Eden

by jlthdprgy

A continuation of Legend of Korra in which Korra never received her bending after it was taken by Amon. Her friends have lost contact with each other and are scattered across the city now. Korra tries to cope with her situation and find her purpose, but as she faces a new evil in the city, an ancient one is awakening.

51. Misty Grove

/*Edit: Never played Skyrim lol. Just made it up (chapter name). Complain if it bothers you */

-Misty Grove-

Korra thought she could see just about every star in the sky, being out in the woods where she was. It was so clear. So free of any clouds. She knew this place. These woods. Somehow, it seemed familiar to her, like déjà vu, she had been here before, in another time. A very weak recollection of memories and feelings came to her, instilling a sense of familiarity within her about these woods.

East of here was the Si Wong Desert. Soon, very soon, the lush forests would become rock and then sand as they plunged deeper into the Earth Kingdom. Sand as they would come upon the boundaries of the vast and seemingly endless desert. Although she had never been to it, a feeling of fear overcame her, a sensation like she was going to die.

His memories. Aang's, She thought. He had been through these woods, just like her. It was no guess, she was sure of it. She was sure he had been here with the old Team Avatar, and now she was traveling through with the new one.

He was trying to reach her. To help her. Guide her. She could feel it. It was difficult to communicate with him, not because of her weak connection to her Spiritual side, but also because she did not want to hear his objections to her mission.

It was late. Although the Team had witnessed a very reassuring scene, the people of Metro beginning to realize the truth about their leaders, they were unsure about what to do next. They had made camp where they found Korra lying on her back, no idea where to go next, what to do next. It was only a few hours ago when they were arguing about the next step, right after everything seemed at peace during their group hug.

"So, where do we go from here?" Asami asked. No one answered right away. The question had no clear answer. Nothing was clear now. "I mean, should we go back and help them escape the city? It's obvious that they are all scared. Even though they know something is wrong, whether they are still scared of us or actually are beginning to mistrust Qu, they are still at his mercy. Or should we press on…"

"Press on where?" Korra asked. "To the desert? With just us eight? Against the entire Spirit World?" Korra was frustrated again. The feeling of victory was short-lived. They had to act from here, but she didn't know what to do. "Going to the desert now won't help anyone. We'll just be waiting for our deaths, then."

"We should at least just go somewhere, at least toward the desert so we can be close by, if we find help…" Mako suggested.

"But then," Korra looked back at the city. "I'd be abandoning them."

"Korra you can't worry about all of them," Lin said. "And if you end this crisis with the Spirit World and bending ends, then Qu won't have anymore power over them. You'll be indirectly saving them, too."

Korra thought about this. Even if Qu had no bending, would they still fear him? Or would they start to depend on him again? Would he blame their disobedience as the cause of some bending plague? More lies to keep control when he knows he's lost what gave him the control in the first place.

Korra, again, had so many questions. She just wanted to vomit them all out at once and get answers. "I don't feel right leaving them down there. They have been changed by ONI's message. ONI is more involved in this than we thought. I know they have changed the citizens. I knew they've all been feeling restless, been getting tired of the oppression of Graft and now Qu. Been getting tired of the world…ruled by bending. When I was out there on the streets I could feel it. I could feel the unrest within them. The chi that they gave off was so unstable. But they were unsure. Unsure about the truth. ONI's message was the driving force. The trigger that freed their unrest. They want to escape, they want to be free just like ONI said they could be. They all know that. But Qu still has them in his clutches. Who knows what he will do? Who knows if he still has Clasma and is going to kill the heretics? The ones who've turned away from him. I know I'm fighting to save the whole human race from the Spirits, but I can't just ignore so many people who might die like this along the way. But we still don't have what we came for. We don't have enough people. Not enough people to save them from Qu. Not enough to stop CHAOS. Whatever ONI's purpose was for broadcasting that message, they must have had long-term expectations, or very little hope for the people of Metro, otherwise why didn't they just send their 'army' and tear down the walls…" Korra suddenly remembered the footprints in the tunnels underneath the ground. The soldiers tied up in the abandoned house. The man who took Naga.

