Episode 36 - Conflicting Visions

I had another nightmare.

That brief contact with the future vision power of the Crystal Gem being called Garnet had left me with… impressions of potential futures on my timestream. I had already seen - and averted - two. Or, rather, I was certain I had averted them. Maggie Dresden had survived, instead of being a dead little girl in the arms of a grieving father. And the defeat of the Cybermen made it unlikely that the horrible destruction my vision saw upon the planet of Tharkad would come to pass.

But I had other glimpses.

Earth, or rather multiple Earths all seeming to blur together, consumed by energy. What did it mean? What could be the cause?

This time, I saw more. I saw what the energy could do. I saw places I knew, people I knew, devoured by it. Atomized from existence in a heartbeat.

And there was nothing left.

Everything… gone. Wiped from existence. I didn't even have a ground to fall to in mourning. I was simply adrift in an empty void.

"What is this?", I asked aloud. "What am I seeing?"

"A possible future," a voice answered.

I was standing in the middle of a familiar place, complete with a bit of mist for mystique. I turned. I was facing the Doctor. In his eleventh (well, actually twelfth) form. Bow tie and everything. "Everything lost in a flash of energy," he continued. "Gone. Forever."

"What could be causing this?", I asked him.

"How do you expect me to know?", he replied. "I'm in your head after all. So we need to figure it out together. Although if you ask me it's plainly obvious."

"The Cracks," I agreed. "With the exception of the one at Thessia, all have been formed on or near Earth."

"Exception that proves the rule?", Eleven inquired.

"Possibly," I answered. "But does it all mean? What does this have to do with the Daleks thinking I was responsible? Or that fellow on the other end of the Cracks who was manipulating the Zygons and Blakists?"

"I, we, don't know. But there aren't many who could do such things," the Doctor pointed out. "Say, didn't you have one other vision?"

I did. I remembered it then. A crater in what used to be Republic City. Widespread devastation.

"Something's going to happen there," I realized. "Something tied to all of this."

"Seems likely, doesn't it?"

"Terribly so. Which means I need to get there. Now."

"That you do. Might be best if you woke up any time, you've got a lot of work ahead."

That was when the dream ended.

I sat up from the recliner. Katara was sitting quietly to herself. She had a digital device out, a sort of holo-display smartphone if you will. I was quite bemused to see she was teaching herself how to read English. "Need any help?", I asked her.

"Um…" She looked up and seemed surprised to see I was awake. "No, I… I wasn't intending to interrupt, I just wanted to get some reading in."

"Learning to read English?" I motioned toward the device. "Asami got a lot of use out of it. The Gift of the TARDIS makes it rather cosmetic, but she wanted to be able to understand some technical journals without having me around."

Katara put the reader down without saying anything. Learning English was more than just idle curiosity to her. I was gripped with a sudden melancholy at the thought that she was deciding on living elsewhere.

"You don't look so good. I thought you would have recovered by now."

"Oh, I am," I replied. "From Chichen Itza, that is. I'm rested, refreshed, and ready to keep going." I stood up. "And I think it's time to get going again."

"To where?", Katara asked.

"Republic City," I answered. "I might be going crazy, but I think there's something there that we need to deal with."

"Kuvira," Katara noted.

"Maybe," I clarified. Thoughts came to me again. The mystery of how Xuandi and his Dai Li had learned to use a vortex manipulator. "Either way, it needs to get handled, and I'm freshly rested and all. Are you?"

Katara answered with a nod.

"Right. Let's go." I moved toward the control room at a steady pace. Something about what I'd seen had my mind going. I couldn't help but feel that another big piece of the puzzle waited to be discovered.

I was walking up to the controls when the TARDIS communication station started beeping. I went over to the phone and found no incoming calls. I was full of curiosity as I checked the station itself. The signal wasn't from a temporal beacon at all, I found.

It was from one of my TARDIS remotes.

To clarify, actually, it was from one of my fakes.

The fakes, unlike the real ones, were set up to send a ping like a temporal beacon would. A useful way to track down a would-be TARDIS thief, for instance.

Or, in this case, someone who had very quickly made me aware of her true loyalties, and who was now calling for aid.

"Well, we're not heading for Republic City after all," I remarked to Katara. "And we might have some trouble at our destination. Be ready."

Katara nodded and went to the coat rack near the door. She picked up the belt loaded with bottles of water; the emergency supply so she wasn't held hostage to the environment's supply of water. I checked myself with a quick pat on my ribs to feel the sonic disruptor still on the sling inside my jacket. "All ready," I murmured, during which time I used the controls to feed the TARDIS remote's location into the system. One pull of the lever and several VWORPs later, we were stepping out of the TARDIS.

It looked like we were in either a ghost town or a mock-up portion of a larger city, given the taller buildings in the group. A slight wind picked up a bit of sand from the arid ground at our feet. I swept my eyes toward a metal tower in the middle of the town.

There was a figure tied to it.

I ran up to the tower. The captive turned her face toward me and seemed relieved. "You came!", she said.

I nodded. "That I did. So…" I pulled out the sonic screwdriver and worked to free her. "I'm taking it that Kuvira reneged on the dental plan, Zhu Li?"

Zhu Li didn't react to the joke. "Hurry! This is a test site!"

"A test site for what?", I asked. I looked toward the direction Zhu Li had been chained.

In the distance was a factory complex. Squad, nondescript buildings in the middle of a desert plain.

Zhu Li's wrists came from with a snap. I put the sonic up and pulled out my spyglass to zoom in on the sight I was looking at. "We've got to go!", Zhu Li insisted.

"Oh. I can see," I said. I found myself looking at Kuvira herself through the glass, and Bataar the Love-struck Brat, and… what appeared to be a very intimidating railroad siege cannon. "Kuvira's building siege cannons now?"

"It's a spirit energy weapon," Zhu Li answered. "And we've got to…"

A shadow loomed over our heads. We looked up and saw a flying bison move over us and come to a nearby landing. Opal jumped off of it in the company of Bolin. "So there you are," I called out.

"Oh, hey Doctor." Bolin ran up to us. "Can't talk right now, they're about to…"

I felt a shiver. Energy surged around me, a twist in my Time Lord senses that told me incredible amounts of dimensionally-dissonant energy was being focused and concentrated. "It's not possible," I muttered. "She couldn't have…. could she?"

I turned in time to see Kuvira's railroad gun fire.

Right at us.

My old drinking companion Winston has a saying. It regards the thrill of being shot at.

And yes, it is the Winston you're thinking about. The man had some good tastes. And terrible ones, admittedly.

But anyway, yes. Sometimes there is really nothing more exciting than being shot at and the other fellow missing.

The purple beam went over our heads and speared the mountainside behind us. As the beam passed by I could feel a sense of… wrongness, maybe? Well, maybe not wrongness, but the definite sensation of the energy's extradimensional nature.

And it can be terrifying to see how much energy you can draw from things with that quality.

The purple beam didn't just skewer the mountain, or destroy it. It left a massive hole, still glowing with molten material, clean through the mountain.

That sort of firepower, exhibited that sort of way… dangerous. Extraordinarily dangerous. All of the things that could go wrong.

"They… missed?", Katara said in a voice that was almost a squeak.

I picked up the spyglass and was treated to the sight of a rematch between Kuvira and Suyin on the cannon while her sons fought off the other Earth soldiers. "More like they were nudged, I suspect," I remarked. "Let's get over there."

Opal and Bolin returned to their sky bison while Zhu Li decided to join Katara in following me back to the TARDIS. Presumably she didn't care much for the smell of sky bison fur.

I went to the TARDIS controls and activated the flight mode. "Just what is that thing?!", I demanded.

"It uses spirit vines to power the blasts," she revealed. "Varrick was trying to find a way to use the vines to produce energy, but Kuvira's making them into a weapon."

I would have stopped to be horrified at the implications going through my head, but I had more important things to do. The TARDIS lifted up into the air, spinning about, and I flew her straight toward the gun. I accelerated her three-dimensional speed until the air wave caused by our movement was enough to knock over an entire rank of Earth Empire troops battering at the Beifong twins' defenses. I landed the TARDIS in front of the twins and stepped out to face the others. A sweep of my sonic disruptor sent them flying.

Suyin jumped free of the rail cannon's carriage, a bit battered but looking like she had mostly held her own. "Doctor, have you come to stop her?", she asked me.

"I've come to ask her what the bloody hell she thinks she's doing," I answered. "That weapon… I don't even know where to begin, Kuvira! It's like handing a toddler a nuclear warhead! Poor thing doesn't know what he's doing with it, just as you clearly haven't a bloody clue either!"

And yes, I know Kuvira wouldn't have a clue what a nuclear warhead was. But the analogy works.

Kuvira appraised me with that sort of reserved calm she loves to cultivate for her public persona. "I will use whatever means I need to secure the Earth Empire."

"Ah, see, there it is," I snapped. "Another one of those excuses you Humans always make when you're doing something stupid. Every time you fire that thing, you're drawing in extra-dimensional energy, and that sort of energy distorts the very fabric of space-time!"

"I'm afraid you and the Avatar have left me no choice, Doctor," Kuvira countered. "You've made it perfectly clear my Empire won't be secure until all of its enemies have been forced to submit."

I laughed at that. "Oh, so now we're getting to the gist of the matter, eh? Your Empire? So what's the plan, rule forever? What happens when you pass on?" I looked around. Opal was helping her mother stand up. Everyone else was watching, with the soldiers ready to attack at Kuvira's order. "Empires formed by force of personality and arms have a tendency to fall apart once their founder is out of the picture, and sometimes even before that. And when that happens, the Earth nation will be right back where it started! For their sake, Kuvira, stop this madness. Dismantle this bloody thing before it's too late!"

Kuvira's stoic expression curved into an intent frown. With one smooth move she gestured with her arm. I felt the ground come out from under me and had to jump backward to avoid getting being entrapped.

That led to a recommencement of hostilities. Or would have, rather, if a massive rumble hadn't sounded beneath our feet. A perfect circle of upraised earth sent all of Kuvira's men flying. We turned back toward the sky bison. Toph was standing beside her daughter. Toph grunted at me. "You could have warned me my statue would look terrible, you know."

"Oh, there's nothing wrong with it. At least they didn't muck things up like they did mine on Council Station," I retorted. "I think that's our cue." I looked to Bolin. "Get out of here, I'll meet up with you shortly."

"Right, Doctor," he replied, after which he went for the sky bison.

I returned to the TARDIS with Katara and Zhu Li. I didn't bother with flight. I didn't want to give Kuvira any temptations. I shifted us several miles away as a preliminary to our ultimate destination.

Several miles upwards, I'll add. As in orbit.

"What you said to her." Zhu Li looked at me. "How true was it?"

"Very," I answered. "Some very advanced cultures can handle using that sort of power source, but your world doesn't have nearly enough scientific advancement to properly use an energy tap like that. If she keeps firing that thing, it could cause a disaster."

"We should destroy it," Katara suggested. "There has to be a way."

"Destroying it is easy. Destroying it without detonating it with enough force to tear open a hole in space-time? Not so easy." I swallowed. "Especially with the Crack around. The disruptions caused by tapping the energy inside the vines can have a global impact, and that includes the Crack."

"It might re-open it?", Katara asked.

"Worse. It could re-open it and cause more dimensional space rifts to show up, depending on the power of the blast, the dimensional distortion patterns, a lot of other factors…" I shook my head. "First things first. You heard what she said. Anything she believes a threat to her control is going to be subdued." I looked to Zhu Li. "She's going to invade the Republic, isn't she?"

Zhu Li nodded. "The orders to her troops are already out. Kuvira intends to attack as soon as she's assured her weapon will work."

"Right. I think blasting a hole in a mountain counts." I nodded. "Well, we'd better go warn Raiko and the others." I finished putting in the new coordinates and pulled back on the activation lever. "After we pick up the Beifongs. Kuvira has airships and biplanes, so I'd rather not give her a tempting target with their sky bison."

After dropping Toph off near her swamp - my attempt at reverse psychology to get her to be more proactive proved fruitless and, just as important, rather painful - we were off to Republic City. And since we were on a long-scale ticking clock of sorts, I decided to do things directly.

I materialized the TARDIS in Raiko's office.

My arrival coincided with a briefing. Varrick and Asami were standing near Raiko, Tenzin off to the side, Korra was nearly between them, and Mako was by the door with a strangely-quiet Prince Wu near Mako. All had fixed their eyes on the TARDIS as it VWORPed in. I stepped out and nodded. "Hello everyone." I took a step to the side to let my passengers exit. Varrick's face went surprisingly-expressionless at seeing Zhu Li with us.

"Why is it you're always interrupting my important meetings?!", Raiko demanded.

"Bro, where have you been?", Mako asked.

"We, uh, went to save the Beifongs," Bolin confessed. The others stepped out behind him. Korra gave Su a hug and inquired as to her health in the time it took for Bolin to resume. "And we sort of found Kuvira's super spirit weapony thing, and she's going to invade Republic City, and we rescued Zhu Li who's back on our side but never actually left our side..." At about that point he ran out of breath.

