AUTHOR'S NOTES: One of the interesting things about Korra and Nakkoa/Kwan right now is that they really don't know each other very well. Korra is following them because of promises of training and power (part of why the book is named accordingly) and obviously the sisters are trying to get Korra to Zaheer and the Red Lotus for whatever nefarious schemes they have planned for her. But they haven't really stopped to try and get to know each other, which changes slightly in this chapter, for better or worse.
Happy Reading!

BOOK ONE: POWER

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE GIRL NAMED AVATAR

While Korra had not intended to pay another visit to the Earth Rumble Stadium the next morning, she was so full of energy from her vision/trip last night that she had to find way to let it out.

"And where are you going this early?" Nakkoa quipped, "I hardly expected you to be up before noon, if what your father told me about you is true."

"Don't get me wrong," Korra was pulling on her boots and slinging a bag over her shoulder, "the morning is still evil, but I'm pumped up and full of energy, so I'm going to get the shit beaten out of me to help calm me down."

"It's really not that bad of an idea," Kwan raised her eyebrow as Korra disappeared out the door.

"I'll never understand you earthbenders," Nakkoa shook her head. "But tell me, Kwan: Did you notice something different about her? She had a certain skip in her step that she didn't have yesterday, and she hasn't even raided her candy pouch this morning.

"A nice dream, perhaps?" Kwan shrugged, "or maybe it's just one of those days where her biorhythm is at a peak. Whether or not you believe in that kind of thing, it does still hold water."

"Perhaps I'll book a seat in the stands today then," Nakkoa mused, "I want to see what our little Avatar is up to…"

Korra had jumped up on Naga and taken off towards the southern fringes of town again. She went a full 55 minutes between waking up and eating her first piece of candy, which was impressive to her considering it often took a great deal of self-control not to just empty the entire bag into her mouth.

"Avatar!" Kazuya opened his arms upon seeing the plucky young waterbender return to his arena, "here to get your face rocked in again, or are you in it to win it?"

"I'm always in it to win it," Korra quipped, "Also, I have a name, by the way."

"And you didn't even tell it to me last time," Kazuya laughed, "you just came in all 'I'm the Avatar', and I did the rest."

"Deal with it," Korra snarked, "I suspect you don't care though."

"I don't," Kazuya admitted straightforwardly, "but if it makes you feel better, feel free to say it."

"Korra," Korra's lip stuck out again in her trademark pout. "Avatar Korra."

"Cute name," Kazuya shrugged as he counted out a pile of coins, "although you should stick with your ring name in the arena. It adds a sense of mystery, and crowds eat that kind of shit right up. They do that, I make money. I make money, and you get a larger cut. You get a larger cut, and you can buy more of that candy you're snacking on."

Korra's sweet tooth had finally won a longstanding battle, and the moment Kazuya had turned away from his coins and back to face her, Korra's mouth was packed with confections.

"Either that," he continued, "or the sugar rush might amp up your performance. Let's see what you've got for me today, kid…"

In some ways it was a repeat of the previous day; while in others it was a new set of adventures. She went against three "preliminary competitors" in fights that she considered to be little more than warm-ups. Even without waterbending and firebending, Korra proved to be an extremely agile opponent with swift reflexes and even faster reaction times—which served her surprisingly well in a competition where many movements were slow but powerful.

Going against Titanborn again felt satisfying though, since this time Korra was ready for her moves and knew how to 'dance' to stay safe. She couldn't help but do a little waterbending showing-off after that victory, but fortunately did not get disqualified for it since it was technically not done during a match. Today would be a good day, she thought.

Korra left the arena a few hours later with all of her teeth miraculously still intact. She earned a few scratches and bruises, including a rather nasty cut over her right eye. She had also earned a light sprain after her 6th competitor knocked her out of the ring so hard that she had bowled over about four or five people that had been sitting in the 4th row of the stands—a "record launch distance" according to the announcer. Said sprain caused Korra to limit the weight she put on her left leg. She was still fairly vindicated that she had managed to beat Titanborn though, and that coupled with the two wins she had scored after Titanborn had made it a satisfying string of victories overall—even if it had culminated in a glorious loss. Luckily, Naga was there waiting for her outside the arena, and she nudged Korra from behind as if to prompt her to climb up.

