"Breathe, Desna! Breathe!" Eska's tone shrieked with uncharacteristic distress, as she pressed her glowing hand against the wound on her brother's chest. Tears streaked down her face, but she did nothing to wipe them away. She focused completely on healing Desna, utilizing whatever little skill she possessed to keep him alive. She could not lose her twin, not like this. "Please!"
Hari held Desna's hand tightly, fingers linked together in some kind of futile act to provide comfort and reassurance, both for himself and the unconscious twin. "Is his wound getting any better? Is it healing?"
"I don't know!" Eska shot back. "If I did, I would not be shouting at him to breathe!"
"Right... right, I'm sorry," Hari replied, with a gentle nod.
"Desna, please, I do not know what I'm doing here." Eska shut her eyes tight, trying to hold back the tears. No use. They continued to flow freely down her face, staining her cheeks with a salty, inky mess of running make-up. "I am trying, but... please, you have to breathe."
A loud crack lifted her attention. She looked up to one of the icy walls of the cavern around her, where she spotted a jagged fissure carving across the frozen surface. The crack split wider and parted to open a clear doorway, wide enough for several figures to enter. Korra appeared first, followed by Mako and Bolin, as well as Bumi and Jinora behind them. A towering woman with a third eye painted on her forehead brought up the rear. Eska recognized the woman as P'Li, one of the newly resurrected Red Lotus members. P'Li dragged two bound and unconscious figures along behind her, the noticeable limp forms of Lord Zuko and Ozai, both of them restrained with frozen shackles.
"There they are!" Jinora announced, pointing towards the twins and Hari.
"Cousin Korra?" A sudden jolt lurched through Eska's chest. She blinked at the approaching group and straightened herself, allowing the water to fall from her hand back to the ice. "Please, you have to help Desna! I have tried, but my skill in healing is insufficient, and I don't think he's breathing."
Korra hurried towards them and knelt at Desna's side. She wasted no time, forming a healing bubble around both her hands and pressing them with focused concentration to the injured man's chest.
Eska stared unblinking, her eyes wide and desperate for Korra to say something about her brother's condition. "Is he alive? Will he be okay?"
"He's alive," Korra replied, with a simple nod. "Breathing, too."
"Can you help him?"
At this question, Korra offered a smile. She looked up to her cousin, and let the water fall from her hands. "Not much more than you already have."
"What?" Eska blinked at her. "I do not understand."
"I mean, he's already in stable condition. His breathing is weak, but it's steady, and you've already stopped the bleeding. He just needs rest."
"He just needs..." Eska hissed a shuddering breath of relief between her lips. "How is that possible? He was struck through the heart, and I can't even heal fish properly."
"Actually, his heart wasn't damaged," Korra said. "The puncture seems to have missed his vital organs entirely, between both lungs and to the side of his heart."
Eska shifted a confused stare at her brother's chest. "But... is that not where the heart is? Slightly left to the middle of the chest?"
Korra nodded. "Normally, yes, but from what I can tell Desna's heart is on the other side, more to the right."
"What? How?"
"Oh, I've heard about that in some twins," said Jinora, kneeling down to join them at Desna's side. "They're called mirror-image twins, where one twin may have reversed asymmetry, such as opposite dominant handedness, or even organs on the opposite side of where they should be."
Eska lifted her attention towards Jinora. "So... so he'll be okay?"
"He'll be fine," Korra said. "Thanks to you."
Eska shrank close to her brother, clasping her hands over one of his. "Oh, thank the spirits..."
Hari smiled at her. "Perhaps you're a better healer than you thought."
Korra waited a brief moment before reaching out to hold an earnest hand to her cousin's shoulder. "Eska, I need your help now, if you don't mind. The others are still trapped in these caverns somewhere, but we have to get through the ice to find them. You're the only other waterbender we have right now."
"I'll stay with Desna," Hari insisted, with a reassuring nod. "You help the others."
Eska swallowed, heaving a deep breath as she stood up. "Okay, I will help. Where are they?"
Korra looked around at her friends with a sigh of relief. They had regrouped together nearly an hour ago, and had finally managed to exit the cave system within the mountains. Now standing outside the entrance, the group took a moment of respite to catch their breath. From what she could tell, Desna had suffered the worst of the injuries, and he had already been healed. All things considered, they'd been fortunate. Any one of them could have died today.
"Is everyone okay?" she asked.
"As good as I'm going to be," Lin muttered, with a subtle groan. The former police chief hunched forward with a grimace, holding an arm around her chest.
