As always, I don't own Legend of Korra or The Hunger Games. I hope this chapter was worth the wait. As always reviews are always appreciated.


Tenzin raced around his room in the early morning, shoving clothes and other necessities in a bag. "I don't see how this is going to help Tenzin." Pema said sitting on the bed. "They're not going to let her go. If anything it'll just make things worse for her out there."

"I do nothing and she dies, if I do something and there's even a small amount of hope that she lives I'm going to try."

"And you think that talking to the game makers are going to help? They just want a good show Tenzin. They don't care about anything else than the money they can make. We both know what will happen if that information gets into the wrong hands."

"Xin Fu's family and mine have a long history he will help us."

"Tenzin equalists have been wanting to end the cycle for generations. If they push Korra into The Avatar State while she's in the arena the equalists will make sure that she dies. She won't reincarnate." Tenzin froze for a second before folding a tunic. "I care about Korra as much as I do our children but you and I both know that we can't risk the loss of The Avatar forever. If Korra dies we'll find the next one and train him or her."

"We've been waiting too long for The Avatar if I possibly save Korra I have to try." He gave his wife a kiss. "I'm going to be late. I have to talk to Xin Fu before they decide on the score." Pema sighed. "Tell the children I'll be home tomorrow night."

"I really hope you know what you're doing Tenzin."

"I always know what I'm doing, that's why you married me." He left the room to prepare Oogi for the long trip ahead.

Tenzin was loading the last of his bags into Oogi when he heard a voice.

"Let me go with you." Tenzin turned to see Bolin running up the last of the steps in front of air-temple island.

"Go home Bolin this isn't a vacation." The former air bender replied.

"Please, I want to see my brother one last time."

"I can't guarantee that. I appreciate everything you and your brother have done for the white lotus but please go home."

"I know I probably won't be able to talk to him, hell I might not even get to see him, but he's the only family I have left. Please, I have to try. Besides, it's a long way to Ba-sing-se on sky bison you might get lonely."

Tenzin paused to consider, it would be nice to have some added company, plus if he were in the same position Tenzin would want to see Bumi one last time.

"Alright climb on." Tenzin sighed, Bolin nodded in thanks and hoisted himself and his bag onto Oogi. Tenzin followed and with a yip yip they were airborn.


The next morning for the tributes meant the first day of training. It was barely dawn when the Korra was lead into a trolley that took them to the gym on the other side of the city. Outside the gym she was shocked to see protesters outside the gym, held back by equalists, with signs that read "Genocide does not equal Equality", and a group of boys with signs that said "benders and proud." It gave Korra the protesters showed that no matter how hard the equalist tried the bending community was still fighting.

The tributes were lead into a large room with several different stations some were set up for benders to practice their bending, others were set for weapons and survival training. "Welcome tributes." Said a woman dressed in the equalist clothes. "I trust you're finding your stay at Ba-Sing-Se to be enjoyable. For the next two weeks you will come here every day to train for your time in the arena. I know most of you will be tempted to jump right in and practice your bending, yet I urge you to not skip on the survival skills, you can die of exposure just as easily as from a blast of fire." Korra heard Petra snort. "Go ahead and get to work, I and the other game keeps will be monitoring your progress. May the odds be ever in your favor." She gave a small bow and retreated to the observatory area next to the training area.

Korra took a deep breath and walked over to the water bending area. She figured that connecting with her element might help get rid of the off feeling she'd had since the day on the train. The water bending area was basically a large pool of water. She found a spot by the corner and stepped into the warm pool the water instead of soothing her energized her in a way she never remembered feeling before.

She focused her vision on one area of the water and willed a small bit of it to lift out of the pool. She stood there for what felt like at least half an hour when the water finally rippled. A small droplet was about to separate when a weak whip of water splashed her back causing her to drop the water. She spun around and a boy about her age with jet back hair and a sly smile winked at her. "Ugh." She groaned in response. "What was that about." The boy shrugged and walked over to her.

"You're trying too hard, you have to let the energy flow through you. Don't fight it, let the element become a part of you." He moved his fingers and a droplet of water balanced along his fingertips."

"Uh thanks, I think I got it though." She turned away from him.

"My names Tahno." He said, causing her to turn around.

"Korra." She said curtly and turned her back on him.

He leaned over her shoulder. "If you want, I could give you some private lessons."

She shrugged him off." Ugh, could you not?"

"Why afraid you're going to make old smokey jealous?" He gestured towards Mako who was glaring at them from across the room."

Korra tried her best to hide her blush. "What? No. He's not, we're not. No. I think that now isn't the best time to me making new friends."

"Why not?"

"Well chances are both of us are going to be dead in less than a month."

"What better time then? Two weeks, nothing to lose, no consequences."

"Yeah, still no." Tahno shrugged and walked away

"I hope everything works out with you and your firebender." He called behind him.

She went back to her bending and took a deep breath, allowing the element to fill her up instead of forcing it to do her bidding. Sure enough, on her first attempt she got a ball of water to rise from the pool. "Stupid pretty boy waterbender." She grumbled.


