Anraq yawned, leaning against the giant doors that marked the entrance to the council chambers. "How much you want to bet the Red Lotus wait until the very end of this meeting, ten hours from now? That's how I'd do it. Attack after we've all died from boredom."

"Would you quit your complaining?" Toph said, half-turning her head in his direction. "And stand up straight. You want to be caught off guard when they show up?"

Anraq pushed himself away from the door and stood rigid, at attention. "Right, yes. Sorry, Ma'am."

"I told you not to call me that."

"Toph. Sorry."

Lin looked in their direction. "Don't worry about him, Mom. He might not look like it, but we can count on him."

Anraq lifted an eyebrow. "Oh, thanks, Chief. I think."

"Lin."

"Right," Anraq muttered, smacking his forehead. "Lin. That's going to take some getting used to."

"As it stands, I'm the only one allowed to call her Chief," Kya said, leaning an arm against Lin's shoulder, "and even then, only in special circumstances." She chuckled, and gave a sidelong grin to her girlfriend.

Lin's eye twitched at the comment. "Kya."

"Special...?" Anraq blinked, slow understanding creeping across his face. "Oh."

"Oh would you two get a room?" Toph said, with a roll of her eyes. "And save it until the mission is over."

Kuvira listened quietly to the rest of her team. She might have joined the conversation under normal circumstances. These weren't normal circumstances. Her nerves pulsed on edge, a constant throb beating in time with her heart as she glanced around the main hall of the state house. Tall walls of painted green towered above their heads, meeting the ceiling some thirty feet from the floor. The hall, for the most part, was a smooth, straight corridor with several branching doorways. Not a lot of places to hide, but that was no excuse to be lax. The Red Lotus could appear at any moment, and they needed to be ready. Couldn't afford to lose focus for even a second.

Her gaze shifted towards the Earth Republic guards, standing at the other end of the main hall. Two dozen in all, standing in a line to block the state house entrance. At least they had backup this time, unlike in Zaofu. If the Red Lotus wanted through those doors, they'd have their work cut out for them.

Muffled shouting erupted from behind the closed state house doors. Kuvira snapped her attention towards the entrance. A quake rumbled in the distance, followed by an explosion. Her muscles tensed. "Do you hear that? The others are under attack! The Red Lotus are here!" The others ceased their conversation, and stood on alert.

"Should we help them?" Anraq asked.

"No, our orders are to guard this door," Lin said. "If the Red Lotus make it inside another way, we have to be in position to hold them off."

Toph narrowed her eyes and took a step forward, concentrating. Moments later, her brow shot upward. "It's not just the Red Lotus. It's the guards!"

Kya shot a confused glance. "What do you mean?"

"The guards!" Toph slid forward along the tiled floor and raised her hands, creating an earthen wall in front of the group. Seconds later, a barrage of earth, fire, and water collided with the wall.

Kuvira got the hint, as she lifted a second layer of earth from the floor to reinforce the wall. "The guards! They're Red Lotus!"

The other three ducked behind the wall. Anraq and Kya both pulled water out from their hip flasks, while Lin kicked a large boulder over the wall at the line of Red Lotus at the other end of the hall.

"Alright, so I'm counting twenty-two, twenty-three... a lot of damn Red Lotus!" Anraq said, as he peered around the corner of the wall. A jet of fire seared towards his face, forcing him to duck out of the way. "This outta be fun, huh?"

"Stay on the defensive!" Kya guided her water over their heads and froze it into an additional shield to block an incoming boulder. Cracks ruptured across the icy surface. Kya shifted, and strengthened the wall whole again. "We can't let them by us!"

Anraq reinforced Kya's wall with his own water, doubling their protection. "We can't just sit here and let them pick us off!" A secondary barrage exploded against the wall, blowing pieces in every direction. "We have to make them run, and keep them on the defensive!"

"We're not going to get a lot of good shots," Lin said, as she kicked out a portion of their earth wall. A small group of Red Lotus scattered, only for others to respond with countering blasts. Moments before impact, Lin raised another section of earth to replace the portion she'd removed from the wall. "There's too many of them!"

Kuvira looked around the edges of the barrier, noting several Red Lotus guards spreading out to attack their flanks. She pushed her arms outward, extending the earth wall around their sides. "Well, we need to figure out something fast, before they overwhelm us!"

