Once Lin, Su, Baatar Senior, Opal, Wing, Wei, and Toph broke out of Kuvira's jail, Toph went back to the swamp but the rest of the group went straight to Republic City to meet with Korra. After getting Huan's letter about Kuvira's invasion, Wu and Pema helped evacuate the citizens.
Korra took Mako on Tenzin's bison Oogie to see if they could slow her down and reason with her. Mako secretly hoped he could get Bolin out of Kuvira's clutches. However, when they followed the rail-lines out of the city, The Iron Maiden was nowhere to be seen. When they returned back to the near empty city, Tenzin awaited them.
"Please tell me it went better than expected and that's the reason you're back so soon," Tenzin said, running up to her.
Mako jumped off of Oogie's back first and said, "We couldn't find The Iron Maiden anywhere."
"The entire train is missing," Korra said, "we stopped at some towns further out and they said Kuvira's train headed to Republic City a while ago but as we got closer they started saying they hadn't seen her in weeks. It's like she disappeared."
Tenzin asked, "How is that possible? She has to be somewhere."
Korra said, "I don't know, but I don't like this."
Meanwhile, Kuvira and her armies marched through the tunnels she had built earlier, divided into different sections, and headed straight for Republic City. They reached the end and opened the cave up to reveal the backside of the near empty city. Police airships stayed in the skies, but that was it. She motioned for them to prepare a messenger hawk and send it straight to Raiko's office.
She waited for a hawk to return. Raiko claimed he would never surrender. Kuvira stomped her foot and shook the othermountains enough for some snow to fall off of them. The signal to reveal themselves.
Several other mountains surrounding the city unearthed their own secret caves with hundreds upon thousands of soldiers in her army she had created over the past several years. She wished she could see the look on Raiko's face at the reveal.
Then, Kuvira leveled her spirit weapon. She closed a fist and a giant beam of energy cut across the sky and straight through the airships. They exploded and wobbled in the air as they slowly went down, flames encapturing them. Even she couldn't believe the devastation she had caused. In her eyes, it was amazing and beautiful.
A messenger hauk flew in. Surrender. Baatar entered an airship she left hidden in a cave, armed with a contract and small crew.
The rest of the crew waited until Miski pointed at the sky and said, "Another messenger hawk already?"
"That was fast," Kuvira added as it flew in and landed on Miski's arm.
As she read the parchment, her eyes went wide. "It's from the avatar. Her crew intercepted Baatar's airship," she said, showing Kuvira the letter, "it says here they have him."
She took the letter and read it for herself. Stand down, Kuvira. We now have Baatar. Surrender, give power back to King Wu, and we won't hurt your fiancé. She glared at the letter in discontempt.
"What a dirty trick," she said.
"Maybe it's a bluff," Huan suggested, leaning against the wall of the cave.
She crushed the paper in her hands. "We're not taking that chance," she said, "we're sending a message back to them."
Miski asked, "Oh, what's it going to say?" She readied the ink.
"Sorry I'm writing this one myself, Miski," Kuvira said, "but I'm going to need the special ink."
She sent off a single sentence in plain black ink, For Baatar: You allowed yourself to get captured? She hoped Baatar got her underlying message the special ink only visible when held up to direct sunlight. How is the rest of the crew?
It only took a few minutes for a return message. It was Baatar's handwriting. I apologize for ruining our plans. I, Baatar, alone, take full responsibility for getting myself captured. I wish to reunite with you soon, Kuvira.
Miski asked, "How can he take responsibility for something the avatar did to him? I don't get it."
"He's telling us he's the only one who was captured," Kuvira answered, "they didn't take anyone else, only him. That means the contract and the entire rest of the crew are still headed straight for President Raiko."
"What?" Miski said, "The avatar can't be that stupid."
Bolin looked around awkwardly and confessed, "I'm not getting it. How was that stupid?"
