A/N: Wow, I don't even want to know how long it has been since I updated. So sorry! Life has been hectic and my Junior Project is due on Saturday and all I have done are some flyers, GAHHHHH! But I felt like writing and I finally finished with the revisions (they were quick and sloppy so forgive any mistakes por favor). I will not keep you any longer as you all probably are dying to read the crap I have come up with... unless you aren't and I am just a self-centered author with delusions of grandeur.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except some cookies lying happily in my stomach.
Previously on Events Unexpected…
A ball of churning energy wrapped itself around her, billowing in streams of purple haze originating in the palms of the giant Avatar floating in front of her. Before her eyes, the faces of those she had cherished and loved flashed brilliantly then faded like the embers of a dying fire. Her parents, her teachers, Asami, Bolin, and Mako. Pema and the kids. Tenzin, Master Katara, Naga. Finally, the one face that lingered most of all. Korra's heart yearned to just keep that one face within it, to erase everything else if only it were allotted a small exception. But the cosmic energy was an all-consuming force and would not settle for a shared space. Korra shook her head, trying to fight the sense of gravity pulling at her, only it wasn't gravity here. Here it was Kaji who was pulling on her to return to the confines of the physical world. It was Kaji keeping Korra from becoming a part of the metaphysical entity that superseded all distinctions and separations.
"I'm sorry Kaji," Korra sighed, a single tear leaking down her cheek and falling back to Earth; falling as a drop of rain on the hand of a firebender far below the Avatar, heading home from a victory that had quickly lost its grandeur to the frowning Fire Lord.
Shrugging her shoulders, Korra led Naga out into the snowfields and got into her saddle. "Alright then, I want to get to Republic City as fast as we can, but there is one place I need to visit first. Come on Naga, time to see an old friend."
Korra had heard of the rebuilt capital of the Southern Water Tribe. It was nowhere near as grandiose as the other three nations- the Southern Water Tribesmen being well known for their nomadic movements as the seasons drifted- but it was by far the biggest settlement on the landmass. It had been created for the international travelers and merchants more than anyone bound there by ancestral heritage though the loose government made up of a council of five chieftains and seven lower rank leaders from each small outcropping of people resided there for the larger part of the year. Only in the summer would they disband to return to their respective clans, unless of course a crisis prevented them from doing so. Korra was certain that Master Katara would be there as, because of the Hundred Year War, the old woman had not held allegiance to a clan that existed presently.
The city was really a large dome carved out of an ancient peak, weathered for millennia by the harsh winds that howled day and night without rest. Within the stony alcoves, insulated by furs and layers of ice, was a small metropolis of dark-skinned people and much fewer lighter-skinned foreigners. Houses were in the inner rungs of the maze of walls and crystal mirrors; the shops taking up position in the peripheral so as not to be kept warm during the frigid nights at the expense of energy the poor nation could not afford. Hierarchy and social class never held much sway at the bottom of the world, but most knew that the delegates and wealthy merchants stayed at the lower levels where it was closer to the earth's inner warmth and the bite of the winds was not felt to a great extent. The beggars, thieves, and other miscreants along with the retched rejects of the middle rings were quarantined at the summit of the half-globe jutting into the sky like some colossal snail shell. Despite efforts of aide and rehabilitation, there always seemed to be more miserables occupying those lofty heights than could be helped, no matter how good were the hearts of those who tried.
Korra did not bother to worry herself over them on that day. She had come with a particular mission in mind and, not to say that she didn't care for the poor souls starving in the frozen rooms where icicles could be found hanging from the logs kindled as firewood, she knew that she had to reach her destination quickly lest her nerve fail her at the last moment. Much to the teenager's chagrin, her chakras seemed much easier to blockade the closer she happened to get to her objective. She tried to keep a strong center and a peaceable mind, but Master Katara had been- and was still- such a pivotal persona in her life that Korra had no idea what she was going to do if the old woman did not take what she had to say well.
