#fyrefic

Asami is laying on the metal bed as you’re sitting on your slab of a bed with your back leaned against the wall. You both slept as comfortably as you both can get, especially you being all cuffed up. By morning, you both are relaxing you decide to meditate when you hear the door opening. You both look over and your eyes widening to see Lin at the door and you’re both surprised and happy to see her. “I hope you got enough beauty rest, come on. I’m busting you out.” Both of you get up and Asami thanks Lin before running out to the cell while you walk out. Lin opens Mako and Bolin’s cell open Asami running in and she embraces and gives Mako a kiss. Lin looks back at you and walks over taking out her master key as she holds a chest plate. She takes hold of your hands and starts opening the cuffs before speaking, “I was wondering where you were. I would’ve thought you would barge in last night to keep me informed on the whereabouts of the force.” You smile as she lets you free and you rub your wrists, slight bruising on your wrists. “yeah well… I got held up.” Lin gets your hand bringing it up to her eyes and looks over at your wrists, “they shouldn’t have cuffed you so tight” she softly rubs your wrist. You look at her as she looks at your wrist with such care, she notices you looking at her and she drops your hand. “I’m fine, it’ll heal.” Lin gives you another glance before handing you the metal chest plate with the cable attachment on the back “I was only able to get this” you thank her “it’s fine, I look better sleeveless anyways” you smirk. The corners of Lin’s lips slightly raise before she walks in the brother’s cell, “hate to break up your lovers’ reunion, but Korra’s in trouble. Amon captured her.” You finish bending the chest plate on before looking at Lin in shock “no…there’s no way..” you mutter in disbelief as you walk over to the door, putting your jacket back on and button it up while you stand besides Lin. Mako seems to take news the hardest before Lin speaks again “come on. We have an avatar to rescue.” Asami and Mako are the first to run out, Bolin soon follows after but Lin zips up Bolin’s zipper with her metal bending and you stifle a laugh while Bolin’s cheeks get red with embarrassment.  “your fly was down” Lin turn around and walks away. “thanks for catching that” Bolin quietly says as you lightly ruffle up Bolin’s hair smiling. You can’t help but find that little flick of metal bending attractive, especially from Lin.

*

The five of you walk inside Tenzin’s office and he is surprised to see all of you together in the room. He quickly hangs up his office phone trying to understand how we all got out. Lin explains that she figured he will need help to find Korra. You and Mako ask Tenzin if he has any leads. Which he has nothing as of yet, Mako suggest using Naga if anyone can find her it’s her polar bear-dog. Tenzin let’s everyone know that Naga unfortunately has gone missing too, surely taken by the Equalists too. “but how was Korra taken? I thought she went back to you, Tenzin?” you look over at him. He explained that “both Korra and I came back to Air Temple Island. By morning, I received a call about City Hall where I saw Tarrlok at the scene getting healed. Tarrlok explained that Korra visited him last night about freeing you four, and that was when they got attacked by the equalists.” You start to think on the information you feel it in your gut that something isn’t adding up. Lin starts suggesting where the equalist should be “my guess is that they are hiding underground. In the maze of tunnels underneath the city.” Lin puts her hands on her waist. Bolin nods his head in agreement “yeah that makes sense, when I got captured it sounded like we drove into a tunnel. “Mako’s face perks up hearing his brother explain “I know where to start looking. Come on.” The three of them start running out of the room. You turn to Lin and Tenzin “idk how I know, but something isn’t adding up. Why would they leave Tarrlok behind and only take Korra?” Tenzin faces you and thinks “probably as a message seeing how they broke into City Hall. To scare us further to think they are close to overtaking the city.” You think, taking in his words and slowly nod “maybe…” Lin adds into the conversation “wherever Amon is keeping Korra, I bet that’s where my officers are too.” You look at Lin putting your hand on her shoulder “we’ll get them back, Lin” Tenzin agrees with you “Let’s bring them all home, Lin” he adds.

