Thank BG-13!


Korra's POV

I woke with a jolt, my heart pounding and my breathing ragged. Always the same. My dreams were always the same. Aiden and Bolin's deaths would play in my head, the details vivid and exact. I'd been plagued with them for five years. It was one of the reasons I loved the rain. It washed away the memories and drowned them for the night. Knowing better than to try and get some more sleep, I slunk out of bed and headed for the kitchen.

Once there, I noticed I wasn't the only one up. I silently grabbed an apple and took a seat across from Jinora.

"Can't sleep?" she asked, her nose buried in a book I couldn't even read the title of. Some random language, I suppose.

I shook my head at the question. "No. Bad dreams." Understatement of the century.

"About?"

I sighed and took a bite out of my apple, chewing methodically and purposefully. "Mako." It was a simpler answer than the truth.

"Why don't you talk to him?" she asked, creasing the corner of the page she was on before turning her full attention to me. "He seemed worried when you weren't eating."

"I have my reasons."

"And they are?"

I looked at the table top, trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to tell the eldest of the Airbending siblings. "I know it doesn't seem like it," I began, choosing my words carefully. "But I'm not the same person I used to be."

She nodded slowly, thoughtfully. "Then show him." It was the most simplistic answer I'd ever heard from the girl. Five years ago she would've spouted off some nonsense about burning down an entire country and throwing myself into a volcano. I could really see how much she'd matured in the last five years.

I started thinking about just how I could do that. It wouldn't exactly be easy; I wasn't expecting it to be at least. But then the newspaper sitting on the table caught my eye. The headline read: 'Triad Boss' Murderer Caught! Trail in Two Days!'

A small smile spread across my face. I looked up at Jinora. Her brown eyes were studying me, observing. I smirked at this. "Has anyone ever mentioned to you that you're too smart for your age?" I asked her, some amusement in my voice. She smiled at this, and I got up and left the room. I was going to need help. And lots of it, by the looks of things.

Telling Howl had never been my plan. I'd never planned to tell anyone, really. But the accident with Dead Shot a few nights ago had shown me that I couldn't do this on my own. I needed someone to have my back, like my master had had mine. I knocked on the sentry's door and asked him to get ready. He raised a brow at first and I thought he was going to blow me off, but then he sighed and nodded his head.

I waited for him outside, mentally preparing myself for the worst scenarios. I knew by the end of the night, Howl would hate me. I'd done nothing so far that warranted his trust and as far as I could tell, he already didn't hold me in high regard. When he came out, we headed to the city. I braced myself for the opening of Pandora's Box.


Howl's POV

I had to admit, I was surprised. The Avatar had wakened me up at two o'clock in the morning to go to the city. But the time wasn't really what was bothering me. It was the fact that she had actually asked me to tag along instead of ditching me like she usually did. I was suspicious of her motives but followed her nonetheless. I was only doing my job.

We arrived at the Pro-Bending arena and my confusion escalated. What in the Spirit's name were we doing here? She hopped off Naga and motioned for me to follow her inside the building. I did, cautiously. Once inside, she flipped the switch and the old stadium lit up. My eyes widened.

It looked like a training ground; an Airbending training ground. She led me down to the arena and picked up a bag that was sitting by a set of the Spinning Gates I had seen on Air Temple Island. The replica looked handmade but the details were spot on. She unzipped the bag and showed the held it out to me. I studied her face before looking into it and I felt my jaw go slack. The black slits of the Blue Sprit mask stared back up at me.

I shook my head. There was no way. Nope. Uh-uh. I wasn't buying it. She couldn't even Bend! The look on my face must've told the same story because she dropped the bag and turned to the Gates. She pushed her hands out and with a mighty gust, the panels were spinning furiously. It wasn't possible!

"You're the vigilante," I breathed, disbelief and shock mixing into my voice.

She nodded, her expression not having changed in the slightest. But her eyes displayed anxiousness. "I am."

I shook my head. "You really did lose your mind on that island."

"But I found a couple of things along the way."

"Like what? Airbending lessons?"

"Howl, you don't understand" she began her voice even and controlled. "I was trained to come back here and bring justice back to this city, do the things I had failed to do before. I was trained to set things right." There was an unmistakable honesty in the way she said it. But I didn't want to believe that she was doing this for justice. "This is the mission I was given."

"And what lunatic told you that?"

She was silent for a long time. She seemed reluctant to tell me and I saw trace amounts of pain and guilt in her cyan eyes. It was funny the little details her eyes betrayed when her expression said nothing at all.

"Your father."

I felt the air get knocked out of me and my blood run cold. My heart was beating wildly. "What?"

She looked away from me. "Your father went to the Boiling Rock after I disappeared," she whispered, her voice so low I had to strain to hear her. "He rescued me, trained me. He helped me become stronger."

I shook my head again. This wasn't happening. This couldn'tbe happening.

"What happened to him?" I wasn't sure if I was prepared for the answer and at first she didn't supply one. I may not have been ready, but I wasn't going to let her deny me one either. I grabbed the crook of her arm and jerked her. She didn't protest as her eyes met mine again. There was that guilt, still floating there in her ocean blue eyes. "What. Happened. To my father?" I repeated through my teeth.

Her answer chilled me to the bone, though it was only a whisper. "He didn't make it."

I let go of her arm and stumbled slightly, as if she had pushed me. But she hadn't moved. I was leaning against a work table for support. I'd had the delusion for the last five or so years that maybe my dad was still alive. Maybe he was just stuck somewhere and couldn't get home. That fantasy had just been shattered. I could feel my blood boiling in my veins and my disbelief turning into fury.

And it was all her fault.

"Republic City is dying," Korra continued, snapping me out of my thoughts. "It's being poisoned by the criminal elite, who don't care who they step on, as long as they get what they want in their quest for power." This sounded ironically familiar. I wondered if she'd looked in the mirror lately.

"And what are you supposed to do?" I asked bitterly, my words dripping with enough venom to kill a rat-viper. "Are you supposed to take them all down as my father's final wish?" My voice had risen slightly, and I was fighting for control.

I watched as she winced and I felt some satisfaction. She composed herself as her expression returned to its neutral look. "I want you to...I'm asking you to help me."

She'd officially lost her mind if she thought I'd ever think of helping the woman who was responsible for my father's death. I'd rather hang. "Help you?" I scoffed. "You're a criminal."

"No, Howl, I-"

"And a deceitful little murderer." Somewhere in the back of mind, I knew I'd crossed a line when I saw the pain and hurt in her eyes. She'd been accused of this numerous times by numerous people. Now, I was one of those people. I shook my head before leaving her standing in the run down arena turned training ground. Despite it all, I still pitied her.