Naga whined from underneath her, the loving pooch sensing her rider's distress and, since she was unable to reach her with a calming lick, vocalized her reassurance. Korra smiled down at the animal and spurred her on, weaving through the throngs of people crowding the open marketplace at the very center of the mountain. The central plaza was chalk full of people at that time of year. Korra had not even noticed it but New Year's was quickly coming upon them, bearing down like a stampeding bull-boar with its promise of new aspirations and hopes as well as trials and challenges. Korra had always been good about change and the fresh air that was sure to come with the dawning of a fledgling year was palpably exciting. Others seemed to share her love for the oncoming adventures, shouting merriments and waving banners of the animal that would take its place as the patron of the new dawn: the raging dragon returning to its den as the slippery serpent slithered in. Korra silently mused whether that issued the rise of the Fire Nation again- it being a fire elemental and all- or whether the dragon's departure issued forth the premonition of its wane. Shaking her head, the Avatar admonished herself about compounding her concerns with the mysticisms of symbols that could have held as much meaning in them as a pitcher with a broken bottom.
Her eyes scanned the area, looking for the stairwell that descended into the council chambers beneath the crust. Her vision did not fail her, locating a hollow in the ground to her right side, two men in trimmed white fur coats holding sleek hunting knives in each hand standing at the ready before the stairwell leading into the assembly hall. Korra twisted Naga's reins, indicating the change in trajectory so that the furry polar bear-dog veered toward them. They were both young, muscular, and thoroughly bored out of their minds. It was only to be expected as there had not been an attempt on the lives of the chieftains in over fifty years. The guards were the epitome of a well paid laborer whose craft was no longer necessary. At her approach, they pulled themselves together in a semblance of authority, one reaching to grab a boomerang slung over his left shoulder. The other moved to greet her and in a deep voice that was expelled in a tone that painfully mocked affluence said, "Halt. What business do you have here?"
Korra almost rolled her eyes. Sometimes she wished that she could just project her face into the heavens so that she wouldn't have to keep proclaiming her status as Avatar to every person who happened to not live in the more civilized world. Pulling her shoulders back and putting on an air of seriousness she replied with a curt, "I am Avatar Korra and I wish to see Master Katara. Would you happen to know if she is with the council members down there?"
The wide-eyed looks of bewilderment she was given were almost getting trite. The man addressing her stumbled over his words, trying to straighten his back and puff out his chest whilst apologizing for his "impertinence in the face of such an important international figure."
Korra just waved him off with a quick and cordial acceptance of his lamentations before repeating her question. It seemed that he had not heard it at first, too overwhelmed by the fact that the single most powerful being on the face of the planet was standing- or rather sitting atop a giant polar bear-dog- only a few feet away from him.
"Y-yes, she is- or rather, she was in the Western Wing where her chambers are. Master Katara had gone to the higher levels to care for some of the sick there; this winter has left quite a few feeling worse off than the fall previous. She should be back soon though, that is, if you want to wait for her I would gladly escort you-" his stammers ended with a questioning quirk of an eyebrow as he turned his head to look at the sunken doorway and the cool, metalwork that was snuggly fit within it.
"That would be most appreciated," Korra answered in her best level I-know-what-I-am-doing voice.
The man, if sensing any of her anxiety, showed no signs as he quickly beckoned her forward and held out a hand to aide her in her dismount. Korra took it only because she was sure that he would take it the wrong way if she ignored the gesture and jumped to the ground as she knew she was able. Nodding to the other guard, who stood stagnant in his position without a twitch of emotion, her newly appointed guide led her down the slippery granite stairs and into the heart of the city.
The halls within the bosom of the earth were much grander in scale than those outside. Here, where there were no openings for heat to escape into the cool atmosphere that ever greedily stole any kinetic energy that was presented to it, it was no deterrent to the inhabitants to have long sweeping archways and hollow rooms that echoed the murmurs of water drips on rock or soft whispers of milling people with symphonic waves akin to silent strokes of an inquisitive finger strumming a harp. Here, where the icicles no longer hung by the will of nature, but by the will of the benders held within its cockles, the sheets of frozen water hung as tapestries would in any other place. Heroes and villains of old folklores melded into caricatures of cultural history, woven so intricately into the very fabric of the molecular formations as though they were an aspect of the very soul of the walls of ice. There was light, but it was not the light of torches or crude electrical bulbs as it was above the surface; instead, it came from an unknown source, perhaps the water or even the throbbing neurons of the planet running to coalesce into a nervous bundle here at the apex of the world. And why not consider the ethereal columns of crystalline snow and the wide plains of tundra the cerebrum of the small fragile island hanging in the void amidst the stars? The mapmaker had marked the Southern Water Tribe as the lowest continent on the planet, but they were a sphere and not even the Spirits knew what was 'up' or 'down' when the universe was infinitesimal around them.
