What had originally been a temporary arrangement quickly became a permanent one. Asami and Korra had been sleeping in the same room for several years. In that time, Korra had successfully graduated to become a Jedi Knight and she and Asami returned to Korra's home planet of New Alderaan as Korra had promised when she began her training. "mom!" Korra had cried when their spacecraft had landed on the dock, both Senna and Tonraq were waiting for their daughter with anxious smiles
"Korra!" Senna called and waved her over, Korra ran to give her mother a hug and her father, Tonraq picked both his wife and daughter up, crushing them in an impressive bear hug.
"my Jedi Knight" Tonraq's voice was filled with pride
"who's this?" Senna asked, she indicated Asami who stood there awkwardly
"Mom, dad, meet my roommate, Asami"
"hello, Asami" Senna flashed her a knowing smile
"nice to meet you, Asami...?"
"she prefers not to tell people her surname, dad" Korra said sternly
Tonraq immediately nodded and smiled, "if that's your choice. Although I'm curious, Korra, do you know?"
"yes" Korra looked down sadly, remembering the day that Asami had told her more about her past, about who she used to be, before she was abandoned to die
"Asami..." Senna gently wrapped her arms around Asami who's upper lip trembled. She was fighting to keep her emotions in check. "it's otay to cry, Asami" Senna soothed
"I... I don't want to"
"Because you might not be able to stop?" to Asami's surprise it was Tonraq that spoke
"Yes"
"Then let's go inside. We can have some tea and we can at least be comfortable"
"Yes, let's" Korra grabbed Asami's shoulder and steered her towards the massive house that was a short speeder journey away. "i prefer to walk" Korra whispered to Asami
"i can see why" Asami whispered back. She had grown up in the lap of luxury, yes, but even though her family had been one of the richest in the galaxy, she didn't havethis. Her mother loved to garden but she did the gardening herself and we a result only a small portion of their mansion's garden had been tended to by her mother, this, this was something else entirely, hill after hill of beautifully sculpted land with nearly every single variety of flower within a few miles of each other. "Mrs Aningan, this is gorgeous!"
"thank you, Asami" Senna smiled genuinely, "call me Senna, and my husband Tonraq, we don't stand for ceremony in our own house." she led Asami on a quick tour which in the end took several hours. While Asami and Senna were off looking through the flowers, Korra busied herself showing her father what she knew of Vaapad, the dangerous seventh form of lightsabre combat
*
Senna and any got back just as Korra moved into the final set of movements and was leaping around so quickly that they could barely see her. "spirits, Tonraq, she's fast" Senna commented
"she's a natural" Tonraq admitted. Korra finished her display with a massive quadruple backflip roll in which she first deflected imaginary blaster bolts while leaping backwards into the first backflip, she continued deflecting while she performed the second and third backflip before blocking an imaginary lightsabre halfway through the fourth. She slammed the lightsabre down into the ground, and in her mind, through an imaginary enemy before rolling away to lessen the impact of her landing. Finally, she flipped back on to her feet and used a blast of Jedi lightning to mark the finishing of her display.
"Korra!!" Asami whooped, "that was INCREDIBLE!!"
"Yes, what that girl said!" Tonraq cheered while Senna clapped until her hands hurt
"i invented that last move set myself" Korra admitted without pride
"I don't know what Master Beifong has been teaching you, Korra but that was incredible" Tonraq echoed Asami's description of Korra's performance
"actually, she hasn't been teaching me much the past few months" Korra admitted before she smiled at Asami. "come on, Asami, your turn"
"me?"
"yes, you"
"but..."
"you can do this!"
"Yes, Asami, we believe in you... You can do... Whatever it is"
*
"oh alright" Asami blushed, reached into her pack and pulled out a lightsabre, much to the surprise of Senna and Tonraq
"we didn't know you were a Jedi, Asami?"
"I'm not, not really, but Korra pestered Master Beifong until she gave her the go-ahead to train me in the ways of the lightsabre"
"i didn't realise that was even possible?"
"Of course it is... "Korra grinned quickly, "lightsabre usage isn'tall about the force, while that can come in handy in predicting your opponent's moves, the lightsabre is still a sword and a properly devoted, disciplined and trained non-force user can achieve a similar result. Like Asami"
"I'm not fully trained yet, Korra"
"neither am I?"
