The Legend of Korra - Book Three : Change

by pavop

Continuation of Book Two. Two weeks after the end of the Harmonic Convergence, new Airbenders began to appear all around the world. So, Korra and Patrick, along with the others, set out to find them and restore the nearly extinct nation. At the same time, a group of four dangerous individuals escape from their prisons with one goal: to kill Korra.

I do not own Legend of Korra or any other character mention here.

Two weeks after the Harmonic Convergence, on Air Temple Island, Bumi was exhaustedly chasing Bum-Ju. The reason for the chase was that Bumi had made a sweater for Bum-Ju but the Spirit refused to wear it, so Bumi, feeling a little hurt by the rejection of his work, raised his voice and the little Spirit flew away.

"Come back, Bum-Ju!" he called at his Spirit friend that was flying toward the end of the cliff, on whose edge grew a tree.

Bumi, without a second thought, crawled onto the tree and then onto its branch, above the end of which Bum-Ju was flying.

When he was in the middle of the branch, he pulled out of his pocket a small pink sweater — the reason for this stressful chase.

"If you don't want to wear the sweater I made you, that's alright. I'm sorry I got mad!" he apologized to his friend and then crawled on the branch closer to him. He felt that the tree branch he had been crawling on begin to weaken. "Bum-Ju, I'm running out of tree. Can we go down now?" And then he heard as the branch under him was slowly breaking, and before he could even react, he toppled down over it; only his hands gripping the end of the branch stopped him from falling. "Bum-Ju, a little help!" he yelled as the branch he was holding onto was slowly snapping off the tree.

Even the Spirit now recognized that the situation was serious, so it grabbed Bumi's jacket by its teeth in an attempt to help him, but when the branch broke completely, it only managed to pull the jacket off Bumi as he was falling due to its small size.

Bumi screamed as he hurtled down at tremendous speed, and instinctively, he extended both hands forward to cushion the impact, when suddenly, to his shock, came an air blast from his hands that slowed his fall completely.

He turned his head toward Bum-Ju, who was descending toward him with his jacket in its mouth. "Look, I'm Airbending!" he announced happily. And as soon as he finished the sentence, the air blast stopped and he fell to the ground. "Ah! Ow, that still hurt a lot."

Meanwhile in Republic City, Jinora, Korra, Patrick and Tenzin were standing in front of the edge of one of the jungles of the vines located within the city, which were the remnants of Vaatu's failed attack during the Harmonic Convergence. Honestly, everybody had thought that those vines were going to die off soon, but now after two weeks it was clear that they would remain and occupy parts of the city, which was a problem because a significant number of people were living or made their living in those affected parts of the city. So it was up to Korra and Patrick to somehow solve this situation.

"You think it's going to work?" Korra asked Patrick because he had been spending the last few days and nights developing chemical compounds, or as he called them, herbicides, that were supposed to get rid of vines. This was one of their numerous attempts to clear the city from the vines and all the previous ones have failed.

Patrick rubbed the stubble on his face that he had earned while making those herbicides. "There's only one way to find out," he replied and kneeled down to one of the vines on the ground. He pulled out a sprayer with an attached cylinder with one of the herbicides and sprayed its content on the vine. Nothing happened. "Ahhh…that's great," he remarked sarcastically.

"Perhaps it could work at its source inside that jungle," Jinora suggested.

"You might be right, Jinora," Patrick said as he stood up. "Otherwise, we'll have to use the old good Bending or the tools for this."

The group was about to venture into the jungle when they overheard someone yelling at one of the Metalbenders that were guarding the barriers that prevented the residents of the affected area of the city from entering.

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! THAT WAS NO SPIRITS I SAW THERE BUT SOME STRANGE BEINGS!"

The foursome turned their heads toward the source of that yelling and saw that it was an old man wearing expensive clothes, even though they were dirty and torn in some places, while the officer that he was yelling at was doing his best not to react at all.

"What's this about?" Korra asked the commanding Metalbender, who was stationed here with his men on the orders of Beifong.

"That's Mr. Mang. He owns, or to be more precise, he owned a few shops there," Metalbender answered and motioned his head toward the jungle. "He managed to slip through and went to look over the damages and when he came back, he was claiming to have seen that a trio of figures came through some sort of circle. One was quite small and was carrying a long staff; the second was wearing a green robe with blue sleeves and had pointed ears; and the last one was some old man with a twig that was emitting light at its end. But I wouldn't bother with that anyway; he might have seen some Spirits around his destroyed livelihood and it was too much for him. Honestly, I don't even blame him."

While Jinora, Korra and Tenzin shrugged it off, Patrick instantly knew that Mr. Mang was not exaggerating. When X had told him that the Order of Asan had sent those two disciples to observe the Harmonic Convergence, he knew that his involvement in the fight against Vaatu would give away that he was here. So, his plan was to split up with Korra and the others and deal with those three visitors without any witnesses.

When the foursome entered the jungle, it was like they had never stood in the middle of the city a few seconds ago. Everything was overgrown by the vines and only a few parts of the buildings and Satomobiles that could be seen through the vines were letting visitors know that people had lived here just a few weeks ago.

Patrick picked another vine and tried a second herbicide, then a third and a fourth, but alas, nothing worked.

He sighed. "Go ahead. I'll try some other compounds or retry the previous ones to see if any of them might at least have some effect. Then I'll catch up with you."

"Alright," Korra replied and she, along with Jinora and Tenzin, continued forward while being followed by a slowly growing crowd of small Spirits.

Patrick watched them until he was sure that they were gone. He then put the sprayer back into his pocket. He was definitely sure that the herbicides would not work at all, so those days and nights of the work were for nothing. But now he had something more important to worry about. And that was the trio of Grandmasters of the Order of Asan.

As he walked through the hot jungle of vines, he did not encounter any of the Spirits on the way. They all probably went to watch Korra and the others or they were occupied with something else.

He then reached the edge of a small clearing that had obviously been a road in Republic City before Vaatu's attack. On the other side of the clearing were a few shops that were almost disappearing underneath the vines. In the middle of the clearing was a blue Satomobile, on whose roof was sitting a small figure.

He was small, at the size of a five-year-old child, with a thin build and quite a large head, with thinning grey hair. His eyes were yellow and were so large that they were occupying half the size of his head. He was wearing a much-worn light brown robe, and in his right hand he was holding a staff with a spiral head that was the same size as his head. His name was Ta'kam, and he was the last member of the race known as the Novor, as well as one of the Grandmasters of the Order of Asan, who was specializing in general magic.

Patrick leaned a bit forward and saw that above Ta'kam several small Spirits in the forms of fishes were circling, while the head of his staff was shining with a pale green color as he was saying some words aloud.

"Noattten zukqe vonr…"

Patrick decided to enter the clearing to talk with Ta'kam before he would encounter the other two Grandmasters that had arrived here. But when he made a step forward, he felt the touch of a blade on his throat.

"I was sharpening it today. Something was telling me it would be needed and it seems that my instincts were right again," the male, stern voice announced.

Patrick looked down at the blade, and it was a scimitar blade with engraved magical runes, but Patrick knew that those runes were not the only reason to be afraid of from that scimitar; inside that sword was also Fel magic combined with the blood magic, so it was unwise to even be wounded by that weapon.

He slowly looked to his left and could see that the hilt of the scimitar was being held by a badly burned left hand. He then shifted his gaze to the rest of the owner of that scimitar and he was of normal build with dark skin color and emerald-colored eyes with one rune tattooed under each eye. He had pointed ears exactly 25 centimeters long and long, thick dreadlocks down to his waist. He was wearing a long green tunic with blue sleeves. He was Viirtax, a member of the elven race called Marana and the Grandmaster of the Order of Asan, who was specializing in rune magic.

"It's been a long time, Patrick…" Viirtax said and grabbed Patrick's throat with his right hand so he could take a few steps back with him while keeping the blade of his weapon on Patrick's throat. "And my Aelokuea is thirsting for blood."

Patrick looked into his eyes for a moment when his attention turned to the burn scars on Viirtax's left side of his neck that were leading down to the left side of his chest, where there were more runes tattooed, as well as on his palms.

Viirtax's race, the Maranas, were the most skilled and powerful users of rune magic of all the Multiverses. They were using the magic of the runes on everything, even on themselves. In the case of tattoos, they were using the bark of their most sacred tree, named Jabaran, and each of the tattooed runes on a specific part of their body granted them a special ability. As for Viirtax, the runes under his eyes gave him the ability to see all kinds of magic; the majority of the runes on his chest were giving him protection against all curses and spells, which in the end helped a bit when he was fighting against one of the versions of the Mad Titan Sargeras, from whom he received his burn scars, while the one on the middle of his chest was giving him the ability to breathe unlimitedly underwater. The runes on his palms allowed him to have at least five times more strength, and thanks to the ones on his legs, he was able to move with tremendous speed.

