AMS

CAUGHT

When Tarnok found out from Varrick he was actually Avatar Korra's son, meeting the new Avatar was a bit awkward for him. Everytime he looked at Quey during his firebending training, he would always feel conflicted about how he should feel about him.

"He may be the Avatar, a reincarnation of my mother, but that doesn't mean I know him," Tarnok always told himself.

Only then would his eyes no longer be stuck on Quey and were free to roam elsewhere. Quey noticed Tarnok constantly staring at him. At this point, Quey was used to the attention since back at Zaofu, people always stared at him.

"His stares feel different," he thought but shrugged it off. "I can't worry about that kid staring at me. Not when I have training to do and a world to save."

During Quey's breaks, he would watch Tarnok and Saika teach the others bloodbending techniques. Quey had to hand it to Tarnok and Saika. They were completely different by personality, but they got along for the sake of their students, and their teaching methods were understandable. During dinner that night, Tarnok couldn't stop staring at Quey. He tried to ignore the stares, but the staring has been going on for several days now, and it feels completely different from the stares he received back at Zaofu. Sighing, Quey lifted his head to meet Tarnok's.

"Is there something that I can help you with?" Quey asked calmly.

Tarnok, chewing, shook his head, blinked, and looked down. Quey wanted to leave it at that, but he had a feeling if he wasn't direct now, that he would never stop the stares that burned holes in him everyday.

"Please, if there is something on your mind, I would like to know whether it be bad or good. As the Avatar, I wish to help you in any way I can," pushed Quey.

"If it's about my staring, I'll do my best to stop it," answered Tarnok, not wanting to reveal the fact that he and Quey are spiritually related.

Varrick had found a hair in Tarrlok's old home and did the tests, so now he and Tarnok know for sure his father was indeed the councilman. That dirty, old councilman who had hurt the Avatar in more ways than one. Because of that information, Tarnok now knows his uncle is the very man leading the bloodbenders to take over the nations.

"It's just," Tarnok picked up the conversation, Quey looking back up, " whenever you're done learning firebending, I would like to teach you waterbending as well as bloodbending. You might need bloodbending to stand a chance against... Noatak."

"Yeah! He's the best waterbender and bloodbender here. He could teach you so many things, Quey," piped up Bobbi excitedly.

The idea of learning bloodbending didn't sit well with Quey as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and the twins noticed it. Bobbi decided to let it go as she shoveled more food into his mouth. Suddenly, the buzzer rang.

"I'll go see who it is," said Zhu Li, standing up before her husband could tell her to do the thing. "Hello?"

There was a man in water tribe clothes with a hood over his head. When he lifted his face, Zhu Li nearly gasped. The scars that ran down that unmistakable face. She let go of the microphone button and ran back.

"It's Noatak! He's found out you're here somehow," shouted Zhu Li.

Varrick got up and ran over to where Noatak was smirking at the screen and he pushed the button to take over.

"Hello, sir! Sorry my wife had to go tend to the kids. How can I help you?" asked Varrick, making it sound like he doesn't know who the man is.

Noatak's smirk faded.

"You seriously don't know who I am?" asked Noatak.

"Uhhh, nope! Never seen your mug around here before," lied Varrick.

From where Noatak was standing, he could feel Varrick's heart beat. There were no subtle changes to it. Noatak figured it either meant Varrick was telling the truth, or that he was just that good at lying that no one can tell. Noatak decided to weigh his options on the second reason.

"Varrick, I know you're a man who always reads the paper. I also know my face, both back then and now, has been in the papers before," pressed Noatak.

"I do read the paper, but sometimes I miss a paper or two before I get a chance to read it because my kids like to take it and play sometimes! They end up shredding the paper that Zhu Li has to clean up," lied Varrick.

There it was. The subtle spike in Varrick's heart beat.

"I know you're lying. I can feel your heart beat. Now tell me this, are you harboring the Avatar?" asked Noatak.

Cursing under his breath, Varrick turned to look at Tarnok, his daughter, their students, Quey, Iroh, and Renee. Suddenly, he was the one smirking.

"Buddy you ain't going to win even if I let you in. The Avatar may only know air, earth, and metal, but even that will be enough to stop you with the help of all my bloodbenders in here. And one of those bloodbenders is your nephew," coolly said Varrick.

Noatak's eyes widened in disbelief then went back to narrow.

"My brother never married. Stop with the lies," replied Noatak.

