Asami woke up an hour early to go to the gym and have a little work out session of her own without the others. Korra had showed her the gym yesterday when they were on their way to the Conference Hall and that she could use it anytime she wants. When she arrived, she didn't expect to find the lights already on and with someone inside.
Korra was too busy with throwing punches and kicks at the punching bag to notice that Asami was in the room, watching her intently. Asami could guess that Korra had been here for a while with all the sweat that was falling from her face, arms and back. She finishes with one last punch and begins to head to the bench to take a sip on her water.
Asami was now standing behind her, clearing her throat to declare she was present but Korra didn't even budge or even motioned that she heard her. Asami realized that the woman sitting in front of her was wearing earphones. She gently taps her shoulder but Korra who was startled, threw an elbow jab at her attacker but was caught easily by a now smirking Asami who was saying something to her.
Korra, realizing she still had the earphones on, pulled it out. "I'm sorry, what?"
Asami rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless. "Jumpy?"
"I didn't expect anyone to be up at this time." Korra says in defense.
Asami nods at her while putting on her hand wraps. "I have to agree on you on that."
Korra finishes her bottled water and wipes the sweat on her face. When she removes the towel, she sees Asami staring at her.
"What?" Korra looks behind her and sees no one there. "What is it?"
Asami shakes her head. "You…you just have a lot of scars." She says slowly.
Korra looks at herself and sighs. "I had a pretty rough time for the first few months."
"Did you really have to go through it?"
"I wasn't actually asked if I wanted to do it." Korra tells her. "It was either kill or be killed."
"How did you cope with all the pain? What keeps you going?" Asami asks.
"They give me painkillers if that's what you're asking." Korra gets up and stretches. "If that's not what you're asking, I think about you. It helps me focus."
Asami gives her a small smile and begins stretching herself. They did stretches together and Korra helped her warm up but a thought came into Asami's head and she was now giving an amused smile at Korra.
"What's so funny?" Korra asks, noticing Asami's look.
"I just realized I blocked you so easily a while ago." She says with a proud grin.
Korra pouted. "I didn't want to go all out on someone who might be friendly."
"And what if I wasn't?" Asami counters. "You'd be dead right now and no one would know what had happened to you."
"The second I see that you're an enemy, you'd be dead too." Korra tells her sternly.
Asami ponders about it but knew she was right. "Okay, I'll give you that but that attempt a while ago was weak." Asami teases her. "I remembered when we had our self defense training together; I would beat you when we spar with each other and you'd be fuming."
Korra blushes but then smirks at her, knowing she has the upper hand now. "True, Miss Sato but I bet you can't beat me now." She tells her with a proud grin.
"You're on, Avatar."
"What happened to the others?"
"Shark and Fox got killed and Sim got taken away." Vulture answers.
"Pity." The man states blankly. "Were you given orders to engage?"
Vulture looks up to him. "N-No…"
"What were you told to do?"
"We were ordered to secure Aiwei and Sim." Vulture avoids the man's gaze. "But Shark thought we had an advantage of taking out the Avatar and get ransom for kidnapping the Sato girl."
"And where is Shark now?"
Vulture doesn't answer him and the man sighs heavily.
"You and your team weren't fit to take on the Avatar alone!" He hisses at her which made her wince. "And with that way of thinking, I lost a valuable asset! The Red Lotus would not like this at all but maybe there is hope for you yet."
Vulture looks up at him with a confuse look and suddenly, two people from the shadows come out of nowhere and grab her harshly.
"W-What's going on?" She struggles to break free. "Where are you taking me?!"
"It's a surprise." The man gives out a devious grin to her and she starts screaming. "I've been dying for another test subject and you might be perfect for it."
The moment Suyin had heard two bodies were brought to the morgue; she immediately made a dash towards it. But upon arriving and seeing the body of a man and woman, her breath catches in her throat but then she realizes that this wasn't Aiwei and Sim and she lets out a sigh of relief. She then notices Kya to motion her over.
"What happened?" Suyin asks.
"The Trio was supposed to help Aiwei and Sim escape our compound but decided to attack Korra and Asami while waiting." Kya points to the throat of the man and woman. "Big mistake."
Suyin nods. "So, where is Aiwei and Sim?"
