Earth
Fire
Air
Water
Only the Dual Avatars master of all four elements can bring balance to the world.
Book III: Change
Chapter VI: Long Live the Queen
Wan struggles in his binds, oh how he misses the days where warlords would bind him with just rope and he'd wait until the perfect time to attack. He and Korra are being pushed by Via dolly, Asami following close behind in chains. "You have to let us out! The Earth Queen is in danger from a group of terrorists calling themselves the Red Lotus." Korra shouts underneath her muzzle as the trio is loaded up onto the airship. The captain's eyebrows arch as he takes the toothpick from his mouth. "We talked to one of them in the Spirit World yesterday. He's insane!" Korra finishes.
The Captain rolls his eyes at the female Avatar's pleads, "Screaming about terrorists in the Spirit World? You're the one who sounds insane."
Wan lowers his head as the latch closes and the airship takes off.
The Earth Queen sits on her throne, bored, as Gun, her assistant, walks in clapping, he bows. "When are the Dual Avatars scheduled for delivery?" The Queen asks, her chin resting on her finger. "The airship already left Fort Bosco and should be arriving in a few hours." Gun says.
"Also, your majesty, there are some people here who captured two of the Dual Avatars' friends. They would like to present them to you personally."
The Queen sneers at this, "You know I don't meet with bounty hunters."
Gun sweats nervously as he nods, "Of course I told them that. But they said they have some information about the location of your stolen airbenders that might interest you." The Queen's attention is grasped at this, her eyes widen slightly and a small smile appears on her face as she waves her hand, allowing the Red lotus into her throne room. Little did she know this would be her undoing. The group enters the throne room, throwing a bounded and gagged Mako and Bolin in front of her.
She smirks even more, "Ah, yes, I remember these two. We'll find an acceptable home for you in prison, with the rest of the dissidents." Her attention turns to the Red Lotus. "Now, I was told you might have some information for me. I hope this isn't just some ruse to increase your bounties."
Zaheer steps up, "We don't want any bounty, Your Majesty. You can consider these two a 'thank you' gift for simply taking the time to talk to us." The Queen's eyebrows arch, her gut telling her something isn't right, but she ignores it, only wanting her forced soldiers, "How very magnanimous. So, where are my airbenders?"
"I'd be happy to tell you, once you hand the Dual Avatars over to me." Zaheer responds. The Earth Queen stands up, both enraged and alarmed by that very statement, "Who told you that we have the Dual Avatars?!"
"How I know is not important. But if I found out, others will too, and that could put you in a difficult position." Zaheer starts, now his plan is rolling into motion, "Your Majesty, imprisoning the Dual Avatars will cause the other nations to turn against you and demand their freedom. Before long, we'd be in the midst of a sticky international incident. If you let me take them today, no one would ever know they were here, and you can get your airbenders back without interference. We both win."
The Queen sits back down, simply observing the Airbender, "And what do you plan to do with the Avatars should I see fit to grant your request?"
"All I can say is: I have business with them. But they won't be bothering you again, I can assure you of that." Zaheer states simply with a malicious undertone. Mako and Bolin glance at each other with worry for the Dual Avatars.
The Queen taps on the arm of her throne with her long fingernails, making small clicking sounds. Her eyes stare at Zaheer, who stares back. After a long moment of silence, she leans back on her throne. "I find these terms agreeable. Gun, escort them to the antechamber until the Dual Avatars arrive." Gun escorts them out of the throne room while Bolin and Mako are arrested by the Dai Li, "Send these two to the dungeon!"
Wan smirks underneath his muzzle, after working up some sweet talking by Asami, their capturers foolishly chain her to the rails, which she easily pulls off the wall and jumps over. Now all they have to do is get the captain. "Guards!" Wan cries out, in his sweet begging voice, "Get in here!" Not to his surprise, The captain runs in opening the hatch to the door. "Something happened to my friend. She needs help." Wan pleads.
The Captain looks around for a moment, "Where is sh-"
He is quickly knocked out by the rail Asami is chained by, she takes the keys and frees herself, then Wan and Korra. "Nice job," Korra softly elbows the first Avatar who smiles with a slight blush. "I try. Now, let's take control of this airship," Wan says as the trio exits the small room and runs into the cockpit. Wan barges in using his metal bending, The Co-pilot runs up but is knocked against the steering wheel with Korra's air blast, knocking the man out instantly and causing the airship to lose control.
Wan glances at Korra, "That was too aggressive…" He mouths, Korra rolls her eyes. "No it wasn't-"
"Actually, Wan is right...The controls are busted. Also, you broke the radio." Asami holds the radio that is broken into two pieces, Wan crosses his arms glancing at Korra who is wincing at her mistake.
