1 year, 11 and a half months after Chapter 1
Korra sat on the top of the highest point of Omashu's inner city, fidgeting madly as she waited for something to call her into action. She had arrived in Omashu just a few hours earlier, having took two weeks to make the journey from Crescent Island to the great city. She had used the Avatar State with Vaatu, which she felt confident she could control now, to fly over their walls. She was wearing her old water-tribe gear, which felt like new clothes to her after wearing the Fire Nation getup for so long. It was ten o'clock at night, curfew having passed at seven. An eerie silence strangled the city in the midst of war, but the main army from Ba Sing Sae was nowhere near the boundaries just yet.
"How long will you hold out?" Korra muttered, referring to the lavabenders from Ba Sing Sae. She cast her mind back to her conversation with Siya, the King of Omashu.
Korra stood anxiously outside the grand doors that led to Siya's throne room. She had been triple checked in every way possible for the last hour, but even now, they had three men watching her back. She was wearing platinum cuffs on her hands and feet, and had a metal plate strapped around her forehead to keep her from combustion bending. Once she had proved that she was the Avatar, King Siya had apparently been very eager to meet Korra.That in itself was a huge relief to Korra. She didn't want to have to raise a finger to get the King on her side, which was peaceful negotiations. She had found all the searches a tiny bit excessive, but understood that nothing was left uncovered during war. An old woman opened the doors from the inside, and peeked through."The King is ready for you," the old crone told Korra urgently, and Korra got a shove in the back from one of the guards. She ignored it, and shuffled forward as fast and elegantly as she could.Her first impression of the King of Omashu wasn't great. His throne room was lavished with decorations, with countless woman all lining up to adore him. He had some of the nicest clothes Korra had ever seen, and Wu had gone out of his way to show her his rare animal pelts lined with jewellery in numerous attempts to impress her. They never worked.Siya was a huge man at 6'5, his arm and chest muscles bulging with every breath he took. He had short blond hair which was parted down the middle, a skin tone just a tiny bit lighter than Korra's, and piercing blue eyes. Korra could tell with one glance that he thought highly of himself. This observation was backed up when he smiled, showing a gold tooth. He waved away the dazzling women kneeling by his side, and gestured for Korra to come forward. Korra stepped forward, then bowed respectfully."Avatar Korra," Siya greeted, baring his teeth almost threateningly. "To what do I owe the pleasure?""Thank you for having me, King Siya," Korra began. "The reason I've came here without any notice, your Highness, is to stop the war that's been started between Omashu and Ba Sing Sae. I've been isolated for nearly the last year on Crescent Island, so I only found out about it recently. I'm sorry if this is sudden.""Crescent Island?" Siya repeated, his attention perking up. "What have you got up to there?""I learnt how to combustion bend," Korra answered, definitely sparking interest from the mountain of a man. "That's why my forehead is covered.""Prove to me that you're the Avatar," he rumbled. "I'll let you take that covering off of your forehead too.""Of course," Korra complied. She held out her hands, and lit a blue flame, then increased its height until it was a foot tall. She saw a jug of water, let her fire die, then dragged the water over to just above her hands. The water-tribe woman danced with it around her body with as much mobility as she had available, then gracefully bent it back into the jug."That will be enough," Siya declared, and gestured to the guards. She felt her headpiece click, then was lifted off her head. Siya grinned at the sight of her tattoo. "I have one more question, Avatar Korra," he said."Yes?" Korra asked."Are the rumours about Azula true?" he posed the question, which caused Korra to tense up nervously. She didn't know what kind of relationship Siya had had with Azula, if they even knew each other at all, so Korra decided to play it safe."What rumours?" she asked with mock innocence."Don't play stupid with me, Avatar!" he warned menacingly, banging his fist off the arm of the throne to emphasize his point. He seemed to be very impatient. "Is Azula dead? That's been the word going around from my people in the Fire Nation! And more specifically, who killed her?" Korra pursed her lips hesitantly, but realised that he knew all the details."I did," Korra answered reluctantly, giving him the confirmation he wanted. "We fought an Agni Kai, and I killed her. She had it coming.""I could agree more," Siya told her. "Guards, take her shackles off. We can trust her.""Really?" Korra said, surprised. She hadn't genuinely imagined a scenario like this playing out once, where the King trusted her enough to let her move freely."Yes," Siya said, stepping off of his throne. He petted one of the women on the head like pets, which greatly