Kuvira nodded. "I'll be fine."
"Oh yeah, we're good," Bolin replied, with a weak thumbs up. He staggered momentarily, but Mako steadied him. "I'm good. Just need to rest a bit."
The others responded with their own affirmations. All of them except for one. Korra turned a curious glance towards the silent firebender. "Azula?"
Azula blinked, shaking herself out of her daze. "Yes, I... I'm fine." She glanced towards several unconscious figures lying on the ground nearby, namely Toph, Katara, and Zuko. Her focus settled intently on her brother. "Can you really help them?"
"I should be able to, yes," Korra said. "Just like I did for P'Li."
All eyes immediately turned towards the combustionbender, who leaned against the side of the cave entrance with her arms folded across her chest. P'Li frowned, glaring back at them in return. "You don't all need to stare. I know what you think of me."
"Yeah, well just know I'm keeping an eye on you," Lin stated, taking a step closer through the snow. "One wrong move, and I'll come down on you so hard your head will spin right off your shoulders."
"Alright, calm down," Korra insisted. "We're all on the same side here. We're all against Sen."
Jinora gave a hopeful glance. "Speaking of Sen, did you see him at all?"
"No," Korra sighed, with a shake of her head. "He knew we were coming and left a trap for us before we got here. We don't know where he is."
Jinora furrowed her brow in concern. "But if we don't find him soon..."
"I know, we're running out of time. We'll have to figure out a new plan."
Eska looked up from her brother to give Korra a curious stare. "What about our father? I would have expected him to be here as well."
"I didn't see Unalaq either," she replied.
"And Megumi?" Azula said. Noting the confused stares, she added, "She was Annie's first—Well, she's Kanna's real mother. Sen brought her back to get to Annie. To get to me."
Korra shook her head. "No, no Megumi. They both must be with Sen."
"So, what are we doing with them, exactly?" Bumi motioned with a nod of his head nearby, where Ozai, Ming-Hua, and Gahzan were lying unconscious in the snow.
"You send him back," Azula said, with a sharp bite in her tone. "You send my father back. I don't care if he was being controlled by Sen or not, he should never have been brought back. He won't help us. He only cares about himself. He's only ever cared about himself."
Korra gave a slow, steady nod in return. Of all those who'd been brought back, no one deserved a second chance less than the former Phoenix King. He'd had plenty of opportunities to make amends during his time in prison following the Hundred Year War, but in all that time he'd never once tried to better himself. No reason to think he'd change now. "Right, I'll send his spirit back to the afterlife. I probably owe it to Aang, anyway.
Azula bowed her head, visibly relaxing at the affirmation. "Good. That's good."
Korra looked towards P'Li. "What about the other two? Will they come around?"
The combustionbender shrugged. "I don't know. I can talk to them when they wake up, but they might just prefer the Spirit World over helping the Avatar. I know for a fact they won't ever surrender and go back to prison."
"Alright, I'll let you talk to them. In the meantime, let's head back and regroup. We need a new plan."
P'Li stood at her friends' bedside, glaring down at them with her arms folded across her chest. Three hours since returning to the city, and still both of them were out cold. As patient as she could be, P'Li didn't have that kind of time to wait around right now. In an attempt to speed things along, she grabbed a bucket of water from the nearby table and promptly splashed the both of them.
Gahzan awoke coughing and sputtering, arms flailing around as if to bat away an invisible enemy. When he realized he had been attacked by little more than water, his attention settled on P'Li with an an irritated grimace. "Really? You couldn't have just shaken us awake?"
"If I could move, I'd actually be thankful for the water," Ming-Hua stated, with a pained grunt. While her injuries had been healed enough to keep her stable, the healers had kept her in dire enough condition to prevent her from making any sort of escape attempt. "I swear that sandbender put me in traction. If I ever get ahold of him..."
"Ugh, why does it feel like I just woke up from a bad dream?" Gahzan's expression soured with an onset of pain. His cheeks bulged, as if preparing to vomit, but he managed to swallow it back down. "A bad dream that physically kicked my ass."
"Probably because you're no longer under the control of the spirit who brought us back," P'Li said. "That's how I felt after I was freed, too."
Gahzan blinked at her, lifting his brow in surprise. "Wait, you're serious?"
"Now that you mention it, I don't feel any dark hold over me anymore," Ming-Hua stated.
P'Li nodded. "That's right. You're both alive and free from control."
"Well, good," Gahzan muttered. "So where are we now?"
P'Li paused, briefly clearing her throat. "At the royal palace, under guard. As requested by the Avatar."
