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"And You Will Be Next"
Three months Later
A loud groan left Zaheer's lips as he clenched his eyes tighter together; when he finally decided to open his eyes he instantly regretted it. The light, as if it was a spear, pierced his eyes; he quickly closed them trying to shield his eyes from the pain. Once the burning sensation began to wear off, Zaheer finally opened his eyes and slowly moved his eyes around the room. It felt as if he had sand bags for eyelids; his throat burned as if someone had ripped his entire being out through his lips.
Zaheer groaned and rolled to his right so he was lying on his right side; he stared at the door for a moment, with nothing but emptiness in his eyes. It wasn't until five minutes later that Zaheer decided it was time to try and stand up; with a deep breathe he slowly pushed himself up with shaking arms into a sitting position with his legs dangling off the bed. Zaheer had not realized that he would feel so empty and weak after his bending was pulled out of him. It had been three months, three painfully long months since he had last seen Korra. Three months since Zaheer felt the freedom of air bending; three months since Zaheer was a full man. Zaheer was just a shell of his former self. Sure, Zaheer still worked on his fighting, and kept himself in shape and to the others he was just concentrating on their plan, but there was no more passion in him. The young woman plagued all of his thoughts.
With a dry and silent wail Zaheer put his head into his hands and rested his elbows on his thighs as he began to slowly fall apart. This was not supposed to happen, he was supposed to kill the Avatar for him, not kill himself for her. His slower breaths began to form into more silent cries; as if he, himself, was made of porcelain every tear that fell formed a new crack in him. In his mind he remembered her sweet bell song voice. He lifted his head out of his hands, closed his eyes, and leaned his head back a smile forming on his face as he remember her sweet laughter. At least she could be able to smile once again.
"At least, she will be happy." Zaheer whispered as a sad smile crept onto his now tired looking face.
Zaheer took a deep breath and pushed himself up off the bed until he was standing upright. Zaheer had his arms out away from his sides and he held in his breath as he took one small step towards the door. His body protesting in agony, and his right leg almost gave, but Zaheer did not give up. Zaheer pushed himself all the way to the door. Once he reached the door, Zaheer opened it quickly and rested up against the door frame. His body screamed in protest when he began to walk again, but he needed to see Korra.
Zaheer quickly flagged down one of the lower ranked Red Lotus members. The young brown hair ran up to him with a huge grin on her face.
"Yes, sir?" The high pitched voice seemed to cause more throbbing in his head. It was hard for him to hold back the groan he wanted to let go.
"Get my car ready." Zaheer said as he began to turn his back on the young recruit, "I am going into the city."
"Yeah! Korrraaaaa!" Bolin yelled as Korra blocked yet another fire ball that Mako flung in her direction.
Korra grabbed a whip of water as she began to run towards the wide eyed fire bender. Korra pushed off of the ground and leaped in the air towards Mako with the scream of water swirling around her body. Mako quickly created a huge fire ball of fire and flung it at the young Avatar. Bolin began to fidget nervously at the sheer size of the fireball. Korra just smirked and launched half of the stream at Mako full force as she was still in the air. The huge fire turned into steam that seemed to block the Avatar from the fire bender's eye sight.
Korra had the urge to laugh as she quickly used a little bit of air bending to launch herself secretly behind the fire bender without him realizing. Korra whipped her arms in a large circle and then towards Mako; the water followed her fluent movements and knocked the fire bender off of his feet and on to his face.
"Water will always beat fire." Korra said triumphantly as she rested on foot on Mako's back. Bolin erupted into a loud booming laughter; Korra chuckled, but Bolin ended up rolling on the floor laughing at his older brother.
"You should have seen your face." Bolin managed to speak out through his hysterical laughter; Bolin began to clutch his stomach as he began to get cramps.
Mako, who was slightly annoyed, shook Korra's foot off of his back and slowly pushed himself off of the floor. Once Mako was standing up, he began to brush all of the dirt and grit off of his clothes. With a victorious grin on her face, Korra reached out her hand to shake hands. Mako glanced at Korra's hand and couldn't help but laugh and grab her hand.
"Glad to have you back, Korra." Mako said pulling Korra into a hug.
"It is glad to be back!" Korra said staring up into Mako's eyes with a small blush appearing on her face; Bolin of course felt left out.
"Group hug!" Bolin yelled as he ran over to the two and pulled them both into a huge embrace. Korra began to laugh at the childish antics of Bolin; while Mako just stared at Korra with a loving grin in his face.
After a couple moments Bolin finally released both of the young benders, after they had to convince him to let them go. Soon they walked into the locker room the air full of laughs. They began to undress to take showers, but Mako began to ask Korra questions, even after he interrogated her for an hour or so.
"How does it feel to bend the other elements again?" Mako asked as he peeled his white tank top off of his sweaty body. Korra had to shake herself out of her stare, and let out a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of her head before she answered.
"It is just so amazing!" Korra said as she began to peel her also sweat filled tank top off of her body. Leaving her in just in upper bindings and her sweats; Mako kept staring at her body in the corner of his eye. Zaheer's eyes were drawn to the large scar that was still as present as the day Korra had first seen it. The scar would never leave, it would be apart of her forever and she would never know where she got it. "Although, my air bending seems to be a lot stronger than it was before I lost my memory."
