Cadence Chapter Seventeen: Naked Truth

Mako was frozen, feeling his breath sting the back of his throat, unable to believe it was really over.

"Mako?"

Korra's voice snapped him from his state of paralysed disbelief, resting hi eyes upon her. She looked battered and bruised but healthy. A strange feeling of lightheadedness was swept through him, as though he were about to faint.

"Hey. Take it easy."

A small hand closed around his bicep. He dimly realised that Korra had reached out to him with her left hand, as her right was tucked into her side, holding her torn bindings to her body./pp

Through his hazy mindset, Mako still felt a wave of disgust and anguish wash over him at the sight. Numbly, he un-tucked his shirt from his pants, pulled it over his head and passed it over. It was bloody, tattered, and stiff with sweat but the size discrepancy ensured it would fall to Korra's mid-thigh, covering her where it was most important.

Korra donned it with a grateful smile. There was no way to secure it across the front, so she made a tiny tear in the fabric on one side, stuffed a small corner of the material on the other side through it and knotted it on the other side of the rip. She didn't think Mako would mind; the shirt was in tatters anyway.

Having secured the shirt to a more comfortable fit, Korra glanced back at Mako again to find him staring blankly at Zolt's body, looking dangerously pale.

"Maybe you should sit down," she hazarded, reaching out for him again. "I can heal you; properly this time-"

"He is dead…isn't he?" Mako said harshly, seizing her wrist in a grip that bordered on painful.

Korra flicked her eyes to Zolt's corpse. "…Mm."

"It's over. It's finally over" he whispered.

And that was all the warning Korra had before Mako's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell against her, unconscious. Korra's arms came up as she automatically clutched at him, lowering him slowly to the ground, her movements hampered by the fact that the muscles in Mako's fingers appeared to have locked around her wrist. Korra figured that Mako's hand wasn't moving from around her wrist anytime soon, so she gathered energy to her hands and pressed her fingers against Mako's chest, slowly healing his many injuries.

The Republic City party skidded to a halt, staring at the man who seemed to have appeared out of thin air in front of them.

"Wow, I didn't think I'd bump into anyone from Republic City out here!" he called. "And it's seven on one; that's not very fair!"

"Judging by what this guy is wearing, I think it's safe to assume that he's with the Triple Threat Triad," Lin commented.

"He's not on any Wanted lists I've seen," Tenzin mused.

"That's because I'm new!" the man practically chirped. "I'm Shin."

"Don't make any sudden moves," Lin warned the group. She said in an effort to keep Shin's attention solely on her, and not on the currently forming boulder beneath Bolin's feet.

But Shin seemed to sense the attack before Bolin had finished forming it, turning just as the boulder descended from overhead.

To everyone's surprise, Shin delivered a punishing punch in the direction of the boulder just as Bolin leapt forward to engage Shin in combat. The boulder however collided with Bolin, sending him careening into a small pond.

"Bolin!" Opal yelped.

But Bolin was only beneath the water for a moment before he made his way back to land. Opal's heart rate slowed when she realised he was unhurt.

"What kind of game should we play now?" Shin chuckled.

"We don't have time to screw around with you!" Bolin all but exploded.

Korra sighed, leaning back from Mako's motionless form, flicking her rain-sodden hair from her eyes; with the ways things were, she wouldn't be surprised if Mako didn't regain consciousness for a while.

She shook the hand Mako still held in his death-grip, hoping that perhaps his locked muscles had loosened in his unconscious state but had no luck in enticing his fingers lose. His fingers were still clamped tightly around her wrist and the only way to free her wrist would be if she broke his fingers.

She sighed once more. She didn't really have the heart to cause him more pain, even if she could just heal him afterwards.

She wondered if there was a search party out looking for her. She knew that Bolin wasn't the type to sit around and wait for her to return. If there were, surely they'd be close by now? And what of Zaheer, Ghazan and Ming Hua, surely they were somewhere nearby?

Wanting the answers to all her questions and with nothing but time on her hands, Korra began to deliberately fluctuate her energy levels, essentially creating an SOS.

Lin stared at Shin and considered what they could do. They'd tried to attack in formation, and their strikes had simply slipped through.