"I ran the DNA tests. He's related to Avatar Korra and Tarrlok. So not only is he a psychic bloodbender, but he's even stronger than you. Not to mention we have a combustion bender in here with us. You can't win," smirked Varrick.

Quey was confused. Avatar Korra and Tarrlok's son? Which one? Tarnok? Only then did Quey notice that Tarnok would not even so much as look at him. The cat was out of the bag, and Tarnok wanted to crawl in a hole somewhere where no one could look at him.

"What? You're seriously telling me that my brother fell for the Avatar? Unlikely. I never saw in the news or the paper that Korra was pregnant. Just that. She... ran away...for ten months," that was when Noatak's whole face seemed to crumble in utter disgust. "So, you have my nephew in there with you. The nephew I never knew about. Let me talk to him."

Varrick turned to Tarnok.

"Do you want to talk to him?" asked Varrick.

Tarnok shook his head side to side. He didn't want to talk to that monster on the screen.

"Sorry, but he doesn't want to talk to you. Now go away and let the Avatar continue his training in peace. He will come to you when he is done training," said Varrick.

Thoroughly pissed off, Noatak bloodbended Varrick from where he was.

"Gah!" shouted Varrick as he could no longer control his limbs. "Zhu Li! Do the thing!"

Zhu Li grabbed wires and attempted to tie him down, but Noatak had Varrick swinging wildly, pressing random buttons until the security system that was up went away. Zhu Li and Saika ran over to Varrick as he suddenly hit the ground. Varrick looked up at everyone, now panicked.

"He's coming! We gotta go!" yelled Varrick.

But then, Quey stopped worrying, and was determined.

"No. It's like you said, Varrick. We can beat him if we stay together," said Quey.

"Zhu Li, code Varrick'd! The Avatar is pulling a Korra!" yelled Varrick.

Zhu Li ran to a statue and pulled the secret lever which opened a section of the floor.

"Into the bunker! Go go go!" yelled Zhu Li.

Once Quey saw everyone going into the bunker, he hissed and went down as well. Once the section in the floor closed, Noatak came somersaulting through the door. He could only feel one heart beat, though faint. Smirking, he put a grip on the person and yanked them upwards until he heard where the sound was coming from and stalked over to the spot.

"Stop! He's got Saika!" yelled Varrick, eyes wide, fearing his only daughter's life.

Even though she too was a bloodbender, she was no where near Tarnok and Noatak's level, thus, his grip on her was unshakable. Her eyes teared up at the thought of being killed by her own element. Quey's eyes narrowed and he moved past everyone to get in front of the group, then he shot metal to grab her by the waist and he began pulling. Noatak began to feel her slipping away and he tightened his grip.

"If you want her to live I suggest you stop pulling and come up immediately!" shouted Noatak, voice laced with annoyance and impatience, as well as a hint of desperation that shook the group to their very core.

Saika's eyes had tears stuck at her ducts. Noatak's grip on her was stopping her flow of tears. Sighing in defeat, Quey brought the metal back to their original strip form around his arms.

"Time to go up," Quey said, turning to the group.

"Get up here. Now!" yelled Noatak.

Almost immediately, the piece of floor opened and Noatak brought Saika up next to him as he watched the rest of the group resurface. Noatak chuckled darkly as he looked at them all, then his eyes fell on Quey.

"Who would have thought that you, of all people, would be the Avatar? It's a good thing I got to you when I did, before you had the chance to master waterbending. If you had mastered waterbending to the extent that I have, my bloodbending would have been useless on you!" cackled Noatak like he had lost his mind.

Then again, having everything taken from him just because an air blast sent him through a window and into water, forcing him to waterbend, then almost being killed by your own brother, would make anyone lose their mind. Quey stepped forward.

"Please. Leave these people alone. You don't need them. You only want me, right? Well here I am. I won't run and hide anymore. I'm not just an airbender anymore after all," said Quey with a strong, commanding voice.

Noatak's features darkened at the young boy.

"You are in no position to be ordering me around, Avatar. You see, at any moment, if I so choose, I can easily kill all of you," threatened Noatak.

Quey then noticed something wasn't right here. If all Noatak wanted was to kill everyone, then why hadn't he done so already?

"Alright. Then what do you want? What are your orders, sir?" asked Quey carefully.

If Quey's hunch was right, then all he had to do was stall for some time until he could conjure up a plan to get everyone out of this safely. Noatak looked around the group and saw Tarnok.