"The Avatar?" Gahzan groaned, letting his head sink back against his pillow. "Shit, did we get captured?"
"If we had, we'd be restrained in a prison cell." Ming-Hua turned her head as best she could, pointing a curious stare at her friend. "P'Li, what on earth is going on?"
"The Avatar is who freed us from Sen," P'Li explained. "She offered me an opportunity: help her stop Sen, and she won't send my spirit back to the afterlife."
"Are you out of your mind?" Gahzan shot upright, seizing halfway to a sitting position with an anguished cough. "You think she's just going to let you off the hook once this is over? She'll throw you in prison again! Is that what you want?"
P'Li let his words sink in, as she considered them. That was a possibility she had thought of numerous times over the past several hours. The Avatar could very well use her for her talent, only to turn right around and stab her in the back. Wouldn't be the first time they'd been betrayed. Every time the thought entered her head, she dismissed it in earnest. This Avatar wasn't like anyone else she'd met. There was a sincerity in her. An honor that bound her to her word. Against every better judgment P'Li had ever had, she believed Korra could be trusted. "No, I don't think she will. A lot has changed since we've been away. Perhaps we can change, too."
"After everything we've done, everything we worked for, you'd throw that all away?" Ming-Hua countered. "What would Zaheer say?"
"Does it matter? We'll probably never see him again." P'Li's tone bit sharper than she meant it. She paused, closing her eyes and forcing herself to calm with a deep breath. When her temper settled, she exhaled and returned focus to her friends. She stared at them with a softer expression than she typically showed, pleading with them to understand. "We have a second chance at life here. We can do things differently this time. We don't have to run scared anymore, or work towards a futile goal. Yeah, nations, governments, leaders, they all suck, but what has trying to destroy it all ever got us? Nothing but prison and death. We can still try to make things better, just in a different way."
Ming-Hua stared at her a long while, steadily shaking her head back and forth. "Dying must have seriously messed with your head, because you do not sound like the P'Li I knew."
Gahzan nodded in agreement. "You may be willing to sell yourself out, but we're not. I'd rather die again."
There it was. P'Li sighed, letting her attention drift towards the floor. She'd figured the conversation would go this way, that her friends would cling to their beliefs like drowning sailors clinging to a floating piece of driftwood. Not that she blamed them, of course. They'd always been resolute in their ideals. Still, a small part of her had hoped they'd be able to move on. Some things just weren't meant to be. "The only options left are prison or sending your spirits back to the Spirit World."
"Or you could help us escape," Gahzan insisted.
P'Li stared back at him, and then looked to Ming-Hua. For the briefest of moments she actually considered the suggestion, as a favor to her friends if nothing else. With no earth for Gahzan to bend, and Ming-Hua unable to move, they would need her help to escape. She pushed the thought from her mind almost as soon as it entered. "No, I'm not going to do that. I said I'd do things differently this time around, so I will. You have your options. Decide."
Gahzan frowned, and let himself fall back on the mattress. He stared blankly at the ceiling. "Send us back. I've had it with this world."
"Okay. I'll send in the Avatar." P'Li gave a gentle nod and headed for the door. Partway there, she paused and looked back at them again. "I just want you to know, it was good seeing you both again."
"Yeah..." Ming-Hua muttered, with a fleeting sigh. "You too."
Azula sat at the edge of her bed, in what had been her and Anraq's guest bedroom. Now just hers, as Annie had taken Kanna to Kyoshi Island to get far away from this madness. At least there they would be safe. Azula stared at a small photograph in her hands, one of the many copies of the family portrait they had taken together. She'd called it silly, having so many of them. They had the one at home after all, and they'd already sent one to all their friends, so why did she need one to carry around herself? What a foolish thought. As silly as she might have thought it at first, this photograph had become her most treasured possession. In times like this, it gave her strength she sorely needed.
Her attention pulled away when she heard a knock sounding on the bedroom door. A voice followed. "Azula?"
She stiffened upright on the bed, nearly swallowing her heart as it leaped into her throat. That voice. That oh so familiar voice. When the door opened, she met eyes with his equally familiar face. Still younger than she last knew him, but no less warm and welcoming the way he smiled. How different he was, when no longer under the control of a dark spirit. "Zuzu? Is... is it really you this time?"
Zuko nodded, shutting the door behind himself as he approached the bed. "It is."