"Korra didn't stop anything," Kuvira explained, "she abducted Baatar thinking it would slow us down, but it won't."
Miski explained, "If they were smart, they would have taken the whole airship, stolen the contract, and tried to force us to negotiate turning over the entire empire using the crew as hostages, but they didn't. They only took Baatar to make Kuvira mad...which sounds pretty stupid if you ask me."
Huan said, "This plan has my mother's touch all over it."
"It sounds like something cowardly she would do," Kuvira replied, "give it at least half an hour, make them think we're not taking this decision lightly, and then send back a messenger hawk with the note that we're surrendering, and be sure to beg them not to hurt Baatar."
Miski grabbed a sheet of paper. "Oo, I'm ready!" she said, "How somber should I make it sound?"
"Sorry Miski, this time Huan will write it," she continued, "the two of us are going on a different mission to rescue Baatar. The only problem is they'll see these uniforms a mile away. We need disguises."
Huan asked, "Are you sure you want me to write this? I can barely see the paper."
"I know you can do it," Kuvira replied.
Miski gasped with delight. A secret mission! "I'll just raid someone's closet; someone around in the city has to have something good they left behind. What kind of disguise do you want?"
"Anything," she answered, "it doesn't matter what. You decide."
"Anything from earth kingdom or empire is going to set them off right away," she said, "and I don't think there's enough water tribe here to find anything good,, so we'll have to be fire nation. I'll be right back!" She ran off.
"Huan," Kuvira said, "mention how it's going to take time to round everyone up so don't expect a speedy arrival. We'll need a body of water to meet up by."
"Oh!" Bolin said, "Why not Yao Bai River? It runs right in the center of the city." He made a cutting motion with his hand.
She asked, "Will their backs be towards the river?"
"Yeah since they know we're coming from this direction," he said, "they should be facing this way. Why?"
"Perfect," Kuvira replied, smiling.
Miski and Kuvira wore identical bright red dresses, cheongsam style, long sleeved. It hung on Miski's body. "This was the best I could find on such short notice," she remarked.
Kuvira stepped out of the dressing area and said, "If I breathe wrong this whole dress is going to rip itself off of my body." It was tight, squeezing her torso. On Miski it reached passed her knees, on Kuvira, it barely made it to her mid-thighs. Never mind how she couldn't raise her arms passed her shoulders.
"Oh," Miski said awkwardly, "since it's so loose on me I thought for sure it would actually fit you." She pulled the excess of fabric away from her body.
"It's the best we've got," she said, putting her hair in a more fire nation style bun, leaving two face framing pieces out on her forhead, "I'll manage. Let's go."
They navigated through the city, careful not to look confident, as they were supposed to be regular people fearing for their lives, wondering what was going to happen next.
Meanwhile, Korra and everyone else in her group waited exactly where Kuvira told them to. While they stood in rows, Kuvira and Miski walked side by side, careful to disguise Kuvira from them. They walked across the park and split up once they were behind them. Miski went onto the bridge, while Kuvira stood off to the side. She motioned for Miski to begin.
With the power of waterbending, she brought up the shoreline and engulfed everyone but Baatar in ice. "What?" he asked.
"Ice?!" Korra shouted.
Kuvira ran around the group and quickly grabbed Baatar. "Kuvira!" he shouted, "I knew you'd never surrender!"
"We'll talk later, run!" she commanded, pulling him along.
Korra used firebending to melt herself free. "Mako firebend everyone out!" she said, "I'm going after them."
"On it!" he said, setting himself on fire.
Kuvira forced the ground under Baatar's feet forward to launch him hundreds of feet ahead of her. The sleeves connecting at her shoulders tore. Miski picked up the rear, while Korra was hot on their tails.
Miski said, "We need to lose her."
"I know," she replied. She stopped, went into a horse stance, and forced the ground to tremble under Korra's feet. The dress's skirt tore up her thighs, revealing the shorts underneath. Korra used airbending to try and blast her, but Kuvira put up another wall and ran.