Asami rolled her eyes, "Senna, Tonraq, this girl..."
"Hey" Korra pouted
"it's true, you're closer to becoming a Master than any of the other Knights" Asami praised Korra, "even those who have been a Jedi twice as long as you"
"whatever, now get that blade ignited and let's go!" Korra enjoyed learning about the force, was naturally gifted at lightsabre and using the force, but, the one thing she enjoyed more than anything else was sharing what she had learnt with her own unofficial apprentice, Asami. Her change in demeanour was instantaneous, she had been smiling while practicing her own forms but now she was workingalongside Asami, that grin only increased in size and covered her entire face with joy. They fought seamlessly, while Asami struck, Korra blocked and vice versa. Korra was still the faster of the two, but then again she must've been cheating at some point. Tonraq noticed the glow, this time it was only there for about a second but Korra moved through the same set of movements she had earlier, this time with Asami at her side, and the older girl wasn't even sweating after keeping up with Korra for ten minutes of intensive lightsabre forms, they then brought their lightsabres crashing together and suddenly student and master were giving it their all in what could've easily been the battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan, or Yoda and Palpatine, the intensity of the speed of the blows, as well as the strength behind them were similar to those that Anakin and Obi-Wan had used in their duel on Mustafar. Asami and Korra wereperfect mirror images of one another, even though Asami wasn't a force-sensitive, she still knew exactly what to do to protect herself from Korra's myriad of blows, Korra was also able to block all of Asami's attacks even though they came in nearly as often as Korra's
"Holy... Shit" Tonraq muttered. He could see from their seamless no holds barred teamwork, Asami and Korra weremeant to be together.
"They're amazing" Senna commented, a member of staff hurried up with a pot of tea and stood slack jawed at the display on front of him
"Time!" Korra shouted and they both stopped fighting at the same time. Both put their lightsabres away and hugged
"that... Was incredible!" Tonraq shouted
"Wow, Asami, I never even knew that was possible"
"She's amazing, isn't she?" Korra exclaimed. Asami blushed at Korra's comment
"I wouldn't have ever been able to do this if it wasn't for you, Korra" Asami whispered, she took Korra's hand and kissed it
Korra sat back totally confused. "what?"
*
"Hey, Korra" Senna smiled at Korra. She wasn't surprised that her daughter was completely naïve in matters of love. She had heard how the Jedi tended to be towards the subject of love, even after Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker had married yet still not fallen to the dark side after falling in love, it had been her love for Luke that had saved her from the dark side. Even after that and several other individuals had got married, Han Solo and Leia, for example, love was still treated as a potential threat, at least to the younger generations of Jedi. "do you want me to explain, Asami?"
Asami blushed furiously but nodded slightly, "yes please"
"I think Asami has feelings for you, Korra"
"What?" Korra gasped and looked at Asami, who nodded timidly
"I do, Korra"
"I... I..."
"take your time, Korra" Senna had seen how Korra looked at Asami and knew the feelings were mutual but the one thing the Jedi do not teach is how to love
"i love you too, Asami" Korra whispered
"i know, Korra" Asami whispered and gently caressed the young Jedi's face, "i know you love me. I also know that the Jedi don't tend to teach their younger members until they are a lot older" Asami paused, unsure how much she should reveal before she thoughtah, fuck it and decided to continue, "i happen to know, Master Beifong and Master Kya are... Involved and before that it was Master Tenzin and Master Beifong"
"what?!" Korra couldn't help but snort in laughter, she couldn't imagine more of an incompatible pairing than those two. "'Master' Air Head and Master Cranky Pants?" she didn't like Tenzin one bit so she spoke with derision but she affectionately called her master the same nickname as she did when they first started working together
"Master Cranky Pants and Master Air Head had two children before Air Head left Beifong for Pema" Pema was originally hired help to allow the Jedi to fulfil their duties while not worrying about the children, both the orphans and the younglings. She had began working at the Jedi Temple twelve years beforehand, when Korra was only five.
"WHAT?!" Korra yelped, "no wonder those two rarely see eye to eye... I thought Jinora and Ikki were Pema's?"
