Mako sat contently in his temporary chair just outside the Great Wall of Ba Sing Sae. It was evening time, and his friends were running their usual lavabending class. Three Dai Li stood there as supervisors, but in reality, they'd stepped in twice in the near-eleven months that Mo, Ling, Nel and Bolin had been running their course. They weren't allowed to run classes anywhere near the city, due to potential accidents, but in the entire time, there had only been two cock-ups out of more than fourteen hundred people who came here weekly.
Three hundred students in the program were bound by the war clause that had seemed like such an issue so long ago, but apart from the odd political jibe, nothing serious had happened at all, at least to the public eye. Nel had grown a massive beard, which made him look like a lumberjack. He was very chatty now to Mako now. The five of them were a very tight-knit bunch, and even though Mako wasn't a lavabender, not once did he ever feel that they were ostracizing him for it.
Mako could tell how much Bolin, Ling, Mo and Nel had come on as teachers, even from thirty yards away. They were all completely friendly to their students, but didn't take any shit. If anyone started to mess around with lavabending, they were sent back home immediately. If they were seen to be constantly messing, they'd be given one last chance before being suspended, and expelled if they kept going after that. There had only been a few incidents when they'd had to go that far, but all of them weren't going to jeopardise the entire class's time for one person.
Above all, they had all gained Mako's respect massively, apart from Bolin, who had always had it. None of them had once gotten too big for their boots, despite the cash that had come flowing in. They all stayed grounded, and only focused on the next day. The only time one of them had gotten ahead of themselves was when Opal finally visited Bolin, and gave her approval for it when she saw how organised it was. She still wasn't going to move to Ba Sing Sae, but he had her approval, and that was what really mattered.
But despite their close bonds, Mako had grown bored in Ba Sing Sae. He hated his job as a waiter, which he had quit just a few days ago after getting his final pay-check. Each passing night kept him up a little bit longer, because he just couldn't put Kalla off of his mind for any longer. He'd sworn that he would go and beg for Korra's forgiveness as soon as he heard where she was, but that was the problem.
Mako been glued to updates on Korra's movements, but it had been just over a full year since they had met at the South Pole, a year since Mako had held Kalla, and there had been absolutely zero sightings of her. After she single-handedly demolished the United Forces' attempt to capture her, there'd been very little enthusiasm to keep up the chase. No-one dared question her family after what had happened to General Iroh II, or even go near them, for that fact. It was the subject that everyone decided to shove under the rug, and forget about it. Even Asami, who had openly been so eager to bring Korra to justice, had given up the hunt.
I'll look for Korra's parents first, Mako thought. I'll look everywhere across the Southern Water Tribe, and if that doesn't work, I'll go to the Northern Tribe. If that doesn't work either, I'll improvise. I'll be at least a month searching them both, probably a lot more, so I'll have plenty of time to think about it.
But Mako was optimistic, and determined. No matter how hard it would be, he would find Korra without fail. He didn't want to ask her parents for permission to see Kalla, because only Korra had that right to restore to him. Kalla was one year old now, and he'd been out of her life for long enough.
Mako noticed five vans quietly pull up behind a hill, near to the classes still going on. They looked like delivery vans. But if that was the case, why didn't they park closer to the official checking point just a few hundred yards away, the same one that the tram dropped every attending classes stopped at? The Dai Li all had their eyes on the students, so none of them noticed.
"It's probably nothing," Mako muttered, pushing himself up. "Nothing at all. I'd probably look like a fool, I'm just a guest watching." He didn't stop walking though, striding over uncertainly.
What's so big that they need five vans? Mako thought. The others would've at least told me if it was something this important.
The vans were hidden so that nobody from the line of sight of the lavabending classes could see it. Mako, who had been sitting a far enough distance away because he didn't want to disrupt anything, did though. Nobody noticed him walking away, or if they did, they didn't bother mentioning it. Mo, Nel, Ling and Bolin were giving all their focus to the students, so even if they did see him, they wouldn't have bothered asking what he was doing.
"Not worth their time either," Mako repeated, referring to the Dai Li too, as he walked up closer to the mound. He changed the direction he was walking in so that whoever was in the vans couldn't see him walking up. His heart rate started to pick up a bit; it had been peaceful in Ba Sing Sae the entire time he'd been there, so he hadn't had any action for quite a while. Mako decided that it would look weird if he was caught snooping around, so he didn't show himself until the last moment possible.
"Hey there!" he proclaimed loudly, causing the three delivery men huddled together to jump. "Who do we have here?" They all turned in an instant, very tense.
"Who are you?!" one of them demanded immediately, standing up straight.