"Bolin, do remember to breathe," I sighed.

Raiko leapt from his seat. "I knew she wouldn't be satisfied after Zaofu!"

"Yes, rather obvious," I remarked. "That whole 'reform all the Earth Kingdom into my personal empire playtoy' thing. The usual thing with conquerors."

Varrick finally showed an expression. A fairly sick one. "They completed it, didn't they?"

"You mean that spirit energy project you started?" I nodded. "Oh yes. She's got a big ol' cannon that fires spirit energy with sufficient power to melt through a mountain." I looked at him and shook my head. "Tampering with unstable extradimensional energy like that, what were you thinking?"

"Cheap energy. More than enough for Varritrains to move around at speeds never seen before," Varrick answered truthfully.

"You could have just asked," Asami said. "I've been making progress with the Arc Reactor technology."

"But where's the vision in that?"

"Nice vision," I conceded to Varrick. "But your world's technological understanding is still centuries away from being able to control taps like that properly. I mean, you've only gotten to transistor stage because of my work with Miss Sato, you're nowhere near the level of quantum computing and multi-threaded data control and analysis and all the other computing technology that can safely operate a dimensional tap. And now Kuvira's turned it into a weapon, which is even worse."

"I tried to stop her," Varrick said. "I destroyed all of my research."

"I saw. It explains the strange energy signature in the crater I found when trying to track down you and Bolin." I held up a hand. "Alright, well, this is already done. So, Kuvira has a cannon that fires extradimensionally-fueled energy that can level this city in a day's firing."

I'll give credit to Raiko. He looked at the three of us and asked, "What are your suggestions?"

"Come up with a plan to deal with that spirit weapon," I replied. "We've only got so much time to be ready for Kuvira."

"Well, we'd better get these hummingbird mechasuits flowing off the assembly line if she's coming so soon…."

"Hummingbird mechasuits?" I lifted an eyebrow. "Now this sounds interesting. Definitely useful for an air strike or something of that like. But we'll need something more..." I turned to face the window and nodded at Korra as I did so. "President Raiko, Miss Sato, can I have a detailed map of the city's electrical grid within the day? I might be able to come up with something." I looked to Asami. "Especially if you're ready to scale up the Arc Reactor sizes."

"The first large prototype is still testing," Asami answered.

"Testing... huh. That'll have to do, I think. Anyway, a layout of the city electrical grid, available power outputs, that sort of thing."

Korra spoke up at this point. "What about the evacuation?", she asked.

"Just a few families so far," Wu answered.

"People don't feel it's necessary to flee," Mako added. "And it's only voluntary."

"Yes. Rather Human instinct. Hold on to what you've got until it's too late." I made a "hrm" sound in contemplation.

"I'll handle that," Raiko said. "As of now, the evacuation is mandatory. Chief Beifong, please ready the police to begin the evacuation procedures."

"Yes sir."

"I've got a layout of the electrical grid in my main office's lab," Asami said. "We can get started there."

Night was falling on the city when I took a moment to step out and look upon the golden lights of the great metropolis. Asami was working with Varrick at their plant for the hummingbird suits. They were interesting little devices, certainly. I thought the initial models showed great promise and the small Starktech reactors they were being installed with would give them major advantages over the airships and biplanes Kuvira might use.

My own plans were shaping up well. I imagined I'd have the calculations quintuple-checked by the morning and have the plan ready to present to Raiko. But for now, a break was necessary.

"Hey."

I turned to the side of the building. Korra was putting an airbender flight stick away. "Not using the suit?", I asked.

"I didn't feel like changing into one just to come up here," she answered. "So where is Katara?"

"Helping Pema on Air Temple Island," I answered.

"Really? She always seemed to be so awkward around Tenzin and the family."

"She's feeling better these days."

"It sounds like it." Korra stepped up and looked out at the city beside me. "So. This is it."

"Yep," I answered. "All down to this."

"How bad is that spirit weapon?", Korra asked.

"Do you remember Kralak Prime?", I inquired.

Korra winced. "That bad, huh?"

"Worse." I shook my head. "And the Kralakians were abusing a standard hyperspace tap. And without a Crack in the vicinity."

"We've got to stop her," Korra insisted. "Do you think we could sabotage the weapon?"

"I'm working on something," I said. "It should create a field to neutralize the spirit vines. Or at the very least form a protective barrier to prevent that weapon from causing any space-time ripples that might re-open the Crack." I felt my expression darken. "You never know what could come through."

"Is something going on?"

"There's someone on the other ends of the Cracks, Korra. I've dealt with him on a couple of occasions. Whomever he, or maybe she, is... they're very powerful. And smart." I frowned. "Quite possibly Time Lord smart."

Korra's expression turned concerned. "Someone as smart as you, but bad?"

"Something like that. They've been responsible for at least three, maybe more, extra-universal invasions so far. Whomever it is, they may even be the ones who helped Xuandi with the vortex manipulator." I leaned against the railing. The air was temperate and enjoyable and the wind smooth. More of a breeze. "And I'm not going to risk something nasty coming through that Crack. The last time was bad enough."

The initial reply was a nod.

For a moment we had silence. "How are you doing?", I asked. "Still having that trouble?"

"No," she replied. "I found someone to help me break my spiritual block. I can feel Raava again and go into the Spirit World."

"Ah? Who? One of the old Air Nomads we rescued? Jinora?"

"Zaheer."

I blinked at that. "Huh. Really?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "He's heard about Kuvira. I think he's regretting what he did now."

"He would." I drew in a sigh. "Poor, short-sighted man. He was so convinced he knew what people wanted. He never stopped to think that people like certainty as much as they want freedom, and that means every revolution runs the risk of someone riding up on a white horse. Napoleon, P'tiri'nach, and now Kuvira."

"He told me he talked to you."

"Ah." I breathed in a bit. "Did he tell you what we talked about?"

Korra gave me a look. "I didn't have to guess, Doctor. You threatened him over me."

"Yes," I admitted. "I did."

"Why?"

"Because... you're my friend. And he hurt you. A lot. I wanted it made clear to him what might happen if he dared to send more Red Lotus agents against you." I looked down the railing.

"I can fight my own battles," Korra insisted.

"Now, yes." I looked at her. "But at the time? They took you in your sickbed. When you were crippled and helpless. I wasn't going to risk the Red Lotus trying a third time. Your life was too important."

She didn't answer that initially. "You told me about how close you came to becoming something horrible. I don't want that to happen. Especially if you're doing it over me."

"I understand." I nodded. And I did. She was right. "So. Two weeks. Maybe."

"You think Kuvira will be here sooner than that?"

"I think Kuvira's already on her way," I replied. "She knows there's no hope of a surprise attack now. No point in waiting. She'll gather her forces, set up whatever method she's using to transport her new weapon, and be on her way." I turned back toward the lab. "I still have some things to do tonight, and tomorrow I'll be busy interviewing Zhu Li."

"I'd better get back to helping with the evacuation." Korra held out the staff and extended the glider parts.

"Then go by the factory and make sure Asami gets to bed. I need to see her and Zhu Li bright and early tomorrow."

Asami was gracious enough to host the morning meeting and present breakfast. I sat with her and Zhu Li and looked over the layout of the Republic City power grid. "It's a good thing you got that reactor set up," I mused. "Because I think it will provide us with just enough power for what I need."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Zhu Li?" I looked toward her. She seemed a bit… out of it, I suppose? Deep in thought, certainly. "Zhu Li, I have some questions about the weapon."

That seemed to jolt her out enough to talk. I asked her a variety of technical questions about the spirit energy cannon and the possible platforms it would be mounted upon. The more information I had, the better off my plan would be.

"I was never told how it would be carried in battle," she answered. "But I'm sure it's not going to remain fixed to the rail. Kuvira needs line of sight."

"So that limits her options. Is it just an expensive terror weapon then?"

Zhu Li shook her head. "She seemed confident in flexibility. And she made it to be carried by road or rail."

"I see." I pondered the situation. "What about other weapon projects? Could she be building a carrier vehicle?"

"Maybe." Zhu Li adjusted her glasses. "She did strip the metal from the domes of Zaofu for a reason."

"Hrm…"

"What are you planning on doing, Doctor?", Asami inquired.

"A dimensional stabilization field," I answered. I pointed to points around the city I had marked. "We'll build emitters at these points and create a field that the gun… well, either it won't fire, or it can fire but with a reduction in power and none of the dimensional rippling that could re-open the Crack."

"I can get construction crews from Future Industries ready by the afternoon," Asami replied. "Just tell me what we're building."

I reached under the layout of the grid and pulled out a plan I'd drawn out over the course of the night. "Do you think your crews can manage something like this?"

Asami looked it over. "It looks like a radio tower. Yes, we can do this."

"The materials for the parts are…"

"...I'll bring it to Raiko for final approval, but he already set aside a lot of these materials for the hummingbirds," Asami answered. "I should have enough left over. I'll go make the arrangements."

"Good to know." I looked back to Zhu Li as Asami left to use the phone. "How many other surprises could Kuvira have for us? Do you know anything about her other weapon projects?"

"Bataar was responsible for organizing them," she answered. "Although he had to delegate once Kuvira had him take over Varrick's project. I remember meeting some of the other team leaders once. Doctor Laoshi, Doctor Zhengfu, Major Yimasi, a few others. I don't know what they did, though."

"Well, thank you anyway." I looked back to the electrical grid layout. "How are things going with Varrick?"

There was an edge in her voice when she asked, "What?"

"The hummingbirds," I continued. "Production going well?"

"Oh." A little pink appeared on her cheeks. "Well, yes. Several models are ready for flight. We just need pilots."

"I imagine Asami and General Iroh can provide for that." I scribbled down a technical note. "All right. I need to go put together a presentation for Raiko for this afternoon. We need this network up as soon as possible." I bid her adieu and went back to work.

Raiko was rather cooperative given our prior distaste for one another, authorizing my proposed system with only a few questions on the issues concerning them, and leaving me to begin the process of setting them up.

I was at a building on the northeastern area of the city to check the site when a sky bison swooped low over us. I recognized Kai as the "pilot", so to speak. He nodded and waved to Katara, who jumped off and joined me. "Evacuation going well?"

"As quickly as we can." She frowned. "There are a lot of rumors that Kuvira is going to put anyone who's not of Earth Kingdom descent into camps. So people are scared."

"Any trouble from her fan clubs?"

"Nothing yet. I'm not sure if they're turning against her or if they're evacuating in the other direction to join her."

"Hrm. Well, so long as they're out of our hair." I looked back to my surveying equipment and used it to test the distance to the last marker I'd placed. The way was clear. Just as I wanted. "Anything else?"

"If this doesn't work, shouldn't we go and get help?", Katara asked. "You have allies who are willing to."

I took a moment to think of my reaction to that. "I…." I sighed. "I don't know. Asking people to fight a war that's not theirs…"

"But you do it all the time," Katara pointed out. "You get involved in things that don't affect you because it's the right thing. If we had some of your allies along…"

"What? Every time? Dragging people who we've helped into other cosmos' fights?"

"You know they'd do it."

"Yes. Which is why I try not to ask." I sighed and looked to Katara. "I've had that temptation before. Plenty of times. But running off all the time to do it is… they deserve to have lives too. Not feel beholden to me to come running whenever I whistle. So I don't get in the habit. It's usually not necessary anyway. Always best to let the local people handle their problems. This is Korra's world to protect."

"And if she asks for the help?", Katara asked.

"Then that's different, I suppose." I put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about this. Once this field nullifies Kuvira's precious gun, she'll find she's over her head. And we win."

Katara didn't seem entirely convinced of how right I was, but she accepted my reason with a nod.

I found myself thinking back to Chichen Itza. The friends and allies i had brought to battle and seen bruised and battered. And we had been lucky there, so lucky, given the size of the enemy. And people had still died.

It can sound cool, I suppose, to get all of these people to show up to aid one another. But there were other concerns. After all, severe injury or death could have ripple effects in their own worlds. When I brought those allies to Chichen Itza, I did so because I had no other choice. Because the risk to their worlds was smaller than the very real risk to what would happen in Harry's own world without them.

...of course, I could say the same thing about picking up Companions like Liara, or even Korra and Asami.

I took in a breath and shook my head. I had work to do. Best not to dwell on those thoughts so much. Not with Kuvira and her army undoubtedly on their way in one way or another.

A week passed. The network of emitters was set up. The reactor tested. A city of millions evacuated into the countryside or across the sea.

I made sure of my part in that week. I knew Kuvira would be here before Zhu Li's proposed time.

We all met in Raiko's office for updates to the situation. While the more mundane statistics and facts were laid out to him, I saw Korra look impatient and urgent. It was unsurprising to me. And it foretold what she was likely to be arguing when Raiko finally recognized her.

"Fire Lord Izumi's forces will arrive in a week to help maintain our defenses," Raiko informed us. "She hopes that the possibility of a war with the Fire Nation will make Kuvira think twice."

