Paragon of Korra

by Deus Swiftblade

When the new Avatar stepped off the boat in Republic City and as she deals with life as the Avatar, she soon discovers that not everything is what it seems. Especially when the other side of the world, a place the Bending Countries had been in vague contact with for the past 70 years, shows itself again.

38. Final bouts and recovery

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the Last Airbender, or the Legend of Korra.

Paragon of Korra

Chapter 38: Final bouts and recovery

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"Bijū/spirit talking"

"Bijū/spirit thinking"

(Location: Republic City)

Naruto sat at the desk, looking at the fresh piece of paper resting in the typewriter. The page was completely blank, something that did not sit well with him. But try as he might, he could not figure out a way to start it. He scowled at the paper, trying to come up with something, but ending up with zip. "Argh, this is annoying," he finally declared, pushing away from the desk. His chair rolled back easily enough and he leaned against it, looking up at the ceiling.

"Having a case of the writer's block, are we?" his tenant asked him, barely rising his head from where it rested on his paws.

"What tipped you off?" he asked in rhetorical sarcasm. "Was it when I pushed from the desk or when I was trying to burn the paper with my almighty gaze?"

"'Almighty gaze'?" the fox repeated with just as much sarcasm. "When did you get delusions of grandeur?"

"Around the same time you did."

"Funny, kit, really funny," he said drily.

He sighed in exhaustion. "Sheesh, I've forgotten how annoying this damn writer's block can be." Any idea that came through his head just seemed stupid or redundant. "When was the last time I had this block?"

The fox narrowed his face into a thoughtful look. "Well, I think it would've been about five books back. But then you just couldn't get through a scene. Now, you can't even start a book."

He looked at the typewriter again before throwing his head back and looking up at the ceiling again. He started to move the chair around slowly in a circle, something that he was prone to do when he was trying to come with a good brainstorming session. But after coming up with nothing, he stopped. "Crap, I've got nothing."

"Maybe you need to take a break from all of it. Have you considered that idea?"

"Have you forgotten how many books I'm in already? There's no way I can stop now. The end's not near yet." He figured that he was good for another five books, maybe four.

Kurama rolled his eyes and gave his Jinchūriki a long stare. "How about we skip over the bullshit, Naruto? We both know that you're writer's block isn't coming from a lack of creativity. It's coming from stress."

He paused in his chair, staring up at the ceiling. "You're right," he admitted. "What's going on in the South Pole does have me stressed somewhat." However, he was confident that the situation would be handled. Yue had been trained by Sokka and he knew that she was good. She had told him herself that she had a plan if things went south. Still, there was a chance that she would get separated from the others, which was why he gave that whistle to Asami.

"That's not the only thing you're stressed about."

His eyes fell on the desk. There was a small stack of letters resting in a semi-neat pile on the side. He had been getting them for a while now from Arashi. They started being delivered to him after that phone call they had. At first, he had been a bit surprised that his grandson had actually decided to write to him after having running off like that. He had thought that the phone call would be the only contact they would have. But then the letters had started coming and even though he didn't reply, he looked forward to each one.

Except the last one had not been good. He stood up from the chair and walked over to the desk, picking up the last letter. The words on the paper had been read before, but they still concerned him.

Jiji

My team and I just got back from the Land of Spring. It didn't turn out like I thought it would. It became much worse.

I told you that we had gone there to help the production of your movie along. We even got a princess to help us out. But things turned bad when we went to Market Day and got attacked. It was an Earthbender, a kid only a few years older than me. I went after him and fought him. His Earthbending was pathetic, I mean really pathetic. Both Bolin Chief Beifong would've cringed if they had seen what he was doing.

Once they brought him back to the palace to be interrogated, he was broken out that same night by a Firebender. My team and I went after them. We found their base in the mountains. Looking back on it now, I wished to Agni that we didn't. Even more than that, I wished that the mission had been about the production.

We didn't even go inside. We stayed and observed as slavers brought in children in chains, talking like they had just found a good price. Each one of the children looked confused and scared. More than one of them looked like they had been beaten. All four of us wanted to do something about it, Rin-sensei. But we knew that we would be out of our league. So we watched. Once the door was closed, we left.

When the mission was done, we went back to the village and told the Hokage about what we had seen. We have the rest of the week off now. I don't know what to do with myself, Jiji. Life seems to go on like nothing had changed but I know that it has. I only saw a hint of the ugliness in life and it scared the crap out of me. Did you feel the same way when you experienced it? What about living with people you know after it? When they acted the same as before, did you ever feel like screaming what complete blind morons that they were? I know I do. I get that urge whenever I run into the others and they keep thinking that it was cool I got a mission outside the village.

I know you're not likely to reply. After all, you've got better things to do than write back to a grandson who chose to run away then listen to you.

But if you could, I think I need the advice. I'm not going to stop being a shinobi. I just want to know how to deal with what comes next.

Arashi.

He put the letter down and walked out to the patio. The sky was a purple color, but not the kind of purple one would see at dusk or dawn. This was a darker purple that almost seemed hostile. There were also the many aurora ribbons moving through the purple sky, giving it an eerie beauty to it. When it had first happened, the entire city had gone up into a tizzy. The police radio in the apartment went with multiple reports from the cops, all adding into a confusion of sounds and voices. President Raiko had restored order to the mess by ordering General Iroh to move the fleet into the bay.

But while everyone else had gotten out of sorts at the sudden change in sky, all Naruto said was "Huh," and went back to trying to write a story. Now he looked at it again but his thoughts were on his grandson. He was tempted to write back but those last few lines seemed to have a tone that was equal parts bitter and self-mocking. It was like his grandson didn't expect him to write back. In fairness, he hadn't. But he knew why he didn't. It would take too long for a reply to get back. By the time it would've gotten to him, whatever had happened would've passed.

"You know," Kurama chimed in. "You could actually, oh I don't know, go over there and talk to him yourself?"

He didn't reply. It was an argument that they had had ever since the phone call. As much as the fox and his own consciousness egged him on, he remained stubborn. "He left on his own choice," he replied. "And I made myself a promise a long time ago."

"I know. I was there for that, remember? It was stupid then and it was stupid now. It's more than 50 years, Naruto. I think it's safe to say that Konoha probably doesn't give a flying fuck about."

A bright light suddenly streaked across the sky and then fell out of it, slamming into the bay. A huge wave erupted from the crash, upsetting a few nearby battleships. When the water came back down, Naruto was looking at a giant man colored in black and red with a weirdly shaped head and tentacles from his shoulders. It stood to its full height and proclaimed in a voice that echoed across the entire city, "It's time to take back the Physical World."

It started striding towards the nearest bridge, where the majority of the battleships were waiting. They didn't wait to start unleashing barrage after barrage of fireballs at it. But it didn't break stride as the fireballs struck. When it did come to a stop, it was only to bend up a large wall of water, as tall as it, and bending right back at the ships. Those that didn't go under were wedged into themselves and the bridge's supports.

"Kurama," Naruto said as he watched the giant thing turned its attention towards the statue of Aang, "am I looking at what looks like a fusion of a spirit and a man that's really big?"

"Yep," the fox replied.

"Did it just bend a large wave of water at the ships?"

"That's what I saw."

"Do I also see the symbol of Vaatu on its chest?"

"That you do."

That just meant one thing and one thing only. "Fuck, they failed. Unalaq freed Vaatu and fused with him."

"That's seems to be the case. But what's he doing here?"

The old Paragon did wonder about that. It didn't make sense to have Unalaq marching around in Yue Bay, trying to lay waste to the city. He would've thought that he'd stay in the South Pole, making sure that Korra was finally gone. But as he mulled it over, he remembered that Yue had a plan. Then the dots connected and he realized what her plan exactly was. "Well, shit," he finally said.

"You figure it out?" the fox asked him.

"Yep," he replied, turning away from the patio and walking back inside. "Remind me to thump Yue on the head when she gets back."

"Okay, but why would you need to thump her on the head?" asked Kurama. "I thought she was a good planner."

"It's one thing to be a good planner. It's another to get one of your elders involved without asking him first." He picked up his Zanpakutō from where it rested against the desk.

The fox thought about his words and then about the situation at hand. His eyes lit up in realization once he had figured it out too. "Oh I see. Well, you have to admit, it's not a bad plan. Maybe the reason she didn't tell you was because it was the worst-case scenario."

He could understand that but he was still irritated by it. "It's the principal of the matter, furball. She could've at least warned me that she was planning this."

"Maybe she thought you wouldn't do anything if you were told."

"Or maybe she just wanted to keep me on my toes." He walked over to the stand by the door and took down his favorite coat. It was a nice burnished brown color and it fell to his waist comfortably. "Either way, she's going to get a thumping when I see her again."

"Well, look at the bright side."

He reached for the door handle and opened it. "What's the bright side?"

"You'll be able to get rid of some of that stress."

"Hmm, good point," he admitted, walking through the door and closing it behind him. "Maybe I'll get some inspiration in the process too."

(Location: South Pole)

Tenzin, Kya, Bumi, and Yue had gone through the portal to see if they could help the fight. But when they came back out to the South Pole and saw the twins nearby and unconscious, they knew that they had been too late. They started looking for Korra and the others, working their way through the forest around the portal and out onto the snowy fields. It was Tenzin who found them first, all lying half-buried in the snow. "They're over here," he called out to the others. He started to dig Korra out. "Please, wake up," he said to her unconscious body.

The others started digging out the rest of them. Once they were out of the snow, Yue checked Mako. "They're gonna be all right," she declared. "But I need to get them into some spirit water right away."

"It'll take too long to get back to the compound," Yue pointed out as she hefted Asami up onto her shoulder. "We're going to have to take them back through the portal."

No one could argue that fact. Tenzin carried Korra in his arms while Bumi picked both Mako and Bolin, throwing them over his shoulders. They walked back through the portal and to the closest stream of water. They put the kids down in the water and stepped out so Kya could do her thing. She started bending the water back and forth, like her mother had taught her. The water illumined as it went back and forth over the four of them, cleansing them and urging them to wake from their pain induced slumber.

Korra was the first to wake up, lurching up with a gasp. Mako, Bolin, and Asami did the same and so the four of them sat in the water, trying to get their breath back. "Thank goodness you're all okay," Tenzin said in relief once they found the strength to get up.

Korra tried walking out of the water, but her legs felt stiff. He came over to her and offered a helping hand. "Did you find Jinora?" she asked, taking the hand and getting out of the water.

"I was able to rescue her soul, but she wasn't ready to return to her body yet. She sensed that the world was in grave danger."

She couldn't look him in the eye. "She was right." She walked away from him to sit down on a nearby rock.

He watched her go with concern. "Were you able to stop Unalaq and Vaatu?"

"No. They fused, then Vaatu ripped Raava right out of me and destroyed her." Speaking of it made the memories come back, memories she tried desperately to shut out. "Vaatu won."

When he heard those words, Bolin instantly became nervous and scared. "No. I am too young to live through ten thousand years of darkness. Korra, can't you talk to one of your past lives or something?" he all but begged her.

She knew that he didn't mean anything harmful by those words but it still hurt all the same. She couldn't feel any of them inside of her. "When Vaatu destroyed Raava, he destroyed my connection to the past Avatars too."

Tenzin was horrified by what she said. "If that's true, then—"

"The cycle is over. I'm the last Avatar." Tears began to well up in her eyes and she could barely manage to say, I'm so sorry, Tenzin," before succumbing to crying.

As everyone stood around her as she cried, Kya looked over at her brother. "She needs you now, more than ever," she told him.

Asami felt hopeless. She looked down at the whistle, which was somehow still attached around her neck. "Why didn't I blow this stupid thing earlier?" she asked herself. If she had, they wouldn't be in this kind of situation! "There must be something that we can do," she said aloud.

Then Yue did the strangest thing: she laughed. It wasn't a full blown maniacal laugh that could've sent shivers down their spines. Rather it was an amused chuckle that evolved into the laughter that someone would use when they heard a good joke. Everyone looked at her like she had lost it. "What's so funny?" Mako demanded.

"Just what she's said," she replied, looking at Asami, "Do, kid? We don't need to do anything. We've won."

"Uhh…what?" he asked, his angry expression turning into a confused one.

She smiled at him. "You heard me. We won. The game is as good as done. We might as well kick back and relax."

"Yue, how could you say something like that?" Kya demanded. "Vaatu is loose and fused with Unalaq! We have no idea where he is!"

"Actually, I do know where he went. He's gone to Republic City."

"Where would he go there?" asked a very confused Bolin. As far as he knew, the new Dark Avatar wouldn't have any kind of business going to Republic City. He didn't know if the guy had even been there before.

"To do what Unalaq does best: to throw a temper tantrum until he gets what he wants or until someone makes him shut up. Only this time," she said, her smile turning vicious, "it's going to be the latter and much further than that."

A gasp of surprise left Bumi's lips as he stared at his fellow Paragon. He figured out what she was talking about and what she had done to talk like that. "You didn't," he said to her.

She looked right back at him. "I did."

"He's going to kill you."

"No, not kill. Probably severely wound or maim me, but not kill me."

"But why?" he asked her, still surprised. "Why would you do this?"

"I couldn't think of anything else. Come on, Bumi, you knew that there was a chance Korra would fail and Unalaq and Vaatu would become the Dark Avatar."

"Of course I knew that. That's why the both of us were here."

"And if we had failed? Unalaq would've just rampaged around the South Pole before anyone did anything about it. It would've been best to make him go to the one person out of the four of us that had the best chance of killing him."

"And you didn't tell him?"

"No," she said with a shake of her head. "That old man needs to be kept on his toes, it's good for him."

He groaned and scratched the back of his head. "You are a dead, dead woman."

"What are you guys talking about?" Asami asked them both, completely lost at what they were talking about. One quick look at the rest of them told her that they were just as lost.

Bumi looked back at them, looking a little ashamed for some reason. "We're talking about how we've somehow won. She's a dead woman, by the way," he declared, pointing his thumb at Yue.

"I told you already, Bumi," she said with her hands on her hips. "I'm only maimed, not dead."

"Could you please explain what it is you're talking about?" Tenzin asked.

"Sure. You guys remember what happened in the tent?"

"How could we not?" Korra asked herself with a defeated air. That had been where many bombshells had been dropped, some of which she was beginning to wish that she had never learned about. "What about it?"

"Well, there was a reason why I said those all things."

"You mean it wasn't just to piss off Unalaq?" Kya asked her.

"That was just a side bonus. I realized the fact that there was a good possibility that we would all fail in stopping Unalaq from becoming the Dark Avatar. So I came up with a plan that dealt with the aftermath. What I did in the tent was manipulate Unalaq into doing exactly what I wanted him to do."

Bolin was still confused. "Which was what?"

"Have him go to Republic City and get his ass kicked and killed by Naruto."

"But how?" asked Asami. "You never once mentioned Republic City or sensei directly."

"If I had, Unalaq would've taken notice and thought something suspicious was happening. I didn't need suspicious. I needed anger and outrage. Everything I said had an intended effect. By revealing the fact that Korra was supposed to be his daughter instead of Tonraq's, I heightened his dislike of the four Paragons. When I told him it was because in retaliation for his father's murder and his brother's banishment, the dislike ignited into raging hatred. You see, he always blamed the Paragons for what he thought was his loss of destiny, thinking that they somehow had a hand in it. By admitting to the deed, he would want to kill us in order to prove that he's above us."