"I guess you haven't forgotten about that thing in that valley ten months ago, am I right?" Patrick asked, fully aware that either Viirtax would use his scimitar Aelokuea, which in the language of his people meant "Reaper", which had been imbued with Fel magic after his fight with Sargeras and later combined with blood magic after the defeat of the Blood Witches of Tyrandian, who had created the plague to wipe out the Maranas in their quest to seize their world, or he would simply snap his neck thanks to his huge strength.

"You left us there and those demons almost killed all the disciples who weren't even able to transform lead into gold!" Viirtax barked.

"Well, they were lucky that you were there and perhaps you should stop taking your disciples on such dangerous missions," Patrick replied with a sarcastic tone, and in the following second, he could feel Viirtax tighten his grip on his throat so tightly that he almost could not breathe.

"Viirtax… Please let him go, my friend. I sense that death is circling around him. He is no longer a threat to us," Ta'kam said in his usual friendly tone.

Patrick quickly turned his head toward him and saw that one of the founders of the Order of Asan had stopped what he was doing with the Spirits that had flown away and stood up.

Viirtax smirked. "Justice at last?" And he loosened his grip on Patrick's throat.

Patrick took deep breaths and watched as Ta'kam approached the edge of the roof of the Satomobile and with a wave of his staff, a small blue cloud materialized in front of his feet and he stepped onto it. Then he extended one of his feet and another blue cloud manifested in front of his foot. And so, with the help of more clouds as steps, he got down to the ground.

"It has been a long time, the smartest man in the world," Ta'kam said and he humbly bowed.

"You're here because of Vaatu, right?" Patrick replied.

Ta'kum and Viirtax exchanged glances with each other.

"Nolan and Olmrik…" Viirtax said as he crossed his arms after he sheathed his weapon. "According to their reports, they got lost and encountered X and… were a little bit talkative about their mission."

"And I assume that when they got here, they saw me fighting with Vaatu and they reported it to you. So did you really come here for Vaatu or for me?" Patrick asked.

"Both, Patrick," Ta'kam answered. "After checking with my magic, I can now say from my part that there is nothing left of Vaatu in this world. And as for you… I've already told it."

"Really? That's good news but I'm not quite sure about all this vegetation around here. You could at least help with this, since you were going to stand by and watch Vaatu destroy this world."

"We're fighting for the greater good for everyone, Patrick."

"Oh, that's what you're calling that, huh?"

Viirtax quickly grabbed Patrick's throat again and squeezed. "You don't know anything about the greater good nor about fighting for it! You've never fought for anything but yourself!"

"Viirtax, please!" Ta'kam pleaded.

"Why are we even talking about this?" Viirtax barked. "We should kill him right now, Ta'kam!"

"Could I at least give my opinion about this as well?" the old voice with a British accent said in the back.

They all turned to the source of the voice on the other side of the clearing and saw an old man with long grey hair and beard with blue eyes, dressed in a long grey tunic with long sleeves and a few rings on both hands. In his left hand, he was holding a small twig of elder wood with a bright light coming from its end. It was Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and one of the Grandmasters of the Order of Asan, who was specializing in magic that required a wand and, despite his appearance, was paradoxically the youngest of all the Grandmasters.

"It's been a long time, Patrick," Dumbledore said and with the wave of his wand the light on his wand disappeared. "Please, Viirtax, let him go."

Viirtax reluctantly let Patrick's throat go.

"It was, Dumbledore," Patrick said as he was taking a deep breath again. "How are those youngsters in that school of yours?"

"They're growing up, Patrick." Dumbledore made a step forward. "Truthfully, I was kind of hoping that Markulius was exaggerating when he was reporting seeing you here, fighting against Vaatu."

"Someone had to when the famous Triumvirate of the Order of Asan was taking their time to finally get here."

"The Triumvirate" was the nickname for this trio. Even though the other Grandmasters were participating in vital missions of the Order and crises across the Multiverses, these three were always on the front lines and always the last to leave. Very few knew that these three, unlike the other Grandmasters, were sharing one thing in common: loss. Dumbledore of his own sister, Viirtax of the love of his life, who died during the plague unleashed by the Blood Witches, and Ta'kam of his entire race, which was one of the reasons why he had founded the Order of Asan.

Dumbledore shifted his gaze to Ta'kam.

"The death is circling around him," Ta'kam announced.

Viirtax smiled.

"Yeah, that tumor will do the thing that powerful sword of yours couldn't do at all," Patrick said to him.

Viirtax smile disappeared as he was about to unsheathe his sword.

"Viirtax, please, my friend. Be calm," Dumbledore said and then he shifted his gaze on Patrick. "You have an unhealthy attitude about antagonizing people, Patrick."

"Well, it's one of my greatest talents," Patrick replied and looked at Viirtax. "For a guy who's at least 600 years old, you have a very short temper."

"The last ones who experienced my temper, Patrick, were those Blood Witches and sadly they are no longer living to tell the tale," Viirtax declared with a threatening tone.

"Anyway, I'm done with the check. There's nothing left of Vaatu," Dumbledore announced and looked at Ta'kam. "What about you?"

"Same," Ta'kam replied. "We can go now."

"Leaving so soon?" Patrick asked sarcastically.

"Yes, because there's no longer any Great Dark Spirit to fight with and you're going to die soon, so you're not even worth our attention anymore," Viirtax replied.

"Could you at least tell me how to get rid of those vines that Vaatu had left after his attack?" Patrick asked.

"There's no way. These vines were nothing but tools for Vaatu and if both portals to the Spirit World remain open, then the vines will still remain here no matter what," Ta'kam answered.

In other words, the people of Republic City will have to get used to living next to the jungle. Great… Patrick thought as he knew that Korra would insist that both portals remain open and the Spirits would stay. So, this whole situation will soon inevitably turn into a great mess.

"But when I was searching for the remnants of Vaatu, I could sense… a change in this world," Ta'kam added.

"Me too," Dumbledore agreed.

"So, if you were fighting alongside the Avatar against Vaatu for any other reason than for your own survival, then let me give you some advice, Patrick: Use the time you have left well and if you've found here someone you care about, use every minute to be with them," Ta'kam suggested.

"Thank you and goodbye, Ta'kam." Patrick turned his gaze to Dumbledore. "You too, Albus."

Dumbledore and Ta'kam humble nodded their heads as silent signs of farewell.

Patrick then turned to Viirtax. "Goodbye to you too."

But Viirtax was silent and looked at him with a hateful, cold expression but that was the response that Patrick expected from him.

Patrick walked away because there was truly no point in staying here when he was considered to no longer be a threat or a person of interest to the Order of Asan.

Viirtax watched Patrick's departure from the clearing, and when he was gone, he turned his head toward Ta'kam, who had begun to open the portal back into the fortress of their Order.

"We should have killed him," Viirtax remarked about the decision of letting Patrick go. "Not giving him a chance to save his life."

"Besides the aura of death, there's something else about him," Ta'kam argued. "A change."

"Ta'kam is right. He's changed," Dumbledore added.

Viirtax waved his hand in rejection. "People like him won't change, no matter what!"

Dumbledore approached Viirtax. "Constant killing won't bring her back, my friend. She didn't fall in love with the killer," he said to him with concern.

Viirtax sighed. "You're right, Albus..."

"We should have told Patrick the truth about the Avatars and Raava or at least mentioned that wave of pure energy caused by the Avatar when she left both portals to the Spirit World open," Ta'kam remarked after he opened the portal.

"Why? We don't intervene if it's not absolutely necessary, Ta'kam," Viirtax rejected. "Don't forget that it was you who insisted on observing non-intervention in the first place. This is just one Universe among many."

"And I sometimes question that decision myself," Ta'kam whispered. Although the Order of Asan was fulfilling its purpose of protecting magic and all lives in all Multiverses, he had to agree with Patrick that the whole Order could be doing more without compromises, but even if he could get Viirtax and Dumbledore to agree to a change in policy, the other Grandmasters would surely outvote them.

And all three left this Universe through the portal.

Korra, Tenzin and Jinora went deeper into the jungle with the group of Spirits following them. Then they stopped in front of a very thick vine growing out of a large building.

