Avatar: The Legend of Korra
Followers of the Black God
Chapter Three
The sighting of land was big news in the ship, and as such, Korra, though she was below deck and carefully hidden from activity by a few hundred cubic meters of packed goods, was able to hear about it. After snaking through territory that had once belonged to Airbenders, the ship had travelled across open ocean for a spell.
Once upon a time, those waters would have been heavily guarded by Fire Nation warships. Now, they were lightly patrolled by Fire Nation coast guard units, and the sighting of one of them was no cause for alarm or concern.
In other words, it was smooth sailing to coast—literally. Hours passed Korra monotonously, and there wasn't anything she could do to speed the passage of time. She couldn't make any noise, for fear of alerting the ship's crew, and she didn't have much room to move around, either.
In fact, with Naga lazing around next to her, the quarters she'd managed to etch out for herself were downright cramped.
So she sat, resting her chin on her hands, utterly bored and irritated. She knew that as the Avatar, she wasn't supposed to seek glory or excitement—but this was torture! Korra wasn't the sort of person who could tolerate sitting around and doing nothing for very long. Sure, it was nice to rest a little bit, but for days on end? That was too much.
Well, at least the end of the journey was imminent. Once land had been spotted, it was likely that the merchant vessel would hug the coast of the Earth Kingdom all the way north, up to Republic City. So, she had to sit still and be quiet… just for a few more hours.
What would happen, she wondered, if she were to be caught? She'd probably be yelled at by the ship's captain and crew for a while, and once they got to port, she'd be taken into official custody and placed under arrest. When that happened… once it became clear that she was the Avatar, Tenzin would get involved and she'd be in serious trouble.
That is, if the ship didn't turn around and sail right back to the South Pole.
Korra made her mind up then and there that when arrival at Republic City was imminent, she'd mount up on Naga.
And then, at first opportunity, she'd ride out—hard.
She felt the ship slow down. Then, she felt it halt completely.
Moments passed, and Korra knew that the ship was being lashed to the docks. Soon, it would be time go to, but she was already prepared.
She was sitting on top of Naga, and though they were both hidden from immediate view of whoever was outside, they were just twenty or so yards from the port that provided access to the ship's main storage compartment. When it opened…
There was no more time to think. The port was opening.
Before it was even completely lowered, before Korra's eyes had fully adjusted to the glare of light she hadn't seen for days, she dug her heels into Naga's sides sharply. This sent the polar bear dog barreling out of the ship at such a speed that Korra had to hold on tight or else risk falling off.
She didn't fall off, though. She stayed on top of Naga, and as she regained her ability to see again, she was able to guide her mount through a small throng of workers and away from the dock. She heard shouts and curses trail after her, but she paid them no heed—she simply kept pushing Naga, faster and faster down the docks, until they were out of sight of the ship entirely.
Within seconds, Korra had escaped the docks, and within minutes, she'd escaped that part of the city altogether. It was probable that the ship's captain would file some sort of complaint with the police about a stowaway, but even if that happened, time and bureaucracy needed to pass before someone put two and two together and realized that the Avatar was in Republic City.
Korra had therefore escaped the attention of a lot of important people and, in fact, law enforcement itself. At least for the moment.
However, she had not escaped the attention of a slim, red-haired man who worked at the docks for the most minimal of wages.
People hated him and sometimes abused him, that shrimpy, pathetic bastard of a man, and his employers barely paid him enough money to buy food for himself. And yet he had worked at the docks for two months, now, and he continued to work to that day.
Until then, he'd never had a reason to stay where he was, doing what he was. But what he saw at that very moment made all of his months of suffering and putting up with nonsense worth it—and then some.
"Alright, girl, I think we're far enough away. We can slow down now…"
Often, Korra was overconfident, but this time, her confidence in her safety was calculated and reasonable. In the ten minutes since she and Naga had escaped from the docks, they'd covered perhaps four miles and although they'd encountered any number of people passing them by, no one had seemed to take an undue interest in them.
Actually, that wasn't quite true.
Korra had grown up in the South Pole, in the installation created to keep her safe, or else in the miniscule territory that her tribe called home. Things there were organized and simple, and well, the fact was that Korra had never been around more than a few dozen people at the same time.
The streets of Republic City were filled with hundreds if not thousands of people, all milling about, each going his or her own way. Worse yet, there was vehicular traffic, so, well, Korra and Naga had come all too close to causing accidents… at least ten times.
The good news, though, was that they hadn't been followed or tracked, as far as she could tell. Sure, there were still some people near them, but none of them were paying any more attention to them than was due to a girl with a polar bear dog.
She was justified in relaxing and hopping off Naga. Besides, she'd been in Republic City for some minutes, now, without even taking a moment to pause and look around at her surroundings.
And so she did. She simply stood and looked around in all directions; at the skyscrapers in the distance, at the mountains beyond them, at the surrounding business districts and apartments, and then, of course, at park where she and Naga found themselves just then.
There was nothing special about it. There was grass and there were trees, and there were idyllic stone bridges that connected a series of miniature "islands" set in a shimmering, placid lake. To many people in the world, such surroundings would have been plain at best, but to Korra, they were almost mind-blowing.