"It'll play into her hands, probably," I remarked. "War with the old enemy, a chance to avenge the Hundred Years War, that sort of thing. Plus her irresistible need to control everything."

"I suppose it is too much to hope Kuvira won't make us fight," Tenzin sighed.

"Unlikely." I almost remarked about the wisdom of the assembled in supporting her in the first place, but I can be diplomatic too. I held my tongue. "The good news is that we'll have the field ready for testing by tomorrow afternoon."

"And what will this do?"

"Neutralize, or at least heavily degrade, Kuvira's weapon," I replied. "And prevent it from ripping open a Crack in space-time."

"Ah." Raiko accepted my explanation with the look of a man who found every word I spoke flying completely over his head.

"Why should we wait for her to bring the weapon here?", Korra asked. We turned to face her. "Why don't we go after it?"

"I don't want there to be any question of who started the war first," Raiko insisted.

"With all due respect, Mister President, Zaofu should be proof enough," Suyin protested. "Kuvira has to be stopped, and I don't want to see her ruin Republic City in the process. If the Avatar can take out her weapon first, maybe it'll discourage her."

"But I thought the Doctor said that if it wasn't done right, it could cause big trouble?", Bolin asked.

"It could." I looked to Korra. I could see the impatience gnawing at her. It was understandable. Nobody liked waiting for something like this, after all. "But I could have a suitable device ready by dawn. If you were able to get it to the spirit weapon and plant it on the firing mechanism, it would disable the cannon. Possibly irreparably."

"And then she just builds another one?", Raiko pointed out.

"Possibly. Hard to say. It might be beyond her resources to rebuild." I stood up. "Fine. I'll get the device ready and see Korra in the morning with anyone willing to join her in a little reconnaissance mission. Mister President?"

Raiko pondered it for a moment before nodding his assent.

"Yes," Korra said. "We won't let you down."

"See that you don't," Raiko answered.

I was out at Air Temple Island the following morning as dawn came over the mountains near the city. I stepped out of the TARDIS and found Mako, Bolin, and Opal with Korra. "Just the four of you?", I asked.

"We don't want to put too much weight on the bison," was the reply I was given. Korra stepped up to me. "But you can go if you want."

"Ordinarily I'd do so," I answered. "But I have work to do this morning with the last adjustments to the field and to see the results of it. See if I need to tweak anything."

"Good luck with it," she said.

"And good luck to your mission." I handed her a device. It was shaped like a rectangular cube with flashing lights on one end, and some control buttons on the other. "Set this up on the firing mechanism if you get the chance."

"We will."

I took the opportunity to give her a small hug. "Well then, don't let me keep you. Would be nice if we nipped this in the bud, but don't take foolish risks. What we really need is information, after all. Because I don't think Kuvira will be so predictable as to attack on a timetable."

"I promise we'll be careful," she pledged.

I stood and watched as Korra climbed onto the sky bison and they took off. I watched the beast climb into the air and move off toward the Republic City skyline.

Tenzin walked out of the nearby door in normal Air Nation robes. "Long ago I would have been worried about whether Korra could do something like this," he admitted to me. "But now I know I shouldn't be worried. She's not going to do something rash."

"Probably not. But it's still a risk, and I'd rather not take it." I looked into the dawn. "I had better get ready, we have that test later today. And we'll be needing that edge sooner than we expect, I think."

"Pema has breakfast ready."

"Ah? Already? Awfully kind of her…"

I don't always end up in the position of being worried about the former Companion and trusted friend off doing something dangerous. Usually I'm the one who's in danger, and that tends to focus the mind on the immediate issues.

But that's what happens when you spend the day giving out orders over the radio while pouring over data while your friends are the ones doing the dangerous things.

"All signs from the reactor are stable," one of the operators said, speaking over the antiquated phone lines to the actual engineers overseeing the plant.

"Good, good," I answered. I looked to Raiko and Lin. "We should be ready within the hour."

"I hope this works," Lin said with crossed arms.

"You and me both," I sighed. I walked to the window of the tower on Air Temple Island being used as an HQ. Tenzin was with a group of Air Nomads in the courtyard. I thought I recognized cranky old Phuntsok in their number. Undoubtedly here to discuss the situation. Across the bay the city was empty of activity, while the Bay and the waterways around Downtown were milling with United Forces ships.

I took out my spyglass and scanned. "That's not right," I muttered.

"What?", Lin asked.

"There's dimensional distortion in the air," I remarked. "Kuvira's weapon has been fired recently."

A dark look came over Raiko. "How recently?"

"An hour. Maybe less." I continued to scan the horizon and found one dot in it. One that I realized was an incoming sky bison. I zoomed in on it and saw it was Korra and her party returning. "Well, that's not good, I think," I muttered.

They flew up to the tower and Korra jumped out. "Kuvira's on her way!", she shouted.

I shook my head. Bugger, I hate being right.

"What?!", Raiko demanded. "I thought you said two weeks!", he shouted at Lin.

"Undoubtedly she decided to move up her timetable," I observed. "Nothing surprising there. As I've said repeatedly." I turned back to Korra. "What's her firing platform? A truck? A train? A network of airships?"

"It's a big mecha suit!", Bolin shouted. "Huge! The size of a skyscraper!"

"She has the cannon mounted on one of the arms," Korra confirmed.

I let out a groan. "Of course. Probably an upscaled modification of the other mechasuits. And the Zaofu domes for the raw materials. Fluid metal systems or something for controls, and Kuvira would have a deadly-accurate firing platform without any of the restrictions on firing line you get from the railroad carriage." I sighed. "Well, looks like our test is becoming a live field test. A good thing I prepared for that."

"I'll go join General Iroh," Korra offered.

"Yes." Raiko looked shaken and upset when he turned to me. "Is your system ready for real use?"

"The whole point of the test was to find that out." My mind raced. "I can't imagine any reason it wouldn't work though. I had a feeling Kuvira might come early so I made sure to do a lot of small-scale testing during the process." Still, the whole system hadn't been tested yet. Couldn't be until now...

"Good. Have it up by the time Kuvira arrives."

"Right." I picked up the radio receiver. "Reactor control, this is the Doctor. Change of plans, everyone. We have guests on the way and we need the reception ready for them should they behave in an unruly fashion." I reached over for the phone. "Katara, tell Asami and Varrick that we may need those suits this afternoon…"

We made what preparations we could.

I was watching with a spyglass when Kuvira's mechasuit stomped its way forward from the southeast, following the coastal reaches. She brought it to a stop. Several moments later her voice crackled over the radio. "This is Kuvira, ruler of the Earth Empire. In the name of my nation and the Empire, I demand the immediate surrender of the Republic."

Raiko picked up the microphone receiver for the radio. "General Kuvira, if you attack the Republic, you'll end up at war with the entire world."

"I'm not afraid of the world. Now that I have this weapon, nothing can face the Earth Empire."

"See, that's where you're wrong," I noted over the line. "I've given you chance after chance, Kuvira, to stop this. Final warning. Don't use that weapon. You could endanger this world just as Xuandi did."

"You''ll say anything to stand in my way, Doctor. You made that abundantly clear." Kuvira paused for a moment. "Remember that you left me no choice, President Raiko. I might have been lenient with you if you had submitted."

Through the spyglass I watched her raise the mecha's right arm. She was pointing toward the nearest ship in the bay.

"Are the emitters online!", I barked into the line. "Are they?!"

"We're online here, Doctor," the engineer on the other end replied. "The power is showing green."

Now all I could do was watch and see if it worked.

Purple light erupted from the cannon on Kuvira's colossus.

As it approached Republic City, the light suddenly dimmed, as if power was being drained from it. The beam itself started to shift about, resembling a child's attempt to scribble more than a coherent beam of energy, until what little was left harmlessly played itself against a distant street.

"It worked!", Raiko declared, shocked.

"Hahaha!" I let out a laugh. "Of course it worked! Dimensional stabilization shunting the extradimensional energy back into its proper domain! Elementary high energy cross-dimensional physics!"

Lin made a displeased "Hmph" sound. What can I say, it's not my fault people don't understand basic cross-dimensional physics principles.

I watched as Kuvira fired again. This time the beam didn't even stay coherent enough to scorch a street or a building. It fizzled out partway toward one of the big power transfer stations downtown.

I picked up the microphone. "We can do this all day, Kuvira. I told you before. You're messing with things you don't understand. I'm not letting you destroy your world with this technology."

She replied by firing again. The same result.

And then she just stood there. Her colossus and the army accompanying it. I watched through my spyglass and pondered. I suppose, in her position, I would have ordered the army forward and tried to have them eliminate the city's power grid.

Which is why I set up microwave emitters as a backup power transfer source, of course.

Instead she raised the other arm. The plates around the forearm slid back and revealed a field emitter of some sort. I admit I was gawking at it. I mumbled, "Just what toys are you playing with now?".

Because I was genuinely confused. Just what was that device, and what was she planning with it?

My spyglass' scanning featured showed the energy signature that came from it. I gawked in disbelief.

It was…. it was an energy disruptor.

An energy disruptor. Centuries beyond the technology of this world. Beyond even the Starktech Asami had been applying, or anything else I'd given her.

I was struck dumb. How the bloody hell did Kuvira get something like that…?!

Arcing electricity rippled over the city at several points. "Doctor, what's going on?!", Raiko demanded.

"Doctor! The entire system is overloading! The Arc Reactor's safeties are blowing out! We have to shut it down!"

The other arm of the Colossus came up once more. Kuvira's cannon fired.

This time, nothing diluted the deadly beam of purple energy. It speared one of the Republic warships in the bay and sliced it in half. From the island below the watching Air Nomads started to pull on wing suits or grab glider staves.

The cannon fired again. Another ship was blown away.

"Doctor, can't we do something?", Raiko asked me. "Your plan didn't work!"

"She overloaded the entire system," I said. "It would take days to replace everything!"

"Then..." Raiko's face turned grim. He looked out to where the pride of his nation's navy was sinking, helpless to return fire at a target far beyond their range. "I see. It appears I have no choice."

Lin stared at him. "President, you can't be serious...?!"

"What else can I do?", he said. There was resignation in his voice. "Nothing on this world can stop that weapon. Even the Fire Nation can't. Every moment I delay, more lives are lost."

As if to punctuate his point, another ship was destroyed.

Raiko took the radio microphone from me. I let him. He was right. There was no point in letting things continue at this point. And every time Kuvira fired that weapon, she was creating additional distortions. If she made enough...

I motioned to Lin to walk over to me. "We need a change in strategy," I said to her quietly. I picked up my TARDIS remote and summoned it to us. Once we were inside I immediately hit the keys to shift our location, or rather to lock on to another of the nearby temporal beacons.

Seconds after I materialized the TARDIS the door opened. Korra was standing with General Iroh. "What was that?!", Korra asked. "What did Kuvira do?!"

"An energy disruptor. Technology she should in no way have access to." I motioned for them to enter. "We're not done yet though. Come along, we need to regroup."

"You should go," Iroh said to Korra. "I need to stay at my post, or Kuvira may get suspicious."

Korra nodded in reply. "You're right. We'll be back for you." She stepped into the TARDIS and closed the door. We watched General Iroh saluting us as the door closed.

"Everyone else should be with Katara," I noted as I locked on to another temporal beacon. "Let's go."

Tenzin and his Air Nation contingent had the same idea we did. We all met at the warehouse where Asami and Varrick had been constructing their hummingbird mechasuits. "Doctor! Korra!" Asami came up and gave us each a hug, in the reverse order. "What happened? How did she do that?"

"Energy disruptor," I replied.

"But you never gave me that techno..." Asami stopped and paled. She realized what I had.

"Energy disruptor?" Bolin had the most amusing confused expression on his face. "What does that mean?"

"It disrupts energy, obviously," I remarked with a hint of sarcasm. Just a hint, mind you. Too much and it would have spoiled the good nature of the jibe. "To be precise, it's a very advanced piece of technology. Far too advanced to be from this world."

Opal caught on. "So it's like that time travel wristband that Xuandi used?"

"Exactly." I looked darkly toward the window, where Kuvira's Colossus stood in the distance. "We never found out how he knew to work the vortex manipulator. And now Kuvira's using technology not of this world. Technology I didn't introduce." I scowled at that thought.

The purported chessmaster on the other end of the Cracks. It sounded like their work.

Bolin's expression fell. "Great. So not only does Kuvira have that crazy weapon, a giant mechasuit, and an army, she's also carrying crazy magic weapons from another world. How are we supposed to beat that?" He glanced toward Asami. "What about that armor suit you have?"

"I could try," Asami offered.

"Not until we disable the energy disruptor," I answered. "Otherwise it'll overload your suit."

"Can't you shield it?", she asked.

I shook my head. "Not with anything that can fit on your armored suit. Not even the Mark 1."

"Right. And we'd still have to deal with the spirit weapon," Asami agreed. "Maybe we can cripple the suit." She looked toward Zhu Li. "Do you know anything about it?"

