Smiling, I turned around and looked between Bolin and Mako, hoping my assumption was correct since my memories regarding pro-bending were hazy, but they just silently stared at me, causing me to awkwardly scratch my head. 'Eh, I must've done something against the rules.'
However, I was unable to get them to clarify which rule I had broken, as the referee blew the whistle. "Foul! Fire Ferrets! Play doesn't count! Ice-bending is not allowed!" Hearing the referee, I just stared at him in confusion. 'Why would the play not count? We got the point, it shouldn't matter.'
"What!? Play doesn't count!? Do you have eyes!?" "How is that a foul on us!?" As Mako aggressively yelled at the referee with Bolin backing him up, my eyes slightly widened, realizing our team was the Fire Ferrets, not the other team. 'Damn, how did I forget our own team name?' While feeling slightly embarrassed, the other team was brought back onto the arena, and none of them looked pleased, given the dagger-like glares they were giving me, though I waved back, unbothered by their petty acts.
However, just as we were beginning to restart the first match, we began to hear yelling and screams of pain from the audience, causing all of us to gaze into the stands, where we witnessed metalbending officers being stunned with electricity by members of the audience.
"What the?" Muttering under my breath, we watched as Lin Beifong and even Tenzin, both caught off guard, got knocked unconscious by the electricity, causing me to frown. "Equalists!?" Hearing Bolin, I snapped my gaze to him. "Equalists? It's them?" He seemed slightly taken aback by my response, but he nodded while quickly elaborating.
"It has to be, Korra! Don't you remember Amon threatening the United Republic Council if they didn't cancel the Pro-bending tournament?" Honestly, I didn't remember it, but I just nodded, pretending I did. "C'mon, let's go stop them then." Ignoring the championship, I ran to the edge of the arena, waving my hand to create water sprouts before freezing them, thus forming an ice bridge to the stadium.
Yet, as the three of us made it halfway across, an airship suddenly crashed through the dome, flinging debris everywhere and breaking the bridge we were running across.
"Ahh, I hate the water!" As Mako yelled while falling, we crashed into water, quickly surfacing a few moments later. "You guys fine?" Glancing at the brothers, they both nodded, prompting me to raise my hands, only to stop when I saw a dude in a suit holding two kali sticks. "Um, isn't that the lieutenant of the Equalists?" 'Oh, that's why he gave me a sense of deja vu.'
Watching him, he knelt and stuck his kali sticks into the water before pressing a button on them, electrifying the water that was still in it. "Arghh!" "H-Hurts!" Feeling the intense tingling pain of being electrified, I quickly raised my hand, pointing two fingers at the lieutenant as I drew the electricity into my body before redirecting it back at him, causing a thick bolt of lightning to escape my two fingers, striking him dead in the chest.
As he crashed into the wall, his body went limp, likely unconscious. "Man, that hurt." Rubbing my neck, I took a quick breath and raised both arms into the air, my open palms pointing at the sky as a massive column of water pushed us out of the water before freezing it, ensuring no debris would be enough to break it.
"Oi, get up, you two." Approaching Mako and Bolin, I tried gently slapping them; they weren't unconscious, but other than their head, they didn't seem able to move their bodies. "S-Sorry, I-I can't move a-anything." "Y-Yeah, m-my body is a t-tingly mess." "W-Well c-cheer you on t-though."
Rolling my eyes at Bolin, I shifted my gaze to the arena, where I saw Amon fighting the other team, well, more like he was playing with them; he wasn't even bending. I didn't intervene; instead, I watched him, remembering what Aang said about Amon. 'He's likely a blood bender.'
Honestly, I was still a bit skeptical about Aang's claim; not because I didn't trust him, but because blood-bending was illegal. Where would he learn blood-bending from? The only ones who knew how to bloodbend were Katara and me, but that's only thanks to Aang pushing me to understand it. However, as I watched him, although he never clearly bended, I ended up softly sighing in defeat as Aang was correct. 'He is indeed a bloodbender.'
He didn't bloodbend his three opponents; he was using bloodbending on himself, forcing his body to move in unnatural directions, to dodge while in mid-air. I'm sure to most, he'd just be insanely acrobatic, but having lived with Aang for eight years, someone who was truly insanely acrobatic, it was clear as day; Amon was moving in a way that would be impossible even for Aang.