"You must be my nephew?" asked Noatak, still bloodbending Saika.

Tarnok narrowed his eyes at his uncle, and nodded bitterly. The smile on Noatak's face widened so far everyone thought it would reopen the scars on his face.

"Even though you're related to that wretched Avatar Korra, I can forgive that since you're also related to my brother, and by extension, me. Plus, the fact that you have my psychic bloodbending abilities makes it all the more better. If you're a good boy, you can be my heir," offered Noatak.

Quey subtly cast Tarnok a glance, and Tarnok understood.

"I promise to be good, uncle," lied Tarnok as his emotions steeled.

"Good good. Then, can you prove it to me?"

Tarnok didn't like where this might be going, but per Quey's silent request, decided to go along with it.

"What would you like me to do?" asked Tarnok.

"I want you to knock all of these guys out with bloodbending so I can take them all prisoner back to Ba Sing Se," ordered Noatak who put Saika over near Quey and let go of his bloodbending grip on her.

The tears started spilling out of her eyes then as she furiously rubbed at her eyes. Tarnok didn't want to betray his friends.

"It's a good thing I know how to do this without inflicting pain," thought Tarnok who stood with his hands by his side.

He slightly widened his eyes and everyone couldn't move. Just by a slight twitch in his eyes, they all passed out. Noatak was thoroughly impressed as he pat Tarnok on the back approvingly.

"Welcome to the family, nephew," smiled Noatak.

Tarnok wanted to bloodbend Noatak, but wasn't sure if he would be able to withstand it or not given the fact he knew Noatak was also a psychic bloodbender. He grit his teeth as he watched his uncle move swiftly about and tied everyone up. He thought about Noatak's stance as he was bloodbending Saika. He wasn't doing it psychically. He was using his hands a bit.

"You sure you have psychic bloodbending? You were using your hands when you bloodbended Saika," Tarnok asked casually as he helped Noatak carry everyone to a speedboat.

Noatak threw the adults in the speedboat and looked at Tarnok who decided to pretend and be bad by throwing his students, Saika, and Quey in the boat. He figured at this point, it was best to mimic Noatak.

"I can psychically bloodbend, but I thought it would be smart to strengthen the grip on her since she's also a bloodbender. If she wasn't a bloodbender, I wouldn't have had to use my hands," explained Noatak.

That was all Tarnok needed to hear to gauge the difference in their strength. The difference was, since Tarnok is the Avatar's son, his already heightened bloodbending from Noatak was heightened even more so by being related to Korra. Smirking, Tarnok widened his eyes and completely immobilized Noatak much to Noatak's surprise.

"How am I unable to move if you're just psychically bloodbending me? What the hell is going on here?" asked Noatak who was surprised that his voice wasn't strained.

Noatak also noticed how he wasn't feeling any pain, just couldn't move his limbs.

"Being related to the Avatar has its perks I suppose. My bending is much stronger than yours, Noatak. You sicken me," frowned Tarnok.

Tarnok, not wanting to use bloodbending to kill, stepped forward and tried to intimidate Noatak further.

"I'll let you live if you tell me how to use bloodbending to remove your bending," said Tarnok, his ocean blue eyes throwing daggers into Noatak's icy blues which were wide with fear.

Noatak really didn't want to lose his bending, but he didn't want to die either.

"What will it be?" growled Tarnok.

Without revealing his relief, Noatak thought about what he could still do even as a nonbender.

"Place your thumb on my forehead, and block my chi paths. Doing so will take away my ability to bend permanently," instructed Noatak bitterly.

"What's bending anyway when you know how to fight against benders, block their chi, and use that time to kill them anyway?" he thought to himself.

Tarnok placed his thumb on Noatak's forehead, and blocked his chi paths permanently, then knocked out Noatak. He then untied his friends, Quey, and Quey's friends, then used his bloodbending to take them all back to Varrick's house, and set up the security again. Tarnok tied up Noatak once they were all inside, then went around slapping everyone on the face to shock them awake.

"Whoa, what happened? How are we still here?" asked Varrick, rubbing his head.

Quey looked over at the now tied up Noatak and saw Tarnok going around, making sure everyone is okay.

"Tarnok? How? What happened?" asked Quey, clearly shocked.

"I used my superior bending to take his bending away permanently, knocked him out, and tied him up. I also put the security system back up. Now Noatak is our prisoner," explained Tarnok matter of factly.