"I'm a supervisor to the classes," Mako lied. "I don't remember ordering anything at all, and definitely not big enough to require five vans. What are you doing here?"
"Just taking a break, before we have to go through the checks to get into Ba Sing Sae," another man answered instantly, and then flashed a huge smile. "It's gonna be a pain once the process starts, you know, everything's so tight these days, so it's good to relax before you go for the long haul." He scratched the back of his head, still smiling broadly.
"L-T-R-N Delivery?" Mako read out, looking at the side of the van. "I've never heard of you guys."
"Small company," the man answered. The other two put on smiles as well, but Mako wasn't nearly convinced.
"If you're going into Ba Sing Sae," Mako questioned, "why aren't you heading for one of the other, bigger checkpoints? And why would you only be in vans rather than trucks if you're going into somewhere as big as Ba Sing Sae?"
"Listen, pal, it's none-" one of the others started, but the second man put a hand on his shoulder.
"Dan, it's fine," he told his colleague. He went up to one of the vans and banged loudly the couple of times on the side, then said loud and clearly; "Eoin, there's a supervisor here who wants proof that we're just taking a break. Show him any ol' thing in there."
"Any ol' thing?" the man named Eoin called back from inside repeated. "Like, all the glasses and cups?"
"Don't break them!" he emphasized. The man gestured for Mako to open the doors.
I'm being precautionary as it is, Mako thought as he walked up to the back doors, although adrenaline was pumping through his veins. He bit his lip, trying not to get ahead of himself, then grabbed the handles. He pulled them down.
Mako's heart flipped when both doors smashed into him, slamming the former commander into the ground. He got winded on impact, and struggled to push the now-detached doors off of him. But when he did manage to do that, something hard clunked into his head.
His head rolled to the side, and he saw the man named Dan standing over him with a metal baton, ready to bring it crashing down again. Mako glanced into the interior of the van, then he groggily rubbed his eyes, not registering what he had seen. But the four men clad in gold and beige gear still stood there warily when he opened his eyes again.
"Help," Mako tried to shout, but he had no breath left, resulting in his cry not even being loud enough to qualify as a whisper.
"I said, don't break the glasses!" the first man's voice growled hazily to Dan from what seemed like a distance, but was only a few yards away. "That means don't kill them, so we can bring them back to Omashu!"
Omashu? Mako thought, as he lay there, sprawled out. But… I didn't hear about a war being declared.
"He's still awake!" Dan argued, pointing to Mako. "If I had wanted to kill him, I'd have made my bat thicker, or into a sword even!"
Mako tried to slash fire at them, but only a few weak embers came out as his fist fell weakly back onto the ground. The 'delivery' men's eyes widened when they saw him firebend.
"I thought he was a supervisor to the lavabenders?" a man coming out of the van asked, then hauled Mako up with one hand by the hem of his shirt, brass knuckles forming on his fist held just a few inches away from Mako's nose. "Who are you?"
"I'm Mako," Mako answered lazily, struggling to keep his eyes open.
"That's Bolin's brother!" one realised immediately, pointing. "He looks similar to the pictures of Bolin that we have!"
"How do you know… Bolin?" Mako spluttered. "He's… he's…" Mako coughed, spitting all over the man who was holding him up. "He's… he's got nothing to do with the Omashu situation."
"Filthy cunt!" the man holding him snarled, wiping the spit off. "And don't bother acting dumb! Everyone and their dog knows that Bolin is leading the lavabenders into war against Omashu! That's why we're here! We're going to-"
"Shut your fat mouth!" Dan hissed. "If the job doesn't work today, he'll still be perfect leverage against Bolin, so we can't kill him just yet! Don't get ahead of yourself, the scouts say that Bolin, and his friend Ling, are nearly equal in strength in lavabending with King Siya!"
"That's exaggerated, though, surely," the man still holding Mako replied.
"Please, this is all one big misunderstanding," Mako mumbled, barely able to put his sentences together. "Bolin isn't a fighting type of guy."
"Will one of you knock him out, for fuck's sake!" the first man to greet Mako ordered. "Before you loud mouths spout too much! And secure him to the seat when locking him up! He can't metalbend, so we don't need to use the platinum 'cuffs."
"Sure thing, Robbo," the man holding Mako replied, then looked at the near-unconscious firebender. "It's a bit late for just a misunderstanding, the attacks have already begun!"
Then he punched Mako in the nose, and the father of one blacked out.
A delivery van rolled up close to the grid Ling was teaching on. He stopped his lesson for a minute to raise an eyebrow, curious.
"Delivery for the Ba Sing Sae Lavabending Society?" a man with a monotone voice called out, sticking his head out the window.
