BOOK ONE
REVOLUTION
CHAPTER ONE
TRIAL BY FIRE
OUTNUMBERED, alone, and surrounded, Navid took a deep breath, preparing for the fight.
Trapped at the centre of the circular arena, he could see the deserted stands behind his adversaries. Above them, the dome-shaped roof protected them from the rain that was pouring outside. He had assumed the safest, most stable stance he knew, determined not to make the first move. The three opponents that encircled him were skilled, powerful, and more experienced than him. He surveyed them, looking for something he could use, maybe an incorrect posture or an opening in their guard. Nothing. Having no discernible weaknesses to exploit, he decided that the best strategy was a combination of defence and patience. If he just diverted their blows and waited for an eventual mistake from them, he would get out of this. He hoped his nervousness wasn't showing, afraid that it could be used against him somehow. No one moved for what must have been only a few seconds, but felt like an eternity. He wondered if it was normal to feel this anxious, given his... status. He hoped that didn't mean he was doing something wrong.
His thoughts were interrupted by the man in front of him suddenly moving. With a flick of his wrist, he pulled up a circular stone from the ground the size of a clenched fist and threw it toward Navid's chest with the other hand. Reacting in time, the teenager punched the air with his right hand and successfully stopped the projectile, which exploded into pebbles and dust midflight. But it had served its purpose. His opponents clearly had this fight planned out because, while he did that, the other two benders lowered themselves to the ground and, each using one foot as a pivot, stretched out their other leg and spun in opposing directions. The earth beneath Navid's feet slid sideways, forcing his legs open and making him fall in a full split. So much for his defensive stance. He saw stone walls rising toward him as the first bender who attacked now hoped to trap his limbs. After only a few seconds of fight, his opponents already had the upper hand and his strategy had been thrown out the window. He would have to improvise.
With flat, stretched out palms, he aimed at the base of the rising sheets both in front of and behind him, separating them from the ground and turning them into floating rock slabs. Then he swung his arms around himself, hurling the rocks at the two benders on either side that had knocked him off his feet and occupying them for a couple seconds. The first fighter, who hadn't given up on him yet, earthbent the ground under Navid and began to tilt it like a trapdoor, making him fall backwards. He didn't try to stop it. Instead, he pushed his fists against it and, now with help from gravity, got back on his feet. What used to be the ground he was sitting on had become a wall that was being pushed against him. Navid cracked the stone, forcing a rectangular shield that protected his whole body to remain still while the rest of the wall went past him and crumbled. His opponent, still pushing the rock, couldn't react quickly enough when Navid bent a chunk of the smaller wall at him and was knocked out.
He didn't have time to celebrate. He felt a metal strip wrapping around his ankle. Before he could react, it was yanking his leg and pulling him up. Now floating upside down, held at least one metre off the ground by one leg, he saw the two benders that had previously made him fall getting ready to encase him with more metal. Apparently the best way to defeat him was to trap him in a cocoon. But two could play at that game. The two benders shot more strips at him simultaneously, but he managed to redirect them, conserving their momentum so they would travel toward the ally of whoever had thrown them. Focusing on one of the two, Navid guided the metal so it would tie his wrists to each other and force his calves together, causing a fall. Another one down. His last opponent, however, the one that held him up, dodged his attacks. She meant to free her partner, but before she could, Navid swiped at the metal ring that held him and forced it open. He fell, but had the presence of mind and the muscle strength to turn midair and land on his feet, instantly bringing up a stone from the ground and hurling it at her, who destroyed it easily. But the stone wasn't the point. He used the split second she needed to handle it to sink her into the ground all the way to her waist, then bringing back the strips and encasing her arms in a metallic straitjacket.
Navid needed a second to process the fact that it was over, and he had won. But for some reason, he didn't feel victorious, he thought he had barely escaped. Was that normal? Did every fight end like that, with that sensation that you had lucked out? Before he could dwell on those thoughts for too long, he heard a whistle piercing the air. The metal strips that held two of his opponents were bent open by someone else, setting them free. Only one of them, the lady, came to shake his hand and congratulate him, while the other one headed to their partner to help him up. As they started to leave, Navid looked in the direction of the sound and walked toward the only two spectators in the entire place.
His mother Prila received him with open arms and pulled him in for a big hug. Navid was afraid of getting her dirty; he was covered in dust and sweat, but his mother had been to the hair salon and was wearing her favourite yellow dress. He had told her not to bother, since there wouldn't be an audience, but she insisted, saying the occasion was worth dressing up for. Not sharing his concerns, she hugged him generously, standing on her toes to kiss his cheeks and holding him so tightly that his lungs resented the reduced air flow.
