Zaheer

"air"

- It's the dawning of a new age, the end of the White Lotus, and soon, the end of the Avatar.

 Zaheer is a fugitive member of the Red Lotus, who escaped the custody of the Order of the White Lotus in 171 AG after becoming an airbender. He believes strongly in the foundation of a new world without the Order of the White Lotus, the four nations, or the Avatar. He is in a romantic relationship with P'Li.

Joining the Red Lotus and initial kidnapping attempt
When he was a teenager, Zaheer met Unalaq after they joined the Red Lotus and learned about Raava, Vaatu, and Avatar Wan's decision to separate them, which he believed disrupted the world's balance. A year after discovering that Unalaq's niece Korra was the Avatar, he and Zaheer planned to kidnap Korra and use her to re-open the spirit portals while training her in bending and the ways of the Red Lotus, what he believed to be a better path for the world. The two joined with Ghazan, P'Li, and Ming-Hua to capture Korra; however, Unalaq backed out of the mission and covered his involvement. As a result, the four were defeated by Tenzin, Tonraq, Zuko, and Sokka, and imprisoned for thirteen years. Zaheer and his associates, however, refused to speak of their motives at any point.

Escape from prison
At some point following Harmonic Convergence, Zaheer discovered he had become an airbender. Two weeks after Harmonic Convergence ended, he took advantage of his newfound abilities and waited until his guards came to bring him his bowl of rice to attempt his escape. As the metal covering of his cell door was opened, he was ordered to face the wall with his hands upon his head. As his food was being placed in his cell through an opening in the bars, Zaheer recited one of Laghima's poem verses. After he explained the meaning of the writing, he used his airbending to pull the guard against the cell bars, swiftly running forward and restraining him, thereby preventing the others from attacking lest they killed that guard. He grabbed the keys attached to the guard's waist, unlocked his cell, and used his airbending to defeat and jail all of the other guards before escaping. He cautioned them to ration the bowl of rice they had brought him, as the next shift change was three weeks away and announced the dawn of a new age, where there would be no Order of the White Lotus or Avatar. Using his airbending skills, he swiftly made his way down the mountain, seeking to free his incarcerated allies.

Releasing his friends


Zaheer managed to disguise himself as a White Lotus member and took a boat to Ghazan's prison. There, he fought off White Lotus sentries and supplied his friend with a few rocks to help him escape. After Ghazan freed himself from his cell and the remaining guards were taken care of, the two friends heartily greeted each other. Upon asked how he became an airbender, Zaheer explained that he believed it was a gift, bestowed upon him after Harmonic Convergence, to indicate that their path was the righteous one. Afterward, the duo journeyed to the volcano in which Ming-Hua's prison was located, intent on freeing her. Once they were within range of the waterbender's cage, Zaheer sliced the barrel of water that Ghazan had thrown in the air in half, enabling Ming-Hua to utilize it to escape. After the threesome took care of the remaining sentries, Zaheer announced that they would head to the Northern Water Tribe next in order to break out P'Li.

As they neared P'Li's prison, Zaheer created a snow storm to mask their approach. Zaheer personally fought Tonraq and was able to dodge all the chief's attacks before knocking him down with an air blast. During the fight, Ming-Hua was able to free P'Li, who used her combustion abilities to defeat Zaheer's foe. As the four criminals made a clean getaway, Zaheer and P'Li took the opportunity to hug and kiss each other, the airbender saying he always believed they would reunite.

Tracking the Avatar


Following the escape, Zaheer shaved his head and made his way to Air Temple Island under the pseudonym, "Yorru". He explained to Ikki and Meelo that he had heard about the island being a place for new airbenders to go and that he discovered his abilities two weeks ago, demonstrating them by creating a small tornado in his hand. While in a training session with Meelo at the airbending gates, Zaheer upstaged two other airbenders by passing through them with ease, shocking everyone present and earning compliments from Meelo, which Zaheer returned by saying that a student was only as good as his master.

At that moment, Kya walked up to the group to announce that Tenzin had arrived at the Northern Air Temple and that they would be leaving to join him the next day. Zaheer asked if the Avatar was with him, to which a confused Kya answered that Korra had separated from Tenzin. He took the news as "unfortunate", saying he was "looking forward to meeting her".



As night fell, Zaheer wandered into Tenzin's study, where he found a locket containing a poem written by Guru Laghima. He was soon found by Ikki, who stated that no one but her father was allowed in the study. Zaheer apologized, stating he could not sleep, and when asked by the young airbender what he was reading, he explained that it was one of Laghima's poems. At that moment, Kya arrived and encouraged her niece to go off to bed. When questioned by the waterbender about his knowledge of airbending history, he replied that he simply admired the culture. Kya continued to question him about his great abilities and background, which he answered by saying he was from a village up north she probably never heard of. However, he soon found his identity guessed by her, and the two began to duel.