"Sorry, it's not mine," Ling shouted to make his voice heard. He looked to the other three, but all of them shrugged their shoulders.
"Who does it say?" Bolin called out. He was sweating from yet another hard class. "Who sent it?"
"There's no name," the delivery man answered, then stuck his head back inside the window. He grabbed a big enough cardboard box from the passenger seat, kicked open his door, and hopped out. He set the package down very gently on the ground, then took a sip of water from a pouch.
"Must be a mistaken identity," Ling called. "And besides, we're the Ba Sing Sae School of Lavabending."
"You're the only lavabenders I could find!" the man persisted. "If it's not yours, you can return it later. No extra fees."
Ling looked to Bolin, and shrugged. Bolin shrugged back.
"Alright!" Ling agreed, then turned to the student who'd just had his turn. "Heung, go get that package. Put it towards the back of the group, away from the grid so it doesn't get splashed on, since you'll be going back there in a minute."
"Yes, sir," the seventeen-year-old replied. He walked over casually to the package, hoisting it up and carrying it back. He placed it gently at the back, just behind where most people were standing, to keep it a safe distance away from the lava.
"What about forms?" Bolin called out. "Surely we have to sign something? Is it expensive?"
"Only about a hundred yuans," the delivery man replied, waving a sheet of paper. "You'll get your money back if it's not yours."
"Sure!" Bolin called back, and started to walk to the man, even though Ling was closer. However, one of the Dai Li stopped him, putting a hand on Bolin's chest.
"It's fine," the agent said. "I'll get it. You keep going with your classes. There's very little for me to do anyway, so don't think anything of it."
"Okay," Bolin responded, and turned back to his class, although when he turned, he swore that he saw something change about the man's expression. Was there… a scowl there?
It's been a long day, I'm probably just seeing things, Bolin reassured himself, wiping his brow. He couldn't wait to head back to the apartment and get an early night.
Ling kept watching them out of the corner of his eye; something didn't sit right. They'd already collected the fees for this month's tutelage, along with the forms. He watched as the delivery man reached inside for something, presumably a pen, the Dai agent getting a little bit closer.
Suddenly, the Dai Li agent tripped, and the delivery man caught him. Ling turned his full attention to the both of them. He couldn't make out much, as they were hidden partially by the wide-open door, but after a few seconds, the Dai Li agent still didn't regain his balance. Then, he fell over, and curled up on the ground.
"Help, something's happened, I think he's had a stroke!" the delivery man shouted, worried. All eyes turned to the collapsed secret agent, who was clutching his chest. The other two Dai Li agents raced over, sliding in to crouch down beside their colleague. The delivery man stepped away nervously, shaking, shouting something inaudible. But as the two agents turned their backs to him, his worried look was replaced by a malicious smile. Two sharp, metal, pointed objects slid out from his sleeves, one already stained with blood.
"NO!" Bolin bellowed, realising too late what was about to happen.
Mo, Nel, Ling, Bolin and the other eighty students watched on in horror as the two Dai Li agents were viciously assassinated by two swords in their backs, a clean strike through the heart for both of them. They both fell to their knees, then toppled in unison onto their comrade, similarly clutching their chests.
"You're next!" the delivery man cheered sadistically, pulling a remote out of his pocket. "Omashu is the one and only capital of the Earth Kingdom!" he declared.
'"THE PACKAGE!" Mo yelled, pointing at the cardboard box just behind most of the children from Ling's class. "GET AWAY FROM THE PACKAGE!!!"
"Lavabending is a royal art that should only be reserved for the Royal Family of Omashu!" he screamed, and pressed a button on his remote.
Bolin watched helplessly, in slow motion, as fifteen students who had been very close to the package tried to run away. But as a couple took their first, painstakingly, seemingly lazy strides, the box bulged as it lit up. It erupted into a bright yellow fire, transforming as the quickest to react got their second strides in. Too late, Bolin thought to encase it earth, but he didn't even have enough time to lift his finger as reality sped up, and it swallowed up all fifteen students, in one burst.
A violent explosion surrounded and killed all fifteen teenagers at once. Ling's heart stopped as three-thirds of his students were all dismembered in a fiery death, flinging their body parts all across the grids. Screams and cries immediately pierced the air, as most of the students broke down. Ling had so many emotions swirling around his head, the main one being disbelief.
