Korra and Bao flew through the portal, and impacted the ground heavily on the other side.
"Ow," Bao complained. "What was that for?"
"I don't know why you're complaining, you were about to kill the Earth Queen," Korra replied.
"And that warranted dropping me off an airship?"
"You total hypocrite, you tried to do the same thing to Kyoshi and you did do the same thing to Aang and Roku. And yet when it happens to you it's suddenly bad?"
"Alright, you do have a point there," Bao laughed.
Korra did not.
"Why are you like this?" She asked. Bao froze mid laugh and looked at her.
"Like what?"
"Why are you so different to every other Avatar who has come before us? We've kept the peace for ten thousand years and you come along and nearly ruin it in one generation."
"We've been through this, Korra. I'm not ruining anything. I'm trying to find a permanent solution where before the Avatar has only fixed the problem temporarily."
"And what makes you so different?"
"Well, I suppose I would have to ask you that, wouldn't I?"
"What do you mean?"
"I have no past lives, do I? Apparently that used to be a fairly major part of the whole Avatar thing, but not any more. Whose fault is that?"
"Unalaq's fault?" Korra offered. It was true after all.
"No, your fault," Bao replied. "All I hear is you talking about how bad I am, and how I don't live up to your lofty standards. Now, I happen to disagree, but if what you say is true then much of that responsibility lies with you. You made me the day you lost to Unalaq."
Just then, three new figures entered the spirit world, as Aang, Kyoshi and Roku stepped through the portal. Their arrival distracted Korra for just long enough to prevent her from punching Bao in the face for that last comment.
"Alright, Bao, we have you now!" Kyoshi told him. "You can't bend in the Spirit World, and you are clearly outnumbered. Come quietly and I'm sure you will be treated leniently."
"Treated Leniently?" Bao's voice had a note of outrage.
"I'm the Avatar, you know what that means. I am not beholden to the laws of man, I make them."
"That's not what being the Avatar means, Bao," Aang replied.
"Yeah, it is. When Roku swanned in to the Fire Nation palace and beat up the Firelord, did anything happen to him? Kyoshi walked in to Ba Sing Se and dictated terms to the Earth King. I put it to you that it is exactly what being the Avatar means."
Kyoshi lost patience, and drew one of her war fans. It was time for the Spirit of Vengeance act.
"Look, we can argue all day about what being the Avatar means, but I don't have the patience for that. So let me make it simple for you. You will come quietly, otherwise I don't need bending to make your life very unpleasant with this fan. Do you understand me?"
Bao blinked at her. "Well, you see, the thing is..."
He then suddenly turned and ran away in the other direction.
"He's getting away!" Aang shouted, though everyone could quite clearly see that for themselves.
The four of them looked at each other for a second and then took off after him.
"There's something you should probably know!" Korra shouted as they ran.
"Is now really the time?"
"Yes!"
Nobody responded to that though, as the rogue avatar ahead of them vanished in to a forest. A small blue spirit fluttered out of his way as he sped deeper into the tree line.
"Over there!" Aang shouted, as they saw movement and took off after it. The movement did not last long, however, and soon they had lost him again. They stopped in a large clearing next to a river.
Roku leant against a tree, panting, as Aang looked into the tree line.
"What was it you were going to tell us?" Kyoshi asked Korra.
"What I was going to tell you, is that if you enter the spirit world through a portal, rather than through meditation, you can bend in the Spirit World."
"And you didn't think that might be useful infor-look out!"
Roku sprang towards Kyoshi, pushing her out of the way as a jet of water came crashing out of the trees and impacted where she had just been standing. Bao followed it, clearly having calculated that surprise would allow him to deal with being outnumbered. Upon landing, he immediately sent a blast of fire at Aang, and then stomped the ground, causing it to ripple towards Roku and Kyoshi who were still sprawled on the ground.
Aang easily dodged the fire blast, lifted a pillar of water out of the river and sent it back towards Bao, while Roku and Kyoshi weren't so fortunate; they were flung backwards and hit a tree, hard.
Korra instinctively ran to help them, leaving Aang alone against Bao. He spun his hands, creating a ball of air that he jumped on top of; his air scooter then took off towards Bao. The Earth Avatar stamped his feet, and pillars of rock shot out of the ground right in front of Aang, each one threatening a collision, but Aang was fast enough to dodge each one. Once he was close enough, he then jumped off the scooter and smoothly turned the ball of air into a jet of air that sent Bao flying backwards. He landed in the river, nothing happening for a second until he burst out of it on top of an enormous whirling column of liquid. He sent a couple of blasts at Aang, who countered with firebending, evaporating the water before it could come near him.
He then quickly sneaked a look at the other three Avatars who were on his side and was stopped short by the sight.
Roku was trying to get up, and was propped up against a tree, but Aang could see that he looked noticeably older than he had just a minute previously; his beard was longer, and it was grey, and he was wearing different robes. In short, he suddenly looked like the Roku that had advised him throughout his journey to end the Hundred Years' War. Kyoshi didn't look much different, perhaps her hair was slightly longer but she was wearing makeup so it was difficult to tell. Korra, meanwhile, suddenly looked about twenty years older.
He didn't even register that Bao had stopped attacking him until an absolutely baffled voice from behind him asked him why he had a beard now.
