Chapter Text
Chapter One
Republic city.....
Mako slowly crept behind a stack of crates by the ship known as the 'Endeavor'. He heard voices, and footsteps. He peeked out through a small opening between two of the wooden crates. The fire bender saw two men walking down the plank of the ship. Their voices were muffled by the distance, but Mako could roughly read what they were saying.
'Yeah the Triple triads,’
'Some of them are still there'
‘Hire them,'
‘Your employer will be pleased...'
Being among them. He pulled out his radio, "This is unit five, send reinforcements to the port now. I think I've got the dealers. I-" Suddenly a huge hand grabbed Mako from the collar of his shirt. "Hey boss," the huge man said. "We’ve-" Mako kicked his legs high into the air and propelled a blast of flames, causing the huge man to fall over Mako struggled free, and then started fighting with the guards that started to attack him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the two men he'd been eavesdropping on earlier run into the ship. The other had somehow mysteriously disappeared. He punched the last guard and knocked him unconscious, then ran after the man.
He cornered him on the deck. "Surrender now, reinforcements are on their way, and soon this place will be covered with cops....it's over, give up now." Mako said, his gaze piercing the man. The man raised his hands as if in surrender, then suddenly he sent a streak of flames whizzing towards Mako. Mako dodged his attack and then started attacking himself. The man took the cop by surprise and knocked him down. Mako summersaulted backwards and avoided the crackling blue lightning that was aimed right at him. Then he ran into some other part of the ship which he didn’t at the time realize was the engine room. He kept dodging his opponent’s attacks, until one of the lightning bolts found its target....but it wasn't Mako.
"I have nothing to lose..." the man said.
Then more than three things happened at once. The man fell to his knees, and some sort of black mist came out of him and then disappeared, The electrical generator which had been the man’s actual target exploded, which in turn made a whole bunch of other things explode and Mako ran up the stair well and barely made it onto the deck, before the force from the blast sent him flying onto the plank. Mako lost consciousness for a few minutes, and in that time his body rolled down the plank and onto the dock.
Which was practically the only reason that he survived.
Mako groaned as his eyes blinked open. He heard the sound of sirens and police cars. He looked around, the 'Endeavor' had defiantly met its end, he could tell that much. But everything else was a blur. He sat up and rubbed his head. He heard footsteps and saw some people trying to put out the fire. 'The chiefs gonna kill me for this...'he thought wryly.
As if on que, someone walked up to him. For a few seconds Mako wondered if he should just collapse back down and pretended to be unconscious. He looked up, what he expected was Lin Beifong, with her arms folded across her chest and an angry expression on her face. What he got was a woman, about his age, with hazel eyes and long black hair tied into a high ponytail. She extended her hand and helped him up. "Great job," she said, not one note of sarcasm in her voice. Mako gave her a quizzical look. Who in the world was she, he definitely hadn't seen her before...
Then only did the chief of police come to see Mako. "Chief...I can explai-" Mako began but Lin cut him off. “You were right about the drug dealers..." she said. "We apprehended them about one block back when they were trying to escape with the cargo, good work Mako." The former pro-bender stared at his commanding officer. He looked around the flaming part of the dock, then at Beifong. "Ahh....chief? You’re kidding right?"
Lin just chuckled at hit him on the back before walking over to take care of a bunch of reporters who’d shown up to get the scoop.
Four hours later at police headquarters....
Mako had finished filing his report on the 'incident' at the docks. And just as he was preparing to leave, he ran in to that woman that he'd met earlier on the docks. Now only did he get to take a close look at her, she was really pretty...and in truth reminded him a bit of Iroh, but only a bit. "Ahh...hi," he said extending his hand. "I'm Mako," "Alinza," she said shaking Mako’s hand. "Ahh...so are you new around here or...." he let the sentence trail off from there. "I'm a transfer from Zuafuu," she said. She started to walk away. "See ya around...." she said, winking before she disappeared down the hallway. Mako stared after her.....there was something about her.....