What? What? Wha-
Ling was snapped back to reality by a sharp pain in his side as a metal blade sliced across his ribs. He twisted, just in time to see another small, sharp grey object blitzing towards him, this time heading straight for his heart. Ling turned his body around and lashed his right hand upwards. A small rock that had been lying on the ground flew upwards to intercept the blade. They connected perfectly, the blade flipping harmlessly over Ling's head. He saw four more people, who had presumably come out of the back of the truck, bring their arms back to fire more metal blades. Ling's instincts kicked in, and he punched the ground in front of him.
A large stone wall rose up, protecting Ling and his five remaining students. Several small chinks followed a few seconds later from the other side. Ling's breath caught in his throat, bile rising, as he glanced at a hand to his left. No forearm, just a bloody hand thrown some distance.
"That's… that's James' hand…" one of the girls recognised immediately, covering her mouth with her hands. She stopped, unable to move.
Ling also stared at it as he saw Mo, Nel and Bolin raised their own walls, students cowering behind their teachers. Many of them, if they weren't screaming, gazed blankly at the corpses, strewn all over the place. They didn't know what to think, just like Ling, their bodies shutting down.
"Ling…" a voice rang out. "Ling… Ling…!"
Is somebody calling for me? Ling thought, unresponsive.
"LING!" Bolin screamed. "LING, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?"
Ling was hauled back to reality as he warped his head around to look at Bolin.
"I… I…" Ling responded, his eyes widening as the severity of what had just happened started to sink in.
"GET THE OTHER STUDENTS OUT OF HERE NOW!" Bolin commanded, his breath clearly ragged even from this distance. He had tears beginning to creep down his face. "NOW!!!" The meaning of what Bolin said only registered a second later.
"Run back to the place you came here from!" Ling demanded immediately to his students, pointing in the far-off distance, the opposite direction of the van. "I'll cover you, just run! Don't stop running until you're absolutely safe! I'll cover your backs, just GO!"
Four of the five students took off, belting in the same direction as the other three classes were going. Mo was running at the tail of his group, always keeping his eyes on the assailants, deflecting metal blades that were lobbed over the top. Unfortunately, one student remained, the girl who had recognised the hand as being James'. She stood there, still in shock.
"Didn't you hear me?!" Ling shouted at the girl only a few metres away. "RUN!" Part of the wall he had erected crumpled as a block of earth crashed into it. She didn't seem to notice.
Ling wasn't going to waste any time though. He marched up to her, held her cheek in his left hand, and slapped her hard on the face with his right. She blinked, the pain retrieving her senses. She looked up at Ling, beginning to cry for the loss of her friends.
"SCRAMBLE!" Ling roared, and she jumped. He pointed again in the direction of the other students who had already put quite a distance in between themselves and the girl, gesturing wildly as he struggled to find more words. She got the message though, thankfully, and instantly belted off, not saying anything, just crying inconsolably.
Bolin and Nel both simultaneously made a dash for Ling's wall. Several blades whizzed past the two men, nicking them both, but none of them made any serious impact, thankfully. They slid in beside Ling, both breathing heavily.
"What the fuck is going on?!" Ling demanded.
"That'd be nice to know!" Nel retorted angrily as their wall began to get an almighty amount of abuse. It threatened to crumple at any moment.
"Why?" Bolin asked, his voice cracking up. He was struggling to hold himself together. "Why us?!"
"That doesn't matter!" Nel snapped. He stood up, and pushed his hands towards sky. The thickness of the wall increased by tenfold as most of the cooled down grid was turned into a buffer for the wall.
A metal blade flew in dangerously from the side. Nel snarled, the only one fully in the moment, and swung his fist in a vicious ark. A chunk of rock belted out of the ground, flying past the wall at someone who had tried to sneak around. Ling heard a startled cry as it smacked into one of the assailants.
Ling peaked around the side, but tore his head back as a dozen blades were directed at him. They clung off the hard stone ground, landing just in the view to the lads' left. But in that brief moment, he'd seen enough to make him want to run away, and never come back.
There were suddenly another four vans, to add to the first one. Five people dressed as delivery men stood there, along with fifteen others. In the short glimpse he'd seen, he could see that all the people who weren't dressed as delivery men had a dark yellow tunic, thick beige kilts and a traditional wide earth kingdom cap. Lining all around their outfits in several rows, were the small metal blades that they were firing.
"They're the same blades that the Earth Empire used to have on our uniforms!" Bolin recognised. They were an exact copy. "Is this the Earth Empire? Back again?"
"No!" Ling answered, chucking a block of earth blindly at the attackers. "I think-" He was cut off by a rock that very nearly split his head open. "I think they're from Omashu! The guy with the remote mentioned something about the royal family of Omashu, or something! Has a war finally broken out?"
"If it has," Nel started, creating a small pool of lava and firing lobs at the Omashu assailants, "why weren't we fuckin' told about it then?! There are over a dozen dead students lying in various pieces all around here!"
