Chapter 10

My dear successor,

I am old. So very, very old. I might not look it, but I feel it in my bones, my blood. My hands shake even as I write and I can feel my thoughts wander more frequently. I can no longer enter the Avatar state. I feel stretched, like butter spread over too much bread. It might be my battles that sapped me, spirits know there have been so many of those. Or it may have been my extended stasis in the Avatar state that sapped me off my life force.

Either way, as I add what might be one of my last entries to this journal on this 64th year of my life, or perhaps it is the 164th year should one consider my time on ice, I cannot help but wish that I had more time to experience the physical world in all its splendor. I have seen much during my short time in my current incarnation. I've watched mountains being created, glaciers melting and volcanoes erupting and so much else. Yet, of all the phenomena that I've witnessed and experienced, none can claim to be more awe inspiring moment than viewing the astounding endurance of the human spirit. I write not of one's chi, the cosmic energy that allows life to exist in the two realms we know off. No, here I speak of one's essence, their grit, their will.

This tale begins in the fourth month of the year 152 AG. 'Twas an early summer's day last year when the Republic City Council received word from young Izumi of trouble in one of the southern provinces of the Fire Nation. With a heavy heart, I closed up my jewelery store for the weekend and set off on Appa to quell the most recent uprising of Earthbender extremists who wanted retribution for the actions of the self titled Phoenix King Ozai during the 100 year war. Upon my arrival, I noticed with some degree of satisfaction, that my god-daughter Izumi already had matters well in hand. As the governor of the province where this newest rebellion sparked into existence, Izumi wasted no time issuing a Call to Arms and rallied her men and women to delay the threat until my arrival. With the aid of the Avatar State and the timely intervention of the forces from Capital City, it was not long before the terrorists were routed and the repair work could begin.

However, this expedition of mine did not end without further note.

As I aided in the reconstruction in the Ken Shou province, I also searched for survivors of collapsed buildings and landslides using seismic sense, a handy skill I had long since learned from Toph.

A note to my dear successor: Should you have already mastered the elements by the time you read this, I would highly suggest investing a portion of time to training in this very useful skill. It will come in handy at the strangest of times.

Anyhow, as I used the seismic sense, I was surprised to sense a seemingly healthy person resting in an intact house while all other able bodied citizens were out helping with the reconstruction.

Far be it from me to judge the survivor, I entered the house to reassure him or her that the threat had passed only to be greeted with a boulder to the face which I quickly dodged. My mood soured when I realized that what I had found was not a survivor but instead one of the extremists who had been able to escape the initial counter attack.

With it's foundation disturbed by the extraction of the boulder and the subsequent destruction of one of its walls, the building rapidly collapsed around the two of us, drawing an audience of concerned citizens. Thankfully, those who gathered had the good sense of staying away from the fight and leaving the matter to me. Tired of the senseless violence, I attempted to convince the stubborn earth bender that it was in his best interests to surrender. He was outnumbered and outmatched.

Despite his obvious distress, the extremist refused to give in, attempting to cause as much damage as he could before he was stopped, extracting boulders from the ground that he threw in every direction. His rage and despair continued to grow as I casually deflected every single one of his attempts to kill the crowd that had gathered around us.

The fight, if you could call it that, continued for some time. No matter how many times I threw him into a wall with a gust or pelted him with blasts of fire and water, he remained steadfast in his misguided attempts to kill everyone around us. Despite the pity and slight disgust I felt for him, I began to feel a grudging respect for his prowess. It might have been easy to defend the distant crowd from his attacks but I was unable to land a decisive hit on the sturdy earth bender without inflicting fatal injuries.

As the earthbender's despair reached a zenith and it seemed as though he would fall from exhaustion, I noticed a strange resolve in his fatigued eyes which gleamed a molten gold. In what seemed like a last ditch attempt, the young extremist bellowed in rage and the earth began to quake and shift around us as red, hot magma burst forth from the depths.

I was startled to a pause as geysers of lava sprung up all around the district, melting wood and metal alike. The lavabender was making a suicidal attempt to kill everyone in the district and in the process had carelessly revealed a flaw in his defenses. Recalling my predecessor - Avatar Roku's advice regarding decisiveness in battle, I wasted no time knocking out the distracted lava bender and quickly cooled down the molten slag that was flowing unrestricted throughout the city before it could hurt anyone.

Later, as we secured the extremist in chains alongside his cohorts, I couldn't help but admire the young lavabender's fortitude and inner strength despite finding his ideology repulsive.

