Korra's Point of View

"I'm sorry," Aang said solemnly, "I shouldn't have done that. It was stupid and selfish and I'm sorry." He had stood up in front of everyone in the saddle to make this announcement, and much to Sokka and my surprise, the ever grudge-holding Katara was the first to speak.

"I'm sorry we left like that." She got up from her spot on the ground and hugged the frowning airbender right then and there; his grey eyes went from a rainy sort of color to bright and normal, and he hugged her back.

"Ok! Ok! We're all happy everyone's made up and such, just don't do that again and we'll all be happy and whatnot," Sokka said in an exasperated voice.

"Sokka," Katara broke out of Aang's embrace and put her hands on her hips. "You are ruining the moment." I noticed Aang's face fall just a little bit when she stopped hugging him, and I caught a flash of memory, an old ice sculpture with a figure of an older Katara and an older Aang, happily holding hands and walking; an old woman telling me about a wedding. Then it was gone, the sculpture and the old woman's cracking voice, and Katara was standing in front of a disappointed Aang.

"Okay, now that we are all back together as a gang, why don't we…" Sokka paused, "The gAang!" He screeched and I jumped.

"What is it now?" I asked in my most exasperated voice.

"Gaang, with two 'a's so it has Aang in it! We have a team name! Or…" He paused, and Katara rolled her eyes, "We could be Team Avatar! Cause we have two Avatars!"

"Or we can just not have a team name," Katara stated, "Now, what was it you were saying?"

Sokka stopped moving and began to think, you could practically see his brain whizzing, "I forgot!" Katara rolled her eyes again. "Lemme think… Team Avatar… the gang… why don't we… Look down! There is a fire nation town down there, and they look like they are having a party, and we all need to loosen up." Sokka declared, and pointed down at Appa's saddle.

We all ran to the sides and looked down, and sure enough, there was a little fire nation village having a party.

"We could learn something valuable about fire nation culture," stated Aang.

"I wouldn't mind that."

"Sounds good to me."

What in the name of Yue and La were these guys thinking? A fire nation town, when the fire nation was hunting us, and we should be on our way to the North Pole? Uh- no thanks. "Bad idea," I stated and everyone turned towards me, incredulous looks all around. "Think, people, fire nation town equals fire nation soldiers, fire nation soldiers equals capture and endless torture until we reach the Fire Isles, which, might I add, is the opposite way of our destination."

"C'mon, Korra, we'll wear disguises. Nobody'll arrest us," Sokka argued.

"I don't think we should," This is foolish, stupid even. Something that was getting in our way.

"I don't care what you think, I'm going," stated Aang firmly, and we went to the drivers seat on Appa and brought the massive bison down to earth on a hill outside the town.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

So here we are, in the Fire Nation Festival, wearing masks bought from a roadside vendor. If Zuko hadn't kept my Red Spirit mask, I'd wear that, but he unfortunately was in possession of it, and I was forced to wear a white mask mottled with grey, and a big red circle on the forehead. It looked oddly familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. We saw a puppet show that was brainwashing children, and now we are watching a man firebend on a large stage, obviously showing off, and Aang is sitting here convinced that this guy should be his teacher. HE IS A PREFORMER. Not a teacher. And what really frustrates me is that Aang doesn't seem to realize that.

"And now, I need a volunteer from the crowd!" calls What's-His-Name the Magnificent; Aang begins jumping up and down furiously with little 'ooh, ooh me!'s in between jumps. "And I want… you!" He is pointing right beside Aang at Katara, who tenses underneath the cloak and mask hiding her face and water tribe clothing. She walks onto the stage, stumbling a bit once she got up there.

As the man performing the act proceeded to tie her to a conveniently placed chair, I leaned forward and whispered in Sokka's ear, "What did I tell you. Problems." He was nervously biting the fingernails on his left hand at the thought of his little sister being tied to a chair by a creepy firebender. He began a long sort of schpeel about the act, then began bending. He really was a good firebender, kind of a showy type of good, though, not something that would be able to hold its own in a fight. The fire was circling Katara, and he was manipulating it so the light from the flame echoed across her mask, making her seem like she was glowing. Then he started bring the fire around, to close to Katara for comfort, and there was one instance when the fire was coming down at her at a huge speed, so fast it looked more dangerous than the rest of the performance.

