AUTHOR'S NOTES: Given that Korra just attacked the White Lotus Compound, it's clear that she's not going back there to be sheltered again until she's 17. Korra's turned into a very different person and it's going to be reflected accordingly. On the other hand, Korra's relationship with Asami also starts to gain momentum, and we get to see Kwan again. Without spoiling anything, I can assure you that the 2nd Red Lotus sister still has quite the part to play in this tale.
Happy Reading!
BOOK ONE: POWER
CHAPTER THIRTY: THE FIERY ESCAPE
Korra had made up her mind, and her attack had begun. The glow from her eyes was briefly visible from the compound's watchtowers, but at this point, it didn't matter who saw her. What mattered was that no one was going to be able to stop her.
Harnessing power from the Avatar State, Korra focused her first attacks on the front two watchtowers, detonating parts of them with well-aimed combustion beams before sinking her hands into the ice at her feet. Large cracks began to form between her hands and the compound, and her reach extended beyond the ice, and into the bedrock deep below. This rock, she melted into lava, which caused the entire place to begin to sink. She attempted to leave a way out, but knew that the pandemonium might result in casualties. At this point though, she did not care. She fixated was she on the notion of never having to go back there that she wanted to remove it as an option entirely.
Almost immediately, sirens and a call for full evacuation was issued. Korra actually gave pause for a few moments, because while she intended to raze the complex to the ground, she had minimal desire to purposefully kill anyone inside. After a few minutes, she began moving around the walls with deft and frightening speed, striking various points to help expedite the collapse of the walls and grounds as the site collapsed in on itself. There was no taking back what she had done, and so she beelined it for the harbour now. She had done her damage, and now it was time to make her bold escape. She met up quickly with Naga, hopped onto her back, and they took off towards the harbour. By this point there were warning sirens coming from the city, since the sound from Korra's attack had drawn attention, and the Tribe thought that their city was under attack. Korra and Naga zigzagged through the streets to reach the bay, Korra's eyes still flashing from the Avatar State that she was still in. Naga bowled over a few people on her way to the docks, but fortunately none of them were severely injured. There was a sense of panick though, since most people weren't aware of what happened, and to see the Avatar running from the sounds of the attack confused most of the locals even further.
Granted, Korra was also somewhat panicked, not even fully sure how much damage she had done in the darkness and not wanting to find out. Naga cleared a couple of boats, landing on a smaller sailboat that became Korra's by right of theft. Korra used an ice hook similar to the one she had impaled Nakkoa with, except this time she was using it to cut a mooring rather than slay a woman. That, combined with a powerful wave of waterbending, and she was pushed away from the coast and out into the open sea. She knew exactly where she wanted to go, but for now she knew that she couldn't spend another minute here.
The following morning, the Southern Water Tribe was able to assess the damage, although no one had really seen what happened. The city itself was completely unharmed, but the White Lotus compound was little more than a sunken pile of ice and rubble. Tonraq and Senna knew exactly what had happened, and while they were just as horrifically shocked as everyone else, they were not surprised.
"She wasn't kidding…" Tonraq muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
"This just makes everything so much worse…" Senna sighed, loosely directing it at Tonraq, but also not really talking to anyone in particular. "Korra, why did you have to do this?"
"We need to find her," Tonraq asserted, "but she could be anywhere by now. There's no telling what kinds of places Nakkoa and Kwan took her to during her adventures, and she certainly didn't leave any hints."
"The Western Air Temple?" Senna suggested. "Maybe Republic City?"
"That hardly narrows our search though," Tonraq shook his head, "Republic City is the place to hide, not the place to be found."
"Then we ask someone who would know the places Korra liked," Senna turned to him, "We need to talk to one of the Red Lotus agents."
"I had a feeling you were leading to that," Tonraq sighed, "but you're right. Who do you propose though? Zaheer, Ghazan, Ming-Hua, and P'Li were not at all cooperative."
"Kwan," Senna asserted, "If she truly wants to change, then she'll help us. If not… we can expose her true colors. She's also the closest one to us right now."
It took a great deal of explanation and politics for Tonraq and Senna to clarify their intentions, and none of the White Lotus members were too thrilled about Korra after what she had just done.
"But," the Grandmaster sighed, "I suppose it is better to find her than to let her go rampaging around the world wreaking this kind of havoc. She is the most destructive woman I have ever laid eyes upon—even more so than the Red Lotus."
