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 cross, the resulting collision not only changes their lives and themselves, but the fate of the entire world as well. [Korrasami AU]

Author's Note:

I was supposed to update this sooner, but upon returning from our Boracay Vacation, I ended up getting sick. My eyes were too watery to work on edits (not to mention the headaches) that I decided to just wait until I was a bit better before I uploaded this chapter. I'm still not at a 100% (in terms of my health), but I am getting there thanks to a shit-ton of water and Vitamin C.

The Legend of Korra:

The Schism

Chapter 50: The Avatar's Purpose, Part Two

He readied himself. There was no escaping it now…not that he had any intention of doing so before his daughter had unexpectedly barged in on him and his guests. He merely had hoped to had been able to control the conversation when his identity was revealed. Likewise, he had hoped to be the one to tell them who he was.

But there was no use crying over spilt milk. What was done was done; what was said had been said. All he could do now was try to calm the two, young women waiting for him on the other side of the door, for he was certain they were anxious about what they had overheard. And overheard much he knew the Avatar did.

With a sigh, he pushed open the door and stepped inside the room. Just as he predicted, the two people inside were glowering at him expectantly.

He paid them no mind as he returned to his seat. Only then did he acknowledge them, saying, "I apologize for that embarrassing display…My daughter can be quite—"

The old man was unable to finish his sentence, however, as Asami Sato interrupted him, blurting out, "You're the Fire Lord's father!"

Just as soon as the young Sato exclaimed those words, Korra growled, "You are not taking Asami away! I don't care if you have helped me in the past, or if you are an old man, I will fight you should you force her to return to her father."

"Yes, I am her father. I never intended to hide that from either of you." What is with women shouting and threatening me today? Lord Zuko idly wondered as he made a show of rubbing his temples. "And there is no need to worry, young Avatar. I am not amongst those who would readily stand against the Avatar, especially when I see that the claims made against you were false, even if you are not as strong as you once were."

"Then why didn't you introduce yourself as soon as you could, Lord Zuko?" Asami could not be even more obvious about her distrust.

And again, Korra followed the Prodigy's words with her own. "And what kind of self-centeredness would be required for someone to use the name of a renowned hero for their own?"

Zuko peered through the hand that had rested itself over his eyelids with a frown. He didn't understand what the dark-skinned, young woman was insinuating. Looking over at her companion, he could see that she understood but did not seem at all amused.

"Will you stop derailing the conversation for one moment, Korra?" Asami was maddened by the way with which Korra had been adding her thoughts at the end of each of her statements. "There are more important things to concern ourselves with here."

"What?" Korra cocked her head to the side. She placed her chopsticks down, crossed her arms and wondered aloud, "Is it not scandalous for someone to use the name of the hero you humans call 'Zuko'? Was he not the one who united the people to fight against an evil regime? I would have thought you people would have placed some kind of honor to that name and had held it in such great respect instead of passing it down like some used clothing."

The young inventor rolled her eyes. "That has nothing to do with us right now. And it's rude."

Avatar Korra raised an eyebrow. "You think bringing that up is rude?" she then sighed. "I do not think I would ever understand how you humans think. It's so—" she threw her hand up in the air, "—confounding."

Watching the two interact, Zuko couldn't keep the smile from stretching his lips. They seemed to have forgotten he was there, so caught up were they of their back and forth that it was quite entertaining. He would have liked to see how far it would go, but there were—as Asami Sato had said—more important matters to discuss.

Clearing his throat, which made both of his guests to freeze and whip their heads to look at him so fast that he wondered if they might have hurt themselves, he gestured for them to pipe down. "I believe we are getting sidetracked here." When he was certain he got their attention, he decided to clear one thing up—one thing that he knew would make it easier for him to explain the things that needed explanation. Though his method came in the form of a question directed at the Avatar, "Who said I was named after Lord Zuko?"

Korra shrugged, ignoring how Asami had sighed and muttered something inaudible under her breath. "Where else would you have gotten your name? Or are you suggesting the hero of the Hundred Year War was named after some other Lord Zuko?"

The smile on his face and the twinkle on his eyes was the brightest one he gave that day as he replied, "You misunderstand. I was not named after another. I am Lord Zuko."