"Then why aren't you dead right now?" Mako asked. If what she said was true, since she and Bumi had been (relatively) closer, Unalaq should've reached out and killed them first.

"Because I also said that Unalaq could never beat the weakest of the Paragons or the youngest. Since he now is supposedly more powerful than us, his first instinct will be to find the strongest of the Paragon and eliminate him. In his mind, if he does that, then the rest of us will be easy. Adding in the youngest bit will reinforce him to go after the eldest of us, which is Naruto. If he has doubts that he might lose, he would also be reinforced by the fact that Naruto is the last remaining Paragon who 'stole' his 'rightful' destiny from him."

"And the part about the first crush?" asked Tenzin.

"One last reinforcement, just in case he tried something else," she replied. "Good plan, don't you think?"

"Like I said, you're a dead woman," Bumi told her again.

"Bumi, I'm not having that conversation with you again. The fact has already been established, leave it alone."

"Wait, you sent Unalaq, who was fused with Vaatu, after sensei?" Asami asked them in realization. Her face drew back in horror. "Why would you do that to him?"

They both looked and laughed at the look on her face. "Asami, you've been training under him. Do you not have any faith in your sifu?" Yue asked her.

"Of course, I do," she shot back. "But he's an old man and Unalaq just beat Korra."

Again they laughed and while Tenzin and Kya didn't laugh, it was clear what they thought of her words. "Don't let him hear you say old man, kid," Bumi told her. "I made that mistake once and I couldn't sit down easily for six weeks or look at a bar counter without wincing. Naruto might be getting up there in the years, but he is by no means weak. And he knows how to handle the Avatar. He's been doing it since my dad was a kid."

"But this isn't Avatar Aang or Korra we're talking about here," she protested. "You heard him yourself, Unalaq declared himself to be the Dark Avatar."

"Now you're just giving him an incentive to cut loose and actually fight seriously." He paused, thought over what he had just said, shivered, and looked at Yue. "Now that I think about it, it's probably a good thing we're down here and not in Republic City."

She nodded. "The thought had come to me."

"Why do you say that?" Mako asked, still a little confused about the whole thing.

The adults all shared a look of unease. But there was something else mixed into it as well: sadness and remorse. "Let's just say the last time Naruto cut loose in his fighting, Republic City ended up doing a massive remodeling job."

"But still, he's going to fight a spirit that is on the level as Raava," Asami said, still worried about what they had done.

"Don't worry," Yue told her, getting her confidence back. "He'll be perfectly fine. He's got that special weapon to back him up."

"Special weapon?" she repeated, confused. "What special weapon?"

"Have you never wondered about his sword?"

She thought back to one of the times she and Arashi had been alone in the apartment talking. It had been after Rin had been arrested and they were waiting for Naruto to come back. "He told that it wasn't a normal weapon but left it at that. He also mentioned that I might get one myself someday but I didn't think anything about it."

"Dang, Naruto promised you one?" Bumi said, clearly impressed. "That's something."

"What about it is so impressive?"

"Kid, that weapon is a spirit killer," Yue explained to her. "If he kills a spirit with that thing, there's no coming back from that. The spirit stays dead."

"And since Unalaq is now the Dark Avatar, he's under the same laws that the Avatar has to obey," the Air Paragon finished. "Would it be safe to say that he's in some kind of Avatar State?"

She nodded. "Yes, if you consider something that is part human, part spirit, dark red with tentacles hanging from the shoulders, and stands just as tall as the memorial statue of Avatar Aang."

"Sounds like it to me," Yue declared. "We'll be fine."

"How can we be fine?" Mako asked.

It was Korra who gave the answer, having stopped crying and now just looked at the ground in defeat. "If the Avatar is killed while in the Avatar State, they shall be cease to be and the cycle of reincarnation will be broken forever," she told them, remembering the lesson the White Lotus taught her. It was a lesson that gave her nightmares for a week afterwards but she never told anyone that.

"That's it exactly," her aunt-figure declared.

Kya and Tenzin's eyes started to widen as they realized what it was the Paragons were saying. "So if Unalaq was in the Dark Avatar State and attacking Republic City,"' the Airbender started to say.

His brother finished for him. "He would provoke Naruto to come out and attack him. They'll fight but Naruto will most likely kill him with his sword, shattering the Dark Avatar cycle before it can even start."

"Like I said, we won," Yue declared. "And we didn't have to lift a finger."

"You're still a dead woman."

(Location: Republic City)

As Unalaq stared down at the statue of Avatar Aang, half submerged in the water, he felt some satisfaction in it. When he saw the statue, he felt enraged that he had let the Paragons do what they did and steal his destiny from him. So he tore it off its pedestal and threw it into the water.

Planes flew over his head, getting his attention. He looked up and saw them flying past. "Perhaps they are going to try and rain down fire upon me," he thought to himself. It was an amusing thought. But still, they would dare try to attack their savior. This must be corrected. And there was only one way to correct such a thing.

He reached out with is tentacles and grabbed hold of the last plane in the formation, slamming it down into the water. He looked up and saw an airship floating above his head. He only needed to focus on it to see Lin Beifong and President Raiko. "How would the city react when they saw the broken bodies of their leader and protector in the bay's water?" It was an interesting thought and he knew just how to do it.

He bent the natural spirit energy that now coursed through his body into a single focal point, the symbol on his chest. It glowed bright purple and he released the energy into overwhelming beam of power. His aim was off so he had to bring it upwards to strike the airship but he took a great of satisfaction in watching it burn to pieces.

It fell towards the city and he followed. He did not run, he walked. He was in no hurry. There was no one there to stop him. "Perhaps they should know that I am here and to be fear?" That was a good idea. He bent his tentacles into the bay and into the earth itself. The water around the ports shivered and shook as he bent it to his will. There were strong spiritual vines dormant underneath the city. He brought them up to the surface, parting the water for their arrival. When they tasted the air, they quivered in joy.

Then he directed their attention towards the city, bending to enwrap and destroy. They reacted willing, lunging for any building they could feel or get themselves on. Once they were stuck on, they wrapped themselves around it, enfolding and snaking their way through anything they could. If they met resistance, they crushed it and moved on. He could hear the people screaming in surprise and fear at the sight of his vines. And he found that he enjoyed the sound.

"HEY!" shouted a single voice, echoing across the bay.

He paused in his actions at that sound. It was a familiar sound, a voice that he hated and loathed. He looked down at the port, where one person stood in defiance while others ran in fear. It was an old man, clutching a sword like it was a cane, who stared up at him in annoyed fashion. "Naruto Uzumaki," he said, spitting out the name.

"Unalaq, you've gotten bigger," the old man noted drily.

"That is not my name anymore. I am—"

"I could hardly give an elephant rat's ass what your new name is," he said sharply, cutting him off.

He got angry at the lack of respect and fear given to him. "How—"

"Shut up, Unalaq. I'm talking," he said. He took out his pipe and started smoking. "Now, would you knock what you're doing off? The city was having a nice evening enjoying the sky and you've come along and ruined it."

He calmed his anger and regarded the man with a look of contempt. Perhaps a new name at this point would be pointless. Yes, that was right. "It does not matter to me what they think. I've come to take back the Physical World from humans and ensure that spirits will live here."

"Nice thought but wrong." He sounded bored with his declaration.

"How do you think you know the thoughts of someone more powerful than you?"

"Shall we start with the fact that you've never had an original thought in your life or do you want to skip that and get right to wondering what I meant?" The old man kept talking, not bothering to wait for his answer. "You weren't sent here to destroy Republic City."

He was offended by the implication that someone had given him orders. "I was not sent here, as you so pathetically claim. I came of my own choice."

"No, you were sent. You were sent by Yue so I would take care of you in a permanent fashion." He blew smoke out and watched it drift in the air. "I imagine that she said a couple of things that got you riled up. She was always tricky when she wanted to be, especially with her words."

Unalaq thought him a fool. There was no possible he could've been tricked into coming here. She had simply said those things to make him mad. It had been pointless in the end. He was strong now, more powerful than any other… He stopped and thought back to her words. The more he thought over it, the more he connected the dots. The more he connected the dots, the madder he got. When he realized it fully, he was ready to sink the entire city in his anger. "That conniving little bitch of a whore!" he raged inside his mind.

"Finally figured it out, have you?" Naruto called out from the docks. He gave his pipe one last puff before emptying out the ashes and putting it away in his coat. "So, you want to get to it?"

He looked back down at the old man. "Do you really think that you would be able to defeat me?"

"It's in my job description," he replied in complete deadpan.

The Dark Avatar laughed loudly at that, his laughter echoing throughout the city. People would claim afterwards that it sounded like nails scratching over rocks slowly. But Naruto didn't flinch or try to cover his ears at the sound of it. "You really think you can beat me? Perhaps another old man or little children would be suitable for you. But you are only one person and I am the Dark Avatar. I will crush you with my power alone!"

He spread his arms wide. "Then do it. Command fire to burn me to utter ashes. Tell the earth to bury me alive. Order the air to suffocate my lungs. Go on, Dark Avatar, kill me."

Unalaq raised his hand, glad for the opportunity. He bent the air to his will and drew it out of the insufferable man's lungs. "And now, you die!"

All he got was a flutter of air.

"What?"He bent the air again. All he got was the wind moving sluggishly. "How…?" He forced his will upon the earth, to have it swallow the old man and entomb him.

The earth barely rumbled.

"I'm waiting," Naruto called out, his arms still stretched wide.

"That pompous, stupid, arrogant—!" he thought in a murderous rage. He swung his arm up, commanding fire to burn alive in his hand so that he could burn the old man who stood in defiance beneath.

He didn't even get a spark.

"How!?" he raged inside his head. "How is this possible? I am the Dark Avatar! I am Korra's equal! No, I am her superior! How is it possible that I cannot command the elements!?" How could that be when he was able to bend nature itself to his command!?

"Still waiting," said Naruto. There was a paused silence as he waited. "Nothing?" he called out as he dropped arms. "That's what I thought."

He glared down at the man. "Don't be presumptuous, Naruto. You are still only one Paragon and an old one at that."

"You're right, of course. I am an old man and I am only one of four Paragons. But see, here's the kicker, Unalaq: only a fully realized Avatar, one who has mastered the elements to the extent they stand above all Benders and who has mastered their spiritual side to the degree that they are able to withstand an onslaught of spirits, is a threat that requires all of the Paragons. You are not that, so I think I'll just be fine."

His anger flared at those insulting words. "You overestimate yourself, old man."

"No, that would be you, idiot. I would think that your failure to bend the other elements would be enough of an example to prove that. Or did it just slip by your mind completely unaware?"

"I am the Dark Avatar!" Unalaq roared. "The elements are mine to command!"

"I'd say otherwise." He kept talking, not letting him get a chance to speak. "The reason you can't bendthe other elements is quite simple. You haven't been trained to do so. You might be a Waterbender, but that's it. Never once have you trained to bend the elements that weren't Waterbending." He took note of the realization appearing on the giant's face that was quickly followed by anger. He knew what that anger was about. "What? Did you think that once you became the Dark Avatar you'd be able to command the other elements? Sorry. It doesn't come that easy."

"I bent nature to my will! Look upon my work!" He threw his hands wide and gestured at the city.

The Fire Paragon barely looked at it. "That? You bent the water in the vines, Unalaq. Katara was able to do that long before you were born and without having to fuse with Vaatu too. So, not impressed," he declared.

"I still have my spiritual mastery!"

"That would account for something, if you were in the Spirit World. But you're not. Here, bending the elements accounts for more than spiritual mastery." He looked disdainfully at the Dark Avatar. "You didn't really plan this out, did you?"

His anger bubbled over and he bent the energy inside him at the old man. As the beam hurtled through the air at him, Unalaq felt victorious. "There is no way you can dodge that, Naruto! You won't survive this."

When the beam was an inch from Naruto, he acted. He swung his Zanpakutō at the beam and it flew upwards into the sky, screaming all the way. The sky turned even purpler as the beam illuminated it. Everyone in the city watched in stunned wonder as the beam was deflected. Unalaq was one of them, although his was more filled surprise and fear. He didn't think anyone could deflect a beam of pure spirit energy!

As the beam finally dissipated, Naruto looked to the bay at him. "Was that it?" he asked. "Was that all you had to offer me?"

"How…? How…?"

"How…? How…?" he repeated mockingly. "You have words, use them."

"You're enjoying this way too much," Kurama told his Jinchūriki.

"Can you blame me? This is the best fun I've had in years!"

The fox only shook its head at his enthusiasm. "You've been waiting for a long time to use the old man card against someone, haven't you?"

"Of course," he replied shamelessly. "I really can't do it with Asami. She would know that I'd be faking it."

"How were you able to do such a thing?" Unalaq finally asked him.

He turned his attention back to the red giant that was staring at him in absolute shock. "Did you think that you were the only one who had mastered their spiritual side, hmm?" The silence he got was all the reply he needed. "See, that's the difference between you and me, Unalaq. You thought that since I wasn't a Bender and an old man, I couldn't do anything you could. Granted, I can't be a Waterbender, but I can be quite spiritual when I feel like it. And I've been at it longer then you've been."

While that was shocking to Unalaq, he tried his best not to let it faze him. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter," he told himself. He was still confident that he would be able to best someone he could quite literally step on to end.

"Alright, I'm pretty much through with the chitchat," Naruto declared. "But I do have an offer for you. You tell me all about that secret group you left behind and the man who founded it and I'll make sure you don't get humiliated before I kill you."

If he had been a regular human, that would've been the moment when Unalaq's eyes widened in surprise. How could he have possibly known about that group? He was sure that they went to ground after that fiasco. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Unalaq, I'm not an idiot. I've done my work. I know about the group you were a part of. I know about what the plan was supposed to be and why you backed out. But I will admit that I am missing a few of the details. You give me them and I'll make this quick."

"He's lying. He has to be." There was no way that he could know about them. He admitted that he didn't have all the facts so he had to be bluffing. But how did he know about the group in the first place? In the back of his head, he remembered hearing about how the Fire Paragon would disappear for weeks, if not months on end. The last time that had happened, he had been found living in the slums of the North Pole capital, under Unalaq's very nose.

Perhaps he did find out? No, that couldn't be possible. That group had existed since the end of the Hundred Year War, living under the gaze of everyone, even the White Lotus. There was no possible way that they could've been founded out. But here he was, saying that he knew. He had to be lying. He had to. But the possibility remained. He had to ask. "How do—?"

"How do I know?" the old man asked, finishing his question for him. "Like I said, I did my work. I don't know all the facts about that group, but I know that you were a part of it, I know what you had planned, and I know how long they've existed. I also know enough to recognize what all this is." He gestured with a negligent hand around them.

"What do you mean by that?" He had already been told that he had been sent here by that whore to supposedly be killed by that old man who stood below him. What else could he have been talking about?

"This? This is all a fucking sham. It's a test, one where you're the guinea pig without you even realizing it."

Those didn't make sense to him. This wasn't a sham. There was no test. This was all his doing, his and his alone. "What?"

Naruto just laughed like the whole thing amused him. "Do you really think you're the king of your own destiny, Unalaq? That you are a leader on the board game being played here? You couldn't be farther from the truth. You're not a leader. You're not a king. You're a pawn."

