Welcome back to another chapter! I really liked how this one came out, so I hope you do too. Enjoy!

"Don't falter now, Jinora." Zaheer warned. He regarded his new pupil as he she worked. "You have come so far in just three days. You must maintain your resolve. Again, tell me, why are we doing this?"

"To become strong." Jinora answered automatically. "And we become strong to have the freedom to act."

"Good." Zaheer said with a slight smile. "And what are you wanting to do with your strength and freedom?"

"I want to save Ikki." Jinora said with determination. "I want to put stop to the ones who took her. The ones who… killed Kai."

Zaheer nodded. "Then keep going. You must master this ability to save her, and to stop the Red Lotus."

She tried again. She spotted a hawk in the distance. She breathed deeply as she tried to manipulate the air around the bird. This was incredibly difficult. Not only did it involve working with air in the distance instead of air in front of her, which was something that it had taken a long time to master under her father, she also had to use the nauseating technique that she had learned the day before from Zaheer. She was supposed to take the air around the bird, and take it away. She was still having trouble wrapping her head around the technique.

She had learned it yesterday. Zaheer had caught her a small mouse, and he held it in his hand. It struggled its hardest to escape the master Airbender, but he maintained a solid grip on the tiny creature. "I want you to concentrate on the air around the mouse." He had said. "I want you to take that air, and remove it. Put it in a bubble, where no air, not even in its tiny lungs, remains."

"But won't that kill it?" She had asked.

He didn't answer her question, just ordered, "Do it."

Reluctantly, she had drawn the air away, leaving only a void around the mouse. It was weird and alien to her, something that she should have realized was possible but had never thought of before. All throughout her life, the air had always been around her. She could always feel it. It was always there, a comfort, something that she knew. But that bubble of space she had created, it was empty of anything. Just the dying, suffocating mouse. She couldn't bend anything in that space, and that was so weird for her. She had hardly slept that night, but because of her first time killing or her new power she didn't know.

"Focus on the task at hand!" Zaheer warned in the present. Jinora shook her mind from her thoughts and concentrated on the bird. She forced herself to draw away the air from the hawk. Suddenly, it plummeted from the air, its wings no longer having anything to push off of to keep it airborne. It had to be suffocating, as well. Jinora forced the airless bubble of space to follow, removing air from the falling hawk's path to the ground. She saw it hit the ground and knew it was dead. She felt a small pang in her heart. She had killed again. How long would it be until Zaheer made her do that to a human, like he had famously done against the Earth Queen?

"Good." Zaheer said. "You are making tremendous progress."

At least there was that. "Thank you, Master."

"After a bit more training, you may soon be ready to take them on and save your sister." He told her. "But for now, let's call it a day. You have made impressive improvements in such a short time."

They began their walk back to Republic City. Zaheer had decided that they would not use any mode of transportation, because it would make Jinora stronger. But she suspected that it had more to do with the fact that he enjoyed being back in the open world again.

Jinora had been skeptical on her first day with her new master on how they would sneak in and out of Republic City unnoticed. After all, both of them were quite well known and people were searching the entire city and the surrounding area for both of them. But Zaheer had proved to be capable of surmounting every problem Jinora had seen him face yet. He was possibly the most capable man Jinora had ever seen. There was a reason that he had been one of the most securely imprisoned people in the world. And that was before he had gained the ability to Airbend. From the way he flitted through the heavily scrutinized city unnoticed with ease, to his impressive Airbending abilities, to even just the way he spoke, Jinora found herself becoming more and more impressed with the renegade Airbender. Korra might be the only person in the world capable of facing him one on one, and that was simply because she was the Avatar.

"Be sure to get plenty of rest tonight, Jinora." Zaheer advised her. "I have been taking it easy on you so far. Your real test begins tomorrow. We will see what you are truly made of."

"Now please leave, or I will have to make you." Zuko said to the two strangers. He tried not to show it, but he was actually very surprised to see anyone here. He had been lost in thought, and had not expected anyone to come for at least another hour or so. They had been near silent approaching him, even the giant man. Zuko had been lucky that he had barely heard the snapping of leaves in time to know something was wrong.

Zuko didn't know who these two were, but it was obvious that they were assassins. There were countless people that would want him dead, but very few of those had the money to pay for such quality killers. And the attire of the two combined with the strange abilities that the woman had, and probably the man as well, gave him a strong hunch that these two were members of the Red Lotus. If they were, then this made sense. He knew that an attempt was made on President Raiko's life just the other day, so they must be making a play on world leaders. Thus, Katara, Toph, Raiko, Hakoda, Desna and Eska, Wu, Tenzin, his daughter Izumi, and Korra were all likely in danger for various reasons. He would need to warn them.