By then, they caught up with Baatar who was still running. He turned to Kuvira and said, "You look ravishing in red!"
"Thank you," she said, "you can admire me later. Go!" She pushed him forward again.
Unbeknownst to her, Suyin and Lin were now free and trying to match their pace a block over. When they saw Kuvira, they cut over and managed to get ahead of her. Together, with earthbending, they took a building and knocked it down in front of Kuvira and Miski.
"Look out!" Miski shouted, pointing up.
Kuvira gasped. She stopped in her tracks and used earth building to hold it up. "Miski, run! Run!"
Miski ran passed the building and took a left. A fountain. She tore it open with waterbending, went around the collapsing building and covered Suyin and Lin with ice.
Lin asked, "Is that the only trick you know?"
Wing and Wei came up behind them just as the building was about to crush them. They covered Lin and Su with a wall as it came tumbling down.
On the otherside, Kuvira ran. The rest of the group wasn't far behind them now, Mako, Wing, Wei, Suyin, Lin, Tenzin, Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, and Korra were all creeping in.
Tenzin whipped a blast of air at Kuvira's legs, hoping to knock her down and out. Instead, she leapt over it gracefully. Her feet hit the ground in a fighting stance, the earth shook and broke under her and went straight for him. She threw Tenzin off balance and with a rock wall straight to the chest and chucked him through a building.
As they passed a pond, Miski used waterbending to grab more water and said, "We're going to need something big to fend them all off."
Kuvira looked around, her eyes gazing on the harbor. "I know just what we need," she said, "hold them off as long as you can. I'll be right back." She took off for the shoreline a block away. Meanwhile Miski took all the water she could to fight against the group as a whole.
Kuvira used earthbending to bring the seafloor up to the surface. That way she could run much faster. She made it all the way out to Aang's statue as fast as she could. With earthbending, she reached the top of his head, carved out the inside with enough space for her to walk freely and to see in every direction, then dumped the stones. Once inside, she used earthbending to control all four of the limbs at once.
Everyone turned and watched in shock and horror as Aang's statue turned and approached the city.
Korra asked in completely shock, "She's going to make me fight Aang?!"
Lin said, "She has to have an entire army in there."
"No," Su said, "it's Kuvira alone."
Kuvira marched back into Republic City. Now seeing over most of the buildings with ease. She knelt the statue down and brought Miski up to her, using earthbending to bring the hand to Aang's face.
"Now this is something big!" Miski said.
Kuvira waved Aang's arm through the air at the airbenders on gliders. They whipped around in tailspins before heading straight back to the ground. She walked back to her army through the buildings, now on ground-level and no longer in the mountains. She caught up with Baatar, bent the entire statue over, and picked him up as well. He screamed the whole way up.
"Kuvira?" he asked as she pulled him inside.
"Relax," she said, "we're getting out of here and regrouping with the army."
He wobbled as she continued to make the statue walk. He grabbed onto her tight. She went down, the statue hit the side of the building and went down in the same position, on one knee, holding onto a building.
"Whoa!" Miski shouted.
"Not now Baatar," Kuvira said, "this statue isn't bending itself. You can't hold onto me." She used earthbending to make a pole off to the side, "Here, hold onto that."
He struggled to his feet to grab onto the pole. "This is terrifying! I want to be back on the real ground!"
Kuvira muttered to herself as she saw the damage, "I'm going to hear about that later." She forced Aang's statue back onto its feet and continued walking through Republic City.
Miski said, "This might be too big, now we're a massive target."
"We're about to ditch this thing," she replied, "Miski, make a huge fog cover from the harbor." She slowly turned and lowered the statue gracefully in a park, careful to avoid all of the buildings. Miski ran up and created a thick enough fog, making it hard to see. Korra and everyone else were so close, they almost ran into each other.