Quey's eyes widened even more than ever at the same time Noatak started groaning, indicating he was waking up.

"I thought you were going to let me go," Noatak said groggily, face twisted in anger and resentment.

Tarnok smirked.

"No. I said I would let you live, not let you go free."

Noatak cursed, angry at himself for not catching that.

"Perhaps I can still find a way to escape," he thought to himself.

"Don't think about escaping. The security is back up, and only me, Varrick, Zhu Li, and Saika know how to turn it off, and we won't be turning it off until five years later," said Tarnok as if reading his mind.

"Where are we going to put him?" asked Varrick.

"We'll keep him in the living room. We'll keep him in hand cuffs, hands behind his back, at all times. I'll feed him during meals and I will personally take him to the bathroom so I can use my bloodbending to hold him still while he's on the toilet, and I will bathe him myself," explained Tarnok, taking full responsibility for his uncle.

"You sure you don't want any help with him? Just say the word, and I will help," offered Quey, placing a hand on Tarnok's shoulder. "You don't have to do this alone. I know it's hard for you already with him being your uncle and all."

Tarnok's features softened as he looked over at Quey, and smiled.

"Thanks, but you really should focus on your training. Just because we have the bloodbenders' leader doesn't mean they'll stop their plans. Noatak must have had some plan for them to follow in case anything happens to him," said Tarnok.

Quey nodded.

"Yeah, I still haven't been able to produce a flame of any kind," huffed Quey.

"Probably it's because it's the element that differs from your personality. You're calm, wise, and collected whereas fire is wild and dangerous. Lacks restraint," said Tarnok.

Quey looked up at him with a surprised look.

"That's the reason why I'm struggling so much? Because it's the opposite of me?" asked Quey.

"Yep. All you gotta do is try to think a little hotheaded, and you'll be able to firebend in no time," offered Tarnok.

Noatak chuckled darkly, making everyone turn to glare at him.

"What are you laughing about?" darkly asked Bean.

"It's just ironic. I used to use my bending to take away others' bending, and now, my nephew, related to the Avatar, took away my bending," dully answered Noatak. "And now I'll be forced to watch you all practice bending while I'm tied up and will never get any privacy ever again."

Then Noatak looked over at Quey and smirked a bit, which made Quey's skin crawl.

"You know, if you were still Korra, I would have been able to have some fun being your prisoner," joked Noatak.

He only said that to try and get a reaction out of Quey, but all Quey did was form his lips in a thin line and look down on the old man. What Noatak had said only made Quey feel bad for him. The once great bloodbender leader, reduced to trying to get a rise out of a six year old boy. My how the tables have turned. That night, everyone was trying to think of a way to make sure Noatak didn't roam around the house at night and try to escape.

"I have an idea," yawned Quey.

"What is it?" asked Iroh.

"He gets in a comfortable position on the couch, and I tie him down with my metal to make sure he stays put the whole night," said Quey.

Tarnok glanced around at everyone for their thoughts, and they all seemed to agree.

"Alright old man, get in a comfy position. You have five seconds before I just strap you down as is," said Quey, too tired for bull crap.

Noatak laid down in a position he could fall asleep in. Quey thrusted his arms forward, and the metal flew off his arms, pinning Noatak to the couch. Zhu Li came in a threw a blanket over Noatak.

"Get some sleep. You'll be woken up early for hygiene and breakfast. After that, if you want to go back to sleep while we train, so be it," ordered Tarnok.

Noatak didn't say anything as he closed his eyes.

"I'm going to stay down here and sleep on the other couch," Quey whispered to Tarnok as they went to pass each other.

Tarnok nodded and went upstairs to his room. Instead of going to sleep right away, Quey levitated above the couch and sat in a lotus position, pressed his fists together, and closed his eyes. For the first time in trying to contact his past life, he caught glimpses of Korra's firebending training. He noted how her behavior was. Confident, cocky, how she lacked so much restraint. With all those attributes, she was blasting large bursts of fire at the two men she was sparring with. Noatak opened one of his eyes and looked at Quey who was peacefully meditating while levitating.

"Levitating? How is he doing that?" Noatak wondered but quickly closed his eyes when Quey started to unwind his legs.

The next morning Tarnok and Iroh came down the stairs. Iroh woke up Quey while Tarnok woke up Noatak. The kitchen light flickered on as Zhu Li began to prepare breakfast, and soon the students came down the stairs and turned on the living room light, making Quey hiss.

