How long has it been? like a year? I promise I will do my best not to make this a once a year update story. I've battled a serious case of writers block but the finale inspired me to write and keep my love of the characters going. Thank you to those who continued to check in every once in a while to see it I've updated. I hope this was worth at least some of the wait.
"With day one complete and not a single causality this has already proven to be the most interesting Bending Games in history." Said the commentator, his voice flooded Pema and Tenzin's living room. The family had been glued to the radio all day, wanting to catch every mention of Korra they could get.
Tenzin stopped in the doorway to the living room. He dropped the bags he was carrying and sighed, the stress of the last few days weighed on him.
"Daddy!" his children cried running up to hug their father. He bent down to hug and kiss each of them, with a new found appreciation for how fragile their already broken family still was.
Jinora looked up at her father seeing her distress. "Korra's fine so far, no one has died." Tenzin nodded in thanks. He locked eyes with Pema and she nodded.
"Alright you, it's way past your bed time." She scooted the children along to get ready for bed.
"But Mom, I'm not-" Meelo yawned "-sleepy."
"What if something happens to Korra?" Ikki asked.
"Korra's asleep for the night, so you should too. If anything happens I'll wake you the moment I hear. Say goodnight to your father."
"Goodnight Dad." They said in unison.
"Goodnight Jinora, Ikki and Meelo." Tenzin walked over to the couch and slumped down on it. Pema sat down next to him after then children were put to bed.
"I failed, Pema." He sighed.
Pema placed a hand on his knee. "You didn't fail. "
"How can you say that? My duty was to train and protect The Avatar, and all I did was get Korra sent into the games with absolutely no training." His voice was harsh but hushed as to not disturb the children.
"Korra wasn't ready to be trained. You said so many times. As far as protecting, her you did the best you could." He scoffed. "Don't confuse your grief with feelings of failure. We raised a great girl, Avatar or not. How she's already acted in the games shows that. She is strong, kind, compassionate, and no matter how much anyone tries to suppress it she's a natural born leader."
"But now she's stuck in there alone, her kindness might be what gets her killed."
"She's not alone; you and I both know the legends. The Avatar is never alone. Her past lives will help her through."
"It takes years of training to be able to reach the Avatar state at will."
"Well, worst case scenario we try to find the next one." Pema said grimly
Tenzin rose. "I'm going to bed."
Pema lifted her hand to call him back but decided to let him go instead. They were both under a tremendous amount of stress and she knew that Tenzin needed to deal with his grief in his own way.
Jinora heard her father's heavy footsteps as he walked to his room. She had barely slept since the reaping; Korra's empty bed still haunted all of them in the room. Letting a tear fall she prayed to the spirits that they would bring Korra home.
The sound of a canon woke Korra from her sleep. She blinked her eyes rapidly trying to orient herself. The early morning sun was barely coming over the trees of the forest, painting the field in various shades of gold. Next to her Mako stirred, causing Korra to blush as she remembered how she fell asleep last night. Last night, the games. A heavy knot formed in her stomach as she remembered what that canon meant. Two more followed quickly. That meant three dead.
The rest of the tributes scattered around the field started to get up, each looked towards Korra for some sort of wisdom. Mako stood up, and stretched his stiff limbs. He offered a hand to Korra who shook her head and got herself up unaided. Every muscle of her body ached and her stomach rumbled. Korra looked among her fellow tributes and cleared her throat. "Let's get breakfast started." She said with as much authority as she could muster this early in the morning. The other tributes looked at each other and back at her questioningly.
"Shouldn't we try to figure out who just died?" Asked Fudo, a firebender.
"We are no use to each other hungry, let get some food then we will discuss what happens next."
"Whatever." Fudo mumbled kicking around a bit of ashes from last night's fire.
"Do what she says. Get in pairs, some get wood others check the traps you should have laid out last night." Mako said, the tributes stared at him. "Go!" he snapped. Slowly the tributes got moving. Moral was quickly slipping with the realization that they really could die at any moment.
"Did Asami or the others ever come back?" Korra asked. Mako surveyed the field and shook his head.
"Even if those trails went through the whole damn arena they should be back by now." Worry came over his features that matched Korra's own.
Korra touched his arm. "Hey, let's get some food. Everything will be ok." She said both for her benefit as well as his. She walked off towards the lake where the other water benders were catching fish.
"Breakfast time Princess." Tahno's drawl roused Asami from her sleep. Two fish were tossed onto the ground next to her. She looked around and tried to recall what happened, but all she could remember was traveling through the tunnel with that loud mouth Petra. She tried to stretch but couldn't, she as tied to a tree with long, thick, black ropes.
"'Bout time you woke up." To make matters worse she was not only tied to a tree but tied to a tree with one of her least favorite people.
She groaned in response her head throbbing from the night before. "It seems our benevolent kidnapper gave us some breakfast." She flicked the fish away with her earth bending.
"Hey, what was that for?"
"It was raw, I'm not going to eat raw fish."
"I'm a firebender. I could cook it, you know." Asami sighed and moved the fish back, slapping Petra in the face with them before they bounced back to the ground. Petra shifted his arm so he could get his hand close to the fish causing the rope to tighten around Asami's waste uncomfortably. "Oops." He said a moment later.