"She must have gone that way!" Korra shouted, getting more distant. It worked, because Kuvira aimed the statue toward the water, they assumed she went that way too. Instead, she headed toward the mountains, back to where her troops were waiting.
The airship returned at the same time. "We did it," a guard said, walking up to her, "we have a signed contract from President Raiko."
Bolin asked, "Does that mean this is over?"
"As long as Korra's still fighting us, this isn't over," Kuvira replied, "I'm getting back in uniform."
Now in her earth empire get-up, Kuvira put the spirit weapon back on her arm and had her army patrol the city. Her objective, get to city hall. Unfortunately, an entire city was between her and Raiko's office. "Avoid damaging the buildings," Kuvira commanded before parting ways from her troops, "it costs money to fix them."
"But you just damaged the side of the avatar museum on the way over here," Bolin pointed out.
"That was by accident," she said, "avoid accidents."
As she entered the city, Korra and everyone else, including many airbenders, stood in their way. It took everything Kuvira had to fight them left and right. Rocks, metal, fire, air, water, all the elements and them some flew. Any time Mako tried to attack, Kuvira cuffed his wrists together and tacked him against a wall.
Knowing she wasn't getting anywhere, she said, "Bolin, create a lava road."
"Are you sure?" he asked, "I don't want anyone to get hurt." She nodded at him.
Above them, she noticed the wires metalbending police used to keep up with criminals hanging between two buildings. She took out enough of her metal strips and created her own wire. She hung herself over the lava, creating a circular hoop to sit in not unlike in the aerial training she had for years in Zaofu.
Seeing what she was doing, Wing and Wei followed her lead and used their own wires to hang over the lava. The made the air around them almost unbearable. Kuvira used her metal to attack them both, moving in and out of the splits and hanging upside down with ease. She moved so fast they couldn't keep up and fell not too long after, Bolin cooling the lava so they wouldn't get hurt.
Korra came out from behind a building and said, "Kuvira listen to me. I know you think you're doing the right thing but look around you! This isn't right!" She gestured to her army struggling against Su, Lin, and Tenzin.
Kuvira grabbed her by the wires and dangled her over the lava. Bolin covered his eyes.
"Let her go!" Mako shouted, throwing fire at her, "You sadistic bitch!"
"Mako you're not helping!" Korra shouted at him, blowing his fire away so she wouldn't get burned by him.
"All Raiko has to do is surrender and all of this fighting stops," Kuvira said, "this battle will be over!"
Korra said, "You can't take things that don't belong to you."
Kuvira spun around in circles, twisting the metal wires up tight, making Korra dizzy below her. Then she brought her up over her head, did a loopedy-loop in the air once and then chucked Korra all the way to the other side of the city. Everyone watched in horror as she flew through the air uncontrollably.
Korra tried to gain her bearing first by firebending, and then airbending and reorienting herself in the air. She turned around in time to see a building. She punched clean through the rocks, flipped head over heels, and then landed square on her feet so hard she made a massive impression in the ground. She flipped her short hair out of her face and said, "That's it, no more playing nice!"
As Kuvira continued to fight on, Korra made her way back over to her in time to see a massive blue fireball strike a building overhead.
"What?" Miski asked, "Blue fire?"
"That was real?" Kuvira said in shock, "I always thought it was a metaphor in those old stories!" She turned to the harbor and saw the briggade of massive fire navy ships. It was Firelord Zuko and the rest of his family and navy, ready to fight for Republic City.
Bolin said, "The fire nation is attacking!"
"Again?" a guard asked.
Kuvira regained her level-head and said, "Bolin, send them a message to mind their business."
"On it!" he said happily as he ran to the harbor.
"I'll get to the highground and deal with the fire nation," she continued, "keep trying to get to city hall so we can occupy that building." She ran for the tallest building she could find.
Meanwhile Bolin made a crack so far down in the earth's surface, lava appeared. He brought it up high into the sky like a massive wall, shielding it from fireball attacks. On the outside, he used lavabending to carve mind your business on the outside, hoping they'd be able to read it.