She'd never left the South Pole before, and even in the summer months, the temperature there rarely rose above freezing. As such, Korra had never seen grass before, let alone felt it beneath her own two feet—and so, for ten minutes, she did just that—she walked around barefoot to feel grass under her feet.
How wonderful it felt. How soft, and comforting, and warm it felt.
And although the rest of the city had been noisy, here in the park, things were surprisingly quiet. Sure, people chatted with one another from time to time, but the clamor of a marketplace not far away was nothing more than a quiet din in the park, and there were no other sources of undue noise that distracted Korra from enjoying herself.
She found herself looking at the city again.
She'd seen it in pictures before, of course, in paintings and textbooks that had been ferried to the South Pole so that the children of her people could become educated about the rest of the world. But nothing she'd ever seen or read had prepared her for the sheer scale of Republic City—the place was massive!
The first time Korra had looked at the skyscrapers, she'd assumed that they were a lot closer than they really were. Now that she looked more closely, though, she began to realize just how massive those giant white towers really were. Some of them were so tall that they reached into the clouds, perhaps literally scraping the sky in the process.
Apart from that, Korra and Naga had traveled perhaps four miles to get to the docks to this park. That was a fair distance, and Korra guessed that Republic City itself and the surrounding metropolitan areas were at least twenty miles from end to end along any axis. And each square mile of Republic City housed dozens of people, so…
That meant that there were hundreds of thousands of people in Republic City.
Korra was no idiot. She'd learned math in her childhood and into her teenage years as well. She'd worked with numbers of great magnitude before, but the fact was that she had no concept of just how many "a hundred thousand" was. Her mind simply couldn't work with numbers that big—the idea of a thousand people itself was almost too much for her to accept.
But accept it she'd have to, because now, she was one of those untold thousands in Republic City.
Now, Korra was pacing. The sensation of grass beneath her feet was ceasing to interest her; she now had more important things to think about.
What should her next move be?
For a moment, Korra wasn't sure. And then, at the sound of a slight commotion perhaps a hundred yards away, she raised her head.
On one of the white, stone bridges that connected landmass to landmass in the park, a scene was playing itself out. Korra couldn't be sure, but it seemed like someone had been caught pickpocketing, or attempting to do so, and was being yelled at and slapped by his would-be victim. Naturally, there was yelling, though it was punctuated by the audible impact of flesh against flesh.
After a few moments, the issue seemed to sort itself out. The would-be pickpocket went one way and his would-be victim went the other.
Beyond the park, in the direction Korra was looking, there seemed to be a neighborhood. She couldn't be sure, but judging by how poorly-lit it was, and how the buildings within it seemed to squash up against one another in some sort of battle for space suggested that it wasn't an upper-class development—not at all. Indeed, a sense of claustrophobia arose in Korra until she blinked and looked away from the slum, and the ominous path through the park toward it—but she knew that conditions like those were reality for all too many citizens of Republic City.
Korra took in a deep breath, and then she let it out slowly. Her face became a mask of calm, and shortly, she was able to control the beating of her heart.
She was the Avatar—master of all four elements—well, so far, just three of them—but that was two more than the next best person!—and it was her responsibility to bring peace and order to the world. To do that, she had to understand the world, not cower away from it when it intimidated her.
Her duty was therefore clear. To understand Republic City, she had to walk around in it, in all of it, not the well-maintained parks where all sorts of people came to recreate and relax. She had to examine reality for the underclass that formed the backbone of Republic City's population.
Korra turned to face her mount.
"Stay here, Naga," she said. "I'll be back soon."
It was even worse than she'd thought it would be.
The scent of decaying garbage inducing a caustic, burning sensation in Korra's nostrils, as if she was inhaling undiluted acid, and it was no wonder why. Sanitation apparently wasn't popular in that neighborhood; instead of being kept in neat bins to be transported off to a landfill, trash was simply thrown into the street, or, at best, the open gutters that flanked the street.
At one point, Korra had nudged a bottle in her way with a toe, only to send a family of cockroaches that had sheltered inside of it running in all directions.
Since then, she'd kept well away from any scrap in the street, no matter how innocent it looked.
And as bad as the street smelled, the people who lived in it weren't much better. Some of them wore half-decent clothes; many of them did not. Shreds of cloth tied around their waists with twine served as loincloths, and some went even without these meager coverings. Hardly any one of the people Korra passed by seemed to have bathed in the past week or so, and she would be surprised if half of the slum's residents even understood the concept of bathing.
Perhaps the worst thing was that human waste was disposed in the same manner that other waste was: it was simply left in the street.
The whole place was stifling, stinking, disgusting, revolting. Though it was still early in the afternoon, that neighborhood was dark, by virtue of the fact that a series of large buildings had been erected to the west of the area. These centers of commerce and economy blotted out sunlight, so that the Sun there set early.
Korra then realized that there were tall buildings to the east of the slum as well. That meant that there was only sunlight there for a few hours, around noon. The rest of the day, the whole place was blacked out.