Azula stared at him a long while, taking in his features. He looked much closer to how she remembered him from when they were teenagers. His hair was longer and his jaw had filled out more, but he was far more familiar to her now than he had been as an old man. If not for his signature burn scar, she might never have believed this was the same person she'd watch die little over a year ago. With a deep breath, she forced her heart back down into her chest, stood up from the bed, and greeted him with as tight a hug as she could muster.
"Zuzu, I... I don't even know what to say. When you died, I thought that was it. I thought you were gone, that we'd never get the chance to actually be decent siblings for once, but now..." With a steadying huff, she pulled away from him and folded her arms across her chest. Her demeanor shifted, as she forced herself to take on a more mocking and teasing tone. "Look at you. You almost look functional."
Zuko uttered a soft chuckle. "I know. This is strange, to be certain." He turned to the table next to the bed, noticing a small hand mirror lying there. Taking a step closer, he lifted the mirror into his grasp and stared at his reflection. "I haven't looked like this in over sixty years, and to see Toph and Katara equally as young... It's surreal. I can't imagine how I'm going to confront Mai now."
"Well, about that..." Azula shifted with an awkward grimace, wrapping her arms across her chest in a partial self-hug. "Maybe you don't, not yet. She still doesn't know about Izumi and Iroh, and I don't think she should if she doesn't have to. She's already been through enough."
"I suppose that may be for the best, until we find a way to help them." Zuko set down the mirror and eased a heavy sigh. He remained quiet for a long moment, before slowly lifting an earnest stare at her. "Azula, about the things I said when I was under Sen's control... I didn't mean any of it. What I said, what our father said, even Katara, none of it is true."
Azula closed her eyes and gave a slow nod. "I know. It still hurt, I'll admit—deeper than you can imagine—but I know. That was Sen talking, trying to break me down. He almost succeeded."
Zuko smiled, and reached out to place a loving hand on her shoulder. "But you didn't let him."
Warmth surged through her at the touch. She smirked, shifting her weight with a matter-of-fact shrug. "Well, this is me we're talking about. Of course I prevailed."
"So, it's been over a year since I've been gone," Zuko said, with a heartfelt smile. "How have you been? Are things with Anraq going well? I've heard you're a mother now. Kind of hard to imagine, I have to say."
"Please, I am an excellent maternal figure," she insisted, with a roll of her eyes. Her demeanor softened moments later, lifting a bright smile to her face. "Kanna is a wonderful child. You'd probably like her. Things really couldn't be better."
Zuko lowered himself to the bed, and pulled Azula to sit next to him. "Tell me all about it."
"She's in there?" Kuvira asked, staring at the door in front of her. "And she's... her again?"
"Exactly how you remember her," Korra said. "Just, you know, younger."
"You've told everyone else too, right?"
Korra nodded. "They're on their way. Now, go on. She's waiting for you."
Kuvira eased out a shuddering breath, trying to stifle the fluttering of her heart. Nothing could have ever prepared her for this moment. No matter her effort, she could not steady her nerves. Better to push on, in that case. Ready or not, she could do this. She had to do this.
Pushing open the door, she entered into a small sitting room and took a tentative step towards the woman sipping tea at the table near the window. "Su?"
Suyin Beifong glanced up from her teacup and set it down when she saw the other woman standing there. She immediately stood out of her seat, although she made no move forward. She paused, staring with equal hesitance. "Kuvira..."
Kuvira fought through her hesitation with every bit of courage she could muster, closing the distance between them in three long strides. On the third stride, she wrapped her arms tight around the former matriarch and pulled her close. The moment she felt Suyin's arms embrace her in return, she sank forward with a shuddering gasp. A burst of tears soon followed, surging from her eyes with a rippling mist. She tightened her arms, and buried her face against Suyin's chest.
"I never thought I'd see you again," she gasped, clawing her fingers into the fabric of Su's robe, as though if she didn't hold on as tightly as she could she'd lose her grip and slip away. "I never thought... I couldn't... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you. I tried, I swear, but I couldn't..."
"Shush, it's alright," Su said, holding a hand to the back of Kuvira's head. "Everything's alright. I'm back now."
Kuvira sniffled back as many of her tears as she could and gently eased herself out of the hug. A difficult task, as her arms refused to let go. When at last she managed to pull away, she stared at Suyin with a disbelieving smile, shaking her head slowly back and forth. "This is... unimaginable. I still don't know if I believe it."
