To LoamyCoffee, one of my favorite parts of writing the last chapter was him showing the Elbow Leeches "what it was like to fly"~

To Okaze, yeah, having Zhu teach others the way he teaches them, serves as a nice "contrast" to the other Bloodbending teachers in the series, Hama and Yakone.
Hama had a grudge against the Fire Nation, and not only did she successfully pass her craft down to Katara, but she also passed some measure of her "hatred" down as well because when Katara learned about the Southern Raiders... Well, Hama would've been quite proud to see Katara use Bloodbending for personal gain.
Yakone on the other hand "hated everyone equally" when it came to who he used his Bloodbending on, and when he was passing it down, it was for revenge on a single person instead of an entire Nation. The glib however was that while Hama parted company from Katara with a smile on her face, when Noatak broke away from Yakone, it left him a broken man who did not part company happily.
Maybe I'm over-analyzing just a little, but the differences in how things went with both Hama and Yakone are fascinating to consider. And I wouldn't have thought so-deeply on this had I not written a Legend of Korra story with the addition of a Bloodbender to add a little more "nuance" to the setting.

To Blaze1992, the bit where he chucked leeches at them was actually based on the "Parasites" episode of WTF 101 where the Rick Sanchez/Ms. Frizzle hybrid chucks a jar full of tapeworms at her class~

To Phantom advisor, always love to hear when people binge my work, and of course, I'm happy Zhu was so well-received. Shows all the effort I put into him didn't go to waste.
Sure, answering to the "lowest common denominator" would be to just do a Naruto re-skin, but I got tired of reading those sorts of stories after a while; but I digress.

To Gzilla54 (Guest)… Those are amazing points you bring up, and admittedly, while I planned to make the Civil War aspect more nuanced, given Zhu has an actual stake in it, I haven't gotten to the point of planning the minutiae of how Vaatu will conduct himself "this time around". If you have an Account on this site, I'd love to discuss this with you further. Discord also works too.
But yeah, Young Justice did a bit of a better job of it with Klarion the Witchboy and Doctor Fate, because Nabu is a "Lord of Order", and yet we see him act like a huuuuuuuge dick, including but not limited to his body-jacking. Not to mention that in many Tales of- games and fantasy/Isekai manga/anime in general, "the Church", a bastion of order, tends to be "really fucking evil".
This of course isn't helped by the fact that some of the worst atrocities in all of recorded history, were actually carried out by (and still are carried out by) the Roman Catholic Church. But I digress.

*RECONSTRUCTION*

"Korra. Korra. Dear, it's been an hour already. Time to get up," Zhu grunted.

"Mmmmmm. Go back to bed, sweetie," Korra murmured dreamily as she hugged him.

"Korra, really, I need to go to work."

"Play sweetie, hooky."

"Now you're just mixing up your words."

*Chuuuuuu*

"Ah, geez…" the red-head sighed as Korra smooched on his neck.

Suffice it to say, they did not stay in bed for only the one hour.

*RECONSTRUCTION*

Time passed, and as Republic City continued the arduous healing process, the members of Team Avatar (or "the Korralition" as the newspapers had taken to calling them after one of Bolin's quotes took in a life of its own) carried out their own work.

Opal, an unofficial member of the group through Zhu, continued her outreach work with her mother, unintentionally helping secure the Metal Clan's growing foothold in Republic City. Meifan, intent on making the most of her time in Republic City, continued to produce herbal remedies for distribution through the consumer market, patenting her family recipes through one of Varrick's many subsidiaries. Bolin for his part expanded the contents of his resume by helping anyone that needed help doing anything for the restoration of the Pro Bending Arena, though there seemed to be some kind of self-imposed "turnover" issue. The older of the Bending Brothers, Mako, continued his police training in earnest, quickly rising to the top of his class in spite of his critics claiming he was only doing so-well because he fought "nutjobs in pajamas" with the chief. Asami Sato, ever in the public eye since the full conclusion of her father's sentencing, worked many near-sleepless nights to keep her family's company afloat. Were it not for Zhu's occasional visits to remedy a little TLC with his "magic fingers" to unwind the metaphorical spring her mind, body, and spirit all had become during these trying times, she'd have crashed and burned faster than the police's airships; the fact that the press was insistent on Future Industries having "no future" at all, didn't help matters.