In that moment, Aang rushed forward, onto the stage, and airbended the fire away from Katara. What a stupid kid. There were a bunch of wild gasps from the audience, they were confused as to why a kid just made their entertainment go away, and why he had those weird tattoo's; maybe they hadn't figured it out and we could get away from this place. "I told you people; bad idea," I muttered under my breath as I mentally urged Aang to come down from there. He had untied Katara, and now, with everyone staring at him, he gave a little smile and began doing a funky dance thing to keep them entertained; he didn't come down. "Aang!" I urged, hopefully just loud enough for him to hear me, but unfortunately, at about the same time, a man screamed "THE AVATAR" at the top of his lungs. Damn. It was all downhill from there. Aang leaped into action, pulling Katara down the stage, and Sokka went and joined them, was I the only one with any intelligence down here? "Get out of the way! He'll kill us all!" I called in the loudest voice I could muster, and it had the desired effect; hundreds of people heard me, and all of them began running as fast as they could from the small kid with airbending tattoos. They began running towards the hill where we'd stashed Appa when the guards showed up. They were chasing everyone else when I screamed again, "MY GOD, HELP!" That deterred a few of them, coming to help the poor girl who'd gotten herself into this situation. If there is one thing I like about a crowd, it is the anonymity; I was just another person in a mask, moreover, I was just another person in a full-face mask. No one knew who had screamed, they just knew it came from this general direction, and playing on their confusedness, I high-tailed it out of there. Joining with the gang at the mouth of an alleyway, where we were still being chased by guards, I muttered, "You people so owe me," much to Sokka's discomfort, he should feel guilty for just leaving me there to draw the guards away by myself. We ran down another alleyway, the guards were falling further and further behind, that was good. But when I looked back, there were half the guards there were before.

"Ummm… guys, bad news," I started while running down yet another mostly deserted road, "They are trying to-" I broke off when another set of guards came charging down the road to our left, that left another dark and narrow alleyway for us. "Ambush us," I finished weakly and we all turned on our heels and sprinted for the alley. Just our luck the only option available for us to run down was a dead end. Sokka took one look at the wall in front of us, one of the walls that ran around the length of the entire town, and let out a huge sigh.

"We're screwed," he muttered darkly, and turned to face the guards who had just began to walk down the alleyway. Maybe it wasn't bad luck on us, but good planning on their part that had allowed this.

Then our saving grace appeared in the form of a grungy older man leaning out of a half-hidden doorway in the building beside us. "Pssst! Hey, follow me!" He whispered, and Aang darted in the doorway. Katara and Sokka followed quickly, and then the guards began to realize what was happening; they broke into a run, trying to capture us, but I was already inside and slamming the door when they arrived. "Quickly, through here!" The man called, and I followed Katara and Sokka down a flight of stairs and up one, and out of a thick door that had been carved into the wall surrounding the town. We followed the man, and stopped as soon as we were outside the city limits, waiting for the man to close the heavy door behind us. Once he had, he turned to face us and spoke, "You will follow me, there is someone I want to meet you, Avatar."

I stepped forward, coming in-between the man and Aang, "Whoa there! We aren't walking blindly into anything," I stated coolly, we weren't doing two stupid things in one day, not on my watch.

"Korra, he just saved our lives, we can visit someone for him," Aang protested, letting his naturally gentle Air Nomad side come out a bit while he spoke.

"What if he wants us to go drop in on Admiral Zhao?" I asked Aang furiously with a hint of frustration leaking into my voice, "I don't want something like Pohuai to happen again, and I don't want to be caught unaware again, like tonight." The stranger hissed in a breath at the mention of Admiral Zhao, and I turned to him after I was done with Aang. "We aren't stupid."

"Of course not, and I would not wish a visit with the Admiral on anyone. I am taking to see the only man to desert the Fire Nation Army and live, the honorable Jeong Jeong," he finished in the gently urgent voice he started with, "And we must be moving if we are to make it to his headquarters by daybreak."

Katara smiled, and Sokka looked happy I was finally being shown up. This guy had given us no indication that he was not trustworthy, but I still didn't want anything to do with him. I thought back to my time on Zuko's ship; Zuko had given me, and everyone else, the impression he was a dirty liar, but I trusted him. I guess I was just odd like that. "Fine, one hint of danger, and we are all out of there." I stormed off to find Appa, and everyone else followed.

