Kuvira wasn't sure about the direction that Team Avatar was going. That might have been a pessimistic viewpoint, but she just couldn't shake the feeling of running around with a bunch of children.

It was mostly Korra and Bolin, though Kuvira made no secret of her dislike of Mako either. The two were insistent on condenames. Not for them, no; that'd be too obvious. Instead, Korra wanted to call out their tactics. Kuvira shut that idea down as best she could, but she lost the argument for one reason; unlike something like the military alphabet, these codes won't be known. Thus, they'll only make sense to them and thus would likely just confuse the opponent rather than hinder Team Avatar.

That was the idea. How was the execution?

Well, the morning after the whole deal with Amon, Kuvira and Korra brainstormed ideas, and it went like this:

"So, it occurs to me," Kuvira crossed her arms in thought. "Being a new Team Avatar...is competing with some of the greatest benders of all time, correct?"

"I suppose…" Korra set down the pai sho piece she'd been holding; the two women were playing at the time. "So? You're really good, right?"

Kuvira had to be careful not to come off as arrogant with what she said next. "That may be, but it could be said that the combined strength of us four doesn't match the combined strength of the previous Team Avatar."

"Okay...what are you getting at? That we're doomed to fail?"

"Far from. We just need to come up with some ways to counteract that deficit," Kuvira decided on her move and move the appropriate piece, smirking as she saw Korra's distraught expression in knowing she was pretty royally screwed. In the game, anyway.

"Okay, any ideas?"

"I do, actually. I'm sure you and I both had to do our fair share of reading of Avatar Aang's quest," Korra nodded, grimacing at all the time spent with her nose in a book. "Do you recall the plan they used to ultimately defeat the Fire Lord?"

Korra thought about it for a moment. "Aang faced Ozai. Zuko and Katara faced Azula, but Zuko fought her in a duel in the end. Sokka, Toph, and a Kyoshi Warrior named Suki took down whatever airships that Aang couldn't destroy before his fight started."

"Do you notice a trend with those?"

"Um…"

"The plan may have been one thing, but in the execution everything ended up in one-on-one duels. Looking through their history, such things are far from rarities. The first Team Avatar largely fought individually, using their own traditional bending techniques to win the day. That worked for the time, and for the more stringent forms of bending in them, but we don't live in those times, do we?"

"So, are you talking team attacks?"

"That's exactly what I'm talking about. What we can't accomplish alone, we'll make up for with our synergy."

Korra grinned. "Oh, that sounds awesome! We should come up with code names!"

"What? No."

"But…"

And thus happened the argument that Kuvira lost.

In any case, whatever they came up with would have to wait for the next day. Both women tried to be low energy in the morning, with Tenzin having given Korra the next few days off of her airbending training. In the afternoon, both of them were expected to appear before the city council to provide an account of what happened the night prior. Then, in the evening, Korra and the Fire Ferrets had the first match of the season. Thankfully, it was against an easy opponent, and it turned out to be just what Korra needed to get back to herself

Back to the meeting with the council though.

Kuvira was expecting some kind of event, and unfortunately she got it. Mako and Bolin decided to come along as well, and four was already a crowd. Add in about fifty reporters who were hoping for a big headline about how Korra was going to deal with the Equalists.

The girl held much less confidence than she had when challenging Amon, likely because she was no longer sleep-deprived and stupid as she was then. Now, she nearly cowered at the barrage of questions, though tried to keep her chin up. Kuvira and Bolin did what they could to clear a path, trying to gently push the reporters out of the way; gently being the operative word. Mako was with Korra, hand interlocked with hers, keeping close. Kuvira thought that was a bit much; it wasn't as if she was helpless.

When they reached the main entrance, they saw that the reporters outside were just the preliminary round. There were another few dozen in the lobby, plus another few dozen in the hall leading to the meeting chamber. It soon became too much.

Kuvira and Bolin couldn't ward off that many people without hurting them, forcing them back to the group. Korra seemed even more nervous with the increase in questions being shouted at her. Mako noticed this and leaned in close.

"You okay?" he said it into her ear, so she could hear over the shouting. She nodded, though weakly. "You don't look it," she avoided his worried gaze at the observation. The firebender looked around a bit, seeing that they were hardly moving. "You don't want to answer them, right?"

Korra spoke, saying something like, "Not at all right now," but her voice was drowned out. Mako got the gist, though.