It was clear that they were facing someone who was proficient in both bending and hand-to-hand combat. So much so that he was able to dissipate entire boulders with his bare hands.

The silver-haired bender was struggling to map out a plan of attack when Shin began to speak once more.

"Ah. I forgot to mention that it's all over. Mako won; Zolt is dead."

Lin's mind seemed to freeze, tripping over those words. And the others seemed to be in the same frame of mind. Their shock was almost palpable.

"Mako collapsed a few moments later, though," Shin went on. "And a storm is closing in. Korra will probably do her best to get them both out, but after the sort of healings she's been forced to do, who knows how that will play out? Anyway, it looks like I'll have to play with you some other time," Shin said, turning his back on them.

It was probably the angle, Shin's face moving into just the right place for light to reflect upon his face, illuminating his eyes. But for the first time, Lin realised that the man called Shin had the same eyes as Mako. As Zolt.

Who the hell was he?

"Bye, bye," Shin waved, all but vanishing into thin air.

"We have to get to Mako and Korra before Shin does!" Lin exclaimed, leaping to the top of a nearby tree to scout out the surrounding landscape.

She spotted some dark clouds hovering over a point several kilometers in the distance.

"There's an area about ten kilometers from here that's surrounded by a very powerful energy. The forest is burning…and the flames are black."

Korra continued fluctuating her chakra, hoping someone was going to come and help her and Mako.

But then a powerful presence suddenly flared into life right behind her. She couldn't make out who it was in the poor light of the storm.

Korra whipped around, her soaked hair scattering water droplets in a wide arc around her.

She made to stand, but Mako's hold on her wrist arrested her, and so she had to settle for a half-crouching position. Perhaps he had come to take Zolt's body?

But when the figure moved towards her and Mako, she knew he probably had something very different in mind. She waited until he was within striking distance and then drove her fist into his stomach, putting enough force behind the blow to rupture every internal organ in her path.

Her fist swung through him as though he were a mirage.

"Wha-?"

Korra jerked her head up to the figure's face and found herself staring into a pair of amber eyes.

Her body went slack and the last thing she recalled was the sensation of hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

"They've already gotten to Mako and Korra!" Kai called, scouting the air as the group ran through the forest, heading for where the black flames burned.

Lin said nothing, concentrating on the fluctuating energy signature in front of them. As they drew closer to Mako and Korra, they'd detected an energy in front of them that was rapidly rising and falling, the bender method of drawing attention to oneself over large distances.

It had to be Korra.

The black flames loomed in front of them, blocking their way, but Bolin acted quickly, his hands flying through seals before he slapped his palms on the ground. The earth rumbled, and the ground the black flames were raging on, lifted and split apart, providing them with a narrow path through the flames.

"Go!" Bolin shouted.

Lin nodded once and then sprang into the gap, the others hard on her heels. She searched for the energy signature but realised she couldn't find it.

Korra was either unconscious...or...

They burst into a clearing, finding it strewn with rubble...and nothing else. There was no sign of Mako or Korra.

"There's still a trace of their presence..." Jinora murmured. "But..."

"We're too late," Lin said bluntly, feeling bitter defeat sting in her throat.

She looked to Kai, blinking into the rain and looking dangerously close to morose. The young boy was staring at the uncharacteristically silent Bolin, who Lin didn't dare glance at.

Opal slowly, timidly, rested her hand on Bolin's shoulder. He didn't move, didn't acknowledge the gesture but he didn't shrug her off either.

Ming Hua ground to a halt so quickly Zaheer nearly bowled her over.

"What's the hold up?" Ghazan snarled. "You said Zolt's energy signature winked out; that means the fight's over, right?"

"They're gone," Ming Hua whispered, her eyes sliding closed as she mentally scanned the surrounding countryside.

"What do you mean?" Zaheer asked worriedly, clutching Korra's pack so tightly the material was beginning to crumple.

"Another energy, big, too, and really powerful, came on the scene and then they just disappeared!" Ming Hua hissed, already straining her powers to their very limit as she struggled to track Mako's energy.

Her eyes flew open and she spun around, facing towards the coast. "That way!"