"I didn't even know it existed," Zhu Li insisted. "If it was something like this, Kuvira would have put Bataar in charge."

"Bataar the Bad, eh?" I "hmphed".

"The kid's a better inventor than I gave him credit for." Varrick frowned and raised a finger. "No one tell him I said that!"

"Kuvira's sending him to accept the surrender," Korra said. "If we can capture him and make him talk, maybe he can tell us what the weaknesses are on the mecha."

"Wait." Mako raised his hand. "We have the Doctor's ship. Why don't we use that to catch Kuvira by surprise? We could appear inside that mechasuit and destroy it from the inside."

"Ordinarily I would have already proposed that," I answered. "It was my idea for stage 2 of our anti-Kuvira plan. But now things are different. There's no telling where she got that energy disruptor, and if she has any more surprises like that..."

"You're thinking about what happened with the Cybermen?", Katara asked.

"Exactly. A field capable of not only repelling a TARDIS, but causing it to crash. If Kuvira's been given anything of the sort, even if it's just a passive defense to keep me from materializing inside her machine, then attempting to do so could cripple the TARDIS. And we can't afford that." I looked to Korra. "Your idea is the best one we've got."

Korra looked to Tenzin, who looked passive. "Tenzin, please. It's the only way."

"We're with you," he pledged. "All of us."

"Thank you." Korra turned to Asami and Varrick next. "Do you think we could have any of these mecha ready soon?"

"We'll need to get the United Forces pilots from across the street," Varrick pointed out. "But yeah."

"Doctor...?"

I knew what Korra was going to ask before she did. "You want something to disable the energy disruptor with. That machine I gave you for the spirit cannon won't work. But I might be able to whip up something in the TARDIS light enough for an Airbender. However, it will take multiple individual pieces to do it."

"Let us worry about putting them on the weapon," Tenzin said.

Korra nodded. "Great. Then as soon as we know the weaknesses of the suit, we can launch our attack." Korra reached for her glider staff. "Let's go get Bataar."

I went to work on a while Korra did her thing. There was no telling what else Kuvira had up her sleeve and if they'd be worth anything, but best to have means for whatever came, yes?

The fun began when they returned with Bataar.

He was rather riled up when we let the blindfold come off. "Kuvira will destroy the city for this," he said coldly. He looked around and a hint of confusion came to his expression. "Where am I? Where have you taken me?"

"Ah, that's right, you didn't get to ride before, just your girlfriend," I noted. I stretched a hand out toward my library. "Welcome to the TARDIS, Bataar. There are some people who want to talk to you."

Korra went first. The bad cop. A simple demand, and to back it up, the whole glowy eyed Avatar State thing and lifting him and the chair he was bound to with one arm. Yes, one arm, Korra fits the definition of an Amazonian build.

Bataar's reaction was to sneer and dismiss it as an empty threat. Korra let out a frustrated sound and set him down. "You've lost, but you don't even know it yet."

Suyin went next. And she was most genuine. She pleaded as a mother to a wayward son, begging him to return to the family. To leave the madness behind.

He had a most charming reply. "Kuvira is my family now." And then the usual claptrap about having the right to what properly belonged to them, how the Republic belonged to their Empire, blah blah.

I stayed out of the conversation mostly. But when Suyin pleaded to know why people had to die for what they wanted, his reply was a fairly petulant "It wouldn't have to cost any lives if you would all just surrender! All that Kuvira and I want is a united Earth Empire."

"Hrm, interesting," I said. I stepped into his line of sight. "So, you attack other people. Storm into their homes, blow up their buildings, and blame them for it because, well, why don't they just surrender? Put themselves on your mercy." I knelt down beside Suyin. "Tell me, Bataar, what usually happens to people who put themselves to the mercy of you and Kuvira? People like Varrick and Bolin. People like the Firebenders and Waterbenders in your camps."

"The Empire has to be united, we have to make sure that everyone understands their..."

"I am talking," I barked, interrupting his self-serving reply with some heat in my voice. "What happened to your mother? To your brothers and your father?"

"They tried to murder..."

"Your father and Huan were nowhere near that camp," I pointed out. "And she put them all in a bitty cage barely the size of my hot tub. Tell me, what would have happened to Bolin at that 're-education' camp? What would you and Kuvira do with Mako? Tenzin and his family? Asami? Korra? Oh, Korra's tricky, all four elements, Avatar State, that sort of thing. Way I heard it, the Earth Queen had her chained up in a straight jacket with a muzzle over her mouth. Is that how Kuvira would leave her to spend the rest of her life? Assuming she just didn't have her killed in an effort to get a nice Earth-born Avatar to be a loyal citizen of her Empire. Bit risky, that, given the passed down memories and all, but it would work in the short-term." I frowned and got close to him. "If you were in Korra's place, Bataar, would you surrender? Knowing what was in store for you?"

He was silent for a moment. I could see he was thinking. "You can travel worlds, right? Take them all to another one," Bataar insisted. "If you're not going to help us and our Empire, just leave us alone."

"Oh, I'm just supposed to run anyone who doesn't like you to another world, am I?" I clicked my tongue. "You two are awfully selfish. You see, most Humans, they try to live together. Tolerate little mistakes, et cetera. But you and Kuvira, you're too good for that. You've all got to live by your rules. Well, let's be honest... her rules. You left your mother to assert your independence, and here you are, the dutiful little servant boy again..."

"Kuvira and I love each other!," Bataar screamed in rage. Spittle came from his mouth from the ferocity of his words. "She is the world to me, and nothing you say will turn me against her! Nothing!"

"We've been going about this wrong." Korra stepped up beside me. "We won't hurt you if you don't talk. I'll do something even more painful to you." She leaned in toward him. "I'll take away the one thing you care for the most. Kuvira."

Bataar stared at her. He was evidently stunned. I saw the look in Korra's eyes and knew what she was getting at, so I backed away and prepared to do my part.

"Kuvira might win," Korra admitted. "She might chase us out of the city. She might even force us to flee to another world with the Doctor. But you won't be around to enjoy the victory. Because wherever I run, I'll take you. I'll make it my mission to keep you away from Kuvira. Forever."

Bataar Junior stared at her. Disbelief and growing realization at just what Korra was saying, and her ability to carry through with the threat. "You can't."

"I will." Korra smirked and looked at me. "It looks like we'll be traveling together again, Doctor. Any good ideas on where to go?"

"Oh, plenty," I answered, smirking back at her. "There were some places I never got around to showing you and Asami. Spire Albion. Kirkwall. Gravity Falls... we could spend decades exploring all sorts of worlds." I looked at Bataar. "Lifetimes even." I nodded at him. "Normally I reserve TARDIS rides for good girls and boys, Bataar Number Two, but if Korra asks, I'll make an exception for you. Just to ask, how fast can you run? Because that's important. We do a lot of running."

"A whole lot of running," Korra agreed, arms crossed and face curled into a playful little smirk.

I continued from that. "Best way not to get eaten. Or cyber-converted. Or painted up to be a human sacrifice to a dark god."

"Hey, that's not fair," Korra insisted. "Asami had a sprained ankle."

"Excuses, excuses," I retorted playfully. "It's not my fault you two decided on pretending to be servants in Giradda the Hutt's palace instead of going into the menagerie. Otherwise Asami's ankle would have been fine."

Korra rolled her eyes at me and turned her head away. "So." Korra focused her gaze on Bataar the Bad. "What's it going to be? Will you talk Kuvira into leaving the Republic alone? Or do we begin traveling with the Doctor?"

And from the look in his eyes, I knew we had him.

I had to keep the TARDIS hidden, so I materialized us near the warehouse and kept the stealth mode engaged. We hovered, invisible, the others still in the library while I was in the control room.

Bataar was sincere as he made his plea to her to accept the terms. He was, I have to admit, truly in love with Kuvira. And he cared for her far more than he did the Empire. He would rather give up a conquest to be with her than stay the course for their Empire.

The question that remained was simple. Did she care more for him than their Empire?

I had doubts.

So I kept my hands on the flight controls. Just in case, of course.

"The important thing is that we're together for the rest of our lives," Bataar insisted. At that point his plea stopped.

There was a silence. Kuvira's voice finally came back over the channel. "You're right. The Republic isn't worth sacrificing our lives together."

The hairs on my neck stood up on end. She was speaking calmly. Methodically. A hint of pained emotion.

"I love you, Bataar."

The line cut.

I could imagine Korra was taking the ropes off at this point. "As soon as we work out terms with Kuvira, we'll let you out of here."

I was already looking at the screen for the external monitor.

Kuvira was raising the Colossus' right arm. Left hand on the upper arm; obviously to stabilize the shot, as the spirit cannon was rotated into position.

"Oh bugger," I swore.

"Doctor?", Korra asked.

"She's shooting at us!", I shouted.

Disbelief was palpable in Bataar's voice. "No! She wouldn't!"

"She is!", I retorted as I shifted the TARDIS to the north. A purple beam ripped through the air right past us.

All I could think was... how was she tracking us?! The signal was being bounced off every radio antenna in the city and, for safe measure, off the bloody moon too. How could Kuvira have tracked the TARDIS?!

But I was a bit busy to give this much thought. Another purple blast scorched the air beside us. I jinked the TARDIS to take cover in Downtown Republic City. All that led to was one skyscraper getting its top floors bisected by a purple beam.

I pushed us even higher, trying to get us too high for her to aim. Somewhere orbital. At the least throw off her aim long enough to me to trigger the dematerialization cycle and shift us into the Time Vortex.

Kuvira fired again.

And this time, she didn't miss.

Sparks erupted from the TARDIS controls as the ship shook under me. Katara came running out of the library. "What's happening?!"

"We're hit!", I answered. "Just a glancing shot, but..."

And we rocked hard again and a new shower of sparks came.

"Direct hit that time!", I shouted, even as I fought to keep gravity online so we didn't end up falling toward the ceiling as the TARDIS plummeted.

Of course, gravity wouldn't matter much if the TARDIS took too many more hits. "Everyone secure yourselves!", I shouted into the comm system, ensuring my voice carried to the library, after which I gave up on the gravity and put everything into the engines.

And then it was just a matter of landing.

Or, more accurately, crashing in a way that wasn't too painful.

Over time, I've gotten pretty good at crash-landing the TARDIS.

We came to a rest not far from Downtown. A rest aided by crashing into the side of a building. As soon as the shaking was over I picked myself up from the ground and looked to Katara. She rose gingerly at first, but seemed okay as she stood fully.

"Get everyone from the library," I instructed, and once Katara started on that I went to work on the controls. Self-repair was working. The stealth circuit could still be brought online too, for as much good as that did. I just had to hope Kuvira found us by exact tracing of my signal and not by being able to see the TARDIS with invisibility turned on.

"What happened?"

I looked up. Katara was returning with Korra and the others. Suyin was helping her sons hold their wayward big brother, who seemed the most shaken up. "How did she shoot at us?"

"I wish I knew, Korra," I answered. "The internal damage isn't too severe. It'll take a bit before I get full functionality back. For now the best I can do is this." I hit a couple of keys and pulled the lever.

We VWORPed back to the production office for the hummingbird mecha factory. A reunion with the others would be necessary to determine a strategy.

"Kuvira's troops are entering the city," Mako observed from where he was watching the window. "They'll be here soon."

Korra nodded and turned to me. "I'll take everyone I can and hold them off."

"All you'll be doing is making yourself a target for that Colossus," I pointed out. "Once Kuvira knows where we are, she'll destroy the entire block."

"So what are supposed to do?", Mako asked. Given his tone, it was almost a demand. "We can't just sit here!"

"I'm not asking you to. But first we need…" I sighed. "Give me a few minutes. I'm going to see how Suyin's doing with the prodigal son."

I left the room with Korra and the others and walked into the main assembly floor. A cot was laid out for Bataar Jr., who had his mother, well, mothering over him while Katara treated his injury. "How could she do this?", he muttered. The lad looked completely and utterly lost. "How could she…?"

"Kuvira is a… complicated person," Suyin answered delicately.

"We're running low on time," I remarked. "Bataar, what can you tell me about the giant metal thing you've got stomping about?"

"I designed it with input from Doctor Laoshi and others," he answered.

"What are its weaknesses?"

"None," he insisted. "We even put in devices to deal with you, Doctor."

"Really?" I pondered that a moment and then pulled a chair to sit near him and continue the interview. "That's a nice energy disruptor, for instance. I do wonder where you got that one. And the energy to power it."

"One of the research teams. Doctor Laoshi's, I think." Bataar shook his head. Tears were flowing from his eyes. "How could she? We were supposed to be together!"

I had no answer for that. "That technology is dangerous, Bataar," I said. "There's a Crack in the fabric of space-time under the city. Every time she fires that weapon, it increases the likelihood that the Crack will re-open. Or that other tears may form because of it. We need to stop her machine."

"You can't," Bataar insisted. "It has no weaknesses. We made sure of that."

"What if we hit it in the joints?"

"Plates protect the most vital points. And the energy disruptor will keep your mechas away from the Colossus."

