A Cog in the Machine – Book One, Prologue: Avatar Korra

Disclaimer: In case you haven't figured it out yet, I don't own The Legend of Korra. All Avatar-related characters, settings, etc. are the intellectual property of Viacom, Bryan Konietzko, and Michael Dante DiMartino.

[-]

The flames came hard and fast, striking at Korra from every direction.

It took all her training, all she'd been working at for years, merely to keep herself from getting burned to a crisp. Her master had commanded the others to hold nothing back, and she was expected to respond in kind.

Normally, she would combat firebending with careful use of water or earth – but this was an examination, and there were rules.

That didn't mean she couldn't have some fun with it, though.

Korra gave a great, joyful laugh before releasing a great torrent of her own fire from each fist. The concussive force easily broke through and neutralized those of her opponents, forcing the two robed men backward.

For an earthbender, now would be the time to sit still and wait for their reaction. A waterbender would enter a stance that was ready to turn any counterattacks back on themselves.

But fire was the element of passion, and drive. So Korra wasted little time in pressing the attack further, following two more jabs with a sweeping kick that sent a wide stream of flame toward her opponents, knocking them right off their feet.

"She's strong," her master said from the sidelines, not at all disapprovingly.

"She lacks restraint," murmured another, his expression less certain.

Korra, for her part, was amply demonstrating the truth of both these observations. Sent sprawling to the ground, there was little the other firebenders could do but shield themselves from her continued assault. Blast after blast, each a near-perfect balance in controlled release of power and overwhelming ferocity, rained down upon them.

One of the men bravely attempted to provide cover for the other by spinning wildly, a tornado of flame coming to life and following his movements as he leapt to his feet. But Korra had been ready for this…and she'd positioned them both right where she wanted them.

A raised wall of flame easily broke through the tornado, allowing her a clear shot. She experienced the still-strange but utterly thrilling sensation of chi traveling up her body as she summoned a great amount of it to concentrate at her light chakra, twisting and turning and building until…

The explosion flowed naturally from her third eye, gouging a deep scar in the earth directly in front of her attacker.

Though she hadn't been aiming to kill, or even injure significantly, the combustion reaction still caught the other firebender in mid-leap, sending him flying directly into his partner. He'd be singed, at minimum, from proximity to the blast – but nothing the Lotus' healers couldn't fix, Korra was sure.

Either way, she wasn't going to let that faze her. Pulling off her training helmet and tossing it to the ground, the Avatar began to whoop and holler as she punched the air in triumph.

"Woo-hoo!" she called out, before running up to meet her two observers. Neither seemed to share her enthusiasm, though her master was still smiling. "Hey, why all the doom and gloom, people? We should be celebrating! Three elements down, one to go!"

"Don't be getting too far ahead of yourself, Korra," said Master P'Li. "My grumpy-gills boyfriend hasn't decided whether you've passed your firebending test yet."

The statuesque woman hooked a thumb over her shoulder at Zaheer, who seemed to chafe a bit at the description. Still, he ultimately took it in stride as he turned to regard Korra.

"Ever since you were a little girl, you've excelled at the physical side of bending. But you've completely ignored the spiritual side," he told her, his expression severe. "The Avatar must master both. You more than any other, since Wan."

Korra bowed her head at this. It wasn't exactly something she was proud of.

"I haven't ignored it, it just doesn't come as easy to me," she replied, though her tone became significantly more upbeat as she leapt upon the opportunity he'd laid out. "But that's why I should start airbending training with you immediately! I mean, you're Mister Spiritual."

"Be that as it may, you know I can only take you so far," said the robed man, one eye on the other two instructors P'Li had selected, as their fellow Red Lotus members helped them limp to a healing tent. "Though I've dedicated my life to airbending culture and philosophy, only four individuals alive can manipulate the wind by their own hand. And none would be amenable to our cause."

"Yeah, but…well, it's better than nothing, isn't it?" Korra asked, trying and failing not to sound too much like she was pleading. "I mean, we've talked about this, right? You could at least get me started. Show me the forms and see what sticks."

Zaheer let out a very deep breath, as if steadying himself. When he spoke again, it was with the air of a man fully expecting to regret every single word he was about to say.