*

Mako tells Tenzin the area of the city he and Korra had followed Bolin the night he got captured. You all ride on Tenzin’s flying bison, Lin sits next to you “so you quit the force?” she looks out at the city. You look out too then look at Lin “yeah, it’s gone downhill since you left. Saikhan is the worst chief in history.” You mutter out. Lin lets out a laugh “there’s only been two before him” you quickly add “exactly, doesn’t change my opinion. His predecessor is the best overall if you ask me” you smile before looking away to see the view of the city. Lin looks back at you before looking down and smiles softly. “there!” Mako yells out. Tenzin steers Oogi to the top of a building and all of you climb down. Everyone gets down to the street as Mako and Bolin try to figure out what direction to take next. Lin uses her seismic sense and points out the direction of a nearby tunnel. Everyone quickly runs in that direction and are soon find a large opening with bars. You and Lin look down and you notice the motorcycle tracks and exchange looks with her giving her a nod, “motorcycle tracks” you confirm. “Korra has to be in there” Mako says then you metal bend the gate open.

Everyone walks inside and several tunnels are branched out in front of you before you can even suggest splitting up Mako takes the initiative and points out a tunnel. “Let’s try this way” Asami steps up and asks him “and what if there’s Korra’s not down there?” Mako looks at her filled with emotion “then we pick another tunnel until we do find her.” You look over at Mako and find it weird how he is acting about Korra. I mean sure Korra is his friend, but he is being way more angst and worry than the rest of you. You look at Asami and notice she too seems to have a suspicious look on her face. Yet you all follow Mako in the direction of the tunnel he chose. You hear Asami behind you with Bolin and asks him about Mako while you look at the tunnel ahead. You’re upset several yards away when you look back and see Bolin and Asami behind and call them out loud enough for them to hear but quiet enough to not raise any alarm. You notice some lights approaching your group quickly and everyone runs over to a column to hide. You peer out enough to see two motorcycle approaching a wall and a secret door opens letting them in. “come on!” you whisper as you and the rest of the gang follow. You check around the wall and don’t see any secret buttons or levers running your hand around “it must be one sided.” Lin walks up and puts her palm on the wall and gets a sense for any lever or mechanism. She finds a wheel and turns it opening the door and metal bends the wall open, before waving everyone inside. You access the area and watch some chi-blocks moving cargo, one mentions something about the prison. “that’s probably where they’re keeping Korra” Tenzin whispers. “let’s go” Lin gives the signal to start moving. Everyone gets on the tram and starts moving it to the next checkpoint. “we’re gonna have to jump off before we get to the checkpoint. We don’t know how many there could be” you call out everyone nods and once you get too close to the end everyone hops off and lets the tram arrive. You notice two blockers walk out in front of the tunnel investigating the empty tram. You and Lin exchange looks knowing what to do and you both shoot out your cables each grabbing on and pulling them over to you and slam them to the wall. You secure the blockers with some cables and Lin orders Bolin and Asami to watch over them. The rest of you continue on, you turn a corner and see two additional blockers at the hall they throw their set of cables at you four, but Tenzin air bends a large gust of wind and knocks them out. As you continue walking you and Lin walk towards the officers while Mako interrogates the blocker with Tenzin. You find the officers and metal bend the bars open letting Lin walk in, she looks in horror to find the men there defeated, she looks down “I’m too late aren’t I? That monster took your bending already, didn’t he?” all the officers look down and sadly nod “I’m so sorry” she sadly looks at them all “come on. Let’s get you all out of here.” She and the officers step out the cell where you’re waiting, and Lin gives you a sadden look. You look down sad that you guys got there too late to save them. One of the officers recognize you “y/n, you’re here too?” you nod and walk beside him “of course, I had to come help rescues you guys…. sorry we were too late though” you look down. You look to see Mako about to fire punch one of the blockers but stops once your group approaches. Lin states she searched the entire area and doesn’t sense Korra in the building. Mako angrily calls out “why would Tarrlok make up a story about being attacked” both you and Tenzin answer at the same time “because he has Korra”. The alarms start blaring out and you all start running towards the tram. “can’t we make this thing go any faster?!” you yell out but soon see a large amount of chi-blockers waiting there for you all, “Lin, Look!” you point out “we got more company” Lin exclaims as you look around the tunnel “we have to change the course of this tram!” Lin looks up and notices railing on the roof and bends them apart making a new rail for the tram to ride on, “Hang on” she yells out, you grab onto the front railing of the tram bracing for the impact of the sudden shift and earth bends an opening for the tram to drive through. Everyone slowly gets up and you earth bend the ceiling and see the sky; you bend a ramp to let everyone run out of the tunnel. You then bend it away and Lin closes the hole, escaping out to safety.