"Hold on, let me try something." Anraq slid back a step and whirled his arms through the air. The icy portion of the wall quivered and liquefied back into water. He guided the water higher into the air, swirled it into a large sphere, and closed his hand to fists. "Someone give us some cover!"

Toph stomped a slanted earth barrier over their heads, a smirk spreading across her wrinkled face. "Bring the rain, kid."

"You got it." Anraq spread his fingers and pulled his arms apart. The watery sphere shot forward and exploded, raining down hundreds of separate globs that solidified into sharpened ice blades on their way to the floor. Screams erupted from the other side of the wall as Red Lotus scrambled for cover.

"I'm sensing six down," Toph stated, concentrating on the vibrations through the floor. "The others are spread out, still recovering. Now's our chance."

Not waiting for the others, the old earthbender kicked away the barrier surrounding them and slid out on a wave of tiled floor into the open hall. Several Red Lotus moved in to attack. With a few simple flicks of her wrist, she drove earthen pillars out of the floor into their guts, launching them through the air. Another attacker ran in from behind her with a stream of water trailing behind him. Toph stomped the ground, raising a wall directly in the man's path. Too slow to react, he crashed face-first into the wall and slowly slid to the ground, clutching his nose.

"You heard her!" Kuvira split the earth wall into several different sections and thrust them forward, rocketing boulders through the air into the scattered group of Red Lotus. "Attack!"

"Keep them back!" Opal shouted. She whirled her arms faster, growing a cyclone around the team.

Korra and Bumi joined her with their own airbending. The vortex raged stronger, pulling incoming earth and water within the swirling wall. Flames died away and extinguished. The Red Lotus ceased their attacks with startled shouts, as they began to slide forward across the ground. Earthbenders among the group cemented themselves in place by lifting the ground around their ankles. Waterbenders did the same, freezing their feet to the ground. The firebenders amongst the Red Lotus were not so lucky. With no way to stop themselves, they lifted into the air, screaming as the vortex swallowed them.

"Now!" Korra said. "Let 'em have it!"

Opal, Bumi, and Korra spread their arms out in unison. The cyclone expanded, a massive wall of air exploding across the courtyard. Bodies scattered, launching skyward. They hit the ground and crumpled. The Red Lotus who'd anchored themselves in place built desperate defenses to shield themselves from the resulting storm of rocks and boulders the vortex had previously drawn into itself. Some weren't so lucky. Boulders collided into defenseless Red Lotus. Bone crunched, screams erupted. Several who went down didn't get back up.

Asami sprinted towards the nearest Red Lotus member, reaching him as he crawled back to his feet. With a simple tap to his shoulder, her Equalist glove sparked with an electric blast that sent him crumpling back to the ground, unconscious. A second Red Lotus darted in to attack. He twisted his body with a swift kick, expelling a jet of flames at her. She ducked away and met the kick with one of her own to knock his leg away. When he stumbled off balance, she lunged inward and gripped his chest. Another wave of electricity sizzled outward, and the man fell.

"Alright, I hope you guys enjoy a little heat!" Bolin ran ahead and dropped his fists against the ground. "Because you're about to the worst sunburn of your lives!"

A bubbling stream of lava burst forth and raced towards a cluster of Red Lotus guards. They scattered with panicked shouts, escaping the molten stream by mere inches. Bolin shifted his stance and spread his arms. The lava widened, expanding into a large moat that blocked passage from their flank. With a rising thrust of his fists, he lifted a solid earthen wall on their side of the moat for additional defense.

Bumi and Opal joined the assault, both airbenders spinning in unison with a series of rapid kicks that blasted several Red Lotus guards skyward with arcing blasts of air. Bumi broke away with a spiraling leap and spread the wings of his wingsuit. He glided above a pair of guards and kicked his legs backwards with an additional spin, releasing a powerful gust that knocked them from their feet. Opal ran forward and slid across the ground in front of the fallen men. With a twirling kick, she caught them in a second air blast that sent them rolling across the courtyard.

"Here's another one for you!" Bumi called, as he glided around an incoming fire blast. He swooped in behind the attacker and thrust his palm, pushing the man towards Opal with a swift gust of air.