"Very well, then," he finally responded. "We will commence your airbending training…"

Korra's mouth went wide with excitement, but he held up a hand to forestall her reaction.

"…Starting tomorrow," he finished, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Today, I will be needed in the Spirit World. Our contacts in Zaofu, the Northern Water Tribe, and Republic City all have reports I need to be party to. Many troubling things are brewing, and I need to ensure they won't interfere with our plans for Harmonic Convergence."

Korra gave a deep, disappointed sigh, but ultimately nodded. She knew how important those plans were – to Zaheer, to the Red Lotus, to the physical and spiritual planes as a whole.

And it was only one day, after all.

Still, since they were presently only a few hours out from sunrise and she was totally jazzed from her victory, Korra chanced to ask, "What should I do with the rest of the day, then?"

"If there are no objections from your other masters," answered Zaheer, casting a sideways glance to P'Li, who simply shrugged her well-toned shoulders. "Then the rest of the day is yours, to do as you see fit. But if you would like my suggestion…"

"Please," said Korra.

"Then I would suggest you grab a bite to eat," continued the non-bender, actually cracking the thinnest of smiles. "And after that, I think it would do you well to revisit each of your other instructors, for a few hours of review. Each element in the Avatar Cycle builds upon the last, after all. Your mind will be all the more receptive to learn the element of freedom, if it has first been firmly grounded in change, substance, and power."

"I won't let you down, Master Zaheer," she declared quietly, placing one fist against her palm in her most respectful bow. "And if it's convenient…I'll see you again, Master P'Li, around sunset?"

"You know where to find me," said the combustionbender with a wry smirk. "Dismissed, Avatar Korra."

Korra maintained her dignified composure as she departed from the couple…but as soon as she – incorrectly – believed herself to be out of their eyeshot, she began leaping into the air again, releasing celebratory sparks with one hand and forming a great, victorious fist of ice with the other.

"She isn't ready for this. For any of this," whispered Zaheer, shaking his head. "And Harmonic Convergence is only a year away…"

"She will be," P'Li told her boyfriend, her tone more confident than she actually felt. "I mean, she has to be, right? It's not like we've got any other choice. She's the Avatar. We've just got to deal with it."

[-]

Korra's early lunch – or late breakfast, whatever you wanted to call it – was fairly light. One of the Red Lotus attendants had prepared some sort of pig-chicken stew, which was decent for what it was. He wasn't a spectacular cook, but it wasn't like they were awash in too many other options.

The accommodations and resources available in these hideouts were necessarily sparse. The core group she belonged to – herself, Zaheer, P'Li, Ghazan, and Ming-Hua – moved about frequently to avoid detection, surrounding themselves with existing recruits in each new place they settled.

It was easier, given how numerous the lower-level members were and how unwieldy it'd be to transport so many at once, to simply assemble a new group of operatives each time. But while efficient, this made it fairly difficult to strike up any meaningful relationships.

She was on good terms with all four of her masters, of course – even Ming-Hua, who was pretty easy to get along with once you grasped her incredibly dark sense of humor. But they were all far older than she was, and the nature of the master-student relationship made it difficult to call them "friends."

Friends…that was something she'd never really experienced, growing up within the Lotus. Recruiting as they did mostly from the disaffected ranks of their parent society, they tended not to pick up very many children or teenagers – Korra herself being an obvious exception, for equally obvious reasons.

And on those very few occasions their cause did acquire someone who was about her age, it would only be at most two or three weeks before they moved again. After that, it was a virtual certainty she'd never see them again.

There'd been this one boy…the son of a Fire Nation general, who was on the outs with Fire Lord Izumi over suspected ties to the Kemurikage. Korra was embarrassed to say she didn't even remember his name. But he'd been nice. Cute too, if she was being honest with herself.

But the eventual arrest of his father had made him a liability, and meant they'd needed to depart the Fire Nation that very night. He could be dead now, for all Korra knew.

Right now, they were deep in the forests in the northwestern Earth Kingdom, a few days' drive from the Serpent's Pass. Most of their time was spent in various places like this, as the sheer size of the continent made it difficult for the Earth Queen to assert her nominal control of all of it at a time.

