A Legend of Korra Fanfic
by Sakura Martinez (aka SMTsukishiro)

Author's Note:

What's up, everyone?

Again, apologies for the delayed chapter update. I've been pretty busy with my third book and with my YT channel that I had to really make time for updating (but mostly end up sleeping before I could update anything). Seriously, it would be beneficial to have a sort of scheduling feature here.

Anyways, this is a short chapter (shorter than what you guys are used to with this fanfic, anyways) that is meant to move the plot that is going on on the other side of the globe. Still, I hope you all enjoy reading!

Allons-y~!

Summary:

A promising engineering student. A mysterious woman capable of controlling the four elements. When their paths cross, the resulting collision not only changes their lives and themselves, but the fate of the entire world as well. [Korrasami AU]

The Legend of Korra:

The Schism

Chapter 32. Dissent

Unalaq had prepared for this day. His mind swirled with the thought of all the things he had uncovered. His eyes blazed with determination to face the Elders of Nia Bayou. It was a gamble, he knew, to ask the things that had plagued his mind ever since reading the materials that woman he had saved brought. He knew the Elders did not take kindly to such questions, even more so the White Lotus. But he just had to know.

And so, he waited as patiently as he could, walking the rug in the large hall adorned with hunting trophies—mostly sawed-off heads of wild animals that lurked near the vicinity of the hidden village—awaiting the Elders with whom he had asked to have an audience with.

It took several minutes well-past the appointed hour of his audience before the Elders slowly trickled in, taking their place at the head of the room where a curved table made from animal bones stood along with five chairs covered in different kinds of animal skin and pelts.

He eyed each of them suspiciously. What he had come to unravel was something he was certain they would have an idea of. It was, after all, impossible to think otherwise.

"Unalaq," the tallest and the relatively youngest of the Elders was the first to speak as soon as they have all settled in their seats. "For what reason have you come to speak to us so urgently?"

"Let us hope," chimed the older woman with a scar on her left cheek who sat on the left side of the Elder sitting in the middle, "that what you have come to discuss is something urgent indeed, Chief Unalaq. We have a lot of work to do still—especially with Mount Erebus' eruption—to once again be asked to meddle in the affairs you have with your brother."

The tone of their voice made the Chieftain's blood boil. He had to count to ten to try and calm himself down before speaking. He knew it would do him no good to start arguing with the Elders. No, that could wait—depending on where this conversation was heading into.

The Elders waited for him to speak, no doubt just as curious as to why he had asked for an audience with them. And when he finally did, he chose his words carefully.

"I came here," Unalaq began, voice as calm as his posture, "in hopes of being enlightened regarding a certain subject of sensitive nature and of great importance."

Just as he predicted, those words set a change of mood amongst the Elders of the Water Tribes. Even the Great Elder had stopped looking so bored and had, in fact, looked interested in what Unalaq had to say—which was such a rarity that the Norther Water Tribe Chief took a moment to appreciate his handiwork.

"A subject of sensitive nature and great importance?" the Great Elder asked, stroking his beard as he did so, his eyes never leaving Unalaq's.

"Yes," Unalaq replied. "I believe you would call this a…secret of sorts. A very well-guarded secret."

Maybe it was just his imagination, but Unalaq could have sworn the Elders suddenly stiffened in their seats, a look of worry passing over their eyes. Except the Great Elder who merely looked as he had before, merely curious—if anything else.

"And, that would be?" Again, it was the Great Elder who spoke, quirking an eyebrow as he did.

Unalaq smiled. Some would say he sported a smug look on his face. "The Avatar."

"Lady Korra?" the scarred woman crossed her arms. It was an act Unalaq had associated with the older woman when she was close to losing her patience. "What of her?" There was a paused followed by, "Do not tell me you know of her whereabouts."

"Now wouldn't we all want to know where our dear Lady Avatar has been gallivanting?" His words caused all the Elders to frown. "Alas, I do not know the Lady's whereabouts. If I had, I would have asked her to join us as well. Surely she would be interested in this secret I have uncovered. After all, it has everything to do with her."

There was a collective gasp among his audience. The Great Elder looked impossibly calm despite, Unalaq could only guess, the older man already piecing his words together and coming to a conclusion on what he had unearthed. Nonetheless, his gaze bore into Unalaq's own.

In a voice that was barely a whisper yet managed to reverberate around the room, the Great Elder warned, "Tread carefully, Unalaq. This council will not take blasphemous words lightly."

"I know very well what our laws state." Unalaq replied. "I have witnessed many people being dragged away by the White Lotus—whom I am certain is listening in to every word I say—never to be seen and heard from again. My memory has not deserted me, I remember just how harsh they can be." The Chieftain of the Northern Water Tribes then took a step forward and in a voice filled with conviction stated, "I did not come here to spout nonsense, however. I came here to learn the truth—the very truth you have hidden from our people! The truth about the Avatar's existence!"

It shouldn't have come as a surprise—at least, if he was being honest about it, he had been expecting something like this to happen. It was one of the things he, his sister, and everyone involved had expected a long time ago. To have kept something of that magnitude hidden for so long astounded him (as he was certain had floored the others too).