"Aiwei got away with Vulture and Sim's at the Isolation Cell." Kya sighs. "She's not giving out information easily and Tenzin thought it would be a good idea to keep her there in the dark for a while."
Suyin looks at her. "But…she hates the dark?"
"Exactly." Kya notices Suyin's concerned face and she puts a hand on her shoulder. "Look, I know how much you care for the both of them but she betrayed you. They both did, there was nothing you could've done. They chose it and they're going to have to deal with the consequences whether you like it or not."
Asami wasn't really surprised that Korra had gotten better, faster and even more competitive than before but she was surprise that she kept toe to toe with Korra. Asami was a fast learner so Korra wasn't really surprised with that. They both blocked each other's attacks and avoided any attempts for a knockback. They hadn't notice that there was a crowd gathering and watching them from afar.
"What's going on?" Bolin and Mako entered to see people silently betting on whom would win in this "friendly" spar match.
Opal turned to Bolin and gave him a small smile. "Betting on who would win." She points towards her twin brothers. "You guys want to bet?"
Mako turns his attention back to the pair in the ring. "How long have they been doing this?"
Wing looks at the clock. "I'll say…between 1-2 hours. I'm not really sure how long it's been going but when Wei and I got here, they were already at it."
"What are the odds on the bet?" Bolin asks Wing.
"Odds are in the favor of Korra." Wing says excitedly. "There's no way Asami can keep up!"
"I don't know about that, bro." Opal nudges him. "It seems like Asami can keep up with Korra."
Bolin notices Kai, Pema and Katara from the Infirmary and Bumi, a guy they met in the Infirmary as well and three children with them. He also notices that Joe and Joyce were also present.
"I thought you guys went out for a jog?" Bolin asks.
"We were!" Joyce exclaims excitedly as she watches the pair spar.
"But we saw this crowd and curiosity got the better of both of us." Joe smiles sheepishly at them.
"Who're you rooting for?" Mako asks. "It looks pretty hard to guess who'd win at this point."
"I'm with Opal, Pema, Katara, Ikki and Jinora on Asami." Joyce answers him. "Most of the guys think Korra got this in the bag but who knows really."
It was too dark for comfort. Sim didn't like it one bit but she shouldn't fall into their tricks or tortures. She'd rather die than give out information but being in the dark for so long is making her claustrophobic. She breathes in and out slowly, trying to calm herself down.
"Relax." Sim tells herself. "They won't harm you."
"I'm not sure about that." She hears a man say behind the closed doors. "We don't take mutiny lightly here. You of all people should know that."
She glares at the door. "You won't break me. No one can break me."
"We'll see." The man says to her.
She starts laughing. "Su wouldn't dare, I'm like family to her and so is Aiwei. She wouldn't harm me!"
She waits for a response but after a few moments when she didn't receive any, she started screaming and was trying to break herself free from being tied to a chair.
Suyin sighs as she hears Sim screaming down the hall and hears a loud thud. "She's right, Tenzin. I won't be able to do it; I'm too close to this."
Tenzin looks at her with a surprise expression. "But you wanted Korra to do the same thing to Asami?"
"She might have the stomach for it but I don't." She ruffles her hair. "I can't even do it to my own kids."
"I don't think Korra would be able to do it, to be honest." Tenzin puts a hand on her shoulder and he squeezes. "And besides, you're not alone on this. You have us."
Punch after punch, Asami had barely evaded the attacks of the Avatar. She notices that Korra was now smirking and had twinkle in her eyes. Asami was trying so hard not to show that she was amused with how Korra thinks she has the upper hand now when in fact it was the other way around.
They kept at it until Korra made a mistake of leaving herself open for a few seconds and Asami took the opportunity to smack her softly on the cheek which Korra thought would hurt. Seeing Korra's confuse expression, Asami was now smirking which made Korra let out a frustrated groan.
Korra starts picking up speed with her punches and kicks but Asami easily avoids them. Korra throws a punch but Asami catches it and holds her hand there, Korra struggles to break free but throws another punch with her other hand and Asami does it again. Korra couldn't get her hands free and she closes her eyes as to brace for impact and accept defeat but what she didn't expect was a soft pair of lips kissing her slowly.