Ghazan and Zaheer turned andfollowed her without a second thought.

Korra woke to find herself in a dark cave, lit only by a single candle. Someone had seen fit to lay her and Mako in a rough bed that consisted of two blankets and a thick wad of material that she supposed was meant as a pillow.

She pushed herself up slowly, glancing around. The last thing she recalled was being knocked out so it was probably safe to assume she and Mako were now captives of the man who was responsible for the now pulsing headache she had.

Korra was mildly impressed; this was her fourth consecutive kidnapping, and the third one that had been done by and fire bender. She felt like she deserved some certificate or medal. She wasn't sure what, exactly, but she deserved something!

She couldn't see their abductor, but the candle's light only reached so far. For all she knew, he could be lurking in the shadows, watching her every move.

She gently shook Mako by the shoulders, trying to coax him into consciousness. The hand he was clutching had gone numb from constricted circulation.

At being shook, Mako stirred, opening his eyes that came to focus on Korra's face for a moment before he allowed his gaze to take in their surroundings.

"Where are we?" he asked dully.

"I don't know," Korra admitted. "But...can you loosen your grip a bit?"

Mako blinked, not seeming to understand what she meant, causing Korra to jiggle her numb wrist for emphasis.

Mako looked down, and felt a flash of shame as he realised he was clutching Korra's wrist. After what she'd just been through, the last thing she'd want was a man holding onto her. He relaxed his hand almost instantly, his fingers slipping off her wrist as his muscles tinged painfully.

But even in the dim light, Korra's sharp eyes hadn't missed his grimace of pain.

"Hold still," she said, taking his hand, letting her healing energy alleviate the ache of his strained muscles.

Mako shifted slowly into a sitting position, noting that he didn't feel the throb and burn that his injuries should provide. In fact, he felt remarkably healthy, given that he had just been involved in the most difficult battle of his life.

"You healed me."

It wasn't a question, but Korra nodded in agreement anyway.

And then Mako noticed something else. "Your collar is gone."

He wondered why he hadn't realised it before though figured it was probably because he had been more absorbed on her bruises than anything else.

Mako's eyes fell to her legs, the edge of his shirt not falling far enough to conceal the livid fingermarks staining her inner thigh like perverse tattoos.

He grimaced and pulled his eyes away as his stomach performed a slow, torturous roll deep in his gut.

He tried not to think about it, focusing on Korra's voice.

"Zolt cut it off, the collar released a toxin when it was cut that paralysed me; obviously Amon's nasty idea, but I could heal that-" Korra bit her lip against the urge to babble. But she felt the need to say something, to keep Mako's attention on her. There was a frighteningly empty look in his eyes, as though if she didn't keep him focused on the present he would just slip away.

"But, of course, those healings took a bit out of me," she admitted. "I'm pretty low on energy and I doubt that you're much better."

"I'm not." It surprised Korra that Mako would admit that.

Mako's eyes ran slowly over her body, his heart giving a sharp, painful twist when his eyes found the bloodied bite mark on her neck.

Mako swallowed in an effort to suppress the bile that was creeping into his throat at the sight.

"Are you...alright?" he asked hesitantly.

It didn't take a genius to know what he was referring to.

"I know what you're thinking," Korra said softly. "And yes, I'm alright; Zolt didn't rape me."

Mako twitched, though whether at the mention of his father or the act he was supposed to have committed, even he couldn't say.

"But he-"

"I know," Korra interrupted, "I don't know why he made it look like he had...but he didn't."

Mako actually shuddered, feeling his chest expand as a wave of relief washed through him, almost painful in its intensity.

Before he even realised what he was doing, he had slipped his arms around Korra's waist and pulled her to him. His head rested against the hollow of her throat, and his world consisted of nothing but dark, dirtied skin and slow, even breaths that he could feel stirring his hair. She smelled of blood, sweat and ash but she was warm and her pulse thumped reassuringly against the shell of his ear.

He didn't even know why he was doing this. Maybe because he wanted to test the truth of her claim, to see if she shied away from physical contact. Maybe because he had tried so hard to pretend her faux-rape hadn't affected him that his emotional control was now practically nonexistent. Maybe because he wanted to forget that even as some part of him gloried in his revenge another part wept for his father.