Despite being surrounded by an audience of his foes who spat vitriol at him as he fought a hopeless battle against the most powerful bender in the world, if I do say so myself, the man stood steadfast in his beliefs, misguided though they were. In his darkest moment he found new strength within him as his talent for lavabending revealed itself, a talent that was once exclusive to the Avatar's incarnations.

It was not the first time I had witnessed or heard of such an incident. No, during my life I have personally experienced and viewed so many other moments just like this one, where, a helpless individual backed into a corner, changed or grew in previously unimaginable ways to tackle the problems he or she faced. In fact, the art of metal bending which has become so popular in recent times has its origin in such circumstances.

This is not a tale written to impart a moral like some of the others you might find in this journal but there are, in fact, many lessons to be learned from this experience of mine. So many, in fact that I believe it might be pointless to list them all.

However, if there is only one lesson you must understand, it must be the lesson Monk Gyatso taught me over a century ago. A lesson I did not truly understand at the time because I failed to realise that it also applied to those who would oppose peace with every fiber of their being.

Thus, the advice and warning I have for you, my dear successor, is this:

When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

I looked away from the journal I had been reading under candlelight and glanced over at the door that had been knocked ever so softly. I had almost forgotten what I had planned for the night.

"Come in", I whispered, mindful of the late hour. The door slid open quietly to reveal an excited Korra.

"What are you reading?" she asked curiously upon spotting the thick handwritten book in my hands.

"It's an interesting journal written by Avatar Aang. Have you read it yet?" I asked. If I were her, I would have utterly devoured anything Aang had written personally.

Korra made a face at that.

"Ughh, I've had enough of Air Nation history to last a lifetime, thank you very much. Tenzin has me reading that useless stuff all day."

Pity. I suppose it wouldn't have been much use to her anyway. Korra seemed like a kinesthetic learner than a linguistic one. Still I'd probably try to convince her to read it eventually. Aang might have believed in lot of stuff that I didn't put much stock in but his journal described many anecdotes that would no doubt be incredibly useful to Korra once she had mastered Airbending and began performing her duties as the Avatar.

"Suit yourself." I shrugged. I'd bring it up later though. No point in adding to her stress right now.

"Ready to hit the town?" She asked softly with a grin.

She had been fidgeting impatiently all night. Had I not distracted Tenzin and Pema with questions about the other Air Temples at dinner, they probably would have caught on. Although, I could hardly blame her. From what I had gathered she hadn't had a chance to cut loose ever since she was discovered by the White Lotus as a kid.

"To the dome." I grinned back at the excited Avatar. She wasn't the only one who had anticipated this though. This was the first time I would be seeing a probending match. There were analogues in the Southern Republic but nothing quite as celebrated as probending. Getting to watch benders legally pound the crap out of each other in teams of three?

Shut up and take my fucking money.

Or not.

"What do you mean - Sold Out?" Korra yelled indignantly at the bored ticket vendor, who was lazily chewing some gum while reading a magazine.

The vendor's bubble popped and stuck to her face. She looked up from her magazine and picked at the gum sticking to her chin and nose as she shot an irritated look at Korra, who was steaming in anger.

"These are the qualifying rounds for the Probending Tournament, love. Did you really think you could just waltz in at the last moment and get a ticket? Today's matches have been sold out for a week. You should have tried, like - a week earlier." she drawled out before going back to her magazine.

As upsetting as it was, that made sense. The only competition probending had in Republic City were illegal underground fights that were . . . well . . . illegal. Probending had a massive following all over the United Republic of Nations with people from even the neighboring settlements and towns travelling to Republic City by rail to catch the matches.

I really should have expected this.

"Surely, we can come to an arrangement? Perhaps a couple of tickets you might be holding in reserve, Miss? They would be understandably pricier, I'm sure." I smiled disarmingly, getting in between Korra and the vendor before she incinerated the booth.

The vendor pulled up her glasses and gave me the once over before smiling.

"Well ain't you a cute one." She demurred as she leaned forward.

'Ughh, atleast call me hot or something. Men don't do cute, dammit.'

Despite my slight annoyance, my anticipation grew. This sort of thing really embarrassed me but I really wanted to catch that match.

"But I'm sorry, Darl'. I've got no more tickets. Even for someone as pretty as you. The Probending Association is pretty damn strict with ticket sales." Another metaphorical arrow pierced my head at the Vendor's choice of adjectives.

I suppose this was the end of the night. For Korra atleast. I still had a meeting to get to.

"Minor set back. Want to try again next week?" I asked a fuming Korra as we walked back to the pier.

". . ."

Uggh, I was not looking forward to riding back to the temple on Naga. That beast had it out for me, soaking me in saliva every time she saw me. That stuff was hell to wash out. I had a faint suspicion that the freakish hybrid monstrosity was taste testing me until I was ready to eat.