Kuvira made it inside the building and looked for an elevator. "Really?" she asked, "Does this city hate disabled people?" Nothing, she had to climb the stairs, completely unbeknowst to her, Korra was right on her tail and watched her enter.
On the outside, Korra decided to do what Kuvira would do in her situation, take down the building. She grabbed the walls, causing massive cracks to grow upwards. Inside, now on the 6th floor, Kuvira braced herself as the entire building shook. Rocks fell down all around her. She tried earthbending them out of the way but it was no use, it was coming down all around her. She fell down a few stories, landing directly on her ribs. Pain cut through her as they cracked and broke. She attempted to regain her footing, only to fall out of a window.
Debri went in every direction. So much dust kicked up, Korra couldn't see the carnage. She surveyed the scene, knowing Kuvira was too stubborn to let herself die in a building collapse. As the dust settled, she watched as Kuvira's unconcious body lay mostly on top of a bunch of rocks. Her entire torso clear, her hair now undone, scrapped up and clearly injured.
"Two can play at that game, Kuvira," Korra said, walking up to her, "now you're going to call off your army and-" she watched as Kuvira twitched awake. She opened her eyes and chucked a big rock at her.
It was so unexpected Korra couldn't even brace herself for impact. She hit the ground hard, only turning over in time to see Kuvira getting up and struggling to walk away.
Kuvira staggered down a narrow alley and into the spirit wilds in the middle of the city. She stumbled over vines and roots. They moved out from under her feet and retreated. "What?" she whispered to herself, then turned around and fell onto her back. Pain shot through her spine.
She quickly stood back up and stumbled around some more before reaching a piece of sunlight streaming through the branches. She looked up and saw the smallest piece of sky. The vines quickly grew over it, blocking out the light. She frowned as she turned back to the tree in front of her.
Then, she heard it. The grinding of wooden gears, a wheelchair moving across the stone and dirt ground. "No," she whispered to herself, "it can't...you're not here. You're not real. This place is making me hear things that aren't real." She didn't bother turning around.
"Oh, I'm real," her mother's voice spat, "and I'm here in time to witness your demise."
"You've never been there for me," Kuvira said.
Her father's voice boomed from behind her, "Don't pretend you're the victim here, Kuvira! You know we had to get rid of you because you destroy everything you touch!"
Kuvira pressed her hands against her head, covering her ears, desperate to block them out. "Things are different now. I've helped people! I stepped up when no one else would! I'm the only one who's willing to do what needs to be done to get this nation on track. I'm doing the right thing."
Her father said, "If you were doing the right thing, the avatar would be on your side, but she isn't! Instead, she's hunting you down. When she gets to you, she will kill you."
Kuvira shook her head.
"She was going to kill you when you fought her before," her mother spat, "and that woman who let you live in her city for so long, that Suyin Beifong," she said with such distain in her voice, "she tried to kill you too, twice."
Her father added, "Everyone always gets rid of you in the end, Kuvira. You know it's only a matter of time before Tonraq and Senna abandon you too."
She wanted to tell them to shut up, they didn't know what they were saying. Tonraq and Senna were different. They would never throw her away. She tried to convince herself that was true, but it didn't work. Instead, she bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut.
"There's no need to lie to yourself," her mother spat, "you know the truth. No one will ever figure out how to love you."
Kuvira gripped the tree in front of her. She spun around and blasted the weapon. She made sure it landed exactly where she heard their voices coming from, but there was no one there. She cut a line clean through the forest. All the way around to the right, before she could blink, Baatar stood before her. The spirit blast cut across his chest. He fell backwards.
AAAHHHHHHHHH! Kuvira screamed in agony.
She turned the weapon off, took it off her arm, and tossed it to the side. She bolted to him, laying on the ground behind a large root. His shirt half ripped open, his chest bare, a purple line cut across it and grew in thickness.