"Let's try it with the good old-fashioned Bending," Korra announced and shot a fire blast at the vine.

The thick vine did indeed retreat like a snake that has been threatened by something but it pretty quickly grew back.

Korra groaned in frustration.

"I see that the Firebending won't do," Patrick remarked as he joined them.

"Let me guess: Those herbicides of yours don't work either," Korra deduced as she and the others turned their heads toward him.

"Nope. I guess that we'll have to use axes and saws for this," Patrick replied. But from what Ta'kam had told me, that probably wouldn't work either.

"Ugh," Korra relieved herself from her frustration. "I don't get it. I can vanquish Vaatu but not a stupid vine?"

"I'm pretty sure that both of you will somehow find a way," Tenzin said in an attempt to keep hope alive.

"Why do you want to get rid of them?" Jinora asked because, from her point of view as a child, there was nothing wrong with the Spirits having their own home in Republic City. "You changed the world," she said to Korra. "We're connected with the Spirits again. The jungles are their home."

"Jinora, look around. Do you see all those buildings, shops and Satomobiles? This was all somebody's home or livelihood," Patrick explained. "Not even mentioning the fact that this and the other jungles are in the middle of a living metropolis."

"He's right, Jinora," Korra added. "The people aren't excited about it as much as you are."

Jinora looked around as she finally understood what they both meant.

When another attempt to get rid of the vines failed, the group headed out of the jungle. Korra, who was carrying an Airbender staff, another of the traditional meanings of transportation of Air Nomads besides the use of the Airbending and the Flying Bison, opened it, and the mechanism slid out two handles on the top of the staff, one on each side of the staff, a pair of blue wings right below them and another pair on the bottom of the staff.

"I'll have to face the press and tell them that we still don't have any way to get rid of the vines," Korra announced with great dejection. "This should be fun," she added sarcastically.

"I'm going with you; otherwise, you're going to say something that you'll regret later," Patrick said.

Korra slightly smiled. "Thanks, my "Press Spokesman"."

Patrick activated his rocket outsoles and with Korra, who used the Airbender staff, they flew away toward City Hall.

In front of City Hall, overgrown by a great tree, a large number of reporters had gathered and in front of them was President Raiko at the podium and beside him was Beifong along with several of her Metalbenders.

"Mr. President, are you concerned that your approval ratings are now nearly as low as the Avatar's?" one of the reporters asked.

"I'm not concerned with some ratings," Raiko replied with a diplomatic tone. "I'm facing this calamity just like every other citizen." He pointed at one large vine that was growing out of the left side of the building. "There's a vine growing right through my office. You think I'm not doing everything I can to get rid of it?"

Then in the sky above City Hall appeared Korra and Patrick and they both landed in front of the building. While Patrick smoothly landed, Korra's landing created a gust of air that ruffled up Raiko's hair.

"Avatar Korra! Smartest man in the world! A few questions, please," one of the reporters immediately requested.

"Do you regret the way you two handled the Unalaq Crisis?" another reporter asked.

The female reporter raised her hand. "Why are you forcing the integration of Spirits in Republic City?"

Korra attempted to answer, "Listen, we've been trying everything we can to get rid of these vines but—"

"Why can't you fix this?" another reporter interrupted her with a question.

"Are the vines here to stay?" another reporter asked.

"Is this part of your New World Order?" another female reporter asked.

"No comment," Patrick replied.

"Look, the Harmonic Convergence was just a couple weeks ago. We just need a little more time to get everything back to normal," Korra added.

Then Raiko started to speak, "The Avatar and the Smartest Man in the World has put us all in a very difficult position but my administration —"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did we put you in a difficult position by fighting the giant force of pure evil that was going to destroy the entire world?" Korra interrupted him with a sarcastic tone.

Fuuuck… Patrick thought as he sighed in spirit because Korra just did something that he was afraid she was going to do.

Then Korra walked over to Raiko, grabbed his chin with her right hand and bobbed his head up and down while looking directly into his eyes. "Maybe your administration could have handled that."

In that moment, Patrick decided to intervene and separate the duo before the situation could escalate. Beifong watched it all and rolled her eyes.

"That's all, no more questions!" he announced to the press.

Raiko then quickly headed back to City Hall with a group of officials following him while a mob of reporters dispersed. Asami, who had been among them the whole time, approached Korra and Patrick.

"I take it that those herbicides weren't working," she said.

Patrick nodded. "Not at all. And Bending didn't work either."

"This is a disaster," Korra remarked dejectedly as the anger and frustration that she had focused on Raiko vanished as she realized that her decision to let both portals open and allow the Spirits to roam free in the Physical World was not going as well as she had thought.

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out. As always," Asami said in an attempt to cheer her friend up.

"Easy for you to say," Korra replied. "You don't have my poll numbers. 8 percent approval? Who are they asking?"

"You should ignore it, Korra," Patrick suggested. "Like me."

"You have over 20 percent; that's more than me and Raiko combined."

"And you can see that I don't care."

"Patrick's right. People are just frustrated," Asami added.

"I don't blame them. I should be able to fix all of this. After all, I'm the Avatar," Korra remarked.

Meanwhile on the Air Temple Island, in the courtyard, Ikki and Meelo were playing with Pabu when they saw their uncle running toward them, all dirty and sweating.

"You're not going to believe what just happened! Where's your father?" he said to them in great haste.

Ikki turned her head toward the temple, took a deep breath and fully screamed, "FATHER!"

Less than a second later, Tenzin opened the door of the temple and looked around worriedly. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked with a great fear that something bad had happened, a fear he had developed since Amon had attacked the island and Jinora had been taken hostage by Unalaq. He then quickly went outside with Pema, who was carrying Rohan, Jinora and Kya.

"The most amazing, wondrous, fantastical thing just occurred," Bumi answered and approached them. He then took a deep breath as he was about to tell them what had happened. "Alright… Bum-Ju and I had a little fight." He made a gesture of knitting with his fingers. "I made him this sweater and he didn't seem to like it, and I'll admit, it might need work, but it was my first attempt at knitting, so I was a little hurt."

Tenzin's worried expression turned completely blank when he heard that his older brother was causing such a ruckus just because his pet did not love the sweater he had made for him. "Hilarious…" He turned his head toward the rest of his family. "Time for dinner, everyone," he announced as he and Pema, Rohan, Jinora and Kya were walking back into the temple.

"No, no, no, no! Wait!" Bumi yelled and then took the fighting stance. "I can Airbend!" He thrust both his hands forward to make an air blast but nothing happened. So, he tried several times but still nothing.

Ikki and Meelo, who amusedly watched what their uncle was doing, got tired of it and decided to join the others, who did not even pay attention to Bumi.

"Wait! Seriously, I was doing it!" Bumi exclaimed as he was trying to do Airbending, but still nothing. "No, hold on, I just, uh, maybe if I…" He kicked the air but the result stayed the same. "No!"

A few minutes later, in the room of Tenzin's family in the temple, everybody gathered around the table. Tenzin and his wife, with their youngest child, were sitting at the end of the table opposite to Ikki and Jinora, while Bumi, who was still waving his hands, was sitting beside Bolin to their left side and Kya and Meelo to their right.

"I swear, I'm not making it up!" Bumi said after his another, now countless, attempt to Airbend.

"Stop waving your arms around at the table. It's not funny anymore," Tenzin ordered, becoming completely irritated by the behavior of his older brother.

"It's not a joke," Bumi argued as Asami, Korra and Patrick entered the room.

While Asami remained standing, Korra sat next to Jinora and Ikki and Patrick sat between Bumi and Bolin.

"What's wrong with him?" Patrick asked about Bumi's behavior at the table.

"Bumi says he Airbended earlier but he can't now," Bolin whispered. "Oh, and I guess he's not very good at knitting either," he added in an even quieter tone of voice and then he smiled broadly at Korra. "But I have to say that I love being a part of this family." He looked at Tenzin, who was restraining his anger toward Bumi. "You have the grumpy father," he shifted his gaze to Bumi, who was using all his strength to make at least a little air blast, "the wacky uncle," he shifted his gaze to Pema, who was looking so tired while Rohan was crying in her arms, "a very tired mother," he shifted his gaze to Ikki and Jinora, who were looking disgusted at Meelo, who put both chopsticks on either side of his mouth, "crazy children," and then he finally looked at Patrick, who was looking like he was thinking about something and completely ignoring Bolin, "and a silent older brother." He paused for a moment. "It's awesome here."

"And where's Mako?" Asami asked.