Dastardly creature.

Wait. Speaking of the dratted beast, where's the owner?

"Korra?"

I turned around when I noticed her absence. Korra was staring at the dome. At an open window into the Arena, to be specific. I hope she didn't think we were climbing up there.

"No chance of that. It's too high up and there's no handholds. We can just come back next week. With tickets that we will buy well in advance." I emphasised in no uncertain terms. There was no way we could climb up there. None at all.

Korra turned to me and I backpedaled at the look on her face.

"Oh, No. Uh, uh. No freaking way -"

Splash.

Korra ignored my ardent and articulate protests, grabbed me around the shoulders and leapt off the pier.

"Hold on tight", she said, grinning at me like a loon as she spun her arms around, creating a tiny whirlpool underneath us. I held on to her shoulders like a frightened koala as the water churned beneath us forming a water funnel.

I'm proud to say that I was the very vision of manly elegance and dignity as the water funnel shot us into the air at breakneck speeds and through the open window Korra had been staring at earlier.

Okay, I lied. I shut my eyes, kicked my feet and screamed like a little girl.

Stop judging me. I'm starting to get tired of benders and their alternate means of transportation. First Ming treats me like a potato sack and now Korra pulls this crap?

Korra landed on her feet. I, on the other hand, landed on my face. I can feel my man points draining by the moment.

"Nice. I think you might have woken the Temple up." Korra jibed.

"Next time, warn me." I tweaked my nose a bit to make sure it wasn't broken.

"Hey, if I'd warned you, you'd have run off. You've got no sense of adventure. Anyone tell you that?" Korra said, no doubt recalling the time I tried to stop her from getting us both arrested after she fucked up with the Triads. Triads that I had to deal with later anyway.

"I traded that in at the character screen for a sense of self-preservation. This sucks, I'm completely drenched." I groused, trying to shake the water off before I caught a cold. Republic City was pretty cold this time of the year.

"What?" Korra asked confused.

'Oops.'

I winced. No more gaming references, thats a good way to find myself in a straight jacket at the closest mental hospital.

"Never mind." Korra said when I didn't reply, "Here, let me get that for you." She aimed her hands at me and gestured upwards.

I grimaced and shivered uncomfortably as individual water droplets wriggled up my body and found their way out of the neck hole of my shirt. It was an incredibly disturbing experience. Incredibly convenient though.

We took off down the hallway to find an entrance into the arena.

"Hey! What's in here?" Korra asked as we came across a large room. It seemed to be a gym of some sort with punching bags, dumbbells, nets, water tanks, and sandstone disks lying all over the place.

"Looks like a probending gym, I think." I walked over to the equipment with Korra and tried some of it out.

"Hey! What are you doing in my gym?"

I looked up from the bench press to find a white haired old man with a towel around his neck glaring at us like we were . . . tresspassing.

Oh. Nuts.

"Distract him, I'll knock him out." I whispered to Korra.

"What! No!" Korra whispered back fiercely, grabbing my arm.

"Ouch, let go! I was only joking." I whispered back.

Our actions didn't go unnoticed. The old man became even more suspicious at our whispering.

"I won't ask again. Why're you in here?" He shouted as he approached us.

"Uh, we were just looking for a bathroom and got lost." Korra smiled sweetly at the old man.

'Please. There's no way you can pull the innocent girl routine. Not with those biceps, hot as they might be'

I resisted the urge to voice my thoughts aloud. Korra had sharp elbows.

"The both of you?" the old man smirked.

Korra looked at me, turned red and let go off my arm.

"Whatever, I'm sick of kids using my gym as a personal Love Hotel. I'm taking you two to security." He said, walking towards us.

I ignored Korra's stuttering protests as I got a better look at the old man approaching us.

'Own's the probending gym, so former probender? Slightly hunched but his biceps and deltoids are well developed. Green clothing. Probably an earthbender. He's old so he's probably not too quick on his feet. An agile approach from blind spots would be best.'

I was starting to seriously consider knocking the Old Man out. Getting caught here and escorted out by security would put a damper on the entire night. And probably all future nights once Tenzin heard about this.

Then again, knocking the gym owner out now would probably get me in trouble later on.

Thankfully, I was relieved of my dilemma when a probender walked through the doors of the gym.

"So, why'd you help us?" I asked the probender, once we left the gym.

"Eh. I've sneaked in here to catch a match before. Thought I'd help out a couple of kindred spirits", he replied with a shrug and a grin.