As for Korra, her own journey of self-discovery continued in earnest as she spent days on end in deep meditative contemplation, interrupted by the occasional spate of Airbending training.

The Fire Chakra, located in the stomach, dealt with willpower, and was blocked by shame.

What she was ashamed of… Radically different from "guilt", what she was most-ashamed of was compound; she was ashamed of going after Mako even though he'd been with Asami at the time, as well as the fact that she'd more or less led Bolin on without realizing it. And much like Aang getting over his own hangup with Firebending, it was relatively easy for Korra to get over this hurdle, as she was now mature-enough to accept that what she had done was wrong, in spite of her willfulness.

The Air Chakra, located in the heart, dealt with love, and was blocked by grief.

What she laid out in front of her, wasn't the Air Nomads like it had been for Aang, nor was it the loss of any family members because everyone she had grown up with were still alive. What she was even now still grieving over, was the parts of herself she had lost when Noatak "took" her Bending away; the inability to call upon her Water, Earth, and Firebending was like the loss of close family that had always been there for her. Like a connection to the world itself had been severed. And even though the loss she felt was for a part of her own self, rather than another person or persons, the love in her heart, that filled her up even at her lowest moments, was obviously personified by Zhu. He was her first real friend after leaving the South, they'd been through so much together, and while she was a little slow on the uptake, they really did complete one another; he made her into her best self, and she in turn drew the best out of him allowing him to become a hero in spite of his "curse".

It went without saying that when Zhu asked how her day was, she responded by giving him the biggest, most-heartfelt hug she'd ever given him. And then the deepest, sloppiest kiss heedless of whoever was there to bear witness.

The Sound Chakra, located in the throat, dealt with truth, and was blocked by lies.

The biggest lie she had ever told herself wasn't that was unafraid to face Amon; the lie was that she was unafraid of everything. For the longest time, being "the Avatar" had filled her with courage, made her feel like she was invincible. And then that image she had built up for herself had come crashing down around her when faced with the very real prospect of losing her Bending, even when Amon was willing to let her stew in the promise that he eventually would take her Bending; a promise he had most certainly owned up to before the end of his life.

Of course, it took further meditation before she realized there was a more-pressing lie on her mind. The lie that she was unafraid of Zhu's research failing to bear fruit. While there wasn't a doubt in her mind that Zhu was the most-powerful, if not only Bloodbender in the world… the possibility still existed that what Noatak had done, could not be un-done by Zhu. The ultimate truth at the end of that train of thought, was that with or without the other Elements, she'd have to continue being the Avatar, and that she had to "deal with it".

Suffice it to say, while Korra was certainly no prodigy in the spiritual side of things, her progress in of itself was impressive. At least up until she hit the wall at her at the Light Chakra, which dealt with insight, and was blocked by illusion.

"Uuuuuugh…! Why is this taking me so much longer?" Korra groaned after falling out of her meditative trance, drenched in sweat. "'Separation is an illusion.' I get that, so why is my Light Chakra still closed off?"

"Korra, the issue is that you already knew that the separation of the nations is an illusion," Tenzin spoke somberly as the Avatar rubbed at her forehead. "Since Aang's time, the Four Nations have grown closer than they have ever been before, and you dealt with people from all walks of life in the White Lotus. Even without being told, you were already well aware that all the peoples of the world were just that; one people."

"So then what is the illusion I need to see through?" Korra asked.

"That's what you need to find your own 'insight' on," Tenzin hummed. "Different people fail to see through different things, after all."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Korra sighed. "Wait, what day is it again? They've started blending together again."

"Saturday, why-"

"SATURDAY!? Oh crap! I gotta run!"

"What? Why?" the Airbending Master blinked as Korra scrambled for the temple.

"This is the first time in weeks everybody has been free," Pema hummed as she walked by with the baby. "It's just so hard for good friends to meet up when they're all pulled in so many directions," she sighed nostalgically with a free hand on her cheek.

"Perhaps, but sometimes separation can be a good thing," Tenzin nodded.

