Jinora sat down on the floor in her room, across from her sister.
"This isn't going to take forever again is it?" Ikki rested her chin in the palm of her hand
"I really don't know." Jinora sighed.
Days ago, she had been so close to finding Korra. But spiritual projection was still a new thing for her. The only people that she had successfully located were those nearby, and they mostly consisted of people at Air Temple Island. However, there was the time that she managed to find Lin Bei Fong in the middle of the city.
Ikki was the only person she had told of spiritual projection and Jinora was grateful that she was always willing to watch over her, even when asked at random. Jinora knew Korra left for a reason and before revealing to the rest of her family that she had the means to locate her, she'd figure out if Korra wanted or needed to be found.
Jinora closed her eyes. "Okay I'm going."
Korra
Korra tugged at her loose braid and leaned against one of the shelves, startling herself as she knocked over a few items. Asami glanced over at her with a slight look of embarrassment. Korra gave an awkward smile and picked up the items and Asami went back to talking to the clerk.
Dropping the last few screws into their bin she glanced at the clock, surprised that only an hour had passed since they had arrived. She never expected Asami to look over every last tool, testing them out and checking the prices. Asami explained that she wanted to find the cheapest yet most durable, for once seeming a bit nervous about spending money.
Then the store clerk came over and the two started chatting, using unfamiliar jargon that Korra couldn't even fake being engaged. And they had been talking for what seemed like ages.
He was slightly older than them and it annoyed Korra how he stood in front of her, talking ever so confidently, while Asami just smiled and nodded as she listened.
She perked up when he and Asami walked to the front of the store and paid.
"You two sure got along." Korra said taking one of the bags from Asami as the door closed behind them.
Asami shrugged. "He just wanted to give me advice for fixing the roof... it was all wrong but I figured I'd humor him."
"He didn't bore you?"
"A little but he gave me a discount."
They both laughed.
Korra watched all the people passing them, many from the Water Tribe and Fire Nation. It was a fairly large town on the outside of Ba Sing Sei, and after being isolated from others for weeks, it did feel great to be back in a crowd. She noticed a few signs advertising haiku readings, the Yue festival, and Earth Rumble matches. All, even the haiku readings, were tempting to attend.
"Thank you for coming with me by the way." Asami said.
Korra blinked, having been zoned out. "No problem, I'm just surprised that you didn't ask Mako or Bolin."
Asami shook her head. "It would have been awkward with Mako, and I don't think Bolin would have had the patience."
"He sure was excited about us coming here." Korra smirked.
Bolin had been the one to suggest that they change their hair and clothes to Earth Kingdom style and insisted that they take on an alias, both of which he picked out himself. Korra would go by the name of Jin and Asami as Akiko. Thing is, they never once had to refer to each other by name.
They walked further, making their way back to Naga. Korra continued to look around almost not noticing Asami suddenly stop outside of a shop.
"Would you mind if we went in here?"
Korra gulped seeing that it was a book store. Though it was small, she knew there could be hundreds upon hundreds of books for Asami to page through.
"Sure... that's fine."
Asami must have read her.
"Don't worry, I promise I won't be long, I already know what I want."
Korra was correct in that the place was stocked well. Shelves were crammed full of books and there were even stacks next to them to hold extra, barely giving room to walk.
Asami headed straight for the back, and as promised, perused the shelves finding what she wanted quickly.
"Got it." She smiled.
She turn back towards the shelf and without even looking at the titles, pulled out two more books.
"So any reason you wanted that?" Korra asked as they left the store.
"It's not for me… I was just trying to find something that Ming-Hua might enjoy."
"You think such a thing exists?" Korra smirked. It was nothing but snark and disgust anytime Ming-Hua spoke of anything she read. She seemed to hate every character with the exception of a few minor ones, all of which she'd argue needed more focus.
Asami nodded. "I've over heard her... reimaginings... I think I have an idea."
"Okay I'm curious."
Korra had heard a few of Ming-Hua's versions, and she wasn't sure whether to be intrigued or terrified, or both.
Asami dug through her bag, pulled out one of the books and handed it to Korra. On the cover a girl was earthbending at what looked like a group of angry spirits. Looking closer, there was either an artistic mistake or the girl only had one arm.
"Hey this looks kind of cool. What's this about?"
"The end of the world."
"Yeah... I kind of got that." Korra frowned. Though that wasn't her first guess. "What else happens?"
