Hey everybody, I've been working on this story for a while now and been publishing it on reddit. I've decided to start cross posting it here, to help reach a wider audience. I'll be posting the 6 chapters I've written so far over the next few days/weeks. I welcome any and all feedback.

Chapter 4 - Giving Aid

Yuan and Kunchen, two days after they had taken down Preacher Kyu and saved Li, learned the hard truth of the universe, that food is finite. This lesson came during breakfast on the second day, when they found that the remaining food in their supply was a single loaf of bread. In a unanimous decision, they both opted to stop at the nearest city on the road, which was sadly a 5 hour drive. It was mid-afternoon when they arrived taking them an additional hour to find the market square of the city. They parked the jeep and made their way into the bustling crowds of people, flooding into the streets, trying to get to the markets before they closed for the day.

The market square was at the center of the city, taking up multiple blocks. Tents and open shop windows crowded the sides of streets, all shaded underneath the modestly sized buildings of the downtown area. Though it was easily dwarfed by Zaofu, the crowds and 6 story buildings were still enough to fluster Yuan, frequently distracting him while they were looking for food. Kunchen had to continually tap on his shoulder to bring him back down to earth. After they had found some bread, vegetables, and rice that looked good, the two found themselves at a fruit stand examining the produce.

"These papayas look pretty good," Kunchen remarked, squeezing the fruit a little bit.

"Oh yeah they seem great," replied Yuan in an uninterested tone.

"You know for all the crap you gave me the other day about stopping and staring, it looks like your neck is actually made of rubber from all your gawking," Kunchen said with a dry chuckle.

Yuan turned his head to him with a flat and annoyed look, "It was a sunset. You wanted to stop to watch a sunset. An event that by it's very nature, happens literally everyday." Feeling his point was thoroughly made, Yuan returned his attention to the city.

"At least the sunset is pretty. This city isn't much, even if we're not comparing it to Zaofu. Now that I think about it, it looked pretty crummy on the way in. A lot of the roadways were closed down, and a bunch of the buildings looked like they were about to collapse. I wonder if something happened recen-…. Are you even listening?" Kunchen turned his attention away from the fruit back to his traveling companion. Yuan still had his head turned up at the buildings, but the look on his face was no longer blank wonder, but one of puzzled focus, directed at a building on the other side of the intersection they were on. "Yuan?"

"Kunchen, do you see that light in the building?" Yuan pointed upwards. Kunchen turned his head to see a small red light flashing in the ….

BOOM

The entire sky came alive in a violent burst of fiery light, blinding the two benders. The light came with a deafening roar, that quickly faded to a high pitched ringing in the ears of all those within several hundred meters. Yuan and Kunchen both slapped their hands over their ears, and were rapidly blinking their vision back. When it had finally returned, the two looked upon the crowd to see chaos had overtaken the market square. People were rushing, shoving, and mutely screaming trying to escape. From below where the explosion had occurred dust was settling around a pile of rubble, with the gray slowly fading revealing stains of red within the pile. They both looked around in desperation, trying to find a …

BOOM

This new explosion came from above, this time, right across the street from them. Not blinded by this one, and incapable of being rendered deaf again, Yuan reacted quickly. He sprinted through the crowd, quickly throwing aside anyone unfortunate enough to be in his way. Now underneath the epicenter, he raised his hands to catch the debris, only a meter or two before it would have crushed someone. His knees buckled under the weight of the building chunks, but he held his stance. People all fled from around him, and after a few seconds, he was able to lower the debris without harm. As he looked up, he turned to Kunchen who was too busy staring at the back at him to notice the red light flashing in the building next to him. Yuan quickly began waving his hands towards the light, causing Kunchen to turn his head, a second before …

BOOM

This one went with another soundless ring, although Yuan caught it in all it's bright and violent glory. He turned his face to the ground, eyes closed and filling with tears. Half from the light, half from the sudden loss of his friend.

