This fic is also on my tumblr blog where my username is Kuno-chan and my blog name is Dragoness Ramblings.

Disclaimer: Legend of Korra belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko

Korra: The Slaughter of the Southern Air Temple

Korra had never felt like such a failure. Not like this.

Not when she believed Amon got away.

Not when her uncle had fused with Vaatu.

Not even at Zaofu.

Listening to the silence, Korra sat in the chair of her husband's study, head in her hands and in her hair, still clad in her pajamas. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. If it wouldn't have been counterproductive she might have thrown the telephone clear across the room. Anger welled up inside of her chest, threatening to flood her entire body.

"Korra?" she heard Mako call as he came into the room.

"I'm here," she called back, albeit weakly. "Did you call Lin and the station?"

"Yeah... she's already heard and she's been trying to get a hold of the Southern Air Temple's radio, but..."

Korra had to fight the strong urge to cry outright.

"There's no answer?" she asked, croaking.

His silence was enough of a reply.

"We need to get to Air Temple Island... I need to talk to see Tenzin before I talk to the President," she said, almost whispering.

Mako walked toward her. He placed a hand on his wife's shoulder as she got up, holding her gaze when she finally looked up at him. "Korra," he said solemnly. "You didn't do this. You know that."

She stood for a moment, putting her hand over his as if that would have prevented her from collapsing into the ground like she wanted to at this moment.

"I still feel responsible for all those people's lives though. I might as well be."

Mako shook his head.

"We're going to get him. He was the one that did this. And he's going to pay for it... we all know that you're going to make sure of that. I know you will."

Korra looked Mako in the eye, searching for the strength that he was trying to instill in her. Her spirit felt conflicted. Weak from loss, but empowered by the need to take action. How could she have let this happen? Being the Avatar and the one who had desperately been trying to smooth things out, she had known that the politics of the New Earth States were falling apart at the seams, but she hadn't realized that among all these self-proclaimed warlords popping up that one would attack innocent people for the sake of sending her a message.

Well, it worked.

She'd heard the man loud and clear and she wasn't sure that even Raava could stop the surging in her veins right now.

However, in this moment, all she felt was fear. Fear that she'd never be able to look Kai and Jinora in the eye again if what she was afraid of had happened. If their only child was now dead because of something she might have been able to prevent... spirits forgive her because she would never forgive herself.

Korra took a deep breath, attempting to steady herself in some manner before they left the house.

"Is Bolin on his way to pick up the kids?" asked Korra tiredly.

Mako nodded. "Yeah, he'll be here any moment. Nuka and Tikaani can stay with him overnight and even tomorrow. I feel like we're going to be pretty busy for the next couple of days at least."

"...Mako... if something happened to Nima... Kai and Jinora... I'll never-" she had to stop herself before her voice broke again.

No.

She had to be strong.

As much as she wanted to cry right now, the world needed it's Avatar.

An Avatar that had caused the death of dozens upon dozens of people. Possibly including the only child of two people who were basically family to her. These thoughts invaded Korra's mind nonstop. Nima was like her niece. She basically was her niece. Korra had been there when the child was born and now... it was like waiting to find out if you're own child was dead or not.

Mako, who seemed to detect this, pulled her into a hug and gently kissed her forehead. She reciprocated and they just held each other for a brief moment. He sighed and pulled back, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"You should go to Air Temple Island. You need to busy yourself right now. I'll stay here and wait for Bolin to come then I'll be there as soon as I can, okay?"

She tried to smile at him, but the miserable feeling in the pit of her belly only let her come out with a weak sort of nod.

"Mommy?"

Mako turned around and Korra withheld a shallow gasp at the sight of her seven year old daughter standing there in her white pajamas, black hair undone and amber eyes filled with uncertain worry. She was certainly her father's daughter sleuthing around the house, knowing something was very wrong indeed.

Korra walked over to her and got down on one knee.

"Hey, sweetie. We we're just about to wake you up... did you want to go on a surprise sleepover at Auntie Opal and Uncle Bolin's? You and Nuka can go play with Suna and the other kiddos when you guys wake up," Korra now plastered on a smile in earnest. If anybody needed her to smile right now, it was her daughter. "How does that sound?"

"...is Nima okay?" asked Tikaani after a moment, a little frown on her face.

Korra's smile faltered somewhat in spite of her effort to keep it up.

When she didn't answer, Tikaani asked again. "Did something happen to her? You and Daddy were talking about it..."

Korra tried not to let Tikaani see her shaky breath as she put her hands on the child's cheek. "I'm sure she's just fine," said Korra, lying to just about everyone in the room including herself. "She's always been a strong little whirlwind. You know that. Don't you worry, okay?"

Tikaani hesitated, but nodded.