He leaned in again. "If I do this, promise you'll bail me out if I accidentally burn someone," Korra was about to question what he meant, when he suddenly lashed out, flames arcing out in front of them. The reporters screamed in shock and a bit of fear. "Get out of here! The Avatar has important business that doesn't involve you leeches!"

Mako's little display was inherently non-lethal, though Kuvira doubted that the reporters knew that. Thus, they kept out of their way. "Good play," Kuvira conceded it to Cool Under Fire only in her head. Call it stubbornness.

xxxXXXxxx

"A bloodbender?" the councilmen and women had a mixture of shock, fear, and disbelief on their faces when Kuvira relayed her experiences. Korra held a similar expression, only it was all rolled into one face; hers. Tarrlok was the most skeptical, being a waterbender. "That's impossible."

"Well, I know what I felt," Kuvira stood her ground. Tarrlok saw this, glaring at the young woman.

"You were likely frightened," Tenzin tried to diffuse the situation. "It was a stressful night for all of us; it's entirely possible that you were...freezing up at the sight of him."

Kuvira raised an eyebrow, not so much mad that he didn't believe her than she was annoyed that he'd imply cowardice. "I'll say this; I'm not scared of that man. I was about to defeat him, when something shot me away from him and then held me in place. The only person able to do that is a bloodbender."

"No one is saying you were scared of Amon, perse," Tarrlok sat back down from his standing position. "But rather the situation. In any case, the possibility of Amon being a bloodbender is zero."

"I wouldn't go that far, Tarrlok," Tenzin also sat back down.

"No? Let me break it down. Amon is the leader of the Equalists; an anti-bending movement. They wouldn't trust someone who could utilize what is possibly the strongest and most twisted form of bending beyond those of the Avatar. As well, bloodbending requires a full-moon to utilize, along with specific techniques that have been lost to time save for individuals like Katara, who know of its use only to counteract it. There has only been a record of one man who could defy these rules, and he would be nearly eighty years old by now if he wasn't dead."

"You refer to Yakone, the crime boss?" Tenzin stroke dhis beard. "Is it possible that he had any children? Perhaps they-"

"I just explained that he was dead, Councilman Tenzin," Tarrlok offered a smirk, smug as ever. "A man can't have children when he's a decomposing corpse."

Tenzin continued stroking his beard. He seemed to the be one who was trying to believe Kuvira the most, and spirits bless him for that. She knew it was a crazy story, and without proof, her word was all they had to go on. Except…

"Chief Beifong was there as well. Unlike Korra, she was conscious and watching the battle," Kuvira crossed her arms. If they wouldn't take her word, then they might take Beifong's; a trusted individual.

Tenzin nodded, and without an hour the woman was before them. She nodded to Kuvira, addressing her with a, "we're talking after this," before she faced the council.

"Chief Beifong, it's a pleasure," Tarrlok bowed with respect. It seemed genuine enough.

"Yes, it's nice to see you all," Beifong waved off the greetings, settling her arms across her chest. "What do you want? I have things to do."

"It seems your officer saw something strange last night, and we're told that you can confirm it. She claims that she was bloodbent by Amon."

"Well, I'm not sure it was bloodbending, but it wasn't normal," Beifong gave a neutral answer; normal for her. She generally didn't like openly taking a side, not in front of so many influential people.

"But you think it's a possibility?" Tenzin turned to her. She nodded curtly at him; Kuvira had heard about their old flame; awkward would likely be the best term to describe it.

"Of course it is. I trust my officers implicitly; that's why I hire them. If she says it's bloodbending with some certainty, then you'd do well to believe her."

Kuvira was almost surprised at the stance she took. It wasn't as if she expected Beifong to deny the possibility, but for something so far-fetched, she imagined that she would be more skeptical, as per usual. Perhaps it was the skeptic in Kuvira, then, that thought that it was a targeted play.

It turned out that she was half-right in that regard.

After the meeting, Kuvira was pulled aside from Team Avatar by Beifong, into a small corridor where they could speak privately. "Alright, officer," Beifong crossed her arms. "Spill. Where did you learn to bend like that?"

Kuvira looked her dead in the eye. "I'm self-taught," the answer, repeated. from the night prior, wasn't an entirely false one. It just didn't tell the whole truth. She didn't learn how to earthbend or metalbend by herself, nor did she learn dancing, of which her style is based on those motions, by herself either. She did develop her style and efficiency with it on her own, however.

Beifong sighed. "And after I stuck my neck out for you...fine, don't tell me. I wasn't going to reprimand you, I was going to promote you. No bender with that much talent needs to be wasted on the beat or this babysitting job," Kuvira just gave her a blank stare. "But if you're not going to tell me, then I can't do that in good conscience."