That didn't stop it from being alive, though. There were people there, milling around in the streets or else speaking loudly in their half-collapsed houses, playing games with cards and drinking from dirty bottles. There were men, women, children, and old people, and every single one of them Korra saw disgusted her in some way.
A group of men passed her; she shrank away instinctively when they leered at her and made a few comments that made her cheeks redden. It was good that she was tall and obviously muscular, because she got the feeling that if anything else was true… she didn't want to think about it.
The people on their feet were bad enough, but what really upset Korra as she continued to travel through the neighborhood were those not on their feet.
Like human filth, these broken men and women sat next to open sewers and gutters, feebly raising too-thin hands to whoever passed by. Sometimes, the odd passerby would throw them a coin or a morsel of food, but more often, these beggars, the poorest of the poor in Republic City, were ignored or laughed at or sworn at or worse.
Looking at them made Korra's heart ache. As Zhao had told her, she had lived her life without knowing the mark of the Black God, but there were other things she didn't know, either, and one of them was hunger—real hunger; true, burning pain that gnawed at the insides when too much time had passed without food. Hunger like that consumed life itself, but before it did so, it consumed the sentient light in a human's eyes that marked them as a person.
Korra could see this in the beggars she passed. They were simply too poor, too thin, too hungry to be human.
She didn't have any money with her—come to think of it, she'd never had money in her life—but if she had, she'd have given it all to them, just to fill the emptiness in their bellies, and their eyes.
But the fact was that Korra couldn't do anything for them. She had no money and no food, and she had no idea how to get either of them. She—
Something was going on perhaps two blocks away—a loud verbal argument, it seemed, had escalated into a shoving match. On one side was two or three angry-looking teenagers, and on the other was a man old enough to be their grandfather, yelling at them to leave him alone and clutching at a handful of currency to try to keep it out of their reach.
Korra realized that she was watching a mugging as it happened. She also realized that while the streets were far from deserted, no one was doing anything to stop it—if anything, they were watching it as if it was a source of entertainment.
She then realized that she was running toward the scene with all haste, and that when she got there, there would be Hell to pay.
Tenzin had arrived at Republic City in a timely manner. He'd pushed Oogi hard, and as such, he'd gotten back to Air Temple Island in the two-day timeframe he'd set for himself. It was just a bit slower than a fast merchant vessel, but that couldn't be helped—he had to stop to give Oogi a break, every so often, and to sleep. Besides, his family simply could not travel by ship. Ships were too easy to track, to target and to intercept, and the last thing he wanted on his mind was the idea that his family wasn't safe.
At least Air Temple Island was safe—beyond safe, actually. Apart from housing a garrison of highly-trained White Lotus guards, Air Temple Island had direct telegraph lines to the police and the United Forces, and Tenzin could evacuate his family in less than two minutes if necessary.
So, he breathed a bit easier as he made his way into his office, knowing that although he had a lot to worry about, at least his family was safe. His children were riled up from the long flight with nothing to do, and were glad to be let loose into the training grounds outside of their home. Pema, on the other hand, was exhausted, and retired to bed immediately after sharing a brief kiss with her husband.
After that, Tenzin was left alone with his work.
Murdering a police officer—a police chief, in fact, was a serious matter. During the second wave of the Followers of the Black God, police officers had been targeted for assault and worse, and, yes, from time to time, some of them had met violent ends.
This, however, was something entirely different. The cop who had been killed had been killed in cold blood, and that was something that even Tenzin couldn't have foreseen. And the fact that the Followers of the Black God were now willing to go to such lengths to achieve their goals spoke a lot about how serious they were, and about how seriously they ought to be taken.
The question was what to do about them.
During the first wave of their existence, and indeed the second, the United Republic Council had tried to develop informants within the Followers, or close to them. They had been utterly and completely unsuccessful, so they had tried to develop assets within the Sarrakan community itself.
This, too, had failed, and Tenzin knew why. The United Republic Council represented all races in the United Republic of Nations, except for the Sarrakan race. Apart from that, the Council had never, ever tried to reach out to the Sarrakans or even take their concerns seriously. These facts, combined with that Sarrakans themselves were both exclusive and united, had meant that not a single person within the Sarrakan community had been willing to do anything with anyone remotely related to the Council.
This had, of course, led to the implementation of more heavy-handed methods. These methods had resulted in success insofar that stability had returned to Republic City, but there had been unintended consequences. And Tenzin was sure that one of those unintended consequences had been this new, third wave of the Followers of the Black God.
He'd have to act quickly, or else the steps that would be taken to combat the Followers—and the Sarrakan community—would be so extreme that Republic City would be unlikely to ever recover from them—
There was a knock at his door.
The last thing Tenzin needed now was a distraction, but something told him that he ought not to ignore this query. So, sitting with perfect posture, he told whoever was at his door to enter.
A White Lotus lieutenant strode toward Tenzin carrying a scroll and wearing a severe expression on his face. Tenzin knew the man well; he'd been stationed at Air Temple Island for the past ten years for good reason—he was a capable leader and a wise one, and when he looked like that, something serious was going on.
