After the meeting with Kuvira, Korra and Naruto returned to Republic City where they told the rest of Team Avatar what they had discovered, so they prepared an airship and began their journey to where Guan's base was located.

"Are you sure about what Kuvira said?" asked Asami.

"I don't think she has any reason to lie." said Naruto.

"Besides, Chief Beifong and I were going through a lot of information and we discovered a small center located at the place where Kuvira mentioned you." said Mako.

"So, she told the truth." said Bolin.

"But what if she didn't? What if it's a trap?" asked Asami cautiously, as she didn't trust the metalbender.

"Asami, I know you don't trust her, but Naruto is right. It doesn't make sense for her to send us into a trap considering her condition." said Korra.

"*Sigh* I still don't trust her, but I do trust you, so I'll go along with you on this." said Asami with a small smile.

"Thanks." said Korra with a smile and taking her girlfriend's hands.

"Besides, if it's a trap in the end, you have me to have your backs." said Naruto pointing a thumb at himself.

"With that, I already feel safer." said Bolin.

"How much longer until we get to the location?" asked Korra.

"A few more hours, but I've told the pilot to land halfway to the location." said Mako.

"Well done. We don't want to attract too much attention." said Korra.

Once the airship was at a suitable distance, it landed on the ground and the Team Avatar and the jinchuriki came down to earth.

"Okay, now let's..." started Korra about to say her next move.

"Wait." said Naruto stopping her. "You want to get closer to the base and check the perimeter, don't you?"

"Well, yes." said Korra surprised that Naruto predicted her move.

"Leave that to me." said Naruto before gesturing with his hands, causing several of his clones to appear around him before marching forward. "Before long, we should be hearing from them."

"Wow. That was very handy." said Bolin.

"It really was." said Mako impressed by the way he used that technique.

Minutes passed and no clone had returned, much to the concern and confusion of Team Avatar.

"That's odd. None have returned yet." said Asami.

"No need. I've already received all the information." said Naruto.

"What? How?" asked Korra.

"One of the advantages of that jutsu is that the experience each clone goes through is transferred to me the moment it disappears." said Naruto another aspect of his most used technique.

"Awesome. That way, it's like being in several places at once." said Bolin very impressed.

"What have you received from your clones?" asked Mako.

"Apparently there is a base a couple of kilometers from where we are. From what I've been informed, the place is very well guarded." said Naruto.

"That must be the center of Guan. Let's go." said Korra before the five of them headed to their destination.

Soon after, Team Avatar and the ninja stayed hidden behind some rocks and as they peeked out, they saw what they would assume was Guan's center. They were a fortress of sorts with large walls and guards guarding the perimeter.

"Yes, it's certainly the center of Guan." said Mako.

"But there are too many guards. How are we going to get in there?" asked Bolin.

"We could break in." suggested Asami.

"Maybe, but with those guards watching, we wouldn't even get through the entrance." said Korra.

"That's why don't worry." said Naruto before darting out of his hiding place.

"Wait, Naruto." said Korra trying to stop her friend.

Naruto didn't listen to her and kept running quickly. When he reached the wall, he used the chakra in his feet to walk along it until he reached the top. Before the guards could react to his arrival, Naruto quickly knocked them down and then, after making sure he hadn't drawn attention to himself, he sent a wave to the others as a sign that the way was clear.

"Have I said yet how grateful I am that he is with us?" asked Bolin.

"You just said it." said Mako.

"And thanks to him, we now have a clear path to act." said Asami putting on her electrified glove.

"True, but get ready, we don't know what can happen inside." said Korra.

Naruto landed on the ground as the others arrived in front of the door.

"Everyone ready?" asked Naruto.

"Ready." said Korra.

"Good. Do the honors." said Naruto with a toothy grin.

Korra took a couple of steps forward and, using metalbender, made the front door fly off as if in an explosion.

An alarm began to sound throughout the place as the five entered the center field where, shortly after, several soldiers of Guan appeared and immediately surrounded them. Korra was about to do something when Mako and Bolin stepped in front of her.

"Korra, our target is Guan. If we defeat him, his troops will surrender." said Mako.

"No. There are too many of them. I want to help." said Korra.

"If you stay here, Guan will take the opportunity to escape and continue his plans elsewhere." said Bolin.

"He's right. We can't waste any more time." said Asami supporting the two brothers' plan.

Korra didn't want to leave her friends behind, but they were right that Guan was too dangerous to let him escape.

"Alright. Just be careful." said Korra.