"Do you know why?" Mako asked as he watched Korra shimmy out of her sweat pants. Korra wrapped a towel around her torso and took her bindings off underneath the towel and place them by the rest of her clothes.
Zaheer let out a quiet dark chuckle when Korra spoke; it was sad yet darkly funny that she would never know why. Zaheer had drove into the city and tried to find Korra. Zaheer wanted to see with his own eyes that she had all of her bending back. But he needed to see her smile one more time. Since he planned on never seeing her again.
Zaheer quickly turned away from the locker room entrance once left the room and headed towards the showers so she could take a shower before heading back to Air Temple Island. Yet Zaheer did not realize that someone else was following him as well. He did not realize until he was walking down an empty hallway and an arm tightly wrapped around his neck and another held a knife to his throat.
"Ah, it seems I have found out your new fascination" A dark angered feminine voice sneered into his ear.
"P'Li…" Zaheer began, but P'Li tightened her arm against his neck, making it harder for him to breathe. The only noise that came out of his mouth was a gasp for air.
"What do you think you are doing, Zaheer?" P'Li sneered, "Do you really plan on just walking away from us? A leader! Leaving us, for love!" P'Li's nicked Zaheer's neck with the knife, allowing just a couple beads of blood to pool to the surface.
"I am no use to you anymore." Zaheer said through gasps of air, his arms desperately trying to pry P'Li's arm form his throat. "I cannot air bend anymore, I am no longer any help to this plan of yours." P'Li let Zaheer go, turned him around to face her, and roughly shoved him against the wall. Once again with the knife pushed up against his throat.
"What do you mean you don't have your bending?" P'Li said with rage and anger filling her voice and face. Her eyebrows where pulled together and Zaheer could not remember a time where he had ever seen so much betrayal and sadness in her eyes.
"Raava took my bending away." Zaheer said quickly and simply; not an emotion ran across his face when P'Li pushed the knife closer to his neck, causing a couple more beads of blood to appear through the small cut.
"What?" P'Li screamed in rage. P'Li grabbed Zaheer's shirt and flung him down the hallway letting out a loud groan. Her breathing began to quicken as she got angrier and angrier; letting a loud yell and let loose a stream of combustions towards Zaheer. Zaheer's eyes went wide as he saw the small explosions come closer. Then Raava's words rang throughout his head.
You may air bend, but only when near death or when a loved one is near death or dead
Letting out a loud grunt Zaheer threw both fists in front of him pushing the explosions back towards P'Li. P'Li's eye widened and only jumped out of the way of the blast in the nick of time. P'Li landed in a crouched position; she glanced from the new window in the side of the building that Zaheer just created to Zaheer breathing heavily in a similar position as her.
"You lied to me! Again" P'Li quickly stood up and started walking towards Zaheer yelling as loud as she could.
"No. I did not." Zaheer spoke in a calm, but powerful voice, "Raava must have let me just keep a little bit of bending so I may bend when I am in danger."
P'Li walked next to Zaheer and stopped when she was parallel with him. P'Li did not turn her head to look at him, but only glare at him in the corner of her eye as she spoke in a spin chilling voice.
"You will continue with OUR plan," P'Li spoke, putting a lot of emphasis on the word 'our', "For if you don't, I will let your secret slip, and you will find the entirety of the Red Lotus against you. I will make you beg me to kill you. You will wish that I just killed you here where you stand."
With that P'Li left him standing there to stare at the huge whole in the building with what was left of the wall to begin to catch fire. Her words had a tight grip against his throat; she left with a silent command for him to follow. Zaheer quickly turned to follow the woman who he once loved as people started to flood into the hallway to put out the fire
"I don't know why the Red Lotus would attack the pro-bending arena" Korra spoke after she lowered the volume on the radio. She made her way back to her place next to Mako on the couch. Team Avatar had gathered at Air Temple Island just to relax and spend time together. Asami was sitting across from Mako and Korra with Bolin, who was currently in a tough Pi Sho match with Mako.
"Me neither," Asami said running her fingers through the top of her hair, "it doesn't make any sense. They didn't even damage anything that was vital or involving you.
"I guess we will never know." Bolin said waving his hand towards the girls trying to get them to be quiet so he could concentrate.
The girls chuckled but continued on with their conversations until Lin rushed in to the room all but busting down the door. Everyone in the room quickly stood up to face the out of breath cop.
"What's wrong, Lin?" Korra asked walking towards the obviously angered earth bender. Lin was looking at the ground and her breaths were coming out in pants.
"We received a transmission the Air Temple that Tenzin and the new air benders are at. It wasn't Tenzin, or any of the air benders." Lin said the anger growing on her face with each word.
"Who was it?" Mako said walking to stand beside the Young Avatar.
"P'Li." Lin said in a dark voice still looking at the ground, "They have the air benders, Korra." Korra's eyes went wide and she took a step towards Lin. "They plan to kill them. All of them."
Lin's body shook a little, and her head slowly rose and looked at Korra. But her eyes weren't the light green that Korra was use to looking into. Lin's eyes were a dark grey, almost a black. When Lin spoke, it did not sound like Lin either. Her voice was deep and graveling as if it wasn't even her speaking.
"And you will be next."