A Day of Reckoning Part 2

The sound of the lock clicking raised the hairs on Ed's neck.

Mako dropped Nobu, his hands falling from his color, his mouth agape.

"Akio!" Nobu cried in relief from under the other firebender.

He scrambled toward the slightly older man while Iroh hurried in the opposite direction, toward his mother.

"Are you alright, Mother?" He held her shoulders, helping her to her feet.

"of course, sweetie."

The man's eyes, Mako's shade of amber, swept around the room.

"So, Nobu. I take it Kaede failed." He observed calmly.

"Yeah, the kid fucked it up and got sent to the cooler." Nobu agreed.

"And he told us a lot about you guys, Nobu." Mako informed him, still trying to distract him.

Nobu twitched. "Pig-Ratted us out, the punk?"

"Nah."
Mako spat, his accent unconsciously becoming more and more inner Republic City.

"He told us bout himself, mostly. Sad story."

Nobu spat too.

"Ain't any differ'nt'n yours. Or mine. I was a penniless firebender. Growing up in Triple Threat turf. You do the math."

"Yeah. That does sound familiar."

"And I never liked it any more than you. Wasn't violent as a kid. The Triple Threats made me that way. You're lucky, Mako. You got outta that shithole. Some of us didn't. Killing nonbenders cuz they didn't pay protection money, dragging kids like you offa the streets just to use…We just got sick of the life. So we ran."

Akio nodded. "Exactly. We were forced to do terrible crimes to survive. Tell me what makes more sense: hating firebending after that or continuing to live off it as you've done?"

"Don't talk to him that way."

Bolin pointed at Akio, red in the face with indignation.

"At least he made the best of it and tried not to hurt anyone. That's more than you guys did."

Akio frowned severely. "I see that as complacency. See, I too, lost my parents to firebenders."

"You..what?"

"Yes. And I've hated firebending ever since. Hated myself ever sense. That you haven't Mako, only means you're deluding yourself."

"Okay, yeah. Getting real tired of this conversation, ponytail."

Korra crackd her knuckled and opening her fists with a flick of her wrist gushed a small tornado of wind at the door.

Though it was locked, the strong gust chipped away at the hinges until it flew off into the hallway with a crash.

As the deafening winds died down and her hair settled back into place she pointed and said

"There's the door, pal."

Akio laughed. "I don't think so, Avatar."

"Oh but I do."

"Well I'm afraid you'll just have to be disappointed because we intend to complete our plan."

"And what plan is that? Killing the Firelord, getting rid of all benders? Like Amon?"

"That was the plan."

C'mon, Kaede, don't be a baby

Would you rather stay a triple threat forever and kill more people dumbass?

I know Nobu, but we'd never get away with it. Zolt doesn't just let people leave. They'll hunt us down and kill us. Won't they, Akio?

Absolutely not. I have an idea…

"Well…not originally." Nobu admitted, shrugging. "It started out, we just wanted to get the hell out of the triple threats."

"For over a year we've planned our escape. and we succeeded." Akio elaborated.

"We were still trying to figure out what to do when the Equalists began to mobilize. Here was our model for what to do next. We pretended to be nonbenders and joined rallies. And conveniently, Amon fell to the Avatar leaving a power vacuum and Sato's blueprints to steal for us to finish his work."

"And we aren't gonna leave it unfinished just because one little girls says so." Nobu sneered.

"Fair enough. But what if I bring some friends?"

"What frie-"

A massive version of the wind that blew out the door seared through the entire room. Ed caught a glimpse of glowing white eyes for a second as Korra sped across the room, grabbed both Akio and Nobu by the collars and slammed them bodily to the chamber floor.

"Oh, just some people." She said casually, the glow of her eyes melting into blue amidst the broken windows, strewn linen, and busted radio of the room.

"I see now. But a lot of allies are useless if they're only in one place." Akio said.

Korra raised her head dully.

Nobu was gone.

"Damnit!"

She sprinted out the frame where the chamber door had been.

