Welcome back to Revenge of the Red Lotus! I would like to thank you for reading this story this far. It means a lot to me. I hope you've liked it, because I've enjoyed writing it. But let's get on to the story. Quick recap: a mysterious assailant in a mecha suit attacked President Raiko's office building and escaped capture. Raiko is alright but unconscious and Mako suffered injuries rescuing the President. Both his arms are injured, so he can't Firebend right now (or can he?). At the same time, Juicy, with Jinora, Kai, and Ikki riding, have gone missing. Tenzin is torn apart by their mysterious disappearance. That's about all you need to know for this chapter. Go!

-Darthlane

Chapter 4

Jinora

Jinora woke up shivering. It was cold. Why was it so cold? She opened her eyes and saw frozen trees covered with snow. The trees were familiar, but strange at the same time. Jinora was confused. Wasn't she in Republic City? She didn't remember going to either of the poles, where this kind of weather was normally found. She got up awkwardly, as her right arm felt like it had been chewed on by canyon crawlers, and looked around. It looked like one of the parks found in Republic City, but it was snowing. Jinora couldn't remember it ever snowing in Republic City. What was going on?

As she turned around she noticed a giant mound of white and grey fur. She realized that it was Pepper. The sky bison was sprawled in the snow, unconscious. "Pepper!" She cried.
As she ran to her bison she suddenly remembered what had happened. Kai, Ikki, and herself had been riding on Pepper in the sky to something... What was it? The fire! President Raiko's office building had been on fire, and they had been on their way to help.

"It's okay, Pepper. Are you hurt?" She checked the massive animal and found that he was bleeding in the stomach. It looked pretty bad but Jinora knew it was actually a small injury for a bison. She was pretty sure he would be alright. But just to be sure she took some bandages out of the bag she kept in Pepper's saddle and patched up the injury.

But where were Ikki and Kai? Shouldn't they be around here too? They had been with her on the flight to Raiko's building, but they seemed to be missing now. Jinora looked around for her sister and her boyfriend as her memories continued to return.

Flashback: They had been flying, but then suddenly a large chunk of ice flew by Pepper. They had been under attack, and the attacks were way too close for comfort. Jinora had acted fast, pulling Pepper's reins to the side to swerve sharply. Another giant ball of ice flew into the air where Pepper had been before, but since Pepper had moved away this one missed wildly. Pepper's evasiveness was working for now.

Apparently the Waterbender realized that they needed to be faster to hit the bison. Smaller ice blocks shot into the air, sacrificing power for speed. They were still large enough to do serious damage to Pepper if they connected and were considerably easier to aim. The enemy's change of strategy worked. One the attacks struck Pepper in the belly. The bison let out a roar of pain and plummeted to the ground. He landed with a crash and all three passengers were thrown off.

Jinora remembered how terrified she was as she flew. She knew that she shouldn't have been, she was after all an Airbender, but she couldn't help it. Her fear had blocked any thoughts of using her bending. She had collided painfully into the ground.

Her vision was blacking out, but before she fell to the darkness she saw a figure approaching. It was a small girl, probably no older than twelve or thirteen years old. The girl had short red hair and wore a wide grin on her face. It was strange to see a small girl here, but that was nowhere near as strange as what was happening to everything around her. As she walked there was an air of coldness around her, as though she were ice in human form. Jinora's vision must have been playing tricks on her, but she could have sworn that the trees, shrubbery, and grass were freezing solid as the girl passed. End

Jinora shuddered at the memory. She had never felt so helpless. Not when Zaheer had poisoned her friend Korra, not when Amon had captured her family, not even when Unalaq had held her hostage in the Spirit World. She didn't ever want to feel that way again.

She looked around for Kai and Ikki. "Kai! Ikki!" She called out. "Where are you?" There was no answer, just the soft breathing of Pepper. Not even the little girl was there Jinora had seen was there. She started growing worried. "Kai? Ikki? Please answer! Please!" She hugged Pepper. At least she had him.