annoyed Korra, but she kept her mouth shut. "But there is one condition to me even considering to negotiate.""What is it?" Korra asked warily, albeit not too disappointed. She had expected a condition or two in order for his cooperation, like the late Earth Queen had when they were looking for airbenders in Ba Sing Sae."It's quite reasonable," the king told her, putting his hands behind his back and walking in circles around Korra. Korra turned around to face him as the guards undid the cuffs on her feet, hands and forehead. "Oh my, that is quite an impressive tattoo. It looks new, by the brightness of the ink.""Thank you," Korra said, as she rubbed her wrists. "I worked extremely hard for it. What's your condition?""My condition is," the king started, "that you round up the numerous terrorists from Ba Sing Sae that have been lavabending in the inner city, and targeting our infrastructure. It started two nights ago, and it is obvious that they intend to keep going for the time being. I want you to bring them to me. You can lavabend yourself, so it shouldn't be any issue for you.""Okay," Korra agreed, figuring that it wasn't such a bad deal for her, as he'd just been very open with her. She didn't have much credit since she'd been absent from world affairs for the best part of two years. "How many are there?""Nearly a dozen," Siya answered, the sheer width of his body intimating on its own. Korra just looked up to him calmly though. "Do we have a deal?""One thing," Korra said. "I want your guarantee that you won't harm them while you negotiate with Ba Sing Sae for a ceasefire." That clearly irked Siya, but after a moment or two, he agreed with a short nod of the head."You best be on your way, then, Avatar," he said, ushering her towards the doors. While she got a close up of his biceps, Korra reckoned that they definitely weren't natural. She'd only seen that type of shape and texture from people in the gym that were generally known for taking steroids. "We'll provide you with accommodation, but until they have all been captured for definite, I will not enter negotiations. Also, I will need you to propose the ceasefire, not me. It looks very bad, as you probably already know.""That's good," Korra said, and held out her hand. He shook it, trying to break her hand in the process, but she just returned it with her own strength. She'd learnt from her father from a young age how to earn respect from just a simple handshake, or rather, how not to lose it. Siya grinned when she returned it."We'll get on fine," he said. And with that, Korra strolled back out the doors on her own, leaving her company behind. She couldn't be happier with how things had gone so far. Now, she just had to uphold her end of the promise.
Korra hummed in boredom, not able to see anything down below in great detail. She could barely make out the outlines of the buildings, never mind who was walking in between them. Her plan was to keep a lookout for any lava, then belt down with her rockets to pursue the lavabenders from Ba Sing Sae. She had requested that any police officers stay away when she was fighting, as they would only get in the way. That message should have definitely spread by now. She could carry the offending lavabenders away on her rockets easily.
Korra hated this waiting game. No matter how well she had tried to find ways to pass the time in the past, it had always been the same calm before the storm.
It's not the worst in the world, Korra thought. At least I have law enforcement on my side. The only thing that would make this better is a glider, but my rockets are just as good.
Suddenly, Korra started to hear a lot of screams and shouts in the far-off distance, close enough to one of the great walls. She peered down, and sure enough, there was the bright red glow of lava that hadn't been there a few seconds ago. Korra got up, rolled her shoulders, did a few jumping jacks, then jumped off the building.
Korra dropped like stone, holding her feet tight together in the 'pencil' shape. As she was about thirty metres above a small, squat library, blue fire blasted out of her heels and fingertips. They slowed her descent perfectly, Korra touching down on the roof with the same feeling as stepping down a flight of stairs. She got a running start off the roof of the library, then jumped. She created rockets once again, then arrowed towards the source of light. The twenty-three-year-old belted across the city, buildings flashing by, and after only two and a half minutes, she touched down by the restaurant. There were several soldiers from Omashu there, all trying to close off the exits from which lava could slither down.
Suddenly, Korra heard shouts from another part of the city. This time, there was a fire blazing high into the sky, and caused the soldiers to panic.
"That's the food bank!" one of them cried desperately. "Ten men come with me, we've got to see if we save whatever's there!"
"We can't leave this lava alone!" another one argued. "It'll travel down the slope and wreck other buildings!"
"This restaurant can wait!" the first one replied. They were about to keep on bickering while things got worse, but Korra wasn't prepared to wait for them.