"Keep Akio here, I'll be right back!"

"Be careful!" Mako yelled.

"I will!"

"Where? Where the hell is he?" Korra thought frantically, running haphazardly down hallways.

A bellow announced to her Naga had broken into the building and was now running beside her.

"Good girl!" Korra praised, grabbing hold of her white fur and heaving herself into the saddle.

Naga sniffed as she charged down the corridor until she slowed to a sniffling halt at an alcove covered by a red curtain with the Fire Nation royal insignia embroidered on it.

Korra ripped it to one side.

Nobu was crouching with a makeshift bomb he was hastily setting.

It happened in an instant.

He connected the timer with one hand and tried to burn Korra with the other.

Without thinking, she went into the avatar state, diverted the fire with a strong airbending attack and as it dissipated into a puff of smoke, she generated a bolt of lightning and sent it flying, and incinerating the bomb before it went off.

The scream broke Korra out of the avatar state.

Nobu had his hand on the device still and took the voltage right through his body.

By the time Korra oriented herself, he was lifeless.

The Royal Guard was taking Akio away and putting a white sheet on Nobu's body.

Iroh had explicitly ordered them not to question Korra and gave an incident report himself.

"I…didn't mean too…" Korra was saying, shocked and timid.

"I know…" Mako consoled her, hugging her protectively.

When they had heard the bomb being destroyed, they had thought for a minute she had been killed in a blast.

"Yeah, you did great." Ed smiled, coming up to her. "It's a shame about Nobu though."
"I know." Korra grabbed the towel around her shoulders tighter. "He was trying to kill us so I don't regret it, I just…didn't mean to kill him."

"Well, it's a good thing you did." Lin glared at the corpse with contempt, striding up to Ed's side.

"But, it's just like Tarrlok said. That was just using bending to beat down people we don't like."

"Korra, that's stupid." Mako insisted fiercely. "He was trying to kill people. You were just protecting us."

"You're just exhausted. Come on, let's get you some lychee juice."

"Is it alcoholic? Because it better be alcoholic." Lin muttered crankily.

"You said it. This trip has been hell." Ed replied, looking behind his shoulder at him.

"And the festival's over too." Al lamented, looking out a large stained glass window where he could see tents being taken down and the smoke of cooking food becoming lower.

"Aw man and we were gonna make Ed drink that milk, too." Winry sighed.

"Hey, watch it…"

Aang leaned back in meditation with conflicting feelings under a large spirit banyan tree. On the one hand he was relieved Korra was unhurt but at the same time he agreed with her: Nobu hadn't had to die and he was both disappointed at the outcome and sorry for Korra because she had blood on her hands.

"Zhi, for exactly how long do you plan to eat bananas up there before you show yourself?"

"My apologies, Avatar. I was merely meditating myself on how to deal with this situation."

"What situation?"

"The other spirits are…not pleased with my conduct. Things in the human world are not going as they wish because of me."

"What do you mean?"

"Avatar Korra was supposed to die."

"Die?"

"Yes. Those firebenders were supposed to have launched an attack on bender leaders and create a revolution where Amon failed, killing the Avatar and forcing her successor into hiding in the process."

Aang shivered.

"So…like the Fire Nation when I was a kid?"

"Like the Fire Nation."

"But Korra stopped them. How's that on you?"

"I sent the brothers to her. And the Xingese. It was that extra help that allowed Avatar Korra to restore order when she was supposed to have failed. That and my compliance in their raid of Wan Shi Tong's library makes the other spirits think my interference is destructive."

'And what does that mean for us?"

"It means the entire spirit world is against us. And they will try to kill Avatar Korra."

A/N: It's summer and that means updating! This is the end of this arc hope you enjoyed it. The next arc will revolved around the spirit world so stay tuned. Speaking fo which how exciting is it we got previews of book 2 and more on the spirits? It's so exciting! I love the random frightened water tribe villagers from the most recent promo hah

thanks for reading so far and please review! I love opinions! :)