The look on her face was enough to keep aristocrats and servants at bay, afraid to be scorched by her burning anger, annoyance, and frustration as she made her way back to the audience chamber.

It was deep into the night and under normal circumstances no one would be asking for her audience, but this was unusual as circumstances go and her son had sent word ahead of him that he and a handful of others under his command would be reporting in. Why he had asked to do in the audience chamber was beyond her.

Still, she was relieved to hear that her son was not injured. It was like a thorn was pluck from her heart and it made her breathe easy.

She got to the chamber at the same time that her son and his entourage entered. They said nothing, until she sat on her throne.

"Mother," Iroh greeted her, bowing in respect before straightening up and continuing, "We have secured the hangar."

He looked haggard. His hair which had been meticulously combed hours prior was messy. His face, marred by dried smoke and grime. His clothes were equally just as dirty. He didn't look like the prince he was. And yet, despite the fatigue that she could only imagined seeped through his bones, his golden eyes showed nothing but a burning will and determination.

It was enough to make her proud.

She nodded, however. Decorum states that she waited until he finished with his report, and judging from how he stood, there was more her son had to say.

"Most of the structure is still in-tact, but the eastern and southern parts need a great deal of repairing." Iroh went on. He stiffened and frowned, what he had to say next was something that bothered him greatly. "The bombs that were detonated…they were…ours."

Fire Lord Izumi raised an eyebrow. She hadn't expected that to be the case. "Ours?"

Iroh looked uncomfortable and shamefaced. He greatly felt that it was his fault one of their facilities would be operating under half of its capabilities. "It was one of ours. The bombs developed by Varrick Industries for the naval fleet. It appears our rabble-rousers pilfered them when our coastguards came across them."

So, they not only destroyed a handful of our ships and injured our men, but they also stole from us. The Fire Lord thought bitterly, her mood showing, knowing that was not all the crimes these people had committed.

She had thought that was all her son had to report and was about to end their official audience when Iroh spoke up once again, this time, he sounded pleased. "There is one other thing, Mother."

When she nodded for him to continue, his lips quirked upwards into a smile, "We have caught one of the terrorist and have rescued a hostage of theirs."

He then nodded towards one of his men, who immediately left the room. When he returned, he had with him a young man with unruly hair and a gargantuan dog-like creature, both tied (the latter muzzled). And somehow Izumi thought the night could not possibly get stranger.

Her throat was dry, her voice sore. She had been shouting at the top of her lungs, hoping the guards outside could hear and understand that they have made a mistake; that they had assumed wrong. All she earned from that was a load of nothing but the knowledge she might have trouble speaking when she had to.

Opal glared at the locked door of the room they had saw fit to lock her in. She gave it one, last good slam of her body before she sighed and slumped dejectedly on one of the room's posh sofas. Taking one of the velvety pillows there, she hurled it towards the door for good measure.

She was furious, not only of Kai who was the mastermind behind their so-called 'Escape Plan', but of the officer in charge of the guards who had captured them. None of them listened to reason. Oh, she was certain they could hear her—she was very loud when she wanted and needed to be, her own mother could attest to that—but they were pig-headed. All of them. The Avatar's Steward, included.

To be fair, however, she had thought they would get through this without being apprehended. Kai's plan—although destructive and chaotic, wild and crazy—had given them enough leeway to escape. The problem had been that they had made a wrong turn. Everything happened so fast, after that. She wasn't even confident she knew what had happened, exactly. But something had spooked Naga—had made her unruly and uncooperative in their escape. Naga had bucked them off her back, whimpering and agitated, and for the briefest of moments Opal had feared something bad had happened to the Polar Bear Dog's master.

Of course, whatever worries Opal might have for the Avatar was forgotten when she came to that glaring understanding that she should, probably, be more worried about her, Kai, and Naga than she was of Korra who could take down an entire army in her best days.

No matter how capable Kai might have been, and how well she could put a good fight, it wasn't enough. Not when the odds were stacked against them. And so they end up getting captured, much to her chagrin.