"Men!" she shouted from behind them. They all turned their attention to her, and their mouths quite literally gaped open. They were all in disbelief, but Korra had expected that. "I've been given special orders from your king to get the lavabenders, and I can handle this on my own. Leave this to me!"
"No way," one of them said, dumbstruck. "Are you…"
"Yes!" Korra answered. "Yes, I'm the Avatar. The tattoo on my forehead is new, if you're wondering."
"You're a bloodbender!" a young soldier stated, saying what everyone had on their mind. Korra just rolled her eyes, and faced the lava. She took a deep breath in, feeling every drop of lava mentally, then exhaled slowly. The intense heat of the molten rock turned darker and darker in colour, until it was just a warm, black rock.
"Do you want my help or not?!" she asked, holding her hands out, then pointed to where the fire was still raging. "Every second you waste here is another second that fire burns down your city."
The soldiers all looked to one another, unsure of what to do, but thankfully for Korra, one decided to take action:
"Lads, our work here is done!" he said. "Let's get to that building, now!" They all cheered in unison, and started running towards the fire. A couple of them glanced back at Korra, but she just ignored their looks. She swung her head around, looking for places where the offending lavabender may have run off too. After a few seconds, Korra spotted a rubbish that had been knocked over, and decided it was just as good as anywhere to start.
Korra flew up on her rockets, high above the now-cool restaurant. She saw a number of interconnecting alleys leading from the corner that the rubbish bin had been knocked over. They were tight, barely looking big enough for two people to fit through. A squad of men like the one that had just ran off to the burning building wouldn't have been able to properly chase a lone offender. In the distance, about eleven kilometres away, Korra saw another building suddenly turn to lava, but she didn't bother racing over. Whoever had organised these attacks had planned everything without leaving one stone unturned. One attack after the other to suck in soldiers, then disperse them across the city, giving the lavabenders time to run away. It was very smart indeed.
Korra flew over the alleys, hearing sounds of disturbance in the near-distance. A bucket being kicked over, a cat screeching, a dog barking. This was all immensely helpful to Korra as she narrowed in on the person who was running. Suddenly, she saw them walk out onto a street, hands on their knees, panting. They were about a mile away from the restaurant, and clearly thought that they were in the clear. Unfortunately for them, Korra's rockets didn't make much sound, so they were helpless to hear Korra softly land down beside them, and also helpless to sense any danger as Korra kicked a blunt air roundhouse kick into their back.
They blurted out something inaudible as they went flying forward, face-planting into the paved concrete. Korra could tell now that they were quite stocky, and were wearing casual clothes as so not to look too suspicious. However, Korra was unnerved, for some reason, when she heard his voice.
"Agh!" the man cried, falling onto the ground roughly. "Since when did the cops start hiring airbenders? Can't you tell…"
The man trailed off as he turned around, his complaint disappearing as he looked at Korra's face. He was squat, early twenties, had black hair combed to the side, a square face and green eyes. There were several small scars littered across his face, looking a few weeks old, although one was nearly the size of his smug nose. He was lost for words, even though he was certainly the chatty type, from what Korra could remember.
He gulped, hoping that this wasn't who he thought it was.
The woman across from him was one he hadn't seen for nearly two years, yet was instantly recognisable. Her long hair from back then had been cut short once again, and her muscles were huge, just like he remembered of his very first impression of her. She wasn't necessary the tallest, but she was still intimating just by standing there. The one thing that both surprised and shocked him, was the new tattoo on her head. The eye, even in the dim moon light, as there were no street lamps on to preserve power, gazed into his soul. He snapped his stare away from it, and looked her in her two real eyes. There was no mistaking her.
Korra's heart thudded in her chest. She had thought she'd been prepared for anything, including potentially the need to kill someone in the worst-case scenario. But this was even beyond her wildest imaginations. Her breath caught in her throat as she tried to speak, and she cleared. He had the same reaction as well. The street was deserted apart from the two of them, but suddenly, she felt so claustrophobic.
"Korra." he said.
"Bolin."
"What are you doing here?!" Korra demanded, finding her voice after an uncomfortable silence.
"What am I doing here?!" Bolin replied, startled. "Where have you been?! I'm sure the entire world would like to know that! I've wanted to know that! Why didn't you ever reach out to me?"
"I didn't think it was safe," Korra lied, pulling the response out of her ass. "I was stuck on an island in the Fire Nation for the best part of the last twelve months."