"Quite a bit." Asami began. "The basic story is that there was a war between the humans and the spirits... and that destroys most of the world. The girl on the cover is one of the few survivors. It's more of a character study with some commentary on social norms... there's a love triangle and in the end the girl chooses both her potential love interests figuring that she could die any day... yeah Ming-Hua will love it." Asami sighed. "She loves to disrupt the lives of the characters after they get their happy ending."
Korra laughed. "Maybe I'll give it a read."
Asami shrugged. "I really simplified it, but it's not a bad story, it just gets very bleak at times."
"And I guess there's no avatar to handle everything?"
"The avatar is never mentioned. I think we're supposed to assume that the avatar is either gone or just never existed."
"Maybe the avatar is just very young." Korra frowned not liking a world without her.
Arriving back where they left Naga, the polar dog crawled out of the cave Korra earthbended for her earlier and ran over wagging her tail. Korra scratched behind her ear and was about to climb on when she heard a voice.
"Korra?"
It was quiet and sounded very familiar. Korra looked around, feeling her heart race. It would be disastrous of someone had found her. But she saw no one. Concerned that she was hearing things, Korra eyed Asami, and was relieved to see that she was just as confused as her.
"Korra." The voice was a little louder this time and she now recognized it.
"Jinora?" There was no reason she should be hearing Jinora's voice. An eleven year old would never be able to-
She nearly dropped her bags when Jinora materialized right in front of her. She was transparent not unlike Aang's spirit.
"Korra!" Jinora's arms wrapped around Korra laying her head against her shoulder. Not that Korra could feel any of it.
"Wh-what? Jinora? What happened? What are you...?" Korra had to keep herself from falling over. "Asami are you..." She turned to see Asami nodding and her eyes wide.
"Korra it's okay." Jinora floated down until her feet would have touched the ground. "It's a kind of airbending... it's called spiritual projection, I read about it in..."
"Okay but just what are you doing here!" She didn't mean to snap, but she hadn't expected Tenzin's eldest daughter to just appear. Under different circumstances she would have been happy to see Jinora. But if Jinora could track her down who knew who else could. Maybe Tenzin was also out looking for her.
Jinora looked down and her lower lip stuck out. "I was just trying to find you... Ikki, Meelo and I, we were worried and we've heard a lot of rumors."
Korra sighed and Asami stepped forward.
"Jinora, we're all fine, there's nothing to worry about." Asami tried to keep her voice calm but Korra could hear it shaking a little. "Can anyone else do that spiritual projection... is that what it's called?"
Jinora shook her head. "No only I can, I haven't even told my parents."
Korra felt some of her anxiety subside, but Jinora was only eleven years old. And the last thing she, or anyone of her friends wanted was another White Lotus attack, and they probably wouldn't be so lucky a second time.
"Listen," Korra kneeled getting down to the young airbender's level. "I've been trying to figure things out, and I really can't tell you much... but can you promise me that you won't tell anyone where I am?"
Jinora smiled and nodded.
"Not your dad, not Lin Bei Fong, not your grandmother..."
"Don't worry I promise."
Korra smiled though still has reservations about trusting an eleven year old.
"So how are things in Republic City?"
Jinora smiled seeing that Korra wasn't angry anymore. "I guess they're fine... the council is gone so dad is home a lot more. We have a president now that the people voted for. His name is Raiko."
"A president?" Asami spoke up. "How is that working out?"
"I guess its fine... he kind of talks a lot." Jinora shrugged. "My parents seem happy but I don't think Lin likes him that much."
Korra, unsurprised, nearly laughed.
"I like your hair by the way."
Korra grabbed her braid, having almost forgotten that her hair was in a different style.
"Thanks, Asami did it earlier... we're just trying not to be recognized."
She glanced over at the setting sun. She and Asami had been gone much longer than planned and she still had to spar with Ming-Hua.
"Jinora can you get into the Spirit World?"
Jinora nodded.
"Do you think we could meet there and talk more tomorrow? Asami and I should be getting back to the others."
"Sure, where at and what time?"
Korra ran several places through her head that would be easy to find and where they wouldn't run the risk of running into anyone.
"After lunch near Hai Ryo Peak, do you know where that is?"
"Yeah I do,"
"And you promise that you won't tell anyone that you found me?"
"Yeah of course." Jinora folded her arms.
"Thank you Jinora." Korra gave her one final smile before the airbender faded away.
Korra and Asami climbed onto Naga. They were silent as Naga picked up speed taking them home.
"Do you really think she won't tell anyone?" Asami asked.
"I really don't know." Korra groaned. "That's why I asked to meet her in the spirit world, I don't want her to know where we've been living." Korra then frowned. "Not that she couldn't fine out if she wanted to." She rested her palm against her forehead.
