A month and a half later

"Shhh," Korra whispered to her little girl, who'd just woken up crying to the sound of Korra opening the door. She'd moved back to her old home, the one she'd lived in before the Red Lotus tried to kidnap her as a kid. She barely went outside now, but at least she was back to full health. She could use all her bending at her former strength, which was great for day-to-day life.

But she never let her baby out of her sight. It was stressful dealing with her all the time, but even more stressful when Korra didn't know where she was for one minute. Her mom had helped her out so much more than Korra could ever repay her for, even though she couldn't come by too often. Korra didn't mind though. As long as she had her child, nothing could bother her. Naga lay contently in the corner, asleep.

Mako leaned glumly over the side of the airship. He was headed on another trip to the South to look for Korra. He'd been on most by this point, which was over ten, but they'd all been completely fruitless. If it weren't for Asami funding all of the United Force's searches, or witch-hunts, for a better name, they'd have given up long ago, but she would not let up. Mako made up with Asami shortly after he found out about Hazukk, but he still hadn't talked to Bolin. He didn't even know where Bolin was!

I could find out if I wanted to, he thought, but pushed it as far to the back of his mind as possible. He was naturally a little grumpy from the long flight, but also because he was banned from drinking by Beifong, and she'd come on this trip because there was a solid lead, apparently.

"Damn Northerners," he muttered. "Why can't they just let us pass through their portal? It's not like we wanted ours to be shut." The United Forces or Republic City Police weren't allowed to go through the Northern Portal to search in the South anymore, which was logical, as it had become a bit of a habit. But it took so much longer to travel to the South Pole because of it.

"Hey Mako," one of the soldiers called. Mako turned and tilted his head. What was his name? It was pronounced something like 'ack…'

"What?" Mako snapped. Ahmed swallowed a retort against the man he'd been sharing a room with for the past three days.

"Just wanted to let you know that we'll be arriving at the Southern Tribe really soon. We have to dock a fair bit away from the ports because apparently some journalist saw her with his own eyes, and we want the element of surprise."

"Are you sure it's not Hazukk?!" Mako demanded.

"Would you ever stop talking about Hazukk, for crying out loud!" Colao, another detective from the Republic City Police, interjected a small distance away. "Ever since he supposedly ran off over seven months ago, with a shit ton of money according to you, you've just been all moody. Brighten up for a change!"

"Fuck off!" Mako replied, and looked back over the edge, his back to everyone.

"Here look, Mako, I know we don't know each other too well but-"

"Stay out my life!" Mako said. "Piss off back to your sandbender colonies or wherever you and your buddies come from!"

"My parents were sandbenders," Ahmed replied, his patience finally wearing out. "Mako, why are you being such a prick? I've tried my best to be nice to you while we share a room, but you don't even remember my name!"

"We'll never see each other again after a few days," Mako told him dryly, not even looking at Ahmed. Ahmed gave up and walked away, through with being nice. Mako leaned harder over the railing, staring at the black water miles below.

Just a quick jump, and it'll all be over in a flash. That's not too bad, is it? he thought, and the sad thing was that he genuinely meant it. I'll wait another bit longer, he decided, and pushed himself up. He went downstairs to the dorms. He was going to catch a little bit of shut-eye before what would probably be another fruitless search.

Korra sighed contently, rocking back and forth on her chair. She intended on spending the rest of the night there, peacefully, no-one to bother her. She had enough food to last her and her child a week, and even though she felt like going outside to look at the stars, it was far too early. She would have to wait until 4am to head down through the tunnel directly under her bed and walk a mile after that, and she wasn't in the mood. She'd actually been getting parenting lessons from Katara instead of bloodbending, funnily-

Three loud knocks on the front door crudely interrupted her thoughts. She nearly fell sideways off her chair, but caught herself.

"Korra, it's mom, open up!" Senna called urgently.