"Hold on to something!" Asami shouts; the airship soon crashes into a large sand trio after pull themselves out of the airship, Wan looks around to see nothing but desert. The wind howls for a moment bringing small specks of sand with it. Wan huffs as he rubs his temples, "We are stuck in the middle of a desert. Lovely."
Korra glances at Asami, who intently looks at the airship. "You're the engineer. What do you think? Can we get it flying again?" Asami shrugs, "I think...But even if you and Wan metal bend the gears back to shape, the airship is in a pile of sand." As the crew climbs out of the airship, Wan rushes to one of them who is struggling, the man snatching himself away from the first avatar as he gets up again. Wan pulls his arms up defensively, the co-captain glances at his leader, "What the heck happened?"
"He said his friend needed help, then they knocked me out!" Wan sighs at this, of course, this would have to have happened. "Look, I'm sorry, But I couldn't let you take me and Korra to the Earth Queen as a captive. There are dangerous forces at work that you don't know anything about.."
"More dangerous than being stranded in a desert?" The man retorts. Wan visibility slumps, as he faces palms, he had to admit, he was right there. The man smirks at this, "So you admit it, you doomed us all-"
"Don't worry, Kong. I've radioed Ba Sing Se before we went down, we just need to sit tight. Somebody will be here to rescue us." The captain replies, making Kong relieved. Wan crosses his arms, "Yeah well, we don't have time for that. We need to leave right now. Maybe if we work together maybe we won't die by dehydration" Wan added a bit of sass at the end, the captain glares at the male avatar, "This ship isn't going anywhere. And neither are you. You're prisoners and it's our duty to transport you to the Earth Queen."
"Ugh, I think you forgot who we are" Korra smirks as he gestures to herself and Wan. "You guys don't want to fight us" She frowns pointing at the crew. "I'm afraid you aren't giving us much of a choice. We have our orders." The captain says while preparing to fight but before he could start, out of the corner of Asami's eyes she sees a moving sand dune, "Wait, did that thing move?" The captain dismisses this quickly, "It was probably just a mirage. The desert will play tricks on you." the sand dune moves again this time everyone can see it. "That's no mirage," Wan whispers to himself, Kung fearfully looks out seeing it glide across the desert. "I heard that since all the spirits came back, this desert has been haunted by them."
"Well, that leaves two choices: Do you want to help us get this ship up and running, or do you want to wait around and meet that thing?" Wan points to the moving sand dune, the captain sighs relenting to Wan. "Let's get to work."
Wan and Korra nod, "Stand back, it's about to get windy" Wan says as he and Korra begin to bend an enormous spout at the sand dune. After the unlikely team gets to work, surprisingly the airship engine starts to work. Just as a sand shark jumps up from the surface and grabs the airship with its mouth, snapping it into two. Everyone looks in fear and runs away quickly, The sand shark takes the airship down causing it to sink below.
"That's not a spirit!" Wan screams as the creature sinks down in the sand, "I think it's gone…" Korra says still in complete shock due what just happened, Wan gulps as he looks out. Now, this was going to be more of a challenge. "Easy, Arik. Another ship is on the way. We just need to hold our position for a few hours." The captain says comforting one of the men, Wan turns to the man, "You've got to be joking...We don't have a few hours. We need to find a way and now."
"How far are we from the edge of the desert?" Korra asks, "Too far to walk, if that's what you're thinking." The captain says. "Asami any ideas?" Wan glances at the engineer who hums then picks up a scrap of metal. "Maybe we can still build something to get us all out of here, we might have enough material to construct a makeshift sand-sailer. Like the sand benders use to get around. All we need is a sail and some kind of sled to attach it to."
"Sounds like a plan." Wan says and the captain nods, "Gather every piece of metal you can find. We'll give that sandy beast a run for its money."
Zaheer follows a Dai Li Agent and swiftly watches from afar. The agent bows and glances up at the Queen, "Your Majesty, we received a distress signal from the airship carrying the prisoners. We believe the ship crashed in the Si Wong desert and the Dual Avatars may have escaped."
"What!? This is outrageous! Send out another airship to retrieve the Avatars immediately!"
"Already on its way, Your Majesty." The Dai Li agent bows once more, Zaheer swiftly goes back to his chambers to meet the rest of the Red Lotus, explaining what the Dai Li agent said. "What are we going to do now?" Ming-Hua shouts, Gazhan crosses his arms as he sits on a lean chair, "There's no way we can track them down in the desert before the queen gets to her. Let alone get them."
"You really think we'd be lucky enough to even get the chance to capture them again? They'll be long gone by the time they arrive. Even worse, they are stuck to each other like glue." P'Li adds, Zaheer quickly formulates a plan and smiles. "Separating them… isn't a problem. We're through chasing them. It's time to make them come to us and to call an old friend of ours."
The Red lotus barges into the throne room, with Zaheer blowing the doors open. The Queen glares at them. "What is this riff-raff doing in my throne room unannounced!?"