Though perhaps she wasn't in that deep a trouble as compared to Kai and Naga. She didn't even want to think about what the authorities would do to them—how far they will go to get the information they needed. Opal shuddered, remembering her own experience in that regard.

The young, aspiring Historian wanted to do something. But giving the room another thorough look provided her with no plan to escape her make-shift prison. Even the twin windows—which she had thought would aid her in her escape—proved useless. She was not going to be able to get out through them, unless she had suddenly developed the ability to manipulate the elements as Korra can and bend the iron bars that kept her from leaving.

She let herself entertain that idea for a while, if only to try to distract herself before she ends up blowing an artery. It worked, if only to give her distressing a brief respite.

Her mind felt sluggish. Like she was back in their dorms, sloughing through mountainous homework and studies that needed doing in less time than it actually needed to be done. It was akin to how she would feel during a marathon of research where sleep was but a whimsy—a faint memory, if she was being overly dramatic about it—and the only thing that kept her face from planting itself on her desk and being knocked out into oblivion was the copious amount of coffee—black, no honey or sugar to sweeten it, for the added punch—that she allowed into her system. She, to put it simply, couldn't wrap her head around what she had just heard.

It was impossible. Inexplicable. It could even be considered the ramblings of a deranged, old man. There was simply no manner by which his words could be taken seriously; nor could it be the truth.

Asami knew she should be angry. Clearly, this old man—a previous Fire Lord, or not—was making fun of Korra. No, not just of Korra, but of herself as well. It didn't help that the Avatar seemed to have taken what the old man had said very seriously, looking so intrigued and happy for who knows why.

Perhaps the thought of the old man using Korra's naiveté of the world outside Nia Bayou was what made the Prodigy speak up, voice shaking and but a whisper at first, before it grew.

"You're lying."

Korra's question—Asami couldn't even tell if the other girl had been in the middle of asking one or was simply discussing something with the old man—trailed off, incomplete. And she looked at Asami as Asami used to look at Korra just before the dark-skinned girl did something that landed them in heaps of trouble, and it made the young Heiress even more upset.

The old man—Zuko—instead of looking insulted merely stared patiently at her as he asked, "And why would you say that, Miss Sato?"

"Fire Lord Zuko—the one you claim yourself to be—he died, a long time ago." It was a knowledge everyone and their mothers knew. It was what the history books told them. And even if the Fire Lord's fate had been left blank in the annals of history, everyone with a lick of sense would agree that that was how his story would end. No one could live forever. Not even the Hero of the Hundred Year War. As if she had any need to point out, she added, "It's what history says."

Lord Zuko set his hands on the table and clasped them together before he threw Asami a curious question. "And you believe everything that history tells you?"

It was an honest question and the answer should have been obvious. It was so obvious that Asami was ready to give her answer. But something in the way it was asked and the look in the old man's golden yellow eyes gave her pause. It made her remember the way the retelling of history differed between the version everyone knew and the one that Korra and Kai knew about. They were as alike as chalk and cheese.

When Asami was unable to provide an answer after the time which was allotted for her to do so, the old man said, "History tends to tell us only the fraction of truth. Sometimes the mistake lies in how it is told—an honest mistake. Other times, those who write history are forced to bend it."

"Does this have something to do as to why you are portrayed as the hero of the war as opposed to how my people have always believed it was an Air Nomad who had put an end to Ozai's reign of terror?" Korra was genuinely curious. It was, Asami knew, something that had bothered not just Opal—who would have undoubtedly loved to have been part of this conversation (and she belatedly wondered what had become of her best friend, and felt guilty for having forgotten about her…as well as Kai and Naga)—but the Avatar as well.

"It couldn't be helped," Zuko smiled sadly. "Some things had to be kept secret…I, personally, was against it. I didn't want to be honored for something I had so little a contribution to, compared to what he had done. But fate was not kind enough to give us that choice. People needed to be kept in the dark and I was thrust into a position of great influence. I was the perfect figure to stand in his stead."

"Who are you talking about?" Asami asked. Though she still didn't fully believe what he was saying, she wouldn't lie and say it didn't fascinate her.

"The True Hero of the Hundred Year War." He replied. He looked from Asami to Korra before adding, "The Air Nomad in the story. Your predecessor, Avatar Aang."