"Hey, speaking of which, won't Bumi be joining us here after the United Forces finish their peacekeeping mission?"

"Not until the paperwork goes through, and you can't file for retirement in the middle of an ongoing operation," Tenzin sighed, lamenting the inevitable loss of the peace and quiet to which he had become accustomed at the looming prospect of '24/7 Bumi time'.

*RECONSTRUCTION*

"Asami, thanks for picking us up," Korra hummed as she and Bolin rode in the back of Asami's Satomobile.

"Hey, what're friends for?" the heiress smiled. She looked a little haggard despite her hair and makeup, but there was definitely a weight taken from her shoulders with the promise of a full meet-up on the horizon after so long. "Bolin, how're things at the arena?"

"Goin' great!" the Earthbender smiled. "Not to mention, Butahka, finally came back to town and he's getting his own hands dirty!"

"Really?" Korra blinked in amazement. "I never took the guy for one to do something he couldn't just pay someone else to do."

"Yeah, well, apparently running for your life from lynch mobs has a way of widening your perspective," Bolin shrugged. "Of course, it wasn't like he could swing by the bank on his way out of town, so having to work for a living for a while probably had something to do with it too."

"Well, you know what they say about the sweat of a man's brow," Asami hummed.

"Um… No, no we don't," Korra and Bolin hummed.

"Ah," Asami blushed. "Well theeeeen… Korra! How have things with you and Zhu been?"

"Oh, we've been great!" Korra beamed. "Even though he has his own room at the office, he's been coming home every evening, having dinner with the family, and asking how my day was~"

"That's so sweet~" Bolin gushed. "Oh, man, I wish I had what you two had."

An incredibly awkward air smothered the car for several long moments once the Avatar, heiress, and the Earthbender remembered that Korra had passed him over not just once, but twice as a romantic partner. And that it was for a friend/family memeber in his immediate social circle made things all the more awkward.

*Vroooooom!*

"Oh thank Raava," Korra sighed. "Mako! You're here!" she called over her shoulder.

"Bro! Awesome ride!" Bolin whooped as Mako pulled up alongside them on a police-issue motorcycle; a recent acquisition by the city to increase the flexibility of their patrol units. Doubly-so because of the deficit of Metalbenders and Airships.

While it was true that Cabbage Corp was willing to provide new Airships for qian on the yuan, the issue remained that despite the availability of Cabbage Corp's products to a wide budgetary range, it was still an open secret that you were definitely getting what you paid for with Cabbage Corp. "For better" but-more-frequently, "worse".

In fact, one of the reasons that Future Industries was still afloat, was because the Republic Council still saw the wisdom to invest in the proven reliability of F.I.'s product, regardless of the bad press associated with the brand. Or maybe in spite of that bad press.

"Thanks. I'm actually the best in my class," Mako grinned as he revved the engine.

"Careful, there. That's a lot of power you're man-handling," Asami quipped, finding some small measure of vindication in the fact that it was the Equalist's motorcycles that had been repurposed.

Obviously, the smokescreen feature had been removed in the retrofit, and some of the cosmetics had been altered, but the performance of the former-Equalist mounts couldn't be denied. Not to mention, motorcycles could squeeze through gaps normal patrol cars could not, which meant police could respond more-swiftly in spite of Republic City deadlock, now that people were leaving their homes again.

"Relax, I haven't hit any pedestrians," Mako waved off causing Bolin and Korra to facepalm in the back. " . . . What?"

" . . . I'm going to give you a pass because I'm in such a great mood," Asami hummed after taking a calming breath. "By the way, Korra, you look amazing. What's your regimen?"

"Oh, you know. Just a lot of meditating and self-reflection," Korra waved off, not feeling like she looked all that different. "Unlocking my chakras has really been helping me get over some long-seeded issues I've been having. You should try it sometime."

"Maybe I will," the heiress hummed. "Wait, can I even unlock my Chakras?" she blinked.

"It's like Zhu said on the radio; everyone has Chi, not just the Benders. Anyone can benefit from having a healthy spirit."

"Right, right, I forgot that Ty-Lee is living proof of that," Asami muttered. "Really, if I can look even half as good at that age, I'll die a happy woman."