Korra stood there, stunned. When Asami pulls away, Korra whimpers for the lost of contact and when she opens her eyes, she sees Asami smirking and landing a blow which made Korra fall on her back with a dumbfounded expression on her face. She tries to get up but Asami straddles her and exhaustion hits Korra immediately.
Asami leans down to Korra's ear and whispers softly which made Korra stiffen. "I win."
With that, Asami gets off from Korra and gets out from the ring. She grabs her towel and proceeds to leave the gym but turns around to see Korra still lying there on the mat.
"Thanks for the workout, Korra." With that, she leaves after greeting everyone there in the gym.
Wing and the other guys approach Korra and Wing helps her up.
"What the hell, Korra?" Wei scowls at her. "I really thought you had her!"
"Some Avatar you are." Bumi says to her grimly.
"I lost twenty yuans betting on you." Wing says. "We all did."
"I guess we underestimated Asami." Joe tells them while Mako and Bolin nodded.
"You're an embarrassment to our organization, soldier!" Meelo exclaims.
"I…really thought I had her." Korra was still lost in her own thoughts but she starts smiling widely. "She's really something."
She grabs her towel quickly and begins to head out from the gym, ignoring the yells from the guys and cheers from the women for winning.
"Are you sure we should do this? I don't think she can handle it." One of the man whispers to his partner while strapping an unconscious Vulture to a chair.
"She can handle it." He says reassuring to the man and maybe to himself. "The First says she can take it."
"Amon's been saying that for the past five victims he brought here to us!" The man exclaims. "And look what happened, we killed five people in the process."
"Don't let your brother hear you, Tarrlok!" The man smacks him. "He doesn't like it when you question him."
"That's why I'm asking you, Ace." He hisses back at him. "You idiot."
"What's the hold up over there?" A voice freezes them in place. "Are we ready to proceed?"
Ace clears his throat. "Yes, the First. We are ready to proceed."
"How many of this Heishi serum do you still have, Amon?" He questions his brother. "We can't keep wasting them."
He shrugs. "Not that much left but I don't doubt that it would be wasted on this woman." He turns to Ace. "Do it."
Ace begins to inject the serum into the woman. The rush of the fluid makes her jolt up and tries to break free but the straps were secured tightly. She starts struggling and her wrists begins to redden from the force of pulling her arm away, her eyes start bleeding and she starts screaming before falling silent.
Tarrlok checks her pulse and sighs. "See, another failure."
He was about to pull out the straps off the woman but she suddenly holds his wrist down and startles him. She glares at him and a devious smile forms on her lips before letting him go.
"You lack faith, brother." Amon smirks at him. "Let's put her out in the field."
It was late in the afternoon when they let out a really exhausted Sim and led her into another room. Both her arms were being held by Wing and Wei and following behind them were Bumi and Kya.
"You think she's going to crack?" Kya whispers to her brother.
Bumi shakes his head. "I don't think so but let's just see how much we can get her to talk before we throw her back in the Isolation Cell." He made sure that Sim could at least hear the last two words clearly, seeing that she tensed up a bit, it worked.
Sim had realized she had no idea where they were taking her. The hallway she was being carried by wasn't familiar to her and she was afraid to ask but she was too curious than being afraid.
"Wha-" She gulps a lump in her throat and licks her dry lips. "What is this place? I'm not familiar with the area."
Wing shakes his head. "Frankly, you shouldn't know about this area at all."
"Not a lot of people come down here and you're the first one since…" Wei ponders a bit. "How long ago was it?"
"Five...Ten years ago." Bumi guesses. "I'm not really sure."
"Somewhere in between five to ten years then." Wei continues.
Before Sim could question them, they stopped near a door and Bumi goes in front and opens the door. Wing and Wei then bring Sim inside and place her on a chair where they tie her hands behind it and leaving her all alone.
A few minutes later, Suyin enters the room and Sim perks up a bit.
"Su." She gasps out. "What's happening? Why don't I know about this place? The blood smells so fresh in here."
Su gives her a confuse look. "You do know you're bleeding, right?"
Sim widens her eyes and for the first time, she feels her hands had been moist with some sticky substance and she sees Su pointing at the trail of blood that leads right up to her.
"When…When did I start bleeding?" Sim asks Su.
