Alex Nymph: Nothing wrong with Mako (my favourite character btw), just guilty bc of her relationship with Asami. Thanks for the review, really meant a lot
Korra's headache had cleared mostly by the time she got back to Republic City. She was still a little hungover, but it was something she could ignore. She was a little drained from her conversation and her lower back was aching from the bad pose she had slept in.
What should I do? she mused. She wasn't up for helping people today, she was already fairly tired. Maybe help an old woman across the street. Yeah, something nice and relaxing.
She sighed. That sounded worse than facing Toph again. The ancient woman had tossed her around like a ragdoll although she was barely able to walk.
Oh well, I'll just head over to the old probending gym. Ever since Kuivera had blown up half the city, people had little-to-no free time on their hands, and especially no extra money to go watch probending. It was a real pity. She'd love nothing more than to just hop into the ring with Mako – stop thinking about him dammit – and Bolin, and worry about how to counter the volley of water flying her way and how to meditate without interrupting Tenzin, go back to when she wasn't needed as the avatar, but as a waterbender filling in for a bit of fun. Fun. When did she ever have fun recently without side-effects?
It took a half-hour to walk to the arena. On her way, she glanced at tabloid headline in a corner shop blaring:
"TROUBLE BREWS – RELATIONS BETWEEN OMASHU AND BA SING SAE ON TIPPING POINT AS 'PEACE-KEEPING' AVATAR HIDES AWAY IN REPUBLIC CITY HALL."
Hazukk Aranhov reports live from the Earth Kingdom
She snorted and marched over to the stand and grabbed a copy of The Sun, a newspaper, in a lot of opinions, known to spread rumours and exaggerate stories for more money. She started to read the first paragraph to herself silently;
It really is ironic that for someone who has ran so often and put herself first, just recently for three long years, to claim to 'keep the balance' when all she does is stay locked up in Republic City Hall while here in heart of the Earth Kingdom…
The old shopkeeper glanced up at the Avatar, and muttered "Any more surprises from the Spirit World?"
"Sorry?" she said even though she heard exactly what he said, giving him the benefit of the doubt.
"You heard me perfectly fine, Avatar," he replied, spitting out the last word in contempt, his voice vaguely familiar.
"Well I don't understand what you mean. Maybe you can explain it for me," she retorted passive-aggressively.
"What is there to explain? First you decide to endanger the entire city by fighting a giant, evil spirit right on our doorstep. Then, if that wasn't bad enough, you decide to leave the portals open, because humans and spirits should learn to live together," he said, imitating her voice in a very antagonising way. "Then, when the vines displace thousands of people, you have the audacity to side with them when they could just as easily have just set up far away in the mountains.
"It was about time when Raiko banned you from Republic City," he continued, "but then you have a scrap against someone who hadn't even known airbending for two months and disappear for THREE years and then-"
"And then a fascist took control of the Earth Kingdom while I was recovering from the trauma of being poisoned and nearly suffocated," Korra snapped back, mocking his repetition. "I suppose it was my fault that she invaded Republic City too, and then a new spirit portal opened, and then, I was at fault for taking a tiny vacation, and then… then..." Korra struggled, trying to belittle him. "I'm human too you know!"
"It damn was!" he practically shouted, ignoring her last comment while coming on to the path to square up to her, although she was at least half a head taller so it wasn't intimidating. She butted heads with him, but he wasn't done yet. "You think you're so righteous, 'look at me, I control spirit energy, I'm all powerful and don't give a shit about the consequences of my actions'." But he dug himself into a hole with the next insult. "This is why we don't let gays run our affairs! You're all a bad influence to children and will never be half the Avatar that Aang was!"
Korra changed her moderately annoyed expression, and went from pissed off to deep, genuine fury. It was also at this moment that she recognised the man's voice. He was the famous probending commentator, Shiro Shinobi, who wasn't even born in Republic City, he was from the Angloa State in the Northern Earth Kingdom. But his status meant jack shit to her now. That jibe, no-one had had the guts to say that to her face before. This was personal.
