stomped out of the house and walked over to a tree that sheathed the house from the sinking sun's rays. She glanced upward, mentally measuring the distance from her to the nearest tree branch. When she got the approximate distance, she reached forward with both arms and jumped upward; grabbing hold of the branch and pulling herself up. Once she was sitting on the branch, she peered over to the next highest branch and then continued to do the pull up motion until she sat perched up on the second highest branch in the tree. She drew a deep breath inward and then exhaled it in three small spurts and then turned her attention to the people below.
Sometimes she wished she could be a normal teenager without all of the secrets, but if anyone found out about her, she knew that, not only she would be in danger, but everyone that she had ever loved. She leaned backwards, resting her head against the trunk of the tree, averting her gaze from the small amounts of sun's rays. The last thing she needed right now was to go blind by staring at the sun for too long. The sun finally set and Alina came to the conclusion that Mako and Korra didn't have any luck thus far on Bolin's location. She felt her eyes getting heavy and before too long, she fell asleep.
Alina felt the warm sensation of the sun beaming down onto her cheeks and her eyes flashed open. She peered around, noticing that she slept in the tree the entire night. She quickly climbed down and headed for town when she ran into Mako and Korra. They handed her a flyer and left. She figured that they had a hint that Bolin was being held captive there. She turned and walked back home, changing into a less attraction outfit and headed for the location. She knew that if all three of them went to the event, they would have a bigger chance in finding Bolin.
By the time she arrived to the destination, and was stopped by rough looking man.
"This is a private event." The man said, folding his arms over his chest, "No one gets in without an invitation."
Alina fumbled around in her pockets and pulled out the flyer and showed it to the man, "This is it, correct?"
"Welcome my sister. The revelation is upon us."
She walked past him, rolling her eyes. She made her way through the crowd and found Mako and Korra; however, she decided to keep her distance for the moment. Her attention was drawn to center stage, where a man hidden behind a mask and an army-style cloak was pronounced as the leader known as Amon. He discussed how bending brought suffering to the world and that he had a power to permanently chi-block bending. Taken back by his statement, Alina forced her way through the crowd until she was beside Mako. Her eyes widen when four people filled the stage, one of them being Bolin. This Amon guy was about to demonstrate how to take a person's bending away and Bolin was one of the test subjects.
Alina gasped when she saw a girl walk from the corner of the stage and grabbed hold of the guy known as Lighting Bolt Zolt. She placed a hand over her mouth when she realized exactly who she was. Her body began to shake slightly, which Mako caught on to.
"What is it?" he asked, concern somewhat in his voice.
"T-that's…m-my…s-sister…"