"You heard the speaker, they don't want people they can't trust," Mako said. "They can't just rescue everyone and accept them. Could be people like Qu they are saving. He'd ruin their whole organization."

"But wait," Korra said. "I think they have been taking people out. I remember the footsteps in the tunnels. What if they've been moving certain people out of the city? Only the people they can trust? Those two men that snuck into the parade were able to alter the monitors to send their message, and I bet the one who took Naga was part of it. Maybe they've been doing that for a while."

"Jeez, Korra. Stop getting all tied up with these people. Stop worrying about what is going on and let's get on with our mission," O-Ren said, fed up with Korra's indecisiveness. "Choose something. Stop sitting here and whining about what to do."

Korra was enraged. She stood and put her face close to his, staring him down. "Oh you think it's so easy? You think because you spent a whole two or so months in the military that you know all about making world-changing decisions?"

"No," he said, he pushed her back. "But at least I wouldn't just do nothing. At least I wouldn't just sit around and ask myself questions I have no answers to. Those people down there are still in trouble, so we try and find a way for them to get out. But maybe they are already receiving help? Then we focus on our mission of stopping Daya. But maybe they don't?! Maybe they are in trouble? And where do we find support to help us? Gee, I don't know, maybe that organization named after you that is doing exactly what you came here to do? But then you ask yourself where these people are? Why aren't they doing more? Ugh, you don't know these answers! And neither do we so stop asking us."

Korra pushed O-Ren back, and he tripped over a rock and fell on his back. He looked at her angrily. Mako came between the two. "Cut it out! Stop acting so immature, we're all just a little restless. It's been a long day."

"Look, I'm sorry I don't just know what to do, O-Ren," Korra said, not so much angry, just desperate.

"I don't care. That isn't what matters, but doing nothing won't get us anywhere," he said.

"Alright, children," Lin said. "Let's just calm ourselves. It's obvious we are all just tired, but let's just try and think this through. Why did we even come to Metro in the first place?"

"We came for help," Asami said. "The United Forces, but then they attacked us so that sort of diminished our hopes. But then, we just thought we could find something here. Something that could help us go up against CHAOS. Any kind of support."

"We came all this way to Metro just to leave in a day?" Mako said. "It's obvious that we haven't gotten what we came for. It's obvious we can't go up against CHAOS like this."

"Fine," Lin said, "So maybe we should stay here. For now. There is no where else to go, and if our mission was to get the help we need to defeat these Spirits, then we shouldn't move on without accomplishing it, or at least knowing that we can't."

Korra watched the stars. Hours later. Lying on her back on the cool grass. She had quickly apologized to O-Ren, but it wasn't very sincere. He had frustrated her. He told her to take a thousand steps when she wasn't even sure how to take one. Both of them were a little anxious. Maybe being back in a close proximity to Qu made him slightly unstable.

Lin told everyone to get some rest, but Korra could hardly sleep. She kept thinking about what was going on. Would she be able to get the help she needed? She just needed something, an army, a weapon, a few more people who believed what she believed. Something that would be able to at least weaken the beast or hold it off or something before coming for them. But even if she found that help, how would they go about such an attack? Head on? Blindly lead them into a battle without any strategy? Solomon would have a field day reaping them.

It was only a matter of time before Solomon would show his face again, and he'd be on his way to the desert to revive the SPORE, which would mean the complete dissolution between the physical and Spirit World once the SPORE began sucking the Cosmic Energy out of this world, sucking the souls out of the humans.

Korra couldn't sleep. She closed her eyes and almost drifted off several times but was repeatedly brought back to reality each time. At first it was his face. Solomon. She saw him in her dreams, smiling at her as if he knew that she was dreaming about him. Nightmares about him, taking her closest friends. Leveling entire cities and killing thousands of people who couldn't fight back…and it felt so real. So close. Like it was happening now. She would wake and look around to make sure it wasn't.