The sun had been set for several hours before Tenzin finally landed Oogi and set up camp. Tenzin and Bolin had already eaten their meal of lion tiger jerky and Pema's dumplings, so at this point the fire Tenzin made was for warmth and to make any wild animals in the woods of the Earth Kingdom aware of their presence.

"So scared, meek little Korra is The Avatar." Bolin said in disbelief from his sleeping bag looking up at the stars.

"Scared maybe, but meek no." Tenzin replied from his spot on the other side of the fire. "She had quite a temper when Pema and I first brought her to live with us. We had only been married about a year and had never had children and here we have a high strung 5 year old with an attitude you wouldn't believe. Over the years she's become much more even tempered but when she see's injustice she does her role as The Avatar justice even if she doesn't know it."

"So if she doesn't know she's The Avatar then how do you know she is?"

"Part of The Order of the White Lotus' duty is to search for the avatar and keep him or her safe until he or she is ready to be The Avatar. For many generations we have been unsuccessful but when we heard word of a child in the Southern Water Tribe showing some signs of being able to earth bend, we investigated and found it was true. Korra didn't know what she was doing was earth bending, but to the trained eye it was obvious. She may not know she's bending but she still does, when she gets particularly angry the house will shake."

"Ah that happens to be too."

"No matter how cold it gets in the winter the fire will never go out on Korra's watch. Hints like that. I fully believe she's the true avatar."

"Well in that case, I hope we can get her out of there." Bolin rolled over in his sleeping bag and feel into a restless sleep.


The past few days had been a whirl of wake, eat, train, eat, train, sleep repeat. She spent most of her time in the water bending pool taking Tahno's unsolicited advice with much chagrin, but today she was at the plant station with Mako and Asami. Dispite herself she really was making friends with the other tributes.

Korra guessed the change happened when The three of them sat in the living room watching videos of old pro-bending matches Asami found in one of the abandoned rooms of their little apartment. They were passing a bowl of popcorn between them and at that moment Korra realized that these two people weren't her enemies. Her enemy was the equalist who forced them all into this situation. It was the equalists who killed her parents, not bending, and it was equalists who will force children to kill each other long after she was gone. Tahno was right, she though grabbing a piece of popcorn and cheering for the fire ferret's victory, if this was her last two weeks, she might as well enjoy it.

"Are roses eatable?" Mako asked making Korra slip out of her mine-day dream.

"No?" Korra replied.

Mako sighed, this was the 5th question in a row she'd gotten wrong today. "Wrong they are. I thought you said you studied last night."

"I did." Korra said, which she did for about 15 minutes until she fell asleep. The energy involved in practicing bending for a person who only started bending a week ago was exhausting.

"You need to focus, We will be in the arena in less than a week." Mako reminded her for probably the 50th time that day.

"Hey, if she wants to slack off and die from eating poisonous flowers it's no skin off my back." Asami said bored from flipping through the various botany books lying around. Her words only brought to light the one of the things they were trying to forget. The three of them had an unspoken agreement that they wouldn't kill each other in the arena, and while Korra knew she wouldn't kill either Mako or Asami (if she even could that is), and she was pretty sure Mako wouldn't kill either of them but she wasn't sure if Asami wouldn't turn on Korra. She knew she liked Mako, that went without saying but she hoped that any jealousy she might have towards Korra wouldn't translate to the arena.

Mako ignored Asami's comment and continued quizzing Korra. "What about katniss?"

"Yes." Korra guessed.

"See you got one right." Mako encouraged. Korra got up from the table.

"Thanks for helping me Mako, but I think it's obvious I'm not going to get this so why don't you quiz Asami or something."

"But you just got one right."

"Yeah because there's a 50 percent chance I'll get it right and I guessed right. We both know who is going to win this thing out of us, so don't waste your time."


Tenzin jumped right off of Oogi as the sun was setting on the last day before the final evaluations Bolin was already prepared to care for Oogi while Tenzin tried desperately to gain an audience with the head game maker.

"Tenzin." Game Maker Xin Fu greeted Tenzin with a hug. "I haven't seen you since the last council meeting in the winter, how are you?" Xin Fu took a seat behind his ornate wood desk. Tenzin choose to stand instead of taking one of the chairs on the other side of the desk. The view from Xin Fu's office overlooked the vast capital of the once regal Earth Kingdom. Blue prints of arena's both old and new littered the walls. On his desk was a mound of press releases that awaited his seal.

"I've come with something very urgent and vitally important."

"I would expect nothing less." He said sipping a cup of tea.

"I don't know if you are aware but one of your tributes is in fact The Avatar."

Xin Fu placed his cup back on his desk. "This is very interesting."

"So you understand that it is important that the necessary steps be taken in order to ensure the integrity of the competition."

"Yes of course. I will make sure that everything goes as it should." Tenzin bowed in thanks and left the room. "Don't worry Tenzin, I will take good care of your avatar." Xin Fu says after the door clicks shut.