"Huh," Tonraq couldn't resist a sarcastic jab, "almost like I warned you that she would resist and be unstoppable. Who would have thought that a dad knew her daughter?"
Despite the tension, both Tonraq and Senna were both given clearance and were cordially transported to Kwan's prison. Like that of any dangerous earthbender or metalbender with a history of prison breaks, it was a wooden rig out in the middle of the ocean, to prevent her from having any access to earth or other bendable materials. That she was a lavabender meant they also had to watch their position carefully, lest she incinerate the facility.
Kwan bided her time primarily by counting every grain in the wood around her, or by examining every thread of her clothes, every contour of her skin, or every star, cloud, or otherwise feature in the sky. She had memorized things such as guard patrols and who was who within 2 weeks, but overall was more bored than anything. As such, she was naturally surprised and amused to see Korra's parents in front of her cell, particularly Senna. While her green shirt and pants were fairly ratty like any prisoner's clothes, the rest of her body looked surprisingly clean, as if letting dirt build up on her would give her a potential method of escape. Red Lotus benders were crafty like that, and while she didn't share that story too often, Kwan had actually managed to do exactly that at least once.
"Well, well, well," She stood up, pacing her small cubic cell with amusement while her bare toes curled against the familiar wooden floor, "what brings the great parents of the mighty Avatar to see little ol' me, hmm?"
"A potential to lighten your sentence," Tonraq spoke, "Korra has gone missing, and you were one of the five people who knew her best over the last two years. Cooperate, and you might taste the free air sooner than you would otherwise."
There was a moment of silence as Kwan gazed at Tonraq and Senna, the latter of whom harboured a rather fierce expression. After a moment, the lavabender spoke.
"Let me guess," she cracked an amused chuckle, "Despite her explicit warnings that she would blow the place up, you tried to take her back to the Southern Water Tribe compound, and now are acting all surprised that she's gone and blown the place to smithereens and run away."
There was a slight shock between Tonraq and Senna as Kwan accurately described the event that had occurred two days ago as if she had been there.
"And now," Kwan continued, "you're not sure where she's run off to, because she feels scared and betrayed. Now I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure she went straight back to Republic City. In fact, I think I even know the exact address of where she went."
"The more you tell, the easier this will be on you," Senna warned. "You're acting like you're running a spy network or something."
"Look, I don't have a spy network or anything;" Kwan laughed, "I'm in prison in case you haven't noticed; unless you think I've got Red Lotus operatives hiding down south."
Senna shot her a stern glare instead of replying.
"But," she continued, "if I had to take a stab at where our favourite little Avatar has run off to, I'm going to wager that she's run off to the last person in the world that she believes she can still trust, because she's scared, and my sister torturing her probably gave her serious trust issues."
"And to whom might she have run off to?" Tonraq glared accusingly at her.
"Well it certainly ain't me, if that's what you're thinking!" Kwan pounded on the bars with a chuckle, "No, if I know my little Avatar as well as I think I do, then she's gone and met back up with her little friend Asami Sato and her father. If you need directions to their estate… then I recommend actually visiting Republic City yourselves to take in the view."
That was the last piece of information that Kwan was willing to share, since she had nothing to really go off of either. As Tonraq and Senna turned to leave, Kwan spoke one last time.
"Oh, and… I know you don't owe me a damn thing," she said, "but if Korra asks about me at all… tell her I said hello and that I'm doing fine."
Kwan might not have crossed Korra's thoughts too much what with all the other things on the already-stressed-out Avatar's mind, but Kwan, who had nothing better to do than spend all day sitting in her wooden cell, thought about Korra. She pondered their adventures together, wondered how Korra fared after the whole incident with Nakkoa, and wondered if they'd be able to ever find another firebender for The Prison Breakers probending team. Kwan knew a few contacts due to her previous honourary affiliation with the Agni Kai Triads, but hadn't gotten in touch with them for years, and wasn't even sure if they were still alive. Still, she knew for sure that whoever they got (if she found anyone at all), it would have to be an ex-con. Korra might not have technically been to prison, but given her record—especially after her outburst at the Southern Water Tribe compound that Tonraq had inadvertently revealed to her—she figured Korra was bound to end up behind bars at least once, however briefly.
A Few Days Later...