Thus, when Chief Unalaq of the Northern Water Tribes had brought the so-called "secret of the Avatar's existence" up, he was certain questions would be raised and accusations thrown. Yet, as much as he had guessed the flow of events, he could not help but wonder how the chieftain had found out about this carefully guarded secret.

Unalaq's words—his declaration; his promise—echoed in his mind, as he was certain it did in the others' minds as well.

"The whole world will know of what you have done—what you have allowed to happen," Unalaq had said when the other Elders had played his accusations down, calling him delusional and his threats empty. "I will set things to right! I will return the world to how it was! Mark my words!"

It didn't take long after that before the White Lotus sentries had swooped in—as they were known to do, appearing out of nowhere and then disappearing just as quickly as they had appeared—to apprehend the raging Unalaq.

But the Northern Water Tribe Chieftain had anticipated such a thing happening and was quick to act, pulling from his pockets paralyzing smoke bombs that immediately incapacitated all in the room but himself, and allowed for his escape. By the time the toxins had dissolved from their bodies, Unalaq had long been gone, his trail lost to the snowstorm that had picked the most inopportune time to hit.

The Great Elder knew he should be worried. Unalaq was a man not easily dissuaded—strong-willed and persistent. He knew Unalaq's threats were not idle ones, despite him seemingly lacking the man-power to do so. After all, by now, the White Lotus would undoubtedly have taken over the Norther Water Tribes and had stripped Unalaq of all authority and power.

And yet, he couldn't help but wonder why he didn't feel troubled at all about the trouble the ex-chieftain would stir. He wondered if it was because he was actually waiting for a time such as this—a time an old friend had long told him would come to pass.

Remebering his old friend put a smile on the old Elder's face. It had been such a long time since that day—the day when his friend's duty and responsibility forced them all to part ways—and yet he could vividly remember it as though it had happened yesterday.

"You better wipe that goofy look off your face, otherwise the other Elders and the remaining Chieftains would think you are not taking this threat seriously." The Great Elder whipped around to see his younger sibling with an eyebrow raised and a teasing smile playing on her lips.

He grinned. The expression on his face making him look younger. "What they don't know wouldn't hurt them. Besides, as troublesome as this may be to Nia Bayou and our people, you and I both know this is something he had known would happen."

The teasing smile turned into a one that was filled with memory of a distant past. "He certainly made that clear…And though this is something we have both been expecting—forestalling, even—I am worried, maybe a bit frightened."

"I thought you would be more eager." He took a seat just as his sister crossed the room to do the same. "You have been waiting for this as well."

"To see him again would be nice—and certainly something to look forward to—however, I am frightened for Korra's sake." His sister admitted, wringing her fingers like she had done so many times in the past when she was extremely concerned. "It is her who is caught in the middle of this maelstrom."

Those words—which, of course he had realized though had not yet taken the time to process before—wiped the smile from his face, as it did from his sister's.

Korra. Of course he knew could imagine what trouble their young Avatar friend would find herself in. He sighed. There was nothing they could do. Not him, his sister, or their other friends.

"Lady Korra would have to face this by herself. We cannot interfere past the roles that have been given to us." He said those words more as a reminder to himself than it was for his sister's sake.

"I know," a defeated sigh followed. "I know that…but still…"

"We have to trust that she would be able to handle what is to come." The Great Elder said, repeating the words reminiscent to what their old friend had said. "We have to believe that." A sigh and a shake of his head, followed by, "We have to trust that the others would do their part as well. How strong Korra ends up being depends not just on her, but on them as well."

Unalaq was seething. Completely and utterly furious as he wore the rug of his sanctuary. He bit his lower lip, almost drawing blood in his frustration, as his mind quickly worked up a plan. He had lost his position in the Council as well as in the Northern Water Tribes. He had lost his home and his livelihood—he didn't even know what had become of his children, though he would not put it past the White Lotus to find them guilty of the crimes they had also hung on his shoulders.

Yet, even when there didn't seem to be any way for him to let the truth be known, Unalaq was far from giving up. He had a semblance of a plan already forming in his mind even before he had arrived at his sanctuary—albeit it was one that was dependent on information he didn't know whether he could trust or not.

"There is much to gain," he had told himself as he made up his mind. "Much more than there is to lose."

In his search for truth to back up the claims the documents he had obtained from that woman had brought, Unalaq had come across an interesting bit of information. He was not the first to have learned of these things—and neither, it seemed, was that woman.

There was someone else who had come to the same conclusions as the texts and his research had arrived in. Someone the White Lotus had tried to silence. They had failed to do so, however, as—like himself—the person who had first uncovered this secret had managed to fled and start a new life of his own.

That person had long since passed, however—as Unalaq found it hard to believe anyone could survive that long. But he had a son. A son, it seemed who harbored the same ill feelings that had begun churning in his very core against the Avatar and the White Lotus who followed her every beck and call.

And it is that person Unalaq thought to make contact with. It was he the ex-Chieftain hoped to make an alliance with.

An alliance to trample Nia Bayou to the ground.

An alliance that would give him the means to make the White Lotus pay.

An alliance that would rid the world of the fake Avatar and return the world as it once was.

Post Author's Notes:

And there you have it.

I'm pretty much certain you all could guess who the Great Elder is and whom Unalaq is going to be joining forces with.

Anyways, that's all for now. I will try to return back to the regular updating schedule.

So...until then, dream on; fly on!