Opal leaped upwards with a spinning kick. The wind arc that followed sent the Red Lotus man careening into the nearby fountain with a splash.

Korra contended with a larger group of enemies. As the Avatar, she was the biggest threat. No doubt about that. Six Red Lotus members attacked together with a storm of boulders, flames, and icy projectiles. Korra spun her body with a whirling hurricane of wind. The incoming barrage redirected back the way it had come, forcing the attackers to fall back and defend. She never gave them time to regroup. With a whirl of her arms, she pulled the wind into a concentrated stream and snaked it towards them. The first man lifted from his feet and smashed into the second. The air funnel continued, colliding them into the next Red Lotus guard, and the next, until the entire group tumbled violently away in a tangle of beaten bodies.

Electricity sparked behind her. Korra spun around to see Asami standing there, dropping another assailant with her Equalist glove who had been sneaking up behind the Avatar. A flicker of movement raced towards Asami from the side. Korra snapped a kick at the attacker, knocking him away with a crushing block of earth.

Asami glanced to the crumpling man with a lifted brow. "Nice save."

"Same to you," she replied, with a quick smile.

High above the battlefield, Zaheer hovered in the sky watching the battle. His gaze flicked back and forth between Team Avatar and his Red Lotus brethren. Several more groups of Red Lotus converged on the scene. "Well done, so far! But no matter. There are plenty more to come, and I have business elsewhere." He gave one more look before turning from the scene and flying away from the state house.

Opal spun a wave of air to knock away a trio of attackers. Her gaze snapped towards the fleeing Red Lotus leader, fire surging in her eyes. "Zaheer! He's getting away!"

"Let him go!" Bolin kicked out another stream of lava at the nearest Red Lotus. "We have enough to handle here!"

The fire burned brighter, a wicked scowl creasing Opal's face. She curled her hands to fists, clenched her jaw, and took off in a dead spirit." "I'm going after him!"

"Opal wait!" Bolin called, as his fiancée opened her wingsuit and took to the skies in pursuit of Zaheer. "We need you here! You can't fight him by yourself!"

"She won't be by herself!" Bumi leaped into the air, lifting himself upwards with a gust of wind to his wingsuit. He glanced briefly over his shoulder and gave Bolin a thumbs-up. "Don't worry, I'll bring her back safe and sound!"

"You know, it's like we're not even needed," Anraq said, as he surrounded himself with a twisting stream of water.

Lin shot out her police cables, yanking a pair of Red Lotus guards clean off their feet. "That's my mother for you."

As was her nature, Toph had done most of the work so far. Not for lack of effort from everyone else, but because she made such quick and easy work of anyone who crossed her path. She barely moved, using the floor beneath her feet to slide away from attacks, and countering with casual flicks of her wrists and fingers. Each subtle movement caused a destructive wave of earth and boulders that sent the Red Lotus running, if not outright annihilating them.

The others played clean up, taking out whatever stragglers Toph didn't get to. Kuvira shot forth repeated metal bands to throw and restrain as many enemies as she could, while Kya and Anraq shared water to smack around or freeze solid anyone in range. Lin, when she wasn't swinging around on her cables or throwing Red Lotus members through the air, focused on defense, shielding her teammates with well placed earthen walls.

"Gotta say, I was almost worried there for a minute." Anraq whipped out a tendril of water and slapped a nearby Red Lotus guard through the air. "But these guys are barely putting up a fight."

"Stay focused," Kuvira said, ducking beneath a pair of boulders. "There could be plenty more where these guys came from." She twisted her body and fired another metal band. It wrapped around a Red Lotus woman's ankle and slammed her into a wall.

Kya raised her water into a frozen barrier to block an incoming jet of fire. "Anyone notice anything strange about this attack?"

Anraq glanced back at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, they haven't tried getting into the meeting chamber at all," she said. "With as many as there are, wouldn't it make sense for some of them to keep us occupied, while the others tried to attack the prime ministers?"

Lin yanked another Red Lotus guard off his feet. "No one ever said they were the brightest bunch."

Kuvira looked back towards the council chamber doors. "No, Kya's right. This couldn't be all of Zaheer's plan. I haven't seen any of his top crew, either. This kind of all out assault doesn't make any sense."