"Congratulations, baby, you were amazing!" she exclaimed. "They didn't even see what hit them!"
"Thanks, Mom, but I think they can still hear us," he answered, to her absolute indifference.
When she finally let him go, he turned to see the only other person there, Lengyun. His master stood next to them in silence. If Prila had probably overdressed, he looked like he had just gotten out of bed. The green shirt he wore, clearly not his newest one, was a size too small, the fabric stretched by his chest and shoulders. The short sleeves made visible the trophy tattoo on his inner right wrist. Ochre shorts and brown sandals completed the outfit of a man who obviously didn't care about looking like the earth and metalbending master he really was. Navid admired that. He wasn't good at not worrying about the way others saw him.
"What did you think of your own performance?" he asked.
"Well, my strategy was a disaster, I'm sorry about that. I'll do better next time," Navid answered, ashamed of how poorly he had done.
"Jeez," he replied with lightheartedness. "Lighten up, kid."
Navid heard that from Lengyun a lot, his master often struggled to get him to relax. The two of them had spent a lot of time together over the previous thirteen months, ever since they'd met on his sixteenth birthday. Navid was still recovering from the impact of the A-bomb when they started training. In Omashu, every kid with bending learned the basics at school, but to go further, you needed to go to the specialized schools that cost half of his mother's annual wage per month. If it hadn't been for Lengyun, Navid would still be an amateur at best.
But they didn't immediately get along. Lengyun's poise didn't match Navid's aggressive self-criticism. It took some time for his casual approach to start working. If your master doesn't act like it's the end of the world when you don't get a move right, neither do you. "Don't be so tough on yourself," Lengyun often said. "Save it for the rocks."
"What do you say, Mr. Beifong?" Prila asked. "Did he pass?"
Lengyun had insisted that it wasn't a test, but it was. Depending on how well he did, he either would or wouldn't be considered a master. Given the disaster that had just ensued, Navid knew what his answer would be.
"Mom, they knocked me down after two seconds. Of course I didn't pass," he said.
"How convenient of you to leave out the part where you adapted to the situation and eventually won the fight," Lengyun said.
"Well, I wouldn't have needed to adapt if I hadn't messed up in the first place, right?"
"Navid, shit happens," Lengyun replied. "What sets masters apart is that they know their elements well enough to see solutions that other benders don't. They don't just memorize moves, they use the elements as if they were parts of themselves. It's not an exact science." By then he had completely dropped the tough teacher act. It didn't fit him anyway. His use of the word "elements" in the plural didn't go unnoticed. "And lately, not just today, you've been giving plenty of proof that you're able to do just that."
No way. After he fell, Navid had mentally given up on doing the master thing today. The improvised victory he subsequently came up with was an attempt to avoid embarrassing himself, not to convince anyone of his mastery. But Lengyun sounded satisfied. As easygoing as he was, he never held back on correcting Navid when he did something wrong, or on demanding that he put in his best effort.
"I don't get it, Sifu," Navid said. "What do you mean?"
"I'm so glad you won't be calling me that anymore," Lengyun answered. "Makes me feel old."
"Why?" Navid asked.
"Because I'm only thirty."
"No, why won't I call you my sifu anymore?" Navid said, thinking that wasn't the time to be funny.
"I think I know why," Prila said, her voice full of excitement.
His mouth now curved into a proud smile, Lengyun finally said it. "Congratulations, Avatar Navid. You're a master Earthbender."
Navid's head started spinning. He still wasn't used to hearing that word. He could tell his bending was getting better, but he definitely didn't consider himself a master.
"Lengyun, are you sure?" he asked, using his teacher's first name for emphasis, something he never did. Not because Lengyun resented it - he probably preferred it - but because Navid didn't feel comfortable calling him that.
"Of course he's sure, baby," Prila said.
"But I don't… I'm not… There's gotta be more forms I haven't learned yet, right?" he protested.
"Navid, no one knows all the existing bending forms, there must be tens of thousands of them. Mastery is not determined by how good your memory is. Like I said, it's how well you connect with your element, how creatively you use it," Lengyun replied. "Trust me, your control over the earth is amazing. Besides, you've been working for this for over a year now. Give yourself some credit, man."
Had it really been that long? It had felt like a month. "So… what comes next?" Navid asked.
Lengyun and Prila exchanged a glance. He knew exactly what came next, he just didn't like it. It was time to leave. Leave his house, his city, his country. Avatars were citizens of the world, after all. He was scared, that much was clear. Prila held her son's face to make him look at her. He thought she'd be upset that he was leaving, but if she was, she didn't show it. Her eyes conveyed nothing but pride.