"That makes two of us." Su took a step back and held her arms tight around herself. Her gaze drifted out of focus. Distant, uncomfortable. "I was dead. The last thing I remember about being alive was saying goodbye to my family and then being suffocated by Zaheer." A shudder ran through her, as she looked into a mirror hanging on the wall. "Now, here I am, and when I look at myself in the mirror I see a face I haven't known in over twenty years." She stared at her reflection a moment longer. With a quick shift in demeanor, she flashed a smirk at herself and fluffed her coiling black hair. "Not that I'm complaining about that part, mind you. Youth does have its perks."
Kuvira smiled, and took a step next to her. "I think you look great."
Suyin huffed out a deep sigh and turned away from the mirror, focusing back on Kuvira. "About those things I said to you, what I did to you... You have to know I didn't mean any of it."
"I know. That was Sen's influence talking, not you. I'm just glad Korra was able to free you."
"So am I." Suyin smiled, and led Kuvira towards the table to pour them both a fresh cup of tea. "Now, how long has it been since I died? Three years? Tell me everything that's happened."
"Well, you know I'm married now," she said, accepting her cup of tea. "Which makes Korra your daughter-in-law now, actually. Granted, the honeymoon hasn't exactly been thrilling."
Suyin sighed, and took a sip of her tea. "I can imagine. When Baatar and I got married, we spent two weeks on Ember Island. Certainly beats fighting an all powerful dark spirit."
"I'd kill for a vacation like that, after what's happened," Kuvira muttered. "At this rate, Korra and I won't get an opportunity like that for a long time. Until Sen is dealt with, we can't afford a break."
"You'll have to tell me exactly how it happened, though," Su said. "I do like a good falling in love story, and I have to assume that yours and Korra's is an entertaining one."
"Yeah, you could definitely say that. I'll tell you all about it, I promise." After taking another sip of tea, she added, "Oh, and about Zaofu... Now that you're back, you can take over again. If you want, I mean. I only took the job to honor your legacy, but since you're, you know, alive, I suppose I don't need to keep it."
"Oh, I don't know, I think you're a fine choice to lead Zaofu," Su replied, shifting her attention towards the door, "but we can discuss that later. Looks like we have some company."
Lin entered the room, marching straight towards them with a stern glare. Toph followed close behind. The once old woman now appeared the same age as Suyin, no older than thirty years. As a result, she looked quite out of place standing next to her daughters, especially considering one of them was now significantly older than her.
"Su..." Lin stated, staring at the younger woman. She managed to hold her rigid demeanor for another second before reaching out to pull Suyin in for a hug. "Come here, you great big idiot. Don't you ever do that to me again. You don't get to die before me, you hear?"
"Good to see you, too," Su replied, returning the embrace. When she pulled away, she looked to her mother. "And... Mom?"
Toph returned a pleasant smirk. "Hey, Su."
"Mom..." Su reached forward and wrapped her arms tight around her mother. "I'm so sorry."
"It's alright, you're back now," Toph said, deepening the hug. "I don't think words can express how happy I am to see you again. In a manner of speaking."
They held the embrace a long while, before Suyin finally took a step back to give her mother a curious stare. "You're so young. Sen got to you, too?"
"He sure did!" Toph exclaimed, with an enthused laugh. "Isn't it great? Man, is it good to be young again. I feel fantastic!"
"Great? Try creepy," Lin muttered. "I'm old enough to be both your mother now."
"Pfft, you want creepy?" Toph scoffed. "I just got back from looking at my old body. Now that's creepy. Don't go being a sourpuss just because you're the old lady in the family now."
Lin's eye twitched. "I am not—"
Suyin chuckled, patting her sister on the shoulder. "It's alright, Lin, you're still a kid at heart, I'm sure."
With a huff, the former police chief planted her arms across her chest. "I hate you both..."
"Mom!" a voice called.
Opal ran through the door, followed close behind by the rest of the Beifong family—Baatar Sr., Baatar Jr., Huan, Wing, and Wei. They clambered into the small room, gathering around Suyin as close as they could without knocking each other over.
Tears glimmered at the corners of Su's eyes as she looked around at her family, a warm smile spreading across her face. "It's so good to see you all again..."
Baatar Sr. took a step forward and reached out to hold his wife's hands, tears already rolling down his cheeks "Honey, I... You look great."
"Not too bad yourself," she replied, with a loving grin.
"We never thought we'd see you again," Wei said.
"Yeah, back from the dead," Wing added. "Unreal."
"I will create my greatest work of art yet to commemorate this momentous occasion!" Huan announced.
Baatar Jr. smiled, and held a hand to her shoulder. "Welcome home, Mother."
"Oh, there's so much we have to talk about!" Opal exclaimed. "You've missed a ton!"
Suyin's smile brightened. "I want to hear everything."