For a moment, those meant nothing to him. They were trivial, inconsequential. But they stayed in his mind. They repeated themselves over and over until he could think of nothing else. "No. No. No!" he raged inside his own. That was a lie. It was a lie! "You lie!" he roared. "You are a liar, Naruto Uzumaki!"

"Am I?" he asked, never losing his tone. "Remember what I said, Unalaq. You've never had an original thought in your life. Everything that you've done or plan came from someone else. Did you really think that becoming the Dark Avatar was your idea in the first place?"

It was! He was the one who had stayed away, to plan to retake his destiny! No one else had told him to do it! "This is my doing!" he shouted for all to hear. "Mine! No one else! I had done this. It is my right! And no one will stop me! Not even the Paragons!"

The old man just regarded him coolly. "So I take it you're not going to tell me what I want to hear then?"

How dare he ask that? How dare when he was only barely able to withstand against him? Unalaq regained his anger and forged it into confidence. He would able to stand against this pathetic and weak man. "You will have no answers from me, not even from your dying breath!"

"Is that so?"

Of course it was! Was he so blind that he couldn't see it? "I am the equal of Raava!"

"If you were, I'd be actually concerned right about now." He sighed in resignation. "I guess that since you're not going to answer my questions, you're going to be humiliated here." He stepped off the pier and proceeded to walk across the water like it was earth!

Unalaq stared in horrified fasciation. He had never anything like this. Only a Waterbending master could do something like what the old man was doing and with hesitation too. It was extremely difficult across water. It was why Waterbenders preferred to bend up a column to stand upon, it was easier to handle. Yet here that old man was, not a Bender and yet walking across the water towards him like he was going on a stroll. "How is this possible?" he demanded of Naruto.

"Why should you care? It's not going to matter soon."

"You're not a Bender! How can you walk across water!?" he all but screamed.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me, Unalaq."

"Do not panic, do not panic. You are still stronger than him. He will be no match for him." He hid his panic and surprised fasciation, choosing to sneer down at him. "Do you think that you will be able to frighten me by walking on water?"

"No, this is just me getting closer to you." He brought his sword up from the water's surface and held the scabbard in one hand and the hilt in the other. As he drew the sword free, Unalaq saw his lips moving, forming words but could not hear them. When the blade cleared the sheath, it transformed somehow, changing into a kind of spear.

"How—?" he tried to ask himself, only to feel something in the air change. It was a subtle thrum that washed over his body. It also made him feel nervous. He didn't know why. He was the Dark Avatar, the pinnacle that could not be toppled easily. Nothing should've made him nervous but he was feeling that emotion now. He quickly realized that the change in the energy was coming from the spear that used to be a sword. That thing was dangerous. That thing could harm him.

"I will be perfectly honest with you, Unalaq," Naruto said, holding the thing in both hands. "I never particularly liked you. I would've compared you to someone I once knew but he had an actual brain in his head and actually got off his high horse later on."

"What's a hor—?" The question died in his head as he felt the energy change once more. But it was more than before. If before was a breeze of air, lightly felt but noticeable all the same, this felt like a strong gust wind, pushing against his body noticeably. He knew where it was coming from, the old man. But he couldn't do anything. It was like the energy held him in place. He could only watch the old Paragon took on a gold hue and shined brightly, almost like a second sun.

Naruto never stopped talking as he walked, taking Kurama's chakra and shaping it into what he wanted. "I've never liked you, Unalaq. I found you to be arrogant and over-confident in your abilities as well your supposed intelligence. I found the way you lied to everyone to get what you wanted, even going so far as to have your own brother banished, distasteful. I found how you always seemed to be smug about what you thought you knew and how no one could change to be irritable. I found your tantrums when you didn't get your way to be annoying. I found the way you treated the people you thought beneath you, even your own children, to be wrong. I found the way you could never take a lesson that was hidden in a loss and your attempts to win again to be vastly irksome.

"I found you to be many things that I didn't like. In fact, I found that I wanted to take your life from you because the things that you did were disgusting and unredeemable. All of the Paragons felt that, both the ones before and the ones now. But we did not touch you. You knew that, there's no need to deny that. You knew that and thought because of it, we were probably afraid of you. That made you confident. It made you think that because of it, we were weak or you were untouchable. It made you think that you could continue with what you wanted to do without fear of reprisals. That is where you are wrong.

"You see, it is not because we were afraid of you or that we were weak that we did not touch you. We knew what you had done but we did not do anything because you fell out of our sphere of responsibility. If we had touched you, there would have been reprisals and you would have twisted to such an extent that we could not have possibly recovered from. But now, you have fallen into our sphere, so we can touch you without fear of what comes next. In fact, I am certain that we will be lauded for fulfilling our duty against a monster such as you. You probably should've thought of that before you did this. But that would imply that you have a brain."

Unalaq could not say anything in response. It felt like he was standing against a gale of energy and he was barely able to hold his own. He was looking at what looked like a knowledge seeker from Wan Shi Tong's library, only this creature was gold with black markings, stood as tall as he did, and with nine tails lashing from its back. He could barely wonder how this was possibly. Did that old man have a spirit inside of him too?

As he stood against the pressure of the energy, he found his standing becoming easier. The energy seemed familiar for some reason. "Why does it feel familiar?" he asked himself. It wasn't something he recognized. But it was still familiar, like something in the back of his mind. What was it? He reached inward, to where he knew Vaatu was. Perhaps it was something that the spirit would know.

As soon as he touched the Spirit of Darkness and let it feel the energy. He was overcome with a tidal wave of emotions. These were not happy emotions that would say Vaatu knew what the energy was in a good way. They were dark emotions, emotions of shock. Anger. Pain. Rage. Hatred. Just utter hatred.

These emotions overwhelmed him, engulfing him to the brink. He didn't fight them. He welcomed them. He let them in and he understood them. How could that energy be here? He had felt it shatter long ago, the same as Raava. It had been gone. But now, he knew that wasn't the case. It was still here but weakened. Their opposite. Their destined one. Their rival. Their enemy.

It was here, before him. It was weakened. Now was the time to strike!

Unalaq pulled himself out of the murk that were the emotion, his hatred for the Paragon and the hatred Vaatu felt for the energy merging into one. He bent the bay to his command, to rise up and drown the beast before him. He would win. He would prove himself to be the stronger one!

But the beast raised a hand at him and he was slammed backwards by a lance of pure power. He stumbled backwards against the water, falling down into it and still being pushed back. His back slammed into the island that held Avatar Aang's statue. The lance disappeared and so did the anger. Instead what was felt was fear, fear of what stood before him. Now he saw what the old man was: a veteran of so many years, he couldn't even compare.

Naruto lowered his Zanpakutō and so did Kurama's paw. "Now," he said to the prone figure staring up at him, "shall we commence the thrashing of your ass?"

(Location: Land of Spring)

"Natsumi is here. Natsumi is here." That single thought pounded away inside Arashi's head. It made him want to say screw the mission and rush through the entire place to find her. His heart pounded with the urge to do just that and every step he took screamed at him that he was taking too long and going too slow.

He felt sand sneak around his wrist and tighten up, securing a good hold on him. "What the…?" he silently wondered. Why was there sand around his wrist? He followed the trail of sand back to the Kazekage and gave him a questioning eye.

"You're about to blow our cover," Gaara whispered to him, his lips barely even moving. "That can't happen."

"I'm not going to do that," he protested just as quietly.

"You looked like it." He regarded the boy with a silent look. He knew that expression. He had seen it before on other shinobi and in the mirror. "Relax, Arashi. Take a breath and calm down. We will find your sister."

Arashi gave him the same look in return. The old man didn't look like much but neither did his own grandfather. He was smart to recognize the fact that they both had wisdom and age on their side. "I'm not going to blow this," he promised. He kept walking, forcing himself to ignore what his mind and body were screeching at him to do.

Gaara watched him, still keeping the sand around his wrist. Arashi was a shinobi that had potential. It was safe to call him a genius even if he told people not to call him that (which was rather strange). He had a keen talent and yet was not arrogant about it, almost going out of his way to downplay it. He wasn't like his grandfather in that aspect but also was like him in another, working hard on what he had to make them better.

But there was something else about the young redhead. His focus on his sister and willingness to get her back reminded Gaara of Sasuke when he was a self-sworn avenger. Even more than that, he was like Sasuke in the days before he had tried to run off to Orochimaru. Gaara's old friend had admitted to him that he had no idea what would've happened if Naruto had failed to bring him back to the village. It was a turning point for the Uchiha.

What was happening right now, to all of them in this mountain, was Arashi's turning point. If they failed to rescue his sister, if she died here, he would go down that dark path Sasuke almost went down. And there was a good chance that he wouldn't be able to come back. "We can't let that happen," Gaara thought to himself. Call him an old man with sentiments but he would not let a young shinobi fall into that darkness. And he did not want to contact for the first time since he left only to tell him that he could not save his grandson and had to kill him. He only had to look over at his brother once and Kankurō nodded in agreement, understanding the same thing.

Rin wasn't sure what the Kazekage and his brother were silently saying to one another. But she did know that it had something to do with Arashi. She leaned close to him as they continued down the steps, getting closer and closer to the bottom, and asked, "Are you good?" He only nodded and said nothing.

Tsukiko wondered what they were on about. She could hear them talking but did not say anything, no matter how much she wanted to. She had to remain focus on the mission. Her eyes followed what was going on down below, keeping track of what was happening to the other team. The Jōnin led the Genin towards a hallway leading out on a chain, like they were supposed to be.

Someone stopped Gin-sensei just as they reached the door and her stomach filled with dread. "Oh no," she whispered in horror.

"What is it?" Hiro asked, having heard her.

She pointed down at them. "They've been stopped." She could see Gin-sensei talking with the man who stopped them. It seemed casual enough but that didn't stop her from worrying. "Rin-sensei—"

"I see it. I see it," the Jōnin assured her student.

"What do we do?" She didn't stop walking but her pace did hesitate for a moment.

Rin's did not and she ushered Tsukiko forward. "We can't stay up here. We'll be found out," she explained.

"Yeah," Arashi agreed with a nod of his head. "We need to keep moving." His pace didn't stop either. It went forward at the same speed of everyone else but there was still that urgency in it.

She swallowed the next words that would've come out of her mouth since she knew it would've been pointless to ask. She only nodded in acknowledgement and continued walking down the steps. But her eyes never left the group below. It all seemed very casual and a little inquisitive on the other guy's part. "Don't get caught, don't get caught," she repeated in her own mind. They wanted to get into the place, find what they needed and get out. That was the plan.

The guy that had stopped Gin-sensei finally nodded and waved him on, making her breathe in relief. They were about to walk forward when another guy stopped them. Her breath hitched again as he asked Gin-sensei a question, pointing at the line. Gin-sensei looked back at the line with a confused look and at him. He said something, she didn't know what. But the guy looked insisted and jabbed his finger at the Genin again.

Then no one down below moved. Everyone up above kept walking down but watched everything. Then several things happened at the same time. The two guys became suspicious. Gin-sensei and Hiruzen-sensei became alert. The Genin down below looked nervous. The other chained children stopped and looked at them like predators watching prey. A door bashed open and someone shouting, "We've got a man down! Man down! There's someone in here!" Several doors started smashing open too.

In the next second the only thing that happened was Kankurō looking at his brother and saying, "That is the last time we just shove a body into a toilet stand."

After that, all hell practically broke loose. Gin-sensei and Hiruzen-sensei shattered the chain in their hands, freeing the Genin, and circling around them in protection. Karura joined them, making the protection a triangle shape. All the adults that were a part of the base converged to the base. They poured out of all the open doors and ran down the stairs like a tidal wave. The kids looked vaguely interested but only just.

"They're coming from the top!" Hiro shouted as he watched them coming down the stairs towards them.

"Forget about them," Arashi told him, looking down the stairs and the doors opened there. "We have to worry about the ones already getting down there!"

"How about the ones around us?" asked Rin to both her students as she looked at the men surrounding them, pressing them to the rail. Gaara blew three sharp notes and the Suna Jōnin that had been on the walls descended onto the stairs again, halting the flow. The brothers went to work as well.

Kankurō shrugged the strap off his shoulder, letting the puppet fall to the ground. As soon as it touched the stone something burst out of the bindings, becoming a blurring whirl of blades, claws and ropes. The Kazekage drew out sand from inside his coat. A gourd was strapped to his side and sand flew out of it, striking several heads at a single time.

Rin shielded her students from the people trying to attack but it gave them a clear of what was going on down below. The team down there was on the verge of getting swarmed over. "We need to help them out!" Hiro told the others.

"What can we do?" Tsukiko asked him. "We're stuck up here, remember?"

Arashi looked down at the kids just watching what was going on with a vague interest. An idea came to his mind, one that was supported by how close they were to the bottom. "We can start a riot" he declared.

"Say what?" said both of them, looking at him. But he already had his hand on the rail and throwing himself over it.

"Arashi!" shouted Rin as she looked back to see him falling to the ground floor.

He landed on a Waterbender, sending him down to the ground, and stood back up. He looked at all the Benders there and declared, "You are all pathetic!" That got their attention, interest turning angry.

Tsukiko watch him with incredulity. "What the hell is he doing?" she demanded.

"Creating a distraction?" Hiro replied, just as incredulous as she was.

Their teammate didn't stop there. "I could beat you all with my hands tied behind my back, my legs together, and blindfolded! That is how pathetic you are! Your mothers would be ashamed of you for being this pathetic! They'd ask for a repeat and from a Nonbender too!" That got their attention and it turned downright murderous. They charged right at him, howling bloody death.

(Location: Spirit World)

"Uh, not to be a raining on your parade and everything," Bolin said, looking at Yue. "But shouldn't we still…do something?" It was pretty pointless to just stand around in the Spirit World doing nothing. He wasn't that type of guy.

Before she replied, Korra did. "Yeah, we should," the once Avatar said. "But what can we do?"

Tenzin looked at his one-time student, sitting dejectedly there on that rock. Even when Yue proclaimed that they had won, she had just sat there. She wanted to help, to defeat Unalaq, he knew that much. But she felt like she was stuck, lost without Raava. She needed guidance. He went to her side. "The other Avatars may not be able to help you anymore, but, perhaps I can," he told her.

"No one can help me now," she replied.

He felt a little hurt by those words but carried on. "I know I haven't been the best mentor to you. But I realized it was because I had a lot of spiritual growth to do myself. There may still be a way for you to stop Vaatu."

She finally looked up at him. There wasn't hope in her eyes, but he had her attention. "How?" she asked.

He knelt down beside her and offered the very thing he had learned in the Fog of Lost Souls. "Let go of your attachment to who you think you are, and connect with your inner spirit."

"Haven't you heard anything I said?" she asked him. "Raava is gone. I'm not connected to her spirit anymore."

"I'm not talking about Raava. Raava is not who you are," he told her as he stood back up. "Come with me, I need to show you something." He walked past her to the old tree.

She didn't know what he was going on about. But if there was one thing she knew, it was that Tenzin never really led her wrong. She stood up and followed him. As they came closer to the tree, she finally asked, "Why are you showing me Vaatu's prison?"

"Because this tree had a history long before it held Vaatu," he told her. "This is the Tree of Time. And the legends say its roots bind the spirit and physical worlds together."

"And, you think this tree can help me somehow?"

"Yes. I have read that long ago, the ancients would meditate beneath this tree and connect with the great cosmic energy of the universe." He used his Airbending to guide him up to the hole in the tree.