Assuming he survived of course.

The large man smiled brightly. He carried a strangely friendly demeanor for someone so intimidating. "Thank goodness you survived! Now we can officially meet!" He bowed deeply to the former Fire Lord. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Lord Zuko. Your legend precedes you, and so far you are more than living up to what I have heard. I am Tymo." The woman rolled her eyes at the man's formality and respect.

Zuko bowed back. "I would say that it is a pleasure to meet you as well, Lord Tymo, but you have interrupted a dear time for me, and I fear your intentions here are less than friendly."

"You would be right to assume that, Lord Zuko." The woman said more seriously. "We are here to kill you."

Zuko sighed. "I thought as much." He reflected on her assassination attempt. Leaves? At high speed? He had never heard of such a thing, and it had never occurred to him that such a thing could be a weapon. He recalled that Katara had used the water in plants on occasion, so he assumed that this assassin must be a Waterbender. He still had no clue on what the man, Tymo, was capable of.

"Please take it as a sign of respect, my lord." Tymo pleaded. "You are a great threat to our plans moving forward, and we can't afford to leave you as you are. I hope you understand."

"Tymo, cut the crap, please." The woman said. "I love you, but you are making this a lot harder than it has to be. We are wasting time here instead of killing him."

"I can't kill him like that, Lyri my beloved." He answered. "You know it's not my way. And your way failed, so it has to turn to my specialty, a battle."

Lyri flustered. "Shut up. You saw his reaction time. I doubt even Terus could have killed him unawares. Even he would be where we are now."

Zuko wondered at that name, Terus. Could he be the leader?

"Please don't take offense, darling." Tymo said. "I meant nothing by it."

"So should I assume you two are members of the Red Lotus?" Zuko asked. He already knew they had to be, but he needed to make sure.

"Obviously." The woman answered, annoyed.

"She means yes. We are." Her lover said hastily. "But you won't get the chance to tell anyone, so there was no point in learning that, my lord."

"I disagree." Zuko said. His mind was whirring, trying to come up with some sort of plan. How could he make it out of here? "Knowing the identity of who is trying to kill me is preferable to never finding out."

Tymo smiled once again. "I suppose that having that knowledge may put your mind more slightly at ease before your passing."

"Indeed, it does." Zuko came to the conclusion that his best chance was simply to attack while they were in conversation, when their guard would be somewhat down. "Actually, is there anything else you could tell me? I have been rather curious about the inner workings of your organization. One thing in particular I have been wondering is who-" He lashed out suddenly with flames.

Amazingly, the woman drew the pond out as a shield in time to block Zuko's attack. The ducklings flew off as their pond had suddenly disappeared out from under them. Tymo seemed completely shocked at the deceptive first strike, but Lyri had very clearly been ready. Zuko could already tell that this was going to be one hell of a fight.

He sent a much stronger flame at the wall of water, and it collided in a huge explosion of steam. Not only did it evaporate all of the water, but it sent Lyri flying back as well.

But no sooner had Lyri vanished when Tymo was in the fight to take her place. Except he came completely covered in a thick body armor of stone. And he was charging at Zuko at an astonishing speed.

If Zuko hadn't jumped up and pushed off Tymo's attack, he would surely be dead right now. But the technique he had seen Aang use dozens of times, even without Airbending to assist him, had saved him. But the force of the blow still sent Zuko flying backwards, before he landed and rolled back several times before landing on his feet and skidding to a stop. "Thank you, Aang." He muttered breathlessly.

But no sooner had he landed when several projectile leaves were flying at him. Zuko barely managed to get a shield of flame up before they peppered him and the wall behind him. Then he noticed a truly terrifying sight. Tymo was facing him, and pressed one of his feet hard against the ground, and it actually sunk into the brick. Then Tymo pushed off and flew at Zuko. The former Fire Lord barely jumped out of the way, and Tymo crashed completely through the wall. Judging from the subsequent crashing noises he heard, Zuko could tell that Tymo had gone through several other walls as well.

Zuko didn't want to know what would happen to him if he was hit directly with that attack. How many people had already seen their end as a massive rock golem charging at ridiculous speeds?

Zuko ran as more leaves were peppered at him. He used the tough pillars shields. Soon many of them were reduced to dust upon receiving the attacks. Zuko was still having trouble fathoming how mere leaves could cause damage like this.

He needed to take that advantage away. Dashing around one of the pillars, he launched a fireblast at the tree, and it burst into a large flame. Many of the leaves burned away instantly, and the rest were quickly drained of all water and thus unusable by Zuko's Waterbending opponent.