Asami grabbed Korra's shoulders.
"What are you going to talk to her about tomorrow? I mean, are you going to tell her about the Red Lotus."
"Maybe... the White Lotus already knows that I'm with them. I just really want to know more about those rumors she mentioned."
She could only hope that they had something to do with her running off with a group of criminals and not about her plans to over throw the Queen.
"But I'm not going to tell her anything about the Earth Queen, I'm not sure she'll really understand and the last thing we need is for her to accidentally slip something to Tenzin."
"I don't know that she won't understand, Jinora is very smart, and if she ever met the queen I'm sure that she'd agree with you. I mean I only spent a few hours with her and I knew she was a horrible person." Asami paused. "But I do agree that you shouldn't tell her."
Korra looked back at Asami. "Wait you've met the queen?"
Asami nodded. "Yeah years ago my dad designed a satomobile for her and she invited him to the palace. I got to tag a long." Asami shrugged. "The place was beautiful but the queen... let's just say that I didn't doubt anything you said about the slums."
With the newly added stress, it seemed to take forever to get home. When the house finally came into view, Korra squinted, and was barely able to see Ghazan and Bolin watch Mako block Ming-Hua's water with a wall of fire. His fire shield wasn't enough, the water completely smothered it and Ming-Hua soon had Mako's wrists in her water tendrils and then had him backed up against the house.
Korra instructed Naga to run faster, feeling a little bad after the polar dog had carried her and Asami such a large distance.
Once she was near the house, Korra ordered Naga to slow and she slid off, running toward Ming-Hua and Mako.
Ming-Hua froze the end of one of her water tendrils and held it at his throat. The color drained from Mako's face and his eyes locked on to the ice blade.
Before Korra could say anything, Ming-Hua laughed, dropped both her water tendrils, and walked away.
Korra caught up to Mako just as he dropped to his knees.
"You okay?" Korra asked grabbing his arm.
"Yeah... I just thought... she was going to kill me." Mako spoke between breaths. "Does she always take sparring that seriously."
Korra nodded cracking a smile.
"I told you not to." Bolin walked over to the two.
Mako glared at him.
Ming-Hua ran over and wrapped her water tendril around one of Mako's bruised wrists and the water started to glow. Korra shrunk having not noticed the injury.
Turning back to Naga, she saw Ghazan helping Asami with the bags.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
She and Asami didn't waste too much time telling the others about Jinora. As soon as Mako's wrist was healed, they gathered up everyone inside.
"So wait, a little airbender girl knows where we are?" Ming-Hua slumped back in her seat as Korra finished.
"Not exactly..." Korra lowered her head.
"And you said she was doing some kind of spiritual projection?" Zaheer leaned in almost seeming not to have heard that a young airbender had found Korra.
"Yeah, that's what she called it. Do you know what it is?"
"I've heard of it and from what I understand only a very few airbenders have ever been successful at projecting their spirits in our world." He paused. "Did she tell you how she-"
"Okay, can you two talk about that spiritual stuff later?" Ghazan folded his arms. "I want to know if we have to worry about this little girl telling the White Lotus where we are. Because I really don't want to have to fight them again."
"She promised she wouldn't." Korra sighed knowing that would never convince any of them... not even herself.
"Should we really trust an eleven year old?" Mako spoke.
"There's not much we can do." Zaheer said. "She'll just find us again." Zaheer looked at Korra. "The only way to stop the White Lotus now if for you to master the avatar state, do you think you're ready?"
Korra nodded, but only because it was their only option. It had only been a day since she had managed to get into the spirit world and that had been difficult enough. And she knew firsthand how destructive the uncontrolled avatar state was.
Asami
She hadn't slept well the night before, feeling the need to be on alert for any sound of an attack. Not even knowing that Bolin and Ghazan were on watch all night was enough to put her at ease.
Even in the morning she kept on alert. The only thing that would distract her was to get to work.
And she was more than happy to do some work around the house. Sitting around and practically doing nothing had long gotten tedious. There was only so many times she could reread the same book or watch someone spar outside.
Walking outside she noticed a little problem, how to get up to the roof. Normally she'd just climb up, but the house was so run down that she didn't want the roof to collapse under her weight.
Asami looked around for Korra, Ghazan, Mako and Bolin, hoping to find at least one of them to give her a boost. But they were nowhere to be seen.
"What are you doing?" Ming-Hua's voice startled her. She hadn't seen or heard the waterbender approach from behind.