"It feels like yesterday that we discovered you weren't just the most important person in my world, doesn't it? I know that you have no idea where this… role will take you, or what it will ask from you, and I know that's a little scary. But I want you to know I'm hugely proud of you, okay? Promise me something. Promise me you'll take care of yourself, too. Not just the world. As long as you do that, I'll be okay."
Her words made him understand something. A few days earlier, when he asked her to come with him when he left Omashu because he didn't want her to be alone. She had refused, saying that she wasn't the person whose well-being should be his priority. He assumed she meant the people of the world, but she didn't. She meant him. He nodded, offering her the promise she wanted, and they hugged. For the longest time, it had been just the two of them, the confines of their two-member family sheltering them from the outside. But the world demanded its Avatar. And they couldn't keep it waiting any longer.
-/-/-
THE next day went by quickly. Navid and his mother spent the whole day going through old memories. As they emptied drawers, packing his clothes into the suitcase Lengyun had lent them, they stumbled across several emotional relics, like old report cards filled with nines and tens, the early signs of Navid's perfectionism. Apparently, Prila had kept every drawing he had ever made, too. Poorly-defined shapes that were supposed to represent the two of them featured often, but the colour palette was limited to two or sometimes three hues, as crayons were expensive. He had signed all of them, the characters 耐维德 carefully painted in the bottom right corners.
And of course, the blue armband he had received as a gift so many years ago. As a kid, he kept it under his pillow, as if wanting to make sure it wouldn't be taken away. Nothing could convince him to wear it to play; he'd always tell his mother he didn't want to risk ripping it. Not that it fit him - the previous owner clearly had a much thicker bicep than he did, and not even his huge growth spurts changed that. His limbs kept getting longer, but they remained just as scrawny as ever. He was taller than almost everyone, but the leather strap was still way too loose for him. But he didn't mind not wearing it. He just liked to have it. It wasn't until the previous year that he figured out why. Prila didn't even debate what to do with it, she just put it in the bag.
They finished before the afternoon was over. Lengyun would soon stop by to go with Navid to the train station. A big goodbye was imminent. She baked one last batch of her wonderful almond cookies before that. He would miss these.
"Ask to use a phone as soon as you get there and call me," she said.
"I will."
"And don't forget to write!"
"I won't."
"And be sure to kick ass," she finished, eliciting a small laugh out of him. He was relieved that she wasn't melancholic. She had probably long before come to terms with the fact that he would eventually leave. He thought he should have done the same.
They heard Lengyun knocking on the door. He had three large bags with him, and Navid remembered that for him, today was a homecoming, as his master was returning to his hometown after having temporarily moved to Omashu to teach him. Prila offered some cookies, but he very kindly declined, as they didn't exactly have a lot of time. There was a train waiting for them.
Since his mother wasn't crying, Navid thought he shouldn't, either. Their hug was silent, but heartfelt. She looked up at him one last time and he thought she was going to say "I love you". But she knew him well enough to know that's not what he needed from her then. So she gave him what he did need. She said - no, she whispered - "Go." With a single brief nod, she confirmed that he had her blessing, and he felt confident for the first time that day. Turning to Lengyun, she quickly thanked him for everything and asked him to watch him for her, which he promised to do. Grabbing his bag, Navid stepped out of his house for the last time.
-/-/-
THE train station was absolutely packed.
Someone had thought it a good idea to schedule the departures for all the other major cities in the continent at similar times. Compositions bound for Ba Sing Se, Gaoling, and Zaofu closed their doors within minutes of each other, prompting hurried passengers to scurry across the platforms, sometimes bumping into each other and issuing quick apologies before resuming their race. The international departures area was equally chaotic. Formal immigration procedures had to be conducted with every passenger travelling into the United Republic of Nations, which meant long lines and a fair bit of waiting. However, the flying boar on Lengyun's passport granted them first-class seats, which to Navid was by far the most surreal thing on that day full of firsts.
After more than twelve hours on the train, though, the massive seats didn't seem excessive anymore, as Navid woke up feeling surprisingly rested. He didn't think he'd be able to sleep, but the stress had worn him down. It was pitch black outside the windows, and his brain, still powering up, didn't understand why. He turned to Lengyun, who explained they were going through a tunnel. The railways leading into Republic City had many of them. Not even a mountain chain could separate two nations filled with Earthbenders.
"What will we do when we get there?" Navid asked.
"Alima's waiting for us," Lengyun replied. "We'll go to her house."