"Don't worry." said Naruto before waving his hands, causing a clone of him to appear next to her in a burst of smoke. "He'll stay and help." said Naruto pointing to his clone.

"You can count me in." said Naruto's clone with a toothy grin.

"Alright, here we go!" declared Bolin before causing two walls of lava to erupt from the ground, leaving a path between them as they forced the soldiers back.

"How could he do that?" asked Naruto believing Bolin to be an earthbender.

"Questions for later!" said Korra before she, Asami and Naruto quickly ran down the path between the lava walls until they reached the other side of the field and entered the center, leaving behind Naruto's clone, Mako and Bolin, who dropped the walls when he saw that his friends had reached their destination.

"Can you handle them even though you're a clone?" asked Mako.

"Trust me, I'm tougher than I look." said the Naruto clone with a toothy grin.

A pair of soldiers threw a series of rocks as cannonballs, but Bolin put up a wall that blocked them before pushing the wall against them, knocking them down in the process.

Mako began to launch fireballs from his punches, but one soldier dodged them before throwing a pillar of earth at him, but Mako dodged to the side in time before launching a vertical wave of fire that hit the soldier.

Another soldier attempted to impale the Naruto clone with stalactites emerging from the ground, but the Naruto clone jumped backwards to dodge it before running towards him. The soldier proceeded to try to hit him with incoming rocks or block his path with earthen walls, but the Naruto clone dodged all of his attempts and when he caught up to him, he kneed him in the stomach before hitting him in the back of the head, successfully knocking him down.

Then, another pair of soldiers began to throw sharp metal plates, but Bolin caused jets of lava to shoot out of the pool of lava formed by his previous attack, which served to melt the metal plates and then hardened the lava jets into projectiles that he used to hit the soldiers, knocking them down in the process.

A soldier threw a metal rope that wrapped around Mako's leg, causing him to trip and fall to the ground, leaving him an easy target for another soldier who threw a rock at him to crush him. However, Mako shoot a lightning that shattered the rock and then threw it at the rope, causing electricity to run through the rope until it hit the soldier who screamed in pain before falling unconscious, allowing the firebender to be able to get up.

The Naruto clone had just taken down another soldier with a kick and was about to go for another when a metal rope wrapped around his wrist, stopping him in the process. Before he could react, another rope wrapped around his other wrist. The two soldiers causing that pulled the rope with the intention of restraining the ninja long enough for another soldier to hit him, but then, Naruto's clone pulled his arm in X-formation and sent the two soldiers flying towards him, but he ducked in time, causing the soldiers to collide with each other.

Meanwhile, Korra, Asami and Naruto were making their way through the corridors of the center.

A soldier stepped into their path, but Korra used airbending to cause a stream of air to push him into the wall, knocking him down in the process. Another soldier appeared, but Asami punched him in the face before hitting him with her electrified glove, making him scream in pain before falling unconscious. Another soldier got in their way, but Naruto stepped in front of them and gave the soldier a roundhouse kick that knocked him down quickly.

They continued at that pace as they moved through the corridors and during that time Naruto, as well as his clone had certain suspicions. In the time they had been there fighting, they noticed that the thing was too easy. Too easy.

Just as Kuvira had said, Guan was an excellent strategist, and if he really was, he would have prepared things more for cases like that, but everything was turning out as if he wasn't even trying, which seemed suspicious to him.

"Is something wrong, Naruto?" asked Korra noticing her friend's pensive state.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling something is wrong." said Naruto.

"Now isn't the time to talk. We're almost there." said Asami.

Finally, the three of them arrived at some doors leading to the commander's office. However, when they entered ready to fight any danger, they were confused and shocked when they saw the completely empty room.

"There's no one there." said Naruto.

"I don't understand. Wasn't this the center of Guan?" asked Asami.

"Welcome to my center, Avatar Korra."

The three looked around frantically in search of the source of the voice and, to their surprise, discovered that it was coming from a radio located on the desk.

"Guan?" asked Korra.

"Too bad we didn't get to meet in person." said Guan over the radio.

"Where are you? Come out from where you're hiding!" said Korra.

"If you are asking me where I am, I must inform you that this is a recording. I can't answer your questions." said Guan.

"Damn it. I already knew something smelled fishy about this whole situation." said Naruto frustrated at falling into a trap.

"I knew it! Kuvira lied to us!" said Asami believing she was to blame.

"But don't worry. Soon all your questions will be answered." said Guan before the recording cut off.

