Korra jolted up but soon regretted it due to the amount of pain her whole body felt and she yelled out in pain. Her head was throbbing and her muscles were aching. She couldn't even lift her arms, so she did the only thing she could do and that was to lie back down and relax.
She then realized she was on a bed and was covered in bandages. She looked around slowly and saw a few beds beside her and across her. She was at the end corner of the room and she was all alone. The door suddenly opened revealing two women approaching her. The younger woman was holding a tray; she couldn't see what was on it though.
"Good to see you're awake, Korra." The older woman says to her with a gentle smile.
"Who are you and h-how do you know my name?"
"I'm Pema." She gestures to herself. "And this is Katara." Gesturing to the older woman beside her.
"We've been watching you." Katara says.
"W-Watching me? Why?" Korra gives a confuse look to them.
They didn't answer her, it wasn't their place to. So instead, Pema decided to sit next to her bed and grab a bowl from her tray and proceeded to feed Korra. Korra hesitated at first but heard her stomach grumbling and accepted the offer. Katara, on the other hand, went to a cabinet to look for something.
When Korra finished her meal, Pema got up and nodded at Katara. Korra noticed this and had no idea what was going to happen but she saw Katara had something on her hand. Pema immediately restrained Korra's left arm and Katara did the same on her right.
Instead of the warm eyes she was greeted when the two women entered the room, they were suddenly now cold and Korra couldn't help but panic a bit.
"W-What's going on?" Korra says, struggling to get herself out but it was no good.
"Your training has only begun." Katara answers her flatly.
She soon felt a needle penetrating her right arm and she saw Katara injecting her some colorless fluid. After Katara pulled the needle out, she found herself suddenly sleepy. Korra tried to keep her eyes open but couldn't and after a few moments she drifted to sleep.
Beifong and Mike were on their way to Ducky, the Medical Examiner, in the morgue. After seeing Asami breakdown in front of her was too much for Beifong. She just lost one of her people, yet again and she had to carry that burden with her with a heavy heart.
"What have you got, Ducky?" Mike asks as they entered.
"Ah. Just the people I was about to call." Ducky smiles at them.
Ducky gestures to the four bodies lying on each table in front of them. It was clear that he just finished his autopsy.
"When you found them, they were hanged right?" Ducky asks Mike who nods.
"But that wasn't the case is what you're implying." Beifong states staring at the bodies.
"Yes." Ducky moves towards one body and points at a faded discoloration on the neck. "You can see a slight bruise on the neck on this one."
"A slight bruise?" Mike looks intently. "So they were choked to death?"
Ducky nods. "Not all of them, I'm afraid." He points at the board where they see x-ray pictures. "Some had their necks broken and twisted."
"You think the guy Mako mentioned did all this?" Mike asks Beifong.
"I'm not sure." Beifongs says while examining the pictures on the board. "He would be pretty skilled to do this all on his own."
"Was there a struggle?" Mike turns to Ducky. "Maybe he left DNA or something?"
"No, I didn't find any evidence of a struggle and no DNA was found on either victim." Ducky says, frowning at his words. "He's pretty cautious."
Just then, Raf barges in the room and he was panting.
"Captain, we got a call!" He practically exclaims at Beifong.
"What's going on?" She asks him.
"We got a 911-call from Down Town. The caller said something about some armed lunatic who broke into his home a few minutes before the line went dead." Raf tries to steady his breathing. "Joyce and Joe are on route as we speak."
"That could be our guy!" Mike looks at her.
"One way to find out." Beifong sighs.
A hooded figure was standing in a room with an unconscious Korra leaning against the wall. He had a pair of Falchion swords at the back of him. The door slowly opens, the figure turns to see Katara and she hands out a syringe. The person nods at her and she closes the door and it clicks, indicating it was lock.
The figure approaches Korra slowly and injects the adrenaline into her, waking her up in the process. Korra begins to stand right up and began to examine herself. She knew well enough she was injured but here she was standing and felt no pain at all.
"You have around three minutes to disarm me." The man tells her while walking back to his corner and getting his swords from his back. "That's how long the adrenaline will last and you won't be able to move again with all those injuries so try to minimize them this time."
Korra blinked rapidly at the man who spoke to her. He pretty much looked like the one who attacked her before but this time, it was a guy. She was about to say something but was cut off when a sword swung right at her, she was able to duck just in time but was met with another sword on her shoulder and he made a clean cut. She barely felt any pain but knows she'll feel it later.
She barely had the time to regain herself when she felt herself being pushed behind by a foot, making her tumble forward. She uses the wall to help herself get up and readies herself for the next attack while the man twirls the swords on his hand.
"This is going to be the longest three minutes of my life." She whispers to herself.
Bolin lead Mako and Asami to his team's lounge. Bolin decided to stay behind; he didn't know why he decided to but felt like he needed to.
"Make yourselves comfortable." He says as he opens the door and switching on the lights. "You guys need anything?" He says while twirling the keys around his finger and smiling.