The Western Wing was no less spectral than the rest of the inner level. Katara's room itself was a comfortably small one, much more humble than the extravagant ballrooms and parlors that were its neighbors. There were two small coaches situated near a hearth that had recently been used, as indicated by the small, neat piles of ash that had been left from the dying fire. It was evident that someone had come to collect them as there were only small traces in the grooves that could not be prodded by the broom or poker. Behind that particular landmark- situated on the far right, snugly tucked by a wall- but not too close so that the fire would have space away from the paint that had been splashed to color the stones a soothing light blue- was a small table made of bent iron in the shape of small waves that stretched out to hold the smooth mosaic circle up, thinned in the center, and then flailed out again in four spirals on the floor. Upon the bright little square tiles that made up the surface of the piece of furniture was a Pai Sho board. Its pieces had been set up as though the game had been interrupted midway to its finale and the carefully knit strategies had been abandoned for another hour. Two chairs were pulled out casually, awaiting the return of the players, each matching the style of the table that separated them. A small door, next to an extensive bookcase that took up most of the left wall, must have led to the adjoining bedchambers. Korra was tempted to open it just to see if her mentor had not retired for a nap or, as it was difficult to discern the time of day below ground, a prolonged sleep. Her senses spiked as she took a step toward it, the adrenaline forming tight knots within her taut stomach, and she thought better of it. She had to get herself together, calm herself before her Earth Chakra was wrenched from her grasp again. Rerouting her feet, Korra moved to take a seat upon one of the coaches, her body sinking into the plush furs and soft leather underneath as though it had been made to fit the shape of her body.
"I will leave you here then, Avatar Korra?" Korra barely registered the man's cautious inquiry. She had completely forgotten that he had accompanied her into the bowels of the capital city, her hammering heart beating out the other sounds that may have wished for entrance into her ears. Still, she gave a sort of dazed half nod before locking her eyes onto the dark impression of the fireplace. Taking the hint, the man quickly made his exit; the door shutting did not even register in Korra's mind.
Nervousness was by far the most pervasive emotion coursing through the veins of the adolescent staring into the nonexistent flames that would have licked hungrily at the neat array of logs stacked on the iron bars that had been bent into a sort of cradle. Korra couldn't help but silently thank the Spirits that she was not going to need her Avatar State for what she was about to do; had she, she most certainly would have been screwed. As it was, she nearly jumped out of her skin- literally jumping up into a tense standing position- at the sound of the door swinging open to let in the room's solitary occupant, back from whatever errands she had been on and completely not expecting the company that was awaiting her.
"Korra?" Master Katara's voice was one of hushed disbelief, as though she were looking upon something that had been lost to the eyes of the corporeal for a very long time. Korra almost wanted to smile at the old woman and remind her that it really had not been that long since they had least seen each other.
Instead, she opted for a warm and slightly shy, "Hello."
The two women stared at each other for a few moments of silence. The elder one gazed upon her former pupil with unhidden confusion as well as relief etched into every wrinkle of her skin and the shiny lights that came from the reflections of her blue eyes. Korra was trying to come to terms with whether she should be the first to confront the Bending Master with her confession or whether it was cordial to speak of frivolous matters first. In the end, it was all just a ploy from her own mind to keep stalling for as long as she possibly could so as not to disturb her relationship with Katara just yet. Fluorescent, vigorous blues swept away from the darker, wiser ones that bore into Korra's soul, opting for the neutral imagery of the fireplace.
"I am glad that you are alright child," apparently Master Katara was adept with answering Korra's dilemmas for her, knowingly or not. "It has been a long time since Tenzin contacted me, telling me of your departure."
"I- wait, what?" Korra's brows furrowed in a perplexed expression. She could not have been absent that long. It had been only two and a half days for her to arrive at the shores of the southernmost continent, then not even an entire day before the Guru found her in the wilderness. Two days later and perhaps another couple of hours of further travelling and that made her disappearance no longer than a week more or less. Voicing the disparity between Master Katara's words and her own calculations, Korra continued, "I can't have been gone for more than a week or so."
It was then Master Katara's turn to look upon her in doubt. The old woman stepped forward, grabbing a hold of Korra's warm hands and running her fingers over the calloused knuckles and smooth back of the palm. After a moment she looked up and said, "I do not know what strange things have befallen you, my child, but you have been gone for the better part of a month and a half."