She felt a strange, malicious, hellish power well up in her. It was the power of the Avatar State, but it felt different. She welcomed it though. She felt his body heat emitting from him, his short breaths, the vibrations of his heart through the concrete, even though she had shoes with soles on. How she'd love to wipe that cocky know-it-all expression off of-
Suddenly, his face contorted in pain, and he began to levitate from the ground. His limbs twisted, writhing in pain, and even though it was the worst time of the day for it with the rising sun, she immediately figured out what she was doing.
Bloodbending.
She felt the dark sensation grow in her, and she wanted to let it take control of. A deep voice, one she couldn't quite pinpoint in her head, whispered to her. Don't take that. He was homophobic to you. Let him feel the wrath of the Avatar. The true power, used when others try to hurt you. And she wanted to, so badly.
But at that moment, she saw a different man in front of her. Struggling to feed himself, afraid of a terrorist attack at any given moment. He had his well-paying job ripped away from him, due to circumstances that he was helpless to do anything about. Do not succumb to his level, Korra, a feminine voice warned in her head, and Korra found herself confused by the sudden appearance of Raava. She generally only spoke when there was something spiritual was happening. This was an ordinary, mature man who had consciously provoked her. But at the same time, how bad would it look if she couldn't ignore an insult, no matter the severity of it?
Just as quickly as she had grabbed hold of him, she released her vice on him. He fell on his ass, trembling. She sneered at him, and spat in his face, singeing the newspaper she had crumpled with an iron grip unintentionally. She dropped it and sarcastically tossed a few copper pieces that were her pocket at him. He scooped them up and ran behind his counter, cowering.
Korra looked around, but there was nobody who had noticed who she was and what had just occurred, given that it was a small enough street, and very few people went down this road on their way to work anyway. She briskly walked away, trying to put the event that had just occurred in the back of her head for the time being.
As she walked away, Shinobi trembled. On any other day, bloodbending would've outraged him, especially from the Avatar. But he had felt something that he had long wished to forget when she had used that ability. He was no monk but it was that aura. He had felt the desperation to hide and crumble in a way just mere seconds ago that he'd hoped to never experience ever again. He hugged his knees, prepared to wait as long as it took for her to go away. He wouldn't talk of this again. Anything to keep her away from him, a reminder of that. He tugged at the scar that he had got from falling debris that day on his left ribcage, shivering despite the cool temperature.
Korra reached the Cabbage Corp Arena roughly 45 minutes later, which somehow did not have vines travelling along the side, although it did have a tree sticking straight through it. Walking was boring. She realised how much she took flying for granted, and swore to walk more to appreciate this. The tired, moody Avatar walked to the side-door which the athletes used to use avoid fans, but it was locked. She looked up, and spotted a window on the fifth storey. She smiled, wondering how she could go about doing this, and remembered the first time she had been there. It was technically breaking in, but there was hardly any security around anyway. She strolled over to the railing, and took a deep breath. She then threw her legs over the side of the railing and pencil-dove into the water.
Scratch that. Freezing cold water. It really snapped her out of her self-pitying mood, as she quickly began to use her arms in a rotating fashion to create a spiralling currant around her. Then she graciously rose on a water-tornado to eye-level with the window in matter of seconds. She used a simple metalbending trick to open the lock, without even needing to use her bracelet, and then reached towards the window as if she could touch it from eleven metres away, gently pulling her arms back. A gentle gust blew the window outwards with plenty of room for Korra to fit into. Her water-tornado carried her through and gently placed her on the ground. She flicked her hand and the water was flung into the sea with a little too-loud-for-comfort splash. She looked around after closing the window, vaguely recognising her surroundings, and started to walk the old route she had always taken back for the morning sessions. It took her five minutes to find her way to the entrance of the gym. She was surprised to hear somebody walking around in there, and peeked through.
"Bolin!" she said, flinging open the door, happy to see him.
"Wha… Korra!" Bolin replied enthusiastically before jogging over to her and wrapped her in a bear hug, before putting on a posh voice. "To what do I owe the pleasure, your avatarness?"
Korra laughed, a genuine, heartfelt laugh. Bolin was the best friend you could ask for. Sure, he could be painfully cringey sometimes with his jokes but after all the seriousness she had been through lately, a stupid sense of humour was just what she needed.