Kuvira shrugged. "I could be on a worse assignment, like directly under you, for example," Beifong raised an eyebrow at that and it took Kuvira a moment to realize that she'd just snapped at her superior and insulted her. "...apologies."

"For what?" Beifong's arms remained crossed, but her expression softened just a bit. "Listen, kid, I...know what it's like to have a difficult past that's hard to talk about. And-"

"Hey, Vee, are you guys done in here?" Korra popped her head in. "Because we've got a match in like an hour."

"Go on without me, Korra," Kuvira didn't take her eyes off of the Chief.

"No, it's fine," Beifong waved it off. "I'm no good at this kind of thing anyway."

The two women stood awkwardly across from each other for a moment. Thank the spirits for Korra when she grabbed Kuvira's arm and pulled her out, ending the conversation at least for now.

xxxXXXxxx

The walk to the arena was a bit quiet, even for Kuvira's tastes. She could tell that Korr and the others wanted to talk, but they probably knew that the conversation would inevitably turn to Amon and the Equalists. The only conversation were some brief interactions between Korra and Mako; 'thank you's for what he did to get them through the crowd earlier.

Finally, Kuvira sighed. "Korra, what do you think?"

The girl jumped slightly at the sudden noise. "A-about what?"

"Amon."

"...what about him…?" her voice lowered to barely above a whisper.

Bolin strode closer to her, trying to keep his voice down. "You know, about...bloodbending?"

Korra didn't answer right away. Truthfully, Kuvira wanted a simple answer, preferably an honest one, so they could move on to lighter topics. Finally, Korra spoke. "I think...I don't believe you."

Kuvira stopped walking, shocked at the response. "...what?"

"It's...impossible," Korra avoided the hard stare that Kuvira was giving her. The older woman wasn't trying to be intimidating, but she was afraid she came off that way.

Mako spoke up. "I mean, it does sound pretty crazy. I think Tarrlok had a point."

"Or two," Bolin chimed in, offering a smile to distract from the fact that he was disagreeing with her.

"Or maybe you all are just running from the truth because it frightens you," Kuvira put a hand on her hip.

"Hey!"

"Come on, that was uncalled for."

The bending brothers' protestations made Kuvira take a step back. She looked to Korra, whose form had shrunk to that miniscule thing she saw that first day, when she asked why everyone hated her. Instantly, a pang of guilt welled up into the watcher's gut; she never wanted to make her feel that way. Kuvira bowed her head. "I'm sorry...I was overstepping my bounds. Forget what I said."

Bolin smiled and slapped a hand onto her shoulder. "Hey don't worry about it. We still like you, even if your story is about as real as a three Yuan bill."

"Bo, too much," Mako pulled him off. "...Bloodbender or not, something shady went down between them. We need to be prepared for anything."

For as much as Kuvira didn't like Mako, she appreciated that he wasn't ruling out the possibility completely, and acknowledged that they needed to be careful. With that, though, the three made it to the arena.

Thankfully, things went smoothly, as stated before. At first, with the somewhat dour mood that the prior conversation had left the group in, Kuvira was worried she ruined their opening night.

Things quickly turned around, however, when Hiroshi Sato himself appeared before them. Not literally, but he was there, in the lobby. Once he saw Team Avatar, over the crowd of people asking him questions. He approached them with the same fatherly solicitude as before, warmly greeting and shaking each of their hands before having them lead him to their locker room before the match. He only really spoke to them, though, after they were in private. "Oh, it's wonderful to see you all again. I have to say, I didn't believe I could get so invested in this whole pro bending shebang, but the crowd certainly helped provide excitement!"

"It's the reason I do this, for sure," Bolin nodded his head in agreement, with Korra doing the same soon after.

"Is there any particular reason you came tonight?"

Hiroshi looked to the questioning Avatar. "Why, to personally provide you your uniforms, of course."

"What about our old ones?"

"Recycled; they'll be repurposed and added to to provide an outfit for others less fortunate, if all goes to plan that is."

Mako was grinning. "I can't wait to see them."

"Well, I hope they don't disappoint," Hiroshi chuckled.

"They won't," Mako was pleased, though looked to Korra to see her not sharing in the excitement, and in fact looked absent-minded as she strode beside him. She was probably still thinking about Amon and the Equalists. He leaned closer to her. "We need this."

Her eyes focused again, and she smiled. "Yeah, I know. It's just...hard."