"Councilman Tenzin," he said, "do you want the good news or the bad news first?"
So he was skipping the customary greetings and queries one might expect after returning home after a journey to the other side of the world.
This really was serious.
"Good news first," Tenzin said.
"The CIB is willing to meet with you at your convenience to discuss Quan So's assassination. Their representative wasn't willing to tell me much, but I believe that they have no leads."
"Alright," Tenzin said. "What is the bad news?"
"Avatar Korra is missing," the lieutenant said gravely. "Her disappearance was noticed in the South Pole on the eve of your departure, and since then, there have been no signs of her whereabouts."
A lifetime of practice at controlling what showed on his face was what kept Tenzin from reacting by doing more than widening his eyes slightly. A career of practice at managing crises was what kept him from panicking.
"How has my mother reacted?"
"All South Pole ports have been shut down and an exhaustive search of the area is still being conducted, as far as we're aware. Naga is missing too," he added, and that calmed Tenzin down a little bit.
So, perhaps she hadn't been assassinated or kidnapped. Perhaps she'd just run away… but how? And how had she evaded recapture by the White Lotus for so long? Tenzin had just been at the South Pole, and he'd seen the security measures that had been taken there—no one could get in or out of the area without the White Lotus noticing!
That is… not unless the White Lotus itself had been compromised…
Tenzin entered an almost meditative state for a few seconds. When he emerged from it, he looked the lieutenant in the eye and spoke curtly.
"Use the secondary command center to query the South Pole for an update of the situation. Then, contact the Fire Nation Navy and the Southern Water Tribe's leaders and coordinate a temporary blockade of all South Pole ports. Inform the appropriate Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation intelligence services of the situation, and request their full cooperation in this matter. Their leaders are sensible and rational; they shouldn't resist you at all."
"What about the CIB and the United Forces?"
"You haven't told them yet?"
The lieutenant shook his head.
"After you left for the South Pole, I ordered an investigation on our telegraph lines. It found that not only are they insecure at several points, but they're so insecure that it would be negligent of the Followers to ignore them."
"So, our lines were compromised," Tenzin said.
"Some of them," the lieutenant said. "The lines to the South Pole, CIB, and United Forces have almost certainly been monitored, but the rest…" He shrugged. "We're not sure."
Tenzin's eyes hardened.
"I'll meet with the CIB immediately; they'll get in touch with all the appropriate parties. Just… stay here, and focus on security—"
It was then that Tenzin received a telegram. He'd been standing up to grab a traveling cloak from a stand in the corner of his room when his machine activated itself and began to spit out a brief message from an old… associate of his: Lin Beifong, Chief of the city's elite metalbending police group.
For a split second, Tenzin contemplated simply leaving, and reading the telegram at his convenience. Then, he remembered that Lin never contacted him, not without good reason, so… well, it would only take a few moments to read the telegram. Besides, it could be something of particularly great import.
So, Tenzin read the telegram. At the end, he paused, and then he read it again.
His lips twitched the slightest amount; the other man in the room noticed this but didn't know if Tenzin was relieved or happy or annoyed or something in between.
"Ignore all of my previous commands," Tenzin said, looking at the White Lotus lieutenant, "and inform the South Pole that the Avatar is in the custody of… the appropriate authorities. Dismissed."
The younger man snapped to attention for a second before turning to leave. A moment later, Tenzin followed him, as brooding and unreadable as ever.
Korra had not received extensive training in the fields of law enforcement and interrogation. She was, after all, the Avatar, not a cop, so such matters of law enforcement were generally beneath her. Her mission was to save the world from severe threats to peace and freedom, not to lock up small-time criminals.
But, some months back, the late firebending master Zhao had insisted that she learn at least the basics of how police tended to work. After all, in an age without tensions between the nations or large-scale rebellions, it was more likely than not that Korra would have to work alongside police, at least, and to do so in an effective manner she would have to understand how they operated.
So, Korra knew what was going on. She knew precisely what was going on. She was being left alone in a miniscule, silent room, so that the police wouldn't have to do much to psyche her out—her own mind would do that on its own.
That is, that's what would happen if Korra felt an iota of guilt—and she didn't. She had nothing to feel guilty for, after all. In fact, just thinking about what had happened made her grit her teeth, and thinking about how the police had reacted made a throbbing vein appear in her forehead.
But she forced herself to keep calm. Sooner or later, they'd have to interrogate her, and when they did, she had to have complete control of her emotions.
So, Korra breathed deeply and sat up straight. Her hands were bound to a large wooden table with handcuffs, and that was annoying, but at least she could still look around.
Not that there was much to look at. The holding cell she'd been placed in was barely eight feet by ten, and totally bare. The floors were stone and the door was metal, and apart from the table, there wasn't a thing in it. Korra was familiar with bleak surroundings—she was from the South Pole, after all, a landscape even more foreboding and harsh than its counterpart at the North—but this was different. There was no noise and no color, and if the rest of the world had just ended in a terrible cataclysm, Korra would never know about it.