Navid remembered Alima Sato. She and Lengyun had been the ones to visit him the year before, bearing the news that changed his life forever. But while Lengyun stayed and became his teacher, he hadn't seen her again since, his first impression of her was still the only one he had. And from what he could recall, talking to her was like hearing a thesaurus speak, her speech formal and polite to the point of being uncomfortable. Lengyun, however, had once said that she and Navid did have something in common: according to him, neither of them knew how to unwind. Whatever that meant.
Light suddenly invaded the train. As they resurfaced on the other side of the mountain range, the land around the tracks now featured houses, streets, cars. The contrasting colours of the constructions proudly exhibited the diverse ethnic backgrounds of the inhabitants. His mother had once told him that when she left her hometown in the northwestern Earth Kingdom, she considered moving to the United Republic instead, but since she didn't have money for a passport, she chose Omashu instead. Navid wondered how different his life would have been if she had come here instead. In the distance, he saw a larger structure, most likely a public building like a hospital or maybe a school, flying the flag of the United Republic surrounded by smaller flags of the Original Four Nations. The vivid red of the Fire Nation flag caught Navid's eye. He would soon be learning how to firebend, and the mere thought of that seemed insane.
Navid knew little about the Fire Nation. During History classes at school, it was usually mentioned with the words "war" and "genocide" accompanying it. Not a very flattering description. His teachers mostly focused on the heroic resistance of the Earth Kingdom, which had spent a century refusing to surrender, bravely opposing the foreign imperialistic aggression. In fact, a whole semester had been dedicated to studying the brief occupation of his hometown, and he specifically remembered answering questions about the ingenious evacuation of the city's civilians and its heroic liberation by King Bumi. Navid was the only one in his class who aced that test. His colleagues were stunned to find out that pentapox wasn't actually a real historical illness.
And now he was going to become a Firebender, too. He had never seen anyone firebending, and couldn't imagine what it looked like. Trying to visualize himself shooting fire resulted in a blank image on his brain. He didn't have a clue what the country itself was like. How did their food taste? Did they have an accent? Did their cities also carefully and meticulously separate the populace by social class?
"Who's gonna take me to the Fire Nation? You?" he asked.
Lengyun gestured for him to keep his voice down. Looking around to make sure no one could hear them, they continued their conversation, now with whispers.
"Actually, you're gonna learn firebending here in Republic City," Lengyun replied.
"Why? I thought you guys said I had to travel to the four nations."
"Yes, we did, but… Going to the Fire Nation is not possible right now," he stopped, looking for words. "Look, it's really hard to explain why. We can talk more when we get to Alima's, okay?"
"All right," Navid answered. His brain gathered some pieces of information he had heard over the years. His mom liked to listen to the radio every night, and he had vague memories of the words "coup" and "embargo" on the international news segment. Then another thought popped up. "Who's gonna teach me?"
"Not me," Lengyun said, revealing that he didn't know. "But the last time I talked to Alima on the phone, she said she'd have someone by the time we got there."
Navid wasn't satisfied, but when he turned to the window again, the view made him speechless. The skyline of downtown Republic City was clearly visible in the horizon. The impressive skyscrapers sprouted up from the ground and ascended toward the clouds, towering over everything else around them and spreading their elongated shadows over the people below, making the sunset even more spectacular. They looked taller than Omashu's mountain. There must have been hundreds of them, stretching over the valley as the snow-capped peaks surrounded the urban jewel in the centre. Navid thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. With his jaw dropped, he was glued to the window until the train rolled into the station and its walls blocked his view. To his right, Lengyun was already up, getting his bags from the overhead compartment. "Home, sweet home," he said.
-/-/-
THE Sato Estate resembled a fortress.
It wasn't just the tall walls that surrounded it and its relative isolation from the rest of the city that gave Navid that impression. The place had quite a large staff, too. Three men were responsible for the gate, inspecting whatever visitors approached it before granting or refusing them entry. A team of gardeners made sure that every tree and bush inside the property had a well-defined geometrical shape, making the whole estate look immaculate. Lengyun knew all the employees by name, except for one doorman who was new, and they all replied with a smile and a wave. Navid was happy at least one of them felt comfortable in that place. Their taxi driver had dropped them off at the front gate, and going from there to the entrance of the actual house took them five whole minutes. Alima Sato was waiting for them there.
She looked exactly like Navid remembered her. Standing with impeccable posture despite her high heels, she smiled politely as soon as she saw them. Her blouse matched the colour of her skirt and fingernails, a shade of light pink that gave her an elegant and professional look. Complete with makeup and jewels, her outfit made her look as young as Navid's mother, although she was a lot older. She seemed ready for a gala dinner. But this was her house. Did she dress like that every morning to stay home?
