I DON'T OWN ANY CHARACTERS OR PLOT LINES EXCEPT MY OWN. THIS IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY.
This is my first LOC fanfiction, so be nice as I attempt to capture the world of Avatar.
This is an AU FF in which Bolin did have his Earthbending stripped, and the dark journey which follows.
BolinXKorra "Borra"
Read & Review :)
A/N: I've decided to reply to the reviews. I can't believe how many I have! I think I might be investing as much time into replying as I do to writing the chapter! Hehe. Thanks to all who have reviewed!
o0seaflower0o - Thank you mucho mucho!
alchemist extraordinaire - Thanks girl! I love me some Borra action!
yuukifan001 - Yeah as much as I like Mako, the pairing seems impossible. And Masami doesn't seem all that bad since this past episode gave me some feels when Korra selflessly tells Mako to be with Asami. I either want Borra or Tahno... my dark Tahorra side is growing stronger by the day lol.
azaliahearts - I don't know what my life would be without a happy ending. But I'm not sure how its gonna end yet, so we'll see. I'll tell you this: I'm not gonna make poor Bo suffer anymore :'D
Fleeting Moment - I am most definitely a girl! LOL. LOK is pretty much the shit, IMO, so everything your saying I'm down with! I'm glad I could be your Borra dealer and ease these painful Korra-less days that are ahead. XD And I really do try to write chunky - I really do - but sometimes I just draw a blank and go with short instead of sounding flaky and cheesy. I can be pretty dang cheesy. :P And could someone tell me how my writing style is 'unique'? I've gotten several reviews saying so, but I've always felt like my writing is kind of dry...idk. Thank you so much for your awesome review and I hope you enjoy this next chapter! XOXO
Palaemon77 - Thank you! I've really tried to expand Bolin's character even if he does seem a little OOC. Remember Pabu left with Pema and the fan! Bolin wanted his little fire ferret to watch over them while he was saving everyone else XD (After summarizing that plot line, it sounds so amazingly corny).
Awkward Seductress - Thank you darling! I am planning on seeing this one through! ;D
lpwriter4life - Why thank you!
nakala - I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter... have you enjoyed any others? Just curious :)
amethystaquamarine34azure - Ohmygoodness I just love fluff. I eat it up like cotton candy - no, COCAIN-LINED cotton candy. But I'm am holding back the tidal wave and saving it for a one-shot or something. I honestly can't believe I'm posting a chapter every freaking day and I hope I don't run out of my creative juice before I'm done (I tend to do that) XD
Theatre of the Mind - Wow thank you so much! I really do put a lot of thought into everything I write, which is both a good and a bad thing XD I'm glad you decided to read my ff!
"Bo! Bolin! What's wrong with her?" Mako rushed over to Bolin, who was carrying Korra towards the Air Temple. Bolin didn't hear his brother, as something had numbed his hearing. He just saw a worried expression on Mako's face as he met Bolin on the edge of the dock. Perhaps it was the explosion that had damaged his hearing, but it was unlikely Bolin was in a slight condition of shock as he gazed into the azure eyes of the broken young woman he held.
Korra was frailer than he had ever seen her; caramel skin faded into the color of ash, hooded eyes reddened, pink lips cracked by the cold. Her face leaned in the crook of his shoulder, and he felt absolutely no body heat coming from her. He felt a dull heart beat, and her breathing had slowed. He was scared, because he'd seen these signs too many times today.
Korra was dying.
Korra, the unstoppable mountain, the relentless tower of molten beauty, and the fiercest girl he'd ever met. Yet, as she weakly clung to him, she seemed as breakable as a thin sheet of glass.
Mako lit a fire in his hand and Korra opened her weak fingers to hold it. Delicately, as if giving her a porcelain toy, Mako slid the flame into her hand. Maybe it would help warm her up, Mako thought, but that thought quickly evaporated when Korra couldn't keep the flame going. It sparked dimly, but then spurted out.
"She needs a healer—something!" Mako yelled, his voice filled with panic. Bolin swallowed hard, unable to accept the almighty Korra had fallen, and nodded. He handed Korra off to Mako who, since he had much more agility than Bolin, sprinted off toward the Air Temple.
Bolin was about to follow after when he remembered the airship sitting in the frozen wave of water. He hesitated, wondering if Korra needed him. Grinding his teeth together, he tried to think of what Korra would want him to do. He recalled the woman who had summoned what seemed like the entire ocean to create a pedestal of inexorable power. Her bright ice-like eyes filled with an inconceivable rage that extended backwards a thousand lifetimes. Earth, Water, Air, and Fire coursed through her veins as she tried to save the airship.
To save Tenzin. That's what Korra would want, Bolin decided. To make sure her friend, her surrogate father, her teacher was alright.
He found a few Waterbenders to help unfreeze the door to the airship. The water slushed down the sides of the metal port, and immediately the door fell open. On the sides, Bolin could see where the Metalbenders had tried to bend the door open, but the ice on the outside made it difficult to do so.