"What?" Aang's hand flew to his face, and sure enough he felt a beard there.
"What's happening?" Bao asked. "Why do you look different all of a sudden?"
Aang could only shrug. "I don't know."
Just then, a new figure stepped into the clearing, and Kyoshi stood up suddenly at the sight of him. The newcomer was a water tribesman, a hulking giant of a man wearing a wolf's pelt on his head.
"Kuruk?" asked Kyoshi.
"Yes, I am he." Avatar Kuruk said. "You don't know how good it is to talk to someone alive again!"
"Are you saying you don't enjoy our company?" Asked an air nomad woman, as she entered the clearing and stood next to Kuruk.
"Of course not, but only having the same few hundred people to talk to for all eternity can get old, Yangchen."
"Yangchen?" Bao whispered in awe. "More past lives!"
Sure enough, Kuruk and Yangchen were soon joined by Szeto, a tall fire nation man with an even taller hat, and then the Earth avatar before him, Salai. More and more Avatars joined them, men and women from all four nations stretching back ten thousand years, until they completely encircled the clearing four or five ranks deep.
And then their eyes began to glow. Aang felt himself entering the Avatar State too, and could see Korra, Roku and Kyoshi's eyes light up. Bao, however, did not enter the Avatar State.
"What's going on?" the Earth Avatar asked.
"This is an intervention," boomed Kuruk.
"Your actions in the mortal plane have not gone unnoticed in this one, or did you never wonder why these four were suddenly resurrected and sent after you?"
"I did, as it happens..."
"But it seems you won't listen to them, so maybe you will listen to us," Yangchen spoke. "Give up this foolish quest! Be a better Avatar! We will help you to do it. All this can end."
Bao looked at the rings of glowing eyes surrounding him for a second, and then laughed. Aang had to admit that Bao was either braver or more foolish than he would have been in that situation.
"Be a better Avatar?" He got out in between the peals of laughter. "And who gets to decide what a good Avatar is?" He zeroed in on Kuruk. "And I can't believe that you, of all Avatars, have the audacity to lecture me about this. I've read my history books, what they told me of you was pretty damning."
"Please," the Water tribesman said again, not taking offence at Bao's words. "We want to help you, but we cannot if you do not help yourself."
"Maybe I don't want your help. Maybe you didn't hear, but I genuinely believe in the justice of my cause and I think what I am doing is right. If being a better avatar is going back to your ways, then I don't want to be a better Avatar."
Kuruk shook his head sadly.
"So be it. If you won't be a better Avatar, then the next Fire Avatar will."
Kyoshi stamped her feet, and before Bao knew what was happening he was encased in rock.
"What are you doing?" He shouted. "You're going to kill me! Is this what the Avatar is, a murderer?"
"Where was that pacifism when you attacked the Firelord?" Szeto spoke for the first time.
"Where was it when you killed the northern water chief?" asked Kuruk.
"And where was it when you put a spike through the chest of the Earth King?" Kyoshi continued.
"But have no fear, we're not going to kill you," Yangchen told him, as Kuruk stepped out of their line and approached the immobilised Avatar.
"Then what are you going to do to me?" he asked.
Kuruk did not answer. Instead, he stopped in front of Bao's Earth mound and planted his feet; he looked up and a tendril of brilliant light shot out of his face. It arced into the sky for a second before coming back down and connecting with Bao's head.
Korra was the first to realize what was going on. Her eyes faded as she exited the Avatar State; this process brought back plenty of painful memories for her.
Bao groaned, as his eyes glowed and Kuruk's light began to pull a new, different light from his eyes. Eventually, it was pulled free and changed form, taking the shape of what looked to be an enormous white kite.
"Raava." Korra said.
The Earth prison around Bao dissolved, and he collapsed to the ground, now too weak to stand. Two Avatars picked him up, one under each shoulder, and carried him away. Most of the rest of them followed, leaving only Yangchen, Kuruk, Szeto and another that only Korra recognised.
"That's Avatar Wan," she told Aang. "The first Avatar."
"What did you do to him?" Roku demanded.
"We removed Raava from him. He is no longer the Avatar."
"I didn't even know that was possible."
"It is," Korra said darkly. "It's exactly what Unalaq did to me when he severed my connections to my past lives, except I don't think you're going to destroy Raava this time."
"No." Wan agreed. He turned and approached Raava, who lay on the ground.
"Raava, I sincerely apologise for that." He said. "But he was bringing the Avatar into disrepute and something had to be done."
"I understand," the spirit replied in a haughty female voice.
"What happens now?"
"Bao is going in the fog of lost souls."
"And what about Raava?"
"When you cross into the mortal world, bring me with you. As soon as we pass through the portal I shall find a new host. Let it be known that the Avatar is dead and the search for the new one can commence," Raava told them.
"Thank you, and goodbye," Wan told them again. He and the other past lives turned and walked back into the forest.
"Wait!" Aang shouted after them. "How do we get home?"
He received no reply. Sighing, he turned around to find that Roku and Korra had de-aged back to how they were before the entire strange encounter.
He sighed, and picked up Raava. "Which way was it to the spirit portal?"
Author's Note: So, that's the end of Bao, and it's nearly the end of the story. There's just one, maybe two parts left. Obviously, I took heavy inspiration from Unalaq removing Korra's connection to the past lives for this bit.