"Right." I nodded to Katara. "The library, I left the devices the Air Nomads will need."

She nodded and ran in.

"Are you sure there aren't any weaknesses we can exploit?", Suyin asked. "Can't we metalbend any vital parts?"

"We have platinum lining every section. You would have to get inside. And the surface is platinum, so no metalbender could get in." Bataar looked at me. "We're supposed to have defenses against your ship, too."

"Oh really?" I folded my arms. "And how would you know what sort of devices could stop me."

"Kuvira was confident you couldn't. It was something from another research team, I wasn't involved." Bataar moaned. "How could this have happened? We were supposed to…"

I stepped away and looked to the others. "Well, I think we have our plan."

"Disable this energy disruptor device," Tenzin said. "And find a way to stop the mecha before it destroys the city."

"We can't metalbend our way in," Korra said. "Could Mako and I melt an opening?"

"With Kuvira watching?" I shook my head. "Doubtful."

"Then you should use plasma saws."

The new voice prompted us all to turn. Lin was standing in the doorway with an old man. Or at least an old-seeming man with white beard and hair. He had on simple clothing, basically a dull gray suit.

I noticed Asami go completely still. And that was the clue I needed, the only one I needed, as to whom it was. The scowl that appeared on Korra's face was hardly necessary.

Hiroshi Sato stepped ahead of Lin.

"Dad?", Asami asked, as if disbelieving what she was seeing.

"I got him out of the jail to help," Lin confirmed. "Right now we need all the geniuses we can get our hands on. The jail will still be there tomorrow if we win."

"Agreed," I murmured. But I knew it wouldn't be easy for any of the others. Hiroshi had been Amon's left hand man. His banker, his builder and inventor. He had gone so far as to try and kill Asami when she refused to side with the Equalist movement. Three and a half years might have dulled things a bit, but not that much.

"I know what you all must think of me. But I love Republic City and I will do anything to save her." As he said that last line, I could see his eye twitch toward Asami. Clearly he had more than one 'her' in mind.

Korra had her arms folded and looked fairly skeptical. "How can you help us?"

"The way to defeat this thing is to act like an infection. To get inside the skin and attack the vital organs. Without a heart or brain this beast cannot live." Hiroshi's voice was calm, though not without emotion, as he spoke. "As for getting inside, Future Industries has plasma saws for cutting platinum. If we put them on the mechasuits..."

"But the normal saws are too big, the suits will never get off the ground," Asami pointed out. "I had to use technology the Doctor brought to install a plasma cutter on my armor."

"I believe we can add an electrical element to the welding torch on your suits," Hiroshi stated. "It would convert it into a plasma saw. Then all we need to do is land on the giant and cut a hole big enough for the others to get in."

I nodded at that. "Feasible. And there will be plenty of power for the cutters with the small arc reactors powering them."

"Good idea, but we don't have a lot of electrical elements to spare," Varrick pointed out. "I can only fit out a couple of hummingbird suits with them."

"Plus my plasma cutter on the Mark III," Asami offered.

"But that's back at your mansion, right?", Korra asked.

"I moved the suits to the factory this morning," Asami replied. "Just in case."

"Excellent. Varrick, if you and Zhu Li can pilot one of the hummingbirds…" I looked to one of them. "...I can rig another one so I can pilot it and use the cutters on an automatic control."

"And what about me?", Hiroshi asked.

I turned from the others and stepped up to Hiroshi. "You help me and Asami get the second hummingbird set up. And then you get to work on other ways to deal with the problem." I leaned in and muttered something so low only he could hear.

Hiroshi looked from me to Asami. "Yes," he finally said.

"Good," she answered. I could see she still didn't know what to think about this.

Katara held up the box. "The devices you talked about, Doctor."

"Excellent." I took the box and held it toward Tenzin and Korra. "Remember, everyone, put these on that energy disruptor and press the button. We need to overload it."

"We'll do what we can to stop them," Korra pledged, taking the box. She left with Mako, Bolin, and the other benders. Outside calls went out to gather the remaining Airbenders.

With Katara joining Korra's group, that left me with a distraught Bataar Jr. on his cot and the technologically savvy non-benders. "Alright everyone," I mused. "Let's get to work."

The battle in the city raged while we worked. The might of some of the best benders in the world went up against the technological terror that Kuvira had constructed, and the fight… was not going well.

They did everything. Bolin's lavabending. The metalbenders' wires combined with powerful wind attacks from Korra and the airbenders. Paint on the cockpit windows. Kuvira's designers thwarted them in each case.

There was purpose to this futility, though, as it kept Kuvira from noticing the small devices accumulating on her energy disruptor arm. She continued instead to happily blaze away, scouring the city with purple light that destroyed homes and businesses and sent skyscrapers toppling.

It took the Beifongs and Bolin emulating this tactic to finally bring her down. The Earthbenders, working in tandem, dropped one, then another, of the skyscrapers near down-town upon Kuvira.

And all it did was make her trip for the moment.

But it bought the Airbenders the time they needed. Tenzin led the first flight descending on the left arm of Kuvira's mecha. The overload devices were quickly planted and turned on.

Kuvira's instruments probably helped to warn her of what was being done. She flailed the left arm and smashed it against the nearest building, knocking in the wall she struck. The other Airbenders got clear while the second wave dived in. Lin and Suyin jumped in and tried to restrain the left arm with cables.

It did them no good. The limb flailed. Most of those in the second wave had to veer off to avoid getting smacked.

"We just need a few more!", Korra insisted. She threw her arms back and shot into the air on plumes of flame. She caught the arm as it flew downward, fixed one of the overload triggers onto it, and then kicked off.

Right for the head of the mecha.

Kuvira had to swap her focus, using her hands to pursue Korra. This gave the Airbenders a chance to rally. They flew over the limb and placed their charges on it. This further divided Kuvira's attention enough that Korra slipped away successfully. She jumped out of the way of the metal hand grasping for her and made her way off the machine.

They were still one short. And that was where old Phuntsok came in.

He swooped down as the arm started rising again. Kuvira was trying to stand. She got back onto one foot, one knee still on the ground, when Phuntsok landed. He immediately placed the device on an open space along the disruptor and hit the key.

Kuvira had noticed him by then. Her reaction was to slam her left arm against the building again.

I'm told that Phuntsok could have gotten away. But only if he had barely touched the arm. He would have had to abandon the object of his run and jeopardize everything.

He didn't.

I can only imagine the pain on Jinora's face when she called out to the old master, the man who had once done everything he could to block her from gaining her mastery tattoos. She flew up and caught him as he plummeted from the point of impact. But it was too late. All she could do was bring his broken body to a safe landing.

It was also too late for Kuvira. The overload devices, detecting one another's presence, surged with power. The energy disruptor exploded in sparks.

The cost had been high, but the first step to defeating Kuvira had been taken.

Back in the warehouse I was busy within one of the hummingbird suits while Asami and Hiroshi spoke on the outside. It was a private conversation, so I won't repeat it verbatim. But it was one I was glad she was having with her father. After everything that had happened, everything he had done… family is still family for people, I think. He knew he'd been in the wrong. He admitted it. And it was clear to me that Hiroshi Sato loved his daughter.

It was equally clear that Asami loved her father just as much.

Being betrayed by the ones we love. That always hurts the most.

But even then, forgiveness is not impossible to find.

I finished the last connection, guaranteed the circuit was proper with a scan from the sonic screwdriver, and hauled myself out of the suit. Just in time to witness Varrick proposing to Zhu Li, I might add. Now that's going to be an interesting couple.

"Well, if everyone's done solidifying their relationship issues, paternal or otherwise," I began, "we should probably see if…."

There was a crackle over the nearby radio. I recognized Lin's voice over it. "The disruptor is down. I repeat, the disruptor is…"

"Lin, watch out…!"

The radio call broke out in static. "We'd better get out there," I said to the others. "Is everything…."

There was a great crash. We all ducked behind hummingbird suits to avoid getting showered with glass. When we looked up there were several of Kuvira's mechasuit soldiers standing in the new hole they had formed in the wall. "Surrender immediately," one of them demanded.

"I'm not the surrendering type," I countered, bringing out the good old sonic disruptor. I triggered Setting 7 - a rare one, but which would work well on mechasuits - and let them have it.

Feedback surged through the disruptor and threw me against the far wall. "Doctor!", Zhu Li called out.

"Asami, you know what to do!", I cried. "Varrick, Zhu Li, take off!" I forced myself back to my feet and frowned.

The mechasuits had deadlock seals. My sonics couldn't do anything to them.

"Oi! Uglies! Over here!" I held up the disruptor again and, just as they let loose with electrical discharges and flamethrowers, I jumped behind one of the spare hummingbirds. I kept going along the line, using the machines for cover. I had to keep them away from the retrofitted hummingbirds. And the others. We needed to get this part of the plan going before Kuvira overwhelmed everyone else with the power of her suit. Or before she blew a hole in the walls of reality. Bad outcomes either way, certainly.

A discharge of energy went over my head and blasted out the wall above me, pelting me with masonry. I shielded my head with my arms. A second later another discharge blew up the hummingbird I was behind. The defenses included in my jacket and suit protected me from serious injury, but I was still thrown clear into one of the hummingbirds of the next line. I forced myself to my feet and scrambled for cover again before another blast of blue-white energy claimed that one.

Energy weapons. Kuvira's mechasuits had energy weapons.

And yes, I know that technically flamethrowers and lightning stun blasters can be called such, but this was clearly not either. Excited particles, I thought.

Just what was Kuvira fielding now?!

Another blast caught me from behind and sent me clear past the hummingbirds. I was now in the open. Nothing to hide behind. My 'bird was too far away, although I could note with satisfaction that Varrick and Zhu Li had made it out in theirs. That just left me. Alone. With four mechasuits I couldn't damage.

Well, no, that's not true.

I wasn't alone.

Twin blasts of energy from behind me slammed into one of the mechasuits and knocked it out of the building. Asami came flying in wearing her Mark III suit, repulsors flaring yet again and knocking out a second mechasuit. The other two fired at her, but she was already airborne and they missed. She landed on the third, knocking the machine on its back, and focused her disruptors on the cockpit until the pilot jettisoned out of the back.

The fourth shot her and sent her flying. She plowed into one of the remaining hummingbirds with enough force to crush the side and wings. It would never fly now. I called out to her as her attacker took another step toward her.

This time she fired the chest beam, fed directly from the arc reactor set within the chestpiece. The blast threw the attacking mechasuit backward. She jumped up with repulsor aid and brought a fist down on the machine.

By the time she had driven her opponent out of his machine, I was getting to my hummingbird. It was still intact, thankfully. I climbed in and gave her a thumb's up before I closed the cockpit. She nodded and took to the air. Asami would stand watch as I finalized the control checks and lifted off.

I raced through them and gently triggered the engine. The mecha was a finicky one. The controls for flight were very delicate. But it was nothing beyond me. I carefully maneuvered around a fallen mechasuit, then a gutted hummingbird, and soon gained altitude.

As I did, a purple beam cut across the skyline, slicing the top off of two skyscrapers cleanly.

"Well, here we go," I muttered. "Time to see if I should have brought a slingshot too."

Kuvira was continuing what I can only describe as a rampage. Maybe it was with the goal of wiping out anyone fighting her, or maybe it was to get back at us for putting her in a position to lose Bataar. Either way, she had cut a swath of destruction through Republic City and had already made it nearly to Downtown, near one of the canals crossing the area.

Varrick's hummingbird was ahead of mine as we moved in. Kuvira was tangled for the moment in more of the Beifongs' cable. She brought an arm down to run the purple beam across the ground, ripping up road and earth beneath and causing some of the street to fall into the sewer level below. This act freed her to continue moving.

Of course, we were approaching her in the open sky on a bright day, so she saw us coming. Kuvira's cannon arm swung to meet us. I shifted the piloting controls and jinked to my right and upward, evading the shot as Varrick also managed. Varrick swung around to the back of the machine. Going for that spot on the back most humanoids have trouble with.

I decided to give him an opening by swooping down toward the left thigh. Kuvira noticed my movement and sent the left arm after me. I jinked and twisted to avoid getting splattered like the proverbial mosquito. By the time I regained enough control, I watched her right arm going for Varrick. Brilliant Bataar, the boy had thought of everything it seemed.

We began to skitter about, looking for an opening to go after Kuvira's machine while she swung her limbs in defiance of us. Her machine rocked a little as a full power repulsor blast hit it in the neck area. Asami zoomed up toward the cockpit and fired the chest beam at full power.

Whatever the cockpit was made of, it was something not normal to this world. That I knew as soon as I watched the repulsor energy slough off like water striking a shield.

Still, Asami had gained her attention. Varrick and I went for the legs. We had to mind the flailing. I latched onto the left leg, just a bit above the knee, and used a button to activate the plasma cutters. Without a co-pilot I had to trust my rigged auto-guidance cutters to do the work I needed. I glanced across to see Varrick and Zhu Li doing the same thing on the right leg.

