The explosion should have killed them all.

Should have, but it didn't. No fatalities. A pure miracle.

Asami was sure that the Avatar Spirit within Korra had something to do with it, but how was another question… one that they did not have time for. Now Korra directed the crowd.

"Su, you take Baatar Jr. and the rest of the wounded back to Asami's office..." Korra looked at Varrick, and then at Zhu Li. "Get those suits working as soon as you can..." Korra took a deep breath, and turned to meet Asami's eyes. "The rest of us will just have to face Kuvira on our own."

Asami read her so easily and clearly – she was afraid as hell, but still going out there. And Asami wanted to hold her back and tell her not to go – she agreed with Bolin, the city would stand another day – but she instead stood tall. She would match Korra's courage. Anything less would dishonor the woman she loved.

Asami stepped forward. "The quickest route to get to my office from here will be…"

000

Asami had designed the hummingbird mecha around a cornerstone of Water Tribe philosophy, quaint as it sounded. The best partnerships were not made of identical parts, but complementary elements. Yin and yang. Push and pull. In this case, pilot and sniper. One to fly the unusual aircraft, and one to manage whatever weapons Asami could hot-glue onto it fast enough.

There was a problem, though – they had two mecha suits, which needed four combatants, and only three potential candidates, unless Asami wanted to pull from the already-thinned ranks of Airbenders.

Chalk that down as one more impossible problem on an already chaotic game board. Asami felt burdened with the responsibility to salvage everything, somehow. Yes, Varrick and Zhu Li were doing something – but they were delaying, and delaying only the auxiliary at that. It fell to Asami to play offense. From her high-rise window, she tried to see the game board of Republic City and the tiles in play, but it wouldn't come clear…

Small-fast-weak. Small-fast-weak. Small-fast-weak could defeat large-slow-strong…

But there was supposed to be a fleet of hummingbirds. Yes, she had the prototypes… all two of them. It seemed like one of Varrick's stupid jokes: "Two hummingbird mechas walk into a Colossus. You'd think the second one woulda ducked!"

Okay, an electromagnetic pulse had taken out the smaller mecha. Asami mentally filed that away as a Winter Wind tile taking out some of the smaller pieces. But the Colossus was still walking. Varrick and Zhu Li reentered, and Bolin voiced Asami's concern, demanding to know why the pulse hadn't worked. It was Bataar Jr. who answered.

"Because it's powered by Spirit Vine energy. I'm sorry." Asami the gamer was irritated with his trite and inadequate attempt at an apology. Asami the daughter of Yasuko pitied his broken heart. "I wish I could help you, but it's unstoppable."

A familiar but unexpected voice answered, "It's not."

Asami looked up, startled. "Dad?"

Hiroshi Sato stood at the top of the stairs, Lin Beifong standing beside him. She explained, "I got him out of jail to help. I figured we need all the geniuses we can get our hands on right now. If the prison's still standing after all this is over – " she shrugged – "we can throw him back in."

Hiroshi looked at Korra as he said, "I know what you all must think of me, but I love Republic City and I would do anything to save her."

Korra asked, with all the confidence and skepticism of a general, "You think you know how to defeat this thing?"

"You must act like an infection," Hiroshi replied. "Break the skin and attack its vital organs. Disconnect the heart and the brain and this beast cannot live."

And things started to fall into place. Plasma saws… fitted to the hummingbirds… the fourth combatant, who would work the saws while Asami piloted… and the burden was no longer hers to bear alone.

Lin escorted Hiroshi to the workshop floor, and gave the hummingbirds her own cursory inspection. As Asami set to work adjusting the claws, she overheard her father say, "You will not regret this, Chief Beifong. I promise."

Lin grunted. "You just caught me in a good mood. I talked to my mother the other day and now I'm all sappy for family reunions."

Asami grinned to herself.

Time to get to work…

It was so good to work together again, Asami thought. Sato and Sato. Who knew, but maybe her father would get time off for community service… maybe things could be better, going forward. Well, best not to get too tangled up in that… but still, what was a war without hope…

"How long will it take to get the plasma saws ready?" Korra asked, breaking Asami's concentration. She had been utterly absorbed in her task.

"Just a few more minutes," she replied.

"Get out there as soon as you can," Korra called in response. Asami didn't exactly like receiving orders, but – well, this was war.

She was about to lower her visor to weld again, when she saw the team of benders leaving – Korra among them.

Asami, absurdly, flashed back to the first place she had seen Korra, on the floor of city hall, in that blue gown. A lifetime ago. And now she was walking out the door…

"Korra!" Asami yelled, before she could stop herself.

Korra stopped, and turned towards her. Even from this far away, her eyes were electric.

Asami swallowed hard. "Good luck," she said.

She saw Korra hesitate, as if there were too many things she wanted to say. After a heartbeat, Korra raised a hand. "See you later." And then she nodded, turned away, and was gone.