"Nice to see you too," she replied sarcastically with a goofy smile plastered all over her face. She didn't have feelings for him but he was that one friend that could make you laugh before he even said anything.
"You bet!" Bolin came back. "It's been ages since I've seen you. Well, technically, I've seen your face all over the newspapers, and there was that one time when I thought I saw you, but it was just similar clothing, and-"
"It's coming back to me why I didn't talk to you," she joked. "Sorry for not visiting, I thought you were in Zaofu with Opal? You two have really been getting along ever since you got back together after that Kuivera thing split you two apart."
"Yeah, well Opal's been doing a lot of boring airbending stuff with the Air Nation in the last few weeks, so I thought I'd come home and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I'll be 21 in a couple of months, so I need to start getting a proper job down. It took me a while to find out what I want to do, but I've finally figured it out. I'm going to teach lavabending at the Toph Beifong Metalbending Academy!" Bolin finished with a flourish.
Korra blinked. She had completely forgotten about the deadly power he possessed, given how friendly and gullible he could be sometimes. It just didn't fit his personality. I guess Lin never had shown she could be nice before she visited Su. The world is full of surprises, she pondered.
"That's cool Bolin, but…" Korra stuttered, trying to break it to him nicely. "The name kinda gives it away, doesn't it?"
"What about the name?" Bolin asked, genuinely not catching on.
"METAL-bending," Korra said slowly, essentially spelling it out for him. "It's a school that specialises in teaching cops how to metalbend. Not lavabend."
"Oh yeah, of course," Bolin laughed. "Well, funny enough, it was actually Beifong who suggested it to me. I know what you're thinking, that's nonsense, Lin Beifong is the definition of 'if it's not broke then don't fix it' but it turns out that the force have had trouble dealing with these guys in the past because it's so rare that someone is special enough to unlock the ability, and that they're all very talented and special," Bolin spat out in one big breath, grinning at the last part.
Korra rolled her eyes, sceptical of the praise Bolin had supposedly received. Even when Korra had restored her bending, Beifong had barely given a response. The chances of her lavishing praise on Bolin was unlikely to say the least.
"Actually, that reminds me," Korra said. "Check out my new skill that I learnt this morning." She reached out to one of the earth disc piles on the other side of the gym and pulled it towards her like she was stretching after a long meditation. It flew towards her, and she splayed her right hand out flat, the plate hovering roughly about a foot above her palm. She shut her eyes and tried to imagine the disc burning from the inside-out in her mind, like when she had been told to burn a leaf when she had first started being taught firebending.
She opened her eyes and smiled toothily, amazed just as much as the first time by this new ability. The disc had turned into molten rock in a matter of seconds, and although it wasn't perfect, it was still pretty good for her second attempt. She cooled the disc down back to its original form, although it was a bit lumpy compared to a few seconds before, and fired it at the net at the far end of the room.
"Wow, you can lavabend too, that's… great!" Bolin said, seemingly dismayed.
"D-did I do something to annoy you?" Korra panicked. She really didn't want to make more trouble for herself socially.
"No, no," Bolin lied, then sighed, sitting down with his legs crossed. "It's just that, well… I thought that I had found out something entirely special and impressive that only I could do. But now, it seems that you're clearly also able to do it, and without even much trouble by the looks of it."
"Come on," Korra tried. "How many other lavabenders are there in the world? Me being able to do it is nothing special because I'm the Avatar, but besides from you I've only ever heard of two others, including the Red Lotus guy, who weren't Avatars."
"Really?" Bolin perked up. "Who was the other one?"
"A king with schizophrenia in the Earth Kingdom long ago, called Lord Kolisiyi, who supposedly was the first non-Avatar to unlock the ability. He was a mad lunatic, leading his army and tearing down the walls of Ba Sing Sae because the voices in his head told him that the walls were keeping the wealth of the Earth Kingdom inside Ba Sing Sae."
"But what about the guys that the force have had trouble with over the years like Beifong was saying?" Bolin asked.