Formally speaking, ever since King Bumi had abolished the royal house of Omashu on his deathbed, the Earth Kingdom outside Ba Sing Se had been devoid of any other monarchs. In practice, of course, a great variety of feudal lords and governors functioned as such in all but name, and Hou-Ting's historically disastrous and self-indulgent rule had only exacerbated that fact.

Which led to a system where it was easy for a small, secretive group like the Lotus to slip quietly through the cracks.

These hideouts weren't prisons, technically, but Korra almost never left them. The eyes of the White Lotus were everywhere, and so unless it was absolutely necessary for her training, she tended to avoid going to places where there'd be too many prying eyes.

Korra couldn't help but clench a fist, as she thought about their most hated enemy. They'd already cost her so much, in their mad quest to control the Avatar for themselves – her family, her home.

It was in times like these that she felt, most acutely, how much else they'd stolen from her on the day they'd killed her parents. An entire future she could've had.

One where she wouldn't have to feel this alone.

Korra sighed as she put down her chopsticks; suddenly, she didn't really feel very hungry. She bowed her head to the attendant, who collected her bowl for washing, and left the dining area without another word.

She had some waterbending training to get to.

[-]

"No, no, no! You know this, Korra! Now get the stance right this time!" Ming-Hua commanded harshly, bringing one of her water-arms down like a cracking whip to emphasize her point.

The Avatar gritted her teeth in frustration, but dutifully repositioned herself and started again. Using waterbending in place of her own limbs didn't come nearly as easily to her as it did the armless woman – though she figured that was probably true of all other waterbenders – but it was a useful skill, especially once one mastered the ability to do it all with the mind.

In theory, it worked much the same way as P'Li's combustionbending: mapping the pathways of the chi mentally, and then willing it to flow in the way she needed. Used perfectly, nearly any bending was possible without moving a single muscle.

Of course, that was far more easily said than done.

The Octopus Form, on which Ming-Hua's signature style was a variant, normally operated by mirroring the movements of the limbs in the "tentacles" she created. Having two arms and two legs, Korra certainly could do it that way, and when under the knife it was what she defaulted to.

But it was still good to practice the "psychic" variant (as the newspapers had once coined, when describing similar feats by the crimelord Yakone forty years prior), just in case she was ever bound or paralyzed.

Taking a deep breath and relaxing her muscles, Korra again looked deep within herself and mentally pictured her chi flow. This sort of thing wouldn't work if she was too tense, tried to force it. She was a guide for the energy, nothing more or less.

"Better," said Ming-Hua, as a lengthy stream of water formed around Korra's right arm, much stronger this time than the last. Experimentally, she moved it back and forth with a mere thought. "Now the left."

This one was easier, as it was in the element's nature to seek balance. A second stream came to life, moving in perfect harmony with the first.

"And the middle," added the older waterbender, grinning slyly. "Scorpion Form."

Finally, for the first time since her firebending test, a smile returned to Korra's face. The Scorpion Form had been her own invention, the feat that'd originally completed her training with water and allowed her to move on to earth, and she was quite proud of it.

She'd reasoned, after a long time of trying and failing to match up to Ming-Hua's sheer skill, that rather than pigeonholing herself into one or the other – the unparalleled style of her master, or the one used by virtually every other waterbender on the planet – why not combine both? She was perhaps the only person alive who could.

Thus, she relinquished full mental control of the streams currently surrounding her arms, letting them be extensions of the limbs they were attached to once more. And instead, she focused all her concentration on forming a third water-stream, attached to the base of her spine.

This one, when used in concert with the other two, resembled nothing if not the tail of a scorpion-bee, hence the name. And if utilized properly, the three together provided an extremely potent defense and offense.

One which her master was clearly eager to test.

Ming-Hua formed the tips of both her water-arms into scythes made of ice, and scraped the blades together for dramatic effect.

"Let's see how much you've still got, Avatar," she whispered, clearly relishing this. "Hopefully all the playing with rocks and sparks hasn't made you too rusty."

Korra would've cracked her knuckles, were they not currently encased in liquid. She settled for imagining it, in any event.

Because she was just as eager.

