Korra had become a different person in many ways over the last decade. More confident, less angry, less concerned with the opinions of others and more concerned with satisfying the standards of what she knew to be right or wrong. Her instincts no long defaulted to violence, and the spiritual aspect of her being grew stronger by the day. Her body had healed fully from its injuries, and the darkness which once haunted her mind had been chased away, mere shadows crowded into corners and mostly forgotten, only occasionally gathering the strength to make her toss and turn during the night.

The Avatar was a different person in many ways, but as she dodged hostile bending and knives gleaming black and vicious in glimpses of firelight, she could feel the grin on her face. Time had never diminished her love of a good fight against people who deserved to have their butts kicked.

She kept a tall, bearded man occupied with air blasts long enough for Asami to glide over and shock him with her glove. She and Mako doubled the fire thrown at a stocky woman until she was overwhelmed. A screeching old man rushed forward, was tripped by a sudden depression in the ground, and fell right into a thudding roundhouse kick that caught him in his chest. Korra hardly stopped to consider the Red Lotus she defeated before moving into the next. They streamed into the triangular chamber hesitantly now. Many had to navigate their falling allies. Eventually they stopped coming, and only three frightened, shaking saps remained, huddled together wide-eyed in a corner.

Korra relaxed from her fighting stance, yet more proof she had changed over the years. She hardly felt the urge to knock the terrorists' heads together. "Surrender, and we'll promise what mercy we can," she said.

The three Red Lotus members exchanged uncertain glances, a silent discussion of whether to trust Korra or not. The eldest of them, a woman with gray hairs hanging stray from her hood and falling across her eyes, stepped forward. "We surrender."

"Good." Korra was genuinely glad. Who was this woman and what happened to the girl who beat the stuffing out of three mobsters within five minutes of landing in Republic City? "You step forward first."

Once the defeated and surrendered Red Lotus had been secured, Korra stretched and chuckled. Bolin hooted and clapped her on the back. She returned the favor. "Spirits, that felt good!" the earthbender said.

"Different from the movers, huh bro?" Mako, even Mako, was smiling. "I noticed you pulling your punches at first."

"I have to when I film," Bolin pouted. "I can't break a co-star's face and ruin the whole production. I pulled my weight here, didn't I?"

"That you did," Korra said. More than held his weight. Korra had assumed five years away from continuous battle may have dulled Bolin's skills, but he seemed more powerful than ever. She could feel the way the cave walls pulled towards him, the way the ceiling creaked unintended threats just out of natural reaction to her friend's raw strength. "You might want to restrain yourself a little bit, though. We don't want you getting too excited and collapsing the cave on top of us."

Bolin frowned. "Sorry."

Mako slugged his brother in the shoulder and Asami smiled.

The sounds of battle reached their ears from somewhere ahead and below while they continued deeper into the Red Lotus lair. Kuvira and Azao were still fighting. Small alcoves opened black and yawning to either side as Korra led the way. Heavy trunks of wood and metal lay at the foot of beds. Pictures of family hung above them. Korra did her best to ignore them for the moment.

The air seemed to suck from her lungs the deeper they traveled, and the swampy heat became as uncomfortable as a furnace. The occasional pair of Red Lotus attacked and were easily dispatched. The cave winded up, down, left, right, winded back and forth. A blast of flameless heat made Korra wince. She held up an arm, and her flesh felt like a piece of meat crackling on a grill. She extinguished the fire in her other hand and felt her way along using the walls, rough and hot beneath her fingers.

A ruddy glow broke the dark. Bolin grabbed Korra's shoulder roughly. "There's a lot of lava ahead. I can feel it. That's what's making that glow."

Korra frowned, her eyebrows furrowed. "Any chance we stumbled into a strange volcano somehow?"

"No," Asami said. Her normally pale skin glowed orange and suspicious.

Bolin took the lead, shuffling along carefully. The glow ahead grew large and hot as the mouth of the hells. The path ended in small jutting above the ground level of massive chamber, the far end seemingly as far away as the entire path they'd walked to that point. A moat of shimmering magma surrounded an island of volcanic rock. Three figures stood upon it. Two of them wore sleeveless black cloaks with red hoods pulled over their heads. Between them was a shirtless man whose bare flesh resembled a barren plain, his sickly yellow flesh marked with swaths of black and red where the flesh had melted and scarred. Korra's face paled, and the shadows in her memory spread gleefully.

"It's been a long time, Avatar Korra." The mustache framing his mouth had burned away alongside his long hair, but Korra would recognize those eyes anywhere. Ghazan had populated too many of her nightmares. "I can honestly say I missed you."

"Asami, I need you to leave," Korra said. When her fiancé grasped at a trembling hand, the Avatar pulled away. "Now."