Toph slid into view. A few lingering Red Lotus made a desperate attack, but with a single stomp she launched them into the air with stone pillars. Silence followed. The thirty or so Red Lotus who had started the attack now lay strewn about the corridor, either twitching in pain, unconscious, or worse.

"It would make sense if they were trying to distract us," Toph said, with a contemplative frown.

Anraq furrowed his brow. "Distract us from what?"

"Hold on a minute." Toph breathed deep and slid her legs apart, concentrating on the vibrations beneath her feet. Her brow lifted, panic igniting on her face. "From the activity below ground! They're trying to—oof!"

A coiling torrent of water swept out of one of the main hall's branching doorways. The water slammed Toph against the far wall and froze, encasing her in an icy cocoon. She struggled beneath the ice, but with no earth beneath her feet, she was little more than a frail, blind old woman.

"Mom!" Lin shouted. "Just hold on, I'll get you out of there!"

She ran forward, siding across a wave of floor tiling with a shot of her police cables. A frozen blade slashed through the air, cutting the cable clean in two. Lin's eyes flared, as the cable snapped back at her. She ducked out of the way, half a second before suffering a repeat of the incident that gave her her scars.

"Ah, ah, ah," called a mocking voice. "That old woman is dangerous. Can't have her breaking free, now can we?"

Anraq flinched at the sound of the voice, panicking lifting into his throat. He shot a look towards the now open side door, where a familiar waterbender man with a slashing scar across his face stepped into the hall. "Yuruk."

"Fancy meeting you here, Annie," Yuruk said, with a wicked smirk. "I thought I took care of you in Zaofu."

"Guess you're not as good as you think you are," Anraq said, as he took a defensive pose and swirled a barrier of water in front of himself.

Kuvira took a step back towards Kya. "Can you bend that ice away from Toph?"

"Just need a second." Kya kept her eyes on Yuruk, slowly shifting her stance to liquefy Toph's frozen prison.

Yuruk thrust a hand out and clenched his fist. The water, which had begun to melt, snapped back into solid, icy form. "Now, now, careful. You sure you're fast enough to bend that water away before I turn her cocoon into an iron maiden?"

"Give it up!" Lin retorted. "You can't beat all of us! Do yourself a favor and let her go, then run far, far away."

Yuruk laughed. "I don't have to beat you. I just have to stall you."

Kuvira's gaze narrowed. "Stall us? For what?" Screams erupted from within the meeting chamber behind them. She spun around, eyes flaring wide with panic. "What?"

"Ah, there we go," Yuruk said, with another mocking laugh.

"You two, keep him busy!" Kuvira said, pointing to Anraq and Kya. "Lin, help me get these doors open!"

Lin and Kuvira ran to the doors, sliding into their bending stances. They widened their legs in unison and thrust their fists forward, pushing the massive metal structures inward with a thunderous bang. With the way open, they disappeared inside.

Yuruk grinned, watching the other two waterbenders get into position to attack. "Well, well, Annie, looks like we get to have some more fun."

Kuvira raced into the meeting chamber, ready to defend the prime ministers and other dignitaries from attack. Stupid. How could they have let themselves become distracted like that? How had to Red Lotus even made it inside? She raised her arms, muscles tensed and prepared to bend, heart pounding into her throat. Her stride slowed, as she and Lin approached the far end of the chamber, where the raised set of seats, table, and podium should have been. Where the prime ministers, their advisers, assistants, and all other government officials should have been. There was nothing. No seats, no table, no podium, no officials—only a tiled floor that had been torn and shredded to reveal soft earth beneath it.

"What in the world?" Lin said, as she approached the open patch of dirt.

"I don't understand." The panic in Kuvira's gut twisted harder. Yula had been in this room. Yula was gone. "What happened? How did it happen? Where are they!"

"I'll let you know in a second." Lin raised her leg, sliding back the metal bottom of her boot to expose her bare sole. Closing her eyes, she stomped her foot against the ground. Seconds later, her eyes snapped open. "There's some kind of cavern or tunnel system below this building. They must have come up beneath it and sank everyone down there."

"Then we have to go after them!"