Mako walked up next to Korra and bent over to be more on eye level with his younger child. "Hey, why don't you and I go wake up your brother, huh? If you're going to have a sleepover then you need some extra clothes, right?"

Again, Tikaani nodded and Korra's heart broke a little.

Spirits, please, she pleaded inside her head. Let the girl come home.

Only now had it hit Korra that not only would she never be able to face Kai and Jinora again, but her own daughter as well. At seven, would Tikaani understand the concept of death? The idea that someone you love might be gone forever? Someone so young shouldn't have to deal with that. At least not like this and certainly not concerning someone who was even younger than they were. How could Korra ever explain to her daughter that she may never see her little sister again.

When she got up, Mako leaned in to kiss her cheek in one last gesture of reassurance before leaving with Tikaani back down to their kid's rooms.

"I'm so sorry..." whispered Korra, unable to prevent the words from escaping her lips as she left the room.

After changing out of her pajamas and grabbing her glider on the way out of the house, Korra set off into the air, the summer winds doing nothing to quell the fire in her heart. There was so much fear and shame, but just as much anger. This monster had targeted innocent people just for the sake of reaching out to her. All across the bay she could see the city still alive, but at peace. It was almost jarring to watch the lights down there, knowing that everybody she was passing over would be talking about the apparent tragedy at the Southern Air Temple. Yet, right now, all was at peace to those very same people.

Korra was surprised she hadn't fallen into the bay the way her body felt like lead. She let tears fall and fly off her face as she soared. So many people she had known were probably now dead. So many of them kind, but defenseless and innocent acolytes she had met over the years. Faya, a middle aged acolyte woman who'd left her grown son here at Air Temple Island while she went on a brief pilgrimage to the Southern Air Temple. Junjin, the eager new acolyte who nearly passed out meeting his hero the Avatar and had told her all about how excited he was to go off visiting the temple. Daw, the first of the new airbenders she'd talked off a bridge all those years ago. Yuniri, the acolyte woman who had just become a mother only a year ago and made the best sweet buns around. Rie, Tanda, Luli, Harahi, Ganyan, Sagana, Wenya, Hye, Onura, Kin...

Nima.

It took all of her strength not to sob in earnest at the grim thought that the next time she would see any of the these people would probably be in their graves. Under the moon as she flew, nothing could erase the self imposed fact or the feeling that it was her fault moreover than anybody else in the world right now.

She was the Avatar and she hadn't been able to prevent all those people's lives from being taken. No word had come of exactly what had happened, but the telephone call she'd received in the middle of the night told her everything she needed to know.

The phone from the family study had rung. A lighter sleeper than she was, Mako got up to grab the phone, most likely cursing whoever it was calling for trying to get a hold of them at such an undignified hour. They had sleeping children who they would have liked to make sure remained asleep for a few more hours at the very least. She expected to feel Mako climb back into bed and for him to tell her it was the just the police station calling for some important, but not all that important matter when she asked.

Instead, she suddenly felt herself being shaken awake.

"W-what?" she turned over to look at her husband, half-asleep, but alerted by the way he woke her up. "What 's wrong? Are the kids okay?"

"It's Tenzin. He's on the phone."

"Tenzin?" asked Korra, frowning groggily. "Is everything alright?"

Why would Tenzin be calling this time of night?

Mako shook his head.

"It sounds urgent."

Korra got out of bed and went walking down the hall with Mako, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She wasn't sure what, but something was very wrong and it worried her how hard she felt it in the pit of her belly. By the time they reached the family study, she found herself almost praying that it was something trivial. Something silly even. Perhaps it was naïve of her to believe that Tenzin of all people would be calling at this hour for something less than urgent, but she still prayed that this feeling in her belly was wrong.

Walking over to the phone, Korra picked it up off the desk.

"Tenzin?" she asked, feeling herself brace. "Is everything alright?"

"...Suyin just radioed us," said Tenzin over the phone, almost sounding like he was shaking. "She said she received a distress call from the Southern Air Temple, but no one's answering anymore."

"A distress call...? What do you mean a distress call?" asked Korra slowly, that hardness in her belly uncoiling into some kind of dread. "What kind of distress call?"

There was silence over the phone and Korra felt herself start to breath at an uneasy pace.

"Tenzin, what do you mean a distress call?" she repeated.

"...She said there was screaming," he said, Korra most definitely detecting a quiver in his voice. "She said that whoever contacted them sounded like they were in serious danger. Su's already headed over there with an airship, but if something's already happened..."

Korra didn't say anything, not only letting him finish, but afraid of what her own voice might reveal.

"Korra... Kai and Jinora dropped Nima off at the temple."

Quietly, a ticking started going off in her chest and reaching up into her throat. There was the bomb being set that she'd been praying so hard to avoid.