There was a flare of light above. Asami was having to back off with Kuvira's arms flailing at her. "We just need a few more moments," I urged. "Just a few..."

There was a popping sound. A crackle. And the plasma cutters exploded violently.

"Bloody hell!" I grabbed the controls, but it was no good. A feedback through the cutters was blowing out all of my control systems.

I was completely helpless.

"Where is she getting these things?!", I growled to myself while I hit the ejection switch. The back of the hummingbird blew away and my seat popped backward, throwing me out into the air. I had time as I fell to watch the hummingbird's arc reactor explode.

A moment later, Varrick's did as well. I looked over and saw that he and Zhu Li had also gotten to safety.

Kuvira's arm flailed toward me. The left one, that is. It missed me, thankfully.

But it didn't miss my parachute.

Suddenly I was on a fun ride. If you could call being spun around by a 25 story death machine like you're a bloody yo-yo "fun", that is. The world spun around violently, over and over. Kuvira was punching at Asami, and I was being pulled along for the ride.

Finally the harness couldn't take it anymore. It snapped and I flew free.

From almost twenty stories up.

My limbs were cartwheeling as I spun about in mid-air. If I had been going straight down, I could have had just enough time, maybe, to soften my fall with the disruptor's kinetic setting. But there was no chance of that with the way I was spinning around.

But suddenly I wasn't spinning. Something grabbed me from mid-air. I saw and felt the heat of flames as I was bounced from the nearby building and then to the ground. My head was so groggy that I didn't even see my rescuer. "Korra?", I groaned.

There was a blinking motion. I finally focused on a pair of amber eyes looking down at me. "Uh, no," answered Mako.

"Ah, Mako. Good lad. Good lad. Whew." I tried to stand and failed. Not surprisingly given how much I was spun about. Mako grabbed me to keep me steady. "I don't recommend the ride."

"Doctor!" Korra and Katara ran up with some of the others. "What's wrong? Why didn't it work?"

"Some sort of defensive system," I said. I blinked and tried to keep the world from spinning. My hand was on my forehead. "The plasma cutters triggered a feedback pulse. Blew out the systems."

"So what do we do now?!"

The fear in Bolin's voice was truly real. And it may have helped me think it through. "As... Asami can still do it," I said. "We just need to immobilize Kuvira."

"Won't the same thing happen to her?", Mako asked.

I shook my head. Which was a mistake. "No. Her plasma cutter is pure Stark technology. All she has to do is set it to pulsing, then it won't trigger enough of a reaction in the defensive systems."

Korra nodded and looked back to them. "Okay, we need to distract Kuvira so Asami can make her run. We..." Korra's eyes moved enough that she looked intently at the canal.

Katara had the same idea. "I'll extend the water to you," she said.

Korra nodded back. They moved to get into position. I reached for my sonic and held it toward where Asami was trying to dodge everything Kuvira was sending at her. The sonic transmitted a simple beeping to her systems. She would know we needed to speak.

Yes, I should have had a radio. Blast it.

At Katara's command water surged from the canal in a great wave. Korra took control of that wave and channeled it upward over the Colossus in two jets that quickly solidified into ice, sticking Kuvira's suit in place.

Asami landed beside us. "Doctor?"

I nodded. "Asami, your plasma cutter. Set it to pulse mode. It should be able to cut through without triggering the feedback that destroyed the 'birds. Korra and Katara will keep it frozen in place for you!"

Asami nodded and turned away. Her repulsors fired and she was heading right back into the sky, brilliant against the faint red and orange of the growing twilight.

Korra was leaving the half-opened gap on the right leg for Asami to cut into. She hovered in place over the gap. We were close enough that I could see her suit's left fore-arm open up. A beam of pure white came from it and began slicing into the gap.

Kuvira's suit trembled. The ice cracked, and Korra flowed more onto it, concentrating on the cannon arm that was ready to come down on Asami if it got free.

Could it hold? Ice could be strong. But the power behind that arm could be even stronger. The cracks in the ice holding it were growing faster than Korra could cover them. Ice fell away faster than she could replace it. I watched her movements grow more frantic. One could only imagine her growing horror. The realization that if she didn't stop Kuvira, her machine would crush Asami flat.

And the entire time Asami continued cutting. She didn't make contact with the skin of the mechasuit. It could have other defensive mechanisms, after all. She kept her place in mid-air using her repulsors and acted like she wasn't about to be squashed like a bug.

"No," I breathed. Korra's frantic bending became panicked, but she and Katara could only get so much water, and it barely had time to freeze before the crushing power of the engine masquerading as muscle shattered it.

"We've got to do something," Mako insisted. "Maybe..."

And then there was another streak of repulsor light in the air. Another figure flew into position between Asami and the hand.

Her Mark II suit.

I didn't have to guess who was in it. "Hiroshi," I breathed. He'd followed through on my suggestion.

I wasn't close enough to hear myself. All I know is that Asami realized her father was the one shielding her now, as she made the final cut. She knew what he had just done. The Mark II suit couldn't hold back that arm, not at full power, not even with Korra's frantic efforts to keep it frozen.

I could hear the conversation in my hearts though. It wasn't hard to imagine.

"Dad, what are you doing?"

"Goodbye Asami. I love you."

The last of Korra's ice failed. Water gushed to other side as the arm plowed through it before Korra's bending could freeze it.

The leg of the Mark II kicked out. Asami was knocked away. She cartwheeled in mid-air for a second before righting herself.

We all heard it.

"DAD!"

There was a terrible sound of crunching metal.

The hand of Kuvira's Colossus came away from the spot.

And a battered, broken form fell to the ground.

It left behind a wound in the Colossus. A meter or so wide, at least. More than enough room for a number of us to enter the machine.

A number of us ran up to join Korra and Katara. I could see the intense look in Korra's face. "Hiroshi did it," she said. "There's our opening."

There was no need to nod in agreement. "I'll keep the way open," Katara pledged. "Go!"

I swallowed at that. With all of us inside the machine, Katara and Asami would be out here alone, exposed to Kuvira's wrath. "Be safe," I insisted, even as I felt Suyin's arm wrap around my waist.

I didn't get to hear her respond before Suyin yanked me into the air. Mako followed behind us on a jet of flame. Korra used a funnel cloud to climb up to the leg and Lin carried Bolin. We landed on the knee.

Above us was the sound of the suit's engines pulling the right arm. Kuvira was bringing the hand up to crush us too.

Water shot up from the ground in a solid jet and froze to ice as it struck the hand. Katara was shielding us with everything she had. Above us Asami's repulsors were flaring to life again, joining Katara's efforts in trying to push back the metal hand. To give us time.

We all raced for the opening while droplets of melting ice fell around us. I hopped in right after Mako got to the opening. We landed on what passed for the bone of the leg, or rather the outside of it, with a faint red ladder that went up the side. A flashing red light above us reminded me of a submersible ship undergoing an alarm, while pipes carrying wires or hydraulic fluid circled around the shaft.

Korra jumped in with us just as there was a loud metal clang, so loud that it rattled my eardrums. The hand of the Colossus was now covering our entry point.

"I don't think we have the element of surprise," I noted. "Did Bataar say how many crew this giant had?"

"A dozen, maybe less," Suyin guessed.

"So we're outnumbered as well. But with the advantage of knowing where we need to go."

Before we could discuss anything else, the ground shifted beneath us. Through the hole we could see that Kuvira was using a grip on a nearby building to straighten the giant up after it had been shaken by the blasts of water Korra and Katara had unleashed on it. Everyone grabbed a handhold somewhere. I ended up having the grab Lin's hand so I didn't end up falling out of the hole. Given all the effort it took to get here, that would have been embarrassing.

"We need to move fast," Korra said. "Su, Lin, climb up to the arm and try to disable that weapon. Mako, Bolin, take the Doctor and see if you can power this thing down."

"Do you still have that device I gave you this morning?", I asked. "Back when it was just a scouting mission and not a fight for the city?"

Korra felt into her belt. After a moment she pulled same device out. It was surprisingly intact given the day's hard fighting.

"Thank you." I held out my hand and she gave it to me. "I'll be needing this so that we don't rip a hole in the dimensions of reality when we mess with the power core."

"And what if we have to set off the ammunition for the gun?", Lin asked. "You were pretty worried about that too."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a second device. It was more rectangular than the first and far shabbier. "I had to slap it together in what little time we had, so it doesn't work as well. But attach it to the ammunition feed and it should be able to dampen the resulting energy to make it less risky."

Suyin took the machine. "Okay."

"Korra, what are you going to do?", Mako asked.

"I'm going after Kuvira," she answered.

"Good luck with that," I said supportively.

Suyin nodded. "Good luck, Avatar."

Bolin and Mako each looked to me and then to the ladder. "Well," I said. "Come along, and look on the bright side. Less running than is my usual."

We began to climb the available ladders. The Beifong sisters used their cables to ascend ahead of us.

It was time to end this. And then, if I could manage it, to get some very pointed questions the answers they so sorely needed.

With sonic screwdriver in hand I guided the brothers through the spaces of the Colossus.

We were moving across the base of the stomach when we ran into a pair of the crew. They were metalbenders and demonstrated this capability by slinging pieces of razor-sharp metal plate at us. I got the sonic disruptor up in time to deflect those shots. Mako kicked off the wall and made an impressive mid-air flaming kick that knocked one of them backward with the resulting fireball.

Bolin pulled out a piece of rock. With a moment's concentration he heated it into lava and formed it into a spinning disc that looped up over my deflector and forced his opponent to drop to avoid getting lava to the face. Without the threat they had posed, I switched the sonic disruptor to Setting 21 and disabled them both. "That was bracing," I remarked flippantly while Bolin cooled his lava weapon back down to normal temperature.

Mako moved ahead and looked up a nearby hatch leading to stairs going up. "I think the core is up there," he said.

I held up the sonic screwdriver. "It appears to be."

"Well, yeah." Bolin pointed to a nearby sign. It read "Power Core Chamber", with a helpful arrow pointing up.

"Huh." I pocketed the sonic. "That was helpful."

Bolin led the way through the hatch. We were in the bottom of the core chamber. A purple glow already shined above us from where the core was operating, little electrical discharges in the air about the central platform near were we were walking. First thhere was a ladder, then we went up a flight of metal stairs and toward a ladder leading up to the control floor. Bolin got on that ladder first. I let Mako go up next and I took up the rear so I could shield us in the event of an attack from below. We scaled the ladder at about the same pace until we reached a sealed hatch. With Mako in position to support him, Bolin freed a hand from the ladder and used it to turn his cooled disc of rock back into lava. He used it like a saw, causing it to spin and cut through the metal of the hatch above. And quite a bit quicker than my sonic would have magnetically unsealed the hatch.

Once it was popped open we went up in order. The chamber one of the largest open spaces in the Colossus. It had to be. In the middle of the chamber was a mass of spirit vines with an active electrical charge surging from them and into plug connectors at the top of the chamber. On top of the yellow charge circulating there, purple arcs covered the spherical mass of vines.

But it was what was attached to the plugs above me that really drew my attention. "Power magnifiers," I murmured.

"What?", whispered Bolin.

I was still staring upward. "Power magnifiers," I repeated. "That's how she could power the energy disruptor. And the defensive feedback circuit on the skin." I shook my head. "It utilizes pocket micro-universes to amp up energy outputs. This technology isn't just centuries ahead of your world, it's millennia."

I swallowed. This technology wasn't just more advanced than their world. It was a sort of technology only a few species might ever bother developing. Power magnifiers, after all, are only really useful in select circumstances. A species advanced enough to use them can also usually make sufficiently-powerful energy sources at those sizes that would mean they didn't need the magnifiers at all.

I would need scans to confirm what I was worried about. I lifted my sonic and...

"Hey!"

The voice prompted the brothers to get down to the business of fighting the two attendants in the room. We couldn't even see their faces; they were wearing the gas-mask like helmets of the Earth Empire. Always good for reducing individuality, things like that.

I took cover behind a vertical pipe in the room before metal blades could cut into my face. To either side of me the brothers went to work on fighting their adversaries. Mako put those years of pro-bending training to good use, advancing on his opponent and forcing the metalbender onto the defensive. The other fellow found himself using his metal blades as a shield instead of a weapon as fireball after fireball slammed into him.

Bolin was behind cover, the same as me. Our attacker was sending his metal blades at a steady rate to keep us pinned in. "So what do we do now?", Bolin asked.

I reached into my jacket for the dampening device. It would still work, but what worried me was the magnifiers. "If I cut off the core's charge straight away, the energy regulators on those power magnifiers might go out of sync," I explained to him. "And the magnifiers would... well, they would explode. And it would be nasty."

"So what do we do?"

"Get to those levers," I said. Loudly. Mako needed to hear this, and it didn't do our foes much good to hear it anyway. "The shutdown sequence should safely disengage the magnifiers. Bataar said they have to be disengaged simultaneously."

"Got that Mako?!"

"Busy here, bro," Mako replied, in the middle of a flurry of fire-punches to keep his opponent on his backfoot. "Got it."

"Right." I held up the sonic disruptor. "I'll give you an opening."