But there was something else she saw. Or rather felt, when she was in that state between being awake and asleep, the state that was prone to strange sensations and hallucinations. She felt something buzzing around her. Oscillating the air pressure. Agitating her sensitive, cosmic energy-detecting nerves. It was like Cosmic Energy, but not as random. There was a pattern. It went up and down. It was controlled and contained information she couldn't really understand.

Korra quietly got up and followed the sensation. Trying to find its source. Compelled to understand it and discover it. She walked far from the wooded area, from her Team. The sound was more distinct now. She heard something else as well. The sound of footsteps. Inhuman footsteps. They felt cold and lifeless. Metal. A metal man?

Korra crossed through some of the trees and thickets until she came to a clearing. She stopped, slowly beginning to understand what she may have come upon. All around her, mist saturated the air. The trees, the land, the hills had become absorbed into it. Her vision was extremely limited to a few inches in front of her. Like walking through a void. She was lost in it. Unable to see, but she could still feel the buzzing, and she understood that something was ahead of her. Something important. The mist had come out of nowhere. It only rested in the clearing in which she was standing. Just this one place and nowhere else. Protecting something. Something holy? Something sacred?

Suddenly, mysteriously, Korra felt she knew what to do. She felt whatever this mist was protecting was her answer. She smiled. She became excited. She didn't even know why, but she knew this was the beginning of something, the very thing that she needed.
Before continuing, she returned to her Team and woke them all up, against their favor. She hurried, rushing them to get up and accustomed to being awake after sleeping for only a few hours.

"Come on," Korra said, ecstatic, "You have to see this." She ran ahead quickly as the Team sluggishly followed her into the woods. She tried to concentrate to hear the buzzing sound she had followed before, to find the clouds of mist, and soon the Team was at the clearing, surrounded by the thick fog that they too felt just suddenly appeared around them. Unanticipated. Out of nowhere. The walked through it, trying to push it aside, struggling with the pseudo-blindness. A gray abyss. They soon came upon a small hill, the mist continuing on the other side. The sound of stomping could be heard in the distance, pulsing through the mist, agitating it with each stomp.

They crouched down and peaked over the hill, trying to see through the mist. The sight was strange. Bright lights shined through the mist, which continued onward for a long distance before them, but only at their eye level. The hill descended down, and they saw that the ground at the bottom of the hill was underneath the mist. Completely clear, as if underneath a foggy ceiling.

The lights shining through the mist were moving. The Team slid down the hill and found themselves underneath the gassy barrier, looking up at the mist like it was a lowered sky that they could touch.

"Wow," Sydney said, touching the mist from underneath it. "Have you ever seen something like this? The mist just stops here…doesn't go any further down."

Before them, now that the group could see again, there were arrays of various plants. Crops, like a farm. Fields of corn, rows of plants with oranges, strawberries, apples. To the left and right rows of crops stretched out before them. Seemingly infinite patches with healthy vegetation. The stomping they had heard came from dozens of large machines, bright lights attached to the undersides of them, that were traversing through these arrays and quickly and efficiently picking out and packaging each of these fruits growing on the plants. Within seconds, any one of these machines had gone through an entire plant and stripped it of its ripe fruit, while leaving the plant behind, fully in tact so it could produce more. Packages of the ready-to-eat fruit were transferred around the machine on an exterior conveyor belt.

The Team approached the machines. They were incredibly fast. It took them a couple minutes to realize what the machines were actually doing because they would simply brush over a plant and unnoticeably extract the fruit and vegetables.

"What is this?" Bolin asked.

"This is amazing," Mako said, referring to the strange behavior of the mist and the machines picking the plants. O-Ren was nearly in awe as well. "I feel like I've seen this design. I back in Republic City."

"This must have been what I heard," Korra said, referring to the large currents running through these machines to power them. The cold footsteps against the ground. She was too distracted with this to notice the person who had snuck up behind the group.

"Nobody move," the man said. "Hands in the air, immediately."

Behind them, for men in dark uniforms shined a flashlight into their faces. The lights were attached to large, assault rifles, gears and attachments all over it for enhanced performance and power efficiency. The weapon alone looked frightening. The Team complied, putting their hands in the air. The gunmen concluded quickly who they were. At the same time, a man walked through the four men with guns and looked at the group in awe.