The tears quickly turned to those of happiness, as Yuan regained his vision, and saw that Kunchen had surrounded himself and several passerby's with cyclon of air, that had shielded them from the the explosion. With his panicking slowly subsiding, Yuan turned only to have his stomach drop. A single bag was sitting at the center of the intersection, with everyone in the crowd scrambling around it, not even noticing. Yuan's mind briefly flashed back to Omashu, when he and Teng had seen a similarly unattended bag. They paid it no mind, and after they had rounded a few corners, they heard the massive boom, and had turned back to witness the ensuing carnage. All told 5 people had lost their lives that day, and Yuan wasn't about to let there be a repeat of that. He slammed his heel against the ground and opened a deep hole beneath the bag, letting it drop for a second before closing the small crevice with a quick hand motion. A another few seconds passed before he felt a small shake of the earth, that indicated the bag had detonated without damage.

Yuan let out a small sigh and began to walk back to help Kunchen, when he felt a small tug at his leg. A man, no older than thirty, had grabbed ahold of his pants and was trying to beg for help. His left leg was mangled and bloody, causing him to crawl along the ground, as he was pleading. Slowly Yuan's hearing returned and he made out the words, amidst the cacophony of the crowd around them, "Please take me to the river."

If Yuan had any doubts about the man's request before, all were lost as he stood in the shadow of the massive ship, currently harbored along the river, in the port of the city. It was a United Republic battleship, although a quick glance at the top revealed the weapons had all been decommissioned. People were storming the ramps leading into the ship, all scrambling to get in as fast as possible. Yuan stood in the crowd, with the injured man slung over his shoulder. Behind him stood Kunchen, who was helping a woman with a bad limp stand. It took them a few minutes to fight their way into the ship, but eventually they got in, only to see the chaos building inside.

All manner of injured persons were filled into beds and seats, as worried family and friends stood over. In between these throngs were several watertribe men and women rushing about, all of whom were wearing white aprons with a small blue wave pattern on them. "Ahhhh," thought Yuan to himself. "This is a Healing Corps. ship."

The Healing Corps. was the one thing that Avatar Korra had accomplished that no one dared criticize. She had started the organization a few years into her peacekeeping efforts, after the death of one of her former masters, whom was said to be the greatest healer to ever live. It's mission was simple, to provide aid to all those who are injured and hurt. It didn't matter the circumstances or alliances, if you came to a Healing Corps. tent, they would work to the best of their abilities to help you. They'd helped save millions over the past few decades, and were one of the most revered organizations in the world, despite all of it's members only being volunteers, who simply had to meet a few baseline requirements for service. Yuan had seen them in action in Omashu, and held them in the utmost respect ever since.

Him and Kunchen helped their two injured into some of the last open bed's. As they made their way to the exit they saw more people stumbling or barely standing, and soon they were helping people to any open spot or seat where they could sit or lie, at least for a little bit. After an hour of work, the ship had begun to die down with beds opening up after the easier cases had been helped, and the hardest ones had found peace. Yuan and Kunchen found themselves leaning and panting against a back wall, when they were approached by an older woman flanked by a teenage girl about their age.

"My staff and patients have been mentioning an airbender and earthbender who've been helping them," began the old woman, in a warm grandmotherly voice. "I'm assuming this was you two?" They both gave tired nods. "I can't begin to thank the two of you enough. Rushes like these always leave us in mess, and extra help is always appreciated. My name is Iluak, might I ask your names?"

"I'm Kunchen"

"Yuan."

"It's a pleasure to meet both of you. These past few months have been hard on all of us, and help is all too rare. Please stay the night, as payment for your help." Iluak kindly offered.

"We would love to," said Yuan happy to have another roof over his head for a night. Iluak smiled at this and gave them a final thanks, before continuing about her duties. The young girl lagged behind however. She stood only an inch shorter than Yuan, with an athletically slender frame. She had the blue eyes of the water tribe, as well as light brown hair, which she held back in small braid.

She looked at Yuan. "You have a pretty nasty cut on your forehead, do you want me to take a look?" she asked. Yuan gave a surprised expression and felt his forehead, where sure enough, an unnoticed gash was bleeding all over.