"What? What did she mean by...?" asked Korra.

BOOM

Suddenly, an explosion was heard from one side of the center, followed by more explosions in various areas of the center.

The explosions were noticed by those who had stayed behind.

"What's going on?" asked Bolin in slight fear from the continuous explosions.

"Naruto, get them out of there! Now!" said Mako to the ninja clone.

Naruto's clone nodded before disappearing in an explosion of smoke.

The continuous explosions had caused the entire facility to begin to collapse.

Inside, Naruto had just received the information from his clone.

"This place is coming down! We've got to get out of here!" said Naruto.

Without question, the three of them quickly broke into a run to escape the center.

Suddenly, on the way, a collapse occurred and formed a wall that ended up separating Korra from the others.

"Korra!" shouted Asami returning to try to save her girlfriend. "Are you okay?"

"Don't worry! I'm coming!" exclaimed Korra ready to use earthbending to destroy the wall, but then, she felt a prick in her neck, causing her to move her hand quickly to the area of the prick, where she felt something.

When she took it off and put it to her gaze, she discovered that it was a dart of some kind. Before she could ask about it, she began to feel fatigued and within seconds, she fell unconscious to the ground and soon after, a pair of shadows loomed over her.

"Korra? Korra!" shouted Asami, as she had received no response from her girlfriend after what she said earlier.

The center's collapse was increasing by the second, at risk of toppling over completely.

"We have to get out of here!" said Naruto grabbing the engineer's arm.

"No! I'm not leaving without Korra!" said Asami trying to free herself from the ninja's grip.

"We won't be able to help her if we end up buried! Don't worry, she'll be fine!" said Naruto confident that the Avatar would get out of this situation.

Asami didn't want to leave her girlfriend behind, but Naruto was right and it wouldn't help if she ended up dead or injured. So, with regret, she went with the ninja to the exit of the center.

After a while longer, the two finally arrived at the center's courtyard, where Mako and Bolin were, and shortly after meeting, the four of them saw the entire center collapse in on itself like a house of cards.

"That was close." said Naruto.

"Are you two okay?" asked Bolin.

"Wait, where's Korra?" asked Mako noticing the Avatar's absence.

"There was a collapse on our escape and we ended up separated." said Naruto.

"She could be in danger! We have to look for her!" said Asami before quickly running into the rubble of the center just looking for her girlfriend.

The others, wasting no time, followed her to look for their friend.

Hours passed and the four of them searched every inch of the collapsed center. Bolin used earthbending to push aside various debris while the rest searched for any clues, but so far, they found nothing.

"I don't get it. She should be around here somewhere." said Asami with much concern.

"We've been looking for hours and we haven't found her anywhere." said Mako.

"It's like she disappeared." said Bolin.

"No, I don't think so." said Naruto, drawing the attention of the others.

"What do you mean?" asked Mako.

"All of this. The fight with the soldiers, the fact that Guan wasn't in his office, the collapse of the center, and Korra disappearing. I see it now, this was all a trap." said Naruto.

"A trap? For what?" asked Bolin.

"To capture Korra." said Naruto.

Asami put her hands to her mouth in horror as teardrops formed at the corners of her eyes.

She couldn't believe that her girlfriend, the person she loved the most had been captured by that man for who knows what purpose.

Mako and Bolin approached her and put a hand on her shoulders to try to comfort her, but they knew that wouldn't be enough.

Meanwhile, Naruto clenched his fists in frustration, feeling guilty, as he had sensed something was wrong, but instead of following that feeling, he continued forward and allowed his friend to be kidnapped.

In fact, at that moment, it felt like when Sasuke left the village and he tried to bring him back, but failed.

In Kuvira's cell, the metalbender was sitting quietly, as she had nothing else to do.

Suddenly, she opened her eyes as she heard the doors open and saw Naruto entering the room with a scowl on his face.

"Oh, it's you. What are you doing...?" asked Kuvira before a punch from the ninja sent her to the floor.

"Damn you! Korra trusted you and you go and betray her!" exclaimed Naruto angrily.

"What? What do you mean?" asked Kuvira confused before Naruto grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and lifted her up to eye level.

"Don't lie! The place you sent us to turned out to be a trap and Guan's men took Korra!" exclaimed Naruto.

"What? No! I had nothing to do with that! I swear!" said Kuvira in shock at hearing that and trying to prove her innocence.

"How do I know you're not lying this time?" asked Naruto.

