Fanfic: Seizing Hope (02/??)
Title: Seizing Hope
Fandom: Legend of Korra
Rating: PG-13
Genre(s): Action/Adventure, Drama, Romance, Friendship, Sprinkles of Humor
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Bolin/Korra (Borra), Mako/Asami (Masami), Others
Word Count: 2,843 (total)
Summary: Unable to bend at all, Korra is forced to retreat from an Equalist-occupied Republic City to the South Pole. Stranded without contact, there is nothing left to do but wait for news - wait for it to be safe again. But Korra was never very good at waiting. (Finale rewrite.) Eventual Borra and Masami.
Chapter Two:
@ FFnet @ AO3 @ below the cut
Chapter One
A/N: Hey, all. Here's the second chapter. This is the real beginning of the story, and because it starts in the middle of the finale it might seem a bit redundant. I just didn't know how to cut the first few paragraphs without losing context. So, sorry for that. But it takes a different direction, I promise. And everything after is new/fanfiction. Regardless, I hope you enjoy. And as always, comments and criticism are greatly appreciated.
.
Chapter Two
Wins and Losses Pt. I
Somewhere between falling and waking, Korra thought of the trial she was being put through, and how it all began.
.
"Amon is a waterbender!" Korra directed an accusatory finger at him, her arm straight and sure. "And he takes away people's bending with illegal bloodbending. Your leader is a fraud!"
Heads swiveled in her direction and mouths chattered disbelief. A line of benders waiting for their turn wrapped around the stage and disappeared outside. Amon stood still and watched her from the center of the stage. He did not clutch his heart dramatically in horror or his stomach in exaggerated mirth. He did not budge. He did not speak. There was only an inscrutable face behind a smug mask. Equalist chi-blockers fidgeted behind him. Amon flicked his wrist, a subtle movement to calm his followers. The room stilled, until it disappeared into the void of silence and there was only Korra and Amon.
Korra could feel his eyes through the slits in the mask, drilling holes into her skull. Her raised arm trembling with the vibrations as her bones cracked under the pressure. His lack of action indicated a desire for her to continue, she knew. There was more she could say, after everything Tarrlok had revealed, but she'd seemed to have swallowed the rest of the story. It sat, a crumpled scrap of paper with words of condemnation, lodged in her throat. She was alone. Hers was the only finger raised toward an untouchable god. It sank slowly, finding a resting place on the railing. Her arm was tired anyway.
A voice beside her whispered her name. It radiated concern. It was Mako. The void dissolved, and the crowd chattered ceaselessly. He was reminding her that her back was not without protection. Only she could speak the words. After all, she was the Avatar, protector of the people. They would listen to her; she just had to tell them more. Korra stood tall.
"You know where Amon - or should I say Noatak? Do you know where Noatak learned his bloodbending?" She leaned forward over the railing, over the crowd. "From his father, Yakone!"
Gasps erupted. Truth-seeking whispers spread like wildfire throughout the stands.
"A fascinating tale, Avatar." Amon's rich tone reverberated throughout the stadium.
"Fascinating because it's true!" Korra asserted.
Amon turned away from her and spread his arms in a welcoming, placating gesture for his crowd of loyal, but confused followers. They were shouting questions and demanding answers, and calling the Avatar uncouth names.
"Listen to me, friends," said Amon. "What Avatar Korra speaks is the truth."
The crowd's gasps became inverted screams. His tone was so calm and slick, Korra felt herself slipping a little in the grease his words oozed.
"But do not think I have betrayed you, for I have not," he continued. "A man should not be judged by his father's character, but by his own. I have seen first-hand the ways in which benders have used their special abilities to abuse the common people. I still believe in equality, and the first step I have taken to achieve that equality has been to give up my own bending. I am one of you now."
"But you still use bloodbending to steal the bending of others," Korra countered. "That's bending."
"It is a small exception," Amon openly admitted. "I only use it to make the playing field equal. Bending is not something to be used for an unfair advantage. Once I have rid the world of bending, I will finally be able to fully rid myself of it."