Su looks at her grimly. "You won't bleed out, don't worry."
With that, Su closes the door and Sim can feel the color leaving her face when she was left in the dark again.
Asami was surprised that Korra wasn't being a sore loser with what happened earlier in the gym. This wasn't the same Korra she knew before, she matured. The old Korra would be pouting about losing the competition. But here she was, sitting right next to her and enjoying the drinks everyone was buying from the bet they won earlier.
Asami observes the woman beside her. Korra's muscles had become firmer than before and scars were present in almost all the areas that weren't covered in her clothing. Asami notices a scar that looked pretty deep on her right arm and she couldn't help but brush her hand slowly over it.
"Hmm." Korra gives a soft sigh. "I remember what happened when I got that scar."
"What happened?" Asami looks at her.
"I don't know when it happened or maybe it was after a few weeks when I was taken." Korra takes a chug of her drink before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Tenzin made me lean on the wall and he told me not to flinch at whatever came at me or something worse might happen."
"Is that what happened?" Asami asks slowly. "You flinched?"
Korra shakes her head. "It was hard not to but I endured. Remember the glaive I threw last night?" Asami nods and lets Korra continue. "Yeah, Su threw one of those at me but it was bigger than the one I had with me and it perfectly landed on my arm."
Asami winces a bit at the thought of it landing on her own arm. "Didn't it hurt?"
Korra looks and gives her a small smile. "It did, but it hurt a lot more when it gets pulled out but I stood my ground."
Asami and Korra see Opal laughing. "If standing your ground meant you were screaming when they pulled it out then yeah, you stood your ground."
Korra glares at Opal but a small blush creeps into her cheeks and which Opal laughs even harder. Asami pulls Korra's face to look at her again and she gives a quick kiss on her lips.
"You don't have to impress me, Korra." Asami says smirking. "I already know how tough you are."
Korra gives her a crooked grin but later realizes she was making fun of her as well and she scowls as both Opal and Asami start laughing.
"Korra." Jinora walks up to their table. "Dad needs to talk with you."
Sensing her tone, Opal turns to her and was surprise to see Wing and Wei behind her, who looked all sobered up. "What's wrong?"
Both her brothers' shrugs and Jinora sighs. "I'm not sure but dad really needs to talk to Korra."
Mike received a call from the local bar that one of the Trios was present and was heavily armed. The bartender and owner were afraid to ask her to leave the bar since they didn't want to piss her off and they think sending the cops might let her leave peacefully.
"This feeling I'm having isn't right." Beifong tells them as they pull over in front of the bar that called them. "Maybe we should've brought more people."
Raf looks at her funny. "Are you serious? It's just one woman and so what if she's heavily armed?" He starts gearing up with Mike beside him. "We're three and she's alone. It's nothing we can't handle and besides, there are cops here with us in case…I don't know."
"Don't worry, Captain."Mike shrugs. "It would be over before you even know it."
Mike and Raf went in the bar with non-lethal shotguns and a taser gun. There was no need to make things worse but they still had to be careful about approaching the woman. They see the woman in the dark corner of the room where most of the customers had backed away since she was giving them all a look that didn't look friendly at all and then he realizes that this was the infamous Vulture but where was Shark and Fox?
Mike feels his throat dry up and he clears his throat. "Excuse me."
The woman turns to him and Mike freezes to where he was standing. The look she was giving didn't seem human at all and he feels a shiver at the back of his neck.
"We need to ask you to leave, Vulture." Raf continues for him. How Raf wasn't afraid of the woman in front of them, he would never know but Raf took hesitant steps forward. "Quietly."
"Why?" The woman smirks at him. "I'm not doing anything and here I am greeted by the cops."
"You're scaring my customers away, it's bad for business!" The bar owner exclaims behind a group of people.
She starts laughing maniacally and with one swift movement, she pulls out one of her twin blades and pulls it over one of his customers. Before the customer could run or scream, she slices his throat and with that, everyone started screaming and running out leaving Mike and Raf with the crazed woman.
"Stop right there!" Mike gasps out as the woman slowly approaches both of them. "Or we will fire!"
She licks the blood on her twin blade and smiles deviously at them and before she could do anything, Raf fires a taser at her, shocking her and putting her on her knees.
