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one.

She's been back in the city for two weeks when the first raid catches her in the middle of her warm-ups. Today is her first fight, or at least it was supposed to be, before the metal-bending police busted through the high windows of their not-so-abandoned warehouse. Her senses are dulled from her months of rehabilitation and the roaring crowd surrounding the ring, and she doesn't notice the others until they rapel in.

Her speed isn't back yet, not quite, and she's rounded up with a dozens of others who didn't escape in time. The cops load her into the back of a paddy-wagon, and she's hip to hip – and hip to lap when they hit a pothole – with greasy spectators and buff fighters alike.

Once they arrive at the police station she keeps her head down and avoids making eye contact with anybody. She's in Earth Kingdom green and her hair is shorter, so there's a chance she won't be recognized. She sits in the corner between two of the league's top fighters, hoping their large girths will hide her.

They've been there for hours and she's trying not to drift off when a voice cuts across the room. "Everybody look here, now."

The room goes silent, and Korra chances a look at the chief. Lin Beifong is exactly the same, from her clothes to her posture to her demeanor, and Korra looks away before Beifong's sharp eyes can catch her.

"Your bail and fine have been taken care of, and you're all free to go after you've been processed. If you were a spectator tonight, I'd suggest you find another pastime to occupy yourself with.. If you're a fighter, better find yourself a new job."

Beifong slams her office door shut behind her, telling Korra that she is none-too-happy with the arrangement herself.

"You hear that, Guo? There goes two weeks' earnings."

The man on her left, Guo, sighs and shakes his head. "Not again. I'd rather spend a week in jail than owe Liwei anything."

"Liwei?" Korra asks before she can stop herself.

"You're new, aren't you." It isn't a question. "You'll find out for yourself soon enough, but when things like this happen, our chief… benefactor steps in and sweeps it all up under the rug." Guo says.

"For a price, of course," his friend says. "Newbie like you, won't be eating much more than rice for a good bit while you pay back his generous loan."

Korra closes her eyes and tries to forget the fact that she could easily melt these cuffs, because that would mean giving up her identity and losing the anonymity that she's worked so hard for.

###

two.

It's six weeks later and she's just had the absolute snot beaten out of her when the police come again. She's got two black eyes and a busted lip and doesn't even put up a fight when they knock down the infirmary's door; there's no way anyone would recognize her in this state.

She's handcuffed to Pingfei, another relatively new addition to the circuits who had the honor of being beaten to a pulp by the reigning champ, Chin-Hwa, in the match before hers. He's barely conscious after the fight and leans heavily on her in the back of the police van. He perks up a little by the time they reach the station, and Korra quietly fills him in while they're waiting to be in-processed.

"My mother is going to kill me if she ever finds out," he moans. "And the University will never take me back if they find out I have a police record."

"The University?" She asks quietly.

"I'm from a rural province of the Earth Kingdom," he explains. "My hometown is a small farming village, and they scraped together what they could to send me to university here in Republic City. But when the bandits came, well…" He clears his throat, and Korra thinks there might be a tear in his eye. "I'm taking a year off, to earn money myself to fund my tuition next year. But jobs are scarce for a country kid with no connections, and this was the best gig around."

"I'm from the south," she says. Oh god why am I talking what am I doing why did I even open my mouth. "But once I started bending, I stood out so much it hurt to try to blend in." I'm the Avatar, you gotta deal with it! "I ran away to Republic City, made some friends and I had a pretty good gig going for a while, but…" she takes a deep breath. She hasn't said any of this aloud, ever, never opened up to Asami or Bolin or even Mako about this.

"It's like you know who you are anymore." Pingfei says.

He looks up at her, his eyes so green they're almost black, and studies her. "At home I had three brothers who roughhoused to show love, and we listened to the probending matches every night on the radio. Then I got to Republic City where academics were expected to be above physical expression of emotion and probending, and it killed me. I snuck out of the dorms at least once a week to go watch matches."

"Me too!" Korra says before she can stop herself, and he makes a questioning face. "I mean, I was staying with some friends who…looked down on probending, but I never missed a match."

He laughs. "My roommate thought I had a secret girlfriend." Her laughter mixes with his, and it's the first time she's laughed in a long time. The nearest officer gives them a dirty look, and they sober up.

"You know you can just give them a fake name, " she says. "Use one of your brother's names, and your best friend's last name, if he had one. They won't know the difference."

He nods in thanks, and they sit in silence for some minutes.

"What were you studying at the University, anyways?"

"Psychology."

###

three.

The third time that Korra is caught in raid, Korra is shocked. Not so much at the fact that there was raid, but rather than she is caught – again – despite the fact that she had somehow managed to avoid the last half-dozen attempts to shut down their fighting rings.