"Oh… um yeah actually, that would be great," he said still a little dazed. He sat down on a nearby chair, as the girl slowly drew water out of a sack hanging from her belt. She swirled it around into a large mid-air blob, before applying it to his forehead, where it soon began to glow, as it's cool, healing sensation washed over his face. Yuan made a small groaning noise as the water touched his face.

"Don't be such a baby," said the girl with a small smirk.

Yuan gave a quick glare, before clamping his teeth and letting out a deep exhale. "So what's your name, anyways?" he asked.

"Nerrivik."

"Iluak said you guys have been getting hit pretty hard the past few months. This wasn't the first attack?" pressed Yuan.

"No, this is the fourth," Nerrivik replied in a defeated voice.

"That explains all the closed roads and damaged buildings we saw coming in," exclaimed Kunchen as it finally dawned on him. "Why are they targeting this city though?"

"United Republic Peacekeepers recently seized control of this state, after the governor was outed for having ties to corruption and terrorism. The Rising Earth took offense to this, and have been attacking cities all across the state, to try and force the United Republic to pull out." Nerrivik explained.

"Then why aren't the United Republic helping? Isn't that their whole job?" Kunchens voice was shocked and indignant. He couldn't imagine why this was being allowed to continue.

"They're stuck trying to restore order in the capital, where there have been even more attacks. They sent out orders to all local police forces, but most either support The Rising Earth, have been bribed, or are being threatened to comply. Our local police tried to act, but the second attack targeted the police station. They stopped trying after that." Nerrivik continued her narration, her voice devoid of hope.

"So that's it, they're just going to let them continue killing people?" Kunchen was completely outraged.

"Thats how it usually works," finally chimed in Yuan. The two gave him a questioning look. "I've had to deal with Rising Earth threats in my village. They come in, push everyone around that doesn't immediately comply, and kills those that might oppose them. Do you know how many agents are active in this city?"

Nerrivik had a surprised look from how knowledgeable Yuan was, but quickly shook it off, "It's only one, we believe. He makes demands a few hours after every bombing. People have started calling him 'The Bloody Bomber'."

"One guy can do all this?" Kunchen's disbelief was growing each second.

"Sadly," replied Nerrivik, as she finished her healing. "I can show you guys to a room where you can stay for the night." They kindly accepted, and Nerrivik motioned them to follow. They ended up trekking through a maze of narrow hallways and stairs within the hull of the ship, before finally arriving at a small room with two open cots. She let them get settled before returning to her duties around the ship.

"I can't believe that people are just letting something like this happen. How does it come to this?" Kunchen was asking almost rhetorically.

"I don't know, but this situation is more common then you'd think," replied Yuan trying to be reassuring. "People can just be monsters sometimes."

"And there's nothing we can do to help?" Asked Kunchen one last time in desperation.

Yuan gave Kunchen a final grim look, before he rolled over in his cot to sleep. He honestly couldn't think of any way to help. At least not until the next morning.

The idea struck Yuan as he and Kunchen were eating breakfast in the ships dining facilities. A large room, meant to accommodate the ships full 100 man crew, it felt empty with only the 30 some odd members of the Healing Corps. After all that had happened yesterday, Yuan and Kunchen had completely forgotten they hadn't eaten all day, and woke up this morning determined to make up for this mistake.

Sitting at a table a row over, there were three medics all listening intently to a radio. It was loud enough that Yuan and Kunchen began to overhear the news station playing. "The attacks in Dailan's market square yesterday unfortunately claimed the lives of 13 innocent men and women. This has been the fourth such attack on the city in the past few weeks, and there seems to be no end in sight. After the attack, the perpetrator, informally known as 'The Bloody Bomber' released a statement on an untraceable radio signal, which we will replay a recording of." There was a brief pause followed by a crackle of static. After this a distorted and heavy voice boomed through the radio's speakers, "Greetings, again, to the people of Dailan. Because The United Republic has continued their failure to remove themselves from internal Earth States affair, The Rising Earth has no choice, but to continue our campaign towards freedom. The attack at the market square today is another sad reminder that The United Republic cares nothing for the people of the Earth States, and is willing to let them die by the dozen, so they can continue their imperialistic stranglehold on our once great people. The Rising Earth will continue our fight to remove them from the Earth States, and see to a bright future, with freedom and peace for all people of our nation."