Korra and the twin brothers were making haste in their bikes back to Republic City. After Tenzin and the others were able to "persuade" Sim to give out all the information she knew, Tenzin had his eldest daughter to summon Korra and the twins.
Apparently, one of Su's scouts had call in about the whereabouts of Vulture and Su told Tenzin to send in Korra and her twin sons. Korra gave Asami the heads up on where she was going and the others happened to eavesdrop on their conversation which earned them an arrow near the foot.
And with what Sim told them, they had been trying to test a super soldier serum on people that have the opportunity of surviving and from what she knows, no one has because apparently your cells are being destroyed and they're trying to find someone whose cells can regenerate as fast as it dies.
"Do you think mom might be right about Vulture having the Heishi in her?" Wing yells.
"When was she ever wrong?" Wei beckons back at his brother.
"Aiwei and Sim?" Wing suggests.
Korra sighs in her helmet. "You know she wasn't wrong about both of them, they're the one who strayed away from us."
Wing and Wei both yell out in frustration and Korra couldn't blame them. Korra then sees the lights of Republic City and starts to speed up with the twins following right behind her.
Raf lets out a sigh of relief as he sees Vulture unconscious on the ground. Mike approaches her slowly but then she shots her hands up and pulls Mike down to the ground which knocked him out. She was about to stab him with her twin blades but Raf starts shooting his non-lethal shotgun at her. The shots were a nuisance to her and she groans and lets Mike go and turns her attention to Raf.
Raf was shooting at her while walking back slowly but he ends up cornered into a wall and he had no bullets in his shotgun. He sees Vulture pulling out her other twin blade and was about to strike him down but he hears a big thud and sees Vulture falling to a pile of chairs. He turns to see who saved his skin but all he sees was three black hooded figures standing.
He was about to go help Mike up but he feels a sharp object penetrating his left thigh and falls to the ground with a scream of pain. He turns to see a blade that went through his thighs. With that, the figure with an eye patch start firing arrows at a now pissed Vulture who gets two shots into her shoulders while catching one of the arrows in midair that was aimed for her head.
Vulture snaps the arrow with her palm. "Nice to see you again, Avatar." She begins to pull out the two arrows that were shot to her shoulder and she sees the Avatar eyes open in shock.
"Heishi leveled me up." Vulture smirks at her. "For the first time, I feel like I may be able to defeat you now."
Korra remains silent before her foe and she sees at the corner of her eye that Wing and Wei had crossbows ready on the floor and they begin to pull Raf out as fast as they could but the blade wasn't helping.
"I'm sorry about this." Wing says to Raf.
Raf was confuse on what he was apologizing for and was about to ask him when the other figure pulls out the blade out from his thigh and he screams.
"For that." Wei tells him as they pull him out of the bar where Beifong opened up her truck and placed an injured Raf in the passenger's seat. The brothers go back in and help Korra and get Mike out safely.
When they enter, they see Korra fighting off Vulture with their blades. Korra had the speed to block and evade her opponent's attacks but Vulture had the strength and they both know Korra couldn't hold off for long. They see Mike and start approaching him but a yell gets their attention and Korra lands on both of them, knocking them farther from where Mike was laying.
Korra shakes her head to clear her head from the buzzing where blood started pouring. She helps the twins up but was pulled away from her back and she was thrown across the room knocking her out. Wing and Wei rolled out of the way when two blades came crashing down on to them.
They get up and Wing starts throwing horse tranquilizers at Vulture. She stops in her tracks and Wei fires two arrows with a wire connected to both of them and she stumbles a bit but Wing does the same and she gets pinned to the wall. Wing and Wei gave each other a high five and as soon as they turn back to Vulture she had already gotten herself loose and was throwing a table right at Wing.
Wei pushes his brother away and ends up getting himself hit by the table which dislocates his right shoulder. Wing sees his brother struggling to get up and he starts firing arrows at Vulture who either blocks it or ignores it but someone jumps on her back and by the looks of it, it was Mike and he was trying to lean both of them to where the crossbows where set.
"Fire!" He yells but he sees Wing hesitating. "Do it! Now's your chance!"