"Oh, you mean the brooding teenager? He's staying in the police station," Bolin answered.

"Still?" Korra asked surprised.

When they got back from the Southern Water Tribe, Mako and Bolin learned that their apartment, which they had gained thanks to Butakha, was in a part of Republic City buried under vines. So, while Bolin decided to move back to Air Temple Island to Patrick's room like in the old times, Mako decided to stay right in his workplace rather than return back to the island. He told Bolin that he did not want to share space with Patrick, but Patrick was sure that the real reason was Mako's breakup with Korra and that he wanted to avoid her as long as possible.

"I told him that we can stay here since our apartment is a vine habitat now, but…" Bolin shrugged. "He said he had to focus on work."

"Oh, did you see that?" Bumi asked in shock while looking at the napkin lying in front of him on the table. "I think the napkin had moved."

"You blew on it," Kya said as she was also irritated by her brother's behavior at the table.

Then something occurred to Bumi. "Wait… Maybe I can only do it when my life is in danger." He turned his head toward Bolin. "Bolin, throw a giant boulder at me."

"Bolin, if you do that while I'm sitting between you two, I'll give you a "parachute" and send you for at least a half hour into the atmosphere of H22," Patrick announced as he was in no mood to be in the middle of Bolin throwing giant boulders at someone.

H22 was a small planet located in Universe 74 in Multiverse 308, where it was discovered by NASA in year 2104. It was a nearly perfect planet for colonization with a breathable atmosphere, but there was one minor problem, and that was that the planet had minimal gravity, just enough to keep itself together along with the atmosphere, so everything else on the surface would float off into the space. So, the colonization plans were cancelled because terraforming technology was not fully developed in this Universe and H22 was about to be ignored when the then President of the USA, which was dealing with a very high crime rate, got an idea to use H22 as a sort of penal colony. American scientists then developed a device in the form of a balloon that kept the prisoner strapped to it in the breathable atmosphere of H22 while providing him with the food and liquid intake as well as defecation and massages to the muscles; thus, the device gained the nickname "parachute" from prisoners. And in the following years, the penal colony on H22 proved to be successful, but over 90% of all released prisoners displayed a very long series of psychological illnesses that they developed after spending a long time in the space without gravity.

"Well… I don't want to know what that "parachute and H22" are… So, I'd rather no," Bolin said as a rejection of Bumi's request.

"Oh, come on, Bolin!" Bumi begged.

"If you're going to be Bending giant boulders, you can do it outside," Pema said annoyed.

"No one is Bending giant boulders!" Tenzin ordered as he slammed the table.

In that moment, Meelo, completely happy at the idea that something was going to be thrown during their dinner, grabbed one of the plates and threw it at Bumi. "Look alive, Uncle Bumi!"

Bumi, at the last moment, noticed the thrown object heading toward him and extended both his hands in an instinct to protect his face. When suddenly the flying plate was stopped by a sphere of air that formed between his hands.

Bumi looked at the plate rotating inside the sphere of air for a moment before he realized that he had actually done what he was claiming to be able to do. "I told you!" he yelled.

Everyone at the table looked at it in complete shock.

"Unbelievable. You're actually an Airbender," Tenzin said.

"Wait until I tell mother; she's going to love this," Bumi added.

Then the sphere of air dissipated and the plate fell on the table, where it shattered.

At night, in the common room of Republic City's Police Headquarters, a telephone on one of the desks rang. Mako, who was sleeping under it, woke up because of the telephone and sat up, but because he was directly under the desk, he bumped his head against the desk.

"Ow!" he growled due to the pain and the sudden wake-up call. This was the last time he was sleeping directly under the desk. He then stood up and picked up the telephone. "Police," he announced to the caller. In the next few seconds, the caller was telling him something so fast that he almost could not understand him. But it was something about the caller's brother. "He what?" And then the fast talk again. "Slow down." From what he could understand, this man was having trouble with his own brother, and according to his words, it was serious. "Alright, I'm on my way."

A short time later, Mako, dressed in his uniform, was at the crime scene. It was one small shop, so small that almost no one could notice it. He stepped inside and saw a complete mess; almost everything in the shop was broken and destroyed. In the middle of it was standing an elderly man with glasses who was sweeping up the mess on the floor.

"What happened here?" Mako asked as his first thought was that some criminal gang had come here to racketeer and when the owner refused to pay, they smashed every item in the shop to pieces.

The owner of the shop quickly dropped the broom and walker over to him. "It was my brother. He's out of control."

So, it's really a brotherly dispute. That should be easy, Mako thought as he pulled out his notepad. "Alright, just tell me what happened."

"We were arguing about the books and Daw, my brother, was yelling at me," the owner of the shop explained. "And all of a sudden, things started flying around. He was creating this storm, like…" It looked like at that moment he was trying to find the right words for it.

"Like what?" Mako asked.

"Like he was Airbending!"

Mako raised an eyebrow at the witness who had called him here. "Sir, that's impossible. There are only five Airbenders in the entire world and your brother is not one of them."

"I know what I saw! He was terrified and screaming: 'What's happening to me?!'." The owner of the shop pointed at the door in the back of the shop. "Then he ran into the back room and locked himself in."

"Stay here," Mako instructed him, put the notepad back into his pocket and headed to the door in the back. He then knocked on them. "Police. Open up."

"Go away!" Daw yelled in panic from the other side of the closed door.

"Get out of there, sir, or I'll bash this door down," Mako replied in an authoritative tone. He waited a few seconds and then, due to the fact that he was unpleasantly awakened because of this, he decided to go the hard way. "One, two…"

And before he could even begin to say the number three, a massive air blast launched the door and him across the entire shop and pinned Mako against the wall.

Daw, a young man with raven hair, a moustache and blue eyes, dressed in a green-colored long coat, was standing in front of the doorway where a second ago there had been a door, which he launched at that officer without any intention of doing so.

"I'm so sorry!" Daw yelled in panic as he ran away and just as he stepped out of the shop, he, again unintentionally, used Airbending to get away.

The owner of the shop walked over to Mako, who tossed the door aside. "I told you. Airbending!"

Mako looked at him in annoyance before he slumped back to the floor with a sigh. He really should have moved to Air Temple Island with Bolin.

At dawn on Air Temple Island, Asami, Bolin, Korra, Tenzin and his family were observing Bumi in the courtyard as he was trying to Airbend. Patrick was not with them because he went for something in his basement.

"Ugh, I can't figure this thing out," Bumi said with great frustration because once again he was not able to Airbend.

"Do you think being in the Spirit World during the Harmonic Convergence could have given him Bending?" Korra asked her mentor.

"I suppose it's possible," Tenzin replied.

"Well, there's only one way to test that theory," Patrick said as he walked past them. In one hand he was holding a small black metal suitcase and in the other a blue grip with a needle on one end and an attached small glass vial on the other.

"What's that?" Bolin asked.

Patrick raised his hand, in which he was carrying the grip. "This is an automatic injection gun designated for collecting the blood that an acquaintance made. And this…" Patrick then raised the other hand with the briefcase. "It's for the samples."

"Samples?" Ikki asked a little bit frightened.

"Yes, Ikki. I'll need your blood, your brother's, sister's and father's as well as Bumi's and Kya's," Patrick replied.

He had just come back from his hologram call with X, who was now in Universe 141 in Multiverse 247, where he was studying a species of whales that had mutated due to a fungus in the sea. Like Korra, Patrick and Tenzin, X had also come to the same theory that the Harmonic Convergence had given Bumi Bending, but X concluded that Bumi most likely inherited the genes from his father Aang that had given him the ability to Airbend, which were dormant until the Harmonic Convergence activated them. But for more detailed information, X needed not only Bumi's sample but also the samples of his siblings as well as his nieces and nephew, which Patrick agreed to provide because it would keep X busy instead of running his mad experiments that always ended in disaster for the entire planet. So, X had sent him the briefcase for the samples as well as an automatic injection gun for collecting the blood, which was equipped with a small laser for the disinfection and for the healing needle marks.

"Is that really necessary?" Bumi asked.

"It is," Patrick replied and placed the briefcase on the ground. And he then extended his free hand to Bumi. "Come on." He could see that hesitation had appeared on Bumi's face. "Bumi, you wouldn't be afraid of a small needle, right?"

"Right?" Kya added with a smug.

Bumi took a deep breath while trying to look courageous. "Of course, not!" He approached Patrick as he rolled up the sleeve of his jacket. "Let's do it!"

Patrick took his exposed forearm and turned with it so that Bumi's veins were facing toward him.