"Why? How old is she?" Bolin asked.

"Bolin, you don't ask about a woman's age," Mako chastised while Asami just rolled her eyes.

*RECONSTRUCTION*

On the last stretch of the Korralition's trip to the ASC, they met up with what passed for a modest Metal Clan motorcade with Suyin and her children in attendance. Asami herself could appreciate the craftsmanship of their vehicles which, independent of Future Industries, were just called "automobiles" or "cars".

As opposed to her father's designs for the wider consumer market which were boxy for ease of mass production, pretty much all of the Metal Clan's exported vehicles possessed an almost artistic indulgence of swooping and curved body panels, as well as elaborate trim which made for very flattering line-work. Even the lower-tier vehicles had aerodynamics rivaling her father's more-expensive works, and the fact that Zaofu was home to so many Metalbending artists meant the after-market decorations on commission could be gala-worthy in of themselves.

For a time, she had wondered why her father didn't simply invest in the recruitment and/or training of Metalbenders for the assembly lines, but knowing what she knew now, she wondered how much of that was down to the actual cost of such an endeavor, and how much was his anti-Bender bias…

"We're here!" Opal beamed as they came upon the building.

*BOOOOOOM!*

Cue Avatar: The Last Airbender OST - Agni Kai

"ACK! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!" the non-Bender shrieked as members of the motorcade threw out body panels to shield her family from the falling debris.

"Oh no! That came from Zhu's lab!" Korra cried, blood running cold in her veins.

Leaping out of the car and summoning the air currents to herself, Korra created a cyclone around herself which she used to leap up onto the shorter building across the street from Zhu's own, before launching herself up into the smoking hole. Wei and Wing followed suit with their metal cables despite the protests of their protection detail.

"Bolin! Give me a lift!" Mako shouted, the Earthbender nodding as he leapt out of the car and kicked up an earth slab that sent the older Bending Brother flying through the air, his fiery afterburner actually letting him beat the Metalbenders to the scene, but not Korra who was already clearing the air of smoke with her Airbending.

"ZHU! ZHUUUU!" Korra cried as her eyes darted across the destroyed lab. "IF YOU EQUALIST BASTARDS THINK YOU CAN TAKE ZHU FROM ME, I WILL-"

"Eyuuugh! What happened-" "-to this guy?!" Wei and Wing retched as their eyes fell on the torso-less body strapped down to the remains of a chair in the center of the room.

"Forget the prisoner! Just find Zhu!" Mako chastised before poking his head out the new window. "KUVIRA! MAKE SURE NOBODY LEAVES THIS BUILDING!"

"WE'RE ON IT!" Suyin shouted from down below as she wrenched body panels from her car and made them into armor before taking to the perimeter.

"Dammit, what I wouldn't give to have my [Seismic Sense] right now…!" Korra cursed as she tried to get her breathing under control.

"Owwwwww…"

"ZHU!" Korra cried as she ran out the blown-out lab door and into the room across the hall. Mako, Wei, and Wing following after her found Zhu laid out upon the remains of the door he'd apparently been thrown into after his lab exploded, his vivid crimson hair scorched, his clothing charred, and the skin of his forearms horribly mangled.

"Gluuuuuuugh…" the red-head groaned before vomiting all over himself.

"Zhu, are you okay?!" Korra cried as she kneeled beside him, checking him for injuries heedless of the sick getting on her hands.

"Korra, relax, I think he's just concussed. Pro Benders get them all the time after getting their bell rung," Mako said with a relieved sigh as he finished sweeping the room. "Wei, Wing, anyone making a run for it?"

"Doesn't seem like it." "Everyone's pretty hunkered down," the twin said in tandem as their bare feet stomped the linoleum tiles.

"Zhu, sweetie, don't worry, you're going to be okay," Korra said trying not to hyperventilate as she emptied the contents of her waterskin onto her hand, only to remember with horror she couldn't use [Water Healing]. "HEALER! WE NEED A HEALER!"