Korra joined him the same way. As soon as she touched the bark and looked in to the hole, energy started to form. She was curious so she walked in deeper. As she did, the energy took shapes and those began moving, becoming clearer with each step she took. If Mako, Asami, or Bolin had seen what was happening, the first thing they would've compared it to were Varrick's movers, only better.

Korra had no comparisons. But she did realize what she was seeing. "These are my memories." She could see that first time she had ever seen a Pro-bending match, the first time she had been in a Pro-bending match, Amon attacking the stadium, her and Mako finally kissing each other, meaning it, and admitting that they did love each other. All of them and more played out in front of her eyes. It was weird to watch them play all around her. It wasn't even from her perspective of the events, more like a third person watching it.

"The Tree of Time remembers all," Tenzin told her. "Korra, the most powerful thing about you is not the spirit of Raava, but your own inner spirit. You have always been strong, unyielding, and fearless."

She certainly didn't think she was that. It felt like she had been banking on Raava her entire life. It seemed like all the Avatars had done that, now that she thought about it. The only she didn't think actually did that was the first one. As soon as she thought that, the visions all faded away until one was left. It showed his face. "Avatar Wan," she said as she looked upon it.

Tenzin nodded in acknowledgement of who it was. "Before he fused with Raava, Wan was just a regular person."

She knew that. She had seen his memories. And while she knew that he was a regular person, he seemed so much more. "But, he was brave, and… smart, and always wanted to defend the helpless."

"That's right," he agreed, watching the life of the first Avatar play out in front of them. "He became a legend because of who he was, not what he was. He wasn't defined by Raava anymore than you are."

A different memory started playing behind them. They turned to look at it and saw Unalaq's giant spirit form tearing down the statue of Avatar Aang. In that instant, Korra was shocked by the level of intensity there was in the action. And she also knew that she had to do something. "Everyone in Republic City is in danger." Naruto might've been there already, but she had to do something to help him and the city.

"You have to help them, Korra," Tenzin said to her, reinforcing what she was already thinking.

She was glad for those words. They were encouraging. But that was all she thought they were. "How?" she asked, looking at him. "We're half-way around the world."

He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Do as the ancients once did. Connect to the cosmic energy of the universe. Don't bend the elements, but the energy within yourself."

She knew what he was saying. He wanted her to become an Energybender once more. But he was also asking her to take it further than just healing or taking away someone's Bending. She didn't know if she could do it. But the look on his face was confident. "You really think I can do this?"

He nodded and said, "I have no doubt."

She felt so overwhelmed by everything that was going on around her but here he was, a confident rock she could hold to. In all the things that she had been through, he had been there to help her. She couldn't help but remember what had happened during the Spirit Festival. There was only one thing she could draw from that night. "I was a complete idiot." He had been there and she had kicked him out like it was nothing to be thought of. But he had come back and he never held her in contempt for it. She reached out to hug him and he didn't resist. "Thank you for not giving up on me," she said, muffled against his shirt.

"I'm proud of you," he told her. He broke the hug and began to walk away. As he reached the hole, he looked back and saw Korra already sitting down in a meditative position, just like she had been taught.

She closed her eyes and began to breathe in deeply and rhythmically, focusing on herself and what lie inside. She didn't go looking for Raava but delve deeper and deeper inside herself. It was slow, like she was being covered dark, slimly, sticky goo. But she didn't stop, she kept going deeper. As she delved, she wondered how. How would she be able to defeat Vaatu? Raava was gone, vanished. It seemed like Vaatu stood supreme.

As she asked herself that question, a memory of Wan and Raava came to her mind. It was a memory that she had known. "If you and Vaatu had the same fight every ten thousand years, why hasn't one of you destroyed the other?" Wan had asked the Spirit of Light.

"He cannot destroy light, any more than I can destroy darkness," she told him. "One cannot exist wit out the other."

She could understand that. But she didn't know how she could be able to use it to her advantage. "How would I be able to beat them?" she asked herself.

"Find the light in the dark."

It was if her traitor uncle's words were the key. Suddenly, she knew what she had to do. She had to look past all the doubts and fears that she had gotten only just recently. She had to look past the fact that she was a vessel for Raava, letting it go. The goo released her and she went deeper so much faster, it was almost like she was falling.

She stopped upon a bridge of aurora lights, fragile but sturdy and beautiful. The lights illuminated the cosmos around her, but it also attracted her attention to the end of the bridge. It was a giant person, glowing dark against the light of the bridge, and holding an orb between the hands. It wasn't Aang she was looking at. Nor was it Roku.

It wasn't any of the Avatars that had come before. It was her, only her. There was none one else. She looked at the projection of herself and then at the orb. She didn't know how, but she knew that the orb held the answers. It was the light in the darkness, the darkness in her own soul. She walked across the bridge towards the orb, never stopping and never hesitating.

As soon as she passed through the orb, she was engulfed in light. She welcomed it, reveling in its warmth. She felt safe in it. But she also understood. She understood what she had to do. The energy was there. All she had to was take it. She did just that but she did not bend it to her will and command it. No, that would not have worked. Instead, she bent it as it flowed through her, redirecting it with gentle hands. The energy hummed and pulse in contentment, agreeing with what she was doing. It flowed through her body and fueled her.

The whiteness that surrounded her split apart and brought her back to the Spirit World. She was still sitting inside the tree, but she felt like she wasn't in her body. It more like the body was a membrane that had to be broken. She tested the membrane. It wasn't that thick or tough. She pushed against it and it broke. She stepped out of her body in her astral form, glowing a bright blue, just like the markings on Raava.

She walked towards the hole, growing with each step. When she reached the hole, she had to duck in order to step out of it. When she stepped down off the roots, she was as tall as the tree. She looked down at everyone. They looked surprised to see her. She wasn't. She knew this would be expected. But she couldn't focus on that. She had to get out of the Spirit World and back to Republic City.

The answer came to her and she looked up at the connected beam. She reached out with her hand, pointing her finger towards it. She could hear the beam humming with energy of its own, the energy of the cosmos. "Please," she told it, "I have to go back. I have to stop him."

It didn't ask who she was talking about or where. Instead, it drew her into itself, taking her energy and channeling it to where she wanted it to go. She didn't resist, gladly letting it take her. As soon as she disappeared into the beam, she found herself back in the cosmos and above the world itself. She then found herself hurtling towards her destination.

Everyone just watched as the portal's light had sucked Korra into it like she was water in a channel, disappearing in a flash of light. For a moment, none of them said anything. Until Yue said, "Well, that just happened."

Bumi looked over at his brother. "What did you say to her exactly?"

(Location: Land of Spring)

As Arashi slammed an Earthbender into the ground, he heard people landing down behind him. He looked up and saw both of his teammate standing there. "Nice of you to join me," he told them, "Hiro, behind you."

The Hyūga turned around and was met by a fist of water. He took the blow on his shoulder and struck the girl in her stomach. She fell to the ground, paralyzed, while he massaged his shoulder and got feeling back into it again. "Why did you do this?" he asked.

"What else was I supposed to do? Just stand there?" Arashi asked back, getting back up. A Firebender came charging at him with a globe of fire in his hand. He grabbed the wrist, twisted the arm around the guy's back, and kicked him down to the ground.

"You started up a riot!" Tsukiko told him. All she had to do was look around and see absolute chaos. If the kids weren't trying to fight them, they were fighting each other. Water, rocks, and fire were being thrown all over the place like a storm was taking hold. Any of the adults that tried to control or got to close were swarmed over. She heard them scream as blood flew and it chilled her. The kids obviously didn't like them and now, they were able to take out their anger and fury.

"Look out behind you, Tsukiko."

"What?" She felt a hard pain in her back, enough to make her fall to the ground. She got back up and turned to see who it was, seeing a girl a year younger than her looking smug. When she had seen these kids last, her heart went out to them. Now all she could think was, "That little piece of crap!" She socked the kid right in the nose and was glad to hear bone break.

The kid fell backwards and before she could take that moment to enjoy the feeling of victory, she got blindsided by another kid. Her right side came alive with pain when she fell and her left soon followed when the kid started pounding on her. He had hands like hammers and each time he hit, it hurt. She tried to curl into a ball but his weight on her prevented her from moving around.

The weight of him disappeared suddenly and when she looked up, she saw Arashi standing over him. "Don't get distracted," he told her, grabbing her arm and yanking her back onto her feet. "We're trying to survive, remember?"

"I know that," she snapped.

"Guys, what do we do?" Hiro asked as he stumbled away from a boy swinging fire at his face. His eyes were seeing so many bright colors every time the flame got close, he had to blink to make sure that he was seeing clearly.

"We need to get to Gin-sensei and the others." If they did that, they had a better chance to survive this.

He nodded. "Good idea."

"Less talking," Arashi told them both as he grabbed a Waterbender by the elbow and threw her back.

They started moving their way towards the bigger group, fighting everyone that came near them. They keep their backs to each one as they moved. It was a rough formation and one or two of them would fall out of it fending off Benders. Soon Tsukiko and Hiro were starting to feel tired. Arashi wasn't that far behind but he was still going, fending off a Firebender with a kick to a face. Some people might call that unfair but that point, he didn't care.

A Waterbender tried to blindside him and he did take one in the side. But he didn't let him give any more than that. Instead, he grabbed the Waterbender and threw him back into the swarm of Benders, knocking clear a path to the big group. Tsukiko and Hiro saw it. They followed him through the path but it quickly got clogged again by the Benders.

"Oh come on," Tsukiko complained when she saw it. A blocky girl came at her but she kicked in the stomach and she crumpled like she was paper.

"I think we're losing ground here!" Hiro told them both. To his eyes, it didn't look like they had moved much.

Arashi didn't stop. "We'll be fine," he assured them as he grabbed two Benders and slammed their heads together. They went down and it didn't look like they were going to get up. "They can't hold against us."

"Not the time to antagonize them, backwater boy!" his Uchiha teammate snapped at him. She could see the Benders getting angrier.

"I can't stop the truth! These guys are so pathetic they can't even get a victory from each other!"

Hiro leaned back to avoid a rock thrown at his head. He came back up straight and sent the boy down to the ground with a five strike combo. He glanced up at the staircase and he felt relived at what he saw. "Rin-sensei and the others are making their way down!" he told the other two.

"It's about time!"

"Not all of us chose to jump down from the rail, Arashi!" Tsukiko told him.

"They could do it. They're Jōnin!"

She understood what he was trying to say but he was still missing something obvious. "Who'd stop the people on the stairs?"

"…Okay, good point!" he admitted.

"Thank you!"

"Guys!" shouted Hiro while pushing back another kid, "Focus!"

Both the Uzumaki and the Uchiha would've winced with embarrassment at the chastisement, if it was a different kind of situation. But given the situation that they were in, they chose not to wince and kept on fighting. "How they doing coming down?" asked Arashi while he slammed his elbow into an Earthbender's throat. The kid tried rising up a wall to stop the elbow but he was too slow and got it full force. He fell to the ground, unable to breathe properly.

"They're doing fine. The Kazekage's got a sand shield stopping the upper staircase and a wave pushing downwards."

"What about Rin-sensei?" Tsukiko asked him. She leaned out of the way of a small fireball. She would've loved to return the favor but the close quarters would've jostled her hands too much. So she settled for reaching out, grabbing the fireball-thrower and punching him good in the face.

"She's still there, she's fine!" he replied. Their sensei was practically leading the move down the stair with Kankurō behind her with his puppet. The damn thing was moving too fast across its enemies for him to see.

When they finally reached the group, Karura fended off three Benders coming at their backs with her own sand. It wasn't as big as her grandfather's and she actually had to move her hands around to get it to do something, but it still worked. "Nice of you to join us," she told them sarcastically.

Tsukiko still refused to talk to her, instead going to Tsume's side and help her fend off a Waterbender. Hiro instantly went to the Ino-Shika-Chō team. So that left Arashi with the natural redhead. "Sorry, traffic was just a bitch," he told her.

"I can see that. Tell me, why did you decide that it was a good idea to incite them to riot?"

"Because we needed the riot," he answered. He looked back over his shoulder and saw an Earthbender coming his way. He raised his foot up, ready to kick it back at the guy when Karura waved her sand at the guy, knocking him upside the head. "Hey, I had him!"

"Sure, you did," she said in reply. "Don't worry about me, I've got this end. You go make sure the others don't get hurt."

He would've loved to argue that point, but now wasn't the time or the place. Besides, she wasn't a Genin, she was a Chūnin. She didn't get that just by collecting kunai. "Fine," he said to her. "By the way, there's a Waterbender coming in on your left."

"Yes, I see him." She swung her sand and got the guy in the leg.

He went over to Gin-sensei, stopping an Earthbender throwing a large rock at him. "How we doing?" he asked.

The Jōnin easily handled any of the Benders that were coming at him. The two guards that had stopped them before were now dead on the ground. "We're doing fine. Once the other group gets down here, we should be able to proceed."

"So we just hold out?"

"Yes."

A Firebender came at him with both palms ablaze. He caught both wrists by the hands and slammed his feet into the chest, knocking the Bender down with ease. "Geez, this is getting sadder by the minute," he thought to himself. He knew any self-respecting Bender would be ashamed of what was happening here.

Tsukiko was feeling a bit tired but kept fighting too. She wasn't having as easy a time as Arashi was fighting the kids, taking hit after hit, but she didn't stop. She had to make sure that everyone else was safe and stayed that way. Tsume looked at her as she fended off a little boy. "Hey, you doing okay?" she asked.

"I'm doing fine. How about you?" she asked back, ducking under a wild swing from stocky girl and giving her a punch in the stomach in return.

"A little swarmed, but I think I can manage."

She looked quickly at her friend and noticed that she was alone. "Where is Aoimaru?"

"Look down below."

She looked at her legs and saw the dog baring her teeth and snapping at any leg that came too close to her partner. "What the hell is she doing down there?" she demanded.

"I'd be a poor Inuzuka if I didn't have my partner out fighting with me!"

She didn't see anything wrong with that. It was a part of being the Inuzuka clan. But the techniques that the clan used were much more destructive and path-blazing. Then she noticed something off to Tsume's side. It was a teenaged boy with a large rock floating in his hand. He saw her and there was a cruel little smirk on his face. She knew what he was planning and panic gripped her heart. "Tsume!" she shouted as the boy threw the rock. "Look out!"

Tsume turned to look at her with a slight confused look. But then she went stiff and her back arched. Blood leaked out from the side of her mouth. "Tsuki…" she tried to say. A rock struck her head and it slumped forward as she fell to the ground.

Everything, the entire word, seemed to have stopped to Tsukiko. She stared at Tsume's prone body, waiting for to get back up. Aoimaru looked at her in confusion, whining and nudging her partner's form. But she wasn't getting up. She just laid there. The implication struck Tsukiko hard.

Tsume was just lying there.

She wasn't moving.

Was she dead?

Was…Was Tsukiko dead?

No, she couldn't be!

She couldn't be dead!

But she wasn't breathing!

The world turned red to her as she felt tears on her cheeks. She could see the kid that had thrown the rocks. He stood there completely smug and victorious, like nothing could touch him. He blazed in her world of red and she felt a sudden anger and hatred towards him. That was the boy who killed her friend.

She was dead because of him.

He couldn't get away with it.

He had to pay!