This was enough to make Yuan's blood boil. He'd heard spiels like this before, but never had he heard someone who just murdered over a dozen people have the audacity to put the blame on The United Republic. He wasn't the only one mad, however. Across from him, Kunchen was fuming so bad his hands were actually shaking a little. It was right then, that a brilliant thought struck Yuan.

"Wait a minute... Oh, holy crap," exclaimed Yuan in a whispered voice.

Kunchen raised an eyebrow, "What is it?"

"I just remembered, yesterday in the market, before one of the bombs went off, I opened a hole and buried it. It might still be intact. We should probably tell the police." He frantically tried to explain himself.

"It won't work," they suddenly heard. They both looked to the voice and saw Nerrivik sitting down at the table, next to them. "Remember what I told you yesterday, the police have stopped looking into it."

Yuan slammed his fist into the table, frustrated his plan had been shot down so quick. Before he could raise objection it was Kunchen who spoke, "Then we'll just have to check it out ourselves." Both gave him a surprised look before he continued, "If there's something we can do to try and stop this guy, then the only right thing to do is to try. I'm not going to do nothing while he keeps on murdering innocent people."

The table was silent for a brief moment before Yuan sighed, " You're right, we at least have to try."

"Ok then, when do you guys want to head out?" asked Nerrivik. Once again, there was a round of surprised looks, this time from the two boys.

"Don't you have to be working here?" Asked Kunchen, puzzled at her sudden enthusiasm to help.

"Not exactly. I'm not a full member of the Healing Corps. I came to this city a few weeks ago and ran out of money. This was right after the first attack, so I volunteered to help, for food and a bed. Iluak saw that I could heal with waterbending and took me on immediately. I'm only here to help in a volunteering capacity, I can leave when I want." Yuan and Kunchen gave each other a quick look after digesting her situation, and with a small shrug welcomed her to the team.

The trio began their walk back to the decimated market shortly after their meal ended. They began in silence, but as he had before with Yuan, Kunchen grew uncomfortable with the silence from their new friend, so he decided conversation would help, "So, Nerrivik, you said you were just passing through, where are you from originally.?"

"Northern Water Tribe," she replied tersely.

"And what brings you down here?" he persisted.

"Just traveling."

"Oh," the airbender grew quiet in defeat, and Yuan suppressed a laugh, keeping his typical stoneface. As much as he'd grown to like Kunchen, he still liked seeing him get shot down.

Nerrivik took notice of the airbenders defeated tone, "Oh, I'm sorry, I just don't like talking about myself. What about you two? You don't see a lot of earth and airbenders traveling together."

Kunchen immediately launched into his and Yuan's rehearsed story of Kunchen's fake relatives, as Nerrivik politely nodded along. Before long, however, they began to enter the market square, and all conversation died as they looked on in horror.

The debris still hadn't settled, giving their tour through the wreckage a brown filter over everything. Store fronts that had only yesterday been lively and surrounded by people now stood completely destroyed. Dried blood stains were seen all around, coating several pieces of rubble in a dark red splatter. The biggest pieces of rubble had been moved into neat piles and pushed off into the corners. Sawhorses were found blocking off specific streets, but they were easily ignored without any officers to enforce them. The police had done their duty, however, as the bodies that had once littered the scene had been removed, although the stench of death was still heavy in the air.

The group soon found themselves at a deserted intersection, that seemed particularly affected by the blasts. Yuan held up his hand, signaling the others to stop. He closed his eyes and exhaled, focusing entirely on the ground. He felt around with his bending, and soon found a small cavern, about 5 meters underground. A quick stomp of his foot reopened the hole he'd made yesterday, and sent the remains of the bomb flying to the surface. The three approached the shattered mess that was once an explosive.

They carefully began to examine the pieces. Almost all of it was contorted beyond recognition, and covered in a black sooty powder. After a few moments, it was beginning to seem like a lost cause, when suddenly Nerrivik spoke up.

