Hey all. Sorry for such a long wait; life has been extremely stressful and busy. Things should be more clear after this Wednesday though! So look forward to more updates. ^_^

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Chapter 24

Something wrong

"Are you sure this is going to work, Asami," Tonraq questioned as they stood outside of his home. The wind blew between them.

"I don't see why not," she called out over the howl of the gust, fastening the harness around Naga. She pulled Korra's parka hood closer to her face and rubbed her eyes, somewhat grateful that she didn't bother putting makeup on from her emergency kit before leaving; there was no use in wasting it if she was just going to get dirty from working on the snowmobiles. The little bag bounced off of her leg as she moved until the motion became minute enough for her to ignore again. She circled around to Naga's face and scratched it. "Is it okay if we ride you, Naga?"

The animal made a short, guttural sound of displeasure.

"But you let me ride you in Republic City."

"Because she wanted to find Korra." Tonraq stepped beside her and crossed his arms "Now that Korra's back, she's off limits."

"Is that how you feel, Naga?"

She barked and scratched her ear with her back paw.

"How about we strike a deal?"

Naga tilted her head at Asami in both confusion and curiosity.

"If you help us today, then I'll pet you and play with you for the rest of the night."

She remained unmoved.

"I'll even give you a special 'polar bear dog' massage."

She shifted into a sitting position with her front legs straight up. After a yawn and a snap of her teeth, she sniffed Asami.

This doesn't seem to be very appealing to her.

"I'll also give you some of my fish tonight when we eat dinner."

This got her attention. Her ears perked up. She twisted her head again and stood up with a soft noise escaping her throat.

"Half?"

She woofed.

"Three-quarters?"

Naga paused to consider, every part of her still.

"Fine, all of my fish."

She jumped up and barked, accepting the offer. She licked her pale cheek, circled her, and kneeled so that Asami could climb on.

Tonraq scratched his head, still trying to figure out exactly what just happened.

All this time, I could have just given her food?

He shrugged his shoulders and sighed before hopping onto the polar bear dog's back, using a small bit of Water Bending to push himself up.

Asami adjusted herself at the reigns and ushered Naga forward.

They sped away, Tonraq's hands gripping the saddle to keep himself aboard.

"Just let me know where to go, okay?" She called over her shoulder.

He nodded and braced himself for the journey to Harbor City.

(-)

"I hope you don't mind that I kept this here, Korra. I know they were addressed to Tonraq," she handed the letter over to Korra, "but I was interested in what you had to say."

Korra took the papers and read them over, a bit nostalgic at how happy she sounded when she wrote them. She blushed when she read the portion about Asami, and froze when she got to the section about the Avatar. She set the sheets on the table beside her and looked away. "I'm assuming it's not the parts about classes or Asami that you want to talk about."

"Well, I wouldn't mind talking about those things. They're important to you."

She looked up and met Katara's eyes. A gentle smile crossed her lips.

They averted their gaze when Kya entered the room, a tray of tea in her hand.

"Did I miss anything?" She handed each of them a steaming mug and plopped down into a separate chair, making a small triangle shape between the three of them.

Korra eyed the letters for a split second before staring at the wall opposite of Kya. "Not really, no."

Kya wasn't stupid, and she certainly wasn't clueless. "Are you going to ask her about the Avatar, mom?"

Her oceans met Katara's blues in an almost frantic state.

The Avatar? What could I possibly know about the Avatar that Master Katara doesn't? She dated the Avatar. She was married to him!

"Relax, Korra. You're not on trial, here." She took a sip of her tea. "Tonraq tells me that you know quite a bit about the Avatar from all of the books you've read."

"I know a little bit, I guess."

"Could you tell me about it? About what you know?"

She scratched her head, her mug abandoned on the side table. "Well… What specifically do you want to know?"

"Everything."

Korra raised her eyebrow and glanced at Kya, her eyes begging for an escape.

