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Taken	By : QuaqueNocte Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > Legend of Korra, The Views: 33256 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own or make any money from Legend of Korra or the Avatar: Last Airbender franchise.

Chapter List
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Days had passed since Korra last saw Noatak. She spent most of her time training with Nainai or going off somewhere to meditate. Everyone had noticed her sudden serious mood. She looked as if she were in deep thought most of the time unless she was caring for her son. Mako and Asami had attempted to confront her, worrying that something was wrong especially after she came back that night with a bruised cheek. She brushed them off and told them she fell against a tree. She had silently cursed herself for waiting too long to heal her cheek. It would be about a week or so before the bruise would completely fade now.
Nainai had also seem to be more patient with her. Once she had started her energy bending training, things seemed to be a lot calmer but inside her felt like there was a constant storm going on. She barely slept from the thoughts that plagued her mind. Maybe it was this reason that Nainai was more gentle with her.
"Are you ready to begin?" The elder said as they stood in a field of flowers. It was particularly hot that day. A little too hot for Korra. She nodded as she wiped the sweat from her brow. "Close your eyes and clear your mind."
Korra took a deep breath. The scent of the flowers helped to calm down the storm in her mind. In no time, everything went blank.
When she opened her eyes again, they were standing in a white space with so many colorful lights dancing around them. The first time she came to that place, she was in awe. There were so many colors that she didn't know existed. It was almost too much to bear. She was surprised to learn that the lights were just a form of energy that was in every living thing. Who knew something so beautiful could lay within her?
"You're really good at this energy thing. In a couple of days, I think you'll be ready to finally leave." Nainai said.
"Thanks." Korra mumbled.
"Let's see how well you can bend the energy floating around you. I imagine you've been practicing."
Korra quickly spun around, capturing various colors within her bending grasp. She bent the dancing streams of energy into a colorful ball that spun and grew bigger as she incorporated more energy into it.
"As unstable as energy is, you seem to have a good grasp on it. The final part of your lesson will be redirecting the energy. In order to take away someone's bending, you need to be able to sever a person's energetic ties to their chi pools. Once the energy stops flowing to their chi, their bending abilities will cease to exist. Permanently. However, there is one thing you must know."
She released her bending hold on the energy ball, allowing the streams of light to flow around them once again. "What is it?"
"Energy bending someone is a very dangerous process. One wrong move and you could end up killing the person. If you're too slow or careless, it could end up killing you."
"I understand." She said quietly, not really making eye contact with the older lady.
"Does this not bother you?"
"I'm not going to let anything go wrong."
"I see. Let's continue the training."

Bolin grinned as he sat on the grass across from Tarrlok. They both had a large sketchpad in hand and a pencil in the other. Bolin was excited to finally learn how to be more artistic. Unfortunately for Tarrlok, he had a lot of work ahead of him. He was reluctant about being a teacher but Asami eventually convinced him to do it.
"What do you think of my dog?" Bolin asked as he turned his sketchpad around to show the older male.
Tarrlok's face scrunched up. The "dog" looked like a bunch of squiggles with random loops. "Uh…."
The sound of a noisy baby quickly distracted Bolin, much to Tarrlok's relief. Bolin turned around to see Mako emerging from the cabin while holding Kajuq.
"Hey, bro! Look at my dog! What do you think?" He turned his sketchpad over so Mako could see it. Mako's face scrunched up too.
"Uh…Is Korra back yet?"
Bolin stood up. "No, not yet. She should be back shortly. Hey little guy." His attention immediately went to the infant in his brother's arms. Kajuq smiled and buried his head into Mako's chest. "He sure took a liking to you quickly."
"Yeah, I suppose he did." Mako's eyes wandered to Tarrlok, who was busy drawing something on his sketchpad. "Have you seen your brother?"
"No, not for a few days now." Tarrlok responded, not taking his eyes off his work.
"Aren't you worried?" Bolin asked.
