"Stop the trial!" Lin screamed. All heads turned to her as the trial was suddenly adjourned right in the middle of a testimony. Even Kuvira, who had been fighting the urge to abandon her plan to spare her fellow prisoners and the anguish that came with it, was now focused on the seemingly madwoman who was frantically waving her hands for no apparent reason.

"For what?!" Izumi exclaimed, angry that the process had come to such an abrupt halt, but curious to know why Lin had acted as she did. She had known the Chief of Police to be a calm, unsentimental woman, so what possessed her to behave in such a panicked and disruptive way?

"The building…it's…crumbling!" Lin explained, her answer as fragmented as the foundation of the courthouse. A collective response of "what?" and "has Lin gone crazy?" was heard across the entire audience of the trial. Shouts of "prove it!" and "shut up!" were directed to the elder of the Beifong siblings, who a few people thought was finally acting like her mother. It was a Toph thing to do, interrupting a whole trial just to satisfy a whim.

"Wait…she may have a point here" Kuvira announced, having tapped into her Earth sense as well. It didn't look as disastrous as Lin was making it sound, but there was solid ground for her fears. However, it would be a good idea to evacuate the premises.

"You just want to get off without a punishment!" one angry firebender accused the former dictator. This started a whole other row within the courthouse, adding to the manic tone put in place by Lin. Very soon the entire courthouse was in chaos, as people were indecisive on whether or not to believe Lin and Kuvira, leading to several fights erupting.

Korra tried to mediate some of the conflict, but found herself powerless to the general build up of paranoia, which she only ended up fanning the flames of. Izumi started pounding her gavel in the hope that it would get some attention, but the bangs barely registered amidst the madness.

At this point, Jinora started worrying that if the courthouse was going to break down, then the panic building up would only accelerate such an occurrence. She was also fed up by anyone's lack of willingness to pursue a rational course of action. So she glided up to the top floor of the courthouse, where a brass gong was collecting dust. With a massive blast of air, she struck it deafeningly hard.

"Be quiet!" she screamed, her voice trembling with the rage she usually reserved for Ikki and Meelo. The combined sound and her exclamation managed to quieten the people downstairs, who were now staring at her, their panic (at least) temporarily replaced by confusion. Jinora realised that perhaps listening to a fourteen year old on paper wasn't the smartest thing to do in a time of crisis. But then again, nothing about these people's behaviour had been smart. So Jinora found herself an audience, and thus she set on improvising an escape plan.

"First thing first, we need to establish exactly how dire the situation is. Every earthbender here, try to sense how fragile the building is right now" she commanded. A few focused seconds sprouted the general consensus that they had between 20 to 30 minutes. At this point the hysteria resumed. Jinora felt tempted to blast the gong again, but Izumi beat her to being the one who restored order.

"Listen" she began. Her presence carried a natural sense of authority- one of the few good genes she had received from her paternal grandfather. Her firm, yet calm demeanour, worked better than Jinora's uncharacteristic rage or Korra's natural impulsiveness when it came to combatting the fear permeating through the room.

"We need to remain calm here" she continued. "20 minutes admittedly isn't the best amount of time needed for an evacuation- but you've had practice, and one courthouse is far less work than an entire city, so I have good faith we'll all make it out of here unscathed. That's if we proceed in an orderly fashion. Now, who here's an earthbender?" she asked. A number of hands went up in the air.

"Okay, that's good. Try to buy us more time in any way you can" Izumi directed. She delivered her order so eloquently that the earthbenders had no problem staying behind while other citizens had a stronger chance of survival. They were also accepting of the order due to Korra volunteering to help with keeping the building from collapsing.

"Everyone else, the courthouse currently has three usable exits. File out the nearest one to you, and once outside, get away as quickly as possible" Izumi continued, addressing everyone else. They were less diligent; most of them started darting out like headless chickens, and as a result soon all three doors were pounded by masses of human traffic. Ten minutes later only around 50 people had got out- leaving 90% of the population at an increased risk from perishing.

The instability of the courthouse was starting to make itself felt not only to the earthbenders, but to everyone else at this point, adding to the frenzied atmosphere. With every passing second, only a few lucky escapees managed to slip through the gaps. Then, the first fragments of stone started descending, and Jinora being the only airbender present, had to task herself with making sure they were diverted.

While trying to save the lives of people she had tried to kill recently, Kuvira sighed. It was no use. They would all surely die in the next few minutes, crushed to bits by a falling building. It was as if her sentence had arrived earlier than expected, only she would be facing her doom not isolated in the gallows, but in the heart of Republic City with tons of innocents. Unless…

"Everyone get to the left!" Kuvira yelled. Much like Izumi, her voice carried a tone of power ingrained so deeply into it that the fearful and impressionable crowd cared not about how she was a jailed dictator as they obeyed her. What happened next proved that their decision to act as they did ultimately paid off.

A powerful blast suddenly brought down the courthouse down, the former grandeur of the imposing structure now reduced to rubble…in front of them. Everyone was safe! They were all outside! They had survived! People were elated and shocked, their amazement having muted them.

Korra surveyed the surroundings, looking to see if anyone was seriously hurt. No one was. In fact, after the shock died down, most people rushed into heartfelt embraces with complete strangers. Mako and Bolin took the opportunity to give each other the longest hug of both of their lives as they made up for lost time between them.

Korra smiled, but her relief was momentary as she realised something; amidst the destruction was Kuvira. And she was most likely dead.