In retrospect, the old man should have probably held off such a statement until after Korra had swallowed the tea she still had in her mouth. The result was instantaneous. The Avatar suddenly spewed the drink right towards Lord Zuko. Instead of drenching the unsuspecting royal with Oolong Tea, however, the arcing stream turned into steam as it hit a thin barrier of fire that erupted right where the tea would have hit—which is right in-front of Zuko's face.

Jaws were dropped, to say the least, though for varying reasons between the Avatar and the Prodigy. Korra, Asami suspected, was still reeling from the revelation that this Avatar Aang had been the true hero of the war. She, on the other hand, was more shocked of the fact that Lord Zuko can fire-bend…and she was certain that was what the old man did.

"Y-Y-You—" she stuttered. "H-How!?"

"That's a lie!" It was Korra's turn to utter those words, slamming her hand on the table before them with such ferocity that it caused several of the cups—thankfully, empty—to fall on their side. "Avatar Aang…he can't be…that's just impossisble!"

Zuko sighed. Perhaps he too was bothered with how she and Korra didn't seem to agree on which topic to pursue. And though Asami wanted to know how anyone other than Korra could possibly be able to bend an element, she could tell with the way the old royal looked at Korra that what her friend had just said bothered him greatly.

"You are a being capable of communing with the spirits, able to command the elements that make up this world, and you consider Avatar Aang to be a hero an impossibility. Tell me, young Avatar, why is that?"

"Because," the shorter girl was agitated, her sapphire eyes blazed with indignation. "Aang is a failure. He is an embarrassment. Even the mention of his name is taboo! He has no record of having done anything worthwhile, certainly not saving the entire world from some madman!"

A vein protruded on Zuko's forehead that wasn't there before. It was enough to tell Asami that the old man was doing his best to remain calm. Whatever this business was with Avatar Aang was a touchy subject for both Zuko and Korra. Asami didn't want to get between something she had no understanding of. She didn't even know if she could calm them both down if they decide to fire-bend their way into an understanding.

Gods help me if it comes to that. Asami trembled at the thought.

"This was why I was so against this whole thing," Zuko muttered under his breath with an elongated sigh. His words were not directed at anyone in particular, nor did he elaborate on what it was he was in contradiction of. "Have you, perhaps, asked any of the elders of Nia Bayou why that is? Why do they keep people from remembering Aang? Why do we need to keep his involvement a secret? Why do we need to hide the identity of the Avatar, going so far as to erase a village from the maps of the known world?"

"Are you saying they are all related?" Asami found herself asking.

Lord Zuko made a vague motion with his hands. "Everything is related. Everything is connected. Some just have a greater link than others. The reason why speaking of Aang and his accomplishments is considered a taboo is because tied with him is a secret that we have all sworn to keep…for the sake of both human and spirit realms."

What kind of secret is it that even Korra was kept in the dark—and she's supposed to be an incarnation of Raava, too… Asami thought to herself, though she kept from vocalizing those thoughts. She didn't know how the Avatar would take it if she did.

But it seemed even though she didn't share her thoughts, Korra had also come to the same conclusion. It was made apparent when she asked, "Why was it kept from me, I am the Avatar!"

"I suppose it was to keep you safe. I do not know reason why, I am merely speculating, but perhaps you can ask one of the Elders that when you return." The old man shrugged. "What I can tell you is this: had those with evil intent knew what Aang had done, your life would have been in trouble, however."

"Even more so than how it had been thus far?"

Zuko didn't miss a beat in his reply. "Yes. Even if you were to put into consideration what had happened with the Four Great Elemental Spirits, the fact that you still live is proof of that."

"And I don't suppose you will share with us what this secret is?" Korra sounded hopeful yet doubtful at the same time.

The old man smiled. "Not yet. But soon."

Post-Author's Notes:

And there you guys have it. A bit shorter, I know. But the next chapters will be longer and also will have Korrasami moments in it. As always, the next update depends heavily on when my Beta will send over the chapter(s) I already have him to check. Again, thanks for all the support for this story and I will see you all again next update (I really need to rest some more so that I'll be back to my healthy self).

Until then, dream on; fly on!