She swallowed hard.

"They did?" she asked quietly.

"Yes... there was a situation in a nearby town and they decided to check it out on their way back. They dropped Nima off at the temple... they..." he sounded like he was trying to steady himself. "They let one of the younger acolytes watch her. Nah Ja, you remember her, don't you...?"

"Yeah..." she said, trying to speak his language at this point. Whatever was going on inside of herself at the moment, Korra could almost feel Tenzin going grey over the phone. Nothing could shake off how they were both feeling. "You said the person sounded like they were in danger?"

"That is what Su told me," sighed Tenzin.

"Like... like they were being attacked in danger?"

Tenzin didn't say anything again, but that was her answer enough.

Thinking for a moment, Korra sucked in and held her breath a little.

"Tenzin you don't think...?"

"I do."

She swore silently, trying to put the pieces together, but it was finally dawning on her what – or rather whom – was missing from this puzzle.

"He wouldn't..." said Korra, remembering her last exchange with the late Earth Queen's relative and his threats towards her. "...Oh, spirits. Yes, he would... Oh no... Tenzin..."

Korra bit her lip. Lord Hanyo had to be the biggest thorn in her side since the New Earth States started going at each others throats. He, like others with power throughout the Earth Kingdom, had raised a banner in his name.

But what made him the biggest issue was the power of legitimacy behind him. As a blood relative of the Hou-Ting dynasty of the Earth Kingdom throne, the Monarchists who wished for the old Earth Kingdom to come back flocked to him and those with aristocracy lining their pockets threw their money at him. When he started using that power to conquer other states, she confronted him.

It was like Kuvira all over again except Kuvira actually had some kind of moral high ground. Kuvira had actually wanted to try and help people, twisted as she was toward the end.

She remembered the way he vowed to "reclaim his birthright that was the Earth Kingdom" and she cringed hard. Pompous as he was, he promised retribution against her interference, but all this time she thought he would come for her personally. She'd been prepared to face him or any kind of trouble on a moments notice, taking frequent enough trips away from Republic City and away from her family just in case he was stalking her. Mako wasn't happy about it, but she convinced him it had to be like this just for a little while until she could be certain that he wouldn't come after the children. In all her years of being the Avatar, that was what she was used to.

How wrong she was.

Perhaps it'd been the stress of her having to go back and forth between the individual states to put out the political, and, on occasion, real fires, but how could she have not been thinking clearly about that?

Hostages. Only they weren't hostages anymore or, really, they had never been. Most likely at this point in time, they were now victims.

Flying over Air Temple Island now, Korra spotted tiny figures and what looked like a police boat near the harbor. Coming down, she flew across the roofs and landed in the ever familiar courtyard. Lin, Tenzin and Pema stood talking near the pond, Tenzin and Pema obviously having haphazardly pulled on robes over their own pajamas. Pema's hair was even down, her face clear with worry.

Korra approached them, trying to steady the hollow shakiness in her chest with each step.

"Korra," Tenzin turned to face her.

Korra immediately drew him and Pema into a hug.

"Have you heard anything?" Korra asked them. "From... anyone?"

"No," said Pema, her voice thick. "Nobody's answering."

Tenzin sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"If nobody's answering that also means that Suyin hasn't arrived yet either. It's only been a few hours, but..."

"We're all anxious," said Lin, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I have my men trying to get a hold of other radio stations around that area if possible as well. If there's anybody who's recently been up at the temple we'll know."

Korra nodded at Lin.

"Thanks, Lin. We need all the help we can get."

"Don't mention it, kid. Especially when we don't know what's really happened out there. Any ounce of information is crucial at point."

"Oh, I think we know what happened," said Korra, frowning, her grip on her glider tightening. "That... that monster did this. Hanyo. He's attacked the Southern Air Temple. It's the only thing and I can think of. The timing is too coincidental."

Korra refused to address him by his title of Lord. It was small, but gratifying to deny him that respect at least. Although, if she ever came face to face with him again that wasn't all she was going to do.

"I don't understand though," said Tenzin, looking down with his eyebrows knitted together. "Why? Why do this? If what we think happened is true then that means he's just attacked a temple of people out of the blue. But for what though?"

"For me," said Korra. "To get at me. You remember how I flew out there to straighten things out with him. He wasn't happy when I demanded him to lay down his arms. He actually had the gall to try and have me arrested... Probably felt embarrassed when I forced him to leave the state he'd just conquered. Had to use the Avatar State to convince him, but it still worked."

"So, he's paying you back?" asked Pema, incredulous. "Like a game of tit for tat?"

"Maybe..." frowned Korra. "I don't know... I... I won't know until we know exactly what's happened out there."