"Baatar!" she yelled, feeling his chest and neck. His skin grew warmer. His glasses had been thrown off of his face. His hair was unkempt. He grew in paleness.
Kuvira leaned into his face. "Please," she whispered, "I'm so sorry, I thought you were my parents! I'm sorry! I didn't want to hurt you!" Her lips touched his skin. It was warm. Her tears blurred her vision. She couldn't believe it. She did exactly what she had feared all along. She hurt someone she loved, again. She really does destroy everything she touches.
"Kuvira?" Korra's voice echoed behind her. She looked over and saw Kuvira crouched over Baatar, she gave her the worst death glare ever.
Kuvira sat back up and forced the earth around her to attack Korra as she came out from behind a tree. Korra was caught so off guard, the rocks hit her straight in the hip and knocked her down hard. She scraped across the ground. Her hip and pelvis broken.
Kuvira got up and ran for the weapon. "Stop fighting me!" She shouted as she turned the weapon onto Korra. "If you just surrendered this never would have happened!"
She turned the weapon on. Spirit energy exploded out of the barrel. Korra rolled out of the way just in time. The blast continued. The vines around the weapon activated, and attacked it, nearly knocking Kuvira down. They glowed bright purple in color. The blast size grew. It took everything Kuvira had to continue holding on as it ripped through the forest. Pain cutting through her as she braced it against her ribs. It wasn't stopping.
Korra shouted, "Shut it down!"
Kuvira used earth bending to plant her feet into the ground as the blast twisted her around. She went for the switch, nothing happened when she turned it off. The energy continued to cut through the vines and everything else in sight, growing in size by the moment as more and more energy fed into it.
"I can't!" she said, her voice breaking in pain.
It ripped her from the ground and launched her into the air. Pain shot through her broken ribs and up her spine as she bounced and landed off to the side. She struggled to breathe.
Across the way, Korra tried to get up, but pain broke through her hip so bad she keeled over. There was no way she was walking or standing up.
Kuvira sat up and watched in horror at the spirit blast strayed out of the control, growing with more and more power. She leaned forward and banged her fists into the ground. The ground shook violently. Her first memory assaulted her...at 3-years-old she pounded her fists into the ground, the room shook and cracked, the walls broke, the ceiling fell, her mother dove to protect her...part of the roof crushed her back. She never walked again.
As the ground shook, the weapon in the vines destabilized. The beam moved directly above her head, and slowly fell towards her.
Instead of sitting still, Kuvira used earth bending and launched a triangle of earth directly under it, forcing it back upwards. It was something she had always wished she had done as a child. She could have done it to save her mother back then, but she didn't know how.
It worked.
The weapon tilted upward, but too far upward. It fell under its own weight and came crashing back down. The beam of energy came with it, ready to strike from above, taking out the rock form she had just created with ease. It was over. Kuvira was done for, and she knew it. She put her hand up in a last-ditch effort to block the energy from ripping her apart.
Watching everything unfold, Korra used earth bending to move herself in front of Kuvira. As the blast struck, she went into the avatar state and used energy bending to force the beam around them both. Kuvira watched in awe as the purple light engulfed them.
The light was so powerful neither one of them could see as an explosion erupted in every direction. Through the light, both women were gently placed in a field of flowers. A bulb of green energy appeared beside them; a beam burst into the sky.
Korra twitched awake.
As Kuvira opened her eyes, she struggled to sit up and pain surged through her broken ribs. Every breath hurt. She groaned. "Definitely still alive, I'm in too much pain to be dead." It took her breath away to sit all the way up.
Meanwhile, Korra struggled and failed to sit up. She rolled over onto her stomach and asked, "Are you happy now, Kuvira? You nearly killed me, yourself, Baatar, and nearly blew up the whole city and everyone still in it. Who knows, maybe even the whole world could have been caught up in that mess. And the energy created by that weapon and my energy bending blasted us into the spirit world! Is that what you wanted?"