"Uhhh…" came from Bumi's mouth as the needle pierced through his skin into his vein.

Patrick pressed one of the small buttons on the side of the automatic injection gun, and it began to draw the blood into a vial. The whole process took about five seconds, and when he was sure that he had collected enough for a sample, he then pressed another small button on the side of the injection gun, which activated the small laser above the needle that healed the puncture when the needle was pulled out of the vein. The needle, which was made of a metal that none of the germs could adhere to, so there was no risk of infection and it could be used repeatedly without also losing its sharpness, then tucked back a little and began to rotate, so that the laser could clean the needle of any residue of Bumi's blood, just as the heating inside the injection gun had vaporized the residue of Bumi's blood inside, and when it was done, the needle protruded back forward. Patrick removed the glass vial, which was designated to be sealed enough that the next vial could not be contaminated with the previous sample.

Patrick pulled out a pen from his pocket and wrote on the label of the vial Bumi's name. He then opened the briefcase and put the vial inside.

"Alright, who's next?" he asked as he turned to the remaining offspring of Avatar Aang.

After a few minutes, he was done and all the collected samples were stored in the briefcase. The only ones whose sample he did not take were Pema and Rohan because six samples were enough for X.

"So, what now?" Asami asked.

"Well, the scientific side of the theory that Bumi gained Airbending thanks to the Harmonic Convergence is that the previously dormant genes that are giving him Airbending were awakened by that event. So, from these samples, DNA analysis will be undertaken to look for identical genetic markers."

"But I'm Waterbender," Kya said as she, as a healer, tried to understand what Patrick had just said.

"But also the daughter of Avatar Aang, so thanks to your kinship with Tenzin and Bumi, it will be much easier to distinguish those right markers," Patrick replied.

"Boooring…" Meelo commented.

Then they all noticed that Lin Beifong, accompanied by Mako in uniform, had arrived and they walked over to Tenzin and the others while observing Bumi's newest attempts to Airbend.

"Invisible Spirit monster attack?" she asked Tenzin about his elder brother's strange behavior.

"Lin, you won't believe this," Tenzin replied. "Bumi just started Airbending."

Both Beifong and Mako widened their eyes and exchanged surprised glances with each other. Patrick, who noticed their reactions along with what Ta'kam and Dumbledore were saying about the change in this world that they sensed, quickly put together one of the two possible scenarios. Either they were truly surprised by the information that Bumi was an Airbender or…

"There's another Airbender in Republic City, right?" Patrick asked.

"How do you know that?" Beifong asked as she and Mako turned their heads toward him.

"Lucky guess."

"Lin, is that true?" Tenzin asked surprised.

"I got a call last night from one shopkeeper that his brother just started Airbending out of nowhere," Mako explained.

"That's right. I've lately been noticing a change in the aura in the city and around Bumi," Kya announced.

"And you didn't tell me?" Bumi barked at her.

Kya did not say anything in response; she just pouted at her elder brother.

"Where is he now?" Tenzin asked Mako.

"He… blew a door down on me and got away. We have an all-points bulletin out on him right now," Mako replied.

He and Beifong were about to turn around and go back to the city to track down that Airbender when they had already done their duty and reported it to Tenzin and Korra.

"Wait, we'll help you look for him," Korra offered. "Where should we start?"

While Beifong continued on her journey, Mako stopped and turned around to Korra while nervously rubbing his nape. "Oh, well, you know, you should leave it to the police. It's… police business. You know. It's um… official."

"And when he blew that door down on you, that was also official police business?" Patrick asked, slightly amused by the way Mako was acting toward Korra after their break-up.

Mako, however, decided to ignore Patrick's remark.

"Alright," Korra said to Mako's response to her offer. "How are you doing? You know, you're welcome to stay here instead of sleeping at the police station," she added in her attempt to have a normal conversation with him after their break-up.

"No, I'm alright. I should just… get going…" He saluted. "Ladies." He turned around and followed Beifong. "Patrick," he said to him as he passed him, with a little bit of anger in his voice.

Korra and the others in the courtyard exchanged confused glances with each other over Mako's behavior.

Mako… you're completely fucked, Patrick thought as he went back to the temple to his room to teleport the samples to X and tell him about the sudden turn of the events.

Meanwhile, Korra decided to escort Asami back to Republic City.

"This is so exciting! New Airbenders in the city. I bet we can find that one before Mako does," Korra said to Asami on their way to Satomobile that was waiting at the port. Then she, at the last moment, caught the keys to the vehicle that Asami had thrown to her. "You know I'm not very good at driving."

"You're the Avatar, master of all the elements. You should know how to drive," Asami encouraged her friend. "And besides, it's quite relaxing."

Meanwhile on Air Temple Island, in his basement, Patrick had a hologram call with X. "So, what do you think now?" he asked him after sending him the samples and telling him the news about another Airbender in Republic City.

"Well… I think we could assume that the Airbenders probably had children similar to Bumi, who were also unable to Airbend and who also had the dormant genes that they spread outside the nation of Air Nomads," X replied. "It's like someone being part Scottish or part Irish."

"So that other Airbender is a distant descendant of Air Nomads, but what about his brother? He didn't become an Airbender."

"Unless one of them was adopted, I think there's only a certain chance that the Harmonic Convergence will activate those genes. For now, I would say its fifty-fifty. I might know more if you send me samples from both of them. And if you stumbled across a family with several members, where just one of them became an Airbender, I could determine that chance more accurately."

"So just like the Inhumans or the Half-Gods in my world… Fine, I'll see what I can do."

Then they both stood there in silence for a few minutes.

"What?" Patrick asked as he had a feeling that X wanted to say something but decided to remain silent in order to piss him off.

"You look horrible," X answered. "Have you been sleeping lately?"

"You know I didn't."

"Still having those nightmares?"

Patrick nodded. "Yes…" He turned to the workbench. "I thought that I could at least take advantage of not sleeping to make those herbicides but… guess what?" He threw up his hands. "They don't even work at all, and in addition to that, the Triumvirate of the Order of Asan has let me go because I'm a walking corpse that no longer poses a threat."

"So… you're upset because you're no longer a person of interest to the Order of Asan?"

Patrick shrugged. "Maybe." But the truth was more in the simple fact of that waiting, the waiting for death. When you have one year to live, then everything somehow goes by quickly but when you have about three years to live without anything to do, anything to focus on or anything to care about, then it makes you spend the most of your remaining days thinking about everything you have done with your life, about what you should have done or about what you did not do. Patrick thought he was prepared for this situation well but the reality proved otherwise.

"Look, I can tell you every piece of genetic information from a single hair but this…" X paused for a moment. "I think you should talk to one of your new friends, since they're always talking about feelings and emotions. Perhaps it could help you."

"Alright, X," Patrick said as he turned his head toward him and pointed his finger at him, "but no experimenting with those samples. I don't want to hunt down some super mutant capable of Waterbending who would escape your laboratory."

"Sure, you've got my word on that." And with these words, X ended the call.

Patrick stayed alone in the basement. He then noticed that one of the vials for herbicides was on the left side of the workbench while several others were on the right. With his index and middle fingers, he gently tapped the vial and it slowly rolled toward the others on the right side with the following sound of glasses clinking against each other. He then tapped the vial again, this time from the right side so it rolled back to the left side of the workbench, and when it stopped at the workbench's edge, he tapped the vial again from the left side. And like that, he repeatedly moved the vial from one side of the workbench to the other and with each clink of both vials against each other, it was like a ticking of the clock — the clock of the time he had left.

Shit, Patrick thought as he decided that this had been depressing enough and turned around and left the basement. He needed a change of scenery.

Meanwhile, in the streets of Republic City, Asami's attempt to teach Korra how to drive was not going as well as she had thought since Korra was constantly pushing the Satomobile forward while braking at the same time.

"Clutch! Clutch!" Asami yelled at her.

Then Korra finally stopped the Satomobile so sharply that the vehicle that was driving behind them had to stop sharply as well.

"That's the brake," Asami remarked with a little bit of frustration. Most people would give up at this point but not her. "Let's try again. Are you ready?"

The vehicle that had stopped behind them honked as they were standing in the middle of traffic.

Korra saluted just like Mako had done on Air Temple Island as a response to being ready to continue learning how to drive and she and Asami laughed.

"How long do you think talking to Mako is going to be like pulling teeth?" Korra asked as she restarted the engine of the Satomobile. "Although my first encounter with Patrick was a lot worse than that."

The driver of the vehicle behind them decided to overtake them rather than risk a crash and while driving away from the duo, he gave them an angry look.