"Come on!" Bolin said, exasperated. "That's not an excuse! The future of the Earth Kingdom States is probably filled with war because you've been gone for two years, but only when conflict breaks out, you decide to make a return? What's that about?"
"I'm still not welcome back in most places!" Korra replied, noticing a change in Bolin's demeanour. Her last memory of him had been kind and friendly, but now, his words were a little bit sharper.
"What were you doing in the meantime, huh?" Bolin asked, then pointed at her face. "Probably something to do with the tattoo on your forehead? Can you firebend out of your mind now?"
"Yes," Korra told him, trying to lower the hostility that was quickly rising between one of her former best friends and herself.
"And you ignored the rest of the world while you did that?" Bolin asked, but it was more like an accusation.
"Hey, they sent an army after me and my family to the South Pole!" Korra reminded him. "I just thought that it would be best to lay low for a while!"
"Well look at the consequences!" Bolin growled, struggling to contain himself. "Think about all the innocent families that have been destroyed because of this conflict! Think about the all the mothers who have lost their precious children! What were you even learning it for, you're perfectly powerful without it!"
"Bolin, what happened?" Korra asked, trying to be gentle. She'd never seen him so worked up before about something Korra had failed to do as the Avatar, in fact, he'd always been gentle and supportive of her whenever something went wrong. She also didn't want to address why he was here just yet too; she feared that she wouldn't like it.
"What happened?" Bolin hissed. "What happened? I'll tell you what happened. My students were good children, with the ability to lavabend. But one day, soldiers from Omashu bombed our class!" Bolin marched up to Korra and grabbed her by the hem of her shirt. "Do you know how many children died that day?"
"How many?" Korra whispered, her stern expression gone. She was trembling right now, realising that Bolin had undergone a massive trauma recently.
"Fifteen," he snarled, looking at her dead in the eyes. "And I watched my best friend get stabbed in the back, right through his heart. Another one of my close friends wasn't able to breath without feeling pain, the last time I checked. They ambushed a school of lavabenders just a month ago, Korra. Our school. They didn't even declare war honourably, the cowards."
"Bolin," Korra said, putting her hands on his shoulders. "I can tell that you're hurting badly at the minute, but this isn't the proper way to deal with your grief."
"Get your hands off me!" he commanded, swatting her hands away. "What do you mean by that?"
"I can tell that you're a part of the war effort for Ba Sing Sae," Korra told him, sorrow rising in her chest for her old friend. "There's no point in denying it. I don't know all the details, but from what you've just told me-"
"You don't know all the details?" Bolin repeated, cutting her off, and laughed hysterically, although it had a sharp undertone of agony. "In that case, what do you know about the war, if you're going to be involved?"
"Well," Korra started awkwardly, looking down, "not much. Up until a few weeks ago, I was kept in the dark completely, because of my training. As soon as I heard about it, I decided to rush here. I had to steal all my food and money. When I learnt that there was a war going on, I just automatically thought to stop it." Korra realised how pathetic it sounded, now that she had said it out loud. In her mind, she'd just thought that preventing a war was the only priority, without even hearing out both sides.
"Let me tell you then," Bolin started, "my perspective of the story. Omashu killed nearly a thousand random people in bombings last month. A thousand people. Can you even begin to get your head around that mind-boggling number, because I saw less than twenty in one bombing, and I honestly don't know how I've dealt with it so far."
Korra squirmed away from him, the weight of how big this war really was hitting home. She'd always thought millions would die, but she couldn't even begin to comprehend the horror that one hundred dead human corpses laid out in front of her would be like. The stench of blood drying into the air, flies eating away at the rotten flesh, their expressions as they breathed their last breaths.
It made Korra feel dizzy, but then, she realised that she had just spoken to the man who had instigated that all, King Siya. She knew that Omashu wanted more power, and seeing as he was the king, he definitely had the power to veto all that if he wanted. But he didn't.
"What?" Korra started quietly, still looking down. "What do you want to gain from this? You destroyed the restaurant, didn't you?" She was cornered, trying to talk her way out of it by asking a question. She also needed to confirm that he was part of it by his own admission.