*RECONSTRUCTION*

Suffice it to say, the response of the Republic City Police Force was swift and immediate. What airships remained were immediately dispatched to that location, police cars swooping in to ring the surrounding blocks. To throw further manpower into the alleged attack, students from the police academy had been drafted and mobilized, getting their first taste of real-world experience in the wake of this unprovoked attack.

Korra's own cry for a Healer hadn't gone unheard either, as Suyin herself had thrown her protection detail's medic over her shoulder before zipping up to the bombed-out lab with her own cables.

True to Mako's prediction, Zhu was in fact concussed. In terms of how-heavily his bell had been rung, the actual medical expert could tell that Zhu was suffering from direct impact, acceleration-deceleration, and blast injuries all at the same time. That he'd survived as-unscathed as he had was simply amazing, in the medic's opinion, though the state his body was in was inconsistent with blast forces capable of blowing open a building wall.

Still, it didn't stop the medic from stripping him out of his clothes and covering almost the entirety of his body in medicated bandages after splinters of wood, ceramic, metal, and other objects had been pulled out of his body.

"This doesn't look like any explosive the Equalists would've used, nor any that Hiroshi developed," Lee mused aloud as he and the police's forensics team poured over Zhu's lab, the whole of the room slapped with dozens of yellow tags.

"Zhu, please, I love you, stay with me!" Korra sobbed, not having left his side even as he was being treated, tears pouring down her face as she babbled almost incoherently, her hand clutching desperately to his

"Who do you think could've done this, then?" Suyin asked worriedly. Were any of the Korralition to see the expression on her face, they would've been immediately reminded that she and Lin were siblings.

"Hard to say this early on," Lee muttered as he wrung his baton in his hands. "One of the smarter Equalists, a criminal element that doesn't want Zhu's research to succeed, one of Varrick's business rivals. Really, there's too many motivations to count."

*GAAAASP!*

"HE'S ALIIIIIIIVE!" Wei and Wing cried as Zhu suddenly shot up, his eyes dilated wildly. The Bloodbender slapping a hand to his temple, his skin emitting a soft glow as he used his own [Blood Healing], when he wrenched his hand away, he had pulled a small measure of darkened blood out of his skull, a small hole left in his head before he slapped his hand back over the bleeding wound, sealing the breach as his pupils began to contract.

"Hooooooly CRAP that sucked!" Zhu gasped as he looked around.

"ZHU!" Korra cried as she threw herself at him, blubbering incoherently as she held him for all she was worth.

"Korra, dial it back a little! He just survived an explosion!" Mako yelped as he heard bones creak.

"Heheheh. Hahahahahaha."

"See what I mean?" the Firebender asked as the red-head started to giggle like a loon.

"IIIIIIIII did it! Ah ha ha ha ha-URP!"

"Somebody get us a bucket!"

*RECONSTRUCTION*

After Zhu endured another spate of hurling and got some coffee in him, Lin stormed into the room and asked the most-prevalent question on everyone's minds.

"Did you see who did this?"

"Yeah. I saw who did it alright," Zhu grinned.

"Who?!" Mako demanded like he were taking the interrogation course, only for Korra to give him the stink eye.

"He did," Zhu said pointing across the hall, everyone going wide-eyed as his finger traced a line to- "Lee, get out of the way!"

The former Equalist scrambling out of the way of the accusatory finger, everyone's eyes landed on the headless body still strapped to its ruined chair in the middle of Zhu's laboratory.

"Sunao?" Lin blinked, the identity of Zhu's latest guinea pig coming up during the preliminary investigation. "How could he have done this? He isn't a Firebender anymore."

"Not anymore he wasn't~" Zhu said grinning a Spirit Cat grin before his hand shot up to his mouth. "Or is it 'was'...?"

As Zhu proceeded to dry heave and complain about pronouns, Korra rubbing circles on his back, the people surrounding him tried to digest what it was he meant until it finally dawned on them, eyes going wide at the implication.

*RECONSTRUCTION*

Once word had begun to spread that the "bomber" wasn't a bomber at all, but a momentarily re-actualized Firebender who'd been just-as-momentarily turned into a Combustionbender, everyone in the building had been allowed to go home for the day. Not just because they'd been cleared of suspicion, but because the building had to be given a once-over after an irregular blast of that magnitude.