"Well, I don't know what kind of conversations you had with Patrick when you two got here, but Mako has never been the "in touch with his feelings" type, but it'll get better eventually," Asami answered.

"So, when I was gone, did he tell you that we broke up?" Korra started slowly driving down the road.

"Yes… we all knew. But something tells me that Patrick knew about it much sooner."

"I remember encountering him shortly after Mako and I broke up at the Police Headquarters. I was pretty down after that, so it didn't take a genius to figure out what happened." Korra paused for a moment as she carefully turned the steering wheel slightly so that they were away from the pavement. "Speaking of Patrick… Why are you two not together already? Everyone could see that there was something between you two." However, Korra decided not to mention a few moments between her and Patrick.

Asami blushed. "Truth be told, I was sometimes thinking about Patrick when I was dating with Mako and when you were gone back then… I kissed him in the warehouse."

Korra turned her head toward her with a surprised expression. "You did? And…"

"And from me, it was due to the emotions at that moment, but he was… like he made a mistake by letting himself be kissed."

"It probably had something to do with that Clara."

Asami raised an eyebrow. "What Clara?"

"I don't know. After that failed encounter with Amon on Aang's Memorial Island, Patrick carried me to my room and we both fell asleep there. Then he awakened me by saying that name in his sleep. When I asked about it, he brushed me off." Korra shrugged. "Probably some first love that didn't work out."

Asami was about to say something to that when she spotted a massive vine in the middle of the road. "Vine! Vine!"

Korra quickly slammed on the brakes and swerved the Satomobile to the side, stopping just a few meters from a massive vine that was in the middle of the road, connecting both sides.

As Asami and Korra turned their gazes to the obstacle in the road, in front of them on the vine appeared a Spirit in the form of an orange hedgehog with two leaves instead of a tail.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" the Spirit yelled at them as if they had just entered his home.

"What are you doing living in the middle of the road in the first place?!" Korra replied in the same tone as she stood up on the driver's seat.

"Don't ask me, Avatar! You made the world this way; we're just living in it!"

Korra was doing her best not to send a fire blast at the Spirit right now. "Look, I don't have anything against the Spirits but these vines are causing major problems all over the city!"

"Spirits, vines…" The Spirit turned around. "We're all the same. Seems like the Avatar would know that." And with these words, the Spirit walked away.

Asami watched as Korra sat back down into the seat with an expression as if she had realized something. "Korra, are you alright?"

"I think that Spirit just gave me an idea how to get rid of these vines… But I'm going to need a lot of water."

Meanwhile, on Air Temple Island, Patrick was walking through the island, looking for some secluded spot, but when he found the right one with a direct view on the side of the statue of Avatar Aang, it was already taken by Tenzin, who was meditating there.

Patrick turned around and was about to leave when Tenzin said, "It's alright, Patrick; you can join me."

Patrick stopped mid-step and turned his head toward him. "I don't want to be a bother."

"You're not." Tenzin patted the spot on the grass beside him. "Come on."

Patrick sighed as he realized that this might probably be the only best secluded place on the island he could find. So, he walked over to Tenzin and sat beside him.

"So… Is this your favorite place on the island?" he asked.

Tenzin nodded. "Yes. I came here many times in the last few years to talk to my father about everything."

"And what are you two talking about now? About these new Airbenders?"

"Yes. After a hundred and seventy years, the dream of my father of restoring nearly extinct culture will come true."

The only question now is whether these new Airbenders will be willing to fulfill that dream from their side, Patrick replied sarcastically in spirit. As noble as Tenzin's goal of restoring the Air Nomads was, the main problem would surely become that most of these new Airbenders would certainly not want to change their culture or way of life. And then what? Tenzin will force them to change their culture? "And what about your own dream, Tenzin? Have any?"

"Mine is to fulfill my father's dream," Tenzin answered after a minute of silence.

So, you were and still are living for Aang's dream, not yours at all, Patrick remarked in spirit, as he knew that saying it out loud would lead to an argument.

"Speaking of fathers…" Tenzin paused for a moment. "During our voyage back here from the Southern Water Tribe, Korra told me that you don't know your father at all." He paused again. "Sorry if I overstepped my bounds."

"It's alright, Tenzin. Yes, I don't know my father, and like I said to her, I am completely fine with that."

"And is it normal in your world that some children don't know their fathers?"

"Or mothers or that one of parents leaves them during growing up or both parents leave them."

"That's terrible. And… would you like to talk about your feelings about it?"

"Honestly, Tenzin, where I'm from, we don't speak much about our feelings. We… just keep them to ourselves."

"That's a very bad attitude." Tenzin looked at Aang Memorial Island, where several months ago Korra was crying while admitting that she was afraid of Amon. "Like I said to Korra back then when she was struggling with her fear of Amon. It's important to talk about our feelings or fears because if we don't, they can throw us out of balance." And he was about to continue when he and Patrick heard Ikki's voice.

"Father!"

"I think our conversation has officially ended," Patrick remarked as he stood up.

"Yes…" Tenzin agreed. "I have to get back to my duty as a father."

The trio of children ran over to their father. Ikki knelt on Tenzin's leg while Meelo swiftly occupied his shoulder.

"When that man we heard about in the city is Airbending, does that make him our brother?" Ikki asked.

"Well, in a way, all Airbenders are our family," Tenzin answered Ikki's question in the same way his father had once taught him about their culture.

"Does that mean I have to share my room? Because I like my personal space."

"Of course not. But we might have to get used to not being the only Aibenders around anymore."

"I hope we have enough for an army," Meelo remarked as he leapt off his father's shoulder and stood on the edge of the cliff like some ancient hero. "I want to be a commander like Uncle Bumi."

Patrick looked at him and noticed that Meelo, during the entire time Patrick had been here in this Universe, did not grow up a bit. So, he wondered if Meelo could be starting to develop a Napoleon complex judging by those statements and that pose.

"Air Nomads don't have armies, Meelo," Jinora corrected her brother as she was also disturbed by how easily Meelo was talking about militarizing the peaceful Airbenders.

"But maybe there will be enough to fill the temples again," Tenzin added with tears in his eyes over the fact that his culture has been given a second chance.

"What's wrong, father?" Jinora asked when she noticed that her father was crying.

"I just wish your grandfather was here to see it," Tenzin replied.

"Will you be the President of Airbenders?" Meelo asked.

"No," Tenzin answered as he shook his head, "but I think the new Airbenders will need lots of help and guidance to understand what it means to be part of our nation. That's a big responsibility."

Meelo approached him and hugged him. "Don't worry, we'll help you with that." And pretty quickly his sisters followed his example.

"I know you will," Tenzin said as he hugged them back.

Patrick, who was observing it, decided to leave so that he would not disturb this moment between the father and his children.

Later that day, Beifong, Bolin, Korra and Patrick were standing on a bridge above one of the canals in Republic City, near one of the buildings that was overgrown with vines. They were there because Korra proclaimed that she had finally found a way to remove the vines from the city by using the technique that Unalaq had taught her for purifying the Dark Spirits.

"You're sure this is going to work?" Patrick asked Korra.

"What? You have doubts about that?" she asked back.

"No, I'd just rather try it on something much smaller and in a much more controlled environment," he replied.

Korra looked at the multi-story building that was almost buried under the vines. "I guess you might be right."

Patrick turned around as he heard the incoming footsteps. "And somewhere with a much lesser crowd," he added.

Beifong, Bolin and Korra turned around as well and saw Raiko, accompanied by several reporters.

"What are you doing here?" Korra asked him.

But Patrick knew why. Raiko had brought the reporters in case Korra would again fail to remove the vines; then the blame would fall on her head while he would look innocent in the eyes of the public.

"I was alerted that you had a new plan to wipe out this noxious weed," Raiko answered her and smiled slightly. "So, I thought you'd want everyone to be here to watch."

One of the reporters behind Raiko raised his hand. "Avatar Korra, do you really think—"

"No comment," Patrick interrupted him and leaned toward Korra. "Now you can't back out of this without losing those eight percent, thanks to Raiko," he whispered to her.

Korra sighed as she realized in what situation Raiko had just put her. "You're right," she whispered back as she turned back toward the building. "I hope this will work," she added.

She approached the vines, closed her eyes and then, in the following second, opened them as she entered her Avatar State. She, with her Waterbending, raised the streams of water from the canal to circle them around the affected building. When she was done, the streams of water glowed with a golden color. And her attempt worked; the vines began to slowly retreat from the building back into the canal where they had grown from, followed by the streams of water.