"Yes," he stated, "I was. What I want out of this-" he gestured wildly to all the surrounding buildings and the attacks. Korra reckoned that she could see the light of two more lava attacks. "-is justice for all those who lost their lives for the politics of the upper class who live here! They started this war, and they're going to feel the pain because of it! That restaurant was just a diversion for the other attacks, we're going to hit them where it really hurts! These people can't even begin to understand true hardship, they live in a bubble! They would gladly eat in front of a homeless man so that they don't feel peckish! You know their type, don't you?"
"I do," Korra replied, thinking of Azula, for a recent example. She felt a little guilty, somehow, but quashed it down. "But try put it into simpler words. I do understand your pain, but I don't think you've thought as deeply as you could have about it. You've let your emotions push you on without simplifying them yourself." She felt like a right prick saying that, but she needed to try and help Bolin understand what he was going through himself.
"I want to make them pay!" Bolin declared, poking her quite hard in the forehead. "How hard is that for you to comprehend?!"
"You want to make them suffer, just like you did," Korra rephrased, hating the sorry state her friend was in.
"So what if I do?" Bolin asked. "The people here will be the least-affected out of anyone during this war, apart from those in the Upper Ring in Ba Sing Sae. I can guarantee you that whoever had the final say in the decision to end hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of lives by giving that string of attacks the green light lives here! They've probably lived their whole lives here!"
"You're not wrong," Korra admitted. She was going to flip whenever she next saw King Siya, but for now, she had to try and save an old friend from the pits of darkness. "I don't feel like a champion by doing his dirty work by hunting you down, when he had the nerve to tell me that capturing you lavabenders was the only way he would be open to even consider peace negotiations.
"But if you join a war with the purpose of righting the wrong that was dealt to you under the name of justice won't stop anything," Korra told Bolin. "If you take a life with your lavabending tonight, you're just staining the memories of those who lost their lives to the scum who started it all off. You said you had another lavabending friend who can barely breath without feeling pain, right?"
"Yes," Bolin answered, still itching to express his rage.
"If you die tonight, or tomorrow night, or the night after that," Korra said, "then he will feel a double injustice has been done to him, through the deaths of you and your late friend who was killed in the bombings. He might well take a life in return, which only leads to more suffering, the exact same that you feel right now. My memories of you are of an understanding, caring man, who always thought of others. I still see that man in front of me, but he's hurt, and confused. You staying involved in this war will play out exactly how I've just told you. You are going through what millions upon millions of people right now and before you have experienced. I don't need any spiritual powers to predict your future if you stay on this path."
Bolin was silent, trying to take in what Korra had just told him, but then, he found a question to potentially keep fuelling his hatred of Omashu.
"Why did you come here then?" he asked. "Why do you do the 'dirty work' as you just called it, for the king of Omashu?"
"If there's one thing I've learnt during my life," Korra said, thinking of herself, "is that this world is ruled by hatred. Amon, Unalok, the Red Lotus and the Earth Empire were all just random people who had the power to act on their feelings of hurt. I've hated others many times. And you know what? Some people do deserve to die. Some people are so despicable that they should be wiped from the face of the earth. I realised that very recently." Korra thought again of Azula, and Azami's headless body falling to the ground. "But as the Avatar, my job is to bring peace and balance to the world. Sometimes, I will have to be unpopular in order to restore balance, even if I don't like it.
"By working with King Siya," Korra continued, "I hope that I can save a lot more lives than will be lost by trying to bring his ego down. So I am pleading you to leave Omashu before I have to bring you to him."
Korra's words struck a deep chord with Bolin, much deeper than Mako's had ever managed to poke at. He felt like he might relent from the anger that he thought could only be justified through pain of Omashu. But then, he looked at the scar on his hand. The scar he had dug into his palm when he had seen the anguish from Meng. The familial bond that had been cut off forever, because of Omashu's actions.
"No!" he declared, determined, staring at her in the eyes, leading to a grunt frustration from Korra. "I can't forgive Omashu!"
"Bolin," Korra warned, a sharp edge to her voice. "I'm dead serious. Leave now, or I will bring you to the king. This is an offer on account of our past friendship, which I still cherish fondly."
"No!" Bolin reinforced, backing away to get a little bit of distance between them.
"Final chance," Korra offered, a heavy feeling setting upon her heart. A feeling of dread.
"No!" Bolin repeated, and Korra sighed.
"Why did it have to come to this?" Korra muttered, then shoved all her personal feelings out the window. With a heart of stone, she brought her fist back, and powered an air-punch at Bolin, silently cursing at Omashu for forcing her into this.