Korra's pupils shrunk into small pinpricks amidst an ocean of shiny cerulean. A month and a half, how was that even possible? I had only been at the Guru's… she then remembered the other strange paradoxes surrounding the old man. Had she really been with him for so long but had not noticed it. Perhaps they had been in some forgotten corner of the Spirit World where time ran differently than it did in the plain they were in. Her incredible feat of chakra mastery suddenly did not seem as amazing as before, not to mention how worried everyone must have been. Korra did not stop to mull over the abrupt nature of her departure from Republic City as she had already come to terms with it, but a new sense of urgency seemed to overtake her senses.
"What has happened in my absence?" Korra asked, her throat constricting when she spoke of the time elapsed.
By the hesitancy with which Katara opened and closed her mouth, Korra knew that it was nothing good. Her nerves, already frayed, were tingling with anticipation and worry. She had not forgotten the tensions between the nations when she had last been informed of worldly events; now, anything could have happened.
"The Fire Lord and Earth King attacked the Northern Water Tribe," Katara finally spoke. Korra's stomach clenched at the mention of Kaji's title. She nearly choked when the other information sunk in. It was true then, the girl really was going through with everything she had said. It was a new world war. Katara was not finished, "it fell and now it is a protectorate of the two victor nations. Though it really is only one victor nation."
Korra turned to her at the last, muttered, observation. One victor nation? An irrational side of her immediately jumped to the conclusion that Kaji had been backstabbed by the Earth Kingdom and was somewhere locked up in a dungeon or bleeding to death in the freezing palace of the northern Tribe. She quickly dismissed the notion with the solid knowledge that Kaji would never allow such a thing to happen to her. If anything, it was the other way around.
Katara affirmed Korra's latter reasoning, "The Earth King has given over control of Omashu to the Fire Nation as a trade port for a new drug called Opium. My contacts in the palace have been dismissed from office by the head of the Dai Li, Agent Kain, but before they were fired they told me of the King's waning sanity and governing prowess in the wake of his own addiction to this substance. They say that it is Kain who now rules the kingdom and that she is allied with Kaji."
Korra's head was swimming. An unprecedented flare of jealousy burned in her veins at the mention of the head of the Dai Li, irrationally hating her for the close ties she held with Korra's firebender. Immediately after the thoughts had surfaced, Korra bottled them in again, chiding herself for her insensitivity to the more vital matters. Omashu, the city had once before been taken by the Fire Nation through conquest of military strategy. Now, it had been handed over in a gift-wrapped bundle. This couldn't have been happening."How- what?" Korra did not know what the right question was; whether there was even a word to express the thoughts running through her brain like headless pig-chickens.
"I know you were close to the girl Korra," master Katara had led her to the couch and gently lowered them both onto the cushions. Korra grimaced noticeably at the spite with which it was said, even if her mentor tried to be discrete about it. Hearing such opposition to a mere friendship was in no way helping Korra feel secure about her own revelations. Unhindered by Korra's visible discomfort, Katara concluded her thought, "but you have to see that she was bred and raised to be the harbinger of another Hundred Year War. I should have seen it before; so blinded was I in my hope that she was different. In the end, she is a product of Azula's need for revenge."
Korra gripped Katara's hand, unsure of what to make of the sadness that laced the old woman's voice when she had finished. Katara's eyes were now downturned, seeking for something on the smooth floor that was either nonexistent or only perceptible by the waterbender.
"M-Master Katara," Korra managed before she was stopped by another surge of burning uncertainty. Her heart pounded in her head, erasing the carefully placed words she had spent hours- and in light of the new amount of time she had spent away, perhaps days would have been a better description- preparing. Her tongue swelled in her mouth to the point that it was too heavy to move and her airflow diminished. Her nostrils flared slightly in an attempt to make up for her lungs' incapacity to function anymore. The waterbender was still not looking at her, lost in her own turmoil over a forgotten memory with consequences only coming into the open now after so many years carefully locked away.
"About Ka- I need to tell y-" Korra could not find a way to start much less get her words out. She had never felt at such a loss. Pathik's words ran through her mind, calming the neurons that seemed to send electric impulses through her faster than was possible or healthy. Taking a centering breath, the Avatar squared her shoulders, gave her mentor's hand another squeeze for reassurance- for whom was uncertain- and began with the only words that she could find. "I was… I am… I love Kaji, Master Katara."