"My goodness," he said. "They've found us." He waived the soldiers to put their guns down. The man wore a dark uniform similar to the men, only he sported a long overcoat on top of it. "Our cameras picked up some movement out in the fields. Thought it was Qu so we were out here instantly, but he still isn't smart enough to push through our fog shield. Turns out, it was just you, Korra."

Korra looked surprised. He knew her name.

"Mr. Susumu?" Mako said, uncertain. The Team looked at him in extreme confusion. He looked back, expecting it. He had never mentioned the name before. "You were…my boss. At the power plant. In Republic City before you got fired."

Susumu walked forward, revealing his hardened face. It struggled to contort itself into a small smile. "Ah, an old bender of mine, yes? Hm, he speaks the truth. The name is Susumu. Before Graft overtook my business, I was the lead designer at the power plant, trying to find new ways to generate power without the use of benders. And you, you are Korra, and Lin, and Tenzin," he named off the prominent members of the Team. "It is a pleasure to meet you, our inspiration. Our catalyst."

"What are you talking about?" Korra asked, not sure if the man was a threat. She kept her hand near her sword.

"Please, there is no need to worry. We are grateful for your bravery. Your courage was the final ingredient that drove us into action. Finally, we are stepping up against Qu, against the 'regime', not the art, of bending. Finally, we are encouraging the world to realize they are humans, not Gods. Please come with me. All of you. I must show you the greatness you have inadvertently helped to bring about."

He started to walk off. The group remained, unsure of what to do. He turned around, "What is it going to take to convince you? I've already promised I would not hurt you. I've told you my name…"

"Where are you taking us?" Asami asked.

"To the Eastern Earth Kingdom Division's Headquarters, simply. Misty Grove as we call it. You deserve to see it. All of you deserve to witness the future of this world through brought about through the power of ONI, our organization, built by the human hand for the human mind. "

The name, ONI, induced some strange, mysterious sense of optimism in the group. They headr his words, they had not mistaken the name. Almost as if they had become zombies, the minds of the Team were wiped clean of all uncertainty, question, and doubt. For that moment, they thought nothing, and as if they were not in control of their legs, started following the man, Susumu. They had nothing else left to do, nowhere to go. Their path was unclear, but this man had a capability of untangling their complicated dilemmas.

The men with the guns removed their clips and put their guns on their backs, more reassurance of their peaceful outreach. Susumu walked with his hands behind his back. Silent.

They walked to the edge of the fields were the machines would deposit their packaged goods into contianers. "So," Mako asked, "Whose are these?"
"They are mine. I designed them. Me and…well, several others. I had always dreamed of automated machines. During my time at the factory as its lead designer, I capped the limit of my own dreams. I thought its limit was finding a way to generate power without the use of benders. That would truly be revolutionary. I found a way to do that, and then Graft told me his plan, and that many of the other managers and CEOs were complying. I didn't want to do business, to put out my work, in a city where some small group of corrupt lawmaking people would take credit for it and use it the way they felt was right, or else threaten me with the force of Qu and his police. What I didn't realize was that generating power without benders was not the limit. It was possible to do manual labor without people at all! Instead of us employing the people to do the work, we would create the machines to do it for us." They walked past the arrays of cargo holding the picked crops and came up to a small building with a large lift elevator. "I didn't think that was possible when I left to continue my work, when I left Republic City because I didn't want to be ruled and controlled. I didn't think it was possible until I met the others who had escaped as well, the others who shared my passion, and not only that, but others who truly believed in their potential to create something unheard of. Who believed that we had a power as humans, not as Spirits or as benders, to drive ourselves beyond our own limits and create something, contribute something, advance the world, bring our society into a better one. I met others who believed in the power of the human, benders and nonbenders alike, who believed that we are truly the most successful, that this world is at its healthiest state, when we embrace our humanity and realize that bending is something handed to us, but our drive, our passion, and our conversion of this passion into something great, into a product, into a idea, into love, is the very thing that defines us as humans, and can never just be bought or given to us. It Is the basis of our existence, and the reason why bending will not advance us, but realizing our potential as humans will. I met these others," He pulled a lever and started to descend, "And we banded together. Together to create a new society that would smother Graft's. Smother his by advancing further, by taking his most vital components out of his world and into ours so that all he would have left was his precious bending, which would get him nowhere. We accept all people, benders and nonbenders, as long as the work we do, we do as humans, with our hands and our minds, and not with our bending. Not with our loving Spirit World's help. You've proven your opposition to Graft, to his and Qu's idea of the world. A world where humans are defined by their bending. You have stood up against him, but not just for him, but for us, too. All of us," The lift descended a short distance. Beneath the trees, underneath the artificial sky of fog, an entire civilization rested, completely unknown to the outside world. Small buildings and factories installed on the ground, houses and shops built in the trees. People walking quickly from one place to another across crudely paved roads. Trucks carrying cargo driving on the more sophisticated roads. Full of people, an organized chaos of citizens running around. Building. Mending. Gathering. Talking. Eating. Walking. So many of them. So many people who felt the same way that Susumu did about Graft and Qu. So many people who must have shared Korra's ideas as well. People who have desired to leave the long influence of the Spirit World on their abilities and realize their potential as independent humans.