"Trust me! If I wanted Guan to capture Korra, I wouldn't have sent her to that place! I've been locked up here for a while, there's no way I could communicate with Guan! Ask anyone!" said Kuvira hoping that would be enough.

Naruto had his doubts, but he had to admit she was telling the truth. As Korra told him, only a few people knew about this prison she was in and it was impossible for anyone to get in without the guards noticing.

After mulling it over for a bit, he released the metalbender, who stood up soon after.

"If what you say is true, then why would Guan kidnap Korra?" asked Naruto.

"I really don't know, but this is Guan we're talking about, so it can't be anything good." said Kuvira.

Naruto stared at her for a moment before turning and walking away.

"In that case, we're going to need your help, since you know Guan very well." said Naruto as he headed for the exit of the cell.

"Wait, you mean...?" asked Kuvira.

"I'm doing it for Korra. She trusts you, so I'll try to do it too." said Naruto turning his head to meet her gaze.

As Naruto walked out of the cell, Kuvira was shocked that this boy decided to free her so he could rescue his friend.

"You have an interesting friend, Korra." said Kuvira.

Korra let out a moan as she regained consciousness. As she opened her eyes, she wanted to bring her hand to her head, but then, she noticed that she couldn't. Not only that, but she also couldn't move her whole body.

Opening her eyes with a start, she looked around to discover that she was strapped to a chair and the worst part was that she had a helmet over her head with several wires connected to a machine behind her.

Before she could ask what was going on, the door to the room opened shortly before the lights in the room came on.

"Ah, I see you've awakened."

Korra opened her eyes and saw a man with a mustache and uniform and a woman in a lab coat enter the room.

"Who are you?" asked Korra.

"As I told you, all your questions will soon be answered." said the man, causing Korra's eyes to widen in surprise.

"You... You are Commander Guan!" said Korra.

"That's right. It is a pleasure to meet you in person, Avatar Korra. Though I wish the circumstances had been different." said Guan.

"What do you intend?" asked Korra.

"Isn't it obvious? To finish what Kuvira started and unify all the Earth Kingdom states to create the Earth Empire." said Guan.

"Kuvira gave up! She saw the mistake of her actions!" said Korra.

"Mistake? Oh, no, my dear, what was a mistake was her giving up when she was one step away from her victory. That's why I will take a different course than her." said Guan.

"And how do you plan to do that?" asked Korra.

"With this." said Guan pulling out of his pocket a vial filled with a bright green liquid that made Korra's eyes widen in horror as she recognized the liquid.

"What is that?" asked Korra who knew the answer, but wanted to make sure.

"It's something he's been working on since before Kuvira gave up. It can make one man get the strength of three men combined." said Guan.

"They may have a lot of strength, but we already wiped out your little raiding party." said Korra.

"I would be worried if it weren't for the fact that those men injected themselves with a prototype" said Guan surprising the Avatar. "This is a complete serum that will grant my men unparalleled strength. The only drawback is that they lose consciousness, becoming almost like wild beasts."

"In that case, you can't use it! It would be too dangerous for both sides!" said Korra.

"Maybe, but luckily, I have a method to prevent them from turning against me." said Guan.

"Then why did you kidnap me? What do you want from me?" asked Korra.

"You see, if I've learned anything from history, it's that the Avatar exists to resolve conflicts. If I were to kill you, a new Avatar would emerge and could bring down the empire I aspire to build. So I decided that, instead of fighting us, you could join and fight with us." said Guan.

"I will never join you! Do you hear me? Never!" declared Korra.

"I hoped so, that's why I have something special for you. Do you know what that is?" asked Guan pointing to the machine next to the Avatar.

"No. What is it?" asked Korra.

"You see, the method I plan to use to prevent my empowered soldiers from turning against me consists of a method of indoctrination or as you would like to call it, mind control. And I have thought of doing the same to you." said Guan.

Korra was horrified to learn that she would be brainwashed and quickly, in a roar of rage, expelled a blast of fire towards the former commander, but he quickly used metalbending to throw a metal plate at her that covered her mouth as a gag.

"Proceed, Dr. Sheng." said Guan.

"Yes, sir." said Dr. Sheng before going to set up the machine.

Korra let out several moans as she tried to free herself, but the restraints were too strong for her.

"Don't worry. You will feel a pinch, but it will be over soon." Guan said with a smile as Korra let out a moan. "You may begin, doctor."

Without even responding, the doctor pressed the button on the machine, causing Korra to let out a huge groan of pain.