Katara didn't seem to have heard her for a few seconds. Her eyes moved back and forth chasing the beams of light that flickered in the waves of the crystal firelights in the braziers on the walls. Her lips opened slightly before she moved her face to look at the younger girl. Within her eyes were so many emotions, all warring for the right to overtake her, that Korra had trouble keeping up. Her hand loosened its grip on the crinkled dark hands only to have them grip her by the wrists in an almost painful hold. Cut nails still dug into the sensitive flesh over the joint, pressing into the bone and sinew as though seeking some sort of proof that Korra had indeed said it, that she was not some sort of sick illusion.
"You what?" it was not whispered, not even breathed. Katara's voice came out as a sort of whistled inhale or a wheezing crack of the larynx. Korra was astounded by how much misgiving the waterbending master put into so few words. An utterance, nothing but an incantation of two simple slips of the tongue, hurt more than any physical blow or incision. Korra's heart leapt into her throat and she found that her previous ability to spit out a few coherent drabbles had also been taken from her.
"Korra, you-" Katara also seemed to be at a loss of how to respond. Instead of Korra's silence however, she seemed to have the opposite reaction. What followed was a string of inconclusive and open-ended sentences that made no sense at all but bore into Korra's soul as would any knife, contorting in circles around her heart. What was being said was not important and was forgotten by the listener and the speaker within the very birth of the sounds that it travelled on; as it was, it was the very fact that such nothings were being poured into the frigid air of the once welcoming little room that broke the young Avatar.
"I'm sorry," Korra choked out between tears that streamed down her cheeks. She didn't even know what she was apologizing for. She did not regret loving Kaji, even now after everything she had seen and heard, after all they had gone through, she held no regret in feeling for the other girl. But there she was, on her knees- at some point moving so that she was kneeling in front of the old woman, grasping at her furs in an attempt to have Katara look at her- spouting lamentations for… for something. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I am so sorry."
"Hush child," Katara's voice, hollow for the most part with some vestiges of what could have been both sympathy and guilt or neither of the two. "Hush."
Korra felt the arms around her and it was with that act that the last walls broke down and she burst into tears. Her body shook with the fear and frustration seeping from her eyes and onto the soaked jacket adorning the caring woman embracing her. Katara rocked back and forth in steady strokes, pulling the girl into her and then compressing them together as though applying pressure to an open wound to try and stem the flow of blood. After a while Korra began to feel her calculating and analytical faculties return to her; with their reentrance into her cerebrum she began to wonder whether Katara was accepting her confession or whether her veritable grandmother was doing this only to convince herself that Korra was alright and that somehow she could fix this. In a flash of inexplicable anger, Korra felt a strong resentment toward any attempt at consolation and repentance.
"I should have known it," Katara murmured into her hair. Korra stiffened, but was quickly subdued by a firm yet gentle hand running down her back. "I should have seen it; all of those glances and the way you two were always so close to one another. I- I should have seen this."
Korra kept silent, unsure of what she should say or whether she was doing the right thing in not saying anything at all. Katara continued her petting, running deft hands through the unruly waves of hair that made up Korra's ponytail before moving down further over the cloth along her spine. All the while she continued in her mantra, stating the now obvious connection between Korra and the firebender.
"I should have seen it… I could have put a stop to it," Katara muttered. Korra suddenly shot out of her arms, fully standing up and holding her arms across her chest as though to try and ward off the spiteful words that her teacher had just said. Katara looked at her as though she was some naïve child, the pity swimming in the dark indigo of her eyes.
"Stopped it?" Korra whispered, looking as though she had been slapped across the face. Her words came out in an angry, rushed garble, each one trying to escape quicker than the one before it, "I- I don't want you or anyone to 'have put a stop to it.' The person I choose to love is mine to have, no matter where they are from or who was their grandmother. Hell, I could care less if Koh was Kaji's uncle! How could you say something like that?"
It was Katara's turn to rise, stating in a frustrated matter-of-fact voice reserved for an impudent child with no idea of what they were saying, "Did you not hear what this person whom you love has done? She slaughtered the Northern Water Tribe, imprisoned the chief and his court, drugged the Earth King… I cannot even begin to fathom what she has been involved in that we do not know! Kaji is not someone to be loved, Korra. She is a weapon of war, just like her grandmother was. She-"
"Kaji is a human being!" Korra yelled with a vehemence that she had not been aware that she possessed. "She is not a 'thing.'"
"She is a product of the corruption and obsession that haunts her family line. Perhaps the girl herself was not inherently evil, but she was born to be raised in the way of the Fire Lords of Sozin's time, of Ozai's."