"Thanks, girl," Korra sighed as she climbed up onto Naga's back, emptying what was now her 5th skin of water into her mouth. "My leg's killing me. Let's head into town; see if we can find Ichiro again or something."

She wasn't sure if his healing abilities could do anything about her ankle, but even if they couldn't, she still *had* to know where he procured those delicious little green confections.

This time Korra only dismounted twice when in town: once to buy Naga some meaty snacks, and one other time to buy herself a bite to eat and to refill her candy bag. Despite her lack of formal training much beyond whatever basics the White Lotus had taught her in the 'prison-compound' (as she affectionately called it), Korra had proven to be a formidable fighter, and Kazuya had not been lying when he said it paid well.

To her slight dismay, however, she was unable to find Ichiro, and so she turned around and headed back to Summer's Estate. So perhaps it had not been an actual sprain, but it still hurt to put pressure on her left ankle. Fortunately, Naga didn't seem to mind carrying her as she always had, and so the trip home was without incident. Korra had expected to find both the sisters back at the suite, and so was curious when she only found Kwan.

"Where'd Nakkoa go?" She asked curiously, limping to a nearby chair and taking off her boots.

"Not sure," Kwan shrugged, "I'd ask you the same thing, but your limp and the wonderful colors your skin is turning kind of give it away."

"But I got money!" Korra grinned stupidly from ear to ear. "And candy. Win-win."

A lot of things were on her mind at the moment though, and even Kwan could tell this, based on the way Korra's eyes wandered and her lip stuck out. Kwan had learned quickly from observing Korra's visage that the girl had a pout for almost any situation.

"I know I ain't the best conversationalist or nothin'," Kwan pointed out, "but if you wanna talk about this or that, I'm ears."

"There's one thing, actually," Korra lied. It was more only a half-lie, because this was the primary thing that was relevant to Kwan. "I heard you were a lavabender?"

Kwan did not reply, but instead pulled a rock out of her coat pocket, before melting it in her hand, forming it into a lava throwing star which she spun around between her hands for a moment before hardening it again and stowing it away. Korra looked like she had just been given free access to the entire stock of a candy store with how her bright blue eyes lit up.

"Can you teach me that trick?" She would have likely sprung up and maybe even grovelled, but her leg made her not want to move, especially since there was some red and purple swelling just above her left foot.

"No," Kwan replied rather bluntly, "Firstly, it ain't just a mere trick, and those who would abuse this power could literally bring cities and societies to ruin in a fell swoop."

"I wouldn't do that," Korra tried to reason; "I'm the Avatar. Keeping balance is kind of what I'm supposed to do, yeah?"

"Everyone claims they wouldn't do that," Kwan noted, "Before you try 'n argue this point with me though, I need you to understand two things. Firstly, when I say no, that means no. When I change my mind, you'll be sure to know."

"What's the second thing?" Korra lowered her head, looking humbled, "and… is there any way I could get you to change your mind?"

"The second thing…" Kwan spoke up again, "was indeed that my answer ain't always gonna be no. I'll change my mind about teaching you after you've shown discipline and focus. Lavabending is an extremely powerful art, and so even bein' able to grasp it would be crazy difficult until you've mastered earthbending. I'll be happy to teach you in the future, Korra… but it's a dangerous skill and you could really hurt yourself if you dunno what you're doin'. I don't want that to happen to you." Kwan was by no means attracted to the young Avatar, but she found the kid to be rather endearing in a way that she had not anticipated. If Nakkoa's paranoia turned out to be true—if the Avatar went renegade and the Red Lotus felt obligated to try and slay her, Kwan would be hard-pressed to join them. She could still get behind the idea of moulding Korra to their ideal version of a "Protector of Freedom" (as Zaheer worded it), but maybe Kwan was going soft. Either that or maybe she was just revealing her true colors, but either way she was starting to like Korra as a friend. Vivacious as the Avatar was, Kwan found Korra to be amiable, charming, and enthusiastic. It was hard not to like her, which made her wonder why her sister tried to keep herself so distant. Did Nakkoa's paranoia really grip her that tightly?