Asami caught her breath. "I was just looking for Korra, Ghazan, Bolin, or Mako to help get me up there." She pointed to the roof. "I guess I can wait till later."
"I can help."
Before Asami could protest, Ming-Hua's water tendrils gripped her around her waist and lifted her. She closed her eyes, bracing for the roof to collapse as Ming-Hua set her down. The roof creaked, but it held.
Asami opened her eyes, relieved that she wasn't lying in the middle of the kitchen floor surrounded by debris.
"Um thank you."
She slowly made her way over to the first leak, nervous that the roof would get weaker.
Ming-Hua had pulled herself up and followed Asami, not being anywhere near a cautious, and sat across from her. Once again, Asami prepared herself for the roof to fall under their combined weight, only taking comfort in the fact that they weren't above any of the bedrooms. But it was strong enough to support them.
"Weren't you with Korra and the others?" Asami asked lying out her materials.
Ming-Hua shook her head. "No I'm growing bored of watching those two lavabend." She frowned. "And of Mako just staring cynically at everyone."
Asami snickered. "He's just looking out for us."
"Yeah I get that, but it's pointless... he's way to slow. Yesterday when we were sparring I could have killed him several times over." She grinned as she finished.
Asami looked up. "Um..."
Ming-Hua scoffed. "It's not like I was going to... but someone might... he's so paranoid about us but you know, if we were ever going to hurt any of you there's nothing he could have done to stop us."
"Yeah I always figured..." Asami bit her lip. As much as she liked them, she still hadn't completely let her guard down around the Red Lotus.
"What about the rest of us?" She asked knowing the answer, but she was more curious of what Ming-Hua thought of her.
Ming-Hua held her chin up. "The four of you aren't very organized, but Bolin and Korra have lavabending, and Korra has combustionbending... thing is, Bolin is a little too nice and Ghazan is still a better lavabender. Korra… she rushes into things."
"But you also... never mind." Asami recalled how she had reacted to Zaheer when he scolded her in the truck.
"I guess her avatar state is supposed to be strong." Ming-Hua then looked Asami up and down. "I don't know about you. I thought you were just some rich girl but then you were the one that stopped the White Lotus." Ming-Hua lowered her eyes. "You don't have any other tricks do you?"
Asami smiled. "Well I do have access to every weapon that Future Industries has made, some no one outside the company has ever heard of. But I don't need to rely on my dad's company... if I wanted to I could grab a few things and shut down all the lights in a city."
Ming-Hua tilted her head as if waiting for her to continue, but Asami left it at that.
"How do you like your book?" Asami changed the subject. The previous night, when she had given it to Ming-Hua, at first the waterbender just stared at it as if it were laced with poison. But then she eventually took it and walked straight to her room.
Ming-Hua grinned. "I'm already halfway through."
"I guess you like it then." Asami could stop herself from smiling.
"Yeah for once I like the characters that don't die... and they actually know how to live in that world."
"I don't know, I thought they were a little too cold at times." There were a few instances where the characters made decisions that made her uncomfortable.
"No not at all." Ming-Hua shook her head. "I mean after that first group they learned that trusting someone can be very dangerous."
"I guess you're right." Asami shrugged trying to recall the events of the book. It had been a while since she read it and what she remembered most was the end. "I'm glad you like it."
Korra
Hours after her lavabending lesson, Zaheer gathered up Korra, Ming-Hua, Ghazan, P'Li, and Bolin. They were going to work on the avatar state that evening and Zaheer had asked the others to go with them, expecting Korra to lose control.
Asami and Mako were to wait back at the house to keep at least two of them out of danger. Korra was relieved that Mako didn't argue that he should also go.
As she was heading outside to meet the others, she saw P'Li and Asami sitting at the table drinking tea.
"You ready P'Li?" Through the widow, Korra noticed the others outside waiting.
P'Li stood up. "Yeah."
"Be careful Korra." Asami smiled at her.
"Don't worry I will."
Zaheer led everyone far away from the house and past the woods. He had her sit in a clearing similar to how she would if she were to meditate, and had the others stand not too far away.
"If she loses control, only defend yourself. Don't attack her." Zaheer instructed and then turned his attention to Korra. "You ready?"
She nodded and closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. But the insects buzzing, the uncomfortableness of sitting outside as opposed to a wood floor and the occasional breeze made it all the more difficult.
After some time had passed and having no luck she opened her eyes. Ming-Hua, Ghazan, and Bolin all looked bored, P'Li didn't seem bothered, and Zaheer was as patient as always, although Korra did detect that he was nervous.