Jeong Jeong's Point of View

I could feel the sun rising when the boy walked into my tent. "Who are you, and what are you doing in my private tent?" I was practically snarling; this is what happens when you interrupt my meditation session.

He was startled, but spoke anyway, "Master Jeong Jeong, I need a firebending teacher." This kid didn't need a firebending teacher, he needed a backbone.

"You can't really expect me to jump at the chance," I murmured as I fell back into a meditative state, focusing on the candles in front of me.

"But, I'm the Avatar."

So this kid was the missing Avatar, and he wanted me to be his teacher. He didn't sound like the Avatar, the Avatar was confident, flexible like a waterbender, free like an airbender, strong like an earthbender; in both the physical and mental meanings of the words. This boy sounded free-spirited, but frightened and unable to be entirely flexible or strong. "You have mastered Air, Water, and Earth, I presume? Unless you are a waterbender from the North, and have finally been reborn, in which case I think you will have a problem with Air."

I could feel his unease; if I made him this uncomfortable, think of what the fire will do to him. "I'm an airbender, and have some training in water," he stated firmly, like that was an accomplishment. It was not. The Avatar needed to learn all four elements in their designated order, that was the way of things.

"In that case, no, I will not teach you until you have fully mastered Water and Earth." Case closed, now the boy could leave and I could finally get some good meditation done.

"But, Sifu Jeong Jeong!" He called out shocked. I have to admit, I was shocked, too, I had told the boy I would not teach him, and yet he called me 'Sifu'?

"Get out," I shouted and the boy left me in peace.

I was meditating for no more than five minutes before I was interrupted yet again by the Avatar. This one came in the fire, my candles began to burn higher and higher, becoming out of control; a figure was taking place in the flames. Despite my surprise and outright astonishment, I could not let the figure know I was influenced by his magnificent arrival, and I attempted to keep my face neutral.

"Jeong Jeong. You know my request," the figure murmured in its crackling voice, "I want you to teach Aang, you are most likely the only chance he'll have at learning to firebend."

"Avatar Roku, I will not teach a student who is not ready. Look at what happened to my last student, a failure and a monster," I replied evenly, and had to close my eyes; Roku's flaming body was too bright for my eyes. The fire roared again at my response, coming to close to my skin for comfort. I had a feeling that if I tried to bend the fire, it would amount to nothing, so I remained silent.

"YOU WILL TEACH HIM," Roku scream was fire, flaring up and up until the whole hovel I was in was filled with those dreadful flames that had turned my life to ashes.

"He is not ready," I calmly replied, or as calmly as I could. I could withstand Roku's rage if I needed to, but I would not teach a student who isn't ready.

The flames calmed and I found an angry Roku looking at me from the candles, "You are the only chance he has. If it is not you, it will be another, eventually, who may mess up his training and make him more of a monster than your student." So Roku knew how to play me. I couldn't let him fail in the hands of another, not when I could teach him something useful.

"Fine. I will teach the Avatar until he proves himself to be unready," I conceded, and the flames began to die down the figure becoming smaller and smaller, and finally disappearing in a loud cracking noise.

I sighed and settled back into meditating, it took less than thirty seconds for some random follower of mine to come rushing in, wondering what all the flames and voices were about. "Fetch me the Avatar." I told the man, and returned to my meditation, I wouldn't be able to do it for much longer.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

"I've been squatting and breathing for hours! You tell me to go up the mountain and squat and breathe, I do it, and all you want is me to do it more! I wish I could stop breathing!" The Avatar called exasperatedly, and he glared at me. We were in my hut again, and it was just after midday on the third day of our training, and he was becoming impatient and undisciplined. The last thing I want is for the Avatar to turn out like my old student, an evil sadistic murderer.

"You are becoming undisciplined. If you keep up this attitude, I will be forced to not accept you as a student of mine. My last pupil was just as undisciplined as you, and look how he turned out; evil and out of control, no restraints and apt to destroy everything before he admits his bending has gotten out of hand. Fire is a curse I would wish on no one, and it has ruined the world," I lectured, "If you cannot be more patient, you can leave."

And with that the boy left, stomping out of my tent.