"He survived for decades without any of my help. I'm sure he can survive a few days by himself."
The brothers looked at each other, confused about Tarrlok's nonchalant attitude towards his own brother.
"Hey! Korra! How goes the training?" Mako turned around to see Korra approaching the group with a serious look on her face.
"It was fine, Bolin." She responded. Her face only lit up when she noticed her son smiling at her.
"Check out my dog. I think he's pretty cute." Bolin held up his sketchpad for Korra to see. Her face also scrunched up as she tried to figure out what she was looking at.
"Um…it's…adorable?"
"Thanks, Tarrlok helped me draw it."
"I had nothing to do with that atrocity." Tarrlok said.
"Keep at it, Bolin. I'm sure you'll be a great artist one day." Korra held out her arms to Kajuq. Surprisingly, he only giggled and clung to Mako's shirt. "It seems he really likes you."
"He won't let me put him down. Is that normal?"
"He does that sometimes."
"How's your cheek?" Mako asked before gently rubbing his hand against her cheek.
His touch sent electricity through her body. Not the kind she felt when they kissed, but a painful kind. She gasped and her eyes widened as a heavy feeling set into her. Something was wrong. Mako noticed her sudden tenseness.
"Korra? What's wrong?"
"I have to go." Was all she said before running off. Mako was tempted to go chase her, but Kajuq started fussing. He decided to confront her later.

Noatak leaned against the tree trunk as he winced in pain. He had his hand against his side. When he pulled it away, he saw his hand soaked in blood. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't clot his blood. Something was wrong with his blood. He looked over at the dead creature he just fought. It was some weird looking animal that looked to be a cross between a beetle and rat. It had vicious teeth and razor sharp claws but it also had blood. Why couldn't he blood bend in it? Something wasn't adding up.
He stumbled forward, wincing with each step. He could feel his heart slowing down. If he had been poisoned, at least it wouldn't spread as quickly. Or maybe his heart slowing was something the poison was suppose to do. It didn't matter to him. He'd welcome death either way.
After taking 10 minutes worth of long, painful steps, he found himself at the entrance of a small cave. Small enough that he could see the end of it from the outside. It looked uninhabited and hoped it was true. He was about to take another step forward when he felt something moving, running, towards him. He growled.
It wasn't long before Korra came running behind him, only stopping when she was in front of him. She didn't even bother to take a breather before she started asking questions. Or tried to. Most of it came out as pants, which caused him to roll his eyes. She was able to get one word out though.
"How?" She tried to move his arm so she could fully examine him but he kept it tight against his torso. From what she could see, he was bleeding a lot. Too much.
"Leave me be." He breathed.
"You're hurt! You need to lay down somewhere so I can heal you."
"Why can't you just leave me alone?"
"We're not arguing about this. I'll leave you alone later but let's get you in that den first."
He didn't protest when she grabbed his other arm and helped him into the cave so he could sit against the wall. His vision was getting blurry and he could feel himself close to slipping into unconsciousness. He heard her mention that she was going to get some water before he fell unconscious.
He had no idea how much time passed, although he had a faint idea what was going on. He found himself half-awake sometimes, usually when Korra was near. He could hear her talking to herself, wondering why he wasn't healing and worrying about the amount of blood that was lost but he usually slipped back into an unconscious state soon after. The last thing he heard was her mumbling about getting medicine from Nainai.
"Mom, I don't feel so good." A young Noatak said as he laid in his bed. His mother sat on the edge while feeding him a bowl of soup.
"I know, honey. This soup will make you feel at least a little better."
"But my stomach doesn't feel good."
"You've been throwing up all day. You need some nutrition." She held up a spoon filled with the soup to his mouth. A quick whiff let him know that it was her ginger rice soup. One good thing about being sick was his mother's cooking.
He slurped the soup but started coughing furiously. He felt his mother's hand on his hot, sweaty forehead.
