A Legend of Korra Fanfic
By Sakura Martinez (aka SMTsukishiro)
Summary:
A promising engineering student. A mysterious woman capable of controlling the four elements. When their paths crossed, the resulting collision not only changes their lives and themselves, but the fate of the entire world as well. [Korrasami AU]
Author's Note:
This, I guess, is a chapter some of you (not really sure) may have been waiting for. Also, this is one of the shorter chapters in the story, but it is one of the most important events in the first arc of this fanfic.
For those who want to broaden their knowledge on some of the things (well, okay, one thing) I wrote in this chapter, don't forget to read the Post Chapter Notes.
Also, to elle112u: Don't be bothered too much about Korra not being able to eat. Just wait a couple of chapters (2, at most) and you will find that even though this is a different (in a sense, since this is an alternate universe) Korra, there are some (maybe even a lot) of things about the prime/original-verse Korra that stays the same. :D
Now that's said, I hope you all enjoy!
Allons-y~!
The Legend of Korra
The Schism
Chapter 8. Mako
It took a few seconds for the two, young women to notice that something was wrong with the Avatar. The change was so gradual—so subtle. It started with the gale-force winds subsiding, the glow and thrum of the Avatar's power fading, and a show of visible effort on Korra's part to continue her assault on the Spirit Bastille and the people who tried to do them harm.
Seconds later, Avatar Korra cried out in pain and the wind completely stopped. She fell on her knees, weakened. Asami and Opal both ran towards her, her name uttered in equal parts worry and confusion. The earthen wall the Avatar had created still provided cover from the barrage of bullets that were meant to do more than debilitate them, though they feared it might not hold for long, as they hurried to the Avatar's side.
"Korra! Korra, what's wrong?" Panic seeped through every word that escaped the Prodigy's mouth as Korra began to double over in pain.
The Avatar was unable to say anything. All she could do was close her eyes and bite the insides of her cheek to keep herself from screaming. She felt as though her body was being torn asunder, ripped and pulled apart in different directions, and the harder she tried to hold herself together the more painful it was.
The two humans looked at each other, uncertain of the course of action they had to take. With each passing second, Korra weakened until she could not even keep herself steady even when she was already kneeling. She swayed, almost toppling over, before Asami steadied her.
Meanwhile, the monstrous machination that stood before them was still very much alive and functional. Moreover, it seemed as though the noise it was making had grown louder. The gears turned and the pistons churned faster than they had before. The energy—the dark, electric current—that travelled around it had also doubled in quantity and strength.
The inventor in her was amazed at the resilience of the machine. The other side of her, however, was shaken. The armed men had stopped shooting, but they had begun advancing on the trio. Asami knew they must not be taken. Korra must not be taken. And she and Opal were with one mind in this.
"Asami," Opal didn't need a plethora of words to convey what must be done. All she needed to do was get the other girl's attention.
The brilliant, young, engineering student nodded in understanding. As the men closed in on them, her eyes searched for anything they could use for their escape. Her gaze settled upon a canister no bigger than a grenade, the label of which told her that it contained a highly volatile and explosive substance, developed by an electrical engineer and weapons expert. 'Handle with care' it had said underneath in cursive writing. The bolded letters 'Arc Flash' written below it.
"Opal, when I give the signal, you take Korra and run as fast as you can." Asami had instructed, her eyes still trained on the bottled weapon.
"What about you?" Opal asked, eyes wide in fear. "You're not going to stand your ground to let us escape are you? Because if that's your plan, it's the most stupid thing I've heard you come up with, Asami."
Asami rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Of course not. I will be running right behind you. I just need to create the perfect distraction."
The youngest Bei Fong followed the other girl's line of sight. Upon seeing the labelled container, her eyes widened even more.
"Asami!" she hissed. "You are not using that to blowup all these people! That's Councilman Tarrlok for heaven's sake!"
"I'm not going to blow them up. I'm not that crazy, Opal. Just trust me. Take Korra and run as fast as you can back the way we came."
With the guards so close, Opal had no choice but to agree with whatever plan Asami Sato had conceived. When she nodded her assent, Asami mentally counted to three before darting as fast as her legs could carry her towards the Arc Flash.
"Hey!" she heard one of the guards shout at her. "Halt!"
At the same time, Councilman Tarrlok also ordered his men, shouting, "Don't just stand there! Stop her!"
The young, emerald-eyed inventor did not stop, of course. The moment she grabbed hold of the canister of Arc Fire, she gave a shout for Opal to start running, and then hurled the volatile weapon at the ground near the security guards.
The instant the electric-based weapon hit the tiled floor of the Garage, it exploded with a bright, blinding, white light coupled with thick smoke and electric currents that tampered with the electrical devices in the room—short circuiting them—as well as electrocuting those caught within the blast's radius.
If there was anything more the Arc Fire did or damaged, Asami was unable to observe and make note. At that point, she had turned on her heels and scrambled after Opal and Korra, the latter of whom being greatly assisted and carried by the former.