The Republic City police force poured out of the airship, noticeable due to their metal armor. Civilians also were on board, just as saddened and scared as the ones Bolin had seen before. A few gurneys forged from scrap metal also were being carried out of the airship—one holding a man in familiar red and orange robes caught Bolin's attention.
"Tenzin!" Bolin yelled, rushing across the ice, sliding ungracefully on his feet as he did so, to meet the gurny. Chief Bei Fong, who hovered next to Tenzin, turned to see Bolin running towards them, and extended her wrist forward with a hard expression.
The next thing Bolin knew, he was wrapped tightly around the waist with metal rope; it squeezed his abdomen and he cried out in pain. "Hey! I'm one of the good guys!" Bolin squeaked, the force of the Metal bended around him making him lose his balance. Like a bowling pin, Bolin toppled over and howled as his head hit the ice.
"Lin…" Bolin heard, still not being able to hear. He thought it was Tenzin's voice. All he could hear was mumbling. But soon after he was freed from the metal binds.
"Sorry about that," a voice said from above him. He looked up and rubbed the side of his head. Chief Bei Fong held out a hand, and Bolin looked up at her questionably. Her scar and unforgivably stern eyes were quite scary, Bolin thought. "Come on, I don't have all day," she snapped, and Bolin took her hand.
Once he regained his balance, he followed Bei Fong to the Air Temple where Tenzin had been laid in a bed and healers worked over him. He was conscious, but Bolin cringed when he saw Tenzin's injuries. His robe was almost completely gone, burned away. His whole left arm was red and raw—a severe burn. His face wasn't its usual calm expression; he was afraid. Tenzin thrashed in pain against the saltwater the healers were using to mend his burns, so he didn't notice Bolin approach.
"Tenzin…" Bolin mumbled, making the old Airbender's eyes flash to him.
"Bolin!" he frantically stuttered, jerking up from the bed.
"Tenzin, you need to lay down," Bei Fong chastised, pushing him back. Tenzin shoved her away, a roughness Bolin had never seen in Tenzin before.
"Where is Pema?" he demanded, eyes wide and scared. "My children—my Jinora, Ikki, MeMe?" his voice cracked as his eyes began to brim with tears.
"They're okay," Bolin said firmly. "They are fine. I got them off the island right after the first explosion in Republic City."
Tenzin sighed in relief, letting the tears fall down his face. He laid back, letting the healers continue to work on his arm. Bolin held his other hand and explained everything that happened. How Bolin got most of the Air Acolytes off the island on the Water Tribe ship and then prepared the island for the Republic City refugees. Bolin, as he spoke, suddenly began to realize everything he had done. When he organized the benders to ensure the safety of the island—how his efforts to create a wall had most likely saved Air Temple Island from being consumed by the Future Industries ship that had been rigged to explode. The ideas had come naturally, even though he was terrified that his brother and Korra hadn't survived at all. All day, people had been looking up to him—the immature, younger brother of the cool-headed Mako. The pathetic ex-bender.
Then again, Bolin reminded himself internally, he wasn't just an ex-bender anymore. He had mastered dual-wielding from the Great Redeemer himself—an art that even Master Zuko thought Bolin would not begin to understand. He had grown. He was more than he used to be.
Tenzin was slightly distracted by the deep burns in his arm, but listened to Bolin with an aura of pride. He squeezed Bolin's hand once he was finished, and smiled weakly.
"I knew I made the right decision, Bolin, by charging you with the task to protect my family. But you have exceeded all expectations. Even your own," Tenzin said quietly. "Look at yourself three months ago—before you ever lost your bending. I thought you were just another Pro-Bender with a crush on Korra. You keep changing my perceptions of you, making me question my own ability to read others.
"Bolin, I never asked you to take care of the island. It was mere chance—well, most likely not chance, now that I think of it—that all of the White Lotus guards were in Republic City when Amon attacked. You rose to the occasion—you saved my family, and by doing so my entire heritage. My father's legacy, my legacy, and the legacy of Airbending lies in the future of my children.
"My debt to you will never be repaid, Bolin," Tenzin said firmly, lips pressing into a firm line.
"Tenzin, thank you…" Bolin muttered, unsure what to say.
"Bolin!" Running towards them was Mako, huffing from running. Exhausted, he rested his hands on his knees and looked up at Bolin. "Korra's asking for you."
Several healers hovered around Korra's bed, blankets of glowing blue water surrounding her head and chest. Bolin, eyebrows pulling together, wrapped his fingers around Korra's hand. One of the Waterbenders pulled all of the water off of her so that she wouldn't freeze. But she still shuddered every few seconds, her blue eyelids fluttering—trying to stay open. Bolin didn't understand—she should be alright, shouldn't she?
Mako peeled his scarf from around his neck and wrapped it around Korra's. He stood next to Bolin, his arm wrapped around his shoulder, comforting his little brother. Bolin smiled weakly at Mako, then turning to the Healers. "What's wrong with her?"
"She's simply exhausted," one of the healers—and old woman—said numbly. "I think that going into her…spiritual state…might have blocked her chakras."
"Her what blocked her what?" Bolin asked.