*

The six of you walk into City Hall to see Saikhan and the rest of the council before you hear Tarrlok’s voice coming from behind you guys “Have any news of Avatar Korra?”. Everyone turns around to face him and you step forward “quit the farce, Tarrlok” you call out Tenzin follows suit “you kidnapped her, Tarrlok!” pointing his finger at him. Tarrlok keeps his act straight shocked at what he’s hearing “I am shocked you would accuse me of such an evil act. I already explained. Equalists attacked us and took her.” He tries his best to sound traumatized. “How nice of them to leave you behind” you deadpanned “there were no chi-blockers here last night.” Tenzin states “you planted the evidence, didn’t you” he accuses Tarrlok. Tarrlok gets upset and raises his voice “that is a ridiculous accusation! I would never”. Another voice joins in the conversation but it sounds high up in the second floor of the Hall everyone looks up and sees Tarrlok’s assistant hiding behind a column. “It’s true! He took her!” his voice shaking in fear. “I was here when Avatar Korra arrived last night, but councilman Tarrlok ordered me to leave. I was on my way out when I saw Tarrlok bring her down to the garage.” Tarrlok is quick to dismiss what his assistant says “that is nonsense! Everyone knows you’re nothing but a squeaky-voiced liar!” Lin looks back at the assistant crossing her arms “why did you wait until now to ‘fess up?” she orders him to respond. The assistant is still cowered in fear holding onto the column “I was terrified to tell because—BECAUSE TARRLOK IS A BLOODBENDER! HE BLOODBENT AVATAR KORRA!” he screams out and you quickly look down at Tarrlok your eyes widening. You’ve never seen a bloodbender before, you’ve heard all the scary stories about them. You and Lin slowly start to get in a fighting stance while Tenzin tries to calm the situation “Don’t make this worse for yourself tell us where you have Korra.” You’re glaring down at him waiting for him to surrender or tell you where Korra is, but he starts to strike. Tenzin air bends, Lin uses her metal bending and you try to earth bend but all three of you get taken control by his blood bending. All three of you are groaning, you look around at Lin and Tenzin then at Tarrlok soon you hear everyone else groaning. You think ‘but how? It’s not a full moon’ you feel your body constricting on itself and you’re knocked out.

*

Lin softly shakes you and rubs your cheek “y/n, wake up” you start to gain consciousness and look up at her and smile “we have to stop meeting like this” she helps you up and you groan rubbing your temple. She makes sure you’re alright before she walks over to Tenzin and reaches down giving him a hard smack “wake up” she jeers. Tenzin quickly wakes up and everyone slowly starts to get to their feet. Lin walks back to you and helps you up to your feet “we’ve only been out for a little while, maybe we can still pick up Tarrlok’s trail.” Lin says as he looks at Tenzin “it could lead us to Korra, let’s go” You look confused as you all walk out the doors of City Hall and speak up “but how was he able to bloodbend? I thought they could only bend on a full moon?” Tenzin looks at you nothing being able to give you an answer “I don’t know…”