With a vengeful scream she leapt for him, going right over her friend's body. The boy looked surprised at her actions. He tried to move away but it was like he was moving in slow motion. She grabbed him before he could flee and tackled him to the ground. She straddled his chest and started pounding away at his face, swinging again and again as she watched him try to spit out blood. She felt satisfaction at the sight of the blood but it wasn't enough. He had to pay.

She swung her fist up again and felt a hand grab it. "Who dares!?" she silently demanded, turning her gaze around to see. It was Hiruzen-sensei. "Let me go!"

Hiruzen kept his gaze locked on the newly formed Sharingan. Now was a pivotal moment in her life. If she fell here, there would be a fight to bring her back. But if it was stopped and she recovered, she wouldn't fall. However, they couldn't take the time to use gentle words. He was going to have to be blunt. "Get a hold of yourself, Tsukiko!" he barked at her. "We're in the middle of battle here! We can't afford you to get mad for blood. Get back to the others!"

She turned back around to look at the boy, trying to break her wrist free. "Not until he's dead! He killed Tsume!"

"Tsume's not dead, Tsukiko!"

She froze and looked at him again. "What?"

"She's still alive, she's just unconscious. But if you don't get back to the others with me, they'll get overrun and she will die!"

"She's alive?"

"Yes! Now move it!" He pulled her towards the group again.

She didn't resist this time, letting the hand take her back to the others. When they were near, she heard Inoji say, "Tsukiko, what the hell?" But she didn't care about anything that he had to say, she had to make sure that her friend was still alive. She knelt down by Tsume, now in the middle and protected by everyone else. Aoimaru was by her side, watching everything closely. It was only after she saw Tsukiko that she let her pass.

She tried to remember what it was they had been taught in the Academy. "The pulse, I have to find the pulse." She put her fingers to her throat and felt around for the pulse. For a half second she couldn't find anything and panic gripped her heart. But she found the pulse. It was thready but it was there. "Oh thank Kami," she thought in relief. She had thought that she had lost a friend.

"Hey, Tsukiko!" shouted Arashi out to her. She looked up at him and saw him holding a boy in a headlock. "Would you mind rejoining the rest of us and putting that fury to use?"

She still saw red but nodded. She got back up and joined his side. She grabbed the boy by the legs and together they threw him back into the children around them, knocking more than a few of them down to the ground. There were many already on the ground and not moving but it seemed like those who could would still get back up and attack. It also looked like the adults were starting to form some semblance of order amongst them, when they weren't being brought down brutally murdered. They had to hold out. She looked quickly at the stairs and saw Rin-sensei and the Suna group was almost down them. She gained hope at the sight of them.

Another boy came at her, water circling hands clasped in a seal. She heard Arashi scoff in disdain but focused on the boy. He was coming too slowly at her. When he was near, she leaned in, avoided the water, and got him in the stomach. He fell to the ground and she didn't pay any more attention to him. There were more to fend off.

(Location: Republic City)

As Korra landed in Yue Bay with a splash that set off large waves all around her, she was ready to fight it out with Unalaq and Vaatu. However, what she came upon was something else entirely. "Nice to see that you made it," Naruto's voice told her from within a giant golden fox with nine tails. Said fox was currently pummeling Unalaq to such an extent he would've been black and blue if he was still a human.

She could've said a number of things, like what was he doing, what he was at that moment, how did he get like that, things like that. Instead, what she asked was, "How did you know that I was coming?"

He chuckled and the fox spirit thing chuckled with him, causing the bay to reverberate with him. It was a feeling that traveled across the water and up her body, making her shiver slightly in fear. "I know who you are, Korra. You're not one to back down from a fight you started."

"Thanks?" She wasn't sure if it was supposed to be compliment or not.

"You're welcome. Now," he said, dropping Unalaq into the bay like he was a sack of food, "you have fun."

He started to leave the bay like nothing happened. She watched him go with a surprised look. "What are you doing?" she finally asked him.

"Leaving, what else does it look like?"

"Why?"

He stopped and looked back at her. There was something in the expression on the fox's face that said it couldn't believe that she had asked that question. "You're here, aren't you? Clearly you've come to take care of him. If you're here to do that, why should I interfere?"

She just stared at him, completely surprised at his lack of caring. "Why did you fight him in the first place then?"

"Ah, I was a little stressed out about some things, he was there, and I've long wanted to give him a good punch to the face. Done that now and since you're here, I'll let you take over. Bye now." He started walking again towards the docks.

She watched him go. She wanted to stop but had the feeling that it wouldn't end well if she did. She could feel the sense of energy rolling off of him. It was huge, much bigger than anything that she could've mustered. There was also something familiar about it too, but she didn't know what it was. "Why?" she asked him again.

He looked back once and only once. "If you want to blame someone, blame Yue. I don't like being conned into this kind of stuff. Next time, have her talk to me. Oh, and tell her that she's got a thumping coming her way." As he reached the docks, the fox grew smaller and smaller until it vanished completely, leaving him on the docks itself. He kept on walking, never once looking back the battlefield.

As Unalaq emerged back up from the water, he could feel pain all over his body and what was probably blood leaking from many wounds. They hurt and it made him angry to think he would be so beaten that would become humiliating. He willed the pain to go away and the wounds to close. While it did not happen instantly, it did happen.

His tentacles helped him stand back up. His eyes looked for the old man, wanting to beat him into the ground and to death for what he was did. But he did not see the fox. Instead he saw an astral projection of his niece across from him. She couldn't just die, could she? She had to make it difficult. Well, if that was what she wanted, he would make so that she would never be able to stand against him.

He started to gather his energy inside of him, bending it to his will. As he lifted the concentrated energy to his sigil and let it loose, he saw that she was doing the same. They fired their energies at the same time and they clashed. It became a battle of wills and he pushed his hard against hers. His energy moved steadily forward, going towards her with a crushing power.

But then she reinforced her own will and pushed back harder than he would've thought possible for someone like her. Her energy pushed against his and pushed it down to nothing. It slammed against him with such ferocity that he was sent tumbling backwards into the waters of the bay again.

He looked up and saw her running towards him. He bent his tentacles at her but she brushed them aside. Then she grabbed them to hold him in place. She surged forward and slammed her knee into his face. As he fell back, surprised by the pain on his face, she pulled him back and hoisted him up onto her shoulders. She spun in a quick circle and threw him against a nearby mountain.

His body was filled with pain and it galled him. That she would use physical attacks while in her astral projection? It just went to show how unskilled she was with spirits. She should not have to do such things. It was uncouth! He tried to get up but Korra came flying down through the air and struck him hard in the chest with both of her hands acting as a single hammer.

As her uncle laid prone before her, she slammed her palm against his chest and sigil, sending her energy down into him. She focused on that energy, looking deep inside him. She followed it through his body, trying to find that light she knew was Raava inside of him. But as the energy rippled out, she didn't find anything.

Raava wasn't there.

She wasn't inside Unalaq.

She wasn't inside Vaatu.

She wasn't there!"

"No!" she protested in her mind. "That can't be right. This has to be the right thing to do! There isn't another way! She has to be there!"

Unalaq watched the fear and uncertainty play across her face. He found it to be amusing and started laughing to himself. Confidence began to pour through him again. Now that the old man had foolishly left the fight, she had no choice. "You're looking for something that is gone," he told her as he grabbed her with his tentacles and lifted her up out of the water. "Raava has been destroyed. And soon you will be too!"

She tried to struggle free, like he knew she would. She had never been one to just lie down and accept the fate given to her. He would have to enforce it upon her. So he bent his energy once more and blasted her at point-blank range with it. The beam struck with his full fury and travelled up into the air past her. She had a look of surprised pain on her face as the beam continually hit her. If he closed his eyes, he could almost hear her screaming in pain. It was a rush that he had never felt before. It was quite…intoxicating.

As the beam finally died away, Korra slumped down while still in the air. It was clear that she was unconscious. She didn't even move when he dropped her to the ground. She just sat there, on her knees. "Is that it?" he asked her, contempt dripping from his mouth.

She found her way back to consciousness quickly enough. When she tried to stand back up, he kicked her hard in the chest. She fell backwards into the water, falling flat on her back. She got back up but he was there again, pummeling away at her with his tentacles and the water. She lifted up her arms, trying to fend them off but it was hard. It wasn't before long her arms felt like lead and she couldn't keep them up.

Unalaq must've sensed that weakness. He pounced on it, throwing a tentacle at it with a stinging ferocity that it broke her already weak defense wide open. He bent his energy out at her, pouring all of his anger, shame, and humiliation that he felt against her and everyone that had done wrong to him.

It struck her in full force and she was knocked down to the water again. This time, she couldn't get up. She didn't feel like she had the strength for it. She tried to get up, but she couldn't find the strength. Then she felt the water grab hold of her legs and forced her up out of the bay, holding her there in the air like she was a trophy. Water also began circling around her in twisting ribbons. She knew what was coming next but even when the dark purple energy started to crawl up her legs, clinging to her a cold slimy and greasy feeling, she still started to panic.

(Location: Spirit World)

"Uh…does anyone know what to do now?" Bolin asked looking around at everyone else. They were all sitting or standing around the Tree of Time. It had felt like an hour to the Earthbender since Korra had gone all big and blue, but it was only five minutes.

"We wait," Tenzin told him.

"That's it?"

"Yes."

"Is there nothing we can do?"

"This is all up to Korra now, Bolin. All we can do is wait and hope that she will come through."

Yue barked out a brief laugh. "Of course she'll come through," she declared. "She's fighting alongside Naruto. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that it's taking this long for them to finish it."

"You're still a dead woman," Bumi told her.

"Bumi—"

"Guys, don't start that up again," Kya warned them. They both fell silent. They were getting a little tired of it too.

"So we can't play a game, read a book, do something to pass the time?" Bolin asked them all.

Mako looked at his brother in slight exasperation. "Bo, did you bring a book to read or a game to play?"

"No."

"And why's that?"

"Because…" He trailed off and looked sheepish. "Because I didn't think that I was going to need it."

His Firebending brother nodded. "That's why."

He started pacing around, losing the sheepish look. "I can't just stand around here doing nothing. I've got to do something, anything!"

Bumi could understand where he was coming from. So he got up from his rocky perch and pulled out a deck of cards. "Well, it's a thing good there's the Naval Regulation 38."

They all looked at him. "Which one is that?" Kya asked him.

He started cutting the deck in his hands. "Always bring cards because you never know when you're going to need them." He looked at them all as he finished up cutting and folding. "So, anyone wanna play?"

"I'm in," Bolin declared, instantly coming towards him and sitting down, getting his game face on.

Bumi sat down too, ready to deal out the cards. "Anyone else?" he asked the rest of them.

Asami thought that it was a good idea since there was nothing really else to do. She started making her way over to Bumi when something appeared out of the corner of her eye. She turned to look at it fully and came to a complete halt. "Uh, guys?" she said aloud to everyone.

They all turned their gaze onto her. "What is it?" Tenzin asked her, concerned since he could see the look of surprised worry on her face.

"I think we're about to have some company. And it's not the fun kind either." She paused when she realized that she had just quoted Varrick. It was an unsettling feeling that it left her shivering in somewhat disgust.

They all turned to look at she was looking at. It was a massive horde of dark spirits coming their way at full speed. "Whoa, that's a lot," Yue said. She blinked to make sure that her brain wasn't playing tricks on her but they were still there when she opened them.

Bolin stood up and looked at them. "What are they doing coming this way?"

Mako was the one to figure it out and when he did, his eyes widened in realized horror. "They're coming for Korra!" he shouted to the rest of them. He rushed forward and threw lightning at them. Tenzin, Kya, and Bolin quickly joined him, bending their own elements at the dark spirits. It was a good opening salvo but it didn't do much to deter the horde.

The Nonbenders soon got involved in the fight. Asami stayed close to Bumi and Yue, watching how they fended off the dark spirits and quickly followed their example. It wasn't a straight on attacking like the others were doing. It was more along the lines of getting in close, throwing a good couple of punches, and getting out before anything could latch onto them.

She followed what they were doing and it was pretty effective. It would've been better if she had more experience in dealing with spirits. The best way she could adapt was to use Waterbending's redirection to avoid the blows and Earthbending's strength to strike hard. She could not get fancy with her moves.

Twice a dark spirit grabbed her and started to drag her away. But each time it happened, either Bumi or Yue were there to pull her free. "You okay?" Yue asked her the second time around.

"Yeah, I'm good," she replied, getting back to her feet. "I just wish that I brought my glove."

"Something to consider for the next time," the older woman said as she stepped back away from a dark spirit that vaguely resembled a panda and then dropkicking it. The spirit fell down, hitting the ground and dissipating away.

"What do you mean, next time?" she asked, a little worried now. "You mean this stuff is normal for you guys?"

"You're one of the guys too, Asami. And I'll admit this is not par for the course. But you'll be involved in similar situations across the time of your life."

She ducked under a dark spirit grab and kicked both legs at it. It flipped over onto its back and wobbled there for a moment. Another hard stomp and it dissipated. "Is it too late to not be a Paragon's apprentice?" She knew that it was probably a stupid question, but she still had to ask.

"Oh yeah, definitely too late," she acknowledged.

Bumi rolled over close to them to avoid a spirit's claws. "What was she asking?" he asked Yue.

"If it was too late to not be a Paragon's apprentice," she answered.

"Too late, definitely too late," he stated.

"Yep, already told her," she said. A spirit landed between them and they were forced to jump away from each other. Asami followed Bumi as he fought his way to his sibling's side.

As much as a good fight they were giving, they were also losing ground to the spirits, going back up the slope to the tree. Bolin tried to fend them off, bending rocks at the dark spirits, taking a step forward each time he made a move. Before he knew, he was away from the others and the dark spirits acted on it. One of them latched its tentacles on his leg and pulled him down the slope with a yelp. He tried to struggle free but the tentacle had him tight.

As he reached the spirit the tentacle was attached to, he thought that was it. But then a spear of water cut the tentacle off and he fell to the ground. He looked to see who his savior was and looked up Desna and Eska. They leapt into combat, bending slices of water at the dark spirits. "Leave my Bolin alone!" Eska told the spirits.

Desna looked bored as always but if one looked closely enough, they could see the disdain on his face. "I am so done with spirits," he proclaimed.

"Eska!" proclaimed Bolin as he got back to his feet and came to her side, "I love you!" He planted a big fat kiss on her cheek and then bent a rock out of the ground. "Let's face the end of the world together!"

"You're so romantic," she remarked before joining him in the attack. For the romantics and secret romantics there, they had to admit that it was a little romantic.

(Location: Land of Spring)

As Arashi socked a Firebender in the throat, he saw a group of adults, probably about three of them, coming up through one of the entrances. They saw the situation in the room and quickly turned away. "Guys, we've got runners!" he called out. The majority of the kids were knocked out already so they could reach them. Rin-sensei and the Suna group had reached the bottom of the stairs and were already on their way over to them. Gaara was still at the steps of the stairs, using his sand to form a shield over it.

Gin-sensei looked over at the adults. He saw the path to them was relatively clear. "Hiruzen, I'm taking them," he said.

The other Jōnin looked at the situation too. "Let Rin take it! She's closer!"

He saw the logic behind those words and nodded in agreement. "Rin, runners!" he shouted out to her.