"Hey I actually recognize this logo." The two boys shot her a quick look. "This was a complimentary bag from a local hotel."

"Do you know where it is?" Yuan asked quickly.

"Yeah, come on follow me." Nerrivik ran off at a fast pace, with Yuan and Kunchen being quick to follow.

"Do you guys think this is where he's staying?" asked Kunchen

"Maybe, maybe not, but it's our best bet right now," replied Nerrivik from up ahead.

"Why would he leave behind such an obvious clue though?" Kunchen was still truly puzzled.

"It was a firebomb. If I hadn't suffocated it, it would have destroyed all the evidence. He probably put it on the ground level so it would do the most damage." Yuan explained in a grim tone.

The two others were silent for a bit, before Kunchen spoke up, "How do you know so much about bombs?"

"Like I said, my village had a lot of problems from The Rising Earth when I was growing up." This was only a half truth. The village had always been pushed around by the organization, and frequently made to meet their demands, but Yuan had never had never seen a bomb go off with the exception of yesterday and Omashu. He'd learned plenty, however, from a lecture Teng gave him, before Li Chen and Phu had first come to Urumqi when Yuan was 14. Teng had been rightfully wary of what the two might try to do, and had briefed Yuan and Phen about the various kinds of bombs they should look out for, just in case. Luckily the two "Freedom Fighters" had already attacked somewhere else, and were just using Urumqi to lie low. The lesson from Teng, however, had stuck with Yuan.

The three arrived at the hotel in only 15 minutes time, and were quickly directed by a disinterested bellhop to a room that had been rented for the past several weeks. They found themselves at a locked door, which Kunchen quickly blew the locks on, ignoring the various moral and legal ramifications of such an act. The door swung open to a room filled with pieces of metal, clay, wires and paper strewn about. The three slowly walked through the various supplies, moving towards a desk littered with various diagrams of different wirings. They began to dig through the documents, with Kunchen taking special interest of a map, with various red X's and O's marking different locations. Yuan took notice of a diagram, that was marked in the same ink, although he couldn't quite make out what it was. Nerrivik looked over both their shoulders, and let out a horrified gasp.

"What is it," Yuan asked her, in a calm, if slightly worried voice.

She took both the papers they were looking at, and put them on the table. She pointed at the map, "This circle marks the harbor, and the diagram Kunchen was looking at had the same layout as the Healing Corps. ship."

Yuan and Kunchen both stood there in a terrified silence for a moment. "But …. wait, why would he … I mean how could he..?" Kunchen began, his voice trembling.

Yuan's shock quickly turned to rage, "If you're not with them you're against them." he said in a quiet, yet infuriated tone. He quickly broke towards the door, "Come on, we said we were going to try and stop him, and now we know where he is. Let's go!" he roared these orders as he turned the corner, now at a running pace.

Without a chance to think about their next action, Nerrivik and Kunchen chased after him, having to sprint just to catch up. It would normally be an almost hour walk to get from the hotel to the harbor, but at their pace they arrived by the docks in 15 minutes. They gave a quick search around the area, before Nerrivik saw a movement on the top deck of the ship. Wasting no time, Yuan grabbed both his friends under his arms, before launching them into the air with a spike of earth.

They all landed with surprising grace, considering how chaotic their launch had been. Up top they saw a shocked 20 year old man, with a bag slung over his back. Around him, and on various sides of the ship they saw a series of explosive devices all lined up. Nerrivik drew a whip of water from the pouch at her side, and shot it directly at the bomber, who narrowly managed to dodge with a roll. He responded by throwing three small explosive balls at the trio, but Kunchen threw them into the air with an air gust, where they exploded harmlessly. The bomber used these explosions as a brief distraction, allowing himself to escape down a hatch to the lower part of the deck. Nerrivik gave immediate chase while Yuan jumped to the side of the ship, and drew a puck of earth from the ground below.