Unfortunately for her, Kya looked just as intrigued as Katara did.

She refocused on Katara and hesitated. "Well, um, where should I start?"

"Tell me about Aang."

"Master Aang? You know more about him than I ever could."

"That's not necessarily true, Korra. Even I didn't know about what happened during the battle with Ozai, but you seem to have a pretty good handle on Aang's involvement in the fight that day. Besides, even if that was true, I'd still like to hear what you have to say."

"Um… okay…" She dropped her sight and twiddled her thumbs. "Avatar Aang was an Air Bender born before the start of the Hundred Year War. He was told he was the Avatar at age 12, when Sozin was in reign of the Fire Nation. He disappeared for one hundred years and was found in an iceberg by you." She locked onto Katara. "You pretty much know the rest."

"Do you know what happened? Before Sokka and I found him?"

"I –" Her thoughts flashed out of her control. She was surrounded by rain, stuck in a horrible storm. Waves crashed around her, threatening to consume her. Her pale, blue-tattooed hands were in her peripherals, gripping onto the reigns of the animal below her.

The sky bison below her.

She grimaced and curled into herself, a horrible pain erupting in her skull when she crashed into the sea below her.

Kya and Katara shared a look of concern.

"Korra, are you –"

"I don't know what happened to him," she growled, hoping her lie would force the flashes of her dream away. "He disappeared. That's – that's all I know. All I remem –"

Korra.

She yelped to another shock; whatever this was, it didn't appreciate her deceit.

"Korra," Katara was by her side, a hand on her shoulder. She waited until the woman calmed down and met her eyes before continuing. "Are you okay?"

Korra noticed Kya in the corner of her sight as she breathed, struggling to gain her composure. She looked away, receding into herself. A soft palm slipped into hers.

"Come with me, Korra." Katara pulled her to her feet. She held her hand for the entirety of their walk across the common room.

Kya rose to follow, but her mother stopped her.

"Stay here, Kya. I think Korra and I need some time alone."

She didn't have time to respond; the pair was already out the door into the next room over.

(-)

"It's up here, to your right." Tonraq called through a dry voice; the wind had gotten worse and his throat was getting sore. He wanted nothing more than to shield his eyes from the cold gusts, but his fear of flying off the back of the speeding polar bear dog if he let go of the saddle overpowered this urge.

They had made short work of the journey to Harbor City. Well, at least shorter than it would have been walking. Even though Naga was quite fast – especially in this terrain – the gales slowed them down much more than Asami expected.

She squeezed and loosened the reigns in her palms, trying to keep feeling in her fingers. While she had her original outfit from Republic City on and Korra's parka, it wasn't quite enough to keep her from freezing in this wind. She leaned forward, trying to reduce the amount of her torso that was exposed to the elements.

Naga ran faster to the motion.

The trio dashed across the icy roads, dodging the few pedestrians who bothered to be out in this weather. When they reached what Asami could recognize by the door alone as a garage, the polar bear dog came to a halt.

"Good job, Naga." She slid off of the animal, almost falling in the process; her legs were sore and unaccustomed to the position they were stuck in while riding on the back of Naga.

Tonraq jumped down and fished a key from his pocket. He unlocked the entrance and forced the half-frozen door open with Water Bending. He waved the pair on to follow him.

Asami held onto part of Naga's harness out of habit. They slipped into the garage before Tonraq sealed the exit.

Naga shook herself out and searched for the warmest spot in the dark room.

Tonraq rummaged for the light switch and flicked it on. Three very weak bulbs lit up, revealing several black and blue snowmobiles. Some of them were iced over from inactivity. Others were missing whole pieces to them, like the windshields, tracks, skis, and even an engine cover. There were two that looked to be in working condition at first glance. When circling to the back, though, one of them was missing many of the pulleys it needed for the gear system underneath. It almost looked as if something slashed the mechanism out.

"What the hell happened?"

"To which one?" He crossed his arms as he joined Asami's side.