"You don't know her," Korra growled. She knew the facts were against her, that Kaji was in fact committing the same acts of war that her forbearers had become infamous for, but there was a part of her screaming in the defense of the firebender; a very large, formidable part.
"Don't I?" Master Katara rebutted. "I have seen what her family is capable of, lived it for the majority of my life; you are the one who does not know her, Korra. She has tricked you just as her grandmother tricked us all."
Korra knew she was at a disadvantage when it came to the former Fire Nation Princess. Azula had always been a name that was said in a sort of reverent hush amongst the older generation; as though she were a fallen deity that could still inspire fear and change within the world even if she was no longer a part of it. The youth had a more dismissive view of her as they were never taught enough by their elders. Her silence became drawn out, but it remained clear that she was not willing to back down yet. Korra's lips pressed together in a thin line, running like a spear across the bottom of her face. She opened and closed her mouth once, twice, then let a deflated, "Kaji is not Azula," under her breath.
"She is the closest thing to her that I have seen since she passed away," Katara challenged. Another flicker of alien emotion crossed her face before the anger and frustration returned. Korra simply glared at her, refusing to take part in a battle that had no room for logic and fact. Katara had a way of playing on people's trust and emotions to the point of manipulation and Korra did not want to be turned against her- she still didn't know what to call Kaji as 'former' lover was too depressing for her to bear at the moment- 'friend-and-then-some.'
"Why do you hate Kaji so much? I agree that her present intentions are not the best, but you hated her from the moment that you laid eyes on her," Korra finally cut through the void of soundlessness. Katara looked taken aback by the question; in itself it was strange as it was quite a valid observation, but Korra waited patiently for the answer without any further analysis that could later be disproven.
"I- I do not 'hate' the girl," Katara started hesitantly. Her fingers came to rest on her waist before clasping together and then crossing over her chest to mimic Korra's. "I simply did not trust her."
Before Korra was able to interject with how much of a ridiculous underestimation her statement was, Korra silenced her with an, "and I was completely right not to."
"You used bloodbending on her!" Korra shouted, her hands flailing as though to demonstrate just how the master bender had accomplished the feat. "Something you yourself abolished ages ago! If you do not hate her, I am afraid of seeing what you would do to her if you did."
The disarmed look Korra received had her stomach clench with both victory and grief; she did not like seeing her closest friend and caretaker in such a state of loss, yet her heart betrayed her with a slight twinge of sweetness that was unmistakably a product of her closing argument.
"I was wrong to have done that. Korra, what I did… what I do, I do in order to protect this world from turmoil and to protect you from the burden that is placed upon your shoulders. I tried to do the same for Aang in his time; I failed at it in so many ways; you are my redemption and I care for you enough to damn the sacrifices that are required."
Korra's eyes softened, gazing down at the old woman and the fragility she had exposed to her. Master Katara rarely let her into the inner circles of her mind where the thoughts of doubt floated about like little dark clouds. Her hands reached over to grasp Katara's again. The contact was a nice reminder that nothing short of apocalyptic could tear them apart from each other. Softly, hoping that the sheer sincerity was not lost to the cold of the room, Korra earnestly pleaded, "I know that it is hard for you to understand and these things are taboo, but I can't take back how I feel, Master Katara; nor would I want to change anything about what my heart wants. I just want you to accept me, if nothing else."
"Oh, my dear girl," Master Katara had that look again. The one in which she was speaking to a child who knew nothing about the world; in a way, she was not too far off. "I understand the love you feel better than most people would, certainly better than most would like to admit. I just don't want you to repeat the same mistakes that I did; I don't want you to get hurt in the same way I was: having to choose between what your heart desires and what you believe is right."
The confession was mystifying as it was unexpected. Katara's words made no sense to Korra who had always believed that the woman had had one of those extraordinarily rare loves that lasted for eternity and could never have been broken by anything. And Aang had been tied directly with her duties; the implied message of a third party caught the young Avatar by surprise and more. A forbidden love, something she would have never paired with the kind, faithful waterbender guiding her once more to the comfort of the fur-lined cushions by the fireplace.
"W-what are you saying?" Korra was not sure she wanted the answer, she was not sure if she had crossed a boundary that should have been left alone in slumber, but she couldn't stop the curiosity burning in her throat.