"It's just up ahead. C'mon!" He said walking ahead of us.

The lull in the conversation gave me a chance to get a better look our savior. He was a little shorter than me, about Korra's height, but a good deal stockier although it was hard to be certain since he was decked out in glaring red protective gear.

"What do you think? Best seats in the house, huh?" The probender asked as we entered another room. We were in the locker room, conveniently situated to give us a perfect view of the probending field. This was perfect, even better than the stands.

"That's what I'm talking about. This rocks." I said, clapping the probender on his back.

" Whoa! Unbelievable! This place is even more amazing than I imagined." Korra exclaimed, looking out the balcony.

"Name's Bolin by the way." The probender exclaimed cheerily.

"Jin."

"Korra. Wait. You're with the Fire Ferrets aren't you? We came here to catch your game. I've followed all your matches this year on the radio." Korra gushed excitedly upon recognizing Bolin's name.

At this point Bolin's teammates walked in, putting an end to his obvious preening.

"We sure hit the jackpot, huh?" I asked Korra, who was still staring down at the crowd from the balcony as Bolin spoke with his team.

"Tell me about it. I sure didn't expect this." She nodded in agreement.

"Hey, Korra! Jin! Get over here. I want you to meet my brother, Mako." Bolin called out from behind us.

"Sup!" I greeted the tall guy that Bolin pointed out to me. Mako was half a foot taller than his brother, good looking with spiked hair and weirdly enough, spiked eyebrows.

'Does this guy actually gel his eyebrows?'

"Mako? Wow, I heard you . . . play . . . on the radio . . ." She trailed off uncertainly.

My initial amusement over the image of the tall probender, glaring at a mirror while geling his eyebrows with a frown on his face turned to annoyance when Mako walked right past Korra's hand without giving either of us a second look.

"Come on, Bolin, we're up." Mako said, calling out to his brother, who glanced at us and shrugged apologetically.

"Yeah, sorry about that, my brother just gets real . . . focused before the match."

'Focused is a kind word for it. Douchebag is more appropriate.'

"That's alright. I guess we'll meet him afterwards." Korra said, surprisingly diplomatic for once.

"Knock 'em dead." I called after Bolin as the lift descended.

"What a jerk, huh?" I asked Korra, once the lift was out of sight.

"Who, Mako? I thought he was pretty cool." Korra said.

"Introducing the Fire Ferrets."

I stared at her.

"Ahh! I love you Bolin! Ahh!"

"You heard Bolin. Mako was just focused is all. It's the third qualifying round. If they lose, they're out of the tournament." She blurted out defensively.

I continued staring blankly until she blushed and looked away.

"Ugh, fangirls." I muttered to myself, earning myself an elbow to the ribs.

I shifted my gaze back to the arena just in time to catch the beginning of the match. I hadn't really had a chance to listen to a match on the radio before so I had to pick up the rules as this particular one progressed.

It wasn't too complicated, though. The probending field itself was hexagonal, split down the middle into two sides, one red and one blue, with each side divided into three zones. Both the Fire Ferrets and the Tigerdillos started out in the innermost zone, also called Zone 1 and tried to force their opponents out of their respective zones. Bolin bent brittle clay disks from 21 dispensers on the red side. The waterbender, Hasook bent short blasts of water out of grates that ran along the border of each zone. As far as I could see, there were no special accommodations to the Arena for firebenders like Mako which sorta made sense, seeing as how they could generate their own blasts of fire.

The firebenders seemed to stay on the offensive for the most part, blasting out short, straight streams of fire at their opponents to distract them while earthbenders and waterbenders usually prefered curved trajectories to attack from blind spots created by the limited field of vision offered by the compulsory probending helmet each athlete wore. The earthbenders and waterbenders took turns defending the firebender who had no defensive capability of his own.

The teamwork I saw from both teams was quite impressive. The teams exchanged attacks at a blistering pace.

And yet . . .

"Hey, Korra?" I poked the engrossed Avatar on the shoulder. "Why isn't Hasook using ice spikes. That's pretty basic, right? And they should pack a bigger punch than those water jets. Does it consume stamina to convert water to other states or something?" Because that might explain why Hasook didn't seem to be using ice at all.

Korra thinks about it for a second.

"I think so?" she said uncertainly. "I mastered most of my waterbending moves almost 9 years ago. I don't really remember how I was trained. But yeah, creating ice spikes should be pretty easy." She confirmed.

It wasn't just Hasook or his counterpart on the Tigerdillos that seemed to be holding back. I understood why the earthbenders weren't allowed to use the field itself. No, that would ruin the spectacle for the audience and cause a lot of property damage. But there was no sign of metal bending at all. The firebenders seemed to avoid headshots or wider sprays off fire to block vision and not once did I see anyone generate lightning.