She realized that they would have been thrown off in the same direction she had been. They couldn't have been far from where she had woken up. She rushed over to the spot she had woken up at, desperate to find them. She looked all over bit couldn't find either her sister or her boyfriend. Just snow. Endless snow.

"No no no no no." She whimpered, tears starting to stream out. "You have to be here, you just have to. Ikki! Where are you? K-Kai!" She sat down in the snow and wept. They couldn't be gone. They just couldn't. She had almost let despair take over when she saw a small bit of brown sticking out of the white snow a few yards away. She gasped. Could it really be?

She ran to the small patch of brown and it was exactly what she had hoped it was: hair. Jinora cleared out the snow to reveal Kai's unconscious and bruised face. She was still crying, but it was tears of joy. She had found Kai. After she made sure he was still breathing Jinora laughed lightly, still crying. "Thank the spirits I found you." She kissed his forehead and dragged him out of the snow. But what she saw made her cry out in shock.

Kai's body from the chest down was completely frozen in a block of ice. He was trapped and probably freezing. Jinora now had little doubt that the girl she had seen was the Waterbender that had attacked them. But why had she frozen Kai like this? Had they fought? Why hadn't the girl finished them off when she beat him? Where was Ikki?

Jinora knew she had to break Kai out quickly or he would freeze to death. She looked around for something to break him open with. The only blunts object she could see were tree branches. They looked brittle and Jinora doubted they would do much against the thick ice.
Jinora wondered briefly if her Airbending powers could work, but she doubted it. Air blasts and gust of wind weren't exactly brute force. They would do little to break Kai's icy prison. Jinora sighed inwardly. For the first time in her young life, Jinora wished she hadn't been born an Airbender. The irony that if she had been a bender of any of the other elements- fire, water, or earth- she could have saved Kai already. As an Airbender she was helpless. She silently cursed the universe and its messed up sense of humor.

What could she possibly do? She had no way of freeing Kai, and if he didn't get out soon he would die. She didn't even know how long he had been frozen like this. It could have been hours. Jinora had to hurry and find a way to free him or he might not make it. She had to find a way.

At the same time she needed to find Ikki. Her sister was still missing and that frightened Jinora. Jinora hoped her sister was somewhere close by, because she couldn't leave Kai alone to perish. But if Ikki wasn't nearby, if she had escaped or been captured or something, then Jinora couldn't find her sister. Horrible possibilities flashed through her mind, every bad ending she could think of. She didn't know what she would do if any of them came to pass.

What broke her heart was that to save either Kai or Ikki meant abandoning the other. If she tried searching for Ikki then she left Kai to freeze to death. If she tried to help Kai then she would have to give up looking for Ikki. A lose-lose situation.

How could she possibly choose? She couldn't leave her boyfriend to die. But she also couldn't abandon her sister. She could be freezing just like Kai and Jinora knew she couldn't just forget about her sister. Jinora wondered what her father would do in this situation. She knew he would probably take the safest, most logical decision. Which one was that?

Jinora knew what she had to do. She knew that if she left Kai, he would certainly die here. But she didn't know where Ikki was. She could very well be somewhere safe. Jinora had to make sure that the most immediate crisis was solved. She hated to do it, but she would have to choose Kai over Ikki.

But how would she save him? She had no way to break open the ice and get him to help. What she needed was someone else who could. She could try using her spirit projection to go contact her dad and the others. Kya was a Waterbender, and Mako was a Firebender. They should be able break Kai free, but Jinora had to hurry. She got into a meditative stance and took a deep breath. Then she let her mind go.

Bolin

Bolin couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy in his heart as he watched Tenzin weep. Bumi and Kya tried to comfort him, but it didn't appear to be working at all. And who could blame him? He just found out that his children were missing. That was impossible for anyone to deal with, even a powerful and wise Airbending Master like Tenzin.

"We have to tell him." Bolin said sadly to Opal. "I want to give him his space right now but we need him to see what we saw. They need to know what were up against."

"We can't." Opal answered. "You see him, right? We can't spring this on Tenzin right now. Let him be. You will only make things worse if you try to mess with him."