*

You all are riding on Oogi looking over the streets of the city in search for Korra. “you think she can be here in the city? She could be at a mountainside somewhere for all we know” you call out “let’s just try a few more blocks then we’ll head there” Mako responds back full of angst. You’ve passed by a couple of blocks and soon you hear a loud howl “that sounds like Naga!” Mako yells out. Tenzin steers Oogi to the direction of the noise and Mako sees Korra in his line of sight “down there!” he points down at a street. Everyone gets down and Lin and Tenzin walk over to Korra. She looks beaten and worn out. “where’s Tarrlok? how did you get away?” she starts asking her Mako quickly pushes them side and rushes to Korra “give her some space” he helps her off Naga and carries her in his arms. You look at Mako before you look at Asami and you feel mad and upset for her. You watch as Mako lays Korra down in the saddle on Oogi, then look over at Lin, “as much as we have questions about how she escaped and the whereabouts of Tarrlok. She looks too worn out and beaten. She needs rest.” Tenzin looks down and agrees. You offer to walk Naga back to the port to take her to Air Temple Island, Asami decides to go with you. The rest of the group goes on Oogi and fly to the island. You pet Naga and she receives your hand kindly and you ask if it would be okay for you and Asami to catch a ride on her to the boat to meet Korra. Naga looks at you and bows her head and allows you, you climb up then reach down and help Asami up before you give Naga the okay and help her steer her way through the city toward the docks. Once you guys are on the ferry boat making your way to the island and Asami speaks up, “I’m not going crazy about how Mako has been acting lately, right?” You’re leaning on the edge of the boat looking at the water then sigh “no, I picked up on it too back when we were at the tunnels. At first I thought he was just worried about his friend, but once we saw Korra on Naga it was a dead given.” You don’t look at Asami and she sighs “what should I do? I don’t want to seem like the jealous girlfriend, but I don’t want to be taken as a fool either. Although, Bolin did tell me that they kissed before.” You look around at the water searching for an answer “well, the only way you can know for sure is to talk to him. Communication is always best. Even though I don’t like pressuring a guy like Mako needs to be pushed. Pressure him to tell you his feelings for Korra.” You finally look over at Asami and looks over at the waves. Thinking things over in her mind.

*

You and Asami walk Naga over to the stables and take her saddle off then thank her for her allowing you girls to ride her and pet her head before heading out. You’re walking back toward the women’s dormitory when you run into Lin, “y/n, can I talk to you for a moment?” she looks at you, Asami look at you “it’s okay, I know my way. I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight. Night Lin” she waves at both of you before walking away.

You look at Lin “you want to talk here?” Lin nods you over and you both walk side to side up towards the gazebo, “Tenzin has offered us rooms to rest, if you accept.” You nod “I appreciate his hospitality; it would be better to stay here and guard Korra in case Amon wants to try to capture her.” You grab onto the rail and look out towards the city. “I was thinking the same thing” Lin looks at you then over to the city. “do you think we have a chance to take Amon down?” your voice starts to fill with concern “we couldn’t take Tarrlok down and Amon got to him. Amon is stronger…or at least smarter.” You mutter your eyes analyzing the floor. “I don’t know, but Amon needs to be taken down by any means necessary.” Lin responds back and you nod “I agree”

There is a slight moment of silence that fills the air before Lin speaks again. “I hope you didn’t quit the force because of me” you close your eyes and smile “I mean…I did miss seeing you at the station everyday” you open your eyes and look at her and see looks back and meets your eyes then look out back at the water. “…but no, that wasn’t the reason, maybe ten percent.” You grin but keep talking get serious again “I just didn’t like how Saikhan was handling the force. It was no longer the RCPF it just became a bigger version of Tarrlok’s task force. Saikhan was so far up Tarrlok’s ass to do anything than take his orders.” You spat out, and watch Lin smile and give you a laugh at your last comment. You stop to enjoy the image before continuing and told her the story of that night you quit. “I swore to protect this city when I joined the force, and the force isn’t doing anything to protect its people; benders or non-benders. When Tarrlok and Saikhan ordered me to arrest those innocent people. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, even when Saikhan threaten me that my job was on the line. I knew that arresting those people wasn’t the right thing to do. I can’t work and represent a force who believe what they did that night, was right. They shouldn’t get to be called cops.” You mutter as you talk out passionately about what you believe in, “I love Republic City for its diversity, people from all nations and elements living under one place. Benders and non benders striving to live a better life. Living side by side. That’s the beauty in what makes this city so great, but now it’s crumbling down because a few people don’t believe we can get to that point of harmony.”

The signs were many to those who knew how to look. Through the sneer of his eyes or the tremor in his step, or even the new scientific ways of looking at the shape of his brain - although that last one was more of a postmortem thing

The executioner didn’t really know that kind of stuff. All he knew was that everyone looked like they wanted to piss their pants just before the blade came crashing down.

Some actually did.

It was his job. A thankless job, sure, and the executioner did try his hardest not to think about the lives he was taking away, but it was a job. He only got the job because he looked the part of the great, brutish executioner and really what he wanted to do was to design interesting houses and collect clouds.