Maybe because he just needed to hold her.

Korra swallowed, trying to dissolve the lump in her throat, as she felt Mako's hands slide up her back to rest against her shoulder blades, pressing her against him. His breath was coming in great gulps, and he was still shuddering violently.

All this just because she'd told him she hadn't been raped?

But at the same time, Korra knew it was more than that. It was the shock of Zolt's death setting in, the exhaustion from the fight. Everything.

"I'm okay..." she whispered. It was all she could offer him.

Mako kept his eyes closed, feeling the truth of her words soak into his bones.

She hadn't been raped. Zolt hadn't raped her. It occurred to him Korra might be lying in an effort to soothe him, but he doubted it. There was truth written in every line of her face, her eyes remained free of haunting fears, and she'd accepted his rather sudden embrace without so much as a flinch.

So why had Zolt deliberately made it seem as though he'd...?

Mako clenched his eyes shut. He didn't want to dwell on why Zolt had made him believe Korra had been raped, he just wanted to put it all behind him. To somehow forget about Zolt, forget about killing him, just erase the memory of the man from his life.

"But, Mako, there's something you should know," Korra went on. "We were grabbed by that Shin guy, he knocked me out pretty quickly, so I didn't see much..."

Mako stiffened, but as he was about to reply the man in question suddenly stepped into the light, making both of them tense instinctively. Korra was suddenly painfully aware of the fact that all she was wearing was Mako's shirt, held together by a few knots.

She really wanted some pants. It was hard to infuse yourself with confidence and courage when you were barely clothed.

"My apologies for knocking you out," he said to her, but Korra detected no sincerity in his voice. "But I needed to bring Mako here."

"So why did you take me?" Korra snapped.

"I did not want to have sever Mako's hand to separate you from him."

She supposed that was fair enough. But it still didn't explain why he'd wanted to bring Mako here in the first place. Unless the Triple Threat were recruiting, now that their leader was dead...

"So what do you want with me?" Mako asked, glad that Korra was on his other side. He felt better about this situation knowing he was serving as something of a physical barrier between Korra and Shin.

"I brought you here to tell you something very important, about Zolt," Shin said simply.

Mako clenched his jaw. Zolt was dead and gone. The murderer of his parents and his last surviving kin, finally laid to rest. His vengeance had been accomplished, and he had no desire to focus on how truly hollow it had made him feel.

It seemed Lin, and indeed, Korra, had been right. Revenge was only ever a Pyrrhic victory. All it left was ashes, despair, and emptiness.

Frankly, Mako didn't want to think about what he would have felt if he hadn't had Korra with him to focus on.

"But first, let me introduce myself," the man said.

And Mako didn't know what had happened. He glimpsed a pair of amber coloured eyes, painfully similar to his own and without queue or warning, black flames suddenly erupted on Shin's shoulder.

He cried out and clutched at his aching head, hearing Korra exclaim in shock as the man staggered back into the shadows with inky flames consuming his body.

"What was that?" Korra muttered, half to herself, as she tried to coax Mako's hands away from his head. "Come on, Mako, don't be a baby; let me see..."

Her voice trailed off as she got her first good look at his face. He looked beyond exhausted. His eyes were red raw, as though some of the vessels had been ruptured, but it was the colour of his iris that caught her eye.

"Mako...your eyes..."

Mako started, but anything he was going to say died in his throat when small fingers trailed along his cheek bones, around his aching eyes, energy flowing into his skin like cool, soothing water, erasing the pain as though it had never been. A hand that felt much more delicate than it actually was wiped the blood away, erasing the last trace of the hurt she'd healed, and even in his confusion Mako was certain the action had depths and undertones he didn't want to examine.

"You posses the skill of dark flame manipulation. Very few fire benders posses this skill. Only three in fact." came Shin's voice.

He stepped out from the shadows once more, without any sign, injury or blemish to indicate that he'd just been set on fire.

"Say that again?" Korra said, feeling very confused.

"Mako possesses an almost blood trait bending technique. This of course was passed onto him by his father, Zolt." He shrugged, and though there was no indication in his tone or demeanor, Korra felt that her presence was somehow an irritant to him. He was probably just pissed he'd had to bring her along.