"What did you do?"
"I may have accidentally burned the food." Asami sighed and turned her head as best she could to inspect the damage. Sure enough there was a black pile of soot where their fish used to be.
"Fine." Asami huffed, "Why don't you make yourself useful and burn the ropes so we can get out of here."
"I can't, the ropes are flame resistant."
"Of course they are." Asami muttered under her breath.
"It was the first thing I tried after I woke up. Can't you like bend the tree or something?"
"I'm an earth bender, I can't bend wood."
Petra sighed in exasperation. "Well, then bend the earth around the wood."
"I'm pretty sure uprooting a tree would alert our captors to our escape. Set the tree on fire or something."
"Because setting a tree on fire won't get their attention. If we're going to escape it needs to be subtle." He did have a point there. "Eventually someone will come looking for us."
"Petra, I think that's exactly what he wants."
Korra paced back and forth inside the cornucopia, the afternoon sun beated down making enclosure hotter by the minute. She didn't care, the hotter it was inside the less chance she had of someone bothering her.
"What are we going to do now?" Mako asked disrupting Korra's thoughts.
"I don't care, do whatever you want." She slumped against a container of supplies.
"We need some sort of a plan."
"Okay Mr. Idea Man, you come up with a plan."
"No, you have to be the one to do it."
"Why? Why do you keep saying that?" Korra spat.
"Because." He walked towards her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You're the Avatar, Korra." Despite the warm temperature goose bumps prickled her skin. "You have to lead these people."
"But I'm not a leader, I'm just me."
"Being the Avatar makes you a leader." Korra pulled away from him and walked to the other side of the room.
"I can't do this, I can't lead them."
Mako grabbed her wrist and pulled her to face him. "Then don't worry about them, worry about us. Asami and Petra haven't come back yet."
"We should go look for them." She said resolutely, he nodded.
"Then let's go find them." Korra looked down and noticed their fingers were linked but she didn't remember how they got that way. She dropped his hand, a warm blush touching her cheeks.
He cleared his throat. "We should probably pack some supplies to take with us." Korra nodded and walked over to some orange back packs lying on the ground. The two picked out bottles of water and bits of dried food, along with other supplies in silence.
A small voice clearing her throat broke their concentration. "Um, guys." Said Nuli a young water bending girl no older than Jinora. "You might want to come out here." She quickly retreated out of the room.
Korra and Mako looked at each other in shock and followed Nuli.
"I don't give a rat's ass who she is, I'm not sitting here waiting to die." Said a young boy, fire emanated from his fists.
The boy he was arguing with stood on the other side of the clearing held two boulders at the ready. Surrounding them was a circle of tributes yelling various forms of encouragement or warning to each side. "Korra is the Avatar she is going to save us."
"Izumi is missing and we're lying around here like sitting turtleducks while Tahno and his gang plot our deaths." Both boys glared at each other and threw their hit.
"STOP!" Korra yelled jumping in between them. A blast of hair flew from her hands causing the boys to fly backwards a few feet. The whole clearing went silent, only Korra's labored breaths could be heard. There were only three air benders left in the world and no one had ever air bending before. "We're not going to fight each other. That's what they want."
"She's right." Said Nuli. "If we kill ourselves off it will only make things easier for Tahno when he makes his attack."
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the field.
Korra shook her head. "That's not what I meant. We are benders, that unites us as one. I will not be killing and benders. That is what they want." She gestured to the sky. The clearing was silent as her words echoed.
"So what, we're just supposed to camp out here until Tahno comes. So you can stand here and give some nice speech about togetherness and we can all hold hands around the camp fire?" Said the fire bender.
"Uh no, not exactly –"
"So we're going to sit here and wait for Tahno's gang to come and not hold hands around a camp fire?"
"I'm not holding anyone's hand." Said the earth bender.
"Shut up, Chenglei, nobody wants to hold your hand." Chenglei hit him in the back of the head lightly with a pebble. Their past grievance seemed to be behind them. "Listen, Izumi is missing and I don't care what anyone else says, I'm going to look for her and the rest of the little excavation crew."
"Korra and I are already about to leave on a search party for them." Mako walked into the clearing and handed Korra a backpack.
"Okay, I'll come with you." He got up to walk to them. Mako looked to Korra, and she shook her head. Mako raised his eyebrow at her and shrugged.
"If you come with us…"Korra searched for a name.
"Fudo." He supplied. Mako rolled his eyes.
"… Then we'd be down to one fire bender here and Akane can't keep the fire going all night and cook the food on her own. You're needed here."
"Korra and I will find Izumi." Mako assured him. he placed a comforting hand on Fudo's shoulder.
"Before we leave I want you and Chenglei to shake hands." Korra said. Both of the boys sighed and grudingly did as Korra asked. "If these two can put their differences aside and come to an understanding I know the rest of you can too. Chenglei and Fudo, while Mako and I are gone you two are in charge." Both boys beamed proudly.