Kwan knew Korra well enough that her predictions of where she had run off to were spot-on. Korra had not wanted to be alone, and other than maybe Ichiro in Gaoling, she didn't have anywhere else to run to. On the other hand, Asami was much more her age and a much closer friend, and the notion that Ichiro might have relocated in the last 18 months wasn't lost on Korra.
Naturally, she had been surprised when a weary Korra and Naga had arrived on her doorstep, but after hearing her story (Korra had omitted the part about destroying the compound; merely stating that she had 'escaped' it), Asami had sympathized with her and smoothed it over with her father the following day. Korra even offered to pay Hiroshi in return for his hospitality, but the old businessman had simply welcomed her stating that "a friend of Asami's was a friend of his." Asami was low-key relieved that neither of them actually brought up the value of the estate, because she figured that while Korra might have had a large amount of money from her stunt in the probending arena, that she was still sorely underestimating their worth.
Whatever the case, Korra and Naga made themselves at home, and this is exactly where Tonraq and Senna found them after they rang the bell to the Sato Estate's gate. After introducing themselves as Korra's parents, Hiroshi Sato let them in.
"Your daughter is quite the elemental powerhouse," He commented after the obligatory introductions, breaking out a bottle of wine to hopefully soothe the two waterbenders' visibly frazzled nerves. "My own daughter has taken quite a liking to her though, and she is not a child with poor judgment."
"Korra's a good kid," Tonraq nodded as Senna was the first one to open the bottle, "She kept a picture of herself and Asami as a keepsake among her possessions. I'm sure she's just as fond of your daughter as she is of Korra."
"It's heartwarming to see people from such different walks of life come together like that," Hiroshi smiled. "A nonbender befriending the… Avatar… of all people, and one that already seems much more powerful than her predecessor. Not to mention the fact that while we live near the pinnacle of Republic City society, she is much more inclined towards the… opposite."
"There's no denying our daughter is a bit rough around the edges," Senna admitted, "But she's also recovering from a near-death experience at the hand of a terrorist, and so it was relieving to find that she fled to someone she felt she could trust."
"The Red Lotus Terrorists, hmm?" Hiroshi raised his eyebrow, "It was all in the news last month that they had been captured, and it serves them right. Sometimes benders are simply too powerful for their own good."
"I hope that mindset doesn't cloud your judgment of everyone," Tonraq raised his eyebrow at Hiroshi's slightly suspicious words.
"Of course not," Hiroshi shook his head, pouring himself a glass of wine as Senna started on her 2nd glass, "But if these benders are going so far as to attack the Avatar… surely none of us would try to defend those monsters—and I highly doubt any of us are arguing that the Red Lotus should be emancipated, yes?"
"Forgive us," Tonraq apologized, "our daughter has been under very stressful situations lately, which has in turn passed to us. Not to mention that she's taken some of it out on us, and so if we seem a touch irate, we apologize."
"If someone dared threaten my daughter I would feel the same as any respectable parent would," Hiroshi assured them, "Now, on the note of your daughter, I am happy to let her remain here as long as she needs or wishes, within reason of course. Obviously there are certain standards and expectations I would have of my guests, as there would be in any household, but I am not an unreasonable man by any stretch."
"Can we speak to her?" Senna looked up.
"You certainly don't need my approval," Hiroshi chuckled, "She's a guest, not a prisoner. Although, if you'll excuse me, I have other business I need to attend to. My daughter Asami or any of the servants around the house will be happy to cater to your needs."
As if on cue, one of the many butlers in the house escorted Tonraq and Senna out of Hiroshi's study and out towards where Korra and Asami were enjoying each other's company and enjoying the warm afternoon air.
"I can seriously not thank you enough for convincing your dad to let me stay here for a while," Korra repeated, clasping Asami's hand between both of her own, "this last month has been so crazy, and I've just been dealing with so much stress and…" she sighed and trailed off for a moment. "I just can't figure out what's wrong with me! It's like I…"
The hair on the back of Korra's neck suddenly stood up and her left ear twitched as she heard someone coming. She turned around and had a mixed reaction to seeing her parents.
"Who let you in?" She was already apprehensive, causing Tonraq and Senna to steel themselves for what they knew was likely going to be a tense situation. Asami took a couple of steps back, although kept her eyes on Korra and her parents. It was awkward for their first meeting, but she was ready to play a mediator if she had to.