Reflexively, Korra flexed her hands. Hmm… the handcuffs weren't that strong, and the cell itself was made of stone. If she was careful, she could bend the walls with her feet and free herself—
The door opened, cancelling Korra's escape plan. Again, she was calm and collected—at least, that was the mask she showed to the one who entered.
She was a tall woman, with gray hair and green eyes. Her uniform marked her as not just a regular cop, but an elite metalbender, and there was some sort of insignia on her upper chest. Clearly, she was an important person—and Korra kept his in mind. Who knew, maybe with a little flattery her and there, she could talk her way out of trouble—
"Disturbing the peace, multiple counts of destroying private and public property, multiple counts of assault, disobeying lawfully-given orders, evading arrest," the older woman listed, slowly walking forward before placing her hands on the table and leaning forward to glare at Korra. "You're in a whole mess of trouble, young lady."
Korra felt herself shying away from the police officer—whoever she was—before she remembered what she had done, and why she had done it.
"But there were some thugs trying to mug an old man," Korra protested. "They were about to beat him up, so I—"
"Can it," the officer practically spat. She shook her head and took a scroll of parchment from an unseen pocket, placing it on the table so that she could read it.
"You should have called the police and stayed away, instead of beating up a bunch of kids."
"I couldn't stay away," Korra said. Her composure had broken, and had her wrists not been cuffed to the table, she would have stood up and glared at the police officer, whoever she was. "They had already knocked him down by the time I got there! It would have taken me a few minutes to find a telegraph booth to call the police, and then it would have taken the police a few minutes to get there, and by that time, the old man would've been robbed and beaten, or worse. I had no choice."
"How dare you insult the capability of the metalbending police force," the older woman said. "Our response times are the best in the world, and—"
"And they're still too slow!" Korra said. "You might have only been minutes away, but at times like this, seconds matter. I don't mean to insult the police, but they weren't a presence in that neighborhood, and they haven't been a presence in that neighborhood for weeks! Why else would a group of thugs attack an old man in broad daylight? They had to have thought that there was no chance of the police doing anything about it, or else they'd have done it… at night, or out of public view, or something! But they didn't," Korra said. "They did it where everyone could see it, except for the police, if they'd been there. But they weren't, and if I'd have done what you said, they might get to that neighborhood… sometime tomorrow."
The chief looked like she may have bought what Korra was saying, right up until that final statement. A moment too late, Korra realized that that parting shot at the metalbending police might have tipped the scales against her.
"Your opinion about this doesn't matter," she said casually, straightening the several papers in her hands. "The facts are clear. You got into a brawl, damaged a number of buildings—"
"Which were all unsafe for habitation anyway," Korra thought to herself.
"You beat up a bunch of kids, refused to stand down when ordered to, and then ran from the police—"
"Who arrived in a timely manner, twenty minutes after the fact, when I was healing that poor old man. They'd started to stomp on him when I got there, and if I didn't know how to heal, he'd be dead now," Korra pointed out. "If I had done what you suggested, you wouldn't be pressing charges of assault and destruction of property against me—you'd be pressing charges of murder against a few 'kids' who I so ruthlessly beat up."
"So you admit you beat them up," the chief said without missing a beat. "Good, an admission of guilt makes my job much easier—"
"Just what am I guilty of?!" Korra suddenly yelled. She stood up and strained at her cuffs for a moment, and it was lucky that they were metal—the one earth substance she couldn't yet bend.
"If it's a crime to save old men from being mugged and killed in the street, then fine, I'm a criminal," Korra said. "But I don't have a choice when it comes to protecting people who can't protect themselves. See… I'm the Avatar," Korra explained. "I can't not do anything to help poor old people. That's not my place in life."
"I'm well aware of who you are," the chief said. "And your 'Avatar' title might impress some people, but not me."
That took Korra by surprise.
Over the years, she'd received visits from officials from all of the nations, and everyone had shown her a great deal of respect and, in some cases, deference. Once, when she'd attended a dinner with the Earth King, she'd been treated like a guest of honor and no one had started to eat until she had.
Clearly, this lowly police chief didn't understand who she was dealing with. So, trying not to be too impolite, Korra spoke again.
"I want to talk to whoever's in charge."
"You're talking to her," the chief replied coolly, as if this was an evasion she'd heard a thousand times before.
"Fine, then," Korra said through gritted teeth, "may I please speak to whoever you report to?"
"That would be… nobody," the chief said. "I'm Head Chief Lin Beifong, head of the Metalbending Police Force. I don't have a boss, and no one in law enforcement is above me."
"Beifong… Lin Beifong, a metalbender?" Korra said. "Are you… Toph's daughter?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Why are you treating me like a criminal?" Korra asked, honestly confused. "My past life and your mother were friends—they saved the world together!"
"That's history," Beifong replied, "and it has nothing to do with the mess you're in right now. I'm not my mother, and you're not Avatar Aang, kid. You can't just enter Republic City and dole out vigilante justice like you own the place! You don't even have the papers to be here—"
A section of Korra's cell wall moved aside, revealing a lower-ranking officer who sharply saluted the Captain before addressing her.