She looked at where they were and nodded in acknowledgement. The runners took off when they saw the woman turning their way at a running pace. One of them shouted, "Get her out! We have to get her out of here!" When he heard that, Arashi froze. The words repeated inside his head. They could've meant anything, he knew that much. But consider what he knew now about what was inside this mountain and the panicked tone the guy was using, he came to one conclusion. "They know where Natsumi is!"

When Rin went down the tunnel, he tore through what Bending kids were stupid enough to stand in his way to reach her. "Wait!" he heard Gin-sensei call out. But he didn't slow down.

"Arashi, get back here!" ordered Hiruzen-sensei. But he was ignored too.

He reached his sensei's side and stayed by it. She looked down at him and demanded, "What the hell are you doing?"

"They know where my sister is! I'm not going to let them get away!"

"Arashi—!" she started to say.

"I'm with you. I'm not going on my own but I'm not losing the chance to get her!"

She understood what he was trying to say, even though he wasn't trying to actually say it. "Fine, stick with me!"

"Right!" he acknowledged.

"Hey!" Neither one of them said it. It came from behind. They were soon met with both Hiro and Tsukiko.

"What? You guys were just going to leave us?" Tsukiko demanded.

"What are you doing here?" Arashi demanded back.

She gave him a look even as they were running. "We're a team, backwater boy. No one gets left behind."

Hiro nodded in agreement. "I can't believe that you would even consider leaving us behind like that in the first place!"

"Less talking, more running people!" said Rin. "We need to get those guys!" They all fell silent and continued the chase.

As they ran, Arashi was silently glad for the fact they were there. If they hadn't been, he was sure that he would've gotten tunnel vision. But since they were there with him, he knew that he would be able to focus properly. They bore down on the runners and they were gaining on them, inch by inch.

Their opportunity came when the man in the front stumbled. It was a brief thing but it was enough to make him slow down and in turn, make the other two slow down as well. Arashi poured on the speed and tackled the man closest to him. It knocked them all down to the ground but he held onto his grip.

He saw Rin jump over him alongside with Hiro and Tsukiko. His teammates were able to handle one of the other runners and their sensei managed the third. She lifted him up from the ground and slammed him against the wall. "Where were you going?" she demanded.

"Fuck you!" he spat. He was a big burly kind of guy who was confident that he could hold his own against her.

She slammed him again. "Where were you going?"

He looked down at her with defiance. "You think I'm afraid of you, shinobi?"

"If you don't talk, you're going to be afraid of me."

"Ha! I'd like to see you try that."

She smiled the kind of smile that made Tsukiko and Hiro shudder and look away. "As you wish," she told him, reaching for him with her other hand. The first thing that she did was grab both side of his head and brought it down to meet her knee.

The sound of his nose breaking and the blood spurting out filled the rough-hewed corridor. Tsukiko could see the blood come out of his nose and her stomach rolled. But she didn't allow it to go any further than that. If she did, she wasn't fit to be a kunoichi. Hiro was a little worse for wear but he held on too. Arashi was the least effected, keeping his eyes focused on the man being interrogated. He sat on his own prisoner so he wouldn't try and move away.

"Gah, you bitch!" the man screamed, his voice changing pitch due to the nose.

She kept smiling as she reached out for his right hand and broke his middle finger. He screamed at the pain but she didn't let go. "If you're not going to be nice, I'll break the bones in your body," she told him. "You tell me what I want to know, no broken bones. Am I understood?"

"You…you…"

She reached for the ring and began bending it backwards. His breathing became rapidly fast-paced until it was just hissing in high-pitched pain. "Am I understood?" she repeated.

"Don't tell her anything!" The guy Hiro and Tsukiko were holding down shouted at him.

"You shut up," Tsukiko told him. "She's not talking to you now. You'd better hope that she doesn't." To add to the effect, at least she hoped it added to the effect, she pulled out a kunai and made sure that he could see them. She didn't know if it was working or not. She hoped that it was.

As Rin turned her attention back to the man she held, Arashi felt the guy beneath him, clearly the youngest of the three, trying to wiggle free of him. He shifted his weight, pinning him some more, and gave him a sour look. That was when he heard the sound of keys jingling. He looked around his shoulder and saw a key on a ring at the man's waist.

"Arashi!" shouted Hiro in warning.

He turned around and saw the guy lifting his head up, his mouth agape. "Shit, he must be doing a jutsu!" the dyed redhead thought. He elbowed the guy's chin, shutting his mouth close. "Don't do that. Thanks, Hiro."

"No problem."

He turned back around and looked at the key again. He pulled it off and held it out so the guy could see it. "What is this for?"

All at the same time, the men exchanged a look. It was a look that asked for and confirmed solidarity. They thought that they wouldn't break. But Rin wasn't done. She snapped broke another finger and the guy screamed in pain again. "What was…?" he asked between clenched teeth, trying to get his breathing back in control.

"What was that for?" she asked him pleasantly. "He asked your friend a question. He didn't get an answer."

Arashi took that as an incentive to keep going. He leaned down closer to the guy, holding the key for him to see it. "What is this for?" he asked again. The man shook his head, keeping his mouth close. He punched the guy. "What is this for?"

"I…I…" he stuttered, trying to answer.

He punched him again. "I asked you a question. I want an answer. What is this for?"

He was able to actually answer this time. "I won't tell you."

"Wrong answer," the shinobi told him. He looked over at Tsukiko expectantly.

She didn't know what he wanted. The silence between them carried on until his eyes dropped to the kunai in her hands. That was when she realized what he wanted. "He's wants me to follow through with my threat." Her throat suddenly felt dry and her hand became clammy. She had no idea what he wanted her to do exactly. It was probably best to start off slow. She put her kunai to her guy's cheek and pressed the edge against his skin. She pulled it away and cut skin.

"Ah," the guy bit out in pain. He fixed her with a filthy look. "You little bitch!" Then his eyes went wide and his breath came out at a higher pitch.

"That was a love tap," Hiro warned him as he removed his hand from his groin, using what he hoped was a brave voice. "Don't make me use a harder one."

Rin nodded encouragingly at her students. She looked back at the man she was holding. "You see the problem in here, right?" He stayed silent and stared challengingly at her. She returned the look and promptly slammed him against the wall again.

Arashi didn't wait for her to continue to focus on his own prisoner. "What is this for?" he demanded. The man didn't answer fast enough for him so he pressed down the key against his neck and pulled. The man gasped in pain as the key drew blood. "What. Is. It. For?"

"Don't say anything!" Rin's man shouted. She slammed him into the wall again to shut him up and this time, he fell unconscious. Tsukiko and Hiro followed her idea and knocked their guy out too.

Arashi's man finally broke. "It's a key to her room!" he all but screamed out.

The dyed redhead pulled the key away, leaving a trace of blood on his neck. "Whose room?" he demanded, grabbing his neck and pressing down on the wound.

"Her room!" he yelped. "The reason this base was created! It's her training ground!"

That was all he needed to hear. It was certainly demining enough. "Where is it?"

"I—"

"Where!?" he demanded, pushing down.

"Arashi, calm down," Rin ordered him. He looked up at her, feeling betrayed that she would try and stop him. "He can't tell you anything if he's dead or unconscious."

He looked back down at the guy. He was close to falling into la-la land and it looked like he was trying to get there on purpose. He eased off the pressure just enough to make sure he stayed awake. "You're not getting off that easily," the Genin growled. "Where is the room?"

The man looked at him, then at the other shinobi. They all had the same look of seriousness on their faces. He got a cold feeling in his stomach that traveled down to his bladder and gave him the urge to pee right then and there. He understood that they would kill him if he didn't tell them what they wanted. He looked down the corridor they had been running. "That way," he told them. "Go down that way, take the first right and then the next right after that. You'll find a locked door. That's where she is. If she's still there," he added as an afterthought.

Arashi froze at those words. "What do you mean by that?"

He clamped down on his mouth, refusing to say anything else. But Rin knew what it meant. "He means they're not the only one who could get her out. There might be another group trying to get to her."

The idea of his sister being taken away sent his mind into overdrive. He punched the guy hard, knocking him unconscious, grabbing the key and leaping up to his feet. "What are you waiting for?" he demanded to the others as he took off in a dead run down the corridor. "Let's go!"

"Arashi, wait!" Tsukiko called out to him. But even as she did that, her feet were moving to go after him. So were the others.

(Location: Spirit World)

They were losing ground, Asami could see that. As best they could fight off the dark spirits, they were being driven back up the slope of the tree, getting closer to where Korra had left her body. If the dark spirits were able to get her body, she'd be lost. But they were losing the fight. There was just too many dark spirits for them to handle.

"There has to be a way to turn the tide," she thought to herself as she fended off a dark spirit that had tried to claw her arm. If she looked out past where their line was, all she could see was just wave after wave of dark spirits coming towards them. She felt the whistle bounced against her chest as she moved away. She looked down at it and remembered what her sensei had said.

"When things go south, and trust me it will in this kind of situation, and you find yourself standing in the deep end of shit, blow this and help will come running."

She considered it for a second longer. "If this doesn't count as the deep end of shit, I don't know what will!" She put as much distance as she could away from the dark spirits, yanked the whistle off of her neck, and blew hard. The sound pierced the air with a high pitch, almost shrieking. Everyone stopped at the sound. The dark spirits covered what past as their ears in pain, hunching down to hide away from the sound.

Asami kept on blowing the whistle until it shattered in her hand like it was ice. One piece of it cut a gash down the side of her finger to her palm. "Ah, damn it!" she cursed, folding her hand close and holding it with the other. Blood still leaked out between her fingers and she could feel the pain like it was a bright burning torch close to her skin. She just hoped whatever the whistle was supposed to do, it did it.

The next few seconds had passed like the world had gone absolutely still. But nothing happened. The dark spirits rose back up from they had hunched down and looked at them with a renewed sense of hatred and fury. "Uh…I think they're angry," Bolin told them all with a worried look.

"They were already angry," his brother said back.

"Well, now they're angrier."

The spirits began to converge on them again but then the ground started to shake beneath their feet. Those who knew Earthbending stances took them to better solidify themselves against any potential earthquake. But the quake never came. The ground just kept rumbling. It was a steady pace that seemed to get louder with each passing second. But there was no end to it. It just went on and on, getting louder. "Wait a minute," Bumi realized, remembering the sound of his years of training and experience. "That's not an earthquake. That's a stampede."

"INNNNNNNNCCCCCCCOOOOOOOMMMMMING!" a voice bellowed out to them, a faint sounding voice that got louder and closer rapidly. A shadow formed over the dark spirits that grew larger until a gigantic red-furred gorilla with four tails smashed into them. As it rose back to its full height, it looked down at the humans. "Hey, I didn't hit anyone, did I?"

They couldn't have given it any reply since they were too busy staring at it in shock. Finally, it was Bolin who was able to give it a reply by saying, "Um…no?"

"Well, that's good to hear."

"Damn it, Son!" shouted out another voice, this one more feminine. A blue-furred two-tailed cat appeared at the edge of the dark spirit horde, battering its way towards the gorilla. With a startled look, Mako realized that the cat wasn't furred. It simply wore blue fire like it was fur. "You don't have to go charging in like that!"

"I got excited!"

"That's not an excuse!"

The gorilla actually scoffed at the cat. "Well it's hardly my fault if the rest of you are too slow."

"We're not having that argument. Focus on squashing on these pathetic things now, hm? The others are seconds away."

"Ha! Why do you think I jumped?"

As the two titanic creatures laid waste to the spirits around them, the humans could only continue to stare. "…Should we help them?" Asami asked, breaking the silence between them.

"I happen to value my life, thank you very much," Desna told her, even though he couldn't take his gaze off the fight. The dark spirits' attention wasn't on them anymore. It was focused on the giants.

"Asami, what did you do?" Bumi asked her.

She looked down at her hands again, still seeing the blood. "I just did what sensei told me to do if we got into trouble."

"I'll be damned," Yue said in an impressed tone. "The old man had a plan after all."

"You're surprised by that?" her fellow Paragon asked her.

"Uh, guys?" said Bolin, peering off into the distance. "I see six more spirit…creature…thingies coming this way fast." They looked at what he was looking and saw the exact same thing.

Mako frowned as he looked. "What are those things?"

"I've got a feeling that Naruto-sensei knows," Asami answered.

(Location: Republic City)

As Unalaq held Korra's astral form in the grip of his water, he would've tripped over himself if he was human to start bending the water to corrupt her. But he was not human, not anymore. He could take his time and be precise about this method. What Vaatu had shown him in the beginning moments that they had fused together was truly nothing like he had ever thought of before. It was like the cleansing of spirits that he had learned while becoming a master of spiritual energy. But there was a difference, a key difference. Instead of cleansing, this would corrupt a spirit or an astral form. With the former, the spirit would turn dark and never turn back. Only killing it would stop it. If he did it to an astral form, that person would never be able to go back to their original body. They would be stuck as a powerless spirit, cursed to wander the earth. If they were forced into the Spirit World, any dark spirit nearby would tear it apart and gouge on the energy there.

And that's what he intended to do with Korra. She could not stop him from doing it, not while she was completely in his grasp. As the purple water reached the zenith, he proclaimed to her unconscious form, "With you out of the way, I will be the one true Avatar."

But even as he said those words and was on the verge of corrupting her, the energy of the world around him shifted. It was not a huge shift, but it was one that he noticed. It was enough to make him pause and wonder what it was. A small, pale light began to drift down from the arouras between the two giants in the bay. Even though the light was small and weak, it could be seen by everyone in the city. If any of them had a scope to look through, they would've peered through it and saw a little girl in the middle of the light.

Pema, having been on Air Temple Island with the rest of her children when the fight began, had a clear view of everything from the tallest tower. There was a telescope on the rail that was supposed to be used for stargazing but now, Ikki was pointing it at the ball of light. It didn't take her long to realize who the girl was inside the ball. "Mommy, it's Jinora," she proclaimed. "She's…beautiful." There was no other way to describe her big sister at that moment.

"What?" their mother said as she held Rohan in her arms. "Let me see." She took the telescope from her daughter and held it up to her eye with her free hand. As soon as she looked through the scope, she saw her daughter descending down over the bay. She looked like she was cradling something in her hands while there was a look of content serenity on her face, like she knew what she had to do and would do it. Pema's motherly instincts kicked in at that moment and she did what every mother would have done in that moment. "Be careful sweetie!" she called out into the bay, not caring if her shouting had surprised the rest of her children.

Unalaq did not know what the girl was doing as she came between him and Korra. He had been certain that she had been thrown into the Fog of Lost Souls, unable to come out of her volition. Before he could ponder the question any more, she looked him straight in the eye and released her cradled hands. As soon as she did, the light around became brighter, much brighter. It was so bright that he could not look directly at it, forcing himself to shield his eyes with his arms. But that was not all. The energy around them changed too, this time much more obviously. Something was changing inside of him and he didn't know what. The glare of the light was so bright he lost control of his bending, letting Korra go free.

As the light faded and Korra landed in the bay again, he recovered himself. "Whatever that was," he thought to himself as he readied the water to ensnare Korra again, "It was pointless and did not matter."But then he felt a light burning sensation on his chest, something that was small but resilient. He looked down and saw that his sigil had begun to light up but not in the way he knew. The light was warm and gentle and he could hear the sound of a heartbeat.

At that moment, he realized what was happening and fear gripped him. "No!" he tried shouting in denial, his hands reaching for his chest as if to claw out the light. But the fact didn't change. She was inside of him.