Mako shrugged and sat on the couch and patted the seat next to him for Asami to sit but Asami sat across him, glaring at him. Bolin could sense a bit of tension in the room so he left the room and went to the cafeteria to grab something to eat and drink for himself and his brother.
Mako sighs when he knew Bolin wasn't in the room anymore. "Look, I know Korra meant a lot to you but you can't just sit there, glaring and blaming me for it, okay?"
Asami just glares at him from where she was sitting. "MEANS." Asami hisses at him, correcting him.
"I know that you know I don't like her. That I get all protective and all when it comes to her but I had nothing to do with this!" He practically yells at her. "There are some things in this world we just can't control!"
Asami softened her gaze and sighed. "I'm sorry…I just…I just don't understand what to feel anymore." She pauses. "I guess I'm just tired."
"No, don't be." He sits next to her and pulls her into an embrace. "To be honest, I'd feel the same way you're feeling right now so you don't have to be sorry." He pulls her closer. "I'm sorry for yelling though."
Asami gives him a soft smile and pulls away from the hug. Bolin enters the room with a pack of cup noodles and three bottled waters in a plastic bag. Asami excuses herself to the rest room while the brothers prepared their food.
The man swings his sword at Korra which she evaded and when he was about to strike with his other sword, Korra was able to hold his wrist preventing it from striking down but it left her open and the man decides to slash his first sword at her stomach which she was barely able to jump back, getting a shallow cut from it.
"Two minutes." The man says to her.
He begins to attack again and Korra was able to dodge the first two slashes but gets hit by the pommel on her face and she falls to the ground with her nose bleeding. She quickly gets up and throws two punches followed by a roundhouse kick which surprised him, knocking him back to a wall.
"Thanks for clearing my head, it's been buzzing." She smirks at him.
If he wasn't being serious a while ago, she was sure he now was. He immediately launches himself from the wall to her, swinging his sword right above her head which she ducked and he then swung his other sword right on her knees which she jumped over. But it didn't stop there; he kicks her on the stomach making her bend over and gave an elbow right to her back making her fall flat to the ground.
"One minute."
"What's the situation?" Raf asks Joe.
When Beifong and the others arrive, Joe and Joyce ordered the police to secure the whole block. No one goes in and no one goes out.
"We secured the perimeter." Joe answers him.
"I think we got one or two hostages in the house, they can't confirm it yet and one armed man." Joyce tells them.
"What do you mean they can't confirm it yet?" Mike turns to Joyce while getting his body armor on.
She turns around and looks at the people talking the cops. "According to the neighbors, they weren't sure if the daughter had already come back from her trip." She sighs. "And the hostile inside hasn't demanded anything."
Beifong sighs. "We can't just sit here and do nothing."
"Then we'll go enter at the back." Mike tells his team. "We use non-lethal on this guy, okay?"
Beifong nods. "He's right, this might be the guy Mako told us about and panicked. He might have some information on what went on last night."
The team switched their primary weapons to non-lethal shotguns and their secondary to taser guns. Beifong stayed behind with the police and the others went around sneaking at the backdoor.
Korra was starting to feel the pain all over her body and she knew she couldn't keep it up any longer so she had to make this last minute worth it. She struggles trying to get up, trying to hide the fact that she had gathered dust from the ground.
As soon as she stood up, she immediately throws it at her opponent, blinding him for a few seconds. She quickly twirls her leg to hit both legs of her opponent making him fall to the ground, making him lose one of his swords.
He gets up the moment he clears his eyes from the dust and swings his sword in rage which made it easy for Korra to read his movement and evaded all attacks from him easily. She was able to give him a small cut on his cheek and a cut on his torso but to her dismay, pain started filling her up and made herself open which gave him the chance to cut her arm making her drop her sword and she falls to the ground, grunting from the pain.
"Time's up." He says to Korra before he hits her to the face, knocking her out.
Asami was staring at herself in the rest room's mirror. Her eyes were puffy from crying all night and heavy for the lack of sleep. It's only been ten hours after they were rescued. She washes her face and looks up again and sees her makeup has faded as well.
She pulls out a silver necklace and holds the pendant on her palm. It was a letter K, it was given to her a day before they graduated. To be honest, she never took it off after Korra had given it to her. Mako doesn't even know about it.
"I hope you're alright, Korra." She sighs. "I won't believe you're gone until I see it for myself." She pauses and looks at herself on the mirror. "And I really hope it won't come to that."
She begins to retouch her makeup so she would at least look presentable when she leaves the building later that day.
"We're in position." Mike tells Beifong through his earpiece.
Beifong checks the monitors. "You're all good." She looks outside and gives a signal to the cop standing outside the truck and he heads over to his Sergeant.
"We're good to go, sir." He says to him.
The Sergeant begins to speak to the megaphone. "We have you surrounded. Surrender and release the hostages you have with you." He pauses. "Failure to comply, we will be authorize to use any means necessary."
As soon as the Sergeant started speaking, Mike ordered his team to go in silently. Raf went in first with the twins following behind him, checking the corners of the house. Mike came in last and shut the door behind him.
"We're in." He tells Beifong.