Korra got up and put a hand on the ground. She trusted her mom with her life, of course, but she just needed to make sure that nobody else was watching. She could sense her mom's heartrate pounding, alone, so she rushed open to the door and unlocked it. She stood back as Senna squeezed in and shut it firmly behind her. She was panting hard.

"Why are you shouting my name like that?" Korra asked, although it wasn't with any malice, as her mother looked deathly scared.

"The United Forces are here, Korra," she blurted out, "and they're coming right this way. You need to leave now!"

Korra's eyes widened and her eyes shot over to the calm baby in her crib. "We'll leave right now."

"No, Korra," Senna said, putting her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "I know it's heart-breaking, but if she wakes up, the likelihood is that she'll start crying. We've gone through this before, I'll say that the baby's mine."

Korra just stared wordlessly at her mom, wanting to say no so bad. They had gone over a plan, in case the United Forces came looking, when Korra had insisted on leaving the bunker, but she'd never really thought that they would need it. She hated to even think of the possibility that she would need to abandon her daughter. Finally, she found something to say;

"How do you know?" she asked pointlessly.

"One of the guards spotted them coming in from the West. They're all in Future Industries airships."

"Asami," Korra muttered guilty. "Are you sure dad can't stop their army marching in? I know that he was forced into signing that agreement, but surely you can keep them at bay a little longer?" Korra tried, even though she knew what the answer would be.

"Sweetheart, we've already told you that most of our troops won't defend you against a search party coming in. We don't have much time."

Korra started crying, and Senna hugged her. "I won't let her out of my sight, I promise." Korra broke the embrace after a few seconds, and petted Naga, who had woken up now.

"Protect her for me, girl," she whispered to her lifelong friend, and Naga whined, sensing what was happening. She walked over to the light of her life. "I love you, more than anything else in the world," Korra said, and placed a kiss on her daughter's forehead. "And I always will, sweetheart."

Korra grabbed the black cloak which was always hung on the door leading into her bedroom, and put it on. She walked up to her bed, and used earthbending to slide it over to the right. She opened the small rock hatch and jumped into the pitch-black hole. She landed on her feet with a soft thud, and slid both the hatch and the bed back into place. She started to walk through the tunnel, collapsing everything behind her every few steps for the first three-hundred metres, to avoid any chance of her being tracked immediately. But when she got closer to the exit, she heard voices at the end.

"How?" Korra mumbled, extinguishing her flame. She wanted to investigate who was at the end, as it came up in literally the middle of nowhere, but she knew that she didn't have that luxury. Instead, she dug her fingers into the ice to her left, and pulled them in opposite directions. A small slit, barely big enough for her to fit in, opened, and she hopped inside. She repeated the action for another few yards, then sealed it clean shut behind her. She didn't light any fire in the palm of her hand either, and that would take up a lot of oxygen. She could supposedly recycle oxygen like a tree, being an airbender, but she hadn't actually ever tried that trick before.

After forty-five minutes of tunnelling, she broke out, and the sudden bright lights from the night-time city caused her to clamp her eyelids shut. She was to the east of the city, away from where the airships were, according to her mom. She couldn't actually see them but assumed that they were hidden behind a mountain range. It angered her that anyone could just waltz in nowadays, but she couldn't go raising her opinion on the topic, seeing as it was all because of her. She didn't even bother going to the spirit portal, they always guarded it whenever they showed up for a search.

Korra kept to the shadows as she travelled around the outskirts of the city. She saw a few squads patrolling through the streets, but evaded them easily. She also noticed the glares at them from the surrounding pedestrians. She'd heard that a lot of people were sick of them coming in whenever they wanted, but couldn't say it aloud for fear of seeming to defend bloodbending. Korra could take the patrols on with one hand tied behind her back, but knew how stupid openly confronting ten or so would be. So she stayed undetected until she reached the official exit of the east of the city, which was guarded by more patrols.

She cursed, although she'd figured as much would happen. She noticed a lot of waterbenders with their hands to the ice. They took turns in sensing for any underground vibrations, like earthbenders. Korra realised that she couldn't burrow her way out of this one. There was only one thing for it, which was to hopefully slip by them.

