Chapter 4: In Time

When the United Forces, under the command of General Iroh II, was within 2 days of Republic City, he began giving out orders.

The General first disclosed the rotational shift schedule so that everyone could adjust their sleep cycles before landing. Then he gave them their first official order.

"Find the Avatar. Surround her and separate her from the line of fire."

Everyone in the room was visibly taken aback. However, only his Lieutenant had the courage to question him. "Sir... Wouldn't having the Avatar in combat be a more useful battle tactic instead?"

Silence fell between them until the General finally spoke.

"The Avatar," he started slowly, "is a seventeen year old girl," he finished with a hardened edge to his voice.

General Iroh had not expected to encounter Avatar Korra upon immediate landing at Republic City. He saw his soldiers surround one figure and begin to push Equalist forces back from it but it took him a while to realize that the young woman spouting water up from a sewage drain was the same girl who had made fun of his fledgling crush when he was sixteen.

He was rather relieved when his medics had knocked her out on the ship on their way back to Air Temple Island. It allowed him the time to recuperate and re-stabilize himself with the new person that was the Avatar he'd always known. In all honesty, Korra was never the awkward one when it came to their meetings after year-long gaps. It was usually him who didn't know what to say.

So, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, he observed her carefully and scrutinized her face as medics began rapidly treating her wounds. Her face had lost much of its baby fat. Her hair had gotten longer. Her body had filled out.

He wondered, mildly, whether her personality had changed as much as her physique had.

What he received when he woke, however, was not what he had expected. He was surprised, of course, but on some level, had been waiting for it the entire time he had known her.

Korra, Iroh realized soon after, had finally begun to bear the weight of the world. The weight that she, perhaps, had always known of, but had never truly considered.

Idly, he supposed that it would be hard to ignore it when faced with turmoil around every street corner and a war waged upon the very essence of your being. When you were the cause of its discourse and the only beacon of its survival: bending.

Iroh, when Korra wasn't looking, took a deep gulp. She had changed. She had changed before his eyes, and he wasn't quite sure what to do or how to deal with it. Her eyes were weary; her shoulders now slumped.

She was still as fierce and determined as ever, but there was a certain wariness to her soul. The same exact wariness she had worked so hard to relieve him of when he was just a bit younger than she was now.

When he was 16 and she was just 10, he had walked into her life with weariness set upon his shoulders, on the brink of falling off a cliff. He had been sick of his duties, his responsibilities, the weight of his title and all the burdens that he bore. The fact that it deprived him of a real life.

And now, he was sitting beside her at a dining table in the Air Accolade temple, watching as she finally bore a weight of her own. He had always known it would be heavier than his.

He had simply not expected it to impact her so soon.

He recalled standing beside her as they were picking up their food from the dining table buffets. Words spilled from her mouth as they caught up on the past year of their lives and they were different; more controlled, more mature, more subdued. The realization sobered him and sparked a light within him all at once. Her smiles weren't loud and bright like they used to be, but graceful and private. As if her happy thoughts were inside her head and he could only see the briefest glimpse of them reflected in her outer shell.

It made him want to know more of what she had been through in his absence. He knew he was hiding a fair share of his own secrets; but his were unimportant. He wanted to know hers. He wanted to see what had so rapidly devolved and changed her.

He couldn't resist the urge to stand close to her as she spoke. His arms brushed hers as they'd talked. The feelings of her breasts pressing against his elbow alighted a different sort of fear within him; she was no longer a girl. She was an equal. No longer the little girl who had begged him for a kiss, or someone ready to patronize or tease.

His attraction was reflected in body language. He was glad she wasn't scared off by it yet.

And as he spooned on a dish of mashed potatoes to his plate, he was struck with the realization that he wanted to consume her. Be consumed by her and the sheer enigma of the essence she embodied.

It was in the ironic tilt of her words; her snarky comebacks. The fact that she wasn't afraid to call him out during his more irrational moments. The fact that she had known him before he became who he was today; before he had decided to embody and embrace his identity and presence as Prince of the Fire Nation. In the past 4 hours of their re-acquaintanceship, she had already called him out on who he truly was, twelve times.

He was perpetually naked before her.

And after a while, sitting down at the table chosen by her friends in the Air Accolade dining hall and noticing the close proximity with which she had seated herself right beside him, he wagered to bet that this newfound revelation was not lost on her.

And then there was the fact that he had suddenly placed his hand over hers on the table in front of her friends. Well, he wasn't really ever one for subtlety, anyway. He was more used to getting what he wanted quick and soon.

And with the way that the firebending guy, her pro-bending captain, was glaring at him, he wagered to bet that 'quick and soon' would be soon required.

Mako scowled, eyeing the shift of movement that had placed Iroh's hand over Korra's on the table. And in front of them all, much less. In fact, the whole dining hall, filled with United Forces, was ogling the two open-eyedly and whispers began to reverberate around the room.

The General had his hand over Avatar Korra's on the dining table!