"I'm back, Alima! Did you miss me?" Lengyun said, his playful tone breaking the ice.
"Great to see you too, Lengyun," she replied, her voice somehow sounding welcoming but slightly aloof at the same time. "Welcome to my home, Navid," she said to him, stretching out her palm for a handshake.
"Thank you, Ms. Sato," he answered. It was hard figuring out how to behave around her. Navid wondered if her formality was the product of a personality trait or of his presence. After all, she was Avatar Korra's daughter, and his being there had to be an unpleasant reminder. He sometimes wondered if she resented him. But then again, she had never shown any kind of hostility either. Not only that, but now she was welcoming him into her home. He hoped it wouldn't always be this weird to be near her.
After exchanging a brief hug with Lengyun, she led them inside. Her manor was splendid. The exquisite furniture, the tiles on the walls, the fine carpets, everything looked expensive, elegant, and was immaculately clean. They took off their shoes and left them by the door, a formality Navid wasn't used to observing. She called in an employee, who entered from a side room.
"Zarya, would you please take him to the guest bedroom?"
"Of course. Follow me, please, sir," she replied, gesturing to him what the right way was.
She looked the same age as him, which made her calling him "sir" quite strange. She had probably been told to say that to all visitors. The uniform worn by her and the other employees was simple, but appropriately elegant, with its cream long-sleeved top, and light blue skirt that came just short of touching the floor. Her hair, tied up in a topknot that was kept in place by a pin, was the colour of coal. She made no noise as she walked, guiding Navid through the hallways. When they got to the right bedroom, she opened the door for him and allowed him to go in first. The room was unnecessarily big and had at least twice as many pieces of furniture as one person could need.
"Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?" she asked.
"There is, actually," Navid said. "Don't call me 'sir', I think we're the same age. My name is Navid."
"My apologies. Force of habit," she answered as a shy smile lit up her face a little bit. "Ms. Sato said that dinner will be served in half an hour or so, as soon as her other guest arrives."
Navid didn't even know there would be another guest. Could it be his firebending master? Lengyun had said Alima would choose a teacher for him. Maybe she already had. Zarya asked him one more time if he needed anything else. He said no, thanking her, and she left him, shutting the door behind her. The gigantic room was meant to be cozy, but for someone used to sleeping in a much smaller and more crammed space, it wasn't very inviting. He still tried the bed, though, and the mattress was the most comfortable he had ever been on. It was long enough that his feet didn't dangle off the edge, like they did on his bed back home. He thought that his mother would have loved the place. He really wished she was there. This mansion and all the luxury it contained felt like a stone weighing down on his chest. The strangest sensation he had ever felt took over his mind, like being on the verge of an epiphany that never quite comes, or trying to say something that's on the tip of your tongue but you can't remember for the life of you. He thought he was just tired from the trip and needed a shower. Yeah. That's probably all it was.
-/-/-
AFTER half an hour, someone knocked on his door. It was Zarya again.
"Dinner is about to be served," she said.
"Thank you," Navid answered.
The hot water and the new clothes he had changed into made him feel more comfortable, and now his stomach was acting up. Heading downstairs, he mentally prepared to meet his new sifu. Would it be a man or a woman? How old were they? What were they like? What if Navid didn't get along with them like he did with Lengyun? What if firebending was difficult? What if he couldn't do it? He tried to tell himself to stop thinking of worst-case scenarios. Of course he'd be able to firebend. Probably. Hopefully.
But his deduction hadn't been accurate. When he got to the dining room, he saw Alima and Lengyun at the table talking to a man whose face he couldn't see, as his chair was facing away from the hallway. He couldn't be his new teacher, though, as he looked like an elder. However, his voice sounded very familiar. Navid's mind was about to put a name to it when Lengyun saw him and waved.
"Come here, there's someone we want you to meet!" The man turned around and Navid immediately knew who he was. "This is my great-uncle Mako. Great-uncle, this is Avatar Navid."
"Well, hello there," he said, getting up from his chair to greet Navid. "It's very nice to meet you, young man."
"You too," Navid replied, his gut telling him that meet wasn't exactly the right word.
"He was a friend of my mothers," Alima said, confirming what Navid already suspected. He seemed familiar because Avatar Korra knew him. The strange sensation from before returned, but stronger. "Hope you're hungry."