She was inside of him!

Korra looked up from where she knelt in the water. She saw the light inside of him and she knew too. "Raava!" she proclaimed. Finding renewed strength in the new fact, she leapt to her feet and charged him. He tried to defend himself but she punched through the defense and placed her hand on his sigil, pushing past it. She pushed through the darkness inside him, aiming for that little ball of light, listening for the faint heartbeat.

It felt like she was plunging back down into that darkness, unable to find anything in it. But she knew that she was in there. Her hand touched the light and she was suddenly swarmed over with emotions.

Where was she?

What had happened?

Why was there no light?

Where was Wan?

Where was Wan!?

Was she alone?

No!

She couldn't be alone! She couldn't be alone in this darkness! But she couldn't find Wan!

Korra stopped the tide from drowning her and sent out a probing question. "Raava," she called out mentally. The emotions hit her again.

Who was that?

Why was she hearing a voice?

She was alone in this darkness, wasn't she?

"Raava," Korra called out to her again. "Listen to my voice. Talk to me."

The emotions stopped hitting. They were replaced by a voice. "Who…?"

"It's me, Raava."

"Wan?"

"No, not Wan. Korra."

"Korra…" she tested the name with her own voice. "Korra…I know you."

"Yes. You know me. Follow me, Raava. I can lead you out of the dark."

"How?" asked the trapped spirit.

"You have to trust me." She stretched out her finger to the spirit. "Take my hand, Raava." She felt a presence wrap itself around her finger, hesitantly at first but then more securely. "It's okay. I'll get you out."

She brought herself out of the depth of Unalaq's mind and with a great heave, she pulled out Raava too. As his counterpart was pulled out of him, Unalaq felt like his heart being torn out in the process. Every part of his body was in pain. If he had the strength to scream, he would have done just that. But it wasn't just the physical pain he was in, it was also mental. It felt like he was becoming weaker in the process, losing what strength that he had. When Raava was finally free of him, he couldn't find the strength to stand up and fell to his knees in the water.

He didn't stay down there long. The water at his feet wrapped itself around them and forced him to stand up, holding him in place and forbidding him from moving. The same water began to twist ribbons up and around his body. For a dazed moment, he wondered what it was doing. Then he saw Korra moving her hands around, just like he had done during the Spirit Festival in the South Pole.

He realized what she was doing just as the sensation started to crawl up his legs and the water began to glow yellow. The sensation felt like fire, cleansing and purging everything that was him. It crawled up his body, burning at the same intensity the entire time. He felt the pain but could do nothing about it. Inside his mind, he was raging. "This can't be it! I can beat this! I need to think of a way out of this! Think, Unalaq! Think! You can beat her! You are the true Avatar of this world. You are better than her! You need to think of something!" The sensation kept trailing up his body and he couldn't break free of it. The last thing he could think of were the old man's words.

"Do you really think you're the king of your own destiny, Unalaq? That you are a leader on the board game being played here? You couldn't be farther from the truth. You're not a leader. You're not a king. You're a pawn."

No! That couldn't be true! This was his plan, his destiny! This was his doing! It had been his plan! He could get out of this! He just had to think! But he was too late. The cleansing fire of the energy crowned him, covering him completely. All he could feel was the burning sensation. Then he started to feel himself drift away. "No!" he screamed in rage and denial at what was happening to him. But it was pointless. As the spirit water faded away, he did too, vanishing within seconds.

Korra finished the practiced motion by bringing her hands in the traditional Bending salute. "Go in peace," she intoned. It was probably more than he deserved but she hoped his next life would be more peaceful.

Raava flew down to her side and so did Jinora, still coned inside her sphere of light. "Harmonic Convergence is nearly over," the Spirit of Light said. "We must return to the Spirit World so we can fuse once again."

Both spirit and girl flew down to Korra's hands and she enfolded them within gently. She held them close to her chest, crouched down slightly, and willed herself to go back to the Tree of Time. To those who had watched the battle, they saw her form blur into haziness before shooting up into the sky.

(Location: the Spirit Word)

The humans watched as the eight gigantic beasts laid waste to the horde of dark spirits. It didn't seem like they would stop anytime soon. Not a single dark spirit got past them. It was like they were an untouchable wall. They just wouldn't stop. But that wasn't the thing that made the humans there nervous. It was the fact that the eight beasts were talking to each other as they laid waste. And it wasn't even serious talk, to let the others know if they were about to be attacked from behind or something like that. It was trash talk and insults, like what they were doing wasn't serious enough to warrant serious talk.

Then the connected portals began to glow and the middle started to swell up. It was a bright light that distracted everyone. "Well, looks like it's time to go," the gorilla proclaimed.

"Indeed," agreed a six-tailed slug.

The cat looked back at the humans while the other seven made their way out of the horde. "It would be for the best if you got into the tree before that light comes down. Otherwise you'll get caught in the blast."

"What blast?" Tenzin asked, forcing the words out of his mouth.

It just looked up at the swelling light. "That blast," it answered. "Oh, and tell Naruto he should come visit us more."

"You know him?" Asami dared to ask.

"We had been expecting him to be here when that whistle blew." Those were her last words before she followed the other seven out of the horde of dark spirits. Once they were out, they took off at lightning speed, vanishing as quickly as they came.

The dark spirits were now free to do what they had been doing before getting tossed around like ragdolls: trying to reach Korra's body and that meant getting through the humans. But instead of fighting, they heeded the cat's advice and made for the tree. They reached it just in time as the light fell down and obliterated all of the dark spirits, washing them away like dirt in a river. The light was bright, blindingly so, but it was also warm and gentle. They couldn't look at it, but they knew that they were safe.

When the light finally died away, Korra's astral form knelt before the Tree of Time. She stood up as they came out of the tree. She opened her hands and both Jinora and Raava came flying out. The Spirit of Light flew through the air, taking in the residual energy from both the dark spirits and Harmonic Convergence, quickly growing bigger.

But Jinora floated down to the ground, where Tenzin was waiting for her. She hovered in front of him and said, "I'll see you soon, Dad." He tried to reach out to her but she vanished, fading away before he could touch her. As she did, Korra's astral form dissipated into motes of blue light. There were too many to count and they all floated into the Tree of Time, where her body still was. They covered her body, every square inch of it, and she glowed blue for a brief moment. Then the light faded and she opened her eyes.

(Location: South Pole)

Jinora felt that her eyelids were sticky and heavy. But when she moved them, those feelings vanished. She found herself in a hut and her grandmother was standing over her alongside Tahno and Korra's parents. At the sight of her grandmother, she smiled. Katara returned the smile and helped her out of the water. "Gran-Gran, I missed you," she said, hugging her tightly.

"I missed you too, dear," Katara replied, hugging her just as tightly.

Tahno breathed a sigh of relief. "You gave us a scare there, kid," he told Jinora. "You should never do that again."

She looked over at him apologetically. "Sorry, I'll try."

"Hey, you don't have to worry about me. Your parents, on the other hand…" He didn't finish that sentence because he didn't have to. She knew that too and so did everyone else in the room.

"What about the others?" Tonraq asked from where he sat beside Senna.

She looked over at them. "Don't worry, they're all right. Korra saved the world." They smiled in relief at that news and she was happy for them.

Then all of a sudden, they heard the telephone start to ring. "I wasn't expecting a call," Katara said, looking at the table that held the telephone. "That's odd."

Tahno walked over to the phone and picked it up. "Hello," he said casually, leaning against the table with the phone against his ear. Then he stood up straight like he had been called to attention. "Yes sir. I understand." He covered the telephone piece with his hand and said to Jinora, "It's for you."

Jinora was surprised by that. Like her grandmother, she hadn't been expecting any phone calls. She had been stuck inside the Spirit World, how could she? She tried to get out of the pool herself but her legs were weak. Her grandmother helped her stand and walked over to the telephone. She took it from Tahno. "Hello?" she asked, putting the telephone to her ear.

"I caught your little light show over the bay," Naruto's voice told her, "Very impressive." There was a light mocking tone to his words as he said them.

But she didn't care about the mocking. She was too busy being surprised by the fact of who was calling her. "Lord Naruto," she greeted him, still surprised.

"I've got a couple of questions for you, Jinora. It would be best if you just answer them."

"O-okay," she agreed. Katara looked at her with concern but what she could she say? It wasn't like they could hear the conversation going on.

"First off, where did you find the power to wake up Raava? That's not something a kid barely into her teens can do with ease."

She might've been insulted if she had been talking to someone who wasn't Naruto Uzumaki and if it wasn't true. "I could feel the world changing and I knew I had to do something. I heard a voice and I followed it."

"While still in the Spirit World?"

"Yes."

She heard an irritated sound on the other end and she knew that he wasn't happy with what she said. "So what did you do then? Just wander around until you found the solution?" She didn't answer immediately and so he spoke again. "That's what you did, didn't you?"

Her cheeks flushed but she tried to explain, "Not exactly."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, his voice cracking like a whip.

She knew that the others in the room were looking at her, clearly wanting to know what the conversation was about. But they couldn't know until she was done. "I followed a voice. It led me to a spirit that was cloaked from head to toe."

"Uh-huh, that's what I thought."

"You…you did?"

"Let me guess, the cloak was made of equal parts white and black, they were constantly moving around but never mixing to form grey, right?"

"Yeah, right," she answered. "How did—?"

"That's not important. What did he do to you?"

"Well, he talked to me. He remarked that things seemed to be going to…" She trailed off as she realized that she was about to say a bad word. She didn't want to use that bad word in front of her family but the Fire Paragon wanted to hear what she had to say.

"To shit," he asked, not sounding impatient, "Was that you were going to say?"

"Yes."

"Then what did he do?"

"He told me that he knew what I needed. Then he said that Raava was going to have to owe him one and he…" She gulped down air and continued, "He reached up and pulled out his own eye." Both Tonraq and Senna gasped in surprise at her words and Tahno looked a bit sick.

But it was Lord Naruto's words that stunned her the most. "I doubt it. It's more likely he tore out a piece of his being that took form as an eye to give you. Now that we've got that out of the way, shall we discuss your idiocy inside the Spirit World?"

"My what?" she asked completely stunned.

"I'm assuming it's idiocy since you somehow managed to end up by yourself in the Spirit World since you went in there with Korra. She's says that it was her fault for losing you and getting you trapped in the Fog of Lost Souls, but that's her half of the story. I want to hear yours and I'm fairly certain I know how it started. When you first went in, you were awestruck by how beautiful the Spirit World looked. And while you were being awestruck, you stopped paying attention to Korra. Stop me if I'm wrong."

She couldn't because he wasn't. Now that she thought about what had happened, she felt rather foolish. "You're right. I made a mistake," she told him.

There was a pause on the other end of the telephone. She thought that he was about to yell at her being stupid. But instead she got a calm voice. "Well, so long as you admit it, that's good."

"It is?" she asked.

"Don't get me wrong, Jinora. I'm holding you responsible for getting trapped in there by Unalaq, but I'm not completely blaming you. You got distracted by the Spirit World because you're a kid and untrained."

"But I was Korra's guide. I had to be the one to lead her into the Spirit World."

"Just because you were her guide does not mean you were ready for the task. If you had received training and lessons, you would've remained focused. Take this to heart, Jinora: just because you know how to do something, doesn't mean you know everything about it."

It was a lecture, she knew that. But it wasn't a lecture that she couldn't ignore. His words struck true. It was the same as when she had started Airbending. She hadn't been a master of it when she started. She wasn't even a master now. She shouldn't have thought since she could spirits, she knew what to do. "Yes, sir," she said to Naruto, glad for what he was trying to tell her.

"Glad to hear it. Now, how did Unalaq grab you?"

She remembered what happened quite clearly. It wasn't like she was going to forget anytime soon. "I was taken to Wan Shi Tong's Library by a spirit I thought was my friend. That's where he grabbed me."

"Wan Shi Tong's library?" he repeated. "Where was that bird when it happened? Where was Zei?"

"Wan Shi Tong stood there and let it happen," she told him.

"…He did WHAT!?" The roar echoed through the telephone and into her ear, jarring it. She held the phone away from her ear at the last moment, letting the others in the room hear the same thing. Tahno looked nervous but Katara, Tonraq, and Senna looked downright panicked.

Carefully, she put the telephone back to her ear, holding gingerly like it would blow up in her hands. "He let me be taken. Unalaq even cut Professor Zei down and Wan Shi Tong stood there did and nothing," she explained quickly.

For a long second, she heard nothing but silence and it was completely unnerving. She waited for him to say something, anything. Finally, the silence was broken when he said "Excuse me. I have to go defenestrate an owl." And then the phone line went dead.

She stared at it for a second and then looked at everyone else. "What does 'defenestrate' mean?"

Katara looked at her somberly. "Think of it like jumping off a cliff to fly without using a staff." Her granddaughter turned pale as she realized what she had heard and the old Waterbender wished she could thump Naruto on the head for whatever he had said to her.

(Location: the Spirit World)

As Korra stepped out to the lip of the tree, she could see everyone staring up at her. But she only had eyes for Raava. The Spirit of Light had returned to her giant size like she had been in the memories of Wan. The two of them only had to look at one another to know what to do next. Raava flew towards the tree and then upwards to the connected portals. Korra hopped onto her tail and the second her feet touched, it felt like they were connected. Up and up they flew, closer to the portals. When she was within reach, Korra reached out and touch them. Thunder boomed and lightning crackled as the portals surged with power and the two of them fused together.

In that one moment, something changed in her.

In that one moment, she saw farther then she could've ever have seen before.

In that one moment, she could see the universe.

And she saw that it was beautifully glorious.

Everyone watched as the portals broke apart, the sky lighten up, and Korra emerged from the orb of light, glowing blue with Raava's sigil shining brightly on her chest. "The Avatar Spirit has returned," Tenzin proclaimed.

She descended down to the ground, using the air to guide her gently down. The glow vanished as she landed on the ground, the last of it being her eyes when she opened them. "It's over," she told them all.

Mako, Bolin, and Tenzin ran up to her, the Firebender reaching her first to pull her into a hug and kissed her on the cheek. "I don't even know what to say," he said to her.

"You were amazing," Tenzin said.

Bolin started talking and the words almost seem to fall out of his mouth. "And the way you turned all gigantic like that, wow! I just wished Varrick was here to film it! It would be the greatest mover ever. After the Nuktuk chronicles of course," he added as an afterthought, making both Asami and Yue frown slightly.

She smiled but was more focused on her cousins who stood behind everyone and did not move to talk to her. She went to them and said, "I'm sorry about your father. But he was already fused with Vaatu. I couldn't save him."

Eska looked over at her twin brother. "It seems cousin Korra is under the impression we're saddened by our father's demise."

"But I will not miss him at all," he agreed. "In the end, he became a deplorable man."

"Agreed," she replied before taking on a worried look. "But how will we explain this to mother?" While they might not have had the best of relationships with their father, their parents truly did love one another.

While they were considering that fact, Bolin walked up to Eska "So, I was thinking. I'm not really a fan of a long-distance relationship thing," he said to her while her cousin backed off, "so how about you move to Republic City with me."

"I do not think it will be possible," she told him.

He had a feeling that she would say that, so he would have to compromise. "Okay. Desna can come too."

"I will not be joining you, Bolin. Desna and I must return home."