Mako nodded in understanding, interlacing his fingers with hers to give her some amount of reassurance. He'd meant what he said; he would always have her back in whatever she needed his help with. The problem was that he wasn't sure how to even help her. He wasn't exactly a handyman in that regard.

Finally, they all made it to the locker room, where the Fire Ferret's new uniforms had actually already been delivered, slightly contradicting Hiroshi's earlier statement. Kuvira thought nothing of it. The trio all pulled out their uniforms and slipped them on; each seemed to have been custom fit for the athlete it was made for. It look almost identical to their old uniform, if made with higher-quality materials, but it had the Future Industries logo emblazoned over the chest pad. The three stretched and moved a bit in the garbs, and Kuvira could tell that they were well-made just from watching.

"Wow, these are…" Mako was speechless.

"Awe-ha-some!" Bolin shadow-boxed with ease. "Hey, these are way better than our old ones!"

"And," Hiroshi approached the younger brother. "It's got a little extra. It's not anything special, but I felt it was a nice touch," in a pun, Hiroshi then lightly touched the Future Industries insignia, and it lit up in a cool forest green on Bolin's uniform. Mako then did the same, and his burned an orange that, while difficult to make out on the red uniform, came across passably. Korra's, then, made sense to glow a pale blue when she tapped hers. Bolin practically had stars in his eyes.

"This is amazing!" he pumped his fistrs in the air. "Oh man, just wait 'til we get out there! With these, we're gonna kick some serious tail tonight!"

"

"Yeah, I guess…" Korra shrugged. She seemed the least excited, only to doing her standard stretches before walking out to the edge of the platform to wait for the others. Hiroshi noticed this, even while conversing with Mako. Once the Fire Ferrets started moving toward the arena, he asked about it.

"I don't mean to pry, but...is something the matter with the Avatar?"

And this was where Kuvira had to be careful with what she said. She didn't know if she was technically allowed to reveal anything, about what happened the night prior or during the meeting today. In end, she chose to give a vague answer. "She's had a rough week, is all."

"Is it that task force thing that Councilman Tarrlok is using?"

"Good guess," Kuvira sat down on the bench as the round started. "She's hardly gotten any sleep or vreaktime; she swings between irritable and exhausted, making it exceedingly difficult to get through to her."

What she just said was mostly true. She was hoping that forming a new Team Avatar would cheer her up and help take some of the load off, but they've yet to implement anything, so for now that plan was stagnant; as was Korra with her mood.

The match was going well, surprising the watcher. All three of the Fire Ferrets were focused, it seemed, making cooperation and coordination a cinch.

"..." Hiroshi just watched.

"If I may ask...why are you helping them so much?"

"I believe I explained myself."

"Call me a cynic, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Hiroshi considered for a moment, before relenting. "That my daughter loved pro bending was the truth, and I felt it would've made her happy."

"Where is your daughter?"

"..." His silence was more than enough indication; Hiroshi's daughter was dead. a firebender entered my home and cut both her and my wife down in a robbery."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine," he waved his hand, though his tone was clearly dampened from having remembered the event. "I should've been there, to protect them. It's my fault."

"No, it's not. The firebender is the one to blame," Kuvira rested her chin in her hand. "Was he ever brought to justice?"

"No, he got away. But I'm relieved to hear you say what you did."

"It's the natural reaction. And for what it's worth, I think your daughter would be proud of what you've accomplished."

"I thank you again," Hiroshi bowed. A few moments later, the Fire Ferrets won by knockout in the second round. Judging from the grins on their faces, even Korra's, this was a good thing to lose themselves in for a few moments.

"Well, I'm sure you all are tired," Hiroshi moved to leave. "I bid you farewell for now. Perhaps soon I can show you a few more things. I wish you luck in your endeavors, Fire Ferrets."

And with that, the man left the group to wind down.


Author's Note:

Hey guys, sorry this wasn't out like three days ago; I got sick, and I was trying to focus what little energy I did have to my book.

In any case, not an action-heavy chapter; it's mostly a character one. I suppose it should be expected, given that my style is vast amounts of character between action beats. That said, I really wasn't feeling this chapter as I wrote it, but as for how it turned out...well, that will be for you to decide. I've noticed that my writing is less...peppy when I'm not feeling, as if I'm listing something off rather than making a story. And there are times when that's necessary; an explanation of a power system for example, but as for how it translates to scenes like this will, again, be for you to decide.

With that, I'll leave you. See ya!