Chapter 7 : Exchange
As Korra's foot hit the solid ground again, she noticed something she hadn't before - Bolin wasn't alone. Korra said "Mako? I thought he knew better than that!" as she began running towards the two brother's location. When she could finally hear what the brothers were talking about, she wanted to smack herself on the forehead. She had assumed they were talking about her and Asami, or the spiritual events of the past 24 hours. They were talking about their own lives, and how Bolin had helped Mako narrowly escape death. "I may be the Avatar, but I'm not the center of the Universe," she told herself drolly.
Agreed.
Korra burst out laughing at Raava's impeccable timing, causing Bolin and Mako to turn around and give Korra a quizzical look. Bolin said, shaking his head, "I know you're the Avatar and all, Korra, but sometimes I swear you're just crazy," obviously not aware of the recent increase in Raava's presence in her head. Seeing the look on Mako's face, she realized with a start that Mako needed to be brought up to speed on more recent events as well. She concentrated and shot a rearward burst of flame from her fists, feeling a sudden rush of wind. Given Mako's reaction that she could see once she opened her eyes again, those flames must have been blue.
Mako said, practically apoplectic, "Korra! What the eff was that? I have heard stories of Azula and her noble's fire before, but never actually seen it - when did you figure out how to do that?" Korra could tell he was half fearful, half jealous. Bolin stepped forward, putting his hand on her shoulder, and said, "I'm sure Korra will explain, and maybe even teach you how to do it - right, Korra?" Bolin gave her a cheesy smile, and elbowed her hip. As Korra answered, "Sure thing, but there's something else I need to do first," she felt a voice intone Read complete. He may be a gumflapper, but only when it comes to his own affairs - at least now. He has matured just as Mako and yourself have after all, Korra. Korra returned with a cheesy grin of her own, and told Bolin, "You may want to sit down - things are about to get interesting." Mako groaned slightly, wondering aloud, "What else is there now that Katara didn't tell me?" and Korra shot him a quick glance, saying, "Hey - at least you haven't had to play the part of a broken phonograph today. My voice hurts a little already! Now sit down and listen, please." She recounted the events of the past 24 hours in order, finishing with her encounter with Jinora and Opal. When she got to the cat fight, Bolin laughed, saying "That's Opal for ya!", suddenly getting a nervous look on his face when Korra stressed Opal's fascination with "steel projectiles" again. Smiling, Korra thought, "Been a while since I messed with Bolin," to herself. Mako laughed, patting his brother on the back, and said "Sounds like you're going to have your hands full, brother. I think I'm glad I am single for now, if an airbender is giving you that much gruff." Bolin merely bent over, making a low weeping sound. Mako smacked his brother on the back, this time much harder, making him sit up straight again. Bolin was staring off into the distance, seemingly remembering something.
Bolin pointed at Korra, then at the partial ruins of Republic City, saying, "Toph told me that all I needed to learn metalbending was a good teacher, and I think someone who has been trying to teach the most powerful spirit in the WOOOORLD 'human-y' things and succeeding even a little has to be a pretty good teach." Korra could feel herself blushing. Bolin continued, "Plus, both of us know how to do something you don't - Mako, lightning generation, and me, lavabending - so we could swap roles back and forth. Kill two birds with one stone. What do you say?" Mako interjected, "I'd really like to know how you generated that noble's fire. Why don't we go into the city, and spend some quality Team Avatar time together?" Korra smiled, and said, "Well, if it's the whole team, I'll need to go get Asami. Raava wanted to discuss something with Asami and I in the Spirit World sometime today anyways, and with that Long Yumao running around I'm certainly not meditating into there." The three teammates laughed lightly together, and even though it was not a deep laughter, it felt wonderful all the same.