Apart from the admittedly impressive teamwork, there were no unexpected individual moves from either side. They just seemed to be tossing standard attacks at each other, one after another hoping that one would eventually connect. There was no incredible show of power or anything of the sort. It seemed like the power and diversity of traditional bending was sacrificed for machine like speed, efficiency and painfully straightforward attacks that even a half trained monkey could dodge. It was probably enforced by the game rules for the safety of the audience and the participants.

This was . . . disappointing.

Earth Rumbles and Mock Agni Kais back in Arc City were more entertaining despite the obvious showmanship involved.

But a single glance at Korra's excited face told me that dissing her favorite sport would earn me a quick fall to the pool underneath the arena. I decided not to make a fuss over the obvious nerfing of the benders abilities in hopes of not getting drenched a third time that day.

Besides this particular event was more for Korra's benefit than mine. My goal tonight was to meet Junior at midnight. There were still a couple of hours to go.

Probending matches consisted of 3 rounds of three minutes each with a five minute break in between rounds. That amounted to a maximum of 19-20 minutes per match, not accounting for injuries or tiebreakers. This particular match was done in 15 minutes.

Soon after the match, I watched Bolin teach Korra a few tricks and both Korra and I had a good laugh at Mako's expression when he realized that he had just snubbed the Avatar.

"Had fun?" I asked Korra, as we walked out of the gym.

"Sure did. We need to do this again. Oh man, I can't believe I have to go back already." She groaned at the thought of heading back to the Island.

"Well, night's not over for me yet. I still have to meet a buddy of mine." I said, my meeting with junior weighing heavily on my mind.

"Who's this buddy of your's?" Korra asked inquisitively.

I was vague in my replies as shooed her off. I had no intention of getting Korra mixed up in my dealings with the Triple Threats. Besides, Junior was expecting me to show up alone. Seeing the Avatar might just give the overly anxious information broker a heart attack.

I made it to the alley just in time. Junior was already waiting.

"I see you've got a new guitar. You break it in yet?" I asked.

"Yup. This baby helped me kill it at a show today." Junior replied enthusiastically, stroking the head of his guitar lovingly.

"I'm glad. You know, when you said you'd get me a message, I didn't exactly think I'd get my arm ripped by a catowl. I expected a phone call." I gestured to the wound on my arm in amusement.

"Ahhh", he hissed when he saw the cut. "Sorry bout that, Mouse doesn't really hold back on his landings. I got him for cheap, you see. Bargain deal since he didn't complete his training."

"Your catowl's name is . . . Mouse?" I deadpanned.

"Well. He comes when I shout "Mouse" so, yeah. I guess." Junior shrugged.

I shook it off and got down to business.

"You have something for me? Is it the Triple Threats?" I asked.

Junior's mood sank a little.

"No. Well, yes. The Triple Threats seem like they are going to lay off for now. Beating up T, Speedy and Bull scared some of those guys pretty good. They're a powerful lot - the Triple Threats but Zolt is a cautious guy, he doesn't like to rock the boat too much. Not unless there's no risk involved."

He paused for a second.

"That's not why I messaged you though. There's something else going on. I don't know too much but there's been chatter in the Undercity about you."

The Undercity. The massive labyrinthine system of underground chambers and tunnels that ran under Republic City. Home to not just some of the criminal elements of the City but also anything the expatriate nobles from the other Nations and other wealthy citizens of the city deemed unseemly. The homeless, the orphans and the disabled all made their way there. The Undercity was basically the slums of Republic City.

"Who's blabbing about me and to whom?" I frowned in annoyance. Apparently beating up the ugly mugs the Triple Threats sent after me wasn't enough of a message for the other shitheads.

"Don't know who's doing the talking, Jin. It's definitely not the Triple Threats, though. But whoever they are, they're inciting the other Triads and a lot of other groups downunda. When word got out that the Triple Threats aren't going to make an example outta you to put them non benders in their place, a lot of people got interested. Some of them think they can take out the guy that's got the Triple Threats running scared. Boost their reps and all." Junior said nervously.

"Spit it out, Junior. Who's gunning for me?"

Junior hesitated.

"The Agni Kai Triad."

Author's Note:

Sorry about the slow update. Had too much to do.

So Jin's not a huge fan of probending. Junior does become a little more important later on.

Keep in mind that this entire chapter was from Jin's POV.

Next: A short interlude dealing with the Agni Kai Triad. There is a little more going on behind the scenes that I'll try to reveal.