"Fine." Bolin said exasperatedly. "But if not Tenzin then who do we show? We have to show someone what's up there!"

"Show who what?" Mako asked, interjecting into the conversation. "What are you guys talking about?"

"We saw something on top of the building." Opal said. "Something big. We need Tenzin to see it, but he's kind of busy right now." She glanced sadly at her Airbending teacher.

"What about Chief Beifong?" Mako offered. "You could show her."

"Aunt Lin!" Opal exclaimed. "Of course!" The trio made their way through the bustling crowd to the chief of police.

Lin was currently directing police officers to places in need of help. "You! Go check on that woman over there. I want every injury accounted for and make sure to get some information out of her. I want as much info about this mecha guy as I can get. You two! Go back inside the building. We need to make sure everyone is out of there and that every last hazard is taken care of."

"Aunt Lin!" Opal called. "We need you!"

Lin turned to face them, an annoyed expression on her face. "Can't you see I'm busy? And what are you doing here Mako? I thought I made it pretty clear you are to get out of the field of duty."

Mako looked like he wanted to answer but held back his tongue. Arguing and angry comments wouldn't help him get his job back any faster. Instead Bolin answered, "We're really sorry to bother you Aunt L- I mean, ma'am, but there is something you really need to see."

"What is it this time?" Lin asked with a frown.

"It's uh, a flower?" Bolin said. Lin gave him a weird look and Opal slapped her forehead.

"I don't think my niece would like that too much, kid." Lin remarked.

"I didn't mean it like that!" Bolin said frantically, waving his arms. "I'm sorry, Aunt- I mean Chief Beifong!"

"Just shut up Bolin." Opal told her boyfriend. She turned her attention back to Lin."What he means is that there is something you need to see. It's on top of President Raiko's building."

"What is it?" Lin asked.

Bolin was about to answer but Opal cut him off before he could make things worse. "You wouldn't believe us if we told you. Trust me, you're going to want to see it."

Lin sighed. "Fine. Just make it quick. I still have a lot of work to do."

They made their way through the crowd of police officers, healers, media, and office workers. They reached Juicy and began climbing on. As Lin passed Juicy's face the oft-sickly bison sneezed. A wave of snot crashed over Lin who gave out a scream. "You overgrown cow!" She shouted. "You couldn't have waited two seconds to do that?" The three young adults had to hold Lin back before she tried to use her Metalbending on Juicy.

Opal used her Airbending to clean off her aunt and apologized for Juicy. "He didn't mean anything by it. He just can't help it sometimes."

"I'm sitting in the back." Lin grumbled as she got rid of the last of Juicy's snot. "I want to be as far away from that leaky head of his as I can."

With all of them seated and ready to go, Juicy took off. Bolin took one last look back at Tenzin. The man was still weeping for his lost daughters. Tenzin, who was always wise and calm in the face of the darkest times, had finally been broken. Not even the beating Zaheer and the rest of the Red Lotus had dealt to him had done this much damage. At that moment Bolin would have traded anything just to get Jinora, Ikki, and Kai back. Anything.

Tenzin

How could this have happened? That question kept repeating like never ending torture in his mind. With it was images, moments that had never happened but his mind conjured all too easy. His girls screaming in fear. Horribly injured. Pain showing all too well in their eyes. Disfigured beyond all recognition. And worst of all, lifeless. That was the one image that kept coming back no matter how hard he tried to push it away. He couldn't make it stop, would do anything to make it stop. How could this have happened?

All the while he could hear voices in the background. Kya, telling him everything would be alright. A lie. Bumi, saying that Jinora, Ikki, and Kai were all perfectly okay, just sidetracked. Another lie. Even Meelo, boldly saying that nothing would stop him from ripping Republic City apart until he found his sisters. Just another lie like the others.

Tenzin just sat on the cold pavement, sobbing into his knees. He couldn't pay the real world any attention. Not when he couldn't escape from the nightmare inside his mind. He appreciated what Bumi, Kya and his son Meelo were trying to do, but he wasn't ready. For now at least, he was lost to them.