Korra bowed in respect. "Go in peace."

The reporters did not wait even a second and quickly ran over to her to ask her questions.

"How did you know what to do?" one of the reporters asked.

"Will you send the Spirits away now?" another reporter asked.

"How soon can we expect public water service to resume?" a female reporter asked.

Patrick was about to give them some answers because Korra looked like she was about to use her Bending to get rid of those annoying reporters once and for all, when he heard some movement in the water under the bridge. Within the next second, the vines, this time much stronger, burst out of the canal and quickly reclaimed the building, but moreover, this time they headed for and began to engulf the apartment building on the other side of the bridge, which in less than a few seconds started to tilt toward the bridge due to the weight of the vines.

"Look out!" Korra yelled as the reporters along with Raiko ran away. She quickly grabbed her Airbender staff, and unlike them, she ran alongside Patrick toward the tilting building to help its residents.

"Beifong and Bolin, stop or at least slow down that building before we evacuate everyone!" Patrick ordered.

Beifong and Bolin quickly ran toward the building, and with their Earthbending, they raised stone pillars to stop the building from toppling over.

Meanwhile, Korra shot an air blast at the door of the building to open it and she and Patrick saw the residents of the building inside with terrified expressions.

"Let's go, people! Hurry!" she ordered them to run away from the collapsing building. She and Patrick then overseen the evacuation.

"We should check the higher floors to see if anyone left behind there," Patrick announced as he activated his rocket outsoles and flew upward.

Korra quickly opened her staff and followed him into the air.

They flew around the building and spotted a young boy standing by a broken window on the upper floor of the tilting building. Korra used one of the vines by the window to land on it so she could grab him.

"I have a sister in the back!" the frightened boy announced.

"Get him out of here! I'll go get his sister!" Patrick ordered.

Korra obeyed, and with the boy in one hand and the staff in the other, she landed on the street.

Patrick flew through the broken window into the apartment and pretty quickly found the little sister of that boy cowering in the kitchen, which was quickly crumbling along with the entire floor.

"Don't worry, everything will be alright," he assured her as he got to her. Then he noticed that the hand of the little girl was wrapped with a small vine that had burst its way through the wall. So, he activated the laser blade on his gauntlet, cut the vine off, and, with a small part of it still wrapped around her hand, he grabbed her and they both flew out and just barely avoided the tip of the roof of the building that had collapsed.

As they both landed near the other residents of the building where Korra and the little boy were, a massive part of the building fell and headed down toward them. Korra quickly used her Airbending to slow down the fall of the part of the building to the street, allowing everyone to escape to safety.

When it was over and the building stopped tilting, Beifong and Bolin approached Korra and Patrick, who, after landing with the little girl and letting her run to her brother and mother, learned that he was holding that small part of vine that was wrapped around the girl's hand.

"I think that could've gone better," Bolin remarked over the havoc that Korra's attempt to remove the vines had caused.

An hour later, on the Air Temple Island, in his basement, Patrick took the cut-off part of the vine and placed it on the workbench for analysis. On both sides of the workbench appeared mechanical arms that grabbed vine at its ends, and when the analysis was about to begin, a sudden bright purple flash of energy shot out of the vine that forced Patrick to step back. When it was over, there were blast marks on the workbench, and both mechanical arms were damaged as well but the vine remained the same.

"Those vines… they're sources of pure energy," Patrick concluded as he observed how a small part of the vine managed to nearly destroy the workbench. What would one large vine be able to do?

Meanwhile, Korra sat in the pavilion on the island, meditating with the sun setting, looking for answers to the problem with the vines through an attempt to contact her previous lives. But like she had said back then in the Spirit World, her connection to her previous lives was gone.

Tenzin approached her.

"Can't talk. Meditating," she said to her mentor as she was still trying to contact her previous lives.

"You must be at the end of your rope. You hate meditating," Tenzin reacted.

Korra sighed at her failure to contact any of the previous Avatars. "I thought if I really tried, I might be able to contact the past Avatars, someone who knows something to help me, but I can't." She stood up and walked over to the wooden railing of the pavilion. "They're gone and I'm all alone." She turned around and saw that Patrick had joined them as well. "Did I ruin everything by leaving the portals open?"

"You didn't ruin anything. You did what you thought was best for the world and now things have changed," Tenzin reassured her as he walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Change can be good or bad, depending on your point of view."

Korra sighed. "I know the people's point of view. It's bad."

"You're not the President, Korra. Your role isn't to rectify the daily problems of every person in Republic City. Your responsibility is to bring balance to the entire world, and that means no matter what you do, some people aren't going to be happy about it."

That's true, Tenzin, but it's still a bit convenient, don't you think? Patrick asked in spirit, because even though Tenzin was telling the truth that no matter what Korra would do, some people would still not be happy about it, the fact was that the so-called "balance" would be determined by Tenzin and others like him. Just like almost a year ago, after her encounter with Amon on Aang Memorial Island, Korra had told Patrick that she was doing everything she could to meet the demands placed on her as the Avatar, and now, even though Tenzin was meaning it well and probably did not realize it, he was acting to her like she was a tool.

"Right," Korra replied with a defeated tone and sat down on the floor of the pavilion.

"On the other hand, some people will be very happy." Tenzin sat down beside her. "Like me." And he waited for Korra to turn her head toward him before he continued. "What you did during the Harmonic Convergence may have brought back the Air Nation and that can only be good for restoring balance. That is the act of a great Avatar."

"It's scary. I have all this power and all these people depending on me…" Korra became somber. "But I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing half the time. It seems like I should be… wiser."

"You're right," Patrick said to that.

Both Korra and Tenzin turned their heads toward him and while Korra kept her somber mood, Tenzin gave Patrick an admonishing look.

"True wisdom begins when we accept things as they are," Tenzin said as he turned his head back toward Korra. "You've started a new age, Korra. And like Patrick said, we've crossed the Rubicon."

Then they all three heard that someone was running toward them, so they all turned around and saw that it was Bolin.

"Mako called! They found that Airbender but when they tried to bring him in, he ran away and climbed to the top of Kyoshi Bridge and won't come down," he announced in a rush and then he realized that he might have barged into some important conversation. "Oh, sorry, did I interrupt an Avatar wisdom session?"

Korra stood up and walked past Bolin. "Avatar wisdom is the thing of the past, Bolin." She tapped Bolin on his shoulder as she walked. "Come on."

"Oh, alright," Bolin replied a little bit confused. "Is that a good thing?"

"Depends on who you ask," Patrick answered as he and Tenzin followed Korra to rescue that Airbender.

Kyoshi Bridge was one of the massive suspension bridges that was connecting Republic City, but unlike the others, it was entirely green due to the origin of Avatar Kyoshi, after whom it was named. Right in the middle of it was a massive arch with a foursome of pagodas as its roof and it was connected to the road by four metal cables, two on each side. The bridge was wide enough for two traffic lanes and sidewalks on either side for pedestrians to walk on.

The Flying Bison, carrying Bolin, Korra, Patrick and Tenzin, landed on the bridge a few meters from several Metalbenders that were standing in front of the arch of the bridge, while the others were in the back and on the other side of the bridge to halt the traffic. As the foursome jumped off the Flying Bison and walked over to the Metalbenders, they noticed that among them were also Beifong, who was carrying a megaphone, and Mako.

"Come down immediately or we will be forced to take action," Beifong ordered through the megaphone to Daw, who was at the top of the arch and holding on tightly to the metal construction.

At the top of the arch, a terrified Daw watched a group of ten Metalbenders, five each on one of the two cables on the right side of the bridge, advance toward him while taking fighting stances.

"Stay back! I'm dangerous!" he yelled at them in an attempt to stop them from advancing.

However, the Metalbenders ignored his pleas as one of them shot his cables at him. Daw quickly reacted by creating a massive air wave that knocked all the Metalbenders off the cables.

"Sorry!" Daw apologized as he watched the police officers fall into the sea below the bridge and as only at the last moment were they able to shoot their cables and pull themselves back up onto the bridge.

"Seems like your men need some lecturing about not to be trigger-happy," Patrick commented about the situation.

Beifong gave him a strict look before she turned her head back toward Daw at the top of the arch.

Korra quickly ran toward the arch and used her Airbender staff to fly to Daw while Patrick immediately activated his teleporter.

"Don't panic…" Korra said to Daw when she landed near him on the metal construction.

"We're just here to talk," Patrick's voice behind Daw finished her sentence.