"It might be guerrilla warfare!" Ling suggested as he did the same as Nel, flinging lava around the wall and at the Omashu soldiers.
"That's fuckin' cowardly!" Nel shouted, keeping up with the barrage of lava. "The second most powerful state in the Earth Kingdom aren't even willing to send a proper army, instead just targeting a bunch of children? Scumbags, the whole lot of them!"
The weight of what had just happened hit both Ling and Bolin at the same time, sinking in as deep it could go.
Omashu have just killed countless children solely because they live in Ba Sing Sae, Bolin thought. A dark, numb feeling crept over his heart, expanding everywhere all over his body. It was cold. Unforgiving. It only had one thing that could satisfy it, and it wasn't peaceful talking.
All of the children in this class bar one or two were from the Lower Ring, Ling thought, his tears drying up. He wiped his face. None of them would have anything to do with politics. A couple of them came here for fun. His grief twisted itself into something different from before; fury.
"Bolin, get the fuck up!" Nel urged, struggling to keep up with the tempo of the Omashu soldiers, barely managing to squeeze the odd shot in here or there.
"I don't know what it has to do with us," Bolin started, determined, "but we can't-"
They all yelled in surprise as the wall they were shielding behind exploded right in front of them. None of them were seriously hurt, but all of them were thrown several metres back. Nel and Ling landed particularly badly, skidding on their backs, while Bolin was used to being thrown around due to probending, so he landed on his feet. He stood up, got into the proper stance, and created a moat of lava.
All the soldiers from Omashu came pouring through, having dug a tunnel right in the middle of the wall, and planted explosives right through the middle. They all lined up with one fist held back, ready to unleash a flurry of attacks.
"Bolin!" the original delivery man called out, walking forward, breaking the line. "We are soldiers from Omashu! We're asking you to come quietly before things get any worse."
"Before things get any worse?!" Bolin shouted, his rage increasing by the second. "You've just murdered over a dozen innocent children, and you expect me to take that calmly?!" The lava slopped around, causing the soldiers to take a step or two back.
"We know all about the war clause you have going on!" the man declared, pointing a finger. "Your lavabenders would've taken countless more lives! Don't try to play innocent!" Ling and Nel both pushed themselves up, cut up pretty badly in a lot of places.
"Us?" Ling repeated, almost laughing, his hands up too. "You've just taken innocent lives of children away! Don't you dare play the victim here!"
"Come over quietly, Bolin," the man repeated. "And we won't kill your friends too."
"I never wanted anything to do with a war!" Bolin stated, really struggling to keep a lid on his emotions. "And there's no way you'd get your rotten hands on any of us!"
"Oh really?" the man challenged. He turned and nodded to the man to his left, who got the message. He pulled up something he'd dragged behind him, and held it out for everyone to view. Bolin's shoulders tensed up, even though he thought that it was physically impossible for them to get any tighter. In his hands, the man was holding an unconscious, bruised, bloody Mako.
"You BASTARD!" Bolin screamed. "Give him back now!"
"Nuh uh uh," the man hackled, wiggling his finger, but a little bit of nervousness snuck into his tone. He was clearly aware that they didn't have much time before help arrived "A brother for a brother. Otherwise, his blood will be on your hands! That's a guarantee, I'll do it right now! Think about the others, Bolin!"
Bolin was barely staying sane. His immense hatred for this man and his companions had just grown even more. He suddenly felt that he understood how Mako felt when he faced Kenichi Shinoda, nearly two years ago now. The unquenchable thirst for… payback.
"Make your decision in the next few seconds, Bolin, or I'll kill him anyway!" the man shouted. "What will it be?"
"Nel, Ling," Bolin said quietly. "I've made up my mind, but what about you two? I'm thinking an eye for an eye." But the tone wasn't that of someone up for a simple trade, and the others knew immediately.
"Sounds reasonable," Nel muttered. "Ling?"
"It's only fair," Ling replied, a cloak of darkness surrounding him. He was usually the one who always tried to talk his way out of things, the one was always optimistic, the one who always refused to sort things out through violence. But when he looked down, and saw the detached, bloody foot that had belonged to a healthy, living, breathing child just a few minutes ago, he could only find room in his heart for one thing: Hate.
The soldier holding Mako whelped as he was suddenly catapulted through the air, by the ground at his feet erupting. He involuntarily let go of Mako as they crossed the moat, flailing, and was helpless to stop a rock from Bolin smash into his ribs. Nel caught Mako while the Omashu soldier clunked his head off of the ground, and stayed there, motionless.