Many people walked from one building on the ground to another, carrying papers and tools, driving machines which carried heavy machinery, soldiers patrolling the streets ready to question any interlopers from Qu's regime or welcome any others who have escaped. Power lines ran to each of the buildings and to the homes and stores in the trees. People who couldn't walk very well took small lifts up the trees to their homes while the more active scaled the trees, laughing with others while doing so. Happy. Several of the factories had labels: weapons design, power electronics lab, artificial intelligence lab, communications, asymmetric operations. The list went on. A small direction greeted the team as they walked off the lift with the names of all the factories, departments, districts. The list was huge. The place was much bigger than it looked to them. It stretched for a few miles, cars required to traverse between districts, and only the more daring living on the outskirts of the town.

The name on the directory read "Welcome to Misty Grove". Underneath it was a depiction of a human, a spiral drawn out of its chest, a spiral which seemed to fit the length and width of the human's dimension perfectly. Below the spiral and the figure, the word ONI could be seen. Korra was confused by this. Confused why they decided to name themselves that name. She did not like it. She looked back up at the secret town before her.

"A secret society?" Lin asked. The entire group was astonished by what they saw.

"A secret civilization. A secret world, that will soon rise up and become the next world once we take all of Qu's resources and leave him with nothing," Susumu said. A car pulled up and its doors opened. "Excellent, my ride is here. Come with me. There is much to see. Come, we shall go to District Four, exciting." The Team got in the car with him.

Asami looked at the interior of the vehicle. "This seems familiar. This seems like…something my designers were working on. Is this a satomobile?"

"Ah yes," Susumu said, "Asami Sato, CEO of Future Industries? We've continued your work, in your honor of course. Your designers had found us and wished to finish the designs for the cars you laid out for them. They were brilliant may I include. Genius, more for the casual, comfortable vehicles I should add. They raved about you as a boss. Just as genius as your father, but under the unfair fist of Graft you were underachieving. Not reaching your own potential that you so evidently have a leader. They continued your work here. We wanted to bring you into ONI…but when we saw that you were part of the resistance to Graft, we saw that you were involved with something more important, and you became one of our idols, just like Korra."

Korra felt wrong being called idols for these people. She didn't want to be seen as their solution, as their Avatar like the old world had looked upon her to be. The person to solve all the problems. She couldn't tell if these people needed her to save them, or were just inspired by her to help themselves.

The car traveled down a long highway. At one point, to their left was a large building with fences and barbwire around it.

"What is that place?" Sydney asked.

Susumu had a stern look on his face. "There is no such thing as an ideal society. No such thing as a utopia. We are not trying to disprove this. We realize there will always be evil, those who seek to rise by destroying others, those who believe that the value of life and love for others can be dropped for their own satisfaction to be fulfilled. That place houses such people, for they are not human. They cannot be integrated into this society, into any society, if we want to uphold the value of human life."