Korra tightened her grip on the railing. Her knuckles bleached white. It wasn't supposed to go like this. He wasn't supposed to agree with her. He was supposed to panic and his followers were supposed to turn on him.
"Why isn't it working?" Korra said low enough for only Mako to hear. "Why haven't his followers abandoned him after hearing the truth?"
"Because it's the truth," he whispered back. "He's taking away your power by virtue of being honest. If he lied and tried to cover it, the seeds of doubt would continue to grow."
"You wouldn't, though!" Korra shouted, trying to put a lid on the panic, to keep it from bubbling over and making her voice shrill. "You would rid the world so you would be the only bender, the most powerful person in the world. You won't follow through on your promise. Bad guys never do."
"A rich tapestry of lies you weave, Avatar. Take care not to get too tangled up in it. Afraid I might take your place? Become the new hero of the people?" There was a hint of amusement in Amon's question.
"What?" It wasn't loud enough for him to hear.
"I do not need bending in order to be powerful," he elaborated with a wide embracing gesture. "You, however, seem to."
"What's wrong with using the skills I was born with?" Korra tried to scoff but her nerves turned it into more of a cough.
"Why is it that some bloodlines were favored by the Spirits and gifted with bending? None of these people here before us chose to be born to a family that did not have bending in its genes."
"Life is unfair. Everyone has to work hard to become something."
"How ironic to hear those words from the chosen one herself. You did nothing to earn your ability to bend all the elements. You were just lucky to be the next one in the cycle. You are the most powerful person in the world by virtue of your ability to manipulate all four bending elements, and yet that is all that that you are. Why do you think you are called what you are, Korra? You are not a person, you are just an Avatar."
Fire burned her from the inside. "I'll take you on, Amon. Right here. Right now. Just you and me. One on one. I'll show you what an Avatar can do."
"Stop it." Mako's fingers dug into Korra's shoulder. "You're playing right into his hands."
"If that is what you desire," said Amon. "Why don't you come join me on stage so you can get a closer look at the prize you'll be fighting for?"
A rectangle slab of the stage began to rise. It was bolted to four posts. Korra could see the tops of heads. Of people tied to the posts. It was an agonizing wait until she saw their faces and the platform had stopped moving. There was a grown man and his three children. She recognized them all.
"Tenzin!" she cried.
"Korra, what are you doing here? Run away!" Tenzin shouted to her.
Korra's boots clanged hard on the bleachers as she leaped across benches and railings and landed on the stage. A second pair followed right behind her.
"Let them go!" she demanded.
"I will if you can defeat me in a duel," Amon promised.
"Then come at me."
Korra shot out two whips of fire and snaked them through the air at Amon. He dodged, his maneuver closing the gap between them. She punched a fireball at him that just barely grazed his hood.
Her feet picked up the vibrations of a body thudding onto the floor, tangled in the nylon snares of the enemy. Mako was roughly halfway across the stage. He struggled against his binding to no avail.
"Not so fast," Amon tut-tutted. "We're dueling fair and square. No stealing the prize."
Korra aimed a high kick at him that trailed fire. It connected and Amon flew backwards, flipping in midair to land on his feet. She charged again at him, skating on fire as she threaded ice needles through his cloak. He always managed to avoid a direct hit on his body. But he never got close because of her elemental projectiles.
"Speaking of fair..." said Amon. He didn't sound the least bit out of breath. He snapped his fingers.
Sweat chilled on the back of Korra's neck, as her feet pounded toward him for another strike. She raised a fist full of fire and two pairs of hands jabbed her joints, crippling her. She collapsed in a heap on the stage floor. The paralysis was short-lived and Korra was quickly on her feet again.
"That wasn't fair," Korra spat. "You called in your lackeys when this was just supposed to be between you and me."
"On the contrary, I'd say it's even more fair."
She could hear him smirking behind his mask.
"Your bending was an unfair advantage," Amon continued. "I just had them even the playing field a bit. Let's see if the Avatar knows how to defend herself without her precious bending."
Korra clenched her jaw, and her fists, and lunged. She tested her bending with a right hook that was meant to breathe fire. Her fist met nothing but empty space. As soon as she'd processed that she'd missed, she rocketed backward to dodge a counter that never came. Her blood boiled and her skin coalesced. The bastard was being passive just to toy with her.