With Korra's weight on Opal, the duo made slow progress. So much so that Asami quickly caught up to them.
"Where to?" Opal huffed the question as she hitched Korra's slackening grip higher. The Avatar groaned, afflicted by whatever it was that was hurting her. "We can't go back to the elevator. Avatar Korra doesn't look like she could bend the metal again, and the city-wide blackout is still in effect for us to be able to use the elevator itself."
As if on cue—propelled by Opal's words, or mayhap the gods' sense of humor and strange desire to prove the Historian wrong—the power returned turning every light and electric-powered device and machinery on.
They stopped momentarily and blinked, trying to clear their eyesight that was disturbed and disoriented by the sudden illumination.
"How in the world—?" Opal, surprised, wondered aloud. The blackout was still scheduled for a few hours more. Her question—as well as her thoughts on the matter—however, were cut short when Asami spoke.
"Quickly, to the elevator before they gather their wits and put everything on lockdown!"
The Prodigy then took the Avatar's weight off Opal, allowing Korra's arms over her shoulder as her own snaked around her waist for support. Opal—who up until that point had only carried as heavy as three, thick, hard-bound tomes at a time—was grateful to be free of the burden, rolling her shoulders and sighing in relief.
By that point, the Avatar was already semi-unconscious, her head lolled to the side. Each step Asami took, she felt she was half-dragging the girl whose legs had turned to jelly. The breaths that escaped Korra were shallow and ragged. Beads of sweat dotted the girl's skin, and every so often small tremors rocked her body.
Asami tried not to think about what Korra must be feeling and going through, or what brought this about, as they rode the elevator to the building's lobby. She tried not to think about the dwindling time and distance between them and their pursuers, or the fact that they had no contingency plans for such an event as the one they found themselves in. All of their plans, their escape routes, were centered on Korra and the art she called 'Bending'. Without the Avatar, they were trapped. Their only exit was sure to be well-guarded.
A pinging sound alerted Asami that they had arrived at their intended floor. The elevator doors slowly groaned open, revealing the lobby brightly lit by golden-yellow lights. Opal was first to step out, steel pipe gripped tightly with both hands, as she checked if the coast was clear. Once certain there was no soul in sight, she motioned for Asami to follow.
Quickly, they crossed the lobby to the building's front entrance. Several times they had to fall flat on their stomachs, hide behind tall bushes and hedges from the rushing and scrambling guardsmen, as they made their way to the University's gates.
They were so close, they could taste their freedom. All they needed was to pass a few more buildings and the gardens.
Before they could take those few remaining blocks, they heard the click of a gun being cocked behind them.
"Don't move," a voice spoke from behind. "Put your hands up where I can see them and turn around slowly."
The two young women were stunned. They didn't hear anyone sneaking up from behind, or saw any signs prior that anyone had even seen them. Asami and Opal looked at each other. Opal mouthed "What should we do?", to which the Prodigy could only shrug. They had no choice but to do as they had been told. They couldn't just make a run for it, the gun was too close for the bullets to miss them.
"I said turn around!" the man—for it was a man who spoke—barked. "Turn around, now! And throw that pipe to the ground!"
Opal didn't wish to be unarmed—who would?—but threw the pipe to the ground nonetheless. Better to be weaponless than have a bullet hole in her body, after all. Slowly, she then raised both of her hands while Asami could only raise her left, the other still supported Korra who had lost consciousness at some point during their harried escape. With hands raised in surrender, the two—with the insentient Avatar—turned around.
The man did not seem that much older than them. The Prodigy gauged him to be around his early to mid-twenties. A dark, scruffy hairstyle crowned his head. A pair of shark eyebrows, golden-yellow irises, a perfectly contoured nose, and scowling lips lined his facial features. A small scar, long as a thumb and wide as a toothpick, blemished his lower left jaw.
Though it was obvious the scruffy-haired man was a guard, he did not wear the same uniform nor armor they did. He wore a gray, slim-fitted, high-collared Zhongshan suit. A crimson red scarf, old with edges a bit tattered, hung loosely and snugly around his neck and a pair of military boots adorned his feet. The hand holding the gun aimed at them was wearing cotton half-gloves.
He stared at them, searching. When he looked at Asami, she did not shy away from the scrutiny. She tackled his gaze head-on, not showing an inch of submission nor fear.
The guard reached over his radio to report the capture of the intruders that had the entire Great Republic University in an uproar.
Asami and Opal could both hear the static, before the voice on the other end of the radio spoke, "This is the Command Center. Do you have anything to report, Mako? Did you find the intruders?"
Mako—the University Guard who was pointing a gun at them—was about to press the button to respond when Asami quickly spoke up.
"W-Wait. Please." She said, her raised hand stretching forward as though she would snatch the radio away from the guard.
"Stay back!" Mako said, stressing his words with his gun.
"Asami…" Opal pleaded for her friend not to do anything rash and irresponsible—or any more reckless than what they had done thus far.