They crossed over a bridge. Ahead of them was District Four, cluttered with taller buildings and bigger factories. It looked like a town, almost a city. In the center, a densely populated communal area with what looked like restaurants and places of entertainment. Dozens of buildings with very eccentric yet attractive exterior designs. Interspersed and also surrounding the towns were large buildings, some of them like the factories from District 1 where they entered, and some looked like apartment buildings.

"Here, we have some of our other engineering departments-water treatment, power plants, infrastructure research- as well as our metropolitan sector. Apparently, technological advances weren't the only things being suppressed. We call that area with all the buildings the downtown area. Musicians, cooks, singers, poets…all inspired by the power of the human have come and established themselves here in this district. Inspired by ONI's mission, by an opposition to Graft's dicatorship. All inspired by a will to live independently. This is hardly a movement anymore, it is a new cultural age, a new society forming out of the ashes of the old one based on bending. Additionally, I should mention we have our dormitories here. I think there are a few people here you would be happy to see. I should also add that you are all welcome to stay here if you so please."

"How has this place never been found?" Tenzin asked, looking up at the foggy sky. "Why is all this fog here? Did you find this place like this?"

"Why no," Susumu said simply, "we needed to conceal our society, so we created the fog. Our machines, our own weather machine, produces this simply flawless layer of fog, protecting us from the outside world. Qu's men who have been near it believe to be angry Spirits, and are too scared to breach it. We have guards posted, and soon we will get our new airships off and running, but so far we've had no problems whatsoever. ONI prepares for everything."

"Why do you call yourselves that?" Korra asked, disturbed when hearing him say it. "Do you even know what that means? How can you base your society on the power of the human and call yourself ONI at the same time?"

Susumu smiled. "That is at the heart of our philosophy, our fundamental truth, but I am probably not the one to tell you that. There is someone here who can. I think she will be a better representative for our philosophy. Although unstable, she knows quite a lot about this planet."

The car did not go through the downtown area. It turned to go toward a cluster of buildings, dormitories connected to several engineering plants. The road descended into a tunnel which twisted and turned until the car stopped underneath one of the aforementioned buildings. Outside of the car was a dimly lit tunnel and a short corridor leading to some elevators.

"Excellent," Susumu said. "Come. We shall go up to the lobby." He tipped the driver and they all ascended up to the main hall of the facility they were in. "This network of buildings consists of several dormitories and two laboratories: water-treatment and transportation. This main hall connects those two spheres of living: the dorms to the labs. People who come to us desire to work in a certain field, and so we've made it easy for them to do that by placing them in a comfortable living environment conveniently close to their workplace." The main hall was quite large. Booths were set up everywhere, people selling food, coffee, magazines. Televisions displayed the news. Current events concerning ONI and Qu. Other screens depicted schedules. Statuses of the different projects that were going on. Meeting times for certain departments. Special events happening that day. Stairs zig-zagged up in all directions, people walking down and up all of them, going from home to work and vice versa. The place was big. It probably housed thousands of people. And efficiently built so that no one was cramped. "Our architects and engineers only strive for the best and most comfortable housing for our citizens. We make it easy to see what is going on in our civilization daily. Even in the late hours like today, people have things they want to do. We work tirelessly to preserve the health of our civilization and advance it forward." They walked through the hall and up several sets of stairs, down long, parallel hallways that made Bolin dizzy, and out some doors into a courtyard, lush grass growing from it. The facility surrounded the courtyard, enclosing it. The moon was full. It was nearly midnight now.

Korra looked around. There were a few balls, chewed up and completely mangled. A fence that looked like something big had just run through and tore in apart.

"Here," Susumu said, "we test some of our catapults. We've been able to analyze some fundamental laws of physics out here. Unfortunately, the mass of the things we were launching were quite tedious to bring back once they were launched." Korra walked through the grass, noticing the indents of giant paw prints.
"So," Susumu continued, "we decided to employ one of the strays that came to us. And I must say, she looks like she is enjoying herself, much more than being kept inside with nothing to do. Let me show you." A boom sounded, and the Team saw a black object flying through the air coming for them. A small ball landed in the air before them. Korra eyed it suspiciously, wondering what it was going to do.