"Quite remarkable really, considering that genetics doesn't necessarily ensure all bending capabilities are passed on, generation to generation. I suppose you could almost think of this as Zolt's last ditch effort in providing for his son." Shin mused.

Mako stared blankly at Shin in confusion but then remembered Zolt also utilizing the black flames in their earlier battle.

"Somehow, he passed all of his bending techniques to you," Shin continued, "As if to protect you."

Korra remained silent, watching the exchange while her mind whirred, simultaneously weighing how likely it was that they could trust this man and grappling with all the possible implications of his words.

Mako shook his head, turning away from Shin. Korra's hand came to rest against his back, and almost involuntarily, Mako found himself leaning into her shoulder.

"I assure you, I am speaking the truth," Shin said.

Korra felt Mako's muscles tense under her hand. She had thought she couldn't be more surprised than when Shin had told them that Zolt had tried to protect Mako. But she was wrong; this onslaught of information was plumbing all new depths of shock.

"I know everything there is to know about Zolt," Shin confessed, his tone tinged with the slightest hint of smugness. "Of course, he died without realising just how much I knew."

"Shut up!" Mako suddenly exploded, jerking away from Korra. Despite his outburst, Korra kept her hand on his back, and he was grateful for its steadying presence.

"Zolt worked tirelessly to keep us from meeting," Shin went on, ignoring Mako's outburst. "The only ones who knew the truth about you being Zolt's son were, Zolt, myself, Toza and Lin."

'Lin knew? Why didn't she say anything?' Korra contemplated.

But Shin wasn't finished. "But I know the truth, too, though I doubt Zolt realised that, but he was cautious. On the off-chance I might have some knowledge of it, he tried to ensure I wouldn't speak of it to you. As I said, he was trying to protect you."

"No..." Mako said numbly.

Korra glanced at him worriedly. His body had been getting steadily more and more tense beneath her hand, as though he was a winding spring that was just about to snap. His breathing was approaching hyperventilation and Korra shifted slightly, bringing herself closer to him.

"No. No. He tried to kill me..." Mako was shaking his head violently. "He tried to kill me. He killed my parents…he raped-"

'But he didn't', a cold voice in the back of his mind pointed out. 'Korra said he didn't, remember?'

But Zolt had wanted to kill him...hadn't he?

A thousand memories of Zolt the murderer clashed with a thousand images of Zolt as his father, and Mako felt as though his mind was being torn in two by his confusion. He knew he was close to either a panic attack, or a destructive rage. He wasn't entirely sure which he would prefer.

Something boiled under his skin, like a snake, like a dragon. Something dark, scaled and fanged that hissed to be released.

Slender arms looped around his shoulders, and a warm body pressed itself against his side.

"Mako, stop."

Korra.

And as it had done before, as it had always done, the dragon stilled at her touch, lying quiescent and compliant beneath soft turquoise eyes.

Korra could feel Mako begin to relax, and she fought the urge to smile in relief; doing so didn't seem to suit the situation somehow.

"He needs to breathe," Shin said impatiently, reaching out as though to push her back.

Mako knocked his hand away. "Touch her and I will kill you!"

The guttural snarl and grim promise in his voice raised the hairs on the back of Korra's neck. Even Shin seemed to realise that pushing Mako on this issue would be unwise, because he withdrew his arm.

But Mako's moment of coherency seemed to have passed. He was clutching the blanket so tightly the tendons in his hands were standing out, and he was leaning against Korra again. Not that she minded, but it showed how close Mako was to the edge that he was actively seeking some form of comfort.

Her hands came up, one wrapping around his shoulders as the other began to stroke through his hair slowly, comfortingly, and he pressed his forehead against her neck.

"He killed our Mum and Dad," Mako was muttering, sounding almost feverish.

"It's true that he killed them and abandoned you, his son," Shin agreed, sounding completely unconcerned at the anguish his words were causing. "But he did it all orders from Republic City."

Finally an update for Cadence readers and followers. I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of my absence, only that it was due to personal circumstances. I do hope to update more often in the coming new year. Stay tuned. Bonami27.