Daw quickly turned around and saw him just a few meters from him standing on the metal construction. He did not notice him flying or climbing in here. He just appeared here out of thin air.

"Please…" Daw said as he stepped away from Patrick to make a wider gap between them, while he was constantly turning his head between Korra and Patick. "I don't know what I'm doing and I don't want to hurt anyone!"

"Do you mind if I sit down here?" Patrick asked as he sat on the edge of the construction. Despite the situation, the view of the city during the sunset was beautiful.

"Rough day, huh?" Korra said. "I'm having kind of a rough day myself and something is telling me that Patrick here had one too."

Daw looked at her. "Huh?"

"Look, we know you're scared. You've gone through a big change and it's kind of my fault," Korra continued. "But you're not alone in this; there are other Airbenders and they want to help you. Actually, they're really excited to meet you."

"But I don't want to be an Airbender!" Daw reacted. "Please, you're the Avatar; make it stop!" He then turned his attention to Patrick as he took a step toward him. "Or you, the Smartest Man in the World! You certainly know how to make it stop!" During that, he nearly fell off the construction, so he quickly pressed his back against it as hard as he could. "Ahh!"

Here we fucking go, Patrick thought. This was one of the many scenarios he had worried about when Tenzin had confidently told him that these Airbenders would fulfill the dream of his father. "Perhaps I could, but it would take time, and frankly, in the meantime, you might change your mind."

"And I can't do that either, but we can promise you things will get better if you just give it a chance. Let us take you over to Air Temple Island and we can talk this through," Korra said and offered her hand to Daw. "Alright?"

Daw looked at the offered hand and then accepted it. "Alright."

"So, who's going to take him back down? Me or you?" Patrick asked Korra as he stood up.

Korra looked at Daw. "Well, Daw, do you want to fly down with me or take a much more boring way down with him?"

"I'd rather go down the boring way," Daw replied. "I've had enough of flying for the last few days."

"Very well then…" Patrick said as he placed his hand on Daw's shoulder and teleported with him down.

Korra used the Airbender staff and flew down to join them.

"Daw, this is Tenzin," Korra introduced her mentor, who walked over to them, to the new Airbender. "He's going to help you."

"It is absolutely my pleasure to meet you, Daw," Tenzin said as he bowed. "I have never met a new Airbender before." He paused for a moment. "Well, at least not one whose diaper I didn't have to change."

"Actually, after these last few days, I could use some fresh diapers," Daw replied.

"So, this how it is?" Raiko's voice asked several meters away from them.

Korra, Patrick and Tenzin turned their gazes to its source and saw the President of Republic City making his way with his bodyguards through the crowd of people who had come to see how the situation with Daw would be handled.

"We have a crisis every other day now thanks to you," Raiko continued.

"Want me to deal with it?" Patrick asked Korra.

"No, I've got to do this myself," Korra replied and approached the angry President. "Listen, I know you're having a tough time getting used to these changes and I'm sorry for that, but you and everyone else are going to have to learn to live with it. The vines and the Spirits are here to stay."

"Well… you know who's not here to stay?" Raiko said with a calm tone of voice that then quickly turned into a very angry one. "You! I order you to leave this city! You've caused nothing but trouble since you arrived."

The crowd behind Raiko gasped in shock over this decision of his.

"Don't worry, I was already leaving," Korra reacted and turned around to walk away.

Patrick approached Raiko, pulled out the identity card that Raiko had given him shortly after his election into office and tossed it to him.

Raiko watched as the identity card slapped against his chest and fell to the ground.

"I think I was already leaving too," Patrick said and turned around to catch up to Korra.

"You didn't have to do that," Korra whispered to him.

"Are you kidding? I've been looking for a way to get rid of it and thanks to you I got the best opportunity," Patrick replied.

Raiko watched the departing duo for a few seconds and then he turned around to walk away in the opposite direction while smiling in secret.

"I can see my path now," Korra announced to Tenzin when she and Patrick walked over to him. "There are new Airbenders out there and I'm going to find them and rebuild the Air Nation."

"Don't think I'm not going with you," Tenzin replied. "It's so exciting. Who knows who's out there now, discovering the gift of Airbending for the first time?"

"And I'm going too," Patrick added and glanced at Korra. "Someone will have to clean up that mess you'll probably cause while searching for those Airbenders."

Korra smiled. "Thanks for the confidence."

Patrick turned his gaze to Air Temple Island in the distance. And I also need a change of scenery.

On the top of a mountain somewhere in the Earth Kingdom with a metal watchtower, a huge metal bridge was sliding toward the neighboring peak. The group of five White Lotus Sentries that were standing on the sliding bridge walked over to the metallic structure built on the peak. It was a cell specially designated for one very dangerous prisoner, to whom they were now to bring food as usual.

While one of the White Lotus Sentries was carrying food and water on a small tray, the other three had taken fighting stances behind him while the sliding bridge retracted back. The last White Lotus Sentry of the group, who was Metalbender, used his Bending to open the heavy metal octagonal door that revealed bars of cell, and on the other side of it was a sitting man with green eyes, long black hair and a beard that had begun to turn grey, dressed in a ripped purple robe with bandages wrapped around his arms and legs.

"You know the drill, Zaheer," White Lotus Sentry, who was carrying the tray, said.

"Of course," Zaheer replied in a calm tone as he stood up and turned around to face the wall with his hands behind his head.

"Hope you still like rice," White Lotus Sentry remarked as he pushed the tray through the slot at the bottom of the bars.

"Have you ever read the poetry of the great Airbending guru Laghima?" Zaheer asked.

"What?" White Lotus Sentry asked because in all those years that Zaheer had been imprisoned here, he had never been so talkative.

"Guru Laghima lived four thousand years ago in the Northern Air Temple. It is said that he unlocked the secret of weightlessness and became untethered from the earth, living his final forty years without ever touching the ground."

"Is that how you plan to escape?" White Lotus Sentry asked mockingly. "With something you picked up from an old Airbender children's story?" He turned around and was about to leave.

"Like all great children's tales, it contains truth within the myth. Laghima once wrote: 'Instinct is a lie, told by a fearful body, hoping to be wrong.'"

That made the White Lotus Sentry stop and turn back to him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that when you base your expectations only on what you see," Zaheer explained as he lowered his hands, "you blind yourself to the possibility of a new reality."

In a second, Zaheer leapt forward and created an air blast so strong that it pinned the White Lotus Sentry against the bars of the cell. He then ran over to him to turn him around while grabbing him by the neck.

The remaining White Lotus Sentries were about to attack when Zaheer stopped them by taking cover behind his hostage. "Uh, uh, uh. You wouldn't want to hurt your friend, would you?"

"How? You're not a… Bender," the choked White Lotus Sentry said in disbelief and it was true. For the entire thirteen years that Zaheer had been imprisoned here, he had not shown any signs of Bending, unlike his three also imprisoned friends.

"Nature is constantly changing. Like the wind," Zaheer replied as he took the keys from him to unlock the door of his cell.

At the exact moment he opened the cell, he slammed the hostage against the opposite wall of the cell with an air blast. He then quickly slid out of the cell towards the remaining White Lotus Sentries while dodging the fire blast from one of them, and when he was close to them, he created an air wave around himself to knock them to the ground. The only one still on his feet was the Firebender, who shot a fire blast at him, so he quickly leaped toward him to grab him and throw him into the cell. In the following second, Zaheer dodged the earth block launched at him by the Metalbender and, with the help of his Airbending, jumped onto the outer wall of his prison cell, from where he then jumped backward to avoid a fire blast from another Firebender, whom he launched into the cell with an air blast as soon as he landed. Now there were only two Sentries left. Zaheer ran up a wall of his prison while dodging their attacks, only to jump and land behind them and, with the Airbending, lift them off the ground and send them to their friends in the cell.

"Now you might want to ration that bowl of rice," he said as he locked the cell. "You've got three weeks until the next shift change. It's dawning of a new age. The end of the White Lotus and soon the end of the Avatar."

He turned around and approached the edge of the peak. Two weeks ago, he would not even have dreamed that he would become an Airbender but now that his newly acquired powers had helped him escape, he knew that the universe itself had blessed him and his mission and nothing would stop him from accomplishing it but first he had to free his friends. He jumped down and used his Airbending to cushion his fall descent.

Unbeknownst to him and White Lotus Sentries, with whom he was fighting, the whole thing was observed with amusement by a figure sitting on a distant mountain. Zaheer got his Airbending and he and the Red Lotus would fulfill their part exactly as planned.