In the distance, the sound of heavy breathing grew exponentially louder. From the other side of the courtyard, a white object, like a cloud, materialized and ran for the ball extremely fast. As she approached, her target changed when she saw Korra, and Naga ran past the black ball and tackled Korra to the ground, licking her face repeatedly and rubbing her head against Korra's.

"Naga!" Korra said, smiling bigger than she ever had in the last year. "I can't believe it." Bolin, Mako, and Asami ran up to Naga as well, and the gian polar bear dog greeted them in a similar fashion as she had remembered them as well, particularly Asami and Bolin. Bolin stuck his face in her cloudlike body.

"Ah, it's just like a big fluffy cloud!" Bolin said.

Korra, still on the ground with Naga on top of her, hugged her best friend's rather enormous head, shedding a few tears after being reunited. "I missed you, girl," she said quietly. She could feel Naga, feel her understanding, feel her returning the same emotions.

"Naga came to us a few weeks back. Carrying two young girls who seemed to have no home. Wherever they came from, it seemed as if they knew they would find us…"

"Two girls?" Korra said. "Are they twins? And they came on Naga?"

"Yes," Susumu said. "They are perfectly fine in the dormitories being watched by one of our nurses. I can't seem to remember their names, but they are quite strange if I may say in the nicest way. Always finishing each other's…"

"Sentences?" Korra completed. "That's Ahna and Akna. My cousins."

"I figured they would have some relation to you since they came on your friend, here. I recognize her, Naga. I've remember when you rode her through the streets of Republic City, before your hiatus. She must have sensed that you were near, Korra. She escaped, which surprised us because she never showed any signs of a desire to escape from us. We treat her rather well and fed her just fine. But you seem more important than anything to her. Anyway, she unfortunately was found by Qu's men and captured as a leverage, so we made it our top priority to retrieve her safely. We would never seek to use your property for our own gains, and since it was our fault she got away we made sure to get her back as soon as possible. The ordeal of getting into the city was not hard at all. Tunnels run under the city that Qu has no clue exist, and we've been getting certain people out. People who can help us, because we aren't sure the rest of the people we can trust, hence our repetitive messaging. Anyway, our two spies easily snuck in, disguised themselves, caused the distraction needed to lead Naga out, and helped spread our message as well. Unfortunately one of them, a woman named Unheh, was caught in the mess of the riots that were quickly suppressed.

"We were going to go back for her, but she told us not to. Apparently Qu's men never checked her for a radio," Susumu stopped to laugh at that. "So, she radios to us not to get her yet because she has been able to navigate through Qu's makeshift prison facility that was quickly assembled in the train station building. So Unheh's been having a bit of fun just kind of pranking Qu and altering his machines and propaganda to make him look like a fool. So far she has altered the printer's to print silly mustaches on Qu's face. Anyway, we will go and retrieve her eventually. She can get around the building just fine, but escaping would be kind of hard without any help."

"Thank you," Korra said. "You don't know how much this means to me."

"Well, it wasn't all me. We aren't one person doing everything here, but for what it is worth you are welcome. There is no leader here. I am telling you all of this because I am one of the original members of this society, so I know a bit about it, but I am most certainly not the boss or anything." Susumu looked up at the night sky, then at his pocket watch. "Well, now it's late and I am just saying some nonsense things. Rambling. You all look tired as well. There is much to show you in this one place, but maybe that can wait until tomorrow. There can be something here for each of you. Some things you might be surprised to learn about the people here. And Asami, I'm betting that you would be happy to discuss the future of the automobile industry with your former employees."

Asami looked up, ecstatic. "Are they here? Now?"

"Part of the automobile department is here, but they are probably asleep now. The place is completely open to you all to stay the night. I can have one of my assistance lead you to some guest rooms to stay, and if you wish, tomorrow we can tour the place in more depth, and you can learn about our society. You can even meet our philosophical...hm, what is the best word, correspondent?" He said, looking at Korra.

