Asami, Iroh, and Katara hurried back in the direction of the house. If Korra was still alive and fighting, then Asami wanted to get to the spirit portal as soon as possible to help. They hadn't stopped all of the dark spirits that had come to the city, but it seemed like they had sent enough of them back into the Spirit World to at least end the immediate threat. Asami didn't know what help she could offer the Avatar, but she was desperate to find out what had happened to her friends, and at any rate it couldn't hurt.

Katara almost seemed to bounce beside her. Asami hadn't realized how scared the old woman must have been until she saw the change in her demeanor. Clearly she thought similar; if Korra had gone after Unalaq, then there was a very good chance that her children had survived whatever conflict had freed Vaatu as well.

Iroh, on the other hand, seemed grim. She didn't understand that at all. He looked tired, they all did, but he didn't seem hurt. The tide had turned completely, both for the members of the Southern Water Tribe still in the city and for the world in general, in no small part because of him. It was everything he'd come to the South Pole to do. The Avatar hadn't won the day yet, but at least now there was a chance. She would have thought he'd be elated.

"Iroh, what's wrong," she said finally, dropping back a bit to walk beside him.

"Nothing." He didn't look at her.

"Bullshit, Iroh."

"Asami, please."

"Tell me!"

Iroh glanced at her and tried to smile, but he looked almost sad. "Asami," he said softly. "Think. Where are they going?"

Asami stopped. Both of the giant spirits had walked off in almost exactly the same direction that she and Iroh had flown in from. Asami had been so focused on the South Pole and its residents that she hadn't stopped to think at all about where UnaVaatu would have gone, or why. If the goal was destabilizing the current world to make way for a reign of dark spirits, there were only three places that made any sense: the Fire Nation capital, Ba Sing Se, and Republic City. Of these, she thought Republic City by far the most likely, as it was both the most symbolic target and the easiest to attack because of the relative lack of standing defenses.

Defenses that the United Forces was supposedly in charge of. That Iroh, personally, was in charge of.

She looked at Iroh. His face was ashen. "So you agree, then?" he said.

"Iroh," she said. "We have to leave. Now."

He shook his head. "It's too late."

"But Republic City, if you're in charge of the fleet there you'll be missed for sure if it comes under attack."

"Asami, it took us nearly two weeks to get here by air. There is no possible way that I can get back in time to make a difference."

"You don't have to make a difference, Korra can make a difference, you just have to show up before anyone can think you've deserted."

He shook his head again. "Impossible."

"Of course it's possible! We'll leave right now. We could trade off, fly through the nights, I can teach you—"

"No. Even if I could get to the plane and somehow fly straight through, I'd be days too late. You know I would. I'd have to stop and refuel at least once. And it would be too dangerous trying to fly that tired, especially in the dark. I'd never ask that of you."

"You don't have to ask, I'm off—"

"Asami," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Remember, just before we came here, when I told you that I'd considered all the risks?" She nodded. Of course she did. "Nothing has changed. This was always a possibility. It isn't the outcome I'd hoped for, especially as it puts all of Republic City in danger, but I accept the consequences of my actions." He looked away and dropped his arm. "All of my actions. If I could go back, I like to think that I would make the same choice. Even if it didn't work out for me personally. We made a difference here, both of us. That's enough."

"Where will you go then? Back to the Fire Nation?" Asami felt a twinge as her visions of laughing with Iroh at lifeless Republic City social functions crumbled. She would hardly see him, but at least he would be safe there.

"Of course not."

"But won't your family protect you? You're a freaking prince, you're third in line to be Firelord. They'd have to, wouldn't they?"

"I am not running home to my mothers, Asami. I'll not give anyone a reason to call me a coward. I'll start back to Republic City as soon as I can find a ship and face whatever comes of it."

"You can't! You said… I mean surely Raiko wouldn't… but…" She couldn't believe it. Iroh had seemed confident that President Raiko would not only consider the most extreme punishment for his top general's absence, but might try to engineer it for his own political gain. If the city were actually attacked while Iroh was away…

"What would you have me do?" he said angrily. "Run away? Live the rest of my life in hiding like some hunted thing, confined to the palace, the shame of my family and my people? To say nothing of the implications for relations between the Fire Nation and the Republic. I might not be—" He stopped, closed his eyes briefly, and breathed out. "I had hoped that you thought more of me than that, at least."

Asami had nothing to say to that. She thought about a brave, intelligent, active man like Iroh effectively trapped in a palace for the rest of his life, hiding from his enemies, and couldn't do it.

"I can get you a ship," she said quietly. What else was there to do besides help him? Between Varrick's interests and Future Industries' connections, finding a ship would hardly be an issue. "But if… if it's really too late, then come with me to the spirit portal first. A few hours won't make a difference. I think there is a good chance at least some of our friends are alive up there, but I have no idea what the situation is. You can sense any dark spirits before they appear, or at least well before I can. Plus, you know…" She made an expanding circle with her hands, miming an explosion. "I could use you."

A strange look came over Iroh's face. "The spirit portal," he muttered to himself.

"What is it?"

"It's only a theory." He sounded suddenly excited. "Tell me if I'm wrong, as much of this I've heard second hand from you. But what I understand is that the spirit portal itself is a gateway, a thin place between the two worlds that both humans and spirits can pass through. That thin place, that portal, was either created, or at least sustained, by concentrating large quantities of spiritual energy in one place. Right?" Asami nodded. That was more or less what Korra and Tenzin had told her.

"Then what if, what if large concentrations of spiritual energy always cause a thinning of the boundary? It might not necessarily create a permanent portal, but it could create some kind of temporary opening.

"From what I've read, the Spirit World isn't like our world. Places aren't necessarily fixed. Instead, similar ideas or areas of emotional significance are grouped together, even if the areas they correspond to in our world are thousands of miles apart. This would explain why, according to Avatar Korra, both the northern and southern spirit portals are walking distance from one another on the other side. It could also explain how a dark spirit wound up in Fa Re. What seemed random to us must have been connected to the same kind of lonely, desperate place on the other side that it came from.

"The Avatar and UnaVaatu both carry within them some of the oldest and most powerful spirits. A battle between them on our side could generate enough spiritual energy in one place to create another gateway. And if that's the case, it's also not unreasonable to think that that gateway would be located near the other two portals in the Spirit World."

Asami's eyes widened. "A shortcut."

Iroh nodded. "If any of this is true, and that's a big if, I could be back in Republic City in a matter of hours, not days. I would miss the beginning of the battle—I would have to in order to let enough energy build up to open a way through—but I could still be in time to help with the defense of the city. And Avatar Korra, if necessary."

Asami couldn't believe it. It was crazy, but it was worth a shot.

"Come on, then. We have to try. Let's go."