She focused again, trying to get into the same state of mind back when she had managed the avatar state at Air Temple Island, or after Aang restored her bending.
Korra lifted and felt chi rushing through her, suddenly feeling as though she could split the earth with a flick of the wrist. And then everything went bright.
She was lying on the ground feeling sore all over. Korra groaned, slowly opened her eyes and pushed herself up. Her head was spinning as she steadied herself. Turning her head, she saw P'Li standing not too far away holding her hands.
"Korra are you okay!" Bolin rushed to her side and got down next to her.
"I think so..." She noticed a bruise above Bolin's eye. "What happened?"
"Well... after you went avatar state, you kind of lost control... but don't worry we were expecting that and everything is fine... sort of."
"What do you mean sort of?" Korra felt chills run down her arms and back.
Bolin gestured over to P'Li. She didn't seem hurt to Korra, but then she could barely able to recall firebending at her. It should have been enough to engulf her.
Korra stood up and rushed over to P'Li, feeling light headed but pushed through it.
They were far from where they had started and it looked as though a fire, a tornado, a flood, and earthquake had all come at once leaving a path of burnt soaking trees lying on the ground.
"P'Li are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine." The combustionbender dropped her hands to her sides.
Looking her up and down, P'Li didn't seem injured.
Korra smiled. "You said that your firebending wasn't that strong, but you blocked my avatar state fire... that's pretty impressive." And she wasn't lying. From what she knew, any of the elements in the avatar state would have been enough to kill even the strongest benders.
P'Li shook her head. "Not completely." She flipped her palms up to reveal that they were both burned, one about to start bleeding.
Korra felt sick at the sight. "Why didn't you tell me you were burned!" She pulled up whatever water she could from her path of destruction, barely gathering a handful and started to heal.
P'Li shrugged. "It's not that bad, I've had worse. I was more worried that you were going to combustionbend."
Korra shuddered.
"Yeah that would be bad." Bolin said having joined the two. "There would probably just be one giant crater left, Mako and Asami would just have to piece together what happened." Bolin eyed Korra. "Could you survive that in the avatar state?"
"I really didn't need to hear that," Korra frowned. "and I really don't know."
She almost laughed at the thought of ending the avatar cycle at her own hands. But it would be something to talk to Zaheer about, maybe the others could figure out a way to prepare for the worst, if there was even away to escape a super combustion blast at ground zero.
There was rustling from the woods.
"Ming-Hua I told you not to attack her!" Zaheer scolded.
"She was going to kill everyone!" Ming-Hua emerged from the trees followed by Zaheer and Ghazan.
"You're lucky you're not dead!"
Korra turned to P'Li and Bolin. "What exactly happened?" Her memories of being in the avatar state were fuzzy, but she could vaguely recall Ming-Hua running at her.
Bolin scrunched up. "You kind of slammed her against a tree with a huge rock."
"What!"
Korra felt herself go cold and stopped her healing, wanting to get a good look at Ming-Hua. The waterbender was walking just fine and mostly likely healed any injuries.
"And then you were going to firebend at her but P'Li stepped in and blocked it." He eyed P'Li's palms.
Korra looked at P'Li's hands. "So that's why this happened."
"Yeah she was a real hero!" Bolin grabbed P'Li's arm.
P'Li flinched and tensed up, but then relaxed.
Ming-Hua ran over to Korra and glared at her. It had occurred to Korra that she had technically defeated Ming-Hua in combat, but she didn't dare say it out loud. Instead she continued to heal, breaking eye contact with the waterbender.
"So that was the avatar state." Ming-Hua finally said.
"Yes, that was it." Zaheer responded and wrapped his arm around P'Li.
"And we're doing this every day until she can control it?"
"I'm really going to need your help"
"Fine."
Jian walked passed Sheng trying not to make eye contact with him. But he knew he was smirking at him. It had been his turn to guard the queen that day and she had been in one of her rotten moods. The queen didn't see either of them as guards, just as more people to order to do menial tasks and would scream if given the slightest negative reaction.
That's how it had been since he had been sent to the capital. After Korra's stint at the Sato mansion and confirmation that she had been working with the four criminals, Tashi thought it best that he join Sheng at the capital.
He had tried to argue that Inari would be more suited but Tashi wouldn't hear of it, angry at the fire bender's failure to detain Korra and the criminals.
So until the avatar and anyone she was with were taken into custody, he'd be stuck there. The sooner they found them the better.
AN: Lots of fluff this chapter, there will be even more fluff next chapter until the end.