Navid took a seat next to Lengyun, who faced Mako, while Alima sat at the head of the table. She asked the staff to start bringing the courses, and when they opened the door to the kitchen, the room was suddenly invaded with wonderful smells coming from there. Soon they were all eating.
"Welcome to Republic City, Navid. It's great to have you here," Mako said. "Lengyun tells me you're an excellent Earthbender already."
"Oh, thank you. I don't know about excellent, but I try," he replied, laughing it off and hoping they would change topics. He hated being praised, he never knew how to react.
"Metalbender, too," Lengyun said, doing the exact opposite of what Navid wanted and praising him more. "Got the hang of it in no time."
"Amazing," Mako said. "Reminds me of Korra, she picked it up in a day," he added, spontaneously drawing a parallel that made Navid flinch. A day? How was he supposed to match that? He knew he wasn't the first Avatar to metalbend or to master their native element, but he wasn't even the first Avatar to meet the people in that room.
"Grandpa told me that story. Said he spent his whole life trying and then she just did it like that," Lengyun said with a snap of his fingers.
The reminders that everyone there went back a long way made Navid feel like a stranger invading a family reunion. Korra's family reunion. He really wished his mother had come. He didn't know what she could do, but he knew he'd feel better if she were there.
"So, I guess that means it's time to learn firebending?" Mako then asked, prompting Alima to shush him as she discreetly pointed to the employees that were within earshot. Thankfully, they didn't seem to have heard him. They would probably be reacting more vividly if they had. Alima requested to have the room and they silently left. "Sorry," Mako said.
"It's okay," Alima replied. "Navid, my staff doesn't know that you're the Avatar, okay? I don't want this info going public yet. I hope that's all right with you." He didn't have the words to describe how grateful he was for that. "Since you'll be practising firebending, don't tell anyone you're from Omashu. If you do, any one of them can put two and two together."
"Speaking of which," Lengyun said, "who will teach him? Last time we spoke, you said you'd pick a teacher."
Navid sat up on his chair, as he really wanted to know the answer to that question.
"Yes," Alima said. "We do have a solution for that problem."
"I thought I was supposed to go to the Fire Nation," Navid said. Immediately, Alima and Lengyun turned to Mako, who lowered his head and looked at his plate. Alima placed a hand on his shoulder and Navid could tell he had said something he shouldn't have, but had no idea what. He felt the urgent need to apologize. "Sorry. Something I said?"
"No. Nothing," Mako said, lifting his head back up and sporting an obviously fake smile. He whispered a quick "I'm fine" to Alima before clearing his throat. "Alima and I have talked and we've come up with the perfect teacher, since going to the Fire Nation is… unviable right now," he said, with a slight choke in his voice that made Navid regret his question once more.
"You see," Alima continued, "before my mother died, she asked us to make sure that her successor would get to learn the elements from trustworthy masters, and with as much discretion as possible, which is why we're not going to tell people about your identity yet. Lengyun was the first one, and," she said, turning to him now, "we'll never be able to thank you enough for this. Dropping everything to move to Omashu and dedicating one year of your life to helping him. Thank you so much, dear."
"Of course, Alima," Lengyun answered, holding her hand. "How could I not? We promised Aunt Korra."
"Your next teacher was going to be…" Alima started, before Mako interrupted her.
"My daughter Naoki," he said, looking at Navid. "But she lives in the Fire Nation."
And for some reason that was apparently complicated, no one could go there. He would not be asking again what that reason was so soon. "Good one," Navid thought. "You've just met one of Avatar Korra's friends and you managed to touch on the single most sensitive topic there was. Way to go."
"I see," Navid replied. "Sorry I brought that up."
"Don't be," Mako answered. "The point is, there are plenty of great Firebenders here in the United Republic, too."
"So, who did you choose?" Lengyun asked, cutting to the chase. "Who's gonna teach him?"
Alima and Mako exchanged a look.
"We wanted it to be someone whom we've all met before, and, of course, someone who we all knew to be a good bender," Alima started explaining. She seemed very prepared to justify her decision, like she was anticipating some resistance. "Uncle Mako and I talked, and there was really just one person who checked all those boxes."
Lengyun gasped when he realized who she meant. No one said anything for a while, and Navid thought the two of them were communicating through telepathy. Lengyun's expression was pure incredulity.
"No way," he said. "You're kidding."
"Think about it, Lengyun. He's perfect," Alima replied while Lengyun rubbed his face with both hands and exclaimed a loud, annoyed "oh, no!" Navid thought Alima looked completely unfazed as she offered all her reasons in spite of Lengyun's displeasure.