After Korra returned with Asami in tow, still staring at her notepad and frowning slightly, the four entered the city after quite some time of pleasantly silent walking. When Korra reached what seemed like a good, open spot with plenty of earth, space and metal, she stopped and bent a ruined Satomobile towards the group, clearing a large swath of earth to its side. Korra said, "Bolin, I think you're first - come over here," and he ran over away from his brother with a gleaming look in his eye, exclaiming, "I can't wait to metalbend! Can you think of anything that might make it easier for me?" Korra paused, and shot a continuous jet of blue flame at the Satomobile, stating, "I think you might have an easier time of it if the metal is more malleable. When Su taught me how to metalbend, we used exceptionally pliable metallic meteorites. We don't have any of those here - remembering the fight in the control room now, I get the nasty feeling Kuvira used those to help pilot her Colossus - so we'll have to make do with this." As she finished talking, she noticed that most of the car was red hot, and some of its extremities were melting. Bolin regarded it with a slightly nervous look in his eye. Korra said, "Come on, you touch lava all the time!" Bolin sighed, and relaxed - just a little though. Korra continued, hoping to get Bolin's confidence up, "Now, just focus on the impurities within the metal, and pretend the metal is like cooler, harder lava. Don't try to lavabend it though, or I'll have to bring another car over here."
Bolin screwed up his face in a way that made his brother laugh, then sigh immediately after, as though remembering a previous particularly bad attempt at metalbending. Korra gave him a dirty look and a quick "Shhh!" Mako blushed lightly, then turned to talk to Asami, asking her questions about why she felt the need to hide her relationship with Korra. Satisfied that Mako would not interfere with her training of Bolin any further, she turned back to Bolin. Bolin gave what sounded like an awfully final grunt, and she saw the front door to the Satomobile fly off. She began clapping loudly, saying "Good job, Bolin! I knew you could do it! Now let's try a colder Satomobile - this should be a bit harder." She stopped congratulating him, noticing he was running in circles like an ecstatic top. Bolin finally stopped celebrating, and said, "I KNEW Lin was a horrible teacher! Bend me another car, Korra." After the "new" car rested on its ruined springs, creaking in what almost sounded like resignation or surrender, Bolin went from the cheapest metal on the sides of the vehicle to the denser metal of the engine, punching holes and opening cracks as he went. He wiped his brow after managing to rip a hole in the rear without physically touching the metal siding, and said "Okay, now my turn to teach you! I imagine this could be easier for you than it was me, given that you can firebend and all."
Bolin grabbed Korra's hand, and pushed it against the open ground. She noticed absentmindedly she felt nothing even resembling attraction, even though she had once gone on a "date" with him - maybe Asami had truly ruined men for her. Snapping back to the present, she heard Bolin say "Hey! Pay attention. Man, I sound like Tenzin… Anyways. When you try to lavabend, the key is friction. You want to rub the earth against itself in a way that it does not break, but instead becomes very hot." He stepped forward, and created a small pool of lava to the far front of her hand, saying, "Now why don't you try? And try not to use firebending for now - just get not crushing the earth down." Korra attempted to do as he said, but after making at least five imprints of crushed earth and no lava, she was getting frustrated. She decided to move some distance away from Bolin and disobey his orders - she made the earth move against itself at the same time she used her firebending to heat the ground. Not fully expecting it to work, she had barely enough time to move her hands back - and then jump backwards away from a growing pool of magma whose center was white-hot. She turned to face Bolin, who was wearing one of his many surprised expressions, Bolin admitting, "If I had known using firebending would let you do that, Korra, I wouldn't have even bothered telling you to rub the earth on itself." Korra held up a hand, and said, "No, Bolin - you were right about the friction; I guess unless you have the natural talent like you do you need firebending and earthbending to make lavabending work properly." Korra sat down beside her creation to catch her breath, staring at its now orange center.
As soon as she felt up to teaching and learning again, she stood up and walked towards Mako and Asami, who were embracing after what must have been a difficult conversation for Asami. Again, she felt no jealousy - funny what time could do to a person. Korra merely said, "When you're ready, Mako, come over to me at this clearing, and we'll start." Asami told Mako, "Thank you for listening to my story and being so understanding - sometimes it's just good to have a friendly face listen to your troubles." Mako hugged her tightly, and said, "I never thought you had so many problems, Asami - first your mother, and then your father's meddling, then his betrayal and redeeming death. I knew of the first one and last two, but now I understand you had a lot more on your plate than you let on. I guess money doesn't buy happiness after all." With this, he stood up and walked towards Korra, finally putting a hand on her shoulder, saying confidently, "Let's do this."