"Mom?"
"No. I'm Korra. Do you remember where you are?"
His blurry eyes began to clear up so he could focus on the woman hovering above him. He was laying down on something remarkably soft. He could hear a fire crackling at the mouth of the cave and the sound of an infant squealing with happiness. He didn't notice that her hand was on his forehead until she removed it.
"You have a slight fever. How are you feeling? Nainai said you might be a little nauseous so I have some ginger rice soup for you." Korra said as she held up a bowl that was previously sitting next to her. It smelled just like his mother's. "Do you want some water? Do you need to relieve yourself? I can turn down the fire if it's too hot or up if it's too cold. I can make some tea, too."
He still didn't respond, which worried her. Did the poison affect his neurological or cognitive condition?
"Can you speak? Wiggle your fingers?" She reached up to touch him but his hand quickly grabbed her. Normally she'd be afraid but she was relieved that he could at least move.
"Why?"
"To make sure everything's working the way it-"
"Why are you helping me?"
"You're hurt."
"Why can't you let me die?"
He could see a glint of sadness in her eyes. Suddenly, she couldn't look at him anymore. There was silence between them for a while aside from the fire and Kajuq being infatuated with one of his toys. When the silence started bothering him, he decided to sit up. A big mistake. As soon as he lifted his torso, pain shot through his body but he didn't make a noise. Korra could sense his discomfort though and helped him to sit up. From his position, he could now see that he was shirtless and bandaged. He was tempted to remove the bandages to see how big his wound was. From what he could feel, it went from his left pectoral muscle and wrapped around towards his back.
"I uh…Do you want some soup? You've been asleep for over a day now. You need some nutrition." Korra held up the bowl of soup for him once again. He stared at her. "Eating will help speed up your recovery. Nainai gave me some bandages made from some special plant. It's suppose to help draw out some of the poison but she said while the poison is inside you, it'll affect your bending. If stay properly hydrated and fed, you'll get your full bending back in no time."
He did want the soup but he didn't want to give her the satisfaction. "Did you tell anyone?"
The question caught Korra off guard. "No. I didn't really have time. Do you want me to tell Tarrlok? Maybe he could draw some of the poison out?"
"No." Was his only response before he took the bowl from her hand. She smiled inwardly.
"I hope it's alright. I tried to make it as closely to my mother's as possible."
"You…made the soup?" Not many things terrified him, but he wasn't exactly a fan of terrible cooking.
"Hey, I'm not the worse cook out there. I thought it tasted pretty good."
Even if it tasted awful, he did need his strength. He hated feeling powerless.

Almost a week past since Noatak got injured. She knew everyone was suspicious about her being gone so much. Mako had asked her about it multiple times but she made up any excuse that came to mind. A part of her wanted to tell them what happened but she decided to oblige to Noatak's wishes and kept her mouth shut, despite everything he did. The only one who knew was Nainai but she had no interest in telling anyone. In fact, she didn't seem to have much interest in the fact that he was dying. He was growing worse by each day that passed and Korra couldn't figure it out why. She cleaned his wound regularly and applied the bandages like Nainai told her too. So why was he getting weaker? The poison should have been out of his system by now. Soon, he wouldn't be able to sit up on his own anymore.
"You ever think that maybe he doesn't want to get better?"
Korra was staring at a tree somewhere in the forest when she heard Nainai's voice behind her. She had came out there to think to herself about where she went wrong while caring for Noatak. "What do you mean?"
"If that poison stays in his system long enough, it'll kill him. He's using what little bending he has to keep the poison inside him."
"But why would he do that?" She turned around to meet the elder, who gave her a look that suddenly made her feel stupid. "What I mean is, why would he want to die that way? He hates feeling powerless. You said yourself that he loves power."
"He likes the idea of death more than power."
"And you knew he was doing this the entire time? How come you haven't stop him?"