He had heard of people who did that! They just went to heaven and grabbed handfuls of the fluffy white stuff and then… snorted it?

Why would you snort white stuff?

The executioner had learned that from some of the people he executed. He liked talking to them the night before their death, commiserating with them and making their last night a little bit more enjoyable.

He was going down to the cells now to see who he had to off tomorrow. The guards had sniggered nervously, wishing him good luck and wondering if he’d actually survive the morrow. The executioner was getting a bit worried now- he had dealt with some tricky customers in the past, and had only just escaped with his life intact.

The Creeper had been the worst. It was a miracle that it hadn’t exploded before being led to the stage, and even more so that he had managed to chop off its head before it did so! Sometimes, the executioner questioned the royal family’s judgements, but privately, of course.

He didn’t want to have to execute himself!

Anyway, the only thing worse than that creeper could be a dragon, and the executioner was thanking his lucky stars that the royal family couldn’t be crazy enough to execute a dragon.

The latest prisoner was in the special cell, so the executioner had to go unlock about three padlocked doors, do the limbo under the arrow trap, edge past the bottomless pit and then step on the specially coloured tiles. He had designed this place himself and was very proud of the architectural motifs of the place.

The final door was a piece of cake compared to the traps. The executioner unlocked the door, stepped back to avoid the second arrow trap and then stepped back again in horror.

Just barely fitting into the cell was a large, reptilian bulk. Dark brown scales scraped against the walls and the iron bars, framed by a pale exoskeleton that really did look like the ribs of a skeleton. The ‘ribs’ connected to a sinuous spine, spanning the whole expanse of the dragon from the tip of the tail to what looked like the top half of a hideous skull, perched on top of the great draconic head. Orange feathers poked out behind the skull, from the elbows and legs and from the tail.

They wanted him to execute a dragon.

How did they manage to fit this thing into the cell, anyway?!

"I didn’t do anything wrong!" said the dragon in a surprisingly high pitched, nervous tone. It stared down at the executioner with beady yellow eyes that never blinked. "I’m innocent!"

The sheer weirdness of this broke the executioner from his horrified trance. “Y- you must have done something,” he said. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be in here!”

The dragon was making a high pitched keening noise now. Its tail was lashing about, the orange feathers on the end whipping around like a fan. “You have to believe me, I- I don’t wanna die! I’m an innocent lizard and you seem like a reasonable guy so you have to believe me! I don’t wanna diiiiiiiie!”

"Calm down!" said the executioner in an equally calm tone. "I- aaaaaahhhhhhh-"

They screamed at each other for a good few minutes.

From the screaming, the executioner had gathered that the dragon’s name was Fyre, it was a he and that he really was not as terrifying as he looked, as evidenced by the sobbing noises.

"It’s- it’s discrimination," Fyre said. "I- I wanted to go to architectural school but they wouldn’t let me because I couldn’t fit in the door. I just wanted to make nice things and be a great builder-"

"I wanna build things too!" the executioner burst out.

The two stared at each other. They didn’t quite start screaming again, but what happened next might have been worse.

Fyre thought that the design of the prison was pretty nice in parts- more specifically, the parts that the executioner had contributed to. He explained his ideas, sketching out an elaborate design on the rocky floor with his sharp claws, chiselling out the worlds inside his head.

They talked throughout the night, if such a thing could be called night in this dark cell.

"Uh, do you have a name?" Fyre asked at some point.

The executioner had to think about it. He had always been the executioner to the people of the city, never anything else. “They call me Brute,” he said.

"Brute," said the dragon, rolling the name all over his lizardy tongue. "W-wanna get out of here?"

A few hours later, the guards outside the jail were beginning to place bets on whether the executioner would ever be seen again. The one who had placed everything on ‘being eaten by a dragon’ was slowly reaching for the pile of coins. He was rudely interrupted by a loud crash emanating from the far end of the prison.

The guards went over to investigate and saw, to their amazement, the executioner perched on top of the skeletal dragon. The dragon was clambering over the city walls, and as the guards watched, both disappeared out of sight.

They also seemed to be screaming at each other.

Unfortunately, the guards themselves were then put up for execution. However, since there was no one to do the executioning, the guards were placed on probation.

As for the dragon and the executioner?