"All of them."

"They each have their own story," Tonraq glazed over as he grabbed the handle bar of the most intact-looking vehicle. "I believe this is our last operational snowmobile." He tested the ignition. With a few sputters, the engine roared to life.

Asami scanned the almost barren room, holding her elbows to the cold. Everything in the Southern Water Tribe seemed to be left frigid when no one was using it.

I suppose it saves on wood and power.

She shook her head back into focus. Her eyes fell on a small wooden cabinet on the wall opposite of her. "Is this where you keep the tools?"

Tonraq shut the engine off and nodded. "We don't have much here, but we try to get by with what we have."

Asami crossed over and pulled the doors open. There was an array of various wrenches, fuel oil cans, and other types of equipment. "Do you have any spare parts," she called over her shoulder as she delved through the shelves. Though the tools were cold and somewhat unfamiliar to her – due to their age and rust – her fingers rejoiced with each bit that they touched. This was her element. She didn't need to control water or shoot fire from her hands. She built things. She fixed things; that's just what she did.

And that's what she planned to do here, in this freezing garage.

"Spare parts? No, we don't have any of those."

She pieced through the small boxes, setting aside several of the wrenches she knew she would need. "Where did you even get these snowmobiles from? Future Industries doesn't have a line of them, and I doubt Cabbage Corp. would be clever enough to build something like this." Asami gathered the equipment and walked over to the vehicles.

"There are more industries than just the two in Republic City, you know." He met her halfway and took some of the tools from her arms. "These were provided by a local businessman. A guy named Varrick."

"If he's local, why doesn't he service his own products?" She spoke with bitterness, unappreciative of the poor customer service.

"Who knows what he's up to these days. He left quite some time ago to 'expand his global empire'." He frowned, agreeing with the distaste that Asami expressed. "Really, he's off somewhere on his yacht, gallivanting around while his assistant manages the shipping portion of his company."

Asami set the tools beside one of the broken snowmobiles with a clunk. She pulled the parka off of her torso and tossed it aside; she didn't want to get Korra's only coat covered in oil and grease. She dropped to her knees and started inspecting the vehicle. "Clearly, they should focus on shipping if they can't even service their products. And if he's so rich and powerful, why doesn't he help the Southern Water Tribe out? Especially after all of the destruction that's been going on from the storms." Her cold fingers struggled to unscrew the engine cover.

"Some people aren't as philanthropic with their money as others. His ships weren't damaged during the storms, and to him, if his business isn't threatened, then he doesn't give a damn." He knelt beside Asami, observing what she was doing. "If anything, the destruction of our boats helped his company by reducing competition." Tonraq scoffed, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. "Not that there really is any competition. Our traders aren't looking to capitalize global trade. We're just looking to survive."

Asami frowned. "That just doesn't seem right." She popped the engine cover off and fiddled with the mechanism inside. "People shouldn't have to live that way."

"And how do you explain the economic classes in Republic City, then? Is it really all that different?" Tonraq rose and paced over to the functional snow mobile. "Not everyone can be born into wealth and not have to work a day in their life to sustain themselves. They don't have to worry about struggling to be fed like the rest of us."

A scowl crossed her face; she took offense to the indirect accusation. She set the wrench down on the ground and faced him, a bit of fire in her eyes.

Asami, calm down. He doesn't know anything about you, remember.

"That's not the case with every person in Republic City. My father lived in poverty when he was growing up and he, too, was dirt poor like the rest of the people in his community. He was a shoe shiner before he got a loan to start Future Industries." She shifted her weight to her other foot and crossed her arms. "He worked his ass off to get where he is today. And just because I was lucky enough to be the daughter of a successful industrialist doesn't mean that I don't work hard either."

Asami, relax. Breathe.