'Haa, well, guess it's good I learned blood-bending.' Leaving the brothers, I leaped onto the arena, approaching the Amon while thrusting my palm forward, sending a gust of wind their way, knocking the other team off the arena, saving them from possibly getting blood bent by Amon, who landed perfectly.
"Korra, be a good girl and back down, as I promised. Your time has not come yet." Staring at me through the mask, he shifted his gesture to the stadium, causing several equalists to grapple hook towards the arena, surrounding me. "This feels oddly familiar." Muttering softly, I snapped out of the deja vu feeling when I saw Amon turn around, prompting me to stop on the ground, creating a gust of wind that knocked the others off balance before I stomped again while raising an arm, using the earth to imprison them.
"Now I remember, we had that fight on Aang Memorial Island… Man, that was really cowardly of you. I remember you didn't come alone, right? Well, it doesn't matter; a lot has changed since then. Even if there were an army of you, it wouldn't be enough." Shaking my head in disappointment at Amon, I cracked my neck and fingers while looking at Amon, who just quietly stared at me.
Lowering into a stance, a bunch of metal ropes suddenly began wrapping around me, binding me, causing me to glance at a few new equalists. "What was that about an army of me?" I just chuckled at Amon's mocking tone as I controlled the metal bindings, causing them to drop to the ground before manipulating them to bind the equalists.
"You weren't able to metal-bend last time." "Yeah, it was actually my first time doing it… Sorry, Aang, but I think Kyoshi's a better teacher." Without further delay, I stepped forward and swiftly raised my arms, surging two columns of water towards Amon before bringing my two fingers together and thrusting them at the water, firing lightning at it and electrifying it.
The me of before would've never been able to do this, let alone bending such a massive amount of water, even if I could lightning-bend, I wouldn't have thought of combining it with water to make my attack more dangerous.
'Now, you either get electrocuted by my inescapable attack or you–' My thoughts weren't even able to finish as the water columns that surged towards him unnaturally changed directions, before revealing Amon in a bending stance.
"Hah, see that, the leader of the anti-bending group is actually a bender himself!" Grinning, I used sound-bending to amplify my voice and gather everyone's attention as I pointed at Amon, who wasn't pleased as I felt my body start contorting unnaturally. "How. How did you get this much stronger in only two weeks!"
Having exposed Amon, I saw no reason to continue this farce; forcefully, I broke free from his blood bending, an act that actually required quite a bit of effort. "Huh, damn, that wasn't as easy as I was expecting; you're bloodbending is really quite dangerous. I would've been helpless without Aang." Rubbing my neck, I glanced at Amon, whose expression was concealed, but I could see the shock and confusion within his eyes.
"H-How. H-How did you–" "Break from your blood bending? Well, it's simple, really. I'm just a stronger blood bender." Whether out of anger or because of desperation, Amon tried again, but I retaliated by bending his own body, forcing him to his knees before imprisoning him within the earth while approaching him.
"You're reign ends here, Amon. You and the Equalists will be no more, courtesy of the Avatar." Standing in front of Amon, I removed his mask, revealing his face. Pressing my thumb against his forehead, copying his act, I used my blood-bending to block his chi-pathways. 'I wouldn't have been able to do this without Aang either.'
Once I finished blocking his pathways, I freed him and watched as he descended into despair, continuously trying to blood bend, though it all led to failure, prompting me to imprison him once more. Ignoring him, I proceeded to capture every other equalist using metal-bending, immobilizing them with their own equipment, which took only half a minute.
"I would say easy, but it took me 8 years, so." Wryly smiling, I stretched and yawned, though as I did so, I felt tears begin to stream down my face, causing me to touch my cheek in confusion. "Huh, tears." As I looked at my tears, I felt my legs give out as I collapsed to my knees, my vision proceeding to blur from the sheer amount of tears.
"H-Has reality finally hit me? I-I was wondering when it would happen." Forcing a smile, I stared at the ground, which was being stained with my tears, only for the dam within me to burst as all the tears and pain came flooding out. "AANG!!"
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Years Later
"Hey, Mom, can you tell me the story of when you went to that faraway place?" Glancing down at Aang, I faintly smiled, lifting him into the air with airbending as he sat on my lap while he looked at me with the same eyes as his father's.
"Okay, but you have to promise that you'll go to sleep afterwards." "Fine, Mom."
"Okay then… Just before the pro-bending championship, I was whisked away through a portal into another world, where I met three other people, Kyoshi, Roku, and Aang…"