Part II
Pabu licks my face and I wake up. "What is it, boy?" I ask him.
He turns his head in the direction of Mako's bed. It's empty. Ninety-nine percent of the time Mako gets up earlier than me, except this time it's three a.m. and if there wasn't trouble, my trusty fire ferret wouldn't have bothered me about it. I pet his back. "Thanks, Pabu."
I quickly put on my clothes and dash out of the air temple. When I reach the doors, Tenzin is standing in front of them.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asks.
"Okay, first of all, why the heck are you awake this early in the morning?" I ask the Air Nomad.
"I'm always awake at three a.m. I do tai chi and meditate about how attractive Lin – I mean, my wife, is," he explains.
"Weird," I say. "So anyway, the reason I'm up is because Pabu was licking my face and then Mako wasn't in bed and I—"
"That's enough," Tenzin says. "Let's go find your brother."
We search high and low for an hour. "Secret tunnel, secret tunnel, through the mountain. Secret secret secret secret tunnel yeah!" I sing.
"Please, don't sing," Tenzin says.
"Sorry, I had that song stuck in my head since we started searching. I don't know why, though," I explain.
"Wait a moment! Secret tunnel… through the mountain… BRAIN BLAST!" Tenzin shouts.
"Brain blast?" I ask.
Tenzin gasps. "You never saw Jimmy Neutron?!"
"What's that?"
"It's only the best NickToon other than Avatar!"
"NickToon?"
"It was before your time."
This guy's crazy. "Okay then. So what was your 'brain blast'?"
"Oh yeah. We should look in Hiroshi Sato's secret tunnel."
"Okay."
We walk to the former Equalist's workshop and go down the secret door leading to the secret tunnel. Tenzin stays upstairs and stands guard.
"That's what you get for messing with Asami Sato."
I am speechless. I can't move from where I stand. This is worse than when Mako and Korra kissed. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Korra beaten and bruised, presumably dead as well. Asami turns around.
"Oh shit," she mutters. "Bolin, this isn't what it looks like!" Asami tosses the gun behind her.
I still can't talk. I am overwhelmed with so many emotions at once. Sadness for the death my brother and best friend/love of my life, fury at Asami, hatred for Asami, horror at Asami's actions, and loneliness because now Pabu is all I have. This must have been how Mako felt when he witnessed that mugger kill Mom and Dad. I run.
"Bolin, what's going on? What's down there?" Tenzin asks me.
I ignore him. I keep running until I am on the front yard of the Sato mansion and trip. I stay on the ground and start crying. Tenzin kneels down and puts his hand on my back.
"Bolin, what happened?" he asks.
"Asami's down there," I tell him. "She… she-she killed…"
"Spit it out, Bolin. Who did she kill?"
"SHE KILLED MAKO AND KORRA!" I shout. I break down and start crying again.
Tenzin gasps. "What?!"
I sniffle and look up at him. "Do I really need to say it again?"
"No, no, I heard you the first time. I'm just surprised. I didn't think she would take such extreme measures."
"You better be more than just surprised! Korra and Mako are f***ing dead!"
"No need for such strong language."
"Shut up, Tenzin! Why are you focused on my language when your student and friend, not to mention she's the goddamn Avatar, was just MURDERED by some snobby rich girl who was jealous of her relationship with my brother? Oh yeah, by the way, SHE KILLED HIM TOO! I SAW HER SHOOT HIM WITH MY OWN EYES!" The tears are uncontrollable. I can barely breathe anymore.
Tenzin rubs my back and gently shushes me. "Calm down, Bolin. Right now, I think it is best to take you back to the air temple. We'll let the police handle the homicides."
"No! I want to kill Asami! I want her to pay for her terrible misdeeds!"
"No, you need to grieve in a much less violent way."
"SCREW GRIEVING! ASAMI'S GOING TO BURN IN HELL!" I jump to my feet and make a mad dash for the workshop. Tenzin chases after me, shouting my name, but I don't care. He's much too old to catch up with me.
"Asami Sato," I say when I reach the death place of my two best friends. "You are as horrible a person as your father!" I use the metalbending techniques Lin has been teaching me to throw a piece of the wall at her.
She gasps. "You wouldn't."
"But I just did," I say with a smirk.
Asami pulls out her gun and shoots at me. I narrowly dodge the bullet and metalbend an armor suit around me.
"Bu-bu-but how?" Asami stutters in confusion. "These walls are made of platinum! You can't metalbend platinum!"
"Well, obviously, I can."
She shoots more bullets but I dodge most of them and the ones I don't just bounce off my metal suit. Eventually Asami runs out of bullets, but I don't run out of metal. She gasps, then shouts, "Oh HELL naw!"
"Oh hell yes," I respond. I use some metal from my armor and bind her with it. I make the platinum squeeze her tighter and tighter so she can't breathe. I'm about to kill her when Tenzin runs in, dress – I mean, 'traditional Air Nomad clothing' flapping. The old geezer's out of breath.
"Stop – right – there – Bolin," he says while trying to catch his breath.
I let her go, but keep her confined with the metal. "Tenzin, she's a murderer. She just shot at me like, seven times."
"I know, but if you kill her, you're in a lot of trouble as well," Tenzin points out. "Let the police take care of it. By now she's probably getting the death penalty."
"Okay," I say. "But if she does get the death penalty, I wanna be the one to kill her."
"That could be arranged." Tenzin reaches his arm out to me. "Now come on, the cops are on their way."
Tenzin takes me back to the air temple. I go back to the room Mako and I have been sharing, sit on my bed, and cry again. Pabu tries to comfort me but his efforts are in vain. I look over at Mako's bed and see Dad's red scarf hanging off the side of it. After Mom and Dad died, Mako only took it off to sleep. It was the last thing of our parents we had left. Now, it's the last thing of my entire family I have left.
Everyone I love is gone. Why can't I be with them? Wait a minute, that's genius! I can be with them! I bid Pabu a final farewell and open the window. I prepare to jump out, end it all, to be with my family and Korra, until someone opens the door.
"Bolin, I have something to tell y—WHAT IN THE NAME OF AANG ARE YOU DOING?!" Tenzin shouts. He runs across the room and pulls my away from the windowsill.
"Tenzin, everyone I love is dead. Mako, my parents, even Korra. I have nothing left to live for. Please, let me join them," I tell Tenzin.
"No, I will not let you end your own life. I came up here to tell you that Asami attacked the police officers that came to arrest her and escaped. I must go because they requested some backup, but I am going to bring some Air Acolytes up here to make sure you don't do anything stupid."
The Acolytes stand guard outside my door and in front of the windows. Tenzin forbids me from leaving the room until further notice. I wish I was out there looking for Asami. I want to put her to justice.
Author's Note:
I forgot halfway through the fight scene that Hiroshi's workshop was made of platinum and you can't metalbend that. :P So I guess Bolin's a very good metalbender. Or Lin's a very good teacher. Probably the latter.