Everything she threw at Amon missed. She couldn't even touch his cloak anymore, not with out her fire whips. And the worst part: he wasn't bending.
"Korra, he's just waiting for you to tire yourself out," said Mako from the floor. "Don't let him win."
"Quit playing around, Amon," Korra yelled. "Give me a real fight!"
He was fast, he was in her face. She twisted her body for a good old roundhouse kick. He caught her leg mid-kick with a single hand.
"You can't dodge. You can't even block. You only know aggression, and you can't even use that successfully without your bending." He whispered close to her ear.
She had only the time to be surprised before he had hold of her arm, her body, pulling them in directions they didn't agree with. She shook off his grip, but not without a cry of pain.
"Korra!" It was Mako, and Tenzin and his children, all at once.
Amon's foot created a hook around Korra's ankle and she toppled over, rolling onto her back. Amon's boot came down on her good arm's shoulder, harder and harder. Her own feet kicked impotently beneath him. Stomp, crack. Amon bent over and forced her to her knees by the collar of her disguise, into the standard position.
Korra's name on the lips of her friends became screeching white noise. There was only Amon, with on hand on her shoulder, and a thumb pressed to her forehead. He bent her head back, so that if she rolled her eyes all the way up she could just see his mask grinning down at her.
"It looks like I win," said Amon softly. No one but Korra could hear. The words dropped from his mouth and wriggled like worms down to the base of Korra's spine. "I'll be taking my prize now."
Korra's blood curdled and protested against his influence. A spot of pain blossomed beneath his thumb where he forced its print into her very being. Then there was nothing.
"I have defeated the Avatar by taking away her only weapon," he addressed the crowd. "She will no longer be a threat against our dream of attaining true equality." He released his grip and she crumpled to the floor.
Korra was empty, a soulless shell of an Avatar who couldn't bend. The fierce energy that had pulsed through her veins, that she knew like any other muscle in her body she commanded, was now closed off forever.
She let her eyes fall shut. The cheers from the Equalists drowned her consciousness. She'd only made Amon look even more like a hero for defeating her without waterbending. There were cries of distress and anger coming from behind her as well as the whirr of fire shooting through air. Mako hadn't given up. He was still fighting. But he would just lose his bending too. She'd been a fool and even if she couldn't save herself, she wished she could save her friends from her mistake. But she was too weak to keep fighting. Sorry, Tenzin, Mako. Her arms were broken, and losing her bending was like losing her life force.
Then she heard some swearing on the Equalists' part and a large gust of wind whistling them off their feet. Wind? She rolled away from the jeering crowd to face Tenzin. Tenzin who was not tied to a post. Tenzin whose wrists looked a little... red. Mako had breathed fire from the floor to break the airbender's cuffs.
Once the stage was swept free of chi-blockers and Amon, he untangled Mako who ran over to the children to break their cuffs as well.
"Korra, are you all right?" Tenzin knelt beside her.
"Tenzin, he took my bending." Korra had meant to sound matter-of-fact, but her voice hovered on the verge of a sob.
"I know; I saw." He helped her to her feet. "Hang on, we'll get out of here."
Korra grunted.
New chi-blockers had climbed onto the stage ready to fight, but the kids were free now and there was a hurricane they couldn't penetrate to get to the eye of the storm where they stood. Mako rushed to Korra's side and joined Tenzin in supporting her. Then he graciously lit their hurricane on fire.
They were forced to abandon the pretty light show in the narrow hallways. As they ran Tenzin pulled a noiseless whistle out from under his robes and blew into it, so that when they burst into the open air, their ride was already waiting for them. Fortune and the pitch dark of night was on their side as the sky bison flew them away, undetected by Equalist air ships.
"We have to find my brother and Asami," Korra heard Mako say.
"My bending's really gone," Korra murmured. No matter how many times she flexed her fingers, a flame did not ignite in them.
"We'll save everyone; don't worry," Tenzin replied to Mako, his voice weighted with stony resolve. "Everything will be fine."
There was no choice but to believe him, or lose hope altogether.