"Chief," he said, "Councilman Tenzin is here to see you."
Beifong's eyes narrowed.
"Tell him to wait," she said. "I'm busy interrogating a suspect."
The other officer fidgeted a bit as another, deeper voice was heard somewhere past him.
"Councilman Tenzin would like to remind you that while you're the head of civilian law enforcement in Republic City, the United Republic Constitution has a system of checks and balances which means that—"
"All right, all right, I don't want to go through the whole 'checks and balances' lecture again," Beifong groaned. "Let him in."
A larger section of the cell wall moved aside, and Tenzin entered, as tall and regal as ever. Beifong had stood to greet him and was now clasping her hands at the small of her back, and for a brief moment, there seemed to be a silent battle as each the Captain and the Councilman attempted to ascertain who could be more stern and intimidating without saying a word or raising a hand.
"Tenzin," Korra began in a very small voice. She cleared her throat and then spoke more normally. "Sorry, I… was just coming to see you, but I guess I got a little sidetracked…"
Tenzin inhaled, briefly, before turning to face Beifong again. He suddenly began to smile in a manner that made Korra cringe, though she noted that he stood as tall and straight-backed as ever. Not a crease in his flowing robes was out of place.
"Lin, you are looking radiant as usual—"
"Cut the bullshit, Tenzin," Beifong said crassly, as if she'd expected such a cheesy greeting. "Why is the Avatar in my city? Why are you still here, for that matter? I thought you were supposed to be moving down to the South Pole to train her."
"My relocation has been delayed," Tenzin said coolly. "I would have told you, but that information was disseminated on a strictly need-to-know basis."
For a moment, Beifong bristled at the apparent insult, but Tenzin looked at her gravely and explained.
"We have discovered that our communications may have been compromised, so we're avoiding the use of telegraphs until further notice," he said.
"Is it the Followers?" Beifong asked sharply.
Tenzin didn't answer, but his silence could only be interpreted in one way. There was no proof that it was the Followers yet, but no other group had the means or motive to quietly survey Republic City officials' communications for weeks.
"Anyway," Tenzin said, "while my relocation has been delayed, the Avatar, on the other hand," he turned to glare at Korra, "will be heading back to the South Pole immediately, where she will stay put—"
"But I—" Korra began.
"If you would be kind enough to drop the charges against Korra," Tenzin said, speaking over her and looking back at Beifong, "I will take full responsibility for today's regrettable events, and cover all the damages."
For a moment, there was another silent battle of wills. Korra certainly didn't want to be taken back to the South Pole, but she realized that her alternative was even worse. With a jolt of panic, she realized what might happen if Beifong refused Tenzin's request—she'd be charged, prosecuted, and almost certainly thrown in jail. In a best case scenario, she'd be held and processed for a few weeks before being thrown out of the United Republic of Nations as an illegal immigrant. If that happened, she'd never be allowed to return, and how could she be the Avatar then?
Fortunately, after a few seconds of consideration, Beifong sighed. "Fine," she said, and with a casual flick of her hands, she undid the cuffs pinning Korra's wrists to the table. "Get her out of my city."
"Always a pleasure, Lin," Tenzin said with the practiced but false sincerity of someone who was a career politician. "Let's go, Korra."
He didn't have to tell her twice. The moment her hands were released, Korra stood up and immediately made her way for the door. As she left, Beifong made a gesture indicating that her eyes were going to be on Korra until she was out of Republic City.
Korra's response was a gesture involving only one finger.
Escape was on her mind even as Tenzin led her through the police station. Sure, it was heavily guarded, but there might be a few seconds after they left it when he would be distracted. She might be able to make a break for it, and—
Oh. The White Lotus. Of course.
The uniformed men were waiting outside for her as a blatant show of force. Even for Korra and Tenzin, a security detail of six or seven White Lotus bodyguards was more than sufficient, but there were no fewer than twenty-five of them waiting outside of the police station. Clearly, Tenzin was trying to intimidate someone, and Korra knew who it was.
Unfortunately, his goal was being achieved. The more Korra looked for a way to escape her situation, the more hopeless her situation seemed. Even though Naga was waiting outside for her, her spirits weren't lifted—especially when Tenzin said that she would be flying back to Air Temple Island with him, while White Lotus members took Naga to the port in preparation for departure.
"Huh," Korra grumbled as she followed Tenzin onto Oogi. "You could have just told me not to run away. I'd have listened."
"Because you've proven to be so obedient in the past," Tenzin replied thinly. Once he was sitting down with each of his legs on either side of Oogi's neck, he looked around, for a moment, before signaling to the White Lotus that it was time to move out.
Oogi lifted off, then, and Korra watched as the ground below them got farther and farther away. It was her first time flying, but this didn't impress her. She simply sulked in one corner of the pad on Oogi's back and held one knee close to her chest, with her other leg extended out in front of her.
"Couldn't even let me take Naga to Air Temple Island," she muttered.
"It's safer in the air, Korra," Tenzin said. "And you don't seem to appreciate just how much danger you put yourself into."