"Come on Quey. You gotta take the metal off Noatak so Tarnok can get him to the bathroom," said Iroh.

Quey sighed and sat upright. Noatak was already awake, patiently waiting for the Avatar to retract the metal from around his body. Holding out his arms, the metal unwound itself from around Noatak and wrapped around Quey's arms, allowing Noatak to sit up.

"Let's go," ordered Tarnok.

Noatak cocked an eyebrow.

"You're not going to just bloodbend me to the bathroom?" asked Noatak, somewhat amused.

"Unlike you once did, I don't enjoy bloodbending people. I only use my ability to hunt for food and to protect myself as well as my friends. You won't feel a thing when I keep you in place. That's the perk to my bloodbending," Tarnok quipped back.

Noatak grunted then stood up and followed Tarnok to the bathroom. Iroh had Quey hold a small flame again, telling him not to let it die out. When Noatak walked down the stairs, hair still wet and unable to dry it with the bending he once had, he looked over to see Quey using all his concentration to not let the flame in his hands die out and again he chuckled. Tarnok sat Noatak down on the couch, raising a brow.

"Something funny?" asked Tarnok.

In the living room, Varrick was sitting in his recliner with a paper covering his face. They heard the paper wrinkle as Varrick peered over the paper to see what Noatak was going to say. Zhu Li came into the living room to hand Tarnok a bowl of breakfast and sat one for Noatak on the coffee table. She sat bowls for everyone else down.

"The irony is too funny sometimes is all," answered Noatak.

"Take a breakfast break, Quey," instructed Iroh as Quey sighed and let the flame die out, walked over to grab a bowl sat in a lotus position in mid air.

"The irony?" asked Iroh as he sat down on the opposite couch and grabbed a bowl. "Of what?"

"Avatar Korra excelled in fire and struggled in air whereas Quey is darn near a master in air and is struggling with fire," smirked Noatak.

Quey shrugged, indifferent to the comparison.

"Not every Avatar is the same. I'm a bit more like Avatar Aang, but I'm still a little different to him since the element he struggled with was earth. He picked up fire rather quickly," said Quey as he took another big bite of food.

"Yes, I am aware. I still find it funny. Will I ever be set free or are you guys going to dedicate your lives to watching my every move?" Noatak asked, changing the subject.

"It's not forever. Once Quey masters fire and then water, eventually unlocking the Avatar State, he will go around the world, taking out all the evil bloodbenders. Once he does that and reports back to us, then we can move you to an actual prison. Most likely in Republic City where Hiroshi Sato is being kept. But you two won't be in the same hall or cell since Hiroshi is in a special cell where he gets no interaction time with other inmates. You know, diabolical genius and all. He could convince someone to help him escape if he had interactions," explained Saika with her nose up in the air.

"Still upset I bloodbended you, little girl?" asked Noatak, smirking.

"Yes, because it's people like you that give the art a bad name," nodded Saika.

"Bloodbending is just an evil art, no matter how you look at it," shrugged Noatak.

"Not true at all," piped up Zhu Li. "Saika here is studying on using bloodbending to be used for medical purposes while Tarnok is teaching these kids and Bean how to have more control and mastery over the element before they can learn to use it to save lives. It isn't the element that is bad. It depends on the person who uses it."

Suddenly, everything Noatak had ever thought and knew was wrong in a matter of seconds as he looked down at the floor in shock.

"One thing that's been bugging me," Quey started, "how did you find out where I was so quick?"

Noatak snorted as if the answer was painfully obvious, but no one else knew how either.

"Zaofu was the first most secure spot in the world to hide, right? Varrick's was the second most secure place. I knew you would go somewhere secure to train," answered Noatak.

Everyone smacked their foreheads in unison.

"Honestly if you went anywhere else in the world, I would have had a hard time finding you," said Noatak, still smiling.

Quey thought about where he could have gone that would have thrown Noatak off, and the thought of going back to Air Temple Island came to his mind and he sighed.

"We would have all been a lot more safe at Air Temple Island then," said Quey. "By coming here, we put you all in danger."

Bowl now empty, Quey sat it down on the coffee table.

"Well, probably not since it's near Republic City, and it should be crawling with my bloodbenders by now," nonchalantly said Noatak. "It would have thrown me and my men off if you fled to Omashu. Given the fact that you can earthbend, you could have honestly made an underground bunker anywhere and I never would have found you."