Hearing those words was a little more than surprising for him, even more so when he saw that she did actually look sad. "But you said—"

"Eternal darkness was upon us. I became caught up in the moment."

"Yeah," he conceded after a paused silence. "I guess I did too."

She walked up to him so it was just them in the conversation. "But, you will always hold the special place in the organ that pumps my blood. I will remember you fondly." She put her sleeved hand over her heart. "My turtle duck."

Bolin smiled at her. From off to the side, Asami couldn't but stare at the Waterbender. "Wasn't the same girl who chased us across eight miles of water because he dumped her?" She was acting like a completely different person and it was a little weird.

Bumi was looking around the area, ensuring that they were indeed alone. It might've seemed obvious to do that, especially after that light show, but his training kicked in. As he looked around, he heard a familiar trilling sound behind him. He turned around and saw Bum-Ju flying at him. "Bum-Ju, you're okay," he exclaimed as he grabbed the spirit and pulled it into a hug. "I missed you, little buddy." Bum-Ju seemed quite content to rest there and let him have his hug.

Tenzin and Korra both walked over to the northern portal. It stood tall in the air and glowed a soft red that almost felt like the embers of a fire. "Now that you're bonded with Raava once again, are you also reconnected with your past lives?" Tenzin asked her.

For a moment, she didn't say anything to him, only looked him in the eye. She broke her gaze and let it fall to the ground. "No. I think that link is gone, forever," she declared. Try as she might, and she did, she couldn't reach out to any of the previous Avatars. It was scary to not have that even when she didn't use it often. It felt like going back into an empty room that had been the life of the party a few minutes ago.

"I see." There wasn't really anything else he could've said at that moment. "Why don't you close the portals, and we'll go home."

She walked up to the portal's edge and reached out to touch the energy. But before her fingers could touch it, they curled away. She still had her arm outstretched but now she wasn't touching it. "Maybe I shouldn't."

"What do you mean?"

She brought her hand down from the portal. "What if Unalaq was right when he said the Avatar shouldn't be a bridge between the two worlds? What if Avatar Wan made a mistake when he closed the portals?" She turned her head back to look at the others. Bumi was playing around with Bum-Ju with a stick. Both seemed to be enjoying the game. "What if humans and spirits weren't meant to live apart?" Just by looking at the two of them made her feel that it was possible. She looked over at Tenzin. "Well, what do you think I should do?"

He reached out and placed a comforting hand on her shoulders. "I think you should trust your instincts. There is nothing else I can teach you. You are the Avatar. Whatever your decision, I support you." She looked at him and then at the portal. After a long second and thinking it over, she came to a conclusion and made her choice.

(Location: Land of Spring)

When the door opened, Arashi had to restrain himself from bashing it down. He stepped through and started looking around, but only saw darkness. "Where the hell are the lights?" he heard Tsukiko ask from behind him.

"Here they are," Hiro said, feeling them out on the wall. The lights came on and when they did, he wished that they hadn't.

They hadn't walked into a bedroom. They had walked into a training room, a brutal one at that. There were smears of dried blood and fresh ones too on the walls and on the floor. Cracks were there without any sort of pattern to them. There was blood near them which explained what caused them. The lights above were sterile, only showing dead white. There were no windows there and there wasn't any kind of furniture either. Above all else was the smell of it. The smell of dried blood filled their noses and made them want to gag.

"Kami save me," Tsukiko swore as she took it all it. "What the hell were they doing in here?"

"Training," Rin said as she took it in with a professional training, "Intense training at that."

Hiro could only see the blood, only smell the blood. "How old is she?" he asked his teammate.

"Three years younger than me," Arashi answered, still looking at everything. "What the hell did they do to you, Natsumi?" It looked like his little sister had gone through hell in here. His eyes soon fell on the only other door in the room. It was off to the left and seemed out of place due to the stark brownness of the wood.

He walked towards it, his hand stretching out. "Arashi, wait," he heard Rin call out to him. But he didn't care.

His hand grasped the knob. He turned it and opened the door slowly. When it was opened fully, he looked inside and saw a bed that barely fit in the room. And on it was his little sister. She had gotten bigger since the last time he had seen her but that wasn't surprising. She laid flat against the bed, facing the ceiling with her eyes closed. She looked like she was trying not to dream.

He stepped inside the room. "Natsumi?" he called out. She shifted in the bed, like she heard him. That was a good thing. He took another step inside.

He saw her move and her eyes opened. A hand grabbed his coat and pulled him away, just as she leapt up and a lance of fire erupted from her cupped hands. Both he and Rin fell to the ground, away from the fire. It vanished quickly and she appeared in the doorway, not wearing pajamas but a training outfit. Her eyes tracked everyone, seeing where they stood and how far away it was from her. Without a sound, she leapt at Hiro.

He stepped back from her initial assault but she flashed a quick surge of heat that forced him to close his eyes. She took advantage of that and elbowed him in the stomach. He fell to the ground and had to actually try and get his breath back. She stared at him, not saying a word. Tsukiko took that moment to try and get her from behind.

Her foot kicked up backwards, bringing an arc of fire with it. "Whoa!" the Uchiha exclaimed, stumbling back away from her. She hadn't been expecting that move. When the girl turned around and attacked her, she couldn't even read her attacks. It was all she could do to defend herself.

"Be careful!" Arashi warned his teammate as he got back to his feet. "She's better than the other Benders out there. She's been better since she was four years old."

"I'm beginning to see that," she replied, still fending off the attacks. She tried clocking her in the shoulder with a roundhouse kick but Natsumi ducked under it. She cupped her hands as she came back up, about to pull the same trick she used on Hiro. But it didn't work because Rin pulled her student out of the way and Arashi grabbed his sister in a tackle.

As they landed on the ground, she started to fight to get free and he had to stop her. "Natsumi, Natsumi," he said to her as he fought to stop her, trying to keep her pinned to the ground. "Natsumi, it's me. It's Arashi, your brother. It's me!"

She stopped moving and looked up at him. There was curious look to her face, like she was trying to remember who he was to her. He smiled encouragingly and relaxed his grip on her. "It's me."

She lost the look. She whipped her hands up, grabbed his throat, and began to squeeze. He felt air getting stuck in his throat or escaping outright. He couldn't breathe. His hands went to hers and tried to get them off but she held them too tightly. His vison was getting blurry and his strength started to weaken. He was going to die at the hands of his baby sister.

But then Rin rolled them over so she was on top and knocked her out with a swift chop. Natsumi's eyes rolled upwards and she collapsed on top of him. He didn't try to push her off. He was too busy contemplating the fact that his sister had just tried to kill him. "What did they do to you?" he asked her silently.

(Location: South Pole)

It had taken a week for the South Pole to clean up the mess that had been made by Unalaq, ensure that the remaining Northern ships undid the blockade before leaving, and for the Council of Elders to make their decisions. Now it was the day that Korra was to announce the changes that had come to the world after Harmonic Convergence. She knew that everyone was curious as to why spirits were showing up all over the place and it was her duty to let them know what would come next.

But as she made her way out, Mako came up behind her. "Hey, can we talk?" he asked.

She stopped and looked at him. "Of course," she told him.

"There's something I've been wanting to tell you about that fight we had. I know I said it wasn't that bad, but, that's not exactly true." She lost the smile on her face and replaced it with a look of small worry. It just made it harder for him to say it, but he had to. "I, um…I-I broke up with you."

She didn't say anything right away and he was almost afraid that her rage was building up. But instead, she looked down at the floor with a melancholic look. "I remember."

He was surprised by that. "But, I thought you said you lost part of your memory."

"I did, but being inside the Tree of Time brought it back. I'm sorry for blowing up at you." Now that she had thought about it, she had been such an obnoxious ass about what had been happening.

"That's okay," he assured as he took her hand. "I think we've both said things that we regret."

"Why didn't you just tell me the truth in the first place?"

"I know I should have, but…I didn't wanna hurt you all over again. I guess part of me wanted to forget about the break-up too."

"I think we both know that this. Us? Doesn't work," she declared.

"You're right," he agreed.

"It's over. For real this time," she told him. He nodded in agreement. She placed her hand on his cheek and brought him for a kiss. This wasn't a quick peck or a long sensual kiss that could make things hot and heavy. This kiss was sweet, gentle, but also brief. When they stopped kissing, they touched foreheads and didn't move. To Korra, it felt like this would be the last time she would ever see him even when she knew that wouldn't be true.

When they finally pulled away, Mako told her, "I'll always love you, Korra."

"And I'll always love you." But even though she said that, she walked away.

He watched her go, not going after her. His brother came up beside him with what he thought was a somber look. "You want a hug?" he asked. Mako looked at him unsurely. He didn't wait for an answer and hugged his brother from the side. It was an awkward hug but Mako knew Bolin meant well.

Korra walked through the halls, trying not to think about Mako and what had just happened. She came across Asami. The two women slowed down their pace. "Hey," she said to the Paragon's apprentice.

"Hey," she said back. "How's the face?"

Her face had been struck at some point during her fight with Unalaq, she didn't know when. It had healed but left two faint red scars on her right cheek, almost like Chief Beifong. "Fine," she replied. "How's the hand?"

She looked down at her hand, taking in the scar that went down from her finger to her palm. "Fine," she said too, looking away from the hand. "You should get going. You've got a speech to give."

"Yeah, thanks." She walked on. Neither of them talked about what was hanging over their heads.

---

When the crowd outside the palace finally gathered, Korra took the stand. Everyone was looking at her expectantly, wanting to know why the spirits were still here. She felt a little nervous but took comfort in the fact that her family, Tenzin's family, and the Paragons were at her back. Even Naruto had finally left Republic City to come down for this. She breathed in and began to speak. "The war of the Water Tribes is over. Unalaq has been defeated, and the Northern fleet is returning home. The Water Tribes will always be allies, but the Southern Tribe is now independent, and the Southern Council of Elders has appointed my father, Tonraq, to be your new chief!"

As her father stepped up beside her and waved, the people cheered even more. Finally, they would be free of the Northern Tribe and one of their own was chief. As the cheering died down, Korra continued. "I've realized that even though we should learn from those who came before us, we must also forge our own path. So that is why I've decided to keep the portals open. Humans can now physically enter the Spirit World, and spirits will be free to roam our world. I will no longer be the bridge. Humans and spirits must learn to live together. My mission will always be to use Raava's light spirit to guide the world toward peace and balance. Harmonic Convergence has caused a shift in the planet's energy. I can feel it. Things will never be the same again. We're entering a New Age."

They were suspenseful words, she knew that. But they were needed. The crowd didn't cheer for that last part but they did clap politely. She stepped away from the podium and let the next speaker, her father, take over. She didn't stay around, choosing to go back inside the palace. Everyone who could follow her did. "Good speech," Yue said to her as they went through the doorway. The older woman walked close to her right.

"Thanks. I felt nervous through the entire thing," she replied.

"Did you really think something changed?" Bolin asked her as he walked by her side. He looked back and saw that Mako was keeping to the rear.

She nodded as they turned a corner. "Yeah, something changed. I don't know what exactly, but something changed."

Bumi stretched his shoulders from beside Bolin. "I'm just glad this crisis is over. I think I'm getting too old for them anyway."

Naruto snorted at the proclamation. "Say that when you are my age, Bumi."

"I know, I know, you're older than the rest of us."

Asami walked close to her sensei. Tahno was at her side. "I'm just glad it's over," she declared. "It feels like we just closed a chapter on history and not in an easy way."

"You'll get that feeling a lot," her sensei told her.

When Korra thought about everything that had happen, she could only conclude one thing. "We went through a great cluster fuck of stuff."

"Korra," Tenzin said warningly. He was the one to do it since both of her parents were still outside.

"She's right, Tenzin," Naruto agreed. "But we must also never forget who it was that caused this great cluster fuck."

"I don't think anyone of us would forget what Unalaq did," Korra said, walking out into the hallway.

But the words she heard stunned her. "Unalaq did a lot of bad things while he was down here, but he was the end result. He didn't start this."

"Then who did?"

"You," he said.

She stopped and turned to him. "What—?" Something blurred at the edge of her vision and suddenly, she was staring at the world sideways and her face burned with pain. She could hear people around shouting but they became blurry and far-off. She tried to get back up but something struck her again. This time her nose turned painful and she saw blood fly out of it. "Did my nose just get broken?" she couldn't help but think.

She tried to get up but the blows kept coming down. It felt like her body became one giant bruise of pain. When she finally stopped moving to stand, the blows stopped raining down. For that, she was glad. She turned onto her side to alleviate the pain. Her vision came into sharp focus when a blade stabbed the ground, three inches away from her broken nose.

She followed the blade's length and saw Naruto standing over her. Bumi and Yue were off to the sides, stopping the others from getting closer. The three of them shared the same expression and Korra just knew that now, these were the Paragons that held judgement over her. "If you ever," the Fire Paragon said, his voice like barely restrained thunder, "disregard something your elders tell you because you think you know better and that they don't, you will get thrown into a hole and left there until your successor takes over, is that clear?"

She lifted her head just enough to nod. He pulled his sword out from the ground and sheathed it, turning away. She could barely open her mouth to speak. "Wh-why?" she croaked.

He looked back at her. "You needed to be taught a lesson, one badly needed it seemed."

"I would've thought she got that lesson in Republic City," Bumi said.

"It wasn't one she recognized."

"W-what?" asked Korra, trying to figure out what they talking about.

He looked down at her. "Those troops you were trying to get in Republic City? You were never going to get them, not after I had a talk with Raiko." He walked away and the other Paragons and their apprentices followed. Korra couldn't help but watch them go. Even as the others helped her up, she couldn't stop watching them. It was like she was seeing them for the first time. It left her scared.

End

Author's note: Thank you for all the reviews you've sent me.

Yeesh, this one was a bitch to write. Not in the difficulty but in the time it took to write it.

I refuse to use the name of Unavaatu when writing about Unalaq in giant form. It's a stupid name. It would be like calling Korra Korraava every time that she went into the Avatar State.

I didn't show Naruto's fight with Unalaq because it wasn't a fight. It was as Naruto put it, a thrashing of Unalaq's ass. Plus, if he had defeated Unalaq then having the rest of the episode and the rest of the seasons be a little bit pointless. He also doesn't like being tricked like that. And no, the giant fox was not his Bankai, it was just Kurama's chakra.

So now you know where the Bijū have been for the past 70 or years. As to how they got there, I'll get to that in time. It's all part of the story, the same as Naruto's conversation with Unalaq before things went down.

If I remembered my facts correctly, the Sharingan has been usually activated by the feeling of loss of a close friend or a loved one but there are also other circumstances. I think that the perceived death of a close friend would also be enough to activate the eye. Hence what happened to Tsukiko when she saw Tsume go down. If she hadn't been pulled from the brink by the Jōnin, she would've gone down hard.

One of the reviewers made a note about how Arashi broke his promise to Naruto to not touch the men who grabbed Natsumi. Thank you for catching that, I'll be sure to put into the story when Arashi and Naruto talk next. (Of course they're going to talk again. I can't keep them apart for the entirety of the story).

Korra's beating at the end of the story was something I had planned from the start of the season. It was meant to drive the lesson that it was her fault the entire thing happened (which, if you think about it, it kinda is) and to remind her that the Paragons will take action against her if need be. She almost got the world swallowed in darkness because of something she did out of prideful anger, unintentional or not. What would happen if she did something like that intentionally in the future?

I'll see you all next chapter!