"Well, I have no idea why I would let an abusive, power hungry, homicidal, rapist dictator die. It just baffles me." Her words dripped with sarcasm, which made Korra slightly angry. "And here's the part where you ask how can you prevent this despite knowing the world would be a happier place without him in it."
Korra's face hardened. "What do I have to do?"
Nainai rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "Follow the Eastern river in the opposite direction the river flows. Eventually you'll come across a series of mountains. At the highest one lies bushels of berries. Gather a few stem-full, put them in some soup and they'll neutralize the poison within a day."
"Why didn't you tell me about the berries before?"
"They were a gift from my sister. Anything she gives me is picky beyond belief. The berries only grow in certain altitudes and they're also picky about what stage they work in. If you were to give him the berries 3 days ago, they would have made him worse. The berries will only heal him after the poison's been in him for a certain amount of time."
Korra didn't say anything else. She turned to get started on her journey.
"But one last thing." The older lady's voice stopped her in her track. "The mountains aren't made out of Earth. You won't be able to bend anything on it. If you fall, that'll be the end and you'll leave Kajuq without a mother. Would you risk leaving your child motherless for the man who made your life a living nightmare?"
She got her answer when Korra started walking off again.
She came to the mountains with a sense of determination but after she got so far up the mountain, that determine was slowly being replaced by fear. She figured it was high but she didn't know exactly how high it would be until she got half-way up the mountain. The base of the mountain was easy to climb. There was even a path made out, though it got smaller the higher she went until it was completely gone. From there, she had to grab random ledges and make her way up. The rest of her journey consisted of reaching, pulling, and shimmying. A few times, the portion of the mountain she grabbed gave out but she always steadied herself and pushed forward.
Towards the top of the mountain, another path formed but it was narrow and looked like it would give out at any moment. She was so close to the berries though. She could see the bushes growing just a few feet above her. Keeping her mind set on the berries, she made her way up until she was in reach of one of the bushes. A smile graced her lips as plucked some of the branches off one of the bushes while keeping her body steady on the ledge.
'Just one more branch…' The ledge beneath her foot suddenly crumbled. Her hand quickly grabbed the last branch as tightly as she could as she started sliding down the mountain. Her other hand tried to find something to grab onto. She didn't find anything. Her sliding quickly turned into falling. At this height, even if she landed half-way down the mountain, she'd be dead. She did the only thing she could do: Scream.
She didn't know how long she was falling. Everything happened too fast and yet painfully slow. Suddenly, there was pain radiating through her right arm and shoulder. She stopped falling but she was still on the mountain, even if she were dangling. How? Her eyes frantically looked around. They were blurry but they began to focus enough to see that someone had grabbed her arm mid-fall.
"Noatak?" She breathed.
He used whatever strength he had left to pull her on the ledge which was wider and more sturdy than the one she fell off. She could see from his now bloody bandages that he was going to start bleeding out soon, again.
"What are you doing here? You're suppose to be laying down and resting!" The thought that she almost died completely left her mind. She was more concerned with the fact that the blood bender in front of her looked like he was about to pass out from overexerting himself and she knew she wouldn't have the strength to catch him or pull him up if he fell off the mountain, especially with her shoulder which she was now beginning to think was dislocated from the pain that intensified as soon as she was stable.
"What is wrong with you?" He panted. "Why are you so desperate to help me that you'd risk your life for me? Do you pity me that much that you see me nothing more than some scared, traumatized little boy? If you want to help me, then do me a favor and stop being so stupid. Let me die in peace. Nothing good can come out of keeping me alive."
He didn't expect her to get angry but that's what she did. Her eyebrows frowned and her eyes narrowed. "You want to know why I'm trying my hardest to help you? Because I don't believe you're a monster. You're hurt and all you know is misery. I want to show you a world what's it like to not be miserable for once. I want you to have some kind of happiness and peace before you depart from this world. What you did to me was awful, but it made me realize what kind of evil lurks in this world. I can't fight it unless I know true suffering and compassion. Everything starts with me. I can bring good into this world and I can help spread it."