"An underground bunker requires stockpiling food to last months. There was honestly no where we could have gone to get that much food without being noticed by those murderous bloodbenders. Seriously, what is up with the fact that despite not wanting to be, you still became a soldier of war for Yakone?" asked Quey, sounding irritated as his voice rose at the last sentence.

"You were never abused by your own father, so you would never understand," Noatak replied, eyes narrowed.

It was moments like those that Noatak would have folded his hands together in front of his mouth, but the hand cuffs cuffing his hands together behind his back made that impossible, so he just had to settle on making faces.

"I don't have to have been abused by anyone to know that the past should not define who you become in the future. You ran away at a young age, so you could have made a difference for your family name. You could have become friends with Korra, and you could have helped her restore peace and balance to the world. Tarrlok is sort of a different story. He tried to work with Korra at first, but because his goals were all out of balance, she wanted nothing to do with him, so he got desperate and did some very extreme things," replied Quey.

Noatak didn't know what to say. The kid was right. Noatak could have done so many things to better himself as well as the city. Instead he had chosen to start a war between benders and nonbenders. And now he had started a war between bloodbenders and every other bender who was still alive. Noatak had always wanted to be different from his father, and he was horrified to find out he had become even more like Yakone, if not worse. All he wanted to do now was correct his mistakes. And the key to becoming the opposite of the man he loathed was the Avatar.

"You're right, young Avatar. There is no excuse for the things I have done. In my attempt to try and become nothing like Yakone, I became worse than him. Let me help you restore balance to the world," pleaded Noatak, surprising Quey and everyone else.

"You seriously want to help me restore peace and balance?" asked Quey, standing up.

Before Zaofu had been invaded, Toph had taught Quey how to sense if someone's lying.

"More than anything. With what years I have left alive, I want to redeem myself. I was wrong, so let me make it right," replied Noatak.

"Quey, don't trust him. It's a trick," warned Brady.

Quey shook his head.

"He's not lying. He really wants to help," said Quey softly.

"Why would he, the man who started this whole mess, want to help? He's just trying to get his hands free so he can escape, and I'd rather not use my bloodbending on him just to restrain him again when all of that can be avoided by not giving into his petty tricks. I have no doubt in my mind that he's just that good of a liar that it's undetectable," Tarnok added, crossing his arms over his chest like Korra used to do, but unlike pouting his lip out like she did, he had that stern look that Tarrlok used to have when he was serious.

Quey thought about it for a moment. What motivation, other than wanting to be different from Yakone, could this man possibly have?

"Maybe he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life behind bars. If you think about it, he knows that if he tries anything, he would just be bloodbended again and put back in chains. I say we give him the chance," said Quey.

"Why are you sticking up for him? So many people died because of him. Remember your adopted parents?" asked Bobbi as she sadly remembered how cold and detached Quey had been towards bloodbenders for the whole time in Ba Sing Se.

Quey seemed to have remembered too.

"I will never forget that because of Noatak, too many people lost their lives. But, as the Avatar, it is my duty to restore peace and balance. That includes letting the past be the past, and not letting it cloud my judgement for today. Today, the ex leader of the bloodbenders is humbly asking me, the Avatar, to let him help correct his mistakes. We can't be afraid to let people try and redeem themselves. Otherwise, Aang would never have let Zuko join them if that was the case," explained Quey.

With the mention of Zuko, everyone couldn't think of anything else to say. Tarnok sighed, defeated.

"You're good, Quey. You know exactly what to say. Alright. We'll give him a chance. But the moment he slips up, I will bloodbend him back into chains, and instead of sleeping on the couch, he will be kept in a cardboard box outside. It's still Summer, so he won't be freezing cold out there. But, you and I will rotate nights to watch over Noatak. You can easily apprehend him with your metal if he tries anything, and I got my bloodbending," said Tarnok.

"Deal," nodded Quey.

Noatak stood up and Tarnok undid his handcuffs, which made everyone in the room stiffen with anticipation for what came next. Noatak moved his hands from his back to his front and began rotating his wrists and flexing his fingers, then he sat back down and lounged on the couch. Everyone let out a breath they had all been holding.

"I may end up having a heart attack just knowing he's not handcuffed anymore," mumbled Varrick as he went back to reading his paper.

This was book 1's finale! I will be working on Book 2: Platinum and uploading new chapters once I get them written out, which shouldn't take too long. :)