CHAPTER 5

{(Fuck this man Natalie is 100% done with these characters rn writin is cryin)}

"Korra is training, Tess and Jet are training, Bolin and Rachel are on another date, Zuko is working, and Asami is babysitting the air-babies." Natalie whined from a top Mako, as she had flopped down on top of him when he refused to get out of bed.

"S'not my problem, go find someone else to bother." Mako groaned from under the pillow he put on his head to try and block out her constant whining.

"C'mon, doooo something with me! Maaaakoooooo." Natalie whined, rolling around on top of him.

Mako groaned, "Alright, alright. Let me get up."

"Yaaaay! You're the best ever Mako. You little ball of sunshine." Natalie exclaimed happily as she bounced back to the floor.

"We do need to change the light bulb for the ceiling light, we can't rely on our phones for light all year." Mako said as he shifted through his closet for a shirt.

Natalie sat on his bed, watching his back absently, "Sure, as long as we do something." She replied carelessly, throwing her hands up in a 'whatever' gesture.

"We can get something to eat for lunch on the way to get a bulb." Mako suggested.

"I do love food more than anything." Natalie replied slyly.

"And maybe we can find you a new servant, if I'm lucky." Mako muttered.

Natalie followed him out the door with a frown.

"So, where do you wanna eat?" Mako asked as the pair walked down the street towards the hardware store.

"Where do you wanna eat?" Natalie shot back.

Mako stopped and looked at her in concern.

"What are you doing?" Natalie snapped.

Mako reached out and pressed the back of his fingers to her head, "Are you ok? Did you just ask where I wanna eat?"

Natalie frowned and smacked his hand away, "It's just a question." She growled.

Mako frowned, "Whoa, someone is a little snappy today. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed much?"

Natalie glared at him before turning and stomping off towards the department store.

Mako followed after her from a safe distance.

After finding and buying the light bulb in utter silence, Mako and Natalie stopped at a bakery and got some bagels. Still in silence.

"So… nice weather?" Mako said nervously, he'd never seen Natalie this quiet before and wasn't sure if he ought to be worried or scared.

"Hmm." Natalie said, not turning to face him.

Mako looked up at the sky, realizing it there was no chance it was not going to start pouring at some point today.

"Oh well, huh. Now I feel like an idiot." Mako said, leaving a very easy opening for Natalie to pick on him as usual.

She just kept her steady pace in front of him and quietly ate her bagel.

Mako decided he was more worried for his friend than scared.

Upon arriving at the dorm room, Natalie retreated to her bed and put on her headphones.

Mako looked at her for a few moments, considering approaching her before he decided to change the bulb first.

He left, propping the door open behind him, and searched the closet at the end of the hall for a ladder of some sort.

Natalie frowned, wrinkling her brow at her phone as it failed to send the message she had been trying to send for ages.

"Great, just another thing to worry about." She muttered to herself.

"What's wrong?" Mako asked as he carefully maneuvered the ladder into their room.

"Nothing." Natalie replied flatly.

"Ooook. If you say so." Mako sighed, setting up the ladder and climbing up.

He changed the bulb with any hassle, and returned the ladder to where he had found it.

Entering the room again, he saw Natalie putting her boots on.

"Where are you going?" He asked in confusion.

"My phone won't send this stupid fucking message, so I have to trudge all the way over to that place that wants to hire me just to tell them I'm not interested." Natalie hissed, cursing when her boot zipper got jammed for a moment.

"Oh, I can give you a ride if you want?" Mako offered

"I don't." She replied curtly moving to walk past him.

Mako frowned and sidestepped to block her path.

"What now? I have somewhere to be."

Mako looked down at her with concern, "Is everything ok? Did I do something to upset you? Because if I did then I'm sorry."

Natalie's eyes softened for a moment before she shook her head slightly and returned to her guarded glare, "Just let me go alright. I'll be back eventually. Don't wait for me." She said firmly, pushing past him and slamming the door on her way out.

Mako looked at the door sadly for a few minutes, before deciding to go help Asami watch the kids, hoping whatever else was bothering Natalie would go away, or she would at least be calm enough to talk later.

Natalie sighed in annoyance as she walked quickly towards the 'establishment'.

'Me, as a stripper. I might joke, well a lot, but I don't dirty dance for just any old chump. Honestly. How did they even get my number…? Whatever. I just can't believe I have to walk all the way over here because their phone is 'unavailable'. How can you even be unavailable for a text message? For 3 weeks. Well, I guess I could have gotten a ride from Mako… no fuck him, uh uh. I guess I won't be getting rides from Jet or Tess anytime soon. Training my ass, and poor Mako so oblivious. Everyone is so busy and I'm just…. Walking through stormy weather to turn down a stripper job. At least I'm not accepting, that would make this much sadder.