"I'm getting to that. After the widespread terror, lavabending was made punishable by death everywhere in the Earth Kingdom, except for the royal family in Ba Sing Sae and those in very high ranking positions, like lightning was for the Fire Nation. Even before it was made illegal, most people condemned it after the invasion, especially during the 100 Year War as you have to have Fire Nation lineage to have the ability.
"Even though Republic City never got around to banning it, there was a huge stigma around it and as a result, lavabenders were outcast socially, and then they had to resort to crime to stay alive because no-one would hire them but triads."
Bolin stared at her, blankly. He wasn't good at paying attention, especially this early in the morning, but he got the gist. He hadn't known the prejudice against lavabending before as for a long time he'd been with Kuivera and holed up in her work. Of course, he never lavabent in public before due to the obvious dangers.
"Is it still hated in the Earth Kingdom?" Bolin asked. He was very intrigued by this. He never knew Korra was a good storyteller. "And illegal too?"
"I dunno," Korra shrugged. "It was just a story I heard when I was a kid. I thought everyone knew about lavabending being not popular though?"
"Mako and didn't go to school, remember?" Bolin reminded her. "We didn't really have time for stories."
"Oh yeah, of course," Korra said, embarrassed. "Sorry."
"It's okay," said Bolin. "But I'm really interested in that. I bet there are tons of lavabenders around the Earth Kingdom, in Ba Sing Sae in particular, just waiting to reach their full potential!"
"Whoa, hold it here. The Earth Kingdom has never been very open to change, and given the fact that you worked with Kuivera won't help your cause. I don't think it's a smart idea to go strolling into Ba Sing Sae looking for lavabenders. I'd make a guess that a lot wouldn't even admit it."
Bolin thought about this for a moment, then sighed. He had gotten way too optimistic in the short space of time she had given him a summarised history of lavabending. "I guess you have a point. I haven't even accepted the offer from Beifong yet."
"It's alright, the whole idea will probably take a good while to get off the ground anyway." She glanced at the ladder in the far corner leading up to the attic. "Are you still… living here? Even with the tree sticking through the window?"
"Yeah," he replied, scratching his head. "It's very cheap, and only temporary, soooo…" he trailed off, trying to think of a way to make it sound good.
"But what about all the money you made as a mover-star?"
"Well, you see, I kind of left that behind in Zaofu, so… yeah." He smiled cheesily. "I didn't want to let Mako find out, because I've got to show him I can be independent, and he'd insist that I move in with him." Then Bolin's eyes perked up. "Hey, why don't we all meet up together later, it'll be great fun!"
"Well, I don't know," Korra said, fidgeting. "Asami's out of town, and I've got a busy schedule, and…" she said as she tried to think of a good enough excuse to not see Mako. "It's just not convenient."
"Oh okay," Bolin said, disappointed. "How about a bit of light training then since you're here?"
"Lavabending or just passing the plates?" she asked. She was curious to see how good he would be at teaching.
"Nah, just work off some steam. I've heard that you've been locked up in meetings from Asami."
"There's no end," Korra agreed, and grabbed one of the protective vests, throwing it on. She used airbending to float one into Bolin's hands.
"Where's the point, we're probably not even sparring?" Bolin complained.
"Just to be safe," Korra said. She quickly brought her right knee up to waist height, then spun around clockwise while extending her leg. A disc flew off one of the piles and would've needed Bolin's attention had it not been a solid eight yards off target. Korra grimaced as it smashed into a full bucket of water and drenched the floor, only realising now how rusty she was. Bolin just laughed, and put his arms through the gear, popping his head out a second later.
"I don't think I'll need it judging by the looks of that," he messed, and threw a quick jab at Korra. She returned the disc with enthusiasm, and on target this time.
"I just beat Kuivera in a 1v1 a few months ago, I'd watch your mouth if I were you," she laughed.
Just need to clarify, I am NOT homophobic. The legend of korra is set around the 1920s roughly and I just thought that realistically most people were homophobic back then and would use it as an insult, just like many still do today. Besides, why would I write a story about Korra if I didn't like her being bi? Please RR. Thanksfor reading