"Him? Of all the Firebenders in Republic City, it had to be Takashi?" he said.
"He has the necessary expertise, we've known him for years, and he accepted the invitation gladly," she shot back.
"You've already talked to him?" he asked, almost shouting.
"Keep your voice down, do you want to tell all my staff about Navid?" Alima answered with controlled anger.
"Great-uncle, you can't possibly agree with this," Lengyun said, expecting help from Mako.
"Well, I can't teach him, can I? Look at me!" the elder exclaimed. "Honestly, I'm surprised you're against the idea. I thought you would be the first to approve it."
"Look," Lengyun said, calming himself down and trying to come up with a cohesive argument since his annoyance wasn't enough to persuade Alima and Mako. "Navid's teacher should be someone who's gonna stick with him, all right? Not someone who might bail out at any time. And Takashi has already given us proof that he is the latter."
"I disagree. I think you're letting your personal feelings toward him get in the way of your judgment," Alima said, very bluntly. Lengyun was speechless.
"What she's trying to say," Mako intervened, "is that the… misunderstanding between you and him doesn't automatically mean he's not reliable."
"That's a cute way to put it," Lengyun mumbled under his breath.
"Navid, this might take a while," Alima said. "You can go if you want. Why don't you take a tour of the manor? Get used to the place?"
He silently thanked the spirits, as the mood was getting tense to the point of being unbearable. He was more than happy to excuse himself and let the three of them make decisions about the next stage of his life. They seemed to know what they were doing; he wasn't the first Avatar they had met. Plus, he now knew the name of his next sifu, Takashi.
As he wandered through the halls of Alima's enormous manor, he could hear Lengyun's voice in the distance. He was really pissed. Navid was curious to know why he didn't like this guy. Right now, though, he was mentally mapping the layout of the house he'd live in for the upcoming months. The place was beautiful. Every wall was adorned by a painting depicting a variety of scenarios from all over the Five Nations: a camel-zebra walking alone across the endless dunes of the Si Wong Desert, a herd of air bison flying toward the sunset, a Water Tribe family huddled around a bonfire as the full moon shone over the icy ground. They all looked even more spectacular under the light of the chandeliers that lit the house, suspended from the ceilings by what seemed to be golden chains. But none of that caught Navid's eye the way the family portrait did.
Approaching it, he saw a younger Alima sitting on an armchair while Asami Sato and Avatar Korra stood behind her. Navid didn't remember the one time he had met Asami Sato. According to Prila, they hadn't talked for very long, but from what she described, it sounded like she was a lot like Alima, if a little less stern. And next to her, was Avatar Korra. The different shades of blue on her dress matched her eyes perfectly, as her hair lay gently over her shoulders and a beautiful necklace hung from her neck. What really hypnotized Navid, though, was the armband on her right arm. The one Asami Sato gave him when he was little. The one he wouldn't let go of. The one that was in his suitcase.
A voice brought him back to reality.
"Navid?" It was Zarya. When he turned to her, she quickly apologized: "I'm sorry. You said I could call you that."
"You can. I'm the one who's sorry, I was… distracted."
"Do you need help finding your room? I can take you there."
"No, thanks, I'm not lost. I was just walking around, you know?"
Maybe it was the lighting, but Navid noticed she had the same eye colour as Mako. Her white skin was made even whiter by the makeup she had on, which further emphasized the bright yellow of her pupils. Knowing that the United Republic was a multicultural country (that was the whole point of its existence), Navid wondered if that meant she was descended from Fire Nation immigrants.
"I'm gonna check out the backyard and the pool," Navid then said.
"It's rather cold out tonight. Wouldn't you rather go to the indoor pool?"
"Wow, two pools? That's how you know someone's really rich, am I right?" was his sad attempt at humour. She had the courtesy of a polite fake laugh. "I won't be long. Thank you, Zarya," he finally said, to which she respectfully bowed and turned around, walking in the other direction with the calm hurry of someone who always had a lot to do. How fitting that in that fancy mansion, the one person that Navid felt free to be his goofy self with was a member of staff. Because of course.
When Navid opened the back door and headed out to the pool area, he was again impressed by its dimensions. Several metres of perfectly cut grass separated the back porch from the actual water. Making his way there, he dipped his toes in to test the temperature and, upon learning it wasn't as cold as he'd expected, sat down on the edge and allowed both his feet to fully submerge. It had been a long day. A new nation, a new master, a new element. So much was changing. People from the Earth Kingdom had a reputation for being hard-headed and inflexible, but Navid had always considered himself fairly open-minded. This, however, was happening too fast. Staring down at the water, and with a million thoughts going through his head, he was completely unprepared for the blast that surprised him from behind.