"So I got into a little fight, big deal," Korra said. "Those guys were barely benders; I could have taken them with both hands tied behind my back."
Tenzin tugged on Oogi's harness, then, so that the air bison made its way into a group of clouds that was starting to descend over Republic City. In a moment, he and Korra were invisible to anyone who might be watching them from the ground.
"I'm not talking about your little brawl," Tenzin said, "I'm talking about the Followers of the Black God. They know that you're here."
There was silence for a few seconds, before Korra spoke.
"How?" she asked. "I was only in Republic City for… maybe thirty minutes before the fight, and then another thirty before the police got me. How could the Followers of the Black God have found out about me? How do you even know that they know I'm here? Did they tell you?" she asked in an almost taunting tone, trying to show that she wasn't impressed by Tenzin's exaggeration.
"We don't know how they know that you're here," Tenzin said, "but we're certain that they know that you're here. Five minutes after you were taken into custody, there was an attack on the police station that serves that… part of the city. Several officers were injured, one was killed… and when the metalbending police came to back them up, their local station was attacked, too.
"They're monitoring us, Korra," Tenzin said. "When I got back to Republic City, the White Lotus informed me that our communications have been compromised. Do you remember that police chief that turned up dead, hours after I left Republic City? At the time, I thought that was just a coincidence—he'd been abusing the Sarrakan community for years, after all—but now I know that the Followers are angry. They want you, Korra, and if it wasn't for sheer, dumb like, they might have captured or killed you today."
"S-so, the Followers are angry that I'm in the city, so you're sending me away from the city? You're giving in to the demands of these nutcases?" Korra said this in an angry, forceful tone, so that neither she nor Tenzin would detect the fear in her voice.
"I don't have a choice in this matter," Tenzin replied. He turned Oogi, somewhat, and began to slowly descend through cloud cover. Moments later, Air Temple Island could be seen in the not-so-very far distance, just a few miles from the shores of Republic City.
"And they're not nutcases, Korra. They're not madmen chucking grenades about. These are organized, professional people with clear goals and motives," he said. "I respect them as a serious threat to Republic City, and if you did too, you'd see why you must go back to the South Pole with all haste, and stay there until the situation stabilizes."
"But the situation isn't going to stabilize!" Korra exclaimed. "Tenzin, no offense, but you've had years to deal with the situation, and look at how bad things have gotten. I was only in Republic City for an hour, but in that time I saw… I saw poverty that I couldn't have imagined! I wouldn't have believed poverty like that could exist if I'd read about it in a book—especially in Republic City, which is supposed to be the richest city in the world! And what about the crime?" Korra asked. "When I was being booked at the police station, I saw murderers, muggers, robbers, vandals, and worse, all in about five minutes.
"And I didn't even get close to seeing a Sarrakan community, or having contact with the Followers. Look, the situation is bad and if everything that's going on is any evidence of what's going to happen, then the situation is going to get a lot worse. Locking me away from the world by sending me back to the South Pole isn't going to do anyone any good," Korra said. "I'm not even a full Avatar yet—I can't airbend!"
Tenzin didn't respond. He simply continued to fly toward his home, but, as Korra watched, he veered off, somewhat, so that Oogi settled into a lazy, wide orbit around Air Temple Island, some hundreds of feet above sea level.
"And you think you can fix things?" Tenzin asked. "You, a seventeen-year-old child, think that you can solve problems which the greatest experts and leaders in the United Republic of Nations can't solve?"
"Not necessarily," Korra said. "But your mother and Avatar Aang were a lot younger than I am when they saved the world. And they were guerillas, operating outside of the law and the system. We have the system on our side—we know where we're going to sleep at night, and where our next meal is coming from. Besides, if the best experts in the country can't solve Republic City's problems, maybe you need new blood," she pointed out.
"You don't even understand the situation," Tenzin said, but he didn't sound too certain of himself. "All you know about what's going on is what other people tell you."
"Are you any different?" Korra asked. "You get reports from police and metalbenders, but at the end of the day, you don't know anything about the situation except for what other people tell you. At least I've been in a slum," Korra said. "Have you ever been to one of those places, Tenzin?"
Asking that question had been a gamble, but when Tenzin didn't respond to it, Korra knew that her gamble had paid off.
"Well, then, let me tell you what it's like to be there. It's terrible," Korra said. "You can't even walk in the street without constantly looking down to make sure that you're not about to step into something awful. I'm lucky that I'm almost as tall as you are and built like this," Korra said, indicating her muscular arms, "because I didn't see any women walking around alone, and I think I can guess why.
"And that's not all," she continued. "The city's other half lives without a rule of law, or even any kind of government. Sure, the police are there in theory, but when people disagree about things or have problems, they have to settle their conflicts with contests of force, or else they have to call gangs or just angry people with crowbars. With the Followers of the Black God destabilizing the government, there are less and less resources to fight gangs, let alone poverty… so, when things get worse, you and I might have to be a little more careful with where we go and when we go there, but the poor people in this city are going to be the ones who really suffer. They'll be the ones who are getting robbed more, or getting caught up in gangs, or dying.