Chapter Three
Fandom: Legend of Korra
Rating: PG-13
Genre(s): Action/Adventure, Drama, Romance, Friendship, Sprinkles of Humor
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Bolin/Korra (Borra), Mako/Asami (Masami), Others
Word Count: 2,843 (total)
Summary: Unable to bend at all, Korra is forced to retreat from an Equalist-occupied Republic City to the South Pole. Stranded without contact, there is nothing left to do but wait for news - wait for it to be safe again. But Korra was never very good at waiting. (Finale rewrite.) Eventual Borra and Masami.
Chapter Two:
@ FFnet @ AO3 @ below the cut
Chapter One
A/N: Hey, all. Here's the second chapter. This is the real beginning of the story, and because it starts in the middle of the finale it might seem a bit redundant. I just didn't know how to cut the first few paragraphs without losing context. So, sorry for that. But it takes a different direction, I promise. And everything after is new/fanfiction. Regardless, I hope you enjoy. And as always, comments and criticism are greatly appreciated.
.
Chapter Two
Wins and Losses Pt. I
Somewhere between falling and waking, Korra thought of the trial she was being put through, and how it all began.
.
"Amon is a waterbender!" Korra directed an accusatory finger at him, her arm straight and sure. "And he takes away people's bending with illegal bloodbending. Your leader is a fraud!"
Heads swiveled in her direction and mouths chattered disbelief. A line of benders waiting for their turn wrapped around the stage and disappeared outside. Amon stood still and watched her from the center of the stage. He did not clutch his heart dramatically in horror or his stomach in exaggerated mirth. He did not budge. He did not speak. There was only an inscrutable face behind a smug mask. Equalist chi-blockers fidgeted behind him. Amon flicked his wrist, a subtle movement to calm his followers. The room stilled, until it disappeared into the void of silence and there was only Korra and Amon.
Korra could feel his eyes through the slits in the mask, drilling holes into her skull. Her raised arm trembling with the vibrations as her bones cracked under the pressure. His lack of action indicated a desire for her to continue, she knew. There was more she could say, after everything Tarrlok had revealed, but she'd seemed to have swallowed the rest of the story. It sat, a crumpled scrap of paper with words of condemnation, lodged in her throat. She was alone. Hers was the only finger raised toward an untouchable god. It sank slowly, finding a resting place on the railing. Her arm was tired anyway.
A voice beside her whispered her name. It radiated concern. It was Mako. The void dissolved, and the crowd chattered ceaselessly. He was reminding her that her back was not without protection. Only she could speak the words. After all, she was the Avatar, protector of the people. They would listen to her; she just had to tell them more. Korra stood tall.
"You know where Amon - or should I say Noatak? Do you know where Noatak learned his bloodbending?" She leaned forward over the railing, over the crowd. "From his father, Yakone!"
Gasps erupted. Truth-seeking whispers spread like wildfire throughout the stands.
"A fascinating tale, Avatar." Amon's rich tone reverberated throughout the stadium.
"Fascinating because it's true!" Korra asserted.
Amon turned away from her and spread his arms in a welcoming, placating gesture for his crowd of loyal, but confused followers. They were shouting questions and demanding answers, and calling the Avatar uncouth names.
"Listen to me, friends," said Amon. "What Avatar Korra speaks is the truth."
The crowd's gasps became inverted screams. His tone was so calm and slick, Korra felt herself slipping a little in the grease his words oozed.
"But do not think I have betrayed you, for I have not," he continued. "A man should not be judged by his father's character, but by his own. I have seen first-hand the ways in which benders have used their special abilities to abuse the common people. I still believe in equality, and the first step I have taken to achieve that equality has been to give up my own bending. I am one of you now."
"But you still use bloodbending to steal the bending of others," Korra countered. "That's bending."
"It is a small exception," Amon openly admitted. "I only use it to make the playing field equal. Bending is not something to be used for an unfair advantage. Once I have rid the world of bending, I will finally be able to fully rid myself of it."
Korra tightened her grip on the railing. Her knuckles bleached white. It wasn't supposed to go like this. He wasn't supposed to agree with her. He was supposed to panic and his followers were supposed to turn on him.