A day later on Air Temple Island.....
Jinora let it guide her. She felt it, breathed it...let it show her the way.....then CRASH!! Jinora knocked against the very last door and fell to the floor. She heard Kai laughing from behind. She sent a gush of wind towards him. He fell backwards.
She rubbed her head as she growled in frustration. Kai laughed again as he got up and walked towards her. He folded his arms across his chest and smiled down at her. "Oh shut up...." she said. " Going through the gates without seeing is hard ya know..." she said. “yeah, I know, I tried it..." he said as he extended his hand. Jinora raised an eyebrow as she took his hand and got up. Then they just stood there for a still, blissful moment.....which was in turn interrupted by Pemma's voice.
They were at arm’s length from each other as Pemma and korra ascended the steps and reached them. The two teenagers looked at each other, then at korra and Pemma. Seeing their faces korra leaned against a wall and folded her arms across her chest and just grinned. Pemma either didn't notice, or chose not to notice and just said, "Jinora your father wants you...something about giuru mi...ma...rrrr, just go see your father..." With a final glance at Kai, Jinora nodded and followed her mother down the steps.
After they were gone, Korra gave Kai 'a look', which plainly asked one thing...." did we interrupt something?" Korra asked. Kai just shrugged and smiled mischievously. "If you did, then it would probably be payback for the number of times me and Jinora have interrupted you and Mako in the past few years..."
Before Korra could reply, he ran off. Laughing.
Elsewhere in the air temple.....
Tenzin stood in front of his four children, Pemma at his side. Jinora could instantly tell that this had nothing to do with guru marumai. "Kids," he said gently. "How would all of you like to go to the Northern air temple?" Jinora nodded instantly, Rohan just shrugged and Meelo and Ikki groaned slightly. "Good, you'll be leaving at dawn tomorrow...." he said. They looked at each other. "What about you?" Jinora asked.
"I'll be staying here, you kids and your mother will be going," he said. Ikki placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. "Why aren't you coming dad?" she asked. “I’m needed here..." Tenzin said simply. Jinora folded her arms across her chest. "Why are we going?" she asked her brown eyes narrowing.
Tenzin should have known that he couldn't just sent his children off without expecting this conversation. Especially not now. There was once a time when they were younger, and probebly wouldn’t have noticed that something was wrong…but that time was long gone. Tenzin sighed heavily. "It's not safe here anymore," he said. "Three other people have disappeared, two of them were air benders..."
"Dad," Jinora began. Tenzin held his hand up and silenced her. "No arguments," he said. "Your father's right, it's not safe anymore and we don't want anything bad to happen to you..." said Pemma. "Mom, we're air benders....we can handle ourselves...and plus, the AVATAR is here! We're as safe as we could be," Ikki said.
There was a knock on the door and Korra walked in. She had a worried expression on her face. "Tenzin," she said, she paused and looked at the kids. "Can I speak to you alone?" Tenzin instantly knew that something was wrong, he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
"Korra?" "I just got a wire from Mako," she said. "They found the first two people who disappeared," she said. "They were dead...murdered...brutally by the looks of it..." "What!!??" Tenzin exclaimed. Korra nodded soberly. " Beifongs dedicating everyone available to investigate these murders and disappearances," Tenzin rubbed his temples. “Tomorrow, I'm sending Jinora,Ikki, Meelo,Rohan and Pemma to the Northern air temple....." he said. Korra nodded. "I think that's a good idea, but....there have been more disappearances around the Earth kingdom. And the fire nation....their happening everywhere..." she looked away. "Tenzin, I...I have this feeling, that this has more to it than meets the eye...." Korra felt like there was a dark thing lurking around. An evil presence. Hungry, angry and desperate.....she touched the pendant of her betrothal necklace which was hidden under the collar of her shirt. Somehow it managed to give her a sense of warmth and security. And for some strange reason, Korra felt that soon, warmth and security would be hard to come by...