Korra went up to the gate in the temporary ice wall that was set up. She waited in line for a few minutes. She saw that all the guards were looking at was the person's face, and that people were being moved on every few seconds. She kept her hood up the entire time she was waiting, always looking at the ground. She tucked her long hair into the hem of her shirt and didn't make a sound. Finally, when it was her turn, she walked up confidently, keeping her head down.

"Sorry Ma'am, we just need to see-"

The wall to the man's far right cracked loudly. A number of startled shouts filled the air, before it crumpled away completely. More cracks started to appear in the ground below the line of people waiting, and panic erupted through the air. Everyone started to surge forward, and Korra silently went with them, smiling to herself.

Soldiers rushed to where the wall had fallen down, and the poor guard at the gate checking everyone, who was a clerk more than anything, could do nothing to stop the hoards. The cracks in the ground looked threatening and looked like they were going to continue expanding, but they were actually only a few feet deep and barely wide enough to stick your leg in.

Korra intended on just running away as far as she could, but she soon got a hard example of how hard it was to run somewhere while looking straight down at your feet. She collided with a small boy, only about eight years old maybe, and they both tumbled onto the snow. The initial panic died down as people got away from the cracks, and the United Forces started rounding people up again. Korra cursed as she got a mouthful of snow.

"Watch where you're going, young lady!" the mother of the boy said. "You just kneed my poor little Johnny in the back!"

"I'm fine, mom," the boy protested, pushing away his mother away, embarrassed by the commotion. "I barely even felt it."

"Sorry," Korra mumbled, getting up and trying to jog away from the soldiers before they forced her into a check. Her face hadn't been revealed, thankfully.

"At least look him in the eye when you apologize!" the mother demanded, grabbing Korra's cloak and pulling her hood back. Korra's heart skipped a beat as her face was put in full view, and hauled around to face this woman.

"Who do you think…" the mother started, then trailed off. She stared speechlessly at the tight-lipped Korra.

"No way!" her boy piped up. "It's the Avatar! Can you show me how to bloodbend?"

Korra just stood there, frozen to the spot as every pair of eyeballs narrowed down onto her. All the commotion died down, and you could hear a pin drop as everyone took it in. The soldiers, who'd been expecting another boring, routine lookout, stood there flabbergasted. After a tense seven seconds of time standing still, a general spoke up;

"Avatar Korra, you are under arrest on the accusation of multiple counts of bloodbending from the Triple Threats and your ex-girlfriend Asami Sato, resisting arrest previously, and injuring countless police officers in your escape. Come quietly, or else we will use our full force to detain you."

Korra just stood there as a small circle of people edged away from her. She prepared to jump out of the first person's attempt at tackling her, but everyone just stood quietly. She glanced around at the normal citizens' eyes, and recognised a feeling she knew all too well.

Fear.

"I'll do it myself then!" the general growled, and the ice underneath him erupted into a small pillar. He went flying, and ice formed around his fists. He started to fall directly in Korra's direction, intent on beating her into submission even though she technically hadn't said anything yet.

"I'm sorry," Korra said aloud, and looked up directly at the man coming at her. Her open palm shot out at him, and a whirlwind met the general. He spun around in circle as he shot backwards into his troops. He landed in a heap.

"What are you waiting for!?" he shouted, glaring at his troops. "Apprehend her! It's not a full moon, we wouldn't have looked for a bloodbender tonight if it was!"

The soldiers broke their deadlock and charged forward through the civilians. Fire erupted from Korra's feet, and she flew out of what two seconds later became a mosh pit. She bounded through the crowd, not able to hold her rockets for very long, using air to cushion her landings before leaping off again. She discarded her cloak, and soon passed out the furthest ordinary person from the crowd.