The healer cleared her throat, pointing to Korra's heart. "There are many chakras that rule our bodies and minds," the old healer explained. "It takes a very spiritual person to overcome these blocks once they are formed."
"Korra sucks at the spirtual stuff," Bolin muttered, squeezing her hand.
"As I assumed," the healer said. "We are trying to use the powers we were endowed by Tui and La to heal our Avatar…but unblocking the chakras can only be done by the one who is blocked…by channeling the spirits.
"It seems that this poor girl crossed over into the Avatar State—the condition in which she channels the spirit relm and all the power of all the Avatars before her—without the proper knowledge of how to navigate in and out. She might have used all of her remaining energy to simply relinquish herself from the spiritual state…" the woman carried on, bending some water into her hands, and then holding the glove of water to the crown of Korra's head.
"What does that mean?" Bolin demanded, staring down at Korra's face.
"It means that she is too weak to enter the Avatar State again," the old woman sighed. "Perhaps to weak to ever bend again." Bolin's heart thumped unbearably hard against his ribcage. He remembered Mako trying to give her a flame, but it just went out in her hands. How could Korra loose her bending—she was the Avatar. The only connection to the Spirit World and—
Bolin froze. If the Avatar was supposed to be the lifeline between the spirits and the humans, but the Avatar wasn't attuned to the spiritual side yet, couldn't the problem be solved by becoming spiritual?
"Korra," Bolin suddenly bent down next to the feeble girl, still clutching her fingers as he grazed the back of his hand against her cheek. "Can you hear me?"
Her eyes flickered open, revealing her brilliant-as-ever blue eyes. Bolin smiled softly, cradling her chin in his hand. "Hey," she whispered. "Did I kick Amon's ass?" she asked, and then coughed some.
"Don't hurt yourself," Bolin chuckled. Then he was serious. "You need to master the spiritual side of the elements, Korra."
She nodded, closing her eyes for a few seconds.
"I'm too tired."
"I know, I know," Bolin said, his voice dropping until it was barely audible. "But this is really important."
Mako kneeled next to Bolin, placing his hand on her leg. "I'm here for you. Both of you." He glanced at Bolin and they nodded in a silent agreement. That moment, to Bolin, was Mako's surrender. He wasn't there because he wanted Korra—he was there for his little brother and friend. Bolin traced a circle on Korra's cheek, making her smile.
"Okay," Korra mumbled. "What do I need to do?"
"Just close your eyes—but don't go to sleep. I need you to listen; not to the voices or noise. Listen for my heartbeat," Bolin instructed. Korra closed her eyes and was relaxed for a few moments. But her face began to contort in frustration, and she sighed in frustration.
"I can't."
"Yes you can," Bolin reassured her. "Listen for my heart." He picked up her hand and pressed it against his chest. Holding it there, Bolin watched as her frustration faded into something else. Surprise, perhaps. Her eyes flashed open suddenly and she looked up at Bolin.
"I can feel it—not just in my hand, but everywhere," Korra muttered, shocked. Bolin knew how it felt to feel for the first time, through Earthbending. That's what he was trying to teach her. Tenzin once told Bolin that this idea of feeling and listening to the Earth was associated with neutral jing. Master Zuko had told him the same. But Tenzin had also said that if Korra could comprehend the concept of neutral jing, that she could also learn Airbending.
Bolin thought that if she could learn the most spiritual element, she could contact the Spirit World. Then maybe she could unblock her chakras.
Korra closed her eyes and dropped her hand, laying them against the bed instead. "I can feel the foot steps," she said quietly. "And Mako—I can feel your heartbeat." Her eyes remained closed. "I can see the island…I can see all the dead bodies—" Tears ran down her cheeks, forcing Bolin to lean close to her.
"This is what Earthbending is supposed to feel like," Bolin explained to her. "Neutral jing is feeling, listening, then acting."
"I remember…Tenzin saying that," Korra's voice cracked. "But I never really understood." Her hooded eyes opened, making Bolin's heart stutter. Promptly after that stutter, she smiled. "Until now."
The color was starting to return to her face, but her recovery was not as miraculous as Bolin had hopped. The healers left, deciding that ultimately there was nothing they could do for the Avatar. Mako and Bolin stayed with her, as she was overly fascinated by how she could feel everything around her just by closing her eyes.
I feel like the end of this one was slightly anti-climatic. But the last couple of chapters were supposed to be the climax so it's supposed to be not-so-climatic from here.
Yay for Mako giving up for Bolin's sake! Booooooo that Korra's all hurt and stuff. Being the Avatar really takes it out of ya.
POOR TENZIN. And yes, I did purposely dabble in the Tenzin/Lin zone. Because its irresistibly irresistible.
So can a blocked chakra block bending? I seems like it.
Can a person block chakras? (hehe)
FWI this story is based upon many of my head-cannons so don't be surprised when I go into huge explanations of things...relating to LOK.
PS I LOVE THIS FANDOM! LOVE LOVE LOVE TO YOU ALL!
Please review, pretty please (:
REVIEW PLEASE!