The two women lunged at each other, the five active streams of water clashing at each other like massive, fluid swords. The winner of this match, Korra knew from ample experience, would be the first one whose control over the element slipped for even a moment. That would be enough for the other to absorb their water into their own, depriving them of both their weapon and their only protection.

The water moved blindingly fast, almost quicker than the naked eye could see. Twisting, grappling, fighting for dominance against the other. The element shifted states constantly, and near-instantaneously, going from liquid to ice to vapor and back again as the situation required; sometimes, all of the above in a manner of seconds.

Korra held a small advantage, in that she had access to three streams instead of two. This gave her a slight edge in mobility – letting her use her "tail" to swing from the ceiling while the other two continued to fight, for example – but all that really did was slightly level the playing field, given the wide gulf in their levels of experience.

Plus, she knew well that Ming-Hua could manifest far more "tentacles" than this, if she chose to. Her use of only two was a self-restriction for the purposes of making this interesting, more than anything.

Still, Korra felt absolutely exhilarated as she weaved and bobbed around her master's attacks, trying to force her streams aside and launch a swift and final counteroffensive. There were small openings here and there, minute mistakes as the armless woman began to tire, but nothing large enough for the Avatar to actually strike at her body.

But if Ming-Hua was starting to make some slight errors in her form, Korra was making comparatively bigger ones, and the elder waterbender seized her moment just as her opponent landed from a leaping dodge of several thrown icicles.

One of her water-streams sliced through the one on Korra's back, disrupting her concentration and collapsing the construct. The other swiftly grabbed the Avatar by the midriff and solidified into ice, lifting her up nearly effortlessly. The liquid surrounding Korra's arms fell away into sad little puddles.

"I'll admit, I'm impressed. You haven't gotten nearly as soft as I thought you would," said Ming-Hua, chuckling a bit. "But Avatar or not, the student's still got nothing on the master."

Though she was having difficulty breathing, however, Korra's response to this was to don a wide smirk. "You…sure about that…?" she asked, her voice choked but confident.

A sound emerged directly behind the older woman, and she didn't need to turn around to know what'd just happened; her waterbending senses told her the entire story.

The "tail" that she'd detached from Korra's body had slunk quietly behind her, and solidified into ice. The bladed "stinger" now sat less than an inch from the back of her neck.

"Well played, Korra. Well played," she admitted, as both the ice holding the Avatar and threatening her own life fell away in an instant. "You can control it psychically even when it's not touching your body, now?"

"Only for a little while," replied Korra, who was now cleaning up by bending all the excess water Ming-Hua wasn't using into clay jars. "And I still can't do it all the time. Firebending training helped, honestly. It's not that different from growing or smothering a fire that's burning on its own."

"Really? Guess I owe P'Li five yuans, then," said Ming-Hua, shaking her head and sighing. "I was teasing her the other day about how waterbending gave fire that whole 'lightning redirection' thing, but firebending hasn't done jack for water. She bet she'd prove me wrong by the end of the week."

"You should know by now not to bet Master P'Li at anything," Korra told her teacher with a grin. "She never loses. And when she does, she cheats."

"Yeah, yeah, I get the point," grumbled the elder waterbender. "Don't you have some pebbles to go throw around, or something?"

"Oof, right!" exclaimed Korra, slapping her forehead as she glanced at a nearby clock. "I told Master Ghazan I'd meet him at the canyon ten minutes ago! Err…hate to spar and dash, but…"

"Eh, just get going," Ming-Hua responded, one of her water-arms moving in an approximation of a dismissive hand-wave. "I've had my fill of your sorry excuse for waterbending for the day."

"Right back at ya!" the Avatar called back, and with that, she was gone.

[-]

Though she was fond of all her teachers among the Red Lotus, in their own ways, Ghazan was far and away Korra's favorite.

A distinct reminder of why was waiting for her at the bottom of a canyon near their hideout, one that locals called "The Great Divide," where the mustached earthbender sat on a pile of stone and sipped a cup of piping-hot tea.

"Ah, there's the girl," he said fondly, offering her a second cup as she slid down the rocks to meet him. "Here, have some before we start."

"Managed to heat it up without melting the pot this time, I see," she quipped, smiling.