And with that, Wing presses a button where three arrows fired simultaneously at the back of Mike which goes through Vulture. Mike spits out blood and Vulture falls into her knees before falling to the ground. Korra comes to when she sees her longest friend getting shot behind his back and she yells. She was about to go to him but Beifong comes in yelling.
"We have to get out of here. A minute and thirty seconds are left on the timer!"
Korra then realizes that wasn't enough time for her to get Mike out and she says a silent prayer in Latin before getting up and helping Wing carry Wei out. Beifong had already loaded up one of the bikes to the back with Wei in it.
Korra motions Beifong to follow her and Wing. She hesitates at first but she had no choice anymore and they drove as fast as they could to the direction of Zhao Fu as the bomb explodes behind them.
Asami and the others rushed into the Infirmary when they heard Korra and the others were back with Raf and Beifong. When they entered, Asami was relief to see Korra with only a head bandage and few scrathes and bruises on her. Korra sees Asami's look and smiles sheepishly at her before she was enveloped by a big hug from her girlfriend.
Asami hears Opal gasp and she notices Wei was wearing a cast on his shoulder. Wing explains what had happen and when he finishes, he and Opal give his brother a big hug as well.
Beifong comes out from where an unconscious Raf was being patched up by Katara and Pema and she stops on her tracks when she sees Joe, Joyce, Mako, Bolin and Asami. With the look she was giving, they were expecting to get yelled at but her gaze turns soft when she sees the person next to Asami.
"Hey there, kid." Lin gives her a small smile. "Good to see you're doing alright."
Korra nods and smiles back at her and she turns back to Asami but she had a questioning look on her and same goes with the others. Korra shakes her head shamefully, clearly forgetting to tell them about something.
"Riiiight." Korra scratches the back of her neck and laughs nervously. "The Captain here is Su's…scout."
As if on cue, Su walks in the Infirmary with Tenzin, Kya and Bumi right behind her. Su sees Lin and she approaches her and gives her a warm hug which Lin gives back.
"Hey sis, it's been a long time." She turns around to where the gasps had come from and it was none other than from her latest visitors. She shakes her head and chuckles softly. "Lin here is my sister."
"I thought she was your scout…?" Bolin questions and looks at Korra who shrugs but smiles.
"She is our scout." Tenzin says and gives a small nod to Lin while Kya and Bumi greeted her cheerfully. Tenzin turns back to Bolin. "She's also Su's sister."
"Did you know all along that they had Korra from the start?" Joe turns to his Captain who shakes her head.
"No, I didn't know they had taken her but after a few months, I did." Lin tells them.
"Why didn't you tell us about her?" Joyce demanded.
Lin looks at her sister as if asking an unspoken question but Su just nods her head and smiles. "Because I didn't know who to trust, to be honest and we heard rumors that someone wants Korra and I couldn't risk that and besides, I didn't know where they were staying since they always keep me in the dark until now."
Mako then notices someone missing. "Where's Mike?"
Wing and Wei look at each other with a worried look and all Beifong could do was look down. Korra tenses in Asami's hold as the question was asked. Asami squeezes Korra, making her relax a bit and she lets out a breath she was holding.
"Mike's gone." She says slowly. "He helped us take down Vulture but I couldn't get him out." Tears started forming in her eyes and Asami could only rub her back slowly and gently. Korra wipes away her tears with her backhand and continues. "There wasn't enough time…and…" Korra couldn't continue, so she just sat there and leaned on to Asami who was holding on to her. Silence fell into the room but was suddenly broken by someone who they didn't expect.
"SPIDERS! DON'T COME NEAR ME!" Raf yells which startles everyone. They see him trying to struggle to get out from bed but Pema and Kya hold him down and Katara gives him a sedative which would help him fall back to sleep and calm down while the others laugh at his sudden outburst.
In Republic City, a hands shots up from the debris and out comes a very disgruntled Vulture who lets out a very angry yell.
A/N:
And here is Chapter 7, I hope you guys enjoyed it! :D
Thank you to the people who followed and favored this story. Thank you also to esther and Woop for your reviews. :]
esther: I can almost imagine you screaming. :P Well, not really since I don't really know what you look like but...yeah, you get my point. XD
Woop: I haven't notice that Asami kept crying until you brought it up to me, hahaha. I guess I made her too emotional. XD