The hesitation and pain that flashed through Katara's facial features, tightening her muscles and jaw until her skin was drawn tight across her skull, was enough to cause Korra to regret prying into the deeply embedded secrets of her mentor's past. Katara was torn between her moral obligation to confide in the young girl who had opened herself up to her with the faith of being cared for and the fact that she had guarded the lies and deceptions woven around the case for more years than she cared to count.
"One day I will tell you Korra. I will unveil to you how I had knowledge, even if it was only hypothetical at the time, of Kaji's part to play in all of this. The path that has been given to the Fire Lord was chosen for her years before her birth and you deserve to know it all, but I cannot tell you now. There is so little time and I do not have the entire story to give you. At the present, we must prepare for our counterattack now that you are here once more."
Korra was slightly miffed at having the critical information withheld from her, her eyes burning with the intense need to understand the circumstances that had led to the unexpected events of Kaji's ascension to the throne of the Fire Nation and her plots for world domination. Wisely, she saw that Master Katara was not going to say any more on the subject, no matter how much she begged for it so Korra backed down for the time being. Instead, she went with a question in regard to the matter at hand, their retaliation strategy, "How are you proposing we do this?"
Master Katara beamed at her with a weary, grateful smile. Her hands brought Korra's up to clasp them in a sort of pyramid between the two women. "A group of refugees from the Northern Water Tribe capital have arrived in the city with vital information on the state of the city. We are going to debrief them and then you and I are heading to Republic City; Tenzin will be awaiting us with anticipation. Oh, and there is one more thing. I believe it is time to revive another ancient sect from my youth. Kaji may have the Dai Li, but we have the Order of the White Lotus."
The frigidity of the winter air billowed fully over the Earth Kingdom city now. It was nearing the spring months, but none of the residents would have known it by the sheets of snow that clung to the shutters and windowsills or caked the rooftops in a coating that would have looked as sweet as frosting had it not been for the faint grey hue created by the smog that sprung from the hearths of industrial buildings and the chimneys of homes. Children ran along the streets with wild abandon, not afraid of vehicles roaring through the streets as the roads had all been blocked by the frozen raindrops falling in merry, slow drifts. New Year would be upon them within a day or two, depending on the region. For the members of the western city, it was later than the eastern capital of the continent. It was better in a way as the inhabitants would have more time to prepare for the on-coming festivities. That was, if the snow would cease to come down long enough to get the banners of green and gold up without having the fabric grow heavy with moisture.
From the old palace atop the giant projection rising from the circular gorge that surrounded Omashu, two women stood on a balcony ringed in glass to keep the warm air inside of the chambers behind them. A pair of green eyes warily gazed at the strained golden ones moving smoothly over the landscape. Kaji had been somewhat put off by the detour, wishing that she could recline in the heat of the land of eternal summer. Sure, the Fire Nation had regions where the little flakes could find solace on the infertile granite of the high mountains, but for the majority of the continent snow was something to be seen in pictures and heard of in stories. Not that Kaji hadn't had enough travels to be intrigued by the frozen phenomenon; her arms folded across her chest as she moved to lean against the cool surface of the transparent walls enclosing them. Behind her, she felt Izuru's unwavering gaze. The woman had not left her side since they had returned to the Earth Kingdom as requested in a telegram she had sent. The Earth King had cordially given the ancient city of the star-crossed lovers to the Fire Nation as a trading post for opium refinement over three weeks ago. It had been a welcome surprise, unfortunately followed by a more somber mandatory 'invitation' to stay in the city and coordinate the transition with as much efficiency as possible. If she had been honest, Kaji had not expected the man to give into her- and Izuru's- persuasions so easily. Her paranoia had been running rampant with each day that passed, waiting for the hidden traps that surely were to be sprung upon her at the slightest lowering of her guard. Korra's prolonged absence had only made things worse for the Fire Nation girl, compounding the closed-in sensation spreading through her day by day.