"Good evening, officer," she says pleasantly as she's guided to a desk to be in-processed. She learned a long time ago that pleasantries are an easy way to be quickly forgotten. Her hair falls over her face and obscures her eyes and half her face, and she keeps her gaze tight on the corner of the polished wood desk in front of her.

"Name?" The officer is poised at a typewriter, and thankfully not Mako. He's a newer officer, about her age, and with a quick glance to the rank on his shoulder Korra knows he wouldn't have been in the force three years ago. This should go smoothly, then.

"Mika," she replies. The name's ambiguous enough; it could have easily been Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom, or the blend of the two that she was trying to pass off as.

"Bending?" The officer asked, never looking up.

"Earth," she says. And water, and fire, and even air, she thinks, just because she can. It's been months since the last time she conjured flames or guided the wind, two bending practices she didn't trust herself to do quietly from the comfort of one-room apartment she rented near the docks. She used waterbending almost every night to heal herself, just enough to take the ache out of her bones but not so much that the bruises fade and people would ask questions. It's not forbidden, of course, to seek the help of a waterbender after a fight, but waterbenders don't come cheap and green fighters like her barely have enough money to eat, yet alone heal anything other than the most grievous of wounds.

"Citizenship?"

"Republic City native, sir." She says, but only because that's what she's been coached to say. Get in trouble one too many times as a Water Tribe citizen and they'll have you on a boat south before you can get on a parka. Claim Earth Kingdom and they're as likely as not to alert your supposed government that you're causing a ruckus abroad. Fire Nation, well, they like to believe that their citizens are better than common criminals, and anybody with a criminal record of length is taken back to serve their prison term in the homeland.

No, it's much more simple to be from Republic City.

###

one.

"They say they rounded up so many this time that the Chief herself is in-processing."

The cops don't know when to keep their mouths shut around people they've just arrested, but for once Korra is glad. Her hands go cold as the news gets passed between the arresting and booking officers, and it hangs over her head while she watches as the first poor individual, a spectator, is led into the Chief's office.

A half hour later the man walks out, drenched in sweat. A few interviews later the word is passed around that the Chief isn't just booking, but also interrogating, asking for everything from names to locations and anything that might further hinder the underground fighting rings.

Korra stares blankly at the ground a few feet in front of her, trying not to obviously shy away from eye contact. She doesn't want to look like she knows anything, but she can't look like she's trying to hard to look like that, either.

Then two silver boots stop in front of her and she prays to Tui and La that they're not for her. But when was the last time that Avatar Korra got what she wished for?

The next thing she knows she's sitting in Beifong's office, alone. The chief is outside, shouting about one thing or another, and her options are running through her head. Each one is more ridiculous than the last, and every single one involves blowing her cover.

"And you!" The door blows open and then slams shut as the chief stomps into her office, staring down a bewildered Korra.

"Just what in the spirits' name do you think you're doing, fighting in an illegal underground fighting ring? You're the Avatar, for Oma's sake! You've spent the last three years recuperating from what would have been life-altering wounds on anybody else, and what do you do the instant you set foot in Republic City? You find people who are able to beat you within an inch of your life, and you let them!"

Korra stares blankly at the chief, who finally settles down into the stiff chair behind her desk.

"Oma and Shu, Korra, I thought you had more brains that this. There are people in this city – and all over the world – who care for you and would do anything – anything – if you so much as asked."

It takes a minute for Korra to process what she's heard, and even then it doesn't all quite make it in.

"You knew…?"

"I may be an earthbender, but that doesn't mean I have rocks for brains. You think I'm not going to notice when the Avatar herself is brought into my police station? It takes more than a haircut and new wardrobe to pull a fast one on me."

Korra looks at her, speechless.

"So why didn't I say anything the first time?" Beifong asks, and Korra nods wordlessly.

"I knew you had your reasons," Beifong says softly. "And I knew that if I approached you too soon then I might scare you off. What you're doing isn't safe, but life's not safe. And as long as you're in Republic City, I can do what I can to try to help."

"Thank you." Korra finally says, pushing the words through her teeth. "Thank you."

"I'm not your parents, and I'm not Tenzin or one of your masters. I'm a firm believer of figuring out your life for yourself; spirits know that's how I was raised. But just because you're on your own doesn't mean that you have to be by yourself. I'm here for you if you need me, and your other friends will be too, when you're ready for them."

A smile creeps onto Korra's face. "So does that mean you'll pay my bond?"

"Spirits no, kid! You got yourself into this mess and you can get yourself out of it. But if you ever get in over your head, I'm here for you. Now get out of my office before somebody thinks you're special or something."

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