"Kunchen," he barked, "Keep these bombs in the air, and make sure they can't do any damage, we'll go after him." After receiving a confirming nod from the airbender, who soon began picking up the explosive devices in a ball of air, Yuan jumped down the hatch to the lower decks. Below he saw Nerrivik jumping back as two smaller explosions landed in front of her, before returning with a blast of her water. Yuan ran to give her aid, throwing his earth disk at the bombers head. The insurgent was faster than they expected, both dodging the water, and throwing a small bomb into the disk, destroying it mid-flight. He promptly ducked around a corner, with the two benders pursuit.

They followed him through the maze that was the former warship, where they eventually found him standing at the end of a long hallway. In hand he had what Yuan quickly identified as another fire bomb. With a sick grin, he dropped the bomb, before stepping backwards through a doorway, and sealing the large steel door. The explosive went off the second the door closed, unleashing a stream of fire down the narrow hallway. Nerrivik shielded herself, preparing for the inevitable, but Yuan stepped between her and the blaze. Throwing both his hands forward, he met the inferno. It hit his hands, ballooning around them, and spilling out all around him. The flames were overpowering, as Yuan pushed desperately against them. Nerrivik opened her eyes, surprised she had yet to be burned, and looked on in awe as Yuan slowly began to control the flames, and draw them into his palms. He strained against them for several more seconds, with the blaze continuing to push him, but for every inch he lost he gave a grunt and fought harder. The heat began to get to him, his vision blurred, his arms grew heavier, and his whole body broke out into a torrential sweat. Giving one last push, he drew the remaining flames from the bomb into his hands, before collapsing to the ground, exhausted.

Before he completely passed out, he looked up to see the door had been blown off it's hinges by the explosion, with a shocked bomber standing in the doorway. A stream of water shot over Yuan, landing squarely in bombers chest, driving him into a wall, and freezing him in place. As Yuan faded from consciousness, he felt Nerrivik shake at him, but for the life of him, he couldn't respond.

Yuan woke inside the ships main healing bay. As his eyes slowly fluttered awake, he made out three figures standing over him, who he soon recognized as Kunchen, Nerrivik, and Iluak. He put his head in his hands and let out a groan.

Iluak smiled at his response, "I hope you're feeling alright, it didn't seem too severe, just some heat stroke."

"What … what happened?" He groggily managed, feeling tired and dehydrated.

"We got him," Kunchen announced in an excited voice. "Nerrivik managed to pin him, and the Dailan police took him away about an hour ago."

"How long was I out?"

"Only a few hours," answered Iluak. "Nerrivik told me how you threw her to the side when the bomb went off, but ended up taking the brunt of the heat. It all sounded quite heroic." Yuan had a puzzled look on his face, so Iluak decided to continue. "I guess it could be hard to remember, I imagine it all happened very quickly. I'll let you get some rest."

As she stepped away, Nerrivik began to speak up. "That was really impressive what you did back there," she said in a genuinely impressed tone.

"What, when I threw you to the side?" Yuan was still very much confused about what exactly had happened leading up to him passing out.

Kunchen gave a small gulp, "Ummm … Yuan, she knows."

"Knows what?"

"She knows that you're …" he said in a timid voice, but Yuan's eye's beginning to bulge indicated that he had figured it out. Both heads turned to Nerrivik who was standing there with a surprising confidence.

"Look, I realize what a difficult position you're in, and I don't want to be a burden. But I've been meaning to get back on the road for a while. Now that the bombers gone, I've got no real reason to stay here in Dailan. So I was hoping that I might be able to hitch a ride with you two."

Yuan had a dumbfounded expression on his face, while Kunchen stared at his feet. "You really want to come with us?" the Avatar asked.

"I've got nowhere else to go. I'd help as much as I could on the road. Besides you don't have too much farther to go."

"And if we say no?" He felt touched by offer, but was deeply unsure if he wanted more people traveling with him then necessary.

"I could go to the press, and let them know that the Avatar is sitting in a medical ship, and won't be able to leave for several more hours." She gave this answer with a bluntness that Yuan would have appreciated, if it wasn't a threat towards him. He looked to Kunchen, who gave him sorry expression and shrug, letting Yuan know that he'd already had this argument.

With a sigh, Yuan looked to Nerrivik, "Ok, how soon can we be ready to leave?"

Coming Soon: Chapter 5 - Changing Course