After another set of metal blades flew by I moved out with the disruptor's deflector field ahead of me to stop the blades coming next. They clanged off wildly into varying directions.

The metalbender ahead of me began to recover them. I got to a knee and lowered myself. Bolin's feet impacted on my back. He jumped over me, landed, and I was looking up in time to see him slam into the metalbender he was fighting.

Across from us, Mako grappled with his opponent and slammed him to the ground. The metalbender went limp.

"Alright! There we go!", I shouted. I held out the dampener. "Shut her down and I'll deal with the core!"

I heard affirmations from the two brothers. Three years and they were still as synced as ever; they pulled the levers at the exact same moment.

Nothing happened.

Bolin looked at me. "What's wrong? Why didn't it work?"

"The shutdown sequence has been disabled," I muttered. "Kuvira." I started looking around and felt my mind race. "I've got to disable those power magnifiers before we shut down the core." I started looking around for handholds. I found a set of rungs in the wall that went up to the plugs and the attached magnifiers. I climbed as fast as I could. My muscles burned a little by the time I got to the top and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. I crawled along, just outside of the running current. The hairs on my neck stood up.

Metalbenders took that moment to appear at the hatch. "Look out!", I shouted. Mako and Bolin turned toward the threat while I remained in that oh-so-exposed position at the top. The first metalbender up jumped up and out of the way, allowing the second to rise and throw a metal plate at me. I shifted myself so that it only sliced along the side of my jacket. Molly Carpenter's defensive enchantments caught the sharp end and deflected it. I barely felt the result.

The metalbender in question was forced to bring up a shield to block Bolin's lava disc while his comrade was fighting his way toward Mako.

Now, I know you lot are interested in this sort of thing. Magic kung fu stuff, I mean. But I'm afraid I wasn't particularly observant of the fight. I was sort of busy laying within twenty or so centimeters of a powerful electric arc that would have fried me if I got too close.

I used the sonic to pull the plate off the magnifier and expose its internal controls. It was set up to accept manual inputs - a concession to the technological level of the Earth Empire, no doubt - and I ran my fingers along them. "Really? A sluice effect for shunting the excess... whoever made this is either mad or diabolically brilliant. Hrm..." I started to mumble to myself as I worked my way through the system. All of the safeguards and override set-ups and regulators for the power flow, there had to be something I could... oh yes, there we are.

Well. A solution. Not optimal, certainly. Especially not for me. But certainly a solution...

"How's it going up there, Doctor?!", Mako asked.

"Good news is, I can disable them both from here!"

"Bad news?"

I sighed. "Odds are that energy will pulse out briefly, and I'll be right in the middle of it!" I looked down. If I jumped down, I'd land on the core. And be electrocuted on the spot.

Looking down gave me the sight of Bolin grappling his enemy and throwing the metalbender toward Mako, who caught him with a clothesline punch. "Drop down!", Mako urged. "I'll catch you!"

Well, that was it then. I drew in a breath. "I've got to invest in rocket boots," I mumbled. "Yeah, something like that. Nothing fancy, just for a quick mid-air hop." The sonic screwdriver whirred happily as I played it over the controls, triggering the effect I'd had in mind.

The lights on the panels flipped to red. The extra-dimensional energy channels closed.

I rolled and dropped myself from the plug just as electricity arced violently over the magnifiers.

For the second time a mid-air descent was interrupted by a jarring impact. Mako jumped up, flames trailing from his feet and a free hand. He caught me and let me get an arm over his shoulders as we drew ever closer to that deadly purple ball of vine masquerading as yarn.

His other hand came up and fire leapt out and surged into the vines. It didn't do them much, but it did cause the power to arc. It also provided the necessary thrust to send us flying back to safety. And into a wall. Painfully, I'll add.

Bolin rushed over and helped us stand up. Or rather helped Mako stand up, as I got to my feet before he was done. I reached back into my jacket pocket and pulled out the dampener. "Here we go!", I called out.

I threw it onto the core. The energy the core was putting out auto-activated the device. Blue energy surged from it.

But the core didn't stop crackling with energy.

The dampener wasn't working.

Now I know what you're wondering. What happened to the others?

Allow me to take the moment to cover that. Yes, I know, horrible time to leave you hanging with my little gadget not doing its job. But it wouldn't be fair to ignore the others' contributions, would it?

The first and most obvious case of importance was Asami and Katara. The Airbenders were out of the fight now, as were the Beifong twins, leaving just those two against the might of the Colossus. Katara slid around on an ice slide she was actively bending for herself to avoid a blast from Kuvira's weapon. Asami corkscrewed in the air to avoid the same blast. She fired a shoulder-pack of missiles at the gun. Kuvira twisted as the missiles came in and shielded her spirit cannon with the right arm of her Colossus.

Katara slid to a stop at a spot along the canal and turned back around. She concentrated all of her strength into one push, bending a massive jet of the canal's waters at the head cockpit of Kuvira's machine, which she shifted into ice.

But it was just her, on her last reserves of physical energy, and even Katara's power couldn't bend that much water with enough velocity to knock Kuvira over or the like. Katara slumped down and stopped moving while Kuvira again fought her way free of the ice, ignoring the blasts from Asami's weapons as she did. The armor of the Colossus was still holding against Asami's weapons.

Kuvira twisted the Colossus to face Katara. She brought the cannon over to face Katara as she tried to recover from her exertions. Asami saw this in just the nick of time, thankfully. "Katara!" She flew at full speed and yanked Katara up just as the blast fired. Kuvira tracked the beam, trying to get them both, but Asami banked away enough to avoid the shot.

Then a second shot fired. Asami maneuvered sharply, but having to hold Katara kept her from using all four repulsors for speed or maneuver, and this time she was hit. Not by the beam, not at all. Thankfully. Rather, by debris thrown clear from a building speared by the same purple beam. It slammed into Asami and she lost control. She had just enough control left to twist and take the brunt of a rough landing on her back instead of on a nigh-unconscious Katara.

The impact wasn't pleasant, though. It took the wind out of Asami and left both of them lying prone at the end of a furrow dug into the asphalt. Sitting ducks for Kuvira and her cannon, which tracked them and prepared to fire once again.

Su and Lin wound up in the right shoulder of the Colossus. They hoisted themselves up into the cylindrical tunnel joining the shoulder to the arm and faced the ammunition feed.

They could feel the metal flying, and Lin moved just in time to pull a sheet of metal off the wall and use it to deflect the plates thrown by a metalbender behind them. "I'll deal with this guy, you stop the weapon!", she shouted before jumping down to face the Earth Empire soldier. Lin used her suit's plentiful supply of metal to bend two parrying blades onto each of her wrists. She used that to deflect the incoming plates from her opponent before going on the attack, forcing him to jump over her as her cables shot out to seize him. He pulled a protective plate off the central pillar at the top of the shoulder and tried to use it on Lin. She caught it with her own power and kicked it off to the side.

Suyin turned back to the ammunition feed. She pulled out the device I'd handed her. A press of a button turned it on and it lit up green. Suyin pulled her arm back and threw it onto the ammunition feed for the cannon. It latched on and began beeping, generating a dampening field that I believed, or at least hoped, would prevent any issues with the Crack. With that task done, Suyin reached out with her metalbending and yanked the ammunition feed chain out of the mechanism. The chain, and all of the spirit vine cartridges attached, plummeted down the arm. At the base of the arm purple energy surged back up in an explosion. Suyin made a jump to the safety of the connector tunnel.

After she picked herself up, Lin jumped up beside her again. With a smile on her face, Lin complimented her younger sister. "Nice work."

Suyin nodded and smiled back. "The outside may be platinum, but we can do a lot of damage in here."

The Beifong sisters promptly went to work.

Kuvira had just been about to fire on Asami and Katara when the weapon stopped responding to the commands of her crew. "Sir, there's a malfunction in the loading mechanism," the officer reported. "We're unable to fire."

"It's no malfunction." I can imagine that veneer of control starting to slip even then. "There's someone metalbending inside of the arm." She moved her arms, using the controls to try to lift the right arm. It flopped helplessly to the side. A puppet arm with the string cut. "I've lost the connection. The weapon is useless now."

Kuvira bent the left arm controls and used them to grab the dead right arm. As it turns out, her machine was quite easily capable of ripping off one of its own arms, as it proceeded to do. She ripped the arm clean-out, taking the Beifongs with it. Fast thinking by Lin led to her bending a band of metal over herself and Suyin, ensuring a bone-jarring ride to the ground but not falling out to go splat.

Not knowing or caring about this, Kuvira threw the arm away toward the Spirit Wilds. The arm itself slammed into a building and fell to the street, but the weapon continued onward until it came to a landing within the Wilds.

And I hope you paid attention to that. Important plot point, everyone.

Well and truly angered at this point, Kuvira turned her attention back to Katara and Asami, who were still out of it from the crash landing.

That was when there was a strong pounding at the hatch. Kuvira turned toward it in time for Korra to slam her way through on a plume of fire. She kicked in both directions with her legs and sent powerful cyclones of air into Kuvira's officers, knocking them both out for the count. She flipped over Kuvira and landed. Kuvira dodged a pair of fireballs and swept her arm across her controls. The meteorite metal flowed like a liquid at the command of her bending, and she sent it hurtling at Korra. Korra's hand came up and she bent the metal around her, gathering it on the other side and bringing her right arm around to bend the metal back at Kuvira to catch her int he side. She was thrown into a nearby panel and scampered away from another attack.

Although timing is not easy to match up, most of this, I know, happened sometime before or around the moment I took out the power magnifiers. Not that I knew the full extent of the situation as I pondered our predicament. While the prospect of just going to the Colossus control and helping Korra take down Kuvira was tempting, that risked everything on a fight that someone of Kuvira's skill might still prevail in. Especially fighting in a metal-rich environment that gave her plenty of tactics to draw upon.

"So what are we going to do now?," Mako asked. "There's got to be some way of stopping this."

I let the choices run through my head. Calculations spun and danced about behind my eyes while I rubbed at them, trying to get that persistent purple glow out of them. I mean, I love purple myself, but that was just too much. "You're not going to like it," I finally said. "And your brother will greatly disapprove."

"Huh?"

Mako gave me a look of understanding. He had already been thinking about it himself, I suppose. "What if I channel electricity into the core? Could I make it explode?"

"Given how finely balanced these sorts of systems are? Most definitely." I looked back at him. "The problem is how long you'd have between driving it to critical and the whole thing exploding. It should be just enough time to get clear, but if the window is shorter than I calculate, or you don't see it in time..."

"Wait, what are you talking about?", Bolin asked. "You're seriously not expecting him to stay behind and..."

"Bolin, if it's what I have to..."

"No!" Bolin turned on his heel and faced his brother. "You can't do this! You don't have to do this! I don't need you to do this to prove how awesome you are! I know you're awesome! We know you're awesome! It doesn't have to be you, Mako!"

"Bolin, we're wasting time!", Mako shouted back. "I'm doing this!"

"Why can't he do it?!" Bolin pointed to me. "Why can't it be him this time?!"

I found myself feeling tired. Very tired. I had the same questions in my hearts. Why couldn't things have worked out as I planned? Kuvira would have been de-clawed and forced to talk. Nothing save pride would have been harmed.

Instead... instead we had this. Everything I thought of being countered. My friends forced to put their lives on the line over and over again, fighting a foe that had been built up beyond belief by an unseen enemy.

"We've lost enough today," I said softly. "I don't want to lose anyone else. But Kuvira has to be stopped. If there was something I could do, some way it could be me Bolin, I would have already told you. But the only way is through your brother's gift. And if he doesn't do this, everything done today, every sacrifice, will have been for nothing."

Bolin looked like he wanted to cry. And I already felt the tears in my eyes at the thought of what would happen if something went wrong.

"It'll be okay, bro," Mako said.

Bolin looked to his brother. His expression was that of a pout. "For the record, I do not approve," he declared. Bolin brought his hand up toward his brother. "I want you to come back. Promise?"

Mako reacted by clasping hands with his brother. "Promise."

It turned into a hug.

"I love you."

"I love you too." Mako looked beyond his brother to me. He didn't have to say anything. The expression on his face said it all. Take care of my brother if I don't make it back was about the sum of it.

"If it's starting to blind you, you've done enough," I said. "Get out of here immediately."

"I will. Now go!"

I helped Bolin pick up the four metalbenders strewn about Core Control. It was quite the effort to climb down the ladder with a body over each shoulder. Climbing a ladder, going down stairs, and then having to get on another ladder was even more an effort. And I was already feeling weary. Wearier as I heard the explosions above as the core overload blew out the connector plugs. Mako's efforts were working, at least.

As soon as we got to the floor below we ran on toward the main hatch. I calculated which sections we were in and the likely structural strongpoints. When we had gone on far enough I looked back to Bolin. "They'll be safe here," I said.

I didn't say anything else. Bolin turned and ran back for his brother.

I almost called for him not to. But I didn't. If Mako died... Bolin would hate himself forever if he didn't go back.