Zaheer grabbed an airbender staff and shattered ice bullets fired by Kya before beginning his escape, but was pulled down by two tentacles fired by her. He escaped an attempt to freeze him in place and briefly knocked Kya down with a blast of air before two firebending White Lotus sentries arrived on scene. Zaheer fought off the attacks, airbent the staff over to him, and used it to fire a large air blast that knocked out the sentries. Kya got up and tried to counter with spirals of water, but the airbender dodged and launched an air bullet from his staff, knocking out his last combatant. Declaring he had other plans away from the Northern Air Temple, Zaheer flew away on the staff.



Zaheer later rejoined his gang and was criticized for causing a scene, resulting in the Metalbending Police Force hunting for them. Ghazan asked if he wanted to try and attack President Raiko. Zaheer declined, stating that they would deal with Raiko another time and should instead escape the city. To that end, they captured a truck driver and coerced him into smuggling them out of the city. The driver, however, was stopped at a security checkpoint and fled when the on-duty officer caught him lying. As one of the police officers turned the handle of the vehicle, Zaheer, from behind the door, blasted the truck doors open and told his associates to leave the area. With that, Zaheer, P'Li, Ming-Hua, and Ghazan made their getaway across the bridge while taking out many police cars. Once far from the city, Zaheer began meditating and determined that the Avatar was with the Metal Clan in Zaofu.

Attempt to kidnap Korra


Zaheer and his gang traveled to the metal city and, with the help of Aiwei, they were able to enter Suyin Beifong's estate without being noticed. Zaheer and his allies sneaked past the guards and quietly maneuvered toward Korra's room. After Ming-Hua cut an opening in the window, they were caught by Korra's polar bear dog, Naga, who tried to attack. Zaheer airbent shirshu-spit darts into the animal, paralyzing her. Korra awoke to the sound of Naga falling to the floor and saw the criminals entering her room, but the airbender was quickly able to disable her as well. With the Avatar in tow, the group began to escape, but Mako and Bolin were alerted to their presence and ran out to try and stop them. Zaheer and his associates forced them on the defensive with several attacks, but were soon discovered by the estate's guards, and faced being surrounded by them, Lin, Suyin, and the twins Wei and Wing, who cornered them with metal panels. Ghazan lavabent the ground, giving them safety as a pool of lava divided the groups.

Zaheer attempted to create a cover by kicking up a dust cloud with his staff, but was reeled in via cables launched by one of the guards. He blasted Kuvira away and dodged the other guard's attacks. After blasting them away, the airbender soon discovered Lin and Suyin trying to ascend to the dome's roof with Korra. He attempted to pursue, blasting air at Lin, but his glider was sliced by four metal arrows fired by Suyin. Zaheer softened his landing with his bending, but with the Avatar having been rescued, he angrily declared their mission a failure and kicked up a cloud of dust, giving the group their opening to flee.

Explaining his motives
Zaheer and his companions established a camp just outside the Misty Palms Oasis, where he meditated into the Spirit World to confront Aiwei at Xai Bau's Grove over the failed kidnapping attempt, accusing his associate of having compromised the group. He did not take assurance in Aiwei's destruction of the evidence, warning him he left a loose end - himself. He grabbed Aiwei and quickly teleported to another part of the Spirit World when Korra saw him. After throwing the emissary into the Fog of Lost Souls, Zaheer returned to the Avatar's presence. He explained his actions and calmly allowed Korra to ask any questions, saying there was no need for threats because neither of them could bend. In the meanwhile, his physical form told his allies of Korra's whereabouts: the Misty Palms Inn.



His spiritual form told Korra about the Red Lotus' organization and their initial plans along with Unalaq's betrayal, noting the chief becoming the Dark Avatar was not a part of such ideas. He explained he had the same goal as Korra, wanting to bring balance to the world. Rebuffing her belief they had different ideas of balance, Zaheer suggested her opening the spirit portals was the beginning. He went on to explain the idea of governments was foolish, asking her if she thought the world would be better off without leaders like the "moronic president" and "tyrannical queen" she had dealt with. He reminded a doubtful Avatar that a Fire Lord's desire for world dominance led to the Air Nomad Genocide, believing true freedom could only be achieved when oppressive governments were torn down, saying the hypothetical resulting chaos was the natural order. He cited another one of Guru Laghima's sayings: "New growth cannot exist without first the destruction of the old." Zaheer went on to explain he had begun to lose hope during his imprisonment, but gaining airbending abilities restored this, believing he could help dismantle the old order and plant the seeds for a new one. The criminal warned Korra that once change began, it could not be stopped, even by the Avatar. At her request to know what would happen once she was captured, he merely told her she would have her answer soon enough, as the Red Lotus likely had her captive by that point. After telling her he would see him in the physical world, he returned to his body at his camp.