Asami closed her eyes, let her grief pass through her, and then opened her eyes again. A few more minutes, and she could fight alongside her.

Soon the suits were ready. Asami traded her hard-as-lead work gloves for her soft, broken-in pilots' gloves. She looked at the hummingbird mecha again. It was her creation –if you were poetically inclined, you could almost call it her nestling – and she thought, 'I could die in there.'

She shivered, but moved past it. All that was left to do now was to test the plasma saws on a six-inch sheet of platinum. Make sure it was the optimal machine of invasion.

Asami stood by on the stairway as her father tested the saw. It worked – worked like a charm. Asami was flooded again with admiration and pride for her father's brilliantly simple idea. It was almost like being a little child again, with that certainty that her Daddy could fix everything, and no need to play pretend or hide her feelings.

No use hiding her admiration, Asami thought. "If we stop that mecha giant," she told him, "it will all be because of you."

"You're the one who designed these incredible suits." Asami looked down, honored. She would have to tell him about her Pai Sho inspiration, when things quieted down. "It's great to be working together again."

She put her hand on her father's. "I love you, Dad."

The warmth and pride in his eyes was nearly tangible. "I love you, too."

Asami settled herself in to the pilot's seat. Flight was her friend. These hummingbirds were her nestlings. They would not fail her.

A cry interrupted her thought process: Varrick hoisted Zhu Li into his arm with a gleeful holler of "Now let's go attach these barely functional rust buckets to a giant killer smashing machine!"

"Barely functional rust buckets?" Asami repeated, as Zhu Li made some reply she didn't hear.

Hiroshi turned on their inter-hummingbird radios. "Why the high spirits?"

Before Zhu Li answered, Varrick carried her up the flight of stairs and deposited her in the hummingbird's pilot suit with more gallantry than grace. She turned on her radio, and Asami saw her smiling widely. "Varrick just asked to marry me, and I said yes."

"Well! Congratulations!" Hiroshi said. "Remind me when the dust has settled, I'll buy you two some flatware."

Asami laughed, then turned her radio on and said, "Congratulations to you both."

The hummingbirds came to life and began ascent. The airbenders who were still well enough to walk opened the windows at the northern end of the workshop, and the hummingbirds flew out of it, rattling badly with the sudden turbulence of the height.

Maybe Hiroshi could sense Asami's nerves. He turned off the intra-hummingbird radio and said to her, "So! Varrick and his assistant. I can't say that's a match I predicted." His tone was easy, calming. He'd used this same strategy when Asami was learning to drive.

"They seem to get along alright," Asami replied. Yes, she could do this, she could talk and pilot at the same time. She had the hang of it: the hummingbird was gliding now. "Opposites attract, you know."

"It's a good omen," Hiroshi replied. After a pause (they coursed over the city, towards the Colossus), he added, "You remember you once had a dream, where you were preparing to get married? In a Water Tribe house?"

The remark took her aback, but she said, "Yes, I do. That was long ago. You remember that, Dad?"

"Of course."

For a moment, Asami felt perfectly normal, in that she was praying that her Dad wasn't going to ask about her love life, and undergoing some preliminary embarrassment just in case he did. But instead, he commented on their descent, and speculated out loud that the best place to land on the Colossus might be the shoulder, or else the thigh.

And then… and then, well, it was war. At first it seemed that Zhu Li would get her mecha onto the Colossus first – but things changed, and Asami and her father maneuvered towards one of the enormous legs. But then the Colossus made to swat them, and they had to leave again.

So intent was Asami on piloting that she almost didn't see the massive wave that crashed into the Colossus. It was the strength of an entire river, and it all turned to ice in an instant, freezing the Colossus in place, like all winter in a breath.

"Thank you, Korra," Asami whispered.

The Spirit Cannon discharged again. Asami saw a curl of smoke out of the corner of her eye.

"The other hummingbird's out," Hiroshi said flatly. "I see the pilots' parachutes."

Asami swallowed hard. It was all on them, now. A quick counterclockwise turn, and she found an exposed patch of platinum on the thigh.

Asami landed, engaged the gripping gear, and Hiroshi got to work.

How had the plasma saws seemed so quick in the workshop, but were so maddeningly slow here? Asami looked up, and shuddered hard. The Colossus was moving again. Kuvira's unstoppable willpower was at work, directed against them, and them personally.

Okay, this was officially not working. "We need to get out of here," she said. 'Try the shoulder,' she thought, 'The shoulder will be better.'

"Almost there," said her father, as patient as she'd ever heard him. The plasma saws continued to buzz.

Shards of ice the size of tires fell onto the glass, cracking it. Asami's voice broke with fear. "We have to go, now!"

"Almost there… almost there…"

'I'm going to die here,' Asami thought. 'I'm going to die in the suit I built.' She looked further up, and the arm of the Colossus broke free. She cried, "Dad! Now!"

The plasma saws buzzed, more ice fell, and Asami almost didn't hear Hiroshi's words: "Goodbye, Asami."

The world stopped.