"Lin was away recovering after an injury and by the time she got back, Tenzin and Pema had got together, adopted them and sent them away to train at a remote location with one of the Jedi Knights both Pema and Tenzin trusted. I think Cranky Pants accepted her children were gone a long time ago." Pema and Tenzin had quickly got to know one another and soon after Ikki was born, Jinora only being nine months older, Lin Beifong was wounded in the line of duty and had then been gone without contact for four months. This had been the time when Tenzin and Pema made their move
"i can't believe this!? I knew Air Head was on a slippy slope but I'd never thought he'd slip so far down that path!" Korra exclaimed, knowing full well what this could mean.
*
"Sorry to interrupt, Ma'am Aningan and Master Aningan" a gardener's voice has interrupted Korra, "but we found a crashed escape pod out deep in the garden"
"And...?" Tonraq replied quickly, eager to get rid of this man
"and the scanners show two children inside" the man replied, "both aged about thirteen or fourteen"
"What?!" Korra looked at him intensely
"show us!" Asami yelled
It took them a good four hours to cut their way through to the pod. "Fuck" Asami panted, both she and Korra had volunteered to go to the pod since their lightsabres would be able to make quicker work of the vines. They broke through the final barrier and saw that the pod was still sealed, which didn't bode well. "shit" Asami hissed, and, igniting her lightsabre once again she sliced her way through the pod. What she saw next made her wince, two young girls were slumped in a pile on the ceiling of the pod which had become the floor when it crash landed. They were injured and unconscious
"Wonder how long these two... Hey..."
"What, Korra?"
"These two are Jedi! By the looks of it they're both Padawan learners but I've never seen these symbols before" she indicated the symbol on their robes, a red lotus symbol and she tried to makes sense of it. She lifted the girls out of the pod and placed them on the ground to await air rescue
"w... Where am I?" the older girl stuttered.
"You're safe, I'm Korra Aningan and this is Asami, I'm a Jedi" Korra didn't expect the girl to recoil from her and reach for her lightsabre. "what are your names?" she repeated
The young girl, although injured, activated her blood red lightsabre and brandished it at the women. "stay away from me and my sister, Dharini!"
"And what's your name?"
"Dhatri"
Korra pondered why the girls looked familiar before she realised who they were. "Jinora...? Ikki...?"
"Those names are forbidden"
"what do you mean?!"
"We are members of the Red Lotus"
"don't you recognise me?"
"Should I?" the little girl's voice was filled with venom
"I'm Korra, your friend!"
"Korra?" Ikki whispered before Jinora hit her arm
"Yes"
"Korra!!" Ikki rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Korra's leg while Jinora rolled her eyes
"you're hugging the enemy, Ikki"
"Don't you remember her? She is our friend, not our enemy"
"i will do what I must then" Jinora leveled her lightsabre at her sister
"Jin!"
"you're not my sister anymore, Dharini"
"very well" Ikki triggered her lightsabre and prepared to defend herself
"Girls!" Korra exclaimed, "think what you're doing!"
"fuck off, Jedi"
"Jinora, Dhatri" Korra yelled, getting the younger girl's attention even though she was sneering and looking at Korra with hatred
"What?!"
"you've been lied to your whole life" Korra's voice was stable and calm, but she knew this was her last chance to reach Jinora before she and her sister faced off.
"What do you mean?"
"Jinora, Pema wasn't your mother, and you weren't sent away to benefit you"
"Lies!"
"Please, let me finish"
"Fine"
"your mother is Lin Beifong and your father sent you away to keep you both for himself."
"What?!" Ikki screeched, "that can't be right!"
"Actually..." Jinora pondered, "that explains why our eyes are green while Meelo's and probably Rohan's are grey"
"Yea" Korra whispered, "please, Jin, put the lightsabre away and at least give me the chance to prove what I'm saying"
"fine" Jinora disengaged her lightsabre and sat back. "prove it"
"Right, we'll take you both back to my home and we can call your mother"
"very well"
Korra carried Ikki while Asami carried Jinora. "we found them" Korra called to her parents, "Lin's kids"
"what are the chances?" Tonraq commented, "I'll go contact Lin right away"