"Well, it was a near miss," replied Ghazan with a chuckle. "Cooking with lava is…pretty unpredictable. It's not like firebending where you can just stick your hand under it, turn up the juice, and – boom! Instant good eating. Man, if I could pick up just one trick from another element…"

"You ever gonna tell me where you came up with lavabending, anyway?" asked Korra, sipping as she did. Man this was good tea. Jasmine, she was pretty sure. "I mean, I'm the only other person on the planet who can do it. Seems like I should know."

At this, Ghazan just reached over and ruffled her hair a bit. "Maybe when you're older," he said.

She rolled her eyes at him. "You've been saying that to me since I was five," she responded. "I'm seventeen now, for the spirits' sake. I get any older and I'll start growing a mustache myself."

"It's still the only answer you're getting. At least for now," he told her, calmly putting away the tea set and stripping off the outer layers of his robes.

Korra couldn't help but flush a bit at the earthbender's shirtless body, which he flexed without an ounce of shame. Her other teachers always taught her in full training garb – she wasn't sure Zaheer ever wore anything less than his traditional gray robes, even when he and P'Li were alone together – but Ghazan was everything but formal, and dressed accordingly.

Plus, when you were throwing around big chunks of lava all the time, long flowing robes tended to be a bit of a liability.

Taking a low, defensive stance, Ghazan then said, "Alright, Korra. We'll start with the basics. No lava yet."

For the next couple hours, Korra shifted through a number of forms – not only in the "traditional" style that most members of the Earth Kingdom used, but also the style the legendary Toph Beifong had pioneered, and passed onto both Republic City's police force and Zaofu's Metal Clan.

Ghazan couldn't metalbend himself, though he understood the theory, and had passed it on dutifully to his prized pupil. Either way, the fundamentals of the style (rumored to come directly from the badger-moles themselves) were as applicable to "regular" earthbending as they were to iron and copper.

Wherever Ghazan had first learnt his craft, he was undeniably brilliant at it, blending both styles with a number of moves apparently of his own invention. It was these that she practiced next, because they were the easiest ones through which to make the transition to lavabending.

Earth was a stubborn element, and even though she'd been doing it for nearly five years now, changing its state was still an incredibly tricky prospect. In some ways her waterbending training helped, as on a very basic level the principle was the same, but in other ways it was a hindrance.

Chi didn't flow naturally through rock, the way it did water or fire. With those elements, if you offered them the path of least resistance, the energy would travel right along that channel on its own.

To move earth, she needed to be like earth. It wouldn't change to liquid with a mere breath, a subtle twist of the hand, the way water would. It needed her to show it, head-on, that she was its master, and loosen the bonds of energy within it by sheer force of will.

It was hard, every single time. Some of the hardest bending she'd ever had to do. But thankfully, Korra had the right personality to pull it off.

After all, more than one person had told her she was the most absolutely stubborn person they'd ever met in their lives.

With a great grunt of effort, Korra grounded herself, centered all her energy, and stomped upon the canyon floor, as hard as she possibly could.

The impact of the vibrations shook every loose rock in the area, and actually managed to knock Ghazan off-balance. But the main effect was much clearer. The ground in front of her, stretching for several yards in every direction, was molten and boiling.

"Nice! That's the biggest one you've done yet!" exclaimed her teacher, laughing jubilantly and cracking his neck at the same time. "Now let's see you send some my way. No holding back, y'hear?"

"Alright! But you asked for it!" Korra shouted back, palming one fist in anticipation. Then she struck.

This was a very different sort of duel than most earthbenders tended to get up to, the Avatar was fairly certain. Rocks were fairly blunt instruments, both for attacking and defending; the best non-bending metaphors would be weapons like shields, warhammers, and catapults. You threw them, and the opponent met them head-on, shattering them or at least weakening their impact before striking back.

A match between lavabenders was…not that. The closest thing, she supposed, might've been a sandbender fight, but those tended not to be seen much outside of the desert.

Just like in making lava, controlling it was about applying waterbending principles of turning the opponent's energy against them to an element that resisted those principles with its very essence.

Lava she'd created would not remain "hers" for even a second longer than she could impress all her physical and mental strength upon it. Each punch or kick she used to direct it, or to counter Ghazan's own, had to be a whole new statement that she was its master, and it would bow to her will.