"It's usually the Avatar's duty to prevent war and stop tyrants, like Avatar Aang did," Korra said. "But now, I think my duty is a little more subtle. I have to do something about the situation in Republic City, because it's just… just so wrong.
"Back in the South Pole, some people have more money than others, sure, but no one would let their countrymen starve in the street and wallow in their own filth. But that's what's happening in Republic City in broad daylight—or, in the shadows of the skyscrapers where the ultra-rich live and work. This… this gigantic chasm between the way one half of the city lives and the way the other half does, it's… it's just shocking. I can't tolerate it, and I would have thought that you, of all people—as the heir of the Air Nomads and the son of Avatar Aang—would have known that."
That struck a chord in Tenzin. It took him years back, to when he had been a child—when his father had been alive. He remembered once entering his father's study to see the older airbender in apparent distress, covering the lower half of his face with his hand and looking around at his house on Air Temple Island as if he was shocked by what he saw.
Even as a child, Tenzin had been sharp. He had looked around too, and then asked his father what was wrong. The new sections of the house had just been added, after all, and now their home was more beautiful and spacious than ever.
His father had said that that was the problem.
"Son, I may be the Avatar and a member of the Republic City Councilman," Aang had said, "but I'm an Air Nomad at heart. I shouldn't be living like this… It goes against everything I was ever taught by the monks, especially since poverty in this city is a bad problem that's getting worse. I should be living simply, if for no other reason than to remind myself that at my core, I am no better than the poorest beggar in the street, because we're still both equally human.
"From time to time, we might forget that," Aang said, as he'd made his way to the window to look at the wealth and splendor of coastal Republic City. "We might forget that, we rich people, as we dine on our cakes and tea in our castles. But if we ever forget who we are as spiritual beings, as airbenders… then not only are we no better than beggars, we're no better than Ozai himself."
From that day on, his father would disappear, every so often, to live and sleep in the most dismal hovels he could find. He would surround himself with poverty and the people who lived it every day, and for that reason, he had found it with himself to convince the Council to pass a few anti-poverty measures that had proven to be quite effective, for the several years that they'd been in place…
And then, those measures had expired, some years ago. And Tenzin, worried about triad groups and the Followers of the Black God, had not found the time to advocate for their reintroduction.
Korra was not a social activist, not exactly, but everything that she had said was true. Those who truly suffered in war and times of domestic unrest were not the rich or the elites, who always had the chance to leave or surrender. The poor people, the footsoldiers, were the ones who ended up being lined against a wall… or else, lined up to wait for the executioner to call their names.
Tenzin could not bring back anti-poverty measures, not when the city was in a state like this. What he could do was donate some of the money he made in his position as a Councilman—and he made a lot of it—and do everything he possibly could to see the triads, and the Followers of the Black God defeated as quickly as possible, with as few casualties as possible.
And once they were defeated, then he could get back to his true work, as the heir of the Air Nomads, and do what he could to make sure that in the future, poverty itself was a concept as alien to the modern world as true, open warfare.
But first, the Followers of the Black God had to be defeated. And if Korra's presence in Republic City equaled even the slightest advantage over them, then Tenzin's duty as a Council member, as the heir of the Air Nomads, and as the son of his father, was crystal clear.
"I have done my best to guide Republic City towards the dream my father had for it," Tenzin said. "But… since his passing, it has fallen out of balance. I thought that I should put off your training to uphold his legacy, but Korra, you are his legacy. You may stay and learn airbending from me—no, you must stay and learn airbending from me. It seems that the world, and Republic City in particular, has need of its Avatar again."
Korra had been able to contain her excitement after she'd officially passed her final firebending exam, but this time, she didn't even try. First, she smiled, then she shouted out in joy, and then she actually hugged Tenzin from the back, suddenly and hard enough that for a terrifying moment, the two of them dropped several feet in midair.
Some moments later, they stabilized, and as they descended toward Air Temple Island, Korra could see that Tenzin was actually smiling. He was actually in a good mood, and hopeful for the future.
That meant that there was no better time than just then to ask him what had been on her mind ever since she'd set foot in Republic City.
"So, uh, Tenzin," Korra said, "since I'm here… mind if I check out a pro-bending match sometime? Pretty, pretty please?"
Tenzin laughed for a moment.
"I'll eat my beard before I let that happen," he replied, and faced forward, stern once again.
The decision about Korra's fate had been made. Now, it was time to see how the Followers of the Black God responded to it.
(I am proud to have finally gotten back to this piece after so many months. I fully intend to see it through to the end, but how enthusiastic I am about this piece is directly related to how much people seem to like it. So, if you're liking the way things are going, please feel free to drop me a review, or favorite and watch as necessary.
Now that I have set the scene for Korra's presence in Republic City, and properly explained the major groups that exist in this fanfiction's universe, I think that we're ready for some more interesting things. For that reason, the chapters to come will have fewer sections that are more or less direct copy-pastes from the show. There will still be plenty of politics and discussion, but I promise that there will be enough action to move things along.)
