"Sami, you can't be serious", Qiang was furious with his protégée and showed it, while he put Saki back on her feet, "you're not going up that mountain! Beifong will kill me if I let something happen to you, and I don't even want to imagine what Korra would do."
"But", Asami started, trying hard not to let her emotions take over, "she can't even bend. She's entirely helpless up there."
Her bodyguard looked at her confused, then at the two mountain tops: "You don't think it's her way of preventing the war?"
Asami's eyes widened as she followed his gaze. "No, she can't…", she babbled while she staggered to her feet, "... something terrible must have happened."
"I don't want to alarm you or anything, but there is crack in the ground coming towards us", Saki said in an alarmed voice, pointing a shaking arm in the general direction of the mountain.
Qiang linked arms with the old woman to support her and pulled with his other hand on Asami: "Come on, I need to get you and Tara in safety."
The engineer was not convinced this was the right idea, but allowed him to pull herself and her daughter in the direction of the station, where every resident of Lu was headed right now.
Suddenly a ghost flickered in front of them - it was Jinora. "Ba… Se… Tal", the spiritual projection said while she appeared and vanished alternately. She repeated it a moment later: "Ba Sing… Hos…"
"Jinora, what is it", Asami questioned in shock. Something terrible had happened to Korra, that much was clear.
"Ba Sing Se Hospital", came the last words of the airbender master, and then her ghost vanished, while they saw the house directly next to Saki's fall into a big stream of lava.
"I'm going back", Asami's statement did not tolerate backtalks, "Saki, would you mind taking Tara with you to the station, I'll catch up to you."
It was impressive that Tara was even able to listen to her mother, while the child was crying and the people around them were screaming, but she did, and she started wailing louder.
"Don't go", she almost screeched when her mother put her down.
"You're not going", Qiang rephrased the child's plea.
"It'll just take a minute", Asami stated and started running back towards the cottage, with her bodyguard on her heels.
"Get back", he screamed after her, "I'm not going after you! You're nuts!" Regardless of his words, the two of them ran up the hill together.
The engineer had to stop when there was a big tear in the ground, even though this one was not filled with lava. She walked some steps back to take a run-up.
"Cover me", Asami yelled when she ran towards the crack, and Qiang had hardly the time to figure out what she meant, when he catapulted her with some earthbending into the air so she would safely land on the other side of the crack.
The problem with that approach was that he now stood on the wrong side of the tear, and Asami ran quickly. He lost sight of her while he was still not sure if he should follow her if that meant risking his life like that.
When she was gone for some minutes and did not return, he kicked the ground hard and cursed.
"Language", he heard a familiar voice and turned around in terror.
"Tara", he yelled at the child, who was wiping her tired, tear filled eyes.
"Where's mom", she asked, and his face fell, which made her start crying again. Without thinking all too much, he bended down and picked her up, hugging her tightly.
"Don't worry, she said she'll come." He had just said the words, when he heard the humming of the military vehicle Korra had used the previous days. When it came into view, they saw it was Asami driving it.
"Bridge", the woman screamed and Qiang dropped Tara to the ground because he already saw Asami driving the Satomobile into the crack in his mind's eye.
The man took a stance and just knew it would take all his strength to create a bridge for the heavy car, with the ever-present earthquakes nonetheless. He suddenly felt Tara punch him into the hip and was about to yell at her when she heard her voice over the sound of crashing houses. "Sitting turtleduck!"
He quickly readjusted his weight and bended the bridge, and Asami took the cue to drive the vehicle over it. He barely held all that weight up, but luckily had no time to ponder what would have happened if Tara had not corrected his stance.
"Get in here, now", Asami ordered while she held the door open for them, and they quickly obeyed.
"Did you short-circuit the car", Qiang questioned still very shaken from what was going on, but the woman flashed him a quick smile.
"Didn't need to, Korra always stores the keys under the sun visor", she answered while she rounded a corner with screeching tires, "she thinks no one is going to steal the Avatar's car." Qiang did not feel the need to challenge the question how anybody could possible know that this was the Avatar's car.
Suddenly the Satomobile came to an abrupt halt, and Asami almost flew out of the car door with a single word: "Saki!"
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I lost your daughter...", the old woman started to explain, but then saw the child sitting in the vehicle and sighed in relief.
"Get in, we'll drive you to the station", Asami decided, and helped Saki into the Satomobile as well. It was getting really crowded at that point. The vehicle only had a bench made for three people in the front, and not even backseat. There was a small landing in the back where a spare tire and an ammunition box resided, but this car was only made for moving high ranking officers, not entire groups of people.
When they were driving again, this time slower since they were getting in areas where more and more escapees gathered, Asami questioned: "Do you have anyone you can take shelter with?"
"Yes, my children, but all my money is still in my house", the old woman explained tearily and looked through the back window with everyone who was not driving. The lava lake was expanding, and there was a good chance the cottage was gone by now.
Asami leaned over to open the glove compartment, finding it utterly empty. She quietly cursed at Korra and her bad habit of not taking money with her.
"Qiang, give her your wallet", Asami stated, seeing as the policeman was the only one who was still wearing his regular clothes. The man frowned at the request, but got his wallet out.
"No, I'm not going to take all your money", Saki said and waved her arms in front of her, when Qiang removed his police badge from his wallet, before handing it over.
"It's fine, really", he told her and gave her a small smile.
The old lady just pressed him and Tara against her body and mumbled a heartfelt thanks when Asami stopped again: "We're at the station. If anything goes wrong, you are always welcomed to stay with us at the Sato Mansion in Republic City."
The farewell was short and Asami was speeding out of the city only seconds later.
"Where… where are we going", Qiang questioned after some minutes.
Asami groaned at that stupid interruption and looked at him angrily: "Did you not listen? Jinora said Ba Sing Se Hospital. That's where we're going!"
"Just because Ba Sin Sei is in the East, and you're driving West."
The engineer turned without ever slowing down, which produced big tracks in the meadow next to the street and pressed Qiang and Tara against the window.
They drove for a long while in silence.
"Mom?"
Asami looked at Tara as if she had just now realized that the child was sitting next to her. And with that realization came the shock that she would probably have lost the child somewhere along the line if her bodyguard had not taken care of her. She was a terrible mother.
"Yes, sweetie", she forced a smile on her face to appear nice and inviting - but in the darkness illuminated by only the full moon she looked really creepy.
"Is mommy okay", Tara questioned.
Asami sighed. She knew she should not lie to the child, so she said the one thing she could: "I really, really hope so."
"Should I drive for a bit", Qiang offered when the sun started to rise. They were still driving, and he had slept for a bit, while Tara was still curled up next to him and was snoring softly.
Asami on her side of the car looked as if she had not moved a muscle since the man had closed his eyes, and she was determined starring the road down.
"I remember how you drive, we'd take forever until we got to Ba Sin Sei", she answered in a slow voice.
"But at least we'd get there in one piece", he countered, watching the engineer with worry, "the last thing Korra needs right now is you and Tara crashing."
She did not react to his words, but at the next possible opportunity she stopped the car and switched sides with him, and now had the calming feeling of her daughter clinging to her side.
"Hey Qiang", she said, closing her eyes, so she was not able to see him look at her confused, "thanks for your help. I think you saved our lives multiple times last night."
"Don't worry about it, Sami", he answered with a smirk she could hear, "but you should worry about me giving all my money away to some old lady."
"Didn't think you were greedy", she mumbled tersely, her tired body was trying to overpower her.
"I'm not, but we have no money with us, I have no idea how you want to buy...", he started to explain, but when he looked over, he saw that he could stop talking, since Asami had finally fallen asleep.