Lyri was furious at this. "Damn you!" She screamed as she drew water from the dying tree and the surrounding grass. Realizing that her quantity of water was suddenly becoming very limited, she drew back somewhat and kept her weapon around her instead of pressing her attack.

By now Tymo had returned. He saw his partner's state and quickly came to a conclusion of what the situation had become. "Lyri, we need to retreat. Your water isn't going to last much longer."

She shook her head, glaring at Zuko. "I'll be fine. We just need to hurry up and kill him."

"But what if you run out?" he asked, the worry obvious in his voice. "You would be defenseless."

"I'll be fine." Lyri growled at him. "Don't worry about me."

"But-"

"If it comes down to it, you can protect me, can't you?" she asked him. "Or are you not the powerful Earthbender I thought I married?"

He sighed. "Fine." It was obvious he still had his misgivings, but wouldn't argue the subject anymore.

Now, more careful, the two assassins used their numbers advantage to keep Zuko occupied at all moments. Zuko was forced to spend all of his attention stopping attacks of all sorts from every direction. He was never allowed a chance to think, only to react. Soon, they had him backed into a corner with nowhere to go.

"You have fought well, Lord Zuko." Tymo said. "But you have lost here. Accept your fate, for you die here."

Before he could attack, a flame attack hit him in the back of his stone armor.

The assassins whirled around, and facing them was the Fire Lord, Izumi. "Leave my father alone now, or there will be no mercy for you." She told them coldly.

Zuko felt a mix of relief and terror. On one hand, he was no longer facing these two alone. But on the other hand, his daughter was in grave danger.

"Izumi, get out of here!" he warned her. "These people will kill you."

"I'm not leaving you, Father." Izumi told him. "They have no idea who they have messed with. You are lucky I came early for tea today."

"Tymo, constrain that one while we deal with her." Lyri advised her husband. "Divide and conquer."

Zuko suddenly felt himself sink up to his knees into the ground. He couldn't move, try as he might. It was like he had been caught in quicksand. Then before his eyes, a wall rose up, blocking his view as the two closed in on his daughter.

"Izumi! No!" He roared. He threw attack after attack at the wall, having only small success at knocking it down. All his attacks were doing was chipping away at it. He needed something stronger.

He took a deep breath, and did something that he hadn't done for years. He felt the pure energy begin to crackle through him, starting at his left hand. Bit by bit, he directed down his arm and down to his stomach, careful to avoid his heart. Then out of the stomach and up his other arm. Then, finally, out his other hand in a beautiful light of pure energy.

The wall blew up as though it had been hit with powerful explosives. Suddenly Zuko could see the other side, where his daughter and the two Red Lotus members were. But what he saw made his heart skip a beat.

Izumi was on the ground, with rocks cuffing her wrists to the ground. She struggled but could not break free. Standing above her was Lyri, with her water having been turned into a sharp, deadly icicle. Pointed straight at Izumi's heart.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Zuko roared. He couldn't let this happen. Without any conscious thought, lightning burst again from his hand, this time striking Lyri in the back.

She whirled around as she fell, facing Zuko as she died so that he saw the light of life leave her eyes in her final moment.

Suddenly, Lyri of the Red Lotus was now dead.

Tymo roared and the stone armor fell off of him. He crouched down and picked up his dead wife, the tears streaming from his eyes. He cast a painful look towards Zuko, then put her body onto his shoulders and ran away, disappearing from the demolished courtyard.

"She's dead…" Zuko muttered to himself in disbelief. Even during the war, he had never killed anyone. But now he had. He had used his abilities how Uncle Iroh had always warned him never to do. He was a killer now.

Then Izumi rose up, and ran to her father. Zuko came to the realization that he wasn't as bothered by his kill as he should be. Because, as horrible as it was, it had saved his beloved daughter.

"Father!" Izumi yelled as she hugged her father. "You saved me!"

"Yes." Zuko said softly. "I did." He hugged her back. "Izumi, I am so glad that you are safe now. I don't know what I would have done if I had lost you."

I think that might have been the most fun I've had writing an action scene for anything I've written. The action moved well and was fun in my mind and (in my opinion, at least) surprisingly translated well into my writing. I especially loved adding Tymo's attacks in, which I have dubbed Rhino Style in my head. Because just imagine how scary his attack has to be if you are on the receiving end. It is awesome. Anyway, so now Jinora is learning the dark side of Airbending from Zaheer, and her "true test" is coming up. Wonder what that could be? And now the first casualty from the Red Lotus has happened. Sorry to kill her off some soon, but it was according to my plan. Let me know what you guys thought with the reviews, and be sure to follow and favorite to be sure to catch the next chapter when it hits. Bye!