"Hold on, if Sunao Combustionbent you at point-blank range, how are you still… you know… in one piece?" Mako asked having no other way to ask. "I mean, not even Combustion Man managed to survive after getting his bell rung."

In response, Zhu raised a clenched fist, drawing everyone's attention to it. The back of his hand and fingers erupting into dappled bruising not unlike the spots of a Snow Leopard Caribou, that bruising steadily gave way to liquid blood pooling over his skin like a tight-fitting glove, hardening into a shiny shell. A moment later he hammered his fist down onto the floor tiles beside him, breaking them with a loud *CRACK!*

"Mind you, I did it as-slowly as I did for your own benefit, but yeah. As soon as the popping air in front of his face made my neck-hairs stand on end, I guarded my face, armored myself, leapt back, and…" he said tracing a line between where he sat and the lab across the hall from him.

"ZHU YOU'RE AMAZING!" Korra cried as she cupped his cheeks and pulled him in for a searing kiss.

"K-Korra, wait! I taste like throw-up!" Zhu yelped with a push as he gasped for air, red in the face at both the intensity of the kiss and their audience.

"Don't care!" Korra said before diving back in, those in the room politely averting their gazes as Zhu futilely tried to separate himself from the Avatar before Lin finally had her limit.

"Ah-hem."

Korra didn't hear, or didn't care.

"AH-HEH-HEM!"

"Er, chief, maybe you should just give her a minute?" Mako offered before Lin shot him a dry look. "Shuttingup."

*RECONSTRUCTION*

"Fascinating…" Suyin's medic hummed in awe as Zhu systematically used [Blood Healing] on himself once the absolute worst of his concussion-based symptoms abated.

The body glowing an almost hypnotic shade of red beneath the bandages, as they were pulled away, what was revealed was mostly-unmarred skin; it was only to the trained eyes of the medic and Korra, that it registered how Zhu had done in one session what would've taken a competent healer a dozen sessions, with rest, to accomplish. The scars that had been there before were still there, but almost the entirety of his body looked little different from what he had displayed at Asami's pool.

"Almost" being the operative word because despite apparently using [Blood Armor] over his forearms to protect his face and the precious brain behind it besides, both forearms now bore distinctive starburst-patterned scarring, not too dissimilar to those that had recovered from bombs or some forms of Firebending attacks.

"Honestly, that you survived this at all is astounding," Lin admitted as she took in the damages.

"Maybe, but I still feel like shit, though," Zhu said as he pulled another measure of blood out of his head and healed the internal damage in a way only he could.

"Well, until you don't feel like that anymore, you aren't going back to work, and that's final," Korra said planting her fists on her hips.

"Yes, dear," Zhu capitulated.

"Well… I guess we know who wears-" "-the pants in this relationship~" Wei and Wing nodded in tandem.

"Says the boys with no girlfriends," Opal pouted with her hands on her hips.

"Still, though, that's most of an afternoon we aren't getting back," Bolin hummed only for Mako to elbow him in the ribs. "Ow! What?"

"We can still catch an early dinner, paint the town red before going our separate ways again," Zhu waved off. "If one of you grabs an emergency wheelchair from the hallway closet, we can be out of the building in five minutes."

"Why would you just keep random wheelchairs lying around?" Asami asked.

"In the event of wheelchair-related emergencies," Zhu said as he stumbled in his steps, Korra pulling an arm over her shoulder and helping him along.

"Of course. That makes perfect sense," Bolin nodded thoughtfully.

*RECONSTRUCTION*

A little shorter than I would've liked, but since I'm not going off half-hour-time-slot episodes like before, I'd like to think that the "story" I want to tell here was amply told. Of course, you can share your thoughts on the subject in the Review column and I'll get back to you next-chapter.

If you want something to tide you over in the meantime, just imagine the "Korralition" eating Shawarma like the Avengers after the movie by the same name. It might be Middle Eastern, but I'm sure there would be hints of that culture around the Si Wong Desert compared to the dominant Chinese of the Earth Kingdom.

See you all next time on Giant-Slayer: New World, with another double-update to move multiple plotlines along!