Korra formed tentacles with water in her arms as she landed in front of seven soldiers, all firebenders, seemingly. She melted the ice in front of her feet and raised up a wall of water. All of their fire-punches and fire-kicks sizzled out, and the wall rose to stand ten foot high. She shot her tentacles at two waterbenders who were coming at her from both sides, knocking them out with the ferocity of her attack. She pushed the wall forward, and it crashed down on the firebenders, who were helpless to do anything about it. She froze them in place, and all their heads stuck out like moles. She continued on her way.

She leapt towards the official border, where the city limits ended and it was just the wilderness from there on out. Her pace picked up as she got more hopeful, but that hope faded when what looked like nearly a hundred waterbenders from the United Forces suddenly appeared out of well covered trenches. Korea skidded to a halt. The waterbenders got into lines within seconds, and each brought up a litre of water in their hands.

"Oh shit," Korra murmured.

"Fire!" a voice sounded out.

Hundreds of volleys of water were pelted at Korra, each waterbender firing an attack every three seconds. Korra took a deep breath, and calmed herself. She sucked the water into her as they all sped towards her and started spinning, her arms outstretched.

The water diverted to around her body and followed the instructions of her hands. It twirled around her, and suddenly a fat water-snake was forming, coiling around the young woman, the circumference ten metres thick. Korra didn't rise up onto the top of it, but let it surround her as she absorbed every attack, turning it into her own shield. It got harder and harder to hold every second, and so soon enough she froze it all.

An ice dome, expanding forty yards in every direction, protected Korra as water and now ice rattled off of it. She heard chinks as the ice was quickly being beaten away, a metre and a half per second. She looked through the ice, and saw a number of firebenders come up and started blazing the ice with flamethrowers. She felt faint; the United Forces were closing in on all sides. It was a good thing that the waterbenders were so far away, or else they'd have melted her shield instantly.

"Think, Korra, think!" she urged herself, her voice echoing off the small space she had to herself. "I won't be able to cross the border without the help of the Avatar State. But I can't go attacking them with that, I'll be no better than a terrorist or Unalok! UGGGHH!" She held her head in her hands and looked back at the direction she'd come. It was infuriating, but she had no time to think of a better alternative.

Korra faced the sea, and punched the ice. A large crack formed. She got into the horse stance, and pointed her fingers at the crack, her knuckles touching. It slowly started to budge opened as Korra forced the ice apart. A couple of firebenders noticed this and stopped melting the ice to run around. But Korra budged the ice apart with plenty of room for her to fit through before they got around, and exploded out of her enclosure with firebending.

Korra blew a torrent of wind at the nearby firebenders as they tried to get close, knocking them all away. She stayed close to the ground, but didn't let up with her rockets, and glided along to the sea-line. A couple of water-volleys landed near her, but none actually hit her as she dove into the icy sea. Her plan was to get a speed boat and maybe draw-

She bent her body violently to avoid a disc of earth. She looked to where it had come from, and used the currents to redirect three more. There was a submarine, and when she peered closer, she spotted a waterbender holding all the water from rushing into a slot while an earthbender fired discs from the inside.

There were four slots in the submarine overall, and Korra had to stop for a moment. She splayed her hands out, and focused in on the slots, which were made of metal. She clenched her hands and all four openings crunched shut at once. She continued on her way to the dock, only coming up for air twice more while she repeated the action with five more subs. She'd get a speedboat, and draw the United Forces away.

"Ahhh," Korra said as she took in a welcome breath of air, when she came up in the dock, and rubbed her eyes. But her heart sank like a rock when she saw what was waiting for her.

Three hundred soldiers from the United Forces, including some metalbenders from the Republic City Police, stood ready to blast at her with everything they had in their arsenal. She saw four airships coming for her in the distance, and even more soldiers congregating from the city. She spotted Lin Beifong almost instantly, and her heart did a flip when she spotted Mako right beside her. She looked away, and spotted General Iroh II on a makeshift podium with a microphone in his hand.

This was exactly what she'd wanted to avoid.