Of course, this meant it was more likely that both brothers would die.

And it would be all my fault.

"All, bugger," I mumbled. I pursued them.

The purple light above was blinding as I got to the blast of the first ladder leading up to the core. The Colossus vibrated from the overloading energy that made my hair stand on end. I looked up in time to see an explosion flower out of the core area. Metal shrieked and tore and the ladder came off.

I got the sonic disruptor up and used it to generate a deflector screen, catching Bolin and Mako before they could hit the ground. I started to bring them down to a safer landing when I felt the Colossus shudder beneath me. Blinding purple light erupted from the core area for several seconds as I laid them gently out and started to pick them up.

And then I was thrown from my feet as well as everything went purple. There was a rumble that sounded like the world was going to tear itself apart. The explosion of the core went off a moment later. There were several seconds of free fall and the floor tilting out from under me.

And then we hit what was now the ground. Everything went black.

I was unconscious for the next bit. But I will retell it as best as I can, since it shows the final ending of Korra's conflict with Kuvira. It was rather personal for a fight over which vision of the world should prevail; Korra and her beliefs about people ruling themselves and living in harmony with the spirits, or Kuvira and her emphasis on order, control, and stability.

The power core explosion had blown the Colossus into two fairly intact pieces; the upper torso and head with remaining left upper arm, and the lower torso and legs. The lower left arm, presumably feeling discontent, went its own way. The blast had been effectively contained by the core chamber's layout. Very spiffy design work there for Bataar Junior, eh?

After the landing, a battered but still quite healthy Korra hauled Kuvira out of the broken command bridge of her dead Colossus. She set a battered and wounded Kuvira down and knelt down beside her. "It's over," she told Kuvira. "You're going to call off your army and surrender to President Raiko."

Kuvira and Korra, as stated, have a bit in common. One of those things is determination that goes into stubbornness. Kuvira simply would not give up.

So it's not surprising that she answered by hitting Korra in the face. With a chunk of stone.

I suppose she figured she still had her army against a broken and surrendered Republic military and Korra's weakened, injured allies. Or maybe she... well, that would be getting ahead of ourselves, wouldn't it. But either way, as Korra picked herself up from the ground, she watched the wounded Kuvira make for the Spirit Wilds. She gave chase, calling for Kuvira to stop. To give up. "This madness has to end now!", she called out as Kuvira led her deeper into the Wilds.

"If you want me to stop, come and get me!", was the defiant retort.

So Korra followed the voice. She caught up to Kuvira.

Kuvira, who for all that she was hurt and wounded, had just found a way to swing the odds back in her favor again.

That bloody spirit cannon.

Had i been there... well,, nothing would have changed. Kuvira would have turned it on anyway. After all, with Korra and/or myself dead, she would have a stronger chance to triumph, wouldn't she.

Of course, she was turning on a weapon that violently released the latent spirit energy in spirit vegetation in the middle of the bloody Spirit Wilds. So I'm sure you can see how bloody crazy this was and how it would go magnificently wrong. It's like turning on a flamethrower in a gas-filled room or activating a quantum flux emitter inside a dimensionally... wait, no, that analogy doesn't work does it? Never mind.

Toddler. Nuclear warhead. I rest my case.

Her attempt to vaporize Korra failed. Korra got out of the way of the blast. And slowly the vines around them begin to glow purple. The beam started escalating in power, out of control, and the weapon spun in the air, swinging up and down and lashing out at a skyline already abused by the Colossus.

"Shut it down!", Korra shouted.

To give credit where it's due, Kuvira apparently made the attempt. Of course, this is why she was being a fool, because it was too bloody late. The device in the cannon had already instigated a chain reaction. If I must guess, I would imagine the control wiring had burnt out from the excess energy surging through the cannon. And there was plenty of that energy, as even the weapon was turning purple.

"I can't!", Kuvira shouted back. At that point, the buckling of the weapon in its unstable cradle of spirit vines became so great she lost her handhold and was thrown clear. She hit the ground, rolled for a few feet, and stopped.

Stopped and looked up in time to see the cannon coming straight for her.

Now, this is usually when poetic justice is served. Kuvira being vaporized by her own weapon, fired from her own bloodyminded refusal to admit defeat? Classic for that.

Korra was there, though. And Korra doesn't like leaving people to die.

She threw herself in front of the beam and began to bend it. She did so until the chain reaction completed and the spirit vines all went kaboom.

Energybending. Not something done easily. And Korra was now trying to handle enough energy to turn Republic City into a crater.

And even if she succeeded, the prospect of her surviving was... sobering.

It was the rumbling that woke me up.

I began to sat up while all of my Time Lord senses screamed from the sheer massive energy I felt coursing around. I looked to the nearby hatch and crawled toward it. I set my hand on the hatch wheel but held back from turning it until my sonic confirmed what was out there.

Energy. Lots and lots of extra-dimensional spirit energy. Enough that I was effectively near ground zero of the equivalent of a nuclear detonation. I decided to stay where I was for the moment. Even summoning the TARDIS - which had been given enough time to repair, I thought, to be able to work - was out of the question in this environment. Either the energy would recede before it came through the metal structure, or ti wouldn't. My fate was out of my hands.

I felt a shift in the energy afterwards. As it something was pulling it. Drawing it in. Re-directing it. As soon as I confirmed it was safe, I threw open the hatch, in time to see bands of purple energy concentrate at the middle of a new crater in what used to be the Spirit Wilds. The purple energy gathered and gathered until, finally, it burst skyward in golden light. A twin helix of energy swirled within it as it reached for the sky.

I'd seen a similar pattern before.

A spirit portal.

Behind me I heard stirring. Mako and Bolin were beginning to stand up. "What happened?", Bolin mumbled.

"You saved Mako," I answered, "and I saved you both. And then the core blew up and we were all knocked out cold. And... come see for yourself."

I crawled out of the hatch and out into an environment covered in green vines. "Look," I heard Bolin say, in rather complete awe, as he and Mako stepped out behind me.

I held out the sonic and scanned. No sign of temporal energies. No sign that the energy had torn the Crack open or caused further damage. It had all be directed toward one particular end; the spirit portal. I let out a laugh. "Oh, brilliant! Brilliant, she must have... have..."

And then I stopped.

Where was Korra?

Within moments the search was on. It started with the three of us and quickly grew as Tenzin and his kids arrived. Asami and Katara landed a moment later and fanned out. The rumbling of mechasuits told me Kuvira's soldiers had also come to find her. For the moment, that seemed their priority, and they left us alone.

Many of us were crying Korra's name as everyone searched the wreckage of the Colossus or elsewhere. I was simply scanning with the sonic, which confirmed what I suspected. Korra wasn't here. She was gone.

That left two distinct possibilities.

One of them was awe-inspiring. The other was horrifying.

I started to trudge towards the new portal. Behind me Tenzin and the others kept calling, to no avail.

I heard a metallic clunk beside me. Asami came to a landing and took her helmet off. Her face had gone pale and expressionless and her breathing looked shallow. "Doctor, there are no life signs..."

"I know," i replied.

"She's... she's dead isn't she?"

"One possibility."

The look in her green eyes shifted rapidly towards despair. "She's gone. Korra's gone. And my father. I... I..."

I grabbed her before she could drop to her knees. "Asami, don't."

She was having trouble speaking. Her eyes glazed over with a thousand yard stare. "I've lost Korra. I've lost everything. I... I can't..."

"No," I insisted. I pointed a finger to the portal. "Korra was directing that energy. She could be inside."

"How do you know?', she asked in a small voice.

"Because she's the Avatar." Katara walked up to us. She took Asami's hand gently. Well, as gently as you can take a hand covered in a metal suit's hand. "If anyone could survive this, she would."

Asami turned to face Katara. The symmetry was heartbreaking. Asami was facing the same loss as my Companion, the only survivor of a timeline where her loved ones, where her love, had died before her eyes.

"Believe in her," Katara urged. "I know you do. You're just scared that you're wrong and you've lost her."

The others were approaching us now. Varrick and Zhu Li had arrived by this point and joined the others. I turned toward the portal. "I'm going in," I said. Fully knowing there was no way of telling what was on the other side. It could be pleasant. It could be grisly. It could be Koh the Face-Stealer or any other sort of ethereal horror.

Or it could be a beautiful flower-filled meadow.

...a beautiful flower-filled meadow with my friend's dead body laying in the middle of it. Thank you very much, imagination. You are no help!

I took one step and another... and stopped.

Golden light appeared within the sphere of the portal. The light grew and took shape. Or rather shapes. Two of them.

Moments after the shapes assumed obvious humanoid form, Korra stepped out, Kuvira's right arm over her shoulders and her left hand gripping a wounded right side. They looked rather worn and torn up, but they were obviously alive.

"Korra!", Asami shouted.

Bolin let out a whoop of joy. "You're okay!"

We drew closer to them. As we did so, the mechasuits started to gather around us. Their arms came up and presented their weapons. "Release Kuvira, or we will attack!", one of them demanded.

Korra let Kuvira go. "Stand down," Kuvira ordered, stepping away from her rescuer. Although obviously I didn't know that detail yet. "This battle is over."

I admit to a sigh of relief at that point. I'd been tossed about, throw into buildings, shot down, shot at... I was ready for the hammock.

Kuvira wasn't done yet. "I owe the Avatar my life. Her power is beyond anything I could ever hope to achieve." Her face fell. "I'll accept whatever punishment the world sees fit." Kuvira turned to Suyin. "Su, I'm sorry for the pain and anguish I've caused you and your family."

"You'll answer for everything you've done," Suyin vowed.

I raised an eyebrow. So much for family special "forgiveness" endings, eh folks?

But that was the truth. Kuvira had a lot to answer for. She had acted to end suffering in the Earth Kingdom, but had simply introduced new types of suffering. She had turned the suffering of anarchy into the stifling suffocation of her order. Her need to control others had caused as much pain as Zaheer's need to tear down all authority.

Lin reached for her handcuffs.

I stepped up. "I have a lot of questions myself, Kuvira," I said. "All of this technology you've been using, I need to..."

"Uh, guys? We've got a problem."

Mako's words prompted everyone to look up.

The mechasuits were still pointing weapons at us.

"I said stand down," Kuvira said, more forcefully this time. "You're all free to go home."

They didn't move. And they didn't lower their weapons. That was the most important bit.

I felt my hearts quicken. Something wasn't right here. Something wasn't...

"Oh. You disappoint me, Kuvira."

The voice was coming from beyond the line of mechasuits in front of us. Two of them moved to the side and a figure walked through them, clad in the uniform of the Earth Empire. The rank insignia put the man just below Bataar, I thought. Earth Kingdom facial structure, complete with green eyes, and hair graying at the temples. I didn't know him from Adam, honestly. Or Lee, going by this world.

"Doctor Laoshi." There was surprise in Kuvira's voice. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in Omashu."

"Oh, I just had to see your glorious victory, 'Great Uniter'." He spoke Kuvira's title with scorn. "So much for that."

"Who are you?", I asked.

He looked at me. "Ah. There you are." The look on his face curled to a slight smile. "At last. You and I, face to face..." He reached for his belt and chuckled.

"...pawn."

There was a click on his belt. And the appearance of Doctor Laoshi melted away. Underneath was a man of distinctly Caucasian features. Light skin. Dark hair and light, rather faded blue eyes. His clothing looked rather out of the place as well, a dark red suit with gold trim embroidered on it. But the style was... familiar.

Too familiar. My hearts went cold at recognizing the style. The world it came from.

"Who is he?", Korra asked me.

"The being on the other side of the Cracks," Katara answered for me.

"I've never seen..." I stopped at that point.

I had never seen his face. Or at least, I thought so.

But then I changed it. I imagined the dark hair turning grey. The skin wrinkling with age.

I thought my hearts would just stop at that point. At the realization of just who I had been dealing with. Who I was still dealing with.

A low chuckle came from my shadow nemesis. "Oh ho ho, you know," he said. "You know who I am, don't you pretender?"

My voice answered, even if my brain was still processing things. "This isn't possible," I said. "The time lock..."

"Laoshi" started to laugh. "Oh, you still have no idea! No idea at all of your role in this game. Go ahead, pawn. Tell your little friends who I am."

I swallowed. I whispered a name.

"Who?", one of the others asked. I couldn't make out whom.

I forced some control back with a steady breath. This time, I managed an answer.

"The Master."

"Who?", Katara asked.

"He's the Master," I repeated. "He's one of my people. He's a Time Lord."

"Don't insult me. I'm a real Time Lord, you're just a fake," the Master snapped. He made a motion with his hand. More mechasuits were appearing beyond the crater. And we, we battered few, were already so sorely outnumbered.

"You tricked me," Kuvira said. "You tricked me!"

"And you were so easily tricked, Human," the Master answered. "Thanks to you this world, and soon every world, are mine."

"Doctor?" Korra looked to me. "Doctor, what do we do?"

I couldn't answer. I felt too scared to even breathe.

"Doctor? Doctor?"

To Be Continued...