Her musing was broken by a pair of slender arms wrapping around her waist and a sharp chin coming to rest on her shoulder. Out of all of the unexpected complications that had arisen since the victory over the Northern Water Tribe, Izuru's clinginess was perhaps the only one that Kaji was having trouble dealing with. She, despite all of her training in the manipulation and calculation of the human psyche, was a horrible people person and the sudden change in the demeanor of the once cold earthbender was not something the Fire Lord felt equipped to deal with. Her heart, no matter how much she wished she could tear the infernal thing out and stomp it into ashes on the ground, still longed for the embrace of darker arms and the strong smell of animal pelts and fresh air. She was not foolish enough to outwardly distance herself from Izuru- the loss of a valuable ally was unthinkable at this stage of the game- but internally she cringed each time she locked lips with the other woman or climbed into her bed. She hated feeling as though she was betraying Korra; it was an enigma that caused her head to practically split in half, wondering whether she had a viable reason to be with whomever she wanted now that Korra no longer viewed them as a couple- if she had even thought of them as such before- or if she should have waited longer before taking someone else in. Though her relationship with the Dai Li agent was anything but intimate, apart from the sexual aspect; both girls knew that they held no love for each other past the love a master had for a fine tool. Still, Kaji couldn't shake the feeling of gnawing sadness each time she thought of Korra with the firebender boy form Republic City and reflected the image onto her activities.
"You know you're going to get wrinkles if you keep scrunching your eyebrows like that," Izuru's voice slithered into her ear, tickling the flesh beside the auditory organ. Kaji half turned to look into the milky jade eyes that were focused on a point in the distant horizon. The flatness of the lands surrounding the cliffs that dropped off around the city allowed for a peripheral view of miles around. There had been mountains there once, but constant travel, erosion, and a large amount of earthbending intervention had ground the tips to nothing more than slight bumps spreading in an ocean of dusty waves. Now the snow provided the mirage of sea foam along the crests of the protrusions, sitting stagnant in their perpetual illusion of motion.
"I doubt I will live long enough for that to happen," Kaji chuckled. A small part of her- though it was growing with each day that the lull in battle continued- told her that she was doomed to fail. Call it spiritual premonition or cold feet, but it was slowly driving her to insanity. She briefly wondered if her grandmother had experienced the same creeping dread on the eve of her Agni Kai with her brother. Perhaps she had felt it as an aspect of her paranoia and mild schizophrenia, or maybe Kaji was simply weaker than Azula had been.
"Thinking it will only hasten its passing," Izuru sagely announced. Her hands moved up Kaji's clothing, rubbing her sensitive spots so that the friction of the earthbender's hands coupled with the fabric's roughness drew small moans from the firebender. Kaji was horrible at lying to herself, not even trying to pretend that she was not turned on by the way Izuru moved against her body. In a way, she had come to rely on the girl's caresses as signs that she had at least someone who was still attracted to her, even if it was only for her experience under the sheets.
"Not now," she finally breathed. "I have to go to another meeting with the Minister. He wants to discuss the Fire Nation immigrants that have been arriving over the past few days, something about conserving the rights of the earth citizens and respecting their cultures, blah, blah, blah."
Izuru chuckled at the utter despair that was shown in Kaji's mimics of the cranky old man who still attempted to cling to his power and prestige in spite of the fact that Omashu was no longer his. Tightening her hold on the younger girl she bit into her earlobe and whispered, "He can wait. It's not like he is anyone important and now that you are the ruler of this 'Fire Nation trading post' I'm sure that you will be forgiven one little transgression. Make him sweat a little."
Kaji smirked at Izuru's enticements. Her hand moved to push her off of one of the balusters holding up the balcony's iron railing while she turned within the Dai Li agent's arms. Their lips met in a fierce battle for dominance as she walked Izuru back into the confines of the royal chambers she had taken for herself. The interior doors closed of the small patio and curtains were drawn over the glass to provide for some privacy even if they were too high up for anyone to really see them.
To the north, heavy clouds of winter rolled down on the strong currents, carrying with them the scent of fresh snow. The clamor of the New Year's preparations halted again as the people moved inside to avoid being caught in the impending storm. A few looked out of closed windows like excitable children anticipating the deluge. An old man in a small shack at the outskirts of a forgotten little village in the Earth Kingdom set up a Pai Sho board and began to play against an invisible opponent, favoring the White Lotus gambit and awaiting the kind words of a friend.
P.S: Sort of a transition chapter but I am at my mom's this weekend which means an update hopefully. No promises though as I will be away most of Saturday for a Science Expo cause I am a mega nerd (even if astronomy really isn't my cup of tea BIO RULES). I have also discovered the sheer genius of The Great Gatsby and am insanely jealous of his writing- it is beautiful, magnificent, and, even if the book was somewhat confusing and a little short for my taste, it was the epitome of amazingness. Thank you Fitzgerald and I hope that you are not turning in your grave at my horrendous butchery of adjectives. Anyhow, hope you all liked it REVIEW! and until next time.