Hours later, I exited from my meditation session only to find the Avatar sitting on a rock, meditating peacefully. "I am sorry," he said, "I was too impatient and in a hurry to get to what I believed was 'real' firebending. I would be grateful if you would once again accept me as a pupil who will do as you wish in a patient manner."

Well that was definitely a surprise. "We will work with fire now." I was unsurprised to see him jump up in the air with a shout.

As I raised my eyebrows, he calmed immediately and stood at attention, "I mean, let us begin." I snorted at his face, which was straining to remain calm.

Snatching a leaf from the air, I lit it to a smoldering mush in the middle, and handed it to him. "Try to keep the fire from reaching the edge of the leaf for as long as you can."

"But," Aang started to complain, but stopped himself and began to focus on the leaf. "So, how's fishing going, Sokka?" He called out to the boy at the edge of the river with a fishing pole in his hand.

"Shhh! Do not speak. Look at the waterbenders practicing by the river. Do they speak as they go through their movements? No. Focus" I reprimanded and Aang gave a frustrated sigh. I looked over at the waterbenders, who were not using water at the moment, just pushing their way through the forms. Water was such a graceful element; I wish I was a waterbender. Then the taller one in the pants with the skirt tied around it spoke to the girl in the blue dress. I don't know what she said, but the girl in the dress nodded and leaned over the water, pulling up the element and shifting through the forms while the other one looked on. She nodded her approval, and the other smiled. They both took their stances over the water this time, and I was expecting the one teaching to perform a harmonized version of the bending; there is nothing I like more than harmonized waterbending where the two people work together to create beautiful movements, but she just followed the same pattern as before, still no water. It was like she knew how to waterbend, but she couldn't physically do so. Weird.

"I will be right back," I told the Avatar and I went off to see what the problem was in the woods surrounding the river. I could smell smoke, and smoke was never good.

Korra's Point of View

After Jeong Jeong left, Aang sighed frustratedly and slumped from his perfect posture. "Hey, Aang," I called, and he perked up only to hear me say, "Fix your stance."

He fixed it, and looked thoughtfully at the leaf in his hands. "This is boring," he said, and glared at the leaf as if it was his enemy.

"Hey, I went through some of the same stuff, it gets better, don't worry," I tried to comfort him.

His eyes lit up and he looked around the woods for Jeong Jeong. Shoot, he was going to do yet another stupid thing. He began taking deep breaths, and after a minute, lit a fire in his palms. Katara stopped bending and went over to look. "That's great, Aang, but maybe you should slow down," she suggested gently in her Katara-like way.

He began tossing the fire from hand to hand, and circling it around his body, "Now, how did that guy at the festival do it?" He muttered and started shifting his weight in a different stance, one I recognized from the festival, the circle of flame around the performer. Damn.

"No! Aa-" I got by a scream as he succeeded in doing the simple move way to out of control, and it flamed up in a circle that rushed Katara; she threw her hands up, but it was too late.

"Katara!" he screamed, and she sobbed. I ran over to her just as Aang to her crying form.

"Aang, leave it, burns can be nasty."

Then we heard a voice boom from behind us, "What did you do to my sister?"

Aang turned quickly, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"Get away from her!"

At Sokka's statement, Katara got up, holding her hands in front of her like they were diseased, and ran off into the woods. I felt compelled to follow, and left Sokka screeching at a terrified and remorseful Aang.

I found her at a calmer eddy, crying and wincing as she dipped her hands in the water; it began to glow blue, and she looked at it, astonished, and even more so when she lifted her hands from it only to discover that they were no longer burned. "It's a healing ability, the best waterbenders sometimes can do that," I told her as she gaped at her hands. "A rare gift." I smiled and sat down next to her.

"You'll be fine, but you need to let Aang know that," I told her and she sighed and followed me back to camp, to find Sokka still screaming at Aang. She smiled, and her cheeks crinkled where the dried tracks of tears had run down.

"I'm fine, Sokka and Aang," she was totally calm and mother-like, something I doubt I will ever be.

"You… you're okay?" Aang asked, his big, scared eyes looking up at her face.

"Fine."

"Umm, guys?" I stated quietly, just now realizing that something was wrong. "Is it just me, or is there an abnormal amount of smoke over there?" Jeong Jeong still hadn't returned either. Damn. With that thought, and a confused and scared look that we all shared, we took off running for the riverside.