Zaheer bows slightly, "Apologies, Your Majesty. But I couldn't help overhearing that the Dual Avatars won't be joining us today."
"The Dual Avatars are still in my custody. However, eavesdropping on royal conversations will land you in a cell right next to those boys you brought in. Now, if you value your freedom, you'll tell me where the airbenders are right now!"
"No." Zaheer states simply, the earth queen's face turns red in outrage, she points at the Red Lotus group, "Seize them!" The Dai Li agents surround the Red Lotus. P'Li instantly fires a combustion beam at the floor, knocking the agents off. Dai Li agents fire rock gloves at Ghazan, who easily redirected them back to the agents.
An agent attacks Zaheer with an earthbending attack from below, he leaps up to avoid the attack and he counters with a gust of wind. The fight ended as soon as it began. Gun looks around and runs out of the throne room, The earth queen glares at the cowering man. "Gun! Get back in here and lay down your life for your queen, you coward!" The Queen stands up and walks towards Zaheer, pointing at the man, who lifts himself up standing up on the top of the throne "You wouldn't dare attack a queen!"
"I forgot to mention something to you. I don't believe in queens." Zaheer swiftly rips the air out of the earth queen's lungs with a few motions. Her eyes bulge, as they turn blood red and she feels her lungs compress tightly. She gasps for breath but Zaheer surrounds her in a vacuum sphere, She collapses onto the floor. "You think freedom is something that you can give or take on a whim, To your people freedom is just as essential as air. And without it, there is no life." He pulls the air away from her as she reaches up, effectively suffocating her.
"There is only, death." The Queen finally drops dead on the floor with a hard thump.
The prison doors open to Mako and Bolin's shock, but theirs remain closed as havoc starts to ring across the prison and soon the entire earth kingdom. Zaheer approaches them and opens the cell, The bending brothers' attack but are quickly neutralized with Zaheers airbending.
"Listen to me. I'm going to set you free, but I want to talk to you first. I have a message that I need you to take to Korra and Wan."
After building the makeshift sand-sailer and avoiding the giant sand shark, the team makes it to Misty Palms Oasis, where they park the vehicle next to onlooking sand benders in horror of the contraption before the sail and mast break off. Wan smiles sheepishly, "Anyone wanna buy a makeshift sand-sailer?" Wan pats the vehicle. The two men look at each other and back at Wan. Everyone leaves the contraption.
Wan turns to the captain, "Look, sorry if I was being a pain, we really didn't mean to make us all stranded on the desert" he says regretfully as he looks to the side, the captain nods, "You know, whatever the conflict between you two and the queen is, I'm sure it's above my pay grade." Wan chuckles at the joke, Korra joins Wan's side, he shakes both of their hands with his hooked arm "You've both got a tough job. Good luck, Dual Avatars" he saluts to them, Wan and Korra bowing in response.
The airship crew leaves and Naga pins Korra down, licking her with affection, snuggling her. The trio enters the cantina, where they see Lin, Tonraq, and Zuko at the far end. Korra smiles and approaches them. "Dad!" Korra rushes up and hugs her father, "Korra, you're safe" He smiles, he looks at Wan and nods at him.
"Do you remember Lord Zuko?" Tonraq asks Korra, Zuko approaches the female Avatar, "I met you when you were a very young girl. It's good to see you again, Avatar Korra."
"Good to see you too, Lord Zuko" Korra bows and gestures to Wan, "This is Avatar Wan, the first avatar reborn and my partner " Wan bows at the lord, "Pleasure to meet you" Wan smiles Zuko bows back, "The pleasure is mine, Avatar Wan"
"Thanks for ditching me back at Zaofu." Lin says annoyed, Wan chuckles nervously, as he is rubbing his back, "Sorry" He mumbles.
"But, how did you all find us?"
"I am a detective you know" Lin responds to Wan. "Did you find Mako and Bolin?" Korra asks
"Some people at the inn saw them being captured by Zaheer's crew. We don't know where they are currently." Lin shrugs, Tonraq turns to the dual Avatars with a worried expression. "Did you hear about the Earth Queen?"
"What abou-" Wan is interrupted by the radio, he turns and his eyes widen as he hears the news, "The Earth Queen's reign has come to an abrupt and violent end. As of today, she was murdered in cold blood. Ba Sing Se has descended into chaos, rioters and looters have overrun the palace." Wan clenches his fists tight, he couldn't believe it. Sure he disliked the earth queen and felt no sympathy but he did feel it for the hundreds of lives in danger and not only that but the unrest in the earth kingdom.
"The Red Lotus." Wan hisses.
"The red what?" Tonraq says confused, Korra turns to her father, "The name of the group that has been trying to capture me and Wan...and just killed the Earth Queen. I'm afraid this is only the beginning, Dad. "