"Really no where else for us to go, is there? Do we have a choice?" Lin said.

"Well I hope we have proven our peaceful nature. The choice is always yours, of course, my friend."

A short man ran out and greeted the group casually. The complied and let him lead them to a room. Susumu halted Tenzin while the others continued. "I am sorry, if I may have a word with you, sir."

"Absolutely. I'm not exactly sure what to make of all this. It is unbelievable what you are doing," Tenzin replied.

"Many people would agree and thank you, but if I may introduce you to someone before you go to sleep? You are the air nomad, Aang's son, right? I am just making sure you are the right person."

"Yes, that is me. Right person for what? Who do you want to show me?"

"Come with me."

The two walked through another maze of corridors before they were in a large laboratory, machines running loudly around them. Engineers scurrying this way and that, wearing goggles and hard hats. Yelling at each other in extreme frustration and restlessness.

"This is our water treatment plant. My friend, one of the lead designers of this department, Tyko, would love to meet you."

At a small table, a short man with long hair looked over some blue prints, block diagrams, equations, and other documentation. He looked up at the two and seemed as if he immediately recognized Tenzin.

"Ah, I was wondering when you would find us. It's very nice to meet you, sir," Tyko said. Susumu left the two.

"What are you talking about? How do you know me?" Tenzin asked.

"You must be so proud! This!" Tyko said, pointing to the machine behind him. Some kind of water filtering machine for large quantities of the liquid. "Look at this! Built so well I've never seen this kind of work from someone so young! It is truly amazing to see such a hard worker in someone as young as her. Like I said, you must be a proud father. It's truly an honor to meet the man who raised a girl with so much drive and passion for this kind of work. Water treatment is so important, soon we will have ways of dispersing clean water to all…" Tyko was getting into what he was saying. Tenzin interrupted him.

"I'm sorry, did you say "proud father"? Of whom, may I ask? I don't have any children who work here."

Tyko smiled really big, even bigger than when he was explaining water details. "Wow, you don't know! What a treat that I get to be the one that shows you. Come with me, she is still here working." He started running into a another room. Tenzin quickly followed. "I told her to go home but she just stayed, like a true engineer. Dedicated. Oh she is so dedicated to this! It's great. She is going to grow up and do great things, young Jinora will." Tyko stopped them at a balcony. Tenzin tried to understand what he was saying, tried to make sure that he had actually said the name of his lost daughter.

Over the balcony, he didn't think his eyes were showing him what was real. He thought he was only seeing what he wanted to see. A couple seconds of concentration and he concluded he was seeing the truth. One level down, a young girl, short brown hair, dirty work clothes, was surrounded by tools, measuring dimensions, screwing parts together, welding metal.

"Jinora…" Tenzin said under his breath.

"Yes!" Tyko exclaimed. "She came to us not to long ago and started working immediately. I thought you had sent her, but…"

Tenzin left Tyko mid-sentence and ran down the stairs to his daughter.

"Jinora!" He yelled.

Jinora turned around and looked at her father, only a few feet from her, stopped. He didn't know how to approach her. He hesitated, standing still, before continuing.

"Dad…" Jinora started. Tenzin looked at her. Looked at her clothes, stained with grease.

"Jinora…you are…okay?" Some part of him was still uncertain, like he wanted to make sure she was still Jinora. Still the daughter he had once known. Or if she had completely transformed into someone else. "You are here?"

It's only been some months, but you look like you've grown so much. Changed so much.

"Dad…," she started again, the sincerity and pain audible in her voice, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I…"

Tenzin didn't have to hear anymore. In fact, he cursed himself for wanting to make sure of anything. Any uncertainty was wiped. He saw his daughter before him. The emotion building up inside him completely overtook him. The same emotion leaking out of him in the form of tears as he quickly walked up to her, compelled by his unconditional love for her, and embraced her in a tight hug. Pulling her as close as possible, to make sure she was okay. To make sure she was safe and out of any harm's way.

"I'm sorry, too," Tenzin said. "I missed you. So much."

Jinora started to cry in his arms. "I missed you too. I love you, Dad."