"I love you."

Asami screamed. "DAD!"

Hiroshi ejected his daughter from the hummingbird mecha suit. She flew backwards, and the parachute opened automatically, and she saw the Colossus crush the suit – and her father. As the debris fell away, a circle of platinum fell away with it. A hole appeared in the Colossus' thigh – there was movement on the ground –

Asami fell behind a building and saw no more. She looked around, tried to brace herself, and instead landed – badly – on the pavement. She checked automatically for broken bones – nothing – and then she couldn't move any more. She lay on her hands and knees, because her world had once again collapsed into fire and ash, and her father was dead, and she was more alone than she had ever been.

The Colossus was walking away, and Korra was in there, now. Asami could not bend, she could not reach her, there was nothing she could do. She sat where she had fallen, trying to absorb what had happened.

Her dad was dead. Hiroshi Sato had chosen to die. No more Pai Sho games. No more cups of tea. No more father.

Asami did not know how long she sat like that. The city was empty all around her, and the noises of the fight had faded to echoes.

'Pay attention, Asami, pay attention,' she thought. She turned, looked towards the sound, wandered to the street to try and see the Colossus.

This was strange. It was tearing off its own arm. What kind of insanity would provoke that?

Asami started to run towards it.

'Why are you doing this?' she asked herself. But she already knew the answer.

Korra was in the Colossus. That was reason enough.

Asami stopped and ducked when an explosion rocked the city. When it had stopped, Asami could no longer see the Colossus.

Well, that could only be good, right?

But which way… where had it been? Wherever it was, there Korra would be…

Asami took off again, and she was still running when a terrible explosion erupted from miles ahead. Asami took shelter in the opening of a subway station. When she turned after a count of ten, the blast was still flooding the street. The color was nightmarish – as if the color purple could scream – and it was scorchingly hot, but worst of all was the sick prickling sensation that erupted all over Asami's body. She toppled, like the earth was rocking under her. Like she was changing, changing in size, in form, in substance – she held out her hands and didn't recognize them – she was wearing silver furs, and she could feel something around her throat –

And then a mighty wind flowed past Asami. She turned and saw the blast returning whence it had come. Nothing looked burned or damaged – she emerged from the subway station – and saw a great light, far ahead.

The blast, the light, the changing. That explosion – it could only have one source. The Avatar was calling on the deepest source of her power, gambling her life for the world she loved so well.

Asami began to run again.

She wished she hadn't listened so closely to her mother's stories about Avatar Yangchen. She wished she didn't have to remember what Yangchen believed, and lived - that the Avatar lived for the world, and considered their body's death a small price to pay for peace.

Asami slowed when she entered the crater, hardly believing what she saw. It was a rift in her city, a tangle of spirit vines wilder and madder than ever before, extending out around a new Spirit Portal. Korra was nowhere to be seen.

"Asami!" That was Jinora, landing next to her. "Are you alright? Your dad -"

"I'm fine," Asami said flatly. She knew it was a lie.

So did Jinora. "Can you help us look for Korra? She and Kuvira were stranded right here when the gun - the weapon must have exploded - we can't find any trace of them. Can you help us look?"

Asami glanced up. Jinora followed her gaze. The Spirit Portal towered all the way into the heavens, an aperture to a world of limitless hazards and horrors.

"We don't know if that Portal is stable," Jinora said firmly. "We're going to comb every inch in this world before we look… there. Asami, please help."

Asami nodded and said she would. She had to do something.

She stumbled over the vines and rubble, looking everywhere and seeing nothing. Somehow, she just knew that Korra was nowhere to be found in this world. And if Korra was gone… and Dad was gone…

Asami stared up at the empty sky. Her future became a black hole, carrying her with it into a deep and dazzling darkness.

It felt like hours and hours passed. It was true night by now, though Asami would have welcomed darkness, compared to the Portal's garish beam.

The Spirit Portal. Korra was somewhere on the other side. Somewhere in that vast, unknowable world…

'How I would love to see it,' said a voice deep within her. 'After so long in prison...' Asami stilled, and stared at the Portal, but heard no more.

"Ummi," Asami said, so softly even she didn't hear.

The past. You could never escape it. In that way, it was like the future...

Asami saw Tenzin on ledge above her, and she climbed it to stand alongside him. Jinora landed on Tenzin's other side and began to talk to him. Asami, looking at them, saw a father-daughter resemblance that she had never seen before, and it hurt. She looked out, towards the bay…

And the air began to fill with spirits. They flowed out from the new portal – accepting it, blessing it – Tenzin stared outward, saying "The spirits have returned!"

Asami turned back, and was the first to see it – white seared the feather-yellow of the Portal, as sudden as a strike of ink against a blank page. At the base of it, two small figures came into view.

"And so has Korra!" Asami said. She nearly fell down the ridge, running towards the Portal, beginning to sob, crying with joy. Because Korra was striding out, into the light, bracing Kuvira with strength to spare.