Because of this, Tenzin didn't notice the cries of shock from the crowd. He didn't notice the excited, awed whispers and the path they made for the new arrival. He didn't even notice when Bumi cried out the name of the person who approached Tenzin. But he did notice when that person called softly to him, "Dad?"

His eyes flew open and he was on his feet with the speed that only a Master Airbender could attain. There she was, right in front of him. His daughter. Jinora. Glowing blue and disembodied like the spirits, but it was her. Jinora.

"Jinora." he croaked. "You're alive." He wanted so bad to hug her, to hold her close and never let go. To protect her for all eternity. But she was just a projection. She was still out of reach.

"Yes, Dad." She said with a quiver in her voice. "But I need you. If we don't get to Kai quick, he could die." She turned to Kya. "Kai needs you in particular. Only you can save him."

There was a new steel in Tenzin's mind. With an internal roar, he ripped away all the dark thoughts that had plagued his mind. He had a mission now. To save Ikki and Kai and to never let them be endangered ever again. "Let's go save them." He ordered. "Lead the way."

Lin

Opal steered Juicy to higher and higher altitudes so that they could see the roof of the office building. Lin gripped the hard leather of the saddle nervously as they got higher. She didn't like heights all that much. It was okay if she was in an airship or atop a tall building. But this was ridiculous. How was she supposed to keep from falling of things got crazy? If the bison decided for some reason to flip over there was nothing to keep all of them from plummeting to their deaths. That was all good and well for the Airbenders, but Lin and the rest of the world could not fly. In her opinion every time she rode a sky bison she risked her very life.

They finally got higher than President Raiko's office. Opal made Juicy cruise in a big circle so they could get a good view of whatever the stupid thing was her niece wanted to show her.

What they saw surprised Lin to her very core.

It was a giant symbol that was made entity of flames. How someone had made this symbol in flames Lin had no idea. Maybe it was the mecha wearing terrorist that Lin had hears about. He was supposed to have a laser cannon or something. It was likely that this was his work.

But what was far more interesting was the symbol itself. It covered the whole roof, and it was, as Bolin had told her, a flower. Lin remembered seeing it for her entire life. She especially remembered seeing it when a group of old people had dropped by to visit her mother while Lin was still very young. They had all worn that flower on their clothes and had all kept a small token with the flower painted on with them at all times. She even remembered one of the old men, the youngest of the group that carried a sword and a dry sense of humor, giving her one of the tokens and telling her not to lose it. If she remembered correctly, it was still hidden in her apartment at the bottom of her sock drawer.

It was the symbol of the White Lotus. But it seemed off. Different. It was definitely the right symbol, but it now seemed more sinister, as though it were a dark parody of the original. In the light of the fire it almost seemed red.

"The Red Lotus." Lin said in shock. "It can't be. We captured Zaheer, and the others are dead. It can't be them." She remembered very clearly the enemies she had fought three years ago. The flying Airbender, the armless Waterbender, the lava-wielding Earthbender, and the scariest of the bunch, the Firebender that the same Combustion ability that her mother Toph had told her about as a scary story many years before. They were gone. It couldn't be them. Could it?

"I hope you're right." Opal said, the flames reflecting off of her bright green eyes. The symbol of the Red Lotus burned brightly in the dark night, possibly a signal for darker times ahead. Republic City no longer seemed like a city recovering from a disaster to Lin. It now seemed like a broken host that a disease was slowly creeping into, leeching out whatever life it could from it before the host was dead. Lin could only hope that she was wrong about this. She would have never been happier to been wrong.

Boom! Enter Red Lotus! They have sent their message, and now our heroes know that hard times lie ahead. What will they do next? Can Tenzin and the others save Kai? Where is Ikki? Find out in the next chapter! But while you're waiting, go ahead and favorite, follow, and review! Also be sure to check out my other story, Dragon of the West. It's about Iroh before Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I think you guys would like it. And of course, don't forget to turn to the dark side (we have cookies!)

-Darthlane