"None of this was supposed to happen," she insisted, "I didn't know the vines could do that...I-I almost killed everyone...but even after I did all of that, you still saved me. Why?"
"How many bad things does someone have to do before it outweighs the good they've done before?" Korra asked rhetorically as she struggled and failed to sit up. "I honestly don't know, but before you became a power-hungry dictator you saved my life."
Kuvira said sadly, "I guess now we're even."
"Actually, you saved my life three times now," she explained, "twice against Zaheer, and once afterwards, when you were in the south pole. After months of making almost no progress, I was ready to give up. My parents told me they wanted to adopt you. At first, I took it as them replacing me with a better daughter, so I accepted it. The day you arrived...I was...going to give the world a new avatar. When you first showed up, I thought you were going to brag about how much progress you were making in the earth kingdom, but you didn't, instead you saved my life...again."
Kuvira gave her a slight smile and said, "I'll consider us even anyway. I don't ever want to get that close to death again."
Korra said, "I'll take it, as long as you surrender."
"I've never given up on anything before," Kuvira struggled to her feet, holding her ribs, "after everything I've done to make it this far it almost feels impossible to stop now."
"Oh no," Korra said, shaking her head, "Kuvira, you have to surrender. Look at us! Look at where we are right now! Look at what you did!" She gestured to the surroundings. "There's nowhere else to run. You're hurt. I'm hurt. I know you have an entire army out there ready to do your bidding, but if you keep pushing, you're only going to hurt more people. I know that's not what you want."
Kuvira looked at the new spirit portal and said, "Surrender is the only option." She took a shaky pain filled breath. "I...give...up."
"Finally," Korra said. She tried to stand up, only to groan in agony. "I don't think I can get up. Your last blow really did me in." She collapsed into the ground face first, holding her hip in pain.
"Come on avatar," Kuvira said, "get up, show me what you've got." She extended a hand down to her and gave her a genuine smile, then added, "the pain lets you know you're still alive."
Korra grabbed her hand and groaned in pain as she struggled to her feet. Kuvira braced her ribs and pain shot through her back as she helped Korra. Together, they walked back through the portal into Republic City.
Instead of the plentiful forest, a massive grove of vines covered the ground and made a massive crater. Any buildings that were in the surrounding area were gone. Outside of the circle of vines, were broken and cracked buildings in such bad repair they were never getting fixed.
Kuvira gasped. "Oh no...no..." she gaped in horror at what she did. The entire neighborhood was gone.
"Wow," Korra whispered, "that's a lot of damage."
"Kuvira you're okay!" Bolin exclaimed as he ran up to her, "Korra, you're okay too! I'm so glad! I was so worried for a minute there!"
"This fight is over," Kuvira proclaimed, "stand down. We all owe Korra our lives. I surrender."
Miski asked, "You're giving up? But you never quit, no matter what!"
"I know," she said, "but my weapon almost killed us all, and nearly destroyed the entire city. Look around! This was never what I set out to do. Without Korra none of us would be here right now." She glanced up and saw Baatar back on his feet. She gasped. "Baatar, you're okay!" She extended her arms toward him.
He marched up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. She lost her balance and tripped on a vine, falling flat onto her back. Meanwhile Korra wobbled and waved her arms around, struggling to keep herself upright on one foot. Mako swooped in and kept her upright.
"Kuvira, you turned that weapon on me as if I meant nothing to you!" Baatar shouted, "How could you? After everything we've been through together you wanted me dead?!"
Kuvira said, struggling to sit up, holding her ribs, "No! I never meant to hurt you! I didn't know you were standing there!"
He said angrily, "I thought that was the end for me! You promised you would never hurt me and look at what you did!" He motioned to his injured chest.
"I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't know you were there. I thought I heard my parents my behind me!"