Again - no attraction, just a feeling of friendship. Korra really was Asami's now, making a mental note to ask her mother more about love, and the whole "head over heels" thing. Korra looked back to Mako, and said, "Yes. Come with me - I want to do this part away from any buildings- we don't want to start a fire, after all." Once they were on the open ground, next to the now-cooled lava crater, she told Mako "When I first bent this blue fire, I was extremely angry - but not at something someone had done to me, but rather, at what this 'Long Yumao the Opportunist' had attempted to do to three people I hold dear - Jinora, Tenzin and most of all, Asami." Mako made a funny face, and said "But I thought that the new firebending wasn't supposed to be about anger! Isn't hatred what the firebenders of the Fire Nation used to fuel their blasts during the 100 Year's War?" He was getting visibly angrier, though not in the way that Korra had hoped. She told him curtly, "No, you didn't let me finish. As a firebending source, hatred for one's enemies is a very fickle and weak power, prone to drying up if the hatred runs out, like I heard it did for Zuko when he joined Team Avatar. Unless the bender possessed great skill and apparent clarity of mind, as I have heard this Azula did, hatred isn't a good source in the long run - and she went insane! This anger is righteous anger - imagine if someone killed your brother, or how you must feel about Kuvira and what her weapon ended up doing to Republic City - your home." She let Mako calm down, telling him, "Meditate on these feelings, and perhaps the prejudice Asami faced, and try to get as angry as possible. Then, channel that energy into your firebending, and let it free." She stepped back, adding "And I suggest you point your right hand towards the sky, and not anywhere else - this fire can have a nasty habit of hitting or almost hitting things you don't want it to." She heard Mako take a deep breath, and he pointed both his face and his one good hand up towards the late afternoon sky. He let out a sudden, loud yell, and bursts of blue flame erupted from his mouth and outstretched hand. Before Korra could congratulate him, he took another deep breath, and let out a mind-shatteringly furious scream, creating a massive blue fire vortex just above his mouth that was almost as big as the fire Korra had created not long before, even without the Avatar State. Noticing a single tear sliding down Mako's cheek, Korra asked him - once he was no longer trying to breathe fire, of course -"What were you focusing on for that last blast, Mako?" Before she could continue, he answered, "The loss of my parents, Kuvira and the devastation she wrought on Republic City, and most of all, what I would feel if my brother died of anything but old age," barely avoiding letting loose the tears that Korra knew he was holding back. She approached Mako and gave him a big strong polarbear-dog hug.
Mako sniffed slightly, and his face was serious once more, saying, "Okay, Korra, great - so now I can make big spouts of blue flame that I have no idea how to control. Now how do I keep from hurting my brother with this same flame? I don't have a significant other to focus on to temper the flame's wrath like you do, Korra." Korra remembered how Mako mentioned his brother dying last, and said, "Why don't you try to temper it with your brotherly love for Bolin? You did mention his death as the thing that would make you most angry, after all. So that the stakes are raised, I am only taking a slight step back this time - good luck." Korra moved back five feet- she didn't want to be Avatar flambé if Mako failed - and waited for Mako to try again. The increasingly familiar blue flame gushed from both right hand and mouth once more. After Mako took a deep breath, the spout of flame from Mako's mouth vanished, and he opened his eyes to stare at a small blue flame in his right hand. Korra saw the multicolor flame base again - if she ever saw Aang's spirit again, she'd have to ask what this multicolor fire meant. She clapped loudly, and said again "Very good job! I wasn't expecting you to make quite so large flames - they were almost as big as my first ones while in the Avatar State. If your brother is done cowering behind that Satomobile, you might want to go tell him you love him very much before we continue." Korra's eyes darted over to Bolin, who had apparently bent a third Satomobile to their location to use as cover. She noted with pleasure that he had successfully bent most of the metal into a protective covering, leaving only his eyes exposed - though she didn't want him being a coward…
After Mako managed to coax his brother back out of hiding, he led Bolin to Asami, and rejoined Korra. Mako attempted to form a lightning bolt to demonstrate the proper form, but found his sling getting in the way. He asked Korra, "You've heard of Katara's adventure with the bloodbender before, right, and how the old woman bent water from the air? Think you can do that, and try to heal my arm - while in the Avatar State?" Korra felt the blood draining from her face - she had never heard of an Avatar State healing before. There's got to be a first time for everything, right? Korra sighed slightly, and tried to see if she could replicate that horrible woman's less notorious feat. She found it quite easy, and she surmised it must have been their relative closeness to the ocean that allowed her to draw the water without much effort. As she approached Mako with her hands sheathed in water, she tried to come up with something to think of while she tried to speed the healing of his arm. Finding her love for Asami not quite appropriate, she took a deep breath and focused on her friendship with Mako instead. By the time Mako had removed his sling, her eyes were glowing brightly - yet she found she still retained control. Although she had never been particularly good at healing, she felt a mix of her platonic love for Mako and Raava's energy assisting her, letting her finish faster than Katara might have done. When she opened her eyes again, she was surprised to see Mako holding two blue flames - one in each hand.