I burst through the trees first, and Aang right behind me, to find a very pissed off Admiral Zhao ordering his soldiers get Jeong Jeong. I unsheathed my swords, and I could hear Katara uncapping her canteen of water. "Well, well, well, look at who we have here," the admiral gave us the same creepy smile he had always been giving us. Jeong Jeong chose that moment to explode in a burst of fire, leaving us behind, but taking down a slew of soldiers. "Let's see what my old teacher has taught you."

"You are Jeong Jeong's old student?" I heard Aang gape and then steel himself for attack, "He taught me enough to beat you." Then they took off. As Katara and Sokka ran off to deal with the soldiers who were still up and counting, I was left to watch Aang deflect firebending blow after firebending blow. If I had my firebending, I could kick this guy's ass, that is how many gaping holes he left in he work, but I didn't, and Aang couldn't. The Avatar jumped around, taunting Zhao as he went, "You call that firebending?" What was Aang… playing… at… he was toying with Zhao. The admiral's biggest flaw was his obvious lack of self-control, and when Aang jumped onto the first ship, I knew his plan. I smiled at Aang's ingenuity as he ducked and weaved through the windows and corners of the ships, and began running closer for a better view of the fight. This was going to turn out well.

"Ha. You stink at firebending more that you reek of… suckiness," Aang finished lamely, but it still got the desired effect. Zhao roared, and came up onto the boats, cornering Aang in the cabin of one of the last. It was burning slowly, but Zhao was pulling his hand back to let loose a ferocious fire punch right into Aang's face. He would end up like Zuko. Or worse. I leapt onto the boat and hit Zhao's strong armor with the both of my swords, shoving him to the side and forcing his fireball to fly far to the right of Aang, who jumped out the window, beckoning for me to follow. He and it stood at the very tip of the bow of the boat, preparing to jump to shore, when Zhao stumbled out of the cabin. "I think I won this fight," Aang stated and Zhao frowned, confused.

"You haven't even thrown a single punch!"

I jumped in, "But you have."

As he looked around at his three burning ships, Aang and I jumped ship, and onto Appa, who was being piloted by Sokka. As we flew away, I blew Zhao a kiss, and held up my two swords, hoping he'd recognize them from the escape of Pohuai. He did, and his eyes grew wide and angry. "Ha," I shouted down to him, I don't think he heard me, but he got the message.

As we flew away, we could see Zhao sitting on the beach, shaking a fist at our most likely disappearing form. One of the ships made a loud snapping noise and fell into the water, causing a wave to come up and land on Zhao. He deserved it.


*Just saying, nobody needs to feel required to read my random ramblings. I tend to go on... and on... and on...*


Whoa. This chapter was a doozy. Despite the fact it took me hours to write, and I finally finished before my *vacation* time without a computer. (Those weren't quotes, I'm just really excited :) I get on and the website and I'm banned from updating for two or three days. Damn. It turns out that one of my stories was deleted from the site because it 'didn't follow guidelines', but they won't email back and tell me what guideline I violated. It is really starting to piss me off. (Pardon the language) As far as I know, it was a perfectly legitimate story/collection of poems. Sorry. You probably don't want to listen to me gripe.

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Thanks for reading!


So, this was supposed to be published while I was on vacation by a friend, and they couldn't figure out how to work the site. Darn. So you people had to wait... what was it... two weeks? I apologize, and I also apologize in advance about how I barely worked on the next chapter after this, I have like four lines after over sixty hours of driving. And I wasn't the driver. I feel terrible. Blame the awesomeness of watching Criminal Minds on my ipad. And writing bad Criminal Minds fanfic in my notebook instead of concentrating on what was important. Oops. So feel free to be a little miffed.


And here are some Review Responses... I plan on responding to three reviews that I got in the last chapter from now on, questions? comments? concerns? Review!

StrawberryStoleYourCookie- You reviewed on every single chapter! And gave me constructive criticism! Sorry about the comma splices, I try, I really do, but that is the long rambly-ness of me, and my tendency to use to many commas in the wrong ways. Sorry.

Engineer4Ever-*shhhhhhhh* Yep. Predictable story, I know. My plan for Season Two is totally whack, though, and you won't figure out my plan so easily *devious grin* Thanks for following the story.

15dragondream- I am attempting to up the humor, glad its working :)

Zuko will give you a hug if you review. The nice Zuko from Season Three. I will make him.