"No, it is fine, Opal." Asami assured Opal. "I just want to talk."
The scheme Asami Sato came up, at that moment, was not something she was happy about. But they did not have the liberty to come up with something different and morally upright.
The guard stared at Asami, one of his eyebrows raised, waiting for her to continue. This gave the Prodigy enough hope and courage to go through with her intentions.
"Officer Mako…L-Let me make a deal with you. Let us go and I'll pay you triple your daily wage," Asami said, voice trembling as she found it hard to say the words. What she was doing was nothing short of bribery.
"Are you trying to buy me off?" Mako was incredulous. "Not gonna happen. No amount of yuans can change my mind."
At the same time the voice on the radio spoke once again, "Mako, are you there? Is everything alright?"
"Quadruple your daily wage! I'll pay you half-a-million yuans if you let us go." Asami continued to bargain as she watched the guard move the radio closer to his mouth to speak. Hearing the latest offer made the man's jaw drop. The Prodigy took the opportunity to push further. "I'll add another half-a-million if you manage to help us get somewhere safe."
At that point, Mako's eyebrows shot so high up no one would have thought it humanly possible. He snorted, "I find it hard to believe you would have that kind of money."
Opal—who up until that point had merely been listening in and observing—suddenly piped up, "She can pay you that amount. And more. She's Asami Sato, the Future Industries heiress!"
"Future Industries? You mean, you're Hiroshi Sato's daughter?"
Asami nodded at the question and allowed a few heartbeats to pass, giving the University Guard ample time to decide. Mako's brows furrowed in contemplation as he weighed his option. Several seconds later, the radio crackled back to life.
"Mako, report!" the voice on the other side had lost all patience.
The Guard closed his eyes and sighed. Slowly he lowered his hand that held the weapon back to his side, holstered it, and moved to speak to the radio, saying, "Everything is fine, Command Center. It was just a false alarm. Everything's clear on my end."
Hearing the man speak those words made both Asami and Opal release the breath they didn't know they were holding.
"Alright, Mako. Next time, don't make us worry like that," were the last words the voice on the other end spoke before static replaced it once again and Mako belted the device.
"Let's see if you can make good with that offer of yours, Miss Sato," Mako said as he turned around and added, "I would suggest against walking through the front gates, though. If you want to escape with a lot less trouble and effort, follow me. I'll show you another way out."
Councilman Tarrlok could not believe his eyes. He was at an awe at the unexpected and productive turn of events. It had only been out of a hunch that he turned on the Spirit Bastille. He didn't expect his intuition to bore any fruit—at least, not in the magnitude that now presented itself.
Despite the cracks and dents and the damage done on the gargantuan machine, the Spirit Bastille still functioned. It was still working, and working better than it had during the tests. Energy—recently converted—thrummed and hummed powerfully as it flowed through and around the device. None of the test and runs previously done on the machine had managed to produce the results the Spirit Bastille was now giving.
Before, all it could do was light a few bulbs, power-up a singular computer. Now, however, the energy harvested was powering the entire Great Republic University. It was magnificent!
"So this is the power of the Elemental Spirits, the energy they possessed!" Councilman Tarrlok muttered to himself, his eyes alight with gleeful victory. "Fascinating. And we have only grazed their life force."
Suddenly, one of the University Guard Captains rushed towards the Councilman, bearing with him the report of his squad.
"Councilman Tarrlok, we've lost sight of the girls." He said.
Instead of being berated by the University Council member like the Captain thought he would be, however, Councilman Tarrlok merely waved him off. "Leave them. We already know Asami Sato and Opal Bei Fong are involved. We can easily track them down."
"But, sir—"
"Leave it, Captain. Just bring me Professor Noatak and have him call his team as soon as possible. We have a lot of work to do." Smiling somewhat menacingly, he added, "Besides, I have a feeling they would show themselves again…especially that other girl, whomsoever she may be."
Post Chapter Notes:
As promised here is a little fact for anyone interested in this kind of thing:
A Zhongshan suit is a modern, Chinese tunic suit. It can also be referred to as a Mao suit. This particular article of clothing was first introduced by Sun Yat-sen after the founding of the Republic of China, and is considered as a form of national dress. The attire I had painted on AU-version Mako is similar to what he usually wears, except that it is longer, dyed in a different color, and fits him better than the slightly-loose counterpart in the original/prime LoK Universe.
Also, I don't think it needs to be said, but I'll say it anyway: everyone's ages have been changed to better suit the story. Korra and Asami are both sixteen, with Asami only being a couple of months older. Opal is a year younger than the two. Mako, is a couple of years older than all of them. Bolin, well...Bolin will be introduced soon(-ish), but he is still younger than Mako. As for the rest of the character's ages, I will post them as we go along.
Anyways, that's all the time I have for now. As always, review if you guys have the time (really, your thoughts about this story is appreciated). Until the next update, dream on; fly on!