"Why isn't it working?" Korra said low enough for only Mako to hear. "Why haven't his followers abandoned him after hearing the truth?"
"Because it's the truth," he whispered back. "He's taking away your power by virtue of being honest. If he lied and tried to cover it, the seeds of doubt would continue to grow."
"You wouldn't, though!" Korra shouted, trying to put a lid on the panic, to keep it from bubbling over and making her voice shrill. "You would rid the world so you would be the only bender, the most powerful person in the world. You won't follow through on your promise. Bad guys never do."
"A rich tapestry of lies you weave, Avatar. Take care not to get too tangled up in it. Afraid I might take your place? Become the new hero of the people?" There was a hint of amusement in Amon's question.
"What?" It wasn't loud enough for him to hear.
"I do not need bending in order to be powerful," he elaborated with a wide embracing gesture. "You, however, seem to."
"What's wrong with using the skills I was born with?" Korra tried to scoff but her nerves turned it into more of a cough.
"Why is it that some bloodlines were favored by the Spirits and gifted with bending? None of these people here before us chose to be born to a family that did not have bending in its genes."
"Life is unfair. Everyone has to work hard to become something."
"How ironic to hear those words from the chosen one herself. You did nothing to earn your ability to bend all the elements. You were just lucky to be the next one in the cycle. You are the most powerful person in the world by virtue of your ability to manipulate all four bending elements, and yet that is all that that you are. Why do you think you are called what you are, Korra? You are not a person, you are just an Avatar."
Fire burned her from the inside. "I'll take you on, Amon. Right here. Right now. Just you and me. One on one. I'll show you what an Avatar can do."
"Stop it." Mako's fingers dug into Korra's shoulder. "You're playing right into his hands."
"If that is what you desire," said Amon. "Why don't you come join me on stage so you can get a closer look at the prize you'll be fighting for?"
A rectangle slab of the stage began to rise. It was bolted to four posts. Korra could see the tops of heads. Of people tied to the posts. It was an agonizing wait until she saw their faces and the platform had stopped moving. There was a grown man and his three children. She recognized them all.
"Tenzin!" she cried.
"Korra, what are you doing here? Run away!" Tenzin shouted to her.
Korra's boots clanged hard on the bleachers as she leaped across benches and railings and landed on the stage. A second pair followed right behind her.
"Let them go!" she demanded.
"I will if you can defeat me in a duel," Amon promised.
"Then come at me."
Korra shot out two whips of fire and snaked them through the air at Amon. He dodged, his maneuver closing the gap between them. She punched a fireball at him that just barely grazed his hood.
Her feet picked up the vibrations of a body thudding onto the floor, tangled in the nylon snares of the enemy. Mako was roughly halfway across the stage. He struggled against his binding to no avail.
"Not so fast," Amon tut-tutted. "We're dueling fair and square. No stealing the prize."
Korra aimed a high kick at him that trailed fire. It connected and Amon flew backwards, flipping in midair to land on his feet. She charged again at him, skating on fire as she threaded ice needles through his cloak. He always managed to avoid a direct hit on his body. But he never got close because of her elemental projectiles.
"Speaking of fair..." said Amon. He didn't sound the least bit out of breath. He snapped his fingers.
Sweat chilled on the back of Korra's neck, as her feet pounded toward him for another strike. She raised a fist full of fire and two pairs of hands jabbed her joints, crippling her. She collapsed in a heap on the stage floor. The paralysis was short-lived and Korra was quickly on her feet again.
"That wasn't fair," Korra spat. "You called in your lackeys when this was just supposed to be between you and me."
"On the contrary, I'd say it's even more fair."
She could hear him smirking behind his mask.
"Your bending was an unfair advantage," Amon continued. "I just had them even the playing field a bit. Let's see if the Avatar knows how to defend herself without her precious bending."
Korra clenched her jaw, and her fists, and lunged. She tested her bending with a right hook that was meant to breathe fire. Her fist met nothing but empty space. As soon as she'd processed that she'd missed, she rocketed backward to dodge a counter that never came. Her blood boiled and her skin coalesced. The bastard was being passive just to toy with her.