"This goes without saying, but I'm just worried..." said Pema. "This is the most populated time of year at the Southern Air Temple what with Avatar Aang's birthday coming around and the the Yangchen Festival... everybody wants to visit the place he grew up at... there are so many people out there."

Korra bit her lip. Pema was right. She couldn't get that out of her mind just how many people were populating the temples at the moment and, with it being the birthplace of Avatar Aang, the Southern Air Temple was already rather popular.

Just then, a disheveled young acolyte came running down the walkway, jogging along and down the short steps to reach them.

"Suyin Beifong is on the temple radio!" he blurted, half out of breath.

Immediately, they all ran past the young acolyte, running along the walkway and into the temple to reach the radio near the top of the tower.

Tenzin got to the seat first, grabbing onto the radio.

"Su?" he asked urgently. "Suyin, are you there? It's Tenzin."

The radio woke with static, indicating that someone was on the other side.

"Suyin!" repeated Tenzin. "Suyin, are you there?"

"...Tenzin..." Su could finally be heard over the radio, but the weakness in her voice made Korra hold her breath.

"Yes? Yes, what is it? What's happened over there? Is everyone alright?"

"I... Tenzin, it's..."

"Su, answer us! Please!"

"...Tenzin... it was a massacre..."

The room suddenly went very quiet and Korra's body stood still entirely as her brain adjusted to that information.

A... a massacre?

Bringing the radio back up to his mouth, he seemed almost afraid to speak.

"W-what did you say...?"

"I... Tenzin, there are bodies everywhere. Whoever did this left no soul alive if they could manage. I'm so sorry..." Su almost sounded like her voice was cracking. "It was nothing short of a blood bath."

The lead that Korra swore would have taken her down on her flight to the island now washed into her veins and weighed down her arms. They went limp beside her as Korra could hear the tearful gasp of Pema behind her.

Just as she had feared to the deepest depths of her heart... everybody at the temple was dead. At least, most of them. There was no count or anything of yet, but from the way Su was making it sound bodies littered every part of the temple.

"My men are already searching and gathering the bodies..."

"Ha...have you seen..." began Tenzin, but he just couldn't say her name.

"We haven't found Nima's... we haven't found Nima yet," said Su, as if trying to keep herself together on her end. "We'll keep looking. Her parents are here now. We got here about the same time and I've got a whole squad helping them search for her. "I'm... I'm sure she's fine Tenzin."

Korra felt sick to her stomach. She, like everybody in that room, knew that it was perfectly possible, likely even, that Nima had been killed and her body fallen off the side of the temple mountain or something. Spirits, she didn't want to think about it, but she also hadn't wanted to think about all those people that were possibly – now confirmed – dead.

Not knowing what else to do, Korra glanced around to see Lin with an awkward, but firm arm around a crying Pema.

I just killed your granddaughter, thought Korra, looking at Pema then back at Tenzin. Your granddaughter and all those people are dead because of me.

Numbly, Korra sat beside Tenzin, watching him with the bottom half of his face rested against a hand. He, too, looked like he was staring off into space. As if he couldn't believe this was all happening. If she didn't know better Korra would have thought, or prayed rather, that she was still in her own bed as well.

Hello, everyone! Dark start for a new fic, eh?

I've been sitting on this idea for a while and basically this is the start of things. This is going to be a multiple POV fic where's there's one POV per chapter. More or less Korra is the main POV, but she's going to share this fic with other characters. Hers, however, is what's going to tie everything together. Makorra, Kainora and Bopal is our trinity of kids, but if you're an Asami fan, don't worry! She doesn't just disappear or anything and I'll reveal who her family is in a bit later chapters. These first two chapters are going to be prologues, however, told through Korra's POV and will be set when our cast of next gen kids are children. I'm going to try and do these POV switches in blocks so that not every chapter you're getting a new POV and getting whiplash with it. Each POV tells a story and I'm confirming that you're going to get POV's from Nima and Nuka early on. That's all for now! More things to be revealed later!

Just to give everyone a bit on how old all these kids are: Nuka was born in 178 AG, Tikaani and Suna were born in 179 AG and Nima was born in 182 AG. So, here, Nuka is eight, Tikaani and Suna are seven and Nima is four.

This being a next gen story, it may be hard to get out there and for people to take notice. I really, really appreciate those reviews if you read this. Even if you want to criticize something or point something out it tells me you care enough to say something. Those reviews really mean a lot to me and they give me the strength to keep writing, not just in this story, but all my stories and tell me that I should keep writing. They're empowering no matter what you have to say (and what you have to say means something no matter what). So, if it's not too much, I'd love to read it if you guys drop those reviews as they keep me writing this story.

Thank you for reading! Tune in for next chapter!