The other difference, of course, was that ordinarily earthbending was easily the most "physical" of the bending disciplines. The vast majority of moves involved physically striking, grasping, or otherwise making direct contact with the element, to impart the bender's own strength upon it as efficiently as possible.

Lava, however, could not be touched. It couldn't even be approached without serious consequence. While it was true that bent lava was nowhere near as hot as the magma that dwelt in the Fire Nation's volcanoes, it was still powerful enough to set things aflame by mere proximity.

As such, great care had to be taken to place some distance between herself and the element she controlled, and the ability to rapidly cool lava that was approaching her was just as important as heating it up in the first place.

It also made for an absolute spectacle for any potential observer, Korra was fairly certain, though of course she had bigger things to worry about in the moment. Still, she was glad the preponderance of canyon crawlers in this area made the chance of onlookers very low indeed.

Because they needed to keep their distance from their element, grand and massive floes of lava were their best means of attack – either for aiming directly at their opponent, or at the ground, in order to try and disrupt their footing.

Already there was barely any room to walk or run, as larger and larger portions of the canyon floor became a molten sea. But that only gave both of them more ammunition to draw from, for yet greater and more dramatic displays of power.

Finally, once the two of them were standing on the only small islands of walkable ground remaining in sight, Ghazan held up both hands, and Korra let the volley of lava she'd been preparing drop at a safe distance behind her.

The lavabender closed his eyes and took a deep breath, the sweat glistening across his heavily tattooed body. Then he slowly lowered both arms as he exhaled, and in turn, every single square inch of lava cooled back to rock.

"I think that's enough for today," he said, though he was smiling broadly. "Man am I proud of you, Korra. You've gotten farther in five years than I did in thirty."

Though she tried not to, Korra's cheeks went pink again at the compliment. "Well, y'know, I…I had a good teacher," she mumbled, not meeting his gaze.

Alright, fine. Yes, she had the teeniest bit of a crush on the older man. Not one she was ever going to act on, but it was there.

But those feelings were normal at her age – at least she'd read they were, it wasn't like anyone in the Lotus was gonna sit down and talk with her about it – and really, who else would they be centered on? P'Li still acted too much like the weapon she'd been raised to be for Korra to feel that way about her, and while it wasn't exactly polite to say out loud, she just plain didn't find Ming-Hua's missing arms attractive.

And as for Zaheer, well…he was Zaheer.

Thankfully, Ghazan either didn't notice or didn't question her blushing, and instead propelled them up out of the canyon with great pillars of earth. They didn't have any food on them, and Korra doubted any scent from the tea was left after all the lava-slinging, but it couldn't hurt to be careful.

As they landed back on the distinctly not melted ground overlooking the Great Divide, the mustached lavabender clapped her on the shoulder and smiled again.

"Ah, look at that sunset," he stated quietly, gesturing at the horizon. "That's really why we're doing this, y'know? The natural world was in perfect balance before man came along – before Wan, before benders, before everything. Give them long enough, and the governments of the world will find some way to muck up the sunset somehow. The spirits know, they've mucked up everything else."

"The sunset!" exclaimed Korra, suddenly remembering. "That's right, I said…"

"You gotta get to P'Li?" asked Ghazan, to which she nodded. "Well, don't let me hold you up. I'll still be here when you get back. Until then, Korra."

She bowed, lower than she had to any of her other teachers. "Until then, Master Ghazan," she said, leaving before he could see her cheeks again.

[-]

"Sorry I'm late, Master P'Li. I got held up a bit with…" Korra had started to say as she returned to the hideout, but her sentence petered off midway as she saw the expressions both P'Li and her boyfriend were wearing.

"What's the matter?" she asked, after several silent beats. "Did something happen?"

"I completed my conference with Aiwei, Unalaq, and Jilu just a few minutes ago," explained Zaheer. "A great deal of news, much of it…concerning. Gather the others, please. I want everyone here for this."

These last few words were directed to a couple of attendants, who nodded and bowed themselves out.

As they waited for Ghazan and Ming-Hua to be fetched, Korra couldn't help but speculate what her non-bending mentor had learned; he'd returned to meditation in the meantime, and if P'Li knew anything she was about as forthcoming as a brick wall.