Natalie looked up at the building she had finally reached. The sign read 'Body Bending'.

"And a tacky name too. Ugh." Natalie muttered as she hurried inside, it could start raining any minute.

The inside was a seedy, with men of all shades of ugly whistling at girls who had little to no clothes on, dancing on poles atop a stage.

Natalie shuddered as she tried to picture herself up there, 'No thank you'.

She walked over to the bar and addressed who she assumed was the bartender, "Hello, My name is Natalie, I'm here about a job offer."

The man looked at her leeringly, "Natalie from the school?" he replied, his voice gave Natalie the chills.

She put on a fake smile anyways, "Yeah, that's me! Can I speak to your boss or..?"

The man grunted and shuffled to the back for a moment, and then returned, "Go on back, straight down the hall it's the door on the very end."

Natalie smiled at him again, "Thank you very much."

The door to the back area closed behind her, dimming the hall considerably.

Natalie frowned, getting weird vibes from the place; she started slowly down the hall to the door.

She reached the door and knocked politely three times before turning the handle, "Hello sir, it's Natalie, I'm here beca-"

The second she finished closing the door behind her, a hand shot out of the darkness, followed by many other hands, Natalie couldn't count them as they jabbed lightning fast blocking her chi and turning her muscles to jelly, she collapsed to the floor.

Her vision was swimming, but the last thing she saw was a man with a red X on his black mask lean down into her face before he jabbed her neck, and then everything went black.

"And then she just stormed out." Mako finished telling Asami the day's events, and Natalie strange behavior.

"Hmmm, well you did pick on her, maybe that was it?" Asami suggested as she helped Meelo assembly his Lego castle.

"We pick on each other every day. It's practically our thing." Mako shot back, crossing his arms with a sigh.

"Well, maybe she's just in a bad mood and she's taking it out on you." Asami tried.

"She's never in a bad mood. She doesn't do that." Mako replied.

"You never know, maybe her cat died. Just give her some space, she's come around." Asami soothed, pulling a Lego out of Meelo's mouth with a gentle no.

"You think?" Mako asked nervously.

"I think. But you know her best, so…?" Asami trailed off pointedly.

"Yeah well…" Mako blushed slightly.

"She left at like 1pm right?" Asami asked checking her phone.

"Yeah. Why, what time is it?" Mako said, suddenly realizing how dark and rainy it had gotten.

"It's 11pm." Asami said, starting to get worried herself.

Mako frowned, "I'm gonna go see if she's back yet. Thanks Asami."

Asami waved as he rushed out the door, "Yeah sure, hey, call me ok?"

"Do you think Miss Nally is in trouble?" Meelo asked eyes wide.

"Natalie is a tough girl, she's just being a little rebel." Asami said, tickling Meelo until he was in a fit of laughter.

Natalie moaned as she awoke, everything hurt, and her vision was blurry and swimming. She shook her head to try and clear it, which only made the pounding worse.

"Ugh, wha, where am I..?"

"Hello Natalie." A muffled voice said.

Natalie blinked several times to clear her vision, finally bringing into focus the man with the X mask. Or men.

"Is this some kind of cult? Are you trying to teach my a lesson about not being a stripper? Cause I came here to turn the job down, honestly." Natalie chatted nervously, regaining enough of her senses to realize she was tied up, hands bound above her, and feet bound shoulder-length apart on the floor.

"No, we're not here about a job." The seemingly-leader X man replied.

"Then I can't really help you, I guess I'll go."

"No, that's where you're wrong, you can help us, you can help us a lot." The man chuckled.

Mako threw the door open, "Natalie!?"

The room was empty and dark.

Mako checked his phone, it was 11:26, and Natalie had left no messages for him.

"Shit." Mako muttered as he called her, "C'mon, c'mooon Natalie pick up."

'The phone you are trying to reach is unavailable.'

"Fuck." Mako whispered.

"Alright, maybe she's just on campus somewhere trying to avoid me. That's probably it." Mako murmured, trying to reassure himself.

Mako set off again, deciding to round up all their friends to find her.

"Well, uh how can I help you then?" Natalie choked out.

"The Avatar."

Natalie shifted against her binding "What about the avatar?"

"We need your help in… collecting her."