Raf and Joe went to check the living room while Joyce and Mike checked the kitchen and nobody was in both rooms. Joe opens the cabinet under the stairs and found no one in it. They rally up near the stairs.
"First floor clear." Raf tells the teams.
When Asami got back, Mako and Bolin were already throwing out their dinner and cleaning up the mess they made.
"Already done?" Asami asked with a raised eyebrow.
Bolin nodded. "Yup. I have to say, those cup noodles really hit the spot."
"I have to agree with you there, bro. Man, am I full." Mako says and rubs his stomach, getting himself comfortable on the couch.
Asami helps Bolin clean up and after throwing their trash, a picture gets her attention. It was a picture of her and Korra in their graduation uniforms.
"Hey Bolin, why is this picture here?" She picks it up and shows it to him.
Bolin takes the picture from her. "Oh. Korra placed it here."
"Well, obviously." Asami rolls her eyes at him. "But why is it here?"
"To be honest, I don't know." Bolin scratches the back of his head. "It was already here when I got transferred to this unit." He hands the picture back to Asami, who placed it back on the counter and went to sit beside Mako.
"So, did you already know Asami when I first introduced her to you, bro?" Mako asks him, who was listening to their conversation and now had his arm over Asami.
"Nope, but she felt familiar. Like, I've seen her before but then didn't and you know..." Bolin says losing himself to his thoughts.
"No, I actually don't know what you're talking about." Mako says to his brother which made Asami giggle.
*Trigger Warning: Suicide*
(Please skip this scene if you're not comfortable with it and proceed to the next scene. I'm sorry about this.)
Mike and Joe went up ahead the stairs to check both opposite corners with Joyce on the stairs and Raf at the bottom of the stairs. Joe nods at Mike signaling to proceed, so Joe went to the left and Mike went to the right with their non-lethal shotguns out. Joyce follows Mike with her tazer out and Raf follows Joe.
"Joe, check under the door." Mike tells him and nods at Raf who does the same on their end. When they were about to check, a single gunshot got their attention and it was the room near Mike and Joe. Raf and Joyce quickly makes their way towards them.
"We heard a gunshot from out here, what the hell is going on?!" They hear Beifong's screaming on their earpieces.
Mike counts down from three and Joe busts the door down with his foot and then Raf throws a flash grenade, to be on the safe side.
"SWAT! Get on the ground now!" Mike yells as he enters the room with Joyce right behind him covering his back and checking her corners.
"P-Please, he-help us." A young woman cries out to them.
"Get on the ground, ma'am." Joyce tells the woman which she does slowly. "You to, sir." She tells the man beside the woman which he complies.
"Clear!" Joe yells.
"Guys." Raf voice comes from the far corner of the room which got everyone's attention. "You're going to have to see this."
Everyone gathers up behind him and they see a man who had pulled a trigger on his self.
"Oh my God." Joyce covers her mouth.
Mike turns away from the scene. "Captain, all hostages secured." He pauses for a moment. "And we have our guy."
Bolin rushes to the Briefing Room. He just got a call that Beifong and the others have returned.
"Are you guys, alright?" Bolin burst through the doors looking all worried but seeing everyone present, he relaxes. "Oh, everyone's here."
"What?" Joe turns to him. "Think we can't handle with only the Captain watching out for us?"
"Hey! You can't blame me for being worried." He says frowning at him.
"We're alright, Bolin." Joyce smiles at him and he returns it to her.
"Bo." Mike looks at him. "Can you get both Asami and Mako in here? We need confirmation on something."
"Sure." Bolin says to him with a confuse look. "I'll go get them."
With that, Bolin leaves the room in haste and he comes back a few minutes later.
"Okay, I got them." Bolin says panting. "What do they need to confirm?"
Everyone looked around each other with uneasiness which gave the trio a worried look and a bad feeling about what's going to happen.
"Asami?" Asami turns around to see Joyce gesturing to go to her and Joe. Asami wasn't sure on what to do but she saw Beifong give her a nod to go with them and she does and Joyce hands her a note.
"Mako." Mike gets Mako's attention and show him a picture. "Is this the man you were meeting up with?"
Mako gulps and doesn't answer right away and Bolin sees the picture and felt his throat dried up right there.
"MAKO!" Raf yells at him. "Answer the question!"
"I…uhmm…" Mako was clearly sweating badly right now. Bolin had regained himself and shoved Mako to a wall. Beifong, Mike and Raf heard a gasp of horror from where the twins and Asami were standing.
"IS IT?!" He screams at his brother.
"YES!" Mako exclaims and gets a hard slap on the face by one, nobody expected.
"Why didn't you just tell me?!" Asami yelled at him with tears falling from her eyes but she was angry.
Bolin had let go of his brother and backed away due to the wrath of one Asami Sato. Mako was stucked in a corner, cowering in fear and didn't answer his girlfriend. When he didn't answer her after a few moments, she storms off the room dropping the note Joyce gave her. Joyce and Bolin went running after her.
Joe picks up the note.
Asami, I know I don't have the right to ask you for your forgiveness but I am truly sorry for I am not the man you think I am and I have failed you.
Hiroshi Sato