The only name she recognized was Unalaq, the Chief of the Northern Water Tribe and her paternal uncle. She'd only met him once in her life, and she couldn't help but shiver a bit at the memory. Senior member of the Lotus he might be, but he still gave her the creeps from head to toe.

In any event, the Avatar didn't have long to speculate. "This had better be good," said Ming-Hua, her water-arms crossed as the attendants led her and Ghazan in. Both slipped out of the room immediately after, leaving the five of them alone.

"I suppose that depends on your definition," replied Zaheer, his eyes opening into a severe expression. "Either way, it is something we'll need to deal with."

"What's going on, exactly?" Ghazan asked, one hand on his chin.

"As you all know, we planned to arrange the assassination, or abdication, of every world leader in the weeks leading up to Harmonic Convergence – the Fire Lord, Earth Queen, Water Tribe chieftains, and Council of Republic City," he told the others. "The resultant chaos in the physical world should strengthen Vaatu, and allow him to escape his prison in the Tree of Time. But now, something threatens that goal."

"Is something going wrong in the Spirit World?" P'Li wondered aloud.

"No. All our plans on that plane are going as well as can be expected," said Zaheer. "Right now, it's the material world that concerns me. For you see…"

He slapped a thin, worn flyer onto the table in front of him.

"It looks like someone else might be beating us to the punch," he finished, frowning deeply.

All four of the others, Korra included, leaned in to read the text on the leaflet. It featured a picture of a masked face, and several broad statements of propaganda, under the title of…

"The…'Equalists'…?" she read off, confused by the term.

"An anti-bender revolutionary faction, which has steadily been gaining ground across the United Republic," Zaheer informed her. "We first became aware of them about a month ago, and I've been having our operatives collect intelligence ever since. They smuggled us this flyer last week, and Jilu just offered me a number of new details."

Ghazan picked up the paper and scrutinized the portrait. "This supposed to be their leader?" he asked.

"He goes by the name 'Amon.' But we're fairly certain that's an alias," said Zaheer. "So far, he's been keeping to the shadows. We don't know anything about his true identity, his abilities, or even his long-term goals. All we know is this: he's been trying to stir up a movement against benders all throughout the Republic…and from what Jilu told me, it's working."

"Wait, why does this guy hate benders so much?" Korra demanded, her eyes narrowed at the drawing. The masked man's own eyes, though she knew they were only a few dark brushstrokes, almost seemed to be following her around the room. "What'd we ever do to him?"

"That's one of the things we need to find out," he answered. "Which…is where you come in, Korra."

"I don't…wait, what?" responded the Avatar, looking utterly bewildered.

"Yeah, what're you getting at, baldy?" Ming-Hua added darkly. "I'm not sure I like where this is going."

"Neither do I, to tell the truth," said Zaheer. "But be that as it may, I can think of no better alternative. Korra…"

He turned to stare intently at her, and only her. It struck Korra that his face suddenly seemed decades older, and when he spoke again, it was with the deepest, gravest tone he'd ever used with the young Avatar.

"I'd like for you to go undercover in Republic City."

[-]

"Reports from the men who've been…interrogating the mole we found, sir," said a masked man, holding a thick stack of papers covered with hasty, untidy scrawl. A bit of blood stained the one on top.

"Very good. You're dismissed," responded the Lieutenant, and the other Equalist slipped out of the room without another word.

It was strange, how he even used the term "Lieutenant" in his own thoughts now. As if it was the only name he had anymore.

But then, he supposed, perhaps in a sense it was. Names didn't matter here.

Only the mission did.

"Is it as I suspected?" asked the only other person in the chamber, his booming baritone commanding the Lieutenant's full attention, even if what he spoke was barely above a whisper.

"It is," he answered, scrutinizing the handwritten notes. "The Red Lotus is aware of us. They're watching…and waiting. What should we do about them?"

Slowly, the masked man turned from the map of the world he'd been studying intently, his dull blue eyes boring into the Lieutenant's own.

"If they are content to watch, and wait…then for now, I think we should extend them the same courtesy," said Amon. "For in time, Lieutenant…"

Beneath his mask, though of course the other man could not see it, Noatak's lip curled.

"All roads lead to the Solution."