"What you speak of is just a child's fairy-tale. The world has never worked that way. You can never get rid of the pain in this world and you can't get rid of my pain."
"We wouldn't know because you never try." Her voice was sounding just as agitated as his. "You don't have to be some bad guy. You can help out an orphanage, feed some homeless people, even help an old lady across the street but do something! You want to know what real power is? It's not blood bending. It's not running an entire city with an iron fist. It's not stripping away a part of people so you can 'equalize' everyone. True power is bringing joy and happiness where you can. Anyone can make someone miserable but someone with true power helps others. It's why the Avatar has always been so powerful. It's my job, my destiny to help others and I won't stop. If I can show compassion to my rapist then I know I can do anything. Now stop questioning me and let's go before you slip on your own blood."
Surprisingly, he didn't say anything. He looked angry but she didn't back down. She shimmied past him while holding her injured arm. He quietly followed her, making their way down the mountain as carefully as possible.
Korra wanted him to go back to the cabin but he refused. She came to the conclusion that he didn't want anyone to see him that way. After she made sure he was resting in the cave, she returned back to the cabin to make some soup. On her way back, she wondered how he even knew she was at the mountain. Nainai likely told him, or maybe he sensed something like she did when he got injured. By the time she got back to the group, the evening was setting in and she could hear Kajuq wailing from inside.
She quickly entered to cabin and saw Asami holding her son on the couch, Bolin sitting next to her in an attempt to calm him down, and Tarrlok laying on the other couch with his hands over his ears. Bolin looked like he was ready to cry when he saw her walk in.
"Korra! How we've missed you! Mako went to help Nainai with something and Kajuq has not stopped crying since."
"We've tried everything. The pacifier, toys, food, milk, funny faces, rocking him. He just won't stop." Asami looked like she was worn down. Her normally perfect hair looked disheveled and her eyes looked like they were begging for a nap.
"I'm sorry. He usually doesn't cry much." Korra said as she walked into the room. Her son stopped fussing when he noticed his mother and his arms instantly reached out for her to hold him. She gladly took him into her arms. "Why don't you come with mommy for a while?"
"I don't think I want children." Asami said as she slumped against the couch.
"Join the club." Tarrlok said.

"I made more ginger rice soup. I know it's not the best but to be honest, it's the only soup I know how to make."
Noatak took the bowl from her. He actually liked her soup. It tasted almost like his mother's but he'd never admit that to her. Instead, he mumbled a thank you before he began eating. Korra faintly smiled. She held her son in her lap as she watched him eat his soup. Unfortunately for her, Kajuq started reaching out for the bowl and fussing. She sighed.
"You just ate half an hour ago." She argued. It did no good. His crying grew louder and he started squirming in her arms. Why did she even bother talking to him as if he could understand her. She reached into the small bag sitting next to her and pulled out a dinner bun Nainai had baked yesterday. "Here, chew on this." Kajuq immediately took the bun into his mouth.
"I'll stay here tonight to keep an eye on you. I have some water, blankets, food. If you need anything, just ask." She said after a few minutes of silence.
"You're like a mother." He said. She couldn't tell if he was irritated or not from his tone.
"I am a mother." She thought for a minute. "Can I ask you something?"
"If I said no, I'm sure you'd ask it anyway." He slurped the last of his soup.
"How did you know I was on the mountain? And why did you save me?"
He stared at his empty bowl while pondering her questions. "It doesn't matter."
"It does to me."
His eyes met her intense stare. "I just felt something was wrong. That's all you need to know."
"But why save me? With me gone, you could have died from the poison like you wanted."
He gave her back the bowl and laid down the makeshift bed of furs. "I'm tired."
She nodded. "Alright. Get some rest. As soon as that poison's out of your body and you're back to normal, we're getting out of here."
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