"So you would trust me with that then?" Korra looked excitedly at the woman that she imagined now as one of her future teachers.

"Sure," Kwan pushed a smile, "I mean I wouldn't go teaching just anyone that kind of thing, but someone as important as the Avatar could probably put it to use. You're a good kid, Korra, and I feel like too many people don't wanna put a name to your face. They just wanna call you 'Avatar' and throw their problems onto your shoulders and hope that you can solve them."

"Well, I mean I could try," Korra reasoned with a shrug, "I mean, I love being the Avatar and all, and people just gotta deal with it… but it does kind of bug me when people care more about what I am rather than who I am. I have a name too, y'know…"

She lowered her head. Kazuya's words in the arena had stung a little deeper than Korra was proud of admitting. The host, contestants, and audiences in Earth Rumble XIII didn't see Korra; they didn't even see Avatar Korra. All they saw was "The Avatar", and that was all most of them even cared to see, it seemed.

"Now," Kwan stepped up and put her fingers under Korra's chin, lifting her face back up, "I ain't no expert on this sort of thing either, and so as much as I'd love to help, please don't come running to me for these kinds of things… but I think that's why it's important that we find someone who can help you connect with your spiritual side. I'm sure your past lives have much more noteworthy insight than some backcountry earthbender—even those weird Interregnum fellows my sister's obsessed with or whatever."

"Well, I appreciate it either way," Korra gave a genuine, sweet little smile. She wasn't ready to tell Kwan about her vision and experience last night where she manifested as Avatar Imalek and spoke to Avatar Yangchen, but she appreciated that Kwan had taken the time to hear her out, and to call her by name. She liked Nakkoa, but had yet to ever hear the firebender call her by her name, and after reflecting on Kazuya's unintentionally hurtful words, it kind of stung Korra too.

"My pleasure," Kwan smiled as Korra lowered her head again; pondering the things she was told. "Now, you rest up a bit while I go find out where my sister's carousing around at. Maybe I can see if she has a stick up her ass that I can help her pull out."

"Oh, she's not THAT bad," Korra giggled. "I appreciate her too."

"That's better than most could say," Kwan retorted with a dry laugh, "if you ask me I'd say she's insufferable, but I won't burden you with sister issues, kid."

"Alright," Korra chuckled as Kwan disappeared out the door, "I'll see you around then."

After Kwan left, Korra clutched her hair, absentmindedly pulling at the two locks on either side of her head, just below the beads that separated them. She was conflicted. Maybe she was just overreacting from her own naturally unstable teenage emotions, but there were seeds of an identity crisis being sowed here, and Korra realized it.

On one hand, she was the Avatar, and the world had to deal with it. She liked that aspect about herself. It gave her plenty of fantasies and delusions of grandeur, but at her core, Korra hoped that she could use these incredible abilities and skills to make the world a better place. The praise from being a hero would be nice, but Korra also felt that it would be nice to live in a more harmonious world. With this in mind, being the Avatar was not something Korra disliked. She embraced it, and rather loved it about herself to the point where she scared herself thinking about what might happen if these abilities were somehow stripped from her.

On the other hand, she had a name, and she loved her name too. She didn't mind being called 'Avatar', but it seemed that there were a lot of people that simply saw the Avatar as an object—that saw *her* as an object as a result. She wanted to embrace her identity as the Avatar, but didn't want that identity to consume her and erase her name to history. It made her think in particular about the Interregnum Avatars—they had been people too, and she wondered if they were ever remembered as people, or were they just mysterious nameless Avatars from a bygone age? That was not how Korra wished for herself to go down in history, at any rate.

She pulled herself to her feet, drinking some water to clear her head, before heading to her bed and lying down. Maybe if she slept she would be able to go back to the Spirit World before they left for Republic City tomorrow. Perhaps she wouldn't be so lucky, and would just sleep through the evening and afternoon, all the way until the 'evil' morning when their ship set sail for Republic City. She didn't imagine sleeping that long, however, and so even as Korra drifted off in her afternoon nap, her mind had other plans as to what to play for her subconscious.