"I will do my best, Avatar Korra." Said Chenglei, both boys bowed in respect. Korra and Mako said their goodbye to the rest of the tributes and walked out into the forest.
"874 bottles of cactus juice on the wall, 874 bottles of cactus juice. Take one down pass it around 873 bottles of cactus juice on the wall." Petra sang off key. Asami banged her head against the tree. Her whole body ached both from the blood bending she had endured the night before and from the constant sitting position she had been in.
"883 bottles of cactus juice –"
"-You were on 873."
"Why thank you Asami, 873 bottles of cactus juice on the wall." Asami continued to time her thunks with the beat of Petra's song.
"Thank the spirits." Said the water bender girl guarding watching them when the earth bender came to relieve her. "He started at 1000 bottles, I wanted to kill myself around 900."
"I wanted to kill myself at 999." Said Asami. The water bender ignored her and got up.
The two guards chatted leaving Asami and Petra a few moments of privacy. "How's it coming?" Petra whispered.
"I think I've almost got it." Asami said keeping her eyes on the guards while she passed the rock to Petra.
He took it and ran a finger along the side, a small bit of blood welled up on his finger. "I think it will work, but it might need to be a bit sharper." He passed the rock back to Asami and she sighed. For the past several hours Asami had been trying in vain to bend a rock sharp enough to be used as a blade. The results were either too dull or the rock would crumble when it came time to try to saw through the ropes.
"Can't earth benders bend metal? Maybe you can find some metal in the earth and bend that into a blade."
Asami's features hardened. "Metal bending is a very advanced from of bending. I can barely stop a tunnel from caving in let alone weld a blade." The water bender left leaving the earth bender alone. He took up a position against a tree a few yards away from Asami.
"853 bottles of cactus juice on the wall." Petra sang loudly.
"Somebody make it stop!" Asami yelled.
Mako and Korra followed the relative path of the tunnels hoping to find signs of the missing tributes. Originally Mako suggested they walk through the tunnels themselves, but Korra reminded him that her earth bending skills were limited. They didn't know how stable the tunnels were, and if there was a cave in, Korra didn't trust herself to be able to stop it.
"The tunnel forks here." She said, sensing the tunnels through the earth. "Which way do we go?"
"I don't know, Avatar, you choose."
Korra groaned in frustration. "Can we not do this, just pick one."
"Fine let's play fire, earth, water. Whoever wins has to choose."
"What?"
"You've never played?" Korra shook her head. "Fire" Mako put his palm up and wiggled his fingers like flames. "burns rock." He changed his hand to a fist. "Rock dams water." He placed his hand out with his palm facing down. "water puts out fire. Ready?" Korra nodded.
"Fire, Earth, Water." They changed together. Mako put his hand out in the fire position and Korra chose rock.
Mako's lips turned up in a small smile. "Okay then, right we go." He gestured towards the right and they walked together.
"That was quick. If you knew which way you wanted to go, why didn't you just pick in the first place?" Korra asked.
"Because, you're the leader."
"I already told you, I'm not a leader. I don't want to be."
"For someone who claims not to be a leader that was some impressive leadership skills you showed today."
They walked a few paces in silence. "So is there a reason you choose right?"
"Asami is right handed; it makes sense that when given the choice she would favor her right side." Mako said plainly as if it was obvious.
"What if the other group choose right? What if Petra wanted to go left?"
"I'll admit it's a gamble either way, but does Asami seem like the type of person who would let another person tell her where to go?"
Korra admitted he had a point. They continued to walk and chat along the way. The sun had long set and they were walking through the ever thickening forest by Mako's firelight when they found a deep depression in the path.
"It looks like there's been a cave in." Mako said jumping into the hole to investigate. Korra climbed in alongside of him. She tripped and grabbed Mako's back for support. The stiffness of his back startled her.
"Mako, what's-?" She looked around him and stopped seeing what he found. There glistening in the firelight was a green shiny barrette. Korra opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by the sound of the United Republic's anthem. The two looked up to see the names and faces of the fallen tributes. Leah, Shan, and Izumi. The silence and darkness that followed was deafening.
Asami and Petra were out there still alive but the second group of explores were dead.
Korra didn't realize she was crying until Mako said. "It's okay Korra; it's not your fault."
She let the tears fall freely and Mako enveloped her in a hug. "I let them go out there." She said between sobs. "I put them in danger. I could have stopped them, I should have." Mako ran his fingers through her hair and murmured words of comfort. "I promised Fudo we would find Izumi but she was already dead."
"It's going to be okay." Mako said.
"No, it's not," She tried to push him away but Mako held on tighter. "Those kids had family people who loved them. I'm the Avatar I was supposed to protect them." With that she broke down completely, holding onto Mako for dear life.
Ah semi-cliff hangers the best type of cliff hanger. All of the original character's names in this chapter were chosen carefully and specifically.
Fudo - Japanese; god of fire and wisdom
Chenglei - Chinese; becomes great
Nuli - derived from Nuliajuk Inuit; goddess of the sea and sea animals
Akane - Japanese; brilliant red
Shan - Chinese; mountain
Replies: Lara Croft - all will be explained soon.