Everything she threw at Amon missed. She couldn't even touch his cloak anymore, not with out her fire whips. And the worst part: he wasn't bending.
"Korra, he's just waiting for you to tire yourself out," said Mako from the floor. "Don't let him win."
"Quit playing around, Amon," Korra yelled. "Give me a real fight!"
He was fast, he was in her face. She twisted her body for a good old roundhouse kick. He caught her leg mid-kick with a single hand.
"You can't dodge. You can't even block. You only know aggression, and you can't even use that successfully without your bending." He whispered close to her ear.
She had only the time to be surprised before he had hold of her arm, her body, pulling them in directions they didn't agree with. She shook off his grip, but not without a cry of pain.
"Korra!" It was Mako, and Tenzin and his children, all at once.
Amon's foot created a hook around Korra's ankle and she toppled over, rolling onto her back. Amon's boot came down on her good arm's shoulder, harder and harder. Her own feet kicked impotently beneath him. Stomp, crack. Amon bent over and forced her to her knees by the collar of her disguise, into the standard position.
Korra's name on the lips of her friends became screeching white noise. There was only Amon, with on hand on her shoulder, and a thumb pressed to her forehead. He bent her head back, so that if she rolled her eyes all the way up she could just see his mask grinning down at her.
"It looks like I win," said Amon softly. No one but Korra could hear. The words dropped from his mouth and wriggled like worms down to the base of Korra's spine. "I'll be taking my prize now."
Korra's blood curdled and protested against his influence. A spot of pain blossomed beneath his thumb where he forced its print into her very being. Then there was nothing.
"I have defeated the Avatar by taking away her only weapon," he addressed the crowd. "She will no longer be a threat against our dream of attaining true equality." He released his grip and she crumpled to the floor.
Korra was empty, a soulless shell of an Avatar who couldn't bend. The fierce energy that had pulsed through her veins, that she knew like any other muscle in her body she commanded, was now closed off forever.
She let her eyes fall shut. The cheers from the Equalists drowned her consciousness. She'd only made Amon look even more like a hero for defeating her without waterbending. There were cries of distress and anger coming from behind her as well as the whirr of fire shooting through air. Mako hadn't given up. He was still fighting. But he would just lose his bending too. She'd been a fool and even if she couldn't save herself, she wished she could save her friends from her mistake. But she was too weak to keep fighting. Sorry, Tenzin, Mako. Her arms were broken, and losing her bending was like losing her life force.
Then she heard some swearing on the Equalists' part and a large gust of wind whistling them off their feet. Wind? She rolled away from the jeering crowd to face Tenzin. Tenzin who was not tied to a post. Tenzin whose wrists looked a little... red. Mako had breathed fire from the floor to break the airbender's cuffs.
Once the stage was swept free of chi-blockers and Amon, he untangled Mako who ran over to the children to break their cuffs as well.
"Korra, are you all right?" Tenzin knelt beside her.
"Tenzin, he took my bending." Korra had meant to sound matter-of-fact, but her voice hovered on the verge of a sob.
"I know; I saw." He helped her to her feet. "Hang on, we'll get out of here."
Korra grunted.
New chi-blockers had climbed onto the stage ready to fight, but the kids were free now and there was a hurricane they couldn't penetrate to get to the eye of the storm where they stood. Mako rushed to Korra's side and joined Tenzin in supporting her. Then he graciously lit their hurricane on fire.
They were forced to abandon the pretty light show in the narrow hallways. As they ran Tenzin pulled a noiseless whistle out from under his robes and blew into it, so that when they burst into the open air, their ride was already waiting for them. Fortune and the pitch dark of night was on their side as the sky bison flew them away, undetected by Equalist air ships.
"We have to find my brother and Asami," Korra heard Mako say.
"My bending's really gone," Korra murmured. No matter how many times she flexed her fingers, a flame did not ignite in them.
"We'll save everyone; don't worry," Tenzin replied to Mako, his voice weighted with stony resolve. "Everything will be fine."
There was no choice but to believe him, or lose hope altogether.
Chapter Three