Zaheer was right, Korra - you do have virtually limitless power. It's just that a substantial amount of your power is from a side you have never really expressed that much - the power to heal, to console, to mend, to make whole again. I hope you can learn to wield this power well, before the baby comes.
Mako, Asami and Bolin all gave Korra a quizzical look, and Korra explained what Raava had just said. Asami laughed lightly, saying, "Yes - I'd prefer our child to have a balanced bender role model, and not one who is just mainly good at fighting." Mako shifted in front of Korra's vision, saying, "Thanks for healing my arm like that. Let's get back to what we were doing before - lightning generation." As Bolin and Asami sat back down far away from the two, Mako began making the circular motions, generating lightning and letting it loose into a distant hill, finding a power line and being absorbed before it could make any impact. Mako said, "To generate lightning, you must separate and manipulate the yin and yang in air - positive and negative charges, just like you'd find in a modern appliance." Korra struggled, after a while finally generating a charge, accidentally knocking herself unconscious when she failed to release it properly. She felt herself fading…
Ugh, not this crap again.
Korra opened her eyes, seeing Mako standing over her - as though he had just shot a tiny bit of lightning into her. Korra panicked, asking "Just what did you do? Did you knock me out? And what did Raava mean by, 'Ugh, not this crap again'?" Mako frowned slightly, and Asami began laughing. Before Mako could explain, Asami said "Mako just used a controlled amount of lightning to get your heart back into a proper rhythm. And I believe Raava was talking about the time that Aang almost died from a shot of lightning from Azula - though this shock was self-inflicted." As Korra sat up, she said, "Sorry for my reaction, Mako - that was some quick thinking. It sounds like I didn't get part of what you are supposed to do once you generate lightning. How do you direct it?" Mako wiped the slightly sour expression off his face - he never did like being "scooped" by someone else - and said, "Once you generate the lightning, you need to act as a neutral conduit, and let the energy flow - you are not directing it, but rather serving as a pathway for it to follow. This is why it is important to aim your hands carefully, and not be rigid - almost as water, which shouldn't be a problem for you." He approached, demonstrating the strange technique again, this time on a nearby fancy model Satomobile, which began to honk erratically. Asami laughed, stating "You must have turned its alarm on - you might want to turn it off." Mako turned to Korra, and said "Why don't you try redirecting the current out of it? That might be a safer way to start. I'll just watch."
Korra approached the car, and extended her left hand to touch the hood, at the same time extending her right hand upwards. She felt a strange current travel through her left arm, down into her stomach, and out through her right hand. She saw the bolt strike the same electrical line Mako's had struck earlier. Mako let out a low whistling sound, clearly impressed. He shifted slightly uncomfortably, saying "I lied about that being easier - unless you have some major emotional turmoil, lightning generation and direction is easier that redirection, as redirection requires a different mindset than that of a normal firebender. I believe one of the first people to do it - a fire nation noble and former heir to the throne, Iroh - said redirection is a lot like waterbending. I guess I shouldn't be surprised you did it so well, since you are a Water Tribe Avatar, after all." Korra decided to give lightning generation another try, but this time with a slight twist - she was going to see if she could temporarily power a part of the city with the Avatar State. She chose that same power line, as it did not seem to be connected to anything that could cause a fire - if it were, she would know by now. Taking a deep breath and eyes beginning to glow, she began the odd motions she knew produced lightning, and shot what seemed to be an endless current into the power line. After what seemed like an eternity, the current stopped, and she opened her eyes again. She saw Bolin frantically jumping up and down, Asami staring with huge eyes, and Mako wavering between anger and admiration. Mako simply said, "That was… amazing, and… reckless, Korra. Let's hope that didn't start any fires."
Korra smiled as she walked towards the rest of Team Avatar - she hadn't done anything truly reckless in years, and she missed it.