Asami had returned to the table, and this time, sat far away from Mako. Instead, she seated herself on the other side of Iroh.

"So," she started, "Do you guys know each other from before?" she asked casually. Korra tensed. Mako glared at the two suspiciously, waiting for an answer to Asami's question.

"We jus—"

"—It's complicated," Iroh cut her off. He noticed the firebender boy seething from the corner of his eye. His pupils slid to the side to glance at Korra before returning again. "I'm a pretty unforgettable kisser," he teased suddenly.

Mako got up and forcefully slammed his hands loudly against the table.

"Look! Don't you think you're a little too old for Korra?" Mako asked the General, hostility etched into his posture. Iroh stood up from his seat and faced him eye to eye.

The two men stared at each other. Both shared the same golden eyes, pale skin, thick brows, and dark ink-colored hair color. But while Iroh had his locks gelled and combed to the side-part, Mako's flipped up in a cowlick messily. With heeled military boots on, Iroh stood slightly taller than him. Nonetheless, they shared the same physique and Fire Nation coloring.

They were both firebenders. But while Mako had never set foot in the Fire Nation in his life, Iroh was its Prince.

"I'm 23."

Everyone around at the table, save Korra, had looks of surprise on their faces.

"Oh," Mako stated, momentarily speechless. He blinked slowly. "Well, you look a lot older," he said.

Iroh had deep frown lines permanently etched between his brows. The heavy, dark circles of sleeplessness drawn beneath his eyes gave off the image of a man beyond his years. He knew it was true.

A bitter presence washed over the General's face. His eyes hardened before he spoke once again.

"I've been told. It tends to happen when you spend your entire life pouring over books, training, and on the sea," he stated emotionlessly before stepping out of his seat. He left the dining hall without glancing back.

He was a Prince of the Fire Nation. His title made him who he was. He would not regret it or lament the cause of his being or any repercussions of it. And he would live up to that title as well.

A prodigy General has its merits. And its downfalls. He couldn't expect a pro-bending loser like Mako to understand.

It was all required of him.

Iroh's orders didn't work. As soon as Korra was recuperated enough to stand up and hold her bearings, she demanded to be on the battlefield. She refused, even, to follow a shift schedule such as the one Iroh had assigned for his men.

She was raging. And somehow, he couldn't bring himself to say anything. Because looking at her like this made him feel more alive than ever.

For the smallest amount of time, Iroh had been afraid that Korra, newly burdened with the weight of her title as the Avatar, had sunken into herself. That her mild grace and newfound patience was a symbol of darker, more tumultuous things raving around in her head—the depression that he, too, had suffered from at her age.

But her rage belied these thoughts. So, despite the turmoil he put his men through, who were beholden to follow through his orders but inexplicably failing to do so, he could not say no to her.

The only thing he could do was convince her that covert operations were a much more important matter than patrolling the city streets. At least this way, she would be out of sight and out of the way of the main conflict. She would work underground, trying to find the base of Equalist operations. There were many opportunities to stay out of conflict in such an assignment.

Iroh guessed that Amon wouldn't be at the home base in light of the full-blown conflict ravaging the city. The Equalist seige was undoubtedly a product of months and years of careful planning. Amon would be at the head of it, out and about, neutralizing benders set upon a factory production line.

So if Korra insisted on being out on the front lines, he might as well have her underground, where she had little capability to get caught and had more of a chance to adequately protect herself.

Yet, to his agitated annoyance, Mako insisted on following her as well. Iroh could not possibly waste his resources and time on a covert mission like this; he was needed at the command center, dispatching ships and fleets from the base of operations. With begrudging hate and thinly disguised contempt for the other firebender, he let the two go, having a steward acquire black stealth suits and bandannas for the two.

What Iroh did not expect, however, was Amon's presence underground.

He did not expect Amon to capture Korra and face her. Had not imagined gloved fingertips tilting her forehead back slowly and taunting her.

He could not forsee the firebender he loathed, restrained and screaming her name in agony.

He had not expected any of it all.

A/N: So I was rewatching the screencap for the season finale at the end of Episode 10 and looked closely at some of the brief scene glimpses.

First off, did not see General Iroh anywhere (Nickelodeon might be hiding him). Secondly, Korra and Mako were most definitely dressed up in black ninja clothing underground.

The thing is, I don't want to make any harsh decisions here; I don't really want to embed "predictions" of how the Season One "final battle" will play out since its coming out this Saturday. If my predictions end up being totally way off, I'll be sad. I wanna stick to the cannon as close as possible... But I still want to continue my storyline nonetheless. Which is why I included that bit in the end.

So do you guys think I should let my story simply glaze over the details of the actual battle? (I mean, we all know Korra doesn't die... cause theres obviously a season two. So I could continue the story without discussing what happened in the actual showdown).

I could also, for the next chapter, write what my prediction/ potential version of would have happen in the showdown / ideal situation that would happen.

Thanks for your votes guys! They matter! :) (And they make me update sooner!)

If you guys pick option one, we'll probably have a tiny time skip and move on with the theme.