-/-/-
THE sudden pain made him scream as the vivid heat of flames scorched his back and pushed him forwards, making him fall into the pool. Although the water instantly relieved the pain, he had dived with his mouth open, and when he resurfaced for air, he saw two masked people surrounding the swimming pool as he coughed.
"Who are you?" he shouted.
"We're sorry to have to do this to you," said the attacker on the left, her voice austere and harsh. "But the Fire Nation needs the Avatar."
"Long live the Fire Nation," said the other masked figure, now wielding electrified kali sticks that she activated and prepared to introduce in the water.
Before she could electrocute him, Navid metalbent the sticks away from her hands and hurled them over the other end of the pool, landing them into the bushes that hugged the walls of the property. Navid heard flames being shot at him from the other side and dove back into the pool. This time, he swam to the bottom and planted his feet on the floor. He then earthbent a circular pillar beneath him, lifting himself above the surface. Out of the water, he could once again feel the pain from the burn on his back. The initial attack had been strong enough to completely destroy his shirt and sear his skin, which now hurt, begging to be submerged again.
Separated from the opponents on either side by a watery moat, he thought he was protected, and attempted to make them fall into the water in order to neutralize their firebending by moving the earth under their feet. His plan failed spectacularly when the woman on the left used the earth platform he created as a springboard and propelled herself with flames over the water and onto his little island. Before he could react, she had grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, dislocating his shoulder and making him scream.
Standing behind him, she whispered in his ear, "We know it's not your fault, but this isn't about you. It will be over quickly. You will save us," she said as she lit a fire blade from the tip of her fingers. Feeling the heat on his neck and nearly blinded by the pain on his back and shoulders, he was still trying to think about what to do when the pillar they were on crumbled completely and both him and his attacker fell back into the water. He hadn't done that.
Struggling to swim with just one arm, he eventually resurfaced and saw Lengyun engaging the other Firebender. Turning around, he saw the first one getting out of the pool where her bending was useless. Despite the pain, Navid tried to stop her by bending the tiles of the pool and throwing them at her, but she dodged them with superb reflexes.
"Abort! Let's get out of here!" she shouted to her partner.
Turning around, Navid saw that Lengyun had entrenched himself behind a rock wall. The second Firebender took a deep breath and covered her mouth with both hands. Releasing her breath and spreading her palms away from each other, she created two flame serpents that flew away from her body in opposing directions. Guiding them with the motions of her arms, she made them curve midflight so as to go around Lengyun's wall. They were headed straight to him.
"Lengyun, look out!" Navid shouted. At the very last minute, his master ducked and the flame missiles about to hit his face consumed each other above his head, their heat dissipating in the night air. When Navid turned toward the Firebenders, they were gone. Both of them. Just vanished.
Lengyun came to Navid and pulled him out of the water, and only then did his body finally allow him to black out. In brief flashes of wakefulness, he saw isolated images and heard disconnected words. "He needs a healer", "get the car", "where did they go?" and "hurry" were some of the things he could distinguish. But the sentence that stuck with him the most and that haunted him during his whole period of unconsciousness was the one that could have been the last he'd ever hear. "You will save us."
-/-/-
"I can't believe you contacted them without even telling me first!"
"There was an opportunity, so we took it!" Sora replied. "It's what we're here for, isn't it?"
"They could have gotten caught!" the girl answered.
"But we didn't! I don't see what the problem is. We nearly got him and we escaped unscathed," Reiki answered. "Next time, he'll be toast."
"There may not be a next time because now they will take him somewhere else!"
"But we had him. He wouldn't have escaped us if the other Earthbender hadn't shown up. He was on the other side of the mansion, we couldn't have known he would get there so fast," Aomi argued. "I still don't understand how he did."
"That doesn't matter, does it? You came this close to blowing our cover," she fired back, fury seething beneath her tongue.
"But we already know who the Avatar is, why bother maintaining your cover?" Reiki asked.
"Because he's not our only target, remember? Have you forgotten about the Traitor?" she replied. Calming herself down and using a lower voice, she didactically reminded her allies: "Guys, remember that if we don't do this right, we won't… we won't be allowed to go back. We only have one shot."
"She's right," Sora admitted, exhaling and sporting his usual frown. "Sorry about tonight. We'll do better."
Acquiescing, Reiki and Aomi nodded, both girls agreeing to follow the group's decision.
"You're the spy," Reiki said. "Hope you know what you're doing, Zarya."
She did. Zarya knew exactly what she was doing.