Upon return, Zaheer was informed by Ming-Hua and Ghazan that the Earth Queen's army had gotten to the Avatar first, but they had captured two of her friends, Mako and Bolin. Zaheer instructed them to load the brothers in the truck, telling them they were going to Ba Sing Se.

Personality


Zaheer is something of a warrior-poet and while he is willing to destroy anyone who stands against him, betray and cut off any loose ends and resort to extreme measures against the government. He is passionate in regards to philosophy, particularly concepts involved in finding a deeper meaning behind human expectations. He is clever and innovative, able to plan quickly and efficiently. Zaheer was able to use his knowledge of Air Nomad culture to quickly develop his airbending skills. He is shown to be in love with P'Li, who he kissed passionately after they were reunited, remarking that he never doubted that they would see each other again.

He is also shown to hold certain people in high regard, mainly Guru Laghima, who he believes to be the wisest airbender of all. Zaheer also seems to be very dedicated with Airbender philosophy and mindset. When he gained airbending thanks to Harmonic Convergence he took it as a sign that their path was a righteous one.

Zaheer takes to heart deep philosophies of freedom and contains and modernist dislike towards government believing it to be the cause of the greatest imbalance in the world and holds the belief that disorder is the only true order. A philosophy that combines attributes ideas of freedom, modernism, human expectations and a blatant disregard and disrespect towards authority.

Zaheer also looks down on the White Lotus due to the way that it became after the Hundred Year War, feeling that it has strayed from its original, noble path and takes the teaching of the Red Lotus to heart. His thoughts on the Avatar itself are a bit more vague, believing that while Avatar Wan had been foolish in his actions and that they had only caused more problems for the balance of the world, he still attempted to use Korra to restore balance, though his exact feelings on them can be either a simply means to an end, possibly to achieve the balance that he seeks or simple a resort that should be considered at all possible.

It should be noted that unlike many of Korra's guardians in the past, Zaheer seems to believe that Korra deserves to know why the Red Lotus wants to kidnap her, and took his time to explain the things to her that he never did to his interrogators. But then again, this could just have been a way to distract her from returning to the physical world to prevent her abduction.

Deep down, Zaheer can be domineering and ruthless, especially towards his underlings. He does not hesitate to punish them when they heavily compromise his agenda, as he did with Aiwei.

Abilities


Even before Zaheer obtained airbending abilities, the Order of the White Lotus deemed him dangerous enough to be kept in a secret, secluded prison, similar to his powerful bending cohorts, and had to turn his back to the cell doors with his hands behind his head while receiving food. Zaheer is remarkably agile, able to do quick mid-wheel cartwheels without visible signs of using his airbending and despite being incarcerated for thirteen years.

Despite only having airbending abilities for a short time and being self-taught, Zaheer already possesses high proficiency in the art, creating large air currents capable of knocking people off balance, as well as increase his agility to evade attacks, enabling him to take on multiple benders at a time. He is also capable of using a glider in combat and as a means of transportation. He can even best several White Lotus sentries and multiple Metal Clan Guards on his own along with master waterbenders Kya and Tonraq.

Zaheer is also well-versed in Air Nomad philosophy and history, mainly teachings of the legendary airbender, Laghima,. He is able to effectively utilize Air Nomad maneuvers, seamlessly maneuvering through the airbending gates. He is intelligent and patient, capable of masterminding his own and his cohorts' breakouts in four separate prisons, duping the Order of the White Lotus guards and amazing his colleagues' unique abilities back into action by supplying them with their respective bending substances.

Zaheer has advanced spiritual training. Through meditation, he can separate his spirit from his body in astral form and enter the Spirit World. Once there, he can freely teleport himself and targets to various places in that realm, including sending his fellow Red Lotus member, Aiwei to the Fog of Lost Souls to take care of loose ends. While his soul is in the spirit world he can communicate to his body in order to discreetly relay orders or messages towards his subordinates. He is also very strong willed and never broke to interrogation to divulge the information of why he and his gang attempted to kidnap Korra.

Trivia

 * Zaheer is a common name in Asia and the Middle East that is inspired by the Islamic concept of Quran interpretation, which can be divided into its "apparent meaning" or zahir (ظاهر‎, pronounced za-heer) and its "inner meaning" or batin (باطن, pronounced ba-teen). Prior to Zaheer's escape from his prison, he explained to a White Lotus sentry a similar concept in interpreting the poetry of Guru Laghima, with zahir relating to "what you see" and batin relating to the "truth within the myth". Zahir is associated with Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, Swahili and Turkish languages.
 * Zaheer is one of three known adults seen using a glider, the others being Tenzin and Roku's airbending master.
 * Zaheer has cauliflower ear from a career of fighting.