"Have you ever starved, Asami? And I don't mean these past few days." He walked up to her, intensity in his eyes as well. "Do you know what it's like to come home empty handed from a hunt and watch your family ache without a meal? Or was your dinner always brought to you by your servants in your mansion?" There was a sting in his voice as he spoke. "Has your father ever watched his child go hungry and know there was nothing he could do about it?"

"No, he hasn't." She took a step forward, matching his glare. "But he has watched his daughter cry with his dead wife – her mother – in her arms, knowing there was nothing he could do about it, if that's any consolation to you." Asami turned away, biting back her own tears. She returned to the snowmobile and cranked the wrench, yearning for the physical task to take her mind away from her internal torture.

Tonraq's face was in shock. "I – I had no idea, Asami."

"No, you didn't." She growled, using her own sleeve to wipe away some of the gunk stuck in the engine. "So maybe you shouldn't make assumptions about people until you get to know them." Asami brought her focus to the pulleys underneath and worked on aligning the tracks. She slid her flathead between the wheels and the assembly to remove the grime inside. "Even after all of that, my father still works hard to make Republic City a better place. He doesn't hoard all of his wealth like this Varrick guy seems to do, according to you. He shares his inventions with the world and his wealth with many charities and organizations in the City."

And his weapons with murderers.

Her hand slipped to the thought. The handle of the screwdriver smashed into her cheek. She muffled a profanity to the pain and picked it up again.

Tonraq was very quiet. As stubborn and hot-headed as he was, he knew he had done something wrong. The guilt battled with his curiosity. "How – how old were you? When you lost her…"

She stopped her work and sat up. Asami fiddled with the tool in her fingers, avoiding his eyes. "I was six. I heard it all happen. I saw the flames of the Fire Bender that killed her under my bedroom door. I'll never forget the face of the man that ran away after he murdered her." Her fidgeting stopped. Her peridots were empty as she stared at the floor, reminiscing the awful night. "She was still alive when I got to her, but only for a few seconds. They burned right into her throat and cracked her skull against the wall with their blast. She couldn't breathe. I looked into her crying eyes and saw the life leave them. There was nothing I could do to help her." She shut her lids, hoping to shut the memories away with it. The tears came back, as if she were right there beside her mother again. She fought to keep them from leaving her ducts. "I watched her die. I tried to look away, but I couldn't. I just… couldn't. She reached up and touched my cheek with her bloody hand before she slipped away. That's when my dad found us. He never got the chance to say goodbye, and I was in too much shock to say anything but 'mommy' over and over again."

An extreme weight fell upon his heart from her words. He could feel the devastation from her tone alone.

Asami took a breath to settle herself. She opened her eyes and kept them on the floor as she returned to her work. She needed this distraction, needed this all to escape her thoughts. Her hands were shaking, but she kept going regardless.

A palm on her shoulder stopped her.

She sat up and met the blues before her.

"I'm sure your mother would be proud of everything you and your father have done and accomplished, Asami."

Would she? If my father was helping murderers, would that warrant pride?

He's not helping murderers. He made those devices to jumpstart Satomobiles, not to kill people.

He's not a killer?

He's not a killer.

Are you sure? Or are you just too deep in denial to think otherwise?

Asami didn't know when she started crying, but she wanted it to stop. She wiped her tears away as quick as she could.

It didn't stop Tonraq from embracing her.

"I'm sorry, Asami. You have a kind heart, and you've been watching out for my daughter since day one, according to what Korra has told me about you in her letter." He released her but kept his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "I've been hard on you. I've said rude things to you. And you don't deserve that. If anything, I should be grateful for you. You've taken care of Korra, you've helped us find her, and you got us all the way here to the Southern Water Tribe. Even now, you're helping us with the snowmobiles." He paused, trying to find the words to say. "Thank-you, Asami Sato. Thank-you."

She nodded and looked away. A faint smile was on her lips as she pulled away from Tonraq. She returned to the snowmobile, just wanting to get it fixed so she could move onto the next diversion from her thoughts.

Tonraq watched on, a mixture of feelings spreading through him.

(-)