"Korra, I can't-"

"Ghazan is too dangerous. Go find Kuvira and Azao. Help them get here as quickly as possible."

Korra turned to look at Asami, and tried her best to still her shaking and keep the tears in her eyes. Asami's frown twisted her face, but she was still beautiful. Korra expected her to fight. Instead the older woman leaned forward, kissed Korra on the lips, and rushed away.

"How's your lavabending these days, Bolin?" Ghazan asked, sneering. His eyes boiled and shimmered hot as the lava surrounding him. His ruined skin made Korra wince.

"How did you get out of that temple?" Bolin asked.

Ghazan snickered. "Sheer will, boy, and the need for vengeance." His hateful glare snapped to Mako. "I know what you did to Ming. Believe me when I say you will suffer for it."

Korra pulled her friends behind her. "So you've taken up Zaheer's mission."

"To the Fog of Lost Souls with Zaheer," the lavabender said. "I killed Zuko and attacked Ba Sing Se to lure you. And here you are."

"It would have been easier to send an invitation. And involved a lot less firebenders to help me take you down."

Ghazan chuckled, raw and burned. "I only see the two I want to kill."

Korra jumped down to the island below, deflecting the fire shot her way. A finger of lava splashed in her direction and was cooled to rock inches away. Bolin. She'd had faith he'd handle the lava for her.

Hardened magma cracked beneath Korra's feet when she landed. She went flat, twisted her legs in a circle, and sent a funnel of fire at one of the hooded figures. She pivoted, ready to punch fire at the other one in the hood, but Mako had landed beside her with his sights set. Ghazan lifted a wave of lave from the moat, but again Bolin was there to cool it before it fell upon Korra. He began his own assault on Ghazan while Mako and Korra dealt with the others. The myriad of entrances into the chamber sealed as they fought.

Korra felt the heat, unlike any she'd ever been exposed to, squeeze her like juiced orange. The shimmering haze above the lava made the walls dance, made every step uneasy. The hooded firebender's constant attack only made the air hotter. Korra felt her mind begin to cloud. The storm within those clouds told her to go into the Avatar State. She shook her head, refusing. Ghazan would want that, and would have planned for it. Korra renewed her attack until she had driven the firebender across the moat, pinned him against a wall, and closed the distance to slam him to the ground.

Mako had already dispatched the other when the Avatar turned around. Bolin was on the offensive, driving Ghazan back. The Red Lotus leader had been driven into the moat, cooling a pathway for his feet as he retreated. Bolin followed. Exactly as the more experienced bender hoped. Bolin was able to cool the lava before it descended upon him, but the impact knocked him unconscious. Ghazan caught him before he fell and set him back on the island.

"Zaheer has accepted defeat," Korra said. "He lost the woman he loved as well, and he accepted his role in her death. He no longer seeks vengeance. He even helped me defeat Kuvira. Why do you still cling to hate? Death will not bring Ming-Hua back."

Ghazan sneered, his eyes cold black pits. Korra remembered her limited interactions with the man before. He'd been a demonic fighter, a loyal ally and friend to Zaheer, and there'd never been any doubt of the need to defeat him alongside the others, but he'd never appeared so vicious before. Bolin had claimed him to be even be a funny, laid back man. Whatever had happened to him when the temple collapsed had burned away his good humor and left only the violence beneath. Hisses like a chameleon snake whistled through his clenched teeth as those hateful eyes looked back and forth between Mako and the Avatar.

"Zaheer is a man of ideals and ambition. He wished to change the world. When he lost the woman he loved, he had something more to drive him forward." For the first time, a hint of something more glimmered in Ghazan's eyes. It vanished quicker than Koh could steal a face. "I had Ming-Hua and my friends. When we killed you, I was going to tell her. Instead you took everything from me." Ghazan shrugged. "It's only fair I take everything from you in return."

Korra readied herself. Mako stood focused and tense. "Try it," the Avatar said. No matter how the years had changed her, she still loved a good fight against a guy who deserved to get his butt kicked.

Ghazan nodded, stomped the ground to raise a barrier, dug his hands into the rock, and began melting it. Korra wouldn't allow him the initiative. She rushed forward and sliced the melting rock in two with a great, slicing arc of airbending. "Get Bolin out of here!" she shouted to Mako.

"I can't leave you to fight him alone!" the firebender shouted.

"You aren't. You're getting your brother to safety and coming right back to help me." She dodged a sharp sliver of rock. "Go!"

Mako grabbed Bolin beneath his arms, and two jets of fire propelled him back up to the ledge where they'd entered. Korra let out a yell as she rushed forward.

So, there it is. Interested to see what people think.