Natalie frowned, "Collecting her? I don't think I can help you."

The masked man sighed, "Look kid, this isn't an option. You're going to help. Or you're going to get hurt."

Natalie bit her lip; she could hear her heart hammering in her chest. She flexed her wrists, testing the ropes that bound her. Tight. Too tight, and with no access to her chi still she couldn't firebend her way out of this one.

'Shit. Shit.' Natalie panicked, but she steeled herself, deciding without a doubt that she going to remain silent.

"You gonna, talk, pretty woman?" One of the other masked men crooned, grabbing her chin and forcing her head up roughly.

Another man in the back chuckled, flipping his blade around his fingers, "I think we can make her a little more… vocal."

Natalie's eyes widen slightly in fear as she watched helplessly as the men began to get up one by one and saunter towards her.

Mako had found all of his friends, sans Asami who they had left alone to watch the children while Pema was away picking up Tenzin.

He had just finished explaining the situation to them, and they all sat quietly trying to figure out what to do.

"We should split into groups and look for her." Jet suggested finally.

"Yeah, I can try and find her with my earthbending." Tess supplied

"Rachel and I can go through town." Bolin said, "We can check the North side, you and Korra can take the South side."

Jet stood, Tess rising with him, "We'll handle the campus."

Mako nodded, "Alright, we'll meet back here in an hour?"

Everyone nodded, and then split off into their separate groups.

"Nothing, we searched for everywhere and nothing." Bolin whined, "Where is she?"

They had all regrouped and sat together in the common room of their dorm building.

"Maybe she wants to be alone for a while?" Jet said thoughtfully.

Mako stood, pacing, "I don't think so, it's practically 3am, and she would've told someone where she is by now."

The group chatted quietly amongst themselves, Mako sighed running a hand through his hair.

"I'm going to go get some air, the rain finally stopped." He muttered so that only Bolin heard, who nodded understandingly.

Mako walked out of the building, it was rather foggy out, he noted.

He stood in silence for a moment, before cocking his head slightly; he could hear someone's ragged breathing and uneven footsteps. 'Natalie?'

Natalie emerged from the fog in a sorry state, her hair was tangled and bloody, a bruise covered most of the left side of her face, as well as her splotches all up and down her arms. Her pants were ripped up, and blood stained the front of her shirt over her stomach, although no wound was visible.

"Natalie, spirits, are you ok?" Mako asked worry coloring his expression as he rushed towards her.

Natalie looked up at him, tears filling her eyes as she shook her head vigorously no.

Mako pulled her softly against him, wrapping his arms around her and using one hand to gently rub circles on her back to try and calm her as she buried her face into his chest, violent hiccupping sobs racked her frame.

"Shh, shh, shhh. Its ok its ok. Shhh." Mako soothed gently, tucking her head under his chin.

Mako had sent everyone off for now, deciding Natalie wasn't in a state to explain right now.

He had taken her back to the room to get her cleaned up.

"There is a huge cut on your head, Agni. Natalie, what happened?"

Natalie lay on her bed, her head in Mako's lap, "I don't want to talk about it."

Mako sighed as he finished brushing her hair. "Are you sure? I'd like to know." He said gently.

Natalie sighed, sitting up and pulling her legs up to hug her knees," I just… feel so stupid. I'm going to be a cop, and I let these guy rough me up, and, and, now I'm a mess." She finished, tears filling the corner of her eyes again.

Mako blinked, forcing a smile as he shouldered her playfully, "Aw, c'mon no more tears!"

Natalie sniffed, "Ok, ok, I'm f-fine. Anyways, long story short, these guys with X masks attacked me, and then they blocked my chi and tied me up. They woke me up and… they wanted information and such about Korra, they wanted me to help them… capture her."

Mako frowned, "Korra? Did you tell them anything?"

Natalie shook her head softly, "No, I didn't. Why do you think they… did, what they did. And they tried too... Never mind, I didn't tell them anything."

Mako's eyes narrowed when she mentioned what they tried to do, but he decided to leave it for now.

"How did you get away?"

"When my chi came back, it was faster than they thought and I managed to get the jump on them, and run back here."

Mako was quiet for a few minutes, "Well, do you want something to eat?"

"No, I don't have much of an appetite."

Mako stood, "Alright, I'll let you sleep then."

"No, wait."

He turned, "Yes?"

"Will you… lay with me until I fall asleep at least. That would make me feel a lot safer…" Natalie trailed off.

Mako smiled at her, "Sure, I can do that." He replied, lying down next to her.