Kuvira jumped over the soft expanse of earth and bent it beneath her feet. The dirt softened, becoming like water as she sank below ground, tunneling downward as fast as her ability would allow. Within moments, she punctured through the ceiling of an underground grotto lit by glowing green crystals embedded in the walls. Falling through open space, she landed with a splash in a puddle on the stone floor below. She shifted into her bending pose, on guard.

Her stance faltered, stomach churning as she noticed the bodies. Dozens of them, littering the floor, sprawled out and motionless in the shallow pool of water covering the cavern floor. The churning gurgled. No mistaking who they were. She recognized the robes of the prime ministers easily enough. Another glance, and she noticed Secretary Guan. Crackling, spidery scars slashed cross their faces, their skin cooked a raw red. Trails of hissing smoke coiled from their motionless forms, filling the cavern with a nauseating scent of burnt flesh. Kuvira held her hand over her mouth and nose. The scent assaulted her nostrils, choked her, threatened to turn her stomach inside out.

They'd failed. Dear spirits, they had failed.

The ceiling above cracked open, as Lin dropped into the cavern next to her. The former police chief prepared herself for a fight, only to freeze with widened eyes when she noticed the scene. "Oh dear spirits..."

"Yula was here," Kuvira uttered, voice knotting tightly in her throat. She ran through the collection of bodies, eyes frantically darting between each one she saw. Not again. She couldn't be too late again. Not again. "Do you see her? Do you see Yula?"

"Not at first glance," Lin said, as she wandered through the bodies. Water rippled beneath each bootstep. "What was she wearing?"

"Green dress. Yellow flowers." Kuvira's voice wavered, as though detached, disconnected with her actual thoughts. "She had a ponytail. Glasses."

Lin eased a deep breath. "I don't see her. Maybe she wasn't here?"

"Maybe... maybe." Kuvira's knees buckled. She stumbled, falling to a knee as her stomach twisted tighter. The nausea rampaging through her gut ruptured, on the verge of vomiting.

"What happened to them? It's like they fried." Lin paused, shifting her gaze down at the rippling puddle beneath her feet. "And what's with the water?"

Kuvira blinked, phasing out of her trance back into focus. Her attention shifted on her own feet, and the ripples spreading outward. "Water?"

An electric hiss sizzled the air with a flash of blue light. Kuvira's eyes flared. With an instinctive stomp to the floor, she lifted herself high above the ground on an earthen pillar. "Lin, get off the ground!"

Lin reacted instantly. She shot out the remaining intact cable from her bracer and latched it around one of the glowing green crystals on the wall, reeling herself into the air fractions of a second before a surge of electricity raced across the wet floor. Lightning popped and hissed through the previously fried bodies. The scent of cooked flesh grew stronger, and Kuvira's insides twisted tighter.

"Well, I see you're still quick on the draw," a voice called, as the electricity faded and died away. "I don't know whether to be disappointed you didn't make this easy, or glad that you're going to make it interesting."

From atop her pillar, Kuvira looked to a rocky precipice on the far side of the cavern. A hot wave of anger erupted through her chest when she saw Aoi standing there, grinning with delight. "You! Where's Yula? What did you do to her!"

"Oh, you mean she's not down there?" Aoi glanced at the dead bodies lying below. "I imagine I fried her with the rest of those hopeless saps."

Kuvira's throat knotted, jaw clenched. She fell to one knee again, shooting a gaze towards the bodies. Panic ruptured through her core. No, where was she? Where was Yula? Had she missed her? She couldn't be be down there. She couldn't!

"Ahahaha!" Aoi threw her head back with a wicked cackle, lips twisted into a sneer. "Oh, you should see the look on your face! Relax, Great Uniter, she's right here." Avan moved into view next to her, but he wasn't alone. He pushed forward a young woman wearing glasses, his hand around her shoulder. "You see? Still alive, for now."

Yula stared with frightful eyes, tears raining down her cheeks. Her breaths came out in panicked, uneven gasps. "K-Kuvira? H-help, please. I'm... I'm scared."

"Yula!" Kuvira's heart pulsed, fueled with a rampant mix of relief and fear. "Don't worry, you'll be alright. I promise, you'll be alright!"

"Shouldn't make promises you can't keep," Aoi said, wagging a mocking finger at her. "She's only alive because I want her to be. One word, and Avan here breaks her pretty little neck. So let's talk, Great Uniter, and perhaps I won't have to give that order."