"Everything is always about how awful your parents were to you!" he shouted, "I'm sick and tired of how caught up you still are about them! It's been almost 15 years now! Get over it already!" He turned away from her and took off.
"Baatar!" Suyin said, running after him, "You're not going anywhere! You have to pay for what you've done!"
Meanwhile, Bolin helped Kuvira back onto her feet. He asked, "Is it really over?" She nodded.
"The earth empire stands down," she said, standing up with his help, "I'm sorry for all of the anguish I've caused. I'll take whatever punishment the world sees fit."
Out came the wooden handcuffs for Kuvira. The earth empire was over. Power was restored back over to Wu. It was over.
"Welcome aboard Mu Baolei," the warden said as he paced back and forth in front of the prisoners on the wooden docks in Republic City, "the floating wooden prison made specifically for earth and metalbenders," he walked past Bolin first and gestured to the giant wooden ship behind them. "As you can see, Mu Baolei is completely powered by wind and the currents. There are no engines, there is no coal, and there is certainly no metal you can get access to in order to bend your way out of here. Once we're out to sea the closest land is miles away so there is nowhere to go. If you get seasick, just think of it as an extra punishment for your crimes." He stopped in front of Kuvira.
She was almost unrecognizable. Fetching a new prison uniform, the grime green and brown colors of the prison instead of the bright green and metal she had before, hair undone, she stood before the warden, hands cuffed together at the wrists with wooden shackles.
"Look at this," he remarked, "The Iron Maiden; the earth empress herself graces me with her presence; no longer allowed to traverse the earth kingdom and make people bow to her. Listen closely young lady, I'm in charge of you now, and I decide what happens to you from now on. So, bow."
Kuvira tilted her head up to look him in the eyes. "No."
He brought his leg up and kicked her wooden chained wrists into the ground, forcing her on her hands and knees. He said, "You'll learn to bow to me sooner or later."
She jumped back onto her feet, forcing him to fall backwards in front of everyone. "The people gave me the nickname 'The Iron Maiden' for a reason," she replied, looking down on him, "my real name is Kuvira."
The warden stood back up and dusted himself off and spat off to the side. "I'll call you dirt if I want to," he said hastily, "everyone onto the ship! We're setting sail now! Anyone left behind automatically gets a double sentence for attempting to escape jail."
Everything was made of bright newly cut down wood, specifically made to imprison every earth and metal bender that had to do with Kuvira's reign for the last three years. They were ushered together down a hatch and once they had set sail, the cuffs came off and they were each assigned cells.
Before they left the Republic City harbor the next day, Kuvira was taken from her cell to the visitor's room. "I have a visitor?" she asked a guard.
"Your parents are here to see you," the guard replied. For a split-second Kuvira forgot about her adoption and panicked that her original parents were in that room, behind those doors. She breathed relief when it was Tonraq and Senna.
"You've come to see me?" Kuvira asked happily, "I didn't think I'd get any visitors after what I've done." She sat down at the round table between them.
Senna said, "Honey you don't stop being family just because you made bad choices." She held her hands on the table.
Kuvira couldn't help but let out a small smile. "Thank you," she said, then turned to Tonraq, "Did you really mean it when you said you were proud of me before, or were you afraid of what I'd do if you didn't say it?"
"Some things you did I'm still proud of," Tonraq said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, "others, I'm not. For everything you've done, I believe you're exactly where you belong." He gestured to the jail around them.
Kuvira's expression softened. "When I started, I wanted to help people," she said, "but I ended up hurting people too, maybe even more than I helped. Is anyone going to believe I never intended to cause so much pain?"
Senna wrapped her arm around her and said, "Only time will tell. For now, get some rest. You've been through a lot. We'll come to visit whenever we can, okay? Just because you made bad choices doesn't mean you don't deserve a family."
"Remember that," Tonraq said, hugging her, "you have a lot of contemplating on where you went wrong but in the end, I think you'll see the light."
